Train to Busan, 8 out of 10. Well-made Korean travelogue documenting a scenic train ride through Korea... what am I saying?!? Zombies. On a train. Heck yea!
Dead Don't Die. 5.5 / 10 I love me some JJ, and this one had some very funny moments, but a huge meh in the end. I get the homage to zombie films, and I guess that will entertain aficionados maybe? Adam Driver was much better than expected. Bill Murray seemed very very bored and like he was just there as a favor to the director. Best small roles: Iggy Pop, and Rosie Perez.
Toy story 4, 8/10. Kids enjoyed it I enjoyed it too. Forkie pissed me off. Snitch wants to act normal with gabby but a pain in the ass with woody. The duck and rabbit were funny ass hell.
Yeah the theatrical cut is just dreadfully bad. (Blade Runner theatrical is pretty doodoo too. Ridley always getting screwed man...)
Not a movie, but a clip of an action scene filmed with what Im assuming as very little money. Its not that hard DC. I could watch this kind of action all day. Very well done. Give this man full control of a movie.
Free Solo: 9/10. Wow. What a nutter Bumblebee: 6.5/10. Was better than expected A Star is Born: 8/10. Great acting job by Cooper Stan & Ollie: 8/10. Well done movie
I enjoyed the theatrical release (it being the only version for years), and love Ridley's director's cut. The version in between, though, absolutely sucks. Talk about screwing Ridley and the fans at the same time!
Booksmart- 4/ 10. Another one of those films hyped by the Western media as the funniest movie in ages."The female superbad". mhhmm sure, Jan. I went with my almost teenage son and his mother to watch this. Not many laughs over on my end. These kids are running around their campus throwing confetti and food like they won the championship in six games. Had I tried something like that at Spring Branch Middle School, Mr Bird and Mr. Peacock (not making those names up) would have sent me to cdc with the eses. "Eighth Grade" - 10/10. One of the most cringe worthy, in a good way, coming of age films I've seen and funnier moments than booksmart. Gucccci! Watching Dark Phoenix in a bit.
[Netflix] Le Chant du loup (The Wolf's Call) 7 out of 10. I really enjoy submarine movies (Das Boot, The Enemy Below, U=571 to name a few). Always tense, and since the staging is so minimal if its good it requires great acting. This French film scores on this... tense, well-acted, good story line. Blends in a bit of the great Henry Fonda film Failsafe.
“Yesterday”: 7/10 The premise is unique. I loved the idea of the movie. It’s just that they kind of wasted an opportunity. In a movie about Beatles songs, you don’t get to hear much of any Beatles songs. It was still well done and I did enjoy it. It didn’t feel like a full 2 hours. Such a great idea for a film and it does remind you of just how important The Beatles were and are to music and the world in general. I just wish they played more of their songs in the movie.
saw Vice. better than I expected, Christian Bale is amazing, this generation's Daniel Day-Lewis in terms of shape-shifting. Amy Adams was good also. I know there was some creative license with doing psychoanalytic history, but good film. When they broke into the Shakespearean dialogue and also the false ending I just about fell over. 8/10
Battleground - 1949 Directed by William A. Wellman, with Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, James Whitmore, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson and several other fine supporting actors. This just might be my favorite WWII film. It follows a company of veteran 101st Airborne troops, focusing on a platoon, who are getting a break from the action somewhere outside of Paris. They think they are getting a 3 day pass in the morning, the first in a long time, and going to Paris in trucks. Instead, they are woken up in the middle of the night, hurried to the same trucks and driven off, not knowing where they're going, but it is sure as hell isn't Paris. It's Bastogne. Twelve Panzer and 18 infantry divisions of the German Army, much of it the best they have left, have surprised everyone by launching an attack that comes to be called the Battle of the Bulge. The film turns into one of the finest portrayals of a small unit in combat that you are apt to see, in my opinion. There isn't any CGI or special effects, although some actual film made at the time is used. Everything they are told is hopelessly out of date, and the men only know what is going on in their immediate surroundings. It's gritty, tense, and freezing cold. I've seen Battleground many times and never tire of it. Highly recommended.
Toy Story - 7/10 Pixar's animation always impresses. Tightly scripted and plotted, as usual. Buzz was feckless in this one which was a surprise. TS4 was more of a Woody and Bo Peep movie than Woody and Buzz movie. Spoiler This could be the end of the line for Toy Story. I guess that Pixar could go full Hollywood and reunite the gang for Toy Story 5, but that seems really unlikely. There was a certain melancholy running throughout the movie which did not fit the series at all. Will Pixar have a TS5 without Woody? or will Pixar do a Woody plus Bo Peep TS5? Neither seems all that appealing.
