The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (2019)

(Hulu) Documentary about the magician The Amazing Jonathan, whose doctor supposedly told him he hasn't much time left. He's also a shifty guy, so the docu is about the documentarian, Ben Berman, trying to figure out what's going on. I appreciate that that's what it is (a documentary about a documentary), and Jonathan himself is kinda interesting, as is his life. I found the filmmaker too self-indulgent, and he himself isn't as interesting. Meh. Go watch Dealt (2017) instead - lots of overlap, and much better. (My impression here.)

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

(Hulu) Some good visual effects, and about 2 good fight scenes. Plot is bad, writing & dialogue suck. The two legacy characters are wasted (both) or cringey (one of them). The "new John" character is fail. The new "terminator" (not the terminator) is probably the best thing in it, and Mackenzie Davis is wasted on this material but still interesting to watch. Soundtrack is an afterthought. Might've been the worst movie in the franchise (but I don't remember all of them very well), but for the visual effects .

Lincoln (2012)

A re-watch, but from about the middle. (It's set in the final year of the Civil War, and centers on Lincoln's push to get the 13th amendment ratified before war's end.) I wanted to see if it was still as gorgeously lit & well-acted as I remember. It is. I think I can tell when the script is massaging things for its own purposes - sometimes it's easy, like whenever Lincoln interacts with one of the main brown characters, or when the camera lingers too long on them and the music swells. Not as weird, the second time, maybe because I was more free to enjoy the set design & the acting. Daniel Day Lewis is fascinating here. Tommy Lee Jones as the crotchety abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens is fucking hilarious. I can't say I've seen even half of Spielberg's movies, but this one's probably the most interesting so far, mostly for the characters (great supporting cast, too).

People usually say "this horror movie is not scary its actually a comedy movie" but for the first time I find a comedy movie disturbingly creepy and weird. I wonder who finds this movie funny.

Le daim (2019) - IMDb

I watched Alpha https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4244998/. I liked it. It had a wolf-goggie! It reminded me a little of Life of Pi, but set on land in prehistory. There are a lot of nitpicks that I could do, but I'll stick to two. Why is it that in movies involving winter, is it always snowing at a blizzard rate. Day after day, week after week, yet it never seems to get very deep. And the other is what's the deal with the clean shaven, half-shaved head guy, where'd he get the razor?! I'll be searching about the origin of shaving now.

I didn't like these enough to finish them, but they have some appealing features.



Mine 9 (2019). Good look, gritty. Cast is good. The writing early on is a bit long on exposition for my tastes. And the director seems interested in fleshing out the relationships, but sometimes it comes across a bit forced. Mind you, I quit when they were just entering the mine, so...

The Wandering Earth (2019). I'm sure there are excellent visuals later on, and the basic premise is fascinating despite being ridiculous... but the story opens with a quaint YA vibe that I didn't have the patience for.

Showrunners (2014). This should've been absorbing - a documentary about showrunners, the people overseeing all aspects of a television production. Unfortunately, what I saw was thin on process, and heavy on "talking vaguely about process". I could be wrong... I watched the first 15 minutes uninterrupted, and then skipped forward to random scenes to see if the tone had changed. It seems to be a vanity project for several showrunners to demonstrate how much less interesting they are as people than the ideas they help shepherd into being. But if you're interested in the biz, you might find something useful anyway. Also, the soundtrack really annoyed me. It adds to the PR vibe of the whole thing.

Black '47 (2018)

(Netflix) Reviewers are describing/deriding it as the "Irish Braveheart", but it's not, and I don't think it's trying to be. It's a personal drama between 2-3 men, albeit with occupied Ireland as the backdrop. Feeney (James Frecheville) is an Afghan War vet returning home to find his people starving and preyed upon by capitalists (what else is new?). Something makes him snap, and he takes Irish vengeance on a few bastards who had it coming. This triggers a manhunt, and one of the guys recruited to hunt him down is Hannah (Hugo Weaving), who was Feeney's commanding officer in the war.

It does a decent job with a limited budget, of portraying the desperation of the potato famine. Good lighting, costumes, and set design. The dialogue's not very subtle or memorable, but the cast does a decent job with it. The only standout performances are Frecheville and Weaving - and the merciless Irish countryside. Not great, but probably enough, especially if this slice of history is close to your heart.

We're watching Police Academy on Netflix for some reason.

Just. Awful.

Just noticed IndieFlix recently, because it's offered free through RBdigital (library app), in 7-day renewable increments - like Acorn. Can't vouch for it, but it's interesting. Loooots of film school movies.

Animavore wrote:We're watching Police Academy on Netflix for some reason.

Just. Awful.

Definitely a movie of its time. It’s also, interestingly, it’s the movie that helped establish the film production industry in Canada as it is currently known.


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Leave No Trace

Beautifully filmed, beautifully acted. Very memorable.



100% fresh (Tomatometer), 81% (audience score).

Reminds me I still need to watch that, but... fuuuuuck some trailers can give you the entire story arc. Makes me wonder what’s the point afterwards.

If I didn't already know this wasn't a Michael Bay movie I probably would've guessed it anyway.
No shaky cam, I could always tell what was going on, it had a plot and a theme, as well as internal consistency, and contained human emotions. I also enjoyed it.

Animavore wrote:We're watching Police Academy on Netflix for some reason.

Just. Awful.

Watched a bunch of them as a kid, I think mostly 3. Even through a child’s eyes they were bad (in an enjoyable kind of way), couldn’t imagine trying to sit through one as an adult

I watched 2 and 3 a bunch of times as a kid and loved them to death. I had my favorite characters. Jones "Damn oyu, you wanna fight? Fight me!" Not on cauliflower. Not on broccoli. That scene was really good.
I don't think I've watched any of them since I turned 30. I remember watching the first one once as an adult but can't remember anything about it. One of my cousins brought over a later one where they were chasing each other around on water crafts. That one was essentially unwatchable.

We watched all 7 of them since I posted that. Sheer masochism.

I imagine I'd still like 2 & 3 due to the nostalgia factor. Is the first one more adult-orientated?

This gave me goosebumps when he dug up the grave I was like "shes already dead why hes taking out the body" then he brought the corpse to hospital for medical exam, second time I couldnt figure out "what medical exam, shes long before dead ffs"

When doctor asked "what do you want me to do with a corpse?" He said "I want an official paper proving that she was virgin" my jaw dropped.

That was a really very good movie portraying how feudal system exploit villagers.



https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2002690/

Rented Tenet at a Redbox for $0, now waiting for someone to make up their mind about watching it with me, before I dive in. But apparently WB posted the opening 6 mins on YouTube right before the dvd release:



Guessed the location at the first loud noise, for some reason.