Coming soon. In the second half of 2022, there will be a few selected Saturdays that will be dedicated to shorts (live action, animation, docs etc.).
The shorts have been a great help on some of those packed full days during the DailyView where a Charlie Chaplin, a Laurel & Hardy, a DUST sci-fi film helped continue the daily commitment.
I’m going to watch a compilation of shorts during Saturdays. It won’t be every Saturday, of course, but selected ones.
There will be shorts that I have seen before included. It will be ones that I have not done a write up on. This will include the EYG Hall of Famer “What’s Opera, Doc” or the Marvel One Shots.
Lists of Shorts:
May 14, 2022
The Consultant (2011)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer (2011)
Item 47 (2012)
Agent Carter (2013)
All Hail the King (2014)
Team Thor Part 1 (2016)
Team Thor Part 2 (2017)
Team Darryl (2018)
What’s Opera Doc? (1957)
Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times (2017)
Grandma (2021)
West Bank Story (2005)
Ghosts of Sugar Land (2019)
If Anything Happens I Love You (2020)
Audible (2021)
The Gunfighter (2014)
The Simpsons: The Good, The Bart and the Loki (2021)
There have been several John Grisham novels adapted to the big screen. The Rainmaker was adapted to the screen by Francis Ford Coppola, bringing another level of crime gravitas to the movie.
In the end, The Rainmaker was an enjoyable courtroom drama that included a top notch cast and a satisfactory conclusion.
According to IMDB: “Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) is a young attorney out to make a difference in the justice system. He is also the only hope of an elderly couple after their corrupt insurance company refuses to pay out a claim that could save their child’s life. In this judicial drama, Baylor rails against corporate lawyers, corrupt judges, and abusive husbands, all with the help of a fellow lawyer who hasn’t even passed his bar exam. He is facing long odds in the courtroom – and this is only his first case.”
Matt Damon does an excellent job of playing this young lawyer, who was way over his head, unsure of how to proceed with the case or what steps he should take in the procedural process of the court case. Even with a supportive judge (Danny Glover), Rudy Baylor was clearly a greenhorn.
This is the reason why I believe that the real heart of this movie was Deck Shifflet, the character played by Danny DeVito. DeVito was exceptional in every scene, keeping Rudy balanced and helping find his way through the case, despite having failed the bar exam multiple times. Deck knew where to look and what to do, even if it is not necessarily the most up and up move. Danny DeVito had great chemistry with everyone that he interacted with and brought a realness to the role.
There were some other excellent characters, some bordering on eccentric. Mickey Rourke played J. Lyman “Bruiser” Stone, a bar owner and ambulance chaser who gave Rudy his first job. Virginia Madsen was here as Jackie Lemanczyk, a witness that Deck found whom may have major testimony. Dean Stockwell played a crooked judge originally assigned to the case who tried to railroad Rudy to a early settlement. Jon Voight played the opposing counsel, Leo Drummond, and the fact that Jon Voight can be an unlikable real life person helped play into this rotten character. He was certainly easy to hate.
I will say that there was a secondary plot involving a battered wife (Claire Danes) and her abusive husband that felt like it was included just to fill out the run time of the film. It had very little (if anything) to do with the main story, only providing a distraction for Rudy. While there was an exciting fight scene included, this entire story beat could have been removed without losing anything of value to the overall story. It would have helped with the length of the film as well.
The Rainmaker was a solid courtroom drama and some excellent performances.
With just a couple of days remaining in the DailyView, I have finally gotten to a classic film that was on the first page of my list from way back in last April. I watched the iconic John Singleton written and directed film, Boyz N the Hood. This was the directorial debut for the late, great Singleton and it showed such an amazing wealth of talent, from behind the camera to in front of it.
