Movies Watched Part 2

by Chris Morris

Continued from Part 1…

As this Blog evolved (or de-volves) I’ve gone from writing Movie-a-day blogs to making lists where I can keep track of the movies I’ve watched as I go through life. At first “older movies”, or ones I had already seen, “didn’t count”, but as I go forward, I figure, sure they do!

So, as the title explains, this is a list of the movies I’ve watched day-to-day in the year 2020 (so far). I don’t put dates, but presumably I start on January 1st and proceed. I usually watch at least one movie a day, and some will have comments and some won’t. If there are no comments, it probably means I didn’t think much of the movie.

If a movie title is followed by *again, it means I’ve seen it before. If a movie title is followed by “again, but not for a long time, it means I’ve seen it before but probably not since it came out in theatres or home video (in other words, not something like Ocean’s Eleven or The Big Sleep that I’ve seen dozens, if not hundred of times)

If a movie is followed by *finally, that means this is a movie I’ve heard of, always wanted to watch but just never was able to, for whatever reason, but now I have.

I have really fallen in love with TCM Underground films (aka “weird” or counter culture movies), and Westerns (both classic and Spaghetti Westerns)

And, around March 15th, COVID-19 took over our lives, so at first there were a lot of “again”’s as I tried to get over my depression by re-watching movies I knew were good. That didn’t last, as I just got back into a routine of watching whatever was on TCM or other cable channels that interested me.

Also, if there are any days where I didn’t watch a movie, it’s probably because I was binge-watching old TV shows I love. Some examples…Community, Parks and Recreation, Gilmore Girls, Longmire, Supergirl, Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Smallville, and others…

*a note about Westerns, I have way more detailed reviews for Westerns than other films due to doing a research project so that’s that…

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July 1st

The Stalking Moon 1968 Western

*from the team that made To Kill a Mockingbird

*starts slow but ends up a good movie

*cool, eerie soundtrack during the finale

*Robert Forster plays a Native, didn’t really even recognize him

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The Lady from Shanghai 1947

TCM Noir Alley

*again

*one of those movies I’ve watched a bunch of times, never really “got it”, then a while later watch it again thinking this time I’ll get it…maybe this time…

*when I say “get it” I don’t mean understand the plot, I mean get why everyone loves this movie, I don’t see it

*one of Orson Welles’ last Hollywood movies

*one of Rita Hayworth’s last major roles

*amazing how much I love Citizen Kane but yet…

Homicide 1949 

*cop is kind of a dick, very sarcastic, pretentious

*ironically he’s supposed to be Canadian, was rejected by the Mounties so moved to LA to be a cop

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The Black Stallion 1979

*finally

*between Westerns and watching Canada’s TV show “Heartland” a lot lately, I now have a new appreciation for horses apparently

*amazing cinematography, almost a silent film through a lot of it

*kid does a good job despite not being an actor

The Black Stallion Returns 1983

*basically Indiana Jones with the horse in place of the Holy Grail

*the kid is no Harrison Ford

*whole movie is just the kid saying “but what about my horse” or “I’m not leaving without my horse” over and over

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Hope Floats 1998

*had no interest in this movie until it I found out it was directed by Forest Whitaker

*in the opening  scene, on the Ricky Lake-type show, why is the daughter there in the front row?  Right there I was like “F this movie…”

*Mae Whitman has had an interesting career

*both Sandra Bullock and Gena Rowlands characters are the worst

*long friggin movie

*Mae Whitman freaks out and does a great job when her dad leaves the funeral

Fort Apache 1948 Western

*directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne

*rare at the time as it portrays Natives with “sympathy and respect”

*Henry Fonda, teenaged Shirley Temple, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen

*kept thinking “I swear I’ve seen this before…”

The Music Man 1962

TCM Essentials

*”We got trouble here in River City”

*Buddy Hackett

*little Ronnie Howard

*just makes me want to watch the monorail episode of The Simpsons

China 9 Liberty 16 Spaghetti Western

*again

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Gone with the West 1975 Western

*James Caan, Stephanie Powers, Aldo Ray

*Sammy Davis Jr!!!

*filmed in 1969

*weird-ass friggin movie

*everything done with Caan is like a parody of Westerns, everything with Ray & Davis Jr. is (seemingly) supposed to be dead serious

*filmed/edited by someone on acid

*no scene got more than one take, apparently

*totally possible that Robert Walker Jr., Sammy Davis Jr. and James Caan were never on set at the same time

*they burn down the whole damn set!

*weirdest scene of all is the end, where Powers tells Caan that he’s shot everyone except the cameraman, so the Caan kills him to end the movie…

Gunfight in the Red Sands 1963 Spaghetti Western

*aka Gringo

*can’t find much info on this, apparently one of the first Spaghetti Westerns?

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Footloose 2011

*yup, this movie happened…confirmed!

Love at the Shore 2017

*TV movie starring Amanda Righetti (from “The Mentalist”)

*filmed in Georgia

*the guy who she is going to fall in love with is a dick right off the bat so I don’t know how much of this movie I’m going to actually watch

*blonde lifeguard’s face looks like a computer simulation of what Kristen Bell and Rachel McAdams’ child would look like

=========================

The Philadelphia Story 1940

*again, for the hundredth time

==========================

The Trouble with Girls 1969

*”old” Elvis in one of his last acting roles

*Vincent Price, clean shaven Dabney Coleman

*short on musical numbers, lots of Elvis “acting”

The Bat 1959

*Vincent Price

They Shall Not Grow Old 2018

I Am Richard Pryor 2019

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The War Wagon 1967 Western

*again

*become one of those movies I can watch over and over

*a Western Heist movie w/John Wayne, Kirk Douglas

The Producers 1968

*for the hundredth time

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Hot Summer Night 1957

*Leslie Nielsen being serious!

Sign of the Ram 1948 Noir Alley

*IRL main actress Susan Peters’ comeback after becoming paralyzed

*sadly a few years later she committed suicide

*directed by John Sturges

My Darling Clementine 1946

*directed by John Ford, about the Gunfight at OK Corral

*Henry Ford is Wyatt Earp, Victor Mature is Doc Holliday

*Walter Brennan plays the bad guy, Clanton

*Ward Bond and Tim Holt are the Earp brothers

*although not historically accurate, considered one of the best, if not the best, John Ford film 

*had known about this film forever, had no idea it was about the Gunfight at the OK Corral

Driving Miss Daisy 1989

*haven’t seen this since it came out

*interesting TCM intro by Ben Mank admitting this shouldn’t have won Best Picture and that “My Left Foot” should have, compares it to “Green Book” winning

Bugsy 1991

*one of those films I’ve always heard about, saw trailers for when it cam out but never saw until today

*really well made, interesting about the creating of “Vegas”

*Benning and Beatty constantly yelling at each other, breaking up, etc. got really annoying, almost turned the movie off

*while based on a true story, still the movie’s ending is flat

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The Rules of Attraction 2002

*James Van Der Beek, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Fred Savage, Eric Stolz, Faye Dunaway,  Jay Baruchel, Paul Williams (in the funniest part of the movie)

*I can see why this movies has a cult following but it gets boring watching bad people doing stupid things

*apparently there is a whole movie out there made about the European Trip by the Kid Pardue character

Deathsport 1978 TCM Uunderground

*again

===========================

Invitation to a Gunfighter 1964 Western

*The Professor, George Segal, Pat Hingle

*very complicated beginning with lots of characters intertwined; the Wikipedia entry is almost impossible to follow 

*does The Professor die off camera?

*basically, Pat Hingle hires Yul Brenner to kill George Segal

*the Mexicans in town support Segal, while the rest of the town want him gone

*Brenner is half black, very complex and deep discussions of racism, which is surprising for a movie at the time

*Brenner goes nuts, so Hingle then hires Segal to kill Brenner

*deeper than I thought it would be

Bodyguard 1948 Noir Alley

*directed by Richard Fleischer, son of Max Fleischer

*also directed Narrow Margin, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Vikings, Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Dolittle, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Soylent Green, remake of The Jazz Singer, Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja and many others

*story by Robert Altman (his 1st Hollywood paycheque

*starring Lawrence Tierney (boss in Reservoir Dogs)

North to Alaska 1960 Western comedy

*John Wayne with co-star Fabian

*opening theme song is something out of an Elvis movie

*long movie

*90 minutes in and the plot kicks in

*looks like it will be a standard love triangle, but there is a twist

*Wayne’s friend figures out he loves the girl but won’t admit it, and that she loves him and tries to get them together

*gets too convoluted though

Death at a Funeral 2010

*haven’t seen this since it came out

*all star cast

*shocked Neil LaBute directed this

*cool to see Ron Glass and Keith David

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The Falcon Strikes Back 1943

*4th in series, 2nd with Tom Conway, his 1st as the star/The Falcon

*starts with The Falcon in bed recovering from a hangover, off to a good start

* a woman points a gun at him and wants him to find her brother

*Falcon goes to a bar to find him, wakes up in a meadow, KOed and with bullet holes in his car, gets picked up by the cops for suspicion of robbing a bank and killing a bank official

*Falcon has to prove his innocence with the help of his fiancé reporter Marcia Brooks and assistant Goldie Locke

The Falcon in Danger 1943

*a plane crashes but apparently no one was on it (not even a pilot?)

