Saw two movies from Netflix.
Deliver us from Evil. Bullshit ‘true story’ about demonic possession in NYC, where there is no sunshine, all light bulbs flicker constantly and flashlights do not work well.
Hey, I get that you want to be dark and scary and all, but after a while it is annoying as hell.
Sex Tape Oh my God. This was awful. I mean awful. Couldn’t finish it awful. Awful from the opening scene and gets less believable and likable with every passing minute.
Fantastic film, as is [rec]2, which covers a lot of the same ground through different characters. [rec]3…you can skip that one.
[rec] was remade in the US as Quarantine with Jennifer Carpenter. For my money, it’s even better than the original.
An oldie: Kind Hearts and Coronets from 1950. The title would lead you to believe that it’s some sort of romantic story. Far from it. Alec Guinness does a tour de force, playing eight different characters (including a woman) who are murdered by a shirttail relative looking to inherit a title. Very amusing British comedy that holds up very well.
I’ve always wanted to see that. Guiness was also great in the dark comedy The Ladykillers - hard to believe he was the future Obi-Wan!
Seen since my last post:
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Pretty good spy flick - Brad Bird’s first turn as a live-action director. Tom Cruise is getting juuuuust a little too old for this kind of thing, but he and the rest of the cast do well. Nice mix of action, gunplay, tricks and jokes.
Thor: The Dark World
Another fun Marvel superhero flick, although not nearly on the level of Iron Man or The Avengers. Had two nice twists about Loki that made me smile.
The Limey
A British ex-con is out for revenge in sunny L.A. after he learns his estranged daughter died under maybe-suspicious circumstances. Terrence Stamp is mesmerizing. Funky back-and-forth, nonsequential editing of scenes and dialogue that might have been annoying, but actually works well. Also, the director used scenes from a 1967 film featuring Stamp to show his character in flashbacks - very clever.
Sorry to hear that. IMO, Ian McShane is a great actor.
There are two versions of this movie listed on IMDB.
One is from 2006 and was rated very high at 8.0 Deliver Us from Evil (2006) - IMDb
The other is from 2014 and was rated quite low at 6.2 Deliver Us from Evil (2014) - IMDb
I’m guessing you saw the one from 2006? I saw that too but I didn’t think it deserved to be rated at 8.0. I’m guessing that because the 2014 version is so new.
8.0 is the kind of rating usually earned by films like “The Sting”. The Sting (1973) - IMDb
Please excuse me If I’m mistaken.
His part is tiny, although he does it well.
Typo Negative,
I must apologize. I just looked up the description of the two movies and the one from 2014 is nothing like the one from 2006. The one from 2006 is about the Catholic priest and the one from 2014 is about a police officer in NYC and that is the one with the flickering lights.
I think the one from 2006 was rated so high due to the outrage that people felt when watching it. I seem to recall it was a fairly average documentary, but the subject material was so outrageous, it prompted a very strong negative reaction.
This Catholic priest …
Typo Negative,
I must apologize. I just looked up the description of the two movies and the one from 2014 is nothing like the one from 2006. The one from 2006 is about the Catholic priest and the one from 2014 is about a police officer in NYC and that is the one with the flickering lights.
I think the one from 2006 was rated so high due to the outrage that people felt when watching it. I seem to recall it was a fairly average documentary, but the subject material was so outrageous, it prompted a very strong negative reaction.
This Catholic priest had abused so many children but the church just kept moving him from one city to another instead of taking any action.
The families of the children did go to the church but the church just chose to go into denial about it. But that was nothing compared to the level of denial the priest himself still exhibits to this day.
He finally got moved back to Ireland and was happy to talk to the film makers. His current attitude is that he may have crossed a line or two and he’s sorry but he really doesn’t think anyone has anything to complain about.
The priest clearly knew what he was doing though because he always chose families who lived and breathed their Catholocism and IMO, he must have done that because he knew they were very unlikely to do anything that would hurt the Church.
In writing this, I begin to feel that outrage that people must have felt when they saw this and I think I would have given this movie a much higher rating than I thought I would in my OP.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Saw this spoof of TV news again for the first time in many years - uneven, but still a lot of fun, with some great lines (“Time to musk up,” “It smells like Bigfoot’s dick!”, “Brick killed a guy with a trident,” and “Jazz flute is for little sissy boys”).
An Ungentlemanly Act
Movie about Falkland Islanders just before and during the 1982 Argentine invasion. Full of British stiff-upper-lip determination and courage. Decent battle scenes.
