Jeanette and Nelson, and the Sex 2 gals---

-----Finally got to the theater to see my girlies and their clothes and silly problems. I also have watched these films:

Smilin' Through (1941) Jeanette MacDonald, Gene Raymond, Brian Aherne, Ian Hunter. I can't say I found this story at all interesting. I really don't remember much about it and I have seen it before. Lots of good music. Nice color, and Jeanette is always lovely in color. Only her fans will love it. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034203/

I Married An Angel (1942) Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald. The last film the two stars made together. It is not one of their best. The scenery and costumes look cheap. They were getting stale at this type of nonsense and it showed. Neither look like they were having much fun, as they did in most of their films. Story of a playboy banker and a innocent secretary at the bank, and how she catches him. Long dream sequence. Music not up to their best. Title song and Spring Is Here, are all I think are worthy. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034882/

The Stone Angel (2007) Ellen Burstyn, Christine Horne, Cole Hauser. Story of an old woman and her memories of her life as a rebel. Horne, as the young Hagar, is beautiful and when she returns from college, she doesn't want to conform to the life her strict father lays out for her. He is rich and has become a very important person in their little town. At a dance, she meets poor boy Bram and eventually marries him, as much to defy her father and convention. as lust for Bram. Her life spirals from bad to worse as she has two boys and Bram decends into drunkeness.
The film goes between the old lady and her memories of her young self. Her life never becomes what she had hoped and her trip back to the farm from the older sons home where she has been living, reminds me of Geraldine Pages' in The Trip To Bountiful. Back to a place and time in your mind when you were hopeful and happier. Fairly good film and both leads are very good. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847897/

Sex & The City II (2010) (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis. Boy, were the reviews and ratings wrong on this one. I get busy in spring and do my gardening thing so just made it to see SATC2. I'm sooo glad my daughters (baby-boomers) and I went to the theater to see the girls in their outrageous clothes, deal with their silly problems and get on that plane. What a plane - showing the individual 'pods' the upscale tickets gets you. What a dream!
Then we get to that great hotel, and are given a tour along with our girls. Great! And a one day desert outing. Oh yeah! Great locations. Cinematography is wonderful!
Story? Smart, rich women have the same kind of silly problems with their lives all the rest of us do. You can either make a movie and laugh; or make a tragedy and cry. We can cry just living our own lives. Carrie, Samantha et al, over the top, and making us laugh - is what this group of 'women' want. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1261945/

A Steam bath today outdoors, soooooo just movies and TV for me.

Hidalgo; Religulous----

----finally I am caught up for this month. I watch the films but am too tired and sleepy to post on this blog.

Hidalgo (2004) Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif. Hidalgo, a mustang horse, is the star of this story and film. His journey across the world to enter a harrowing race across the Sahara desert is just cruel and unusual punishment for man or beast. I really could not enjoy the film for worrying about the animals. After all - the humans are supposed to have brains and hearts. These people showed no signs of it, but the horses were magnificent, 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317648/

Religulous (2008) Documentary. Bill Maher's take on the current state of worlds religions. Very funny at times and sad also. The wars and hate caused by religion, in which all preach 'love' is enough to make one crazy. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815241/

It is "lay by" time for gardeners, so will be indoors more as the hot afternoons start here in the Heartland. Lots of DVDs and Tapes on my table ready to watch. Hi-ho-----

2 with Meg; 1 with Brucey Baby; and W.-----

---more films I have watched this month:

You've Got Mail (1998) Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks. Rewatched. Love both stars in this one. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128853/

Hanging Up (2000) Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau. Three sisters come together to reconcile differences and deal with their dying father. Keaton does her uptight business woman. Meg her sweet helpful self. Both are annoying. Barely remember watching it, so that means something. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162983/

Next (2007) Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel. A Las Vegas magician, who can see a few minutes into the future, thus averting many disasters, is wanted by the FBI, and bad people for bad reasons, having to do with nuclear terrorists. Whew! Will he succeed in saving the world once again? Cage is so watchable his films don't need to make sense, I guess. Good action scenes and stunts. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435705/

Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Bruce Willis as John McClane once again saves all from the bad guys. The stunts are getting really unreal. And the nerd he saves is a real zero until almost the end. Should have made him more quirky or interesting. Still can't go wrong with McClane saving the world for a fun time at the movies. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/

