damosuzuki said:

sing street - could be dismissed as corny, i'd imagine, but i thought it was completely charming & endearing & perfect and i loved every single minute of it. 4.5/5

This is one of my top five films of 2016.

Blood Father (2016) - An ex-con reunites with his estranged wayward 17-year old daughter to protect her from drug dealers who are trying to kill her.

Mel Gibson isn't bad in this Taken-type of movie, but there's nothing new here. 3/5

sexton said:

damosuzuki said:

sing street - could be dismissed as corny, i'd imagine, but i thought it was completely charming & endearing & perfect and i loved every single minute of it. 4.5/5

This is one of my top five films of 2016.

i'm honestly very happy to hear that. i loved this movie, have been replaying it in my head ever since i watched it (i can't remember the last time that happened) and i'm truly pleased to hear you like it too.

.

what's your top five list? I can put together a list, but i have yet to see the handmaiden (playing here next week), moonlight and a few other films that i expect to be great.

Terrible.

Manchester by the Sea (2016) - An uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.

I love that the film didn't give me what I wanted because it was much more real this way. And Casey Affleck hit a home run and then some with his acting. 5/5

damosuzuki said:

sexton said:

This is one of my top five films of 2016.

i'm honestly very happy to hear that. i loved this movie, have been replaying it in my head ever since i watched it (i can't remember the last time that happened) and i'm truly pleased to hear you like it too.

.

what's your top five list? I can put together a list, but i have yet to see the handmaiden (playing here next week), moonlight and a few other films that i expect to be great.

These are the only 2016 USA releases which I rated 4.5/5 or higher:

1. The Handmaiden
2. Moonlight
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. La La Land
5. Sing Street
6. A Bigger Splash
7. Hell or High Water
8. April and the Extraordinary World

Even though Sing Street is at #5, I'd see it again before Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea, as excellent as those movies are because it's such a positive, heartwarming, great film. So in that respect, perhaps it should be #2.

Shadows and Fog

Just watched this again.

It's one of Woody's least-popular (it's an atypical film for him in a few ways), but I love it.

Last Days In The Desert (2015)

Rodrigo Garcia gives us an exquisite, apocryphal tale about Jesus' encounter with a poor family at the end of his 40 days in the desert. Ewan McGregor gives a wonderful performance as Hesus, and perhaps the best, most nuanced portrayal of Satan as every bit the fallen angel. Ciaran Hinds and Tye Sheridan's storyline is actually parallel to the struggles of Jesus' relationship with his father.

A Jesus film for everyone.

.75

Jackie (2016) - Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy fights through grief and trauma to regain her faith, console her children, and define her husband's historic legacy.

I'm not familiar enough with Jackie Kennedy to know if the characterization is accurate, but I do like how she was portrayed. The directing style was also very sharp and reminded me of Darren Aronofsky (who is the producer). And kudos to the stark score by Mica Levi (Under The Skin). 4/5

sexton said:

damosuzuki said:

i'm honestly very happy to hear that. i loved this movie, have been replaying it in my head ever since i watched it (i can't remember the last time that happened) and i'm truly pleased to hear you like it too.

.

what's your top five list? I can put together a list, but i have yet to see the handmaiden (playing here next week), moonlight and a few other films that i expect to be great.

These are the only 2016 USA releases which I rated 4.5/5 or higher:

1. The Handmaiden
2. Moonlight
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. La La Land
5. Sing Street
6. A Bigger Splash
7. Hell or High Water
8. April and the Extraordinary World

Even though Sing Street is at #5, I'd see it again before Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea, as excellent as those movies are because it's such a positive, heartwarming, great film. So in that respect, perhaps it should be #2.

Is it any good? i have seen it's on Netflix

Not official for this thread...but I'm watching "Some Like It Hot" on TV for the first time in many years and I forgot how fun and witty it is. Love the writing and chemistry between the stars...and lines like the one when Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis exchange a steamy kiss: "It's like smoking without inhaling." He does a pretty good Cary Grant imitation. LOL And the wink, wink attitude toward gender roles. "Why would a guy want to marry a guy?" "Security!" LMAO Terrific movie!

