Log Posted December 27, 2025 Posted December 27, 2025 Watched Train Dreams last night. Just absolutely beautiful. Surprised I haven’t seen more awards buzz for Joel Edgerton. He’s great in it. 3
elizium Posted December 28, 2025 Posted December 28, 2025 14 hours ago, zendragon said: 1st off Hamnet has zero to do with catching hogs.. 2nd the sound mix was really bad, had a hard time understanding the dialog I also think that was just your theatre. Saw it a couple weeks ago and the dialogue scenes were perfect and I have shit hearing and watch most everything with subtitles 3
Andrew POE! Posted December 28, 2025 Posted December 28, 2025 Movies today... Dracula (1979) (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler Dracula (1979) is an interesting take on the Bram Stoker novel; it's more informed with a sense of romanticism. In some ways, Frank Langella's Dracula is more like Roger Moore's portrayal of James Bond; scenes where Dracula and Lucy (Kate Nelligan) are kissing are bathed in red light like out of a Bond title sequence (with Maurice Binder serving as visual consultant, that checks out). Laurence Olivier's portrayal of Dr. Van Helsing reminded me a lot of his portrayal from The Boys From Brazil in terms of his characterization and accent (he goes from hunting Nazis to hunting Dracula). A lot of the acting in this is a bit campy with the visual aspects, production and set design taking more of an importance. Dracula is more of a romantic 'anti-hero' than a truly evil person; with Langella's looks, it's easy to see why Lucy and Mina (Jan Francis) would be seduced by him. It's not like earlier portrayals (that to be honest, I probably need to watch) where the horrific aspects of Dracula is apparent. Dracula in this is more subdued and withdrawn; he seems to be concerned with maintaining an illusion of being agreeable than presenting himself as evil. The problem with Dracula (1979) is it ramps up the conflict between Dracula and Harker (Trevor Eve) and Van Helsing almost too rapidly. The last 10 minutes have Harker and Van Helsing finding the ship where Dracula and Lucy are on (almost too conveniently to be honest) and seemingly defeat him. Although the ending implies that Dracula escapes despite exposure to the sun. I found it interesting that John Badham after doing the cultural zeitgeist Saturday Night Fever would have chosen this as his next movie instead of doing a similar New York City inspired movie like Saturday Night Fever. Pretty Woman (Hulu, leaving on 12/31) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler "What did she do when she was rescued?" "She rescued him right back." It's a bit unfair to say that Pretty Woman is a romance. If anything, Pretty Woman is a business drama, much like Oliver Stone's Wall Street is a business drama. Neither character involved should be what men or women should aspire to be or wish to find for romance. Edward (Richard Gere) is cold, calculated, and about as heartless as Gordon Gekko; he buys companies and sell them piecemeal. "So it's like stealing cars and selling off parts." Vivian (Julia Roberts) is also a business person, albeit in a business where she sells her body to strangers. They meet by accident. The opening scene of Pretty Woman doesn't feature either character at first except for Edward's attorney Philip (Jason Alexander) walking around a party and seeing various women. Edward is attractive despite his cutthroat nature and business practices. He's wanting to leave and borrows Philip's Lotus (that's a stick shift). He meets Vivian while looking for directions to Beverly Hills and pays her for directions; it's transactional, transferable, and Edward realizes what Vivian is doing. During the course of the movie, both characters undergo changes. Edward shows Vivian a side of life that she's never seen and Vivian shows Edward an aspect of himself he's forgotten. In a lot of ways, Edward's relationship is his dealing with unresolved grief and disconnection from his father; "he died over a month ago," Edward tells Vivian. Through this relationship, Edward finds himself changed at the end; he decides to help Jim Morse (Ralph Bellamy) keep his business afloat and expand it. Nothing Vivian suggested prompted this, this was done naturally, despite Philip telling Vivian that she caused it. At first for Vivian, she isn't accepted into the circles Edward is in; the clothing stores on Rodeo Drive don't talk to her and won't let her buy clothes. It's not just the act of buying clothes that gives Vivian a sense of restoration, it's talking with Edward. The bath tube scene while she sings Prince shows her feeling free, wig removed. Vivian realizes that she can do more than be a high school dropout from Milledgeville, GA and wants to get a new job in San Francisco. What I liked with how Garry Marshall did Pretty Woman is how the shots are framed; they are rather simple, but direct. A lot of times in the movie, it's conversations between Edward and Vivian. The places they go together are vibrant and luxurious, due to Edward's lifestyle. A scene I found to be visual poetry is towards the end; Edward gets out of the limo and has his shoes off, walking in the grass with the camera focused on his feet. In the next scene, Vivian has her shoes off and have bare feet too. The connection they have is naked, apparent, and close to the earth, the way humans are. What I liked were the musical choices used. The opening using Go West’s “The King of Wishful Thinking” gives the opening a melancholy hue, Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” as Vivian is riding away cast her in a regretful mood. Of course, the namesake “Pretty Woman” while Vivian is remaking herself in a montage. If anything with Pretty Woman, it shows that love is transactional, but the transaction can be beneficial too. Two people in a relationship can find benefits that the others aren't aware of. Edward and Vivian's story ends with them on the fire escape - "it's at the top" - as they share a kiss. "Welcome to Hollywood." Welcome to love. The Green Mile (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler "He's just hurtin' them with his love" The thing with The Green Mile is it somewhat functions as a metaphor. It also seems to be a series of Fellini-esque vignettes about the prison guards at Cold Mountain and the various prisoners coming through the prison. Those on death row in this aren't the white men in power in the state of Louisiana, but those that have the crime of 'otherness.' Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter) is convicted of murder (of some kind) but is also homosexual. William Wharton (Sam Rockwell) appears as catatonic until he attempts to strangle a guard. John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) is convicted of murder on account of his holding two white girls and covered in blood. The thing with John Coffey is sadly he can part of the "magical negro" trope that a lot of movies have a tendency to do. Coffey as a character is almost incomplete; his name is almost the same as Jesus Christ and, in the Appalachian folk tradition, his powers could be likened that of a 'sin eater.' Coffey touches people and absorbs their pain but expels it through his mouth. He 'cured' Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) of a bladder infection and then later revives a mouse after Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) kills it. Coffey is taken to Hal Moores (James Cromwell) to cure his wife Melinda (Patricia Clarkson). After curing Melinda, that seems to be the only human connection John Coffey is given; Melinda gives him St. Christopher's medal, which is supposed to protect him. Yet, John Coffey's fate is death; his death affects Edgecomb and the other guards there. The movie ends where it starts in the present with an older Edgecomb (Dabbs Greer). Both he and the mouse are 108 years old, likely living on as others have passed on. Edgecomb compares what he encountered and what he's seen in his life to 'everyone walking their own green mile.' A lot of the movie is a bit long, but vignette format seems to be the best way to tell the story. It's a foregone conclusion that John Coffey would die; much like how Jesus Christ in the Bible would do. The execution scene for Coffey has an element of mysticism and Edgecomb feels his prolonged age is 'punishment' for 'taking away God's own miracle.' The way the movie is shot has a lot of the green coloring everywhere, even beyond the flooring of the prison. There's also gold lighting used, showing the powers that John Coffey has. I somewhat wished Coffey was given more of a backstory; in a way, he functions a bit like Clarence from It's A Wonderful Life in terms of reminding Edgecomb of the impact he has on others. The Sixth Sense (HBO Max, leaving on 12/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler With having seen some of the more recent M. Night Shyamalan movies then seeing this, it's amazing how many wrong lessons he's learned from this movie. What makes The Sixth Sense works is how the camera relays visual information to the audience. How scenes are blocked and staged. How the camera follows a character and omits enough information to lead the audience one way. Not necessarily a "M. Night Shyamalan twist." It would be like if Michael Haneke (who is somewhat comparable to Shyamalan) thought that every movie of his should be like Funny Games after doing Funny Games. The thing is the movie is very straight forward with what's conveyed. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is shot at the start of the movie by Vincent Grey (Donnie Walhberg), the camera is doing an overhead shot of Crowe, then a horizontal shot of Crowe before he kills himself, then fades on Crowe on the bed. It's implied on the first viewing with Crowe sitting on the bench and with it saying "Next Fall" that Crowe survived. Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is the only person that talks to Malcolm Crowe. We never see other people talking to Crowe, nor do we see the aftermath of Cole's outburst in class. Cole is living with his mother Lynn (Toni Colette), who in her initial scenes, leaves the room only for the cabinet doors and drawers to be opened upon returning. Cole didn't do it, so who did? The movie never really answers that, but it can be inferred to be Malcolm Crowe. The way the movie builds tension does lead to the revelation that Cole can see dead people. Upon first viewing, it's discording and seen as a sign of schizophrenia. But at the end, when Malcolm Crowe sees his wife Anna (Olivia Williams) drop his wedding ring, Cole literally is seeing dead people everywhere he goes. It makes the scene toward the end with Lynn unsettling as a victim in a car accident is standing beside Cole and Cole tells his mother about what her grandmother said. Is The Sixth Sense necessarily one of the best of 1999? No, it's not. There are moments in the movie that are a bit threadbare story wise. Occasionally, there are story strands that aren't that interesting and some that don't add to it. Some aspects are introduced and are never followed up on. The Indian couple that are in the jewelry shop of Anna's shop would have made a great separate movie, but Shyamalan chose not to do that. For whatever reason, Shyamalan is striving to be like Hitchcock (self-insert cameo, suspense thriller body of work) and Spielberg (making movies for the general audiences) than trying to make movies that speak for him. Maybe now's the time for Shyamalan to make another autobiographical movie. Sweet Home Alabama (Netflix, leaving on 12/28) - 0.5/5 star Spoiler F*ck this movie with the fury of a thousand suns. Sweet Home Alabama quite honestly is a Lifetime/Hallmark movie that managed to sneak into movie theaters. Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) has everything good in her life - she finally gets her career where she wants it, she has the respect she craved in an industry she works, and she's engaged to a man named Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) that she loves. Yet, it turns out that she's still married to a guy named Jake (Josh Lucas) from her hometown. When Melanie returns, it's clear why she and Jake shouldn't be together; he makes her unhappy and he lies to her. 1944's Gaslight shows exactly what happens to people like this that are stuck in unhappy marriages and have partners that aren't good for them, yet convinces themselves that they are. Instead, every character that Melanie encounters gaslights HER (including her own racist parents, if you have Confederate flag pillows on your f*cking couch and you go to Civil War re-enactments, YOU'RE A F*CKING RACIST) about how Andrew is so bad because 'he's a Yankee.' Andrew Hennings honestly gave Melanie more grace than she seriously deserved. At the wedding, where Melanie finds out that she didn't sign the divorce papers, yet has a pen in hand and is about to sign them and...she doesn't f*cking sign them. She'd rather stick with Jake because of what her piece of sh*t racist mother told her before the wedding started. Andrew Hennings lets Melanie stymies him and he walks off. He devoted YEARS of his life to her for their relationship. His reaction was better than mine would have been; I would have told where Melanie could have stuck her divorce papers and I would make sure every media outlet in New York City knew what happened and she could kiss her career in fashion goodbye. The fact that Andrew's mother Kate (Candice Bergen) is the f*cking voice of reason and says EXACTLY what should have been said (yet the movie presents her as the villain) is grade A horsesh*t. And Kate Hennings is the mayor of New York City, she should have made Melanie Carmichael's life a living hell (plus she gets punched out too and that's all the more reason to make Melanie wish she didn't do it). Top it all off, Melanie decides to reveal Bobby Ray (Ethan Embry)'s sexual preference in a local bar while drunk. F*ck Melanie. Bobby Ray also needed to have let Melanie have it too. That wasn't her decision to make; Bobby Ray should be able to love whoever he wants to love (sh*t, maybe he should have walked up to Andrew Hennings and said he'll marry him). This movie is a garbage movie written by a garbage person who made characters that aren't any good. I don't mind 'non-redeemable' characters (witness the latest discourse about Marty Supreme), but everything that's set up for Melanie Carmichael should have led her to reconciling her past and realizing that she can move on from it, instead of running headlong into it and staying with a man that caused her nothing but pain while never telling her parents "Quit participating in f*cking Civil War re-enactments, it's 2002, that's a red flag that says 'I'm racist.'" It becomes an excuse to 'run out the clock.' Another writer would have said, "F*ck these people" and have Melanie and Jake get struck by lightning and killed for the ending. The moral of the story would be then "you had a good life until you made stupid decisions, this is what happens when you stick with those decisions." If you're a guy looking to date a girl and she says that Sweet Home Alabama is her favorite movie, run as far away as possible from her. She is likely a psychopath. In all likelihood, Melanie and Jake probably voted for Trump, have Trump bumper stickers on their cars and wear blackface at Halloween.
odessasteps Posted December 28, 2025 Posted December 28, 2025 Looking at the TCN ago, I see WB made a movie based around the turn of the century song The Daughter of Rosie O Grady. now I understand the corporate synergy at work here
RandomAct Posted December 29, 2025 Posted December 29, 2025 On 12/15/2025 at 12:12 AM, Curt McGirt said: I just watched The Grey. Damn. Never wanna see that again, but I'm glad I did -- just glad I didn't see it in the theater like I wanted to when it came out. There were parts that I just couldn't watch, and parts that I unexpectedly wish I hadn't (specifically the look on Neeson's face when he first sits down at the bar and it is the deepest look of sorrow I can remember in any film right now). If you expect this to be some film drenched in machismo, you're howling (heh) up the wrong tree; it's filled with powerful regret and internal agony and external suffering. It's ROUGH. No clue how they made it either. You can't see the strings, that's for sure. I watched this right around the time that my dad passed. I had a very complicated relationship with my father, and this film hit me very hard at the time. 1
Casey Posted December 29, 2025 Posted December 29, 2025 One Battle After Another is like if Wes Anderson decided he wanted to write an action/drama movie. It’s totally absurd at a lot of moments and I can’t decide if I really like it, or if it’s really fucking stupid. I do love that Junglepussy is basically just herself in the movie, though. That’s kind of hilarious.
