Recently Watched Movies 2024

[Waquoit]

Would you include "Jaws: The Revenge" when summing up highlights of Michael Caine's career?

I swear whenever I read or seen a feature on Caine's career over the years, they always mention Jaws: The Revenge.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm hoping it was the absurd end of this awful multiverse direction they went in and this is just them making fun of themselves.

They were clearly not taking it seriously in this one. But Disney can be counted on to do the wrong thing. They are the Jim Cramer of entertainment.

 

[CL82]

They were clearly not taking it seriously in this one. But Disney can be counted on to do the wrong thing. They are the Jim Cramer of entertainment.

They don't seem to understand the power of the vehicles they buy up. Thus they run them into the ground.

Disney seems to mostly be about vertical integration and exploiting intellectual property that they already own, rather than optimizing the product they are putting out there. On the other hand, I'm sure we can all look forward to "Deadpool and Wolverine: The Ride" to open up in Orlando.

 

[HuskyHawk]

They don't seem to understand the power of the vehicles they buy up. Thus they run them into the ground.

Disney seems to mostly be about vertical integration and exploiting intellectual property that they already own, rather than optimizing the product they are putting out there. On the other hand, I'm sure we can all look forward to "Deadpool and Wolverine: The Ride" to open up in Orlando.

Not going to go too much into the why, as it would get the thread locked. But we've seen frequent brand mistakes (including very recently) from brands trying to expand to new audiences in a way that drives the old customers away. That's what Disney has done far too often. They also tend to try to put cute robots or other things in stories to sell toys/rides etc. Note that Rogue One didn't have any of that, nor did Andor, the two best things Disney did with Star Wars. So far they've been a huge negative for Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel.

 

[nomar]

I saw Gladiator II

It's worth watching if you loved the first one, if only for Denzel. They definitely did the "let's just run that back again" thing, the only real difference being Denzel's character, which started out like Oliver Reed's but ended up in a much different place.

It was entertaining but it was also super corny.

The CGI was terrible and there were at least 2 moments in the film that made half the theater burst out in laughter: (1) the bust looking exactly like Paul Mescal and (2) Pedro Pascal's servant slinking away backwards like she was in a meme.

 

[White Dwarf]

Christmas on Mars. Official holiday kickoff for me.

 

[nwhoopfan]

The CGI was terrible

That seems to be par for the course these days. CGI is getting worse recently, not better.

 

[HuskyHawk]

That seems to be par for the course these days. CGI is getting worse recently, not better.

The CGI in Alien Romulus is spectacular. The key is in not relying on it too much.

 

[CL82]

The CGI in Alien Romulus is spectacular. The key is in not relying on it too much.

I never thought about that until you mentioned it, which probably is the best testament that it was good. I'm not sure how much of it were CGI and how much were practical effects, which, again, means that it was done pretty well.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I never thought about that until you mentioned it, which probably is the best testament that it was good. I'm not sure how much of it were CGI and how much were practical effects, which, again, means that it was done pretty well.

Exactly. Never felt like "I'm watching CGI" like you do with some Marvel stuff or Avatar etc. Yet the space ship stuff and space had to be right?

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Widow Clicquot" is on Netflix. Based on real events. During Napoleon's reign in France, in the Champagne region. Haley Bennett stars as a widow trying to keep a winery afloat, with many things stacked against her. It's fairly slow paced, but interesting enough. A lot of flashbacks, constantly back and forth between time frames. Also with Sam Riley, not sure if he does anything other than period pieces.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Blitz. Apple TV. Saorise Ronan is a woman with a child. A mixed race child husband is gone. She sends him off during the Blitz and he, a brave and adventurous child, takes things into his own hands. It’s a nice story, some reminders of racism from that era, but ultimately positive. There’s a song from Ronan, who can sing a bit. Her father is played by Paul Weller (my wife immediately recognized him) from The Jam. Good stuff.

 

[cohenzone]

Just flew cross country and watched a movie each way. The first was a documentary about Amy Winehouse. What a talented wreck of a person. Sad story.

Homeward I watched Kevin Costner’s Horizons, meant to be a series. I read reviews afterward to make sure my take wasn’t off the wall. I knew about it vaguely that it was about westward frontier settlement. What could have been a terrific movie. So disjointed. And that turned out to be the main critical reaction in a flick that was universally panned by critics. The Native American portrayals were I guess reasonably authentic because Kostner had decent consultants. Too long and ultimately uninteresting.

