I was wondering about that house. They’re supposed to be relatively prosperous, what with the farming, bourbon still and other business but the house looked nice even for 2021.
Watched Unforgiven for about the 100th time. Couple things really bother me.
-
Clint wakes up after nearly snuffin it, and is sitting outside the barn in about 3" of snow.. He is talking to the blond girl about his wife. Next scene, bright, sunny and dry. Not a single snowflake to be seen. Where did all the snow go in maybe a day or two? Then, when Clint is collecting the money, no snow on the mountains in the background. I know how snow works. And that’s not how snow works!
-
Silky Alice tells the blonde girl that Clint “ain’t got no wife. Not at least above ground”. How the hell does she know anything about him???
And another thing: They appear to be hiding out from the posse within sight of the town!
Oh well.
I have this sense that there may have been talk, or at least opportunity for talk whether on screen or not, between organ Freeman, the kid, and various…working women. As they came to…know… each other.
(In regards to Blade Runner 2049)
Interesting, I just saw an article a couple of days ago that said the music theme playing as K aka Joe (Gosling’s character) lay down to die was taken from the analogous scene in the original when Roy Batty reached the end of his life “…time to die.”
One of the best features of 2049 was in my opinion the soundtrack. Hans Zimmerman did a great job with music that complimented and paid homage to the original without sounding too obviously derivative. And there’s lots of original stuff. The revving motorcycle sounds in the “Flight to LAPD” stand out particularly in my memory.
Blade Runner Shorts
Just last week I finally learned of the existence of a number of short movies from the Blade Runner universe, and many of them are found on YouTube. (Thanks, YT, for taking 4 years to tell me about these vital 2017 videos.) Three of them were officially…commissioned? Or produced, by Warner Bros. One is an Anime, and two are live action. All 3 help fill in the story line, illustrating major events between 2019 and 2049.
Hobbit Movies vs LOTR
My feelings about the hobbit movies went from “YEAAAHHH!” upon viewing the first one, then “Oh no…” for the second, and “Meh” having seen the third. Generally I leave these movies on the shelf, compared to multiple revisits of the LOTR (extended editions, of course). Maybe it’s time for a fan edit? OK, yes, that’s exactly what I was going to recommend. I found that
The Hobbit: The Bilbo Edition (look it up)
…gives us a high quality rendering of the story, leaving out almost all the unwanted / unneeded stuff and focusing mainly on Bilbo, as in the original book. So you are left with one long movie, about the equivalent of two movies. Gone are the subplots involving the made-up elf Tauriel, most of Legolas’s wild stunts and the cartoonish stunts inside the mountain as the dwarves started up the furnace and did other ridiculous things not covered in the book. MUCH better.
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I saw all 3 of the Swedish movies, and the one “American” version starring Daniel Craig as Mikael. Actually, I liked Craig’s Mikael better; there’s something disarming and fascinating about him. However, I kind of melt when Noomi Rapace is onscreen. Overall I much prefer the Swedish movies because she is in them.
Not sure what it’s like in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, but here in the Midwest 3 inches of snow can appear and disappear in a day or so easily in fall or spring.
I got a friend in Wyoming. He doesn’t have a snowblower. He doesn’t have a snowplow. He has a Bulldozer. 
Weather changes rapidly in the mountains. So I guess the snow melt it’s plausible. You can rest easier now for the 101st viewing.
I’m kinda over it, actually. But if you take a shot at me, I’m gonna…
Porn title!
My latest five:
The Godfather
Watched this Mafia classic with my youngest son, 18, with him seeing it for the first time. Still deservedly a classic; Al Pacino is terrific as the dutiful son and WWII Marine hero who turns into a monster.
Paper Moon
Long a favorite comedy of mine. Understatedly funny, with a terrific cast, gorgeous B&W cinematography out on the American Plains, and a great story.
Infernal Affairs
This Hong Kong cop thriller was remade by Martin Scorsese as The Departed. He did it better. The HK original is marred by bad acting and awkward directing.
Moonraker
Clearly the silliest and most farfetched James Bond movie ever. What can I say? It’s a guilty pleasure; I loved it as a sf-mad kid and it actually still is pretty fun. The speedboat chase on the Amazon is maybe the best 007 waterborne action sequence ever.
Limitless
Still on my short list of the best movies of this century - a clever, well-crafted, genre-savvy thriller about a pill that can unlock your brain’s full potential (but of course there’s a catch). Bradley Cooper is terrific in the lead role, and Robert De Niro steals all his scenes as a hard-nosed Wall Street tycoon.
I remember my father renting this back in the day (circa 1987) and watching it with him. He hated it. Didn’t understand anything. To this day he maintains it as “the worst movie I ever saw.” Being just 10 at the time it didn’t make any more sense to me than it did to him, but rewatching it as an adult I really enjoyed it. It’s not the greatest movie ever made by any stretch, but it was highly entertaining and they certainly got the most out of whatever tiny budget they had to work with.
It’s got an awesome punk-rock sensibility throughout and punk references my father would never have gotten, like when Emilio starts singing a verse from Black Flag’s “TV Party.” To my father, and likely most people not familiar with Black Flag’s music, it was just nonsensical dialogue.
For what it’s worth, Ebert loved it.
He did and the truth is, he’s quite right that at least this movie isn’t total trash and just the same thing put out over and over again. It is small, but inventive and fresh. I didn’t love it, but if I was Roger watching tons of “same” movies, this would be very refreshing.
Just kinda watched Indiana Jones and the Most Ridiculous Bunch of Crap (Crystal Skull).
What the hell? Who is responsible?
I don’t even want to acknowledge this as an Indy movie. It needs to be eradicated from existence. Bad movie! Bad!
I can overlook the infamous refrigerator scene. I can overlook the fact that it had to do with aliens.
I can’t overlook that half the movie was a boring, tedious, low-stakes McGuffin chase and that the ending made no friggin sense whatsoever.
My God that movie was a complete mess, from title to credits. My head is throbbing right now.
I thought Shia LaBeouf was particularly annoying.
U-571 came on right after, and because Inertia, sat through that crap, too. What a stupid, silly movie. Bill Pullman got lucky and got killed off half-way into it. Bring on every single submarine movie trope. And then stretch it out, over and over.
Utter UnderSea Garbage.
FWIW, the Brits didn’t like the movie much either: U-571 (film) - Wikipedia
The Tomorrow War
A new offering on Amazon Prime. A really crappy time-travel-alien-invasion flick starring Chris Pratt, J.K. Simmons, and the actress that plays Serena Joy on The Handmaid’s Tale. Totally implausible, badly plotted, reasonably acted, and about 50 minutes too long.
I availed myself of amazon prime. I took advantage of what was free to me, didn’t pay extra. I watched…
- No Men Beyond this Point. Gist: What if women started having children without needing men to provide the sperm etc.? Enjoyable, I would recommend while realizing some will raise arguments about its flaws.
- Black Swan. I’m not a fan of ballet or anybody acting in this movie particularly. Still, it’s rated 8.0 of 10 on imdb, dayum! So I watched.
Perhaps the director has to one-up other works to prove that yes, the “world” is brutal etc. I use quotes because I was kind of comparing it to the film Whiplash which was about music instead—but it could be a sport or anything at all. At the top of the ladder, what’s the pressure like?
I soldiered on and got through it. The ending was better than I expected overall, I wouldn’t recommend it to others.
- Good Luck Chuck. I got maybe 30 minutes in and abandoned it. I didn’t think it was all that funny.
Gaia. Not seen, watching. Right now. Five minutes in and already I can tell it’s gonna be an idiot plot.