Recent Movies You Saw

[newmodelarmy]

Watched Home Alone last night with the wife and daughter. Always good for a few laughs and it gets us all in the holiday spirit.

[mbd36]

The Babe Ruth Story (1948)

Old Hollywood biopics have a formula: a man has a dream; he pursues that dream. Along the way, he meets a girl, & she helps him. On this basic outline, the writers hang bits & pieces of the subject's life, usually heavily fictionalized.

Allied Artists knows the formula, but they don't know when to stop the fiction. Babe cures no less than two kids through the power of baseball.

It's not the worst movie ever made; you can tell what's happening & what's happening is usually interesting, but it's not worth your time, unless you want to drink pure corn syrup.

This movie is worth it for some unintentional hilarity. There's so much wrong, from the middle aged lead actor playing a young Babe to the aforementioned scenes of him healing sick kids. It's so corny even for the time.

[_craker_]

Gladiator II
Family trip to the cinema. Popcorn, fizzy drinks, an epic swords and sandals romp, what a treat. But on exiting the theatre, we looked at each other slack jawed and agreed it was the dullest thing we'd seen in years.

It tried to be the first movie. It hasn't got the world building that worked first time out. I thought the acting was mediocre, the effects were silly (double decker rowing galleons, sharks in the Colosseum etc). The plot creaked towards an inevitable conclusion.

It's not a terrible movie, just quite dull.

[newmodelarmy]

I just got back from the theater with my wife and daughter. They dragged me to see Wicked and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised. At 2+ hours I didn't think I could make it but the movie moves at a brisk pace and the singing is off the charts. Also, Ariana Grande is smoking hot which doesn't hurt. All and all a goof flick. That said, if you hate musicals don't bother, there will be not enough great singing and Ariiaa hotness to save you!

[pacman000]

Gladiator II
Family trip to the cinema. Popcorn, fizzy drinks, an epic swords and sandals romp, what a treat. But on exiting the theatre, we looked at each other slack jawed and agreed it was the dullest thing we'd seen in years.

It tried to be the first movie. It hasn't got the world building that worked first time out. I thought the acting was mediocre, the effects were silly (double decker rowing galleons, sharks in the Colosseum etc). The plot creaked towards an inevitable conclusion.

It's not a terrible movie, just quite dull.

Not sure about sharks in the Coloseum, but some Roman ships did have two levels or rowers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ships_o ... cut-fr.svg

[Stalvern]

The Colosseum was flooded for mock naval battles, but sharks were not part of this. It's hard to imagine how the Romans would have been able to transport them inland alive or how the sharks would have stayed alive in the fresh water of the Colosseum itself.

[Zack Burner]

Two animated movies celebrating their anniversaries:
"All Dogs Go to Heaven" (1989) - One of the works of Don Bluth who was developing his own style after breaking away from Disney. His animation and style are still phenomenal, and this one's not afraid of tackling more serious issues such as death and redemption. The voice cast is still great Burt Reynolds doesn't just play the part of Charlie, he lives it (they even included Reynolds' mannerisms), then there's Judith Barsi (RIP) who conveys a sense of innocence and compassion as Anne Marie, Vic Tayback who portrays the gangster style needed for Carface, and Dom DeLuise as Charlie's friend Itchy gives off some support and humor. Let's not forget Ken Page (RIP) as the King Gator. The musical numbers are kind of saccharine except for a few good ones. One scene where Charlie dreams he's going to Hell used to scare the pants off me as a kid, with the green lightening, tornado, boat made of bones, a bone demon, and a dog demon that breathes fire.

Note: what's sadly ironic is that Barsi was the first to die, she and her mother were strangled to death by her alcoholic father (who then committed suicide 2 days later)

"The Lion King" (1994) - I know I already reviewed this one but I couldn't resist a 2nd viewing having already seen it at a performing arts center in concert which I consider was the best viewing I've seen of it, even got me a little teary eyed. Still a powerful but wholesome animated movie that I keep coming back to time and time again, though let's face it, this movie is best seen on the big screen.

[BlasteroidAli]

Futureworld. It was a sequel to Westworld which involved no one from the first movie apart from a cameo by Yul Brenner. I remember back in the 70s, look at Famous monsters mag and really wanting to see that movie. I watched it 10 years later and like it.... so 30 years later it is on Prime so I watched it again and well hmmm.

[Zack Burner]

Before there was Jurassic Park there was "Westworld" which was written and directed by Michael Crichton himself with a similar theme of a theme park going wild and attacking guests. This time a company named Delos gives guests the opportunity to be in either a Roman world, a Medieval world, or a West world. Two men choose the last one, complete with the appearance of the steely-eyed Yul Brynner who makes a perfect heartless killing machine in the latter part of the movie when a virus causes all the robots to attack the guests. The setup is perfect, though the payoff drags pretty long and the ending is bleak.

[Stalvern]

Saw Adaptation, starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Nicolas Cage. Very overdue. One of the funniest movies I've seen in my life, but for a particular sense of humor – people are constantly saying things that are subtly very wrong, like when Meryl Streep's character introduces herself as a writer in The New Yorker and then starts explaining what The New Yorker is before being cut off. I told the friend I was watching it with that it's like a Napoleon Dynamite for grown-ups; the fun of the movie is in all the ways the characters find to be self-unaware. If this sounds like your kind of movie, it probably is, and if it doesn't, it probably isn't.

Before there was Jurassic Park there was "Westworld" which was written and directed by Michael Crichton himself with a similar theme of a theme park going wild and attacking guests. This time a company named Delos gives guests the opportunity to be in either a Roman world, a Medieval world, or a West world. Two men choose the last one, complete with the appearance of the steely-eyed Yul Brynner who makes a perfect heartless killing machine in the latter part of the movie when a virus causes all the robots to attack the guests. The setup is perfect, though the payoff drags pretty long and the ending is bleak.

OK, ChatGPT.