This Island Earth (1955) Superior '50s sci-fi. Jeff Morrow is top class as the man from Metaluna. 9/10
The Man From Earth - 6/10 Enjoyed this movie. Dialogue based, only one set, would have been just as good as a play, easy to follow without being dumb. An interesting idea and a good story!
The original Ant-Man. 7/10, one of the better Marvel movies. Some plot holes here and there, and parts felt rushed, but the ending fight scene is absolutely hilarious and perfectly directed. Bonus points for an excellent use of Plainsong by The Cure.
My Cousin Vinny. Stumbled across it in my collection and thought "why not?". It hasn't aged all that well in all honesty, although you could say exactly the same about me, but it's still a hilarious watch The Oscar is still a bit baffling, but Marisa Tomei is great in it. Joe Pesci is obviously the most funny thing though. He is absolutely brilliant. You want 'very funny'? No problem. You want 'menacing and believable'? No problem. A bit of both? He's perfect. A gem of an actor
Agreed on Duchovny, he should have had more presence in the film because his one main scene was pretty hilarious.
Living I went to see this because of Bill Nighy’s Best Actor nomination. I liked the film, but it wasn’t what I expected based on the synopsis. It was slower than I expected, and when the synopsis said Nighy’s character really started living after being diagnosed with a serious illness, I expected more. I guess one really can’t completely change one’s personality, although I guess he did do a lot of things that were out of character, if not especially outgoing. 6/10
Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Re-watch. Just wanted something on in the background while I was working. Still a great film. One thing that struck me though (for the first time tonight)..... when Tom and Emily are handed the MacGuffin by the General in his office, why do they try to escape with it before using it? I mean, they're just setting themselves up to be caught/chased/whatever. Why not use it there and then in the office and then 'reset' the day on their own terms? Nevertheless, as I said, still a great film. 9/10
Knives Out 7/10 and Glass Onion 5/10 on consecutive evenings. Enjoyable hokum that didn't match the hype I'd read on social media. The first movie plays with the Agatha Christie tropes quite nicely, and Marta's distress nicely offsets the tongue-in-cheek tone enough to make me care about the outcome. Glass Onion just doesn't have any characters I care about, so just exists as a poorly plotted 'puzzle' that doesn't make sense.
The Bat (1959) Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. What more could you want? Well, the storyline - smalltown serial killer, 'dressed' as a bat - is somewhat hokum, but the two actors run with it for all they're worth. One of Moorehead's rare leads. She was always a brilliant, yet underrated, actress. 8/10
The Spy Who Loved Me--007 with Roger Moore and Barbara Bach. Sort of a nostalgic watch, tho I'd never seen it before all the way through. Pretty fun, first appearance of Jaws, I think. Maybe 6/10
Looking For Mr. Goodbar. I'd forgotten how good Dianne Keaton was in this. I was perplexed that she wasn't nominated but realized she was already nominated and won for Annie Hall that year. I noticed some young actors that became something later, Tom Berenger, Richard Gere and LeVar Burton. Tuesday Weld is always appreciated. B+ There is a great soundtrack for those who don't remember the era that well.
The Clapper Mostly boring indie comedy about some guy who becomes famous for applauding and laughing during infomercials (...?) and him falling in love with a girl who works at a gas station. I thought the premise seemed intriguing but the only good parts involve Amanda Seyfried at the gas station. She's so cute and likeable in this. The movie should have been about her instead. 4/10
The Swindle The Swindle (1997) - IMDb Huppert is great as usual. It’s a bit slow moving but I liked it a good deal. 8/10
18 1/2 2/5. Lots of promise and solid acting from the luvly Ms. Willa Fitzgerald but it veered wayyyy off course (IMHO) in the 2nd act and continues thru to the end. The hippies, thoroughly unnecessary and irritating to the max.
Double Indemnity One of the best film noirs ever. A stellar trio of leads, with Barbara Stanwyck at her absolute peak. Straight down the line. 10/10
Deliverance. Voight, Beatty, Cox, and Reynolds just terrific and ably supported by a cast made up of mostly locals. Saw it, loved it when it came out and, still appreciate it. 9/10
QUINTUPLE INDEMNITY (2036). Great movie! But seriously . . . I watched P.J. (1968) last night on a Kino-Lorber DVD. A private-eye flick made in 1967 and released the next year. I'd only seen the Universal "Tv version" of P.J. and the original theatrical film is quite different! Glad I was finally able to watch "P.J.". Starring George Peppard as private-eye 'P.J. Detweiler' who's so broke he'll stoop to new lows to get money. But then he gets hired by a rich businessman as a bodyguard for the very attractive Gayle Hunnicutt who's being threatened. Raymond Burr also stars as the nasty businessman named 'Orbison' who hires Peppard. I think Raymond Burr enjoyed playing this 'villain'-ish part after 9 years of being good-guy attorney Perry Mason. He ain't nice in this one! 8/10.
I can't believe I missed all the Cobra talk. I love that ridiculous movie. I re-watched it a few weeks ago, this was my review... Technically a Christmas movie. Stallone cuts pizza with scissors. It's Dirty Harry meets slasher movies for the MTV generation. This movie is everything right and wrong with '80s action. Stallone using grenades to take out one bad guy at a time is precious. Tasteless carnage. 6/10
TAR (2022) I could not get into this thing at all. I like Cate Blanchett, and she gives a good performance, but I never felt like the movie had a solid grip on what it was trying to say. It's also about forty minutes too long like almost all movies these days. I was never invested in anything that happened, because every character is a pretentious cork-sniffing aristocrat. They don't feel like human beings, but broadly drawn caricatures. As far as movies about terrible human beings but great conductors go, Whiplash is the far superior film. 4/10 Yeah, Cobra is better than this! Watch Cobra instead!
