sexton said:

Blazing Saddles (1974) - In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.

Is it possible for a movie to be hilariously cringeworthy? No way would this film be made today. 4/5

And still my all-time favorite comedic film.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019)

A comprehensive look at Miles' personal life, abusiveness/possessiveness, evolution, and complicated legacy a musical and cultural icon. The late Francis Taylor Davis was the star of the film. There were interviews with so many friends, associates, colleagues and scholars. Even in death he resists definition.

.75

The Leisure Seeker: Pretty good little film, 3.5 out of 5. Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland isn't so bad.

Annabelle Comes Home **1/2, The Curse of La Llorna **** (both from The Conjuring universe of films). The former was okay, but the story in the latter was better executed.

Greenfingers ***: An early aughts film based on a true story. British all the way thru. Interesting story. Sorta predictable. Helen Mirren again.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

An unflinching, (very) dark comedy on the struggle for control of the Soviet Union in the wake of Stalin's death. Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaac and Simon Russell Beale were the standouts to me. It doesn't shrink from being funny and brutally contemptuous of human life at the same time.

.5

Do the Right Thing (1989) - On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.

Spike Lee's best film--incendiary and still relevant today. 5/5

sexton said:

Do the Right Thing (1989) - On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.

Spike Lee's best film--incendiary and still relevant today. 5/5

One of the best films of all time. I concur.

Safe House (2012) - A young CIA agent is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge.

Mildly interesting conventional thriller. This works well on a flight to pass the time. 3/5

Last night I went into uncharted waters. Well...does "Family Guy" count as charted waters?

Because I've seen their take-off on Wes Anderson movies a few times but until last night, I'd never seen an actual Wes Anderson movie.

Now I have!

At my son's girlfriend's urging, we watched "The Grand Budapest Hotel".

Can I go home now?

I'd sure like to.

Now, I'm sure many will disagree with me. But when I look in the dictionary under "pretentious" I fully expect to see this movie. Maybe "Animal house" has spoiled me for all other cinematic attempts at comedy, but this was just yucky.

Sorry if my son's girlfriend reads this. You're still cool!

I'm not going to go into the usual claptrap over this one. Suffice to say that I thought the movie fell apart when that dude stole the painting which had already been legally bequeathed to him, pending the usual legal machinations by Jeff Goldblum.

Why steal it? It's going to be yours! And everyone knows who you are, where you live, and what you do for a living. How did you ever expect to get away with it?

But other than the entire plot of the movie falling apart like a Mandel's confection, it was pretty to look at. And Ralph Fiennes is an awesomely good actor. Not good enough to overcome the brief inclusion of Owen Wilson, though. How does that guy continue getting jobs?!?

You'll be surprised that, owing to an upper respiratory infection and the attendant medication thereto, I watched this movie stone cold sober. Perhaps if I'd guzzled some of the codiene cough syrup on hand, I might have overlooked its shortcomings (the movie's, not the codiene cough syrup's).

We'll never know because in the future, if I need to see Wes Anderson, I'm pulling up that episode of the "Family Guy". It was spot on!

I'm giving back Jeff Goldblum 1 of the 4 fingers he lost in "The Grand Budapest Hotel". But you have to take a diagonal trolley car and then run from the left side of the screen to the right side to get the other 3 fingers back.

And you'll never get those 100 minutes back.

This weekend was a Friday night/Saturday night double header. Because they both deal with artists, I'm going to review them both in one post. For other reasons, too.

First, we watched "Rocketman" Friday night.

What a MAXIMUM BUMMER.

I appreciate the director's attempt to do something different in a musical but man oh man what a wasted opportunity. This movie has literally nothing going for it at all.

First of all, how do you make a movie that goes on for 121 minutes, fixating on one of the most incredible, entertaining artists of all time, and manage to interject not one minute of joy or happiness? Y'all know me, and y'all know I try to never watch a movie that doesn't entertain me. And by "entertain" I mean it either makes me laugh, or it makes me scream OH HELL YEAH!!!

