August Movies
Aug. 31st, 2025 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingSuperman
The first hour or so of this movie teased some interesting character conflicts, but these conflicts devolved into nothing more than people punching each other. I was so bored by the endless action scenes that I stopped watching about 20-30 minutes before the end.
This movie is indeed “woke,” but it’s not specific enough to be meaningful. The allegory is too broad, and the story doesn’t challenge an America-centric political hegemony in any way. Reviewers seemed to be very impressed with Superman’s dog, but it doesn’t get much screentime, unfortunately.
I keep thinking I’ll watch something popular and mainstream in hopes that it will inspire me to write the sort of stories that actually do numbers on AO3, but alas. Not this one.
Weapons
A friend of mine said that Weapons feels like a classic Stephen King story, and that’s definitely the best way to describe it. A bunch of children mysteriously disappear in a small town, and a few concerned citizens try to figure out what happened. The mystery is a lot of fun, and its conclusion is very satisfying. I also enjoyed how the narrative perspective is split between various people in the town. That’s always a fun trick, and this movie does it well.
It’s very easy to Cinemasins this movie. The plot is full of holes, and the movie expects the viewer to suspend disbelief and just go on vibes. Thankfully the vibes are very strong! My only criticism is that, once again, the 20-30 minutes before the end go super heavy on violence, which gets boring. If I hadn’t watched this in a theater, I would have probably skipped forward at least ten minutes toward the end.
As an aside, I grew up in and around Atlanta, and I immediately recognized Weapons as being shot in a South Atlanta suburb called Jonesboro (which, according to Wikipedia, it indeed was). Apparently the story is supposed to be set in central Pennsylvania, and oh man. Central Pennsylvania does not look like that. Atlanta is newly built and wealthy, while western Pennsylvania is… I mean it’s exactly like Night in the Woods. Nobody has had money there since the 1970s. Georgia is filled with immigrants, and Pennsylvania is not, and depressing small-town poverty is what happens when you don’t have immigrants.
Bullet Train
This movie completely passed me by in the Covid haze of 2022, but it’s so good. It’s stylish, it’s funny, and the action scenes are creative and expertly paced. What I especially appreciate about Bullet Train is that all the characters are himbos. This is a fun movie about attractive dumb men on a train, and toward the end there are DILFs with beautiful hair and swords. What more could you ask for honestly.
The first hour or so of this movie teased some interesting character conflicts, but these conflicts devolved into nothing more than people punching each other. I was so bored by the endless action scenes that I stopped watching about 20-30 minutes before the end.
This movie is indeed “woke,” but it’s not specific enough to be meaningful. The allegory is too broad, and the story doesn’t challenge an America-centric political hegemony in any way. Reviewers seemed to be very impressed with Superman’s dog, but it doesn’t get much screentime, unfortunately.
I keep thinking I’ll watch something popular and mainstream in hopes that it will inspire me to write the sort of stories that actually do numbers on AO3, but alas. Not this one.
Weapons
A friend of mine said that Weapons feels like a classic Stephen King story, and that’s definitely the best way to describe it. A bunch of children mysteriously disappear in a small town, and a few concerned citizens try to figure out what happened. The mystery is a lot of fun, and its conclusion is very satisfying. I also enjoyed how the narrative perspective is split between various people in the town. That’s always a fun trick, and this movie does it well.
It’s very easy to Cinemasins this movie. The plot is full of holes, and the movie expects the viewer to suspend disbelief and just go on vibes. Thankfully the vibes are very strong! My only criticism is that, once again, the 20-30 minutes before the end go super heavy on violence, which gets boring. If I hadn’t watched this in a theater, I would have probably skipped forward at least ten minutes toward the end.
As an aside, I grew up in and around Atlanta, and I immediately recognized Weapons as being shot in a South Atlanta suburb called Jonesboro (which, according to Wikipedia, it indeed was). Apparently the story is supposed to be set in central Pennsylvania, and oh man. Central Pennsylvania does not look like that. Atlanta is newly built and wealthy, while western Pennsylvania is… I mean it’s exactly like Night in the Woods. Nobody has had money there since the 1970s. Georgia is filled with immigrants, and Pennsylvania is not, and depressing small-town poverty is what happens when you don’t have immigrants.
Bullet Train
This movie completely passed me by in the Covid haze of 2022, but it’s so good. It’s stylish, it’s funny, and the action scenes are creative and expertly paced. What I especially appreciate about Bullet Train is that all the characters are himbos. This is a fun movie about attractive dumb men on a train, and toward the end there are DILFs with beautiful hair and swords. What more could you ask for honestly.
