Tag: three sentence movies

First watched at a midnight movie in 1995 while visiting my friend on the Albertson College of Idaho Campus, I did a re-watch solely because of the positive review and discussion on the Next Picture Show #79. What I found was not only a fabulous send-up of the titular TV show, but also an amazing time capsule of the 90s.*  Everything about this gentle satire is pitch perfect.

Cost: free from libary
Where watched: at home with Matt

*Like a frog in the slowly warming pot of water, I had no idea in 1995 just how iconic everything not-Brady would look 22 years later.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1995/brady_bunch_movie.html

A re-watch (last seen: sometime in the early 90s) and a disappointing one.  It didn’t hold together at all, plot-wise and Ione Skye was grating as the pretty, bratty girl who didn’t want to live in the small town.  Fairuza Balk’s performance was more nuanced, but it was not enough to save this movie.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1992/gas_food_lodging.html
(I chose this poster because the DVD cover has Skye and Balk in hair and makeup that was not present during the movie.)

 

As the cover of the DVD indicates, the girls are starting to get with it.  There were some great moments this season*, and it’s fun to see the various hot messes start to figure things out.  As always, these are people I would never want to hang out with in real life, but I enjoy watching their stories.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*Here’s a list:  Marnie & Charlie reunited (Panic in Central Park); Adam and Jessa’s developing relationship; the really awesome interactive play where Hannah figures out the Adam & Jessa thing; anything with Shoshannah in Japan. Hannah’s dramatic, fleeing breakup with Fran;  Hannah & Ray in the coffee truck;  Hannah’s hitchiking back into the city, especially if you watch the full cut on the DVD (Homeward Bound);  Hannah running into her frenemy (Love Stories).  Adam & Jessa’s breathtaking fight (I love you baby).

poster from: http://insidehboshop.hbo.com/2017/01/04/girls-season-5-now-on-dvd-and-blu-ray/

Overall, a movie so bland it couldn’t muster any feelings in me, not of hatred, or love, or of pleasure, or torture.  The screenplay seemed to be something created by someone learning how to write screenplays wherein they imitate fun things they liked in other movies. So we have a road trip, a burlesque dancer,  sidecar motorcycle pursuit by an oddly matched pair (boy-who-is-friend/father), some attempts at humor and heartstrings, all packaged into an ensemble piece guaranteed to entice established actors due to a short shooting schedule.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.  I think the toenails got painted, so all was not lost

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2927212/ (this movie does not exist on my go-to poster site: IMP Awards.  Maybe it was a straight-to-DVD thing?)

Though I recently swore off first-run comic book movies, I made an exception for this female-oriented (and female directed!) feature.  It was a good exception to make as Gal Gadot does things with her eyes that really make this movie work.  It was a rollicking journey and one I was happy to partake in with a sold-out audience.

Cost: $9.50
Where watched: Baghdad with Matt

posters from: http://www.impawards.com/2017/wonder_woman_ver8.html
http://www.impawards.com/2017/wonder_woman_ver9.html
Where I had the problem, was with the posters, nearly all of which seemed to pose her as a glam fashion model in a Wonder Woman costume.  These were the best I could do, with the second one chosen to highlight the other members of the cast.

This movie is worth watching just for Doris’ outfits, which are varied and layered and incredibly fun.*  Overall, I was charmed by this tale of a woman getting out of her decades-old rut, and the movie was calibrated to have all the feelings.  I did wonder if perhaps it would have been a different movie if this woman’s story had been told via a woman writer or director, but the movie making establishment is what it is.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*Though the poster does not depict this, she also matches her mugs to her outfit.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/hello_my_name_is_doris.html

I love this movie, from Matt Dillon’s blank, yet compelling, performance to all the Portland sights, (many of which have changed dramatically, or disappeared.)  I love the bleakness of the story and how it still manages to be a lighthearted sad movie. It is not a glamorized portrayal of drug addition, and that is another thing I love about it.

Cost: $3.00
Where watched: Laurelhurst Theater with S. North.

Watching this, I realized I knew nothing about Matt Dillon, the person.  It seems odd, no?  He’s been around for a while, yet I couldn’t tell you anything other than what he’s been in.  Old school!

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1989/drugstore_cowboy_ver2.html (fold marks!)

It’s a post-college transition movie with a female lead!*  She’s insufferable, which made this movie not much fun to watch.**  It was also odd, with many things that didn’t quite work,*** but I found Evan Peters’**** performance enjoyable, and again: post-college transition with a female lead.

Cost: Free from library
Where watched: at home.

*Win and win!  Post-college transitions are the mostly-unexplored time period in our landscape.
**Although I do feel for a character who, when frustrated, yells, “I got straight A’s!”  Yep.  Learning that good grades don’t necessarily get you anything is tough.
***Armando Riesco’s Rubia character, I either needed more of her story, or less.  What was there was frustrating.  Rat Billing’s ultimately mean move of publishing Amy’s poetry kind of came from left field.  Undeveloped female friendship between Amy and college friend.
****”…And I was wondering who he was, and he was in Kick-Ass and then played Quicksilver in X-Men” I told Matt as I was summing up the movie.
“Aaron Taylor-Johnson?”
“Um, I don’t think that’s his name.”
“He’s the guy in Kick-Ass and he played Quicksilver in the Avengers”
IMDB was consulted. It turns out Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Evan Peters were both in Kick-Ass and both played Quicksilver, one in X-Men, one in the Avengers.  Amazing! (More amazing than this movie.)

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/adult_world.html

There were things I really liked about this movie: the style of the Kingsmen,* many of the action scenes were thrilling, the characters were compelling, and the villain’s evil plot sounded like a feasible evil villain’s plot.  There could have been a little more action for the women in the film.** Unfortunately, the violence in this film–both stylish and humorously rendered–left a bad taste in my mouth.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home with Matt

*Those training suits the potential Kingsmen wore were awesome! (picture clipped from here )  

**Gazelle does  a lot, it’s true, but Sophie Cookson’s character was wasted

(I watched this twice in one day.  I watched it on my own and then re-watched it with Matt.  I had a bad cold, and didn’t feel like moving from the couch.)
(This was also a pre-watch because Channing Tatum is in the sequel, and I felt I needed to catch up.)

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/kingsman_the_secret_service.html
(I did not choose the other versions of the posters which feature a back view of Gazelle, legs spread wide framing Colin Firth/Samuel L. Jackson/Eggsy/the pug.  I get that they are an homage to the famous James Bond poster, but if that was the ass of Sofia Boutella then it had been digitally shrunk so small as to render it unrecognizable.  Homage to misogyny is still misogyny)