Yes. Otto is an Americanized version of Ove.
I recently read the book, and loved it (because at some points it was like holding up a mirror ;-). I then re-watched Ove to see how closely it followed the book. I was surprized at how much it did.
I then started to watch Otto, but it just wasn’t working for me. As much as I like Tom Hanks, he is too well known as the “good”, “soft” guy to be believable.
I got to thinking who might have been a better choice, and Brian Cox came to mind.
I haven’t seen either movie, but I loved the book.
Evil Dead Rise
Pretty much recommended.
Evil Dead (2013) was the better movie for me by quite a bit. In fact, this is probably the weakest of the 5 Evil Dead movies that have been made, but I still think they did a pretty solid job. Good, not great. I enjoyed the entire movie and it is well made, but it wasn’t as intense and thrilling as some of the previous entries and the comedy of Evil Dead 2 and 3(Army of Darkness) is not something the new movies even attempt.
A case could be made that this is better than The Evil Dead, the first movie, but it also has a lot more money and production team members behind it and I’m not sure the first movie is worse at all.
Nice, nothing all that fantastic, I think they can do better.
Others may like it quite a bit more. I’d rank the Evil Dead movies like this:
However, they have yet to make a truly bad movie.
We watched Otto last night, and my first impression of Tom Hanks in the beginning of the movie is that he’s working hard at looking grumpy, with the downturned mouth and frown. It took me out of the movie, since I know he’s not really grumpy. Too bad they couldn’t do this with the original Grumpy Old Man.
Just finished it. Predictable treatment for a curmudgeon with a heart of gold, except it’s been done to death so it really didn’t work very well. It had a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, so I thought it might be a winner, but it turned out to be just ordinary.
Just saw this past week, Sisu, a Lionsgate release set in 1944 Finland. It’s the story about a former Finnish commando, turned gold miner that just wants to go his own way. However, some of the remaining Nazis that have invaded Finland don’t want to let him be.
If you are in to WWII action revenge films then this one should be right up your alley. The mood of the cinematography makes it feel like a war-torn topography. And the dog in the film is a Bedlington terrier. They look like small lambs. If this was a wider viewed film, I’d worry that this might become a hot new breed of dog that Americans would rush out to buy. It’s a really cute dog.
I am an action film fan, and while there are plenty of over-the-top scenes and “how the hell did he survive that” moments, I did find it entertaining and fun. It clocks in at about an hour and a half. I saw it in a theater, but it will still play great at home.
The Outfit (Prime, 2022) The blurb: From the Academy Award-winning writer of The Imitation Game (Graham Moore) comes The Outfit, a gripping and masterful thriller in which an expert tailor (Academy Award winner Mark Rylance) must outwit a dangerous group of mobsters in order to survive a fateful night.
A-, it was quality.
A tense thriller, but with a solid story and great character development. I have some issues with the reveal, but they’re minor quibbles. Overall it was fantastic and I would heartily recommend it to fans of The Godfather, Bridge of Spies, or The Untouchables. In fact, it made me want to see Once Upon a Time in America again.
I watched the new Disney Peter Pan And Wendy yesterday. It’s loosely a live-action adaptation of their animated movie, though it seems to be trying hard to not be that, and also not be just the same as the endless other Peter Pan movies.
It’s unusually shot, with wide angle lenses throughout, with some weird close-ups, giving it a dream-like quality. It’s also not as colourful as you might expect, tending towards the darkly-lit trend, and the plot is also a bit more introspectively dark in tone.
The performances are pretty good, the kids get better as it goes on, and Jude Law’s Hook is quite unusually mercurial. As you’d expect, there are some spectacular visuals, and some cute funny bits, with a nice emotional impact at the right moments (in my opinion the ending is the best one I’ve seen for this oft-repeated story).
It’s a straight-to-Disney+ movie, and worth a watch, though maybe not for the youngest kiddies.
My wife and I watched Air today.
An enjoyable documentary-drama about the creation of the “Air Jordan” shoe that Nike bet the farm on.
Blackberry
I well acted movie about the rise and fall of Research In Motion, the Canadian company behind the Blackberry (or “crackberry” as many referred to it in the early 2000s). I had a company issued Blackberry during that period and, frankly, no other company phone has achieved the seamless connection of data within my company (I currently carry a company iPhone).
Unfortunately, I found (on Wiki after the movie) that the filmmakers have futzed with the chronology of events in order to enhance the melodrama (for example, the climax of the movie seems to come within a year of the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. In truth, Blackberry sales continued to rise and stay ahead of smartphones for about 4 years before crashing catastrophically). So I can’t really recommend it.
