Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga An amusing film which has some hilarious moments, some meh moments, and good music. On the whole I was entertained, but felt that Will Ferrell was too old for the role he played. I don’t feel like it was a waste of time, but it is not something I imagine doing a complete reviewing. Maybe some of the scenes are funny enough to watch again on their own. I was surprised to see Pierce Brosnan in it, thought it felt a little jarring since the previous film I had seen him in was The Foreigner which is a great action/thriller movie where he played his irishness to the hilt.
I know it’s not technically a movie, but we also watched Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Hotel Cecil last weekend. Absolutely shameful the way they inflated a 45-minute episode of Autopsy to four hours.
Please let me save you the time: Elisa Lam was bipolar and off her meds. After a likely psychotic episode, she drowned in the water tank on top of the hotel. If, after reading that spoiler, you decide to go ahead and watch the show, please note the mention of prescription meds fairly early on in episode one. Being a fan of “fair play mysteries,” that’s the one thing they did that qualifies.
My wife and I have seen these before and I would strongly recommend the first one. Groundhog day, but a light-horror movie, really much more comedic than scary. The sequel is cute and probably one of the few “stuck in a time loop” sequels I’ve seen. They did a good job with the time loop again, but I still think the first one is the much better one.
The lead actress is amazing and she sells the frustration perfectly. Great movie.
We saw Freaky from the same director as well. Vince Vaughn and a girl swap bodies like Freaky Friday, except he was a crazed serial killer. Much more fun in concept than the movie actually is. Is it fun to see Vince Vaughn be a teenage girl? Yes, but just not funny enough. It was originally called Freaky Friday the 13th and they should have kept that title.
I only laughed a little during Freaky, but Happy Death Day is a joy throughout.
I finally saw the original The Producers. I was familiar with the story and had seen partial clips of the Springtime for Hitler production number. I like Mel Brooks but I really didn’t enjoy this one. However, seeing SFH in it’s entirety was worth it. Right up there with The Inquisition.
As for new movies, I went to the local indie movie house to watch Fear of Rain I was mostly interested because I watched part of it being filmed in my neighborhood. Kind of disappointing but worth a watch once it’s streaming for free. It’s currently on Amazon.
Yes, I preferred the original Avengers to Endgame - fresher and more fun, I think. And I far prefer Inception to Mad Max: Fury Road. In fact, I never really got the love showered on the latter. A perfectly good MM movie, sure, but not the towering masterpiece of post-apoc cinema that so many seemed to think it was.
I’m not a movie musical guy as a rule, but I really enjoyed La La Land.
I’ll go further. Mad Max 4 is the greatest action movie of all time. I’m not sure what the runners up are, but it’s the top. I would start there and list a bunch of second place movies.
Hereafter (2010). One of Clint Eastwood’s recent films that I wasn’t aware of. Not bad, probably pretty well made (I’m just a regular guy), and it certainly gives the actors plenty of space and opportunity for some fine interpretation. You might sense that I’m building up to why I think it isn’t a great film. Actually I don’t know why. Maybe a little too predictable, not enough surprises in the plot to keep me interested… There is one thing, although I don’t know if anyone else feels this way: His use of the same or very similar music is ruining his films for me. I’m guessing it’s a melody he worked out on the piano some years ago (I checked: he’s credited for the music in this film). It’s nicely orchestrated here, played on different instruments and arranged in different ways, but it sounds very similar to what I’ve heard in at least four or five of his more recent films.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (I’m only putting movies that I’ve seen on the big screen in this thread).
Finishing up the core trilogy, and doing it pretty well. I’m not fond of the way they treated Dr. Brody; but I remind myself that at his goofiest he was basically wiped out by thirst and stress. Still, I would have liked to have seen him behaving more competently earlier on.
Overall, though, a solid #2 out of the four movies, considerably better than Temple of Doom, light-years ahead of Crystal Skull, and, really, just short of Raiders.
The day after tomorrow we’ll be heading out to see the Star Wars original trilogy on IMAX screen; the weekend after it’ll be an LOTR marathon. I’m quite enjoying seeing all these movies again in the theater; I just wish the circumstances prompting their second run were…better.
Wow, I wouldn’t go nearly that far. I think Raiders of the Lost Ark, True Lies, The Avengers, the Mission: Impossible series (all of them but the second), Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are all much, much better action movies. But to each their own.
There is one film that fully meets the criteria of “action movie” and has consistently appeared in international lists of the greatest films of all time (once, even topping the list)
Just watched Thelma and Louise. Had seen it when it was first released, but not since (Damn, was that 30 years ago?). Still fresh. What struck me was how the problems of two rather ordinary women kept snowballing irrevocably out of control. And the iconic ending was an act, not of desperation, but of liberation and defiance.
We watched Nomadland on Hulu last night. Francis McDormand is a national treasure, folks; a female version of Willem Dafoe who could pass as his twin sister. The movie is based on the non-fiction book of the same name. Other than McDormand and David Strathairn, everyone in the film is a non-actor. This is the story of what has happened to a lot of folks in post-recession America. They’ve become drifters and loners who depend occasionally on others like them, and on part-time gigs for survival, but who spend most of their time on the road. An excellent and thoughtful film.
It was pretty successful when it came out. I haven’t watched it again since but remember the excitement generated. After the Cold War era was over and blockbuster movie makers had to come up with something new for political thrillers. Harrison Ford playing a kickass US president was a great sell.