…an old-fashioned?
Turpentine?
I just watched on DVD, DEJA VU, starring Denzel Washington. It was a good time travel movie, enjoyable to watch.
Don’t you feel like you’ve watched it before?
Apparently, I watched the new Jurassic Park movie last weekend. Which explains all the bottles in the recycle bin.
I either need to watch better movies or quit drinking. Maybe both.
I watched The Princess with Joey King. Reasonably bloody fun action movies about a young lady who must save her family from an evil knight who she dumped at the altar. Many many many cool action sequences and King pulls them off pretty well. Good comfort action film.
I get her confused with Chloe Grace Moretz. They could almost be sisters. And Chloe had her own cool indie action movie last year, so that ties them together even more.
I thought she was the girl from Fighting With My Family but it appears that is Florence Pugh.
Whooboy! First, thank you for the recommendation; I waited anxiously to see this ever since this post.
This one deserves a thread on it’s own, but I fear not enough people have seen it yet.
I’m not sure what else to add to your excellent description without spoiling it. I will say that yes, the body horror is impressive and quite nasty, yet it didn’t really trouble me(?) I mean, it’s kind of gross but I never felt the need to look away.
I had the same thought regarding all the men having the same face and it never being mentioned. Were it not for all the blood her friend sees the next morning I would say the whole thing was in Harper’s mind. Speaking of which, what do you think is the significance of the friend being pregnant?.
Just a great, strange, disturbing, beautifully filmed story.
Diggers (2006, Prime) - The blurb: During the 1970s as corporate fisheries begin snatching up water rights around the Hamptons, independent clammers Hunt (Paul Rudd) and his friends can do little else but watch their way of life slip away. While members of the group look for ways to cope, Hunt begins a summer romance with a young vacationer (Lauren Ambrose).
While that is essentially the plot it’s written by one of the leads, Ken Marino, who does a fantastic job as a blue collar schlub who is down-and-out but trying to feed his family. So much so, in fact, that I would be surprised if the scenes he is in with his family were not at least semiautobiographical. Not since Cinderella Man has a movie tugged at my feels like this, “shut up, I’m not crying, you’re crying”.
I watched it a week ago and I am glad I took some time to reflect before posting. I like it more now then when I originally finished it. It’s truly a character and scene study rather than a movie as not much happens, but when the characters are this real and the distinct world they inhabit no longer exists that can be compelling enough on it’s own.
Recommended.
I loved the new Thor movie. Light-hearted but not all fluff. I liked the poking fun at Disney with the theme-parkification of New Asgard. The subtle jokes like “we’re on the same team”. The awesome sound track with Gun ‘N’ Roses, Abba, and Enya. The end note with Thor, like his father, adopting the child of his foe. I’ll watch again.
“Licorice Pizza.” I really enjoyed this quirky movie, set in 1973. The two lead characters are rather obnoxious at times, yet still manage to be engaging. Some well-known actors have cameo appearances: Sean Penn as a somewhat pathetic William Holden as he might have been in his older days, still resting on the laurels of a stardom long past; and Bradley Cooper does a very funny turn as hairdresser-turned-producer Jon Peters.
At over two hours, the whole thing meanders in places and just seems a bit too long. And there are some parts of the story that strain credibility. I mean, what mother would allow her 16-year-old son to fly to New York chaperoned by a 25-year-old woman she barely knows? And how does the same 16-year-old high school kid, even working as a parttime actor, find the time, let alone the resources, to open not one but two businesses that require fulltime attention?
Pop music of the time period is used somewhat randomly. Sometimes it applies to the scene and sometimes it just seems to be there to keep something on the soundtrack. But any movie that uses one of my all-time favorite 60s Psychedelic Relics, “Hot Smoke and Sassafras” by Bubble Puppy, is OK by me.
I wouldn’t recommend “Licorice Pizza” to everyone, so read a few reviews and if the premise appeals to you, give it a shot.
Bullet Train. At first I thought it was going to be just another exercise in stylized violence, but it turned out to be a chaotic Rube Goldberg machine masquerading as a film. Everything you see (and there’s a lot to see) shows up again later. I’m beginning to think of Brad Pitt’s Ladybug character as True Romance’s Floyd thirty years later, having been inspired by James Gandolfini’s character to put down the bear-pipe and pick up a gun.
Thirteen Lives – 2002 – Netflix – ★★★★ out of ★★★★★ – Gripping, as expected. One of those movies that, even when you know the ending, still clamps your nerves in a vise.
Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 – 2022 – Netflix - ★★★1/2 – “Trainwreck”indeed. I’m not really a fan of any of the acts, but the personal vignettes about some of the audience members were interesting; some I felt sorry for, others I wanted to poke in the eye.
Jackass Forever – 2022 – Showtime – ★★1/2 – Speaking of “poke in the eye”. Yeah, some parts were very funny, but so many others just left me asking, “why?”
Licorice Pizza – 2021 – Amazon Prime – ★★★ – I had high hopes for this Best Picture nominee, but it let me down. Meandering story that tried too hard to be odd.
Philomena – 2013 – Showtime – ★★★★1/2 - I have been wanting to see “Philomena” for the past nine years. It was worth the wait. Outstanding story and performances with just the right amount – and the right sort – of humor interjected judiciously.
The Odd Couple – 1968 – TMC - ★★★★1/2 – A re-watch of an old favorite. I Had not seen it in a few decades. Obviously dated in many ways, but comfortably funny throughout.
I now refer to this film as “Guns N Roses: The Movie” given that it pretty much played ALL of their hits (I think one more than once). Ok, so I’m not counting Nightrain (not in same league), You could be mine (a dodgy track for Terminator 2), and Knocking on Heavens door (nuff said).
I delight in the idea that the new found fans turn up and buy the latest Guns N Roses album, Chinese Democracy. Not because it’s crap. I personally think it’s really rather excellent, and hugely underrated, “Fans” of GnR seem to forget the later albums were mostly crap before that one, and were hoping for another Appetite for Destruction. Not many of those “fans” can name more than one real (non cover) song from the equivalent of a quadruple album: Use your Illusion (I+II).
Watched Blow up, allegedly, a 1966 classic.
It is not. Utterly pointless. Literally. He takes a picture of a murder, but who? or why? and who is the chick? and who is the killer? none of these questions are answered.
In one scene. the guy walks through a Yardbirds show. Audience is dead. Once couple is dancing, but no one else in the audience is moving at all. As if there is no music playing at all.
Skip it.
I recently watched on DVD, The Jackal, starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Portier and Diane Venora. The Jackal is based on the screenplay of the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal. All in all, a pretty good movie.
Heard someone mention Philomena which I’d always been meaning to watch. Nicely done. Great performances. Good casting. But I couldn’t help remember when John Roberts (CJ of SCOTUS) adopted two children from Ireland. There was talk because after the Magdelane Laundries scandal it became extremely difficult to do a foreign adoption in Ireland, and there were whispers that he’d pulled some strings.
Christmas Holiday with Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly.
A “weepie” that has really nothing to do with Christmas, is not a holiday film, and casts both leads against character. Reviewers tend to give it either very high or very low marks.
While watching it, I kept thinking of Mark Twain’s review of James Fenimore Cooper’s literary offenses. Especially, the rules…
They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the “Deerslayer” tale.
They require that when the author describes the character of a personage in the tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. But this law gets little or no attention in the “Deerslayer” tale, as Natty Bumppo’s case will amply prove.
They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the “Deerslayer” tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.
Employ a simple and straightforward style.
Another movie I watched recently on DVD is The Stepford Wives, made in 2004 and starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Faith Hill and Glenn Close. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit.