Movie Hindsight 2020 | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Movie Hindsight 2020

I hadn't really seen anything positive about the latest version of "Charlie's Angels," but I was still a bit curious. Got it from Netflix. I'd say middle of the road action movie, nothing special but not terrible. Certainly a cut above the ludicrous previous rendition w/ Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu that completely threw physics and gravity out the window. I don't think I'd seen Naomi Scott in anything before (I've been boycotting all the Disney live action remakes of cartoons for a while now), I like her. Had several big plot twists as spy caper movies usually do. A rapid fire series of cameos during the end credits. Probably most are gonna skip it anyway, but I'll give it at least a luke warm recommendation. And it seemed less heavy handed as far as girl power than the latest Terminator flick.
 
Midsommar - ...that was an acid trip.

Overall not that bad but weird at the same time.
 
Once Upon a Time In Hollywood - As noted above the Bruce Lee scene was great. And I am not talented enough to realize that Pitt was Oscar worthy. Seemed like Pitt playing Pitt.

Great movie.
 
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - Some decently chilling creature design, a basic story, and underwhelming main baddie. Like most horror movies, I find it really wasn't scary.

Onward - Followed the Pixar formula pretty closely, but the central plot hit pretty close to home for the wife (father died when she was 9) so it made the whole proceedings oddly personal. Good movie.

Knives Out - It think it thought it was much more clever than it actually was. IMO it was merely ok, I don't think I need to see any more of Benoit Blanc's cases. Who throws up if they lie? So dumb.

Terminator: Dark Fate - I don't know why I stay up to date on some of these long running franchises that ran out of ideas a long time ago. Oh, we now have a new savior of the future humans because the machines sent a Terminator back and wiped out the last savior you say? And now they sent another Terminator to wipe out this one? But the humans sent back someone to protect that savior? And now they are going on a Pepé Le Pew style chase where we know the savior will eventually win out because, well, they have to otherwise the franchise ends? Why not just give us the future timeline all-out war movie that the Terminator franchise should have ended on 4 movies ago now? Oh, right because then the franchise ends. Put it out of it's misery Cameron!

Midway - You know how sometimes with shoddy CGI the animators can't get the weight, physics and sizing quite right for the action set pieces? That's kind of a metaphor for this whole movie. There was no weight behind the portrayals because the cast were largely chosen for their looks instead of their chops. The physics (bear with me) of Ed Skrein attempting an American accent that was constantly betrayed by his natural English one and a Jonas brother trying to sound like he was an Italian from NYC were both laughable. And the sizing was wrong because, although it had a big story to tell, it felt long as it just wasn't very good. See? Perfectly terrible metaphor. Lol. Also I had no issues with the subtitles, all the scenes with the Japanese were subtitled.

Abominable - Some nice animation, plot was fine, but kind of really weird how they Americanized a lot of things for a movie that took place entirely in mainland China.

Spies in Disguise - We're only a week in and we've exhausted the new kid's movie library pretty much, not good. It was passable, kind of hard to get invested in it.
 
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Mano said:
Midway - You know how sometimes with shoddy CGI the animators can't get the weight, physics and sizing quite right for the action set pieces? That's kind of a metaphor for this whole movie. There was no weight behind the portrayals because the cast were largely chosen for their looks instead of their chops. The physics (bear with me) of Ed Skrein attempting an American accent that was constantly betrayed by his natural English one and a Jonas brother trying to sound like he was an Italian from NYC were both laughable. And the sizing was wrong because, although it had a big story to tell, it felt long as it just wasn't very good. See? Perfectly terrible metaphor. Lol. Also I had no issues with the subtitles, all the scenes with the Japanese were subtitled.
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Maybe Ed Skrein was there to distract you from noticing that Luke Evans is also from the UK. The huge casting misfire for me was Woody Harrelson as Nimitz. He's come a long way from his days on Cheers, and I think he's a fine actor, but this just didn't work for me. At all.
 
