Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

LOVE AND WORK (2024): Two underground workers fall in love in an alternate reality where working a job is a crime punishable by "time out." This deadpan, experimental, conceptual low-budget comedy, shot in black and white in grungy warehouses, raises some interesting ideas about our relationship to work---although maybe not quite enough for 90 minutes. 3/5.

[RCMerchant]

LEFT BEHIND (2014)
Nick Cage is a pilot flying to London when suddenly small children and religious people all over the world vanish. As in the Rapture. Choas strikes all over the world, and if you haven't been going to church-your s**t outtaluck. Basiclly it's a Christian disaster propaganda film.
The only thing I learned from this mess was being I saw a dog in the movie still alive is that dogs don't go to Heaven.
Unless yer a by the Good Book kinds person (and one that is easily entertainted by below average paplum)-skip this one.



See that look on Nicks face? I felt the same way watching this junk.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Double Team" (1997)
A retired CIA agent (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is called back to active duty when an old terrorist enemy resurfaces after several years. When the bad guy kidnaps JCVD's pregnant wife, he enlists an oddball weapons dealer (NBA weirdo Dennis Rodman) to help him bring the bad guy down.
I remember this movie got absolutely ravaged by the critics when it came out, so I was expecting a s**t show of Biblical proportions... but honestly, it's not that terrible. Silly as hell, but no better or worse than most of Jean Claude's other shoot'em-ups from the same era. Don't expect Oscar caliber filmmaking, just turn your brain off and watch stuff explode for 90 minutes.

[M.10rda]

LEFT BEHIND (2014)

The only thing I learned from this mess was being I saw a dog in the movie still alive is that dogs don't go to Heaven.

I was nearly ejected from Sunday School in the 80s for fighting w/ the teacher over her insistence that animals had no souls and didn't go to Heaven. A year or so later ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN was released. I considered myself vindicated.

[lester1/2jr]

Tell No One (2006) - French attempt at a thriller that is available on numerous free channels so that tells you something. It's got the basic elements down but is executed in a confusing and boring way.

A guy and his wife are attacked while nude swimming in the middle of nowhere, as one does in this gross decadent country. Apparently she was a victim of a serial killer...or was she? Years later, the husband gets sent footage of a woman who appears to be her from CCTV footage of a random stairwell in some subway station. Sounds great right? It could have been

2.75 /5 has it's moments but ultimately they just couldn't pull it off. The reveal/ confession takes a ridiculous amount of time the person has like charts.

[indianasmith]

THE ABYSS (2022) A small mining town in Sweden is about to collapse into a giant sinkhole; as the town begins to fall apart, two teens are missing and mom (who is the mine's safety director) must go searching for them, along with her ex-husband and her new lover.  I tuned in because I thought it was a horror film; instead I found myself watching an excellent disaster/survival flick.
4/5

[Trevor]

Find Me Guilty with Vin Diesel.

Worth a watch and it is on YouTube ☺️

[FatFreddysCat]

My trip down the Jean-Claude Van Damme rabbit hole continues thanks to Tubi...

"Legionnaire" (1999)
A boxer on the run from gangsters in 1920s France joins the French Foreign Legion to get out of the country. He gets shipped off to a remote outpost in Northern Africa, where the Legion is in constant battle with a native tribe.
This impressively staged, surprisingly lavish period piece was quite a change for JCVD -- it's not really an "action" picture, it's more of an old school "adventure drama." There is still a fair share of fighting and gun play, but JC's brooding, strong/silent hero type doesn't even spin-kick anybody!
Even though he's clearly trying very hard, JCVD's still not much of an actor, but the movie surrounds him with interesting supporting characters that keep him, and the movie, afloat. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

[M.10rda]

THE ABYSS (2022) A small mining town in Sweden is about to collapse into a giant sinkhole; as the town begins to fall apart, two teens are missing and mom (who is the mine's safety director) must go searching for them, along with her ex-husband and her new lover.  I tuned in because I thought it was a horror film; instead I found myself watching an excellent disaster/survival flick.
4/5

Sounds like a cash-in on Norway's THE WAVE and THE QUAKE... entertaining if somewhat predictable disaster flicks w/ essentially the same family melodrama dynamic....... only with a tidal wave and an earthquake instead of a sinkhole. 

