Movie Hindsight 2020 | Page 8 | The Boneyard

Movie Hindsight 2020

"Official Secrets"-this 2019 British film stars Keira Knightley as Katherine Gunn a British intelligence operative released a secret memo from NSA which confirmed a joint British/American operation to gather incriminating intelligence about individuals who represented non permanent members of the UN Security Council to bribe them into voting for war against Sadam Hussein's Iraq. It is done with the best British understatement. A very solid film very fact based. I must admit that I hadn't heard about this case. This is well worth your time.
 
Haven't chimed in for a while. Most I've seen lately were too mediocre to bother mentioning, or repeat viewings that I might've already reviewed.

My dad recommended "The Reading Room" with James Earl Jones from the mid 2000s, I'd never seen it. Jones lost his wife, her dying wish was for him to do something philanthropic in the inner city. He was skeptical at first but comes to realize it does as much for him as it does the various youths he ends up helping. Enjoyable, feel good movie. I didn't recognize many of the other actors in it, but it must've been one of the earliest appearances for Jessica Szor.
 
"Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable" is a documentary. "Soul Surfer" was a pretty decent dramatization about her life that focused quite a bit on the shark attack and her recovery. The documentary covered a much longer time frame and didn't spend a lot of time on the attack. I thought it was well done. She's a remarkable person.
 
"Ride Like a Girl" is based on a true story about a female jockey in Australia. Stars Teresa Palmer and Sam Neill (wow, I had absolutely no idea he's a Kiwi until I looked him up just now) played a significant role, other than that didn't recognize any of the actors. A little slow to start but a good story, well done I thought. Palmer is the youngest of 10 kids, her mom died right after she was born. Neill is the dad. Almost all of the kids go on to be jockeys, the boys and the girls. As the youngest Palmer feels like she's always fighting for attention or respect or to be taken seriously. She ends up riding in the Melbourne Cup, which I gathered is about as big of a deal in Australia as one of the Triple Crown races is here. She was in the 155th annual race and was only the 5th female jockey to ever appear. I won't spoiler the ending.
 
The Trip (2010) - Just watched this movie this weekend. It is a sort of mockumentary directed by Michael Winterbottom, and starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as some sort of versions of themselves. Coogan and Brydon go on a week long restaurant tour of northern England. In addition to watching some scrumptious food preparation and presentation, you get to witness same beautiful scenery and much interesting and clever conversation involving Coogan and/or Brydon. A bunch of the conversation involves a sort of a dueling series of vocal impressions of other actors, most memorably involving Michael Caine and Sean Connery, among others. Definitely some good funny stuff here, not a great film but I rather enjoyed it. There is no real plot here other than the interplay that ensues. The film rests totally on the appeal of the two actors involved.

This film was initially a six part British television series that was edited into this film. Three sequels involving Winterbottom, Coogan and Brydon ensued after the initial success of the first project. The second in the series is “The Trip to Italy”, which takes the initial concept to mainland Europe. I enjoyed the first film enough that eventually I will get around to the Italy film, and we’ll see where that one takes us.
 
Dove said:
The Pineapple Express ( 2008) - First time seeing it. Freaking hysterical. The scene where Franco went to kick the windshield out...lol

Franco was a beast. Rogen was funny but inconsistent. Like you can tell he had poor filming days. Danny McBride was also great.
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Pineapple Express is ten times better on something like Pineapple Express....or so I've heard.
 
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A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018) - Netflix biopic about Doug Kenney, the founder of National Lampoon and writer of Animal House and Caddyshack. This is a really good little movie about someone who you may not know, but you have probably seen his work if you are over 30 years old. Will Forte stars, but you will recognize a lot of the cast, who are playing a lot of names that you will recognize. Biopics often get preachy, and are usually either heavy or soaring. This movie is really funny, which is hard to pull off in a biopic. So much of his behavior is ridiculous, but he worked in comedy in the 70's, so that is to be expected.

This movie isn't the greatest anything, but it is fun, despite the depressing ending, and worth watching.
 
Dove said:
The Irishman - Absolutely way too long. And knowing there were complaints about the youthing CGI I was only bothered with it in about two scenes. Overall, we really enjoyed the story and the star power carried it enough to overcome the length. Pacino was great.
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Was definitely a good film, but no question it was way, WAY too long.
 
