New year, new thread. I'll try to keep my contributions regular, unlike the 2018 thread. So, for Christmas, I bought myself the AMC Stubs monthly membership, $20 a month, three free movies a week. Hell, yes. That thing paid for itself midway through the second 3D movie. Today, I made my first trip of the year to AMC Lufkin, and had a double feature of Dr. Seuss' The Grinch and Clint Eastwood's The Mule. This will probably get me put on a list in some government database. Grinch was cute, had a few good jokes, I bet it looked great in 3D back when it opened in November, but overall, I didn't much care for it. Glad I got to see it for free. Even used a survey code for a free popcorn. The Mule has a great cast. But its deathly dull, lacking drama, suspense, and or any kind of umph. And I really don't want to think about a ninety year old drug runner having orgies. Thanks for that, Clint. Up next, Escape Room tomorrow night for my third free movie of the week! Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - theater The Mule - theater
Holy crap, that's a killer deal. Are there any limitations with that deal (i.e. times of day, days of the week)? There's nothing like that with the theatre chains where I live! We pay $16 and up for a ticket then get bent over a barrel if we want popcorn.
I know, right? Makes me wish I'd signed up for this months ago! No limits on time of day, or days of the week. I've seen three Thursday night openings - Bumblebee 3D, Aquaman 3D, and Escape Room with the membership, too. The only limit was that last week, the AMC Tyler was showing the WWI documentary from Peter Jackson, and it did not have the Stubs discount. I would have had to pay for a ticket if I had gone, so I missed out on that one. The timetable is from Friday to Thursday, three free movies, too, so pretty much every weekend opening, I'm all set. It doesn't hurt that there are four AMC theaters within about a hour's drive from my place - Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Tyler & Longview - and I've been to three of 'em. The AMC Longview would be a new theater for me, but unless they have something none of the others do, I'm not in a rush, since it is the furthest one out. Anyway, went to see Escape Room earlier tonight. It had the kind of opening I hate, and the ending was a bit disappointing, but the rooms themselves from which they have to escape were pretty cool. And since that's most of the movie, not a bad night out. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - theater The Mule - theater Escape Room - theater
I saw Mary Poppins Returns on New Year's Day and absolutely loved it. Interesting given I'd never seen the original until watching it on Christmas Eve, and I wasn't that impressed so I worried I wouldn't like Poppins Returns.
^ Really? I loved the original, been watching it off and one since I was a kid, but hated this sequel so very much. Watched it Christmas week with my AMC membership. I felt it went beyond a wink & nudge to the audience to outright elbow to the ribs, "Ya see what we did there? Did ya?" Though that may just be me, 'cause the dude in the row in front of me was damn near ugly crying by the time Dick Van Dyke showed up for his brief scene.
I thought some of the callbacks were quite subtle, but obviously I've only seen the original once so a lot of stuff likely went over my head. It was slickly done and incredibly emotionally manipulative, but I can't deny it manipulated me emotionally.
Bird Box - B+ I was entertained, even when the movie didn't reveal much. Both Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich take what could be one note characters and add layers to them. Even though I would've liked more, I was fine with not knowing what was attacking the planet if only to avoid something silly like the ending of The Happening where the planet is killing humans for being a threat. The ending does however seem to tack on danger of them being separated in the forest just for the hell of it and the last five minutes seem too easy of an out. I Feel Pretty - D Amy Schumer has great potential as an actress, but this was a horrible, horrible movie that I watched to make my wife happy. It was just silly, having moments like an entire conversation about Hidden Valley and Amy asking about stealing condiments for the rich grandmother. We all knew what ending was coming, right down to the "I am awesome because I am me!" But the rest of the movie is a female version of a Will Ferrell movie: a bunch of skit scenes, one after another. Did we really need the awkward bar scene where the guy talks about his "god-niece" in the bikini contest? And does the fact that Amy became a total tool after being looked down on really say good about her character?
