Sean’s movie thoughts

High Heat was fun. It is a direct to video film. A chef has to defend her restaurant from mobsters trying to burn it down. She was a KGB agent at one point, which explains her fighting skills. I thought this was good.  It is not too long, which is something I like (I feel like a longer cut of this movie might seem padded). I like the smaller stakes action, the fate of the world is not at stake.  It was nice to see Don Johnson again. (I am sure I have seen him in something in the last few years but I don’t remember anything he has done in the last six or seven years.)Olga Kurylenko stars as Anna, the chef.  Good points The leads are good I thought the action was well staged  I thought most of the intended jokes were decent I liked the use of some kitchen tools This is a nice  review  from Variery. 

I think I’d rather watch Pitch Perfect IV or Pitch Perfect Reborn than the Avatar sequel. “Sean, there is not a Pitch Perfect IV” “I’ll wait”. I watched only 2 silly Christmas movies in the last two months. One was a Hallmark movie. One was not a Hallmark movie but it could have been. I wonder who watches whole bunches of these films if even I find them a bit too corny to watch more than one or two a month. I still think modern movies, or at least post 1999 movies, are too long. Maybe I am forgetting a lot of long movies I saw that came before 1999 but it seems movie used to be shorter on average. There is a new movie I think I want to see that is over 2 hours long. I think it has been a decent year for direct to video action. I liked Eraser Reborn, Section 8, and Blade of the 47 Ronin. I have heard good things about High Heat, so I could get that before the year ends. I also liked Accident Man Hitman’s Holiday but expected to like it a bit more than I did. I like DTV action, or at lea...

 Well, this is better than David Harbour’s Hellboy, so that is nice. (That sentence is unfair, Harbour is not one of the problems in Hellboy.) David Harbour stars as Santa Clause and he is doing his rounds when he gets involved in a hostage crisis. The bad guys don’t believe this is the real Santa they’re fighting. This could have been a one note gimmick film but I think it is better than that. Harbour is good as Santa, I liked John Leguizamo as the head of the villains.  I am not saying this film is going to become a holiday classic. It probably won’t. Is this worth re-watching?  Maybe.

 A new Fear Street movie is coming. That is nice. I enjoyed the Fear Street movies, so I am up for more. Details on plot have not been released yet. No cast details have been released yet either. Some people online seem too concerned with how connected these superhero movies are. I think each movie should be enjoyable on their own. Connections between films can be good but the individual films should still be enjoyable. I guess “38 at the Garden” is too short to be considered a movie. This is about NBA player Jeremy Lin, and it is roughly 38 minutes long. Kobe doesn’t come across well in the film but honestly he was a bit dismissive of Jeremy Lin when reporters asked about him. Michael Jai White has a new movie called As Good As Dead. It is good, not one of his best but for what it is, it is good. I liked the actor who played Oscar (Luca Oriel) maybe it would be nice to see him in another film. 

There won’t be a third Wonder Woman movie with Gal Galdot and Patty Jenkins. That is a bit disappointing, I was hoping that a third film would be a bounce back from the second film. (If Wonder Woman 1984 is the worst film you have seen in the last five years, that is not so bad.) Oh well, the first film is really good. I am not very interested in what the plans for the third movie were.  I still have not seen all of Thor Love and Thunder. I don’t hate the movie but I think I have tried to watch it three times and just didn’t get invested. (Maybe it was four times.)I don’t think I have seen more than half of the film. Pitch Perfect 3 is unnecessary but I found it hard to dislike. The songs are fun and the Bella’s saying goodbye/moving on was nice. It was nice that the film did mention Becca and Jesse breaking up but it would have been nice to know if Benji and Emily were still dating. 

It is a little odd that this became a three film series.  Since I own all three films and have physical copies of two, I am not against it being a three film series.  Fat Amy can be a little much at times. Maybe some of the supporting characters are a little one note. I have not read the book that inspired the first film. So far, I have not gotten a copy of the book or even scanned reviews of the book.  I like the first film but wonder if it would have been better without the Jesse/Becca love story. Maybe it would have been nice if the movie was just about Becca fitting in with the Bellas. I have seen love stories/romances on films that I have liked less to be fair. (I have been known to enjoy a romantic comedy, even a corny one.) I liked the second film. I did like the fact that Jesse and Becca did not have any relationship drama.  I was a little confused if the Bellas were a sorority or just a club. (They have a house and new Bella Emily is called a legacy because ...

 I liked Section 8. I was unfamiliar with the star,Ryan Kwanten, but I thought he was good. I think I would watch it again. Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren have supporting roles. This is the budget version of the Grey Man.  The poster/cover of the box/thumbnail for the movie is misleading in regards to Dolph’s role in the film. I now own six out of the seven Kickboxer movies. Maybe next year I will buy the last one to complete the set. Maybe I will rewatch Kickboxer 5 in the next week or so. Apparently only 2 out of the four Bloodsport movies are available to own digitally and I own them. Maybe this is off topic a bit but it seems odd that a women oriented film franchise, Pitch Perfect, has a streaming show spin-off with a male lead.