Recently Watched Movies 2022

[nwhoopfan]

Just now watched "Bad Reputation," documentary about Joan Jett. Really good I thought. It started with The Runaways of course but didn't go into it in great detail. Joan had some massive ups and downs with The Blackhearts. Her career was much more varied than I realized. A bit of acting. Produced records for some other bands. Some activism. Performed for military personnel for many years. She bridged generations and genres and got involved with several up and coming bands and aided them over the years.

 

[storrsroars]

Been on a bit of a music documentary kick lately. Forgot to mention I watched "Hired Guns" about studio or session musicians. My brother recommended that a while ago, finally saw it. It's on Freevee. Rudy Sarzo popped up in it, so it dove tailed into the Randy Rhoads documentary I had just watched (he was in Quiet Riot and w/ Ozzy along side Randy). Interesting, I don't really get how/why it works that way but some of these musicians contribute both to the albums and go on tour w/ singers or bands for years, without ever being a full time member of the band. Contribute more to the creative process of the music than I would've guessed, sometimes without getting any credit for it. I'd say worth a watch for music lovers.

Haven't seen Hired Guns yet, but I've seen a number of docs on session musicians. While I doubt he was in the film, there's a legendary story about Richard Wright of Pink Floyd. Waters wanted him out of the legal partnership for the band. But he was hired back for touring and paid a salary as opposed to a percentage of profit or gate. Floyd embarked on an expensive tour and it ended up that Wright made money while Waters, Gilmour, and Mason didn't. So that might be one reason session folks don't join bands.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Haven't seen Hired Guns yet, but I've seen a number of docs on session musicians. While I doubt he was in the film, there's a legendary story about Richard Wright of Pink Floyd. Waters wanted him out of the legal partnership for the band. But he was hired back for touring and paid a salary as opposed to a percentage of profit or gate. Floyd embarked on an expensive tour and it ended up that Wright made money while Waters, Gilmour, and Mason didn't. So that might be one reason session folks don't join bands.

I don't remember there being anything about Pink Floyd.

 

[Deadrody]

What can I say, I'm a sucker for teen movies. Most of them are mediocre, but can still be fairly entertaining. Netflix has a bunch of them I've been plowing thru. Not even gonna admit to some of them I've watched. One that I thought rose above the others I've seen recently is "Along for the Ride." Girl just graduated high school, never fit in with her peers. Her parents divorced at some point, not sure how long ago it was. She lives with her mom, but is going to spend the summer before college with her dad and his younger wife and their newborn daughter. At a sleepy little coastal town. It's not mind blowing, but I appreciated the characters and the story. The kids aren't self centered, oblivious jerks, or party monsters, or any of those types of stereotypes. Decent kids, who are dealing with some stuff, and trying to figure it out as best they can. There are some recognizable faces (Dermot Mulroney, Andie MacDowell, Kate Bosworth), I wasn't familiar with any of the younger cast. I thought they all did a nice job. More of a drama than a comedy. Worth a watch I thought.


As an aside, I think IMDB's ratings are getting as unreliable as Rotten Tomatoes. You just can't believe anything anymore.

Eh, I think they can be somewhat reliable. Problem is, IMDB is trying to hide them. The "sort by helpfullness" option is gone. The only rational explanation is they don't want people to actually get a sense of the consensus rating while they're being flooded with 1s and 10s. You can sort by "total votes" and then see whether the "loved it" or "hated it" reviews are getting the higher share of helpful reviews. Absolutely stupid.

On a related note, IMDB is now owned by Amazon, I believe, so this may all be part of the effort to hide how much people dislike their "Rings of Power" series.

 

[nwhoopfan]

On a related note, IMDB is now owned by Amazon, I believe, so this may all be part of the effort to hide how much people dislike their "Rings of Power" series.

That was in development for forever. I was curious about it. Then the trailers hit and I was underwhelmed. Then I started seeing reactions to it. I considered watching at least one episode, but ultimately decided "nope."

Why do these companies pay boatloads of money for beloved IPs, and then just lay waste to the source material and the fan base? It makes absolutely no sense at all.