W. (2008/I) Josh Brolin, Thandie Newton, Richard Dreyfus, Scott Glenn. Oliver Stones' engrossing take on the presidency of George W. Bush. Brolin is amazing and actually had me feeling a little sorry for this dunce we had to endure for 8 years. Laura comes across as a perfect Stepford wife. And Momma Bush as the doyen who famously was caught comparing people from Arkansas as "trailor trash" as the uppity person she really is. As a first impression on all these 'historic' figures and times, it is funny, insightful, and abrasive. Whether it will stand the test of time, we will see. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1175491/

Personal Effects (2009) Michelle Pfeiffer, Ashton Krutcher, Kathy Bates. May-Dec romance between a young man whose sister was murdered, and a widow with a deaf-mute son. They meet at a therapy session of family members. While waiting for trial verdicts, etc., romance happens. The leads are both so watchable you forget that the story is a mess and boring. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1138489/

Very hot and steamy today. It's a cool drink and movies for me....

Thrillers mean murder, mayhem etc-----

---three I watched recently:

Enemy Of The State (1998) Will Smith, Regina King, Lisa Bonet, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight. Thriller of an innocent guy who gets left with a secret tape of incriminating evidence of a murder. Set in Washington, D.C., powerful people try to erase him from records and his life. Good chase film that goes overboard once or twice, but is fun nonetheless. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/

Nowhere To Hide (1994) Rossana Arquette, Scott Bakula. Made for TV. A very hysterical woman and her son are put in Witness Protection so she can testify against her mobster former husband. Naturally she falls for the agent assigned to keep her safe and does just as he tells her. The twist comes about 2/3rds of the way through and wasn't very surprising. Her eventual revenge is sweet. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110695/

Assassination Tango (2002) Robert Duvall, Kathy Baker, Rube'n Blades, Luciana Pedraza. Hit man is delayed in his latest job in Argentina, so goes to watch the tango dancers and ends up taking lessons and becomes more and more involved with his beautiful teacher. The dancing is fine. And that is most of the story. The hit is almost an afterthought. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283897/

More June films I have watched coming up.

San Francisco; June Bride, etc.----

----five films I watched recently:

San Francisco (1936) Jeanette MacDonald, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy (Oscar Nomination). Wonderful cast in the story of the Barbary Coast saloons and the people of the city in 1906, the year of the great earthquake. Jeanette sings title song, and a few operatic arias, and Clark is two-fisted and charming. Tracy seems subdued and I really don't see a great performance here, but his lip is bloodied by Clark, so maybe the gold statue was a compensation prize. The earthquake sequence is still great, after all these years, and all the spectacle we take for granted. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028216/

The Women (1939) Watch at least once a year. Commented on before. March 9, 2009 post on this Blog I compared the latest film, with Meg Ryan as Mary, to 1939s "classic" with the top stars of the top studio, MGM, all taking part. The latest version pales in comparison to the wonderful cast with their claws out (Jungle Red!) for each other, with no holds barred in the '39 version. Women of today, with careers, all sorts of interests, have trouble realizing the limits the 1939 woman had to endure. Some like limits. Hooray for them! But for the rest of us gals, today is better. Don't think the latest version played up the many choices todays women had which makes the whole story different. It is simply not the story Booth Luce told in 1939 and it suffers for the difference. 1939 version a 10/10. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032143/

She Wouldn't Say Yes(1945) Rosalind Russell, Lee Bowman, Adele Jergens, Charles Winniger. Watched it but cannot remember much about it so that tells me it was a bomb. Something about a lady gifted psychiatrist, grounded in self-control, on a train to somewhere getting involved with an annoying man who is a returning serviceman. He is a cartoonist. Not funny enough or wacky enough, just forgetable. Travis Banton wardrobe for Roz worth a look. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038084/

The Pirate (1948) Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Walter Slezak, Gladys Cooper, The Nicholas Brothers. I watched it on TCM. I had not seen it since it first came out back when I was in high school. I know now why I never made a point to get it and watch again. My reaction was just the opposite of so many - I thought it was too frantic, too loud, and for a fantasy - not fun enough. Some good dancing, but the songs were atrocious IMO. Only one hummable song, with lyrics we can remember and sing. Thank goodness, Kelly brought back the "Be A Clown" number and had Donald O'Connor do it in "Singing In The Rain." That made it a 'classic.' Think Gene is more fun in his Three Musketeers role (and much better acting); and Judy is 3-times better in Easter Parade with Astaire. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040694/

June Bride (1948) Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery. Stars work well together. Linda Gilman (Davis) is the editor of the woman's magazine which is heading to a small town to document the wedding of Jeanne Baker (Barbara Bates) and Bud Mitchell. Trouble is war-correspondent Carey Jackson (Montogomery) is back and has been given his old job and is to work under madam editor Gilman. Which is messy because he walked out on their relationship a few years before without even saying adios. With Mary Wickes and Faye Bainter as her staff, you know there will be a few chuckles. Another film I remember well from my high school days, when teenagers were mooning about going steady, getting engaged, weddings! I knew these people well and they did a great job with the ginger bread house and decor in the before pics. Saw many a home with just such horrors and could almost smell the apple pie. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040499/

Have more comments on more films to do, but I'm hungry and it's time for lunch!

