Falling Down

Runtime: 1h 53m

Budget: $25m

Tomatometer: 75% 6.8/10 (Audience 88% 4/5)

IMDB Rating: 7.6 / 10 - 188k ratings (Top 1000 7.5/10)

Language: English

Streaming: Vudu , Amazon

Michael Douglas plays Foster, a man with 1950's era mentality who is having a really bad day. He just wants to make it across LA in time for his daughters birthday. The increasing setbacks he faces from modern 1990's society see him increasingly break down into a string of violence episodes. But his violence is guided by his 1950's era set of morals. And in spite of Fosters nerdy 50's appearance, he is surprisingly good at the modern violence thing. Does the movie glorify the violent anti-hero? Not so fast.

Robert Duvell plays Prendergast. A retiring cop on desk duty who is the only who connects the violent dots together. But because he is a retiring desk jockey who is clearly too afraid to take on a real cops job, almost no one listens to him. Almost no one. There is one person on the force who knows Prendergast has a lot more going on than people realize.

This story is an interesting analysis of the male psyche under pressure. Foster reacts with anger and aggression. Predergast bends to the point of being a doormat, and he just lies there and takes it.

What the movie uncovers at the end, is there is a middle ground, that handling life's setbacks sometimes requires patience and grace, and sometimes requires assertiveness and boldness, and that wisdom is knowing what you can and should try to change and what you can and should try to accept.

This movie has always been a favorite of mine, because I love a little bit of the old ultra violence, and I love an unusual ending that makes you rethink about the entire movie with a new perspective.

But what is really interesting, is this movie touches on the 1950's era males ideals and expectations men are still raised with today, and the outrage that arises when that sense of entitlement goes unfulfilled.

This is not gonna be a weekly thing or anything. I was just stuck at home thanks to me contracting pink eye, so I got to see two new streaming movies after I had seen the big theatrical release (before I got pink eye).

Bullet Train released this weekend. And although it received mixed reviews, I thought it was quite a bit of fun. It comes from director David Leitch (who was actually Pitt’s stunt double in movies like Fight Club and Troy). He co-directed the first John Wick before going out on his own and directing Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and Hobbs and Shaw. With the exception of Hobbs and Shaw all of his films have been hyper stylized and this is no different. I’d actually describe this movie as being a mix of Atomic Blonde (in aesthetic) and Deadpool 2 (in humor). If you don’t like those movies you won’t like this, but personally I love his filmography. This was fun, funny, and super violent with a stand out performance from Aaron Taylor Johnson.

Released straight to streaming this weekend was Prey. A reintroduction of the predator franchise after the disastrous The Predator released four years ago. The film received great reviews and everyone online has been loving it. It’s a great tense thriller. It’s the type of movie that should have been released in theaters but it still kicks ass at home.

Finally, Thirteen Lives released on Amazon Prime after being given a limited release. Thanks to MGM now being owned by Amazon. The Ron Howard film has gotten mostly positive reviews and a good audience response. However, I thought the film was kind of dull and boring. It’s really matter of fact in depicting the event without any drama. There’s actually more tension and drama in the documentary about this event called The Rescue.

So those are the three big movies that came out this weekend.

Out of Death

Runtime: 1h 36m.

Budget: Unknown. Shot over 9 days.

Tomatometer: 0% - "The cryptic title is about the only intriguing facet of this formulaic cat-and-mouse thriller."

IMDB Rating: 3.2 / 10 - 4.9k ratings

Language: English

Streaming: Hulu , Amazon

This movie is bad. The acting is bad. The dialogue is bad. The plot is bad. But it's a good kind of bad, a watchable kind of bad.

This is the last movie Bruce Willis stared in before he announced his retirement due to Aphasia. He filmed all his scenes in one day. It's not easy watching a great actor brought down low. But even on his worst day, he still out acts all the other actors.

Covid finally caught up with me and I'm going to be living like a hermit for the next 2 weeks. It's been a stressful month here so I'm looking to melt my brain (or at least the bits covid hasn't already melted). I'd love to check out your easy watching, good time having, feel good suggestions!

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Runtime: 70 minutes.

Budget: $27,000 USD.

Tomatometer: 98% - 8.3 / 10

IMDB Rating: 7.3 / 10 - 2k ratings

Language: Japanese with English subtitles

Streaming: Vudu (Free with Adds) & Amazon (free with Prime)

This is an engaging & novel sci fi, filmed in one location, a Japanese cafe, using what appears to be a single shot for all 70 minutes.

It has comedy, romance, violence, action, and an utterly novel sci fi concept. All in 70 minutes.

I haven’t watched as many films from this year as I would like. But here’s my current Top 5:

1. Top Gun: Maverick
2. Happening
3. Ambulance
4. The Bad Guys
5. The Black Phone

The ones that will most likely stay in my top 10 at the end of the year are 1-3. Most of my yearly favorite films come out at the end of the year as you can see by this list that only contains two movies released earlier in the year.

And really quickly I’ll give you my most anticipated films for the rest of the year:

1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
3. Babylon
4. Amsterdam
5. The Fabelmans