[Edited 1/6/17 18:28pm]

purplethunder3121 said:

Slow Learners (2015)

A nice little film with likeable characters. It's like a Hallmark movie by way of Sundance films.

214 said:

sexton said:

These are the only 2016 USA releases which I rated 4.5/5 or higher:

1. The Handmaiden
2. Moonlight
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. La La Land
5. Sing Street
6. A Bigger Splash
7. Hell or High Water
8. April and the Extraordinary World

Even though Sing Street is at #5, I'd see it again before Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea, as excellent as those movies are because it's such a positive, heartwarming, great film. So in that respect, perhaps it should be #2.

Is it any good? i have seen it's on Netflix

It's my favorite movie of 2016 so of course it's good! As for whether or not you will like it, I don't know.

Last night, I went to the local open mic night at the only bar in town (I'm still on the mountain). The drinks flowed, and to make a long story short, I celebrated our -16 degree temperature (F) by playing my last set with my shirt off. Hey - if you do 36,600 push-ups in a year, you ought to get at least ONE chance to show off the results!

But I paid for it today. Yikes, have I ever been paying for it. It was all I could do to drag myself to the couch and turn on the TV. I feel much better now, even after what I have just watched. Let's title today's viewing as The Triple Threat or Too Much Speed. Let's have Homer Simpson introduce the first movie:



Yep, I watched "Speed" first. At the same time, I watched "The Maltese Falcon". Thank goodness for commercials! I was able to flip back and forth, but I watched much more of "The Maltese Falcon" than I did "Speed". I hope the filmophiles here are proud of me!

First, let's get to "The Maltese Falcon". It's regarded as a classic and rightly so. It's also a movie adapted from a book, "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett. I read the book this past summer. It was good, I didn't think it was great. But the movie? GREAT. The cast made the dialogue - which was in most cases lifted word-for-word from the book, music to my ears. It really came to life. I'd have to think about it, but this is probably the best movie made from a book that I've ever seen. It's maybe even the only movie made from a book that I know of where the movie is better than the book. So I'm not going to spoil this fine cinematic experience by bloviating any longer on it.

"The Maltese Falcon" gets five stars out of five stars.

I also caught most of "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down", also known as "Speed" to you non-Simpsons fans. I think "Speed" is one of the best action movies around. The concept is clever; there are numerous great action sequences; Keanu Reeves was a fantastic cop; Dennis Hopper was Dennis Hopper, which means "GREAT"; and America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ owned her scenes. Again, this is the kind of movie where I really can't improve on it, or entertain you with barely-connected bon mots, so let's rate it!

"The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down a/k/a Speed" gets five stars out of five stars.

However, "Speed 2" is one of those movies right in my wheelhouse! Buckle up, y'all, this is what my momma made me for!

"Speed 2" got horrible reviews. I suspect it was because like me, everyone assumed that it was going to revolve around a ship that couldn't drop below a certain speed. Wrong!

It's really just another Big Heist Movie, set on a cruise ship. The only reason it's called "Speed 2" is because America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ reprises her Annie character. Otherwise, it has nothing in common with "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down" although they do open the movie by explaining Keanu Reeves's absence. "He wanted too much money, he was too smart to be in this mediocre movie, and/or he was busy filming another in a long line of busts. Take your pick!" America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ tells driving instructor Tim Conway (inspired casting! He should have been the hero in this movie!).

Just kidding! She said they broke up because, as she said in the first movie (I'm tired of typing "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down" and also that joke has probably gotten all the mileage it can get), "Relationships that start under periods of extreme stress never last". She says that line three or four times in this movie, too.

Her current boyfriend is Jason Patric, who she thinks is a bicycle cop who patrols beaches. Actually, he's LA's Super Cop - a true maniac who can do anything, including arresting a fleeing ice cream truck driver while both of them are rolling down a hill. This arrest is complicated because for some unexplained reason, Annie's driving test is taking place on the same deserted road as the ice cream truck chase (they never do explain what the ice cream truck driver did but I assume it centered around bad Fudgecicles). Annie is dismayed to learn her boyfriend is actually a Super Cop, but Super Cop diffuses the situation by telling Annie they are going on a cruise.