 

[HuskyHawk]

That was in development for forever. I was curious about it. Then the trailers hit and I was underwhelmed. Then I started seeing reactions to it. I considered watching at least one episode, but ultimately decided "nope."

Why do these companies pay boatloads of money for beloved IPs, and then just lay waste to the source material and the fan base? It makes absolutely no sense at all.

They didn't really. A few hard-core fans claimed they did, but it's exaggerated. The source material isn't in published book form (not by J.R.R. Tolkien at least, but some by his son based on notes). One of the changes is one we know Tolkien agreed with. There are a few, small departures from canon, and new characters that merely round out an incomplete story. Some of what people complained about are silly things. I think Rings of Power is better than House of the Dragon. Production quality is much higher.

Caution: Major Spoilers.

A Tolkien Nerd on how Rings of Power differs from the book: Episode 1

Rings of Power is here but how does it differ from the books? A tolkien nerd is here to explain it all for you from Finrod to Bronwyn

www.comicsbeat.com

 

[dbmill]

Werewolves Within (2021) - It’s getting near Halloween, so it's time for me and my wife to watch another Werewolf movie. At the beginning of this film, a U.S. forest ranger arrives for his new assignment in a small Vermont town. The people around the town seem to be deeply divided and potentially violently mad at each other. It pretty much mirrors the modern political climate we have where it seems to be often very difficult for people with opposing beliefs to have a civil conversation with each other. Anyway, this sort of political and civil climate provides something of a perfect atmosphere for another new arrival in town, What appears to be a potential werewolf. After all, it would seem that the werewolf would not have to do much killing people for food if others are willing to do this service on their own. Fresh meat with little work involved! Our newly arrived forest ranger needs to navigate this rather difficult climate in order to try to help protect those people who are still alive, and for that matter, try to stay alive himself. One thing for certain, this sort of climate seems to inhabit a number of films that I have posted about on these threads recently. It is a good but not great movie. Anyway, this film is very watchable and kept my attention throughout.

 

[nwhoopfan]

They didn't really. A few hard-core fans claimed they did, but it's exaggerated. The source material isn't in published book form (not by J.R.R. Tolkien at least, but some by his son based on notes). One of the changes is one we know Tolkien agreed with. There are a few, small departures from canon, and new characters that merely round out an incomplete story. Some of what people complained about are silly things. I think Rings of Power is better than House of the Dragon. Production quality is much higher.

Caution: Major Spoilers.

A Tolkien Nerd on how Rings of Power differs from the book: Episode 1

Rings of Power is here but how does it differ from the books? A tolkien nerd is here to explain it all for you from Finrod to Bronwyn

www.comicsbeat.com

From what I've heard, they've turned Galadriel into a petulant, arrogant uber jerk.

Is "The Silmarllion" not used at all as source material? Even if the story lines aren't derived directly from published materials of Tolkien's, certainly some of the characters and the world they inhabit are established.

There are definitely mixed reviews about this. It seems like Amazon has gone the route of dismissing any criticism as racist or sexist, without bothering to actually consider the content of the criticism itself. Pretty lazy, but that's where we're at these days.

edit--oops, I see in the linked article that they didn't have rights to the Silmarillion

 

[8893]

Watched "Luckiest Girl Alive" (Netflix) last night. It's about a woman (Mila Kunis) who's trying to put her past behind her but is being coerced to do an interview about a school shooting that would also expose her being victim to a gan.g rape, which would threaten her upcoming marriage to a wealthy socialite.

It's choppy, but still coherent, although there are a lot of viewer comments about the editing being confusing. But the surprise (and disappointment) to me was the number of viewer comments complaining that the movie didn't have sufficient warnings about the sexual assault and school shooting. Apparently it freaked out a lot of people. It's not like the movie doesn't label itself as being about a sexual assault. "The Accused" was much more graphic, IMHO. I wasn't bothered by it, and am wondering some part of the movie-going public has lost their collective minds.

I saw it, and have thought about it for a few days. I think movies have to tread very carefully using sexual assault in a plot, and the bar should be extremely high for using a mass school shooting in a movie. I think the movie handled the sexual assault and the PTSD of such an experience well, but the school shooting was gratuitous and unnecessary.

Watched this the other night, on wife pick night.