"The Great Train Robbery"-Michael Crichton- 1978

Crichton was a popular novelist. Much of his work could be considered SciFi eg Jurrssic Park. He adapted some of his popular works for the screen starting with "Coma." He was lucky to secure Sean Connery for the lead (Edward Pierce) in "The Great Train Robbery." In the UK the film had a First beginning the title. There was a theft of more than 2 million pounds from a train, This story was covered in a TV series; that's worth looking for if you can find it streaming free. The film is available to stream for free on several sites including Amazon Prime.

The Crimean war was one of the major inflexion points for change in the Victorian era. Metal ships and the Red Cross are but two of the key points. This was also the first war covered daily by correspondents. The British and the French were fighting Czarist Russia. The soldiers had to be paid; every month gold bullion worth 25,000 English pounds was sent from a London bank to a port, and then shipped to Crimea.

There had never been a robbery of a moving train in 1855; it was widely thought to be impossible. The bank took extra precautions. The bullion was divided between two 500 pound Chubb safes. Each safe needed to have two keys to be opened. All four keys were needed. The car was locked from the outside. Pierce assembled a gang which included a safe man, Agar(Donald Sutherland) and Mirriam (Lesly Ann Down. Their first task was to make copies oft he four keys. One was held by the Bank President, one by the bank manager, and two in the London train station office. They added a second story man and the guard inside the car to tie up loose ends.

Sean Connery still had to climb out of his first class car onto the roof of a moving train. He had to climb from car to car until he reached the baggage car so the outside lock could be unlocked. Connery did this without a stunt double; the train was supposed to have a top speed of 35 mph, but it actually was going over 50 mph..
Crichton's novel deviated from reality in making it more difficult for the gang. Crichton's hair literally caught fire while shooting the train sequence.

This is a classic caper film. It is really enjoyable; there are no deep hidden meanings, no social commentary. They are professional criminals and they did it for the money. Highly recommended.
 
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zymurg said:
"The Great Train Robbery"-Michael Crichton- 1978

Crichton was a popular novelist. Much of his work could be considered SciFi eg Jurrssic Park. He adapted some of his popular works for the screen starting with "Coma." He was lucky to secure Sean Connery for the lead (Edward Pierce) in "The Great Train Robbery." In the UK the film had a First beginning the title. There was a theft of more than 2 million pounds from a train, This story was covered in a TV series; that's worth looking for if you can find it streaming free. The film is available to stream for free on several sites including Amazon Prime.

The Crimean war was one of the major inflexion points for change in the Victorian era. Metal ships and the Red Cross are but two of the key points. This was also the first war covered daily by correspondents. The British and the French were fighting Czarist Russia. The soldiers had to be paid; every month gold bullion worth 25,000 English pounds was sent from a London bank to a port, and then shipped to Crimea.

There had never been a robbery of a moving train in 1855; it was widely thought to be impossible. The bank took extra precautions. The bullion was divided between two 500 pound Chubb safes. Each safe needed to have two keys to be opened. All four keys were needed. The car was locked from the outside. Pierce assembled a gang which included a safe man, Agar(Donald Sutherland) and Mirriam (Lesly Ann Down. Their first task was to make copies oft he four keys. One was held by the Bank President, one by the bank manager, and two in the London train station office. They added a second story man and the guard inside the car to tie up loose ends.

Sean Connery still had to climb out of his first class car onto the roof of a moving train. He had to climb from car to car until he reached the baggage car so the outside lock could be unlocked. Connery did this without a stunt double; the train was supposed to have a top speed of 35 mph, but it actually was going over 50 mph..
Crichton's novel deviated from reality in making it more difficult for the gang. Crichton's hair literally caught fire while shooting the train sequence.

This is a classic caper film. It is really enjoyable; there are no deep hidden meanings, no social commentary. They are professional criminals and they did it for the money. Highly recommended.
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The Great Train Robbery is the only Micheal Critchton book that I haven't read. I need to find time for it. I love the detail with which he approaches his subject matter.
 
