I watched these films recently:
Topper Returns (1941) Roland Young, Joan Blondell, Carole Landis, Billie Burke, Dennis O'Keefe, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Wonderful cast of character actors steal the film from the stars. Young, Burke, and Anderson are a riot. This time it is Blondell who is killed, murdered by mistake, and she coerces Topper into helping her find out why? And who. Light and funny. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034303/
Road To Morocco (1942) Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour. My favorite of the Road films. Zany and crazy but the 3 stars are all at their best, in looks, voice and because they seem to be having fun, I did too. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035262/
Since You Went Away (1944) Wonderful film of the women left at home during WWII and how they coped. Made during the darkest days of the war, when the USA was losing thousands of men a day with no end in sight. Nearly every family had someone who was wounded or killed. This film is about an upper middle class family with a maid and lots of privileges, but it is one look at how it was for one family. Jennifer Jones saying goodbye to her soldier sweetheart as she runs down the depot platform is so heartbreaking, and one of her greatest few minutes on film. Beautifully filmed and acted. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037280/
Stage Fright (1950) Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd. Hitchcock misfire. I have not seen it for over 25 years and it is just a bore. Very disappointing. Strange, because I used to like it, but this time - no. Even the Dietrich magic is not there. The only actor who shines is Alistair Sim as Wymans father, Commodor Gill and Dame Sybil Thornedike as his wife. Both are great and Hitch should have had more of them, which would have made this boring film watchable. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042994/
Songcatcher (2001) Janet McTeer, Aidan Quinn, Jane Adams, Pat Carroll, Emmy Rossum. Wonderful film set in early 1900s about a woman professor, who ventured into Appalachia, North Carolina mountains, to visit her sister's school, and ends up collecting the mountain peoples music. The story is told from a woman's viewpoint, with the major plot points showing the struggles of the women. But also showing how hardy, good humored and brave they were. And showing the tradition of the balladeer/storyteller in the transfer of traditional music and stories handed down through hundreds of years. The music is wonderful, and the characters interesting. A part of America not often featured in film or print. Wonderful. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042994/
Inside Man (2006) Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Denzel Washington. Bank caper film. Stars make it worth watching. Reviewed before. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454848/
What Happens In Vegas (2008) Cameron Diaz, Ashton Krutcher. Leads actors are fun to watch, but in their roles in this film, are impossible to like much. Both go to Vegas to forget what has just happened to them and end up spending a drunken night of partying and high jinks with each other. Among other things they did, they get married, and they win a jackpot of 3 million dollars, with her quarter which he put in the machine and pulled the lever. So who gets the money? When they go before a judge, he makes them wait through 6 months of marriage counseling, and after ups and downs, they find they care for each other. Yeah. We know! But watching a guy urinating in the sink for whatever reason is not funny and makes the character so awful I was not able to see any good in him, so didn't care if they ended up together. With the money maybe she won't have to see him very often. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1033643/
300 (2007) Gerard Butler, Lena Headey. Leonidas and Queen Gordo, and the brave 300's last stand at the Hot Gates, against the invading hoard from Persia. Great film. Narrated by Delios, David Wenham. Reviewed before. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/
The Brave One (2007) Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard. Story of a radio talk show host who with her lover and their dog are assaulted in Central Park. Waking up after 2 days in a hospital, Erica is told David has been killed, and is so traumatized she can barely function. After the police do not seem to be doing all they can to discover what happened and who did it, Erica buys a gun to feel safe, and carries it all the time. At a convenience store one night as she wanders the aisles, a thug robs the clerk and kills him, then stalks Erica and she kills him. So far, self defense. But after another incident on the subway, when she kills 2 guys harassing everyone and threatening her, she is dubbed a vigilante. Meanwhile, Howard and the officer in charge of the investigation of these killings, gets close to discovering who the killer is, and they both become aware of each other. Is she justified? Interesting question, and no easy answers. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476964/
Accidental Husband (2008) Uma Thurman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Colin Firth, Sam Shepard. Can you believe? With this cast, this film never got a distributor and was never released. As rom/coms go, it is not that bad. But the concept is ridiculous. Smart author/radio host tells listener her fiancee is not for her and dummy breaks her engagement. Said fellow is a fireman and he becomes involved with radio host and they end up married or something. How it all comes out is the movie. Plot devices are so crazy and the characters act so nuts, we are muddled. Firths character is the only one that you halfway hope will find happiness. The other two deserve each other. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0809504/
Last weekend of the month to watch films, so hope I can get some of the Oscar nominated films to see.
