Movies 2025 Movie Discussion Thread

[Mister TV]

44 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

I never heard of A Bigger Splash and was dreading that it was a sequel to the mermaid movie.

Splash had a made for TV sequel Splash, Too, yes that was the title. 

 

Edited January 16 by Mister TV

[J.H.]

1 hour ago, Mister TV said:

Splash had a made for TV sequel Splash, Too, yes that was the title. 

 

Holy crap this screams "Backdoor pilot"!

Who do they have to be there Temu/Wish John Candy?

If only that Freeform show Siren could somehow be a direct form sequel, it might very made that show watchable!

James 

Edited January 17 by J.H.

[zendragon]

On 1/15/2025 at 10:14 AM, Curt McGirt said:

Oofta. Yeah... actually, the voiceover is a great deal of the humor, too, so that's especially bad. 

(double post from horror thread)

They're putting The Substance back in theaters since Demi won the Golden Globe 

thanks for the heads up I'll be checking it out tomorrow

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....fewer movies watched that's leaving streaming today.

The Transporter (Starz, my sub is ending on 1/26) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

The Transporter is probably one of the stupidest movies ever but so fun to watch. Just ignore a lot like:

- Shu Qi's character pulling two muffins out from the oven then emptying a full pan into a basket
- The obviously CG bullets firing everywhere
- Bad guys shooting at Jason Statham not causing a fire yet they shoot at a barrel thrown into water and that starts a fire
- Where Statham and Shu Qi get clothes and diving flippers while the house is blowing up

Other than that, it's a great 'turn your brain off and enjoy' action movie. The opening sequence feels like a cartoon and was just a fun thing to watch with the quick cuts. For an action movie, it is surprisingly bloodless and Statham as Frank Martin has a dry wit.

We never see Shu Qi naked but Statham rolls around in oil and his fighting is like a dance out of Beau Travail. Apparently, the character of Frank Martin was originally gay so that makes sense.

Anything Goes (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Even if you ignore the racist last 30 minutes, the movie isn't that great as a musical and really uneven.

Bing Crosby as Billy Crocker spends most of the movie in search of disguises and to get Hope Harcourt (Ida Lupino) to fall in love with him. He has Reno Sweeney (Ethel Mermen) and Rev. Dr. Moon (Charles Ruggles) help him.

I will say I loved some of the shots in the movie - the opening scenes have been used in other movies and I loved the shot of the hat pulling away from the camera and given to a hat girl by Bing Crosby's character. The sailor scenes where they are singing is also decently shot. The problem is the rest of the movie is a bit unimaginative and the story isn't very interesting.

Transporter 2 (Starz, sub ending 1/26) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

This movie with its quick cuts actually made me nauseous after awhile. It's ADHD filmmaking where the camera doesn't linger on a shot for more than 2 seconds and the plot makes Die Another Day look like a normal movie.

It's pretty much all thrill ride and just nutty to watch. Statham using watermelons as boxing gloves and using a fire hose to take out bad guys then fighting with a woman who looks like Pink is a fever dream of craziness.

It's pure masculine fantasy watching Statham drive a Lamborghini.

Only drawback is that all the women characters are treated like dirt.

Mac (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

"There's two ways to do things. My way and the right way. And they're both the same."'
"Life is a match on fire."

For whatever reason, I felt this movie on a lot of levels. Mac (John Turturro) is a character from a working class background who just wants to feel something important or feel like he has something important that he did. His brothers aren't as interested in Mac's quest but are there to help him.

What I liked about this movie is it presents another way to view Italian-Americans and another way to view the 1950s. Almost every movie made after the 1950s about life in the 1950s has an almost innocent, idyllic life. This movie starts with a funeral as Mac walks through the visitation with the camera behind him. The three brothers stand before their father as they reflect back to individual experiences each of them had with him.

As the movie progresses, Mac and his brothers have to work for a builder who treats them terribly. One of his brothers (Nicholas Turturro) is a painter who draws a painting of Ellen Barkin covered in bread. The other brother Bruno is a hot head (Carl Capotorto). I couldn't help but to laugh at the scene where Bruno is sitting in a car roleplaying asking a girl out while the guys in the back seat are cracking up. He smashes up a car to turn it into a 'convertible.'

I think from having watched Transporter 2 and it's quick cuts every 2 seconds, it was nice to see a movie that lingered on shots and on scenes. Mac as a movie has a lot of the actors' expressions in closeups and with great camera angles - for example, I loved one of the scenes where Mac is being dressed down by his boss. The camera is panning upwards to the boss as he talks then downward over the boss' shoulder as Mac responds.

The drawback with this movie is it's a tad long. If you aren't fully involved with the movie, it will seem a tad meandering and maybe even boring.

But still, it's a great early 1990s movie and great first directorial feature from John Turturro.

