Clear and Present Danger
On a par with The Hunt for Red October in the Jack Ryan series, in my opinion. Complex and talky thriller but well worth the time invested. Some great action sequences when they do arrive too.
Another film, when watching through today’s lens, where the drama surrounding somewhat questionable (to say the least) actions by senior US government officials seems rather quaint compared to the current real life insanity.
First time I watched it, I was confused by “luminous poison”. What is that? They gave him watch numbers? Was there a reason they couldn’t just say “radioactive material”?
I just put those in their own world. I love them, and i generally hate multiverse movies.
I think it’s actually better. Now, Patriot Games? What a snooze fest! And so dated…
Dog Stars - post-apocalypse pilot flies around, has adventures with his dog.
Nice cast, mostly care about them, story moves along well, the action climax is a little over the top, and then the denouement is fine. 7.5/10
Two spoiler quibbles:
1 - The dog dies! Saving his human - someone should have warned us
2 - The sidekick specifically calls out a range/fuel problem - the goal is outside the normal. Our hero flies there and back (and adds two adults to his load).
Who knew that reloading paper in the printer could be so tense?
Mortal Kombat II showed up on streaming a week or so ago, so I decided to give it a try. Clearly i didn’t set my expectations low enough. The acting is terrible, what little plot there is makes no sense, and I honestly didn’t care about any of the characters. Even Karl Urban seemed to be phoning it in. I quit about halfway through. I agree with Mahaloth, skip this one.
Havoc. Now on Netflix. Tom Hardy action vehicle. Pretty much a waste of some good talent (Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant). Ridiculous action sequences where people really get killed a lot. All the characters seem to be able to handle automatic weapons like pros, except for knowing how many bullets are enough to kill someone. Still, the female cop does a decent job and I always like Hardy.
Medium Cool (1969)
This is one of those famed films I have known about for decades but never actually sat down and watched. Literally a film about a cameraman (played by Robert Forster) made by a cameraman (cinematographer/ documentarian Haskell Wexler); it’s a sort of meta attempt to dramatize Marshall McLuhan’s “The medium is the message”. As much as I love Robert Forster, his character and story are the least compelling part of this film. The heart of the story is a single mother and her son transplanted from Appalachia to Chicago. Verna Bloom (the future Mrs. Dean Wormer in Animal House) plays the mother and is only outshone by the naturalistic performance of Harold Blankenship who plays her son.
But this film is mostly a brilliantly conceived time capsule of America in 1968. The footage is partly scripted and partly documentary and the fact that you can’t always tell which is what makes this film so good. Wexler famously put Bloom in a yellow dress and just filmed her walking among the chaos around the 1968 Democratic Convention and incorporated that into her story as well as creating a call back to a National Guard rehearsal shown earlier in the film.
Highly watchable for a 1960s “experimental” film and probably the best hand-held camera work prior to 1990s Spielberg.
Wind River (2017), starring Elizabeth Olson and Jeremy Renner. Renner is a wildlife officer with close ties to the local native American community. Olson is a rookie FBI agent sent to investigate a murder on the reservation. A decent story that sees Renner’s character dealing the murder of his own teenage daughter and the marriage that fell apart as a result of it and Olson being a good officer but in over her head and getting practically no help from anyone but Renner.
A decent flick, but I have some issues with it. Story-wise, I found the resolution disappointing. I won’t totally spoiler anything, but essentially, no arrests are made by the end of the movie and the bad guy(s) are never really held responsible in the public eye. They get they’re cummupance, but in the end the murder is never resolved legally and there are a lot of people left hanging.
Anyway … the other issues I have are with the editing and the sound mixing. Renner is so low-key and subdued in his line deliveries that we had the volume cranked to 80 and still could barely make out what he was saying half-the-time - the dialogue was buried under the score for the most part. As for editing, I experienced too many, “Oh I see,” moments toward the end of the film. ‘Oh, I see, those girls were best friends,’ … ‘Oh, I see, that guy was her brother’ … 'Oh, I see, …" et cetera.
And what the hell happened to Checkov’s lion, that’s what I want to know.
