Sean’s movie thoughts

 No Time to Die is good. This is Daniel Craig’s last time as James Bond. (This time it really is.) It is nice to see his supporting cast Q,Moneypenny, and M, one more time. Jeffrey Wright returns as Felix Leiter, a CIA agent, and it was nice to see him again too. Ana De Armas has a supporting role as a younger agent. She was fun. James Bond is pulled out of retirement. There is a new threat, something that M had ordered created but it is now in the wrong hands. Is a new idea for the series? There is a history of British agents going rogue but this is different. There is a new 007, a woman. She is played by Lashana Lynch. (007 is a code name, so if James is retired, someone else can take it up.) James eventually takes his code name back.  I don’t think Lashana Lynch will return as this character. (Lynch will probably be in some other good things.) I liked this but it is a little long and this is the second time that Craig’s Bond has come out of retirement. With 2 retirements in 5 films,

 I won’t have a worst films of the year list this year. I liked most of the new films I saw this year. I think I disliked a few but not enough to even make a bottom five. Also I gave up on one film before an hour, so maybe it could have gotten better. (I don’t think it did.) I guess this means I had a decent film watching year. Some people think worst films of the year list are mean spirited. I don’t think that has to be true. It could be true if the writer is mean spirited. I think the worst films of the year say as much about movies as the best films of the year.   I have not seen some big movies yet so maybe my opinions could change. I think the worst film of the year, I saw, might be Thunder Force. 

Castle Falls is good. Maybe it starts off a little slowly but that is probably the worst thing I can say about it. The only way around that might be to start the movie in the midst of action and then have a flashback explaining how the various characters got involved. I am glad the movie didn’t do that.  Scott Adkins and Dolph Lungren star. There is an old hospital to be torn down/demolished but there is a small fortune in cash hidden in the building. (The money is from some crime.) Some people, including a criminal gang, are trying to get it and conflict arises. Lungren’s character needs the money to pay  for his sick daughter’s medical care. It is nice to see Dolph Lungren, who directed the film, in action. He also gets some dramatic moments. His real daughter plays his character’s daughter. (That is a nice touch.)  The villains are not great, they might be average villains. One review I saw called it perfectly solid or pretty solid. That seems fair.

Don’t Look Up is a movie that seems like it should be better. The cast is very good (Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and also Meryl Streep) but I lost interest in under 30 minutes or so. I don’t think I will revisit it.If I were a professional critic, I would have finished it. I think it is supposed to be a comedy. The Tuskegee Airmen was worth seeing again. This is the made for HBO movie from 1995. Lawrence Fishburne and Cuba Godding Jr stared. There are some white characters who aren’t subtle in their contempt towards the African-American pilots. I liked the training sequences. I have been thinking about the Star Wars sequel trilogy and what went wrong. I have read articles and watched YouTube videos (some were fairly interesting). I think I could write a decent posting about what went wrong but I might not have anything new to say. Maybe the franchise is transitioning to TV/streaming. Maybe that is okay.

Maybe nostalgia is not what it used to be but I enjoyed Evolution a little less than I expected on re-watch. It is still good but I guess I remembered it being better.  Two scientists from a community college in Arizona discover aliens. The aliens are evolving at a tremendous rate.They are joined by a would be firefighter. The scientists are played by David Duchevony and Orlando Jones. Seann William Scott plays the would be firefighter. This was fun. Scott is playing a variation on Stifler but maybe a more likeable one. (I think he has been typecast.) Jones is fun. Julianne Moore also co-stars.  This feels a bit like Ghostbusters. 

 I tried to watch Planes, Trains, and Automobiles but lost interest. Maybe I never saw it before but I thought I had. Steve Martin and John Candy play strangers who meet while traveling and they have various adventures.  I did not find it funny. Martin’s character is so mean to Candy’s character. (Martin’s character might have some reason to be upset.) Maybe it is because Candy is so likable in other movies but when he looks hurt, he seems really hurt. These guys arguing all movie should be funny but I did not find most of their exchanges funny. I wonder if the movie is kind of dated and that is why I did not like it. Maybe I will sample some of the bonus features.  Maybe that will make my purchase worthwhile. 

 I hear West Side Story is good. I have never seen the original. I wonder if I should see the original before seeing the new version. I know some of the songs. People are not going to see this in theaters but one person I follow on twitter said audiences go for explosions and superheroes. I re-watched the Force Awakens. I still like the film but maybe it has more problems than I realized. Or maybe knowing how the trilogy ended makes the film seem a bit different. (This was my first re-watch since the trilogy ended.) There is so much hype about Spider-man No Way Home. Maybe it is just me but I don’t have high hopes for the new film. Maybe I am worried that the film has too many villains, which has not worked in previous films.

I still have my (500) Days of Summer blu-ray, maybe it is time for a re-watch. A year or so ago, I saw articles re-evaluating it. There were articles about if Tom was a bad guy and if people missed the point of the film.  There is not a Batman animated movie in the next slate of DC animated movies. That is a bit surprising. I’d like the new Green Lantern movie to star Guy Gardner but it probably will star Hal Jordan.  Someone must be watching these direct to video Bruce Willis movies. If nobody is watching them, they would not still be made. I think I have only seen one of these. Willis really was not the star, even though he was top-billed.  The new James Bond movie is for sale digitally this week. I hear it is good. I will probably buy it.