Yeah, but that has always been the case. The first true feature film was a dramatization of the book Les Misérables.
Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Dir. Kelly Marcel Eddie and Venom are still hiding out in Mexico when an international search for Eddie forces them to return stateside. As they hitch a ride on a plane (literally) they are suddenly attacked by a creature that Venom recognizes as originating from the Void in which he and his fellow symbiotes managed to trap a creature known as Knull in a Void. The only way that Knull can escape is if he gets his hands on a Codex. A Codex is created when a symbiote revives his host and since Eddie once died only to be brought back to life by Venom, they are carrying such a Codex. As they are trying to avoid the creature hunting them by not assuming the full Venom form, they also attract the attention of troops and scientists stationed underneath Area 51, where symbiotes have been studied for years. All three Venom films have been kind of dumb, but this one is messy enough narratively to reveal what must have been a chaotic production. It does feel like entire sequences of this film are missing. The enjoyable moments are mostly the same ones as in prior Venom films: the ones where Eddie and Venom are arguing like an old married couple. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Juno Temple are added to the cast for this one, as a trigger happy soldier and a more sympathetic scientist respectively.
Carry-On (2024) Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra Ethan Kopek is a TSA agent working the Christmas Eve shift at LAX. There is joyous news for him and his girlfriend Nora, who also works at the airport, since they are expecting their first child. Whilst Nora is happy with her career, Ethan has primarily remained at the TSA job to be close to his girlfriend, with his real desire a job in the LAPD, only the one time he applied for a job there he got rejected. As he is manning a station at the luggage scanners where passengers have their carry-on items checked, he receives what appears to be lost ear piece. At the same moment, he gets a text message telling him to put the earpiece in. When he complies, the voice on the other end tells him that he needs to let a specific suitcase through, regardless of its contents, or Nora will be made to pay the price. Ethan's attempts at alerting his colleagues or the police fail, displaying the faceless voice's reach and knowledge and making Ethan realize he is dealing with professionals. Yet he knows letting whatever the criminals want him to wave by through will no doubt endanger passengers... This is the kind of high concept thriller that was very common in the 1990s. And whilst not a Grand Cru of the genre, I still found myself enjoying much of this, partially due to a bit of nostalgia for this kind of fare. One other thing I found myself considering is Taron Egerton and Tom Holland's respective careers. Though there is a seven year age difference, they are both British actors who burst onto the scene around a decade ago, both with franchise films. Egerton in the Kingsman movies, Holland as Spidey in the MCU. And I think Egerton might have displayed the greater range since then. He is interesting enough to carry an old-fashioned action thriller like this. Though admittedly in the scenes he shares with Jason Bateman, the latter does play him off the screen a little bit.
I'm sure kids are the target audiences rather than YouTube movie critics, but I've enjoyed quite a few videos pointing out in exquisite detail how Red One is to bring about the downfall of Western Civilization.
Dirty Angels (2024) Dir. Martin Campbell Jake is a Army Ranger deployed in Afghanistan who founds herself captured by a local warlord, alongside the survivors of her unit. A rescue operation succeeds in saving her, but her fellow soldiers have to be left behind and are executed. A frustrated Jake spends the next year trying to start a formal procedure against the helicopter pilot who took off and doomed her men. An associate from her past, Travis, comes to give her a new purpose in the form of a mission to save a group of school girls kidnapped from a school in Pakistan by an ISIS splinter group. They girls whereabouts are traced back to Afghanistan and Jake is meant to lead a nearly all-female team posing as aid workers. The idea is to locate the exact location where the girls are being kept and rescue them. Jake's extra incentive is that the leader of the group they are targeting is the same man responsible for the death of her team, a year earlier. Not sure if this is really the direction I was hoping Eva Green's career to take. She is an awkward fit for this type of action vehicle, even though she has done action before (like in the 300 sequel). I cannot shake the idea that she never fully bought into the material either. Possibly a collaboration with her Casino Royale director Martin Campbell is one of the reasons she said yes to this project. On some level I think this material would have fit fellow Bond girl Olga Kurylenko much better. So much of the writing is silly, many of the extras are not exactly convincing as South-Asians. I was surprised at some of the supporting players among Jake's group of female operators, including recent Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova and Ruby Rose. Ultimately underwhelming and tonally discordant.
