TheFman said:

Just finished the Irishman. Surely no Oscars material. It's one of the weakest maffia-movies with one of them three in it. Surely DeNiro who didn't even care acting for a single minute; he just 'did his lines'.

10 Oscar nominations.

Dolemite Is My Name (2019) - Eddie Murphy portrays real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon.

Eddie Murphy has a lot of fun in this upbeat biopic. 3.5/5

sexton said:

Dolemite Is My Name (2019) - Eddie Murphy portrays real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon.

Eddie Murphy has a lot of fun in this upbeat biopic. 3.5/5

his best ever role!

1917 (2019) - Two young British soldiers during the First World War are given an impossible mission: deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop 1,600 men, and one of the soldiers' brothers, from walking straight into a deadly trap.

It deserves every award nomination it gets. Perhaps its most incredible achievement was condensing an overnight journey into what looks like a single two-hour continuous shot. 5/5

Harriet (2019) - The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

This is another good-looking, serviceable Hollywood biopic that appears during awards season. 3.5/5

Little Women (2019) - Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women each determined to live life on their own terms.

Stellar adaptation of the classic novel. 4.5/5

I'm going to review a movie called "Snowpiercer" and it's going to be a lot of fun to do. Not because it's a great movie, although I'll tell right now I rate it 4 Frozen Arms out of 5 Frozen Arms. Rather, because it's the rare movie (for me) that makes me think about "What could have been" in a postive way.

Oh - TNT has adapted this story for a TV series, which premieres in May. I have no desire to watch it. You don't ruin a good movie with a TV series. Which reminds me of a story!

A friend ran the Green Room in the Houston Astrodome and one time The Highwaymen were performing there. The Highwaymen were a supergroup composed of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash.

The phone rings, my friend answers it, and on the other end is the unmistakable voice of Willie Nelson. "Bring us four bottles of Jack Daniels!" says the Redheaded Stranger. "Yes sir, right away," answers my buddy. "Would you like any Coca Cola too?" There was a silence on the line, and then Wille said:

"Son. You don't f--- up good whiskey with Coca Cola".

I have many more Willie Nelson stories and if the right movies come along, I'll share some of them.

Back to the piercing of snow. Now is a good time for the obligatory

SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT

"Snowpiercer" is about a horrible future in which we finally did something about climate change; however, what we did was even worse. We chemtrailed ourselves with some chemical called CW-7, which was supposed to cool the atmosphere by a couple degrees and save us all. However, we over-chemtrailed and CW-7 lowered the temperature by about 100 degrees. Almost everyone froze to death.

But Super Genius Wilford had seen all this coming and had built a giant train track that covered the whole world. It takes exactly one year to navigate a complete revolution, and the train itself hasdozens/hundreds/whatever number of cars. It was self-powered and self-sustaining in every way.

So a few hundred or thousand lucky people got on the train and lived there, never being able to go outside because they'd freeze to death. But some people were luckier than others. For instance, those in the front cars lived the life of Reilly, while those in the tail were basically there for ballast.

Naturally, the Tail People wanted to go up front but Wilford's personal army prevented that. And, Wilford's personal army also stole all the kids.

So Curtis, the hero, leads a revolution. In the 17 years people have been confined to the tail section, there have been a few revolutions but they all failed. Curtis, however, is able to win. Or at least, he makes it to the Engine Room at the front of the train, where he confronts Wilford.

One of my favorite actors, Ed Harris, plays Wilford. And he's great as usual. He tells Curtis that this was all a set-up and that Curtis's mentor in the tail section is actually Wilford's best friend. Every now and then Curtis's mentor encourages a revolution attempt, but this is mainly so that lots of tail people will get killed. You see, the train has to be evenly balanced or it will run off the rails. Too many tail people means too much weight in the back. And since there isn't much to do in the tail section, apparently a lot of coitus occurs and that means that the tail section gets over-populated every few years. Therefore, the population must be thinned out and that's really what the revolutions are for.

So what we have is about 2 awesome hours of hand-to-hand combat, culminating in Curtis's world being blown apart. Also, Curtis finds all the stolen kids, who were being used as slaves to make the engine go.

Curtis made it to the front, but so did the last two remaining confederates of his - a guy named Namgoong, who designed the train's security system; and his daughter Yona, who is clairvoyant. Both of them are seemingly junkies, strung out on a highly combustible substance called Kronole. But Namgoong is pretty smart. He's noticed that the snowcover is less each time they go around the world, which means it's getting warmer outside. He figures he can live outside and to get outside, his plan is to gather up all the Kronole he can, make a bomb out of it, and blow open one of the train's doors.

