Honestly, if you liked Galaxy Quest and liked Never Surrender and also liked Star Trek, I recommend watching the 1997 documentary Trekkies, about Star Trek fans. It’s been a long time since I saw it, but it’s really good. (There is also a 2004 sequel, Trekkies 2.)
Yes, definitely recommended.
Credit where credit is due, however; it’s been mentioned at least three previous times in this thread (by @icon, @Elendil_s_Heir, and @Dewey_Finn), which is where I heard of it.
Croupier on Netflix, with Clive Owen. Not bad, although I’m not sure I understood the end scenes. Nice to see Alex Kingston nekkid, though.
Prisoners of the Ghostland - rentable everywhere
Mandy was just such a great movie, Nic Cage can not beat it no matter how many great directors he finds to work with. I did like Pig with Cage earlier this year, but this movie is much more surreal and wild and is at least broadly similar to Mandy.
Unfortunately, it’s only got about 45 minutes of steam in it before it kind of runs out. I really loved the surreal alternative world this movie takes place in, but the “mission” of the movie is more or less accomplished within the first hour of the movie and the second phase of the movie is a lot less interesting
This is definitely in the “Nic Cage is trying” group of movies like Pig, Mandy, and Color Out of Space, but it is well behind Pig and Mandy in terms of recent output.
Not bad, quite surreal, but not quite a whole film.
Old
M. Night Shyamalan is always a massive risk. Is he going to release an amazing movie like Split or The Sixth Sense? Is he going to release a totally terrible movie like The Happening or The Last Airbender?
No one ever knows.
Old, I am happy to report, is actually a pretty good movie. It’s certainly not outrageously amazing, but it is not a disaster. In fact, I would say it was quite well done and I liked the movie very much. I was really pulled in and any “twist” in this movie was not the type of thing that massively changes the movie. Night loves his twists and he is very reserved in this movie compared to some of his other films.
I think the best way to see this movie is to go in 100% blind. I saw the trailer a few months ago and I really wish I hadn’t. Just know the title is “Old” and go in ready to see it entirely blind.
I do notice an awkwardness in line delivery with M. Night Shyamalan and this movie has moments of it. Most things seem fine, but you will definitely “see the script” at certain moments when people say certain very awkward lines. There are young children in this movie and early on, their lines were almost cringe-worthy.
Anyway, I would actually recommend this movie. It’s well done, pretty interesting, and you can go in no stupid twist is going to come along and retroactively ruin the entire preceding movie.
Watching the end of The Misfits (don’t judge me, I have my reasons) and Clark Gable is using binoculars upside down.
I guess it doesn’t matter, but it sure looks stupid.
Electric Mist is as watchable as almost anything with Tommy Lee Jones.
The Courier with Benedict Cumberbatch is fair to middlin’.
I’m struggling to finish “November Man” with an aging Pierce Brosnan as the hero. I’m a stickler for weapons handling and early on in the movie Brosnan is blazing away and then attempting to continue shooting his semi-auto pistol with the slide locked back. Nice editing, dipshits.
It’s A Disaster (2012, Hulu) a dark comedy about an awkward Sunday brunch with 4 couples. David Cross has been invited to it for his third date with Julia Styles. Things start uncomfortable, get bizarre, and when something horrible happens no one can leave.
It was good, a solid B effort. While I agree with David Cross’ politics he is not funny and his sanctimony bothers the hell out of me, but here he plays it straight and is a convincing and sympathetic regular guy in a tough spot. If you also don’t like him, I get it, but think Will Farrell in Stranger Than Fiction or Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, it’s like that. Juli Styles is fine. America Farrera is good. The supporting cast you’ve never heard of but do a solid job. My wife and I chuckled a few times, and we were entertained throughout.
I saw Shang-Chi today. I was literally the only person in the theater.
Good solid MCU movie. Interesting lead character with a good story arc, interesting supporting characters, a multi-dimensional villain. The plot worked for a solo movie but it also tied this movie in with the MCU timeline. The various scenes that made up the movie - character development, exposition, fight scenes, callbacks to past movies, foreshadows of future movies, comic relief - all worked together.
My latest five:
Trading Places
Long a favorite comedy of mine, with Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis and a helluva supporting cast. An artifact of the Reagan Eighties to some extent, but still very funny.
The Hidden
One of the best sf B-movies ever, in my book, with an LA homicide cop and an FBI agent (or is he?) hunting down a violent, thrill-seeking alien criminal who can change bodies at will. Farfetched, violent and often surprisingly funny.
Pale Flower
A 1964 Japanese noir film about a Yakuza badass just released from prison on a murder rap who falls for a beautiful, dissolute young gambler with more money than sense. It’s got style to burn, but really not much of a story, and the ending just sort of peters out.
Wonder Woman
Takes some liberties with World War I history, to put it mildly, but not a bad DC superhero movie. Israeli actress Gal Gadot is convincing, dominant and beautiful in the lead role.
The Birdcage
Hadn’t seen this 1996 comedy with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest since it first came out. As funny as I remembered, with an understated but still-important message about love, loyalty and acceptance.
Made in Denmark, 2020. Good flick.
We watched it with English dubbing, which I don’t recommend. My advice is to choose Danish language and display English subtitles (assuming you don’t understand Danish).
Although this version of the film (and I guess ultimately the play) is fine, I much prefer the original Franco-Italian 1978 version. To me the remake feels more like a plot forced into a particular setting while the original feels more natural. Akin to the how the 2004 Shall We Dance? is just trying to force the 1996 film Shall we ダンス? into a context that does not fit. Not quite as bad as that one of course but I got a bit of the same feeling.
//i\\
Does this symbol mean something?
Nope, it is just an i between slashes that I use/have used as a signature when I use icon as username. Nothing special about it, though because of the use of two backslashes discourse makes the final one disappear so I use the <pre> tags to ensure it is displayed.
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Last night I watched Kate on Netflix. The plot is pretty recognizable: (female) assassin must find out who poisoned her while taking care of a child who she orphaned (so really similar to Gunpowder Milkshake). Very pretty film and some great action parts but it wouldn’t be memorable…except the assassin is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and my opinion she is AMAZING in this film. She fights believably for a slender woman against groups and really sells the tiredness and rage. Hard to keep my eyes off of the screen when she’s acting. Highly recommended. She was dynamite in a kiddie pool.
She was terrific in Fargo a few years ago, too.
From what I’ve seen she’s consistently good, yet not at all big name. Hard to understand.
She’s also great in 10 Cloverfield, and in Scott Pilgrim.
Just saw Cry Macho.
Some good scenery. But the plot is slow. And that kid is a terrible actor.