Recently Seen in 2019

[dbmill]

Robot & Frank – Set in the near future, this is a 2012 film starring Frank Langella about an elderly man named Frank who is experiencing the various problems that come as we age, including memory loss. Frank’s son does not have time to visit and take care of him all the time, so the son brings Dad a robot companion that is programmed to help take care of him. As part of its programming, the robot encourages Frank to take up activities that will get him exercise and that will stimulate his mind. As it happens, Frank is a former cat burglar who pulled a number heists in his younger days, and spent time in jail because of these activities. Still, it becomes rather clear that Frank obviously misses his old line of work. When Frank comes to realize that the robot could possibly perform some useful functions along this old line of work of his, Frank develops a liking for his new robot friend and starts to get plenty of new mental stimulation planning future possible capers. While this is hardly what you would call an action flick, this film is solidly entertaining. Frank Langella is quite good as the elderly cat burglar hoping to make a comeback, but the friendship that develops between the old man and the robot is probably the real centerpiece of this quirky movie. This film also has a solid supporting role for Susan Sarandon as a local librarian.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I thought Sophie Nelisse was terrific as the main character in "The Book Thief." I've seen her in a few things since, missed one from a couple years ago called "Mean Dreams." Good slow burn indie thriller filmed in Canada. Some solid veteran actors in Bill Paxton and Colm Feore. Nelisse was good as was Josh Wiggins (wasn't familiar with him). They play a pair of teenagers on the run from a dirty cop who is also her abusive father.

 

[Husky25]

There are free previews of the premium cable channels periodically, I don't ever see announcements so I just have to scroll thru those channels every now and then to see. Got HBO and Cinemax right now. Watched a few 90s movies that I don't think I ever saw before. "Indian Summer" is about a group of 30 somethings that have a reunion at the summer camp they all used to go to as kids, the host (Alan Arkin) is shutting it down after 40 some years. I think you could call it a dramedy, but that was probably before the term was invented. Nice cast, Arkin was great, also Bill Paxton, Kevin Pollak, Diane Lane, Elizabeth Perkins, Julie Warner, and a young Kimberly Williams.

I was at least familiar w/ "Indian Summer" but I don't even remember ever hearing about "The Big Green." It was basically the Bad News Bears except it was a soccer team rather than baseball. Fairly cliched and predictable, but a cute family movie. Olivia d'Abo and Steve Guttenberg were the most recognizable actors.

Indian Summer is a phenomenally underrated movie. I don't ever remember it in theaters, and I think the first time I heard about it and watch was PPV in the early 90's off a black "hot" box. To this day, I feel a ground swell to watch it come late Spring. This year especially as my kids are getting old enough to do tent and cabin camping, which we do with the Cub Scouts.

Thanks for heads up on the free preview. I need to catch up on Silicon Valley and Ballers.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Thanks for heads up on the free preview.

Unfortunately it ended on Monday. I wish the cable company would advertise when those are happening. I noticed it on Saturday, probably started Friday.

 

[Husky25]

Unfortunately it ended on Monday. I wish the cable company would advertise when those are happening. I noticed it on Saturday, probably started Friday.

 

[Travelman6]

The Lion King - Basically a shot for shot remake using CGI that had about 15% of the charm and character of the original. The kids liked it well enough, I was mostly bored.

I honestly don't get these remakes.

I have to ask, other than "Who framed Roger rabbit" (1989) is there a single example of a successful transition from animation to live action where the live action has improved on the original format in any way, shape or form? These movies that are coming out left and right just feel like shameless cash grabs. And if its not a remake or transition from animation to live action, it is sequel after sequel (another Anabelle, another Toy story, etc.). Other than the cash for the people behind these movies, there just doesn't seem to be any well defined reason, no goal, for these movies to exist. No new message, nothing.

