I’m generally a Royal Stick-In-The-Mud and don’t like much, but I watched The Current War, about the rivalry between Westinghouse and Edison. Subject material might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but right in my wheelhouse.
An excellent movie. Kind of like something you would find on PBS, but with a lot more style and drama. I found it was very well done. I would recommend it. Showing on Showtime channels currently.
Pun unintentional.
I just watched The Lake House. I’d never claim that it’s a great movie, but rather to my surprise, Keanu Reeves didn’t ruin it. He was actually quite…okay.
I was in a mood for a rom-com yesterday - it happens - and I ended up tripping across this cute little movie I’d seen a few years ago called Little Manhattan (2005). It’s about a 10 year old boy’s first crush/love. It stars a young Josh Hutcherson as the kid. Brad Whitford and Cynthia Nixon are his divorcing parents who are, for the moment, still living together.
So yeah, nothing earth shattering about it, but like I said, it’s cute, nostalgic even. It features a nice Deus Ex Machina happy ending for the parents and a surprisingly mature resolution for the kids. Not to sound creepy, but the girl he has a crush on reminds me of a girl I had a crush on when I was his age and every ten-year-old angsty speech he makes landed perfectly for me. The other thing that I found fascinating about it is the kid-friendly version of the upper west side of Manhattan they present. It looks closer to Sesame Street than 72nd street.
I watched Goodnight, Mommy on Hulu a couple days ago and I absolutely loved it.
This movie is best seen knowing absolutely nothing. Just watch it from beginning to end. Don’t let the German language bother you. There is not much dialogue in the movie and I honestly forgot it was in a foreign language.
Goodnight Mommy(called I see, I see in German) is an incredible movie about two boys and their mother. Any more summary than this would ruin the experience. Instead, I’ll list the feelings I had while watching
This is one of the better movies I’ve seen this year and if you do not check it out, you are missing out. I know most of the above emotions are negative, but the movie is very rewarding and I’m glad I saw it.
For Halloween this year, instead of indulging my taste for binging different versions of a story *, I decided to pull out an old film I used to see on TV all the time, but hadn’t seen in ages – Hold that Ghost, starring Abbott and Costello. It’s borderline lite horror, since it involves a supposedly haunted ex-speakeasy, but it’s a “Scooby-Doo” kind of ending, where the “ghosts” all turn out to be gangsters in sheets and the like.
The film was the second one that they starred in**, but wasn’t released until after Abbott and Costello In the Navy for various reasons. It sort of shows in the script – they were still trying to figure out what to do with them, so they threw in a romance between a very young Richard Carlson (better know to me from 1950s science fiction films like It Came from Outer Space and The Creature from the Black Lagoon) and Evelyn Ankers (who also appeared in a lot of Universal 1940s monster flicks, including The Wolf Man). They even let another comedian share a lot of screen time with Costello – Joan Davis, who deserved to be a household name, but never quite achieved it. I can’t recall any other A&C film that did this. (Shemp Howard, not then in the Three Stooges, also gets a small role).
The story is a weird tangle in which A&C inherit a former speakeasy from a gangster, and when they go to inspect the property a “wildcat bus” operator (who has picked up some extra fares) strands them al there and drives off with their luggage. Bedding down during the stormy night in the club, they encounter creepy goings-on, most of them caused by gangsters spying on them and hoping to find the stash of money the former gangster owner was said to have stashed there.
What I found weird was that I didn’t recall several of the scenes at the very beginning and the very end, featuring music acts The Andrews Sisters and Ted Lewis. These scenes were not, in fact, part of the original movie as filmed, but were tacked on after In the Navy had been released and proved successful (it has the Andrews sisters, who were under contract to Universal, as well). So they could easily be excised. I suspect that in many of the TV showings that I had watched as a kid, they were either cut out or pared down considerably. I certainly don’t recall any of the opening scenes where we actually saw the gangster “Moose” Matson, whose club they inherited.
There’s precedencde for that. I know that many TV showings of other films, especially those in the afternoon or late at night, where they tried to sell as much commercial time as possible, cut scenes from the movies they showed. It was common for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, for instance, to have the entire opening cut and to open when they are delivering the crates to the House of Horror. I’ve seen The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad at 4:30 with everything before the arrival at Baghdad cut out (and that includes some of Harryhausen’s best animation).
Something that was very interesting was that there’s an entire musical number by Ted Lewis at the start. My memories of the film certainly don’t include it – the most I can recall is a distant shot of him saying his signature line “Is Everybody Happy?” at the very end. If I’d seen his act at the beginning, I had no memory of it, so it was like seeing it fresh.
Williams had an odd way of talking, also part of his signature style. Every word trails off, as if he’s getting so sleepy as he’s saying it that he’s about to drop off before the next word, but he keeps managing to speak and sing. His characteristic act was “Me and my Shadow”, and when he started doing it, my wife and I exchanged glances that said “I can’t believe he’s doing this.” Because a black dancer comes up behind him, cane in hand, and duplicates his every move. This is th kind of thing they send you to Sensitivity Training for nowadays. It’s not that you had another dancer aping his ations – it’s that you had a black dancer performing as his “shadow”. It’s a play on his race that elbows you in the ribs, and it seems hopelessly racist today.