Boyz N the Hood is a coming of age story that takes place in South Central Los Angeles as Tre Styles (first played as a child by Desi Arnez Hines II and then by Cuba Gooding Jr). He was sent to live with his father ‘Furious’ (Laurence Fishburne) by his mother Reva (Angela Bassett) when Tre got into a fight at school. It was here where he met brothers Doughboy (first played by Baha Jackson and then by Ice Cube) and Ricky (first played by Donovan McCrary and then Morris Chestnut) Baker.
The three of them grew up in this neighborhood that featured plenty of violence, shots fired in the distance and the sound of police sirens. Doughboy was a gang member and had a friend Chris (Redge Green) who had been shot and ended up in a wheelchair.
Ricky was a local star football player and was trying to get a scholarship to college to play football. He discovered that he had to take the SAT and score at least 700 in order to receive the scholarship.
After taking the test, Ricky got into an argument with a rival gang that caused Doughboy to wave his own gun around to try and straighten out the situation. This was leading to even more violence later in the film.
I was surprised how emotional this movie made me and how much I was into the story without even realizing it. While the language used in the film always makes me uncomfortable, I found myself really rooting for Ricky and Tre, despite the fact that I had a bad feeling about everything that was going on.
This film showed the real world in these neighborhoods without diving into hyperbole and stereotype. We see these characters as real people, not just the typical gang members you might see in a movie. These are very believable and allow you to connect to them even more.
There are great performances from Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Morris Chestnut, in particular. Laurence Fishburne brings an entirely different vibe to the film and does so with the gravitas that he always brings to the movie.
This is powerful and potent, shining a light on the dangers and the trials that face these people everyday in the hood. This is an absolute masterpiece.
I was in the mood tonight for a documentary. I went to Netflix and started to search though the list of documentaries on the streamer site. I had found a couple of interesting docs that I put on my queue, a couple of documentary shorts that I added to the Saturday Shorts list, but nothing that was really jumping off the screen. Then, I found it.
The Legend of Cocaine Island sounded fascinating and it was absolutely the right choice for tonight.
Following a legendary tale of a mysterious bag of cocaine that had been buried on the Caribbean island of Culebra, family man Rodney Hyden tried to find and dig up the stash of drugs, believed to be worth over $2 million dollars.
This documentary was told with plenty of recreations of the events that led to Hyden spending time in prison for his choices in the treasure hunt.
There was a lot of light-hearted reconstruction of the tale that was being told. The story was one of those stranger than fiction stories and is laid out very well.
I enjoyed the documentary and wonder what these people were thinking.
Escape from Pretoria tells the true story of one of the great prison escapes of all time, with three political prisoners escaping from Pretoria in South Africa in 1979.
Based on the novel Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison by Tim Jenkin, who was one of the escapees, played here by Daniel Radcliffe, Escape from Pretoria was an exciting prison escape film that showed how intelligence are the most valuable weapons.
Daniel Radcliffe continues to push himself further away from Harry Potter with every film choice he makes. Honestly, I saw more Wolverine in him than Harry Potter.
There are plenty of moments of tension and anxiety that builds up with the movie. Several times when you have that feeling of holding your breath because you are afraid of whether or not the protagonists were going to get caught.
Apartheid is one of the most horrible governments in recent history and to see some of the struggles to oppose the racist, hatred of the evil government. It is a great thing that this government crashed.
One of the films that has been on the DailyView to watch list since the very beginning, nearly a year ago, was Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. With just four days remaining in the DailyView, I finally pulled Apocalypto up on Amazon Prime.
What an epic this was.
The film took place during the Mayan civilization as we saw a peaceful tribe doing some hunting. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and the rest of his tribe were out hunting boar when they came across another tribe in the jungle. This new tribe did not seem problematic so they allowed them to pass through their jungle.
Later, back at their camp, the new tribe attacked them viciously, leading Jaguar Paw to hid his son and his pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernández) into a deep hole to hide them. Captured, Jaguar Paw and the other men are taken to a ceremony where several of them are sacrificed. Thankfully, a eclipse occurred just before Jaguar Paw was to be sacrificed and so they believed that the God had his fill of blood.
