Furiosa - Very entertaining from start to finish. It was a little more Fury Road prequel than I was expecting. I feel like there was a good balance of keeping it within the Mad Max universe while also giving us her backstory. Fury Road is probably my favorite action movie of all time. Furiosa isn't on that level but it’s on the next tier. 8.5/10. Its a 9.5/10 on the perfect Sunday afternoon popcorn movie scale.

a friend invited me to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes yesterday. I have not seen any previous films from the series. they do give a brief introductory explanation in the opening which I was thankful for.

a pretty movie with a ton of pretty good CGI, but it was incredibly boring and slow and uninteresting. none of the characters were engaging. I was never emotionally stirred. it presented zero desire to see any previous or future installments.

Furiosa needed to be 35 minutes shorter. Like just about every ****ing movie being made right now.

Furiosa needed to be longer...I would see a ten hour Mad Max movie

Brats, Andrew McCarthy, 2004

Fascinating doc by Pretty In Pink actor on the 80s "Brat Pack" designation on those young actors and what it meant to them all and how it affected their careers.

It's fascinating because you have actors like McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, and Ally Sheedy - who never quite grew out of the label in their careers - and others like Demi Moore and Rob Lowe - who later became big stars - talking about the label. McCarthy, Estevez, and Sheedy all somewhat feel the label really hurt their careers, as it came with a lot of baggage and prevented them from getting interview or auditions with serious filmmakers.

However, both Moore and Lowe think of it as something interesting and good - they will always be linked to the zeitgeist of that time period, and, as Moore eloquently says, you can olny give power to the label if you let it.

McCarthy also interviews various writers, movie execs, directors, Malcom Gladwell, etc...and you can really see McCarthy working through the damage he feels the label did to him. The film is basically his therapy.

In the end, he also sits down with writer David Frum, who wrote the original Brat Pack article and coined the term. It's quite fascinating, because Frum is defensive and unapologetic, and you can sense McCarthy is looking for an apology that never comes.

This is an interesting movie...well-edited and directed...that goes much deeper than most movie docs.

Agree Don I watched it on the plane. Correction it’s not David Frum but some other guy with a similar name.

Most of them are sober I wish they’d ventured into that realm, and Judd Nelson / Molly ringwald would have been additive, but it was worth watching if you were a kid in the 80’s for sure.

recently watched guardians of the galaxy 3

usually don't like superhero films but always found the guardians films nice lighthearted fun

this was the best superhero film i've seen imo and really surprisingly emotional/sad - a huge departure from the earlier format but it works very well

I decided to watch The Straight Story again today. It means even more to me today than it did some twenty years ago. I guess the line in the film, the worst thing about getting older is remembering when you were young, strikes a chord with me that didn't then.

For those of you who haven't seen The Straight Story, it's about a 79 year old man, Alvin, who sets out on a riding mower to see his estranged brother, whom he hasn't seen in ten years. The journey on that riding mower is 200 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin. Along the way, Alvin meets a number of strangers: a pregnant girl who has run away, a man who takes him in when his lawnmower breaks down, two brothers who repair the lawnmower, and a fellow veteran in a bar.

Alvin connects with all of these strangers. His story about the importance of family to the pregnant girl lets her go home. The story he tells to the two brothers is the story of his own relationship with his brother.

Maybe in the hands of another director the film might be a maudlin one, but in the hands of David Lynch, along with the music of Angelo Badalamenti and Richard Farnsworth's acting, it's a beautiful film.

Yesterday was Father's Day and my kids came to see me, one of my brothers called, I saw two of my oldest friends in the morning, and the woman who drives me places dropped off dinner, and I drove to Boston with her to pick up her daughter at Logan Airport. I figured she could use the company for the almost two hour drive. Another friend will drive me to a neurologist appointment on Thursday.

Even though I'm stuck at home, unable to drive for a few more months, I'm not depressed about it. I've come to realize in my old age that old age isn't so bad, at least for me.

Alvin seeks to connect with his brother after an argument ten years ago and look at the stars like they did as boys. They do connect and look up at the stars.

I so many ways, The Straight Story is a film filled with sadness. In so many ways, it's life affirming. We live with both.

As E.M Foster writes, "Only Connect." We should make time for that.





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nice, John

La Chimaera - very good, mysterious Italian film about tomb raiders who ransacked Etruscan tombs. Josh O'Connor couldn't be more different from his Challengers role. In this he is an archaeologist who has a gift for finding tombs. He's stumbling through life, pissing off everyone around him, and is haunted by memories of his girlfriend. A mysterious, dreamy film tinged with magical realism.

Great post.


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Remembering Gene Wilder, 2024

Great, moving documentary on the legendary actor/writer/director. Wilder was always one of my favorites. This is a wonderful remembrance and goes through his career with some great interviews with Mel Brooks, Carol Kane, and many others...it's also narrated by Gene.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, directed by F.W. Murnau, is an interesting film. Great camera work and lighting throughout. I was impressed that for a film made in 1927, it used a soundtrack synched to the film.

The story is a simple one. Married man meets woman from the city, and she persuades him to murder his wife. He changes his mind on a trip from their farm to the city. The man and wife hit the town and reconcile.

Watch the film for its technique, which is remarkable. I know it's a favorite film of many, but , for me anyway, the story is not as compelling as the filmmaking.

You can watch on YouTube and also watch with commentary by John Bailey, which is terrific.

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I actually thought it was way too sad and harsh in parts. I don't watch silly comic book movies to see cute little animals enduring horrific experiments and then getting violently killed.

How is it narrated by the dead subject?

I had to watch A Man and A Woman after finding out Anouk Aimee died. She was startling beautiful. The music is lovely. And the ending is so satisfying ...oh more than satisfying. You will need to find out for yourself.

The film also stars Jean-Louis Trintignant. So I put on my Jean-Louis Trintignant cologne to watch this film again.

The movie strikes something in me in so many ways. The woman sends a cable to the man and says I love you. The man who is driving 600 miles to reach says that he could never do that. They begin to make love, but the woman, haunted by the thought her dead husband, pulls back. She leaves for the train station, and the man says, once pals always pals.

I know all these feelings.

Aren't movies wonderful?

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Just rewatched Sicario. Fantastic movie. Why can't all thrillers be like that?

Lol I had the same question

It really is. Taylor Sheridan movies are miles ahead of his tv shows. And Emily Blunt should be in every movie.