1 Classic; 3 newer films----

---I watched recently:

Ransom! (1956) Glenn Ford, Donna Reed. Comments on Blog on March 3-9, 2008. See Blog Archive on right.

True Crime (1999) Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, Lisa Gay Hamilton, James Woods. Story of a man on death row and the reporter assigned to get a last minute interview with him, who discovers new evidence that convinces him the guy is innocent. Getting the govenor to stay the execution and all the bells and whistles in place in time is the story. Too many times things just happen "in the nick of time." Not Eastwoods best. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139668/

Ashes Of Time Redux (1994/Hong Kong/Dung che sai duk) Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wau. I had read about this film for years and finally ordered it on Que at Blockbuster. I was disappointed. The martial arts scenes were all in speeded up mode, It was nothing like the ballet-like beauty of Crouching Tiger. I gave up half way through. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109688/

The Hunted (2003) Tommie Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Neilsen. A Special Forces trained man has tracked and killed four hunters in the deep woods, who were using illegal means to kill their prey. Now the FBI wants the man who trained him to kill, to hunt him down and bring him in or kill him. The deep north woods is the setting and the atmosphere is anything but peaceful, as Jones, the man who trained the killer is called in to track him down. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269347/

Master & Commander (2003) Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany. High adventure on the "far side of the world." Beautifully filmed with the tall ships and wide sea. The battle scenes are chaotic, as I imagine they really were. The story of the English ship tracking the French ship around South America, during the Napolianic wars, is the set up for many interesting details of life at sea on a war ship. It was a brutal life even on the best of ships. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311113/

Summer is almost here. Iced tea, mystery books and films, keeping cool and enjoying the flowers of the season......

Sturges, Preminger directors---

These are the films I watched recently:

Unfaithfully Yours (1948) Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence. One of Preston Sturges' funniest comedies involves a conductor of a symphony orchestra, who imagines his beautiful young wife of being unfaithful to him, which she is not. Harrison imagines how he will trap his wife and her lover and do away with them both. He then tries to carry out his wild thoughts and in a riotous scene tries to get everything prepared and it all goes horribly wrong. Harrison was the great screen lover at this time, and is so funny doing the physical comedy; and lovely Darnell is just breathtaking. The rest of the cast are very good and Sturges the writer and Sturges the director are in top form. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040919/

Saturdays Hero (1951) John Derek, Donna Reed. A look at the recruiting and exploitation of high school football stars into the college game. The mentor of Derek treats him like a paid servant. He has him up to his big house, but doesn't ask him to sit, have a drink as he has one himself, nor have dinner after introducing his daughter. He is just dismissed. The climax is grim. Derek is hurt, but is taped up and sent into play the big game and re injures himself and finally has had enough. All these years later, nothing much has changed in big time college sports. It is just more so. A bit of a downer. Cast is very good, but Reed does have a very stilted delivery of her lines. Presume that is what director Otto Preminger wanted - to show her as a deb and rich girl who is too refined for the Polish lad from the factory town. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043994/

Angel Face (1952) Jean Simmons, Robert Mitchum. Simmons' Diane is her most diabolical role. She is a complete manipulator, obsessed with getting her own way, and possibly crazy and deadly. Mitchums' Frank is a nice guy who can't seem to get out of the web. As an ambulance driver who comes to the home for an emergency - the 'accidental' gassing - of the step-mother, Frank is soon entangled with Diane and is asked to remain as a driver. It doesn't take him long to realize things are getting too involved but Diane keeps causing him to have to continue to help her. The first time I saw this back in 1952, the ending was a real shocker. Didn't expect it at all. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044357/

These Wilder Years (1955) Barbara Stanwyke, James Cagney. Title is strange - the only 'wild' thing in it is a pregnant teenager. But it is one of the first films to take up the issue of adoption agency secrecy and the heart wrenching decisions of unwanted pregnancy. Cagney is a father looking for the son he sired 20 years before and Babs is the agency head who will stand in his way. They are great together. Two tigers of the screen. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049844/

Back with more of my final May films soon.