What Did You Rent Last Night?

[Ladybug]

Watched two this weekend that I would recommend with some reservations. A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks was enjoyable, but TW: attempts at suicide. I didn't know this going in and watched it with my teenagers, so we had a talk about it afterward. Favorite character was his female neighbor.

Also watched Devotion with Glenn Powell and Jonathan Majors about the first Black Navy aviator and his wingman. The flying scenes were excellent, but overall there are a lot of slow sections of the movie that felt like filler to the main story. The movie does not have a happy ending so proceed with caution. It's worth watching to learn about Ensign Jesse Brown.

[scarlet]

I watched that a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Tom Hanks plays a good curmudgeon.

[cubanitafresca]

Watched "Jerry and Marge Go Large" with Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening and Rainn Wilson.
It's just a lovely feel-good movie based on a true story about a man who figured out a loophole in a lottery game.

[Ladybug]

We watched Air this weekend, the movie directed by Ben Affleck about the creation of the Air Jordan shoe. If you want a pretty accurate 80s flashback, this is your movie. At one point, Matt Damon, who plays the Nike exec desperately trying to sign Jordan for an endorsement deal, wore a shirt that I would swear on a stack of Bibles my dad also had in the 80s. I suffered through Jason Bateman for this movie. Viola Davis and her real-life husband Julius Tennon played Michael Jordan's parents. The soundtrack is like a mixtape of your favorite 80s songs across all genres.

But after sitting with it for a few days, I realize that this movie is really a very simple glorification of capitalism. The Air Jordan shoe has always been a super expensive status symbol. It has made $$Billions for Nike and for Michael Jordan. It's a shoe. It wasn't even that much about Michael Jordan, since his character has no lines and is only seen in archival footage of the real Michael Jordan. But it's about capitalism and professional sports. It's not a waste of your time, it's a well-made film, but the bottom line is it's about an already successful company and the highly paid basketball star coming together to make a shit ton of money.

[Ladybug]

This weekend I watched Happiness for Beginners on Netflix. It's a fluffy chick-lit adaptation about a woman who goes on an organized hike with a bunch of strangers. Like a Lifetime or Hallmark Channel movie, but worse. I decided that I really can't stand Ellie Kemper unless she's doing very broad comedy like Kimmy Schmidt. Trying to watch her play 'normal' was excruciating. Skip this movie.

[lea1977]

The Beguiled. Good grief, how are these women living so casually in the middle of a war zone wth no protection from the soldiers roaming around?

[scarlet]

Totally Killer on Amazon. It's a cross between Scream and Back to the Future, with a teenager escaping a serial killer in present day and winding up in 1987 when he started his killing spree and his victims were her mother's friends. So now she's in 1987 trying to stop those murders and meeting her parents as teenagers. It was a lot of fun!

[laurenj]

Oct 8, 2023 15:29:09 GMT -4 scarlet said:

Totally Killer on Amazon. It's a cross between Scream and Back to the Future, with a teenager escaping a serial killer in present day and winding up in 1987 when he started his killing spree and his victims were her mother's friends. So now she's in 1987 trying to stop those murders and meeting her parents as teenagers. It was a lot of fun!

This was such a cute movie, thanks for recommending! Would never have heard of this one, it was buried in the depths of Amazon.

[batmom]

We rewatched A Fish Called Wanda on Sunday. That film really holds up, even 35 years later.

[mrspickles]

Dec 5, 2023 13:16:13 GMT -4 batmom said:

We rewatched A Fish Called Wanda on Sunday. That film really holds up, even 35 years later.

I just watched it yesterday! Loved it then and now!