Movies Seen: October-December 2018
Jan. 30th, 2019 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayne10/01 The House With A Clock In Its Walls
10/04 Kung Fu Hustle (v,rw)
10/04 Look Out, Officer! (Vod)
10/05 Kill Bill 1 & 2 (v,rw)
10/06 Circle of Iron (vod)
10/20 Smallfoot
10/24 The Avengers (1998) (rw,v)
11/03 Sanjuro (vod)
11/03 A Hologram for the King (vod)
11/03 Swiss Army Man (vod)
11/04 Shaolin Soccer (rw,v)
11/04 Burn After Reading (rw,v)
11/04 The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (rw,v)
11/06 Bohemian Rhapsody
11/07 The Monuments Men (rw,v)
11/08 Monty Python: The Meaning of Live (vod)
11/08 Absolutely Anything (vod)
11/24 Good Will Hunting (v)
11/25 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (vod)
11/25 The General (silent, vod)
11/25 Bleeding Steel (vod)
11/26 Speed Racer (rw,v)
11/27 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
12/01 Wings of Desire (v)
12/02 Phantom Thread (vod)
12/08 Thor Ragnarok (rw,v)
12/08 Wreck-It Ralph (rw,v)
12/10 Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet
12/11 Robot and Frank (vod)
12/18 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
12/22 Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (v)
12/23 The Hitman’s Bodyguard (rw,v)
12/26 Dr. Strange (v,rw)
12/27 Aquaman
Once again, my little parenthetical notations are V for video, be it DVD or Blu-ray, VOD for video on demand, and RW for rewatch. If there's nothing after a movie, we saw it in a theater, otherwise it was a home viewing.
34 movies seen in the final quarter of the year, of these only six were seen in theaters. I really wanted to see The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in the theater but I’m not even sure if it showed here. 15 of these were off of DVD or Blu-ray, 11 were video on demand.
This brings my 2018 total to 89 movies, which pretty heavily clobbers last year’s record of 59. I’ll be posting my favorites later and doing a breakdown of how many I saw in theater, on video, on video on demand, rewatches, etc., but now on to comments of what I saw.
The House With A Clock In Its Walls. Interesting film, sort of reminiscent of the Goosebumps films though it is a different author – I should look to see if there are commonalities between the two films with the art directors and such, but can’t be bothered. Anyway, boy is orphaned and he’s sent off to live with his weird uncle, who has all these weird clocks all over his house, including one that he cannot find. The uncle, played very well by Jack Black, is a magician. Not just a stage magician, but a bona fide slinger of spells. The house was owned by another magician – sort of a Voldemort fellow – who may come back to life and ruin everything. Little kid has to accept who he really is and help save the day. We quite enjoyed it. I think it was targeted more towards a YA audience, but we liked it.
Kung Fu Hustle. I was in a Stephen Chow mood, and this is such a good film! An absolute classic kung fu comedy. If you haven’t seen it, and like kung fu comedy, SEE IT. I’m not going to say anything more about it, except to say it was one of his earlier independent productions. Well, I will say it’s set in a small town run by a criminal syndicate which two small time hustlers want to join, but they’re really not the hardened criminals they think they are. Absolutely incredible fight choreography, complete with a Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner sequence! Just a brilliant movie.
Look Out, Officer! is one of Stephen Chow’s earlier movies, in which he plays a young cop who moves in to an apartment formerly occupied by a murdered cop whose ghost doesn’t want to let go of the case that got him killed. Young cop is assigned to murdered cop’s partner and best friend, and ghost helps to save young cop on several occasions. Silly movie, kinda fun. Not typical later Chow, but interesting to see the span of his career.
Kill Bill 1 & 2. I like the two Kill Bill movies for various reasons. They’re an homage to bad kung fu movies, bad action movies, revenge flicks, etc. I like the story. I like strong women leads. There’s a lot of good stuff here. Then you find out about the bad stuff, like Tarantino almost killed Uma Therman by having her drive a constructed car that was not road-worthy and it crashed, she’ll no longer work with him and that’s why there’s no KB3. Plus, a certain fellow by the name of Weinstein was the producer on these films. Anyway, the reason for watching these films at this particular time was that something was happening in DC at the same time: the Kavenaugh confirmation hearings. My wife was pissed off and wanted to see a strong woman revenge film. Well, she got what she wanted. In this film, the heroine, initially referred to as The Bride (Uma), was part of an assassination squad. But Bill, the leader of said squad, played by the late David Carradine, felt she betrayed the squad and they tried to kill her. They didn’t entirely succeed. They did put her in a coma, from which it didn’t appear she would recover. Oh, and she was pregnant. While in the coma, she came to term and the daughter was taken by Bill and raised. Well, The Bride woke, and went on a revenge spree, killing everyone who was a part of the squad, saving Bill for last. Extremely violent film, excellent action film, amazing fight choreography.
Circle of Iron. This, like Kill Bill, has David Carradine in it. This, unlike Kill Bill, SUUUUUUCKS. It was allegedly meant to be a meditation on the philosophical aspects of kung fu, but in the end it’s just a mindless and bad kung fu movie starring improbable actors who don’t know how to fight. Unless you’re looking for a really bad movie, DO NOT waste your time.
Smallfoot. This was a fun little animated film that came out shortly before Halloween. Basic premise was that not only was Bigfoot real, but Bigfoot is an entire race of creatures with a fairly complicated civilization, high up on a mountain, surrounded by clouds, believing that nothing exists and nothing can exist below the clouds. It starts as a sort of X Files parody with a group of BFs believing that Little Feets exist, and they have evidence! Eventually Migo, the Bigfoot whom the movie revolves around, falls through the clouds, finds a human village, and chaos ensues. Pretty fun little movie, though I won’t be bothering to add it to my collection.
The Avengers (1998). NOT the Marvel Superhero Universe, this is the Original Avengers: John Steed and Mrs. Peel, though sadly not Patrick Macnee and Dianna Rigg. This is the movie starring a startlingly Ralph Fiennes and a gorgeous Uma Thurman with Sean Connery getting to play the baddie with full Scotts abandon. While the only ones who can truly capture the flavor of the 1961 Avengers are Patrick and Dianna, this is a passable movie, but not much beyond passable. I don’t think I’ve seen it since its original release 20 years earlier and had a hankering to see it again, I found a copy while we were in Phoenix for my wife’s birthday for the budget-breaking price of $2, so I splurged. It was worth what I paid for it. ;-) The cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard plays a goon marvelously well, I think he has only one line in the entire film.
