Last movie you watched......

Caught a matinee on Monday. Loved the characters. Especially loved the quirkiness of the little girls. Premise was interesting enough. My only issue—and not having seen enough Wes Anderson movies, it may just be a running thing—is Anderson writes like that dude in college who is trying to show off his writing skills. I just felt like "oh great, now this person is monologuing to say something deeply profound and unnecessarily complex." Hell, the out of place pregnant pauses—again, I'm sure is a stylistic choice of Anderson's but I don't see enough of his movies—were better than the pretentious monologues.

 

The Russell Crowe/Christian Bale version? That's an awesome flick.

 

New Indiana Jones.

Um. Maybe better than Crystal Skull? Maybe worse? Better than the previews at least, if that means anything. Always fun to see Indy on the screen but the story and film itself, eh. Glad I saw it, don't need to see it again.

 

Also Indiana Jones. I liked it, I was entertained. To be clear, it would’ve had to be truly awful for me to dislike it. No spoilers ahead.

It’s very much in the form of the other ones, patterned after the 1930s serials. Lots of action, fights, “movie” violence.

I didn’t hate Crystal Skull, and it’s better than that. Ford was good, as was Phoebe Waller-Bridge. They really pulled off the de-aged sequence, which can sometimes be really obvious. It was a very fun, old-school opening.

The use of the McGuffin will probably get some people annoyed. But the other movies have been so romanticized (by me too) that you need to recall there was a magic box that melted faces, a guy who pulled out still-beating hearts, a cup that gave ever-lasting life, a 700-year-old knight and aliens.

Maybe today’s audiences are too cynical for those leaps of faith. And that’s fair. But it’s been a part of all of them.

Good popcorn movie. Tons of callbacks. An ocean of nostalgia. It’s pretty much what I expected an Indiana Jones movie to be.

Nothing will ever top Raiders. Last Crusade is a close second. I’d put this one as good or better than Temple of Doom.

edit to add: could’ve been 15-20 minutes shorter. But that’s my complaint with almost all entertainment these days.

 

Just saw it this morning. It was a good popcorn flick. It followed some beats from all the I dare you/I pay you to pretend to like that quirky person but it was actually endearing. It understood what it was and didn’t try to make absolutely everything OK. Feels like a slight nod to the Graduate.

 

Saw Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse last week and it was fucking spectacular. It is my favorite Spider Man movie ever. It elevated the art of animated film. It was creative, visually invigorating and the story/character arc were really well written. It should win the Oscar for best animated film, hands down, and, quite honestly, it ought to be among the 10 nominees for Best Picture (an animated film will never, ever, win this category, but this one is the closest I've seen).

They did an even better job than "Into the Spider-Verse" of weaving in different styles of artwork/animation based on which universe was being represented.

Miles is probably a better character at this point than Peter Parker. It was just a great, great time at the theater.

Only complaint, obviously, is the way it just .... ended. I didn't realize this was a 2-part film, so that was a letdown. I wish they had called it "Part One," so I would have known what I was getting into.

 

Wal-Mart was selling a James Bond/Roger Moore DVD set (volume 2 of 2)...five movies for 10 bucks. I was feeling nostalgic, so I bought it.

"Moonraker"--Cheesy but entertaining. Michael Lonsdale is such a fantastic actor and one of my favorite Bond villains.

"For Your Eyes Only"--My favorite Moore Bond movie (slightly ahead of "The Spy Who Loved Me"). Cool locations and stunt work, particularly in the Italian Alps sequence. Cool supporting cast. Julian Glover, Topol...and Charles Dance in his film debut!

"Octopussy"--Unbearably bad

 

It was in the trailers and some of the television commercials, but yeah, lots of people went in not realizing it was just the first part of a two-part story. I think that will probably cost them when it comes to awards consideration, that the movie doesn't stand on its own.

 

I received both Roger Moore 007 DVDs as a gift a few years ago.

IMHO, Disc 1 (Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me) is the much stronger disc. Better movies, better Bond Girls, and two of the all-time best theme songs.

Mercifully, I don’t think Moore’s last Bond film, “View to a Kill” is part of any DVD set.

 

Oh, View to a Kill is definitely in the set I bought...I just didn't bother to watch it.

And from set one......Britt Ekland and Barbara Bach

 

And Jane Seymour! 3-for-3!

 

You can have enough chase scenes in a movie. And Ford looked terminally depressed throughout.

Yeah. Probably better than Skull, though that film had - to mangle a phrase from Cameron Crowe - "had the courage of its sheer stupidity."