Re: Good (or bad) Movies PART 2

[jimv]

This weekend, I have "Free" HBO & Cinemax.  Out of all the movies they're showing, the only one that sparked an interest in me was "Dead Calm" with Sam Neall & Nicole Kidman.  It's an 1989 movie that I'd never heard of before.  So, I DVRed it & watched it last night.  It's a really good, suspenseful movie.  If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend you do.  I won't give away the plot.  Just watch it if you can.

[LennG]

We also have the same deal here on LI with Optimum. Don't know if you saw but they also have the original Birth of a Nation on one of those channels.
Again, don't know if you have seen some of the movies that you can watch, but Hidden Figures is very good. They also have Wonder Woman and a few others I can't recall at the moment.

I did see Dead Calm ( quite a while ago)(Doris wouldn't watch that) and I also thought it pretty good.

[jimv]

I have "Birth of a Nation" in my collection.

[Ed Vette]

We saw Black Panther yesterday in IMAX 3D. Excellent Movie. Linda even enjoyed it and she doesn't care for this type of movie.

[LennG]

Last night we sat down to watch one of the last movies we wanted to see before the Oscars. Our time is shortened to watch as we are cruising again in a couple of days. Anyway, we wanted to see this movie since it came out. Ed already gave this movie a 'Thumbs Up' a few pages back, and I do not doubt him, so even though we knew we would like it, along with Ed's review, we sat down to watch and knew we would be thoroughly entertained.
So, the movie, "The Post' , starring Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee and Meryl Streep as Kay graham (the owner of the Newspaper) and several other well played roles including a great performance by  Bob Odenkirk (Our friend Jimmy McGill from Better call Saul).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6294822/

Let's start out quickly, we LOVED this movie. We both felt it started out a bit slow and confusing, but it was setting the table, as they say, for what was to follow. Once it got rolling, it was excellent, exciting and even though we lived thru this, we didn't know all the inner details, and we were on the edge of our seats. How this didn't get 4 stars as a rating is beyond me. Are we so used to wonderful performances by Hanks and Streep that we are starting to take them for granted? We did notice that they didn't have a lot of scenes together, but both were good in their riles.

So, story wide. And I won't be giving anything away as this was history, and is so pertinent to today it is almost too close for comfort. Some one breaks into to Sect of Defense Robert McNamara's secret files on the Viet Nam war. The NY Times gets a hold of some of the documents and publishes them, to the chagrin of now President Nixon. Nixon threatens to sue them for releasing these documents that basically tell everyone that the Viet Nam war is a complete sham, and helped along by Presidents from Eisenhower right up to Nixon. The Times is on the clock, but in the meantime Bradlese's, the editor of the Washington Post, gets another copy of these documents, (The Pentagon papers) from Daniel Ellsworth and they want to publish them with the same threat from the President, he will sue and have them thrown in jail for giving out classified secrets. Bradlee, the editor, obviously wants to publish, but Streep, as the new owner has doubts and you'll just have to watch to see the how's and whys.

As I said, we loved it. It is another in a recent amount of historical movies, that, being old, we have lived thru. How much is precisely accurate, well, I haven't done my research yet, but I will, but the way I remember it was about the way it played out on screen. I would recommend this movie to EVERYONE. It is part of our history, and, as I said before, so many similarities to what is happening in our country today, which I won't go into. Young children will not understand this movie, neither will older children, but for teens, it should be a must see.
My rating 5 stars and I don't care what Rotten tomatoes says, it was great.

[jimv]

Today I got the Blu-ray version of "Darkest Hour."  Naturally, I watched it immediately.  It is a TERRIFIC film!  The acting is GREAT!!!  I recommend it to everyone, especially history buffs.

[LennG]

So I go away for a couple of weeks and no one watches movies.     

Let's go people. Movies are grossing record numbers, some one has to be going or watching.

Give me a chance to catch up on many things on the DVR, especially TWD, and we'll be back in action.

[jimv]

Welcome back, Lenny.  Hope you had a good time!  My watching "Darkest Hour" doesn't count?

[LennG]

Jim

Had a great time, wonderful weather and gained about 5 pounds (Didn't need that)

YOu watched that over a week ago--and I knew you would like it. 10X better than Dunkirk.

[jimv]

It sure WAS better than "Dunkirk!"  I was REALLY disappointed in that movie.  I didn't see any of the other movies, but It looked to me that Gary Oldman deserved ther Oscar.

[LennG]

It sure WAS better than "Dunkirk!"  I was REALLY disappointed in that movie.  I didn't see any of the other movies, but It looked to me that Gary Oldman deserved ther Oscar.

As I said in my review, Oldman was absolutely terrific. He was Churchill just as good as Daniel Day Lewis was Lincoln, only this was a much better movie than Lincoln.

[jimv]

I finally got "U-571."  Terrific movie!!

[LennG]

So, it has been a while since we have sat down to watch any new movies, after an intense period of watching pre Academy Awards.
So we looked over the list of movies and decided to watch the hottest movie for the past 5 or so weeks, 'Black Panther'.

Over all we knew nothing of this movie except it got very good reviews, has been the top grossing moving for the past month and Ed also gave it a good thumbs up. So we sat down to enjoy what we felt would be a good watch.

As I have said many times, I am not a fan of the Super hero type movies. Except for a few Superman's, Batman's, and Spiderman's, I do not go out of my way to watch these movies. When I saw this was a Marvel movie, I expected another Super hero type movie. But it really wasn't. We were very surprised at the entire plot of the movie.

I understood the plot to most extents, but to try and explain it would be trouble so here is  the basic storyline from my movie web site

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, King T'Challa returns home to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country's new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne from factions within his own country. When two foes conspire to destroy Wakanda, the hero known as Black Panther must team up with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Dora Milaje, Wakandan special forces, to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war. If you want to read more, see the trailer or whatever try this   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/

So, here is MY take (and for the most part my DW's also). We really weren't impressed. With all the hoopela that has surrounded this movie, I fully expected to be blown away and we weren't even moved, well, maybe just a tiny bit. I loved the special effects, and some of the action, but overall, I found many other movies, in this genre, to be much better. Again, because of all the hype, we were really dissappointed.
First of all, it really wasn't like a true super hero movie. It basically takes place in the fictional Africa, the villians weren't that villanous and I really didn't care if they won, lost or whatever. To anyone else that has seen this movie, please explain to me what was so special? I watched this movie with an open mind, prepared to be dazzled, and we both weren't. Maybe there wasn't enough 'super hero' things to amaze us, maybe there was too much ''social content' maybe the action scenes weren't quite enough--Whatever. If I had paid what people are paying to go to movies these days, I would have been dissappointed.

So, would I recommend the movie--if you are a fan of this type of movie making, go see it. It has been left open for a sequel or 2 or 3 and I probably wouldn't see themn. The movie is for all ages, though young children will not understand anything that is going on, and there might be enough action to suit them, but I feel it is for young teens and up.

[weeze]

 Well its Easter time and as every year, and JIM knows this that means its time for BEN HUR!!!!! RAMMING SPEED! wont get into where it is on the best movie list but its a contender but hands down it is number one in the BIGGEST movie ever made. I mean the characters are big, the scenes are all big, the music is big, this freaking movie is B-I-G !!!!!
Sunday , 1 pm. 256 which is  TCM.
Chariot race is better then any NASCAR race, that's for sure. Wonder if that movie is based on the story of JOB in the bible? it IS the same story pretty much.

[jimv]

Last night I watched "Hidden Figures."  It's about a group of black ladies who worked as mathematicians for NASA in the early 60s.  It's a true story.  It's an outstanding film!  I recommend it to everybody.