The remaining members of the tribe, including Jaguar Paw, were taken and allowed to try and escape into their jungle, but the warriors of this tribe shot at them with arrows and threw spears, killing almost them all. Jaguar Paw, injured, is able to turn the table on the warrior and make it to the jungle. The rest of the group followed him in a chase through the jungle that is just epic as can be.
The first part of this movie was fine, but once Jaguar Paw made it to the jungle and they began chasing him, this movie turned into a fantastic thrill ride. Yes, there were some iffy CGI (especially with the jaguar that showed up), but Jaguar Paw being chased and turning the tides on his pursuers was just totally thrilling.
There are some beautifully shot scenes and the imagery around the jungle is just fantastic. Mel Gibson has proven himself to be one of the best directors working today. Sure there are issues with Gibson as a person that may tend to lean towards troublesome, but there can not be any argument that he knows what he is doing behind the camera.
I am very pleased that I finally got to Apocalypto for the DailyView because it was a fully engaging and thrilling chase movie with historical aspects to it. This was not what I had expected when I started it, but it turned out to be an entertaining, albeit extremely violent, ride.
I have generally found Clint Eastwood directed films to be hit or miss. However, when they hit, they hit big time. That is the case with Changeling, the 2008 drama focused around a true story of the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, the disappearance of the son of Christine Collins and the rampant police corruption in the LAPD at the time.
Angelina Jolie gives a stunning performance as Christine Collins, a woman whose son disappeared and was missing for six months. Then, the police discovered the boy and brought him back to his mother. The only problem was that once reunited Christine told the police that the boy was not her son, Walter. The police insisted that he was and that he’d been through trauma and that she just did not recognize the boy. She was in shock, they said. She took the boy home, but further physical traits supported her suspicion that this boy was not her son.
Christine approached Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) about her doubts, insisting that the boy was not Walter. Jones did not believe her and began to accuse her of being an unfit mother. Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) picked up the story and began to support Christine, encouraging her to fight for justice. Christine went to the papers and, because of this, wound up being thrown into an insane asylum by the police.
This movie was excellent and does an amazing job of creating emotion among the viewer. It is not just sadness for the disappearance of Walter and Angelina Jolie’s stirring performance, but also the anger that it builds up over the behavior of the LAPD at the time and the use of the mental asylum to do its dirty work. The cruelty is unimaginable for people who are meant to help and aid others.
Jason Butler Harner was outstanding as well as Gordon Northcott, the man behind the Wineville Chicken Coop and the man who may have killed Walter. He played this man with an abandon and an almost carefree attitude that made him even more frightening. The young actors involved were also very solid. Eddie Alderson, who played Sanford Clark, the boy forced to help Gordon Northcott, Gattlin Griffith, who played Walter Collins, and Asher Axe, who played David, a boy who escaped from the chicken coop with Walter’s help.
The film was beautifully shot and used its time frame wonderfully to fully tell its story. It was 2 hours and 20 minutes long, but the film did not drag on at all, paced well. The final version of the film had plenty of amazing craft to it and it is one of the better directed films of Eastwood’s catalogue.
Changeling was an unbelievable story that was able to connect to the outrage of the time.
Robert Eggers, director of two acclaimed independent films (The Witch and The Lighthouse), is back with his third feature film, The Northman.
The Northman was set in the year AD 914, although it started earlier than that. We see the brutal slaying of King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) by his brother Fjölnir The Brotherless (Claes Bang) as Aurvandil’s only son, Amleth (Oscar Novak) watched. After it is believed that Amleth has been killed, Fjölnir claimed his brother’s wife, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) for his own. Meanwhile, young Amleth promised himself that he would revenge his father, rescue his mother and kill Fjölnir.