Eraserhead (RIP David Lynch, Criterion Collection Blu Ray) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

David Lynch RIP

"And we don't bother anyone, we keep to ourselves
The mailman visits each of us in turn" - Live, "Shittown"

With this being my first time watching Eraserhead (after having the Criterion Collection Blu Ray for years), it's an interesting experience.

The images in the movie don't make any sense but don't need to. A man is shown lying down as a man pulls levers - like the Wizard in Wizard of Oz. Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain (or in this case, the man in the planet).

Henry (Jack Nance) shuffles onto the screen like Charlie Chaplin's The Tramp in an industrial/post-industrial German Expressionism world. A world where a factory is within walking distance of an apartment building and of a house.

He visits his girlfriend (Charlotte Stewart) who has her hair brushed as she apparently is going into seizures. His girlfriend's dad complains about the pipes in the town that he built as it seems the factory have overwhelmed everything.

Henry finds out that he has a child with Mary.

Henry and Mary attempt to care for the child but it's too much for Mary and she leaves. Henry looks at the girl across the hall, who fits the archetype of the prostitute (heavy makeup, demeanor, clothing).

I find it interesting that the girl lives in apartment 27 with Henry in apartment 26. According to a Google search, the number 26 has the gematric value of the name of God in Hebrew. In mathematics, 26 is the natural number between a perfect square (25) and a perfect cube (27). So the perfect cube (or the perfect girl in this case) is across from someone in between - Henry.

Henry has strange visions throughout the movie. The girl singing "In Heaven" exists inside a miniature stage that Henry later goes into. He literally 'loses her head' and those pieces from his brain become erasers. It somewhat reminds me of Nine Inch Nails' "Happiness In Slavery" video where the pieces of a person feeds and waters plants - the person becomes the product.

The end of the movie has Henry embracing the girl singing "In Heaven" and vanishing in a white void of light.

David Lynch is an unique person for having done this movie. There will be no one else like him.

I'm not even sure what I described with this movie even adequately explains it.

 

Edited January 17 by Andrew POE!

[zendragon]

Jack Nance wore his hair like that for the several years it took to finish the film.

Also I see your Anything Goes and raise Holiday Inn for Bing Crosby movies that realllly haven't aged well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29UtQflUlXc

[Andrew POE!]

Yeah, Bing Crosby can F all the way off for that.

Movies today....

They Drive By Night (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

"The Doors made me do it!"
(Which album? The first one or L.A. Woman?)

They Drive By Night as a movie is a bit disjointed - the first half is a great Depression Era story about two truck drivers (George Raft and Humphrey Bogart) trying to survive and get everything paid off on their truck. I loved how Raoul Walsh shot the scenes in the first half especially when Bogart's character Paul is trying to catch a truck as the driver falls asleep and later crashes. The first half has interesting characters and a nice story with Joe (Raft) and Paul finally getting ahead until Paul falls asleep and loses his arm.

The second half is where the movie begins to steer off the road.

The second half is focused on Lana Carlsen (Ida Lupino) as she has murdered her husband Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale Sr) with Joe and Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan)'s romance taking a backseat.

It's not as compelling to watch and seems to become a standard noir film at that point although Lupino's scenes at the jail house and on the witness stand were absolutely wild to watch.

I wonder how this movie would have gone if the story stuck with the hard scrabbled life and the characters working through getting ahead than having it become a melodramatic noir.

Peter Ibbetson (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Movie is so far ahead of its time I would have thought it was made in the late 1940s/early 1950s. The cinematography is simply incredible - what makes it incredible is the fact that the set design look like actual buildings and rooms, not a set somewhere and typical "I say things in a room, I leave the room" acting that happens a lot in dramas. I wouldn't be surprised if this movie had an influence on Powell & Pressburger with A Matter of Life And Death.

Gary Cooper as Peter Ibbetson and Ann Harding as Mary are incredible as childhood loves that meet years later. It wasn't until the third act of the movie set in the prison that the movie truly shines and is incredible to watch.

The ending while a complete downer, is an absolutely perfect ending.

The only drawback is some characters like Ida Lupino's Agnes and John Halliday as the Duke of Towers take a backseat to Cooper and Harding's characters but that's forgivable.

Wolf Man (2025) (saw at the theater) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Unfortunately, this was not the biopic of Gallery Furniture Wolf Man, located at 2511 Roosevelt Highway in College Park or 1600 Browns Bridge Rd in Gainesville.

It's much worse.

This is probably the most dimly lit horror movie I've seen in awhile. Any actual thrills were lost in cinematography (or lack thereof). Sure, there two really incredible shots of the valley that bookend the movie - first time with the father and the son then the daughter and the mother - but the rest of the movie had difficulty presenting a decent light source, much less a decent reason to stay engaged.

