Recently watched movies 2025

[ZooCougar]

He stands out in everything he's in. The dad in Lady Bird, the white supremacist leader in Imperium, and Jack McKinney in Winning Time all come to mind.

He's well known as a playwright at the Steppenwolf theater in Chicago. His wife Carrie Coon is also a great actress.

Yeah and Jason Clarke was in Winning Time too as Jerry West They both kicked butt in those roles. That show had great actors, particularly the Larry Bird doppleganger. The Larry Bird storyline might have been more interesting than the Magic Johnson one.

 

[Dove]

Also, Letts is in The Lowdown, a show garnering no comments here. There are a lot of characters in this show, and Letts is a minor one.

Ethan Hawke is outstanding as a journalist who is pissing people off while investigating a suicide that he thinks is a murder.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Yeah and Jason Clarke was in Winning Time too as Jerry West They both kicked butt in those roles. That show had great actors, particularly the Larry Bird doppleganger. The Larry Bird storyline might have been more interesting than the Magic Johnson one.

I have never been more pissed off at a show’s cancellation than when Winning Time was cancelled. The Larry Bird episode deserved an Emmy nomination. It captured the changes hitting rural communities in the 70’s better than any show and most documentaries on the topic.

 

[Palatine]

A House of Dynamite (2025)

I've been looking forward to this one for a while. The premise is that that an ICBM has been detected and in the course of 20 minutes a bunch of action officers, Generals and the President have to figure out what to do. You watch the story from three perspectives. You get to look at Rebecca Ferguson (the world's oldest Captain in the Army) in the first one, then you see it from the General Officer/Cabinet level where Tracy Letts headlines the group with Jared Harris and then from the Presidential level with a really not well put together Idris Elba.

I love these kinds of movies, there is something interesting about watching people have to make a decision about the fate of the world and it can all end within the hour.

Tracy Letts as the Commanding General of US Strategic Command steals every scene. He might be the world's greatest living actor at the moment. He's hardcore but not in a Dr. Strangelove kind of way. Idris Elba does a good job portraying a clearly physically and mentally stressed out POTUS, he's already having a sub-optimal day and will get worse. Basically every character is having kind of a bad day or is not in great place to be making decisions of this magnitude. Rebecca Ferguson's kid is sick, the Major in charge of the Missile Base that is supposed to shoot the bad missiles down is going through a divorce, Jared Harris's wife just died and he's depressed. The actual National Security Advisor is "out of pocket" and the deputy is getting to work late.

This is basically the point of the movie. The idea of Mutually Assured Destruction being a deterrent is on really shaky ground and the people running the show might be fine but everyone has bad days. Also what happens if you don't have all of the information? Are your choices really just surrender or suicide by nuclear armageddon? I did a little work with the Missle Defense Agency, the scenario in this film is literally the simplest possible. One ICBM? The tests we run are simpler than that. A real strike would involve multiples and decoys, the fog of war would be far worse.

Kathryn Bigelow is the director, she makes a great firecracker, lights the fuse but the whole thing fizzles out. It's like watching a gymnast or a figure skater do a great routine and then fracture both legs at the end. This movie was about starting a conversation. Unfortunately I think most of the conversation will be about the ending, if anyone actually watches this.

House of Dynamite. This is a suspense thriller which is heavy on suspense and lacking thrills. It is reminiscent of the cold war dramas of the 1960s. It tells the story of 18 minutes of impending nuclear war from three different points of view.

Kathy Bigelow is an A+ director, the cast is A+ actors, the film making is top shelve, cinematography, editing, sound, effects. But the movie is less than the sum of its parts. It never comes close to impact of "Fail Safe" which tells a similar story from a completely different perspective.

Let's face it. There will never be a nuclear Armageddon movie close to Dr Stranglelove. The only way to deal with the absurdity of doomsday is with absurdity. House of Dynamite makes the fatal error of turning suspense in into dullness.

