This is a new thread for thumbnail reviews of movies I'm watching at home on blu-ray.
Hope you like it.
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This is a new thread for thumbnail reviews of movies I'm watching at home on blu-ray.
Hope you like it.
THE HURRICANE (1999)
This is destined to be a Norman Jewison classic.
It tells us the ordeal of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a top-ranked middleweight boxer who was wrongly convicted of murder in the mid-60's. We follow Rubin in prison from 1966 to 1985, when he was freed with love from Canadian fans.
Strong performance from Denzel Washington, oscar nominated and golden globe winner.
Excellent pacing and cinematography. (Roger Deakins)
Highly recommended.
THELMA & LOUISE (1991)
Powerful Ridley Scott film, starring two strong actresses: Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis.
Thelma is a housewife bumpkin, and Louise is a smart waitress.
They go on a vacation of sorts, only to end up on the run.
Thelma almost gets raped in a honky tonk bar parking lot and she's saved by Louise, who ends up shooting her attacker. From then on they are fugitives, and the stakes get higher the further they flee...
Loved the ending. Fist in the air shit.
I was very impressed with Geena Davis' acting-wowza.
Brad Pitt has a memorable small role as "J.D."
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER (2011)
This was a nice surprise, a great coming-of-age tale.
A young man named Charlie is a freshman in high school, and we get all his hang-ups and successes. Emma Watson and Ezra Miller lend great support in showcasing a young man's world and how he reacts to it. Brilliantly directed, shot and edited with a fantastic soundtrack.
There is a lot being juggled in this story, and it never feels forced.
I was rooting for Charlie the whole way.
Big thumbs up.
THE FIGHTER (2010)
Based on a true story, this one is gritty and at times hard to watch.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Mickey, a welterweight boxer overshadowed by his brother Dickey, who once knocked Sugar Ray Leonard down in 1978.
But currently, Dickey is a crack addict, and Mickey is a punching bag for other boxers.
The dynamic with his family is harrowing and very real. They are tight-knit, and they struggle with Mickey and Dickey's ambitions. But there is a happy ending after all...
Amy Adams shines as Dickey's bartender girlfriend.
I'm glad you're back, I love your thumbnail reviews. You forgot two directors' names - David O. Russell for THE FIGHTER, Stephen Chbosky for WALLFLOWER.
I forgot to mention Christian Bale winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for THE FIGHTER too.
Happy to be back.
WAYNE’S WORLD (1992)
Pure nostalgia from high school, directed by Penelope Spheeris.
It’s a silly comedy revolving around a local Illinois cable access tv show.
The show gets picked up and sponsored by Rob Lowe, who exploits it’s stars Wayne & Garth.
This is Mike Myers’s and Dana Carvey’s film debut, they were cast members of Saturday Night Live at the time. Lorne Michaels produced this, and it was a hit. The humour isn’t fall-down funny, but if you have a spliff and a six-pack you’ll have a good time. Cameos from Meatloaf and Alice Cooper!
WAYNE’S WORLD 2 (1993)
This sequel didn’t make as much money as the first, nor is it as funny.
I liked it nonetheless. As Ebert said, you can’t hate Wayne and Garth.
Wayne has a dream of a “weird naked Indian” & Jim Morrison, who tells him to put on a concert.
“Book them and they will come” is the sage advice.
They want Aerosmith, Van Halen and others to play, but prospects aren’t good.
“WAYNESTOCK” might be a bust…
This time around they have quite a few cameos: Kim Basinger, Christopher Walken, Rip Taylor, “Del” from Withnail and I, Chris Farley, Charlton Heston, and Aerosmith, among others.
I liked their token hang-out where Ed O’Neill works: Stan Mikita Donuts, a spoof of Tim Horton’s donuts.
TED(2012)
This is the directorial debut of Seth MacFarlane.
I watched the Unrated version and man, it’s crude.
This humour isn’t for everybody, like Family Guy.
A boy gets a large teddy bear for Christmas, and he wishes for the bear to be real,
So that they’ll be forever friends, “Thunder buddies”, pals for life.
Well sure enough, the wish comes true with the help of a shooting star.
The bear is voiced by Seth, and he sounds a lot like Peter Griffin…
Mark Wahlberg (as Johnny Bennett) must contend with foul-mouthed Ted as an adult, and the results are crazy.
You have to suspend disbelief to enjoy this movie, and I felt it was redeemed by the heartfelt
Love given to Sam Jones and Flash Gordon, a seminal movie in my life and Johnny’s.
There is sex, drugs, rock and roll, Tom Skeritt, Ryan Reynolds, Mila Kunis and Giovanni Ribisi.
TED 2 (2015)
This sequel is not very good. Whatever “bar” the first Ted sets, it’s lowered here.
