Movies Seen in 2021

[od0_ital]

Fatale - AMC Nacogdoches
News of the World - AMC Nacogdoches
Alien (1979) - AMC Tyler

New year, new thread!

I've already been to the theater twice in the new year, to Nacogdoches on Sunday for a double feature and then to Tyler last night for a cinema classic.

Fatale has a sports agent in a troubled marriage having an affair while in Las Vegas. Returning to Los Angeles, he finds that she is a police detective after a breakin at his home. Over the course of the film, everyone sleeps with everyone, and a body count gets racked up. The movie itself was meh, the acting flat. Seems Mike Colter was the only one that got the memo that you don't have to talk in a monotone all the time.

Followed that with the new Tom Hanks movie. Shortly after the Civil War, Captain Kidd travels the state of Texas, delivering news stories to the people who don't have time to read the paper themselves. Between stops, he finds a young blonde girl who had been taken by Indians and was being returned to her family. He takes on the responsibility himself, taking her across the state to an aunt & uncle, with adventures on the way. Aside from a couple of issues with geography, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. May go see it again in a couple of weeks.

I've watched Alien on VHS, DVD, blu ray, basic cable...but last night was the first I've seen it on a theater screen. Had the place to myself, too. Its still a classic.

 

[Starbreaker]

#1 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Year: 2018
Platform: Netflix
Director: Mike Newell
Starring: Lily James, Michael Huisman
Rating: 7/10

This is a perfectly inoffensive historical romance novel about a book club in WWII during the occupation of the island of Guernsey. I think they could have hit up the mystery angle a little bit more.

 

[Danny99]

Hillbilly Elegy - A

Great cast, well acted. Amy Adams and Glenn Close absolutely hit it out of the park. Close, in particular, is so made up and is so much into this character that you wouldn't know it was her without looking at a cast list. There wasn't a weak link in the cast and I liked the idea that not everything is going to end up fixed up in a nice package at the end of the day.

The Hitman's Bodyguard - A

The chemistry between Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds is amazing. As always, Gary Oldman completely sells himself as the dictator. As with Hillbilly Elegy, there isn't a weak link in the cast nor is there in the story.

 

[od0_ital]

Fatale - AMC Nacogdoches
News of the World - AMC Nacogdoches
Alien (1979) - AMC Tyler
WW84: Wonder Woman 1984 - AMC Lufkin

Took my sister, youngest nephew & niece out to see WW84 tonight. They all enjoyed it, and we stayed for the mid credit bonus. My niece asked, "Was that Wonder Woman as an old lady?" If course it is Wonder Woman as an old lady, but not in the way she was thinking.

I'm adding it to my list since I saw it in IMAX on Christmas, but regular 2D showing tonight.

 

[Random_Spock]

Robin Hood: Men in Tights: 8/10

Big thanks to Youtube for making it free to watch. Still love the movie so much.


Just watched Matewan. It's a timely movie. So much has changed, yet so much has stayed the same.


Dead Like Me: Life After Death: 7/10

Glad to be able to rewatch this. Still like it.


The Lost Boys (TV 14 Version): 7/10

Amazing how a changed line can affect a movie. I like the R rated version better. It's still a good movie though.


Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark - 8/10

Rewatched this during an Epix/Showtime free preview. It's still very creepy.


Just watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and it's really good. Good acting and cinematography.

And damn... Paul Newman and Robert Redford were simply magnetic in it.

It gets a 9/10 from me.


Just saw Fiddler on the Roof. It's such a good movie. It surprised me to be honest. It gets an 8/10.


Rewatched X Files I Want To Believe. It still holds up pretty well. It has a good soundtrack, and the cinematography is nice. The acting is good as well. It gets an 8/10.

 

[Starbreaker]

#2 Druk (Another Round)
Year: 2020
Platform: VOD
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen
Rating: 7/10
I think this might be the most overrated movie of the year. While it's engaging and has some good performances, there's nothing particularly memorable. Vinterberg's The Hunt is a far superior film.

