Recently Watched Movies 2022

[storrsroars]

The Lost City. 2022. Wanted something low effort, stumbled on this on Paramount+ (I have too many services). Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt. Bullock is a cheesy romance novelist, who writes about Indian Jones type explorer/archeologists in a series. Tatum is her cover model, who her audiences think is the male character Dash. Tatum secretly thinks of himself that way, and of Bullock as the female lead (even though she's a shut in since her archeologist husband died). Radcliffe is the evil British dude, who needs her to translate some ancient writing (she's evidently smart). Brad Pitt, in a short time, is brilliant and steals the show. Including the best line in the movie. It's a somewhat silly, slightly funny rom com with a dash of action. Bullock's outfit is ridiculous (her character agrees) but is intended to make you think "wow Sandra Bullock looks great for a 57 year old", and this 56 year old concurs. Brad Pitt looks even more great at 58. You won't miss anything if you skip it, nor will you hate yourself if you watch it. It did $168M at the box office. It isn't terrible, and if you have Paramount+, it's free.

Had no idea that already ran thru theatres as Kaizen just posted the trailer for it last week. I'd watch it. Even from the trailer you could tell it was pretty much a new take on Romancing the Stone, but I imagine Bullock can sell it. Both her and Pitt can do comedy well. She does still look great in her 50s as we learned in Gravity. Don't have Paramount+ though.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Had no idea that already ran thru theatres as Kaizen just posted the trailer for it last week. I'd watch it. Even from the trailer you could tell it was pretty much a new take on Romancing the Stone, but I imagine Bullock can sell it. Both her and Pitt can do comedy well. She does still look great in her 50s as we learned in Gravity. Don't have Paramount+ though.

I think it is still in theaters. That's why when scrolling through my 7 or 8 services, I was surprised to see it. I really need to revisit cutting the cord. I pay Xfinity $260.

 

[Palatine]

Death on the Nile. I took me three or four sittings to get through the entire film. It is slow, uninteresting, lacks suspense, action or drama and is totally and completely unsatisfying. Hitchcock said that suspense is when the audience knows something the players do not. Mystery is when the players know something that the audience does not. In the case of this film, nobody knows anything except the detective (who is also the director) and neither one is sharing a thing. So everyone spends the entire movie the dark except Branagh. Perhaps if any of the characters were even mildly interesting it could redeem the film. They are not and they do not. Zero stars.

 

[Palatine]

The Lost City. 2022. Wanted something low effort, stumbled on this on Paramount+ (I have too many services). Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt. Bullock is a cheesy romance novelist, who writes about Indian Jones type explorer/archeologists in a series. Tatum is her cover model, who her audiences think is the male character Dash. Tatum secretly thinks of himself that way, and of Bullock as the female lead (even though she's a shut in since her archeologist husband died). Radcliffe is the evil British dude, who needs her to translate some ancient writing (she's evidently smart). Brad Pitt, in a short time, is brilliant and steals the show. Including the best line in the movie. It's a somewhat silly, slightly funny rom com with a dash of action. Bullock's outfit is ridiculous (her character agrees) but is intended to make you think "wow Sandra Bullock looks great for a 57 year old", and this 56 year old concurs. Brad Pitt looks even more great at 58. You won't miss anything if you skip it, nor will you hate yourself if you watch it. It did $168M at the box office. It isn't terrible, and if you have Paramount+, it's free.

Saw it, basically agree. This is a chick flick. Hope they like it.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Perhaps if any of the characters were even mildly interesting it could redeem the film. They are not and they do not.

I generally agree with your review, but I found Emma Mackey interesting as Jacqueline de Bellefort.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I generally agree with your review, but I found Emma Mackey interesting as Jacqueline de Bellefort.

Yeah, I reviewed it already. Cinematography is interesting and she's appealing, so 1 star. But it's just not good. The flaw, as I think @Palatine touched on, was that the audience wasn't really given the clues, however disguised. In a properly done mystery movie you may well be surprised, but will react with "oh yeah, how did I miss that?". Here Poirot just makes stuff up that wasn't in the movie at all, at least far too much of it. The audience isn't engaged as a result. Pointless.

 

[Kolumbo]

I enjoyed Into Thin Air, as well. It is a good book and a great example of how things go wrong. Often, we like to either assign blame to a single individual or rethink a single decision but catastrophic failure is often not that simple. It is a myriad of decisions that appear sound individually, but collectively add up to tragedy.

Another book of Krakauer that I enjoyed is Into the Wild. It’s similar in that a series of relatively innocent decisions combined to create tragedy.

FWIW, Krakauer is very critical of the film Everest

Into Thin Air: Death on Everest - 1997

The other night I found the movie "Into Thin Air" and it was awful. It looked like a super el cheapo film thrown together quickly to follow the book. The annoying music would drown out the narration. It was interesting that Krakauer seemed to give himself a lot of credit. e.g. he was holding the handsets when Hall spoke to his wife when Hall was trapped on the mountain. I doubt that Krakauer was holding the Adventure Consultants radio equipment so why write it that way. Very bizarre.

 

[nwhoopfan]

It was interesting that Krakauer seemed to give himself a lot of credit. e.g. he was holding the handsets when Hall spoke to his wife when Hall was trapped on the mountain. I doubt that Krakauer was holding the Adventure Consultants radio equipment so why write it that way. Very bizarre.

There were several books written about those events, and I think at least one of them attempted to discredit Krakauer's version to some degree. I want to say the climber Anatoli Boukreev, but I might be wrong about that. Can't ask him about it now, he died on Annapurna not too long after the disaster on Everest.

 

[storrsroars]

There were several books written about those events, and I think at least one of them attempted to discredit Krakauer's version to some degree. I want to say the climber Anatoli Boukreev, but I might be wrong about that. Can't ask him about it now, he died on Annapurna not too long after the disaster on Everest.

I read Boukreev's book shortly after reading Krakauer's. Even given English is not his natural language, it was still a very painful read. There were some differences in the details, but the main difference is that Krakauer could write.

 

[nwhoopfan]

the main difference is that Krakauer could write

I used to read a lot of mountaineering literature. They were all interesting stories, but many of them weren't good writers. Krakauer and David Roberts stood head and shoulders above the rest in that regard IMO.

 

[nwhoopfan]

he flaw, as I think @Palatine touched on, was that the audience wasn't really given the clues, however disguised. In a properly done mystery movie you may well be surprised, but will react with "oh yeah, how did I miss that?". Here Poirot just makes stuff up that wasn't in the movie at all, at least far too much of it.

I've read 2 Poirot novels, one Sherlock novel and a bunch of his short stories. That's just not how it works. You're not supposed to be able to figure it out. Their powers of observation and deduction are bordering on superhuman, so they do just "figure stuff out" without it really being apparent how they did that with what was presented.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I've read 2 Poirot novels, one Sherlock novel and a bunch of his short stories. That's just not how it works. You're not supposed to be able to figure it out. Their powers of observation and deduction are bordering on superhuman, so they do just "figure stuff out" without it really being apparent how they did that with what was presented.

I have read and seen lots of them as well. But in the films and the books, then clues are there. Extremely subtle, well disguise, yes. But they exist on the screen or page in some fashion. Here they weren’t and it was a problem in my opinion.

 

[storrsroars]

I was supposed to work a polling station on Tuesday, but wife tested positive Monday night (she's fine, caught it at work) so I was told to go home. Free day, bit of rain, so decided to revisit couple of favorites I hadn't seen in a few years. Oddly they're both about hit men having personal crises. Don't know what that says about me

Grosse Pointe Blank (Prime thru 5/31) John Cusack said it's his favorite movie of the dozens he's been in. Getting into an actual IRL relationship with Minnie Driver might've had something to do with that. Anyway, they're great together. It was the 73rd highest grossing film of 1997 at $38 million (the godawful George of the Jungle did $105 mill box office that year). Never understood why it didn't do better, everyone I know who's seen it enjoyed it, but it's now a bit of a cult classic. If you don't know the plot, Martin Blank (Cusack) goes back to Grosse Pointe for his 10th HS reunion. While he's there he has to execute a contract, while rivals want to execute him. Lots of great throwaway lines, especially when Cusack goes existential. Dan Aykroyd also plays his part as the organizer of a union for assassins with zeal. Sister Joan and Alan Arkin also have minor but funny parts. One of my top 25 comedies ever.

