# Movies you've seen recently (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 29, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906 "2014-09-29T21:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 48
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ecks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/945 "2019-01-28T01:54:21Z")
Just watched the Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix . I liked it. The best part was the twist ending. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/946 "2019-01-28T15:22:43Z")
My latest five: _Midnight Run_ My second time seeing this 1988 road movie. Violent, coarse, lots of laughs, lots of fun. Robert De Niro plays a tough-as-nails bounty hunter and Charles Grodin is a nebbishy Mob accountant he has to take from NYC to LA, no matter how much they get on each other’s nerves. Both are great in their roles. _Heaven Can Wait_ A favorite of mine, a tragicomic love story with a supernatural angle. A pro quarterback, likely bound for the Super Bowl, is taken to Heaven too soon when an angel assumes he’ll be killed in a car accident. Then the angel and his supervisor have to fix things, and zany hijinks ensue. A fine cast led by Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and James Mason, in a movie that really sticks with you. _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_ B&W Western starring Jimmy Stewart as an idealistic lawyer, John Wayne as a much more cynical rancher, and James Coburn as the local bad guy. OK, but didn’t live up to the reviews, I thought. _All the President’s Men_ Introduced my youngest son to this Watergate drama, a classic tale of plucky journalism and political corruption. Really holds up well, and its themes are still unfortunately all too timely. _The Guilty_ Tense, moody, gripping Danish thriller about a Copenhagen cop, unwillingly assigned to an emergency-dispatch call center, who is drawn deeper and deeper into a kidnapping case. Shortlisted for the 2018 Best Foreign Film Oscar, and soon to be remade with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role. Despite some plot holes, highly recommended, as **JcWoman** noted above. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/947 "2019-01-28T15:26:45Z")
_Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse_ was an amazing film in every aspect - good story, music, acting, and very innovative visuals. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/948 "2019-01-28T15:52:02Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “Spider-Man : Into the Spider-Verse” was stunningly good - easily the best animated feature of 2018, and by far the best superhero movie in years. Marvelously original. Yeah, I just saw this movie last week and I loved it. Without a doubt the best animated thing to have the Marvel name on it in years. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/949 "2019-01-28T16:21:24Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ecks](#): > > Just watched the Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix . I liked it. The best part was the twist ending. Just watched this last night. Enjoyed it. Whether he was a novice ‘visionary’ with Pollyanna naivete or just a scam artist, it was amazing to see how many people stayed with him while ignoring the blatantly obvious logistical problems of the festival. And how the stuck with him after they could no longer ignore them. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/950 "2019-01-28T18:17:24Z")
**Train to Busan** - a Korean zombie movie that takes place largely on a train and at a couple of train stations. Pretty fun zombie flick. The main characters include a father and his young (7-ish?) daughter, and a pregnant woman and her husband. Their characters and a few others are sketched in a bit before the action begins, so you have some emotional investment in what happens. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/951 "2019-01-28T19:05:02Z")
_The House of the Arrows_ - 1953 Obscure Brit whodunit relying heavily for its entertainment value on Oscar Homolka (and his big eyebrows) atypically cast in the lead as a French detective. He was excellent, Yvonne Furneaux was gorgeous, some of the lighting was nice (though it was not a good print) and the story was lame, convoluted and predictable. _Der Herr der Welt_ (_Master of the World_) - 1934 From IMDB: “A German scientist designs and builds a machine that will do dangerous work instead of placing humans in jeopardy. But the machine itself turns out to have disastrous effects on the people involved.” I watched about half of this while sick. It was slow and kinda dull, and perhaps one day I will watch the rest. In the meantime, a clip (in German) will suffice to explain why I even bothered: > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_ …and James Coburn as the local bad guy That is a very odd way of spelling Lee Marvin. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/952 "2019-01-28T21:36:27Z")
**Dead Pool 2**. Very funny, but the jokes came so fast, I think I missed half of them. One that made me laugh out loud was when Bedlam joins X-Force, he says his powers can cause “anxiety, confusion, pain.” Deadpool replies, “So, basically, you’re Dave Matthews.” I’m a rabid DMB hater, so this really tickled me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/953 "2019-01-29T16:14:08Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > …That is a very odd way of spelling Lee Marvin. D’oh! Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/954 "2019-01-31T23:02:46Z")
Lots of catching up to do since my last post. Ratings are 0-4 stars. **The Favourite** \*\*\* Pretty entertaining - loved Olivia Colman’s performance as Queen Anne - but the movie really fizzled out in the last act. **Leave No Trace** \*\*\*\* Extremely well-acted, gripping, excellent subject matter. **Wild** \*\* Reese Witherspoon hiking. Not at all what I expected, not at all as good as I had hoped for. **Black Panther** \*\*1/2 I’m not a superhero movie guy. Not too bad, as those go. **First Reformed** \*\*1/2 Ethane Hawke is believable as a small town preach, but jumped the rails a bit at the conclusion. **Beautiful Boy** \*\*1/2 Competent but predictable. Could have/should have been more memorable. **Roma** \*\*\*\* Pretty perfect. Best movie I’ve seen this year. **Crazy Rich Asians** \*\* Too much unfunny silliness. Overrated. **BlacKKKlansman** \*\*\*1/2 Very engaging, realistic. **Three Identical Strangers** \*\*\* Documentary with an uncomfortable revelation. **Green Book** \*\*\* Pretty standard Hollywood fare, but entertaining and well done. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/955 "2019-02-03T04:34:04Z")
