#anthony hopkins has a lovely robot voice

[naensut]

#i love this scene #most of the movie i just zoned out but this #THIS #this is THE scene #rebel moon #jc 1345 #jimmy rebel moon #sam rebel moon #blushing robots YES #anthony hopkins has a lovely robot voice #Youtube #video #rebel moon spoilers #could someone please write fanfiction for jimmy? #rebel moon part one a child of fire #i eat this shit up #these kind of tropey scenes #give me all of them

[sociopathicbunnyrabbit-blog]

How is it in the year of our Lord 2023 that out of all things i was not expecting to actually enjoy a goddamn zack synder movie of all things like I have never seen a zack snyder film that I have liked before in my entire life.

Youve probably seen bad reviws for it but kust head me out okay...

Like I am moctly critical of the guy and if asked of my opion any point prior would say I think he should have been a cinemtograrhper and never a dricetor as his eye for visuals is great but his story and dricetion usally not so much. Like i would have describded him as a man who's become famous for making horrible adpatations of comic books into films. Always bastardising the charcaters and orignal meaning of the source material by failing the hypotthecial D20 roll for an 8th grade reading comphresion level check with a -30. That somehow seem to mosyly produce pro-facist messages that glorify western civilsation and hitsory that's loved by a fan base riffe with toxic masculinty.

Like how did this man produce a sci-fi movie with a female lead who carries the film and carries on the trope of buff women in thank tops that all claasic sci-fi greats have, rejects peer pressure to get with the strong traditionally masculine type and has its actual main male character and love intest be a too guiable and innocent farm boy who only wants to try his best to help people,

It has a overtly Anti-facist Anti-imeprlaism and Anti-colonilaism message at its core vis vi a plot like seven smaurai, is more creative with its set peice locations then most of the last three star wars movies.

Thats not even mentioning that it has a diverse supporting cast all with their own interesting back storirs from a legendary warrior who understnads greif of losing family and is agaisnt the glorfication fo violence as noble, to an old depressed war general who is punishing himself for past mistakes, a prince who was sold into slavery on a farm and has a compassin for animals who are treated horrinly liks he persumibly is, a robot who was built for war but would rather be commited to kindness with a great unique design and voiced by anthony f#cking hopkins.

Like everyone anyone can feel free to have wathever opion you want about this film its far from perfect, is it just kinda nock off star wars, yeah it is, but I would argue it says more in its run time and bettet then the last three star wars movies did in all of theirs did, not to mention kora as a charcter does more for former facist turned good plot then fin ever acheived.

I enjoyed it immensly also its audience score is like three times as high as its critical one so I feel vindicated enough that even if you don't think it's some kind of masterpiece of modern cinema you hoepfully will find some value in it

#rebel moon #sci fi and fantasy #film #netflix #badass women #my opion #entertainment

[westworld-daily]

'Westworld' enters a new world for its second season: The revolution will be televised

A surprising thing happened in the year and a half since the first season of "Westworld" confounded and attracted viewers with its knotted story of a futuristic android uprising at a patriarchal Western theme park.

At the center of the revolt on different fronts were "hosts" Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton) — both of whom suffered horrific abuse and menace in carrying out their duties catering to the park's wealthy, pleasure-seeking male patrons. With the arrival of the second season April 22, the show's vision of a dark, cynical tomorrow has moved past its source material's roots of sci-fi entertainment to resemble a troubling reflection of what's happening in the country's political and cultural divides, as well as its #MeToo moment.

"It's even more relevant now. Absolutely," says Wood, dressed in a bright blue suit during a recent junket at a Beverly Hills hotel. In the first season, Dolores, a rancher's daughter who is one of the longest-serving "hosts" in the park, has the simple optimism of her programming shattered and winds up as a leader in a robot revolution.

"It certainly adds extra weight to season two, because season two is very much about the revolution and about the oppressed coming to take their power back," says Wood. "I think it could be a metaphor for any kind of oppressed group of people or minority."

Her co-star, however, is less convinced. In a separate interview, Newton, who plays the world-weary brothel madam Maeve, pauses upon being asked about the show's topicality in a changing world. She finally says, "The role was the role regardless."

But Newton also sees a metaphor in the show's conceit: "We're talking about what happens in Westworld stays in Westworld, and you can go and you can [sleep with] whoever you want, you can shoot whoever you want, you can rape whoever you want. That's happening right now in the world."

"I know without a doubt that we are not using rape as wallpaper, like some shows do, okay?" she says, her voice quickening. "I'm not being specific about which because it would not be good for my career, but do we have a responsibility? Well, it turns out we don't because nobody really applies that sense of responsibility. But I think [creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy] do."

The husband-and-wife creators are following up on the same objective this season that they had from the start, riffing on science fiction and western touchstones that flavored its source material (both the Michael Crichton novel and its 1973 film adaptation) while not being beholden to it.

In the first season, the dotted line connection to the film was drawn from its most recognizable figure — Yul Brynner's gunslinging cowboy in black — but the show's penchant for upending expectations was vividly illustrated with the character shifting from a murderous robot to a murderous human, portrayed by Ed Harris.

And instead of being about a glitch that leads to violence akin to "Jurassic Park," "Westworld" is more about the chaotic first steps of a new species.

"This is where our story was always going," Nolan says when asked if the current climate had any impact on their writing. "It's a Western, but it's also told from the perspective of, in video game terms, the nonplayer characters. You're dealing with the characters who have been marginalized within the world of the park itself. It's about Maeve, and it's about Dolores."

Of course, one of the most talked about — and controversial — ways "Westworld" told that story involved overlapping timelines, one with Harris' Man in Black seeking an answer to the world's puzzle while tormenting Dolores (he rapes her in the pilot episode), and the other with his younger self (Jimmi Simpson), who was in love with Dolores.

The series blurred the line easily from scene to scene, a disorienting choice that was anchored by the never-aging Dolores. The conceit was finally revealed in the season finale, frustrating some viewers who had thought there was only a single narrative.

Shuffling timelines is a familiar move for Nolan, who was in college when he wrote the amnesia-shaded short story that inspired his brother Christopher's breakthrough film, "Memento." But like that movie, the choice in "Westworld" was more than a structural gambit.

"It was rooted in the lens from which our protagonists saw their world," says Joy, seated on a sofa next to Nolan. "They did not understand when they were, you know? They didn't even understand that they didn't understand when they were.

"We didn't plot it out like, 'And then we'll be like "Gotcha!"' It came from a place of naturalism and trying to build empathy for these characters."

Of course, now that the black hat is out of the bag, Nolan and Joy don't get to use the effect again, right?

Nolan shifts in his seat with a sly smile. "Do you?"

Both are cagey about the new season, allowing that a new park — the Kurosawa-inspired Shogun World, which was teased in the last season finale — will emerge (a recently launched website "Delos Destinations" showed four more still-hidden worlds that are part of the park's corporate family) and that viewers will see the world outside the parks as well. "

The series places such a premium on secrecy that the cast often found itself in the dark during production. Wood remembers working on scenes for episodes she hadn't yet read without knowing what happened leading up to them, a challenge she called "a crazy acting exercise."

"I'm starting to think they're doing to us what they talk about doing to the guests in 'Westworld,'" she says with a grin. "Where they strip you down to your primal self and create a sense of urgency so that you're your most honest."

Though Nolan describes a season two led by a self-aware Dolores as "playing cards up" as far as what the audience understands, he still holds them close to the vest.

In April, he had a little fun when he teased on Reddit that he would release some spoilers of the new season, claiming it would help manage fan theories that revealed too much last season. The subsequent video begins with a dazed Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), who runs Westworld's programming division, waking up on a beach and ends with Wood gamely singing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" backed on piano by prostitute and fellow host Clementine (Angela Sarafyan).

"Westworld" may be set in the future, but its taste for trolling is very 2018.

But working under such ambiguity proved difficult for Newton. While Dolores kick-started the revolt last season by killing Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the park's creator, Maeve initiates a bloody scheme to escape the park. But on her way out, she changes her mind and returns. .

It was a twist that disappointed Newton but, she says, also keeps delivering rewards.

"I had to have no ideas for my character [during production], which was really hard," she says. "And almost a betrayal because it's like, this is mine. I made her. I stripped naked in order to present her as she truly is and needs to be. And my nudity is profoundly disturbing because of the way it's been exploited in the past, both in film and in my life, right? So it was a big deal and something I did wholeheartedly because it made sense, and I felt that it had enormous value."

She says, "It was kind of like, you know those dreams that you have where you're trying to get somewhere, and you can't run, you're in slo-mo? Your legs can't move?

"That was what season two was like."

#westworld #articles #season 2 #evan rachel wood #thandie newton #los angeles times #la times #s02 #articles 2018

[fuckyeahevanrwood]

The Road Less Traveled: Westworld’s Evan Rachel Wood does nothing by the book

Evan Rachel Wood can ride a horse and shoot a rifle at the same time. She can’t tell you why she knows how to do that—while wearing a prairie dress, playing a character that is a robot, and galloping through the Utah desert for the HBO series Westworld, now in its second season. She just does it.

It’s the same with acting, in general, which the 30-year-old has been doing since she was 5. She can’t explain it. She does it.

“It’s an energetic thing, I don’t know. My senses are different,” Wood says over a lunch of scrambled eggs at a bar in Silver Lake. “I have terrible fine motor skills, but I can shoot a scene on a horse with a gun in one take. I have synesthesia, which means that I can hear color and feel sound. I thought everyone experienced the world that way. I’m fascinated by the way our brains work, and I was reading about psychology and learned about what synesthesia was, and I thought, ‘Wait. Other people don’t feel that?’”

Even if you haven’t seen her eerie performance as Westworld’s Dolores (which earned her both Golden Globe and Emmy nods), living a preprogrammed life in a sort of alternate-reality game where wealthy players get to act out twisted Old West fantasies among androids, chances are Wood has left a lasting impression on you from a different role. Starting with a few dramas on television (among them Once and Againand the original American Gothic) and her breakout role as a troubled teen in Catherine Hardwicke’s 2003 film Thirteen, Wood has had an intense, often smoldering and mature on-screen presence for two decades. She played Mickey Rourke’s daughter in The Wrestler, a promiscuous intern in George Clooney’s The Ides of March and the vampire queen of Louisiana in True Blood. In person, Wood does not present as a boldly provocative movie star. Wearing wide-leg faded jeans, a striped T-shirt, tortoiseshell glasses and Vans, her hair in a reddish bob, you might guess that she is a manager at Urban Outfitters. She looks younger than she is, which she credits to sunscreen (La Roche-Posay). And though she spent her adolescent years living and attending acting classes in the San Fernando Valley, she now prefers the vibe on the east side of Los Angeles, where she spends time with her friends, mostly fellow musicians (she’s a singer) and actors. And when she isn’t working here in town, or on the Westworld set near Moab, she calls Nashville, Tenn., home.

