What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.

[Vic]

Watched "The Fall Guy (2024)" yesterday with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1684562

The film is all about fun!  It's not part of some huge Marvel-verse or other which is really growing tiring!  Frankly, I'm burned out on these super action thrillers that just  take up eyeballs delivering "more of the same."  Too damn loud, too damn annoying.

TFG looked fun in the trailers and it delivered.  The stunt doubles had a really great time making this film and I sincerely hope that the stodgy OLD Academy wakes up and adds a category for stunt performers!  Why?  Because without them, we would not be able to make films.  Why? Because no one could afford to insure the actors doing anything near so dangerous themselves! 

Just watched it. I agree. Not a fan of Gosling myself. I thought he was perfectly cast as the bubblehead Ken in Barbie... 

But yah, the stunt people should definitely be up there in the awards!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Vincent, I'm going to see The Fall Guy today. I've gotten to a point where these Mad Max movies and Planet of the Apes movies have lost interest to me. I recall the days when almost every movie that came out was something NEW to peak your interest or grab your attention. Franchise related movies were in the mix, but not a high percentage. Even animated films and superhero movies were events and special. Now it just seems like a steady diet of snacks. Also, there were actors and actresses you'd be interested in seeing. Now they rarely even advertise who's in the movies when you see commercials.

Speaking of things not new, I am, however, interested in seeing Twisters in a theatre. Because I like the actor Glen Powell and also because "wind noise" in a theatre is nothing like watching a film like that at home. I'm also interested in the upcoming Hit Man movie starring Glen Powell (he's in a lot lately) and directed by Richard Linklater, and it was co-written by both Powell and Linklater.

Speaking of Glen Powell, I have a neighbor I was talking to a few days ago about some movies and Glen Powell got mentioned. He told me that in the job he had in 2016 that Glen Powell used to come into the office all the time and he'd talk to him a lot.  He said he is very nice and added, very smart.

[gattaca]

Yeah... Powell has a certain quality about him... quite attractive.  I recall first really noticing him in "Hidden Figures" as John Glenn.. wow. I agree, I'm burned out on the Mavel Universe and PotA and the loud, screaming film that just assault you from opening to end.  V.

[gattaca]

--> May be pay-walled -> https://www.wired.com/story/shockbuster-season-why-the-death-of-the-summer-movie-is-a-good-thing  V

[Vic]

"Bob Marley: One Love"

Very watchable, well done overall. His politics were important but I would have liked to see/hear more of his music in it. He was a musician first and foremost, after all. I remember buying the album Babylon By Bus in 1977! Great stuff.

Whatever happened to Reggae music, is it still out there?

[Lyle (Mooska)]

TFG looked fun in the trailers and it delivered.  The stunt doubles had a really great time making this film and I sincerely hope that the stodgy OLD Academy wakes up and adds a category for stunt performers!  Why?  Because without them, we would not be able to make films.  Why? Because no one could afford to insure the actors doing anything near so dangerous themselves!

SAG has a Stunt Category for Films and TV. They don't even show it during their awards ceremony. Also, SAG members I know don't even know how you're supposed to vote for the award. I mean, they have 5 choices (film names) and you're supposed to pick one. The awards usually go to the film or TV series with the MOST stunts. Or perceived to have the most stunts. Sometimes the voters mistake CGI work and special effects for stunt work.

AMPAS recently voted on having the new category "CASTING," which BAFTA has had for several years now.

