Amph What was the last movie you saw? (Ver. 2)

I adore Clue. A movie based on a board game has no business being as good as it is, and it's one of my go-to "comfort food" films. But I'm also happy to admit that the reason I adore it is because I've never watched it as anything other than a total nonsense, and have certainly never attempted to judge it as an actual murder mystery. I don't care who did it (and the multiple endings gimmick makes a mockery of the question anyway). I care about laughing at all the brilliantly campy performances, the bursts of manic energy, and its razor-sharp period wit.

Guess that's my way of saying that I completely agree with you, despite the fact that I completely disagree with you! You're absolutely right when you say it'd make for a cracking stage play, though. Not sure why that hasn't happened yet, 'cause it'd work really well.

 

Its a weird film, thats for sure. Theres nothing wrong with the performances or the premise I suppose, just the humour falls a bit flat for me and the murder / reasons why are totally inconsequential. Maybe its the fact I'd already seen Murder by Death and What A Carve Up and love those 2 films and was comparing it to them. The House on Nightmare Park and The Old Dark House are another couple of comedy old dark house films too. Have you seen any of those?

 

It has been turned into a play. I saw the touring production just a few months ago. I would highly recommend it if you get the chance to see it. I actually preferred it to the movie.

 

I have not, but I'll jot down their titles and give 'em a shot if and when I find 'em.

Wow, for real...?! And there's me talking like I knew for certain. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

Crack-Up. Pat O’Brien is an art critic who tries to break into an art museum in a rage, but when he comes to afterward, he remembers only having been in a train crash. The only problem is, there was no train wreck. Is he losing it, or is there some kind of cover-up going on?

It’s a solid paranoid-thriller noir concept, and it benefits from the film not going the usual route and having his memory be totally correct and there being some giant conspiracy to cover up what happened. Like most conspiracy thrillers, it’s a bit messy and convoluted, but overall it’s pretty decent.

I also enjoyed O’Brien’s angle as a critic: he’s a populist who encourages ordinary people to enjoy art without feeling they need to be sophisticated critics — and criticizing modern art implicitly for its attempt to shift art away from the kind of beauty that any observer can appreciate and toward the sort of insular abstraction that requires command of a bunch of jargon to demonstrate in-group sophistication by interpreting meaning into it. It’s a random touch that makes an interesting point and gives a bit of personality to an otherwise basic character going through the usual motions of trying to clear his name and figure out what happened.

 

The Little Mermaid (1989)

 

Captain Blood 1935

if I have seen this movie before it was a long time ago. But of course I was well aware of it.
Watching it tho - it just kept flagging up in my brain : this was made in 1935. 90 years ago, and yet it feels just like any modern movie.
At this point the Silents are barely over, Talkies are a new thing, new grammar and styles and techniques required, and this film seems to have all the those techniques straight away. (some movies from the same time still have certain techniques from the Silent era still hanging around. )

And the performances - it has that charm of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland with sharp banter played so well, making it all look so easy, and copied so often.
It has violence and action , sword fights, some goofy characters to lighten the mood when needed, FX, matte shots, it's a grand blockbuster. It's a swashbuckler but its got politics in it too and a character arc.

Director Michael Curtiz really deserves credit here, he's the one really nailing the new style .

 

It is easily one of the most overproduced plays in community theatre but it is a crowd pleaser. I directed a virtual production of it during COVID

 

Man I just re x alot watched Crouching Tiger but it's been well over a decade since last watch probably...and it's still an epic masterpiece to sit through. That brought back alot of memories of the early 00's in general. Good times.

 

The Endless Summer. Back when surfing was a niche subculture, Bruce Brown was making surfing movies, just amateur documentaries collecting footage of surfers and entertaining fellow surfers. The Endless Summer is a bigger swing, following Robert August and Michael Hynson as they travel around the world to extend the surfing season indefinitely. It’s geared to introduce the sport to the mainstream, and it became an influential hit.

It’s easy to see why it was and has continued to be popular: it’s thoroughly charming and romantic. Brown’s narration, rather than being documentary stiff, is playful and irreverent, teasing his subjects and cracking dumb jokes, exactly as if he were riffing on the footage to his surfer buddies. And the footage is great, conveying the fun of surfing and the romance of this journey around the world, drifting from beach to beach, riding the waves, and seeing exciting sights and being exposed to new cultures. Whether it’s a fishing village in Ghana excitedly observing their first surfers, goofing on wipeouts in Hawaii, or showing a diversion to see the wildlife, it’s joyful stuff — adventure and fun, all conveyed with the loose hangout charm of young guys goofing off.