 

[ZooCougar]

I saw Gladiator II

It's worth watching if you loved the first one, if only for Denzel. They definitely did the "let's just run that back again" thing, the only real difference being Denzel's character, which started out like Oliver Reed's but ended up in a much different place.

It was entertaining but it was also super corny.

The CGI was terrible and there were at least 2 moments in the film that made half the theater burst out in laughter: (1) the bust looking exactly like Paul Mescal and (2) Pedro Pascal's servant slinking away backwards like she was in a meme.

I saw this too. I have quite a bit to say about this movie.

All I have time for right now is that Pedro Pascal put more effort into his beer commercials than he did with this clunker.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Watched the new version of "Twisters." It's just utterly ridiculous, but entertaining enough I suppose. Glen Powell does his thing, so it has that going for it. I've seen Daisy Edgar-Jones in a couple movies and I like her. Nice to see Maura Tierney. What happened to Kiernan Shipka's career? She was supposed to be the next big thing, but it hasn't materialized. She had a bit part in this one and was on screen for about 5 minutes.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Watched the new version of "Twisters." It's just utterly ridiculous, but entertaining enough I suppose. Glen Powell does his thing, so it has that going for it. I've seen Daisy Edgar-Jones in a couple movies and I like her. Nice to see Maura Tierney. What happened to Kiernan Shipka's career? She was supposed to be the next big thing, but it hasn't materialized. She had a bit part in this one and was on screen for about 5 minutes.

Keinan Shipka is in Red One. She's not gotten leading roles but she's still pretty young.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Land of Bad. Russell Crowe is a very odd, cranky, overweight drone operator. He seems miscast, but mostly due to age and weight. Russell Crowe from 10 years ago would be fine. Liam Hemsworth is the JTAC assigned to a group of Delta force guys in the Philippines. He's a little green but their regular guy was captured/killed. As one can expect, it all goes sideways, and Crowe and his partner, back in Las Vegas provides an eye in the sky to help Hemsworth and the squad. It's actually pretty good if you ignore the Russell Crowe miscasting a bit.

 

[ZooCougar]

Land of Bad. Russell Crowe is a very odd, cranky, overweight drone operator. He seems miscast, but mostly due to age and weight. Russell Crowe from 10 years ago would be fine. Liam Hemsworth is the JTAC assigned to a group of Delta force guys in the Philippines. He's a little green but their regular guy was captured/killed. As one can expect, it all goes sideways, and Crowe and his partner, back in Las Vegas provides an eye in the sky to help Hemsworth and the squad. It's actually pretty good if you ignore the Russell Crowe miscasting a bit.

Haven't watched it. Refuse to. There would never be a fat Air Force Captain that old. It's dumb as hell. They could have made him a rogue contractor or something.

 

[ZooCougar]

Gladiator II. I am not entertained.

If there is a director who has fallen off worse than Ridley Scott then please point them out to me. His movies get resourced to the hilt and he pumps out a pretty lame product despite this. From the plastic The Martian, the soulless Alien sequels, and the laughably bad Napoleon that failed to improve on history that butchered and diluted famous battles to the point where they were recognizable. If Ridley Scott made a movie about Gettysburg would he film it at the Jersey shore, would Lee fire cannons at the Liberty Bell in Philly?

Gladiator is a classic. It might be the very best sword and sandal film. Great plot, great actors, great villain great effects even. It's unanimous agreed to be great.

Gladiator II? Literally the same plot, terrible acting, laughable effects and a movie that seems like it was edited by a drunk intern.

Like the first Gladiator, II opens with a big set piece battle. A Roman Fleet laden with troops approaches a beleaguered city. But the whole thing is so dumb because it looks as if Ridley Scott went to Generative AI and prompted "Roman Navy Attacking with a storm behind it". We've seen this before, I think it was in Kingdom of Heaven....

Anyways. Our hero Hanno/Lucius played by Paul Mescal (He's Maximus's illegitimate son, crazy right?) gets captured and made a slave (what a coincidence!) and what do you know he gets to try out as a Gladiator! And this is where the movie flies of the rails hard. So hard. Hanno is a Carthiginian name, Hannibal's son was named Hanno and Hannibal was the General who vexed Rome and would have taken them out if his government hadn't screwed him over. Scott is trying to be clever here but it's likely lost on 99 percent of the audience.

Hanno and his Numidian pals get to fight against a bunch of enormous homicidal baboons that have probably never existed. Maybe these guys were crossbred with the Xenomorphs from Aliens. Ridley is trying to be clever here.

