That's the one... I had never seen it before

Oh yeah, the other weekend Dish had a free Showtime weekend. One night started with the last Naked Gun film, then Spotlight, then Molly's Game. I found that combination interesting, just to start.

I found Spotlight infuriating. Not because of the movie -- as Snoop Todd said, quality from top to bottom -- but because of the content. I guess that was part of the point -- we should get infuriated at injustices and abuse of power. Just totally pissed after watching, as in "Why the **** is the Catholic church allowed to still exist after this? How could any person with a sense of decency have looked the other way?" etc etc.

Anyway, I watched Molly's Game all the way through, but wasn't ever captivated. Never believed that she was going so far as to plead guilty to protect the identities of the players, then "bingo!" the judge saves her. Maybe that's the way it happened in real life, just didn't resonate with me.

I thought Idris Elba was great. Needed more of him, maybe make it more of a legal drama then a bio.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)





As Julie Adams passed away two weeks ago, it's a fitting time to re-watch what I think is one of the elite classic monster movies, right up there with Karloff's Frankenstein and Lugosi's Dracula. Sure the monster is obviously just a guy in a goofy rubber suit, but there are some fantastic shots in this film that work perfectly and clearly influenced later movies like Jaws. Much respect to stuntman Ricou Browning, who had to swim around in a rubber suit with no oxygen supply. There's one scene where the creature is set on fire and he has to dive into the water --great stuff. Later movies in this franchise would feature a suit with an oxygen tank, you can see the bubbles. Lame.

Also, Julia Adams is smokin' hot. Supporting actor Nestor Paiva steals the show as the swarthy river boatman. There's a great H.P. Lovecraft meets Heart of Darkenss vibe through the whole film. A+ stuff.

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME


An excellent movie.

Lead actress was amazing and the supporting cast was superb, albeit the co-lead was a bit contrived.

I may have never seen this but for a plane ride, and thankfully I did.

A story about literature and more.

Velvet Buzzsaw

A cursed X is killing all of Y that are connected to X. Usually this X is a house or ancient relic and Y is vapid teenagers but this time its art killing art dealers and critics.

This movie feels like it was written by someone who knew the art world but didn't know too much about horror. Seeing it was written by the same guy that did Nightcrawler it makes sense. That movie's horror was that the incentives of TV News set it up so amoral psychopaths thrived in it, and you have the same feeling here that he was more interested in setting up the art world and exploring the mechanics and vapidity of it, which are kind of interesting. The actual killing set pieces themselves seemed a bit anti climatic or not that interesting

I'd saw watch it for a hangover movie or something like that.

Velvet Buzzsaw was worth watching for the performances...other than that, it sucked

Roma - 6/10

Part of me wants to watch Roma because it is the odds on favourite for Best Picture and I like to know what all the contenders are about, however the other part of me knows I'll probably be bored to tears. I'm torn.

I remember seeing that on Saturday afternoon's "Creature Feauture" with Dr Paul Bearer.

The Endless was fracking amazing. Not sure why I have not heard more about this movie... The tone was great, the narrative a nice evolution from WTF-is-going-on-here to a simple acceptance...

I got bored just watching the trailer. I also like to see all the best picture nominees, but I can't imagine ever watching that.

I tried watching Roma, but quit after ten minutes. If I want to watch people clean, I'd...actually, I don't want to watch people clean

man im so glad to hear this I felt so uncultured cuz I kept trying to watch Roma and couldn't last 15mins.

I watched Peppermint on an airplane too.

It was as terrible as I hoped it would be so 5 stars.

Roma is overly long and slow, but there’s lots of good, even great stuff within. It’s absolutely worth watching as long as you’re not expecting the best film of the year.

Roma is a tone poem. The plot is basically irrelevant. You watch it like a moving painting.

I very much enjoyed Free Solo. I'm a rock climber and it is one of my primary passions/main sports. I highly recommend some other climbing films such as Valley Uprising, Meru, and the Dawn Wall (the first two are on netflix I think). Reel Rock is also an annual climbing film festival that has some quality rock climbing films each year.

What Honnold did on Free Rider can't really be compared- it was an amazing feat. Definitely go watch this movie in IMAX if possible.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That picture of Alex gets me anxious.

Yeah, this is my take as well.

Told my wife about free solo. She heard about it and refuses to watch. She also won't watch horror or anything with snakes in it. Gonna have to wait until she visits her mother for this one.

I really liked Roma, but I could have done with like 80% less dog ****. Not saying you can't have some dog **** in a movie, but at some point my palate is saturated.

Around this time of year I used to go with my ex gf (a real movie fiend) to the theaters in NYC, AMC had a deal where you could pay one price and watch all the nominees in the same theater over the span of 24 hrs, could bring whatever you wanted, food, drink, pillows, blankets....

Was way more fun in theory; I found it extremely physically taxing

Anyways I think this is the worst year for my taste in movies that I can remember. I usually always want to see 4-5 and this year I want to see none of the nominees besides ASIB which I’ve already seen.

Yup.

A few tidbits from the movie (correct me if I'm wrong)

1)Alex had actually fallen at least twice before on rock climbs. He suffered significant injuries to his back once and then to his ankle. So he wasn't an error-free perfect climber even on lesser climbs before El Capitan.

2)His older buddy in the film who partnered with Alex was once considered the best in the world and was idolized by Alex as a kid. The older buddy now has a family and refused to do some of the climbs Alex was doing. The buddy stated that he knows of 30-40 of his expert rock climbing friends that have died from rock climbing.

So the sport is crazy. I've been to El Capitan in person and it is breathtaking by itself. When I saw climbers up there it was unwordly and I couldn't watch. Movie is great. (Also loved Meru.) Is it about madness or the courageous human spirit? Not sure.

One fall his girlfriend didn't lock the rope and he fell and jacked up his back, the other I think he just wasn't focused.