"Rocketman" just made me wish I was drunk and had done something else.

Hey, let me pick this nit. As you may also know, I play rock and roll in front of live humans from time to time. Sometimes with my shirt on, sometimes not. I'm not the second coming of Bruce Springsteen or even John Cafferty. But I can dang sure make you clap your hands. I know for a dead-solid fact that I can do that. I also know that whatever songs I'm going to play that night, I can play them. It depends on how much I've had to drink but I can tell you the second I step on stage what I'm capable of playing that night.

And I'm not a professional. Some would say I'm not even good. (I'm one of those who would say that.) But do you know what I definitely am not? Ever?

Nervous.

So I get perturbed when I see movies depicting great artists who get onstage and look like a deer caught in the headlights. I can guarantee you without any wiggle room that if I am not scared to get on a stage, the one and only Sir Elton John is definitely not scared to get on a stage. EVER. NEVER. In his whole LIFE. He's got more talent in one sneeze than I'll ever have, even if they figure out a way to put talent in a bottle and let me drink from it.

OK, nit picked.

And I wish that was the worst thing about "Rocketman" but honestly it's just a MAXIMUM BUMMER. It's better left unseen.

Oh - but I do have another nit to pick.

The lyrics of the songs they did butcher really came alive. Given how tremendously horrible Elton John's entire life was, the lyrics to so many of those songs really took on a new meaning. Except...Bernie Taupon wrote them, not Elton. It would have been nice if they'd spent some time showing how Bernie applied what he saw in Elton's life when he wrote the lyrics to "Goodbye Yellowbrick Road" or "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". THAT could have helped this mess.

In fact, someone should make a movie about Bernie Taupon.

"Rocketman" gets only one Extravagant Lens in One of Elton John's Eyeglasses out of a possible ten Extravagant Lenses in Five of Elton John's Eyeglasses. Don't Let This Movie Go Down On Your Precious Time.

********************************************************

Last night (Saturday night) I took the womenfolk to see "Judy". I guess there was nothing else playing.

I certainly had low expectations. Another bummer of a movie? Probably. A movie about an entertainer for who I had no curiousity? Certainly. A movie starring an actress who makes movies I avoid like the plague? Absolutely.

I LOVED "JUDY"!

Let me preface - in honor of the late, great Miss Judy Garland, I got hammered at the restaurant and at the Booze and Chow. I figured I was de-sensitizing my braincells in anticipation of a snorefest.

Wrong!

I mean - not wrong about the booze part. But this movie is NOT a snorefest! It's a GREAT movie.

And it's about someone who had a far worse life than Elton John! Judy Garland's life was a trainwreck, from childhood to her untimely death. But even so, this didn't bring you down like "Rocketman" does.

It's a pretty sure bet that the only movie I'll see this year that gets any nominations of any kind for 2020 Academy Award is this movie. But I honestly do not see how any actress could out-perform what Renee Zellwegger pulls off.

She is off-the-chains great.

So is the make-up artist. So is the director. All those people should just clear off space on their mantles for Oscars. They're going to get them, and deservedly so.

I applauded many times in this movie, and vigorously at the end. I believe my wife and Favorite Mother-In-Law are still in shock.

"Judy" is a Five-Star Winner. I'm sure everyone here will see it and I absolutely expect you'll like it even more than an action-movie junky like me does. After all - y'all have actual taste, whereas I think "Animal House" is cinematic excellence. But I sure did love "Judy". Bravo!

Midsommar (Director's Cut) - I had no idea this was 2h:50m long, but it was really good. It's a horror movie bathed in pastels. Very heady and mental, with a few gruesome moments. I do think it was one of the best horror films I've seen in a long while. * * * * 1/2

Final Portrait - good and insular movie written & directed by Stanley Tucci, with Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer. * * * 1/2

Baise-moi (2000) - Two young women, marginalised by society, go on a destructive tour of sex and violence. Breaking norms and killing men - and shattering the complacency of polite cinema audiences.

