Some shorter comments on some recent movies
Ad Astra (2019) - new to me
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) - rewatch
Primal Fear (1996) - rewatch
Die Hard (1988) - rewatch
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) - new to me
American Psycho (2000) - new to me
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) - new to me
The Old Guard (2020) - new to me
Only the Brave (2017) - new to me
Midsommar (2019) - new to me
Happy Gilmore (1996) - rewatch
Stand by Me (1986) - rewatch
Dunkirk (2017) - new to me
directed by James Gray
(new to me)
Somewhat decent little science fiction thriller about an astronaut who has to go to the outer solar system to prevent a disaster that's about to be caused by his father, whose mission to the stars lost contact with Earth decades before. It looks pretty good, but overall it's too long and slow for the amount of story that it has, and the lead comes across as incredibly unlikeable. Some of the science seems a bit ridiculous as well. Not sorry I saw it, wouldn't watch it again.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
directed by Gurinder Chadha
(rewatch)
directed by Gurinder Chadha
(rewatch)
Watched this when it first came on video, back in the days of DVD rentals, and I liked it well enough that I bought it a while later, but somehow never got around to actually watching it again until now. Not sure why, it was even better than I remembered it. It helps that it's very much in my cultural wheelhouse (my one trip to England was to attend a wedding very much like the one in this movie, and I visited many homes very much in neighbourhoods like those seen here), but that's only part of it. It's funny, it's charming, it has real conflict born of best intentions rather than contrived situations. Really, I should have watched this a half-dozen times by now based on how much I liked it this time. I'm looking forward to trying some of Chadha's other movies.
Primal Fear (1996)
directed by Gregory Hoblit
(rewatch)
A legal thriller featuring Richard Gere as a publicity seeking lawyer taking a high profile murder case. The film is probably best known now for being the screen debut of Edward Norton as the defendant, part of a pretty ridiculously talented and recognizable cast. This was at the peak of my "going to theatres to watch movies" period, when I probably saw at least one a week, sometimes as much as three, and it was definitely a favourite. Watched it a few times since then, and while it doesn't hold up completely (especially going in knowing the ending), it still works.
Die Hard (1988)
directed by John McTiernan
(rewatch)
Not much to add to what you can find written about this. Probably watch it every five years or so since it first came out. It's much better done than it has any right to be, clever and funny in ways you wouldn't expect. And at least four times better than any of the four sequels.
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
directed by Blake Edwards
(new to me)
Not sure why I never got around to watching this before. It's been sitting here forever. It's pretty engaging, mostly on the strength of Audrey Hepburn's performance. A lot of what her character says and does would probably come off as annoying from most other actresses. And of course the less said about one aspect of it the better. Wonder if they could do a cut of the movie excising that character entirely?
directed by Gregory Hoblit
(rewatch)
A legal thriller featuring Richard Gere as a publicity seeking lawyer taking a high profile murder case. The film is probably best known now for being the screen debut of Edward Norton as the defendant, part of a pretty ridiculously talented and recognizable cast. This was at the peak of my "going to theatres to watch movies" period, when I probably saw at least one a week, sometimes as much as three, and it was definitely a favourite. Watched it a few times since then, and while it doesn't hold up completely (especially going in knowing the ending), it still works.
directed by John McTiernan
(rewatch)
Not much to add to what you can find written about this. Probably watch it every five years or so since it first came out. It's much better done than it has any right to be, clever and funny in ways you wouldn't expect. And at least four times better than any of the four sequels.
directed by Blake Edwards
(new to me)
Not sure why I never got around to watching this before. It's been sitting here forever. It's pretty engaging, mostly on the strength of Audrey Hepburn's performance. A lot of what her character says and does would probably come off as annoying from most other actresses. And of course the less said about one aspect of it the better. Wonder if they could do a cut of the movie excising that character entirely?
directed by Mary Harron
(new to me)
I don't think I ever realized that this movie was a comedy. Or, more accurately, tried to be a comedy. It wasn't close to successful on that score, but at least with that element it moved in ways that I didn't expect, which was pretty entertaining in its way, and it wasn't that long, which was nice. But, y'know, don't bother watching.
