Many people are shocked to find out I have never seen any of the John Wick movies. The first one came out in 2014 and as I’m not the biggest fan of strong violence and wasn’t a critic then I didn’t watch it. Then by the time I was reviewing films as a professional critic it was 2019 and the 3rd movie was coming out. It’s overwhelming to catch up on so many movies so I just never watched them. Now for this blind spot series I have seen the first movie from 2014.

I think the biggest asset you can take away from John Wick (2014) is the old adage to keep it simple stupid. Action movies these days have often gotten increasingly convoluted with AI, staring at screens and other mumbo-jumbo. This makes something like John Wick appealing. It’s a simple revenge story where a hitman is on a rampage after his wife is killed as well as their beloved puppy. We don’t get deep inside John or learn much about who he is or what he wants out of life. His motivations are simple, pure and easy to understand.

The one thing did surprise me, however, is how much of the movie takes place at night or in dimly lit night clubs. This is no doubt due to the small budget of 20-30 million as dark scenes camouflage a lot of flaws. For the most part this works with the overall aesthetic as John Wick is the hitman in black with a gun but it did negate some of the wow power of these scenes for me at least.

You could also feel the budget in the cheap stock footage they use for the transitions of New York City but all that doesn’t matter because John is a compelling character and has a simple yet satisfying arc. I mean they killed his beloved dog! Who can’t root for such a man?

7 out of 10

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JFK is one of those films that if you miss when it first comes out it’s hard to catch up on because it is so long and detailed. It’s not every day you have time for a detailed 3 hour investigative true story thriller but that’s what makes this Blind Spot series fun because I can finally check off some of these classics off my list. It’s a challenging film to write about because so much happens and there are so many characters but it was a fascinating watch nonetheless.

In the film DA Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) starts an investigation into the JFK killer because they aren’t convinced it was actually Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman.) We then follow Garrison as he interviews suspects, witnesses and more trying to figure out what actually happened and what they present is pretty compelling.

It almost plays out like a documentary the way interviews are laid out and real footage is mixed in with the actors. There is also a fantastic supporting cast including Cissy Spacek, Laurie Metcalf, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon and more. While it is a long movie it felt more like a documentary than a fictional narrative and I mean that as a compliment.

In JFK we also have a film that is very well edited and directed with everyone feeding off of Costner’s energy and compelling leading performance. Most importantly it’s just an interesting topic. On one hand it’s easy to dismiss as conspiracy theories but the longer they are laid out for us the more convincing it is.

I can see why Robert Richardson won an Oscar for cinematography on this film. It is extremely well shot and again the way it combined old and new footage is very effective.

By the end it really feels like there is more to this story than The Warren Report let on. The whole thing is just fascinating! Also this is far better than Oliver Stone’s other historical films which makes it worth a rental.

It’s a super entertaining enriching film. Check it out!

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

 

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Happy New Year! I hope you are all doing well. If you missed it over on my channel I posted my video of the Best Movies of 2023:

I would also like to announce my next 12 picks for my Blind Spot series. I have been now  doing this series for over 7 years and am going to record my 100th entry in the series soon. Each year I try and pick a variety of films to keep the series fun for me and hopefully for the readers as well. I tried to do the same this year with some comedy, cult classics, popular favorites and more I have somehow missed seeing along the way. If any of you want to participate in Blind Spot please do! I would love to see your takes on films you’ve missed.

So here goes:

January- JFK by Oliver Stone

This is one of those films I’ve heard much praise for but just never had the chance to see. It follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Was it a conspiracy or a one-man job? The cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman and Kevin Costner is great so I’m looking forward to seeing it.

February- Love Story by Arthur Hiller

I love a romance but I’m not as high on romantic weepies which is probably why I’ve never seen Love Story. This classic story of young love was a huge hit at the box office when it came out and made 173 million on a 2 million budget. I’ve heard it’s well done so I’m intrigued to finally check it off my list.

March- John Wick by Chad Stahelski

Yes I have never seen John Wick. I don’t love violence in film and I’d heard this one was pretty brutal so I missed it and then it became this phenomenon, so it is finally time for me to watch this action series and see what all the fuss is about. Let’s go!

April- The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Sergio Leone

In 2023 I watched A Fistful of Dollars for blind spot and I enjoyed it, so I decided to put another Sergio Leone classic on the docket for this year- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. We will see how this spaghetti western compares!

May- Seven Days in May by John Frankenheimer

I love a good political thriller and I’ve heard lots of praise for 1964’s Seven Days in May. The narratives can build up tension well and be very entertaining. The cast on this one is outstanding including Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Ava Gardner. I look froward to checking it out

 June- The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles (kind of)

The story behind The Magnificent Ambersons is probably more famous than the movie itself. The fact that the studio cut an hour off of director Orson Welles’ film and shot a new ending is pretty terrible. It’s why I haven’t watched it yet but I think it will be interesting to see what the studio came up with. It is just one of those movies a film critic eventually needs to watch and now is as good a time as any.

July- Deadpool by Tim Miller

Yes, I have never seen the original Deadpool. The only Deadpool I’ve seen is Once Upon a Deadpool and I hated it. As I said with John Wick I’m not the biggest fan of gratuitous violence, and I have a feeling the sense of humor in this won’t be my thing but I’ll try and keep an open mind. With Deadpool 3 being the only MCU release in 2024 in theaters it’s time to watch the original and see what I think.

