The Grand- 8.5/10 Pretty much a Whos who of comedian and comedic actors. Its a spoof of the whole Poker craze that took over in the late 2000s and its hilarious. Edit: Forgot to mention, ya boy, the very own, Tilman Fertita, is in it and I believe filmed at his casino.
Ben Is Back (Julia Roberts/Courtney Vance) 7.7/10 The impact of Crystal Meth addiction on a family is explored, but it's unique in the sense that it's viewed through the lens of a "tough-love" mother, who also is forced to acknowledge the enabling she has provided for her addicted son. Left me sad but very open to considering friends and family that I've lost to addiction/poor life choices. I strongly recommend it, but don't expect to be smiling during the credits
The Tillman Story - 8/10 Documentary about Pat Tillman. The way the military white washed his death and the way they treated the Tillman family is a damn disgrace. I really enjoyed hearing his family talk about him though. He was a really unique individual and a terrible loss for our country. Who knows what he would have gone on to accomplish after his service. Apparently Tillman's wife set up an educational charity after his death and I think I'll be adding them to the list of charities I donate to each year.
Dark Phoenix: 6/10 Now, I love X-men and X-men movies and my expectations were super low after reading the reviews so I was pleasantly surprised. It is still the weak link in the X-men Franchise but I thought it was a pretty decent movie.
Chopsticks (Netflix) 5 out of 10. Didn't go in with high expectations, but despite bad reviews it was a cute, even enjoyable movie. I haven't seen many Indian films, so all the actors were new to me. Basic plot: gullible girl with limited social confidence buys car, has car stolen the day she buys it, and goes through a series of misadventures in her attempt to get the car back. Sorta "Adventures in Babysitting" set in India. Three main leads (awkward but cute girl, chef/conman helping girl, and quirky gangster with a goat and her car). Best line in the movie comes early, where awkward girl is leading a Chinese group on a tour of Mumbai, girl informs the group that they were in the slum where Slumdog Millionaire was filmed and an Indian man overhearing her says "That guy who made the Slumdog movie should be smacked".
Zodiac 7/10 Good. One of those movies I've been meaning to watch forever. Very suspenseful last hour or so. Fincher is good.
'The Dead Don't Die' 3/10 You may have seen a few previews for this at some point over the last six months or so. So, this thing stars Bill Murray and Adam Driver. Also, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, Tom Waits, Carol Kane, and a bunch of other people you won't recognize. All thrown together into a zany zombie comedy romp, like Zombieland! or Warm Bodies, or Shaun of the Dead.. Except nope. So the writer/director, some guy named Jim Jarmusch, must have been owed a ton of favors by people like Murray, Waits, Swinton.. no idea how they talked Adam Driver into this, or Danny Glover, or Buscemi.. Basically, imagine a bunch of people who are pretty much veteran Hollywood stars all deciding to go ahead an be in Jim's little zombie movie. For free. Because nobody was getting paid on this one, folks. It took literally no effort at all, these stars (other than Murray and Driver) couldn't have been on set more than a day or two max. It seems obvious that their time was all donated, and even in the credits, a large amount of 'thanks' went to various make-up and special-effects makeup companies, for clearly donating their products and services to the production. If the budget for this entire thing was over 100K, I will be very surprised. But you know what? A movie doesn't have to have a big budget to be good, or fun, or funny, as long as the writing is good, the performers are into it, and the director knows how to move things along in a compelling way. None of those things happen in this film. Normally, in the editing process of making a film, a lot of things are left on the cutting-room floor. And, as about half of the run-time of this one consists of shots of cars driving along the same small-town roads, as Murray and Driver meander along in mostly-silence, I shudder to think what was CUT in order to make room for yet another shot of people sitting silently in cars. Is it ALL bad? Almost. I'd say there are maybe two or three spots which might make you chuckle, but if you have seen the better movies those moments are directly stolen from, then maybe they won't make you chuckle as much as they will just tick you off (and trust me, when the much better movie being ripped off is 'Night of the Living Dead', you SHOULD be ticked off). Throw in some pointedly infantile and stupid plot