directed by Aaron Sorkin
(new to me)
This doesn't feel like it was very good as history, and I'm not sure it explains enough to be intelligible enough to someone who didn't go in with at least a passing familiarity with the events. But as a Sorkin fan, someone who lived by the early seasons of THE WEST WING, devoured two seasons of SPORTS NIGHT in one weekend when it came out on DVD, saw A FEW GOOD MEN an absurd number of times and suffered through some of his more recent TV and movies, this felt good. There were any number of flaws, I sincerely hope it doesn't win an Oscar for Best Picture or Screenplay, but I enjoyed it and would watch it again. Might have to go back and watch MOLLY'S GAME, which I skipped after the few Sorkin projects before it.
directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
(new to me)
An action/fantasy based on the 2017 comic by Leandro Fernández and Greg Rucka, making for one of the quicker transitions from page to screen in comics. And in an added rarity, Rucka is the sole credited screenwriter of the adaptation. Not sure if that's ever happened in a high profile comic-to-screen adaptation before. Anyway, I read the first series (OPENING FIRE) when it came out, and re-read it and its recent sequel (FORCE MULTIPLIED) shortly before watching the movie (a final book, FADE AWAY, is expected eventually, but first there's an anthology of short stories mostly by other creators).
Usually I like to give a bit more distance between source material and adaptation, but doing it this way was interesting. Rucka does a pretty good job translating his own story, keeping much more than is usual in an adaptation, mostly just moving a few things around, changing the emphasis on a few things what might work better in one medium or the other and fleshing out a few things.
Anyway, short form is that it's about a group of mercenaries who, through unknown reasons, are effectively immortal, being able to recover from any wound. After hundreds or thousands of years, they now find themselves in modern times where being able to keep such abilities secret isn't quite as easy as it was before. Very well done overall, I wouldn't be surprised if we got a sequel a few years down the line (maybe based on the second comic series, maybe something completely different), and I'll be there for it, as well as the final comic series.
Only the Brave (2017)
directed by Joseph Kosinski
(new to me)
A biographical movie about a group of Arizona firefighters, specializing in containing wildfires, following their training for a period leading up to their final mission in 2013, where 19 of the 20 team members died. Pretty good for what it is, a bit paint-by-numbers for such a movie, but Josh Brolin is really strong in the lead.
directed by Joseph Kosinski
(new to me)
A biographical movie about a group of Arizona firefighters, specializing in containing wildfires, following their training for a period leading up to their final mission in 2013, where 19 of the 20 team members died. Pretty good for what it is, a bit paint-by-numbers for such a movie, but Josh Brolin is really strong in the lead.
directed by Ari Aster
(new to me)
An odd little horror story about some college students who travel to rural Sweden attend a festival, only to find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into a violent cult. It was pretty unsettling in a lot of ways, especially with some of the discordant natural beauty of the setting and some of the unconventional cinematography. Not really sure what I feel about it overall. Might have to revisit it eventually when I'm in the right mood, but not for a while.
Happy Gilmore (1996)
directed by Dennis Dugan
(rewatch)
Not sure why I decided to rewatch this, except that I had vague memories that I liked it more than most Adam Sandler movies I'd seen. That might still be true, but now it's really damning with faint praise. Only found a few short bits funny, most of it was one miss after another. Even the goofy Bob Barker bit, which I remembered being much funnier, seemed mostly clumsy, like it was a good idea for a joke that they forgot to finish writing.
Stand by Me (1986)
directed by Rob Reiner
(rewatch)
I was a few years late to this, not watching it until the mid-1990s, and probably would have loved it a lot more if I'd actually seen it in 1986, when I was closer to the age of the characters. Still like it a lot, and am happy to revisit it every few years. Am I the first to note Reiner had a really amazing run of movies in the first decade of his directing career? What's that, the last to note it? Well, that's got to be worth something...
directed by Christopher Nolan
(new to me)
I started this a couple of times since it was first available to watch at home, would generally get about a half hour or so in before something would distract me and I would somehow never get back to it. Finally got all the way through this time. It's a little bit confusing, I'm still not sure I completely get how the timelines work with each other. There's a lot to like in it, but I think it needs some stronger characters to really tell the story, which I recall from my long-ago reading of WWII history is a really good story which is only hinted at in this telling, the most high profile telling we'll probably ever see for it.
