Movie reviews

[Anderton]

On 9/29/2022 at 2:02 AM, o0Ampy0o said:

That said, Blade Runner is a cult classic. Most cult classics have many imperfections but are something that can be loved and appreciated. Blade Runner came out of a wonderful period of scifi renaissance. The original's story bored me a little. I mostly enjoyed the world that was created. I read the book out of curiosity. I enjoyed the film, the book not so much.

 

The original Blade Runner is one of those movies where I wondered why I was watching it (asides from FX and such). But I stuck it through to the end. [spoiler alert - highlight the upcoming white text to read it] When it hit me that the replicant respected life more than Deckard (who Ford is adamant was a human) and chose to let Deckard live, it drove the point home about what humans had lost/forgotten, and how a replicant's willingness to sacrifice itself showed who was the better "human."

 

[bill5]

I was similar watching - IMO it simply was not a good movie, but the "atmosphere" kept me hanging around and (not really a "spoiler" but also in white font below just in case)

 

at least yes, the ending was good

[o0Ampy0o]

Although synthetic, the replicants were designed to be better if not perfect at least in specific contexts.  :-)

[bill5]

Run - A psychological thriller about a mother who lives with her daughter disabled at birth but all is not what it seems - highly rated and I can't imagine why. Poorly written which dooms the film; it's like a few amateur hacks said "hey let's write a psychological thriller." Virtually no character development, which kinda matters

[David Emm]

Several of us flipped coins until we decided on "Cocaine Bear." We were hoping for Funny, but it wasn't even Fraternity Party funny, despite a couple of nice tries. I don't think I'll need a papal dispensation to wash the stink off, but my food hasn't tasted quite right for a couple of days. Its like something you'd watch if you ate 3 edibles and then couldn't roust yourself enough to find the remote. My group doesn't even have that excuse. I'm so ashamed. PASS.

[bill5]

lol I heard similar about that one.

 

Last night was "The Vast of Night" - another movie rated high on Rotten Tomatoes and which IMO quite sucked. Kind of a "Contact" wannabe. 

[Jeff Leites]

I recently watched and enjoyed The Man From Earth   I found it rather cerebral.

It had a sequel, The Man From Earth:Holocene which I can only describe as a horrible insult to the original.

 

[bill5]

I remember that; I liked it, although it sounds like maybe not quite as much as you. That kind of a movie is hard to do well IMO. (Trivia, the guy who wrote it wrote some of the Star Trek episodes...and the black guy in the movie was in various episodes himself, I believe most notably as Warf's brother. Good actor IMO)

[bill5]

Displacement - A brilliant young physics student finds herself slipping into slightly different times (like days, not years) due to an experiment gone awry and is trying to solve the murder of her boyfriend shown in the beginning and the cause/resolution of the experiment while battling short-term memory loss. This was somewhat convoluted but in a forgivable way given the whole time thing. Don't even try to get the technobabble unless you have a degree in quantum physics.   I also wasn't crazy about how they ended up borrowing somewhat from Back to the Future. So certainly not great, but I don't feel it was a waste of time to watch it and would recommend but go in with modest expectations.

[Anderton]

I'm not into violent Korean-style revenge movies, but the reviews I read of John Wick 4 convinced me that technically speaking, it would be worth seeing. I watch some movies twice - the first time is to pick apart what's happening onscreen and coming out of the speakers. If I like the story/acting, I'll watch it a second time just to enjoy the movie itself. In this case, I get the sense it helps to know the backstory from the previous movies if you're into that, but not knowing the backstory doesn't affect my ability to analyze what's going on in the movie itself.

 

The cinematography in John Wick 4 is stunning. There's a scene in a German techno club that blew my mind, but that wasn't the only one. I'm going to watch the movie again not because I want to "watch the movie," but because there was so much going on I'm sure I missed a lot of the really brilliant use of images, framing, and color. There's one chase scene that follows the chase from a view above the rooms, with no ceilings to obstruct the view. It's kind of a shame that so much creativity was spent on a violent Korean-style revenge movie, but I'll take creativity where I can get it.

 

 

[David Emm]

3 hours ago, Anderton said:

I'm not into violent Korean-style revenge movies, but the reviews I read of John Wick 4 convinced me that technically speaking, it would be worth seeing.