Andrew POE! Posted December 29, 2025 Posted December 29, 2025 Movies today.... Traffic (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 5/5 stars Spoiler Traffic is a deceptively complex movie. While watching it, I was thinking, "I could film a movie like this! Just get a few digital cameras and do the shot selections, storyboard it, I got this!" The truth is vastly different; it's a wonder of editing and filming and shot choices. Steven Soderbergh makes this feel like a documentary, even though it's a piece of narrative fiction. Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) talking to various individuals involved with surveillance and counter-trafficing felt like something from a documentary; in those moments, it felt like it was both Wakefield as a character and Douglas as an actor learning about the US government's efforts against drug trafficing. What's amazing is how each storyline of the movie have a distinctive look based on the color grading; the movie opens in Mexico with Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Benicio del Toro) and Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas) trying to suss out where drugs are being distributed before being stopped by men of General Salazar (Tomas Milian). Wakefield is having to contend with his daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) becoming addicted to drugs due to her boyfriend Seth (Topher Grace). Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones) dealing with the arrest of her husband Carlos (Steven Bauer) for his involvement with drug trade. The storylines at times intersect; one scene for example will have Javier crossing the street while Helena is driving a vehicle. Even though the movie does deal with the serious issues of drug trade, there's moments of levity. Javier talks to DEA agents and wants to go somewhere else to meet; it cuts to the two agents standing in a swimming pool. Two DEA agents that are partnered together, Montel (Don Cheadle) and Ray (Luis Guzman) are visited by Helena who gives them glasses of lemonade (with Ray wondering if those glasses are drugged). Later, the key witness in the case Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer) is poisoned at breakfast. One aspect that's reminiscent of Paul Schrader's Hardcore is Wakefield search for his daughter with Seth. The two go to various drug dealers in the city until they find her in bed at a hotel. The ending is deceptively simple too - Javier is watching baseball where Helena's son is playing. The shot lingers on the kids playing baseball. Life goes on, even in the drug trade. This movie is a rarity in the fact that Soderbergh did this movie the same year as Erin Brockovich. Both movies speak to the same issues - the corruption within the United States and the almost futility in stopping it. Brockovich talks about water pollution and corruption and this talks about drug distribution and corruption. The characters involved find themselves in situations that some of them cannot escape; Javier almost thought he would die until his partner Manolo was killed. Javier eventually escapes after General Salazar is arrested. The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants (saw in the theaters) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler After watching this, I have no fucking clue what I saw. I took part of a nap during it. I started to think about movies I haven't seen yet that I wanted to see like: Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Sophie's Choice, Ordinary People, and Terms of Endearment. I'm planning on making a day of seeing those. I started to think about watching Training Day. It's a kids' movie. It's simple. It's pure. It just is. SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) wants to be a Big Guy (SpongeBob, Big Guy, Pants, Okay is an earworm) so he can ride a rollercoaster and learns from Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) about his swashbuckling award and goes to The Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill, who basically sounds like the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series and made me sad because Kevin Conroy isn't around anymore) to learn. SpongeBob is tricked and the Flying Dutchman becomes human and goes to Santa Monica. Bubbles are involved. Butt jokes are involved. A lot of the online chatter I'm seeing is about how David is a better movie but that is clearly written by 50-60 year old baby boomer church youth group leaders that's very much "how are you doing fellow kids?" This is written by someone with blood in their drug stream and was doing drugs in the 1960s; this is a product of a LSD trip. It may be remarkably terrible but taking a nap may have helped me. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Chrome Alone 2 - Lost In New Jersey (saw in the theaters) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler So great. I laughed through every scene of this compared to SpongeBob. The robot's 'explanation' of his origin had me laughing until tears came to my eyes. "Let's do ninja moves that are stupid to do!" "Stop hitting yourself in the face!" "I just did a search for those four words and your picture came up." Also, that television ad filled me with such 1980s toy ad nostalgia. The ending bit where they come back and....Splinter bought the toys. Worth it just for the ticket to SpongeBob Movie. You can walk out after this is done. Training Day (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Training Day is quite literally Denzel Washington as Alonzo and nothing else. Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt is almost too non-descriptive to even be a character; he's more or less a cipher. Jake sees working with Alonzo as a way to build a resume; when he's asked about working narcotics, Jake provides an answer straight out of police academy. Much of the movie is Jake wondering if he can truly trust Alonzo; during a first traffic stop, Jake is given angel dust and told to smoke it. Alonzo takes advantage of Jake not completely trusting him and wanting to 'impress' him. As the movie progresses, it's clear that Jake shouldn't trust Alonzo. Then Jake meets the other officers including Dr. Dre as Paul from LAPD. Jake sees Alonzo using money that he stole to obtain a warrant on a person named Roger (Scott Glenn) that Jake considers to be Alonzo's friend. "He's my friend? Just because he knows my first name?" Alonzo asks during the tense scenes after Roger is killed. It begs a larger question that director Antonio Fuqua and writer David Ayer are asking: how many more police officers out there are like Alonzo, the ones he knows, and the ones that told him to skip town? Does a lot of what the police do to gunning down unarmed people on account of police officers feeling like they can? That "King Kong has nothing on them" to borrow a phrase towards the end from Washington? Fuqua doesn't offer a solution or an answer as to the grander scale of events; this is an urban crime drama much like ones that John Singleton would do. The story focus being on one day, two characters, and one of the characters changing the circumstances and manipulating the other is a bit different. I found it interesting that everyone in the apartment complex towards the end took Jake's side over Alonzo; they seemingly have no issues with Jake, but were more willing to potentially gun down Alonzo. Alonzo leaving shows the end result of that to be unseen; he does die in the end to the Russian mob. The drawback with this is in comparison to Washington's character, none of the other characters really are that interesting. It's neat to see Dr. Dre, Macy Gray, and Snoop Dogg show up in cameos, but a lot of the characters are nearly interchangable. The scenes where Smiley (Cliff Curtis) finds out his relative was rescued by Jake earlier is a bit coincidental than owing to a solid story beat. I did love the camerawork towards the end as the camera drops from where Jake is laying down on the roof to where Alonzo is walking to his car and driving away on street level. Training Day for the most part is a great early 2000s crime drama. Spy Kids (HBO Max, leaving on 12/31) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler Spy Kids to me is almost synonymous with PlayStation 2 games - the visuals look very much like a video game and it's full of early 2000s attitude. Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino as Gregorio and Ingrid are charming as the parents and Alexa PenaVega as Carmen and Daryl Sabara as Juni have the cross-cultural blending that seems to be in vogue at the time. Alan Cumming as Fegan Floop is a bit of an unhinged Tim Burton character in this movie. The "Thumb thumbs" seem like something from the Austin Powers series. There's quite a few funny scenes in the movie. "The reason I left is the same reason I came back." "Which was?" "I don't remember." Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (HBO Max, leaving on 12/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams is more dialed into James Bond gadgetry and setting with funnier quips from Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) as they go to an Island of Dr. Moreau-like place to locate a device ahead of Gary Giggles (Matt O'Leary) and Gerti Giggles (Emily Osment). Their dad Donnagon Giggles (Mike Judge) would be at home as a 3 Ninjas villain; he wants to use the device to take over the world. The digital photography makes it a bit like late 1950s/early 1960s sci-fi movies and the movie has a mixture of physical locations and computer technology. This was the start of the time everything was overdone with computers and maybe lower budget movies were more comfortable with the technology. Steve Buscemi's line of "Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?" is an all-time dark line in a movie.
