Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Netflix. Though it’s straight-to-streaming, it is authentically in the 80s action movie vein, and fits very successfully as a sequel. Not very memorable or original, but a good way to waste a couple of hours on the couch.
Just watched Superman (1978) with Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, and Margot Kidder. I saw it in a theater when it was originally released and loved it then. And now…
That first hour just drags, with the setting up the backstory with Brando on the planet Krypton. That was actually something I found interesting and unusual back in 1978, but seems really hackneyed today. The part in Smallville could have been longer, but at least we know that Superman ate Cheerios when he was growing up. It was one of the first movies with actual product placement, but it was subtle.
Like its contemporary Star Wars, it’s fascinating seeing the special effects used before CGI. Plus John Williams had another winning score. Too bad the villains are so jokey, but that was the style they were going for.
We should all count our blessings; I’d heard that the original script was going to be chock-a-block with sequences/jokes like this (read at your own peril, then kindly turn your head to puke):
Supes is chasing a bald gent down a city street thinking it’s Luthor. He grabs the guy’s shoulder and spins him around and it’s Telly Savalas, with lolly, and he says Who loves ya, baby?
Getting queasy? Imagine a whole film full of that!
Bourne Identity 1988 Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith on DVD
It’s interesting to watch the original Jason Bourne. The way they adapted the book in 1988 is much different from the pacing in 2002 with
Matt Damon. The movie franchise has many recurring characters that aren’t in the original movie.
I like the original and the Matt Damon version. My main criticism is Chamberlain’s age (b.1934). He was 53 when he played Bourne. The romance with Jaclyn Smith didn’t work for me.
Unfortunately this movie is OOP and I couldn’t find it streaming. Ebay was my solution.
If you’re a Bourne fan it’s worth seeing how he was portrayed in 1988. It would have been better with a younger lead
LBJ 2016 Woody Harrelson
Rob Reiner surprised me with a positive portrayal of LBJ. Certainly one of our more complex political leaders. The accidental Presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, Truman and LBJ are fascinating figures in history.
I appreciated that they showed many of Lyndon’s flaws and also greatness. His leadership in passing of the Civil Rights Bill and The Great Society gives LBJ a important place in American history.
I wish Rob could have made a second movie. I wanted to see more about Johnson’s years in the Presidency. How he accomplished so much and also how mistakes eventually brought him down. Especially his stubborn determination not to be the first President to lose a war. I was a kid and still remember news reports about the protests outside the White House.
I’m very surprised Rob didn’t use the same cast and make a movie focused on LBJ’s Presidency. All the Way is on my list to watch.
Overall, a pretty Good movie.
Inside Out 2 (2024) A decent movie that deals rather well with the difficulties one has dealing with changing friendships and the desire to fit in that comes usually around puberty, when not only you are changing but so are you friends. On the whole I felt it was funny and touching. It also had what I felt was good message as to what makes up our image of self. Not as innovative as the first, but that is to be expected since you are revisiting an existing world. Overall and enjoyable film.
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It’s painful to watch a popular actor do a modern day sequel to a beloved movie they did 30 or 40 years ago, and have it flop. Eddie Murphy’s 1988 “Coming to America” was funny and charming. 2021’s “Coming 2 America” was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, completely lacking the appeal of the original.
So we watched “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” not expecting much. This time, doing a sequel to a popular movie of 40 years ago actually works. (Forget the iffy BHC 2 and 3 sequels.) At 63, Eddie is still in good form, fit and trim and sharp. His supporting cast is a bunch of people from the original movie, plus Joseph Gordon Levitt doing a fine turn as his younger sidekick.
I was in my 30s when the original movie came out. I saw it (I think) and forgot about it. I gather that people who were teenagers in 1984 have much more fond memories of it, as one might expect. There’s a hint of nostalgia thrown in for those folks, especially in the use of incidental music, but it isn’t heavy-handed. (When was the last time you heard “The Neutron Dance” by the Pointer Sisters?)
Of course, there are car chases that are ridiculously over the top, and the body count is pretty high for a comedy, but overall, I’d call it a pretty entertaining watch, especially if the original is a pleasant memory of your salad days.
MotW: Ezra. Bobby Cannavale is a semi-divorced, standup semi-comic with an autistic kid. Road trip movie ensues.
A really good cast including Robert De Niro, Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga, Rainn Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, etc.
I thought with the lead supposedly being a standup comic it would be on the light side. Wrong.
First of all, the standup segments are brief and generally crappy. Secondly, the whole thing is really intense. Lots of people yelling, big league angst, etc.
The child actor playing the title character is fairly good but not a “wow” like so many child actors I’ve seen recently. So this proves that there really “normal” child actors out there.
Tony Goldwyn directs and has a small part and his daughter appears in it, no doubt thanks to dad. There ought to be a term for that. 
The actual funniest thing in the movie (and mildly at that) comes during the closing credits as a prologue.
And how old is this script? It treats Conan as still having a talk show.
Give it 3 metal utensils. And a lot of that is for De Niro who still has “it”.
(And a another plea for late night talk shows to please put on more standups. There’s a lot of great, lesser known ones out there who can fill the last segment a lot better than the crappy musicians they put on to fill the slot. I know the music groups have record companies that definitely do not give the shows payola to put them on and the comics don’t, but c’mon. 98% of these performances are crap.)
