Gendo, 2019, movies, etc.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Apr 16, 2019 2:20 pm

29. Patriots Day - Yes, I watched this on Patriots' Day; the 6th anniversary of the bombings. Wow, this was far better than I was expecting. Not easy to watch, but well worth it. I was worried that it would feel like it was exploiting the tragedy, but it really didn't; it just felt like it was there to show what happened. Although the main character is a composite character as opposed to a real person, they are quite accurate with the details about that week. There was some interesting stuff surrounding the investigation and manhunt that I didn't know about. It almost felt like a documentary.

The combined focus of both the events of the day and the people involved worked really well. All the characters other than the lead were real people, and it just showed their stories. As a former Boston resident, who worked a block away from where the bombing happened, the events and the movie had extra meaning for me. And as a new father, I could barely handle the end when they showed the photo of the boy who was killed. Definitely a movie that will stick with me. #BostonStrong.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Apr 17, 2019 1:50 pm

30. A Quiet Place - Interesting. Some neat ideas, and it was shown in an interesting way. I wasn't as blown away by the sound production as I thought I would be. But still, the style of the film really worked. I wouldn't say it was actually scary, but it had some good suspense. I'm conflicted between wishing we had learned more about the world they lived in, and knowing that the movie wouldn't have worked as well as it did if they had given a bunch of exposition.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:31 pm

First, random thing I forgot to mention in my Guardians write-up. The 3D was really good! We've watched a few of the movies in 3D; and normally I don't care much either way. But it was really good for Guardians.

R20. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - I still like it even better than the first. Though it's really close. The first one has a more simple charm to it; in a few places it feels like the second one was trying to force some of the humor and drama, while it was more natural in the first. But even so, the better story and deeper emotions and character development of the second one win it for me.

R21. Spider-Man: Homecoming - Good and fun. Not a masterpiece, but it had a great villain, a good twist, fun supporting cast, and a simple but well-done story.

R22. Thor: Ragnarok - Maybe didn't like it as much as the first time, but still liked it. A very unique feel to it; with some great music and dialog.

R23. Black Panther - This is good, but I just don't quite get the hype. At least not if looked at only in the context of the content of the film. I understand that there's a lot of importance based on the real-world in which the film was created. The tribal African set pieces were the best parts anyway. The villain is excellent; and the character growth well done. But the action was relatively lame; and it has some really poor CG. The final battle between the hero and villain was just bad. Still a great film as a whole, though.

R24. Avengers: Infinity War - I still completely get the hype. I know a lot of people around here disagree... but this is just pure excellence. Man I can't wait until I see Endgame next week.

R25. Ant-Man and the Wasp - I like this better than the first. There's not a lot of super-hero stuff in it; but there's a lot of good stuff out of costume. There's more Michael Peña, which is great. And the supporting cast is better. Still not a really great movie, but enjoyable.

Thus ends my 20 movie MCU marathon. Won't be watching Captain Marvel again, as I just saw it recently, and it won't be on video until after Endgame again. Really looking forward to next week!

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:29 pm

^ This is just reminding me how far behind on the MCU I am. I doubt I'd even remember any of the relevant lore if I tried to pick up where I left off...

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Apr 24, 2019 1:42 am

31. Speed Racer - So many bad things about this movie. The acting was bland, even from Goodman. It was too long. It had horrible CG. The plot was super clichéd and predictable. All that being said... it was a lot of fun to watch, and I really enjoyed it! The visual style was annoying at first, but got better as the movie went on. It had a lot of neat action pieces, and some actual good heart behind the characters' motivations. The campiness was great; and it really embraced the "this is a stupid movie so we can do whatever we want". I didn't know who directed it until after it was over, and when I saw that it was The Wachowskis, it suddenly made a lot more sense. I also never watched much of the show, so I probably missed a bunch of references there; even just knowing who some characters were. But yeah, as a whole, a surprisingly good movie.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Thu Apr 25, 2019 8:50 am

I'm not sure predictability and cliche are a bug and not a feature with a Speed Racer adaptation tbh. That being said I have not seen the Wachowski's version.

