2026 Movie Discussion Thread

[HarryArchieGus]

18 hours ago, Technico Support said:

I can’t give them too much credit, since Connelly pretty much still looks not much older than 30ish AND Cruise is over 60.  Call me when they bring back 2025 Kelly McGillis as the love interest

The fact that a naturally aged woman would be kryptonite to a movie tells me everything I need to know about whether I should see it or not. I'd actually rather see any movie with an aged Kelly McGillis than watch Top Gun or the first 30 minutes of its sequel ever again. 

[Andrew POE!]

5 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:

This is the first time I've heard or read a positive take on Stardust. Not just a positive take - you're saying it's a near perfect movie? I was aware of it due to its huge selling campaign and Gervais' (odd at the time) involvement, but it seemed like another post-Extras big money American project to be avoided at all costs. To be clear, I like a blockbuster every once and awhile. Though they are fewer and farther between, it was only 2 summers ago that we got the excellent one-two punch of 'Barbieheimer'.

My taste in movies is suspect sometimes if you've seen what I've reviewed lol. There's movies I like that I should have no business liking or ones that would appeal to me that I end up not liking. Stardust seems to land for me completely. It's like something Terry Gilliam would have done. 

[J.H.]

The Mandalorian & Grogu - This is the best Star Wars movie since Rogue One. It is way to long at 132 minutes. The rule is, if it's longer tbe original Star Wars then there is a problem with the story. The problem with the story is the pacing. It feels like 4 episodes of the TV series smooshed into 132 minutes and really, you can shave 20 minutes off this and tell same story.

I really did enjoy the movie but there were characters I wish had been there. No Armorer, no Pelli Motto, not even Bo Katan. It is just Mando and Grogu and what makes the show click is the secondary characters.

They bring back the Hutt twins from Book of Boba Fett and  they are OK as villains but they aren't so threatening. I was hoping this was Favreau and Filoni bringing all their shows together for one big story. Alas, twas not the case. I really wanted that story.

Overall, it is a good popcorn movie and you should see it but it isn't the Star Wars movie on the big screen you want in my opinion. It is the popcorn movie you want BUT not the popcorn movie you NEED!

James 

Edited May 23 by J.H.

[odessasteps]

I haven’t  seen it since it came out, but stardust (book and movie) felt like an attempt to make a  new Princess Bride. I thought it was fine and, at the time, happy to see Gaiman have a media project that was good.(looking at you, never where) 

[odessasteps]

 

[caley]

Hidden Fear: Strange little noir filmed in Denmark. John Payne is an American who travels to Denmark after his sister is arrested for killing her boyfriend. He's quickly involved in a counterfeiting ring. There's an interminably long car chase that is quite obviously not-that-fast but sped up on film to try to make it exciting. About the only things that set this movie apart is the Copenhagen setting the villain's wife who is battling depression and their way of depicting this is to put her in very white makeup and dark eye makeup so she just looks like a put-upon Cure fan.

The Tehran Incident: Just an insanely bad little Rifftrax movie with Peter Graves as an action hero, trying to stop a rich baron's plot to cause chaos. About the most interesting thing about it is that it was filmed pre-Iranian Revolution, so everything is just 70s-ish but they edit in a line about the Ayatollah being overthrown to cover for why everything is so normal.

A Woman's Secret: I love Nicholas Ray and I love Gloria Grahame but this was just kind of middling. A singer, Susan, gets shot,  and her friend Marian, confesses, but her friend and an investigator seek to get to the bottom of it. Most of the story is told in flashback: the friend was a promising singer, initially, but an illness derails her career and she puts her effort into backing Susan's career. There's a lot of fighting and jealousy. And, ultimately, the mystery of what happened and why isn't really that interesting. Grahame was good, though.

Snowbeast: Look, I've seen a lot of terrible movies in my time, it's become somewhat of a hobby of mind, but I'm not sure I've seen one as incompetent at this one! A giant snowbeast terrorizes a skihill during the town's 50 winter carnival. A former gold-medal-winning skier shows up with his wife and is given a job by his friend (who also used to date his wife) of being am ambassador/celebrity/employee and together they investigate the possibility that a string of deaths/sightings might be connected to some sort of feral snowbeast. You know in movies where there's scenes of panic and they never really seem all that panicky (Characters clearly coached which way to run, running at half-speed etc. etc.)?! Well 'Snowbeast' doesn't! There's a scene where the titular monster shows up a carnival celebration and is the townspeople flee in terror you can clearly see them knocking each other down and stampeding over each other, and in another scene an extra races past Sylvia Sidney and appears to knock her down...hard. It's a TV movie so all the attacks are rather tame with a lot of the violence being implied. And it's got a handful of notable 70s staples: Sidney, Bo Svensson, Clint Walker and Yvette Mimieux. But, back to the incompetence: there's a scene where ski rangers mourn the passing of their fellow rangers with a rifle saute! Not sure that's a great idea on a skihill! And the last stretch of the movie is incredible:

Spoiler

The three main characters and the sheriff travel up the hill in a trailer to hunt down the beast. They decide to keep watch in pairs, then immediately seem to abandon that idea. At one point, the sheriff is inside the trailer while the others stand outside chatting. The beast attacks by sending logs rolling down the hill into the trailer, knocking it over. The three "heroes" flee in terror (No idea where they put their rifles!), leaving the sheriff trapped in the trailer. I thought "Oh he must be dead already", then he moves and they just LEAVE HIM THERE. They hole up in a farmhouse before deciding to go back to see if the rifles are still there, finding blood splattered everywhere and traces of blood where the beast apparently killed and dragged the sheriff away and no one really seems to care. The skier stabs the beast with a ski pole, they celebrate this and the sheriff is never mentioned again. I have never seen that before. I legit have never seen a movie where a group of heroes run off and leave one of their group to me MURDERED by the antagonist. You could say he was trapped but when they later get back Mimieux has no trouble getting into the trailer. They just left him to DIE. I was laughing hysterically.

 

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (saw in the theaters) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

If you judge Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu with the (oftentimes) unreasonable expectations of Star Wars fandom, it will be disappointing. The movie feels like two back-to-back episodes of the Disney+ show The Mandalorian or very much a long extended episode brought to the big screen. However, probably the best way to judge it is on its own.

Let's get the worst parts out of the way first: no, the story isn't exactly the most thrilling or best story to watch. A lot of the movie has 'empty' exposition that's mostly non-verbal as The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) goes from place to place. Some directors would use the movement to have a spiritual dimension to it, others would make it something like Robert Bresson would do and have them open and close doors.

What the story for the Mandalorian does is as old as cinema itself: the "MacGuffin" hunt. The "MacGuffin" in this case is Rotta the Hunt (Jeremy Alan White), a surprisingly contemplative character in the world of bounty hunters and space aliens. The Mandalorian with Grogu in tow is to go to Shakari, a Blade Runner-esque world that has an alien voiced by Martin Scorsese as a vendor. (Part of me now want a Star Wars universe version of After Hours with how Scorsese plays the vendor).

Where the movie shines is within the first hour - director Jon Favreau has the movie doing "Star Wars things" (attacking AT-ATs, wrecking Stormtroopers) and being virtually a homage to Ridley Scott. Rotta the Hutt is an arena fighter who sees validation through fighting in the tournament a la Maximus from Gladiator. Once Rotta is taken from Shakari and captures Janu Coin (Jonny Coyne), the movie begins to spin its wheels a bit.

Rotta the Hutt is given to a gun runner to hide somewhere. The Hutt twins then capture the Mandalorian one night and it turns out that Rotta has been captured too. It's up to Grogu and the miniature aliens to infiltrate the lair and free the Mandalorian. Mando is poisoned in a battle and it's presumed he is to die. Of course, Grogu is able to save him after talking with a fisherman (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who gives him medicine to feed to Mando.

Obviously, this movie would have ended differently if the Mandalorian died; he's able to recover. He goes back inside the Hutts' compound, frees Rutta, the Hutts are eaten, and the cavalry from Ward (Sigourney Weaver) arrive in X-Wings to blow up the compound. Rutta the Hutt joins the New Republic to complete the story arc of his wanting to escape his father's shadow while the Mandalorian and Grogu fly away for another adventure.

To be honest, this won't end up on any 'best of the year' lists for movies. It plays it too safe, but it's not that experimental. It will make Star Wars fans likely ambivalent or even mad that their favorite Disney owned IP isn't having lightsaber duels, and Force chokes, and Sith/Jedi fighting each other. It's just a decent story in the Star Wars universe. Sometimes, that's just enough.

Saturday Night Fever (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Saturday Night Fever is actually a movie about economic hopelessness. Tony Manero (John Travolta) starts the movie with false bravado as the camera focuses on his shoes like out of Strangers on a Train. Tony walks along the streets, almost to the beat of "Staying Alive" carrying a paint bucket. It turns out that he works at a hardware store in Brooklyn and desire a 'better life.' The posters in his room give him that glimpse of a better life - Rocky Balboa holding Adriana Pennino from the Rocky poster, Al Pacino as Serpico staring Tony in the face, Farrah Fawcett smiling and laughing in her famous red bikini.