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie
Recommended.
I spent the past two weeks watching all the web series and television show that lead up to this film. It’s quite stunning. Two Canadian guys had a very humorous web series and television program over the past 17 years.
In this movie, they re-create Marty and Doc’s time machine from Back To The Future and use it to re-visit the past, which is downright fascinating as you see them in 2008 and 2026…somehow they were able to pull this effect off.
Very fun and charming. You do need to watch the show, which airs on Hulu, for maximum effect. You really should, though, as they are charming and hilarious guys.
Yes, Nirvanna has three “n’s” in it. They abuse copyright and trademarks like maniacs using fair usage, but they added a third “n” just to avoid any discussion with Nirvana, Courtney Love, etc.
I finally saw Supergirl, now that it’s available on Max. I’m just glad that I didn’t bother to watch it in the theaters. Kind of weak.
I have forgotten most of it. Shame.
Nuremburg
Not a film to ‘enjoy’, per se, but certainly one I appreciated. Russell Crowe’s performance was the standout, he really did come across as charming, narcissistic and supremely arrogant as the monstrous Goering. Rami Malek was also good as the psychiatrist assigned to assess him (and other prominent Nazis). I wasn’t expecting the genuine footage from the concentration camps- that hit me for six, despite having seen similar film clips many times before. It’s just something that will be forever shocking.
I don’t think a single film is ever going to do proper justice to the subject matter but it was well done.
7/10
I liked the part where a Nazi about to get his comeuppance cried like a frightened little child. More of that, and less of expecting me to sympathize with a Nazi’s wife/child would have been appreciated.
“Come From Away” on Apple. A movie of the Broadway musical about 9/11. Very well done and recommended.
The President’s Man 2000
and
The President’s Man, Line in the Sand 2002
Chuck Norris
Available on Prime
They are among the last movies that Chuck starred in. He had very limited roles in later films like The Expendables.
The first movie features a special operative nearing retirement. He recruits and trains a new guy to take his place.
Pretty good for a tv movie. 6 out of 10
The 2nd movie features Chuck and the new guy (recasted the actor) stopping a terrorist with a nuclear weapon.
The writers went beyond martial arts and gave the characters abilities that were impossible.
Glad they didn’t make any more sequels.
4 out of 10
I watched the films primarily because of Chuck Norris. I think this completes watching all his films.
So Norris was playing himself? 
Yup. 
It gets silly in the sequel. The apprentice dodges fast-moving balls blindfolded.
He gets chased on a motorcycle by jeeps firing mounted machine guns.
Scenes in Action films always gets extreme. It’s acceptable when done right.
The motorcycle chase was silly and unbelievable.
Monday Movie Night report-out.
Picnic at Hanging Rock directed by Peter Weir (Dead Poet’s Society, The Truman Show.)
Currently on HBO Max.
A 1975 Australian film with a bizarre take on the (fictional?) disappearance of four women at a finishing school in the year 1900. They go out for an excursion to Hanging Rock and never come back. The film centers on the survivors, including a headmistress slowly losing her composure as her students and employees flee.
This film is freaking weird man, but in the best kind of way. The cinematography makes the figures look like living paintings; some of it I swear came out of classic art. This is juxtaposed with a truly creepy soundtrack (and occasional pan flute.) There are elements that seem arguably supernatural but can be interpreted either way. The dialogue is almost symbolic more than realistic.
There’s nothing graphic or gory about the film but it is nevertheless disturbing. Its conclusions are ambiguous, but my take is it’s about waning colonial power in Australia and the price women paid for liberation. It refuses so completely to explain itself, though, I’d accept any other theory.
This is apparently considered one of the best Australian films of all time, and I can see why.
I really liked it. I can only imagine what it would be like to watch it while high.
5 stars.
Nomadland (Netflix (leaving soon, though)).
Was better than I expected, not treacly or a “look how horrible society is” kinda movie which is what I thought it was going to be. Don’t know about it being Best Picture material, but that’s fine - the Academy no more has to hew to my aesthetic than I do to theirs (Parasite was the right call, however).