I Just Watched... (Movies/TV/DVD)

[strummer]

Watched Mystic Pizza for first time in years. Young Annabeth Gish is a dead ringer for Bayley.

Also Gish was 16/17 years old filming the movie and has makeout scenes with another actor who was near 30.

Of course Vince D'Onofrio is playing his usual tortured soul brooder.

This was the first Independent movie I remember getting a bunch of attention. Probably one of my fav. Julia performances.

 

[Fall of Epic]

My favorite Julia Roberts movie is the Mexican. No reason.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Same. The Mexican is just dumb fun that knows it isn't great, and that makes it excellent junk food.

 

[RedJed]

While I was in Chicago over the weekend, had some fun with the area's movie history.

Over in Highland Park/Northridge, IL......where a majority of the John Hughes 80's films were at least partially filmed in, in a small neighborhood theater over there, they were showing some of his films this weekend. This included Ferris Bueller, Weird Science, and Breakfast Club.

So what I ended up doing was that I drove around to the specific locations for Weird Science (a mall, and a few houses that were still relatively the same as the film) and then Breakfast Club (the school that is now an IL state patrol building) and then those two films were playing back to back in this theater.

Fun little experience for sure. I plan on doing this again next trip.....likely checking out the locations for Ferris Bueller (there are multiple spots for this film all over Chicago), Uncle Buck, and maybe the Home Alone house as well. If I can find them playing at an Illinois theater again, even better.

I also randonly found the Married with Children house exterior too, looks almost exactly the same as it did before, but the homeowner randomly has an American flag in front of the house now.

 

[RedJed]

Blackening: I wouldn't call this horror too much, but I guess in comparison to the Scary Movie franchise, this actually had a bit more bite to it on that level. There was many laugh out moments though. The social commentary on this was great, the characters were fun and had creative arcs, and how they rolled through multiple horror and even black comedy tropes was impressive. Well worth a look for sure.

 

[Ripper]

The Strays.

A 45 minute idea stretched out to an hour and a half.

Great atmosphere and performances but all in all it was a big nothing in the end.

 

[RedJed]

Few flicks over the weekend...

No Hard Feelings: Jennifer Lawrence kinda generally annoys the shit out of me, but she has bearable moments in this. Not a lot of range going on here but she had a few comedic moments that stood out. The real star of this film was Andrew Feldman, who played the geeky insecure virgin dude almost to perfection. Dude has a future in this type of role for sure. Anyway, this film was so much better than the previews expressed. Engaging story arcs for the main characters.

God is a Bullet: I had never heard a thing about this one, nor even saw a trailer or commercial for it. Probably the most blind viewing of a movie I've done this year. While the runtime maybe could be taken as a bad thing to some, I thought this one was tremendously engaging from start to finish. Very grisley, raw, depraved, and dark in tone with some pretty visceral scenes of violence and gore. Maika Monroe is really making some interesting choices in her film choices the last few years and this was certainly one of them. Her character was quite a case study in itself. If you are into the work of Nick Cassevetes this will probably fit ya well, as he handled directing and screenwriting duties on this.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Nimona 7/10

Enjoyable animated Netflix movie (rescued upon Disney's cancelation of Blue Sky Studios who were making the movie). A knight, Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) gets framed for the murder of a queen and ends up befriended by the titular Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz), trying to prove its a frame job while being pursued by The Director (Frances Conroy) and the rest of the knights.

CGM absolutely kills it voice work wise doing a ton of variety within the character role, one of my favorite voice-acting performances in years. Nimona had a lot of vibes of Gru from Despicable Me but taken slightly darker with her enjoyment of being a villain and it was a treat to watch. The story and artwork were pretty solid although some of the pacing felt a little rushed in the 2nd half leading up to the finale. The beats weren't revolutionary but they mostly worked although some beats felt repetitive and the "break up" scene did feel a little unearned/done for the plot.

 

[muzzington]

Highly recommend Karen Pirie, Scottish detective drama/mystery. 3 movie length episodes.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

"Silo" on Apple TV is really good so far. Apple seems to have a number of fun sci-fi or sci-fi adjacent shows.

finished the first season and yeah I really enjoyed this. Hopefully it gets a second season or I'll have to get the books.

 

[909]

finished the first season and yeah I really enjoyed this. Hopefully it gets a second season or I'll have to get the books.

They already started filming it.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Started up The Fog (1980) for the first time since high school, had to stop about 20 minutes in because I was passing out (on me for starting a movie after 10pm on a work night). I love how Carpenter starts it with a ghost story around a campfire and then weird shit starts happening right away, the epilogue laying out entirely what he's doing.

Also, Nancy Loomis was a goddamn FOX, and I won't hear otherwise.

 

[RedJed]

Some of the random theater viewings....

Indiana Jones 5: Saw this in IMAX and....well.....I will say this much. It fulfilled the arc of Indy pretty well and gave some sort of finality and closure to the character. It would be a shame if there is another one as I can't imagine where they would do with the franchise unless they shift it to some of Jones' young prodigies or something in a group. Chances are this is it though judging by the dropping BO numbers. The flashback scenes were pretty excellent though with making Ford look much younger and it didn't look bad, effects wise. I'd probably put this installment as an improvement over the third one, but I think I liked every other Indy film more than this. As typical with franchises, the final one just doesn't fully resonate.

