Film Reviews - what have you seen lately, what did you think?

[Gatordiddy]

Saw Alien Covenant last night as well.
Agree with gingerlover- about 6/10.

Also finally saw Batman Lego movie.
Fantastic. 8.5/10.

And (Man Card Alert) -
Saw La La Land. NV was spot on - Really liked this one.
Very well done and not over the top for a musical. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone were surprisingly good at the singing and dancing. 9/10.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Watched Suicide Squad on HBO this weekend... other than the soundtrack there wasn't much to this movie. It's almost if they said, we have a bunch of interesting characters, but we aren't really going to go into any of them accept two (Harley Quinn who was annoying and Deadshot who was horribly miscast). They introduce the Joker, who if you took away every scene in the movie with him, the movie doesn't really change at all. It was about an hour worth of content drug out to 2 hours. The movie started off with pretty good potential, but was just below average. 4/10...

Threatmatrix Matrix, no boobs in this film (would have helped the movie though).

 

[TLB]

Watched Suicide Squad on HBO this weekend... other than the soundtrack there wasn't much to this movie. It's almost if they said, we have a bunch of interesting characters, but we aren't really going to go into any of them accept two (Harley Quinn who was annoying and Deadshot who was horribly miscast). They introduce the Joker, who if you took away every scene in the movie with him, the movie doesn't really change at all. It was about an hour worth of content drug out to 2 hours. The movie started off with pretty good potential, but was just below average. 4/10...

I heard DC is trying to launch a ton of movies spinning these, and other DC characters out to create their universe to rival Marvel. Many summers of suck are coming our way.

 

[TLB]

After a 3 hr little league playoff game in 60deg rain, the family decided to have pizza-fireplace-movie_night to warm back up. I wanted the kids (daughter 11, son 8) to see some movies I saw growing up, so:


Herbie the Love Bug (1968):

I was worried I was losing everyone as the first 45-60 min did a lot of dialogue and character development before Herbie actually started showing up and expressing his personality. It got a little confusing when at the midpoint there is a bet made on a race and the winner gets Herbie, then we proceed to watch a dozen races where my kids ask every time "Is this the one for who gets Herbie?". I'll stop here and remind you all - this is a DISNEY film, from the late 60's, so my perspective has changed a lot since I've seen it. Now, I notice how thin the acting, dialogue, and storyline are. However, my kids are kids, and despite growing up with today's movies, they loved it. They were cheering at the end and were actually eager to watch the sequel, despite my asking for us to watch this one for nearly 8 months and everyone rolling eyes and groaning. Final verdict: 5/10, good for young kids and their first time seeing it. Otherwise, leave it on the shelf.


Herbie Rides Again (1974):

Told you the kids wanted the sequel, so that was next. Completely different cast, which I'd forgotten, but the kids couldn't tell and didn't care. Story was weaker, but still very Disney for that era. This time, the kids know Herbie and are following his every move, cheering along and fully appreciating his character - the others just kept the dialogue/plot moving, as weak as they were. Kids really loved the end when Herbie calls in for re-enforcements to hold off the bad guys. Final Verdict 4/10, only watch as a double feature - you'll never watch this on it's own, even with kids.



Personal notes - My wife had never seen these. She's asking if we can watch the re-make with Lindsey Lohan for the kids. I'm going to feign difficulty finding it until she drops the request. For me, not watching as a full accepting kid, but from behind eyes that have watched decades of movies (most of them bad), I saw a few different things. For example, there is a joust scene in a field, and yet the tires squeal like on pavement as they approach one another. Or, on another interior shot in the car (I'll give them credit for a lot of carryover from the original film) I see the radio was AM only. I mention this to my wife and ask if she noticed, only to have my son ask "Wait, they only get music in the mornings? What do they do in the afternoons?"

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Watched Suicide Squad on HBO this weekend... other than the soundtrack there wasn't much to this movie. It's almost if they said, we have a bunch of interesting characters, but we aren't really going to go into any of them accept two (Harley Quinn who was annoying and Deadshot who was horribly miscast). They introduce the Joker, who if you took away every scene in the movie with him, the movie doesn't really change at all. It was about an hour worth of content drug out to 2 hours. The movie started off with pretty good potential, but was just below average. 4/10...

