Now Playing: What did you see at the movies?

[famvir]

I am awash in premium cable selections. My HBO MAX gripe was I couldn't access it on my TV, just my phone. I bought a chromecast unit to cast from my phone to the television, so that is taken care of, but I haven't attempted to purchase new movies.

I bought a new iPhone, and it comes with free Apple TV+ for a year, and I honestly don't understand their concept.

I was pleased to see they had a bunch of my favorite holiday movies all in one place and no commercials, then I found out every movie is pay to play.

They have a handful of free original programming, but why would I pay $4.99 a month to have Apple TV and still have to pay $3.99 to rent Elf for gosh sake.

But this is where it gets...a...interesting.

I bought an iPod over 15 years ago. They had movies you could buy on iTunes. Pre/movies on the back of seats in planes, and pre/Kindle et al, having a video distraction on a tiny 2x2.5 inch screen was magical. Over the years I would buy random movies to play on planes from iTunes, and then completely forgot I owned them.

But they are available to watch on my TV with Apple TV! All the content that I've purchased was *bang* big screen!

I just watched the 1933 production of Alice Through the Looking Glass, with a crying Cary Grant (Mock Turtle) and WC Fields (Humpty Dumpty). I watched The Garry Shandling Show!

That is a pleasant surprise.

[save lilo!]

At what point does this thread and the other “rental” thread converge? Can’t believe how dated both the terms seem now after <1 year of COVID.

I think the last movie I watched was Minari. I can’t wait for others to watch and get their takes.

[laurenj]

Now that they are releasing new movies on TV, I feel like this one still works for current movies and the rental thread for older movies.

We saw Fatale this weekend. Trailer made it seem like a Fatal Attraction update with some potentially interesting twists.

What a stinking pile of garbage it turned out to be. There was a good movie idea in there somewhere, but it was lost in clunky dialogue, terrible acting, and zero chemistry between most of the characters. I spent a lot of the movie wondering how much money the lead character could have possibly made in the agency he and his partner built because their house and cars were bananas, but the rest of the movie did not hold my attention.

[pathtaken]

We watched Ma Rainey's Black Bottom last night on Netflix and jaws dropped at Boseman's last scene. Did NOT see that coming.
It was a pretty good flick, the only thing that took me out of the story was the breast getup they had for Viola Davis. It looked like she was supposed to have large sagging breasts but sometimes from the side her natural breasts were higher than the sagging part. I know, petty but it bugged.

[Binky]

Wonder Woman 1984, which is really going to benefit from having been released streaming, I think. I was pretty happy just to be watching a new movie that I didn’t start judging it until much later. It’s about half-written, and falls completely apart plot wise. I can’t foresee ever bothering to rewatch it. Gal Gadot is pretty and charming, and has great chemistry with Chris Pine, but that doesn’t actually make a movie.

Da 5 Bloods, which is also about half-written, and has wild shifts in tone from buddy comedy to family drama to war movie to action movie all within minutes. Delroy Lindo gives a killer performance and I kind of hope he doesn’t get shoved aside for a posthumous Oscar for Chadwick Boseman (who has a small and not all that remarkable role, honestly.)

[scarlet]

Death to 2020. It was really spot-on, from the Kellyanne Conway-esque persona Lisa Kudrow played (to perfection!) to the "Karen" persona done brilliantly by Christin Milioti. Of course, Hugh Grant and Sam Jackson were great, as expected, but everyone stepped up. Really enjoyed Joe Keery's influencer character and Kumail Nanjiani's tech billionaire.

[ratscabies]

Just finished WW84.

THIS movie deserves to have Steve Mnuchin’s name be first in the credits.

About an hour in, I started perusing IMDB, and saw there was an appearance by Lynda Carter, so I had something to look forward to. The 15 second close up on here eyes was, hands down, the high point of the film.

As Binky said Gal and Chris are gorgeous, with mad chemistry, but this was a thimbleful of a script. 2 1/2 hours of Trump as a monkey’s paw. Such a letdown.

[batmom]

Valley Girls - a teen love story set in the valley in the 80s and bonus! It's a musical. Light and fluffy content.

[scarlet]

Pieces of a Woman. Ooof, this was not a fun watch. I appreciated the strong performance by Vanessa Kirby, but it's just such a dour movie. And, not for nothing, but Shia's presence just irritated me beyond belief. I mean, he does also play sort of an asshole in a lot of ways, but I think it would've been hard for me to suspend disbelief and sympathize with what the character was going thru simply because of the actor playing him.

[groovethang]

Jan 4, 2021 14:05:10 GMT -4 batmom said:

Valley Girls - a teen love story set in the valley in the 80s and bonus! It's a musical. Light and fluffy content.

I had such a crush on Nicolas Cage’s character when I saw this. “F*** you,
fer sure!”