So they go on a cruise! Guess who else is on it?

Denis Leary!

As soon as I saw Denis Leary I thought, "Screw this. I'm not watching any more movies with that douchebag in them. What else is on?" But when I hit the Info button I found out that wasn't Denis Leary - it was Willem Dafoe! I love Willem Dafoe! Who couldn't love a guy named Willem? So, game on!

In "Speed", Dennis Hopper creates all the mayhem and kills all the people because he was disrespected by his former employer. In "Speed 2" Willem Dafoe creates all the mayhem and kills all the people because he was....surprise! Disrespected by his former employer! In Dafoe's case, his former employer was the cruise ship company, and it turns out Dafoe had designed all the computer programs for that ship. But he got copper poisoning from being too close to computers for too long (man, I hope that isn't a real thing!) and according to Dafoe, the company fired him for being sick. But Dafoe showed them! He bought some leeches and periodically has the leeches suck all the copper out of his blood. This gives him the lifespan and vitality to rob his former employer, and also kill a lot of people.

Jason Patric immediately becomes suspicious of Dafoe because Dafoe is wearing a golf shirt, but isn't watching the big golf tournament playing on the giant TV screen right behind him. Personally, I would not have thought that was suspicious, but I am not a Super Cop.

A far more suspicious person to me would have been Michael Hagerty. Who? you ask. You know this guy! I bet you've seen him 30 times. Here's a hint - he was Rudy in the classic Seinfeld two-part episode "The Raincoats". He's the guy that ran the vintage clothing store, which got infested by moths from Frank Costanza's cabana wear. You remember that!

Hagerty is the most Chicago dude EVER. Every time he opens his mouth, you fully expect him to say "Da Bears". Let me check and see if he was one of the Super Fans from those "Saturday Night Live" skits. <Googling> NO?!? Really?!?! Take a look at this guy and tell me he wasn't a Super Fan:



Dafoe has a bunch of computers set up in his room. He's smuggled in many components through hollowed-out golf clubs. As he's working on stuff, the ship's purser comes in and sees all the electronics. He tries to apologize for coming in but Dafoe says, "Let's not split hairs" - and then he splits all the purser's hairs with his golf club! (The purser doesn't die, he's just knocked out.)

The first thing Dafoe does is take control of the ship's electronics. The navigator notices things aren't working right, and says, "Aye captain! I canna give her any moor!" Yes, the navigator is Scottish and sounds exactly like Scotty from "Star Trek". I kept expecting him to ask for more dilithium crystals but sadly, he never does.

Dafoe kills the captain and takes control. He steals a bunch of jewels and then tells the remaining ship's officers that they'd better activate the Abandon Ship protocol or everyone is going to die. To prove his point, he explodes a bunch of stuff.

As everyone is rushing to the lifeboats, Super Cop Jason Patric sniffs the air and says, "Hey! I smell sulfur! There's nothing in the mechanics of a cruise ship's engine system that has sulfur. That can only mean there's a super criminal on board, and all this is a diversion from the larger crime!" I think that's what he said, by anyway Patric goes to the bridge and finds out that there IS a madman onboard, and no one knows where the captain is (HINT: swimming with the fishes). So Patric tells the navigator to beam him up, because Patric is now Captain Kirk. More or less.

Lots of explosions and rescues follow. Willem Dafoe is certifiably insane, cracking wise and laughing uncontrollably at all his mayhem. He has a button on his special mini-computer for everything! Patric can chase him all he wants and all Dafoe has to do is hit a button and presto! Whatever door Patric needs to go through is shut before he can go through it! This makes all the chases pretty one-sided.

Dafoe programs the ship to run into a supertanker, which for some reason is docked in the bay at St. Martin. No one can change the ship's course until they figure out the right wheel to turn down in some far corner of the engine room. Patric is able to find and turn the wheel and avoid the head-on collision with the super tanker and everyone is happy....BUT. But Patric forgot to turn the wheel enough to send the cruise ship back out to sea. Instead, he only turned it enough to head it straight into the island of St. Martin. Ooops!

