Movies you've seen recently (Part 1)

Cafe Society
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My latest five:

Edge of Tomorrow
Exciting sf military/timeloop drama - Groundhog Day meets The Longest Day meets Starship Troopers. Saw and enjoyed it for the second time. Tom Cruise is fine, but Emily Blunt is simply outstanding.

Bad Education
Hugh Jackman plays a beloved Long Island public school superintendent and Allison Janney is his trusty treasurer in this excellent dark comedy about embezzlement on a grand scale, and the scrappy student journalist who exposes it.

The Madness of King George
A British National Theatre recorded stage performance, with Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Game of Thrones) as George III, dealing with Parliament, palace intrigue, shiftless royal sons and recurring mental illness. Very good stuff.

Out of Sight
Hadn’t seen this excellent, funny-but-violent Elmore Leonard crime romcom in a loooong time. George Clooney is charming as a gentleman bank robber, and Jennifer Lopez has never been better, or sexier, than she is here as a tough young deputy U.S. marshal with a weakness for bad boys.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Finally saw this classic Spaghetti Western. The three titular gunslingers all do incredibly dumb things (I’m not an amoral killer frontiersman myself, most days, but even I could see how they could’ve made better decisions), and there’s a big, exciting but nonsensical Civil War battle. The scenery is great, though, the music is iconic, and of course there’s plenty of Early Clint Eastwood badassery.

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Uncorked (by and on Netflix). A take on the classic “son doesn’t want to go into the family business” trope. A bit of a different spin – the cast is all African-American (Courtney B. Vance and Niecy Nash are the parents), the business is a Memphis BBQ place, and the son wants to be a sommelier.

Quite good (and you’ll learn a bunch about wine). Recommended.

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My favorite wine movie is Somm, a documentary. Highly recommended: Somm Official Trailer 1 (2013) - Wine Documentary HD - YouTube

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Watched “The Nightingale” yesterday. A revenge flick that takes place in Tasmania during a brutal period of colonization and persecution of Aborigines. As a topic, it works. However, the multiple graphic rape scenes, and the murder of children make it nearly unwatchable.

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If you liked Somm, consider seeking out “Uncorked” (not the film jsc1953 mentioned above), a six-part docu-series. It’s very similar to Somm in many respects, but covers some different aspects of the process. And the longer format lets you get to know the Sommeliers better. I really enjoyed it. It appears to be on Amazon Prime, but not for free. You may be able to find it elsewhere.

Sorry, not a movie, I know. We now return to our regularly-scheduled thread.

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Thanks, Wheelz! Hadn’t heard of that before.

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The History of Time Travel (2014)

It’s on Prime. It’s an interesting little low budget indy-flick that cleverly tells a compelling story of time travel utilizing nothing but interviews with experts and historians, newsreel type photos and videos and smart editing. The acting performances are nothing to write home about but I really enjoyed it. It’s hard to explain without spoilering, but the movie starts out as a documentary on ‘History Television’ about the history of time travel. They tell you who invented it, how they know it happened, they show you evidence on newsreels, etc.

Then they tell you how it affected the man who invented the machine and his family. Through a series of moral dilemmas the inventor/inventors of time travel subtly change things … and in turn subtly change the documentary you are watching.

When I first noticed the twist - the gimmick, if you will - I was a little put off, but it grows on you and you really look forward to how the whole thing is going to end.

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“Terminator: Dark Fate” (2019) – a totally unnecessary “sequel” to the first two Terminator movies, that was more of a remake than a sequel. Sure, there have been five previous Terminator movies, but this one pretty much ignored the last three (can’t blame them for that). Basically, John Conner was killed by the Terminator after all, yet somehow Skynet still never materialized. But, a different AI overlord, “Legion” somehow came to power, and now has sent back another terminator to kill another would-be leader. Only Sarah Connor, now an aging MILF, is there to help her out. And the original Terminator, now an aging family man, is also there to help. Ye gods, this movie was a mess, as well as being a completely unnecessary and redundant sequel. It reminded me a lot of The Force Awakens in its unnecessariness.

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The Biggest Little Farm (2018) (Hulu). Documentary about a suburban LA couple who decide to start a farm; and not just any old farm, but one using sustainable, eco-friendly practices. Somehow funding is never an issue (they have “investors”) but gophers, snails and coyotes are.

