GOAL: watch 50 new movies in 2025.
- Spirited (2022)
- Recommended by some students.
- Liked: when it ended. Jkjk. It made me laugh more than once and it didn't demand much attention to follow.
- Didn't like: Surprise, it's a musical. But not a good one. I'm starting to wonder if I even like musicals. Who wrote these songs? AI? Boo. With Will Ferrel and Blake Lively's husband pairing up, I expected too much.
- This was by default my favorite movie of the year until I watched anything else.
- 4/10
- Belle (2021)
- Jazon's recommendation.
- Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991) meets Ready Player One (2018).
- Liked: The beautifully animated, interesting story that integrated two fully fleshed concepts into one seamless one that at times felt a little fanfiction-esque, but is that always a bad thing?
- Didn't like: Surprise, it's also a musical. It's good enough music and it isn't too overbearing, but coming at this movie from "Spirited" made me feel a little anxious, especially at first.
- New favorite of the year.
- 8/10
- Elizabethtown (2005).
- One of Jazon's favorite movies.
- Liked: Roadtrip vibes and death jokes = yes
- Didn't like: Kirsten Dunst is creepy AF.
- 2nd favorite of the year.
- 7/10
- Alien Romulus (2024).
- Student "assigned" me to watch this and I feel like if I give him homework then he can give me homework too, ya know? Within reason, of course.
- This felt very much like a remake of Alien (1979), but that's not a bad thing necessarily.
- What I liked: I liked the practical effects, which, we just don't get enough of these days. I liked the very real feeling of the sets, costuming, and props. I liked a modern re-visit to a classic, too. That's not bad every now and then and it's not like it was trying to say it was anything else. The elevator scene was bae. Sure there were lots of call backs, but it wasn't too tongue-in-cheek for me.
- What I didn't like: The timing of the suspense sequences was a little off for me. I felt it was rushed when it shouldn't be and not enough time was taken to let us settle into complacency at the beginning. I felt it was an error to have the movie launch from a place of anxiety where the main character was already feeling anxious, the jump up into alien anxiety didn't feel like as much of a leap as it could have been with a different couching story surrounding the expedition.
- 3rd favorite of the year. Better than Prometheus (2012), not as good as the original. Maybe I should watch the rest of the franchise? Maybe not though. I'll think about it.
- 6/10