I wasn't going to watch "Midsommar," but it was free streaming from Kanopy, so what the heck. WTH!? Not sure why I stuck with it til the end. I guess I was hoping for some kind of meaning, but I sure didn't find any. I rarely watch horror movies, every once in a while my curiosity gets the better of me, and I almost always wish I hadn't. Oh well, I still dig Florence Pugh anyway. Do not accept invitations from your Swedish friends to check out the commune/cult they grew up in...:eek:
 
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Couple of nights ago I couldn't sleep due to my knee so flipped around for something to fall asleep to. Settled on "Stand Up Guys", which I believe I'd seen bits of before, but never the whole movie. I stayed up to watch the whole thing. There's nothing really remarkable about the story - an old gangster is released from prison and his best friend picks him up with orders to kill the guy by 10am the next day due to a long-standing grievance.

But what is remarkable is that while this movie was made in 2012, Al Pacino and Christopher Walken both recall their best acting from far earlier in their careers before they became caricatures. They are both excellent. The acting appears almost effortless. And Alan Arkin, in a short appearance, pretty much steals every scene he's in with Pacino and Walken, which is no mean feat. There are comedic moments (especially with Arkin) that just fit in seamlessly and are LOL worthy. I really enjoyed this and would watch again. Recommended.
 
Ad Astra - My wife zonked out on this one. The introverted, emotionless Brad Pitt character had a hunger to find his father, a lost astronaut out near Neptune. Pitt was a pawn, but he breaks loose to get on the ship that was setting out to kill his dad.

Overall decent. I think this acting portrayal was better than his Once Upon A Time in Hollywood deal.

This character was much closer to Joe Black.
 
I liked Knives Out just fine, I like murder mysteries. The SO thought it was too long.
 
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The Big Sick - Had no idea what to expect. Its a very funny rom-com starring Kumail Nanjiani.

Ray Romano and Holly Hunter with solid guest appearances.

I give a high rec for this one.
 
"Twenty Feet From Stardom" This is a great documentary about background singers:Darlene Love, Judith Hill, Merry Clayton et al. Sting, Bruce Springsteen and many other front men discuss the back-ups, but it is the music, stupid. Don't miss this one. I couldn't write a focused preview/commentary. Singing just doesn't work when you can't hear.
 
Smokey and the Bandit - 2nd highest grossing film of 1977. Jackie Gleason is a freaking riot as Sheriff Buford T. Justice.

Creed 2 - I'm a sucker for these Rocky films. The Drago father/son relationship is text book dumb. The fight scenes, tho, are really good. Stallone does a good job here. Michael B Jordan is pretty good, too, as Adonis Creed.
 
Netflix has gotten so sketchy with their deliveries, never know if I'm going to get new releases. If I don't get them right away, it will be a month or two, they're just continuously listed as "short wait." Finally got a couple of those.

"21 Bridges" was well done I thought. Good pacing, story kept moving. There are so many movies about dirty cops. Real police officers must hate them. This is yet another. Chadwick Boseman has a midas touch so far, I can't think of anything he's been in that has been bad. I don't know what it is about Sienna Miller, she never looks the same twice to me. Most of the way thru the movie I couldn't figure out who the female lead was. Some good supporting characters--J.K. Simmons, Keith David, Taylor Kitsch (since bombing as a leading man he's been killing it in supporting roles the last several years), Stephan James. This one is plenty violent.

I didn't have particularly high expectations for "Gemini Man." I was really enjoying it for about the first half. Less action and more thriller/espionage/intrigue than I thought. Then it started to bog down a bit and really went off the rails during the big finale. Too bad, it could've been better. Still enjoyed it overall. The CGI age regressed Will Smith was a bit too strange, I think uncanny valley is maybe the term for that? Always glad to see Mary Elizabeth Winstead on screen.
 
