This is the final disc in the first Jarman box set from the BFI, so after this I can start watching some other box set! Excitement!

I’ve seen this before — probably a couple of times? — but I don’t remember it at all. I’m not sure whether that’s a good sign.

Heh heh guess who’s the pope!

Derek!

I think I liked this better the last time I saw it? But it’s a really striking movie.

Caravaggio. Derek Jarman. 1986. ⚄

I haven’t seen this (and just one of the Mission Impossible movies), because eh whatevs. But I thought the first season of the Reacher TV series was a lot of fun (and the second was awful), so what the hey.

Yeah, that’s a bad guy, alright.

This starts in a pretty intriguing way?

But then grinds to a complete halt.

Hey! That’s not Thad! We want Thad!

Hey! Did they hire only puny actors, or is Cruise standing on a milk crate this entire movie?

Hey! Cruise is pretty good at doing this guy… He’s got the Thadness.

Man, this is boring. The first five minutes were interesting, and now there’s been over 20 minutes of really dull infodumping.

Fight! Fight!

This is almost like an episode or two of a New Era Of Quality TV series — it feels strangely padded.

Werner!

Well, OK, this has some really inventive action scenes.

Hey, it’s that guy.

I enjoy hypercompetence porn as much as the next person, and those scenes were fun. But oh so many dull moments in between. It could easily have been 30 minutes shorter without dropping any plot elements, really.

Jack Reacher. Christopher McQuarrie. 2012. ⚂

I bought a bunch of movies from Criterion (kinda at random), so I thought it was time I started watching some of them.

Very mysterious!

I’m not sure whether this is a horror movie? Or more of a psycho thriller kind of thing?

Terrific performances all around, and it looks great. It’s just that I’m not really that fond of those “is she insane, or are somebody trying to drive her insane, or ARE THERE GHOSTS!!!!” stories? I’m sitting here and going GET ON WITH IT which is totally the wrong approach and not the movie’s fault at all.

See? Looks awesome.

This movie makes a lot of interesting choices, like making the Kidman character (who is the protagonist) absolutely insufferable — a religious fanatic, somewhat sadistic, stupid almost beyond belief…

But everybody else (including half the children) are evil or ineffective, so it evens out?

OK, if you haven’t seen this movie before, and there’s a chance you will, stop reading now.

I’ll leave you with this gif, but close this tab now!

Are they gone?

Wow, I didn’t see that coming at all! He out-Shyamalaned Shyamalan!

I’m in total awe of that ending, really.

But even so, the first 90 minutes were not fun? But like I said, that might just be me, because I don’t really enjoy the sort of movie er I thought this was, and just because it turned out to be something else, that doesn’t make it more enjoyable. For me.

But it’s certainly well-made.

The Others. Alejandro Amenábar. 2001. ⚃