All Things Movie/Documentary Reviews/Recommendations Thread

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Took the Mrs to Statham's new movie, The BeeKeeper. It largely delivered on all levels, although expectations were low. Typical somewhat mindless action movie but at the end of the day, a couple hours spent in the theater with some good buttered popcorn and my best friend, what more can you ask for. The actions scenes were pretty good really.

Given what's been in the theaters lately, I absolutely give it two thumbs up if you're looking for a movie to go to.
 

Oscar Nominees were announced today.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Oscars: Full List of Nominations

'Oppenheimer' leads the noms with a total of 13, followed by 'Poor Things' with 11, 'Killers of the Flower Moon' with 10 and 'Barbie' with eight. They will compete for best picture with 'American Fiction,' 'Anatomy of a Fall,' 'The Holdovers,' 'Maestro,' 'Past Lives' and 'The Zone of Interest.'
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com

BEST PICTURE:

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
 


Ope3 said:
Oscar Nominees were announced today.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Oscars: Full List of Nominations

'Oppenheimer' leads the noms with a total of 13, followed by 'Poor Things' with 11, 'Killers of the Flower Moon' with 10 and 'Barbie' with eight. They will compete for best picture with 'American Fiction,' 'Anatomy of a Fall,' 'The Holdovers,' 'Maestro,' 'Past Lives' and 'The Zone of Interest.'
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com

BEST PICTURE:

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Click to expand...
Just finished The Holdovers. Good movie. Some nice twists.
 


Ope3 said:
Oscar Nominees were announced today.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Oscars: Full List of Nominations

'Oppenheimer' leads the noms with a total of 13, followed by 'Poor Things' with 11, 'Killers of the Flower Moon' with 10 and 'Barbie' with eight. They will compete for best picture with 'American Fiction,' 'Anatomy of a Fall,' 'The Holdovers,' 'Maestro,' 'Past Lives' and 'The Zone of Interest.'
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com

BEST PICTURE:

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Click to expand...
Just watched Oppenheimer.
Really good.
 

If anyone sees "Argylle", let me know if it's worth watching. Thanks!
 

Ope3 said:
Oscar Nominees were announced today.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Oscars: Full List of Nominations

'Oppenheimer' leads the noms with a total of 13, followed by 'Poor Things' with 11, 'Killers of the Flower Moon' with 10 and 'Barbie' with eight. They will compete for best picture with 'American Fiction,' 'Anatomy of a Fall,' 'The Holdovers,' 'Maestro,' 'Past Lives' and 'The Zone of Interest.'
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com

BEST PICTURE:

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Click to expand...
Past Lives was a little too......I don't know. Just didn't resonate with me.
 

Just watched Greyhound, starring Tom Hanks. He’s captain of a Navy destroyer escorting ships across the Atlantic in 1942. Thought it was good. Lots of action and tense moments.
 





I saw The Zone of Interest a couple of days ago. It's a picture that I doubt I would have seen had it not been a Best Picture Nominee, though it is also from A24, so perhaps I would have eventually watched it. I'm glad I did.

It's about the German commandant of Auschwitz (Rudolf Hoss) and how his family went about their daily lives in 1943. It's incredibly disturbing, but not because of anything they show in the camp (which is very little) but how matter-of-factly they act while the viewer knows all about what's going on just yards away from their house.

The audio references alone are pretty powerful as is the film.
 

Had the day off yesterday so decided to watch Leave the World Behind on netflix. The reviews were so-so but I enjoyed it. Starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali. Kevin Bacon makes an appearance.

Based on the book (which I have not read) about an apocalyptic cyber-attack situation.
 



I'm not an overly critical movie critic, I think I actually see very few movies that I would call "poor", especially if the popcorn is good (and the popcorn I make on the stove at home I have to say is almost always exceptional)

The other night we watched a movie on Netflix called "Kill Shot"; starring some guy named Rib Hillis, who apparently also wrote and directed and produced and God knows what else. It was an absolutely terrible film. The worst acting I've seen in decades arguably. Holy shit what a terrible movie, almost laughably so.

I've checked out a few of the "Sniper" series movies on Amazon Prime; kind of a spinoff of the original classic movie "Sniper" with Tom Berenger and Billy Zane (a great movie in my book). For the most part, they feature Thomas Beckett's son (Beckett is the Berenger character), Brandon Beckett as a Marine sniper. Not bad for action movies, I'll probably finish them. I think there are 5 or 6. Maybe 1.5 thumbs up out of 2? I wouldn't NOT recommend them.
 

I checked off the 10th and final selection from the Oscar Best Picture Nominees, Anatomy of Fall.

No matter what, it's the most aptly titled picture. A couple is going through some marital turmoil while living in a chalet near Grenoble, France. Both are authors. One day their 11 year old vision impared son returns from a hillside walk with his dog Snoop, only to find his father dead from a fall from the 3 story deck.

The rest of the movie is the lead up to a court room thriller to determine if he jumped or if he was pushed. It keeps you guessing. Very well done.

The wife looked rather familiar to me. I wasn't expecting any connection between this French movie and that of The Zone of Interest (which I saw earlier this week) which is German. Turns out the female lead in both is the actress Sandra Hüller.

She played the wife of the German commandant for Auschwitz. This movie she is also German but because the husband is French, they have compromised by communicating primarily in the "neutral" English. The vast majority Hüller's dialog is English, but it is an interesting plot device how it is used with French.

Quite a feat to be in 2 different Best Picture Nominees that are both largely foreign language films. Hüller did it speaking 3 different languages. One film being a black & white historical drama speaking her native German, the other a contemporary thriller in English-French. Color me impressed.
 
