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.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:
Agree on Ritchson...he was terrific in this.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.
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.
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.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.
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.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.
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.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
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.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.
This is one of the few in the series that I haven’t seen. I’ll have to check it out.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.
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.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.
"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.