Movie Hindsight 2020

[nwhoopfan]

Checked out a couple movies lately streaming via Hoopla that I'd never heard of before.

"Time Lapse" was an ultra low budget, no FX sci fi drama that I found intriguing. It wasn't time travel exactly. 3 roommates discover a device that produces a polaroid type of photo from 24 hours in the future. They figure they can use it for their profit, but of course things quickly spiral out of control. The cast was completely unknown to me other than Danielle Panabaker. I like her, she's not in that many movies though. Anyway, it was decent, nothing great but kept my interest.

"Carolina" I don't recall ever hearing anything about. It's from 2003, stars Julia Stiles when she was still a fairly big name. Also Shirley MacLaine, Alessandro Nivola, Randy Quaid, Jennifer Coolidge, Alan Thicke among the cast. I enjoyed it as well. Romantic dramedy. Extended family of pretty much southern hicks transplanted to LA. Stiles is the oldest of 3 girls w/ a deadbeat dad and odd grandmother who mostly raised them, but Stiles is almost like a mother to her younger sisters as well.

 

[Dove]

Night Hunter (2018) - Pretty good psycho thriller with an excellent performance by the bad guy (Brendan Fletcher).

 

[nwhoopfan]

"The Magic of Belle Isle." Another movie I don't recall ever hearing about. If it was in theaters it was there for about 5 minutes. Looking at Rotten Tomatoes critics hated it, but it has mostly really good reviews on Netflix. Stars Morgan Freeman as a burnt out, bitter, formerly successful writer of Western novels. Now he's slowly trying to drink himself to death. His nephew arranges for him to house sit/dog sit in a quiet little village on a picturesque lake. His next door neighbor is Virginia Madsen and her 3 daughters, estranged from her husband and going thru a divorce. Freeman's crankiness begins to dissipate as his life becomes entwined with his neighbors. The kids are cute, the old, lazy yellow lab he's watching is adorable. It's a nice, heartwarming story, exactly the kind critics always seem to hate because they are miserable people or something? I don't know. Anyway I enjoyed it.

 

[dbmill]

Checked out a couple movies lately streaming via Hoopla that I'd never heard of before.

"Time Lapse" was an ultra low budget, no FX sci fi drama that I found intriguing. It wasn't time travel exactly. 3 roommates discover a device that produces a polaroid type of photo from 24 hours in the future. They figure they can use it for their profit, but of course things quickly spiral out of control. The cast was completely unknown to me other than Danielle Panabaker. I like her, she's not in that many movies though. Anyway, it was decent, nothing great but kept my interest.

"Carolina" I don't recall ever hearing anything about. It's from 2003, stars Julia Stiles when she was still a fairly big name. Also Shirley MacLaine, Alessandro Nivola, Randy Quaid, Jennifer Coolidge, Alan Thicke among the cast. I enjoyed it as well. Romantic dramedy. Extended family of pretty much southern hicks transplanted to LA. Stiles is the oldest of 3 girls w/ a deadbeat dad and odd grandmother who mostly raised them, but Stiles is almost like a mother to her younger sisters as well.

Carolina never was released in movie theaters. It couldn't find a distributor, so it ended up being a direct to video release.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Carolina never was released in movie theaters. It couldn't find a distributor, so it ended up being a direct to video release.

That might be the case with several of these movies I've stumbled onto recently, and could explain why I'd never heard of them. Hoopla has a bunch like that.

 

[dbmill]

School of Rock (2003) - I figure plenty of people who post here have seen this movie, but my wife and I just saw it for the first time this weekend. I would classify this Richard Linklater directed film starring Jack Black as something of a fantasy, albeit a rock and roll fantasy. I found this mainstream movie to be very entertaining. This film relies greatly on Jack Black’s charisma, but at the same time there is an excellent chemistry that exists with Black and the kids he is schooling in rock and roll, and this chemistry really does put the film on solid ground. While there is a rock and roll attitude and snarl to this film, I also found it to have quite a bit of charm as well. All this being said, my favorite Richard Linklater-Jack Black movie remains “Bernie”, another very musical movie which is one of my favorite films from the last decade.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I'm pretty sure "Linda Ronstadt The Sound of My Voice" has been mentioned already. Just watched it. I thought it was excellent. I've seen a few non feature length documentaries recently about Linda's collaborations w/ Dolly and Emmylou. This touched on that as well but covered her entire career. I have to say all the stuff I've seen about the LA music scene in the late 60's/early 70's is fascinating.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"....my goodness, I'm about 2/3 of the way thru it and it feels like I've been watching it for days. So bloated and overstuffed. It's not really a movie, it's just a series of vignettes. I do not get the hype about this. The movie w/in the movie was more interesting than the actual film. Actors in smaller roles like Timothy Olyphant, Margaret Qualley and Julia Butters were more compelling than the leads I thought. Never really been a Tarantino fan, this ain't helping.

I haven't gotten to the big conclusion but I kinda got it spoilered. Not like I couldn't see it coming, plus he had a previous film w/ an alternate take on WWII and Hitler.


edit--okay, that finale was crazy. Not really in a good way. What a strange film. Also, what was with the brief bit with Bruce Lee? Much of "Kill Bill" was obviously an homage to him, but in this he looks like a buffoon. Make up your mind Quentin.