The story of the movie attempts to make a statement about toxic masculinity and were pretty on the nose with it. Stanley Kramer this ain't. Most of the time I like movies with a message - because the characters behind the message is as well crafted as the message. With Wolf Man, I learned the father Blake (Christopher Abbott) is a writer who is trying not to yell at his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) and has a wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) who is a journalist. Any sort of nuance or characterization ends there. The movie never takes advantage of either Blake or Charlotte's professions and making the phenomenon be a product of their imagination or something from their imagination (hey, Stephen King does that all the time in his stories, why not this?).

Throughout the movie, Blake and Charlotte have zero semblance or zero chemistry of being a couple - my first thought with the trailer was Blake was a single dad and Julia Garner's character was his girlfriend or a possible guide for the region they meet. Much of the chemistry is with Blake and his daughter Ginger - which they did a great job of making it seem like there were a connection.

The rest of the movie was running away from The Wolf Man. Running into the house and using furniture to shield themselves (that's probably not bought from Gallery Furniture at 2511 Roosevelt Highway in College Park or 1600 Browns Bridge Rd in Gainesville). Blake gets scratched by the Wolf Man and becomes a Wolf Man himself. He bites at his arm and then his leg off when it gets caught in a bear trap. "Just make it end." And Charlotte does with a rifle.

This doesn't get half a star because of the attempt to say something about toxic masculinity.

Why Blumhouse puts out movies like this without really paying attention to any idea of quality I don't know. I probably should have watched The Brutalist instead.

Romance & Cigarettes (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

For baffling choices made in movies, before there was Megalopolis and Joker: Folie a Deux, there was this 2005 musical Romance & Cigarettes. John Turturro, who I reviewed his debut Mac rather favorably yesterday, does an absolutely maniacal musical that has a ton of big name actors singing to popular songs.

You haven't lived until you've seen Christopher Walken dancing with NYPD officers to "Delilah" and his character murders his girlfriend (I think) and she dances too.

For some of the actors like James Gandolfini and Kate Winslet, they are surprisingly capable singers and don't need the backing track. For others, like Bobby Canavale and Susan Sarandon, it helps. (Susan Sarandon's number with "Piece of My Heart" flails around and falls into being mediocre karaoke than a full on musical).

Occasionally the movie will stumble into inspiring sequences like the one set to James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" as Gandolfini's character walks around and laments his choices.

The movie has a bewildering start (that includes an homage to Grease) but eventually settles into its groove and is a wild movie. I still can't believe Roger Ebert loved this.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Bing Crosby, the guy that beat his kids, in blackface? Say it ain't so!

[zendragon]

Bad enough that he abused his children but making it part of a minstrel show would be just too much for me personally!

Saw The Substance tonight... not sure what to think about it. It was almost two films, first part had me thinking about Bob Seger..."Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then". What would you do differently if you suddenly had the chance to live your life earlier, and the final bit needed Slayer's Raining Blood over it. Much like Marissa Tomei in The Wrestler I don't care how many close ups of her crow feet you show to get over the concept of aging I wouldn't kick Demi Moore out of bed If I caught her eating crackers in bed.

Kinda reminded me of The Congress where Robin Wright plays a fictional version of herself as an aging actress who sells her likeness (kinda predating this whole AI thing along with digital deaging and things like a dead Peter Talkin appearing in Star Wars via CGI)

[Curt McGirt]

Fun Fact: Demi was the model for the infamous poster of I Spit On Your Grave, the woman with her exposed and wounded back holding the butcher knife (by the blade, which I always thought was weird). 

I've known better than to kick Demi out of bed since Striptease, and the same goes for nowadays. That pleasantly underlines the shitty Hollywood image of faux beauty that "disappears" with age that she battles in the movie. If a woman who looks that good at her age can't get a job then they are well and truly fucked up.

...she does always look like she's gonna beat your ass though. 

[zendragon]

Yhea in no other walk of life is she anything but drop dead gorgeous 

[odessasteps]

I remember reading an article years ago about famous "plain janes" in film and most of them were extremely attractive and would command everyone's attention if they walked into a room "in the real world." 

[Andrew POE!]

Filmmakers should take Pasolini's approach and cast women found walking down the street to be in movies.

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today.

Moontide (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Except for the first 30 minutes or so and the tremendous drunken montage scenes with the disappearing woman and the glasses for clock hands, not much to talk about with this movie. Even Ida Lupino and Jean Gabin couldn't save it.

It has incredible atmosphere and incredible cinematography but that's just it. The story is barely memorable. There's some nice shots of the shack Gabin's character stays in but that's it. And there's some racism but judging by the standards of the time, they didn't think it was a problem apparently. The movie is Fritz Lang doing his bare minimum so much so that he never finished it and Archie Mayo got the credit for directing this.

If you're going to watch Jean Gabin, watch his French language films from people like Jean Renoir, Marcel Carne, Rene Clement and Jean Gremillon.