Sanjuro is the second of Akira Kurosawa’s Nameless Samurai trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune that started with Seven Samurai and ended with Yojimbo, said trilogy being an inspiration for Sergio Leonne’s spaghetti western trilogy The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, and For A Few Dollars More, which launched Clint Eastwood as a big name. This time the nameless wanderer is sleeping in a decrepit temple when a group of samurai gather to complain about the seneschal of their lord who is untrustworthy and a criminal, they don’t realize they are not alone. When Mifune reveals himself he explains that they’ve probably revealed themselves to the actual baddies and are about to be attacked. Sure enough, a large squad soon surrounds the temple, but Mifune gets them out and the loyal samurai appoint him as their leader to rescue their lord and take down the bad guys. Lots of action, clever plotting, and interesting introspection on a samurai who hates bad planning forcing him to kill unnecessarily.
A Hologram for the King. There are a few mild Tom Hanks movies, such as Joe Vs The Volcano – movies that aren’t great, but are fun. This is one of them. Unfortunately it’s among the many that I didn’t get to see in the theater first time around, but I was able to find it on video on demand and watch it one night when my wife is at work. Hanks character, Alan, is a tech salesman for a company selling a very advanced teleconference system that features very impressive holographic imaging on both sides of the link. They’re trying to sell a package to the Saudis, and nothing is going right for Alan and his team in a tent in the desert in Saudi Arabia. But Alan is able to turn it around, find love in an unexpected place, and it becomes a fun movie. One that, like Joe Vs The Volcano, I’d like to have in my collection.
Swiss Army Man. When I saw the trailer for this, my first thought was: Weird. So were my second and third thoughts. And finally I happened to look it up on my Apple TV and found it was available on one of the channels that I pay for, and I watched it. And it was weird. But also very interesting and somewhat introspective. Hank (Paul Dano from 12 Years A Slave, Loopers, and Cowboys & Aliens) is stranded on an island, seems to have been there for quite some time and to have lost all hope. He’s about to hang himself when he sees a person wash up on shore – Manny (Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter and the Hendersons or something). Turns out the person isn’t in very good shape, but has some interesting ways of helping Manny survive and eventually get off the island. There’s some very interesting psychology built in to this movie, I was quite surprised at its layers.
Shaolin Soccer. Back to Stephen Chow and kung fu comedy. SEE THIS MOVIE IF YOU LIKE KUNG FU COMEDY AND HAVEN’T SEEN IT. Some similarities to Kung Fu Hustle, a penniless kung fu master forms a soccer team to win The Big Tournament to redeem a former star player who took one bribe to throw a match and ruined his life because of it. Again, amazing kung fu, great physical comedy. Excellent movie.
Burn After Reading. I was in the mood to watch a Coen Brothers movie and this was the one that I grabbed. Hard to go wrong with a film starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovitch, Frances McDormond, Tilda Swinton, and more. John is a CIA agent who is being downgraded in responsibilities and security clearance because of a drinking problem. Tilda is his wife, a wildly successful children’s book writer. George is a government security guard who’s building something rather interesting in his basement. Tilda and Brad work at a fitness center: Brad is a hyper-athletic idiot and Tilda is having a mid-life crisis and wants to have a surgical overhaul. And everything falls apart. Very strange movie, as only the Coens can do it. There were so many marvelous little things that I’d forgotten. Absolutely marvelous.
The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe. I love this movie. This is one of my absolute All-Time Top 10 movies. If I were stuck with only the native French movie and no subtitles, I’d be OK with it. I watch this once or twice a year and will never grow tired of it. Brilliant spoof of the spy genre. A French spy agency has a problem: one of its top men has set up an independent spy agency within the agency and is causing problems. In order to shut it down, the leader of the real agency orders his top lieutenant to go to the airport with his two top trusted operatives, find someone, anyone, and have the two operatives follow that person. The person selected? The tall blond man with one black shoe, recently arrived from Berlin. Apparently concert violinist François Perrin’s life, under scrutiny, drives the rogue agency to distraction – but whose life, when put under a microscope, wouldn’t appear weird? Released in 1972, it’s only slightly dated.
Bohemian Rhapsody. The Freddy Mercury/Queen biopic. The movie’s production got off to a rocky start when they first recruited Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie, then he wanted to reshape it and make it much more about Freddie’s homosexuality. Fortunately two of the three surviving members of Queen retained enough input over the project to overrule Sacha and he was gone. Recasting brought Raimi Mallick in and the result is just brilliant if you’re a fan. I am a fan. Queen hit its height when I was a teen and I’ve been a huge fan for ages. The movie follows Freddie and the band from his early days writing songs while flinging luggage as a baggage handler at Heathrow to when he joins Queen through their gigging, recording albums including how they multitracked and produced their title masterpiece, Bohemian Rhapsody, up through his death (sorry for the spoiler). The movie is semi-historical, which is to say that it is accurate – in broad strokes. A lot of the small details are wrong, but it’s good enough to make for a fun movie. For example, Freddie hadn’t been diagnosed with AIDS before the Live Aid concert (again, sorry for the spoiler), some things like that. I’m OK with it, it made for a more dramatic film. So while not strictly accurate, it was close enough to be sufficiently truthful to be a good homage to a great rock band.
The Monuments Men. I was surprised that I didn’t have this in my collection. I don’t have a huge collection of war movies, just a select few such as Kelly’s Heroes and a couple others. I had been wanting to see this again and found a used copy in Las Cruces during a trip. It’s based on a book that explains a not widely known aspect of World War 2 history where Hitler was stealing art from all over Europe, believing he was going to win, he was going to open a huge museum to exhibit it all. American art historians and curators, fearing it could be destroyed or lost forever or taken by the Russians, presented their case to President Roosevelt and a special unit of the Army was created, the Monuments Men, allowing them to go into the European theater and try to recover these artifacts. They actually existed, but a lot of people don’t think the movie does the book justice. As I haven’t read it yet, I have no opinion. Still, very good movie with an amazing cast: George Clooney, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Bonneville, and more.
Monty Python: The Meaning of Live. I have been a huge Monty Python fan. John Cleese and Michael Palin would definitely be on my Fantasy Lunch Roster. And I’d never heard of this movie! Stumbled across it on Netflix or something, it’s a behind the scenes documentary of their final performance, the one where they sold out in a matter of seconds when tickets went on sale! Eric Idle had the foresight to engage a documentary film crew when he started the project. Lots of behind and in front of the scene footage, very interesting stuff. The most interesting and saddest thing was the reason for doing it, of which there were two. The biggest being money: they were having problems with a lawsuit that had been dragging on for some time, and the easiest way to get rid of it once and for all was to raise a whopping amount of money and pay it off. The second reason was also money: Terry Jones was in danger of losing his house and was increasingly suffering from memory loss, so they wanted to pay for his house and maybe lay in some extended medical care for him – the latter is speculation on my part. Anyway. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in Live (Mostly) – One Down Five To Go. Yes, it was fun seeing them running through the old stuff again, but it was also kind of sad. But this documentary? Seeing them somewhat unguarded and honest, having fun with each other off-stage? This was something to see, something that you can’t see normally. Recommended for Python fans.
