Recently Watched Movies 2021

[Mano]

A Knight's Tale - I wanted something brainless and arrived here. Totally cheesy stuff. Shannyn Sossamon seemed like for a minute she was gonna be the romcom queen but thankfully everyone caught on pretty quick that she can't act a lick.

Nobody - Like everyone else I couldn't really envision Odenkirk in the role but he pulled it off capably and convincingly. Very enjoyable, I liked it a lot better than any of the Wick's. Hopefully it gets it's chance at being a franchise since they left it so open for one.

The Green Knight - The mood, atmosphere and visuals elevate this sometimes plodding tale. Took some reading up about the poem to fill in some of the details. Who wants to play the beheading game with me??

Finch - The robot had all of the charm in this one. Hanks went with an odd voice affect, a lot of muttering and under enunciation, made him sound very staid. I suppose at the end of the world we all might be. Worth a watch.

Bumblebee - More robots and easily the best of the Transformers franchise. Not really saying much when comparing it to those other turds but Travis Knight (Phil Knight of Nike's son) made an entertaining enough movie.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Had a good time with this one. Felt very much like it's own universe and even though it had a couple of nods to the greater MCU it could've existed as a rousingly entertaining Kung flick without them. Good story, quality action.

Home Sweet Home Alone - Twisting up the Home Alone formula in a cleverish way that didn't diminish the stakes at all while casting our "villians" with two relatable comedians were smart choices. It works as a holiday time waster but won't unseat the classic original.

Love Hard - I can watch Nina Dobrev do most anything. Not setting the world of RomComs on fire as its fairly derivative, it still coasts along with its easy jokes and charm from the leads.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Love Hard - I can watch Nina Dobrev do most anything. Not setting the world of RomComs on fire as its fairly derivative, it still coasts along with its easy jokes and charm from the leads.

I also am very much a fan of Nina Dobrev. I was doing okay with this one, until they took the charade about 10 steps too far with a pretend engagement. I had to stop at that point.

For a fluffy romcom featuring her (along w/ several others) that I did enjoy, there is "Dog Days."

 

[Dove]

Shadow In The Clouds(2021) - I beg you to avoid this POS. The trailer led us to believe this movie had something. A big hell no.

Chloe Grace Moretz stars. And that's it.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

King Richard - I sometimes wonder if reviewers even watch the movie they are reviewing, because the takeaway from about half the reviews, that his movie was an homage to Richard Williams, is just wrong. Richard Williams comes off insane in this movie, and potentially wrong about every major decision he made. His wife tells him as much in the scene in the kitchen in case anyone was not sure what the point of the movie was. His daughters love him, but he may have been wrong about everything and just a total psycho of a sports parent that just happened to father two of the 10 best women's tennis players in history so his decisions ended up looking smart even when they weren't. At least that is my takeaway.

One of the things I like about this movie is that it is not clear if he was right about some, all, or any of it, and that isn't really the point. Will Smith does a great job with a very complicated character. Raising two prodigies in that environment is a fascinating story by itself, but throw in the fact that Richard Williams is such a dodgy character and kind of crazy, and it is a great story.

There is some artistic license taken with the order of events, and to avoid having to use two actresses for each of Venus and Serena. I don't have a problem with that. One thing that you have to read between the lines to recognize is that virtually everyone with tennis expertise that met the girls, even when they were very young, recognized immediately how special they were. It changes the story a little when you realize that, but I think that is intentional.

 

[HuskyHawk]

A Boy Called Christmas. 2021 Netflix. Having exhausted the supply of movies we haven't seen even multiple times, we opted for this. On the whole, for a kid friendly Christmas movie, this is a winner. Maggie Smith, who is getting old, tells a story to three kids who have lost their mother, and who's father, perhaps from grief, isn't celebrating Christmas. The story is that of a boy named Nikolas, who also lost his mom. His mom called him "Christmas". It is, as you can tell, A Saint Nicholas/Father Christmas/Santa Claus origin story and it's cleverly done. There are nods throughout, including to Princess Bride and also to Santa Claus is coming to town (Burgermeister). It's not amazing, but it's pretty solid.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Naked Singularity." Fairly odd, but not in a bad way. John Boyega is a public defender who is getting burned out by the legal system. Olivia Cooke is someone he represented, just trying to get by in life. Ed Skrein is a scumbag low level criminal who gets a whiff of a big score. Goes from there. I enjoyed it. I'll watch Olivia Cooke in just about anything, she never disappoints.


