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Post by erik on May 16, 2020 10:54:57 GMT -8
SPEEDOne of the better high-octane action films of the last thirty years, this 1994 smash stars Keanu Reeves as an L.A. cop battling like crazy to stop a deranged bomber (Dennis Hopper) from blowing up a transit bus as part of a homicidal extortion. The catch is this: The bus's speed can't fall below 50 miles per hour, or the bomb will detonate. Sandra Bullock became a star as the bus passenger who helps Reeves. Brilliantly done action scenes, and a whole lot of suspense in the manner of DUEL and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE. 10/10. STRAW DOGSDirector Sam Peckinpah's masterful but disturbing 1971 psychological horror film stars Dustin Hoffman as a mathematician looking to continue his studies by escaping the American campus violence of the time (Kent State, etc.) to the English countryside; but he soon finds that he can't exactly hide forever from what is inside him. The film remains controversial unto this day for the horrific rape scene involving Hoffman's wife (Susan George) that happens halfway through (many critics branded the maverick director a misogynist or a fascist); and the siege at the end still remains very horrifying. Nevertheless, it is a very insightful look at how far some people can be pushed before a certain Rubicon is crossed. 10/10.
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Post by erik on Jun 8, 2020 5:40:23 GMT -8
LA 92National Geographic aired this documentary film on April 21, 2017, eight days short of the 25th anniversary of the event it revisits, the 1992 Los Angeles riots touched off by the acquittal of four Los Angeles cops in the near-fatal 1991 videotaped beating of Rodney King the year before. It seems so prescient to what is happening today; and much of the footage shown here had rarely if ever been seen before by the public prior to this film. 10/10.
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Ross
Teen Chick
Posts: 699
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Post by Ross on Aug 4, 2020 12:55:31 GMT -8
Atomic Blonde 9/10
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Post by erik on Oct 31, 2020 17:57:30 GMT -8
Tonight, I am doing my annual Halloween tradition....which is: THE SHINING
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Post by erik on Nov 13, 2020 21:15:07 GMT -8
ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOODLeonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt star as, respectively, a TV cowboy and his stunt double who find themselves in a Hollywood of 1969 that they don't recognize anymore in this 2019 opus from PULP FICTION meister Quentin Tarantino. They do, however, manage to hob-nob with Hollywood heavyweights like superstar Steve McQueen, ROSEMARY'S BABY director Roman Polanski, Polanski's girlfriend and actress Sharon Tate, and, much more ominously, a group of obviously brainwashed hippie women whose enclave is a place called Spahn Ranch. DiCaprio and Pitt are quite good in their roles, but it is Margo Robbie's portrayal of the doomed Sharon Tate that stands out (and whose performance, thanks to her meticulous research of Tate's life, earned her the plaudits of Tate's family). This film is full of the things one expects in a Quentin Tarantino film: pop-culture references, hipster dialogue (laced with tons of profanity), and graphic violence...and, at 162 minutes, it is sometimes quite drawn out. But I'm still recommending it. 8.5/10.
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Post by oregonchickfan on Dec 15, 2020 2:48:25 GMT -8
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Post by oregonchickfan on Dec 15, 2020 18:25:59 GMT -8
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice 7/10 Another Stana Katic film, just before she starred in Castle. Not really my cup of tea; just a fan trying to catch up on her movies. m.imdb.com/title/tt1146438/
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Post by erik on Feb 20, 2021 19:46:36 GMT -8
COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECTRevisiting this underrated 1970 science fiction/suspense drama, which concerns itself with the titular supercomputer that controls the nuclear arsenal of NORAD and then, once it finds that it has a twin on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain, proceeds to pair up with the Soviet system to restrain both superpowers in the most disturbing way possible. Featuring Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, and William Schallert, this film lives somewhat under the shadow of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY by virtue of having its main character be a supercomputer (as HAL was in Kubrick's film), and is undoubtedly dated in terms of its technology. But that doesn't necessarily mean its message isn't still timely even now in the third decade of the 21st century. 9/10.
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Post by erik on Aug 14, 2021 10:46:19 GMT -8
THE CURSE OF LA LLORONAAn ancient Mexican legend of a "Weeping Woman" (La Llorona), that of a woman who had drowned her child in a river in Mexico three hundred years ago, appears before a clinical psychologist (Linda Cardellini) investigating a child endangerment case in 1973 Los Angeles. Not a great horror film, like some of the movies it pays loose homage to ( POLTERGEIST; THE EXORCIST; THE SHINING; GHOST), but I've seen far worse. But although less graphic than most, I wouldn't let the young'uns see it unacoompanied. 8/10.
