Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

TIN CAN (2021): An epidemiologist finds herself kidnapped and imprisoned in a steel canister while a deadly plague rages outside. Does a lot of things right, creating a doom-laden atmosphere and capturing the cinematic nature of claustrophobia; on the other hand, many in the audience will feel cheated out of anything resembling an answer to the questions the script raises---it starts out like CUBE but ends up like an even more obscure variant of BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW. 3/5.

[Jim H]

Morbius - Maybe not as bad as the memes would have you believe, but still genuinely bad.  The writing is just terrible, character motivations are bad, most performances aren't great.  It's also clearly been hacked up, and a number of sequences barely make sense.  The highlight of the film is Matt Smith, who seems to be having a ball in it.  See it only if you're morbidly curious.

Thor: Love and Thunder.  Passably entertaining, but still kind of tiresome in the way the MCU films have become to me.  It's just really hard to care.  Jane coming back is clunky, the fight sequences in green screen rooms against obviously fake opponents are boring and always the same, it repeats the same horizontal slow mo shots from Ragnarok like 4 times..  I dunno.  Christian Bale is pretty good, I liked the sequence where Thor and Jane reconcile a bit...  It's fine I guess.

[Gabriel Knight]

MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN (1992)

After a freak accident, a company executive turns completely invisible, goes on the run and becomes hunted by a treacherous CIA official, whilst trying to cope with his new reality.

I rewatched this movie last night and it still holds up. It's a really engaging tale about what would really be if one became invisible. All the logical problems arise, and the human behind the "superpower" becomes more human than ever. The look of the bandages and black trenchcoat is a nice homage to the original THE INVISIBLE MAN from 1933. Great special effects, although the direction from Carpenter doesn't really shows.

I'm not a follower of Chevy Chase but he plays his part with a lot of conviction, sometimes you can suffer alongside him. Daryl Hannah is boring and looks like a lifeless doll through the movie, but she serves her purpose. Sam Neill is awesome as usual, I can honestly say that he carries the whole movie. I wish there were more movies like this, but with other powers. HANCOCK made a good try but failed miserably due to a convoluted script.

Recommended! 7/10

[Rev. Powell]

APPLES (2020): A plague is causing people to become amnesiac; we follow one man's journey through an odd recovery program designed to create new memories for a new identity. This very dry, mildly Lanthimosian comedy managed to keep my interest, though I can see it being a chore for some. 3/5.

[Jim H]

Maverick (1994) - Still a delight.  Very funny, very well paced, three likable major characters, a plethora of Western cameos...  On that point, I wish I knew all the cameos, I remember watching this with my dad when it was new and he must have recognized a dozen cameos I didn't.  About the only significant criticism I have is the overarching plot is thin and not as well developed as it perhaps could be - it feels a bit like four episodes of the TV series stitched together, in that sense.  Maybe having the Commodore and what's going on with the tournament appear earlier, hint at Cooper's involvement, etc, would have made the final payoffs a bit better.  But, really, I was smiling start to finish, and a lot of it is laugh out loud funny.  High recommend. 

[Dr. Whom]

See How They Run (2022)

London 1953. An American film director (Adrian Brody) who has come over to make an adaptation of The Mousetrap is murdered at the party of the 100th performance of the play. A grumpy alcoholic inspector (Sam Rockwell) and a slightly too keen WPC (Saoirse Ronan) are on the case.

After Knives Out, I thought homage/spoofs of the Agatha Christie mystery couldn't get any better, yet this one is. Absolutely delightful. One word for the curmudgeons: this is purely an exercise in style. Don't expect rounded characters, social commentary or anything of the kind: this is playing with the format of the whodunit for the sheer fun of it. Also, it is very meta. Brilliant.

[lester1/2jr]

Tfw No gf - stands for "that feeling when no girlfriend" a bunch of so called incels are profiled in this recent and timely doc. A lot depends on how interested and/ or plugged in to modern internet culture you are as to if you'll get anything from this.

Lonely guys frustrated with their lack of success with women vent to each other online at sites like twitter and reddit. As they grow more hopeless, they become darker and more nihilistic. Maybe we, as a society, were better off when kids had nothing to do, rather than them finding and absorbing unhealthy stuff online all day? or maybe the normal routes of finding a romantic partner that our parents and grandparents used have become obscured. somewhere in there is the "inconvenient truth" of this story.

5/5

[chainsaw midget]

I just watched the 2021 Candyman movie. 

