Nuremberg (Netflix) Russell Crowe as Hermann Goering, and Rami Malek as the Army psychiatrist assigned to interview him in his pre-trial cell and keep him from committing suicide. Their relationship has kind of a Hannibal Lecter - Clarice vibe.
I’m surprised it didn’t make more of a splash when it was released, and that Crowe didn’t get any mentions as an Oscar nominee. He’s very good, as is the film. Not sure about Malek - he may have been miscast.
Wicked: For Good 2025 Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum
On Peacock
I haven’t seen Wicked yet.
This is definitely not the Wizard of Oz from my childhood. Just about every element of the story is turned on its head.
The story basically tells the story of Elphaba’s efforts to fight The Wizard and make changes in Oz. That results in her being called the Wicked Witch of the West.
Glinda is the Good Witch and is a figure-head that smiles and waves. The movie depicts her change into a social reformer.
It’s certainly an interesting movie. I enjoyed most of it. Some I didn’t fully understand.
Probably because I haven’t seen the first movie.
9 out of 10
I haven’t seen either movie, or the stage musical, but I have read the book, and I didn’t understand that either. So it may not be just you.
I probably would get frustrated trying to read the book. Fantasy isn’t a genre that I enjoy.
The music helped keep my interest in the movie.
Short Term 12 (2013; Kanopy)
This was a low budget “written and directed by” film that only grossed $1million, but was a star-making turn for Brie Larson. It’s set in a group home for “troubled” under-18 kids. It focuses more on the staff than the kids. It has a 98% fresh rating on RotTom, and mostly 4.5 star ratings. With troubled kids there’s always a chance a film will wander into stereotypes, but the film does a decent job of keeping characters unpredictable. A-minus.
Kaitlyn Dever was also very good in it. IMO, the strongest scene in the movie is between her and Brie Larson.
The Day After (1983). This is an extraordinary movie that almost didn’t get made, running into obstacles time after time because of the subject matter of nuclear holocaust. All the more amazing because it was a TV movie, commissioned by ABC, and made during the Cold War.
Among the obstacles were some ABC executives, ABC censors, potential sponsors who shied away, and the US Defense Department that refused to cooperate unless the film made it clear that the Soviets fired the first missile (the filmmakers refused, and the film leaves that ambiguous).
The movie follows ordinary American life in the town of Lawrence, Kansas (and also in Kansas City, Missouri, until it gets vaporized) as tensions increase between the US and the Soviet Union over conflicts between East and West Germany, until finally the missiles start to fly.
Among some interesting side notes is that President Reagan saw it before its initial broadcast and was deeply moved, by some accounts quite depressed by it. Four years later, a translated version of the film was broadcast by state media in the Soviet Union. Whether related or not, in December of that year Reagan and Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.
This was made by Nicholas Meyer, the undeclared King of TV Movies. You ,may know him better as the director and co-writer of the even numbered Star Trek movies and of Time After Time, or as the author of the Sherlock Holmes novels The Seven per Cent Solution , The West End Horror, and four lesser ones (and director of the movie adaptation of the first), but he rendered clear service to society with his TV movies, which were a cut above other such efforts:
Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders – based on Robert Hans van Gulik’s The Haunted Monastery, part of his “Judge Dee” mysteries st in T’ang dynasty China. Everyone in the movie was of Asian ancestry, with the ironic exception of the ator plating Judge Dee himself, Khigh Dhiegh, who I had thought was of Chinese extraction (he played Wo Fat on Hawaii Five Oh, and had many movie roles playing Chinese or Japanese characters. Turns out his name was Kenneth Dickerson and he had a really mixed background, with some Chinese ancestry but a lot of other stuff mixed in.) It was supposed to be a pilot for a TV series, but the network powers-that-be wouldn’t go for it. Meyer was the screenwriter, but not producer or director.
The Night that Panicked America – About the Orson Welles 1938 “WAr of the Worlds” broadcast. I think they managed to play the entire original radio broadcast during the film, and made some interesting points. Meyer did the screenplay and story, but not the direction or production.
