What did you watch on this final week of 2024? (12/22-12/28)

I was in vacation and watched a lot of movies!


Kinds of kindness (2024): Lanthimos is a director I wish I could say I love but unfortunately, he’s a hit-and-miss with me. This one here makes the list of the ones I enjoyed from him. It consist of three different stories all starring the same actors.
The first story made total sense to me and I was not lost or confused so I was able to appreciate it. It was original to say the least. 7.5/10
The second story was very strange and I’m really not sure what it was about but it was fun anyways. 7/10
For the third story I knew what was happening, it had a solid storyline, it was very peculiar and very captivating. 8.5/10
Overall, it brought us in a bright and colourful universe filled with shady and unique characters slowly going about their lives, drinking water, alcohol and getting naked (amongst other things) in a hypnotic and mesmerizing kind of unforgettable way. BTW, the ending credits clocks in at exactly 2h37 minutes. My rating: 7,66667/10

Anora (2024): This movie is literally split in half for me; I probably disliked the first hour as much as I enjoyed the second one. For the first half, there were many scenes with the rich kid (Sean Baker why did you make me sit through so many scenes with this guy? 😢 ). His scenes gave me a fever dream of what GTA 6 would look like if they created the worst character possible. Worst thing is, I’m pretty sure at some point in the movie he’s playing GTA. You know that scene just before he rams the prostitute on his couch for 3 and a half seconds? One of the 22 times he had sex with her? Call me crazy but I think I’d rather see William Dafoe and Emma Stone’s sex scene rather than this here. Suffice it to say, I got bored rather quickly of seeing this rich kid chilling and busting nuts with the lead girl. So many nuts. 🤢 Their Las Vegas wedding also made me a little sick to my stomach . Then they had cringe romantic walks and dinners. Then they boom-boom skeet-skeet again on a white fur carpet . Urgh… But then we get 1 hour into the film and yes, as many people said, it goes into Uncut gem territory. Uncut gem was a better movie than this but let me say something though: the Russian bald guy with the hoodie was one of my favourite criminal character of all time. Overall, I smiled (ex: the red ribbon during the “5 minute walk” followed by the towing or the drunk guy with the broken nose). I also laughed (ex: when the girl who just got married is asked where her lover could be hiding and she says: “ I don’t know… He likes video games. He might be at the arcade.” or the puke scene in the car.) Anyways I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I think she should’ve given up way earlier and she seemed desperate for this kid. Overall, I rate both halves: 6 and 8 out of 10. My rating: 7/10

Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023 DVD): Not as endearing as the first one but still has a good enough cast and fun enough action and FX for it to be worthy of a watch. The story is a bit dumb and ll over the place (take a magic stick, an apple, 3 goddesses, a dragon and a few unicorns, toss them around a little and you’ll find yourself with the plot for this) but again, it’s just an excuse to have awesome action and see these actors bring watch life into these typical characters. My main gripe is how they wrote the now older Billy/Shazam: he seems as immature as sever and his adult/kid personas don’t even match each other. Weird. My rating: 6.5/10

The driller killer (1979 TV): Playful. That’s not a word you would want to use to qualify this movie. Nor could you say that it’s your standard serial killer or usual slasher flick. Sleazy Grindhouse. Now these are good words. You could also say it’s repulsively riveting or disgustingly delightful. It’s dark, it’s trash and pretty unique. My rating: 7/10

Now you see me 2 (2016 TV): I see these movies as the fast and furious version of the heist genre. I’m just curious to see how far they’re gonna bring it and they do stretch the elastic of realism. As I expected, it wasn’t amazing. I even wonder if it’s really worth making a sequel hence and the reason I waited 8 years to see it. Thankfully, there is a formidably splendid cast to make it somewhat entertaining. My rating: 5.5/10

Elf (2003 DVD): First time for my kids to see it. This means that in my household, this is not considered a Christmas classic. Still, it was appreciated by all. As for me, this was maybe my 4th or 5th watch. Always fun but yeah, doesn’t measure up to my Christmas favourites. My rating: 7/10

Cuckoo (2024 Prime): I enjoyed the ride but the destination, not so much. I liked the settings, the designs, the lighting and even the wardrobe department did a good job. The movie definitely looks good but the story… WTF? I don’t even know man, it was weird. Fun for one viewing but don’t see myself revisiting that one. My rating: 6/10

Exhuma (2024 DVD): I wouldn’t have guessed that a movie about a coffin would have so much going on….