Watched a number of films over the holiday, most with my kids:
Diehard -- Eldest had never seen this, he thought it was great. The full version (which we watched on HBOMax?) is pretty solid. Pretty much despite the action plot, behaviors are character driven and they act consistently; everything odd is set up previously in the film so nothing is really pulled out of anyone's ass; Alan Rickman is a joy to behold (I think this was the first role I had ever seen him in, incidentally); I think the only annoying part is the Deputy Chief Dwayne Whassisname who is played blatantly as a moron, but I can handle that. It's really a thinking person's action film, compared to much else that was coming out in the mid/late 80's, and manages to be regularly amusing as well. Is it McTiernan's best film?
Bad Mom's Christmas -- Pretty terrible from a critical perspective, but a lot of fun and I laughed the whole way through. I even enjoyed Mila Kunis, who I haven't really liked in anything but Black Swan.
WW84 -- Sigh. Yeah, kinda disappointing. Didn't like the first 15-20 minutes, but I did like the film once Kristen Wiig shows up until about another hour in, then it just descended into an ambitious but muddled plotting /conventional superhero film. Meh. I wish it had stuck with a smaller character-driven plot, versus this confusing mishmash of the wishing stone, where the rules took time to decipher and is difficult to boil down to clear actions and motives on screen. My son and I talked after, and basically a viewer only has so much energy to dump into a film; if you waste a lot of time trying to understand what is going on, you have less focus and energy to invest in other areas of the viewing experience.
Compare to Infinity Wars, for example -- the big plot is very simple, Thanos is trying to collect all six stones so he will then be able to kill 50% of life in the universe. It's very simple; the goal is clear; the heroes' strategy is simple (protect each stone, take back the stones if possible). This leaves a LOT of mental space to devote to individual character arcs and emotional aspects of the film (the Gamora subplot, for example), so the experience I found was far more satisfying. We had to discuss WW84 for a while afterwards just to make sure we each understood what just happened. The rules were not explicit and consistent enough to easily track what everyone wanted, what needed to happen to lose or win, what the endgame was, etc.
The most powerful scene to me is the one where Barbara Minerva realizes she has powers and is put in a situation to avenge herself against someone who wronged her earlier in the film. That scene kind of took my breath away -- formative character moment. unfortunately it was the last emotionally powerful scene she was in, honestly.
Actors were fine, ironically Chris Pine was really great (esp as a man seeing a world 60 years beyond himself, with a sense of childlike wonder and exhilaration), and there were a few noteworthy scenes (like the above, but also where Steve and Diana say goodbye -- that was handled perfectly); it's mainly a script/plotting problem. This film has little rewatch value and I'm kinda wincing at how they are already planning a third film. DC as a superhero universe seems to kill whatever it touches, if not immediately, then in short order.
Soul -- One of Pixar's better outing. I enjoyed it more during the watch than afterwards, when I had time to assess. This one is more geared to adults, to the degree that Cars was geared to kids. The themes are more important to adults. I like the major ideas of the film and feel satisfied with how it turned out. As a musician, I was also synced up with some moments of the film, especially dropping into the zone when playing. But basically there is a difference between finding one's purpose and having a spark -- and you can have that spark regardless of what you are actually doing. I found it a comforting film. Also, the art style (especially in the Great Before was kinda neat.)
Lady Snowblood -- As a big fan of Kill Bill, I was laughing and blown away watching this film, which is much more reflective of modern film in the non-sequential plotline and imagery and mixed media than other early 70's films I'm aware of. Damn, this was delightful... and it's really clear now how MUCH of Kill Bill was inspired by it. Even one of the songs made it on the Kill Bill soundtrack, but there was stuff in Kill Bill I didn't realize he was just pulling from elsewhere. It's a cool little film.
Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery -- Watched this primarily because my eldest had not seen it. I'm providing him cultural experiences, right? My favorite scenes here involve Dr. Evil and Scott Evil; my least favorite moments are most of the scenes with Elizabeth Hurley. I don't hate on Hurley, she seems like a fine human being and she's drop-dead gorgeous in front of a camera (heck, she did a lot of modeling); the issue is that she needs a ton of direction, or she drops into her "game show hostess / model" mode which is very one-note, she's not really a natural actress with knowing what to bring to a screen moment unless told. She didn't get direction here (nor in the Bedazzled remake, which helped ruin that film as well despite great performances by Brendan Frazer and Frances O' Connor). Oh well. Mike Myers is still enjoyable.
From Beyond -- This is my eldest's contribution, he was telling stuff to watch on my Shudder subscription. He couldn't find Re-Animator (although it's on there), so we watched instead. The pacing gets flat / a little one-note, but it's kind of amusing and weird, like a jokey / not as severe mix of Hellraiser and some cheesy body-horror pics of the time. This genre isn't really my thing, I don't get much out of it except as one more addition to my headful of useless movie trivia.
Host -- Another Shudder film -- a Zoom seance goes awry. If you've seen Blair Witch Project + Paranormal Activity + Unfriended, then yeah, you've seen this film. It is effective at what it does, but nothing really new added to expectation; smartly, it knows this and keeps run-time to an hour. Liked it better than From Beyond... but as I said, nothing really new added to the genre.
Eldest wanted to watch "Come and See," but I just couldn't emotionally handle that right now. I need to get myself prepped for that one.
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Even if some the plotting gets a bit silly at times.
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