Rather than go back and try to turn the wheel some more in order to save lives and not destroy St. Martin, they let the ship tear through the bay, run over lots of little boats, and run aground onshore, demolishing most of St. Martin's businesses, homes and people.

It all could have been avoided though, if only people had listened to the barking dog. It tried to warn everyone on shore that a giant cruise ship was coming to kill them, but I guess everyone thought the barking meant there was trouble at the old well, instead of 30,000 tons of death bearing down on them. The good news is that the barking dog survived.

By this time Dafoe has exited the ship via jet ski. He has taken the jewelry and has America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ as a hostage. His plan is to jet ski to a seaplane that he had conveniently left drifting in the bay some days ago (don't ask) and take off for freedom. He plans to jettison America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ at 10,000 feet.

Patric needs a fast boat to catch them. He commandeers the boat belonging to - oh, you will never guess who! That's right - it's Tune Man! The same guy whose Jaguar was commandeered by Keanu Reeves in "Speed"! Tune Man can't believe his bad luck when it comes to having his vehicles commandeered by Los Angeles cops, but helps out anyway.

They reach the plane before it's able to take off. Patric literally reels himself in with a fishing rod, enters the cockpit, punches out Dafoe, and takes America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ with him. Somehow Patric is able to disengage one of the seaplane's pods, and they float at a high rate of speed back towards what's left of St. Martin.

Dafoe regains his senses and pulls up just before he's about to crash into the super tanker. Almost. He misses everything but the mast, where his plane becomes shish-ka-bobbed. It starts leaking fuel, which causes Dafoe to laugh maniacally. Then everything blows up, and I mean EVERYTHING blows up. Goodbye, beautiful island of St. Martin. It was nice knowing you!

Tune Man picks up the bag of jewelry that luckily is floating in the bay, and Patric gives America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ an engagement ring. The end, except that America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ still has to pass her driver's test. She gets Tim Conway again! Conway tells her to make a left out of the DMV but a city bus zips by.

"That bus is speeding!" says America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™. "It sure is!" responds Tim Conway. THE END.

"Speed 2" isn't all that bad. Willem Dafoe is excellent. Jason Patric - whose father is Jason Miller, and his grandfather was Jackie Gleason - is no Keanu Reeves but he's OK. I mainly typed that sentence to let you know that Patric is The Great One's grandson, which means nothing but was something I would have never guessed.

I rate this movie 2 1/2 Tune Man Commandeered Vehicles out of a possible 5 Tune Man Commandeered Vehicles. It's too bad there wasn't a Speed 3, 4 or 5 so we could see what kind of other cool vehicles Tune Man had available for commandeering!

RodeoSchro said:

Last night, I went to the local open mic night at the only bar in town (I'm still on the mountain). The drinks flowed, and to make a long story short, I celebrated our -16 degree temperature (F) by playing my last set with my shirt off. Hey - if you do 36,600 push-ups in a year, you ought to get at least ONE chance to show off the results!

But I paid for it today. Yikes, have I ever been paying for it. It was all I could do to drag myself to the couch and turn on the TV. I feel much better now, even after what I have just watched. Let's title today's viewing as The Triple Threat or Too Much Speed. Let's have Homer Simpson introduce the first movie:



Yep, I watched "Speed" first. At the same time, I watched "The Maltese Falcon". Thank goodness for commercials! I was able to flip back and forth, but I watched much more of "The Maltese Falcon" than I did "Speed". I hope the filmophiles here are proud of me!

First, let's get to "The Maltese Falcon". It's regarded as a classic and rightly so. It's also a movie adapted from a book, "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett. I read the book this past summer. It was good, I didn't think it was great. But the movie? GREAT. The cast made the dialogue - which was in most cases lifted word-for-word from the book, music to my ears. It really came to life. I'd have to think about it, but this is probably the best movie made from a book that I've ever seen. It's maybe even the only movie made from a book that I know of where the movie is better than the book. So I'm not going to spoil this fine cinematic experience by bloviating any longer on it.