*Falcon has a different fiancé in this movie, Bonnie Caldwell, who he’s promised he will stop trying to solve mysteries but he can’t help it

*no Goldie, Detective Bates provides the slapstick

*filmed back to back with Falcon and the Co-eds

The Falcon and the Co-eds 1943

*The Falcon tries to solve a murder at a girls’ boarding school, surrounded by young girls including Dorothy Malone in her 1st credited role

*they add some supernatural elements through writer Ardel Wray, who previously worked with Val Lewton

The Falcon Out West 1944

*The Falcon in Texas

*cowboy is bitten by a rattlesnake, Falcon has to solve the murder

*Falcon and the two cops he normally teams with travel to Texas to find the killer

The Falcon in Mexico 1944

*The Falcon is framed for murder, goes to Mexico to investigate the fact a supposedly deceased artist is making new paintings

*female lead is Martha Vickers, who played Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep “she tried sitting on my lap while I was still standing up”

*second unit footage in Mexico and Brazil was unused footage from Orson Welles’ aborted film “It’s All True”

The Falcon in Hollywood 1944 

*3rd Falcon movie in the same year

*Barbara Hale’s 2nd Falcon movie (in the same year; “Out West”), but a different character

*The Falcon goes to Hollywood for a vacation, ends up having to solve a murder on a Hollywood backlot

The Falcon in San Francisco 1945

*the return of Goldie Locke, but with Edward Trophy playing the character

*a little girl approaches them on a train, she tells them she is being held prisoner by her nurse and butler

*later, the nurse is found dead

*Falcon tries to get the girl home, gets arrested for kidnapping

The Falcon’s Alibi 1946

*with Jane Greer and Elisha Cook Jr. playing a mis-matched married couple

*Rita Corday is again in a Falcon movie, but again, playing a different character 

*Goldie Locke is played but a different actor this time

*woman hires Falcon to find some jewels that went missing, but then there is a murder…

*my favourite of the Conway movies, probably due to the cast and the disc jockey subplot

The Falcon’s Adventure 1946

*last of the 10 RKO Films’ Falcon series starring Tom Conway

*Goldie Locke is again played by Edward Brophy

*Falcon and Goldie are about to go on a fishing trip but then there is a crime to solve

*Falcon witnesses a woman being abducted in a taxi, he saves her and tries to help figure out who is targeting her

*her father has invented synthetic diamonds

*standard formula: cops find Falcon standing over a dead body, assume he did it, he escapes thanks to Goldie, Falcon goes on the run, solves the crime, cops begrudgingly thanks him for doing their jobs for him

*sadly star Tom Conway ended up poor, having lost all his money, died of alcoholism - brother George Sanders later commits suicide over depression due to his brother, mother and wife all dying in the space of a year

====================

Sunshine 1999

*again, but not for a long time

*I think I first saw this at the Vancouver Film Festival in 1999

*Canadian film but filmed in Europe

*starring Rachel Weisz, Molly Parker, Deborah Kara Unger, William Hurt, Mark Strong

*real life daughter and mother Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris play the same character over a six decade storyline

*over 3 hours long, but the story, especially the 3rd ”chapter”, could have had it’s own movie

*incredibly well done, is a bit complicated (major characters die offscreen and are never mentioned again, plusI was confused when incest made an appearance, or did it?), but a powerful story and worth watching

=====================

The Hurricane 1999

*I remember seeing this movie in the theatre when it came out, really liking it, mostly out of Canadian pride I think

*but this movie also disillusioned me towards “based on a true story” movies

*lots of news stories about this movie, how they changed a lot of the story, consolidated characters, which I felt weakened the story

*I didn’t know the story going into the theatre, was caught up in the story, but once I saw Rod Steiger was playing the judge I knew he’d go free…no major actor wants to play the guy who denied the hero his freedom

*Roger Ebert responded to the criticism of it being a “fictionalized” story by saying “of course it is…it’s not a documentary” (I’m paraphrasing)

*the film plays fast and loose with a lot of details, including how he lost a major boxing fight, but is it a good movie?

*yes it’s a wonderful movie!

The Girl Hunters 1963

*Mickey Spillane, the writer of the novel, plays Mike Hammer, his own character…so weird!

*can’t imagine John Grisham as an actor, although Michael Crichton directed the movies based on some of his novels…

*well set up ending involving Shirley Eaton and a shotgun

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Sliding Doors 1998

*finally

*knew the concept, been copied/parodied many times in sci-fi since but never really felt the need to watch the movie, as I heard it wasn’t that great

*it seemingly falls apart pretty quickly; so Tripplehorn leaves the apartment after being caught cheating by Gwyneth #1, so then Gwyneth #2 doesn’t catch her boyfriend cheating…but  Gwyneth #1 wasn’t there in the #2 timeline so…whatever…

*okay movie

====================

The Game 1997

*finally

*I have heard different things over the years, some people love it, some think it’s overrated…

*Spike Jonze cameo!

*have no interest in writing a lot about this film, I kind of hate these kinds of movies where everything hinges on, seemingly, lots of coincidences, like when Michael Douglas…ah never mind…

*people “love this movie” probably cause it’s Fincher…he can do no wrong to some….like Tarantino or PTA

*whatever…never watching this again

The Virginian 1946 Western

*4th version of this movie starring Joel McCrea, based on a book in 1902

*1st made a movie in 1914 directed by Cecil B. DeMille

*2nd movie made 1923

*3rd movie made in 1929 with Gary Cooper

*TV series made in the 1960’s

*TV movie made in 2000 starring Bill Pullman, DIANE LANE

*Canadian straight-to-DVD movie with Ron Perlman made in 2014

*apparently people really like making this subject matter

*kept falling asleep

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Chance at Heaven 1933

*Joel McCrea is very happy in this movie, he is married to Ginger Rogers after all

*but then is tempted to cheat on her…it’s Ginger Rogers!

*I am unsympathetic

Tender Comrade 1943

*Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey (from Philadelphia Story)

*directed by Edward Dmytryk

*film was used by HUAC as evidence that writer Dalton Trombo was using movies to spread communist propaganda, which got him blacklisted

In Person 1935 

*Ginger Rogers (TCM had a marathon as it was her birthday 7/16/11)

*non Fred Astaire musical

===================

Three Strangers 1946 Noir Alley 

*Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet

*written by John Huston

*some of the same team behind Maltese Falcon

*movie even opens the same way, with a crawl and a shot of a statue

================

The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder - TCM Underground

*7/18/20

*produced by Hugh Hefner and Playboy Enterprises

*directed by Arthur Hiller, from Edmonton, who directed “The Americanization of Emily” “The Out-of-Towners” and others

*old(er) Timothy Bottoms (than “Last Picture Show”)

*young Barbara Hershey

*apparently Ron Glass’ 1st film work (though uncredited) in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role

*actually watched this twice as I didn’t really see why this was picked for TCM Underground

*not really wacky enough

*I kind of liked the B-plot of the government trying to track down Bottoms for “stealing” low amounts of energy…but even there they didn’t go far enough

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As Good As It Gets 1997

*saw this in theatres, haven’t seen it since

*didn’t love it then, didn’t hate it either

*watching it again, ten minutes in, I hate it

*once again watching the all-time horrible dialogue (but thought of, by other people, as amazing at the time) where Nicholson describes how he writes women and he says “I think of a man then I take away reason and accountability” F*ck you!

*watching it in 2020, Cuba Gooding Jr. would be shot by the NYPD in the first five minutes

*Nicholson’s character is the worst, 15 minutes in he’s irredeemable 

*gay characters are all prancing stereotypes, especially Kinnear

*Helen Hunt is supposed to be compassionate but comes across as a pushover

*three guys attack Kinnear…did they actually steal anything?  Just looked like they attacked him and took off…dumb for Ulrich since he posed for that portrait, so the cops know what he looks like…saves the cops having to bring in a sketch artist…

*so Nicholson can pay for Hunt’s medical bills, but not Kinnear’s?