That's exactly what he does but the explosion causes an avalanche which derails the train. The only surviving people are daughter Yona and one of the stolen kids. But when they exit the train they see a polar bear. Fortunately, this polar bear does not eat them and only serves as proof that there is, in fact, life on Earth.

Now, on to my analysis.

What I liked about this movie was that there were multiple things I might call "plot holes" in a lesser movie but in a well-made movie like this, I call them "alternate decisions". Here's the main Alternate Decision I can think of:

Why thin out the trail section population via murder every few years? All Wilford had to do was institute some kind of birth control. If the tail section is getting too populated, no sex for a few years while some old people die off. If the population is too small, then boink away. Of course, if Wilford had instituted something like this, we wouldn't have a movie, would we? (Or for that matter, the upcoming TV series.)

But still - Curtis could have asked Wilford this at the end which would have given Ed Harris even more opportunity at awesomeness. Truly, you can not have too much Ed Harris Awesomeness in any movie.

The way I know "Snowpiercer" is worth the Four Frozen Arms I've given it is that I can think of great Alternate Decisions like this but not really be upset my Alternate Decision was not used. That's the mark of a good movie!

sexton said:

Little Women (2019) - Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women each determined to live life on their own terms.

Stellar adaptation of the classic novel. 4.5/5

I just saw it last night. Excellent acting and cinemetography. Tomothy Chalamet and Saoirase Ronan are on their way to becomng the greatest actors of their generation. A shame that Greta Gerwig is yet another woman director whose film gets nominated for best picture and doesn't get an academy nomination.

RodeoSchro said:

Ford v Ferrari (2019) - American car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles battle corporate interference, the laws of physics and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford and challenge Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.

Well-made racing film that checks all the boxes for becoming a blockbuster. 4/5

Rocketman (2019) - A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.

I thought framing this biopic as a musical worked very well. I liked it much more than Bohemian Rhapsody. 4/5

Just watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Very uneven. Again, surely no Oscar material for best movie. AFter deliberation, just edgily falls into the 'good' half of T's movies (4 in the bad half, 5 in the good half)

Brat Pitt saves the movie and yes this is the correct Oscar nomination, hands down. While I regard DiCaprio as the best actor of his generation, he felt short to Pitt. Still Bale (dont even know if he's nominated) would edge out Pitt in this side-actor category for Ford vs Ferrari.

Music is very good though, but hey I can aslo put together this soundtrack, it's no fine arts.

As i said, it's uneven, and up to the legenadary Bruce Lee-scene, it's even pretty boring. But that scene, man! Here's where the movie really starts. The end, narrated for a big part before the actual end chapter, is off the pace and doesn't fit in. Until the narration is over and the final starts.

Still I don't quite catch the point of it. Why messing with the past?

On the scale of one to four stars

Little Women: ** Stars

To me this film was disjointed, poorly edited ,and poorly directed. It's one thing to tale a story starting from the end and flashing back to explain the conclusive outcome. Its totally different when movie story-line is told in a series of flashback, when its not done well, the story-line becomes muddled, there's a lack of chemistry between the characters, and some characters aren't fully developed.

If it wasn't a nice looking picture...Little Women it did have its moments, I'd given this movie *

star.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood: ** Stars

A nostalgic flick...

Throw in some cheeky humour, a bombastic violent end, the story ends with two middle aged flash in the pan TV actor and his stunt double walking into the moonlight. Well, one walked up a driveway in the dark and the other needed medical treatment. Seriously? I was waiting for Alfred Hitchock to walk through the picture at the end and say, "Its Only a Movie".

Divorce Story: *** Stars

I enjoyed this movie for its measured tone, how, why, a marriage falls apart, especially when there's a child involved. Starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as the protagonist who supposedly go a a divorce counselor to make sure they have amicable divorce. Well it doesn't turn out that way, along the way both dig in their heels, their lawyers only care they win, fuck the clients. The dialogue is excellent and you really have to pay attention to why this relationship ended. Solid movie.

=================

[Edited 1/22/20 17:55pm]

Some movies should not be made. Many times, that applies to sequels. It certainly does this time, and the sequel I'm talking about is "Zombieland - Double Tap". This is a movie that should not have been made. We can't turn back time and un-make this flick, so the next best thing is declare that "Zombieland - Double Tap" shouldn't ever be watched by anyone.

Z2, as I will call it from now on as I'm too lazy to type "Zombieland - Double Tap" more than 3 or 4 times and I assume you are too lazy to want to read "Zombieland - Double Tap" more than once, proves that when you have an original idea, it can only be original once. The first "Zombieland" - or, I guess, Z1? - was very entertaining and lots of fun. Of course, the Bill Murray scene was probably the funniest scene of the whole 2000's decade. If you saw it, you agree.