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Post by erik on Oct 15, 2021 20:38:15 GMT -8
THE OMENIt may have been 45 years since it was released (in June 1976), but this hair-raising horror film classic, directed by Richard Donner ( SUPERMAN; LETHAL WEAPON), about an ambassadorial couple (Gregory Peck; Lee Remick) unwittingly adapting a baby who is the Antichrist is still exceptional. A number of death scenes in this film still give people nightmares, although only one of them is particularly graphic (and you will know which one it is if you've seen it). Jerry Goldsmith won his only Academy Award for Best Music Score for this hugely controversial Satanic shocker (an offspring of THE EXORICST) which, at a cost of $4 million, went on to gross $90 million. 9.5/10.
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Post by erik on Oct 27, 2021 16:43:04 GMT -8
FRENZYThe second-to-last film of the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock, this 1972 psychological horror film found the portly director returning to his native England one final time. This film involves a series of hideous necktie murders in London, with the London cops looking for a man (Jon Finch) with a violent temper, though he may not actually be the one doing the crimes. Every bit as brilliantly conceived as PSYCHO and THE BIRDS, this film is also the director's most explicitly violent, and filled with a fairly ghoulish amount of black comedy. 10/10.
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Post by erik on Dec 11, 2021 21:56:34 GMT -8
WEST SIDE STORYNo one would have thought that a 1961 movie musical that won a record-setting 10 Academy Awards would have warranted a reworking. But that's what Hollywood's favorite riverboat gambler Steven Spielberg has done with his own take on WEST SIDE STORY. Into the roles of Tony and Maria that were done sixty years ago by Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood are Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler, caught up in an ethnic gang turf war with severe implications for their love. Zegler, in her first-ever big-screen appearance, gives a performance for the ages. 10/10.
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Post by erik on Feb 28, 2022 18:00:48 GMT -8
BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCKSpencer Tracy stars as a one-armed WW II veteran who arrives in a very small town along a railroad line at the foot of the eastern Sierra Nevada to find the whereabouts of a Japanese soldier who saved his life in battle. But he finds that this town he's in has an extremely ugly secret about that soldier, wrapped up in false patriotism and violent racism. Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine portray two very vicious toughs, and their boss is portrayed by Robert Ryan with considerable and scary authority (in truth, Ryan was one of the most progressive and liberal actors of his time). A staggering combination of film-noir and modern day Western elements that is as potent even to this day as it was when it came out in 1955. 10/10.
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Post by erik on Jun 26, 2022 17:44:15 GMT -8
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINIONThe sixth and final Jurassic Park/ Jurassic World saga puts Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum into the same terrifying situation, confronting the fact that once-dead creatures now roam the world among us humans. 8/10. ELVISAustin Butler stars as The King in this 2022 biopic directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann (of MOULIN ROUGE fame). Tom Hanks portrays Elvis' conniving manager "Colonel" Tom Parker. 10/10.
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Post by erik on Sept 13, 2022 19:52:00 GMT -8
WONDER WOMANWONDER WOMAN 1984Patty Jenkins is in the director's chair for both of these films, and Gal Gadot takes up the role of Diana, the Amazon princess who is indisputably the greatest female figure in comic book history--which makes you wonder why it took so long for this character to get even one stand-alone movie, let alone two. Both films get a rating of 9 out of 10. P.S.: Stay through the credits of Wonder Woman 1984 for the appearance of the Amazon warrior Asteria. You can't possibly miss who the actress is that's portraying her.
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Post by erik on Nov 25, 2022 16:06:16 GMT -8
THE FABELMANSSteven Spielberg gives us a semi-autobiographical look at his life through his alter ego Samy Fabelman (Gabrielle LaBelle) as he grows up in a Jewish family and learns the art of filmmaking, even if his technology-minded father Burt (Paul Dano) regards it as a mere "hobby". But then he has to face a dark secret within his family involving his mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams); and once the family moves from Arizona to Northern California, he has to face anti-Semitism up close and personal in a largely WASP high school. This movie is a celebration of Spielberg's appreciation of the power of movies, starting with 1952's The Greatest Show On Earth, which he sees at age 5, to the meeting he has with one of his directing idols in 1965, but it also shows how his family's turmoil and the anti-Semitism he encounters also shaped him as a person. 10/10.
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Post by erik on Jul 20, 2023 13:56:48 GMT -8
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINYHarrison Ford takes up the whip for one last go-around as Indiana Jones, this time trying to get his hands on an ancient dial that could alter the history of the human race, and encountering all manner of nefarious types, including even his goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and, of course, Nazis. It's not just the years or the mileage; it's now the millennia. 8/10.
