Movie #2756: The Good, The Bad, The Weird

If you took Django Unchained, The Great Train Robbery, Stagecoach, Kill Bill, Wages of Fear, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mad Max: Fury Road and any samurai film and smashed them together; The Good, The Bad, The Weird may be one of the greatest action films of all time. I think the only flaw with this film is that the three main characters are very…

Movie #2906: Batman Returns

I'm really disappointed.

While the film drips with political intrigue regarding climate change and political corruption, there simply isn't enough Bruce Wayne for me. There's tons of Batman to go around, but what I loved about Batman (1989) is that they found a perfect middle ground between Bruce Wayne's personal life and his origin of his alter ego, Batman. Michael Keaton is great when he is in the film playing Wayne, but the reclusive Wayne rarely…

Movie #2900: Sing Street

This is The Sandlot for music geeks.

Some of the acting is uneven (particularly leads, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton who are noticeably flat) and a bit of the writing is forced (particularly the romantic subplot), but where this movie really shines isn't in the relatively generic narrative, but in the brilliant music, charming direction and relatable characters. The way the kids in the film talk about music, become friends and find their passion/talent together is…

Movie #2897: The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Ooof. This was a difficult watch.

It's too easy to make a knee jerk reaction, in which I take an extremely negative or positive position, to D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, so I'm going to try and judge this film as objectively as I can, but honestly there isn't much to praise about it. It's not good. Far from it. Undoubtedly the movie is innovative; maneuvering multiple locales, filming gigantic…