Z1 was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Z2 was written by Reese, Wernick and Dave Callaham. Either we can blame Callaham for screwing up whatever magic Reese and Wernick had come up with, or Callaham was brought in to salvage the dumbest script anyone had seen since "The Expendables".

Which may or may not be true because Callaham has been sued for lying about how much a script of his inspired "The Expendables". Callaham sued Sylvester Stallone, saying his script was the basis for the Expendables 1 and 2, and won $275K. But then someone found some emails that Callaham had not previously produced, in which apparently Callaham admits his script really wasn't the basis for "The Expendables". So now Callaham has been sued to get that money back. And then another company sued Callaham, saying he had ripped their idea off.

Therefore, I'm blaming Callaham for all the non-funny junk, but please don't tell him. Apparently he's a 10th-degree black belt in some kind of voodoo karate called 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, and he has the neck tattoos to prove it. Thanks in advance for your silence.

Z2 contains literally no jokes worth a hearty laugh. Everything, and I mean everything, is derivative, corny, vulgar, nonsense and did I mention derivative? There are literally so many episodes of stupidity that if I broke them all down, this would be my longest review ever. You don't want that. I don't want that. I'm all for suspension of disbelief, but this movie asks you to suspend everything. It's so stupid that I have to imagine what a conversation among talented and truly funny actors like Woody Harrellson, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone must have been like after they'd all read the script and were deciding whether or not to sign on.

<Initiate dream sequence now. Doodle-loot! Doodle-loot! Doodle-loot!>

JESSE EISENBERG (on a three-way call with WOODY HARRELLSON and EMMA STONE): Hey guys. Have you read the script for Z2? Is it not the worst thing you've ever read?!?

EMMA: Yes! And I was in "Aloha" and "Movie 43"!

WOODY: I don't know about you two, but I need more money for hemp. I'm doing this.

JESSE: No, Woody! Don't! If you need cash for hash, we'll do another "Now You See Me" movie!

EMMA: Yeah, I need some money too. I've only done one film a year for the last three years and I don't have anything set to release this year. Not all of us have cushy writing gigs for high-brow magazines like you do, Jesse.

JESSE: Point taken. Well, if you guys are in, then I am too. But if we're going to do the worst movie of the year, we should go all the way.

WOODY: You don't mean....

EMMA: Oh no! Not that!

JESSE: Yes - we need a Wilson brother. Preferably Owen, but any Wilson will do.

EMMA: How many Wilsons are there?

WOODY: Too many. I'll only agree if I get to kill whichever Wilson shows up.

JESSE and EMMA: Agreed!

WOODY: Whew. At the very least, killing a Wilson should get me a higher Rotten Tomatoes rating than I got with "Surfer, Dude". (You should look that up, trust me.)

So Luke Wilson gets hired and sure enough, Woody Harrellson kills him after Wilson zombifies. That, my friends, is the high point of this movie.

The low point has to be what they do to Bill Murray. Well, it was also pretty low when the new character - the dumbest blonde in the history of cinema - comes up with the idea for Uber and everyone laughs at her. That was pretty stupid.

But not as stupid as making ridiculous jokes about Bill Murray. In Z2, accidentally killing a celebrity is now known as "Murraying" that celebrity. The other new character swears she will kill whoever it was that Murrayed Bill Murray back in Z1 which, as we've already discussed, was the funniest scene of that entire decade. (HINT: Jesse Eisenberg Murrayed Bill Murray but after a couple nervous laughs, everyone apparently forgets that Eisenberg now has a price on his head.) Left unsaid is what other celebrities had been Murrayed since Z1. Obviously some had, or there wouldn't have been a reference. That was a comedic opportunity overlooked. How great would it have been to disclose that a Kardashian, or Ricky Gervais, had been Murrayed? I think everyone would applaud any situation in which Ricky Gervais gets Murrayed.

Not content to leave well enough alone - or in this case, not content to quit digging deeper into the Eternal Hole Of Unfunny Jokes - there is a scene in the credits with the actual Bill Murray. No offense to the great one, but it is NOT worth watching. If for some inexplicable reason you watch Z2, switch it off before the credits. Trust me, you will be very glad you did.

Obviously Z2 is a 0.00. As with all zeroes, it's not worth coming up with a piffy rating unit. It's simply nothing. A-V-O-I-D.

.

[Edited 1/22/20 10:33am]

Being gainfully unemployed has its benefits. First, I get to go to the gym three times a week, every week, instead of my former once-and-if-I'm-lucky-twice-a-week schedule of the past few years. And guess what?

