The last movie you saw....

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Dunno why it took me this long to get around to watching this one. I've seen bits of it before on movie channels, but I've never seen it start to finish.



The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) starring Sam Rockwell, Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, John Malkovich, voice talents of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Bill Bailey, Thomas Lennon, Helen Mirren. Loads of great people in it.

Comedy Sci-fi kind of thing, absurdism, surrealism, take your pick. Very off the wall in a very good way. Sam Rockwell was a perfect pick for this movie, he plays crazy better than anyone and he's one of my favorite actors. Other great movies he's done that I'd recommend: Green Mile (1999), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Moon (2009), Seven Psychopaths (2012). I have another one of his movies I've yet to watch called Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025). Looks like he plays another sort of wacky crazy character in that one too. The few reviews I've read about it have been kinda mixed.

Anyway, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy... kind of silly at times, but very entertaining. To describe it.... it's like if Terry Gilliam from Monty Python made a sci-fi movie. Would definitely recommend. Solid 9/10.

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I was chatting with Zether and others in the Tastyspleen discord channel about various Coen Brothers movies. There's so many really good ones, and I realized I hadn't seen some of them in a long time, so I went on a Coen Brothers binge - Decided I'd try to watch all of their films, earliest to latest, in order. Some of them I had never seen, or had seen only bits and pieces of them.

Their very first movie, Blood Simple (1984), was one I had never seen before. I figured with it being their very first movie, it wouldn't be very good. Very surprising though, because if you hadn't told me who directed it or that it was their writing and directorial debut, I would've never guessed it. Very well done. A twisted pulpy crime drama. I figured it would kinda suck. NOPE. Does not suck at all. A very underrated and un-talked about Coen Brothers movie.

Raising Arizona (1987), one of my favorites of theirs. A classic. And the scene with John Goodman hollering like a psycho as he's slowly being birthed up from the muddy hole in the rainy prison escape scene is still one of the most comically surreal things ever put to film. On the surface it seems like a silly hicksploitation kind of film, but there's a lot more going on.

Millers Crossing (1990) - a gangster kind of film. I'm not too fond of it.

Barton Fink (1991) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) I had never seen before. Probably wont ever watch them again. Didn't really like either one of them, moreso Hudsucker Proxy. Jennifer Jason Leigh with her horrible sounding 1920's accent/voice got on my nerves and ruined the whole movie.

Fargo (1996) - A great story. And while at times it clearly satirizes the whole Minnesotan/Canadian accent, it still strangely doesnt subtract from the real tragedy of the story. It's weird how good the Coen Brothers are at that kind of thing, blending a sort of surrealism and reality seamlessly.

Big Lebowski (1998) - Like I said, blending surrealism and reality. One of my favorite Coen Brothers movies. And again, John Goodman steals the show when he dumps out Donny's ashes from an old Folgers coffee can into the wind and it blows the ashes all over himself and The Dude.

O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) - Didn't really like it. It's supposed to be a version of Homers Odyssey.

The Man who Wasnt There (2001) and Intolerable Cruelty (2003) - Meh. Not terrible. But not very good either. I had never seen them before. Don't think I'll bother watching them again either.

The Ladykillers (2004) - Another one I had never seen before. A strange one. A black comedy. I love the cast. Such a variety of characters. And I really liked the absurdity of the ending (i won't spoil it). Maybe not one the "best" Coen Brother Movies, but definitely a "good" one, at least in my opinion. Worth seeing at least once or twice.

No Country For Old Men (2007) - Their #1 best movie in my opinion. Lots of subtext involving the unpredictability of life and the inevitability of death. And that final scene with Tommy Lee Jones talking about the dream he had about his father... KA-POW. If that ending doesn't hit you in some way, then you aren't human.

(Several movies after that, most of them I didn't like.)

Burn After Reading (2008) and A Serious Man (2009) - Had never seen them before. Didn't like them. Meh.

True Grit (2010) - A great movie, I liked it. I thought Jeff Bridges was maybe one of the only guys who could've played a Rooster Cogburn type of character the way John Wayne did. I'm a big John Wayne fan, I've seen virtually EVERY SINGLE ONE of his movies (and he was in LOTS) and True Grit was maybe my #1 favorite Wayne movie. As good as this remake is, I still prefer the John Wayne original. There's just no contest. There was only one John Wayne.

And after being so bored by Burn After Reading and A Serious Man, I decided to skip Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) and Hail, Caesar! (2016). I watched the first 5 or 10 minutes of Inside Llewyn Davis, but in addition to it just being boring, it was shot with this fuzzy soft focus effect that drove me bananas. So I said fuck it and skipped it. Same for Hail Caesar. I'm not a fan of George Clooney as an actor. Didn't feel like sitting through 2 hours of his crappy acting.

Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) - Eh... interesting, yes. It's just a collection of little various western tales. It's "good", it's worth watching, but not my favorite.