Ghostbusters II is way better than the flak it gets. I could barely make it through the Angel Has Fallen teaser. If I saw the second movie, I blocked it out of my mind.
A nice Connery movie to check out is The Great Train Robbery, also a good read by Michael Chrichton.
Re-watched Flash Gordon…
I had always as a child been more of a Flash fan than Star Wars. I had the video played it endlessly, my Dad managed to get make me a Flash Gordon figure ( painting a Han solo figure with an orange jacket and blonde hair) to play with amongst my Star Wars toys. Then over the years the memory of Flash faded away and was a half remembered curiosity like some of the cartoons I watched as a kid. I never re visited properly until lockdown…
Camper than a row of tents at Christmas, totally bonkers and a leading man that is a total outsider in the movie they are starring in.
We ( my boys and I ) loved it!
Dalton and Topol made me think again on what might have been in an alternate FYEO.
A big streak of kinky running alongside the high camp ( Ming’s daughter could have been a great Bond villain) and Mike Hodges doing a great job making sure there is scenery left after all the chewing the rest of the cast do on it. Jason King in a a Gold gimp mask!
So why did I prefer it as a kid to Star Wars? As I watched and saw my 9 year old engage with it in a way that he doesn’t with Star Wars, I thought it must be because it’s so much like a pantomime.
The 14 year old was equally engaged but I suspect because of Ming’s daughter.
Great bit of lockdown viewing - recommended highly
That was cleverly resourceful of your dad to take the Han figure and turn it into Flash. I can see that working well.
He was !
Geostorm
Laughably bad in an enjoyable way, sort of like “Kong, Skull Island.” It had the same dog storyline from Independence Day, so of course when I saw Dean Devlin wrote and directed it I thought, “that makes sense.” It was like “2012” crossed with “The Day After Tomorrow” with a bit of “San Andreas” thrown in, only the effects were worse. Ironically, the geostorm in question was caused by a virus, albeit computer, and they blew up the arena where the DNC was held. I only say that because I was also watching the Tulsa rally on Fox during commercials.
Along with his “… Has Fallen” series, Gerard Butler is playing laughably bad roles. That a buff guy like him designed an entire space station and weather control system strains beyond believability. I don’t see big budget non-franchise action movies like this getting greenlighted too much post covid, and that’s a good thing. Still, enjoyably dumb summer movie.
Into the Wild
A recent news story about the “magic bus” being airlifted out of the Alaskan wilderness as well as a discussion with friends about Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack led me to stream this movie the other night.
Emile Hirsch plays Christopher McCandless, aka “Alexander Supertramp” who upon graduating college, shuns all societal ties to go on an experience-laden adventure from West Virgina to Alaska. It has quite a cast with William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as his well-meaning, successful but dysfunctional 90s parents, Hal Holbrook, Kristen Stewart and a brief but key appearance by Zach Galifinikas. McCandless abandons his car after refusing a graduation gift of a new one, thereby shunning 90s consumerism despite a successful liberal arts college education. He rafts down the Colorado to Mexico, yet encounters worse third world conditions upon returning to his country in the locale of Los Angeles. He temporarily joins a hippie culture meeting people of all ages, each encouraging him to establish relationships and yet he rejects them all in search of a Jack London/Keruoac existential adventure.
The story is told in two timelines, the first being the beginning of the end, and the latter in sequential flashbacks leading up to how he arrived at “the magic bus” in Alaska. Due to a few key miscalculations, he cannot escape his fate but in the end learns what everyone in society had tried to teach him, and yet society’s mores completely failing at that objective, and in fact, teaching him the opposite–that experiences should be shared with others to be truly happy.
The film’s theme of rejecting society’s, specifically American commercialism and white liberal educational entitlement, lands better during a pandemic than it did during times of economic success. His rejection of Hal Holbrook’s sincere offer is heartbreaking, yet understandable in light of the domestic verbal abuse of his biological father. His rejection of the advances of a fifteen year old Kristen Stewart underscores his moral center, much like Brad Pitt’s character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So you feel for “Alexander Supertramp” and yet see his choices painting him into a corner, much like the central character in Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” album. He wasn’t able to accomplish what his inspirations Jack London, Jack Keruoac, or David Thoreau did, but his story is still a cautionary tale of the costs of societal greed and his remedy of avoiding all human relationships. Somewhere in between is a happy balance.
