The Movie Preview, Review, & Recommendation Thread pt. II

[Fwiffo]

Saw a commercial about that last night. Worth a watch?

If you like romantic comedies/dramas sure. It's a movie with a ring and did the guy who has the ring really mean to propose, and the guy who lost the ring didn't propose, maybe it saved him. Guy has a kid too so there's the single father lens.

I also watched Your Christmas or Mine on Amazon Prime mostly because it was snowing all day and I didn't feel like mucking around for more than an hour or two outside. Does Alex Jennings always sound so posh? Then I looked at Wikipedia and he's born in Romford.

 

[ter1413]

Caught this on Netflix over the wknd.

AP stars as a wanna be artist, current food delivery worker with a shitload of student debt. She is just living her life in Los Angeles while sharing an apartment with several people.

When a co-worker slides her a phone number to potentially be a "dummy shopper" she eventually bites.

"Dummy shopper"? Yep...fake credit card and drivers license...purchase some shit...contact resells.

After a few successful, but tense runs, she gets pretty good.

But there are pitfalls. Loads of cash laying around. No time for real 9-5 jobs/interviews. And falling for the contact dude who she is working with.

This was pretty good. The movie weaves a tale of a wannabe criminal trying to survive, doing real criminal stuff! Def worth a watch!

3.75/5.

 

[ter1413]

Another one I caught over the wknd.

The lead actress is a newly married lass living the high life at her husband's family compound. He heads to war and comes back partially paralyzed, and unable to walk/use his junk!

They move back to the country crib, where they basically own the town, and try to make a life for themselves.

The monkey wrench? The newly hired gamekeeper living in a cottage on the land is single and really to mingle!

Lead actress starts taking long walks and.....well.....you know!

There is a good amount of nudity in this, from both lead actors. I'm usually not a period piece movie dude, but this was also rather well done.

This is a remake and based on D.H. Lawrence's book(which I didn't see or read.)

Also worth a watch...even though it runs just over 2 hours.

3.5/5.

 

[Fwiffo]

There is a good amount of nudity in this, from both lead actors. I'm usually not a period piece movie dude, but this was also rather well done.

This is a remake and based on D.H. Lawrence's book(which I didn't see or read.)

Also worth a watch...even though it runs just over 2 hours.

One of my lady friends was recommending it. She said it was soft porn. Never know what to expect when a woman recommends you to watch porn of any kind.

 

[ter1413]

Caught this last night on Netflix.

Ok....have you seen Die Hard? Well this is a knock off Die Hard with a few changes:

An ex soldier goes to visit his deceased brother's family in the UK. He takes his niece to a West Ham football match.

Meanwhile...some shady terrorists plan to lock down and take over the entire stadium as they have intelligence that the main shady dude's brother will be chilling at the game. They want him!

Lockdown commences. Ex soldier's niece is running around the arena. Chaos ensues...even as the match, and the majority of the crowd have no clue.

Soldier dude has a set of skills that he uses to try and thwart the bad guys. He navigates the inner workings of the arena, with some help from a security guard, while also communicating with the coppers outside as they plan to storm the fort.

Sound familiar?

This was def watchable. Nothing special. I happen to see it and clicked play.

2.5/5.

 

[Fwiffo]

I watched The Swimmers. I knew about Yusra Mardini when she showed up to the Rio Olympics so some of the story wasn't new to me. Also my company did an interview or some kind of sponsorship for her in 2020. The fact she still wanted to swim for Syria in the beginning was a bit different. I thought she left because she was against the Assad regime.

It is depressing to see how humanity is universally decrepit that at every portion of their journey to Germany people are always willing to make money off of them - Turkey, Hungary, etc. much less threaten sexual violence.

I think the next Olympics is her last and she is some social media influencer judging from what she posts on Instagram.

 

[Dropbear]

24 Hour Party People. The biopic of Tony Wilson, Factory Records, the Hacienda, etc. a friend told me I needed to see this. It’s slickly made but completely misses the mark in capturing the time and the music. I don’t know much about Wilson to know if it is an accurate portrayal but ever thing else is just off. 2/5

 

[ter1413]

Wow. Don't know what to think about this one. Just finished it on Netflix.

