{"id":12947,"date":"2023-05-28T13:12:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-28T17:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12947"},"modified":"2023-05-28T13:19:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T17:19:22","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12947","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched just five movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2906216\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1-3-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Dungeons &amp; Dragons: Honor Among Thieves\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1-3-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1-3-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1-3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1-3.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt10954600\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2-3-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12949\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2-3-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2-3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2-3-768x1137.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2-3.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt10151854\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-3-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Shazam! Fury of the Gods\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12950\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-3-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-3-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-3.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2906216\">Dungeons &#038; Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<\/a> is just a whole lot of fun. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as good or as clever as <em>Galaxy Quest<\/em>, but there\u2019s definitely the same kind of vibe to it. I enjoyed hanging out with these characters, and I laughed a lot along the way.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt10954600\/\">Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/a> doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense, but it makes even less sense as an Ant-Man movie. (The \u201cand the Wasp\u201d part feels superfluous here, given how very little Evangeline Lilly is given to do.) The movie tosses out almost everything that made the previous two films work in favor of <em>re<\/em>-re-establishing the MCU\u2019s new big bad, but without actually making him the least bit interesting. (Say what you will about Jonathan Majors, and wonder what his ongoing legal issues will do Marvel\u2019s future plans, but the version of Kang he played in <em>Loki<\/em> was at least fun to watch.) So instead of a movie that\u2019s fun, or even looks good, we get an ugly swirl of CGI that&#8217;s desperately trying to set up the <em>next<\/em> ten movies that are coming.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Zachary Levi is sometimes fun in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt10151854\">Shazam! Fury of the Gods<\/a>, but the movie often feels confused about things as simple as who its main character is. Maybe that\u2019s not entirely the movie\u2019s fault\u2014given all the behind-the-scenes collapse and rebuilding of the DCEU, the impact of Covid on the shoot, and how its younger cast have largely aged out of their original parts\u2014but the movie doesn\u2019t offer much else to justify its existence. It rallies a little near the end, when it actually attempts to give a character some development, if not closure, but then it stumbles again, right into some pretty dumb cameos and mid-credits scenes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt12261776\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/4-3-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"65\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12951\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/4-3-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/4-3-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/4-3-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/4-3.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081568\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/5-3-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Stunt Man\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12952\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/5-3-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/5-3-679x1024.jpg 679w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/5-3-768x1158.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/5-3.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-206x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-704x1024.jpg 704w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-768x1117.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt12261776\/\">65<\/a> does exactly what it says on the tin. Which is disappointing, because it doesn\u2019t do any of those things especially well, and it\u2019s not even that impressive a tin. Early on, it seems like the movie might become something unwieldy (but at least interesting) like <em>Cast Away<\/em> with dinosaurs. But the story\u2019s premise is muddled, and its execution lacks even a moment of surprise. Adam Driver is reasonably compelling, but he doesn\u2019t have a character to play, much less an arc, and it\u2019s hard to care if he\u2019s eaten by giant CGI lizards.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Roger Ebert <a href=\u201dhttps:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/the-stunt-man-1980\u201d>said<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081568\/\">The Stunt Man<\/a> was \u201clike magic tricks done by a magician in a movie: It doesn&#8217;t matter how well they&#8217;re done, or even if they&#8217;re really done, because cinematic special effects make it all trickery, anyway.\u201d The movie has its moments\u2014it\u2019s hard not to be even a little charmed by Peter O\u2019Toole\u2019s performance\u2014but it doesn\u2019t really amount to very much in the end.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also re-watched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0032455\/\">Fantasia<\/a>, which was considerably more boring than I was expecting, or had remembered. <em>The Sorcerer&#8217;s Apprentice<\/em> section is inarguably amusing, but it&#8217;s also fairly short, and probably the only section that&#8217;s a straight-up adaptation of its source material. I think the best section, and maybe the only one that truly marries the music with animation interpretation in a unique and striking way, is the concluding <em>Night on Bald Mountain<\/em> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched just five movies last week: Dungeons &#038; Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is just a whole lot of fun. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as good or as clever as Galaxy Quest, but there\u2019s definitely the same kind of vibe to it. I enjoyed hanging out with these characters, and I laughed a lot along &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=12947\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12947"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12957,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12947\/revisions\/12957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}