“The Fifth Seal” – best Hungarian movie I’ve ever seen.
My review here.
Note: there are quite a few (British) Channel Islands. 6 currently inhabited. There are divided into two “balliwicks”, however.
The Forest For The Trees
It’s been about a year since I’ve given an 8/10 to a movie made in my lifetime. This was very good, and as I suspected, just one look at the photograph when I was browsing yesterday totally grabbed me. Before I read a single word!
The world needs more Melanie, and less Tina… Original. In a way, Melanie was a little condescending towards the only guy she could somewhat confide in, but not the way Tina was… Maybe this is life - people and their hierarchies of worth after an examination of their pros and cons, etc.
I tried looking for Eve Lobau and the only thing I found was a porno! If anyone knows anything she starred in, let me know, I’d only be watching it for her.
A buddy of mine kept pimping Miller’s Crossing to me, as I was a fan of most other Coen brother’s movies, but I’m with you. He finally lent me his DVD copy and I never did get through the whole thing; it never held my interest.
Saw Bohemian Rhapsody last night. Fun movie, if a bit loose with facts. Had the additional entertainment of a loud argument breaking out during the film, and some guy up front coughing his lungs out the entire time.
Bohemian Rhapsody was going to be my latest update, too. I agree it was fun – it works spectacularly as a concert film, so one’s opinion of the film may largely hinge on how you feel about Queen’s music. Rami Malek may get an Oscar nod.
I watched Warcraft recently. It was fine, but I can see why it wasn’t a hit. It didn’t ground it in a reality like Lord Of The Rings did, and instead just had all the cheesy tropes of 80s fantasy films, the ones that were cult favourites but were never hits. A lot of stilted dialogue, sword-welding royalty and epic battles, and magic with flashy lighting and arm-waving. Also an alarming lack of women. Their hands were probably too tied down by the game’s storyline.
Colette with Keira Knightley as the novelist. Dominic West as her husband. (Playing a philandering, jerk of a writer, again.)
Covers only her first marriage years, which is a real shame. So the plot is a lather-rinse-repeat tale of what a jerk her husband was. We get it, move on. But no, just the same over and over.
Keira Knightley starts off well playing Colette in her early, naive years. But as Colette wakes up and tries to live a more Bohemian life she doesn’t really do a good job.
Dominic West is just Noah from The Affair. Not original at all.
There’s a few shots that look lovely like out of an Impressionist painting. But not enough to keep the movie visually interesting.
I have no idea why this is 87% at RT. It is good for British actor spotting: “Hey, it’s X from Y!”
Give it 2 Douglas firs.
We’ve been watching a lot of Dickens lately. Right now, it’s the 1948 version of Oliver Twist, which is excellent. The cast includes an unrecognizable Alec Guiness as Fagin, a very young Anthony Newly as Artful Dodger, and Diana Dors, of all people, as a young girl. David Lean’s direction is impeccable.
Saw Aquaman last night. It was okay, probably the second best in the recent DCU after Wonder Woman (but more consistent than WW’s high points and low ending points). Still probably only as good as a B-tier MCU flick though. Lot of action, some humor, bunches of CGI underwater cities and critters. If you think you’d be inclined to like it, you probably won’t leave angry. If comic universe movies aren’t your thing, this certainly won’t change your mind.
I just watched ‘Venom.’ Thought it was pretty good. I was hesitant to try it because it got mediocre reviews, but I really liked it.
My wife’s book club read and liked the book, and she thought the movie was a pretty good adaptation.
Sorry to hear it! I’m a Knightley fan and this has been on my list of movies to see.
My latest five:
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
A 1949 John Wayne movie about an aging cavalry officer on his last mission (or is it?) in the 1870s American West, trying to avert a new war with the Indians. Another of his problems is that two of his young officers are both wooing the same spunky Western gal. Recommended to me by a friend; it was OK but not great.
Good Bye, Lenin!
Comedy about a young East German man who goes to great lengths to keep his mother, who was in a coma when the Berlin Wall fell, from learning that communism has failed and the Soviet bloc has collapsed. Funny and oddly touching.
The Bad News Bears
The 1976 original, with Walter Matthau as the grumpy, alcoholic coach of a struggling Little League team and Tatum O’Neal as his star pitcher. A sports comedy which has its moments but just hasn’t aged well.
The Wolverine
Logan goes to Japan to say goodbye to the former Japanese officer, now a wealthy industrialist, whom he saved during WWII. Interesting plot, fine cast, and some great action sequences.
