Recently Watched Movies 2024 | Page 13 | The Boneyard

Recently Watched Movies 2024

Furiosa; a Mad Max Saga (2024) Saw this in a theater. Big movie with big sound. Big visuals. Big budget. No one goes to see this movie without knowing exactly what they are there to see. I love these movies. It delivers. It take place in the wasteland but focuses on the previous introduced Citadel, Bullet Farm and Gas Town. George Miller has a firm grasp on this future world and gives you little pieces of it from time to time just to remind you. There is a tiny homage to Mel Gibson in it. What would really put these movies over the top is Mel himself. Overall, the film was great until the final 20 minutes when Furiosa stops short of killing Dementus and decides she want to talk him to death.
 
"Lisa Frankenstein." Ugh. I wanted to like it. I just couldn't. Slow, dull, so weird. I just didn't get what they were trying for with this one. Kathryn Newton couldn't save it. Pretty terrible.
 
Godzilla. Minus One. (2023) This movie has received a lot of pub for the special effects crew of only eight (count 'em 8) people.The effects are very good with a few small exceptions, the opening plane landing scene and the larger ships cutting through the water, but these are nits. The Godzilla stuff is done well and handled in a realistic fashion. They play it straight. It works.

What really deserves more attention is the way they handled the Japanese relationship to the war and its aftermath. They don't focus on the bomb or the Americans. They focus on the human toll that was on the backs of the Japanese people. This is layered and dramatic. It could be a film by itself. The war has a larger effect on characters than the monster. This is very good movie making and a very good story. Yes, it's a Godzilla movie. But it is worth your time and deserves all the praise heaped on it. Three and a half stars.
 
Palatine said:
Godzilla. Minus One. (2023) This movie has received a lot of pub for the special effects crew of only eight (count 'em 8) people.The effects are very good with a few small exceptions, the opening plane landing scene and the larger ships cutting through the water, but these are nits. The Godzilla stuff is done well and handled in a realistic fashion. They play it straight. It works.

What really deserves more attention is the way they handled the Japanese relationship to the war and its aftermath. They don't focus on the bomb or the Americans. They focus on the human toll that was on the backs of the Japanese people. This is layered and dramatic. It could be a film by itself. The war has a larger effect on characters than the monster. This is very good movie making and a very good story. Yes, it's a Godzilla movie. But it is worth your time and deserves all the praise heaped on it. Three and a half stars.
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I would've skipped this, but you're right up makes me think it's worth a look.
 
CL82 said:
I would've skipped this, but you're right up makes me think it's worth a look.
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It's the best movie ever made about the Japanese experience of WWII. Godzilla has always been a metaphor in the eyes of the Japanese.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
It's the best movie ever made about the Japanese experience of WWII. Godzilla has always been a metaphor in the eyes of the Japanese.
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I watched both versions. The Japanese with sub titles is better than the lip synced English in my view as the translation is literal. The lip syncing is less than perfect and the Japanese adds another layer of authenticity.

The idea of the main character being a coward kamikaze pilot who survived the war works perfectly.
 
Palatine said:
I watched both versions. The Japanese with sub titles is better than the lip synced English in my view as the translation is literal. The lip syncing is less than perfect and the Japanese adds another layer of authenticity.

The idea of the main character being a coward kamikaze pilot who survived the war works perfectly.
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Yeah, I won't watch anything dubbed. I watch everything with CC anyway, so subtitles don't bother me.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Yeah, I won't watch anything dubbed. I watch everything with CC anyway, so subtitles don't bother me.
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I started out watching Shogun dubbed, but eventually switched to subtitles. I get how they would be annoying or distracting to some people, but, for me at least, after a moment or to the disappear and I'd rather listen to the nations of the original performance.
 
Palatine said:
Godzilla. Minus One. (2023) This movie has received a lot of pub for the special effects crew of only eight (count 'em 8) people.The effects are very good with a few small exceptions, the opening plane landing scene and the larger ships cutting through the water, but these are nits. The Godzilla stuff is done well and handled in a realistic fashion. They play it straight. It works.

What really deserves more attention is the way they handled the Japanese relationship to the war and its aftermath. They don't focus on the bomb or the Americans. They focus on the human toll that was on the backs of the Japanese people. This is layered and dramatic. It could be a film by itself. The war has a larger effect on characters than the monster. This is very good movie making and a very good story. Yes, it's a Godzilla movie. But it is worth your time and deserves all the praise heaped on it. Three and a half stars.
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I love this movie. I am a huge Nolan fanboy but I thought this movie was better than Oppenheimer.

