hold the dark (2018) 2/5 wolf expert travels to a remote alaskan village & finds himself in the middle of a crime/mystery. jeremy saulnier was 3/3 for me coming into this movie - murder party, green room & especially blue ruin were all fun, tight low budget goodness in my books. this, unfortunately, spoils his winning streak with me at least. it's flat & dreary & overly laden with plot & twists & characters, & loses all the focused simplicity of his first three movies.

[Edited 11/29/18 17:09pm]

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

EmmaMcG said:

[Spambot - luv4u]

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

sexton said:

Saturday Night Fever (Director's Cut) (1977)

There wasn't much of a difference between the director's cut and theatrical version--just a few short additional scenes were added. The choreography is the main reason to see this of course. 4.5/5

I've probably told this before but it's my best story, so bear with me.

This movie came out when I was 18. One of my friends saw it before the rest of us did and we asked him what the movie was about. He said, "It's about a bunch of guys just like us except they get laid".

EmmaMcG said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Ok 30 year olds pretending to be high school kids is still creepy.

No. Its called acting. Or do you also consider Michael J Fox to be creepy for playing a 17 year old in Back to the Future 3, when he was 29 in real life at the time?

No, the creepy part was when he was going to boink his mom.

RodeoSchro said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

About SNF and Grease is that they show how AMAZING The Bee Gees are. Lately I have been revisiting their music and am blown away at how amazing it is and how well their music has held up. I know there are a lot of people like me who LOVE The Bee Gees, but they still seem like they are underrated.

One of my favorite speeches was given by the Bee Gee's manager, Robert Stigwood. I think it was at the 2004 Grammys when the Bee Gees were inducted into the Hall of Fame, but I can't find the speech anywhere so I could be wrong.

Anyway, Stigwood spoke of the Bee Gees' career and its ups-and-downs. He focused on how hard they worked and how they never let defeat or slow sales keep them down. It was very inspiring but I'll never forget the last words of that speech.

After summarizing all the Bee Gees had accomplished through hard work and determination, Stigwood looked into the camera and said, "Be like the Bee Gees!"

One of the best speeches I've ever heard and anyone who heard it would have no choice but to respect the Bee Gees as true artists.

RodeoSchro said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

RodeoSchro said:

One of my favorite speeches was given by the Bee Gee's manager, Robert Stigwood. I think it was at the 2004 Grammys when the Bee Gees were inducted into the Hall of Fame, but I can't find the speech anywhere so I could be wrong.

Anyway, Stigwood spoke of the Bee Gees' career and its ups-and-downs. He focused on how hard they worked and how they never let defeat or slow sales keep them down. It was very inspiring but I'll never forget the last words of that speech.

After summarizing all the Bee Gees had accomplished through hard work and determination, Stigwood looked into the camera and said, "Be like the Bee Gees!"

One of the best speeches I've ever heard and anyone who heard it would have no choice but to respect the Bee Gees as true artists.

I will go out on the limb and say that if The Bee Gees were not involved in Both Grease and Saturday Night Fever they would never have been the hits that they were and would be judged solely on the mediocre movies they are. I know Grease was a big hit play and all and my niece was recently in a PG version of it at a school play and is beloved and all, but I think it would have gone the Rent way and mostly ignored as a movie if it wasn’t for The Bee Gees. [Edited 11/30/18 9:32am]

You might be right but "Saturday Night Fever" would still have been about a bunch of guys just like my friends and I, except they got laid.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

full list of this year's winners of the NYFCC Awards below: Best Film: Roma (Netflix) Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma (Netflix) Best First Film: Eighth Grade, dir. Bo Burnham (A24) Best Actor: Ethan Hawke for First Reformed (A24) Best Actress: Best Actress, Regina Hall, Support the Girls (Magnolia Pictures) Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant for Fox Searchlight’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight) Best Supporting Actress: Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna) Best Screenplay: First Reformed (Paul Schrader) (A24) Best Cinematography: Roma, Alfonso Cuaron (Netflix) Best Foreign Language Film: Cold War (dir. Pawel Pawlikowski) (Amazon) Best Documentary: Minding the Gap (dir. Bing Liu) Best Animated Film: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (dirs. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman) Special Awards: David Schwartz, Chief Film Curator at Museum of the Moving Image (who will be stepping down after 33 years) and Kino Classics Box Set “Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers.

I haven't seen First Reformed, but I will. I love Ethan Hawke! He's a fantastic and underrated actor. I would love to see him win an Oscar. He chooses such diverse roles. He was amazing as Chet Baker in Born to be Blue.

Empress said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Empress said:

I haven't seen First Reformed, but I will. I love Ethan Hawke! He's a fantastic and underrated actor. I would love to see him win an Oscar. He chooses such diverse roles. He was amazing as Chet Baker in Born to be Blue.

