Recently Watched Movies 2024 | Page 17 | The Boneyard

Recently Watched Movies 2024

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

Lots of these around. Guy gets wronged by the authorities. He is ex-Marine that is a one man army. Gets help from a sympathetic local. Takes on the town and kicks ass. The one original thread is that the police use civil forfeiture to steal the dudes money. It's okay. If you like this kind of movie - I do- it's fun. Don Johnson and the guy who played Roy (Pam Beasley's original boyfriend) on The Office are cops. Both do a good job with what looked like fun bad guy roles.
 
Lots of these around. Guy gets wronged by the authorities. He is ex-Marine that is a one man army. Gets help from a sympathetic local. Takes on the town and kicks ass. The one original thread is that the police use civil forfeiture to steal the dudes money. It's okay. If you like this kind of movie - I do- it's fun. Don Johnson and the guy who played Roy (Pam Beasley's original boyfriend) on The Office are cops. Both do a good job with what looked like fun bad guy roles.
What would be the original movie of this genre? Walking Tall maybe?
 
What would be the original movie of this genre? Walking Tall maybe?
Walking Tall and Billy Jack are what come to mind.

Rebel Ridge was decent. Lead actor is jacked and I'd never know he's English. Shows some promise. Anna Sophia Robb was appealing, and I like that they gave her character some depth. The whole situation with the police, budgets etc. is probably way too on point for some of these small towns.
 
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:

"How 'bout you Dartmouth, ya good?"

The 2 guys working Dunkin have a whole comedy series with their deli, if you haven't seen it.

 
Here's a blast from the past--"Uncle Buck." Haven't seen that since I can't remember when, probably more than 30 years. John Candy and a young Macaulay Culkin and Gabby Hoffman. Weird uncle comes to watch the 3 kids while the parents are out of town for an emergency. While the the 2 young kids were cute, it was mostly about the battle of wills between Buck and the older daughter, playing the mad at the world, bratty teen role. I got some chuckles out of it and it has some charm.
 
.-.
The Eternal Daughter. Stars Tilda Swinton as both a woman (Julie) and her mother (Rosalind). They visit an old house now hotel and it holds lots of memories for Rosalind, including staying there during the bombing of London in WWII. Julie's trying to coax out details of her mom's life for a film screenplay she's writing. There are five cast members in this movie and that includes a dog. Critics love it and audiences don't. I'm with the audiences here. It's not awful but the pacing is glacial, it isn't too hard to guess what is going on, and the dual role thing is distracting. Unless you really love slow gothic stories, I'd skip it.
 
I was mildly curious about "Bodies Bodies Bodies" when it came out, but never got around to it. It's on Netflix and about to go away, so I decided to give it a try. Meh. Sort of horror adjacent, but mostly just making fun of Gen Z I think. Familiar set up. Group of friends partying at a remote house for the weekend. A big storm hits, the power goes out, things go wrong. And keep going wrong. Most of the characters were just plain annoying, and it really didn't seem like any of them were actually friends. Once the veil came off they pretty much all hated each other, were all too eager to rat each other out about how they talked smack about each other, etc etc. Maria Bakalova was probably the closest to being likable. Rachel Sennott is talented, but she seems to gravitate to unsympathetic characters from what I've seen. And last and least...how does Pete Davidson have a career? Seriously. The guy is just a huge doofus. He's one note as far as I can tell, so he's probably just playing himself. There's nothing appealing or charming about him. I just can't believe that he's actually popular and successful.
 
Has anyone seen Drive Away Dolls? I'm intrigued.
 
What can I say, I'm a sucker for Joey King. "Uglies" is new on Netflix, adapted from a YA sci fi series. It's dystopian masquerading as utopian. A bit goofy, not exactly good, but it was watchable anyway. Joey playing a teen on the cusp of turning 16 is a stretch to say the least, she's mid 20s. Basic premise, everyone leads a fairly drab existence just biding time til they turn 16. Then they get radical surgery that transforms them to physical perfection and they get to move across the river to the cool side of the city where it's literally a non stop party every day. There are a few people who reject the system and live outside the city in the wilderness. There might be something insidious going on in the utopia. Complete non ending, but it's a 4 part book series, so obviously Netlix intends to make more of these.

Joey is right there w/ Millie Bobby Brown as far as having almost an entire career composed of making Netflix content.
 
.-.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,640
Messages
4,587,366
Members
10,497
Latest member
Orlando Fos


Top Bottom