The Boys in the Boat Amazon prime 4K
Joel Edgerton. Directed by George Clooney. 2023
A 1930s-set story centered on the University of Washington's rowing team, from their Depression-era beginnings to winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

"The Boys in the Boat" is a beautifully photographed film with a golden look and an evocative score, and it evokes the memory of so many other Inspirational Sports Dramas I've seen over the years. Joel Edgerton is certainly solid as the coach, though I was less impressed with the young male lead, who felt a bit too brooding and internalized for my tastes. The film has a lot going for it, -I recognize that, -but it just didn't grab me in the way I hoped it would.

Back On the Strip Starz
Wesley Snipes. Directed by Chris Spencer. 2023
After losing the woman of his dreams, Merlin moves to Las Vegas to pursue work as a magician, only to get hired as the front man in a revival of the notorious black male stripper crew, The Chocolate Chips.

It's nice to see Wesley Snipes working again, and the cast is game, but most of the jokes and situations are Sitcom level stuff. I wish it had tried a little harder.

The House Bunny Amazon Prime
Anna Faris. Directed by Fred Wolf. 2008
Shelley is living a carefree life until a rival gets her tossed out of the Playboy Mansion. With nowhere to go, fate delivers her to the sorority girls from Zeta Alpha Zeta. Unless they can sign a new pledge class, the seven socially clueless women will lose their house to the scheming girls of Phi Iota Mu. They don't know it yet, but Shelley is just The House Mother they've been looking for.

Having watched two seasons of "Secrets of Playboy" on A+E, a lot of the wistful scenes set at The Playboy Mansion aren't quite as funny as they used to be. In fact, a lot of this movie seems very tone deaf 16 years later. So maybe I should be embarrassed to say that I was generally entertained by the film, but it's mostly because Anna Faris is talented Comic actress.

MoviePass, Movie Crash Max
Directed by Muta 'Ali Muhammud 2024
Exploring the company founding of "MoviePass" and the implosion of the business by outside investors who took over the company, left it bankrupt and under investigation.

Back around 2018 you could pay MoviePass $10 a month and receive a debit card that allowed you to see as many movies as you wanted, at any theater you wanted, at any time you wanted. It seemed too good to be true, and it turns out it was, -and that's what this documentary is all about. I'm a cheap bastard and I like Movies, so I don't know how I missed out on MoviePass; I didn't really hear about it until the company was falling apart and they started screwing with their customers, like determining that certain popular movies weren't eligible. It's an interesting documentary with its focus on the men who started the company with good intentions and really accomplished something, and how it was taken over by shifty bastards who destroyed the company through greed and mismanagement. Some of the numbers are hard to follow but I got the gist of it.

That was a fun movie

HBO

I saw it before and was not impressed or maybe was not into in and then the second viewing confirmed my initial reaction.

Not sure why Hill and Franco thought this was a compelling story that needed to told on film.

The First Omen Hulu via Disney+ 4K
Nell Tiger Free. Directed by Arkasha Stevenson.
A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

I remember seeing "The Omen" in the theater back in '76, and that scene with David Warner just shocked the hell out of me and left me shaken for a few minutes. It was a great film, and at the time I preferred it to "The Exorcist", which had been re-released two weeks before. I really enjoyed the sequel as well and had a lot of fun with all the baroque deaths and its faster pace. "The Final Conflict" gave us Sam Neill as "Damien", which was fine, though I thought it was the lesser of the three. I wasn't really looking for yet another prequel to an existing IP, but here we are.

"The First Omen" starts with a nice bump that pays homage to the spirit of the originals (it feels like it was added in re-shoots, though). The film takes a bit to get going, even finding an excuse to get lead actress Nell Tiger Free out of her habit and tarted up for a nightclub. Once it gets going though, I was quite invested. It's a fairly smart script for a Horror film, and even manages to out-cynical the original trilogy.

Nell Tiger Free is quite good in the lead, and Ralph Ineson lends credibility in a supporting role. There's a nice level of creepiness throughout. Most importantly, they kick in with Jerry Goldsmith's iconic theme from the original film at just the right point in the film. This Spring we ended up with a head-to-head "Nuns-ploitation" match between "Immaculate" and "The First Omen" which were released just a week or two apart. While I didn't mind "Immaculate" (it's a decent "B" movie), I've got to give this one to "The First Omen".

Netflix

"After befriending a wild blue groper, a girl finds inspiration from her activist mother to save the magnificent fish from poachers."

I thought maybe it would be sappy like most family friendly movies are but it was not bad.

First time I have seen Radha Mitchell in a long time and she was big or getting all the prominent roles in the aughts and then disappeared in the 2010's.

