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

Fall Guy (2024) Barely based on the TV series.
About stunt performers. One stunt guy gets set up as the fall guy for the killing of another. (with standard subplot about the romance between the fall guy and the director.)
Fun. A ton of stunts. A large chunk of the movie is on the set of 'Metalstorm' as if they were making it.
Made Metalstorm look like a large, expensive, Star Wars type, blockbuster. But the real Metalstorm (1983) was a cheep dud (in 3D).
Both Fall Guy and Metalstorm were from Universal so they were allowed to use the name and some costumes and props from Metalstorm.
A ton of stunts (one, a record breaker). A non stop chase through town, by foot, reminds me of Jackie Chan's stunts. Fun. I give it 8/10.
 
The Fighting 69th - Going through my DVR, trying to catch up on the dozens of classic films I have. James Cagney film about a NY regiment fighting in WWI. The Regiment was real, most of the characters are real... unfortunately the main character was not, and the film was awfully cliché and acted as well as a silent film. It'd been harder to treat this film historically within the realm of the existing characters, but it'd probably been a lot better for it. Cagney's character was too brazen and not remotely nuanced and his actions way too outlandish and not dealt with effectively. Nor was the heroic effort at the end remotely meaningful or redeeming as the film imagines it to be.

I haven't seen a lot of Cagney films, and I'm trying to right that wrong, but this film can be skipped. Allegedly there is some decent historic portrayals with the camps and what not, but overall the film is a disaster because it centers around a fictional asshole instead of the actual soldiers that fought / died. This movie appears to be made on the cheap, which is probably the reason for that. The main character felt like WC Fields in The Bank Dick. And needlessly so, when there was so much more real drama and tragedy to realistically portray in a film about WWI.

1 of 4
 
The Bikeriders

Based on a true story. Told through the girlfriend of one of the original members, she tells the story of a bunch of friends that get together to race motorcycles on weekends, then they become a club, the club spreads nationwide with all the attending politics and violence along the way.

Quite well acted by all involved. Move along briskly and keeps you engaged throughout. A top notch movie well worth a watch. 9/10.
 
The Batman...Kim Basinger...1989

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Lifeboat - Hitchcock directs an ensemble cast in a Steinbeck story about a scattered collection of shipwreck survivors who have managed to get to a lifeboat after a German U-boat sunk their ship. There are the expected tensions of being trapped on a lifeboat with the bonuses regarding one of its passengers. It isn't a tour de force, but it is a pretty good film. Includes Hitchcock-esque filming and scenes. One flaw is that while Das Boot managed to sell the claustrophobia of being in a U-Boat (granted, that was a technological marvel at the time), this film doesn't sell the tightness as well as it does the isolation of being on the boat. In HD, I'd say the backdrop filming was high quality, as it wasn't terribly obvious they weren't at see.

The movie manages to be a rarity of having a black cast member play a normal character. He's black, but he isn't a complete stereotype, though Steinbeck wasn't happy as he felt the character wasn't as nuanced as he had him in his story.

Overall a good watch. 3 of 4
 
TV and credit cards said:
Elixir said:
How can y’all watch so many movies?
Your attention spans are vast.
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Not really. I pause often. Various thought worm their way in and the next thing I know I'm at the computer looking whatever up. Last night's disruption was: Russian train bearings & Chrome steel, 52100. Before that it was dish towels.
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I do this a lot too, though, usually with older TV shows and I wait until the end of the episode to see the credits. I keep my smartphone handy and look up the names of the more interesting actors, actresses and directors on IMDB and Wikipedia to see what else they're done or to learn about what happened to them. Some are still around, but retired and others died while still young, penniless and forgotten and sometimes in horrific ways. Some went on to do great things. For example, Susan Oliver, the green alien dancer you see at the end credits of every Star Trek episode was a prolific character actress in a shit ton of shows and became an accomplished director and small plane pilot who set some records. Sadly she died young (50's) of lung cancer (heavy smoker, unfortunately).
 
TV and credit cards said:
Elixir said:
How can y’all watch so many movies?
Your attention spans are vast.
Click to expand...
Not really. I pause often. Various thought worm their way in and the next thing I know I'm at the computer looking whatever up. Last night's disruption was: Russian train bearings & Chrome steel, 52100. Before that it was dish towels.
Click to expand...
Pause and fast forward...;)
 
The Mayor of Hell (1933) - James Cagney film regarding a boys Reform School. The trouble with this film is it sloppily tries to mix a gangster Cagney (Gargan) with some sort Spencer Tracey-like character. Almost a diamond in the rough... but without the diamond, or in the movie's case, the diamond is actually the school nurse, Dorothy Griffith who Gargan is enamored by. The plot is sloppy as well as by reintroducing conflict after all is solved. The conflict is propelled via the weird gangster/Tracey hybrid character which is inconsistent with where his character is moving.

It is unfortunate as Gargan's character is legitimately ripe for a moral transition from local boss to something better. His transformation could have been managed a lot better. A scene or two which would allow his unique character set up to be fruitful in his new role (a quasi Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 3 or Paul Giamatti in The Negotiator) in smelling out the grift of which he is familiar to connect the dots that the nurse points out. In addition, he can easily have an empathetic connection with the inner city kids of which he was one himself. He knows these kids, he knows the grift of the school. These tools could have been used better in the plot to better guide him and make the movie more organic and enjoyable... as well as shift him from his former life.

The sense of reformation, regarding the particular reforms as well as the scandal, for a Boys Reform school feels a lot more late 20th century than early 20th century indicating they knew some of this prisonesque stuff was BS way back then.

