Movies you've seen recently (Part 1)

Reminds me of Highlander 5, where even “Who Wants To Live Forever”, the song written by Queen for the original movie, was a cover. Sacrilege!

Jackie Brown, the older I get, the lovelier Pam Grier is.

The Chef, thanks for the recommendation!

The Truman Show. So close. So, so, close.

Dumb and Dumber. Apparently the bug in my ass which forced me to miss this film back in 1994 had died. Good, goofy fun.

You are not alone. I first saw it many years ago, but otherwise had a similar preconception about it that was unfair and way off base.

Since I’m in a mood…

I don’t think De Niro has ever been funnier than he is in Jackie Brown. Just cracks me up with every line.

The best thing about Dumb and Dumber is you get that Carrey and Daniels had the time of their lives trying to outdumb each other. Their enjoyment in playing these roles came over very clear in the finished movie.

The Truman Show, alternate ending:

“Yes?”

“Cristof, I hate to be the one to tell you this but we’re canceling the show.”

“What? How? Why? It’s the biggest thing on the planet?”

“I know, we still love you baby, and we love Truman. Look, it’s the internet. We’re spending $12 million a day on your program, it’s still big, but every other show… viewership is declining, ad revenues are declining, and we decided to get out on top. I mean… have you been to Facebook? YouTube? Everybody is Truman now.”

“How dare you! When my lawyers get ahold…”

“Oh, yes. We also received this cease and desist letter from the Department of Justice. Apparently holding someone on an island since birth, giving them psychological trauma from the age of 7 aimed at keeping him on this island, and, after he hit the age of majority, thwarting all efforts to depart? Yeah, it’s reminding some of slavery. Who knew?”

“And they want to review that incident back in 1997, where Truman was sailing and the storm hit. Cristof… don’t you control the storms personally? Because our legal staff reviewed the footage this weekend… yeah, that’s right, we’re taking this seriously… and it genuinely looks like you tried to kill him.”

“B-b-but! I’M HIS FATHER! I gave him happiness! A purpose! Fame!”

"Yeah, got it. Cristof, this has made it to the Board and this is their decision. We’ll be in contact with Jim with the details later. He’s a smart guy, one of the best agents in the business, he’ll advise you well. I also recommend two attorneys - one about the attempted murder, and a second about this slavery thing. But that last is a personal recommendation, not one from NBC.

“Now… get the fuck out.”

Yes! My favorite line of Samuel Jackson’s and his in that: "Is she dead? Is she dead?" “Pretty much, yeah.”

He’s also very funny in Brazil in a small role as a commando plumber. (Yes, you read that right).

Also agreed. Very funny movie. They’re both capable of very deep, serious work, but you can just see their joy in playing absolute idiots. My favorite scene is when they’ve eaten a very hot pepper on a dare, and Carrey (I think it is) is trying to put out the fire in his mouth by drinking from a squeeze bottle with the ketchup shooting straight up in the air.

The capper was when Carrey tilted his mouth to catch what was falling. Just died.

I actually liked Dumb and Dumberer with the best line in the movie uttered by Bob Saget

At the behest of a friend, I watched Sergeant York with Gary Cooper yesterday.

Folksy as an oak walking stick, but struck me as mostly a propaganda film.

Yeah, I was underwhelmed when I saw Sergeant York a few years ago. But then, I’ve never been a Gary Cooper fan. Total block o’ wood.

I definitely have had some strong disagreements both with Oscar nominations and with the selected winners, but I have to say that I just watched CODA and I thought it was magnificent. I knew very little about it except that CODA stands for “Child Of Deaf Adults”, but it was really a beautiful coming of age story and about difficult life decisions played out against a background of disability.

I was saddened that Promising Young Woman, which was thought to be a potential contender for Best Picture nominee, didn’t get a nomination in any category. Perhaps judges got put off by its feminist theme that some may have felt verged on misandry, but hey, I’m a guy and I didn’t see it that way – I thought it was objectively well done and powerful.

Err, “Promising Young Woman” won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Editing. In 2021. That was the year “Nomadland” won.

Aaarghh! I blame creeping dementia for my inability to keep track of one year versus another, and completely forgetting about what happened a year ago!

Thanks for that, youngster who still has a working brain! :wink:

Every year just before the Oscars ceremonies I look through the movies from the year being voted on and decide what my favorite film was and often mention that to friends. This is my favorite movie, not my prediction for the one that will win the Oscar, and sometimes my favorite isn’t even one that was nominated for Best Picture. I know perfectly well that I don’t have any better luck at predicting the winner than any random film buff. My choice for the best film of the year matches the Best Picture winner about once in ten years. Anyway, my choice for 2021 was CODA and my choice for 2020 was Promising Young Woman, for whatever little that matters.

Actually, to be exact, I look through the list of movies that I saw from that year. Of course, I haven’t seen all of the thousands of movies that were released that year. Nobody has. I try to see the movies that seem to be getting good reviews, but doubtlessly there are many first-rate movies that I didn’t see from the most recent year.

It matters in that it proves you have excellent taste in movies! :slight_smile:

Ultrasound

Decently made, but far too familiar movie. I’ll spoiler-box something below, but don’t be too concerned as it basically is only a spoiler past the first 15 minutes. Anyway, this movie is not totally terrible, but it will feel very much like movies and episodes of TV you’ve seen before. And that is because it is:

It’s one of those “are they really out of the insane asylum yet or are they just hallucinating that they are” type movies.

That’s pretty much the movie.

Crimes of the Future

A very strange movie and this is no surprise coming from David Cronenberg, but despite all of its strangeness(and yes, body horror), the movie suffers from a fatal flaw. It’s boring. Mostly, anyway.

People have altered their bodies to grow new, mostly vestigial or cosmetic, organs. It’s really weird to look at all the weird things in the movie, but the movie itself is very cold and dull. Characters are bland, plot is not exactly thrilling, and there are only a few moments that sparked my interest.

I’d probably recommend skipping it.

Agreed. I like Cronenberg and the trailer looked like the film would right up my alley but the film was just so slooooooow and dull. Once things finally start happening and I was engaged, the film ended!

(At least I saw it at a screening with the whole cast & Cronenberg doing a Q&A afterwards, so that was cool!)

Ah, too bad. I’m a huge Cronenberg fan. But how did I manage to completely forget that he directed Dead Zone? I just re-watched that recently, and, man, is it still relevant.

Been re-watching M.I. 6 today out of sheer boredom. I forgot how jowly Cruise looked in that. Also, I think his nose grew.