Gretel and Hansel- 5.5/10 More of an artsy film, which I usually like. I don’t hate it, but felt like it was unimaginative.
It seemed dated to me, and not in a good way. it almost felt like a movie shot 10 years ago that just sat in the editing room until someone decided to give it a chance.
The Money Pit 8/10 This is Tom Hanks really in his prime and at his best. He had broken free of his sitcom Bossom Buddies and had gained the confidence needed to open his wings and fly after Splash. The movie stars Tom Hanks and the sexy and naughty Shelly Long. Hanks and Long play mid 1980's Reagan era preppies that have been told they must move out of their apartment. As both are highly educated and have money, they decide to buy a home. They learn that there is a "fixer up" home worth a million dollars available for only two hundred thousand dollars. So they decide to over look all the bad signs and buy the home. THAT IS WHEN THE HIGH JINX STARTS! Everything that can go wrong with the house does go wrong. Eventually Hanks and Long begin to fight from the stress of this "money pit" of a home. raccoons living in the walls, bath tubs falling through the ground. Asbestos being sucked into their lungs and a chimney falling. The relationship between Long and Hanks suffers to the point that Long says she wants them to fix up the house and sell it, splitting the proceeds. Hanks eagerly agrees. However, Hanks decides that since he is the one paying for the repairs that he does not want to split the proceeds from selling the home and begins to view Long as an "albatross". Hanks sets up a romantic candle lit dinner to get Long to agree to remain his girlfriend. Hilarity happens when the make shift table collapses and Long says she will never date Hanks again. Hanks responds by pulling out a claw hammer and chasing a frantic Long all around the living room. She eventually is hit in the back of the head by the claw hammer by a blood soaked Hanks.Hanks panics, and turns on the gas stove and lights a camera. Hanks says "I'll see you in hell" as the house explodes and the credits roll.
You’re right, it was dated now that I think about it. I kind of put it in the same category as Legend with Tom Cruise, but far less going on.
Who was better: 80's Tom Hanks or 80's Michael Keaton? Bachelor Party Dragnet The Burbs Big The Money Pit Splash vs: Night Shift Mr. Mom Johnny Dangerously Gung Ho Beetlejuice Batman
The Ghost and Mr Chicken - 8/10 Not sure how well it aged because my nephew (then 15 y/o) called it stupid but I still enjoy it. Its currently playing on MeTV as the Svengoolie movie.
That is a really good question. At the time? Hanks but now 30 years later I prefer Keaton’s 80’s movies. I think Hanks just fit the sensibilities of that time period better while Keaton had an edge that has aged well. Just look at Beetlejuice and Batman... his performances are amazing. Tom Hanks is an American institution and is loved like Jimmy Stewart, so hard to go against him... but I would have a beer with Keaton and tell dirty jokes... with Hanks I would mostly call him Mr. Hanks.
But I would throw out: Tom Hanks wasn't Tom Hanks until the ~mid 90's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tom_Hanks_performances
A Dark Place (Amazon Prime) 7 out of 10. Odd story set in a quiet small town in Ohio where a little boy is found dead in a river. A garbage man (who appears on the spectrum) becomes obsessed with investigating. Great performance by Andrew Scott. Note: I originally said it was Netflix but it was on Amazon Prime as a free movie. Sorry for any confusion I caused.
Terminator: Dark Fate 6/10 Redbox fare. Fluff. Retconning. Did I HATE this movie? No, not really. Full disclosure, I did not see 'Genesis'. This was basically a remix of the first two Terminator movies, starring my Grandma (who was addicted to menthol cigarettes). Memo to the suits who own the Terminator 'franchise': JUST STOP. If you absolutely HAVE to tell more Terminator stories, then tell the stories in the future, as the war against the machines is in fulls swing. That would b far more interesting than this constantly-retconned time travel nonsense. Was it well made? Yeah I suppose so, the effects were ok, and the action was choreographed well enough. Was the directing ok? It was ok. I don't think the director of Deadpool had as much to work with here, so it probably could have been directed by pretty much anybody. How about the writing? Ehhh.. The whole thing felt kind of pointless, certainly nothing particularly compelling in the story. Here's how the meeting went where they were talking about what story to use for the next Terminator movie: "Hey, how about we sort of mix up the first two movies, where the Terminator comes back to kill some random girl.. but then add in the good-guy Arnold robot and also that cool liquid metal guy as the bad guy? Oh also, people watching can think the whole movie long that the bad guy is there to kill the girl because of who her kid will be, just like Linda Hamilton - wait, is she still alive? Yeah? Cool, call her agent, we can put her in it too! Anyway, they will go on and on about how this girl is important because of who her child will be, but then at the end, we turn it into *GIRL POWER*!! because SHE is the important future person, not her kid! Yeah, high five! Gemini Man 6/10 Oh man. You know the term 'uncanny valley', right? I guess this movie could have been pretty good. It was filled with a lot of pretty neat CGI action scenes and CGI combat scenes, which was fun enough.. and both old and young versions of Will Smith... and everybody loves Will Smith, so that was cool.. But wow. And ok, they went on and on in the 'Special Features' section on this disc, talking about how 'the technology is finally here' which would allow them to digitally superimpose Young Will Smith's face onto old Will Smith's face (yes, he performed both roles, mostly, except for occasional body doubles). And let me tell you, if this... was 'the technology finally being here'.. then the technology is never happening, folks. I am neither a programmer nor a digital artist, so I can;t tell you specifically exactly why it doesn't work, but it just flat out doesn't work. And no, I have not watched The Irishman, and I know people are complaining a lot about the 'de-aging' used in that one as well.. maybe it's all part of the same thing, they just can't get over that hump. That said, I think Marvel did a much better job, de-aging RDJ and Michael Douglas, among others, so maybe Gemini Man was just using the wrong digital effects house, I don't know. But it took a passable action flick and turned it into an uncomfortably jarring experience, every time the camera lingered on young Will Smith.. and it lingered a LOT. So, it's a decent movie, it was ambitious, but it just couldn't achieve what they wanted to achieve.
I finally got around to watching Godzilla KOM. They actually captured the flavor of the 70"s Godzilla I grew up with but the plot was meh. Too much time spent on the humans not enough fight scenes IMO. In retrospect the plot was doo doo but I give it a 7/10 because the monsters looked great.
The issue was the script. Innovative tech, great action shots, beautiful cinematography all wrapped in a woefully underwhelming script.
Joker - A superbly acted, good looking, and rather unoriginal and boring story. 7.5/10 Knives Out - An enjoyable but vastly overrated movie that thrived on the strength of its cast. 7/10
21 Bridges- 21/40 Disappointed with this movie. Boseman was decent, pace was rushed, story was lame. Would on Sienna Miller though.
Gemini Man 3/10 Too many eye rolling moments for me. If for some stupid reason you want to assassinate somebody on a high speed train you don't shoot from the side. You shoot from the front when the train is going around a bend and the target is moving towards you....or you just shoot them when the train stops and they get off. The "de-aging" effects also made Will Smith look like an alien, and why the hell is a super duper CIA type assassin using a pistol brace on his rifle like some civillian redneck in Alabama? Awful. Motherless Brooklyn 6/10 Noir type movie that isn't awful but Norton needs to lay off playing the guy with mental/physical problems. You have to really pay attention while watching this movie to keep up with the plot that seems to twist and turn forever.
