Bullet Train (2022)

Despite its fair popularity, I wasn't particularly eager to see this. Perhaps a brief clip intrigued me; more likely, I added it to my Netflix list largely for variety. In any event, I felt like watching an action flick last night, and this was the first to come up.

Most of the 126 minutes do indeed take place on a bullet train in Japan. Focus is divided among various career criminals, generally called by their code names. If there's a main one, it's Ladybug (Brad Pitt), an operative who wants to take a more peaceable course, not least because he's had a streak of questionable luck. His remote mission control contact, Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock), tells him to swipe a briefcase full of cash -- which assassin duo Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) have been assigned to get to their ruthless boss, the White Death (Michael Shannon), in addition to delivering his wayward son (Logan Lerman). Meanwhile, gangster Yuichi (Andrew Koji) has boarded to kill the Prince (Joey King, heh) for hospitalizing his young son, but the tricky Prince plans to coerce him to kill the White Death -- using the same darn briefcase. And they're not the only ones who show up.

The Mule (2018)

This doesn't seem to have been talked about much since it was brand new. If any aspect stands out, it's the fact that Clint Eastwood has made only one feature since, and that one bombed, whereas TM was reported halfway decent. I chose to watch it largely because it looked different from a bunch of my most recent viewings.

Earl (Eastwood), despite an illustrious ongoing career in horticulture, is hurting for money. At the advice of a "friend of a friend," he gets a shady job transporting bags he's advised not to open. I'm not sure how soon he realizes that his employer is a drug cartel, but he gets surprised at just how much they're entrusting to him. Elderly Anglos with no record even of parking violations make unlikely suspects, so he becomes an MVP, with a lot more comfort than certain other mules. But not everyone in the business is willing to accommodate an employee who doesn't follow strict rules, and one sass to the wrong guy could put him in a trunk. Meanwhile, two DEA agents (Bradley Cooper and Michael Peña) are closing in with help from a reluctant informant (Eugene Cordero), albeit too gradually for the patience of their supervisor (Laurence Fishburne).

Nyad (2023)

I knew almost nothing going in, except that Netflix recommended it when I asked for a yet-unavailable Oscar nominee. It has a higher IMDb rating than several other suggestions, tho 7.1 is still pretty low as these things go.

Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) gained fame in the '70s for setting distance swim records. Most of the movie is set in the 2010s, when she's in her early 60s. To fight boredom, she starts swimming again. In fact, she plans to do what she failed to do at 28 and what no one else has done: swim from Cuba to Key West. Few people have any confidence that she can, but her determination wins support, however shaky, from close friend Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) and navigator John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans). Indeed, Diana gets a boat with dozens of people to sail alongside her for food, drink, medicine, defense against sharks, and rescue if needed. It's as expensive as it is dangerous, yet she'll try as many times as it takes to reach the goal or die. You've probably guessed correctly that this story wouldn't be told unless she made it, albeit on the fifth attempt.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)

I liked the three short Marcel web videos from the early 2010s, but the announcement of this movie caught me by surprise. The shorts mostly consisted of monologues with almost no plot and rarely a second character on screen. How could the makers fill 90 minutes? When I saw that the answer was streaming on Netflix, I immediately opted to find out.

Marcel (Jenny Slate) is a walnut-sized seashell with one eye, a mouth, two stubby legs, humanlike language capacity, and a childlike demeanor. He's been living with grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) at an Airbnb, unnoticed by humans until amateur documentarian Dean Fleischer Camp (as himself, more or less) moves in, discovers him, and persuades him to star in the aforementioned YouTube series. After gaining a fandom, Marcel hopes anew to find the rest of his large family, who were accidentally packed up when prior tenant Mark (Thomas Mann) left in a hurry. Imagine his dismay to learn how large the world is and how unhelpful most fans are.

Gran Turismo (2023)

I first assumed that this would be a video game movie in the usual sense, but the subtitle "Based on a True Story" told me otherwise. Like the same year's Tetris, it pertains to a game series but is not an adaptation thereof. That would explain its relative popularity.

British youth Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) has played the eponymous racing sim obsessively, to the annoyance of his father, former soccer pro Steve (Djimon Hounsou), who thinks it'll never be useful. Imagine their surprise when Jann's record arcade score yields an invitation from Nissan marketing exec Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom, looking like Tom Hiddleston) to enter another race to qualify for the new GT Academy, which hopes to turn a player into a real world-class racecar driver, albeit with a PlayStation controller-based steering wheel. Yup, a gamer bro's dream come true. But the path to stardom involves a lot more challenges than in The Wizard -- not to mention physical danger.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

In the wake of the Academy Awards, I feel a little more motivated to watch the nominees. This was the only one playing at a nearby theater this week, apart from Oppenheimer. The showing included closed captioning, which suited me fine given the accents.

