gios 

The Package (1989), Amazon Prime - 8/10
Stars Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy (snake lady Blade Runner replicant), Tommy Lee Jones, John Heard

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), hoopla library streaming - 10/10
Stars David Gulpilil (Walkabout (1971))

The Tracker (2002), Amazon Prime - 10/10
Another David Gulpilil film.

Bob Ross

My Octopus Teacher - Ugh... I so wanted to like this movie, in part because both my Mom and my best friend recommended it highly, and also because the conclusions of the filmmaker roughly align with those of author Peter Godfrey-Smith in his non-fiction book Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, which I enjoyed very much.

Sadly, the filmmaker is a sentimental wuss, and instead of spending time talking about how and why it is so amazing that this critter can be considered "intelligent" despite it being vastly removed in the evolutionary sense from any other critter that has earned that monicker, he spends his time talking about how he thinks he's forming a relationship with the critter. :::cue tiny violins:::

6/10

bondjunior

I just watched korean movie Handmaiden 2016.
This is masterpiece, I was just washed away
10\10

Clyde1820

Loved the film. Fairly unique. Tried hard to ignore the woe-is-me personal issues the guy seemed to wallow in. The engagement with that octopus was fascinating. I'd probably rate it higher, given the quality of the feature they were focusing on, even if the "sugary coating" (the guy's emotional problems) was a bit much.

bianchi007

The Hurt Locker - 6/10. Lots of suspense but quite a strange ending.

Juan Foote

Val- It is an interesting introspective film about Val and narrated (mostly) by his son, Jack. It's pretty good and certainly worth the watch even if just a mild interest in Kilmer himself.
As I often do with movies of this type, went and read up some information about him online afterward and find that much of the movie is highly skewed in his favor given certain life events and situations, as well as outside the actual order some of the things happen...IE most of the film work and his schooling and such were in order, but other life events get mentioned outside their proper timeline. Just the same, it touches on some of the reality in which he finds his career and life now. Don't feel like it had the "feel sorry for me" spin that one might expect.
Val has always been a bit quirky and the film reflects it a great deal. Recommended, even if I don't have a good benchmark by which to rate it. If you weren't interested in Kilmer there would be no reason...

The International- (2009) Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, along with loads of other faces. I had seen this long ago and recalled aspects of it, but there is a lot to digest as they build the story. It's a darned decent movie, especially with a bit of memory loss to help you along to feeling "new" again. I would certainly rate this a solid 8.

Bob Ross

The missus and I watched two -- well, two-and-one-eighth -- movies over the weekend:

The Old Guard - Charlize Theron stars as an immortal leading a small crew of immortals who hire themselves out as mercenaries to quash violence all over the world and all throughout time. Semi-clichéd action/adventure trope with that one odd twist: They can't be killed, a-ha! Was better than expected, but not much better than what you probably imagine based on what I just described. Hat's off to Theron for once again choosing a role that doesn't rely on her being beautiful in every scene...even though she can hardly avoid it. 6/10

Bright - Remember Alien Nation with James Caan as a gristled urban detective and Mandy Patinkin as an alien from outer space (!) who was his partner? Now imagine that same setup, only instead of aliens from outer space you get all the non-human races from Lord Of The Rings. Yeah, I'm not kidding. I suppose I can imagine the 30 second elevator pitch for this film was amazing, but as soon as you got to the 5 minute Okay, Then What Happens? conversation I'm at a loss to explain how this flick got made. But the most annoying & disappointing thing about the movie wasn't the plot, it was the fact that Will Smith's character (he plays the gristled urban detective) is the Exact. Same. Character. he's played in ~40% of the movies he's ever been in. Actually, Joel Edgerton does a really good job portraying Smith's sidekick...who's an Orc. :::facepalm::: 3.5/10

Mr. Right - this is the one-eighth of a movie we watched. If that much. 20 minutes into it me and Mrs. Ross looked at each other and said in unison "This movie sucks!" 0/10

Juan Foote

I agree 110% on that. Will plays Will. Much like Sam Elliot and Denzel Washington. They just play themselves and in many cases it just works.

