.

5/5! Love it - best Marvel movie since the first Avengers!

214 said:

peedub said:

august: osage county

5/5...another masterpiece from tracy letts, presenting the many facets of family dysfunction via the untimely gathering of the weston family. so well cast (and maybe the first time i've ever enjoyed a performance from julia roberts)...do they give oscars for casting?

I've been close to watch this film on Netflix several times, but i haven't, is really that good?

i think it is...it's pure drama and based on a play, so not a lot really happens. but if you enjoy good acting and thought provoking emotional nuance, you should dig this. everybody's performance is spot on.

you really can't go wrong with tracy letts, in my experience. if you've seen and enjoyed 'bug' and/or 'killer joe', you should enjoy this even though it's a little more reserved than either of those.

[Edited 7/12/17 7:50am]

See, A Face in the Crowd. That film is a motherfucker. Andy Griffith goes evil.

RodeoSchro said:

Last night my son and I watched the tour de force of comedy known as "Smokey and the Bandit". What an all-time classic!

I'd forgotten how funny the movie is. And how cool Burt Reynolds is. And what a stud Jerry Reed is. And how cute Sally Field is. And most of all, what a legendary comedic genius Jackie Gleason is. Yep, you get all that when you watch "Smokey and the Bandit" - and more!

burt reynolds published a book in 1972 consisting of hot letters he received from fans & his responses.

that tickles me quite a bit.

Potential titles for this review:


THE WORLD IS GOING TO END

or

WHY AM I A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT?

or

IT TURNS OUT I'M ALWAYS RIGHT AND SHOULD NEVER DOUBT THAT IS TRUE


What headline would you choose for the fact that I just watched a Jonah Hill movie - on purpose? Because that's what I did.

Thanks to my recent discovery that I have HBO, I now have a plethora of mostly mediocre movies to watch. "War Dogs" had just started so I thought, "Hey - give that neckbeard Jonah Hill a chance. Be kind, you never know".

Nah, it turns out I did know.

"War Dogs" is very much like Jonah Hill himself - it starts out a little bit interesting but before too long, you're sick of it and wish it would go away. It's bad enough "War Dogs" was a Jonah Hill movie but guess what ELSE it has?

This generation's John Cusak!

He's some dude named Miles Teller and his complete range of acting ability is limited to looking like he just got out of bed and is completely confused by everything and everyone. Here, look at him and tell me I'm not right:




He looks just like John Cusak AND he looks permanently confused, doesn't he?

Of course he does. So, on to the movie!

Jonah Hill a/k/a Neckbeard plays some hustler - this is based on a true story, by the way - who's stumbled into the US website for arms deals vis. a. vie. the various wars we were in back in the early 2000's. He nickels and dimes his way into a few deals but then runs into childhood friend New John Cusak and convinces New John Cusak to leave his massage business and join him in some gunrunning. New John Cusak has just knocked up his girlfriend so despite his misgivings about being a gunrunner, he becomes a gunrunner. Thus the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC is formed. They adopt the dba of "AEY" which, as we find out in the lamest scene in a very lame movie, stands for absolutely nothing.

Kind of like Neckbeard,

Neckbeard plays the part he was born to play - a Neckbeard who is slimey, sneaky, and cannot be trusted under any circumstances. Making money honestly is not good enough for Neckbeard - he has to screw everyone he comes into contact with.

This works out OK for Neckbeard and New John Cusak until they try to screw over Bradley Cooper. And also they try to screw over the US government. But first, Bradley Cooper.

Is Cooper's back really completely tattooed? It is in the movie, but you never know.

Perhaps the tattoo is supposed to make us realize he's mean. And he is mean! He's a legendary arms dealer that is now on the USA terrorist list. Probably not a trustworthy guy, so of course the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC go into business with him on the largest deal they've ever seen - a $300 million contract to sell Russian ammo to the Afghans, via the US of A. And of course Cooper screws the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC. New John Cusak fixes the screwing and says, "Let's just get on with our illegal repackaging of Chinese ammo to make it look Russian," but Neckbeard says, "Screw that. My religion is screwing people and Bradley Cooper is people, so I'm going to screw him!" New John Cusak objects to this and for his efforts, he is kidnapped by Bradley Cooper, beaten up, and filled with the fear of God by Bradley Cooper. It turns out no one screws Bradley Cooper.

