CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is a movie I intended to see in theaters the week it came out. Last night, roughly 51 weeks later, I finally did. My desire was more subject than actor driven. Tom Hanks is great, but I haven’t considered him must see in awhile. Maybe this is a movie which would change that opinion…
Usually people watch documentaries about topics which intrigue them. I stumbled upon this film which was about an inventor I’d never heard of (Tim Jenison) trying to recreate a painting by a 17th Century Dutch artist with whom I was not familiar (Johannes Vermeer). I didn’t even know that it was Directed by Teller and featured Penn until the credits started. I’m not sure why I watched this. But I did. And I am so glad that I did.
I wish I could say that all of my movie watching was a noble attempt to chronicle the history of film. Then, sometimes, the Sunday Night Football game gets out later than you want, but you feel like a movie. And then you go to Amazon Prime and then find the first short movie you think might not be terrible. And then, in those circumstances, you end up watching Bela Lugosi in THE APE MAN. Oh, and in the inane information department, this is my 739th ranking, but my first from 1943.
The last time I got my hopes up for a semi-comedy/semi-true story about war with a bunch of seasoned actors I was sorely disappointed by THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. But THE MONUMENTS MEN is a different movie, with a more serious subject, and an entirely different group of people. I’m glad I finally got around to it…
I somehow managed to go nearly twenty years without seeing SPACE JAM. But we had a family movie night tonight and my son picked it (with much prodding from my wife). So, now, I have seen SPACE JAM. Go me!
I have become increasingly interested in the Pre-Code Hollywood era. These few years between the introduction of the talkie and the oversight of Hollywood (by itself, really) gave us a fascinating time of filmmaking. We think of early sound film as safe and filtered until film noir brought us all the power of the double entendre. But the early 30s really did provide some more challenging subject matter while showing murder and some leg. TWO SECONDS was a movie not at all on my radar, but it found me nonetheless.
It took me slightly longer than I had anticipated to get to the second movie in the MAN WITH NO NAME trilogy. Maybe I was slightly more underwhelmed by A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS than I thought. But watching DJANGO last week did reinvigorate me a bit to the genre at large and to the influence of these movies. There is also the fact that the last one is supposed to be the best of all. But we aren’t there yet. So here, in the meantime, is a review of FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965)’
I’m thinking of a new slogan. Something along the lines of “JohnLink Movies! Your one stop shop for movies everybody else watched over a year ago!” Maybe it won’t sell. But it would be honest anyway. I’m not sure why it took me so long to finally see DJANGO, but I’m finally back to a place in my life where I have seen all of the Tarantino films.
Two of my favorite movies, as I hit my teens, were PRINCESS BRIDE and ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS. Cary Elwes was my favorite actor for quite awhile based solely on the fact that he was in the lead in both. Anyway, I’ve watched the Errol Flynn, Russell Crowe, and Kevin Costner Robin Hood’s over the past few years. It’s time to get the funniest version of them all on these pages. I go into this movie knowing how much I love it, and just hoping that the years have been kind.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS (1993)’
It has been over a week without any movies. Did a show in upstate New York and got back home to my new place in Maine just in time to start teaching. Family came up, things are getting settled. Sure, we don’t have internet or cable yet, but the new TV and Blu Ray player came in from Amazon, so we are golden. We decided to start a movie night tradition with the kids, and this was Quinn’s first pick. Having just turned four, I’m sure there will be a decent amount of stuff like this popping up on this blog pretty regularly. Anyway, on to the review…
johnlinkmovies 