*Kinnear does a good Nicholson impression

*I miss Harold Ramis

*so this lost Best Picture to Titanic; major plot point in this is Hunt posing while Kinnear draws her…I don’t remember people making fun of this (or “paying homage”) like they did Leo drawing Kate Winslet…

*the Jack at the beginning of this movie is so different than the Jack at the end…so all his problems are that easy to cure…cool…good to know

*never watching this again

The Boston Strangler 1968

*directed by Richard Fleischer

*starrting Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy, Sally Kellerman, James Brolin, Alex Rocco, William Hickey, William Marshall (Blacula!), Murray Hamilton (the mayor from Jaws), Jeff Corey

*incredible visual style in the first 20 minutes or so, looks like a comic book with panels (like Ang Lee’s Hulk), although at the time critics thought this was flashy, gimmicky

*then it goes back to a traditional film style

*according to critics like Roger Ebert, this movie takes the “based on a true story” line liberally

*an hour into the movie Tony Curtis shows up, with a fake nose

*then it goes back to the panels, then back to normal

*I do like how things “speed up”; days, weeks at a time go by in seconds to “get to the good stuff”

Racket Busters 1938

*crime film (as opposed to film noir) starring Humphrey Bogart

==============

Sam Whiskey 1969 Western

*Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson, Ossie Davis, Clint Walker (from Dirty Dozen)

*kind of a reverse-heist, where they try to get gold BACK INTO a mint - cool concept but makes itself too complicated

Perfect Strangers 1950

*Ginger Rogers rom-com about being on a jury

*best part are the jury members, especially Thelma Ritter, who always steals the show 

*shockingly not a happy ending…

CHIPS 2017

*again

*legitimately, I thought this was a CHIPS reunion movie from 1998.  The TV channel guide even says so, starring Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox

*but no it’s the 2017 remake written, directed and starring Dax Shepard

*I was working at the time, had it on in the background, looked up occasionally

*less offensive this time, or I just didn’t care enough to be offended

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40 Year Old Virgin 2005

*again

*like Superbad and a few others, the more times I watch it, the less funny it seems (and WAY TOO LONG)

*probably just in the wrong mood…

Adult Beginners 2014

*interesting seeing Nick Kroll as a leading man

*Rose Byrne is one who is very talented but seemingly is in every movie these days

*kind of strange in that it’s an indie film but is pretty much a tame Hollywood rom-com just with a cooler, hipper cast

Eight Crazy Nights 2002

*finally

*never been a big Adam Sandler fan, heard this wasn’t that great either

*poop jokes, homophobic/transphobic jokes, an immature jerk as the main character

*cool to see a traditionally animated film

*cool to see a holiday film about Hanukkah

*but a bad movie

==================

Trading Christmas 2011

*TOM CAVANAGH, Faith Ford, Gil Bellows, Gabrielle Miller (from Corner Gas), Emma Lahana (Blair from Heartland)

About Last Night 2014

*remake of the “classic” with the Brat Pack

*awesome cast, including Joy Bryant, who I was unfamiliar with

*based on the poster I figured either Kevin Hart of Regina Hall would be deaf…I guess the idea of Hart being mute was too much to ask for

*ended up fast forwarding through Hart’s scenes late in the film, he just got louder and louder

*unless I missed it, Paula Patton is in like two scenes, needed to be in more!

*Michael Ealy looked “off” here, and apparently he dropped 25 pounds in order to look younger (he was 40 playing 28) so that explains it

*didn’t know that the original film is based on a David Mamet play

Jeremiah Johnson 1972

*finally!

*one of those films I’ve always figured I needed to be in the right mood for

*considered an all-time classic

*plus it’s Stone Cold Steve Austin’s favourite movie

*not much of a story, just one man’s journey, but then there are fight sequences and bloodshed

*yep it’s good, not sure I’ll ever watch it again though

Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle 2004

*again, but not since it came out

*”all star cast” with Ryan Reynolds, Fred Willard (RIP), Shaun Majumder, Christopher Meloni, Malin Akerman (although I didn’t remember that she played Freakshow’s wife), Anthony Anderson, Thea Andrews

*and also some kids who were in a bunch of teenage movies of the 2000’s

*and I remember this re-launching Neil Patrick Harris

*some funny parts, I’m not a stoner so I don’t get that part of it

*50 minutes in, some very timely stuff about the police and black people…nothing has changed in 16 years

*all these years later interesting to find out Kumar was/is a vegetarian, and didn’t smoke weed, in real life so he really was acting

*that was a really sudden sunrise

*I was mad, as all the storylines were wrapped up except for the two black guys left to get beaten up in prison, but then they “resolved” it with a quick scene during the closing credits, seemed tacked on but at least they resolved that storyline

*filmed in Toronto

Marion Bridge 2002

*shot in Halifax, Cape Breton

*Molly Parker, Rebecca Jenkins, Ellen Page’s first feature film

*pretty sure I’ve seen this before but whatever

*I had seen it before, slow movie but I really enjoyed

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Tom Sawyer 1973

*don’t remember if I read the books as a kid, “great American novel” didn’t really appeal to me…plus you know…racism…

*but I’ll watch anything with Warren Oates

*and a young Jodie Foster

*and there’s a John Williams score

*Jeff East plays Huck Finn, and later he played the young Clark Kent in Richard Donnar’s Superman (with a really fake nose, similar to Tony Curtis in The Boston Strangler)

*strangely, movie was produced by Reader’s Digest

*I’ll never watch this again

=================

Arthur 1981

*again, but not for a long time

*Dudley Moore was amazing teamed with Peter Cook

*too bad Cook didn’t become a bigger star

*Moore’s laughing is really obnoxious at the start of the movie

*I always want to like this movie but can never quite get there…

Bedazzled 1967

*again for the hundredth time…

*love this movie, I’m guessing mostly due to Peter Cook

*wish he had been in more films: I’ve seen this, The Bed Sitting Room, Supergirl, Princess Bride…

*never seen the remake cause I heard it sucked but I am curious

*also want to listen to more Cook & Moore radio shows, skits etc.

*great movie…plus it has Raquel Welch!!!

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Wheels on Meals 1984

*Jackie Chan, directed by Samo Hung

*some very 80’s stereotypes in this movie, at least in the first fifteen minutes

*Hong Kong action movie but filmed in Spain, apparently because filming in Asia was too hard with the three stars being so popular and would otherwise be mobbed by fans constantly, and it getting harder to receive permits from the government

*third star is Yuen Biao, who was just as big a star as Chan and Hung at the time apparently but I’d never heard of…

*weird seeing Herb Edelman here (from The Odd Couple, Maude, etc), with his voice dubbed

*funny that the reason the title isn’t “Meals on Wheels” is that the producers, Golden Harvest, were superstitious about movies that start with “M”

*Chan has, what he and other consider, his best ever fight with Benny Urquidez, who I immediately recognized when he came on screen as the short stunt guy from movies like Roadhouse and Gross Pointe Blank; shocked I didn’t know his name before this

*great movie but long!

=======================

*watching fewer movies as I have been watching more TV shows like Stargirl and Doom Patrol, plus trying to catch up with shows like Wynonna Earp (as season four is starting and I hadn’t seen all of season 3 for some reason)

Saddle the Wind 1958 Western

*John Cassavetes as Robert Taylor’s trouble making  younger brother

*really good movie about brothers in the old West, one good and one bad, etc.

*and how hated barbed wire (and how it killed the concept of the “Open Range”) was back in the day

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Ski Party 1965

*Frankie Avalon beach movie spinoff on skis

*w/Batgirl Yvonne Craig

*Annette Funicello makes a few cameos in the 1st scenes

*produced by Gene Corman, Roger’s little brother

*James Brown (& the “Famous Flames”) shows up out of nowhere, lip-syncs “I Feel Good” and doesn’t even bother trying but yet is still awesome

*”Some Like it Hot” ripoff

*end credits promise a sequel “Party Cruise” that was never made

============================

The House 2017

*all star cast of Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Kroll, Allison Tolman, Rob Huebel, Cedric Yarbrough, Rory Scovel, Randall Park…

*credits say Alexandra Daddario is in this but I must have blinked and missed her…I almost did miss Randall Park’s cameo so it’s possible

*not good

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Meet John Doe 1941

*Walter Brennan!!!

*is this one of Barbara Stanwyck’s more likeable roles?  From Double Indemnity to Ball of Fire to The Lady Eve  (Hollywood Canteen doesn’t count as she’s playing “herself”) she is always a schemer, I guess here too but a nice schemer?  Or…ah whatever…she’s awesome as always…

*lesser Capra compared to “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” but still good!

==========================

Ball of Fire 1941 TCM Essentials

*again

*directed by Howard Hawks, written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett

*last time Wilder writes a screenplay but doesn’t direct it

*based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

*2nd time, in the same year, that Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper team up

*”Sugarpuss O’Shea” could have been played by Ginger Rogers or Carole Lombard but they turned it down…Lucille Ball nearly got the role before Stanwyck 

*kinda sad to learn Stanwyck lip-synced “Drum Boogie”, although presumably that really was Gene Krupa performing the drums…

*friggin amazing supporting cast, even has a cameo of Elisha Cook Jr.!

*always awesome of course

Pretty Maids All in a Row 1971

*Gene Roddenberry’s only feature film writing credit

*Roger Vadim’s 1st American film, last film was Barbarella (but by this time he’s estranged from wife Jane Fonda)

*w/Rock Hudson, Telly Savalas, Keenan Wynn, Roddy McDowell, James Doohan (Scotty!)