The Matador (Prime w/ads). Pierce Brosnan plays the most anti-Pierce Brosnan role of his career as Julian, an aging, emotionally stunted, crass slob of a hit man who's having panic attacks on the job. He's incapable of having a relationship and has no friends he can talk to about his problems. Until he meets Danny (Greg Kinnear), a struggling businessman, at a hotel bar in Mexico. While it's hysterically funny at the start due to Julian's outrageously bad-mannered behavior, the movie actually has depth as a study of two completely different men in crises, Danny, who has the stable life and love Julian seeks, and Julian, who has a certain wisdom that helps Danny in his darkest moment of crisis. Hope Davis is wonderful as Danny's wife, and several familiar character actors who arrange Julian's hits play it perfectly straight, adding weight to the storyline. It was Brosnan's only Golden Globe nomination (many reviewers thought it Oscar-worthy) and the film is nothing w/o him - and likely nobody else but him would've been able to carry the film due to his past roles as a suave, sophisticated spy, which makes this role particularly funny and engaging. It was also a box office bomb, doing only $17 mill as the 153rd grossing film of 2006. Can't account for taste.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Just My Luck" (2006). I kinda remember skipping that on purpose when it came out. It's streaming on Hulu, I took a flyer on it. Silly, but entertaining enough. Lindsay Lohan (when she was still a big deal and before she went off the deep end) is the luckiest person in NYC. Chris Pine (I think before he really hit it big?) is the unluckiest. They meet at a party and swap fortunes. Much hi jinks ensues.


As a side note, this is not really a diatribe, but an observation. Maybe it's just me. I can't keep track of how many movies I've seen where the lead actress, who is supposed to be the hottest woman around, is IMO at least matched if not eclipsed by her friend/friends/roommate who is presented as if she's totally ordinary. Hollywood is weird that way. In this one, Lohan was certainly attractive, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief that her friends played by Samaire Armstrong and Bree Turner were lonely girls sitting around at home on a Friday night because no guy noticed them ever. Actually it's not just Hollywood. Even the French do it. Watched "The Valet" the other day. While the supermodel played by Alice Taglioni is certainly beautiful, so is the "ordinary" girl played by Virginie Ledoyen.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I was supposed to work a polling station on Tuesday, but wife tested positive Monday night (she's fine, caught it at work) so I was told to go home. Free day, bit of rain, so decided to revisit couple of favorites I hadn't seen in a few years. Oddly they're both about hit men having personal crises. Don't know what that says about me

Grosse Pointe Blank (Prime thru 5/31) John Cusack said it's his favorite movie of the dozens he's been in. Getting into an actual IRL relationship with Minnie Driver might've had something to do with that. Anyway, they're great together. It was the 73rd highest grossing film of 1997 at $38 million (the godawful George of the Jungle did $105 mill box office that year). Never understood why it didn't do better, everyone I know who's seen it enjoyed it, but it's now a bit of a cult classic. If you don't know the plot, Martin Blank (Cusack) goes back to Grosse Pointe for his 10th HS reunion. While he's there he has to execute a contract, while rivals want to execute him. Lots of great throwaway lines, especially when Cusack goes existential. Dan Aykroyd also plays his part as the organizer of a union for assassins with zeal. Sister Joan and Alan Arkin also have minor but funny parts. One of my top 25 comedies ever.

The Matador (Prime w/ads). Pierce Brosnan plays the most anti-Pierce Brosnan role of his career as Julian, an aging, emotionally stunted, crass slob of a hit man who's having panic attacks on the job. He's incapable of having a relationship and has no friends he can talk to about his problems. Until he meets Danny (Greg Kinnear), a struggling businessman, at a hotel bar in Mexico. While it's hysterically funny at the start due to Julian's outrageously bad-mannered behavior, the movie actually has depth as a study of two completely different men in crises, Danny, who has the stable life and love Julian seeks, and Julian, who has a certain wisdom that helps Danny in his darkest moment of crisis. Hope Davis is wonderful as Danny's wife, and several familiar character actors who arrange Julian's hits play it perfectly straight, adding weight to the storyline. It was Brosnan's only Golden Globe nomination (many reviewers thought it Oscar-worthy) and the film is nothing w/o him - and likely nobody else but him would've been able to carry the film due to his past roles as a suave, sophisticated spy, which makes this role particularly funny and engaging. It was also a box office bomb, doing only $17 mill as the 153rd grossing film of 2006. Can't account for taste.

