Up next: 5 Flights Up. With Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton.
This is just a really nice movie.
Simple movie, simple review. If you want to know about the plot or who else is in it, follow the link.
A good movie to watch at home on a Saturday night with a loved one.
I do not believe that “people like me” constitutes enough of a demographic to keep a parakeet in sunflower seeds.
I’ve recently seen:
The Matrix
Watched it again with my teenage son, who’d never seen it. It held up pretty well - a nifty premise, good-looking cast, great action scenes, goofy/portentous dialogue, style to burn and still-impressive sfx.
Mr. Holmes
Ian McKellen is wonderful as the elderly Sherlock Holmes, retired to beekeeping on the Sussex coast in 1947 and troubled by both his last case and his failing memory.
Minions
Good silly fun, with a ridiculous plot mainly set in London. If you like the Despicable Me movies, you’ll like this.
Bowfinger
Having long heard good things about this Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy sendup of B-movies and talentless people on the Hollywood fringes, I was a little disappointed. It had its moments but not enough to really grab me.
Forbidden Films
A pretty good German documentary about the 40-some Nazi-era films that are still banned from public showings there. The movie includes excerpts from many of them - anti-Semitic, anti-British, anti-Russian and anti-Polish movies, but also innocuous song-and-dance films, an exuberantly over-the-top Luftwaffe adventure, Stuka, and a cast-of-thousands Napoleonic epic released in 1945, just months before V-E Day. The documentary includes several interesting interviews with German film experts and historians, discussing free speech, democracy, the enduring evil these films represent, and the harm they might yet inflict.
Seen (and later re-watched with my wife): Leon: The Professional, a 90s fractured fairytale/action/love story (of sorts).
Never saw it when it came out, which was probably a good thing, as the initial cut of the movie was missing nearly half an hour - stuff cut for being too upsetting for audiences in screening. The missing scenes were added back in later.
I thought it was excellent - both moving and disturbing.
On the surface, it’s an action movie about an apparently unstoppable hitman. Nothing about his actions are in the slightest realistic, which doesn’t detract from the movie - it isn’t intended to be; this is more like a fairy-tale than a police procedural. He kills gangsters at the order of his boss, disappearling like a ghost.
However, we soon discover that this hitman is a lonely and broken fellow, living a crappy life in a run-down apartment - his only friend is his house-plant, his only amusement watching old movies.
The real heart of the movie is the odd relationship he strikes up with the neighbor kid, a 12 year old played by Natalie Portman. She absolutely stars in this role, the best child acting I think I’ve ever seen.
Suffice it to say her role is very disturbing. It’s a 20 year old movie, but still, maybe in spoiler:
[spoiler]She is clearly an abused child - she is beaten by her family; in one pivotal scene, the hit-man fellow hands her a hankerchief to staunch the blood dripping from her face. Her dad is a thieving drug-dealer and her step-mom is a prostitute. The only one she cares for is her little brother. They are all killed by psychotic crooked cops - her dad had ripped them off - and she is (reluctantly) saved by the hit-man.
Thereafter, she worms her way into his life, trying to convince him to teach her the hit-person skills necessary to exact bloody vengence on the murderers. He’s very reluctant to do anything of the sort - but she is plausible and manipulative. In a scene cut from the original release, she basically puts a gun to her own head and threatens to kill herself if the hitman doesn’t agree to her plan - he knocks the gun away at the last second.
Throughout she develops a crush on him, apparently the only adult ever to be nice to her - much to his discomfort - and the subtext of sexual tension between them becomes unsettlingly overt: she expressly propositions him (in a scene again cut from the original release). He turns her down. But at the same time, she becomes, basically, the centre that is lacking in his aimless, murderous life. [/spoiler]
In a lesser movie, this stuff would seem grossly exploitive. It is a tribute to the skills involved - directing and acting - that it works.
Thanks. Leon has been on my to-see-someday list for a long time.
Saw Hercules on Netflix last night. Starring the Rock and his 'Roids!
I wasn’t expecting much and it was stupid…but it was good fun. Duane Johnson can carry his lines well and has a likeable screen persona. And it was an actual movie, unlike most of the film-school drop-out dreck I see on Netflix and Hulu and Popcorn. Seriously. They all missed the classes that taught sound and lighting. (if it’s supposed to be scary dark…I should notice the long shadows on the wall)
If you do, make sure it is the so-called “international version”.
The original US cut is nearly a half-hour shorter, and the half-hour that is missing isn’t filler [the story goes that when the film was screened for test audiences, they reacted badly to the sexual innuendo - hell, not even “innuendo”, it goes beyond that - and violence being associated with a 12 year old, so some of it was cut - I haven’t actually seen the cut version, but I can’t imagine it was better as a movie. Though in discussion boards I’ve read discussing the movie, some prefer it.]
I highly recommend the movie - it’s a real classic, and it holds up well because of the quality of the acting: all three of the central character’s performances are amazing - though the guy playing the evil cop’s perfomance is over-the-top to the nth degree, it is awesome to behold - one of the creepiest, most entertaining psychos I’ve ever seen, he just exudes insanity and menace.
Will do!
Yes, one of Gary Oldman’s craziest, over-the-top roles, and that’s saying a lot. 
“You don’t like Beethoven!” 
As a side-note - last night I was watching the Lego Movie with my kid (3rd time for him, he loves it) when I saw what may be a shout-out for Leon the Professional - when Emit was in his apartment, he looks at his “instructions”, which tells him to have breakfast with his ‘loved ones’ (showing a family) - he looks around, then pulls up his house-plant, and has breakfast with that.