That extra day makes all the difference. I could tell you what that difference is but let's have Kenny Bania say it better than I ever could:








The other thing that's great about being gainfully unemployed is no homework/late nights at the office! So, I can go to lots more movies. The movies don't make me huge but sometimes they entertain me tremendously.

Like "The Gentlemen" did!

What a GREAT movie. If you like great writing, lots of action, and fantastic performances then this is the movie for you.

Matthew McConaughey runs a large illegal dope growing/selling enterprise in Great Britain. He'd like to sell out and join the landed gentry but finds out that selling a large illegal dope growing/selling operation is not as easy as one might think. Hijinx ensue. (TRIVIA NOTE: Is there any other English word with three dots in row, like "hijinx" has?)

The rest of the cast is just awesome. Especially Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, and Charlie Hunnam. But Hugh Grant! I had NO idea he could act this well. In a movie stocked with 5 star performances from A-list actors, he stands above.

Since I'm not about to divulge the plot twists or details of what happens, and since I figure I need to fill a little space or I'll feel useless, here is an interesting nugget about Matthew McConaughey:

I bet you've seen his latest commercial for Lincoln. The one where he goes ice fishing. And parks a Lincoln Aviator right next to a frozen lake. And then walks out onto the frozen lake and uses an ice auger to set a fishing line. And then walks back to the Aviator to wait on a bite. And then gets a bite. And then walks out onto the ice to retrieve his fish. And then whistles the theme to "The Andy Griffith Show". If not, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/w...q4Qj_vG9Tg

Notice anything weird? Watch it again.

Now? Did you figure it out? Nope?!? OK, I'll tell you what it is.

Matthew McConaughey was never really there.

Seriously - watch it again. I will bet you dollars to doughnuts Matthew McConaughey never got within 1,000 miles of that frozen lake - which, by the way, YouTube comments tell me is in Upper Kananaskis Lake, Alberta, Canada - 100 miles north of the Montana border and southwest of Calgary in the Canadian Rockies.

I'm a big Matthew McConaughey fan, even though I still can't spell his last name without Googling it, nor will I watch his "Surfer, Dude" film unless I get seriously drunk. I do not blame that Texas boy one iota for not wanting to go to Upper Kananaskis Lake, Alberta, Canada and freeze his keister off.

That's why I'm sure that isn't McConaughey in the parka at any time, except when sitting in the back of an Aviator that's no doubt parked in front of a green screen somewhere in Hollywood or Austin.

So Matthew McConaughey was never really there. That's why I love him so much.

"The Gentlemen" gets the ultimate rating, which in this case is 5 Pounds of Flesh out of 5 Pounds of Flesh. I loved it!

Joker 9/10

The Cave (2019) - Amidst air strikes and bombings, a group of female doctors in Ghouta, Syria struggle with systemic sexism while trying to care for the injured using limited resources.

Illuminating, startling, depressing. 4/5

The Two Popes (2019) - Behind Vatican walls, the conservative Pope Benedict and the liberal future Pope Francis must find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church.

This is the first buddy pope movie I've ever seen. It surprisingly had many tender and funny moments. 4/5

It's time for 2020's first installment of Movies I Only Saw The Last Half Of!

Neon is in trouble. LED lights seem to be taking over. Plus, how many times have you seen a neon sign with a flickering letter? Sometimes it changes the entire complexion of a sign.

For instance, if your business name is "Motel Hello" but the last "o" in your business's name flickers off and on, who are you some of the time?

Why, you're "Motel Hell"!

This is one of those incredibly awful movies that's so bad it has a cult following. In other words, it's right up my alley.

Here's what happened before I came in:

Some old farmer dude named Vincent and his sister Ida apparently trap people, bury them up to their necks in their "Secret Garden", cut out their vocal chords, fatten them up, and then slaughter them. Everyone in town loves Vincent's sausage but I was never sure if they knew that Soylent Green was people. Vincent and Ida had captured a couple riding a motorcycle but Vincent liked Terry - the girl -so they buried the guy and told Terry he had died.

As I entered the scene, two girls are driving through the countryside when they come upon some wooden cows blocking the road. One girl gets out to move them and a dude in a gas mask (I later found out that was Vincent) jumps out and kidnaps her. Then he chases the other girl, ultimately running her car into a swamp.

Sheriff Bruce is somehow on a date with Terry, and they catch just a smidgen of this episode. It turns out that Sheriff Bruce is Vincent's brother.

