Movie 2023 MOVIE DISCUSSION THREAD

[Curt McGirt]

I own Only God Forgives on DVD and all I remember is vengeful mutilation. That's probably why I bought it at Family Video for $5, though.

[Contentious C]

Given NWR's whole schtick now boils down to color theory, ultraviolence, and electronica, it's not exactly hard to pin that tail on the donkey.  Here was a bit from IMDb's trivia section I figured you'd enjoy.

"In an interview with director William Friedkin, Nicolas Winding Refn mentioned that he considers this movie to be a masterpiece. Friedkin proceeded to ask for an ambulance for Refn and berated him."

[(BP)]

I didn’t know Eddie Murphy had a Christmas movie coming out on Prime, but Candy Cane Lane popped up when I was looking up stuff about Beverly Hills Cop 4. I put it on for the kids today because we’ve been through most of the holiday movie sacred cows, plus they know Eddie from the 2003 Haunted Mansion. It’s incredible how he pretty much looks the same in both movies twenty years apart.

It’s not bad, especially for a Murphy high concept comedy made after Y2K. Jillian Bell  walks away with every scene she’s in, and Eddie is working to make this more funny than a lot of his family movies. Ultimately it’s just a Disney Channel or ABC Family Christmas movie with higher production value, and at two hours it’s way too long. 

[Tabe]

On 12/15/2023 at 2:32 PM, Contentious C said:

 

Cadillac Man - Painfully unfunny, a cure for insomnia (even at its most frenetic moments), featuring a cast of familiar faces doing 2-dimensional bullshit for the entire film, and then it wraps up with a nice, neat, teensy-weensy widdle bow because Hollywood. What garbage.  It's hard to believe Williams' character, at least as shown here, has the personality to pull off juggling 3 women at once, especially when two of them are Lori Petty and Fran Drescher.  Then again, given all the characters are boring-ass cardboard cutouts, it's believable in a "Suzie makes her Barbie and Ken dolls fuck" kind of way.

And somehow still not Robin Williams' worst movie.

I remember being really stoked for this movie. Williams was coming off of Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets Society and the ads sold it pretty well. 

Holy cow, so, so, so terrible. If anything, you were too kind. 

[The Comedian]

On 12/15/2023 at 6:16 PM, Contentious C said:

Given NWR's whole schtick now boils down to color theory, ultraviolence, and electronica, it's not exactly hard to pin that tail on the donkey.  Here was a bit from IMDb's trivia section I figured you'd enjoy.

"In an interview with director William Friedkin, Nicolas Winding Refn mentioned that he considers this movie to be a masterpiece. Friedkin proceeded to ask for an ambulance for Refn and berated him."

There's a thin line between Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire, and he crossed it...

[The Natural]

Went to see Die Hard (1988) at the cinema this weekend. It's usually shown at this time of year and I thought I would this year on the 35th anniversary, with the sad announcement of Bruce Willis' dementia in 2023 and it's one of the best films ever. Die Hard was my first 18 film. I bought it on VHS in 1999 to go with the VCR my parents got me that Christmas. I was 14. It's now rated a 15. It's stood the test of time. Willis and the late great Alan Rickman the highlights. Nice seeing Macauley there, he works at the supermarket I go to and like me has Cerebral Palsy. We're both into films and by chance, went to this. Said screening brought a new experience, we were the last one. That's never happened to me before.

[Contentious C]

Happy something.  Allegedly.  Who knows what happiness is?

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! - For some reason, the exclamation point at the end of that title bugs me less than the Tom Hanks movie (which I shall not name since I just reviewed it, and typing it out would mean including the exclamation point, which I obviously don't want to do).  Can you tell already I don't actually want to talk about this movie?  It's because there's nothing to talk about.  Dull acting, bad script, lame plot, nothing interesting going on you couldn't predict right out of the gate.  Topher Grace's character is so not the guy you cheer for, because he behaves like...well, a 22-year-old.  At least the writer got that one bit correct.  But you could tell it was a guy even if you didn't read the credits because Kathryn Hahn makes one of her earliest appearances as an "all-too-wise" trashy bartender who opines about shit that only a dude would say.  Best laugh line: Kate Bosworth saying "Your films will stand the test of time" to Josh fucking Duhamel.

The Eiger Sanction - Another pointless stab at figuring out my Unknown Hostage Movie, because this certainly isn't it.  The plot is...well...sometimes it's all right, and the dialogue is fine, too, when it isn't being horribly homophobic and racist.  So there are probably worse Eastwood acted/directed things than this.  But not by a whole Hell of a lot.  If this is that watchable at all today, it's more for the scenery and visuals, which are at times breathtaking.  At least it isn't boring; that doesn't really make it good, though.

