Monthly Top Five

This actually sounds pretty cool, adding to the watchlist.

Jibbs gave a Nova Award to Fifth Element. That counts for something.


comingsoon.boards.net/thread/57/nova-award-archives

The Fifth Element was one of the first RiffTrax commentaries, therefore it's perfect.

Point blank is so good. Payback is even really good too.

I'd sit for another remake.

For a moment, I thought I was watching Oppenheimer.

Alright, it's been pretty dead on these boards lately so let's try to get things moving.

My Top 5 Watches of 2023 (no particular order)

Top 5
Past Lives - My favorite new movie of 2023 and maybe my favorite movie that I watched this year. It gave me a Linklater vibe in that it's very dialogue driven although with more of a story structure compared to the Before trilogy. It's so easy to start rooting for this couple and it throws you for a loop making the woman get married. Then it makes the good decision of making her husband be a legitimately good guy so now it's tough to root for anyone. It exists as a more realistic human portrayal asking 'what if?' and the last scene packs a punch. A great movie.
The Sea Wolf - In revisiting old cinema I came across this Michael Curtiz adaptation of the Jack London story. It's not groundbreaking but it's a very fun, well acted adventure of a man and woman rescued but forced to sail on a ship led by the bitter Edward G. Robinson. A great main and supporting cast and a tight script make it a very slick adventure movie that goes along nicely with Michael Curtiz's filmography.
American Fiction - I wasn't expecting much from this movie. Like I said in the Doomsday thread, this looked pretty similar to other movies we've seen before but it's very funny, it's got some great acting and actually has some bite to it.  It's everything Barbie was trying to be.  In fact I think people who liked Barbie should watch American Fiction and learn what 'comedy' and 'social commentary' are when done well.
Tampopo- I can't remember the last time I found a movie that's so enjoyable. The entire time it made me smile while also giving me a newfound appreciation for ramen. It took me a minute to get into it but it really did feel like a nice reprieve from the deep dramas or incessant CG action that we're given nowadays. It's not often where the best descriptive for a movie is simply 'happy' but Tampop definitely fits the bill.
Don't Look Now - I've said many times that horror isn't really my thing but Don't Look Now is one of those that I really admire. To say it's a different approach might be an understatement as it's a movie that builds and builds until the final scene and doesn't let the audience in on what it's building to. The final 90 seconds of reveal are pretty incredible and while the awkward as hell sex scene still stands out in my brain the rest of it is a very interesting take on horror.

Biggest Surprise
I know, I know, I've heard it here and in real life. 'Doomsday's getting old, Doomsday's getting soft. Remember when he used to blow a gasket over the smallest thing?' Alright, you wanna see old school Doomsday? You wanna thaw 19 year old Doomsday out of the freezer? You wanna get nuts? Come on, let's get nuts!

The Flash
For over a decade now I've seen people desperately excusing the shit that WB and DC have doled out to us. 'It's not perfect but at least I had fun' or 'It's not trying to be Marvel' or the old favorite 'Just turn your brain off.' Sorry, Man of Steel is shit. It was shit in 2013. It's still shit. It's always been shit. Suicide Squad is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. With a couple exceptions, almost everything else in the DCEU is forgettable at best and just more shit at worst. I had given up on subjecting myself to DCEU movies because it's all so mind-numbingly stupid and a waste of time but then The Flash comes along. Of course I'm biased because they cast Michael Keaton which of course piqued my interest but I still wasn't amped to catch it opening weekend. Then it massively bombed and I wondered how even a DCEU movie could be that bad. I was on the edge but yes, Michael Keaton tipped it into the 'let's give it a try' category. I'm glad I did because, while it might be the low expectations talking, I quite enjoyed The Flash. Yes, the CG is terrible. You can blame WB and a turbulent VFX industry for that. Ezra Miller absolutely should have been recast long ago. The humor is very hit and miss, more miss than hit. But Michael Keaton is great, he demonstrates that he could totally portray Bruce Wayne again in a Batman Beyond or Dark Knight Returns storyline. Michael Shannon is also great returning as General Zod, one of the few bright spots of Man of Steel and a definite standout here. And while the Nic Cage/George Reeves/Adam West sequence looked awful (although I'm sure the WB execs thought it sounded great on paper), I did get a chuckle out of the end Bruce Wayne reveal. And maybe it's because I have kids but Barry's final moment with his mom at the end of the movie actually felt touching, much more so than anything else this dumb universe has tried to do by a longshot. Not a great movie by any stretch but there are plenty of worse DCEU movies. Heck, there are plenty of worse Marvel movies. There's a lot of good stuff in The Flash and maybe people will pick up on some of it down the road.

Geez, people shitting on The Flash while giving Man of Steel or Justice League a pass, get outta here! The Flash is a lot of fun.

That's more like it.

Sorry, you are now branded the Ultra Flash Mega Fan

I admire this movie on a cinematic level, and have even been tempted to watch Gian Maria Volonte's other political films, but there's a barrier. I'm not an expert in 1960's & 70's Italian politics. In this movie, for example, I was lost at least 25% of the time. The premise is that Volonte is a homicide detective that murders his mistress just to see if he can get away with it. Intriguing. Easy to follow. Go on. Then he gets promoted to head of the political division. The what now? Political division? What the fuck is that? Oh, his division is in charge of investigating political opponents of the government. Okay? Why are cops tasked with this? Isn't there an Italian equivalent of the FBI? And what exactly is the conflict between these two groups? Seems important since Volonte spends like 75% of the movie delivering over-the-top speeches like if he ran the country. He's a cop! Then the big twist is that his mistress was also sleeping with one of these hippies and that's what drove him mad. I guess I get the gist of it. But obviously people in Italy know precisely what it is satirizing. So like I said, it's a well-made cinematic film, but it's not made for us. I don't expect people from other countries to fully understand our movies about very specific American politics.

Where the fuck is Beavis and Butt-Head Do America?