Morshy

Given the movie was made with essentially no budget, its daring is admirable. Honestly, I found a surprisingly high number of sequences kind of goofy, but the simplistic story had characters way more charismatic than I expected, and the movie uses its locations well. One of the more fun and interesting low-budget films I watched, which is great considering it's an action movie.

88 _74%

Oldboy (2003) - Rated 09 Jan 2025

Stylized presentation of an uncompromising vision. By the end, you realize that no scene was wasted, no piece of dialog was in vain, and every single thing you've been watching was a cruel buildup to the film's conclusion. One who cannot fully accept the movie's style may find some parts bending suspension of disbelief, and this is NOT a cathartic movie that leaves you satisfied. For those who can accept these factors, however, Oldboy can truly be considered a "modern" classical tragedy.

90 _84%

12 Monkeys (1995) - Rated 07 Jan 2025

Creative, imaginative, crazy fun, and intelligently consistent in its narrative. Surprisingly, this movie is somewhat traditional in the way it handles the progression of its plot (disregarding the actual events and ideas showcased by it), but Terry Gilliam utilizes that to drench the viewer in a clever exploration of the full breadth of consequences that the themes of its story bring forth. To me, this is a rare movie that was executed with total perfection.

66 _28%

First Blood (1982) - Rated 06 Jan 2025

The most interesting part of the film is the psychological aspect of Rambo's character, which goes somewhat underexplored in favor of action setpieces. There's also a bit too much of that action film "He's the best there ever was!" dialog, which, to me, removes some of the humanity from the scenes - an important thing for this film. Regardless, the ending speech is beautiful, and it's the only movie in the series with an actual point to make, so it still has its place.

89 _80%

Blade Runner (1982) - Rated 06 Jan 2025

This could have easily been a 4-hour movie for me. Deliberate pacing and a surreal masterpiece of atmosphere and tone weave a mostly flawless narrative about coming to grips with the several ways in which the value of humanity is challenged. There were a few underdeveloped threads in this narrative, and I felt the movie didn't properly utilize the full breadth of its "antagonists", but the underlying pulsing heart of its themes shine through like a blazar. Fantastic film.

88 _74%

The Exorcist (1973) - Rated 30 Dec 2024

A sober, clinical, grounded slow-burn movie that just so happens to deal with supernatural subject matter. I only felt Merrin's character wasn't properly built-up, and if I were the writer, I probably would have altered the ending a bit to make the character arcs make more sense to me. Other than that, a perfecly conceptualized and executed plot, even more gripping than scary, of subtle characters and crescendoing pitch. Surely a masterpiece, even with its little nicks.

82 _62%

Taxi Driver (1976) - Rated 28 Dec 2024

A movie that seems to have sprouted from the collective frustrations of a repressed incel. It glides from scene to scene in a pensive, almost soft manner, quietly but assuredly building up the protagonist's urges until the moment where the volcano erupts. It's difficult to sympathize with Travis's strange delusional view of the world around him, but in moments of life when rage and inconformity coalesce, maybe one must take care to not find at least some part of his thoughts making undue sense.

87 _68%

Die Hard (1988) - Rated 27 Dec 2024

A movie that actually cares about its action, working into it the same quality of interwoven setups and payoffs that you'd expect from a well-crafted dramatic plot. Add to that an insanely charismatic and physical performance from Bruce Willis, a greatly enjoyable, smug Alan Rickman, a thorough exploration of the possibilities its limited setting provides, and even a few surface-level character moments here and there, and you've got one of the great action flicks of all time.

59 _22%

Lethal Weapon (1987) - Rated 27 Dec 2024

There are occasionally good scenes here and there (Riggs's suicide attempt early on being an unexpected emotional highlight in a film like this), but it's difficult to care for the action as it's crafted here, the detective aspects of the plot are weak and uninteresting, and the film meanders a lot trying to juggle its central conflict with the building of its main characters. At the end of the day, it feels like a bunch of scenes stringed together rather than a meaningful progression of events.

70 _36%

The Road Warrior (1981) - Rated 27 Dec 2024

Its creativity in setpiece design and costuming have finally breached the threshold that set this series as a pioneer in the post-apocalypse look and feel. I found the story and characters to be a tad too weak to satisfyingly tie together whatever action there is in the film. I didn't care much for anyone at the start, and I didn't care much for anyone at the end. The final chase scene probably makes up for any of the film's shortcomings, though.