The (uncredited) black dancer was Eddie Chester. According to Wikipedia, he had been an usher at a theater Lewis was performing at, who was following Lewis, actions – offstage and not in audience view, of course. But Lewis saw him from the stage and brought him into the act. Chester performed with him for years. Lewis eventually worked with four other black dancers, as well. Wikipedia quotes the Ted Lewis Museum online him with being “…one of the first prominent white entertainers to showcase African-American performers.” Perhaps. Al Jolson was credited with much the same thing. But it’s hard, today, watching their performances without cringing.
The movie was also interesting for one line in the writing credits. I’d only recently learned about John Grant, who gets a screenwriting credit. Grant is one of those unsung and uncelebrated contributors. He was the “third stooge” to Abbott and Costello, who “punched up” scripts and routines (including the classic “Who’s on First”) and co-wrote many of their screenplays.
Overall, not as funny as I recall it being. But then, a.) I was a kid; and b.) I still remembered all the funny bits and lines. My wife drifted off to work on the computer after the beginning. It was more interesting for the scenes I either hadn’t seen or hadn’t recalled.
*In the past I’ve done this with Dracula, Frankenstein, and Beowulf.
** They had appeared in One Night in the Tropics, but didn’t star. They stole the show though, which lead to their first starring roles in Buck Privates
Started watching the new Borat filmmovie. I was enjoying it until my wife walked in and sat down and the fertility dance began. Had to change the channel at that point.
I had the same reaction. A nice little sf romance; Sandra Bullock did a nice job too.
I caught probably 85% of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves the other day. Not enough to cross it off my Oscars watch list, but enough to know that I’m not going to enjoy watching the whole thing over again.
Watched this the other day. That was a grim experience. Thankfully, I was pretty drunk, and don’t remember some of it.
Just watched Terminator: Dark Fate on Amazon. I wasn’t expecting much…and I got about what I was expecting. I was mostly curious how Sarah Conner fit into the story.
IF you are tempted to watch this latest installment, let me help. In this timeline/universe, essentially “Terminator 3” and all other sequels/spin-offs (“Salvation”, “Genesis”) NEVER happened (never will happen ?). So you need to reset back to “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”. “Dark Fate” basically picks up from there.
The movie still makes little sense, but you can’t expect much from an entire movie that is a chase scene. Oh, and you also need to “suspend disbelief” to new levels (perhaps even exceeding the “Expendables” movies’ stunts). Just accept that the humans are just as indestructible as the machines (some even more so) and enjoy the ride.
I came home from work the other day and wanted to avoid election coverage so instead I watched Hunt for the Wilderpeople on Netflix. I’d heard, here and elsewhere, that it was a good movie, and I was happy to find that yes it is.
Ricky: Why do you reckon he calls himself Psycho Sam?
Sam: Here you go. Put these on. Stop the Government from tracking you.
Ricky: Never mind
We watched I’m Thinking of Ending Things over the weekend. It was worth the time, even though I saw part of the reveal (that the “young woman” character is a figment of Jake’s imagination) coming about a third of the way through.
It gets very mind-screwy and I can definitely say it’s not for everyone. If you’ve ever seen a Charlie Kaufman film and responded with anything short of admiration for his storytelling, skip it. I understand that the book it’s based on is much darker, but possibly more straightforward in its finale.
Mission of Honor on Netflix. Based on real events, it’s the story of how the remnants of the Polish Air Force, having been overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe because of relic aircraft and poor supply lines, moved to England and fought with honor and skill for the RAF in the Battle of Britain. Specifically, the movie is about the famed 303 Squadron, one of the two in the BoB, whose pilots shot down more aircraft than any other RAF squadron. Eventually, 16 Polish squadrons fought for the Allies during the course of the war. Josef František, with 17 kills, was the leading ace for the allies during the BoB.
I had a friend who wanted to escape election coverage, too, so he watched The Godfather 2.
I noted that one is about an aging criminal facing his inevitable loss of power, while the other is a movie.
Hard Day’s Night (HBO Max). I don’t think I’ve seen it in 50 years – it holds up remarkably well; it seems like it could’ve been made this year. Brilliant. Of course, it helps if you like the music. 
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
I totally loved this movie!
I watched His House the other day on Netflix and really enjoyed it. Not only was it really creepy, but it was sad too. Got the whole range of emotions from the movie.
The Last Descent: Okay, I didn’t actually watch it, because as the guy started crawling deeper and deeper into the cave system, and since the (true) story is that he gets stuck, it started to freak me out. But the first ten minutes were okay.
Oh my god! A days of real bad movies. The Captive. Dumb, dismal and … dumb. Canadian, of course. Not a damn thing made sense in this piece of shit. Avoid!!
Some movie with Bruce Willis and ‘50 Cent’. Dumbest, most pointless hour and a half I’ve spent in a long time. I can’t even start with how bad it was.
Saw on oldie that reminded me of Donald Trump…if he had been born poor.
It was A Face in the Crowd starring Andy Griffith (wonderful) as a mean and amoral grifter\drifter who gets catapulted into celebrity. He becomes the darling of a national audience he can control but cannot stand. Until a woman he wronged leaves his TV microphone ‘hot’ and the audience can hear what he really thinks of them.
We also saw "Detective Story’ and learned that the Williams Shatner’s and Al Pacino’s overacting style was actually invented by Kirk Douglas. His ‘tortured’ day seems ridiculous in today’s world when he learns that his loyal and loving wife was a whore how had…slept with another man before she met him. 
His self-righteousness is al the more maddening when he we see how has no qualms at all about beating a suspect.
Lastly was Witness for the Prosecution. Charles Laughton was magnificent, Tyrone Power was great and Marlene Dietrich was stunning. A must-see.