Theatrical Film Releases that don't need their own thread

As a Kevin Smith fan, I’m actually interested in Yoga Hosers. Not, like, excited mind you, but I’ll see it. At some point.

Hope @TomChick is reading this thread. AMC theaters is currently showing

Train To Busan (Korean Zombies!)

BTW - I did see the Busan film, and it is a solid zombie film as far as zombie flicks go.

Animal House back on the big screen Wednesday with a TCM intro…

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

Just saw Hell or High Water, written by Siccario’s screenwriter, Taylor Sheridan, and starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, and Ben Foster. The easiest way to describe it is as a bank heist movie, though it really has more in common with Westerns (the story is set in present-day west Texas but it could just as easily be set in 1880 or 1930) and 1970s road movies.

It’s a very solid movie, with a nice caper plot, a solid cast, and good motivations for its characters. It’s very easy to give a thumbs up to, especially as I wandered into it on a lazy Sunday with essentially zero expectations.

While it’s very solid, it’s not a modern classic or anything. The plot and setting mean it will invariably draw comparison to both Siccario and another movie about a west Texas lawman who ponders his own mortality while tracking down stolen money, No Country For Old Men.

Nothing quite stands out enough to put it in that exalted league, though. Jeff Bridges has fun chewing the scenery, but we’ve seen this kind of character go through this kind of plot plenty of times. Ben Foster is perhaps the standout, but when all is said and done it turns out he underplays his role pretty drastically. The biggest issue is the pacing, which is expansive (or, if you prefer, slow) in the way that early 70s movies were. The problem is that where early 70s movies would fill in all that extra space with character detail, Hell or High Water just fills it in with … not much. So it seems merely slow, a criticism I also had with parts of another 70s-inspired flick, Midnight Special.

Still, like Midnight Special, it’s the kind of movie that, when you stumble across it on Netflix or cable, you say, “Hey, that was pretty darn good. Why didn’t I hear more about it when it came out?”

I went into Hell or High Water blind aside from knowing the setting and the principal cast, and I was quite satisfied. Like you, I felt the first two acts seemed a little… flabby, and a little lighter in tone than what I might have expected, but I felt like it came together well enough in the end.

Also, I was delighted to see the score was by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. It wasn’t as memorable as what they accomplished for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but it still did the job.

And Dale Dickey needs to be in more things. I love her.

Oh, and I am soooo glad I didn’t see the trailer for this beforehand. So much of what I enjoyed about the film would have been ruined had I seen that first.

Nice to see Pine not be Pine in a movie.

Saw this trailer for a Chinese CGI flick in the theater today. Not saying it is any good, but I am surprised we don’t see more productions like this created in the US in the theatre - or maybe they all just go straight to TV. Very gamesque.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj38eecxpzE

It’s an old movie. 1963 to be exact. I didn’t want to start a new thread for this.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

I put to you that no movie shows the change from a 1950s world to a more modern world than this movie. It has the slapstick from an older age and the intelligence of the beginning of the hippy era. 1963 is a cusp. Personified by Dick Shawn on one side and Spencer Tracy on the other. I would go as far as to say that this movie is a true classic. It’s a morality play. It has characters painted with a broad brush. But it treats them well. Nobody is really a bad guy. They are all good people tainted by greed. Each one has their flaws. But no single one is truly a evil individual. Indeed, we can see ourselves in one or another.

People say “Money is the root of all evil”. That’s not the quote. The actual quote is, “The love of money is the root of all evil”. And thus the morality play part.

Money made the relatively normal people in this film, for the lack of a better word, crazy. They did things that they would not, in their normal lives, do.

It drove the normally solid Spencer Tracy character insane. And they all get their comeuppance.

If you haven’t seen this do it now. Just for the blast from the past. If you have seen it before, you know what I mean.

Edit: A word.

I love that movie. (I always thought it was five Mads in the title, not four)?

But it’s been a long time since I saw it. I think the last time I saw it was in the early 90s.

Just four. The reason I commented is because the wife just loves the movie. We have a thing where, if we have been out of the house for a while, and we’re heading home… One of us will usually say, “I’m coming for you (insert pet name here).”

I’m coming for you Gizmo!

I know. Weird.

For some reason, though a decade apart, that film always makes me think of this one…

Tempted to start an actual thread for Hell or High Water but I’m on my phone right now so I’ll just settle for chiming in here and saying it might be my new favorite movie of the year.

I went to see Dear Zindagi today. It stars Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan, and it was written and directed by the lady who directed the sublime English Vinglish, one of my favorite Hindi movies. I was very charmed by the movie. It’s a slow one for sure. If you’re uncomfortable sitting in a room full of people in complete silence in many scenes, this is probably not a movie for you. It sort of tries to normalize seeing a shrink for someone in Indian culture, and it does a very nice job. Honestly, after seeing this movie, I want to go see a shrink. If only actual psychiatrists could be so patient and drop pearls of wisdom like SRK.

I think it is very successful in India.

I’m not sure this belongs in this thread, but Gringo:The Dangerous Life of John McAfee

Mrs. tgb recorded it off Showtime. I suspect it was made for them since I never heard of a theatrical release, but it’s also possible it never made it’s way to Tucson.

I would think it would be of interest to most people hanging out here, since it chronicles McAfee’s descent into madness.

Quite good, if you’re into documentaries.

I watched the Indian movie “99” on Netflix. I’m not sure how to describe this genre. Not a heist movie, but one where different parties have money, and it’s sort of a comedy, as we see our protagonists struggle with trying to get the money from one source, and then have it stolen, and then trying something different. I’ve seen a couple of movies of this sort from Hollywood, but my mind is completely drawing a blank on this style of movie right now, so I can’t think of any Hollywood examples.

Anyway, 99 is a good one. I enjoyed it. But I will warn people who don’t speak the language that the subtitles on this are really bad sometimes. Most of the time you’ll still get the gist of what’s being said, I suppose, but they also almost always mess up numbers, as in the amount of money that they’re discussing. Just remember:

1 Lakh = 100,000.
1 Carore = 10,000,000.

So 20 Lakh = 2 million rupees, for example. 4 lakhs = 400,000 rupees.

Anyway, you get the idea. But the people who did the subtitles sometimes mess that up.

I just finished watching Trolls, and won’t continue to bother the Moana people with such an experience. You know how many animated movies have hidden depth, characters with extra dimensions and just enough cleverness to keep adults engaged as well as children? Trolls is not one of those movies. The best thing I can say about is it does introduce some younger kids to some great songs, their bigger original song by Timberlake is still fun… but not all the songs are great.

Timberlake’s greatest gift to culture and society was coining the phrase Wardrobe Malfunction. The rest of his work pales in comparison.