This is still the moment that kills me.
Watched two old fun movies back-to-back last night, neither of them very highly rated, but I found them really enjoyable anyway – The Cheap Detective (1978) and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001).
I agree with @CalMeacham that one would expect more from a Neil Simon script than the low-grade parody that Cheap Detective delivers, especially with such a star-studded cast that included Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar, Stockard Channing, James Coco, Dom DeLuise, Louise Fletcher, Madeline Kahn, Marsha Mason, Abe Vigoda, and others. No laugh-out-loud moments but lots of amusing fun anyway.
This was at least my second time watching Jade Scorpion but I’m an insatiable Woody Allen fan. The story is pretty mundane and the comedy subdued, but I’m always amused just by Allen’s twitchy neurotic mannerisms.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to see either of these two movies, but I recommend both if they come your way and in you’re in the mood for some light comedy.
I’ve never rented a movie from Amazon, but they had a special on The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent for 99 cents ($1.06 with tax), so we watched it. It’s Nicolas Cage spoofing himself in an action comedy. It was a fun watch. I actually laughed out loud in a few spots. Pedro Pascal was excellent and played his role with great earnestness. It was 99 cents ($1.06 with tax) well spent.
I couldn’t stand Nick Cage early in his career, but eventually I came around to enjoy watching him. He’s a good actor with the unique ability to rise above whatever drek he signed-on to do in order to pay his back taxes, and in some cases actually elevate the material. When given good material, like this, he really stands out.
Cage went through a period of making low budget movies. He has a huge tax burden to pay back. However, he showed up to each movie and tried to give each director what they wanted. He came through that phase mostly unharmed because he does work hard and earnestly.
A couple years ago his taxes were resolved. His movie output has improved a lot.
Not to mention his relationship with the IRS.
I think there are a lot of great moments in The Cheap Detective
“I don’t care what your name is anymore, just make something up so I know what to call you.”
Lou serving drinks out of the drawers of his desk. People who get shot and die so quickly they don’t have time to fall over. Lots of good silliness, but played very straight.
I wouldn’t put it on a list of great movies, but I like it.
I think so, too. I hope I was clear that I quite liked it. It’s just that with a Neil Simon script and that star-studded cast one expects something really great, and this is just “good”. In contrast to Murder by Death, also with a Neil Simon script and a very fine cast, which I think is absolutely great (though not everyone here agrees).
But you’re right – it had lots of funny moments. Like these two snippets from the interview between Lou Peckinpaugh (Peter Falk) and Mrs. Montenegro (Madeline Kahn) in his private-eye office: 
Peckinpaugh:
What do you know about Floyd Merkle’s death?
Mrs. Montenegro:
Nothing, of course. Why should I?
Peckinpaugh:
You called me 15 minutes ago telling me you knew something.
Mrs. Montenegro (mysteriously):
A woman knows many things.
Peckinpaugh:
About Floyd Merkle’s death?
Mrs. Montenegro:
Why would a woman know that?
Later on …
Mrs. Montenegro:
I have a niece, Caroline. She’s 17. Attends boarding school at the Hail Mary, Hail Mary Sister Therese Convent and Kennels.
Peckinpaugh:
Kennels? Isn’t that for dogs?
Mrs. Montenegro:
Well, I’m afraid none of the girls were very pretty.
I was always kinda partial to the scene where Georgia Merkle (Marsha Mason) comes to visit Lou after her husband, his business partner, has been murdered. Rather than let the police follow her, she just brings them along.
Lieutenant DiMaggio:
What did you and Merkle argue about last Monday night?
Georgia Merkle:
It’s all right. Tell them, darling.
Lou Peckinpaugh:
Don’t call me darling in front of the police with a dead husband.
Now where did I leave that T-Rex skull receipt?
Edit: I again posted in the wrong thread. Please ignore.
The Bubble (Netflix), a Judd Apatow comedy about a disastrous film shoot during the COVID pandemic.
A promising premise and a strong ensemble cast, but it’s too long and already feels kind of dated.
There are a few good laughs and a decent parody of the film business — if you can stick it out — but I found it ultimately rather unsatisfying.
Finally saw Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and I have to agree with the consensus that it’s a pretty good movie. Even my wife Pepper Mill – who was an avid RPG gamer when I met her – approved, much to her surprise. Infinitely better than that first one with Jeremy Irons (followed by two others I was completely unaware of).
