Final Holiday films, plus a great TV Series---

NEW TO ME:

Silkwood (1983) Meryl Streep, Cher, Kurt Russell, Craig T. Nelson.  Based on a true story of Karen Silkwood and the plutonium plant where she worked and was contaminated and her union work.  She was killed in a car accident - or was it?  7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093409/combined

Just Like Heaven (2005) Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo.  A charming fable for the season. She is a driven doctor.  He is a heartbroken landscape architect who moves into  her apartment after she has been hit in a horrible accident.  Her spirit appears to him and how they fall in love and connect is a lovely story for this time of year.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425123/combined

White Collar (2013/TV series) Matt Bomer, Tom DeKay, Tiffany Thiessen, Willie Garson, Sharif Atkins, Bridget Regan.  All six episodes from this year (season 5) downloaded from ONDemand to rewatch.   Bomer is Neal, the art thief, counterfeiter and charming con man.   He is recruited by Peter, FBI agent in the "white collar" division, to help catch the bad guys.  This season has Regan as Rebecca, a lovely redhead, and smart rare books scholar, who becomes involved in a case.  Neal and Rebecca are attracted to each other and start a little romance.  My favorite characters on TV.   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1358522/combined

ENCORES:  

A Christmas Carol (1951) Alistair Sim, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley.  Lovely version of the Dickens classic story.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044008/combined

Christmas Vacation (1989) Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Diane Ladd, E. G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid.  Still funny and has meaning for those who have tried to have "and old-fashioned family Christmas".  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/combined

Lethal Weapon (1987) Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey.  Riggs and Murtaugh, policemen who hate working with a partner, are teamed and have to work it out.  First of 4  in the series, and it is entertaining.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093409/combined

You've Got Mail (1998) Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Greg Kinnear.  A modern day remake of  "The Shop Around The Corner".  Great music and has real charm with the two leads.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128853/combined 

Parental Guidance (2012) Billy Crystal, Bette Midlar, Marisa Tomei.  Grandparents are recruited to stay with kids while parents have a holiday.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1047540/combined

All Favorites but one new, one disappointment---

NEW TO ME:

Period Of Adjustment {1962) Jane Fonda, Anthony Franciosa, Jim Hutton, Lois Nettleton. Thought I had seen this before but really only a few scenes.  Newly weds arrive on doorstep of quarreling buddy and his wife or six years.  It is December 23rd and not a happy group.  Funniest are the carolers in the neighborhood who start out sober and singing well, but at each house they are invited in for some cheer.  By the last scenes, they are all drunk and sounding like it.  7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056341/combined

ENCORES:

Joy Of Living (1938) Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee, Lucille Ball.
Unfunny musical comedy.  Stars save it. 7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030293/combined

Remember The Night (1940) Barbara Stanwyke, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Sterling Holloway.  The prosecution takes a shoplifter in his charge home to the folks for the holidays.  The character actors are superb.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032981/combined

The Shop Around The Corner (1940) Margaret Sullivan, James Stewart, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Morgan.  Perennial holiday favorite.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033045/combined

It's A Wonderful Life (1946) James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell.
A fable with dark undertones done perfectly by cast.  10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/combined

Christmas Eve (1947) Ann Harding, George Brent, George Raft, Randolph Scott, Joan Blondell, 
Reginald Denny.   Charming story of an old lady who adopted 3 boys who must come to her rescue on by Christmas Eve.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039266/combined

The Three Musketeers (1948) Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Frank Morgan, Angela Lansbury.  A favorite from my youth, but now was mostly annoying.  Lana at her most beautiful.   Angela is a stunner.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040876/combined

In The Good Old Summertime (1949) Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S. Z, Sakall, Spring Byington, Buster Keaton.  Musical version of Shop Around The Corner.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041507/combined

Titanic (1952) Barbara Stanwyke, Clifton Webb, Robert Wagner, Thelma Ritter, Richard Basehart.  One of the best stories about the passengers on the doomed ship.  9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046435/combined

An Affair To Remember (1957) Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant. Remake of Love Affair, without the charm.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050105/combined

Gigi (1958) Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold, Maurice Chevalier.  Just perfect.   MGM and Vincent Minelli and the last really great musical.  10/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051658/combined

