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

The paper here wasn't kind for the new Mufasa movie. Another what is the point of doing this prequel critique...Also said the ultrarealistic lions were not as imaginative as the 1990s cartoon.
 
I watched Red One. If I got a lobotomy and was sucking on hydromorphone all day I might be able to enjoy it.

It's like a mix of Guardians of the Galaxy, the secret spy comedy kids stuff The Rock does, some Nordic(?) Christmas lore, a train scene with lots of CG like Polar Express, and everything else mixed in. J.K. Simmons looks ripped as Santa. Kiernan Shipka (Sally from Mad Men all grown up!) is the Christmas witch.

How it's the most watched made for Christmas movie this year must be a testament to how many people have Amazon Prime because of their shipping and e-commerce needs.
 
Guy Pearce delivers a solid performance in Once Were Warriors meets Lonesome Dove. 7/10

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I missed this when it came out and fuck me the acting is superb! I never thought much of Viggo and Watts before, but they were both stellar in this. As is Cassel and everyone else. 9/10

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I watched two Christmas movies. The Family Man. Up until 18 months ago my life was progressing towards the Dorian Gray like Nicolas Cage character until I broke away from it..or it broke away from me.

I also watched Love Actually. Couldn't believe the movie is 21 years old. Is it wrong to find Keira Knightley hot when she was...barely 18?

Out of all the story threads I probably hated the porn couple the most and then the Brit guy going to Wisconsin to shag the sorority girls. It made no sense to be included other than I got to see January Jones when she was around uni age.

Both movies redeemed all the mindless hours I spent in December on made for streaming/Hallmark movies.
 
Watched Heretic, it is a very nice chamber play, good actors + good dialogue. Recommended if you like e.g. Yasmina Reza and have at least a bit of interest in faith.
 
“Madame Web is a dirge for the Marvel cinematic era. Stupendously stupid and never remotely in control of its faculties, the film represents a kind of weaponized incompetence, hostile and assaultive. The fact that it was released into the world and not digitally incinerated feels like the cruellest kind of joke, with everyone – its makers and its audience – cast as the punchline.”

Now I am curious to watch it. Or at least fast forward through it.
 
Fwiffo said:
“Madame Web is a dirge for the Marvel cinematic era. Stupendously stupid and never remotely in control of its faculties, the film represents a kind of weaponized incompetence, hostile and assaultive. The fact that it was released into the world and not digitally incinerated feels like the cruellest kind of joke, with everyone – its makers and its audience – cast as the punchline.”

Now I am curious to watch it. Or at least fast forward through it.
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I didn’t hate it. Dakota Johnson is always watchable.
 
I’m waiting for some grey market new films to show up on Plex, but watching some stuff with the kids while they are on holidays.

I can’t believe I sat through two Joker films only to realise that it wasn’t even about the Joker. Phoenix acted tf out of them, making the first one riveting and the second watchable. Gaga can act as well, but there were way too many musical numbers in that one.
 
Only half way through this, but Tom Hiddletwot is such a great actor. His wardrobe is pretty impressive in this as well - the tailoring on his suits and shirts is slim but not skinny and perfectly fitted. He really should have taken over the Bond franchise five years ago, but he’s probably to old to start now.

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Dropbear said:
Only half way through this, but Tom Hiddletwot is such a great actor. His wardrobe is pretty impressive in this as well - the tailoring on his suits and shirts is slim but not skinny and perfectly fitted. He really should have taken over the Bond franchise five years ago, but he’s probably to old to start now.

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Sorry Tom who? 🤣
 
He's using iPhone.

The Brutalist. Adrien Brody is going to make his career on playing Holocaust movies.
 
Dropbear said:
Only half way through this, but Tom Hiddletwot is such a great actor. His wardrobe is pretty impressive in this as well - the tailoring on his suits and shirts is slim but not skinny and perfectly fitted. He really should have taken over the Bond franchise five years ago, but he’s probably to old to start now.

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High Rise - a whole film about my trousers?
 
Did anyone watch Gladiator 2? Just wondering if it's worth spending 2 1/2 hours.
 
I watched the first 30 minutes of Gladiator. I could have done without the montage in the beginning to show the original movie. Rome conquers Numidia. Hurrah!

I felt like the set for the Roman triumph march was a bit smaller than the 2000 one no? Anyway, I stopped after that.

I watched Carry-On. Well, I had carry on from Netflix on TV and stole a few glances. I chose it only because the trailer had nice Christmas music to it. In the end it was some psycho guy with some biological weapon on a plane during winter at an airport. I guess it was going for the Die Hard 2 vibe.
 