“Los Angeles can be too intense for me,” she says, explaining that she wants her son, who is 4 (his father is Wood’s ex, actor Jamie Bell), to have some space to be a kid, both literally and figuratively. “I feel like I’m always working here, even just walking down the street. Nashville is great because there are so many creative people there who are working and doing cool things, but nobody cares what you do. Or if they do, they’re lovely about it. I didn’t buy a farm or anything, but I have a yard and a guesthouse. There’s nature and a community. I wanted all of that for my son. I was just a couple of years older than he is when [my career] really started. And it’s weird to think about how short his life has been, and that is the only amount of time I had before I became an actor. I really like my life, the good and the bad of it, but I wouldn’t let my son do it.”

When you watch performers grow up on screen, you can see how their choices shape them, and see who they are becoming based on the roles they take. Wood was raised in a North Carolina theater that her father ran surrounded by a “melting pot” of cultures, personalities and sexualities, and she has been working steadily for 25 years. At first, with her long, straw-blond hair and fair skin, she was cast as a thoughtful, serious daughter. Then, as she matured, she understood that her tastes were more eccentric. (You may remember that she was in a long-term relationship with Marilyn Manson.)

“I’ve never wanted to go down the road everyone else was going down,” she says. “I wanted to go down the alleys and learn about the people who were different, talk to the weirdos and know their stories. I don’t always play dark characters. I mean, I’ve done comedies. But the darker roles are what people tend to remember.”

Her latest big-screen role is Laura, a psychologically complicated cleaning woman who has a tangled family life and intense sexual encounters with strangers, in a film called Allure. Laura is a woman who is hard to like, who manipulates, traps and tortures a 16-year-old piano prodigy with a difficult home life of her own. Originally, the role was written for a man, by Canadian writer-director team Carlos and Jason Sanchez.

“Then they gender-swapped it, which is when they approached me,” Wood says. “That was intriguing to me, that this role was now female, which you don’t really see, and it did explore these kinds of situations in a way that I hadn’t quite seen before—from the eyes of two women. My biggest fear was that I wasn’t going to be a believable abuser, because I didn’t want to traumatize anyone. I think because I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, I become very protective of younger actors.”

Since Wood publicly came out as bisexual in 2011, she has embraced her voice as an advocate for LGBT civil and women’s rights. She writes essays for Nylon magazine and speaks frankly about changing social mores surrounding sexual identity in our culture. Wood received the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award at the 2017 North Carolina Gala, where she gave a candid speech about the importance of “representing the underrepresented.” Recently, she testified before Congress about her own history with sexual assault, detailing some truly horrific experiences but refusing to name her assailants, to protect herself from potentially draining court battles.

She experiments with androgyny in her personal style, gravitating more toward sleek, tailored suits and what she calls a “futuristic,” modern aesthetic with stylist Samantha McMillen. She has also written a couple of screenplays and started exploring paths behind the camera, mainly as a director. In the meantime, Westworld is more than enough to keep an active brain like Wood’s occupied. (And, as of season three, she is receiving equal pay to her male co-stars.)

“You can watch the show and go along with it, or you can put your detective hat on and try to figure it out. That’s what I love to do. I have a pretty good idea what it’s about. But there’s no way to really figure out this season. I read the final script and I said, ‘I have a couple of questions. First, what exactly is this?’”

The questions the show’s creators, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, ask about the origin of consciousness, and the potential for artificial intelligence to outpace its human creators, are interesting enough to keep the cast (which includes Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Hopkins) and the audience on their toes. It doesn’t hurt that there’s plenty of nudity.

“It’s not even weird anymore,” laughs Wood. “We’ve all been naked so often that it’s just normal. I show up to work and say, ‘OK, I’m naked in a lab. And Anthony Hopkins is here.’ It’s so surreal there isn’t even time to bestressed.”

And now that Wood is 30, she’s no longer the “baby” in the group and there is less pressure for her to prove herself time and again. She has experience, but still feels like she has a lot to learn.

“People listen to me differently now,” says Wood, and she understands what her older colleagues have been trying to tell her all of these years.

“Growing up as a child actor, I heard about regrets a lot,” she says. “I had a lot of people telling me not to live with regret. They drilled into my head how short and precious life is, so I made sure I didn’t care what anyone else thought.”

And, like everything else Wood does with convincing ease, when she says this, you believe her.

#evan rachel wood #articles #c magazine #articles 2018

[movienotesbyzawmer]

August 21: Mission: Impossible II

(previous notes: Mission: Impossible)

Not gonna lie, this is without question the Mission: Impossible movie that is remembered most unfavorably by me and, I'm pretty sure, everyone else. My recollection is that they tried SO SO SO SO HARD to make an action movie for Today's Kids; I'm typing this with the title screen of the 4K Blu-ray blasting its turn-of-the-millennium neo-metal version of the classic theme with Tom Cruise running in front of a wall of flame and it's just like come on. Is there even must fun spycraft in this? The first one promised lots of gravely furtive glancing, world-class makeup disguises, and dazzling gadgetry. Did this movie's director John Woo replace those with just way way way too much shooting and chasing and sexy vehicles? That's how I remember it but it's been a couple of decades.

I should probably address this series' exciting approach to director selection. The first one was directed by the legendary Brian De Palma, who brought us Carrie, The Untouchables, and Carlito's Way. Whether or not this one worked out, the trend here seemed to be to choose a respected director with a certain cred that could be imported into the franchise. More on that as this series unfolds. I am now to press play.

Opening scene is about a scientist who injects himself with something while a voiceover teases us with I-already-forget-what.

Oh, he's pals with Ethan; they're on a plane together out of Sydney when some bad-guy shenanigans totally thwart the whole fly-to-the-destination-safely thing. But! It wasn't even Ethan! It was good-ol' makeup fake-outery! It was a heist to take the warn leather pouch that the scientist had.

This I remember - during the opening credits, the REAL Ethan Hunt is climbing somewhere impressive, all freestyle like. All the related supplemental marketing materials never fail to talk up Tom Cruise's penchant for doing his own stunts, but these don't look real.

He then receives a fancy techno-message in a very, very dramatic and action-movie-ish fashion, which is that someone flies a helicopter by his climbing mountain and fires a rocket near him containing message-glasses tech! The voice in the message glasses sounds like Anthony Hopkins. Is it Anthony Hopkins?

Anyway now he has to go to Spain to recruit Thandie Newton and here is where it's already starting to get way too the-style-of-John-Woo. There is a flamenco show and Ethan and TN spot each other across the room. There is SLO MOTION and SPANISH STOMPING and ACOUSTIC GUITAR, and THOSE TWO GAZING AT EACH OTHER. I tell you I do not care for it.

What happens next is TN proceeds to use fancy technology and lockpicking skills to steal a well-concealed necklace. Ethan tags along flirtatiously. She still tries to steal the necklace even though this Lothario, this smarmy but irresistible cad, is trying to distract her with his testosterone.

Ugh, I was very right to remember not liking stuff about this movie. Ethan fails to recruit her at the jewel heist, so he car-chases at her the next day! He calls her during the car chase to irritate/seduce her, and she's all "you'll have to catch me ha ha", and it ends in a nearly fatal crash and then they KISS. The director worked very hard to ensure the kissing was HAWT, and Ethan has now successfully recruited TN for both spy work and boinkage.

Anthony Hopkins! He is in the next scene! That really was him! How did I forget that he is in this movie. This scene where he meets with Ethan and fills him in on everything is effectively expository. But then after he knows what he's gotta do, he walks with INTENSITY and it is in SLOW MOTION next to a BURNING EFFIGY THING with ELECTRIC GUITAR MUSIC GOING ON.

0:33:40 - Oh now it's a little more what I like, with a montage about using spy tech to get Ambrose, the bad guy who was pretending to be Ethan on the plane in the beginning, to track TN. And to further assure us that there is techie-fun to be had, Ving Rhames returns to be that guy for Ethan's team. But there is also time in this sequence for shots of TN walking slowly and looking super pretty. You know, so she can seduce Ambrose. A flowing scarf figures prominently in this imagery. A John Woo Film.

I like that they tricked Ambrose into thinking he is so damn smart for tracking her down. I also like Ambrose's compound on Sydney Harbour, it is a bitchin property.

Scene just happened where Ambrose seriously menaces his friend and uses a cigar-clipper on his finger. Ambrose is a bad friend.

But then they're all at the horse race game, even Ambrose's injured friend, who we learn is named Stemp and who is spying on TN, and Ethan and VR are spying on them all. There are shots of TN doing sleight of hand to steal a tape from Ambrose's pocket and it's pretty good spy-shot stuff.

I guess I should mention that there's one more guy on Ethan's team of four, an Australian guy. I haven't caught his name, so he is Australian Guy now, and he is pretending to be an employee of the horse race game venue. He gets bullied by Stemp! We don't like Stemp!

The tape she stole, they watch it right away and it shows footage of what the virus (there's a virus problem at the center of this) does. It is effective, and a little shocking.

But then, this is surprisingly actually kind of well-conveyed - they made it VERY clear that the tape was originally in Ambrose's left jacket pocket, and they showed very clearly that TN returned it to the wrong jacket pocket, AND it's obvious a moment later that Ambrose knows it has been replaced in the wrong jacket pocket. Don't know why, but at least it's keeping us on top of this situation.

Also not-too-shabby is how they're doing the consequences of Ethan and TN fancying each other, except then she has to go and seduce Ambrose and that's uncomfortable and drama-making. In Ethan's defense, as well as Ambrose's, I am also in love with TN right now.

1:02:12 - Ethan disguised himself as Scientist, the dead one from the beginning, and I'm just saying I'm glad this movie is embracing the disguise-craft theme that was established in the first movie. Ooh, is the show like that too?

And then just as I've typed that, it turns out that Ambrose did an Ethan disguise (it was established by Anthony Hopkins that Ambrose was an IMF agent so he can do that stuff too) to trick TN into outing her intentions. They make it very clear that there is voice-fake tech with their disguises that involves a wire mesh thing stuck to the throat.