I agree about Ethan. He has been doing so much good work lately. Can’t wait to see it too. But so far Bradley Cooper seems a lock for the Oscar with his amazing performance in A Star is Born. [Edited 11/30/18 9:56am]

I love me some Bradley too. I hope either him or Ethan get the Oscar.

Empress said:

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) - Six years after the events of "Wreck-It Ralph," Ralph and Vanellope, now friends, discover a wi-fi router in their arcade, leading them into a new adventure.

It was clever how the workings of the internet were visualized. The girl power message was a little heavy-handed, but perhaps needed to be for kids to get it. 3.5/5

mandy (2018) 4/5 a man seeks revenge on a sadistic cult.

one of the more pleasant film surprises of 2018 has been the gift of two highly enjoyable nicolas cage movies; mom and dad was terrific b-movie fun, & mandy is flat out great imo.

i do wish there had been a bit more acid trip delirium towards the end, but why quibble? it's a magnificent, psychedelic trippy mess. it reminds me somewhat of bone tomahawk, partly because they share a bit of story structure, but mainly because they feel like two of the most metal movies in their tone & levels of brutality i've seen. won't be to everyone's tastes, but i loved it & i have a feeling this will be a film i will rewatch about two billion times.

[Edited 11/30/18 19:34pm]

Hudson said:

Misconduct (2016) Despite having 2 legendary Oscar winning actors in the cast (in Al Pacino & Anthony Hopkins, who were probablly paid a shitload of $ to sleep walk in this so called "legal thriller") this film was B.O.R.I.N.G! and it almost put me to And don't get me started on Josh Duhamel's Ben Cahill, sure he looked the part as a lawyer caught up in a web of lies and blackmail, however, his connect-the-dots wooden performance was really annoying, and the rest of the cast weren't much better....especially Alice Eve who plays Ben's depressed wife as a pouting, one-dimentional baby doll. Plus, the script was poorly written, the plot made no sense, the editing was confusing and by the end of the film I did not care who lived or died. I give this pile of a 0 out of 5 This is the worst film I have watched this year, because I felt robbed of my time.

Mrs. RodeoSchro was out of town Friday night, so the kids and I entertained ourselves with a Movie Night. Now, normally there would be a great fight over movie selection. I, of course, would be the voice of reason and promote an Arnold, Stallone, The Rock or Bruce Willis movie. My daughter would be screaming for anything with Zac Efron or some such young man in it. And my son invariably tends toward movies that are "weighty". While I've seen about zero of the movies that are reviewed here by much smarter people than me, like sexton and damosuzuki and...well, everyone who posts on this thread, I bet my son has seen most or all of them.

So you know what happened, right?

We all immediately agreed on "Game Night"!

This comedy stars the ever-likable whatshisname. Ummmmm....Michael, Michael, Michael Something. The dude from "Arrested Development". Dang it, don't make me resort to Wikipedia this soon.

Michael Keaton? No. Michael J. Fox? No. He has a sister that was semi-popular in the '90's. Justine. Ah - Justine Bateman! Which means her brother isn't named "Michael" at all. It's Jason Bateman. He was Michael Bluth on "Arrested Development". That's it!

I can't refer to Jason Bateman as "Michael from Arrested Development" because I already refer to John Krasinski as "Jim from The Office". And like Prince, I've vowed to never repeat myself. Although...

...it kind of pains me to say this, but I think I found a case of Prince repeating himself. A case that no one in history has ever noticed. Just me.

It's the riffs of "Screwdriver" and "Brand New Boy". The first four notes of each are the same - at least, according to my tin ear. Therefore, if I ever rip myself off, I will invoke The Screwdriver Rule and claim immunity from prosecution. I know of a dude in Washington, D.C. that would like to claim immunity under The Screwdriver Rule!

OK, I've filled the requisite bandwidth with my piffle. On to the movie!

It's not that good. It's about as forgettable was Michael Justin Jason Bateman's name. And I like Jason Bateman. He's got really good comedic timing. It'll be great when he's in another real comedy like "Horrible Bosses". This movie? Eh, not so much.

Bateman (no disrespect but I'm calling him just "Bateman" from here on out, as I can remember that part of his name most of the time) and Rachel McAdams are competitive Trivia Night opponents who get married and have trivia-based sex. I assume, anyway. I don't know why "trivia-based sex" popped in my head. What would that even be? It boggles the mind to ponder such a thing. All I can think of is "Moops!"

Bateman and McAdams have some friends who always come over for Game Night. They play all the classics. But their next-door-neighbor and his wife get divorced, and the wife moves away. This gives Bateman's crew a chance to quit inviting the next-door-neighbor, as they don't really like him all that much. I thought the neighbor was a fat Matt Damon but as you'll see, it was someone else.