The thing with Tony and his friends Joey (Joseph Cali), Bobby C (Barry Miller), Double J (Paul Pape), and Gus (Bruce Ornstein) is that they are all fucking trash. They compare themselves to a racial epithet as they walk into a local dance club. Their worldview is limited - they will never leave Brooklyn. Tony sums up their worldview as being they don't have a future. It's enfant terribles in leisure suits.

What Tony seeks is an escape through dancing. He sees Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) dancing and that is a promise of an escape. He goes to a dance studio and practices with her for a dance competition. The movie is building up to this competition with the conflict between Tony and Stephanie. The conversation between the two for coffee exemplifies the issue with Tony; he doesn't know or pay attention to who Laurence Olivier is or watch 1968's Romeo & Juliet. He's purposely not knowledgeable and isn't even interested in college. Stephanie on the other hand lives in Manhattan and wants to go to college.

Tony's friends pull him into crime; they drive a car into a bar and beat people up in there (gotta love the slow motion shot as they crash into it). They climb onto Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and walk on the beams. Sadly, the men except for Tony r*pe Annette (Donna Pescow); that leadsher to walk away from them and walk away from Tony because he did nothing to stop it. Bobby, who has a stutter and self-esteem issues, participates to appear 'acceptable' to the other men and gets a woman pregnant. Bobby falls to his death.

The climax of the movie has Tony and Stephanie competing in the dance competition and they win. Yet Tony feels the Puerto Rican couple should have won (and he calls them a racial epithet too). Winning the competition symbolizes a sense of emptiness Tony now realizes. He wants to leave Brooklyn and see the wider world. He makes up with Stephanie and wants to be her friend, as the movie ends on they hugging each other.

Saturday Night Fever is a lot of things in its depiction of New York City, but it's not a promising view. The dance floor lights and scenery function as an escape for Tony. Most movies set in New York City show the city as an idealized place, yet rough to be in due to the competitive landscape. It's rare for a borough in New York City (Brooklyn) to be seen as a 'small town' even though Manhattan is one subway ride away.

The standout is of course the soundtrack, although a lot of songs don't really connect to the story. "Night Fever" and "More Than A Woman" from the Bee Gees being played meld the song to the visuals, but not necessarily to the story.

Saturday Night Fever isn't bad, but it's a lot darker than realized.

Same Time, Next Year (Netflix, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

The difficulty with movies is how to make a movie that focus on two characters compelling. Richard Linklater did it with the Before trilogy. Same Time, Next Year could be considered a pre-cursor to the Before trilogy, but more truncated and with several year gap between the encounters of its main characters.

The main characters for this is George (Alan Alda), an accountant from New Jersey, and Doris (Ellen Burstyn), a housemaker from Oakland CA. Their meeting seems accidental; it easily recalls An Affair To Remember as they end up in bed together in a cabin near the sea. Despite the opening montage and music sounding like a Folgers coffee commercial, the movie settles into its rhythm of depicting the changes to the characters through the ensuing years.

What the movie does that's so great is tie the character change to the time period; still photography of various events like Elvis Presley joining the Army, or JFK being killed or stills from movies like From Here To Eternity and Star Wars are shown. The characters start differently than they do when the movie ends. Doris is less sure of herself and seems to be locked into a religious studiousness as a homemaker; she lacks any form of interests as she tells George that she only got married because she became pregnant. George at the onset is straight laced, but frantic; he detects somehow that his wife Helen 'knows' of the affair because of his act of doing it. "Are you Jewish?" he's asked, as if guilt can be tied to a particular faith.

The encounter changes Doris - she becomes a member of a book club. George had asked her during the first encounter if she read Catcher in the Rye, but she hadn't. She never graduated high school. As the movie progresses, Doris changes more radically. She graduates from high school while pregnant with her next child. She goes back to college, becomes a liberal, and protests the war in Vietnam. George has changed too, but more subtly. George became a manager in Los Angeles and has become more conservative in response to the war in Vietnam. Why, he's asked. "Because Michael was killed," he said. "I've never been able to cry since it happened." At the end of the scene, Doris starts to cry and George bursts into tears.

When they meet again in 1972, things have changed again. George has become more liberal, while Doris is more conservative. Doris owns property and is a business owner. George is less interested in being rich; he has worked as a pianist at a singles bar. What's funny (and maybe sad) is the fact that George played the piano to work out his sexual tension and due to his impotency. While Doris is loading the car, George talks to Doris' husband and reveals everything that he knows about Helen to him. George lies and says that he's a priest.