I absolutely love this movie. Sean Penn is a phenomenal director, someone whose talents are right up there with the very best working today, and I think he would be recognized as such if his output came even close to matching that of more prolific directors.
Pierce is back:
I agree with all of this!! Recently watched it with my kids (for their first time too).
I believe I had a Flash Gordon action figure.
I’ve recently watched a lot of movies.
With my wife I’ve watched Sully and After the Wedding.
With my daughter I’ve watched Groundhog Day, Speed, Monty Python & the Holy Grail, Airplane! and The Others.
On my own I’ve watched The Vanishing, The Bourne Idenity, The Bourne Supremacy, Slender Man and (not a movie)…the wonderful After Life with Rick Gervais.
You lucky chap!
Back to the future part two and the 1948 Oliver twist
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
It’s not even close, this is the best of the sequel trilogy by a country mile. It does exactly what you expect a Star Wars film to do: the unexpected. It doesn’t rely on groan inducing nostalgia and embarrassing fan service. It actually gives an arc to all of its important characters: Luke, Rey, Finn, Poe, and Rose. It celebrates diversity instead of sidelining it. It dares to take risks. It completely subverts our expectations for Rey’s parentage and is all the better for it (which is made absolutely meaningless in TROS). The Last Jedi actually makes you think and appreciate this world. It gives you what you didn’t know you wanted instead of force feeding you what you already had (too much of a good thing is a bad thing Abrams). In my opinion, it’s for this reason that this is more a Star Wars movie than either TFA or TROS, both of which feel like expensive fan fiction. J.J. Abrams was maybe the absolute worst choice to reboot Star Wars. Also, most puzzlingly, this is the only film in the sequel trilogy to feature space battles. If only, Disney hadn’t caved to the most toxic fans and let Rian Johnson do Episode IX instead of Abrams.
Thankfully not singing
Well, it would been Colin Trevorrow doing 9 but I get your point, and I say this as someone who thinks the sequel Trilogy is easily the strongest of the 3.
Johnsons own Star Wars Trilogy remains, at the moment, the only film post Solo not scrapped or moved to Disney+ as a tv series.
Selfishly speaking, im glad he wasnt expected to do 9, as , coupled with No Time To Die’s delay freeing up Daniel Craig, we got Knives Out! A brilliant film that could lead to a brilliant series.
Master & Commander, the Bourne Ultimatum and Top Secret!
Just watched The Cabin in the Woods and The World’s End.
Both entertaining and funny.
I didn’t care for The World’s End. I felt it was just Shaun of the Dead with robots.
I identified with the 40 somethings reliving their youthful days and the early 90s British soundtrack…
I agree with you, as much as I wanted to like The World’s End. It is easily the weakest of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. I still particularly like Hot Fuzz with the villainous Timothy Dalton.
7500 (2020)
A horror/thriller film set on a plane during a terrorist hijacking. This film is strange. It creates great tension with its claustrophobic setting (the majority of the film takes place in the plane’s cockpit). Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a great performance. However, the film is just another in a long line of works perpetuating the Islamic terrorist stereotype as the hijackers are German-born Muslims conducting a 9/11 style terrorist attack. I would likely have enjoyed this film more had the terrorists been non-Islamic fundamentalists. Many times, when tv shows and/or movies have resorted to this plotline, it has been when I have dumped those shows or movies. I remember the last episode I ever watched of the Hawaii Five-0 reboot dealt with 20-something Americans who converted to Islam and became radicalized. The overall message of the episode became about Americans beating Islamic terrorism, instead of showing how America and Islam are not enemies. From that moment on, I never watched Hawaii Five-0 again. This film does the same thing, although Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Tobias, was dating a Muslim woman and had a child with her. He does form a connection with one of the hijackers who prevents the plane from crashing and tries to save him at the end of the film. But the idea that Islam is not our enemy is never presented. Overall, it would be a good film if it weren’t let down and ultimately overshadowed by its ethnic stereotypes.