Begin Again
Comedy-drama about an NYC record producer (Mark Ruffalo) whose personal and professional lives are both going badly, and the young singer-songwriter (Keira Knightley) whom he discovers and decides to promote. A charming, often funny little movie.
I watched that a few weeks ago. I agree, it’s well done and definitely worth watching.
In a World…
I wanted to see this when it came out but only recently watched it on Netflix. Highly recommended. Writer/director/star Lake Bell is great as well as the rest of the cast.
Trailer:
The original Lady Killers, with Alec Guinness. It also starred a very young Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom, who both went on to do the Pink Panther movies. Also saw The Captain’s Paradise with Guinness, and Yvonne De Carlo doing her sultry thang. Damn, but she was a hottie.
Yes, very funny movie. Hard to believe it’s the same guy who went on to play Obi-Wan.
I saw Bourne Ultimatum last night. Not too bad.
Just saw “My Summer of Love” on cable. Based on the title and the description I thought it was going to be a lighthearted coming-of-age movie about a lesbian romance. Um, no. It was a grim, dirty and joyless film about a lower-class lesbian who has a romance with an upper-class lesbian. Betrayals abound. Lars van Trier fans should love it. The other 99.9 percent of the human race … not so much.
Saw Paddington last week and loved it. I’m a sappy 50 year old woman. Saw* Imitation Game on New Year’s Eve and loved it. I am fascinated by the Enigmas story even though I have no idea how it works. Recently saw The Heartbreak Kid and Annie Hall *on TCM. I forgot how funny those movies were. I have *10 Rillington Place *in the TCM queue.
Saw The Seventh Son. Cheesy good fun.
What is it with Jeff Bridges and his new mumbling “accent”?
Well, he seems to keep getting work with it, so…
I’ve seen recently:
Rockwell Kent
A very interesting 2005 documentary about the artist, illustrator and social activist. I’ve always liked his stuff. He wasn’t a very nice human being, though - bossy and arrogant, and cheated on both of his wives in turn with just about every woman he could.
Vertigo
Saw the Hitchcock classic with its memorable, creepy score performed live by an orchestra. Jimmy Stewart plays an ex-cop who becomes obsessed with a woman who reminds him a bit too much of someone he once loved. Hitchcock does a great job shifting from supernatural mystery to weird love story to maybe-murder whodunnit. Great scenes of Fifties San Francisco, too.
The Towering Inferno
I vaguely remembered this movie from when I was a kid, and decided to see it again. Always cheesy, often silly, sometimes effective Seventies all-star cast-of-thousands disaster flick about a huge fire in skyscraper. Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway star.
Henry V
Part of PBS’s The Hollow Crown series of recent Shakespeare adaptations, with Tom Hiddleston as the great British warrior-king. Bigger budget than Kenneth Branagh’s version, but not quite as good, I’d say.
I just recently saw Lucy (2014).
It was rated 6.4 on IMDB and I was very disappointed by that. I thought it should have been rated at least 7.5.
This movie was just wild. The premise was wild. The action was wild. Just everything about it was wild.
It stars Scarlett Johansson (who can always be counted on to give the audience a real good time) and Morgan Freeman who is one of the finest actors working today.
I won’t tell you the plot. I doubt that I could explain why I liked it as much as I did anyway. But I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.
The only downside IMHO, was that it was written and directed by Luc Besson. He is a renowned French actor and director who is responsible for several most excellent films. Unfortunately, I think I can recognize his touch on this film and I get the feeling that much of his contributions tended to make the film kind of weird. IMO, if it was directed by a more average director, I think it would have been a better film.
However, bottom line for me was that this was a real good quality film and it’s almost a certainty that no matter what, it will not fail to entertain you and it will also get your brain cells working and give you some very interesting concepts to think about it.
The opening few minutes was really exciting. It got my heart to pounding and it made me believe the rest of the film was likely going to be just as exciting as the first few minutes. Do yourself a favor and do see this film.
Scarlett is a trip. A real rocking trip!
Re: Lucy. Haven’t seen it yet, am looking forward to doing so. I liked the premise, silly as it is. And I hear you on the topic of Luc Besson. I think the French directors who’ve made movies do not have a very clear grasp on the distinction between science fiction and fantasy, as they keep commingling them. Besson’s “Fifth Element” had a similar weirdness to it … it had the trappings of SF by it had the feel of a campy fantasy. So did “Barberella.” A shame, given that Jules Verne, one of the early giants of SF who had a real knack for getting things right, was French.