Agree completely. I think the franchise lost a lot of the heart from the first one. It amazes me how often movie people (directors, producers, studio execs, whoever) don't seem to understand what made a movie work, and totally lose what worked as they continue to churn out sequels. They're supposed to be the professionals, but they just don't seem to get it.
I thought the second one was the best of the Train your Dragon series. Fleshed out the characters. The story was new and interesting. I liked that they aged the characters. That allowed it to be a fresh movie.
Finally saw Jojo Rabbit, right under the wire for the Oscars tonight. Brilliant. Took about 15 minutes to click with me, but I absolutely loved it. Definitely my kind of movie. I’ve now seen seven of the nine Best Picture nominees (missing Little Women and Marriage Story) and this is my personal favorite of the bunch, but I am sticking with Parasite for Best Picture.
At first I thought I’d be annoyed that they were speaking English, and I was a little put-off initially by the use of anachronistic music; but then suddenly none of that mattered, and I was into it in an almost Life is Beautiful way—and that’s one of my all-time favorites.
I honestly think the kid, his chubby friend, the girl and make-believe Hitler each could have been nominated for supporting roles. ScarJo was good but no better than anyone else in this excellent cast. Speaking of which, Sam Rockwell was great as usual, too.
I missed it in the theaters (although it's back now I guess). I kept waiting for it to hit a nearby 2nd run theater but they might not ever get it. I kinda like $4 movies rather than $10 or $12 or whatever. It's due on DVD in a few weeks, I definitely want to see this.
I missed it in the theaters (although it's back now I guess). I kept waiting for it to hit a nearby 2nd run theater but they might not ever get it. I kinda like $4 movies rather than $10 or $12 or whatever. It's due on DVD in a few weeks, I definitely want to see this.
Even worse, I paid $20 to buy it last night because I’m too impatient to wait. Fell asleep because I was buzzed so watched it today. Kinda glad I own it now though because I’ll probably want to watch it again, and I think my daughters will like it, too.
I had been going back and forth on whether I wanted to see Jojo Rabbit since it came out, but about a month ago it pretty much got lodged fairly highly into the movies that were recently released that I want to see. Part of that is because I found out that I found out that Taika Waititi also directed "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", which my wife and I just loved. Figure we will get around to Jojo Rabbit sometime in the next couple of months.
Looks like Miracle may have reached watch-from-any-point-until-it's-over status.
It's on the NHL Network right now. I've been watching since Herb came down the stadium step saying the other hundred kids are getting off easy. Mike Eruzione just scored the go ahead goal vs. the Soviets.
Okay, this is kinda crazy. Jojo Rabbit finally comes out on DVD next Tuesday. It also is finally arriving at my friendly neighborhood second run theater starting on Friday. Better late than never. Now I'll have to decide if I want the theater experience or at home on a smaller screen.
Just saw "The Efficiency Expert" (1992), starring Anthony Hopkins as a consultant hired to turn around businesses that have seen better days. Not a bad comedy which pretty much concerns management/labor relations, but not something I would consider essential to see. In some ways this is more of a farce rather than something that reflects the real world of labor relations, but it is certainly watchable.
Okay, this is kinda crazy. Jojo Rabbit finally comes out on DVD next Tuesday. It also is finally arriving at my friendly neighborhood second run theater starting on Friday. Better late than never. Now I'll have to decide if I want the theater experience or at home on a smaller screen.
Looks like Miracle may have reached watch-from-any-point-until-it's-over status.
It's on the NHL Network right now. I've been watching since Herb came down the stadium step saying the other hundred kids are getting off easy. Mike Eruzione just scored the go ahead goal vs. the Soviets.
El Camino - I am not a Breaking Bad expert. But have seen enough episodes to know the jist. This movie follows a freshly-escaped Jesse as he scrapes up $$$ to pay The Disappearer.
Finally saw "Jojo Rabbit." Thus far I haven't really been a Taika Waititi fan, but this is easily his best work IMO. Many good performances. It was whimsical about a subject that was anything but that, I got some good laughs, right up until it stopped being funny. That was a gut punch. The previews gave me a little bit of a Wes Anderson vibe and I felt that throughout most of the film.
I've seen Thomasin McKenzie twice now (this and "Leave No Trace"), I think she has a bright future.
Usually watch a couple movies, at least, when I stay up in preps for working night shift. Last night;
Midway: Enjoyed it, but it didn't have the kind of impact you expect from top tier WW2 movies. Part of my engagement was screwed by the new trend (?) to not include subtitles for foreign language parts. Easily 15% of the movie was the Japanese navy and not a word of it with subtitles. I noticed this trend a few years ago. I don't know if it is the format I'm watching, or what. I do find a mention of this in an Amazon Prime Video forum, but not much else. Anyhow, really annoying. Has anyone else run across this ?