The movie's final sequence has them in 1977, nearly the autumn of their years. Doris has settled into a form of a retirement, caring for her husband after his heart attack. George's wife has died in a heartbreaking scene; George wants to marry Doris because she is the only thing he lives for now. George makes it seem that this is their 'final goodbye' as he leaves; Doris cries on the bed. George comes back in and declares that he will continue to see Doris as long as he is able to as the movie ends.

What the movie does really effectively is the play structure and the mis en scene. Newspapers are laid out on the coffee table, depicting the headlines of the sections. The clothing and hairstyle changes on the characters - Doris' hair is more of a bun until she slowly becomes more free. At one point, Doris looks like Marilyn Monroe or Tippi Hedren. George begins to have more grey in his hair as he keeps his hair short, until 1972 when he grows it out.

There's a reason why Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Oscar for this movie; her acting work in this is a marvel to watch. Doris changes her vocal tone and demeanor through each section of the movie. Alda does sound like himself (as always), but his scenes where the character is emotionally affected are heart wrenching to watch.

Hopefully, they won't ever remake this. Although maybe now I should watch the Before trilogy.....

 

[odessasteps]

I always forget Donna Pescow was in SNF, since I just always associate her with Angie.

young people prob don’t realize how massive the soundtrack was, being the highest selling album of all time before Thriller.
 

this would have been great entrance music for a heel in the late 70s. Or Danhausen. 

 

Edited May 24 by odessasteps

[zendragon]

The thing about SNF is that The BeeGees had the music ready for their next album before the film went into production, it wasn't written specifically for the film.

Watched Da 5 Bloods, its a film that is gonna stay with me for some time. Honestly think its better than Blackkklansman its pretty deep, with some great preformances.

[driver]

Donna Pescow was also the mom on "Out of This World"...

 

[odessasteps]

I don’t recall watching that or Small Wonder when they were on (I was likely out of the kid demo at that point).

[J.H.]

1 hour ago, driver said:

Donna Pescow was also the mom on "Out of This World"...

 

No love for Angie?

James

 

[odessasteps]

25 minutes ago, J.H. said:

No love for Angie?

James

 

Quote

I always forget Donna Pescow was in SNF, since I just always associate her with Angie

 

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....

Fort Worth (HBO Max) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

This is my first exposure to a Randolph Scott Western; Fort Worth seems to be alluding to a 'previous time' that Ned Britt (Randolph Scott) had been in town. The main villain is Gabe Clevinger (Ray Teal) (you know he's the villain because the music changes when he appears) as his men kill a boy in the first 20 minutes of the movie.

Britt and Flora Talbot (Phyllis Thaxter) go into town and run into Britt's long time friend Blair Lunsford (David Brian). For whatever reason, Britt and Lunsford look at each other like they want to have a romp in the hay if you know what I mean. The movie seems to just be stagnant in the middle as it focuses on those two as Clevinger is trying to stop Britt by publishing things about him in the Forth Worth Star.

Like all doomed romances, Britt and Lunsford end up opposing each other and Britt is locked in a burning train car after some of Clevinger's men are killed. Britt and Lunsford have a meetup at Talbot's house where they don't kill each other, but say they will.

The finale has Britt putting a gun belt on an apron (interesting visual) as Lunsford appears in the back door and Clevinger is hiding and kills Lunsford. Britt gets outside, Talbot yells when she sees him, and Britt kills Clevinger. I loved the great usage of shadows as Talbot appears, making you think that Britt was going to kill whoever it is.

The movie ends with the paper being published, the railing where Clevinger being fixed miraculously, Talbot and Britt looking at the railroad that has arrived, and Talbot miraculously being pregnant too. That last one defies all logic since we never saw a love scene with either Lunsford and Britt and her, so I guess she just thought of being pregnant and suddenly she was.

Fort Worth is okay to look at with the Technicolor, although the small number of locations, pedestrian acting, and woeful story derails it a bit. David Brian delivers a performance that's a bit more complex versus what the movie should be, although the writing for him fails it. Randolph Scott, like John Wayne in some respects, just stands there and is tall and apparently that's enough.

I Love Boosters (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Watching I Love Boosters in a big theater chain like Regal or AMC seems hypocritical given what the movie is about. Having to use the tools of capitalism to release cinematic art in 2026 will not change anything, which is a refrain uttered in the movie. If Boots Riley didn't care about engaging with the theater chains, he would release the movie directly for free on the internet, essentially burning the piles of money that Neon and others have set aside to market this movie. What Corvette (Keke Palmer) is trying to do with changing the system does not change what Christie Smith (Demi Moore) will do. She'll continue to sell clothes at marked up prices while working in an office building that's leaning over.