A billionaire dude invites some friends to a private island for some hijinks. His plan? A Clue like weekend where he gets "killed" and they have to solve the riddle.

However, there are motives behind each friend agreeing to come and motives behind the invites.

This 2+hour flick had a few ups, and several downs!

I am still puzzled(no pun intended!)

2.5/5.

 

[QuandoDio]

Wow. Don't know what to think about this one. Just finished it on Netflix.

A billionaire dude invites some friends to a private island for some hijinks. His plan? A Clue like weekend where he gets "killed" and they have to solve the riddle.

However, there are motives behind each friend agreeing to come and motives behind the invites.

This 2+hour flick had a few ups, and several downs!

I am still puzzled(no pun intended!)

2.5/5.

Interestingly. I just finished this one too. And enjoyed it better than you did.

Gave it a 4.25

 

[ter1413]

Just finished this documentary.

A nomad/hitchhiker saves the day for a couple of women and becomes famous.....though this is the very first time I heard about him/this incident.

He goes on the news, Jimmy Kimmel and gets offers for a reality show.

Something is fishy! He has a somewhat dark side that few know about...as they only see the carefree man on social media and in person.

Then something goes wrong and many are left to wonder if the fame led him down a dark path!

Not really a fan of this. Just too much.....something...and not enough....something else.

2/5.

 

[Dropbear]

The Glass Onion: 4/5. Daniel Craig does an awful American accent. Light hearted who dunnit with a sold caste and a good pace.

The Pale Blue Eye. 4/5. Murder at West Point. Christian Bale, Edgar Allen Poe, satanists and some lovely scenery. Very enjoyable but, as with the above, fairly forgettable.

Black Bear. I’m only half way through this so will update with a rating later but this is really good. Aubrey Plaza gets between couple in a remote lakeside cabin. Great dialogue, tension and acting make it impossible to turn away.

 

[Fwiffo]

I still remember Edward Norton from Fight Club. He looks different as he ages. I'm guessing Glass Onion works for people who are interested in that kind of formula. It felt like pretty much type of story telling except Christopher Plummer is gone. My aunt enjoyed it. I thought it was a bit repetitive compared to Knives Out.

From Amazon, I watched Something from Tiffany's over the holidays. It reminded me a lot of my last trip to New York. Otherwise it's one of those romantic dramas where you're just waiting for the real couple to hook up and ditch their inappropriate girl/boy friends.

Also watched The People We Hate At The Wedding. I don't know how Allison Janney went from The West Wing to this, but she did. Maybe money talks.

 

[ter1413]

 

[ter1413]

This popped up on my Youtube recs last night and I watched it...again. I had a VHS copy back in the day and have seen it countless times.

This documentary follows the lives of two 14 year old boys living in inner city Chicago as they grow up and dream of becoming NBA players one day.

It follows their struggles at home, in school and on the court.

This film is moving, inspiring, sad(at times) and powerful!

One of the best films/documentaries out there!

4.5/5!

 

[Thruth]

This popped up on my Youtube recs last night and I watched it...again. I had a VHS copy back in the day and have seen it countless times.

This documentary follows the lives of two 14 year old boys living in inner city Chicago as they grow up and dream of becoming NBA players one day.

It follows their struggles at home, in school and on the court.

This film is moving, inspiring, sad(at times) and powerful!

One of the best films/documentaries out there!

4.5/5!

one of few that I watch again.

 

[Fwiffo]

The Banshees of Inisherin

Anyone watch it?

 

[Dropbear]

The Menu. Fantastic cast but it fell flat for me. I’m going to have to come back later to try to explain why I wasn’t impressed as I’m still trying to figure that out myself.

 

[ter1413]

Caught this(again) last night.

Four property/real estate sales guys are under pressure to.....sell. To some, the leads that they are being given are shit and they can't catch a break. Others are doing ok.

