Movies you saw in September

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013). think this whole Hobbit thing is getting pretty "long in the tooth" with this three movie "tack on" to the Lord of the Rings series . thank God the next one (The Battle of the Five Armies) is the last as I have personally had enough of Wizards, Hobbits, Dwarves and Orchs (are they from Mork?). was WAY too long at 2 hours 45 minutes and once again finished with a 1930's Flash Gordon serial style "chop off tease" for the next movie. will say that Benedict Cumberbatch was excellent as the menacing voice of Smaug the Dragon BUT think the recent movie suffers which NO Gollum who was one of the more interesting characters in the original The Lord of the Rings series AND it's "cookie cutter" plot. plays again on HBO channels Thursday Sept 4th, Saturday Sept 6th and Sunday Sept 7th. I rate it only  because it was "same old, same old" and WAY too long. all the "WOW!!!" CGI and action in the world can't save a half baked plot.

Nixon by Nixon (2014) HBO Documentary on the Richard Nixon White House tape recordings that eventually lead to his resigning the Presidency in 1974. really profound to hear just how anti-semetic and racist the man was along with his almost constant use of foul language in private. his administration's deceitfulness in saying one thing in public and another in private, esp about the Vietnam war, was shocking but NOT suprising. thought it was an excellent 90 minutes that gave a good insite to Nixon's pretty much paranoid personality. plays again in HBO-Signature Wednesday Sept 3rd @ 8:00 pm pacific time. rate it for modern American history fans

want to thank mr_bollox for putting me on to the SciFi suspense-horror movie Dark Skies (2013). usually I'm not into "alien abduction" or "poltergeist" stories but this one was excellent with pretty much constant suspense. plays again on Showtime-Beyond channel Thursday Sept 4th, Showtime-Showcase (HD) Saturday Sept 6th and Showtime-Beyond Monday. VERY spooky movie with a rather disturbing ending. rate it

saw the historical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013) a few months back on Dish-TV PPV and thought it was excellent. it is the true story of black freeman musician Solomon Northup who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. the plot it is based on his story published in 1853. I am somewhat supprised this is the first time anyone thought to make a movie of it. VERY compelling drama well acted by all involved which won both the Best Picture Oscar and the Golden Globe for best drama. plays on HBO Saturday Sept 6th and Sunday Sept 7th. definite

watched three of the four Star Trek "Next Generations" movies this last week with the "2nd coming" cast of Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis. Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard is my favorite Star Trek Captain ever and Spiner as Commander Data one of my all time favorite characters in the series or films. was Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). First Contact is my favorite Star Trek movie of all time mostly because I think the Borg are the best villians ever after the early "Captain Kirk" era Klingons AND it has Jerry Goldsmith's BEST movie exit music ever. all played on HD Net movie channel and hopefully will repeat soon. for me First Contact is     while the other two are

I liked the lord of the rings movies well enough, but can't bring myself to watch the hobbit series.

Watched The Amazing Spiderman 2....   Actually enjoyed the first one of this reboot, this second was a lot slower, kind of like Electro for a while but then got bored with him.  Interesting ending, especially if they are going to go ahead with a 3rd movie (won't spoil it, but I was quite surprised).   Could have easily been shorter than its 2:20 running time.  Did answer some backstory questions about Peter Parkers parents, but also made more questions than it answered.   It was decent all in all.  Definitely a different take from the Tobey Maguire series

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) to my mind is one of the top 5 "screwball comedies" EVER with an all-star cast of just about every comedian going back to silent films. principle players were Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, (nickname for Richard) Shawn and the beautiful Edie Adams with a supporting cast of the lovely Dorothy Provine, Jimmy Durante, Jim Backus, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Peter Falk and William Demarest. had cameo appearances by Jack Benny, Ben Blue, Joe E. Brown, Andy Devine, Buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Jerry Lewis and The Three Stooges with Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan as the gas station owners Ray and Irwin

has some of the funniest car chase scenes ever in a movie and unreal flying by the great stunt pilot Paul Manz in a Twin Beech 18 before the age of CGI. it is one laugh after another and well worth recording for comedy fans. as I said, it is one of my Top 5 "screwball" comedies of all time along with What's Up, Doc? (1972), What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), Bringing Up Baby (1938) and Some Like It Hot (1959). plays again on 5-Max Monday Sept 8th @ 5;40 am and Friday Sept 12th @ 7:25 am pacific time. definite

