It is extremely bad. Extremely.
We watched the Mike Myers Cat in the Hat again with my oldest son, for the first time since 2010 or so. As with our last watch, we all pretty much liked it, though I think some of that is we didn’t have a strong attachment to the original book. I’d forgotten a lot of it, included the very Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory acid trip near the end. And Alec Baldwin is clearly having a good time.
The adjusted IMDb score for this movie is 4.1, but the unweighted average is 6.1. I think the unweighted average is about where I would put it, or maybe a little higher.
Canadian Bacon is especially worth mentioning in these crazy times, because it parodies an American invasion of Canada. Really well done, and has parts that are very funny. I really must see it again soon!
Problem Child!? No way. I remember seeing that in theaters when I was a kid and thinking it was hysterically funny! I know I saw it a few more times when it came out on VHS and really liked it. Of course, I would have been around 8-9 at the time so guess it hasn’t aged well…
It’s so bad that I’ve never seen this movie, and I have heard many times how very extremely bad it is.
Is this going to be one of those parodies that’s too close to the truth? I never thought it was possible, but it looks like we’re headed that way. 
Instead of watching the Super Bowl, we decided to go with one of the longer movies we have on our watch list. We ended up watching Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979), an excellent exercise in slow, thoughtful cinema.
One thing that did throw me - I had read the source material, a 1972 Russian science fiction novel called Roadside Picnic, and it turns out that it’s barely even a framework for the movie. So that threw my expectations off for a while, but it was all good in the end.
I watched Ford vs Ferrari 2019 with Matt Damon, Christian Bale, and Jon Bernthal during the Super Bowl.
It loosely tells the true story of Carroll Shelby’s work with Ford to build winning cars for Le Mans. Ken Miles was one of Shelby’s drivers.
Christian Bale steals the movie with his excellent portrayal of Ken Miles.
I briefly checked a few Wikipedia articles and it appears the movie gets the basic story correct. Ford cars did win the Le Mans in the 1960’s.
I enjoyed the movie. It reminded me of Paul Newman’s movie Le Mans. The filming of the racing scenes is well done.
Rented on Prime
I watched an uncharacteristically large number of movies this weekend.
On Friday we watched Cocaine Bear (which neither my wife nor I had seen). We followed this up with Farmageddon, and Aardman Animation “Shaun the Sheep” film that we ran last year at Arisia, but which Pepper Mill had never seen. Lots of in-jokes about science fiction, especially Doctor Who.
While cleaning up, I put on Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. I’m not sure if I’ve even seen this since I first saw it in the theater, but Pepper Mill has seen it a gazillion times, because our daughter watched it over and over. Followed it up with When World Collide, a 1950s science fiction epic from George Pal that isn’t shown much these days. It’s a weird mixture of really good and incredibly bad, but it’s definitely worth watching.
Man, do I disagree. Found the movie dull. And they wasted Caitriona Balfe!
I saw Becoming Led Zeppelin yesterday, really enjoyed it. The movie documents the band’s history from their childhood days up until their 1970 performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Page, Plant and Jones tell the story in their own words along with an archival Bonham interview. Hardcore fans have likely seen the footage before but most of it was new to me. Nice seeing it in IMAX with a great sound system. Definitely worth seeing if you have any interest in the band.
Yep really good film that and interesting to hear it’s largely accurate. I love the bit where he takes the Ford boss (actually Mr Ford if I remember rightly) and scares the hell out of him in the prototype car.
Christian Bale received driver training at the Bondurant High Performance Driving School in Arizona.
Bale spent several hours with Bob Bondurant and got personal insights into his character Ken Miles. Miles died in a crash in 1966. It was a test run of a new car.
I guess that’s why Bale’s performance stood out. That’s not easy sharing screen time with Matt Damon.
Paul Newman also trained with Bob Bondurant. Newman raced professionally and came in 2nd at Le Mans in 1979.
I saw Ford vs Ferrari in the theaters when it came out and the bit that struck me was that part of Ford’s motivation for building that sports car was an interest in a new car to appeal to the emerging baby boomers. This was in 1963 so those baby boomers were just turning eighteen and it amazed me that a brand-new car was an affordable option to kids that young then. Today, I can’t imagine most kids can afford a brand-new car, at least not without substantial parental assistance.
I really liked Ford vs Ferrari; it took a topic I had zero interest in and made it entertaining. All of the acting was great.
[as a bonus, that year we got to see character actor Tracy Letts turn in two fine performances in Best-Picture-nominated films where he played a crusty, disbelieving older figure in power, eventually swayed by a young (or youngish) innovator (the other movie was Little Women)]
A basic 1965 Mustang sold for $2,320 – equivalent in purchasing power to about $23,244 today, adjusted for inflation. So yeah: relatively inexpensive as new cars go, but definitely more than you could get from the savings from your paper route.
About $200 down and $70 a month for 2 years. That about half the income of someone making minimum wage back then.
About $200 more than for a 65 Falcon. That bought you a cooler body and three speed manual
I just watched on Blu-Ray, THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, from 1936.
I realized today I was not sure if Carol Burnett was alive.
Thank goodness, she is.
91 years old.
Heretic. One of those odd films that only disappoints because the good second half is overshadowed by a great first half.