New John Cusak returns to America (he'd been in Angola or Afghanistan or Algeria or some country beginning with an "A", overseeing the illegal repackaging of the ammo) and tells Neckbeard he wants to dissolve the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC and therefore wants his 30% of the net worth of the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC. In fact, he'll take 40 cents on the dollar for his share of the Neckbeard/New John Cusak partnership. But bad news!

While New John Cusak was in the A country overseeing the illegal repackaging of Chinese ammo, Neckbeard had gone through New John Cusak's desk, found the only copy of the Neckbeard/New John Cusak partnership agreement in existence, and stolen/destroyed it. But good news!

When New John Cusak fled the A country, he grabbed all the papers he could find - papers that would prove the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC were engaged in illiegal ammo repackaging. Not only that, but New John Cusak had saved all the other forged documents the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC had created in order to get various contracts. New John Cusak figures he can use those documents against Neckbeard in order to gain a more fair buy-out. But bad news!

New John Cusak had failed to realize that he would not only be implicating Neckbeard, but he'd also be implicating himself. Neckbeard gleefully informs New John Cusak of this and leaves their meeting. But more bad news!

The third party at their meeting was some rich dude who had bankrolled them. Unknown to the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC, the FBI knew about the illegal packaging of Chinese ammo, thanks to a phone call from the guy in that A country who actually did the illegal repackaging and was screwed over on payment by Neckbeard. So the FBI had already gotten to the money man, and he was wearing a wire at the dissolution meeting of the firm of Neckbeard & New John Cusak, LLC. All of New John Cusak's admissions were recorded by the FBI. Sad!

New John Cusak pleads guilty, gets seven months of house arrest, and then moves on with his life. He does see Bradley Cooper one last time, but no one gets killed except that it's strongly hinted that Bradley Cooper killed the guy that was New John Cusak's driver back in the A country.

As you can tell from the synopsis above, this is a stupid movie. It's made stupider by showing Neckbeard and New John Cusak engage in the consumption of various illegal drugs. The consumption of these drugs had absolutely no bearing on any part of the story whatsoever. It's like some idiot director said, "We have to throw in some drug use so that we pull in the all-important Drug User demographic!"

"War Dogs" has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. If you have HBO like I do, don't make a mistake and watch it when it comes on. I rate this movie a 0.33 Live Golden Grenades out of the Five Live Golden Grenades I wish I had been able to throw on the set of this movie, thus preventing it from ever being made.

damosuzuki said:

RodeoSchro said:

Last night my son and I watched the tour de force of comedy known as "Smokey and the Bandit". What an all-time classic!

I'd forgotten how funny the movie is. And how cool Burt Reynolds is. And what a stud Jerry Reed is. And how cute Sally Field is. And most of all, what a legendary comedic genius Jackie Gleason is. Yep, you get all that when you watch "Smokey and the Bandit" - and more!

burt reynolds published a book in 1972 consisting of hot letters he received from fans & his responses.

that tickles me quite a bit.

Those are AWESOME! Thanks, I'm going to have to find that book!

Throne of Blood 4/5 interesting twist on an old story.


a 1957 Japanese film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama.

7/10

Cool Imagry. Weird rushed plot. Cheesy parts. Thought provoking.

peedub said:

214 said:

I've been close to watch this film on Netflix several times, but i haven't, is really that good?

i think it is...it's pure drama and based on a play, so not a lot really happens. but if you enjoy good acting and thought provoking emotional nuance, you should dig this. everybody's performance is spot on.

you really can't go wrong with tracy letts, in my experience. if you've seen and enjoyed 'bug' and/or 'killer joe', you should enjoy this even though it's a little more reserved than either of those.

