[SilverEars]

Midway - (7.5/10)

Wasn't as bad as the general ratings out there (with a large audience/critic score disparity in RT). I'm not the biggest fan of Roland Emmerich work, and thought ID4 was corny with Will Smith as saving grace, but this one wasn't so bad. I've noticed there's intentional film grain added, which I dislike, but I figure it's to make the computer effects less noticeable in the details, which was likely why used in the Irishman with the computer rendering of the actors to make them look young. There's more character development with this movie so I can understand why this one would be liked more than Pearl Harbor, although character development wasn't particularly good. I believe that this movie is close to historical events, which is good, but honestly the way the movie was layed out, I couldn't follow the story all that coherently.

 

[kid vic]

White men can't jump- 7/10

Classically enjoyable but not the best of the era and genre. Great streetball shots though

 

[SilverEars]

White men can't jump- 7/10

Classically enjoyable but not the best of the area and genre. Great streetball shots though

A childhood fav of mine. Really enjoyed this one when it came out. I wouldn't rate it higher either, but fun movie for sure.

 

[kid vic]

Above the rim- 8.3/10

Lots of classic scenes, no surprise revenge ending and one of Tupacs best performances.

 

[tdockweiler]

White men can't jump- 7/10

Classically enjoyable but not the best of the era and genre. Great streetball shots though

I still remember seeing this in the theater with my uncle and liking it. I was 11 or 12 at the time (now 39!).
I don't know if my opinion would change if I saw it again or not, now that I am older.
Usually when I remember hating a movie when I was a kid, my opinion of it rarely changes when I'm older and rewatch it.
This isn't always the case since I've learned to appreciate Yasujiro Ozu films (which would bore kids).

Snipes and Harrelson also teamed up again later in "Money Train".
That movie got extremely bad reviews, but I remember liking it.

Another basketball movie I liked was "Hoosiers".
I remember renting it on VHS when I was 9 or 10 at a "Food City" grocery store.
I can clearly remember it was the first movie that got me interested in the Drama genre.
Nobody in my family would rent from that section EVER, but it was always my favorite somehow.
It's hard to believe, but I actually miss video rental stores!
I'm sure they are long gone for nearly everyone in the USA.
There is actually 1 or 2 left in my city, but too far away.

 

[SilverEars]

I still remember seeing this in the theater with my uncle and liking it. I was 11 or 12 at the time (now 39!).
I don't know if my opinion would change if I saw it again or not, now that I am older.
Usually when I remember hating a movie when I was a kid, my opinion of it rarely changes when I'm older and rewatch it.
This isn't always the case since I've learned to appreciate Yasujiro Ozu films (which would bore kids).

Snipes and Harrelson also teamed up again later in "Money Train".
That movie got extremely bad reviews, but I remember liking it.

Another basketball movie I liked was "Hoosiers".
I remember renting it on VHS when I was 9 or 10 at a "Food City" grocery store.
I can clearly remember it was the first movie that got me interested in the Drama genre.
Nobody in my family would rent from that section EVER, but it was always my favorite somehow.
It's hard to believe, but I actually miss video rental stores!
I'm sure they are long gone for nearly everyone in the USA.
There is actually 1 or 2 left in my city, but too far away.

Hoosiers was another one I enjoyed as well. There used to be sports movies like those back in the days. I don't see them any more.

A great Basketball documentary I've seen was called Hoop Dreams. I can easily recommend.

 

[tdockweiler]

Passengers - 8/10

This is one movie that somehow seems to get a little better after a second viewing.
I skipped it at the theater because of it's terrible trailer and feel it would have been worth going to see.
There is actually a lot of thought that went into this movie and more so than the average Marvel super hero movie.
Only problem is that the first half hour could have been done a little better, especially Chris Pratt's acting.
I actually start to really like the movie a little after Jennifer Lawrence's character shows up.

What's funny about this movie is that many people are so disgusted by one person's actions in this movie and actually go as far and act as if the actual director or film maker did all this! As you may know, Chris Pratt's character wakes up "only" 90 years too early from hibernation and he's left alone on the ship. No way to go back into hibernation.

What does he do instead of committing suicide? He wakes up his dream woman early and just doesn't tell her about it. Such a nice guy! OK, the idea of someone actually doing this is pretty disgusting and IS really like killing them. Some fault could be placed on the screenwriter's I guess.

