All Things Movie/Documentary Reviews/Recommendations Thread

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I had very high hopes considering the critic's reviews as well as recommendations from family members regarding the movie Sing Sing.

It did not disappoint. It's a tremendous film and wonderful experience, in all aspects.

The way that it was filmed, I actually felt like we were invited to the hoosegow, to watch a play.

Best prison buddy film since The Shawshank Redemption. Maybe as good. Seriously.


Colman Domingo is a virtual certainty to be recognized for nominations when Award Season arrives.
 

Just watched Kinds of Kindness. Really wanted to like it, but didn't. Probably a little too deep for me. Thought the third story was the best. Yorgos has quite the imagination.
 

Ope3 said:
I had very high hopes considering the critic's reviews as well as recommendations from family members regarding the movie Sing Sing.

It did not disappoint. It's a tremendous film and wonderful experience, in all aspects.

The way that it was filmed, I actually felt like we were invited to the hoosegow, to watch a play.

Best prison buddy film since The Shawshank Redemption. Maybe as good. Seriously.


Colman Domingo is a virtual certainty to be recognized for nominations when Award Season arrives.
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Heck of an endorsement. Absolutely on my list.

Go Gophers!!
 


Watched Napoleon - The Director’s Cut on Apple, which means it’s a staggering 3:20 long.

C/C+ land, unless you’re a devotee of Ridley Scott and/or biopic of famous folk(guilty on both counts), then it’s a B.

Battle scenes were of course good, as Scott is a master at those, and Napoleon’s marriage to Josephine was also interesting.
 
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BleedGopher said:
Heck of an endorsement. Absolutely on my list.

Go Gophers!!
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Sing Sing is scoring currently 98% with critics and 94% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Not often for any film to be that highly acclaimed in both metrics.
 

We watched Rebel Ridge (on Netflix) this weekend and it was really enjoyable--initially I thought it would set up as a First Blood reproduction and while there were elements of that, it diverged into some really interesting plot turns and the cat-and-mouse game between the protagonist and the police was strong.
 

Caught the Magnificent Seven last night. The remake with Denzel and Ethan Hawke. Second time viewing it and liked it better this time. Same basic plot as the original. Town being taken advantage of, etc.
Little over the top with the characters, but all in all a good shoot em up western. Better villain in this one.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Caught the Magnificent Seven last night. The remake with Denzel and Ethan Hawke. Second time viewing it and liked it better this time. Same basic plot as the original. Town being taken advantage of, etc.
Little over the top with the characters, but all in all a good shoot em up western. Better villain in this one.
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have you ever seen "The Seven Samurai" - the Kurosawa film that the Magnificent 7 is based on?

it's the same basic plot - a poor village hires samurai to defend the village against bandits. Toshiro Mifune steals the movie as a cocky young would-be samurai.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
have you ever seen "The Seven Samurai" - the Kurosawa film that the Magnificent 7 is based on?

it's the same basic plot - a poor village hires samurai to defend the village against bandits. Toshiro Mifune steals the movie as a cocky young would-be samurai.
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Yes sir, I have.
 

Watched Bon Marley: One Love on Prime.

Not a good/great movie, but if you’re a fan of his our music or the music biopic genre, then it would likely be worth a viewing.

I did learn that Time Magazine named, his last album Exodus as the best album of the Twentieth Century.
 


Had to watch 3:10 to Yuma with Crowe and Bale since it’s being offered on Netflix. Ben Foster is really good as Charlie Prince. Second time watching this one and really can’t remember the original. Also, didn’t realize it was adapted from a Elmore Leonard short story.
Good drama. Maybe I might check out the original again sometime.
 



GophersInIowa said:
Someone brought up Fletch in a different thread. Is Confess, Fletch worth watching?
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Loved it-and if you’re a Mad Men fan, you’ll love the reunion of Don & Roger. In regards to the movie, I read somewhere that this version was more faithful to the spirit of the books than the original.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Had to watch 3:10 to Yuma with Crowe and Bale since it’s being offered on Netflix. Ben Foster is really good as Charlie Prince. Second time watching this one and really can’t remember the original. Also, didn’t realize it was adapted from a Elmore Leonard short story.
Good drama. Maybe I might check out the original again sometime.
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the original is solid. Glenn Ford as the bad guy - a change of pace for him, and he's excellent. Van Heflin plays the farmer who agrees to help bring Ford to the train station.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
the original is solid. Glenn Ford as the bad guy - a change of pace for him, and he's excellent. Van Heflin plays the farmer who agrees to help bring Ford to the train station.
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I gave it a try on the original. Wasn’t successful though. The site I was using sometimes doesn’t do a good job on old movies. Really don’t recall watching it. Was convinced I had. Might try and watch Jeremiah Johnson.
 


