Murder on the Orient Express Kenneth Branaugh's adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie novel. His Poirot is good and he has that funny moustache. The rest of the cast also puts in solid performances. If you've read the book or seen any other version of it, the main difference is that there are a few action scenes sprinkled in the movie every 30 minutes or so, I guess to make sure modern audiences weren't falling asleep. If you've already seen an adaptation of this, then it's a solid adaptation but there isn't really anything new or remarkable about it. If you haven't and you like mystery movies, it's fun.

3 out of 5

The Trial of the Chicago 7 last night, second of the BP noms.

Pretty crazy story. I had no idea how ludicrous the actual trial was, read up a bunch on it after watching.

Sharp enough Sorkin writing. Thought Rylance was quite good. It was good, but nothing great overall. 3/5 for me. Feel like in a normal year it would not get much attention.

Dom,

I just read a couple reviews of Polytechnique and Elephant, two excellent films. Some critics, though, really want both films to be something they're not.



Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

Talladega Nights

"Here's the deal I'm the best there is. Plain and simple. I wake up in the morning and I piss excellence."

"Dear 8 pounds 6 ounces... newborn infant Jesus, don't even know a word yet."

"Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish God! Help me Allah! AAAAAHHH! Help me Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft on me to get the fire off me!"

"I’m not sure what to do with my hands."

So many great lines.

John, I'm not a fan of Elephant

Next BP nom, Sound of Metal.

Very good. Can't imagine what that would be like to go through. Riz Ahmed was fantastic. It's very much a Derek Cianfrance film if you like his other stuff (he wrote this). 4/5.

Anyone see any of this year's best Documentary noms? Some interesting ones. Collective looks really good as does Mole Agent. They are both on Hulu. And Time looks great also (on Netflix). Hope to at least catch these 3 over the next week.

The other 2 noms are Crip Camp and My Octopus Teacher.

The Mole Agent is fantastic

Have only seen My Octopus Teacher, and I think it's the clear favorite.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

My Octopus Teacher made me cry. Great movie.

The Father made me cry. And the wife even more. Incredible movie if you've ever had a family member suffer from memory loss or dementia as they age, incredible movie even if you haven't.

Going thru it now, no way im watching that.

Real life is sad enough.

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

This is something that's been an issue for me over the past couple years. I have a much tougher time sitting down to digest a film or show that I know will rip my heart apart. I'll still have the odd night where I'm ready to cry and just embrace it with a somber film. But more often than not, I simply add it to the pile of super sad **** that I want to watch, but don't want to watch (and may possibly never watch).

Some of it is the weight current of emotional stress, state of the world and whatnot, but I think a lot of it is individual life experience. I know that after my younger brother died, I couldn't stomach any scene of simulated death for almost 2 years.

are you my alt account that became self aware?

never got emotional at all over any movies at all first 30 or so years of my life, lately I have an overwhelming urge to tear up over what seems to be the most trivial things both sad an happy, was trying to find a beautiful mind clip to share in a thread here and came across the scene where they give the guy their pens and it just crushed me

sorry to hear about your brother, one my best friends in college lost his brother his senior year, the amount of emotional force that hit him, he was never quite the same again - glad to hear you've pulled through

Blow the Man Down Watchable tale of murder(s) in a New England town. Nothing special but not horrible.

Oliver! My favorite musical if you don't count Wizard of Oz as a musical. I love every number in it.

The Dead Don't Die I appreciate what the director was going for here, but they didn't pull it off, imo. The deadpan schtick just didn't work here. And I generally love zombie movies. Would not recommend.

Cocoon We watched this because we live a few hundred yards away from where it was supposedly filmed. I had heard different stories about the locations so we decided to give it a go. Sure enough, they shot it at the assisted living facility right by our house. You can see our condo complex in the background in many scenes. Kinda cool. Another aside. One of my wife's patients owns the home that has the pool in the pool scenes. She has been in there. As for the movie.... Fun fantasy with a great cast. Worth a watch.

The Swimmer, Frank Perry, 1968

So my GF is is using the John Cheever story today in class, so we watched the movie version, starring Burt Lancaster.

What an absolutely bizarre, fascinating movie...especially for the time.

It's a pretty good adaptation of what I think of as an unfilmable short story that's all metaphor.

Same here. Lost my mom to cancer and if the movie has anything to do with cancer I'm out.

I saw this first many years ago when the local channels broadcast movies to fill late night schedules. Loved it then, which made me seek out the Cheever story that's simply brilliant.

Check out an equally bizarre film, The Adding Machine, based on a play by Elmer Rice, which was also one of those late night staples.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

will do

Instant Family - You could criticise it for being formulaic and schmaltzy. If you're a boring ****, you could complain about it being another white saviour film. Screw all that though, any faults are redeemed by great performances and plenty of smart jokes. A film that will brighten your evening.

+1 on instant family. I was skeptical given Marky Mark, but it’s a good movie.

This movie was considered crazy when it came out--it was what today would be called a cult movie. It made for some really great late-night bull sessions.

Just saw that Criterion Channel is doing a run of gambling movies in April. The lineup:

Dark City (1950)
Las Vegas Story (1952)
Bob le flambeur (1956)
The Hustler (‘61)
Bay of Angels (‘63)
Pale Flower (‘64)
5 Card Stud (‘58)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (‘71)
California Split (‘74)
The Gambler (‘74)
The Killing or a Chinese Bookie (‘76)
Atlantic City (‘80)
Tricheurs (‘84)
House of Games (‘87)
Queen of Diamonds (‘91)
Hard Eight (‘96)
Croupier (‘98)

I’m sure this has all been discussed in here ad nauseum but any favorites, skips, must-see’s? I’ve always been wary of gambling - especially poker - movies, and from the list I’ve only seen the Hustler and Hard Eight (love them both).

Thanks!

I do not know about the others, but these 5 are a must

House of Games is quite good from memory, although I haven't seen in years. David Mamet wrote it and iirc might have directed it also actually although I'm not 100% on this last part. Definitely worth a look though.

I'm somewhat surprised Rounders isn't included in that list btw.