More Than One Lesson

The premise of The Old Guard sounds like a teenage boy saying, “What if Highlander but Furiosa is John Wick?!” The resulting film feels as though it was written by a teenage boy. Basing it upon his own graphic novel series of the same name, Greg Rucka’s screenplay is full of cringe-inducing dialogue delivered by actors who are either trying to hide their own embarrassment or whose weaknesses are only exposed by it. The only exception to this is Chiwetel Ejiofor who is giving it his all as a character potentially more interesting than the immortal leads of the film. In his relatively small role, he’s better than this movie deserves.

As the grandson of not one but two men who served in the United States Navy during the Second World War and the son of a naval officer who was in the Mediterranean the day I was born, it’s fair to say I have a connection to the world Greyhound takes place in. That being said, my only real experience with naval vessels has been from ship tours and of course, war movies. Greyhound feels a bit different from most seafaring war movies in that its brief 92 minutes are filled to the brim with almost nonstop action. In this sense, it’s a far cry from Das Boot, where it’s around the 90-minute mark of the full miniseries cut before any action even occurs. The resulting film is fast-paced and certainly holds one’s attention though it doesn’t have anywhere near the sense of tension of Das Boot and it’s unlikely to have the high rewatchability in years to come of The Hunt For Red October.

In this episode, Tyler is joined by Kevin McCreary to discuss the Erwin Brothers’ I Still Believe and Brad Silberling’s Moonlight Mile.

In this episode, Reed and Nathan discuss Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman.

In this episode, Tyler discusses Andrew Patterson’s The Vast of Night and John Carpenter’s The Thing.

In this episode, Reed and Nathan discuss season one of The Leftovers.

In this episode, Reed and Nathan discuss Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow.

Reed and Nathan are joined by Noel T. Manning II to discuss David Koepp’s Stir of Echoes.

Reed and Nathan are joined by Bill Oberst, Jr. to discuss Peter Medak’s The Changeling, starring George C. Scott.

I’ve said before how much it annoys me that there’s always a sense of obligation to tell non-baseball fans that a movie or show that involves baseball in some way is worth their time. As though it requires some sort of special interest or knowledge about the game. I mean, we all know that only doctors get why Scrubs is funny and only grave robbing history professors can truly appreciate an Indiana Jones movie, so why shouldn’t that be true for Bull Durham or Moneyball?