A few extra reviews while l'm still able too (damn extra work load during holidays at the USPS! 🥵🤓).
PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025, IMAX 3D): Loved it, especially going in blind and not knowing anything about who the protagonist is and/or who he's up against. Easily the best "Predator" stand-alone movie (or "AVP" crossover) since the '87 original and the "Prey" revival, despite (a) the PG-13 rating neutering violent action scenes (but not as much as you'd expect) and (b) the story feeling like Disney meddling with its 20th Century-bought IP's. Dan Trachtenberg can do no wrong as the creative steward of this rejuvenated franchise. Two legs way up! 😉😅
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN ('25, THEATER): Same story as the original Broadway musical and 80's Raul Julia movie version, except now it gets a shot of classy old school Hollywood elegance during its numerous fantasy musical sequences. Writer/director Bill Condon ("Dreamgirls") feels more comfortable during the Technicolor spectacle than the sad Argentina prison reality, where Diego Luna and Tonatiuh's chemistry isn't as strong as the actors in the 80's versions. Jennifer Lopez hams it up as the titular character (especially her duets with Tonatiuh) and eats scenery like the diva pro she plays (is?). Worth seeing for golden age musical fans.
ANNIE HALL (1977, THEATER): RIP Diane Keaton, l fell in love with her the moment she steps out of that tennis court dressed in that hat/tie combo outfit. 🥰😭 While this remains a sweet Woody Allen comedic post-mortem on a failed then-contemporary relationship many of its jokes/set-pieces haven't aged well. Still my favorite romantic comedy of all time, though. 🥹😢
LONG SHADOWS ('25, THEATER): Low-budget western about a young Arizona orphan (Blaine Maye) seeking revenge against the posse of horse thieves that killed his parents in front of him as an impressionable child. At times feels like AI is making a film built on western stereotypes, but it comes together at the end. Veteran thesps (Jacqueline Bisset, Delmont Mulroney) are more fun to watch than younger ones (Dominic Monaghan's drunk routine). Strictly for forgiving western fans. 🫣🤨
My friend complained about Alien Earth that the girl made 'friend' with the alien (spoiler). He added "what's next, a girl is gonna team up with a predator". I started laughing and replied "I have new for you dude".
Crimson Tide (1995) and K-19 The Widowmaker (2002): I recently watch the latest Kathryn Bigelow movie, so it got me the idea to rewatch K-19. Then, while I was at it, I watched CT, because why not. My friend once said "you can't make a bad submarine movie", and I agree with him. It's usually about a captain going nuts, and something will break down and they need to survive until they fix it. The American movies will usually involve the Russians and the cold war.
Other than that, I started rewatching Stargate SG-1, starting with the movie, because it's great and I have the awesome blu-ray boxset that cost me a fortune, but was worth every penny.
Yeah, it's distributed by VEI. It's sold on amazon, but VEI is the seller. You can also get it directly from VEI. I got the boxset with all 3 series (SG1, Atlantis, Universe), but they're also available separately. I prefer SG1, but all series are good and I always watch all of them when I start it.takes forever, but it's the best. It's not a cheap set, because there's a lot of discs, but well worth the money
I don't know how they look on Prime, but they're good enough. They look better as the seasons go on, but they don't have the budget of Star Trek, so the job could be better. I'm just happy to have it
As someone who is several episodes from finishing Deep Space Nine, you have piqued my curiosity. I naturally would want to just plunge straight into Voyager, but I've been thinking I should expand my sci fi TV watching. I was considering Babylon 5, but maybe Star Gate is the way to go. You love it obviously; Patrick loves it. It should be an easy choice. What's not going to be easy is not immediately jumping into Voyager.
Crimson Tide, it's a top 5 movie for me ("Chief of the watch, float the buoy"). I get Zimmer's theme in my head all the time. But I LOVE the much maligned K-19 too and watch it at least once a year. I love how it forgoes many of the sub movie tropes like depth charges etc. It's just a tense drama about a trouble aboard a boat and all the tension it brings to the order of command. And questions of loyalty and why they're there in first place. Excellent film.
