Movies

Post vs. Kellogg

I got rid of Discovery+ because that was Donna’s jam. I cancelled the Premium & Ad Free levels of Peacock which saved enough for me to get Netflix as a replacement. I have no idea how long it will stay, but for sure there are quite a few new things I can watch. Plus there a lot of older shows that we might have seen and enjoyed, so they might be worth a re-watch.

I know I wanted to see My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman. The first episode was with Jerry Seinfeld. The second one was with Former President Obama. Which reminded me of the Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee episode with then President Obama. So I started re-watching those Jerry Seinfeld’s CICGC shows. The ever helpful algorithm at Netflix recommended other Seinfeld stuff, the entire 9 seasons of the TV show or his stand up specials or the movie Unfrosted.

Hey, I remember seeing the trailer for Unfrosted and though it might be worth trying. It had a bunch of funny people in the cast too. I checked IMDB to see what rating it got, 5.5. well it can’t be half bad. Last evening I sat down to watch it, you know what, it was half bad. The only thing the movie did was make me quit somewhere watching in the middle and go to the kitchen to heat up a couple Pop Tarts.

That Took A Bad Turn

Yesterday I was thinking about watching a movie. I have several favorites that I have watched recently so I needed to go back to pick one I have that I hadn’t watched in awhile. Because someone in a podcast recently had mentioned 90’s BMWs I thought – Ronin.

But before I opened Plex to watch it I thought I’d check our streaming services to see if there was anything new that might tempt me. Second one in on the “Movies we think you’ll like” line on Prime was a movie called The Comedian from 2016 starring Robert DeNiro. Hmmm, I was going to watch a Robert De Niro movie, this has him in it … I watched the trailer and was intrigued enough to give it a go.

De Niro plays an aging insult comic, but is best known for an old TV comedy he did and everyone remembers fondly except for him. The supporting cast are great and while there some slow spots, the movie was quite enjoyable. Until the ending. Do yourself a favor, at the one hour 51 minute mark when his stand up bit fades to black or if you see a chyron that reads “8 years later” stop watching. I’ve warned you.

The Year is 1975

While looking around Amazon Prime for something to watch I found this little blast from the past, A Boy and His Dog, in the “Prime, Recently Added Movies” section. This movie came out in late 1975 and it was set post World War IV in the distant future year of 2024.

Donna and I were dating at the time and our go to date night was a movie at the on base theater at NAS Patuxent River, so I’m guessing we saw this together. It was 25¢ each to get in and we took turns, one would pay the admission and the other would buy the popcorn and drink. I certainly remember seeing this and being a sci-fi buff, I probably enjoyed it. The female nudity probably helped in that regard as well. I’m guessing Donna enjoyed it not so much, she has probably totally forgotten it.

The original trailer is totally unhinged:

And the trailer perfectly represents what you’d see if you watched the entire movie which if you are so inclined, is available to watch for free on YouTube. And when I say inclined, I mean under the influence of the brain chemistry altering substance of your choice.

Personally, having watched that trailer and some of the other clips on YouTube, I don’t think I could watch it again even if I did partake in a gummy of the finest Indica cannabis available to me.

Hope, Strikes, Return

Star Wars Edition of SORT
As of Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Rise Dawn War
Episode IV
A New Hope		 Episode V
The Empire Strikes Back		 Episode VI
The Return Of The Jedi
Donna and I saw a movie called Star Wars while we were in the Navy stationed on Guam. I’m sure it wasn’t on the opening weekend. It had to be at least a week after that because we got everything a week late. All the TV shows were shifted exactly 7 days because the video tapes came by boat to the island. I’m pretty sure we saw the movie twice in quick succession. The first time because of the buzz about the movie and the second time we partook in the devil’s weed so we could see it while buzzed. In 1980 Donna was out of the Navy, but I was still in and stationed in Meridian, MS so we probably saw The Empire Strikes Back opening weekend in the mall’s multiplex. When The Return of the Jedi opened I was sitting on the U.S.S. Iwo Jima anchored not far from the coast of Beirut, so we probably didn’t see it until I returned to port Norfolk, VA in July.