Next up is a heist scheme to break into a skyscraper where they're growing stuff about the virus, and it's a little bit of that style I liked so much in the last movie, with the added twist that Ambrose is somewhere else anticipating what Ethan's planning, and, I think, plotting a separate, way-better heist. They're still talking about it and the heist is happening and it is suspenseful! I totally like this more than I remember.

1:13:30 - Ethan is at the part of the heist where he's at fancy lab facilities with robot arms and AI voices and oddly no people. VR and Australian Guy are observing everything that's happening using technology and Australian Guy's helicopter, making it more suspenseful, but I also don't know exactly what's going on? We appear to be where Scientist originally injected himself, and Ethan is I think killing the virus while also somehow visualizing Scientist injecting himself.

But then that all goes away because a platoon of thugs in black burst in and are shooting at Ethan. It all quickly became an action movie with blazing guns and VR's tech van getting bombed.

In the fracas it's clear that one of the injector guns contains the last of the virus, and also gunplay might shatter it and make them all infected, so that's decent suspense. But also, the lighting in this bio-lab is like a nightclub, with inexplicably roving spotlights and neon accents that pop in 4K.

TN is in the mix, and she decides to inject the last of the virus into herself, and there's a dumb moment where it's like ETHAN YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SHOOT ME WITH YOUR GUN and Ethan, Man of Ethics, does not do that. Instead there is more gunplay and Ethan jumps out a hole he made in the wall.

1:28:45 - We've moved to new location, a new compound, and it's on a guard-patrolled island and Ethan sneaks up on a guard and does a totally unnecessary body-flip martial arts move to take him out. I think he needs to steal the antidote from this compound so that he can save TN, who is somewhere else. He is visually passionate about this mission.

Ethan got caught sneaking in to this new compound by Stemp, and he did a whole grenade blowup thing but he still got caught. It's a trick, right? Yup, he put an Ethan mask on Stemp and a Stemp mask on himself and got Ambrose to kill Stemp. He realizes he just killed Stemp because of the finger injury, good job with that.

I am reminded that this movie is from the director of Face/Off, so I needn't have feared that the mask/disguise conceit would be forsaken.

But did he get the antidote? He must have. Sometimes when I'm typing notes I miss stuff, but he's now motorcycling away while VR and Australian Guy are providing support from their chopper.

This is now the vehicle-chase opera that I remember ending the movie so terribly extendedly. Much gunplay. Vehicles pirouette with violent elegance. Ethan can do such exquisite dances with his motorcycle and firearm. This climaxes in the ridiculous feat of Ethan and Ambrose riding their cycles at each other and jumping at off them at each other to finish the job sans vehicle. It ends as a tussle on the beach, and Ambrose has a knife that almost gets in Ethan's eye. The visual on that is striking. But it's no good, Ethan is too Tom Cruise for him. He gets the knife from him and DISCARDS THE KNIFE, and punch-kick-fights him a lot instead. Ethics.

Turns out Ambrose has a gun after all oh no. But then it turns out Ethan is standing by a sand-obscured gun somehow also oh good. He does a thoroughly storyboarded sand-kick-body-twirl gun recovery that ends like you'd guess.

So although there are some dumb things about this movie, I think it's better than I remembered. And having just watched the first one, I think it actually did a good job of having a story where you don't have to ignore a lot of stupidness. It's not like it's an especially good plot, but it didn't try to make you forget its holes like the first one. I still like the first one better, though.

(next: Mission: Impossible III)

#Mission: Impossible II #MI:2

[tocinephile]

The Morning After - The Golden Globes 2020 Edition

Morning/Afternoon/Night have lost meaning to me in this post holiday stupor, but I assure you I watched Sunday night’s awards.  Our methods of media consumption have altered every so slightly each year that at least 1/3 of the celebrity outfits I was checking out this year came from my Twitter app compared to the big TV screen in front of me (which often had a split screen happening to begin with).  No matter, it made it all the easier to share via my own twitter and to send to friends who sent me their comments and input through the pre-show and ceremony.

Even more than usual, the Globes felt like a warm-up to me this year.  I’ve barely digested the turkey and finished my Top Films of the Decade list and we’re already off to the award season races.  As a result, I’m not quite prepared to comment on every single win/loss, but what I can say I have embedded in the list below:

Best Motion Picture — Drama

“The Irishman” (Netflix) “Joker” (Warner Bros.) “Marriage Story” (Netflix) “1917” (Universal) (WINNER) “The Two Popes” (Netflix)

1917 has rocketed to the top of my movies to see list as a result of last night’s Best Drama and Best Director win.  Need to see this before the SAG Awards.

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

“Dolemite Is My Name” (Netflix) “Jojo Rabbit” (Fox Searchlight) “Knives Out” (Lionsgate) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (Sony) (WINNER) “Rocketman” (Paramount)

Let it be known here and now, 2020 is going to be the first (and hopefully only) time I speak out against Quentin Tarantino winning an award.  I don’t dislike Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood, not at all, I just didn’t think it was anywhere near his best and in the awards race, there were far better this year. I’ve seen all the films in this category with the exception of Rocketman and I liked Jojo Rabbit and Knives out much more, and Dolemite is My Name equally as good as Once Upon A Time.

Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”) Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”) Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”) Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”) Renée Zellweger (“Judy”) (WINNER)

I’ve actually only seen Marriage Story and Judy in this category. Renee is phenomenal no doubt, but part of me did question whether her performance would shine through an otherwise mediocre film.  Turns out it did.

Best Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”) Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”) Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”) Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) (WINNER) Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”)

Joaquin was the favourite in his stacked category, but I recommend all of these performances (though The Two Popes slightly less as a film, not my cup of tea). I was really on the fence about his acceptance speech though, the delivery was channeling too much Joker though the message was in the right place.

Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Ana de Armas (“Knives Out”) Awkwafina (“The Farewell”) (WINNER) Cate Blanchett (“Where’d You Go, Bernadette”) Beanie Feldstein (“Booksmart”) Emma Thompson (“Late Night”)

Another stacked category (I’m gonna make the assumption that Emma Thompson was great in Late Night), these are all movies to see.  Awkwafina being recognized in a non-comedic role is a boon for the Asian community. Sidenote: I seem to be in the minority when it comes to Where’d You Go Bernadette, but I quite liked that movie. 

Best Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Daniel Craig (“Knives Out”) Roman Griffin Davis (“Jojo Rabbit”) Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”) (WINNER) Eddie Murphy (“Dolemite Is My Name”)

I’ve not seen Taron Egerton’s performance but predicted he would win anyway. 

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Kathy Bates (“Richard Jewell”) Annette Bening (“The Report”) Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”) (WINNER) Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”) Margot Robbie (“Bombshell”)

Should have been J. Lo. (opinion based on having seen 2 of the 5 performances)  Not that Laura Dern isn’t spectacular in everything she does, but is her character in Marriage Story not identical to her role in Big Little Lies?

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) Anthony Hopkins (“The Two Popes”) Al Pacino (“The Irishman”) Joe Pesci (“The Irishman”) Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) (WINNER)

Brad Pitt’s good, and this is one of the awards that I’m cool with Once Upon a Time picking up, but was he better than Pesci and Pacino? I mean, is anyone??

Best Director — Motion Picture Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”) Sam Mendes (“1917”) (WINNER) Todd Phillips (“Joker”) Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”) Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Again, the winner is the only film I haven’t seen.  I can vouch all the other directors were great.

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”) Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin Won (“Parasite”) Anthony McCarten (“The Two Popes”) Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) (WINNER) Steven Zaillian (“The Irishman”)

Ok, it pains me to say this, but Tarantino should not have gotten this one.  Give his film any other award but this one! He did a decent job of directing, his cast gave great performances, the wardrobe and production design was fabulous, the editing is solid, even the music was alright (ok, fine, don’t nominate the film for its music neither)... but the weak link in Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood is the story.  It’s so beneath what QT can do, it’s like QT made palatable. So please don’t recognize him for this script out of all his scripts.  Don’t encourage him to write more scripts like this one.  Nevermind that every other film on this list had a better script than his. If I got to pick, I’d have chosen The Irishman, but would have accepted any of the other three as winner.

Best Motion Picture — Foreign Language

“The Farewell” (A24) “Les Misérables” (Amazon) “Pain and Glory” (Sony Pictures Classics) “Parasite” (Neon) (WINNER) “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (Neon)

“Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films” Preach Boon Joon-Ho!  I’m actually very impressed with the list of nominees this year and I’m even more pleased the best film won.

Best Motion Picture — Animated

“Frozen 2” (Disney) “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” (Universal) “The Lion King” (Disney) “Missing Link” (United Artists) (WINNER) “Toy Story 4” (Disney)

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

Alexandre Desplat (“Little Women”) Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Joker”) (WINNER) Randy Newman (“Marriage Story”) Thomas Newman (“1917”) Daniel Pemberton (“Motherless Brooklyn”)

I don’t know that any score in particular stood out for me this year, but now that you mention it, Joker did have a pretty great score.  It was mentioned that Hildur Guonadottir also wrote the score for Chernobyl and that one was affecting.

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

“Beautiful Ghosts” (“Cats”) “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” (“Rocketman”) (WINNER) “Into the Unknown” (“Frozen 2”) “Spirit” (“The Lion King”) “Stand Up” (“Harriet”)

Why don’t I know a single one of these songs?

Best Television Series — Drama

“Big Little Lies” (HBO) “The Crown” (Netflix) “Killing Eve” (BBC America) “The Morning Show” (Apple TV Plus) “Succession” (HBO) (WINNER)

I should watch Succession.

Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy

“Barry” (HBO) “Fleabag” (Amazon) (WINNER) “The Kominsky Method” (Netflix) “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon) “The Politician” (Netflix)

I should really watch Fleabag.

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

“Catch-22″ (Hulu) “Chernobyl” (HBO) (WINNER) “Fosse/Verdon” (FX) The Loudest Voice (Showtime) “Unbelievable” (Netflix)

Everyone should watch Chernobyl.  I stood in front of Reactor 4 shortly before the series aired and when I shared my photos from overseas people were freaking out. I got home and watched the series for myself and truly understood why.

Best Actress in a Television Series — Drama

Jennifer Aniston (“The Morning Show”) Olivia Colman (“The Crown”) (WINNER) Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve”) Nicole Kidman (“Big Little Lies”) Reese Witherspoon (“The Morning Show”)

Best Actor in a Television Series — Drama

Brian Cox (“Succession”) (WINNER) Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones”) Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot”) Tobias Menzies (“The Crown”) Billy Porter (“Pose”)

Best Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

Christina Applegate (“Dead to Me”) Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) Kirsten Dunst (“On Becoming a God in Central Florida”) Natasha Lyonne (“Russian Doll”) Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”) (WINNER)

Best Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

Michael Douglas (“The Kominsky Method”) Bill Hader (“Barry”) Ben Platt (“The Politician”) Paul Rudd (“Living With Yourself”) Ramy Youssef (“Ramy”) (WINNER)

Best Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Kaitlyn Dever (“Unbelievable”) Joey King (“The Act”) Helen Mirren (“Catherine the Great”) Merritt Wever (“Unbelievable”) Michelle Williams (“Fosse/Verdon”) (WINNER)

Michelle Williams for best acceptance speech for the night - amiright?

