I gave up on Rocky movies years...and years back but I was up watching late nite movies over the weekend and tuned into “Creed” Yeah the latest, to me, Rocky story. Creed’s illegitimate son shows up and wants to take on the world boxing champ “Who happens to be a Scouse!” Complete with a passable accent. He trains at and the big finale “championship of da woild” is in Goodison Park. Fun! The movie grew on me and Stallone surprised me with a good low keyed performance. I found out since that “Creed” carries on the line. Not for me though.
Good time for a very old engerlish joke. Dad asks the kid “wadda you want for your birthday.” Kid says “Wow, I dunno dad”. Dad: “Never mind son let me know when you think of something. next night Dad and mum are “busy” in the bedroom when the door bursts open and the kid comes in. “Dad, I want a watch!” Dad says, without missing a beat. “Well sit over there and shut up!” I didn’t upset any sensibilities did i? Ooops!
Had no idea this thread existed! I have seen a bunch of movies recently, and here they are: The Half of It (2020) - A guy asks a girl in his school to help him get the affection of a girl he's interested in, but then he winds up falling for her, but - ho ho! - the girl who is helping him has a crush on the girl, too! Get all that? It was tougher to explain than watching the movie. Which was good! I liked it. It was sweet and, at times, sarcastic, which I appreciate. Good Time (2017) - A man believes that his mentally disabled brother is not being taken care of properly at an institution, so he springs his brother, and then robs a bank with him to try to provide a better life for him elsewhere. The robbery goes to plan, but the getaway goes awry. The mentally disabled brother doesn't get away and gets arrested. The man now attempts to bail his brother out, but he doesn't have the requisite money for bail because the money he robbed from the bank is covered in dye, and the man takes more desperate measures with more desperate people to get that money. Can he outrun the law and the insanity? The movie definitely moves fast, and the pace seems to pick up with the insanity. It wasn't bad, but I've seen better. A Serious Man (2009) - A guy's life is coming apart at the seems, and everything seems to be getting progressively worse, and... I did not understand this movie, and perhaps it's not meant for me to understand. The only thing I took away from this movie is - according to what the director put on the screen - Jewish people were born to suffer and plow through? I guess? I really don't know. I was lost from the start of the movie, straight on through. Good luck if you can figure it out. Enemy (2013) - Jake Gyllenhaal seems content with his life until he discovers and actor who looks exactly like him. Jake then goes on a quest to find him, and when he does, he begins to dig deeper into this person until he meets him. Then his life starts to either come apart or become renewed. Then the ending comes up, and you're left to wonder "Wait, what the hell ending was that supposed to be???" Then you spend the next 2 hours Googling what the hell the ending was only to find out that everyone else has their own interpretation of what it meant. Now, my wife hated it, but I didn't think it was so bad, and kinda appreciated the ending-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder approach. Kinda like a painting. You find in it what you want to find. Movies are art after all. After this selection, I was banned from picking movies for 2 weeks by my wife when we watched together. The Florida Project (2017) - A girl and her mother attempt to get by living in a converted Orlando motel. The story shows the innocence of the little girl as she makes friends with other kids around the motel, and enjoys her life and her surroundings. The movie shows the struggles, but never makes the characters look depressed or downtrodden. They look human. They struggle, but they always try to make the best of their situations. This is evident in how the mother doesn't have a job, but makes money by selling perfumes outside of a country club. Their lives begin to get twisted when the mom gets into legal trouble. The last 20 minutes are the most heart-wrenching part of the film, and although it's incredibly sad, you realize that this is how real life is for so many people. There's a series of shots at the end which detail the juxtaposition of "The Happiest Place on Earth" being in the same town as these people struggling. From what I understand, the converted motel the director shot the movie in is where people really live, and some of the people who live there were in the movie to convey the real life situation of that particular housing unit. This movie really hit a chord with me, and, although it wasn't positive, it