I didn't have any problems with the explicit content. It was the rough production that prevented me from liking it more. It looked like a crude student film. 2/5

TrivialPursuit said:

Midsommar (Director's Cut) - I had no idea this was 2h:50m long, but it was really good. It's a horror movie bathed in pastels. Very heady and mental, with a few gruesome moments. I do think it was one of the best horror films I've seen in a long while. * * * * 1/2

I saw both the theatrical cut and the director's cut at the the cinema. I hope the latter gets a Blu-ray/4K release. It's one of the few modern horror films I'd like to own.

sexton said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Midsommar (Director's Cut) - I had no idea this was 2h:50m long, but it was really good. It's a horror movie bathed in pastels. Very heady and mental, with a few gruesome moments. I do think it was one of the best horror films I've seen in a long while. * * * * 1/2

I saw both the theatrical cut and the director's cut at the the cinema. I hope the latter gets a Blu-ray/4K release. It's one of the few modern horror films I'd like to own.

I can't imagine it wouldn't. Looks like the digital, for now, is the theatrical version at 2:27. The director's debuted at a film festival in August. It almost seems stupid that they wouldn't put both on the forthcoming 4K.

The Nightingale (2018) - Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.

What a tragic and horrific tale. And British lieutenant Hawkins is the villain I love to hate--no redeeming qualities whatsoever. 4/5

TrivialPursuit said:

Midsommar (Director's Cut) - I had no idea this was 2h:50m long, but it was really good. It's a horror movie bathed in pastels. Very heady and mental, with a few gruesome moments. I do think it was one of the best horror films I've seen in a long while. * * * * 1/2

I saw the 'regular' version (also well over 2 hours) and I liked it a lot.
You litterally can see everything coming well before it happens, but that didn't hold me from liking it, exceptionally.
The beautiful cinematography and the weird desire to see the sekte doing their thing kept me going.
It's not really a horror in that you are afraid or anything, but it's more a mental thing, it somehow gets under your skin or into your clothes at least.

We're in this place now where we don't go out to dinner as often, which means my Favorite Mother-In-Law must be entertained at home. And that means "Find me a movie!"

The pickings are getting slim. Oh, sure - there are various surely-GREAT action movies that I could watch. But the women of the house will only let me get away with that sporadically. So unless I decide to load everyone up and go to one of the five restaurants my FMIL will eat at, then I'm at the mercy of Xfinity's pay-per-view offerings.

That's what happened last night.

I was placed in a box. A conundrum. A Sophie's Choice. Because, you see, I had to watch a movie that starred the unbelievably gorgeous Charlize Theron, but also the Man Who Is Not Funny, Seth Rogen.

Jonah Hill deservedly gets most of my vitriol concerning the lack of talent found in...what generation are these losers? They aren't Millenials. Are they Gen Z? Gen Y? Gen WTF Cares? I don't know; all I know is that pretty much no one in the 30 - 45 age group is funny. In fact, I just spent 10 minutes perusing various IMDb lists of actors who are (or were - these lists are out of date) in this age group and I found ONE truly funny actor. That man is Ryan Reynolds. There are good dramatic actors in the list, and there are good action actors in the list, but there is only one funny actor in the list and that is Mr. Deadpool.

By now I am sure you figured out that this review would contain both wine and whine. Correct on both counts! One advantage to watching even bad movies at home is that there's always good wine within an arm's length. That solves a lot of problems, trust me.

OK, "Long Shot".

It's a by-the-numbers, pro-dope movie that has absolutely no surprises; a juvenile plot; and only one or two funny lines.

You know - maybe the problem isn't so much the actors as it is the writers. While I don't foresee any line that Jonah Hill could speak that would make me laugh, I do recognize that by and large he and his neckbeard buddies have to work with the material they're given. So, let's see...who wrote "Long Shot"?

