This Old Neon Forum

I watched my twenty-seventh film of the year:

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) — 7.35/10

Finally watched Weird with Mrs. Kong (and the Dobermen) this evening. It's a very Weird Al movie. It had some really funny gags, and some really predictable gags, which is all part of Al's charm. Radcliffe was excellent. Overall I'd say it was fine, fun, you know what you're getting for the most part, even if you definitely don't know the specifics. The cameos were fun to spot as well.


2023 in Summary
12-17: 7.35/10 Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) - home cinema
12-09: 7.4/10 Nobody (2021) - home cinema
11-28: 8.55/10 It Follows (2014) - home cinema
11-25: 9.56/10 Oppenheimer (2023) - home cinema
11-23: 8.7/10 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) - home cinema
11-11: 9.15/10 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023) - Warner Bros. private cinema
11-01: 6.0/10 Cobweb (2023) - home cinema
10-19: 9.15/10 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023) - laptop in hotel room
09-17: 7.5/10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) - laptop
08-27: 8.1/10 Enemy at the Gates (2001) - home cinema
08-16: 9.55/10 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) - studio TV
08-15: 8.7/10 Asteroid City (2023) - laptop
07-24: 8.5/10 The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - home cinema
07-16: 7.6/10 Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 3 (2023) - home cinema
07-05: 9.1/10 Tenet (2020) - other home cinema
07-02: 9.6/10 Arrival (2016) - other home cinema
06-23: 5.0/10 Georgetown (2019) - home cinema
05-20: 8.5/10 The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - laptop
05-18: 9.0/10 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - home cinema
05-07: 5.1/10 Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) - other home cinema
05-03: 8.4/10 The Suicide Squad (2021) - home cinema
04-30: 8.0/10 John Mulaney: Baby J (2023) - home cinema
04-21: 8.2/10 Nope (2022) - home cinema
04-20: 7.3/10 The Many Saints of Newark (2021) - home cinema
03-23: 8.1/10 The Harder They Fall (2021) - home cinema
02-19: 9.5/10 The Usual Suspects (1995) - other home cinema
01-28: 8.1/10 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) - home cinema

I watched my twenty-eighth film of the year:

Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (2023) — 8.1/10

Just watched a cute little documentary on Prime about a hero to generations of Canadian children. It was good. I was glad that they interviewed Judith Lawrence, who was basically half of the show (the unsung half) and that they mentioned Coombs fought to make sure she got paid the same as him. Class act. Lots of nostalgia.


2023 in Summary
12-17: 8.1/10 Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (2023) - home cinema
12-16: 7.35/10 Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) - home cinema
12-09: 7.4/10 Nobody (2021) - home cinema
11-28: 8.55/10 It Follows (2014) - home cinema
11-25: 9.56/10 Oppenheimer (2023) - home cinema
11-23: 8.7/10 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) - home cinema
11-11: 9.15/10 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023) - Warner Bros. private cinema
11-01: 6.0/10 Cobweb (2023) - home cinema
10-19: 9.15/10 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023) - laptop in hotel room
09-17: 7.5/10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) - laptop
08-27: 8.1/10 Enemy at the Gates (2001) - home cinema
08-16: 9.55/10 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) - studio TV
08-15: 8.7/10 Asteroid City (2023) - laptop
07-24: 8.5/10 The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - home cinema
07-16: 7.6/10 Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 3 (2023) - home cinema
07-05: 9.1/10 Tenet (2020) - other home cinema
07-02: 9.6/10 Arrival (2016) - other home cinema
06-23: 5.0/10 Georgetown (2019) - home cinema
05-20: 8.5/10 The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - laptop
05-18: 9.0/10 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - home cinema
05-07: 5.1/10 Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) - other home cinema
05-03: 8.4/10 The Suicide Squad (2021) - home cinema
04-30: 8.0/10 John Mulaney: Baby J (2023) - home cinema
04-21: 8.2/10 Nope (2022) - home cinema
04-20: 7.3/10 The Many Saints of Newark (2021) - home cinema
03-23: 8.1/10 The Harder They Fall (2021) - home cinema
02-19: 9.5/10 The Usual Suspects (1995) - other home cinema
01-28: 8.1/10 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) - home cinema

Watched 2 movies on Apple TV+

The Family Plan - 7.5/10 : A good action movie with a bit of humor in it.
Trailer:


Spirited - 7/10 : A fun take on the Scrooge theme with a lot of singing.
Trailer:

I watched my first, second, and third films of the year:

Amanda Knox (2016) — 7.0/10

Fine documentary. Doesn't fall into the trap of loudly demonizing or exonerating her too early, especially since she's actually interviewed for the film. It does, however, make the journalist guy look like a complete buffoon, to such a degree that I couldn't believe he couldn't see it happening while he was being interviewed. What an idiot.

They Cloned Tyrone (2023) — 7.5/10

Pretty funny sci-fi comedy that makes good use of its central gimmick to deliver a not quite fleshed out version of its social commentary. (Which is fine by me.) John Boyega plays a great straight-man and Jamie Foxx is an over the top comic relief pimp, while Teyonah Parris ends up providing much of the driving force of the action for the main trio. It was bigger and wilder than I thought it was going to be from the trailer/premise.

