The Amateur
Reasonable revenge thriller - tech nerd seeks revenge on his wife’s murder.
A few cameos, it did seem a bit too long but it’s fine
I appreciate Rami Malek is 43 but I still see him as the young kid in mr robot , even when he plays a married man in this.
John berthnal is in it, also in accountant 2 playing what looks like the same character. He does ‘ex military’ quite well.
I haven’t seen the movie Dead Again in probably 25+ years but out of nowhere I got the sudden urge to watch it, and I think I’m going to see about doing that.
If you’ve never seen this, it’s quite good. All of the actors are great, Kenneth Branagh is a good director. Robin Williams is always great in some of these unexpected secondary character type roles too.
Have no idea why this one came to mind, maybe because of some discussion around “dead calm”, but wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it despite the stupid looking cover image.
I’ve been rewatching the Lord of The Rings movies with my 9 year old daughter in 20-30 minute installments for the last few weeks. It’s shocking how well they’ve held up. Helm’s Deep still feels suitable epic in a post GOT world. First time I’ve watched them in 20 years since binging all the extended editions in one day with a gang of friends in college. We’re on Return of the King now.
It’s fun watching it with a kid who is seeing it for the first time. When we aren’t watching the movies, all she wants to do is talk about them. The kid literally read The Hobbit cover to cover in the last four days. She has this crazy glow in her eyes that says she’s about to make LotR fandom her whole personality for the next 9-12 months (as kids are wont to do)
Novacaine is a bit of dumb fun.
The main star Jack Quaid seems to have perfected his likeable, ah shucks persona he used in The Boys tv series.
possible spoiler for novacaine
I’m impressed how they saved his arm at the end. The fact that he still had it.
Agreed. And I thought it was so cool that he brought in Michael Keaton’s character from Jackie Brown, since they’re both based on Elmore Leonard books.
I remember Enjoying the Limey from way back in the day. I loved that when he showed flashbacks of Terence Stamps character when he was a lot younger, he used clips from an old black and white film that Stamp was in back in the 60s. I’ve never seen another director do that.
Yes! I love the Michael Keaton appearance. Really makes the whole Elmore Leonard universe feel more tangible.
Yep, I also love the old footage of Stamp in The Limey. I also loved the editing in general. I remember thinking how cool it was that he had characters talking, but showing footage of them doing something else. All mixed up. I don’t know if I’m explaining that adequately, but it’s something I had not seen much of before The Limey. I loved that technique.
peak Brannagh / Thompson…
1989 to like, 1995 or whatever, was definitely a good time to be Kenneth Branagh or Emma Thompson!
A few other actors actually peaked pretty hard during that time period and then started falling off immediately after, but luckily they both were able to maintain to some degree.
But definitely that henry / dead again / midsummer nights dream era was pretty good to them.
They were married at that point right ?
Sorry Off topic
Yeah, that’s when they were married. Good chemistry I guess!
And I was actually thinking of much ado about nothing, I think midsummer nights dream was later around 1999 but it was also good.
Also did Hamlet in 1996 I think.
Stephen Baldwin so you know it must be acting of the highest caliber.
Was Bubba Ho-Tep too high budget for your tastes?
its a bruce campbell movie. its required watching.
Maybe this marriage can be saved after all.
I loved the editing too. I have to watch more Soderbergh movies. I really respect his willingness to experiment and take creative chances.
I’m also a William Forcythe fan, so this is up next…
i mean if this screenshot is real…
In all fairness to cinema as a whole, while soderbergh has obvious talent, out of sight is an unlikely intersection of phenomenal acting, story, direction and cinematography which has it punching above it’s weight class.
Possibly the only time jennifer lopez put forth a certified excellent performance, clooney with eyebrows in peak form, and a supporting cast of the utmost grandeur makes it likely the best and possibly most underrated of soderberghs career.
Maybe not the top elmore leonard film adaptation but still a work of potent virility and the crossover with other leonard adaptations (as already mentioned) is very welcome.
Gigli didnt cut it for you?
Not even The Cell?
