As a huge fan of this series, I found this newest installment (for all of the blood, sweat, and tears put into it from the highly publicized production complications from Covid, etc) to be much more lifeless than previous installments.
Opting for a much more serious tone this time around, Dead Reckoning finds Ethan Hunt and the gang fighting a timely A.I. threat, with the assistance of a newly introduced figure from Ethan's past (whom we're given very little reason…
Featuring more eyepopping visuals and expanding on the familial themes of its predecessor, Across the Spider-Verse keeps us wanting more (especially with its cliffhanger ending).
Elvis is an incredibly nauseating exercise in excess. From countless camera whips, hokey narrations, and bombastic sound design, Baz Luhrmann indulges in all of his most obnoxious traits, resulting in a first half that feels more akin to a cocaine-fueled trailer that never ends.
Tom Hanks is shockingly bad as Colonel Tom Parker (the film's stock villain manager to Elvis) and while Austin Butler's performance as Elvis is certainly the highlight, the film as a whole (aside from the 1968 sequence) feels like eating twenty pounds of sugar and then clutching your teeth as the cavities set in.
Skinamarink is an interesting experimental film that I'm glad is gaining traction (simply for the sentiment of microbudget indie films). While there are many things I respect about this avant-garde examination of youthful nightmares (and the terrifying nature of darkness), the film simply overstays its welcome after about an hour.
There are a few genuinely well done sequences (i.e. the bed scene) and its final shot is effectively haunting and even violating, but as a whole, it becomes incredibly tedious…
