Recently Watched Movies 2024 | Page 25 | The Boneyard

Recently Watched Movies 2024

nwhoopfan said:
Right? For a while I thought they were somewhere in the U.S.
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Somehow I don't think we have two secret CIA offices in Zagreb staffed by something like 100 people. We might have six.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Somehow I don't think we have two secret CIA offices in Zagreb staffed by something like 100 people. We might have six.
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And all the while you were cursing the writers for not putting CIA office in Dubrovnik for the nude beaches ;-)
 
HuskyHawk said:
Canary Black. Kate Beckinsale as a CIA operative Avery Graves in Croatia. Why we have so many people in Croatia is a mystery. First up, holy crap, how is she 51? This shouldn't be possible. Next up, the action and shooting is slightly less believable than some other action movies. Guys being blown backwards from small caliber handgun rounds....nah. The plot in some ways is interesting, bad guys want some super secret US data. But then it derails, as Avery proceeds to kill or cause the death of hundreds of thousands? More? All to save her husband. She may be the worst spy of all time. So the movie fails because any rational person in her position makes it a 20 minute long movie.
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Kate Beckinsale, how is it possible? Plastic surgery.

She's starting to look weird and she looks nothing like she did years ago.
 
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I'd been waffling for a while but finally saw "Wild Robot" in a theater. I'd seen some glowing reviews about it. I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Wasn't up to par with the best of Dreamworks or Pixar. Some beautiful animation, and some heart felt moments.
 
I saw a trailer for "The In Between" several years ago and put it on my list. Didn't seem like I'd ever get to see it. It was maybe streaming on Paramount+ or something else I don't have and wasn't inclined to sign up for. But it finally came out on DVD and I got it from the library. I didn't have much in the way of expectations by this point, but was pleasantly surprised.

Joey King and Kyle Allen were both charming and appealing as the leads. It's a bitter sweet romance. It's not a spoiler, he dies near the beginning of the film. Much of their time together is shown in flashbacks. Odd things begin to happen and she thinks he is trying to reach out to her from the other side. I've been a fan of Joey for a while. She unfortunately is in some cruddy movies, but I always enjoy her performances, and this one was far from cruddy IMO.


Looking at reviews on IMDB...I just don't get it. Really seems like many of the reviewers saw a different film than I did.
 
Believe it or not I never saw "Splash." It's on Hulu now, 80's classic so I figured I'd check it out. I don't think it's aged well. Surprisingly clunky. Hanks isn't very likable, Candy and Levy aren't funny. The only thing that works is Hannah lights up the screen.
 
Finally watched Dune 2 last night. I intended to do it sooner but it's a long movie and I didn't want to make the time commitment. It is visually stunning, and a fair representation of the Frank Herbert story. I enjoyed it.
 
CL82 said:
Finally watched Dune 2 last night. I intended to do it sooner but it's a long movie and I didn't want to make the time commitment. It is visually stunning, and a fair representation of the Frank Herbert story. I enjoyed it.
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Better than the first one. They accelerated time a little, but it was a good adaptation.
 
Money Electric The Bitcoin Mystery. On Max. This was a very well made documentary of sorts with a lot of very interesting characters and backstory. Ultimately it asks who is Satoshi Nakamoto, but the back history on all the key players is really well done. Lots of live, current interviews. Some speculation and a somewhat surprising conclusion. Yet far from conclusive. Very informative and entertaining in any respect.
 
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"My Old A**" is now on Amazon Prime. Not what I expected, but that's probably good. Nice when trailers don't give away the entire movie. Maisy Stella plays the younger version and Aubrey Plaza the older version of the same person. Yeah, they look nothing like each other, don't worry about it. Maisy can't wait to leave home to go to college in Toronto. Her family are cranberry farmers in a small town on a GORGEOUS lake (had to look it up, Muskoka Lakes in Ontario). During a trip on mushrooms the two versions encounter each other and have a conversation. Aubrey gives some advice to her younger self. You don't see much of Aubrey after that. While Maisy thought leaving home will be the best thing in the world, based on what Aubrey told her and a revelation she gains about halfway through, she begins to gain more of an appreciation for her family and the life she's led up to that point.