"The Maltese Falcon" gets five stars out of five stars.

I also caught most of "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down", also known as "Speed" to you non-Simpsons fans. I think "Speed" is one of the best action movies around. The concept is clever; there are numerous great action sequences; Keanu Reeves was a fantastic cop; Dennis Hopper was Dennis Hopper, which means "GREAT"; and America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ owned her scenes. Again, this is the kind of movie where I really can't improve on it, or entertain you with barely-connected bon mots, so let's rate it!

"The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down a/k/a Speed" gets five stars out of five stars.

However, "Speed 2" is one of those movies right in my wheelhouse! Buckle up, y'all, this is what my momma made me for!

"Speed 2" got horrible reviews. I suspect it was because like me, everyone assumed that it was going to revolve around a ship that couldn't drop below a certain speed. Wrong!

It's really just another Big Heist Movie, set on a cruise ship. The only reason it's called "Speed 2" is because America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ reprises her Annie character. Otherwise, it has nothing in common with "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down" although they do open the movie by explaining Keanu Reeves's absence. "He wanted too much money, he was too smart to be in this mediocre movie, and/or he was busy filming another in a long line of busts. Take your pick!" America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ tells driving instructor Tim Conway (inspired casting! He should have been the hero in this movie!).

Just kidding! She said they broke up because, as she said in the first movie (I'm tired of typing "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down" and also that joke has probably gotten all the mileage it can get), "Relationships that start under periods of extreme stress never last". She says that line three or four times in this movie, too.

Her current boyfriend is Jason Patric, who she thinks is a bicycle cop who patrols beaches. Actually, he's LA's Super Cop - a true maniac who can do anything, including arresting a fleeing ice cream truck driver while both of them are rolling down a hill. This arrest is complicated because for some unexplained reason, Annie's driving test is taking place on the same deserted road as the ice cream truck chase (they never do explain what the ice cream truck driver did but I assume it centered around bad Fudgecicles). Annie is dismayed to learn her boyfriend is actually a Super Cop, but Super Cop diffuses the situation by telling Annie they are going on a cruise.

So they go on a cruise! Guess who else is on it?

Denis Leary!

As soon as I saw Denis Leary I thought, "Screw this. I'm not watching any more movies with that douchebag in them. What else is on?" But when I hit the Info button I found out that wasn't Denis Leary - it was Willem Dafoe! I love Willem Dafoe! Who couldn't love a guy named Willem? So, game on!

In "Speed", Dennis Hopper creates all the mayhem and kills all the people because he was disrespected by his former employer. In "Speed 2" Willem Dafoe creates all the mayhem and kills all the people because he was....surprise! Disrespected by his former employer! In Dafoe's case, his former employer was the cruise ship company, and it turns out Dafoe had designed all the computer programs for that ship. But he got copper poisoning from being too close to computers for too long (man, I hope that isn't a real thing!) and according to Dafoe, the company fired him for being sick. But Dafoe showed them! He bought some leeches and periodically has the leeches suck all the copper out of his blood. This gives him the lifespan and vitality to rob his former employer, and also kill a lot of people.

Jason Patric immediately becomes suspicious of Dafoe because Dafoe is wearing a golf shirt, but isn't watching the big golf tournament playing on the giant TV screen right behind him. Personally, I would not have thought that was suspicious, but I am not a Super Cop.

A far more suspicious person to me would have been Michael Hagerty. Who? you ask. You know this guy! I bet you've seen him 30 times. Here's a hint - he was Rudy in the classic Seinfeld two-part episode "The Raincoats". He's the guy that ran the vintage clothing store, which got infested by moths from Frank Costanza's cabana wear. You remember that!

Hagerty is the most Chicago dude EVER. Every time he opens his mouth, you fully expect him to say "Da Bears". Let me check and see if he was one of the Super Fans from those "Saturday Night Live" skits. <Googling> NO?!? Really?!?! Take a look at this guy and tell me he wasn't a Super Fan:



Dafoe has a bunch of computers set up in his room. He's smuggled in many components through hollowed-out golf clubs. As he's working on stuff, the ship's purser comes in and sees all the electronics. He tries to apologize for coming in but Dafoe says, "Let's not split hairs" - and then he splits all the purser's hairs with his golf club! (The purser doesn't die, he's just knocked out.)