It’s set three years after the first movie, with Ted trying to legally establish himself as a person and not property.
Patrick Stewart narrates both films, Michael Dorn has a cameo in this one, and there’s more love for Sam Jones and Flash Gordon. Seth hired Morgan Freeman and gave cameos to Liam Neeson and Tom Brady.
The story just never gets a foothold.
I like the pop culture references and enjoyed the New York Comic Con sequences/fight.
It’s the crude humour that rankles- is it really necessary?
There will probably be a third Ted, it’s a popular franchise.
Mark Wahlberg was good in the first one. Here he’s just hanging on.
THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985)
80’s Gold.
This very basic and simple film defined a generation.
John Hughes directs Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson in THE coming-of-age movie.
5 students are sent to detention on a Saturday.
They have unique personalities and outlooks. They are thrown together, and by day’s end they bond.
Part of the fun of the movie is the vice-principal, who’s a dick.
The kids manage to avoid their essay assignment, smoke pot, and generally skirt their punishments.
Eminently watchable classic film.
Rewatched recently because a new movie inspired by it was coming out, Nicholas Celozzi's The Class (2022). Nothing compares with Hughes. Peter and I share the taste.
Yes, John Hughes is special.
I read that John Cusack was going to play Bender, but Hughes felt he didn’t look menacing enough.
Good decision.
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (2010)
Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as a lesbian couple who’ve successfully raised two kids.
The kids are curious about their father (Mark Ruffalo), and track him down via the sperm bank.
They meet, they hit it off and he goes to dinner with the moms.
He’s charming and attentive, something Julianne feels is lacking in her marriage.
She eventually kisses him, in an awkward moment. Things lead to a sexual fling, defying her lesbian marriage. This movie focuses on marriage in general, it’s not a statement or manifesto.
There is no movie like this, and It’s topical, addressing real world problems.
Golden globe winner for Bening!
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko.
I reviewed it at the time. I found the acting excellent, but thought it got mired in detail. It was popular with some, and a critical hit.
You go into great detail (with accuracy) about the film.
I’m not particularly drawn to such a movie but I’m glad I saw it.
Ebert noted that marriage is unnatural, that we are not raised to co-habitate with another adult!
BY THE SEA (2015)
Written and directed by Angelina Jolie, who is not a bad filmmaker!
This was made during her honeymoon with Brad Pitt in Malta.
It’s about a couple whose relationship is rocky, and they get away to France in the 60’s.
It’s got a fairly languid pace, with gorgeous imagery- seems Jolie wanted a cinematic record of their honeymoon.
Apparently this was also made as a tribute to her deceased mother, who loved 1960’s films.
Thumbs up. She should direct more. She’s got skill.
THE HANGOVER (2010)
“The highest grossing R-rated comedy ever” was a bust for me.
I never laughed at a single thing in this movie.
It was just redundant, redundant, REDUNDANT.
Jäegermeister, a mattress, a tiger, a baby, Mike Tyson and Las Vegas.
Trashed hotel room. A missing friend, an Asian naked guy locked in the trunk of a car.
All of this is supposed to be funny. It’s not. It’s Retarded.
It felt like someone was constantly farting in your face and laughing about it.
Nothing is logical or plausible here.
I intended to watch all three Hangover films tonite.
I read the synopses’ for the sequels and opted to save myself the torture.
Thumbs way down.
A MAN APART (2003)
Vin Diesel stars as a former gang member turned DEA Enforcer.
He works at the California/Mexico border and in L.A. busting up cartels.
It’s no masterpiece but it’s watchable.
Gritty, violent and it has a realism that is pretty authentic.
Two movies I’m warning you to avoid, they’re bad & cliched:
Running Scared with Paul Walker
And
Alex Cross with Tyler Perry
THE WACKNESS (2008)
This is a coming-of-age tale from the summer of 1994 in NYC and it’s quite good.
Josh Peck stars as Luke Shapiro, who lives at home with mom and dad.
He deals marijuana as a front so he can get therapy from his psychiatrist (a great Ben Kingsley).
Luke has a series of troubles and highs (pun intended).
There’s some good scenes here, the acting is pretty good for amateurs.
But it’s the retro soundtrack that really bumps……I want the soundtrack, it’s that good.
Pretty good for amateurs?
Yes with the exception of Ben Kingsley the cast is Amateur
THE PROFESSOR (2018)
This is by all accounts a flop, directed by Wayne Roberts.
Johnny Depp plays a college professor of Literature who finds out he has stage 4 lung cancer.
How he chooses to deal with this news is to drink, smoke, eat pot cookies, drink some more, have gay sex, wallow in misery and humiliate his class.