Also just watched **Three Identical Strangers**. Very interesting and troubling. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/956 "2019-02-03T13:27:53Z")
Watched [_Leave No Trace_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3892172/) which has been recommended up thread. A father and daughter live in Forest Park in Portland. (Forest Park is really, really big and … well, forested, for an urban park.) Fairly interesting but not a “wow” for me. The father actor Ben Foster looks familiar to me. I guess from _Six Feet Under_ and _My Name is Earl_. He could easily play Aaron Paul’s brother in something. The daughter, Thomasin McKenzie, did a particularly good job. Has a decent list of credits already. The actress who plays the nice older lady in the last part was really familiar. Character name “Dale”. Hmm, I thought. Didn’t she already play a character by that name? Also on _My Name is Earl_? No, her real name is Dale Dickey. Patty on _Earl_. A couple of _Portlandia_ folk on it such as the social worker. Figures. Of course there’s some stuff that doesn’t play right. E.g., Portland has an immense homeless problem. They might roust some people out of a place but they won’t spend much time and resources on helping just the two of them. I don’t get the route they take from Forest Park to OHSU. They cross the river on the St. Johns bridge. Somehow get to southside of downtown back across the river. Then take the tramway up to OHSU. And back the same route. Since they are both on the same side of the river and in the hills why cross it at all? Similarly they magically cross into Washington near Portland without crossing the Columbia. (They certainly didn’t travel to NE Oregon to cross the border east of Walla Walla.) Give it 3 tarps. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/957 "2019-02-03T16:45:12Z")
_North By Northwest_ - Hitchcock Classic! I think not. :mad: Watched this the other day. This movie doesn’t deserve a new thread, so I’ll post in this one. What a turd. Silly movie, made no sense, bad effects even for a movie of that era. I won’t even bother with the whole “Mt. Rushmore” nonsense. Chased by a crop-duster? Not scary. Just hide by the road sign. Pilot would have to crash to get you (which he did, eventually, in a real bad way). How did James Mason’s flunky crew even single-out Thornhill in the first place? _Not_ impressed. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/958 "2019-02-03T16:47:50Z")
**First Man** (on Amazon). It’s like director Damien Chazelle wanted to make an anti-Apollo 13, with no heroes, no cheering moments and no soaring score. Neil Armstrong is an autistic savant (Rain Man in Space), Buzz Aldrin is a bit of a dick, and space travel is noisy, cramped, violent and dangerous. For most of the film we only see what Armstrong sees – extreme closeups of dials and switches and a tiny view out the window (it opens up a bit when he actually goes to the moon.) Armstrong never expresses a single emotion (with one exception) or introspective moment. With Claire Foy as his long-suffering wife. It’s hard to like a film when the director dislikes his subject so much. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/959 "2019-02-04T15:30:51Z")
**If Beale Street Could Talk** , based on James Baldwin’s work. Some good acting going on, but this film needed better editing to lose about a half an hour of its 2 hour run time. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/960 "2019-02-04T18:33:38Z")
In the theater in the last 3 weeks (ranked in order of preference) RBG (Cohen/West) DESTROYER (Kusama) STAN & OLLIE (Baird) CAPERNAUM (Labaki - Lebanon) AQUAMAN (Wan) VICE (McKay) ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/961 "2019-02-04T20:18:29Z")
Lee Chang-dong’s **Burning**. Just WOW! ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/962 "2019-02-04T20:59:42Z")
**Can You Ever Forgive Me** - True life tale of writer Lee Israel, down on her luck she begins forging letters from past literary figures to sell as authentic. Eventually caught. I was interested in seeing this because of the Oscar attention for Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant. To me, it’s a small movie, faithfully rendered, and of the 1980’s New York milieu. McCarthy plays it straight, and unkempt. Grant is just colorful enough to sell it as an aging charming ne’er-do-well. Both characters are gay, which is not up front, but succeeds in the story as just being part of their lives. I get the Oscar nominations, and other award attention, but I could just as easily have seen this piece slip under the radar. Dozens of equally compelling movies got passed over. Perhaps because of the NYC / literary world it drew more attention from the folks that write about movies? D’know. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/963 "2019-02-04T21:02:29Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > _North By Northwest_Chased by a crop-duster? Not scary. Why would you think this was supposed to be scary? Suspenseful, perhaps. And hide by the road sign? [Um, no.](https://queensfilmtheatre.com/download/images/nxnwmain.jpg)There is literally no place to hide in that huge expanse of open field. And what do you mean, it made no sense? _Kiss Me Deadly_ - Good noir. Weird heavy breathing in the first scene, but I liked it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/964 "2019-02-04T21:34:42Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > **If Beale Street Could Talk** , based on James Baldwin’s work. Some good acting going on, but this film needed better editing to lose about a half an hour of its 2 hour run time. Unfortunately longer run times are taking over, esp. for the lesser/indie type films that expect most people will stream online. No need to cram 3 shows into one evening so go long because … ? Yeah, too many of the films I’ve watched that last few years are too long for no good reason. Pare those films down, folks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=47) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=49)