Have you seen the Maze Runner series? They're more geared toward young adults but they were enjoyable for what they are.Originally Posted by Klonk
Have you seen the Maze Runner series? They're more geared toward young adults but they were enjoyable for what they are.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
I have and they are fun, but yeah...geared toward the less gray bearded
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
30 Minutes of Less - Jesse Eisenberg is a pizza delivery guy forced to rob a bank. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great, either. A lot of lines kinda missed the mark. Still, it's not a bad way to kill an hour & twenty minutes on a rainy weekend afternoon if you want to avoid chores. Also stars Aziz Ansari & Danny McBride.
The Grand - A Christopher Guest-like spoof of professional poker that stars Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Richard Kind, Chris Parnell, Dennis Farina, and Werner Herzog as pro poker players. Other people include Ray Romano, Barry Corbin, Gabe Kaplan, Michael McKean, Andrea Savage, Estelle Harris (Estelle Constanza in Seinfeld), and Judy Greer, who are featured more in the back stories. Jason Alexander, Hank Azaria, and Brett Ratner have bit parts.
The difference between Guest's movies and this are that Guest's movies are more satire while this is a spoof, I guess. Frankly, the only time I really laughed during one of Guest's movies was the scene in Waiting for Guffman when Corky St Clair is wearing the backward jeans and is working on dance moves; I find his movies mildly amusing but a little mean spirited, too.
The Grand, however, made me laugh quite a few times. I thought the best lines were given to Dennis Farina and real life poker player Phil Gordon, who plays a commentator. Everyone's good in it but Harrelson, Hines, and Farina kinda steal the movie. Does Woody and Farina get the credit they deserve? I'm not sure. Farina, especially, can play the same character two ways and either come off as menacing or very funny; think Jimmy Serrano in Midnight Run vs Ray "Bones" in Get Shorty. Cheryl Hines is wonderful, as usual; that woman can do no wrong, in my eyes. Werner Herzog is also very good as a Bond movie type villain who loves to strangle animals but who also loves his pet bunny. Ratner has a pretty funny scene as "Sob Story" Barry Blausteen, a Jewish guy who tries to guilt his opponents into letting him win.
I really enjoyed this movie.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
Color out of Space, 2019.
Based somewhat-loosely on H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out Of Space", this is the first feature film Richard Stanley has directed since the film of Marillion's Brave album (1994), so 25 years. He was slotted to direct The Island of Dr. Moreau, released in 1996, but after a string of bad events, was replaced by John Frankenheimer.
I know the story pretty well, but this movie creeped the hell out of me. There were moments where I was thinking Stanley was just taking every weird idea he could think of and throwing it on the screen, but no.
The movie stars Nick Cage, and has a turn by Tommy Chong as Ezra, an aging hippie (of all things), but that's it for people I know of (though I think I've heard of Joely Richardson).
Anyway, for those who don't know what the story is about, it's about a guy named Nate Gardner (Cage) living in an isolated and forested area outside of Arkham, Massachussetts, with is wife Theresa (Richardson) and three kids. The story begins with Ward Phillips (Elliot Knight), a hydrologist and rather obvious reference, stumbling upon the Gardner's daughter, Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) doing a Wiccan ritual to free her mother from cancer. (And no, she isn't skyclad, so get your minds out of the gutter.) That night, after some family drama, the Gardners go to bed. There is a strange, purplish-pink glow outside the house for a little while, and then a loud WHAM. They rush out of the house to find what appears to be a meteor (though I think it looks kind of like a giant brain), glowing in that same purplish-pink color.
Over the next few days the "color" from the meteor leaks into the groundwater, and their lives quickly go to Hell. I won't describe it, but it involves weird mutant things (and eventually people in a few body-horror scenes that HPL would have loved), strange behavior, and growing panic. There are a few minor grossout scenes. No monsters ripping people up; just ... stuff.
Cage does not start the movie in his "manic mode", but is a calm and loving (though imperfect) father to his three kids. His gradual descent into panic and madness is at the heart of the movie, and he pulls it off well. The children -- Benny (Brendan Meyer), Lavinia, and Jack (Julian Hilliard) are all good young actors who carry their parts well. Richardson as the wife-mother is a bit wooden, alas.
The movie does have one serious flaw, but it's a flaw common to horror movies, that being that people are too stupid to get the fuck out of Dodoge before it's too late. Lavinia, and eventually Benny, want to leave, but are overridden by their father, who is very invested in the land (and alpaca farm) he's got here.
As I said above, I was pleasantly creeped out by it, and it captures much of the spirit of one of Lovecraft's best cosmic horror stories. If I could tell the director to make one change, it would be to set it in the 1930s; he updates things, which allows for some additional weirdness, but loses some of the atmosphere.
