dafragsta

The critics have never been more wrong. There are so many ways this could've been a disaster but it was pulled off really well. It has a lot of the melancholy origin Joker from A Killing Joke with a legitimately good story about someone on the bubble of being a functional adult with major mental health problems in a world that throws people away. It has some of it's own subplots that are unique to this telling of the Joker's origin. It's a far better origin story than the old "vat of chemicals" routine and it's made with the pacing of a serious movie. It's not a non-stop sizzle reel.

I am a huge Tarantino fan and I don't begrudge him for trying to make a movie that doesn't take you for a non-stop rollercoaster ride like Django, Kill Bill, or Hateful Eight and does try to subvert your expectations a bit. That said, this is probably heavier on the character development and lighter on the actual typical story arch, but this movie seemed to lack the signature cool vibes of a Tarantino movie while having pretty much all the coolest people in Hollywood, set in one of the coolest points in history, with a pretty typical cool Tarantino soundtrack. What I mean is that there aren't as many immediately catchy bits of dialog you commit to memory and become part of your vernacular. There also doesn't seem to be as tight of a story as there usually is in a Tarantino movie. This is more like Tarantino's Inherent Vice or Slacker. Both are good movies that just never really settle into a groove that feels like it fits on a subconscious level. It feels like the events of a few days followed by a few montages to pass the time of 6 months in the middle and you always feel like you're at the beginning of a story that doesn't quite go where you think it will or really pull you in. It's almost like Tarantino deliberately tried to subvert your expectations but doesn't replace them with something better. They just get replaced with something. Visually, it's spot on. All the classic cars, the crazy driving away from Rick Dalton and Roman Polanski's house, down the switchback road with the hairpin turn. The downtown Hollywood scenes, the look of the mock TV shows, all of the visual aspects of the movie are perfect. That said, I think this is like Jackie Brown in standing alone as a slightly different feeling Tarantino movie. It's not as dry as Jackie Brown, but it feels more sedated in the ways that Jackie Brown does. It seems to explore themes of getting older in the ways Jackie Brown does. The violence, while definitely there, seems a little more turned down throughout the movie like it is in Jackie Brown.

I really don't know who to believe anymore when there is disparity in scores between fans and critics. This time the critics were right. I don't have a very high bar for action movies like this, so it's not like I'm cork sniffing over here. Armageddon was a better movie than this pile of patchwork narrative and inconsistency of thought. I felt like I was watching a fever dream of a movie because of how janky and disconnected the narrative was. Trying to understand what this movie is trying to do is like trying to stick your hand into water without getting wet. There is nothing in the characters in this movie that makes me like or give a single **** about any of them. The destruction is so vast and unearned that I don't care if the whole planet burns. There is no interesting dynamic in how the monsters work. There is no one scene that I can think of that is so well defined either in recognizable scale or earned tension that I can even remember. It's like trying to attempt recollection of an extremely weird dream 3 hours after you had it. Time, distance, and size mean absolutely nothing in this movie. The monsters are big, but you get a feeling that their size is so variable that it it can be whatever they want it to be from one scene to the next that I'm surprised 12" Godzilla doesn't pop out of a toilet bowl and burn someone's **** The destruction is so vast that entire cities are laid to waste, yet main characters are implausibly spared even though they're right in the middle of the mess. I'm not even sure what Mothra's role in this movie was. This was the most expensive Mad-Libs movie I've ever seen because the only good thing about it was the CGI. Independence Day is a good bad movie. I actually felt something when Randy Quaid sacrificed himself and flew up into the butthole of the spaceship. This was a hot mess of nonsense that had no pacing or coherence. You know when you try to wing it when you cook meal out of whatever's in the fridge and nothing complements anything else and comes out nothing like the way you expected it? That's what this movie felt like. If people liked this horrible crap and hated Batman vs Superman, I put their honesty of movie appreciation squarely in question. I can forgive that crap before I forgive this steaming pile of radioactive rambling nonsense. That was a terrible movie, but at least I didn't feel like I knew where it was going. Seriously, to the reviewer who wrote "This isn't a Shakespeare play. This isn't Driving Miss Daisy. It's GODZILLA." and then gave it a f&*king 10... A TEN... I hate you and you need to stop sharing your opinions on movies. Some people are contrarians for the sake of being contrarians and I could accept that point of view if they gave it a 7 or 8, but to give this movie a 10, you are kind of a terrible person and screaming out loud for your opinion to never be trusted again. It's such an absurd disconnect between quality _on any level_ and reality that I just can't find any way to understand what kind of brain parasite must be controlling those people, let alone believe that's an honest opinion, outside of maybe doubling down on their decision to see this movie as a validation of their taste.

Where Get Out was unique and the story was solid, Us only leaves you with questions after a very predictable ending. There are so many more creative ways he could've answered "why" any of the things in the story were taking place and it seems like he took the least inspired route. It's not a terrible movie, but it really frustrates me when people make this movie out to be an instant classic, because the last one obviously was. Literally nothing makes sense or pays off in a satisfying way. I love Tim Heidecker, but his presence only adds to the feel that this could've easily been a feature length Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories, and would've met all expectations. The story is not compelling, which is what I think most people would've expected most after Get Out, which at no point felt confusing or random. This movie is the exact opposite of that. It never commits to either an ideological or story driven concept except "There are mirror people" and I can't say anything else without spoiling the movies, but the reasons for _why_ there are mirror people never really pays off, though it is explained. It's just not a very satisfying conclusion. So if the ending is weak, what's left? Not a lot of good laughs. uniquely good scary moments, or even memorable moments. It's not a movie you're going to want to watch twice. Anyone giving this movie a 10 is pushing an agenda or is working for the guerrilla marketing campaign that badly upsold this movie. Anyone using words like "thought provoking" or "genre defining" or "richly layered, deftly nuanced" are absolutely lying to your face. There is nothing thought provoking about this movie. There is no moral message in this movie.

As others have said, if you liked the trailers, you'll like this movie. I'm not giving it a high score, because like the other idiots on here, I don't see fit to offset one set of extremist ratings with another. It's not a great movie, but it's a cheap good laugh. I appreciate those kinds of movies and I know I'll watch Sausage Party again, even with all it's crudeness. Some people act like comedy has to be sophisticated to be funny, which is only true if you have a huge stick up your ass.

SPOILERS AND YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THEM. People probably posted their reviews while still high on nostalgia. It wasn't bad, but I don't think it was very satisfying. It felt like a tour of memories and nostalgic nods rather than a good movie. Kylo Ren is clearly an emo kid prone to fits of rage and yet he shows no emotion or connection to Han in a pivotal scene. Han and Lea sound like actors reciting lines flatly than parents missing a lost child, that conveniently, they now want to get back. It's better than two of the three prequels. Arguably not better than Revenge of the Sith. I feel like the motivations are just as flat and unimaginative as the prequels, while keeping the focus a lot tighter. I honestly did not connect with Rey and the force came too easy to her. The movie gets too grand too fast. I feel like there was on legitimate tension because it was always rushing to a ridiculous payoff.

Don't let the movie snobs ruin this. IMHO, Don Verdean is a solid Jared Hess movie. Jemaine Clement is great, Sam Rockwell gives probably his most transformative performance, and Danny McBride is Danny McBride, and who's better to play an evangelical minister paying lots of money for the recovery of holy relics. It's funny, yo.