By recommendation of a The Great Courses medieval lecturer who said the portrayal of knight peerage and chivalry were authentic in the film, I watched A Knight’s Tale (2001), inspired by Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
It’s more of a romantic comedy than a historically accurate drama, but it was quite fun. And the modern music sound track worked (the director felt modern audiences wouldn’t relate to renaissance music as well as modern rock songs).
I finally got a chance to take in Moonfall while conscious yesterday morning and I have to say, this is possibly one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen! You people are nuts. They flew inside the moon! The moon ball-scraped Manhattan! The gravity issues alone! What are you people … on dope? This is a masterpiece. Must watch again,
Watched Radio Days, a Woody Allen movie from 1987. It was kind of like a Jewish Wonder Years, but not funny and with no discernible plot. However, it was full of familiar faces. I spent most of the movie looking up the cast on my phone.
I Think We’re Alone Now, a dystopian look at a future wiped out by pandemic. Starring Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning, with a very good cameo by Paul Giamatti. Slower than most movies of this sort, but it works, IMO.
How many of them answered? 
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, rented from Amazon. Nicholas Cage stars as Nick Cage, a egomaniac actor with family and money problems trying to regain superstar status, but instead goes to Majorca to get some easy money appearing at a rich guy’s party. Hijinks ensue. There are a couple of earlier threads about this movie here.
I absolutely loved it. Hilarious, with excellent performances from Cage and Pedro Pascal (who have so much chemistry together), who both manage to be subtle and nuanced when needed, then over the top when needed. It is entirely meta and entirely delightful. One of the most fun movies I’ve seen in years, I laughed through the whole thing.
“John Wick”. (2014) Seen it a few times, most recently on a red eye from Denver to Atlanta. John avenges his car, and more importantly, his dog from his late wife. Massive body count, great weapon handling, even pausing to reload. Subtle humor, very deadpan. Michael Nyqvist is great as the head of the Russian crime family who both feels for Wick and his own (piss poor spoiled rich) son. John saves another puppy (comes full circle - ish) at the end.
A warm endearing family story with puppies. Don’t miss it.
None! I just can’t understand it.
The Sequel:
A John Wick Christmas.
Russian mobsters shoot and wound Santa, kill Rudolph, and steal the sleigh on Christmas Eve. John snaps, because his childhood was so troubled that his only escape was in Christmas, and now that’s been nearly taken away. So he stashes Santa at the Continental to be treated by the house doctor, and he and a wisecracking elf, or perhaps a precocious child, go on a killing rampage to retrieve the sleigh. The last words of the head mobster are “It’s just a fucking reindeer!”
Then since Santa is still recuperating, John and the elf/child have to take the sleigh and deliver all the toys. A heartwarming film for the whole family!
I meant to watch it, but for whatever reason I got it confused with ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’, which was what I was expecting. I was disappointed that it wasn’t. 
Saw Bullet Train last weekend.
It’s funny, gory, over-the-top, action-packed and has a complicated (and improbable plot).
If you liked Deadpool, you’ll probably like this.
I saw See How They Run at the movie theater on Saturday. It’s kind of a mystery comedy with Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody and Sam Rockwell. And then on Peacock, I saw Vengeance, starring, written and directed by B J Novak (Ryan from the US version of The Office). That was worthwhile. (I thought there would be commercials during the movie but instead, there was a long series of commercials prior to it.)
The new LOTR series prompted us to watch The Lord of the Rings Trilogy all over again, after many, many years. We watched them over three nights. Theatrical versions, not the long, long extended ones. The first two held my interest throughout. The third installment, the one with much of the screen time given over to battles, dragged a bit for me, and I began looking at my watch.
Topflight acting all the way around. Ian McKellen, still marvelous as Gandalf. And Sean Astin should have won an Academy Award for his touching performance as Samwise.
Mrs. xOldiesJock and I enjoyed them as if we were seeing them for the first time. It’s nice to discover that three movies two decades old hold up so well.
Next up, The Hobbit. Not sure if we will enjoy those as much.
Many don’t, but I actually think they are really good. Lord of the Rings is much better, though. Like, quite a bit better.
Sucker Punch has been my greatest disappointment so far in movies. It had so much promise but just missed the mark. I’m not good enough to know where or how it went wrong, or how to fix it, but the concept was intriguing.
Van Helsing
Honestly, this movie is overly criticized. It’s not absolutely amazing, but it is a lot of fun. Very campy(?) fun and my son(age 11) and I are enjoying watching it. I hadn’t seen it in quite awhile, but I remember it being poorly reviewed. It’s definitely not as good as The Mummy from the same director.
I’ve seen much, much worse popcorn movies and I like the sheer amount of monsters we get in this movie. Frankenstein’s Monster, Jekyll-Hyde, Dracula, Werewolves. It’s really got quite a bit of everything going on.
It’s effects are a bit dated, but they filmed it in very dark tones and that covers a lot of inadequacies. Gollum was in Two Towers two years before this movie and is much better than any effect in this entire movie…and we saw him in daylight
I actually would have liked to see a Van Helsing sequel, though they kind of used up everything they had in this one movie.
Another movie that I’ve seen recently, on DVD, is The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin. Also starring was Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Boyle, Ian McKellen, Jonathan Winters, Tim Curry and John Lone.
Watched Strangers on a Train on TCM last night.
What a dumb movie. Only one worthwhile snippet: When Robert Walker pops the kid’s balloon with his cigarette.
Naw. What about the only real hero in the film? The old man who crawls under the merry-go-round.
Don’t get me started on that Goddamned Turbo Merry-Go-Round!