"Ballet Shoes" is a British made for TV movie I'd never heard of til I stumbled upon it on Amazon Prime. Cast includes Emma Watson from some time in the middle of the Harry Potter series, and Lucy Boynton near the beginning of her career. I found it interesting. Packs a lot into about 90 minutes. Those 2 plus one other were adopted at various times by an anthropologist (I think) during his travels and grow up together as sisters in London. His great niece is more or less their mother, she also came to live with him when she was orphaned. He's gone most of the time. Money gets tight, they take on some boarders and the girls find some work in various stage productions singing, dancing and/or acting. There's more to it, but that's a brief overview. The 4 of them, plus the boarders and a few other people who come into their lives all get decent character arcs. Well done IMO.
 
"Guns Akimbo" is a movie I was mildly curious about, but decided to pass on...but then ended up streaming it on Amazon Prime. Hyper-violent, almost to comedic levels if that is possible. The leads were all in. Felt like a bit of a mish mash of several previous films to me (Nerve, Gamer, Hardcore Henry...maybe some others). Okay, but not must see.
 
After taking a break, I'm back with a vengeance! I know there are a few other fans of awkward high school/teen dramas/dramedies here. Got another one to add to that list--"Banana Split." Briefly, boy and girl date for 2 years, break up right after HS graduation, new girl moves to town and gets together with boy. For some strange reason ex-girlfriend and new girlfriend become best friends, boy has no idea about it. Boy's best friend does know about it, and is more than a bit perturbed about being put in that situation. As you can probably guess this does not all work out smoothly in the end. It was definitely all kinds of awkward at times, but well done and I enjoyed it. I'd seen Liana Liberato in a few things, the rest of the main cast I wasn't familiar with--although Dylan Spruce is almost the same thing as Cole Spruce (twins) who I know from Riverdale. Wait a minute, the other main character Hannah Marks was the bratty little sister in "Accepted," so I guess I have seen her before. That was a few years ago though. In true Hollywood fashion our high schoolers were portrayed by actors in their mid to late 20. Such a weird thing to me.
 
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado - I had never heard of Walter Mercado going in to this Netflix documentary. I'm glad I watched, it touched me. The documentary is fine, a bit padded maybe, but Walter is awesome. The only regret for me is knowing I will never be that fabulous.
 
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I saw "The First Time" several years ago. Didn't really remember anything about it, except I seem to recall I liked it. Streamed it on Prime. I'd say not your average teen romantic drama, much more realistic look at people inexperienced with relationships. Both leads were really good--Dylan O'Brien and Britt Roberston. They weren't on screen much but Victoria Justice and Halston Sage were in supporting roles. I would recommend it without hesitation.
 
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley - Decent style, short on substance. Ewan McGregor's villain felt inconsequential and lacking in motivation. Jumping full bore into the universe like that required a lot of spoken exposition but the connection to the Joker and Batman felt tenuous at best. Try as they might Margot Robbie isn't an action star either.

Like a Boss - Wife's dumb choice. I don't mind looking at Rose Byrne, that's the best I got. You can excoriate me now Storrs.

The Hunt - Overhyped in terms of how controversial it was supposed to be. A few moments of fun action but mostly meh.

The Invisible Man - I actually enjoyed this one, didn't think I would. A testament to Elisabeth Moss, she's a good actress even if she's a scientology kook. My one gripe is I wish they had gotten a recognizable actor for the Man, felt underwhelming during the reveal somehow.

Downhill - Haven't seen the original but I'm sure it's better. I liked the pairing of Ferrell and Dreyfuss but something overall just didn't click.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga - This was more in Ferrell's silly wheelhouse. Some of the song's were legitimately good. You could do worse with 90 minutes.

Missing Link - A bit of a snooze but nice to look at for a kid's movie.

Hamilton - Musical's aren't my thing at all. Jonathan Groff's King George was the highlight.
 