Fast & Furious 8: Yeah, silly popcorn blockbuster fun. Beyond believability, but still fun. This one preceded Hobbs & Shaw, which I had already seen, but the interplay between them in FF8 has great chemistry and you can easily see why they did the spinoff.
I just watched Midway last night. I'm pretty sure it had subtitles for the parts spoken in Japanese. I don't recall wondering what they were talking about for significant portions of the film. What format did you watch it in? Mine was a DVD from Netflix.
I haven't been watching many war films in recent years. I thought this was good, but not great.
Every once in a while a new film comes out that I get obsessed about seeing. "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" was one of those for me, sort of the feeling that I get these days when a Wes Anderson film gets released. Story of a cynical magazine writer with anger management and family problems who gets the assignment to write a piece on Fred Rogers. At some point during the movie my wife says that Tom Hanks can do anything. I’m inclined to agree with her. Matthew Rhys as the magazine writer is quite good as well. It’s a very low key and slow moving story, but I thought it was absolutely terrific. I don't think I've ever seen a movie quite like this one, it does stand out for being unique.
Hoopla has a crap ton of movies. Sometimes I just go down a rabbit hole looking at various stuff they have available and adding to my list. Some of it is stuff I saw a long time ago and thought was worth seeing again. Some I always meant to watch and never did. Quite a few I've never heard of but sound mildly interesting, there are probably some that were never in theaters. I'm usually up for a lightweight high school comedy. So I streamed one tonight that fits in the "never heard of it' category. Had a few recognizable people in it, some Disney or Nickelodeon kids grown up a bit, one from the show "The Middle." As usual most of these high schoolers are in their mid 20s. Basic premise, some of the non popular kids are tired of getting picked on and humiliated. They figure there are a lot more of them than the popular kids. So if they can unite all the different non popular factions, they can totally rearrange the power structure at the school. It works, but then the revolution starts to consume itself (as revolutions often do; ask the French). It was decent, amusing and entertaining enough. I like Victoria Justice. I didn't even recognize her, but Claudia Lee does a good Mean Girl (she played basically the same character in Kick A** 2).
Okay, apparently the film was shot about 3 years before it was actually released so the kids aren't quite as far past high school age as I thought.
Midway. Thought this was quite good and in some ways a better version of the story than the prior version. It wasn’t amazing but it was a solid film with some decent storylines aside from the obvious main story. Gave a fuller picture of what was going on with the Japanese.
1917. Spectacular movie. Really a tremendous and moving tale that brings you through a full range of emotions. Sad, frightened, tense, it never stops making you feel something. It’s also a feast for the eyes, gorgeously shot, even if some of that is gruesome. A note on the immersive film style, shot in what seems to be a single take from cameras that are constantly in motion putting you there with the soldiers. I found it astonishing. My wife got motion sickness and had to leave to vomit in the bathroom.
American Gangster. Found this on Prime. Denzel and Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott. How did I miss it? True Crime story of their Heroin trade in the Vietnam War era in New York. Well made, good acting but I never quite connected with these characters. Still the story is a good one. Overall a bit long, could use some editing.
Ford vs Ferrari. I loved this. Feels like it was overlooked perhaps. Christian Bale has a stellar turn as an English mechanic and race car driver Ken Miles and Matt Damon is a damned good Carrol Shelby. It’s a wonderful mostly true story of how Ford tried to buy and then beat Ferrari at LeMans. Nice to see Caitriona Balfe outside of Outlander as Ken Miles’ wife. The characters feel very real here, starting with Shelby, who fresh off of winning LeMans himself can no longer race. Then Miles is a struggling mechanic who had given up racing but gets back in and keeps winning.
Crooked House. Another scrolling through streaming service special. Agatha Christie story. Glenn Close is the biggest name in an ensemble cast. Max Irons is very good as a PI asked by the family and the police to investigate the death of a wealthy man. He has a prior relationship and was essentially spying on that mans granddaughter for British Intelligence. She’s a key player naturally and is played by the gorgeous Staphanie Martini. Overall this was a good modern mystery story. Worth a watch.
Looks like Miracle may have reached watch-from-any-point-until-it's-over status.
It's on the NHL Network right now. I've been watching since Herb came down the stadium step saying the other hundred kids are getting off easy. Mike Eruzione just scored the go ahead goal vs. the Soviets.
Yeah, did that last last night tuning in about an hour & ten minutes into it. Bonus was Costas interviewing Al Michaels at the end, which was interesting to me.
