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The Lost Vlog of Ruby Real (2020)

Tubi supplies a seemingly endless amount of terrible Found Footage films for anyone to sort through.

Director Matt Kincses' film is no different, as there isn't enough meat here to justify even a 60-minute run-time.

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The Killer (2023)

Loved the Graphic Novel. Enjoyed the film.

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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Not my favorite Martin Scorsese film but I loved the performances from Leonardo DiCaprio & Lily Gladstone.

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Priscilla (2023)

Although a bit repetitive, I stayed for Cailee Spaeny and Director Sophia Coppolla's visual aesthetics.

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Thanksgiving (2023)

While the largely forgettable cast hurts the film quite a bit, this is probably Director/Writer Eli Roth's best film in nearly a decade.

I enjoyed the full commitment to being a Holiday Slasher film and the endless amount of gory/creative kills.

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The Marvels (2023)

I wasn't expecting to be disappointed by this film, as it feels like its simply going through the motions.

Didn't care for much outside of the fight scenes and anything involving Flerkens.

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Running Out of Time (1999)

It's not among my favorite films from Director Johnnie To but I consistently show up for Andy Lau & Sean Lau's on-screen chemistry.

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The Most Dangerous Game (1978)

If Yusaku Matsuda's character (Shouhei Narumi) was bit more charismatic and less misogynistic, the film would have been light years better.

At least the finale ejects a little energy into a fairly flat film.

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Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Whether it was purely by design, the film is a bit cold for my tastes.

Even so, I enjoyed Sandra Huller's performance and most of the courtroom scenes, which kept my attention throughout.

Mike86

Five Nights at Freddy’s- watched this on Peacock tonight. Put my thoughts on it in the thread for the movie. I was kind of surprised.

Not a masterpiece by any means but I was entertained by it for what it was. I’ve never played the games and knew nothing about the story/lore.

I think a lot of the reason I liked it was because of the cast and the setting and the puppet work was pretty cool.

TheMovieman

Gator (1976) — Plods along at a snail's pace and even though Reynolds has a bit of charm, nothing else really works including a thin plot and thinly written characters. It also feels the nearly two-hour running time. *½/***** (Blu-ray)

DWilson

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Warner Bros 4K
Daniel Radcliffe. Directed by Mike Newell. 2005
When Harry Potter's name emerges from the Goblet of Fire, he becomes a competitor in a grueling battle for glory among three wizarding schools.

I felt this was one of the better installments of the series and I wish Newell had directed a few more rather than the more workmanlike David Yates. It certainly captures a wholesome but identifiable brand of "horny adolescence", if you know what I mean. I guess every familiar UK actor has turned up in at least one of these films; I had forgotten that Robert Pattinson and David Tennant turn up in this one.
It's a nice 4K presentation though the HDR is applied in an interesting way. often darkening scenes and toning down the colors for artistic effect.

DWilson

Fool's Paradise Hulu
Charlie Day. Written and Directed by Charlie Day. 2023
A non-speaking mental patient accidently becomes an overnight Hollywood sensation.

I enjoy Charlie Day in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and he creates a lot of laughs with his character. Day seems to have cashed in all his chips with this feature, a comedy he has written, directed and stars in. He plays a version of the "wise fool", a naif who unintentionally exposes the foolishness and hypocrisy of the establishment and those considered smarter than him (The film "Being There" is a great example).
It feels like he's going for a bit of a "Charlie Chaplin" nod, with an iconic hat and a blank look. He has a great cast of comic actors and I imagine he called in a few favors, but a lot of it feels improvised. Some of the Hollywood jokes and situations felt like they were pulled out of old episodes of "The Lucy Show" when Lucille Ball would be trying to crash a Hollywood production pretending to be a stunt man. I didn't find it very funny or insightful, and it just began to wear on me.

DWilson

Kristy Roku Channel (also Tubi)
Haley Bennet, Lucas Till. Directed by Oly Blackburn. 2014
When a college girl who is alone on campus over the Thanksgiving break is targeted by a murderous cult, she must conquer her deepest fears to outwit them and fight back.

I hadn't heard of this film until this morning, when it turned up on a list of films set on Thanksgiving weekend. Let me assure you, there's nothing new here, -the first half is set-up, and the second half is cat-and-mouse, -but its visceral and stylish, and Bennet makes an appealing and credible heroine. Stay after the credits.

I will say Roku's ads here are a bit intrusive during the climax, perhaps Tubi handles it better. Reminiscent of "The Strangers".

DWilson

Outlaw Johnny Black Hoopla
Michael Jai White. Directed by Michael Jai White. 2023
Hell bent on avenging the death of his father, Johnny Black vows to gun down Brett Clayton and becomes a wanted man in the process while posing as a preacher in a small mining town that's been taken over by a notorious Land Baron.

Back in 2009, Michael Jai White co-wrote and starred in "Black Dynamite", a fairly successful spoof of Blaxploitation films. With "Outlaw Johnny Black" White takes on the directing as well. It's a bit of a head-scratcher for me, though. At times it's a dead-on parody of Spaghetti Westerns and the Westerns that Fred Williamson made back in The Seventies. At other times its as corny as the Western Comedies that Hollywood churned out in the Mid-Sixties, with Dean Martin and Joey Bishop. And then there's also long patches that are relatively serious, but just play flat and lifeless. As a fan of White, it's pretty disappointing.

DeFan

Pretentious garbage bio of David Bowie. There is some decent concert footage buried under adoring fans and self-serving interviews edited with headache inducing frequency.

