Last movie you watched......

Cool Hand Luke is one of those movies that’s never underrated and never gets old. The scene with his mother is one of the greatest scenes of all time.

 

Finally saw "Bombshell." I never watch Fox News so I was only vaguely aware of all the players. Just what I heard from other news sources. Very hard to follow, things moved too fast for me. As I was trying to figure out who somebody was, they were gone to the next scene.
I always thought the real Megyn Kelly had a weird, phony look to her. They had to make Charlize look worse than normal to have her be Kelly. Kidman was very cute 25 years ago, not so much now without a ton of Hollywood makeup artist work. Margo Robbie is a superstar, period.
When I say the movie moved too fast for me, I didn't know Alice Eve was in it until I looked up the credits. I have no idea who her character was or even saw her in the movie. Lots of others, too. I'd say "What was that person in?" and they'd be gone before I could figure it out.
I will probably have to watch it again.

 

Watched "Fantasy Island" over the holiday weekend. Much better than I was expecting, considering it's at a cool 7 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Also not nearly as gory. I was thinking it would have some over-the-top, bloody kills but the only scene that came close to that involved some mild torture. Halfway decent twist at the end, too.
Not an Oscar winner by any means, but there are much worse movies to burn a couple of hours with on a Saturday night.

 

Mank, David Fincher's latest, a Netflix original with Gary Oldman in the title role. Fincher directed two of my favorite movies (Zodiac and the Social Network), so I was looking forward to it. Mank--about journalist/screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz around the time he worked on Citizen Kane--had some truly brilliant sequences but it was pretty meandering. Lots of sharp, witty dialogue and good performances, but not top-tier Fincher. B+

 

Found this interesting for some reason - the 2020 box office standings. If at the start of the year you would have said - oh yeah THAT film will make the most money in 2020 - you would be the only one.

Domestic Box Office For 2020 - Box Office Mojo

 

A lot of famous actors and directors do more script re-writing and polishes than people realize, even when they're established. Carrie Fisher is one of them. Thomas Lennon (Reno 911) has also done a ton of script work.

 

Yeah, understood. I just thought it was interesting.

I miss Carrie Fisher.

 

ZZ Top: cool documentary since I knew very little about the band’s actual history. Mixes in animation and archive footage for a fun feel. Really dives into the pre history and follows through eliminator. Everything after that gets about two minutes, but that was the point. This was about the band’s March to success. They come off as really good guys, though, Frank Beard talking about his love of heroin back in the day was odd.

 

Saw it in an actual theater tonight and had the same reaction. It was one of those films that should've been a documentary but I can understand why not. It would've gotten a hundredth of the audience.

The most interesting thing about is that in real life Mankiewicz and his wife were around the same age. In the movie, the actress playing her is more than three decades younger than Oldman. And the actor playing 24-year-old Welles is around fifteen years older.

 

Since its the holidays, revisited "Family Man" (Cage) because my wife really likes it. Had not seen since first run in theater. Forgot how good it is. IF you enjoy having a family, its wonderful.

 

The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone

Yes, it improves on the original cut of GF III. It straightens out the Vatican storyline and makes it a bit more understandable.
No, it doesn't lift it to the level of its legendary predecessors.
No, they don't get rid of, or seriously cut down on, the icky-poo cousin romance.
They didn't fix up some of the first half plot holes and incongruities, like Connie introducing Vincent to Michael as if he doesn't know who he is (and then, 10 minutes later, Michael is discussing how 'he's always felt responsible' for him, offered him jobs, etc etc). Still no reference whatsoever to Sonny's legitimate kids, or Connie's two sons -- all apparently victims of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. (Sonny's twin daughters, Vincent's half-sisters, do appear, but are never mentioned in the script.)
They cut out about 15 minutes of running time, including one fairly important scene (the scene in which Connie takes on Don-level authority and orders the Joey Zasa hit).

I always thought the hate on GF III was ridculous. This doesn't fix the biggest problem, the absence of Tom Hagen -- but it's a bit more polished.