Bateman's brother shows up for a Secret Game Night that Bateman is trying to hide from his neighbor. Unfortunately on multiple levels, the brother shows up loudly and forces Bateman into lying to his neighbor. BTW, his neighbor is a cop so figuring out when someone is lying is pretty easy for that guy. That's unfortunate for Bateman.

Another unfortunate thing is that the brother shows up driving Bateman's dream car. And what a lame dream car it is!

Now, I love Corvettes. I've owned one, and I'm sure I'll own more. They're awesome and always have been. Except for the mid-70's, back when smog and insurance controls made them less attractive and very slow. No one in their right mind wants a '76 Corvette. Guess what Bateman's dream car is?




That, my friends, is a 1976 Corvette. If there was ever an uncool Corvette, that is it. No chrome bumpers. No convertible top. No 427 engine. No front spoiler. No rear deck spoiler. No ANYTHING.

You can buy a '76 Vette in good shape for $6,500. The nicest '76 Vette on ebay is under $30K. I wil hazard a couple guesses here: (1) Whoever wrote this knew nothing about Corvettes; and/or (2) whoever wrote this was trying to get into the pants of a woman who for some unfathomable reason drives a '76 Vette and the writer figured getting a Hollywood movie made that featured her car would get him some lovin'. Whoever wrote this is named Mark Perez. Mark Perez, I hope it was worth it!

Here is another '76 Corvette that's available. It's being auctioned. I don't think the reserve is going to be too high:




Go here if you're interested in owning a representative sample of the average 1976 Corvette: https://classics.autotrad.../101015240

So anyway, Bateman's brother shows up and says they aren't playing any of Bateman's lame games. No! They're playing a murder mystery set up by Bateman's brother. And the winner gets the keys to his 1976 Corvette. Yay.

Some dudes then break in and kidnap the brother. Everyone thinks that's part of the game, but it isn't. Or maybe it is. Actually - AND HERE IS A SPOILER ALERT THAT WILL RUIN THE WHOLE MOVIE IF YOU CARE ABOUT THOSE KINDS OF THINGS - it IS part of a game, but it's part of a game Bateman's neighbor is playing. WARNING - THE REST OF THIS FINE REVIEW ALSO SPOILS THE MOVIE. AGAIN, IF YOU CARE ABOUT THAT KIND OF THING.

The movie gets confusing. There is a murder mystery game that was set up by Bateman's brother. Then, there is a game-within-a-game set up by the neighbor. Then, it turns out Bateman's brother is a thief, so actual bad guys show up to kill him but no one knows if they're bad, or if they're in Game #1 or Game #2.

A whole bunch of stuff happens that stretches the bounds of credibility, even for a comedy. Suffice to say that the good guys win, the '76 Vette gets wrecked, and it turns out that one of the girls did not have sex with Denzel Washington but rather with a guy that kind of looks like Denzel Washington.

Oh yeah - it also turns out that the neighbor and the guy who plays the actual bad guy were both on some show called "Friday Night Lights", which greatly pleased my daughter.

The best part of the movie is the ending credits, where the neighbor's basement is revealed to show an elaborate set-up complete with charts, graphs, connecting strings of red yarn for minature dolls, minature houses, a minature '76 Vette, etc. that helped the neighbor stage all this so that he would get invited to Game Nights again.

"Game Night" is OK. I wouldn't go out of my way to see it but if it came on while I was too lazy to change the channel, well...you could do worse. I guess what disappoints me the most is that this is the one movie where RodeoSchro, Son of RodeoSchro, and Daughter of RodeoSchro all agreed we wanted to see. I was expecting more from such universal agreement!

Should I blame Mrs. RodeoSchro for not being there and potentially putting the kibosh on this? Of course not - she might read this some day! Honey, if you do read this, just know that I love you and I blame the kids.

"Game Night" will be rated on a much better Corvette scale than a '76 Vette scale. Therefore, it gets 2 1969 427 Tri-Power Corvettes with Sidepipe Exhausts out of 5 1969 427 Tri-Power Corvettes with Sidepipe Exhausts




.

[Edited 12/3/18 12:08pm]

american animals (2018) 3.5/5 university students hatch a plan to steal 'birds of america' from a lexington university. a few weeks ago, i declared myself bored by widows, & went on to conclude that i am indifferent to caper & heist films. now here comes american animals to blow a hole in that theory. this hums with a fantastic energy, a hugely winning presentation of a train wreck true story. & i'd also say this is one of the best uses of intersplicing of interviews with the 'real' people into a 'boats' movie that i've seen.

[Edited 12/3/18 16:36pm]

Kingsman - The Golden Circle (2017)

and every orger should have seen the first 10 minutes at least!

I watched First Reformed the other night. It was terrible. Very bleak, dis-jointed and downright sickening. I love Ethan Hawke, but this role was awful and I think anyone could've done it. A waste of 2 hours.