 

[Mano]

Trolls World Tour - Not as engaging a kid's film as the first one. They tried to expand the world to mildly diverting results. My kid's loved it of course.

Greta - Could’ve been a taut little thriller but I thought it was let down by Isabelle Huppert. She just didn’t bring enough crazy to the old lady. The subtly in her performance early was fine, but once the cat was out of the bag I was hoping for a bit more unhingeyness.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold - Had a nice lighthearted tone that you would expect. The story told was pretty boring unfortch.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix - Fox, please stop making X-Men movies. Please give the property back to Marvel. Their movies will be formulaic as all hell but at least they’ll be somewhat entertaining. Hollywood, please stop casting Sansa in anything.

Free Solo - Alex Honnold is an interesting character and his feat was incredible. Wish I had seen it in IMAX.

Stuber - Eh, a modicum of humor throughout. Dave Bautista shouldn’t be asked to carry a film tho.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Overall so-so, but definitely on the high end of video game adaptations. As a plus it got my daughter interested in playing the Sonic games.

 

[storrsroars]

Trolls World Tour - Not as engaging a kid's film as the first one. They tried to expand the world to mildly diverting results. My kid's loved it of course.

Greta - Could’ve been a taut little thriller but I thought it was let down by Isabelle Huppert. She just didn’t bring enough crazy to the old lady. The subtly in her performance early was fine, but once the cat was out of the bag I was hoping for a bit more unhingeyness.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold - Had a nice lighthearted tone that you would expect. The story told was pretty boring unfortch.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix - Fox, please stop making X-Men movies. Please give the property back to Marvel. Their movies will be formulaic as all hell but at least they’ll be somewhat entertaining. Hollywood, please stop casting Sansa in anything.

Free Solo - Alex Honnold is an interesting character and his feat was incredible. Wish I had seen it in IMAX.

Stuber - Eh, a modicum of humor throughout. Dave Bautista shouldn’t be asked to carry a film tho.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Overall so-so, but definitely on the high end of video game adaptations. As a plus it got my daughter interested in playing the Sonic games.

I pity you that you actually spent time with these.

 

[Mano]

I pity you that you actually spent time with these.

Yea, whatcha gonna do? Some stuff for the kids and some stuff to play in the background while doing things on the computer. I'll watch The 400 Blows and The Bicycle Thief next to make up for it ok?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Continuing my "I don't get the hype" tour. I had been intentionally skipping "Joker." But it was free during this HBO promotion thing, so I decided to try it. Bored out of my mind 25 minutes in. I wasted 2:40 of my life watching "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" the other day. Wasn't gonna do it again, so I shut it down.

Interesting, looking at Netflix it pretty much gets 5 star or 1 star reviews, not much middle ground. The definition of a love it or hate it film.

 

[8893]

Continuing my "I don't get the hype" tour. I had been intentionally skipping "Joker." But it was free during this HBO promotion thing, so I decided to try it. Bored out of my mind 25 minutes in. I wasted 2:40 of my life watching "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" the other day. Wasn't gonna do it again, so I shut it down.

Interesting, looking at Netflix it pretty much gets 5 star or 1 star reviews, not much middle ground. The definition of a love it or hate it film.

I loved it.

 

[ZooCougar]

I loved it.

Me too.

The Bruce Lee scene never gets old.

 

[8893]

Me too.

The Bruce Lee scene never gets old.

I was talking about Joker. I thought OUATIH was okay, but definitely didn’t get the hype.

 

[ZooCougar]

I was talking about Joker. I thought OUATIH was okay, but definitely didn’t get the hype.

LOL. My bad.

I actually thought Joker was tremendous mainly in the way it was the most overrated film in history.

They could have just taken the make up off and it would have been a bad sequel to Taxi Driver.

 

[8893]

LOL. My bad.

I actually thought Joker was tremendous mainly in the way it was the most overrated film in history.

They could have just taken the make up off and it would have been a bad sequel to Taxi Driver.

I actually had pretty low expectations for it and couldn't for the life of me understand why anyone would try to tackle that role while Heath Ledger's standard-setting depiction was still in the public consciousness. I loved Dark Knight and went into Joker expecting to pan Phoenix's portrayal, but I thought his performance was brilliant and provided a perfect bridge to understanding the character's backstory.

 

[ZooCougar]

I actually had pretty low expectations for it and couldn't for the life of me understand why anyone would try to tackle that role while Heath Ledger's standard-setting depiction was still in the public consciousness. I loved Dark Knight and went into Joker expecting to pan Phoenix's portrayal, but I thought his performance was brilliant and provided a perfect bridge to understanding the character's backstory.

For me Heath Ledger was the perfect Joker. I think Phoenix did an amazing job but Ledger's Joker is the one I prefer. The vision of Joker in nurse outfit blowing up a hospital is just kind of iconic.

Also, this is just me but I don't need an origin story for every character.

 

[8893]

For me Heath Ledger was the perfect Joker. I think Phoenix did an amazing job but Ledger's Joker is the one I prefer. The vision of Joker in nurse outfit blowing up a hospital is just kind of iconic.

