The Iceman

Michael Shannon is Richard Kuklinski, a contract killer for the mob - and husband/father. He earns the nickname "Iceman" by freezing his victims for up to 2 years before disposing of their body parts. Kuklinski starts out as a guy with a vicious streak who is then recruited to be a killer for the mob. His financial profile benefits, he lands Winona Ryder as a wife and eventually gets older and sloppy with his killings. Shannon is very good here as the stone-faced killer. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't really give us much in the way of background on Kuklinski - we learn he has a brother in prison and was beaten as a child but that's it - and starts with his first killing right away. Also, though based on a true story, the movie apparently has a questionable relationship with the truth. His real-life wife claims he beat her but the movie shows him as not abusive (other than one angry outburst). He claims 100+ murders and that's what the movie shows but his mob associates put it more like the 5 he actually got convicted. Whatever. This is a pretty good movie. 6/10.

Hitler's G.I. Death Camp

An untold aspect of WW2 - American POWs being tossed into the same concentration camps as European Jews. This documentary uses the (really detailed) diary of one survivor and interviews with him and other survivors to tell a horrific tale. It's all stuff we've heard before, except the victims this time are American soldiers which perhaps was not known or realized previously. Regardless, this is really compelling stuff. Heartbreaking moment when one soldier revisits one of the sites and relates how his father didn't believe him regarding his torture. Another heartbreaking moment at the end when one soldier recounts how he sat down his family and told them he'd answer any and all of their questions - but only that one time and after that to please not ask him about it. His family respected his wishes and didn't speak of the war to him except his father, who would send him a birthday card every April 20. The day of his liberation. Excellent documentary and well-worth checking out. 10/10.

Bad Words

Jason Bateman is a foul-mouthed warranty proofreader who apparently never finished 8th grade. For reasons unknown, he decides to enter a national spelling bee for 8th graders. He's attracted the attention of a reporter who's writing his story (and sponsoring him - and screwing him) and the ire of parents. He makes friends with a competitor and, in-between racist insults and jokes, shows him the ways of the world a la Bad Grandpa. In the end, what could have been a really funny premise ends up being just wasted potential. There's some funny lines but the payoff at the end is weak and goes nowhere. There aren't enough laughs and it just ends up disappointing. I was bummed - really wanted to like this one. 4/10.

Grudge Match

Stallone and De Niro are a couple 60-something retired boxers who split two fights back in the 70s and never had a third. They have a personal feud and it gets reignited when they show up to do motion capture for a boxing video game. That leads to a third fight. There are some decent laughs in the movie but ultimately the movie just never really delivers. They do some CGI and other wizardry to try and make the two guys look younger or whatever and sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. There's a funny bit that refers back to Rocky. I'm sure there's a similar moment for Raging Bull but, since I haven't seen that movie, I can't confirm it. Anyway, this ends up mildly amusing, occasionally funny and ultimately not great but not terrible either. 6/10.

Lords of Dogtown

The movie companion to the Dogtown and Z-Boys documentary on the same subject, namely the rebirth of skateboarding in the 1970s at a surf shop. The Z Boys were a group of surfers who, using the new urethane wheels, brought surfing-like tactics to skateboarding and birthed a phenomenon. There's a great story to be told here but the movie itself is something of a mess. Besides messing with chronology, merging multiple characters into a new one who didn't exist (the "Sid" character) and was less important than portrayed by the movie, deleting other people entirely, and ignoring Jay Adams killing a guy, the movie definitely is more concerned with its style than its structure or story. And it captures that style well - a gritty 1970s style with warm colors and a very distinctive look. It's hurt by seemingly random scene cuts and an edit that makes the movie feel like it's just not "smooth" for lack of a better word. Anyway, this was pretty good but could have been a lot better. 6/10.

Dark Tourist

Michael Cudlitz is a security guard who likes to visit sites related to serial killers. He visits another site, meets a waitress played by Melanie Griffith. And that's where it goes south. He freaks out then hires a tranny prostitute. He eventually attacks another transvestite hooker and kills her. And then commits suicide. And then we get a reveal that doesn't fit. This is a movie that's really dark but really has not much substance. Cudlitz is fantastic as always. Griffith is perfect in her role as a once-possibly-attractive waitress thanks to the mess she's made of herself via plastic surgery. Anyway, a not great movie. 4/10.

