Movie Hindsight 2020 | Page 7 | The Boneyard

Movie Hindsight 2020

The Invisible Man (2020) - Elizabeth Moss (Handmaid's Tale) slays it in this movie about a scientific genius who just can't let go of his woman even after she escapes his abusive grasp. An excellent movie. The entertainment picks up after the first 20 minutes of slow set-up.

The Lodge (2019) - This horror movie sucked antelope balls. And hard. Yet we persevered.
 
Savages (2012) - Good crime/action movie with a terrible ending. The cast is great, with Aaron Taylor-Johnston and Taylor Kitsch playing best friends and pot dealers in a weird relationship with Blake Lively. They cross a Mexican drug gang (Selma Hayek, Benecio Del Toro), and things get dicey pretty quickly. John Travolta is pretty good as a scumbag DEA agent. Even the secondary characters are well cast, like Emile Hirsch as the buddies' money launderer and Demien Bichir as Hayek's Consigliere.

There are some problems, such as the Taylor Kitsch character borders on being a super-hero, and computer hacking plays a big role, which I think is lazy writing, but it is a great movie up to the end. I saw this years ago, and I couldn't remember why I had this bad impression about the movie in my mind. Until I got to the end, and then I remembered why I promised myself I would never watch this movie again. The ending is so stupid that I was angry I had wasted two hours watching the movie. The book ending was stupid too.
 
Grand Canyon (1991)-A Classic that the country really ought to consider watching right now. Steve Martin, Danny Glover and Kevin Kline.
 
ZooCougar said:
Grand Canyon (1991)-A Classic that the country really ought to consider watching right now. Steve Martin, Danny Glover and Kevin Kline.
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I actually was just thinking about this. Phenomenal movie.

I was listening to the Bill Burr podcast and he randomly mentioned one of the Pirates' World Series from the 70s and Roberto Clemente.

This movie has everything and as you say, could really be used right now for a degree of healing.
 
"Here Comes Mr Jordan" 1941 a classic Hollywood romp about about body possession. Claude Rains plays a heavenly trip planning supervisor. He must intervene when a mistake has been made. Robert Montgomery was separated from his body 50 years too soon.
 
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zymurg said:
"Here Comes Mr Jordan" 1941 a classic Hollywood romp about about body possession. Claude Rains plays a heavenly trip planning supervisor. He must intervene when a mistake has been made. Robert Montgomery was separated from his body 50 years too soon.
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"Here Comes Mr. Jordan" is a wonderful fantasy of a movie, it is a film classic. My wife just loves this one, and we will watch it anytime it shows up on television. It was remade by Warren Beatty as "Heaven Can Wait" in the 1970's. "Heaven Can Wait" is a good and watchable film, but if you compare the two there is no question in my mind that "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" is clearly the better film. In addition to the great Claude Rains, "Here Comes Mr. Jordan also features Edward Everett Horton and James Gleason, two character actors who are always a welcome sight in films from that time period.
 
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - Have never seen this movie. Some network was showing it last night from 7 to 11. Lotta commercials. I tunned in when the FBI guys got on Belfort's yacht.

I just gotta say that Cerebral Palsey Phase scene was Oscar worthy. LOL funny.
 
Dove said:
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - Have never seen this movie. Some network was showing it last night from 7 to 11. Lotta commercials. I tunned in when the FBI guys got on Belfort's yacht.

I just gotta say that Cerebral Palsey Phase scene was Oscar worthy. LOL funny.
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If you saw it edited on TV...you didn't really see it.
 
Debby Ryan is another Disney kid I've seen a bit of in movies, haven't paid that much attention to her. Just watched one she starred in from a few years ago "Rip Tide." Surprisingly good I thought. Her mom runs a big modeling agency in NYC, has been steering her daughter toward a career in the fashion industry since she could walk pretty much. Daughter is burnt out and after a bit of a fiasco, runs off to visit her aunt in Australia and take a little break. It was touching but not melodramatic, about dealing with losses, following your passion, real life stuff like that.
 
