Saw three Amazon Prime movies this weekend with SWMBO (meaning no sports, horror, or science fiction): Lost City of Z: 6 of 10: Beautiful scenery, interesting true story of British military guy exploring and searching for a lost civilization in the Amazon. Dragged a bit in places but a few very good parts. Miss Meadows: 6 out of 10. Quirky Katie Holmes movie about a substitute teacher with a mysterious background. A few silly parts but easy to like. Plus I like Katie Holmes. East Side Sushi: 8 out of 10. Really likable "Rocky" type story... young latina from east Oakland who tries to help her daughter and dad by getting a job at a sushi restaurant, overcoming challenges of being female and non-Japanese.
The Post 6/10 I was expecting so much more from this film. The audience kept laughing at scenes that weren't supposed to be funny -- that's how campy and overly-earnest a lot of it was. The scenes with Nixon were so laughably bad it remined me of Larry David playing Steinbrenner. Streep was solid. Most of the cast was solid. But Hanks... oh my lord, his performance is seriously worthy of The Room. I hope people get enjoyment from laughing at those clips for decades to come. I can't quite get my head around how bad he was. It's like the director kept coming up to him... "Okay, Tom. Sorry, that was way too believable. Can you sound more like a pirate? And can you make your face look like you're having some sort of seizure, or like you just ate a lemon one slice at a time? Good, that's better. Now, whatever you do, don't open your mouth very much when you talk. Yes, that's better. Think -- stroke victim holding a live car battery terminal. Okay, I think we're getting there."
I like to think Ben Bradlee really went around talking out of the side of this mouth like that. 7/10 for me.
American Ultra - 6.5/10 I have been avoiding this movie because I thought it was going to be utterly awful. I was pleasantly surprised. It's mostly a brainless action movie but it's got some hutzpah. Operation Chromite - 6/10 A Korean movie with subtitles about the taking of Incheon during the Korean War. Saw this on Netflix, subtitles were a little slow to the action on the screen. Enjoyed the movie, wasn't aware about how all of it went down. The most troubling part of the movie was having Liam freaking Neeson to play Douglas MacArthur. It probably didn't matter to the Koreans, one white or another white guy, whatevs. I guess it's karmic payback for how Hollywood depicts Asians.
I had such a different reaction to the film. For me, it was an uplifting reminder of just what good journalism can do in a society where it's not yet illegal to speak truth to power, and it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside about the Fourth Estate. The Pentagon Papers is often overlooked because of Watergate, which had the good fortune to have a brilliant film made of the "truth stranger than fiction" story. This isn't close to being as good a film, with Spielberg diving whole hog into Frank Capra, but I still enjoyed it. It's a story very pertinent to today's national crisis with Mr. trump, and a story that deserved to be retold. Yeah, the fake Nixon looked ridiculous!
9/10 for me as well; makes me more appreciative of Kate Graham’s contribution, via the HUGE financial / political / public relations risks she took in publishing the Pentagon papers . I’ll probably see it again this w/e Streep was superb; Jason Robard’s portrayal of Ben Bradley in “All the president’s men” was more convincing than Hanks in this movie
I agree about Robards as Bradley. He was much more believable in the role, in my opinion. All the President's Men is simply a much better film. That didn't have a negative impact on enjoying The Post, however, at least for me.
Wasn't super deep but surprisingly entertaining. Jumanji 2017 - 6.7 Downsizing - a little quirky 7.5 Red heads go! Spoiler
Shot Caller Much better than I expected honestly. I would say 6/10, which would put it basically right in line with all reviews, but I'd bump it to 7/10 because Nikolaj Coster-Waldau actually killed it acting wise. I mean its not going to win him an Oscar, but for a guy so completely tied to his more famous on screen character, he really did a great job.