 ... The cinematography in John Wick 4 is stunning. ...  It's kind of a shame that so much creativity was spent on a violent Korean-style revenge movie, but I'll take creativity where I can get it.

 

I can relate, but aside from the dog moments, its just a shinier than usual episode of that ongoing cinematic roadshow, "We're Going To Beat You Like A Two-Headed Red-Headed Step-Child Until The Audience Begins To Check Each Other For Wounds." I sometimes veer towards animation and super-heroes because the violence is sanitized for my protection. Then I watched "Invincible" on Amazon, which revels in one beating after another, heavy on the punched-off heads. Guess who is ready for no video and a week of Eno as my soundtrack? I'd like to see "Oppenheimer," but I already know how it ends. 😬

[bill5]

The Legacy - A teenage son and his father are hunted (actually the son is but the father is seen as collateral damage) by a pro assassin in the woods as they're out on a hunting trip. Kind of a by-the-numbers thing which isn't great but watchable. 

[bill5]

Wolfwalkers - Finally a good movie after a string of mostly duds. Animated feature about an Irish girl in the 1600s who befriends a "wolfwalker," who are human when awake and wolves when asleep. Really well done IMO. Nothing ground-breaking, kind of by the numbers, but I don't care about that if it's well done. Nice story, characters, and loved the unique "sketched" style of animation.

[ksoper]

10 hours ago, Anderton said:

There's one chase scene that follows the chase from a view above the rooms, with no ceilings to obstruct the view. It's kind of a shame that so much creativity was spent on a violent Korean-style revenge movie, but I'll take creativity where I can get it.

 

 

 

I loved that scene. My first thought was, "This is a top-down shooter video game." Then, "Damn, the whole thing is a shooter video game." 

[ProfD]

About My Father starring comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, Robert De Niro and Kim Cattrall had its funny moments.  Otherwise, the movie could have been a straight to streaming release. 

 

The day and time I went to see the movie, we had the entire theater to ourselves.  It was like just like watching Netflix on a big screen TV at home.😁😎

[bill5]

On 6/15/2023 at 12:33 AM, bill5 said:

Wolfwalkers - Finally a good movie after a string of mostly duds. Animated feature about an Irish girl in the 1600s who befriends a "wolfwalker," who are human when awake and wolves when asleep. Really well done IMO. Nothing ground-breaking, kind of by the numbers, but I don't care about that if it's well done. Nice story, characters, and loved the unique "sketched" style of animation.

Found out this was the third in a "trilogy" of sorts (similar but unrelated movies). The first, "Secret of Kells," was kind of OKish. The second, "Song of the Sea" was very good IMO, though both of these had IMO a darker tone than the first.

[o0Ampy0o]

On 6/14/2023 at 9:42 PM, ksoper said:

I loved that scene. My first thought was, "This is a top-down shooter video game." Then, "Damn, the whole thing is a shooter video game." 

 

Speaking of video games and film, there was a period when everything I had seen Daniel Craig appear in was good. Chances are I would check out a film because he was in it. Ignoring how bad it might be given the title, Cowboys and Aliens, I had seen films taking entirely fresh angles and gave it a chance. The opening scenes showed promise. Craig does some things no human could do outside a film. It looked like it was going to be an alien cowboy western. But that wasn't what it was. I stuck with it even as it went in a direction I did not care for. Then the finale looked like a trailer for a video game not much more advanced than the original Doom video game. Could they not come up with anything better than that? I thought maybe the film was intended mostly to plant a seed for a forthcoming video game. I had no idea whether a game ever materialized so I just Googled it. I expected one of the more immersive first person realistic games but it is relatively primitive looking. I also read that it basically s_cks. Even though the finale could have been actual video game content the game does not tie in with the film aside from the alien/western theme.

 

 

[ksoper]

15 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

 Ignoring how bad it might be given the title, Cowboys and Aliens...

 

 

 

We liked that one. We were eating dinner at a restaurant with no real plans. Wife asked what was playing. After a brief search I said, "The new James Bond in a sci-fi western." Sounded good to her. Lots of fun. 