The Frozen Ground (2013) suspense-mystery based on the investigation of Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen back in the 1980's. pretty well acted by John Cusack as Hansen and Nicolas Cage as detective Jack Halcombe who finally nabbed him along with the very foxy Vanessa Hudgens as teen prostitute Cindy Paulson who was one of the few women to escape Hanson and eventually helped put him away. plot was very similar to the 1995 movie Citixen X about  Ukrainian serial murderer Andrei Chikatilo in that you know who the killer is early on BUT the suspense is HOW do the police first identify him and then prove his guilt? plays again on EPIX 1 channel Friday Sept 5th @ 3:10 pm pacific. I rate both movies mentioned

The Devil's Advocate (1997) pretty good psyco-thriller combining the supernatural with a courtroom drama staring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. good "spooker" with some excellent "starle" scenes and a pretty crazy ending. a bit long @ 2 hours 25 minutes but overall worth watching for supernatural thriller or courtroom fans. plays again on HBO2 Saturday Sept 6th @ 8:45 pm pacific. rate it

I enjoyed it as well. I m going to check Citixen X, is it worth watching ?

Citizen X even better. the Soviet bureaucracy couldn't admit they could have a serial killer on the loose and that allowed Andrei Chikatiloto to get away for years. the story is almost as much about the investigators fighting that early on as the investigation itself

'The Counselor'

Unnecessarily complicated.  S h i t  ending... I'm not a big fan of Cormac McCarthy's books. Like his books, this screenplay is too wordy for it's own good.

k19 Widowmaker.

Everything takes place in 3 rooms. Bailed after 25 minutes.

Awful but it was all I could find on Netflix.

Thanks

Muppets Most Wanted....    it's the Muppets, how can it not be fun?  Tina Fey was pretty hot as the Russian Gulag supervisor too.... Statler and Waldorf killed it as usual

Blue Ruin on netflix was awesome

Bad Grandfather. Johnny Knox.

 hilarious.

Ran across Amadeus and forgot just how great a movie it was.  

I am into horrors this month - watched -the haunt

because I was "in the bag" last week and could not post outside the Penalty Box, just finally got a chance to update these reviews

Goin' South (1978) Jack Nicholson western themed "screwball" comedy with Mary Steenburgen and John Belushi in their  film debuts along with Christopher Lloyd, Veronica Cartwright and Danny DeVito. a rare comedy for Nicholson and it is really funny. played in Encore-Western channel and hopefully will be on again soon. well worth watching IF you want a good laugh. almost made my Top 5 "screwball" comedy list. rate it

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) story of struggling medtech salesman Chris Gardner trying to raise his young son while off again, on again homeless while going thru the Dean Witter Reynolds brokers program back in the early 1980's. pretty well acted by Will Smith and his real life son Jaden. good "overcoming the odds" feel good story that I thought was very inspirational. the real life Chris Gardner became a top Dean Witter producer and went on to later form his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm. was on ABC Family channel and I rate it

Joe's Apartment (1996) think I may have found a comedy even more "stupid funny" than Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) with hapless Joe from Iowa, played, by Jerry O'Connell, sharing a NYC cold water apartment with thousands of talking cockroaches who are very similar in personality to the "worms" in the Men in Black movies. lot of sight gags and funny smartazz comments from the two lead roaches "Ralph" and "Rodney". short 75 minute film that is pretty much constant laughs. my only complaint (other than like "Dude?" watching it could could cause brain damage) is they over did it with the roaches "chipmunk" style squeeky voice to where some of the joke lines were not understandable. played on Encore-Family and I rate it