BruceSmith78 · Post by **BruceSmith78** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 4:09 am

Dazed and Confused was great, but I'm from Texas and I've lived in small towns and gone to kegger parties out in the middle of nowhere and smoked a bunch of pot, so it was all so relatable and real to me. American Graffiti was lame as fuck. I couldn't even get through it.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu May 02, 2019 2:48 pm

Just realized I only watched 7 new movies in April; but then again I watched 20 repeats. Gotta pick up the pace; only on track for 96. Anyway...

32. Avengers: Endgame - Spoilers will be in spoiler markings. There's a reason I waited a couple days before writing this up... so much to unpack. Did it live up to the hype? Mostly. It was a very good and enjoyable film... but what stands out the most about it is just how much it is sticking with me. You know how sometimes you hear a catchy song, and then it's stuck in your head and you can't get it out? That's what this movie has been doing to me for the past day and a half. It's messing with me on a subconscious level; I find myself constantly drifting back to it.

So it's long. And it's pretty distinctly divided into 3 parts. In the first part of the movie, you can feel the length; certain scenes are clearly moving very slowly. But it's intentional; it makes perfect sense given the things that are happening. You feel the weight of what the characters feel. But still, about a third of the way through, I found myself thinking "yeah this is fine, but not nearly the amazing thing I was hoping for".

The second part is an enjoyable heist film. It does a lot of interesting things, and there's a lot happening at once. It's still nothing amazing or huge.

Then the third part... there is one singular defining moment when the movie turns into the biggest, most epic, and hype movie I've seen in a very long time. For me, that moment is When you see Cap with the hammer. It's just so good. I suppose the third part starts a bit before that actual moment, but it's a slower ramp up up to that point.

Is it a perfect movie? No. But it succeeds in a big way at 2 important things: Being a huge epic film filled with as much weight and importance as the LotR films, and being a very good ending to a 22-film saga. I really don't know if you could ask for a better way to really wrap up all of the previous 21 films.

So one thing I didn't like as much: I didn't like that they went with a time travel route at all. Sure we all knew that it was a likely possibility of what the movie would be about... but given the way that they actually ended up doing everything; it turns out the writers didn't even need time travel. I am glad that they didn't just use time travel to change the past and undo everything that happened... that would have been worse. But since the plan was never to alter the past so that things never happened that way, then the same basic heist movie could have happened without time travel.. just make it so that instead of Thanos destroying the stones, he hid them somewhere. And then instead of fighting past Thanos at the end, they would be fighting present Thanos again. I can't say for sure that that would have been a better movie... I'm no writer. It's just that there's always so much extra complexity when you have time travel that they probably could have done without.

So anyway... I'm planning on seeing it again next week. I think the last time I saw a movie twice in theaters was Return of the King. It's not something I do generally. But I really feel that this film needs a second watching. There is just so much there. I'm actually not sure whether I liked it more than Infinity War or not, but considering that Infinity War was one of the 10 best movies I saw last year, that's a lot to live up to.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed May 08, 2019 2:18 pm

33. Into the Woods - Pretty good. I had seen a stage version a while back; but didn't remember too much. Unsurprisingly, Meryl Streep stole the show again. Depp was really disappointing; fortunately he only had one scene. Chris Pine was also great. The story was cute and fun; with some clever dialog. The music was interesting and well-done, but not what you would call catchy at all... I can't remember any of the melodies the next day.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu May 09, 2019 3:03 pm

R26. Avengers: Endgame - Very rarely do I see a movie in theaters twice. I think Return of the King was the last time; over 15 years ago! I would say as a whole, I liked it more the second time. I was able to more appreciate the first half, when things were a bit slow. Knowing that it was going to be that way, and having the second half to look forward to, made it better. I really liked the way they took time to simply show what the world was like in the situation they were left in after Infinity War. Jeremy Renner was especially good.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon May 13, 2019 4:15 pm

34. Paris, je t'aime - Mixed feelings on this one. It's hard to review, because it's really not "a movie". It's a collection of a bunch of short films. And I know nothing about short films. Still, most of the stories were enjoyable. Super artsy.

Some of my favorite segments were the mimes, the cowboy, the blind person, and the father-daughter one... Nick Nolte was great. The Coen Brothers' bit managed to feel like Coen Brothers, which is generally a good thing. I found it amusing that Wes Craven did one of them, and it wasn't the one about the vampire.