DWilson

Five Nights at Freddy's Peacock
Josh Hutcherson. Directed by Emma Tammi. 2023
Struggling to take care of his ten-year-old sister Abby on his own, the generally undependable Mike is low on options when he lands this new job to pay the bills and bring her along to the gig. Mike quickly realizes, however, that the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be as kickback as he was thinking after he makes a disturbing discovery that the pizza place’s four horrifying animatronic mascots all apparently come alive, moving about on their own as they hunt down and attempt to kill anyone that is still at Freddy’s after midnight.

The fact that this game-based Horror film has a layered back story and developed characters should have been an asset, but for me it was a slog to get through. The last fifteen minutes struck me as particularly clumsy. Maybe I should take another look at "Willy's Wonderland", the rip-off with Nick Cage...

TheMovieman

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) — Inoffensive sequel provided a few laughs but isn't as good as the first. Still, fine as a quick viewing given it's only 80-minutes long. ***¼/***** (Blu-ray)

DWilson

Hypnotic Peacock
Ben Affleck. Directed by Robert Rodriguez. 2023
A troubled cop pursues the man he believes responsible for abducting his child, -a man with the power to control minds.

I've been following Robert Rodriguez's career since his first film "El Mariachi", which he made with money he earned as a medical "guinea pig". I've always appreciated his DIY filmmaking approach. Some of my favorites include "Sin City", "From Dusk Til Dawn", and "The Faculty".

I had heard some complaints about "Hypnotic" going in. It definitely wants to be Christopher Nolan movie on a Dollar Tree budget. I've got to say, though, I found it a clever little "B" movie featuring a Comic Book villain and a few nice twists.

Cellar Door

Blue Beetle - this felt like a live action version of a rip-off of a Pixar movie. Too frenzied and too many fights with faceless henchmen. I'm not familiar with the comics, so I don't know how faithful the characters are to the source material.

DeFan

I like Robert Rodriguez's DIY filmaking too but I don't think he's made a really good movie since "El Mariachi". I thought Machete would be good since Danny Trejo has a great screen presence. I saw it in a full theater at the Arclight but they were posers like me, looking for the experience but not willing to put out for it. Except for a woman behind me who laughed hysterically through the grindhouse scenes. I'm glad she was there.

DeFan

When I see Cate Blanchett I see Galadriel and am smitten. That's unfair to her since she is a better actor than one role but we see what we see. I don't think I've seen a Todd Haynes movie that I didn't like "I'm Not There is a favorite. Two people fall in love. It ends badly. I my experience it always ends badly. Oddly it's a Christmas movie.

DWilson

I thought "Sin City" was terrific, -the best film of its year and a terrific adaptation of Frank Miller's work. The sequel "A Dame To Kill For" waited too long and gave too little.
"Machete" was satisfactory at best, and I didn't care for "Machete kills" at all.

DWilson

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Warner Bros 4K
Daniel Radcliffe. Directed by David Yates. 2007
Lord Voldemort has returned, but few want to believe it. In fact, the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth - including appointing Ministry official Dolores Umbridge as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. When Professor Umbridge refuses to train her students in practical defensive magic, a select group of students decides to learn on their own in preparation for battle with the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters.

Back in 2007, I remember driving 40 minutes to see this at the lone area theater with an IMAX screen. The last 20 minutes of the IMAX showings would be in 3D. After all the effort to see it, I remember being slightly disappointed with the experience. I didn't end up seeing the rest of the series in the theater, though I bought the blu-rays.
Re-visiting "Phoenix" all these years later, it remains the least entertaining of the first five for me. I'm not sure what the problem is, -perhaps it's director David Yates, or it's because the very talented Steven Kloves was no longer scripting. The cast is fine, but it just seems more pedestrian and similar to any number of other YA Fantasy films. The 3D section, -which, of course, is no longer 3D, -is particularly unimpressive since it's on a simplified set that is meant to enhance the "coming at you" effect. And, frankly, the 4K video is a little softer and less impressive this time.

DWilson

The Farmer Scorpion Releasing Blu-Ray
Gary Conway, Angel Tompkins. Directed by David Berlatsky. 1977
Kyle Martin is a World War II Silver Star veteran who returns home to find his farm in foreclosure. One night he saves the life of a gambler, who offers him the money he needs if Kyle will kill some gangsters. Kyle turns him down. Eventually the gangsters get wind of the offer and burn down Kyle's farm and assault his girl. Kyle seethes with anger and takes up the gambler's offer, embarking on a blood-soaked trail of revenge.

"The Farmer" is a '70s "Revenge" flick clearly aimed at the Southern Drive-In circuit, similar to "Walking Tall" or "Rolling Thunder". I remember seeing the newspaper ads for "The Farmer" and it radiated the kind of Grindhouse goodness I was looking for, but it just wasn't playing at a drive-in near me. It pretty much disappeared after that, but I always wanted to see it.
"The Farmer" was produced by its star, Gary Conway ("Land of the Giants") and it feels like it was written for Clint Eastwood, and Conway plays it that way, with the hat, the cigar, the angry glare, and an economy of dialogue. It takes its sweet time setting up the Revenge quotient of this "Revenge Flick", but it's bloody and effective once it gets there. There's great suspense in the last moments and an unexpected twist.

The picture quality is rough at first with "over-heated" colors. I was able to adjust my settings and correct the color, while the quality of the print got much better after the first ten minutes or so.