The Old Guard
Nonsensical story of an immortal 4 who fight...um...big pharma. Charlize Theron doing her own action stunts while other actors...attempt acting. Still, it was the best of my remaining Netflix dregs: 3/10...
The Old Guard
Nonsensical story of an immortal 4 who fight...um...big pharma. Charlize Theron doing her own action stunts while other actors...attempt acting. Still, it was the best of my remaining Netflix dregs: 3/10...
Paths Of Glory 1957 directed by Stanley Kubrick
If you haven't seen this film I highly recommend it over most of the regurgitated crap pumped out for Netflix, Amazon etc. nowadays.
^Excellent film!
With Alan Parker dying, I thought I'd dig out Mississippi Burning again.
Set in 1960's Mississippi, it tells the story of an FBI investigation into the disappearance of three civil rights activists (loosely based on a true story).
Gene Hackman is brilliant as ever, ably supported by Willem Defoe, but what stands out is the cast of character actors that make up the insidious, smug racists who had kidnapped and murdered them (not a spoiler, it's the opening scene of the movie).
I'd completely forgotten Alan Parker's ability to portray the atmosphere of the time and the place, and the realism is what makes this movie stand out.
Worth a watch in these turbulent times, as it shows how racist America was in the not so recent past and to an extent why it still has such endemic racism today.
8/10.
^Excellent movie!
It's funny going from watching a director at the top of his game to one just starting out, and who amazingly managed to get a budget for one of the worst scripts going (which he wrote himself).
Michael Mann's The Keep (1983) is so bad it's... no it's just bad.
Even early Hollywood outings for the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Gabriel Byrne, Jurgen Prochnow and Scott Glenn couldn't save this turkey.
It's some kind of story involving WWII, German soldiers, supernatural shit and fuck knows what else he's trying to get across, because the characters never really develop and you really have no idea what the fuck is going on for most of the movie.
Some of the reviews:
Thankfully he redeemed himself with the excellent Manhunter (1986).Variety
Buried deep within The Keep’s mysterious exterior lies that chilling Hollywood question: how do these dogs get made?
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott
The Keep has opened just in time - if it had waited another couple of weeks, it would have been the worst horror movie of 1984 and there wouldn't have been anything to look forward to all year.
Washington Post
Nothing if not monumentally obsessed, Mann seems to be volunteering himself as the American film industry's answer to the cinema of ultraportentous imagery and crackpot visionary affectation. One imagines him entering the unofficial competition trailing swirls of smoke or ground fog and radiating backlit shafts of light, like half the characters in his movie.
I think I'll move on to that in a cinematic equivalent of washing the nasty taste of this debacle away.
^Speaking of real stinkers directed by A list directors, check out Caged Heat by Jonathan Demme.
Not a review per se -- at least not mine -- but a good little vdo on 2020's best so far sci-fi flicks here for those that like that sort of thing.
I've seen a few of them and they've been good:
A film about an appallingly bad opera singer - Florence Foster Jenkins.
Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant (yes, I know ....), Simon Helberg.
A train wreck of a life.
But isn't it fascinating watching someone make a total fool of themselves in public and crashing and burning ?
Poor old bat was probably going mad from syphilis.
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) - IMDb
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) - Plot Summary - IMDb
The Homesman 2014
Excellent western starring Hillary Swank, Tommy Lee Jones, John Lithgow and Meryl Streep.
An unmarried pioneer woman is charged with transporting three mentally ill women from the Nebraska territory by wagon back to a care home in Iowa. Great story and acting performances. Very enjoyable.
Not quite as serious as Humbert's choice . . . ^
Notting Hill on the week-end . . . it was a 'Girl's Choice'. 3-1 so I alway lose anyway.
Ok, here we go. 1999 with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. It' a whimsical story of a Brit book seller and an American actress who fall in love and the very bumpy relationship ends with them as a loving couple.
The film ends with Hugh Grant reading a book on a park bench and a pregnant Julia Roberts lying on his lap.
A few laughs.
If you like this kind of thing it's quite good. If not . . . you're male.
Black diamonds? I shit 'em.
I am thinking of ending things
I have no idea what was going on in this movie but I like that a mainstream channel like Netflix is being a bit adventurous what it finances.
The opening part kind of reminded me of Eraserhead but with more dialogue and in colour.
Some of the cast previously featured in Fargo TV show but I can't remember their names.
It is filmed in TV aspect ratio 4:3 and the closing titles are in a tiny font that you cant read and there is no end music just a plane going overhead and a crow.
Betty would probably enjoy. Davis I would advise to approach with extreme caution!
I can go as high as 6.2/10 for the ballet scene near the end.
Alpha. 2018
Set in Europe 20 000 years ago.
Has some anthropological clangers I guess but is beautifully shot with memorable images.
Coming of age story. No sex - just a lad having a few cosy nights curled up with a shewolf while lying on ice and snow.
Alpha (2018 film) - Wikipedia
Monsoon
Gay Vietnamese bloke returns to the place of his birth - Saigon.
Watched it up to 50 minutes left, when it became clear nothing was likely to happen.
Maybe he fell out with his African American squeeze or maybe not. I for one certainly didn't care.
4/10
...Boys in the Band...a Netflix remake of a 60s Broadway production: an excellent all-gay cast including Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto. The storyline is, of course dated: a gay get-together in the late 60s that includes repartee of that time, but quickly dissolves into a drunken self-hate-fest orchestrated by Parsons' character with the added tension of the arrival of a straight college roommate...while I haven't forgotten the difficulties of growing up in those days, I'm not sure I needed to be reminded so pointedly of how clueless most straights were...8.5/10
Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd
Hey, I didn't know that the Village People were gay when they were a new sensation.
I thought they were just ordinary blokes who were good at singing and dancing.
A gay construction worker ??? Impossible.
But I was a ignerant cuntry boy.
Watched A million ways to die in the west. Pretty enjoyable to be honest. Only drawback was that the star was Seth Macfarlane, and a couple of times he was talking I got Brian loud and clear....
Anyway, trailer here (after the fucking advert of course):
Watched Greenland (2020) tonight
Quite a passable disaster-fest
Human story line was OK but a bit 'by the numbers'
It would really bring a disaster movie to life if they would risk going out on a limb a little bit with the human drama structure instead of playing it safe every time
I like how the post-apocalyptic destruction montage begins in Sydney - just like the NYE celebration montages - as if even space debris terrestrial disasters must unfold according to GMT oriented chronology
7/10
Nomadland
Decent copy on tpb, and Frances McDormand is always watchable.
Nothing much happens, people are born, people die, but there's some spectacular scenery and an acting masterclass from FM to appreciate.
Harriet might appreciate her nude scene.
7/10.
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