I didn't know Grosse Pointe Blank was such a dud at the Box office. It's a great movie. Certainly one of his best movies with Better off Dead, Say Anything and High Fidelity, definitely among the top 5. Aykroyd is great. Alan Arkin is great as his shrink. Sister Joan as his assistant. Jeremy Piven as an old HS friend. Mitchell Ryan is funny as Minnie Driver's dad.

 

[storrsroars]

So I checked to see what Cusack's been doing lately and came across 2019's Never Grow Old (Prime), where he plays an unscrupulous villain who visits an ultra-conservative frontier town on the California Trail in the 1840s and decides to provide vice to satisfy pent-up demand and make the town a popular spot for those heading to California.

I'd never heard of the film and it did nothing at the box office either in the US or globally, but it earned very positive reviews from critics and mostly positive from the public (who apparently only saw it on streaming services since nobody bought tickets). It's a cinematic beauty in how it was filmed and the attention to detail on life in the Old West (handhewn lumber, mud, sparse furnishings, dirty clothes & faces, etc.) as well as the lighting, which is often just faces in darkness. Cusack is the bigger name and seems to enjoy taking on a non-traditional role for him, but it's really Emile Hirsch's film as an undertaker who's taken a Faustian bargain by staying in town with his family as the more people Cusack & crew kill, the more Hirsch's business profits. It's slow-moving, but worth the effort as it's not overly long and really one of the best Westerns to come out this century (not that there are many). And a mining camp near Galway, Ireland does a terrific job of standing in for soggy Oregon. Maybe it's the start of a new genre of potato westerns ;-)

 

[Kolumbo]

I was supposed to work a polling station on Tuesday, but wife tested positive Monday night (she's fine, caught it at work) so I was told to go home. Free day, bit of rain, so decided to revisit couple of favorites I hadn't seen in a few years. Oddly they're both about hit men having personal crises. Don't know what that says about me

Grosse Pointe Blank (Prime thru 5/31) John Cusack said it's his favorite movie of the dozens he's been in. Getting into an actual IRL relationship with Minnie Driver might've had something to do with that. Anyway, they're great together. It was the 73rd highest grossing film of 1997 at $38 million (the godawful George of the Jungle did $105 mill box office that year). Never understood why it didn't do better, everyone I know who's seen it enjoyed it, but it's now a bit of a cult classic. If you don't know the plot, Martin Blank (Cusack) goes back to Grosse Pointe for his 10th HS reunion. While he's there he has to execute a contract, while rivals want to execute him. Lots of great throwaway lines, especially when Cusack goes existential. Dan Aykroyd also plays his part as the organizer of a union for assassins with zeal. Sister Joan and Alan Arkin also have minor but funny parts. One of my top 25 comedies ever.

The Matador (Prime w/ads). Pierce Brosnan plays the most anti-Pierce Brosnan role of his career as Julian, an aging, emotionally stunted, crass slob of a hit man who's having panic attacks on the job. He's incapable of having a relationship and has no friends he can talk to about his problems. Until he meets Danny (Greg Kinnear), a struggling businessman, at a hotel bar in Mexico. While it's hysterically funny at the start due to Julian's outrageously bad-mannered behavior, the movie actually has depth as a study of two completely different men in crises, Danny, who has the stable life and love Julian seeks, and Julian, who has a certain wisdom that helps Danny in his darkest moment of crisis. Hope Davis is wonderful as Danny's wife, and several familiar character actors who arrange Julian's hits play it perfectly straight, adding weight to the storyline. It was Brosnan's only Golden Globe nomination (many reviewers thought it Oscar-worthy) and the film is nothing w/o him - and likely nobody else but him would've been able to carry the film due to his past roles as a suave, sophisticated spy, which makes this role particularly funny and engaging. It was also a box office bomb, doing only $17 mill as the 153rd grossing film of 2006. Can't account for taste.

The Matador reminded me of Pierce Brosnan's role in No Escape - 2015 - Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan - although the movies aren't similar.

 

[ZooCougar]

Got my IMAX Top Gun tickets yesterday.

 

[ZooCougar]

The Matador reminded me of Pierce Brosnan's role in No Escape - 2015 - Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan - although the movies aren't similar.

The Matador is an awesome movie. Highly underrated.

