What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[Anderson]

little chick was Elsie Fisher (who might be one of the most believable teen actors today). Just goes to show the power of a bad wig.

[Abraham Smashington]

She was great in Castle Rock.

[Matt]

We saw UNCHARTED. Apart from the finale with the helicopters and the ships (not a spoiler, it's in the trailers), this is a pretty dull and lifeless affair. The NATIONAL TREASURE films, especially the first one, are better than this thing. As my wife put it, the film is like a Thanksgiving dinner where they left out the seasoning.

[Abraham Smashington]

Hahah. It looked fuckin terrible from the get go. Get yourself a PS5 and grab the uncharted cillection. They're basically movies anyways but are actually good.

[Matt]

three of the UNCHARTED games are finally coming to PC soon. I'll play them then.

[Abraham Smashington]

Oh really? Nice. The second game is damn near a masterpiece. If they port it right and your machine is beefy it will look amazing.

[Matt]

THE KING'S MAN (currently streaming on HBO Max and Hulu).

This was great! Lots of fun and my favorite of the franchise. It's a bit more serious than the other films and doesn't go as over the top in general (although the Rasputin scenes push things a bit). It also had a few plot developments that I was not expecting...that was refreshing.

[Abraham Smashington]

woah, it's better than the first one? Cool. I was not even going to bother since I wasn't a fan of the second one and the reviews on this one were not great from what I remember.

[Matt]

The wife and I both thought it was the best of the three, yeah.

[BillyG]

I saw that got added, definitely watching it this weekend.

[Abraham Smashington]

The wife and I both thought it was the best of the three, yeah.

Sweet. Will check it out this weekend. Glad someone I know actually checked it out. probably would have skipped it. Thanks man.

[Abraham Smashington]

Ted K.

Felt alot like Gus Van Sant's Last Days in so much that it was mostly just following Ted K's existance. Sharlto Copley's performance was pretty lowkey and it worked. It also was shot in the same area where Ted lived and used his writings as dialogue which worked really well in my opinion. The landscape shots and the soundtrack were on point. I was obsessed with Ted as a teen and while this didn't bring anything new to the table that I didn't already know, it was really well done. I almost wish they would have done more with the time between him graduating from Harvard at 16 and his mountain man lifestyle to show what made him tick.

Past that, totally worth a watch imo.

[Anderson]

Ted K.

Felt alot like Gus Van Sant's Last Days in so much that it was mostly just following Ted K's existance. Sharlto Copley's performance was pretty lowkey and it worked. It also was shot in the same area where Ted lived and used his writings as dialogue which worked really well in my opinion. The landscape shots and the soundtrack were on point. I was obsessed with Ted as a teen and while this didn't bring anything new to the table that I didn't already know, it was really well done. I almost wish they would have done more with the time between him graduating from Harvard at 16 and his mountain man lifestyle to show what made him tick.

Past that, totally worth a watch imo.

I've been meaning to watch this, but been busy with other shit to watch.

I was huge into Ted K. back in the day and read almost everything I could get on him. Those Jesus in the Desert years weren't that impactful. Mainly because his 20s and 30s were him trying to find a reason to bomb humanity to the Stone Age and humanity going NAW DUDE, grow that beard out.

[Martin]

The wife and I both thought it was the best of the three, yeah.

Will watch on your recommendation.

I loved the first, but the second, killing most of the cast, was bleh. Offing Mark Strong was the thing that pissed me off.

[Matt]

I rewatched the first three PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films over the past 10 days or so.

CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL: Holds up great as a standalone film. The balance of action and humor is strong and never seems to creep into TOO MUCH territory. There's also a good balance between the 'real' and the 'fanciful', with the non-pirate characters being played fairly straight and competent vs the pirate characters who freely gallop headlong into fantasy.

One thing that really struck me: while Johnny Depp is the obvious star of the film with his Captain Jack Sparrow, Geoffrey Rush's Barbossa is the best character in the film. The glee with which Rush takes on this character is magnetic and bringing him back for the sequels was an incredibly smart move.

Another thing that struck me: I'm doing research on pirates for a script that I'm working on and, while most of the film is sheer fantasy, there's a lot of minor details that make it into the film that are actually totally accurate.

I loved how the real ships utilized in the film were used. Sure, there was a lot of CGI used, but the ship sets themselves were marvelous to behold. The Dauntless and Interceptor were particularly impressive, and the scene where Jack and Will steal the Interceptor was a highlight of the film for me.

Very fun movie. My favorite of the three films.

DEAD MAN'S CHEST: From what I've read, this film was done back to back with AT WORD'S END and, in the process, reconned CURSE into being the first of a trilogy. Whatever, DMC is really quite solid as a follow up to CotBP. I think you'd be fairly lost if you saw DMC without seeing CotBP though...there are simply too many characters and plotlines (Norrington, in particular) carried over from the first film to make DMC stand on its own.

The balance between action and humor still works for the most part but the film gets a little too goofy with Jack Sparrow at times. The whole bit where the cannibals are going to eat him feels completely extraneous and could have been shortened or, even better, excised entirely...the film is too long as it is.

Notable additions:
- Davy Jones. I remember much being said about the quality of the CGI work on this character. Watching him now, 15 or so years later, is still impressive. It's really quality work in terms of textures and movement. Much credit must be given to Bill Nighy for making the character REALLY work though; his line deliveries and overall demeanor are perfection.
- Tom Hollander. I've always liked this actor. Good guy, bad guy...it doesn't matter. The man is simply wonderful to watch and he has tremendous presence to him, especially when he does play a 'bad guy'. His character is a bit underwritten but he still finds great things to do off the page to make the character work.

Love the reappearance of Barbossa at the end. I remember that getting cheers in the movie theater back in the day.

I enjoyed the film overall even if it did feel overlong and veer into TOO MUCH territory a few times. It's my second favorite of the three films.

AT WORLD'S END: Essentially part 2 of DMC. I enjoyed it overall but holy hell is it overlong. Also, the action/humor balance is way off in too many places. It's a kitchen sink movie with too many set pieces and side characters to really feel cohesive.

Some thoughts on it:
- Turning Barbossa into a main character was smart. He absolutely carries the film for me, getting through every sequence that starts too sink under its own weight.
- Chow Yun Fat is great. I wish his character had survived the film as I'd love to see him in more adventures.
- Davy Jones and Tom Hollander continue to be great from the prior film. Again, Hollander feels underwritten here but he makes the most of it.

Again, though...it's all too much. By the time I got to the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman in the maelstrom, I was kinda done. There's just so much going on and then they add in Will and Elizabeth getting married by Barbossa just to add another bit of whimsy. Much credit to Rush for making all of that work but again, it's just too much.

A scene to relish: Tom Hollander in slow motion walking the deck of the Endeavor as it all blows up around him. That was one of the single best shots/sequences of the entire franchise to the point that I rewound it a couple of times just to admire it.

Good, not great.

Now, on to the other two films. I've never seen them before so it'll be interesting to see how they fare with the fairly complete trilogy. Do they have merit? Do they gel with the first three films? I'll find out.