What have you watched lately?

[Ran]

The Running Man. Edgar Wright’s updated and much more faithful adaptation of the Stephen King book. I say more faithful and not completely faithful because they changed the ending of the book for reasons. Despite the Hollywood-ification, I still enjoyed it.

Just watched this tonight and thought it was pretty good. I never read the book, but I saw the 80s version a few months ago. Quite a bit different. The new version is darker.

[Tom Foolery]

Spaceballs: It has some good lines, but overall, it isn't Mel Brooks' best movie.

I think Spaceballs was first Mel Brooks movie I remember watching. When you’re 11 years old and a big SW fan, that’s an easy sell.
But Blazing Saddles is clearly his best movie.

Some recent movies I’ve watched.

Tron:Ares. Ugh. Why do studios keep thinking Jared Leto is the guy that can carry their big budget films? Also, I read the only reason this got made was because Disney didn’t have any SW or Marvel movies scheduled, and needed a “franchise” film for their summer tentpole.

Joker 2. Yikes. Apparently when you throw enough money at the director and star, with zero accountability to the studio, they just take that money and pump out some garbage. It’s like they got tired of their own story and world building and just gave up, but turned that defeatist attitude into a $200M flop.

Becky. I had never heard of this movie, but it already has a sequel. Somebody described it as Home Alone meets John Wick. That’s pretty accurate. A tween girl’s family gets attacked by neo-nazis( the leader is played by Kevin James!) at their remote cabin in the woods, and she gets super violent with them. The sequel is called Wrath of Becky. I’ll watch it soon.

Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. I laughed more than I thought I would at both of these films. The quiet, mumbling Asian chick, for some reason, I found hilarious.

Also did rewatches of Fifth Element, Avengers, and Age of Ultron.

[vynsane]

yes, Spaceballs was the first Mel Brooks movie i ever watched, so it holds a special place in my heart. that and Robin Hood: Men In Tights. never mind the fact that both of them are comprised at least 50% of rehashed jokes from his older movies, which in my later years just makes me appreciate the older ones AND the newer ones.

case in point, RH: MIT "i have a mole???" vs. Young Frankenstein's "what hump??"

[anarky]

Sorry.

Young Frankenstein is Brooks' best.

[Ran]

Watched Clerks and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back last night. It has been a while since I've seen either.

Young Frankenstein is Brooks' best movie, followed by Blazing Saddles and History of the World. Silent Movie and High Anxiety were good, but I haven't seen either in forever. I never saw Dracula: Dead and Loving It.

[anarky]

D:D&LI was a low point. It wasn't unwatchable, but nowhere near Brooks' standards.

The Producers is incredible, too. Meaning the original film, not the musical or the film based on the musical, neither of which I've seen. Though I find it fucking poetic that a movie about intentionally making a Broadway flop to basically embezzle shit tons of money was adapted into one of the biggest Broadway shows ever.

[Tom Foolery]

The Rip. Damon and Affleck play dirty cops(or maybe they aren’t dirty. Or maybe just one of them is dirty. Who can say?) who find a $20M illegal cash stash and have to decide if it’s worth stealing. Paranoia amongst their team ensues. It was directed by Joe Carnahan, who’s done Smokin Aces, A-Team, and Boss Level amongst others. I enjoyed it.

[Tom Foolery]

Since the Oscar noms just came out, I looked up Train Dreams on Netflix and gave it a watch. It’s a quiet, melancholy film with Joel Edgerton as a logger at the turn of the last century. Nothing remarkable happens in the film, but it ends up being a remarkable movie nonetheless. I’m glad it got some recognition with a nomination. It’s way better than F1 or that pretentious overrated Frankenstein movie.

I was trying to find Bugonia to watch. I was hesitant to watch it because Poor Things was such a bizarre experience, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go thru it again.

The only other movie on the nom list I’ve seen is Sinners which I watched about a month ago. That one deserved every nom it got.

[Tom Foolery]

Iron Lung. YouTuber Markiplier played an indie game called Iron Lung several years ago. He loved it so much he spent three years self financing a film adaptation, and another two years trying to get the film a distributor. Finally, towards the end of last year, he announced that it had found distribution and was going to being playing in a few select theaters. But word spread, and his fans started calling their local theaters requesting it. A few dozen theaters swelled to a few hundred, and kept going until over 4000 theaters across the world are having showings. Both my kids, and my wife(who is much younger than me), have been a fan of Mark for over a decade. So we bought tickets, we all took the day off work, and we watched the movie in a sold out auditorium with a bunch of other devoted fans. It was a blast. Not the movie, but the experience. The movie was okay. Better than I was expecting. It holds the record for the most fake blood in a motion picture.

[Ran]

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. It was ok, I guess. The annoying Podcast kid is in NYC with the rest of them for whatever reason. If Winston is the "boss", it seems like he should be supervising a bit more instead of just showing up after an incident. I still have no idea what Janine's job is during Afterlife or Frozen Empire.

[Tom Foolery]

Her job is nostalgia. And Annie Potts has bills.

[Ran]

Her job is nostalgia. And Annie Potts has bills.

Makes sense. She also plays racketball.

[Diabolical]

Frozen Empire, while watchable, felt like it should have been an 8 episode series (or was an 8 episode series crammed down to 2 hours).
Too many characters without enough breathing room for each.

[Tom Foolery]

Roofman. True story about a guy who robbed multiple McDonald’s restaurants, went to prison for it, escaped, and hid out in a TRU for six months while dodging the cops. Starring Channing Tatum.

Song Sung Blue. True story of a Neil Diamond impersonator who finds love and hardship when his wife gets hit by a car and loses her leg, then he dies of a heart attack at the end. Starring Hugh Jackman.

Predator:Badlands. True story of a runty yuatja who goes to a planet where literally even the grass is deadly af to hunt some macguffin apex predator, but soon finds friendship with little space monkeys and robots with no legs was the real treasure all along. Starring…um, I guess the IP is the real star here.

Also rewatched Godfather because of Robert Duvall.
Rewatched Hunt for Red October.
Rewatched LotR:Fellowship of the Ring.