Novelist Sandra (Sandra Hüller) and her preteen son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), find her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), dead of a head injury outside their French alpine lodge, evidently having fallen from a higher floor. No eyewitnesses to the event come forward. Investigators discover enough fishy details to cast doubt on the idea of an accident. Sandra's lawyer friend, Vincent (Swann Arlaud), advises a focus on the possibility of a suicide, while the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz) at her trial leans heavily on the likelihood that she killed Samuel. Daniel testifies in her favor, but his word carries only so much weight. (Funny how almost all the characters have first names spelled the same in English.)

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Wow, when was the last time a new movie had this much up-front popularity? Going by both IMDb and general social circles, I'd say 2003, with The Return of the King. Of course, it's been released only a week in the states, so I don't assume lasting momentum. But between its initial reception and my appreciation of the first part, I saw fit to check it out almost ASAP.

In keeping with where we left off, young adult Duke Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) now walks among the desert-dwelling Fremen, with his clan's killers initially uncertain whether Paul still lives. He and the Fremen are warring to stop House Harkonnen from taking over spice operations on Planet Arrakis. His mom, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) look forward to Paul awakening as the prophesied messianic Kwisatz Haderach, but most Fremen don't believe it. And Paul hopes to avoid it, because his own spice-induced visions appear to foretell consequent mass devastation more than salvation.

The Next Three Days (2010)

I had previously seen only one thing directed by Paul Haggis, Crash. Clearly, he's had trouble keeping up that kind of momentum. He hasn't even written or produced anything released since 2018. But this one looked halfway promising. It's also about to stop streaming on Netflix, so I gave it priority.

In Pittsburgh, Lara (Elizabeth Banks) gets arrested on the charge of murdering her boss, whom she didn't get along with. Few besides husband John (Russell Crowe) believe she even might be innocent, based on evidence and lack thereof. After three years, when it looks like there won't be another appeal, John starts plotting to bust her out, with no willful accomplices. His deadline moves up when she's set to be transferred in, yup, three days....

Maestro (2023)

My parents recommended this to me. I obliged partly because it was easy to find streaming. It actually has the lowest IMDb score of all current Best Picture nominees, but it still looked more promising for me personally than some of the others.

The story follows Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) from his big break conducting the New York Philharmonic in the 1940s to a retrospective interview in the 1980s, with a bit of skipping. The emphasis lies on his relationship with Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), whom he marries and has three kids with despite his preference for men. She's not just a "beard" to him; he does love her, at least sometimes. But his extramarital affairs aren't discreet enough to prevent rumors, and they and his heavy smoking and drinking start to drive a wedge between him and Felicia.

Mean Girls (2004)

That's right, the original, not the musical currently in theaters. I had no desire to see it when it debuted, but people have continued to make references to it. Then I put it on my Netflix list and kept passing it over. What finally persuaded me? A limited DVD selection at the Red Cross while I gave platelets. (That unit was having technical difficulties with streaming.)

Cady (Lindsay Lohan) has been homeschooled up until age 16, leaving her good at grades but naive about the social environment at her new high school. Her first friends are outcasts, Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), who warn her about the elitist clique known as the Plastics, especially leader Regina (Rachel McAdams), Janis's former friend. Nevertheless, when the Plastics invite Cady to join, she doesn't resist. Janis sees this as a golden opportunity to learn dirt on them and possibly engineer revenge. Cady agrees after discovering how bad Regina is -- and then comes dangerously close to becoming just like her.

Elemental (2023)

This got such a lukewarm reception that I might have waited decades to watch if not for the Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination. Then I thought about how it's not reportedly controversial like Wish or Turning Red. At the very least, I knew it would be visually interesting in a way reminiscent of Inside Out.

Element City has long been home to beings made of liquid water, clouds, and a combination of soil and plants, but it has little accommodation or patience for its latest immigrants, the fire folk, who mostly live in a district on the outskirts. Protagonist Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), a second-gen resident, expects to take over the general store that her ailing father, Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen), founded. But upon a surprise visit, Inspector Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), obviously a water man, discovers enough plumbing violations that he feels obliged to have the place shut down. Ember's pleading changes his mind only after he's sent his report, and together they take it up with his employer, cloud woman Gale Cumulus (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who agrees to ignore the report as long as they can finish Wade's assigned project of fixing a canal leak within a few days.

Nimona (2023)

My inclusion of this on my Netflix list was quite tentative. The ad had looked only so promising, and I hadn't heard of the graphic novel on which it's based. But the Academy has nominated it for Best Animated Feature, and I've seen only two other nominees for the year so far.