When a new batch of leads come in from the main office, everyone feels that they can get well. But some are under more pressure to generate revenue as corporate has stated that the bottom 2 will be fired by the end of the week.

This is a true masterpiece...starting with the cast. Everyone is amazing!

The dialogue and the way that each character interacts is a testament to their skill and to the script.

A MUST watch!

4.75/5.

 

[Fwiffo]

I watched Out of My League, Still Out of My League and Forever Out of My League over the past few weeks in small spurts.

It stars this girl who has some kind of respiratory disease. Sporting a bizarre short hair cut, a job where she announces supermarket specials, she develops a crush on some affluent preppy young man. When he confronts her for following him, she dares him out to a date which then leads to an awkward dinner amongst the man's materialistic family versus her rather peasant like life with her two gay & lesbian childhood friends living in a house she inherited.

Girl meets boy. Boy unlikely starts liking her. Opposites attract.

Then I'm not sure they planned on making a sequel because the next two movies made together have a different male lead but this time it's a poor musician. The childhood friends and a social media influencer friend have their sub plots. Her health condition gets worse and then she undergoes surgery to fix it and the illness mends some mistaken jealousy and blocked calls between the girl and boy.

I think they were trying to get Ludovica Francesconi to go for the phantasmal quality of the French movie Amelie. But I feel sorry for the actress for having to keep this hair cut for three movies because she actually looks very different without it.

 

[Dropbear]

8/10. This was surprisingly good and remarkably original, every time you think they will sink into familiar stereotypes.

 

[ter1413]

The Warriors head to a city wide gang meeting in the Bronx(NYC). While there, the head honcho gets shot/killed by a rival. The Warriors get fingered for the murder.

What to do? Head back to their home turf in Coney Island. But that won't be easy as there is a citywide lookout for the gang.

They start to make their way back to CI and experience rival gangs looking to make a name for themselves by taking them out. The Warriors are determined!

This is a solid flick that takes you back to NYC in the 1970's! Well worth a watch!

3.9/5.

 

[Fwiffo]

I only knew of that movie when someone posted on Reddit the movie poster in response to all the recent attacks on public transit.

 

[ter1413]

This was fascinating!

 

[Fwiffo]

Shotgun Wedding.

I watched it mostly because of Jennifer Lopez. Basically it's an island destination wedding between Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel (who is younger than Lopez but anyway), and their friends and family are invited. There is an ex that mysteriously shows up and pirates that take the resort employees and wedding guests hostage except for the couple who were at the time fighting away from the crowd and now must turn to fight off the pirates. Some severe pacing issues as it's partially a movie about a couple figuring out if they want to be together to an action/comedy movie and there are parts that just drag because it's neither. You sometimes wish they would focus on one thing or another. Gorgeous visuals, though, wherever tropical place they filmed it.

Memory.

Oh it's another Liam Neeson angry man vigilante against the world. I thought he gave up on action movies citing his old age and was going to focus on dramas? I guess if you drop a pile of money he'll still do it. Have to say he's getting a little stiff to roll around on the ground.

You People.

How does Jonah Hill still sound like Jonah Hill of Superbad but looks like a grown ass man with his shaggy beard and unkempt hair?

Time flies - David Duchovny, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eddie Murphy are now supporting cast parental figures like De Niro in Meet the Parents.

Anyway, it's a Jewish guy meets black girl and the parents do kooky things. Jonah Hill's side tries too hard to be down with the black culture with Hill himself spouting the most ridiculous crap to sound empathetic to black people. Eddie Murphy on the other hand is trying to find every which way to prevent a mixed marriage for her daughter.

Here Today.

Billy Crystal plays a comedy writer for a television show who is slowly going through dementia. By chance he meets Tiffany Haddish who is a singer alternating it from low brow venues and subway stations. It was a bit poignant to me given my mother is experiencing early onset of dementia. He tries to hide it from his kids. Of course things that he has been doing for ages (comedy) are okay, but other simple things like finding his way home or remembering whether he RSVPed or which locker he stowed his clothes at the tennis club are eluding him. Must be frustrating.