 

Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938) – Tex Avery

Amazing! Marvelous! Stupendous! Colossal! Tremendous! Gigantic! Astounding! Unbelievable! Spectacular! Phenomenal! . . . And it’s good too.

This is the animated short that was part of the Night at the Movies feature on the Blu Ray of Jezebel that I just watched. I have to say that I’m utterly shocked to have discovered a Daffy Duck cartoon that I didn’t like. Not something I ever expected to say really, but it’s true. Daffy spends the 8 minute running time of this short tormenting studio director Von Hamburger by putting machine gun bullets in his camera, kissing the leading lady (the voice actress is admittedly doing a pretty great Katherine Hepburn impression) and biting Von Hamburger on the nose. Biting him on the nose. So. Many. Times. And it’s just a little too chaotic and I didn’t find it as funny as I usually find Daffy. It got a couple of chuckles, but by and large none of the above superlatives apply.

Maybe it’s that Daffy needs a very particular kind of foil; I didn’t find Von Hamburger funny either on his own or in his reactions to Daffy, so that’s probably part of it. Daffy works best with a strong character to bounce off of, like Bugs or Porky. Anyway, weird as it may sound, this is a Daffy Duck cartoon that isn’t worth watching. I know, right? 1 ½ stars.

 

Thunderbolts

 

Thunderbolts* (2025)
Like everyone else is saying, it's a good time. They're mostly fun characters with an entertaining dynamic. I'll see it again and look forward to the next one.

 

Urban Cowboy. You’ve got John Travolta as a hick who comes to the big city in Texas for work, and gets caught up in the honky-tonk scene, where he meets Debra Winger. They quickly but turbulently fall in love and get married. Travolta is obsessed with the mechanical bull at his favorite bar and gets a big feeling of manliness by being good at riding it. But Winger is the kind of girl who not only idolizes tough cowboys, but wants to pose as a tough guy herself, and she only gets more obsessed with the mechanical bull herself when the sexist Travolta forbids her from riding it. So she does it, and lets ex-con and bullrider Scott Glenn, who also threatens Travolta’s manhood, flirt with her, and they break up. Winger takes up with Glenn, while Travolta finds himself another woman.

If breaking up your marriage in a fight over a toy sounds stupid to you, you’re right. These are exceptionally childish characters. And the film, while not bad, isn’t a deep enough character study to get too much out of watching immature people act immature. It’s got lots of redneck atmosphere and a great country soundtrack, but it’s kind of a drag to watch people this stupid have stupid problems. There’s nothing to really root for or get invested in because they’re both overgrown children and it’s a crappy, shallow, juvenile relationship to begin with. Travolta doesn’t even meaningfully grow up by the end; you get the impression they’re both still going to be impulsive dumbasses. They just happen to get back together. I couldn’t get drawn into the story, and it really limited the film. If it’s going to be about people this mentally and emotionally underdeveloped, it needs to be a little deeper and more thoughtful than this.

 

last few weeks of reviews on my website bigalreviews.com Thunderbolts! Vampires! Minecraft! spies and assassins!

A Minecraft Movie
A Minecraft Movie is a fun, rambunctious and extremely loud adaption of the videogame series. For a videogame that is primarily concerned with building things, this leans more into the videogame character hero vs ugly bad guys trope (although that is a bigger part of the Minecraft: Dungeons spin off). It still has the essence of the game, there are Minecraft Creepers and Zombies that behave how they do in the games. Also, the Minecraft look is amusingly grotesque as these simple sprite blocks become “real world” but still Minecraft-y. One’s enjoyment depends on how much one likes zany antics, Jack Black improv singing and high-pitched hollering from all cast members. Minecraft does feel fun and colourful and weird, which makes it engaging. Just don’t expect restraint! Or to understand the various Easter Eggs from Minecraft, but fans should enjoy it.

The Amateur
The Amateur is a formulaic throwback with some cool spy revenge bits and lots of the cool moments are already in the trailer. Lead actor Rami Malek brings weird energy to potentially seem like his character can snap at any moment. This follows a tried-and-true revenge movie formula that doesn’t break any new ground but works very well within those confines. It does make one miss the high energy spy thrillers like 24, which actually had Jack Bauer yelling at Rami Malik for one episode. It was cool.