I feel Blank Check poo pooed it and now everyone bad mouths it. I've always loved it and still do. I even like their Russian accents. I love how Bigelow had the audacity to make a movie from the Russians point of view, which was never going to resonate in America.
Complete side note, but the indie theatre near me in playing The Cruel Sea (1953) in a couple of weeks! It's a war movie from the perspective of the boats that were battling the subs. I only saw it first a year or 2 ago, but thought it was very good. Jack Hawkins is the lead. It's based on a very well regarded book.
I hope they play Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) next.
I'm about to hit season 7 of my Voyager rewatch, and will probably just power through Enterprise (which I only watched part of the first season of previously), Prodigy (which I haven't watched any of), and Picard (rewatch) before I deep dive into anything else. Between the 3 Stargate shows, there's over 350 episodes, so it's a substantial commitment.
Dammit, Kunider, you sold me on Stargate, and now you're saying Babylon 5 is better?!?!? Dammit. And Ross is bringing up Voyager. I should watch something new. I really like The Greatest Generation podcast, and they're doing Enterprise which I watched 2 episodes and peaced out and started watching The Next Generation again. I should probably watch Enterprise. It's all new to me. Very tempted to just dive into Voyager though, which I've only seen once. Or, hear me out, break this Star Trek addiction and watch a bunch of old westerns instead.
Yeah, B5 is my absolute favorite show ever. It's a deep show, full of nuance and very well developed characters. The creator also wrote some of my favorite comic books too.
OK, you sold me. I know that DP9 took some ideas from Babylon 5, but I'm not so precious that it has to be one or the other. I love Deep Space Nine, so I'll likely enjoy that too. 70 bucks on apple tv though to stream it in Canada. I guess I'll just look for some used DVDs.
"Your movie studios were so preoccupied with whether or not they could pump out endless mediocre sequels, they didn't stop to think if they should pump out endless mediocre sequels" -Dr Ian Malcom
I watched this a while back, it is the final straw for me in this "series". I won't be wasting any more time with future installments. I found it to be a brutal slog to get through with very little redeeming qualities. If this is the soulless empty product modern blockbusters will deliver, heck, might as well just let AI do it, save a lot of time.
All l remember from my soulless, empty "Rebirth" viewing on opening weekend was how fiery pissed-off l felt everytime they needle-dropped the John Williams themes from the first "JP." 'This one hasn't earned the right to play such masterful music' l thought then... and now. 🤨🙄
I completely checked out from those movies a while ago. But they're still pumping them out. They make a bunch of money, so it's understandable. Weirdly, even though I'm not watching them, they're still making me not want to rewatch Spielberg's original. I'm just "stupid dinosaurs, fuck that". Which is dumb, I admit. Maybe it'll be better if we put Chris Pratt in it. Maybe they should redo the first one, but this time with Chris Pratt! That guy prints money! Sadly, he does.
I guess it's not anything new. They stuck Clark Gable in every movie possible for years based on him name and look alone.
I saw the Gremlins 3 news the other day, while I probably wouldn't have been excited about it anyway, without Joe Dante involve, I'm even less inclined to care, which isn't to say I'll write it off completely.
It made me want to revisit Dante's last couple feature films The Hole (listed as a 2009 release, but for the U.S. it was more like 2011-12), and Burying the Ex (2014). He hasn't directed anything since 2018, and the upcoming stuff on IMDB don't seem like anything that's actively being worked on. I watched them less to evaluate how good they are, and more just to see if later era (era) Joe Dante films feel like his work. I also ended up watching Hollywood Boulevard the same day since it's the only Dante film I hadn't watched before. I'm still rolling all of it around in my head right now, but I do see aspects of Dante in each movie.
Also watched Predator: Badlands, which was fun and tonally different than any other Predator movie. I don't necessarily want to dive to deeply Yautja culture, but I also don't want to see every movie just follow the standard Predator formula, so I'm good with this as a change of pace. I'd like to see Predator vs. eyeball octopus thing from Alien: Earth.