The Room Next Door (saw at the theaters) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

Pedro Almodovar's movies are the culmination of cinema and life. I fell in love with his movies, like someone would fall in love with a person. I found him starting out to be a bit strange and beyond what I considered to be a great movie. As a 1990s kid living in a small town in Georgia, Almodovar was barely spoken about next to the latest Julia Roberts movie or the latest Michael Bay movie or the big budget blockbuster coming from Hollywood.

Times changed and so did I.

In college, I watched Talk To Her and it blew my mind. Yes, it's strange, and different and unusual but it spoke to me. The main character would be what most considered different but the movie (and Almodovar) didn't judge him. In fact, he was celebrated.

As I moved through the filmography of Almodovar (and some of which is sadly not available on streaming), I got excited when I saw the trailer for The Room Next Door. It's time to visit with my friend Pedro Almodovar again.

For this movie, The Room Next Door fits neatly next to the other movies Almodovar has done - it fits with All About My Mother, Talk To Her, Bad Education, and Pain and Glory. The characters in the movie Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) are involved in occupations that would be typical of other Almodovar movies - they are creative types. Ingrid is a writer and Martha is a war journalist.

The premise of the movie dwells on controversial subjects that Almodovar has made a career out of doing - a person's right to die and to die with dignity. Martha has obtained everything needed to do so with Ingrid given the culpable deniability to not participate but yet not know the extent either.

What I found interesting with the movie is a lot of it is a conversation between two characters. Martha is remembering her past and her regrets while Ingrid acts as a vessel of hearing the memories. Both characters have dealt with death all their professional lives. "In writing about death, did it make you feel more comfortable with it?" asks Damien (John Turturro) in a scene in Ingrid's apartment. Martha has served as a war journalist and has faced death many times. She compares her dealing with cancer as the equivalent of dealing with an assignment in a war zone. No one will get out of it alive.

Throughout the movie, there are many incredible shots. My jaw was left open as Ingrid walked through New York City - NYC is as much in homage as Almodovar's native Spain was in his earlier films. I really loved the coloring in one shot in Woodstock NY at the house where Martha is lying down on a green recliner with a lighter colored outfit while Ingrid lies on a blue recliner with a deep red sweater on. Every shot in this movie is a painting.

I can say that I felt towards the end was a bit rushed in some ways and resolved itself a bit too easily. But the final shot of the movie is incredible as Ingrid recounts a restatement of the final lines of John Huston's The Dead (which I should probably watch too now that I think of it and the Buster Keaton movie that Ingrid and Martha watched).

For the most part, The Room Next Door is yet another feat from Pedro Almodovar.

Nightfall (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Great noir with Brian Keith and pre-The Graduate Ann Bancroft. It’s interesting the placement for this movie - it’s toward the tail end of Golden Age of Hollywood and before New Hollywood of the 1960s so the characters have shades of grey to them.

Incredible cinematography and a ton of great shots.

The most stressful fashion show I’ve ever seen in a movie.

The ending is dark and seems like something that would be in Fargo.

The Brutalist (saw at the theaters) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" -Martin Mull

The Brutalist as a movie doesn't work. It shouldn't work. It's purely the whole of its parts. It's the alchemy of the moment where the director has worked with the actors involved, the cinematographer, the composer, the editor, and various other people involved in filmmaking. Filmmaking is often moving a 320-ton steamship over a hill.

The Brutalist is a movie that describes making something. Laszlo Toth (Adrian Brody) is depicted as engulfed in his passion of creation and destruction. Toth creates a library for Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce) who gets pissed off about it and fires Toth - thus leading to Toth's destruction. Toth comes back to begin a mountainous project for the entirety of the movie.

Brady Corbet with The Brutalist has made a movie that's divided into two halves. The Brutalist takes lessons learned from filmmakers who have documented the immigrant experience to America like Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese and provided his own take on the experience. In a lot of ways, this movie's structure is similar to David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia where the first half of the movie is completely different from the second half. The first half seems very much like an early 2000s biopic like what Adrian Brody did with The Pianist.

In some ways, it even reminded me of Foxcatcher, which is another movie about a crazed millionaire commissioning people for a project.

The second half of the movie is similar in tone to Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Toth in a lot of ways is falling in the second half much in the same way Daniel Plainview did. Harrison Van Buren also breaks in much the same way as Toth did - in a lot of ways, Van Buren and Toth's path through the movie are somewhat similar, although we never see Van Buren's. We just his reactions to things like the train derailment and the library and his sacking Toth (both times).

