Rambling Film

Get some rest. Years earlier, Detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) had an undercover operation go south and it resulted in her partner's death. When the man at the center of it all, Silas (Toby Kebbell) reappears, Bell needs to settle the score. This film was supposed to be an Oscar vehicle for Kidman but mediocre reviews sunk her campaign, which is ridiculous because she's amazing here. I expected to feel like she was maybe trying too hard for it the way some people described this performance but I didn't get a hint of pretension anywhere. She's just damn good. This film isn't as messy as I expected it to be either. Sure, nothing quite reaches the level that Kidman is at, but the rest of the cast including Sebastian Stan and Tatiana Maslany do well too. I think what it was lacking was a bit more character development. I would've rather the film completely removed all of the scenes with Erin's daughter and instead replaced them with ones lettin...

Whatever it takes. After Thanos (Josh Brolin) succeeds in snapping half the universe away. The remaining Avengers, faced with the first loss must find a way to undo what has happened as they do not get to move on. Saying I was excited for this film is a massive understatement so did this three hour epic live up to all my hours of fan girling?  Don't worry, I'll respect the #DontSpoilTheEndgame movement and not go into too much detail but the scope of this movie is really extraordinary. While I nfinity War perfectly balanced different groups and locations, Endgame plays like Avenger's greatest hits. It is three ours of complete fan service and it's a wonderful thing that this movie was made for the fans who support this universe through twenty two movies.  The stars of this movie are most certainly Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. They're the heart and soul and they give wonderful performances. Scarlett Johansson also has her best outing as Natasha and ...

It's another TV edition from Wandering Through The Shelves and this time we're focusing on music. Right off that bat, I'll admit I didn't watch Glee or Smash, so there go the two most popular TV musicals from recent memory, but here's what I do have for you.. 1) Hairspray Live Hairspray is probably my favorite stage musical and I enjoyed most of this. My biggest issues where the actors who played Link, Penny, and Seaweed, they weren't nearly as strong as the rest and dampened my enjoyment a bit, but it was still a solid show overall.  2) S Club 7 Where my fellow 90's kids at? If you don't recognize the name of the show you probably couldn't escape their "Never Had A Dream Come True" single that was released in 2000. I decided to give myself a refresher and watch a clip of this and it was pretty bad, but little me enjoyed it.  3) TRL *stereotypical back when MTV played music voice* Ahh Total Request Live. Mostly the same ...

On Saturday, I focused on our original Avengers and some of their underrated performances, but today I want to focus on the new Avengers who came along during phase two and after. These are the Avengers I expect to continue carrying the torch post Endgame. 1) Don Cheadle - Manic This may have been the movie that Joseph Gordon-Levitt started being taken seriously as a dramatic actor but Don Cheadle as a doctor in the institution where this takes place is a very quiet, understated performance. 2) Anthony Mackie - Shelter Paul Bettany directed his fellow Avenger about a homeless man in NYC. This is the most broken down I've even seen Mackie in a film. Easily his best performance. 3) Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene I've talked about this film a lot on my blog, and I still stand by the fact that she should've gotten an Oscar nomination for this.  4) Paul Bettany - The Da Vinci Code Before y'all say ANYTHING about this movie, I actually like...

Ahead of Avengers: Endgame , I thought I'd look back at the past performance of our original Avengers line up. I almost went with my favorite non-Marvel performances, but then I decided I'd rather talk about some of their films that are more on the underrated side.  Robert Downey Jr -  I've got go with his very understated performance in Fur . You don't see his face for most of the movie so it's his voice and his eyes that are conveying everything, and I think it's a wonderful performance of his. I really liked this movie although I know plenty did not.  Chris Evans - I feel like early Chris Evans didn't take a lot of roles that let him flex his acting skills, but that changed with Puncture . This was the first film of his I saw that I felt like he stepped out of his comfort zone. It was very meaty.  Chris Hemsworth - I have to cheat a bit here. Hemsworth does a lot of bigger budget action movies and that's essentially all I've se...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves  is about interviews. I struggled thinking of films where interviews were central to the movie, aside from one of my picks, but the two other films have very memorable interviews in them. 1) Frost/Nixon It took me forever to watch this from start to finish and when I did I couldn't believe I sat on this for so long. It was so well done. Obviously the interview between David Frost and Richard Nixon was the main selling point of this movie. 2) Step Brothers This is one of my all time favorite comedies and Brendan and Dale being forced to go out for job interviews was a great scene. "Are you saying Pan?"  3) Atonement Briony's interview at the end of this film is what reduced me to a sobbing mess. The truth hurts. 

