Recently Seen in 2019

[nwhoopfan]

Has any movie ever had 3 different titles? Known alternately as "All I Wanna Do," "Strike!" or "The Hairy Bird," released in 1998. I don't think it got much publicity. I don't even remember any marketing for it. I saw it some time in the mid 2000s according to my Netflix account, but I remember nothing about it. Watched it again last night. That was a lot of fun. Set at an all girls prep school in the Northeast during the 60s. Good cast. Gabby Hoffman is a newcomer, eventually falls in w/ the rebels/misfits--Kirsten Dunst, Monica Keena, Merrit Wever and Heather Matarrazo. Lynn Redgrave is the headmistress. Rachael Leigh Cook is a prissy hall monitor type who lets a little authority go to her head...and also happens to be the daughter of the president of the board of trustees. There are some trouble making townie boys, a visiting choir from a boys school, and a conspiracy discovered about halfway thru the movie. Some good laughs along with female empowerment message.

 

[dbmill]

Has any movie ever had 3 different titles? Known alternately as "All I Wanna Do," "Strike!" or "The Hairy Bird," released in 1998. I don't think it got much publicity. I don't even remember any marketing for it. I saw it some time in the mid 2000s according to my Netflix account, but I remember nothing about it. Watched it again last night. That was a lot of fun. Set at an all girls prep school in the Northeast during the 60s. Good cast. Gabby Hoffman is a newcomer, eventually falls in w/ the rebels/misfits--Kirsten Dunst, Monica Keena, Merrit Wever and Heather Matarrazo. Lynn Redgrave is the headmistress. Rachael Leigh Cook is a prissy hall monitor type who lets a little authority go to her head...and also happens to be the daughter of the president of the board of trustees. There are some trouble making townie boys, a visiting choir from a boys school, and a conspiracy discovered about halfway thru the movie. Some good laughs along with female empowerment message.

One of my favorite movies has had five different titles. "The Devil and Daniel Webster", based on the Faust legend, was originally released by RKO in 1941. It has also been known as "All That Money Can Buy", "Mr. Scratch", "Daniel and the Devil", and "Here is a Man". Great, great film, with a terrific role and performance by Walter Huston (father of director John Huston) as Mr. Scratch, or the devil. This film also contains a very memorable performance by French actress Simon Simone.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Wow, 5 tops 3, nice job. That is a crazy number of different titles for 1 film.

 

[Mano]

Aladdin (2019) - Unlike The Lion King I actually really enjoyed this retelling. The leads were all pretty solid, if somewhat unremarkable, and Will Smith made for a fun Genie. I think maybe my low expectations helped here.

Cold Pursuit - Leave your brain at the door type stuff. Enjoyable for what it was. I do wish it leaned into it's dark humor just a little more.

Daddy's Home 2 - So bad, so unfunny.

Spider-Man: Far From Home - A good evolution for the character but after all the explosive action from the larger universe movies it felt a tad underwhelming as far as scope goes. In usual Marvel fashion it was a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Booksmart - Followed the usual coming of age teen comedy formula pretty closely but the two protagonists were consistently hilarious throughout. The female version of Superbad pretty much.

Bohemian Rhapsody - Is the music biopic the easiest film in the world to make??? Ups and downs punctuated by greatest hits musical performances. Rami Malek was good but I don't know if it was Oscar worthy. I probably would've given it to Cooper or Bale. I haven't seen Eternity's Gate or Greenbook yet.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - Really starting to grow stale here. The more they advance into this larger underground world the more they are just writing themselves into nonsensical circles. Worse than that, Keanu is starting to look like a slightly younger Steven Seagal. He is not moving all that well as he gets older, really stretching believability. A lot of the stunt work felt pretty sloppy as Reeves' dance partners seemed to be almost waiting for Keanu to catch up to the choreography.

Glass - Unnecessary sequel alert! Split was ok, but then they really tried to hang their hat on a last second connection to Unbreakable and it mostly worked there. They again relied on a last second expanding of the universe here but I thought it fell flat. Starting to tarnish how brilliant Unbreakable really was.

 

[nwhoopfan]

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

Hey HBO and Cinemax is doing another free preview weekend.

 

[Dove]

I'll Take Your Dead - Pretty decent. "The Butcher" is a dude who disposes of your kills. He lives with his daughter. A delievery of three kills yields that one is still alive.

The Purge: Anarchy - Entertaining follow-up to the original movie.

 

[Waquoit]

I'll Take Your Dead -...A delievery of three kills yields that one that is still alive.

I saw that before in Holy Grail.

