Letterboxd — Your life in film

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Anything goes! We open with a fabulous musical number that starts with Kate Capshaw coming out of the attractively, or ominously, red smoke! Director Steven Spielberg must've been so in Love at First Camera shot with Ms. Capshaw that it would explain why she partly obscures the film's title itself on screen! Anything goes! Sadly, Wu Han (played by David Yip in his theatrical film debut) had to go too soon. I really wish we had more time with…

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Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation opens with the deservedly- praised stunt of Tom Cruise hanging onto the outside of a plane with some cheesy build-up consisting of Benji's well-hit remarks and some odd editing leading up to it in just one minute. The movie's climax is basically a few gunshots along with fists and knives being thrown. Since both of those scenes still work in a motion picture that gives us an Hitchcockian opera sequence and a superb underwater…

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Yes, that Burj Khalifa climbing scene is still great. Not good. Great! Do you know why it's great? It's not just that Tom Cruise is doing the stunt himself on the world's tallest building. First, let me tell you why the rock-hanging scene from the second movie doesn't quite work as well. That scene didn't have a point to be there except to stroke Cruise's ego. The stunt in this movie does. There's the set-up (the few minutes…

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What if I say that I enjoy M:I:III not just more than the second entry but also the first one? What now, huh?!

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I will admit that I had never been a fan of the camerawork and some editing choices in this one. Say what you want about any work from the director J.J. Abrams, but I really dig how his filmmaking aesthetic has evolved through the years. Still, I find upon this re-watch that this movie is…

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For something with such an impressively dynamic surface and frenetic pace, I sure didn't care. For a movie with two good performers like Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton, I never believed there was chemistry between them. Although I like that Tom Cruise and the producers let an auteur director do his thing for a project in a series of this scale, there is too much flair (somber vocal music, slooooooooo-mmmmmmo, quick cuts, arc shots, etc.) for the movie's own…

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My slow marathon in preparation for Dead Reckoning Part 1 starts now.

A list of notes for this post:
🚄🚁It's pretty nice to know that a long-lasting movie franchise had its first installment released during the year of my birth. 👍 There's a certain coziness to 90s blockbusters, you know what I mean? I like that insert of "Dreams" by the Cranberries near the end.
🌎The vault set-piece is still excellent with its precision and everything.
💾Unfortunately, I find…

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I am so not in the proper mindset to do a proper review for this thing. I can say that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is an mess, but it's one that made me shed a tear during a specifically bright scene featuring the talking racoon. Disney and Marvel were never going to let James Gunn go so far with his dark and freaky ideas, so I can only imagine a longer, darker and weirder movie that more…

"Great Movie" #160.

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For some time, I had considered saving my first watch of The Man Who Laughs for October of any year because it's categorized as "horror." Having seen this film now though, I don't see it as horror or even a thriller. Well, it's no more of a thriller or horror film than, say, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Both stories originated as novels by Victor Hugo). Even by stating that the title character's wide grin…

"Great Movie" #159.

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Nighttime, a perfect part of the day to watch After Hours. An unexpected pouring of rain during this evening? Even more perfect as it turns out! I forgot until at one point that it rains in the movie as well.

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Martin Scorsese. What do you think of that name? Just a name of a stranger? A name of a prolific filmmaker? Above everything, he is a human like you and me. In a period…

"Great Movie" #158.

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I had heard about PlayTime for a long time. Last Monday, I had decided that it was time to meet this wonder. At first sight, I knew that it was a beauty with its carefully composed framing and its striking yet simple design. Whenever this thing would move, there's always a rhythm that it walked to. It seemed natural yet must've been rehearsed many times before this date. The film didn't move fast, but it's because…

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Although I was aware of Disney's new live-action reimagining/remake/prequel/whatever coming to Disney+ early in the year, I was neither keeping taps on the release date nor anticipating it in the slightest. The fact that I watched the original 1953 animated film earlier this month was just a funny coincidence. Admittedly though, I was a bit intrigued when I discovered some time ago that David Lowery would be the director for this one. The filmmaker's 2016 telling of Pete's Dragon…

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I remember checking out Volume 2 on Netflix (Quite a long while before Disney+ would exist) back in either really late 2017 or very early 2018. As someone who didn't get into the first Guardians installment, I was pleasantly surprised by this successor. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that made me enjoy the sequel more. One factor could've been that I found Rocket or the overall comedy less annoying. Another one could've been…