The Day After – Meyer was the director, but neither producer nor writer.
Wait. You didn’t watch part 1 first? Did you realize “For Good” is the second half of a musical. “Wicked” is the first half.
I had never seen Wicked before watching the films, which I did a couple months ago. Good stuff. Beautiful production, great performances. I like some of the songs, but I wouldn’t go see Wicked on stage. I didn’t like it enough.
Peacock started playing For Good after my other show finished. I got interested and didn’t change the channel.
I’ll probably watch Wicked too. It’s not a genre I usually seek out.
As noted by @CalMeacham, The Day After was directed by Nicholas Meyer, who had directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan a year earlier. Near the end of TWoK, when the Enterprise is trying to put some distance between them and the Reliant before the Genesis device explodes, there is a close-up shot of the Reliant, then a quick cut to a mid-distance shot, then another more distant shot - three quick beats before the explosion. Meyer does the exact same thing in The Day After with the view of downtown Kansas City before the nuke goes off. I always thought that was kinda cool.
Has anyone seen Project Hail Mary (2026)? I’m thinking about seeing it and I’ve heard some good things about it. It’s still in the theaters. Is it good?
Flesh Gordon Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders is a better movie than the original Flesh Gordon.
There-I’ve said it and nothing you can post can change my mind.
There are a couple of threads dedicated to that movie.
Maybe so, but I still strongly disagree. The sequel tries too hard to be a wacky “cult” movie, while the first just… is.
And the stop-motion animation is great.
Agree.
And the original had special effects contributed by he great Wah Cheng (spaceships) and Jim Danforth (stop-motion). And actual sex scenes and porn actresses (much of which was cut for some markets. When I saw it at the Blue Mouse theater in Salt Lake City it had been so butchered.)
The sequel had iffy animation, and substituted scatology for sex.
Also, I’ve seen the pre-production sketches for the sequel, and the reality fell far short of possibility. The Dominatrix Spider Lady in the pre-production sketches looked far sexier and more threatening than the poor sister who showed up in the film.
Code of Silence 1985 Chuck Norris, Dennis Farina
Wikipedia states it was originally written as a potential 4th Dirty Harry film. That didn’t work out and Orion Pictures got the script and cast Chuck Norris.
It’s a better story and gives Norris more to do than his typical Karate films.
He plays Sergeant Eddie Cusack a detective investigating the mob. A killing results in a war between two rival gangs. Eddie Cusack gets caught in the middle. Things get worse when he angers the other cops and they refuse to back him up.
The story is a bit uneven and I can see why other actors turned down the lead role. The use of a SWAT robot at the end was unnecessary and badly done.
I found it interesting to see a Norris play a better role. It wasn’t entirely successful and Norris returned to his more familiar low budget karate films.
Rating 6 out of 10
One Battle After Another, DiCaprio, Sean Penn: An interesting slant on a number of films. I thought the music was intrusive, but the acting was solid. Sean Penn must have had fun with his character, and Leo was great as a burn-out from an earlier radical era.
Code 3, a trauma/drama/comedy film staring Rainn Wilson and Lil Rel Howery. The film follows two burnt out paramedics, and their ride-along student, as they answer calls on a 24-hour shift. I have been seeing clips on Facebook for a while and it finally showed up to watch on Netflix here in Canada. Other than the ER doc being a bit over the top, I enjoyed the film. Rainn did a good job portraying a senior paramedic that is burnt out and numb, while still caring about his patients when it matters. At only ~1h45m it is a quick watch.
Project Hail Mary
Recommended.
A very well made, funny, and at times powerful movie. I really liked this movie quite a bit. I think it is running around a 95% positive review on Rotten Tomatoes. Yes, it’s good.
Not quite amazing, though there are many amazing moments in the movie. I would recommend taking the family. This is a family film and in many ways reminded me of something from the late 1980s.
I won’t get into story details. I went in blind and I think like most films, that is pretty much the only way to truly go in. A great adventure and totally family friendly.
I’d say 4 out of 5 stars.