Society of the Snow (2023) — 7.5/10

A Spanish-language production of the Andes plane crash story. It did a nice job of at least giving passing attention to each character's story, including the ones who didn't make it. Structurally, this is difficult because much of the film ends up feeling like vignettes, which is bound to happen when you have big beats to hit in a 2.5-hour run time.


2024 in Summary
01-05: 7.5/10 Society of the Snow (2023) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 They Cloned Tyrone (2023) - home cinema
01-02: 7.0/10 Amanda Knox (2016) - home cinema

2023 in summary // 2022 in summary // 2021 in summary // 2020 in summary // 2019 in summary

Avatar - The Way of the Water - 7.7/10

Enjoyed this movie up to a point: feels a bit the same action as the first movie. But that's what a sequel is for.

Black Panther - Wakanda Forever - 6.9/10

Story is good, but whit a lot of dark scenes it was sometimes hard to follow.

I watched my fourth film of the year, and finished a TV series:

I See You (2019) — 5.0/10

A Mrs. Kong pick that I suffered in the background while playing a game or something. It was an OK mystery thriller thing with some horror undercurrents, but suffered from massive pacing issues as it uses the latter half to explain every that was going on. Helen Hunt is in this.

Pluto (2023) — 8.0/10

Pretty good anime detective story that has a big plot arc but breaks things up with kind of a reversal of the monster-of-the-week narrative structure. Some familiar messages of discrimination and war and such. Animation ranges wildly from cheap-looking Saturday morning cartoon still stuff to occasional Family Guy Mode 7 CG stuff to some interesting stylized almost abstract colour studies in certain combat scenes. Also has SungWon Cho doing his best James Spader impression.


2024 in Summary
01-11: 8.0/10 Pluto (2023) - home cinema
01-10: 5.0/10 I See You (2019) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 Society of the Snow (2023) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 They Cloned Tyrone (2023) - home cinema
01-02: 7.0/10 Amanda Knox (2016) - home cinema

2023 in summary // 2022 in summary // 2021 in summary // 2020 in summary // 2019 in summary

I watched my fifth film of the year:

Howl's Moving Castle (2004) — 9.0/10

I finally knocked another Ghibli film off my wishlist. I do like one every couple years. It's not my favourite of theirs, but it's good and cute.


2024 in Summary
01-12: 9.0/10 Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - home cinema
01-11: 8.0/10 Pluto (2023) - home cinema
01-10: 5.0/10 I See You (2019) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 Society of the Snow (2023) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 They Cloned Tyrone (2023) - home cinema
01-02: 7.0/10 Amanda Knox (2016) - home cinema

2023 in summary // 2022 in summary // 2021 in summary // 2020 in summary // 2019 in summary

I watched my sixth film of the year:

The Green Mile (1999) — 8.2/10

Mrs. Kong likes prison movies and she likes Stephen King, but she had never seen this one. So we enjoyed all 3 hours of it tonight. Great film. Lots of classic little Stephen King tricks, like somehow sneaking a horror ending in at the very end (where endings go).

We also watched Trevor Noah's latest comedy special last night. It was just OK. I find Noah pretty must just OK in everything he does. Very anodyne middle of the road comedy. I don't really consider it a film so I'm slipping it in the list below but not counting it towards my big total.


2024 in Summary
01-13: 8.2/10 The Green Mile (1999) - home cinema
01-12: 6.0/10 Trevor Noah: Where Was I (2023) - home cinema
01-12: 9.0/10 Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - home cinema
01-11: 8.0/10 Pluto (2023) - home cinema
01-10: 5.0/10 I See You (2019) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 Society of the Snow (2023) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 They Cloned Tyrone (2023) - home cinema
01-02: 7.0/10 Amanda Knox (2016) - home cinema

2023 in summary // 2022 in summary // 2021 in summary // 2020 in summary // 2019 in summary

I watched my seventh film of the year:

Watcher (2022) — 8.2/10

We watched Watcher, quite a good little "thriller" (more like a creeping ever-present sense of anxietyer) with Maika Monroe in a fantastic lead turn. It's a movie about crushing isolation and anxiety at being alone in a big place where you don't know anyone or understand the language... and on top of that you're a cute woman and danger is everywhere and the men you're supposed to be able to trust don't take you seriously. Other than Monroe, the best thing about the movie is the setting.


2024 in Summary
01-15: 8.2/10 Watcher (2022) - home cinema
01-13: 8.2/10 The Green Mile (1999) - home cinema
01-12: 6.0/10 Trevor Noah: Where Was I (2023) - home cinema
01-12: 9.0/10 Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - home cinema
01-11: 8.0/10 Pluto (2023) - home cinema
01-10: 5.0/10 I See You (2019) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 Society of the Snow (2023) - home cinema
01-05: 7.5/10 They Cloned Tyrone (2023) - home cinema
01-02: 7.0/10 Amanda Knox (2016) - home cinema

2023 in summary // 2022 in summary // 2021 in summary // 2020 in summary // 2019 in summary

The Northman - 6.0/10
Not a great movie. Story is based on a legend, but it hasn't been put together well.

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (HBO Max) - 6.9/10
A somewhat entertaining movie, but doesn't get really good.