Movie Reviews
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On Amazon Prime.
You know how, in so many of LeCarre's books, the ending is quiet, frequently disturbing and frequently unsatisfying ("Spy Who Came In From The Cold")?
This is similar.
It's a story of a hijacked airplane 8 years ago, and CIA decides to re-open its investigation into what went wrong, with everyone on the plane dying.
Chris Pine and Thandie Newton are former and current CIA agents and lovers who are involved in the original hijacking and subsequent investigation.
Multiple levels of betrayal, distrust and false leads are all over this movie. It's told through a series of flashbacks, and flashbacks of flashbacks about what went wrong, why, and who is to blame for it all.
Reviews are mediocre, but I enjoyed it, mostly for the slow, slow, burn of the story being unfolded. Great twist at the end with flashbacks re-referenced to explain it all.
A quiet, disturbing and depressing movie. But, if you're into that kind of stuff, give it a watch.
Also, I can just look at Thandie Newton all day long....
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Spent the morning watching "Joker."
Though not strictly a "Batman" movie (it nods to Bruce's dad), it's a remarkable portrayal by Joaquin Phoenix of a man with a terribly troubled past and his descent into total insanity.
Think "Taxi Driver" but more violent, and a lot, lot, crazier.
He deserved the Oscar for this.
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I first saw this movie shortly after it was released, and something brought it to mind, so I gave it a re-watch this afternoon.
The premise is that John Oldman, a professor at a local college in Arizona has resigned after 10 years on the faculty. Several of his friends show up as a surprise going-away party as he's packing to leave. Among them are a biologist, his secretary, a psychiatrist, an anthropologist and one or two others.
As they celebrate his going-away with some Johnny Walker Green, one of his friends finds a stone, shaped like an ancient chisel, in a box John has packed.
When asked about it, John starts to tell a story about being not who everyone thinks he is. He explains that he has to "move on" every ten years, and that he's had some very very interesting encounters in his past.
I won't say more, because it's kind of weird. I enjoyed it when I first saw it, and today, knowing how it ends, I liked it even more.
Very low budget, all shot inside John's cabin in the desert, and with a small cast.
If you like unusual, this will fit the bill.
Gets 7.9 stars on IMDB with 185K votes.
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I've talked about this movie before, but I thought, considering that it's not in this thread to re-evanglize it.
"Moon."
It's a small sci-fi movie directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) starting Sam Rockwell.
Premise is that Rockwell is at the end of his tour mining precious material on the Moon. He discovers a shocking truth about what's really going on.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Movie Reviews:
I've talked about this movie before, but I thought, considering that it's not in this thread to re-evanglize it.
"Moon."
It's a small sci-fi movie directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) starting Sam Rockwell.
Premise is that Rockwell is at the end of his tour mining precious material on the Moon. He discovers a shocking truth about what's really going on.
That's a good one.
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Swipe, swipe, swipe, It's not easy to find love online, so when Cecilie matches with a handsome billionaire playboy, she can't quite believe it when he turns out to be the man of her dreams. But dreams aren't reality and by the time she discovers this international businessman isn't who he says he is, it's too late. He's taken her for everything. Where this fairytale ends, a revenge begins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tinder_Swindler
The Tinder Swindler is a British true crime documentary film directed by Felicity Morris and released on Netflix on 2 February 2022.[1] The documentary tells the story of the Israeli conman Simon Leviev (born Shimon Hayut) who used the dating application Tinder to connect with individuals who he then emotionally manipulated into financially supporting his lavish lifestyle on the pretext he needed the money to escape his "enemies."
An Israeli man, born Shimon Hayut, travelled around Europe, presenting himself as the son of Russian-Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev aka the Diamond King.[3] He used the dating app Tinder to contact women as Simon Leviev, and tricked them into lending him money that he would never repay. He would charm women with lavish gifts and take them to dinners on private jets using money he borrowed from other women he had previously conned. He would later pretend he was being targeted by his "enemies", often sending the same messages and images to each woman, indicating that he had just been attacked with a knife, but that his bodyguard had saved him and was hurt. He then asked his victims to help him financially due to the breach of 'security', supposedly hindering his use of his credit cards and bank accounts; the women would often take out bank loans and new credit cards in order to help.[4] He would then use the money gained through the deception to lure new victims, while essentially operating a Ponzi scheme.[3][4] Later, he would pretend to repay his victims by sending forged documents showing fake bank transfers[4] and then break off contact with the victims.[5] Sometimes he would even go as far as threaten them and use manipulation to get more money from his victims. It's estimated that he swindled $10 million from people across the globe
On Netflix
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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Story about "The Big Grift."
It's a "Sting" wannabe, but it doesn't have the charm or the character draw of The Sting. Hoffman is, as always, great.
Jake Vig is a consummate grifter about to pull his biggest con yet, one set to avenge his friend's murder. But his last scam backfired, leaving him indebted to a mob boss and his enforcer.
The storyline is a bit too complicated for its own good, and you never really get invested in the characters. Lots of noir cinematography. The entire movie is a flashback of Burns explaining the grift - at least up until the last 5 minutes, it is.
Not a bad way to
wastespend an hour and a half or so, but there are better heist/scam/grift movies out there.2.5 stars.
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Most interesting documentary about Alexei Navalny.
Link to video -
"Tetris" on Apple TV.
The story of how the battle for licensing the game on various platforms (console, PC, handheld) played out across various continents. The fight between the Soviet Union, Atari, Nintendo and others....
Not a bad piece of fluff, which, I'm sure is Hollywood-ed up.
"Based on" a true story.
Still a nice distraction for a couple of hours.
Link to video -
Swan Song:
Link to videoPremise - protagonist is dying of a terminal disease. He decides to have an exact clone of himself to take his place so that his wife will not miss him. The clone shares his DNA, his memories, everything.
And he doesn't plan to tell her when the clone takes his place.
Interesting story told in a quiet type of way.
I enjoyed Marjorie Prime (another "clone"movie), and this reminds me of that film.
3 stars out of 4. Maybe 3 ½.
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Babylon is a "2022 American epic period black comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It features an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, and Li Jun Li. The film chronicles the rise and fall of multiple characters during Hollywood's transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s."
Long (3 hour) movie. I watched the first hour, and I can see how it's terribly polarizing. The craftsmanship of the movie is great. Plotline is also interesting, and Brad Pitt is totally satisfying as an over-the-top silent movie star.
It's on Amazon Prime.
Give it half an hour and see if it grabs you. It grabbed me, but I got distracted with Connelly this afternoon. I plan to return to it.
Oh, lots of debauchery, nudity, drugs, obscenity....
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Movie Reviews:
Babylon is a "2022 American epic period black comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. …
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@Axtremus excellent review.
I enjoyed "Once Upon a Time...", so you're right. Perhaps I'll dive in to finish the movie tomorrow.
Somewhere, I read that the director is all about the "long shot." This can be a gimmick, but his use of this "one long take" technique really immerses you into the scene.
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last night I came across a 2023 b-movie thriller with an inexplicable cast, including Morgan Freeman.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_ritual_killer
It piqued my interest because I saw Vernon Davis listed in the credits. I thought I recognized the name and googled him, and sure enough, it's the retired NFL tight end who, as I recall, was remarkable for being an athletic freak. He's into acting now, and this is his sixth movie. He plays the main bad guy, and even put on an accent for the role. Fun to watch him. Movie was terrible, but I napped through most of it anyway.
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G George K referenced this topic on
