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Maverick shit the bed 10 minutes in when he survived a hypersonic breakup and it went downhill from there. The movie should have been him rehashing Viper's role from the original, schooling overconfident brash young punks who then go on to fulfill a compelling but not completely absurd mission using the skills he taught them.

I'll say it again, he died in the hypersonic crash, alone, disgraced, and estranged from Rooster. The rest of the movie is a death dream about his soul's quest for closure. Viewed through any other lens it's a farce.

anyone else watching Mr and Mrs Smith? Two episodes in and liking it so far.

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Originally Posted by Danno

anyone else watching Mr and Mrs Smith? Two episodes in and liking it so far.

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Yes! Liking it.

The English on Prime is rad if you like westerns. Sort of a Hostiles meets Reservoir Dogs vibe. Great characters and Emily Blount is always good.

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Danno

anyone else watching Mr and Mrs Smith? Two episodes in and liking it so far.

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Both me and the missus really enjoyed season 1.

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Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater

They tried with Point Break and failed.

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That furious and fast movie did pretty well. It was a kind of a pile but it spawned an entire mountain of steaming, hot garbage.

I know it's almost ten years old now, but if you haven't watched Interstellar yet it's free on Prime. I finally watched it a few days ago. I have to say it's an enjoyable movie, but there's a significant amount of suspension of belief necessary.

Watched a very well done German WWII miniseries recently: Generation War

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973)
Of all the cinematic versions of Alexandre Dumas’ novel that I have seen over the years, this is still my favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssLVKLJ8ojU

SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
This movie is puerile, sophomoric, and juvenilishly crude. Yet despite all that it’s one of my favorite entries in the zombie genre.
Fast paced, excellent effects, and one of the greatest dick jokes ever committed to celluloid make for a raunchy (and bloody) good time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAd4cRUxdP0

BRIGSBY BEAR
Imagine a slightly off-kilter After School Special combined with a long lost pilot to a Sid & Marty Krofft show that never aired.
That gives you an ever-so-slight inkling of what this film is like. Oh yeah, it was produced by The Lonely Island crew, and features members of The Upright Citizens Brigade and SNL.
While the innocent-man/child-thrust-into-the-real-world scenario is a bit old hat, here it’s delivered with just enough quirk to make it work.
The cast is great (Luke Skywalker sans lightsaber and Greg Kinear doing a bit of winking at the audience out of the corner of his eyes, for starters) and the Brigsby Bear elements are pure genius.
Lo-fi, just-left-of-normal, and filled with the right amount of treacly strangeness to make it a winner.

RIYL
Swiss Army Man; Safety Not Guaranteed; Lars and the Real Girl (or really any other movie about a weird white guy with a heart-of-gold and a dream).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEohOb38hhs

Just watched, Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made. I’m a sucker for, found footage. This is creepy and trippy as balls.

https://youtu.be/gzJd58xHv7w?si=62jSUlnmmzwpnNKk

Finished second season of Outer Range; bizarre, whiplashy, time-paradox ignorant, but still very good.

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI
This film from 1947 features Orson Welles, who also directed and scripted it. A bonafide classic of the noir genre if only for the climactic hall of mirrors set piece, which has influenced films starring Bruce Lee, Keanu Reeves, and Roger Moore.
But the film is also much more than that, it’s a taut little melodramatic thriller that ranks up there with the best of the genre.
Oh, and Rita Hayworth as the femme fatale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3lW5UKsbP4

We've been watching Billions, the Showtime series, which is mostly on Prime. It's fantastic - recommended if you like Succession, that sort of character driven scheming. Good cast, great writing and directing.

Last Stop in Yuma County: quality B movie fare.

THE SWIMMER
This Burt Lancaster vehicle is a darkly tinged, somewhat surreal journey through a suburban fantasy-turned-nightmare.
I caught it years ago on late night TV and its potently askew melodrama has stayed with me ever since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTRojK8udSo

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Originally Posted by PB

Last Stop in Yuma County: quality B movie fare.

