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

Free HBO Max weekend. Just watched Collateral again. I love that movie. I think Jamie Fox is a very underrated actor. A Michael Mann film with his usual grit and intensity. And while I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise, he was excellent in this.
I saw it yesterday for the third time. Great movie! All good, but Jamie Fox takes it.
I like how in the end Victor
dies sitting on a train
as he had described earlier in the movie.
And nobody noticed...
 
Ecstasy, 6/10; An adaptation of an Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) story. The plot is about a low level drug dealer/smuggler trying to keep the local drug kingpin in the dark about his extra curricular drug dealing. Some amusing scenes and quite entertaining with a good cast but the plot is a bit thing and the local drug kingpin is played as a caricature, pantomime villain. Not very believable.

The Party's Just Beginning, 4/10; What the hell was this ? Worst party ever?! Liusaidh's best friend has committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. She does not take this well and descends into reckless behavior, alcohol, drugs, sleeping around culminating in her getting raped by three men she meets at a club. She eventually gets jolted back on to the straight and narrow after a phone conversation (who the hell uses a phone these days?) with a stranger who calls her landline by accident. I have no idea why these movies get made, what is the point ?
 
Watched Peter Jackson's Get Back on Disney over the weekend. If you are a Beatles fan this is a must see. If you don't care about the Beatles, it will probably be difficult to sit through 8.5 hours of footage.
 
Yesterday, but I watched "Undergods" on the Amazon Prime.

Rating: Bleak.
 
Watched Netflix' A Boy Called Christmas with a young nephew of mine. Bit on the bleak side for a kid's holiday movie, but Maggie Smith is always a treasure to watch, and the snow-covered Finnish countryside (inexplicably full of British people though it is) set a nice tone for the adventuring parts. Also a more complex moral (Death is permanent, and parents aren't always good even if they mean to be, so you have to find sources of hope) than you usually expect for this sort of thing. Sally Hawkins as the cackling villain was annoying and seemed like she'd wandered in from a different sort of holiday movie. 3.5/5
 
8-Bit Christmas

bit of a rip off of A Christmas Story, but pretty fun. Guy tells his daughter the story of when he wanted a Nintendo for Christmas, and what he went through.
 
Richard Jewell. Watched it on a flight home that was delayed for a long time (the entire first act played out while we were sitting at the gate), so I saw it on a tiny screen and was also quite annoyed.

Amazing film. Clint Eastwood really got some great performances out of the cast. Sam Rockwell is (as always) amazing, Jon Hamm is his usual bad-guy self, and Kathy Bates damned near steals the movie, but it is Paul Walter Hauser's Jewell that is the anchor of the film. He's portrayed as a simple man, but not dumb. A "loser" who just keeps taking punches from the world, guileless and honest to a fault, but ultimately self-aware of the fact that he's a "loser." He keeps taking the hits because that's all he knows how to do. Hauser makes you feel every insult, indignation, and injustice that Jewell feels, and when the man finally reaches his breaking point (and fights back), it is very moving.

Richard Jewell really was a hero, but was railroaded by the media and the FBI. When his name is finally cleared, it's not the soaring triumph with swelling music that a lesser director would have tried. It's a testament to Eastwood's skills, and a real gem of a movie that was mostly overlooked.
 
Don’t Look Up on Netflix.

Meryl Streep plays the Donald Trump like creature. So, yeah, it’s worth a watch for sure.

A wonderful bit of satire. A planet killer comet is headed for earth. But is it a real comet or a fake comet?

Complete with nepotism, ridiculous Supreme Court nominees, presidential vag pics, and a populous with the attention span of a tweet. And Ariana Grande.

Some good serious moments that really cut through the satire.
 
Richard Jewell. Watched it on a flight home that was delayed for a long time (the entire first act played out while we were sitting at the gate), so I saw it on a tiny screen and was also quite annoyed.

Amazing film. Clint Eastwood really got some great performances out of the cast. Sam Rockwell is (as always) amazing, Jon Hamm is his usual bad-guy self, and Kathy Bates damned near steals the movie, but it is Paul Walter Hauser's Jewell that is the anchor of the film. He's portrayed as a simple man, but not dumb. A "loser" who just keeps taking punches from the world, guileless and honest to a fault, but ultimately self-aware of the fact that he's a "loser." He keeps taking the hits because that's all he knows how to do. Hauser makes you feel every insult, indignation, and injustice that Jewell feels, and when the man finally reaches his breaking point (and fights back), it is very moving.

Richard Jewell really was a hero, but was railroaded by the media and the FBI. When his name is finally cleared, it's not the soaring triumph with swelling music that a lesser director would have tried. It's a testament to Eastwood's skills, and a real gem of a movie that was mostly overlooked.
Agreed, it's an excellent film.

Fun fact: Mr. Hauser was raised here in Saginaw and went to the same high school my younger brother attended.
 
Richard Jewell. Watched it on a flight home that was delayed for a long time (the entire first act played out while we were sitting at the gate), so I saw it on a tiny screen and was also quite annoyed.

Amazing film. Clint Eastwood really got some great performances out of the cast. Sam Rockwell is (as always) amazing, Jon Hamm is his usual bad-guy self, and Kathy Bates damned near steals the movie, but it is Paul Walter Hauser's Jewell that is the anchor of the film. He's portrayed as a simple man, but not dumb. A "loser" who just keeps taking punches from the world, guileless and honest to a fault, but ultimately self-aware of the fact that he's a "loser." He keeps taking the hits because that's all he knows how to do. Hauser makes you feel every insult, indignation, and injustice that Jewell feels, and when the man finally reaches his breaking point (and fights back), it is very moving.