My least favorites were the vampire bit and the beauty salon bit... I had no idea what was going on in the beauty salon one. A couple others were fine, but mostly forgettable.

One thing that I found interesting is how in the final bit, about the women who only speaks amateur French, you could tell that the French wasn't good, even without knowing French yourself. I would have expected, not knowing how to speak the language myself, that poor French and good French would sound the same to me, but no, they managed to really make it clear.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue May 28, 2019 2:46 pm

35. Rebel Without a Cause - Not sure about this one. The acting was fantastic all around. But while I get that it was trying to show the generational rift between teens and adults, I didn't really feel like it was shown all that well. A lot of the choices the characters made just never felt explained. I did really enjoy the suspenseful parts near the end; but that almost felt like a different genre of movie from the rest of it. Maybe it's just because I grew up in the 80s and not the 50s, but I felt like Breakfast Club did the same thing but better.

36. 25th Hour - Thanks Lord_Lyndon for the recommendation. I liked the beginning a lot with the scenery and music; and then really loved the ending with the escape fantasy. I wasn't really that into it during much of the middle; it was just moving kind of slow; and I had trouble following the dialog some. But then the ending was so good that it turned me around on the whole movie. All of the performances were fantastic.

37. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - So much fun. Really clever animation choices. The action was great; the story was good; the characters were well-written. The only thing I didn't like was Liev Schreiber's Kingpin... completely wrong voice in my opinion. But as a whole, excellent movie.

Lord_Lyndon · Post by **Lord_Lyndon** » Thu May 30, 2019 9:51 pm

I'm glad you generally liked 25th Hour. I would have felt guilty if you didn't (lol). And I definitely agree about the ending. It is a highlight of the movie of sorts.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 2:05 pm

R27. The Golden Child - This movie is so bad, and I love it. It's a childhood favorite, and it completely holds up. It really reminds me of Big Trouble in Little China also.

R28. A Beautiful Mind - Excellent. Crowe is fantastic. It does a great job of blurring the lines between reality and delusion. And Horner is at the top of his game. Too bad for him that the film was released the same year as Fellowship; making it almost impossible for anyone else to get an Oscar for music. Same for Crowe and Training Day. Man, 2001 was a good year for movies.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:45 pm

The bigger knock against A Beautiful Mind is that it came out the same year as Mulholland Dr.

ABM is not a completely terrible film all things considered (Probably toward the lower middle of my own Best Picture Winner rankings though) but Ron Howard tries to dip his toes into some of Lynch's water the same year that Lynch arguably perfects an elaborate dive with multiple spins and flips in the air into the pool of surrealism.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 2:16 pm

So this is just going to be a bad year for new movies. And now that I have a Switch; I don't know when I'm going to spend time watching movies instead of playing it.

So I bought Seven Psychopaths; looking forward to seeing that. Just need to convince myself to actually spend free time watching a movie.

Post by **Gendo** » Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:37 pm

R29. Minority Report - yes after watching nothing in over a month, I watch something I've already seen. Too busy playing Switch! Anyway; good movie. Holds up pretty well; though they could have gone deeper into the justice/predestination exploration.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:48 pm

I haven't seen it in 10 years but I remember quite enjoying Minority Report.

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:11 pm

Gendo wrote:31. Speed Racer - So many bad things about this movie. The acting was bland, even from Goodman. It was too long. It had horrible CG. The plot was super clichéd and predictable. All that being said... it was a lot of fun to watch, and I really enjoyed it! The visual style was annoying at first, but got better as the movie went on. It had a lot of neat action pieces, and some actual good heart behind the characters' motivations. The campiness was great; and it really embraced the "this is a stupid movie so we can do whatever we want". I didn't know who directed it until after it was over, and when I saw that it was The Wachowskis, it suddenly made a lot more sense. I also never watched much of the show, so I probably missed a bunch of references there; even just knowing who some characters were. But yeah, as a whole, a surprisingly good movie.

I think you nailed my feelings about Speed Racer too. It's so easy to criticize on a multitude of levels, but hot damn if it ain't a fun, exhilarating little film! I wish filmmakers had more of the cinematic imagination of the Wachowski's and less of the "taste" that prevents them from trying more off-the-wall stuff like this.

Gendo wrote:34. Paris, je t'aime - I know nothing about short films.

They're like films, but shorter. ;)

Anyway, I remember enjoying that one too, though like most anthology films some of the entriesare better than others.

Gendo wrote:35. Rebel Without a Cause - Not sure about this one. The acting was fantastic all around. But while I get that it was trying to show the generational rift between teens and adults, I didn't really feel like it was shown all that well. A lot of the choices the characters made just never felt explained. I did really enjoy the suspenseful parts near the end; but that almost felt like a different genre of movie from the rest of it. Maybe it's just because I grew up in the 80s and not the 50s, but I felt like Breakfast Club did the same thing but better.

Yeah, this one has always seemed badly dated to me. Part of it is just how heavy-handed it is, and unlike so many other "zeitgeist" films it doesn't seem to find a whole lot of universal themes in its depictions.

Gendo wrote:R29. Minority Report - yes after watching nothing in over a month, I watch something I've already seen. Too busy playing Switch! Anyway; good movie. Holds up pretty well; though they could have gone deeper into the justice/predestination exploration.

Really good film that one. One of the best sci-fi films of this century, even. Strange that Spielberg has managed two of those in the past 20 years.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Mon Jul 22, 2019 12:08 am

Eva Yojimbo wrote:Yeah, this one has always seemed badly dated to me. Part of it is just how heavy-handed it is, and unlike so many other "zeitgeist" films it doesn't seem to find a whole lot of universal themes in its depictions.

Of the three of us I think I liked Rebel the best but I still partially agree here. I would also say East of Eden is probably the better James Dean movie.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 2:42 pm

After an almost 2 month break, I watched a new movie!

38. Spider-Man: Far From Home - Good. Not amazing, but fun. The action was quite engaging and well-paced I think. But really it was the supporting cast that carried it for me; especially Ned, MJ, and Mysterio.

The interesting part is that even knowing who Mysterio was from the comics / 90s cartoon show, and knowing what sort of powers he had; I hadn't suspected that the elementals were just an illusion. I was pretty sure he was going to be a bad guy, but I just didn't think about what should have been obvious in retrospect. Part of that is that they used real villains from the comics; the elementals. The fact that I knew elementals were actual monsters in the comics made me never think that they might just be fake.

Also, I can't quite put my finger on why, but the scene where Peter gives Beck the glasses just had a wonderful suspense and sense of dread surrounding it.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Aug 22, 2019 2:34 pm

I watched things!

R30. Die Another Day - Um, because I needed something I'd already seen to put on to fall asleep to. The dialog is cringey, but the overall plot is kind of cool. More memorable for me than the previous 2 Bonds.

39. You're in the Army Now (1941) - Funny stuff. Good chemistry between the leads.

40. Pollyanna (1960) - I probably have technically seen this before, but it would have been so long ago I wouldn't remember much about it. A nice family film; enjoyable.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:41 am

R31. 50 First Dates - At this point, I'm basically only watching stuff I can fall asleep to. Might get back to real movies soon. Anyway, I watched it, so here's the write-up. It's still pretty good; though maybe doesn't hold up quite as well as I remember. There's a good bit of unnecessary "Sandler humor" in an otherwise nice story. But it's still a cute rom-com.

Cassius Clay · Post by **Cassius Clay** » Fri Sep 13, 2019 2:30 pm

Gendo wrote:I watched things!

R30. Die Another Day - Um, because I needed something I'd already seen to put on to fall asleep to. The dialog is cringey, but the overall plot is kind of cool. More memorable for me than the previous 2 Bonds.

More memorable than Skyfall? Excuse me??

Post by **Gendo** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:46 am

Cassius Clay wrote:
Gendo wrote:I watched things!

R30. Die Another Day - Um, because I needed something I'd already seen to put on to fall asleep to. The dialog is cringey, but the overall plot is kind of cool. More memorable for me than the previous 2 Bonds.
More memorable than Skyfall? Excuse me??

Previous 2... that's Tomorrow Never Dies and The World
is not Enough.

I actually haven't seen Skyfall (or Spectre) yet.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Oct 02, 2019 9:14 pm

41. Darkest Hour - Gary Oldman was fantastic as expected. There was some interesting stuff in the story; though I would have liked more details about the state of the war. There was some good dialog too. As a whole; it was good.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Thu Oct 03, 2019 5:07 pm

I thought Gary Oldman was fine in the role but "fantastic" is stronger praise than I would give him. That make-up/costuming job on him on the other hand I do think is top notch stuff.

