Category: movies

CONCLAVE – Book and Film

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, moviesLeave a comment

An excellent book. An excellent movie.

I’m not a Catholic so have never known much about how Popes are elected. It’s fascinating.

Conclave is a 2016 book by the esteemed Robert Harris.

I was interested to read about the process, complicated by ancient history.

One strength of the Catholic Church is tradition.

The big weakness is tradition. It’s very difficult to reform / improve Catholicism, though I respect Pope Francis for trying.

The Pope is dead.

Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.

They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.

Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.

In Conclave, the hero is Cardinal Lomeli, dean of the College of Cardinals and the man responsible for presiding over the conclave. Among the papabile there is Tedesco the traditionalist, Tremblay the ambitious North American and Adeyemi the African with strong views on the role of women and gay marriage. …

 Into this gathering there arrives a cardinal no one has heard of – Vincent Benítez, a cardinal in pectore, created by the pope in secret in order to protect his identity. The stage is thus set for a showdown. …

Guardian Review – Conclave by Robert Harris review – a triumphant Vatican showdown

The 2024 film Conclave is great, perhaps even better than the book.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 296 critics’ reviews are positive.

It’s got a lot of star power, on only a $20 million production budget.

I’ve been a huge fan of Ralph Fiennes since The English Patient (1996) 

I love the ending of this film. Carlos Diehz as Cardinal Vincent Benitez is excellent.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Note ➙ The Catholic Church does not approve of either book nor film.

HIT MAN (2023)

On By Rick McIn humour, moviesLeave a comment

A surprisingly entertaining movie.

… Hit Man follows an undercover New Orleans police contractor who poses as a reliable hitman as he tries to save a woman in need.

The basic premise was based on the true story of a college professor who worked for the Houston police in the late 1980s and 1990s as a fake hitman …

Adria Arjona as Madison Figueroa Masters is gorgeous and most charismatic.

The HIT MAN is Glen Powell as Gary Johnson, college professor and tech guy turned undercover mole. … Or it might be Justin Hartley as the HIT MAN. Those two are probably the same actor. 😀

On Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 295 critics’ reviews are positive.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.



Twisters 2024

On By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

Twisters is a 2024 American disaster film.

…  a standalone sequel to Twister (1996)

As a Hollywood summer blockbuster, it worked. Grossing $371 million worldwide.

I got through the thing only because the special effects are so amazing. HOW did they create that kind of video?

Some of the technology shown is based on REAL current science. The Phased Array Radar, for example.

But disrupting a tornado in real time is still not possible.

The plot is cliche. Best ignore it.

I wasn’t much convinced by any of the cast. Glen Powell was probably best. I thought he was Justin Hartley for the first part of the movie. Those two are very similar.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Rebel Ridge (2024)

On By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

Intense.

I recommend this movie. Rotten Tomatoes 96%.

PLENTY of action. But a surprisingly nuanced plot.

Aaron Pierre is a star.

He reminds me, in this film, of Jack Reacher. The man does not like guns.

Rebel Ridge is a 2024 American crime action thriller ….

The film stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who has the funds needed to post bail for his cousin, unjustly seized via civil forfeiture by a small town’s corrupt police force. …

Don Johnson as Chief Sandy Burnne is a bad guy. But not the worst cop of the bunch.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Will and Harper

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, education, ethics, GOP USA, government, happiness, human rights, movies, things getting worseLeave a comment

An important film.

Unscripted road trip.

Touching.

It’s about friendship. Life. … Aging.

Acceptance about who you are. And being tolerant of others to be who they want to be.

I was quite charmed by the warm welcome Harper got dropping into a random Oklahoma biker bar. (You can still smoke in Oklahoma bars?)

Face to face, people are most often welcoming and open minded. Even rednecks in country bars.

Since 2020, right wing politicians have been attacking the rights of transgender people — simply as a way to motivate their most deplorable voters. Very few of those haters have ever once had an encounter with a trans person.

Considered and attempted suicide rate of transgender people in the United States

from 2000 to 2022, with a forecast from 2023 to 2030

Right wing politicians and influencers like Musk and J. K. Rowling are partially responsible for those suicides.

