Ty Watches "Spider-Man: No Way Home"

Over the weekend my wife and I finally saw "Spider-man: No Way Home". We had planned on seeing it when it was in the theaters, but that was when Omicron was ravaging the US, so we waited. Not to worry, I still got Omicron, and it stunk. Anyway, the movie was streaming and on VOD, so we opted for VOD. It was only six bucks, so that was even better. We settled in after dinner, put our daughter to bed, and watched.

I really enjoyed the movie. I do want to point out that I like "Into the Spiderverse" more, but "No Way Home" was still very well done. I actually like the multiverse stuff. And being that I had seen "Everything Everywhere All At Once" a few days before, the idea of a multiverse movie was on my mind. I was in. I do want to say that I personally think that Tom Holland is the best Peter Parker/Spiderman. He is the only one of the three that truly reminds me of a high school kid. He acts dorky, he seems in over his head and he talks and, more importantly, acts like a teenager. My wife and I said that a lot when watching the movie. But, spoiler alert, seeing Andrew Garfield and Toby Maguire was incredible. It was so neat to see the three of them interact. Maguire was great. He is the oldest and he played that well. When he was stretching his back, that was gold. But I actually think Garfield was the best Spiderman in this movie. He was funny and nice and sweet and willing to goof on himself. I loved the inside jokes, how he called himself lame and kept being referred to as "Spiderman 3", it was awesome. I also appreciated that the movie makers let him save Mary Jane. That was a nice touch.

It was incredibly rad to see the villains from the other movies in this universe. Alfred Molina is a true, true gem as Doc Oc. It was glorious to see him reprise the role. He was amazing. Rhys Ifan as Lizard was crazy because I barely remembered him from the movie he was in. But he did a solid job. I already enjoy Jamie Foxx, and seeing him reprise Electro was totally worth it. He did a very, very good job in this role. Even Thomas Haden Church as the Sandman was fine. Hell, it was even better than what he did in "Spiderman 3" by a mile. But Willem Defoe stole the show. He was creepy and terrifying and diabolical and awesome. He was so god damn scary in this movie, and that was exactly what this movie needed. He was great.

Hell, even the side characters, Zendaya, Ned, Aunt May, J Jonah Jameson, Happy, they were all wonderful. Marisa Tomei is Aunt May now. And her death scene was brutal. Jon Favreau as Happy has never been better. Zendaya is the only MJ I truly enjoy. Ned is so, so much better than Franco's friend character. And JK Simmons is the best person to play Jameson. He embodies that role.

The story was great. Again, it was like a live action version of "Into the Spiderverse", just not as good. But it still worked. They found a way to do it. Adding Dr Strange was exactly what they should have done to make this story work. And Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong, as Wong, were also great in their roles. And, as always, the imagery in the movie was top notch. Sony/Marvel know how to make superhero movies, and this was no exception. It looked magnetic.

All in all I really did enjoy this movie. My wife and I watched bits and pieces of it yesterday just to rehash some stuff we thought we missed, and that was a totally worthwhile revisit. "No Way Home" is another very good Tom Holland Spiderman movie. Go watch it if you haven't yet. It is great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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"The Replacements" is Not Worth a Revisit

Now that I have caught up on some newer movies I wanted to see, I have decided I am going to go back and watch some movies I used to adore when I was a kid. I am curious to see if they hold up, if I will still like them. I also want to show my son some older Adam Sandler movies since I am such a big fan of his older stuff.

With that, I started this yesterday and watched the movie "The Replacements". "The Replacements" came out in 2000, and when I was 17, this movie was the shit. I loved it. I would rent it constantly and watch it over and over again. I got a good group of my friends into the movie as well, and when we had free time, this movie would be a top pick of ours. We loved everything about it.

The movie is about a bunch of replacement players for the NFL when they go on a strike. The usual players want more money, they do not get it at first and the team that is the focus of the movie goes out and finds guys who used to play, or had promising careers cut short. There is obvious hijinks and tomfoolery that happens, as you would expect, and of course they win enough games to make the playoffs. Again, I adored this movie as a teenager. So I decided to revisit it.

Unfortunately, it does not hold up. Keanu Reeves is the main character, and he cannot carry this movie. I love Keanu Reeves. This resurgence he has made is incredible, and he is making some kick ass stuff and showing up in random movies and stealing the show, namely in "Always Be My Maybe". But back in 2000, Reeves was asked to do too much in movies. The reason why "John Wick" works so well is because Reeves doesn't have to talk very much. He just has to kick ass. In "The Replacements" he has to give motivational speeches and rally his team around him. For a wacky sports movie, it is too much. Gene Hackman is an all timer, and he is probably the only one who did a good job in this movie, but it seems below his level. He is too good to be in this movie. I mean, he followed this one up with "The Royal Tenenbaums", which is a masterpiece. He probably took this role to do something different, but he is far too accomplished to be slumming it in a movie like this. Another guy I like, Orlando Jones, is barely used in this movie, and when he is, he hardly gets to make any jokes. Jones is funny and charismatic, but he is just put upon as a fast receiver who cannot catch. It is a waste of his talent. Brook Langton has some pull in this movie, and she gets to be more than just the love interest, until the end. She is a badass throughout, but when Reeves comes back, she is putty in his arms, and that is a bummer. Jon Faverau is a caricature of a jock. He goes way, way too overboard. He chews way too much scenery. I kept watching it and marveling that he is the guy who essentially revived Marvel movies. It is an insane performance. Rhys Ifan is almost racist in his portrayal of a Welsh person. He drinks, smokes and doesn't pay off his gambling debts. It is an affront to the Welsh people I feel.

I don't know what it was when I was a teen, but this movie is downright dreadful. I just could not wrap my head around why I liked this movie so much. There were some scenes where the players on strike kept showing up at the field and pushing Reeve's car over. And I kept saying to no one out loud, "shouldn't they be at a meeting trying to get more money and better benefits?". That was where my mind was going yesterday. There are a lot of people I like and respect in this movie, and I love football. But "The Replacements" is not a good movie. It is, in fact, a very, very bad movie. I do not recommend watching it, unless you want ti kill a few hours. But it would be a wasted few hours. You can believe that.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.