She has a larger role in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.
Unsurprisingly.
Watched Palm Springs and enjoyed it. Not much to add on what’s already been said, other than that I liked that Samberg’s character was already umpteen iterations into the time loop when we first see him.
Mile 22. Just watch it already.
I watched seven war movies on TCM’s Memorial Weekend Marathon. Had a lot of fun relaxing on the sofa this weekend. Finally saw Clint Eastwood in Where Eagles Dare and Clark Gable in Run Silent Run Deep. I won’t bore you with the full list.
Battleground (1949) is about the 101st Airborne’s defense of Bastogne. I found it very similar to Band of Brothers that was made over 40 years later.
I’ve read that Stephen E. Ambrose has been accused of plagiarism. I’m not familiar with any accusations about Band of Brothers.
Here’s similarities I noticed in Battleground.
1.Battleground-the squad is relaxing and awaiting a trip to Paris the next day. Band - they’re in a movie theater when urgent orders send them to defend Bastonge.
2.both films include a pretty girl in Bastogne that interests the lonely soldiers. She dies in a bombing in both films.
3.both films feature shocked army troops retreating as the 101st enters Bastogne.
4.the characters and battle scenes are similar.
Band does cover the entire war experience of the 101st. Battleground only covers them in Bastogne.
I enjoyed Battleground . The characters are very realistic. Wikipedia says 20 WWII veterans from the 101st assisted in making the film realistic. Their memories of being in the service were still fresh.
In fairness, Ambrose may have interviewed some of the same Vets that helped make Battlefield in 1949. They may have told Ambrose similar war stories decades later.
But, he still should have acknowledged this other film.
Over the weekend we re-watched the musical version of Les Miserables, which – hard to believe – is almost a decade old. Still love it.
I also finally caught Wonder Woman 1984, which wasn’t quite as bad as our friends made it out to be. I was never a fan o The Cheetah, though. Her costume always seemed unbelievably dumb*. The director must have thought so, too, because when Kristen Wiig is in full Cheetah mode at the end she’s barely visible in the rain and dark, and you only get brief glimpses of her.
Although afterwards I watched the YouTube “Pitch Meeting” and “How it Should have Ended”, which hilariously pointed out the flaws in the plots.
*I don’t know exactly why I find the Cheetah’s leopard-print costume so absurd, when I’m perfectly willing to watch supposed grown-ups dressed as a Bat or a Tick or a Moth, and Catwoman never bothered me, nor Black Panther. Maybe it’s the tackiness of the leopard print. But the costume always looked unbelievably stupid, even when it was supposed to be sexy. Carrie Kelly dressed in leopard print in The Dark Knight Strikes Again didn’t move me, either.
Lassie Come Home with Roddy McDowall and Liz Taylor. Taylor was 10 years old. She made National Velvet a couple years later.
It was on TCM last night. I have always wanted to see it. Great kids movie. Lassie gets sold to a rich guy and relocated to Scotland. She escapes and journeys back to Roddy M in Yorkshire. They give Lassie several interesting adventures during the walk home.
A minor quibble. It’s obvious the dog has been trained to approach an actor, lie down, and stay in one place. It’s a bit odd when Roddy is sobbing Oh Lassie I Love You So Much! The dog is looking off camera at its trainer. There’s no connection between the actor and dog.
That’s true of most films with trained animals. Kids usually don’t notice that stuff. I didn’t at that age.
My latest five:
A Beautiful Planet
IMAX movie filmed in space by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, including Terry Virts, whose very good book How to Astronaut I recently read. Stunning orbital footage and an important message about human-driven environmental threats to the only planet we can all live on.
Hearts of Darkness
Interesting, harrowing, sometimes funny documentary about the filming of Apocalypse Now, drawing heavily on behind-the-scenes footage shot at the time by director Francis Ford Coppola’s wife Eleanor. Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong during the very long shoot in the Philippines. As Coppola later said at the Cannes Film Festival, much like the U.S. military during the Vietnam War itself, “We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.”
What’s Up, Doc?