January 27, 2011
January 16, 2011
Girls, a Man, Vampires, and A Piece Of Work---
---this week I watched:
Calendar Girls (2003) Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds. The actresses are all amazing and funny. The local Women's Institute is trying to raise money for a good cause for the hospital, as they do each year. Last years calendar had pictures of bridges; this years is to be local churches; not expected to raise any more than the bridges. Trying to hit on something they think might sell, they finally hit on a nude calendar, and get 11 members to agree to pose, with a group shot for December. What happens as they pose, print, and do publicity, is amusing and when they end up a world sensation, a delight. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1131729/
A Serious Man (2009) Whole bunch of actors I never heard of in a film that is a Coen Bros. downer that goes on and on - and then abruptly - ends. I seriously didn't like it. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019452/
Twilight: New Moon (2010) Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Taylor Lautner. More of Bella and Edward and Jacob. - vampires and werewolves - in the beautiful northwest woods of Washington. Teenage angst and turmoil. If Kristen/Bella would raise her head and look into the eyes of her co-stars, would she really turn into another creature? She has a bad habit of seeming to look at their chin. Very distracting. Otherwise, not bad fantasy film. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259571/
Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work (2010) 75 years old, and still going strong. My kind of gal! Film follows her through one year; her time after she and Melissa were dumped from E!'s Red Carpet shows, through her grand triumph on Trumps "The Apprentice." Joan thinks of herself as an actress instead of comedienne/writer which is where she has had most of her success. At times melancholy, but mostly up and funny. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568150/
Not much time for films last week, because I got back into my genealogy, digging through records, etc. Time consuming and I forget time completely.
Onward to whatever comes......
Calendar Girls (2003) Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds. The actresses are all amazing and funny. The local Women's Institute is trying to raise money for a good cause for the hospital, as they do each year. Last years calendar had pictures of bridges; this years is to be local churches; not expected to raise any more than the bridges. Trying to hit on something they think might sell, they finally hit on a nude calendar, and get 11 members to agree to pose, with a group shot for December. What happens as they pose, print, and do publicity, is amusing and when they end up a world sensation, a delight. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1131729/
A Serious Man (2009) Whole bunch of actors I never heard of in a film that is a Coen Bros. downer that goes on and on - and then abruptly - ends. I seriously didn't like it. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019452/
Twilight: New Moon (2010) Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Taylor Lautner. More of Bella and Edward and Jacob. - vampires and werewolves - in the beautiful northwest woods of Washington. Teenage angst and turmoil. If Kristen/Bella would raise her head and look into the eyes of her co-stars, would she really turn into another creature? She has a bad habit of seeming to look at their chin. Very distracting. Otherwise, not bad fantasy film. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259571/
Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work (2010) 75 years old, and still going strong. My kind of gal! Film follows her through one year; her time after she and Melissa were dumped from E!'s Red Carpet shows, through her grand triumph on Trumps "The Apprentice." Joan thinks of herself as an actress instead of comedienne/writer which is where she has had most of her success. At times melancholy, but mostly up and funny. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568150/
Not much time for films last week, because I got back into my genealogy, digging through records, etc. Time consuming and I forget time completely.
Onward to whatever comes......
