"Babe Ruth at Sing Sing" is a good documentary. On Sept. 5, 1929, the New York Yankees, led by their star player Babe Ruth, played an exhibition game against the inmate baseball team at Sing Sing prison. This documentary examines the backstory — exploring the social history of the era by weaving back and forth between the careers of Babe Ruth, the major sports figure of his day, and Lewis Lawes, who as warden of Sing Sing was considered "America's Warden."
Just watched the film Baraka. 9.5/10 I'm going to have to watch more of his films now. What a visual feast for the eyes. This is my cousin's review below. He describes it well. If ever there was a film that everyone should see at least once, it's Baraka. It's nearly 30 years old and is still so magnificent. The film was shot in 70mm making it beautifully captured in its time, and it is also the first film ever to be restored and scanned at 8K resolution. The film was directed by world-renowned cinematographer, Ron Fricke and was shot in 24 countries on six continents. It is accurately described as, "a transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition. These are the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature's own prisms of symmetry, savagery, harmony and chaos." In my opinion, it's a masterpiece of cinematography and most certainly a personal favorite. It's currently free on Amazon Prime if any of you are curious to see it.
Valley Girl 2020 - 5/10 It will pass 2 hours late at night. Possibly some new faces in there that will be sticking around, but generally all over the place. Some familiar faces too.
Watching Knives Out again on Amazon Prime. For folks who like their mysteries with a dash of humor? 8/10 I’m watching it because of the news I ran across yesterday. Netflix has ponied up somewhere north of $400 million bucks for the rights to make two sequels of the flick, both directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daniel Craig. Turns out that Knives, made on a budget of $40 million and getting Craig only because his last Bond film was delayed, made $311 million worldwide, making it a huge hit. The producers (including Johnson) had a deal where they were given complete film rights to any sequels, and when putting the sequels up for sale they ended up in the middle of a bidding war between (reportedly) Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, “and others.” Netflix came out on top. God knows what Craig will make doing the two films. One hell of a lot, I imagine, and he gets a new “post-Bond” franchise that he doesn’t have to spend 6 months getting into shape for.
Godzilla vs Kong. 7/10. Thought it was a decent story and good action. Spoiler Thought the MechaGodzilla aspect was a little forced and surprised they didn’t have a stand alone movie for that. I guess they can always build him again.
Unreal. Netflix is opening their wallet in a big way in an attempt to get some separation from the competition. Much like HBO, they’ve gone from the “only game in town” to being a big player among a lot of other players with deep pockets. Meanwhile, we watch it all play out while deciding what to watch, and pay for.
Watched the Guy Ritchie flick, The Gentleman 6/10 it kept my attention but did not do anything that interesting and I knew the opening scene was a red herring. The best thing was this song and the whole idea of the Toddlers. Colin Ferrel was great as was Charlie Hunman. Mathew was ok but not the best part of the movie. I liked his earlier stuff better (Guy Ritchie) Would love for him to do a movie about the Toddlers.
Watched Ben Wheatley's In The Earth this past weekend, he wrote and shot it during the spring and summer of last year. You can see the idea start with the pandemic and then branch off in stranger and stranger ways as the film moves on. It really feels like 2001: A Space Odyssey in a forest with a dash of Heart of Darkness and a healthy helping of body horror. It's weird, nutty and not all together cohesive but its interesting a film student sort of way..... B-
I like this one. I watched it several times and it kept getting better. The first time I saw it, felt it was decent. I’d recommend watching it again. Worked for me. It’s very good Guy Ritchie.
I don't think I really missed anything and the twists were telegraphed. Maybe I am used to how he does things but it seems his other movies were a bit more complex. What gets better?
Maybe we’ll get lucky and Rian Johnson has something special under his hat and can uncork another good one. He’s reportedly written the screenplays for both and those scripts are key. Same production team, first sequel filming in Greece at the end of June, from what I’ve read. If nothing else, great scenery! I love Greece, especially the islands. After the success of the first film, I bet there will be top actors eager to join the ensembles. It would be really cool if they had Craig’s terrific wife, Rachel Weisz, as a suspect in one of them. I’d love to see them play off each other as antagonists.
Watched Griekwastad...a subtitle movie, so be prepared...A very dark story that is based on a true story. I will say the music was perfect for it (it sort of reminded me of how good the music in Interstellar was). Amazon Prime so that is nice. 8.5/10 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10100966/
Watched the documentary Crip Camp. It was way better than I expected. Way better. I give it an easy 9 out of 10.
El Robo del Siglo (The Great Heist) (2020) Inspired by a real event in 1994. A crew of regular guys, pulls off a heist of century robbing Columbia's central bank. Movie is in español but has English subtitles. I enjoyed it. Grade A-
Watched Willy's Wonderland last night. Easily the best movie I've seen in 2021. Could have been awesome if other aspects of this movie were as great as Nic Cage was in the starring role. 10/10 would hit