Mrs. 8893 lost her next pick for this choice. I wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great, either. We expected it to be better.

I am picking The Greatest Beer Run Ever and The Redeem Team as the next two choices and will report back on those.

 

[Deadrody]

I watched this on a flight to San Francisco a few weeks ago. I read and really enjoyed The Midnight Library this summer, which has a similar premise, so I was intrigued when one of my daughters and her boyfriend described this film to me.

I agree with a lot of @Palatine 's post, except I don't think it was a failure; I just think it could have been much better and tighter. But I wanted my wife to watch it on the way home (in part because the mother-daughter relationship bears some resemblance to hers with one of ours), and she did exactly what @nwhoopfan did, i.e., turned it off after around a half hour because she couldn't get into it.

The length and repetition probably would have bothered me a lot more if I wasn't watching it on a cross-country flight. That was actually a positive though, because it occupied me for almost half the flight.

I'd give it 3.5/5 stars.

Agreed. Including the 3.5 stars. I saw the great reviews and was hoping for something very slick and polished and this was the opposite of that. It was still good, but nowhere near what I was hoping for. And, yeah, definitely longer than necessary

 

[Deepster]

Elvis (2022) -

Overall, it was an incredibly made film and I highly recommend it.

Baz Luhrmann films are usually too much for me: I hated The Great Gatsby and didn't like his other movies...his signature style often causes me anxiety. His vision is clear and he's an obviously talented auteur.

Austin Butler's portrayal as Elvis was incredible and aside from Tom Hanks, I enjoyed seeing a film where I wasn't familiar with any of the actors...for some reason that helped me dive deeper into the film for what it is.

Just watched it. I was super apprehensive about it because I'm a pretty decent Elvis fan and usually things don't live up to the hype for me. To give you an idea, my Mom was a huge Elvis fan and took us to Hawaii as kids because Elvis loved Hawaii. I also got in a car with a couple waitresses when I bartended and drove overnight to visit Graceland in my early 20's....ah, another story for another time.

I thought the style it was filmed in was excellent and really added to the movie. I did not care for Tom Hanks with the prosthetics and bad accent one bit, he's a Top 3 actor for me and I thought he was cartoony. Austin Butler really stole the show. Especially 2/3's through the movie entering the Vegas act era. There were times you almost thought they spliced real Elvis film in there and I'd almost put that piece of the movie up in a discussion thread with Bohemian Rhapsody of great musician representations.

 

[HuskyHawk]

From what I've heard, they've turned Galadriel into a petulant, arrogant uber jerk.

Is "The Silmarllion" not used at all as source material? Even if the story lines aren't derived directly from published materials of Tolkien's, certainly some of the characters and the world they inhabit are established.

There are definitely mixed reviews about this. It seems like Amazon has gone the route of dismissing any criticism as racist or sexist, without bothering to actually consider the content of the criticism itself. Pretty lazy, but that's where we're at these days.

edit--oops, I see in the linked article that they didn't have rights to the Silmarillion

I actually really like Galadriel. Plus she’s gorgeous. But mostly the portrayal is considered accurate per the canon, of young warrior Galadriel. It ties in nicely to the “dark queen speech”. The complaints don’t actually boil down to much. The one departure is mythril vs sillmarilians, but they evidently couldn‘t use the gems.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I actually really like Galadriel. Plus she’s gorgeous. But mostly the portrayal is considered accurate per the canon, of young warrior Galadriel. It ties in nicely to the “dark queen speech”. The complaints don’t actually boil down to much. The one departure is mythril vs sillmarilians, but they evidently couldn‘t use the gems.

While she was certainly younger in this era than the Galadriel we saw in Jackson's LOTR trilogy, she certainly wasn't young even then due to elves having extremely long lives in canon. They could've conveyed different facets of her while still maybe displaying more tact and wisdom perhaps? That's just based on some reactions I've seen of her character. But I guess since I haven't watched it, my opinion is ill informed. Maybe I'll change my mind and try it after all, but it's not a priority currently.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Marvel just keeps sinking to new lows. "Thor: Love and Thunder" was awful. Just so dumb. Buffoonish. Not funny even though they tried way to hard to be. Gorr could've been a good villain in a different movie but was wasted here. Everything was a waste. Taika Waititi is dead to me after this mess. But Guns N Roses must've made a boatload of money off this stinker, I think at least 4 of their songs were featured. And we got Dio's "Rainbows in the Dark" playing during the end credits, so at least it had that going for it. Disney really is out to murder the golden goose with the MCU.