When the Game Stands Tall

I'm a sucker for football movies with a positive, uplifting message. This one is based on the book of the same name and is the story of a Warren De La Salle high school and their 12-year, 151-game winning streak. Faith-based movies are fine with me but this one lays on the platitudes a little heavy -even though a lot of them actually were said or happened in real life. This one also messes with the facts for no apparent reason. Finally, a lot of the characters are made-up composites. And yet...it mostly works. I enjoyed it a lot - wife liked it a lot more than me. I'd say 7/10.

The Baseball Chronicles

Some kind of mid-late 90s documentary talking about baseball in the 40s and 50s. Hoooo boy, this one is terrible. It's divided up into innings with a topic for each. And then they have various ballplayers talk about that topic. And sometimes they actually stick to the topic and it's related to it. And a lot of times it's not. The whole thing is just a mess with no real structure, no insights, no nothing. I'm a sucker for baseball documentaries but even I thought this sucked. Good grief. There's not even much in the way of interesting footage. 2/10.

Interview With the Assassin

Fake documentary about a news cameraman whose neighbor comes to him and asks him to film a confession. The neighbor confesses to having been the second shooter in the JFK assassination. From there, the two visit Dealey Plaza and try to track down other principles in the case. This movie is so terrible that I can't believe I made it all the way through. Good grief. 1/10.

Undefeated

Documentary covering the 2009 season for the Manassas (Tenn.) High School football team. Bill Courtney is the volunteer head coach entering his 6th season after taking over a program that had gone 5-95 in the 10 seasons prior to his arrival. He has built up a respectable program and is obviously very dedicated to the kids and to the team. This is a fantastic documentary, wonderfully capturing the highs and lows of the season. The movie focuses on three players in particular - the superstar lineman (OC Brown), the returning felon (Chavis), and the undersized smart kid (Money). Their stories are well-told and you root for all of them. Anyway, I'm a sucker for good sports documentaries, especially football, and this one is no exception. Netflix told me going in they thought I'd give this a 9/10 and they were right. 9/10.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Saw this with a couple guys from work. I'm not a comics guy, knew nothing about this franchise until a month before seeing it. Saw the Imax 3D version, spending $29 on ticket/pop/popcorn by the time I was done. Thank god for the $25 gift certificate I had. Anyway, fun movie. Enjoyed it a lot. A nice balance of humor and action without being completely silly. I thought "Rocket" stole the show. Unimpressed with Zoe Saldana as Gamora - thought she looked...old. Definitely liked Karen Gillan as Nebula, would have loved to have seen a lot more of her. As for the Imax and 3D aspects, can't say they were worth the extra money. The 3D was nice but not particularly necessary. I was MUCH more impressed with the 3D in the trailer for the new Hobbit movie. Anyway, a fun time. 8/10.

Downloaded

Documentary covering the history of Napster. Pretty good look at all the aspects of the rise & crash of Napster and includes interviews with both Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. Lots of good information to be found here. Not gonna lie, I was an early adoptee on Napster though I didn't like it very much. Funny that Fanning created it because "mp3 downloads were so unreliable" - which is exactly the problem I had with it. I was much more of an Audio Galaxy guy. Anyway, good doc and worth checking out. 8/10.

Battered Bastards of Baseball

Netflix-original documentary on the mid-70s minor league baseball team, the Portland Mavericks. The Mavs were founded and owned by Bing Russell, of Bonanza fame and father of Kurt Russell. Bing was a lifelong baseball fan who spent much of his childhood hanging out with the likes of Lefty Gomez, Joe Dimaggio and Lou Gehrig of the Yankees. After the 1972 season, the AAA Portland Beavers left Oregon for greener pastures elsewhere. A void was created and Bing created the Mavericks to fill it. The Mavericks would play in the short-season A Northwest League (home to my beloved Spokane Indians). Unlike every other team on the planet, they would be independent with no affiliation to any major league team. As a result, they grabbed players from wherever they could, including open tryouts. Their guys were older and (mostly) had no illusions about making a career out of it. So they were there to have fun. And they did. And their fans loved them for it. They were very successful, winning 4 division titles in 5 seasons while facing blowback from the major leagues. They do this against a backdrop of intrigue (major league teams sending higher-level players down for the playoffs against Portland to keep them from winning a championship) and controversy, all while having a blast. The whole movie is a good time and features interviews with several of the key figures (Bing Russell died in 2003, unfortunately), including Kurt Russell and Todd Field (director of 5-time Academy Award nominee, [b]In the Bedroom). Field was the batboy for the Mavs. Anyway, this is great, and anybody who likes a good story in general, or sports specifically, should watch it. 9/10.