[Edited 7/12/17 7:50am]

I do enjoy that.

wendy and lucy - 5/5 woman gets stranded in oregon and loses her dog. a miniature masterpiece about a lonely person in a hopeless situation, extremely simple but universally meaningful.

damosuzuki said:

wendy and lucy - 5/5 woman gets stranded in oregon and loses her dog. a miniature masterpiece about a lonely person in a hopeless situation, extremely simple but universally meaningful.

i watched this a couple of weeks ago after i read the NYT top 25 movies of the 21st century so far (or something like that)...i thought it was pretty good, but i was a little disappointed. seemed to kind of come from nowhere then kind of end up nowhere. but maybe that's one of it's virtues. it seems the 'snapshot of nothing' mode of storytelling is a growing trend in indie film..i'll probably watch it again in a few years.

still one of the funniest movies i've ever seen. i laugh out loud, hard, every time. walter matthau=genius. jack lemmon clearing his sinuses? jesus...i pity anybody that can watch this and not wet their pants.

damosuzuki said:

wendy and lucy - 5/5 woman gets stranded in oregon and loses her dog. a miniature masterpiece about a lonely person in a hopeless situation, extremely simple but universally meaningful.

It sounds interesting.

peedub said:

damosuzuki said:

wendy and lucy - 5/5 woman gets stranded in oregon and loses her dog. a miniature masterpiece about a lonely person in a hopeless situation, extremely simple but universally meaningful.

i watched this a couple of weeks ago after i read the NYT top 25 movies of the 21st century so far (or something like that)...i thought it was pretty good, but i was a little disappointed. seemed to kind of come from nowhere then kind of end up nowhere. but maybe that's one of it's virtues. it seems the 'snapshot of nothing' mode of storytelling is a growing trend in indie film..i'll probably watch it again in a few years.

most of kelly reichardt's movies have that same kind of flow. there's rarely any major plot turns or conflicts. 'snapshot of nothing' is not a bad way of putting it, lol - but i don't really think of that as a crticism. personally, i've had my fill of clockwork plots & shocking reveals & so on.

i think of her films more as cinematic novellas, little character studies. hopefully that doesn't sound too much like pompous wankery, but i think if you approach them with that mindset they're very rewarding. overall, i probably like meek's cutoff the most out of what she's done, but i think w&l is just about as good.

[Edited 7/13/17 10:10am]

baby driver 4/5 inventive, amazingly well choreographed fun. i've always been just a touch indifferent to edgar wright's movies. not that i've ever disliked them - i think all of them are pretty good - but i never felt like i ever really locked in to them & was dazzled the way some people were. this is the first time i think i truly 'got' what he was going for & walked out thinking 'that was pretty great.'

damosuzuki said:

peedub said:

i watched this a couple of weeks ago after i read the NYT top 25 movies of the 21st century so far (or something like that)...i thought it was pretty good, but i was a little disappointed. seemed to kind of come from nowhere then kind of end up nowhere. but maybe that's one of it's virtues. it seems the 'snapshot of nothing' mode of storytelling is a growing trend in indie film..i'll probably watch it again in a few years.

most of kelly reichardt's movies have that same kind of flow. there's rarely any major plot turns or conflicts. 'snapshot of nothing' is not a bad way of putting it, lol - but i don't really think of that as a crticism. personally, i've had my fill of clockwork plots & shocking reveals & so on.

i think of her films more as cinematic novellas, little character studies. hopefully that doesn't sound too much like pompous wankery, but i think if you approach them with that mindset they're very rewarding. overall, i probably like meek's cutoff the most out of what she's done, but i think w&l is just about as good.

