Never mind
We just watched Weiner, a documentary on IFC channel.
Heartbreaking. An impassioned Democrat who had good ideas AND had some fight in him, but implodes in sexting scandal.
The documentary follows him through his 2013 Mayoral campaign in NYC. It was a comeback story, and we are rooting for him. He was doing very well…until…
Another sexting scandal. Weiner goes from polling at 26%, the leader in a 5 way race, to losing with only 4.9% of the vote. His wife keeps looking at him with hate\disgust, all the while showing more affection than Malania ever did. And Sydney Leathers, who brought him down, partly because she mad at him but mostly because she wanted her 15 minutes and a springboard into adult films. (Wiener and Leathers, at the time, had never actually met, or been in the same room with each other. I do not know if any his other sexting partners were ever together with him either))
I remember being mad at him for derailing his career with something so mind-bogglingly stupid. And then I felt a little sorry for him.
Then I read on wiki that he sexted a 15 yr old girl after all this and plead guilty to a federal charge and did time.
Fuck that guy.
But I recommend the film!
Coming 2 America (Amazon) - I loved the original, probably have seen it 40+ times and can quote almost the entire movie. But this was, wow. Painfully unfunny. I appreciate that as a middle aged white dude, I might not be the target audience for comedy that often stems from a culture different from my own. Still, good comedy manages to transcend barriers, like the original. They got the entire cast together, dressed them up in their old roles, slapped a stale plot together and no one thought to deliver a joke in the hour and a half of film they produced.
Would not recommend.
Just saw this and “good but not great” sums it up. More to the point, it’s very “Hollywood superficial” and comes across in that horrible faux-woke way liberals are always accused of. “Look!” this film says, “we’re sorry we did bad things to nice black people! We made this film about a Significant Black Person to make up for it!”. But it seems more concerned with appearance than substance, and on the whole I found it irritating.
On the other hand, I also watched The United States Vs Billie Holiday, which accomplishes everything Harriet wanted to do. Andra Day is spectacular in the lead role, and Holiday comes across as a deeply-flawed individual (for horrific reasons covered in the film) who is unfairly targeted by the FBI because she keeps reminding people about lynchings (and because the FBI in the Hoover years was phenomenally racist). I’ll admit that at first I thought they might be laying on the “white people are evil” message a little heavy (not helped by some clunky exposition) and then Roy Cohn showed up and, once I recalibrated my Evilometer, it all fell into place.
And lest you find yourself thinking that things have substantially changed since Holiday’s time, the film leaves you with a little gutpunch right at the very end to remind people not to get too smug.
My advice: skip Harriet; watch The United States vs Billie Holiday (but not with the kids around because there are a few graphic sex scenes).
Too bad, that’s what my daughter told me about Coming 2 America as well.
I saw the first Coming to America over the weekend because my friends wanted to do a double feature with the sequel. I had never seen it before and I found it incredibly unfunny. I laughed maybe twice. I just found it stupid and I have no idea why it’s supposed to be this comedy classic. I bailed before the second film started, sounds like I made the right choice.
I would, too. One of the better political docs I’ve seen.
And all the more reason to hate Weiner - it was his case that led the FBI to publicly reopen their investigation of Hillary in the last days of the 2016 campaign, perhaps leading directly to Trump’s election. Grrrr: FBI Led Back To Clinton Email Server Case By Anthony Weiner Investigation : NPR
Boss Level, starring Frank Grillo. A fun romp of a time loop film, if you’re bored on an afternoon. It also has Mel Gibson and Naomi Watts, but neither really have a lot of screen time.
Samson and Delilah (1949)
An epic adaptation of the Biblical story of a strongman named Samson whose incredible strength allows him to kill a lion with bare hands, take on and take out powerful armies and protect his people from enemies. But who falls for a beautiful woman from rival territory which is used against him to tame him through romance and betrayal.
I really enjoyed this movie. The sets, visuals and production work are incredible. The man who played Samson really nailed the transformation of a man with God like power to weakened and succumbed mortal. And the woman who played Delilah was absolutely stunning and her deviousness and ruthlessness added to the majestic beauty.
Finally what struck me is one character who had a pivotal but small part of the movie happened to be Angela Lansbury. Who of course is still alive today. I didn’t recognize her until looking up the cast because it is so weird seeing her young. Just a few months ago I watched a Hercule Poirot movie from the 1970s and she looked really old even back then. A great actress but it took me back realizing that young girl at the start of the film was the woman I’ve only ever known as a grandmotherly figure.
Have a look at her five years earlier in Gaslight
https://www.reddit.com/r/No_Small_Parts/comments/g2tonl/angela_lansbury_in_gaslight_1944_first_role/
(from memory) Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr, IIRC; and George Sanders as the villain. The heyday of Hollywood’s Sword & Sandal period.
I half-recall a Groucho Marx quip about Victor Mature’s impressive pecs, possibly inspired by this film: I refuse to see any movie where his tits are better than hers.
Thanks! I will. Just looked it up and Joseph Cotton is a familiar name. Starred in Shadow of a Doubt which is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies.
I wasn’t aware of any of them before watching the movie but they were superb together. Hedy Lamarr blew me away with her performance. A conniving beauty.
A couple of weekends ago we watched “Domain” on Prime Video. I do recommend it; it wasn’t Oscar-worthy or anything, but it was solidly entertaining.
That’s Hedley.
I’ve been re-watching some end-of-the-world films lately, such as 28 Weeks Later and, more recently, I Am Legend. Both of these are strong films for the genre, but I wish the latter had stuck with the director’s ending instead of what was used for the theatrical release. One thing that bugged me in “Legend” was that in one scene we see fighters blowing up the bridges in order to isolate Manhattan. Yet later in the film, the woman and her son somehow manage to appear on the island in their vehicle.
Been watching a bunch of crap on The Movie Channel and Showtime and other 2-bit dish channels. What a bunch of Crap! All day is filled with garbage, repeated over and over. I watched something called Run with the Hunted. Not a single redeeming quality to report, unless a reasonably short run-time counts. Watched a piece of garbage called Collide. It has Ben Kingsley and Anthony Hopkins and is still worthless garbage. Not an original idea in the entire flick.
Jeez, I need to go skiing, weather be dammed!
The Prom (made for Netflix) Self-absorbed Broadway stars decide to take on a cause, and go to small-town Indiana to help a gay teenager go to her prom. Big star power: Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington. Concept sounds hilarious. Lots and lots of good songs.
But: they forgot to write a story. The stars have nothing to do once they get to Indiana, except sing. And sing. And sing. I think musicals are great, but they pack in a phenomenal number of songs/hour, none of which advance the plot. Because there isn’t one.
A Call For Spies - a real(ish) story about women in Britain involved in helping the French Resistance during WWII. The story may not be quite as gripping as fictional spy stories, but real life rarely is and it’s certainly worth watching to learn about Virginia Hall, Vera Atkins and Noor Inayat-Khan.
Untouchable/The Intouchables (title translations vary) - streetwise immigrant becomes a carer to a French rich guy. I’ll admit that Omar Sy is a recent discovery for me (see also: Lupin) but he is a delight to watch, Francois Cluzet’s paralyzed businessman is likewise brilliant and this whole film is really quite enjoyable (and apparently one of the biggest grossing films in France). Highly recommended (and also based on a true story).
There was a recent American adaptation of your second movie, Gyrate: The Upside - Wikipedia