The main setting looks like a near-future metropolis, except that knights in shining armor are still around, sworn to protect the realm from magical threats. Sir Ballister "Bal" Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) stands out as the first commoner ever to be knighted, facing mixed reactions. At the knighting ceremony, his sword fires a laser beam and kills the queen (Lorraine Toussaint). Seemingly everyone else, even boyfriend Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang), presumes he intended as much. (It doesn't help that he sports black armor and facial hair.) Bal escapes and lies low, trying to figure out a way to clear his name. The first entity to find him is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), who usually presents as a fangy teen girl but is actually an ancient, super-speedy shapeshifter. As a fellow vilified outcast, she insists on being his sidekick in whatever he plans next.

DC League of Super-Pets (2022)

I didn't expect to see another movie that begins with the last day of Krypton so soon, but Netflix announced that it would stop streaming this month. (I get Max now; it just takes me a little longer to set up.) DCLoSP didn't tempt me when it was in theaters, if only because nobody I knew was talking about it, but it does get decent ratings across sites, along with a number of minor award nominations and one win. It seemed apt for light fare to pass the time.

Krypto (Dwayne Johnson), the last dog of Krypton, likes saving the day with owner Superman (John Krasinski) but becomes overly jealous of the attention Supes lavishes on Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde). In his sulking, he's late to notice Superman's abduction by Lulu (Kate McKinnon), a hairless guinea pig who'd been a like-minded lab subject to Lex Luthor (Marc Maron). Lulu has gotten her paws on orange kryptonite, which bestows random superpowers -- in her case, strong telekinesis -- on nonhuman animals, and tricked Krypto into swallowing just enough green kryptonite to depower him for most of the 105-minute runtime. Her platoon of guinea pigs with other powers apprehends the rest of the Justice League in a bid to take over the world. Fortunately, she has betrayed four other critters in the pet shop, who are now willing to use their incidental powers to team up on Krypto's rescue mission. They just have to get the hang of it fast, because Lulu will wait only so long to kill the Justice League.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

I wanted to see this the moment I learned that it was the first feature directed by Hayao Miyazaki since he semi-retired a decade ago. I didn't bother to look up much else about it. The reputed semi-autobiographical nature led me to suspect another realistic story like The Wind Rises, but only the first act could pass for realistic.

In World War II, when Mahito is a preteen or early teen, his mother dies in a fire. Following Japanese tradition, his father marries her pregnant sister, Natsuko, and moves from Tokyo to her country home, where a bunch of seniors also live. Traumatized Mahito isn't keen on his new classmates or his new maternal figure, but he does take interest in a ruined building in the nearby woods. Moreover, a mysterious gray heron seeks his attention with increasingly abnormal behaviors, provoking curiosity and spite. When Natsuko disappears into the woods and no one can find her for hours, Mahito decides to follow the heron, fully expecting a demonic trap.

In the Line of Fire (1993)

I had seen a few allusions to this picture, primarily back in the '90s. Perhaps it would prove no more of a classic than the same year's Cliffhanger. But it was one of the few titles on my Netflix list to grab me at the moment and not be too much like anything I'd seen lately. Besides, it was due to stop streaming soon.

Decades after not preventing the JFK assassination, Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is still in the Secret Service. He and junior Agent Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott) investigate the apartment of a man (John Malkovich) who has reportedly shown signs of plotting a new presidential assassination. That man goes by multiple names but prefers "Booth" -- as he tells Horrigan in one of many hard-to-trace calls. Seems Booth is even more obsessed with Horrigan than with the commander in chief (Jim Curley), claiming a sort of kinship with an agent who got a raw deal but also taunting him for potential cowardice. As Horrigan struggles to find out who Booth is and when he'll strike, the chief of staff (Fred Thompson!) opposes the security measures Horrigan wants, because it's a bad look for the presidential campaign.

Man of Steel (2013)

When this came out, I got the impression of a middling reception that didn't live up to the hype. More recently, I've seen it counted among the more popular DC Comics non-Batman movies. Perhaps Dark Knight Trilogy writers Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer helped. It was time for an informed opinion.

You might see this as something of a remake of both Superman: The Movie and Superman II, minus Lex Luthor. It begins with the birth of Kal-El shortly before riding away from the explosion of his home planet, Krypton. When we first see him as an adult on Earth going by Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) among other names, he hasn't started calling himself Superman, wearing the iconic costume, saving the day regularly, or even reporting news for the Daily Planet; he's just working odd jobs and vanishing whenever someone catches him using his powers. Reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) tracks him down just as he discovers the answers of his origin left for him by his father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe). But her testimony isn't what really draws the world's attention to the existence of ETs, because a group of renegade Kryptonians under General Zod (Michael Shannon) publicly demands that Kal-El be turned over. You see, Jor-El sent a crucial MacGuffin with him to prevent Zod from kickstarting a "pure" society....