Recently Watched Movies 2024

[Kolumbo]

Just when I think movies can't get any worse they make Saltburn.

Don't even think about Wrong Place (2022) with Bruce Willises, Ashley Greene. Awful.

 

[Deepster]

Just when I think movies can't get any worse they make Saltburn.

I literally dry heaved at the tub scene.

 

[Deepster]

I watched Elvis last night. I was never much of an Elvis fan, but this movie was more about "Colonel Tom Parker", his control over Elvis's fortune, and his efforts to ensure he maintained control over the singer's career. It was interesting and Hanks did a good job with the Parker role. The kid who played Elvis was equally up to the task, and apparently sang his parts, nailing it, especially the late career overweight, sweaty Elvis who could barely stand up, but who found it within himself to still give memorable performances. If the screenplay rings true, there were things I learned about Elvis that ups the respect I have for the guy.

That said, at 2.5 hours, I couldn't do it all in one sitting. So I'm dubious on how I'm going to make it through Oppenheimer when that hits streaming.

Check out the side by side here. Good stuff.

 

[Waquoit]

Lumet was involved, but Paddy Chayefsky had complete creative control over the script, even though he had to fight the studio for the ending to stay in place.

Yeah, being the director counts as being involved.

 

[CL82]

I saw Network many years ago when it was first released, and loved it. Haven't seen it in a number of years. My wife has never seen it, so I recently recorded it off of television (it was on Turner Classic Movies), so we will be watching it again soon.

I'd be curious to hear your impressions of it. At the time it was great, but I think it might feel dated on a rewatch.

 

[Palatine]

I'd be curious to hear your impressions of it. At the time it was great, but I think it might feel dated on a rewatch.

Network is a fun watch. Lots of really entertaining stuff. It tugs at a heart string or two but that is not its purpose. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously so neither should you.

 

[CL82]

Network is a fun watch. Lots of really entertaining stuff. It tugs at a heart string or two but that is not its purpose. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously so neither should you.

For some reason movies made and set in the 70s don't seem to translate well, at least for me.

 

[HuskyHawk]

For some reason movies made and set in the 70s don't seem to translate well, at least for me.

Rocky does, Jaws does, Star Wars does. It's the big serious dramas that sometimes miss. Chinatown for example. Good, but not great.

 

[Deepster]

Watched Hereditary (2018) last night. My daughter picked it out and she likes the horror/suspense flicks. For me? It was weird, a little slow and I had no real idea of what it was about after it was over. I read a review that explained it afterwards that made it clearer but I definitely did not understand all of the plot while watching it. Hard pass for me.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Watched "Self Reliance" on Hulu last night. Written, directed by and starring Jake Johnson. I like him, I wanted to like it, but it just didn't add up to much for me. He plays a Joe Average guy stuck in a rut. Walking down the street, a limo rolls up to him and Andy Samberg is sitting in the back with a proposal for Jake. Play a game with the chance to win $1 million. The catch is he has to survive for 30 days, with people trying to kill him. But they can only take him out when he is alone. He figured it would be easy to have somebody with him at all times, but finds it's more difficult than he thought. Especially when his family all thinks he's crazy. Co stars Anna Kendrick. It wasn't particularly funny, although it was billed as a comedy. It also didn't have that much emotional impact.


Anna is one of those ageless wonders. She hardly looks any different than she did when I first saw her in Up in the Air, 15 years ago.

 

[CL82]

Rocky does, Jaws does, Star Wars does. It's the big serious dramas that sometimes miss. Chinatown for example. Good, but not great.

Star Wars isn't set in the 1970s. Neither is Chinatown.

Rocky definitely works, but I think some of that is due to the fact that the characters seem quirky and out of place anyway.

Jaws is indisputably a good movie, but the non-action, non-boat sequences definitely have that weird 70s feel, at least to me.

 

[nwhoopfan]

For some reason I found myself thinking about the movie Liberal Arts (2012) recently. Hadn't seen that in quite a while, so I revisited it. Streaming on Kanopy. Josh Radnor is a bored college admissions officer living in NYC. His favorite college prof (Richard Jenkins) invites him to come to a retirement celebration. So back to his idyllic small town liberal arts school in Ohio he goes. While there he meets and is smitten with a student barely over half his age, Elizabeth Olsen in one of her earliest roles. He also befriends a troubled loner, runs into his other favorite teacher Allison Janney, and has a couple chance encounters with a trippy cosmic philosopher played by Zac Efron, who I completely forgot was even in this movie. It's very talky, but I enjoyed it now as I did when I saw it originally. Radnor doesn't appear to have a lot of range, but the characters he portrays are likable. Ted Mosby, architect.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The Enforcer 3. Didn't know what to expect here, but this was really quite enjoyable. Denzel does his usual excellent job in the lead, with a cast of Italian actors. Some gorgeous scenery of the Amalfi coast. This is really a redemption tale and I think Denzel as Robert McCall does a nice job of shifting from brutality to a newfound inner peace. There's religious symbolism aplenty as his character becomes a good man. Solid recommendation.

