Another week, another six movies:
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- They don’t make a lot of movies like Hooper anymore, partly because they don’t make a lot of movies the way they make movies in Hooper anymore. There’s a laid-back, if not shaggy and drunk, charm to the whole thing, but also some real pathos in Reynolds’ performance, which was one of his best.
- You can see its twists coming a mile away, and there’s more than a little cheesiness to the whole thing, but despite that—or maybe because of it—Spellbinder is an enjoyable enough little supernatural thriller.
- I had been led to believe that Punisher: War Zone was the good Punisher movie, but honestly, I’m just not seeing it. There’s a lot of over-the-top, comic-book-style violence, but it doesn’t lend itself to much of anything and isn’t entertaining in its own right.
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- An early, Dutch-language war film from Paul Verhoeven, Soldier of Orange is often tense and thrilling.
- I might have enjoyed Days of Thunder more if it had anything like characters, a story, or even particularly interesting (and not just fetishistically photographed), racing. It’s such a vague gesture at a movie, not even silly fun.
- Belfast doesn’t dig especially deep into its narrative or characters, but it’s affectionate and well acted.
I also really enjoyed a rewatch of The Royal Tenenbaums.