End of Days (1999)

Millennium exploitation flick in which atheist cop Arnold Schwarzenegger must prevent 'The Devil' (Gabriel Byrne) from impregnating Robin Tunney with the anti-Christ, which for some reason can only be done between 11pm and midnight on the eve of the millennium. Recycled and derivate Omen and Rosemary's Baby fair, this film manages to not only waste the talents of Rod Steiger, but even of Kevin Pollak. Udo Kier on the other hand, is used appropriately. *1/2

Die Another Day (2002)

Die Another Day, Bond #20, is Pierce Brosnan's final appearance in the role and the only one of his four Bond films I had not previously seen. In the pre credit sequence Bond is captured while on assignment in North Korea, interspersed in the opening title sequence he is tortured there, and shortly after that he is released. This is all said to occurred over a 14 month period, but after his release Bond is almost instantly on his A game, and other then one brief sequence, (where James is ending a year plus of forced celibacy and accordingly enjoying it much more then usual) his time in the North Korean prison camp seems to have had no effect on him. Brosnan is completely unconvincing playing a man just out of a long, tortious prison experience, however I suspect the next Bond Daniel Craig could have played that arc convincingly. This film features an invisible car, a space based heat ray, and a "DNA therapy" that can change a persons race, so basically this movie out Roger Moore's Roger Moore. The films two Bond girls are (now) either Oscar nominated (Rosamund Pike) or Oscar winners (Halle Berry). Madonna performs the title song and has an uncredited cameo. Exotic locations include North Korea, Hong Kong, Cuba, and Iceland. **1/2

Our Souls at Night (2017)

Our Souls at Night is the Netflix film adaption of the novel by Kent Haruf. With Robert Redford retiring this could well be his final film appearance, and its a nice note to go out on, reteaming him as it does with thrice previous co-star Jane Fonda. Redford plays a widowed teacher living in a small planes state town, whose boring life is reinvigorated when a widowed neighbor he has known for decades (Fonda) asks him if he'd like to sleep with her. This isn't a sexual thing (at least not at first), rather she is just asking if he would like to sleep in the same bed with her, talk, and generally recapture the sense of casual intimacy that has been missing form each of their lives since the deaths of their respective spouses. This is a nicely low-key movie, much of it consisting simply of conversation, from the mundane to the heartbreaking, as each shares with the other the joys and heartaches of their long lives. There is a subplot involving Fonda watching her young grandson over the summer, but for much of the film very little really happens, and that's what's great about. Watching these old hands late in their careers quietly ruminate on the variability of life. ***1/2

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

RKO's lavish mounting of the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo. Charles Laughton anchors the film with his simple but soulful portrayal of the titular lopsided 15th century bell ringer. I also really liked Harry Davenport as the liberal minded Louis XI, I have no idea if the real Louis was this magnanimous a type. This movie was also Maureen O'Hara's American film debut. The scenes of throngs of extras viewed from the bell tower are still impressive, this movie is a great example of 'Golden Era' Hollywood spectacle at its finest, and with literary merit to boot. ****

The World is Not Enough (1999)

The World is Not Enough, Bond #19, is the last Bond film of the 20th century and the final of Desmond Llewellyn's 17 appearances as Q. It's a little surprising that it took the franchise this long to get to a plot centered around an oil scheme, this on involving threats to pipelines near the Caspian Sea. While I liked it well enough when I saw it theatrically, I would now have it say its one of the weakest Bond, with nothing much memorable to commend it. While I liked the boat chase up the River Thames the first, now it feels forced and a little hokey. John Cleese is introduced as Q's ultimately short lived replacement R, Robert Carlyle is an anarchist terrorist, and Denise Richards is hardly credible as a nuclear scientist. Robbie Coltrane returns as Valentin Zukovsky. Exotic locations include Spain, Scotland, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey. The opening title song is garbage, or rather it is performed by the band Garbage (I don't know who they are either). **

100 Rifles (1969)

100 Rifles was a less successful attempt to do the kind of gritty, revisionist western done by such contemporary films as The Wild Bunch and Once Upon a Time in the West. Set in Mexico in 1912, black lawman Lyedecker (James Brown) crosses the boarder in pursuit of half-Indian outlaw Yaqui Joe Herrera (Burt Reynolds) who is supplying the titular number of riffles to Sarita (Raquel Welch) and an Indian resistance against General Verdugo (Fernando Lamas), who is himself assisted by a smarmy railroad agent (Dan O'Herlihy) and a German military 'observer' (Eric Braeden). The film felt both overstuffed and in need of direction, though it is for the most part watchable. Chiefly notable for the then provocative interracial love scenes between Brown and Welch (who reportedly hated each other). Filmed in Spain. **