*and Angie Dickinson!

*black comedy about sex, what could go wrong?

*most of the cast seem to be in a comedy except for Savales who seems to think he’s in an episode of Kojak

*it starts out great, Keenan Wynn is especially funny but it runs out of steam quick

*meh

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Pillow Talk 1959

*finally

*funny that this is Rock Hudson’s first comedy and that before this Doris Day wasn’t considered “sexy”

*kinda surprised this movie was nominated for five Oscars

*Tony Randall and Thelma Ritter are always great

*must’ve been in a bad mood (yes I was) when I watched this as I couldn’t get into it, I’d always heard this was amazing and it just didn’t get me

Wichita 1955 Western

*about Wyatt Earp before he went to Dodge City and later Tombstone

*Earp was marshall in Wichita for one year, apparently..

*w/Lloyd Bridges and lots of familiar faces including Jack Elam

*after I watched it I noticed Keith Larsen played “Bat Masterson”…was he the kid who worked at the printing press who became his deputy?

The Moonlighter 1953 Western

*again with Jack Elam, coincidentally (and Ward Bond, showing that this is, in fact, a Western)

*with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray re-teaming after Double Indemnity

*MacMurray plays another bad guy, is supposed to be hanged but escapes due to a case of mistaken identity

*so he goes to the funeral of “Wes Anderson” and performs the eulogy to a room full of people…so no one there actually knew the real person, knew that MacMurray was really Wes Anderson?

*MacMurray goes on a rampage killing the people who lynched “him” but then it becomes about a bank heist…

*surprising ending, with MacMurray acting as the damsel in distress and Stanwyck kicking ass and saving him from Ward Bond…but then it goes back to “normal” for a happy ending…

*not as good as Double Indemnity but still good

===============

San Antonio 1945 Western

*w/Errol Flynn

*with S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall who was the Star of the Day on TCM when I recorded this

*”a Western with no action” as it says it was pitched to execs according to Wikipedia; that’s not what it turned out to be…

*basically Errol Flynn playing Robin Hood but in a Western

*nothing too special until the ending which is a huge spectacular series of action sequences

*first a massive shootout at a saloon, then a one-on-one shootout inside The Alamo (if I heard correctly) and then a horse-chase (like a car chase but with horses of course) that concludes with two stunt men and a horse going off the end of an incomplete bridge…hopefully everyone ended up okay…

*production design for this is pretty amazing, although apparently Warner Bros. “built probably the longest street that ever was built for a Western” for the film but “they built it the wrong way.” which is a sentence I would like to learn more about…

A Merry Frickin’ Christmas 2014

*all star cast with Joel McHale, Lauren Graham, Oliver Platt, Candice Bergen, Wendi McLendon-Covey

*and released after Robin Williams died

*McHale and Williams are cast against type, with McHale being optimistic and Williams being pessimistic, doesn’t really work

*Lauren Graham is awesome here, has a bemused smile through most of the movie, an expression that says “These people are nuts but I only have to deal with them once a year so…”

Vibes 1988 TCM Underground

*Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, Steve Buscemi, Elizabeth Pena

*executive produced by Ron Howard

*movie was described as “Romancing the Ghostbusters in the Temple of Doom”

*the opening scene is just like the opening scene of Ghostbusters, where they test people’s psychic ability, even using the same prop cards

*Lauper’s 1st movie role, kinda weird how she chose to “play it straight”, not the typical goofy Cyndi Lauper, and it doesn’t really work, as this movie could have used some more goofiness

*Goldblum and Falk do most of the heavy lifting but it’s not enough

================

Girls Night Out 2017

*just watched this because Kat Barrell is in it

*she wasn’t the star, so she wasn’t in this enough

*meh

Enter Laughing 1967

*part of Carl Reiner tribute on TCM

*Reiner wrote, produced and directed this, based on his life growing up

*w/Jose Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Don Rickles, Rob Reiner, Jack Gilford, Richard Deacon (from the Dick Van Dyke show), Nancy Kovak (who definitely stands out here)

*nice love story but it definitely was a play before it was a movie…one of those where people say 40 words when they could say 10

*Shelley Winters’ mother character is annoying

*has a nice love story in the middle of the film, with Janel Margloin playing the girlfriend, surrounded by craziness of a guy who can’t act being in a play

*once the play starts it’s funny, especially Reni Santoni getting lost backstage

All of Me 1984 

*part of Carl Reiner tribute on TCM

*where Steve Martin met future wife Victoria Tennant

*opening credits are cut together like it’s a sitcom

*Steve Martin’s 4th movie with Reiner directing

*Martin gets to show off his amazing physical comedy skills

The Comic 1969

*part of Carl Reiner tribute on TCM

*Reiner wrote, produced and directed this

*w/Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Michelle Lee, Steve Allen, Gavin MacLeod

*based on the lives of silent movie stars like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd who were huge stars but then had bad career low points

*probably my favourite of the Carl Reiner movies so far, probably because I love silent movies

Where’s Poppa? 1970

*part of Carl Reiner tribute on TCM

*w/George Segal, Ruth Gordon, Ron Leibman, Paul Sorvino, Garrett Morris, Rob Reiner

*interesting in parts, like the Rob Reiner court scene, but the overbearing mother parts get old

*seems like Ruth Gordon’s mother character is similar to the Shelley Winters mother character in Enter Laughing…maybe?

Oh, God! 1977

*part of Carl Reiner tribute on TCM

*directed by Carl Reiner, written by Larry Gelbart

*like “All of Me”, opening credits are cut together like a sitcom

*1st of three of these movies, all starring George Burns

*w/Bob Denver, Terri Garr, Donald Pleasance, Ralph Bellamy, Paul Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers

*considered one of the best movies of 1977, Gilbert’s script got an Oscar nomination

*I like this quote about God from Voltair “I was a comedian playing to an audience who was afraid to laugh…”

===============

Foxy Brown 1974 TCM Underground

*again, I think…I’m 75% sure I’ve seen this before…

*Pam Grier!

*Sid Haig!

*Hard Boiled Haggerty!

*originally was to be a sequel to Coffy but wasn’t

*lots of controversy, detailed on the Wikipedia page

No Country for Old Men 2007

*again, haven’t seen it since it was in theatres

*yup, it’s still a very well done movie, and still has a crappy, unsatisfying ending

*such thoughts will get my “movie buff” membership card revoked but whatever…seen it twice, thought the same both times, so there it is

Only the Lonely 1991

*again but not for a long time

*John Candy!

*watched this a lot back in the day but not in a few decades (or so it seems)

*didn’t appreciate it Maureen O’Hara and Anthony Quinn back in the day

*w/Ally Sheedy, Jim Belushi, Kevin Dunn, Macaulay Culkin (a year after Home Alone but I’m guessing this was filmed before HA came out and he became a mega star) and his little brother Kieran Culkin

*Belushi loves to tell the story about how Candy was mad on set when O’Hara didn’t get her own trailer and made the producers get her one

*the first date at Comiskey Park is a little much

*inspired by Marty, which I finally watched not that long ago and was awesome, although the pacing of this film would be the equivalent of Marty 1, 2 and 3

*O’Hara’s racist overbearing mom-character is hard to take, which makes it great when Sheedy finally stands up to her

*the “It’s a fact!” guy may have the best line delivery in the movie

*Quinn’s character deserves so much better

*the ending is drawn out, but still a sweet movie with a happy ending for two characters I really liked

==============

TCM Summer Under the Stars

Charlie Chaplin!!!

*seen all of these before, but the shorts are less familiar to me as opposed to the features

Rounders 1914 

w/Fatty Arbuckle; Chaplin as a drunk, rich jerk

The Knockout 1914 

w/Fatty Arbuckle

*earliest Chaplin movie shown today

The Pilgrim 1923

A Dog’s Life 1918

*1st appearance today of The Tramp!

The Kid 1921

*amazing performance by Jackie Coogan, of course

Monsieur Verdoux 1947

*Chaplin got the idea from Orson Welles about serial killer Henri Landru

*a talkie!

*1st Chaplin feature not to feature the Tramp

Limelight 1952

w/Buster Keaton!

w/Norman Lloyd!

*always great seeing Chaplin perform as Calvero

*love Phyllis & Henry!

*great seeing Chaplin and Buster perform together

Pay Day 1922

*great brick-stacking gag

Sunnyside 1919

*the one with the nymphs dream sequence

Idle Class 1921

*Chaplin is poor but not that poor, he has his own compartment on the train, but it’s a tiny one under the train…

*hilarious when Chaplin gets a note from his wife saying they are splitting until he stops drinking, he turns his back to the camera, his body shakes like it looks like he’s crying (and where we assume the joke will be he’s actually laughing) but turns out he’s making a martini

Shoulder Arms 1918

*classic with Chaplin at war

A Day’s Pleasure 1919

*Chaplin’s family going to the beach

*Chaplin did this because he needed something to do while in post production on The Kid, complete with Jackie Coogan playing one of his kids

*funny slow motion fight while seasick

*hilarious when Chaplin gets stuck in the mud/tar

*surprised it just kind of ended there

Mabel’s Married Life 1914

*Keystone Studios

*directed by Chaplin

*produced by Mack Sennett

*starring and written by Chaplin and Mabel Normand

*read Mabel Normand’s Wikipedia page, why hasn’t there been a major movie/tv series about her life???