I watched the first 30mins or so of Nosferatu. It’s a cinematic masterpiece with lots of insider film nerd references. It’s also boring af. At the end of the day, it is just another retelling of the Dracula story like the hundreds that preceded it. It’s bold, dramatic and a bit campy like the b&w original
 
Netflix blockbuster subscriber growth and earnings....Carry-On was mentioned. Uhh..really? It was like a B movie made to capitalize on Die Hard 2's uncanny association with Christmas.
 
Il treno dei bambini - The Children's Train.

I didn't have too much hope for it but it actually grew on me. It's about a single mother with a son in Napoli after WW2. She has to send her son up to live with communist aligned families in the north because they can't afford to take care of them. The rest of it is the son trying to fit into his adoptive family and village. Later he returns to live with his mother but finds it difficult to adjust.

It would have been better if I knew more about the differences between Neapolitan and Italian and people's dialects because I'm positive that is a big part of his adjustment.

I didn't read the novel but I read a few people thought the return to Napoli was accelerated and the film should have spent more time on it.
 
I saw Woman of the Hour. I didn't know Anna Kendrick directed it until the end but I guess everyone needs a movie to start directing. She has crow's eyes now. Might want to double check that as director.

The psycho scenes were intense but the rest of the movie was limp. In spite of the 70s designs it almost felt like a made for streaming....oh wait, it *was* just released on streaming.
 
Harrison Ford is in a Marvel movie. Why? Just because he wanted to be in one. Now you know the whole franchise has been run to the ground no?

Also Captain America is black now?
 
Gladiator II is a decent sequel, though they really didn’t need one. Making Lucius the son of Maximus feels like a cheap artefact to tie the two stories together. Still, it’s entertaining and a bit more than a remake of the original. Solid cast and some good fight sequences. 7/10
 
Dropbear said:
Gladiator II is a decent sequel, though they really didn’t need one. Making Lucius the son of Maximus feels like a cheap artefact to tie the two stories together. Still, it’s entertaining and a bit more than a remake of the original. Solid cast and some good fight sequences. 7/10
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I only got to the end of the first battle and they're coming back to Rome. I felt like the victory procession towards the Senate was smaller than the original film.
 
The Gorge is big and dumb and full of holes, but somehow still a lot of fun.
 
I liked You’re Cordially Invited. It has Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon and two weddings so you already know what kind of movie it is going to be.

Reese Witherspoon still looking like herself and doing her thing. No idea how she cranked out 3 kids with that body.

Geraldine Viswanathan was a treat. She should be in more movies. Her interactions with her on screen father is about the same as the drama at every other family gathering for me. Complete with f bombs. So relatable.
 
Is it worth watching Conclave? Is all the praise and hype because of the current health issues of the pontiff?

It showed on Amazon Prime and it's "free" for me.
 
I watched Mica è colpa mia or Love Scam on Netflix (no idea how that translated to love scam). Cute movie two poor brothers trying to avoid eviction and concoct a plan to romance the daughter of a land developer to bail them out. Laura Adriani looks nice. No idea the two brothers were from Gomorrah. None of it is realistic and in the end the bad guy gets his comeuppance and everyone lives happily ever after.
 
Captain America 4 was panned by critics but continues for the 3rd week in a row to be tops in the box office. Maybe Marvel is not dead after all.
 
La Dolce Villa on Netflix. This is like a Hallmark type 90 minute movie of a single father who goes to track down his daughter in Tuscany. She buys a one euro house with the inheritance from the deceased mother. A one week stay for the father turns into multiple months as he bonds with her in a foreign country, rediscovers his passion for cooking, il dolce far niente and the small town mayor as his love interest.

I don't know anything about Scott Foley. He looked like a Dennis Quaid dad character from yesteryears. Maia Reficco leverages her Spanish into her Italian. Like most recent Netflix productions in Italy, the backdrops are spectacular. The story and acting can be pretty basic and sappy even for a rom com.
 
Anora deserved the gold trophies. The story isn’t terribly original so far (I’m half way in), but the acting and dialogue is superb. Kinda feels like a classic Hal Hartley film. Full review when I finish it.

Man I love getting all the good stuff on Plex!
 
Dropbear said:
Anora deserved the gold trophies. The story isn’t terribly original so far (I’m half way in), but the acting and dialogue is superb. Kinda feels like a classic Hal Hartley film. Full review when I finish it.

