The Harder They Fall (2021)

The Harder They Fall (2021)

Netflix Original

Director:

Jeymes Samuel

Writers:

Jeymes Samuel

Boaz Yakin

Starring:

Jonathan Majors

Idris Elba

Zazie Beetz

RJ Cyler

Edi Gathegi

Danielle Deadwyler

Regina King

LaKeith Stanfield

Delroy Lindo

Blurb:

When an outlaw discovers his enemy is being released from prison, he reunites his gang to seek revenge in this Western.

Review:

I’ve been looking forward to The Harder They Fall since I saw the trailer. It mostly delivered on my expectations, however, it dragged in some bits and slowed the pacing down. I would have liked it if the romance had been more hinted at instead of explored. I don’t particularly care about romance in a western because the genre is already filled with so much. The romance of the lone gunslinger coming in and saving the town. In this case, though, the gunslinger had a small group of friends, which still worked in my opinion. However, they didn’t save the town. I was surprised at that route and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Was the town too corrupt? It didn’t seem that way, so I’m not sure why that decision was made.

There were several tropes that were inverted and I liked that a lot. I also LOVED how they depicted the white town. It was hilarious. I was kind of bummed that the second friend ended up dying. You already knew the young one was going to, he was too cocky to live in that kind of world. I also did not like the reveal at the end, which was not needed at all. Bad guys in westerns don’t need motivation other than being bad.

I liked the ending (I love Regina King’s character) and I’m hoping that there’s a sequel that works on fixing the things I disliked. This is the kind of western I enjoy, one that’s not super artsy, though, The Harder They Fall did have its moments.

3.5/5

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

David Koepp

Starring:

Jeff Goldblum

Julianne Moore

Pete Postlethwaite

Arliss Howard

Richard Attenborough

Vince Vaughn

Blurb:

A research team is sent to the Jurassic Park Site B island to study the dinosaurs there, while an InGen team approaches with another agenda.

Thoughts:

I wasn’t as much a fan of The Lost World as my partner was. He liked the added aspect of the dinosaurs winding up on the mainland, while I thought the movie dragged on too long. I think that’s a complaint I have with a lot of movies as I get older. Some of them I’m all for the added length, but a lot of them could do with some tighter editing.

Jeff Goldblum was, of course, awesome. Vince Vaughn felt random, but that’s because The Lost World was early in his career and it’s not the route he took with his later movies. So it was odd seeing him in a serious roll. I didn’t like Juilianna Moore’s character as much as the previous female role. She was a bit stupid for someone who was supposed to be so smart. Walking around with blood on her jacket? Come on woman.

The ending was one of those that dragged on too long. There was the obvious ending of them getting off the island, but then they did the extended wind up on the mainland. The mainland stuff was fun and for the most part I liked it, but I wish they’d gotten rid of some stuff on the island to make it shorter.

Also, how dare they kill Toby from the West Wing!

It wasn’t until I was writing this blog post that I realized the movie came out in ‘97 and not ‘95 like I had it listed in my excel spreadsheet, so it will be posted out of order. Mistakes happen so I’ll let it slide. I’ll try to check before watching from now on, though.

A Goofy Movie (1995)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

A Goofy Movie (1995)

Director:

Kevin Lima

Writers:

Jymn Magon

Chris Matheson

Brian Pimental

Starring:

Bill Farmer

Jason Marsden

Jim Cummings

Kellie Martin

Rob Paulsen

Wallace Shawn

Tevin Campbell

Blurb:

When Max makes a preposterous promise to a girl he has a crush on, his chances to fulfilling it seem hopeless when he is dragged onto a cross-country trip with his embarrassing father, Goofy.

Thoughts:

I watch this movie for the songs. I never owned it growing up but I still have the songs memorized because they are just so awesome. Disney missed out on not releasing an album of just Powerline songs. I had his band t-shirt that Target sold. The songs are perfectly 90s.

The story is cute too, it is, after all, a Disney movie. Again, though, the songs mannnnn. Sorry, not sorry.

Sadly, the movie is not available on Blu-ray, but it is on DVD and Disney+.

Disney Toybox Star-Lord T’Challa

Holy cow I was not expecting this figure, but I’m so happy they did it. I’ve only seen a few episodes of What if? but I really liked this episode. Peter Quill is such a fuck up so it was cool to see just how different things would have been with T’Challa as Star-Lord.

What I particularly love about this figure is the second head. While it looks creepy in the packaging, I thought they missed a big opportunity by not doing something like this with the Black Panther figure. At that point, there had been no people of color figures released in the line. Now we’ve had Sam as Captain America, but that’s it. The entire Toybox collection is lacking in people of color. Finn was another missed opportunity in the Star Wars line. I’m not as pissed about that because the sequel trilogy sucks.

Anyway, here’s a new figure in time for Christmas. No idea how fast this will go, but there are shipping shortages everywhere so…

Sabrina (1995)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Sabrina (1995)

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers:

Samuel A. Taylor

Barbra Benedek

David Rayfiel

Starring:

Harrison Ford

Julia Ormond

Greg Kinnear

Blurb:

An ugly duckling having undergone a remarkable change, still harbors feelings for her crush: a carefree playboy, but not before his business-focused brother has something to say about it.

Thoughts:

I’m not sure why I own this version of Sabrina. I prefer the 1954 version with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. The ‘95 version must have been on sale or something. It’s a fine movie, but not one I have to own. Since I do and it’s digital I guess I’m not getting rid of it.

Harrison Ford is horrible at romance. Then again, so was Humphrey Bogart. There isn’t much chemistry between the two leads, again the same as the older one. Sabrina is very easily manipulated and I think that’s why I prefer the older version. I remember her getting angrier at Bogart than Ormond gets at Ford. In this version, Sabrina is very much riding along and doesn’t do much for herself. She’s supposed to be this well of sage advice, but I’m not sure why Ford would even listen to her.

Oh well. It’s a nice background movie.