#3 Pieces of a Woman
Year: 2020
Platform: VOD
Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Starring: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn
Rating: 7/10
Once again, I think Mundruczó's previous film White God is the better movie. The first 30 minutes of the movie is spectacular. Burstyn and Kirby will probably get a bunch of nominations, but the narrative drive just isn't there.

 

[od0_ital]

Fatale - AMC Nacogdoches
News of the World - AMC Nacogdoches
Alien (1979) - AMC Tyler
WW84: Wonder Woman 1984 2D- AMC Lufkin
The Marksman BigD - AMC Tyler
Bad Boys (1995) - AMC Tyler
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) - AMC Lufkin
Superman: Red Son - HBO Max
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - AMC Longview
The Maltese Falcon (1941) - AMC Willowbrook

Went out to AMC Tyler a couple of weeks ago, watched The Marksman and Bad Boys.

The newest from Liam Neeson was alright, not great. I watched it on the BigD screen, which is IMAX-ish, but the movie didn't have much that required a bigger screen than normal.

First time seeing Bad Boys on the big screen, had the theater to myself. I've now seen two out of three of the BB movies at the theater.

Went to Lufkin to watch for the old Disney movie. Only the second time I ever watched it, first time was on VHS way back when. Its still a stupid movie, but it was funnier this time around, I laughed a bit more this time.

Watched News of the World for a second time, with my sister & her husband. They both enjoyed it, and I was able to pick up a bit more because Lufkin has a better sound system than Nacogdoches.

Enjoyed the alt history DC animated movie. I haven't read the comic book, but the movie was pretty good.

Went to Longview Tuesday night to watch the Morgan Freeman classic on a theater screen for the first time. I've watched it on pay per view, VHS, DVD, and basic cable for years. Still a damn good movie.

Went down to Houston tonight, and watched the noir classic for the first time ever. Holy crap, that was a good movie, much better than I was expecting to see. It was a Fathom Events screening, and there were trivia questions based off the movie in the preshow, and I didn't get a single one right.

Ten new to me movies, so far, this year. One new movie every three days, on average.

Next on the list to see is Dr. No this weekend! I've seen it on DVD and cable, but not on a theater screen.

 

[Danny99]

Hillbilly Elegy - A
The Hitman's Bodyguard - A
Strange But True - C-

The whole movie hinges on our pregnant young woman believing she is pregnant with her boyfriend's child, even though he has been dead for five years. Even with the grief of being responsible for his death in a roundabout kind of way, she should realize how impossible that is and look for other answers.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie drives off of that point and motivates the rest of the characters into the actions they take and taints what could be a better movie.

 

[od0_ital]

Fatale - AMC Nacogdoches
News of the World - AMC Nacogdoches
Alien (1979) - AMC Tyler
WW84: Wonder Woman 1984 2D- AMC Lufkin
The Marksman BigD - AMC Tyler
Bad Boys (1995) - AMC Tyler
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) - AMC Lufkin
Superman: Red Son - HBO Max
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - AMC Longview
The Maltese Falcon (1941) - AMC Willowbrook
The High Note - HBO Max
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight - HBO Max
Dr. No (1962) - Cinemark Lufkin
The Little Things - AMC Lufkin

Had to work late Saturday, so I wasn't able to get to the theater that night like I had planned. Instead, I watched a couple of movies on HBO Max.

I saw the trailer for The High Note once before the pandemic shut everything down for awhile. I thought it was an alright movie, not great. It was nice to see Bill Pullman show up, and Ice Cube's character was entertaining throughout.

Gotham by Gaslight/ was an interesting Elseworlds story of Batman vs Jack the Ripper in Victorian Gotham. I liked most of the changes made to familiar characters for the setting & story.

Went out yesterday for a couple of movies in Lufkin.