The next day, Terry and Ida go tubing in the lake. Ida has brought a boxcutter and secretly slices her own tube, screaming for help because she (allegedly) can't swim. Terry tries to save her but it's a trick! Ida's jealous of Terry, so she's trying to drown Terry. But fortunately/unfortunately (depending on which side of the Vincent/Terry dynamic you land on), Vincent shows up and rescues Terry.

This makes Terry fall in love with the much, much, MUCH older Vincent. She wants to boink him but he says, "No boinking unless we're married". So Terry naturally suggests they get married the next day.

This movie has weird religious undertones in it but never really blames Vincent and Ida's cannibalism on their religion. However, this quasi-religious subplot gives the movie's director a chance to cast the one and only Wolfman Jack as the local sky pilot. As expected, Wolfman Jack absolutely nails his one and only scene, which is him being told by Vincent that there's going to be a wedding the next day.

Meanwhile, Terry stumbles into the meat processing portion of the house and I think she sees some heads, or bodies, or some sort of human appendages mixed in with the pigs and cows. Vincent tells her it's all OK, because he only kills and eats bad people. Plus, the planet is overcrowded anyway and can't feed everyone, so killing bad people and eating them actually solves two problems at once. And not only that, but Vincent treats all his "stock" better than anyone else treats their stock, because he doesn't give his stock any chemicals or hormones.

Despite this unassailable logic, Terry resists becoming a cannibal, so Vincent knocks her out with the ever-present gas or chlorophyl or Magic Dust. I was never really sure what it was. I do know, however, that Vincent still believes the wedding is on, even though Vincent tied Terry to a conveyor belt that delivers meat to a very sharp, very large cutting apparatus. (I bet you can guess what's going to happen!)

Then two things happen simultaneously: (1) one of the people buried in the Secret Garden digs himself out, and then digs out all the other future steak dinners; and (2) Sheriff Bruce has figured out that Vincent and Ida kill people (although he doesn't yet know they smoke them and sell them to the townspeople, including him), so he shows up to rescue Terry.

The "stock" - and I want to call them zombies but they're just freaked-out people who got their vocal chords cut out and then planted in some dirt - ultimately corner Ida and kill her. She gets the ultimate humiliation - she gets buried in the Secret Garden, except in Ida's case she was buried head-first.

After showing up at the farmhouse, Sheriff Bruce gets knocked out by Ida (before the "stock" takes care of her), wakes up, grabs a shotgun, and shoots his way into the meat processing portion of the house. He confronts his brother, who knocks the shotgun out of Sheriff Bruce's hand and then grabs his weapon of choice - a chainsaw!

Sheriff Bruce evades Vincent long enough to grab his own chainsaw, but he can't get it started. So all he can really do is block Vincent's running chainsaw thrusts with his non-running chainsaw.

And that thing you were supposed to guess five paragraphs ago? It happens! In case you forgot to guess, at some point in the Sheriff Bruce/Vincent non-running vs. running chainsaw battle, the switch that turns on the conveyor belt gets turned on. A tied-down Terry is now heading towards a grisly death, but neither of the combatants notice.

Finally, Sheriff Bruce delivers the death blow, which is a chainsaw that was running, now not running because it's lodged in Vincent's side. I have to say, the camera work in this movie is consistently horrible, so we don't really see how Sheriff Bruce got that chainsaw lodged into Vincent's side, but he did.

Sheriff Bruce frees Terry just before she gets sliced and diced, and then they go over to comfort the dying Vincent.

Vincent has more or less realized that cannibalism and murder are maybe not so good ("Sometimes I wonder about the karmic implications of these actions" he tells Ida at one point), but he says that the worst thing is that he's going to have to deal with his ultimate shame. He admits his ultimate shame in his dying words:

"I...........used....................PRESERVATIVES!"



Sheriff Bruce and Terry disregard all police protocol regarding the murders committed by Vincent and Ida, as well as Vincent and Ida's corpses. Instead, they decided to go out on a date. Terry wants Sheriff Bruce to burn down the hotel but Sheriff Bruce says, "This is family!"

As they walk away, the "Motel Hello" neon sign permanently loses its "o", becoming MOTEL HELL.

As movies go, this one is bad. But as bad movies go, this one is good. And that's all that matters, right?

Right!

So let's rate "Motel Hell" as 3.5 Pig Heads That There's No Way Vincent Could Have Seen Out Of While Wearing One During His Battle With Sheriff Bruce But He Wears One Anyway out of 5 Pig Heads That There's No Way Vincent Could Have Seen Out Of While Wearing One During His Battle With Sheriff Bruce But He Wears One Anyway. Anyone care for some sausage?




.