I happen to think these two categories aren't appropriate for awards groups like BAFTA, AMPAS or SAG because people making the choices are going to vote for the movie they liked the best. Take a look at who BAFTA has awarded the Casting prize to since they started it: * = winner

2019
*Joker
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The Personal History of David Copperfield
The Two Popes

2020
Calm with Horses
Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari
Promising Young Woman
Rocks*

2021
Boiling Point
Dune   
The Hand of God
King Richard
West Side Story*

2022
Aftersun
All Quiet on the Western Front
Elvis*
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Triangle of Sadness

2023
All of Us Strangers
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers*
How to Have Sex
Killers of the Flower Moon

Let's just look at the 2019 category nominees:

Joker | Marriage Story | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | The Personal History of David Copperfield | The Two Popes

How does one pick the winner between, say, a movie like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that has a some dozens of roles in it compared to the The Two Popes, which is essentially a two person film?  And who's to say the leads are cast by a casting person and not a friend of, or the director. Directors have a lot of say in who's in their films. Why is the David Copperfield movie in the mix? Is it because of great casting or the fact it was made with a diverse cast (which makes no sense historically). Sometimes movies are cast because the first choices aren't available or decline the roles. Some people will get cast because their salary is lower.

I don't know the rules of how BAFTA selects the nominees for their CASTING category; perhaps, like most awards, the branch selects their individual cateogories. If so, how did  the Flower Moon film get a casting nomination? That movie's casting is largely a big mess.

[gattaca]

^^^ I see the overall "Stunt Category" for a FILM to be different than naming an individual stunt person for an award.  I see the logic above in that most non-Hollywood people don't know who the stunt doubles are by name etc... and well that's part of is suppose to happen.  However, it doesn't mean those brave men/women should not  be recognized by the Hollywood machine for doing risking injury, life and limb pulling off such fine jobs.  Again without them big actors would be "UN-insurable" for doing all their own stunts.   V.

[Vic]

I just watched "The First Omen (2024)".

I prefer slow, creepy suspense as opposed to the Slasher sub-genre (with exceptions!). A really good one should give me at least one sleepless night, unfortunately that hasn't happened in ages.

Nuns are wonderful objects for horror by their very nature. Severe, weird women dressed in black with a religious, zealous, often sadistic, inclination. I'm surprised they haven't been more used in the past as a main character. But they seem to be all the trend now, judging by "The Nun (2018)" and The Nun II (2023)", both very creepy.

"The First Omen" one is a prequel to "The Omen" franchise, and is worth watching if you're into horror.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--The Boys of '36

I don't know when I first saw this hour-long documentary on PBS. A search now says it was first aired in 2016, but I believe I saw it a few years later. (By the way, I looked and it's available to watch for free on most local PBS websites or PBS streaming apps., as well as a fee on some others.)


--The Boys in the Boat

This is a film of this same story. A little search just now says the film is "a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction novel written by Daniel James Brown." I did not know about this novel of the story. In reading the wikipedia page about it, makes me want to read that, too. The story is about a group of boys during the depression from Washington (the state) who find themselves competing with elite U.S. University teams in 8-man rowing crews.

I'd heard about the film when I saw a news item about the premiere last December a couple days before Christmas at AMPAS's Goldwyn Theatre. I looked to see where it was playing, but it wasn't near any theatre near enough to me to go see it, so I've been waiting for it to pop up and it's now on Amazon Prime.

I really liked it. It felt like one of those old Hollywood studio movies that gives you a hug. And really, who knew about this before! I know quite a few things about past Olympics, but I'd never heard of this story before I came across it. Watching the film I knew from the documentary much about what would happen, but it didn't matter. Some things I'd forgotten and then remembered when they happened. I'm going to look up the film on Rotten Tomatoes after I write here and I'm guessing this isn't the type of movie critics are going to like that much, but audiences will like much better. I've noticed over time that critics usually turn up their noses at any movie that touches on sentiment (that includes love stories). So we'll see. I found the movie a tonic to my soul after discarding all the goings on around us in this country right now.

The film was directed by...George Clooney! It's such an American story and yet from the credits I noticed it was filmed mostly in England and France and also there's a distinct lack of American actors in it. The lead character is played by Callum Turner. I know him because he was one of the main leads in the recent Masters of the Air series about American airmen which also was cast with largely UK actors.
---
So let's see what RT has to say.