First time watching the first James Bond movie on a theater screen. I've seen Dr. No on DVD and bits & pieces on basic cable over the years. Its only the second 007 movie starring Sean Connery that I've seen at a theater, after Goldfinger last fall. Its fine for a classic first attempt at what the franchise has become. The only piece of tech James Bond gets before going on his mission is a new handgun. No Q, no fancy car, a couple of Bond Girls, and a villain with a physical impairment or deformity, in this case metal hands. It was nice to watch at the theater.

Followed that with a trip over to the AMC for the newest Denzel movie. I didn't much care for it, to be honest. When I have to pay for tickets to see a movie, Tom Hanks & Denzel Washington are two of the guys that guarantee my ass in a seat. But this one let me down. Clunky dialogue mixed with long stretches of silence, oddly placed flashback setups, and a couple of twists at the end. Its a shame that with three Oscar winners at the top of the cast made such a poor movie.

And that's all the movies I watched in January.

 

[od0_ital]

Spoiler: Movies Seen in January

Fatale - AMC Nacogdoches
News of the World - AMC Nacogdoches
Alien (1979) - AMC Tyler
WW84: Wonder Woman 1984 2D- AMC Lufkin
The Marksman BigD - AMC Tyler
Bad Boys (1995) - AMC Tyler
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) - AMC Lufkin
Superman: Red Son - HBO Max
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - AMC Longview
The Maltese Falcon (1941) - AMC Willowbrook
The High Note - HBO Max
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight - HBO Max
Dr. No (1962) - Cinemark Lufkin
The Little Things - AMC Lufkin

Earwig and the Witch - AMC Lufkin

Went out to Lufkin last night for the Fathom Events screening of the new Studio Ghibli movie, Earwig and the Witch.

I was pretty disappointed by it. Earwig is left as a baby at an orphanage by her witch mother. Years later, she's adopted by another witch and her devil-like companion to be a bit of a slave assistant for the witch. Earwig seems to win over the devil pretty easily, but has to learn magic with the talking cat to force the witch to teach her magic.

And then it ends with a cliffhanger. What the hell?!?

Had to pay for my ticket, since it was Fathom, and when I got home, I saw that HBO Max has it available on their stream.

...ugh...

Next up will be Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring IMAX on Wednesday!

 

[Danny99]

Hillbilly Elegy - A
The Hitman's Bodyguard - A
Strange But True - C-
Room - C-

I know there is source material, but I just found that it moved too slowly and couldn't really pick its lane. It doesn't build fully on the kidnapping story and when it tries to talk about the mental side of Joy's recovery and glosses it over. It also doesn't build on Jack's transition. He seems to be the only one really able to handle this and he has truly had his world turned upside down.

The first scenes of the movie in the shed are nicely shot and interesting, but after the escape in the truck, it slides into mediocrity.

 

[od0_ital]

Spoiler: Movies Seen in January

Fatale - AMC Nacogdoches
News of the World - AMC Nacogdoches
Alien (1979) - AMC Tyler
WW84: Wonder Woman 1984 2D- AMC Lufkin
The Marksman BigD - AMC Tyler
Bad Boys (1995) - AMC Tyler
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) - AMC Lufkin
Superman: Red Son - HBO Max
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - AMC Longview
The Maltese Falcon (1941) - AMC Willowbrook
The High Note - HBO Max
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight - HBO Max
Dr. No (1962) - Cinemark Lufkin
The Little Things - AMC Lufkin

Earwig and the Witch - AMC Lufkin
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - 4 Star Cinema Kilgore
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001) IMAX - AMC Willowbrook
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) IMAX - AMC Tyler
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) IMAX - AMC Tyler
Batman: Soul of the Dragon - blu ray
Superman: Man of Tomorrow - HBO Max
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines - HBO Max
Batman Ninja - HBO Max
Nomadland - AMC Lufkin
Judas and the Black Messiah - AMC Lufkin
Raya and the Last Dragon IMAX - AMC Tyler
Chaos Walking IMAX - AMC Tyler
Vixen - HBO Max
Land - Cinemark Lufkin
Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks - DVD

Movies seen in February and so far in March!