 

[Fwiffo]

Empire of Light

It was a bit strange to see Olivia Colman again after The Crown but here she is as a mature woman working at the local cinema who takes a liking to a younger black co-worker in Michael Ward. As their relationship develops, Colman sees Ward's character abused by whites and she herself has some psychotic episodes (hinted at in the beginning of the film) that the other co-workers fill Ward in. She recovers and returns to work only to see him beaten up in a riot. She's part of the reason he bounces back and he ends up going to university so there is a mature (aka realistic) ending to the relationship. Colin Firth makes a short appearance as the cinema's #metoo manager. (Is he hunching already?)

The Menu

An exclusive group of well to do 1% are taken to an island for a tasting menu curated by a chef played by Ralph Fiennes. It probably has every cliche about fine dining, foodies, and food review culture in there. At the end it's revealed it's an experience to die for and people who have too much money to blow spent months to sign up to be impressed (by their money, by their food, so they can put it on Insta, who knows). It starts veering off to the absurd when the bloodshed begins and even more amazing a bunch of grown men could only throw a chair and moan. There's a cheeseburger and prostitute at the end of the movie.

Ralph Fiennes is not hunching.

Oh and I started watching Banshees of Inisherin. There's a feud between two Irishmen where one starts cutting off his own finger one by one? His own finger. Not the other bloke's finger. This reinforces all the stereotype opinions of the Irish that my English uni mate told me over the years.

 

[ter1413]

Caught this last night on Apple TV.

This flick revolves around the lives of 5 people(above). It is broken down into 4 parts which weave the tale together.

A young man and woman seem to fall in love. However, the young woman was recruited by a grifter to help him pull some scams. But that grifter seems to be tied to someone else?

WTF is going on? Is everyone a scammer?

This was an interesting watch....but a little bit of a letdown at the end.

2.5/5.

 

[Dropbear]

I started Babylon but couldn’t finish it. Slapstick bacchanalia in the early days of Hollywood. 5/10

Instead I found a Le Carre film I’d overlooked. While it does not rate highly with the critics, I’d call it a hidden gem. Remarkably close to the novel in its bleakness and cynicism. 8/10

 

[Jan Libourel]

The Warriors head to a city wide gang meeting in the Bronx(NYC). While there, the head honcho gets shot/killed by a rival. The Warriors get fingered for the murder.

What to do? Head back to their home turf in Coney Island. But that won't be easy as there is a citywide lookout for the gang.

They start to make their way back to CI and experience rival gangs looking to make a name for themselves by taking them out. The Warriors are determined!

This is a solid flick that takes you back to NYC in the 1970's! Well worth a watch!

3.9/5.

Is this the 1970s-vintage movie, which I enjoyed immensely, or a contemporary remake?

On another note, I just saw "Cocaine Bear." Worse ways for an aging retiree to spend part of a rainy afternoon--by no means great cinema, but quite a bit of comedic gore. I get the sense that very foul-mouthed children are a staple of contemporary cinema.

 

[ter1413]

Is this the 1970s-vintage movie, which I enjoyed immensely, or a contemporary remake?

The original. I'm not aware of a remake.

 

[Fwiffo]

Your Place Or Mine - a romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher.

Two BFFs who talk all the time end up trading homes. Kutcher's character is frequently single, never has a relationship beyond 6 months, and has shrink wrapped cutlery in his kitchen. Witherspoon is the over protective helicopter mother whose whole life revolves around her son with multiple frozen casseroles and sticky notes instructions plastered over her home. Witherspoon goes to New York to pass a course to become a better accountant. Kutcher shows up in LA to take care of Witherspoon's son in the meantime who is a nerd at school and abandoned by his father. Being away from each other reminds them (no surrpise) they shouldn't have been apart in the first place.