Saw “Peanut Butter Falcon” this week. Basically it’s a Rain Man type story but it was entertaining. The actor with Downs made me really LOL a few times.
Then saw Jojo Rabbit. Of Parasite, Joker and this one, I liked Jojo Rabbit far and away the best. Every scene with Hitler was pure gold. I loved the weird quirky dialogue and was definitely my style of movie.
Then saw Jojo Rabbit. Of Parasite, Joker and this one, I liked Jojo Rabbit far and away the best. Every scene with Hitler was pure gold. I loved the weird quirky dialogue and was definitely my style of movie.
The supporting cast was so great I was surprised only ScarJo got nominated. I was also surprised to learn that Hitler was played by the director (and writer of the screenplay). But the biggest scene-stealer imo was Jojo's friend Yorki.
Hellboy - The best word to describe this is "needless". About a 1/4 as interesting in plot, direction and character design as the GDT movies. Should've just let him finish the damn trilogy. Perlman was way better too.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Whereas the first Godzilla benefitted from the restraint shown by the filmmakers in giving the full reveal of it's Kaiju, this sequel throws countless ones at you every other minute. A little mystery helped the first film and while the cats kind of out of the bag after it, Monsters would've done well to hold back just a little. Like maybe 3 or 4 gigantic monsters instead of 30.
Ford v Ferrari - I'm a sucker for car movies, racing movies especially. While I really enjoyed this and thought the performances were great there’s something about James Mangold’s direction that always leaves me cold. His movies are always competently made but lacking in some, any kind of style. Like @ZooCougar said elsewhere the actor who played “The Deuce”, albeit in limited screen time, probably deserved a supporting actor nom.
Parasite - Not much left to say about how great this was. Great performances (especially by the mom who played her character at the edge of every emotion at once seemingly) coupled with fantastic direction and an incredible, twisty plot. My only grief:
Completely ludicrous that the dad, in that moment where carnage, mayhem and death are happening all around him and his son is laying in a trauma induced seizure, would need to stop and literally pinch his nose in order to retrieve the car keys. Totally took me out of the scene with how over the top they felt they needed to play that. They laid the groundwork there a million times, all they needed was a reflexive step back for a beat from the smell in order to give Mr Kim the motivation he needed for what he did next.
Really it’s a minor quibble though. Still would be my choice for the Oscar of what I’ve seen (missing Little Women and need to finish Marriage Story and The Irishman).
Enemy - Denis Villenueve is probably my favorite working director. I was a little bored by this, took forever to get going. Didn’t help that I watched it in like 3 different sittings either. The central mystery was hohum but the 3rd act made up for it a little. Unsure about the spider imagery throughout, maybe akin to how a spider might lay its eggs on a host so that they might consume the host after birth?
6 Underground - Michael Bay movies these days are like watching an ongoing car crash, except with lots of other car crashes at the same time. Gratuitous violence, terrible humor, over the top and sometimes relentless action. Meh.
Doctor Sleep - Impossible act to follow and all but I still really enjoyed this. Watching Rebecca Ferguson in anything is a pleasure. Lots of nice nods to The Shining.
Jojo Rabbit - Jojo was good and hit the right notes of silliness amidst the despair and devastation of war. A bit more conventional a movie than you might think considering the presence of imaginary best friend Hitler. Good performances all around especially by the young leads. Sam Rockwell was great as usual and even ScarJo managed to inject some whimsy into her performance. Recommended.
Pokemon Detective Pikachu - This is really meant for the Pokémon super fans like @Robertelamin. It was ok. Some wonky CGI. Ryan Reynolds should just do voice work.
Just caught Little Women last night. I enjoyed it very much, more than I thought going in. Of course, I've heard of the book and knew it was about sisters, but that was it. It's very well made and I liked Lady Bird so that's 2 for 2 by Greta Gerwig for me. If your looking for a chick flick for the two of you, you might consider this one.
I miss her as an actress, I hope she's not directing exclusively now. I rewatched "Lola Versus" recently, hadn't seen that in a long time. She kinda plays the same character in most of her films, but she does it very well.
edit--I haven't seen "Little Women" yet but it's definitely on my list. With Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh, that's a can't miss for me.
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Basic premise, some of the non popular kids are tired of getting picked on and humiliated. They figure there are a lot more of them than the popular kids. So if they can unite all the different non popular factions, they can totally rearrange the power structure at the school. It works, but then the revolution starts to consume itself (as revolutions often do; ask the French). It was decent, amusing and entertaining enough. I like Victoria Justice. I didn't even recognize her, but Claudia Lee does a good Mean Girl (she played basically the same character in Kick A** 2).