A bit odd, this is set in NYC, the 3 main leads are Brits and the next biggest character, Bill Skarsgard (how many Skarsgards are there?!) is a Swede. Apparently there were no Americans, available for this film.

Also, as I've noted before, if you see Ed Skrein run away. The dude is always bad news.

 

[nwhoopfan]

About 2/3 of the way thru The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard. About as guilty as any sequel I've ever seen of trying too hard, going way over the top, and missing the mark by a mile measuring up to the original. Brought in some other big names, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo. Feels crowded.

 

[HuskyHawk]

About 2/3 of the way thru The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard. About as guilty as any sequel I've ever seen of trying too hard, going way over the top, and missing the mark by a mile measuring up to the original. Brought in some other big names, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo. Feels crowded.

Agreed. For all that, it was still a little bit fun. Salma Hayak is a riot really in both movies.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Agreed. For all that, it was still a little bit fun. Salma Hayak is a riot really in both movies.

I seem to recall the first was similar, but definitely in this one Salma and Samuel were having a contest to see who could cuss more. I think Salma won.

 

[Waquoit]

I've always kind of rolled my eyes when I've read about The Velvet Underground, the "everyone who bought the album started a band" stuff. I sampled the Nico album in college and that was enough. I just finished the excellent documentary on Apple and I'm thinking I have some listening to do.

 

[billybud]

House of Gucci

1....you get your money's worth...a 2 1/2 hour movie that feels like six hours

2...Lady Gaga....she's an actress. Great performance....if it wasn't for her, this movie is a stone.

 

[HuskyHawk]

House of Gucci

1....you get your money's worth...a 2 1/2 hour movie that feels like six hours

2...Lady Gaga....she's an actress. Great performance....if it wasn't for her, this movie is a stone.

I've gone to movies a lot recently, so I've seen the long form preview like 4 times. I've never thought much of her (don't really know her music at all) but she looks pretty in this role. I didn't see A Star is Born, but some said she was good in that too. Maybe I'd take her more seriously if she had a regular name.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Oblivion (2013). Tom Cruise, Olga Kuryenko, Morgan Freeman and Andrea Riseborough. Watched this while my wife decided to catch up on The Matrix movies (that I caught up on recently enough). This is pretty good really. Tom is a guy who maintains droids that defend giant Hydro Fusion plans in 2077. Earth is a wasteland, destroyed by nukes we used on aliens who invaded. Ms. Riseborough is his +1, they were assigned to each other and their memories wiped. They live together alone carrying out their duties on earth. Tom though, has dreams that are like memories. Well there is a big twist in this one and, it's pretty obvious long before it is revealed. It's a solid movie. If you haven't seen it, it's worthwhile.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Oblivion

Seems like most modern sci fi is dystopian, dark, grimy, dirty, you can hardly see what's happening sometimes. I liked that this movie was bright, w/ some beautiful cinematography. That house in the sky was amazing. I think mostly filmed in Iceland?

Anyway I really enjoyed the film, have watched it several times over the years.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Seems like most modern sci fi is dystopian, dark, grimy, dirty, you can hardly see what's happening sometimes. I liked that this movie was bright, w/ some beautiful cinematography. That house in the sky was amazing. I think mostly filmed in Iceland?

Anyway I really enjoyed the film, have watched it several times over the years.

Yes, almost anti-dystopian in some ways. Earth is destroyed...well what people built is. But the lake cabin was beautiful and I think that was central to the story.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Yes, almost anti-dystopian in some ways. Earth is destroyed...well what people built is. But the lake cabin was beautiful and I think that was central to the story.

