I remember that scene. And it reminds me of how good Christopher Reeve was in that role. (And that John Williams score.)
I liked the film, and it’s a tribute to the song that it can be played so many times without driving the audience nuts.
I just saw ‘The Boston Strangler’ last night as well. I was enthusiastic when seeing who comprised the cast, and also looking forward to a cool late 1960s time capsule.
Like you, the blatant overuse of those stupid split and multi screens ruined it for me.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (HBO Max). Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker, and Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker. Details their rise and fall – mostly, their rise – and marital problems (stemming mostly from the fact that Jim was deeply closeted gay. Strangely superficial on exactly what their financial wrong-doing was; they’re shown spending money like drunken sailors, then needing a bailout from Jerry Falwell (who totally screws them over), and then Jim goes to jail.
And it has a lot of Tammy Faye singing – apparently Jessica Chastain did her own singing, and handles it well.
Tammy Faye comes off looking fairly admirable: a decent, honest woman and a strong ally to the LGBT community when all around her (mostly, Falwell) had a big problem with that.
I remember her being a crazy-ass woman who rose greatly in my estimation after she split from Jim and became her own person instead of his sidekick.
Did the movie cover Jim and Tammy start with Pat Robertson and the 700 club/CBN? This was the early days in the mid 60’s.
Pat grew concerned about Jim’s approach to fund raising. Jim and Tammy split and formed the PTL Network. Squeezing every nickle they could from viewers. Until the auditors caught up with them.
Yes, the movie covers the Pat Robertson years, and then their split off to form their own network (and how their viewership dwarfs Jerry Falwell’s). The fund-raising consists of a message that resonates with the viewership (generally attributed to TF) and the phones start magically ringing, and then the Bakker’s blow it all on theme parks and fur coats. Jim is shown often encouraging viewers to double their regular pledge.
TF’s crazy-assedness is attributed to her pill addiction, which is a consequence of her marital problems. After crashing hard on the air one day, she just kicks the habit, no problem-o.
I’ll watch it. I enjoy reading about the history of the evangelical movement. What motivated them and how sincere they really were.
I liked this movie a lot more than I expected to- just turned it on because I was bored and watched it all the way through. I didn’t know that about Tammy Faye and the LGBT community and I am surprised I didn’t hear about it when I was a kid going to a Pat Robertson following church where we were like boycotting Burger King & Disney and other bullshit. I think that would have been really a huge deal at my church but maybe I have the timeline wrong when I would have still been there.
GRAVITY.
Entertaining movie, but it only makes sense if Clooney’s character never saves Sandra Bullocks at the beginning. As she floats off into infinity the rest of the movie is a dream caused by oxygen deprivation.
I’ve seen *The Eyes of Tammy Faye. * Would this film provide anything I’d still want? And can any actor do better than the original footage of Jim Baker’s perp walk?
I loved Tina Fry’s joke about Gravity during the Golden Globes that year:
“Gravity is nominated for Best Film. It’s the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age.”
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Netflix) Biopic of the eccentric Victorian illustrator, who drew odd pictures of cats. Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. I thought it would be quirky and charming…it was dark and depressing, and not in a good way. The story was more interested in the tragedies that befall Wain, rather than his art – you don’t even get a good look at his work until the end credits roll. Not recommended.
Isn’t that on Prime Video, at least in the US?
Right—my mistake. It’s Amazon.
Dial M for Murder - Alfred Hitchcock on TCM
I’m a little disappointed. The entire plot is so badly dated. A submissive wife is attacked at home. She kills him. Her husband tells her not to call the police. Sends her into the bedroom while he throws away evidence that supports her story.
She gets framed for murder. The entire plot falls apart in a modern setting. Today’s modern woman would have looked out for their own interests and called the cops. They certainly wouldn’t give hubby a chance to manipulate the crime scene.
Yeah, but the original The Matrix was still having people popping in and out of the matrix through phone booths twenty years later.
I wanted to clarify my feelings about Dial M for Murder.
It is well written and suspenseful. Grace Kelly is very good. I enjoyed the movie. Hitchcock always delivers interesting films.
Be prepared for the outdated gender roles. The plot wouldn’t work in modern times. But it’s still a interesting suspense story.
Love the movie. It would be one of my “desert island movies”.
Very engaging as we see the deceptively suave Tony Wendice manipulate people, events, and situations to such evil intent. Entertaining to see the cat & mouse game being set up by the detective even as he feigns being a little out of the loop.
Saw The Matrix Resurrections last week. It spent a lot of time fumfering around at the beginning , teasing us with whether it was going to be a “real” matrix movie. When it finally settled down, though it seemed to lack something. Not a bad movie, but not up to the first three.
Over the weekend, in honor of Arisia 2022 (which was supposed to be held this weekend, but was cancelled at the last minute because of omicron) I watched a bunch of science fiction movies of the sort I’d expect to see there.
Alien Voices – The Lost World – (live action radio play with a cast of mostly ex-Star Trek actors. you get to see the sound effects artists at work.
The Thing from Another World – the 1951 Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks version
Superman II – The Richard Donner cut – not the theatrical release.
Metropolis – the fully restored version
Dark City – Pepper Mill hadn’t seen this.
I also watched “Trailer Park”. At past Arisias this is generally a collection of theatrical trailers of upcoming movies, but this was a collection of over two hours of trailers for old movies that the Arisia online community put together. to their credit, they managed to dig out the rare and seldom-seen trailers, including one for Tron Legacy that I’d never seen. They ended it with the famous Alfred Hitchcock tour of the set of Psycho.