Watched, Read, Reviewed: April 2024

Quickly posting this so I can start posting my May & June reviews. Saw some good ones! Already posted all the below movie reviews…

MOVIES WATCHED IN APRIL (ranked best to worst):

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence – 9/10
Assault On Precinct 13 – 8.5/10
Lawrence Of Arabia – 8/10
Wild Strawberries – 8/10
The Circus – 7.5/10
The Gold Rush – 7.5/10
Suzume – 7.5/10
The Holy Mountain – 7.5/10
The Zone Of Interest – 7.5/10
Lake Mungo – 7.5/10
The Greatest Hits – 7/10
Wish – 7/10
Toni Erdmann – 6.5/10
Música – 6.5/10
Strawberry Mansion – 5.5/10

Movies Rewatched In April:

Barbie – 8.5/10
Donnie Darko – 8/10

Documentary:

Koyaanisqatsi

BOOKS, TV, MUSIC, MISCELLANEOUS IN APRIL

TV SHOWS

Superstore: S3 – Still enjoying this. Will definitely finish watching them all. Already sad that I don’t know what the next sitcom is that both my daughter & I will enjoy… (And there will never be another Community!)

Grey’s Anatomy: S20 E1-5 – Yep. Still watching. Why would I stop now after 20 years?! Honestly don’t mind the newest batch of characters, at least. Sometimes the new interns have really sucked.

Baby Reindeer: S1 – What the hell was this?! This was kind of traumatising. Did he really go through all that?! Just very sad for all involved. Thought it was going to be a dark comedy but it was just… Dark… Poor guy. Good show, though, I guess. Just not my type of thing.

Fallout: S1 E1 – Ummm. I wasn’t feeling the first episode so didn’t continue. And, wow, way more violent than I was expecting!! Did like the vibe of the bits with that bug-eyed girl from Yellowjackets – those bits reminded me a lot of the only good part of that weird A Boy And His Dog movie. Would’ve liked more of that but then they had two other storylines going on that didn’t interest me at all. I dunno – is it worth ever continuing?

Curb Your Enthusiasm: S1 E1-3 – Continued from the start after accidentally watching an episode from later years. Like what I’ve seen but feeling no need to binge these or something. If I’m in the mood, maybe I’ll stick one on.

Saturday Night Live: The Ryan Gosling episode – I’ve not watched SNL since the early to mid-90s. Also, it wasn’t available to watch at all in the U.K. when I moved here 23 years ago but it didn’t look like I was missing much anyway. Well, it’s been available here for quite a while now (I think) but I never bothered with it until seeing Ryan Gosling dressed up like Beavis on Twitter (I’ll never call it X). So I watched the whole episode. Loved that skit! The whole episode was pretty good. Maybe I’ll watch them more regularly again?

MUSIC

Justice – Hyperdrama: Need to listen to this a bit more to form an opinion but have enjoyed having the album on while working. Justice are (is?!) great – I remember when it was thought that Justice were maybe actually Daft Punk under a different name. I like Justice a lot, as did my husband. So I was happy but also very sad when I noticed that they had a new album out. My husband would have been very excited about it & would have listened to this album a lot by now. I wish I could share it with him & hear his opinion on it. Something new breaks my heart every day.

BOOKS

The Picture House Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith – This was quite a lightweight but fun mystery. Did I buy it simply because the setting for the crime was a movie theater? Yes, I did. It’s about a woman who takes over her uncle’s detective agency in 1929. I see it’s a series, as I expected it probably would be. Would be fun to follow the character as she solves various mysteries. But, for me, it’s not really my type of thing so unlikely I’ll read any more. Could see these making a good TV series, though, and could also see these books definitely having a fan base. – 3/5

BLOG PLANS FOR THE COMING MONTH

As always, just trying to catch up on things here…

Upcoming Movies I Want To See:

LOVED Inside Out 2! 🙂 And I see Deadpool & Wolverine tickets are already on sale. Looking forward to that one (and my daughter especially is – she’s a big fan of both characters & of all the X-Men & Deadpool films). And I’m excited for the Quiet Place prequel. Oh! And not gonna lie – I can’t wait for Despicable Me 4 as well.

Here’s that absolutely gorgeous piece of music from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence:

https://youtu.be/1OZDaRhHHyM?feature=shared

The Circus, The Gold Rush, Toni Erdmann & The Greatest Hits Reviews

Four more reviews today while I catch up on posting reviews of what I watched in April. Posting four more tomorrow & then I can move onto what I watched in May! And I’m planning on spending the weekend reading blogs & catching up on replying to comments finally. 🙂

The Gold Rush (1925) – Finally discovered Charlie Chaplin about 11 years ago soon after starting my blog & instantly fell in love with City Lights & Modern Times. While this isn’t up there with his best & is missing his heartwarming moments I love so much (oh that final shot in City Lights!), the physical comedy is still brilliant & I had a lot of fun watching this. As I do with all the Chaplin films I’ve seen so far. Good stuff.

Added to My IMDb Top 250 Project: My Rankings So Far list. – 7.5/10

The Circus (1928) – Like The Gold Rush, I don’t think this is up there with Chaplin’s best but I still had a lot of fun watching it. His comedy is a complete joy to watch for me. Did prefer this to The Gold Rush, probably partly because I’m always partial to circus settings. Enjoyed this one a lot & loving finally exploring more of Chaplin’s work. – 7.5/10

Toni Erdmann (2016) – This makes Sandra Hüller one of my most watched this year. Preferred the other films (Anatomy Of A Fall & The Zone Of Interest) but this was a good character study with strong performances. I could probably use a dose of fun in my life too, though, since I found the dad a bit annoying. And I wasn’t expecting this to be so serious – it left me more depressed than inspired. Damn, I’m a grumpy old woman. – 7/10

The Greatest Hits (2024) – Love the concept of this: songs bringing you back to a moment in time. But it was sadly not the best execution of such a fantastic idea. Enjoyed the story & can’t really fault that. Think it just didn’t develop the characters well & I never felt a connection between them. Still really appreciate the story, though. Liked this movie much more than it sounds! Just wanted it to be “great”. – 7/10