June Movies - Week 2

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Summer is in full swing & things are getting busy busy... and yet here are a few movies that we saw recently...

June 6 – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
 
OF COURSE we were there opening day for the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road where we see the Kill Bill story of the rise of Furiosa!!! True… Anya Taylor-Joy is no Charlize Theron (and Hollywood needs to stop trying to convince us otherwise). She’s the Taylor Swift of acting. She’s okay… but not really my bag. Also true that George Miller can’t use all practical effects because this story is more than just driving down a road & then turning around and driving back… so you get a lot of mildly wonky CGI but still blended well. Chris Hemsworth lives it up as the villain… and it acts as the backstory for Fury Road… but doesn’t quite eclipse it. That being said… you should definitely see this movie in theatres! It’s a great vengeance tale without going completely over the top with bloody gory violence… and frankly I want to see more tales from the Wasteland…
 
Rating – 10/10 – Not quite a 10+ but absolutely a great film that everyone should see… even the kids
 
June 7 – The Fall Guy (2024)
 
TWO WEEKS! From premiere to streaming in TWO WEEKS?!? Cool… so obviously I bought this movie sight-unseen simply because it would’ve cost that much to see it in theaters & now I own it forever… and it’s basically STUNTS (1977) or THE STUNT MAN (1980) meets DEATHCHEATERS based loosely on “The Fall Guy” TV series… but starring Ryan Gosling & Emily Blunt and directed by stuntman-turned-director David Leitsch… so yeah, I’m getting my STUNTS!!! Basically Ryan Gosling is a stuntman who has a bad accident… and then 18 months later is called back into the game & reunited with his former-girlfriend who’s now the director… and hijinx ensue when the movie’s star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing. Now… it’s an action movie… that’s also a romantic-comedy… but yeah, I absolutely loved it! Why didn’t anyone see this in theatres? Well… I can’t say much because I didn’t for a multitude of reasons… and this movie was made for me…
 
Rating – 10/10 – I hate the premise of “JUST F**KING TELL THEM” in romance movies but… aside from that, great!
 
June 8 – The Protector (2006)
 
Tony Jaa is part of a line of elephant farmers/protectors who must find two elephants that have been stolen from Thailand & taken to downtown Sydney by… I don’t know, some criminal organization that also has a restaurant where they serve exotic animals? I mean… the plot is pointless… but it loosely holds the action scenes together including one of the greatest in movie history at the stairwell involving a 4+ minute continuous shot. This is one of those movie that you don’t watch for the story… it’s for the action shots… and it’s a lot of fun in that respect.
 
Rating – 9/10 – I really can’t rate it higher because of the horribly dumb plot… but watch this movie!
 
June 9 – How the West Was Won (1976-79)
 
This is the story of the Macahan family in the old west… and man… this cast is stacked, it’s beautifully shot, each episode is one of the many western storylines, there’s always a lesson from good ol’ Uncle Zeb(ulon) and… it’s really just a lot of fun. True, the pacing is a little slower being a 70’s TV series… but we spent a few weeks watching this & were not disappointed. Hell, people like Craig T Nelson showed up for a scene as a jewelry salesman or something!
 
Rating – 10/10 – It’s not perfection but… like I said… a bunch of fun…
 
June 10 – Godzilla Minus One (2023)
 
When this movie was in theaters, apparently that wasn’t really in Utah, and I was also going through the fiasco of the American Healthcare system with Izzy’s pneumonia… but many respected podcaster friends was saying how this movie had moved them to tears on multiple occasions… and that it was easily the greatest kaiju movie ever made… and I was intrigued as to how that could possibly be! We’re not 14-15 years old & that’s typically when all the greatest movies we’ve ever seen came out (see “Congo”). This movie is set in post-WWII Japan as they’re recovering from the absolute destruction of the war… and it follows a kamikaze pilot who… well, got cold feet… but then saw the precursor of Godzilla. Now a few years later, he’s moved back home to find it completely ravaged… and meets a woman with a baby… and they start a relationship… but not that kind… and hijinx ensue when a giant nuclear fire blasting lizard starts attacking Japan. Now… I don’t want to say too much about this movie… and because I wasn’t watching it in a theatre surrounded by the sound & deprived of oxygen, I didn’t cry… but this may be one of the greatest kaiju movies ever made! The kaiju stuff is great… the character development & drama is great... yeah, I plan on watching it again soon.
 
Rating – 10+/10 – It’s on Netflix (surprise drop on June 1st) so check it out now!!!
 
June 11 – In the Name of the Rose (1986)
 
In the 14th century, a friar & his ward (Sean Connery & Christian Slater) go to a monastery to investigate a series of mysterious deaths… and hijinx ensue… as the Devil may be involved. This movie was… a truly unique movie. Sure, it’s a logical thinking man like Sherlock Holmes coming in & using his learned ways to debunk mysticism & fear-induced hyperbole… but logic doesn’t matter in the 14th century… especially when F Murray Abraham shows up as the Inquisitor!!! Yeah, it’s a surprisingly good movie that I highly recommend… but be prepared for trigger warnings like nobody gives a f**k about you if you’re a poor or a woman or a thinking man because God is all & those who serve God are all and we’ll just burn you if you disagree.
 
Rating – 10/10 – Definitely check it out! I believe we watched it on Amazon Prime.
 
June 12 – Birth (2004)
 
A director who had just made an incredible movie called “Sexy Beast”… and an Academy Award nominated actress… are handed a $20 million check to make a movie… about a woman’s dead husband being reincarnated… as a ten-year old boy! How could this movie go wrong? Well… a few scenes in a bathtub turned this otherwise beautifully shot look at grief and loss… into something that put the director into a hiatus for over a decade (until 2017’s Under the Skin & last year’s Zone of Interest) & even star Nicole Kidman went from top of the world into pretty standard fare for about a decade. Was this exile from Hollywood warranted?!?
 
Rating - ???/10 – Find out on our 4th of July episode of Everything I Learned from Movies where we discuss it with Mike from the Grindbin & Tim Yobo from Bloody Bits Horror Show… where they break their own record for longest episode in our podcast’s history… and it’s worth it

Now if you'll excuse me... I'm off to adults-only Zoo Brew at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City! Find out if your local zoo has adults-only nights... it's the only way to really enjoy a zoo... sans strollers & sh*t kids... Have a great day everybody!!!

​Steve