*Chaplin vs. the mannequin is pretty great

*again just kind of ended unexpectedly

==================

There’s a Girl in My Soup 1970

*part of Goldie Hawn day on TCM

w/Peter Sellers

*looks like Hawn was on the rise (this came out around the same time as Cactus Flower, for which she won an Oscar) whereas Sellers didn’t have another hit for years (Being There)

The Circus 1928

*more Chaplin

*not my favorite Chaplin feature but still a classic

====================

A King in New York 1957

*more Chaplin

*as I watch this, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before, shockingly

*a satire about McCarthyism, made a few years Chaplin had been exiled from the US

*billed as a comedy, and it did have some slapstick moments, like with the fire hose in the elevator, but there wasn’t much funny stuff here…

Gold Rush 1925

*more Chaplin

*the classic bun-dance!

CrissCross 1992

*more Goldie Hawn

*it’s a serious role, so Goldie is a smoker here, as is most of the cast

w/Keith Carradine, Steve Buscemi

*Hawn plays a stripper, does a pole dance at one point

*cool scene on that long Florida bridge-thing that has been in a bunch of films including True Lies

Modern Times 1936

*more Chaplin!

*hilarious concept where (at least at first) Chaplin tries to find ways to get arrested and go back to jail cause it’s easier than living in society, and he gets treated better there!

*amazing sequence in the mall where Chaplin is roller skating blindfolded!

*Paulette Goddard was so great!

*and of course, the Tramp sings!

The Great Dictator

*more Chaplin!

*still weird hearing people talk in a Chaplin movie, even if it’s not necessarily the Tramp

*this might have actually been the first ever Chaplin movie I ever watched…I remember thinking “Sure is a lot of talking going on…I thought these movies were silent?”

*and of course…that speech!

===============

Rufus Jones for President 1933

*TCM Summer Under the Stars w/Sammy Davis Jr.!

*young Sammy Davis Jr!  Seven years old!

*a short film about young black boy becoming President

*whole thing is a dream sequence

*kind of shocking to see an all-black movie from 1933, with scenes from an all-black senate

*made me think of The Birth of a Nation, which came out in 1915

*made by Warner Bros., has a big dance number, I find it interesting this even was made, I guess because it was a short, it was easier to make a movie like this, maybe?

*breaking news Sammy Davis Jr. is awesome, and always has been!

One More Time 1970

*more Sammy Davis Jr.

*sequel to Salt and Pepper, which I’m fairly sure I’ve seen already

*Davis and Peter Lawford in a buddy movie

*directed by Jerry Lewis, apparently the only movie he directed and didn’t star in

*Davis does a great song mourning Lawford’s loss (he didn’t really die) but at the same time it seems to imply that Davis and Lawford’s characters were more than just friends, or maybe that’s just me

*some silly stuff like when Lawford and Davis get “older” waiting for their elderly butler serve dinner

*so how does Davis not figure out right away that Lawford’s “twin brother” is really Lawford?

*kind of a weird ending, Davis and Lawford address the audience, breaking the 4th wall, and just say “Movie’s over” even admitting the plot isn’t entirely wrapped up…

*worse ending than Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

City Lights 1931 TCM Essentials

*last of Chaplin-fest

*his masterpiece, one of my Top 3 favourites of all time

*best ending of all time

*not a bad entrance to a movie either

Point Break 2015

*watched a Youtube video of “10 Worst Remakes in History”, saw this movie on there, and for whatever reason it made me want to watch this

*plus it was on cable…

*the stunts they do would have been cool to see on the big screen

*Utah’s tattoos are the ugliest…

*sound recording of the dialogue is terrible, but then again I’m guessing the dialogue sucks so…

*Utah tells Bodhi “You’re chasing the 8” and basically says “I know you are a bad guy” and Bodhi is like whatever…

*I assumed the guy playing Utah was an extreme athlete not an actor but I looked him up…apparently not

*horrible ADR recording really is taking me out of this, never mind the overall absurdity…

Convicts Four 1962

*more Sammy Davis Jr., kinda

*watched this for 30 minutes and no Sammy!

*so I shut it off and am watching Ocean’s Eleven for the millionth time instead

*just looked the movie up on Wikipedia, if I’d kept watching I would have seen Davis, Ray Waltson, Vincent Price so maybe next time it’s on TCM I’ll watch it

Ocean’s Eleven 1960

*for the millionth time

*love the Saul Bass opening credits

*horrible ADR recording but somehow with this movie it helps with the…what’s the word?…quaint-ness?

*love the ending, way more than the endings for any of the Soderbergh Ocean’s movies

*always funny to see the closing credits with them walking away from the Sands and having their names on the marquee behind them

Smorgasbord 1983 (or Cracking Up)

*more Sammy Davis Jr.

*written by, directing and starring Jerry Lewis (the last one he directed)

*a series of skits of Lewis’ character being nutty

*skits are random, but the movie pretends they are all related 

*Sammy Davis’ presence in the movie lasts 32 seconds

=================

Ella Enchanted 2004

*starts with Eric idle voiceover/introduction…a good beginning

*w/Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, Steve Coogan, Idle, Minnie Driver, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Punch, Parminder Nagra, Joanna Lumley, Heidi Klum, Patrick Bergin (freakin Robin Hood)

*cute movie

*interesting concept with Ella having to obey anything she is told and how that plays out

*fun little dance number to end the movie, not as good as the one at the end of Slumdog Millionaire though
===================

Napoleon Dynamite 2004

*again, but not since it came out

*another 2004 movie, by coincidence

*theme song is the same as the one from Conan O’Brien’s podcast

*I didn’t “get” this when it came out, giving it a second chance

*funnier than I remember

*but it’s still weird…like how it’s supposed to be set in 2004 but everything (other than the Backstreet Boys song played at one point) says it’s in the 80’s

*according to Wikipedia, the producers put in the opening credits to “prove” it took place in a modern setting but does it do that?

*the dance sequence was great, but the standing ovation after…whenever this happens in a movie/TV show, the geek doing something and the high school going crazy…whenever I see something like this I think “That person never actually went to high school” but this is a comedy so whatever…

*Tina Majorino is always great

*Deidrich Bader is also always great but he’s in this movie a little more than Sammy Davis Jr. was in “Smorgasbord”

*any movie with “Time after Time” by Cyndi Lauper can’t be all bad

=================

Practical Magic 1998

*finally

*surprised that this was directed by Griffin Dunne

*Camilla Belle plays young Sandra Bulloch

*Evan Rachel Wood is Bullock’s daughter

*if you fast forward at in the beginning of this movie, you could miss major plot points

*Mark Feuerstein has a major role but has just a few minutes of screen time, 5 lines total (I counted)

*Bullock gets over him pretty fast, later saying she just wants to be loved by someone, not him, anyone apparently

*lots of pop songs in this 

*Kidman smokes like chimney until late in the film when she becomes a more sympathetic character…I’m guessing that’s not a coincidence

*kind of surprised this became a cult classic

=================

Bridget Jones’ Diary 2001

*finally

*would this be made today?  Are the days of American actresses like Renee Zellweger and Gwyneth Paltrow playing British characters in British movies over?  Hopefully yes!

*Toni Collette turned it down, Kate Winslet was thought to be too young, Rachel Weisz was “too pretty”…

*another smokers movie, where I notice that as the movie goes along and Bridget “gets her life together” she’s no longer smoking…again I’m guessing that’s not a coincidence

*cool that this was directed by a woman, Sharon Maguire

*not cool to see that she hasn’t done much else…

*didn’t know that this was an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice but once I heard that Colin Firth’s character was named “Darcy” then…well of course he was…gives it a meta-twist since he played Darcy in Pride and Prejudice 

*amazing cast with Firth, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Shirley Henderson, James Callis (Gauis Baltar!)

*I knew there was “Bridget Jones’ Baby”, but didn’t know that it was the 3rd in a trilogy; apparently my brain skipped over the 2nd movie entirely

*surprised Zellweger got nominated for Best Actress Oscar, good for her

================

Gunga Din 1939

*for the millionth time

*part of Cary Grant Summer Under the Stars Tribute

*I remember being blown away first time I saw this, it was the first time I remembered watching an old black and white movie but thinking it could be a modern film

*especially the opening brawl, with Grant holding the “bad guy” out the window, then dropping him when he’s told “let that man go!” and shrugging…

*I won’t get into the unfortunate politics…

*always thought Howard Hawks directed this but he would have, but was fired after Bringing Up Baby tanked, and George Stevens took over; Stevens wasn’t a bad replacement…funny how Baby bombing hurt Hawks and Katherine Hepburn but not Grant 

*love the story, whether true or not, that Cary Grant wanted the Cutter role, which Douglas Fairbanks Jr was already cast as, so he and Fairbanks did a coin toss and Grant’s career took off after…whereas Fairbanks’ didn’t (although he still did okay)

Sergeants 3 1962

*more Sammy Davis Jr.!