Best Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Christopher Abbott (“Catch-22”) Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Spy”) Russell Crowe (“The Loudest Voice”) (WINNER) Jared Harris (“Chernobyl”) Sam Rockwell (“Fosse/Verdon”)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Patricia Arquette (“The Act”) (WINNER) Helena Bonham Carter (“The Crown”) Toni Collette (“Unbelievable”) Meryl Streep (“Big Little Lies”) Emily Watson (“Chernobyl”)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Alan Arkin (“The Kominsky Method”) Kieran Culkin (“Succession”) Andrew Scott (“Fleabag”) Stellan Skarsgård (“Chernobyl”) (WINNER) Henry Winkler (“Barry”)

Well, that’s me and my two cents. Between the SAG Awards being a couple weeks away and us being in the midst of our January 30 Films in 31 Days film challenge I gotta get back to watching more films stat!

[lauraramargosian]

Golden Globes 2020: Full list of nominees and winners!

The Golden Globes 2020 has a full list of nominees and winners. Positive Celebrity is staying on top of the winners. Stay tuned to see who won below!

The 2020 Golden Globes!

Actor in a TV movie or limited series

Christopher Abbott, “Catch-22”

Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Spy”

Russell Crowe, “The Loudest Voice,” WINNER!

Jared Harris, “Chernobyl”

Sam Rockwell, “Fosse/Verdon”

Actor in a comedy or musical

Ben Platt, “The Politician”

Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky Method”

Bill Hader, “Barry”

Paul Rudd, “Living with Yourself”

Ramy Youssef, “Ramy,” WINNER!

MOVIES

Drama

“The Irishman”

“Marriage Story”

“1917”

“Joker”

“The Two Popes”

Comedy or musical

“Dolemite Is My Name”

“Jojo Rabbit”

“Knives Out”

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

“Rocketman”

Actress in a drama

Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet”

Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story”

Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”

Charlize Theron, “Bombshell”

Renée Zellweger, “Judy”

Actor in a drama

Christian Bale, “Ford v Ferrari”

Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory”

Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”

Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”

Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes”

Actress in a comedy or musical

Awkwafina, “The Farewell”

Ana de Armas, “Knives Out”

Beanie Feldstein, “Booksmart”

Emma Thompson, “Late Night”

Cate Blanchett “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”

Actor in a comedy or musical

Daniel Craig, “Knives Out”

Roman Griffin Davis, “Jojo Rabbit”

Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Taron Egerton, “Rocketman”

Eddie Murphy, “Dolemite Is My Name”

Supporting actress

Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”

Annette Bening, “The Report”

Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”

Jennifer Lopez, “Hustlers”

Margot Robbie, “Bombshell”

Supporting actor

Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”

Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes”

Al Pacino, “The Irishman”

Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”

Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Director

Bong Joon-ho, “Parasite,” WINNER!

Sam Mendes, “1917”

Todd Phillips, “Joker”

Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”

Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Screenplay

Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story”

Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won, “Parasite”

Anthony McCarten, “The Two Popes”

Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Steven Zaillian, “The Irishman”

Foreign language film

“The Farewell”

“Les Misérables”

“Pain and Glory”

“Parasite”

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”

Animated film

“Frozen II”

“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”

“The Lion King”

“Missing Link,” WINNER!!

“Toy Story 4″

Original song

“Beautiful Ghosts” (from “Cats”)

“I’m Gonna Love Me Again” (“Rocketman”)

“Into the Unknown” (“Frozen II”)

“Spirit” (“The Lion King”)

“Stand Up” (“Harriet”)

Original score

Alexandre Desplat, “Little Women”

Hildur Gudnadottir, “Joker”

Randy Newman, “Marriage Story”

Thomas Newman, “1917”

Daniel Pemberton, “Motherless Brooklyn”

TELEVISION

Drama

“Big Little Lies”

“The Crown”

“Killing Eve”

“The Morning Show”

“Succession,” WINNER!

Comedy or musical

“Barry”

“Fleabag,” WINNER!!!!

“The Kominsky Method”

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

“The Politician”

Movie or limited series

“Catch-22”

“Chernobyl”

“Fosse/Verdon”

“The Loudest Voice”

“Unbelievable”

Actor in a drama

Brian Cox, “Succession”

Kit Harington, “Game of Thrones”

Rami Malek, “Mr. Robot”

Tobias Menzies, “The Crown”

Billy Porter, “Pose”

Actress in a drama

Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show”

Olivia Colman, “The Crown”

Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”

Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies”

Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”

Actress in a comedy or musical

Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me”

Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

Kirsten Dunst, “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”

Natasha Lyonne, “Russian Doll”

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, “Fleabag,” WINNER!

Actress in a TV movie or limited series

Kaitlyn Dever, “Unbelievable”

Joey King, “The Act”

Helen Mirren, “Catherine the Great”

Merritt Wever, “Unbelievable”

Michelle Williams, “Fosse/Verdon”

Supporting actor in a series, miniseries or TV movie

Alan Arkin, “The Kominsky Method”

Kieran Culkin, “Succession”

Andrew Scott, “Fleabag”

Stellan Skarsgard, “Chernobyl”

Henry Winkler, “Barry”

Supporting actress in a series, miniseries or TV movie

Patricia Arquette, “The Act”

Helena Bonham Carter, “The Crown”

Toni Collette, “Unbelievable”

Meryl Streep, “Big Little Lies”

Emily Watson, “Chernobyl”

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Golden Globes 2020: Priyanka Chopra to Walk Red Carpet, Nominations Lists, Host, Date-Time And Interesting Facts

Golden Globes 2020: Priyanka Chopra to Walk Red Carpet, Nominations Lists, Host, Date-Time And Interesting Facts - Nominations of Golden Globes 2020 The official award season this year has begun with the arrival of Golden Globes 2020 on Monday, January 5. The stunning award ceremony, hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will see who’s who of both the international film and TV industries in attendance. The 77th Golden Globes, like the ceremony every year, is going to set the stage for the upcoming big awards – SAG Awards, BAFTAs and the Oscars. Interestingly, for Indians, the Golden Globes 2020 can end up being more exciting as there’s a strong possibility of actor Priyanka Chopra accompanying her husband, Nick Jonas, at the ceremony and walking the red carpet as Nick has been announced as one of the presenters for the evening.

Golden Globe Awards 2020: Date and Time in India

The 77th Golden Globes will be held on January 5, 2020, at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. As per the time difference, the awards can be watched live from around 7 am on January 6, Monday.

Where to watch the Golden Globe Awards 2020 in India?

The prestigious awards ceremony will be telecast live on Comedy Central India, Vh1 India and Colors Infinity at around 7: 30 am IST on Monday, January 6. The ceremony will be aired again at around 9 pm on Monday on the same channels.

Golden Globes 2020 live streaming in India

India will not see live streaming of the Golden Globe Awards 2020. The ceremony will be aired on three channels in India and you have an option of tuning into these channels through Airtel Xstream, JioTV and the Vodafone Play app apart from watching it directly on your TV screens by buying the respective subscriptions.

The host of Golden Globes 2020

Comedian Ricky Gervais, who is infamous for making controversial statements on Angelina Jolie, Mel Gibson, Madonna and Jodie Foster among others, has returned to host the ceremony for the fifth time. Gervais recently revealed in an official statement that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association offered him a sum that he couldn’t refuse even though he had decided to not host the show this year.

Interesting facts about Golden Globes 2020

The HFPA has decided to go vegan this year. An official announcement was made about the food being absolutely plant-based this time. HFPA President, Lorenzo Soria, revealed that they want the ceremony to be ‘more sustainable’ and it’s their first step in the direction. The plastic usage has been kept to minimal with the organisers deciding upon serving water in glass bottles instead of the plastic ones that used to be served earlier. The organisers have decided to continue with their no-fuss-everything-is-cool kind of approach to the ceremony and that’s the reason they haven’t kept any traditionally formal setting for food, bar and seating. The ceremony will see an open bar, table seating that lets the guests move about freely and a totally relaxed attitude towards viral selfies and moments from inside the hall. Also, for the Game of Thrones lovers across the world, this would be the last time the team might get reunited at an official award ceremony to cheer for Kit Harington who has been nominated in the Best Actor Drama Series category at the event.