odessasteps Posted December 29, 2025 Posted December 29, 2025 (edited) The best thing about Spy Kids (which is fine) is the pseudo Bond theme done by Los Lobos. One of my favorite non-Bond Bond songs along with Spybreak by Propellorheads. Edited December 29, 2025 by odessasteps 1
Brian Fowler Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 On 12/27/2025 at 8:43 AM, Log said: Watched Train Dreams last night. Just absolutely beautiful. Surprised I haven’t seen more awards buzz for Joel Edgerton. He’s great in it. Things I know about *Train Dreams* 1.) it has gotten good reviews 2.) it caused a small film Twitter firestorm 3.) One of the producers is Shane McMahon's wife
Andrew POE! Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 I really need to just watch Frankenstein, A House of Dynamite, Train Dreams, and Jay Kelly. I'll probably do it on January 1st. Movies today.... Spy Kids 3: Game Over (HBO Max, leaving on 12/31) - 1.5/5 stars Spoiler Spy Kids 3: Game Over seems like a completely different movie than the first two and completely derails by the end of it. The movie is carried with its visuals, but the story and overall plot just doesn't make sense. Sylvester Stallone as The Toymaker hams it up with his plan to 'take over the world.' The climatic fight has every character from the previous two movies appearing to don 3D glasses and fighting CGI robots? Make it make sense. Even by kids movies standard, this is a bit on the lower end. The Toymaker being 'defeated' because Valentine Avellan (Ricardo Montalban) forgives him is something out of a Kingdom Story Company movie. There's a few funny bits - "I didn't even get her email address" - and Glenn Powell as "long fingered boy" is a glimpse of the charismatic roles he would do later, but this is just bad. Of course, Robert Rodriguez will do more Spy Kids after this one. Coach Carter (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Coach Carter at times is a bit melodramatic, but it's carried with a great performance from Samuel L. Jackson as Ken Carter. The movie in some ways is Hoosiers for the early 2000s MTV generation; the soundtrack is loaded with needle drops (I was surprised to see kids dancing to the censored version of "Get Low" because every party I went to had the uncensored version and people shouting out the lyrics). Plus, hearing "You Don't Know My Name" brought me back to college for a few minutes.... While watching it, it's easy to see why Jackson would want to do this movie - a lot of African American cinema in the past have focused on basketball. Love & Basketball and Hoop Dreams are preeminent examples. Ken Carter as a character isn't interested in his students simply playing basketball and making the team have the best record since last year. He's wanting his students to be equipped for life; I loved the scene where he breaks down the percentages of people that go to similar high schools either being killed or going to jail. That did more to reach the students than making them run drills, do pushups, or sign a contract. What's interesting is the fact that the parents of the students were pushing back on Carter locking up the gym, which, as Carter points out, essentially says to the athletes that they can do whatever they want. One scene I liked was Carter admonishing the students for using a certain word in addressing each other. He tells them "[the word] is a derogatory term used to insult our ancestors. See, if a white man used it, you'd be ready to fight. Your using it teaches him to use it. You're saying it's cool. Well, it's not cool, and when you're around me, I don't want to hear that shit! Are we clear?" The camera cuts to the various students saying "yes sir" in response, including Channing Tatum as Jason Lyle, meaning that's a not word that he has permission to use either. A lot of the drama from the other actors isn't as good; Rick Gonzalez as Timo Cruz overacts a bit especially in the scene where his relative is gunned down. The conversation between Kenyon (Rob Brown) and Kyra (Ashanti) was melodramatic and the sound mix was a bit low; it was great though seeing those two characters end up together. What's amazing about it is how the movie was filmed; the basketball scenes were more like the actual actors playing basketball than any 'stunt players' or overuse of slow motion for the shots. The camera placement and positioning captured the actions of an actual game; it's hard not to get swept into the moments of that. Dialogue was smartly handled where director Thomas Carter would use a mixture of midrange and over the shoulder shots and would occasionally use closeups for scenes. Even though Coach Carter isn't a classic, it's a solid sports drama. The Golden Child (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 2/5 stars Spoiler The Golden Child to be honest seems almost to not really be a movie. There are moments that feel functional, like the dream sequence where Eddie Murphy's character Chandler meets Charles Dance's character Sardo Numspa or the sequence where Chandler finally gets the dagger in Tibet, but that's rare. Most of the movie's runtime seems to consist of Eddie Murphy walking around and looking at things or obviously improv'ing through scenes. So if you took away the improv from Murphy's performance, this movie would be told in an hour. There are good parts to the movie like Charlotte Lewis wearing a wet white shirt while freeing Chandler from bikers or her wearing a blue shirt and underwear in Tibet while fighting off bad guys and Donald Thorin's cinematography delivering great shots throughout the movie, but this is nearly garbage. Charlotte Lewis' character as Kee Nang is nearly non-existent (other than she saw Chandler on TV asking for help with a missing girl). Chandler is barely a character too and at times works in the horror/action movie this is. The section where the Golden Child (J.L. Reate) gets a can of Pepsi to dance in stop motion animation is inventive as is the final battle where Dance's character becomes a creature. And that ending is...something else. The movie just ends with Chandler, the Golden Child and Kee Nang walking down a hill. This movie gets compared to John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China, but it's not even as good as that movie is. It's relatively an empty affair. It's a 90 minute movie that feels longer. Geronimo: An American Legend (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Geronimo: An American Legend honestly had everything working against it. It's very much a John Ford Western - where morals and values are as important to the characters as fighting in a war. Geronimo (Wes Studi) has as his motivation a commitment to his own code and his own honor. What makes him turn his back on surrendering to the US Army the first time was the treatment of his people from one of the officers. What's interesting with this movie is it's not simply painted as black and white "Indian good, white man bad." Brigadier General Crook (Gene Hackman) has an adherence to the US military while trying to honor and respect Geronimo and the Apache way of life; what makes him mad is the sense that Geronimo lied to him. Charles Gatewood (Jason Patric) functions almost the same as Daniel Day Lewis' character in Last of the Mohicans; he's able to speak Apache and English and was able to talk Geronimo down from continuing the war. What brokers it is the exchange of the Christian cross and the blue stone. Britton Davis (Matt Damon) serves as a narrator of the events and is as much of an outsider on account of his entry experience into the military. Al Sieber (Robert Duvall) has fought and killed Apache, but respects them. The scene where he discovers the Yanqui dead makes him mad; "they were killed by Texans, the lowest form of white man there is." Those with Geronimo doubt the wisdom of continuing this campaign, even though some of them vow to join him. 35 other men alluded the US military. Crook resigns only for Nelson Miles (Kevin Tighe) to take his place. Geronimo's campaign against the US military is equivalent of what was done in Lawrence of Arabia, except more compact. What this movie seems to relay is the fact that the United States government hasn't always been on the 'right side' of history. As Geronimo points out at the end, "With all this land, why is there no room for the Apache? Why does the White-Eye want all land?" If this movie came out five years later, it would have been better received. If it came out today, the movie would have been a carrion call against those seeking to reinvent history and claim to want to "Make America Great Again." If by greatness, you mean killing a defenseless 'medicine man' because he's not responding to commands to 'stop,' then sure. The scenery and a lot of the shots are absolutely breathtaking to watch. Honestly, this is a movie to watch in a movie theater, not on a laptop and not on Netflix. The skylines, deserts, and hills have a beauty to them. I really loved the black and white photography during Geronimo's visions as well and the eerie music that occupy those scenes. Great movies make people think and sometimes make people angry. Geronimo: An American Legend is such a movie.
odessasteps Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 Have you seen Best Defense recently? Wonder which is worse early Eddie movie.
