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Reviews
Captain Fantastic (2016)
Ben and his children road trip on Steve the bus, to perform Leslie's last wish.
Takeaway? Parenting should be a balance of conventional and unconventional methods.
For a decade Ben and wife Leslie lived off the grid on WA National Forest Land with their six children, passing their ideals to their children. E.g., western society is fascist, especially corporate America. They all are self-reliant, and all have great survival skills, socialist beliefs, and high IQs. But they are unprepared for society.
Leslie is bipolar, is hospitalised and commits suicide. Ben and his children road trip on Steve the bus, to recover Leslie's body and perform her last wish.
"What's wrong with everyone? Are they sick? Everyone's so fat. Fat like hippos... We don't make fun of people. Except Christians.... Sweet love of mine."
Carol (2015)
Hated the constant smoking.
Road film? Not. There is a short road trip from NYC to Chicago, w/ mostly motel scenes.
It's about a 1950s same sex love affair between a middle-aged, wealthy, soon-to-be divorcee, and a young photographer. I didn't mind the same sex theme, but their obvious differences in class and background made Carol seem creepy and predator-like. The only way most will watch this is if you're laid up in bed with the remote out of reach.
Buddymoon (2016)
Everyone should have a friend like Flula.
David gets dumped by his fiancé days before his wedding, but Flula insists he & David go on the honeymoon - a 7-day hike through OR mountains.
Flula quotes: (I like) fast lunches and hard hikes. David, I'm fighting time. In 60 years I'll be dust and molecules. So suck it time.
Lots of nice natural surroundings, with lots of sophomoric humour & ridiculous Flula optimism. Silly, but I liked it. And where did they find those sleeping bags??
Blue Bus (2010)
A film for an older crowd.
68-yr old August finds his friend's old blue VW in his driveway with a note of a dying wish - for August to roadtrip to New Orleans. So off he went. Everybody must have some sort of a blue bus trip. Joey laughed a LOT.
Bass Ackwards (2010)
At times boring, but ended with a feel good, positive outlook on life.
I'm glad I stayed with this quirky movie till the end.
Linas has an affair with a married woman, she dumps him, he gets kicked out of his friends' apartment, so he leaves Seattle and heads to his childhood home in Boston to regroup, in an old modified VW van he found abandoned at a llama farm. Reviews said the film was, "lyrical...comedic," but to me the first half was strange and boring. Linas has a van so why is he renting rooms for the night? His dad asks him where is he? and Linas said, "MT...WI, I mean WY." ?? This schlub opened his van door to a complete stranger cuz the stranger wanted to sleep in his van. And then they became best friends. ?
We root for our hero to make it cross country before his charismatic van - old / rusty / chopped to make shorter / slanted / dented / sputtering, goes belly up. The van was a metaphor about life being imperfect, but through persistence and hopefulness, we gain acceptance and open ourselves to other experiences. The van was a symbol of love, sadness and anger that everyone can relate to. The journey represented healing.
Debuted at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in a category for innovative, original, independent and low-and-no-budget. Spoiler - the van makes it. Instrumental score - 👍,
Backcountry (2014)
Watch to learn what not to do.
Loosely based on the true 2005 story of a man-eating black bear in the backcountry of Missinaibi Lake Provincial Park, Ontario.
A couple become lost with no map, no cell phone, no GPS, no plan, no bear spray, and no backcountry smarts. I.e., A black bear eats their food because they didn't hang it or use a bear keg. It was frustrating to watch due to their massive unpreparedness.
Australia (2008)
A historical epic like Gone with the Wind.
The first half is an old time western, and the second half is a WWII weeper. Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from Britain to Australia and reluctantly joins forces with Drover, a rugged local (Hugh Jackman), to set out on a cattle drive across 1500 miles of harsh Australian terrain to sell her cattle in Darwin and to save her ranch. A few years later they contend with the same Japanese bombers that rained hell on Pearl Harbor. I agree it, lurches drunkenly from crazy comedy to melodrama in the space of a couple of scenes. Long, but entertaining.
