Recently Watched Movies 2024

[nwhoopfan]

"Incoming" is new on Netflix, the latest attempt to revitalize the raunchy comedy. I think they actually got it right. This is what "Bad Boys" was trying to be, but that was a steaming pile of garbage. Definitely raunchy, and a bit gonzo at times, but had some heart too. Probably a smart choice that they went with mostly unknowns for the cast, except for a few established older actors. It was also a "The Mick" reunion, with Kaitlin Olson (playing Kaitlin Olson as only she can), Scott MacArthur and Thomas Barbusca. Basic plot line, 4 buddies starting their freshman year of high school, trying to establish themselves as cool. The older brother of one of them is throwing a big party, so that is their chance to introduce themselves to their new world. Bobby Cannavale played a science teacher unlike any you've ever seen before. I got some pretty good laughs out of this.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Oops, that should be Good Boys above, not Bad Boys.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I've seen mixed reviews on "Fall Guy." I loved it. Sure, it's a bit contrived and a bit silly, but I found it very entertaining, and in the end it's a good vehicle to see Gosling and Blunt be charming movie stars.

Saw "Arthur the King' recently as well. Good, maybe not quite as good as I was hoping. I might've preferred to see a documentary rather than a dramatization about it.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Boy Kills World" is pretty crazy. Right up there with "The Raid Redemption" for most violent and visceral movies I've seen. But totally farcical too. Hard to decide how to feel about it. There was some good fight choreography. And Jessica Rothe, so it has that going for it.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Armenia, My Home" is an interesting, brief documentary about Armenia. Looks like a beautiful country with a rich, but tragic history. I'd learned a little bit about it before, enjoyed finding out some more.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The Instigators. Matt Damon, Casey Affleck. On Apple+. This was the most Boston movie ever made. The number of inside jokes was amazing. Loved it. It was a blast and Casey is a better actor than Ben. As for plot, Damon and Affleck are working a job, criminal in nature, and then are stuck trying to save themselves. Highly recommended.

 

[storrsroars]

The Instigators. Matt Damon, Casey Affleck. On Apple+. This was the most Boston movie ever made. The number of inside jokes was amazing. Loved it. It was a blast and Casey is a better actor than Ben. As for plot, Damon and Affleck are working a job, criminal in nature, and then are stuck trying to save themselves. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed it too, and mostly for the same reason - Boston. I also think that Casey and Matt have better comedic chemistry than Ben and Matt (I'll make an exception for Dogma). That said, Boston and these two Boston doofuses make the movie. It's not a particularly brilliant plot or execution, all the Boston-ness makes it good.

I'll also note that even with all the Boston-ness, I still think Gone Baby Gone is the ultimate Boston movie (also starring Casey and directed by Ben).

But great ad to promote the movie:

 

[HuskyHawk]

I enjoyed it too, and mostly for the same reason - Boston. I also think that Casey and Matt have better comedic chemistry than Ben and Matt (I'll make an exception for Dogma). That said, Boston and these two Boston doofuses make the movie. It's not a particularly brilliant plot or execution, all the Boston-ness makes it good.

I'll also note that even with all the Boston-ness, I still think Gone Baby Gone is the ultimate Boston movie (also starring Casey and directed by Ben).

But great ad to promote the movie:

It’s like a two hour running inside gag. If you get the jokes, the mockery of the north shore for example, it’s lots of fun.

 

[Palatine]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. 2024. Dam dirty apes, they keep making these pictures and I keep watching them. Not a bad next installment. They really know how to make these pictures in a way that feels authentic. The film makers do a goo job of focusing on the story and NOT on the special effects.

The story centers on the micro-culture ape village that practices falconry, The Eagle Clan. The larger world intrudes, nearly destroys the Eagle Clan. A single individual then sets out to save the clan from a Roman Emperor wannbe that has set up a dystopian "kingdom."

It is well written, nicely filmed, well acted, and the material is taken seriously. Of course, some folks will never get past the fact it is an ape movie. It ain't for everyone. I enjoyed it. Two and a half stars.

 

[HuskyDevil]

I've been out of town a lot lately, so I froze all my holds from the library. When I finally unfroze them, I was at the top of the list for a bunch of them, so I have some movies to catch up on.

"The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" was entertaining. Henry Cavill is always charismatic. Alan Ritchson's character in this was even more bad *** than Reacher. Always enjoy seeing Eiza Gonzalez too.

I thought "Dune Part 2" was much, much better than Part 1. Plus you have Florence Pugh, Lea Seydoux and Anya Taylor-Joy (uncredited for some reason) all in one movie. Austin Butler was good as Feyd-Rautha. Not quite sure about Christopher Walken as the Emperor. He was just a bit too Christopher Walken for the role.

