Last movie you watched......

Enjoyable movie, but I didn’t care for the ending.

 

Contagion; eerie how accurate it appears. Well done by Soderbourgh (sp)

 

Watching The Final Year on Obama's foreign policy efforts in 2016. It seems oddly alien to me - like it was a lot longer than four years ago.

 

In fairness and in honor of the current administration, you should watch it the way some folks listen to Abbey Road...backwards.

 

Watched The Front Runner - would have expected better from the people involved - Matt Bai on the script and Jason Reitman directing. Gary Hart might have been a great president, but damn what an arrogant guy. Surprised more people didn't sniff out his vanities before they spilled out. And the Washington Post doesn't come out of it looking too good.
Saw a lot of hubris in Hart's failure. "The American people don't care about my personal life. I like my privacy." It's the same kind of stuff that doomed Kerry with his unwillingness to confront the Swift boaters, same kind of stuff that deluded Hillary in thinking she shouldn't respond to the e-mails etc. It really doesn't matter if they were right, or were taking a principled stand - most people saw it as an unwillingness to defend themselves because they didn't think they should or could. Ignoring something hoping it would go away is political suicide.

As for the movie - having two reporters listening to Vin Scully doing a Dodgers-Expos game while on the stakeout in DC though - that was brutal. Having the wife "call home to Denver" (from DC) by asking Hart for a dime? Even worse.

 

Finally caught Once Upon A Time in Hollywood - I agree with the critics who found it extremely self-indulgent. It looked great, loved the audio from Boss Radio KHJ, but was there even a story there? It ended up playing like a goof. And it was pretty misogynistic. I'm still trying to figure out how Pitt got an Academy Award out of that part.
A better film would have contrasted the insularity of Hollywood with the war in Vietnam, and Manson's desire for a music career as the catalyst for the violence he inspired.
Or even the final death rattle of the studio system and the rising "new Hollywood" of the '70s and contrasting that with social upheaval in the late '60s. But no - let's focus on a down on his luck TV actor moping about that he's not a big deal anymore.

 

The Wife - a movie more about a couple and jealousy than writing - the great takeaway line is the comeback from a female author lamenting the sexual discrimination in book publishing (played by Elizabeth McGovern) and her soft book sales - "People say a writer writes - always. But to really be a writer, a writer needs to be read." Glenn Close is great in it.

The Lone Ranger - figured I'd see for myself if it sucked as much as people said. It's better than any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies plot wise, but has a problem with tone trying to be jokey in parts and trying to be "respectful" of Native American culture. I'm somewhat convinced that you can't make a decent Western for MORE than $50m - (see Wild Wild West/Cowboys and Aliens) because if you are, you don't understand why people like Westerns and you don't have a script so you pile the movie with effects. I'd recommend Bone Tomahawk well ahead of The Lone Ranger.

 

Needed a good laugh....The Naked Gun... Leslie Neilsen was a treasure. Soooo stupid yet so funny.

 

Something called Rust Creek, about some college girl who gets lost in a Kentucky holler trying to get around an accident on I-64 and absurdity ensues. It was actually pretty decent.

 

I saw that awhile ago on Showtime and concur with your assessment. Very well acted, especially female and male leads.

 

Richard Jewell. About what I expected from Clint Eastwood circa 2019/20. The bombing happened the day after my 16th birthday and I was really into the olympics then so I remember it vividly. I also remember the first time I saw Jewell mentioned as the bombing suspect and said, “no f’n way.” Sam Rockwell was good as Jewell’s lawyer, but other than that meh at best. Kathy Bates got an Oscar nomination for that ... really? Glad I only paid 80 cents to rent it at Redbox.

 

Blade Runner 2049: 5/5

One of my favorite science fiction movies in recent memory. A Goliath in cinematography, score and set design. The acting and story are decent, but the world-building takes a life of its own.