Code Name Banshee on Hulu on New Year’s Eve. Not a very good film. Only real star was Antonio Banderas. And, he wasn’t even needed, except maybe for his name. The female lead, Banshee, is out to find her father and looking for some revenge. Finds Banderas, who has been in hiding for 5 years in New Jersey. All hell breaks loose, John Wickian style violence (lots of head shots to be sure they are dead).
Migration - Daughter wanted to see it over the holidays. Mostly forgettable animated movie with a few fun moments along the way. Not a movie needed to see in the theater but there are worse ways to spend an hour an half. The movie wasn’t bad but there also wasn’t anything new or original about it.
Sniper: G.R.I.T - Global Response & Intelligence Team on Netflix. One of many sniper movies in a franchise. Who knew? A basic revenge movie. You do get Dennis Haysbert and one of the guys from Silicon Valley as “Intelligence Pete” who is pretty funny. Huge plot hole at one point as well. Not really worth the time.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie. on Netflix. Never played the game, although I did play Mario Kart a few times and a lot of Donkey Kong. Didn’t really matter though. Pretty fun movie and the story actually makes sense which isn’t always the case on video game adaptations in my experience. Definitely worth a watch.
Saltburn on Amazon. What a weird movie. Won’t say too much as anything said could ruin the reveals. Barry Keoghan is perfect in the lead role as it requires a really creepy guy. Even creepier than in The Banshees of Inisherin which is saying something. I didn’t really care for this movie, but it was well acted, in spite of itself.
The Big Short is worth watching twice.
3 Likes
Petrocelli episode with Harrison Ford (pre-Star Wars) and William Shatner (post-Star Trek).
The Iron Claw at the theater. I only knew this was a movie about wrestling. Turns out to be based on the Von Erich family. Dad and 4 brothers all wrestled in the precursor to the WWF (later the WWE). I knew nothing about them, but apparently they were really famous in 70’s and 80’s. The story revolves around dad’s obsession with the family winning a world title. He pushes the boys real hard with unintended consequences. Mom was an enabler to some extent. Zac Efron, one of the sons, is the main focus of the story. He bulked up a huge amount and sported a Bruce Jenner hair cut throughout the movie. Not a good look on him. A bit disappointing overall. The story only needed an hour to be told, the movie ran over 2 hours.
Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump are on tv at the hotel. Good films.
2 Likes
Someone mentioned Love, Kennedy to me and it was ok but I had to turn it off at the end bc it was all proselytizing.
Then I had to watch what was recommended and it was Faith’s Sing. (Faith was the teenage girl protagonist.) And the acting was so bad and my daughter cane in part way through and made fun of it so much but didn’t want me to turn it off bc she was having too much fun.
Then it suggested another sort of religious movie about a sick little girl and kid wanted to watch that one. The acting was even worse in this one, as were the plot holes.
I really shouldn’t pick my own movies. Although the first was actually recommended to me and it based on a true story.
Ok when I was a freshman in HS I was in an independent study Spanish class* with 2 girls who were totally in love with the Von Erichs. I think this was like 81 or 82. I had no idea who they were — just thought it was kind of silly. I guess they had some nice 80’s hair though, IIRC.
*Yes I know this make no sense.
Rebel Moon, part 1. Um derivative, stolen plot lines from multiple franchises, mostly Star Wars but some Marvel and others as well. I mean the Gamora parallel is just too obvious. And so many scenes were just reworked star wars scenes. If your looking for an action space adventure with almost no new content, this might be the movie for you.
My wife watched it and had the exact same reaction that you did. Even down to Gamora.
The Three Musketeers - Part I: D’Artagnan on Apple TV, PPV. A French version of the usual story. We watched it because our favorite French actor was in it, Romain Duris. Nothing really of note in this version other than subtitles. Worth a watch but maybe not if you need to pay for it directly.
Foe on Amazon prime. Sci-fi set in near future where earth is becoming uninhabitable. Turns into a story about the AI and the ethical quandaries that might arise. Pretty good and has a twist that you think you see coming a mile away, but the timing is the tricky part. Saoirse Ronan does a good job as the wife.
Anatomy of a Fall on Apple TV PPV. I see why this film is up for awards. Very well done, compelling and well acted. It is French with subtitles but a lot of the film is in English. The story evolves over time. A husband and wife have a son who lost most of his vision in an accident that both the husband and blame the husband for. Their marriage starts to fail. One day, the husband is found dead outside their chalet. Did he fall or was he pushed. A lot of time spent in the courtroom and it is nothing like a US courtroom.
Hackers on HBO. One of those movies that you know isn’t good but love it anyways. Maybe just some youthful 90’s nostalgia on my part. Their depiction of hackers and advanced technology is hilarious when looking back in 2024. The film stars Angelina Jolie before she was a mega star and a young Jonny Lee Miller. A great cult film imo.
DMX: Don’t Try to Understand on HBO. Documentary on the complicated life of DMX who died soon after at the age of 50. A man that has a lot of good in him but struggled with many demons.
Barbie on HBO. First half was hilarious, acting was great and set design was perfect. Second half was preachy and didn’t land quite right.
Buchanan Rides Alone - (1958) Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens (pre-Peter Gunn)
The Boys in the Boat at the theater. I didn’t read the book, but others I know who did, thought the book was great. I think they probably did the book proud. This was a very good movie and paced very well. Not sure they need the love story angle in it, but it didn’t really detract from the rest of the narrative. Based on the trailer, I thought it would be primarily set during the Olympics, but the majority of the film is training and racing to try to qualify for the Olympics.
Good Grief on Netflix. Stars Daniel Levy, Ruth Negga, Hamish Patel and Luke Evans. A well done story about loss and grief when Daniel’s husband dies suddenly. He then starts to find out about a hidden part of his life and the grief morphs into anger. His seem to be there for him and that helps. Really liked this simple character study.
2 Likes
Just saw this as well with Mrs. VA. We both really enjoyed it.
I think the “love story angle” was done more to help provide some additional context about the era and its culture more so than trying to enhance the overall plot. I agree that it did not detract from the overall story and, IMO, it helped to provide depth to the story (something to help break up various boat scenes) w/o adding an additional plot line to keep track of.
I watched this tonight based upon your above comments. We also quite liked it. Superb acting.
Daniel Levy also wrote and directed it: multi-talented, like his dad.
1 Like