I Love Boosters will likely not be one of the best movies from 2026, but it'll be one of the more audacious. What Boots Riley is doing results in a mad cap, frenzied rush of ideas that sometimes doesn't land and sometimes does. Corvette and her co-horts in the "Velvet Gang' Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige) go into Metro Design stores to shoplift (i.e. boosting) the clothes and then infiltrate the stores as employees under the management of Grayson (Will Poulter). Where I Love Boosters works is in the retail life - employees being given checks of less than $50 because all of their money went to buy clothes that were taken out of their checks is a sad reality in retail today.

During an 'employee meeting' where Grayson informs some of the employees that they are wearing 'last year's fashions,' someone managed to steal everything from the store. The person turns out to be Jianhu (Poppy Liu), on surveillance video using a device to 'suck the clothes into a bag.' The Velvet Gang track the woman down and take her to their squatting location of an abandoned fast food restaurant. To be honest, the movie begins to lose its footing with the device explanation that Violeta (Elza Gonzalez) does in between puffs of her vape.

Once the devices are secured, the movie then resembles a heist movie as the "Velvet Gang" infiltrates Christie Smith's fall fashion show. The movie has revelations about like the genetically bred horses from Sorry To Bother You, except these are people shown earlier in the movie like Dr. Jack (Don Cheadle), Crying Black Mother (Kara Young), Upstanding Community Member (Jason Ritter), and Based Young Dude (Jeramine Fowler) somehow having their skin surgically removed and their skin are now their clothes too. At that point, don't bother trying to think through it and just enjoy the climax.

The conclusion isn't quite as great as it should be as the workers at the retail store and in the Chinese factory have now unionized and demand for better wages and better treatment. Jianhu's mother is now cured of cancer and Christie Smith being defeated.

Visually, the movie is striking. The color usage is out of Jacques Demy's work with a lot of surrealistic imagery that felt like something that Michel Gondry would do with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. The movie makes no attempts to explain itself, but certain visual images like the rolling ball of debt that Corvette imagines and Pinky Ring Guy (LaKeith Stanfield) turning into a demon and pulling a woman into the air while....doing things to her (or "sucking out a woman's soul through her pussy" as is said in the movie) is nightmarish to watch. It's kind of a shame that Stanfield's character didn't play more of a part in the movie other than assisting Corvette during the heist.

The drawback is some of the aspects like the vehicle chase sequence appears really low budget (and maybe purposely so). I Love Boosters isn't really one to love, just merely like.

Jojo Rabbit (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Jojo Rabbit attempts to both humanize and trivialize the Nazis through the eyes of Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), who believes himself to have an imaginary friend with Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi). At times, the movie really doesn't work more than works. In a clearly Wes Anderson inspired camp for Hitler Youth lead by Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) and including Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) as an instructor, it visually is appealing; Anderson's symmetrical framing of shots is used during those scenes.

Over time, Jojo discovers a girl named Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie) that his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) has hidden. After a visit from the Gestapo, Elsa acts as Jojo's sister and Rosie is discovered hung in the town square for being part of the anti-Nazi movement. The conclusion has Jojo learning about the defeat of the Nazis and Hitler's suicide as everything falls apart around him with the Allied soldiers advancing on the town. Klezendorf is found and acknowledges Rosie's murder before disowning Jojo and being killed by the US forces.

Jojo and Elsa are finally safe to go into the streets at the end of the movie as they dance to a German version of "Heroes," seemingly hearing the music.

Jojo Rabbit seems to fall into the trap that a lot of late 2010 movies have fallen into; visually, it's non-descript with the digital camera work has given everything an overly lit look to it. Save for the earliest scenes in the movie, a lot of the shots aren't distinctive at all. Even night time dinner time scenes are swarmed with an artificial lighting originating from nowhere. I found McKenzie's performance to be the best in the movie, far better than Johansson's.

This is probably one of the weaker Best Picture nominations for 2019.

The Impossible (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

The greatest tragedy and horror that befalls those in The Impossible is not the tsunami, but is man-made. The family in The Impossible consists of Henry (Ewan McGregor), Maria (Naomi Watts), Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast). The family in The Impossible are also white bred and whitewashed; the real life family is Spanish in origin, but apparently UK and US production companies didn't think their story was 'relatable enough.'