It gets worse. Later on they turn the Roman Coloseum into Sea World. Now there is some historical evidence that this might have happened. I'm quite certain they were staged affairs like Disney On Ice, and there weren't Great White Sharks thrown into the mix for good measure.

Now to the acting. Paul Mescal has all of the charisma and creativity of a third string striker at 4th Division English Football Club. That's literally how he plays this character, imagine an Englishman trying to be a North African in 200 AD.

Pedro Pascal who is in everything these days, is completely wasted here. And he knows it because as I said before; he put more effort into the Corona commercials. His character is a sort fo a reluctant Roman General. It's literally one of the only interesting things about this movie and they didn't do much with it. Also somehow he's married to Connie Nielson who must be 20 years older than him. It doesn't work at all.

And finally we have Denzel who mighty have been the only actor that tried in this movie. His acting abilities are such a stark contrast between the rest of the faces in this film. He's a decent villain, better than the two idiots playing the Emperors. Those two were so ridiculous that they make Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus seem reasonable.

I think the movie is the second in a row for Scott where his actors didn't really buy in. I don't think

 

[Dove]

This movie was AWESOME. Came here to say that. Yes, the "loner vs police" thing has been done (people have likened the movie to Rambo), but this was a pretty fresh take on it. Besides the fact that it implicated a real problem, civil asset forfeiture, it's both violent and non-violent.

Pierre is British. I'd also never seen him before. And yeah, Robb was a child actor who I've never seen as an adult, but she was great. Don Johnson basically reprises his role from Watchmen. James Cromwell is good, as always, in a very small role.

Rebel Ridge (2024) - As noted earlier, entertaining movie. You think there would be more fighting and shooting but with one man v. a whole police force, there is more emphasis on watching the main character plan his moves.

Glad we took a chance on it.

 

[nomar]

Keinan Shipka is in Red One. She's not gotten leading roles but she's still pretty young.

She's the lead in a rom-com that just came out. I don't think we're the target audience.

'Sweethearts' Director Told Kiernan Shipka and Gen Z Cast to Flag Anything That Was Too 'Millennial Cringe'

First-time director Jordan Weiss and partner Dan Brier wanted to write a coming-of-age comedy based on their own male-female friendship.

www.thewrap.com

 

[nwhoopfan]

She's the lead in a rom-com that just came out. I don't think we're the target audience.

'Sweethearts' Director Told Kiernan Shipka and Gen Z Cast to Flag Anything That Was Too 'Millennial Cringe'

First-time director Jordan Weiss and partner Dan Brier wanted to write a coming-of-age comedy based on their own male-female friendship.

www.thewrap.com

Is it kinda weird that 25 and 26 year old lead actors were tasked with making the dialog seem younger and hipper for a 31 year old director? Maybe in another 3-4 years Shipka won't be portraying teenagers on screen.


I forgot she was in "Longlegs" this year. She's been in plenty of stuff, just not much as a lead lately. I just seem to recall big things were predicted for her coming off of Mad Men, and that ended almost a decade ago. I liked "Wildflower" from a couple years ago, but I don't think that found much of an audience. "Totally Killer" last year was fairly meh.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Is it kinda weird that 25 and 26 year old lead actors were tasked with making the dialog seem younger and hipper for a 31 year old director? Maybe in another 3-4 years Shipka won't be portraying teenagers on screen.


I forgot she was in "Longlegs" this year. She's been in plenty of stuff, just not much as a lead lately. I just seem to recall big things were predicted for her coming off of Mad Men, and that ended almost a decade ago. I liked "Wildflower" from a couple years ago, but I don't think that found much of an audience. "Totally Killer" last year was fairly meh.

She’s making money. The one I can’t really explain is Emilia Jones. I watched her in a decent TV show Locke & Key but then she crushed it as the lead in CODA, which won the best picture Oscar and at Sundance. Maybe she’s just doing independent stuff.

 

[nwhoopfan]

She’s making money. The one I can’t really explain is Emilia Jones. I watched her in a decent TV show Locke & Key but then she crushed it as the lead in CODA, which won the best picture Oscar and at Sundance. Maybe she’s just doing independent stuff.

Yeah, it's hard to figure who hits it big and who doesn't. Wildflower that I mentioned before was kinda similar to CODA. Jones is in something fairly new called "Winner" that looks interesting, probably fairly indie.

 

[Waquoit]

The Yacht Rock doc on MAX was really good.