Summer begins watching

     This time it has been about a month and a half since my last check-in. My movie viewing slowed a bit for a minute there but I have bounced back in the past few weeks. There just weren’t as many other shows to keep up with. The regular TV season ended and I found myself with a bit more time to look at movies. So, here are the movies I’ve had the chance to watch at home over the past few weeks…

Team America: World Police- I hadn’t watched this since it’s original release in 2004, but I heard Jodie Foster mention in an interview that it was a favorite of hers, so I revisited it. It definitely has some hilarious moments but also gets lost just making fun of people instead of telling the screwy story.

A Face in the Crowd- See Classics section for full review

Anora- It won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Actress so I checked it out. It was funnier than I expected but Best Picture???

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band- I saw this as a little kid on it’s original release and it was on Netflix so I took a new look. The Beatles songs performed by The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton are actually quite good. The film itself is a mess. At times a very entertaining mess, at others a bore.

Companion- This “crazy robot” movie is better than I expected. The Robot didn’t go crazy. The people go crazy and the robot is just trying to survive. It was interesting.

The Return- I guess I’m just not classy or learned enough for this one. It’s about Odysseus’ return from his “Odyssey”. The performances are good, but I was just kind of bored most of the time.

The Accountant- My first time seeing this Ben Affleck action movie. I enjoyed it and will check out the sequel at some point.

Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose- The talents of Simon Pegg and Minnie Driver couldn’t save this little indie comedy, that just isn’t as funny as it’s title promises.

Lee- I liked this bio-pic of female WWII Journalist Lee Miller. Andy Samberg is the real surprise here in his first dramatic role. He’s quite good. It had to be a little intimidating working with Kate Winslet.

The Departed- A revisit of this Best Picture winner. It’s still a very good movie. Best Picture good? That is up for debate.

Venom: The Last Dance- Like the other two movies, it has some nice moments, but over all just not that great.

Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues- This documentary about the great jazz artist is very good. I learned a lot about the man.

The Commitments- I remember seeing and loving this movie when it came out in ‘91. It’s been hard to find on home video in recent years but turned up on Tubi of all things. It’s still really good, but plays like a period movie because it is such a product of it’s time.

The Cotton Club (Encore)- I hadn’t seen this Francis Ford Coppola directed flick. The version I saw was called the “Encore” version, where more of the musical numbers were put back in. It’s good. The performances range from amazing to acceptable, but the musical numbers are all great.

Roustabout- One of the better, not great, Elvis movies of the 1960’s.

Watchmen Part 1 & 2- This is the recent Animated made-for-home video DC movie version. It is very true to the classic comic. I think I prefer the live action film, but it is good.

Moving On- This is a small indie-dark comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Malcolm McDowell, and the late-great Richard Roundtree. It’s not bad.

The Mystic- A silent suspense movie directed by Tod Browning of Dracula and Freaks fame. It’s good. I’d be interested in an updated version.

Sweet Home Alabama- This is what happens when your daughter comes home from College and gets to pick what to watch. This 2002 RomCom must have been the template that all Hallmark movies follow now.

As They Made Us- The feature directing debut of actress Mayim Bialik and starring Dianna Agron (Glee), Dustin Hoffman, Simon Helberg (Big Bang Theory), and Candice Bergen, I guess I was expecting a comedy. While there are lite moments, this is not a comedy but a film about coping with the slow process of losing a parent.

The Brutalist- Yes, I followed As They Made Us with the feel good movie of 2024. It is a good film and it’s 3 hour plus running time does go by faster than I expected.

Burt Reynolds: The Last Interview- While the interview is interesting, the talking head interviews are better.

Kraven the Hunter- I kept wondering why Sony thought a stand-alone Spider-Man villain- Kraven the Hunter movie was a good idea. Now that I’ve seen it, I feel the same way. Sony just doesn’t understand the Marvel characters they control and keep giving them to filmmakers who just want to make them something they never were meant to be. I hear that Sony has given up on making their own Spider-films. I think that’s for the best. (yes, the animated Spider-Verse movies being the exception)

Mickey 17- Finally got to see Bong Joon Ho’s return to sci-fi. It’s weird but good. I did enjoy it. There are some slow moments, but over all I liked it.

Sing Sing- Colman Domingo, who is good in pretty much everything he is in, stars as an inmate in Sing Sing prison who takes part in a theater troupe. It’s quite good.

Fountain of Youth- Director Guy Ritchie and stars John Krasinski & Natalie Portman can’t really save this action adventure movie from mediocrity.

Missing in Action- Not being a big fan of this Chuck Norris movie when it came out I decided to revisit it 40 years later. This is one of the best examples of Reagan era America. Lots of explosions and an angry middle aged white man.

The Skin Game- I discovered this 1971 pre-Civil War western starring James Garner and Louis Gossett Jr. a few years ago and fell in love with it. Susan Clark is good in it too and Ed Asner is a nasty slave-trader. He’d play a similar role in the mini-series Roots a few years later.

A Simple Favor- My first viewing of this 2018 Paul Feig dark comedy. Now that there is a sequel I thought I’d check it out. It is pretty good. I liked it and will, at some point, watch the follow up.

Casablanca- Showed my 19 year old Daughter this classic. She said it was “good”. (sigh)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story- Like many people, when I finished watching the Andor series on Disney+ I had to revisit Rogue One. This was probably my fourth viewing and I think I like, or appreciate it, more each time.