*remake of Gunga Din!

*seen a lot of Rat Pack movies but somehow this had slipped through my fingers

*kinda surprised this was directed by John Sturges after Magnificent Seven, Gunfight at OK Corral but before The Great Escape

*Rat Pack members Sinatra, Martin, Lawford, Davis, Bishop, as well as Henry Silva, Buddy Lester from Ocean’s 11 (two years earlier)

*two major action sequences before any “story” happens

*no “looking for treasure” storyline in this one, which is weird as when Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr. take off on their own, it just seems kinda reckless and dumb

*similarily, when Sinatra has to rally the troops to go save Martin from the “Ghost Dancers”, the fact he takes a minute to trick Lawford to re-up with the military seems like a strange thing

*the “put up your dukes” scene, with Martin attempting to throw punches like Cary Grant is funny but just not the all-time classic funny moment the original is

*that mule is huge, almost as good a the elephant in the original, though less believable that a few mule kicks take down the whole prison building

*so this wasn’t as good as Gunga Din…or even Ocean’s 11…

===============

Justice League Dark 2017

*I’m a huge DC Comics, Arrowverse fan, but haven’t been a fan of these new DC animated movies, which have been adapting the failed New 52

*loved the Bruce Timm-verse of DC Animated, especially anything written by Dwayne McDuffie, so nothing I’ve seen so far in this “universe” has even come close to the levels of Batman: TAS or Justice League Unlimited

*however the fact they are showcasing great characters like Deadman, Etrigan, Swamp Thing, Zatanna, Constantine, Black Orchid…and takes place in the House of Mystery, cool stuff

*but then, as usual, everything needs to have BATMAN in it…I wonder if he’ll be in this as much as he was in that animated Suicide Squad movie…

*I really hate Batman and his overexposure sometimes…

*and an R-rated DC movie…not a fan of when DC goes “Dark” but with this material…could be a good fit

*plus I’m not really a fan of magic, so…we’ll see…

*cool to see the Demons Three

*Batman hears Deadman’s origin, wonder if he was like “Sound like they ripped off Dick Grayson’s origin”

*they hire the awesome Alfred Molina to play Destiny, but then autotune his voice to the point where if I hadn’t read the Wikipedia page I wouldn’t have known it was him, kind of a waste

*so Swamp Thing…did I miss something, or did his storyline just kind of…end…without a resolution?

*isn’t Zatanna cold in that outfit at Jason Blood’s funeral?

*after reading about it, I am curious about JLD: Apokolips War

*good but still not anywhere near the Timm/McDuffie era

===============

Teen Wolf Too 1987

*again, but it’s been a long time

*”A Ken Bateman film…starring Jason Bateman…” as a total coincidence I’m sure, Ken is Jason (and Justine’s) father

*nepotism maybe, although Jason (and Justine) surely have “proven themselves” in the years since

*cool to see James Hampton be one of the few returning cast members, and seeing him as an “out and proud” werewolf

*okay, so Coach Finstock was re-cast with Paul Sand, in the opening scene, but if you missed some dialogue initially, you’d have no idea.

*Marty (Michael J. Fox) isn’t there but his dad is, and they seem to be pretending early on that Jason Bateman is Fox and the word “Uncle” is said with ADR, something added later…is this confusing cause of the filmmakers not knowing what’s going on or…?

*seems like they wrote this as if Michael J. Fox was returning, and didn’t let the fact he wasn’t stop them from making this movie…

*and they re-cast Stiles…was Jerry Levine wanting too much of a raise?

*and Chubby (Mark Holton) is back too!

*with John Astin as the mean ol’ crusty Dean of the school

*cool to see Kim Darby as Todd’s professor, who played Mattie Ross in the original 1969 version of “True Grit”

*so, do I have this right…they gave Scott (Fox) a scholarship for basketball, but he didn’t take it so they gave it to Todd (Bateman) instead, even though he doesn’t play basketball…he wants to be a vet…yeah nothing about that makes any sense…won’t they figure out Todd isn’t Scott at some point?  Let’s see if this is a plot point…

*okay I think I figured out this plot…he’s not even supposed to play basketball, he got the scholarship for boxing, and since it’s apparently the same coach (would it have killed them to bring Jay Tarses back in order for this to make sense?) he just assumes Todd can “wolf out” like Scott and be kick-ass, I guess…

*I’m always a sucker for a good mid-movie dance number

*Is Todd supposed to be singing this song of lip-syncing?  I’m always confused when it comes to scenes like this, like in similar (better) movies like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” or “Back to the Future”

*so Professor Brooks is also a werewolf the whole time, did I miss something before this reveal late in the movie?  Did she have to be a werewolf?  She couldn’t have been a vampire?  Seems random…

*late in the penultimate boxing match, Stiles says “Maybe we should throw in the proverbial towel…” as Todd is getting beaten up…if this is boxing, would that be a LITERAL towel he’s throwing in?

*pretty bad movie, basically the same as the first movie, complete with the mid-movie heel turn by the star (only to redeem himself later by literally “being himself”), only with boxing instead of basketball, and college instead of high school (and Bateman instead of Fox)

*I hope this Batemen kid is able to recover and have a good career after this…

================

The Heavenly Body 1944

*part of William Powell Day on TCM for Summer Under the Stars

*one of those times where the Canadian TCM schedule differs from the US one, strangely enough it effects a lot of William Powell movies like The Thin Man movies

*in the US they show “The Senator Was Indiscreet” 1947 but in Canada they show this…

*…and after twenty minutes I see why this isn’t exactly on the TCM “front lines”…this movie is freaking goofy!

*I love William Powell, from “My Man Godfrey” to all the Thin Man movies plus any movies with him and Myrna Loy, so like Cary Grant, it’s rare that TCM shows a movie of his I haven’t seen…

*but, again…this movie is goofy!

*I know a lot about Hedy Lamarr, how she was a movie star, was an inventor, sued the makers of Blazing Saddles for “almost using her name”…I’m very interested in watching the TV series about her life starring Gal Gadot…however, after looking at her filmography, this is the first of her movies I have ever seen!

*and…again…this movie is goofy!

*Lamarr is married to Powell, decides she needs to leave Powell because what her astrologer tells her, seems to think this is rational behaviour, Powell fights to get her back but as I watch this I think, sure she’s beautiful but Powell needs to run away…fast!  Go find Myrna Loy!

More Than a Miracle 1967

*Sophia Loren, Omar Sharif in a Cinderalla take-off

*part of Dolores Del Rio (who plays the Queen here) Day on Summer Under the Stars on TCM

*so…this movie has a flying priest…and witches…this movie might be goofy too!

*Sharif is no Prince Charming, that’s for sure!

*Loren falls for him though, for seemingly no other reason than the plot demands it

*she tells him “I love you!”

*he responds “Put your face in the dirt!” - yeah real prince this one…

*and we’re only 45 minutes in!

*Prince sends her away, she’s found by 7 little kids…so wait, now she’s Snow White?

*turns out there are only 6 kids who help her…now that doesn’t make any sense…

*horses take a beating in this movie, almost reason enough to turn this off…

*an interesting take on the fairy tale, but not a great movie

*that being said, sometimes it’s just nice to watch Sophia Loren just…existing…

==================

nothing today

==================

Man Bait 1952 aka The Last Page

*”Introducing Diana Dors” the English Marilyn Monroe

*Dors’ Day on Summer Under the Stars

*a film noir produced by Hammer Films, which I know is more known for horror films but was so much more…

*I’ve been missing TCM Underground Friday Nights and based on some interesting choices on this day, I’m thinking TCM programmed a whole day of Underground-type films…

*this isn’t that great, but it’s brisk filmmaking; 30 minutes in and ALOT has happened!

*never heard of Dors before, according to Wikipedia she had a very interesting life, her biopic would seemingly be a lot more interesting than this film

*not that it’s a bad film, in fact I admire the briskness in it’s storytelling, if you look away for a minute you miss a lot!

