Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 252

Fight Club
Have not watched in about 15 years. Dumb as hell but a lot of fun. I can’t believe I watched this so many times as a middle-high schooler. What did I used to get out of it aside from it looking cool? Was I ready to blow up credit buildings as a 13 year old?

Psycho Killer Music Video
Work sucks

I know

 

I rewatched fight club 2 years ago because of the doughboys and it’s fun to watch but ultimately dumb

 

That historically weird period between the end of the Cold War and before the War on Terror really tried to make you feel bad for the protagonists in movies like Fight Club or American Beauty because of their ennui and lack of fulfillment while people go hungry.

 

My wife had never seen it. She liked it enough and said she is going to make “I’m tyler durden now” a new bit.

 

Good movie that periodically swings between overloved and overhated. But overall it’s pretty great.

 

I had a class in high school that read that, Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream and Harry Potter. Called “Censorship”. HP was first and it got progressively darker. It is funny to think what a HS teacher tried to get 17 year olds to pull from that book

 

Trainspotting is not an easy read at all

 

Neither is Requiem, it was a challenging class

 

I picked Irvine Welsh for a project for my senior year English class and had to read 3 of his books and it was tough.

 

My school was objectively harder than the school I teach at now. It’s a challenge to get any student to read any book on their own. I literally read The Body to my sophomores, and I think the junior and senior teachers may read aloud as well.

 

I usually read the first few pages and have them read a page or so each at random. I tried assigning pages to read on their own and no one did it. A lot of them can't.

 

Most can’t, so the option is read for them and force them to analyze deeper themes in class, or we all fake pretending to read at home and I ask questions that one kid can answer

 

The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes
Breathtaking. Not in a funny way. Engaging and horrifying enough that I forgot to breathe.

 

We read all of Beowulf together and somehow one student thought that he was an actual wolf.

 

I only read one book during high school and that was because I accidentally told mum I had not read the hobbit after I had written my report on it. She was mortified and forced me to read it.

 

Some teachers put on the audio book but at that point you might as well do nothing.

 

Still disturbed by this one years later.

 

I read like 2 pages and was like bitch this isn't English

 

so tough

 

Second half of Mission: Impossible reviews:

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 8.5/10
Five movies in, we finally get another intimidating villain in Solomon Lane, whose presence alone puts this above Ghost Nation for me. Feels like a transitionary piece between Ghost Nation and Fallout, but I just vibe with this one more. The opening Opera sequence, the dive stunt, Benji going through the scanners...it's just good stuff man. Wildly apparent that McQuarry had the juice from the get-go.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout - 9/10
Probably objectively the best film in the series, and a contender for the best action film of the decade. Not only is Lane back, but you get Henry Cavill playing the brawn to Harris' brain leading to one of the most intense and impressive third act sequences ever made. McQuarry also brings Michelle Monaghan back for closure on Julia and Ethan's relationship, tastefully tying up loose ends as we approach the end of the series. Just unbelievably great shit happening here. The kind of action movie that would convert non-believers.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - 8/10
Dead Reckoning is such a strange movie, undeniably corny in its oddly prescient AI villain THE ENTITY and silver fox supervillain Gabriel but also meticulously laying the groundwork for the franchise's finale. Of course, Hayley Atwell's pickpocket is a welcome addition, and it doesn't hurt that the film contains some of the best action set pieces of the entire series (all time?). Seriously, the motorcycle jump was worth the hype, and that car chase sequence in Rome is an all-timer. McQuarry and Cruise are so good that they will bust out the goofy shit right in front of you just to prove you wrong and make a movie sick enough to justify it. I have a feeling this one will grow on me the more I revisit it.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - 10/10
This is decidedly not a 10/10 movie, but it moved me. Maybe it's because I got to see it in theaters with my parents, both of whom had close calls last year. Maybe it's because I've been hyper-fixated on their mortality ever since my own son was born in February. Honestly, I think the biggest reason (working in tandem with the others) is that, as I watched Tom Cruise light his actual parachute on fire mid-air for a supersized action flick designed to be experienced on the biggest screen possible, I became acutely aware of how much I fucking love movies, more than anything other than the people in my life. A good movie serves as one of the only escapes from the constant anxiety of this nonstop hellscape we are forced to live in day in and day out; a bad movie with friends can produce the same results. Fortunately, I got to experience a good movie in a communal setting with people I love, made by a questionable at best man who has nevertheless seemingly dedicated his life to a love of movies. It is not an experience I will forget, especially after my parents are gone, and it's the kind of experience I hope to share with my son someday.

Bonus reviews of Friendship and Tommy Boy:

Friendship - 8/10
Is Tim Robinson's schtick starting to wear thin? Who's to say? Friendship made me laugh, and it's the kind of comedy that should be going to theatres. Rudd's straight-man charisma is a perfect foil for the dangerously obtuse Robinson we know and love, but Andrew DeYoung's direction brings an almost sinister undercurrent to the outrageous circumstances unfolding in front of us. It winds up feeling something like a Safdie Brothers-directed episode of I Think You Should Leave, or The King of Comedy's Robert Pupkin transported into the strangest moments of After Hours. Stylish and unique; I can't wait to experience it again.

Tommy Boy - 7/10
If I'm being honest, I don't think Tommy Boy makes me laugh out loud the way it did when I was a kid, but it does feel like a warm blanket in a way only special comedies do. Farley's physicality was unrivaled and his chemistry with Spade is undeniable; it would have been a gift to watch him grow as a performer, but I'm grateful for what he left us when I need it.

 

I think, much like Sandler, if Farley didn't die he would have gone on to do some great dramatic roles.

 

Dragged Across Concrete

so conflicting