MotW: Fits and Starts with Wyatt Cynac.
He’s a stuck writer, meanwhile his girlfriend is becoming a quite successful writer. Most centers about their attempt to go to a “salon” party in Connecticut.
FWIW, these are two people who should have never been together. But nobody asked me.
Somewhat amusing here and there. Not a major deal. Okay if you don’t have something better to watch. Cynac is good. Maria Dizzia does a nice job as a wacky agent.
Rating: Two and a half wine-like bottles.
Tom and Hick. Mid 90’s dreck from Disney.
All white, beautiful people, which makes it very hard to believe. But what I loved is that it’s set, more or less, on Tom Sawyer Island in Disneyland.
Tom Sawyer Island (now Pirate Island), never made sense to me as a kid. It didn’t relate very well to the books “Tom Sawyer” or “Huck Finn”. But now there’s a movie (or there was, around 1995). I watched the movie and thought – this is what the island is about --. Ok, normally you expect Disneyland to be about the movie, rather than a movie referencing Disneyland, but it worked just as well in reverse.
Tom Sawyer is badly cast, as is his Aunt. The Huck Finn character works well, in spite of being a re-imagination. There is real tension in the film: it’s not Old Yeller, and it’s badly cast, but it works as a film.
I bet it was indeed.
Watched Wind River the other day. Pretty stupid movie, really. Don’t waste your time.
Starts nowhere, moves slow, everybody kills each other than its over. The Tofu of movies.
A love story in a world where people are losing one sense after another. The director made some unfortunate decisions and the cinematography is not the best, but the film still got to me.
Here is the endingwhen the last remaining sense is going away.
*Tom and *Huck. Mid 90’s dreck from Disney.
hemm.
Watched Small Apartments on Netflix
I want my money back.
Matt Lucas was wearing only a pair of tighty whities in every scene. This is a man who should be clothed from head to toe at all times.
They seemed to be going for weird and quirky, but it was only sad and kinda gross.
Saw Ocean’s Eight at the CinePlex. I went in expecting a competent, nonsensical, Hollywood-style sequel, and that was delivered. B-minus grade.
The heist was absolutely unconvincing, but that was expected. Despite Ms. Ocean’s claim that the plan had been refined for five years until success was almost certain, the plan was an improvised, jerry-rigged mess. No big deal, par for Hollywood sequels.
However, the plan involved stealing irreplaceable historic artifacts, so I didn’t have much empathy for the criminals. The gang members were no better than slightly charming, and the script was low on good gags. I chuckled a couple times, and laughed once.
The comedic timing was generally impressive.
My latest five:
Hercules
Pretty good animated Disney musical, although it takes a lot of liberties with ancient Greek legend. James Woods steals the show playing the villain Hades as a sleazy, cutthroat Hollywood-style mogul. Terrific production design, and good but most forgettable songs.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Disappointing superhero movie, as Spidey faces off against Electro, who wants to absorb all the electrical power in NYC, while trying to save his girlfriend.
Buena Vista Social Club
Wim Wenders-directed 1999 documentary about several aging Cuban musicians who enjoy unexpected public acclaim very late in life as their music is rediscovered and appreciated anew. Great music and some heartwarming moments.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Average SW movie showing a young Han Solo as he loses and then finds his childhood sweetheart, meets and befriends Chewbacca, and faces off against the Empire, interstellar gangsters and a very suave Lando Calrissian.
The Incredibles
Still my favorite Pixar movie, a fun, clever, exciting film about a superhero family and their various adventures. Outstanding cinematography and one great action sequence after another. I saw it again to have it fresh in my mind before seeing the long-delayed Incredibles 2.
Wanted something light and choose the romcom Set It Up mainly since it had Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs (as the “B couple”).
There’s “light” and then there’s “mostly vapor”. A few okay things here and there, but a lot of predictable stuff, crappy dialog, etc. They did a nice touch near the end with a bit unexpected thing. But still ended poorly.
You could teach a Bad Screenwriting 101 seminar using this.
The two “A couple” leads do a poor job. Zoey Deutch is at best a Hallmark Movie actress. Glen Powell’s not even that.
One odd thing: Tituss Burgess is notably listed as being it. But it’s practically a cameo. He plays a building security guard watching camera monitors and doing stuff. I think it was intended to be a much bigger role: We were supposed to see things develop from his point of view. But it almost all got cut.
Rating: 1/2 of the crappiest looking pizza you ever saw in a movie.
I recently watched CHIPs on HBO Now. Wow. What a mess. It’s a fun movie at points but it makes little sense. There is broad slapstick mixed with a more subtle pathos and the two make for a weird movie to begin with, but the editor must have been on a NyQuil binge when he cut this together. There are individual scenes that are rendered unintelligible by editing let alone the pace of the entire movie. And then there’s the weird sub-plot of Poncherello’s sexual addiction, which, as far as I can tell was only there for a few crude jokes.
This was a Dax Shepard passion project - he wrote, directed and starred in it. Apparently it was originally written as a broad more family friendly mega-blockbuster kind of thing, but with lessened funding they went to Fuck-Bomb R. Not that I prefer PG-13 movies over R movies, but I think that move sent this movie off the cliff.
I recommend, only because I did laugh at a few times (Shepard and Michael Pena are funny, what can I say?), but please only view it with a scowl on your face.
