We saw a Christmas-themed movie this morning that made all Hallmark Christmas movies contenders for the Oscars in comparison: Santa’s Summer House. Robert Mitchum’s son plays a Hawaiian-shirted and non-bearded Santa, Cynthia Rothrock (?!?!) plays his wife “Nana”, it takes place in Pismo Beach, it has no elves, no reindeer, no Santa suit, in fact there is no magic whatsofuckingever…and they play it straight! If it weren’t for that fact that it was a Rifftrax version of the movie, the rest of the day would have been spent drinking myself to oblivion…and beyond.
I had the pleasure of voting against Christopher Mitchum for Congress about ten years ago.
Some movies from the last two weeks.
Violent Ends A nasty little noir (I like nasty little noirs) along the lines of She Rides Shotgun, though not really as hard hitting emotionally. Still, it is an acceptable revenge flick, with a lot of violence. Recommended for connoisseurs of the genre.
Anniversary Tracking a successful Washington couple (she’s a professor, he’s a restaurant owner) and their children through the rise of a right wing movement in the US. The scariest movie I’ve seen this year. One of those “that was a great movie, let’s never watch it again”.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Another very good film I’ll never watch again. It follows a mother of a daughter with a debilitating medical issue and how she deals with her increasingly pressurized life. An absolute great performance as a frankly unsympathetic character by Rose Byrne draws the audience into the increasingly claustrophobic and chaotic situations she deals with. Look for her performance to be in the conversation during awards season next year. For those that care, it does end on a somewhere ambiguous note. Highly recommended if you think you can take it.
Predator: Badlands I didn’t like it as much as @Mahaloth, but it was definitely a very good action flick with some sympathetic, well drawn characters that might have fallen into cliche under less capable hands. Recommended for fans of action SciFi.
Die My Love Jennifer Lawrence is an absolutely fearless actor. She’s not afraid to play outrageous and unsympathetic in service of a role. This is another “mother under stress” movie. Not as good as If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, but the performances stand out, especially Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, and Sissy Spacek. Avoid if you can’t take animals in serious peril. Recommended for those who, like me, think Mother! was a good movie.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain An absolutely charming animated feature that covers the adventures of a Belgian toddler in Japan from 2 1/2 to 3 years old. It draws you in and rewards the patient viewer. Very much recommended.
As a Conan O’Brien superfan, I’m curious what you thought of his performance. I’m anxious to see the film mostly to see if he can pull it off.
He is…adequate. His acting (against his public persona) is fine in a supporting role, but it his hard to erase his public persona from your mind while watching him. I kept expecting some wry humor, but that is not the character’s role in the movie. His performance gets “better” as the film goes on, probably because his public persona receded in my mind as the film went on.
Speaking of movies that are the same story retold from a bunch of different perspectives - I watched Freaky Tales on HBO Max a few months ago. It’s an anthology film starring Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn filmed in a 1980s style and taking place over real historical events in 1987 Oakland CA. Except for perhaps the last story that ties them all together with basketball legend Golden State Warrior Sleepy Floyd going on a supernatural martial arts revenge rampage.
Watched Spy Game for the first time since it was new. I love how Redford runs an op to rescue Pitt from inside Langley right under everyone’s noses. I remembered I liked it, and I still do.
What I didn’t remember is this was an early example of director Tony Scott refusing to keep his camera still, and instead spinning it constant around the actors. It’s no where near as bad as Unstoppable, but it could have been. Fortunately, he used it only a little.
It was a Jason Bateman weekend. Maybe his range is not great, maybe his choice of roles is not great, but with Jason Bateman in the credits you’re going to get Jason Bateman in the role so deal with it or move on.
Carry-On (Netflix, 2024, RT 88/52) Nope, the RT audience is right on this one. It was fun to cut up a movie with so many plot holes and I didn’t mind leaving it running during bathroom breaks, but otherwise there is no need to see this. So moronic. I’m glad B.J. Novak is getting work and expanding his range though. We get Evil Jason Bateman for this and it doesn’t make any sense, no one could be this business savvy and yet this dense. The disbelief you must suspend to enjoy this is beyond compare.
Game Night (Netflix, 2018, RT 85/78) Recommended for fans of Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil, it had that sort of macabre humor and fresh genre mix up. Here the character of Jason Bateman is called for and fits perfectly so it’s good they found one.
Interesting. In our household we have the Jason Bateman Rule (Jason Bateman makes any movie he’s in more entertaining, though in varying degree), but we haven’t seen Carry-On.
Also, Game Night is the first time we recall seeing Jesse Plemons, what a great introduction.
Your rule holds for Carry-On. He adds his Jason Bateman quality, and it helps, just no where near enough.
Please try it, I’d like to know if his bit parts carry this for you.
“I don’t see how that can be profitable for the Frito Pay corporation.”
I watched Captain America: Brave New World (2025) last night on Disney +. I missed it in t theaters.
I liked it. I especially liked Mackie as the replacement Captain America, playing a guy trying to fill boots he thinks are too big for him. Apparently it’s felt that a lot of fans were turned off by the absence of Chrid Evans, but I think Mackie did a creditable job. I didn’t see the six-part series Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so I was missing some critical backstory, but it was all clear enough. I hadn’t realized that they tied this into The Eternals.
For me the highlight was the President of the United States tearing apart the White House, which is oddly prescient. At the end a news reporter talks about repairs to the damage done, and I could only think “Boy, if only that were true.”
Certainly applies to Thunder Force, where he plays Jerry the Crab. His tendency to run away sideways in the background is quite funny.
One of the main criticisms of the movie is that it covered so much of the same ground as the TV series it felt like retreading ground, wasting half the story like there was no character growth.
Primal Fear 1996 Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton
Wow, this is incredibly good. A+
This is the film that established Edward Norton as an A list actor. His performance earned him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination in the same category.
Gere plays the defense attorney and Linney is the prosecutor. The sexual tension between the two really improves the story.
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Norton is the alter boy accused of murdering an Archbishop. He’s excellent in portraying multiple personality disorder.
I strongly recommend you watch. It’s on Paramount+ and Prime.
It was his first ever role. Dude hit a home run right out of the gate.
Deathstalker (2025)
Recommended.
Yes, they remade Deathstalker(1983).
Fun. Funny. It hits all the right tone and makes for a very fun, goofy movie. I loved it, to be honest. How comical that the rapey, hard-R movie from 1983 would be now remade as a PG-13 goofy, almost family movie.
I laughed quite a bit. I didn’t even realize it was mainly a comedy until I watched it.
Check it out!
I had never heard of this obscure film noir. Chester Morris is obnoxious and terrible, but gorgeous Constance Dowling is quite appealing as the love interest. Very predictable - I spotted the killer within about a minute, well before the murder had even been committed - and the first half of the flick was at times a slog. Things picked up in the latter half with some very nice noir shots/lighting, but what really made the movie better than expected was a plethora of overwritten dialogue (e.g., “The heat sapped my vitality like ten thousand bloodthirsty dwarves.")
Hey, that’s similar to a film I just watched last night: Another Man’s Poison. It’s a British film set in an estate on the moors. The cast stars Bette Davis, hardly an unknown! It obviously was originally a play, with just a few characters and some horses, plus lots of overacting. And a cute plot twist.
1976’s Network, in a special theater showing. My wife had not seen it, and I warned her: “In 1976, this film was practically science fiction.” Now it’s reality.
It holds up very well. A great movie with pretty much no likeable characters.