RE: https://beepboop.one/@Alexis/115996498846346328
#MovieThread VII: The Kino Awakens, Chapter Three — March Edition
From 2020 to 2025 I watched 2370 movies.
In 2026 so far I've watched another 70, for a total of 2440 movies.
This month:
* John McTiernan.
* Ninja Turtles, probably.
Previous thread:
Starting John McTiernan, it's the movie "Nomadland" is not a sequel to, it's —
#71, or #2441, 1986's "Nomads."
It's the movie today best remembered for the "Seinfeld" episode of the same title where Elaine is the only person in town who hates it, leaving now for a screening of —
#72, or #2442, 1996's "The English Patient."
With this one I'm 8/10 for seeing this year's Best Picture nominees in the cinema, leaving now to go see —
#73, or #2443, 2026's "Sentimental Value."
With and after dinner, watched —
#74, or #2443, 2026 Netflix doc “Queen of Chess.”
Interesting story about a woman I knew nothing about. But it’s a shame it has to tell her story by focusing on her rivalry with a man. Do enjoy watching her crush these dudes, though, obviously.
As I understand it, this Brazilian Best Picture nominee is not about a secret agent, leaving now to go see —
#75, or #2445, 2026's "O Agente Secreto," or, "The Secret Agent."
The only one of this year's slate of Best Picture nominees I have to watch at home instead of in the cinema, it's —
#77, or #2447, 2025's "Train Dreams."
The conversation about this one has collapsed into "boy, they really whiffed it on this one," but that means there's a chance I can be contrarian just by having a good time, so, you know, still gotta see it, leaving now to go see —
#78, or #2448, 2026's "The Bride!"
Meant to go see this true story Tourette's drama before it became unexpectedly topical but never got around to it until what's probably the last screening, leaving now to go see —
#79, or #2449, 2026's "I Swear."
Yesterday was Pie Day. On a related note, it's —
#80, or #2450, 1999's "American Pie."
The Pursuit of Purple March? No. The Chase for Burnt Sienna November? Absolutely not. It's —
#81, or #2451, 1990 John McTiernan picture "The Hunt for Red October."
Used to be all you needed for a Best Picture nominee was two guys and a chain gang for them to escape from, it's —
#82, or #2452, 1958's "The Defiant Ones."
"How come they chained a white man to a black?"
"Warden's got a sense of humour."
tell that warden that if he's gonna quit his day job it should be out of protest against the american prison industrial complex and not to try and make a career as a comedian happen
I would simply not be in a chain gang in the first place.
On account of I don't think those were ever really a thing here, but also even America, Land of the Chain Gangs, had basically stopped doing chain gangs by the late 1950s, so how would I end up in a chaing gang.
Now, I can see myself being a fugitive from the law, but I assure you, whatever I did, either I didn't do it or it wasn't wrong of me to do.
For how bare the premise is, and for how much I expected this to have aged inelegantly — being a sensible person who obviously abhors all racism, an old message picture about how racism is bad can sometimes be a little like throwing a candle at a campfire — this is honestly kind of beautiful. Everything here really works, and Poitier and Curtis are just doing all-timer work.
It doesn’t just have its heart in the right place, it’s got its actual movie in the right place, too. Holds up!
Ths seems like a movie for a yawny Wednesday where I'm not gonna do anything else, I understand it to be about Sean Connery doing doctor science in the jungle, but the title sure is a bit of a red flag, it's —
#83, or #2453, 1992 John McTiernan picture "Medicine Man."
Lorraine Bracco has been sent to the Amazon to go find Sean Connery, and she's as tough a bird as the time she's havin', as it were.
(Already you can tell this wants to be "Romancing the Stone.")
You don't get a lot of movies these days where the main character is introduced by them just being a massive, honking dickwad of a misogynist to their co-lead, do you.
*points at the "massive cultural change is completely possible, it just takes ten years to do it and another ten to get used to it" sign*
"You send me back on the basis of my gender. It's called sex discrimination."
ah it's a message picture about how women are people
wait, so he found a cure for cancer, but he can't replicate it?
so he's a genius but an idiot
But there’s plenty here I had a good time with — Bracco as a bird as tough as the time she’s havin’, as it were, is just delightful and charming, the score is pretty good, its environmental concerns are solidly timeless.
Excellent ziplining scene, too — not so much about the action of ziplining but a lot more about the gentle joy of getting to float amongst the trees. Lovely.
@Alexis You'd know better than I -- did that tend to be a message that other movies hadn't cottoned to yet in 1992?
Not necessarily other message pictures, but whether screenwriters hadn't figured that out in large numbers yet.
I'm inclined to think they hadn't...
@naga In that way, though I do think the Bracco character is more grounded than many of her contemporaries, I'd consider "Medicine Man" essentially fairly representative of films of the time.
(My "ah it's a message picture" line obviously me being a bit silly.)
@naga Yeah, that feels right — they've clearly seen the old ways don't quite work any more, but they can't quite get their heads out of their own asses yet.
Like, a few years later, in 1995's "GoldenEye," M does call Bond a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur," but the picture does then also feature a woman called "Xenia Onatopp" who's a sexy fighter pilot slash assassin who crushes men to death with her thighs for sexual pleasure.
Progress is a journey, not a step.
@Alexis Oh, yes, I got your comment as silly, it just set me wondering. And yeah, that list in 1992 sounds like what you're describing.
And then Bond was Bond...
You've heard of the first three words you say when it's time to do the seek part of hide-and-seek, now get ready for the next three words, leaving now to go see(k?) —
#84, or #2454, 2026's "Ready or Not 2: Here I Come."
I really liked the first "Ready or Not." "Ready or Not 2: Here I Come" is basically the first "Ready or Not" again, but slightly bigger, because it's a sequel and these things have to escalate. It's been seven years, I think it's totally fine for this to be exactly that.
I enjoy it when the rich bastards explode.
A good time at the movies.
Let's go meet a rock friend in space, leaving now to go see —
#85, or #2455, 2026's "Project Hail Mary."
What a joy!
A blast, a hoot, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry — when the picture wants you to care about the rock, by Eos, you’ll care about the rock!
Living comfortably at the intersection paved for it by "Interstellar," "Arrival," and, obviously, "The Martian" — if you like all three of those movies, you should, uh, frankly, already be seated for this one — 2026’s "Project Hail Mary" is… honestly, probably my favourite movie of the year so far.
This thing — one might say — rocks.
@B One of these days you'll beat me to the cinema just because the Brother's work schedule got in my way.
(You'll have a great time with this, to be clear.)
This is called this in the same way it's called "A Minecraft Movie" — it's just one take on it, there /can/ be other Beautiful Minds, it's —
#86, or #2456, 2001's "A Beautiful Mind."
"Mathematics is never going to lead you to a higher truth."
they haven't said what Bettany is at Princeton for yet, but it's definitely literature
"Professor Nash."
...Ed Harris wasn't there when the door closed.
"He just implanted a radium diode."
hold on, he's reading access codes off an implanted chip in his arm in the 50s? I thought this was a biopic.
"I'm at Harvard, doing the Great Authors Workshop."
knew it, literature-coded man
@kurt It has to be something one could wax poetic about, but he's too manic for it to be a subtle poetry, the poetry of the subject needs to be fairly obvious, and there needs to be somewhat of a future in it.
Literature, yes. Dance, no. English, yes. History, no. Japanese, yes. Politics, yes, but East European Studies, no.
(Though I /can/ see him as a Chemist.)
Alex Daily! 
Naga (he/him)
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