Absolutely Anything. Years ago, it was announced that the surviving members of Monty Python were appearing in another movie. Except they weren’t going to appear in it – they were to be animated in it. This is that film. It’s written and directed by Terry Jones based on a story by Douglas Adams! A group of aliens give a school teacher named Neil, played by Simon Pegg, the power to do absolutely anything. The first thing he does? Makes his dog Dennis speak. The dog? Voiced by Robin Williams. Appearances by Eddie Izzard, Terry Jones, Joanna Lumley, Kate Beckinsale. The purpose of the aliens giving him such power? To see if Earthlings are decent, by their standards. If they are, they’re welcomed into the galactic brotherhood. If not, they’re destroyed. And only by certain standards of decent….
Good Will Hunting. Russet had never seen this movie, so one night I reached into my library and pulled it out. Written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, starring them plus Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgård, it definitely deserved a lot of awards. The movie initially focuses on Damon who works as a janitor at MIT who loves to read and turns out to be a mathematical savant, but has psychological problems holding him back. Skarsgård, a prize-winning maths prof, recognizes his brilliance, but also that his psychological problems are holding him back and sends him off to his friend, psychologist prof Robin Williams, who has problems of his own. In the end it’s a buddy movie with them helping each other see past where their troubles lie to what they need to move on. Good film.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. A lot was made of this, Netflix’s first film that received a theatrical release and a week later, streaming video release. While I wish I’d seen it in the theater, which would have been kind of majestic, I think I would have been disappointed. While it’s a Coen Brothers film, sadly it’s probably their weakest. I think it’s probably because it’s a collection of six independent chapters, and had there been a continuity thread running through them aside from ‘The Old West’, it would have been stronger. It’s probably about 50/50 in terms of good and bad, and pretty universally the opening chapter, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is regarded as the best of the six, and deservedly so. All of the remaining chapters have good parts to them, but just don’t rise to the level of the first, so overall the film just doesn’t rise to the standards expected of the Coens, which is disappointing.
The General. Don’t worry if you didn’t hear about this coming out – it was released in 1926. This is a one hour (and seven minute) long black and white silent Buster Keaton movie. I was able to sign up for a free streaming service called Kanopy – check your local library and you might be able to get it, too – and they offer a substantial portion of the Criterion Collection. I had never seen much of Buster’s work, and decided to bookmark this one, and one night when Russet was off to work, watched it. It’s set in the South at the beginning of the Civil War and does nothing to explore anything dealing with any of the causes – it’s just a pure action/adventure/comedy. Buster is a train conductor/engineer who is sweet on a local lady when the war starts. He wants to enlist, but his job as a train operator is vital to the war effort and he’s not allowed. This costs him big in the eyes of his sweetheart and he feels himself a coward. Meanwhile, a Union saboteur steals his locomotive in a plot to get it behind Union lines while destroying all the bridges on the way for the war effort. Buster goes to get his train back and save the day. Excellent physical comedy by Keaton, no wonder he was a major inspiration for Jackie Chan. Very clever gags, and some things you just have to wonder about: did they actually destroy a train locomotive?
Bleeding Steel. Speaking of Jackie Chan, here we have a 2017 contemporary science fiction action movie starring him! He’s the leader of a special forces unit, it’s a little unclear if it’s police or military. This movie is weird. It has a time gash aspect to it, flipping back and forth in flashbacks between an early failed op in Jackie’s past that resulted in the death of his daughter, back to the present in Sydney and apparently fighting the same people again and maybe a woman who is his daughter? Includes an epic battle inside and on top of the Sydney Opera House – that fight alone is worth seeing the movie. Overall, this is one of the poorer Jackie Chan movies, though the Jackie Chan Stunt Team was involved in the production, Jackie was not otherwise directly involved and it feels more like a B(minus) grade Chinese action film, but with some pretty cool action.
Speed Racer is one of my guilty pleasure movies. Made by the Wachowskis, based on the classic Japanese animated series, this is an amazing – almost seizure-inducing – color spectacle. I feel like when I’m watching this that it’s like when they made Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and everyone was shocked when they said that there was a green screen in every shot, and now we have movies like this where pretty much the entire movie could not be made without green screens and CGI. It’s a great story and an amazing movie and the Wachowskis lost a buttload of money on it. Estimated cost to make it was $120mill, worldwide estimated revenue was $94mill after an opening weekend of $45mill. Personally, I love this movie for its sheer over-the-top story, especially things like John Goodman’s Greco-Roman ninja-folding. It was a labor of love, but at 2 hours and 15 minutes of constant visual hammering, I think it was too much for most audiences.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The second chapter of the Harry Potter prequel finally released to somewhat poor critical acclaim but has made a lot of money – world-wide sales have tripled its production costs before video release. I think it’s a case of “sophomore slump” – we had the first movie to introduce the series and get everyone excited, then the second one comes along and has to do the heavy lifting of getting the deep stuff in place for the rest of the series. I don’t think it was possible for the second one to carry as much as the first, I think a slump was pretty much inevitable. Still, my wife and I enjoyed it for what it was – laying a lot of interesting things and posing some questions that will be revealed in the three movies yet to come. We wanted to watch the first movie before seeing this one, but I failed to get a copy when it was out inexpensively during its initial digital release, so I’ll scrounge a copy when we’re in Phoenix in a couple of weeks.
Wings of Desire. I have been wanting to see this film for a long time, and finally I found a copy at a Barnes & Noble and had a fantastic combination of coupon plus sale and got a $40 Criterion movie for about $15. It was worth $40, I just didn’t want to spend it. Wim Wenders released this film in 1987, filmed in Berlin, two years before The Wall came down. Shot in B&W and color, it follows the story of angels, or one in particular – Damiel, who look after humans. Damiel begins falling in love with a woman, Marion, who is a trapeze artist in a small circus. Whenever the film is seen through Damiel’s eyes, it’s in black & white. When seen by anyone else’s perspective, it’s in color. And then Peter Falk – the person and as himself as the actor – is introduced, the film takes some interesting twists, especially when he begins talking to people whom no one else can see…. This is just an amazing movie, and will definitely remain in my collection and will be in my list for the best movies that I’ve seen this year. It was remade as ‘Angels In America’ with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan, and I watched the trailer, and instead of Meg being a circus performer they made her a brain surgeon. I was revolted by that trailer, just utterly typical Hollywood. In one way I’d like to see it to see how bad it is compared to the original, but then again I’ve seen how bad The Man With One Red Shoe is compared to The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe. I think if I were to see Angels In America, I’d run a risk of throwing heavy objects at the TV.