What makes what happened man-made is how separation for the family members are viewed - I couldn't help but to feel the family members were being separated to be shot or even punished. The hospital scenes felt like a maze of Kaftkian proporations as Lucas looks for people in the hospital as well as when his mother Maria was taken away. At times, I wondered if Maria had her leg amputated and Lucas saw that the leg was a lot worse than it actually was, but hid it from Maria. Maria's arrival at the hospital is on a wooden door in a truck drove with people that speak the native language;

With the movie it runs three different paths - Henry, Maria & Lucas, and the two boys Simon & Thomas. After the tsunami has subsided, the path ahead involves going to higher ground and the groups searching for each other. Eventually, they converge at one hospital although those that helped them along the way are unknown as what their searches for family members.

With The Impossible, there isn't much in the way of an acting challenge. It mostly is an endurance race as Watts limps along after the tsunami happened and Holland appearing frantic and panicky as he looks for his character's brothers. The true highlight is how director J.A. Bayona and cinematographer Oscar Faura filmed the movie; a lot of overhead shots are used in the movie with one shot showing Maria reaching her arm out of the water like this is The Evil Dead.

The Impossible as a movie is a great effort and a bit too 'cleaned up,' but the emotion behind the performances is palpable.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Where'd You Go, Bernadette is concerned with Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett), a sort of a similar "Keep Austin Weird" figure that would be better suited with another Texas auteur Wes Anderson's Tennebaums than with the sort of people that inhabit Richard Linklater's movies.

The chief premise is the fact that Bernadette is continuously under a crisis and wants to escape it; she has an overwhelming sense of agoraphobia as well as an aversion to dealing with people. Her long-suffering family including husband Elgie Branch (Billy Crudup) and daughter "Bee" Branch (Emma Nelson) has granted her grace until certain things fall apart for Bernadette.

The collapse isn't as dramatic as it is sudden. The virtual assistant that Bernadette was using turns out to be a front for the Russian mob; this coupled with an intervention staged by Dr. Janelle Kurtz (Judy Greer) leads Bernadette to flee the country with the help of neighbor Audrey (Kristen Wiig) takes her to the airport for a flight to Antarctica.

In some respects, the movie resembles Hologram for a King, a Tom Hanks vehicle where Hanks' character goes to Saudi Arabia and has realizations about himself. With this, Bernadette begins to see herself as designing the Antarctica base; she asks about the ratio of men to women, which the documentary feature within the movie has her asking about. Bee and Elgie track down Bernadette to the Palmer Station and Bee gives her blessing for Bernadette to go to the South Pole station and begin her plans to redesign it.

Occasionally, the movie lands on winning moments like Bee and Bernadette singing "Time after Time" in the car and the contrasting scene between the party at Audrey's house and the mud slide that is about to occur. For the most part though, the movie just is merely okay and is boring at times.

Which like a line said from Bee later in the movie, there are other things to be boring about.

 

[odessasteps]

Jojo Rabbit (your life is calling) was such an odd movie. Still not sure how much I like it in retrospect. 

[driver]

20 hours ago, J.H. said:

No love for Angie?

James

 

I don't remember catching that one. 

[driver]

Song Sung Blue-I really enjoyed this.

[Casey]

Just finished Mortal Kombat 2 and I hate/am embarrassed to say this but I thought King Jerrod was Cole Young somehow for the entire movie and was very fucking confused.

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today...

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Having grown up in the time that this movie was out, no one I knew really talked about the movie other than in derisive terms and mainly about the video games that were out on every console at the time. The story for Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee) seems to be of two extremes: fantasy and reality. Lee at the start of the movie is in a dream being chased by a phantom or The Demon. Where this demon originates the movie never answers; it only serves as an ever present threat at key moments in Bruce Lee's life.

After beating up British sailors, it's surmised that Bruce must go to America. Bruce goes to America and works in a restaurant, taking the poster of James Dean with him. Bruce sleeps with a woman that is the girlfriend of one of the cooks and gets into an elaborate fight out of his movies. The early scenes still maintains the 'fantasy and reality' presentation - how much of it is true that Bruce Lee was able to beat up sailors and cooks is not really known.

Once in America, Bruce meets Linda (Lauren Holly) and begins a relationship. With their relationship, this is the heart of the movie. Bruce Lee has to deal with and confront the stereotypes about Asian men and Asian people in general. Bruce has to deal with Linda's mother and her lack of approval for their relationship, but also deal with the stereotypes Hollywood imposes about Asian men. The scene where they go see Breakfast at Tiffany's and walking out over Mickey Rourke's character demonstrates this.

