11/08/2021
How about some recent movie reviews from Hudson Phillips (for those of you who actually care about the opinion of a guy who never actually watches the movies we talk about on Four Friends Fight About Film unless they take place in a connected cinematic universe)?
Here's everything Hudson watched in the last month (or so):
DUNE - "Once-in-a-generation world building. You know how you heard stories about people wanting to disappear into the world of Avatar? That's how I feel about Dune. I wanna see it again because you are transported to a new place. Yes, it's half a movie, but they tell you that right up front "Dune: Part 1." So satisfying ending? TBD. I give it 4/5 sand monsters."
NO TIME TO DIE - "I'm not sure I'd call myself a "James Bond Guy" whether you interpret that as "Hudson is into James Bond movies" or "Hudson is super charming and suave." But I like the IDEA of James Bond. This is the best one since Casino Royale and also the funniest and most emotional of the bunch. Loved it. I give it 4/5 innuendos."
VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE - "Not to super-nerd-out on your here, but lets talk about the giant chasm between the official MCU and the semi-MCU like Sony's Spider-verse. This movie is a mess. I respect it for being so weird, and Tom Hardy's performance ALMOST makes it worth it, but the best thing I can say about this movie is that it felt like it was 30-minutes long. I give it 1/5 Michelle Williams's self-respects."
ARMY OF THIEVES: "So, I watched Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead and it's fine, whatever, but I'm not really a zombie guy. And then they come out with this heist movie prequel which is super weird, but much more my style about a group of thieves breaking into a series of bank vaults.. I thought this was so much fun! Following a side character from Army, the charming german safe cracker. It's harmless, but fun and well done. It reminded me of Now You See Me (which you might remember from our actors episode) so if you enjoyed that, this is for you. If not, ehhhhh. I give it 3.5/5 brains."
THE FRENCH DISPATCH - "There is a filmmaker out there who all they do is rip off Wes Anderson movies. And that filmmaker is named Wes Anderson. This movie is charming and interesting and super Wes Anderson-y but I'm not even sure I'd call it a movie. It's a collection of short films that are slightly more hit than miss but they still don't super work together. I give it 2/5 berets."
THE HARDER THEY FALL - "This. Movie. Is. Dope. At first I was a little thrown off by what is essentially a music-video take on a Western, but man is this movie cool and violent and fun, but it's not all flash as they firmly stick an emotionally resonate landing. Amazing cast and apparently the director is Seal's brother. Yes, of Kiss From A Rose fame. I wish we could do a second Western's episode because I'd bring this one up. I give it 4/5 wanted posters."
THE ETERNALS - "How is the MCU's first "rotten"-rated film? I mean, maybe I'm not the best judge as I'm OBSESSED with everything Marvel, but I loved it. It's definitely different than anything else Marvel has put out and that's a good thing. It's long. It's slow-moving. It's deep. It's emotional. It follows TEN protagonists! It asks deep questions about religion and humanity. It's filled with surprises. It takes place over like 10,000 years. And yeah, it's got guys who shoot lasers out of their eyes. So if that sounds like your bag, I highly recommend it. I give it 4/5 guys who also starred in Game of Thrones."
FREE GUY - "Whether you like Free Guy or not depends heavily on whether you like Ryan Reynolds or not. I happen to be a pretty big fan of his schtick so I enjoyed this film, but you gotta schtick 😉 with it. The first 45 minutes were pretty charmless and unfunny, but it slowly won me over (thanks in part to the wonderful Jodie Comer of Killing Eve fame) and ultimately had a satisfying ending filled with corporate synergy and romance. I give it 3/5 extra lives."
TITANE - "Yeah, okay, so occasionally I watch weird movies so I can talk to Jordan Noel about them as as far as weird movies go, this one was a doozy! Of all the movies mentioned above this one stuck with me the most. And I THINK that's a good thing. We previously talked about RAW (I didn't watch it, obvs) on the show and this is the same director, Julia Ducournau, who has the ability to film the bizarre, the violent, the troubling, and still make it completely human. If you're looking for something a little left of center and completely fascinating, give it a shot. I give it 3/5 film school nerds."
DEAR EVAN HANSEN: "Everyone knocked this movie but I found it quite moving. The main argument was that Evan was a dislike-able protagonist who did dislike-able things and that's true, but that's also INTERESTING! How often do we do dislike-able things? Especially when we were teenagers! Anyways, it's overly-long, overly-dramatic, the music is hit or miss, but I connected with the story of a nerdy anti-social dude in an awkward situations. Not that I have anything in common with that. I give it 2.5/5 adult actors playing teenagers."
JUNGLE CRUISE: "I love the Rock. Like half the time. And Emily Blunt most of the time. This movie so bad wants to be Pirates of the Caribbean but without the humor or charm, which means it's mostly just a lot of CGI bad guys. Not bad, not good, but it was fun to have moments of old school action adventure. The enjoyment of this film will be based on how much mileage you get out of the chemistry of the Rock and Emily Blunt, which for me, wasn't much. I give it 2/5 bad Paul Giamatti accents"
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS: "The first 3/4ths of this movie are a perfect movie. Funny. Charming. Action-packed in a way that we haven't seen in a Marvel movie yet. The final act gets a little too CGI-heavy for me, but what are you gonna do. I loved the cast (I could watch Simu Liu and Awkwafina all day) and will rewatch this a whole bunch. Another notch on the MCU belt. I give it 4/5 rings."
That's it folks! What have you guys watched that you've really enjoyed? Wanna fight about any of the films above? Sound off below! Want some counter-arguments from the the other Friends? Tag em.
