Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

[Jimmy Higgins]

Generally I don’t care for musicals but I’ll admit some stories work as musicals and some don’t.
The original Willy Wonka, also Moulin Rouge work. Les Miserables did not. The story is just too good to have some asshole interrupting it with song. Might as well go take a piss.

And yet, Les Mis was a musical first (after being a book of course).

Goodness, I hated the musical Les Miserables. I was so looking forward to it, but was as equally disappointed. It was more a love story than a love story entangled with the French Revolution. The Liam Neeson movie was so good.

 

[ZiprHead]

Poor Things

A truly original take on the Frankenstein story. The acting ia great, the sets are beautiful, the story is quite compelling as "Bella" begins her journey of enlightenment. The ending is a hoot.

10/10

Warning: Nudity. LOTS of nudity.

Watched it again with the wife. I figured it wouldn't be her bag be she actually quite liked it. And she loved the ending too.

She asked me if I have anymore strange movies I wanted her to watch.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

The Menu.

I honestly don't know whether to suggest you watch it.

I just want someone to tell me ''why''.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The Menu.

I honestly don't know whether to suggest you watch it.

I just want someone to tell me ''why''.

Really solid flick. I wouldn't say it's great, but it is very good.

I highly recommend it to anyone.

Sycophants, hypocrites, and narcissists all being observed by a rational third party in unique setting is lots of fun.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

You don't think he went a bit over the top?

 

[ZiprHead]

Children Of The Corn

The recent remake, not the original.

Aside from the young girl who is the ring leader being super creepy, the movie was kind of meh. She was the only reason the movie was worth watching. Not really scary and plot holes you could drive a truck through.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

You don't think he went a bit over the top?

It's a dark satire. It's not supposed to a film where turning people into human s'mores is a realistic possibility.

As for the rest of the movie, while it specifically deals with fine cuisine I found it to be a general metaphor for celebrity worship. In this case the insufferable status-by-association results in the loss of these tiny people's lives. I see it as a matter of people like this never having an identity, except that given to them by others. They have some sort of B or C level status, but are far from famous, yet they see themselves as better than the average riffraff.

Thus, lacking any substantial identity they allow themselves to be literally murdered by someone they see as A-list because they have no sense of who they are. This is contrasted by Margo, a high level prostitute who sees all this bullshit for what it really is. She knows who and what she is and doesn't pretend otherwise.

At least that's what I got out of it.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The Revenant
7/10

I rewatched this at around 3 this the morning because I couldn't sleep. I barely remembered any of it, so it was almost like watching it for the first time.

Solid flick, but I was taken out of it from time to time due to the fact that Dicapprio's character doesn't die. There's no fucking way that a person survives all that. Hell, quite a number of Chiefs fans sitting in a stadium wearing modern protective clothing still suffered frostbite--and I'm pretty sure none of them were mauled by a grizzly prior to entering the facility.

Other than that it's a beautifully shot film that does a good job of putting the viewer in the shoes of several characters. It made me wonder which one I would be; at least for awhile. Tom Hardy is such a compelling villain and Will Poulter does a great job at being the most human person in the movie, torn between the realistic and practical, and having to do the not so honorable thing by being practical.

I heard that a Blood Meridian movie is being made, so that'll be interesting. I'm not the biggest fan of Cormac McCarthy, but a good adaptation would be worth a watch.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

You don't think he went a bit over the top?

It's a dark satire. It's not supposed to a film where turning people into human s'mores is a realistic possibility.

As for the rest of the movie, while it specifically deals with fine cuisine I found it to be a general metaphor for celebrity worship. In this case the insufferable status-by-association results in the loss of these tiny people's lives. I see it as a matter of people like this never having an identity, except that given to them by others. They have some sort of B or C level status, but are far from famous, yet they see themselves as better than the average riffraff.

Thus, lacking any substantial identity they allow themselves to be literally murdered by someone they see as A-list because they have no sense of who they are. This is contrasted by Margo, a high level prostitute who sees all this bullshit for what it really is. She knows who and what she is and doesn't pretend otherwise.