Unearthly Stranger (1963) Dir. John Krish After a cold open in which a panicked man runs through the streets of London, only to arrive at a government research center. There he records what he believes to be his final testimony, as he is convinced that some unseen force is about to kill him. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that the man in question, Dr. Mark Davidson, only recently replaced his predecessor Professor Geoffrey Monroe, who died under mysterious circumstances from a catastrophic brain injury with no clear cause. The research Monroe and now Davidson were/are in charge of has to do with telekinetic projections, the theory of which suggests that man can be taught to travel great distances through the power of the human brain. In charge of security at the research facility is Major Clarke. Clarke takes a keen interest in Davidson's new wife Julie, especially since a basic background check conducted in her native Switzerland, where Davidson met her whilst on holiday, turns up nothing. Then Davidson himself starts to observe strange things about his bride, whom he married after a whirlwind romance that lasted only a few weeks. B-movie sci-fi thriller, decent enough entertainment, even though most of the plot twists are fairly predictable. Nicely shot, the opening sequence especially setting the scene with lots of dutch angles and awkward framing. I was struck by the fact that some plot elements were a bit reminiscent of the much more recent Three Body Problem. Capable leading performance by John Neville, of later Adventures of Baron Munchausen fame. Produced by Albert Fennell, mostly noteworthy for myself, since he also produced two of my favorite horror films, The Innocents and Peeping Tom.
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer - 2000 I don't remember seeing this when it first came out. I honestly don't think I ever watched it. WTF!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!??!?!? I can't even begin to quantify what this insane fever dream of a Christmas special is. I kind of liked it a bit though.
Deck the Walls - 2024 Rose is an interior designer than visits home to help her over the top gay brother Sal flip a home for a family in need. She gets stuck living with recently divorced Brysen. Local news/blogger/I'm not sure guy Jake films various parts and works through he and Sal's nonsense from elementary school. Bad writing even by Hallmark standards. Ashley Greene is the least bad performer of the bunch and I can't fathom she was any worse in Twilight. Some of the acting legitimately felt like it was intentionally bad. Near the bottom for this year.
Eight hundred and fifty-five join the war effort to address a three-year mail backlog. Despite discrimination and war-torn conditions, they sort over seventeen million pieces of mail ahead of schedule. I loved this movie. As a black person with a history degree, I always sigh when I think about how many positive stories of black excellence can be made a movie but you only get these once every few years. Washington is strong as Charity Adams, the leader of the 6888. They don't give much of a background to her story as it focuses on the friendship of the new recruits. But the overall story and plot is clear. I hate Oprah but her role is brief and so too Sarandon. I dont know who plays the red headed lady that creates the impetuous for the mail issues but she played it well. Veteran character actor doing her thing. Also shout out to Hank from Breaking Bad, for playing General Halt. You need actors that can really capture the racism and hate of that era.
Blood Tracks (1985) Mats Helge Olsson & Derek Ford A movie crew and hair metal band descend upon a snowy mountaintop to shoot their new video. The director is running behind schedule from the moment they arrive, not helped by nearby avalanches halting his production. When his eyes fall upon a nearby abandoned factory he wants to use for some background shots and edits, he unwittingly attracts the attention of the deranged family that has made the place its home for the past four decades. Before they realize it, the band, movie crew and assorted groupies and hangers on all become potential victims to the murderous locals. Swedish-British co-production starring a handful of American actors (of which Jeff Harding is the only somewhat recognizable face), real life Swedish hair metal band Easy Action playing essentially a different version of themselves, an assortment of British models playing groupies and then mostly Swedish actors in the roles of the monstrous family. Checked this out in the hope that this might have a "so bad it's good" quality, but it's just your average slasher. Essentially a poor man's Spinal Tap meets The Hills Have Eyes. There is some originality in a few of the gory deaths. The director, Mats Helge Olsson, is most well known for the cult action film Russian Terminator (which I found out is also the name of a Russian AFV). Another reason why I hoped this might be craptastic in a slightly more interesting way. It kind of stands out for having some of the poorest ADR I have experienced outside of very low budget Italian horror, certainly in the first half of the film (second half is probably helped by having less dialogue). One random consideration that occurred to me during this viewing, the interior scenes of the factory were lit in an interesting way, which was another one of those things that made me frown at how weirdly lit so much modern day stuff looks. If a nearly forty year old low-budget film like this can do it well, what is the excuse of any 100+ million Hollywood movie to look like shit comparatively?
