Recently Watched Movies 2024

[Palatine]

Civil War (2024) I don't know whether this is nonsense or garbage. Either way, it is a silly, unbelievable passionless film. They attempt action scenes that are too big for the budget and the cost cutting shows. It's shot well, there are good actors in it, they give mediocre performances. Well edited, sound , everything is done well except the script and the concept. It's pointless. One star. I thought it stunk.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Find Me Falling" is new on Netflix. Harry Connick Jr. plays a washed up rock star. His comeback album bombs. He runs off to a little village in Cyprus to hide from his life. Just so happens that his flame from many years ago lives there. Other things happen as he gets to know other villagers and adjusts to their way of living in Cyprus. I found it enjoyable and endearing.

 

[nwhoopfan]

That was different. "Slums of Beverly Hills" (1998). I'd never even heard of it before. Alan Arkin plays a divorced father with 3 kids. Moves around constantly because he can't keep up on rent. The two older kids are Natasha Lyonne and David Krumholtz, early in their careers. Marisa Tomei is their cousin. Mena Suvari shows up briefly, early in her career as well. I thought it was a supposed to be a comedy, but more of a drama. Strong performance by Lyonne.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Abigail. A group of kidnappers abduct a 12 year old girl, daughter of a very rich man. Turns out, she's a vampire. Filmed in Dublin, but set somewhere in the USA. Much of the interior footage is in the Arthur Guinness mansion. Good cast with Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, Giancarlo Esposito, Kathryn Newton and Melissa Barerra, who is particularly fetching in this. It's a fun romp, pretty well made and executed. Gory at times.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Just what everyone has been waiting for, the director's cuts of Rebel Moon Part 1 and 2 are coming soon. Kinda weird, I imagine Netflix gave Snyder carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, so there wasn't really any reason for this. But that's probably just Snyder being Snyder.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Forgot, several days ago watched the sequel to "My Spy." I enjoyed the first one. The sequel, not so much. The humor just didn't hit. Several actors repeating their roles. Batista is starting to look kinda grizzled. Chloe Coleman has grown up a lot in 4 years. They added Ken Jeong. I've never found him funny. One note and grating, he ruins everything he's in for me. Kinda of a different turn for Anna Faris too. I didn't even recognize her at first.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Nobody. Stats Bob Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell in a different role for him. Family man, with a humdrum 9-5 existence. Yet he does pull-ups at the bus stop every morning. There's a break-in at his house and while his teen son jumps in and subdues one attacker, Hutch elects to capitulate and let them go. Then we find out Hutch may not be what we think, as he finds them later. Invigorated by the rediscovery, Hutch goes a little John Wick on a lot of Russian bad guys. This was fun. Loved Christopher Lloyd as Hutch's dad.

 

[ZooCougar]

Nobody. Stats Bob Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell in a different role for him. Family man, with a humdrum 9-5 existence. Yet he does pull-ups at the bus stop every morning. There's a break-in at his house and while his teen son jumps in and subdues one attacker, Hutch elects to capitulate and let them go. Then we find out Hutch may not be what we think, as he finds them later. Invigorated by the rediscovery, Hutch goes a little John Wick on a lot of Russian bad guys. This was fun. Loved Christopher Lloyd as Hutch's dad.

I liked that one.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Abigail. A group of kidnappers abduct a 12 year old girl, daughter of a very rich man. Turns out, she's a vampire. Filmed in Dublin, but set somewhere in the USA. Much of the interior footage is in the Arthur Guinness mansion. Good cast with Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, Giancarlo Esposito, Kathryn Newton and Melissa Barerra, who is particularly fetching in this. It's a fun romp, pretty well made and executed. Gory at times.

Just watched it. I thought the set up was really good. Dragged a little toward the end, but overall I enjoyed it. You weren't kidding about gory. Literal buckets of (fake) blood in this one.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Twisters. Sequel to the 90s classic, but not really a sequel. Stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate, tornado researcher and probably the spiritual successor to Helen Hunt. She's lovely and you like her, even if her English accent slips in now and then. The "it" man of Hollywood, Glen Powell is Tyler Owens, YouTube star Tornado chaser, but with a good heart and legit science to go with the persona. He's just charming as all hell no matter what he does. Several supporting roles, including from some guy who was in Hamilton on Broadway. So it's a disaster movie, great effects, with some serious personal drama stuff, some "help your fellow man" messaging and a little romance on the side. Darned good movie and the box office shows it.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Mountain Queen: the Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa" is a new documentary on Netflix. About a Sherpani who summited Everest 10 times. She wasn't the first Sherpani women to summit, but she was the first to reach the top and survive. It's interesting, but sad. She met and eventually married a Romanian climber and moved with him to Connecticut. He turned abusive and traumatized his wife and their two daughters.

 

[Dove]

Land of Bad (2024) - Very entertaining movie. Different perspective as the action was USA guys v. Phillipino ****tards.

Only quibble was Liam Hemsworth's character taking a hammer to the teeth and still being able to carry out an escape at the end despite broken chiclets and bleeding gums. I mean, he took a shot.

Also, when did Russell Crowe turn into John Goodman?

 

[Spaceman213J]

Land of Bad (2024) - Very entertaining movie. Different perspective as the action was USA guys v. Phillipino ****tards.

Only quibble was Liam Hemsworth's character taking a hammer to the teeth and still being able to carry out an escape at the end despite broken chiclets and bleeding gums. I mean, he took a shot.

Also, when did Russell Crowe turn into John Goodman?

It was entertaining and my mom really thought Crowe was Goodman for a few minutes.