Phantom Thread. This was another really, REALLY good film. This is allegedly Daniel Day Lewis’s last film, he announced his retirement from the movie industry after making it, though he may do some stage acting. A Paul Thomas Anderson film, so you know it’s going to have some interesting psychological aspects to it, it was nominated for SIX Academy Awards last year and won for Best Costume. Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, an obsessive dressmaker in 1950s London who lives with his sister, making the most amazing dresses and gowns for the very exclusive upper class and royals of Europe, including a wedding gown for a crown princess. Reynolds has one problem: he needs a muse. His current muse ceases to inspire him and is sent away, and while on holiday, he finds a new muse in a small restaurant. She is brought in to his household and world of couture and she excels, then the relationship begins, and the psychological drama unfolds…. It becomes kind of squirming in your seats twisted, and is quite an amazing movie. Amazingly beautiful as Anderson is known for, he’s becoming a film maker that I’m going to be watching for. It’s sad that Lewis is retiring pretty much at the top of his craft, but he’s certainly earned it.
Thor Ragnarok. Pure brain candy. Turn off brain, insert popcorn in pie hole since pie is not available. We just wanted some no-thinky fun.
Wreck-It Ralph. A re-watch prior to seeing the sequel. This is one really nicely plotted movie!
Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet. Disney is really good at pulling off sequels, and this one is a grand-slam hitting it out of the park. Great story, amazing gags, such as the room full of princesses and their reappearance. The controller for Vanellope’s game gets broken, and as old as the game is, it’s unavailable for a reasonable price. If one can’t be gotten soon, the game will be retired and Vanellope will be homeless. But wait – what’s that new thing plugged in at the arcade? What’s an Internet? Suddenly Ralph and Vanellope are off to the races – and eBay – in the quest for a new steering wheel. It’s a great story, updated to show the silliest aspects of the internet and online gaming and growing the story of Ralph and Vanellope. Excellent movie, looking forward to getting the DVD in a couple of months.
Robot and Frank. I learned of this film during an interview with Frank Langella, the star, on Fresh Air, and have been trying to find a copy on DVD or streaming for a couple of years. When I say ‘find a copy’, I mean scrounging through my used stores, not having seen it I wasn’t sufficiently enticed to buy it off Amazon sight-unseen. Well, I finally found it on one of my streaming channels and watched it, and loved it! Frank plays Frank, an elderly retired man, suffering from a bit of memory loss. His wife left him, his daughter is off on another continent helping disadvantaged people of some sort – there’s always a bad network connection when he talks to her, his son is sick and tired of having to take time off work to help him out when he gets in to trouble. So his son buys him a helper - a robot that looks very much like a Honda ASIMO. Frank’s main lifestyle is going to the library and flirting with the librarian, Susan Sarandon, and he finds out that the library will be closing – the space is going to be turned in to a cultural space of some sort and all the books will be scanned and available digitally. So Frank returns to his previous occupation – cat burglar – and breaks in to the library, with the help of his robot, and steals a few hundred year old copy of Don Quixote to give to the librarian. This gets his juices flowing and he decides to go back to his life of crime, but first he has to train up his robot. This movie was a lot of fun, definitely a comedy-drama. Low budget, made for $2.5mill, but doubled it in the box office and won an award at Sundance. In addition to Frank and Susan, also appearing were James Marsden as his son, Liv Tyler as his daughter, and Peter Sarsgaard voiced the robot! A very nice, slower sort of film.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. As a general rule, I’m not a Spider-Fan. I really didn’t like the non-MCU Spider-Man movies and stopped watching them after a while. This one I didn’t know much about, I finally watched a couple of trailers and I was impressed. We went and we really enjoyed it. Very good job on the story. Some of the visual effects were a little weird, like the red/blue color registration: I understand that it was a homage/joke about the sometimes poor color registration in printed comic books, but it got very tiresome after a bit. Still, a good movie overall, and one that I would like to see again. I won’t say that I’m going to rush out and buy it, but if I found an inexpensive used copy, I probably would.
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?. Once again, back to the Coens. Amongst the uncountable movies that I never saw during their theatrical release, this is one of them. At least I did get around to seeing it. I drove myself (further) insane trying to find it – I was certain that I had a copy – I tore through my library trying to find it, with no success, it wasn’t available for free on my streaming channels, and it wasn’t in my spreadsheet that inventories my video collection. But I KNEW I had a copy! Then I found it – in my virtual library! It was among the stuff that I recorded on my DVR, downloaded to my laptop, then sucked in to iTunes. So one night when – all together now – my wife was at work, I watched it. I liked it, it was a good movie. Three convicts in the south in the 1930s escape a chain gang and go on the run. I’m a little hesitant to call it a musical though there is music in it, it’s a debatable point. Anyway, apparently it’s sort of based on Homer’s Odyssey, of which I’m only familiar in vague terms. Lots of fun stuff going on as they try to get to a stash of stolen bank money before a town is flooded due to a dam being built. Great movie, but for me probably a ‘see it once is good enough’ sort of film, maybe I’ll watch it again in 5-10 years, 3-6 with good behavior.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard. I loved this movie when I saw it in the theater, I’m a sucker for action comedy. I believed firmly that my wife would love it, especially for the amount of slash that this was capable of spawning. Finally I (proverbially) sat her down and said ‘We’re watching this film tonight’, and she loved it! The movie revolves around three people: Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), a former professional bodyguard who lost his cachet when one of his protectees was sniped through an airplane window from hundreds of yards away, Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman), a Eastern European strong man dictator who is on trial at the Hague for war crimes, and Darius Kincaid (Samuel Jackson), a notorious hitman who has the evidence to put Dukhovich away for good. The problem is that Kincaid is being held by the Brits, who have a mole, and while being transported they are attacked and he manages to get away with Bryce’s ex-girlfriend who brings Bryce in to get Kincaid to the Hague within the time limit with lots of Dukhovich’s goons in hot pursuit. The only problem: Kincaid and Bryce hate each others guts and would like nothing more than Uzi’s and knives at 10’. Definitely a buddy cop movie, without the cops and they certainly don’t start out as buddies. Salma Hayek plays Kincaid’s wife in an amazing and amazingly profane performance. Just a huge shoot ‘em up fun movie.
Dr. Strange. More thinky than Thor Ragnarok, basically we were planning on seeing these two plus Black Panther and maybe Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which I don’t have yet, then watching the latest Avengers movie. We’ve got Captain Marvel coming out in a couple of months then Infinity War part 2 coming out a couple of months after that, so a refresh would be good.
Aquaman. Wow. We were thoroughly impressed. I have to say that I wasn’t blown away by Jason in the JLA movie, I just didn’t think Aquaman did much in it, but this movie was really something. It did an excellent job of establishing the Aquaman in the DCU, created a fully-fleshed back story, and his parents aren’t dead! Well, I think his dad is, but at least his mom is still around. Amazing visuals, very clever fight scenes, I thought it was good how they brought in water pollution as a theme which, as I recall, was a theme in the comic book. Overall in the DCU, I haven’t been particularly invested. The Superman and Batman movies haven’t done much for me. Loved the Wonder Woman movie, can’t wait for the next. Wasn’t impressed by the JLA or the Suicide Squad. But Aquaman? That was cool. Makes me more interested to see what a future JLA movie might bring.