January 07, 2011
Drollery with Peter Sellers----
Recently watched on TCM:
Heavens Above (1963) Peter Sellers, Isabel Jeans, Cecil Parker. One of the last whimsical satires Sellers made in Britain before he became a super star with his roles in Lolita and Dr. Strangelove. As the Rev. Smallwood, he is mistakenly sent to a parish with upper class snobs who have no use for lesser folk. As he meets his parishioners, he sees what they really are and, when he comes upon a band of extended family members who live in tents and trailers and carts, as they are being evicted off the land by a big business venture, he invites them to come and live at the parish house. This is looked on with horror and in really bad taste! Lady Despard (Jeans) disapproves and is giving him what for, when he brings up 'the Bible' and what it says about the poor. She does some reading in the good book and decides to give away free food in the village. Which upsets the shopkeepers no end and when the giveaway is over, the people turn on the Good Rev and the church leaders decide to get rid of him by making him the pastor of outer space. Droll and amusing. No big laughs but smiles and chuckles throughout. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057134/
HBO:
Pirate Radio (2009) Philip Seymore Hoffman and a lot of other people. In the 1960's Britain's BBC tried to keep rock and roll off the airwaves as corrupting youth. A group of renegade broadcasters and assorted types take to the high seas in a big ship and broadcast 24 hours a day. The government is not amused. Various schemes to shut them down are tried. None work. Eventually the ship itself defeats them by sinking. But all is not lost, and rock continues and is still going strong. Amusing. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1131729/
To be con't...
Heavens Above (1963) Peter Sellers, Isabel Jeans, Cecil Parker. One of the last whimsical satires Sellers made in Britain before he became a super star with his roles in Lolita and Dr. Strangelove. As the Rev. Smallwood, he is mistakenly sent to a parish with upper class snobs who have no use for lesser folk. As he meets his parishioners, he sees what they really are and, when he comes upon a band of extended family members who live in tents and trailers and carts, as they are being evicted off the land by a big business venture, he invites them to come and live at the parish house. This is looked on with horror and in really bad taste! Lady Despard (Jeans) disapproves and is giving him what for, when he brings up 'the Bible' and what it says about the poor. She does some reading in the good book and decides to give away free food in the village. Which upsets the shopkeepers no end and when the giveaway is over, the people turn on the Good Rev and the church leaders decide to get rid of him by making him the pastor of outer space. Droll and amusing. No big laughs but smiles and chuckles throughout. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057134/
HBO:
Pirate Radio (2009) Philip Seymore Hoffman and a lot of other people. In the 1960's Britain's BBC tried to keep rock and roll off the airwaves as corrupting youth. A group of renegade broadcasters and assorted types take to the high seas in a big ship and broadcast 24 hours a day. The government is not amused. Various schemes to shut them down are tried. None work. Eventually the ship itself defeats them by sinking. But all is not lost, and rock continues and is still going strong. Amusing. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1131729/
To be con't...
January 01, 2011
Happy New Year - 1st 2011 films-----
--to comment on. I watched these over the last 4 days and nights of 2010:
TCM:
The Bachelor & The Bobbie Soxer (1947) Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee, Ray Collins. Great cast in a film about a teen who goes bonkers about an 'older' man who speaks at the high school assembly. Mixups and chaos ensues. The big scene near the end as they all end up at the supper club where birthday cakes are being delivered and singing begins, as new people arrive to get into the brawl, is very funny. Great timing and you can't see the work being done by the whole cast. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039169/
FMC:
All About Eve (1950) Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter, George Sanders, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates. So many Stars. In many ways, it was their highest achievement, personal best, the one film of theirs that will be remembered. A great way to ring out the old year and begin the New. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042192/
DVR'd off HBO:
Wargames (1983) Matthew Broderick, Allie Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, Barry Corbin. School kids, into computers back before it was cool, hack into a top secret military site that launches our nuclear missiles pointed at Russia. The Generals, scientists and top dogs at the launching site are not amused. Hauled in to the secret mountain stronghold to explain, David is not believed when he tries to explain he was just playing what he and his girlfriend, thought was a game. Still a lot of fun to watch and even though we are no longer in a cold war with Russia, gives a sense of what it was like in those paranoid times. Broderick was a charmer. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/
HBO:
The Hangover (2009) I sat through this stupid dickflick again just to be sure I wasn't too hard on it when I first watched it earlier this year. O! my! God! It is just as awful as I remembered. This time I didn't even think the dentist role was funny. They are all just so stupid - and we are supposed to think it's funny and endearing for guys to act this way? The same types that diss rom/coms, write reviews about how they laughed all the way through this lame brained film. Exxxxxxxcuse me! 4/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119646/
He's Just Not That Into You (2009) Gennifer Goodwin, Ben Afleck, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper, Drew Barrymore. And I'm just not as into these ensemble films where we get a dib of this and a dab of that. I especially did not care for the couple played by Jennifer Connelly and Bradley Cooper. What a cypher of a leading man! And Connelly's character as played, is a sullen, controlling, uptight, bitch! Nothing attractive to her at all. Cooper is totally without the personality to make his character the least bit interesting. He is a whiner. Aniston and Afleck are sweet together, and the dishwashing scene is heart warming and the best and most natural in the film. Gennifer Goodwin as Gigi is hyper and cute. Justine Long is a good guy under the bluster. Will love rear it's ugly head? Sure! 7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001508/
Eat Pray Love (2010) Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, James Franco, Javier Bardem. A woman who is at a point where her life just isn't working for her, gets divorced, and to change her life, goes on a quest to 3 places on earth where she hopes to find meaning and hope. A very interesting film if you just let it happen. Julia, to me, is always worth watching and she is lovely here, whether in gorgeous settings of flowers, the sea, or the crowded streets of India. The film gives the idea that she has found what she is looking for at the end, so that's a plus. Bardem is sweet as the guy who gives her hope. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879870/
Hope everyone had a safe, warm, New Years eve.
