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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Infinitely inferior to the classics, infinitely superior to any action adventure of today!
Did this movie equal the first three? No, the Indiana Jones trilogy is as sacred as an ancient relic, unmatched by any other. Is this film worth of it? Yes, it's a wonderful adventure that capture the essence of the character, gives us one more Harrison Ford great performance and adds an interesting twist of fate.
Most of all, this movie is a better action adventure entertainment feature than any of the other action movies of this decade. I've seen it three times in a week. I haven't done that ever since Dune and The Last Duel. That says a lot.
Go see this movie and appreciate it as the awesome ride it is, the clever story unfolding and the character revival.
Through time I learned to accept this reboots with joy, instead of comparing them to the originals. Star Wars is the original trilogy. The prequels, sequels, spin offs and series are all extensions that offer us new opportunities to live again its joy, even if they don't match its quality. The same happened with Indy's reboots.
Dial of Destiny lacks the humor, the exotic scenario, and the vision of a master of cinema like Steven Spielberg. It also fails to capture great performances, particularly from The dispensable Antonio Banderas character.
What it offers? The delightful return of Indy in Ford's personna, an adventure with de-aged Indy, a great adventure with the old Indy, a remarkable plot of detective investigation that dignifies the History that the archeologist loves, a remarkable vilan and a great adventure.
The film has a serious tone with less fantasy than the previous, matching the deadly serious tone of post-9/11 sagas like Bourne and Craig's 007, which is great for today's audiences.
Enjoy the ride and relive the thrills of the saga. There aren't many as good as this today.
Stillwater (2021)
Life touching thriller
It's rare today to see a film that embraces us this much with the characters lives, making us accept their failures and wrongdoing. A real-life thriller so realistic it's strange to accept it's fiction.
Tenet (2020)
Ahead of my time (your time, even it's time)
I love mindbending movies and Nolan's timebending Memento and Interstellar, but this went too far. So far I can't figure out what happened.
What I love in mindbending timetravel films is the hability to unveil the true narrative plot after the end and in a second time I see them. When it makes sense, even if hard to get, it's wonderful.
I can't make much sense of what's happening in backwards. Maybe it's me. Maybe this film is ahead of my time. Maybe ahead of our time. Maybe a few years from now, the world goes so fast we start rewinding to see what's happening. I need to see this a second or third time, but maybe in another time.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
13 reasons to hate The Last Jedi and 3 to live with it
Luminous things this films were, not this crude flick!
What a piece of junk! You have seen the end of the Jedi, you will now witness the end of Star Wars!
After watching Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, the least I can say is: its an epic adventure with all you want to see in a Star Wars film presented with all you don't want to see. Here is my list of 13 reasons to hate TLJ and 3 to live with it.
1. The script is full of plot holes. Without good lines, but the ones taken by previous films, the screenplay is always going against the wall and then turning back, either because the character can't die yet or the mission is failed. The writer doesn't decide if it's a drama or a comedy. We even ear Yoda and Luke saying it is time for the Jedi to die, and then ear Luke say I will not be the last Jedi. Where is the coherence?
2. Is it sci-fi? No, it's a sitcom. When the fake phone call of Poe Dameron to General "Hugs" starts in the beginning of the movie, most people thought they where in the wrong room, watching a parody. I believed it might be another advertisement for Star Wars products. But it went on with a battle of an X-Wing against a Star Destroyer. And what happens after Luke receives the light saber from Rey in the end of TFA? He dumps it backwards like he was joking about it. For me, Star Wars was always very serious, as it should be, but with a delightful humor, not the nonsense jokes of a comedy. Every good scene in TLJ tends to finish with a joke. Sometimes it looks like the Muppets show.
3. Leia flies in space like a Holly Spirit or Jesus Christ. After the first battle, you see Kylo Ren deciding not to shoot at is mother, but then the other pilots destroy the cockpit killing her. Then we see Leia in space being able to fly like Super-Woman or a deity like Jesus Christ. Some fans recall this is a bubble made by the Force in the books. That's a reason why I don't read the expanded universe. It goes too far for me. And now they've gone too far. The Force never made deities.
4. The mission to the casino planet is pointless. Finn and Rose (a character created to increase success for Disney at Asiatic markets where Star Wars doesn't sell) go to a planet to find a hacker to help them decode a system that allows a Star Destroyer to follow the ship through hyperspace. They fail to get the hacker, return with another hacker and fail to complete the mission. You were only loosing your time watching it.
5. Who dies? Everyone dies, only to survive next, just to get memorable moments of heroic death. The screenplay is always on the verge of a climax and showing someone having an heroic death. But then, because they don't want to loose the characters, they get to survive, when it could be rewritten. It happens with Leia and with Finn who wants to sacrifice himself against a cannon.
6. Snoke's background is not explored. I actually like the scene in which Kylo betrays Snoke. It was unexpected. But I'm very sad for not having a background story for Snoke. And I don't want to ear about it in the expanded universe.
7. The cave scene is meaningless. What could have been a great moment, the cave scene of the middle chapter, turns to nothing. In ESB, Luke fights Vader only to see his face under the mask, meaning that by facing Vader and killing him in hanger would make Luke evil like him. Now, Rey sees herself and it's revealed to her that she's alone. If she has no lineage in the Skywalker family, why making it a point? It's a no-fact work.