[Edited 1/28/20 15:09pm]

Rodeo, you see Texas Chainsaw?

2freaky4church1 said:

Rodeo, you see Texas Chainsaw?

A long. long time ago. "Motel Hell" was of the same genre.

Missing Link (2019) - Mr. Link recruits explorer Sir Lionel Frost to help find his long-lost relatives in the fabled valley of Shangri-La. Along with adventurer Adelina Fortnight, this trio of explorers travel the world to help their new friend.

It wasn't bad. The contemporary messages regarding belonging and empowerment were fairly overt. I did think the cartoon physics in the big finale was totally bonkers though. 3/5

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) - Based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod.

I did not expect a movie about the congenial and serene Fred Rogers to have such a large amount of tension--which of course is due to the fact that the movie isn't really about Mr. Rogers at all, but journalist Lloyd Vogel and his personal problems. 4/5

The Edge of Democracy (2019) - Political documentary and personal memoir collide in this exploration into the complex truth behind the unraveling of two Brazilian presidencies.

Brazil's government has a lot of problems. 3.5/5

Knives Out (2019) - A detective investigates the death of a patriarch of an eccentric, combative family.

I see why the screenplay is nominated for an Academy Award. And what a great cast. 4/5

For Sama (2019) - Both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war.

This was tough to watch for its realism. The camera was not shy about showing the injured and dead as a consequence of the war in Aleppo. 4/5

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) - When Hiccup discovers Toothless isn't the only Night Fury, he must seek "The Hidden World", a secret Dragon Utopia before a hired tyrant named Grimmel finds it first.

Good animation, okay story. 2.5/5

What do you do after the Super Bowl? That is, if you're on a mountain top in northern New Mexico and still at the mercy of your 2005-era Dish TV?

Why, you watch the most-Oscar-nominated film of 2005!

After a thrilling Super Bowl victory by the Kansas City Chiefs, we navigated around the channels and settled on "The Aviator". To be honest - or as they say in Cosmopolitan magazine, TBH - "The Aviator" was to be a 30-minute placeholder until "Back to the Future III" started. But it was so good that we stayed with it.

Speaking of Cosmo, have you read it lately? Unless you're 15, I bet not. You are, of course, wondering why I read Cosmo. Well, I have a good reason!

I was in the car, bored.

My wife was in the grocery store.

It was sitting in the side door pocket of the car.

So.......

Man, was it bad. Every article is written like a text message. I will bet you $1,000 there isn't one person at Cosmo that spell the entire word "seriously". And I mean that srsly. Yuck.

Back to the future....errrr, movie.

"The Aviator" centers around Howard Hughes's exploits in aviation. Hughes was an incredible man, Even though he was more or less born into wealth (the drill bit his dad patented did OK when Hughes's dad was alive, but made Howard Hughes, Jr. very rich later on, when the oil boom exploded), he was an incredible businessman and engineer and made $$$millions or $billion on his own. The guy did everything, and did it as well as anyone.

My favorite story that illustrates Hughes's drive and focus centers around golf. Hughes was a scratch golfer, meaning his average score was even par, or generally 72. But he wanted to be good enough to win the US Open, which meant he'd have to shave a few strokes off his average. He played golf with the best golfers in the world and one time he asked one of them (I think it was Gene Sarazen, but I could be wrong), "Am I good enough to win the US Open"? The pro said no, and Hughes immediately hung up his clubs for good. If he couldn't be the best golfer in the country, he didn't see any point in playing any longer. I don't know if that story is true (I suspect it is), but it's awesome.

Hughes loved aviation and revolutionized many aspects of flight. "The Aviator" focuses mainly on his attempts to: (1) build a couple airplanes for the Army (before we had an Air Force); and (2) expand TWA Airlines into European routes. Hughes had secretly bought controlling interest in TWA, ultimately owning 100% of it.

The Army stuff didn't go so well. The spy plane that Hughes built was cool and Hughes took it on its maiden voyage. That voyage went great for 105 minutes but in the 106th minute, all heck broke loose. Hughes ultimately crashed into some houses and was seriously hurt. The Army decided not to buy that plane.

They also decided not to buy the Hercules, which was mockingly called the Spruce Goose because Hughes couldn't get any aluminum and had to build it out of wood. The plane was late and wasn't finished by the time WWII ended, so the Army cancelled that one, too.

The TWA episode pitted Hughes against Pan Am and its CEO Juan Trippe (played with the usual excellence by Alec Baldwin). Back in the day, air routes were controlled by the government and Pan Am had some senators in their pocket, which gave them an exclusive right to fly from the USA to Europe. Hughes didn't think that was fair, and fought them.