Nominations of Golden Globes 2020

The jury once again faced the ire on social media for neglecting the contribution of female directors in producing good content for films and TV shows, much like the last year. Netflix’s The Crown and Apple TV’s The Morning Show seem strong contenders to win the Best Television Drama Series trophy while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman seem appealing as winners in Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Best Motion Picture Drama categories, respectively. Check out the full list of nominations here: Best Motion Picture-Drama The Two Popes Joker 1917 Marriage Story The Irishman Best Motion Picture-Comedy Dolemite Is My Name Jojo Rabbit Knives Out Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Rocketman Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama Cynthia Erivo, Harriet Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story Saoirse Ronan, Little Women Charlize Theron, Bombshell Renée Zellweger, Judy Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama Christian Bale, Ford v Ferrari Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory Adam Driver, Marriage Story Joaquin Phoenix, Joker Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy Ana De Armas, Knives Out Awkwafina, The Farewell Cate Blanchett, Where’d You Go Bernadette Beanie Feldstein, Booksmart Emma Thompson, Late Night Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy Roman Griffin Davis, Jojo Rabbit Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Taron Egerton, Rocketman Eddie Murphy, Dolemite Is My Name Daniel Craig, Knives Out Best Supporting Actress-Motion Picture Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell Annette Bening, The Report Laura Dern, Marriage Story Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers Margot Robbie, Bombshell Best Supporting Actor-Motion Picture Al Pacino, The Irishman Joe Pesci, The Irishman Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes Best Director-Motion Picture Bong Joon Ho, Parasite Sam Mendes, 1917 Todd Phillips, Joker Martin Scorsese, The Irishman Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Best Screenplay-Motion Picture Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won, Parasite Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Steven Zaillian, The Irishman Best Motion Picture-Animated Frozen 2 How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World The Lion King Missing Link Toy Story 4 Best Motion Picture-Foreign Les Misérables Pain and Glory Parasite Portrait of Lady on Fire The Farewell Best Original Score-Motion Picture Daniel Pemberton, Motherless Brooklyn Alexandre Desplat, Little Women Hildur Gudnadottir, Joker Randy Newman, Marriage Story Thomas Newman, 1917 Best Original Song-Motion Picture Beautiful Ghosts-Cats I’m Gonna Love Me Again-Rocketman Into the Unknown-Frozen 2 Spirit-The Lion King Stand Up-Harriet Best Television Series-Drama Big Little Lies The Crown Killing Eve The Morning Show Succession Best Television Series-Musical or Comedy Barry Fleabag The Kominsky Method The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel The Politician Best Limited Series or TV Movie The Loudest Voice Unbelievable Catch-22 Chernobyl Fosse/Verdon Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie Kaitlyn Dever, Unbelievable Joey King, The Act Helen Mirren, Catherine the Great Merritt Wever, Unbelievable Michelle Williams, Fosse/Verdon Best Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie Jared Harris, Chernobyl Sam Rockwell, Fosse/Verdon Christopher Abbott, Catch-22 Sacha Baron Cohen, The Spy Russell Crowe, The Loudest Voice Best Actress in a Drama Series Reese Witherspoon-The Morning Show Jennifer Aniston-The Morning Show Olivia Colman-The Crown Jodie Comer-Killing Eve Nicole Kidman-Big Little Lies Best Actor in a Drama Series Tobias Menzies-The Crown Billy Porter-Pose Brian Cox-Succession Kit Harington-Game of Thrones Rami Malek-Mr. Robot Best Actress in a Comedy Series Christina Applegate-Dead to Me Rachel Brosnahan-The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Kirsten Dunst-On Becoming a God in Central Florida Natasha Lyonne-Russian Doll Phoebe Waller-Bridge-Fleabag Best Actor in a Comedy Series Ramy Youssef, Ramy Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method Bill Hader, Barry Ben Platt, The Politician Paul Rudd, Living With Yourself Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited Series or TV Movie Patricia Arquette, The Act Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown Toni Collette, Unbelievable Meryl Streep, Big Little Lies Emily Watson, Chernobyl Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited Series or TV Movie Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method Kieran Culkin, Succession Andrew Scott, Fleabag Stellan Skarsgård, Chernobyl Henry Winkler, Barry CECIL B. DEMILLE AWARD Tom Hanks CAROL BURNETT AWARD Ellen DeGeneres Golden Globes 2020: Priyanka Chopra to Walk Red Carpet, Nominations Lists, Host, Date-Time And Interesting Facts Read the full article

#GameofThrones #GoldenGlobeAwards2020 #GoldenGlobes2020 #KitHarington #NickJonas #PriyankaChopra #RickyGervais

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: The Two Popes

(Image by Peter Mountain for Netflix)

Special Presentation selection of the 55th Chicago International Film Festival

THE TWO POPES— 4 STARS

The saying “meeting of the minds” fits the retrospective premise of The Two Popes until you dig a little deeper into the expression. Taken from the Latin phrase “consensus ad idem” and used in the arena of contract law, the term stresses the existence of common understanding. For most of this film brilliantly scripted by three-time Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten, unity is not present between Anthony Hopkins’ Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce’s Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Their dichotomy is telegraphed right down to the wardrobe with the Cardinal in black and Pope’s pristine white.

They may “play for the same team,” if you will, yet there is a rhetorical battle of divine wills and egos. Sizing each other up, there is zero agreement between the two, who could not be farther apart philosophically, politically, or personally. But, to see the respect, oh my, the respect, being shared is like a balm of hopeful covenant all its own. Powered by two impeccable performances, there is truly something marvelous to see these powerful men reach a true “meeting of the minds.” The Two Popes is available now streaming on Netflix after a brief theatrical run.

Seven years after Pope Benedict XVI filled the Vatican power vacuum after the death of the revered John Paul II, the leader is bracing leaked documents and the staining shame of the boiled-over sex abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church earlier this decade. Benedict calls upon the Argentine Bergoglio to cross the globe to meet him at the Palace of Castel Gandolfo summer residence for extended conversations. Bergoglio has requested in writing to leave his post as Archbishop and Benedict will not grant it. As it turns out, stress and age have reduced Benedict’s leadership capabilities, so much so that he too is considering the preternatural measure of resignation.

LESSON #1: THE BEST QUALIFICATION OF BEING A LEADER IS NOT WANTING TO BE A LEADER — The greatest leaders think of others before themselves. Benedict states that being a pope is being a martyr with its death sentence lifetime term. Harsh as that may be, such commitment is true. Yet, here are two men looking at different crossroads from different journeys that would have them leave their positions.

As they convene, their prickly differences clash both subtly and resoundingly. With a surprisingly smooth Spanish accent, Pryce plays Bergoglio as a jovial, amiable man coming from a place where tango and soccer are compulsory requirements and activities. He is a man of the people capable of whistling an ABBA tune while still being forthright in his fight against poverty and atrocity that has beset his nation at different points of his history.

Filled with ticks and fiery reprisal if necessary, Hopkins imbues Benedict with a judgmental indignation and inflexibility. He sees Bergoglio as a salesman, one errant with protest, cynicism, and harsh criticism of traditions. As they introduce each other to their backgrounds, The Two Popes becomes a biopic of asides and flashbacks that document the tumultuous plight of a younger Bergoglio, played excellently by Argentine actor Juan Minujín, that slowly erase the Benedict’s wrong impressions and define the prudent and unpretentious man who would become the Pope Francis that dazzles us to this day.

LESSON #2: WAYS TO LEAD — Echoing Lesson #1, the burden of leadership is on high display throughout the historical notes of The Two Popes. Between the two men, there are different responses to crippling doubt and guilt. In Bergoglio, you have even-keeled humility to work around obstacles. In Benedict, you have stalwart creed to maintain an institution at all costs. Condoning mercy, spiritual pride, and the penance of sins are compromises that must urgently lead to change across this personal valley on contention.

The recreated pomp and circumstance of the preparatory and gathering rituals in The Two Popes is given extraordinary energy. The invasive camera views, pans, and moves of cinematographer César Charlone (American Made) with angles to pull different points of view pairs with the breathless editing of up-and-comer Fernando Stutz to make the boring riveting in a very fluid film. Something like the tedious election of the conclave to select a new pope becomes a staccato milieu of amplified pen clicks, creased paper, dropped bingo balls, and clanging furnace doors. Built as a play hopscotching through decades, McCarten’s narrative builds big decision suspense nearly on par with a sports movie’s swell to get a victory.

City of God and The Constant Gardener director Fernando Meirelles does not shy away from the enormous balancing act here. The clear politics surrounding these men and their level of importance is softened by the intentional frankness to make these figures more reachable and human than merely humane from their lofty perches. The movie’s matter-of-fact tone balances the overarching seriousness of the history that was once at stake.

All the talk exceeds any and all production value. The confrontations of Hopkins and Pryce create immeasurable endearment to be found in this movie. Both actors are given the best showcase material they’ve had in years since chasing franchise robots or pirates, respectively. The way geniality shifts introspection to win over strife is fascinating and inspiring, to say the least. In one moment, the characters will debate a high theological construct and, in the next, remark on cheesy television or life’s simple pleasures over Fanta and pizza. Pryce and Hopkisn sell that levity with ease and regality.

LESSON #3: WHERE IS GOD IN ALL THIS? — In closing, the resonating force of this movie will be its call for reflection alongside that which is being depicted. The men speak of a “spiritual hearing aid” or the need to “blow the ash away” as the strength of the Catholic Church is challenged by changing people and changing times. Wounds have been afflicted that need healing. These men lament how the “hardest thing is to listen to God’s voice.” It is a voice that should bring peace and not guilt. The movie say it plainly in “Truth without love is unbearable,” supporting the first two lessons. This high papal position is meant to continue and complete the work of God’s love. It looks like the right man for the job is in place where even a fictional episode like this can help us now see why.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#846)

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[womenofcolor15]

6 Stimulating Shows To Watch Outside Of Your Usual Ratchet Reality Shows

We all have guilty pleasures. But one that we see makes it on the list over and over is first name, Love, last name, Hip-Hop. If you too suffer from an addiction to pointless lunches, shaken tables and drummed up storylines, you’re in the right place because we do too. More inside...

In the age of love, light and good mental health - watching season after season of "Love & Hip Hop" can’t be good for the soul. "Black Ink Crew" might be 1/4 of a step up, but we can still add in something else to the mix.  So, we compiled a list of alternatives. Ya know - shows that are cerebral but not boring, clever but not cliche, practical yet far from predictable.  Basically, #tvgoals.

Here are 6 stimulating shows to binge outside of your ratchet TV selections:

Westworld

If there ever was a smart show Johnathan Nolan’s Westworld is it. But get all your snacks beforehand, go  while you can because ain’t no getting up during this sci-fi, psychotic thriller. You. Will. Miss. Some. Thing. And we know, we’re millennials - our attention span is short yadda, yadda, yadda but this show is so worth it.

Don’t let the horse and cattle fool you. While primarily set in the Old West, Westworld centers around a state of the art amusement park built primarily for people with coins to come and play out their fantasy. In short, have the urge to do something immoral in the real world, but not the nerve? Go to Westworld. But once there, be prepared to second guess everything, including the very world we live in today.

Made even better by its all-star cast of Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, and Anthony Hopkins, this show is violent, suspenseful, thought provoking and steamier than watching Ray J and Princess Love practice bondage. (Shudders). Catherine Gee of the Daily Telegraph put it best when she said, “Like the onscreen robots, it’s pieces are meticulously put together, it’s capacity to unleash hell brimming beneath the surface. And it’s beautiful to watch”.

The cast is gearing up for its third season scheduled to air in 2020 but there’s no better time to catch up than now for when the Emmy Award-winning show returns they’ll be bringing our faves back with’em as Kid Cudi and Lena Waithe are said to be joining the cast.

Succession

Two seasons in and we still can’t tell if Succession is a comedy, drama, soap opera or a sitcom minus the laugh track. Seeing funny guy Will Ferrell’s name up there on the list of executive producers will make you err on the side of slapstick but 30 seconds into the Emmy Award-nominated title sequence (yes they give awards for that) and you’ll wonder, what in the Ronald Reagan have I gotten myself into?

The story follows The Roys - a rich, highly dysfunctional family whose motives are marred by impassiveness, insecurity, immaturity, and insensitivity. And no this is not some poor attempt to utilize alliteration, we’ve literally just described all four of the Roy children.

