Wow. $320 million is a lot for a movie that went nowhere. I assume that Netflix spends that kind of money from time to time as a loss leader, to attract subscribers? Because without a regular release to theaters, I can’t see how it gets payback.
Netflix plans to spend $18 billion on content next year. So, that’s almost 2% of their annual budget, which is a lot. But they do like to spend.
The Electric State. has quite interesting ratings at Rotten Tomatoes: 17% critics, 73% audience. When you see skews like this, it’s often for SF/superhero type movies. So, yeah.
I want to see alternative budgets listed, with the main lead cast and Director salaries removed, just to get a more realistic idea of “on-screen” spending.
None of the scenes looked particularly expensive. Most of the ‘bots looked like actors in costume.
Oh yeah, that reminds me. I watched The Gorge. I kind of had to because it’s romancy and actiony and I’ve been rooting for Miles Teller ever since Whiplash. (He hasn’t seemed to find the right role after that, though.) I’m always on the lookout for action romance stories that work, structurally.
This… did not.
The leads were both very hot, so that was cool. But something just didn’t work about this movie. It felt like half a romance followed by half a formulaic action thriller. The romance was actually the better executed part. Sigourney Weaver was completely wasted. I don’t know who decided she needed to be a sci Fi villain in every dumb movie but they never give her interesting parts.
The dialogue was pretty bad, too. The best part was when they couldn’t talk to each other.
The monsters were pretty cool but they looked like they belonged in a horror movie, not an action story.
Grade: C
So, what were they I wonder? My guesses based on no inside information:
Russos - $15 million each?
Pratt - $15 million
Millie - $15 million
Ke Huy Quan - $5 million
The robot effects are good, but it doesn’t hit me as a massive budget movie at the half-way point I am at.
It amazes me that a film like Ex Machina had a $15 million budget, and has spectacular effects. Granted, it didn’t have a lot of sets.
Try seeing him in The Spectacular Now. I thought he was decent
The Electric State
Recommended for families.
So this is basically a totally safe family film that I would have really liked as a kid. It’s totally fine, but nowhere during watching it did I think it looked like a $300 Million + movie.
I can’t really recommend it in general since it is just an OK movie, but if you have kids and want something fun to watch, this would be a pretty solid choice.
Finding Ohana was a better movie, though, and I think that was a Netflix production for families as well.
September 5 I’ve avoided this since I didn’t feel the need to see yet another dramatization of the Munich Olympics tragedy. But a friend told me the actual story was something else. Boy, was he right! The events of Sept. 5, 1972 are told from the POV of the ABC (Wide World of) Sports crew who were positioned to best report the events. Still, the film isn’t just about reporting. It’s mostly about media and how it was created before the digital revolution. It was fascinating to see how many laborious and specialized processes and skills were involved that can all be done now on any smart phone. If you have kids under 30, make them watch this film so they will realize how vastly different technology was in the world their parents grew up in.
Unknown 2011 Liam Nessan, Diane Kruger, January Jones
On Max, It’s pretty good. It’s obviously influenced by the first Jason Bourne film.
It’s a bit far fetched. The former Stassi agent points out that having a spare operative complete with ID, personal photos, and web presence is highly unlikely. But at least the writers acknowledged the problem.
I just accepted that detail and the rest of the movie is very good. Liam’s performance makes this film work.
I just watched Dr. Strangelove for the first time in years, but my fifth or sixth time overall. What a great film. What performances by Sellers, by Hayden, by Scott, by everyone, just perfection, and the direction is fantastic. It moves at a quick pace, but manages to flesh out a dozen memorable characters or more. Even one who doesn’t even exist, the Russian premier, Dmitri, has a hilarious character and some great lines, though we hear them only through Sellers’ response to them.I’m simply awed by Kubrick’s genius, and Terry Southern’s script is spot on.
A scary speech is Hayden’s rant against fluoridation, which could be spoken word for word by RFK, jr. in 2025. A complete lunatic, Hayden makes you feel his commitment to his paranoiac vision really terrifying.
That was my favorite “monologue” in acting class.
Sherlock Holmes 2009 Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law
I enjoyed it. Downey put in an amazing performance.
I can’t identify it as the Sherlock Holmes that I read as a teenager. Watson was never athletic or a fighter. Watson suffered from bouts of Malaria. He represented the eyes of the reader in the books.
But, if you accept Holmes and Watson as action heroes than the movie is very good.
MotW was Reawakening. It stars Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson as a couple whose 14yo daughter ran away ten years earlier. Due to the anniversary some new publicity is given to the matter and The Return of Martin Guerre/Sommersby-type stuff happens.
Harris gets a lot more screen time than Stevenson which is a shame. I’m more a fan of her than him. His character has a lot of conflicted feelings about the situation. They also make her hair blond instead of red which is a venal sin.
Fairly well done if somewhat predictable. But the acting is really good.
Give it 3.5 model train locomotives.
Armour of God 2: Operation Condor
Highly recommended.
This was FUN. Jackie Chan directed and stars in this movie, which is a sequel, though I did not realize it until I was partway through.
A very fun action-adventure romp with all the great stunts you know Jackie does, but also a lot of fun humor and an overall upbeat vibe that made the whole thing great.
I never saw this on TV growing up. It’s kind of amazing. Check it out.
I streamed it on Kanopy, one of the library apps. It had English Dub, but Jackie was doing his own voice and it was fine. Movie was Hong Kong Cantonese movie.
Wasn’t the title a clue?
I was going to note that this was the film that resulted in him having a hole in his head, but that was the first Armour of God movie. In this one he only dislocated his sternum.
//i\\
No, no. My bad. It was called “Operation Condor” and I only found out later it was kind of a Mad Max type thing wher foreign releases did not put the sequel-indicating part of the title in it.
My copy, on Kanopy, was indeed just called Operation Condor.