December Movies - Last Week

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Izzy is getting healthier by the day... and in doing so, we've been watching movies again... so here's what we did when we weren't working...

December 26 – Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny (2023)
 
We finally watched the 5th installment of the Indiana Jones series now that it’s on Disney+ and this one catches up with everyone’s favorite archeologist now in list mid-70’s during the 1960’s… and he has to retrieve this artifact that the Nazis were looking for a generation earlier… only there’s now still a Nazi scientist working with the American government to get it too. Oh, did I mention this artifact is a Time Machine you can fit into your pocket? Hijinx ensue. Look… I kind of enjoyed the movie. Was it perfect? Of course not. Harrison Ford is 80+ years old & they’re trying to convince you that he’s an action hero still. The action scenes look like cut scenes from a video game. There are SO many “member” moments that you might dare say it’s fan service… and yeah, that’s what it was… and I enjoyed it. Mads Mikellsen is a good villain of course. Check it out. Why not?
 
Rating – 8/10 – Could have been better, could have been worse. Better than Crystal Skulls AND Temple of Doom
 
December 27 – Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
 
I remember my dad & I renting this movie on VHS back when it came out… and about 15 minutes into it, we double checked that we had rented the right movie & got the correct cassette. This is legendarily one of the most confusing & confounding sequels ever made… to a movie that probably shouldn’t have had a sequel to begin with… yet there’s still a sick, sinister joy to watching it. Now, good luck trying to find the original version of the movie that I watched as a kid where all the swashbuckling immortals are from the Planet Zeist & exiled on Earth as punishment for whatever. In the Directors or Renegade cuts on DVDs now, they attempt to make it they’re from the Past instead but… that somehow makes even less sense really. Wait, did you not see the original Highlander so you don’t know about the lore?
 
Rating - ???/10 – Then you’d better tune into Everything I Learned from Movies Podcast this January when we dive into Highlander Month!!!
 
December 28 – Batman Forever (1995)
 
So what if I can probably recite this movie line for line? That could easily be said of each of the first three Batman movies (1989-95) and then Batman & Robin came around and reminded me that movies could be god-awful again. Yes, this is the Val Kilmer as Batman/Bruce Wayne (spoilers?) and the bad guys are Jim Carrey as the Riddler & Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face with a side of Nicole Kidman as Dr. Tits McGee and Chris O’Donnell as Unwanted Drama. Jim & Tommy are hamming it up so much you’d think they owned stock in a cured meats company… I noticed cameos this watch that I’d never noticed before in the dozens of previous watches (Rene Auberjonois as Dr. Burton for example) but yeah… I enjoy this one.
 
Rating – 9/10 – It’s super cartoony, of course… but it’s not quite the full blown clusterf**k of B&R yet… plus I was 14 when it came out! Congo’s still better though!
 
December 29 – Mad Max (1979)
 
In the not-too-distant future of Australia, there’s basically an isolated area where people live… but there’s also a biker gang led by a man known as Toecutter. The police, who are basically a biker gang of their own, are powerless to stop them, bound by the law… but then Toecutter does something that sends policeman Max Rockatowsky on a vengeance spree. Yes, the original (and surprisingly tame) story of the Mad Max universe but with plenty of incredible stunts & world building… that gets cranked up to 11 in the sequels… and director George Miller is great… and can’t wait for Furiousa later this year. What do I think of the original though?
 
Rating – 10/10 – An incredible movie made on a shoestring budget back in the late 70’s, check it out
 
December 30 – Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974)
 
Did you know that Clint Eastwood & Jeff Bridges did a movie together nearly 50 years ago? Eastwood is Thunderbolt… a former bank robber whose past has caught up with him. Bridges is Lightfoot… apparently some rando who picks Thunderbolt up hitchhiking while a man is trying to kill him… but has a leadfoot as a reckless driver. Together, they’re going to get the old gang back together for one last score… and hijinx ensues. I’m not going to lie… I thought Jeff Bridges was going to end up being some sort of narc because of just how convenient everything was going together for this to happen… but about the time that he dresses up as a woman in a 1974 movie I thought… maybe not?
 
Rating – 8/10 – Definitely worth a watch in my opinion… the pace is slower at times but not bad for a 70’s flick
 
December 31 – Strange Days (1995)
 
This was a first time watch from director Kathryn Bigelow (former Mrs. James Cameron, Hurt Locker, Point Break, etc.) where a former cop / now “virtual experience peddler” (Ralph Fiennes) is harping over his ex-girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) who’s now with a big time music producer (Michael Wincott) when he stumbles upon a recorded experience that uncovers a huge conspiracy… and this is all in the not-too-distant future of LA on the eve of the millennium in 1999/2000. The cast is loaded… the camera work for the time (pre-GoPro and all) is REALLY impressive… sure, if you’ve seen a movie like this you know what the “twist” is going to be from jump street… but even then, it’s an entertaining twisted little tale.
 
Rating – 10/10 – Angela Bassett is a goddamn goddess & you need to give her that Academy Award before it’s too late, you cowards!!!
 
See you in 2024!!!

​Steve