Then we have the scene where Van Buren rapes Toth. "You're nothing more than a lady of the night" sends a chill up anyone's spine. Toth's wife Erzsebet (Felicity Jones) confronts Harrison in an incredible scene as the camera tracks Erzsebet's face as she presents the accusation, focuses on Harrison's face and his reaction, then you see the walker flying across and Harry (Joe Alwyn) grabbing Erzsebet and shoving her down, dragging her across the floor (with the camera following it as it focues on Erzsebet's face), then stops as Maggie (Stacy Martin) helps her and follows Harry up the stairs and stops as Harry looks for Harrison, Harry comes out and goes down the stairs with the camera following him, then the scene ends. All in one shot. Brady Corbet achieved a level of genius with that scene alone.

The introductory scenes gave me goosebumps when I watched it. The music is just stunning. I loved the music during the scene prior to intermission where Erzsebet is narrating her latter amidst a documentary about Pennsylvania manfacturing and the scene ends on "Steel" as we see the picture of Laszlo and Erzsebet together that's rather old.

Honestly, this movie makes me want to explore more of the longer length movies like this. David Lean's The Bridge on The River Kwai. Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon and The Irishman. Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in America. Henry Hathaway's How The West Was Won. The Brutalist is an introduction to epic length films and a modern restatement of the form too.

 

[Johnny Sorrow]

I was looking for a movie to watch this afternoon and decide on LA Confidential. I hadn't seen it since my ex-wife and I watched it in 1997. 
I loved it then, and I love it more now. It took a minute to get over liking a Spacey performance, but after I adjusted it was smooth sailing.  What happened to Guy Pearce? He was great in this and seemed like one of the next big things. 

Edited January 19 by Johnny Sorrow

[zendragon]

Considering seeing The Brutalist but might just end up being pissed about ugly architecture  

[Johnny Sorrow]

On 1/16/2025 at 3:49 PM, Mister TV said:

Splash had a made for TV sequel Splash, Too, yes that was the title. 

 

Before that, there was The Jerk, Too! The start of the made for tv Too-niverse?

 

 

[odessasteps]

Didn't Pearce have weird personal stuff come out? Last thing I remember him being in as a leading man was count of monte Cristo and the time machine.

Edit: cursory wiki scrolling says nothing weird. And i guess he's been on TV playing an Australian detective. 

Edited January 19 by odessasteps

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....

Murder By Contract (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

While at the time this is considered a B-movie film noir, in today's time it's actually more like a pitch black dark comedy. Claude (Vince Edwards) starts out as an amoral contract killer just getting into the business of killing people to buy a house - "it would take me 22 years to buy it with the salary I get now." In a lot of ways, Claude as a character predates Steven Soderbergh's quirky characters in crime dramas he would do like George Clooney in Out of Sight and Quentin Tarantino's Jules and Vincent from Pulp Fiction. His workout routine at the start shows up with Travis Bickle in Scorsese's Taxi Drier.

The opening title sequence is brilliant and is very Soderbergh-esque in its depiction; Claude is prepping himself and his shirt and shaves and starts his day. The camera stays fixed on the bathroom and the bathroom mirror as Claude appears then disappears and does various actions.

After Claude meets his 'tutor' who is retired - he sets about the path to knock off several targets before then knocking off his tutor. His final target is a woman Billie (Caprice Toriel) that is set to testify.

The scenes with Claude and the two guys that are supposed to follow him Marc (Phillip Pine) and George (Herschel Bernardi) reminded me a bit of Godard's Breathless and A Band of Outsiders as there are three criminals doing 'normal things' like going to a golfing range or the beach. The score throughout the movie wouldn't seem out of place in a French New Wave film. From today's lens, those scenes are humorous and even comedic; Marc and George don't fully understand Claude's methods and neither does Claude.

Various blunders occur as Claude tries to kill Billie. He blows up a TV which scares Billie. "That worked with [a guy]." "That guy was strapped to a chair by the state of New York." Claude tries to use a sniper rifle and....he kills a policewoman. He finds out that Billie got away from a woman that visited him.

The movie's cinematography and camerawork is very tight and obviously low budget, but it's completely engaging to watch. The only drawback to me is the ending, which is a bit of a letdown.

I wanted Claude to be able to get his house, which is the American Dream.

The Sniper (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

This movie is honestly ahead of its time. If Eddie Miller (played by Arthur Franz) were around today, he would be following Andrew Tate in social media, decrying 'cucks' and wanting to proclaim himself as an 'alpha.' He would be labeled as an incel. It's crazy how misogyny and hatred of women has never changed. The movie has a disclaimer about 'sex crimes' as if that is the culprit, when it's not 100% the case.

Eddie Miller is angered at women and the sense of rejection he sees that women give him implicitly. What's interesting is we never see women reject Miller directly; the woman in the bar finds Miller attractive enough to want to talk to him. Yet she ends up dead too.

Dr. James G Kent (Richard Kiley) presents the solution for this issue to be to get suspects in psychiatric care as soon as they are identified but one of the police accuses him of 'coddling' criminals. Sadly, the scene identifies a problem even true today: the police is rather stupid at times and carry a hammer. While carrying a hammer, everything looks like a nail. There was a telling line in the scene as well: "If we catch one now, people will forget about it and another one will appear in its place."

