Yes Jason Statham has made better movies but it was dumb fun, the 2 lead detectives were bad but the rest of the movie was mindless entertainment. I’ll probably forget I even saw it in a few months but we had a great time watching it.
Zombieland: Double Tap - 6/10 Dumb in mostly all the right ways (Deutch's bit is exceedingly lazy) and fun, which is the only thing I could possibly hope for from a decade-late Zombieland sequel. I'm just glad there's still a market for Ghostbusters-esque movies and I hope they move forward with another in 10 years.
They Live - 8/10 Just smart enough to stay relevant, just dumb enough to be a classic. Piper is inspired casting and the dialogue/one-liners are seriously unbeatable. It doesn't all come together, but it's in on the joke, gets the job done, and shows that Carpenter is just as good as crafting comedic B-movie material as he is horror canon. Destroy All Neighbors - 7.5/10 Just shy of great, but seriously so much fun. It's Bill and Ted by way of Evil Dead 2, complete with shades of Psycho Goreman and Fried Barry. Alex Winter is so well-cast and the practical effects are just so good. Steroid Kumail is the scariest thing about the movie.
Self-Reliance - 6/10 Jake Johnson doing Charlie Day, both as a performer and a director. Take from that what you will. Sometimes, the mumblecore/improv stuff feels really transparent, and other times, you get an amazing scene of Johnson threatening to kill Andy Samberg. A really great noided premise with just okay execution, but even if it doesn't all come together, it's mostly fun and Biff Wiff deserves an Oscar. The Hunt (2020) - 7/10 A film that has gotten better for me every time I've watched it. It's funny that Trumpers were so up in arms about this one considering it does a better job of humanizing them than 90% of media in the past eight years. It kind of feels like the horror version of Don't Look Up; even when it's incredibly on the nose, it mostly knows what it's doing and is sporadically very funny. A lot better than I initially thought, or than you would expect based on the premise. Gilpin is a star. The Slumber Party Massacre - 6/10 Finally fixed this major horror blindspot for myself and it was kind of just okay! Fun enough, and it absolutely scratches the 70-minute sleazy 80s slasher itch, but there's also zero mystery to it!
Sorry for quadruple posting, but I have to post this one: Manhunter - 10/10 Furious with myself for putting this one off for so long, because Manhunter is very close to being -- and for me, it might as well be -- perfect. It manages to be dense without being difficult to follow, visually unique stylish without sacrificing substance, dark without being mean-spirited, and all in all, just incredibly endearing. The Silence of the Lambs might have more longevity as a film, but in terms of influence, this thing is pretty much a direct playbook for Fincher (not to mention films like Mandy, One Hour Photo, etc.). I don't know if I've seen a film that better encapsulates the look and feeling of the 1980s. I'm gonna be thinking about this one for a long time.
Self-Reliance - 7/10 - Agreed that Biff Wiff deserves an Oscar. This was just a fun way to spend a Friday night.
The Circle - 3/10 Man this really fell apart quickly in the 2nd half. Probably not a good sign that the movie starts with FOUR studio bumpers (most that I've never heard of). I'm not exactly sure what the message is, why Emma Watson became so gullible so fast and then st the last second decided "no fuxk you tom hanks...you're the big bad guy in this". I'm not even sure I can fully describe the movie based on the 2nd half. Google company is so powerful that it wants to create a nanny state because of money. Emma Watson drinks the kool-aid, suffers some repercussions sorta, and then turns on the main boss or something. Pretty bad
I own They Live on blu-ray, but presuming you're talking about Destroy All Neighbors, it's on Shudder!
The Woodsman - 7.5/10 An incredibly complicated, challenging, questionable, and dark vehicle for perhaps Bacon's best performance. Over a decade before a major cultural conversation about how we respond when presumably good people do bad things, this is a film that asks for our empathy when bad person tries to do a good thing. I liked it. I don't like that I liked it, but I truly couldn't look away. Safe - 7.5/10 An oftentimes dry but startlingly effective psychological drama that showcases not only how women are often gaslighted for being in tune with their bodies, but also how human beings are so ready to convince themselves to leave one oppressive situation for another. It's a parable about life getting stale and the illusion of freedom, but the journey director Todd Haynes takes us on to get there, along with Julianne Moore's performance, is frighteningly relatable.
It's a tough watch. I also own it but am unsure if I ever "need" to watch it again, if that makes sense.
The Holdovers - 10/10 I saw the trailer once a while ago and went into this expecting Dead Poets Society, but I was wrong. Being a teacher, this one really got to me.
The Conversation 8/10 Netflix recently added a buncha movies from the 70s this year so I've been watching a lot of them and this one was really good, it's a slow burn of a movie but really gets you into it. Solid mystery thriller if you are into those kinda films id recommend it. Francis Ford Coppola wrote & directed it. stacked cast with Gene Hackman, Cindy Williams, John Cazale, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Robert Duvall.