One of my favorite slapstick comedies, just as good as ever. Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal and Madeline Kahn are all outstanding. The climactic car chase is particularly funny.
Zulu
Epic British war movie about the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879. A bit dated now, and clearly no one is actually getting hurt in the combat scenes, but it’s worth a look. Michael Caine is pretty good as a haughty young infantry officer.
Doctor No
The first James Bond movie starring Sean Connery. 007 investigates the disappearances of two MI6 agents in Jamaica and discovers a fiendish plot against the US space program. Not a bad spy movie, all in all, but rather quaint now.
Breach *ing Bruce Willis. What a mindless mf monstrosity. It’s clear Willis desperately needs the money. I propose we start a fund for him with the condition that he stay tf away from movies like this, and preferably give up acting altogether. He’s clearly far past his prime.
All media containing this movie should be hefted into orbit around the nearest black hole, preferably into the heart of the accretion disk.
Heading out to Kroger later today to buy antiseptic eyewash.
LOL I had a dog like that.
I talked my wife into watching A Quiet Place, which I had seen quite awhile ago. She’s not much for horror movies, but I told her that it was more of a thriller and a cut above the usual slasher flicks. She liked it.
I just finished re-watching this as well. It holds up rather well despite its age. The film bears a lot more resemblance to the original novel than most of the subsequent films by even including parts that make no sense in the context of the movie but are explained in the original book. This was also the first time watching it after having learned how they did some, for lack of a better term, hidden effects shots which made it a more enjoyable viewing experience.
//i\\
I just sat through 88 minutes of torture: You Can’t Kill Stephen King. It was a parody that wasn’t funny. Or, maybe it was an homage that had no respect for the source material. Or, maybe it was a standard teen-sex-slasher film that somehow dragged King into its accretion disk. He should sue, although he probably liked it.
The girls were pretty. The acting was not totally abysmal. Subtle as a shotgun blast to the face.
IMDb gives it 3.7; they’re generous by at least 3 points.
You can’t skip it hard enough.
Oxygen
This is a French film made by Netflix, but it contains an English audio track and also English subtitles. A woman wakes up in a pod of sorts and attempts to figure out how she got there and how to get out. All she has to interact with is the computer program monitoring her health.
This is a claustrophobic movie and it is very well made. Did not make a huge impact on me, but it is very well made and streams on Netflix, which means I already had access to it. One of the better “Netflix movies” I’ve seen and a whole heck of a lot better than Army of the Dead.
I’m going to follow your advice.
Eat Wheaties! (Netflix) Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep) stars as a schlub. Socially inept, all his coworkers hate him, but he is clueless and doesn’t realize it. His complete unawareness of how Facebook works causes him to spiral from one Job-like humiliation to another (involving a restraining order from Elizabeth Banks’ agent) until a bounce-back happy ending.
I think it was billed as a feel-good comedy, but I didn’t laugh and don’t feel good. The cast is almost all TV-level names: whatshername from Scrubs, that guy from Schitt’s Creek, and that guy from that sitcom that we watched but got cancelled quickly. And Alan Tudyk, who I always think of as Pirate Steve from Dodgeball. Which actually was funny - I should’ve just watched it again. But it was my wife’s turn to pick the movie … she’s lost her remote privileges.
Just saw Reign of Fire with Christian Bale. What a bleak, flaming turd.
Just watched Crank (2006) and Crank: High Voltage (2009). Unreleting chaos. Abundant gore. Complete disregard for decency. Gratuitous nudity. Drug use. Foul language. Completely trashy. Racist. Sexist. Misogynist. A plot so ridiculous it’s surreal. But Jason Statham holds these beasts together with deadpan humor and sheer charisma.
The first movie was at least a little conventional if irreverent. But the second one tosses all sense and sensibility out the window. Its nearly 2 hours of non-stop mayhem. Entertaining af. A must-watch if ye have strong stomachs.
Just watched the 2000 Hamlet with Ethan Hawke, set in New York. Kind of weird, but enjoyable, and short. (They cut the "alas poor Yorick scene.) Cameo by Paley Park, my favorite NY mini-park.