Dan Sterling. He's written two movies and one of them was declared an act of war by Kim Jung Un. The other is "Long Shot". OK, he wrote for The Daily Show and The Office, so he has to have some comedic chops. And in his defense, "The Interview" didn't actually cause a war, so he has that going for him, which is nice.

Liz Hannah. She co-wrote "The Post" and she worked on two episodes of something called Mindhunter. That's about it. But her story has inspired me to quit whining about my proposed scripts and actually write them. Here's how Liz Hannah got her big break:

She read a book about Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Her boyfriend challenged her to write a script about it. She did. She mailed it to every agent she could think of, and then sat back and let the money roll in. No, that's true - less than a month after mailing her script all over Hollywood, she got a call from Amy Pascal, the former chair of Sony Pictures.

All those times I said "Anyone can write a script! I can write a script!" were mostly jokes, but it's true! Anyone can write - and sell - a script!

This is where you, my Faithful Reader(s), come in.

You are now my Accountability Partner(s). I am speaking my goal; you have to hold me to it. I ask that you make regular demands to me about the progress of my two main scripts. I promise not to lie about them. I am declaring that they should be finished by March 1, 2020. Hold me to it. After I sell the first one, I'll invite you all over to my place for wine and hopefully a better movie than "Long Shot".

Which is a movie ripped off from the TV shows Madame Secretary and Family Guy. Theron is Madame Secretary, and Rogen is Brian Griffin. Theron grew up next door to Rogen and babysat him and yet for some reason, even though Rogen went on to a career as a political writer for a Brooklyn newspaper, he doesn't realize his former babysitter is now the Secretary of State for the United States of America until he sees her at a party.

Too much weed, I guess.

One thing leads to another and Theron hires Rogen to write jokes for her as she prepares to run for president. The current president - Bob Odenkirk, in the only role you will ever see him not be the least bit funny, is retiring after one term because he wants to be a movie star. See, he was a TV star before becoming president and only two people have made the leap from TV star to Movie star. I forget who they said were the two people but John Travolta was not one of them, so right there the list is flawed.

Theron's advisers tell her she scores super-high in all categories except Relatable Humor, so she hires a pothead to relate to all the vapers, dopers, losers, and basement-dwellers in America. Someone forgot to tell Mr. Sterling and Ms. Hannah that vapers, dopers, losers and basement-dwellers don't vote, but that's analysis far too deep for a basic movie like this.

The rest of the movie is absolutely by-the-numbers. I'm sure Sterling and Hannah just plugged in various dope references into the Standard Comedy Movie Template and let a computer do the rest.

Seth Rogen has lost all the goodwill I gave him based on his involvement in "Good Boys". I guess that proves the old adage that there's one exception for every rule. And since I've already seen that exception, I am also appointing all of you as my Accountability Partners who will keep me from ever watching another Seth Rogen movie.

It's going to take a lot of Accountability Partners for this. So in that spirit, the rating should be backwards. The worse the movie, the more Accountability Partners I'll probably need. If the worst Seth Rogen movies - let's pick "The Guilt Trip" and "The Green Hornet", because that's what Rotten Tomatoes picks - require ten Accountability Partners to warn about the suckiness of a movie, then "Long Shot" probably would require 7 Acountability Partners to warn me about it.

Don't smoke weed.

Downton Abbey (2019) - The continuing story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century.

I will give this movie a much higher score than necessary because I loved the TV series. Aside from a few contrived scenes (Anna and Lady Isobel should form a Scooby gang because they can apparently solve mysteries without any clues whatsoever), it was everything I wanted a Downton Abbey movie to be. 4.5/5

sexton said:

Downton Abbey (2019) - The continuing story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century.