[Edited 7/13/17 10:10am]

yeah, not necessarily a criticism, just a style. she seems to employ michelle williams a lot. worth checking out her stuff for that alone. she's aces.

damosuzuki said:

peedub said:

sofia coppola was on marc maron's 'wtf?' podcast the other week...a good portion of their conversation was about her remake. might be worth a listen...

i gave that podcast a listen this weekend. i don't listen to every episode of wtf, but i definitely tune in every time he interviews anyone i find even half-heartedly interesting. but thanks for the heads-up, regardless.

the beguiled (2017) 4/5 this definitely updates some of the obsolescent points seen in the 1971 original, and it feels like a more nuanced take. colin ferrell seems like far less of an obvious black hat here than eastwood, and the women are not the broadly drawn caricatures shown in the 71 version. certainly an interesting viewing for anyone who's familiar with the original, and i think it would stand as a very good watch for everyone else. has a languid pace, but it's only 90 minutes long, so that's not really a problem.

[Edited 7/4/17 19:02pm]

I saw this recently too. There was a little "is that all there is?" feeling at the end for me, but the strength in this movie is more the ride than the destination--like Coppola's Somewhere. Awesome cast. 3.5/5

214 said:

peedub said:

august: osage county

5/5...another masterpiece from tracy letts, presenting the many facets of family dysfunction via the untimely gathering of the weston family. so well cast (and maybe the first time i've ever enjoyed a performance from julia roberts)...do they give oscars for casting?

I've been close to watch this film on Netflix several times, but i haven't, is really that good?

I didn't like it. I found it to be too outrageous. To use one of your favorite movie criticisms, "overrated". 2/5

damosuzuki said:

wendy and lucy - 5/5 woman gets stranded in oregon and loses her dog. a miniature masterpiece about a lonely person in a hopeless situation, extremely simple but universally meaningful.

Excellent film. I'd give it the same rating.

sexton said:

damosuzuki said:

wendy and lucy - 5/5 woman gets stranded in oregon and loses her dog. a miniature masterpiece about a lonely person in a hopeless situation, extremely simple but universally meaningful.

Excellent film. I'd give it the same rating.

I have to watch this.

sexton said:

214 said:

I've been close to watch this film on Netflix several times, but i haven't, is really that good?

I didn't like it. I found it to be too outrageous. To use one of your favorite movie criticisms, "overrated". 2/5

One that is a little bit overrated is Hacksaw Ridge. The story, is just incredible, there you have a real and Great Hero, is very good movie but just not as great as they have made it out to be.

Baby Driver (2017) My fav film of the year so far, it had action packed car chases, a great cast (with a star turn by Ansel Elgort), clever dialogue and awesome soundtrack....its simply alot of fun. A must see I give it a 5 out of 5

214 said:

sexton said:

I didn't like it. I found it to be too outrageous. To use one of your favorite movie criticisms, "overrated". 2/5

One that is a little bit overrated is Hacksaw Ridge. The story, is just incredible, there you have a real and Great Hero, is very good movie but just not as great as they have made it out to be.

I agree with you there. The courtship between the main character and his wife was very hokey. It was the worst of the best picture Oscar nominees this year.

Pina (2011) - A tribute to the late German choreographer, Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.

The performances are incredible. And it's one of my favorite movies to watch in 3D. 4.5/5

sexton said:

214 said:

One that is a little bit overrated is Hacksaw Ridge. The story, is just incredible, there you have a real and Great Hero, is very good movie but just not as great as they have made it out to be.

I agree with you there. The courtship between the main character and his wife was very hokey. It was the worst of the best picture Oscar nominees this year.

Kind of, yes. It's not that moving actually.

peedub said:

i highly recommend 'bone tomahawk' for inclusion in your kurt russell fest...great under the radar western, also starring one of my favorite character actors, richard jenkins.

i watched bone tomahawk last night, and i thought it was pretty great. i generally avoid westerns - the setting just doesn't click with me - but i thought the first 3/4s of this played perfectly, moving along at its own easy-going pace, not a world apart from the searchers or something like that, and i never once had a moment where i thought 'get on with it already.' but when the intensity ramps up in the last 1/4 or so, nothing was held back. i've watched more trashy slashers than i really should admit in public, but that scene (anyone who's seen it will know) was as just about as tough & viscous as anything i've seen in a movie.

really a terrific film, one that deserves to be discovered. great dialogue, & great cast. jenkins & russell are as good as you would expect of course, but i though everyone else was terrific too. 4/5