I won't spoil anything about how the movie resolves all this or even if they do. Not like anyone would bother watching this anyway though.
I actually think there are enough good ideas buried in this movie to deserve a sequel or related film, but that won't happen since it did terrible at the box office.

When I'm watching this movie I actually get caught up in what's happening to them and some parts are even sad to me somehow. I actually care about it's characters. Weird.

PS on my first viewing I liked the movie but only gave it a 7/10. I've now seen it three times.


I also wonder if I reviewed Parasite when I saw it at the theater? I was surprised that I didn't like it at all.
When I left the theater it put me in a bad mood and wished I had seen something better.
It was well made, but in the end I'd have given it a 6/10.

Strangely enough the guy who did the English subtitles ran a website reviewing South Korean films and it really helped me get into them back in the day.
Seeing "Parasite" win all those awards at the Oscars made my day (despite not liking it!).

The ONE film that got me into them was Lee Chang-Dong's "Peppermint Candy"!

Anyway, it's sad that this is only the SECOND Asian film from another country that has played in my city since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"!
"Poetry" had a showing at a nearby city, but played at 9am ONLY. Pretty weird.

This theater in Three Rivers, MI near me ALWAYS plays every single Hirokazu Koreeda film (my favorite director) but every screening is usually empty.

 

[tdockweiler]

The Pharmacist - 10/10

Latest Netflix documentary and it's a good one!
The first episode is a bit hard to watch due to how sad it is, but it gets a lot better.
This was so good I was glued to my TV and watched all 3 1/2 hours in one sitting!


Dirty Money - 8/10 (documentary TV series on Netflix)

Worth watching, but the maple syrup heist episode was a bit of a let down.
There is probably a ton of stuff in here you might not know about.
For example, how deceptive some of those pay day lenders are.
Pretty much a scam even if you read the fine print.

Also started watching Narcos Mexico Season 2. Very boring and super slow so far and only on episode 4.
Hope it gets better. Seasons 1 and 2 are up there with something like Breaking Bad IMO.
Narcos Mexico isn't anywhere near as good.

 

[SilverEars]

I also wonder if I reviewed Parasite when I saw it at the theater? I was surprised that I didn't like it at all.
When I left the theater it put me in a bad mood and wished I had seen something better.
It was well made, but in the end I'd have given it a 6/10.

Strangely enough the guy who did the English subtitles ran a website reviewing South Korean films and it really helped me get into them back in the day.
Seeing "Parasite" win all those awards at the Oscars made my day (despite not liking it!).

The ONE film that got me into them was Lee Chang-Dong's "Peppermint Candy"!

Anyway, it's sad that this is only the SECOND Asian film from another country that has played in my city since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"!
"Poetry" had a showing at a nearby city, but played at 9am ONLY. Pretty weird.

This theater in Three Rivers, MI near me ALWAYS plays every single Hirokazu Koreeda film (my favorite director) but every screening is usually empty.

There's been so much buzz in the media regarding Parasite, and I wondered if there was a purposeful campaign to get Parasite to win. I've heard that companies do this to get their movies to win. There was so much hype behind parasite in the media. It could just have been due to the film winning Cannes, and built notoriety from that event, and went viral.

It's a big step for a movie like Parasite to win. It lets us know that the Oscars do not limit best picture award to English language movies, and gives film-makers all over the world possibility that they too can win a best picture oscar even if they make a foreign language film. There's been so much crappy Hollywood films in the modern times, and if Hollywood is on a decline, let movies from outside the country get notoriety and credit where it's due.

I miss Siscal and Ebert. They supported Hoop Dreams for the Oscars

 

[tdockweiler]

JoJo Rabbit - 9/10

This was a surprise for me and I came away being kind of impressed with this movie.
It's just so much different than what I'm used to seeing and I can't think of many other films like this.
It doesn't really work too well for me as a comedy. Most of it's comedy I had a hard time processing.
It wasn't "lol" funny, but just mostly amusing. I generally tend to dislike movies that have such goofy and unrealistic characters (like Wes Anderson films).
The first half isn't great, but it does get a lot better. I think this would be worth buying on Blu-ray and watching again.
Out of all the best picture nominees i've seen, this would have been my pick.
I've seen all of them except for "Little Women" and "Marriage Story".