The Accountant (2016 review)
The Accountant features high-stakes accounting, number crunching and bone breaking violence, which sort of evens the whole thing out. The flick is a bit of a slow burn, some plot threads don’t have a satisfying resolution, it’s too long, and lingers a bit too much on secondary characters anguished monologues. But if one wants to see good actors doing thespian stuff in a very slick way, The Accountant mostly delivers.

The Accountant 2
The Accountant 2 is more freewheeling and fun than its 2016 predecessor, The Accountant. The big twist at the end of the first film, that two main characters were long lost siblings, is now out in the open and the movie vibes on their brotherly dynamic. It’s a lot more fun as Jon Bernthal gets to go loud with some great quips as his character is perpetually frustrated dealing with his strange brother played with engaging quirkiness by Ben Affleck. The actual crime plot of the film is a little bit muddled and never as engaging as the dynamic between Bernthal and Affleck, but when the action kicks in there is satisfying boom and crunch.

Sinners
Sinners deftly balances a musical, jazz, history about life in the US South in 1930s and turns into an incredibly intense vampire movie. Twisting from one genre to another has been done before; the closest comparison is obviously From Dusk Till Dawn that turns from a road trip crime movie to vampire siege film. But both sides of Sinners are fascinating, as there is a deep sense of the supernatural connection between people and music, that then gets entirely twisted when the vampires show up. If anything, this is a piece of southern gothic that hits hard with every unique twist for a gripping cinematic experience.

Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* is a sturdy entry into the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it works surprisingly well as a standalone adventure, which is quite the trick as it’s part of an ongoing saga and a significant chunk of characters here were introduced in Disney Plus exclusive releases. It is also funny and madcap as it careens from one incident to the next, however there is some darkness and depth underneath the quips. It takes some less than recognizable heroes from different corners of the MCU and smashes them together in interesting ways to give this a more chaotic vibe than most superhero efforts.

 

The Cleaner 2025

So the pitch would be : 'Die-Hard in ... a different tower block'
Daisy Ridley is ex-army, now works as a window cleaner on a high rise block, so she's not afraid of heights.
The plot is a muddled business, at times it's taking pot-shots at greedy businessman, and then switches targets to Green protestors.
It's a pretty cheap affair, they take an awful long time getting Daisy into the building so she can have a couple of fights.

hard to believe this was directed by Martin Campbell, (maybe he did from home on a zoom call)

 

Sucks to hear all that. Was looking forward to that one.

 

The Hateful Eight: Extended Version (2015)

I've had this on my Netflix queue for quite a while so I decided to watch it today. Kurt Russell is riding a stagecoach through a blizzard with a wanted female criminal when he meets another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and is convinced to bring him along on their way to town for the criminal's hanging. They take shelter at a cabin; that is already inhabited by a handful of weird an suspicious characters. Like a typical Tarantino film, it follows episodic chapters (four in total). It's certainly not for everyone; extremely bloody and violent with raw, offensive language that just comes out without remorse. But I still found it entertaining for the most part. You're not sure who to trust in the film, who to care about, and who you just want blown away. Well, Kurt Russell kind of makes you hate him pretty much right away. I'm sure he had a fun time getting back into a Western so many years after Tombstone.

 

I've always heard of Urban Cowboy, but never seen it and I did not know this was a significant plot point. And I just have to say it sounds hilarious.

 

Extended ?!?

it was over 3 hours originally wasn't it?

 

My reaction was basically, “Is this seriously the plot?”

Apparently it was based on a magazine article about the “urban cowboy” scene, and there’s an angle in exploring this sort of performance of cowboy machismo by blue-collar urbanites for whom performative nightlife is a distraction from their day-to-day (or for those like Travolta’s second girlfriend, a rich oil heiress for whom a “cowboy” boyfriend allows her to complete this sort of romanticized cowgirl pose). The problem is that the movie is too sympathetic to Travolta (and Winger). The resolution isn’t that they realize they’re idiots: it’s that Travolta beats Glenn at mechanical bullriding, and Glenn beats Winger more than Travolta does and doesn’t feel bad about it.

It’s simultaneously this subcultural deep dive and also hilariously dumb trash. It’s kind of a must-see.

 

It's a four-part miniseries that's supposedly (after a Google Search) about 25 minutes longer.