I admire Will Ferrell trying to bring trans folks some hope with this movie.

I’d to do the same if any of my friends announced they were transitioning.

It’s a complicated process. And different for every single person.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I found the ending of this movie just perfect.

Challengers – 2024 Tennis Movie

On By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

I can’t recommend this film to everyone — but it is certainly brave and original in many ways. NOT your typical Hollywood sports movie.

Film students will study it.

So. Much. Slow motion.

Some will love it. Some hate it.

Andrea Petkovic played on the tennis tour for 16 years … and still felt they got the tennis vibe surprisingly right.

The film’s original score was composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. A remixed version was released in collaboration with Boys Noize. It’s very different than other movie background tracks. More YouTube than Hollywood.

Challengers is a 2024 American romantic sports comedy-drama film …

It follows the love triangle between an injured tennis star-turned-coach (Zendaya), her low-circuit tennis player ex-boyfriend (Josh O’Connor), and her tennis champion husband (Mike Faist) across 13 years of their shared relationship, culminating in the latter two’s match at the ATP Challenger Tour.

Zendaya, O’Connor, and Faist trained for months with former tennis player and coach Brad Gilbert to prepare for their roles. …

The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $94.2 million worldwide. …

Zendaya’s best friend and personal assistant Darnell Appling portrayed the umpire at the New Rochelle Final. He’s got the look.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Arthur the King (2024) 

On By Rick McIn books, movies, sport - amateurLeave a comment

Another sentimental, feel-good dog movie. Yet I liked it.

Arthur the King is based on a true event Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home by Mikael Lindnord.

In the film, the captain of an adventure racing team befriends a wounded stray dog named Arthur, who accompanies the team on a grueling 435-mile (700-km) endurance race through the Dominican Republic.

The actual suffering of a real Adventure Race World Championship is not shown in a Hollywood movie, of course. But there are bits of reality in the film.

Note ➙ Adventure Racing World Championships 2025 will be hosted 22 SEP – 6 OCT out of Penticton, B.C.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

My Spy – 2020 film

On By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

I mostly liked the sequel, My Spy The Eternal City — so went back to watch the original.

Another lightweight silly comedy.

My Spy is a 2020 American action comedy film …

It follows a CIA agent who finds himself at the mercy of a precocious nine-year-old girl in a family that he and his tech support are surveilling while undercover. …

Dave Bautista is great for comedy.

But the secret of this comedy is Chloe Coleman as Sophie, a nine-year-old elementary school girl who blackmails J.J. into training her to be a spy.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Eruption by Michael Crichton & James Patterson

On By Rick McIn books, moviesLeave a comment

A missed opportunity.

It’s obvious that a Volcano story would fit well into the Michael Crichton collection.

And it will make a great Hollywood blockbuster. Sony won the bidding war and, enlisting ‘Free Solo’ creators Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi to direct.

Skip the book, watch the eventual movie.

Eruption is a 2024 novel by Michael Crichton and James Patterson, based on an unfinished manuscript by Crichton at the time of his death.

It is Crichton’s 29th novel, … and the fourth of his novels published posthumously.

A thriller about an eruption of Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaii, the novel was unfinished at the time of Crichton’s death in 2008, but was completed years later by Patterson, at the behest of Crichton’s widow Sherri.

I wanted more scientific detail, like in other Crichton’s books — and less argument / conflict between the team members assembled to save the world.

This one is more James Patterson’s short chapters and fast pace. At times I lost track of the plan on exactly how the day was to be saved.

Great Movie ➙ Bridge of Spies (2015)

On By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

Somehow I missed this film when it first came out.

Bridge of Spies is a 2015 American historical drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers, and starring Tom Hanks …

Set during the Cold War, the film tells the story of lawyer James B. Donovan, who is entrusted with negotiating the release of Francis Gary Powers—a convicted Central Intelligence Agency pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960—in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a convicted Soviet KGB spy held by the United States …

… received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and won Best Supporting Actor for Rylance.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.