I enjoyed it, though I won’t quarrel with those who feel the original trilogy should have been the end.
ISTM that, very rarely for a movie franchise, the Toy Story crew still has some interesting things to say about childhood and make-believe in the context of wacky toy misadventures, and as long as they keep saying them I am happy to keep buying tickets.
At the very least, I now have ”too absorbed to notice fifty Space Rangers on toy horses galloping through the living room” as a new diagnostic metric for screen addiction.
Wow I can hardly disagree more! I’d put The Drama on my Best of 2026 list so far. I saw it early and was completely unaware of what was going to unfold. I loved it. I thought it was simultaneously hilarious and deeply uncomfortable at the same time. One scene in particular got the biggest laughs I’ve heard in a theater all year.
Yeah, it didn’t do much for me, either. I left about 2/3 of the way through after deciding I didn’t like or care about any of the characters or their drama. A lot of people liked it, though.
The wedding photographer going through her shot list. Such an unexpected line reading played totally straight. I could not stop laughing, and the sold out crowd I was with felt the same.
Then there’s Letters from Iwo Jima, also directed by Eastwood, produced by him and Spielberg and shot concurrently. It is the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese defenders’ point of view.
My favorite horror films are more creepy than horrible, which is probably why I liked Backrooms as much as I did. In some ways, it was like Bioshock, an all-time great [and creepy] computer game from 2007. Of course, it depends upon the trope of people making the dumbest choice possible, but if we didn’t have characters who act like they’ve never seen a horror movie before, we, quite simply, would not have most horror movies.
Yeah, Backrooms was good. So visually dry, though: so much blank. I get that that was part of the intended point it was making about the nonmateriality of the Backrooms, but the worldbuild was SO superficial it pulled me out of the movie a bit.
I felt a bit the same when watching Hitchcock’s The Birds: ”this is saying more about the shallowness of how the filmmakers perceive birds than about the hidden potential nightmarish fearsomeness of birds”.
Like, tell me that you’ve never really thought about what’s actually inside walls, without telling me etc.
Project Hail Mary. I know there’s a thread, but I didn’t like the movie enough to go post in it. I enjoyed the book, but I felt like that book was more science-y, whereas the movie was, I don’t know, more dramatic and obvious? Big upwelling of music, close framing shot on Ryan Gosling, cut to shot of inert companion who inevitably will be coming back to life like every film about man’s best friend. Haircuts that start with hack jobs with scissors that eventually migrate to Ryan’s traditional tousled good appearance.
Sandra Hüller is good in anything she does, though. I think she has five movies this year, I plan to see every one of them.
Followed by the sequel, It ends, too. The wikipedia plot description sounds intriguing to me. Something I might like. But it all comes down to the execution, dunnit? And a film that asks questions like this is fine, but you really have to answer them, too. Or at least give a good idea what the answer is. A mystery, no matter how intriguing, without a point is just a waste of time.
My recent one is 1950’s Mystery Street, a crime procedural and ur-CSI staring Ricardo Montalban I caught on TCM. He is working with the Boston PD on the case of skeletal body remains found in the dunes on the cape, from which there was no escape.
Montalban calls in the forensics department of a Large Boston University, so yes, they do pahk their cahr on Hahvahd yahd.
The case involves finding the ID of the body, and deciphering the cause of death. Was it…murder? They make a good procedural out of the (limited) forensics science of the day, and, like the typical CSI or L&O, they arrest and prosecute and nearly convict an innocent man.
Recommended for those that like B&W noir-adjacent films, and CSI.
I saw this less than 24 hours ago and I can’t remember enough to even describe the premise other than it could be an extended episode of Black Mirror. The characters were, at least, funny as was the cat-monster.
Last night I watched How To Make A Killing on HBO/Max. I enjoyed it, and I found it entertaining from start to finish, even though there were a couple of glaring plot holes. Glen Powell stars as the son of a disowned sister who’s part of an obscenely rich family, and he is determined to get his share of the massive inheritance.
I saw that a few weeks ago too, and I agree - it tried some interesting things, but didn’t really work. Sam Rockwell in his manic mode is always fun to watch, though.
Hugh Jackman as old, tired Robin. Sort of Robin and Marian, except Robin is an actual outlaw and right bastard.
Saw it because I get to see 4 movies a week and the description was interesting (never saw a trailer for it). 7.5/10 - unsurprisingly, Robin gets a bit of a redemption arc, but I thought it was well done.
Gadiator 2000
Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, Richard Harris
I had seen parts of the film before channel surfing. I finally made a point to watch the entire movie on AMC.
Gladiator is pretty good. The premise of a Roman General surviving as a Gladiator is a bit far-fetched. The guards had too many opportunities to execute him.
I recommend watching Gladiator. Russell Crowe’s performance is excellent.