FRANKENSTEIN (2025) Del Toro really leans into the romanticism of it all, so this is way more Crimson Peak than it is Hellboy. You could argue that the plot sticks too close to the familiarity of the Frankenstein story, especially in the third act. But I felt it was engaging enough throughout.
ALIEN: COVENANT (2017) I feel pretty much the same about this as everyone else. The action and scares are great, but there’s a whole lotta Fassbender to get through first.
THE HOWLING (1981) Joe Dante goodness!
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981) Fun Bond flick, but I think the ice skater girl’s subplot could easily have been cut.
SWORDFISH (2001) What even is this movie? I can see why commenters always zero in on Travolta’s facial hair, because nobody can follow what’s going on in the rest of it.
Sigh, I've only seen about a minute of Swordfish. Embarrassing to admit, but there you have it.
I love the first 30 minutes of Covenant, when they're descending on the planet and all hell starts to break loose. Fantastic. But I agree, the Fassbender stuff after that isn't the best. The score for that movie (Jed Kurzel) is a favourite.
I rewatched Judgement at Nuremberg (1961). I beginning to think that Burt Lancaster is one of my favourite actors. He's phenomenal in everything. And I haven't even seen any of his best regarded movies. Just a couple of westerns and war movies.
Also, wow, Judgement at Nuremberg. It's a movie that hits hard, not only because of the topic, but just really well done. It's got a lot to say, a reflection on the past, that horrifyingly seems to be have willingly forgotten by some of the people wielding power today.
He was by all accounts a huge advocate for human rights in general which in no small part makes me love him more.
I wasn't even thinking about that new movie. But yeah, it's supposed to be very good. I'm in the bag for anything Russell Crowe does, which has mostly been fun stuff recently. He has the acting chops though, so I don't doubt he can do something more serious. I think it was Wehatemovies that were praising it after seeing it at TIFF.
I should go see that new one. I have Remembrance Day off as a federal worker. Cineplex is showing is this week but I suspect it won't last longer than a week. Glad they're putting it on the big screen for a week at least.
Saturday night I watched with my friends The Shining and Doctor Sleep back-to-back. We only planned to watch DS (which they never saw) with something else, but as we were talking, one of them suggested we do both. It was an interesting night, considering the last part of Doctor Sleep is a best-of The Shining, as legacy-sequel do.
Then we finished the night with the original movie we wanted to see, Patlabor 2 The Movie (1993). We're all fans of Mamoru Oshii, and it's been a while since we've seen this one. Less action than the first, but a great anime anyway.
The Shining is so good. I watched it during SMM with the Gorley and Rust commentary. I really liked Doctor Sleep the one time I saw it. I think it has a directors cut that's quite a bit longer? I don't remember which version I watched. Definitely worth a revisit soon. Rebecca Ferguson is very compelling.
Yes, DS has a directors cut that's 30 minutes longer. We watched the theatrical cut this time, and i think it was good enough, i don't know if i need more.
I watched Rear Window. I loved the movie and the great episode with Mark Ahn. He's a great co-host, and sad he's not doing the podcast thing anymore because I always though he was very thoughtful. What a fantastic movie though. We almost never leave that apartment the whole time. I also live in an apartment, and the alley behind me is much less interesting. Just crackheads digging through the trash is as exciting as it gets.
A few extra reviews while l'm still able too (damn extra work load during holidays at the USPS! 🥵🤓).
ReplyDeletePREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025, IMAX 3D): Loved it, especially going in blind and not knowing anything about who the protagonist is and/or who he's up against. Easily the best "Predator" stand-alone movie (or "AVP" crossover) since the '87 original and the "Prey" revival, despite (a) the PG-13 rating neutering violent action scenes (but not as much as you'd expect) and (b) the story feeling like Disney meddling with its 20th Century-bought IP's. Dan Trachtenberg can do no wrong as the creative steward of this rejuvenated franchise. Two legs way up! 😉😅
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN ('25, THEATER): Same story as the original Broadway musical and 80's Raul Julia movie version, except now it gets a shot of classy old school Hollywood elegance during its numerous fantasy musical sequences. Writer/director Bill Condon ("Dreamgirls") feels more comfortable during the Technicolor spectacle than the sad Argentina prison reality, where Diego Luna and Tonatiuh's chemistry isn't as strong as the actors in the 80's versions. Jennifer Lopez hams it up as the titular character (especially her duets with Tonatiuh) and eats scenery like the diva pro she plays (is?). Worth seeing for golden age musical fans.