At no point did the words "maybe we should pass a law banning guns" ever pass their lips.

Like is true of today's times, the police only get involved because those in power (the mayor) fear losing control over their city and losing control with the citizens of their city.

The ending is bleak and sad; Eddie Miller is finally caught up and has nowhere else to run.

I noticed how Miller clutches his rifle, both a phallic symbol (to show his masculinity) and like it were a baby (which seems to reveal a greater issue in his childhood).

The movie has great cinematography throughout - the roof top scenes have a wide angle shot of San Francisco. I especially love the usage of distance in shots - one scene has the police using the phone at the first victim's apartment while we see Miller driving a delivery truck in the background. Distance shows up again towards the end of the movie as the painter is yelling about seeing the sniper and Miller fires off a shot killing him. The painter slowly slides down as the focus stays on Miller's reactions and emotions after the killing.

In some ways, there are elements of this movie that appeared in David Fincher's Se7en where the police are having to chase down the murderer and only come upon the murders after they have happened.

The Original Kings of Comedy (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

This movie / concert presentation is interesting given the period of time the comedians were in. With it being in 2000, a lot of the humor was about the Bill Clinton presidency and the times surrounding - a year prior to 9/11.

In a lot of ways what's joked about (child abuse, ableism and homophobia as humor) wouldn't fly today. Bernie Mac's description of the court hearing where he has custody of his sister's children makes it less funny (but it lead to him getting a show The Bernie Mac Show based on the material).

It's interesting to see Steve Harvey 'work blue' when he's known for being the host of Family Feud now and is a bit toned down while talking about the same material (and still doing the 'old man yelling at cloud' shtick of not understanding popular music today).

D.L. Hughley's material is funny but he runs out of steam a bit with joking about audience members - that Steve Harvey joked about too and then wondering if one of the audience member is a gang member or engaged in crime.

Cedric The Entertainer had some funny bits - I grew up driving old cars like a 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix all through high school so I felt the joke about black people driving a 1972 car as a spaceship.

Not an all time classic comedy performance movie (that's reserved for Eddie Murphy Raw), but still great to watch.

Parallel Mothers (Starz, sub ending on 1/26) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Honestly a pretty standard melodrama that would have a storyline fit for a telenovela, but Almodovar bats above what's expected compared to most other directors.

Penelope Cruz is incredible as a photographer Janis who has a child with Arturo (Israel Elejalde) that got switched at birth with Ana (Milena Smit)'s child. Janis eventually finds out this truth and hides it from Arturo and Ana. Janis has a relationship with Ana and they co-parent Ana's child.

What's interesting in the movie is the dichotomy between conservative and liberal ideologies for the characters and the movie directly referencing Franco's regime in Spain. Ana's mother indicates that she is 'apolitical,' with the direct implication being from Janis that Ana's family made had been involved with Franco's government.

Ana as a character goes through a lot and goes through an identity change through what happens to her. We find out that her pregnancy was the product of a rape; this after Ana's daughter (or Janis' biological daughter) died.

I loved the scene where Janis and Ana make love for the first time and the way the camera angles down for a top down shot while Janis Joplin's "Summertime" is playing.

The final scene somewhat reminds me of Alice Rohrwacher & JR's short film Omelia Contadina, which was also about a group of people in a region reconciling their memories with their government's past, as the people for the excavation lie down in the same spots as those gunned down.

The Sea Wolf (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Even for a 1940s movie, this is surprisingly dark - I wouldn't be surprised if it influenced Robert Eggers for The Lighthouse.

Edward Robinson as Wolf Larsen gives a brooding performance that's a bit of a precursor to James Mason in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea but more nihilistic. Alexander Knox as Humphrey Van Weyden serves as his foil throughout the movie. Ida Lupino's role as Ruth Webster turned into a romantic character with John Garfield as George Leach when the nuance of the two characters were lost a bit.

The cinematography and camerawork throughout the movie is above average. I loved the camerawork for the scene where Dr. Prescott (Gene Lockhart) takes his life - it's as much as what's shown on screen as it is what isn't. The lighting for some of the scenes below deck is matchless and I loved the subtle touch of having the camera seeming to 'sway' to simulate the boat rocking back and forth.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending or the interjection of the romantic subplot, but The Sea Wolf isn't that bad.

Beavis And Butt-Head Do America (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

The humor for this didn't work in 1996 as much as it doesn't work in 2025, but damn it I can't help but to like it. At times, it's like a speed run version of Dumb & Dumber with two characters that make Harold & Lloyd seem smart.

There's a bit of political commentary throughout the movie (Mike Judge honestly has had this undercurrent of political humor with Office Space and Idiocracy and this throughout his work), where Congress members laugh like Beavis and Butthead when they ask for the "woman with big boobs."