I know Reese Witherspoon had 3 kids but she seems to have physically grown a little. I don't remember her being particularly busty. Ashton Kutcher looks pretty much the same with a bit of hair loss. Both of them are playing their usual characters from the past except fast forwarded 20 years into the future where they have more mature responsibilities (i.e. a kid).

 

[ter1413]

Started this on Sat night expecting something cool. Stopped it and did go back.

I just checked. 9 minutes in!

 

[Fwiffo]

I watched Luther: The Fallen Sun. I was aware of Idris Elba's Luther series but never watched it. Now I know why people were hinting he could have been a successor for Bond. I previously saw him in more drama type roles. The plot was a bit surreal - one middle aged villain + one tattooed bald sidekick can stage all of this? I liked the cinematography though. It gives London a moody Gotham backdrop.

 

[ter1413]

Also caught this last night.

What can I say except that it was 2 hours of nonsense!

As stated above, middle aged villain and some cohorts are killing some people. Why? Who knows. Luther is in jail and decides that he needs to help. How? Easy...break out!

The coppers are working on finding the villain and feel that they don't need Luther's help.....at first.

Villian must be a billionaire as he has the resources of a small country! Luther, a wanted man, ends up working with his old boss to find and stop the killings.

You really need to play make believe with this one. I stuck with it as I knew I will never come back to watch it again.

1/5!

 

[Fwiffo]

Anyone here watch Everything Everywhere all at Once?

I'm usually not into fantasy/comic book stuff.

 

[Dropbear]

The Warriors head to a city wide gang meeting in the Bronx(NYC). While there, the head honcho gets shot/killed by a rival. The Warriors get fingered for the murder.

What to do? Head back to their home turf in Coney Island. But that won't be easy as there is a citywide lookout for the gang.

They start to make their way back to CI and experience rival gangs looking to make a name for themselves by taking them out. The Warriors are determined!

This is a solid flick that takes you back to NYC in the 1970's! Well worth a watch!

3.9/5.

<em>The Warriors</em> Reunited to Recreate Their Subway Ride to Coney Island

The cast of the New York City-set cult classic took a ride on the Q train.

www.mentalfloss.com

 

[ter1413]

Anyone here watch Everything Everywhere all at Once?

I'm usually not into fantasy/comic book stuff.

Nah...and I probably never will as I'm also not into fantasy/comic stuff.

 

[ter1413]

Caught this last night after it popped up on Youtube.

Rachel M plays an up and coming morning news show executive producer. She gets a break to EP a NYC show being broadcast nationally.

Problems? Lots of 'em. The ratings sux, the talent isn't very good and the staff is not very motivated!

She brings her energy and recruits a legendary newscaster, Harrison F, to co-host with Diane K.

Problems? He doesn't want to work...just wants to collect is check...and Diane K doesn't like him.

Rachel M needs to get the ratings up, or not only is it her job, the show will get cancelled.

This was surprisingly good! Solid roles all around.

Def worth a watch.

3.95/5.

 

[Grand Potentate]

Anyone here watch Everything Everywhere all at Once?

I'm usually not into fantasy/comic book stuff.

It was good. I wouldn’t say it was the best picture ever but certainly worth a watch.

 

[ballmouse]

Reminds me of those early screwball comedies from the 30s and 40s. I liked it. I found the pacing better and characters more relatable than most comedies of the era (Al Brooks comedies, Police Academy, Ghostbusters, etc.). And I feel like the casting was perfect, especially the supporting cast of family and friends for Cage and Cher.

 

[Fwiffo]

She brings her energy and recruits a legendary newscaster, Harrison F, to co-host with Diane K.

Problems? He doesn't want to work...just wants to collect is check...and Diane K doesn't like him.

Rachel M needs to get the ratings up, or not only is it her job, the show will get cancelled.

This was surprisingly good! Solid roles all around.

Def worth a watch.

3.95/5.

Jeff Goldblum does a good job there too. Also the one scene with the Bruichladdich (if I remember correctly) and Morley Safer was funny.

That said when this came out I showed it to someone who was a recent immigrant and they didn't really appreciate it. On the other hand I grew up with network TV so I connected with it.