The movie depicts the television and movie industry in Hollywood and in Hong Kong that Bruce Lee works in. Bruce fights Johnny (John Cheung) and Luke (Ong Soo Han) over Bruce teaching his form of martial arts to Americans and both times were under the guise of professional events or a film shoot. Johnny had broken Bruce's back in a fight, although the truth of what happened was different.

Eventually, Bruce Lee obtains success in Hong Kong and then in America through The Big Boss. The scene where Bruce is carried out of the theater uses a lot of wide angle shots to show the amount of people. Bruce Lee defeats the Demon that was after his son Brandon Lee; little did he know that Brandon would be killed too.

For the most part, the acting with Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly is decent - I liked the scene from Lee where he tells what he thinks Americans think of people like him to Linda.

My one quibble is the soundtrack and the overuse of the film score - the score's composer Randy Edelman is bad about his music being used everywhere, so it's like I had heard the theme used in a commercial or on NBC.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story isn't a classic from the 1990s, but it's a relatively well put together movie.

Searching (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Searching manages to do a lot with the 'screen life' premise as it is about David Kim (John Cho) looking for his missing daughter Margot (Michelle La). The Up-like introductory scenes show how David and Margot grew close after his wife's Pamela (Sara Sohn) through what is shown and focused on a computer.

The disappearance reveals a wider issue in David's life as far as whether he actually knew the life that his daughter was leading; I thought it would lead to David discovering that his daughter was part of an underground world of cam models a la Paul Schrader's Hardcore, but that's not the path (thankfully) the movie didn't take.

David gets help from Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) to find his daughter and David goes to a lake after piecing together where Margot was last found. After talking to a dispatcher, David finds out that Rosemary "volunteered" for the investigation.

To be honest, there's a lot of questions about the choices the movie makes as far as who is responsible for the disappearance. Rosemary's son was apparently with Margot and pushed her down a ravine. Yet everything Rosemary did in the investigation including saying that 'two areas have already been searched' lends itself to being a statement about the police. How was Rosemary allowed to lead the investigation and able to instruct David not to continue with assistance? Why was it not made clear to David that Rosemary's capacity was as a volunteer? Why did he only find that out after talking to a dispatcher?

The movie honestly is a bit of 'red meat' for conservatives - Margot's disappearance was first pinpointed to a convict that Rosemary knew and had him set up to take the fall. Basically, implying that those in prison would do something like this after being let out. The truth is Rosemary orchestrated the man to take the fall and the man killed himself under a false confession. David is left spiraling after 'red herrings' - his brother Peter (Joseph Lee), a random douchebag kid that said she was a prostitute that David punches out at a movie theater, the 'woman' that attended the video streams that Margot did.

Rosemary's son set up a fictitious profile and used a stock model's picture and made up a story about living in Pittsburgh. How were the police then able to call the woman's family and find out that she wasn't there (unless that was a lie too from Rosemary)?

Despite some of the story issues with Searching, it manages to be a 'true to life' melding of Hitchcock suspense thrillers and crime dramas.

The Blues Brothers (saw in the theaters / Peacock - leaving on 5/31) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

The Blues Brothers as a movie just shouldn't work. Two comedians - Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi - who hadn't really done a lot of roles turn their SNL characters into a movie based on those characters with a backstory. Then, you add a lot of musicians like Ray Charles as a music store owner, Aretha Franklin as a diner owner, James Brown as a reverend, and members of Booker T & The MGs as the backing band and this should be a recipe for disaster.

Instead, it was just "fuck it" and they decided to go for it. There were so many car chases. Every car apparently in the city of Chicago gets destruction. A country band called "The Good Old Boys" chase after them. Carrie Fisher with a bazooka tries to kill them. Nazis try to kill them.

They just want to play R&B and save a church. Leave them alone.

The Blues Brothers is the most Zen of movies because there's no story, it just is. Embrace the car crashes. And the blues.

Atlantic City (Hulu, leaving on 5/31) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

Atlantic City is an anti-crime movie, anti-gangster movie, an anti-romance movie. The movie is about characters on the run and having to deal with their lives coming undone. Lou (Burt Lancaster) is a 'numbers guy' going from person to person and having to take care of Grace (Kate Reid), whose husband Cookie was friends with Lou. Their relationship is transactional as well as personal; Grace gives Lou money to keep him afloat, but he can never get ahead. Sally (Susan Sarandon) works at a casino in Atlantic City, dealing cards and oysters, trying to work her way through college.