Hypnotic
A serviceable cut-rate Inception. The good news is that it is easier to follow than Inception, but the bad news is the twists aren’t as twisty and the ending is pretty cliched.
Fool’s Paradise
A film that reveals that fact that Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) is not Jerzy Kosiński, Hal Ashby, or Peter Sellers, let alone a combination of these three creators of Being There. It does star some pretty decent actors (including an Oscar winner) chewing some iconic Los Angeles scenery, though.
L’Immensita
A movie I’m still mulling over in my mind. It is a powerful drama about a dysfunctional family, but not in a stereotypical narrative. As Tolstoy wrote, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This family certainly fits. Penelope Cruz delivers a brilliant performance as a wife trapped in her family role. The portrayal of her children is realistically clear eyed, with the love among the siblings never dissipated by their tribulations. The oldest sibling gives a heart rending portrayal of an adolescent struggling with their gender in an era that did not recognize this struggle. However, the film never let’s this element take over the narrative, just makes it an element of what is a view of a specific family in a specific time and place, One warning: If you like your dramas neatly wrapped up, this one isn’t for you. For the rest of you, I highly recommend this one.
The Pope’s Exorcist
Somewhat recommended.
A standard exorcism horror movie that actually has quite the intense and crazy climax. Nothing bad about this movie. Well made, adequately directed and acted, it’s just another movie that came out.
I enjoyed the final climax involving the two priests and won’t say more about it here other than it was really the only moment the movie got me to fully engage.
I’d say check it out when it drops on a free streaming service. Would be fun in October.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3
I enjoyed the first movie, thought that the second had largely lost all of its magic and that the story didn’t quite work, and am glad to say that the third has largely gotten back on its footing.
I haven’t seen the Avengers or whatever other Thanos movies because I feel like they try to pack too many micro-stories in and tangents, so there were quite a few mysteries and new characters in GOTG3 that I didn’t remember - but that didn’t seem to be too much of an issue and, because it was a three hour movie, they were able to fill us in on some details.
Music wasn’t quite as interesting as in the first movie.
Quite a lot of horrifying creatures and monsters. Probably not a good movie for little kids.
Movie Night Monday. Saw Primer again. For those who don’t know, it is possibly the most complex time travel movie ever made and a huge amount of it is subtext/off screen, so you’re pretty much on your own to figure out what the hell is going on. I was hoping to understand it about 10% better. Nope. Still incomprehensible.
After watching the 23-minute explainer I’ve decided however that the movie works even if you don’t understand the details because you get the gist, and the gist is compelling. Time travel is ill-advised, mmkay?
Not bad for a $7k budget. I felt it was worth my time again.
I like this one a lot! And the first time I saw it I actually came in about a third (quarter) of the way through the movie. And I still liked it. Didn’t understand it, but I liked it. I watched the entire movie the second time, and it made a lot more sense. And I still liked it.
I thought it was hilarious. Yeah, John Mullaney is not a good person. You know who would agree with that? John Mullaney. But so what? He was dealing with a terrible addiction and people who are heavy substance abusers can act in sociopathic ways. He’s not proud of it and is trying to do better. And he turned his own misery into very funny comedy. And I still like the guy. His friends do too as evidenced by the fact they put up with a lot of bullshit to help him.
Hereditary (HBO), Toni Colette, Gabriel Byrne, Ann Dowd (Aunt Lydia from Handmaid’s tale). Demonic possession, decapitation, good family fun. Colette is outstanding as always; she is truly in the top five of actors in the past few decades. I had to go read an article about the movie in order to understand what was going on, but it’s pretty well done.
I truly love this movie. Toni Collette should’ve gotten an Oscar nomination…
Win. She should have won. I know genre movies like that rarely get them, but that was one time I actually expected an Oscar in a movie like that.
Midsommar was not as good(but was still quite good) and I have not seen Beau is Afraid, but Ari Aster is an interesting guy.
Went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 3 last evening and it was exciting and a fitting end to the trilogy, but…
Unlike Sage Rat above, I have seen most of the Marvel Universe movies, and the film still surprised me (Cosmo apparently got his big appearances in the Holiday special and TV series, neither which I saw, so his playing a big roll in the film was disconcerting), but my major problem was with the Big Bad (The High Evolutionary. With previous movies in this series the Big Bad has been pretty well-defined and a ‘real’ character. This time, despite being supposedly of great power, his role was mostly declaiming and shouting; just didn’t measure up to what I expected the character to be.
Still, it was a nice closeout and satisfactory endings without being too saccharine, so if you like this sort of thing you will like this.
Watched the D&D movie finally, and it was decent enough. I’d watch a sequel.