[zombie no.one]

My trip down the Jean-Claude Van Damme rabbit hole continues thanks to Tubi...

"Legionnaire" (1999)
A boxer on the run from gangsters in 1920s France joins the French Foreign Legion to get out of the country. He gets shipped off to a remote outpost in Northern Africa, where the Legion is in constant battle with a native tribe.
This impressively staged, surprisingly lavish period piece was quite a change for JCVD -- it's not really an "action" picture, it's more of an old school "adventure drama." There is still a fair share of fighting and gun play, but JC's brooding, strong/silent hero type doesn't even spin-kick anybody!
Even though he's clearly trying very hard, JCVD's still not much of an actor, but the movie surrounds him with interesting supporting characters that keep him, and the movie, afloat. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

recommend his next movie after that, DESERT HEAT. quite preposterous but good fun

[lester1/2jr]

The ending to Legionnaire was epic. JCVD understands the middle east better than our last 10 presidents

[Trevor]

My trip down the Jean-Claude Van Damme rabbit hole continues thanks to Tubi...

"Legionnaire" (1999)
A boxer on the run from gangsters in 1920s France joins the French Foreign Legion to get out of the country. He gets shipped off to a remote outpost in Northern Africa, where the Legion is in constant battle with a native tribe.
This impressively staged, surprisingly lavish period piece was quite a change for JCVD -- it's not really an "action" picture, it's more of an old school "adventure drama." There is still a fair share of fighting and gun play, but JC's brooding, strong/silent hero type doesn't even spin-kick anybody!
Even though he's clearly trying very hard, JCVD's still not much of an actor, but the movie surrounds him with interesting supporting characters that keep him, and the movie, afloat. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

recommend his next movie after that, DESERT HEAT. quite preposterous but good fun

His South African movie WAKE OF DEATH is also quite good.

[bob]

Dreams (1990)

weirdest movie I've seen in a long while...

 

and I've got about an hour left in this

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Shark Is Still Working" (2007)
The late, great Roy "Chief Brody" Scheider narrates this cool documentary on the enduring phenomenon of the original "Jaws." It covers all the bases from the film's famously problem-plagued production to its becoming the first bona fide "summer blockbuster," and its continued influence on film making to this very day. Lots of cool vintage behind-the-scenes footage and commentary from the movie's stars, crew, and fans make this a must-see for Jaws nerds.

[Jim H]

Damsel - A princess is basically sold to another kingdom.  Turns out it's to be dragon chow.  Not a spoiler, the trailers show this immediately.  Plot is sort of a riff on Dragonslayer, tilted around.  It's passably entertaining I thought.  Millie Bobby Brown is OK in the lead.  The dragon has a very good design and a very well chosen voice.  Surprisingly gruesome for PG-13.  

I dunno, hard to comment on very positively or critically.  I liked the ending, but thought the film was trying to have character arcs and growth (that the princess is tearing up her own wedding dress and accoutrements to save herself is some kind of metaphor) but it didn't really land.  I felt there were missed moments with the dragon as a character.  It's a little silly at times, but think of the whale in Avatar 2 - it basically gets its own mini arc and has to make a major decision.  Something like that here would have been nice, as they try to have the dragon be more than a monster but don't fully committ.  That's the thing about the film - there's ingredients for a better film, felt like it needed a second writing pass or something.

Oh, and man, a lot of the caverns where it's obviously green screened or the Volume look like crap.  It's distracting.  Same with the costumes and production design - they're really good, but they always look way too crisp and new.  Practically every period Netflix show/movie is like this, and it never stops being annoying.

Still, I enjoyed it.