For comparison’s sake: The Revenant is based on the same story filmed as Man in the Wilderness (1971) with Richard Harris. Should be an interesting contrast.
Dammit, I’m gonna watch that movie a second time. At least.
What I should have said is that it was about life in all its forms – the setting in a forested wilderness was symbolic – and then about death, loss, and grieving. There’s also a profound symbolism in the puppies that appear about midway through. Again, highly recommended – this is not the boring crap you see in some of the trailers.
Have you seen The Ballad of Buster Scruggs? Tim Blake Nelson was fantastic in that western, too.
I just put Old Henry on my list.
Loved Buster Scruggs. Really off-beat, just what you expect from the Cohen Bros. Watching Clancy Brown shoot himself in the head three times in succession is worth the price of admission.
TB Nelson could make westerns for the rest of his life and they’d all be great.
I watched this on a flight yesterday.
It’s difficult to categorize. Though there are an handful of laugh-out-loud funny lines, I wouldn’t really call it a comedy. More like a nostalgic and somewhat quirky slice-of-life piece.
About 15 minutes in, I started wondering if we were ever going to get to an actual plot, and the answer was… nope.
It was sometimes compelling, sometimes boring; a bit too long, but I was kind of sorry when it ended. A perfect analogy to baseball itself, actually.
That is a very apt comparison, thank you for that.
Filing in some gaps in my movies, I watched Stand By Me. That was really good. They got the kids right. Glad I finally watched it.
Blue Moon
Not the downer I was expecting. Just a sweet, funny movie about people who really know how to put words together.
Nobody 2. I should have known better. The original was a different take on someone being thrust into actions that he didn’t want to be involved in, and I liked it. This one was just. . .stupid.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die!
Kind of recommended.
I had high hopes for the movie and it did not live up to them. And yet, I did find it to be decent and probably worth your time. A man barges into a restaurant, claims to be from the future, tells them that A.I. kills them all, and tries to recruit people to go out and fight it.
And they do. And we learn the pasts of the people he recruits and we get a pretty sobering look into our own near future.
The ending will probably be divisive, but I think it was the right move.
I may find I like this one more after I sit and think about it. I just think it went directions I wasn’t expecting and were not perhaps as good as I envisioned.
Watched Song Sung Blue yesterday. A very enjoyable movie. I’m ready to acknowledge that I know nothing about film as art, but I so much enjoyed watching SSB - or F1 - over Bugonia, OBAA, Sinners…
Space Truckers
I saw this a couple weeks ago and it’s a fun watch, but it’s not a very good movie. Dennis Hopper is a space trucker and after all the looney madness he’s brought us on film over the years (see Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now, River’s Edge etc.) he kind of sleepwalks through this. He’s a space trucker, unknowingly taking a haul of killer robots to Earth. Stephen Dorf and Debi Mazar spend much of the film in their underpants, so that’s a plus. Charles Dance has a fun part and George Wendt gets sucked out a window into space (spoiler!).
Car 54 Where Are You?
This movie is so very bad. David Johansen plays Officer Toody as a brash loudmouth without any nuance, John C. McGinley is rookie Officer Muldoon who is too by-the-book and is put in charge of the new computerized crime fighting system, Rosie O’Donnell is Toody’s wife and she’s just as loud and obnoxious as her husband, Daniel Baldwin is a claustrophobic mobster (guess what happens to him), Jeremy Piven is an annoying mob witness, and Al Lewis and Nipsey Russell reprise their TV roles. Fran Drescher does have a fun part as a sexpot pining for Muldoon and The Ramones, Penn and Teller, and Mojo Nixon all cameo in what could have been a fun movie. Everyone does the worst thing imaginable to keep the plot moving; they’re all carrying the idiot ball throughout until the end, which should work in a comedy, but the humor isn’t quite there. Johansen sings a song with Coati Mundi but the ADR for the scene is terrible. Per Wikipedia, it was supposed to be a musical comedy but most of the numbers were cut and the movie was delayed for 4 years because of Orion Pictures’ financial struggles. Unfortunate, because I am a fan of just about everyone who was in the movie.
The Contractor 2022 Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Eddie Marsan
I was hoping for more from a Chris Pine film. His movies are usually quite good.
A recently discharged Green Beret is deeply in debt. He’s offered a job with a private military company.
It’s not surprising this doesn’t turn out well. His new employer is shady and (of course) turns on their own men when a mission goes sideways.
Standard cookie cutter story. This one has little to offer unless your extremely devoted to Chris Pine performances.
I liked Eddie Marsan’s character.
I also saw Eddie in a small role as the East German defector in Atomic Blonde.
6.5 out of 10
We tried to watch Sinners, but couldn’t get through it. I really don’t get the love for this film.
I wasn’t a huge fan, but it was certainly watchable. How far did you get?
The Secret Agent
Not entirely satisfying as a story but I guess that was the point. I will say that out of all the highly acclaimed films last year this one does the best at putting the viewer in a specific time and place (and one that is looking less and less alien to this American).
How far into it did you get? Sinners has a “WTF is this about?” quality until it gets to the vampire part. Overall, though, I thought it was overrated. It was nominated for about a bazillion Oscars but only won 4, most notably Best Actor for Michael B Jordan, Cinematography, Music, and (undeservedly, IMHO) best original screenplay.
This is what I was wondering. I would hope people would reach the part where they learn this is a vampire film.
My problem with Sinners is that I did know it was a vampire film going in. Great performances and cinematography and all that … I’m just sick of vampires.
I thought it was great until it became a vampire film.