Da 5 Bloods (2020) - A Spike Lee Joint. Four black Vietnam Vets go back to Vietnam to retrieve the squad leader left behind and...to get the gold they all found back in the day.

Delroy Lindo with a pretty powerful performance.

There are some 'no freakin' way' moments but overall a pretty entertaining movie. There is a message here. MLK gets some play. And there is a Black Lives Matter salute at the end.

2 1/2 hours.
 
Anyone ever seen "A.C.O.D." from several years ago? Great cast. Billed as a comedy. It's really not. It has some funny moments, but it's actually kinda bleak (maybe that makes it a dark comedy; I've always struggled with that genre). The title is an acronym for Adult Children of Divorce. Maybe the all time worst ambiguous, non ending to a movie I've seen yet. 3 of the male leads (father and two grown sons) dressed in tuxes, outside a church. We don't know which of them is getting married, or to who. Maybe all 3? Maybe none of them? So stupid. They walk in the church and then the credits roll...

And if you watch the credits, there are short interviews with a bunch of the crew from the movie. As you could probably guess, about half of them are ACOD themselves, most from a fairly young age. Some of them their parents remarried numerous times. Of the ACOD crew members, most of them had either gotten divorced themselves, or never married, and never wanted anything to do with marriage. If the movie itself left you wondering, the credits made it clear this is a tragedy, not a comedy. Not sure why it's billed incorrectly.
 
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dbmill said:
It was remade by Warren Beatty as "Heaven Can Wait" in the 1970's. "Heaven Can Wait" is a good and watchable film, but if you compare the two there is no question in my mind that "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" is clearly the better film.
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I think you sell "Heaven Can Wait" short. It's very enjoyable, much better than good and watchable. In fact, I just came across a nice essay about the flick that I pretty much agree with. I don't quite like the ending but it was the first place I encountered the concept of dolphin-safe tuna. It was ahead of it's time.
 
Waquoit said:
I think you sell "Heaven Can Wait" short. It's very enjoyable, much better than good and watchable. In fact, I just came across a nice essay about the flick that I pretty much agree with. I don't quite like the ending but it was the first place I encountered the concept of dolphin-safe tuna. It was ahead of it's time.
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I hardly think I sold "Heaven Can Wait" short. You just liked it more than I did. Chalk this one up to a bit of a difference of opinion, that sort of thing happens. To me, calling a film good and watchable is hardly a negative thing, but is in fact a positive. On a lark, I just checked the reviews of Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin, and they both gave "Heaven Can Wait" 3 out of 4 stars. 2 and a half stars would be an average film. Three stars means a good movie to me, and I would agree with that.

By the way, if you haven't seen "Here Comes Mr. Jordon", you might want to check it out some time.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Did they try to replace all bombs with words that don't really fit, or was the audio just blank momentarily?
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balloon knot was rathole. My wife and I were like what's a rathole?
 
I'd been mildly curious about "Red Knot" a while ago, but never got around to it. Most of my interest is because it stars Olivia Thirlby, and also because it's mostly shot in and around Antarctica. It's short at 1:20, the scenery is amazing, so I don't regret watching it. Probably once is more than enough though. Yet another ambiguous indie. If a detail isn't important enough to tell the audience one way or the other (was Thirlby's character pregnant or just seasick; did she and her husband die in the end?), maybe the director doesn't need to hint at it? It's getting to be a really tiresome trope to me. It's a slow paced, character driven movie. Almost nothing happens. A newly wed couple is taking an unusual sorta honeymoon on a research vessel from Argentina heading to the Southern Ocean. He's wrapped up in his work, she begins to feel neglected, and their marriage starts to unravel. Many beautiful scenes of icebergs, the ocean, the sky, glaciers, whales, seals, penguins and other seabirds. I'm a big fan of Thirlby, and she was good in this, so I guess I got what I came for.