The first thing Dafoe does is take control of the ship's electronics. The navigator notices things aren't working right, and says, "Aye captain! I canna give her any moor!" Yes, the navigator is Scottish and sounds exactly like Scotty from "Star Trek". I kept expecting him to ask for more dilithium crystals but sadly, he never does.

Dafoe kills the captain and takes control. He steals a bunch of jewels and then tells the remaining ship's officers that they'd better activate the Abandon Ship protocol or everyone is going to die. To prove his point, he explodes a bunch of stuff.

As everyone is rushing to the lifeboats, Super Cop Jason Patric sniffs the air and says, "Hey! I smell sulfur! There's nothing in the mechanics of a cruise ship's engine system that has sulfur. That can only mean there's a super criminal on board, and all this is a diversion from the larger crime!" I think that's what he said, by anyway Patric goes to the bridge and finds out that there IS a madman onboard, and no one knows where the captain is (HINT: swimming with the fishes). So Patric tells the navigator to beam him up, because Patric is now Captain Kirk. More or less.

Lots of explosions and rescues follow. Willem Dafoe is certifiably insane, cracking wise and laughing uncontrollably at all his mayhem. He has a button on his special mini-computer for everything! Patric can chase him all he wants and all Dafoe has to do is hit a button and presto! Whatever door Patric needs to go through is shut before he can go through it! This makes all the chases pretty one-sided.

Dafoe programs the ship to run into a supertanker, which for some reason is docked in the bay at St. Martin. No one can change the ship's course until they figure out the right wheel to turn down in some far corner of the engine room. Patric is able to find and turn the wheel and avoid the head-on collision with the super tanker and everyone is happy....BUT. But Patric forgot to turn the wheel enough to send the cruise ship back out to sea. Instead, he only turned it enough to head it straight into the island of St. Martin. Ooops!

Rather than go back and try to turn the wheel some more in order to save lives and not destroy St. Martin, they let the ship tear through the bay, run over lots of little boats, and run aground onshore, demolishing most of St. Martin's businesses, homes and people.

It all could have been avoided though, if only people had listened to the barking dog. It tried to warn everyone on shore that a giant cruise ship was coming to kill them, but I guess everyone thought the barking meant there was trouble at the old well, instead of 30,000 tons of death bearing down on them. The good news is that the barking dog survived.

By this time Dafoe has exited the ship via jet ski. He has taken the jewelry and has America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ as a hostage. His plan is to jet ski to a seaplane that he had conveniently left drifting in the bay some days ago (don't ask) and take off for freedom. He plans to jettison America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ at 10,000 feet.

Patric needs a fast boat to catch them. He commandeers the boat belonging to - oh, you will never guess who! That's right - it's Tune Man! The same guy whose Jaguar was commandeered by Keanu Reeves in "Speed"! Tune Man can't believe his bad luck when it comes to having his vehicles commandeered by Los Angeles cops, but helps out anyway.

They reach the plane before it's able to take off. Patric literally reels himself in with a fishing rod, enters the cockpit, punches out Dafoe, and takes America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ with him. Somehow Patric is able to disengage one of the seaplane's pods, and they float at a high rate of speed back towards what's left of St. Martin.

Dafoe regains his senses and pulls up just before he's about to crash into the super tanker. Almost. He misses everything but the mast, where his plane becomes shish-ka-bobbed. It starts leaking fuel, which causes Dafoe to laugh maniacally. Then everything blows up, and I mean EVERYTHING blows up. Goodbye, beautiful island of St. Martin. It was nice knowing you!

Tune Man picks up the bag of jewelry that luckily is floating in the bay, and Patric gives America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ an engagement ring. The end, except that America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™ still has to pass her driver's test. She gets Tim Conway again! Conway tells her to make a left out of the DMV but a city bus zips by.

