9 to 5
It’s still a hoot and all of the outre stuff is OK because they’re making a point. In her first film, Dolly Parton is dynamite, she’s a natural and shows just how bad an actress Jane Fonda is. Beware the theme song — instant, debilitating earworm.
I rewatched The Quiet Man (1952) with John Wayne, Barry Fitzgerald, and Maureen O’Hara.
It’s dated now. But, is still very enjoyable. Wayne and O’Hara had great chemistry.
I’ve heard the dating and marriage customs were an anachronism. Maybe 50 years out of place? I think the film takes place in the 1930’s.
Good film. I see why it won so many awards.
Helluva post there Cal.
Insidious: Out of the Further
Recommended.
Fun little horror movie, much better than most of the Insidious films, which are typically quite tedious.
Zero requirement to have seen any in this series. This one mainly stood alone and was pretty good. Color me surprised.
I always look forward to Lin Shaye. Sometimes the movies she’s in let her down, glad to hear this one didn’t.
I had the exact opposite impression.
I don’t know why people believe this.
Nearly 900 VFX artists worked on The Odyssey and like most fantasy or sci-fi movies, almost every live action shot was augmented with additional visual effects like crowd simulation, weather effects, set extensions, and of course digital creatures. I’m sure every actor on set saw a lot of real stuff around them, but very little of it remains in the movie untouched by VFX.
La La Land
I had not previously seen La La Land. I had not particularly planned to see La La Land. But there is a limited 10th anniversary release of La La Land in cinemas and my daughter wanted to see it and she really wanted me to go with her.
I have now seen La La Land. It was good. I liked the music.
CGI is a subset of VFX, and when people like Christopher Nolan or Tom Cruise (Maverick) brag about not using CGI, what they are saying is that they do not create whole constructs like jets or monsters on the computer. Of course, even that is a lie, but by doing very little of it and relying very little on green screens, they have created a sort of imaginary marketing legalism that allows them to boast about their prowess with using puppets and real sets, while ignoring the incredible amount of post production work involved in making those jets or Viking longships or puppets act like they do, or changing the appearances of people or lighting.
People believe it because it has a very very thin layer of semantic truth to it, while completely misleading about the underlying process. And people don’t know the distinction or how any of that works.
This VFX guy has been on a decade long rant about it:
We went into In the Land of Saints and Sinners thinking that it might be just another Liam-Neeson-Collecting-a-Paycheck movie, but as things turned out, it had a bit more depth to it than that. Perhaps it was the beautiful Irish countryside. Set during “The Troubles” in 1974 Ireland, this time he’s a retired killer-for-hire who does one more kill (a personal one, not for payment) which sets off a firestorm involving assorted baddies connected to the Irish Republican Army. It’s very much akin to a Western, the kind Clint Eastwood might have made 30 years ago. At an Hour + 46, it’s a good watch for a Saturday night.
It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it.
Nice!
Izzat good or bad?
The Kid Detective (Netflix)
Recommended
The premise is basically: what happens when an “Encyclopedia Brown” style child detective grows up into the adult world still trying to be a detective? Certainly not a unique premise, though I haven’t seen it explored in film before. I thought it was quite good. Strong lead performance from Adam Brody as well as the rest of the cast of (to me) unknowns. It has a similar style of awkward humor used to good effect recently in Widow’s Bay, so I had lots of chuckles throughout (not so much big belly laughs). But it has a surprising amount of pathos that gives it real depth. The main mysteries are wrapped up satisfactorily, and it ended on a note that I thought was pretty bold.
I’d give it an 8/10. Well worth your time.
Mom and I just finished watching 9 to 5 (1980), in honor of Dolly Parton. I’d forgotten large swaths of that movie; it was still fun to watch.
Watching it right now on ABC!
I didn’t even realize it was on network TeeVee tonight - we plucked it from Prime.
I just watched it on Disney+. Not bad, but the song is better. Really hard to beat that song. No wonder Doralee left to become a country & western singer. I hope she had success.
I watched Pixar’s Hoppers last night, on Disney+. It was very strange. I had no idea what it was about before watching, and still didn’t know by the end of it. It was certainly energetic, at least.
I saw that Prometheus was leaving HBOMax at the end of the month so I started watching it yesterday afternoon. After about an hour I decided I wasn’t really interested any more and turned it off. I think it was the “oh no there’s a giant storm approaching, we need to race back to the ship!” scene that killed it for me.