My wife and I watch a lot of movies. We have several watching venues - on demand, stick, netflix, etc. so it’s unusual that there is a film I haven’t at least heard of.
Yesterday I was scrolling through options and saw Shot Caller. The name didn’t really grab me, nor did the info blurb. Looked liked it might be a B movie.
RTs gave it 63% with only about 20 reviews and it only made about 3 million box office.
But I LOVED it. Great story (twists), great acting, beautifully filmed and the soundtrack was very appropriate. It reminded me of a Michael Mann movie.
I don’t know what happened, but this movie is highly under appreciated. Don’t know how I’ve missed it.
After seeing Doctor Sleep, I realized I wanted to see all of Mike Flanagan’s work. When I saw Oculus I thought it was a great film despite it having unremarkable critic ratings.
It almost escaped me, but I am a sucker for prison movies. But that main guy - he’d already conquered the business world and the family world, he was totally spiked on adrenaline and wanted to become top dog. If that means he had to stay in prison and reject his family, so be it. Lol. I can’t really see it any other way. He did NOT have to shank that guy in the yard. That was just crazy, right?
The problem with Oculus is that it starts really strong, with great ideas but fades away into nothing much at all. I do recommend it to people as a good horror, but the second half is not anything like as good as the first.
This is not exactly on topic. But I’d like to recommend some movies that are not at all well known but I found extremely enjoyable. If you like these, just let me know and I’ll post more:
Blow 2001
Charley Varrick 1973
Rising Sun 1993
The Naked City 1948
If you like prison movies and have never seen Blow (2001), you might enjoy it. Only a small part of it is spent in prison. But it is a truly enjoyable movie - albeit a little graphic in its violence.
The best prison film I’ve ever seen - strangely enough - is from the 1950s and it’s in B&W - it’s about women in prison.
Back in late 2000 my best friend invited me over to watch The Matrix. What’s that, I said. He just looked at me in astonsishment.
I am a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan. I read a lot and watch a lot of movies and TV shows. Yet somehow I had no idea what The Matrix was or that it existed at all.
Needless to say I was completely blown away!
A New Leaf, with Walter Matthau and director Elaine May. I’d never heard of it and, according to what’s online, I’m not the only one, although the film did well upon release in 1971. Some of you probably know about May’s career. I didn’t, but I did remember being impressed by the wit in her (adapted) screenplay of The Birdcage. This film is her directorial debut in 1971 and reportedly ran way over budget, was taken away from her and ultimately edited down to 102 minutes from three hours. With all this in mind, I watched it last night and found it to be fun and entertaining, although the characters are a little irritating. Matthau’s is jerkish right up to the end (damned creepy if you ask me) and May’s seems to be little more than a prop for most of the film. But this portrayal, rather than being a screwed-up view of old times or an old view of screwed-up times, is part of the movie’s charm, in my opinion. They’re shown to be oddballs for sure, and not always in a fun way (dysfunctional and woefully immature), so when you see them moving toward each other it seems a little trite. And when you notice details that are intended to show how well they complement each other, at that point you’ll either be drawn into the film or find it annoying. Like it or not, by the end, you have to say, “That was different.” Pretty good, overall, IMO.
Good Will Hunting. Saw it over the summer. In my defense wife and I were a little busy year it came out with birth of majority of our kids. Undermining that defense it was said kids who were shocked we hadn’t seen it and made us watch it.
Bohemian Rhapsody. Great movie about Freddy Mercury and Queen. Saw it just a few nights ago. Beware though, it will take a few days to get the sound track out of your head.
Many fascinating things about Freddy and the band.
I missed Memento during it’s initial release. It was only many years later when a friend raved about it that I finally caught it and it became one of my top 10 films.
Following, the first feature by Christopher Nolan. he has made so many good to great films subsequently that this one has gotten ignored. it has some of the best plotting I have ever seen in a film. I liked it better than Memento, his second feature film, which got far more buzz. (I saw this during a Christopher Nolan series that showed all his movie except Batman Begins.)
recently I saw the director’s cut of *Léon: The Professional *. I don’t know about the other cut of the film but this one had perfect pacing throughout, good characters. I felt that more people should know more about it. perhaps if this, the director’s cut, had gotten more attention.
I like horror movies so I will suggest a couple:
The Mechanist and Vanishing on 7th Street… good, unpretentious B movies that play out like feature length versions of Twilight Zone episodes. I think that the second one got ignored because it has such a meh title that made it sound like a mystery story, not horror. these fall into the suggestive horror category, not showcases for blood and gore. they have a low-key creepy vibe.
also, Pontypool, which I suggest watching without getting spoiled on anything, which an out-there central concept, and A Dark Song, which I found a big overlong and not quite a horror film but worth a watch.
I would like to suggest an sf movie that I saw but blanking on the name.