Yes, I know it’s not a popular take.
 
Palatine said:
I watched both versions. The Japanese with sub titles is better than the lip synced English in my view as the translation is literal. The lip syncing is less than perfect and the Japanese adds another layer of authenticity.

The idea of the main character being a coward kamikaze pilot who survived the war works perfectly.
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I think the black and white version is the definitive version, Godzilla looks so much better.
 
ZooCougar said:
I love this movie. I am a huge Nolan fanboy but I thought this movie was better than Oppenheimer.

Yes, I know it’s not a popular take.
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I said the same back in December or whenever I saw it.
 
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ZooCougar said:
I love this movie. I am a huge Nolan fanboy but I thought this movie was better than Oppenheimer.

Yes, I know it’s not a popular take.
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Is it in English, or all subtitles? I'm tired of reading movies.
 
temery said:
Is it in English, or all subtitles? I'm tired of reading movies.
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It’s in Japanese with subtitles. Since I leave captions on even with English I never notice them. It just feels like I’m hearing and translating simultaneously.
 
temery said:
Is it in English, or all subtitles? I'm tired of reading movies.
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subtitles. I think it’s dubbed too. Buy dubbing is usually pretty cringe. It’s a great movie. Worth the extra effort. I have a 7 year old who managed to keep up with it.
 
ZooCougar said:
subtitles. I think it’s dubbed too. Buy dubbing is usually pretty cringe. It’s a great movie. Worth the extra effort. I have a 7 year old who managed to keep up with it.
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I'm out. If I want to read I'll but a book.
 
Somehow I never saw "Vision Quest" while I was growing up. I know I've heard plenty of references to it. Finally watched it. Very 80s. Good soundtrack. A bit scattered, but fairly entertaining. I knew Matthew Modine is in it. Didn't realize it also featured Linda Fiorentino, Daphne Zuniga, and Forest Whittaker (barely).


I always complain about actors being much older than the characters they are playing. Well that is nothing new apparently. This had a bunch of mid to late 20s actors playing high schoolers, or a 21 year old in Fiorentino's case.

It was actually filmed in and around Spokane, kudos for that. But for whatever reason they changed the names of all the schools.

edit--oh yeah, Madonna was playing live music in a bar in one scene, it was fairly early in her career, before she turned into a weirdo. Several of her songs were featured throughout the film.
 
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nwhoopfan said:
Somehow I never saw "Vision Quest" while I was growing up. I know I've heard plenty of references to it. Finally watched it. Very 80s. Good soundtrack. A bit scattered, but fairly entertaining. I knew Matthew Modine is in it. Didn't realize it also featured Linda Fiorentino, Daphne Zuniga, and Forest Whittaker (barely).
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I remember seeing it on TV and got into it. Not to be confused with Galaxy Quest, another movie I stumbled on to that was much better than I thought it would be.
 
Waquoit said:
Not to be confused with Galaxy Quest
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Ha ha. Yes other than both having Quest in the title, nothing remotely similar about them. I love Galaxy Quest.
 
"Hit Man" is new on Netflix. I think it had a very small theatrical run maybe 2 weeks ago? Very loosely based on a real person. Glen Powell plays a teacher at Univ. of New Orleans who moonlights w/ the local PD doing audio/tech stuff on sting operations for people hiring contract killers. In a pinch they send him in to be the fake hit man. He loves it and runs with it. It all gets complicated when he's smitten with a potential perp (Adria Arjona). He talks her out of it, then ends up having a relationship with her. As always, it gets worse and worse with layer upon layer of lies. I found it entertaining.

Powell is everywhere now. He's one of those overnight success stories 10 or 15 years in the making. He's been around, but he's just suddenly blown up in his mid 30s. I still think my favorite role for him was a motor mouthed smooth operator college baseball player in "Everybody Wants Some." Just realized he was reunited with the same director in this one.

Arjona is adorable.
 
"The Iron Claw" was decent but not great. Covered a lot of territory, there was some time dilation. I was disappointed there was very little time spent showing the 3 Von Erichs wrestling together. Of course it was depressing. What got me the most wasn't any of the individual deaths, it was at the end when all his brothers were gone and Kevin was watching his 2 boys playing together, the way he and his brothers used to. That was a great scene.

I've seen a bit of commentary about casting. The one big miss--well huge actually--was Ric Flair. I don't know who the actor was, but missed by miles.
 
