Quick Ramblings: The Good, The Meh, and the Ugly

Oh January releases. Since my theater hasn't seen it fit to bless my city with If Beale Street Could Talk yet, I've been spending a lot of my time with Netflix. One of my goals is to watch everything in my Instant queue before 2019 is up, but I've got all that nonsense in a separate post. Below are a few quick reviews courtesy of my DVD queue, with a few exceptions

The Good

Fair Game - Despite this staring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, apparently this never pinged my radar. (or it did and I forgot) but after watching Vice and hearing them reference this real life case, I was happy to see this was available to stream on Netflix - and I liked it! It's not amazing by any means but perfectly watchable. B

Fyre - Everyone knows about the failed Fyre Festival at this point and who can resist Netflix and Hulu putting out documentaries at the same time? Fyre is Netflix's and is far superior to the Hulu doc because it doesn't try to blame millennials for everything. A

Juliet, Naked - Rose Byrne, Chris O'Dowd and Ethan Hawke star in this light comedy/drama about a man obsessed with a has been singer and his frustrated girlfriend who ends up becoming pen pals with the man. It was sweet. B-

The Meh

Fyre Fraud - Hulu's documentary isn't bad, while there's a lot of overlap with Netflix's this does touch on the earlier ventures a bit more, it's just not as watchable and they used so many clips from other shows that it felt a bit cheap. I still think it's worth the watch after you've seen Fyre though. C

Operation Finale - Jewish men go undercover in Argentina to capture a former Nazi officer who is hiding. The accents in this movie are all over the place and it reminded me a bit of Valkyrie. There's a good movie in there somewhere but the script wasn't interested in finding it. C

Bad Education - Two men look back at the time they were in school together and were abused by a priest. The premise of this is interesting and Gael Garcia Bernal is really good, but I found the structure kind of odd to watch. I've been wanting to see this for a long time and I'm glad I did, but I think I got my expectations up a little too high for it. C+

What They Had - I watched this movie for Michael Shannon and it was a predictable dud. Shannon's character is a dick, but he's painted as the bad guy despite being the one speaking the truth regarding forcing his father to make the difficult decision of putting his ailing mother in a nursing home. I swear Taissa Farmiga was thrown in there just so they could tick off a younger demographic. Her character added nothing to the story. C

The Ugly

Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot -Jonah Hill, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Jack Black, there are a lot of talented people in this movie but it's just not interesting at all despite initially sounding like it should be. This follows John Callahan, who discovers the healing power of art after an accident. C-

WTF Bonus

Madeline's Madeline - It's been over a week since I saw this and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I watched. It's either a brilliant look at how actors can sometimes take things too seriously or an insane experiment. Hopefully I land somewhere soon. N/A

Comments

  1. I need to see Juliet, Naked (that's a weird thing to type...). I'd never heard of it until a week or so ago and it's been getting some nice reviews!

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    1. It is, but it's the name of an album so there's new naked Juliet running around. lol

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  2. Sorry you didn't like La Mala Educacion yet I am one of those that enjoyed it. Then again, I'm a sucker for anything by Pedro Almodovar though he has made a few stinkers.

    I do want to see Fyre just to understand how a bunch of stupid-ass millennial rich kids got scammed by a has-been rapper and a douchebag with all sorts of promises only to cry like little bitches over the reality that they faced.

    Hey, hippies had Altamont. Generation X and Y had Woodstock '99. It's about time the lame millennials had something of their own.

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    1. Fyre is great, and Fyre Fraud, last I checked was on youtube as that's where I watched it. lol

      FyreFest wasn't even accessible enough to be considered "for millennials." It was for rich people. Most of us millennials are poor. lol

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  3. I think I might have seen Fair Game but I have to watch it again to make sure... memory lapse and all. Of course the Millennials are to blame for just about everything...that goes without saying:) I better watch it as I am a Baby Boomer and will need to rely on the Millennials when I get old. My friend at work just mentioned this documentary yesterday and it sounded quite good(Netflix). I remember all the hoopla when it actually happened...shame on these famous D listers. I like Chris ODowd so would like to see Juliet, Naked. What a shame about the film about Eichmann. I watched a great documentary series about the bastards that got away and were living in South America. When I watched the episode about Eichmann, I was on the edge of my seat. I'm glad they got this S.O.B., I just wish they could have apprehended Mengele. I am not a fan of Jonah Hill so I'll skip the ugly. I actually went to the theatre this past Sunday and saw The Upside. We were shooting for The Favourite but missed the time. I enjoyed the film-predictable but a good movie

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    1. Fyre is definitely a worthy watch on Netflix.

      I'm glad the Upside was decent! I liked the French version - The Intouchables quite a bit.

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  4. I've been all that high on "Fair Game". It was fine but I've never felt compelled to go back and see it again.

    I actually like "Operation: Finale" quite a bit. It just missed my Top 20. I get what you mean with the accents, but I really enjoyed the slow boil. Some of the characters needed more attention though. As far as Madeline's Madeline...I worked my way through about 30 minutes of it and realized there were a lot of other things I wanted to watch more. :)

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    1. lol I can understand that. Operation Finale I was really hoping I'd enjoy more.

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  5. So many people recommended Madeline's Madeline to me but it looks unbearable

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    1. It's really strange. I can see where someone who may be on the theater/acting scenes themselves would love it.

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