Comments on: Those end-of-year best-movies-of lists

By: Cornhead

Cornhead — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 21:32:42 +0000

Green Book was also excellent.

By: David Guaspari

David Guaspari — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 14:47:38 +0000

“The Death of Stalin” is very funny — and very dark (mining laughs from the grotesque power struggles to succeed Stalin).

I’m eager to see “Cold War” (love story behind the Iron Curtain) and “Amazing Grace” (who doesn’t want to see an Aretha Franklin concert movie?).

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 06:44:36 +0000

We had to split the grandkids at the multiplex.
Mary Poppins won the girl vote, and Spidey-verse won the boy vote (and grandma’s).
We loved the reproduction “feel” of the original classic comics, even though the “cast” was created much later in the rather bizarre series of alternate universes.
The story was well told.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 21:54:26 +0000

Hard to find anything worth looking at on TV, but my wife ended up looking again at the 2003 Hugh Grant Comedy, “Love Actually,” and thinking about this movie, which we originally saw when it came out, as is, it could never be made today.

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 20:20:37 +0000

GREEN BOOK! Green Book is an excellent movie. The two male leads BOTH deserve an Oscar. Takes place in 1962.
A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 14:35:18 +0000

Looked at as much of the preview for Holmes & Watson as I could stand, and can see why, as reported, a lot of people are just walking out of the theater part way through it.

From what I saw in the trailer–and those clips contain what I assume the movie makers thought were the highlights of this film–to call this movie moronic would be to give it far too much credit.

By: OBloodyHell

OBloodyHell — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 22:10:15 +0000

I was concerned that Black Panther would be a preachy excuse for a lot of white history bashing. I was pleased that it was not, and so, if you enjoy the “emptiness” of super-hero/comic book films, it’s decent. There are a few jibes (referring to Euros as “Colonialists”, for example) but it’s kept close to the vest. If you’re looking for a thought piece, it ain’t that.

Mind you, Avengers – Infinity War is an awesome cinematic work, but does kinda-sorta need to view at least a half-dozen earlier films, if only to introduce characters and provide back story — that or you’ll need a fan with you to pause the movie and explain a lot of stuff to you… better to just see the preceding half-dozen films if you intend to. But AIW is impressive. It truly tells a massive story in a very small space. It reminds me if classic post-WWII Will Eisner Spirit comics, which had exactly 8 pages (one of which was a splash-intro page) to tell a story, and managed to tell A LOT of story in those pages. AIW feels like that because the story advances in a series of vignettes which remind me of panels on a comic book page, each 5-15 minutes long.

And, if you’re into comic books, then the other three things to see are The Incredibles 2, Deadpool 2, and Into the Spideyverse.

ALL of these are fun, escape movies, of course.

I haven’t seen any of the films on the list, but this, above, by Cornhead:
I saw #7 on the Vox list. Truly horrible. And as Neo knows, I know movies.

The list is all identity politics.

We need a good comedy!

Strikes me as probably correct.

P.S., Aquaman isn’t too bad, either. As with Wonder Woman, it’s almost as much amazing that DC actually didn’t make an awful movie as that it’s really good.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 19:17:34 +0000

My wife wanted to see Free Solo but we decided to order the DVD. Dunkirk was OK, but had a few quirks. The Spitfire glided a very long way and the holes in the beached ship appeared with no ricochets inside.

We saw the Darkest Hour and I am not that enthusiastic about “The Mule,” as the topic seems grim.

By: Cornhead

Cornhead — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 16:52:52 +0000

The only movie reviewer I trust is Joe Morgenstern of the WSJ. The Weekly Standard had good movie reviews but it is closed.

By: Dwaz

Dwaz — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 14:27:55 +0000

In my previous job, which I left some eleven years ago, I had lots of time off, which I was not allowed to bank. For many years I would go to the movies at least once a week, and more when taking those vacation days. Sixty films a year was not unusual. When I changed jobs I had to stop that and find that I don’t really miss it. I see maybe four to six films a year in the theater any more, but I still keep up with what’s out there. That being said, of the top ten films on the Vox list I myself have only heard of Eighth Grade, and only, I suspect, because I like Bo Burnham’s stand-up. I’d heard of several more in the top twenty, but only Death of Stalin got my money this year. I would recommend it as a wicked comedy that plays only a little loosely with the real events that inspired it.