Super Troopers 2. I don’t know where I stand on this one. Objectively, it’s a horrible movie but I thought I was a Broken Lizard fan. Turns out I just liked Beerfest. The first Super Troopers was funny while they were cops on the highway fucking with stoners, but when the plot hit, I turned horrible. This one is the opposite. It starts horrible, and pretty much stays that way most of the time, but there are a few pretty funny spots interspersed here and there.
I guess I’d still recommend it if you truly are a Broken Lizard fan, of if that’s just the type of humor that turns your crank, but I warn you - it doesn’t even have a half-decent premise, the gist of which is that there’s a strip of land in Canada near the Vermont border which is going to, “become American,” through some contrived land deal. So the boys get their jobs back to go introduce American culture to Canada. And then there’s this, that, the other thing … a stupid smuggling plot to throw in conflict … and the whole thing is all wrapped up in basically a deus ex machina ending and they all lived happily ever after.
So yeah … smoke a joint, watch half of it now and half of it later and you’ll probably like it.
Campeones, which apparently is called Empowered in English. There was only one scene I didn’t like; seriously, only because it’s a Spanish movie doesn’t mean you are legally required to include a bit so improbably illegal it should have pinged Interpol Australia’s radar. Good actors and it played very well with a lot of stereotypes, had many places where what happened was not what anybody would have expected. I particularly enjoyed the multiple takes on “bros before hos” that are so different from the versions of that saying I’ve been hearing in the last decade or so.
I started a thread about Cold War, but it’s worth mentioning here for better exposure. A truly outstanding film by any standards and should be the winner of Best Foreign Film. I know that Roma is getting all the press, but this is a better film by any metric.
Bit the bullet and watched the latest version of A Star is Born.
We watched the 1976 (Christmas day), so there was a ton of “The next scene is going to be the one where Jack gets jealous of Ally’s sudden success.” kind of premonition going on.
Better in some ways than the 76 version, much worse in several ways. Esp. the weird way they did the (you know) scene near the end. Geez, there’s a motorcycle right there!
The Gaga’s great singing job is the highlight for me.
I saw Andrew Dice Clay’s name in the closing credits. Oh. I remember seeing his name on the RT page but I forgot to look for him. Pater Gaga. I was surprised that I was surprised since he also did a good job in Blue Jasmine. (Which was a Woody Allen film who also did Radio Days which had Kitty Carlisle in it who was married to Moss Hart. The 1954 screenplay writer of A Star is Born.)
Sam Elliott did his usual great job. Sadly, despite playing a musician, we never see him perform.
I watched this at home with other people — a couple of whom were desparate for “something funny.” After 30 minutes everyone was depressed. I left the room around the halfway point, so I can’t give a fair review, but…
None of the characters were real people, and I never bought the romance between the leads. I usually don’t pay much attention to sound tracks, but this one was actively annoying — whenever a big expensive house appeared or when someone put on a glamorous outfit the soundtrack segued into soft “ohh, isn’t it amazing and wonderful” music.
OTOH, Avengers: Infinity War was very impressive. Growing up I was a serious fan of Marvel, but burnout hit me many decades ago. The endless parade of stories made the problems/triumphs/deaths hollow. And the movies just had too many fights.
That said, Infinity War was entertaining as hell. The production values were amazing, the endless parade of Marvel characters was handled almost seamlessly, and the dialog was funny and self-mocking without completely undercutting the drama.
I couldn’t really take the events seriously, and any film that includes time travel is automatically just a shadow show, but jeez this was a slick, cutting edge, Hollywood blockbuster done right.
I would like to comment on The Guilty since I saw it at our local Alamo last week. It’s a brilliant film. My husband commented that it had the feel of an old-fashioned radio play. It’s very simple in story and execution, but flawless and very compelling. It’s about a police dispatcher (actually a cop doing desk duty) who gets pulled into a 911 call just before the end of his shift and can’t let it go so he stays until it’s resolved. The entire film happens in the two rooms of the 911 center, and centers on the main actor. If that sounds dreadfully boring it’s only because condensing it to a small description like that reduces it. It’s gripping and well told, has a twist or two that keeps the viewer wondering what will happen next.
I watched Escape Room. It’s a PG-13 version of Saw / The Cube with no-name actors.
And frankly, exactly what that kind of genre needed: the appeal of the original Saw movie was not the gore (for most people IME), and it’s a shame the makers never got that.