At least that's what I got out of it.

Yep, I got that, and the idea of the celebrity chef/slavish obedience in the kitchen/follow your leader unto death crap. But that's possibly where I came up short. I don't see the staff having that degree of commitment to his statement.

But with your permission, I'll use your post as the summary when we decide on whether to show it.

I meant to suggest it this year, before I'd seen it. Then missed the meeting.

 

[unapologetic]

Have you watched The Mandalorian?
In season 2, a running joke has baby Grogu eating a frog's eggs.
These 'frog' people are portrayed as an intelligent species, and an endangered species.
This atrocity by a supposed innocent baby, future Jedi, is portrayed as a joke.
We joke about eating babys because it is a ridiculous charge against us.
But Grogu is actually seen swallowing the frog's eggs several times.
I eat chicken eggs, but chickens are not intelligent nor endangered.
Is eating babys condoned in the Star Wars universe?
How can the human writers condone, even joke about this.
Because the 'frog' people are not human?
If a stormtrooper ate the eggs, I would expect it.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

You don't think he went a bit over the top?

It's a dark satire. It's not supposed to a film where turning people into human s'mores is a realistic possibility.

As for the rest of the movie, while it specifically deals with fine cuisine I found it to be a general metaphor for celebrity worship. In this case the insufferable status-by-association results in the loss of these tiny people's lives. I see it as a matter of people like this never having an identity, except that given to them by others. They have some sort of B or C level status, but are far from famous, yet they see themselves as better than the average riffraff.

Thus, lacking any substantial identity they allow themselves to be literally murdered by someone they see as A-list because they have no sense of who they are. This is contrasted by Margo, a high level prostitute who sees all this bullshit for what it really is. She knows who and what she is and doesn't pretend otherwise.

At least that's what I got out of it.

Yep, I got that, and the idea of the celebrity chef/slavish obedience in the kitchen/follow your leader unto death crap. But that's possibly where I came up short. I don't see the staff having that degree of commitment to his statement.

But with your permission, I'll use your post as the summary when we decide on whether to show it.

I meant to suggest it this year, before I'd seen it. Then missed the meeting.

Aw, of course!

BTW, I don't know if you know any real life professional chefs. My former brother in law was one and at the time he worked for some resort or another in Newport Beach, CA. He spoke of his boss like a god. It's purely anecdotal and my single experience with that world, so take it for what it's worth.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

My sole experience with high end chefs is when I can't avoid the ads for those shows.

 

[TSwizzle]

The Little Things, 5/10; Stars Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto in a crime thriller that was duller than dish water. It was two hours long, I nearly quit after an hour. The plot revolves around veteran Los Angeles detective Joe Deacon who has been put out to pasture in Bakersfield, California for an earlier discretion in Los Angeles. While investigating a stalking incident in Bakersfield Deacon has to go to an LA precinct to get lab results. He gets drawn into a recent murder case that has similarities to a case he had been working on before his exile. The lead detective Baxter played by Malek and Deacon start to zoom in on a suspect played by Jared Leto but there isn't any physical evidence linking him to any murders. There are a couple of suspenseful moments in the movie and Jared Leto plays his part very well but the movie drags on and there are just too many improbabilities to make it believable. Malek is such an odd looking guy for a lead roll and he seemed miscast in this movie.

 

[ZiprHead]

Have you watched The Mandalorian?
In season 2, a running joke has baby Grogu eating a frog's eggs.
These 'frog' people are portrayed as an intelligent species, and an endangered species.
This atrocity by a supposed innocent baby, future Jedi, is portrayed as a joke.
We joke about eating babys because it is a ridiculous charge against us.
But Grogu is actually seen swallowing the frog's eggs several times.
I eat chicken eggs, but chickens are not intelligent nor endangered.
Is eating babys condoned in the Star Wars universe?
How can the human writers condone, even joke about this.
Because the 'frog' people are not human?
If a stormtrooper ate the eggs, I would expect it.

