Movies
Code 46 (2003)
In the near future, William Geld, an insurance fraud investigator, receives orders to unmask a forger of “papelles” (visas) operating in Shanghai. However, his life takes a turn for the unexpected when he falls in love with the perpetrator, Maria Gonzalez.
Espionage, a good story, cyberpunk to the level where they record their memories, they use custom-made viruses to improve themselves, like being more empathic, speaking Mandarin and so on, in a globalised world. The setting is good, place like Shanghai, Dubai and Rajasthan giving it a futuristic enough setting. The music is good, the story is very nice, and it gets pretty twisty. Four popcorns.
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2022-07-29
Paycheck (2003)
I know what you’d spend 500 billion dollars to see.
What seemed like a breezy idea for an engineer to net him millions of dollars, leaves him on the run for his life and piecing together why he’s being chased.
It’s directed by John Woo after a short story by Philip K. Dick, so it looks and feels a bit like the younger brother of Mission Impossible and Minority Report. And that’s not at all a bad thing. The story is interesting enough, the pacing is great, and it feels like an early-2000 movie. Even the poster yells “2003”.
The best thing?
Four popcorns.
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2022-07-26
La citรฉ des enfants perdus // The City of Lost Children (1995)
If you’re going to make a weird fantasy movie, there are literally only two options available: Guillermo del Toro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Big Bug, Alien: Ressurection). This is the work of the second, along with Marc Caro. A good weird fantasy movie, starring a Ron Perlman whose hair is not white, with a good strange soundtrack and a very interesting story. Plus, there’s a brain in a jar, connected to a microphone, camera and speakers which is the main villain. Or hero. Hard to tell. The movie is a visual masterpiece, but feels odd and pretty hard to watch. It reminded me a bit of Brasil, or a less-fun version of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The soundtrack eventually saved it. Three popcorns.
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2022-07-26
Antitrust (2001)
How do you know a movie was made at the turn of the century? Ryan Philippe? Check! Claire Forlani? Check! Has cyberpunk-ish semi-futuristic gizmos? Check! Stereophonics, Elliott Smith, or Massive Attack on the sountrack? Check, check and check!
Corporate spying, closed-source code, conspirations, and building video-calls phones in 2001. The movie is pretty predictable, but the story is well paced, the acting is okey and the music is (once again) a life saver. This could have made the Movie Vault, but it resembles too much to Hackers. Or to Silicon Valley. Good, enjoyable movie, four popcorns.
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2022-07-26
Magnolia (1999)
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
A great movie by PTA, director of many other great movies (Licorice Pizza, Inherent Vice, Hard Eight, Phantom Thread), with a solid A-list cast (Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, and many others), a great story with excellent pacing. This is a three hour movie but you won’t feel them, as it’s packed with a lot of stuff happening. It’s lovely to see stories unfold and blend and seeing them interacting with each other and turning into a single one. Oh, and the music is unbelievably good.
This is something that happens
Six popcorns. ๐ธ
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2022-07-26
Until the End of the World -- Director's Cut (1991)
This is not a movie, this is an experience. At 4 hours and 47 minutes, the Director’s Cut adds a lot of more depth and meaning, which the director stated is for him the only valid form of this “ultimate road movie”. This cut significantly expands scenes, motivates Claire’s romantic involvement with Sam and keeps it from seeming less frivolous and more the expression of a wounded heart, additional scenes in Japan, and in San Francisco, and numerous other expansions/additions.
Filming this masterpiece lasted eight months and was done by a relatively small core team, working in 9 countries across 4 continents, supported by large local crews in each country.
In 1999, Claire’s life is forever changed after she survives a car crash. She rescues Sam and starts traveling around the world with him. Writer Eugene follows them and writes their story, as a way of recording dreams is being invented.
The cyberpunk component is amazingly done, the technology foretelling many things we now use every day, like GPS and computer-assisted driving, VR goggles, video calling, animated street billboards, micro cars, digital addiction, and many others. However, I think we’re better off that the face recognition database Bounty Bear software is not real yet, or is it? Of course, it is.
The cast is great, William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Sam Neill, the story is well written and perfectly paced , but what hits best is the soundtrack. Music written before 1991, but still giving the feel that the soundtrack is made of late 90’s songs, with great performances by Neneh Cherry, Julee Cruise, Talkin Heads, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode and many many more..
