I hadn’t seen Splash in at least 15 years. Great movie. Pure Fantasy.
Tom Hanks falls in love with a beautiful, blonde Mermaid.
Daryl does a fantastic job at the beginning when she can’t speak. She still expresses the wonderment of visiting New York and seeing crowds for the first time. Her joy at meeting Tom Hanks’ character always makes me smile.
Hanks is very good too. I like his understated comedy. His wry comments about exhaustion from too much intimate time is revealing without risking a R rating.
Ironically, I don’t think Hank’s will get any further lovin in the sea with his Mermaid.
I’ll just come out and say it: the people who made this movie understood the brief. They were given a profoundly stupid premise - those two actors playing the Prime Minister of the UK and the President of the United States, respectively, fighting terrorists in a buddy action-comedy - and made the best damn movie possible under the circumstances. It’s funny, the leads are charismatic, the action is good, and it doesn’t even try to be plausible and realistic. Five guys walking away from explosions out of five.
And if you weren’t fans of Jack Quaid before this movie, you will be now.
Shooter 2007 Mark Whalberg, Danny Glover, Michael Peña
Paramount+
I think this movie was inspired by the Oswald patsy theory. Except, Whalberg’s character is a decorated sniper. Making him a even better potential patsy.
Pretty good movie. I recommend it. Just remember it’s a action thriller. It’s best not to think too much or question what’s depicted.
7.5 out of 10
I’d assume the Secret Service already has former military snipers on staff. That scout the public locations and provide counter sniper protection for the President.
They don’t need to recruit a Vet living off grid.
The remote controlled gun almost made me turn off the movie. Geez. It’s a mile long shot that only the most highly proficient sniper can accomplish. Some bozo with a laptop does it with a remote-controlled gun?
I continue to maintain that the best thing about Shooter is the single scene featuring Levon Helm. He’s awesome, whereas the majority of the rest of the cast totally phoned it in (especially Danny Glover, Ned Beatty, and especially especially Michael Peña who mumbles his way through the entire film).
There’s a TV series. Not a sequel but rather a reboot with new actors.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026). I watched this while chaperoning 11 kids, so I was unable to give it my full attention since I was making sure everyone got their food (it was at an Alamo Drafthouse where they serve you food during the movie). What I did see of it was pretty good, though not great. It was funny and the visuals were good, but it did not feel as good as the first one. Of course, not being well versed in Nintendo games nor Super Mario Bros in particular there were definitely easter eggs that I missed, though I did catch one that was a reference to LCD games of yore that I remember playing.
On the whole, it was a fairly enjoyable time, and I will likely re-watch when I don’t have as many distractions.
My daughter saw the new Super Mario film recently, albeit without me, and came back rattling off all the characters in the film and who voiced them. Since my knowledge of SM characters ended at whichever ones were included in the original Mario Kart game, I have no idea why these were good things, but she seemed to enjoy it a lot.
I did see the first animated film which I have now entirely forgotten. Honestly, when it comes to Mario films for me it’s Bob Hoskins or gtfo.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), Zac Efron as Ted Bundy. It’s mostly about his relationship with Liz Kloepfer (Kendall, her pen-name, in the movie) and his efforts to defend himself in court. There are no recreations of his crimes but there are descriptions thereof and few gory photos presented. They played a little fast and loose with some details that aren’t really worth enumerating but I thought the performances were top-notch. Unfortunately, that notwithstanding, it’s a pretty boring movie.
My biggest problem with is that they cast Efron because of his resemblance to Bundy himself. Facially, sure, but there was a scene where he was being strip-searched in prison and he looks like a Greek god - all abs and hairy pecs and big ol’ biceps and lats and shit. Bundy was much more a skinny little shit and his demeanor (judging by public footage) was much more nebbish and harried. False confidence, sure, but not really that assertive or intimidating. In short, they really made Bundy out to be a lot more sympathetic than they should have. I’d say Efron was playing a character whose mindset is that he actually was innocent and not a guilty monster hiding his entire life from everyone. They had him crying in court and bemoaning the loss of his relationship with Liz’s daughter. I don’t think the actual Bundy gave a shit about anybody to that extent.
12 Monkeys (Prime)
Interesting film directed by Terry Gilliam, showing his unique and surrealistic style. Bruce Willis is sent back in time to find clues to cure a plague that spread across the world. He is first sent to the wrong year, is arrested, and put in a psychiatric hospital. Madeline Stowe plays a psychiatrist and Brad Pitt does a great job as a mental patient who initially helps Willis attempt to escape. Willis seems delusional due to the time travel and that increases when he’s yoinked back to his time, accidentally sent to WWI, then finally to the correct year of 1996 where he tries to stop the virus. This definitely deserves a rewatch and you really have to pay attention to it.
Beyond Re-Animator (Tubi)
I’ve seen the original several times but this was the first time seeing one of the sequels. Jefferey Combs returns as Dr. Herbert West, who is in prison due to his actions in previous movies. He’s still at it though, experimenting on ways to bring the dead back to life. Jason Barry plays a doctor, traumatized when his sister was murdered by a zombie, who gets a job at the hospital to work with West. Undead shenanigans ensue, including the doctor’s girlfriend who gets re-animated and descends into madness because of it. This movie was filmed in Spain so there is some obvious overdubbing with many of the characters. The movie is fine for what it is but it’s definitely not as good as the original. There is one tertiary character whose entire presence in the movie is to have her clothes torn off and there is a rat fighting a severed penis at the end.