ANNIE HALL (1977, THEATER): RIP Diane Keaton, l fell in love with her the moment she steps out of that tennis court dressed in that hat/tie combo outfit. 🥰😭 While this remains a sweet Woody Allen comedic post-mortem on a failed then-contemporary relationship many of its jokes/set-pieces haven't aged well. Still my favorite romantic comedy of all time, though. 🥹😢
LONG SHADOWS ('25, THEATER): Low-budget western about a young Arizona orphan (Blaine Maye) seeking revenge against the posse of horse thieves that killed his parents in front of him as an impressionable child. At times feels like AI is making a film built on western stereotypes, but it comes together at the end. Veteran thesps (Jacqueline Bisset, Delmont Mulroney) are more fun to watch than younger ones (Dominic Monaghan's drunk routine). Strictly for forgiving western fans. 🫣🤨
My friend complained about Alien Earth that the girl made 'friend' with the alien (spoiler). He added "what's next, a girl is gonna team up with a predator". I started laughing and replied "I have new for you dude".
DeleteWoot! Great to see another glowing review for Predator:Badlands. cant wait to see this theatrically!!!!
DeleteKunider, you should tell your friend that 'girl'/Predator team-ups are old hat. Have we all forgotten Sanaa Lathan in "AVP" 21 years ago? 🫣🙃
DeleteI'm not sure he remembers the movie, I barely do 🤣😜
DeleteCrimson Tide (1995) and K-19 The Widowmaker (2002): I recently watch the latest Kathryn Bigelow movie, so it got me the idea to rewatch K-19. Then, while I was at it, I watched CT, because why not. My friend once said "you can't make a bad submarine movie", and I agree with him. It's usually about a captain going nuts, and something will break down and they need to survive until they fix it. The American movies will usually involve the Russians and the cold war.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I started rewatching Stargate SG-1, starting with the movie, because it's great and I have the awesome blu-ray boxset that cost me a fortune, but was worth every penny.
There's a Blu-ray box of SG-1? Do I need it? I've never watched the show but I love Atlantis.
DeleteYeah, it's distributed by VEI. It's sold on amazon, but VEI is the seller. You can also get it directly from VEI. I got the boxset with all 3 series (SG1, Atlantis, Universe), but they're also available separately. I prefer SG1, but all series are good and I always watch all of them when I start it.takes forever, but it's the best. It's not a cheap set, because there's a lot of discs, but well worth the money
Deletehttps://www.visualentertainment.tv/products/stargate-the-blu-collection-ve-7178?variant=33061106548841
"Do I need it?"
DeleteI know I did. Once I learned of its existence, I did everything to get it.
Are the blu-rays better quality than what's streaming on Prime (which seems fine at a glance, but I haven't really dived into it)?
DeleteI don't know how they look on Prime, but they're good enough. They look better as the seasons go on, but they don't have the budget of Star Trek, so the job could be better. I'm just happy to have it
DeleteAs someone who is several episodes from finishing Deep Space Nine, you have piqued my curiosity. I naturally would want to just plunge straight into Voyager, but I've been thinking I should expand my sci fi TV watching. I was considering Babylon 5, but maybe Star Gate is the way to go. You love it obviously; Patrick loves it. It should be an easy choice. What's not going to be easy is not immediately jumping into Voyager.
DeleteCrimson Tide, it's a top 5 movie for me ("Chief of the watch, float the buoy"). I get Zimmer's theme in my head all the time. But I LOVE the much maligned K-19 too and watch it at least once a year. I love how it forgoes many of the sub movie tropes like depth charges etc. It's just a tense drama about a trouble aboard a boat and all the tension it brings to the order of command. And questions of loyalty and why they're there in first place. Excellent film.