I will give this movie a much higher score than necessary because I loved the TV series. Aside from a few contrived scenes (Anna and Lady Isobel should form a Scooby gang because they can apparently solve mysteries without any clues whatsoever), it was everything I wanted a Downton Abbey movie to be. 4.5/5

I'm going to see this on Sunday. Can't wait. I loved the tv series.

Hustlers (2019) - Inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.

The acting was credible. The story was good too, it just dragged in the second half--a long two-hour film. Also, Jennifer Lopez is in amazing shape--hard to believe she's 50. 3/5

sexton said:

Baise-moi (2000) - Two young women, marginalised by society, go on a destructive tour of sex and violence. Breaking norms and killing men - and shattering the complacency of polite cinema audiences.

I didn't have any problems with the explicit content. It was the rough production that prevented me from liking it more. It looked like a crude student film. 2/5

classic porn-infused film

Joker 3/10

It tries. The cinematography is beautiful.

My guess is that this movie is really aimed at 13 hr olds which is the level at which this movie tops out at. Which is strange as it's rated R.

If you like TV movies on the lifetime channel sprinkled with gratuitous violence, this movie is for you.
.

[Edited 10/5/19 21:41pm]

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

EmmaMcG said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Joker 3/10

It tries. The cinematography is beautiful.

My guess is that this movie is really aimed at 13 hr olds which is the level at which this movie tops out at. Which is strange as it's rated R.

If you like TV movies on the lifetime channel sprinkled with gratuitous violence, this movie is for you.
.

[Edited 10/5/19 21:41pm]

Interesting. Kind of the opposite of what most of the reviews have been saying. But then, you often go against the grain when it comes to these sort of movies. I'm cautiously optimistic about it. There seems to be an undeserved mythology built up around the character of the Joker but I'm hoping that this movie will go some way towards justifying it. I'm not anticipating a Jack Nicholson-beating performance or anything but it at least looks like something different to the usual bollocks WB and DC have been putting out recently.

Apples and oranges where it comes to Jokers. This one seems like a completely different character. But it does feel life a Lifetime channel film for boys.

Pretty strong film. Eddie does a "spiritual take" on Rudy Ray Moore, and commands a film about the duality of a man and his performance. The film showcases his unrelenting drive in spite of odds, which took him and a rag tag group of friends, associates, students etc from the chitlin circuit to self pressed lp fame and ultimately cinematic stardom upon creating (appropriating) his persona of DOLEMITE.

I'd been waiting on MarK Jason Murray's definitive and AUTHORIZED (while he was alive) biography to flesh out the missing facets of Rudy's life that were not told in general to the public, but I guess that might have to wait another year or more... who knows, he's been saying the same for about 6 years now. I hope the release of this gets interest in Rudy's films again beyond the generational bits of us who probably found his flicks in the CULT/BLACK CINEMA section of the local video store.
The film does profanity justice ... and Eddie's characterization is multi faceted for once,... which has led people to suggest he deserves an Oscar nod.
I thought the film and cast were all great with the exception of Keegan Michael Key who's a little.. just a little unconvincing in the wig, but that's about it. His mannerisms are fitting for Jerry Jones, who by alll accounts still had pride about his films and stage work right up until the day he died. He'd still been pushing his credentials and stage work and writings up till then

DaVine Joy Joy Randolph is incredible as Lady Reed... except that her poor line read "Oh Dolemite, I'm so happy" is not included here (they surprisingly omit large parts of the film and instead focus on the efforts to secure the footage etc)... She's the heart of the story along with Eddie as Rudy. They sell it pretty well.

Recreations of the stages and sets at the Dunbar are pretty exciting. Dolemite's kicks and gut tearing punch get highlighted here. The film cullminates with DOLEMITE's success...and although they don't touch on many of his subsequent films, the fan/viewer of the OG;s will definitely notice many lines from separate films especially "BITCH, ARE YOU FOR REAAAL?!!" (which is actually from THE HUMAN TORNADO but is featured here)
Craig Robinson is greater than his usual roles account for , he's wonderful as Ben Taylor (who was in attendance at the BEYOND FEST screening I went to). The film doesn't lampoon their collective efforts much more than give a viewer an appreciation that they even made the film at all!...
So... fanship aside, I had a few minor criticisms and MY opinion may be biased a bit. (the music can be a little "un-cinematic" at times and cross over into "narrative music" for "made for tv/cable" at a few times during montage...but that's about it.

