Last movie you watched......

McAvoy was indeed excellent. Anya Joy-Taylor was pretty good as well. I felt the movie was too long and built up to something it didn't really pay off. The last 15 minutes or so were fairly tense, but it took too long to get there. Ultimately, it didn't do it for me.

I thought it could have been the 10 Cloverfield Lane of 2017, but wasn't.

And the tacked-on extra ending was totally unnecessary. It really added nothing to this specific film.

 

The Happening may be the biggest joke of a mainstream movie I've ever seen. It frankly should have ended Wahlberg's career.

That said, I loved Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and, to a lesser extent, Signs. The Village was decent. I give him a pass on Lady in the Water because of what was happening with his "breakup" with Disney at the time. Anything he's done since then has been utter shit, though I'm actually looking forward to seeing Split, largely because of McAvoy.

Forrest Whitaker was rightly heaped with praise for his portrayal of Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland," but I've thought since seeing it that McAvoy will one day win an Oscar. He hasn't come close (I don't think he's ever even been nominated for a Golden Globe), but I still think he'll get there someday.

 

'The Happening' was bad, but it still contained some shots and images that were really great.
Overall, very bad movie, though.

I have a mild appreciation for 'Devil.' The vast majority of movies are bad, and 'Devil' wasn't bad.
That's the best I can say about it. I guess I just like the idea.

 

Guess what?

Split is pretty good. Dare I say clever. With a ending credits sequence that kind of shifts how you view the movie a little bit.

 

Christine
Not Stephen King's killer car. Christine Chubbuck. The Florida TV news reporter/morning show host who shot herself on a live broadcast in 1974. The film is the lead up to her suicide, with little time spent on the actual act. This is a movie showing someone with depression in times where it was less understood and more stigmatized than it is today (and it's still misunderstood and stigmatized).

Rebecca Hall was very good, but some of the clothes and sets look like they're trying a little to hard to be 70s. Then again, I was born in 1981, so what do I know? She really had a tough task. She was the lead, but she was also in every scene.

You can also watch it as a commentary on media and the "if it bleeds, it leads" mantra of news judgment.

It's now available to rent on iTunes.

 

Saw La La Land with Mrs. Novelist today. I've now seen six of the best picture nominees (Arrival, Hidden Figures, Hacksaw Ridge, Manchester by the Sea, Hell or High Water). Out of those, I'd probably vote for Hidden Figures if I had a vote.

 

Watched "The Girl on the Train" this weekend and loved it. I don't understand why it scored 43 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. I thought it was fantastic. Emily Blunt was very good, the reveals were well done and the cinematography was excellent. I particularly liked how much of the first half of the movie, during which Emily Blunt was mostly drunk, there was a lot of soft focus and shallow depth of field and, as the film progressed and she sobered up, the director used a lot more sharp focus and deeper depth of field. I thought it was a nice touch.

 

"Smokey and the Bandit." A guilty pleasure.

 

'Suicide Squad' = very bad

 

Saw "Hidden Figures" with the family this weekend. Wonderful, moving story that I wish I had known long ago. Very well done. Its a great story, not sure its a masterpiece of movie-making though. Maybe that's enough though, a reminder later of a great movie from 2016.

 

Saw Manchester By The Sea today.

I wouldn't recommend it. Slow, too quiet, downright boring at times -- I think I actually nodded off through part of it -- and its not completely clear in its story-telling. Can't believe it has been as well-reviewed as it has been.

 

"Ex Machina."

I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I thought it was tremendously well done. I love that when the main character Caleb wants to talk techie gibberish, the inventor Nathan shuts him down. That was basically telling the audience that this movie is going to be about the Big Questions.

Christopher Nolan would have had them drone on about the details for 10 minutes.