The Way, Way Back (2013) - Watched this film over the weekend. Story of a 14 year old kid who is not at all happy with his family life. His parents are divorced, and his mother is seeing a guy who the kid cannot stand. To make matters worse, the mom and the boyfriend decide to spend the summer at the boyfriend’s vacation house on Cape Cod, and take the kid with him. The kid is not at all happy about having to be in close proximity to the boyfriend, and for the most part becomes pretty sullen and uncommunicative. The only bright side to the situation is when the kid meets a worker at the local amusement park played by Sam Rockwell. This film is worth watching just to see what Rockwell does with his role, as he pretty much steals this movie.
 
dbmill said:
The Way, Way Back (2013)
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I really enjoyed this movie, seen it several times. Rockwell is great, but there are several other good performances in this. Pretty much everything that happens at the water park is gold.
 
nwhoopfan said:
I really enjoyed this movie, seen it several times. Rockwell is great, but there are several other good performances in this. Pretty much everything that happens at the water park is gold.
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If you ask me, the water park is an alternate universe all to its own.
 
Well that was different. Watched "Monsoon" on Amazon. The 2018 version, because apparently several films share the same name. Looks like it hit the film festival circuit but wasn't acquired for a general release. Anyway...mostly watched it because Katherine Hughes is in it. Small budget indie. Hughes is besties with the guy next door, they both just graduated high school. They've been platonic but then kinda get together, have a nice outing together, on the way home they are in a car wreck and she doesn't make it. I don't think that's really a spoiler because it happens in the first few minutes. The guy of course has a hard time moving forward. She still gets plenty of screen time though because in his mind she's still there and they talk to each other frequently. It's fairly slow, but I enjoyed it overall. It's pretty sad of course, but not a completely depressing or hopeless movie. It's almost entirely filmed in Arizona, some stunning scenery during a part where there's a road trip to Sedona.
 
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Egads. "Vivarium." Let me do you a favor and just skip it. I love Imogen Poots. She does mostly indies, which are really hit and miss...but I'm having a hard time remembering the last film she was in that I actually liked. Her performance was fine, but the movie overall was bizarre, dull and utterly pointless to me. The trailers gave it kind of a Twilight Zone vibe, but it didn't live up to that. I had fairly low expectations after seeing lukewarm reviews, but was still very disappointed.
 
The Vast of Night (2019) - Overall I liked this movie. Mrs. Dove fell asleep. Timeline is one evening. The setting is a New Mexicon town.

A slow burn and set in 1950s. A switchboard operator (she) and a radio station personality (he) are the stars. She gets a weird sound on one of the lines. She calls other operators to verify and then calls her radio buddy who is intrigued. He confirms something is up.

They investigate and it turns out to be...

Intriguing camera work. Check it out.
 
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Dove said:
The Vast of Night (2019) - Overall I liked this movie. Mrs. Dove fell asleep. Timeline is one evening. The setting is a New Mexicon town.

A slow burn and set in 1950s. A switchboard operator (she) and a radio station personality (he) are the stars. She gets a weird sound on one of the lines. She calls other operators to verify and then calls her radio buddy who is intrigued. He confirms something is up.

They investigate and it turns out to be...

Intriguing camera work. Check it out.
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OTOH, I found it a total waste of time with no payoff, unless your thing is watching a somewhat chunky adolescent girl in catholic school uniform running around. There's a lot of that.
 
storrsroars said:
OTOH, I found it a total waste of time with no payoff, unless your thing is watching a somewhat chunky adolescent girl in catholic school uniform running around. There's a lot of that.
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My wife hated the movie. I found it different in a good way.
 
"The Black Hole" (1979). I saw it in the theater as a kid. Not sure I've seen it since. Some of it has stuck with me all this time. I remember being terrified of the robot Maximilian. Several scenes I distinctly remembered. I can't think of many movies I've seen once, 40 years ago, that left that kind of impact. It certainly looks dated, the FX was probably really good for its time. Some recognizable cast members like Robert Forster, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnine. A bit slow paced, but fairly much kept my interest. I see lots of negative (more current) reviews about it being a bad Star Wars knockoff, also a few references to 2001. Came out the same year as Alien. While it may not be a classic, I don't think it should be completely dismissed. Seems like it's had a few knockoffs of its own over the years, discovering a long missing ship in space and surprisingly finding a maniacal captain in charge and the ship not derelect seems like a common enough trope I've seen in numerous other films. There is some mystery left at the end. Was Dr. Hans Reinhardt really running the ship or was Maximilian? The end goes a bit psychedelic (that's mostly where the 2001 comparisons come from), was it a depiction of heaven and hell? There's a mention of Dante's Inferno early in the film, seems like it was coming back to that, too. The physics of outer space were nearly completely ignored, so there's that you have to overlook. Anyway, I got it from the library, was worth the nostalgia trip for me.
 