"That bus is speeding!" says America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock ™. "It sure is!" responds Tim Conway. THE END.

"Speed 2" isn't all that bad. Willem Dafoe is excellent. Jason Patric - whose father is Jason Miller, and his grandfather was Jackie Gleason - is no Keanu Reeves but he's OK. I mainly typed that sentence to let you know that Patric is The Great One's grandson, which means nothing but was something I would have never guessed.

I rate this movie 2 1/2 Tune Man Commandeered Vehicles out of a possible 5 Tune Man Commandeered Vehicles. It's too bad there wasn't a Speed 3, 4 or 5 so we could see what kind of other cool vehicles Tune Man had available for commandeering!

sexton said:

damosuzuki said:

i'm honestly very happy to hear that. i loved this movie, have been replaying it in my head ever since i watched it (i can't remember the last time that happened) and i'm truly pleased to hear you like it too.

.

what's your top five list? I can put together a list, but i have yet to see the handmaiden (playing here next week), moonlight and a few other films that i expect to be great.

These are the only 2016 USA releases which I rated 4.5/5 or higher:

1. The Handmaiden
2. Moonlight
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. La La Land
5. Sing Street
6. A Bigger Splash
7. Hell or High Water
8. April and the Extraordinary World

Even though Sing Street is at #5, I'd see it again before Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea, as excellent as those movies are because it's such a positive, heartwarming, great film. So in that respect, perhaps it should be #2.

I still have to catch up with your top 3 (two of them should get viewed this week - i missed moonlight when it was here, so that may have to get parked for a spell). I'm hopefully going to catch hell or high water tomorrow, time permitting.

.

so, with the caveat that i have some gaping holes to fill, here is my attempt at a list:

1 Sing Street

2 The Witch

3 o.j.: made in america

4 la la land

5 green room

6 wiener-dog

7 tickled

8 the lobster

9 love and friendship

10 hush

***i dozed off at least once when watching the arrival (late showing after a big meal), so i'm holding off on giving it a proper rating & placement until i see it again, but i thought it was terrific, and i'm pretty sure it will end up 3rd or 4th on my list. i wish there were more mid to big sized budget movies like that.

[Edited 1/7/17 21:17pm]

rogue one - i thought this was really flat & dull, until the very very end, which was truly exciting. ordinarily i'd applaud a movie that did some of the fairly daring things this movie did at the end, but i found the characters so uninvolving i just didn't care. a real comedown after what i thought was a very good 'force awakens,' which gave new life to the franchise imo. 3/5

[Edited 1/7/17 20:58pm]

Ah, Netflix! They say it's chock full of great movies. So I logged onto my Netflix account - which I have only recently learned how to access, and have only used it so far for watching the funniest TV show of the decade, "Real Husbands of Hollywood" - and I began The Great Movie Search.

I wanted to watch "The Accountant". Nope, didn't have it! So then I thought I'd watch "Snatched". Nope, didn't have it! After that, I ran out of ideas. Luckily, Netflix has this "Because you watched" thing, which recommends movies based on other movies you have watched. Now, my son is the one that uses the Netflix account and he watches lots of documentaries, so most of the "Because you watched" recommendations were other documentaries on things I have no interest in.

But ONE movie he watched is the one he made me watch with him on a recent trip to visit him at school. I'm talking, of course, about the worst movie of 2015, "Deathgasm". (Which, to no one's surprise, resulted in one of my BEST reviews! Org search "Deathgasm" and you'll find it. Or heck, I'll do it for you. Go to the bottom of page 1 of this thread: http://prince.org/msg/100/432111 )

Various movies were recommended but one stood out above all the others. "Wolfcop"! A cop who's a werewolf! I love it already!

"Wolfcop" begins with Sheriff's Deputy Lou Garou ("lupe garou" is French for "werewolf" and this movie was filmed in Canada, the French part I guess) waking up, getting drunk, putting on his uniform, going to the police station, and drinking some more. Lou has a drinking problem.

