Vartiainen

Following in the footsteps of the 2015 reboot of the Rocky Balboa franchise, Creed II continues the story of Adonis Creed, played by the still excellent Michael B. Jordan. This time he has to face against the son of Ivan Drago from Rocky IV, which... is both a great idea and a terrible idea.

I did like the film. Mostly due to the fact that it has a lot of talent behind it. Jordan is one of the best actors of his generation and Sylvester Stallone once again proves why Rocky Balboa is his best character. Add in Dolph Lundgren reprising his role as Ivan, Tessa Thompson adding in her two cents, and so on. The actors make the film soar.

The plot on the other hand. Look, I get it, it's a film in the Rocky franchise. There's a formula and a set of rules that has to be followed. But I still kind of wish they had found another way to tell this story. Some kind of twist. Now it feels just a little bit too much like pandering and hitting those old story beats for nostalgia points.

Still, I did like it overall. Not the best movie ever made and the previous one was definitely better, but it's worth checking out if you're looking for more.

Jason and the Argonauts is a 1963 film detailing the classic Greek myth of Jason (Todd Armstrong) and his quest for the Golden Fleece.

The story itself is fairly simple and monolithic. Jason's whole family gets killed by King Pelias (Douglas Wilmer), but a prophecy states that Jason would one day kill Pelias. Fate being what it is, Jason ends up questing for the Golden Fleece in order to take revenge on Pelias. And from that spring many separate adventures.

The film is most known for its stop motion sequences. And for a reason. These are still amazingly detailed, comprehensive and mind-blowingly awesome scenes. Especially the end battle scene where Jason and his remaining Argonauts battle against undead skeletons. Nowadays such a scene would be trivial to accomplish with modern CGI, but back then people had to be extra inventive to accomplish such detail and grace in a shot.

Overall it might be a film that's more remembered for its technical achievements than anything else, but even aside from that it's a fetching story and an entertaining film to watch.

A Michael Lehmann film about a typical American high school in the 80s where cliques reign supreme and to be popular is all you should ever hope to be. Veronica (Winona Ryder) is part of the queen bee clique of her school, but she yearns for simpler times when she could simply hang out with her less popular friends. Enter J. D. (Christian Slater), a new student and a born rebel that introduces her to a whole new world of attitude and irreverence. And murder.

Heathers is not to be taken all that seriously. It is a comedy beneath all its grotesque violence and body count. A black comedy, to be sure, but a comedy still.

And yet its message is surprisingly solemn. We care too much about social status and what our peers think about us. Way too much. And in J. D. Lehmann tries to rebel against that attitude. The boy goes way too far, but his initial impulse is not wrong. Nor is Veronica's wish to be able to be herself.

Some people will cry with laughter with this film. Some will find it off-putting. Such is the nature of black comedy. Any comedy, for that matter. Personally I found it hilarious and also poignant.