Saw the Deadpool movie last week. It was 'meh'. Only saw a few movies this summer because of lingering effects from a concussion in April. The only thing I genuinely cared for was "A Quiet Place: Day One" and "The Fall Guy". It seemed like a weak slate of summer movies.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I wasn't necessarily gonna watch the director's cuts of Rebel Moon...but then I did. Part 1 at least. It's long. 3 1/2 hours. I broke it up into a couple sessions. For one thing, it leans hard into being R rated. Plenty of very violent and bloody scenes, as well as language and some s e x and n u d i t y. It starts with about a 10 minute intro involving a minor character that I hardly paid attention to. Adds quite a bit to that person's arc. There was a bit more characterization added here and there. Primarily Jimmy the robot. Lots of him running around in the woods and being kinda mystical. Also showed how he got his deer antlers. If you hated the original cut, probably don't bother but I don't think I have to convince you of that. If you found it at least mildly entertaining, might be worth watching the extended version.

 

[storrsroars]

Abigail. A group of kidnappers abduct a 12 year old girl, daughter of a very rich man. Turns out, she's a vampire. Filmed in Dublin, but set somewhere in the USA. Much of the interior footage is in the Arthur Guinness mansion. Good cast with Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, Giancarlo Esposito, Kathryn Newton and Melissa Barerra, who is particularly fetching in this. It's a fun romp, pretty well made and executed. Gory at times.

Just watched it. I thought the set up was really good. Dragged a little toward the end, but overall I enjoyed it. You weren't kidding about gory. Literal buckets of (fake) blood in this one.

I watched it yesterday based on above. Won't be any acting awards coming out of this one, although the girl who played Abagail was pretty good. Esposito was wasted here. That said, some good SFX, especially the blond getting vaporized.

 

[DRBackup]

Deadpool and Wolverine was outstanding. Even my wife liked it and she's really not a fan of the superhero genre. Be interesting to see if Disney leans into this side of the house or not.

 

[ZooCougar]

Land of Bad (2024) - Very entertaining movie. Different perspective as the action was USA guys v. Phillipino ****tards.

Only quibble was Liam Hemsworth's character taking a hammer to the teeth and still being able to carry out an escape at the end despite broken chiclets and bleeding gums. I mean, he took a shot.

Also, when did Russell Crowe turn into John Goodman?

I read the review. 60 year old, 60lb overweight Russell Crowe is an Air Force Captain?

I can’t suspend disbelief that well.

 

[ZooCougar]

Twisters. Sequel to the 90s classic, but not really a sequel. Stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate, tornado researcher and probably the spiritual successor to Helen Hunt. She's lovely and you like her, even if her English accent slips in now and then. The "it" man of Hollywood, Glen Powell is Tyler Owens, YouTube star Tornado chaser, but with a good heart and legit science to go with the persona. He's just charming as all hell no matter what he does. Several supporting roles, including from some guy who was in Hamilton on Broadway. So it's a disaster movie, great effects, with some serious personal drama stuff, some "help your fellow man" messaging and a little romance on the side. Darned good movie and the box office shows it.

It was good. Really good cinematography. Love that they had scenes with tons of turbines because those are everywhere in this part of the country now. Better story this time too.

 

[storrsroars]

I read the review. 60 year old, 60lb overweight Russell Crowe is an Air Force Captain?

I can’t suspend disbelief that well.

I read that his character flies drones remotely, so not a ton of physicality needed. But I would also think they'd employ younger video game players for that stuff?

 

[nwhoopfan]

After watching the director's cuts of both, I still prefer Part 1 of Rebel Moon. Not a whole lot was added with the extended run time in Part 2.

One noticeable thing, was in both parts. The original version made it seem like this huge city killing space ship was coal powered, which was really strange. In this version, the ship is powered by some kind of statue/god-like entity (which seems borrowed/stolen from a John Scalzi novel called The God Engines). They shoveled biological material ie. human remains into a huge furnace, which the god thing converted into enormous amounts of energy.

I don't really remember from watching before, but the bounty hunter guys are orcs straight out of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

 

[ZooCougar]

I read that his character flies drones remotely, so not a ton of physicality needed. But I would also think they'd employ younger video game players for that stuff?

You can’t be that enormous no matter what the job is.

 

[storrsroars]

Nobody. Stats Bob Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell in a different role for him. Family man, with a humdrum 9-5 existence. Yet he does pull-ups at the bus stop every morning. There's a break-in at his house and while his teen son jumps in and subdues one attacker, Hutch elects to capitulate and let them go. Then we find out Hutch may not be what we think, as he finds them later. Invigorated by the rediscovery, Hutch goes a little John Wick on a lot of Russian bad guys. This was fun. Loved Christopher Lloyd as Hutch's dad.

That was fun, if ridiculous. It is like John Wick meets Home Alone.

Who ever thought they'd see Christopher Lloyd and RZA on the same team killing Russians?

 

[Dove]

I read the review. 60 year old, 60lb overweight Russell Crowe is an Air Force Captain?

I can’t suspend disbelief that well.

He is glued to a chair for most of the movie.

 

[ZooCougar]

He is glued to a chair for most of the movie.

There are no 60 year old O-3s and anyone that fat would get bounced out faster than you can say McDonald’s.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Knox Goes Away. Stars and directed by Michael Keaton. He plays John Knox, a hitman for a crime boss, former military and supposedly very intelligent. Reads a lot of books. He gets a dementia diagnosis and some other things occur around that time (no spoilers). He knows he, as he knows himself, is "going away". He has to race against time and his disease to put some things right as best he can before that happens. He struggles to execute his own elaborate plot. I thought this was really quite well done. Keaton is very good and the story holds my attention, even if you can figure out what he has planned.

I had seen this popping up for some time, but for those who have or had family members suffering from Demetia (in whatever form) it could be a tough watch. Knew my wife wouldn't want to see it.