NCIS Christmas shows. (2003-2013) Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Parrette, David McCallum, Sean Murray, Cote de Pablo.  Marvelous cast in their holiday shows, all run in one day.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364845/combined

Holiday favorites week---

ALL ENCORES THIS WEEK:

Love Affair (1939) Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Lee Bowman.  A romantic dream.  10/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031593/combined

You'll Never Get Rich (1941) Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire.  Wonderful dancing and light-hearted fun.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034409/combined

Weekend In Havana (1941) Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, John Payne, Cesar Romero.  Romero was an elegant dancer and made his co-stars look good.  Gorgeous scenery and technicolor.  6/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034379/combined

I'll Be Seeing You (1944) Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Spring Byington. Romance between a traumatize soldier and a furloughed convict.  Lovely title song.  8/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036940/combined

Christmas In Connecticutt (1945) Barbara Stanwyke, Dennis Morgan, S. Z. Sakall, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardner, Una O'Conner.  Great cast spends a snowy holiday in one of the best houses ever in films.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037595/combined

The Bishops Wife (1947) Loretta Young, Cary Grant, David Niven, Elsa Lancaster, Gladys Cooper, Monty Wooley, James Gleason.  The angel envys the bishop.  Perfect film for Christmas. 10/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039190/combined

Come To The Stable (1949) Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Elsa Lancaster, Hugh Marlowe.  Heart warming story of two French nuns who come to a snowy New England town to build a childrens hospital.  Faith can move the hardest heart.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041257/combined

Holiday Affair (1949) Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum.  Charming romance.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041473/combined

We're No Angels (1955) Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, Joan Bennett.  
Three convicts put all to rights.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048801/combined

Blonde Venus (1932) Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore.  She is a nightclub singer who marries a scientist, and has a son.  Hubby gets sick and has to have expensive treatment in another country.  Wife goes back to singing to pay for it but eventually becomes the mistress of a millionaire in exchange for the money.  When husband is cured and returns he discovers her infidelity and tries to take son and divorce her.  She takes child and runs away sinking lower and lower in singing in worse and worse dives.  Eventually husband finds them again and in an improbable end to the story they are reunited.  6/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022698/combined

My Dream Is Yours (1949)  Doris Day, Jack Carson, Lee Bowman, Eve Arden.  One of the few films where Jack gets the girl in the end.  He plays his usual brash character but with a sweet side. Doris is Doris - sunny and bright.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041671/combined

The Egyptian (1954) Edmund Purdom, Jean Simmons, Gene Tierney, Victor Mature.  In ancient Egypt the story of the physician Sinuhe, Pharoah Akhnaton and warrior Horemheb.  Rather sloiw and plodding, but production values are first rate.  7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046949/combined

ENCORES:

Flying Down To Rio (1933) Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Raymund, Delores del Rio.  First pairing of the dancing stars.  "Orchids In The Moonlight" and 'The Carioca" are dance highlights.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024025/combined

The Gay Divorcee (1934) Second pairing of Astaire and Rogers.  The Continental and Night And Day the big numbers.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025164/combined

Miracle On 34th St. (1947) Edmund Guenn, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood.  Great annual Christmas fantasy.  10/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039628/combined

Key Largo (1948)  Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Edward G. Robinson, Clair Trevor.  Last pairing of Bogie and Bacall.  Trevor won Oscar for support for her performance.  Great atmosphere as a hurricane sweeps in on the hotel where gangsters are holed up holding the owner and others hostage while they await money to take to Cuba.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040506/combined

Mr, 880 (1950) Edmund Guenn, Burt Lancaster, Dorothy McGuire. Based on a real case of the Secret Service about a old man who prints dollar bills and the many years it takes to find him. Charming feel good story for the holidays.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042742/combined

Desk Set (1957) Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Joan Blondell, Gig Young.  The threat of a computer taking over the reseaarch department at a broadcasting company, leads to the women being very unhappy.  The company Christmas party is the fun part of the film.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050307/combined

Advise And Consent (1962) Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pigeon, Gene Tierney.  Based on a Best Selling novel, the story of getting the nominee for Secretary Of State confirmed, is not as innovative as it was back then. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055728/combined