I couldn't tell you one single memorable thing about it. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Witch" (2015)
A Puritan family sets up a homestead on a secluded plot near a forest. Soon they begin to suffer a series of tragic events that appear to be supernatural in nature.
This slow-burning period piece set in 1600s New England has atmosphere to spare, and Anya Taylor-Joy is great as the teenaged Pilgrim girl who seems to be at the center of the creepy goings-on.
It was a bit hard to follow at first till I got the hang of the Olde Timey English (lots of "thee's" and "thou's") but once the weird sh*t started happening I was hooked. Worth checking out if you're in the mood for something off-beat.

[lester1/2jr]

Where the Hell is the Lavender House? The Longmont Potion Castle documentary - LPC is a series of prank phone call albums put together by an anonymous guy in Colorado. The heyday for this art form is long past, but he's still at it and that's a very good thing I feel. His early stuff that I heard in college was spread a la MST3K via tape trading and so forth. His stye is more cerebral and less coarse than the Jerky Boys or crank yankers, kind of like David Letterman or something. His first couple of albums were pretty straightforward but later he would add sound effects and other sorts of technology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R30VyUKeeFc using what sound like guitar effects pedals.

The documentary uses a "found footage"/ this documentary itself is in jeopardy sort of meta - gimmick which kind of falls flat but it doesn't really matter. It tell the story the way it needs to be told. but do they actually find the guy? gotta watch to find out

5/5

[Gabriel Knight]

THE KING'S SPEECH (2010)

The story of King George VI, his impromptu ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.

Simply wonderful, I never tire of watching this film. Both Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are amazingly good, how their relationship grows over the course of two hours is a delight.
The buildup is excellent, and the actual speech is, to me, simply one of the best moments in cinema history.

10/10, masterpiece.

[Rev. Powell]

THE RED AND THE WHITE (1967): In the Russian Civil War, the Reds and the Whites battle over a monastery on the banks of the Volga that keeps switching hands. Featuring Miklós Jancsó's celebrated sweeping cinematography, this is anti-war film (badly) disguised as a patriotic war epic. Soldiers spend more time bullying POWs and civilians than actually fighting each other; the movie cynically ignores ideology to focus on the struggle between ordinary people and power-drunk bullies on either side. 4.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Dogma" (1999)
Two fallen angels, exiled to Earth long ago, have discovered a loophole in God's law that will allow them to get back into Heaven. If they succeed, however, it will destroy all of existence. The Lord assembles a team consisting of one lapsed Catholic, two stoners (Jay and Silent Bob!) and a forgotten apostle, to stop it from happening.

This religious fantasy/satire is still Kevin "Clerks" Smith's most elaborate movie, featuring his usual hilarious, rapid-fire dialogue, tasteless sight gags, an absolutely amazing cast (Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, Salma Hayek, Linda Fiorentino, George Carlin) and enough plot for three movies. Controversial when it was first released, it's become a cult item and an important piece of Smith's View Askew-niverse.

Unfortunately it's also something of a "lost" film, not currently available on DVD/Blu or via streaming, because the rights are owned by the currently-in-prison Harvey Weinstein, who doesn't want to give it up. Smith's numerous attempts to buy the movie back from him have been turned down. So if you find a copy second hand, grab it because it's a collector's item!

[Jim H]

47 Ronin - What a pile of crap.  It's watchable, sometimes funny crap, but really bad.  Waste of a quite solid cast too.  Just badly directed, badly written.  The only bright spots are some good stunt and action work and decent CG work, and OK pacing.  Keanu Reeves' character's background and influence on the story is bolted on, he could have been easily trimmed with minor tweaks.  Of course, he's not part of the original work true story, so I guess that's not surprising, but his poor integration is still a good sign of the bad writing.

For a drinking game, take a shot every time they follow up a word or concept by fully explaining it for the slow people in the audience.  Like, the SHOGUN OF JAPAN, says to a bunch of disgraced samurai, "You are now ronin, masterless samurai".  Thanks Mr. Shogun, I'm sure the samurai born into the class needed the explanation.  Also I'm sure the audience forgot, despite stating what it means a couple times earlier in the film.  Oof. 

Howl's Moving Castle - A lot of beautiful animation and delightful characters.  Gorgeous art, as you'd expect.  I do think this isn't an amazing adaptation of the novel though.  I haven't read it and it's still obvious they adapted some aspects better than other - Turnip Head's ending comes completely out of nowhere, as does the final resolution of the main plot and the war going on.  But I still quite enjoyed it.

[Dr. Whom]

Howl's Moving Castle - A lot of beautiful animation and delightful characters.  Gorgeous art, as you'd expect.  I do think this isn't an amazing adaptation of the novel though.  I haven't read it and it's still obvious they adapted some aspects better than other - Turnip Head's ending comes completely out of nowhere, as does the final resolution of the main plot and the war going on.  But I still quite enjoyed it.

It is not really an adaptation at all. It takes some elements from the book, but uses them to tell its own story. Still, an enjoyable film in its own right.