Dallas Buyers Club (2013) story of Dallas,Texas real-life AIDS patient Ron Woodroof who fought the Texas medical establishment and FDA for alternate treatments for the disease in the 1980's. Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscars and Golden Globes for Matthew McConaughey as Woodroof and Jared Leto as "Rayon" his fictonalized his transgender business partner Rayon. was also nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. interesting story that shows the social stigma associated with AIDS as a "h-omo-s-exual disease" back then even though many people like Woodroof caught it thru unprotected hetro sex. found it rather "plodding" in spots but still well acted by all involved and worth watching. plays on HBO channels almost nightly next week starting Wednesday Sept 17th. rate it

looking forward to watching The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) premiering tonight on the EPIX-2 channel @ 6pm pacific time. also plays on EPIX channels Saturday Sept 20th @ 7:15 pm and Tuesday Sept 23rd @ 7:00pm pacific times

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) good movie and Leonardo DiCaprio was excellent as Jordan Belfort BUT was WAY too long at 3 hours. we "get it" early on that Belfort and his crew were a bunch of drug addicted wild men so do NOT need more than a hour of wild parties and hookers scenes to tell the story. entertaining movie BUT overall I rate it only   because of that.

when your movie is 40 minutes longer than epics like The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, it is a bit much

Runner Runner (2013) crime-gambling thriller staring Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck and the lovely Gemma Arterton. basic plot revolves around an off-shore poker and sportsbook operation on Coata Rica. has good suspense with some action and is a relatively short 90 minutes. has a horrid 9% rating @ Rotten Tomatoes BUT I think most Covers degenerates will enjoy it. I know I did and it makes me want to move to Costa Rica for the "chicas" and the action. plays on HBO again Friday Sept 26th, Saturday Sept 27th and Monday Sept 29th. rate it

The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron (2003). short 100 minute made for TV movie based on the book Anatomy of Greed by former Enron "trader" Brian Cruver. it chronicles the rise and fall of Houston-based Enron Corporation and the effect on it's employees. pretty well acted by all involved, it makes you wonder IF the likes of Jeff Skilling, Andy Fastow and Kenneth Lay all went to prision for fraud (Lay died before he could serve any time), WHY didn't the Wall Street Weasels and crooked mortgage bankers that brought the stock market down with their real estate and "credit default swap" scams escape prosecution?. probably worth watching just to get a gander at Canadian "blond bombshell" Jennifer Hill who plays the secretary "Miss August" . plays again on the Flix channels Thursday October 2nd @ 8:30 am pacific time. rate it

Runner Runner stunk imo. Nice story idea, poor execution of it. Really poor. Got boring... Can't think of Timberlake as anyone other than Timberlake (he;s the same character in every movie!)

A Walk Among The Tombstones - caught this week. Not your normal Liam Neeson movie, but well done nonetheless. It's character driven mystery thriller that's probably 15 minutes longer than it needed to be.  But if you're a fan of Neesom you'll like it.

Defiance (2008) WWII era action movie about the J-ewish Bielski Partisans who fought the Nazis and their collaborators in the Bialowieza Forest in what is now eastern Poland and western Belarus. well acted by Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski and Liev Schreiber as his brother Zus with Jamie Bell a dn George MacKay as the other brothers Asael and Aron. features the lovely Alexa Davalos as Tuvia's love interest (who became his wife after the war) Lilka. IF you like movies based on little known WWII battles and events you will enjoy this one. has pretty good action throughout. plays all next week almost nightly on EPIX channels starting Friday September 26th @ 11:40 pm pacific time. rate it

watched Ray Liotta's Phoenix (1998) yet again. excellent "cops as criminals" drama co-staring Anthony LaPaglia, Daniel Baldwin and Anjelica Huston. has an early in his career bit part for Giovanni Ribisi as Joey. like Harvey Keitel's Bad Lieutenant (1992), it is a movie I can watch over and over. played on Encore-Action and I rate it

Ya i was kinda dissapointed with a walk among the tombstones.

Equillibrium with denzel was badass. four times better

Bad Lieutenant and Reservoir Dogs are good ones.  Keitel is also in Copland which is good too. 

 

 

saw "the equalizer" friday afternoon and liked it better that ' a walk among the tombstones"...could be a franchise for sure if they choose.