Movies

A complete ripoff of the original, with the element of fun removed?

Watched Marty Supreme. It does many things for me, like make me realise that I didn't have such a bad time watching Bone Temple after all, and that Timothee Chalamet is never going to play a role in which I don't spend the entire movie wanting him to die in incredibly painful ways.

By some distance my most hated movie of this or many other Oscar years. Everything about it makes me want reach into the screen and throttle that sniveling apology for a human being.

Fall Guy is the kind of action comedy they don't really make any more. But it's lots of fun, not sure why it seemingly bombed (although me watching it on netflix two years after it was released, isn't really helping).

War Machine on Netflix, with the guy who plays Reacher. It's basically Predator but a robot instead of an alien. Was a bit cheesy but ok for a Netflix movie.

Thanks for writing a review. I was thinking to write something very similar. Was pretending I was young last night, didn't get home till 3, so watched it on the sofa with a cup of tea this morning.

Went to see Hoppers the new Pixar movie earlier. I enjoyed it.

I would suggest it's what the right wing want Starship Troopers to be. Also not as good at it as Battle LA.

Is that about Liverpool and Everton fans fronting up in Stanley Park?

If it involved terrifying aliens. So, yes.

Watched Song sung Blue. Perfectly acceptable with good acting but hardly Oscar Worthy... It played like a fancy television film. Both Jackman and Hudson are excellent and sung themselves. The older Kate Hudson seems sexier to me. Maybe I am turning into a girl....

Also if this is based on real life, then pretty terrible stuff happened to that family and we should all avoid Wisconsin.. (which happens to be a nice State by the way...

Chicago: Not a singer by trade.

You've got the Goldie Horn.

I'm more in line with RC on this one, thought it was really fun. I didn't mind the whole gang of misfits storyline, it takes the franchise in a much more interesting direction than the previous version which was "let's make a carbon copy of the original but take out the Arnie fun and replace it with boring earnestness". I do think the predator loses something when he's no longer the apex predator though, and the last line of Badlands was cringey.

Also watched the Springsteen movie. Thought it was absolutely terrific, but I suspect it probably helps a lot if you're a Springsteen fan to start with - it's really focused on the making of Nebraska which is a brilliant piece of work, but not the rock and roll Boss that most people know.

State Trooper is my favourite track of that album. Menacingly dark.

I didn't realise Ange Postecoglou played the Hoskins character in Jurassic World (2015).

Also watched Now You See Me, Now You Don't. I really liked the previous two, this was by far the weakest but still fun as long as you're willing to park your brain. Ideal for an aeroplane.

Just watched The Secret Agent which means I have now seen 7 of the 10 Best Picture nominations (I'm missing Hamnet, Train Dreams and Sentimental Values). It won't win, but it's by far my favourite of the 7 and the only one that I think would actually be worthy of winning in what I consider a pretty weak year. It's long (2 hours 40), messy, and for the first hour doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but there are tons of good performances (the lead Wagner Moura is nominated for Best Actor and IMO should win), the characters of whom there are many are all written and acted superbly to be far more interesting and multi-dimensional than most movies manage, and the cinematography and score are absolutely gorgeous and absorbing. I promise it's worth sticking with the slightly slow and meandering first hour because once the strands start weaving together it becomes absorbing, and it's one of those movies that definitely deserves a rewatch because there's a bunch of stuff I'm sure I'll notice the second time round.

Big recommend on this. Really liked it.

Hmmm. I sacked this off after 30 minutes for this reason. Now I’m wondering whether to put myself through that start again in order to see it through…

My students keep pestering me to watch Train Dreams, so that might be tonight’s watch.
I watched The Red Shoes and Zabriskie Point over the last two nights. Both nice to look at but absolutely not for everyone as they’re arty/pretentious (depending on your take) as all get out. Zabriskie Point was similar to lot of late 60s/early 70s counter culture films I’ve seen. Just when I was thinking it was even a bit “normal” for Antonioni/the era, I got multiple minutes of stuff exploding (houses, fridges, bookshelves, who knows what else) with a Pink Floyd soundtrack as a critique of consumerism/rampant capitalism. Probably.
My enjoyment of said scene probably enhanced as I was slightly off my face.

War Machine on Netflix. Objectively it's a terrible movie, but damn if it isn't 100 minutes of brainless fun. Alan Ritchson (Reacher) in full machismo mode fighting an alien, large Predator influences, lots of shit blows up.