Mia Wasikowska had a small part but thought she would have a bigger role.

Showtime

I don't remember a lot from the first movie but thought this was better.

Now she is older and hot too.

A rare appearance by Sean William Scott playing a leader of a alt-right or Proud Boys type group douche

HBO

I never used it but educated on the history and why it crashed.

A Face in the Crowd - Great movie. Did not expect dick pills or Walter Matthau.

Watched Dinner in America based on Red Letter Media’s video on it. Really fun, vulgar, comedy.

Madame Web

Jim Henson Idea Man Documentary (2024) - Disney +

Mars et Avril

Fighting Starz
Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard. Directed by Dito Montiel. 2008
Small-town boy Shawn MacArthur knows firsthand that every day in New York City is a struggle to survive. So, when scam artist Harvey Boarden gives him a chance to be something more in the brutal underground world of bare-knuckle street-fighting, Shawn decides that he has something worth fighting for and puts everything on the line to win.

"Fighting" could have been a gritty story about Hard Luck characters struggling in a violent, R-Rated milieu, but it's a lot softer than that, perhaps it was to appeal to Tatum's Female fanbase. Tatum is an affable performer, but not entirely credible as a college wrestler turned bare knuckle brawler. Terrence Howard gives an eccentric, soft-spoken performance as the grifter who sets up Tatum's fights. "Fighting" has its moments, but it was a little too low-key and PG-13 for my tastes.

Dogfight Criterion Blu-Ray
River Phoenix, Lili Taylor. Directed by Nancy Savoca. 1991
In 1963, 18 year old Marine "Birdlace" and his friends are about to be shipped to Vietnam. They play a dirty game called 'Dogfight': all of them seek a woman for a party, and who finds the most ugly one, wins a prize. Eddie finds the lonesome pacifist Rose working in a coffee shop. She's happy to accompany him - but then she sees through the game. However, by this time he has already learned to like her, so he follows her home.

I have a special place in my heart for the Independent Films of the '90s, not just because of the quality of so many of those films, but also the experience of going to various Art House Cinemas and discovering them.

I missed this film back in those days but I'm glad I caught up with it now. River Phoenix and Lili Taylor give deeply layered performances, -sometimes sensitive, sometimes mean-spirited on his part and awkward on hers, -but always believable. Taylor, in particular, plays her role with a lot of charm. I knew where the story was going, -and I was mostly right, -but I didn't care because I was invested in the characters. It's a low budget film that manages to convincingly evoke a time and a place and a feeling.

There's one moment that's a little too on the nose, when Phoenix wistfully looks into the camera and tells Taylor he and his friends are being deployed to some little place called "Viet Nam", but they're only going as "advisors" and it's intended to leave You The Viewer devastated because you know what's coming and they don't; however, I still found the moment poignant because I kind of felt like River Phoenix might have been looking ahead to his own personal fate.

Netflix

2019

"A brother and sister enter a field of tall grass to rescue a boy, but they soon realize they cannot escape and something evil lurks in the grass."

I never heard of it but Patrick Wilson was in so I decided to give it a shot.

It was not bad and felt like a Twilight Zone episode but did get a little tedious

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine Kino Lorber Blu-Ray
Vincent Price. Directed by Norman Taurog. 1965
The demented Dr. Goldfoot builds a machine that mass-produces an army bikini-clad babes to seduce the wealthiest men alive and convince them to sign their fortunes over to him. To put an end to his devious plot, Secret Agent Craig Gamble sets out to destroy the women and bring Goldfoot's plan to a screeching halt.

I remember seeing this late one Saturday night as an adolescent and just loving it. It's a Sixties Spy Spoof and a lot of it holds up, while other parts are a little embarrassing; there are a lot of scenes with stunt doubles that are very obvious now. It's basically a live-action cartoon, written and directed on a level with TV sitcoms like "Get Smart", "The Munsters" and the like (which is fine by me). Vincent Price seems to be having a good time sending up his established Horror persona, and Frankie Avalon and Dawyne Hickman both have well-honed comic timing and make a great team.

Godzilla Minus One (2023) - Netflix

Lumberjack the Monster (2023) - Netflix

Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2 Warner Bros Blu-Ray
Directed by Jeff Wamerster 2024
Now fully revealed as the ultimate threat to existence, the ANTI-MONITOR wages an unrelenting attack on the surviving Earths that struggle for survival in a pocket universe.

Though I was a fan of the source material, -the original Comics series (less so by the infinite spin-offs), -I wasn't exactly bowled over by Part One. I found Part Two talky and dull. I won't be bothering with Part 3.

I’m doing Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (3x) and then Knives Out for the maybe 5th time.