Last Movie Watched.... The Xenforo Edition

The Newsroom, the HBO series that I'd watched before but which has actually aged better than I would've expected. In 2015, the show was extremely Sorkin-y, with platitudes that seemed to be too platitudinous, even though delivered by a character who was, implausibly, a Republican. But, after Trump, anchorman Will McAvoy (Jeff Bridges) is actually plausible: he's just a "never Trump" Republican who got on the bandwagon way earlier than the guys who started The Bulwark or The Lincoln Project. Weird.

 

Pushover (1954)
Dir. Richard Quine



Two bankrobbers pull off a successful hold-up in which the guard is killed and they escape with over 200K dollars in cash. With the robbers in the wind, the only real lead the cops have left is the girlfriend of one of the two suspected robbers. On the assumption that their mark might make contact with his dame, detective Paul Sheridan is sent undercover to ingratiate himself with the young woman in question, Lona. Feeling an immediate attraction to her, he also susses out that it is indeed likely that the bankrobber will come pick her up before he flees. Thus a stake-out unit is set up to observe her apartment, of which Paul is also member. Unfortunately for Paul, Lona figures out he is a cop. The realization that her gangster boyfriend is toast with so many cops on his tail, she turns her attention to Paul, whose strong attraction to her turns him into an easy mark. She convinces him to try and get the money from her boyfriend before he is arrested or killed by the police, thus finding another way to get her hands on the wealth her former lover had promised her. But Paul discovers that successfully pulling off and getting away with a crime is much harder than he might have anticipated...

Decent noir with a good Fred MacMurray in the lead role and with Kim Novak in her first ever proper screen credit. It's the classic "femme fatale dooms a man who should really know better" story that has been used in countless other noirs, but it's done rather well. With one of the famous Hitchcock blondes featuring in a lead role, it's also noteworthy that many of the stake-out scenes bring back memories of Hitch's own Rear Window, which was coincidentally also released in 1954.

 

The Iceman (2012)-The true tale of notorious hitman Richard Kuklinski. Michael Shannon stars as the title character. Winona Ryder and Ray Liotta also appear. If you abhor violence, this probably isn't your movie. Good, violent flick.

 

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

The New York subway train Pelham 1 2 3 stops in the middle of a tunnel just before rush hour. After an extended period of very New York yelling trying to figure out what is going on, the finally receive a call from the cars. They have been commandeered and the hijackers want $1,000,000 or they start executing passengers. Transit Police lieutenant Garber will do everything he can to preserve the lives of the civilians, but he has very New York problems that make his job difficult.

This famed movie has been remade twice and I've seen both of those. I thought they were decent. I wish I can say the same for the original. There was a surprisingly intense level of sexism and racism and homophobia for a '70s movie - it was constant, front and center, and very distracting. It hated (or at least it wanted me to hate) New York and New Yorkers just as much - every one of them was just a terrible person; loud, abrasive, constantly aggrieved. But its worst sin was that it wasn't that exciting. It was all very one-track with no twists or changes of pace or changes in fortune.

 

Detroit (2017)-Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. It's a tale of the 1967 Detroit riots, with a special focus on the Algiers Motel Incident. There's some very Chauvin-like cops. John Boyega stars. Fight The Power!

 

Black Widow (2021)
Dir. Cate Shortland



After a prologue in which it is revealed that Natascha was once part of a fake family that lived undercover in Ohio and had to flee after their identities were compromised, we flash forward to Natascha hiding out in Norway. She is drawn back into the world when her former "sister" Yelena Belova sends her a package containing several vials, containing a compound which apparently counteracts the Black Widow program's mind control drugs. She is forced to track down Yelena and then the rest of her fake family in the hope of finally getting her revenge on General Dreykov and free the rest of her Red Room sisters in the process.

Considering how long we had to wait to get this stand-alone and its COVID-19 plagued release schedule, this was actually better than I had thought it would be. This is one part "The Americans, but make it MCU" and one part like an old-fashioned Bond movie. Which is sort of acknowledged in-movie since we even have a scene where Natascha is watching a Bond flick. I'm glad for the paycheck that Shortland will no doubt have made off this film but as someone who admires her as a filmmaker and who thinks her Lore is one of the best films made in the 21st century, there is something a bit sad and reductive about her spending her time shooting MCU films. It kind of feels like the joke about Céline Sciamma doing MCU next, only for real.
To end on a more positive note, I will join the chorus of people who primarily enjoyed Florence Pugh's performance in this, as the very funny and charming Yelena.

 

I just finished watching the only season of Freaks and Geeks. Probably the best show I've ever watched. I'm floored that NBC canceled it after 12 episodes. I didn't want it to end. Everything about the show was brilliant from the writing to the acting to the music. It's no wonder that so many of the people involved continued to have great careers. Simply wonderful.

 

No Time To Die (2021)-Good Bond flick. Farewell to Daniel Craig. Rami Malek plays a good villain. Wish he had more screen time. Good performance by Lea Seydoux. There are revelations about Bond in this movie. Cliffhanger ending.