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms – one of my favorites. Ray Harryhausen’s first solo major film effort, the debut of Dynamation/Dynarama/“Reality Sandwich” (because Ray couldn’t afford all those forced-perspective sets and glass paintings they used in King Kong). AND it’s the UR-1950’s Monster Movie. You might say it’s filled with cliches, but if they never used them before, can you call them cliches? All the other 1950s monster-on-the-loose films – Them, Godzilla, The Giant Behemoth – followed in TBf20kF’s footsteps. Extra goodness because the story took its title from a Ray Bradbury short story (title changed to “The Foghorn” in later printings) that Bradbury later turned into a stage play. And Bradbury and Harryhausen had been teenage SF fans together. Still well worth the watching. My biggest complaint is that they repeatedly lose track of the monster as it rampages through Manhattan. How do you lose a monster that size? (Years later, the US 1998 Godzilla – the one with Matthew Broderick – did the same damned thing. And it was even less believable. Intriguingly, that Godzilla movie was basically a remake of TBf20kF, but with CGI effects. Which is appropriate, since Gojira was essentially a Japanese effort to remake TBf20kF in a Japanese setting, only they couldn’t afford the time or money for stop-motion effects. It’s all part of the Circle of kaiju Life)
Watched several of the “Famous Studios” Superman cartoons – the ones made after Paramount took over what had been Fleischer Studios (of which I have much to say, but this post is already long enough). Same cast and crew, so if you didn’t look closely at the opening credits you wouldn’t have known. These are great products of their time, but today they’re hopelessly racist, culturally insensitive, and jingoistic. till a lot of fun.
I saw The Flash yesterday. If you cared for Snyder’s Justice League, it wasn’t bad. There was some very nice acting, and lots of fun cameos, but I can see why it didn’t get repeat business.
If you watched the Flash TV series, you’re already probably sick to death of the Flashpoint storyline anyway.
Rented Maggie Moore(s) on Amazon, a murder mystery dark comedy starring Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, and Nick Mohammed (from Ted Lasso). It’s basically a “bumbling low level criminality goes way off the rails” story, a la Fargo. It is (very very) loosely based on a true story of two women from the same area with the same name getting killed within a week of each other.
It’s good. Well-made, well-acted, has some wit and charm, along with darker moments. It’s no Fargo, but ultimately satisfying and worth five bucks.
My most recent five:
32 Sounds
A documentary about the dynamic impact of sound and how it shapes our lives - interesting segments on noise in the womb, a tree crashing in a forest (and there is someone to hear, and record, it), a cat purring, and a Foley artist at work.
Sabrina
Charming Fifties NYC romcom about a May-December romance between the adorable Audrey Hepburn and the game (if arguably miscast) Humphrey Bogart.
Oppenheimer
Remarkable, powerful, engrossing biopic about the Manhattan Project director; Cillian Murphy is terrific in the title role and really ought to get an Oscar. A lengthy movie but it moves right along. A continuity error that jumped out at me, I have to admit: people at a 1945 Los Alamos V-J celebration are waving small 50-star flags, just 14 years too soon.
The Fabelmans
Self-indulgent, thinly-veiled autobio by Steven Spielberg. An adoring portrait of his mom, in particular, but by the end I found her more irritating than sympathetic.
Barbie
Silly and fun, with a serious if candy-coated feminist message. Didn’t see it as a double feature with Oppenheimer, as seems to have been the fad this summer.
I was absolutely gob-smacked by Judd Hirsch’s character, Uncle Boris. I don’t know if it was that the role was exceptionally written, extremely well acted, fantastically directed, or all three. Yeah, he’s chewing up the scenery pretty good, but I was mesmerized.
Yes, true, I’ll concede he was a highlight of the film. Haven’t seen him in years.
Annie Hall (1977). This is the film where Woody Allen famously turned from farcical comedies into more serious filmmaking. Two things are notable here. On a personal level, it’s incredibly ironic that as a devoted Woody Allen fan – both of his early farces and many of his later movies – I was until last night possibly one of the few people on Planet Earth who had not seen Annie Hall. The other notable fact is that although the film garnered widespread praise – getting nominations in all five top Oscar categories and winning four including Best Picture, and being called one of the finest films ever made – there was also a strong diversity of opinion, with some critics regarding it as a self-indulgent mess.
My view is in between the two extremes. I realized when starting to watch it why this remained one of the few old Allen films I had never seen. Because the beginning was familiar, and I remembered that I had started to watch it before – perhaps several times – and gave up on it. Having now seen it, my opinion is lukewarm. It has some good moments of comedy, some funny cultural satire, and a great deal of Allen’s nihilistic take on life and relationships. To be clear, it’s worth seeing and I’m glad I watched it, but in the end, I’m gobsmacked that it won Best Picture, let alone got called “one of the best movies of all time”.
I saw Annie Hall in theaters when I was 13 and as someone who has never visited NYC save JFK Airport, that film is responsible for about 90% of my perception of the city.
Really? Here are the IMDb user ratings. Where are the low ratings?:
Here are the Metacritics ratings, which don’t appear to have many low ratings for it:
Here are the movies rated as the 250 best of all time in the 2002 Sight and Sound critics ratings, on which it is just within the top 250:
Pretty consistent, I think.