Monday, May 27, 2019

Under the Table and dreaming


JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3—PARABELLUM

Show of hands, who loves the John Wick movies for their conversations?  Oh, really?  Way more than I would've thought.

2019
Directed by Chad Stahleski
Written by Derek Holstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, and Mark Abrams

Spoiler alert: mild

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Predator Week, part IV: The day the Earth stood up, walked out of the theater, and asked for its money back



THE PREDATOR

So now I can see why I might have dragged my feet on finishing this particular retrospective—it must have been a premonition of utter shit.  Not only the worst film in its series, The Predator is quite probably the worst film of its whole year, and damned if I didn't expect much, much better from this franchise and from these creators than that.

2018
Directed by Shane Black
Written by Fred Dekker and Shane Black

Spoiler alert: high

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Avengers forever


AVENGERS: ENDGAME

The best of the MCU's crossovers without even thinking about it too hard, Avengers: Endgame is even better than that fairly-faint praise implies, and it earns its place in cinema history (and our hearts) for at last giving some its various childlike empresses their names, and bringing some of their neverending stories to a highly satisfying close.

2019
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Spoiler alert: severe

Wednesday, May 1, 2019