Author: tiki god

The Card Counter: Directed by Paul Schrader. With Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe. Redemption is the long game in Paul Schrader’s THE CARD COUNTER. Told with Schrader’s trademark cinematic intensity, the revenge thriller tells the story of an ex-military interrogator turned gambler haunted by the ghosts of his past. I thought I was getting into a gambling movie with one of the best actors in the business, but ended up with a movie about three men dealing with their PTSD in novel and horrifying ways. Poker is in the background at all times, but the main story...

Starfish: Directed by A.T. White. With Virginia Gardner, Christina Masterson, Eric Beecroft, Natalie Mitchell. A unique, intimate portrayal of a girl grieving for the loss of her best friend, which just so happens to take place on the day the world ends. Virginia Gardner is really the only reason this film works as well as it does and it does work to a certain extent. The premise is somewhat overshadowed by the betrayal at the end, and this film from 2018 has the distinct feel of a film made during the pandemic, with only a couple scenes featuring more than...

Scream 3: Directed by Wes Craven. With Liev Schreiber, Beth Toussaint, Roger Jackson, Kelly Rutherford. While Sidney and her friends visit the Hollywood set of Stab 3, the third film based on the Woodsboro murders, another Ghostface killer rises to terrorize them. Notable because it has both the dynamic duo of Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes as guests, as well as Carrier Fisher playing a woman that looks just like Carrie Fisher but is definitely maybe not Carrie Fisher. The rest of the film is serviceable as a note on getting past your personal traumas, though not all of us...

Scream 2: Directed by Wes Craven. With Jada Pinkett Smith, Omar Epps, Paulette Patterson, Rasila Schroeder. Two years after the first series of murders, as Sidney acclimates to college life, someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings. I had forgotten how many big names where in this, Jada Pinkett Smith, Heather Graham, Liev Schreiber, Chris Odonnel, Neve Campbell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Timothy Olyphant, Omar Epps, tons of people that were just getting started and went on to make great content afterwards. All for a pretty good horror film. Buy On Amazon!

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: Directed by Tom Gormican. With Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan. In this action-packed comedy, Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage, channeling his iconic characters as he’s caught between a superfan (Pedro Pascal) and a CIA agent (Tiffany Haddish). Nicolas Cage as Nick Cage is about as meta as you can get without tongue kissing yourself while drinking with yourself at the bar that you brought yourself to. The de-aged scenes in this film just blew my mind, and if you’re as big of a fan as I am, you’ll find certain scenes...

Gidget Goes to Rome: Directed by Paul Wendkos. With James Darren, Cindy Carol, Jessie Royce Landis, Cesare Danova. Gidget, in Rome for a holiday, misinterprets attention she receives from a famous journalist. Discovering he is “chaperoning” her at Dad’s request she resumes interest in her boyfriend. Based upon characters created by Frederick Kohner. A perfectly fine Gidget movie, that was perfectly entertaining, but I believe this is the end of the road on my Gidget journey. I also checked out the first episode of the television series with Sally Field and it was perfectly fine too. Buy On Amazon!

The World According to Garp: Directed by George Roy Hill. With Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close, John Lithgow. A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon. Robin’s second movie, and it’s not funny. It doesn’t seek out humor, don’t need jokes, and it’s a great look at a few different types of feminism, but man, how did Robin Williams go from “Popeye” to “Garp” then “The Survivors”? Seeing that it’s based on a book make sense, as this...

Senior Year: Directed by Alex Hardcastle. With Rebel Wilson, Angourie Rice, Mary Holland, Molly Brown. A cheerleading stunt gone wrong landed her in a 20-year coma. Now she’s 37, newly awake and ready to live out her high school dream: becoming prom queen. This is the first role that I’ve seen Rebel Wilson in since she lost all that weight (80 pounds!) and you’ll be happy to know that her brand of humor still hits exactly the way it did before, so if you liked her before, you’ll still like her. It’s just a bit weird that now she’s playing...

Bachelor in Paradise: Directed by Jack Arnold. With Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Janis Paige, Jim Hutton. A bachelor author of sleazy books moves to a family-oriented subdivision where he becomes an unofficial relationship advisor to unhappy local housewives, to the dismay of their respective husbands who suspect him of sexual misconduct. To be honest, I’m not much of a Bob Hope fan, but this movie convinced me that I should be more open to his work. “Bachelor in Paradise” is a another great recommendation from that “California Tiki” book that I finished last month, I think it’s the last on...