 

Hands Across the Table (1935)
Dir. Mitchell Leisen



Regi is a manicurist whose hope in life is to land herself a wealthy husband and thus escape the life of destitution that was her mother's reality. Theodore is a member of an old money family which lost most of their fortune in the crash. His intention is to use his pedigree to find a wealthy young heiress to marry and thus recapture his family's lost wealth that way. The pair of them spend a night on the town together on Regi's mistaken assumption that Theodore's family is still wealthy. When he reveals this not to be the case, each decides to stick to their original intention to marry into wealth. Only their short time spent together has left a lasting infatuation on both sides, one which deepens when circumstances force Theodore to spend some time secretly living in Regi's apartment.

A screwball comedy from the golden era of the genre, starring Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard. In this one, MacMurray is more of the dizzy quirky one, and Lombard the straight woman. The two leads have good chemistry (likely the reason they went on to star in several more movies together). The writing couldn't entirely charm me, though there are scenes where the dialogue between the two lead characters does sparkle.

 

Watched some movies on my travels

Layer Cake (2004) - Daniel Craig is a high-earning and overly-smart drug dealer who is asked by his supplier and boss to find a drug-addicted girl while also finding a buyer for a shipment of ecstasy that was recently stolen.

This was OK. Not bad, not great. Plot was a little convoluted, but Daniel Craig was good. He made the movie better than it probably had any right to be.

Croupier (1998) - The tale of a writer who gets a job as a croupier at a casino in London as a base for his book.

Clive Owen plays a writer who is looking for a story to sell to his publisher, but can't come up with anything, and what was suggested by his publisher doesn't really appeal to him. He gets a call one day from his dad in South Africa saying that he was able to get him an interview at a casino as a croupier, which was something he did previously down in South Africa. As he begins working, he creates a character named Jake for his story, but as he develops his story further, the line starts to blur between him and his fictional character who keeps gambling with his choices.

This was one of Owen's first starring roles, and he plays this one fantastically. This is a great story, and a very entertaining movie. I found myself deeply engrossed in the story, and the acting all around was very good. I highly recommend this if you can find it on Netflix.

Level 16 (2018) - Girls in a prison-like boarding school embark on a desperate search to uncover the awful truth behind their captivity.

This was labeled as sci-fi, and it definitely has those elements, but this was a neat little dystopian drama. I wasn't expecting too much from this, but it turned out to be quite tense. It took a bit of time to get going, but it was worth the wait. I can't go into the movie too much without giving something away, but this wasn't a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

Speed (1994) - A bomb squad member must race against the clock to save the passengers of a bus where a madman has rigged a bomb to detonate if it goes under 50 mph.

If you're over 30, and you have no idea what this movie is, shame on you. This was one of the biggest movies of the 90s. Also, is it just me, or were action movies better before the year 2000? Maybe it's just nostalgia.

Anyway, this movie still somehow holds up, and is really good. The action scenes are all well done, it's shot beautifully, and they really ratchet up the tension at every turn. The only negative is Keanu Reeves and he wasn't that wooden.

After the movie, I read that this cost $30 million to make, but Speed 2 (one of the worst sequels of all time) cost almost $120 million. Turns out, you don't need to spend a ton of money to make a decent movie.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) - Two stoners travel across the country from New Jersey to Hollywood to stop a movie after people were talking bad about them on the internet.

This movie does NOT hold up. Oof. It's not even a product of its time. I'm now surprised how much I actually liked this movie after it came out. I guess I grew up. I'm curious if I go back and watch some of Kevin Smith's other movies if I'll feel the same way.

 

Classic NBC comedies like Seinfeld, The Office and Parks and Recreation came very, very close to being cancelled after 12 episodes (six in the case of Seinfeld and The Office). Unbelievable. And Freaks and Greeks hit its stride early and often, which those other shows (esp. Seinfeld) most certainly did not.

 

Watched two movies in the hotel because they have HBO and I don't have HBO at home.

Greenland (2020) - An engineer with a crumbling marriage receives word that his family his been selected to be saved from a comet heading toward earth.

I had no idea about this movie, and the description made it seem like typical end-of-the-world fare, but it's actually more about the family and coming together than it is about the destruction of the world.

Gerard Butler plays the father and husband who is from "Atlanta" (Atlanta, Scotland, I suppose) whose marriage is on the rocks, and he receives a mysterious message that he and his family have been selected to be taken to a secret bunker where they will be saved from a comet that will lead to the destruction of mankind. As he attempts to flee, he becomes separated from his family, and the movie becomes about the family trying to get back together.

Although the disaster scenes weren't as dramatic as some other disaster films, the story of the family trying to find each other was pretty gripping, and the movie certainly became more about the family then the destruction of Earth. Although the disaster stuff felt a little cheesy (The Eiffel Tower was only bent over after the comet destroyed all of Europe? Come on...), it was a pretty decent movie.