Dave
Probably my all-time favorite political comedy! Kevin Kline is terrific as a look-alike for the President who has to pretend to be him, and discovers that he kind of likes the job; Sigourney Weaver is equally good as the First Lady who starts to realize that all is not as it seems. Frank Langella steals every scene he’s in and really should’ve won an Oscar as the hard-nosed, power-hungry White House chief of staff. Charles Grodin is also great as the CPA whom the fake President brings in to balance the Federal budget. Highly recommended.
I recently watched the Netflix original picture “The Christmas Chronicles” with Kurt Russell as Santa Claus. I really liked it a lot, but then, I’ve been a Kurt Russell fan since he was making kids movies for Disney. It was produced by Chris Columbus, and had the same sort of feel as lots of those old eighties movies like “Home Alone” and “Gremlins.”
Basically, a quarreling brother and sister from Massachusetts sneak into Santa’s sleigh when he stops at their house on Christmas Eve, and end up throwing him off course. The sleigh is damaged, the sack of toys is lost, and they are hurled across the continent to Chicago. And time is running out to save Christmas! Fortunately, Santa still has plenty of mojo, and the brother and sister learn a lot about improvising - and about themselves.
I think Kurt Russell is my new favorite Santa Claus. Think Jack Burton with a long white beard.
So there’s a bunch of “kid gets screwed up by family/therapy/whatever.” films coming out. I opted for The Miseducation of Cameron Post since it has Chloë Grace Moretz, one of my favorite young actors, and a really good RT rating.
Set in 1993, Moretz is caught doing the naughty with her girlfriend and is sent away to a therapy camp (not just gay conversion). Stuff ensues.
Basically all the events you’d expect in such a movie are there, just not well done in most cases.
And then it ends.
Great summary, right? Well, that’s pretty much all it deserves. Lots of interesting plot possibilities are set up and then don’t happen. Things happen out of the blue for no logical reason and are dropped. Etc.
Give it 2.5 iceberg drawings, mostly for Moretz. If she wasn’t in it, it wouldn’t even rate a 1.
Should have watched Boy Erased instead.
Mary Poppins Returns. It felt a lot like the “Sherry Bobbins” episode of The Simpsons, where every song is a clever parody of an equivalent in the original. And there is a lot of time spent on musical numbers that don’t advance the plot. But that said, I’d still recommend it anyway.
If you liked “Goodbye Lenin” you might like “The Edukators” also with Daniel Bruhl, and similar themes, but more exciting and reflective. Both fine movies.
I saw *Vice *last night.
Overall - yawn. I was bored stiff. There are a few interesting directorial/cinematographic choices and Christian Bale’s imitation of Dick Cheney is remarkable, but that’s all I got out of it - a two hour Dick Cheney imitation. There was really nothing in the movie that I didn’t already know and they didn’t lay out anything that interestingly so I left wondering why I went in the first place. My parents enjoyed it.
We watched The Christmas Chronicles last week. It seemed like forced fun to me.
Last night was Alfonso Cuaron’s ROMA, which was a look at life in Mexico based on Cuaron’s childhood. Done in B&W and getting a lot of attention from reviewers.
“The Sign of the Leo” - 9/10
Rohmer’s first movie. I’ve seen more than a handful of his movies, either by chance or recommendation, but this is easily my favorite. The inheritance in the first 30 seconds of the movie was interesting, especially since I like having a setting where I can imagine.
Thanks - hadn’t heard of that before.
My latest five:
A Christmas Story
I’d never actually seen the movie all the way through, so I finally did. A funny, sentimental holiday movie about growing up poor but loved in an oddball family during the Great Depression.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Coen Brothers’ new Western anthology. “The Meal Ticket,” about an unusual orator and his rough-hewn impresario, is the best segment, I think, but the whole movie is pretty good - fun, imaginative, and often quirky, violent and dark in that patented CB way. An outstanding cast including Liam Neeson, James Franco, Stephen Root, Brendan Gleeson and others.
Die Hard
Still not a “Christmas movie,” dammit, but an exciting, action-packed thriller that just happens to be set at Christmastime. Probably the third or fourth time I’ve seen it. As great as ever.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Biopic with Joan Allen in the title role as the iconoclastic painter, and Jeremy Irons as her lover, promoter and eventual husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. An interesting and engaging portrait of two remarkably talented people and their tumultuous, sometimes love-hate relationship.
White Christmas
Hadn’t seen this holiday classic before, either. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye put together a big show to save the failing Vermont inn of their former WWII commanding officer. Dated and silly, sometimes even cringeworthy, but has some good songs.