was good. It was a good movie. Sad, but good. Transsiberian (2008) - A man and his wife are travelling by train from China to Moscow after having done missionary work when they encounter a young couple on the train who seem to take in interest in them. They intend to get the married couple to smuggle drugs without telling them. Things go awry and the couple are then running from the Russians. There's a brutal murder after an attempted rape. It's all happening. The movie was a bit far-fetched, but there were a couple of good twists. The only thing the movie did for me was affirm my desire to not trust anyone while traveling by train in Russia. The F**k-It List (2020) - Helicopter parents care only about getting their kid in Harvard and will force him to do things he doesn't want to do in order to get there. He rebels by posting a list of all the things he wants to do online, and it starts a movement. In the meantime, he blows up his school, he encourages his crush to smash up her stepdad's Mustang (the stepdad who tried to rape her, but no one - including her mother and the cops - ignored her). There are no repercussions for anything in this universe and all of the parents are awful. Just like this movie. The Edge of Seventeen (2016) - A coming-of-age tale of a girl who knows what she wants except she doesn't. She loses her best friend after her best friend starts dating her older brother. There is a boy who takes in interest in her, but she is off-putting with him. She spends a lot of time talking with her favorite teacher who is played wonderfully by Woody Harrelson, and their interactions are the best part about the movie. It's turbulent watching her, but anyone who has parented a teenager can commiserate. I really enjoyed this movie. The interaction between Steinfeld and Harrelson is great, and Steinfeld played the protagonist really well. Probably one of my favorite movies of the pandemic. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) - A boy who suffers from clinical depression enters high school and befriends a brother and sister who are seniors. They invite him into their group of friends, and he begins to blossom. He has a brief falling out with his friends, and sinks into a depression again, but he saves one of his friends and they all reconcile. The end reveals each of the tragedies that happened to each of the friends, and how they all hope to recover and move forward in their lives. This movie hit me hard as someone who was an outcast in high school without any friends, and also dealt with depression. It was a seemingly happy ending, but it opened up 20+ year old wounds. The person who wrote and directed this movie also wrote the book, and I hope to read it at some point in the future because he was asked to tone down certain things to make the movie PG-13 and the book deals more with his sprouting sexuality and how he experiences those feelings in contrast with the people who are his friends. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) - The story of how Freddie Mercury joined two musicians to found Queen, and how the band went to great heights and nearly came crashing down because of Mercury. Although it was focused pretty heavily on Mercury, it still felt like the band was put front and center with him. I like Rami Malek in the movie, and I was surprised how many Queen songs I know and like. I liked this movie better than Rocket Man, and the two movies felt quite similar, but this felt like more of a happy tale than a tale of recovery and re-invention, like Rocket Man. Of course, the standard for musical biopics starts with Ray, this was quite enjoyable.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020) Dir. Chris Palmer We meet Clark Kent shortly after his move to Metropolis and his employment at the Daily Planet. As a lowly intern whose primary task seems to fetch coffee for the 'real' reporters, no one would suspect that Kent has dabbled in superheroics as the mysterious "flying man" who has been seen around Metropolis, usually whilst rescuing one of its citizens. Things change for Clark after two very important meetings. First he encounters Lois Lane for the first time during a Q&A session in which she successfully proves Lex Luthor's involvement in fraud and corruption in securing lucrative government contracts for LexCorp. Some time later, he comes face to face with a very different individual: alien bounty hunter Lobo, the man who also informs Kal-El that he is the last remaining Kryptonian. Another entry in the DC animated movie universe. Not terrible by any means, but certainly not one of the best I've seen either. I liked the Martian Manhunter in this story (though I could have done with some more of him) and Alexandra Daddario gave the young Lois Lane just the right amount of sass.
