About 3/4 of the way through Airport 77, a disaster film with an all-star cast, as if you didn’t already know. A silver-haired Jimmy Stewart in the twilight of his career. Whole lotta hamming going on by most everybody, but fairly entertaining in a 70s sorta way.
James Vs His Future Self (Prime, 2020) Heartwarming comedy about a schlub meeting himself with time travel. It was cute and avoided most of the common tropes with this genre. It doesn’t hurt that I am a sucker for Daniel Stern, but the writing and supporting cast did a good job as well.
Highly recommended for a lighthearted date night atmosphere. My wife and I enjoyed it. Years from now I may watch it again.
Dungeons and Dragons - Honor Among Thieves
Very highly recommended.
I absolutely loved it and it is the best 2023 release I’ve seen up to this point(I’ve only seen 15 2023 releases so far). Fun, adventurous, I found myself liking almost all of it. Chris Pine is perfect in the movie and so is everyone. Heck, I liked Michelle Rodriguez in this movie and I am not a huge fan of her in almost anything.
Really great and worth a rental or viewing on Paramount Plus, which should have it very soon.
The Banshees of Inisherin. (Streaming on Qubi til the end of the month then on Vine.)
You should already know about it. I finally decided to watch when I saw the stars on an old Seth Meyer and overcame my hesitation. (With the writer’s strike I’m really digging deep in the old DVR.)
Big mistake. What a bummer of a movie and then some. Very little redeeming aspects. I like how they made Farrell not look so much like Farrell. But it was all so … stupid.
I like character driven movies. E.g., Lost in Translation. But this isn’t worth it.
And the background characters were so poorly used. The writer had no clue that it was set in the 1920s. He needs some tough love.
Give it one stick with a hook on the end.
I didn’t hate it, but it is far and away the worst movie from Martin McDonagh. Seek out his others.
Pump the breaks. If he didn’t like Banshee I doubt In Bruges is really going to knock it out of the park for him. I thought both were only ok.
Even I would give Three Billboards a mixed review, and this is coming from a dude who adores Sam Rockwell.
I saw that a few years ago and liked it. Wes Studi is always worth watching. I didn’t think it was too slow, but it certainly takes its time.
He was very good as a zombie in Warm Bodies and as a foppish courtier in The Favourite, too.
I can confirm that. You told me in April 2057, in Clavius City I think it was, that you watched it again a couple of months from now.
Yes! I have a soft spot (in my heart? my head?) for Warm Bodies. The only other zombie movie I enjoyed was Shaun of the Dead. He was very good in The Favourite, I agree.
I’m not a big zombie-movie guy either, but thought World War Z and Zombieland, although very different, were both well worth seeing.
Zombieland is a terrific film, featuring one of the all time great ‘playing themselves cameos’. I watched it recently for the first time in many years and was in near hysterics at one particular point involving said cameo. Also, one of those films that makes me feel old as I could swear it was more recently made: it is nearly 14 years old and that depresses me!
I’ve seen bits of that one. Not enough to have an opinion. Seemed ok though.
Warm Bodies made my underrated/missed movies list the other year. Great movie, he’s great in most things he is in.
I watched Violation (Shudder) and it really was.
I enjoy arty movies as much as the next person, probably even moreso than the average bear, but jeez, this was like being bludgeoned with The Stick of Pretention. Not sure if describing the premise is even a spoiler, as you can’t tell wtf you’re watching until about a third of the way in. it’s told in jumbled order but the main gist is a woman is raped by her brother in law and the rest of the film is her painstaking revenge
The woman who plays the protagonist also wrote and directed and her performance is, while certainly not pleasant to witness, really quite good. There’s some great camera work and other stylistic choices that make it a good topic for film class but not so much for a Saturday afternoon.
John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix, 2023) Netflix and standup comedians keep signing extended contract deals for multiple shows years in advance that no one can get out of and everyone needs to stop.
Amy Schumer is with me.
I don’t follow the lives of celebrities because I have my own so when I began this last night for a pleasant evening with my wife I thought I was just going to sit down for some laughs. I had seen his other comedy specials and thought this would be funny too. It kinda was.
But it mostly wasn’t a standup show.
A bunch of stuff has been going on in John’s life I guess, Drugs and Divorce mainly. He only talked about the drugs. The intervention rather.
It’s the Divorce I didn’t know he had until the show last night that he never brought up again in Baby J that I keep thinking about the day after. This wasn’t a quiet private marriage. He brings up his wife and how much he loves her in every performance bit I have ever seen him do on stage. I can recite many of the bits. She didn’t want the separation, he just wanted to put his dick in Olivia Munn now. Pretend everything is normal.
Again, this is all cool. It’s his life. But we are talking about it now because he brought it up and seems to want to discuss it. Throughout a typical self-obsessed addiction story at least there is usually a measure of humility, the person changes as they accent the pain they have caused others. Not here. It’s only the damage he COULD have done to himself. We’re still in the middle of his change if it will happen at all, but John has to do a show either for his bank account or Netflix’s every year.
Pretend everything is normal.
And at base, for standup to work it helps a great deal if the audience likes you or at least identifies with you. That is easier if you are ugly, because many think something negative about their appearance. It is easier if you are the gender or race of the audience because already it’s obvious that person knows something intrinsic about that characteristic.
There just aren’t enough white millionaires hocking Rolexes from money they steal from their accountant, I guess.
Yeah see, that’s what needed to have happened for these ‘jokes’ to land. This material is really just heckler notes from his own intervention and that is a messy train wreck the world doesn’t need to see. And it is still going!
Damn, I love John Mulaney. That is rough.
I thought it was bloody brilliant. Definitely better than Banshees. I haven’t seen In Bruges yet.
His movies have, in my opinion, gotten one step worse each time.
In Bruges - a top of all time movie
Seven Psychopaths - hilarious and fun
Billboards - yep, very good.
Banshees - I have no real strong memory of this one even though I saw it recently
Despite flaws, I too really liked Three Billboards. I liked In Bruges, but need to re-watch it as I’ve forgotten most of it.
The Way Back 2020 with Ben Affleck
Affleck delivers a powerful performance as an alcoholic struggling with the death of his young sun and estrangement from his wife.
I really enjoyed this movie. Don’t let the basketball story distract you. It’s not a sports movie. The character study of a anguished father is compelling. There’s no easy answers. The alcoholic character has to make himself deal with the tragedy and seek help.
Free on Amazon Prime
It’s a little uncomfortable knowing Affleck has struggled with depression and alcohol.
It sounds similar to Irreversible (2002), a Gaspar Noé film. It’s told in reverse order, ala Memento, wherein a woman is raped (it’s like a 10 minute long rape scene, but if you know Noé like I know Noé …) and her husband and his friend hunt down the rapist and deliver retribution, with disturbing twists thrown in.