Dillon's Take #2

Note from Jack: Some of you may recall a post where I displayed some of the critical musings of my good friend, Dillon Humphrey. If not, well I'm doing that again. While my critiques are rather eloquently worded and knowledgable in terms of what makes a film good, I think its always important to remember a film as viewed through the perspective of your average man on the street. After all, a film scholar's outlook on cinema may be insightful; yet, it is ultimately how the general public reacts to a movie that determines what kind of cultural impact it leaves on the world at large. Anyway, here's his latest thoughts on a few movies. Enjoy!

XXX: THE RETURN OF XANDER CAGE

Quick note that when I was looking this movie up in the LetterBoxd database I half expected some eroticas to appear. I'm so glad I was wrong..

Aside from seeing advertisements for this movie, I'd never really heard much of it or considered watching it until today. And I'm pretty darn happy I watched it. Opening sequence with Samuel Jackson's instant death had me dying. And of course, as you'd expect he was resurrected by the gods themselves just like he always is (if Samuel Jackson can't be killed, then Mace Windu MUST be alive!!!).

The fight sequences in this movie are grand and it's very friendly to newcomers to the Xander Cage franchise, so don't worry about watching if you haven't seen the first. I haven't either, but now I do want to see it.

Everything about this movie is great. For me there may have been to many suggestive points in the film. The party scene was barely handlable to me (I may have inflated standards, leave me alone).

Also, Donnie Yen. Nuff said.

SPECTRAL

I wasn't expecting to enjoy a Netflix movie as much as I did. It's not an amazing movie per se, but it definitely tops the few Netflix movies I have watched (Ridiculous 6 and True Memoirs of an International Assassin). It was quite tense and pretty mysterious until maybe 3/4 of the way through when they finally figured it out.

Honestly I'd probably watch this movie again cuz it is pretty badass. Lots of people died in it (nothing like in Rogue One though), but that just adds to the seriousness of the film. I'm curious to see what other Netflix originals are actually good. I'll be checking those out soon enough.

Anyways, good work on the movie! With that ending tho I better not see a sequel.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

It was a great movie! Really enjoyed it! I went to see it with some friends at a drive-in and it was a really good time. Lots of laughs! However, there was a slight issue.

Before we went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2, we watched the first Guardians of the Galaxy for nostalgia's sake. I ended up really liking Guardians of the Galaxy again (5-star for number 1). When we watched Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, I was kinda sorta let down just a smidge.

Not to say that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is a bad movie, cuz it's not. It's a really great movie! The experience just didn't feel quite as fun and entertaining as it did for the prequel.

Anyway, my main point is that Volume 2 is an awesome movie, but in my opinion it didn't 1-up the original.

Side note though, the post-credit scenes were excellent and the new Stan Lee cameo was grand!