You have to know that at this point in our history, Howard Hughes was the richest man in America. So he could afford any fight he wanted to engage in. And he was smart enough to separate Hughes Tool - which made him a billionaire and just literally rained money on him all day, every day - from all his other ventures. So you could try to bankrupt his TWA Airlines but even if you did, he was still going to be richer than you were.

Pan Am's main senator was Maine Senator Owen Brewster, played by Alan Alda and he was nominated for an Oscar for this role. He deserved the nomination, too. Brewster was the consummate dirty Senator, and thought he had Hughes over a barrell from which he could force Hughes to sell TWA to his buddies at Pan Am.

Brewster made the mistake of subpoenaing Hughes for a televised Senate hearing. Let me say this about that - the movie is good, but this scene is GREAT. Leonardo DiCaprio totally fries Alan Alda, and it's a thing of beauty.

One of the ways Hughes obliterates Brewster is to divulge that while the Army paid Hughes $40 million to build the Hercules, Hughes paid for its completion out of his own pocket. Furthermore, Hughes announces that if the Hercules doesn't fly, he'll leave the USA for good. With that, he tells Senator Brewster that the hearing is over, and leaves to thunderous applause.

The Hercules (or Spruce Goose, as mentioned above) was a sea plane. It was designed to take off and land on water, so it was ferried off the California coast, where Hughes got it airborne for 26 seconds. He landed it and retired it.

A lot of the movie focused on Hughes's Hollywood exploits and his women - notably Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. One of lesser scenes is a trip Hughes and Hepburn make to Hepburn's parents' estate in Connecticut. Man, is the Hepburn family obnoxious! They are shown to be the very definition of "Eastern snobs" but my research tells me that's not the case. In reality, the Hepburn parents were dedicated to getting their children to help the less fortunate. We'll give director Martin Scorcese a little literary license here, but it's good to know the Hepburns probably weren't the aloof jerks they were portrayed to be.

There's a great scene where Hughes wins the approval to show "The Outlaw", which featured Jane Russell's "mammaries". Hughes brings in a noted professor to measure the "mammaries" of various other actresses. Ultimately science wins out, proving that Russell's "mammaries" aren't any different than any other actresses' "mammaries". Not disclosed was that Hughes had developed a special bra that pushed up Russell's "mammaries". She didn't wear it in the film but I think she was wearing it in the publicity shots, so point to Mr. Hughes. I told you this guy was incredible!

Howard Hughes had such an amazing life that it's hard to talk about a movie that focuses on one portion of it without continually referring to all the other stuff Hughes was doing at the same time. But Scorcese, DiCaprio, Baldwin, Alda and the almost all the Various Britsh Actresses I'd Never Heard Of Until A Couple Years Ago did a great job, which was evidenced by the 11 Oscars that "The Aviator" and its cast received (winning 5).

I give "The Aviator" 3.5 Bottles That Have Milk In Them (as opposed to what the other bottles have) out of 5 Bottles That Have Milk In Them (as opposed to what the other bottles have). Fair skies and tail winds!



.

[Edited 2/3/20 10:12am]

RodeoSchro said:

What do you do after the Super Bowl? That is, if you're on a mountain top in northern New Mexico and still at the mercy of your 2005-era Dish TV?

Why, you watch the most-Oscar-nominated film of 2005!

After a thrilling Super Bowl victory by the Kansas City Chiefs, we navigated around the channels and settled on "The Aviator". To be honest - or as they say in Cosmopolitan magazine, TBH - "The Aviator" was to be a 30-minute placeholder until "Back to the Future III" started. But it was so good that we stayed with it.

Speaking of Cosmo, have you read it lately? Unless you're 15, I bet not. You are, of course, wondering why I read Cosmo. Well, I have a good reason!

I was in the car, bored.

My wife was in the grocery store.

It was sitting in the side door pocket of the car.

So.......

Man, was it bad. Every article is written like a text message. I will bet you $1,000 there isn't one person at Cosmo that spell the entire word "seriously". And I mean that srsly. Yuck.

Back to the future....errrr, movie.

"The Aviator" centers around Howard Hughes's exploits in aviation. Hughes was an incredible man, Even though he was more or less born into wealth (the drill bit his dad patented did OK when Hughes's dad was alive, but made Howard Hughes, Jr. very rich later on, when the oil boom exploded), he was an incredible businessman and engineer and made $$$millions or $billion on his own. The guy did everything, and did it as well as anyone.

