Bone Tomahawk
The film with perhaps the best dialogue of the year, and one of my favourite all-round movies I saw this year was Bone Tomahawk.
With a great cast, all performing at their best (in fact it took ages for me to realise which actors I was even watching in the cases of Richard Jenkins and Matthew Fox), there was unlikely a better ensemble cast this year.
I've seen read that some people find the pace too slow for what they'd heard was a western/horror mashup, but I would have gladly spent another hour with these characters as they talked their way through the barren countryside. I loved these guys.
When the horror does arrive though, it doesn't take the easy road. There are some truly shocking moments which won't soon be forgotten.
I made up a simple little poster for the film, after ripping images from the great character posters released for the movie.
Can't wait for S. Craig Zahler's next feature. This was a gem.
With a great cast, all performing at their best (in fact it took ages for me to realise which actors I was even watching in the cases of Richard Jenkins and Matthew Fox), there was unlikely a better ensemble cast this year.
I've seen read that some people find the pace too slow for what they'd heard was a western/horror mashup, but I would have gladly spent another hour with these characters as they talked their way through the barren countryside. I loved these guys.
When the horror does arrive though, it doesn't take the easy road. There are some truly shocking moments which won't soon be forgotten.
I made up a simple little poster for the film, after ripping images from the great character posters released for the movie.
Can't wait for S. Craig Zahler's next feature. This was a gem.
Watching the Rocky saga for the first time
I only just saw the entire Rocky series for the first time this Christmas period, as a 35 year old.
This was a series that I ignorantly thought I didn't need to see to understand. I thought I would know each and every beat that it delivered, before it delivered it. I thought I would grow bored. I didn't think I'd be invested in the story of Rocky Balboa.
But I was wrong.
I tremendously enjoyed every film in the series - some because they are legitimately great, and others because of how unashamedly silly and of their time they were (I'm only really looking at you, Rocky IV, and the studio-imposed score to Rocky V).
In a way I'm glad I waited this long. My movie-watching education has been too thorough for there to be many gaps as big as the Rocky series, so I had a very rare opportunity to enjoy an entire classic movie saga that despite its reputation, I actually knew very little about.
And then I got to cap it all off with the recent release of Creed, Ryan Coogler's excellent Rocky sequel/spin-off that showed there are still great stories to be told in Rocky's world.
The entire series struck me in ways I didn't expect, and I grew to love the Rocky character in ways I woudn't have thought possible.
I apologise to anyone whose love of Rocky I dismissed in the past. You were right and I was wrong, all along. Let's get together and talk Rocky sometime, huh?
postscript:
Following my completion of the saga I created this poster for its latest chapter, honouring its very first.
 |
| Opening title of Rocky, 1976 |
This was a series that I ignorantly thought I didn't need to see to understand. I thought I would know each and every beat that it delivered, before it delivered it. I thought I would grow bored. I didn't think I'd be invested in the story of Rocky Balboa.
But I was wrong.
I tremendously enjoyed every film in the series - some because they are legitimately great, and others because of how unashamedly silly and of their time they were (I'm only really looking at you, Rocky IV, and the studio-imposed score to Rocky V).
In a way I'm glad I waited this long. My movie-watching education has been too thorough for there to be many gaps as big as the Rocky series, so I had a very rare opportunity to enjoy an entire classic movie saga that despite its reputation, I actually knew very little about.
And then I got to cap it all off with the recent release of Creed, Ryan Coogler's excellent Rocky sequel/spin-off that showed there are still great stories to be told in Rocky's world.
The entire series struck me in ways I didn't expect, and I grew to love the Rocky character in ways I woudn't have thought possible.
I apologise to anyone whose love of Rocky I dismissed in the past. You were right and I was wrong, all along. Let's get together and talk Rocky sometime, huh?
postscript:
Following my completion of the saga I created this poster for its latest chapter, honouring its very first.
 |
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