Lady Bird (2017)

Lady Bird is one of the best reviewed movies of the year, with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomato's and A. O. Scott of the New York Times describing the film as "perfect". Written and directed by the actress and writer Greta Gerwig (a growing favorite of mine) and at lest partially inspired by her real life, Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, and follows the senior girl over the course of the 2002-2003 academic year at a Sacramento area Catholic high school. The film is about relationships, between the self christened "Lady Bird" and her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), her two successive boyfriends, nice guy Danny (Lucas Hedges) and the causally pompous Kyle (Timothee Chalamet), as well as her teachers, her brother, her father, but chiefly her Mom (Laurie Metcalf in a very strong understated performance). Lady Bird is going to be remembered as one of the great mother/daughter movies, with its complicated, strained, but ultimately loving central relationship. The film is witty, observant of human foibles, but kind about them. The characters are all quit human, and this film is generous to that humanity, whether it be in the form of a secretly sad priest, or a quietly grateful Goth girl. It is a film where you watch characters slowly change and grow and it feels enriching to do so. ****

Child of God (2013)

Child of God, Cormic McCarthy's 1973 novel about a necrophiliac serial killer in the rural east Tennessee of the early 1960's is probably the most disturbing work of fiction I have ever read, and James Franco's 2013 film version isn't pleasant going either. While nicely shot, and capably acted the film alternates between the disturbing and the boring, and frankly the latter quality feels worse. The source marital is not a natural fit for a movie, and Scott Haze's portrayal of Lester Ballard invites some sympathy for the character, and he's a monster, I don't want to feel sympathy for him. I understand that Franco made this film as a sort of trial run, with the ultimate intention being to adapt McCarthy's better regarded novel Blood Meridian into a film, and the actor turned director does demonstrate sufficient talent here to make me curious what that movie would be like. One of the things that I did like about this film was its use of multiple, documentary style narrators, which I thought was clever and added to the film. Unfortunately this story is just not one I really want to see depicted on screen, and the films total felt less then the substance of its parts. *1/2

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Tom Holland, the third cinematic Spider-Man of the 21st century was well received by audiences when introduced in Captain America: Civil War, and was quickly given his own movie, Spider-Man: Home Coming. Unlike some previous Spider-Men Holland actually looks age appropriate in the part, and is good both as the slightly awkward Peter Parker as well as the over enthusiastic hero. While in many ways an unnecessary project, we already have plenty of Spider-Man films, and this movie does little to advance the overall MCU storyline, and in fact its chronology seems a little off, I enjoyed Spider-Man: Homecoming. Better and more coherent then the presence of six credited screenwriters would suggest, this film doesn't feel like a retread, and thankfully doesn't waste time on the origin story again.

I liked that the movie gave Parker a friend who is on his secret, Ned, likably played by Jacob Batalon. I like that Michael Keaton played yet another winged costumed figure, The Vulture, and I liked that this was a character I didn't really know before and that his super villain name flowed so logically from his origin story, being a kind of salvage expert. I liked that the under used Martin Starr from Freaks and Geeks was in this as a teacher. I was confused as to why Tyne Daly was in this if they weren't going to do anything with her. I'm looking forward to seeing what the creative powers at Disney do with Spider-Man in the future. While we are on the subject of Disney, now that the Avengers Tower has been sold Disney should 'lease that space' and have some company pay to put their logo on the building in future films. ***

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond # 18, is the most Roger Moore like Bond movie since Roger Moore. It's plot is a more restrained variation on that of The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, a megalomaniacal billionaire (Jonathan Pryce) tries to remake the world to his likening, in this case by provoking a war between China and the U.K., and Bond  must team up with a female agent (Michelle Yeoh) of a foreign power (China) to stop it. Teri Hatcher is an obvious choice for a 90's Bond girl, and Vincent Schiavelli is a professional assassin. Joe Don Baker returns as Jack Wade. Exotic locations include "The Russian Border", Hamburg, Hong Kong, and the South China sea. Sheryl Crow sings the theme song. This movie feels nicely rooted in its time. A serviceable Bond film ***