Richard Jewell really was a hero, but was railroaded by the media and the FBI. When his name is finally cleared, it's not the soaring triumph with swelling music that a lesser director would have tried. It's a testament to Eastwood's skills, and a real gem of a movie that was mostly overlooked.
Agreed, it's an excellent film.

Fun fact: Mr. Hauser was raised here in Saginaw and went to the same high school my younger brother attended.
Interesting. At least now I know how he was able to play the role of a good ole Southern boy so convincingly...he grew up in mid-Michigan!
 
Don’t Look Up on Netflix.

Meryl Streep plays the Donald Trump like creature. So, yeah, it’s worth a watch for sure.

A wonderful bit of satire. A planet killer comet is headed for earth. But is it a real comet or a fake comet?

Complete with nepotism, ridiculous Supreme Court nominees, presidential vag pics, and a populous with the attention span of a tweet. And Ariana Grande.

Some good serious moments that really cut through the satire.
For a Netflix, it was entertaining. A bit like Idiocracy. Streep was great.
 
Black Widow - THANK GOODNESS! Not another Origin Story. It has elements of an Origin Story, but it is more like a homecoming bringing up origins, than Origin story, of which our planet has had enough comic book Origin Stories. ENOUGH!!!

So just with that alone, I am grateful. The film is generally a stand alone movie that doesn't impact the universe too much, though inserted into the universe post Civil War / pre Infinity War and not entirely in a bubble. But accordingly, the scope of the plot is a bit limited. Overall, I found the movie worked well. The action good. A bit over the top, but this is a comic book movie. No, it isn't Infinity War. Nothing is! But it was enjoyable and a bit gritty, as long as you get over the fact that nobody ever gets hurt anymore, even the non-super or modified likes of Black Widow (or Daredevil to cross into the Netflix brand). Man, that must have smashed her rib cage... oh wait... nope, she'll walk it off. 3 of 4
 
Invictus II - Eastwood's follow up to his acclaimed film about Nelson Mandela and the South African Rugby World Cup victory. In Invictus II we learn that Mandela didn't put all of his eggs in one basket, and tried to get the South African Cricket and Football teams to win their respective world championships, to provide cohesion amongst his nation.

The South African cricket team ('92) were on a huge run taking third in the round robin, but lost to England in the semi's. South Africa's venture into the Football World Cup didn't go quite as well, failing to qualify in '94 after losing out to Nigeria in their Group in Africa. They did make the World Cup Final (tournament... not the final final) in France '98, but failed to get out of the Group Stage. However, the achievement of getting to the World Cup Final just wasn't that important as the Rugby World Cup victory was all that was needed to cement perfect social relations between races in the former Apartheid nation.

There are rumors Eastwood is working on a third film concentrating on the Field Hockey and Water Polo teams.

2 of 4
 
Richard Jewell. Watched it on a flight home that was delayed for a long time (the entire first act played out while we were sitting at the gate), so I saw it on a tiny screen and was also quite annoyed.

Amazing film. Clint Eastwood really got some great performances out of the cast. Sam Rockwell is (as always) amazing, Jon Hamm is his usual bad-guy self, and Kathy Bates damned near steals the movie, but it is Paul Walter Hauser's Jewell that is the anchor of the film. He's portrayed as a simple man, but not dumb. A "loser" who just keeps taking punches from the world, guileless and honest to a fault, but ultimately self-aware of the fact that he's a "loser." He keeps taking the hits because that's all he knows how to do. Hauser makes you feel every insult, indignation, and injustice that Jewell feels, and when the man finally reaches his breaking point (and fights back), it is very moving.

Richard Jewell really was a hero, but was railroaded by the media and the FBI. When his name is finally cleared, it's not the soaring triumph with swelling music that a lesser director would have tried. It's a testament to Eastwood's skills, and a real gem of a movie that was mostly overlooked.

I vaguely remember the bombing incident and the story about Jewell from the time and have never really thought about it since. I happened to notice the movie was playing on one of the cable channels and since I'd been reminded of the incident through your excellent review I tuned in. Indeed it was a great movie and there's nothing much to add to you review of the movie, I'd give it a 9/10.

I did seek out Richard's interview on 60 Minutes.



That poor man and his mother were treated like shit by the media and the FBI. The FBI were a disgrace.
 
Disney's Jungle Cruise

Starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. Blunt's character gets ahold of an Amazonian tribal relic and seeks to find its origin and power it holds. Doing so, she enlists the help of an Amazon river tour guide (Johnson). Reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie and Brendan Fraser's The Mummy, the Johnson/Blunt team have to fight off Germans and undead characters trying to steal the relic and use the powers for their own ends.

The action was very good, not over the top. The movie kept going at a brisk pace, never losing my interest. The humor was good. Let down by being a little derivative of the movies mentioned above and the unlikely buddy genre. I would recommend it for a fun evening of movie watching. 7.5/10
 
Watching the movie “The Forty Year Old Version” and really really liking it. (It’s on Netfix).

A woman nearing 40 working as a highschool playwright teacher - decides to be a rapper. Humor, some social commentary, some great on dits. But not frantic. It’s a slow pace that just flows.
 
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