Two oldies and a brand spanking new movie made the cut this weekend. All were very solid choices, and varying genres! I squeezed in a comedy, some action, and drama into a very short time frame and it was exceptionally enjoyable.
First up, I decided to dust of an old comedy from 2011, Our Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd and an incredible ensemble cast. I recall watching this movie right around when it came out, but it didn’t really make a mark, probably because I was expecting slap-stick comedy from Paul Rudd. After re-watching I realized it was about so much more than that. Sure, Ned caused some drama within his sisters’ lives, but it was also so obvious how much Ned was used by everyone besides his mother. It all works out in the end for Ned and his dog, Willie Nelson, though. Ultimately a feel-good film.
Saturday night I decided to revisit John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, mainly because I’m pretty sure I fell asleep for a short bit in the middle of this film the first time around. That was certainly not because it was boring, I assure you! I believe I saw this at the latest showing on a Friday night and there were approximately ten people in the theater. Not really conducive for staying alert. Either way, there’s not much to tell with the John Wick films. It’s just him shooting and beating the crap out of a ton of people for a whole two hours. It’s entertaining as hell, though! This film picks up an hour after the end of the second installment, where he killed someone in the Continental. That means he’s excumminicado, and there’s a $15 million bounty on his head. He’s got some favors to call in throughout the film, so that lends some originality to this one. Very violent and enjoyable (and Keanu Reeves sure makes it easy to watch, too)!
Lastly, I watched a new HBO film, Bad Education. Based on a true story, this film follows Superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) and his assistant superintendent Pam Gluck (Allison Janney), as they try to keep their years-long embezzlement of school funds under wraps. To no avail, might I add, but that seemed pretty obvious. Frank is so pleasant and accomplished to the public, but lives an incredibly private life as a gay man who’s cheating on his long-term partner. He’s using his embezzled funds on cosmetic procedures and multiple houses. Pam on the other hand, is buying fancy cars and making massive improvements to her home. A student of the school paper is the one who starts really digging and discovers this heinous crime. Sadly, neither Frank nor Pam seem all that guilty about what’s they’d done. Which ended up amounting to $11 million stolen from school taxpayers. The fact that this kind of thing still happens to day is insane!
Like I said, all of these movies were great! Two of them I’d seen previously, so I obviously didn’t have low expectations for them. I was more impressed with Our Idiot Brother and Bad Education, but for vastly different reasons. The first was mainly due to the incredible cast that I was apparently sleeping on almost ten years ago, while the latter was recounting a scandal I knew nothing about. Also, just darn good acting from both casts! You really can’t go wrong watching any of these films, and I actually highly recommend fitting them in soon!