It was deliberate.
I assumed. But given that there exists a porn parody of it with a similar title, I had to wonder.
I live a sheltered life.
I wish I did.
Due to the mention of the Nic Cage movie Dream Scenario, we watched it the other night. Decent enough. Big plus with Julianne Nicholson. Some “unbalanced” plot issues. (Too much of this, not enough, or any, of that.)
Small roles forTim Meadows and Michael Cera. Dylan Baker plays a complete non-serial killer so almost missed him.
Give it 3.5 zebras.
Saw Furiosa in theaters today.
I’m still mad about it.
Spouse Weasel generously called it “uneven.” While I liked some parts, I found much of it incoherent. It gave a lot of backstory I’m not sure we needed, as the more you get into the weeds the less everything makes sense. This was not a problem I had with Fury Road because I was too busy having my face rocked off to nitpick anything.
I don’t want to spoil anything, I just thought the storytelling was kind of crap. The casting and acting were great, and the few action scenes were fun, but nothing to write home about.
Watching it just reminded me of all the things Fury Road did right. Which is not really an experience you want to have watching a movie.
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (yesterday) we went to see the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I can still hear the main motif.
Considering how long those versions are, they moved along with no dragging at all.
A few days ago we watched an Alec Guinness movie I’d never heard of based on a Daphne DuMaurier novel that I also had never heard of – The Scapegoat. It kept my interest, but the plausibility level was waaaaaay low.
Guinness plays two strangers – one French and one English --who are physically identical to each other. The French one gets the English one drunk after they meet, checks him into his room in a local hotel, and disappears. The English one is protesting that he’s not the French guy (a count, no less), but no one will believe him. They tried to tacitly explain why he was able to pull off the impersonation, but if you thought about it for about two seconds, it was pretty implausible.
It had a happy ending that DuMaurier was not happy with. Her ending, while not especially sad or depressing, sounded kind of flat to me.
13 Hours 2016 John Krasinski
The Benghazi attack in 9/11/2012 is almost 14 years. It still makes me both sad and angry.
The movie does a good job depicting the efforts to protect US Ambassador Stevens. Some incredibly brave men rushed into a situation where they were significantly outnumbered.
I recommend watching it. The acting and action sequences are very good. There are some historical inaccuracies listed in Wikipedia. But I think the movie captures the spirit and heroism of the people that tried to save the US Ambassador.
Wild Eyes and Wicked
Not recommended.
★ out of ★★★★★
Warning: This movie advertises a “Fantasy Horror movie”. Even the poster features the lead with a sword as if she is ready to fight evil in a fantasy/medieval setting.
No. It’s mostly people, in modern times, talking about their problems. Even for a low-budget movie, this was terrible and is on my “worst of 2024” almost certainly.
Do not be fooled. This movie is boring from beginning to end.
Dune 2 - If you liked the first one, this one is better. If you found the first one long, tedious and confusing, this one is worse.
The Holdovers - Pretty standard “people with issues thrown together who end up supporting each other and becoming better for it” film. Great performances from the cast, but no real plot twists or new ideas.
Wicked Little Letters - This felt like a film with not quite enough plot so instead they filled it with little semi-comic character vignettes. Some outstanding performances across the board, which elevate a rather tepid (if roughly true) story to something actually entertaining.
Watched Hit Man last night. Definitely a fine film. Glen Powell goes total chameleon in it. I can’t remember someone who goes thru so many great changes in a film before. It’s not just the makeup and costumes, it’s the person.
Give 4.5 pies.
Watched The Double on Prime last night. 2011 film starring Richard Gere and Topher Grace. A spy not-so-thriller with a plot that was hard to follow.
Would not recommend.
The wife has been on a war movie kick lately, so we’re plowing through a long list that I won’t relate here. Two nights ago was All Quiet on the Western Front, and last night was The Execution of Private Slovik.