As we come upon Avengers: Endgame, the start of a next phase, what a wonderful legacy to look back on. Also, I haven't been to see a lot of new movies so might as well post what everyone else is doing too. Here's my ranking of the MCU films. I think it's slightly different than a lot of the other lists I've read, at least when it comes to the lower ranked films.  The Best 1) Captain America: Civil War This remains my favorite Marvel film. I absolutely love the arcs Steve and Tony get and it was a great introduction to Black Panther and the newest version of Spider-man. It also give us the first taste of a bigger team coming together. 2) Infinity War I've re-watched this so many times within the past year and it keeps rising up on my list. I'm not sure it will ever bump Civil War from the top, but this film is so special. 3) Thor: Ragnarok It turns out Thor, who was already a pretty great character just needed to get in touch with this ridicul...

What I knew going in: The basic plot, and I thought I knew the ending. When aging anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) goes off on a tirade on air, his Network execs decide to exploit his outbursts for higher ratings. Diana Christianson (Faye Dunaway) is ruthless and will do whatever it takes to make this show a ratings winner, where as Max Schumacher (William Holden) feels a bit more bad about the situation.  Of all the Blind Spots I had this year, I was looking forward to this one the most as I enjoy journalism/newsroom type scripts and this did not disappoint. It's aged very well and the performances are just as good as everyone said they were. Faye Dunaway was my favorite. I'll admit to only thinking of Mommie Dearest when I hear her name so seeing her give a performance like this was wonderful.  The only thing this film does that wasn't perfect was blending in the other subplots within the network. I kept waiting for them to all come together smoothly but I fee...

This week's Theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is all about those movies that begin at the end. There's so many to choose from so I went with three films that start out with the main character's death before we see how they got there. 1) American Beauty Lester Burnham tells us right from the get go that "in a few months, I'll be dead." This remains my all time favorite movie. 2) Sunset Boulevard This is one of the best films I've seen on my Blind Spot list and one of the first things we see is our lead's lifeless body floating in a pool.  3) Into The Wild We know immediately that Chris' wilderness trek isn't going to end well. This was a wonderful little film that despite being an Oscar nominee, feels a bit underrated. 

I choose you as champion. Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a foster kid that is constantly running away trying to find his real mother. One day a wizard (Djimon Hounsou) chooses him to inherit his powers when he says the magic work - Shazam! The only person Billy can tell at first is his new foster brother, Freddy. (Jack Dylan Grazer) They attempt to test out his powers before having to face off with a real villain, Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong) Shazam is a comic character I'm not familiar with at all, so I went into this pretty blind and was pleasantly surprised with how much fun this is. Zachary Levi, who plays Billy in Shazam form has excellent chemistry with Grazer and the film is at its best when the two of them are together. It's definitely geared towards tweens/teens. It makes me wonder if this will be some generation's Last Action Hero . Plenty of the jokes land, and I appreciated the quick Street Fighter reference. If you're bringing young children, there is...

We have what you need Kit (Brie Larson) is a 20 something who has just failed out of art school because no one appreciates her childlike vision. She moves back in with her parents, (Joan Cusak and Bradley Whitford) and takes a temp job at an office to try to feel more adults. Then she receives an invitation to a store that "sells what you need." She meets the eccentric Salesman (Samuel L. Jackson) who says he can sell her what she's always wanted....a unicorn. When this premiered at TIFF back in 2017 it got pretty lukewarm reviews and currently sits at a 5.0 on IMDb. But has a big fan of Brie Larson and a 31 year old woman who loves a good shimmer eye shadow, I was always going to see this no matter what the reviews said.  I think the underwhelming consensus is wrong of course because Unicorn Store is an absolute delight of a film. Larson seems very comfortable behind the camera despite this being her first time directing. I suppose you could make an argum...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about those actors who took it to the next level and transformed themselves for a role. These are the three that I thought of first. Christian Bale - Vice  He not only gained a bunch of weight, but he completely nailed Dick Cheney's voice. Out of my three picks, this is the only movie that I actually like.  Jared Leto - Chapter 27 Why yes, that bloated dude is Jared Leto, playing John Lennon's killer in the dreadfully dull Chapter 27. He apparently ended up with gout at some point because of his dramatic weight gain.  Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo While most women would've slapped on a wig and fake piercings, Rooney Mara actually got that awful haircut, bleached her eyebrows and truly got all the piercings Lisbeth Salander had. That's commitment. 

I'm once again going to attempt to keep a semi regular schedule talking about what I watched on TV. I plan on posting at the end of each month. Some of these shows started before March but since I finished them up this month, I'll throw them in here too. Here's what I've been watching on the small screen. I Am The Night (TNT) This started in January and it caught my eye because it starred Chris Pine and was slightly related to the Black Dahlia case. Overall, it was fine. India Eisley was really good in the lead role but this wasn't must see TV for me. It was well done, but ultimately a bit forgettable.  Miracle Workers (TBS) This show is beyond stupid but it's funny as hell. Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan play two angels who are tasked with making two humans fall in love or else God, played by Steve Buscemi is going to blow up Earth.  The Good Place (Netflix) My husband and I binged this on Netflix. It started out as just background...