Review: ‘Fast X’ is Quickly Becoming One of the Worst Films in the Series

The Fast and the Furious franchise has had ups and downs from really interesting mediocre movies, to really bad action-packed nothing burgers. These films over the years have become more and more saturated with references to the things it has done before and making cars do crazier things to the point that sometimes they aren’t even cars. Fast X serves as the beginning of the apparent 3-part finale to the series that has spanned over 20 years, 10 films, and a spinoff. A multitude of high-profile names have played both ally and antagonist in a series that has a problem figuring out, even after all this time, what the hell it is trying to do. The series started with a cop breaching into the inner circle of a group of street racers turned hardened criminal group, which later turned into that same group upping their profession into high-risk heists and gang shootouts, eventually ending in the same group repeatedly saving the world? I can’t even begin to explain the absurdities.

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Review: ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ Explodes with Oppositional Cinematic Fanfare

Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Classism, Anti-Patriarchy, Anti-Capitalist. Oppositional Media has been a mainstay in cinema for a long time.  There is a clear history of films being made to fight against the rich and powerful, or the hateful and powerful trying to take advantage of people for their own gain. Now, while a lot of that media involves real footage, and documentary production, there are many times where oppositional cinema is in the form of fiction. These films get us in the mind of a familiar situation to show us how things are. How to Blow Up a Pipeline does this in the most explosive way.

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Review: ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Powers Up to Mediocrity

Transitioning out of the superhero era of movie blockbusters, we look toward the muddied future of film and television to the next big thing: video game adaptations. Up till now there’s been a history of video game adaptations being less than stellar. Mortal Kombat, Assassin’s Creed, and the dozen or so Resident Evil adaptations have made a mess of the subgenre. Yet recently with things like Detective Pikachu, Sonic, and most impressively The Last of Us, the future for adaptations of this type doesn’t look so awful anymore. With the public realizing that these games aren’t just one note and brain rot, and might actually be filled with genuine characters, heartfelt stories, and room for enrichment in whatever media form they take, there is finally the space open for truly well-made and well-loved adaptations. The most recent take, and the step that will probably make video game adaptations become a regular thing now, is The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

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UW Film Club Podcast #94: Top 10 Films of 2022: Part 2

We are again sitting down to talk about our favorite films of 2022. This episode is part 2 of our 2-part series in which we focus on our top 10 films. In this episode, we focus on the top 4 films on our lists. If you’d like to listen to the first episode, I highly recommend it before listening to this one. Lastly, I hope you enjoy our 94th episode of the UW Film Club Podcast!

On this episode: Drew Favors, PJ Knapke, Luke Wilhelm, Harrison Hall

You can find us on Facebook at /UWFilmClub, and on Twitter and Instagram @FilmClubUW. Make sure to rate, comment, and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Google Play, and tune in every week for a new episode of the UW Film Club Podcast!

 

SIFF 2023 Capsule Reviews

The 2023 Seattle International Film Festival begins on May 11th and runs through May 21st, with select films screening on the SIFF Channel May 22-28. UW Film Club will be covering as many films as possible so that you know which films to see! Throughout the festival, this article will be regularly updated with capsule reviews for festival films. Check back every few days to see what’s new!

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Review: ‘A Good Person’ Sends a Good Message

Grief. It’s an emotion that is frequently paired with loss; the loss of an opportunity, an item, or in this film’s case, a loved one. It’s a complicated, messy emotion that sometimes leads a person to perform questionable actions while they are at their worst. But as A Good Person plays on, we are forced to look at the actions of almost every character and truly ask ourselves “What does it mean to be a good person?”

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Review: Does the Plot of ‘Tetris’ Fall into Place?

“They’ll make a movie about anything these days!” is what most of us likely said upon hearing that a movie about Tetris was being released. It’s been said before— and it’ll be said again— but the film industry is completely oversaturated with biopics and corporate/product origin stories right now. Seeing so many films of this same genre coming out at once makes it hard to get excited about any of them; they tend to come off as an inauthentic cash grab more than anything else. An entire film dedicated to an old computer game where you have to line up falling blocks almost sounds like a joke at this point. And yet, despite everything that should be working against it, Tetris manages to not only be a pretty solid thriller but also a pretty fun time.

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Review: ‘Scream VI’: A Killer Addition to the Franchise

We’re certainly not in Woodsboro anymore. Scream VI finds our new protagonists have made the move to the Big Apple and are ready to leave the horrors of the previous year in their rearview mirror. But in typical Scream fashion, one doesn’t simply leave Ghostface behind.

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Review: ‘Shazam: Fury of the Gods’ is DC’s Newest Godlike Blunder

The DCEU, since its inception with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, has been criticized for a multitude of things. Bad casting, bad directing, bad writing, bad storytelling all around, just to name a few. Trying to create an MCU-like universe for the DC heroes seems simple enough, yet DC’s try at it has been lacking in nearly every way. Some hope for a return to Snyder, let him finish his universe, most are sighing with relief that James Gunn has been brought in to just not do this anymore. My biggest gripe with the franchise so far has been the fact that its stories are at odds with the themes. They come out of nowhere, or aren’t developed, and these lackluster and underdeveloped themes create bad characters, bad story cohesion, and ineffective world building. Shazam: Fury of the Gods is the latest in the DCEU lineup, and you know what, I was pleasantly surprised with how much worse it was than I expected. 

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Review: ‘Creed 3’ is a Rocky-less Movie Made Masterfully

Rocky Balboa, possibly the most famous film sportsman ever, his story of will, earning your place, and being the underdog has never failed to amuse the world (maybe not Rocky V, but you get the point). After three decades of films, the franchise went cold after Rocky Balboa. Until the sequel franchise in 2015, a spin-off of the original story. Creed, a sequel series about Apollo Creed’s youngest child, and only one out of wedlock, a stain on the legacy of a great man, a mistake trying to prove himself without the name of his dad, and yet claiming it as his own. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) was in this follow up series for the first two films, where he played the trainer and mentor of title character, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), but due to some creative differences following the tone of this new installment, Stallone bowed out of film production early, and it was left in the hands of Michael B. Jordan, who took it upon himself to direct this new installment of the franchise.

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