 

[ZooCougar]

I have never been more pissed off at a show’s cancellation than when Winning Time was cancelled. The Larry Bird episode deserved an Emmy nomination. It captured the changes hitting rural communities in the 70’s better than any show and most documentaries on the topic.

That second season wasn’t very good except for a few bright spots. I remember reading a post from the creators about how they were in trouble because of a lack of viewers.

I just think they made a show about the wrong story or focus, or the scope should have been a bit wider.

 

[ZooCougar]

House of Dynamite. This is a suspense thriller which is heavy on suspense and lacking thrills. It is reminiscent of the cold war dramas of the 1960s. It tells the story of 18 minutes of impending nuclear war from three different points of view.

Kathy Bigelow is an A+ director, the cast is A+ actors, the film making is top shelve, cinematography, editing, sound, effects. But the movie is less than the sum of its parts. It never comes close to impact of "Fail Safe" which tells a similar story from a completely different perspective.

Let's face it. There will never be a nuclear Armageddon movie close to Dr Stranglelove. The only way to deal with the absurdity of doomsday is with absurdity. House of Dynamite makes the fatal error of turning suspense in into dullness.

Fail Safe will crush you.

The Day After might have single handedly turned Gen X into the slacker generation.

 

[storrsroars]

Kathryn Bigelow is the director, she makes a great firecracker, lights the fuse but the whole thing fizzles out. It's like watching a gymnast or a figure skater do a great routine and then fracture both legs at the end. This movie was about starting a conversation. Unfortunately I think most of the conversation will be about the ending, if anyone actually watches this.

I'm thinking of that Prince performance at the R&RHoF where he sizzles on the final solo of My Guitar Gently Weeps, then throws his guitar in the air. You never see it come down as he just walks offstage. What the hell happened to it?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That second season wasn’t very good except for a few bright spots. I remember reading a post from the creators about how they were in trouble because of a lack of viewers.

I just think they made a show about the wrong story or focus, or the scope should have been a bit wider.

HBO’s parent has an epically terrible CEO in David Zaslav who tries to run a premium brand like HBO the same way he does a dying cable channel’s reality shows like Deadliest Catch and 90 Day Fiancé. He sucks.

 

[Dove]

I'm thinking of that Prince performance at the R&RHoF where he sizzles on the final solo of My Guitar Gently Weeps, then throws his guitar in the air. You never see it come down as he just walks offstage. What the hell happened to it?

 

[Dove]

I wasn’t sure if this fit here because it’s a documentary, but here goes: I just watched this wonderful documentary about John Candy. Rarely does a documentary make me cry and smile until my face hurts all in the same couple of hours, but this one somehow managed to do that. Watch it. Even if you weren’t a fan. You won’t regret it. John Candy made the world a better place.

It was fine. The Second City and SCTV history is excellent.

Definitely could have used therapy as a youngster after losing his dad.

Hollywood wanted him fat. He gave them what they wanted. It wore him down.

His late life as a football team owner...never knew this. Toronto Argonauts.

 

[Dove]

Julia Garner, Josh Brolin and Amy Madigan star in this mind**** psychological thriller where a witch-like woman mind controls her victims.

Really creepy and a gore fest at times.

It brought @Mano out of his posting doldrums.

This review was for Weopons (2025)

 

[Dove]

The Elixir (2025)

You need to be a zombie movie fan for this one.

Zombie outbreak on the island of Java. Some old executive drinks an elixir that promises youth. He turns young again, family is stunned, then the old man turns into a zombie and starts attacking.

Overall, the gore is over the top, pretty cool. Blood spurts, dismemberments, bodies tearing apart.

The action is non-stop, too.

The acting is not Oscar-worthy, of course. And the movie is dubbed to English making the acting and the emotions a bit off.

We liked the movie, though. It is comical because the movie makers remove any intellect from the characters.

 

[Dove]

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)

Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson start.

The first Russian nuclear ballistic missile submarine takes off on its first mission and bad luck erupts from the start. Yes, reactor issues, crew tensions, possible mutiny.

