Rambling Film

Careful, it's slippery in here. When a solar storm causes damage to their ship and the death of their captain, the crew of the Covenant, a colonization mission to a planet galaxies away find themselves a little hesitant to go back into hypersleep to continue their mission. After picking up a transmission of someone singing a song from Earth, the new captain Oram (Billy Crudup) decides they should make a pit stop to the planet it is coming from as the terrain looks almost similar to the planet they were heading too anyways. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) objects to the plan, saying it's "too good to be true" but is ignored. On this planet, the crew and their android Walter (Michael Fassbender, with a sexy voice) encounter the xenomorphs and the shipwrecked android from Prometheus , David (Fassbender again, with a creepy voice) Things go horribly wrong. I had a discussion with someone recently, who doesn't like horror films as much as I do about "peop...

I've watched some very thought provoking documentaries lately. I haven't had a lot of time to blog, mostly everything I've been posting has been queued, so here are some quick thoughts on what I watched.  Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 When you think of the LA Riots and what you learned about them in school - you think of Rodney King. The names James Mincey Jr or Edward Song or Latasha Harlins don't come to mind, at least not at first. This documentary shows the unrest had begun long before King was beaten. The interviews conducted here are very in depth. (and in some cases, like the arresting officer trying to minimize Mincey's death and the affect it would have on his then expecting girlfriend was infuriating) They talked with several survivors, witnesses, police officers. They're each given adequate time to tell their stories as well and this is where the documentary excels.  This is one I hope is shown in schools, or at least recommended to keep...

That has to be a new record. Joe Denton (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is a former cop who is released from prison after a six year sentence for attempted murder. His folks (Robert Forster and Jacki Weaver) don't really know what to make of him. While he wants to do right by everyone so he can see his daughters again, he gets sucked right back into the same mess by his former partner Dan. (Gary Cole) Movies like this are fairly predictable, but that's okay. I like seeing Nikolaj in a role like this after watching him as Jaime Lannister for so many years. The rest of the cast was good too. Even though you had an idea of what was going to happen, I was interested through out and still managed to be surprised by a few events. Macon Blair, who also has a small and very memorable part in this is proving to be a really interesting writer. I can't wait to see what he does next. Grade: B Watched on: Netflix Instant Memorable Quote: "It hurts. I carry it....

It's another TV edition at Wandering Through The Shelves. This week she asks us to choose TV shows that feature time travel. I know there's a lot of shows with this theme. Here's what I came up with.  1) Are You Afraid of the Dark? While this show was technically about teenagers telling scary stories around a camp fire, there were a number of those that dealt with time travel. The one I'm thinking of is when a student finds a necklace in her locker, she's able to travel back in time and see an explosion that killed the fellow student who was wearing it nearly 30 years before.  2) Inuyasha This anime is about a girl who falls through a well and transports herself back to feudal era Japan. It's kind of ridiculous but it's my favorite anime.  3) Futurama Fry is a pizza delivery man who ends up frozen in 1999 and wakes up in 2999. This show was always stupid fun. 

What I knew going in: The entire plot.  Shakes(Joseph Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), and John (Geoffrey Wigdor) are four friends growing up in Hell's Kitchen. When a prank they play goes disastrously wrong, they're sent to a reform school where they are subjected to an unspeakable amount of violence. We cut to more than 10 years later and they're all grown up. (and played by Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Billy Cudup and Ron Eldnard) They plan on taking revenge against the guards at the reform school, but they need the help of the one stable adult in their lives, Father Bobby. (Robert De Niro) This was one of those films where I had heard so much about it and had seen bits and pieces that I felt like I had already watched the entire thing. I'm glad I finally sat down and got it in one sitting, but man is this film long. They could've shaved off about 30 minutes of it. The story was harrowing but so fascinating. They did a good j...

Mettel Ray's "My Movie Alphabet" is what lead me to her wonderful blog in the first place. I had a great time participating and now she's hosting another one!  Head over to her blog for a full list of rules. Like she suggested, I didn't look at my original alphabet before posting. I had 5 1/2 repeats. (Yes, I'm counting the X-Men one as a half because I just used a different X-Men film)  Most of them being my long time favorite actors. I did bend Mettel's rules quite a bit in the last one so actually following them this time around probably helped.  Here's my new alphabet. I apologize if some of the photos are blurry, I actually ended up doing most of this on my phone so I'd meet the deadline. ((500) Days of Summer, 10 Things I Hate About You, 50/50)   (Amy Adams, Adam Driver, Arrival, Anton Yelchin) (Brie Larson, Brad Pitt, Brick, Brooklyn) (Captain America: Civil War, Cronenberg, David, Colin Farrell, Christine) ...

