{"id":14176,"date":"2025-05-04T14:45:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T18:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14176"},"modified":"2025-05-04T14:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T18:45:05","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-118","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14176","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0093200\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Hollywood Shuffle\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1.jpg 682w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091647\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"Nomads\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-663x1024.jpg 663w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-768x1186.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-994x1536.jpg 994w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-1326x2048.jpg 1326w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2.jpg 1421w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0089893\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Red Sonja\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-1366x2048.jpg 1366w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/3-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;m glad that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0093200\/\">Hollywood Shuffle<\/a> exists. It has some important things to say, and it&#8217;s not infrequently very funny. But I&#8217;m also inclined to agree with Roger Ebert, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/hollywood-shuffle-1987\">who wrote in his review<\/a>: &#8220;The story behind &#8216;Hollywood Shuffle&#8217; is more thrilling than anything on the screen.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>By nearly all objective metrics, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091647\/\">Nomads<\/a> is a bad movie. The problem is, it&#8217;s not very badly <em>made<\/em>. John McTiernan, for all his many faults, would, right after this, go on to direct in a row three of the greatest action blockbuster action movies ever made. <em>Nomads<\/em> is deeply flawed, confusing on every level, and yet it&#8217;s also\u2014maybe because of that confusion as much as in spite of it\u2014strangely  compelling.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Arnold Schwarzenegger has called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0089893\/\">Red Sonja<\/a> &#8220;the worst film I have ever made.&#8221; I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s <em>that<\/em> bad\u2014has he not seen <em>The Expendables<\/em> or <em>Batman &#038; Robin<\/em>?\u2014and there&#8217;s maybe just a hint of misogyny to the suggestion that it is, considering how Brigitte Nielsen is much more the center of the film than Schwarzenegger&#8217;s extended cameo. But yeah, <em>Red Sonja<\/em> is a pretty terrible movie, from its wooden acting to its extremely cheap-looking sets. It might have some hokey charm if it wasn&#8217;t also so boring. I mean, Schwarzenegger was wrong, but he wasn&#8217;t <em>that<\/em> wrong.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1655441\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Age of Adaline\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4-678x1024.jpg 678w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4-768x1160.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4-1017x1536.jpg 1017w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4.jpg 1356w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt21942598\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Freaky Tales\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt30988739\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Black Bag\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/6-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1655441\/\">The Age of Adaline<\/a> gets a lot better midway through, with the introduction of Harrison Ford&#8217;s character (and Ford himself as a screen presence), but overall the movie is still clumsily structured, often emotionally distant, and filled to the brim with sometimes tedious voiceover. It plays like a film based on a novel, with a lot of character development and story details unfortunately left on the adaptation-room floor, and yet it&#8217;s somehow an original screenplay.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt21942598\/\">Freaky Tales<\/a> isn&#8217;t exactly deep, and it has a mean, gory streak that&#8217;s occasionally less than pleasant, but overall, it&#8217;s a <em>very<\/em> fun movie.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt30988739\/\">Black Bag<\/a> is perhaps a little too cold and precise, a little too straightforward for all the spycraft cat-and-mouse. But it is also a very fun and expertly made exercise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also re-watched two very different movies: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt3397884\/\">Sicario<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0237534\/\">Brotherhood of the Wolf<\/a>. I enjoyed them both, even if <em>Sicario<\/em> plays a little differently in the Trump era and <em>Brotherhood of the Wolf<\/em> is all a bit too much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m glad that Hollywood Shuffle exists. It has some important things to say, and it&#8217;s not infrequently very funny. But I&#8217;m also inclined to agree with Roger Ebert, who wrote in his review: &#8220;The story behind &#8216;Hollywood Shuffle&#8217; is more thrilling than anything on the screen. By nearly all objective metrics, Nomads is a bad &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14176\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14177,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176\/revisions\/14177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}