It's no "Hunt For Red October" or "Crimson Tide."

Its a slow burn. Entertaining, tho, because of Ford and Neeson.

A paycheck movie.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Caught Stealing (2025). Austin Butler is the star, but it has a huge noteworthy cast including Matt Smith, Zoe Kravitz, Regina King, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio & Bad Bunny. Ordinary guy who once was expected to become a MLB player and is now a bartender is asked to watch his punk rock (Matt Smith) neighbor’s cat. Neighbor was involved in some bad stuff and it lands on Butler’s character. Pretty dark for something described as a comedy, there are some funny moments but mostly it’s brutal. Well done, but not entirely pleasant.

 

[ZooCougar]

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)

Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson start.

The first Russian nuclear ballistic missile submarine takes off on its first mission and bad luck erupts from the start. Yes, reactor issues, crew tensions, possible mutiny.

It's no "Hunt For Red October" or "Crimson Tide."

Its a slow burn. Entertaining, tho, because of Ford and Neeson.

A paycheck movie.

Also a Kathryn Bigelow flick. She's very hit or miss.

 

[ZooCougar]

Bugonia (2025)

Free passes after Trick or Treating. Not much to say here because I think it's somewhat worth seeing and the less you know the better.

Plemons and Stone do a really good job. I didn't see Poor Things and don't want to, but I enjoyed this one. But like "One Battle After Another" it's a decent movie but not life changing as some Zoomer critics would assert.
'
Check it out, at home.

Spoiler: Spoiler

The big problem with this movie is that it's not the mind blower that it thinks it is. It's not The Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense or No Way Out, the only way this movie works is if the conspiracy is true, the only shocker is the gore.

 

[ZooCougar]

One Battle After Another (2025)

I feel like Paul Thomas Anderson has fallen in to the same situation as Wes Anderson. With Wes I go into every movie wanting it to be as good as "The Royal Tenenbaums" or even "The Life Aquatic". Lately the movies have all the visual appeal but they are missing that something special.

That's really exactly how I feel about One Battle After Another; I was really hoping this would be as great as "There Will Be Blood". It's based on or it basically ripped off a Pynchon book. Ultimately, it's good but not truly great.

The movie is set in alternate timeline, it starts somewhere around what would be 2008ish. The US government is seemingly the Confederacy had they not only won the Civil War, but also conquered the north. Dicaprio and company are basically revolutionaries verging on being terrorists. His girlfriend Perfidia Beverly Hills (Tayana Taylor) is a hardcore warrior type. She crosses paths with Colonel LockJaw (Sean Penn). Perfidia shames him and he becomes obsessed with her in every possible way.

Fast forward into the future. Dicaprio is raising the daughter he had with Perfidia in secret hiding from the authorities. Perfidia is elsewhere in hiding. Old Colonel Lockjaw gets invited to join the "Christmas Adventurers" sort of like Skull and Bones but for wealthy and influential white supremacists. But, he can't join before his past and character have been properly vetted. So Lockjaw has some cleaning up to do. And this is essentially the movie.

What the movie does well is hold you attention for 3 hours. There are some hilarious scenes with Dicaprio arguing on the phone. The dialogue is good, the portrayal of "The Christmas Adventurers" was pretty far out on the absurdity scale. While it's funny it's so absurd it's jarring. At times it was like it was trying to "O Brother Where Art Thou".

There is a car chase scene at the end that I think will be the iconic scene of this film. Sean Penn's performance was every bit as good as Daniel Day Lewis's when it comes to portraying someone irredeemably bad. Benicio Del Toro is great in support as a sort of kingpin in a sanctuary city.

Watch it on a snowy day without interruption.

 

[CL82]

Monster Hunter (2020)

It's fine. It is a video game based movie about interdimensional travel, and, unsurprisingly, monsters that stars Milla Jovovich. I wasn't expecting it to be Citizen Kane. It will occupy your time while you watch it and be forgotten shortly thereafter. Sometimes that's enough.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Monster Hunter (2020)

It's fine. It is a video game based movie about interdimensional travel, and, unsurprisingly, monsters that stars Milla Jovovich. I wasn't expecting it to be Citizen Kane. It will occupy your time while you watch it and be forgotten shortly thereafter. Sometimes that's enough.