 

[CL82]

The Princess (2022)

You have to admire a movie that makes very little attempt at a plot by just drives right into action. The Princess does just that. A princess is locked in a tower asleep on a bed with rose petals. She awakes and starts killing people. Don’t get me wrong, they’re probably bad people. Probably. We know that because they speak in that bad cockney accent used by the orcs in Lord of the Rings. She has to fight her way out of a tower and down to her family who are sometimes locked up and sometimes not, apparently randomly. She starts off in a John Wick-like killing spree. When I say it’s John Wick like, I mean a lot of people die, but it’s not executed with anywhere near the precision. It’s pretty much in an athletic, slightly chunky girl waving a sword around in slow motion.

How can she possibly do it? Well, she has been secretly trained in the martial arts by her randomly Asian lady in waiting. So she’s doomed to find alone against an entire castle, until the Asian lady in waiting joins her for one battle in the kitchen, swearing to fight by her side, but then randomly bailing just before the princess has to go in a giant sewage water slide for reasons that are unclear.

Who are her foes? Some random lord who we know is a bad guy because he always wears black and his dominatrix sidekick whose weapon of choice is, you guessed it, a whip.

In any event, after the giant sewage water slide, the Lady in waiting rejoins her, because apparently it wasn’t really necessary to go in the giant sewage water slide, she could’ve just taken the stairs or something. They go into a secret armory, loaded with weapons armor and shields and the lady in waiting says let’s get you ready. What did they choose for her? Armor? Chain mail? Shield? A spear? A battle ax? Nope, a single sword and a leather bustier. (CL82 realizes that bustier is basically busty-er said with a French accent and chuckles.) I guess really anything more was unneeded since on her way down from the tower she received numerous stab wounds and gashes and was able to continue after the Asian lady in waiting (ALiW) rubbed some Vaseline on one of her cuts. I mean she’s got stab wounds deep into her abdomen and ALiW picks like the last worst one and rub some Vaseline on it and she’s good to go? I get why she thinks armor is pointless. You might as well go with the bustier that point.

Anyway, she finishes fighting the entire castle while pretty much everyone just stands and watches her. I mean, no one‘s goning jump in and help? Her dad did for a like 20 seconds but was stabbed, and yet, was apparently OK by the end of the movie. He didn’t even get any Vaseline rubbed on it. ALiW was apparently killed as well, until she wasn’t. It was like an entire castle of Wolverines or Deadpools. In the end, she of course defeats the dominatrix and then the bad guy killing him and taking the crown. She then handed it to her dad, the king , who pretty much did nothing but watch while she single-handedly took him a whole castle full of armed orc like, cockney speaking bad guys. Of course, the king is going to hand her the crown, right? Saying how she earned it… nope, he just takes it and puts it on his head. He does make her his heir, but wasn’t she always that to begin with?

If you’ve read this far, you must realize that I’m pretty liberally revealing spoilers here. That’s because it is literally impossible to spoil this movie. It is a pretty big bucket of suck.

 

[storrsroars]

The Princess (2022)

You have to admire a movie that makes very little attempt at a plot by just drives right into action. The Princess does just that. A princess is locked in a tower asleep on a bed with rose petals. She awakes and starts killing people. Don’t get me wrong, they’re probably bad people. Probably. We know that because they speak in that bad cockney accent used by the orcs in Lord of the Rings. She has to fight her way out of a tower and down to her family who are sometimes locked up and sometimes not, apparently randomly. She starts off in a John Wick-like killing spree. When I say it’s John Wick like, I mean a lot of people die, but it’s not executed with anywhere near the precision. It’s pretty much in an athletic, slightly chunky girl waving a sword around in slow motion.