I thought Maisy was fantastic in this, she really carried the movie. Looking at imdb apparently she hasn't appeared in anything since Nashville wrapped up in 2018. She does have some more stuff coming out soon.

Like I mentioned Aubrey wasn't on screen much but she was good in her role. Various actors in small supporting roles were fine. Maddie Ziegler was also in this, although barely, so this featured a couple actresses who have been on screen for most of their lives. Percy Hynes White also has a lengthy credit list for a guy in his early 20s.

It adds a nice touch that director Megan Park and lead actress Maisy both grew up near where this movie was filmed. Viva Canada! The lake itself is basically another character in the movie. I want to go there now.
 
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. So many of the original case is back, including Michael Keaton in the Beetlegeuce role and Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O'Hara as her mom Delia. The setting is the same Connecticut town (filmed in Vermont). Jenna Ortega is new as Astrid Deetz, estranged daughter of Lydia. Her father is dead. Willem Defoe is decent in a role made for him as a dead movie-star who played a detective and who now is a detective in the land of the dead. Monica Bellucci shows up too. I don't want to give anything away but the story is good and it all works pretty well. Lydia still sees dead people and has made a TV career out of it. Astrid thinks she's nuts. O'Hara is quite funny as a very eclectic artist. Winona Ryder is still just really beautiful, looks much better than in Stranger Things, despite bad hair. Recommended.
 
"Family Weekend" on Amazon Prime. Don't recall ever hearing about it. 2013, has a few somewhat big names. Kristin Chenoweth and Matthew Modine are distracted, self absorbed, not very good parents. All 4 of their kids are fairly weird and display obsessive behavior, although each about something entirely different than the others. Their competitive jump roping oldest daughter has had enough of the family dynamics and decides to do something about it. Spikes mom and dad's wine at dinner on a Friday night, ties them up in the living room and plans to have a 24 hour intervention with them to get them to shape up. Convinces the other siblings to go along with it. People keep dropping by, complicating matters. Including the daughter's frenemy from across the street, who decides to get in on the action.

It's pretty crazy, but I enjoyed it. Has some decent humor. Also some surprisingly good stuff about being a supportive, loving family.

The daughter and her friend have both been in quite a bit of stuff, but somehow I don't think I'd seen any of it. Olesysa Rulin and Chloe Bridges. Younger sister is Joey King. Her character is obsessed with acting, each scene she's channeling somebody from a famous movie. Her character is only 9 years old in the movie (she's several years older, because yeah of course), so it's pretty weird/creepy when she's doing Jodie Foster's character from "Taxi Driver"--which was probably pretty creepy to begin with, but that character was older than 9. It's funnier when she switches to "Reservoir Dogs."
 
I finally got around to Tom Hanks A Man Called Otto. We've seen this formula before, crabby old man meets new, annoying, neighbors, and gradually is changed by the encounter. Gran Torrino comes to mind as well as St. Vincent. Gran Torrino is the standard among these threes, with St. Vincent and Otto roughly equivalent. But, Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks and he does a good job with the material. This particular version has a darkly entertaining subplot that I won't mention but that you'll figure out in short order.

It's a good movie, and well worth the watch, but not particularly memorable.
 
CL82 said:
I finally got around to Tom Hanks A Man Called Otto. We've seen this formula before, crabby old man meets new, annoying, neighbors, and gradually is changed by the encounter. Gran Torrino comes to mind as well as St. Vincent. Gran Torrino is the standard among these threes, with St. Vincent and Otto roughly equivalent. But, Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks and he does a good job with the material. This particular version has a darkly entertaining subplot that I won't mention but that you'll figure out in short order.