Years later, Amleth(now played by Alexander Skarsgård) returned to his uncle’s land as a slave to plot his bloody vengeance. He meets another slave Olga of the Birch Forest (Anya Taylor-Joy) and they fall for each other. Amleth attempt to gaslight Fjölnir before he ultimately claimed his true revenge.
There were several scenes in this Viking epic that were just unexpected. The film was truly beautifully shot and looked amazing. Though there was a lot of violence, the fights were kept to a minimum and, because of that, they never became boring. There was a great sequence during some kind of game that was thoroughly stunning.
Alexander Skarsgård fit this role wonderfully, even though there was not a lot of depth to Amleth. He was a massive brut and that is how Skarsgård played him. There was some really excellent scenes between him and Nicole Kidman, who brought some really great work in The Northman. I found Kidman’s character to be the most complex of the film.
I did find the film to be a touch too long. I could have used some of the early part of the film to be tightened up some and about ten minutes shaved off could have done wonders for me.
The inclusion of Norse mythology in the film at times worked and at other times, felt out of place. There is a specific scene with a Valkyrie that felt weird.
The Northman was a grim and gritty film that feels ugly and dirty, but features some beautiful visuals and a fairly straightforward revenge plot. It is probably my favorite of the three Robert Eggers films, though there are still some issues with length.
Villains leading their own movie/franchise is all the rave these days. Morbius, Black Adam, Kraven the Hunter are all villains (or villain-ish) who are the lead of their movies. So you can’t blame DreamWorks for trying to jump in on the trend with their latest animated venture, The Bad Guys.
The Bad Guys included Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos)as a crew of criminals who were robbing banks across the city. When they were finally captured, the lovable guinea pig philanthropist Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade) convinced the Governor (Zazie Beets) to let him attempt to rehabilitate them.
This movie was fine. Younger kids will enjoy it and parents won’t hate watching it. It is just that this is not in the same category as Pixar or Disney. Heck, it is not even in the same category as DreamWorks own How to Train Your Dragon. It’s more like The Boss Baby or The Croods. It is not bad, somewhat watchable but just not very remarkable. It won’t stand out in your memory.
The animation was fine. I actually kind of liked the way these characters’ eyes were shown. The character designs were fine, with Mr. Wolf a definite standout (and also The Crimson Paw…cool)
Story wise, the film was average, at best. It was so obvious about what was going to happen that it is telegraphed to most. I certainly figured out the (other) villain immediately. The film did have a nice message of friendship and acceptance of others, despite who they may be.
There were some funny parts too. Some of the heists moments were the best parts of the film, seeing how the Bad Guys came together to accomplish their goals. However, there were some really coincidental parts of the plans that had to work perfectly for the plan to be completed and, of course, they all fit right in the spot.
It could have been much worse (Like Minions), but it just is not good enough to become a great animated film. It could be a good introduction to young people and heist films because that aspect of The Bad Guys was the strongest part.
The Voices came out in the middle of the time when I was going to the movies all the time, and I have always enjoyed Ryan Reynolds. Heck, this was not too far before Deadpool. So how had I never even heard of this little dark horror/comedy gem?
Ryan Reynolds played Jerry, who worked at a bathtub factory. He seemed to have a sad little life, living alone with his pets Bosco the dog and Mr. Whiskers the cat. He was socially awkward and had trouble with making connections. He had to see his psychiatrist Dr. Warren (Jacki Weaver), who kept pushing him to take his medication. You get glimpses into what appeared to be a dark past from Jerry, but you really have no idea where the film is going to take him. Jerry feels like that withdrawn loser who can overcome his demons and adjust to the world.
Unfortunately, that is not exactly in the cards for Jerry. As he carried on conversations with his supportive dog and the cruel and wicked cat, Jerry found himself in situations where his darker nature took over.
The film also starred Anna Kendrick (who has quite a list of oddball films) and Gemma Arterton, as women that Jerry was interested in, Kendrick, in particular, had a really strong performance and you are really rooting for her to be able to make it through.
