Netflix: A Christmas Horror Story. yikes! changelings and murders and krampus, oh my! this movie is centered around an horrific event that took place on Christmas Eve one year ago. the plot revolves around separate but intertwined vignettes about four bands of ill-fated protagonists. won't give the plot(s) away except to say: imagine Santa fighting off zombie elves

purpleemotions said:

Lianachan said:

purpleemotions said:

Splice - I recently watched this movie and needless to say it was everything but normal. The movie was very weird, but interesting in a sense of 'can something like this actually happen?' I recommond it, if you are interested in weird scifi. Warning: this movie is NOT a kids movie and shows graphic and sexually explicit scenes.

Very good film, that.

Yes, very interesting but weird too. I always wondered what if Elsa (Sarah Polley) decided not to keep her promise and tell the world what happened instead?

namepeace said:

Ace said:

I really liked this one!

Coen movies are always in the eye of the beholder, so I can see how a lot of folks would love it. (I loved Intolerable Cruelty and it seems to be regarded as their worst film.)

I'm in the minority on Hail, Caesar! though. It got pretty good reviews on release.

I'm generally not a Coen Bros. fan, but I enjoyed this one.

johnny got his gun (1971) - ww1 soldier, blown apart in an explosion & left with no arms, legs & unable to see, hear or speak, is kept alive by the military. it moves between very bleak, grim scenes of the man trying to understand his situation & learn to communicate that are shot in b&w, and bizarre flashback/fantasy sequences shown in colour. a few of the flashbacks seemed a little pointless, but overall i thought this was a really good, effective, bleak movie. 4/5

[Edited 12/4/16 19:24pm]

Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) (2005)

Wonderful film about a cease-fire at the front of World War I during Christmas 2014. A movie filled with both holiday spirit and heartbreak. A great film for the early part of the holiday season.

I've been watching these cheesy Nigerian Movies.


This one was just perfect for all the crazy ass cheesy soap opera drama one woman can want in a movie. It was great.



Fifty. Imma have to give it a 3/5 because I'd watch it again with all it's flaws. I was just smacking on all my popcorn watching this.

Sing Street

Meh. I far preferred Begin Again. Haven't seen Once and have no plans to (seems a little syrupy for me).

XxAxX said:

Netflix: A Christmas Horror Story. yikes! changelings and murders and krampus, oh my! this movie is centered around an horrific event that took place on Christmas Eve one year ago. the plot revolves around separate but intertwined vignettes about four bands of ill-fated protagonists. won't give the plot(s) away except to say: imagine Santa fighting off zombie elves

HOLY CRAP I HAVE TO WATCH THIS!!!!!!

namepeace said:

Ace said:

I really liked this one!

Coen movies are always in the eye of the beholder, so I can see how a lot of folks would love it. (I loved Intolerable Cruelty and it seems to be regarded as their worst film.)

I'm in the minority on Hail, Caesar! though. It got pretty good reviews on release.

I'm with you on this one. I didn't think it was bad, but there are Coen brothers movies I've liked a lot more. I gave it a 3/5 when I saw it earlier this year.

Meh.

Lianachan said:

The Revenant (2015)

I understand why Leo won the Oscar; he gave a soulful performance. Tom Hardy almost stole the movie, though I couldn't understand exactly what he said. It harkens back to movies like Jeremiah Johnson and Last of the Mohicans. A bit disjointed in places, but solid film. As with Inarittu's prior film, Birdman, the score is on point.

.5

Petes Dragon (2016 version) 4 outta 5!! ....even cried twice and as a 30 year old man, ..I aint ashamed to admit it!!

Saratoga (1937) starring Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, who died during the making of the film from uremic poisoning. In order to finish the film, the producers hired Mary Dees as body double......which you could tell during some scenes, where they hid her face near the end of the film with big floppy hats or the back of her head, while another actress Paula Winslowe supplied her voice. I give this film a 4 out of 5 a lovely tribute to the orginal Bombshell

[Edited 12/10/16 19:08pm]

Very good movie, I'd give it a 4-out-of-5.

Jennifer Aniston was in a unique role for her, and she played it well.

Jason Batemen was okay.

Kate McKinnon reminded me way too much of Marcy D'Arcy.

And the star of the movie, TJ Miller, was arrested for battery on the same day the movie was released.

Adam Sandler and David Space in The Do Over. funny!!!!

Loved it - kinda like a modern day western

Jeff Bridges - still got it.

Chris Pine - good to see him breathing as an actor...i only really know of him through the Star Trek franchise.

Enjoyable!

My family were involved in clearing up the BCCI scandal - although I was too young to understand all the complexities...