(Some people might argue space jam? Or maybe the sleeping beauty remake could be two examples of successful animation to live action transition).
/endrant

 

[nwhoopfan]

I share your frustration @Travelman32 . Sadly though I think the general public votes with their pocket book and remakes, retreads, reboots, sequels, prequels and franchises sell. Original and inventive films that people aren't familiar with often languish at the box office. I wish it were otherwise.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Streamed "Swallows and Amazons." Fun British family film. A family on holiday in the Lake District. Kelly Macdonald (Merida from "Brave") plays the mom but isn't on screen very much. Four kids sail to an island in the lake to camp for several days and have an adventure. They discover a rival group of intrepid young sailors who have claimed the island as their own. There is also something more serious going on in the background--pirates?...spies? The end is a bit over the top but overall entertaining and enjoyable.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Kedi--Documentary about street cats in Istanbul. There are thousands of them. Many of the people living there take it upon themselves to care for the cats. If you are a cat person, this is enjoyable. Interesting look at the various personalities of the cats and people in a beautiful old city.

Trust Me--I like Clark Gregg. You've probably seen him plenty of times in a supporting role. In this indie he directs and stars. Managed to gather an impressive cast for such a small movie--Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney, Amanda Peet, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Molly Shannon. Gregg is a down on his luck Hollywood agent working with child actors. Rockwell is a rival who keeps stealing his clients. He thinks his luck has finally turned as he finds a gem (Saxon Sharbino, I wasn't familiar with her). Then the story takes some dark turns.

Mia and the White Lion--Marketed as a family film, but it's fairly intense. It's also fairly much masquerading as something other than what it really is--a conservationist expose of the legal practice in South Africa of raising lions on farms and then selling them for canned hunts. Fairly disturbing. Interesting in that it was filmed over a 2 or 3 year period. There are 2 kids among the main cast, you get to visibly watch them age before your eyes during the course of the film.

 

[nwhoopfan]

We Have Always Lived in the Castle was a really strange movie. Tangentially, I always though Taissa Farmiga was Vera's daughter. Uh, nope, they are sisters, 21 years age difference. Mind. Blown. And Taissa does not look like she's 25. Her character in this movie is 18, I probably could've bought her being 16.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I've got a bunch of DVDs I hardly ever watch anymore. Dusted off "Snatch" and watched it last night. Love that flick, very entertaining. Most probably credit "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" as Ritchie's best work, but not me. This one takes it hands down.

 

[dbmill]

Bottle Rocket - After watching this one, I have now seen all of Wes Anderson's feature films. These days, Anderson is probably my favorite director that is currently making movies. Bottle Rocket was the first feature film that Anderson directed. I found Bottle Rocket to be watchable, but nothing really all that special. That's the way it goes sometimes. My least favorite Anderson films (Bottle Rocket, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Rushmore) are all from early in his career. Just goes to show how much he has grown on me since those days, the rest of his stuff I really like. I should probably give The Life Aquatic..., and Rushmore another viewing, as both were my early introductions to Anderson, watched before I became addicted to his movies. As far as my favorite Anderson film goes, that clearly remains Moonrise Kingdom, followed by Isle of Dogs.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Booksmart," described as a female centric "Superbad," is out on DVD now. Started out as a goofball comedy, but about 2/3 of the way thru turns much more dramatic. The 2 leads did well, there were some good performances from a number of supporting actors and actresses. Kind of surprising that Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow had very minor roles. It dragged a bit at times, but I thought it ended well. Directorial debut for Olivia Wilde. I think I enjoyed the making of feature in the extras than the film itself. Ive been a fan of Kaitlyn Dever for years, this didn't hurt. I've only seen her a few times but I've enjoyed Molly Gordon as well.

"Men In Black: International" tanked at the box office. I found it entertaining. Not a great movie, but fine for a big silly blockbuster. The alien voiced by Kumail Nanjiani pretty much stole the movie.



edit--had to add that Booksmart is chock full of my favorite Hollywood trope--a high school movie w/ a bunch of 20 something actors/actresses. Of the principle cast looks like most of them are 22+. Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd is 27, I think she takes the cake.


one more edit--Booksmart contained a ton of F bombs. It's like the South Park episode that tried to see how many they could fit in. Running time would've been 5 or 10 minutes less without all of them I guess.

 

[dbmill]

Once - Director John Carney has done several musical films over the years. I had previously seen Sing Street a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it. So I decided to tempt fate, and watch probably the most famous of his musicals, the low budget "Once" which is well regarded enough that it ended up being turned into a stage musical. Even though the accents were a bit tough to understand at times, we enjoyed it very much. This flick has a lot of charm to go with it, as well as some very good music.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Once - Director John Carney has done several musical films over the years.

While I enjoyed it, I much prefer both Sing Street and Begin Again.