Andrew POE! Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 6 hours ago, odessasteps said: Have you seen Best Defense recently? Wonder which is worse early Eddie movie. No, but I'm sure it won't be long before I do. 1
HarryArchieGus Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 On 12/28/2025 at 10:15 PM, Casey said: One Battle After Another is like if Wes Anderson decided he wanted to write an action/drama movie. It’s totally absurd at a lot of moments and I can’t decide if I really like it, or if it’s really fucking stupid. I do love that Junglepussy is basically just herself in the movie, though. That’s kind of hilarious. I think it's more accurately like if PT Anderson wrote an action/drama movie. They're quite different filmmakers, but I'm sure you're seeing something I'm not. A Wes Anderson action movie looks a bit like the Phoenician Scheme - which was criminally overlooked by the year ends. OBAA definitely has some Absurd moments, but that's kinda life. Curious what you considered to be 'fucking stupid'? Hearing odd criticisms about this movie from the second round of viewers (post-hype) - eg. 'well, yeah, I liked it, but it wasn't, like, the best movie of all time'. Expectations tend to get in the way I suppose. I'm gonna take it out for an encore spin (at the Imax hopefully). 4
zendragon Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 Since we are back on OBAA, I listen to the review of it on the Know Your Enemy podcast and learned a few things. 1st PTA has two bi-racial daughters making the scene where Leo's character laments being unable to do his daughters hair especially poignant and 2sn, the house where the Christmas Adventurers Club have their secret meeting in the basement? THAT'S RONALD REGEANS OLD HOUSE!!! 1
odessasteps Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 Since the anniversary just passed, watched this last night. Rod Serling’s Cold War version of Xmas Carol that was savaged at the time for being way too leftist (and commissioned by the UN). Starring Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers, first role after his heart attack. Direct by Joseph Mankeiwicz. 2
Andrew POE! Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 Movies today.... The Seduction of Joe Tynan (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler Quite honestly, The Seduction of Joe Tynan is so well done and mechanically executed that it can make a political movie seem 'boring.' Director Jerry Schatzberg and writer Alan Alda (who also plays Joe Tynan) are skilled at what they do that it would feel to lack the spark of anger that was felt earlier in the 1970s. On first glance, it would appear to be a 1970s equivalent of Capra's Mr. Smith Goes To Washington; if anything, it's Mr. Smith Stayed In Washington. Tynan is presented as a reasonable, intelligent Democrat Senator who is trying to balance his family life with his career. A lot of the focus is on Meryl Streep as Karen Traynor, who comes into Tynan's life to sway him to oppose the nomination of Edward Anderson (Maurice Copeland) to the Supreme Court. From today's lens, such opposition to Anderson is considered even quaint. After all, Clarence Thomas faced sexual harassment from Anita Hill and another man named Joe supported his nomination. (Not to mention a recently appointed Supreme Court justice named Kavanaugh told Congress he loved beer while his wife and children looked like they were in mortal fear of him during a press conference). So Anderson being against the integration of schools in today's context wouldn't have prevented him from getting the nomination, in fact, the ones that wanted it would have gotten their way. Senator Birney (Melvyn Douglas) blabbing away in French wouldn't have stopped it. While Streep and Alda give great performances, the highlight to me was Barbara Harris as Ellie Tynan. Ellie is left to deal with the issues at home and one errant clue on television leads her to figure out that Joe Tynan is having an affair on her. Joe Tynan looks to lean into a kiss as Traynor passes him a piece of paper during the confirmation hearing. Ellie is restricted by those around her - Joe's aide Francis (Charles Kimbrough) tells her that she can't give interviews anymore without someone from their office there and she throws papers and destroys objects as she relays to Joe Tynan her knowledge of his affair. Joe Tynan's affair is sadly a tale as old as time in Washington, DC. Politicians will be corrupted always with affairs; it seems to happen to those claiming to be the more in touch with people. Bill Clinton did it, John Edwards did it, various others. The movie captures the rush of the affair - I loved the scenes where Joe Tynan dictates in voiceover a fundraising letter as it shows the letters being printed as he and Traynor meet in hotel rooms. I did like the ending where it's not clear if Tynan would accept the nomination for President. He looks into the audience, the camera cuts to Ellie not clapping, and the crowd is shown cheering and chanting his name. What happens after that isn't shown. The Seduction of Joe Tynan will not reinvent the political drama and at times seems a bit slow, but it's a nice late 1970s effort. Stillwater (Peacock, leaving on 12/30) - 3/5 stars Spoiler "Take the ribbon from your hair/Shake it loose and let it fall" -Kris Kristofferson, "Help Me Make It Through The Night" Stillwater as a movie is bit of a hodge podge. On its surface, it's cut from the same cloth as Luc Besson's Taken: a man protective of his daughter goes to a foreign country where he knows no one to retrieve her. Bill (Matt Damon) is somewhat of a noir protagonist in this, although the movie takes a turn half way through. Upon meeting Virginie (Camille Cottin) and her daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) at a Best Western in Marseilles, Bill's life becomes intermingled with Virginie. It begins to resemble the sort of 'found family' movies that happened in early to late 2010s and Bill settles into a life with the two. Bill is searching for a way to prove his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin)'s innocence and gets roughed by the person that Allison identifies in a photo. Bill (and the movie) are certain of Akim (Idir Azougli)'s involvement with the murder of Allison's girlfriend, that the possibility that he wasn't involved doesn't enter the equation. In the back half of the movie, Bill does the unspeakable and kidnap Akim and has him in a basement. Virginie frees Akim as the police arrives and the case is reopened. Allison is exonerated, even though she was confronted with using a necklace to hire Akim to kill her girlfriend. A lot of the movie seems a bit like 'travel porn' for Marseilles and for France; Bill as a character is within the ilk of Clint Eastwood movie leading men, basically silent to the point of withdrawal. Virginie and Maya gives the character a positive outcome. The director Tom McCarthy differentiates the two places with how the places Bill is staying in are shot. His house in Oklahoma is dark, depressing, and cramped; the camera is setup facing a doorway. In France, the space is open, freer, inviting. The movie would be different if Bill accepted his life in France and accepted that his daughter has to serve out a prison sentence. He frees her, but can never come back to France. What's interesting is the comparison between the US and France; one of the characters talks about people from Muslim countries derogerately and mentions that Bill has 'the same issues with the Mexicans.' A lack of understanding of cultures is seen as a point of pride rather a concern. Yet Bill begins to learn and understand French better while living virtually a similar life that he did in America: he works in construction, drives a truck, and isn't interested in expanding his knowledge of culture. Stillwater for the most part is a slightly above average drama that takes awhile to tell its story. Ocean's 8 (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Movies like Ocean's Eight (and Ghostbusters: Answer The Call) get unfairly maligned because the characters involved are women. The argument then becomes "well, because the story has women in it, it is therefore not good" and the continuation of the argument then becomes that somehow having women at the center of the story 'ruins' Hollywood. The same people spend countless hours decrying the latest Star Wars shows and movies and usually have a name that rhymes with "MiracleThinker." Ocean's Eight does exactly the same as Ocean's Eleven; the film's style is a bit updated but a lot of Soderbergh's modern style is apparent in being a heist movie. Instead of robbing a casino, it's robbing the Met Gala. Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) and Lou Miller (Cate Blanchett) have the same staccato rhythm and delivery that George Clooney as Danny Ocean and Brad Pitt as Rusty Ryan did in the original films. The movie goes about its action in a fun fashion, as the crew is assembled, the heist is planned, and what's needed for the heist is setup. While the characters aren't that deep, neither were the original crew. Debbie Ocean's motivation is vastly similar to Danny's motivation; she has a broken heart due to Claude Becker (Richard Armitage). Much like the original remake series, the 'mark' Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) is pulled into the heist towards the end as Debbie and Lou reveal that they stole more than the necklace. "Were you an only child?" is a laugh out loud hilarious line. The drawback to this is the crime was pulled off almost too perfectly; none of the characters involved meet any resistance and there's nothing preventing them from pulling it off. Which is a valid criticism to make; where is the challenge in a heist if they're able to pull it off and make a counter for every contingency. Apparently, there's going to be another Ocean's sequel with the original remake crew, although part of me wishes there were an Ocean's Nine (I guess have Armitage's character join the crew or maybe James Corden if it ends up with him being rocketed to the moon). Paddington 2 (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 5/5 stars Spoiler There's a reason why Paddington 2 is so highly regarded. It's a well-made, well-shot, well-written film. (The joke about it from Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is true about this movie). Paddington (Ben Whishaw) shows a character arc that's meant for children but adults can understand too. It's essentially a caper and essentially a 'children's version of The Fugitive' as Paddington is sentenced for a crime he didn't commit involving a 'pop up book' about London that's sold in a shop. Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant) steals it and frames Paddington for the crime. Paddington just wanted to get the book for his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton), give him a break! The thing with Paddington 2 is every shot and every frame is symmetrical and the usage of color is as close as what's used in Wes Anderson or Jacques Demy movies. It can be argued that the prison's pink coloring looks practically like Grand Budapest Hotel. What's probably not talked about is the production design and costumes. Sally Hawkins' outfit game as Mrs. Brown is aces as they say. Towards the end as everyone welcomes Paddington back, their outfits are utterly awashed in color. What I really liked about Paddington 2 is how the shots were edited; towards the end when Knuckles McGinty (Brendan Gleeson) and crew rescued Paddington from a train car, the coastline match cuts into the roofs of Paddington and the Browns' home. Side note: This is the second movie where Brendan Gleeson did something related to fingers, is he trying to tell us something? The tracking shot as Paddington enters the prison is underrated as is the one at the start of the movie where Paddington is riding a garbage truck. The movie has some of the best action sequences toward the end involving trains (well, at least until Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning) and the scene where Paddington cries in prison and it sprouts a jungle is absolutely heart wrenching (you will cry there I think). And if the scene where Paddington and the others in prison make sweets doesn't make you want a dessert, I don't know what will. Paddington 2 is practically a masterclass in filmmaking. I'll track down a Blu Ray and likely re-watch it at some point. Battleship (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler I'm a sucker for really fucking dumb action/adventure blockbuster movies and this feels like a fever dream of Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich. The movie literally doesn't make any sense. Aliens arrive because of a signal being sent into space and because scientists wanting to find a planet suitable for life. You know the movie's in trouble when they call it "Planet G." Taylor Kitsch as Lt. Alex Hopper is quite possibly the stupidest main character I've ever seen. The "Pink Panther" theme while he tries to get a burrito for his potential girlfriend Samantha (Brooklyn Decker) because she wanted a burrito at a bar and they didn't have it is the funniest thing ever. Honestly, the first 40 minutes or so of the movie is so dialed into stupidity that it's hilarious. Alex's brother Stone Hopper (terrible name) played by Alexander Skarsgard is completely exasperated by his brother and wishes he could jettison him somewhere. There's a romance between Alex and Samantha where Alex has to win her father Admiral Terrance Shane (a completely deadpan hilarious Liam Neeson)'s approval. The whole movie feels like Armageddon, Transformers, Independence Day, and Pearl Harbor combined. Then the alien attack happens. There's literally no explanation as to who the aliens are, what they want, and why. One of them has a psychic link to Alex and he seems them fleeing the planet, but that's about it. This movie is a teenager fantasy literally. Rihanna fires a minigun. Jesse Plemons looks like Matt Damon and plays a character that's also stupid. But there's also a truly great moment where Alex and others use the USS Missouri set to AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." It's a genuine Michael Bay-esque moment of awesomeness. The movie uses "The Funeral" toward the end, which seems out of place. Then the ending is "Fortunate Son," which is literally a meme to end the movie that way. There's so much that's wrong with Battleship. It's sometimes isn't clear on the action or what to be looked at during scenes. The movie has literally no story. It's less of a story than Pearl Harbor. But there's so much it does right. The heroes include a disabled man fighting hand to hand combat. Rihanna as Cora Raikes. Tadanobu Asano as Captain Yugi Nagata, who Alex Hopper graciously stepped aside to let him command (it's kinda annoying how Alex kept talking about Sun Tzu's Art of War to him considering Nagata is Japanese and Sun Tzu is Chinese, but whatever it's this movie, Alex is a proven idiot). Battleship is a truly terrible movie that's only saved with its visuals. Get a hot dog, a popcorn, an overly large soda, go to the theater to see this. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) (HBO Max, leaving on 12/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) is a great noir that just goes off the deep end nearly from the jump. Lana Turner as Cora Smith and John Garfield as Frank Chambers sizzle with passion throughout the movie and it's the craziest relationship in film. Both are drawn together despite Cora being married to Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway). What's a tad annoying (and maybe through a modern lens) is how Nick Smith (and Frank Chambers) both decide things on behalf of Cora; Turner had great scenes where her character pushes back on this. Cora and Frank seemingly can't catch a break trying to murder Nick and making it look like an accident. In an unintentionally hilarious scene, a patrolman appears and notices a cat climbing on a ladder. The cat triggers the electrical wires and causes a brown out. The patrolman said "deader than a doornail" at least 3 times in less than 2 minutes. (I'm surprised the patrolman didn't tell Frank later "I better get home or my wife will make me deader than a doornail." "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.") After a car accident which injures Frank Chambers and kills Nick Smith, Frank is coerced and under extreme duress signs a complaint from Kyle Sackett (Leon Ames), the District Attorney. Cora's attorney Arthur Keats (Hume Cronyn) appears and tells Frank that "I will handle it." Keats then proceeds in court to plead guilty on behalf of Cora Smith and the judge of course goes along with it. Then, apparently, the attorney gets asked again later what their plead is and now it's not guilty (even though that doesn't happen in actual US courts, but whatever it's Hollywood and the US justice system is becoming a kangaroo court system anyway). The ending bookends the story (where Chambers was relaying the events as narrator) with a priest while Frank Chambers is in jail after being charged for murder of Cora Smith (despite him, you know, not actually murdering her and it's an accident). Sackett appears and finds a note where Cora Smith confesses. Even if Frank Chambers isn't guilty of murdering Cora Smith, he'll be found guilty of murdering Nick Smith. (https://fordhaminstitute.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/Marianne%20image3.jpg). The ending is seemingly religious moralizing despite the movie not having any of it leading up to it (gotta love the interference of the Hays Code on the creative process in 1940s Hollywood). Despite the back half of the movie having some issues, director Tay Garnett delivered a great pulp-y noir with a lot of interesting ideas presented; I loved how the movie used sound off-screen that attracted characters' attention before using the camera to pan to the source of the sound. Garfield and Turner running on the beach is evocative of what was done in From Here To Eternity for its famous beach scenes.