Ryan Reynolds is handed a character that was darker than anything he had done before, including Wade Wilson in Deadpool. The catastrophic circumstances of Jerry’s life was devastating for him and gave the audience a reason to continue to hope for the best for this tragic character. The flashbacks to his youth with an abusive father and a mentally ill mother are heartbreaking and truly frames the character of Jerry in a different manner than you would expect. Right up until the end, I was hoping for the best for Jerry.
It was a funny movie, but there were plenty of times where laughing just felt like the wrong response, yet laughter is what would happen. The voices of the two pets, provided by Reynolds, were perfect and capsulized the way dogs and cats are perceived.
The ending sequence is as batshit crazy as the rest of the film, putting me slightly on edge. Honestly, the song at the end made me feel plenty of feelings, including feeling a little disgusted for liking it.
This was a much deeper film than I thought it was going to be and the character of Jerry was deeply scarred and developed more effectively than you would think. It was funny and filled with great performances from a really strong cast. The Voices is a trip of a film.
The new week of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown’s flagship program, Friday Night Titans, arrived on YouTube tonight with a very intriguing show. I made a comment last week about the main event this week being a “squash match,” borrowing the pro wrestling term, with the new team The Appointment of Mr. Erwin and Slick Nick taking on Eric Zipper and Adam Gertler. I just did not find that to be main event worthy.
I commented that they needed a strong opening match to help this episode out and the MTS absolutely pulled that off. Two debuting teams, including the Barbarian and… Gold Leader (???) against Jeanine the Machine and a mystery partner.
I’m going to start off with the reveal of the mystery partner, which I thought fell totally flat. They tried to build it up, but someone we have never seen with no noticeable character came out. I think they needed some kind of vignette to introduce and highlight the Database, which was a cool name, but meant nothing.
However, having said that, this kid named Database was unbelievable. His trivia knowledge was amazing and his game play was like a veteran, not a rookie in his first match. It was an impressive performance to make Jeanine look like the secondary team member, and she is absolutely an epic player.
They have a real chance to build a huge teams match up. Jeanine and Database, who have been dubbed the System, and The Appointment is clearly a feud that could develop into a huge match. The elevation of the Stars as the top heel faction of the Schmoedown has been very solid this season and with Jeanine at the heart of the one team, this is a match to build for.
Unfortunately, Gold Leader really pulled down the Barbarian and, had they not gotten spinner’s choice and got to pick Star Wars, this game would not have been anywhere near as close as it turned out. The Barbarian could use a better partner. I would say Eric Zipper is in the same boat. He needs a partner better than what he got in the main event. Sure Gertler was entertaining and eccentric with his wrestling mask, but he is a comedy act, not a real threat. Zipper and Barbarian would make a powerhouse team.
Perhaps Gold Leader and Gertler will make me eat my words and they will become great partners for their respective teammate, but there is a lot of work to be done.
There was good character work in the main event, but the Appointment definitely dominated the match. I enjoyed Zipper’s confusion over what was going on with Mr. Erwin and Nick Harley’s constant bodyguard type schtick. And Roxy is absolutely GOLD in her heel manager character right now.
The Free-4-All has begun to be promoted. It is next Saturday and includes 40 competitors. Should be a huge day. They also continued to build toward Shazam vs. Korruption title match as Korruption accepted the match with the champs.
Last night I had the pleasure of watching the new Nicolas Cage movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and I loved it. During that movie, Nicolas Cage stated that one of his all-time favorite movies, and one that he forced his on-screen daughter to watch, was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was a 1920 silent German horror film directed by Robert Wiene.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “At a carnival in Germany, Francis (Friedrich Feher) and his friend Alan (Rudolf Lettinger) encounter the crazed Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss). The men see Caligari showing off his somnambulist, Cesare (Conrad Veidt), a hypnotized man who the doctor claims can see into the future. Shockingly, Cesare then predicts Alan’s death, and by morning his chilling prophecy has come true — making Cesare the prime suspect. However, is Cesare guilty, or is the doctor controlling him?”