It's a good movie, and well worth the watch, but not particularly memorable.
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This must be a remake of the Norwegian movie "A Man Called Ove."
 
nwhoopfan said:
This must be a remake of the Norwegian movie "A Man Called Ove."
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It is. I'm actually tempted to watch that even though I'm not a big subtitle movie guy.
 
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Not a movie, but I've fallen in love with these retro diving videos that travel across the world.

 
Bob Marley - One Love. Kingsley Ben Adir does a pretty good job as Bob. He's a bit more handsome than Bob ever was. It's a somewhat narrow biopic. There are bits of Bob's young past told through flashbacks, but mostly it starts around 1976, with Jamaica in turmoil and considerable political violence. Bob decides to put on a concert for everyone as sort of a peace offering. That draws a response. Bob sends his wife and kids to Delaware where his mom lives and he permanently goes to London with the band. There it shifts to writing and recording Exodus and a subsequent tour.

A lot of interesting history is briefly mentioned. At one point his wife Rita mentions Peter and Bunny, and I knew that was Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, but unless you know it isn't explained as significant. So the movie certainly heavily involves the music but focuses as much or more on political views and the Rastafarian religion. The Rasta focus is a bit odd, it was big for Bob in that late 70s period after he converted to it, and for the recording of Exodus, but he later converted to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The movie is worth a watch, but I would have been more interested in a deep dive into the early days with the formation of the band and their early success.
 
Deadpool & Wolverine. Finally streaming for free on Disney+. This is mostly what you expect. Over the top, vulgar, crude and really quite funny. Reynolds has this down now. Many digs at 20th Century Fox. Jackman is still a great Wolverine. Some of the sex jokes just miss the mark, but there were laugh out loud moments as well. The dog, oh my God, the dog. Loads of cameos, I won't spoil them. Reynolds put his whole family in Deadpool outfits, even the kids (and Blake Lively definitely rocked that costume). Very cool that Paul Mullins was added as WelshPool. Look, they obviously had a blast doing this and it shows. It's just silly fun, doesn't take itself at all seriously.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Deadpool & Wolverine. Finally streaming for free on Disney+. This is mostly what you expect. Over the top, vulgar, crude and really quite funny. Reynolds has this down now. Many digs at 20th Century Fox. Jackman is still a great Wolverine. Some of the sex jokes just miss the mark, but there were laugh out loud moments as well. The dog, oh my God, the dog. Loads of cameos, I won't spoil them. Reynolds put his whole family in Deadpool outfits, even the kids (and Blake Lively definitely rocked that costume). Very cool that Paul Mullins was added as WelshPool. Look, they obviously had a blast doing this and it shows. It's just silly fun, doesn't take itself at all seriously.
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Not to be a buzz kill, but I think it was her voice but Christiaan Bettridge actually in the costume.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Deadpool & Wolverine. Finally streaming for free on Disney+. This is mostly what you expect. Over the top, vulgar, crude and really quite funny. Reynolds has this down now. Many digs at 20th Century Fox. Jackman is still a great Wolverine. Some of the sex jokes just miss the mark, but there were laugh out loud moments as well. The dog, oh my God, the dog. Loads of cameos, I won't spoil them. Reynolds put his whole family in Deadpool outfits, even the kids (and Blake Lively definitely rocked that costume). Very cool that Paul Mullins was added as WelshPool. Look, they obviously had a blast doing this and it shows. It's just silly fun, doesn't take itself at all seriously.
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I watched it as well. My reaction was generally "meh".

Don't get me wrong, as you point out, there were some funny moments, but the novelty of breaking the fourth wall is gone at this point as is the novelty of crudity and sexual innuendo.

The plot, such as it is, was fairly vapid, even for a superhero movie. And I've never been a fan of the Loki series so the prominent role of the TVA really didn't resonate with me.

All that said, it was vaguely entertaining. Definitely not a movie I would watch again though.
 
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87Xfer said:
Not to be a buzz kill, but I think it was her voice but Christiaan Bettridge actually in the costume.
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Cool. Didn't know who she was. That is one very pretty stuntwoman.
 
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