Category: movies

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Sing Sing

    Sing SIng movie bar

    While I was watching this I was thinking “Wow, whoever did the casting for this movie did a great job getting people who look like they could have been in prison. Then I looked it up afterward, and most of the cast is former prisoners who were in the acting program at Sing Sing. They do a great job- very natural and believable in the off-stage scenes, and a little stiffer and amateurish for the on-stage parts.

    I also learned a cool thing about the salaries for the cast and crew: everyone got paid at the same hourly rate, and everyone in the cast has equity in the movie. No surprise that a setup like that was able to get a waiver to work during the strike.

    Bonus! Batman: Caped Crusader Episodes 1-3

    Batman: Caped Crusader bar

    Not a movie, but Alamo showed the first three episodes. It looks a lot like the 80s animated series, which isn’t surprising since it’s a Bruce Timm show, but it’s a gritter Gotham and a less-experienced Batman. It’s fun, but I left wishing it was more it’s own thing and less of a refinement of the old series.

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Kneecap

    Kneecap movie bar

    I’m not into rap, I don’t speak Irish Gaelic, and I think musicians trying to be actors (especially as them selves in serious roles) rarely works- but this movie is great. The band turns in great performances, the music is energetic, the visuals are clever without being distracting, and the story works.

    Also: this movie very much earns its R rating. Swearing, violence, nudity, and holy cow so many drugs.

  • Movie Pass Adventures: National Anthem

    National Anthem movie bar

    The best movie with a focus on southwest LGBTQIA+ rodeo I have ever seen. Very sweet, and very comfortable and open with gender and sexuality. And it has Teen Witch as an alcoholic mother, so you know it’s good. A big plus: no one gets beat up for being who they are.

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Dìdi

    Dìdi menu bar

    Yeah, this is pretty great; best movie I’ve seen this month. Eighth grade loneliness and screw-ups through the lens of 2008 Fremont, California. It’s like Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, but the boy version, and with bonus culture drama.

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Deadpool & Wolverine

    A movie built to reintegrate split intellectual property. Yes, there are some fun parts. Yes, there are some great cameos and Easter eggs (I might have imagined it, but when they’re in the Void I’m pretty sure I saw the helmet that the girl who loves Thor in Adventures in Babysitting wears). But it’s really twenty minutes of story buried in two hours of fan service and company synergy, and that wears pretty thin.

  • Streaming AND Movie Pass Adventures: Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part III, Longlegs

    Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part III

    Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three movie bar

    When I watched part two of this series, it was so boring that I said I’d probably skip part three. I wish I’d stuck to that plan. I ended up watching it, and while it’s slightly better than part two, but it certainly isn’t good. Lots of stiff standing around, even in the middle of “action” scenes.

    Longlegs

    I only saw this because I thought we had tickets to see Deadpool today. We didn’t, so we went to see Longlegs instead. I don’t generally care for “creepy” movies. They usually bore me, and I end up hunting for illogical nonsense for entertainment. Almost nothing in this worked for me, so I spent most of my time annoyed by The World’s World (and yet somehow productive) FBI office.

    But at least Longlegs had a style and actors actually acting! If I liked spooky movies, I’m pretty sure I would have liked this, but I should have skipped both and gone for a bike ride.

  • Airplane Movie Adventures: Anyone But You

    Anyone But You movie bar

    Is this the sweariest adaption of Shakespeare? Also: It was fun to watch a movie featuring lots of nudity on the seat back monitor. It could have been worse; they also had Poor Things available.

    I don’t know if my appreciation of the movie was helped or hindered by being the last thing I watched at the end of eleven hours in a plane (the first half of those with a headache), but I laughed more than a couple of times watching this. I think Glen Powell could turn out to be a star. Drop him in a Richard Linklater film or a legacy action sequel and he could get huge.

    BONUS: I managed to time my watching to end just before the in flight entertainment was turned off.

  • Wales Movie Adventures: Twisters

    Twisters movie bar

    Part II of my Let’s Watch America-centered movies in Wales Tour.

    Let’s play Guess What Happens!

    • The movie opens with five inexperienced friends acting like nothing bad could ever happen to them driving into the path of a tornado. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS!
    • The lead character’s friend gets her to help him with his tornado chasing company. Whenever the lead gets near the man bankrolling the friend’s company, the friend steers her away from the conversation. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS!
    • The friend’s company is slick and high-tech. There is another group of tornado chasers that the friend hates; they are low-tech and wild- maybe dangerous- but charming. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS!
    • The low-tech group is led by a handsome, charming man. When the lead first meets him, she rejects him. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS!

    There is exactly ONE direct reference to the original film.

    This time I counted the commercials (not trailers, commercials) before the movie. There were FIFTEEN, including three for the armed forces, one for a cleaning product, and one misguided commercial for KFC. Is Kentucky Fried Chicken popular in Wales? I’ve seen a bunch of them- more than I’ve seen McDonalds.

  • Wales Movie Adventures: Fly Me to the Moon

    Fly Me to the Moon movie bar

    The movie is exactly what it looks like. No surprises. But it was interesting to see how Cardiff theaters are different from the ones in Los Angeles.

    • Better theater rake (the incline of the floor)
    • Worse seats
    • Fewer trailers
    • More regular commercials (like for beer)
    • No movie trivia
    • No Maria Menounos- HOW WILL THE WORLD KNOW ABOUT HEAL SQUAD????

  • Airplane Movie Adventures: The Marvels, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

    I’m traveling, so no graphics for now.

    On the plane I rewatched The Marvels and thought “This movie’s not bad for a rewatch.” Then I watched Spider-Man : Across the Spider-Verse and thought “This movie is awesome and gets better every time I see it.” Even wearing lousy headphones and watching it on a tiny screen on the back of an airplane seat couldn’t make it bad.

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