I loved it as well. I don't even think the callbacks were a problem, because given the large amount of time between the original and the sequel it was pretty much impossible not to. I loved the subtle musical cues to the original songs when the older Banks were on screen. As a sequel, I thought this was the way sequels should be done. The only thing that gave me pause was the tone. I think that it's darker in tone to the original and I'm not sure it's something you could take young kids to. The scene where they're chasing the villain down in the animated sequence gets loud and could be quite scary for young kids, and there's nothing like it in the original movie. And the scene where Michael is scolding his children is quite intense, when you consider the yelling and the concept of possibility of losing one's house.
Streamed a couple of movies yesterday. Annihilation was visually interesting, but the non-linear storytelling and ending really put me off. Saw the trailer for it back when we went to see Star Wars - The Last Jedi was in theaters, but never noticed it playing around here. Kinda hard to believe Natalie Portman left Marvel to make this, instead. Miami Vice was just awful, though. I was too young to watch the show back in the '80s, so not a fan to start with, but Micheal Mann has done much better work with Heat and Collateral. I was disappointed after watching this. I do have my three tickets preordered for this week's movies. I'll be going to see Welcome to Marwen and Bohemian Rhapsody tomorrow, and The Upside on Thursday. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - theater The Mule - theater Escape Room - theater Annihilation - Hulu Miami Vice (2006) - Netflix
I realize i'm pretty late to the party, but I just watched Black Panther last night on Netflix. Was it a good movie? Absolutely. Was it a great movie? No, not really. I found the basic story to be quite predictable. Is this motion picture Oscar worthy? Not by a long shot. A fun and entertaining pop-corn flick, nothing more. All in all, I was entertained and liked the movie. B+ Q2
Thanks to a headache that hit me like a freight train last night, I only used my AMC Stubs membership to see two movies this past week. Dammit. Drove out to AMC Tyler for a true story double feature on Wednesday. WtM is based off the story of a crossdresser who is the victim of a hate crime, and uses Barbie-sized dolls and a homemade to scale village outside his mobile home as therapy and art. The town is populate by Hoagie, the avatar for the victim, and a half dozen woman, each one a representation of the women in his real life, plus one porn star. And the scaled town is under constant attack by Nazis. Steve Carell did a pretty good job, but seeing the dolls become life-sized in his delusions, and the ending that has Robert Zemeckis copying his previous work in the cheapest way possible just put this movie right off the rails for me. BR still showing two months after it came out in November, and I finally got to it. Not a big Queen fan, not a big Freddy Mercury fan, but I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I especially liked Mike Myers' small role in it. And I'm really glad I got to it before the "sing along" version got released today. TC has Liam Neeson trying to find a witness on a train. It was alright, nothing great, Streamed it via Hulu early this morning. Back to watching third season episodes of Boston Legal tonight, may try to get back to AMC on Monday for The Upside and the new Keanu Reeves movie. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - theater The Mule - theater Escape Room - theater Annihilation - Hulu Miami Vice (2006) - Netflix Welcome to Marwen - theater Bohemian Rhapsody - theater The Commuter - Hulu
Second Act is a mess of a chick flick that can't seem to decide what kind of story its trying to tell, and the main plot of it isn't even hinted at in the trailer. Replicas had an interesting idea, but shoddy CGI, a few too many plot holes, and a "the fuck was that?!" ending. I liked The Upside. Bryan Cranston was really good in it, and Kevin Hart wasn't his usual obnoxious level of dear god, make it stop as he's been in previous movies. A friend of mine mentioned a movie made a few years back based on the same true story, I may look into that one, because it is an interesting story. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - theater The Mule - theater Escape Room - theater Annihilation - Hulu Miami Vice (2006) - Netflix Welcome to Marwen - theater Bohemian Rhapsody - theater The Commuter - Hulu Second Act - theater Replicas - theater The Upside - theater
Yep, a french movie called The Intouchables (Les Intouchables). I actually have that one in my collection as an Aunt gave it to me for my Birthday one year. It's a pretty sweet movie. When I saw the promos for the The Upside, I immediately recognized it was a remake of that movie.
Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - theater The Mule - theater Escape Room - theater Annihilation - Hulu Miami Vice (2006) - Netflix Welcome to Marwen - theater Bohemian Rhapsody - theater The Commuter - Hulu Second Act - theater Replicas - theater The Upside - theater A Star is Born (2018) - theater Creed II - theater Glass - theater Went over to the AMC Lufkin yesterday afternoon for a three movie marathon. They've re-released three movies from last fall, and I went out to see Bohemian Rhapsody a couple of weeks in Tyler. So, I was able to get caught up on a couple of others I missed, plus the new release of the week. ASiB is a hell of a good movie, good story, good cast that aside from Bradley Cooper (who also co-wrote & directed) & Lady Gaga includes Andrew Dice Clay, Greg Grunberg, Dave Chappelle, Sam Elliot & Ron Rifkin, and good songs. I haven't seen the previous A Star is Born films, and now I kinda don't want to...what if they are worse, or some how better than this one? CII was a nice continuation of the Rocky franchise, made sense beyond a gimmick to have the sons going up against each other in the story, and it was probably the easiest paycheck Brigette Nielson has ever cashed. I also liked the bit with Adonis getting advice on how to propose from Rocky, who had a quicker wit than normal for his character in that one. The restaurant scene between Rocky & Ivan Drago was good, too. Makes sense there wouldn't be pictures of that fight on the walls. Had the whole theater all to myself for the sequel, too. That was nice. Glass was a nice conclusion to the Unbreakable trilogy that no one expected after the first movie bombed at the box office twenty years ago. And the first M. Night Shyamalan movie I've gone to see in the theater since After Earth, which was also free, since I worked for the Alamo Drafthouse at the time. Last movie of his I paid to see was Signs back in '02. So, I've used up my three free movies for this week. Good times.
Bird Box - B+ I Feel Pretty - D The Commuter - C+ Liam Neeson could read the phone book and make it interesting, but this was a paint by numbers action movie.
Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) - theater The Mule - theater Escape Room - theater Annihilation - Hulu Miami Vice (2006) - Netflix Welcome to Marwen - theater Bohemian Rhapsody - theater The Commuter - Hulu Second Act - theater Replicas - theater The Upside - theater A Star is Born (2018) - theater Creed II - theater Glass - theater On the Basis of Sex - theater Fyre Fraud - Hulu Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened - Netflix The Last Laugh - Netflix Chinatown (1974) - Hulu The Two Jakes (1990) - Hulu Pet Sematary (1989) - Hulu Pet Sematary II (1992) - Hulu Green Book - theater Serenity (2019) - theater The Favourite - theater Went over to the Cinemark Lufkin last Tuesday for the discount showing of OtBoS. Good cast, interesting story, but glad I got it at the discount. Almost had the theater to myself, until a mother & daughter came in just before the trailers started. I watched both of the Fyre Fest documentaries on Thursday. Both were interesting & informative, but I think the Hulu one was better. They went more into the guy's history than Netflix's documentary. TLL was entertaining, Chevy Chase still does great facial expressions, and Richard Dreyfuss did get some good one liner laughs. Watched the two Jack Nicholson movies Friday night, one of which he directed. C was okay, but TTJ wasn't as good. Saturday night, I watched to two PS movies, since they keep playing the trailer for the remake when I go to the AMC. The book was better. I went to AMC Lufkin for my three Stubs discount movies. GB was really good, based on the true story of a black musician and his Italian driver touring in the South in 1962. Good casting, I enjoyed it quite a bit. S had a great cast, but a terrible fucking story with a midway twist that really shows how fucked up a character must be...but, yeah. Terrible. TF was better than I thought it would be, and I'm not much of a fan of period films, but it was a good cast.
I loved The Last Laugh. One of Netflix's best, IMHO. Both of them ended up being a good comedic pairing.
Watched The First Man last night via. renting it on Amazon. Decent movie but nothing earth shattering. The way the movie portrayed Neil Armstrong, he was a dick to his wife and kids. Hell of a pilot, but flawed in so many areas. VFX were pretty good and didn't jump out at you screaming 'Fake! Look at me!', something many low-to-mid budget movies do. Overall, rate this one a B+