I could have watched MRBB on Netflix, but instead I drove out to Kilgore to watch it at a theater. First off, knowing Chadwick Boseman was dying while filming was bad enough, but watching the movie, you can see that there was clearly something wrong. His skin was so tight around his throat. It was a good film, I liked it, and glad I watched it at the theater.

The LotR trilogy was updated to IMAX screens, and my oldest nephew & I went down to Houston for the first one, and he kept dozing off, so I didn't feel bad about going to Tyler for the other two the following weekend. Been twenty years since I watched 'em during the original releases, and they looked great in IMAX.

Bought the new animated Batman movie on blu ray & watched it a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the 1970s vibe of the film, didn't care for the cliffhanger ending, though.

Followed that with three more animated DC movies via HBO Max. The Superman & Wonder Woman movies were pretty good, but Batman Ninja made me wonder what the hell I had just watched.

Did a double feature of Nomadland and Judas and the Black Messiah. Had some technical difficulties for Nomadland, but the movie eventually played properly. Could have watched both of those at home, but opted for the theater option, instead.

And those were my last two new movies in February.

Went out this past Friday and did an IMAX double feature. Enjoyed the animated short from Disney, and the dragon movie itself was really good, too. That was kind of a hell of a surprising film. Liked the new Tom Holland movie, too. Don't see why it was shelved for a few years, and kind of hope there's a sequel.

Vixen started as an animated short series, two seasons' worth. Those episodes have been cut together & put in a feature length. Watched that the other day, and enjoyed it for what it was.

Went to the Cinemark the other night, spur of the moment, to watch Land. Kind of a heartbreaking story, but was still really good.

Made a Wal Mart run the other day, picked up the Doctor Who Holiday Special featuring John Barrowman coming back as Captain Jack Harkness. And I liked seeing Chris Noth return to the series, as well.

There are a couple of new movies opening in Tyler this weekend, not sure what I will be watching next.

 

[Danny99]

Hillbilly Elegy - A
The Hitman's Bodyguard - A
Strange But True - C-
Room - C-
Taken 2 - B+
Taken 3 - B

My wife had never seen the Taken series and we found it on Disney+, so we had a weekend marathon. I've seen the first one countless times (and I think I reviewed it on another year's thread). I had never seen Taken 2 or 3, so here we go.

Taken 2 had a good jumping off point, using the father of one of the Albanian flesh traders from the first movie. Rade Šerbedžija was really good as the father character, even though they never expand on why he doesn't react more to the kidnapping and forced sexual slave trade his son was in. I'm guessing it was inferred that he was part of it as well and I didn't catch it. His end, with the idea that he just couldn't get past his revenge, was well written and well performed. The beginning is a little weak as it wonders around to set up the premise of what Lenore and Kim are in Istanbul with him, but we're just moving the pieces into place here.

Taken 3, like the old adage with sequels, is a step down from 1 & 2 and we all knew that we would eventually see the plot where Liam Neeson would be on the run, accused for a crime he didn't commit. Liam, as he does with a lot of these movies where he runs around kicking a lot of butt, drags the movie to a level of serviceable action movie. Dougray Scott is a good villain, but there is some mental gymnastics to see him go from Xander Berkley's "wimp" in the first movie to this version, where he is hanging out with Russian mobsters and coming up with this grand scheme to kill both the Russian and Neeson. There's also a Forrest Whittaker subplot with a bunch of brain dead cops that isn't set up well to compliment the plot.

And I googled it...there won't be Taken 4.

 

[Danny99]

Hillbilly Elegy - A
The Hitman's Bodyguard - A
Strange But True - C-
Room - C-
Taken 2 - B+
Taken 3 - B
Law Abiding Citizen - B+

Another popcorn action flick that you can put on for an hour and a half and be entertained.