"Heathers"-Michael Lehmann-1989

Lehmann has achieved more success on TV: True Blood, Californication, Blunt Talk, 68 Whiskey. Daniel Waters, the screenwriter, has been even less successful. He did write scripts for the TV series. Based on the available figures; the film lost money. My gut tells me that is wrong; box office figures are notoriously unreliable. In 2003 "Entertainment Weekly" had a feature with the top 50 cult movies. "Heathers" ranked #5 with IDMb viewers.

The film was shot in the LA area; the setting is Westerburg HS in Ohio. In this mythic setting; the school is ruled by jocks and the Heathers. There are 3 Heathers; the nastiest is Heather Chandler, the leader. There is a fourth member of the Heathers, Veronica(Winona Ryder). She has become uncomfortable with her behavior as a member of the group. There is a scene in the lunchroom where two jocks threaten a new student, J.D. (the J.D. from J.D. Salinger). J.D. pulls out a gun and shoots them with blanks. His looks and behavior attract Veronica.
J.D. (Christian Slater) is the classic bad boy outsider. Murders and mayhem follow. This is a very dark take off on the classic John Hughes teen films.

The story has had lives like a cat. I mentioned the brief lived TV series. In 2009 a musical "Heathers" opened in
LA. It was taken off Broadway in 2014. There was a cast album. It next went to London where it was even more successful. This yielded another cast album. There was a specially written version for high schools in 2016. The show has played in high schools across the US. Last year the production of that version was the basis for an episode of "Riverdale." The most iconic line "What's your damage" has appeared in dozens of shows.

The film is available for free streaming on Tubi; you need to sign up and there are commercials. It's similar to IMDb. Generally most people either hate or love this movie. I am in neither camp. The film seemed to be a product of its era, but it has resurfaced with a zombie like quality. There is something there which speaks to teenagers. The acting of the two principals is excellent. This is an iconic film; that makes it well worth viewing.
 
Richard Jewell - Really damned good. The lead actor, Paul Walter Hauser killed it as Jewell.

I had forgotten that Jewell died. Damned shame what happened to him.
 
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Gave up quickly on a couple clunkers from Hoopla, but then enjoyed a short and sweet documentary/travelogue called "Dear Albania." Narrated by Eliza Dushku (who is half Albanian). She and her brother Nate, along with a few other people in their entourage traveled all over the country as well as several neighboring countries. It seems Albania is a region as much as a country, many ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. Very brief overview of their history, culture and people. Worth watching I thought.
 
We switched to Comcast recently. They have quite a few free movies from premium channels available on demand, even if you aren't subscribed to those channels. I've been watching quite a few of those lately. Took a flyer on one I'd never heard of before--"Level 16." Very low budget, but effectively told story. Dystopian sci fi. A bunch of girls that are supposedly orphans being raised in an academy/finishing school type of setting. Very spartan setting. There is a growing sense of dread throughout that something really bad is going on in the background. No name cast, mostly Canadian.
 
I had skipped "Overlord." I was mildly curious about it. Free on demand, gave it a try. Not really what I expected. Even cheesier than the description suggested. I probably would've bailed on it, but that French actress was so gorgeous I kept going with it. I usually like Wyatt Russell, this wasn't his best role. I thought for sure the main lead was Derek Luke, but it wasn't. Jovan Adepo. I don't think I've seen him in anything else.
 
I took a break from posting anything on here for a while, now I can't stop myself. :rolleyes: I wade thru plenty of mediocre movies and some that stink, it's always satisfying to find a gem. Streamed this from Hoopla, I doubt it was ever in theaters, don't think it had any kind of advertising budget. "Feast of Seven Fishes." Blue collar Italian family in rural Pennsylvania (I think) set in the 80s. It's a long tradition, on Christmas Eve they spend all day preparing a seafood feast and then gather together. 4 generations. Movie is centered around Skylar Gisondo (who played a total weirdo in "Book Smart") and Madison Iseman (who played an airhead in "Jumanji"). Here as main characters and actual people rather than caricatures they really shine. It's a heartfelt, sweet story. Good supporting characters throughout.
 
