Phil’s Summer Movie Digest - Part Four

I will say this has been a great summer for movies. I never thought I’d get my money’s worth from AMC’s A-list but I’m using the hell out of it.  Let’s dive in and see my latest batch of films. 

Superman

The Man of Steel is back! This film definitely feels like an homage to the Christopher Reeves era Superman. He’s wholesome, charming and just wants to save lives around the planet. The new guy playing Clark Kent is great and I loved the supporting characters. Nathan Fillion is great as Guy Gardner. But who knew my favorite would be Mr. Terrific (so stylish and cool).  I actually saw this movie twice in the theater and enjoyed it both times.  There were several people whom I talked to that were hesitant with the refrain of “I heard it was woke…” I didn’t see what people were getting worked up about and I don’t think what any pundit says should stop you from seeing a film you’re interested in. It was a good movie.

How to Train your Dragon

Well, if you’ve seen the animated HTTYD, then nothing about this film will surprise you. It’s basically that movie in live action form (which isn’t what happened in Lilo and Stitch apparently–I didn’t see that one).  I thought the casting was great. I love that they got Gerard Butler to, what?, reprise his role from the 3D animated film.  The boy who played Hiccup nailed it and don’t listen to the haters who didn’t like who they cast for Astrid, because she was great too.  

The most notable thing for my filmgoing experience of this movie was not the film itself but the 5 year old boy I unfortunately had to sit next to. He was slurping down a giant soda before the previews and then could absolutely not sit still for the rest of the movie. And of course his meemaw was just letting him run wild for the first 30 minutes. It was annoying, but in spite of all that, HTTYD is still a great film, whichever version you end up seeing. 

Eddington

Phew! This movie was harrowing. It really does bring you back to the height of the Covid pandemic of 2020 and just how weird that was. This is a polarizing film because I think that time in our lives was polarizing in many ways. I keep hearing that this film is a Western, but it feels more like a neo-noir to me. We’ve got our conservative antihero in Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) butting heads with the liberal Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). As the hypocrisies of these character’s viewpoints become more extreme, it accelerates them towards tragedy. This was definitely a film that I talked about and thought about a lot after I watched it. And I think that is something that Ari Aster is really good about in his films. 

Also, some lady in the theater was coughing really loudly for half the film so that was an added bit of realism that I didn’t need. 

The Home

So this was another one of the “Scream Unseen” films that I went to. It’s a horror movie starring Pete Davidson about a guy who has to work in a Nursing Home for his community service–and things are not what they seem. Like the other time I went to one of these, it probably wasn’t a movie I would have chosen. (The person I was with saw which movie it was and let out an audible disappointed groan). 

Let’s talk about the film. If you’ve seen enough horror films then you start to know what to expect from a particular setup. You’ve got a weird nursing home where Pete is not allowed to go to the 4th floor–gee, I wonder why?  Then weird things are happening to the residents and it points to much more sinister doings. I will give this film credit for escalating the mystery as it goes. The ending just goes completely nuts and I would not have guessed how the final act goes down.

One final note is that Pete Davidson was probably perfectly cast in this film–for better or worse.

Well, that’s it for now, I’ve got more to talk about next time, so check back with me then. Follow my hilarious Letterboxd reviews and I’ll see you next time.