Oh yeah, forgot about the cabin. That looked like somewhere in the Sierras in CA.


I also liked how the drones seemingly had personalities...and they were jerks!

 

[CL82]

About 2/3 of the way thru The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard. About as guilty as any sequel I've ever seen of trying too hard, going way over the top, and missing the mark by a mile measuring up to the original. Brought in some other big names, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo. Feels crowded.

I liked it. It isn’t an epic or anything, but it’s enjoyable as a example of the unlikely buddy-trip movie. Think Midnight Run. (and no, it’s not as good.)

Hey what was this a sequel to? I liked it enough that I will watch the original.

FWIW, after Salma Hayek goes off on the killing spree in the bar I am so unlikely to make eye contact with her, even though she still is smoking hot.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Hey what was this a sequel to? I liked it enough that I will watch the original.

Hitman's Bodyguard. That was a bit more Samuel L./Reynolds centric.

 

[CL82]

Hitman's Bodyguard. That was a bit more Samuel L./Reynolds centric.

Ohhh, I totally ignored the word “wife“ in there. I was talking about the original movie. I’ll definitely watch the sequel though.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Ohhh, I totally ignored the word “wife“ in there. I was talking about the original movie. I’ll definitely watch the sequel though.

Ahh well the sequel is not as good. But in an era when the volume of quality movies has never been lower, it's worth a watch. I swear Netflix churns out films that are like the old Network TV movies in production quality. Some are good, but they seem to just make as many as possible, hoping some appeal to somebody.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Ghostbusters - Afterlife. (2021). Saw this on the big screen, once again the only people in the cinema. Go to the movies people. It is safe, they need the business and we risk losing a treasured institution if we don't keep them going. We buy beers and concessions to throw them some extra.

The movie is superb. I can't really find any serious faults with it at all. McKenna Grace, the young female lead is tremendous as Phoebe, and I predict in 5 years or so will be the next big thing. Her friend is played by Logan Kim and is really funny. Casting the Stranger Things kid (Mike) as the teen male lead seems intentional because these kids live a 1980s existence in 2021. This movie starts well, sets the story well and then just keeps you engaged all the way. It's frequently funny, occasionally scary and at all times nostalgic. It looks back not just to the original, it's something of an ode to the original and to Harold Ramis in particular. Like Stranger Things, the small town in Oklahoma where it is set has an old roller hop diner, and kids who ride bikes everywhere. The music and most everything else takes you back, in a warm, comfortable way to a time when people lived in the real world more than the virtual one. The excitement is there, old friends who once made you happy are there, all but one, and they made it for him. Great stuff. Highly recommended.

 

[nwhoopfan]

McKenna Grace, the young female lead is tremendous as Phoebe, and I predict in 5 years or so will be the next big thing.

That's her? She looks really different. I've lost track of her, but have enjoyed her in several other movies like Mr. Church (2016) and Gifted (2017).

 

[HuskyHawk]

That's her? She looks really different. I've lost track of her, but have enjoyed her in several other movies like Mr. Church (2016) and Gifted (2017).

Her list of acting credentials on IMDB is fairly shocking for a 15 year old. She's really quite good.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Her list of acting credentials on IMDB is fairly shocking for a 15 year old. She's really quite good.

For some reason in my mind she's much younger than the others, but I guess the age difference isn't that big. There are a number of talented young actresses on the scene, some who have been acting for many years already. In addition to Grace, I expect Millie Bobby Brown, Kiernan Shipka and Thomasin McKenzie to be Hollywood mainstays for many years to come. It's surprising, but Brown is only 17. The other 2 are early 20s.


Side note, but it's encouraging that there are more and more child stars who seem to smoothly transition to adulthood in showbiz, without a bunch of off screen drama and notoriety. It seems like the opposite used to be more the rule than the exception (Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, etc.).

 

[Waquoit]

Reese Witherspoon and Natalie Portman made it through.