Succession looks sophisticated but is quirky af because as rich and powerful as this family is, the scenarios they navigate are funny and relatable -- a self conscious son seeking his father’s approval, a daughter that has it together on the outside but is falling apart on the inside, an elusive stepmom the sisters and brothers are skeptical of and a wacky cousin who keeps us cackling at him not with him. Succession is essentially reality TV just with a bigger budget and a "West Wing" gone wild vibe.

Euphoria

Outside of Grandma’nem, we can’t think of anyone not watching this show right now. So this post is for the literal only two people that have yet to get intoxicated on the raw reality that is "Euphoria." Give us season 2, NOW. 

Speaking of Grandma, it’s hard not to watch the teen drama starring child star Zendaya without letting out a whew chile every few minutes. It's...deep.  And damn near depressing.  But we still binged it in a weekend. And although the premise of young adults trying to figure out life is not necessarily “cerebral”, the fact that these are the young adults born into epidemics like September 11th, the Bush administration, the housing crisis and the height of the recession is enough to get you to thinkin' about the current state and future of our country. It's interesting to see their coming-of-age and how our mid 2000 politics and social constructs have completely affected their lives.

But that’s not the only feature you’ll get drunk on. The use of storytelling in this Aubrey Graham produced screenplay (that explains the bomb soundtrck) is untouchable as each episode takes you on a thrilling ride into the mind of seven separate highschoolers who are just begging for Tommie Lee to hem them up against a locker. The racial and size inclusivity, and the legendary number of male full frontal scenes, don't hurt either.

Pose

Missin Masika's quick-witted comebacks and Joseline's quotable one-liners? Fear not, "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy has you covered with the same kind of catty behavior that keeps you comin' back to Mona.

Except this show is real. Real authentic, real eye-opening, real informative. Inspired by the 1990 documentary, "Paris is Burning," this FX nostalgic drama stylishly tackles transgender identity, AIDS, race, politics, and loss. Prepare to be educated. But also prepare to see some legendary reads, outrageous fashion, strippers and prostitutes, some old school music and of course some "sess" as Joseline Hernandez so eloquently says. If you're looking for your reality show fix, "Pose" is as close as you're gonna get without running the risk of losing any brain cells.

Hard Knocks: Training Camp

You don't have to like or even understand football to get into HBO's "Hard Knocks." How do we know this? Because we don't even like or understand football and we love HBO's Hard Knocks. It's for the nosey folks who love an in-depth, and completely surprising, peek behind the curtain of a billion dollar organization - the NFL.  This hour-long docu show takes us behind the scenes of the most controversial league in the country where each season delves into a different team’s dynamics.

This 13th season follows the Oakland Raiders, a team more known for being outsiders than victors. We get to know their families, which WAGS are ACTUALLY living with these ballers (we swear a WAG or 2 lilely found out she was actually a side chick after watching this show), their interactions witht heir families, and the mental torture you'd be surprsied they put themselves through to make the roster. But never mind what they do on the field, it’s the family life, friendships and of all things frostbite that make this show stand out.

In one of the grossest scenes since Pooh flung her $750 feces sheets on the Trinidadian table, wide receiver Antonio Brown asks the cameraman “Are you sure you wanna see it?” He then proceeds to slowly take his sock off to reveal what he himself can only describe as a foot circumcision, for the amount of skin that has pulled back from his ashy feet. Brown, who was their number one recruit before all the trade drama received the injury after neglecting to wear suitable shoewear during a cryotherapy session in France.

Less stinky situations on the show include a training camp rendition of T-Pain’s “Buy You a Drink”, pitiless and dmn near scary "pep talks" from coaches and poetry. Yes, episode 1 opens with “Autumn Wind” a classic piece written about the Raiders and voiced by the late sports announcer, John Facenda. We told you. You don’t have to like or even understand football to love HBO's "Hard Knocks". But, proper shoe and headgear are recommended.

Photo: HBO

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2019/09/12/6-stimulating-shows-to-watch-outside-of-your-usual-ratchet-reality-shows

[panthalass]

Just saw TF5. It’s the same old hot mess as ever, and, personally, I think it has the most jarring plotting issues of the whole lot. On the bright side, Hot Rod is precious, Skweeks is wonderful, Daytrader is beautiful, and Cogman is fucking awesome lmfao.

I read an interview with Sir Anthony Hopkins a couple weeks ago, where he said that [paraphrased] he didn’t know shit about what was going on in the movie, but he had fun shooting it anyway. This pretty well describes my viewing experience – it was a hot mess, but it was pretty fun to watch. I might go back, I dunno. Depends how broke I am this month.

Plot and pacing were, as previously mentioned, kinda fucked. For me the biggest issue was that the first act of the movie set up a Cade and Izabella team so well, and then when Cogman took Cade off to England and Vivian turned up, the potential plot threads and development that had been floated in that first act were dropped. Completely. I legitimately felt like I’d suddenly started watching a different movie. 

If I’d been writing TLK, I think I would have cut Vivian’s part completely. The only part of her character that couldn’t have been given to Izabella instead (or the Earl, in the case of her background in Arthurian legend) was that stupid obligatory romance. The backstory established for Izabella is pretty much a textbook superhero origin story; dead parents, loses her closest remaining relationship at the beginning of the story and has to ally herself with a weirdo wild man who knows more about the robots than she does – fuck man, I’d have watched the shit out of that.

On the other hand, Izabella’s part could have been cut just as well, leaving Vivian in the story. I just personally found Izabella a much more engaging character. If her backstory is full of superhero cliches, Vivian’s is full of Love Interest cliches, from her jaded attitude through her Defrosting Ice Bitch relationship with Cade and her being the key to this ancient and powerful weapon that the Last Knight must defend, hello there Cade. I think the writers were going for this ‘princess and her knight’ fairytale dynamic, but it fell so very short of the mark. There simply was not enough time to develop their relationship in a believable manner. 

I don't buy the direction they took Lennox's character in. Perhaps if he'd been a little less involved with Chicago, perhaps if he hadn't already defied the US government way back in RotF. This isn't a timing issue; his involvement is one of the consistent things about The Last Knight. He's shown flipping back and forth on whether he trusts the Autobots or not, and on top of this there's no acknowledgement of the conflict. He's apparently been placed in TRF by some American agency, but it's never explained why. He spends a lot of his time as part of the team pursuing Cade and Vivian, and then when an alternative method of bringing down the Ignition pod during the climax is suggested, kinda just fucks off with the other soldiers. (Which makes enough sense from a purely operational point of view; it just leaves Lennox' character development feeling so incomplete.) It's an incredibly disappointing outing for a character who was one of the bright points of the first three films.

Optimus likewise was a hot mess of a character, but at this point we're pretty used to it. After the trailers, I was disappointed at how... easily he succumbed to Quintessa, and again at how quickly he seemed to get over it after Cade defended him from the Knights. (On the bright side, being woken from his hypnosis by Bumblebee's voice gave me great Feels.) He had barely screentime while under Quintessa's control, which meant that it fell entirely flat when he named himself Nemesis Prime. He disappeared for no reason during the first half of the climactic battle, returning only when they really needed him to save the day. And he doesn't even act particularly different to usual while being mind-controlled; the only real difference I could see was that now he was threatening violence against the Good Humans.

All that said, I did enjoy my time in the theatre. There are some great jokes, the explosions are on point, and Anthony Hopkins and Cogman stole the show as far as I'm concerned. Quintessa makes for a great villain, and I'm torn on whether I want to draw her or just punch her in the face, haha. After a couple of those trailers, I had been worried that Izabella would be a token 'girl power' character, but actually she's totally believable as a traumatised fourteen year old. If only she'd actually been the main role we were promised!

#tf5 #spoilers #transformers the last knight #manu.txt #will probably write more tomorrow #when I'm not fuckign sick

[kkrazy256]

Transformers The Last Knight spoiler thoughts

Here are my notes for the movie. I have to go back soon to watch it again for technical details/film minor purposes. But these are my super unprofessional opinions. Mostly me screaming about my robot children.

Enjoy? :’D

  -entire beginning (the random kids, Izabella and Mark’s appearance) was a bit weak. Starting in medias res without explaining. 

- Though watching Bee drag Santiago’s ass around while he was shrieking was A+ 

- Hyped up Izabella yet after first part of movie, she was barely in it. Moner’s an amazing actress, she’s gonna go places. I hope to see her around some more. She’s adorable, I get slight TFP Miko feels from her, sneaky child (especially towards the end when she sneaks aboard and is like yeah idk how I got here lol)

- Sqweeks the new BB8, a good child. 

- nice team Prime exposition in the junkyard. I wish there was more of this type of interaction , showing that the robots are more than just bloodthirsty walking metal. 

- Man the fucking tension between BB and Crosshairs, just rolling around in the dust, fucking make out already. 

- Drift is my temperamental son and I love him.

- Baby dinobots are literal puppies and Cade sorta just adopted a ragtag team of jittery orphans and I’m emotional.

-STARSCREAM MY DARLING *SOBS*

- BUDLIGHT HARHAR

- nice Tessa and Cade family moment 

- Hound is mah boi, a gentle giant 

- Military is like “that voice…it’s Megatron” but this is Welker’s first time voicing Megatron (not counting Galvatron) so XD but yes to Frank Welker finally getting the job as Megatron.

- wtf is megatron doing, did they really give back a few criminal decepticons for two CIA agents. Him on his throne was YES. The lawyer scene was pretty funny. But they don’t explain how he turned from galvatron to megatron again. When did he contact Quintessa?

- DECEPTICON SQUADDD GOOD SHIT GOALS

- My treacherous friend- GOD DAMN Megatron should’ve kept starscream’s head and just had fun commentary all throughout the movie. Imagine tho ((SHIT WHAT WOULD  STARSCREAM DO…FUCK UP THAT’S WHAT… STORECREAM THIS IS YOUR FAULT OH WAIT YOU DEAD…SCRIMSCRAM YOURE USELESS)) 

- DRIFT’S ALT MODE IS FUCKING GORGEOUS LORD HAVE MERCY

- Cogman is already badass, rip Crosshair’s fingers.

- It felt like two separate movies the moment Cade left for London. The joys of Bayverse script quality

- Anthony Hopkins sure travels fast

 - they totally put Simmons in for the hell of it, he wasn’t necessarily needed. But who cares Easter eggs, it’s been a while buddy, how’ve you been.

