What Movie Are You Watching?

Anora (2024)- Best Picture 2024. I saw it described as a comedy, and while there are some comedic elements, I would not describe it as a feel good comedy. Anora is a sex worker in a night club, who falls in with the son of a Russian oligarch. She agrees to be his girlfriend for a week. They fly to Vegas, he proposes to her, they marry, and once his family finds out, the rest is a mostly a dose of reality as the family, works to reverse the marriage. A slog to get through.

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Not a fun, or feel good story. Mikey Madison deserves best actress, but the last half is not an enjoyable sequence of events, a movie I’m glad I did not see in the theater.
 
The Electric State (2025 Netflix)- This is alt-reality, but I did not like the premise for that reason, just the premise of these robots and of the story involving transference of consciousness. Did not finish. It got bad reviews and I hated most of the robots. ;) Budget $320M.


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Yes, that is Chris Pratt and apparantly he likes playing the same character as Guardians…
 
Huntn said:
The Electric State (2025 Netflix)- This is alt-reality, but I did not like the premise for that reason, just the premise of these robots and of the story involving transference of consciousness. Did not finish. It got bad reviews and I hated most of the robots. ;) Budget $320M.


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Yes, that is Chris Pratt and apparantly he likes playing the same character as Guardians…
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Funny. We watched that last night and quite enjoyed it. Trying to put the robots' voices to the actors voicing them was impossible. Woody Harrelson? Anthony Mackie??? And how can you not love something with Giancarlo Esposito?!

Yes, Chris Pratt was Chris Pratt. Did anyone ever say he could act? He's only marginally better than the other Chris, Hemsworth.
 
Wicked (2024)- Excellent story, musical, turning upside down the original movie, I thought I was going to see a repeat of Starwars Episode 3, but not really. 🙂 My critique, talky talky songs and nothing iconic, say like Happy, Let It Go, under the Sea or Kiss The Girl. This seems way to DEI for Trump’s Kennedy center. Looking forward to Part 2.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s) Stone (2001)- Read the ‘kids’ book in 1998ish, faithful, magical version, pulled me right in. :)

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Wedding Crashers (2005)- Great comedy, 2 guys who research and crash wedding parties pretending to be distant members of the family, with the intent of picking up women. Great all star cast, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Bradly Cooper, Isla Fisher, and Jane Seymour (Kitty Kat), “I’m not leaving this room until you feel my breasts.” Yes, R rated. Brady Cooper plays a great macho ahole. ☺️

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The Sound of Music (1965)- This is a gold standard of musicals, a meaningful story, and every song has a clear unambiguous, impactful, musically emotional message delivered in human voices. Great accomplishes in cinema give me shivers of emotion, when I realize I’m seeing something special. The songs are all nothing short of genius. I also realize that I have a connection to mid 20th century ideas of entertainment. 😁
 
Red Notice (2021)- Action, comedy, heist flick. If you like Dwane Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, and looking for a light action film with some decent action, humorous dialogue, a little too much Ryan Reynolds, but with a level of over the top slickness that removes any tension or concern for the characters and continuous violent action resulting in no deaths, with a bonus over the top Indiana Jones Crystal Skull style car chase, and maybe one real surprise, this is for you. ☺️

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The Train (1964)- Great movie, based on a true story, but if I understand it, the movie aggrandized the actual history a bit. Nevertheless, an excellent story as is. Burt Lancaster and supporting cast are great in this, but he lacks a French accent. 🤔

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Island of Terror (1966)- We were thinking of movies that scared us as kids. This qualified, terrifying vacuum cleaners that suck your bones out. Watched in Tubi with commercials. 🫢

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The Saint (1997)- I love this movie, a super performances by Val Kilmer and Elizabeth Shue. Some critic called his saint disguises “outlandish”. Obviously I disagree. 😳 I’m perplexed why this good story with a great atmosphere, complimented by outstanding atmospheric music was reviewed so poorly.

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Jack The Giant Slayer (2103)- Excellent story and CGI, yet another movie that mysteriously suffered from bad reviews.

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Huntn said:
Island of Terror (1966)- We were thinking of movies that scared us as kids. This qualified, terrifying vacuum cleaners that suck your bones out. Watched in Tubi with commercials. 🫢

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Holy hell, yes. I had this nightmare-ish memory of this film from when I was a kid, hadn't seen in it 40+ years, it kind of popped into my head at some point and I went on a search. Hahaha, this search got me to where I need to be ...

