homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall What Is The Last Movie or TV Show You Saw?

I've seen a few movies lately:

1) "Heretic" -- Some Mormons stumble upon the wrong house to talk about the virtues of LDS. He will have none of that, and is prepared with his own atheist dogma to combat everything they throw at him. This is a horror movie, through and through, and was good. *** out of **** stars.

2) "Killshot" -- Pretty good movie written by Elmore Leonard. A couple happens to witness something they should not have, and this hitman never leaves anyone behind who witnesses what he has done... *** out of **** stars.

3) "Switchblade Sisters" -- 70s grindhouse gang girl exploitation film. Pretty decent and was a fun watch. ** 1/2 out of **** stars.

4) "Baby Driver" -- Kid in a robbery crew wants out and is tired of the life after meeting hottie waitress. This one was great. Also, Lily James is the modern Madchen Amick of Twin Peaks fame. She's every bit as good looking. *** out of **** stars.

5) "Blow" -- Underwhelming and depressing biopic of Pablo Escobar's once right-hand American man in the 1970s and 1980s for dealing coke. Not carbonated, powdery. Depp did a good job, but the film lacks that Scorsese or De Palma style that "Goodfellas" and "Scarface" had. Not bad, but afterwards felt like the film should have delivered more. ** 1/2 out of **** stars.

6) "Dreamers" -- Fairly captivating low-budget drama about a country bumpkin kid who goes to Hollywood at the beckoning of his childhood friend budding "star" filmmaker. I read up on this one, afterwards, and turns out the writer/director was exactly that, herself. If you enjoy meandering character dramas and don't need big budgets, this one was decent. Reminded me of Kevin Bacon's 1980s better known classic "The Big Picture," except without the 80s style. ** 3/4 out of **** stars.

7) "The Punisher" (2004) -- this Thomas Jane (second one in a month) version of the Dolph Lundgren classic--okay, maybe not, but Dolph made the last Marvel adaptation, Jane's version was quite watchable, yet played everything safe. Folks unfamiliar with darker grindhouse revenge theater might find this film to be gritty and captivating. To those of us who have tasted many slices of the genre, not so much. Still, there's some quite funny moments, Jane plays an excellent badass, and Travolta plays the perfect d*ck, as usual. I don't think Travolta is a jerk in real life, seems like he's probably a decent guy, but he's an excellent onscreen a-hole when this is required of him. Good. *** out of **** stars.

8) "Shattered Glass" -- One of the only decent movies Hayden Christensen of infamous prequel "Star Wars" trilogy fame. I found out about this one from a mention on some random Youtube video talking about the guy, so figured, "Why not?" Pretty good. Tells the biopic story of a guy in the 90s who fabricated countless stories for the "New Republic" magazine/paper. Apparently this was a big deal I vaguely recall. Fun to watch this guy spiral out of control and the disaster that ensues. He did a good job here, but I guess like most once "famous" actors, he was terrible at choosing the next scripts to accept, and picked a lot of turds. The top actors have both the acting chops, and the brains to put themselves in films that are entertaining and fairly successful. Or they have a great agent. Seems he was lacking on the latter. *** out of **** stars.

9) "Vigilante(1982)" -- Early 80s noir-revenge grindhouse classic. Gritty criminal underworlds have seldom been captured as well, musically. The soundtrack to this film is sublime. One of the absolute best sounding movies in the genre. Fred Williamson and Robert Forster, together? Yep. And they're great, as always. I enjoyed this more than "The Punisher," actually, as this film nails the dirty New York vibe, however... because I spaced out briefly in two spots, this one is actually rated slightly lower than Punisher, while in many ways, better! I have to take a smidgen off for the slow spots, but thankfully those are very few. This one will scratch an itch if you have one for this type of movie. ** 3/4 out of **** stars.

10) "Jawbreaker" -- Saccharine late 90s teen dark comedy of a trio of high school brats who accidentally ice their best friend during a prank, and the shenanigans that follow. Was perfect at what the movie set out to portray. Also, I don't care what the director wants you like, Benz is the hottest hottie in the film, not McGowan(who is extremely overrated), to this day. *** out of **** stars.

BONUS: What are the odds of seeing the two badasses Fred Williamson -and- amazing Pam Grier in two different movies on the same weekend? They were 70s exploitation staples, and I saw them back to back last weekend.

I actually saw “Shattered Glass” many years ago and it proved to me that Hayden really can act. It was a solid movie with a definite “art house” feel to it.

The same Jason Statham movie again: someone does him wrong, does his friends or family wrong or piss him off, he kills everyone.

He never dies: it must be in his contract on every movie. No dying.

He and Llam stuck in the same movies again and again.

Jackie Chan and the James Bond movies do the same thing. So long as the characters are different and there are variations on the story events, the formulas work and deliver.

I haven't watched all of Statham's movies, but I did enjoy both Crank films, way back when.

State of Happiness.

Excellent series. A family member who grew up in Stavanger and whose father worked in the oil industry has praised its accuracy.
Nice to watch something with no murder mystery, violence, police .... etc.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Happiness

I’ve never watched anything in Norwegian whether it be on film or tv! The closest I’ve gotten is Swedish!

An ok-ish 1986 boxing film featuring a then unknown Wesley Snipes.

I’m pretty sure the big Hollywood breakout for Snipes was “White Men Can’t Jump” which was a couple of years after that movie.

He was in the starring role the year before in "New Jack City," which was a pretty big deal for the time.

That one came out while I was a senior in high school. I had forgotten that Chris Rock was in it way back when he was largely unknown.

A zombie-adjacent film with an interesting twist.

Wow. Trinity sure has aged. I would not have known it was her had her name not been on there.

She was cosmetically aged for the movie, however I hate to say but she already looked fairly old for her age beneath her heavy makeup in 2003's Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions IMO.

Watching this. It was on HBO in 2008. We didn't have HBO then.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Kill_(miniseries)

https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Kill-Season-1/dp/B0068853O6

The Wheel of Time Season 3.

Getting better but still afflicted with jarring race swapping and uncalled for changes to the source material.

For what it's worth, I have a hard time enduring long movies, but there some TV shows I like, Pitmasters, Bar Rescue,, Air Disasters, Live PD, Judge Judy, Gun Shows pretty much illustrates my character I guess. The movies I do endure are Red October, Intersteller, The Martian, Mission to Mars, Apollo 13,.

For what it's worth, I have a hard time enduring long movies, but there some TV shows I like, Pitmasters, Bar Rescue,, Air Disasters, Live PD, Judge Judy, Gun Shows pretty much illustrates my character I guess. The movies I do endure are Red October, Intersteller, The Martian, Mission to Mars, Apollo 13,.

If a movie is great I have no problem with how long it is. The perfect example for me is “Seven Samurai”. That film is 3.5 hours but it’s so masterfully made that not a single minute of it is “fluff”.

You guys are like Siskel & Ebert but better, I like it

Watching this Japanese movie on Netflix

https://www.netflix.com/title/81629968

It's the sequel to another Japanese movie:

The Bullet Train (1975)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080479/

Which was the movie that inspired Speed 1994 with Keanu Reeves.