Reed

Ewan McGregor's performance in the prequels is still outstanding. Obi Wan did try with Anakin. He really did. But he was always a bit cautious around him. Then he sees what Anakin did to the younglings. So he fucking de-limbs the guy and coldly, calmly walks away in the lava and leaves him there to suffer and die. Sets up the scene nicely for A New Hope.

Christ, man. Has any Hollywood marriage ever lasted? Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, I guess. But that's one of the only examples I can think of.

OK, not calling The Phantom Menace great exactly...but.... Darth Maul was terrific. A truly creepy villain. And I liked seeing Obi Wan come of age. There's something kinda sad about the way he keeps telling Jinn: "But I don't trust Anakin." And Jinn doesn't listen. Obi Wan knew all along something was wrong. Then at the end, Jinn makes him promise to take care of the kid. And poor Obi Wan: He can't betray a death bed promise, can he? Then he spends the next two films slowly, horrifically realizing: "Fuck, I was right, wasn't I? I should have sent the kid back to his mom." As a film, it never quite gets over the awfulness of Jar Jar, young Anakin or the Trade Federation storyline (man, I still don't know what that shit was about) but I don't think it's the disaster it's portrayed as. I find it rather compelling in places. It's better than Attack of the Clones anyway. Oh, and the doors sliding open to reveal a hooded Darth Maul waiting to murder everyone is still one of the best Star Wars moments ever.

When do we get a Sully film from the point of view of the geese, though? They were the true victims here. They didn't ask to be horribly chopped up to death.

Room: This film is really good. Great acting and one of best child performances ever. And as I mentioned in the "scenes that made you weep like a baby" it involves too many tear-inducing moments to count, The only thing that struck me as false and contrived was the interview scene. I know TV reporters are sleazy as hell and they wanted to push the "media is evil!" point, but no on-air personality would ever be so cold and judgmental to an obviously severely traumatized and terrorized woman on live TV or ask those questions. (The public backlash alone.) "Um, I don't really consider the rapist monster who kidnapped, abused and tortured me for seven years to be a true father to this child." "But that's not true, though, is it?" *then the reporter accuses her of being selfish and a terrible mother* Like, not even Nancy Grace would be that much of a bitch.

I just watched Room. It had a couple of weepy moments. Brie Larson's character literally gets outside for the first time in seven years and her priority, straight away, is to head to her son in the police car and make sure he's alright. Christ, man. She didn't even stop for a second to look around and take in the world again. That was stunningly beautiful. And the "Why can't you look at him?" scene. William H. Macy was terrific here. So sheepish and ashamed. He knows he's being unfair. He knows it's not the kid's fault. But he still can't let go of the anger and resentment. A very human moment and part of you wonders: "Would I feel the same in those circumstances?"

Didn't they retcon it in later seasons? But, yes, this ending is absolutely horrifying. It was always reminded me of how melancholy my dad's dog got when he died. The loyalty a dog can have to its master is truly astounding to watch.

Blair Witch. Yes, this film is tremendous. It really shows up the Paranormal Activity films and it's "OH MY GOD, AN OBJECT IN A SUBURBAN KITCHEN FELL OVER IN THE NIGHT!" nonsense. What I liked about it: the lead guy essentially went it into knowing: "Yeah, this is probably a bad fucking idea." He did it anyway. Not because he was stupid, but because he was so pathologically curious he couldn't resist. It's a movie about obsession and hysteria. Unlike his sister, he knew, all along, he was biting off more than he could chew. I also liked that while they did show the witch, you glimpsed her so briefly you were left wondering: "Um, what the hell did I just see?" Better than the original? Probably not. But this was a stunningly great little horror flick.

The Blair Witch sequel reinforces that, yes, Heather Donahue should have done much more after The Blair Witch Project. She was tremendous in that film. Absolutely tremendous. Her pathetic weeping and pleading and apologizing into the camera is still a stand out moment in horror. She was great in that Taken mini-series too as this horrible, ruthless but ambitious career-driven woman. Even Steven Spielberg spotted her talent. The saddest thing is when Donahue did an interview and basically admitted: "Eh, I didn't really grow disillusioned with acting, but no one was offering me anything. So I moved on." Maybe she was never gonna be A-list but how the hell did she not have a career?

Wait, there's a Jack Nicholson/Michelle Pfeiffer werewolf movie?!? Literally, this is the first time I've heard of this.

Lovely.