 

[dbmill]

The Woman in Black - Daniel Radcliffe stars in this 2012 supernatural horror film of a young lawyer sent to an old English village in 1910 to retrieve relevant documents and facilitate the sale of a desolate house where the previous owner has died. However, when he arrives, the young lawyer ends up hip deep in a haunted house/town with a definitely unhappy ghost. Meanwhile, pretty much everyone in the town wants Radcliffe to leave town as quickly as possible. This is hardly a horribly explicitly bloody horror film, but it is a film that is very creepy. Very well done and very much in the Val Lewton tradition.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Hobbs & Shaw...I mean you can tell from the trailers it's totally over the top, but I was not prepared for that. Took over the top to whole new levels. It was still kinda enjoyable, but it was a bit too much. Where did Vanessa Kirby come from? Looking at imdb she's got plenty of credits but I was never aware of her until the latest in the Mission: Impossible franchise last year, and now this. Kinda strange to become a blockbuster action star overnight.


edited--this had appearances by a couple of big stars that were a bit more than cameos but very minor characters, managed to keep them out of the trailers, I wasn't aware of them being in the film. Kind of a strange call to bring them in, but barely use them, and not market it.

Also this had an obvious nod to "The Italian Job" (the remake, which of course Jason Statham was in) and also the original "Die Hard."

 

[nwhoopfan]

I remember hearing some buzz about "My Summer of Love" when it was first released. I was sort of curious but I never got around to seeing it. I swear at the time the word was keep an eye on actress Natalie Press, who looks like a young Sissy Spacek. They obviously called that one wrong as she's gone on to do not much and co lead Emily Blunt has gone on to be a big star.

Anyway, I didn't care for it. I didn't find the story engaging or the characters particularly interesting. A big twist/reveal at the end made me wonder if Blunt's character was pretty much lying about everything she said throughout the movie. This is one of those that I think had some strong acting performances, but it just wasn't a good movie. That's my opinion anyway.

 

[nwhoopfan]

It's been years since I've watched any of them, but I've always enjoyed the Toy Story franchise. Finally got around to watching #4. Well, tried anyway. Completely bored after 20 minutes. After Forky jumped into the garbage can for about the tenth time (not exaggerating) and Woody dragged him out, I was done. Wasn't a funny gag the first time and they were absolutely beating it to death. I guess I'll never know where the story goes, but I also don't care.


edit--as I thought about it some more, clearly Forky is Pixar's response to the South Park character Towelie. The kids always tell him "You're the worst character ever." He sighs and says "I know."

 

[nwhoopfan]

I've seen "Dazed and Confused" way back when. It's on tv semi regularly so I see bits and pieces of it. Haven't sat down and watched it beginning to end in a long time. Just a really enjoyable movie. Fairly light, nothing really important happens, just a slice of life movie about teens in Anywhere USA. What a cast though! Everybody is in it. Although some of them were fairly unknown at the time and became stars later. And some seemed like stars in the making and never really went anywhere.

 

[Deadrody]

Hobbs & Shaw...I mean you can tell from the trailers it's totally over the top, but I was not prepared for that. Took over the top to whole new levels. It was still kinda enjoyable, but it was a bit too much. Where did Vanessa Kirby come from? Looking at imdb she's got plenty of credits but I was never aware of her until the latest in the Mission: Impossible franchise last year, and now this. Kinda strange to become a blockbuster action star overnight.


edited--this had appearances by a couple of big stars that were a bit more than cameos but very minor characters, managed to keep them out of the trailers, I wasn't aware of them being in the film. Kind of a strange call to bring them in, but barely use them, and not market it.

Also this had an obvious nod to "The Italian Job" (the remake, which of course Jason Statham was in) and also the original "Die Hard."

Pretty much agree. One thing I really enjoyed was the references to Game of Thrones. Kinda cool to see other projects referencing something that culturally significant.

 

[8893]

I've seen "Dazed and Confused" way back when. It's on tv semi regularly so I see bits and pieces of it. Haven't sat down and watched it beginning to end in a long time. Just a really enjoyable movie. Fairly light, nothing really important happens, just a slice of life movie about teens in Anywhere USA. What a cast though! Everybody is in it. Although some of them were fairly unknown at the time and became stars later. And some seemed like stars in the making and never really went anywhere.

I always stop on that movie. Great watch, and greatest McConaughey character ever.

 

[Deepster]

I've seen "Dazed and Confused" way back when. It's on tv semi regularly so I see bits and pieces of it. Haven't sat down and watched it beginning to end in a long time. Just a really enjoyable movie. Fairly light, nothing really important happens, just a slice of life movie about teens in Anywhere USA. What a cast though! Everybody is in it. Although some of them were fairly unknown at the time and became stars later. And some seemed like stars in the making and never really went anywhere.

