The dude ruled in whatever he played. This is a huge loss.
Conclave
Excellent. Probably the best film Iāve seen in theaters this year. It plays better on the big screen so see it soon if you can.
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Watching Body Double for the Rewatchables. Iām basically Bill Simmonsā age and remember when this movie was on cable all the time, and of course I watched it every time for the boobies.
Itās amazing how when youāre 17, you donāt realize all the super ridiculous preposterous stuff that could never happen. But I think the most ridiculous of all is the killer digging a hole thatās like 6ā deep, 4ā wide, and 8ā long in a matter of minutes. Just try to do that some time.
Caddo Lake
Itās hard to say much of anything about this movie without spoiling the neat twists and surprises that keep coming. I watched it because Dave Chen of /Filmcast said once he understood what the movie was doing, he was totally into it. Starts off kind of slow, but well worth it once the threads start to overlap.
This was produced by Shyamalan but written and directed by someone else, so it plays like what if Shyamalan had begun making prestige movies instead of the more gimmick driven stuff of his career.
Streaming on MAX.
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Anora (2025)
Absolutely loved this. Itās a realistic Pretty Woman. Baker hits yet another home run looking at yet a different sector of sex work. The acting here is so good. Itās also the surprise comedy of the year. I laughed harder in this many times than I have in almost all pure comedies Iāve seen in years.
No notes.
Grade: A
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I added this to my queue because of Chen too. Iāll have to move it up.
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48 Hrs. (1982)
For some reason, despite definitely being an Eddie Murphy guy, I slept on this one forever. Eddie, alongside Steve Martin and Bill Murray, were my biggest entry point into movies as a kid. We discussed in here a bit ago that Eddie unfortunately fell off pretty hard along the way (at least in terms of the work that heās a part of), but this was during his big moment, and honestly I think this works at close to the level of Beverly Hills Cop.
Nick Nolteās character seems like an honest depiction of many cops and is extremely unlikableā¦I honestly thought that might put a ceiling on how much I could enjoy a movie where they ask me to get behind the Nolte/Murphy team. But damn if they didnāt actually get me on board with the relationship over the course of the movie after it felt kind of impossible early on.
Dug this one enough that Iāll make what I imagine is a terrible life decision by watching the sequel at some point.
3.5/5
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Iām sad knowing youāll lose two hours of your life to the sequel rather than literally anything else youāve said no to, but I canāt blame you because I made the same decision once upon a time.
Donāt worry; your post will probably at least slow me down. I take great pride in not being a āfollow the franchise into the groundā type.
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That was also an era where a not bald Jonathan Banks was nearly continually used as canon fodder. The bad guy in 48 Hrs was insane, legit scary. Like the only other bad guy I can think of as scary in a way Iād walk across the street if I saw him in real life was the bad guy in Metro (which is a good Eddie Murphy movie, in my opinion).
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Metro I watched as a kid, and it didnāt work for me, but I was also young and expecting something hilarious. The tone was different than what I thought I was renting. That can doom a movie experience that might otherwise have been good.
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Revisit it instead of the 48 Hrs sequel. Its tone was very dark, but I thought it was still good.
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I pretty much canāt think of Jonathan Banks without knowing that he starred in this:
He even had the droopy eyelid back then.
Obviously lol @ the āspecial guestā bit
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@ctr123 So is the Heavenās Gate cut that you champion 2.5 or 3.5 hours long?
Letterboxd lists 3.5 hours, which is a reason Iāve been scared to try it given the mixed (at best) reviews. But it shows up on several streaming services at a 2.5-hour length. So Iām not even sure the really long one is available even if I did want to watch it.
have to go with the long version for this oneā¦I first watched the āshortā one and it didnāt do much for me, but upgrading to the long (+ big screen) was a revelation.
I know that the long version was very hard to find until the mid '00s, but now it should at least be easy to find on disc (not sure about streamingā¦it was available on Prime here until recently, but now it only lists the short one, idk why).
Just the opposite of what I wanted you to say. Alright, Iāll keep my eyes peeled, I wonāt bother with the shorter one. Probably just as well I asked since I nearly fired it up earlier.
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Guess who just pulled landscaping duty
They gotta punch Drew Carey in this one.
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They should punch Bob Barker one last time to truly cross the line.
Poolman (2023)
this one i just randomly saw on hulu and i felt like watching a movie i know nothing about so i clicked play. chris pine has this look like heās a homeless guy who lives on the beach, and i guess heās been cultivating that look for this role? the film reminded me a lot of the tv series lodge 49 which i loved, kind of mixed with inherent vice which i also loved so this was setting itself up to work for me.
but i approached it almost with contempt. i kept telling myself, āthis is going to suck, chris pine directed it who the fuck is chris pine? some moviestar? heās not an auteur, heās not on my level. iām better than chris pine.ā but it kept winning me over as i dismissed it throughout the first half, and by the time i got to the end i was a little upset because i love this movie. i had treated it unfairly and i should have just enjoyed the film from the beginning. so i rewinded it and watched it again. itās 5 bags of popcorn
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