Man I love getting all the good stuff on Plex!
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You’re watching a movie about Russian oligarchs? It doesn’t sound like you. But then you were dazzled by Eastern Promises.
 
Fwiffo said:
You’re watching a movie about Russian oligarchs? It doesn’t sound like you. But then you were dazzled by Eastern Promises.
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It’s good to see someone stand up to the Russian oligarchs, even if it is just fiction.
 
I had Conclave on in the background mostly because I wanted something on Prime when I was cooking. I'm not Catholic.

It has a good cast of actors and some interesting backdrops although entirely within their sequestered quarters. The constant innuendos and conspiracy theories makes the college of cardinals look like a bunch of thieving/backstabbing mafia...or frat house.
 
I finished Conclave. It reminds me a little of Margin Call where you have a great bunch of actors and you put them in one location with a decent script and you expect cinematic magic to happen. Except Margin Call was a sterile office and these days anything with Italy in the background looks picturesque.

I'm sure the movie has nothing to do with the real papacy. Well, at least I hope it doesn't. The amount of intrigue, scandals and vendetta amongst the cardinals, which are unraveled one after another by Ralph Fiennes' character, is enough to put any old man into the grave. I feel sorry for that pope - he was like the head of a frat house or family business a la Succession. The final hidden secret/potential scandal was not what I expected and not conventional - i.e. a Catholic clergyman has an illegitimate child.

I remember Ross from Friends had a cameo with Isabella Rossellini. Wow she looks a lot different 30 years later as the head nun here.

Also not understandable was the basic command of Italian amongst some cardinals and some of the translation was not entirely 1-1.
 
I watched Wicked and Barbie. Well, not really watched, I had it on in the background.

It looks like Gen Z (and Gen A?) are very interested in light hearted melodrama that is interspersed with musical and dance numbers and the obligatory plug in song from a recording artist either in the movie, in the beginning title, or in the credits.

Compared to the brief Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Phantom, and the Producers revivals 20 years ago on the silver screen it seems to lack depth.
 
Absolution. Yet another movie with Liam Neeson as a gangster (instead of ex law enforcement, or innocent father/husband turned action star). This time he is a low level grunt who discovers he has memory issues so much so he forgets his boss' name played by Ron Perlman.

The subplots are reconciling with his daughter and the grandson he didn't know he had. Coaching his gangster boss' son on grunt stuff. An over the hill escort. Helping this human trafficked girl who jumped on him at a drop point when she was being enslaved into a bordello.

From a mile away you could see the ending because his illness makes him take the holier than thou redemption path until his predictable end.

I don't know if people write these movies for Liam Neeson as he ages or it's written and Neeson doesn't care about his image anymore because he looks more and more pathetic in each outing. There are a few action sequences here (highly edited) but mostly it is of an old man who is now having trouble keeping muscle mass on.
 
fxh said:
So I'd identify?
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You don't want to. When you get to Harrison Ford at age 80 something not only is muscle mass an issue, basic mobility is stilted.

I didn't watch the (likely) final movie from Clint Eastwood.
 
Bridget Jones: Mad about the Boy. This is like Renee Zellweger's fixed income investment asset. Whenever she needs money she can go to it. It never went to the cinema. Leo Woodall is the boy but disappears as she falls for the teacher Chiwetel Ejiofor at the end. Both sport abs and both are younger than her. Some cameos from the previous love interests too.

Mafia Mamma. Lately any movie with Italy in the background is likely to be at least pleasing to look at. They must be giving away a lot of tax credits. A crime boss dies in Rome and Toni Collette as the granddaughter has to go back to settle his affairs because she's named in the will. At first I thought Monica Bellucci was the mother and then I thought that can't be right because they're only a few years apart but she's the consigliere. How she got involved in this movie I have no idea. I imagine the Italians who were shown were just hoping to get some Hollywood cred so they can go across the pond like Simona Tabasco of White Lotus fame.

I haven't honestly watched Toni Collette since...Sixth Sense. Here she's a mother again but more ditzy. I think Bellucci's casting agent needs to find better roles for her or she's going to be stuck being the old(er) supporting character.

Shout out to Eduardo Scarpetta. I'm watching him in My Family on Netflix (2025). He was in both seasons of The Law According to Lidia Poet (2023, 2024) on Netflix. On Disney he was in The Ignorant Angels (2022) and The Lions of Sicily (2023). How the man can keep up with this schedule is beyond me.
 
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