Asteroid City: I'm a general fan of Wes Anderson but yikes, this was a fuckin mess. I will say that visually, it had fun moments. But the narrative was a boring and tedious trainwreck and by far, this was his worst effort to date. The real thing of note is Scarlett Jo doing a super fast full frontal nude moment which, for a PG13 movie, really caught me off guard.

Sound of Freedom: This has been a kind of controversial film for sure (not in content but the bullshit false-flags that the filmmakers are trying to generate, that the film was attempted to be censored etc) but going into it, I really didnt hear much of it until after the fact fortunately. I thought the controversy was much ado about nothing as it felt like a Taken-style film and nothing more. I can absolutely see why a major studio wouldn't want this though as it came off at times exploitive in content subtly and anyone making money off a film like this has to be questioned. Similar to Asteroid though, I was a bit surprised this hit PG13 territory as there was very adult stuff in this about child trafficking and severe sexual child abuse that I thought was bordering on R rated material.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

We're working our way through Longmire, about to wrap up S3 tonight. I can safely say three things:

1. The first two seasons are fairly decent procedural pieces, peppered with some very important character development that seems to happen at random. They're more "play in the background" than not, but things pick up when one of the deputies gets shot.

2. S3E7, "Population 25," is one of the most intense episodes of a TV show I think I've ever seen. Peter Stormare takes up the majority of it, and that may be why (because he's perfectly unhinged in everything), but this also has my favorite ending to an episode so far.

3. Robert Taylor is awesome and deserves more recognition.

 

[909]

House of Gucci: Sitting through this was actually painful, I caught a cold in Vegas and went to bed feeling worse than I'd felt in some time after sitting through 150 minutes of this crap. Other than Al Pacino there was nothing worthwhile here. Jared Leto did a funny Mario accent, but it wasn't supposed to be funny and I'll probably never forget it.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Babylon: What a mess this was. Lots of bodily fluid moments (puking on others, shitting on others, even pissing on others) which I guess highlights the hedonistic side of this era and situations (Hollywood gone wild) but it was off-putting. And really, so was the actual performances. The Margot Robbie character was insantely annoying and unlikable. Most everyone in this film was strongly unrelatable and hard to connect to at all, but maybe that was the point. But much like Avatar, dear god this film was so bloated and far too long at over 3 hours. This would have been so much better without the extreme moments mentioned, and there was too many side stories that should have been cut to get down to a decent runtime of 2 hours or so.

Babylon

I liked this enough - 6.5/10. Definitely not the "Hollywood 1920s/1930s EPIC" it was badly trying to be though.

I thought most of the acting was good, as expected and I liked the storyline arcs of several of the characters (Conrad in particular although I feel like Nellie got kind of shafted by the end and Manny's was a little underwhelming considering his ambitions. Sidney felt completely forgotten about until the end, which was unfortunate.) There were too many characters at times although I sincerely enjoyed the cameo by Tobey Maguire and that entire scene/event. There were also some great shots but for the most part I wasn't overwhelmed by the directing/cinematography here.

As somebody who is a big fan of Louise Brooks and has read a bit about the background history of the 1920s/1930s Hollywood scene, I did really appreciate seeing the "struggle" of Conrad's character (and even Nellie's character) transitioning from the silent film era to the talkie film explosion where voices suddenly mattered more and great silent actors fell by the wayside because of their voices. The run down by the Kinescope executive reading off the names and their vocal ability hit pretty hard in that respect. The Sidney scene with the 'lighting' hit really hard but then his character kind of just... vanished.

The opening party scene easily could've been cut down to 5-10 minutes instead of basically 25+ minutes. As it was, the 2 & 1/2 hour runtime after the party scene was pretty tight although there were multiple scenes (the on-set takes that kept getting interrupted inside the studio with the mark/sound stuff, the snake in particular, Conrad's wife yelling at him in Hungarian as he then picks up the phone, even the Tobey Maguire walk level to level) that just ran on too long feeling like the director thought it was hilarious or just couldn't bear to cut down the scene because he was too self-involved in it. The elephant + pissing scene was dumb but again, I would've excised most if not all of the opening party scene as it is. The puking scene I thought kind of fit with what Nellie's character was doing but again, that "person pukes on another person gag" is typically reserved for kids-centric movies or gross-out comedies for a reason not movies with this kind of ambition.

 

[Zetterberg is God]

Barbie. Early morning show and solo but was a lot of fun.

 

[RedJed]

The Baker: This came out in pretty short release, was only playing in a few screens when I was in Chicago over the weekend. Slickly produced and directed, but a little underdeveloped script wise with the characters and their connections to each other. The formula of this was kinda predictable too....an off the grid guy (Ron Perlman, who has a mysterious past that they don't fully explain unfortunately) gets tangled up in some family dynamics with his estranged son and his even more estranged granddaughter. Anyway, long story short, the son gets invoilved in some dangerous dynamics, goes missing, and the Perlman character and the young granddaughter kind of both go on the run to escape the bad crew, but at the same time Perlman infiltrates certain areas to find out the whereabouts of his missing son and ultimately, goes on a revenge spree of sorts. A pretty entertaining flick that has very subtle John Wick vibes with Perlman's character.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Elijah Wood is really, really awesome in this Movie Fights. Super knowledgeable, genuinely likable, and relaxed. Great stuff. I've also seen the episodes with Leonard Maltin and those are fun too.

