Aw man, you stole my answer.

For OP’s benefit though, I’ll expand on why. Clearly, with those directors being your self-professed favorites, you have an attraction to surrealism, or unconventional, shall we say, filmmaking. Tetsuo fits the bill. In my estimation, it’s essentially what would happen if you asked Davids Lynch and Cronenberg to collaborate on a live action Dragonball Z episode. There’s non-linear editing, repeated visual motifs which the director leaves to the audience to parse the significance of, a focus on vibe over narrative, striking black and white cinematography, psychosexual explorations of sadism and masochism, and a healthy slathering of KY Jelly and prosthetics to add some body horror to the melange.

This retrospective/review may be of interest to you if the series holds nostalgia value.

Would you care to make a case for Lady in the Water? I don’t recall a huge amount of that movie, but what’s there is not positive. Admittedly, his gall in writing a character who is destined to save the world through his art, and then casting himself in said role, left a pretty sour taste in my mouth, but I shouldn’t let that affect the other aspects of the film.

Very good. Much less Kick-Ass or Bullet Train, much closer to his turn in Nosferstu. In any case, he’s in a supporting role, so, regardless of your feelings on him, it shouldn’t affect your enjoyment too much.

I mean, I guess there will always be people who comically miss the point of a given piece of media (e.g. the lionization of Al Pacino’s Scarface, or “Born in the USA” playing at political rallies), but you make it sound like you’ve unlocked some secret meaning in the film by viewing Michael Douglas as a villain. However, that’s not even the subtext of the movie, it’s the text itself. Douglas says, practically to the camera (if I’m remembering correctly, it’s been several years), “I’m the bad guy? When did that happen?”.

Anyone who walked out of the movie thinking it was sympathetic to its protagonist wasn’t paying attention. Again, I know these people exist, I’m just flummoxed by that fact.

For some reason I always figured CCP was an independent outfit, based on how they’ve handled EVE over the years. I know there were some rumblings about the business model a few years back, but, by and large, everything seems to be done with a fairly hands off ethos.

Zack Snyder, not JJ Abrams.

Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

Is this version of the Green Lantern a big Electric Callboy fan?

Sometimes, the humor is found in how unsubtle the methodology is. A carpet bombing approach, one might say.

Caveat: I don’t play fighting games, but I come to EVO moment 37 every now and again for the frisson it provides me. From what I’ve gathered from folks who are in that community, this fest is even more impressive than you might realize, because he had to begin parrying that move before the screen effects begin. You can even see his character sort of twitching back and forth before the super pops, anticipating the directional inputs necessary to pull the parry off. So, not only is it practically frame-perfect reflexes and timing, but it’s also an incredible display of metagame knowledge to guess that is what is coming.

Yeah, granted the article is quoting the plaintiffs’ suit, so we’re getting a pretty skewed interpretation, but both films ending with a scene in which the leads select the same Spice Girls album to listen to really does point towards plagiarism. With that being said, I don’t know how anyone could think they’d get away with that blatant.

Blood Vessel (2019).

An improbably diverse group of U-Boat attack survivors find their way aboard a seemingly abandoned Nazi vessel, discovering, in time, what happened to the previous occupants.

The movie has 3 things going for it:

1. A perfect title.
2. Commitment to make-up and practical effects in most scenes(the standout being the main antagonist)
3. The production either filmed on a real vessel, or they have very talented set decorators. Given how many B-grade creature features (esp. ones set in WW2) wind up being 80 minutes of stereotypes tramping through the woods, the production value was not unappreciated.

Is it good? Not really. Does it make good on its premise? Also, no. Is it better than it could have been? Absolutely.

Worth a watch for fans of foam latex.

Please no. Adding to my collection is pricey enough as-is :(

Nothing to be done for it.

I have not yet seen the sequel, but I might if I can find a good matinee deal or something. This makes me feel ancient, but I remember when a ticket was like $5 if the showtime was before 5 pm. Sadly, that seems to have gone the way of the $5 footling.

Beekeeper is one of the best surprises I’ve had in a long time. I was looking for something new, but sorta familiar, to watch and gave it a shot on streaming, pretty much sight unseen. I thought it was just Statham.trying to cut in on that John Wick money. Which, it sorta was, but man, that script just kept out doing itself with every expansion in scope / stakes. By the time they “reveal” who the kid’s mom is, I was so on board their ride.

I wish Statham had brought something to the role other than stoic badass. Maybe it would have been too much at that point, but I kinda wanted an actor who could match the script in brazen buffoonery. Maybe then they could have cut the FBI agents’ scenes and focused more on him. I practically snoozed through that whole B plot.

It’s a mixed bag tbh. I think the first one is overlong and less clever than it thinks it is. The action is competent, but not substantively better than a good direct to video shoot em up, and there’s just so much dead space between these sequences it’s almost not worth it.

That being said, i’d rank it above Jason Statham’s A Working Man, but below Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper. Idk if that helps you at all, but I think it’s indicative of the mode this movie is trying to operate in.

Meanwhile, I loathe in-article links to the store page which are disguised as links to other, earlier coverage on the subject the article is discussing. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Boy, I knew Alan Moore has some strong opinions, but this seems beyond the pale.

I ate the onion.