That sounds good!
A Midnight Clear, a “Christmas” movie about an army squad that has an unusual encounter with a German squad. Very good movie with a lot of good actors.
I saw this on Bravo* a long time ago. Kind of a smaller movie not many seem to have seen.
*I haven’t seen Bravo since it was a real channel, but it apparently is just trash now?
The Train Robbers 1973
John Wayne and Ann Margaret
I finally watched the entire movie. It lived up to its poor reputation. It’s a lightweight comedy/drama. There’s a lot of boring scenes with cowboys riding. The bad guys look like the same camera shot was used.
Ann Margaret was a distraction and didn’t add very much to the movie. They wasted an opportunity by not using Maureen O’Hara. She would have been fantastic as the manipulative character that completely fools Wayne
I’d give it 2 stars. Watch like I did during a winter storm and no internet. I had to use cell data tonight. Nothing to do but watch Grit tv westerns.
Rush Hour
Hey, this is still a pretty fun movie with Christ Tucker and Jackie Chan. It’s 90 or so minutes and just about the right length for this fun buddy cop movie(and fish out of water movie). Fun, funny, very well made.
It’s not a great movie, but it is a fun movie and it mostly holds up.
Catherine Called Birdy - silly and a lot of fun. Bella Ramsey is exceptionally delightful in it. Andrew Scott was also a ton of fun. I wish I could have taken my daughters to see it when they were mid-teens.
Summer of 84 - a period piece, horror/thriller, made in 2018. A 15-year-old boy in a small town in Oregon becomes convinced his cop next-door neighbor is a serial killer responsible for 13 boys missing from the region. He and his group of buddies (à la Stranger Things or Stand By Me) decide to spy on him and find evidence. It had a lot of scares, and while it broke no new ground in predicability, it did have a surprise or two.
The only actor I recognized was the boy’s dad, Jason Gray-Stanford who played Lt. Randy Disher on Monk. All the actors did a fine job.
[ETA, just looked up Jason Gray-Stanford only to see he also had heart failure in 2018 and got a heart transplant in 2020.]
Rush Hour 2 was better.
Yeah, I first saw Picnic at Hanging Rock on Bravo eons ago. Bravo’s definitely just trash now.
I hear Tucker’s got an ego, but Jesus, it can’t be that big!
Favorite line in the movie: “DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?!?”
I think I remember that being the case as well. We’re watching it soon. My memory of Rush Hour 3 is that it was terrible, though.
My wife and I are going to watch Knives Out tonight and then watch Knives Out 2 tomorrow.
Hey, Knives Out 2 just dropped on Netflix if anyone was not aware.
Jeremy Piven was the highlight of 2.
I watched Spirited last night, with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds in a metatextual Christmas Carol, a story that is starting to get a bit exhausting frankly. I did enjoy the songs and comedy, though, so it was fine. Apparently over half the budget went to just the leads’ absurd salaries. My favourite actor in it was Sunita Mani, so I hope she got some of that cheese.
Anyway, it was way better than Scrooged, which is not a difficult achievement, so I will likely watch it again sometime in the future.
Just watched Strange World on Disney+. Typical kids’ adventure movie, with “coming of age”-type drama and miscellaneous comedy. Beautiful animation, of course from Disney; acting is good but nothing special. Great for teens and younger, and anyone who likes Disney productions.
Interestingly, xkcd had a recent comic featuring “Pando”, a reference to a large clonal tree colony. The movie also refers to the same. I’m guessing the comic author watched the movie recently and looked it up.
A Christmas Story 1983 with Peter Billingsley and Darren McGavin.
I hadn’t seen it in awhile. It’s not dated and still holds up quite well. I love the view of the family through the childs eyes. It’s similar to The Wonder Years.
Darren McGavin is so good playing the dad struggling with broken household fixtures. Doing his best to be a good dad.
One possible goof – the kid playing the bully has braces. The cars date the movie to early 40’s. Probably prewar. AFAIK braces weren’t common before the mid 50’s. People coming out of the Depression didn’t have excess money to spend on dental cosmetics.
Highly recommend this movie.
I loved Banshees of Inisherin, but I had basically no expectations and have never seen In Bruges. It’s one of the stranger movies I’ve seen, and it kept me wondering what was next - definitely did not see that coming! Yeah, it’s sad. It left an impression. It also made me legitimately wonder whether I’d love living on that island, or go insane. Possibly it would make anyone insane.
I haven’t seen this yet because I desperately wanted it to be good and the reviews have been so lackluster. I go crazy for weird creatures, especially blobby alien ones, and this seemed chock full of my brand of weirdness. I’m disappointed it’s not as thrilling a story, as say, Encanto.
Just watched Glass Onion, the Knives Out sequel. It was a consistent style of set up, twist, flashback, twist, payoff, another twist. And a lot of fun. Full of unlikeable characters you want to slap.
Based on your self-description, I highly recommend you watch it before being spoiled.
Isn’t the Wonder Years partially or entirely inspired by it or by the same author?
You’re suggesting a connection between A Christmas Story, the movie that starred Peter Billingsley, and The Wonder Years, the ABC sitcom that starred Fred Savage? That’s the first I heard of the idea.
An adult narrating a story of his childhood, I guess. Not an uncommon narrative device in film or TV.