If you enjoy both Scarface/Donnie Brasco/Wall Street - this is a good watch

In addition to Bryan Cranston, it is always nice to see John "Benny Blanco from the Bronx" Leguziamo...

And Diane Kruger is fine!!!!!

Do you follow sports? (Or for any millenial hipsters here, "sportsball".) I do. I've played most of the sports, and been on more than a few organized/school teams. I've had lots of coaches in my life. Coaches love cliches! Heck, I loved them when I coached my son in various sports, so I'm no different. One of the cliches coaches like to use after a loss is this:

Don't let this team beat you twice.

That means that you have to let the loss go. Don't dwell on it and let it impact your preparation for your next contest because if you do, you'll probably lose again.

That's what I did with "U. S. Marshals". I let one thing beat me twice.

You may have read my review of Elmore Leonard's "Riding the Rap" in the book thread. Although I like a lot of Leonard's books, and even like some of the characters in "Riding the Rap", I didn't like this book. It was full of losers doing what they do best - losing. Even the hero, Raylan Givens, depressed me. The book dragged me down. It bummed me out.

So what made me thing that watching "U. S. Marshals" this morning to see if the Marshals were anything like Raylan Givens was a smart thing to do?

It wasn't.

But at first it was! Because this movie has a great first 20 minutes. Wesley Snipes kills a couple dudes in a parking garage, and then disappears. Months later, he is working as a tow truck driver and gets in a wreck. While in the hospital, the police find out his prints match those of the guy wanted for killing those two dudes in the parking garage. So here come the U. S. Marshals! But first a digression:

I didn't know this until doing my research later, but...wait. Y'all didn't know I research these things? Of course I do! Granted, my research usually consists of IMDb-hopping cast member profiles to see if they were per chance in any of the Holy Triumvirate of '80's Action Movies, but still - that's research!

My research showed this movie is the sequel to "The Fugitive". Now in "The Fugitive" as I recall Tommy Lee Jones played a no-nonsense badass. He was remembered for the following dialogue with Harrison Ford:

HARRISON FORD: I'm innocent!

TOMMY LEE JONES: I don't care!

I don't recall him as being the kind of guy that would dress up in a giant chicken outfit. But that's what he does in this movie! He's staking out some bad guys and when they get home, Mr. Chicken and His Merry Band of U. S. Marshals spring into action. They "knock on the door" which is U. S. Marshal-speak for breaking down the door.

Chaos ensues, ending up with one of the bad guys attempting to reach a crib and quiet his crying baby. Of course, he's not really Father of The Year. No, the baby's crib is where he keeps his loaded shotgun. Don't we all! But this fails, and Tommy Lee Jones gets to hit some people over the head with his gun.

So we know he's a guy that doesn't play by anyone's rules. Therefore, he's tasked with taking Wesley Snipes and 40 or 50 other cons somewhere on a specially-modified 727 jet. It's basically a prison with wings.

Earlier in the movie, when the cops were questioning/arresting Snipes, he was able to somehow remove one of the temples from a set of eyeglasses belonging to the Chief of Police. If you don't know the temple is, refer to this handy diagram:





Hey, you want to know something interesting? I'm almost 58. I had Lasik eye surgery almost 30 years ago. They slightly over-corrected one eye, and under-corrected the other. This was supposed to put off me needing bifocals or readers. Most men need them around the age of 40 but here I am at 57.85 years old and I still read unaided. I highly recommend Lasik and if you get it, check out the way they did it to me.

Snipes hides the temple in his arm cast, which is on his arm only as a precaution due to some kind of plate Snipes has in his arm. That convoluted explanation kind of summarizes the convoluted nature of this movie. It's like the writer couldn't figure out how to have Snipes hide the temple, so he said "Well, if he had a cast that would work. So let's give him a cast and we won't worry about whether that makes sense or not!"

So back to Con Air. There's a Chinese prisoner on board, who finagles a trip to the open-air restroom. He's able to secretly remove a zip gun from the toilet paper holder, which he's going to use to kill Snipes. Why he wants to kill Snipes, we don't know.

But wihle that guy is obtaining his zip gun, Snipes is using the temple he stashed in his cast to pick his handcuffs. So he's able to divert the guy's attempted kill shot; however, such diversion causes a giant hole in the plane and it sucks out the Chinese guy and a marshal. It also causes the plane to lose air pressure and just about everything else that matters.

A great emergency landing is accomplished but unfortunately, the road does not go on forever so the party ends. By "the party ends" I mean the jet careens off the road, down a hill, and into a lake. Many prisoners are saved but as Tommy Lee Jones is doing the saving, he notices Snipes using the temple to unlock his ankle cuffs. "Going somewhere?" asks Jones. "No," lies Snipes. "Great, help me save some prisoners," says Jones. I know you won't believe this, but Snipes fails to help save any prisoners, instead running away.