TCM:
The Bachelor & The Bobbie Soxer (1947) Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee, Ray Collins. Great cast in a film about a teen who goes bonkers about an 'older' man who speaks at the high school assembly. Mixups and chaos ensues. The big scene near the end as they all end up at the supper club where birthday cakes are being delivered and singing begins, as new people arrive to get into the brawl, is very funny. Great timing and you can't see the work being done by the whole cast. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039169/
FMC:
All About Eve (1950) Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter, George Sanders, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates. So many Stars. In many ways, it was their highest achievement, personal best, the one film of theirs that will be remembered. A great way to ring out the old year and begin the New. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042192/
DVR'd off HBO:
Wargames (1983) Matthew Broderick, Allie Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, Barry Corbin. School kids, into computers back before it was cool, hack into a top secret military site that launches our nuclear missiles pointed at Russia. The Generals, scientists and top dogs at the launching site are not amused. Hauled in to the secret mountain stronghold to explain, David is not believed when he tries to explain he was just playing what he and his girlfriend, thought was a game. Still a lot of fun to watch and even though we are no longer in a cold war with Russia, gives a sense of what it was like in those paranoid times. Broderick was a charmer. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/
HBO:
The Hangover (2009) I sat through this stupid dickflick again just to be sure I wasn't too hard on it when I first watched it earlier this year. O! my! God! It is just as awful as I remembered. This time I didn't even think the dentist role was funny. They are all just so stupid - and we are supposed to think it's funny and endearing for guys to act this way? The same types that diss rom/coms, write reviews about how they laughed all the way through this lame brained film. Exxxxxxxcuse me! 4/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119646/
He's Just Not That Into You (2009) Gennifer Goodwin, Ben Afleck, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper, Drew Barrymore. And I'm just not as into these ensemble films where we get a dib of this and a dab of that. I especially did not care for the couple played by Jennifer Connelly and Bradley Cooper. What a cypher of a leading man! And Connelly's character as played, is a sullen, controlling, uptight, bitch! Nothing attractive to her at all. Cooper is totally without the personality to make his character the least bit interesting. He is a whiner. Aniston and Afleck are sweet together, and the dishwashing scene is heart warming and the best and most natural in the film. Gennifer Goodwin as Gigi is hyper and cute. Justine Long is a good guy under the bluster. Will love rear it's ugly head? Sure! 7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001508/
Eat Pray Love (2010) Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, James Franco, Javier Bardem. A woman who is at a point where her life just isn't working for her, gets divorced, and to change her life, goes on a quest to 3 places on earth where she hopes to find meaning and hope. A very interesting film if you just let it happen. Julia, to me, is always worth watching and she is lovely here, whether in gorgeous settings of flowers, the sea, or the crowded streets of India. The film gives the idea that she has found what she is looking for at the end, so that's a plus. Bardem is sweet as the guy who gives her hope. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879870/
Hope everyone had a safe, warm, New Years eve.
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