🎥 Films
🎥 Ghosted, 2023 - ★★★
Cute. Predictable and scenes lifted directly from John Wick, The Fast and Furious franchise, Tarantino’s catalogue .. and more … all of them failing to better the originals. Then again, I didn’t pay anything to see it (except my time).
I think Ryan Reynolds has decided to make a new business out of quick cameos.
Also delighted to see 10 seconds of John Cho (Cowboy Bebop)
🎥 The Falcon and the Snowman, 1985 - ★★★★
Long time since I watched this - but I have watched it more than once - which is rare for me ... Came to mind this morning as I was reading the news and my mind revisiting the theme song and then thinking about Schlesinger - and then Timothy Hutton and of course the amazing Sean Penn. Well worth a **focused** watch.
🎥 Murder Mystery 2, 2023 - ★★
If you read my review of Murder Mystery ... You might be surprised to learn that I also watched this. BUT as I said in the review ... the film’s saving grace (at best) was the Maharajah ... and spotting him featured heavily in the promo, I though maybe they would give him more screen time ....
Spoiler alert ... and I can't say this with absolute certainty ... But I'm going to say he had LESS screen time.
And yes ... the star count is accurate ... Worse than the first!
Oh .. And murder mystery? This was a kidnapping mystery, sure a fe murders along the way ... But the title isn't Murders Mystery.
Disappointed? Not really ... Sandler generally is what he is and does what he does.
🎥 Murder Mystery, 2019 - ★★½
With Netflix holding back on the 6th series of Better Call Saul ... What's a boy to do? Murder Mystery 2 was floating around and I had never seen the first ... so decision made.
It would be unfair to say it was a total disaster, though I am definitely NOT a Sandler fan .. I do kinda like Aniston .. So who knows I thought ... Maybe she could lift him up?
She couldn’t. (Though he did a pretty good job of bringing her down!) .. Stamp was another I had high hopes for ... but not to be the case, which becomes clear should you elect to give this a whirl.
But there was a saving grace in the ’Maharajah’ .. Played by one Adeel Akhtar .. What a spectacular part ... What a spectacular performance .. Just not enough of him.
Salvation, though the rating didn’t move.
🎥 Luther: The Fallen Sun, 2023 - ★★★★
The story continues and gets weirder, but it’s Idris .. right?
And it all ends with an interesting set up for the next story.
🎥 Bohemian Rhapsody, 2018 - ★★★★
I’m not big into biopics … but for this I will make an exception and all because of Rami Malik. Quite brilliant in this role.
🎥 Paddington 2, 2017 - ★★★★
Loved the first one. Loved this one. Love the books. In my mind, Paddington can’t go wrong.
🎥 Office Space, 1999 - ★★★★½
Maybe it should-be 5 stars ... but that would mean it couldn’t be improved ... and everything can be improved .. can’t it? How? No idea.
🎥 The Pale Blue Eye, 2022 - ★★★½
3 stars from me, 4 stars from Jax. I likeChristian Bale’s work, I thought the ‘Poe’ character was excellent … but in the end, I didn’t really care, even with ‘twist’ at the end.
🎥 RRR, 2022 - ★★½
I wanted to like it … nay .. love it. I really did. But it was not to be. Definitely extraordinary scenes of ‘spectacularity’ within, but they weren’t enough to create a 3 hour movie and even at under 2 hours would have still been a push. Sorry.
‘🎥 MyFilmReviews’ and ‘🎬 MyFilmReferences’ are now clearly delineated and once the MicroBlog category filter catches up and gets back into synch it will be a lot easier to find relevant posts.
PS - I am fully aware that only I care about (or even use) the categories.
🎵 This Is The End
I wrote an email this morning, responding to something that had been sent to me, announcing - and I paraphrase - that despite the longevity of the work that he had been personally driving for decades, he has decided that this was indeed - ‘the end’.
I guess it is one of those days, where every where you look, every page you turn emotion takes over and (at least for me), music takes hold.
Because I - and indeed he - are ‘of a certain age’, ‘The End’ came to mind. (If you aren’t of a certain age - I commend you to watch just one (if not all three) of the YouTubes below.) If you are of a certain age - you don’t need me to tell you.
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes again
“Every time I hear that song, it means something else to me. It started out as a simple good-bye song… Probably just to a girl, but I see how it could be a goodbye to a kind of childhood."
💬 Jim Morrison
If you want a really good cry, the images most certainly do nothing to distract from the pain of the song …
If you want to listen to the original recording of nearly 11 minutes that took just 30 minutes of studio time (think about that) …
If you are of the live music persuasion… in the US you had Woodstock. In the UK we had The Isle of Wight …
🎥 if...., 1968 - ★★★
I had it at 4 Stars in my head when I first watched the film. I checked it out again recently. It’s dated … and not as great as I remembered. Because I’m older? Or just more considered.
I still like the idea of never quite putting your finger on when it suddenly went the character’s tipping point occured.
🎥 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 - ★★★★
I love Wes Anderson … so of course … but even if you don’t, you need to try this one out.
🎥 In Bruges, 2008 - ★★★★
I watched this for the second time … inspired by how great ‘The Banshees’ was. Just as good as I remembered it. Excellent … and on Netflix at the moment.