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Watched American Fiction. Liked it better than Past Lives, but not as much as The Holdovers. Oppenheimer is my favorite so far.
 

If I was a voter and had to rank the Best Picture Nominees, this would be my ballot:

1. Oppenheimer
2. Past Lives
3. The Holdovers
4. Anatomy of a Fall
5. American Fiction
6. Poor Things
7. Killers of the Flower Moon
8. The Zone of Interest
9. Maestro
10. Barbie

I did enjoy all 10 movies, and would have no problem if any of them won which is not always the case (last year for example).

If I were to rate them based on the 4 Star rating system I would give films ranked 1-3, four stars each. 4-8 would rate as three and half stars, and 9-10, three stars.
 

as usual, the Super Bowl saw a number of movie trailers featured. the full trailer for Deadpool 3 - now renamed as Deadpool & Wolverine - is a hoot. plenty of jokes about Marvel and Disney. this thing is going to make a butt-load of money.

the trailer that I actually find the most interesting is the new one for "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." this picks up some time after the last "Ape" movie with all new characters. hints of (I kid you not) political intrigue among different ape factions, and disagreements over how apes should treat the remaining human population.
 

Looking forward to One Love, Bob was a prophet espousing peace and love, so naturally he was killed.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
as usual, the Super Bowl saw a number of movie trailers featured. the full trailer for Deadpool 3 - now renamed as Deadpool & Wolverine - is a hoot. plenty of jokes about Marvel and Disney. this thing is going to make a butt-load of money.

the trailer that I actually find the most interesting is the new one for "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." this picks up some time after the last "Ape" movie with all new characters. hints of (I kid you not) political intrigue among different ape factions, and disagreements over how apes should treat the remaining human population.
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Doesn't appear that TJ Miller, who played Weasel in the first two, is in this one. He was funny.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Doesn't appear that TJ Miller, who played Weasel in the first two, is in this one. He was funny.
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Miller claims Reynolds stayed in character in between shots and continued treating him like Weasel. Miller thought it was "mean" and that created a spat between them. Too bad...he and Leslie Uggams are great in their limited roles in the first two movies.
 


Weirdly enough, I am in the middle of Ready Player One and just looked right now to see who is doing the voice of I-ROK because it was so familiar and the character is funny…..
TJ Miller
 

TJ Miller has had his share of controversy - from that bastion of journalism - Entertainment Weekly

Miller, 41, has had a tumultuous past several years. In 2017, an anonymous woman accused him of sexual assault when they were in college together; Miller denied the allegations. In 2018, Miller was accused of bullying a fellow actor on the set of Silicon Valley; he denied the allegations and was later written off the HBO series. Also in 2018, Miller was arrested for allegedly making a fake bomb threat while on an Amtrak train. The federal charges against him were later dropped, in part due to Miller's past brain surgery.

Miller also feuded with Ryan Reynolds on the set of Deadpool 2 and accused Reynolds of harassment.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
TJ Miller has had his share of controversy - from that bastion of journalism - Entertainment Weekly

Miller, 41, has had a tumultuous past several years. In 2017, an anonymous woman accused him of sexual assault when they were in college together; Miller denied the allegations. In 2018, Miller was accused of bullying a fellow actor on the set of Silicon Valley; he denied the allegations and was later written off the HBO series. Also in 2018, Miller was arrested for allegedly making a fake bomb threat while on an Amtrak train. The federal charges against him were later dropped, in part due to Miller's past brain surgery.

Miller also feuded with Ryan Reynolds on the set of Deadpool 2 and accused Reynolds of harassment.
Click to expand...
Miller is very funny but if you can't get along with Reynolds, who appears to be one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, maybe you have some issues.
 


GophersInIowa said:
Had the day off yesterday so decided to watch Leave the World Behind on netflix. The reviews were so-so but I enjoyed it. Starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali. Kevin Bacon makes an appearance.

Based on the book (which I have not read) about an apocalyptic cyber-attack situation.
Click to expand...

I thought it was pretty good. Nowhere near great....but considering the runtime....I never lost interest. Mahershala Ali is really good in everything he's in. And the aloof father is basically a role written specifically for Ethan Hawke.

fan of Ray Williams said:
Doesn't appear that TJ Miller, who played Weasel in the first two, is in this one. He was funny.
Click to expand...

I rewatched all of 'Silicon Valley'.....which is a great show.....over the past few weeks. TJ Miller was dropped at the end of the 4th season due to his sexual assault allegations.
 

Miller was also frequently drunk on set. From the sound of it he should have been fired long before the sexual assault allegations came out
stocker08 said:
I thought it was pretty good. Nowhere near great....but considering the runtime....I never lost interest. Mahershala Ali is really good in everything he's in. And the aloof father is basically a role written specifically for Ethan Hawke.



I rewatched all of 'Silicon Valley'.....which is a great show.....over the past few weeks. TJ Miller was dropped at the end of the 4th season due to his sexual assault allegations.
Click to expand...
 

I watched the most recent Mission Impossible on a flight. It was okay but I agree with some of the criticism that it leaned too heavily on the big action sequences. It seemed they've lost a balance with the smaller, tricky espionage parts. In particular there's a long car chase that involves the cars bouncing down steps plus a fight on top of a moving train. Both scenes add little twists but you can't get away from the fact that those are two of the most cliche action scenes possible.

Eta: there was one really good scene involving the face masks. Vanessa Kirby did a really good job of going from supremely arrogant to near panic.
 
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Frink said:
Miller was also frequently drunk on set. From the sound of it he should have been fired long before the sexual assault allegations came out
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He's good comic relief in TV/movies....but sounds like a pain in the ass as a person. I don't think 'Silicon Valley' really lost much by not having him around the last two seasons. So many funny people in that show as it was.
 

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