Overall, it isn't a great movie, but it isn't bad either, just too forced for my liking and not written as well as it could have. Feels like we have James for 12 films this year, lets put him in this one. 2 of 4
 
Thomas II said:
TV and credit cards said:
Elixir said:
How can y’all watch so many movies?
Your attention spans are vast.
Click to expand...
Not really. I pause often. Various thought worm their way in and the next thing I know I'm at the computer looking whatever up. Last night's disruption was: Russian train bearings & Chrome steel, 52100. Before that it was dish towels.
Click to expand...
Pause and fast forward...;)
Click to expand...
Sensai: Fast forward and rewind, fast forward and rewind.
*Student fast forwards the video tape and then rewinds*
Student: Sensai, I don't understand how this is going to make me good at karate.
Sensai: You do not need to understand to learn.
*Student fast forwards the video tape and then rewinds*
Student: What?
Sensai: Every journey of 100 miles starts 100 miles from the destination.
*Student fast forwards the video tape and then rewinds*
Student: That isn't helpful.
Sensai: What isn't helpful is what drives you to what will actually help.
*Student fast forwards the video tape and then rewinds*
Student: Are you saying that this whole fast foward / rewind thing is just a bunch of bullshit?
Sensai: Bull that doesn't shit will explode.
Student: Okay, I'm done with this. *leaves*
 
Jayjay said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
WW84 was too long, a movie that forgot it was a comic book movie. It takes itself too seriously and not seriously enough in about all the wrong ways. Wonder Woman (thanks to Gal Gadot's managing of the character) is about the only viable DC super hero at the moment. But the movies around her have been so silly. The whole premise of '84 was silly, the main villain was just annoying, the invocation of his son seemed so lazy and poorly written, the resolution was as ridiculous as the climatic villain act.
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Well I'm too old to enjoy superhero movies, but I tried to watch it through the eyes of 10-year old me who thought Superman 3 was cool. And I do think WW84 is at least on par with the first WW movie. Silly plot, magic and gods, Gal Gadot posing in front of a green screen.
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My Dad liked Black Panther, so you might want to give that a go if you haven't.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Jayjay said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
WW84 was too long, a movie that forgot it was a comic book movie. It takes itself too seriously and not seriously enough in about all the wrong ways. Wonder Woman (thanks to Gal Gadot's managing of the character) is about the only viable DC super hero at the moment. But the movies around her have been so silly. The whole premise of '84 was silly, the main villain was just annoying, the invocation of his son seemed so lazy and poorly written, the resolution was as ridiculous as the climatic villain act.
Click to expand...
Well I'm too old to enjoy superhero movies, but I tried to watch it through the eyes of 10-year old me who thought Superman 3 was cool. And I do think WW84 is at least on par with the first WW movie. Silly plot, magic and gods, Gal Gadot posing in front of a green screen.
Click to expand...
My Dad liked Black Panther, so you might want to give that a go if you haven't.
Click to expand...
I thought WW84 was horrible. And I didn't get into Black Panther too.
 
Good Will Hunting - I have seen bits of this movie over the years, but I've never watched this movie. Overall very enjoyable tale about an serial underachiever. What is interesting is the small details about the relationships of the teacher staff, their students, and the the teacher assistants. It was small and easily overlooked by a writer, but it helped add more character to the professor. And people today will be wondering why Skylar was lagging at the airport terminal to go the plane, hoping Will would show up. This was 1997, you could do that back then.

There really isn't anything to improve about this (other than the odd Fourier System thing, which I don't believe was a Fourier System thing). Won an Oscar after all. 3.5 of 4
 
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Suitable Skin

This is a horror movie made by David Lynch's son, Joe Lynch. He is definitely his father's son.

It's about a body-hopping demon, which causes all kinds of twists and turns. It's also quite gory, which I like. It's not exactly what one might think of as a cinematic tour de force, but if you like horror, this one's worth a watch.

6/10.
 
Nobody

A story kinda like RED or John Wick. Bob Odenkirk is just an every day guy going to work everyday on spreadsheets at a machine shop/manufacturing plant. On a bus ride on the way home, he takes on five drunken hooligans and beats the holy crap out of them. It turns out one of them was the son of a Russian mafioso which sets the wheels in motion.

While the story is derivative, the tactics used by the BO character are quite imaginative. Christopher Lloyd plays the father and he's a badass too.

Never going to get an Oscar but a fun movie nonetheless. 7/10.
 
Point Break (Rifftrax Live) - Good gawd this was an awful 1980s/early 90s movie. It was probably a good popcorn flick when it came out, but this thing aged about as well as 1 pound of cheese behind the fridge over the same period of time. Had it not been for the Rifftrax live portion of this, I'd have given up maybe ten or fifteen minutes. It made Lethal Weapon look like Lawrence of Arabia. And don't get me wrong, I liked Lethal Weapon. And it isn't like the acting crew is incapable of acting, it's just the plot is really stupid. Makes me think of Twister with the dueling tornado hunters. You have two groups of surfers but one is allegedly pure to purpose of surfing... but they rob banks. Filming and surfing apparently were legitimate, and I'd say decently done. But that isn't going to save this 80s/early 90s short expiration date plot.

The Rifftrax crew killed it however.

Probably 2.5 of 4 (back then)
1 of 4 (today)
3.5 of 4 with Rifftrax
 
Lucky Number Sleven, 5/10; Stars Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley in a crime thriller. This was convoluted beyond belief and really only makes sense in the last 15 minutes or so as the plot is explained using flashbacks. When Hartnett's character was a child, his gambling addicted father borrows money from gangsters and when he can't pay he is killed along with his wife and son by hitmen to send a message. The twist is that the hitman (Willis) tasked to kill the eight year old boy couldn't do it. Fast forward 20 years or so and the kid is grown up and sets up an elaborate scheme to get his revenge on the people responsible for killing his mother and father. Somewhat entertaining in places but just too silly.
 
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