Computer Chess

And then there's this one. This is a mockumentary about a computer chess tournament and it's set in 1980. You've got a cast of characters about like what you'd expect - lots of nerdy guys and then the commentator for the whole thing, who will play the winning chess computer. The movie is seemingly one random scene after another with "real" dialogue that just ends up being nothing. There's an awkward scene with a middle-aged couple trying to seduce one of the nerds, there's an awkward scene of some kind of "spiritualist" group doing a "re-birthing" exercise and so on. It's pretty obvious that the filmmakers are in love with themselves and think all these scenes are just hilarious and.....they're just not. They go for the "look how clever we are, we filmed it all in black & white!" thing because, ya know, nobody had color movie cameras in 1980. Bottom line: I *AM* the target audience for this movie. I get all the techno babble 1980 stuff they did. I wrote code to play chess games and so on. I get it. But this movie sucks. 1/10.

A Gentleman's Game

Stuff like this is why I love Netflix. This is a movie I've never heard of and would never have paid to see in the theater. But it's on Netflix, it's "free" so I check it out. Story revolves on the maturing of young golfer Timmy Price, the son of a rather rigid father who loves golf. Dad has Timmy become a caddy at their country club so he can learn some lessons about work and Timmy takes up the game, only to discover he's really, really good. Netflix does viewers a disservice by leading you to believe that the movie is about the relationship Timmy has with a wayward former golfer and instructor played by Gary Sinise. It's not. Sinise is on-screen less than 5 minutes total. In the end, however, the movie ends up falling short of its promise. There's unnecessary stuff thrown in - a molestation angle that seems way out of place and a very forced "Racist old white guy yells at a black employee!" scene there to show that Timmy's dad will stand up for himself unlike what we'd seen before. The point is needed, the scene is just badly done. Anyway, this is a decent little movie but could have been a lot more. 6/10.

The Whale

Narrated by Ryan Reynolds, The Whale tells the story of Luna, an orca separated from his pod decided to befriend a small town on the Nootka Sound. Luna's behavior is truly remarkable - very puppy-like. He would bring sticks to people to play, roll over to be pet, sing/talk to people, and play with their boats. This movie tells Luna's story as well as the controversy and conflict over what exactly to DO with Luna. His behavior isn't always safe - he flipped over kayaks and damaged some boats and his penchant for play next to boats was also dangerous to himself. So we also get the telling of the several-years long disagreement between multiple factions all wanting what is best for Luna but disagreeing on how to get there. And the movie is very balanced in the telling of that story, which is remarkable in itself. This is truly an amazing movie just for all the footage of Luna in action. So remarkable to see a wild animal behaving in that fashion. The narration from Reynolds is pretty overly-dramatic in a low-key way, seeking to constantly ask quasi-mystical/spiritual questions about the nature of the universe or something. Whatever. Ignore him, watch the whale footage and be enthralled. For those familiar with the story, yes, this movie was made after the conclusion of Luna's story. 9/10.

Terms and Conditions May Apply

An alarmist documentary on the state of privacy in the age of Google, Facebook, and pervasive monitoring. The movie has a very obvious slant to it but does a very effective job of scaring the crap out of the viewer when it comes to data, privacy, and government overreach. This is a movie every internet user and legislator should watch, without a doubt. Generally well made, too. 8/10.

Boys Don't Cry

The movie that MADE Hilary Swank. Swank plays Teena Brandon, a gender-confused young woman taking on the persona and mannerisms of a man by the name of Brandon Teena. As Brandon, she meets and falls in love with Lana, played by Chloe Sevigny. Lana learns of Brandon's deception but accepts him anyway. Lana's brother and friends? Not so much. This is a powerful movie about a subject that's still not talked about much today (gender confusion) let alone in 1999 when this was released. Swank is pretty amazing here. This is a risky role for her, playing a woman who can appear to be a man with few physical changes - the kind of thing that could stigmatize a Hollywood actress. She carries it off really well, and carries this movie all the way to the heartbreaking conclusion. Anyway, terrific movie with strong performances from Swank and Sevigny and well worth watching. 8/10.