True Romance (1993)

I rather liked this movie in young adulthood but totally forgot what happens in it, besides a happy ending. Since Quentin Tarantino wrote it, you know it's not just a romantic comedy/drama; it's an R-rated crime flick with antiheroes. At least having Tony Scott direct instead means there's no fixation on a woman's bare feet.

Detroit comic store clerk Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) hits it off with Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) before knowing she's a call girl hired by his employer as a birthday present. Nonetheless, she does fall for him, and they elope. Hearing how rotten her pimp Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman) is, Clarence confronts him, ends up killing him, and orders another call girl to pack Alabama's things. Only after Clarence takes the suitcase home does he see that it's full of stolen cocaine bags. He hopes to sell it fast in L.A., but he'll have to worry about getting tracked down by previous owners as well as police.

Man on Fire (2004)

Not to be confused with Man on Wire, this title had turned me off for a long time. When I saw that I could watch it free on Hulu, I looked it up and found that it was much better received by the general audience than by critics. That gets me curious.

Since holding rich kids for ransom is rampant in Mexico, troubled ex-Marine John Creasy (Denzel Washington), at the advice of a buddy (Christopher Walken), becomes a bodyguard to Lupita or "Pita" (Dakota Fanning), preteen daughter of automaker Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony). At first he is highly standoffish, but as she urges him to be as sociable as others, he learns to like her. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a story if he never failed at his job....

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 Jungle Book (2016)

Being between disc deliveries and aware that this movie would stop streaming soon, I gave it priority. I hadn't been sure I would ever see it, since I'm not keen on Disney (re-)remaking its own classics. But it does get online ratings to rival if not best the 1967 full animation, and it didn't look like a total retread in ads.

Not that it's much if any closer to the Rudyard Kipling story collection either. The focus remains on pre-adolescent "man cub" Mowgli (Neel Sethi) living among wolves until semi-guardian panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) compels him to leave for a village before misanthropic tiger Shere Khan (Disney favorite Idris Elba), thought to be a match for the entire pack, can hunt him down. After some trouble separates Mowgli from Bagheera, he meets sloth bear Baloo (Bill Murray), who wants him to stay in the jungle as a comrade, lest he become just like other humans. Further complicating the question of what to do is Shere Khan's threat to the wolf pack if Mowgli should escape for good.

A View to a Kill (1985)

I did not expect ever to bother with this James Bond flick. It's one of the least popular, even among the mere eight I hadn't seen at the time. But as extensive as the Red Cross DVD library is, most movies in it that I hadn't already seen didn't appeal to me, and I was not about to spend several hours in a chair just reading. (Yes, I donated platelets over the weekend. I'm explaining the circumstances, not bragging.)

Now that I've watched it, I'm not sure why other viewers don't like it better. It's all fun to me. My best guess is that people wanted a younger lead, more use of Q gadgetry, more exotic settings (it's mostly in the U.S.), fewer dopey antics, less predictable means of problem solving, better code names (James Stock, really?), and the approval of Roger Moore himself. For my part, I can hardly tell what positive elements Goldfinger has that AVtaK doesn't, besides iconicity.