Finally saw Obsession. Watched it on a plane.
It was fine. I don’t regret missing it in theaters. I suspected (and now feel confirmed) that it’s not the type of movie that needs a big screen. Perfect airplane movie, really.
…unless you are or are liable to become airsick, in which case the gore might push you over the top. Doubly so if you just had an inflight meal with meat of dubious quality/provenance.
Always take your inflight meals with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
I watched Fuze on Max. It’s set in London and begins with the discovery of what appears to be a WWII bomb in a residential neighborhood. It’s worthwhile.
Ghost in the Cell
Highly recommended.
One of the best movies I’ve seen from 2026 so far. Almost certainly, this will be in my top 10 at the end of the year. Joko Anwar again proves that he is one of the best film-makers working today. He wrote, directed, and edited this film and it is just terrific.
Gist: In a prison, people keep getting murdered and displayed in horrific ways. Prisoners figure out that the “ghost” or whatever is killing the person with the darkest, most negative aura. They proceed to dance, pray, and do anything that will improve their aura and keep them safe.
About half-way through, I realized this is a Sam Raimi style Horror-Comedy. Just terrific stuff. I found it both horrific at times, but then found myself laughing out loud a lot.
Check it out. Oh, it’s in Indonesian, as the majority of Joko Anwar movies are. I think he should have done this one in English; it would have had a pretty good reception around the world. I don’t mind subtitles, but I want more people to see this one.
Check it out! I give it an 8 or 9 out of 10.
Yesterday evening I saw Mayday on Apple TV, starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. Reynolds is an American Navy pilot who parachutes into Russia during a CIA mission in 1987 and Branagh is the Russian who finds him. The film is about Reynolds trying to get out of Russia. I enjoyed it.
I’m watching Mayday tonight; hope we like it.
Yesterday I watched a film about a wisecracking, womanizing, hotshot Army surgeon stationed at a M*A*S*H unit during the Korean War.
It’s called Battle Circus from 1953, released during the tail end of the actual Korean War. Humphrey Bogart plays the surgeon, and June Allyson is the love interest, a newly-arrived nurse. I’d only learned this film existed two days ago, and being a fan of the 1970 M*A*S*H film and subsequent TV show, I was intrigued.
The look and feel of this film is surprisingly similar to those, right down to the opening shot of a Bell helicopter flying casualties into the camp. It is, of course, a more serious take on the subject, highlighting the heroism of the doctors and staff, almost to the point of propaganda.
It’s not a bad watch, though there’s not much plot to speak of, and the Bogart/Allyson romance is fairly tepid. There’s a lot of emphasis on the “M” in M*A*S*H. The flim’s title is a reference to moving large tents from place to place, and the staff sergeant (a young and very buff Keenan Wynn) even mentions having worked for Barnum & Bailey.
I found this to be an interesting piece of film history if nothing else. Fans of the other movie and the show might want to check it out for a different take on what life in a M*A*S*H was like.
At the very least, that is a brilliant title for the subject matter.
D.O.A. (1949). Edmond O’Brien staggers into a police station. “I want to report a murder.” “Who was murdered?” “Me. I was murdered.” TV Tropes says this is the Ur-Example of that trope, and it’s done very well across 83 minutes as he becomes increasingly desperate. The music scoring is a little odd, but otherwise the whole thing is well put together.
Bonus sightings: Mr. Drucker from Green Acres as a bartender. The neighbor Jerry Halper from The Dick van Dyke Show as a helpful bellhop.
Walk the Line 2005 Joaquin Phoenix,
Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin,
Robert Patrick
On Max
Great performances by all the cast. It’s difficult to watch someone ruin their life with drugs and booze. Cash came very close to losing everything.
It’s ironic Cash did everything except walk the line.
Cash and June died in 2003. I wonder if they had any involvement in pre-production?
Recommended
I’ve seen the remake with Dennis Quaid. It was an interesting premise, but I’m not sure I’d recommend the later version.
Me neither.
I’ve been watching the older Spider-Man movies on Disney+. I haven’t seen the Tobey Maguire movies since they first came out, and I never saw the Andrew Garfield ones. Finished “The Amazing Spider-Man” yesterday. Garfield is an interesting Spider-Man. He’s not as nerdy as Maguire, and just seems more physically suited to the role. No MJ, no JJJ - it’s almost like they didn’t even want to try to compete with Kirsten Dunst or JK Simmons so they just left the characters out completely. And Sally Field and Martin Sheen made a great Aunt May and Uncle Ben. I found it much more enjoyable than I thought I would.
There hasn’t been a truly terrible Spider-man movie yet. Yes, Spider-man 3 is a step down, probably the worst of all of them. Andrew Garfield’s second one is also pretty good and underrated. Oh, what the heck…I’ll rank all the Spider-man films(I’m not including the recent animated ones).
I like Spider-man 3, so even being ranked last is no huge smudge. In fact, it is probably underrated overall as well; it’s still a good movie. It’s just the one where Sam Raimi was forced to include things he didn’t want to include, specifically Venom.
If you haven’t seen the three Venom movies Tom Hardy made, check them out. They are fun as well.
My favorite moment in all of them remains the scene in No Way Home with the three of them sitting atop the statue before the big final fight, just talking. Quality writing right there.
I like all of it with the three of them. It was fan-service and playing to the audience, but they did it in a way that felt earned. They also were careful scripting to make sure that each of them had a “bad guy” to try to redeem or heal. And letting Andrew Garfield save MJ in a way he couldn’t save his Gwen was absolutely top notch writing.
When the three of them swing out and land and pose in their Spider-man pose, it actually got genuine cheers from my crowd in the theater. I’m not one for making noise in the theater, but that movie actually elicited acceptable cheers throughout. Love that movie.
From Wikipedia:
Aided by Sydney, whom he kidnaps by super-gluing himself to her arm, he attempts to deduce who murdered him.
Wait, that’s some real 80s-quality plot line, how can that not be good? And this is the movie where Quaid and Ryan started dating, so there’s that.
CNN aired the film “9/11” last night. The guy who made the film just happened to be embedded with Station #1 in NY, filming the everyday life of a fire house. The station had just responded to a gas smell in Manhattan and he was filming it when the first plane hit the towers. He was with them at the site and continued filming right through the collapse of the first building. Miraculously, nobody at Station #1 was killed in that effort, despite being inside when the collapse happened.
As God as my witness, I can not process or believe that 9/11 is 25 years ago.
Over half my life now.
Coyote vs. Acme
Barely recommended.
Do you LOVE Warner Brother cartoons? This is a pretty good one. Otherwise, it’s really kind of dull. Mildly amusing. Children…would probably find it kind of confusing and dull as well.
Zero reason to delete this film, which was the studio’s plan. But it definitely isn’t great. I can’t imagine, though, filming, editing, and finishing a film and then keeping it or deleting it.
I’d generally give this a thumbs…down? sideways?