Like a lot of movies, "VN" expects its premise to do much of the heavy lifting. The notion of "warrior Santa" gets butts in seats and they think it'll carry the day. I can't decide whether to admire the honesty of the filmmakers' willingness to admit their theft or to wish they'd been more creative. Probably the latter.
The Menu. Thought it was really good. It’s definitely accurate if you’ve ever eaten at a Michelin star restaurant. Of course taken to the extreme
Anchorman 2 (2013). Great flick. Was gonna see John Wick 3: Parabellum (2019) in a theater but when we got there we found out tickets were sold out.
It was one of those things that probably works wonderfully well as a metaphor in a novel, that just comes across... kind of stupid... when you actually put it on a movie screen. Good performances, but it just didn't work as a whole.
Vickie and I have gotten back into our regular habit, so we saw two films tonight: Empire of Light, the new film by Sam Mendes. Beautifully written, brilliantly acted, with cinematography by Roger Deakens. Olivia Colman plays a woman with some mental health issues, assistant managing a large cinema in a seaside resort town, who has a romance with a young Black man, a rather dangerous thing to do in Thatcher's England. No idea why the reviews are so mixed, it worked wonderfully well for us. The second was the comedy/drama Spoiler Warning... probably not a good idea for a couple dealing with stage 4 cancer. Quite a few laughs and a lot of tears, but it wasn't quite as devastating as the time my mother and I saw All That Jazz shortly after my father died, which ended with Roy Scheider's character being zipped up in a body bag at the end of a production number. Not what you need to see you right after burying a charismatic workaholic.
I saw Empire of Light today, and I agree with you. I thought it was charming, Olivia Colman was great, and I really like the music Stephen was into, especially that English Beat album he received as a gift!
Saw it a couple of weeks back. It was a hoot! Anya Taylor-Joy was perfectly cast for her part. Not overly long either!
The last movies I saw in a theater was back in 2019. Both were classic Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, celebrating the 80th anniversary of films shown in 1939. Hound of the Baskervilles The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes There were also two other films that were shown before each Holmes films: Three Smart Girls Grow up Jamaica Inn
A one-off screening of the James Whale film "The Old Dark House" (1932) at the end of November. The Old Dark House (1932) - IMDb
Just saw this last night on home video, and....Holy crap are you right, brother! The end credits scene with Goth is goddamn unbelievable as well as her soliloquy at the 3/4 mark. Just an insane talent.
Empire of Light fails because it doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a love story, about mental illness, racial discrimination or the power of cinema? It tries to be all of them and despite the brilliance of Colman that is pretty much an impossible task and while there is much to enjoy it ultimately falls flat
Wasn't aware of it until after it was gone. Maybe it wasn't even here? I would like to see it. It seems like very much an over-the-top movie. I see that Mia Goth was also one of the writers.. This movie was shot in New Zealand during the pandemic. Since everybody had been already quarantined, they were able to shoot the movie as they would have normally shot it. The film crew from Avatar: Way of Water, worked on the production, during a lull in WoW's filming. The movie didn't make a lot of money during its theatrical release, only $9M. But, it was most likely not a wide release. However, it wS filmed on a budget of only $1M! This is what I have read. Seems to be an impossibility low budget for a modern film? Hour long TV shows have this kind of budgets.
Pearl is a gorgeous looking film with an oddity in "horror" - an orchestral score. And I think it barely qualifies as a "horror" film, unless you consider a film like Taxi Driver to be a horror film. SEE IT!
Agreed - Pearl is more a psychological portrait of a disturbed mind than an actual horror film but it certainly is horrifying! The score is fantastic as is the cinematography. It is my top movie of 2022, but it did very much fly under the radar. I can’t get it out my head. If you have not seen X, make sure you watch them in tandem, as there are lots of cool echoes between the two films. I can’t wait for MaXXXine, the third film in the trilogy, to come out!
'Dazed and Confused' (1993). Fun to see with a crowd and of course those tunes sounded great on a large sound system.
Vickie and I just saw A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks. It's a remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, about a misanthrope and his relationship with his neighbors. Very enjoyable, another one of those tiny little films meant for grown-ups that people who haven't been to the movies in a decade falsely claim "they don't make anymore."
Puss in Boots - The Last Wish 1 child and 3 adults went. We all enjoyed it. It is the same theme and story as many other higher end animated shows have now. This one is told with some genuine fun and cleverness. The supporting characters really make this movie and I liked how the evil characters were just complex not one noted. Antonio's Puss is great - Salma's Kitty Softpaw sounds like she is in a different room from him but she had good lines. I have to say throughout the film I thought John Mulaney was Nathan Lane. It was a genuine surprise at the end credits.
That's only playing at one theater in this city, and I was wondering if we should search it out. Nicolas Cage and Abraham Benrubi, who people might remember from ER.
SawBabylon last night. Hard to remember this big of an epic failure. Not worth seeing to witness a train wreck of a film. Even makes Margot unappealing which i find hard to do.
