What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

I watched Spiderhead, the new Chris Hemsworth film on Netflix. I will give this film a rating of "Good, for Netflix."

Hemsworth plays the administrator of a research facility / prison, in which the inmates have been granted better living conditions / freedoms in exchange for taking part in drug studies. The drugs control several aspects of behavior, and you won't be surprised to find out that things go awry.

You will have to ignore some logic issues, but your time could be worse spent.

ratpfink wrote: I saw the new Top Gun. Wow, that wasn't good. That marketing machine with the "you have to see it in the theatre" sure worked good. You really don't, not any more than any other movie with an explosion.

First half hour is nostalgia for the first film, when it hit the flashback scene at the bar I was real worried.

Plot offers no surprises and why does it rip off Star Wars? Kept waiting for a voice to say "Use the force, Rooster"

Somehow, I didn't watch the worst movie!

Cranberries wrote: I rewatched Breaking Away, the movie that taught me to mistrust anyone with more money than I had, which in high school was everyone. It feels a little dated but has such great dialogue. It deserved that Oscar. I find myself relating much more to the dad now that I am five years older than his character. I may have cried once.

I have seen Breaking Away twice, but definitely want to see it again some day. The first time, I was a teenager, so I related strongly to the rebellious members of the Cutters bike team. A friend who saw it with me was very strongly affected by the movie, leading him to buy a fancy bicycle and also teach himself how to take it apart and put it back together.

Then I went off to college at Indiana University, where Breaking Away was filmed. It turned out that the Little 500 bike race is a big event on the IU Bloomington campus every April. It traditionally consisted of one team representing each fraternity house, but my first year on campus there was a Cutters team. Instead of being off-campus town dwellers like in the movie, these Cutters were from my exact house within a dormitory on campus: Rollins-Dewey House. So there were several guys in my dorm who spend the winter riding at high speeds in their dorm rooms on a rack of rollers, then spent spring break riding around in South Florida. They won that year and again in 1986, and went on to win 12 more Little 500 races since then. My biking enthusiast friend visited me for the 1986 race, and we both shouted CUTTERS every time our team completed a lap.

So the second time I saw Breaking Away was on campus. It was fun to recognize various locations on campus and to even recognize some liberties taken during filming. A car driving the wrong way down a one-way street. A classroom building converted to a sorority house. Little stuff like that.

Separate from all the bike racing stuff, Breaking Away is still a very good movie. Decent acting, a script that digs into the characters, some action, and some humor. A young Dennis Quaid is in the mix, along with familiar character actor Paul Dooley. One of the bad guys from Home Alone plays a skinny class clown type. The title alludes to the idea that there are three phases in life: growing up, breaking away, and settling down. Breaking away is also a racing term, when a racer gets ahead of the pack.

Thank you for these wonderful insights. I also bought a bike but never really trained or belonged to a club other than the high school cycling club. We had a race at the end of the school year and not understanding how drafting worked, and being in terrible shape, I came in last out of five people. This was 1984. My buddy drafted behind the two fast kids who, at a predetermined spot in the race, nodded at each other and sprinted, leaving him in the dust.

In a sense, the main character was drafting behind his father, benefiting from his unappreciated sacrifices. I also consciously modeled my understated humor on the character Virgil, played by Daniel Stern. The only other piece of art that influenced me as deeply was perhaps the book Zen and the art of Motorcyle Maintenance. And I didn’t realize it until I found myself teaching technical writing and learning I probably am on the spectrum.

Thank you for coming to my open mike therapy session.

I liked Spiderhead a fair bit as well, though I think what we are seeing is a very heavily edited version designed to focus on Hemsworth and Teller in the wake of Top Gun Maverick. I think there was a lot more about the drugs and their purpose that could have been explored.

Studio 666, rented this off amazon, not sure if it is streaming somewhere for free. If you are a Dave Grohl or Foo Fighters fan, then this film is for you! If you are a horror fan, then while it offers up some pretty damned good gore and a few decent scares the reliance on the aforementioned Foo Fighters to play themselves really undercuts the film IMHO. The recent OD of Taylor Hawkins adds some poignant sadness to the film as well.

Anyway, nothing really new here, band gets together to record an album in a secluded creepy mansion, some suprisingly freaky ghost things prowl around, lots of randos get butchered, and in the end the necronomicon is to blame! I'm not really into the Foo Fighters but if their music was even 1/10th as heavy as the "album" they record in movie I would be a much bigger fan. Either I'm missing a lot of heavy metal B-sides on what I always thought were alt rock radio friendly albums or they just felt the films mood needed the POWER OF METAL!!!!!!

I rather enjoy the little sub-genre of monster summoning heavy metal films such as Deathgasm, Suck, and the like.

jason10mm wrote: I'm not really into the Foo Fighters but if their music was even 1/10th as heavy as the "album" they record in movie I would be a much bigger fan.