Saw the Fall Gut on Peacock and enjoyed it for what it was: summer popcorn flick.

It clocked in at 2:26, due to this being the “director’s cut,” which of course meat it was 30-40 minutes too long.

I find Ryan Gosling to be my favorite leading man of his era, easy going charm and can actually act and respect thst he hasn’t sold out to the action comic flick universe,

The Nice Guys with Russell Crowe us worth a watch, as they’re bumbling detectives and pull it off with aplomb.
 

I watched my first full movie with subtitles last night called "The Wave" from Norway. It's a disaster movie with good special effects and after five (5) minutes of watching, forgot that I was reading subtitles.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Saw the Fall Gut on Peacock and enjoyed it for what it was: summer popcorn flick.

It clocked in at 2:26, due to this being the “director’s cut,” which of course meat it was 30-40 minutes too long.

I find Ryan Gosling to be my favorite leading man of his era, easy going charm and can actually act and respect thst he hasn’t sold out to the action comic flick universe,

The Nice Guys with Russell Crowe us worth a watch, as they’re bumbling detectives and pull it off with aplomb.
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The theatrical version was 2:06, and I felt that was 20 minutes too long, but overall I still liked it modestly, based on the strength/chemistry of Blunt & Gosling.
 

Slim Tubby said:
I watched my first full movie with subtitles last night called "The Wave" from Norway. It's a disaster movie with good special effects and after five (5) minutes of watching, forgot that I was reading subtitles.
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If you want another Norwegian film, I highly encourage you to see The Worst Person in the World from a couple of years ago.
 




The Proposition is certainly one bleak movie. The setting is grimy and sweaty, with no trees and flies constantly being swatted away. Violent also. Think it either won or was nominated for a cinematography award amongst Australian films. Acting was very good.
The director, John Hillcoat, also directed The Road and Lawless.
 
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The Bikeriders on Peacock is a hard pass for this reviewer.

I decided to watch it based on its cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Michael Shannon.

Butler is the lead and while I dug his Elvis, his Jimmy Dean, not so much. Don’t buy him as a toughie.

Hardy and Shannon mubble their way through this clunker.

The “plot” chronicles the changes from a riding club to a violent gang.

Sons of Anarchy was much more entertaining and covered that metamorphosis in better detail.
 
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
The Bikeriders on Peacock is a hard pass for this reviewer.

I decided to watch it based on its cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Michael Shannon.

Butler is the lead and while I dug his Elvis, his Jimmy Dean, not so much. Don’t buy him as a toughie.

Hardy and Shannon mubble their way through this clunker.

The “plot” chronicles the changes from a riding club to a violent gang.

Sons of Anarchy was much more entertaining and covered that metamorphosis in better detail.
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Along with the adage of "not judging a book by it's cover", I try to not judge a movie by it's preview trailer.

In a theater, especially with a reserved seat for the most part I try to avoid coming attractions all together for fear of spoiling the actual film experience when I do check it out.

Having said that, I did see trailer for Bikeriders and it looked so dull I had zero desire to see it. Your comments (and others here) appear to have validated my decision.

It's awfully hard to make a movie's Coming Attraction look awful.
 

Ope3 said:
Along with the adage of "not judging a book by it's cover", I try to not judge a movie by it's preview trailer.

In a theater, especially with a reserved seat for the most part I try to avoid coming attractions all together for fear of spoiling the actual film experience when I do check it out.

Having said that, I did see trailer for Bikeriders and it looked so dull I had zero desire to see it. Your comments (and others here) appear to have validated my decision.

It's awfully hard to make a movie's Coming Attraction look awful.
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I normally can find something to like in a movie, but nothing in this one😢.
 

On Documentaries - the Strib had a long article about a Prince documentary. quite a story. Netflix made a deal with an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker to produce a doc on Prince. the guy worked on it for 4 years, and came up with so much material he wound up with a 9-hour documentary.

people who have seen it say it's excellent. But the people who control Prince's estate don't want it to be released because - they say - it doesn't portray Prince in a positive light. according to people who have seen it, it covers the good and the bad - showing Prince as this incredibly talented but also complicated person who could be controlling and manipulative.

apparently Prince's estate has the power to block the doc from being shown, and so far it looks like that is what is going to happen. so the filmmaker spends 4 years and produces something really interesting - and it may never be seen by the public.

Jon Bream from the Strib - their long-time music critic - was interviewed for the doc. Bream said the interview lasted for 6 hours and the interviewer really knew his stuff.
 


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