2021 Movie Discussion

[The Schofield Kid]

It may be a little while until we see a 2021 release but this is the thread for discussion of the films released this year. Anyone have any upcoming films that they're really looking forward to?

[KC]

It may be a little while until we see a 2021 release but this is the thread for discussion of the films released this year. Anyone have any upcoming films that they're really looking forward to?

Cry Macho ... obviously.

[AKA23]

Cry Macho ... obviously.

I mean, yes!

I'm also looking forward to Denzel Washington's new crime thriller, The Little Things. I'm a Denzel Washington fan, and this seems like it could be of a higher quality than his typical action movie fare.

[Christopher]

I signed up for six months of HBO Max a couple weeks ago, so I was going through the Warner Bros. releases that will fall within that time (for someone who goes to the movies a lot, I'd might as well see how I can save a little money). There is an R-rated Mortal Kombat movie coming out in April that I'm interested in. Godzilla Vs. Kong is another I'm looking forward to.

And I'm with AKA on The Little Things as well. And of course Cry Macho too.

[AKA23]

I'm also looking forward to seeing The Father with Anthony Hopkins and News of the World with Tom Hanks. I think they are technically 2020 films, but few have seen them.

[The Schofield Kid]

Maybe the new now old James Bond will get released this year but after two postponements, who knows?

[AKA23]

I saw "News of the World." It was a decent film, but ultimately disappointing. It had good acting, cinematography, music, directing, etc, but somehow the whole was less than the sum of its parts. For me, I think the problem was with the pacing. It was very slow and the story was quite predictable. There is one good action scene!

[Christopher]

I was thinking about seeing News of the World, but may end up waiting. Liam Neeson's new one The Marksman is out this weekend. I typically like his work.

[AKA23]

The reviews for 'The Marksman' are pretty amusing. It was directed by Robert Lorenz, who as I'm sure you know had been a producer for Eastwood for many years before he struck out on his own. He wrote and directed this film. It's his second directorial effort after 'Trouble with the Curve.' But all of the reviews go something like, 'this feels like a movie that Clint Eastwood could have done when he was younger. It may have even been meant for him, but while this film has similar themes, Rob Lorenz is no Clint Eastwood, so this movie isn't very good. Liam Neeson does his best though!' 

[AKA23]

These look like they could be good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tmxxzZXLEM (The Mauritanian, Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0JZVfQFqos  (Crisis, Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly)

[Christopher]

I watched The Little Things last night. I just realized it's my first 2021 release (I've only gone to the theater once this year, and that was to see Wonder Woman 1984). I enjoyed The Little Things. It's cool that Jared Leto got a Golden Globe nomination for it--he is pretty good here. It seems like Leto gets a bad rap sometimes. I guess he does act strange with costars on sets, but I always think of him from Requiem for a Dream from 2000. He, along with everybody else, was so good in that.

[AKA23]

 I also saw "The Little Things", and for me, it was kind of disappointing. I think it was decent, but unremarkable. With this cast and John Lee Hancock, the screenwriter of "A Perfect World," serving as writer and director, it could have been really great. The execution of it just wasn't very good. Denzel Washington was great as always, and it has a potentially interesting story, but to me, it kind of falls apart in the end. I also thought Rami Malek was totally miscast as Denzel Washington's partner. I think I would have liked it better if it didn't depart so dramatically from the conventions of the genre to divert into another movie entirely. The movie was missing the pay off that this genre of film usually delivers. I also thought Jared Leto was well cast, but his character was kind of one note and kind of lacking the complexity of a fully realized character. My favorite part about it was the musical score. I thought that was very well done. Has anyone else seen "The Little Things?" What did you think?

[Christopher]

I watched Zack Snyder's Justice League the other day. I enjoyed the 2017 theatrical release because it was fast paced and funny. But this four hour cut of the movie is a lot better. It develops all of the characters more, including the villain, and the whole thing feels a lot heavier (if that's the right word). There's still some humor in it. I want to watch the theatrical release again so I can better compare the two. This Snyder cut is one of my favorites from these DC movies (other standouts being Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam).

[The Schofield Kid]

I saw "News of the World." It was a decent film, but ultimately disappointing. It had good acting, cinematography, music, directing, etc, but somehow the whole was less than the sum of its parts. For me, I think the problem was with the pacing. It was very slow and the story was quite predictable. There is one good action scene!

I agree. Good film but painfully slow. Hanks is always good though.

[The Schofield Kid]

Five years after vowing to never watch a Melissa McCarthy film again, I broke the rule and viewed Thunder Force on Netflix last night. Wasn't a totally piece of $#!t but apart from a couple of chuckles, very ordinary.

Even at just over 100mins, it seemed to drag on.

2/5.

[Christopher]

I really liked the first A Quiet Place a few years ago so I was looking forward to the sequel that was originally set to come out last year. I loved the first and somehow the second is even better. I've heard that another movie is planned, but I don't know if it's another sequel or just another movie set in this world.

[Christopher]

It's been a good week for me with 2021 releases. I watched In the Heights the other day and had a lot of fun with that. Recommended if you like musicals. I watched it on HBO Max but I think it'd be a good one for the big screen.

The new Disney Pixar movie Luca is coming to Disney Plus next weekend, so that will probably be my next 2021 movie. My subscription is coming to an end with HBO so I can pick up Disney for the next month.

And then some movies that I've been anticipating for a long time come to Netflix next month--the Fear Street trilogy. All three were originally going to be released theatrically about a month apart, but the pandemic... So Netflix is now going to add them all over three weeks. Fear Street was a YA horror series of books from R.L. Stine that started way back in 1989 (I started reading them a few years later). The movies are an original story, but seem like they might be inspired by some of the various books.

[Christopher]

Luca was fun. There's always a lot of expectation from Disney Pixar movies, so while I might not say it's one of their best movies, it's a good one.

I watched Fear Street: 1994 today. It's a bloody slasher movie, and it's pretty good. It's inspired by the book series, but as I said before, it is an original story. I'm looking forward to the other two movies (titled Fear Street: 1978 and Fear Street: 1666). I would also like to see some movies or books based a little more on the individual books.

[AKA23]

Think I might check out "Stillwater" this weekend. I'm a big fan of the writer/director's previous film, Spotlight, I like Matt Damon, and the story sounds appealing.

[Gant]

I saw Summer of Soul(Or, when the revolution could not be televised )in the cinema last week..

Absolutely mind blowing? impossible to imagine how this amazing concert has remained unseen for over 50 years..
A truly awesome experience.. packed with great artists? blows Woodstock totally out of the water 😁