 

[dbmill]

While I enjoyed it, I much prefer both Sing Street and Begin Again.

Begin Again is also on my list. Sooner or later we'll get around to it.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Plus One is a rom com that is somewhat predictable, but maybe gets where it's going a little unexpectedly. A man and a woman who have been friends since college make a deal to go thru a gauntlet of weddings together so they don't have to fly solo. The entire cast was pretty much unknown to me, other than Ed Begley, Jr. I had no idea but the male lead, Jack Quaid, is Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan's son. The female lead, Maya Erskine, has a few movies and tv shows or podcasts or something, but I hadn't seen her before. She steals the movie. She's fairly acerbic, but funny. Movie has an indie vibe. Some really awkward best man/maid of honor speeches at the various weddings. I enjoyed it, I'd recommend it.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Being Frank is kind of hard to categorize. Wasn't sure if it was going more for comedy or drama. A high school Sr. (Logan Miller) discovers his dad (Jim Gaffigan) leads a double life w/ two families in neighboring states. He uses an excuse of frequent business trips to Japan to go back and forth between the families. The whole thing starts to unravel as the dad can't spin lies fast enough to keep up. His son becomes his unlikely ally in keeping the deception going. The central premise is hard to accept, but it has some funny moments and some decent performances.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Streamed a movie on Hoopla, Electric Love. Got off to a rough beginning, wasn't sure what I was in for, but glad I stuck around. Really low budget, no name cast. 20 and 30 somethings trying to find love and connection in the modern era of texting and apps like Tinder, Grinder, etc. Not exactly a new idea, been done before. Decent enough story. A very economical 77 minutes running time. I liked the lead actress, Mia Serafino. Never heard of her previously. Reminds me a bit of Annaleigh Tipton. It had one of those non-endings, sometimes they work in the context, this one seemed like a cop out.

 

[Mano]

Avengers: Endgame - It's been a while since I've seen it now and I still think about quite often. It's a pretty remarkable movie. Comic book movie or no, it's just damn good. I was impressed all around. Really, really wish I had seen it on the big screen.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 - Seemed like they had 3 ideas for shorts in the universe of this movie that they tried to tie together into one movie. Didn't work. Three storylines that had absolutely nothing to do with one another got shoehorned into 90 minutes.

Ant-Man and the Wasp - The first Ant-Man was light and enjoyable and this was more of the same. I really only watched it so I could complete my MCU viewing experience.

Baywatch - Fairly vulgar and crude. Just a waste of time.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - I do really enjoy the world of Harry Potter but Newt Scamander's tale is feeling a bit dull in this second installment. I probably won't give up on them but I hope the next is more intriguing because this one was pretty boring until the last 10 minutes or so.

The Spy Who Dumped Me - I need to stop recording new movies just because I get a free weekend of some movie channel. So. Dumb.

Mortal Engines - Hollywood, you don't have to adapt every property that is out there. Sometimes its just not going to translate. I appreciate the effort but it all seemed rather silly.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Little Secrets I don't recall ever being aware of. From 2001, family film starring Evan Rachel Wood and Michael Angarano, both around 14 at the time. While it was targeted to kids and early teens, it wasn't juvenile at all. Charming, well told story, good acting, very enjoyable.

 

[huskyrob1]

I rewatched a movie a few days ago that I had forgotten about. "A Passage To India", last time I watched it was 15 years ago, and had forgotten what a great film it was. Many had said that E.M. Forsters brilliant novel could never be filmed, but it was and done very nicely.

This movie is definitely worth viewing if you've never seen it, or saw it ages ago.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I had low expectations for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but even then it was disappointing. The first half or more was just plain boring. By the time the action started I just didn't care about any of the characters. The franchise has been so massively mishandled and mismanaged at nearly every step. The time line contrivances and continuity issues are mind boggling. So glad Fox won't be allowed to ruin this property any more beyond this point.

 

[huskyrob1]

I had low expectations for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but even then it was disappointing. The first half or more was just plain boring. By the time the action started I just didn't care about any of the characters. The franchise has been so massively mishandled and mismanaged at nearly every step. The time line contrivances and continuity issues are mind boggling. So glad Fox won't be allowed to ruin this property any more beyond this point.

Thanks, you just saved me $50.

 

[Dove]

And once again roped in by Rambo.