What was the last movie you saw...? Part IV

[Charger]

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE

Eddie and Venom are in Mexico on the run when a creature sent to hunt the symbiotes arrives on Earth. They must evade it and a team of Special ops guys run by General Strickland. But they do get captured and taken to Area 51 but they are anything but safe in there.

The final part of the trilogy does what Guardians III did...adding some melancholy and sadness but carries it with great action and over the top humor.

Tom Hardy was made to play Eddie Brock, he absolutely shines in the role.

This is hands down the best one of the trilogy and honestly it could have been a good 20 minutes longer and I would not have minded one bit.

Great ending to what was a bit of an offshoot of the MCU.


*  *  *  *  ½

[Zzzptm]

On Saturday night, my wife and I watched Marty: Life is Short on Netflix. It's a warm portrayal of a warm person, Martin Short. Through the years, both Short's professional ups and downs are shown alongside his life with family and friends. Throughout, it touches on his tragedies in losing close family members and how he coped through acts of remembrance. The professional stuff is interesting and funny, the family and friends segments are warm and dynamic and the segments on loss left me and my wife with tears as we reflected on the losses in our own lives.

In sum, it's a presentation of a life well lived, a life lived with warmth, courage, humor, and kindness. Unless he was roasting one of his friends, and then kindness went out the window, in a loving sort of way.

[Typhon]

Sneakers (1992)

Saw it last night.  I agree with Charger and Thel.  It was clever and entertaining. 8/10

[Charger]

^^
Excellent!

[Thelemech]

I had a feeling you would enjoy it 

[Typhon]

Greenland (2020)

As fragments of a planet-killing comet strike the Earth, a man (Gerard Butler), his estranged wife (Morena Baccarin) and their young boy embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary.

Great special effects both visually and sonically.  9/10

[Charger]

^^
I have not seen that one...it has been on my watchlist for quite a while... Thank's to your recommendation I think I'll put it on top of the list.



THE TUXEDO

A cab driver Jimmy Tong is recruited to be the chauffeur for a rich secret Agent named Clark Devlin, when an assassination attempt leaves Devlin comatosed and asking for help, Jimmy puts on the agent's Tuxedo which is bit more than just a suit and he finds himself trying to prevent a madman polluting all the drinking water in the US. He partners up with a beautiful Secret Agent who thinks Jimmy IS Clark Devlin.

Jackie Chan puts his body to work in this rather hilarious Action Comedy. The always lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt does a great job as his partner and Ritchie Coster does another great bad guy role.

Great fight sequences from Jackie accompanied by several laugh out loud moments. This is actually something of an underrated Jackie Chan classic.


*  *  *  *

[Typhon]

Posse (1975)

A tough marshal (Kirk Douglas), with high political ambitions, leads an elite posse to capture a notorious train robber (Bruce Dern) and his gang.

The film starts out like a typical Western, but does not end like one.  8/10

[Zzzptm]

The Girl Can't Help It (1956)

This one's free on YouTube. I picked it because it's got a soundtrack that covers some great material from Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and The Treniers. The writer/director Frank Tashin came out of cartoons, so it uses visual humor and some over-the-top caricatures. The plot drags during the first hour, but the music numbers maintain the interest. The last half hour, things pick up and I got invested in the story. However, if the musical acts were subtracted from the film, it would have no impact on the plot, with the exception of the one number the main characters perform. So it's like the rock and roll tunes are part of the scenery, the setting, and not material to the story itself. Conversely, if the plot is subtracted, one has some color footage of some immortal rock and roll acts in their prime. Some of their deliveries are stiff - Little Richard, in particular, was much more fluid in concert than what we see him corralled into for the movie here. The Treniers give the most natural performance with "Rockin' Is Our Business", ironically them also being the only act not performing for an audience.

It was one of the first movies to have rock and roll in it as a major part of the footage. Compared to Heavy Metal, it's tons better in terms of soundtrack and continuity. But I don't need to see it again, I just had to see it the once because I do a radio show with music from the era.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Project Hail Mary

I've seen this twice now. IMDb describes this as a "Sci-Fi Epic", "Buddy Comedy" and "Dark Comedy". It stars Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller and James Ortiz. It is based on the book of the same name by author Andy Weir who also wrote The Martian a few years back and which was turned into a successful film.

