The Day of the Jackal is one of my favorite suspense-thrillers from the 1970s, alongside classics like The French Connection and The Conversation, and features a wonderful performance from Edward Fox in the titular role.
Cold Water (L’eau froide) is a well acted and quite realistic drama about adolescent youth with Assayas’s screenplay holding no punches and avoids some of the pratfalls of similarly themed movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Blindspot was never priority viewing, and to be fair not much television is nowadays, but I have enjoyed the series and this third season does have some fun twists and turns.
The Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection is one hell of a set from the studio, particularly for folks who didn’t already pick up the Legacy Collection sets, and just in time for Halloween.
Once Upon a Time has been a mixed bag of a series for me, mostly on the negative side to be honest, but I actually did enjoy this seventh and final season.
Madam Secretary: Season 4 is pretty much like any of the many other political shows (like Scandal or, going way back, The West Wing) with sort of a more fantasy element compared with real life, though the election certainly gave the writers a field day for some additional drama.
Longmire was a nice western-drama featuring some fine performances, most notably stars Robert Taylor and Katee Sackoff, both consistently delivering quality work throughout the series’ six seasons.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was a misfire of a sequel and even though I wasn’t a big fan of the first movie, there were some fun moments, this one at times just felt like a rehash of The Lost World: Jurassic Park but at the very least the ending could lead to an interesting finale.
While I don’t really have a problem with CBS and their reboot of Hawaii Five-0 but MacGyver is one that really doesn’t work both in terms of its style and the performances, most notable Lucas Till who just doesn’t look quite right in the role.
Ocean’s Eight isn’t as slick of a film compared with Ocean’s Eleven, but despite a lacking and bland cinematography and some jarring dialogue, I did generally find this entry into the franchise mostly entertaining for the ensemble cast.
Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost is a fun enough direct-to-video adventure from Mystery Inc. and even though the plot and culprit is as predictable as ever, still makes for a good way to spend an hour plus.
Won’t You be My Neighbor? is an incredible documentary outlining the exceptional and unconventional career of Fred Rogers and the influence he had on so many generations, including my own.
Action Point is hardly terrible but one wonders why it even received a theatrical release, for one thing it’s not all that funny of a comedy and second, Johnny Knoxville isn’t much of a draw nowadays, especially in the lead.
The Last Hunt is a beautifully shot western featuring a few great performances, most notably Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger.
Supergirl might not be some misunderstood movies of the 1980s and indeed it is at times pretty awful, particularly in terms of the cheap production design, bad dialogue and nonsensical moments, and yet the movie has its charms, most notably Helen Slater.