My one sentence review:
For a film called Twisters, I wish there were more twisters.
The movie was apparently almost entirely filmed in Sydney. There may have been a few establishing shots (long-distance shots of a couple of seconds to fool you into thinking that that location was where the following scene was set) in Boston. The early scenes were set in Boston. The later scenes were set in Sydney. I suspect that the filmmakers looked at how much cheaper it was to do the filming in Australia. The Australian government has various incentives making it cheaper. The filmmakers then (I suspect) rewrote the script to make the wedding be a destination wedding, even though the couple getting married were supposed to be Americans.
I think even the movie says it is just about done with multiverse, but they did do a great job playing with it. In all the goings on, I hadn’t thought about mergin all the pre-MCU stuff with the MCU stuff in such fun ways as this movie did.
I think it’s one of my favorite movies of the years so far and I’ve seen 48 new 2024 releases so far.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. This one strikes me as more of a Guy Ritchie movie than a “reimagining” (or whatever word you want to use) of the old TV series, but then again, Ritchie was a good choice for director, I think. It’s 1963, and a CIA agent and a KGB agent are paired up in a grudging partnership to carry out a mission. A nice little action-comedy flick that’s entertaining enough.
Hit Man, 2023, Netflix. An action-comedy about an undercover New Orleans cop who poses as a hit man to entrap those who seek such a service. Quite entertaining with a surprising ending.
Speaking of hit men, I just watched Michael Keaton in Knox Goes Away, a drama about a hit man who has dementia. It’s actually quite good, with many solid performances and a twisty plot line. It’s on Max.
I thought the after-credits scene was fun, but boy are there a LOT of credits to sit through. I understand why, but I’ve gotten used to being able to scroll past them.
Longlegs
Recommended.
Good, even great at times, but not Os Perkins best movie and I could see some of the hype causing people to be letdown. I liked this movie quite a bit and I think I want to see it again when it hits streaming to process the story and twists, etc.
Kudos to Nicolas Cage for going all in and trusting the director on this one. It is almost too far, but ends up being pretty crazy and intense.
Good movie, quite tense. One thing I’ve admired about Os Perkins has also been that his movies come in under 100 minutes and he almost always achieves a hugely memorable and haunting impact.
His best is Blackcoat’s Daughter, a movie I think about a lot. This one was either his second or third best.
Literally just came back from Longlegs…my daughter and I used to watch horror movies all the time, and she was unexpectedly free, so off we went.
I went in knowing literally nothing about it other than its Metacritic score (I didn’t even know Nic Cage was in it), and the upshot is that I liked it a LOT. I very much enjoy that creepy vibe in movies, I like the early 80s callbacks, Nic Cage was great, and so were the lead actors. It didn’t break any new ground, but that was okay, it was very much worth the time. Solid 84/100 for me.
I rented it last night. Pretty good. I have a few nitpicks. They introduce the kgb agent similiar to the T1000 in T2. Even including him chasing down a car. I had trouble after that relating to the character during the partnership. I couldn’t get past his relentless robot introduction.
Is Elizabeth Debicki really an actress? I thought she was wooden and expressionless as the Blonde villian. Ice Queen or just bad acting?
Overall a fun action/comedy. I’d watch the sequel if it’s ever made.
Ha! I said pretty much exactly the same thing to my wife, about T2. Yeah, that part’s overdone, but I don’t think it sours the movie as a whole.
Well, she’s won numerous acting awards, including a SAG award for her role as Princess Diana in The Crown. I’d recommend watching The Burnt Orange Heresy for a good slice of her in a worthy role.
And she’s fashioned her career while overcoming a major disability for a leading lady in Hollywood. She’s 6’ 3" tall.
The People’s Joker
Not recommended.
I am extremely sensitive and sympathetic to the director’s difficult upbringing as a transgender child, not understanding what they were going through and getting zero help from their mother, but the movie itself is only OK at best.
Now that I’m writing about it, it’s actually kind of hard to explain. The protagonist is growing up in some kind of alternate world with Batman, etc. I think. Comedy is illegal, but the protagonist, a transgender girl, dresses up like the Joker and does anti-comedy with some colleagues.
There can be great comedy mixed with tragedy/trauma, but this movie just doesn’t bring the trauma or comedy solidly enough to be impactful.
