We watched The Lost City last night, and also Operation Mincemeat…
Lost City stars Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum - mondo beefcake role - and it’s a wild romp, with a surprise cameo in the middle of it, some LOL moments and really fun.
Operation Mincemeat is a WWII spy movie, true story, very absorbing, some great acting, and lot more to it than I originally thought there would be.
Recommend starting with Mincemeat and ending with Lost City if you pair them! (We do things like this b/c hubby is the “serious movie” buff and I just want things that blow up, the more the better.)
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I used to watch a lot of Blu-rays, often choosing the extended or director’s cut version of the film when I had previously seen the theatrical. More often than not, the extended/directors version disappointed. I found the extra content usually added little to the film, and sometimes made the movie worse. The only previous film I can think of with a much better extended/director’s cut version than theatrical was Donnie Darko. This changed today, with watching Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League adds an extra 2 hours of content to the 2017 movie Justice League. Doubling the length of the movie makes it more than a just a typical extended version – it completely changes the movie, more so than any other extended/director’s cut version I have seen. Many characters have new backstories or motivations, which really enhances the story. There are several entirely new characters that were not present in the theatrical version.
In addition to adding 2 hours of content, it’s edited differently, with content from the theatrical version removed. The movie is set to have a darker tone – both literally in the lighting and figuratively, with removing dumb, lighthearted jokes. Some of the clothing is darker, such as Superman’s black suit. One motivationally important character dies in Zack Snyder’s version, and survives in the theatrical version. Even the music is darker (Danny Elfman removed). The changes led to rating changing from PG-13 to R. It no longer feels like inadequate attempt to imitate The Avengers. They also fixed or removed some scenes that theatrical viewers complained about, such as the bad CGI mustache removal.
While far superior to the theatrical release, the movie is also far from perfect. I didn’t like the 4:3 aspect ratio, the slow motion felt gimmicky, there were many plot holes or odd character decisions, there were many unnecessary and predictable tropes, the movie was unnecessarily long and would be better with some of the extra content cut… particularly Lois Lane scenes, several of the key castings were poor, some characters were bland/flat, and the dream sequence didn’t fit well. However, overall I thought it was a good movie. It won’t be among my favorite superhero movies, like the Christopher Nolan trilogy, but I enjoyed the film.
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Finally saw Nope. I felt it didn’t quite live up to the hype, but it was interesting. Hard to believe no one else noticed that cloud, especially given the observations of the guy who ran the little amusement park. I’m not quite sure the way they wrapped it up quite worked for me. Keke Palmer is wonderful and Daniel Kaluuya still has that wonderfully expressive face.
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I’m watching The Swimmers now. Wow. It hits close to home because my son’s fiancée is a Syrian, one of three sisters. She was fortunate to get a scholarship from the US government to study computer science in Lebanon, where she met my son. They’re in Warsaw now and she works for Google. I’m so glad she got out. The rest of her family is still in Syria.
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I remember that movie, it was interesting. That’s cool that you were an extra. Did you make it to the final cut?
I did. We were one of many in the parade scene 
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Aha, I thought I saw you in there! 
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Our daughter visited to watch football. Happily she stayed around longer and watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” (Amazon Prime) with us. Tis a long movie, but we had not watched it for many years. I enjoyed it.
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I so enjoyed the Enola Holmes (first one) on Netflix last night. Light hearted mystery. Now we can go ahead and watched the next one, released recently.
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Just watched The Banshees of Inisherin on HBO. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson were incredible. Georgeous scenery and music just made everything even better. It was poignant and a bit slow but wonderful.
Has anyone watched, I Heard the Bells about Longfellow?
Just saw The Menu last night. Had a craving for a cheeseburger right after it!
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Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Brilliant filmmaking! Quite funny, fast-paced; lots of subtleties in messaging getting at the main theme in very creative ways!
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Just watched “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”, too. I loved it. Definitely one that you need to have your eyes on the screen at all times, though.
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I saw that yesterday. So good. It really makes you have perspective- I like that they brought in refugees from other countries along the journey because it’s not just a Syrian refugee thing and commonalities were important to acknowledge - the level of trust they placed in hands of complete strangers along the way and at such a young age — the age that our kids are making college Decisions these kids are/ were running for their lives - talk about desperation. So sad.
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Answering my own question about, I Heard the Bells, a movie about a segment of Henry Longfellow’s life that inspired him to write the poem.
I went in expecting it to be a Christian film, quite unsure how the acting or storyline would be, pretty much expecting cheesy and preaching. I came out really pleased with it and glad we went to see it.
Longfellow was Christian, so if any sort of “faith” really bothers you, don’t go see the film. If you’re only bothered by calls to salvation for viewers, you’ll be fine.
Also skip the movie if you don’t like sad. Even H admitted parts got to him. Sadly, most of those parts are real, but tastefully done vs gore.
Otherwise, it was quite well done and gave me some insight into my ancestor (yes, I’m related to him) that I was totally unaware of. It covers the Civil War years and tries to be historically accurate, but did take some (not all) poetic liberty with his son’s military experience and that interaction with his father (having looked at the NPS history afterward).
I did not see it as preachy or cheesy. It merely did a good job of showing a segment of Longfellow’s life - as it was - using many of his own writings.
After the movie credits Sight and Sound (the well-known Christian theater who produced the movie) ran a relatively short segment about the film. Ok, I thought, here comes the preaching. Nope. Not one iota of preaching, just a really interesting behind the scenes segment talking about the filming of the movie from start to finish. Don’t skip this because you think you want to miss the “call to faith.” There is none.
One other thing surprised me. This movie had more in attendance than any other we’ve been to since the pandemic started. Granted we pick matinees and go well after movies have been released (usually), but I was still surprised. Maybe Friday matinees are more attended than I thought (we usually pick Mon - Wed) or maybe because this has such a short time in the theater (only lasts through the Christmas season) it’s packing more people in. Regardless… just found it interesting.
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Upon the recommendations of a friend, we watched a 1961 Soviet film based on a short story by Gogol. The action takes place in a small Ukrainian village on Christmas Eve. The special effects seem laughable by modern standards but they must have been pretty “wow” back in the day. There is not a whole lot of a plot; the main story involves the village blacksmith who tries to win the heart of a spoiled beauty. A devil and a witch make appearances throughout the movie. It was an odd movie but surprisingly very enjoyable! At the end, my husband joked that he was thankful for the existence of Nordstrom and Saks… fancy shoes simply appear on our doorstep neatly packed inside cardboard boxes, so that he does not need to ride the devil to fetch me a pair for me!
https://www.amazon.com/Evenings-Farm-Dikanka-Aleksandr-Khvyilya/dp/B077GJL9DY
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We watched The Fabelmans, which is a quasi-autobiographical film by Steven Spielberg. Beautifully done. Screenplay by Spielberg and Tony Kushner; cast includes Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch, Michelle Williams (I’m not sure where I’ve seen her), and even David Lynch. Score by John Williams. Got great reviews but apparently did not do well at the box office. We watched on Amazon Prime (Had to pay). It was part of our annual Jewish Christmas (Chinese food and a movie). We usually go out for both but given the Covid/flu numbers and the cold, we did takeout and watch-in.
We enjoyed both Enola Holmes’ films.
Based upon what I read here, I’m looking forward to seeing Elvis and Armageddon Times.
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We watched Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on Netflix last night. It was entertaining and looked great, but the first movie was much better as a mystery. This one really showcased Daniel Craig but didn’t set up either the characters or the mystery to our satisfaction.
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We watched Spirited on Apple TV. I really enjoyed it even though I’m not a huge Will Farrell fan.