10/04 Kung Fu Hustle (v,rw)
10/04 Look Out, Officer! (Vod)
10/05 Kill Bill 1 & 2 (v,rw)
10/06 Circle of Iron (vod)
10/20 Smallfoot
10/24 The Avengers (1998) (rw,v)
11/03 Sanjuro (vod)
11/03 A Hologram for the King (vod)
11/03 Swiss Army Man (vod)
11/04 Shaolin Soccer (rw,v)
11/04 Burn After Reading (rw,v)
11/04 The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (rw,v)
11/06 Bohemian Rhapsody
11/07 The Monuments Men (rw,v)
11/08 Monty Python: The Meaning of Live (vod)
11/08 Absolutely Anything (vod)
11/24 Good Will Hunting (v)
11/25 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (vod)
11/25 The General (silent, vod)
11/25 Bleeding Steel (vod)
11/26 Speed Racer (rw,v)
11/27 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
12/01 Wings of Desire (v)
12/02 Phantom Thread (vod)
12/08 Thor Ragnarok (rw,v)
12/08 Wreck-It Ralph (rw,v)
12/10 Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet
12/11 Robot and Frank (vod)
12/18 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
12/22 Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (v)
12/23 The Hitman’s Bodyguard (rw,v)
12/26 Dr. Strange (v,rw)
12/27 Aquaman
Once again, my little parenthetical notations are V for video, be it DVD or Blu-ray, VOD for video on demand, and RW for rewatch. If there's nothing after a movie, we saw it in a theater, otherwise it was a home viewing.
34 movies seen in the final quarter of the year, of these only six were seen in theaters. I really wanted to see The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in the theater but I’m not even sure if it showed here. 15 of these were off of DVD or Blu-ray, 11 were video on demand.
This brings my 2018 total to 89 movies, which pretty heavily clobbers last year’s record of 59. I’ll be posting my favorites later and doing a breakdown of how many I saw in theater, on video, on video on demand, rewatches, etc., but now on to comments of what I saw.
The House With A Clock In Its Walls. Interesting film, sort of reminiscent of the Goosebumps films though it is a different author – I should look to see if there are commonalities between the two films with the art directors and such, but can’t be bothered. Anyway, boy is orphaned and he’s sent off to live with his weird uncle, who has all these weird clocks all over his house, including one that he cannot find. The uncle, played very well by Jack Black, is a magician. Not just a stage magician, but a bona fide slinger of spells. The house was owned by another magician – sort of a Voldemort fellow – who may come back to life and ruin everything. Little kid has to accept who he really is and help save the day. We quite enjoyed it. I think it was targeted more towards a YA audience, but we liked it.
Kung Fu Hustle. I was in a Stephen Chow mood, and this is such a good film! An absolute classic kung fu comedy. If you haven’t seen it, and like kung fu comedy, SEE IT. I’m not going to say anything more about it, except to say it was one of his earlier independent productions. Well, I will say it’s set in a small town run by a criminal syndicate which two small time hustlers want to join, but they’re really not the hardened criminals they think they are. Absolutely incredible fight choreography, complete with a Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner sequence! Just a brilliant movie.
Look Out, Officer! is one of Stephen Chow’s earlier movies, in which he plays a young cop who moves in to an apartment formerly occupied by a murdered cop whose ghost doesn’t want to let go of the case that got him killed. Young cop is assigned to murdered cop’s partner and best friend, and ghost helps to save young cop on several occasions. Silly movie, kinda fun. Not typical later Chow, but interesting to see the span of his career.
Kill Bill 1 & 2. I like the two Kill Bill movies for various reasons. They’re an homage to bad kung fu movies, bad action movies, revenge flicks, etc. I like the story. I like strong women leads. There’s a lot of good stuff here. Then you find out about the bad stuff, like Tarantino almost killed Uma Therman by having her drive a constructed car that was not road-worthy and it crashed, she’ll no longer work with him and that’s why there’s no KB3. Plus, a certain fellow by the name of Weinstein was the producer on these films. Anyway, the reason for watching these films at this particular time was that something was happening in DC at the same time: the Kavenaugh confirmation hearings. My wife was pissed off and wanted to see a strong woman revenge film. Well, she got what she wanted. In this film, the heroine, initially referred to as The Bride (Uma), was part of an assassination squad. But Bill, the leader of said squad, played by the late David Carradine, felt she betrayed the squad and they tried to kill her. They didn’t entirely succeed. They did put her in a coma, from which it didn’t appear she would recover. Oh, and she was pregnant. While in the coma, she came to term and the daughter was taken by Bill and raised. Well, The Bride woke, and went on a revenge spree, killing everyone who was a part of the squad, saving Bill for last. Extremely violent film, excellent action film, amazing fight choreography.
Circle of Iron. This, like Kill Bill, has David Carradine in it. This, unlike Kill Bill, SUUUUUUCKS. It was allegedly meant to be a meditation on the philosophical aspects of kung fu, but in the end it’s just a mindless and bad kung fu movie starring improbable actors who don’t know how to fight. Unless you’re looking for a really bad movie, DO NOT waste your time.
Smallfoot. This was a fun little animated film that came out shortly before Halloween. Basic premise was that not only was Bigfoot real, but Bigfoot is an entire race of creatures with a fairly complicated civilization, high up on a mountain, surrounded by clouds, believing that nothing exists and nothing can exist below the clouds. It starts as a sort of X Files parody with a group of BFs believing that Little Feets exist, and they have evidence! Eventually Migo, the Bigfoot whom the movie revolves around, falls through the clouds, finds a human village, and chaos ensues. Pretty fun little movie, though I won’t be bothering to add it to my collection.
The Avengers (1998). NOT the Marvel Superhero Universe, this is the Original Avengers: John Steed and Mrs. Peel, though sadly not Patrick Macnee and Dianna Rigg. This is the movie starring a startlingly Ralph Fiennes and a gorgeous Uma Thurman with Sean Connery getting to play the baddie with full Scotts abandon. While the only ones who can truly capture the flavor of the 1961 Avengers are Patrick and Dianna, this is a passable movie, but not much beyond passable. I don’t think I’ve seen it since its original release 20 years earlier and had a hankering to see it again, I found a copy while we were in Phoenix for my wife’s birthday for the budget-breaking price of $2, so I splurged. It was worth what I paid for it. ;-) The cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard plays a goon marvelously well, I think he has only one line in the entire film.
Sanjuro is the second of Akira Kurosawa’s Nameless Samurai trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune that started with Seven Samurai and ended with Yojimbo, said trilogy being an inspiration for Sergio Leonne’s spaghetti western trilogy The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, and For A Few Dollars More, which launched Clint Eastwood as a big name. This time the nameless wanderer is sleeping in a decrepit temple when a group of samurai gather to complain about the seneschal of their lord who is untrustworthy and a criminal, they don’t realize they are not alone. When Mifune reveals himself he explains that they’ve probably revealed themselves to the actual baddies and are about to be attacked. Sure enough, a large squad soon surrounds the temple, but Mifune gets them out and the loyal samurai appoint him as their leader to rescue their lord and take down the bad guys. Lots of action, clever plotting, and interesting introspection on a samurai who hates bad planning forcing him to kill unnecessarily.