Believe In Christmas - 2024 Fantastic. Beatrice is a journalist who gets a late request to write a story about something "uplifting and wholesome" story by Christmas. She meets her friend Emilia at a coffee shop only to find that Em has won a contest to spend the holidays in a small town that has legally renamed itself Christmas Land. They make a bunch of meta jokes about Hallmark style Christmas movies that actually work as Beatrice repeatedly says no. Eventually Beatrice gives in and they go on the trip. When they get to the town a series of odd events make both question what's real and what's for show as each begins to fall for someone while they're there. I'm not aware of having seen Lindura in anything before, but she absolutely steals the show as Emilia, the hopeless romantic who loves the cheesy nature of Hallmark style Christmas films. I remember Meghan Ory as Red Riding Hood in Once Upon a Time and she's still stupidly gorgeous and does a really good job with the role of Beatrice. Kevin Hanchard is really good as Porter Bryant and you can see he's way beyond the normal talent level for a film like this. He had long runs in shows like Orphan Black and Hudson & Rex, and his performance in this movie had me add The United States v Billie Holiday to my watchlist just to see him portray Louis Armstrong. Excellent chemistry between the two female leads and good chemistry between the two potential couples, which is a welcome sign since one of those couples are married in real life. Oh, and I gave in and made some hot chocolate and put a candy cane in it while I watched.
I never watched Twilight but I did see some of the post-Twilight stuff Ashley Greene did and she never stuck out as particularly bad to me. I would say her work in say One Shot and Staten Island Summer was rather good.
After reading your extensive reviews of holiday movies over the past several weeks, it sounds like you have found a kindred spirit...in a Hallmark style Christmas film. I hope you two have a long and fruitful life together, or at least a good 120 minutes, minus commercials.
Lord of The Rings: War of the Rohirrim (2024). It's an animated look at Rohan, 183 years before the famous trilogy. The film focuses on Helm Hammerhand's daughter Hera, voiced by Gaia Wise. War with Dunland occurs. I liked the flick.
Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle - 2024 (Hallmark+) This is the first of four related films revolving around the lives of Tina (Natalie Hall), Olivia (Cindy Busby), Mia (Kathryn Davis), and Lily (Ashley Newbrough), that were all produced for Hallmark+ this year. In the films they are the owner's of "All Wrapped Up," which is a year round present wrapping company in St. Paul, Minnesota. In this one Tina, whose engagement ended a year earlier, is heading up the town's annual Christmas present wrapping competition (seriously) in the local historical building that has hosted it for 80 years. Along the way she meets Hailey, a school aged girl who has dyslexia but is played more like she's somewhere on the spectrum, and Hailey's widower dad Michael. While the budding romance occurs, the building is sold and the new owner plans to tear down the building and erect a new, modern hotel. I expected the Hallmark+ fare to be worse than the regular Hallmark and even Hallmark Mystery films so far this year, but was pleasantly surprised. It didn't waste any time (probably 10 minutes shorter than their TV movies), the acting was good enough outside of the weird choice for the kid, and the writing and directing was competent. Solidly around the middle of the pack for this year.
Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story - 2024 Both sets of Alana's grandparents got season tickets to Chiefs games for Christmas in 1969 and sat beside each other for years, including the move to Arrowhead Stadium. Their kids, her parents, continued the tradition and each family opened businesses on the same street in Independence, MO. Alana enters the family into the contest for Chiefs fan of the year, telling the story of the hat that has been worn on Christmas day by a family member each year that Kansas City has won the Super Bowl. Derrick, the director of Chiefs fan engagement, visits and the obligatory potential love interest storyline begins. Tyler Hynes is one of the better Hallmark guys and plays Derrick. Hunter King is kind of on that Lacey Chabert level where she could clearly do better films but is okay with the easy work for good money. Ed Begley Jr. is wonderful as one of the kindly old grandfathers despite Parkinson's really starting to slow him down. It was fun to see Diedrich Bader in a role where he's not completely insane. Donna Kelce had a small role and some current and former Chiefs had cameos with Trent Green being the only one that seemed at all comfortable in front of the camera.
We watched a movie we consider super appropriate for Christmas. Why? Because he saved every one of us.
Finished Slow Horses this evening. Not sure about it. I liked many of the characters, but certain episodes were way more "shoot 'em up" violent than they needed to be. As disgusting as Jackson Lam was, Gary Oldman was clearly having a blast. Probably because of how disgusting he was.