The Gorge (2025) PG-13

 The Gorge (2025) PG-13

 Two world-class snipers, Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Levi Cane (Miles Teller) must work together to protect the world from the evil in a remote gorge.

 Assigned by The Employer (Sigourney Weaver) to a one-year solo assignment in a remote guard tower, Levi accepts because he feels he has nothing and no-one to live for.  He didn't realize his counterpart from Eastern Europe would change all that.

Mild spoilers follow.

Surprisingly romantic for a movie about guarding the mouth of hell, this Apple Television original movie also delivered on plenty of action.  A perfect watch on Valentine's Day.  It starts like a Jason Bourne type spy thriller, but slowly morphs into romance, intrigue, and monster filled horror.

Our heroes sit alone in two watch towers over a deep gorge.  Every night, strange beasts called "Hollow Men" after the poem, try to scale the sheer rock face.  Through a series of foolish choices, they end up at the bottom of the crevasse fighting for their lives.

The creatures are suitably creepy.  You could not pay me enough to slither through a tunnel of their dozing bodies.  When they discover the true origins of the nightmare they find themselves in, they hatch a plan to end the menace that threatens the entire planet.

"You bury enough secrets, the graveyard runs out of room." 

Two needle-drop moments, four "oh shit" moments, and one series of numbers that will screw up your stitch counts when they talk about their longest yardage for a kill shot.  Overall, I was very glad my partner mentioned watching this, because it was excellent.  Four out of five stars, one star removed mostly because their cutesy banter via notes and binoculars was a little too adorable considering the situation.  But if you have Prime or Apple+, you should give it a try.

Synchronic (2020) PG-13

 Synchronic (2020) PG-13

Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan), two paramedics and best friends, think they've seen it all while making the rounds in their ambulance.  They had no idea how personal, and strange, it could get.

On the surface, this movie is about designer drugs; people skirting the law on a technicality to get high.  It ends in terrible consequences.  The fact that the writers took this to an almost absurd extreme doesn't change that.  Dig deeper though, and this movie is about connection, and sacrifice for your chosen "family".

Semi-spoilers ahead.

I will warn you, there is a scene where a dog doesn't exactly die, but is lost.  I could feel it coming, and blubbered like a baby when it finally happened.  If this is something that will affect your enjoyment of this film, you've been warned.

Ultimately, this is a time travel film.  A new designer drug, Synchronic, disconnects the user from linear time for seven minutes.  What time you travel to depends on precise geographical location when the drug kicks in.  The paramedics are just cleaning up the aftermath without thinking too much about it until Dennis' teenage daughter, Brianna (Ally Ioannides) disappears from a friend's roof.

Steve slowly starts to pick up on the drug's strange effects, and having received a terrible diagnosis from his doctor, feels he has nothing to lose by experimenting with the pharmaceutical in an attempt to track down and rescue his friend's daughter.

There are some side stories that add a little flavor, such as the story of the chemist who created the drug, and the effects Brianna's disappearance has on Dennis' marriage, but neither were as important as Dennis' story of he and Steve taking a call during hurricane Katrina, and Steve coming upon the scene of his parents' and little sister's coffins displaced by storm waters.  You see flashes of it throughout the film, but it isn't explained until near the end.  The story illustrates Steve's character in a way that builds on why he makes his choices in the end.

The movie itself is sometimes non-linear.  Flashbacks are not always precisely "marked" as such so that you recognize them immediately.  Dennis especially is affected by this, when he encounters places and objects that remind him of his missing child.  It lends to the surreal quality of the film which I enjoyed.

Since I am a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, and have had a terrible medical diagnosis of my own, this movie hit me very hard.  I'm not sure I would have reacted as strongly to the emotional beats if I had been someone else. 

 Yet even with all that, the ending was unsatisfying and a bit of an eye-roll inducer.  It felt like the movie's "rules" weren't adhered to, making the ending ultimately fall flat. 

I didn't knit a project during this film, as I was pressed for time and didn't want to spend the beginning distracted by setting up a new project.  There was one "holy crap" moment, and a few spots where spoken numbers could screw up project counts, but overall this would be an excellent movie to watch while making or crafting.

Ultimately, if you're a fan of the time travel genre, this is a decent entry.  It is not a light-hearted film though, and deals with some heavy subjects.  It's thought provoking, and has some very striking visuals.  I recommend it, but be prepared to feel introspective and sad when it's done.  Four out of Five stars. 

Arcadian (2024) NR

 Arcadian (2024) NR 

 

A single father (Nicholas Cage) raises his twin sons (Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins) in a post-apocalyptic world invaded by non-sentient aliens.

Recent events have gotten me back into movie watching mode, and what better genre to start with than horror?  Everyone loves a good alien invasion flick, but somehow this one managed to disappoint.  Semi-spoilers ahead.

The creatures were original in a way, kind of a cross between a duck, snapping turtle, and great ape.  They were disturbing, especially while consuming their prey, but unfortunately there wasn't enough tension built up around the creatures, as most of the focus seemed to be on the twin boys' coming of age story in a apocalyptic future.  Nicholas Cage, while being the focus of all the promotional materials, is largely absent for 80% of the flick.  I felt sorry for the brother who had to spend the night alone in a barricaded house just because his brother was horny for the girl next door.

Instead of treating the aliens as a villain to be conquered, the main problem the brothers had was their relationship with their father and each other, and that could have been handled in a more satisfying way as well.  Instead we're treated to a maudlin, not very emotionally convincing funeral and childish bickering.  The ending was sadly flat and neither hopeful, nor bleak.  Just bland.

Using my old metrics, there were two "oh shit" moments in the film, one with flying bugs, and one with a slip and fall with terrible consequences.  Two spots had counting in them that could throw a knitter or crocheter off their stride, involving the countdown for "ten second end of the world" otherwise not much to trip you up there.

My project was a pair of toe up, worsted weight socks that is very close to completion.

Overall, if you just want noise in the background and are running low on new things to watch, it will help you pass the time.  But I wouldn't go looking for something deep or moving within it.