nwhoopfan said:
"The Black Hole" (1979). I saw it in the theater as a kid. Not sure I've seen it since. Some of it has stuck with me all this time. I remember being terrified of the robot Maximilian. Several scenes I distinctly remembered. I can't think of many movies I've seen once, 40 years ago, that left that kind of impact. It certainly looks dated, the FX was probably really good for its time. Some recognizable cast members like Robert Forster, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnine. A bit slow paced, but fairly much kept my interest. I see lots of negative (more current) reviews about it being a bad Star Wars knockoff, also a few references to 2001. Came out the same year as Alien. While it may not be a classic, I don't think it should be completely dismissed. Seems like it's had a few knockoffs of its own over the years, discovering a long missing ship in space and surprisingly finding a maniacal captain in charge and the ship not derelect seems like a common enough trope I've seen in numerous other films. There is some mystery left at the end. Was Dr. Hans Reinhardt really running the ship or was Maximilian? The end goes a bit psychedelic (that's mostly where the 2001 comparisons come from), was it a depiction of heaven and hell? There's a mention of Dante's Inferno early in the film, seems like it was coming back to that, too. The physics of outer space were nearly completely ignored, so there's that you have to overlook. Anyway, I got it from the library, was worth the nostalgia trip for me.
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Hell yeah, I had a "The Black Hole" lunchbox when I was in Kindergarten.

I need to watch this movie again.
 
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"The November Man" is a solid espionage thriller starring Pierce Brosnan and Olga Kurylenko. Brosnan's Bond movies were terrible but he's done plenty of good work since then.
 
Palm Springs (2020) - Available on Hulu. Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti star in this time loop romantic comedy that is surprisingly good. I can't give any details of the plot without spoiling it, so I won't. The movie is funny, well written, and more respectful of the time travel aspects of the story than many sci-fi movies that use time travel. The stars aren't great actors, but they are great for their roles. Milioti in particular is effective at being the average every-woman. She doesn't have the looks or charisma of the typical romcom lead actress, but that is the point. She is a regular person. Samberg is always a comedian trying to act, so Milioti has to do the heavy lifting in this movie.
 
nwhoopfan said:
"The November Man" is a solid espionage thriller starring Pierce Brosnan and Olga Kurylenko. Brosnan's Bond movies were terrible but he's done plenty of good work since then.
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"November Man" was a decent watch, but on Bond, Brosnan's portrayal was at least less campy than Roger Moore's.

Perhaps my favorite Brosnan role is in "The Matador", as it's so out of character, hysterically rude and irredeemable.
 
storrsroars said:
Perhaps my favorite Brosnan role is in "The Matador", as it's so out of character, hysterically rude and irredeemable.
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Have you seen "The Foreigner?" I thought that was really good. Brosnan locked in a battle of wills with Jackie Chan. First completely serious, non comedic role I've seen Chan in.
 
storrsroars said:
on Bond, Brosnan's portrayal was at least less campy than Roger Moore's
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I'm probably in the minority, but I actually like Moore's turn in the role. With Brosnan, it wasn't so much him, it was everything else. Invisible cars, surfing tidal waves, bad guy with a diamond encrusted face, it was just so over the top dumb. The era did give us the film debut of Rosamund Pike, so at least it has that going for it.
 
Saw Greyhound with Tom Hanks on Apple TV this weekend. Was supposed to be released in theaters, but due to COVID, was purchased and issued out on Apple TV instead. Solid war movie. Decent individual performances. It was probably a little predictable and cliched, but then again....it was Tom Hanks and he carries scene after scene.

There's one point in the last 5 minutes where he's staring out into the water and he doesn't say a thing, he just gulps like he's emotional. It lasts for a second....but that's his magic. Sold the movie for me with that one unspoken gesture. B+ for me.
 
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