All in all, 8 out of 10 mutated insect things.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
I saw Color Out Of Space a while back, and liked it so much I later bought the disc when I could. Of course, I'm a Lovecraft afficianado and hope to own all the screen adaptations of his stories. Thanks for the reminder to watch it.
Not necessarily a flaw when it is the basis of most horror movies, or if not the basis, the thing that keeps them from being only 15 minutes long. But yeah, one longs for a movie where the characters are smarter. Hell, one longs for a world where the people are smarter.
I don't think I've seen that one. My favorite Eisenberg movie is American Ultra, about a guy ... to tell more would be to spoil it. But it's fun.
What's rain?
If you are a Lovecraft fan, I highly recommend The Void. Does the Lovecraft thing well with incredible practical effects. It's a sci-fi/horror from 2016. You'll scratch your head trying to figure out what the hell is happening, but damn it's a fun watch!
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Good movie. I recommended it in this thread a year or two ago.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
Can't disagree with anything said here. The Grand was a fun movie!
A Comfort Zone is not a Life Sentence
A Comfort Zone is not a Life Sentence
School Of Rock - Black Jack. Yes, it's still funny with sentimentality.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
Just watched this again last weekend. Jack Black will never play a better role. And the kids are fantastic.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
A list of 10 great private eye movies. I didn't care too much for The Long Goodbye, but it's been a while since I've seen it.
Saw the new Clint Eastwood movie “Cry Macho” this afternoon. Clint has been one of my favorite actors for years and I have also enjoyed many of the films he has directed. As much as I love Clint, sometimes you need to know when to hang it up. Mr. Eastwood is currently 91 years old. He both directs and stars in this film. I am sad to say that it is not very good. The story makes no sense much of the time. Much of the dialogue is clunky and sometimes awkward. The middle of the movie moves at a snail’s pace and watching the elderly Eastwood try to be sometimes tough guy / romantic lead was at times painful. I really wanted to like this movie, but unfortunately it is just not very good IMO. I would be curious to hear anyone else’s opinion who may have seen it.
Here's a really great interview with Kevin Smith where he talks about the death threats from Dogma and the backlash from people who hadn't even seen the movie ala Python and Life of Brian, Clerks being made for 27,000 on credit cards that if it hadn't panned out well, life at home....
Just a bunch of really cool stuff. He makes movies he wants to make and has his own lane, so to speak with his fans pretty much always there.
https://www.worldofsuey.com/podcast-...20/kevin-smith
Carry On My Blood-Ejaculating Son - JKL2000
The recent Motherless Brooklyn is a very good classically inspired PI fliic.
I disagee with the overall sentiment. It is a small movie , compared with other Eastwood efforts. But it is a good movie mostly because of his participation. At 91 he still has screen presence. Its not Grand Torino or Unforgiven , but it was never meant to be. Worth watch for Eastwood fans, it might be to small for others. I saw a review which compared it to a Hallmark feature in scope. I can see that , but thats all he was going for IMO.
Agree, that it is a small movie with a small story, but did you really buy all the situations the two main characters got into on their journey to the border? Several women in the film all googly eyes over a 90-year-old man? A 90-year-old man punching a guy that is probably 60 years his junior? The whole story line of the two main characters staying with total strangers in a small town who just happen to be a single woman whose husband has just died? I don’t know……….. it was just too much for me and, on top of that, I still thought the overall story did not make a lot of sense.
I can see where people might like this movie, but I just could not get past the stuff mentioned above. It has gotten mixed reviews from critics, some like it and some don’t. It didn’t do it for me, but glad you enjoyed it.
Rewatched Color Out Of Space, after watching a horror classic, The House by the Cemetery. Also recently watched a recent purchase, Not Of This Earth. The disc came without packaging, which made it inexpensive but also uninformative. I was hoping I was getting the Roger Corman 1957 original, but it turned out to be the 1988 remake, with Traci Lords. Oh, well. No complaints. Gotta like boobs a lot.
Fortunately, everyone does.
The sacrifices one has to make in the pursuit of art!
Lawman Six hired hands on a drunken, playful spree accidentally kill an old man. Unforgiving letter-of-the-law marshal Burt Lancaster follows them home. Lancaster will pursue the fleeing felons to an absolute point of no return in which only blood and death can be the victors. You can see if free with ads over at YT.
Night Moves--stars Gene Hackman as a detective tracking down a young runaway, Melanie Griffith. He finds her in the Florida Keys. Overall it's a pretty decent detective story with a good cast, plenty twist and turns, but some of the direction and dialogue is dated. Hackman is always pretty watchable. I found it off a Roku channel.
Unlike most action movies, this one doesn't require much suspension of disbelief; good movie, too:
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
That kid annoyed the shit out of me
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Goodfellas - My wife hadn't seen it. For me, 10 times or so. Joe Pecsi steals the movie but excellent ensemble acting overall.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks