What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Guybrush]

I saw Almost Famous from.. I think its 2000.



It's a very good movie about a kid who ends up as a rock journalist in the early 70s and joins a band on tour for a while to write an article on them for Rolling Stone Magazine. That's kinda the backdrop, then other things happen.

Kate Hudson plays the groupie Penny Lane who's a bit of a Holly Go-Lightly type in that she's a character that doesn't seem grounded in real life and rather seem to try escaping it. It's her face on the cover.

You got Billy Crudup and Jason Lee playing musicians and an odd casting of Jimmy Fallon as a manager type, a bit of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Frances McDormand doing a great role as our protagonist's (played by Patrick Fugit) mother. Kyle Gass makes an appearance.

Something a little icky here is the age of the groupies vs. the musicians. Having read Pamela DeBarres groupie memoirs, I know this is fairly accurate. They were teens, sometimes like.. 14. In the movie, at least they're 16, but they don't seem to make a fuzz about adult males banging children. Oh well, I guess the year 2000 is a long time ago.

Other than that, I really enjoyed it 🙂

[grindy]

Watched Sleuth (1972). The movie is very well regarded and has Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Still I was very disappointed. The plot was pretty lame, it wasn't filmed particularly well and even the acting wasn't that good. It felt overall cheap. I remember seeing it ten years ago or so and being underwhelmed even then but today I just plain didn't like it.

[Guybrush]

Watched Sleuth (1972). The movie is very well regarded and has Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Still I was very disappointed. The plot was pretty lame, it wasn't filmed particularly well and even the acting wasn't that good. It felt overall cheap. I remember seeing it ten years ago or so and being underwhelmed even then but today I just plain didn't like it.

Hmm.. I've never seen that one, although I'm curious. I got about 100 other movies on my list, though 😅

[Guybrush]

We wanted to watch killers of the flower moon, but that was like 20 USD to rent or so. Bananas.

So we saw this instead:



It's about a family who happens to go on a vacation just before some sort of societal disaster strikes. I don't wanna give away too much more.

It's entertaining enough, even if some of the characters are pretty unlikable. And there's some weird animal behaviour that I never understood and a tick that definitely didn't look like a tick. The ending wasn't what I wanted, but it was okay.

Seeing this, I was again reminded of how over-represented the upper middle class to the very wealthy are in American movies and TV.

Weirdly enough, executive producers on this are Michelle and Barack Obama.

I give it:



Actually it should probably sit at like 3,25 stars.

[Psy-Fi]

Seeing this, I was again reminded of how over-represented the upper middle class to the very wealthy are in American movies and TV.

Probably because they're usually the ones with the ability to pursue a career making movies and TV shows.

[Psy-Fi]

The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)

B&W film noir flick with a plot which wasn't quite what I was expecting when I saw the title. It has many of the usual elements of a typical film noir story but with an added twist. Mostly shot on location in NYC and similar in plot to 'Panic in the Streets' which was released a few months prior. I've seen 'Panic in the Streets' and I'd give it a slightly higher rating than this film but they're both enjoyable film noir thrillers.

[DJChameleon]

Holidate



This is a cute holiday rom com. When I saw the credits roll and realized it was a McG production. I was like oh yeah that makes sense. It makes sense why King Bach showed up in it as well. McG always looks out for Andrew and casts him in his movies.

[Guybrush]

I like how it looks like she's miles away, lost in thought, while also standing on a narrow ledge on the side of a tall building 😄

We finally finished this old classic, Lawrence of Arabia:



It's about Lawrence, an English officer during WW1 who leads the Arab revolt against the Turks and tries to unite various Arab tribes. As the war goes on, it takes an increasing toll on our poor hero.

It's a very long and hugely ambitious movie, clocking in around 3,5 hours runtime, I believe. It took us 4 evenings to get through it.

The movie is very enjoyable. There are some incredible locations and great scenes and Peter O'Toole is great in the role of Lawrence. Really, he's such a good fit and easy on the eyes. Omar Sharif is also quite good in his role as Sherif Ali, the closest thing Lawrence has to a real friend.

In my opinion, Lawrence of Arabia deserves its classic status.



Also, there seems to be no living female characters in this, so watch it for the bromance and sausage party.