I've never been on a research vessel, or anywhere near Antartica...but I have to think that ships like that have protocols that would prevent people from just wandering off into a vast ice filled wilderness. Call me silly, but I couldn't overlook that.
 
If you enjoy political films; you should try "Advise and Consent." This is Otto Preminger's version of Drury's novel. It focuses on the process of confirming a Secretary of State by the U>S. Senate. It was Charles Laughton's final film. He plays a salty, devious, Southerner who has been in the Senate for 40 years. He opposes the nomination of Robert J. Leffingwell, Henry Fonda. This has one of the best casts ever: Walter Pidgeon, Gene Tierney, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Don Murray, Franchot Tone, and Lew Ayers. The Senate isn't like that anymore, but I was an intern several years after the film came out, and I can testify to the accuracy of the portrayal even to senators using public transportation. Great performance by Laughton and a solid film.
Preminger was one of the directors who cast actors who had been blacklisted; in this case Meredith and Tone.
Well worth your time.
 
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Tonight Turner Classic Movies is showing perhaps my favorite fantasy film, "A Matter of Life and Death". I recall first watching this film probably around 40 years ago or so on channel 13, the PBS station in New York City when I was either still in high school or home on break while attending UConn (my family lived in Bethel at the time). It absolutely wowed me the first time I saw it. This film is directed by the great Michael Powell, who also had a hand in one of my other favorite film fantasies, "The Thief of Bagdad", starring Sabu. Powell is probably my second favorite British director after Hitchcock. Powell often worked in association with Emeric Pressberger, a film team known as "The Archers". Other great Powell films include "A Canterbury Tale", "Black Narcissus", and "The Red Shoes", among others.
 
Almost Famous (2000) - We saw this movie over the weekend. As many of you probably know, in 1973 a 15 year old boy has a bit of a clash in his life. He loves rock music, to the extent that he writes critical articles on the topic and sends them out to see if they get published. He also has an overprotective mother who absolutely hates rock and roll. Anyway, through the articles he writes he gets an assignment to go on the road to get the behind the scenes story of a rock band. So you get plenty of the rock atmosphere that was around during the time period. The best qualities of this film are the rock and roll atmosphere and ethos of the time, together with the performance of Patrick Fugit in is movie debut as the 15 year old kid who is struggling to write a story out of his assignment. Fugit is on screen for a vast majority of time in this film, and he is more than good enough to hold this film together and keep it well grounded. Also a plus for this film is Kate Hudson as a rock groupie (or band aid) who is Fugit’s entry point into the behind the scenes circus that this film looks at.
 
dbmill said:
Almost Famous (2000) - We saw this movie over the weekend. As many of you probably know, in 1973 a 15 year old boy has a bit of a clash in his life. He loves rock music, to the extent that he writes critical articles on the topic and sends them out to see if they get published. He also has an overprotective mother who absolutely hates rock and roll. Anyway, through the articles he writes he gets an assignment to go on the road to get the behind the scenes story of a rock band. So you get plenty of the rock atmosphere that was around during the time period. The best qualities of this film are the rock and roll atmosphere and ethos of the time, together with the performance of Patrick Fugit in is movie debut as the 15 year old kid who is struggling to write a story out of his assignment. Fugit is on screen for a vast majority of time in this film, and he is more than good enough to hold this film together and keep it well grounded. Also a plus for this film is Kate Hudson as a rock groupie (or band aid) who is Fugit’s entry point into the behind the scenes circus that this film looks at.
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Great film. Even my kids like it.
 
"The Best Man" 1965.This is another highly rated political film from Gore Vidal's novel. This again stars Fonda who plays an honest presidential candidate running against Cliff Robertson a charlatan attack dog. This is well done, and it is available for free streaming.
 
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.