Vanity Fair had a great article on why World War Z ended up costing $400 million and totally spiraled out of control. Essentially: Brad Pitt's production company were inept idiots and had no real idea how to handle a project of this size. In fairness, the film ended up breaking even and made (something?) of a profit. Zombies are cool these days and all. But it is still insane what a debacle the making of that film ended up becoming.

CGI looks worse than special effects too, if we're honest. I remember watching Iron Man 2 and, at a certain point, thinking: "Um, aren't I just watching a cartoon now?"

Both Caleb and Nathan were horrible, sexist assholes in Ex Machina. Caleb was just a bit nicer about it than Nathan was, that's all. Going by what Alex Garland has said, Ava picked up on it in the end. Hence her actions.

Vader is scary because he's hidden behind a lot of armor and machinery. Maul will always be that little bit scarier because he didn't even bother with the armor and machinery. That passive dead-eyed shark look he gives to Obi Wan through the force-field, once he's off'd Jinn, is easily the most horrifying Star Wars moment ever.

A theory I have always had: *A guy and a girl on a date, deciding what to go see at the movies * *the girl ain't keen on a dumbass action movie* *the guy ain't keen on some romantic comedy* *they compromise on horror*

Oscar Isaac is tremendous in that film too. Nathan is a sadistic monster. He just is. Then you get the hints in Isaac's performance: "But he hates himself for being this sadistic monster, doesn't he?" That's why he drinks so much in those seven days: He knows fine well Caleb is going to tell him, at the end, that Ava (and the other fembots) were actual people with thoughts and feelings. And deep down, Nathan couldn't handle what he'd done to these other living creatures and the torture he'd put them through. It must be like someone telling you: "Um, dude, you're sorta Ted Bundy." There are (essentially) only ever 4 people in this film: And they all come off as so deep and richly interesting, even the silent AI girl that was programmed just to be a maid and sex slave basically.

The horror genre has always been about psychology and fear. Most movie genres aren't. Psychology and fear, however, never cost that much money. Oh, explosions do. Superheroes do. Big name actors do. Expensive CGI does. Psychology and fear, however, doesn't. That's why most horror films don't need particularly big budgets, imo. You either scare someone or you don't. Budget is nothing.

Ex Machina. The key to this film is: It's not about robots, it's about meninists and misogyny. Nathan makes that clear as soon as he explains to Caleb that he isn't interested in explaining the technicalities of how Ava works. Instead it's just: "Well, I've created all these hot robot chicks and I have them trapped. Now what do we do?" Sonoya Mizuno gives a terrific performance, considering she never gets a word of dialogue. She looks so sad and deathly depressed the entire film. The famous dance between her and Nathan works because you can tell: Christ, she's indifferent to this and she fucking hates this guy and his frat boy antics, doesn't he? Basically: Alex Garland made a feminist social justice movie but he never let the dumbass gamergate nerds know it. He hoped they would figure it out for themselves. A weird, strange little film that might end up being remembered as a classic one day, perhaps.

So I'm watching the Hannibal DVD bloopers. The highlight, by far, is Madds Mikkelson obviously getting genuinely pissed off and frustrated when he (or someone else) makes a mistake and blows a scene. Then forcing himself to laugh because, well, it's gonna be on the gag reel and you don't want to seem like an asshole. This is so many actors in blooper reels, though.

Hollywood finances are out of control. Not even kidding, if I'm one of these studio accounting people I'm wondering just where all this money is going. They ain't doing their job. A movie about some people hunting down ghosts should not cost $200 million. I'm sorry. It just shouldn't. Melissa McCarthy's paycheck and decent CGI shouldn't take up that much, you know? They could have pulled off that film for $50 million and, even factoring in advertising costs, it would still have been a solid hit.

Following up on the "old people giving up" theme: I am bummed he didn't win that Oscar, though.

Her speech makes such a great point about addiction. Yeah, we always tell addicts: "Stop all this! You have so much to live for!" For Jennifer Connelly and Jared Leto's characters, that was true. They were young. They had it all ahead of them. But as Ellen Burstyn's character points out shrewdly: "I don't though, do I?" She needed a reason to get clean. She simply couldn't find one.

There's something special in this scene. Both Dom and Vin were saying goodbye, in their own ways. I remember being in that theater and most people were crying by the time the credits rolled. It's about loss, essentially. And how someone learns to cope with it. A stupid, silly car chase film gets to the point of the subject more than most arty, pretentious Oscar-winning films ever will. Amazing.

"Where's your hat?" What a Goddamn touching line. He's just lost the biggest boxing fight of his career...and he's wondering about Adrian's hat.