One thing I did like about this movie is that it was filmed in 1997, before everything was CGI. Therefore, they needed a real 727 fuselage to pull out of the lake. So they built an actual 727 fuselage. Cool! Today, you'd get some actors emoting in front of a green curtain, and all the scenery would be generated by some lady that works 14 hours a day, 7 days a week doing that stuff. (Have you seen that commercial? Who the heck works 100 hours a week for someone else? Ridiculous.) But we get a real 727 fuselage. Ah, the good old days!

I've now summarized all the good parts of this film. For the next 2 hours, it just gets more and more convoluted and confusing. Robert Downey, Jr. shows up. Of course, he's a smartass but for some reason, he's not a full Robert Downey, Jr. Smartass level. He's at more like a James Spader Smartass level. And he's the bad guy, but you aren't supposed to know that. However, you will figure it out pretty quick so I don't feel bad about just ruining the movie for you. I guess you might as well know he dies, too.

The rest of the movie is Tommy Lee Jones playing his patented Grumpy Old Man role, with rapid-fire supposed-to-be-funny lines thrown in. He's kind of unlikeable, as is Snipes. You know who IS likeable?

Steve Buscemi's brother! Except, this guy isn't really Steve Buscemi's brother. But my goodness, he sounds EXACTLY like Buscemi! His name is Joe Pantoliano aka "Joey Pants". He's been in pretty much everything. Here he is in "Risky Business":



But other than Joey Pants, there aren't many reasons to waste time on this movie. I recommend you file it in your Movies You Can Watch The First Twenty Minutes Of And Then Leave Without Feeling Bad file.

"U. S. Marshals" gets 1 1/5 Acerbic Tommy Lee Jones Lines out of No One Wants To Hear More Than 1 1/5 Acerbic Tommy Lee Jones Lines.

EmmaMcG said:

Lianachan said:

Meh.

I really liked the Hateful Eight.

me too... i'll admit that going in i was thinking "yawn... sam jackson in another tarantino flick"... but 15 minutes in i couldn't imagine anyone else in the role

RodeoSchro said:

Steve Buscemi's brother! Except, this guy isn't really Steve Buscemi's brother. But my goodness, he sounds EXACTLY like Buscemi! His name is Joe Pantoliano aka "Joey Pants". He's been in pretty much everything. Here he is in "Risky Business":

But other than Joey Pants, there aren't many reasons to waste time on this movie. I recommend you file it in your Movies You Can Watch The First Twenty Minutes Of And Then Leave Without Feeling Bad file.

"U. S. Marshals" gets 1 1/5 Acerbic Tommy Lee Jones Lines out of No One Wants To Hear More Than 1 1/5 Acerbic Tommy Lee Jones Lines.

Thanks! - I will check this out!!!!

Love Midnight Run - whislt in LA, made a point of going to the food court downtown where Joey P does his "business"!

MoBettaBliss said:

^Goggins - The Shield - Sons of Anarchy..... Superb!

Interesting in a new programme called "Vice Principals" - he plays camp so well!

Going to binge "Justified" when I have a couple of hedonistic hangover days!

[Edited 12/11/16 15:59pm]

Connected said:

EmmaMcG said:

Connected said:

^Goggins - The Shield - Sons of Anarchy..... Superb!

Interesting in a new programme called "Vice Principals" - he plays camp so well!

Going to binge "Justified" when I have a couple of hedonistic hangover days!

Justified is his best work yet! Even if he does pale in comparison to the greatest man who ever lived, Timothy Olyphant. God, I love Timothy Olyphant....

Loved him in "The Girl next Door"...and... another "to do" binge is "Deadwood"

other people - gay man comes home to help his family take care of his dying mom. stereotypical indie drama, but a really good one i'd say. if you haven't had a good cry lately, this might do it. 3.5/5.

[Edited 12/11/16 18:31pm]

damosuzuki said:

other people - gay man comes home to help his family take care of his dying mom. stereotypical indie drama, but a really good one i'd say. if you haven't had a good cry lately, this might do it. 3.5/5.

[Edited 12/11/16 18:31pm]

Thank you - will check it out....

Did look at it - and in fairness....looked kinda depressing

But on your recommendation - will watch...

I like the cast - the guy from Breaking bad I think

Jason Bourne...2 Stars..



2hrs of wasted film....I've seen ALL of the Bourne films....Matt Damon never ate, slept, Fucked and he never smiled...He just kept walking the entire movie....The only way to save the franchise is to pick back up where Jeremy Renner left off and be done with Matt for good...