 

[CL82]

"Just My Luck" (2006). I kinda remember skipping that on purpose when it came out. It's streaming on Hulu, I took a flyer on it. Silly, but entertaining enough. Lindsay Lohan (when she was still a big deal and before she went off the deep end) is the luckiest person in NYC. Chris Pine (I think before he really hit it big?) is the unluckiest. They meet at a party and swap fortunes. Much hi jinks ensues.


As a side note, this is not really a diatribe, but an observation. Maybe it's just me. I can't keep track of how many movies I've seen where the lead actress, who is supposed to be the hottest woman around, is IMO at least matched if not eclipsed by her friend/friends/roommate who is presented as if she's totally ordinary. Hollywood is weird that way. In this one, Lohan was certainly attractive, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief that her friends played by Samaire Armstrong and Bree Turner were lonely girls sitting around at home on a Friday night because no guy noticed them ever. Actually it's not just Hollywood. Even the French do it. Watched "The Valet" the other day. While the supermodel played by Alice Taglioni is certainly beautiful, so is the "ordinary" girl played by Virginie Ledoyen.

I remember just my luck. It wasn’t great, but it was definitely watchable.

 

[CL82]

There were several books written about those events, and I think at least one of them attempted to discredit Krakauer's version to some degree. I want to say the climber Anatoli Boukreev, but I might be wrong about that. Can't ask him about it now, he died on Annapurna not too long after the disaster on Everest.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

I finally got around to this movie. It is directed by Ron Howard and stars Russell Crowe as John Nash “a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician.” There are a lot of things to like about this movie, including the awkward romance theme, the nature of genius and the nature of reality. Ed Harris Jennifer Conley and Paul Bettany all the great jobs in their supporting roles. It’s tough to get it much more without spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that. Definitely worth the two hours and 15 minutes.

 

[Palatine]

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

I finally got around to this movie. It is directed by Ron Howard and stars Russell Crowe as John Nash “a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician.” There are a lot of things to like about this movie, including the awkward romance theme, the nature of genius and the nature of reality. Ed Harris Jennifer Conley and Paul Bettany all the great jobs in their supporting roles. It’s tough to get it much more without spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that. Definitely worth the two hours and 15 minutes.

A Beautiful Mind is a very good film. Well shot, well acted, well edited, the story is interesting and at times surprising. Howard never overplays his hand. This is the kind of movie where it would have been very easy to go over the top but it is restrained and believable. It's an emotionally touching film. Four out of five stars.

As an almost silly side note. I thought whoever was responsible for aging the actors deserved an Oscar. So many times, when a movie spans decades, the make up people simply double the size of the actors heads with tons of prosthetics. It's almost always done poorly This was done very well.

 

[ZooCougar]

Top Gun: Maverick

As good as and maybe better than the first. A worthy successor. It’s going to win many awards. You don’t see people clapping in movies much these days.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Tales of the Night" (Les contes de la Nuit), French animated movie from 2011. 6 vignettes, fairy tales set in different times and different places. Interesting animation style, the characters and foreground is in silhouette, the background is beautiful and vibrant colors and scenery. I found it fairly engaging. I know at some point there were a series of posts about non-Disney animation, this one would fit in nicely with some of the other recommendations from that.

edit--I streamed it from Kanopy. It had both the French and English dubbed versions. I went ahead and watched it in French with subtitles.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Navalny. 2022. Stumbled on this on HBO Max. It's a documentary about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Couldn't be more timely. It goes back to about 2019 or so. He's an interesting and funny guy. It's a damned shame he's not running Russia, the world would be a better place and the Russian and Ukranian people certainly would be. He's a lawyer, and wanted to reform the government, founding the Anti Corruption Foundation and then entering politics. He has six million YouTube followers and is on TikTok as well. The story is well told, exciting and frequently funny. He speaks very good English and has a flair for curse words. His wife is lovely, and he's a fairly handsome guy with two kids so a naturally appealing political family. The movie opens with him being interviewed in what seems to be an empty bar or restaurant. He's asked about being worried the government would take him out. Says it would be stupid, because he's a "famous guy". Interviewer says, but you were wrong. Yeah, he was wrong. There is a true crime element here, as they poisoned him, and the way they unravel that is fascinating. Really enjoyable and interesting movie about an interesting guy.