Absolutely charming, warm, sweet, life-affirming and gorgeously photographed. Check it out.

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That sounds cool! Thanks.

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Let me know what you think. I was right on the fence most of the way.

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My wife wanted to see Hamilton, and we got a deal on Disney Plus through Hulu, so signed up. First movie we watched? Pinocchio!

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Rememory
with Peter Dinklage and Martin Donovan.

A murder mystery about a scientist (Donovan) who invented a machine that captures true past memories (not the altered by later experiences) and displays them on a screen, who is found dead in office right before machine is to be released to the public.

Dinklage plays a man, tortured by his own memories, who steals the machine and tries to use the memory recordings of the test subjects to piece together who may have killed the scientist.

A bit slow paced but surprisingly engaging and emotional.

Recommended.

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Over the weekend I watched two MST3K movies I hadn’t seen – The Starfighters and Secret Agent Double Dragon. I think the only reason they got the first one was so that they could make fun of the aerial refueling scene (a la the opening of Dr. Strangelove), because the movie was boring… Secret Agent Double Dragon, though, was hilariously bad, and perfect MST3K fodder. A failed Bond-esque spy film.

My wife Pepper Mill was getting tired of the MST3K, though, so I suggested we watch anothere old film I’d picked up used – The Long Ships. I’d never actually seen the whole movie, and what I remembered was pretty good. I read the book it was based on – Red Orm by Frans Bengsson, which has become something of a classic in Sweden. The film has a screenplay written in part by Beverley Cross (Lawrence of Arabia, Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans. I didn’t even have to look that up.). The cast features Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier (!) , and a pst- West Siide Story Russ Tamblyn (who manages to work some WSS dance moves into his fights).

Right at the start I was impressed, because Maurice Binder – who did the opening titles for most of the Bond movies until 1990, as well as the ones for Charade and Arabesque, did the opening credits. But then the film got – well – dumb. Despite the big names in the cast, the film seemed to take the dumbed-down road. Pepper Mill started MST3K-ing this movie. “Is that supposed to be Viking music?” she asked. “It sounds like a western, or something.” “Oh, come ON, that’s stupid!” “Gold wouldn’t sound like that!” “Is this supposed to be the comic relief scene? 'Cause it’s not funny.” And so on.

It’s a weird flick. Vikings among the Moors in search of a fabled Giant Bell, the Mother of Voices (sounds like something out of Game of Thrones). Some of the Moors are white and some are black (like Poitier, who seems more appropriate for the role than anyone else. Widmark reportedly insisted he get a part – they were originally going to have Ernest Borgnine playing the role.) An embarrassing blackface portrayal of a (presumably) eunuch harem guard by character actor Lionel Jeffries (who usually seems to play silly-ass Britishers). And a completely unexpected bit by Leonard Rossiter as as a Moorish guard who’s asked to sacrifice himself*

*Rossiter was the Russian scientist Dr. Floyd talks to in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and was later Captain Quin in Barry Lyndon, although I fondly remember him from the title role in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.)
Oskar Homolka (who I’d seen in other 60s films, like Mr. Sardonicus plays Kroc, the shipbuilder and father of the two main Viking characters, with an accent we’re still trying to figure out. It ain’t Swedish, or Germanic. It sounds like he’s playing a Jewish Viking grandfather.

Overall, not the rousing adventure film I recalled from long ago, but a fun evening of riffing.

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My wife had never seen “The Pianist”, so we watched that last night. It’s probably the only movie with Adrian Brody that I like. It still packs a punch after nearly 20 years.

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Watched a zombie movie called Redcon-1 last night. Damn near the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Pointless, stupid, redundant, over-the-top gore and violence to no purpose at all. Terrible story, bad acting- The Lot. A complete disaster and coulda used a BIG pair of shears in the editing room.

LAME!!!

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He also appeared in this Cinzano ad with Joan Collins and a young Marina Sirtis, eight years before she joined the ST:TNG cast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsWy49T1KfQ

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Blow The Man Down on Netflix last night. My wife and I enjoyed it. Similar to Fargo, it has quirky characters, some tense moments, and just a great charming story over all. Female directors, almost all female cast, the script scores highly on the Bechdal Test.

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Are you sure it was Netflix? It’s not on there now.

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It’s Amazon Prime.