In the film the Sun is slowly being "eaten" by astrophage (tiny bugs) which have taken up residence on Venus. In a few decades Earth will become too cold to be habitable. Astronomers have noticed the same dimming effect in a number of other stars in the neighbourhood... except one Tau Ceti! Ryland Grace (Gosling) is part of a project sent to Tau Ceti by project co-ordinator Eve Stratt (Huller). Not everyone survives the trip and once there Grace meets with a stone like alien which he calls Rocky (Ortiz does the motion capture). They combine their resources to solve the problem.

An intelligent SF film based on real science, they don't though dwell too much on the actual science that is undertaken, that might have got boring! There is humour and drama in equal measures. The present day is interspersed with flashbacks to how the mission began. Acting great, characters great, effects great and story great! 9.5/10

[Charger]

PALE RIDER

A mysterious Preacher saves a timid gold miner from being beaten up by a gang and ends up protecting a group of miners from a dirty playing businessman and his henchmen during the Californian gold rush.

Clint Eastwood draws from his past westerns and adds a bit to the myth of the nameless rider.

The movie doesn't boast with action but there is some of that too and even a hint of humor here and there eventhough the overall vibe is rather melancholical.

Eastwood carries the movie with his charisma and young Michael Moriarty (later from Law & Order) does a pretty good job as the gold miner and even the Bond villain Rirchard Kiel makes a mighty appearance.

This isn't among Clint's best westerns, those he did in the 60s and 70s but it's still a solid piece of work from the master.


*  *  *  ½

[Typhon]

^^^^^^
Agreed, 7/10 on my scale.  The ending is rather weak.

[Charger]

JACK RYAN - GHOST WAR

Dr. Jack Ryan has left the CIA and is working as a consultant when his old friend and mentor Jim Greer asks him to do one little favour for him and pick up a package from Dubai, needless to say things got sideways and Jack finds himself fighting a bunch of rogue operators.

Continuation to the Jack Ryan tv show with most of the same cast including the awesome John Krasinski as Ryan, Wendell Pierce as Greer and Michael Kelly as Mike November. All do great jobs again. And best of all the chemistry is still there and especially the banter between Jack and Mike is at times priceless.

Sienna Miller is the new face as an MI6 officer and she also does a good job. Max Beesley as the bad guy isn't too bad at all either.

Turning a tv series into a movie is not without it's challenges but Ghost War does a good job...the it's mostly filmed on locations in Dubai and in London which is nice and something a TV show budget rarely allows. The action is fast and fierce and the humor is great.

Is it as great as the tv show was...maybe not quite, is it as good as the Harrison Ford movies...nearly, better than the Affleck and Pine movies, hell yes!


*  *  *  *

[Typhon]

Passion (2013)

The rivalry between the manipulative boss (Rachel McAdams) of an advertising agency and her talented protégée escalates from stealing credit to public humiliation to murder.

Written and directed by Brian De Palma, the story stays interesting throughout.  However, the ending is deliberately nonsensical.  That alone reduces the rating for me.  7/10

[Zzzptm]

The Rats of Tobruk (1944)

I'm sick, so I'm watchin' a war movie.

Well, this one's something of a dud. I am in agreement with the contemporary review from the Sydney Morning Herald:

The fictional background is dull and uninventive, the characterisation often stilted and self-consciously patterned to arbitrary types, and the editing loose and jumpy as the story, which, in its amateurish nature, is a dead weight on the entire production. The chief merits of the film, which was made in the face of great difficulties that may explain, but do not excuse, its weaknesses for a commercial market, are its reconstruction of Tobruk and the fidelity of its action scenes to historic fact. Yet, while these action scenes are truthful, their interpretation by the author leaves their outlines and purposes vague so that an audience has to guess too much about who's fighting whom and what the strategy is.

I've seen it and, yes, the combat action is pretty good in it. There's just not a whole lot of it, though. The first 40 minutes are pretty dreary. Having seen Gallipoli, I know a later Australian director could do justice both to backstory and proper action.