As a whole though I think the movie is just kind of run of the mill Oscar bait.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:49 pm

42. Source Code - Mixed feelings. Some good stuff in there; interesting concepts. But it partially felt like a worse Edge of Tomorrow (even though it came first). The "twist" at the end was a bit disappointing. The main character was shallow and inconsistent. But as a whole I liked it ok.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:31 pm

43. Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos) - Good. I've seen Vanilla Sky a few times before; so I knew everything going into it. There weren't as many differences as I was hoping for, at least not at first. Things seemed to diverge more as it went on. I don't think I can say which is better; they're both good in their own ways. César comes across as a less sympathetic character than David, which is interesting. Also kind of weird to see Penélope Cruz playing the same character in both versions; not something I've seen in a remake before (unless you count Evil Dead 2 maybe).

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:03 pm

44. Love Finds You in Sugarcreek - A made-for-TV feel-good family movie. Pretty good for what it was. A basic "Doc Hollywood" type story; but with an interesting lead character. Not a must-see by any means; but if you want something similar to, but better than, a typical Hallmark Movie, this works.

45. After the Thin Man - Good. I don't really remember much about the first Thin Man movie; though I saw it a few years ago. This had some great comedy, good mystery, and really great chemistry between the leads.

46. Another Thin Man - Similar to the last; though a bit more complicated and hard to follow... a lot of characters introduced quickly. It had a bit more of a serious feel than the last one; but the lead characters' chemistry stood out even more. The dance number was also super impressive.

R32. The Martian - Really well done. The ending feels like the least realistic part; but it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment much. Some great supporting cast.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:29 pm

I've only seen the first four Thin Man movies but I quite liked them- the one with the early Jimmy Stewart performance stood out to me in particular. Still need to see those last two at some point...I have the original Dashiell Hammett novel lying around too, I'll read that eventually.

I was really unimpressed with The Martian. I usually think Ridley Scott can at least make visually attesting movies but man he really dropped the ball here. How do you make the planet Mars look so damn bland? Like say what you will about the script to Prometheus but the look of that movie is absolutely stunning. The Martian on the other hand felt mundane- like the deserts of Mad Max: Fury Road from the same year felt far more oppressive.

Between that and IMO a bit of an over-reliance on comedy (Honestly I think the Golden Globes were right when they just flatout called it a comedy) it just felt like it had no tension at all.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Oct 15, 2019 5:48 pm

Yeah "After" was the one with Jimmy Stewart. Also looking forward to seeing the last 3.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Oct 17, 2019 10:19 pm

R33. Stargate - I used to like this movie. Not so sure I do anymore. The score is fantastic though. But the plot just seems pretty boring; and it lacks Emmerich's normal over-the-top charm. And I think it needs more explanation of some of the way the whole thing works. Maybe SG-1 goes into that some, I dunno.

Post by **Gendo** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:19 pm

R34. White House Down - There's the Emmerich I was talking about. Over-the-top, shallow characters. Goofy one-liners; references to other Emmerich films. Stupid but fun.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 2:41 pm

R35. American Beauty - Still holds up. I'm not sure if it's as profound as it tries to be; but it does has some good commentary. The characters actually mostly appear like caricatures of the type of character they are supposed to be, as opposed to realistic people. But it's good.

Post by **Gendo** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 4:41 pm

R36 . The Founder - This movie is just so re-watchable. I think I've seen in 3 times in the past 2 years. The music is really great; but it's all about Keaton. And the story itself is just fascinating.

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Tue Nov 05, 2019 8:20 am

Gendo wrote:48. Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos) - Good. I've seen Vanilla Sky a few times before; so I knew everything going into it. There weren't as many differences as I was hoping for, at least not at first. Things seemed to diverge more as it went on. I don't think I can say which is better; they're both good in their own ways. César comes across as a less sympathetic character than David, which is interesting. Also kind of weird to see Penélope Cruz playing the same character in both versions; not something I've seen in a remake before (unless you count Evil Dead 2 maybe).

