Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
Edge of Tomorrow: Directed by Doug Liman. With Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Paxton. A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies. Another 2023 Black Friday pickup, this remains a solid reimagining of Groundhog day, but maintains some unique aspects and has it’s own dangling threads that have nearly driven me insane when I try to contemplate their solutions. Buy On Amazon!
Howard the Duck: Directed by Willard Huyck. With Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins, Ed Gale. A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his homeworld to Earth where he must stop an alien invasion with the help of a nerdy scientist and a struggling female rock singer. I hadn’t seen this film in a while and the physical disk finally got down from it’s crazy prices, so now I have it in my collection (no Stan Lee appearance though!). Buy On Amazon!
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Directed by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein. With Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith. A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. The 2023 4k black friday sale was kind to me and this film was one of my purchases. It’s a fun ride and well put together. Buy On Amazon!
Blue Beetle: Directed by Angel Manuel Soto. With Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Becky G, Damián Alcázar. An alien scarab chooses Jaime Reyes to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the recent college graduate with a suit of armor that’s capable of extraordinary powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero known as Blue Beetle. This is a fun movie and I hope they deliver on the promise of a multiverse of Blue Beetles all fighting the time traveling blue beetle infinity being from the end of time. Buy On Amazon!
Suicide Squad: Directed by David Ayer. With Will Smith, Jaime FitzSimons, Ike Barinholtz, Margot Robbie. A secret government agency recruits some of the most dangerous incarcerated super-villains to form a defensive task force. Their first mission: save the world from the apocalypse. This was like $5 for the 4k disc, so it’s in my collection now and I watched it again and I have this to say for it: it’s my guilty pleasure. I love nearly everything about this film and firmly believe that if the DCU had kept going in this direction it would have done worlds better than...
Watchmen: Directed by Zack Snyder. With Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley. In a version of 1985 where superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach on the trail of a conspiracy that will change the course of history. I finally have this in 4k on a disc, something that I’ve had an eye out for since I learned it was a thing, and the price was finally under $9, so I pulled the trigger. Watchmen remains the standard that all other comic movies will be judged against and the “Ultimate Edition” makes no...
The Big Sick: Directed by Michael Showalter. With Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano. Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family’s expectations, and his true feelings. Much sadder than I was expecting, but this was a film that I put on because my wife didn’t want to watch a movie and wanted me to watch a movie that I wanted to watch that she was totally not going to watch,...
Hulk: Directed by Ang Lee. With Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Josh Lucas. Bruce Banner, a genetics researcher with a tragic past, suffers an accident that causes him to transform into a raging green monster when he gets angry. Still not a great movie and I still hate all the violence towards animals in the film. But since it was just $8 now the physical version of the disk is in my collection for two reasons: MCU and Stand Lee appearances. Buy On Amazon!
Godzilla Minus One: Directed by Takashi Yamazaki. With Minami Hamabe, Sakura Ando, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Yuki Yamada. Post war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb. This is now the movie that all other Godzilla films are going to be compared to, and I’m even comparing it to the relatively amazing American one with Bryan Cranston from 2014. The only thing negative that I’m going to say about it is more about the state of the world than the movie itself,...
Streetwalker: Directed by Jeffery Husselman. With Corissa Gabor, Keith Ortiz, Ray Hansen, Nick Villaire. A woman survives a traumatic night only to find herself in a nightmarish reality when she is unwillingly pulled into the plans of inter-dimensional beings. That premise really got me hoping for more than what I got, but unfortunately the lack of budget and overly artistic camera work combined with overly burdensome filters in nearly every scene really ruined the experience. Buy On Amazon!