It was shot in September 2022 according to Wikipedia. Conan’s TBS show ended in 2021.
Was it set in the past or just a mistake?
I think they just wanted to throw in a joke regarding Conan’s height and the relative position of his, um, lower mid section.
Hidden Figures 2016 Kevin Costner (he is the box office draw, but the three women carry the story).
I was pleasantly surprised at this gem. It tells the story of three black women that performed flight calculations for NASA in the early 1960’s. Their struggles to work and be respected during segregation is depicted.
These were real historical figures but Wikipedia lists many inaccuracies. It doesn’t matter. The heart of the story is the strong bond between the women. They suceed in building very successful careers in spite of prejudice and discrimination.
A interesting development is the introduction of a IBM Mainframe. It performs calculations much quicker than any human. It puts the women’s jobs in jeopardy. Their solution to the problem is inspiring.
Pharrell Williams contributed to the soundtrack and it adds a lot to the story.
Grade: A, excellent movie
I really like that movie too, but holy hell, is there some hardcore over-acting going on in some scenes.
Watched Yentl last night. It would have been better if Barbra could have shut her yap for two minutes. And I like musicals!
My wife and I watched this movie over the weekend and I did a search to see if anybody else here commented on it. This is a really good capsule review.
This movie is formulaic as hell-- it’s more meta-movie than movie. And I say that not as a bad thing! It hits all the notes. It’s everything it needs to be and no more. I might say things that sound like plot spoilers, but really, this movie is unspoilerable. Axel has an estranged daughter. They start to bond. Then there’s a setback. But they reconcile at the end. Kevin Bacon is clearly having a fine old time as the main Smarmy Bad Guy. Again, not a spoiler-- the minute he appears onscreen I said “there’s the Bad Guy!”. It’s obvious. He will of course be the last bad guy standing, and have a showdown with the good guys. He even has a convo with Axel at one point where he says “you and I are not so different…”.
And yeah, as XOldiesJock mentioned, the car (snowplow, meter maid buggy, helicopter, etc…) chases are ridiculously over the top, in a very “70s / 80s action comedy movie” sense. Axel causes hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars worth of vehicle and property damage. I’m surprised he didn’t run into any fruit stands at any point, causing multicolored produce to fly everywhere. Or maybe that did happen and I blinked and missed it. Yet, of course, no bystanders seem to get hurt, and in the end Axel is treated like a hero, not imprisoned for public endangerment.
And the nostalgia factor-- the older characters who were brought back… Judge Reinhold is somewhat underused but still gets in a fair amount of Judge Reinholding. “The Neutron Dance” by the Pointer Sisters. The ‘Axel F’ instrumental synthy theme music plays throughout the movie-- there’s even a slowed-down, dirgy ‘WAH-wahhh’ stinger version of the ‘Axel F’ theme that plays when our heroes seem to be at a low point, down but not out.
So yes, if you were the right age when the original came out (I was 19 and probably saw it with a date), you’ll likely have a fun time with this one.
The Beekeeper (Prime, 2024) Tired of our political landscape. The Beekeeper must protect the hive from the son of the president who is ripping off Americans in a phone scam. You heard right, this lone vigilante must kill the son of our elected official to save America.
It’s clear conservatives are currently chafing under the watercooler discourse brought on by Homelander, but the Right simply cannot meme.
The action was alright, the plot was dumb as hell. Recommended for the MAGA fans needing Copium this November.
Over the long Independence Day weekend, we watched the entire The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003). Good movies, but still a lot to slog through. I’ve watched them before, both in theater and at home.
I’ve been reading the books for many decades. The movies capture the feel well. The decline of civilization after long-ago golden ages. The kindled heroism of millenarianism. Overall, it’s worth watching. There’s plenty of small details changed because of the difference in medium. Also, I can understand omissions, but some of the additions are terrible and totally unnecessary.
I guess what’s at the core of my bother is the industry has given the LotR books, with all their details, the shortest treatment. While stretching the Hobbit to ridiculousness and the Appendices beyond recognition. If only the LotR’s main story could’ve been told over multiple seasons. Here’s hoping for a proper reboot for the 100th anniversary of their publication.
The original Beverley Hills Cop starts with a chase, Axel in the back of a truck full of cigarettes as the bad guys try to flee from the Detroit police. As I recall, they do hit a pickup truck and send fruit flying, but the pickup is incongruously labeled “vegetables”. Maybe this new one didn’t want to repeat that gag.
We re-watched the original The In-Laws about six months ago, and while it was as much fun as ever (Serpentine, Shelly!), during their big car chase they not only plow into a fruit stand, but they also flirt with large panes of glass. I’d like to say this was a long time ago, but these kinds of scenes were overdone back in the silent era!
As a Tolkien geek of the first order, I concur to some extent. I’ve seen the Peter Jackson films more times than I can recall, but haven’t seen The Hobbit at all and have no desire to. The Amazon “Rings of Power” bears little resemblance to anything Tolkien did. But there’s no need to besmirch the LOTR films by association with their lesser relatives.
100th anniversary will be in 2054; 50+ years after the Jackson films, so that’s a decent interval. Pity that I won’t be around to see them.
I suspect if Jackson’s films hadn’t happened, or if he hadn’t done such a brilliant job with the trilogy (I can’t speak to how it compares to the source material), then we would have had that TV/streaming series by now.