The murders that Gerard Butler pulls of stretch the boundaries of reality and the Jamie Foxx hero character wasn't very likeable, even at the end when he has supposedly learned this valuable lesson. Even with those flaws, it kept me entertained and in the story for its run time.

 

[Starbreaker]

4. Wonder Woman 1984 (5)
5. Ratatouille (9)
6. Tenet (8)
7. Promising Young Woman (7)
8. Synchronic (6)
9. The New Mutants (5)
10. Hubie Halloween (1)
11. Kajillionaire (7)
12. Freaky (8)
13. Midnight Sky (6)
14. Death of Me (1)
15. The Little Things (6)
16. Little Fish (7)
17. Godzilla vs Kong (6)
18. The Map of Tiny Imperfect Things (6)
19. Doors (4)
20. Happily (4)
21. Blow (7)
22. The Kid Detective (8)

 

[Unicron]

This might seem like an oddball question, but has anyone been to a regular theater since the pandemic has been more controlled? I'm kind of tempted to see a movie in the local theater (which I've sorely missed), but now the idea also seems a tad weird to me. Even though I'm not worried about doing other public things within reasonable safety limits.

 

[Danny99]

Hillbilly Elegy - A
The Hitman's Bodyguard - A
Strange But True - C-
Room - C-
Taken 2 - B+
Taken 3 - B
Law Abiding Citizen - B+
Run - B+

It's a plot we've seen a million times before, but the acting carries this into being a strong outing. Sarah Paulson plays the levels of crazy well and Kiera Allen shines as her daughter. There are the silly plot contrivances that are in movies of this type like the box of evidence that someone finds to explain the entire thing, but it was worth the time.

 

[Starbreaker]

This might seem like an oddball question, but has anyone been to a regular theater since the pandemic has been more controlled? I'm kind of tempted to see a movie in the local theater (which I've sorely missed), but now the idea also seems a tad weird to me. Even though I'm not worried about doing other public things within reasonable safety limits.

I haven't simply because everything I've wanted to see has been streaming at the same time. I went from going 3 times a week to seeing nothing in week over a year even though the theater has mostly remained open. I've always felt pretty isolated at the movies when I go unless it's Friday or Saturday night. It's weird I haven't seen a movie in theaters since last February. When theaters start getting good exclusives again, I might start going. I've had COVID and been vaccinated and the dine-in has very spaced out seats.

 

[Starkers]

This might seem like an oddball question, but has anyone been to a regular theater since the pandemic has been more controlled? I'm kind of tempted to see a movie in the local theater (which I've sorely missed), but now the idea also seems a tad weird to me. Even though I'm not worried about doing other public things within reasonable safety limits.

Nope, last thing I saw in a cinema was Parasite at the beginning of March 2020. I'd love to go see A Quiet Place II but at the moment I've decided not to go anywhere like a cinema until I've had my second jab (and it's had time to kick in)

 

[od0_ital]

This might seem like an oddball question, but has anyone been to a regular theater since the pandemic has been more controlled? I'm kind of tempted to see a movie in the local theater (which I've sorely missed), but now the idea also seems a tad weird to me. Even though I'm not worried about doing other public things within reasonable safety limits.

I've been going back to theaters since they started reopening last summer. 4 Star Cinema in Kilgore started in late July with older movies, since there was nothing new to show. The AMC theaters around here reopened with Russell Crowe in Unhinged, and a week later, Tenet. For the longest, they had social distanced seats. AMC Tyler even had yellow caution tape across every other row. AMC Lufkin, AMC Longview & Cinemark Lufkin blocked seats off through the reservation system. Those areas have gotten smaller - seats on each side are still blocked, but not the ones in front of or behind, anymore.

It does bother me if folks wind up being too close, but that always has bothered me.