How can she possibly do it? Well, she has been secretly trained in the martial arts by her randomly Asian lady in waiting. So she’s doomed to find alone against an entire castle, until the Asian lady in waiting joins her for one battle in the kitchen, swearing to fight by her side, but then randomly bailing just before the princess has to go in a giant sewage water slide for reasons that are unclear.

Who are her foes? Some random lord who we know is a bad guy because he always wears black and his dominatrix sidekick whose weapon of choice is, you guessed it, a whip.

In any event, after the giant sewage water slide, the Lady in waiting rejoins her, because apparently it wasn’t really necessary to go in the giant sewage water slide, she could’ve just taken the stairs or something. They go into a secret armory, loaded with weapons armor and shields and the lady in waiting says let’s get you ready. What did they choose for her? Armor? Chain mail? Shield? A spear? A battle ax? Nope, a single sword and a leather bustier. (CL82 realizes that bustier is basically busty-er said with a French accent and chuckles.) I guess really anything more was unneeded since on her way down from the tower she received numerous stab wounds and gashes and was able to continue after the Asian lady in waiting (ALiW) rubbed some Vaseline on one of her cuts. I mean she’s got stab wounds deep into her abdomen and ALiW picks like the last worst one and rub some Vaseline on it and she’s good to go? I get why she thinks armor is pointless. You might as well go with the bustier that point.

Anyway, she finishes fighting the entire castle while pretty much everyone just stands and watches her. I mean, no one‘s goning jump in and help? Her dad did for a like 20 seconds but was stabbed, and yet, was apparently OK by the end of the movie. He didn’t even get any Vaseline rubbed on it. ALiW was apparently killed as well, until she wasn’t. It was like an entire castle of Wolverines or Deadpools. In the end, she of course defeats the dominatrix and then the bad guy killing him and taking the crown. She then handed it to her dad, the king , who pretty much did nothing but watch while she single-handedly took him a whole castle full of armed orc like, cockney speaking bad guys. Of course, the king is going to hand her the crown, right? Saying how she earned it… nope, he just takes it and puts it on his head. He does make her his heir, but wasn’t she always that to begin with?

If you’ve read this far, you must realize that I’m pretty liberally revealing spoilers here. That’s because it is literally impossible to spoil this movie. It is a pretty big bucket of suck.

This is by far the best review ever posted in this thread.

 

[HuskyHawk]

A couple of Halloween offerings.

The Lost Boys. This remains a classic. Epic soundtrack, cool setting in Santa Cruz, memorable lines, comedy (mostly from the Coreys and grandpa), it just puts a smile on your face and keeps it there. Fantastic final line from Barnard Hughes as the hippie grandpa. If it's been awhile, give it another spin.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Based on a Shirley Jackson novel. Its...not a horror movie. Not a thriller. Despite some good acting performances from Crispin Glover, Alexandra Daddario and others, there's no discernable plot. A family lives in a big house. They are wealthy. Two young women live with their uncle, whos is disabled because he was poisoned, along with the girl's parents. The older girl (Daddario) was aquitted of the crime (they say because she's too pretty to convict). The whole town hates them. The younger daughter is weird. Sebastian Stan is their cousin and arrives half way through. Stuff happens, and it ends. Daddario is lovely, and other than that, there's not much point in this.

 

[Palatine]

The Lost Boys. This is a smart, well made film. I suspect it will hold up for a long time. It is aging quite nicely. Everything is done well, acting, story, writing, cinematography, music, editing. You can look for deeper meaning. Is this about the need for family, is it about a lost generation of kids, is it analogy for drugs? Or you can just enjoy the vampire movie. I agree with HuskyHawk this is a classic, although I didn't think that when I first saw it. Bears multiple watchings. My wife likes it too. 4 out of 5 stars.

 

[8893]

The Good Nurse (Netflix 2022). A crime/thriller starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, based on a true, chilling story involving a nurse who turns out to be a serial killer. A good, interesting watch based on two very good performances by two excellent actors. I thought the supporting cast was weak in that I didn't find the cops or the hospital exec very believable. There is no action and not a lot of drama, but the story and the performances by Chastain and Redmayne are compelling.