I searched for something redeeming- there was nothing.
THE BROTHERS BLOOM (2008)
This movie is saved by Rachel Weisz, who’s wonderful.
Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo are the brothers, whose reputation precedes them. They are well-known con-men, and this movie takes us around the world for their schemes. Love for Penelope (Weisz) threatens their cons.
Directed by Rian Johnson with beautiful cinematography/ locales, this film requires a little suspension of disbelief to buy it totally.
It’s a comedy, but I found the laughs few and far between.
It also stars the late Robbie Coltrane as a museum curator.
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (2021)
Probably the best Marvel movie so far, I wasn’t sure I’d like the Multi-Verse concept, but it works.
Peter Parker asks for help from Dr. Strange (a fantastic Benedict Cumberbatch) and he gets it, in a way. Past Spider-Men are resurrected, along with their villains, who must be defeated again.
Great CGI and some great action sequences here.
It’s a long movie, but it’s satisfying, especially if you love Spider-Man movie lore.
Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina chew scenery, they steal the movie.
I wrote a review - though you may not want to read beyond the first paragraph.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johann
http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.p...2233#post22233
Good review Chris- you fill in the details.
You’re right that there’s not enough danger to the cons or the brothers themselves.
GET ON UP (2014)
Directed by Tate Taylor, this biopic does the Hardest Working Man in Show Business Justice.
I loved this movie. It doesn’t shy away from the unsavoury aspects of James Brown’s life.
No no no- it’s all here, his rough childhood, his mothers’ prostitution, his jail time, his abusiveness towards his wife- it’s warts and all.
But we also get incredible concert moments and performances. Chadwick Boseman deserved an Oscar.
He is James Brown. I had no trouble giving it up for him here.
Makes you want to buy some albums!
Two big thumbs up.
I remember how frustrating that movie was. But I felt it deserved a thorough going over. Rian Johnson - despite what Oscar said originally - that he didn't like BRICK, the debut that was almost a cult hit - led one to expect a lot more. And he did - he gave us LOOPER, he gave us 84 Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (not my thing, but good reviews) and he gave us KNIVES OUT. So BROTHERS BLOOM was sort of a sophomore slump. Now KNIVES OUT ii is on the way next month.
The main problem with it is how artificial it feels.
Rian Johnson has a solid film career, but he drew a lot of ire from Star Wars fans. I still don’t know how he landed that job.
Like you, I won’t watch The Brothers Bloom again. It has no lasting power.
WARRIOR (2011)
Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior is long but great.
It’s sports drama at its finest, a la Rocky.
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton turn in great performances as MMA fighters and brothers who ultimately fight each other in “Sparta”, a tournament of champions.
Tom Hardy is actually trained in ju-Jitsu, and Joel passes for an MMA fighter no problem— he’s certainly got the physique.
There is a fair amount of pre-fight family drama, with their father Paddy (a great Nick Nolte).
This is a more polished and heady version of The Fighter.
And like that film, there’s a really happy outcome.
Recommended.
I don't know how he landed it either - or why he'd want to. He has talent though and KNIVES OUT is one of the most ingenious and witty puzzle murder pictures ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johann
I listed it in my Best Movies of 2011 list, but I didn't write a review of it - did not engage with it as much as THE FIGHTER and consequently don't remember it as well. THE FIGHTER got better reviews than WARRIOR, in fact - despite WARRIOR's physically impressive leads.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johann
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Knipp
The Fighter was prime Oscar bait; I feel Warrior could’ve won Oscars uif it came first.
The editing should be singled out too. The fights were more exciting than real MMA fights!
With a couple being VERY satisfying to watch.
UNFAITHFUL (2002)
Adrian Lyne directed a fine erotic thriller with Unfaithful.
Richard Gere and Diane Lane are fantastic as a married couple where one is unfaithful.
One day Diane bumps into Olivier Martinez on the street on a windy day, scraping her knee.
They end up getting hot and heavy, beginning an affair. She is excited and terrified at the same time that she’ll be found out.
And she is.
Gere goes berzerk after he deduces what’s going on.
He kills Martinez in a rage, making things very interesting….
Loved it.
We have to go back 20 years for my review of this one. You may think I'm a party-pooper. It was fun: why spoil it? And I'm not saying you're 'wrong.' But I just thought its source was better, and I try to explain why. Lyne's cast is good, though, especially Diane Lane. Gere had a tendency to seem generic but Olivier at that time was very handsome and he had sizzled in the 1997 HORSEMAN ON THE ROOF>Quote:
Originally Posted by Johann
You made/make valid points. I’d never heard of the original Chabrol.
The ending is a bit wonky, true.
I still loved it. I found it engaging and interesting, in an Eyes Wide Shut kind of way.