Threatmatrix Matrix, no boobs in this film (would have helped the movie though).

That's okay, Margot Robbie's ass made it worth watching.

 

[gingerlover]

The Great Wall - Matt Damon is in ancient China with one of the guys from narcos. They are trying to obtain gunpowder and are being chased by a tribe. One night a monster kills half his crew and they flee coming upon an army at the wall. Turns out it was some mythical creature that attack every sixty years and the have to choose to help or steal the powder.

You will probably only recognize about three people. Only when the Chinese are speaking among themselves is it subtitled. The effects are ok and with most Asian movies it has some over the top action scenes. Wasn't expecting a lot really and better than I expected. It's a pretty good popcorn flick that with an all American cast would have probably been noticed by more people. Don't expect Oscar performances, but it's quick paced with lots of action and very little else other than a small love angle and his partner trying to steal stuff. If your just looking for descent action without having to think to much this is for you. 6.5/10

 

[gingerlover]

Have another one for you and will throw out the nerd alert first.

Teen titans: the Judas contract- in 2007 DC started doing animated movies straight to DVD and while some of their earlier ones in the series were just ok they've been making some really good stuff the last five years and a few of them put what they give us in theaters to shame. The majority of them are set in a shared universe and the usually have some pretty good voice casts. They are violent, bloody, have lots of death, fowl language and imply that a lot of sex is going on. Simply put these are not for anyone's kids that aren't at least in middle school.

This one isn't the best of the recent ones but is pretty good. It's based on a member of the team that betrays them to a cult that steals their powers and them trying to survive the betrayal. Naturally there are always questions with the titan movies like just call super man for help and things but if your a comics movie/comic book fans you will enjoy these. This one is a 6/10, but like I've said a few others they've had in recent years are much better.

 

[LagoonGator68]

Jason Bourne is on HBO go.

It was good.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

The Great Wall (2017) – The Martian (Matt Damon) and Agent Pena AKA Oberyn (Pedro Pascal) travel to China in search of gun powder only to discover where William Defoe has been sentenced for his work in Spiderman. And, oh yeah, when they get there the wall is under attack by sentient monitor lizards/lion hybrids. Should they stay, or should they go? If they stall there will be trouble, if they go it will be double. Get that earworm out of your head today. Your welcome. Have to admit that I was a bit reticent to watch this as I heard that there were no boobs in it. And there aren’t so you’ve been warned. What is in it? The color red, the color blue, the color yellow. Pretty much all the primary colors are covered and never have they looked so good. The soldiers on the wall all dress in the color of their squad , so archers are red, foot soldiers are yellow, etc. Fortunately the girls all dress in blue so that you can recognize them because honestly it is hard to tell a china boy from a china girl when all you can see is the face. Fortunately there is one pretty girl in the movie played by noted Chinese actress Ting Ling - I could be wrong on that spelling. She’s a commander or general or something but like the plot it doesn’t matter. If you’ve ever wondered why directors make actors do so many takes it’s because the first one usually sucks and in this movie they must have had a one take maximum. The acting is bad, the dialog is bad, the plot is bad. This is a Saturday afternoon matinee mind candy movie. Just switch on your inner 12 year old brain, lie back and enjoy it. If you like primary colors then this is the movie for you. No boobs. Scissor-Fu. Gratuitous bungie jumping. Beautifully shot. Joe Bob says check it out.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy (2011) - On Netflix: If you've avoided this movie because of the stupid name then you are not alone. Plus it looked like it would be a plodding British movie. It's British but not plodding. Set in the early 70's in definitely not Michael Myers' version of England as I saw only one pair of hot pants. It's a spy/mystery Movie with a capital M. Get out your notepad because it's a little complicated to keep track of who's who. Lot's of faces you will recognize although the names may not be at the tip of your tongue. The plot is that MI6 (Circus) suspect that there is a mole in the top group. Or some think the mole is a made up diversion by Karla (the KGB). The movie starts when an operation to find the mole ends in the death of a British agent - or does it? This leads to the dismal of Control (John Hurt) and his right hand man Beggarman (Gary Oldman). Tinker (played by a face you'll recognize) becomes the new Control and is running an Op called Witchcraft that is working with a Russian double agent. Tinker doesn't believe there's a mole, however someone in the government does and they ask Beggarman to find him. Beggarman enlists the help of Benedict Cumberbatch with a hilarious hair cut. That all happens in about the first 5 minutes so you have to pay attention. Tom Hardy with a hilarious haircut is in the movie and doesn't show up until 45 minutes in. All the dialog is important and the director does not beat you over the head with plot points or provide any exposition. It's good if you like it. No boobs, spy-glass canoodling, gratuitous panty removal. Joe Bob says check it out.