I was thinking about how this movie could have worked without it's comedy. I don't know how they could do it really.
It would be too similar to other movies on the subject. Most of those are way too heavy handed (like "Boy in the striped Pajamas" and "The Book Thief").
Then you'd have weird people saying something like that it's part Nazi propaganda if you removed it's comedy.

Also, Rebel Wilson had one of the funniest scenes in the movie. I almost felt a little bad for laughing at her final scene! There is also another part towards the end that was the funniest thing i've seen in a long time, but I don't want to spoil it. I'll be honest and say I only laughed maybe 3 or 4 times in this movie, but I usually don't like this kind of comedy.

PS Yorki was my favorite character. He was JoJo's best friend.

 

[tdockweiler]

A Hidden Life - 10/10

This is the latest Terrence Malick film and the best one by far since "The New World".
His last three films have been terrible IMO. This one actually has a good story AND script!
The only problem is that it requires a huge amount of patience and is pretty slow going during the middle of the movie.
I also wish more of the non-English dialogue was subtitled. About 25% of it is not in English with zero subtitles!
I wonder if this is what the director wanted or if didn't have the budget to get subtitles?!

I love the cinematography in this one, but some of the camera angles are annoying to me. They almost look a little distorted.
I never really saw this effect in his earlier films. Sometimes his style here makes it a little harder to like than it should be.
Some scenes have this sort of disconnected or distant feel to them. I don't know how to describe it very well, but it feels like the movie is like some sort of strange dream.
If you've seen the director's last few films you may know what i'm talking about.

PS i'm picking this as one of the best films i've seen in the last year.
The others have been the following:

An Elephant Sitting Still
Mon Oncle, Parade, Trafic (all Jacques Tati films)
The New Land/The Emigrants (hidden gems from Jan Troell)

 

[SilverEars]

I'm a big documentary guy, so lately I've seen the newest one about Ted Bundy. Very interesting personality. If any of you have some interesting documentaries, please recommend. Thanks

 

[alex9090]

It is a great movie, but I felt it did lack some substance, that element that transform a great movie into a masterpiece. Worth watching? Definitely, one of the best movies for 2019.

 

[tdockweiler]

El Chapo - 10/10

(All three seasons!)

Probably one of the best TV shows i've seen in the last year.
I picked this one at random on Netflix and was instantly hooked.
I actually started it because Narcos Mexico Season 2 was boring me to death.
It's very well made, has good acting and nearly all episodes are equally as good.
There is really not much variation in quality between episodes.
Only one or two episodes were very slightly below average. Overall, no bad episodes.

It's definitely not all about El Chapo too luckily.
A lot of the story line focuses on government corruption, turf wars and trying to capture El Chapo.
It definitely doesn't portray him positively in any way other than him caring for his family.

I haven't fact checked this movie yet, but will do that soon. I also am not sure which characters are fictional.

One other thing I liked about this is that yes, it does tell you about some pretty horrific things the drug lords did to each other, but without excessive gore or violence.
I think you could give this a PG-13 rating. There is actually quite a few disturbing parts. A few episodes are really sad, but they are important to the story.

I guess the only minor negatives are that some of the American actors are not very good actors. They are not in many scenes though. They also focused way too much on Conrado's love life, which wasn't really necessary. You could say that most everything though in this series is important to the story and there is not much filler material to pad the running time (like on Narcos Mexico).

Anyway, if you liked Narcos or Breaking Bad, this one is worth checking into.

PS Interesting fact. The series is co-produced by Netflix and Univision. I thought this was maybe produced in Mexico, but it's a US series filmed entirely in Spanish. I actually have never heard of Univision before. I guess they are a TV channel based in the USA that plays television shows in Spanish.

 

[tdockweiler]

Jumanji: The Next Level - 6.5/10

It's worth a rental. Nowhere near as good as the last one.

Dark Waters - 7/10

I really never knew such things like this have even happened before and corporations could get away with this for so long.
After watching movies like this you really want to do your research online to read up on on the subject.
It really does make you wonder what unregulated chemicals are harming our health without us even knowing it.
These days I don't even know if I trust my own tap water.
How do you know who to trust when someone says something is safe?

Some of the acting is a bit awkward or just plain bad at times. Not by it's main character at least.
There is a LOT of overacting by a few characters.

Similar movies are "Erin Brokovich" and "A Civil Action". Both of those are a little better than this film and a lot more entertaining.

BTW I'm surprised to hear that the same toxic chemical used in teflon coated pans is also in Microwave popcorn bags!