Last movie you watched......

Bad Times at the El Royale

Very artful attempt at telling a story. Way too long, though. Good acting (especially Jeff Bridges and Cynthia Erivo). Has lots of twists and turns that mostly turn out to be a way to make the movie longer -- and it goes on way too long.

 

"Independence Day: Resurgence."

Wanted to see if all the disastrous reviews about it trashing the legacy of the original were valid.

There were some awkward explanations of the absence of Will Smith's character, but basically they gave his son all the lines he would have had.

The storyline of the aliens was unnecessarily complicated. The new subplot with the kids of the legacy characters never really got going.

Special effects were showy, mainly to show how much they've advanced in 20 years.

Goldblum, Judd Hirsch and Brent Spiner were pretty much what you expected. Pullman's character was kind of interesting but didn't play out as well as he could have.

A fairly prominent absence (with no explanation) was the Margaret Colin character, who actually had a semi interesting storyline in the original.

My guess is she was intended to be the President in this one. (Colin is still active and looks fine for her age.)

James Rebhorn died in 2014 so he couldn't reprise his officious-dickhead role.

I was actually pretty surprised they didn't work any of the three kids of the Randy Quaid Russell Casse character into the story, if for no other reason that they could scream "Up Yours!" at the screen!


In the end it got boring and draggy, which the original never did, but the original wasn't some enduring piece of great art either. So I don't think it "desecrated its legacy" or any of that crap.

 

The reboot deserves a fuck you. It bombed because it was shit. Damn Hollywood for making a sequel to the successful movie and ignoring the shitty one!

 

First Man. Rather disappointing. Found it aloof and a great supporting cast is underutilized.

 

Yeah, it was terrible.

 

My feelings exactly. The premise is strong and Eastwood's an accomplished enough director that anything he does will be watchable.

That being said, the contortions that the movies goes through to make his character a blameless babe in the woods - while he works for a murderous cartel - are way too much. It would've more interesting making him at least a little greedy or whatever.

 

Vice. Very good. Bale is excellent as usual. Well acted overall.

But sure all the “artsy” bits worked. Thinking of the Shakespeare bedroom scene in particular.

 

Saw the Favourite this evening. Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz play off of each other well. The movie is a royal power play with an all female love triangle. It does well in some instances but really gets carried away with trying to be a Sundance film. The final shot still has me wondering what the hell was going on.

I've now seen five of the eight best picture nominees. This was easily the worst of the five (Vice, A Star Is Born, Black Panther and Bahamian Rhapsody were the other four). I'm guessing it won't stack up against the three I haven't seen. The only thing this might win is best supporting actress only because it has two of the five nominees. Honestly Emma Stone could legit get the Oscar.

Long story short, movie is meh. It's a lesbian love triangle told though a period piece. Cinematography and directing are shit. Acting was ok to good

 

Dunkirk, really different than the usual war movies. Very good.

Wizard of Oz, on the big screen as part of the TCM series. Took some kids and their friends. Happy to report that the theater was nearly full. They had 2 showings that day and a theater in a nearby town was playing it also. Glad to see the crowd as I love seeing the old films on the big screen. Shawshank is on the list this year.

 

Saw "Aquaman" with my daughter yesterday. It was better than "Shape of Water."

 

The first one isn't exactly Citizen Kane. I mean, why don't the parents recognize Marty later on? They named the kid Marty -- and the stranger who visited them and then magically disappeared after that dance looks exactly like their son -- but they don't recognize him. Makes no sense.

Listen, I love the original, but they should have never made any sequels.

 

Sunday with everyone gone from house so went to driving range then saw matinee of “Serenity” in luxury lounger. Boy what an awful movie. Terrible story, beyond believable, felt cheated. Well Anne Hathaway was ok.