The Presidio - Ah yes, another Vaguely Remembered 80s Movie in my head.  Damn if Jack Warden and Meg Ryan don't act the shit out of this.  It's just too bad it's only them.  Sean Connery isn't quite in phone-it-in mode, but it's close, and Mark Harmon is so clearly Dollar-Store Tom Cruise that most of what he does is painful to watch.  It's particularly egregious when he has scenes with Ryan, with whom he has basically no chemistry.  But then he gets opposite Connery, and he seems to want to "BRING IT!" from an acting perspective, instead of being authentic, you know, the whole movie.  What a fucking mannequin of a dude; no wonder he's spent the last 20 years recreating a yoink and twist on this same fucking role on shitty TV shows.  The stunt work is pretty good at times, though.  I gotta wonder what people living in SF at the time thought of hearing this crazy bullshit outside their windows at night.

Friday the 13th - No, I'd never seen ANY of these before; it was part of the reason I even agreed to sign up for MID when they had the Black Friday sale.  So, yeah.  Psychotic Karen asks to stalk to the manager.  Really loses her head about the camp conditions at one point.

The first 60-70 minutes of this are some massively boring shit you'd already seen a million times before from literally every slasher flick and Wes Craven release throughout the 70s.  I was sitting there wondering, "How in the flaming HELL did this EVER catch on if the movies are this boring?" and then the last 20 minutes happen.  It's not a Deus Ex Machina, because I don't know what the Latin is for "psychotic asshole who needed to go to therapy instead of taking her frustrations out on innocent people", but it's in that vein.  But, I guess it caught on?  Whatever.  This is not a good movie by any means, even with the ending.  And I'll go on record as saying the fake-out "ending" is better than the one we got, even if it was a horror movie cliche by 1980.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar - This, um, is not like the others.  Firstly, you will not find this, basically anywhere.  Not streaming, not released on any digital media.  If you want to find this, you will just have to look very carefully.

But, if you are a Diane Keaton fan, it's a must-watch; she's arguably better here than in Annie Hall, so take that for what it's worth.  If you're a giallo fan, it'll pay off eventually.  If you want to see a young William Atherton get a sizable role in a movie (let's face it, that Venn diagram with the giallo folk is basically a circle), you really should see this.  Because, holy shit.

You could make a case that a lot of this film and story concerns itself with the fragility of life, but with so much hindsight, it feels like it's talking about the fragility of time, too. Would this have worked as well in any other year except 1977, particularly with respect to film?

It was released a couple of months after the Summer of Sam finally ended. It stars Diane Keaton in what may have to be, in retrospect, one of the greatest acting years we'll ever see from anyone. And it's almost the opposite number of the out-of-nowhere success of Star Wars, providing no shades of black or white anywhere, no easy answers, no satisfying resolutions, no clear moments to mark good from bad or anything in between. It's murky and dreary and William Atherton's character is spot-on: Theresa is "off and on" and it's easy to be just as whiplashed by one's own feelings about her choices. And that ending, a terrifying nod to giallo nobody familiar with the genre seems to mention (perhaps because this is so difficult to find anymore).

One of the first things I thought of, watching this, was Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, not so much because of any one event or character, but because of the way Bechdel invokes the bicentennial as an eye-opener, a jumping-off point to begin questioning the things she thinks she knows. Theresa ends up with any number of her own eye-openers that same year, and then we just...watch her drift, trying to figure out who she is after those experiences unsettle her. It'd be easy (and cheap, and tepid) to lean into some kind of Sister Carrie-esque judgment, but the direction and the script never venture down that path. It's clear she's hurting, it's clear she's...not lost, but grasping at something not yet defined. But at least her methods of trying to grope towards meaning are hers. 

It's also a bit like Fun Home in how we have to square the circles in life, how the people around us can seem one way but hide multitudes of contradiction and pain and kindness whose sources can't just be pinned down to a broken heart or a physical ailment or a tough childhood. It isn't a cautionary tale about casual sex; it's a cautionary tale about casual dismissiveness of the real, struggling people all around us, who deserve more understanding than to have the rough edges of their lives sanded away for our mere convenience.

[odessasteps]

I think I saw Goodbar as a teen or slightly before that. Definitely too young to appreciate it at the time. 

[Curt McGirt]

Goodbar shows up on TCM once in a very blue moon. I always wanted to see it because of Stephen King's regard for it in his book on horror, Dance Macabre (and because his wife ran for the exit thinking she was going to vomit at the end). It's such a brutal denouement for her search to be ended by basically meeting up with a version of the Wings Hauser character in Vice Squad. 

[Curt McGirt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NatpKB5Nf6Y&ab_channel=Knolganger

Here's all of Goodbar, in English with I believe Dutch subtitles.

[Curt McGirt]

Heh. Better Off Dead is on FLIX right now. So I'll be switching between that and NXT.

[Dolfan in NYC]

NEW AFRICAN MOVIE POSTER JUST DROPPED

 

[Curt McGirt]

Oh, we love ya, Ghana.

[Chaos]

On 12/11/2023 at 2:28 AM, Contentious C said:

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father - I'D LIKE TO STOP FEELING THINGS RIGHT ABOUT FUCKING NOW, THANKS. 

I will never forget my reaction for when that reveal in the middle hits you. I was shaking angry and sobbing uncontrollably at the same time. The very rare emotional reaction I've had to watching something. It's the ultimate definition of a one timer. 