-UNICRON??? OHHHHHHHHHH

- Vivian’s clothes and boyfriend problems, enough with the forced romance already. At least her mother and gaggle of old ladies wouldn’t have minded if she chose a girlfriend apparently? Wow wouldn’t that have been nice. She’s going to date that one cute gal on her polo game team and Cade’s saving himself for OP CLEARLY

- The watch that killed Hitler - international treasure

- is that an Aston Martin?? all of Anthony Hopkins cars made me super fucking jealous. That was pure car porn and I loved it

- Cogman is MVP

 - MOVE BITCH GET OUT THE WAY

- Optimus got turned real quick. He has less screentime than Megatron rip my father- almost every moment of him and Quintessa was already in the trailer. And they kept pushing his storyline aside in favor of the humans like honey no. Show me more conflict and torture on his side, so there’s progression in him being “brainwashed”, that seemed almost too easy, it’s insulting. Quintessa got so little screentime, it made her seem less intimidating. 

- She slapped the evil red paint into him hell yeah. Clearly she did the same to Megatron. I wanted to see that lmao. Why the hell was megatron working for her in the first place. How do you have so much shit happen yet give us nothing

- Wait so…does Cybertron have rocket boosters how is it moving towards Earth so fast…cool

- they under used all the robot characters, pushing so much history and exposition on the audience through human perspective when they had a plethora of robot characters that could’ve explained their past. So much potential but no steps are taken. Like Bee was around WWII but he doesn’t say anything when they’re discussing it like hello? Could’ve used Hot Rod better too. He’s a good boy, let him do more.

- drift and crosshairs have basically no role towards the end except to play pilot and they’re barely on screen even then. Whyyyy. They shined the most during the junkyard scene in the beginning.

 - Andd we have to watch Vivian stare at Cade’s nipnops for a full minute and listen to cringe-y forced romance

 - Cogman I love you. He ain’t having none of Cade and Vivian’s romance bullshit. I want him to be my sushi chef.

- Its like the TRF can’t fucking decide what their goal is. They’re too afraid to shoot Cade. Half the time they’re the “bad guys” half the time they just go along with what’s happening with a huge question mark on their face. No real explanation on why Lennox and Epps are there.

- Nemeis Optimus doesn’t even sound that different from regular Optimus lmaoo, it’s just rah I will kill you all!! Just a regular old day in the life of bayverse OP. *Puts on sunglasses* just chill, sit down, relax, stop screaming.

- Puts staff in boobs subspace. TIT POCKETS GOOD SHIT

- Wow Optimus snapped out of it real quick. But his scene with bumblebee was one of the most heart warming in this movie. Bee’s voice asdfghjkl;

- I am your oldest friend, BITCH YOU HIS SON

 - Every time he said nemesis prime, I cringed and laughed

 - WOW Megatron stole the staff from OP’s TITS 

- Optimus getting his ass kicked by the knights and megatron was the highlight of my day. He’s so small compared to them and just fuck yeah my sadistic needs

- yes he stabbed/ripped a face again, we need to talk about your face ripping fetish

- OPTIMUS RUNNING HOLY SHIT LOL I WANT THAT GIF'ED I WANT ALL THE ROBOT RUNNING TO BE IMMORTALIZED

 - Megatron uses HEADBUTT. Effectiveness? To be determined.

- megatron is once again playing secondary villain, interacts with Prime for a total of thirty seconds before blasting off again. Wow nice seeing these two ex husbands interact 30 seconds out of a three hour movie wow. You know what they could’ve done? Shown more of Quintessa Optimus and Megatron interaction like how would Megs and Op treat each other when they thought they were on the same side like WOW THAT WOULDVE BEEN COOL YKNOW

- When will Megatron get to be the main villain again. Let the old man be dramatic. 

- SAY HELLO TO MY FRIEND BUMBLEBEE. HAH. SAY HELLO TO MY SON BUMBLEBEE. This is the corny shit i come to see!!

- quintessa also went down real quick but she’s got some cool shit planned. She’s Asian!!?? I love her she’s beautiful.

- So there was less action/explosions this movie. Most of it came from the humans/car chases and their poor Ospreys getting murdered. There was really only the decepticons squad attack and the final battle which I felt was pretty underwhelming compared to the usually drawn out fights in the other four movies. Don’t know if this was a plus or a negative.

- every time they mentioned unicron I was screaming. 

- now Unicron and Primus are literal neighbors hey wassup this will only end well.

- it was a shit show from beginning to end but a decent blockbuster mind numbing experience I guess. Did I enjoy it tho? The first time I watched it, I was in the moment. The second time? Oh my god did it fucking suck so hard. The story-telling was absolutely terrible and inconsistent.

- they gave me 3D glasses but there was barely a difference from watching without. I watched it without the glasses. Waste of an extra 10 bucks.

- I need to be more professional in note taking OTL

Final Movie Rankings

1. Transformers 1

2. Dark of the Moon

3. Age of Extinction

4. The Last Knight 

5. Revenge of the Fallen 

#transformers #tf5 #transformers the last knight #tf5: tlk #bayverse #long post

[delayedcritique]

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT REVIEW

“The biggest troll in film history”

BY COLLIN DE LADE

              Transformers: The Last Knight is the fifth entry in the decade-old Transformers franchise. Mark Wahlberg returns as Cade Yeager as he becomes a criminal after protecting rogue Transformers from the government. After Yeager is asked to meet up with a mysterious figure in England, played by Anthony Hopkins, about the incoming threat to Earth, it is up to Marky Mark and the funky robotic bunch to save the world. Did you notice how I forgot to mention Optimus Prime turning evil against Bumblebee or the 14-year-old girl playing an important part in the story? Well, Michael Bay forgot about that and a lot more too in his worst movie yet.

              Understand that I am not a snotty critic who looked for the art in everything he sees. Yes, I get a bit critical with my reviews, but I tend to aim my opinion to the everyday moviegoers who don’t see critical flaws in movies. All that the Transformers movies aim to do is have big explosions and mindless action. I was prepared to enjoy a big, dumb action movie with a bunch of Transformers fighting. When the movie got going, I was starting to get impressed with what I was watching. Besides a couple cringeworthy moments during the prolog, it appeared that Michael Bay was finally going to make a good Transformers movie. Mark Wahlberg is a great lead to interact with the other Transformer characters. There’s a scene in a junkyard where Hound, Drift, and Bumblebee are interacting with each other that made me connect with any of the Transformers in any of the movies so far. The movie was also playing off the expectations that people would walk in with; like playing off Bumblebee never having a voice or introducing extremely annoying characters to quickly put them in place. In the first hour, I was expecting to give this a solid 7 if it kept going with delivering on some quality. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from here.

              Michael Bay is trolling everything with the advertisements and finally trying to have some class in these movies for a short while. Don’t get fooled by the commercials with the little 14-year-old, played by Isabela Moner, showing off how brave and strong or Optimus Prime being the center of the entire plot. That “strong female character” is extremely forgettable and both her and Optimus are barely in the movie. Once that girl meets up with Mark Wahlberg and gets to the junkyard, she is completely taken out of the movie up until the climax an hour and a half later. As for Optimus, he’s in the movie even less than her. Everything that you’ve seen with Optimus in the trailers is all that he shows up for the first two hours. Once he does finally come back, the movie picks up with the action that was missing in the entire middle of the film. Instead of following the Transformers that you connected with, in the beginning, they are all thrown aside besides Bumblebee in favor of the R2D2 Transformer, Laura Haddock as the random hot chick, and Anthony Hopkins in his worst performance yet.

              I absolutely hated the second act of the movie. The first act was setting up a much simpler storyline of Transformers trying to rebuild Cybertron, Megaton being the main villain, and the Autobots trying to survive in the hostile world. The moment Mark Wahlberg leaves that junkyard, the old fashion Michael Bay awful comedy and downright atrocious storytelling returns. Haddock and Hopkins have it worst in the movie even though it is neither of their faults. Haddock give a better performance than any of the other “generic hot chick characters”, but her character is absolutely pointless in the movie. Besides having to be the love interest to Wahlberg as they share zero chemistry, she could have been written out the movie completely. As for Anthony Hopkins, he sunk to new levels for this garbage. One of the greatest actors of our times has to deliver some of the most embarrassing lines ever put on paper. Hopkins is having an absolute blast delivering every single one of them, but it hurts to see such an embarrassing and irritating character performed by the Oscar-winning actor.

              You want to know the most irritating part about this movie? In this two-and-a-half-hour mess, there is a good hour and a half of a proper Transformers movie. Sprinkled in with the absolute trash, there is a fairly exciting, well-shot action movie. This movie has some of the best action in all of the movies so far. Add in about half hour or so of the same quality building on Optimus’ story and this would be a pretty fun two-hour Transformers movie. That’s not the movie Michael Bay gave us though. Instead, we got so much garbage comedy, annoying human characters, and a complex story that completely destroys all fun I had with this movie. Even more than the other movies, I can’t stand Transformers: The Last Knight because it is clear that Michael Bay can make a good Transformers movie but chooses not to.

              There is so much more that I can go into with this movie to emphasize how this movie sucks, but I made my point already. To quote Michael Bay himself when the fourth movie came out: “[Fanboys] love to hate, and I don’t care; let them hate. They’re still going to see the movie!” I know how much people enjoy seeing these movies. No matter what any critic says, this movie is going to make a lot of money. I really want to recommend people to see this just off the part that is really cool. If you go see this movie, I don’t blame you as I spent money on it too. However, I will beg to you to vote with your wallet and encourage you to not spend your money to support Michael Bay’s terrible filmmaking anymore. We deserve better. That being said, I felt the same way about the third and fourth Transformer movies.

The Last Knight is no different from Dark of the Moon or Age of Extinction. Honestly, I enjoyed watching this movie more than those movies. What makes me so furious about this one is how little has changed in the span of ten years. If you enjoyed the last few movies, then you will enjoy this one too. My score for this will be much lower than the overall quality of the film because of how frustrated I am about how much the majority of the movie completely crushed the many scenes that I did enjoy. There is plenty of enjoyment to have with Transformers: The Last Knight. If you are a fan of these movies, then go out and have a good time seeing it. However, if you have gotten tired of the messy storytelling and the uneven quality of the previous movies like I am, then keep away from this one.

3.5/10

#transformers #transformers the last knight #movie #review

[diaryofanangrynerd]

Serve in Heaven or reign in Hell?

Alien: Covenant

 Going to start the third review for the day to self-promote; you have any comments (positive or negative…I think I can handle the former) or just want to follow me around on social media just hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. Those addresses are @AngryNerdDiary and www.facebook.com/angryfilmnerd. Now that that is over we can gracefully move on to the third review of this day.