Funny story about this: I remember renting it by accident after having seen Vanilla Sky but not knowing this was the original! I watched it and remember wondering whether it was ripping off Vanilla Sky, or if Vanilla Sky was a remake! Anyway, I also really enjoyed both and wouldn't say I thought one was definitively better.

Gendo wrote:50. After the Thin Man - Good. I don't really remember much about the first Thin Man movie; though I saw it a few years ago. This had some great comedy, good mystery, and really great chemistry between the leads.

51. Another Thin Man - Similar to the last; though a bit more complicated and hard to follow... a lot of characters introduced quickly. It had a bit more of a serious feel than the last one; but the lead characters' chemistry stood out even more. The dance number was also super impressive.

I watched all of these back in the day. I remember enjoying them at the time but don't remember much now. I do remember that Asta (the dog) always popped up as a clue in the Sunday TV Guide Crossword my mom and I used to do!

Gendo wrote:R32. The Martian - Really well done. The ending feels like the least realistic part; but it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment much. Some great supporting cast.

Similar with Raxi I was disappointed and also wondered how such a visually sensitive director like Ridley Scott could make Mars look so dull. I did kinda like the "engineering" aspect of it, but it's nothing I haven't seen done better in other survival films.

Gendo wrote:R35. American Beauty - Still holds up. I'm not sure if it's as profound as it tries to be; but it does has some good commentary. The characters actually mostly appear like caricatures of the type of character they are supposed to be, as opposed to realistic people. But it's good.

American Beauty is one of those films that I don't think should be as good as it is, if that makes sense. Like, I've heard the various criticisms over the years that I somewhat agree with; it's more pretentious than profound, more caricatures than characters, etc... but every time it's on TV and I catch some of it I find myself sucked into how well it's made. I think there's something about all the talent involved both in front and behind the camera that ultimately makes up for whatever flaws there is in the writing. It's one of those rare "Oscar Bait" films that I really believe transcends the typical limitations of that "genre."

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Nov 05, 2019 6:43 pm

Eva Yojimbo wrote:
Gendo wrote:American Beauty is one of those films that I don't think should be as good as it is, if that makes sense. Like, I've heard the various criticisms over the years that I somewhat agree with; it's more pretentious than profound, more caricatures than characters, etc... but every time it's on TV and I catch some of it I find myself sucked into how well it's made. I think there's something about all the talent involved both in front and behind the camera that ultimately makes up for whatever flaws there is in the writing. It's one of those rare "Oscar Bait" films that I really believe transcends the typical limitations of that "genre."

Exactly.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Nov 05, 2019 6:47 pm

47. The Visit - I've never liked the "found footage" genre. But this movie was great! I found myself really disliking the kids; at least at first. They seemed annoying and not particularly well-acted. But that seemed to lessen as it went on. The actors playing the grandparents were fantastic. There were some genuinely creepy/scary moments; and a good amount of humor to mix things up. Has a twist that makes you go "wait, why didn't I just assume that that's what it was?" and yet I never found myself suspecting that it was the case.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:09 pm

48. Swingers - Well acted and well directed; though the story didn't really interest me. Kind of like Dazed and Confused, I feel like there's a personal background I'm missing; I never cruised bars and nightclubs for women. But the characters were fun; and it was interesting to see such a young Favreau and Vaughn.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Nov 18, 2019 4:07 pm

49. Sleeping Beauty - Yes, I'd never seen this before, if it I did it was when I was too young to remember. It was great. I liked it better than Snow White. The animation is beautiful; great music throughout. I especially enjoyed the pink vs blue magic battle.

50. What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Deep Space Nine - Great stuff; though you definitely need to be a fan of DS9 to enjoy it. I really loved the imagining of the start of season 8. I don't know if I felt like I really learned a lot of interesting things about the show; so much as it was just a great nostalgia trip about one of the best TV shows out there.

51. Seven Psychopaths - Another great film by Martin McDonagh. Reminded me of in Bruges in many ways. Fantastic performances by all of the cast; of course I'm already biased because Sam Rockwell is one of my favorites. Seemed to take a little from Charlie Kaufman in terms of the story within the movie blending together with the movie itself; a la Synecdoche, New York and Adaptation.