DeleteI feel Blank Check poo pooed it and now everyone bad mouths it. I've always loved it and still do. I even like their Russian accents. I love how Bigelow had the audacity to make a movie from the Russians point of view, which was never going to resonate in America.
Complete side note, but the indie theatre near me in playing The Cruel Sea (1953) in a couple of weeks! It's a war movie from the perspective of the boats that were battling the subs. I only saw it first a year or 2 ago, but thought it was very good. Jack Hawkins is the lead. It's based on a very well regarded book.
DeleteI hope they play Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) next.
I stopped listening to Blank Check. They tend to dismiss movies I love, it was getting annoying.
DeleteI do love Stargate, but my favorite show ever is Babylon 5. People tend to dismiss it, but keep in mind, the DS9 idea was stolen from B5. Google it.
I'm about to hit season 7 of my Voyager rewatch, and will probably just power through Enterprise (which I only watched part of the first season of previously), Prodigy (which I haven't watched any of), and Picard (rewatch) before I deep dive into anything else. Between the 3 Stargate shows, there's over 350 episodes, so it's a substantial commitment.
DeleteDammit, Kunider, you sold me on Stargate, and now you're saying Babylon 5 is better?!?!? Dammit. And Ross is bringing up Voyager. I should watch something new. I really like The Greatest Generation podcast, and they're doing Enterprise which I watched 2 episodes and peaced out and started watching The Next Generation again. I should probably watch Enterprise. It's all new to me. Very tempted to just dive into Voyager though, which I've only seen once. Or, hear me out, break this Star Trek addiction and watch a bunch of old westerns instead.
DeleteYeah, B5 is my absolute favorite show ever. It's a deep show, full of nuance and very well developed characters. The creator also wrote some of my favorite comic books too.
DeleteOK, you sold me. I know that DP9 took some ideas from Babylon 5, but I'm not so precious that it has to be one or the other. I love Deep Space Nine, so I'll likely enjoy that too. 70 bucks on apple tv though to stream it in Canada. I guess I'll just look for some used DVDs.
DeleteJurassic World Rebirth (2025 dvd)
ReplyDelete"Your movie studios were so preoccupied with whether or not they could pump out endless mediocre sequels, they didn't stop to think if they should pump out endless mediocre sequels" -Dr Ian Malcom
😅👍
DeleteI watched this a while back, it is the final straw for me in this "series". I won't be wasting any more time with future installments. I found it to be a brutal slog to get through with very little redeeming qualities. If this is the soulless empty product modern blockbusters will deliver, heck, might as well just let AI do it, save a lot of time.
DeleteAll l remember from my soulless, empty "Rebirth" viewing on opening weekend was how fiery pissed-off l felt everytime they needle-dropped the John Williams themes from the first "JP." 'This one hasn't earned the right to play such masterful music' l thought then... and now. 🤨🙄
DeleteI completely checked out from those movies a while ago. But they're still pumping them out. They make a bunch of money, so it's understandable. Weirdly, even though I'm not watching them, they're still making me not want to rewatch Spielberg's original. I'm just "stupid dinosaurs, fuck that". Which is dumb, I admit. Maybe it'll be better if we put Chris Pratt in it. Maybe they should redo the first one, but this time with Chris Pratt! That guy prints money! Sadly, he does.
DeleteI guess it's not anything new. They stuck Clark Gable in every movie possible for years based on him name and look alone.
I saw the Gremlins 3 news the other day, while I probably wouldn't have been excited about it anyway, without Joe Dante involve, I'm even less inclined to care, which isn't to say I'll write it off completely.
ReplyDeleteIt made me want to revisit Dante's last couple feature films The Hole (listed as a 2009 release, but for the U.S. it was more like 2011-12), and Burying the Ex (2014). He hasn't directed anything since 2018, and the upcoming stuff on IMDB don't seem like anything that's actively being worked on. I watched them less to evaluate how good they are, and more just to see if later era (era) Joe Dante films feel like his work. I also ended up watching Hollywood Boulevard the same day since it's the only Dante film I hadn't watched before. I'm still rolling all of it around in my head right now, but I do see aspects of Dante in each movie.
