---- I watched these films recently:
TCMs 30 Days Of Oscar:
Gigi (1958) Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier. An all-time favorite musical. The cast is perfect; the sets and costumes are perfect; the songs are just right; so for me, this is a 10/10 all time favorite film. I just watch and enjoy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/
FXHD:
The Replacement Killers (1998) Chow Yun Fat, Mira Sorvino. Chows first Hollywood film and it almost ruined him. However, it is not that bad. Sorvino and he are good together and the theme music is unusual. The action cannot compare to his John Woo films from Hong Kong, but are as good as many action films from La-la land. Story of revenge among the Chinese criminal class, and how with blackmail, people can be made to do almost anything. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120008/
DVR'd off HBO:
Sunshine State (2002) Edie Falco, Timothy Hutton, Angela Bassett, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Alexander, Ralph Waite, Alan King. A John Sayles film about Florida and development. Good and bad, yes and no, and the decisions people make. Bassett and her doctor husband, (Desiree and Reggie), have come to visit her Mama and the old home next to a beautiful white beach. It is in the area that was bought up by a wealthy black man and resold to other blacks in the early years of Florida when no blacks were allowed on beaches run by towns or counties. But with desegregation, lots of the original families have gone on to other places. So the land is ripe for picking by land developers. The various characters and companies who want to develop strip malls and franchise restaurants come like locusts. One company has its' bulldozers ready. The Temple family, who own a motel, restaurant complex, are the interesting group. Daughter Marly(Falco) runs things now, but hates it. Dad, Furman (Waite), is almost blind, and rants about how things used to be, when you could refuse accommodations to anyone. Mom, Delia(Alexander), has her own life and has never had any part of the family business. But she has had 25 years of running a community theater. At the final scenes of the story, she is the one who tells the hot-shot snotty businessman what is what, and what he and the other guys wanting to develop the land will have to do - sign contracts, share future profits, 5-10 years down the road, etc. Not for nothing has she raised and managed funds for her beloved theater all these years. There will be development, but there will be some who can say what kind. Long and complex, this is a film with many stories and takes its' time. Alexander plays her big scene quietly and with such good humor, you almost fail to realize it is the key scene in the film. The rest of the cast are very good and all have their shining moments. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286179/
DVD Rental:
Secretariat (2010) Diane Lane, John Malkovich. Great horse, born from a great sire, is the hope of Meadow farm and Penny Chenery. She has had to bury her mother, and see that her father is unable to run his business any longer. The film is more about how she copes and manages to win in a man's game, finding the great trainer and jockey she needs to win races. There is no doubt that at any point in those first two years of the great horses life, if she had not had grit, she could have lost control and there might not have been a Triple Crown at all. The winning of the Belmont, the last leg of the Triple, by 23 lengths was one of the greatest feats in horse racing and stands as a record to this day. I watch it and always get a lump in my throat and tears spill out of my eyes. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028576/
More hours go to checking records and filling in the blanks of my genealogy history than watching films since 2011 began. It is a fascinating journey.
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