Movies

Caught a couple of flicks last night - one a newer remake / sequel and the other a pandemic like thriller.

Blair Witch was up first and while I wasn’t a big fan of the first one or its truly awful sequel, I thought I might give it a go.

Six actors I’d never seen before make the trek into the Black Hills Woods in search of one’s little sister who disappeared several years prior.

Two are “supposed” guides who found the original camera and tape, but have other intentions in getting the other four to trust and allow them to lead this venture.

Like the original, this one had a good deal of jumpy from the camera views and the noises at night, creepy little and large sticks figurines, etc.

It all ends with them coming upon the same abandoned house deep in the woods. I won’t spoil the very predictable ending, as usual.

⚾️ 1/2

World War Z was much better with everybody’s favourite hunky man Brad Pitt.

It starts with he, his wife and two daughters trying to escape NYC after a virus has inflicted much of the world, resulting to turning humans into biting zombies.

One bite - you’re a zombie. Since he’s ex-CIA, they escape via helicopter to a carrier out in the Atlantic Ocean.

He is called to assist a scientist who thinks he can develop a vaccination but needs to get to a highly zombie infested base to acquire the materials needed.

That doesn’t work out too well, especially for the scientist, so it falls on Pitt’s character to come up with a solution.

A trip to the zombie free Israel results in more chaos and zombie free no more; again, Pitt and his team escape and commandeer a commercial plane to take them to a WHO lab.

I won’t reveal how that trip went and ended, but suffice to say, a remedy is discovered and Pitt is eventually reunited with his family.

Almost eerily apes what we’ve seen going on around here the last couple of years, minus the zombies - unless you count most of our elected officials.

I really liked this one and Pitt remains one of my fav good looking actors.

⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️

GO DODGERS!!!

Death of a Telemarketer just went off. Interesting movie. A man forced to confront the moral compromises he's made in life.

Just watched Derailed with Jennifer Aniston & Clive Owen. The plot was apparent to me after the first scene. But I'm a cynical motherfucker.

Uncut Gems is the latest dramady caught on Starz the other night. It stars Adam Sandler, who I normally find pretty annoying as opposed to actually funny as Howard Ratner, a high end NYC Jewish jeweler.

Howard has a wife, three kids and a high end apartment which houses his mistress, Julia who also works for him when she feels “up to it”.

He also has a severe gambling addiction and owes money to just about every loan shark in town, including a significant amount (they never did say how much) to his father-in-law.

Howard learns of a mine in Ethiopia where they are discovering rocks that are inlaid with high quality and clarity opals and he makes arrangements to purchase one for $100 large, most of which is borrowed via pawn and the loan sharks.

Once he receives the stone, he is told it is over 600 karats which could place its value over a million, so he decides to put the stone up for auction at a high end house.

In the meantime, one of his “brokers” brings NBA star Kevin Garnet into the store for some purchases. He shows the stone to Garnet who is immediately interested in purchasing, feeling it is lucky and it has a “connection” with him.

Howard tells him to come to the auction and bid on it, but he wants to buy it right then and there and offers him $175 large; Howard says no and asks for a mil to which Garnet declines.

He still wants the stone and gets Howard to “loan” it to him for a playoff game that night. He thinks it has “magic” powers that will propel him to major stats.

Howard takes his NBA Championship ring for collateral and immediately pawns it so he can place a $40,000 parlay bet on the game that night.

The bet hits, but unfortunately for Howard, it was never placed because his father-in-law found out about the bet and used his “influence” to take the $40,000 from the other bookie.

This is still only a fraction of what he owes and the father-in-law and his thugs begin a series of harassing events against Howard.

In the meantime, he has trouble getting the stone back from Garnet and this leads to several attempts via the broker, all of which are unsuccessful and one of which takes him to a concert in the city where he catches Julia with The Weeknd in a compromising position.

Howard blows up, fires her and kicks her out of the apartment.

He FINALLY gets the stone back just a day before the auction, however, he doesn’t have time to get it appraised, so he allows the auction house to do it for him and it comes back significantly lower than expected, with a high value of $225,000.

Howard is naturally furious with their appraisal, but has no choice other than to still try to sell it so he can appease another part of his debt.

He asks a colleague to attend the auction and “up” the bidding against Garnet. When it gets to $190,000, Garnet bows out and Howard is stuck buying it back from the colleague after paying him a percentage for his assistance.

He still talks Garnet into buying the stone for its “powers” and their game that night for $167,000. But gamblers gonna gamble and instead of giving the money to the father-in-law, he talks Julia into taking the entire $167,000 to a casino and putting it all on a four parlay bet which will pay off just over $1.72 million if it hits.

The bet is winning the opening tip (which if that doesn’t happen, he loses it ALL), Garnet has to have X amount of points and rebounds and the Celtics have to win the game.

In the meantime, the father-in-law and his thugs show up at the store and Howard ends up being hung out the window by his ankles multiple stories up by the thugs.

He finally confesses that he bet the money on a “sure thing / cannot miss” and that he will pay them once he gets the money from Julia.

This enrages the thugs and father-in-law, however, Howard is somehow able to trap all of them in-between two electronic doors that are used to get into the showroom, which pisses them off even more.

That’s as much as I can tell without blowing the ending, which I didn’t see coming at all, but should have guessed with Martin Scorcese as an executive producer.

That, along with more F bombs than a Tarantino flick.

It wasn’t great, but it did keep my interest for a couple hours plus and Sandler showed a little range rather than the typical happy go lucky goofball he normally plays.

⚾️⚾️⚾️

GO DODGERS!!!

My parents loved the old black & whites. I still have some VHS tapes here from when they died. From Here to Eternity, Gaslight, Casablanca, etc. 

Watched Stalingrad this morning. Interesting getting the Russian take on that battle. Boring as hell though. 

There were some really good flicks made in the 1960's. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke (Yes. I'm a Paul Newman fan), Lawrence of Arabia, The Fortune Cookie, Bonnie & Clyde, Around the World in 80 Days. 

But they also had stuff like 2001 A Space Odessey. It was like you had to drop acid to keep up.