----will Streep win again this year? Since my last entry I have watched:
The Egg & I (1947) Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride. Charming film based on a book about city folks who buy a chicken farm in the boonies. The film that introduced Ma & Pa Kettle and their large family, who went on to make a dozen more. A nice, happy film. 8/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039349/
Mr. Soft Touch (1949) Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes, Beulah Bondi, John Ireland. A gangster steals the money owed to him and the gang is out to get him and the loot back. He needs a hideout for 36 hours until his boat sails. He finds it at a settlement house where they are getting ready for the Christmas party. Perfect for his purposes, but he gets caught up in the lady social workers problems as she tries to turn him around from the abusing husband he is pretending to be. A film noir for Christmas. Put it on the list for when the others are just getting too sweet. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041663/
Up The Down Staircase (1967) Sandy Dennis, Eileen Heckart, Jean Stapleton. A young woman gets her first teaching job at an inner-city school where disipline is about all the staff is trying to teach or accomplish. Her efforts, and the film, are a lot like other films of the era. About to give up, by the end, one tiny hope is enough to make her go on for aother year. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062425/
Tender Mercies (1983) Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Ellen Barkin Wonderful indy film that won many awards. Duvall at his best, won his Oscar. Story of a drunken drifter, a former successful song writer, who flops at a roadside motel run by Harper. He is broke so asks if he can work off what he owes. She says yes. Her young son takes to him also and that is the film. Three people learning about each other and just living, A small gem to treasure. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086423/
Spy Game (2001) Robert Redford, Brad Pitt. Complicated story about one agent trying to get another out of a jail in China and do it behind, and over the top, and around the corner, of the CIA, the FBI and all the other letter agencies. The boys do a good job and it was a pleasure to be in their company for a few hours. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266987/
Chicago (2002) Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee' Zellweger, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly. The whole cast was great. I never say this on stage; never heard any of the songs. But I remember the original film with Ginger Rogers and Adolph Menjou (Roxie Hart 1942); which was based on a real Chicago murder. This version is just as over the top and satirical as the original. Loved all the numbers. Gere. Is. Amazing! The final number "Nowadays" is so perfect in all its garish triumph. See it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luef1H24hU8 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299658/
Derailed (2005-Independent) Jennifer Aniston, Clive Owen, Vincent Cassel. Married businessman meets a woman on the train and thus begins a tale of infidelity and blackmail and double and triple crosses. And who is doing what to whom? Very hard to keep track of and with this type of film, that is the key. Hitchcock always winked at us and kept us guessing, but by the end we could tell the story. With this story, it was just too clever by half. I needed a play by play. Cassel makes a good villian. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398017/
The Pacifier (2005) Vin Diesel. Navy Seal Diesel is assigned to watch over a bunch of kids in a family of the scientist father who has been killed. Not a bad little film for what it is - a kids movie. Diesel is okay and for a wintry day by the fire, this'll do. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395699/
Notes On A Scandal (2006-UK) Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench. Two great actresses in a story of loneliness and obsession at a school Sheba Hart comes to teach and immediately is befriended by an older teacher, Barbara. Sheba allows Barbara to become too much a part of her family, all the while herself becoming emeshed in an affair with a 15 year old student. They meet in alleys and have sex on the ground and finally Barbara sees them in Sheba's classroom. The story from there on is unhappy for all parties. The two actresses are fine and it does hold your interest. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465551/
The Dark Knight (2008) Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine. Well! I decided I should bee the film that will soon overtake Titanic as the most successful film ever made. I did not like the beginning. The introduction scenes of the characters from there were good and interesting. Joker was not nearly as great a character as I was expecting. Maybe too much propaganda over the last 16 months? I was interested through the 2-hour mark, but I think I did doze a bit near the end. Think I'll keep my first Batman and Joker - Michael Keaton and Jack 'Crazy' Nicholson. I like the fun or that one as opposed to the serious/gutteral/Dark Knight. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/
It's Complicated (2009) Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin. My daughters and I went to see this on a day with the temps at 2 degrees - and that was the high! We loved this film. Streep(Jane) and Baldwin(Jake) are perfect playing off each other. Martin(Adam) does a fine job, especially with Streep in the smoking grass scene. John Krasinski has a role(Harley) of a son-in-law that gradually you love. Story of a gathering for a graduation of the son of a divorced couple. The father has a young wife with young son. Jake and Jane end up drinking and in bed together. And so - it's complicated. Nancy Meyers has made a film for us grown-ups women. No puking, peeing, pandering to 14 year old males. Like the great 'womens' pictures for the "matinee ladies" of the 1930s and 40s, we finally have someone in Hollywood to do it again. 9/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1230414/
Some warm days will get rid of most of our snow and I hope, what's left of the ice, where it is shady all day. I will be writing on the festivals TCM has been having in the last few days. Great old films.
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