52. Pacific Rim: Uprising - Fine I suppose. Some fun action; the different weapons that the mechs had were neat. But pretty obviously bad when they tried to make it seem as if we should actually care about the characters or the motivations. As much as the first Pacific Rim felt like a cheap rip-off of Evangelion; it was amusing that the plot of this one revolved around preventing the giant monsters from reaching a specific location in Japan that would cause the end of the world if they came into contact with it. While a guy working for the organization in charge of preventing that from happening is secretly trying to orchestrate the end of the world. I'm sure I've seen that somewhere before.

53. Munich - I think this was good and well-made; but it was hard to follow and get through... slow pacing; confusing scenes and events. The type of thing that often comes from political thrillers for me. I was impressed by Eric Bana; not a role I would have seen him in. Of course Geoffrey Rush was great; though not a big part. I did appreciate the themes of the movie, and the discussions about right vs wrong were perhaps somewhat shallow; but still good.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:39 pm

Yeah I too was very shocked to see that Pacific Rim Uprising ripped off Mazinger Z, Devilman, and Space Runaway Ideon. :P

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Nov 25, 2019 4:21 pm

54. Shadow of the Thin Man - As good as the others. Once again a convoluted story held together by great humor and chemistry between the leads.

R37. Training Day - Still great. Somehow even more impressed with the performances this time around. Still bugged by what seems to be a plot hole of "if Alonzo planned on killing Jake all along; why didn't he just let his boys do it at Roger's house like they wanted to? It would have been simpler and helped with the narrative of why they had to kill Roger". But excellent film.

R38. The Firm - Another movie that I've seen far too many times. Good fun; with a lot of great small characters played by different great actors.

BruceSmith78 · Post by **BruceSmith78** » Tue Nov 26, 2019 3:47 am

Why do you think Alonzo planned on killing Jake all along?

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Nov 26, 2019 5:22 am

Well it's not clear, but “all along" isn't for sure. But I asked asked the question about it after seeing it the first time, and never got an answer other than yours; which for me didn't really clear it up all that much. If he wasn't planning on killing him during the scene where his boys wanted to kill him, right after Roger was killed; then we simply have no good indication of what changed his mind. So plot hole may have been too strong a wording; more like an unexplained or unseen event... either Alonzo changed his mind with no on screen indication of when or why; or he was planning it before but didn't use do it the easier way. Nothing at all happens between Alonzo telling his boys that there's still hope for Jake and him making the phone call to Smiley.

BruceSmith78 · Post by **BruceSmith78** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 1:02 am

Doesn't he offer Jake money and Jake refuses? It's off scene, but I thought it's strongly implied that this is what happens, and that this is when he decides Jake needs to die.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 3:29 am

BruceSmith78 wrote:Doesn't he offer Jake money and Jake refuses? It's off scene, but I thought it's strongly implied that this is what happens, and that this is when he decides Jake needs to die.

Twice... once in Roger's house, before the standoff when he stopped the other cops from killing Jake. And then again in the car; after the phone call to Smiley.

BruceSmith78 · Post by **BruceSmith78** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 5:47 pm

Well it's been a long time since I watched it, but if that's the case then it's probably a ballistics thing. Dr. Dre wanted to shoot Jake in the side of the head with his own gun, didn't he? I think they had a rather elaborate and rehearsed story, and they had a specific weapon fired from a specific location to another specific location to stage the scene. I don't know that it would have been that easy to kill Jake in Roger's house and make it appear that Roger did it.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 6:29 pm

I think that's a reasonable explanation. I suppose the "complaint" is that the movie doesn't make it clear what the explanation is... we're left with a few possibilities.. Alonzo had a plan carefully thought-out that involved bringing Jake to Smiley to have him killed there; Alonzo decided after the events at Roger's house that he needed to kill Jake; etc. Various explanations can make sense; but it feels like they were just missing a clear explanation.

And don't get me wrong; if the film weren't as great as it is; a minor thing like this wouldn't even have bugged me. The fact that this is my only complaint shows how much I loved the movie.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Nov 28, 2019 6:17 am

55. The Thin Man Goes Home - This one actually kind of felt different than the rest. A lot more character-building and dialog taking place before the mystery begins. Still good; perhaps funnier than the others somewhat.

56. Holiday Affair - A cute little Christmas movie. Unfortunately it contains one of my most disliked plot devices; that of a romance that starts while one party is already in a relationship. But the chemistry between all 3 leads worked great.