odessasteps Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 Have you seen the modern Postman recently? I presume not, since I’d think you’d have mentioned it. 1
Andrew POE! Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 7 hours ago, odessasteps said: Have you seen the modern Postman recently? I presume not, since I’d think you’d have mentioned it. No, I can only watch so much lol. I'm sure when it shows up on streaming, I'll watch it. 1
Control Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 Top first-time watches in 2025 Ikiru (1952) Tokyo Story (1953) When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) Woman in Chains (1968) Paper Moon (1973) The Funeral (1984) Au Revoir les Enfants (1987) Three Colours: Blue (1993) The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994) 1
Andrew POE! Posted December 31, 2025 Posted December 31, 2025 (edited) My top first watches of 2025. Selection due to five star rating on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/poeman553/reviews/films/rated/5/ The Brutalist The Big Heat Gilda The Big Clock Se7en Happening Hard Truths Nickel Boys Eraserhead The Room Next Door Hundred of Beavers Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of the World Good Time The Farewell I'm Still Here Polyester Pearl No Other Land Memento Shadow of a Doubt Rope Strangers on a Train Crooklyn The Babadook Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn The Love Witch Aftersun The Conversation To Die For Margot at the Wedding Trash Humpers ear for eye Chilly Scenes of Winter Crossing Delancey The Plot Against Harry That They May Face the Rising Sun A Week's Vacation A Sunday in the Country It All Starts Today The Ballad of Wallis Island Sinners Pride & Prejudice (2005) Moonstruck Annie Hall It Happened One Night Deep Red Phantasm Mind Game Mission: Impossible – Fallout Hannah and Her Sisters Ed Wood Friendship Amadeus The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Dancer in the Dark Thief Little Murders The Insider The Magic Christian The Birds Lady Bird Showing Up 20th Century Women Materialists Pulp Fiction Paper Moon Il Buco Milk Brokeback Mountain The Squid And The Whale F1 Do The Right Thing If I Should Die Before I Wake The Bitter Stems Psycho (1960) Gun Crazy M Scarecrow Flipside Easy Rider Eddington All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt Field of Dreams Where The Wild Things Are Once The Naked Gun (2025) A Place in the Sun Tea and Sympathy Splendor in the Grass Weapons Deep Cover The Decline of Western Civilization The Decline of Western Civilization Part III Oasis (2002) The Graduate Climax Dirty Dancing Funny Games (1997) Working Girl Dog Day Afternoon When The Tenth Month Comes The Devil, Probably The Thing (1982) Port of Shadows Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid Crumb One Battle After Another Velvet Goldmine Roofman The Fly (1986) Altered States Redline The Mastermind Gosford Park The Exorcist Moonage Daydream Scream (1996) If I Had Legs I'd Kick You Rosemary's Baby Bugonia Nouvelle Vague It Was Just An Accident McCabe & Mrs. Miller Threads The Long Goodbye Nashville All the President's Men 3 Women Angel's Egg Five Fingers of Death Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan The 36th Chamber of Shaolin Zootopia 2 The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter Sentimental Value Hamnet Sense And Sensibility (1995) Avatar: Fire & Ash 10 Things I Hate About You Marty Supreme Traffic Paddington 2 Edited December 31, 2025 by Andrew POE! 1
Andrew POE! Posted January 1 Posted January 1 Movies today...final one of 2025. Thank you for reading my reviews. 2026 may be a bit different (I'll still do monthly 'death races'), but I'll start watching movies I've been wanting to watch for awhile. I may try to post less daily and more of ones that interest me (although finding the occasional bad movie that I review on here is interesting for discussion). House of Wax (1953) (HBO Max, leaving on 12/31) - 3/5 stars Spoiler House of Wax presents a villain in Vincent Price's Professor Henry Jarrod that's more sympathetic than the supposed 'hero' characters and especially than the police. What's also interesting is the sexual politics of the movie; Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) suspects something is off about Jarrod but it is dismissed by the police. "We don't want intuition, we want facts," drawing the distinction between women (intuition) and facts (men). It seems to be indicative of the times this movie was made. Most of the mis en scene at the start was interesting as Jarrod's wax museum is shown and Jarrod meets with Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) and an art critic Sidney Wallace (Paul Cavanagh) before Burke burns the place down. Later, a figure that doesn't look that different from Sam Raimi's Darkman is roaming the streets and murders Burke then Cathy Grey (Carolyn Jones). What's interesting is the relationship between Cathy and Sue; the sexual politics come up again and they seem to have more of a closer relationship than the 1950s morals would allow to be depicted. David Lynch would later use a similar dynamic for Mulholland Drive. It can be argued that Cathy and Sue are lovers, given how Cathy gleefully throws out that her interest in men is only material. To be honest, as the movie progresses, it does seem to lose a lot of steam and becomes 'characters talking their way through the story' rather than 'the story taking place on screen.' The final ten minutes does pick up with the police closing in and Sue hitting Jarrod in the face to reveal the disfigured person underneath. For the most part, House of Wax is an interesting 1950s horror movie although some aspects haven't aged as well. New Year's Eve (2011) (saw in the theaters) - 1/5 star Spoiler My final movie theater review of 2025. (I'll likely be watching other things as I lament over the fact that I couldn't watch everything I wanted to watch that's leaving Netflix after today). New Year's Eve is literally a mess story wise. The concurrent storylines somewhat feels like a TV movie with how they intersect. If this were a show and each episode focused on each storyline, it would likely be better. As a movie, it feels too unfocused and too shallow. Occasionally, it lands like Hilary Swank as Claire Morgan, an overstressed director of the New Year's Eve NYC ball dropping and Robert De Niro as Stan Harris, her dad that's in the hospital and about to die. Swank and De Niro both show why they won Oscars for their acting performances. There's more a sense of their characters in the brief/scattershot times they appear on screen, while Claire Morgan having major "impostor syndrome" throughout her appearance. Too bad the movie didn't do more about their storyline. Other times it doesn't land and has just bad chemistry, like Ashton Kutcher and Lea Michele as two people stuck in an elevator, and Jon Bon Jovi playing a singer named Daniel Jensen nursing a broken heart and cold feet over a chef named Laura played by Katherine Heigl. The relationship with Michelle Pfeiffer as Ingrid, an over 40 woman and Zach Efron as Paul would be better if someone else played Paul and found Ingrid attractive (somewhere, there's a great movie about an over 40 year old woman who finds love with a younger man). When it really fails is the storyline about the dueling couples trying to birth a child at midnight on New Year's Day (signs of a collapsed economy there). Mostly, New Year's Eve is just an excuse to show pretty people in dresses and suits. Sofia Vergara wears a dress where her breasts are about to explode out of it and Lea Michele could have picked a better feature film to be in instead of doing nothing but TV shows and Broadway productions (which is actually fine for a career). Happy New Year's, everyone! Hopefully movie theaters like Regal and AMC will take more chances in 2026 and show arthouse cinema instead of religious movies. Parenthood (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler Maturity is realizing that you saw your parents as Gil and Karen growing up and you see yourself as one of the four adult siblings as an adult. Parenthood is probably Ron Howard's best movie; at times, I