Rise, Dawn, War

Planet of the Apes Edition of SORT
As of Sunday, May 12, 2024 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Rise Dawn War
Rise of the
Planet of the Apes		 Dawn of the
Planet of the Apes		 War for the
Planet of the Apes
I read Pierre Boulle’s novel long before they made the first movie. I really liked the first movie, but was disappointed in the ending. I liked the book’s better, which they sort of tried to pay homage to in the 2001 version with Mark Walberg, but it still wasn’t right. I’ve seen these 3 movies before, but I’m rewatching them again because of the new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes movie out this weekend. But I’ll be waiting to see that when it shows up on a streaming service.

Fire in the Hole

In the early seasons of Justified this was Boyd Crowder’s favorite saying. It comes from an Elmore Leonard short story that served as the genesis for FX’s series Justified. I have watched all 6 seasons of the show a few times now and I also recently watched the new Justified: City Primeval. But this post really isn’t about that, it is more about the last couple of days where I have been sucked into an Elmore Leonard movie hole.

While stumbling around looking for something to watch on Peacock I saw the movie Out of Sight from 1998 and thought, “Ooh, I remember that. Might be fun.” How is i that Jennifer Lopez does look and any older after a quarter of a century, but George Clooney does?

I wondered if I could find some other of Mr. Leonard’s work. Nice, Get Shorty from 1995 is available on Max. This is a masterpiece of casting, all the actors totally inhabit their characters and the comedy tamps down the violence just the right amount.

There was a sequel of sorts 10 years later called Be Cool that had John Travolta’s character, Chilli Palmer breaking int the music business like he did the movie business in Get Shorty. I seem to recall that I did start to watch it on DVD back when it came out, but quit part way in because it was disappointing compared to the first flick. Hey, it is available on Max too, maybe I should try it again. Maybe.

I found the much newer Life of Crime on Frevee and once again I’ve seen it before, but is worth a watch again, if just for the big switch at the end. And Switch is the title of Elmore Leonard book that the movie is based on.

Another late 90s gem of an Elmore Leonard movie is Jackie Brown. A somewhat restrained Quentin Tarantino directed it, but it is only on Netflix and that is one of the streaming service I don’t subscribe to, so I can’t rewatch it.

Doing this research I discovered that Elmore is also responsible for 3:10 to Yuma. Wow, I have a digital copy of the 2007 version with Russel Crowe and Christian Bale. I have also seen the 5 decade older version with Glenn Ford and Van elfin. I’d rewatch the 1957 version if I didn’t have to pay $4 to rent it on Amazon.

And The Oscar Goes To…

We didn’t watch the Oscars on Sunday night. Haven’t in a long time either, they used to be a required viewing so that we could see if any of the movies we went to had won any of those shiny gender indistinct statuettes. But we haven’t actually been to the theater to see a movie in quite some time, 2012 is my last mention of that on this blog. And I bet that visit to an actual cineplex was a one off. I know we stopped going out for movies around the beginning of this century because I’ve got an old spreadsheet that lists the discs we rented on Netflix starting in late 1999.

Instead of watching the Oscars on Sunday we watched one of the ten movies nominated for Best Picture, The Holdovers, on Peacock. This was a near perfect movie for us, a quiet character driven movie that is set in and shot in the style of the 70’s. No explosions, no car chases, no bullet ridden bodies or computer generated space battles with hundreds of ships or soldiers.

I have also seen one of the other films of the ten that were nominated, the winner itself, Oppenheimer. It is also available on Peacock, but I didn’t think I could could get Donna to sit still for 3 hours for that. There is one other of the nominees that I could watch, Poor Things which is streaming on Hulu right now, but after watching the trailer, I’m not so sure I could get through the whole thing.

On a side note: Robert Downey Jr. won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Oppenheimer. I don’t remember seeing him in the movie at all and I don’t know who he played, but I did recognize non-winner Emily Blunt though. This was probably just a testament to Mr. Downey’s acting ability and a case of my secret crush on Ms. Blunt.