A Hologram for the King. There are a few mild Tom Hanks movies, such as Joe Vs The Volcano – movies that aren’t great, but are fun. This is one of them. Unfortunately it’s among the many that I didn’t get to see in the theater first time around, but I was able to find it on video on demand and watch it one night when my wife is at work. Hanks character, Alan, is a tech salesman for a company selling a very advanced teleconference system that features very impressive holographic imaging on both sides of the link. They’re trying to sell a package to the Saudis, and nothing is going right for Alan and his team in a tent in the desert in Saudi Arabia. But Alan is able to turn it around, find love in an unexpected place, and it becomes a fun movie. One that, like Joe Vs The Volcano, I’d like to have in my collection.
Swiss Army Man. When I saw the trailer for this, my first thought was: Weird. So were my second and third thoughts. And finally I happened to look it up on my Apple TV and found it was available on one of the channels that I pay for, and I watched it. And it was weird. But also very interesting and somewhat introspective. Hank (Paul Dano from 12 Years A Slave, Loopers, and Cowboys & Aliens) is stranded on an island, seems to have been there for quite some time and to have lost all hope. He’s about to hang himself when he sees a person wash up on shore – Manny (Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter and the Hendersons or something). Turns out the person isn’t in very good shape, but has some interesting ways of helping Manny survive and eventually get off the island. There’s some very interesting psychology built in to this movie, I was quite surprised at its layers.
Shaolin Soccer. Back to Stephen Chow and kung fu comedy. SEE THIS MOVIE IF YOU LIKE KUNG FU COMEDY AND HAVEN’T SEEN IT. Some similarities to Kung Fu Hustle, a penniless kung fu master forms a soccer team to win The Big Tournament to redeem a former star player who took one bribe to throw a match and ruined his life because of it. Again, amazing kung fu, great physical comedy. Excellent movie.
Burn After Reading. I was in the mood to watch a Coen Brothers movie and this was the one that I grabbed. Hard to go wrong with a film starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovitch, Frances McDormond, Tilda Swinton, and more. John is a CIA agent who is being downgraded in responsibilities and security clearance because of a drinking problem. Tilda is his wife, a wildly successful children’s book writer. George is a government security guard who’s building something rather interesting in his basement. Tilda and Brad work at a fitness center: Brad is a hyper-athletic idiot and Tilda is having a mid-life crisis and wants to have a surgical overhaul. And everything falls apart. Very strange movie, as only the Coens can do it. There were so many marvelous little things that I’d forgotten. Absolutely marvelous.
The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe. I love this movie. This is one of my absolute All-Time Top 10 movies. If I were stuck with only the native French movie and no subtitles, I’d be OK with it. I watch this once or twice a year and will never grow tired of it. Brilliant spoof of the spy genre. A French spy agency has a problem: one of its top men has set up an independent spy agency within the agency and is causing problems. In order to shut it down, the leader of the real agency orders his top lieutenant to go to the airport with his two top trusted operatives, find someone, anyone, and have the two operatives follow that person. The person selected? The tall blond man with one black shoe, recently arrived from Berlin. Apparently concert violinist François Perrin’s life, under scrutiny, drives the rogue agency to distraction – but whose life, when put under a microscope, wouldn’t appear weird? Released in 1972, it’s only slightly dated.
Bohemian Rhapsody. The Freddy Mercury/Queen biopic. The movie’s production got off to a rocky start when they first recruited Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie, then he wanted to reshape it and make it much more about Freddie’s homosexuality. Fortunately two of the three surviving members of Queen retained enough input over the project to overrule Sacha and he was gone. Recasting brought Raimi Mallick in and the result is just brilliant if you’re a fan. I am a fan. Queen hit its height when I was a teen and I’ve been a huge fan for ages. The movie follows Freddie and the band from his early days writing songs while flinging luggage as a baggage handler at Heathrow to when he joins Queen through their gigging, recording albums including how they multitracked and produced their title masterpiece, Bohemian Rhapsody, up through his death (sorry for the spoiler). The movie is semi-historical, which is to say that it is accurate – in broad strokes. A lot of the small details are wrong, but it’s good enough to make for a fun movie. For example, Freddie hadn’t been diagnosed with AIDS before the Live Aid concert (again, sorry for the spoiler), some things like that. I’m OK with it, it made for a more dramatic film. So while not strictly accurate, it was close enough to be sufficiently truthful to be a good homage to a great rock band.
The Monuments Men. I was surprised that I didn’t have this in my collection. I don’t have a huge collection of war movies, just a select few such as Kelly’s Heroes and a couple others. I had been wanting to see this again and found a used copy in Las Cruces during a trip. It’s based on a book that explains a not widely known aspect of World War 2 history where Hitler was stealing art from all over Europe, believing he was going to win, he was going to open a huge museum to exhibit it all. American art historians and curators, fearing it could be destroyed or lost forever or taken by the Russians, presented their case to President Roosevelt and a special unit of the Army was created, the Monuments Men, allowing them to go into the European theater and try to recover these artifacts. They actually existed, but a lot of people don’t think the movie does the book justice. As I haven’t read it yet, I have no opinion. Still, very good movie with an amazing cast: George Clooney, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Bonneville, and more.
Monty Python: The Meaning of Live. I have been a huge Monty Python fan. John Cleese and Michael Palin would definitely be on my Fantasy Lunch Roster. And I’d never heard of this movie! Stumbled across it on Netflix or something, it’s a behind the scenes documentary of their final performance, the one where they sold out in a matter of seconds when tickets went on sale! Eric Idle had the foresight to engage a documentary film crew when he started the project. Lots of behind and in front of the scene footage, very interesting stuff. The most interesting and saddest thing was the reason for doing it, of which there were two. The biggest being money: they were having problems with a lawsuit that had been dragging on for some time, and the easiest way to get rid of it once and for all was to raise a whopping amount of money and pay it off. The second reason was also money: Terry Jones was in danger of losing his house and was increasingly suffering from memory loss, so they wanted to pay for his house and maybe lay in some extended medical care for him – the latter is speculation on my part. Anyway. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in Live (Mostly) – One Down Five To Go. Yes, it was fun seeing them running through the old stuff again, but it was also kind of sad. But this documentary? Seeing them somewhat unguarded and honest, having fun with each other off-stage? This was something to see, something that you can’t see normally. Recommended for Python fans.
