TheMovieman

Halloween Kills (2021) — Given I wasn't a big fan of Halloween 2018, the bar on Halloween Kills was rather low and... pretty much met it. While some of the deaths were pretty gruesome, the rest was kind of bland and character decisions as dumb as others. Like the initial sequel, Halloween II, Jamie Lee Curtis spends the bulk of her time in the hospital.

There was also a scene early on when Michael fights a bunch of firefighters just came off as silly looking, maybe because I'm so used to seeing him butcher people one by one, the shot, beyond being clumsily choreographed, showed him taking on 5-6 people; just looked strange.

I don't know, there's not a whole lot to this sequel and like Halloween '18, not sure I look forward to revisiting. **/*****

Cellar Door

North by Northwest - first time watching this, but it won't be the last. Such a visual treat! The final shot made me laugh out loud.

TheMovieman

This is one I definitely should see again. Been too long...

JeffTheAlpaca

Netflix exclusive with Lilly Collins and Keanu Reeves.

Alex Sharpe was great in this.

Kind of like Girl Interrupted but with people with eating discorders

You must reach a point where you can't function if you don't eat?

I liked it and a sucker for movies with damaged people.

Goonies85

The Departed - Watched it for the fourth or fifth time. I still enjoy it, but I still consider it like, a "pop Scorsese movie." I wouldn't put it alongside his best mob movies (i.e. Goodfellas, Casino, Mean Streets). It's entertaining enough, and I love Nicholson but man does he manage to chew the scenery in this flick. The acting all around is great, and is was nice that Damon and Wahlberg are both from Boston, as their accents were very authentic. Best part of the movie in my mind remains the interaction between Baldwin and Wahlberg. I laugh every time they're on the screen together, and I wish the Blu-Ray included outtakes with them, cause there had to have been a decent amount of them...The documentary on Whitey is a decent watch, although it's kind of made irrelevant when there's that whole feature length Whitey documentary that came out on Blu-Ray a few years ago. That's much more in depth and whatnot so I'd stick with that. But, if you wanted a brief overview, the doc on this Blu-Ray is all right...

Vice - Another movie that I viewed for the third or fourth time and like it a little bit more, but still have tiny issues. It seems more like an acting showcase at time, as opposed to a movie with a strong narrative. It kind of bounces all over the place and sometimes that works to great effect, and other times I feel it detracts from the overall experience. Nevertheless, Bale is flat-out amazing in the role, and Sam Rockwell is pretty fantastic as Bush. Carell is great as Rumsfeld, and Amy Adams plays a great Liz Cheney. A good, diversionary movie, but it walks a fine line between comedy and drama, and I kind of wish it had leaned more one way or the other. Still makes a good dramedy but I think it could've been better...

Chinatown - I've watched this probably over a dozen times, including film class when I was in University, having to write a paper on it (as if anything I had to say about it hadn't already been said in like a million other essays, but I digress). Still a classic, with great writing, direction, music, and performances. Just everything is pretty much perfect. I then listened to the commentary with Towne and Fincher, which I hadn't listened to in probably a decade. Just as great as I remembered. They have a lot to go over, and Fincher really allows Towne to open up, and he does a great job keeping the conversation going. Very, very rare is there a dull spot or a spot where they're not conversing. Just a great commentary. Then checked out all the mini-docs (which run anywhere from 10 minutes to about a half-hour), and they're pretty much all great. Most fans of the film have heard most of the stories before, but it's still nice hearing them directly from the participants, along with fans like Soderberg, Kimberly Pierce, and Roger Deakins. Nice movie to revisit every couple of years. Even more fun to show to friends who may not have had the pleasure of viewing it yet...

TheMovieman

The Protégé (2021) — Entertaining if not also kind of forgettable action-thriller. The three leads, Maggie Q, Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson, have some bad-ass scenes and there are some suspenseful scenes, but as a whole, didn't really think it's all that different from what has been seen before. In fact, I think 2018's Anna might've been a tad better.

The finale also was perplexing. They make a big deal on how hard it was to get onto an island yet they (Maggie Q and Jackson) just are there, no scenes on how.

That said, I did think Maggie Q and Michael Keaton were great together and Martin Campbell's direction was fine, although did far better work on GoldenEye and Casino Royale.

I think this is fine as a rental. Don't know how much replay value it has. ***¼/*****

JeffTheAlpaca

2016

Hulu

If Shannon was not in this I would have passed.

He plays a new level of douche in this movie and the ending is kind of ridiculous though I was entertained for most of it.

