Uncut Gems?
Yes. Like I said, I know that was the point. Adam Sandler did a great job of weaponising up years of bad movies to be a proper dislikeable character,
(I actually quoted the original post, but I think it folded it into the reply to mechanism on the board I can’t really see the linking of the two posts).
My favorite Westerns, FWIW:
True Grit (either version, really, as they’re both great, but I’d give a slight edge to the original)
Appaloosa
Little Big Man
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Hostiles
Shane
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
No Country for Old Men
Blazing Saddles
Wild Wild West
The last two are ridiculous, I’m the first to admit, but fun.
Last of the Mohicans and Breaker Morant also feel a lot like Westerns, but aren’t, really - but for me they’re favorite movies of that ilk just the same.
I also like Maverick from 1994 and enjoyed it more than Tombstone.
Perhaps I shouldn’t post about it, because I’ve only seen bits and pieces from it:
Baby Driver
It caught my eye while I was channel-surfing and I watched the initial bank heist/getaway car chase scene. It was clever and surprising and wasn’t the same old cliched car chase routine. I later saw another bit, the opening scene to the tune of Harlem Shuffle, and that was even cleverer and drew me in thoroughly.
I have the whole movie taped and plan to watch it this weekend.
I saw that movie when it was released; it was pretty good and got good reviews.
I was disappointed. I LOVED Spaced and all three of his movies with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost(the Cornetta(?) trilogy), but I did not like Baby Driver and…get ready…I only thought Scott Pilgrim was OK.
TCM ran Get Carter with Michael Caine. Made in 1970. The violence is very explicit and stark. Very surprising for 1970. It’s considered neo-noir. TCM is running noir on Friday nights in July.
Caine plays a mob enforcer that returns to his hometown to investigate his brother’s murder. You can imagine how a mob enforcer asks questions. The body count was around seven gruesome deaths.
The starkness is unsettling. For example, one lady is put in the trunk of a car. It’s parked at a dock. Bad guys push the car into the water. No dramatic music, no screams but you can easily picture her death.
Caine said (Wikipedia) he based the character on people he knew growing up. That he could have easily fallen into that world.
How is it? I’ve never seen it.
I enjoyed Get Carter. It’s a bit slow paced until the middle. Caine gets his revenge in the fast paced 2nd half.
I found the plot hard to follow. The Wikipedia entry helped me clear up some questions.
I liked Baby Driver and would recommend it. Quirky in all the right ways, with a great cast.
Excision - streams free on Tubi
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Boy, oh boy, this is a movie that is impossible to really talk about without talking about the final 20 minutes or so. I would recommend you simply go into this movie blind and experience it yourself. I won’t spoil things here, but please realize you can not fully understand this movie without watching the entire thing first.
You are going to spend the first hour of this movie wondering why it is so often billed as a horror movie. It feels like an adolescent-struggle movie with some rather morbid body horror visions thrown in, but the truth is that the final 20 minutes of this movie are a lot different than what come before and you are probably going to remember those 20 minutes a lot longer than anything that came before them.
Pros:
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Some great imagery, especially its dream/vision sequences
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AnnaLynne McCord and Traci Lords give great performances
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Surprisingly good movie about not fitting in at school…to say the least
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Final 20 minutes will be burned in my mind for years to come
Cons:
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Very oddly shot/framed at times. I think it is intentional, but conversations are shot and edited in a very disconcerting way. It did not work for me.
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It is fair to say that the protagonist becomes too unsympathetic by the mid-point of the movie
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I can not for the life of me tell you what the theme or message of a movie like this is
I both liked and was kind of puzzled by this movie. I commend it for being something I have not seen before and also for being a movie I will remember for a long time. It would serve as a very odd companion movie to Eigth Grade. Both movies about struggling to fit in and both about a young female protagonist. Could two movies on the same topic be any more different?
I’d recommend you take a look at both movies if you would like to find out.
It was a lot better than I expected. The soundtrack is stellar, and pretty much all the performances are top-notch. Also, the thing with the graffiti is pretty clever, but that’s just a bonus.
Watched a documentary, “Stories We Tell”, on Amazon Prime last night.
If you’re in the mood for a quiet and thoughtful documentary about a family’s journey, told from their own perspective, it’s well worth the time.
America: The Motion Picture. I can’t even begin to describe this, so I’m going to steal the Wikipedia description:
It’s created by the people who made (and in the animation style of) Archer, and it is just ridiculous anachronism a-go-go. I strongly suspect that this will appeal to a limited niche audience (probably the same audience as Archer) but if you’re willing to lean into it, it’s actually pretty funny and there are a lot of quite smart historical in-jokes liberally sprinkled throughout.
One of my favorites. We own it, to the extent you can own anything digital these days.
Is was nominated for three Academy Awards for editing/sound editing/mixing. And won a BAFTA.
Not your typical action film.
Body Heat is on TCM atm. Its disappointing. Hurt is fairly boring although his character is supposed to be a dumb lawyer. Turner is really hot but her acting is overblown and lacking depth. The other actors are good so there is that. The noir setting is good and the score is excellent. Its worth a watch for fans of noir and for people interested in popular movies from the 80s.
I finally got a chance to see This is Spinal Tap last night, after years of hearing how great it is.
I was extremely underwhelmed. I suppose that if I was a fan of heavy metal (and could catch some of the allusions) I would’ve liked it better. And, although I like live improv theater, I really don’t care much for improv movie dialogue. A lot of things people seem to like took forever to set up, or were milked mercilessly beyond the point of interest, or just weren’t that good to begin with. Even the signature line – “It goes up to 11” was beaten to rags like a dead horse.
For what it’s worth, I really liked Body Heat. It’s one of my favorite “twist” movies.
Is William Hurt a good actor? He’s super dull in anything I can remember seeing him in.
The Ice Road - Basically a two-hour ad for Peterbilt Trucks and a paycheck for Liam Neeson. Fairly ham-handed, plot-wise, but not too awful for an afternoon’s entertainment. Netflix.