Samuel Jackson plays former police detective turned crime scene cleaner in this film directed by Renny Harlin. Ed Harris is the former partner. Luis Guzman is working on a case. Eva Mendez can't find her husband.

Jackson cleans up a crime scene in a mansion but forgets to return the key. When he returns the next day the owner of the house doesn't know what he is talking about. There has been no crime committed at this house. And off we go. Jackson needs to find out what is going on because he is becoming the prime suspect in the disappearance of a cop who could hold the key to  proving all the corruption in the local police force..

The film is okay but over directed. Why do a close-up when you can do a super close-up? Every scene is broken down into a million close-up shots of actions. Here is the key. Here is the key in the lock. Here is the key turning from a different angle. Let's make coffee. This is the filter. These are drips of water. It becomes intrusive after awhile.

Finally, in the entire film, Jackson never says motherfucker. Not once. His character is very subdued and passive. Not your usual Jackson fare.

I'm putting this here because Hulu is Disney...

https://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFo...3#pid76143

I had low expectations, but that was entertaining. A comedic parade of gruesome deaths caused by the cursed monkey after some twins find it in their father's belongings long after he'd abandoned the family. The number of funerals borders on Addams Family.

Not strongly recommended, but not a bad way to pass the time. 

--tg

Hansard was an Irish singer songwriter. If there was any event honoring Irish musicians in Dublin, he was a fixture. He started the Christmas busk that brought musicians together to help raise money to help runaway kids. He did the music for the Irish musicals Once, Sing Street, and the new Power Ballad. He died in a car crash at the age of 56

If I look at the man with the shackles through his earlobes one more time,I will not stop looking. His earlobes are stretched almost to his shoulders. Yes, I'm dying to take a picture.

--tg

I was looking for something to watch after doing yardwork all day and pretty beat. The TV in the living room is signed out of most streaming services for some reason, so I poked around Kanopy and found this 1981 film:




It's a story of a mad Baron absconding with an opera singer. Her fiancée, the Count, is searching for her and ends up in a remote village with a castle which seems to hold her. You can watch the entire film in Czech with subtitles (which is how I watched it) here on YouTube:



It's silly and clumsy slapstick, not unlike Hundreds of Beavers,but I enjoyed it. It's directed by Czech animator  Jan Švankmajer, tho there's little stop motion animation in this.


--tg

I'm skipping a step and just going right to a thread with Neagley. Starts September.

https://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFo...5#pid82894

It was 94 this afternoon. At least it was a dry heat, not that humidity that accompanied recent heat waves...I decided to duck out of the heat at the AMC Sunnyvale. I needed groceries so I could easily pop into Whole Foods after a flick.

TS5 was starting at 5pm, so I ordered a ticket online. Nearly empty theater, 1/2 off Tuesdays, plus I exercised my get off my lawn discount so it was a whopping $14. I didn't realize that this was the 3D experience, so that also included the spex. 

I caught up on work messages and ignored most of the (not 3D) trailers as they were aimed at pre-teens. The Pixar promo for Gatto caught my eye tho (see https://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFo...o#pid85474). There was a 3D teaser for a new Ice Age installment...meh.

I don't remember much about Toy Story 4, (I took my mom to see that one when we went to Bozeman for my daughter's wedding 7 years ago) but I thought they had wrapped up the character arcs. This one begins focusing on Jessie with her new kid. The toy gang is all here, except for Woody. (The backstory from the previous films is filled in - he's semiretired with Little Bo-peep and the Canadian Evel Kinevel rescuing toys)

Jessie's current kid has a sad because the neighbor twins won't play with her. They spend most of their time with their faces stuck in screens. Her parents get her a Lilypad - a kid-gadget like the other kids have in hopes that she'll find/make friends. That doesn't work out. 

Simultaneously, a shipping crate of high tech Buzz Lightyears washes up on a desert island. The Buzz's revive each other and try to get to Star Command. So the story goes back and forth between Jessie et al, and the Buzz hoard's progress. 

It's amazing that they can make such a good movie for a 5th installment. It was sweet, funny, not as heavy-handed as I thought it was going to be (I knew it was an anti-tech treatise which is ironic coming from a digital production house always at the forefront of tech)

I have to add that I've see a few Real 3D films (Coraline being the last I remember) and in this one, the effect did not detract at all. I forgot I was wearing the glasses. I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't not recommend it. 

I laughed quite a few times. A worthy installment to the franchise. 

Recommended if you want a kid friendly CGI story that isn't infantile. 

--tg

A nostalgic throwback to the tournament to the death genre complete with a threadbare plot, bad writing, bad acting and a low budget. What makes this stand out is it’s the Martial Club - Brian & Andy Le, plus D.Y. Sao. I’ve met them all in passing. I’m focused on Brian because he’s the youngest standout in The Furious. He delivers the best performance here, as a villain like usual. He and Andy are brothers IRL but Andy & D.Y. play the rival brothers here. And like every tournament to the death flick, it’s just an excuse to have a lot of random fights. The choreo is ok. The 3 stars have youthful acrobatic skills and there’s several complex exchanges. The best is when the Le brothers face off. They know each other well and deliver a nice fight, very tight. There’s a lot of randomness because there’s a weapon option in these fights - a wheel is spun to determine who gets what like in Battle Royale. Weapons include a loaded pistol, barb wire wrapped baseball bat, shuriken, nunchucks, a fountain pen, a cigarette and a lighter, and more. 

Not D00M recommended unless you just watched Wicked for Good and needed an ultravi palette cleanser.

Hannah Waddingham plays Judith. Octavie Spencer plays Debbie. They are best friends. Debbie is busy positioning her husband to be the next Prime Minister of Great Britain. Judith is an assassin cut from the James Bond mold right down to the ski slope shoot out in the opening scenes. Judith loves them and leaves them. But she's gone wrong rogue and her bosses want to shape or get out of the game. Judith is also old which is another mark against her.

Of course, Debbie does not know what Judith does for a leaving until they cross paths during one of Judith's jobs and the whole mystery unravels.

It was about at this point that the Queen turned to me and said, "This is terrible writing" Yeah, I'm not as harsh but it is still pretty weak. The big problem for is Waddingham is not any way believable as the super assassin. She has plenty of fights to perform and you can immediately see she has a stunt double doing all the heavy lifting. The scenes are shot from far away with lots of objects in between camera and action to obscure what is going on.

And one thing that gives the game away, too, is that one of Judith's targets is a well known actor so there is no way he's going to die in the first episode of the show.

As usual, I will give this one more watch before consigning it to the dust bin.