JeffTheAlpaca

I own this

It is not as bad as the reviews and maybe liked it better the second time.

Funny to say you have not seen a lot of Will Ferrell comedies in the last couple of years and Amy does not do anything except commercials these days or Making it with Nick Offerman.

TheMovieman

Survive the Game (2021) — Another bland direct-to-video film with bad acting, terrible writing, awkward editing and just all around dumb movie that has no suspense or thrills. The only thing I liked was the nonchalant attitude of one of the thugs, otherwise it's a throwaway movie featuring a "performance" from Bruce Willis who couldn't give a damn (meaning, same thing he's been doing for the past several years now). *½/*****

Cellar Door

Catch Me If You Can (2002) - It's probably been 10+ years since I last watched this. It's good, but not that memorable for me among Spielberg's movies. DiCaprio is great, though, and it's fun seeing Jennifer Garner, Elizabeth Banks, and Amy Adams in small roles before they became more famous.

JeffTheAlpaca

I own it on Blu-ray. I liked the nostalgia of Pan Am Airlines in that movie.

JeffTheAlpaca

Huliu

2 or 3 out out of 5 stars and a money grab for Hopkins

Abbie Cornish showed her puppies which might have been the only thing I remember.

Goonies85

Rewatched The River Wild. Have watched this one several times since it's original release, and always enjoyed it. Good performances all around, from Streep, Kevin Bacon, Strathairn, John C. Reilly, and even that kid from Jurassic Park. It's solid work from Curtis Hanson, based on a pretty good script. Liked the location shooting and all that, cause unfortunately I feel a lot of it would've been faked with CGI were it made today. Hanson's made some great movies, as I consider L.A. Confidential to be a masterpiece (aside from the bullshit denouement they added, even though I later learned that that was based on Ellroy's book, so I guess I can't fault him that much, but the final 5 minutes or so were completely unnecessary and just felt redundant)...and Wonder Boys is also phenomenal, and I can't believe that one is still not out on Blu-Ray...Probably Tobey Maguire's best performance, and other wonderful work from Frances McDormand, Michael Douglas, and Robert Downey Jr....The River Wild isn't on par with those movies, but it's a solid action movie that people should enjoy, and the Blu-Ray image is pretty damn good...

tonyc3742

You're Next.

Meh. Not a bad home invasion slasher, but not great. For being a 'wild horror comedy', it wasn't all that comedic, for any flavor of comedy. Had a few cool Home Alone type moments and a few good kills. The surprises weren't really all the surprising.
Ready or Not was a much more fun telling of this type story.

Goonies85

To each his own, but I loved You're Next. That opening scene with Larry Fessenden and that awesome song (can't remember the title or who sang it, but I just remember downloading it and it's on my iPhone...the Dwight Twilley Band or something like that? Maybe...), I thought it really set the tone. If you give it another chance, you should try it with the commentary. I know that sounds weird but the commentary was pretty damn great, if I remember correctly...All the people behind the scenes have been making movies with each other for years and it's pretty neat listening to them just talk off the cuff more or less...I think some of the same guys were behind The Guest, which also kicked ass...They also did Blair Witch (the remake that sucked) and I loved how candid they were in that commentary, basically explaining why the movie sucked and what they wished they had done differently...




Goonies85

I think this is super-underrated. I'm not even going to try and spell the dude's name, but that comedian whose name stars like Mazst...whatever is hilarious. And I love the fight scene between the two chicks. "Oh! She doored her!"...That was hilarious. When I had Netflix, I probably watched this one like 10x...And I liked the Renner cameo...

JeffTheAlpaca

Jason Mantzoukas

Nick Kroll killed it as the mayor.

JeffTheAlpaca

Cinemax

This was a rare rom com for Amy Adams back in 2010 when she usually does more serious movies and maybe she could have had some success in the rom com genre if she pursued it but glad she did not.

Goonies85

Thank you. That's the one. He was FUCKING hilarious...

Boondock Saint

Boondock Saint

JeffTheAlpaca

A sucker for Peter Sarsgaard and will check out almost anything he does.

I was into it and thought hallway through the movie I pondered about the potential ending but thought that was ridiculous and I was shocked it did happen and that kind of ruined the whole movie.

d2cheer

^ made it about halfway through that one and the wife and I gave up.

JeffTheAlpaca

I was into it but the ending ruined the whole premise of the movie.

JeffTheAlpaca

2 out of 5 stars and a waste of time