Agree on Ritchson...he was terrific in this.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The Instigators. Matt Damon, Casey Affleck. On Apple+. This was the most Boston movie ever made. The number of inside jokes was amazing. Loved it. It was a blast and Casey is a better actor than Ben. As for plot, Damon and Affleck are working a job, criminal in nature, and then are stuck trying to save themselves. Highly recommended.

The movie is just fun. I don't get the bad reviews. All the actors are great. Loved Perlman as the Mayor of Boston.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. 2024. Dam dirty apes, they keep making these pictures and I keep watching them. Not a bad next installment. They really know how to make these pictures in a way that feels authentic. The film makers do a goo job of focusing on the story and NOT on the special effects.

The story centers on the micro-culture ape village that practices falconry, The Eagle Clan. The larger world intrudes, nearly destroys the Eagle Clan. A single individual then sets out to save the clan from a Roman Emperor wannbe that has set up a dystopian "kingdom."

It is well written, nicely filmed, well acted, and the material is taken seriously. Of course, some folks will never get past the fact it is an ape movie. It ain't for everyone. I enjoyed it. Two and a half stars.

These are all pretty well done. I enjoyed it, if less than some that came before. The visuals are stunning and what they can do with CGI actor/apes is astonishing. Andy Serkis as Gollum was groundbreaking, and this goes way beyond that. It’s a fun, epic Saturday matinee movie.

Side comment, for fans of The Witcher, Freya Allen, who played Ciri, is the iconic Nova here. She really turned out gorgeous.

 

[HuskyHawk]

A Quiet Place - The First Day. Streaming Paramount+. Story centers on a terminally ill woman played by Nupita Nyong’o named Sam. And her cat. If you saw the prior films, Aliens who can’t see but have great hearing invade. She is in NYC and you see the destruction and early announcements from the government about the nature of the invaders. She eventually teams up with a guy, reluctantly, and they help each other. She gets something of a dying wish and he gets to relative safety. It’s a decent human interest story, if a bit light on the tension and terror or the first one.

As a hearing impaired person, I find these quite interesting. The relatively high degree of silence in a movie works for me.

 

[Deepster]

Untold: Sign Stealer (Netflix - 2024) - Quick documentary on Connor Stalions, the guy behind the Michigan Wolverine sign stealing scandal last season. I thought it was well done. He's in it, as are many other key individuals in that scandal. And the way he went about building up his "career" and actually stealing the signs was pretty insane. He's like "A Beautiful Mind" for football play calling.

 

[nwhoopfan]

New Netflix documentary about Hope Solo is interesting. She's a controversial figure, she certainly brought some criticism upon herself, but there's usually more than 1 side to a story. US soccer as an organization doesn't come off looking good. Whatever you think about her, Coach Ryan benching her for the semifinal of the 2007 World Cup is one of the dumbest decisions in sports history. She'd been dominant up to that point. She was replaced by a past her prime Briana Scurry who got torched by Brazil.

Also interesting is the deafening silence from pretty much all of her former teammates. Almost like there was a gag order from US Soccer or something. I mean you can't get Rapinoe to not give her opinion on almost any subject, but in this case she has nothing to say. Michelle Akers is the only player who agreed to be interviewed, and Pia Sundhage the only coach. But she's Swedish and only coached the US briefly, so obviously she's not effected by the politics of US soccer. Solo's coaches from Univ. of Washington were fully cooperative with the documentary.

 

[nwhoopfan]

per above the title is "Untold: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer"

 

[nwhoopfan]

I really didn't understand "Civil War." There was no context given to anything. We don't know who the two sides are, we don't know why they are fighting, we're given nothing. I guess the whole thing is to show how important photo journalists are, but did the movie actually do that? They captured a bunch of images of dead bodies, but again didn't provide us any idea what was actually happening. And the movie did show the media deliberately broadcasting inaccurate info, so the movie seemed to undermine it's own point about the importance of media, since you can't trust them.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Seems like I mostly saw lukewarm responses to "Furiosa." I rather enjoyed it. In fact I might've liked it more than Fury Road. That movie just got so ridiculously overhyped. Anyway this had some of the usual gonzo action scenes you expect from the series, I thought Anya Taylor-Joy filled the role well, Chris Hemsworth did some scene chewing.

edit--Alyla Browne was good as the younger version of Furiosa at the beginning of the movie. She's been stuck with those kind of roles for the most part, but hopefully soon graduates to leading roles, she appears to have plenty of talent.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Seems like I mostly saw lukewarm responses to "Furiosa." I rather enjoyed it. In fact I might've liked it more than Fury Road. That movie just got so ridiculously overhyped. Anyway this had some of the usual gonzo action scenes you expect from the series, I thought Anya Taylor-Joy filled the role well, Chris Hemsworth did some scene chewing.

edit--Alyla Browne was good as the younger version of Furiosa at the beginning of the movie. She's been stuck with those kind of roles for the most part, but hopefully soon graduates to leading roles, she appears to have plenty of talent.

