Re: Nic Cage - Hah, was just having this conversation with my sister yesterday.  She was surprised, as she didn't know, that he had won an Oscar in the past (for Leaving Las Vegas which he was admittedly decent in).

I also surprised her with the news that Adam Sandler is a good actor when he wants to be and that he got nominated for an Oscar for Uncut Gems.  Recommended the film to her as I loved it.

Cage is great in Leaving Las Vegas and Bad L, but he definitely phones in the 'I'm Nic Cage' in most of his stuff. I don't mind that though, it's what I expect.

It's Friday folks!

https://youtu.be/0SYpSl0XfGw

I watched Next with Nic Cage the other day.
Its the film where the Eagle hair Cage meme came from as his hair does indeed look like an Eagle throughout.
It is also magnificently bad and fully required bad Cage to make it watchable.

Watched that in the week also. The Sand Coloured Jacket Of Time was my sizzling take. I enjoyed it.

Watched Midsommar last night. Yawn.

Midsommar's a great film.

Thought it tapped brilliantly into a few shared fears and loved the slow burn.

News of the World. Tom Hanks plays at being a cowboy.  I heard it was a touch dull, rather slow, and only had one shoot out scene, but after putting myself through First Cow, I thought I could endure any Western. I was wrong. I have a lot of time for the genre usually but this really was a slog.

In one scene, Tom laments the loss of his dead wife, staring gormlessly for an interminably long time at her gravestone. It means nothing to the viewer however  because we are given no clue or insight into the man's past life. He then has an inexplicable change of heart and dashes back to retrieve the girl he had earlier rescued on the trail, but now abandoned with some Amish family. We find her tied to a post. I would have preferred if screen time had been spent examining the poor child's descent into slavery/servitude (strong performance by actress, Helena Zengel) but we see none of this. Tom is the star and Tom must have his screen time after all.

If you want to see a better examination of characters torn between their adopted Indian family and their White heritage, go watch Dances with Wolves or something. It's barely scrutinised here, with a brief encounter with tribes people that sees our heroine return to Hank's side without a moment's thought, gifting him a fresh mount. And there's a really heavy handed scene where Tom rants against the dangers of oligarchs and media moguls that's done in a horrible unsubtle nudge nudge wink wink sort of way.

Tom used to be replied upon to provide good old fashioned 'comfort food' cinema. But his last two outings, this and Greyhound, really have been complete yawn fests.

Sounds like I had a lucky escape. Last night, me and my brother and his wife were deciding between watching that and Shirkers. Ended up watching Shirkers instead which was pretty damn good.

Yossarian wrote:

Sounds like I had a lucky escape. Last night, me and my brother and his wife were deciding between watching that and Shirkers. Ended up watching Shirkers instead which was pretty damn good.

Shirkers is indeed, pretty damn good.

Syph79 wrote:

Lord_Griff wrote:

Watched Midsommar last night. Yawn.

I actually enjoyed it, but I’d struggle to recommend it to anyone. It’s quite uncomfortable viewing.

Just watching the Robocop reboot right now. I knew the reviews weren’t good, but I fancied catching it myself. I’m proper laughing that they kept one of Murphy’s hands. Why? They’d already established robotic two hands with the guitar guy.

I was expecting something that would make you think or be disturbed. Apart from the Logan's run element it was banal.

Greenland. Cacky.

I suppose you can hand wave it all away as people doing dumb things in a crisis but it took liberties with it

LA Confidential Decades since I first watched this. What a cast. Still a great watch but it does feel aged - not sure why though.

Just back from Harold and Maude

Very odd humour, but I really enjoyed it. Drive in keeps surprising us with good movies. Blue Velvet was the previous one, and we'll probably go to The Shining next.