 

[storrsroars]

The Enforcer 3. Didn't know what to expect here, but this was really quite enjoyable. Denzel does his usual excellent job in the lead, with a cast of Italian actors. Some gorgeous scenery of the Amalfi coast. This is really a redemption tale and I think Denzel as Robert McCall does a nice job of shifting from brutality to a newfound inner peace. There's religious symbolism aplenty as his character becomes a good man. Solid recommendation.

Think you meant "The Equalizer 3"

 

[Husky25]

I also watched The Equalizer 3 yesterday. I could follow it, but wasn't too invested, as I was doing a number of other chores around the house. I need to re-watch. I also watched Man on Fire. late last week. With a few changes in detail, the MoF plot could have very well been a part of the Equalizer franchise.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Think you meant "The Equalizer 3"

Crap, yes. Too late to edit it now.

 

[CL82]

The Enforcer 3. Didn't know what to expect here, but this was really quite enjoyable. Denzel does his usual excellent job in the lead, with a cast of Italian actors. Some gorgeous scenery of the Amalfi coast. This is really a redemption tale and I think Denzel as Robert McCall does a nice job of shifting from brutality to a newfound inner peace. There's religious symbolism aplenty as his character becomes a good man. Solid recommendation.

I never thought of McCall as being evil or a "bad man". In fact he seems to be a good man with "a particular set of skills" that allows him to act when he sees a perceived injustice.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I never thought of McCall as being evil or a "bad man". In fact he seems to be a good man with "a particular set of skills" that allows him to act when he sees a perceived injustice.

Sure. Did you see the movie? That's it, it's really about his internal conflict on that point, and how he comes to live with himself (and how many scumbags he has to kill). Made it better than generic action movie for me.

 

[CL82]

Sure. Did you see the movie? That's it, it's really about his internal conflict on that point, and how he comes to live with himself (and how many scumbags he has to kill). Made it better than generic action movie for me.

I haven't seen three yet. It sounds good though.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I never thought of McCall as being evil or a "bad man". In fact he seems to be a good man with "a particular set of skills" that allows him to act when he sees a perceived injustice.

Yeah, he's a bit like Jack Reacher. He has his own very strict moral code, and sees it as his duty to protect those who can't protect themselves, from the people who try to victimize them. For those who prey on the weak, there is no sympathy or mercy.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Free is a very good price. Was gonna sign up for Amazon Prime again anyway, but they're giving me 30 days free. I'll take it.

First up "Totally Killer." Kind of a send up of 80s slasher flicks. And a send up of all time travel related movies. While it did have some humorous parts, I was surprised at how visceral and brutal the murders scenes were. Wasn't expecting that. That was probably a once was enough viewing, but not bad. Is Lochlyn Monro having a career revival, or did he never go away? I see him a lot these days.

You know the drill. Of the actresses I knew from before, all playing 16 year olds in the movie, we have 28 year Liana Liberato, 26 year old Olivia Holt, and 24 year old Kiernan Shipka (how is she 24 already?!). I'm never gonna stop thinking it's weird to have such a massive age gap between the character and the actress.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I should add to the above that the enlightened teen from 2023 time traveling back to 1987 and incessantly lecturing everybody about how horrifyingly un-PC they were got way, way overplayed. Might have been able to get a few laughs out of it, but just kept going back to it over and over again, and it was really quite annoying.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Sometimes I get an itch and I just need to scratch it. Been curious about "Landscape With Invisible Hand" for a while. Finally got to watch it. Uh...weird. Not necessarily bad. Or good. Just weird. In the near future an alien race, the vuvv, conquer earth not through military means but through economic might. Life here is quite bleak after. The vuvv seem to think they made life on earth better, and despite their supposed intelligence they have a blind spot a mile wide. Starts out w/ 2 teenagers doing a podcast of their relationship for views/cashmoney. But it goes a whole different direction eventually. I guess it's all allegorical or symbolic probably. Hey, if you like theremin, this is the movie for you. There was quite a healthy dose of it in the musical score. Definitely added to the weird sci fi vibes. I thought the actress, Kylie Rogers was going to be the main character. She was not. She all but disappeared. The lead was Asante Blackk. I was getting a bit of younger Donald Glover vibes from him.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Okay, saw Equalizer 3. I thought the interplay with Denzel and Dakota was the most interesting part of the film. Very deliberately paced. When it did get to the violence, is it just me or was this gorier than the previous movies?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Checked another off my list last night. I have a bit of a dilemma. I like Josephine Langford. The problem is most of her career has been taken up making the "After" series. I refuse to watch them (well okay, I tried the first one and gave up after 20 or 30 minutes). They crank out 1 every year and they are up to 5 already I think. Not that much other stuff she's been in, and usually just as a minor character. So she's the lead in a new rom com "The Other Zoey." A bit of an update/new spin on "While You Were Sleeping." I knew going in it might be difficult, the whole thing with misleading everybody and then just digging deeper and deeper into the deception is frustrating for me. Luckily the truth came out about halfway thru, and there were actual real consequences instead of just brushing it off. It was okay, but Josephine was charming and my goodness she is lovely.