Plus, those eyes.

 

[Dove]

One Battle After Another (2025)

I feel like Paul Thomas Anderson has fallen in to the same situation as Wes Anderson. With Wes I go into every movie wanting it to be as good as "The Royal Tenenbaums" or even "The Life Aquatic". Lately the movies have all the visual appeal but they are missing that something special.

That's really exactly how I feel about One Battle After Another; I was really hoping this would be as great as "There Will Be Blood". It's based on or it basically ripped off a Pynchon book. Ultimately, it's good but not truly great.

The movie is set in alternate timeline, it starts somewhere around what would be 2008ish. The US government is seemingly the Confederacy had they not only won the Civil War, but also conquered the north. Dicaprio and company are basically revolutionaries verging on being terrorists. His girlfriend Perfidia Beverly Hills (Tayana Taylor) is a hardcore warrior type. She crosses paths with Colonel LockJaw (Sean Penn). Perfidia shames him and he becomes obsessed with her in every possible way.

Fast forward into the future. Dicaprio is raising the daughter he had with Perfidia in secret hiding from the authorities. Perfidia is elsewhere in hiding. Old Colonel Lockjaw gets invited to join the "Christmas Adventurers" sort of like Skull and Bones but for wealthy and influential white supremacists. But, he can't join before his past and character have been properly vetted. So Lockjaw has some cleaning up to do. And this is essentially the movie.

What the movie does well is hold you attention for 3 hours. There are some hilarious scenes with Dicaprio arguing on the phone. The dialogue is good, the portrayal of "The Christmas Adventurers" was pretty far out on the absurdity scale. While it's funny it's so absurd it's jarring. At times it was like it was trying to "O Brother Where Art Thou".

There is a car chase scene at the end that I think will be the iconic scene of this film. Sean Penn's performance was every bit as good as Daniel Day Lewis's when it comes to portraying someone irredeemably bad. Benicio Del Toro is great in support as a sort of kingpin in a sanctuary city.

Watch it on a snowy day without interruption.

3 hours?!?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Took a flyer on a B grade sci fi that I don't recall hearing anything about, was briefly in theaters apparently a couple months ago--"Xeno". Streamed it on hoopla. Just a misfit teen girl and her alien dog/murder machine/thing. Stars Lulu Wilson from "Becky" and "Wraith of Becky," which I haven't seen but am aware of. I quite enjoyed it. Fairly good production values for what it is. Also they used old school practical F/X, which makes SUCH a difference. I wish there was more of that. CGI is so overused and is getting so lazy. I thought Wilson was good. Also while he wasn't on screen very much Omari Hardwick as a government agent tracking the alien thing gave a strong performance.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). Free now on Peacock. Some biotech dude named Krebs (Rupert Friend) says they need the blood of the three biggest dinosaurs of land, water and air so he can cure heart disease and make billions. Dinosaurs live around the equator because it's more like the world they once ruled. Travel there is banned. Krebs hires SpecOp fixer Zora (Scarlett Johansson) to put together a team to go there and get that blood. She brings in Matershali Ali and others. ScarJo is thicc. Looks 15 pounds heavier, some of it is muscle, some isn't. Predictably, the Dinos don't really go along with this plan, wreak some havoc on the team. Filmed in Thailand and Malta, many of the locations are breathtaking. It's well done and fun, with fewer ridiculously implausible plot points than some others.