Also, this is just me but I don't need an origin story for every character.

I don't disagree with any of that. But, having chosen to do the origin story for Joker, I guess I was impressed that they didn't screw it up. I get that it was boring for many people by comparison to Dark Knight, which obviously had a lot more going on. I love the nurse outfit, scene, too; and I also love the chaos and mutual self-destruction themes at play in that movie, and preferred that to the sole focus on the abuse and mental illness aspect of Joker.

 

[nwhoopfan]

How do I put this kindly? "The Birds" has not aged well. I'm watching it on TV right now. I'm trying hard not to laugh, but I'm not succeeding. Okay, I'm ready for Hitchcock and classical cinema fans to come at me.

 

[8893]

How do I put this kindly? "The Birds" has not aged well. I'm watching it on TV right now. I'm trying hard not to laugh, but I'm not succeeding. Okay, I'm ready for Hitchcock and classical cinema fans to come at me.

My daughters would agree with you. Tried to watch it with a couple of them few years ago and they just laughed and couldn't believe it was ever thought to be a thriller.

 

[Deepster]

LOL. My bad.

I actually thought Joker was tremendous mainly in the way it was the most overrated film in history.

They could have just taken the make up off and it would have been a bad sequel to Taxi Driver.

I completely agree. I don't know why they had to latch onto the Joker character? It had nothing to do with any other superhero theme or plotline. It was more a story of mental illness. If anything, I think the Joker character made it more predictable and an anonymous lead could have allowed Phoenix even more leash.

 

[Dove]

The Platform (2019) - Got home late from work last night and my wife was watching this Spanish film. I was transfixed on it's graphic weirdness. I need to watch it now from the beginning. I literraly can't explain it without watching from the start. But it gripped me instantly.

 

[ZooCougar]

I completely agree. I don't know why they had to latch onto the Joker character? It had nothing to do with any other superhero theme or plotline. It was more a story of mental illness. If anything, I think the Joker character made it more predictable and an anonymous lead could have allowed Phoenix even more leash.

I think it would have been better if we were lead to believe all along that Phoenix was the joker only to have a smaller character actually turn out to be who we know as the Joker. Sort of like a Kaiser Soze or what's her name from the third Dark Knight movie.

It was just too straight forward for me.

 

[dbmill]

How do I put this kindly? "The Birds" has not aged well. I'm watching it on TV right now. I'm trying hard not to laugh, but I'm not succeeding. Okay, I'm ready for Hitchcock and classical cinema fans to come at me.

I've said it before, but Hitchcock is one of my favorite movie directors. There are quite a number of his films that I am quite willing to watch repeatedly. Many people and critics rate "The Birds" very highly. I am not one of them. I first saw it many years ago, and it is fair to say that I have never cared for it, and it just doesn't make much sense to me. I purposely tried watching it again fairly recently, but found myself changing channels pretty quickly.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I've said it before, but Hitchcock is one of my favorite movie directors.

"The Birds" was followed by "Psycho." I watched a little bit of it, but it was getting late so I didn't finish it.

 

[Waquoit]

"The Birds" scared me as a little kid. Actually, the commercials for the TV showings scared me. All I knew is that I really didn't want to get pecked in the eye. I had no clue it was a film about anxiety, sexual power and the violence of nature.

 

[8893]

"The Birds" scared me as a little kid. Actually, the commercials for the TV showings scared me. All I knew is that I really didn't want to get pecked in the eye. I had no clue it was a film about anxiety, sexual power and the violence of nature.

The phone booth scene made me afraid of phone booths for a while.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Miss Minoes" was pretty silly, more or less a movie for kids, but I found it enjoyable. I think it was originally in Dutch, the version I saw was dubbed in English. Might've used the original actors? I think most Dutch speak English as well. Anyway the cast was almost completely unknown to me other than Carice van Houten. She plays a cat that is transformed into a human. She really goes all out to act cat-like in human form. Utilizing the network of neighborhood cats she helps a hapless reporter from the local paper suddenly start finding all the juicy stories around town. There might've been a little bit of animatronics used, and a weird CGI thing where they made the cats mouths move as if they were talking, but mostly it was real cats acting like cats. I loved some of the judgy looks they shot at the camera. It was from the early 2000s, several years before Carice appeared in the movie "Black Book," that's where I know her from.

edit--looks like this had a theatrical release in the U.S. about a decade after it was originally released in Europe

 

[storrsroars]

Just finished "The Laundromat". Ostensibly this movie was supposed to do for offshore shell companies what "The Big Short" did for mortgage-backed securities. But it didn't have nearly the impact. While TBS had a plot line and a fairly linear story so you got to know the characters, TL was a series of vignettes with a chorus/narrative supplied by the wonderfully hammy duo of Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. Those two are the only reason to spend time with this film. I've always been a Banderas fan and his charisma makes the otherwise slimeball character work. And in Oldman's case, while him hamming it up took away from "Leon: The Professional", in this case it's put to perfect use. That he's playing a German con man just adds to the fun.

Oh yeah, Meryl Streep stars. But you're not watching this for her.