[bill5]

Greyhound - Tom Hanks stars as the commander of a Naval convoy in the WW 2 Battle of the Atlantic, escorting cargo ships across the ocean. I think how much one likes this depends largely on how much you're into not just war movies, but esp Naval war movies and maneuvers, as it's almost entirely action-oriented with virtually no character development, which is my one major complaint. But overall it's still a good movie IMO.

[David Emm]

Having had a crapulent day and having enjoyed "SHAZAM!," I watched the sequel "Fury Of The Gods." While full of fan service like an appearance by Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, it was fun for its own sake. Its definitely no strain on your higher intellectual faculties, but its surprisingly amusing, even when just plain goofy. Who knew unicorns would help you kick ass if you fed them Skittles?

 

I loved seeing the great Helen Mirren as an angry goddess. She enjoys doing fantasy work and she always lifts all the proverbial boats in the bay, even in light-weight fare. The art direction is strikingly good. The effects are a nice buffet of gold stars. Quality soundtrack, too.

 

Its been a bit sad to see Warner Brothers mishandle the DC side of comic movies so often. They're all over the $#@! place. That's a shame, as the cast in this one deserves to be woven into whatever James Gunn has planned. I wish it had been more profitable, because its an excellent popcorn movie to see if your last pick was a serious drama. I like to alternate, so this was a WIN. If you're sick of superhero froth, you can also pass on it with confidence.           

[bill5]

The Flash seems to be getting favorable reviews, although based on what I saw of the trailers, I wasn't optimistic...

 

I liked the orig Shazam so will check the sequel. Thanks!
 

Watched Mission Impossible IV. It's pretty good but nothing amazing. About what you'd expect from such an action flick. 

[bill5]

The Natural - Robert Redford as a 30s/40s era baseball player (an aging "comeback player"). Summertime, a baseball flick with Robert Redford, what could go wrong? Plenty as it turns out. I liked it OK, but not as much as I expected and felt underwhelmed. I found his character (and mostly the script) either dull, cliched, or just didn't make sense. 

 

[Anderton]

Saw "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." Hey, I like popcorn movies. The reviews are mixed, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. Not the greatest movie ever, for sure, but the series at least went out with its dignity intact. Aside from the de-aging in the backstory, they made no excuses for Harrison Ford being old. I thought one of the best bits was at the beginning. In the first Indy movie, Jones was a sexy scholar that all the girls wanted. In Dial, he was an old man about to retire, talking to a bored bunch of kids in a dimly-lit classroom. It set the stage perfectly for an "it is what it is" movie, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (from Fleabag) was a good casting choice IMO. I'm glad it's the last movie so Disney won't have another franchise to destroy (see: Star Wars).

 

I also saw "Extraction 2" on Netflix because I read there was a single-camera action scene that lasted 20 minutes. I'm a sucker for single-camera stuff - loved Altman's "Short Cuts," and "Birdman." The good news: I don't know how they pulled off a 20-minute action sequence with a single-camera "you're in the middle of the action" shoot. How many times did they have to re-shoot that? On a technical level, it was jaw-dropping. The bad news: I turned it off as soon as that sequence was over. Just another ultradumb action movie with no plot, no emotional center, lots of dead people and explosions, an indestructible sort of anti-hero, and ordinary people in peril. What a waste. It was kind of like seeing someone paint the Mona Lisa on toilet paper. 

[GovernorSilver]

The Indy Jones movie was fun, not much more to add.

 

Asteroid City - Only the 2nd Wes Anderson movie I've seen but it seems Wes Anderson-ish.    Peeps seem to vibe with his style or not.  Despite the large star powered cast, it was easy to keep track of the characters. 

 

Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars - Documentary/concert film set at the Hammersmith Odeon.    Apparently it was remastered.  Audio sounded great to me.  Surprise guest guitarist on the last 3 tunes.  This guitarist reportedly did not want to appear in the film, as he was dissatisfied with his appearance and playing.  I'm not sure I buy his alleged concern about his personal brand being affected by being seen playing with a glam rock artist - come on, dude played with "Ziggy" onstage in full view of thousands of screaming fans, in a legendary concert venue.   Anyway, he's there for all 3 final songs... loved the film.  Loved the chemistry between Ziggy and Mick Ronson, and also with the guest guitarist whose style contrasted nicely with Ronson's.

 

 

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, GovernorSilver said:

Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars - Documentary/concert film set at the Hammersmith Odeon.