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I haven't really contributed here much, but this particular film was so fantastic, I figured I'd drop in a review :)

Sinners | 2025 | Rated R

Ryan Coogler packed in so much, in some ways, I almost wish it was a 3-4 episode series, when it ended, I was like wait, I want more! Heck, I didn't even know the runtime in advance, but it's 2:17 and almost feels short.

It's a horror film, but it's also so incredibly much more (the meta-tags on IMDB get pretty close), and goddam, I loved the use of music (i.e., it almost needs a 'musical' tag on IMDB), the wife and I and the entire theater were literally bouncing and toe tapping (and misty-eyed) Music as something that unifies people, but also, music is something that's very much been appropriated, stolen, used without acknowledgement of the origin. It was such a powerful metaphor in this capacity ... going into spoiler mode for some plot points, characters/actors (I was so pleasantly surprised by one in particular), if anyone thinks the previous is spoiler-y too, I can edit/tag ...

Remmick was taking music, to be part of his "community", but without the sweat equity of having created it, just subsumed into a cultural sameness. And him being Irish was a beautiful touch (also Bram Stoker was Irish), some of the same suffering (and racism you've experienced), but there's a big difference vs. the experience of being Black in America (Mary was the perfect emphasis on this). Also loved including the Asian American experience in this, those characters are part of what makes America (or a new juke) work, crucial, yet so often relegated to a lower class because of how they look. The big music scene, just fucking wow, "This is my music, my power, my identity, it's not taken, it's shared with my ancestors". Jordan was amazing in his duel roles, hell, by the end, I bet I could tell you which brother was talking by just hearing his nuanced changes between the two, Miles Caton is an incredible talent, Wunmi Mosaku (yes, always), everyone, but I was totally unaware one of my faves, Delroy Lindo was in this, I let out an audible "WOOO!" when he showed up :D

Loved the pre-credit scene, fucking chef's kiss, perfect final narrative moment and a huge part of the overall theme with the, "That was the best moment in my life", so true, that bliss without any limitations, was true freedom. Even eternal life as a vampire is a prison of sorts, i.e., "That was the last time I saw the sun ...". And the post credit scene (I hope everyone stayed), was just perfection, looks like he made it. Beautiful.

And yes, please, let's get to some backstory regarding the Choctaw "hunters", check out their history with Irish settlers.

Also, for those that have seen it ... I do love me some ice cream :D
 
The Equalizer 2 (2018)- Denzil Washington fits well in strong roles as he kicks buttocks all over the place. ☺️ Now I need to watch the first one.

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DT said:
Holy hell, yes. I had this nightmare-ish memory of this film from when I was a kid, hadn't seen in it 40+ years, it kind of popped into my head at some point and I went on a search. Hahaha, this search got me to where I need to be ...

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My wife was frightened as a child by the killer vacuum cleaners that sucked your bones out. For the time it was grusome! 😳
 
The Equalizer (2014)- This is an outstanding story, an untouchable man, a good guy, who eyes a tactical situation and predicts how long it will take him to kill everyone in the room…better than the second one.

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Training Day (2001)- A great story, one of Washington’s best performances. A cop, Ethan Hawke, joins the narcotics division and is taken out to be shown the ropes of undercover work. Washington, starts out as his street smart narc, jerk of a teacher. Hawke’s reality is shaken, and the day slowly turns into a nightmare. I want to know what the aftermath was…

Some of the scariest stories equating to horror, involves crooked cops, because they represent authority.

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Equalizer 3 (2023)- In Italy, mafia bad guys. Washington is old (he’s one year younger than me), but I did not mind the slow build as a concession to his age, it held my interest, encounters as explosive as ever, but it almost seemed too easy taking down the bad guys. And most importantly, for his age, it managed not to break my suspension of disbelief.

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Huntn said:
Training Day (2001)- A great story, one of Washington’s best performances. A cop, Ethan Hawke, joins the narcotics division and is taken out to be shown the ropes of undercover work. Washington, starts out as his street smart narc, jerk trainer, Hawke’s reality is shaken, and the day slowly turns into a nightmare. I want to know what the aftermath was…

Some of the scariest stories involved crooked cops, because they represent authority.

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Training Day is spectacular, I love the Equalizer films too, they're such a totally different vibe, they're borderline superhero movies - they're a great trilogy too, with a satisfying conclusion that manages to be pretty introspective (re: your Equalizer 3 review above).

Equalizer films, Training Day, all directed by Antoine Fuqua, if you want another of his films that's really gritty like Training Day - and also stars Ethan Hawke (again), check out Brooklyn's Finest (2009).
 
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