[J.H.]

Confess Fletch was pretty good, I like Hamm as I.M. Fletcher and Roy Wood Jr. was a great foil for him as Morris.

A shame it tanked as I'd like to see Hamm come back

James

[Curt McGirt]

Well I'll be damned. First Blood is an Xmas movie too.

[hammerva]

Not sure what the spoiler rules would be for The Iron Claw is so I will post thoughts inside. 

Spoiler

This is a damn good movie and very sad regardless of whether you are a hard-core fan or just going to see a drama.  I think in general it showed the history very accurately.   The only real bad part was trying to spin that Kerry motorcycle accident while NWA champion which is obvious BS.

While the emphasis will be on Kevin since he is alive, the story that really shows the tragedy is Mike Von Erich.  From the very beginning he is treated like the worst by dad and the absolute favorite of the others.  Try to play it like Mike was too physically weak for the business.  While smaller and clearly not as skilled, Mike issue was that he mentally didn't I.  The press conference at Baylor after the toxic shock was also weird cause it was the perfect time to show how fucked up Fritz was and yeah Kevin is playing it

I understand that you have to make Kevin the saint because he is the last one remaining but it was a bit too much.  He was pretty fucked up himself but wouldn't know that.  Like I am supposed to believe that 1981 Kevin was a virgin .   The whole Ric Flair 1986 stuff was the weak spot of the movie for me.  And not just because it was maybe the worst Ric Flair looking character I have ever seen, I don't know what they were going for.  And yeah I am willing to bet Kevin wasn't basically running WCCW in 86 and 87 until he willfully sold it to Jerry 

Still say it is a must see if you don't mind how sad it is and dont extremely nitpick the holes in history.  The scene of Kerry in the boat with Mike, David, and Jackie Jr waiting for him in heaven was brutal

[Niners Fan in CT]

The Iron Claw was really good in my view.  Aesthetically it was everything I expected and wanted.  The casting was really good as well,  they did a great job of casting actors who looked a lot like their real life counterparts.  

The only part I wasn't feeling was 

Spoiler

Ric Flair.  He's just TOO HARD to do... there's only one.  

 But it didn't take me out of the movie.  It was well done, well acted.   Obviously a very sad story all around.  

[hammerva]

27 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

The Iron Claw was really good in my view.  Aesthetically it was everything I expected and wanted.  The casting was really good as well,  they did a great job of casting actors who looked a lot like their real life counterparts.  

The only part I wasn't feeling was 

  Reveal hidden contents

Ric Flair.  He's just TOO HARD to do... there's only one.  

 

Spoiler

it's amazing they couldn't find even a moderate looking Flair but an almost perfect version of Harley Race

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

42 minutes ago, hammerva said:

  Reveal hidden contents

it's amazing they couldn't find even a moderate looking Flair but an almost perfect version of Harley Race

 

Yes, that shit was fucking great.  I yelled at my friends when he showed up on screen that they are NAILING everything.  And then they stumbled a bit after that but still really good movie,  so sad though.. I knew most of the story going in but it doesn't make it any easier. 

[John from Cincinnati]

There was an obvious choice for the part…

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Brian Fowler]

I'm behind here, but oh God, Dear Zachary.

It's not great filmmaking but it's a damn effective agitprop and maybe the hardest thing I've ever watched. It's the one movie that I truly believe it's better to go into spoiled.

[Greggulator]

Spoiler

You could get any wrestling fan alive -- without any acting experience or talent -- and they could do a better job at the Ric Flair role. So baffling because the director is so clearly a wrestling fan that you somehow fucked up the most iconic wrestler of all-time. Literally my only complaint.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Spoiler

Just got back. It was your basic melodrama, no great shakes, except of course the subject matter was something I've always been interested in. The acting was fine, the beats played out fine, but... I dunno, it was just fine, that's all. For such an interesting, wild story full of colorful characters it felt pretty muted. Middle of the road. 

There were a couple parts I liked. There's one part at the very beginning where they're sitting at the dinner table and the camera just looks at Fritz's face and there's this look in his eyes... it's kind of a faraway look. You can read into it all you want because it's almost inscrutable but it feels like there is just a ton of shit rolling around in his head that he'd never let anyone know about. 

The other part -- and this is weird because I don't think anyone else would think about this. But they showed the clip of Kerry wrestling in the WWF and right there on a movie screen is Bobby Heenan. And I thought "this is the first and only time I will ever see Bobby Heenan on the big screen". And I smiled real, real big. 

That Flair though... woof. Bobby would have had some real choice words about THAT haha

 

[John from Cincinnati]

Is the Bill Nighy subplot the only good one in Love Actually? Maybe Martin Freeman’s is a distant second? A lot of serious incel stuff in this movie between the sign guy and the guy who flys to America because he can’t get laid. Natalie is like the hottest person in the movie, what is this “fat” stuff? How did we let this achieve the status of Christmas classic? What worse movies are in such heavy circulation at this time of year? And it seems to get worse every year?