Predator (1987)

   This movie is awesome.  Content warning:  gore, blood, animal death

An elite group of soldiers goes into the South American jungle on a purported rescue mission only to find themselves hunted by an invisible alien.

I don't love the Predator series as much as I love Alien but I do still love it.  I re-watched the original recently for Movie Club and it remains hugely fun.  Everyone has huge muscles, is lightly oiled, and carries the biggest guns they possibly can while getting absolutely merc'd by an interstellar dentist on safari.  Amazing.

Popstar: Never Stop Stopping (2016)

  Your enjoyment of this film will be directly related to how tolerable you find Andy Samberg and/or Lonely Island.

Conner (Andy Samberg) split from his boy band to go solo(-ish because he kept his buddy Owen (Jorma Taccome) on backup) and had a wildly successful debut.  But now, with his sophomore album, interest is waning and Conner is willing to do almost anything to stay in the spotlight.

It's not really a parody so much as it is a paint-by-numbers music biopic comedy.  It's basically an extended SNL skit with a massive budget.  If that is your jam, you've probably already seen this, honestly.  The original songs are fine.  I didn't find them super funny or interesting but that kind of works for the character, a paper-thin man-child on the edge of being a has-been at 22.  There are a ton of cameos from actual pop musicians, again lending to the SNL-ness of it all, and a surprisingly subdued performance from Sarah Silverman that kind of stole the show for me.

Seems like a good background movie for cooking or cleaning your house.  It's streaming on Netflix.

Never on Sunday (1960)

Happy 4th of July, Americans!  This is another Jules Dassin movie where he plays a bumbling doofus who ruins everything.  The man was working through some things.  

Homer Thrace (Jules Dassin) is an American in Greece looking for the cure for all the world's ills.  Ills he has defined as a divergence from the Ancient Greek philosophical ideals.  Ilya (Melina Mercouri) is a prostitute in a small coastal town.  She chooses her own customers, makes her own hours, is beloved by the townsfolk, and believes in making your own happy endings, no matter how sad the story.  So obviously, Homer becomes obsessed with trying to "fix" her.  

A lot of older movies don't hold up all that well but this remains a banger.  Ilya is a great character and Mercouri plays her to the hilt.  The tone is light and fun with zero judgment.  Homer is a stuck-up scold but it's played for laughs.  

It's streaming on Amazon Prime.

Melvin and Howard (1980)

  This did not win Best Picture at the Oscars, in case you can't read that tiny print.  It won with the National Society of Film Critics.  Content Warning:  domestic violence

Melvin (Paul Le Mat) is an average guy with maybe more optimism than brains.  The kind of guy who would help an old man (Jason Robards) out in the desert get to Vegas, but also the kind that can't stop himself from spending every dime he has on a boat when his wife (Mary Steenburgen) wins on a game show.  Years later, Melvin sees that the old man he helped was actually Howard Hughes and a mysterious stranger (Charles Napier) leaves him a Last Will & Testament handwritten by Hughes bequeathing Melvin $156 million.  

This is based on a true story.  A handwritten will purportedly by Howard Hughes showed up at the Church of Latter-Day Saints temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, naming Melvin Dummar a beneficiary.  It was eventually ruled a forgery.

This was directed by Jonathan Demme and won Steenburgen a rightly deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.  It's not a bad film, although it really does highlight how ubiquitous domestic violence was in society.  Break out your VPN if you want to watch it, though, because it is not streaming anywhere.

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

  Yeesh.  Content warning:  physical abuse, emotional abuse, child endangerment

A housewife (Gena Rowlands) slowly goes mad from neglect and boredom while her idiot husband (Peter Falk) flails ineffectually.

Shocking no one, I hated this movie.  It's long, boring, and interspersed with domestic violence that has aged like milk.  Somehow, it's considered a classic.  

Rowlands is very good but it almost feels like a wasted performance because I will never watch this movie again.  As always, your mileage may vary.  It's available on the Criterion Channel.

Sinners (2025)

  I was worried this wasn't going to live up to the hype but it definitely does.  Content warning:  violence, some gore

Sammie (Miles Caton), a young blues player, gets his big break playing the opening night at his cousins' new juke joint.  Smoke (Michael B. Jordon) and Stack (Michael B. Jordon) made some money in Chicago before returning to their Mississippi hometown and are looking to build up (and profit off) the Black community.  Sammie has a gift but gifts draw attention and that attention comes in the form of Remmick (Jack O'Connell).

No one spoiled this twist for me and I encourage all of you to go in as blind as you can but I can't not talk about it.  **SPOILERS FOLLOW**  Vampires.  Irish folk-playing, step-dancing vampires.  I hath screamed the loudest screm that has ever been scrummed.  Ryan Coogler said From Dusk Til Dawn can eat his entire ass and he was correct and right to do so.  Whew.  **END SPOILERS**

Everyone in this is phenomenal.  It was a bloody, fun ride all the way through.  The soundtrack is also great.  I immediately bought both it and the movie.  This is going to be one I re-watch a bunch of times. Just solid, incredible work.

Sully (2015)

  This would have been a great Father's Day post.  Oh well.

In the days after a forced water landing on the Hudson River, airplane pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) must defend himself in an inquiry by the NTSB to determine what, if anything, could have been done better.  

My brother recommended this to me a long time ago.  It's a little hagiographic for my taste but this is a solid Dad-movie directed (of course) by Clint Eastwood.  Tom Hanks has the appropriate amount of gravitas, Aaron Eckhart radiates charm, and it's stuffed to the gills with character actors whom you'll recognize even if you have no idea what their names are.  If you're looking for a nice quiet movie to put on so your dad can nod off while he swears he's just resting his eyes, look no further.  It's engaging but not so much so that you'll be irritated if someone texts you while you're watching.  

Currently streaming on HBO Max.