I’ve been postponing to see this movie for a few months, and it was a bad decision to do so. You need to see this movie and enjoy the story it unfolds.
Six popcorns.
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2022-07-25
Watcher (2022)
This is a slow burning movie, and it seems to start even slower. However, once the tension and suspense start to build up, they never go down. The movie is very visual, taking advantage of the grittiness of Bucharest, presenting a realistic view on the world, going hand in hand with the main character’s feelings and slow descent into madness. The scenes where she’s laying alone in the room remind me a bit of “Lost in Translation”, and sometimes the “lost” feeling lingers in the air.
I loved Maika Monroe’s acting, with a small bonus that the blonde hair and red dress sends great Caprica Six vibes. The story is good, and the music is excellent in setting the mood and keeping the mood. And the pretty broken Romanian spoken by the foriegn actors was actually refreshing, adding an extra layer of realism. All in all, a very good movie if you like slow burns, and if you watch the movie not to see what happens, but more to see how the characters act and feel. One of the best thrillers seen in a long time. Six popcorns.
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2022-07-24
The Gray Man (2022)
Huge budget spy movie, with the same old story where good guys seem bad and bad guys seem good, until it’s the other way around or not. The story is not something to write home about, but the big budget pays off: a lot of action, car chases, explosions and whatnot. Music is decent, cast is great (lmao Billy Bob Thornton still lives), a nice Saturday night watch. Four popcorns.
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2022-07-24
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Something something dinosaurs, something something Chriss Pratt, something something Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern nostalgia. In terms of actors, it was nice to see Bryce Dallas Howard after losing her shit in Black Mirror: Nosedive.
Storywise, the movie itself is not a masterpiece, but it is a very enjoyable watch. The music is great (Giacchino, duh), the landscapes are breathtaking, the dinosaurs look real. Critics hate this (RT: 30%), so it means it’s a pretty good movie. See for yourself, there’s a lot of action and even more dinosaurs. That’s fun. Four popcorns.
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2022-07-19
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
In this action-packed comedy, Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage, channeling his iconic characters as he’s caught between a superfan (Pedro Pascal) and a CIA agent (Tiffany Haddish).
Such a meta movie, Nicolas Cage plays pretty much himself. If you’ve been tired about the plethora of B-movie in which he played in the last years, this is such a huge breath of fresh air. It’s funny, it’s energetic, it zips along, there isn’t a single dull moment here, you don’t need to be a fan or a critic, this movie is just really worth your time, there’s a ton of great acting for the worst possible scenes ever. I honestly think this is one of the best movies he’s ever made. It’s nice to see him back. Not like he went anywhere. Five popcorns.
PS:
Nicolas Cage thought Javi was the best written character in the movie, so much so he even asked to trade parts, as he thought playing his own biggest fan was more meta than playing himself. It wasn’t until Pedro Pascal was cast that Cage eventually relented.
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2022-07-13
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Doctor Strange teams up with a mysterious teenage girl from his dreams who can travel across multiverses, to battle multiple threats, including other-universe versions of himself, which threaten to wipe out millions across the multiverse. They seek help from Wanda the Scarlet Witch, Wong and others.
The movie has a pretty linear story, it’s not the best in the MCU, but it’s a very good watch. The music is spot on, and the cast is great. Plus, it has some really nice scary moments, which make it even better.
The movie looks amazing, the special effects are over the top, at some times it looks like they used insane Inception deleted scenes. The multiverse transition scene is absolutely bonkers. The music fight scene is also very very good โช.
This new movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a lot of Marvel characters around, jumping from universe to universe. We get to see old and new characters, familiar faces and unexpected cameos. Photos below, but they are marked as spoilers, so click at your own risk.
All in all, this is a movie worth seeing in cinemas or a big-ass tv. Five popcorns.
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2022-07-12
Top Gear (2002-) Series 32
Top Gear is back with their 32nd series. This is the trio’s sixth series in this format, finally managing to find a perfect formula with Chris Harris, Andrew Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness.
It’s just as good as the original trio’s TV show, the chemistry between them is great. This is not a show about cars, this is a comedy show that sometimes touches vehicles. And this series (all the series’ five episodes have aired) is as good as it was expected, so it gets six popcorns.