Dazed And Confused

Alright, let's do it.

I need to express my apologies first and foremost, for not seeing this movie until I was either a junior or senior in high school. And my opinion has not changed at all, I loved it the first time and love it just as much now. Which is odd because in terms of story there's hardly any. It's the characters or more accurately the performances and overall experience of the film is why people hold it so highly and with a lot of adoration. The story is just about teens in high school and junior high enjoying the last day of school and the subsequent evening in 1976. That's it. It's not even a, well we finished high school so what the hell do we do with our lives, kinda vibe. It's just following various groups of kids as they meander around the real town of Austin, Texas. No sets, no bullshit, just the real deal. And I think that's the perfect way to describe the film, it's the real deal. How the teens talk and act, what they do after finally getting out of school, for all intents and purposes in my head this might as well be fact. But that's what is to be expected, Richard Linklater produced, wrote, and directed this movie so it is 100% his baby and he does such good work with it all. It's such a fun, easily watchable, and highly quotable movie. Most everyone's favorite character is McConaughey, and he is brilliant but the rest of the cast do such great work it's hard not to give them credit. My personal favorite of the bunch is Slater, he just cracks me up and was my favorite long before the George Washington monologue he gives. Christ, it even has the best damn history teacher ever potrayed in cinematic history who flat out explains and gloriously so, the reasons why America even exists. I almost applauded. The soundtrack is also a slam dunk, with a perfect storm of late 60s/70s tracks, from Black Sabbath to ZZ Top to Bob Dylan. It's a soundtrack totally worth buying. I know this is just an unimaginable rainstorm of praise for this movie in all it's facets, but did anything happen that I hated? Yes, actually. Very severely if I can speak plainly. Not about the production but just the, for lack of a better word mentality of this town. It really struck me as a vicious cycle, seeing kids get brutally beat with paddles and sophomores be completely and quite honestly repulsively subjugated. And hardly anyone bats an eye at it. I'm serious man, watching those girls go through so much shit just left a scar on my heart that enrages me to this day and very truthfully makes me feel horrendous. It's f***ed up and there's no reason for it. I detest it with every last vestige of my soul and particle of my body. Which is the only reason why it doesn't get a 10/10! It's a solid 9/10 from me, 4 stars check it out! You're in for a trip man. Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Hellboy (2019)

Wasn't bad as I thought!

I feel I should take the mentality of when I saw Dumbo when it comes to remakes or what have you, simply think of it as another story about this character. You can have your favorites and sure there will be superior and inferior versions but don't judge before you see. Open mind, and all that. This Hellboy was okay, I still greatly prefer the del Toro version but hey it's really not that bad. It's a fun comic book adventure with Hellboy facing against a witch who was around in King Arthur's time, and to kind of come to terms with who and what he is. David Harbour does a fine job, he's a pretty rad fella from interviews and the like and treats the character with respect. You always will get half a star if you put Ian McShane in anything and he's different than John Hurt but still fits in this movie and does a great job! I do have one tiny issue with this girl Alice, who in the comics was an item with the big lug and in this one she looks 16, which is funny cause she's only a handful of months older than me but beyond that I like her just fine. Milla Jovovich is a fine villain and actually has some motivation to being evil. Special props to still keeping some creature effects while still doing cgi, it's always greatly appreciated and looks pretty damn good. It's an okay movie, despite it's 5.5 star rating on IMDB and it's crushing 13% on Rotten Tomatoes which just puts further evidence to the fact that I don't agree with Rotten Tomatoes ever, it's a fine basic reboot that gives us a new Hellboy and a new story. Granted it's more a rental than a go out and watch it now, but I'm sure it will have it's fans now and in the future and that's no bad thing to me!

Now we can finally look back on some stuff, I know I've been practically a decade late revisiting movies like Aquaman and Bumblebee, but don't worry. Next week we go back for second helpings.