The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) - An enjoyable story where three siblings return home when their father (D Hoffman) decides to sell his artwork and home. Adam Sandler is pretty good and yells a lot. Ben Stiller is good, too. Worth a watch. A comedy-drama.
 
"My Spy" was just made available on Amazon Prime. It's fairly formulaic, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson have done this kind of movie (I guess Arnie WAY back in the day, too), now it's Bautista's turn. Stoic muscle bound tough guy reluctantly has a cute kid (or kids) enter his life, then gets his heart melted. For what it is though, I found it really enjoyable. Has some good laughs, the leads fit the bill.
 
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The Disaster Artist (2017) - Just released on Netflix. It is about the making of Tommy Wiseau's bizarre cult favorite The Room, which is considered one of the greatest terrible movies ever made, and about his strange friendship with Greg Sestero, who stars in The Room and actually lived with Wiseau for a period of time. The movie is mostly told through Greg's viewpoint. I have never seen The Room, but I knew the story of the movie and Tommy Wiseau.

The movie has a lot more warmth than I expected from the trailers. It was marketed almost as a parody, but is actually about the really strange friendship between Greg (played by Dave Franco) and Tommy (James Franco). James Franco won a Golden Globe, but was pulled from Oscar consideration because of a flurry of (probably accurate) MeToo accusations against him right before Oscar nominations.

Dave Franco was technically the protagonist, and he should have gotten some awards love because he was excellent. James Franco held together a tough part, because his Wiseau could have turned into an impression very easily. Seth Rogan and Paul Scheer play the Script Supervisor and Cinematographer. Both are good, but Paul Scheer is hilarious, as usual. If I was producing a comedy, I would find a role for Scheer.
 
www.espn.com

NASCAR and Hollywood were never the same after 'Days of Thunder'

The over-the-top, unrestrained Tom Cruise blockbuster left its fingerprints all over Hollywood 30 years ago, with a generation of both haters and admirers among NASCAR fans and drivers to this day.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

This is not worth it's own thread. But Days of Thunder is 30 years old!

That not only makes me feel old. But I was watching it the other day and it seems to age well.

Aside from the fact that the plot is exactly the same plot from Top Gun, Cocktail, The Color of Money, the movie has a ton of flaws. Many of the hardcore NASCAR fans hate it for the lack of realism. But I would say its one of the best bad movies ever made.
 
ZooCougar said:
Aside from the fact that the plot is exactly the same plot from Top Gun, Cocktail, The Color of Money, the movie has a ton of flaws.
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Which reminds me of this classic Rich Hall bit:
 
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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Unstoppable (2010) - Denzel and Chris Pine buddy/old tech, pseudo disaster movie that did well at the box office and is one of those movies that is on TV or cable somewhere pretty much every day.

The premise is interesting, credible and original for a disaster movie. A large locomotive pulling a series of cars with toxic chemicals gets under power through a series of screwups by two idiot yard-workers, one of whom is played by TJ Miller (Erlich Bachman from Silicon Valley). The overall plot from there is interesting. Pine and Denzel are good, as always, and the rest of the cast is solid. Rosario Dawson and Kevin Dunn (Ben from VEEP) are both exactly what you would expect.

So this movie should be better than it is. I have two problems. First, the dialogue is so silly at times that I literally cringe watching the movie. But other times the dialogue works. I don't get how a script this inconsistent made it to camera in a big budget movie. For example, there is an attempt to derail the train. There is an interesting build up to that scene, and then the camera cuts to some random overweight guy that says the "train is not going to know what hit it". What does that mean? The train doesn't think, and that is a stupid cliche anyway. There are whole scenes that not only don't make sense, and also have easy fixes.

I blame this on the Director. This was Tony Scott's last movie before his suicide, and a lot of the direction is a mess. There are weird reaction shots and the music is intrusive. The pace jumps around throughout the movie.

This movie was never meant to be an Oscar candidate, but it had potential to be better than it is.
 
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