Kind: Watches

watching a movie, television show, online video, play or other visual-based event

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Watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) from letterboxd.com
For Peter Parker, life is busy. Between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen Stacy, high school graduation cannot come quickly enough. Peter has not forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen’s father to protect her by staying away, but that is a promise he cannot keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro, emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn, returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past.

I liked how it turned out.

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Watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) from letterboxd.com
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.

There is a half a good film in here. The retelling of the “actual events” works really nicely. There is some fun dialogue and a few laughs.

But you feel like you get a fairly rounded view of the defendants and you actually don’t. You have no real sense of who they actually are. The finale skirts dangerously close to Independence Day territory. We’re one saluting man in uniform away from disaster. Don’t even get me started on the music.

Ultimately, I did learn something watching this and I mostly enjoyed it and that’s what counts.

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Watched Till Death (2021) from letterboxd.com
After a romantic evening at their secluded lake house, a woman wakes up handcuffed to her dead husband. Trapped and isolated in the dead of winter, she must fight off hired killers to escape her late spouse's twisted plan.

There were a lot of things to like about this. Megan being permanently made-up like a cover girl was not one of them.

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Watched Fear Street: 1666 (2021) from letterboxd.com
In 1666, a colonial town is gripped by a hysterical witch-hunt that has deadly consequences for centuries to come, and it's up to teenagers in 1994 to finally put an end to their town's curse, before it's too late.

Of the three, this one musters a much stronger Stranger Things vibe. It pays off parts 1 and 2 REALLY well. There is some properly brutal shit, rivalling part 1.

There is SO much to like about this but something just doesn’t play right. It just doesn’t feel like enough. If this had been a 12 episode limited series I feel like people would be going nuts for it. Maybe it just needed a bit more budget? In the UK, I still feel like the 18 cert adds an expectation that isn’t met.

I don’t think I liked this part much more than I liked the other parts. It has the same problems, in the form of pace killing heart-to-hearts and the same strengths, characters you give a shit about and a zany story.

I think the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

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Watched Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021) from letterboxd.com
In 1978, two rival groups at Camp Nightwing must band together to solve a terrifying mystery when horrors from their towns' history come alive.

Well, I liked it more than 94. I wasn’t thrilled with the score in some parts and there were some weirdly long monologues/confessionals that killed the pace. Also, didn’t Guardians have this soundtrack?

But I liked the summer camp setting WITH campers. I liked the characters and the relationships. I liked the transition from petty camp bullshit/bullying to bloodbath, where we just end up focused on a few characters. I liked how it built the mythology and I liked the tone.

Regarding the tone, I feel there is some sort of disconnect on the UK rating. I guess the 18 is for violence but the tone is somewhere between a 12A and a 15. It feels odd.

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Watched Akira (1988) from letterboxd.com
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop.

I think the subs must have improved since I last saw this because it made sense!