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

In 1974 Sidney Lument directed a star studded adaption of the famed Agatha Christie mystery novel Murder on the Orient Express featuring a lot of old Hollywood players, in 2017 Kenneth Branagh takes a similar approach to the same material, though the caliber of his stars shine maybe not quit so bright. I have not read the Christie novel so my point of reference for this new cinematic version is just the earlier film, and this Orient Express opens up the martial quite a bit, adds some CGI shots, mixes some of the characters around and updates them for modern sensibilities (gone is Sean Connery's solder of the old empire, replaced with Leslie Odom Jr's black doctor), and adds some frankly unnecessary action sequences, including a chase on a rickety railroad bridge. While I was fine with the teaser mystery added to the beginning of the film, meant to establish Poirots investigative prowess for audiences less familiar with the character then those of a half century ago, I felt that while this movie was good, it was trying too hard to seem relevant. This film is overtly emotional, while the previous film was more restrained. One of the things I liked about the previous movie and Christie's work more generally is that it feels rather musty, musty is an appropriate things for it to be, this film was trying too hard to not be that. This is fine I suppose, and I enjoyed the film, but its not to my preferred taste. Josh Gad is no Anthony Perkins. ***

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

The third Thor movie owes a lot to the Guardians of the Galaxy films in both tone (lighter) and space (as in that's where most of it is set). There are the increasingly obligatory cross over appearances, in this Hulk and Dr. Strange, these work for the film. Jeff Goldblum and Catch Blanchett are here as well, with the latter being particularly under used. Chris Hemsworth gets to be funnier and show more personality in the title role then he has in the past, and the whole movie felt freer, in large part because they were not trying to show horn Natalie Portman and her side characters into the film, and I don't think we will be seeing them again. Tessa Thompson is a welcome addition to the cast. There is a twist in this film that I didn't see coming and has the potential to really alter the trajectory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Too many Marvel films feel like they are just connective tissue stringing together multi tired franchises, this film had more of a heft to it then I'd expected, and was still rather fun. ***

The Way Way Back (2013)

Coming of age comedy-drama about a 14 old boy named Duncan (Liam James) who spends a summer at a beach house (in the north east somewhere) with his mom (Toni Collette) and her jerk boyfriend (Steve Carell), meets a girl (AnnaSophia Robb), gets a job and a mentor (Sam Rockwell, ingratiating) at a water park and discovers his self confidence. Allison Janney gives a very enjoyable performance as a talkie, lush neighbor, Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet round out the main cast. Co-writers and directors Jim Rash and Nat Faxon also appear as employees of the water park, in fact a lot of the staff of the water park is kind of old, mildly creepy. In fact the slightly mixed bag of messages this film has about inter sexually relationships might make someone a decent term paper. ***

GoldenEye (1995)

GoldenEye, Bond # 17, is the first entry in the franchise which I saw all the way through, in this case on a Blockbuster video tape circa 1996. The six year gap between License to Kill and this movie is the largest production gap in the history of the franchise, and no doubt part of that time was spent determining exactly what to do with Bond in the post cold war period. The opening title sequence, song sung by Tina Turner, depicts scantly clad women demolishing Soviet style statuary with sledge hammers, and the plot touches on both the seeming directionlessness of Yelstin era Russia, and the legacy of cold war era defense projects, in this case a space based EMP weapon named GoldEye (which is also the name of the late Ian Flemings Jamaica estate).

Bond is recast here, Pierce Brosnan, whose looks and charm had made him a top contender for the role since the success of his 1980's TV series Remington Steele. They give him a 'this time its personal' storyline involving the fate of a work colleague, 006 played by Sean Bean, and while Brosnan delivers the lines, I never really felt any sense of anguish and responsibility in his performance. This film also differs from the structure of previous Bond films in that we spend a good amount of times with one of the Bond girls (Izabella Scorupco) before she even meets James, which isn't bad, just different. Famke Janssen, Robbie Coltrane, Alan Cuming, and Jo Don Baker are in the cast, with the latter basically playing the Felix Lieter role, only for some reason they don't use that name, perhaps because the previous Lieter got a leg bit off in the last film? Judi Dench takes over as M, and exotic locations include France, Cuba, and throughout the former Soviet Union. I must say this film was disappointing compared with previous Bond movies. **1/2

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of Cameron Crowe, but I did quite like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which was directed by Amy Heckerling from a script Crowe adapted from his own book. While certain elements of the film are lightly stylized, such as how we never see any of the characters parents, the chief impression that I came away from the film with is that it "felt true." So I felt validated when I looked into it and found that the full title of Crowe's book is Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, and is based on his 'undercover' observations of a San Diego high school at the dawn of the 80's, though the film is really more about 80's mall culture then high school cliques. It has a great period soundtrack and an impressive cast including a 20 year old Jennifer Jason Lee and 24 year old Judge Reinhold as siblings. This was also the film that made a young Sean Penn a star, the look on his face when teacher Ray Walston gives the pizza he ordered away to his class mates, its priceless. This film is smart, its funny, sometimes a little poignant, and impressively non-judgy. A great time capsule it's really an anthropological movie, a deserved classic. ***1/2

Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

I didn't watch the teen comedies of my teen years when I was a teenager, they held little interest for me at the time. I now have a mild interest in maybe seeing a few, out of nostalgia and a periodic desire to see the kinds of films I don't generally gravitate towards. Can't Hardly Wait was on TV earlier this week so I thought I'd give it a go. It's pretty good for what it is, not great but enjoyable enough. What impressed me the most was the shear number of recognizable names in the cast, which is actually pretty logical given that the film is chiefly about a high school graduation party with perhaps a couple of hundred people in attendance, so I'm sure that production was just scouring late 90's Hollywood for anyone who looked like they might pass as a high school senior. Here is a list of some of the recognizable people at said party, Ethan Embry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lauren Ambrose, Seth Green, Jason Segel, Clea DuVall, Jamie Pressly, Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Balfour, Selma Blair, and Sara Rue. I'm glad I finally saw it. ***

Licence to Kill (1989)

Bond #16 is Timothy Dalton's second and final appearance in the title role, and you know I wish he'd done more of these, he brings a seriousness and internal life to the character that is fascinating to watch. This film may be the least Bond like of the Bond movies, at least in the first two thirds where it's a little bit revenge thriller, a little bit Miami Vice, though toward the end when the bad guy's secret base is falling apart it classic Bond with 80's flavoring. It' probably closet thematically to the arc that spans On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Diamonds Are Forever involving the death of Bond's wife and his quest for revenge against Blofield. Here Bond is also taking things personally, after a drug lord (played by Robert Davi, who is also the villain in Goonies of all things) kills Felix Leiter's (David Hedison) new wife (Priscilla Barnes) and has a shark bit one of his friends legs off. As a result Bond goes rouge, loses his 'license to kill', but still benefits from the rare filed assistance of Q (Desmond Llewelyn) who gets the most screen time in any of his 17 Bond pictures. Exotic locations include the Florida keys and the fictitious Caribbean nation of Isthmus (shads of Panama, but filmed in Mexico). Future Mrs. Richard Gere Carey Lowell is the principle Bond girl, Everett McGill and Bencio del Toro have supporting roles. Wayne Newton is in this as a sort-of televangelist, while Gladys Knight sings the theme song, though the end credits number "If You Ask Me Too" performed by Pattie Label is better known. ***1/2

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Late entry in the 'classic universal monster' cycle, Creature from the Black Lagoon is from the 1950's rather then the 30's and 40's, it's also a better film then I thought it would be. You've likely seen its retreads, a group of scientists in the jungle looking for signs of a rumored ancient monster, this group is in the Amazon looking for bones from a half man/ half fish creature, and encountering the real, living thing. What chiefly makes this movie work is its not too long (less then 90 minutes), takes itself seriously but not too seriously, and has a good cross section of stock characters, including a love triangle between noble scientist (Richard Carlson), looks good in a swimsuit scientist (Julie Adams), and hungry for fame and fortune scientist (Richard Denning). Also in the cast are Whit Bissell, who was born to smoke a pipe, and Nestor Paiva as Lucas, the groups guide and boat captain whose best line has got to be: "There are many strange legends in the Amazon. Even I, Lucas, have heard the legend of a man-fish." The creature in the fish-man suit is played by Ben Chapman while on land and Ricou Browning when underwater, and ultimately he's just a lonely gill man, he built that dam because he wants them to stay. ***

The Florida Project (2017)

This movie is just heartbreaking. The Florida Project is about a distinctly 'Florida' version of 'The Projects', poor people who live in gaudy motels nestled among the tacky souvenir shops and abandoned condo complexes of the Orlando area. Brooklynn Prince is fantastic as Moonie, a happy, precious, and undisciplined girl who lives with her pretty, but vulgar and heavily tattooed mother Halley (Bria Vinaite, also very good) in a $35 a night room at The Magic Castle Motel in Kissimmee, Florida. Halley is consistently unemployed, getting food from friends, and high pressure selling cheap perfumes to tourists in the company of her young daughter. When not with her mother Moonie runs wild and free with other young children in similarly limited circumstances. The most stable figure in her life is Bobby Hicks (William Dafoe in a rare and appreciated nice guy role) as the slightly grizzled by empathetic manager of The Magic Castle, who in a fantastic sequence runs a suspected pedophile off the motel grounds. As Halley becomes more desperate for money she engages in increasingly risky behavior, and harsh realities slowly start to dawn on her young daughter, leading up to what I will only describe as a moving climax. An unexpectedly powerful film which has a lot to say about America's neglected underclass, trapped in destructive cycles both of circumstance and their own making. One of the best movies I've seen this year. ****