Donovans Reef (1963) John Wayne, Elizabeth Allen, Lee Marvin, Dorothy Lamour, Cesar Ramero, Jack Warden.  Directed by John Ford.  A tropical island at Christmastime. Filmed at Kaua'a, Hawaii, the cinematography is spectacular.  Lamour singing Silent Night in her low contralto at the islanders Christmas play, as a rainstorm descends, and the church has holes in the roof, is a highlight. Poor Father Cluzeot. And Marvin playing with his present of a choo-choo train. like a little kid, is delightful.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057007/combined

Die Hard (1988) Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman.  First of the series.   NYC cop John McClane is visiting California and his wife, at her office during a holiday party, when very bad guys show up to rob the place.  Yipeekiyay, Mother f----rs.  As the limo driver says "if this is the way they celebrate Christmas, I GOTTA be here for New Years!"   9/10    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/combined

All told - a good movie week---

FIRST WATCHES:

Die Another Day (2002) Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike.  Swore after I saw Dr. No at the drive-in back when it came out, that I would never watch another Bond film.  Silliness abounds.  This one is no different, but was interested to see Stephens as a villain. The sword fight is the only interesting thing about this mess.  Brosnan looks uninterested in the whole thing.  The gals are both gorgeous, and so is Toby.  Story is ridiculous.  6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246460/combined  

Fever Pitch (2005) Drew Barrymoore, Jimmy Fallon.  Obsession with the Boston Red Sox almost kills romance between teacher(Fallon) and workaholic(Barrymore).  Cute film based around the miracle year the Red Sox came from waaaay behind and won it all.  7/10 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332047/combined

We Own The Night (2007) One brother is a night club owner/manager.  The other is a cop as is the father.  The bad guys are the Russian Mafia that has taken over the clubs and drug trade.  After good cop brother gets gunned down, other brother decides to help get the guys who did it, ending up becoming a cop himself.  Pretty good drama.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498399/combined

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) Mathew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy, Laurence Mason.[/b]  Really interesting story of a defense lawyer, who spends a lot of time being driven around in his Lincoln by Mason.  His latest client has been accused of killing a woman after raping her.  A web of threads connecting previous clients with this case, and the danger our lawyer finds himself in, makes a riveting last hour.  Interaction between lawyer and his driver is one of best parts of film.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1189340/combined

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Jessica Chastain.  The story of the 10 year pursuit of Osama Ben Laden and the woman who was obsessed with finding and bringing him down.  Naval special warfare development group (DEVGRU), or SEAL Team 6, and the operation to go in and get him is the most emotional part of the film.  The matter-of-fact way the men get ready and load up and go in and find and kill the terrorist, made me sob.  Can't help it - they were so young and so well trained.  No heroics - just another job to do.  Bigelow, the director, has done another marvelous job showing our men in action. We may not agree with the politics, but the guys doing the job are great.  Me?  I'm glad they got the SOB.  The torture scenes are made to seem like just another day at the office.  Which is probably about what it is like after the decision was made to do it.  Age-old question - does the end justify the means?   8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/combined

ENCORES:

The Secret Garden (1949) Margaret O'Brien, Dean Stockwell, Herbert Marshall.  Great film of the childrens book.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041855/combined

Bullitt (1968) Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Don Gorden.  The car chase.  Period!  Oh! And San Francisco.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/combined

Foul Play (1978) Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Merideth, Dudley Moore.  Screw-ball comedy Goldie style.  Moore's scene in his lair is still hilarious.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077578/combined

Excalibur (1981) Nicol Williamson, Nigel Terry, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi.  King Arthur and his knights.  Beautiful cinematography and score.  8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082348/combined

Good Will Hunting (1997)  Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgard, Minney Driver. Boston, Harvard and a near genius blue collar guy and his problems.  7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/combined

Transsiberian (2008) Emily Mortimer, Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley.  Trouble on a Russian train.  American couple go from China to Moscow on a harrowing journey.  8/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800241/combined

The Social Network (2010)  The story of Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook.  What a dog he was and is he still this unfeeling?  Well done film but subject is a complete monster.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/combined