[Psy-Fi]

Violent Saturday (1955)

A crime drama which takes place in a small town in America during the mid 1950's. Various characters are shown going about their daily lives in the town while a "salesman" and two "rookie salesmen" plan a bank heist. The first 2/3 of the film moves rather slowly while the different characters are shown and developed before being brought together by happenstance for the final 1/3 of the film leading up to the robbery.

 

[DJChameleon]

I watched Gremlins 1 and 2 back to back because I have a double DVD with them both on it that I picked up for 5 bucks at Wally World.

Watching these movies hit all the nostalgia factors and got my 'member berries tingling. I think I still prefer the second one over the first one because of all the unique Gremlins that ended up coming out after they were taking chemicals in the lab. My wifey was making fun of the fact that I classified these movies as horror. I still think they are horror, just like comedy horror and it's not as intense as other horror movies.

Gremlins




Gremlins 2: The New Batch

[Guybrush]

I've been thinking about rewatching Gremlins 2 as it's been such a long time since I saw it.. 20 years, easily.

This was our Christmas movie:



Of course it's about the Uruguayan rugby team who ended up in a plane crash in the Andes and had to resort to an unconventional diet.

Not an actual Christmas movie, but there's snow and they're together and sharing important meals etc. so a little Christmasy still.

It's pretty okay, actually. Ethan Hawke plays a role. Illeana Douglas is recognizable and kinda cute in 1993.

I'd give it

[Guybrush]

I saw The Chaser from 2008 yesterday.



It got on my radar from being a generally high regarded south Korean thriller.

I thought it was well made and enjoyed that it wasn't too formulaic, but the plot and its characters wasn't something I found particularly enjoyable. A problem might be I found the protagonist mostly unlikeable 🤔

Still, and sorry for the very slight spoiler, but those who enjoy a gritty serial killer hunt might like this. However, I'd prefer a rewatch of Silence of the Lambs.

If you wanna know more about the plot, I'll summarise in a spoiler tag.

The Chaser

A pimp has whored out his sick prostitute to a serial killer, realizes his mistake and then desperately tries to stop the killer and save his whore. She and her child are the movie's only likeable characters with any significant, though sparse, screen time.

[close]

It's well made, but I rate based on overall enjoyment so this gets:



But I can easily see many if not most enjoying it more.

[Guybrush]

Saw this slice of cheese:



I haven't been keeping up with the Mission Impossibles, but thought we'd give this a shot as the train sequence and climax at the end were filmed in Norway (while presented as Austria).

The script seemed a little childish at times, like how quickly this romantic subplot develops and just the spy stuff etc. but whatever. You watch it for the popcorn action sequences. After all, it's just a series of big action sequences strung together with minimal bits of story and acting in between.. and the spectacle is good. Tom Cruise is a bit bland as Ethan Hunt, a man who unfailingly excels at everything, but he gets the job done. That he does his own stunts is honestly impressive.

The rest of the cast isn't too memorable, but I liked Vanessa Kirby's White Widow.

Enjoyable, but I won't watch it again. Another 3.5 stars for me.



I've also been to Austria and can clearly see the difference between here and there 😄

[Guybrush]

Saw this one:



Pearl from 2022. I think it is a prequel to X (which I haven't seen) and fleshes out an origin story for a character which is an old lady in that film.

In Pearl, the titular character is a young woman in 1918 whose husband is soldiering in Europe during WW1. She dreams of being a star/celeb, but is trapped in a life on the family farm with a non-verbal father stuck to a wheelchair and a very controlling mother. Without spoiling too much, Pearl's attempt to break free from this life is an important part of the plot.

The movie is a genre mix between drama and horror and while some scenes are very emotional, the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. There's a little bit of hyper violence, but it shouldn't have too much of an impact on the viewer compared to some other offerings in the genre.

I liked it, but probably won't watch it again. At times, it felt a little like that episode in the series you're watching when they leave you on a cliffhanger to instead explore the somewhat more boring backstory to a character.. but then I guess that's almost exactly what this is.

The character Pearl seems a little unlikely, I think, being a psychopath who is also very emotional, but she's well played by Mia Goth.

I believe this is part of a trilogy with X being the first, then Pearl and then the upcoming Maxxxine.

Pearl, from me, gets:

[DJChameleon]

I feel the same way about Pearl but I want to re-watch it. I watched it out of order like you as well so I want to go back and re-watch it. I also dozed off on it so I want to watch it fully.  I think you might like X more.