devices adding up to basically 'oil companies bad' and 'consumerism bad', and you could have written this one yourself on the back of an iHop menu. Seriously, the script for this was mayyyybe 12 pages long. Even worse than 'The Expendables', which is still the gold standard for 'how to make a movie without actually having a script at all'. So ok... some oil companies have apparently been doing some 'polar fracking' and caused the earth's rotational axis to go all wonky. Because 'fracking' is bad, get it? So as a direct result of the 'bad fracking', the earth tilts, some cell phones lose all their battery power, and the dead rise from their graves, and sort of want to eat people, but also sort of want to just return to doing whatever they were obsessed with in their previous life. (If you have seen Warm Bodies or Night of the Living Dead, you have seen the sum total of whatever inspired this film). Bill Murray and Adam Driver are police men in a generic small town. They blithely and calmly make note of the grisly murders starting to pile up in the town, and basically just decide it's all because of 'zombies'. Which, conveniently enough, was true. Meanwhile Tilds Swinton plays an alien elf samurai undertaker, off in some completely other movie all on her own, and for no reason, is picked up and flown away by an alien space ship. Yep. That happened. Selena Gomez wears short shorts and then dies. Steve Buscemi says racist things and then dies. Danny Glover moves around a little bit and then dies. Adam Driver tries to go all 'meta' a couple of times... KIND OF like Deadpool, maybe sorta, but not really. Tom Waits Skulks in the woods as a hermit narrator with binoculars. Oh we see some kids in a youth detention center escape the zombies, and then say 'This way! I know a safe place to hide!' And then we literally never see them or hear from them again. And then everybody dies except Tom Waits. The end. There, I just saved you a few bucks and a couple of hours of your life. Your welcome.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco 6/10 I wanted to love this movie because it was so beautiful to look at. It was careful and thoughtful on every shot and every decision related to cinematography. But the script, I thought, was kinda weak. It was just one idea played out aimlessly and awkwardly for 2 hours. The acting is actually pretty good, but the main two actors have to embody characters who are just ideas and cartoon sketches versus anything like real people. Important topics, real topics involved, (race, gentrification, "urban renewal") so I think the reviews will be pretty strong. Some of the scenes of San Francisco and the way it ticks are great and heartbreaking, but those usually don't involve the main characters (e.g. two b****y white women on a MUNI bus are perfect, but they're only 30 seconds of the movie. e.g.2 a street preacher is excellent, but he's only a few minutes of the film; e.g. 3 the real estate process is also done perfectly, but that's also a minor part.)
I would assume it's because they like the guy. Murray, Swinton, Driver, Buscemi, Waits, and Sevigny have all worked with him before. Murray's been in 3 or 4 of his movies. Jarmusch isn't for everyone, but he's made some very good movies. I'm sure I'll see this at home someday.
Jarmusch is an indie movie legend going back to the 80s, which is why he's well-connected. I guess his best known movies might be Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai or maybe Dead Man? I've always found his movies to be twee and just kind of dull. He somehow made a samurai movie starring Forest Whittaker vs. the mafia, with a soundtrack by RZA, boring as hell. I guess you could say that while guys like Tarantino made indie movies fun and marketable, Jarmusch is part of that earlier generation that never should have been let outside of art house theaters.
I hate stinks. I hate breath stink, I hate body stink, I hate pee stink, like from when you take a lot of supplements or vitamins, which I take a lot of those, so my urine smells very bad.
The Cold Blue Color footage shot while on 8th AF bombing raids over Germany. Was part of the wartime documentary on the Memphis Belle. Recently discovered and restored, as I understand it. Not much more to say, just watch it. HBO Documentary.
Only Lovers Left Alive was hilarious and underrated. A slow burn, for sure, but director recorded the soundtrack with his sludge rock band. Saw it twice. Hee hee. Def not for e'rbody.
Wow, I'm all over this when I get home. Thanks for the tip. I remember studying that poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner when I was in high school. That last line....so powerful....and depressing....
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