So set 10 years after the events of Prometheus, the crew of the Covenant is on a mission to terraform and colonize a new planet. However, a solar flare wreaks havoc on the vessel, damaging the ship and killing some its members including the captain himself. Reeling from this tragedy, a new captain steps into place and the crew begin to repair the ship. During the cleanup, the Covenant receives a strange transmission from an uncharted planet. Having ties to Earth soaked within the message, new captain Oram (Billy Crudup Big Fish) decides to investigate where the transmission is coming from due to its close proximity to the Covenant.  When the crew get to the newly discovered planet, things for the crew of the Covenant go from bad to extremely bad and they all try to just survive.

So since you all know that I try to be a positive person, especially when it comes to film, I am going to split this up into the good and bad columns that I have used in the past to show you my split decision when it comes to this film. I wish I didn’t have to do it this way, but I am psychologically torn in two when it comes to this movie.

The Good: Okay so this is more of an Alien film than Prometheus ever was and ever will be. Not just because of the Xenomorph, but because director Ridley Scott brings the creep factor that made the first Alien film so successful. New Ripley, or Daniels has she is properly named in the film was a nice addition to the franchise. Played by Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Daniels reminds the audience of what made the Ripley character so appealing from the first film, all the while adding a little more compassion to Daniels.  Speaking of characters, Danny McBride’s Tennessee Faris was an amazing addition as well. McBride is not over the top with the comedy relief and yet unlike a lot of comedic reliefs of serious films like this, he actually is extremely useful to only the characters within the movie, but to the plot itself as well. Last but certainly not least, Michael Fassbender is awesome as usual. Playing another synthetic Walter and…wait for it…David, the synthetic from the first film. Fassbender’s duality in this film is fantastic and hopefully will be praised later when award season comes around. As Walter, Fassbender is emotionless but caring at the same time. Though as David, Fassbender is on par with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter as far as creep factor goes. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that I would love to see Fassbender as a villain more often.

The Bad: The bad aspects of this film are ones of logic that I don’t think that I could get over. I know there are aspects of movie going that just need to happen. Suspend reality and allow yourself to be emerged into any world at any given moment. However, sometimes I just can’t and I think it gets the best of me. First off, the transmission the Covenant receives is laced with an “ancient” Earth song by the name of “Take Me Home. Country Roads”, which happens to be sung by the late John Denver. Due to this song, the captain of this massive ship with at least 25 crew members and 2,000 colonists in hyper sleep decides to investigate the planet further. WHAT? You are the captain of a ship full of all of this expensive equipment and colonists; why not send…a PROBE?! Do we not have probes in this Alien universe? Second, why are these engineers walking around without any type of protection, like oxygen masks or hazmat suits? This is an uncharted and hidden planet, whose idea was it to walk around without trying to protect yourself or your crew? **SPOILERS** When Walter finally meets David and David begins to explain what happened, the audience clearly sees that this robot has lost it, WHY DIDN’T HE?! Walter is a “better” model; shouldn’t he be able to tell that something with David is a bit off? Speaking of not sensing something is wrong, why is Oram sticking his head into a strange egg-like form on the advice of David whom by the way was extremely upset that you just killed one of his ‘creations’? **END SPOILERS**

With every good thing about this movie, there were those annoying questions that would pop up. Like I said, I think this was more back to form for the Alien franchise and I hope they improve on this story a bit. The scenes with the Xenomorphs was nostalgic enough to look past flaws. My advice is to try to ignore the voice in your head asking these same questions and try to enjoy a decent Alien film because if you don’t you’ll have more of an Alien 3 experience and less of an Alien experience.

The Verdict: Wait for Blu-Ray

#alien covenant #alien #katherine waterston #danny mcbride #michael fassbender #ridley scott #sci-fi #movies #movie reviews #film #film reviews #cinema

[yanchiluuu-blog]

Westworld

Westworld’s Opening Title Sequence Some directors have the tendency to use abstract television title sequences. As Vineyard (2016) notes, these tend to prompt the audiences into attempts to unstitch the clues behind their meanings. This particular style typifies most of director Patrick Clair’s works. In ‘Westworld,’ however, Patrick espouses a more overt approach, steeped in both simplicity and symbolism.  The show is about a theme park-like setting, dominated by human-like robots which excite and unnerves in equal measure (Vineyard, 2016). The nearly two-minute intro takes the viewers through a 3D android creation, which has printed bones, delicate muscles, and tendons until the final touch where the creation is submerged into a milky-like substance dressed like a cowboy. The intro sequence starts when the sun is rising over the east, but it is revealed that the light is not actually from the sun (Vineyard, 2016). It is an artificial light used for the conception of the machinelike rib cage. This creates an underlying theme that nothing is what it appears to be. The sequence also exposes some shadier themes pertaining to exploitation, a plethora of vices regarding to human temptation, and all the murky secrets that people prefer to do behind closed doors. Clair offers his viewers a glimpse of robots behind the curtains in some amorphous, darkened operating theatre where one of the robots is taught to play piano and in turn, it learns how to play itself. What makes the sequence truly provocative and unnerving is how the robots are teaching other robots taking powerful American West symbols and strip their content (Vineyard, 2016). One of the stirring moment when this is achieved is when an android rider enters on top of a pale mechanical horse and raises her revolver indicating that she is in the middle of a hot gun battle. The visual is accompanied by Ramin Djawadi’s piece, which transitions from a Philip Glass-like piano ditty that is preceded by a sweeping orchestral composition. This opening series is credited for preparing the viewers to leave the world of reality and enter ‘Westworld which is a pure world of fiction. This sequence reorients the viewer’s thinking and acts as a bridge from one world to the other. The most qualitative aspect about Clair’s bridge is color. Most TV shows are associated with different colors. ‘Mad Men’ is associated with black and red with yellow splashes. ‘True Detectives’ is green and gunmetal while ‘Game of Thrones’ is associated with golden brown color. According to Clair, color has a precise language. Clair further claimed that research has proved that memory and color are closely related. In like 20 years’ time, the viewers might forget the specific scenes of the ‘Westworld,’ but they might remember that it was purely white and black (Vineyard, 2016). Episode 1:"The Original" The first episode feels like two parallel shows running concurrently. The first show is the ground drama of events within a theme park, which is seen from the point of view of robots such as Teddy Flood (James Marsden) and Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood). The second show, on the other hand, happens behind the scenes, where technicians run the park from afar and ensure that this fictitious western illusion is maintained perfectly to entertain the wealthy guests (Cohen, 2016). On the host side, Dolores Abernathy acts as the damsel in distress while Teddy is the handsome hero. Maeve Millay (Thandie Newton) runs a brothel while Hector Escaton (Rodrigo Santoro) acts as an outcast. These hosts are in an endless loop throughout the episode, and their roles are reset when their storylines end or they are killed. On the human side, Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) is the eccentric Westworld god and the creator of the illusionary park. Ed Harris is also known as the man in black and acts as a mysterious gamer. Bernard Lowe who is also referred to as Arnold (Jeffrey Wright) is the head of programming which is kind and loving towards the hosts. According to him, these hosts have feelings and not just wires (Holmes, 2016). Although he died under mysterious circumstances, he still influences the events of the park from his grave. Towards the end of the episode, a technical glitch is causing the hosts to go rogue. One of the hosts that go rogue is Dolores’s father who suffers from an existential freak-out, and he is decommissioned. When the scene opens, Dolores Abernathy is expressionless and naked, and a disembodied voice asks her “Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?" (Episode 1, season 1) and she says no. She further explains that she has chosen to see the beauty and that there are a purpose and an order to our days. This conversation shows the audience that these robots are human characters that are working as undercover robots and that is the reason why they do not have physical feelings and acts as non-humans (Cohen, 2016). This is seen when a housefly lands on Dolores’s face, but she does not notice it when it crawls right into her eyeball. The order of things in the park is designed in such a way that the hosts are supposed to ensure the safety of the guests, and they are programmed in such a way that they cannot harm the guests or any human creature. A guest may involve him/herself in a war with a host, can smash them or shoot them down but they cannot fight back. This can be interpreted to mean that there are humans who are brainwashed and cannot fight for their space. To understand the first episode of Westworld, one has to analyze the role played by Dr. Robert Ford, which is acted by Anthony Hopkins, a name that refers to the cowardly character who shot Jesse James, an outlaw. Dr. Ford had created the first version of Westworld robots about 30 years before, but his efforts of creating new realistic models are hindered by businesspeople who have commodified and seized the theme park. His creation is saved by Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright), who is his deputy and a brilliant programmer (Cohen, 2016). He navigates the delicate corporate landscape, which is populated by a series of competing interests and comes up with robots that are humane. The problem arises when there is a software malfunction, again. The robots in the park start behaving strangely. Most of them end up sputtering which becomes an embarrassing problem. The real problem arises when Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum), Dolores’s father slips into fatigue when he discovers a photo that could have been forgotten by a guest (Holmes, 2016). The photo is of a woman who is standing in a modern-day Times Square. This shows that the glitch is not accidental but a deliberate effort to prove to the hosts that they can have human feelings and they have the capability of doing what humans can do, including siring and raising children. Before Peter Abernathy’s model is wiped of memory and decommissioned, he whispers to his daughter, "These violent delights have violent ends" (Episode 1, season 1). This is a line picked from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and was spoken by Friar Lawrence before the young couple was married. This line in the context of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a premonition of the violence that befalls the couple. In the case o Westworld, Dolores cannot remember all the violence that has been inflicted upon her by both the guests and other models especially Teddy, but since she is the oldest functional model in the park, this is a way of saying that she is the oldest victim of violence in the park.

References “The Original.” Westworld, Season 1, episode 1. HBO, 25 Sep. 2016, retrieved from https://www.dnvod.tv/Movie/Readyplay.aspx?id=vZxVEE%2br%2byk%3d. Cohen, A. (2016, October 03). Westworld Premiere Recap: "Violent Delights Have Violent Ends." Refinery29, retrieved from https://www.refinery29.com/2016/10/124464/westworld-season-1-premiere-episode-1-recap-the-original Holmes, T. (2016, October 05). Westworld Season 1 Episode 1 Walkthrough and Explanation. Thinc, retrieved from https://taylorholmes.com/2016/10/05/westworld-season-1-episode-1-walkthrough-and-explanation/ Vineyard, J. (2016, October 05). The Secrets Behind Westworld’s Opening Title Sequence. Vulture, retrieved from http://www.vulture.com/2016/10/westworld-title-sequence-secrets.html