The plant looks like a lego version of Leon’s plant. 
It’s plausible, because the Lego Movie has literally dozens if not hundreds of shout-outs in it.
Watched The Strange Love of Martha Ivers on Netflix.
Barbara Stanwyk, Van Heflin, a very young Kirk Douglas and a smoking hot Elizabeth Scott.
It was actually quite good. Especially Van Heflin and Kirk Douglas. Great Film Noir.
After a long stretch of watching only cable TV series I just recently watched a few movies.
American Hustle-Great acting, period correct, seemed awfully long but not a problem.
Silver Linings Playbook- Cringe inducing at times but I thought the leads did a great job. Happy to see Lawrence and Cooper get together at the end. DeNiro was pretty good too.
Tig-I heard some of the set that went viral and made Tig Notaro known. I find her very funny. That’s why I watched the movie. Touching stuff. Definitely worth a watch.
Saw “Lucy.” It is one hell of a stupid movie in terms of its basic concept, and, well … everything. Still it was a fun ride. Do not let your brain inhibit your ability to enjoy this movie! Don’t let the paltry 10 percent of your brain that you use destroy your pleasure by asking such questions as, “Wasn’t the basic concept of this movie, that people only use 10 percent of their brains not only debunked many decades ago, but was never even held to be a scientific truth by actual scientists?” and “Wouldn’t a real supergenius superhuman be able to handle things a lot less violently?” and “why are Yakuza interested in this drug?” Don’t let your 10 percent brain interfere by asking these sorts of questions, just set your brain on one percent, and you’ll be fine.
I think the problem was, Luc Besson directed it, and the French have always had a problem distinguishing between SF and childish fantasies. A shame.
This week a really “deep” film. Clouds of Sils Maria with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. (The film Stewart famously won a César award for.)
Binoche is an actress preparing to play the older woman part in a play where she had the younger woman part in many years earlier. Stewart is her assistant.
Has a sort of complex plot weaving thing: There are parallels between the main movie storyline and the play Binoche is preparing for. Also some connections to real life relation between Binoche and writer/director Assayas as well as to the briefly seen author of the play.
Very dialogue heavy. Usually this works well or not at all. In this case, it started off poorly, got reasonably good after a bit, then continued to seesaw. In particular I noticed that a lot of the dialogue with Stewart didn’t click. And since she’s in a lot of the movie, oh well. I am quite surprised at the attention she received. OTOH, Binoche was tip-top as she usually is. Chloë Grace Moretz has a small role. Didn’t really wow me (like she has before) until her last scene … then big wow.
2 hours long, too many scenes ran on too long, etc. Really needed to tighten up. Not worth the slog all that much.
It also used Pachelbel’s Canon. Twice. Good grief.
BTW: In English with small bits in other languages (that were mostly background).
Jenny’s Wedding.
What a stinker! It could have been a great film with the storyline (lesbian coming out to uptight family) but it came off like some early 90s Lifetime drama. Catherine Heigl and Alexis Bledel are almost a parody of a couple. They look so uncomfortable in any intimate scene (and by intimate I mean hugs, because you don’t get much more than that from them and even that is rare) and every character and scene came off as a well-worn cliche. I can’t offer one good thing about the entire movie.
Heigl has 3 movies in a row coming out that are more-or-less direct-to-video. Home Sweet Hell which I reviewed earlier. Not a horrible movie, but definitely not good.
Jackie & Ryan, which is 62% at RT with 21 reviews. Her first non-rotten rated movie since Knocked Up. I am tempted to semi-watch it.
And then the notorious Jenny’s Wedding. Tried to do an online fund raising campaign to “finish” the film a year ago. Sat on the shelf until IFC bought it. (Why?) Token theatrical release. 1 good review out of 12 at RT. I wonder if the people who donated to the Indiegogo campaign regret donating.
Just watched Lucy. I was surprised that the middle half of the movie moved along at a nice clip. Not enough to make up for the slow beginning and end though.
As I’ve written before, I’ve seen both movies, and I think Limitless is a much smarter, more engaging take on the “You only use x% of your brain” trope. It stars Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro - highly recommended.
Recently seen:
A Lego Brickumentary
A light-hearted, entertaining documentary about Lego building blocks, from their earliest days to the present, with interesting discussion of the company’s ups and downs, testimonials from both young fans and old, and some truly amazing Lego creations, including a huge recreation of Rivendell done entirely in Lego.
Return of the Pink Panther
Hadn’t seen this 1975 comedy in years. Peter Sellers is quite good as the bumbling Insp. Clouseau but the movie just wasn’t as funny as I remember.
Megamind
Watched this superhero spoof again and enjoyed it. Great voice cast, lots of superhero in-jokes (especially about Superman) and impressive visuals.
Time Bandits
A deserved classic, about dwarves who steal a map of the universe from the Supreme Being (“You mean God?” “Well, we don’t know him that well”) in order to steal from such personages as Napoleon, Robin Hood and Agamemnon. The child star is great - I see from IMDB that this is practically his only role. The movie’s downbeat ending is still a bummer.
The Third Man
Just saw a remastered print of this British masterpiece and loved it all over again - an atmospheric B&W Cold War thriller set in still-devastated postwar Vienna. Orson Welles shamelessly steals every scene he’s in. Poking around on Wiki last night, I learned that there was a radio prequel series, also starring Welles!