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Post by erik on Aug 27, 2023 16:23:39 GMT -8
OPPENHEIMERBritish writer/director Christopher Nolan's epic biopic on noted American physicist Robert Oppenheimer (here played by Cillian Murphy) explores both how he developed the ultimate WMD, the atomic bomb, and how his involvement with certain figures on the Left during World War II and the successive Cold War made him a target of extreme anti-Commie scrutiny by the U.S. military and the FBI. 10/10. And now for something completely different (LOL): BARBIEGreta Gerwig (LADY BIRD; LITTLE WOMEN) directed and co-wrote what has to be considered the most unexpected Hollywood blockbuster hit in recent times--a full-on film based on the ultimate female doll that first appeared publicly via Mattel in 1959. Margot Robbie is the famed titular character, with Ryan Gosling as Ken. This is occasionally an over-the-top film full of gaudiness, goofiness, occasional camp overacting, and a little bit of blatant point-making, but much of it is still spot-on; and Gerwig, Robbie, and Gosling make the most of it--starting off with a witty homage to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and droll narration by Dame Helen Mirren. 9/10.
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Post by eaglemaster on Aug 27, 2023 22:42:38 GMT -8
And now for something completely different (LOL): BARBIEGreta Gerwig (LADY BIRD; LITTLE WOMEN) directed and co-wrote what has to be considered the most unexpected Hollywood blockbuster hit in recent times--a full-on film based on the ultimate female doll that first appeared publicly via Mattel in 1959. Margot Robbie is the famed titular character, with Ryan Gosling as Ken. This is occasionally an over-the-top film full of gaudiness, goofiness, occasional camp overacting, and a little bit of blatant point-making, but much of it is still spot-on; and Gerwig, Robbie, and Gosling make the most of it--starting off with a witty homage to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and droll narration by Dame Helen Mirren. 9/10. I so much agree with you, Eric. Barbie - the movie is really fun to watch and contains some pieces of truth that are hurting at least part of the men - meaning male men - who continue to try to dominate our societies.
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Post by erik on Aug 28, 2023 15:15:57 GMT -8
Quote by eaglemaster:
Indeed, which is why Barbie is a target for the so-called "culture warriors" on the Right, all of them men (natch!). Even one minor slap at male patriarchy and domination is enough to "trigger" these people off. I shake my head at this.
And I suppose you have also heard of this so-called "Barbenheimer" phenomena, where some moviegoers have actually seen Barbie and Oppenheimer (which, incidentally, were released on the same weekend [July 21st]) either back-to-back on the same day, or one film one day, the other film the next. Barbie is clearly the runaway hit at the box office ($1.3 billion, as of this writing); but Oppenheimer, with its own box office take of $800 million, isn't exactly starving for cash either.
I don't think you could have imagined two more starkly different films becoming box office smashes out of the same starting gate if you tried; but that's what we have here this year.
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Post by eaglemaster on Aug 28, 2023 22:35:56 GMT -8
Yes, Eric, we are living in interesting times...
There is another phenomenom with Barbie - the movie. Apparently, there is quite a number of ladies who decided to dump their boyfriend after having watched the movie. It seems the movie also serves as eye-opener in some relationships.
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Post by erik on Aug 30, 2023 5:38:35 GMT -8
In this way, then, Barbie can be seen as something of a cautionary tale, once people can go beyond the stereotypes it depicts. Frothy and crazy as it is (and it is frothy and crazy in many ways), it does seem to tell us how and why women cannot be put into neat little boxes by men, or be controlled by the standards that men have set up over millions of years.
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Post by erik on Nov 20, 2023 19:16:26 GMT -8
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGS AND SNAKESThe origins of the Hunger Games and its latter-day leader Coriolanus Snow are on full display in this "prequel" to its four predecessors in this series based on Suzanne Collins' best-selling novels. Tom Blyth is a younger Coriolanus, who here is given the assignment to mentor District 12 "tribute" Lucy Gray Baird, an itinerant mountain folk singer played by...wait for it...Rachel Zegler (whose performance as Maria in director Steven Spielberg's 2021 re-imagining of West Side Story is a performance for the ages). Some fairly hair-raising violence is balanced by Zegler's ultra-convincing Appalachian folk singing. 8/10.
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Post by erik on Jan 20, 2024 21:37:36 GMT -8
I.S.S.American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts working together on the International Space Station are suddenly made to turn on each other when a war between their two countries breaks out rather visibily below them, and both are separately advised to take control of I.S.S. by any means necessary. Ariana DeBose, who won an Oscar in 2021 for Best Supporting Actress as Anita in West Side Story, leads this six-person cast in this combination of science fiction, political horror, and psychological thriller directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Not always plausible, but fairly scary and suspenseful in the right places. 8/10.
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