 

Is this streaming anywhere?

[GovernorSilver]

12 minutes ago, Anderton said:

 

Is this streaming anywhere?

Sorry, I can't answer that.

 

I can only noted that I watched it at the theater closest to my house.

 

Apparently it stopped showing there but can still be seen at another theater in my city.

 

I should note I did not name the guest guitarist because that might be a spoiler.  I'm guessing you already guessed that Craig but just putting it out there.  When this guitarist was introduced I shouted "Holy shi... no freaking way!!!!" - don't want to deprive someone else of that surprise thrill.

[bill5]

Moneyball: Another disappointing baseball flick - true story starring Brad Pitt as the GM of the Oakland As some years back who after a playoff year, loses most of his big stars and tries to assemble a competitive team with little money to work with, so he uses a new stats-based approach to do so. It wasn't bad, but that's about as far as I'll go. Kinda flat with little to offer in the way of character development/interaction, esp between Pitt and his co-star (forget the name). Pitt was wasted here, as was almost every other actor. 

 

I think I'll go watch Field of Dreams.  

[David Emm]

"The Song of Names"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1657517/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_song%20of%20names

 

This first caught my eye because I've been following Tim Roth's career since his winner of a series "Lie To Me" on Fox some years back. He also nails it in another whopper of a music-based film, "The Legend of 1900." He has recently played The Abomination for Marvel, so he gets around. Of course, the entire cast here is excellent and the musical aspects will almost surely touch any musician.

 

 As one IMDB reviewer puts it:

 

"This is a wonderful and haunting film. It tells the story of two boys who grow up together. They are brothers through circumstance: the violinist child prodigy from the Warsaw Jewish community and the London lad who eventually befriends him when they are brought together. The story revolves around the sudden disappearance, on the day of his virtuoso concert, of the prodigy. Only near the end of the film do we discover why. ...  The musical score is phenomenal. This is a film about tragedy and loss, about how trauma lives on. It perfectly weaves the themes of ethnicity and religion."

 

I recall reading that someone played David Bowie's "Warszawa" for his Polish grandmother and she said "He's singing a dirge for my country." If you see this, you'll understand why that came to mind.

 

The film is low-key, yet also intense. You'll have to be in the right mood to absorb it, because the sobering narrative flow holds your attention, but I recommend it with no hesitation.   

[bill5]

And on the silly side...Farmageddon. A stop-motion flick from the ones who made Wallace and Gromit, but this is about a gang of sheep who befriend an alien. Fun film, definitely more for kids, but adults can enjoy too. 

[Nowarezman]

So Oppenheimer.  I started reading the big bio that the movie is based on a couple of weeks before seeing it.  So for once, a Hollywood production that mostly sticks to a respected historical biography.  And where it deviates...no big deal.

 

Very interesting movie, worthwhile. The star is the story, pretty much.  The pacing of the story is excellent, the screen-writing is good enough.  No one pulls off an Oscar-worthy performance, which is actually ok, because that would involve a good bit more interpretation in the screen-writing and performing.  Matt Damon has the biggest screen presence.  Cillian Murphy is always good - here, too, as the very odd, soft-spoken genius he's portraying.   Robert Downey, Jr. (nice seeing you again, Tony!) does very well, but he's only got a  one-sided, narrow view of a character to portray as written.

 

I recommend seeing the film, then read the book, then see the film again.  There's a good bit of jumping around, time-wise, in the earlier parts of the movie that I would guess would confuse anyone not familiar with the outlines of Oppenheimer's life story.   The movie tells an amazing story, but it's a good bit of a yet more amazing story in the biography.  

 

I do wish the film had some lines about Hitler throwing out the greater part of the world's greatest minds in physics because it was "Jewish science."  But the film does do a decent job of bringing home the all-too-real fear that the Germans would have the bomb first - I can't even begin to imagine what the Nazis would have done to the entire world had they obtained that power.  Brrrrrrrrrrr.

 

And btw - at the Imax, it was LOUD.  I wore my noise-cancelling headphones which cut the volume approx in half, which was perfect.  My hearing is still pretty good, adjusting for age.  But when things get really too loud, all I hear is gravel in a blender.   I need a buffer in any kind of loud venue.  

 

nat