Absolutely Anything. Years ago, it was announced that the surviving members of Monty Python were appearing in another movie. Except they weren’t going to appear in it – they were to be animated in it. This is that film. It’s written and directed by Terry Jones based on a story by Douglas Adams! A group of aliens give a school teacher named Neil, played by Simon Pegg, the power to do absolutely anything. The first thing he does? Makes his dog Dennis speak. The dog? Voiced by Robin Williams. Appearances by Eddie Izzard, Terry Jones, Joanna Lumley, Kate Beckinsale. The purpose of the aliens giving him such power? To see if Earthlings are decent, by their standards. If they are, they’re welcomed into the galactic brotherhood. If not, they’re destroyed. And only by certain standards of decent….
Good Will Hunting. Russet had never seen this movie, so one night I reached into my library and pulled it out. Written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, starring them plus Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgård, it definitely deserved a lot of awards. The movie initially focuses on Damon who works as a janitor at MIT who loves to read and turns out to be a mathematical savant, but has psychological problems holding him back. Skarsgård, a prize-winning maths prof, recognizes his brilliance, but also that his psychological problems are holding him back and sends him off to his friend, psychologist prof Robin Williams, who has problems of his own. In the end it’s a buddy movie with them helping each other see past where their troubles lie to what they need to move on. Good film.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. A lot was made of this, Netflix’s first film that received a theatrical release and a week later, streaming video release. While I wish I’d seen it in the theater, which would have been kind of majestic, I think I would have been disappointed. While it’s a Coen Brothers film, sadly it’s probably their weakest. I think it’s probably because it’s a collection of six independent chapters, and had there been a continuity thread running through them aside from ‘The Old West’, it would have been stronger. It’s probably about 50/50 in terms of good and bad, and pretty universally the opening chapter, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is regarded as the best of the six, and deservedly so. All of the remaining chapters have good parts to them, but just don’t rise to the level of the first, so overall the film just doesn’t rise to the standards expected of the Coens, which is disappointing.
The General. Don’t worry if you didn’t hear about this coming out – it was released in 1926. This is a one hour (and seven minute) long black and white silent Buster Keaton movie. I was able to sign up for a free streaming service called Kanopy – check your local library and you might be able to get it, too – and they offer a substantial portion of the Criterion Collection. I had never seen much of Buster’s work, and decided to bookmark this one, and one night when Russet was off to work, watched it. It’s set in the South at the beginning of the Civil War and does nothing to explore anything dealing with any of the causes – it’s just a pure action/adventure/comedy. Buster is a train conductor/engineer who is sweet on a local lady when the war starts. He wants to enlist, but his job as a train operator is vital to the war effort and he’s not allowed. This costs him big in the eyes of his sweetheart and he feels himself a coward. Meanwhile, a Union saboteur steals his locomotive in a plot to get it behind Union lines while destroying all the bridges on the way for the war effort. Buster goes to get his train back and save the day. Excellent physical comedy by Keaton, no wonder he was a major inspiration for Jackie Chan. Very clever gags, and some things you just have to wonder about: did they actually destroy a train locomotive?
Bleeding Steel. Speaking of Jackie Chan, here we have a 2017 contemporary science fiction action movie starring him! He’s the leader of a special forces unit, it’s a little unclear if it’s police or military. This movie is weird. It has a time gash aspect to it, flipping back and forth in flashbacks between an early failed op in Jackie’s past that resulted in the death of his daughter, back to the present in Sydney and apparently fighting the same people again and maybe a woman who is his daughter? Includes an epic battle inside and on top of the Sydney Opera House – that fight alone is worth seeing the movie. Overall, this is one of the poorer Jackie Chan movies, though the Jackie Chan Stunt Team was involved in the production, Jackie was not otherwise directly involved and it feels more like a B(minus) grade Chinese action film, but with some pretty cool action.
Speed Racer is one of my guilty pleasure movies. Made by the Wachowskis, based on the classic Japanese animated series, this is an amazing – almost seizure-inducing – color spectacle. I feel like when I’m watching this that it’s like when they made Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and everyone was shocked when they said that there was a green screen in every shot, and now we have movies like this where pretty much the entire movie could not be made without green screens and CGI. It’s a great story and an amazing movie and the Wachowskis lost a buttload of money on it. Estimated cost to make it was $120mill, worldwide estimated revenue was $94mill after an opening weekend of $45mill. Personally, I love this movie for its sheer over-the-top story, especially things like John Goodman’s Greco-Roman ninja-folding. It was a labor of love, but at 2 hours and 15 minutes of constant visual hammering, I think it was too much for most audiences.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The second chapter of the Harry Potter prequel finally released to somewhat poor critical acclaim but has made a lot of money – world-wide sales have tripled its production costs before video release. I think it’s a case of “sophomore slump” – we had the first movie to introduce the series and get everyone excited, then the second one comes along and has to do the heavy lifting of getting the deep stuff in place for the rest of the series. I don’t think it was possible for the second one to carry as much as the first, I think a slump was pretty much inevitable. Still, my wife and I enjoyed it for what it was – laying a lot of interesting things and posing some questions that will be revealed in the three movies yet to come. We wanted to watch the first movie before seeing this one, but I failed to get a copy when it was out inexpensively during its initial digital release, so I’ll scrounge a copy when we’re in Phoenix in a couple of weeks.
Wings of Desire. I have been wanting to see this film for a long time, and finally I found a copy at a Barnes & Noble and had a fantastic combination of coupon plus sale and got a $40 Criterion movie for about $15. It was worth $40, I just didn’t want to spend it. Wim Wenders released this film in 1987, filmed in Berlin, two years before The Wall came down. Shot in B&W and color, it follows the story of angels, or one in particular – Damiel, who look after humans. Damiel begins falling in love with a woman, Marion, who is a trapeze artist in a small circus. Whenever the film is seen through Damiel’s eyes, it’s in black & white. When seen by anyone else’s perspective, it’s in color. And then Peter Falk – the person and as himself as the actor – is introduced, the film takes some interesting twists, especially when he begins talking to people whom no one else can see…. This is just an amazing movie, and will definitely remain in my collection and will be in my list for the best movies that I’ve seen this year. It was remade as ‘Angels In America’ with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan, and I watched the trailer, and instead of Meg being a circus performer they made her a brain surgeon. I was revolted by that trailer, just utterly typical Hollywood. In one way I’d like to see it to see how bad it is compared to the original, but then again I’ve seen how bad The Man With One Red Shoe is compared to The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe. I think if I were to see Angels In America, I’d run a risk of throwing heavy objects at the TV.