Witches in the Woods (2019) Dir. Jordan Barker Seven college students go on a skiing trip in spite of some tensions within the group. One of the girls attending was the victim of a sexual assault caught on camera that led to several members of the school's football team being suspended. Two of the guys on the trip are also members of the same team, but they weren't present during the incident. When a blocked road caused by a traffic accident forces them to take a dodgy shortcut, they end up getting lost, with their vehicle eventually breaking down. With night approaching and no cell phone reception, they are in desperate need of help. As the reality of their situation becomes increasingly clear, the already troubled girl in their midst starts displaying ever more disturbing behavior, which her best friend explains as the result of pre-existing anxiety and psychosis being fueled by both the recent trauma and the added stress of being lost in the woods. Some of the others prefer to perceive her weird behavior as the supernatural manifestation of an evil force, lurking in the surrounding woods, where once a Salem-like witch trial ended in the deaths of several accused witches. Most of this film is limited to one location (in and around the stranded car) and the ramping up of the tension is mostly achieved through the increasing distrust among the group of friends. Certainly not a classic in the psychological horror genre, though I do like that they maintain the Total Recall like device of allowing the audience to interpret the story both ways up to the very end (whether or not there is a supernatural element to what is happening).
When we thought we were all going to be on lockdown for a lot longer. Turned out not as long as it should have been. Mrs Scouse ordered the “Thin Man collection” all 7 Thin Man Movies. The Thin Man Nick and Nora Song of the Thin Man The Thin Man Goes Home Another Thin Man After the Thin Man Shadow of Thin Man Lot of fun old style as William Powell and Myrna Loy wander through life and solve crime. Myrna Loy is fabulous and unflappable. Do NOT try to binge watch.
How so? At this point it all comes down to individual responsibility. If you don't want to get sick, you behave in a way that doesn't compromise yourself. If you get sick, you stay away from others.
FFS. No wonder the US is leading the world with virus cases and deaths. And the gap is rising. It’s the stupidity called American exceptionalism. My apologies for responding to this on this thread. There’s no place for it here.
Rogue (2020) Dir. M.J. Bassett Sam O'Hara is the leader of a black ops merc team which has been hired to save a governor's daughter from the terrorist group that has kidnapped her. They successfully extract the girl but then their extraction is botched and they are hunted by the terrorist group across the African plains, until they arrive at what appears to be an abandoned farm but is in fact a camp that once belonged to poachers who bred lions for the black market there. A solitary female lion has remained behind, an animal which exhibits an unusual bloodthirst for human intruders. Considering how poorly she was supposedly treated on the first go-around, I’m glad for the Megan Fox comeback (especially since I have a new appreciation for her craft having only just recently watched “Jennifer’s Body” for the first time). But I’m not sure if she is the most convincing action lead, at least not if she is meant to play a battle-hardened mercenary. This is also a very weird film in that it starts out as a silly war movie and then turns into a creature horror film to once again turn into a silly action/war movie by the end. The CGI-ed lion makes Bruce of Jaws fame look particularly realistic by comparison.
There are only 6 Thin Man movies in the Powell/Loy series. "Nick and Nora" -- actually "Alias Nick and Nora" -- is a set of two documentaries on the actors. For a minute, I thought you might be referring to the ill-fated Broadway musical from 1991 (with music by Charles Strouse of Bye Bye Birdie and Annie fame!) which lasted only 9 performances...
Before Midnight (2013)-The third movie in a series, which stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Lots of arguing between the two main characters. Directed by Richard Linklater.
Gangs of New York (2002)-Scorsese flick about street gangs in the Five Points section of New York. I was disappointed that the San Francisco subplot remained unresolved. Pretty good, but long, flick.
Reply 1988 - 2015 TV Series (20 episodes averaging about 90 minutes each) Didn't have much prior expectation, but was very pleasantly surprised with this show to the point it may be the best thing we streamed this year so far. As the title suggests the it mostly takes place in 1988 (really it takes place over a few years) in a working-to-middle class neighborhood on the outskirts of Seoul. As one might expect from a show set in a past much of the viewing audience remembers, there are some "look its x year" references and a lot of pop-culture featured, but rather than a hollow nostalgia vessel, it uses the time period well as a backdrop for a show based on character relationships so that people (like my wife and I) that have only a superficial knowledge of both the time and place could still be sucked in. The focus of the series are 5 childhood friends (the middle row of the picture) and their families who live on a single street. The plot is mostly slice of life, with nearly equal focus being given to the parents and their lives/relationships as the teenagers. My biggest regret was watching this on Netflix (even though I most likely never would have found it without it), because there is a lot of licensed content they didn't pay for meaning blurred screens and omitted songs. This exacerbates some generally poor editing.