There are only two deputies in Woodhaven - Lou and Tina. According to the Employee of the Month plaque, Tina wins every month. Lou is an alcoholic loser. He responds to a call about some mutilations or something, but ends up at Jessica's bar. Where he drinks some more. No one cares that he's on duty. O Canada!

Actually, the whole town revolves around booze. The local radio show is sponsored by Liquor Donuts ("What more could you want?" is their slogan), and the town's big annual event is the Drink and Shoot, where people get drunk and hunt for imaginary monsters. So Lou kind of fits right in, being a drunk and all.

That night, Lou is sent to find some alleged devil worshippers and surprise! He finds some devil worshippers! Or rather, they find him. They string him up and carve a pentagram into his belly. This makes him a werewolf, although he doesn't yet know it. What he DOES know when he wakes up the next morning is that he can't shave because it just grows right back, and he can hear, smell and taste better than ever before.

He goes to Jessica's bar around 10 PM, and she shoos all the other drunks out because she wants to be alone with Lou. He goes to the bathroom and gets sick. He takes a leak and wouldn't you know it! That's EXACTLY when his first werewolf transformation begins! In fact, it begins with his penis. Yes, you read that right. His hooter turns from human to wolf right before our eyes. Those plucky Canadians!

About that time two robbers sneak into the bar. Lou eats one of them but the other one runs away. So does Lou, but his friend Willie finds him in the dark forest and shoots him with his tranquilizer gun. He takes Werewolf Lou to his house, where he handcuffs Lou to the bed. Lou wakes up, back to being Lou again, and Willie explains to Lou how he's now a werewolf. Lou had kind of figured that out already, as he's the kind of werewolf that remembers things, and can also talk while werewolfing.

That evening, Lou has Willie lock him up in a jail cell, for safety. Lou transforms into a werewolf, and then he and Willie play Go Fish. I'm not kidding, that's what they do. Werewolf Lou also drinks a bottle of booze and has a few liquor donuts. The phone rings and Lou breaks out of the cell to answer it. There's a robbery going down at the local Liquor Donuts store! Werewolf Lou puts on his police uniform, and he and Willie drive down to Liquor Donuts where Werewolf Lou kills all the robbers.

"What are you?" asks the Liquor Donut store owner. "Wolfcop," growls Lou.

Willie and Lou modify Lou's cruiser with some rad "W" symbols and Wolfcop is ready to roll. In fact, they roll right out to a meth lab/house party, where Wolfcop mauls and eats a few bad guys. Then they go back to the police station. Guess what?

Jessica is waiting for them! She makes Willie leave, and then she boinks the Wolfcop. Pretty graphically, I might add. But the joke's on Wolfcop! Because, Jessica is actually shriveled old Mayor Bradley. Yep! Turns out the town of Woodhaven is run by a bunch of reptilian shapeshifters! And drinking the blood of a werewolf every 32 years is what keeps them young! That's why they made Lou into a werewolf. His blood is going to be the main course when the solar eclipse hits the next morning.

The three main shapeshifters chain Lou to a tree, waiting on the eclipse and Lou's eclipsian werewolf transformation. That happens, and they run a sword into Lou's werewolf belly and begin drinking some Grade A Werewolf Plasma.

But just then, Officer Tina shows up and shoots a shapeshifter. It just so happens that shapeshifters can do lots of amazing things, but they are not immune to a lead sandwich! Score one shapeshifter for Officer Tina.

Wolfcop breaks his chains but is weakened because of being run through by that sword. There are some fights and it looks like Wolfcop might be done for. But hold on! There's a flask of alcohol on the ground! Wolfcop drinks it and yippee! Alcohol is to Wolfcop what spinach is to Popeye, and the rest of the shapeshifters are dispatched before Wolfcop transmorgrifies back into Lou. Then he and Officer Tina walk off into the sunset or in this case, the just-finished solar eclipse.

This movie is actually OK. I didn't fall asleep during it, which is saying something. And now I've really spruced up my "Because you watched" thing!

"Wolfcop" gets a rating of 2.75 Giant Werewolf Penises out of a possible 5 Giant Werewolf Penises. Howl at THAT!