8. The main plotline is a star destroyer following a ship, but being unable to destroy it. Forty years ago we were introduced to a galaxy where a star destroyer followed a freighter, collected it with a tractor beam and invaded it. If any escape pod was released they would destroy it if there where life forms on it. Now the star destroyers are bigger and they can track a ship in lightspeed. Cool! But they can't destroy a ship straight ahead, because it's smaller and lighter and has a shield? Really? And this creates tension for hours. And when transports are released from the ship, they don't notice? Poe alerts about that, but Haldo and Leia disagree. I'm with Poe on this one! The First Order needs a code breaker taken by Finn and Rose to tell them that the transports are leaving the ship straight ahead? It makes no sense at all.
9. There is no art of creating worlds and creatures. For me Star Wars is art creation. In all Star Wars movies we see great worlds created with new creatures. That was Lucas! But they got it in The Force Awakens and Rogue One. Now all revolves around the Jedi and troops in space, the worlds are places for them to stop. And the casino planet doesn't impress at that level. I collect the books Art of Star Wars for each movie. What can it be found in this one?
10. The line "You have no part in this story". Is it a Mel Brooks flick? At the height of the fight with Snoke, Kylo tells Rey she's nobody and their parents aren't from the Skywalker family. I'm Ok with that! But then he says "You have no part in this story". No character in this movies ever said this was a story about the Skywalker family or the word part. I thought he was going to look at the audience and smile, like in a Mel Brooks flick, making a parody to Star Wars like Spaceballs.
11. The Galactic Alliance disappoints to help the Resistance. The final battle is a remake of the snow battle from Empire Strikes Back and the battles from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit of a mine under the mountain being attacked. Ok! But then the screenplay remembers the Resistance to ask for help to their allies and friends in the galaxy. And they don't reply. What could have been a show of friendship and freedom fight, like in LOTR and The Hobbit, becomes an ungrateful task for the Resistance to fight for a galaxy that doesn't deserve them, that doesn't care about the fight. Then again, we learn from the code breaker that all this war is for the rich to make weapons for the bad and the good guys, so the morale is why fight? Anyway, we can also say that all this Star Wars are for Disney to sale toys, so why watch it?
12. It disappoints all expectations generated by The Force Awakens and Rogue One. This movie is all we feared from Disney when it took Lucasfilm, but then they gave us TFA and RO, we believed in them, they where good, we wanted to know more about the characters Snoke and Rey. It's even worst to destroy those films.
13. And there are the porgs. These stupid creatures have no role but to give quick laughs at the end of each scene. They are worst then Jar Jar Binks or the Ewoks, at least he had a role to play.
But I will have to live with TLJ because:
1. It develops the characters and the Force. I don't agree with Mark Hamill about the development of Luke Skywalker. I love that he has gone down to a dark path and I love the way he can show himself in another planet without being there. I like that Rey an Kylo who can see each other in while being different places.
2. It is a great epic adventure. We can't deny its appeal to show us all the spectacle of a Star Wars trilogy in only one movie and the great moments of tension and near death scenes.
3. It is part of the saga. I don't see these movies as only movies, but as part of a bigger story. This TLJ is part of it, I've watched it four times and I will continue to watch it, buying it on Blu-ray, editing and cutting it in the computer to delete those horrible scenes... Sad and mad, but it's true.
Rian Johnson has stated he couldn't make a film for the fans, because each one wants to see a different thing from the other. I agree. Surprise us! I agree it has to be new and unpredictable, but with a quality picture, with a good screenplay.
Rian Johnson has stated the fans "care so much". So he doesn't care? It's just a movie, right? It's Hollywood? It's Disney?
For years, me and other fans have seen this films as part of a bigger story, as creative art pictures, serious dramas with an entertainment delight and an escape from our simple life. All of them were in a serious and realistic presentation of a fantasy in a science fiction scenario.
With this TLJ, Rian hasn't only made a bad picture, he has ruined the saga, he has shown us they are just movies, nothing to care about, comedic movies with jokes and characters who say they are telling a story. Maybe even movies about superpowers, like the Marvel ones.
Luminous things this films were, not this crude flick. For now on I can't look at all the Star Wars films the same way.
Thank you Rian Johnson for making me open my eyes, for making me disbelief in the Force and in the characters I loved. You are like the guy who finally tells us Santa Claus doesn't exist and we are grateful for that.
It's time to say: Rian Johnson, who are you?
Sangue do Meu Sangue (2011)
A great human thriller
I hope the members of the Academy see Blood of My Blood and nominate the film for Best Foreign Language Film. It is a Cassavetes/Scorsese/Tarantino kind of thriller, that will dry your goats. It's a thriller made of human dramas, rather than suspense or action, with great acting and a modern way of filming. Director Joao Canijo made use of surround sound and camera angles in order to have a complete view of two sequences/discussions at the same time, making ich view more defying.
Besides, Portugal never got a nomination from the Academy, and in the current crisis, no film is being produced or will be if we don't get this recognition. Nominating it will be a statement for Portugal to continue to have an industry.