 

[Palatine]

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). Free now on Peacock. Some biotech dude named Krebs (Rupert Friend) says they need the blood of the three biggest dinosaurs of land, water and air so he can cure heart disease and make billions. Dinosaurs live around the equator because it's more like the world they once ruled. Travel there is banned. Krebs hires SpecOp fixer Zora (Scarlett Johansson) to put together a team to go there and get that blood. She brings in Matershali Ali and others. ScarJo is thicc. Looks 15 pounds heavier, some of it is muscle, some isn't. Predictably, the Dinos don't really go along with this plan, wreak some havoc on the team. Filmed in Thailand and Malta, many of the locations are breathtaking. It's well done and fun, with fewer ridiculously implausible plot points than some others.

I just don't think this seems realistic.

 

[ZooCougar]

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). Free now on Peacock. Some biotech dude named Krebs (Rupert Friend) says they need the blood of the three biggest dinosaurs of land, water and air so he can cure heart disease and make billions. Dinosaurs live around the equator because it's more like the world they once ruled. Travel there is banned. Krebs hires SpecOp fixer Zora (Scarlett Johansson) to put together a team to go there and get that blood. She brings in Matershali Ali and others. ScarJo is thicc. Looks 15 pounds heavier, some of it is muscle, some isn't. Predictably, the Dinos don't really go along with this plan, wreak some havoc on the team. Filmed in Thailand and Malta, many of the locations are breathtaking. It's well done and fun, with fewer ridiculously implausible plot points than some others.

I thought the scene on the ocean was decent. But the Air Land and Sea thing was very Pokémon.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I just don't think this seems realistic.

Within the realm of these movies, this one has less eye-rolling improbabilities than the others. Chris Pratt isn't communing with Velociraptors here. I forgot to add, there are several nods to Jaws in this movie, which was kind of fun. Also, as someone who played ARK Survival, it was nice to see the Spinosaurus be as big a PIA as it is in the game.

 

[ZooCougar]

Within the realm of these movies, this one has less eye-rolling improbabilities than the others. Chris Pratt isn't communing with Velociraptors here. I forgot to add, there are several nods to Jaws in this movie, which was kind of fun. Also, as someone who played ARK Survival, it was nice to see the Spinosaurus be as big a PIA as it is in the game.

I really don’t think there has been a good one since the first. But the Jaws homage was nice.

Otherwise Michael Crichton’s masterpiece devolved into a marketing vehicle for dinosaur toys.

 

[CL82]

I really don’t think there has been a good one since the first. But the Jaws homage was nice.

Otherwise Michael Crichton’s masterpiece devolved into a marketing vehicle for dinosaur toys.

Crichton has great way of making plots seem plausible, even likely due to the research and level of detail he works into good novels, but it doesn't always transfer to the screen. Disclosure was a good novel and a mediocre movie. Congo was a decent novel but an abysmal movie.

 

[ZooCougar]

Crichton has great way of making plots seem plausible, even likely due to the research and level of detail he works into good novels, but it doesn't always transfer to the screen. Disclosure was a good novel and a mediocre movie. Congo was a decent novel but an abysmal movie.

The first movie was great.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). Free now on Peacock. Some biotech dude named Krebs (Rupert Friend) says they need the blood of the three biggest dinosaurs of land, water and air so he can cure heart disease and make billions. Dinosaurs live around the equator because it's more like the world they once ruled. Travel there is banned. Krebs hires SpecOp fixer Zora (Scarlett Johansson) to put together a team to go there and get that blood. She brings in Matershali Ali and others. ScarJo is thicc. Looks 15 pounds heavier, some of it is muscle, some isn't. Predictably, the Dinos don't really go along with this plan, wreak some havoc on the team. Filmed in Thailand and Malta, many of the locations are breathtaking. It's well done and fun, with fewer ridiculously implausible plot points than some others.

I watched it. Reasonably entertaining. I enjoyed it more than the previous several movies in the franchise. Whoa, drex was UGLY! I think something from the Alien or Predator universe snuck into that DNA soup.

Did you notice during an early scene, evil corporate dude was in a traffic jam in NYC and next to him was a school bus, the school name was Crichton.

 

[Stagnant]

I watched predator badlands. The script won’t win any awards. But it looked great, it sounded great, and it was a lot of fun. Exactly what I was in the mood for!