I forgot to review it. I thought it was good, a solid backstory for Furiosa. Could have used a little editing, but that was true of Fury Road as well. Some of the scenes drag on a bit. Agree on Ms. Browne, who seems poised to become a star. Was less thrilled with Anya Taylor Joy who is really too slight and tiny to bring what’s needed to the role.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I forgot to review it. I thought it was good, a solid backstory for Furiosa. Could have used a little editing, but that was true of Fury Road as well. Some of the scenes drag on a bit. Agree on Ms. Browne, who seems poised to become a star. Was less thrilled with Anya Taylor Joy who is really too slight and tiny to bring what’s needed to the role

Is Charlize Theron really much more physically imposing than Anya? She seems thin to me as well. I thought Charlize was quite a bit taller but actually not, 5-10 vs. 5-8. I mean if you really want an actress who is believable in very physical roles, you'd probably have to cast Gina Carano or Rhonda Rousey in just about everything.

Never mind that. I thought Jessica Rothe pulled off being a total bad a** in Boy Kills World. She is small but she got in really good shape for that role.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Is Charlize Theron really much more physically imposing than Anya? She seems thin to me as well. I thought Charlize was quite a bit taller but actually not, 5-10 vs. 5-8. I mean if you really want an actress who is believable in very physical roles, you'd probably have to cast Gina Carano or Rhonda Rousey in just about everything.

Never mind that. I thought Jessica Rothe pulled off being a total bad a** in Boy Kills World. She is small but she got in really good shape for that role.

It was something we noticed, my wife even commented. Anya just isn't very strong looking and Charlize had some muscle tone for Fury Road. Not a big thing. The queen of those roles is Emily Blunt. You don't need to go full Gina Carano.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"I Used To Be Funny" on Netflix. It's not a comedy. I'll start by saying I thought it was really good. Probably not everyone's cup of tea. Stars Rachel Sennott. She is a former stand up comic and also nannied for a family with a preteen/teen daughter (it's spread out over several years). Something traumatic happened that derails her. You get bits and pieces of the story, there are lots of flashbacks and it's non linear. The dad of the family is played by Jason Jones in a totally different kind of role for him. You never see the mom, she is sick in the hospital. The daughter is played by Olga Petsa. I wasn't familiar with her but was really impressed. Rachel and Olga's characters grow close but then they don't see each other after the traumatic event. Won't say much other than that, but I found it to be an interesting character driven story.

 

[87Xfer]

Untold: Sign Stealer (Netflix - 2024) - Quick documentary on Connor Stalions, the guy behind the Michigan Wolverine sign stealing scandal last season. I thought it was well done. He's in it, as are many other key individuals in that scandal. And the way he went about building up his "career" and actually stealing the signs was pretty insane. He's like "A Beautiful Mind" for football play calling.

This is one of the few in the series that I haven’t seen. I’ll have to check it out.

The one on Hope Solo was better than I expected it to be. NWHoop’s review above is spot on.

 

[storrsroars]

New Netflix documentary about Hope Solo is interesting. She's a controversial figure, she certainly brought some criticism upon herself, but there's usually more than 1 side to a story. US soccer as an organization doesn't come off looking good. Whatever you think about her, Coach Ryan benching her for the semifinal of the 2007 World Cup is one of the dumbest decisions in sports history. She'd been dominant up to that point. She was replaced by a past her prime Briana Scurry who got torched by Brazil.

Also interesting is the deafening silence from pretty much all of her former teammates. Almost like there was a gag order from US Soccer or something. I mean you can't get Rapinoe to not give her opinion on almost any subject, but in this case she has nothing to say. Michelle Akers is the only player who agreed to be interviewed, and Pia Sundhage the only coach. But she's Swedish and only coached the US briefly, so obviously she's not effected by the politics of US soccer. Solo's coaches from Univ. of Washington were fully cooperative with the documentary.

I watched it last night based on your post. Not something I'd have had any interest in otherwise. It was interesting. If one believes everything presented, it's hard to not have the opinion that the USSF is one really messed up organization. The people that did appear in the doc to discuss their personal relationships with Solo weren't shy about it not always being easy, but were fair and all helped present a good overall picture of how good Solo was, the difficulties of being Hope Solo, and how US Soccer has screwed women for years. I'm also glad that Solo still has a good group of close friends to fall back on even if none of them are former teammates. Overall a well done, interesting doc.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Rebel Ridge" is new on Netflix. It was good, a bit frustrating at times. The whole corrupt cops thing has been done so many times. In this Aaron Pierre (never heard of him, but he was strong as the lead) is a Marine vet who is trying to bail his cousin out from jail in a small town in Alabama. Everything goes wrong along the way and the local cops are not gonna cooperate with him. Don Johnson was convincing as the chief of police. I hadn't seen Annasophia Robb in anything in quite a while, always liked her. She is a court clerk who ends up playing a big role. Part thriller, part legal drama. Worth a watch I thought.