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Really enjoyed it

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Originally Posted by Mike Pow

Really enjoyed it

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Of similar quality and story telling, with a little more humor: LaRoy, Texas.

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Originally Posted by PB

Of similar quality and story telling, with a little more humor: LaRoy, Texas.

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Really enjoyed that too

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Originally Posted by PB

Last Stop in Yuma County: quality B movie fare.

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Originally Posted by PB

Of similar quality and story telling, with a little more humor: LaRoy, Texas.

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Peeped the trailers for both.
They seem like they are in a similar vein to the likes of Arkansas and Vengeance.
That both films also appear to largely take place in a diner (making them quasi chamber pieces) also reminds me of the early Bogart joint The Petrified Forest as well as 2010’s The Killing Jar (the latter has a horrible RT score, but I enjoyed it :D).

I have added them to my queue, but I am a cheap bastard and will wait until they are included with the Prime subscription. :D

[QUOTE=dookeyXXX;7086549]THE SWIMMER
This Burt Lancaster vehicle is a darkly tinged, somewhat surreal journey through a suburban fantasy-turned-nightmare.
I caught it years ago on late night TV and its potently askew melodrama has stayed with me ever since.

Exact same here > maybe 30-40 years ago and it has stuck with me "ever since" > I think the first time I caught it half way through and it was a complete "what the fuck IS this????" reaction

RUN LOLA RUN
I went and saw the 25th Anniversary re-release in the theater on Monday.
Damn!
This film is still super fun and insanely entertaining.
Fast paced, funny, nail-biting, wonderfully acted, and accompanied by a cool, energetic soundtrack.
If you have never seen it, watch it!
If you have seen it, but it’s been awhile, re-visit it!
:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCYnsUdO6H0

KILL ZONE (aka S.P.L.)
In my humble opinion, this is one of the greatest martial arts films of all time and might just be Donnie Yen’s best work, as well.
The cast is nuts, as it also features the legendary Sammo Hung, the venerable Simon Yam, and at-the-time-charismatic newcomer Wu Jing as the striking villain.
Highly recommended if you dig HK action and kung fu kineticism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmJyXOIgyV4

AMERICAN FICTION
On the surface I found this to be similar to The Holdovers, in that it’s about a self-sabotaging, cranky intellectual who has trouble relating to people. Yet it’s way funnier (I laughed out loud a lot).
The dialogue is sharp and Jeffrey Wright is mesmerizing. But the film is also poignant, not to mention liberally stuffed with searing social commentary aimed at clueless woke white folk.
The brilliant casting and smooth pacing elevates it above your standard dramedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0MbLCpYJPA

Interesting. I vaguely recall seeing the trailer and thinking it looked awful!

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Originally Posted by mcski

Interesting. I vaguely recall seeing the trailer and thinking it looked awful!

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Well…one man’s awful is another man’s awesome!
:D
It was one of my favorite films of 2024.

BLOW OUT
I am a huge Brian de Palma fan. I love how during what I consider to be his peak period (1972 - 1987) he basically took Hitchcock’s mastery of tension and intrigue and bumped it up to 11.
This may very well be my favorite film of De Palma’s, too.
The cast is stellar—Travolta at his peak, an early turn from Lithgow, the underrated Nancy Allen, and tons of great supporting characters.
But the real star is De Palma’s eye and what he does with his cameras; the film is a visual tour de force.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDve1A5EAvk

INCENDIES
This is an early film by Denis Villanueve.
The story focuses on twins who are coaxed to embark on a quest to search for their father and brother in Palestine.
This is an insanely engaging film that makes good use of flashbacks.
And, yes, the ending is pretty predictable, but it is no less f$&ked-up and intense.
I personally really love DV’s early French Canadian work before he got snatched up by Hollywood (though I also really have enjoyed the bulk of his big budget, English language films, as well).
But this film, along with Maelstrom and Polytechnique, really showcase his talents as a screenwriter and engaging visual storyteller working within modest budgetary parameters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ69WnwvZhE

THE THIRD MAN
This is a cinematic tour de force.
The cinematography employed here—from the lighting to the camera placement/angles—is so insanely creative, it puts pretty much all modern cinema to shame (not to mention that the techniques employed here influenced pretty much every director and cinematographer from this period—1949–forward).
The less said about the film’s plot and look, the better; just watch it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9yyDEDGlr0

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Originally Posted by dookeyXXX

INCENDIES
This is an early film by Denis Villanueve.
The story focuses on twins who are coaxed to embark on a quest to search for their father and brother in Palestine.

