[GaliWalker]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Another Brittany Murphy movie I'd never seen before--The Ramen Girl. Starts a bit slow but I enjoyed it. Her boyfriend has a job in Tokyo, she moves there to join him. He might not have actually invited her. She's cramping his style, so he takes off for Okinawa. Heartbroken and completely on her own, she gravitates to the ramen joint across the street from her apartment. She kinda forces her way into being mentored by the owner. He's really rough on her, he's a big jerk most of the time. But she sticks it out and learns how to make authentic ramen, and learns some valuable lessons along the way. It's got some comedic moments but it's more of a drama. Checked out Gunpowder Milkshake on Netflix. Fairly meh. Kinda aiming to be a female-centric John Wick kind of thing, but it fell flat. Good cast, but they couldn't really save it. Karen Gillan, Lena Heady, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeow, Angela Bassett, Paul Giamatti.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I've watched "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things" on Amazon Prime a couple times now. Needless to say I really enjoyed it. I've become a big fan of Kathryn Newton, her character is enjoyable in this. Brief synopsis, it's a stuck in a time loop thing (yes it's been done before, but it's merely a plot device, you can go literally any direction with the story, and it can be any kind of genre*). There's a guy (Kyle Allen) who is trying to get the day just right, and Newton's character seems to be repeating the same day totally randomly, popping up in different places at different times. Impossible to tell how many iterations of the day pass before they bump into each other and figure out they're experiencing the same thing. They start hanging out together. He seems more eager to get out of the loop than she does. There is a reason for that, but it isn't revealed until most of the way thru the movie. Both characters are endearing. There's some humor, there's some heartfelt stuff, well worth a watch. * Just some examples I can think of off the top of my head that use this concept but are very different movies--Groundhog Day (comedy/drama), Edge of Tomorrow (sci fi/action), Happy Death Day (action/horror spoof or deconstruction) oops, forgot one of my favorites--Before I Fall (teen drama)

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Streamed something from Hoopla, Fanny's Journey (original French title Le Voyage de Fanny). It's from 2016, made a limited run at some festivals in the U.S. in 2017 apparently. Well made, a number of very good performances from young teen and child actors. Based on factual events. Heartbreaking story. During WWII, many French Jewish families sent their children to a part of the country that was controlled by Italy, where they wouldn't be persecuted. Various organizations cared for the children there. As the Italians began to falter, the Nazis moved into that part of France. The children were no longer safe and had to be sent elsewhere. The title character, at only around 12 or 13, unwittingly became the leader of a group of kids trying to get to safety in Switzerland. There is definitely tension off and on during the film, not really much in the way of violence like most war films, but everything about it is enraging. What a dark period of human history.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

This thread died again. "Free Guy" is awesome! I feel a bit bad I didn't go see it in the theater. It's at Redbox now. It's a little like Ready Player One, but plenty different enough, and better. What movies are supposed to be, just a lot of fun and really entertaining. Ryan Reynolds is doing the Ryan Reynolds thing, and Jodie Comer is wonderful as always.

[GaliWalker]

I just saw Eternals. I don’t know what’s up with all these critics. It’s a good film, and definitely in Marvel’s top-5. There’s a story, plot twists, and … Maybe, I shouldn’t say what I was going to, since I don’t want to give anything away. I do have to say that the trailers did not give a good impression of how the movie panned out.

[Malachai Constant]

Just streamed “The Harder They Fall” a revisionist western with a mostly black cast of real people in an unreal story. Kind of Quinton Tarantino meets Spike Lee meets a spaghetti western. Sets were too clean for the old west and the gun fights while ultra violent were unbelievable. Loved the music. Unique film but I could only understand what was going on by reading summary. Interesting but not great.

[GaliWalker]

I was totally underwhelmed by The Harder They Fall. The opening sequence was great, and then it just went downhill. As you say, the setup for the gunfights was so lame.

[GaliWalker]

While I'm at it, The Rescue, was fantastic! A documentary made by the Oscar winning duo of Free Solo, it describes the rescue of twelve young boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand, an incident that transfixed the World in 2018. While I didn't find it quite as good as Free Solo, possibly because I like mountains more than caves, it was still extremely gripping.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[GaliWalker]

[pianodirt]

[Malachai Constant]

“The French Dispatch” saw inn theater today, director Wes Anderson, Francis McDormand, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson Jeffrey Wright, Edward Norton, Willemstad Defoe, and many others. Fictional Magazine based on The New Yorker and it’s writers through the years. If you hate Wes Anderson you will not like this. Probable best of his most recent films. We enjoyed the film and were entertained well, what more could you ask.

[cascadetraverser]

The Octopus Teacher on Netflix; worth a watch for nature lovers. Dune was great. I read all 6 of Frank`s originals (and a whole bunch of the sequels cowritten by his son) and think a trilogy from the first two makes sense. Children of Dune would make an interesting film, but would be more difficult to make theatrically, I think....God Emperor Dune is a dud (IMHO) and I can`t imagine making a film of it; Heretics of Dune was a cool read and could make an interesting film but so far off the timeline of the first books, I doubt they will ever get that far....Beyond that, Dune would need to be a supremely popular film series to get into the rest!

[Backpacker Joe]

I dont know that much about the characters in this (Eternals) movie, but Thanos was an eternal. i wonder if that plays into it at all.