This silent movie has been considered an influential and beloved film for years. This was the first I had heard of it. It was an interesting film with a decent story. I found all of the characters to have solid performances, very expressive as needed.
I loved the style of the backgrounds. I know that it was because of the year this was recorded, but the minimalist backgrounds with its jagged corners and intriguing angles felt painted and attractive. It fit right in with the shade of the film.
This was fun, especially after the Nic Cage recommendation.
Nicolas Cage has been doing some really solid work lately. So much so that I have heard that we may be in a brand new Nic Cage-naissance. Pig, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Mandy, Mom and Dad are just a few of the movies that Nic Cage has excelled in in the last few years.
Now, he has gotten the role he was born to play…literally.
Nicolas Cage played a cash strapped Nicolas Cage in this movie, who was desperate for a movie role that he did not get. Because of this, Nick accepted a weird job from his agent Fink (Neil Patrick Harris): a birthday party for a super-fan, Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal).
The problem… the CIA seemed to believe that Javi was a criminal lord and he had kidnapped the daughter of a political figure to force him out of an election. The CIA agents Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) and Martin (Ike Barinholtz) grabbed Nick and convinced him to spy on Javi.
However, the problems were not finished because Nick and Javi bonded quickly over their love for movies and the one subject that they both loved above just about anything else…Nic Cage.
I had been really looking forward to this movie from the first trailer and it did not disappoint. I was totally thrilled with the film, its story was fun and creative, the acting was top notch and it was legitimately funny.
Nic Cage was outstanding as the fictionalized version of Nick “M-Fing” Cage, but, matching him every step of the way was Pedro Pascal, whose Javi was the driving force behind all of the comedy that was happening. Pascal just knocked it out of the park. These two actors absolutely crushed it and their chemistry together made this film. I had no trouble believing that they were the ultimate bromance.
The scenery was gorgeous and the action scenes were decent. They all fit into the story and the characters. The side actors did a solid job. This was one of the more subdued performances from Tiffany Haddish, which I truly appreciated.
There were so many allusions to past Nic Cage movies that I realized how little I actually knew about Cage’s oeuvre. I bet it would have been funnier still if I understood some of the references made.
I was thoroughly entertained by The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. I was never once bored and the movie grabbed my attention and kept me engaged from the beginning to the credits. It is one of the best movies I have seen so far in 2022.
With the new Nic Cage film on the docket for the evening, I had to wake up early today for another live action short for the DailyView. Today, from the Dust studio, I found the sci-fi film Immortal.
Simple story. In an attempt to find a way to “cure” death, scientist Harper (Meredith Casey) has been carrying on secret experiments that were just beginning to head toward human experimentation. Then, she is discovered.
There is some good acting in the short. There were some really intense moments between Meredith Casey and Laura Coover.
It’s the classic “mad scientist” trope and it went just where I thought it might and ended with a huge cliffhanger, which leaves you with the question of what happens next.
A decent short that make me excited to do the Saturday Short Day that I planned for May.
It is 4/20. In honor of the day, I watched Pineapple Express.
I have never been a fan of stoner comedies so I have not watched many of them.
Pineapple Express starred Seth Rogan and James Franco. Rogan, while smoking the new marijuana called Pineapple Express , witnessed a murder involving a police officer(Rosie Perez) and a drug lord (Gary Cole). Going on the run from them, Rogan and Franco get involved in all kinds of chaos.
There were some funny bits in the movie, but this was very much a Seth Rogan movie. It was loud, people were all yelling at the same time so it was hard to listen to, and more annoying than entertaining.
The story was ridiculous, which I believe was part of the charm. The situations were over-the-top. There were some parts that were funny, but it really stretched credibility.
The crazy violence of the second half of the movie seemed fairly out of place to the buddy comedy from the first half.