For period pieces, I feel like Dazed and Confused captures the 70's and Fast Times at Ridgemont High captures the 80's. Perfect snapshots of time with music, script, conversations, costume design, etc.

 

[dbmill]

Finally saw "Yesterday." Entertaining, I enjoyed it. Not quite as lighthearted or whimsical as I thought it would be based on the previews. I believe this was the debut for the lead, Himish Patel. I liked him. Lily James...what can I say? I always like her, so charming, so adorable. Kate McKinnon is hit and miss for me but I found her quite funny in her limited screen time. Lamorne Morris (from New Girl) was only in one scene, I like that guy, I hope he finds some success in movies. Ana de Armas unfortunately hit the cutting room floor (she was in the previews; I hate it when they do that) but she's in the deleted scenes.

Anyway worth a watch I thought. I'm not a huge Beatles fan but I definitely enjoyed the music.

Funny thing, when "Yesterday" was initially released, I thought about putting it on my long list of films to see, but initially decided not to. I have to say, I was on the fence on this decision. I am a big Beatles fan, and while I thought the premise sounded interesting, the thought of everyone forgetting about the Beatles was a bit much. However, one day out of the blue, my wife, who is not a Beatles fan at all, expressed a big interest in seeing this movie. Apparently she had read a fantasy book about a country that had been forgotten that she had enjoyed, so she wanted to see how it would work in a music format At that point I figured that if she was interested in a film centering on the Beatles, then I would certainly go along for the ride.

Anyway, I found that while it is not a great movie, for the most part "Yesterday" is watchable and held my interest. The best part of the film for me is Himesh Patel and his singing of the various Beatle songs. Patel did very well with it, his voice matches very well with a lot of the material. Also a plus in this movie is his relationship with his girl friend, played by Lily James. I agree with the above review about her, she definitely won me over with her charm and her adorability. Patel struggling with his new found fame was not a positive for me, but overall the music of the Beatles wins out.

One other note. Richard Curtis wrote the screenplay and was one of the producers of "Yesterday". Curtis had a big hand in writing one of my favorite television comedy series, "Blackadder". And to think, just the other day my wife told me that she had a cunning plan, a big catch phrase from that show.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Ha, speaking of movies that a person opted to skip. I wasn't gonna watch "Venom," but there's a free preview of STARZ this weekend and they were showing it, so what the heck. It was decent. Tom Hardy was good in that role. I like Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate too.

 

[nwhoopfan]

For period pieces, I feel like Dazed and Confused captures the 70's and Fast Times at Ridgemont High captures the 80's. Perfect snapshots of time with music, script, conversations, costume design, etc.

Funny you mentioned that, I caught Fast Times on TV last night.

 

[J187Money]

Motherless Brooklyn - Norton did a tremendous job.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I wasn't going to watch "Good Boys," then I changed my mind. I suspect this is very much a love it or hate it movie, hard to be neutral. You'll know pretty quick which category you fall into. If you think watching 12 year old kids cussing constantly and talking about sex while completely misunderstanding it is hilarious, this is for you. I didn't enjoy it. Seth Rogen and cronies were going for a "Super Bad" vibe only w/ middle school instead of high school kids. It fell flat for me. I almost quit several times, but stuck it out (had to fast forward a few times, the ick factor was too high). The only thing that made it remotely watchable for me were the 2 high school girls the main characters kept interacting w/, played by Molly Gordon and Midori Francis. If the movie had been about them it could've been a "Book Smart" kind of thing and halfway decent.

Anyway, I don't think I'm prudish but this was fairly offensive and inappropriate. I probably should've gone with my first instinct and not watched it. Oh well.

 

[John]

watched Slingblade last night - had forgotten what a great movie it is.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

"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.


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.

I liked it, but it could have been better. The change of pace about 2/3's of the way through was weird. The movie should have stuck with what was working. You could tell it had a first time Director. She threw the kitchen sink in the movie rather than just telling the story.

That is nitpicking though. There are a lot of laugh out loud moments in the movie, and it is really well written with even secondary and tertiary characters having depth. Fun movie and I recommend it.

 

[nwhoopfan]

There are a lot of laugh out loud moments in the movie, and it is really well written with even secondary and tertiary characters having depth.

Carrie Fisher's daugher Billie Lourd did her best to steal the movie.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Knives Out" was a lot of fun. Great ensemble cast.

 

[ZooCougar]

Ford V. Ferrari well done, also not a courtroom drama.