Changes Michael Glatze (James Franco) was a gay activist who wrote for a popular magazine in San Francisco before moving with his boyfriend, Bennett (Zachary Quinto) to Halifax. While living there, he has a health scare - which turns out to be nothing more than panic attacks but that is enough for Michael to find God and denounce the fact that he's gay.  I didn't know who Michael Glatze was until this film popped into my recommendations on Netflix. Going from gay activist to an anti gay pastor is a big deal. So I held off on reading more about him until after I watched this. It made me realize how incredibly naive I can be because I went into this 100% expecting him to go back to the way he was at the beginning of the film. He doesn't.  I'm a fan of James Franco. I know he's pretty weird but I've always admired his talent on screen. He's very good hear, but it's Quinto that steals the show. All of the pain on Bennett's face is evident ...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about that word I always misspell: The Renaissance. Seriously, I don't know what it is about that. The only rule is you must choose films between the 14th-17th centuries.  Here are some of my favorites. 1) A Knight's Tale I love Heath Ledger in this movie about a poor man who enters a jousting tournament. All the actors had fabulous chemistry, I always sit down to watch this whenever it's on TV. 2) The Crucible My favorite thing to yell when when I'm having an argument with someone is "I saw Goody Procter with the devil!" It's an excellent tension breaker.  3) Pocahontas  I was obsessed with this movie when it came out. Then later on when I read the real story of her I was kind of horrified by the whole thing. Disney made it seem so pure.  Bonus: My favorite Pocahontas gif

The Galaxy ain't gonna save itself. When we meet up with the Guardians, they're doing a job for a species called The Sovereigns. Their payment is Nebula (Karen Gillan) as a prisoner. On their way out, Rocket (Bradly Cooper) swipes some batteries and the Sovereigns go after them. They're saved by a man called Ego (Kurt Russell) who reveals himself as Peter's (Chris Pratt) father. When he takes them to his mysterious planet and explains why Peter is so special, it doesn't take long for Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to realize something is wrong.  There is so much going on in this movie that I have to separate it by likes and dislikes. Sorry this is getting forum-y. LIKES *The cinematography is gorgeous as always. That's one thing that's always stood out about the Guardian's films. Only Doctor Strange has come close to looks as beautiful. *Gamora and Nebula's sibling relationship. I like that the film took the time to explain Nebula's feel...

And you thought you had problems. Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is a party girl who hasn't held a job in over a year. Her boyfriend, Tim (Dan Stevens) breaks up with her and kicks her out of her apartment. She's forced to move to her hometown in Maine where she meets up with Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) an old friend. When a giant monster starts terrorizing Seoul, South Korea. Gloria realizes she's strangely connected to it. Colassal might be one of the most original films I see all year. It's funny in retrospect that the producers of this film almost got sued back in 2015 for this being "too close to Godzilla" when their only connection is "Monster in Asia." Obviously, it's a bit silly, you have to know that going in, but it ended up being very different than I expected it to be. It feels like forever since I've seen Anne Hathaway in something, and she's great here. She somewhat channels her Rachel Getting Married hot mess. Jason Sude...

Father/daughter bonding? No, thank you. Winfried (Peter Simonischek) is a music teacher and frequent practical jokster who stages an impromptu visit on his highly successful and very busy daughter Ines (Sandra Hüller) in Bucharest. She's trying to secure a contract with a very important client and isn't having any of her dad's jokes. So he makes up a persona, Toni Erdmann, with a bad wig and fake teeth and poses as her CEO's "life coach." She's too embarrassed to say anything so she plays along and ends up bonding with him more than she expected.  It might seem strange that I'm recommending this after I say the following sentence, but this movie is way too fucking long. At 2 hours and 47 minutes, I feel like there were a few times that had I got up and walked away and came back 10 minutes later, I wouldn't have missed much. It's like last year's American Honey in that sense. But Toni Edrmann is strangely engrossing for most of ...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is about films that take place in deserts. They can be hot or cold. Not gonna lie, I misread this theme as "desserts" at first. I think that topic may have been a bit easier this one was tough for me.  1) Mad Max: Fury Road One of the most gorgeous shots of Fury Road was Charlize Theron dropping to her knees in the desert. I never expected to like this movie at all, and it felt good to be wrong about that.  2) Tracks Mia Wasikowska's Robyn treks across Australia's deserts with her trusty dog and camels she's learned to train. This was a very quiet film but I enjoyed it.  3) 10,000 B.C I actually hated this movie and only saw it because I like Camilla Belle. If I recall, there were desert scenes. Now I'm annoyed all over again that Belle isn't a bigger star. I blame Taylor Swift slut shaming her.