 

[NVGator]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy (2011) - On Netflix: If you've avoided this movie because of the stupid name then you are not alone. Plus it looked like it would be a plodding British movie. It's British but not plodding. Set in the early 70's in definitely not Michael Myers' version of England as I saw only one pair of hot pants. It's a spy/mystery Movie with a capital M. Get out your notepad because it's a little complicated to keep track of who's who. Lot's of faces you will recognize although the names may not be at the tip of your tongue. The plot is that MI6 (Circus) suspect that there is a mole in the top group. Or some think the mole is a made up diversion by Karla (the KGB). The movie starts when an operation to find the mole ends in the death of a British agent - or does it? This leads to the dismal of Control (John Hurt) and his right hand man Beggarman (Gary Oldman). Tinker (played by a face you'll recognize) becomes the new Control and is running an Op called Witchcraft that is working with a Russian double agent. Tinker doesn't believe there's a mole, however someone in the government does and they ask Beggarman to find him. Beggarman enlists the help of Benedict Cumberbatch with a hilarious hair cut. That all happens in about the first 5 minutes so you have to pay attention. Tom Hardy with a hilarious haircut is in the movie and doesn't show up until 45 minutes in. All the dialog is important and the director does not beat you over the head with plot points or provide any exposition. It's good if you like it. No boobs, spy-glass canoodling, gratuitous panty removal. Joe Bob says check it out.

Gary Oldman is probably my all time favorite actor. That man is completely different in every movie.

 

[gingerlover]

Gary Oldman is probably my all time favorite actor. That man is completely different in every movie.

True romance is still my favorite Oldman

 

[TLB]

Gary Oldman is probably my all time favorite actor. That man is completely different in every movie.

I definitely love me some Gary Oldman. There are some throw away roles, every actor has them. but all in all I like nearly all his work.

 

[Gatordiddy]

I watched a Hulu original documentary tonight:

'Becoming Bond'
The story of how George Lazenby became the replacement for Sean Connery and why he didn't make more than one Bond film.
It's an interview with Lazenby at age 76 with vignettes featuring actors that reenact periods of his life.
If you're a Bond fan - this one is worth watching as it explains why he turned down a contract to do six more Bond films and a one million dollar signing bonus.

 

[gingerlover]

War machine - on Netflix. Based on general McChrystal in Afghanistan. Played by brad Pitt with a cast full of faces you know and a funny cameo at the end. Essentially he thinks he can win the war when put in charge but quickly finds he has to fight more than an enemy. The Washington beurocrats could care less and just want the spin positive, the locals could care less and their "army" don't care to learn, the new president just wants America to do it all for him, the PR people just want to sell a good message to the locals, and the coalition isn't lifting their weight. Some countries were only providing him a few people and the ones there kept drunk or stoned. Eventually along the way they have to try and get more troops from other countries while he is basically being mocked for thinking he can win. A rolling stone reporter tags along on their trip and his inner circle on a night out opens up about how they feel about Washington which leads to him having to resign.

Now I would have to refer to someone like Detroit about the accuracy of the difference between Washington and those actually fighting but was very interesting in what they had to put up with. While it doesn't throw hay makers at Obama it definitely throws some solid punches about how they handled it. The journalist thought he was going to write some profound piece and ended up realizing he just did a hit job that was relegated to the end of the issue and no one outside of the people they criticized cared.