Phantom Thread. This was another really, REALLY good film. This is allegedly Daniel Day Lewis’s last film, he announced his retirement from the movie industry after making it, though he may do some stage acting. A Paul Thomas Anderson film, so you know it’s going to have some interesting psychological aspects to it, it was nominated for SIX Academy Awards last year and won for Best Costume. Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, an obsessive dressmaker in 1950s London who lives with his sister, making the most amazing dresses and gowns for the very exclusive upper class and royals of Europe, including a wedding gown for a crown princess. Reynolds has one problem: he needs a muse. His current muse ceases to inspire him and is sent away, and while on holiday, he finds a new muse in a small restaurant. She is brought in to his household and world of couture and she excels, then the relationship begins, and the psychological drama unfolds…. It becomes kind of squirming in your seats twisted, and is quite an amazing movie. Amazingly beautiful as Anderson is known for, he’s becoming a film maker that I’m going to be watching for. It’s sad that Lewis is retiring pretty much at the top of his craft, but he’s certainly earned it.
Thor Ragnarok. Pure brain candy. Turn off brain, insert popcorn in pie hole since pie is not available. We just wanted some no-thinky fun.
Wreck-It Ralph. A re-watch prior to seeing the sequel. This is one really nicely plotted movie!
Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet. Disney is really good at pulling off sequels, and this one is a grand-slam hitting it out of the park. Great story, amazing gags, such as the room full of princesses and their reappearance. The controller for Vanellope’s game gets broken, and as old as the game is, it’s unavailable for a reasonable price. If one can’t be gotten soon, the game will be retired and Vanellope will be homeless. But wait – what’s that new thing plugged in at the arcade? What’s an Internet? Suddenly Ralph and Vanellope are off to the races – and eBay – in the quest for a new steering wheel. It’s a great story, updated to show the silliest aspects of the internet and online gaming and growing the story of Ralph and Vanellope. Excellent movie, looking forward to getting the DVD in a couple of months.
Robot and Frank. I learned of this film during an interview with Frank Langella, the star, on Fresh Air, and have been trying to find a copy on DVD or streaming for a couple of years. When I say ‘find a copy’, I mean scrounging through my used stores, not having seen it I wasn’t sufficiently enticed to buy it off Amazon sight-unseen. Well, I finally found it on one of my streaming channels and watched it, and loved it! Frank plays Frank, an elderly retired man, suffering from a bit of memory loss. His wife left him, his daughter is off on another continent helping disadvantaged people of some sort – there’s always a bad network connection when he talks to her, his son is sick and tired of having to take time off work to help him out when he gets in to trouble. So his son buys him a helper - a robot that looks very much like a Honda ASIMO. Frank’s main lifestyle is going to the library and flirting with the librarian, Susan Sarandon, and he finds out that the library will be closing – the space is going to be turned in to a cultural space of some sort and all the books will be scanned and available digitally. So Frank returns to his previous occupation – cat burglar – and breaks in to the library, with the help of his robot, and steals a few hundred year old copy of Don Quixote to give to the librarian. This gets his juices flowing and he decides to go back to his life of crime, but first he has to train up his robot. This movie was a lot of fun, definitely a comedy-drama. Low budget, made for $2.5mill, but doubled it in the box office and won an award at Sundance. In addition to Frank and Susan, also appearing were James Marsden as his son, Liv Tyler as his daughter, and Peter Sarsgaard voiced the robot! A very nice, slower sort of film.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. As a general rule, I’m not a Spider-Fan. I really didn’t like the non-MCU Spider-Man movies and stopped watching them after a while. This one I didn’t know much about, I finally watched a couple of trailers and I was impressed. We went and we really enjoyed it. Very good job on the story. Some of the visual effects were a little weird, like the red/blue color registration: I understand that it was a homage/joke about the sometimes poor color registration in printed comic books, but it got very tiresome after a bit. Still, a good movie overall, and one that I would like to see again. I won’t say that I’m going to rush out and buy it, but if I found an inexpensive used copy, I probably would.
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?. Once again, back to the Coens. Amongst the uncountable movies that I never saw during their theatrical release, this is one of them. At least I did get around to seeing it. I drove myself (further) insane trying to find it – I was certain that I had a copy – I tore through my library trying to find it, with no success, it wasn’t available for free on my streaming channels, and it wasn’t in my spreadsheet that inventories my video collection. But I KNEW I had a copy! Then I found it – in my virtual library! It was among the stuff that I recorded on my DVR, downloaded to my laptop, then sucked in to iTunes. So one night when – all together now – my wife was at work, I watched it. I liked it, it was a good movie. Three convicts in the south in the 1930s escape a chain gang and go on the run. I’m a little hesitant to call it a musical though there is music in it, it’s a debatable point. Anyway, apparently it’s sort of based on Homer’s Odyssey, of which I’m only familiar in vague terms. Lots of fun stuff going on as they try to get to a stash of stolen bank money before a town is flooded due to a dam being built. Great movie, but for me probably a ‘see it once is good enough’ sort of film, maybe I’ll watch it again in 5-10 years, 3-6 with good behavior.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard. I loved this movie when I saw it in the theater, I’m a sucker for action comedy. I believed firmly that my wife would love it, especially for the amount of slash that this was capable of spawning. Finally I (proverbially) sat her down and said ‘We’re watching this film tonight’, and she loved it! The movie revolves around three people: Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), a former professional bodyguard who lost his cachet when one of his protectees was sniped through an airplane window from hundreds of yards away, Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman), a Eastern European strong man dictator who is on trial at the Hague for war crimes, and Darius Kincaid (Samuel Jackson), a notorious hitman who has the evidence to put Dukhovich away for good. The problem is that Kincaid is being held by the Brits, who have a mole, and while being transported they are attacked and he manages to get away with Bryce’s ex-girlfriend who brings Bryce in to get Kincaid to the Hague within the time limit with lots of Dukhovich’s goons in hot pursuit. The only problem: Kincaid and Bryce hate each others guts and would like nothing more than Uzi’s and knives at 10’. Definitely a buddy cop movie, without the cops and they certainly don’t start out as buddies. Salma Hayek plays Kincaid’s wife in an amazing and amazingly profane performance. Just a huge shoot ‘em up fun movie.
Dr. Strange. More thinky than Thor Ragnarok, basically we were planning on seeing these two plus Black Panther and maybe Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which I don’t have yet, then watching the latest Avengers movie. We’ve got Captain Marvel coming out in a couple of months then Infinity War part 2 coming out a couple of months after that, so a refresh would be good.
Aquaman. Wow. We were thoroughly impressed. I have to say that I wasn’t blown away by Jason in the JLA movie, I just didn’t think Aquaman did much in it, but this movie was really something. It did an excellent job of establishing the Aquaman in the DCU, created a fully-fleshed back story, and his parents aren’t dead! Well, I think his dad is, but at least his mom is still around. Amazing visuals, very clever fight scenes, I thought it was good how they brought in water pollution as a theme which, as I recall, was a theme in the comic book. Overall in the DCU, I haven’t been particularly invested. The Superman and Batman movies haven’t done much for me. Loved the Wonder Woman movie, can’t wait for the next. Wasn’t impressed by the JLA or the Suicide Squad. But Aquaman? That was cool. Makes me more interested to see what a future JLA movie might bring.
