Brandino Movies

Tron: Ares is a disappointment in every sense of the word. It's awfully paced, written terribly, and forgets its core concepts halfway through. However, disregarding all of that, I'm not sure the Tron  franchise even still works anymore. The original was a product of its time that cannot be properly replicated without stripping most of its allure. When the first Tron  movie released in 1982, and even to a degree in 2010 with Tron: Legacy , technology was still somewhat of an unknown. Even owning a home computer or the sheer concept of the worldwide web was such an alien idea in the 80s and this movie was simply bringing everybody's curiosities to life and imagining them in this fantastical world. It made this new technology seem exciting and fun, as well as giving it some sense, even if its from a sci-fi movie. Of course, the world of technology was very different in 2010, people did have some amount of a grasp on technology, but it was still not even close to being as b...

Leonardo DICaprio declines most roles. Despite being one of the most prolific and talented actors working today, he's only been in three movies in the 2020s -  Don't Look Up , Killers of The Flower Moon , and now One Battle After Another . This being true, seeing him in a movie is something special. This is almost like telling the audience that we can trust that this is a movie worth our time and our money. One Battle After Another  is no anomaly. This being said, somehow a movie led by DiCaprio, he isn't the best part. That isn't to say he didn't do a good job, because he did, this movie is just so stacked with incredible performances that he doesn't seem to stand out. One person that does stand out, however, is Sean Penn. This is most likely due in part to his character being so complex and interesting. He isn't just a racist neo-nazi, he is so much more than racism. He represents an attempted complete ethnic cleansing, and yet he fetishes black women. He ...

Caught Stealing , while being nowhere near Aronofsky's best, still very much stacks up to his other work. While this movie may fly slightly under the radar, it deserves any bit of recognition it may get. One thing that I thought elevated this movie to a much higher degree is the way that Aronofsky is able to know what the audience is expecting when entering and completely flipping that. The biggest detail with this is the concept of a 'movie star'. When you see this movie's trailers, posters, or even cast list, you immediately assume who is going to survive just by pointing out the names you recognise. Of course this movie has an absolutely stacked cast, but you see people like Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, and Bad Bunny all over the trailers and assume they're easily going to make it out alive. This is due to the rise of the 'movie star'. Why would such a big name actor bother to take the time to be in a movie if they're going to die so early on? A recent, a...

The concept of a romantic horror is sometimes seen as an oxymoron. These two genres illicit such opposing emotions, especially when it comes to body horror, that most movies that fit into this quite slim margin tend to become lesser of one - usually sacrificing many horror filled elements to make way for a more provoking romantic story. Together does not make that mistake. This manages to blend a deeply romantic story of codependency and the idea of soulmates, while still being able to display some incredibly disgusting moments, in the best way possible. The first act of Together  came in swinging. We're shown each stage of the transformation in the first few minutes with these two dogs, being careful only to show the crucial steps. There's no explanation, no dialogue of some mythology, we're just shown a simple love story that turns sinister within minutes. This gives us all we need to know going forward and sets the movie up for, not only some amazingly gory body horror t...

We may be existing in one of the best years for horror in the 2020s. That sounds like a bold statement, but let me explain. Almost every mainstream horror movie releasing in cinemas this year ends up living up to expectations perfectly, think  Sinners , Bring Her Back , 28 Years Later . Not only do they live up to expectations, they also bring something new and different to the genre and execute their visions incredibly well, which brings me to Weapons . This movie is incredibly haunting from beginning to end and harnesses tension in such a way as to pull us in and not let go until the credits roll. Not only do they manage this, they're able to balance it with the smallest amount of comedy which is rarely seen or executed well in a horror like this. This comedy works to undercut the tension you may be feeling from a previous scene while simultaneously making the movie as a whole so much more interesting, due to the whiplash you feel at times. This is unapologetically silly - which ...

The original Naked Gun  movie is a classic. Many moments that you may see as cliche if you watch it now, actually would have originated with this movie. With its huge following and a drought of parody movies in recent years, it was only a matter of time they revived some of the classics - think Scary Movie and Spaceballs . The first of the three revivals is The Naked Gun  starring Liam Neeson. The biggest question, and the first thing on people's mind, is: does this movie live up to the originals? This is the first comparison anybody would make the moment the credits roll, and I believe the answer is a resounding yes. I know this will be unpopular, however I actually prefer the remake, and I think that's mostly due to Liam Neeson being the face. While he can be an amazing comedic actor, most of that comes from his notoriety in movies like Taken and the  Star Wars franchise. In these movies he plays very stoic, serious characters so seeing him be the butt of the joke is f...