 

[Youth N Asia]

8 episodes into Twisted Metal, and I think I love it. Series is way more fun than it has any right to be. The music drops have been on point at every step. Hope this runs more than a season.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Halfway done with S5 of Longmire.

-Holy goddamn fucking SHIIIIIIIT does the show pick up once longer arcs are introduced. The stuff with Newett Energy is sickening, and the resolutions to how things transpired at the end of S3 are perfect American pulp.

-This may literally be the best role that Lou Diamond Phillips has ever had. Henry Standing Bear, especially by the end of S4, is a great character.

-Katee Sackhoff is magnificent. This isn't too big a surprise, really, but she just owns every scene she's involved in.

-Julia Jones has a good arc throughout S4 into S5, and I'm both surprised that she's in her 40s and that she's a NEW ENGLAND WOMAN. JP native, khed.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

My Adventures With Superman is a really fun show. I usually am not a Supes guy at all but this is a really good updated take on an early Superman. I'm about 4-5 episodes in.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Finally saw Oppenheimer. Visually and aurally stunning, of course and some great performances (it was great to see RDJ doing some serious acting after a decade plus of capeshit) but my favorite aspect is how the supporting cast seemed like it was Christopher Nolan drawing names out of a hat. Josh Hartnett! David Krumholz! The guy who starred in Solo: A Star Wars Story! Josh Peck!

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Saw Pretty Woman and it was good. Definitely a star turn for Julia Roberts, not a fan of Richard Gere's character, but the chemistry/romance was instant and I really liked it. I understand some of the criticisms but it was a "fairy tale" romance in a way and it worked.

7/10

 

[muzzington]

Saw Rizzoli and Isles on Prime. Started watching. I dunno.

Think everyone has a favourite of this kind of show, and mine was The Mentalist.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Saw Rizzoli and Isles on Prime. Started watching. I dunno.

Think everyone has a favourite of this kind of show, and mine was The Mentalist.

I mainly remember R&I for having a huge lesbian fandom following for the two main leads.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Finished Longmire.

Count it in the "good shows with disappointing endings" category. They went where they were teasing with two characters in a "will they/won't they" dilemma and shouldn't have as they don't have much chemistry, the final showdown didn't feel anywhere near as important as it should have, and one character goes on a long rant about how they keep trying to leave their hometown and finally have a chance to...only to decide "fuck it" and stick around.

This felt like they had another season planned but were told near the end of filming S6 that this was going to be the end.

Regardless, Robert Taylor was incredible in the lead, and Lou Diamond Phillips delivers a career highlight. Graham Greene playing against type was great, Zahn McClarnon delivers in everything, and both Katee Sackhoff and Cassidy Freeman are perfect in walking the balance between tough and vulnerable. Peter Weller's recurring character, former sheriff Lucian Connally, almost always brings out the best episodes of the series, as Weller himself directs most of them (and the man was built for westerns).

Terrific cast, disappointing writing. 7.5/10 for the whole series.

------

Extraction II (2023) is the new GOAT when it comes to action cinematography. There's so little plot and character in this movie, but what little there is comes across brilliantly in the three action scenes that make up the bulk of the runtime, so I can't fault it for delivering what it set out to. Heat has a new rival for delivering an epic shootout. 7/10

------

Love, Death, and Robots S3 delivers across the board, with only one short ("Jibaro") standing out as being not quite up to snuff. It also gives us one of the best shorts in the entire show, "Bad Travelling," and the absolutely gorgeous "The Very Pulse of the Machine" (which reminded me of "Fish Night" from S1).[/I]

 

[Brocklock]

Finally saw Barbie and I really enjoyed it. Film looked jawdropping at points. Cast was mostly phenomenal besides one actor. Robbie was terrific and she might be one of the best face actors in the business. She conveys so much with her eyes and face. Gosling had the more showier role and he nailed it completely. Michael Cera as Allan had me dying and America Ferreira was really likable and easy to root for.

The one actor that didn't work for me was Will Ferrell. In fact you could of removed his character and plot altogether and it wouldn't of mattered much. He felt dated in a really original movie and his yelling babyman shit is so grating to me these days. I'm glad his part wasn't that big, but he still tested my patience.

It was also surprisingly poignant with a couple scenes almost getting me. Well worth the hype.

8/10

 

[Hawk 34]

I feel the performance of Ferrell was a deliberate decision from Gerwig.

I don’t think we need to get into a subtext discussion about it but that was my reading of the character to feel like it was from a wholly different movie that absolutely would’ve been the original concept of the movie in someone else’s hand.

 

[strummer]

I had completely forgotten Barbie was originally supposed to be an Amy Schumer vehicle from 7/8 years ago. Probably dodged a bullet there.