wonder if there was a bit of himself in this movie, compared to his later movies. It almost 'feels' autobiographical, considering that Howard spent his childhood years on television as Opie and his dad Rance is a character actor on Kraft Theatre and various shows. Having a dad doing a 'make believe' job like acting is like whatever job one of the main characters does to be similar. Watching this in 2025, there's a realization that Gil (Steve Martin), Helen (Dianne Wiest), Larry (Tom Hulce), and Susan (Harley Jane Kozak) are screwed up people. Their father Frank (Jason Robards) cared for them obviously, but the times they grew up in as children were different and harder. Gil and his wife Karen (Mary Steenburgen) have children with emotional problems - the opening of the movie highlights this. It's played for comedic effect, but they seemingly act out despite Gil's best efforts. It seems almost poetic watching Gil and Karen trying to get their kids through a parking lot after a Cardinals game while Randy Newman's "I'd Love To See You Smile" plays. One child Kevin (Jasen Fisher) has to go to a special school for his emotional issues - "I was always a worrier too," Gil tells him - while his brother Justin (Zachary LaVoy) keeps butting his head against a wall and storms a school play and his younger sister Taylor (Alisan Porter) seems to scream all the time and acts out. The other children have their own issues too - Helen is having to deal with two children Garry (Joaquin / Leaf Phoenix) and Julie (Martha Plimpton) and their own emotional crisis. Susan seems to be in a loveless marriage with Nathan (Rick Moranis) that she's never consulted on anything regarding her life - yet takes Nathan back anyway (true love is someone singing "Close To You" in the middle of class). Larry is probably the most screwed up of them all - he owes money on gambling and at the end of the movie, he will likely never come back from his trip to Chile. "I'm 64 and my son is 27 and I still love him," says Frank in one of the more heart wrenching scenes. Parenthood has moments like this throughout the movie where the characters come to terms with their own emotions and their own responses to how they grew up. I really like the scene that gets sighted as being funny where Tod talks about how Gerry is 'happy' after Gerry was told that masturbation was okay (I sorta wondered where the VHS tapes of Back to the Future, The Great Outdoors, and Dragnet went to though). Probably the most emotional of the character arcs in Parenthood is for Helen; she goes from being unable to communicate with her children to accepting their lifestyles to giving birth at the end of the movie. One of my favorite shots in the movie is towards the end; the entire family is cropped up against a mirror looking into the maternity ward and seeing Helen's new daughter. The cycle continues, parenting continues, what hangups exist for the parents will be passed on to their children and their children learn to overcome them. Ron Howard throughout the movie had great scenes - I really liked how a scene was shot where Gerry called his father to ask to live with him. The shot from Helen's POV shows her seeing Gerry 'enclosed,' while the shot from Gerry's side shows Helen 'enclosed' with the glass door. Parents and children feel entrapped in their own ways. Parenthood as a movie is just utterly great. Dreamgirls (Netflix, leaving on 12/31) - 5/5 stars Spoiler Holy shit. Why WHY WHY was this not nominated for Best Picture during the 2006 Oscars? Why did the boring as hell The Departed win? This seriously should have gotten every award for the Oscars. It does what great movies should do. There isn't a boring scene. There isn't a scene that doesn't add to the characters' journey or demonstrate what the characters are emotionally going through. This is what Velvet Goldmine did. It's addictive to watch as the songs and people resemble the real people (Berry Gordy Jr, Diana Ross, Sam Cooke, James Brown, etc). Yes, the real people are very angry about this, but they didn't get to where they are on a primrose path. It wasn't easy. The story is mainly about three people - Curtis Taylor (Jamie Foxx), Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles) and Effie White (Jennifer Hudson). The group starts out as The Dreamettes and are trying to earn a spot on a regional talent competition. They meet Taylor who has them serving as the backup singers for James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy). What's amazing with Dreamgirls is how it encapsulates the era with the clothing, the lighting, and the coloring. In a lot of scenes, there's a level of Jacques Demy-like color work happening. One scene for example has Taylor meeting Early's manager Marty Madison (Danny Glover in prime To Sleep With Anger energy) and the color of the building matches the color of the suits in the office and the color of the car outside. There's such an amazing attention to detail throughout this entire movie. Bill Condon should have gotten nominated for Best Director for this. It's entirely incredible to watch. During the song "Family," I literally got chills listening to it; such incredible range of emotion, anger, and sadness all mixed within the performance and within the acting of the performance. So Dreamgirls, live it, love it, absorb the movie into your pores of your skin. (not literally absorb it, just react to it the way Hideo Kojima would react to it) The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Netflix) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Neat documentary short although it doesn't really shed that much light on Orin O'Brien and lightly touches upon her professional career. Any movie about NYC and people living in it are always interesting. Match Point (Netflix, last movie of 2024 was Wimbledon, so this made sense) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler Match Point is vastly different than almost all other Woody Allen movies. Any apparent sense of humor disappears; the movie starts as an upper class high society drama and by the end of it becomes a crime thriller. Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a tennis pro who trains with Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode). He meets his sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer) and Tom's American finance Nola (Scarlett Johansson). Chris as a character has fatal flaws; he wants to have his cake and eat it too. He loves Chloe, but he lusts after Nola. This push and pull between the two anchors the movie. After Chris marries Chloe, he still sees Nola and tries to hide being able to meet her. Nola then becomes pregnant and Chris finally promises to meet her. The last 20 minutes or so is where the movie changes a lot; Chris has planned to kill Chloe. Chris gathers a shotgun while making his in-laws and Chloe wait for an inordinate amount of time. Woody Allen makes the choice to cut between the two as Chris gets the shotgun, hides the key, and shuts off the lights. The murder is a similar cut between two scenes - Chris has murdered the neighbor (Margaret Tyzack) while Nola chats with another neighbor before going up the stairs. What I like is how Woody Allen did those scenes - an operatic aria plays for the entirety of the murder, drawing a comparison to American Psycho in some respects. A scene at the start of the movie where a tennis ball hits a top part of the net comes back towards the end as Chris throws Mrs. Eastby's ring but it bounces back onto the sidewalk. The police including Detective Banner (James Nesbitt) suspect Chris until a drug addict is found with the ring, thus closing the case. The movie ends as Chris learns that his wife Chloe is now pregnant, with their parents Alec (Brian Cox) and Eleanor (Penelope Wilson) joining them. Chris has succeeded in having his cake and eating it too. From this movie, it cannot be said that Woody Allen only knows one of a single way for his movies. Match Point does have elements of what Allen dwells on in his movies - relationships between men and women, sexual politics, and class differences - but the English setting is a bit different than usual.
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