Robert Stack is just hilarious in a Leslie Nielsen manner. "Damn it! You're a federal agent! Don't end your sentence with a preposition!" "Full cavity searches for everyone!"

It's somewhat amazing that Demi Moore and Bruce Willis had roles together in this (even though it were animated).

The Rob Zombie animated sequence is still wild to watch even today.

 

[Contentious C]

21 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

I was looking for a movie to watch this afternoon and decide on LA Confidential. I hadn't seen it since my ex-wife and I watched it in 1997. 
I loved it then, and I love it more now. It took a minute to get over liking a Spacey performance, but after I adjusted it was smooth sailing.  What happened to Guy Pearce? He was great in this and seemed like one of the next big things. 

He's been in, like, a million movies.  Just not anything as big as consistently after fronting multiple bombs (the underappreciated Ravenous, the entirely terrible Time Machine).  But, I mean, Memento, right?

Edited January 20 by Contentious C

[Brian Fowler]

He's also almost certainly going to be nominated for Best Actor next week...

[Curt McGirt]

Deadwood The Movie was a perfect wrap-up for the series. 

Spoiler

At least I thought so. Things didn't have to have a nice bow on top, but there were generally positive outcomes. The likelihood of Hearst actually being punished for his crimes is something that seems almost far fetched, but it would be cool if there ended up being a super scandalous trial where they ended up digging up the bodies of the dead hookers and all kinds of other crazy shit played out. But he'd have just ended up paying off the jury, I'm sure, while the government would drop a load of federal marshals on the town and toss them poles up ASAP. Teapot Dome scandal or business as usual? Who knows. I'll take pleasure in being allowed to fantasize in a positive manner, still:

- Jane didn't drink herself to death and is gonna end up in France with Joanie, who is kept from suicide and dope by their bond.

- The Stars are married, have a child, and own the Gem. Granted Trixie is gonna get swept up in the trial but there's that. 

- Everybody besides the General and Charlie seem to be in relatively good health, even the Doc who had gone completely white, and had TB last we saw (of which there wasn't a cough to identify it by this time around). Jewel is even still able to furnish a laugh despite her old age and god knows what further disabilities wrought by it.

- Aunt Lou even found a home there!

- Alma might be fucked for love of Bullock but she has the kid still, and owns Charlie's land. Now, this also puts her right back in Hearst's crosshairs. It's another piece of vaguery to chew on. 

- And Al got to leave with a final 'fuck' for fuck's sake, directed at an unseen God. Perfect end for both him and the whole damn show. 

They also managed to sneak in some super lines of dialogue again, though they've already slipped through my ears. Hearst, foul a fucker as he is, had some really good ones. It's crazy how the guy I remember from Major Dad ended up being such an absolute epitome-of-evil slimeball of a character, pure Capitalist lust made flesh. He's even less sympathetic than Daniel Plainview. That's pretty goddamn hard to do. 

I guess I'm just gonna start up the second season again. Might as well!

[Technico Support]

Pierce had a supporting role in the really good Mare of Easttown on Max, too.

(Not to be confused with Mayor of Kingstown, a completely different, still great, show)

Edited January 20 by Technico Support

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today...

High Sierra (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

"Some of us will not see heaven." - Paul Newman, Road to Perdition
"Stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen!" -Rachel McAdams, Mean Girls

High Sierra is in some respects the last of the gangster films and part of the noir approach. But in a lot of ways too it's more humanistic and more sentimental than the standard crime drama.

Humphrey Bogart plays Roy Earle, a gangster looking for one last score. The opening scenes were really impressive with the economy of shots taken and how the shots flowed (from a front page of a paper to someone holding the paper). It says more in those scenes than in endless exposition that other movies would have done. At the first frame of Bogart, the realization is set that Earle wants freedom and gets it but can't escape even when leaving prison.

The other thing that's noticeable that seems standard now is the usage of location shooting - not just in California's Sierra Nevada but in other locations like Earle's farm and in his walking through a park near the start of the movie.

What I noticed as well is the story about the dog that takes a liking to Earle. While Willie Best's lines seemed humorous and a bit throwaway, it does reveal that Earle won't have a good fate by the end of the movie. Everyone that the dog Pard takes a liking to dies.

The humanistic side to the movie is throughout the movie; from the storyline with Pa (Henry Travers), Ma (Elizabeth Risdon) and Velma (Joan Leslie) to how Earle treats Marie (Ida Lupino), Babe (Alan Curtis) and Red (Arthur Kennedy). Earle is seeking his redemption through his actions; he helps pay for Velma's surgery with the eventual hopes of marriage to her (that doesn't happen). He acts a bit like a mentor to Babe and Red and get them to work through their differences prior to the robbery. What I loved with the first conversation with Marie is Earle actually makes an effort to understand Marie and doesn't fall into the typical tough guy talk/abuse towards women. Earle realizes that Marie is capable and is more worried about the other men involved in the robbery than with her.