Fun Size (2012) - A teenage girl must search for her younger brother after she loses him while trick-or-treating.

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to hear the words "shit" and "ass" while watching Nickelodeon? What about a kid touching a girl's boobs because it was previously negotiated? Maybe a giant chicken advertisement humping a Volvo? Well, that's what this movie basically was. And it wasn't horrible! It wasn't good, but it wasn't awful. Some things made me laugh, but it mostly juvenile/idiot teen humor. Plus, it was either this or an episode of "Scenes From A Marriage", and I watched one episode of that and I found it to be an over-the-top version of a marriage falling apart, and I really didn't like it at all. The marriage falling apart in Greenland seemed much more plausible.

 

I became so invested in the characters of that show that I was actually depressed that it ended. Every character and their situations felt completely real. As someone who would've been considered a "geek" based on this show, I felt a lot of these characters' happiness and pain. It was simply brilliant. From what I read, though, it never developed an audience, but it was also booted around the schedule so much that it never actually could find an audience.

When my kids grow up and they want to know about high school, I'd like to watch this with them because it's probably the most realistic show about high school ever created.

 

Bull Durham (1988)- Classic baseball/romantic comedy film. Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins star. Good to see the late Max Patkin in a small role. Had never seen seen this before. Worth seeing.

 

One of my favorite movies.

"So relax! Let's have some fun out here! This game's fun, OK? Have fun, goddammit!"

"This son of a bitch is throwing a two-hit shutout, and he's shaking me off. You believe that shit? Charlie, here comes the deuce, and when you speak of me, speak well."

 

I can't believe it's back, but I found this on Peacock:



"I'm probably one of the few people who've written more books than they've read."

"This is going to be the most significant televisual event since Quantum Leap. And I do not say that lightly."

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace - The Complete Series (2004) - A show within a show where Dr. Rick Dagless and his fellow doctors deal with evil spirits at Darkplace Hospital.

"One of the reasons I got into medicine was for the laughs. That, and the pussy, and that dried up 10 years back, if you'll pardon the expression."

This is one of the funniest shows I've ever watched. It's so bad on purpose that it's great. In addition to how bad it is, there are fictional interviews interspersed around each episode which are also great. The best episode is "Hell Hath Fury", featuring such lines as this gem:

"We'd seen a new side to Liz. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." They can get upset at the slightest thing: whether it's forgetting to acknowledge them in front of your friends or dividing a restaurant bill in proportion to the amount of food ordered by each party, which is only fair. I had to change. Tomorrow I'd tell her she's lost weight or I like what she's done to her hair. Whichever seemed the most plausible."

Three hours very worthy of your time.

 

"He hit that like he knew it was coming."

"He did know."

"How did he know?"

"I told him."

 

The Last Duel (2021)-Based on a book, which I'd like to read. Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer star. She was a revelation. Ben Affleck is almost unrecognizable as a lord. Supposedly based on a true story. Two knights are originally friends, but have a falling out. A rape allegation is involved. Good use of a few hours. Not for those who have a horror of rape and violence.

 

I heard a review of this one on the radio tonight. Sounds pretty good. re: Jodie Comer, she has freakish gifts, that's for sure. She is great in Killing Eve (opposite Sandra Oh). She played Rey's mother in The Rise of Skywalker, and she was in a video-game based movie (Free Guy) where she was essentially a cartoon character. . .




and indeed. . . quite a credible cartoon character.

 

The Virgin Suicides (1999)- Directed by Sofia Coppola, after a book of the same name by Jeffrey Eugenides. Kathleen Turner, James Woods (pre-Trump era) and the always brilliant Kirsten Dunst stars as the standout Lisbon daughter, Lux. Morbid but good. Gets me eager to read the book!

 

Craig was cast as the new Bond largely based on the quality of his performance in Layer Cake.

 

I saw The Last Duel last night. I thought it was very impressively made with some terrific performances, especially from Jodie Comer and, believe it or not, Ben Affleck. One critic I like, Mark Kermode, described the film as being "less than the sum of its parts" and I think I largely agree with that-- but when I think about some of what I didn't like about the film, I can make arguments in my head for why it might have been that way on purpose. For example, early on the dialogue seemed very stilted and almost hokey -- but there's potentially a good reason for that, maybe?

Most of the discourse (take a sip of your latte) around this movie has had to do with the rape scenes, and understandably so. I will say I've never seen a movie where the depiction of the rape is as important to the plot, so it certainly doesn't seem "gratuitous"-- but then again I'm a privileged man and maybe shouldn't pass judgment on such a thing, and you likely could have found a way around lingering on the sexual violence quite as much.

At the least it's a movie that offers a LOT to talk about, which means I'll probably re-watch it someday.

(I also wonder if, like Kingdom of Heaven, there's a 3.5 hour version superior to this 2.5 hour version that we're yet to see)

 

My name is Francesco Totti .


Fabulous documentary