What makes their lives change is Sally's husband Dave (Robert Joy) finding cocaine in a telephone booth. The opening 10 minutes is virtually silent; Dave gets the cocaine, hitches a ride to Atlantic City. Sally is washing herself with lemons and a perfume to get ride of the 'smell' while Lou watches her. Dave gets Lou in on the deal and has him get money from Alfie (Al Waxman); the cocaine is combined with Italian baby laxatives, which people snort up their nose. We never see what happens afterwards, but Alfie keeps paying out.

Dave and Lou have a budding friendship while Sally has one with Joseph (Michel Piccoli). What's interesting is how much of the movie initially is the characters walking around, lamenting about the state of Atlantic City. Construction is tearing down buildings, including preparations for the apartment building that Lou, Sally, and Grace to be demolished. Lou remembers a time coming into Atlantic City where it wasn't what it is now.

All of this is going good until Dave is stabbed and killed. Sally has to accept the movie; it's telling that she is having to do so while Robert Goulet sings about Atlantic City being on the map again. For Sally, it's a sad and maybe comic irony that her husband is dead against the backdrop of commercialism. She's trying to call Dave's parents from a payphone while Robert Goulet sings at her.

Lou has revitalized himself with the new found money. He buys a new suit, tips people $1000, and looks completely different compared to who he is at the start of the movie. Lou walks with Sally and builds a friendship with her; it's almost the precursor to the dynamics found in Lost In Translation. Both relationships are transactional and temporary as Lou is older than Sally.

The gangsters that killed Dave rough up Sally and Lou and destroy Sally's radio. This is the beginning of her loss of happiness. The opera cassette was the escape for her from starvation wages serving oysters. Then, the manager tells Sally that she's fired because of the 'type of person she attracted' even though she didn't ask for Dave to see her. She's being punished for disrupting the 'image' that the casino wants to maintain. The scene with Sally confronting Lou after the gangsters confronted Lou then Sally slapping one of the gangsters is pure Altman-like chaos. Sally is kicked out of the casino.

Lou and Sally argue walking home when the gangsters reappear, Lou killing them. At this point, this can be considered 'the end of the movie,' although there's more to go. Lou actually feels 'free' after committing the murders, he having never done it before and only seeing Bugsy Malone in a drunk tank one night. Lou and Sally manage to escape with Sally driving off the next morning. Sally listens to a radio college course about the wines of France, signaling where she might go next.

At this point, Lou realizes what he has with Grace and goes back to Atlantic City. For Lou, he can't leave the city despite the crime that's now there and the police chief claims to be able to stop. The person that committed the murders doesn't even look like Lou, so someone will get caught.

With this as a second exposure to Louis Malle, he did a movie that captures the nuances of gangster/crime movies but is more conversational. Crime types in real life aren't 'heroic' or willing to have a 'code of honor' - they are mostly cowards and want to save their own skin. Lou exemplifies this. Lou was happy to be a low level guy until he could take advantage of dealing drugs without personally having to do it.

For the most part, Atlantic City could be a perfect movie.

 

[odessasteps]

Plus Paul Reubens, Frank Oz and Steven Spielberg, among others,

[Tabe]

The Sheep Detectives - This might seriously be the dumbest premise for any movie I've actually watched.  "Talking sheep band together to investigate the murder of their shepherd" is just ... something.  But I heard it was good and we wanted to see a movie so off we went.  And, well, it's ......... good.  This is a movie with a lot of heart, some genuinely touching moments, and some good laughs.  It's definitely not high art but everybody is committed to the bit and the animation is good.  I was entertained.  7/10.

Spoiler

My favorite gag - the local butcher is sitting in his truck counting the sheep and he begins to fall asleep because he's........counting sheep.  

 

[Contentious C]

I'm watching the cult classic Lifeforce for the first time, and much of the first fifteen minutes reminds me of an old SNL sketch from the 80s/early 90s: an ad for a funeral home whose big selling point was that they wouldn't have sex with your family's corpses.  Clearly the dudes in this movie would have worked somewhere else if they'd been morticians.

[zendragon]

If you are interested in Bruce Lee, I recommend the book Bruce Lee: A Life, pretty much the definitive work on the man 

[J.H.]

Atlantic City is a movie I didn't understand when I saw it when I was 8. I haven't revisited it and think it is high time a I did 

James 

Edited May 26 by J.H.

[Technico Support]

11 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

turn their SNL characters into a movie based on those characters with a backstory

The wild part is they weren't even "SNL characters" as in "characters who had been built with SNL skits," like Wayne's World or whatever.  Unless I'm wrong, they were just the show's warmup band/musical guests and did some concert spots.  The characters and backstories only existed in their heads, which is awesome.

"What kind of music do y'all play here?"

"Oh we play both kinds!  Country AND Western!"

I love this film.