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Ooh, that looks very good. Definitely gonna check that out.

Watched Kill Zone recently after seeing your post here. Generally love Chinese action/cop/martial arts films, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride, but as is typical the ending was long and drawn out, and very melodramatic. The shot with the shoes in the surf ... priceless!

P.S. If you're into that stuff go back and watch the first couple Police Story films. Early Jackie Chan is hard to top!

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Originally Posted by fomofo

Ooh, that looks very good. Definitely gonna check that out

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If you end up digging Incendies, I highly recommend tracking down DV’s other early work: Maelstrom and Polytechnique

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Originally Posted by fomofo

P.S. If you're into that stuff go back and watch the first couple Police Story films. Early Jackie Chan is hard to top!

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I actually managed to see the first three Police Story films on the Big Screen back in the early 1990s.
This arthouse movie theater in Berkeley, The UC, used to program double-feature HK movies every Thursday night and I went religiously for close to two years!
I saw most of the seminal work from John Woo, Jet Li, Johnny To, Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Tsui Hark, and more.

Begin Rant
Sadly, Harvey Weinstein, that db, ruined it as he bought up all the rights to many of those films, re-edited, re-dubbed, and re-packaged them under his Dimension banner and then prohibited small arthouse and Chinese theaters from showing the original versions, thus leading to the demise of many small theaters around the nation, as well as the demise of Asian action film programming on the Big Screen.
End Rant

I'm not sure what this says about me, but I've been enjoying a series called "Travels by Narrowboat." I think it's also available on YouTube. Basically it's a recently divorced, middle-aged English guy who decides to buy a narrowboat and travel around the canals in the English Midlands solo. All it is is footage of him cruising the canals, so I'm not going to tell you it's exciting, but it's oddly fascinating, bucolic, and calming.

Here's his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CountryHouseGent

That's a good watch

Watched recently on Prime:

DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS - A Coen Brother (singular) movie, so I had to watch it despite poor reviews. To oversimplify the plot, two young women hit the road intending to lick some carpet but end up with a bag of dicks. And they're being chased by comically incompetent criminals. Eh, the movie had its moments, but mainly it tried way too hard to be an outrageously wacky cult film and just wasn't very good, or even all that funny.

BARBARIAN - If you like a good horror flick, check this one out while it's free on Prime. A young woman arrives at her AirBnb to find that someone else, a guy who's already there, also booked the house. Awkwardly and with no other options, she comes in anyway. That, and the douchebag owner of the house (played by Justin Long, the doctor from Idiocracy) wasn't aware that it was being rented out to anyone. The drama seems kind of normal for a while, and then, well, it's a horror movie. Probably best to avoid the trailer, BTW.

The Peripheral was some solid Sci Fi with an interesting take on time travel.

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Originally Posted by Dantheman

The Peripheral was some solid Sci Fi with an interesting take on time travel.

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Too bad the cancelled it :cussing:

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Originally Posted by bobz

Watched recently on Prime:

BARBARIAN - If you like a good horror flick, check this one out while it's free on Prime. A young woman arrives at her AirBnb to find that someone else, a guy who's already there, also booked the house. Awkwardly and with no other options, she comes in anyway. That, and the douchebag owner of the house (played by Justin Long, the doctor from Idiocracy) wasn't aware that it was being rented out to anyone. The drama seems kind of normal for a while, and then, well, it's a horror movie. Probably best to avoid the trailer, BTW.

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Thought it was excellent all round

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Originally Posted by PB

Too bad the cancelled it :cussing:

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Yeah, would have been cool to see where they took it. Might have to check out the books.

Count me in the "bummed they didn't renew The Peripheral" crowd.