Escape Room is scary enough without the gore. Some of the puzzles / solutions were pretty dumb (see spoiler) but that dumbness was good for breaking up some of the tension.
Everyone putting their hands on a huge block of ice to melt out the key? In an environment where the outside temperature is freezing? :dubious:
I think days later you’d have a pile of necrotized hands lying on the ground before you’re even halfway into the block.
The Favourite
Opulent, offbeat, usually-entertaining costume drama about two ruthless courtiers vying to be Queen Anne’s BFF. All three actresses are very good, and the sets and costumes are gorgeous, but the movie’s a bit too long, I’d say.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Ridley Scott’s last (for now) editing of his 1982 classic. Still a great sf noir detective movie, set in a fully-realized urban dystopia, with images and scenes that linger in your mind.
Bad News Bears
The 2005 remake of the 1976 baseball black comedy. Billy Bob Thornton does pretty well in the Walter Matthau role, as a hard-drinking former MLB player who agrees, against his better judgment, to coach a Little League team that really sucks. (Of course, after some setbacks, he turns the team around in no time flat). Some changes from the original but it’s mostly the same movie, just with a different cast.
Brexit
Acerbic, documentary-style quasi-satire about the 2016 British referendum to leave the European Union. Benedict Cumberbatch is, as always, terrific in the lead role, this time playing the pro-Leave campaign’s brilliant, hard-driving manager.
Chef Flynn
So-so documentary about a teenager who becomes a celebrity chef, eventually opening his own restaurant in New York City. Would’ve benefitted from more background on what got him interested in cooking so young, and some talking heads discussing his cooking, the reaction of foodies to him, and the cutthroat NYC restaurant scene.
Just saw the limited release of They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson’s WWI documentary. He has managed to take archival footage of that war, clean it up and colorize it without having it look cheesy, and put it together in a coherent narrative, along with archived interviews with veterans of the war. Shockingly well done.
Phantom Thread - I don’t think I got it. Daniel Day-Lewis could fart in a bucket and I’d watch it - and his performance didn’t disappoint - but I have to admit, I didn’t give two tapered turds for any character in this entire movie. Day-Lewis’s character was just basically a neurotic asshole. His young lover (sorry I can’t remember character names, or other actors/actresses in this movie, but I can’t be arsed) seemed just an opportunist pretending to be altruistic. Is that it? Two assholes meet each other and fall in love? I don’t know.
Good movie, but it seemed a little pointless to me. I’m prepared to be educated. What did I miss?
Well, Alma (his new model and muse) was less of an asshole than the DDL character when she first got involved with him, but once we got into the seriously weird poisoning subplot, I agree she was an asshole, although of an entirely different variety. I don’t think the movie was pointless (and it was certainly gorgeous to behold), but I do think it went off the rails in the final act.
I liked that there was no mention of the Force or Sith and Jedi (apart from that hologram) and I wish they didn’t have that blind almost Jedi in Rogue One.
Sorry to Bother You (on Hulu). I’m not sure what to say about this. Weird, fascinating, significant? Writer-director Boots Riley (never heard of him before) draws a straight line between underpaid drone work (telemarketing) and nouveau slavery and mad scientist human-horse hybrids to replace human workers . I can’t say I completely enjoyed it, but I have to applaud him for making it. Liked all the actors and performances, too.
Eighth Grade (Amazon Prime). Really liked it a lot. Captures middle-school misery perfectly, but at the end it feels very hopeful.
MotW: Widows with a bunch of well known people. For me it was mainly because of Elizabeth Debicki. Viola Davis plays the lead with Michelle Rodriguez as their partner in crime. A Steve McQueen film.
The plot …, yeah, about that. It does have a plot. Sort of. The woman are widows who lost their men in a heist gone wrong. Due to Incredibly Stupid Reasons they have to pull off a huge heist Right Now despite being complete idiots at such matters.
There’s politicians and gangsters involved and a very evil kitchen sink.
It is just a muddle. And people doing stupid stuff stupidly.
But at least it’s got a bunch of great actors, right? Well, Davis is just her character from TV. Debicki is misused. Rodriguez is barely used at all. Colin Farrell is completely accent-less and therefore emotionally neutered. And on and on.
One plus among the actors is Lukas Haas* as a rich john. But for each such actor there’s a bunch of Jacki Weaver’s doing the usual Jacki Weaver stuff.
And will people stop casting Robert Duvall as the bigoted, nasty father, please. It’s getting old, as is he.
Who plays Michael Collins in First Man which we just saw.
