The Substance sticks with ya for awhile. Also, I know Demi has had some work done, but that work has worked! She’s fuckin hot
had to look, 62 years old.
Black Bag is definitely worth the time, not his best work ever but I’m not mad I watched it. About 30 minutes in I was thinking about bailing but he flips the switch and boom it goes from meh to “oh, yeah I’m into this” in a flash.
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Speaking of Soderbergh, I did watch Sex, Lies, and Videotape (note to every creative who has ever existed or who will ever exist: GTFO with these stylized non-capitalized titles) for the first time recently. I thought it was really compelling for a while, but it didn’t hold together super well for me by the end.
Young James Spader in his recurring role of exceedingly creepy alien wearing a semi-believable skin suit is REALLY not my thing.
Interesting Andie MacDowell performance though. Really kind of ties that prime stretch of her career together, given the sorts of roles she most frequently played.
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I just didn’t particularly expect the trailer to be so make-or-break for a user who says things like that or, for instance…
But it’s not any sort of all-timer or anything. It was just one of the brighter spots of a mostly barren early-year slate.
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I know LKJ but that trailer was so bad.
I will put on the movie and see if it hits different for me.
I admit I’m at a loss for what’s so terrible about the trailer. The trailer was part of what made me interested to watch. Given that, I can’t have any confidence about what you’re going to think of the movie. I do think my take on this movie is very much in line with the consensus though.
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So I put on Karate Kid: Legends last night, and I both get and dont get the meh response for it. If you like the karate kid and cobra kai, there is nothing really to dislike here, other than a real underdeveloped main couple of villains. The action was fun, some of the set pieces were great, and there was a surprising movie stealing role by Joshua Jackson as an aging boxer that doesnt even appear in the trailers but makes up the bulk of the first two acts.
I think promoting it as this grand Mr. Han/Daniel-San teamup was a major mistake as Macchio is only in like… 10 percent of the movie? If they had just presented it as the next chapter in the Karate Kid story and had Chan and Macchio making their essentially cameo appearances it would have gone over much better.
Also missing out on Zabka aside from a credits cameo is a real bummer but I did enjoy his time he was on screen.
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Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025)
Didn’t really work for me. It’s a musical, but it’s a musical within a non-musical story, and the structure doesn’t really work. The actors do a good job with what material they’re given, but I never really buy their arcs (separately and together). Oh, and they throw in one of those obnoxious moments where they say “X always happens in Hollywood movies” as a precursor for X happening later. Big Unbreakable “pay close attention, this one’s got a surprise ending” energy. Creatives who include this crap in a script should go find a non-creative profession to work in.
2.5/5
The Smashing Machine (2025)
Liked this one more, though it’s pretty imperfect. The Rock’s performance works for me, even if part of it was being entertained on a meta level by the way he was playing a desperate panderer. Emily Blunt should get better roles than unhappy wife/girlfriend, but as with her Oppenheimer performance she certainly does a good job with it.
It’s a low-stakes movie without a strong narrative thrust, so you have to care about Rock’s Mark Kerr, but I generally did, and as a result the movie worked for me. Probably helped to have all the hype set a low bar for it.
3/5
Tentatively planning to give Roofman a shot tonight.
Did not finish two more movies.
Last Breath: idk but having seen the documentary, this felt fake to me from the word go.
Polytechnique: Denis Villeneuve does not miss! Right? Well…this was boring AF.
I really can’t explain Polytechnique. I mean look at this premise.
A 25-year-old man enters a women’s school with a rifle in his hand. His goal? To murder every woman in the building.
Based on a true story. Should be intense. And yet the most intense moments happen in the first twenty seconds. Which should add a context that makes the slow scenes unbearable with anticipation. And yet.
Polytechnique is free on Tubi if you want to give it a shot.
I see what you did there.
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Oof. Man I’m sorry but this was not for me at all. There was a brief moment at the first dinner when I was into the dialogue and thought okay, let Soderbergh cook. But I was not pleased with the rest.
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Obviously I was prepared for this outcome after the trailer made you so grumpy.
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Surprisingly good, especially with how heavily it leans on soggy toast Channing Tatum. He wasn’t bad in this.
3.5/5
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Hmmmmm, yes please.
On the way back from Armenia yesterday, I watched some movies that Lufthansa had available.
Back to the Future
This is probably the single biggest “WTF you’ve never seen that?” in my movie watching history. So I fixed that. And it was…fine? It was mostly entertaining, but too many times I felt like it was just one long joke about the mom having the hots for her own kid.
I guess I was hoping for more. It’s currently #30 all-time on IMDB (and by my quick assessment #1 for something that is primarily a comedy) and I can’t imagine anything that even remotely justifies that. Is it just nostalgia?
Unforgiven
I put this on because I knew this won Best Picture. I was a bit nervous that this would be a Hateful Eight-like slog to get through, but I was thankfully engaged the entire time. A great story with well-developed characters. Gun fight at the end was a little silly and briefly took me out of the movie, but other than that I have no real complaints. I can’t really say this deserved Best Picture, as its competition included A Few Good Men, but it’s not a miscarriage of justice.
The Departed
Another Best Picture winner off the unwatched list. Certainly had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Solid acting and directing all around, as you’d expect considering the personnel involved. I think it got a little too cute towards the end that certainly didn’t ruin the first 80% of the movie, but it did damage it a tiny bit.
So, did this one deserve Best Picture? Maybe? I haven’t seen Letters from Iwo Jima, but I have it comfortably ahead of the other 3 nominees. That said, that was also the year of Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Lives of Others, all of which I feel are superior.
Back to the Future: 6/10
Unforgiven: 8/10
The Departed: 8/10
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Mother of God, I didn’t realize this. That ranking is absurd. I like the movie quite a bit, but gimme a break with that. Yes, it’s nostalgia.
Basically fully agree with your comments about the other two, though I have no issues with the gunfight at the end of Unforgiven. The Departed is goofy and doesn’t even crack Scorsese’s top 10, but I have no issues with its Best Picture win (I have it marginally behind Pan’s Labyrinth but ahead of Children of Men and The Lives of Others). Miami Vice is my favorite 2006 movie, but you generally have to be a Mann disciple to take to that movie as strongly as I do.
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He should not have attempted that with his level of English.
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FWIW @eyebooger I would recommend cross-checking with Letterboxd Top 250 when you look at these lists. Although the two sites tend to have fairly similar aggregate averages where you’re getting largely the same story about a movie from one site to the next (in terms of whether it’s great, good, or otherwise), it does seem that the LB user base is more international and leans harder into acclaimed movies from across the globe instead of just being a reflection of the most popular films amongst Americans. The IMDb list might be a better guidepost for Americans who will appreciate a list like that more, but I know you tend to be more broad-minded about enjoying world cinema.
To draw from your most immediate example, Back to the Future gets a really strong average rating on Letterboxd, but is nowhere to be found on its Top 250.
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