Great casting for the most part, and the costume work (Ruth Carter again) is phenomenal.

I'd give a strong 8/10, (keep in mind I'll not give 10/10 unless it's stratospheric or so damn incredible as to leave me with a sense of wonder.. like BABE: PIG IN THE CITY or SPIDER MAN: FAR FROM HOME (rates a near 10 for a comic book film)

I hope interest in Rudy is rekindled. The film has a ton of heart and sentiment. Eddie has some powerful scenes perhaps reaching into Rudy's artistic torture (if he had it) and doubts. He also steers clear of "being a character" and instead follows to portray the man and his works. You DO get a few spirited reads that come close to Rudy's absolutely unparalleled voicings)

According the the writers Karazewski and Alexander, this film was intended and written many years ago specifically for Eddie Murphy who suggested to Rudy that "you ought to get the guys who did ED WOOD to write your film"... so from 2003- 2019 is a long time.
It's a shame Rudy isn't around for it, but hopefully this spirited crowd pleaser stokes the furnace a little more.

[Edited 10/7/19 12:06pm]

In The Tall Grass, a Netflix movie based on Stephen King & Joe Hill's novella of the same name. I CANNOT SAY HOW MUCH THIS WAS A LET DOWN. It just never went anywhere, the rock thing wasn't explained, nor was Travis's death since he didn't even show up later, the time loop thing - it's just a bunch of tropes played out in an otherwise unimpressive movie. I've no doubt the story is better than the film.

Downton Abbey (2019)

I was a fan of the series. The movie was well done.

TrivialPursuit said:

In The Tall Grass, a Netflix movie based on Stephen King & Joe Hill's novella of the same name. I CANNOT SAY HOW MUCH THIS WAS A LET DOWN. It just never went anywhere, the rock thing wasn't explained, nor was Travis's death since he didn't even show up later, the time loop thing - it's just a bunch of tropes played out in an otherwise unimpressive movie. I've no doubt the story is better than the film.

I'm not surprised by this. There are only a small handful of SK books that have been made into movies or mini-series that are actually good. The Shining, Carrie, Mr Mercedes to name a few. IMO - most are not very well done and the books are always far superior.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1860242/

"The Highwaymen"

.

Fun to watch the other side of the infamous Bonnie & Clyde crime spree as two seasoned cowboys hunt the two vigilantes, ending in the same violent outcome first depicted by Beatty & Co. many years ago. I liked how B&C barely appeared in the film, the filmmakers allowed their own legend to sort of fill in the blanks. Woody Harrelson and Kevin Costner make a great team and Kathy Bates was great as the mayor. I wanted to watch a few minutes of it to "test the waters" and watch it in full later but I became hooked and watched it all immediately. It's a Netflix original.

Empress said:

I'm not surprised by this. There are only a small handful of SK books that have been made into movies or mini-series that are actually good. The Shining, Carrie, Mr Mercedes to name a few. IMO - most are not very well done and the books are always far superior.

I agree. The Shining is still suspect because there's much in it that isn't in the book, and much in the book that isn't in the movie. I think the hotel burning vs. freezing is a huge difference between the two, and I prefer the former. But I am hopeful for Doctor Sleep next months. Carrie and Firestarter were good, as was Shawshank Redemption. I haven't watched Mr. Mercedes. CBS All-Access is filming a 10-part mini series for The Stand. If their track record for Star Trek: Discovery is any indication, then I'm very hopeful about it. I think IT goes without saying - fun, great takes on the book.