Bill & Ted face the Music (2020) Dir. Dean Parisot We meet the now thirty years older Bill & Ted, two fathers of now adult daughters who have otherwise not changed much from their youthful selves. On the very day that the two reluctantly decide to hang up their guitars and call their music career a day, they are visited by Rufus' daughter Kelly. Kelly informs them that the Wyld Stallyns still owe the universe a song, otherwise all realities will collapse onto themselves. Bill & Ted tackle the problem with their usual logic, devising a plan where they will steal the finished song from their future selves. As this doesn't quite go according to plan, their daughters Thea and Billie decide to help out their dads by borrowing Kelly's time machine and traveling across time to assemble a super band that can help them finish and perform the song. Is it weird to get this movie almost thirty years after the second installment was released? Yes! Should Reeves and Winter now be far too old to play two idiots? Definitely yes. Did I still enjoy this? It was non-non-non-heinous, dudes! All of the goofiness and the silliness honestly felt like a balm for the mind and the heart in these dark times. Kristen Schaal is her delightful self as Kelly. Samara Weaving and Brigitte Lundy-Paine do a good job in channeling their older counterparts in their own performances as the daughters (though Lundy-Paine overdoes it a tiny bit in some scenes). My few minor complaints are the rather brusque ending and how weird Reeves looks clean-shaven (seriously, just give older Ted a five-o-clock shadow). Be Excellent to each other!
Well, in a very similar vein, BG: Cobra Kai -- Season 1 35 years after Danny LaRusso kicks Johnny Lawrence to the deck, he is a successful luxury car dealer in the valley whilst Lawrence is a down and out home handyman who has the misfortune of catering to California Karens. It is inevitable that they would meet, but once the action starts, they bump into each other A LOT. Lawrence isn't the heel in this show, and in the first twist on the original, he takes under his wing a new Danny LaRusso, a kid who is being beaten and bullied at school. He ends up opening a dojo, and while he calls it Cobra Kai and lists the old No Mercy mantra on the wall, he's not a narcissistic dick like John Kreese. He's more of a tear-'em-down and build-'em-up drill instructor. If William Zabka's not being flooded with acting offers after this, I'd be surprised. He's wonderful as a down on his luck everyman. LaRusso seemingly has it all: gorgeous wife, good kids, great home, lots of money and fame as a karate-selling auto dealer. Weirdly, though his life has gone only up, he's the one who is deeply insecure. His twist is that he (unknowingly) takes on Lawrence's estranged son as a mentee and gives him the full Miyagi treatment. Of course, the two, despite only practicing karate for 5 months, make it to the finals of the tournament and face each other. I thought this was really good. Flashback was kept to a minimum, LaRusso and Lawrence are subtly portrayed, the kids are believable even as they perform 180 degree twists in their arcs, and LaRusso's wife gets a more nuanced treatment than is given to most "mom" roles. There are lots of layers to this onion. The season 1 cliffhanger, though, is just depressing. The subtle palette of grays the show has been using is, I fear, about to be upended with a cartoonish balck and white heel. This show was better than that....