 

[storrsroars]

The Good Nurse (Netflix 2022). A crime/thriller starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, based on a true, chilling story involving a nurse who turns out to be a serial killer. A good, interesting watch based on two very good performances by two excellent actors. I thought the supporting cast was weak in that I didn't find the cops or the hospital exec very believable. There is no action and not a lot of drama, but the story and the performances by Chastain and Redmayne are compelling.

I suppose as it's a true story I should look up bits that I felt were lacking in the storytelling (which for sake of spoilers I won't mention here). I felt fairly ambivalent about the whole thing. It wasn't bad, it wasn't really good either. Just sort of there. I think Kim Dickens' character was supposed to be more an amalgam of every hospital admin who won't act without being lawyered up.

OK, I'm gonna divulge one thing that bugged me (but it wasn't the biggest). I think there needed to be more 'explain like it's CSI" regarding the exhumed body. Assuming blood was drained and replaced by formaldehyde or something, and organs may have been removed, what did they use to do bloodwork?

 

[8893]

I suppose as it's a true story I should look up bits that I felt were lacking in the storytelling (which for sake of spoilers I won't mention here). I felt fairly ambivalent about the whole thing. It wasn't bad, it wasn't really good either. Just sort of there. I think Kim Dickens' character was supposed to be more an amalgam of every hospital admin who won't act without being lawyered up.

OK, I'm gonna divulge one thing that bugged me (but it wasn't the biggest). I think there needed to be more 'explain like it's CSI" regarding the exhumed body. Assuming blood was drained and replaced by formaldehyde or something, and organs may have been removed, what did they use to do bloodwork?

Ha, well my wife is a nurse—also a very good one, despite my calling her Nurse Ratched—and also a huge CSI fan, and I asked her about that at the time. The answer is “tissue,” i.e., pretty much anything.

As for the movie, I just think the two leads are such great actors, and their performances carried it enough to make it a good and compelling watch for us.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I might've seen it at some point way back when, but really don't remember. Prime has "Serving Sara" with Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley. It's fluff and forgettable, but entertaining enough. I kinda forgot that Perry actually had some decent roles outside of "Friends." I did not forget about Ms. Hurley. Early 2000s...yowza! This also included Cedric the Entertainer, Terry Crews, Jerry Stiller and an at that point not very well established Amy Adams.

 

[HuskyHawk]

See How They Run. 2022. Wife wanted to see it in cinema, but with my hearing I wanted to watch at home. Lucky it is streaming on HBOMax already. Stars Saorise Ronan, Sam Rockwell, Adrien Brody and others. It’s a twist on an Agatha Christie murder mystery that involves a London play and movie to be made of an Agatha Christie story. If you like those kinds of things you’ll like this. Saorise Ronan is adorable as a newby police constable. Rockwell is the Inspector. Brody serves as kind of a narrator and is a movie director. The film acknowledges the challenges of making such a film, so it’s a fun twist. Not long, under 2 hours.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Press Play" just arrived on Hulu. I'd been curious to watch it for a while. I haven't seen much of her, but I really like Clara Rugaard. I still think she's Alicia Vikander's little sister, even though Clara is Danish and Alicia is Swedish. Anyway. Can't say too much about it without spoilers. Clara starts dating her best friend's step brother. He gets hit by a car and dies. 4 years later she's not doing well. She reacquires a mix tape they made together. When she starts listening to it, she is transported back to the time they first heard the song together. So she tries to "fix" the past. Time space continuum stuff happens. I thought it was decent and kept my interest. Danny Glover was in it, I haven't seen him on screen in forever, good to see him again.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I've seen Alison Pill in a number of films. I always thought her performances were fine, but didn't really jump out at me. That changed after watching "All My Puny Sorrows." It's a tough watch, but she knocked it out of the park. She's a struggling writer going thru a divorce, having difficulties with her teen daughter, and her sister is suicidal. A lot on her plate. Then her aunt has heart problems. She and her mom (Mare Winningham) are barely hanging on. Oh yeah, the dad committed suicide when the sisters were still kids. The sister is portrayed by Sarah Gadon. I swear, every time I've seen her either something tragic happens to her, or something tragic happens to someone around her, and it's probably her fault. As lovely as she is, if you see her coming RUN THE OTHER WAY! It's on Hulu. If you can handle it being fairly bleak, some really strong acting performances.