*pretty good little film with a solid resolution, although the star gets over his dead wife really quickly!
=======================

An Alligator Named Daisy 1955

*Diana Dors’ Day on Summer Under the Stars

*probably would have wanted to see this based on the title alone

*Daisy the alligator has a cute bow, and is left behind on a boat, the two people who adopt her are well meaning but really dumb apparently

*20 minutes in the girl starts singing like this is a musical

*guy comes home, neglects to tell anyone in the house that his bag contains an alligator, wackiness ensues while the guy says nothing…later guys puts Daisy in the bathtub, leaves Daisy alone in the bathroom, turns the light off, doesn’t tell anyone, wackiness ensues…stuffs the alligator inside a piano while he’s at work, wackiness ensues…almost want to turn this off, but I should at least wait until Diana Dors shows up…

*during the piano scene I literally was thinking, “He didn’t stuff Daisy inside one of those pianos did he?  That would be too much’ and then yup…there she is…horrible…

*Dors shows up twice in the first 40 minutes, plays the girl that the star will dump once he realizes the other girl is the one he really loves, which is weird cause her character seems really nice…

*too much wackiness for me…

Danger Route 1967

*Diana Dors’ Day on Summer Under the Stars

*a James Bond ripoff complete with a pop song over the opening credits

*“also starring Diana Dors”

*apprently the movie was “doomed”, the director got sick during filming, the script never worked and the cameraman was replaced in the middle of the shoot…so this should be fun to watch!

*Gordon Jackson co-stars, from The Great Escape and a bunch of other movies

*rip off of James Bond describes this perfectly…without the charisma of a Connery, or Moore or any of the actual Bonds…

*the main character “Wilde” even has a girlfriend…

*co-starring Harry Andrews who I recognize as one of the Kryptonian elders in Superman…that’s how much I’m loving this movie…trying to figure out who the background actor are…

*30 minutes in Diana Dors shows up

*Wilde could sleep with Dors but won’t cheat on his girlfriend apparently, not even for Queen and Country!

*CIA agent is Sam Wanamaker, who played David Warfleld, Mariel Hemingway’s father, in Superman IV

*Wilde’s contact gets killed, so he teams up with the guy’s civilian wife…what?

*Barbara Bouchet co-stars who played Miss Moneypenny in Casino Royale, this same year 1967

*movie is very talky-talky in it’s final scenes which is surprising for an action movie

*Jonas Wilde, the character, never comes back for anything else that I can see…this must have flopped pretty bad…

From Beyond the Grave 1973

*Diana Dors’ Day on Summer Under the Stars

*this is definitely more in the spirit of TCM Underground

*it has Peter Cushing and Donal Pleasance in it, after all

*it starts with a camera POV, funny and spooky laughs, let’s hope this is good

*apparently this is the last in a series of anthology horror films, which included “Tales from the Crypt” 1972, and mostly starred Cushing and Christopher Lee

*three of the segments are true horror and only one, “The Elemental” is goofy, so not really Underground-quality

==================

Miss Bala 2019

*been a fan of Gina Rodriguez from “Jane the Virgin”, and director Catherine Hardwicke since “Thirteen”

*I was surprised how well Rodriguez did in “Annihilation”, playing a different kind of role, so was curious about this despite the bad reviews and her recent controversies

*but early on…nah…it’s not great

*didn’t know much about the movie, wasn’t sure if it was a “Enough” kind of movie or a “sleeper agent” kind of movie…

*at one point Rodriguez’s character chops up like six onions and her nose doesn’t even run…she must be a badass!

*alot happens very quickly…she wins the Miss Baja California contest, which she seems to just show up at at the last minute, when earlier in the movie her friend said it took 3 days of rehearsals, then dress fittings, then the contest, etc.  All that happens in seconds…

*so I guess she’s not a badass, really in the John Wick sense, she outsmarts everyone…kinda…

*did I miss it or did they ever say why the movie is called “Miss Bala”…”Miss Baja” maybe since she wins the contest…

*I looked it up and “Bala” is spanish for “Bullet”, apparently…

Hard to Get 1938

*Olivia de Havilland day TCM Summer Under the Stars

*it’s happy Dick Powell from the musicals, as opposed to sarcastic Powell from “Bad and the Beautiful” or “Murder My Sweet”, although he does have a little bite to him

*spoiled Olivia vows revenge on Powell after he makes her do some chores to pay off her gas bill…

*must be an old movie it’s about a gas station in New York…been there a few times and have never seen a gas station there

*very slapstick and pratfally comedy

*not great until the eccentric father starts to mess with Oliva, wackiness ensues with Oliva posing as a maid and the maid posing as Oliva…

*lots of familiar faces, like Melville Cooper, who co-starred with Oliva in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and Grady Sutton, Allen Jenkins

*Hmmmm…Dick Powell crashes a party wearing black face…didn’t see this mentioned on the Wikipedia page…

*Granville Bates plays a judge here…I’ve seen him in one other movie, “My Favourite Wife” and he played a judge there too…apparently he played a judge at least 8 times in his career according to Wikipedia

Imagine That 2009

*heard this was horrible…

*but I always want to like Eddie Murphy movies…unfortunately I’m usually disappointed

*plus Ronnie Cox is apparently in this, curious to see he and Murphy reunited from the Beverly Hills Cop movies…that’s all it takes really to get me to watch a movie sometimes

*Thomas Haden Church has a mullet wig (at least i’m assuming it’s a wig) I’m assuming that becomes a plot point…apparently his character’s name is Johnny Whitefeather…he’s a Native American?

*so this is a kids movie about stock investments, lots of talking about company mergers and such…can’t imagine why the kids didn’t flock to the theatres to see this…

*amazing cast with Stephen Root, Martin Sheen, Nicole Ari Parker, that Toby guy from West Wing…I’m guessing they just wanted to work with Murphy, which I can understand…

*not a bad message about growing up in the end but otherwise…meh

A View From the Top 2003

*apparently comedian Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) wrote a whole book about this movie…calling this “the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed”…maybe I can get the audio book?  Apparently it’s only 4 hours and 39 minutes so that’s doable…this movie is 2 hours and I find myself FFing a lot…

*a Miramax film starring Gwyneth Paltrow

*co-starring Mike Myers, Rob Lowe, Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Malina, Marc Blucas, John Francis Daley, Candice Bergen, Stacey Dash

*and Kelly Preston RIP

*so Myers does this scene as if it’s his “Robin Williams improv” scene, lots of quick takes with presumably him improvising his lines and hoping for the best…

*was Myers obligated to do this after “54” bombed?  Or was he in this to return the favour after Gwyneth cameoed in Austin Powers 2?

*this movie has Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” in it…does this dis-prove the rule that I have to like why movie with that song in it?

*poor Mark Ruffalo…he did okay after this…

*so there is a blooper reel over the credits, mostly with Myers outtakes but also it seems like they included deleted scenes too…almost sad how unfunny these are as it does seem like Myers is trying…

Land of the Dead 2005

*not really a fan of zombies but this is written and directed by the master George A Romero RIP, plus it got good ratings when it came out, so let’s give it a try…

*good to see Dennis Hopper RIP who died a few years after this came out

*good to see a lot of Canadian actors with roles in this (it was shot in Toronto)

*been interested in Asia Argento since I saw her in “XXX”, she’s just a different kind of actress, although she definitely has had an interesting life, so say the least…

*very good in the sense that it has a very clear social message

*enjoyed it, probably never watch it again though

Stuber 2019

*really wanted to see this when it came out, but then it got bad reviews then I figured I’d wait until it came out on cable…so here we are…

*fun to see Karen Gillan playing “herself” as opposed to something that requires a lot of makeup

*and fun to see Gillan and Batista together on screen again after Guardians of the Galaxy

*although did they just fridge Amy Pond?  Lame!

*always good to see Kumail Nanjiani

*was eager to see his next project after The Big Sick

*so there was some very funny moments here, I actually LOLed a few times

*like the reviews said, Kumail and Batista are a great team and should definatley team up again, just in a better movie…

*kind of surprised to see Natalie Morales playing Batista’s daughter but good to see her

*apparently Batista had a kid when he was 16

*good to see Betty Gilpin outside GLOW

*funny scene with Kumail pouring his heart out to a male stripper

*funny when the Electric Car explodes and Kumail yells “How could it explode?  It’s an Electric car!”  This could have been a action comedy classic!

*I liked the twist in that Batista’s character is blind and it makes sense that he needs Kumail…but they are inconsistent on how blind he is at certain points in the movie…

Jumping the Broom 2011

*amazing cast, see if that means it will be a great movie

*always interested in the latest Paula Patton film, as well as anything involving Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Meagan Good (after first seeing her in “Brick”) and Julie Bowen

*lots of God talk

*apparently filmed in Nova Scotia, as a stand in for Martha’s Vineyard

*lots of arguing and bickering which gets old after awhile

*Mike Epps was good here, wore glasses and talked eloquently, usually he plays roles like he did in “The Hangover”

*one review says Bassett and Devine seemed to be “vying for the title of world’s meanest mom” and I agree!

Baby Mamma 2008

*seen this a few times, I never “get it”, then watch it again to see if maybe this time I will “get it”…nope still don’t “get it”…

*such an amazing cast, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maura Tierney, Sigourney Weaver, Steve FN Martin!

