Recently Watched Movies

Mumford U!

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, 2015.

Went ahead and ordered Axel F.  Thanks for the update!

Happy Birthday To Me, 1980. Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford.

Mom & Dad, 2018. Nicolas Freaking Cage, Selma Blair.

V/h/s Viral, 2015.

Ghost Story, 1981. Fred Astaire, John Houseman.

BaleMaster wrote:Happy Birthday To Me, 1980.  Melissa Sue Anderson,  Glenn Ford.

This is one of the five big studio slashers made after the F13th craze to cash in.  Despite some creative murder set pieces, I could never get into this flick.  Its missing some plot points that could make it less messy and give the big reveal some more oomph.

Space Cadet (2024)


No surprises here. It's as dumb as it appears.

Rabid, 1972.  David Cronenberg's second directorial gig.

The Uninvited, 2009.

Mandy. Nicolas Cage, Linus Roache.

I have been patiently waiting for a couple of my series to start a new season soon; Umbrella Academy and Cobra Kai.

Until then, I stumbled upon THE LONG GAME (2023). It's been awhile since I got that special feeling that I was seeing an incredible movie early on. It did not disappoint. Apparently a true story.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7738330/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_4_nm_4_in_0_q_long

Two Elizabeth Olsen movies, Wind River and Marcy Martha May Marlene (?).

^ hard to compete with that ^

I finally was able to stream the highly anticipated 1800's western expansion according to Kevin Costner. BRUTAL

Rabbit, 2017.

The Conjuring 2; 2016.

Star Trek: Generations

BaleMaster wrote:The Conjuring.

OBEY!

The Name of the Rose
Finding Forrester

The latest Deadpool blockbuster movie. SILLY violence SILLY gore SILLY excessive language. Then nice cuddly feelings in the last 5 minutes

Longlegs. Maika Mitchell, Nicolas Cage.

The Batman (2022) -

A film so grim and destitute of life that it makes me yearn for the "bright" and "cheery" visions of Tim Burton's Batmans.  This version of Batman has more in common with David Fincher's Seven than any Batman film's before it.  A dark world without hope and no justice, everything's corrupt from top-to-bottom, and I kept expecting Morgan Freeman to pop out and say "John Doe's got the upper hand now..."  Freeman would have been a welcome addition to the cast as it would have made an actually likeable character...  The script has the same exposition as Seven: The Riddler might be a psychopathic killer, but he's just exposing everyone else's sins in his own way and he's just a creation of society's ills, just like Kevin Spacey's John Doe in Seven.  Meeting the Riddler face-to-face for the first time conjures up images of a far superior film, Silence of the Lambs.  Only this time they use a Bill Gates look-a-like to portray the iconic Riddler rather than the distinguished Hopkins playing Hannibal Lector.

The Batman has a lot of competent film-making and some strong color palettes used for cinematography as well as excellent use of the camera for action scenes.  The ultimate use of this was the close quarters combat scene where Batman had a throw down with five guys wielding machine guns in the dark and conjures up memories of the superior Christian Bale vehicle Equilibrium.  The score is pretty tense and fitting for the events of the plot.  However, the whole film pretends to be smart and attempts to become the 'next level' of Batman's trend of lugubrious storytelling, but it really collapses on the weight of it's own depression.  The denouement is forehead smacking as the bad-guy gets his just due by the appropriate person, but such a situation doesn't exist in actual law enforcement events.  

I, for one, do not appreciate taking iconic villains and characters then stripping them of their trademarks to try to fit them into a 'realistic' dark underworld like the CW's Riverdale 'based' on the Archie comics.  For instance rather than wielding an umbrella The Penguin sports an Uzi machine gun.  Speaking of this future vision of Burgess Meredith, he's highly underused and barely a factor in the film, treated as a common thug in the mob.  Batman is just a mopey, gloomy goth kid, bearing the weight of Gotham city upon his shoulders.  He's supposed to be heroic, but much of the majority of the film he's more just like a bully.  The suave, calculating, and savvy Bruce Wayne is not to be seen, he's more like Brandon Lee's The Crow, a caricature of a sulky and glum post-teen mad at the world.

Into traditional Batman?  Skip it...  I do not look forward to its obviously planted follow-up.

Geez, Didn't intend to write this much

Willy's Wonderland, 2021. Nicolas Freaking Cage.

The Blackcoat's Daughter. Kiernan Shipka, Emma Roberts.