Rocketman - Fun movie. Not groundbreaking in anyway. Didn't expect the musical overload feel but that made it fun. Seems like a preview to a run on Broadway. Like the Saturday Night's All Right routine. And the first night at The Troubador in LA.

A Perfect World (1993)- An Eastwood-directed film with him and Costner. KC played a bad guy who kidnaps a kid. But the kid doesn't know he's kidnapped and they are pursued by the law. A little bonding going on. Overall, meh.
 
Uncut Gems - The SO tapped out after 30 or so minutes. I didn't argue. I was on the phone with my brother today and it came up. He said for such a well-reviewed movie he hasn't talked to anyone who liked it.
 
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Waquoit said:
Uncut Gems - The SO tapped out after 30 or so minutes. I didn't argue. I was on the phone with my brother today and it came up. He said for such a well-reviewed movie he hasn't talked to anyone who liked it.
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Couldn't agree more. And I have since learned how the movie ended and am even happier that we abandoned it. Totally unenjoyable.
 
Looks nothing like Billy Batts or Frank Vincent for that matter...with or without the beard.

 
"Code 8" was good I thought. Low budget sci fi. Powered people (mutants basically, but this isn't related to any comic as far as I know) have been deemed dangerous and are being systemically discriminated against. Leaves them fairly desperate to try to get by in life. The movie just looks good, the practical effects were well done. I've seen plenty of movies with much bigger budgets that looked much worse. Stars cousins Robbie and Steven Amell. A few other recognizable faces in supporting roles, mostly unknown cast to me. Worth a watch.
 
zymurg said:
"Heathers"-Michael Lehmann-1989

Lehmann has achieved more success on TV: True Blood, Californication, Blunt Talk, 68 Whiskey. Daniel Waters, the screenwriter, has been even less successful. He did write scripts for the TV series. Based on the available figures; the film lost money. My gut tells me that is wrong; box office figures are notoriously unreliable. In 2003 "Entertainment Weekly" had a feature with the top 50 cult movies. "Heathers" ranked #5 with IDMb viewers.

The film was shot in the LA area; the setting is Westerburg HS in Ohio. In this mythic setting; the school is ruled by jocks and the Heathers. There are 3 Heathers; the nastiest is Heather Chandler, the leader. There is a fourth member of the Heathers, Veronica(Winona Ryder). She has become uncomfortable with her behavior as a member of the group. There is a scene in the lunchroom where two jocks threaten a new student, J.D. (the J.D. from J.D. Salinger). J.D. pulls out a gun and shoots them with blanks. His looks and behavior attract Veronica.
J.D. (Christian Slater) is the classic bad boy outsider. Murders and mayhem follow. This is a very dark take off on the classic John Hughes teen films.
Expand ...

I was well into my 30s first time I saw Heathers. Loved it then and will still watch it, although it hasn't aged all that gracefully. I remember thinking Slater was going to be a huge star after his performance, then it became clear that the world already had one Jack Nicholson and wasn't pining for another.
 
Uncut Gems - Like many here I found all the characters pretty despicable, made it hard to care what happened to them. Makes the ending at least easier to take. Shrug. As for Sandler, it was nice to see him do some real acting even if it was similar to his usual schtick of an accent and a lot of yelling.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker - Was ok. All the air battles had that same familiar feel to them, right down to the baddies ships having a fatal, obvious flaw that take them down with ease! I think my biggest problem with the newest trilogy is, try as the might, the camaraderie and family dynamic between our protags felt forced to me. I think that's one of the biggest draws of the OT and hinged largely on Harrison Ford's charm.

Noelle - I had actually totally forgotten I'd even seen this until browsing recently. Probably tells you all you need to know.
 
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