My favorite story that illustrates Hughes's drive and focus centers around golf. Hughes was a scratch golfer, meaning his average score was even par, or generally 72. But he wanted to be good enough to win the US Open, which meant he'd have to shave a few strokes off his average. He played golf with the best golfers in the world and one time he asked one of them (I think it was Gene Sarazen, but I could be wrong), "Am I good enough to win the US Open"? The pro said no, and Hughes immediately hung up his clubs for good. If he couldn't be the best golfer in the country, he didn't see any point in playing any longer. I don't know if that story is true (I suspect it is), but it's awesome.

Hughes loved aviation and revolutionized many aspects of flight. "The Aviator" focuses mainly on his attempts to: (1) build a couple airplanes for the Army (before we had an Air Force); and (2) expand TWA Airlines into European routes. Hughes had secretly bought controlling interest in TWA, ultimately owning 100% of it.

The Army stuff didn't go so well. The spy plane that Hughes built was cool and Hughes took it on its maiden voyage. That voyage went great for 105 minutes but in the 106th minute, all heck broke loose. Hughes ultimately crashed into some houses and was seriously hurt. The Army decided not to buy that plane.

They also decided not to buy the Hercules, which was mockingly called the Spruce Goose because Hughes couldn't get any aluminum and had to build it out of wood. The plane was late and wasn't finished by the time WWII ended, so the Army cancelled that one, too.

The TWA episode pitted Hughes against Pan Am and its CEO Juan Trippe (played with the usual excellence by Alec Baldwin). Back in the day, air routes were controlled by the government and Pan Am had some senators in their pocket, which gave them an exclusive right to fly from the USA to Europe. Hughes didn't think that was fair, and fought them.

You have to know that at this point in our history, Howard Hughes was the richest man in America. So he could afford any fight he wanted to engage in. And he was smart enough to separate Hughes Tool - which made him a billionaire and just literally rained money on him all day, every day - from all his other ventures. So you could try to bankrupt his TWA Airlines but even if you did, he was still going to be richer than you were.

Pan Am's main senator was Maine Senator Owen Brewster, played by Alan Alda and he was nominated for an Oscar for this role. He deserved the nomination, too. Brewster was the consummate dirty Senator, and thought he had Hughes over a barrell from which he could force Hughes to sell TWA to his buddies at Pan Am.

Brewster made the mistake of subpoenaing Hughes for a televised Senate hearing. Let me say this about that - the movie is good, but this scene is GREAT. Leonardo DiCaprio totally fries Alan Alda, and it's a thing of beauty.

One of the ways Hughes obliterates Brewster is to divulge that while the Army paid Hughes $40 million to build the Hercules, Hughes paid for its completion out of his own pocket. Furthermore, Hughes announces that if the Hercules doesn't fly, he'll leave the USA for good. With that, he tells Senator Brewster that the hearing is over, and leaves to thunderous applause.

The Hercules (or Spruce Goose, as mentioned above) was a sea plane. It was designed to take off and land on water, so it was ferried off the California coast, where Hughes got it airborne for 26 seconds. He landed it and retired it.

A lot of the movie focused on Hughes's Hollywood exploits and his women - notably Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. One of lesser scenes is a trip Hughes and Hepburn make to Hepburn's parents' estate in Connecticut. Man, is the Hepburn family obnoxious! They are shown to be the very definition of "Eastern snobs" but my research tells me that's not the case. In reality, the Hepburn parents were dedicated to getting their children to help the less fortunate. We'll give director Martin Scorcese a little literary license here, but it's good to know the Hepburns probably weren't the aloof jerks they were portrayed to be.

There's a great scene where Hughes wins the approval to show "The Outlaw", which featured Jane Russell's "mammaries". Hughes brings in a noted professor to measure the "mammaries" of various other actresses. Ultimately science wins out, proving that Russell's "mammaries" aren't any different than any other actresses' "mammaries". Not disclosed was that Hughes had developed a special bra that pushed up Russell's "mammaries". She didn't wear it in the film but I think she was wearing it in the publicity shots, so point to Mr. Hughes. I told you this guy was incredible!

Howard Hughes had such an amazing life that it's hard to talk about a movie that focuses on one portion of it without continually referring to all the other stuff Hughes was doing at the same time. But Scorcese, DiCaprio, Baldwin, Alda and the almost all the Various Britsh Actresses I'd Never Heard Of Until A Couple Years Ago did a great job, which was evidenced by the 11 Oscars that "The Aviator" and its cast received (winning 5).

I give "The Aviator" 3.5 Bottles That Have Milk In Them (as opposed to what the other bottles have) out of 5 Bottles That Have Milk In Them (as opposed to what the other bottles have). Fair skies and tail winds!



.

[Edited 2/3/20 10:12am]

I think you didn't understand the movie.