The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) Dir. Will Cowan Jessica, a young woman who is believed to have psychic abilities is asked by her aunt Flavia to help find water on her ranch. Jessica eventually discovers a location which might contain a vein of water but after her aunt's ranch hands attempt to dig for it, she has second thoughts and believed the ground to contain something of great evil. Jessica's warning is ignored and eventually the two men uncover an ancient chest. A tourist staying on a cabin attached to the ranch recognizes the inlaid chest as likely dating back to the 16th century and prevents Flavia from having it smashed open, suspecting that the intact chest might be worth more as a historical artifact than whatever its contents might be. Flavia reluctantly agrees, at least until the chest itself can be properly appraised, but her greedy ranch hands have other ideas, with disastrous consequences... Fairly simple little horror film, most of the action contained within one location (in and around the ranch). Not a bad cast, especially Robin Hughes as the big bad and Linda Madison as a tourist who is at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Some of the practical effects are nice considering the era and the obviously limited budget.
Yep, they don't blur the entire screen, but book covers, movie posters and television screens if they are watching. The biggest one though is music, which caused portions of actual scenes to be either removed or strangely edited. A few I found unedited online. Despite all of that, the show was enjoyable.
Rachel and the Stranger (1948) Dir. Norman Foster "Big" Davey Harvey and his son little Davey have to adapt to live without their respective wife and mother, after a fever takes her. Following a few months where the two of them try to adapt to a life alone on the frontier, Davey decides that both him and his son need a female presence around. He travels to a nearby settlement in search of a wife. With few options available to him, he buys an indentured servant from another settler and marries her. To the woman in question, Rachel, this is a chance at renewed freedom. Her illusion of a happy marriage and some semblance of a real family life is somewhat shattered when both Big Davey and his son treat her more like a servant than a wife or mother. That dynamic changes considerably when Spring brings the return of Jim, a friend of the family and a man who was once a romantic rival for the affection of Davey's first wife Susannah. When Jim starts to pay a lot of attention to Rachel too, it stirs unexpected feelings of jealousy in Davey, but is it too late to change the existing unsentimental dynamic of his relationship with Rachel? A somewhat austere, domestic western (which makes the sudden burst of violence near the climax feel out of place and unnecessary). Well acted by the three principals, especially by Loretta Young. In some ways, this felt a lot like a gender-bended Will Penny to me (though the Charlton Heston western is twenty years younger than this).
Ava (2020) Dir. Tate Taylor Ava is a former soldier who has turned to a life as a contract killer following her honorable discharge, under the tutelage of her former commander. Following a successful job in France, she is sent to Riyadh to eliminate a German military officer. The aftermath of that hit is botched to the point where she has to fight and kill her way out of the building. The shady organization she works for considers cutting their losses and eliminating her, to the objection of her mentor. In the meantime, Ava is using her unexpected downtime to reconnect with her estranged family which she hasn't seen in eight years. Not the most original premise, a movie with countless antecedents, La Femme Nikita and The Long Kiss Goodnight two of the more famous ones. The film has a connection to the latter movie through Geena Davis' supporting role as Ava's mother in this film. In the end, this mostly felt mediocre, a rehash of the ideas used in other, better films. Something of a waste of an excellent cast, between Jessica Chastain, John Malkovich, Colin Farrell and rising young thespian Diana Silvers.
Inception (2010)-Never seen this before. Too clever by half, but acclaimed. Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Vivarium (2019) Dir. Lorcan Finnegan Gemma and Tom are a young couple who have vague plans of buying their own home. They end up visiting a realtor, who takes them to a strange development of identical green houses. Whilst they are viewing one of them, the weird realtor disappears and they are stuck in the house by themselves. When they try to leave in their car, they keep on ending up back at the same house they were viewing, no matter which direction they try to navigate out of the area. They quickly figure out something very weird is going on, especially after a box containing a baby shows up in front of the house, with an note which suggest they will be allowed to leave if they raise the child. The child grows up in record speed, proving it cannot be quite human, whilst Tom and Gemma still cannot figure out where they are and who is doing this to them. Not sure how to feel about this. Two good performances by Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg, yet I feel like the screenplay mistakes weirdness for quality a lot of the time. For some reason this also reminded me a lot of Duncan Jones' Moon, only if it was a psychological horror film instead of a quirky sci-fi drama.