Like in Road To Perdition, Roy Earle will not see heaven.

The movie keeps trying to make 'crashing out' happen - throughout the movie, I had a connotation of drug usage like dope or even marijuana. We never see Roy Earle getting high but the implication is there with the phrase. The ending as Ida Lupino walks away and holding the dog explains that 'crashing out' means 'being free.' (Although I like my meaning better).

There are some incredible shots throughout the movie - not just a tremendous shot of Bogart as the sun rising. In that shot, he looks like a spectre, a ghost since we know that Earle's fate isn't good. Even in black and white, Sierra Nevada makes a tremendous location. I also loved the shots of crowds in the movie - when Earle arrives at the camp and sees a bustle of activity or later goes to the hotel to walk around and sees Mendoza (Cornel Wilde).

High Sierra is a great bridge between two styles of filmmaking and a great character study.

Maestro (2003) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Documentary at times isn't very interesting and consists of interviews with people involved in the NYC club scene at Paradise Garage and The Loft. It doesn't do a very good job at explaining to outsiders of the scene why they should notice the subject or find out about the subject.

Delirious (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Mid 2000s movie that feels like a late '90s black comedy in some ways. Even though some aspects are a bit unbelievable (such as why would the paparazzi care about getting a photo of Elvis Costello?), most of the movie is carried by the relationship between the cynical Les (Steve Buscemi) and the earnest Toby (Michael Pitt). Between them is Toby's relationship with K'harma (Alison Lohrman). Toby is honestly smitten with K'harma as much as he is smitten by Dana (Gina Gershon). Honestly I know who I would have picked and it wasn't K'harma.

I loved the digital handheld camera feel and there's some incredible sequences (the opener to Dandy Warhols, the sequence where Toby walks out of K'harma's place and standing against the skyline as petals fall, the near final sequence where Les is about to shoot Toby then decide against it). Delirious as a movie is a really well shot and well photographed movie although some of the material and scripting didn't land as well as I wanted it to.

The movie has an interesting dichotomy between the cynicism of fame and the earnest of genuineness and it really seems to land on being genuine. At the end, even Les realizes what he said earlier about celebrities he photographs: "they're no different than you or me."

Deja Vu (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

This is more or less my first exposure to Tony Scott as a director. Deja Vu at times feels like a Hitchcockian thriller done by Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer, so a lot of the characters aren't nearly as strong and fit more with tropes than characters.

Still, this movie is completely compelling to watch with Denzel Washington as Douglas Carlin. Val Kilmer has a bit of a small part as FBI Agent Paul Pryzwarra with Adam Goldberg as Dr. Denny and the beautiful Paula Patton as Claire (why she doesn't have more movies out, I don't know). Carlin works through the case which has grounded sense of realism at first. The sci-fi concepts seem believable enough and the last 30 minutes or so makes everything Carlin saw leading up to it make sense - they were seeing clues that Carlin placed directly once he went back in time.

A lot of what went on during the time the movie was - New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, George W. Bush's PATRIOT Act, right wing terrorism - becomes amplified with the usage of the time device. In a lot of ways, it's the next evolution of what the PATRIOT Act did with direct surveillance on citizens, but also direct surveillance on citizens and their past. The concept is a lot scarier if you think about it, but the movie doesn't really seem to be bothered by the implications. Dr. Denny jokes "this is $10 billion dollars of taxpaper money at work" to describe the device they use to go into the past to observe Claire and Carroll Oerstadt (Jim Caviezel).

In some ways, Carroll Oerstadt would probably be pleased with the US if this movie were set in today's time (he might even get a Cabinet position with the current administration).

I did like how the opening scenes were shot and the usage of The Beach Boys has a twisted meaning in the opening while having a more optimistic tone at the ending. The chase sequence where Carlin driving with the Humvee was a bit messy to watch and doesn't quite work as well as it should.

Still, Deja Vu is a satisfying big budget Hollywood movie to watch and has some incredible shots and cinematography given the shortened amount of time to complete the movie.

 

[Curt McGirt]

12 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

This is more or less my first exposure to Tony Scott as a director.

You haven't seen True Romance? (I guess I could say "you haven't seen Top Gun or Days of Thunder" or something but I'd like to bring up a good movie)

[Andrew POE!]

39 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

You haven't seen True Romance? (I guess I could say "you haven't seen Top Gun or Days of Thunder" or something but I'd like to bring up a good movie)

Hey, Top Gun and Days of Thunder are classics. Don't knock the Cruise Missile!

No, not really. I've been slacking in my movie exposure. I may decide to seek out Tony Scott's filmography and watch them all lol.