Bob Ross

The thing is, all of those guys have demonstrated -- at least once -- that they're capable of playing outside of that typecast. And so you have to wonder how much of the trend is due to screenwriters saying "ooh, I know how to write for Will/Sam/Denzel!" and handing them scripts that they instantly recognize can be phoned in, versus the actors taking the easy way out and only accepting roles that don't force them to stretch their repertoire.

Welshboy

"A Quiet Place Part Two" (2020) starring Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe.

A tense and taut sci-fi thriller with blind aliens (blessed with super hearing) invading earth and almost wiping out the human race except for a select few who live in a world of silence. Loads of jump scares in this excellent sequel to the 2018 film and, once again, great performances from Emily Blunt and young Millicent Simmonds. 8/10

Welshboy

'Psycho 2' (1983) starring Anthony Perkins, Meg Tilly and Vera Miles.

Another sequel but to a classic that surely needs no introduction... and don't call me Shirley. After 22 years in a mental institution Norman Bates is released and returns to the Bates Motel and is soon befriended by young co-worker Mary who is in the shower before you can say "don't go in there sweetie". Anyway, people start getting bumped off but is it by Norman or is he being set-up? If ever a film didn't need a sequel it was 'Psycho' but this is a clever, twisty follow-up to Hitchcock's masterpiece. We were keen to see it after binge-watching 'Bates Motel' and watching the original 'Psycho' last weekend. My daughter (27 and who had never seen 'Psycho') loved both films. 8/10.

BTW if you work with young co-workers ask them if they've seen 'Psycho'. I bet the vast majority haven't.

gretti

The Suicide Squad 9/10

Bob Ross

Yeah, I really enjoyed that movie, particularly because it handled the whole sci-fi cliché of Aliens From Outer Space With Advanced Technology/Consciousness Arrive On Earth in a way that was most decidedly not a cliché. I especially liked how the aliens were not humanoid bipeds, and were not hellbent on destroying Earth, and how the problem-solving centered more on linguistics and social skills than on technology or weapons. Compelling performances from Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker too. 9.5/10

Bob Ross

The missus and I just saw Cloud Atlas for the first time. I was fully expecting not to like it...or not to understand it...based on reviews I'd read when it was first released. But it was quite engaging, and mercifully imaginative, and inexplicably did quite well in managing six separate timelines without being difficult to follow. I'm not sure any of the performances were particularly stellar, but the makeup artists certainly deserved an Oscar! 7.5/10

Juan Foote

Feels sort of funny to post about the Bob Ross show after Bob Ross just posted....lol

Bob Ross Happy Accidents Betrayal and Greed

I honestly don't know what to think of this documentary. It was good in a lot of ways, and every aspect of it seemed to only have a sparkling telling of Bob, as a person. I enjoyed that they honored his memory so much. It appears that (at least in this light) he really WAS the person that he always seemed to be. There were some concerning facts about how many people wouldn't do the show and a specific family of the original partnership were made out to be the big bad evil. Seems to be a pattern for the Netflix flavor of "docuvideo". They love to paint this story and then we find later on GIANT gaping holes in the story they tell.

I don't know. I have watched Bob for years. I don't personally paint, but my wife and son do. I would say that as a great tool for going to sleep to (I find his voice better than Valium) this show for years led to my wife opting to strike out and try painting, even if in another medium. I would say that anyone that has watched him a lot could not go away unchanged. This is a strong aspect of the positives of this movie and enjoyed the telling in spite of some possibly dubious stuff.

I don't typically rate this manner of thing, but I would recommend it as worth seeing.