I'm going to have to catch up on it again.

 

[ZiprHead]

The Marvels

Three Marvels in one movie, all moving in and out of their respective realities against their will. Of course the Kree are there and of course they are assholes again. Confusing and hard to keep my attention on it. The best part was the Flurkins. Always worth a laugh. They also set up for a sequel.

6/10

Looking on line that 6 is me being generous.

 

[Swammerdami]

I just watched All the Money in the World - a 2017 crime drama based on the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, the grandson of a man then considered the richest man in the world. I think its 6.8 IMDB rating is about right. I don't know how closely the movie follows the true story, but it is true that Getty only wanted to pay as ransom the maximum that would be tax deductible; this was less than the -- rather paltry by a billionaire's standard -- ransom demanded.

Kevin Spacey was cast for the role of the billionaire but was replaced as his own scandal developed. Several scenes needed to be reshot with the replacement actor, Christopher Plummer). The Wikipedia article notes that Mark Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million for the reshoots; Michelle Williams was paid just $1000. This "sparked a debate on the gender pay gap in Hollywood." (Wahlberg, Plummer and Williams were the three actors prominent on the release poster.)

 

[Swammerdami]

I'm watching Official Secrets (2019), the true story of a whistle-blower (played by Keira Knightley) who risked prison to expose (BEFORE the invasion) Tony Blair's complicity in the Bush-Cheney lies that led to the 2003 misadventure in Iraq. The movie showed up when I Googled for "movies about newspapers" looking for a certain old Humphrey Bogart(?) film.

It's a genre I like, but the 7.3 IMDB score seems high enough.

Midway through the movie is an amusing setback that reminds me of some true stories from my own experience. To Knightley's regret, the Observer publishes the original text of an NSA memo she had provided. For a few hours the Observer celebrates their sensational story. Then claims of fraud emerge and quickly dash them from ecstatic joy to bitter regret: The memo contains spellings like "favourable" and "recognise." Thus it appears that The memo was composed in Britain, and NOT by America's NSA. :-(

Spoiler alert: The story filed DID have the correct American spellings. But a copy-editor had run it through a spell-checker!

 

[Playball40]

Have you watched The Mandalorian?
In season 2, a running joke has baby Grogu eating a frog's eggs.
These 'frog' people are portrayed as an intelligent species, and an endangered species.
This atrocity by a supposed innocent baby, future Jedi, is portrayed as a joke.
We joke about eating babys because it is a ridiculous charge against us.
But Grogu is actually seen swallowing the frog's eggs several times.
I eat chicken eggs, but chickens are not intelligent nor endangered.
Is eating babys condoned in the Star Wars universe?
How can the human writers condone, even joke about this.
Because the 'frog' people are not human?
If a stormtrooper ate the eggs, I would expect it.

Don't watch the Doctor Who Christmas special then. They do a whole song about eating human infants.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

An American Bombing

7/10

This is a documentary about the OKC bombing and the people and events leading up to it. What struck me most about it is that McVey and Co's radical right wing bullshit has now become the norm for the most influential subgroup within the GOP (as the film all but outright states). OTOH, I already knew this, having read The Turner Diaries sometime around 2016, but it's still shocking.

What I didn't know was how badly Carter's wheat embargo on the USSR hurt so many American farmers. Boycotting the Olympics was one thing, but sometimes ideology needs to be foregone. Reagan then utterly failed to fix the situation by refusing to bail out the farmers, which then allowed right wing extremism to gain a permanent and significant toehold in American politics, which is what helped get us where we are today.

Anyway, it was an interesting watch.

 

[Shadowy Man]

I eat chicken eggs, but chickens are not intelligent nor endangered.

And the chicken eggs you eat do not contain nor would ever result in a real chicken. Sorry, I presume...I can't know for sure whence you get your chicken eggs.