Conclave, another they-don’t-make-them-like-that-anymore movie which was, in fact, made today. Had a few neat tricks (the tracking shot when the pov switched to the ‘conclave room’ was nice), I always enjoy movies about professionals being all professional and shit, and while ‘troubled priest’ is a trope as old as Hollywood, it wasn’t worn out here. Saw it in the theater.
To Catch A Killer, a movie Netflix recommended to us, about a Baltimore PO who gets put on as a liaison to the FBI to find a mass-murderer. The bad guy was magically enhanced at first - 28 shots, 28 deaths in one scene, he shoots his way out of a mall in another (while avoiding every camera in existence) - but when we finally met him on-screen he was… just a guy. Which was nice.
I don’t know if I recommend this one, but I won’t tell you not to watch it if you want to. Had some great cinematography, I will say.
Just watched A Complete Unknown (getting it in under the wire before the Oscars). I thought it was really interesting as a history of the early 60s music scene…but if you wanted to learn much about Dylan other than that he wrote good songs and was a bit of a jerk, you won’t get answers here. It occurred to me that they chose the title for a reason.
No Way Out 1987 Gene Hackman, Keven Costner, Sean Young, Will Patton
I signed up for MGM+. I’ve noticed films that run on AMC don’t stream anywhere else. They have to be rented on Prime or watched on MGM+. It was getting expensive.
The signup thru Prime is very easy. Another 7 bucks a month for my movie pleasure.
I’m rewatching several Gene Hackman roles. He’s pretty impressive as Secretary of Defense David Brice. The SOD is having an affair with Sean Young.
Costner is the idiot stupid enough to carry on an affair with Brice’s mistress. The one guy that could destroy Costner’s career in the Navy with one phone call.
Will Patton almost steals the movie with his role as the increasingly demented aide to SOD. Patton portrays a dangerous, power hungry villain very well.
This movie gave a big boost to Keven Costner’s career.
I wish Hackman had a bigger role. He mostly disappears in the 2nd half of the movie. Gene is there for the confrontation with Patton and Costner.
This was a loose remake of the classic noir The Big Clock, which in turn was an adaptation of a fun little book by Kenneth Fearing. Both worth looking into sometime.
One way of considering how good upper-tier movies are is whether you want to re-watch them. I will definitely want to re-watch A Complete Unknown at some point.
Anora is the only other Oscar nominated film I have the least interest in seeing.
Since there doesn’t seem to be an Oscars thread, I’ll put this here: I’m really annoyed that Kieran Culkin got an Oscar. His characters in Succession and A Real Pain are the same guy: potty-mouthed man-child with psychological issues. So as far as I can tell, he’s just playing himself. If he gets cast as Abraham Lincoln, or Gandalf* I’ll pay attention and revise my opinion as needed.
*“Fuck off, flame of Udûn! You fucking shall not pass!”
I don’t think Dylan knows that much about Dylan. That’s the point. He’s a guy who was gifted with immense genius and didn’t really know what to do with, beyond not doing what anyone else wanted. In a way, it reminded me a bit of Amadeus, if Salieri had been the nicest person in the world.
Because (a) I thought it was obvious (that I went with the one that got shut out instead of the big winner) and (b) I posted my “what I watched” a mere <10 posts prior
It’s a John Wick plot, only a lot more knife/axe chopping instead of shooting. But there is shooting as well. A hitman’s family is killed and he seeks out revenge against the people that did it. Very John WIck like and honestly, some pretty effective action scenes.
Streams on Netflix, so if you have that it just kind of comes along with it. Nicely done.
There is a English Dub if you like, but not a lot of dialogue anyway.
I’m still confused. In your previous post, you said you liked A Complete Unknown. Then you mention making a poor choice. I assumed you meant Anora since you’d already commented on the previous movie, but apparently not.
So, in toto, you found A Complete Unknown “really interesting”, but you “chose poorly”. And you have no opinion on Anora.
Oh dear. We’re getting into the territory of “if you have to explain a joke…it’s gone far beyond the point of where it’s remotely funny.”
The fact that I listed the number of Oscars won by the 2 films was – I thought – sufficient to imply that my criteria wasn’t the quality of the film, but the ability to have seen, in advance of the Oscar telecast, the one indicated by The Academy as “the best” and therefore most worthy of my viewing time. And on that criteria, I chose poorly; ie, my prediction skills were sorely lacking.
And “chose poorly” is a reference to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, just to make everything completely clear.
I saw The Substance. Not “Best Picture” worthy. Liked A Complete Unknown much much more.
Yes, The Substance makes a commentary on vanity, especially in Hollywood. Dennis Quaid was too over-the-top, approaching “farce”. I enjoyed the movie, but wouldn’t place it as the best of the year.
The Substance (Prime rental) Meh, 3 stars. Artsy-Oscar-grabbing nudity goes heavy, see also Poor Things. I like body horror as a genre, but I felt it was weak sauce here and mostly went for gross. I am glad I saw it, but mostly to see what all the hype was about.
Now that I know I don’t get it but can go on my merry.
I find it totally bizarre to see that film categorized that way. A gross extreme body-horror is about the least possible “Oscar-y” type genre you can have.