Roadhouse (2024)

It's impressive that they could actually remake this movie and achieve all of the suck and none of the charm of the original. Jake Gyllenhall seems like he's doing a Woody Harrelson impression the whole movie. You never really care about him. I will say Conor McGregor is kind of awesome in it.
 
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nwhoopfan said:
"Hit Man" is new on Netflix. I think it had a very small theatrical run maybe 2 weeks ago? Very loosely based on a real person. Glen Powell plays a teacher at Univ. of New Orleans who moonlights w/ the local PD doing audio/tech stuff on sting operations for people hiring contract killers. In a pinch they send him in to be the fake hit man. He loves it and runs with it. It all gets complicated when he's smitten with a potential perp (Adria Arjona). He talks her out of it, then ends up having a relationship with her. As always, it gets worse and worse with layer upon layer of lies. I found it entertaining.

Powell is everywhere now. He's one of those overnight success stories 10 or 15 years in the making. He's been around, but he's just suddenly blown up in his mid 30s. I still think my favorite role for him was a motor mouthed smooth operator college baseball player in "Everybody Wants Some." Just realized he was reunited with the same director in this one.

Arjona is adorable.
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Pretty good.

I really liked Austin Amelio. That part was important and could have spiraled easily. Half the actors playing dirty cops in the last 30 years are doing a Gary Oldman from The Professional imitation, but Amelio played the character more low key and as a little bit stupider, which totally worked.
 
Atlas (2024) Much ballybooed Jennifer Lopez sci-fi vehicle. No new ground is explored in this formula sci-fi piece. Special effects are top notch but nothing else pops. The story, acting and movie making are mediocre. The movie ends like they think there will be a sequel. Good luck. One star and that's generous.
 
Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Martin and Will still got it. Five stars.
 
Before Sunrise (1995)

My wife queued it up last night and while I was somewhat reluctant to watch it and fully expected to fall asleep before it ended, it was a beautiful film.

Part of a trilogy where each film is released about nine years apart with the same main characters, this is the first: Ethan Hawke meets Julie Delpy on a train from Budapest to Paris, but Delpy's character decides to spend a day with Hawke's character in Vienna, which is where Hawke's character has to take a flight on the next day.

It's a slow-moving film of mostly dialogue between the two, but the screenplay is intertwined with enough tension, humor, existentialism and awkward early 20-something flirting that it keeps interesting without seeming preachy or [yawn]. Beautifully shot film too w/ pretty mix of city and countryside landscapes.

I'm interested in finishing the trilogy.
 
Hey Adrien! said:
Before Sunrise (1995)

My wife queued it up last night and while I was somewhat reluctant to watch it and fully expected to fall asleep before it ended, it was a beautiful film.

Part of a trilogy where each film is released about nine years apart with the same main characters, this is the first: Ethan Hawke meets Julie Delpy on a train from Budapest to Paris, but Delpy's character decides to spend a day with Hawke's character in Vienna, which is where Hawke's character has to take a flight on the next day.

It's a slow-moving film of mostly dialogue between the two, but the screenplay is intertwined with enough tension, humor, existentialism and awkward early 20-something flirting that it keeps interesting without seeming preachy or [yawn]. Beautifully shot film too w/ pretty mix of city and countryside landscapes.

I'm interested in finishing the trilogy.
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I saw "Before Sunrise" for the first time last year. I wrote this review about it on the Boneyard.

<Before Sunrise (1995) - This romance film was directed by Richard Linklater and stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Hawke is an American on vacation in Europe, and Delpy plays a French woman. They meet on a Eurail train, and quickly develop a liking for each other. Hawke is flying back to the USA the next day, so he persuades Delpy to get off the train and spend the rest of the day and night together taking in the the sights in Vienna, where he is flying out of the next day.

Hawke and Delpy carry the movie from start to finish, and develop quite a chemistry together. They are almost in every scene in this movie. The film is basically a bunch of conversations between the two of them, with the occasional kiss thrown in. This movie is pretty much all talk and pretty much nothing else happens, so it certainly won't appeal to everyone.

While not a great film, I did think it was entertaining to some degree, although with all the talking I have to admit that my mind started to wander off from time to time. Still, I stuck with it to the end. As I indicated before, I would guess there are a number of people out there who would not be able to stick with this movie from start to finish.

By the way, Linklater directed one of our favorite films of the last 15 years, "Bernie".>
 
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