greggerypeccary wrote on Jul 25^th, 2021 at 10:31am:

The Venice of Belgium or of the North.

Suicide squad 2

Loved it, a bit of light hearted blood and guts fantasy.

King of sharks is my favourite.

"Bird" ......his contribution to a discussion over the radio.

The other funny statement " didn't anyone check to see if he can swim?"

Nearly as good as dead pool.

Sort of Game of Thrones meets Camelot meets Macbeth.

Weird but kind of compelling. Visually great.

National Treasure

I watched this schlock Tuesday night. A Walt Disney production that is ho-hum okay if you are under the age of 18 years of age. It seems to be designed to an audience of young adults or teenagers who want an adventure movie and your drinking diluted methylated spirits. As for me, I had this 30 cent DVD sitting in my collection along with its 20 cent sequel for the past 3 years. I was recommended to see this movie by a former co-worker of 15 years past.

This movie is basically a treasure hunt movie. Duh! Nicholas Cage plays Benjamin Franking Gates -- American historian, cryptologist, and treasure hunter. As a child, Gates was told by his grandfather John Adams Gates (played by Christopher Plummer) about the founding fathers, knights templar and freemasons hosting clues about a national treasure. For some reason, Ben's father Patrick dismisses the story as nonsense.

30 years later, we find Ben on an expedition with some well-funded Brit looking for some ship that no other expeditionary team seems to have bothered to find. And they find the ship under about ten years worth of snow. The excavation even unearths bodies of the former crew members (that no one seems to have bothered recovering in any rescue attempt) with said members looking like they are trying to protect the contents of the ship. From there, Ian (the British entrepreneur) decides to provoke a split between Ben and Ian to take back the clues to "the National Treasure"... and that is where the nonsense of this movie begins.

Dr Abigail Chase (played by Diane Kruger) archivist at the National Archives gets dragged into a plot (both by the two teams of Ben Gates/Riley Poole and Ian Howe and his stereotypical British team of spies) to steal the Declaration of Independence. I must have been Facebooking at the time this all went down because I could not be bothered trying to figure out how either team would be able to pull off the most brazen theft of a historical document out of one of the most heavily secure buildings in the United States.

And if that was not enough, it is revealed that the document contains hidden clues as to where to find the National Treasure by locating various historical monuments. It all becomes a mix of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Da Vinci Code and some other adventure movie mixed together to become some far-fetched bs plot of hidden objects and keys and other clues to locate the "treasure" (later to belong to museums around the world) hidden in New York.

I tuned out trying to figure out much of the story. But, if you are 18 years or older, the credibility of this story is just too far-fetched for an action-adventure/fantasy film. Oh, and Harvey Keitel plays some agent with nothing more to do than to tut-tut the protagonists of the film. I felt my tax dollars symbolically get wasted watching Keitel play some filler role of the FBI. And I am not even an American. J Edgar Hoover would be rolling in his grave if this is the level of professionalism the FBI could assemble.

If you paid more than $1 for this DVD, you have paid too much. But, if you want an adventure movie that does not need to make sense, this movie is an okay time-filler. Hopefully, the historical references would be enough to motivate an amateur historian to research the American history in better detail.

Free Guy

Not a bad little science fiction movie. Ryan Reynolds plays "Guy" -- the non playable character in a role playing computer game called "Free City". You could probably say that Free City has similarities to the Grand Theft Auto computer game. But, we have a movie about a computer simulation game where the players usually go about doing whatever they want wherever they want. Something like a no rules type game where the "players" (the ones wearing the sunglasses) are all about being villainy.

The story goes that Guy wakes up everyday and goes about his business as a banker... everyday. Using catchphrases like "Don't have a good day. Have a great day". And his attire of wearing blue shirts and cream coloured pants giving him the moniker "Blue Shirt Guy". This nickname only comes to fruition when Guy has a realisation that one of the players is listening to a favourite song of his "Fantasy" by Mariah Carey. Upon that interaction, Guy gets triggered with new artificial intelligence programming. The next day, upon having to deal with a new bank robbery at his job, Guy gets up to ask for the bank robber (played by a player) for his glasses. Upon disarming the robber (even through getting a beating himself), Guy kills the player and takes his glasses. He goes outside the bank with the glasses and discovers that wearing the glasses reveals a different sort of reality. He gets healed when he touches a floating medical icon. He makes a few thousand dollars touching a few floating cash icons. His life begins to change.

In the real world, programmer for the game Walter McKeys and his friend Mouser discover that the game is not going according to plan. Both have to log online to joining the game and found out who the alleged player is and how he is hacking the game. However, Guy is not a player and is just part of the program -- with some artificial intelligence helping him build a better character.

Millie comes back into the game to try and discover the hidden files that she believes is a stolen work of her original game. Guy, still infatuated with this MolotovGirl (Millie), follows MG to the hideout where computer information is being kept secret. Guy's newest interaction with Millie leads Millie to believe that Guy is just some hacker player who has no clue how to play the game. However, her advice to Guy is to become a higher level gamer through experience. However, Guy's idea is to do good in the world and level up with good deeds.

The story continues on with Millie trying to find a way to get the information she wants; Guy trying to get the experience he needs; and "Keys" trying to infiltrate the organisation that he works for to find the information he needs. But, overall, this movie is all about the special effects. If you have seen The Matrix, Pixels, and the Truman Show, you will not be surprised by the storyline here, as this movie is a mix of all three.

I was not fussed by the story. I could probably have gone to see this movie on a Tuesday night and saved a few dollars. But, I was entertained enough by the movie to not want to criticise much. If it was down to watching either Ready Player One and Free Guy, I would probably prefer RPO. But, we are not going to make FG out to be the discount version of RPO.

Rating C+/B-

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

This is a good family fantasy movie. The Disney classic has been given a live-action version of the 1991 animated movie of the same name. Strangely, I never ever got around to watching the animated version of this movie at anytime from my childhood right through to my adulthood. And that was the same type of feeling watching the Lion King's live action computer animation version -- not that it was really live action. The live action has been more successful than the animation.

Emma Watson plays the role of Belle. A daughter of some music box maker, or something like that. She bids farewell for her father (Maurice) who was on his way into the city for some reason. And later, Maurice is caught up fleeing to the castle to get away from wolves on the hunt for food. Maurice (Kevin Kline) finds that the castle actually has a rose bush sitting available for him to pick. As his daughter did request a rose upon his return to the village, Maurice goes to pick the flower. It is only then that Maurice discovers that there is more to the castle than it being apparently abandoned.

The story of the castle is about a curse being placed upon a cruel prince who showed little regard for the well-being of others. An enchantress placed the curse of turning him into a beast. All who lived in the castle turned into various furniture of the castle. It is the beast's duty to love and to be loved by someone that would break the curse.

As stated, having not seen the original animated version of the movie, I have no idea how the two movies compare. Though, for the year 2017, you can expect this movie to be very much a dazzling display of colour and magical themes. I actually tuned out before the romance between Belle and the Beast started to take shape. But, from what I can remember, it was a decent display of action and adventure with romance the reminder of what this musical fantasy movie was all about.

Good movie for the children.
Rating: B/B+

Frank wrote on Sep 18^th, 2021 at 6:47pm:

Gawd, this is too good. Elemental.