Ouija and Ouija II: Origin of Evil (a prequel to the first movie) on Netflix. People with Ouija boards fuck around and find out. As far as recommendations go, I don’t end up with strong feelings about either movie, either for or against. Curious about how these movies were received, I looked up reviews, and the consensus seems to be that Origin is clearly the better of the two. I agree, but I’m not as enthusiastic about how good it is as some of the reviewers are. I don’t see much in either movie that would make it memorable.
Watched Inside Out in preparation for the sequel. My husband and I wept copiously. I’m pretty sure we did the first time but it does hit a little differently as a parent. It’s a really high quality movie about an important thing and IMO one of Pixar’s best.
My son liked it but probably did not fully understand it. He got a kick out of the memory marbles though.
I would agree the second one is the proper film that deserves attention. In the 80’s there was a movie that was filmed as Ouija, but before release Parker Brothers stopped them from calling the movie Ouija because they own that trademark.
The had filmed the movie, though, and everyone says Ouija board throughout. Parker Brothers let them release the movie without re-filming/re-recording it, but the movie was changed to:
Witchboard
Got back from two weeks out of the country and caught up on the summer box office, with mixed results.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die This series has kind of plateaued. Not awful, but nothing that they haven’t done before. Lots of 'splosions, gunfights, accompanied by running jokes. Some side characters get killed off, but new ones pop up. Not a terrible way to spend a couple of hours escaping the heat (and reality).
Inside Out 2 A worthy follow up to the original, taking Riley into puberty. Not quite the equal of the original but I have to admit the theater got a little dusty towards the end of the film.
Tuesday A truly strange fable, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a role you haven’t seen her in. It’s reminiscent of the recent Three Thousand Years of Longing, it is an out and out fable that invites you to surrender logic and just be swept into a story of a mother and (chronically ill) daughter hosting Death for a day. (for example, why does the mother have a New York accent and her daughter a British accent? If this kind of thing is important to you, don’t watch this one)
Run Lola Run (Lola rennt) A 4K restoration and re-release of one of the most kinetic films of people just running around you’ll ever experience. Starring Franka Potente, one of the actresses who’s never really gotten her due, directed by one of the few directors who used her right. It will be streaming very soon, but see it in a theater if you can.
Speaking of re-releases, one of the trailers before Lola rennt was for the re-release of a 4K restoration of Seven Samurai! If you’ve never seen this movie on the big screen and have the opportunity this summer, take it! Accounted one of the greatest films ever made, it shows what a master director can do in the “action” genre, without CGI or huge budgets.
Dune part 2 (Max). It was fine. I liked it. But I have 2 quibbles.
The pacing, and the relative import given to the parallel plot threads: Paul coming to grips with his Destiny, and Atreides vs Harkonnens (and Emperor). We spend 2.5 hours on the first, and then in the last few minutes all the Harkonnens are dead and the Emperor abdicates. Boom. Seemed kind of rushed.
We never get a good look at the sand worms (It almost feels like it was a CGI problem they couldn’t resolve.) Even when the Fremen are riding, the worm is underground. How does that work???
Space Cowboys, the answer to a trivia question earlier in the week. I vaguely remember seeing this one when it came out (2000), as for my then-wife and I, any movie with Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones was an automatic go-to.
It was cute. Nothing special, typical Hollywood fare in that it doesn’t make a bit of sense in the real-world. Also, I’m not too sure what James Garner was doing in this movie - did they find out during filming that he couldn’t remember lines or something? As far as I can tell, there were two instances of his character saying something: when he and Clint met at the church, and when he offered a prayer before liftoff. Other than that? Silence. Completely bizarre.
There were people who were implacable enemies one scene, then working together in harmony the next, and I’m not too sure what that was about.
Anyway, watch this one if it’s already on, or you just want some good old-fashioned 90s-era Hollywood cornpone vibes in your life.
Piece of advice: When you point out that you can’t make it to the moon by pointing at the moon and then firing your rockets, please note: The other people watching with you don’t care. 