I was right! The critics score on RT is 57% while the audience score is a whopping 97%...even better than I imagined. I agree with this short quote from one approving film critic: "George Clooney’s disarmingly old-school rowing movie gets it right."

Last night I went to bed feeling good; satisifed; hopeful.

[Vic]

"Civil War" (2024) Netflix

Not terribly exciting as a movie on its own. A group of journalists traveling through a war zone to interview someone. A scenario playing out every day somewhere in the world.

Also, Americans carrying guns shooting at each other. Also not very surprising (sorry).

In view of the wider context, however, that of a civil war in the US, is what gives the movie food for thought. Given the current political climate it's a terrifying thought, one that could set the world afire if it were to happen.

[gattaca]

^^ I've not seen "Boys in the Boat (2024)" though it is on my watch list.      Your comments track with what other people have told me who saw the film. V.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

[...]
--The Boys in the Boat
The film was directed by...George Clooney! It's such an American story and yet from the credits I noticed it was filmed mostly in England [...]

Yesterday I read an article about this. The production actually went to Washington first to scout locations and such and the state pulled out all the stops they could to try and get them to film it there. (It also didn't help that it got delayed because of covid times and the property changed hands a few times, so they had to keep recruiting different people over and over.) It came down to two main things... 1.) The area had changed so much in 90 years that would require extra expense in recreating the time period and 2.) The British just were willing to give really high tax breaks/incentives to the production that Washington could not, though they tried and time ran out.

The article mentions how Washington used to have a lot of film production and I, myself, recall in the late 1980s and early '90s I was thinking every movie that came out seemed to be filmed there! I recall another period where it seemed every film was set in Boston.

[Vic]

--The Boys in the Boat

Amazon Prime had it so I watched it for my rainy Saturday afternoon, stuck inside, feel good movie.

It's good. No pain, no gain story. And who doesn't like to see a bunch of strappy young men stretching their muscles! Although there wasn't nearly enough of that actually.

Thanks. 

[gattaca]

Watched "Watch on the Rhion (1943)" starring Bette Davis (very young) and Paul Lukas.  -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036515

Clocking in at 1:43 minutes, the B/W is based on a story by Lillian Hellman.  The film dives into the lives of a well-to-do family who's daughter returns with her German husband and family.   Their story slowly unfolds for being part of the German resistance to Hitler.  Hellman's materials often were melodramatic and this is no exception.  We got a hefty dose near the end.  I watched it b/c it was a Bette Davis film I'd not seen and it got high marks on IMDB 7.1/10.  My threshold is typically 7/10.   I cannot say I'd recommend it unless you are a Bette Davis fan or just have a lazy Saturday afternoon.  V.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Amazon Prime had it so I watched it for my rainy Saturday afternoon, stuck inside, feel good movie.
It's good. No pain, no gain story. And who doesn't like to see a bunch of strappy young men stretching their muscles! Although there wasn't nearly enough of that actually.
Thanks. 

Yes, that's a good point, Vic! Heh!

Something, beyond the movie really, that struck me while watching it is when they arrive in Germany for the Olympics and we see the Nazi flags and such around, this was three years before WWII started, and the people there didn't know what the future would hold. The flags probably didn't give one the visceral shock as they do to us now, though even before 1936 people knew Hitler was bad news. There's a moment in another movie like that, a film called Race about Jesse Owens and his track coach, when they go to the same Olympics. This time though what struck me is that we're living in a time when we don't know what's going to happen and the Nazi flags in this movie scene seemed to morph into MAGA flags to me at this moment. Can we stand up to that kind of thing in our own country.

There's the scene in The Boys in the Boat where one of the rowers says something to Jesse Owens. I wonder if that really happened? It didn't feel organic in the moment when it happened in the film, but it's possible it did. I say it didn't feel organic, because it was just too perfect.

Joe Rantz and the actor who played him.