Juan Foote

Moneyball 2011-
This is a movie about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's astounding season in 2002 by unorthodox means. It is an astounding movie. Good on so many levels. I am not a big baseball fan and yet, this movie was very interesting and captivating.
9.5/10

Bob Ross

I just posted this over on another forum I frequent:

The missus and I sat through Magellan last night, Rob York's 2017 sci-fi outer space movie that must've been inspired by watching Christopher Nolan's Interstellar while half asleep. Or three-quarters asleep.

Where to begin? None of the characters inspired empathy, half of them (the earthbound NASA project manager, and the Secretary of Defense) could barely act their way out of a high school drama club production, and while the plot came tantilizingly close to addressing provocative issues, the decision-making skills [sic] of the lead character and his two computer AI companions was so fraught with inconsistancy and/or idiocy that it completely ceased to be plausible. You wound up hating everyone and everything that happened.

3/10

Juan Foote

Europa Report 2013-

It seemed to have all the right pieces. It copied a lot of it's shooting style from Space Odyssey with the cameras showing areas inside and outside the space craft. It attempted to build up the storyline with multiplex views of things that were yet to happen within the movie. It didn't work and it never delivered. It seemed much like either an original director or writer for the screen play got canned and they just took what they had on the cutting room floor and ran with it. There were several glaring discrepancies that were never explained. Obviously the people that made the movie didn't bother to watch for continuity. It kept seeming like it was going to be good, get there, scare me, something...and just never did. The movie wasn't obviously bad from the get go which is why I continued to watch at a rating that I would never consider finishing. Poor story, poor telling, not worth your time.
4/10

NoWhammies

The Rental - 6/10. Meh. Kind of your standard fare 'alone for the weekend killer' movie. I couldn't get in to the characters and never really felt any pang of emotion when bad things befell them.

Baby Driver - 8/10. Great action scenes. Quick moving plot. Well cast characters. All in all very enjoyable. Plus a killer soundtrack.

Creation Stories - 7/10. If you've ever heard of the band Oasis, you have Alan McGee to thank. This movie is all about Creation Records, the independent record label he started and managed. If you like indie music, this is the movie for you.

kaseyriot

The Craft 10/10
but I watch it like every month

Welshboy

I was totally unaware of this film until I saw your post. I liked it, my daughter liked it and my wife absolutely loved it! Thanks!

Welshboy

'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' (2011) starring Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Max Von Sydow.

Saturday night is always film night in our house and yesterday was, of course, the 20th anniversary of... well, you know what. So last night we watched this for only the second time and it left quite an impact on us. Thomas Horn plays Oskar, a troubled young boy with Asperger's who is trying to make sense of the death of his father (Hanks) who was killed when the North Tower of the WTC collapsed. Scenes shown in flashback show Oskar and his father having a warm relationship with his father setting him quite intellectual challenges. But in the present day (in the film this is 2002) things are not so good between Oskar and his mother (Bullock) and, indeed, Oskar and the wider world. Oskar finds a mysterious key inside a blue vase amongst his father's belongings and believing it to be a puzzle set by his father Oskar starts a detailed and methodical scavenger hunt to find the matching lock. Oskar and his mother seemingly become even more estranged as he continues to try to solve the mystery of the key and the truth about the hidden lock that it fits. Criticized by many as being 'oscar bait' (I hate that term) I found it bittersweet, tender, extremely absorbing and incredibly uplifting. 9/10.

NoWhammies

Ex Machina - 8/10. Reclusive tech titan creates an AI and an outside third party is brought in to apply the Turing Test. Without giving too much away, I found the story interesting and the casting great. If you like sci-fi type movies that might not be too far off in the future, give this movie a chance.

Bob Ross

"Dallas Buyers Club" - Compelling narrative, engaging performances by Matthew McConnaughey and Jared Leto, but -- despite being based on a true story -- there were a few too many moments that simply strained plausibility. 6/10

Clyde1820

Wrinkles (2011) -- An animated film about an old folks' home where most of the patients are experiencing dementia or Alzheimer's. Exceptional film. All the conversations are between the patients, themselves, along with a couple of the docs and orderlies at the facility. Well worth seeing. 8/10.