And way before then. 1960s Thor was very goofy (in other words “fun”.)
Saw 2 good foreign language films with English overdubs…
The Platform. Spanish?
Great movie, but whoever conceived of it was deeply disturbed.
Vertical prison, 2 people per cell. A delicious meal is prepared each day, put on a platform and then lowered down into the prison. It stops for 2 minutes. The prisoners can eat whatever they want and do whatever they want to it, but cannot keep anything for later. Then it goes to the next floor down. The food is gone by level 50. There are 300 levels. The prisoners are in their level for 1 month, then moved to another level, at random. Weird, but very well done.
French, I assume.
Fun detective story where someone is capturing super humans and draining their blood to synthesize a drug to temporarily give people super powers.
The Way, Way Back (2013, Hulu) - The blurb:
Duncan (Liam James) is an awkward teen who must spend the summer at a beach house with his mother (Toni Collette), her boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carell), and Trent’s obnoxious daughter. Trent can’t resist badgering Duncan, so the youth steals away to a water park and gets a job that will help him stay off Trent’s radar. As Duncan tends to the slides and pools of the aging park, he finds a father figure in wisecracking park manager Owen (Sam Rockwell) at a time when he desperately needs one.
I enjoyed it. For the most part your stock coming-of-age flick, there was plenty of corny overdone themes, but it still hit me in the feels. Plenty of witty dialogue delivered by a solid supporting cast of which Steve Carell stands out in a rare role of an asshole he delivers perfectly, B+ effort. Glad I saw it, might watch it again with the spouse some day in the future.
I loved this movie. A role made for Sam Rockwell ! You forgot to mention Amanda Peet (singing “give me a laser” 
I also always enjoy Toni Collette and liked how the son gets her to see the reality of her situation and make a change.
If you liked this, you might also enjoy The Kings of Summer
Thanks, I will. It also reminded me of Mud (2013), if you haven’t check that out too.
Bridge of Spies - Historical drama about the negotiation of the release of Francis Gary Powers in exchange for a captured KGB spy. Tom Hanks stars, and manages to make a Cold War thriller seem nice.
Resistance - Did you know that Marcel Marceau was in the French Resistance? I did, but I didn’t know even a fraction of the details of what he did during the war or what happened to his family. Now I do. It’s another “Man, the Nazis really, really sucked” film and so does not, as they say, have a lot of laughs but it’s good storytelling.
I recently realised that the title to this film is a pun on Venice’s Bridge Of Sighs. Anyway, carry on.
I enjoyed it a lot, too.
Re-watched Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent. Middle rank Hitch. Spectacular Pan Am clipper (or a reasonable facsimile) crash.
Saw The Fabelmans this past weekend, Spielberg’s somewhat autobiographical film. As writer, director, and producer, he creates a heartfelt look at the young artists growth and struggles as he grows up. Spielberg is a master at pulling the audience along and into the emotional lives of his protagonists. I would expect it to be in the discussion as Oscar nominations approach. Michelle Williams gives a great performance as a free spirited mother torn between family and following her passion. Expect her name to be among the nominees next January.
After seeing this trailer in the “Movies that made you say WTF” thread: Honest Trailers | RRR - YouTube
I decided to watch RRR (available on Netflix). I have not enjoyed a movie this much in a LONG time. It is SO outrageous, it is entertaining in the “what can possibly come next ?” mode. Without any explanation of where the heros’ powers come from (like in the MCU), the heroes are the epitome of “super heroes”.
I think if you go in with copious amounts of “suspension of disbelief”, you will have the right attitude. In a clever way, the way the two heroes are introduced kind of prepares you for this: seeing will not be believing.
(As entertaining as the movie was, when it was over I could not help but be kind of stunned at how anti-Gandhi “non-violent protest” the movie’s message was. Poor guy would be turning in his grave)
I agree, it was brilliant. It left an emotional impression long after the film ended. And it didn’t feel like a single second of the three hour run time was wasted. A very simple but fabulously well told story about brotherly love.
Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion
Both Satan’s Slaves movies stream on Shudder and I got a free 5-week pass to Shudder. I recommend both of these movies, though I do think the first movie is superior. Having said that, the final 30 minutes of this movie were excellent and I plan to seek out this director’s other movies.
Highly recommend both Satan’s Slaves and Satan’s Slaves 2.
RRR - Yep. Fantastic. That scene where the guy goes into the mob to get that other guy. . . It’s unbelievable. . . unbelievably awesome!
I have seen almost 70 movies released this year and that is for sure going to be in my top 10, if not top 5.
Banshees of Inisherin - definitely not an In Burges if that’s what you’re looking for. Much darker and not as funny, although it does have its moments. Farrell and Gleason were both excellent as was the rest of the cast. I liked it a lot.
Where the Crawdads Sing - another very good flick. It had me guessing until the end but I’m a little slow when it comes to this stuff. Beautiful scenery, too.
Old Yeller. Was watching Yellowstone, this came up in the search options, and it is still very effective for what it is.
Right now am catching Fatal Attraction and Glenn Close’s hair… yikes. I am getting used to its overall 80s-ness, but it has not aged well. Nor Michael Douglas’s for that matter. Definitely reminds one that there was a time when seeing two famous people engage in simulated fucking while partially nude was part of the attraction of going to movies.
We used to be a country. A proper country.
Black Adam
Boring and generic, no risks taken at all. Dwayne Johnson is totally boring in this movie, not one great moment for him and his character is completely uninteresting. I had minimal interest or hopes and I was still disappointed. Bad effects, lazily/generically edited. Very poorly directed.
It is incredibly mediocre and it is not as bad as The Eternals or Iron Man 2. It’s better than Batman Vs. Superman? Is that a compliment?
I would not recommend Black Adam to anyone. I think Dwayne Johnson can be pretty good in movies, but he has to look at this movie as a failure and the blame is most likely the director.
Watched Smile yesterday and it did not disappoint. I had forgotten Sosie Bacon is in it (Kyra and Kevin’s daughter) and I thought to myself what a good actress she is and how rare that is in horror. There have been a lot of comparisons to It Follows and The Ring (both great films), which is accurate, but in those the protagonist has at least a couple people on their side. This character is so alone and it really adds to the emotional impact.
As @Mahaloth said, it’s best to go in blind, so I won’t give anything away except the warning that there are way too many jump scares for my liking, and there is some animal endangerment.
Despite that, it’s really quite good.
A Christmas Story Christmas just dropped on HBO Max. Starring some of the original cast (Ralphie, Randy, Schwartz, Scut Farkus, and Flick). A little uneven and some of the acting was a bit off, but in the end it was okay and had some good moments.
Vesper (Prime Rental, 2022) I enjoy the anatomy/body horror genre (see my Excision review above) and feel it’s underrepresented, here we get that with a mix of sci-fi future dystopia, which is cool. The world they’ve made is just as eerie and beautiful as something like Avatar.
Stuff happens to the protagonist, Vesper, a 12 year old girl, and her situation changes throughout the film so there is a conclusion. The problem is nothing compels the actions of our hero besides immediate needs. This story is really just a description of this girl wandering around a weird world, which is neat, but that is not a story. You will not be surprised, when it’s over, at the run time of 1 hour 52 min, you will feel every second of this film particularly in the many inexplicably long scenes with no purpose.
C-, visually pretty, with some neat ideas and a cool world, but do not need to see this again. Would recommend to sci/fi fanatics looking for body horror future dystopian films…I really can’t think of another…The Thing…Hardware?
Come to think of it, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland isn’t a story either.