Ass Backwards (2013)
Loveable grownup losers
Kate and Chloe receive an invitation to a beauty pageant's anniversary celebration that as children they tied for dead last. The best friends decide to redeem themselves and take a roadtrip back to their hometown and win the crown. Silly, stupid and crass as a male counterpart to Dumb and Dumber or Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Spoiler - they still don't win.
ABCD: American-Born Confused Desi (2013)
2 spoiled men learn about India
ABCD refers to South Asian Americans born and raised in the USA, in contrast to those who were born overseas and later settled in the USA.
Two spoiled young men: Johns, son of a billionaire, and his cousin Korah, whose mother left for Paris with her new husband, enjoy their luxurious life in NYC. After a disco fight, Johns's dad sends the boys to India for safety, telling them it's a vacation. But Dad blocks their credit cards, by which they must live and attend college through poverty. They tell their college mates they opted for this lifestyle to learn about their motherland. Their made up story gives them celebrity status and they become famous.
About Schmidt (2002)
Before you retire, watch this.
Soon after Jack Nickelson retires, his wife dies. So he takes a solo journey in his new Winnebago. Carpe Diem.
A Perfect Getaway (2009)
beautiful beautiful scenery
An hour in this movie it took a 180 turn. All-star cast - Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovoch and pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth. A seemingly naive couple honeymoon and hike on Kauai's Napali Coast. They encounter other couples along the way who talk about a series of murders on other islands. Beautiful beautiful scenery, but paradise? It's not.
A Good Year (2006)
So boring I quit ½ way through.
London banker Max (Russell Crowe) inherits his uncle's (Albert Finney) vineyard in Provence, France, where he spent many childhood vacas. A CA woman tells Max she is his long-lost cousin and that the property is hers. Found something else to watch half way through.
A Frosty Affair (2015)
A dictionary adjective for rom-com IS cheesy, but I enjoyed it.
Mikey P from Letterboxd.com wrote, "for once it's not about a woman magazine editor living in NYC who has to come back to her country hometown only to get with the local cowboy who has nothing in common with her except abs." LOL
Kate quit teaching in her small Canadian town to move back to the big city for her wedding. A blizzard strikes, the airport and roads are closed, so Redford reluctantly becomes Kate's wilderness guide to the city though the COLD woods. Kate was an annoying know-it-all, a doormat for groping coworkers, and a demanding princess when the weather didn't bow to her will. Predictable, slapstick humor, silly, shallow, completely unrealistic moments. The gay fur trapper was funny.
Gerry (2002)
It's a film that stays with you long after you watched it
Starring and co-written by Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. Two hiking companions, both named Gerry, get lost while day hiking. Allegedly, Damon, Affleck and brother Ben coined the term 'Gerry' long before the movie had been named. E.g., slang meaning, "to screw up."
Like they went hiking in the desert, WITHOUT ANY WATER.
The dialogue ranged from sparse to nonexistent. Beautiful scenery. I enjoyed the first half and even laughed out loud when Casey was rock marooned. But then it turned dark. The film's plot shares commonalities with real events surrounding the 1999 death of David Coughlin, who was mercy killed by his friend after the two became lost in Rattlesnake Canyon in New Mexico.
Take Me to Pitcairn (2013)
"Ambition satisfied. Box ticked."
Britain Julian McDonnell attempts to visit one of the most infamous fugitive islands in British naval history - the 1790 tale of Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty. Julian discovers he is not alone in his quest to reach one of the most remote islands on the planet. He met Captain Nuts who set off to re-create Captain Bligh's voyage after the mutiny, but Julian set off to follow in the footsteps of the mutineers. Soon history was repeating itself. 50 people live on this island today, all descendents of the British mutineer sailors (and their Tahitian wives) who ran away after hijacking The Bounty. LOL moments. I want more Julian McDonnell Films. 56m