Movies Watched -- Get Out (2017)

104 minutes so close to the sacred 100 minute mark, but I still watched it at 1.5-2x ... weird one, not badly made, I can almost recommend except for the fact that I was unable to watch it at normal speed for some reason. Combination thriller / comedy / horror movie. Stars Daniel Kaluuya (a Ugandan name); Marnie from Girls, you know, the pretty girl whom everyone hated. Marnie's brother is terribly cast, some kid with greasy hair and a white-trash mustache channeling Johnny Depp. Sort of a Richard Dreyfuss guy plays Dad, with Jobs-ian black turtleneck, and Catherine Keener is Mom. 

Check it out if you get the chance, it comes closest to getting a green rating of anything I've watched from 2017 so far.

You are feeling sleeeepy

If I Ain't Got You

I like Karl Blau's cover of the Bee Gees' classic: 

http://KEXP.ORG presents Karl Blau performing "To Love Somebody" live at Little London Plane during Upstream Music Fest. Recorded May 12, 2017. Host: Cheryl Waters Audio Engineer: Kevin Suggs Cameras: Jim Beckmann, Alaia D'Alessandro & Justin Wilmore Director: Scott Holpainen Editor: Alaia D'Alessandro http://kexp.org http://karlblau.com

Movies Watched -- American Made

115 minute run time but it had really long end credits ... still could have been tightened up 10 to 15 minutes. Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise, always charming and he doesn't seem to age ... playing a pilot who funneled US government money and guns to the contras in Nicaragua, and Colombian cocaine back to America ... "mock documentary" bouncy cam drives me nuts.

Didn't realize that they brought contras to Mena, Arkansas to train. Makes light of the whole fiasco, how ridiculous it all was, but there's real tragedy here, and of course Barry Seal was murdered in the end (as was his brother in law). Not badly made, but it only earns a yellow rating. Manohla Dargis said it best: "'American Made' goes down easily, especially if you don’t let the historical record with its real-world stakes bother you."

White Pendy

Moving Slow When The Light Turns Green

The pretty boys I've featured before, this time with Joel Paterson accompanying...

The Cactus Blossoms perform their song "Stoplight Kisses" at Chicago Music Exchange. Connect with The Cactus Blossoms: http://thecactusblossoms.com GEAR PLAYED: GIBSON L-7C GOLD 1949 - http://goo.gl/HsMu0l Gibson Dove 1965 Natural - http://goo.gl/7BkKFm Mosrite Celebrity III Mark X model 221 Bass Transparent Sunburst 1967 - http://goo.gl/VWqewU

Movies Watched -- The Red Turtle (2017)

80 minutes so within the sacred 100 minute mark ... watched at normal speed even though there was no dialogue. Animated with some neat lighting effects. A fable or a parable, I don't really know the difference. You have to figure out what it's trying to say on your own, you can impose your own meanings. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't recommend it either. Yellow rating.

Survivor

Movies Watched -- Baby Driver (2017)

112 minutes so at least 12 to 22 minutes too long. A W.D. By movie, somebody's baby (pun intended). This movie had a lot going for it since it was quirky (the orphan with tinnitus angle) and had an attractive young leading couple, but ultimately I wasn't thrilled with it. It's trying to tap into the Fast & Furious franchise, I guess. Target demographic: boys who are into cars, chases, crashes, drifting, parkour, crime, violence, being the "wheelman," etc.

I'm not a prude, but there was too much swearing and violence for me, it was unnecessary. Cut out 15 minutes, reduce the swearing and violence by half and it would have been a better movie.

SPOILERS: token gangster black guy (Jamie Foxx, whom I liked in "Collateral"), don't worry, he's killed. Token Asian guy, don't worry, he's killed. Token Latina, don't worry, she's killed. Unshaven Don Draper, toting guns, do worry, he's killed, though very late in the movie. Creepy homosexual, Kevin Spacey, playing the same mastermind bad guy role he always does, this time sporting dyed hair and Gene "The Conversation" Hackman glasses.

Lots of great music that will appeal to late Boomers, all of Gen-X, and early Gen-Y. Odd to see a city movie that's Atlanta-based, nobody sounds like they're from Georgia. Product placements up the wazoo. Paid homage to "Heat," which was nice to see. Green rating for teenage boys, yellow for the general adult audience.

(Ann Hornaday didn't like it; Adam Graham didn't like it; Tony Lane didn't like it.)

Oddball Crew

Movies Watched -- A Monster Calls (2017)

100 minutes even, but I still watched it at 1.5-2x not because it was badly made, but because the subject matter is so depressing -- how a bullied 12-year-old boy copes (fantasies, escapism) while his mother dies of cancer -- that I couldn't possibly sit through it at normal speed, and have no idea why anyone would torture themselves this way -- no child should ever see this! 

Sigourney Weaver as grandma with fake British accent. Video game-like storytelling sequences mixed with watercolors, and a fiery ent with a nightly parable to hit you over the head with....

Full red, avoid. 

Lotta tears

Movies Watched -- The Lego Batman Movie (2017)

90 minutes long, but this movie was so frantic that I didn't even make it ten minutes in... the booming music, the jokes, the million things going on in the background, the general frenzy -- it drove me nuts. My thirteen-year-old son enjoyed it though. Red for old guys, green for all thirteen-year-olds.

BTITUDE ... one of a million gags you probably missed

Movies Watched -- A Ghost Story (2017)

87 minutes so well within the sacred 100 minute mark, but I still watched it at 1.5x - 3x given the lack of dialogue and the dead pacing. A W.D. By movie, clearly someone's precious baby, "self-consciously arty" ... feels like something a trust fund kid obsessed with Terrence Malick would come up with in between bong rips. The story of a shitty haunted house and its various inhabitants.

Stars Rooney Mara, Mara Rooney, whatever, and her cheekbones ... she's skinny in a way that most modern American women aren't ... huge eyes, great bones. Her boyfriend? is Casey Affleck, any relation to Ben the poker player? Beefcake who makes shitty electronic music.

It's a weird one, not terrible, but I can't recommend it. "An unforgettable meditation on love and grief, loss and legacy" ... oh spare me. 

Mouth twist learned in acting school

Movies Watched -- Hidden Figures (2017)

127 minutes long so at least 27 minutes too long -- I watched it at 1.5x - 2x. Enjoyed this one. Well made, funny, "uplifting." I cried and cried, you know it's a tear-jerker for old softies like me ... the story of several black women who worked in the space program, starting in the early 1960s ... not sure how accurate it was, how instrumental these women were, but it doesn't matter, the racism of that era was just appalling. Kirsten Dunst plays a pretty good cracker and Remy Danton makes an appearance. I can't give it a green rating because it's overly long, but it's definitely a yellow. 

Better if she were in white shirtsleeves