A week or so after the film the Foo's did an under-the-radar album release to tie in with the film. It's not under the Foo's name, the brand must be protected, so look up Dream Widow instead.

It's 10/10ths as heavy as the music in the film as the concept is it's the actual album they were working on in the movie before Dave G. went crazy on his killing spree.

It's properly heavy and pretty damned awesome, tearing through many styles of metal like doom, power, stoner as well as the 13minute, epic prog-metal tune Dave G. obsesses over in the movie.

Easily the best thing they've put out in years and def worth checking out if you're a metal head.

stormseeker75 wrote: IT'S MORBIN' TIME!

Peeps, I watched Morbius. I'm a huge fan of the character and I knew this was probably going to suck. I was not prepared for the level of suck that occurred. They took everything about Morbius that makes him unique and interesting and turned him into a crappy Hulk. It was an abomination.

Crappy Hulk? So you're saying they made.him into Abomination...?

You caught the puns!

Three Ages is the weakest film of prime Buster Keaton. The conceit is three parallel stories of Keaton pursuing a woman within the Stone Age, classical Rome and contemporary America. There’s only one good stunt across the whole thing but a handful of good gags.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness had the wrong lead. It should have been Scarlet Witch. There would have been more time to develop her children for those who missed WandaVision, and Strange could have been the antagonist. There were some inspired moments like the music battle and zombie weaving a cape of demon souls, but none of the Strange stuff stuck. America Chavez was a nonentity, and his relationship with Wong was way more interesting than any scene with Rachel McAdams despite her and Cumberbatch’s talents.

Taika Waititi pried open the door for Marvel to allow its directors to be more themselves, but they’re still constrained by largely formulaic scripts. This and Shang Chi had real potential if Marvel had been willing to dabble in anti-heroes. Oh well. So it goes.

Last Night in Soho is a good horror movie. Top 20 maybe, but not top 10 for me. A young woman moves to London to study fashion, and becomes haunted by a ghost. Or is it madness? Or her uncontrolled latent psychic ability? Or a combination of the three? The movie reminds me somewhat of the Lovecraft story Dreams in the Witch House, and even more of the early part of the Dark Phoenix saga when Jean Grey keeps having these visions of living the life of her wicked ancestor. My only issue is that I have a personal dislike of the trope where nobody believes the person who is haunted, but the movie eventually rises above it.

Anya Taylor-Joy is wonderful, but the actual lead Thomasin McKenzie holds her own. Doctor Who fans will recognize Matt Smith, who frankly fits a villain role all too well. Edgar Wright delivers well on the direction and the whole production looks wonderful. The visions all take place in Soho of the Swinging London era, and the soundtrack starts strong but eventually wears thin.

Jennifer's Body is also a good horror movie. I'm not a fan of Megan Fox, but the Jennifer role seems perfect for her. Amanda Seyfried co-stars, and gets a make-under that constantly leaves her looking ordinary next to Megan. At one point, someone calls her Jan Brady, and not only was that accurate, but we're talking the specific version of Jan Brady that wore the granny glasses. Adam Brody plays against type and pulls it off, and JK Simmons and Chris Pratt both have minor roles. Fans of Veronica Mars will even recognize Kyle Gallner.

Jennifer's Body is a solid horror story that follows an internal logic but still delivers surprises. The best part is the clever script by Diablo Cody, who also wrote Juno. She works in some good, sarcastic social commentary in nearly every scene, and the performers deliver it with ease. Good soundtrack, too, especially the early Florence + the Machine song "Kiss with a Fist."

Top Gun: Maverick - my daughter loves it, and wouldn't stop nagging her mom and dad to see it. So we did. The flight scenes were awesome, and there were enough of them that the movie didn't feel like it was dragging. Jennifer Connelly is gorgeous, which helps the movie when planes aren't on the screen. How Miles Teller and his punchable face make a living in Hollywood is beyond me, but my daughter thinks he's hot. Yet another one of my failures as a parent I guess.

Summary: action scenes were awesome, plot was kind of lame but didn't bog it down.

RobertB wrote: How Miles Teller and his punchable face make a living in Hollywood is beyond me,

I agree, something about him is offputting, kinda like Shia Lebouf. He must be really great to work with or just pushes through some hellish productions like a champ for him to be so utilized. Heck, the TGM director used him again for Spiderhead so he must be good to work with. He isn't Sam Worthington levels of bland but nor is he Brad Pitt levels of quirky or Matthew McConaughey levels of cool. I know folks really liked that drumming movie but I was just so-so on it and his performance didn't really blow me away.

Never underestimate the power of a good name. Miles Teller is a good name because it is distinctive and yet easy to say. This is why mediocre indie bands often get way more attention than they deserve, especially on Pitchfork.

I really like Miles Teller and Shia Lebouf. Maybe I have a punchable face too.

Saturday night I drank beer and watched Star Wars and ordered tons of shit online. It was a good evening.

I maintain: the optimum order for watching the SW movies are:
1) Star Wars