I think it the comedy worked better, the sad parts would be more powerful. Neither are all that powerful, though I can tell it is a pretty personal work.
It was OK.
Tuesday
Recommended.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss should, and I hopefully will, win an Oscar for this movie. She’s terrific and her performance is probably the best of the year so far. The movie is good, but I do feel very strongly that the opening 30 minutes are just a bit too slow and drag the movie down. However, after those 30 minutes, this is a great movie. Great.
Deals with having a disabled child who is possibly dying. What if you could intervene with Death? Would you? Should you?
I absolutely commend Julia Louis-Dreyfuss for her performance. For being kind of famous at this point for not aging, she allows herself to be seen in this movie without makeup, or at least made-up to appear with minimal make-up. We see the lines on her face that come from dealing with having a terminally ill daughter and we feel it. She makes decisions in this movie and I do not judge a single one.
The movie isn’t quite totally awesome, but I certainly hope enough people see it to get Julia Louis-Dreyfuss the acting attention she deserves for it. Powerful stuff.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, starring Mini-Me Reacher in a hopeless plot with tired dialog.
I was surprisingly bored with this movie. I seem to recall that the original was exciting, but these guys could be in the middle of an F5 and I’m nodding off.
Under Paris
Pitch: Mutant sharks infest the Seine and Paris catacombs during a triathlon. I knew what I was in for when I pressed play, so I can’t complain. Watch it in French with subtitles; the dub is horrible. Worthwhile if the Sharknado films are just too cerebral for you.
I was traveling so I saw a number of films on the plane and one movie in the theater as soon as I got back
Play! (2024) A Japanese film about three teenagers that come together to play in a e-sports tournament. The three kids come from very different backgrounds and home situations and have differing motivations which makes for a very interesting film.
Road House (2024) An action film where either you like the actors and to a certain extent the vibe, or you don’t since there is not much of a plot. The movie really is set during the first act, and if you like how they did the first fight of the film, then you like it from there. Jake Gyllenhaal is a lot of fun and he really carries the film.
An interesting fact about this film is how they filmed the hits. They essentially had two takes for how they did it. One with the actor/stuntman hitting a padded up opponent at full strenght/speed and a second where they are simply making contact. They combined the two and allowed them show essentially full contact hits on screen as opposed to the ‘almost hits’ they usually do. I do not know how effective it looks in a movie theater but on a small screen you can’t really tell there is any trickery and the hits feel real.
Don’t Lose Your Head (2024) A Japanese comedy set during the Edo period with the main plot having to do with having someone impersonate another for political purposes, somewhat akin to the movie Dave (1993). Funny though predictable with a bit of heart.
American Fiction (2023) A great comedy film that had me laughing out loud many times. Yes, it is a bit cringe worthy because of the subject mater in American culture. I do not know exactly how it plays in other countries that do not have the same context. Well done on the part of all the actors. Like really good comedies it does not just make you laugh it makes you think as well.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) A fun movie, which is exactly what I was expecting when I purchased tickets almost a month in advance. I was a bit disappointed with the opening credits because unless I missed it, they did not contain the same type of jokes as the first two deadpool films. The way the story was presented, the call backs to previous characters in both the FOX and Marvel universe, the dynamic between the main characters and the fourth wall breaking made for an enjoyable time at the theater. I do think that it did go a little long, but I look forward to re-watching it anyway.
//i\\
Ghostlight. A family is trying to deal with a Very Bad Thing that happened. Husband, wife and daughter.
The husband, a road worker, gets roped into being an actor in a really small time production of Romeo and Juliet. Movie ensues.
Quite intense for the most part but has some lighter, even funny, moments. A good movie overall.
Dolly De Leon as the acting partner really steals a lot scenes. Great job.
BTW, on Rotten Tomatoes, there’s 85 critic reviews, 100% positive. That’s kind of rare.
Give it 4 jackhammers.
(The actors playing the husband and daughter have the same uncommon last name suggesting they are real life father-daughter, but IMDb is mum on this.)
The husband and wife are married in real life and their daughter is their actual daughter. I saw this film earlier this year where they were all there for a Q&A. It’s one of my top films of 2024 so far!