sam the d00d

1. Marriage Story 2. Under the Silver Lake 3. Uncut Gems 4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 5. Knives Out 6. Little Women 7. Us 8. Mister America 9. Dolemite is My Name 10. The Lighthouse

Watched Knives Out and Uncut Gems back to back. Both phenomenal. 2019 was such a great year for movies.

I loved the Witch. Im really glad A24 has been over to crossover into the mainstream as a studio because they consistently produce not only original movies, but typically ones of high quality as well. I think people just like reliability. I think its part of why Marvel does so well. Sure Im not that into them, but I think generally everybody agrees they can go into a Marvel movie knowing it will at least be decent. A24 has that going for it too.

I think studios havent caught onto the fact that remakes dont immediately mean success. For the most part its only comic book movies, Star Wars, Fast and Furious, 007, and Mission Impossible that can endure as these endless franchises for the time being. Nobody cares about this other shit. Nobody was clamoring for more Charlies Angels, or Chips, or some shit. The time to strike for that was almost 20 years ago. Nostalgia functions on a 20 year cycle typically.

The Lighthouse ruled, I liked The Witch better though.

Untitled Goose Game was fun.

Been having a lot of fun with Deadly Premonition since it got ported to Switch. I think Im roughly halfway through. I figured Id like it since its basically Twin Peaks: The Video Game.

I was under the impression Sony was financing these things and paying for marketing clats, and double checking on the article on Marvels website announcing the deal thats what it says. Superhero movies were not dead until the MCU. Spider-Man 3 made a *censored*ton of money. And the Dark Knight doesnt count because...? You said so? As bad as a lot of them were, very few were bombing financially. And an Oscar for best animated feature is a bit more pretigious than best make-up. Not to to take anything away from people in make-up, its just often isnt something than can save a bad film. Whos to say the MCU would be around if it werent for Raimis Spider-Man films being massive successes after the genre faceplanted in the 90s.

Maybe because the Spider-Man movies made a shitload of money BECAUSE of Disney, and Sony should be happy to partake in those spoils to the degree that they do. It's not like Sony was making Spider-Man "must-see" before Disney came along. They damn sure weren't pulling a billion dollars at the box office. And you're right...Disney is buying up properties at an alarming rate. Which is probably more good reason why Sony should aim to cooperate with them before they just force a hostile takeover (bound to happen). Sonys not even close to being in the same financial situation Fox was in. Sony shouldnt just bend over and let the biggest studio push them around when theyre the ones who actually own the property and who actually put up most of the money to make the movie. Venom made a shit ton with out Disney. Spiderverse won an Oscar without Disney.

Im like seeing the reaction on Twitter and have no idea why Sony is taking the brunt of it. 50% for a property you dont even own is ridiculous for Disney to ask for. Especially when youre consuming all other media properties at an alarming rate as it is.

The biggest irony here is that Spider-Man would be public domain if it werent for Disney *censored*ing with copyright laws.

Just make Spider-Man 4. Or give us a live action Spider-verse type movie with all three Spider-Men directed by Raimi. Would be dimes and you dont need any of the MCU stuff.

Watched Police Story, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Paris Texas, and Good Time over the weekend. Legitimately loved all of then. I dont watch a ton of action movies, but still Police Story has got to be one of the best action movies Ive ever seen. Paris, Texas is obviously a masterpiece.

I really liked Alita, Im looking forward to watching it again. It kinda loses the wheels out from under it regarding pacing on the third act, but every action sequence was so much fun and I really liked the world they created for it. Its probably gonna end up being a cult classic.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was so sweet. I dont think any movie has made me feel that good all year.

Doesnt look that good. I liked the first Zombieland but I wasnt exactly clamoring for more. Im sure itll be fine, but I just dont care about it at all. Kinda like Toy Story 4. Maybe Im just sequel fatigued.

Cats looks admirably insane.

Godzilla was so disappointing. I liked the last one and the trailer looked so good for the sequel, but my god everything beyond the visuals just fell totally flat. I was mostly just bored. Rocketman was good. Sorta falls into a lot of same tired tropes all music biopics fall into, but the musical sequences were all done so creatively. You can tell they put so much more thought into everything than they typically do with biopics. I was pretty much sold by the Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting sequence when I saw all these extras and precise choreography that this was going to be entertaining. Also the ending was so well done. I would have never thought to do something like that, but it worked so well. Almost reminded me of the final episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion weirdly enough.

The live action Scooby Doo movies are anarchy.

Detective Pikachu was one of the most insane things Ive seen in theaters. Sort of reminded me of the live action Scooby Doo movies. I didnt think it was good, but I respect it for being so weird. The entire third act was so *censored*ing silly that I was just laughing uncontrollably at the climax this mystery led to.

I dont know if the Avatar sequels will do AS well as the first, but Im certain theyll do well. Most big movies like that do insanely well in a December release slot. I would have never gussed Aquaman would break a billion, but looking back what was it competing with? Avatar 2 will have like two whole months where it will probably be the only big movie worth seeing. Until mid-February or so when studios start putting out their good movies, people who want to see a giant CGI cluster*censored* will have to get that fix through Avatar. The Chinese market will probably like it a lot, seems up their alley. Disney marketing will certainly help. And honestly the every other year release schedule will keep it fresh in public conscience where Id predict a third one does even better than a second, given the second one is quality.

I watched Vera Chytilovas film Dasies yesterday. An instant favorite. One of the most batshit crazy movies Ive ever seen. Hausu-levels of cinematic anarchy. It absolutely rules.

I think he said hes feeling superhero fatigue or something along those lines. Which Ive been feeling too, so I get it. I dont think he hates the genre as a whole. He was one of the first guys to really try to get a Spider-Man movie off the ground, and Alita was a huge passion project of his and that was based on a manga.

I never count James Cameron out. I dont think about Avatar much, but Ill likely check them out. I have a lot of respect for Cameron. The cool thing about Camerons sequels is they tend to do something completely new with a property. Aliens obviously took the concepts from the its predecessor, but Cameron still made it completely his own and made something totally fresh. And hes proven to do this with his own creations as well with Terminator. My expectation is that the new Avatar movies will feature Pandora and the same alien races, but with a completely different kind of movie from the original. And I think also Im missing something auteur driven in blockbuster cinema right now where everythings pretty brand driven and corporate. Avatar is a world that James created everything about. I have the same sort of feeling David Lynch had when he was offered Return of the Jedi, but turned it down and suggested George direct it himself. The fact that theres this movie coming out completely from this one guys imagination is intruiging to me. Anyway, I got a Criterion Channel subscription. Loving the service thus far. Ive watched like 5 or 6 movies totally blind and Ive liked all of them and even loved a few. Standouts Ive watched at Jim Jarmuschs film Permanent Vacation; Charles Burnetts film My Brothers Wedding; and Claudia Weills Girlfriends. Girlfriends has pretty much almost exactly the same plot on paper as one of my favorite films of all time Frances Ha, but came put like 35 years before Frances Ha. It was just delightful, love a good movie about friendship. Im just really loving this service thus far I havent even touched Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon in a week. Also watched Yasujiro Ozos Good Morning. Didnt go in blind to that one, but loved it as much as I expected I would.

It's beautiful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxN2oDKk0E