Also watched Predator: Badlands, which was fun and tonally different than any other Predator movie. I don't necessarily want to dive to deeply Yautja culture, but I also don't want to see every movie just follow the standard Predator formula, so I'm good with this as a change of pace. I'd like to see Predator vs. eyeball octopus thing from Alien: Earth.
I think we'll soon get a new AVP. Hopefully better than the other movies
DeleteFRANKENSTEIN (2025)
ReplyDeleteDel Toro really leans into the romanticism of it all, so this is way more Crimson Peak than it is Hellboy. You could argue that the plot sticks too close to the familiarity of the Frankenstein story, especially in the third act. But I felt it was engaging enough throughout.
ALIEN: COVENANT (2017)
I feel pretty much the same about this as everyone else. The action and scares are great, but there’s a whole lotta Fassbender to get through first.
THE HOWLING (1981)
Joe Dante goodness!
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981)
Fun Bond flick, but I think the ice skater girl’s subplot could easily have been cut.
SWORDFISH (2001)
What even is this movie? I can see why commenters always zero in on Travolta’s facial hair, because nobody can follow what’s going on in the rest of it.
Sigh, I've only seen about a minute of Swordfish. Embarrassing to admit, but there you have it.
DeleteI love the first 30 minutes of Covenant, when they're descending on the planet and all hell starts to break loose. Fantastic. But I agree, the Fassbender stuff after that isn't the best. The score for that movie (Jed Kurzel) is a favourite.
Weirdly, I really like Swordfish. I can't explain it, other than the Halle Berry thing. But the opening scene does help a lot too.
DeleteI rewatched Judgement at Nuremberg (1961). I beginning to think that Burt Lancaster is one of my favourite actors. He's phenomenal in everything. And I haven't even seen any of his best regarded movies. Just a couple of westerns and war movies.
ReplyDeleteAlso, wow, Judgement at Nuremberg. It's a movie that hits hard, not only because of the topic, but just really well done. It's got a lot to say, a reflection on the past, that horrifyingly seems to be have willingly forgotten by some of the people wielding power today.
He was by all accounts a huge advocate for human rights in general which in no small part makes me love him more.
Are you preparing for the new movie?
DeleteBut I agree, Judgment at Nuremberg is a great movie.
I wasn't even thinking about that new movie. But yeah, it's supposed to be very good. I'm in the bag for anything Russell Crowe does, which has mostly been fun stuff recently. He has the acting chops though, so I don't doubt he can do something more serious. I think it was Wehatemovies that were praising it after seeing it at TIFF.
DeleteI should go see that new one. I have Remembrance Day off as a federal worker. Cineplex is showing is this week but I suspect it won't last longer than a week. Glad they're putting it on the big screen for a week at least.
DeleteSaturday night I watched with my friends The Shining and Doctor Sleep back-to-back. We only planned to watch DS (which they never saw) with something else, but as we were talking, one of them suggested we do both. It was an interesting night, considering the last part of Doctor Sleep is a best-of The Shining, as legacy-sequel do.
ReplyDeleteThen we finished the night with the original movie we wanted to see, Patlabor 2 The Movie (1993). We're all fans of Mamoru Oshii, and it's been a while since we've seen this one. Less action than the first, but a great anime anyway.
The Shining is so good. I watched it during SMM with the Gorley and Rust commentary. I really liked Doctor Sleep the one time I saw it. I think it has a directors cut that's quite a bit longer? I don't remember which version I watched. Definitely worth a revisit soon. Rebecca Ferguson is very compelling.
DeleteYes, DS has a directors cut that's 30 minutes longer. We watched the theatrical cut this time, and i think it was good enough, i don't know if i need more.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI watched Rear Window. I loved the movie and the great episode with Mark Ahn. He's a great co-host, and sad he's not doing the podcast thing anymore because I always though he was very thoughtful. What a fantastic movie though. We almost never leave that apartment the whole time. I also live in an apartment, and the alley behind me is much less interesting. Just crackheads digging through the trash is as exciting as it gets.
ReplyDelete