The Accountant 2 on Prime; Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J.K. Simmons
Heart-warming story of an autistic accountant coming out of his shell thru dance. He reunites with his estranged brother due to shared interests in fist fights and automatic weapons. In a secondary plot, a woman recovers from a near fatal accident and reconciles with her past. Also a cat story. 3 stars.
But no Anna Kendrick, hey? That was a fun character.
I watched Send Help over the weekend and I would agree it was OK but not great. I also had problems with the ending but probably for different reasons.
Whoever owns that house is going to notice someone’s been there while they were away. Did she clean up all the blood? How did she get rid of the body? And who leaves a bowl of fresh fruit in the kitchen if they know they aren’t going to be back for awhile?
Saw several films recently
Hamnet – very good, but kinda weird. We;re all still trying to figure out the symbolism of that damned Hole in the Griund.
Ticket to Paradise – George Clooney and Julia Roberts team up outside the Ocean’s series. Interesting bit of fluff that caused us all to discuss the way films in the past decade or so so have featured a lot of Americans vacationing and getting involved in weddings in the Far East that seem to make things infinitely more gorgeous and “in touch with deep meanings” than seems likely (my daughter just came back from a wedding in the Far East, and felt qualified to point out how these assumptions didn’t seem supported by reality). My theory: a lot of Hollywood filmmakers have been going on trips there in recent years, and gelt this was a New and Original Thing.
Hypnotic – Robert Rodriguez film that starts out like a Horror film, turns into Action-Adventure, then becomes a weird science fiction film. Staring Ben Affleck and Sonia Braga’s niece Alice. High body count.
We watched Spencer’s Mountain (1963) yesterday. It stars Henry Fonda, Maureen O’Hara and James MacArthur. The TV show The Waltons was somewhat based on this movie. We enjoyed it. There were a few things that wouldn’t fly today, but all in all, it was a nice, sweet movie.
The Sheep Detectives (2026) in theaters.
My wife was seduced by the trailer blaring that ear worm by the Proclaimers. It doesn’t have the heart of Babe and anybody who needs to wait for the reveal to figure out who the killer is isn’t paying attention. A few of the jokes land (the funniest actually being the world’s oldest joke) but it mostly tries to muddle by with “cute”. Kids will probably enjoy it.
The Terminator (1984) on Prime video
The original, of course, became an unexpected hit for director James Cameron and the distributor Orion Pictures. The Terminator is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, human soldier Reese follows on a one-way trip to stop it. There is quite a bit of gunplay and action pieces but there are also slower scenes setting up and furthering the story. Halfway through, my son guessed that Resse was John Connor’s father (spoiler!) and how they were going to finally stop the Terminator (hydraulic press, molten steel, etc). He hadn’t seen any Terminator movies before but he did see the scene in T2 where Terminator thumbs up while melting. He definitely liked the movie though. Time travel paradoxes are a bit of a meme now but it was very innovative in the 80s, I think .
The Stuff on Prime
I showed this to my son after Terminator and we didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous film. The Stuff is a yogurt-like substance that bubbles out of the ground that everyone loves to eat until it starts bubbling out of them as well. The movie does take its shots against consumerism, mass media, and food crazes, and it also has a couple gruesome scenes with the Stuff but it really isn’t the great of a movie. It’s fine, but that’s not really a ringing endorsement.
Shall We Dance? (2004) It was Mother’s Day, I love my wife and she loves dance so I got to watch Pretty Woman 2: Electric Booglaoo. Lopez and Gere have zero acting range, they both just smirk and nod, but they can dance and that was the deal. It was alright, I’ve endured worse in the name of love.
Guns at Batasi (1964) One of my favs got dusted off for my boy this weekend. I warned my tween it was mostly talking and it was in Black and White, but he stuck it out and enjoyed it. I’ve seen it 20+ times and Richard Attenborough still blows me away. Maybe next we’ll watch Hell in the Pacific (1968)
I read it last year based on recommendations here on the Dope. Agree. Excellent book.
Have you seen Brighton Rock? It’s either his first or one of his first movies. Really excellent.
The original Japanese (1996) version is great and I have no interested in watching the US version because it doesn’t make any sense. The Japanese film has a story that works because of the cultural context in which it is set, something that cannot be replicated in a US setting where ballroom dancing is part of the culture. The film may be good in other respects, but is bound to miss because of the context that is lacking.
//i\\
Wow, I had completely forgotten about that film. I am pretty sure that I caught it late at night on TV sometime back in the 90s. All I can remember is them finding the stuff in a hole in the ground and thinking that it would be good to try and eat it. I wonder if the Poppler episode of Futurama took any inspiration from this film?
Remarkably Bright Creatures. An elderly cleaning lady (Sally Fields) interacts with an octopus at the aquarium where she works.
It was nice to see Sally Fields again, and the film was competently done, but the only things it got right about octopuses, that I could see, was that they’re surprisingly smart and that some of them, at least, seem to like interacting with humans. Everything else about Marcellius (the octopus) was totally unbelievable Hollywood bs.
An okay film, for kids.
Nitpick: Sally Field.
For Mother’s Day, my daughter and I watched World War Z, which I’d never seen, and 28 Years Later, which she’d never seen. 28 Years Later was still good (my 3rd viewing) but WWZ was very forgettable.
I can confirm that because I know I’ve seen it but could not tell you a thing that happens in it aside from the pyramid of zombies.
Yep, I was going to say it was disappointing, but I’d already heard it wasn’t very good, so I wasn’t expecting anything. But the book was very, very good, and nothing like the movie.
Yeah, not bad. It’s no movie classic, and I had to stop worrying about believability, but it took some emotionally potent blocks and built a simple house with them.
The robot reminded me of the machine from Short Circuit. Tom Hanks hit his marks.
For me a B-. A likable B-. (AppleTV)
Pyramid of zombies; plane outbreak where they stack suitcases between classes; going into a Walmart to get an inhaler for his daughter. That’s about it for me.
Me too, and I watched it 28 hours ago.
Project Hail Mary (2026) Given a lot of the comments I heard here, I decided to head to the theater to watch and I really enjoyed it. I liked the way the story was told giving us glimpses of the whole narrative as you go along allowing you get interested in both the space and non-space aspects. Ryan Gosling, like Mat Damon in the Martian, is charismatic enough (and it is explained why) to keep you engaged. The science is of course nebulous which to a certain extent is why it works. No one in-universe knows the answers which is why explanations do not come across as something that is being used simply for exposition, but as new information for everybody.
On the whole, an enjoyable experience and will likely watch again when it is available on a digital platform.
//i\\