It's not really a war movie as there is only one quick fight scene we're a civilian is killed. Basically the military was told that because everyone looked the same they couldn't engage without seeing a weapon and showed what human shields might go through.

I had heard it was anti-war and wasn't that at all it just looked at it from a different element. It's a good movie with both drama and laughs. 7/10

 

[Theologator]

Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men Tell No Tales

Finally a really good sequel in the franchise. They found the balance that has been off since the first movie between humor, action, the seafaring supernatural and romance. Lots of fun. Critics got this one wrong & it merits the high ratings from the public. A good summer movie.

 

[gingerlover]

Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men Tell No Tales

Finally a really good sequel in the franchise. They found the balance that has been off since the first movie between humor, action, the seafaring supernatural and romance. Lots of fun. Critics got this one wrong & it merits the high ratings from the public. A good summer movie.

Good to know.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Ginger and I should have our own movie review show.

War Machine (2017), Netflix original. There is nothing original about this paint by numbers comedy(?). Cartoonish military commanders, Check. Feckless political leaders. Check. Poor Vietnamese Iraqi Afghani peasants just trying to get along. Check. Token black. Check. Who happens to be the only moral center of the film. Double check. Innocent civilian killed by US troops. Check. Stop me if you haven't seen this all before. There's a rule in cinema that when you can't tell your story through your art use voice over and this movie is long on voice over. Spoken by the Rolling Stone reporter who is writing a story on the General, it is heavy on opinion and short on originality. The US is an invading force (and invaders never win - haven't heard that before in Hollywood movie) and AQ, though practically non-existant, are at most a benevolent militia. That all would be fine if the emphasis of the movie was on comedy or political satire but instead it just feels like they are regurgitating the same tropes of just about everything that comes out of Hollywood. Brad Pitt interpolates his accent somewhere between Inglorious Bastards (now THAT was a good movie) and Fury (another good movie), adds an eye twitch and gives his usual mesmerizing performance. Seriously I'd pay to watch Brad Pitt read a phone book. But the best scene is saved for last with a cameo by Russel Crow. No boobs. Gratuitous hmphs. Joe Bob says check it out.

 

[gingerlover]

Ginger and I should have our own movie review show.

Brad Pitt interpolates his accent somewhere between Inglorious Bastards (now THAT was a good movie) and Fury (another good movie), adds an eye twitch and gives his usual mesmerizing performance. Seriously I'd pay to watch Brad Pitt read a phone book.

What should we call it?

As for Pitt that man definitely put the time into his craft. Fury was a darn good movie and although I thought the Counselor sucked his death scene actually made me flinch. Cool World might be his biggest black mark.

 

[gingerlover]

Silence - First off this is very long movie at almost 3 hours. There are portions of this movie that are just flat out boring, but the good parts are pretty good. It is a movie set in the 1600s and is about the christian persicution in Japan. The opening scene is Liam Neeson as a priest that watches his entire congregation tortured and murdered. From there it is assumed he is dead or gave up his faith and disappeared. Two of his students choose to go look for him to bring him back to the fold. So Andrew Garfield (spiderman) and Adam Driver (kylo-ren) set out to look for him.

Immediately upon arriving in Japan they are in danger. The inquisitors frequent all of the villages and routinely take those they believe are christian and "test" their faith, but basically kill them in front of everyone as a message. The priests can do nothing but watch as they are the end game because if they can get them to renounce their faith then the villagers will give up as well. At some point they are separated and things don't go well for either of them. One of them is continuously betrayed by the same person up until the very end. Its a long look at both psychological and physical torture they went through while trying to spread Christianity. Garfield is the main character and plays it pretty well. The ending will explain the title of the movie. One of the Japanese actors has the most annoying voice I have ever heard and is hard to take seriously.

Bottom line its a good movie that could have cut about 30 minutes or more to be better. Its long so make sure you have the time as I had to split it up into two parts and I'm sure may have missed a few things because of it. I would give it 7 gator chomps out of 10. It would compare to Chris Leak. Solid performance, but doesn't wow you like some others.