Then there’s Volunteers, with Tom Hanks and John Candy, one of the funniest movies ever. I’d have to put this in my top five of movies enjoyed/watched/pet favorite kind of thing.
The scene where Lawrence Bourne III arrives in Thailand, says, “Jesus H. Christ, we must be a mile from the sun,” refuses the lei from the old guy and then learns he’s stuck there and begs John to let him go home send me into hysterics every time. It’s the subtle humor that gets me the hardest.
First up, Keep the Change. The remake to full length of a short film of the same name.*
The only actor in it you’ve likely heard of is Jessica Walter. For a reason. Most of the cast are actors on the autistic spectrum (or otherwise non-neurotypical) playing people like themselves.
Plot: a guy with issues is required to go to a AS support thing, meets people, meets one in particular, etc. The lead female is played by Samantha Elisofon who does an especially notable job.
Highlights a lot of day-to-day and long term issues AS people go thru. What is going to happen to them as the parents get to old too care for them, etc.?
A quite good film but I must caution you that it can be difficult to watch at times seeing the struggles the characters (and therefore the cast) have to deal with.
And now a movie that should have gone the other way: Where is Kyra? with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kiefer Sutherland.
Pfeiffer/Kyra and her mother are struggling to get by and things get worse.
It is well-reviewed but note that the reviews generally focus on Pfeiffer’s performance.
The film has issues. It is filmed is very poor light almost all the way thru. The “soundtrack” is unbelievably bad. And it is incredibly slow paced. The movie just drags.
While Pfeiffer does indeed do a great job, there isn’t enough varied material to fill the movie. So you see her doing the same thing over and over and over.
In short, unlike the above film, this should have been turned into a short film instead.
For Pfeiffer-Kiefer completists only.
I like it best when he first gets on the plane and all these earnest young Peace Corps volunteers are singing folk songs, and he says, with resignation, “So this is Hell.”
Just the latest ones:
Sicario: Day of the Soldado- The first movie, Sicario, was a tight little border noir/action picture that took the audience into unexpected territory. This one is a by the book action picture. It has the usual charismatic performance by Benicio del Toro and moves along quickly. If you like actioners, then this will be down your alley, provided you can live with some major “suspension of disbelief” turns in the plot. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I probably won’t remember it in a couple of months.
Uncle Drew- The major surprise in this picture is that Kyrie Irving can actually act and plays comedy pretty well. The picture is one of those fluff comedies with a plot you can write down before you sit down, but it has a few laughs and the cast is game, so not a bad way to escape the summer heat.
Leave No Trace- The second narrative feature by Debra Granik, the director of Winter’s Bone. It is an astonishingly good film that sneaks up on you, never taking the characters the expected way. The best stories are about specific people and circumstances, yet relate to the human condition in deep ways. This is one of those stories, beautifully shot and paced, with great lead performances. As with Lean On Pete earlier this year, this movie takes what could be a cliched, by the books indie plot and turns it on its head and shakes out a genuinely novel feelings and actions. Definitely makes this year’s list and I expect will be in the conversation during awards season.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor- A documentary on Fred Rogers. Not suspenseful, not polemic, and no deep secrets revealed, but it is a reminder that there are people in this world who are simply stated, genuinely good people. I defy you, even if you are not a Mr. Rogers kid, to not leave with more moisture in your eyes than you walked in with. (In fact, this movie should replace the battery of tests for sociopathy. If someone doesn’t respond to viewing this film, they can officially be declared to be a sociopath, it’s the only possible explanation.). I’m glad I saw it and I recommend everyone see it if they have the chance, but it is one of the few films I’d say is going to be just as effective on the small screen as the big screen.
Yesterday I watched the Netflix original ARQ - I thought it was decent but you can’t really go by me, as it’s a time-loop story and that’s one of my two favorites (the other is the “who am i?” story with amnesiac lead, my first such story being “Nine Princes in Amber” at an impressionable age).
That bias aside, what impresses is something you don’t often see in American sci-fi, a reliance on writing rather than effects. The movie takes place in a few rooms, so minimal sets, and has only 6 characters, one of whom is dead for over half the movie. It probably cost less to make than an episode of Sense8 or Seinfeld.
Today I caught** Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom**, which I found sort of meh. Sort of annoyed that I saw it, as I would have liked to see Superfly or Tag but they’re doing so poorly that there were no matinee showings for one and the other is already gone after just a couple of weeks.
I’ve been stuck at home for the last week. My watchlist has included The History of The Eagles, Living in the Material World, Running Down a Dream, Annihilation, Evolution, and right now I’m watching The Mist.
I watched The Hurt Locker two days ago. Never saw it before.
Meh. I’m struggling to figure out how she won the Oscar™ for Best Director for this mess.
I’m a camera operator and so hand-held footage does exactly zero to impress me with how “authentic” it is.
I’d give it 3.5 stars outa 5.
What’s the big fuss?
Beatriz at Dinner. A masseuse (Selma Hayek) is forced by car trouble to stay for dinner with her mover&shaker client, including a Trump-like mogul (John Lithgow). OK, not bad…I would’ve have like to have seen it become a study in the discomfort of class distinctions, rather than a broad attack on corporate environmental malfeasance, but I wasn’t asked for input into the script.
…and your quick take on those movies was what?
I started Rampage with Dwayne The Rock Johnson the other day. Holy crap that sucked.