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More movie reviews

First up - Love Lies Bleeding. Similar in vein as Drive Away Dolls, this also features lesbians vs criminals, but it definitely not a comedy. Our hapless couple are Lou, who works at the local gym and Jackie who is a body builder passes through on her way to a competition in Vegas. And the criminal element is Lou's somewhat estranged father. Murder, drugs, gun fights.

Abigail is a comedy about a gang of kidnappers who find the daughter they've kidnapped is not the helpless little girl they think she is. As kinda spoilered by the trailer - she's a vampire. This is definitely a comedy though with lots of gore and galleons of fake blood spraying everywhere. Think along the lines of Lost Boys, but not so 80s camp.

And finally, The Fall Guy. Which was amazing and exactly what I had hoped it would be. It is very loosely based on the ancient TV show starring Lee Majors which was about a stunt guy who would help rescue the victim of the week from whatever trouble they were in. The movie falls into a similar theme, except our protagonist is the one who is in the middle of a fine old mess that he needs to extract himself from, all the while trying to hook back up with his ex. I would not be surprised if it was full of easter eggs that I missed, but I enjoy seeing Lee Majors making a cameo and the theme song from the TV show playing in the credits.

thoughts about the movie Challengers

I watched it the other day and despite having no interest in tennis, I actually quite enjoyed it. It's about 2 male tennis stars who were best friends, discovering they both have the hots for the same woman. Personality-wise, they are complete opposites. 1 of them is a "nice guy" and the other is a "bad boy". Since I can't remember their actual names, I'm going to refer to them as Nice or Bad. 13 years has passed since Nice and Bad met Zendaya's character and we find out how that time went through flashbacks and exposition. What passes for the main plot is that Nice and Bad have by pure chance found themselves at the same backwater tennis tournament and have ended up in the finals opposite each other. Bad is there because despite being a pro tennis player, he's not making a living from it and he really needs the prize money. Nice is there because he just got owned by some young up and coming player and needs a confidence boost before he tries one last time to win some big tennis thing. And as the match ebbs and flows between them, so does the stuff we find out about the past. Notably though, Z dated Bad and then ended up marrying and being Nice's coach. And despite how things appear in the promotional stuff, Z is definitely not the main protagonist - she is a McGuffin used to direct the plot back and forth between Nice and Bad.

I'm not sure if I'm over thinking it, but I'm wondering if the actual movie is meant to be a gay romance with tennis as the court it is played on. Z mentions early on that she thinks that real tennis is a lot like being in a relationship. And she also questions if these 2 best friends are or might be something more, even luring them onto the bed so she can trick them into snogging each other. Which they don't seem to be entirely unhappy about when they realise what has happened. Nice's sexuality isn't really discussed beyond that, but Bad is possibly bi as you see him using Tinder to find someone to hook up with so he has a place to crash during the tournament and there was at least one man in amongst the women he checks out. But that could have just been someone who filled in their profile wrongly.

My thoughts about the Civil War movie

The Civil War movie sees a pair of seasoned war-journalists travel across a war torn US to try and get an interview with the president before he is ousted. I found it quite harrowing, not because of the horrors of war, but because it is so feasible that I could hear about this on the news in the not so distant future. Or maybe even closer to home, although since we're a less gun focused country I'm sure it would go a lot differently.

There are some very nice cinematographic touches. There is a lot of footage that is made via a montage of photos, as if taken by the journalists. The end credits start off with a blank white background that slowly develops into a black and white photo from the final scene.

My thoughts on Back to Black

I saw the Amy Winehouse biopic today and enjoyed it a lot. I don't really remember much about her life whilst it happened as I don't follow the news - especially the kind of trashy tabloids that would have been dredging up every titbit of "news" - so aside from knowing she'd won quite a few awards and then met a tragic early end, seeing how things played out was very interesting. And I found it very moving, especially the way the movie ended. But my tears dried on their own.

Other movies reviews

So it turns out the headings aren't showing up in Mastodon that I've been adding to my posts, so I need to make sure I post what movies I'm talking about.

I've recently watched Kung Fu Panda 4. It looks great. The soundtrack is good. But it's the 3rd sequel and they're not really doing anything new or different. It is enjoyable, popcorn fluff though, so if you enjoy the franchise you might find it worth watching.

I also saw the new Godzilla/Kong movie. I can't recall if I've seen the others in the franchise, but again this doesn't seem like anything new as sequels go. Monsters fighting each other, cities being laid to waste, human casualties piling up and the powers that be just shruging their shoulders and trying to make the best of it. It is amazing that there are any cities or people left. I did find it amusing that at least half of the dialogue is between the monsters. There are several scenes that consist of just monsters grunting, growling etc... at each other and if it weren't for the body language, it'd be very difficult to have any idea what is actually being discussed.