August- Far from the Madding Crowd by John Schlesinger

I love the version of Madding Crowd from 2015 with Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts and feel it is one of the more underrated films of the 2010s. When I say that people have often told me the version from 1967 starring Julie Christie is better so we’ll see what I think. I bet I will like both versions better than the book, which I didn’t care for much at all.

September- The Plague Dogs by Martin Rosen

There honestly aren’t that many animated blind spots I have left. At least without diving into series I’ve watched most of the classics of the medium. One I haven’t seen, however, is The Plague Dogs which is from the same team that did Watership Down in 1978. I’m sure this dog /war film will be intense but it should be compelling.

October- The Thing by John Carpenter

I try to push myself out of my comfort zone for the October blind spot watch but in 2023 I might have gone too far with Trick R Treat. It wasn’t for me. In 2024 we will see if John Carpenter’s classic The Thing is more my jam. I liked his Halloween so it should be a fascinating watch.

November- Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life by Terry Jones

It’s perhaps surprising I’ve never seen this Monty Python classic because I love Holy Grail so much but it’s true. I know this has a big vomit joke which I hate (I have a very easy gag reflex) but hopefully other jokes will work better for me.

December- It Happened on Fifth Avenue by Roy Del Ruth

Like with animation, there aren’t that many holiday films I haven’t seen but It Happened on Fifth Avenue is one of them. I’ve heard it’s very funny, sweet and got all the Christmas feels which is enough to get me interested.

So there you have it! My blind spot picks for 2024. What do you think of these films? Have you seen them? 

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In a way it’s kind of amazing it has taken me this long to check off Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight in this blind spot project. It’s a movie I have heard about for years and is a favorite of many of my friends but I just never got around to seeing it. A lot of my blind spots are rated R films from the 90s and earlier because growing up I didn’t watch mature films. It really wasn’t until around 2012 that I realized the rating system was dumb and began challenging myself with more adult content in my media.

It’s funny because this trailer for Out of Sight makes it seem like it’s practically a rom-com and it is a very sexy movie but the relationship is more of a side-story rather than the main focus of the film. I would think of it more as a sexy version of Oceans 11 than a rom-com  (Soderbergh also directed George Clooney in the Oceans films.)

It’s funny because Jennifer Lopez plays the least likely person to be named Karen ever in a film…but her role is as a US Marshall who is forced into a trunk with Clooney’s Jack Foley as he escapes from prison. They then end up in a tit-for-tat with each other over the course of several years. The two actors do have sizzling chemistry and the main sex scene is very spicy but it all works for the story.

One of the strongest aspects of this film is the atmosphere and tone Soderbergh along with his cinematographer Elliot Davis creates. It looks great and all the characters ooze with cool and a slick style that draws you into the story. It reminded me of Pulp Fiction without Tarantino’s more annoying qualities. These are people I am interested in that don’t seem concerned with crafting sound bites but instead making the next great deal and how good they look while doing it.

It’s interesting because Out of Sight was one of Lopez’s first roles and it showed a lot of potential she wouldn’t realize again (despite my enjoyment for her mostly terrible rom-coms) until Hustlers in 2019 (which I think was just an ok movie but she was good in it.) In this movie, however, she brings a strength to Karen that makes her a believable force alongside Clooney and the rest of the cast.

We also get memorable roles from Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Michael Keaton, Albert Brooks and more. Like I said, it’s a film that’s loaded with great atmosphere and panache which makes it a very engaging watch. I can see why it has gained a bit of a cult following and is a favorite of so many.

8 out of 10

Smile Worthy

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What people might not know about me is I love movies about work and work/life crisis. There is nothing I love more than an epic quit and a person who realizes their life is worth more than the misery of an unfulfilling job. Perhaps this is why I was attracted to the 2013 retelling (not really a remake) of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty– one of those films I had been interested in but had never gotten around to watching for some reason (what this blind spot project is for!) Well, not only did I see it over the last weekend, but I watched it and the Danny Kaye original with my good friends Jen and Stanford, and we had a wonderful time together.

I must admit was a bit distracted watching the 1947 original but from what I could gather it is quite different than the 2013 film and the only commonalities outside of the names are the daydreaming tendencies of the lead character. The new film is more of an existential crisis movie where the older movie is a screwball comedy meets mystery.

The new film gives us director and actor Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty who is unhappily working at Life Magazine where his only joy in life is his brief interactions with co-worker Cheryl played by Kristen Wiig. One day he loses a key negative for the magazine’s final print issue and he starts a journey through Greenland and Iceland to find the photographer played by Sean Penn.

The cinematography is a stand out (you’ll want to book your trip to Iceland after seeing the film) and like I said the themes of work and what motivates our lives always intrigues me and it was no different here. Walter is a character that is easy to relate with and there’s a voyeurism aspect to the film. We all wish we could find ourselves in Iceland in such a dramatic fashion don’t we?

The only thing I could have used more of in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is more insight into Walter himself. For a film about life and the human connection we don’t get in his head as much as I would like to. It’s funny the streaming service we watched the movie on suggested Stranger Than Fiction as a similar film, and I do think that film explores work in a more humorous and insightful way while getting more into the lead character, Harold Crick’s, inner-most thoughts and desires. We see the transition and growth of his character more than we do for Walter and so the experience is more moving.

Still, I’m glad I saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Particularly with some changes going on in my career at the moment its themes hit home and it gave me some courage to be bolder, more willing to embrace change instead of wanting to hide from it. If you haven’t seen it I’d recommend it and maybe if you are lucky you’ll have good friends to watch it with just like I did. I’m certainly blessed beyond measure.

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