Tag Archives: Paul Rudd

Months in Review: Films of July & August 2018 (part 1)

September 3, 20182018 Reviews, Film ReviewsAlex Proyas, Armando Ianucci, David Byrne, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Joaquin Phoenix, John Krasinski, Jonathan Demme, Judd Apatow, Kiefer Sutherland, Liam Neeson, Lynne Ramsay, Margot Robbie, Mark Whalberg, Michael Greyeyes, Nick Robinson, Nicole Kidman, Paul Rudd, Ready Player One, Robert Duvall, Seth Rogen, Simon Pegg, Steve Buscemi, Steve Carrell, Steven Spielberg, The Talking Heads, Tom Cruise, Tue SheridanThe Blog of Big Ideas

Summer has come and gone. September greets us in Chicago with the wettest Labor Day weekend in memory. It rained Saturday, Sunday and it stormed on Labor Day. I have had a view of the lake for the last 2-3 years and it looked as if a monsoon had passed. It was quite a spectacle.

Summer has been very interesting from a cinematic point of view. I finally found time to watch Asif Kapadia’s moving 2011 documentary on Amy Winehouse. This was a film that was on my radar for a long time after the very emotional experience I had watching Senna, his previous documentary feature. The majority of my time though was put into catching up with a string of wonderful films released this year, a highlight of which was You Were Never Really Here by Lynne Ramsay.

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Months in Review: December & January (2016)

February 13, 20162016 Reviews, Film ReviewsAdam Scott, Ava DuVernay, Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, David Oyelowo, Denis Villeneuve, Emily Blunt, Harrison Ford, Jennifer Lawrence, JJ Abrams, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Klaus Kinski, Leonardo Di Caprio, Liam Hemsworth, Michael Dougherty, Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Zemeckis, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Silverman, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Tom Hardy, Werner HerzogThe Blog of Big Ideas

How quickly do months fly by when you are busy. It seems like only a week ago I posted my last review. As quickly as my newfound motivation to blog a bit more came to me on January 1st, as quickly it evaporated not from a lack of desire, but from a lack of energy.

With a bit of a delay, I share with you my brief thoughts on the films I had the chance to watch in the last month of 2015 and the first of 2016. A total of 21 films were watched, 12 in December and 9 in January. The average rating was a very good 3.35 out of 5. The following are ordered in the way they were seen:

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Mega Film Recap: July, August & September

October 4, 20132013 Reviews, Film ReviewsAndres Muschietti, Angelina Jolie, Black Rock, Carey Mulligan, Cronos, Danny Boyle, Dirty Girl, Dredd, Garden State, Guillermo Del Toro, Halle Berry, James Franco, James McCavoy, Jessica Chastain, Jim Sturgess, Juno Temple, Karl Urban, Kristen Dunst, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Our Idiot Brother, OZ The Great and Powerful, Paul Rudd, Peter Sarsgaard, Rachel Weisz, Ron Perlman, Rosario Dawson, Taking Lives, The Call, The Raid: Redemption, Trance, Vincent Cassel, Zach Braff, Zooey DeschanelThe Blog of Big Ideas

In the last three months I have maintained my quota of watching 10-12 films per month, but my blogging has suffered terribly. My commitment in the short term is to get back to posting more often. The attempt to do so begins with this massive recap of films I have seen recently. In addition, I already have finished two other postings that I plan to publish in the coming days. One is a full review of Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious, my 6th review in my marathon of the director (which needs to pick up). The other is a special look at the largely overlooked Netflix original show “Orange is the New Black” which will kick-off Television reviews in this blog.

Without further ado, here is a compendium of short reviews of all the films watched this past summer (in no particular order):

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Month in Review: March & April films

May 1, 20132013 Reviews, Film ReviewsABCs of Death, Alfred Hitchcock, Ali Larter, Arnold Swarzenegger, Beyonce Knowles, Big Night, Channing Tatum, Colin Farrell, Darren Aronofsky, Disconnect, Ellen Burstyn, Evil Dead, Felicity Huffman, Frank Grillo, Gina Carano, gore fest, Haywire, horror movies, Ian Holm, Isabella Rossellini, Jared Letto, Jason Bateman, Jessica Chastain, Joseph Kosinsky, Judd Apatow, K-19: The Widowmaker, Kathryn Bigelow, Leslie Mann, Liam Neeson, Lucy Liu, Oblivion, Osama Bin Laden, party films, Paul Rudd, Project X, Psycho, Quentin Tarantino, Requiem for a Dream, Russell Crowe, RZA, Salt, Stanley Tucci, Steven Soderbergh, The Collection, The Hurt Locker, The Man with the Iron Fists, This is 40, Tom Cruise, Tony Shalhoub, Total Recall, Transamerica, V/H/S, Zero Dark ThirtyThe Blog of Big Ideas

Now that we have arrived to the beginning of May and I haven’t been able to post in over two weeks, I thought I would summarize my film watching of the last two months with a mammoth list of mini-reviews. 22 films in 61 days. Not a great number, but I’ve done worse. Here it goes:

OBLIVION (2013)

A terribly uninspiring story line masked by awesome special effects and handsome set designs. Oblivion is one more nail in the coffin for the career of Tom Cruise, the former world’s biggest movie star. Though he may still prove his worth at the box office, his performance is easily forgettable, never once allowing us to forget his very bizarre off camera persona, nor making us empathize with his character.

Rating: 2/5 (poor)

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