*best part of the movie is Romany Malco, who I’ve seen in “40 Year Old Virgin” but not much else

*never been a big fan of Dax Shepard (maybe cause of my crush on Kristen Bell) or Greg Kinnear so I feel like hitting FF whenever they are on screen

*Lorne Michaels produced this so that explains the cast signing on, I guess
===============

Blinded by the Light 2019

*didn’t know that Gurinder Chadha wrote/directed this otherwise I would have watched this sooner

*for some reason get this confused with “Yesterday” which was about the world forgetting The Beatles, maybe cause both are set in England?

*love Chadha’s movies, especially “Bend if Like Beckham” but also “Bride and Prejudice”, “What’s Cooking?”…not so much “The Mistress of Spices” but her stuff is always good

*might be first time I’m seeing Rob Brydon in a movie outside of “The Trip…” films (and his brief cameo in “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”)

*HAYLEY ATWELL, Agent Carter herself!

*despite it tackling some heavy subjects like racism it’s quite a beautiful story about growing up and how unexpected things inspire us when we are young, helping us “grow up”…in this case Bruce Springsteen songs!

*great job by the star Viveik Kalra with his use of body language in his performance, makes me think of Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent and how he would make it believable, through his posture alone, that no one could think Kent was Superman…

*funny how in both this and “Beckham” there are important incidents revolving around the main character sneaking away from a weddings

*late in the movie, the speech about “everything good about England is better in America…” etc. is really sounding hollow just one year after this was released

*cool that this was based on a true story…great film!

*and it has a pretty good soundtrack!

This Changes Everything 2018

*this is a great documentary!

*focused on Julie Dash, whose film “Daughters of the Dust” I’ve seen but only thanks to Ava Duvarney making it “Essential” on TCM

*always thought it was interesting how, when movies started out, women were a vital part of the creative process, there were lots of female directors, then suddenly there…just wasn’t…

*lots of major female Hollywood stars are talked to here and it’s clearly really frustrating for them

*sad that things seemed to be on the upswing in 2017 and then 2018 hit and things actually got worse

*can’t say much more about this, any Hollywood fan needs to watch this and consider the message

Just Before Dawn 1981

*listing for this says it’s “Terminal Island” from 1973, a colt classic with Tom Selleck and Roger E. Mosley (before they teamed up on Magnum PI), which seemed like it would put off some TCM Underground vibes, but it’s not that movie…

*this is a slasher movie with George Kennedy and a young Gregg Henry - weird that the listings are so far off with this…

*not sure how long I’ll watch this for…

*nice waterfall!

*got about 40 minutes in and I’m done…not my thing…

=================

Captain Blood 1935

*Olivia de Havilland day TCM Summer Under the Stars

*finally; somehow I’ve never seen this before…maybe because I’ve seen “The Adventures of Robin Hood” so many times I didn’t need to see this…like a black and white swashbuckler could possibly stand up to that technicolour classic!

*co-starring Errol Flynn, the first time he and Olivia teamed up

*also in this is Basil Rathbone who is later Guy of Gisbourne in “…Robin Hood”

*nice sword fight with Flynn and Rathbone but of course not nearly as good as the one in “Robin Hood”

*a different role for Flynn as opposed to Robin Hood, more of a dark side, out for revenge

*Olivia was only 19 when this was made, but she seems older (in a good way)

*Tortuga!

*amazing ship to ship battles that must have been mind blowing at the time to see on the big screen (I should take advantage to see this at the TCM Film Festival one year, if it’s shown)

*although there were parts where it was chaotic, hard to figure out who was firing on who, whose ship was on fire, etc. but it still works

*funny twist at the end, it wraps up pretty quickly with the happy ending which I guess technically the couple getting together was telegraphed but the ending is the only time the two say anything nice to each other

*enjoyed this, want to see more from Flynn and Olivia, but of course it’s not as good as Robin Hood…but that’s not a slight, as Robin Hood is an all-time best-ever type movie!

==================

Newsies 1992?

*finally…or not?

*another TV listing screw up, it says I recorded the 1992 Christian Bale version of Newsies, the thumbnail is even a picture of Bale, but this is the Jeremy Jordan 2017 “filmed Broadway show” version of Newsies

*at one point I thought I had seen the original Bale Newsies but now I’m not sure, so I was looking forward to seeing it but not today!

*after the initial confusion, it will be cool to see Jeremy Jordan (Winn from Supergirl) playing this role that he originated on Broadway

*filmed at the Pantages in Los Angeles (where I saw “Once” for the 2nd time; 1st time was on Broadway with a different cast…just reminiscing about Broadway…)

*apparently this is why (or at least one reason why) Jordan left Supergirl…I think that timeline adds up

*have to get used to everyone talking with accents like the cast of “Welcome Back Kotter”

The Nice Guys 2016

*for the millionth time

*great FN movie

*too much smoking, that would be my only critique

*the ending with Basinger saying “You can’t take Detroit down” is a bit vague for me, but that’s jus time probably

*great blend of action and comedy

*would be nice to see a bunch of “Lethal Weapon” style movies with these two (three if you count Holly) but it wasn’t as successful as they wanted it to be

*and sometimes you don’t need a bunch of (potentially crappy) sequels to ruin the greatness of a movie (see The Matrix, The Hangover, etc)

Shakes the Clown

*finally…although it’s not like I’ve been longing for the opportunity

*I’d always heard Robin Williams praise Bobcat Goldthwaite and his writing/directing skills outside The Police Academy movies

*and apparently this is “The Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies” according to Martin Scorsese…

*fun Tim Kazurinsky cameo, reunion with him an Bobcat from the Police Academy movies

*pretty okay movie, more interesting for me getting spotting all the cameos, and people, like Adam Sandler, who are now famous but it takes a minute to figure out who they are under their clown makeup

*interesting in that none of the clowns, except for Shakes in one scene (I think), are seen without their makeup…in fact I think there are like five (or fewer) characters in the movie who aren’t clowns…

*speaking of Robin Williams he does a nice cameo, credited as “Marty Fromage”

*good movie, probably never watch it ever again though…

=============

The Fortune 1975

*directed by Micke Nichols

*starring Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Stockard Channing in her 1st role

*really weird seeing Nicholson as the “dumb one”

*Beatty is annoying…

*would’ve been interesting to see Bette Midler play the Channing role, as was originally intended

*Nichols was in the middle of a string of flops, and it continued here…

*not good, which is strange considering the talent involved

*”shockingly bad” according to Gene Siskel…I agree

Face the Music 1993

*no Wikipedia page

*reading the IMDB description, sounds like this movie is there Chantal Kreviachuk and Raine Maida (or at least Chantal) got the idea for their docu-movie “I’m Going to Break Your Heart”

*my mind wandered while watching this…I remember there was a scene where Molly Ringwald and Patrick Dempsey were mad at some people mixing cement so they had their buddy sabotage the machine…

*lots of yelling, lots of drama, Dempsey had a blonde girlfriend who seemed to be really mean…

*technically I watched this but not really…

=================

*nothing today, got a bit caught up on Umbrella Academy S2 (1st four episodes)

**Bombshell 2019

*okay this is a cheat, as I was going to watch this, but ended up skipping it

*I didn’t feel like watching a movie about real life bad people (as in people who profit off Fox News) which is probably why I’ll never watch movies like this and, for example, “Wolf of Wall Street” 

*although I do enjoy movies like “John Wick”, which is also a movie about a bad person, I think that’s okay as 1) he’s fictional and 2) he’s avenging a dog so…

===================

Pitch Black 2000

*finally

*always heard this was a good movie, not great, and it just never was accessible to me once it left theatres (I guess)

*not a big Vin Diesel fan, yet I’m a fan of the Fast and Furious movies

*I do respect Diesel’s tenacity when it comes to producing original material, basically willing two more of these movies into existence, plus continuing the XXX and F&F franchises as a producer

*movie doesn’t waste time, twenty minutes in the ship has crashed, people have died, Diesel has escaped and the crew is after him…I like this pace

*Keith FN David! an actor I’ll always watch…always awesome

*cool way to get around low budget for the aliens, things are seen in the dark, or through Diesel’s funky eyes

*great concept to start off, kinda becomes a standard horror film later on, with standard “no one can trust each other”, bickering, in fighting-type, get-picked-off-one-by-one stuff

*neat twist with the kid who wants to look like Riddick

*not sure I understand why they need to get back to the jump ship so quickly, couldn’t they just wait for “Saturn” do keep moving and for the sun(s) to come back, then the creators will go back to hibernating?

*good film, yet I don’t really have a need to see any of the sequels, or see this again, really

Over the Moon in Love 2019

*TV movie written by Canadian actress (and star of the movie) Jessica Lowndes, who is from Vancouver, and this was filmed in Vancouver

*also starring Miranda Frigon, who played Janice on Heartland

*I like the Cyrano de Bergerac twist, although aren’t the two characters supposed to be best friends?  On the initial phone call, how did he not recognize her voice?

*so Stephanie hears Dev confess his love for Brooklyn, and knows she is listening in and heard this, but then sees that as her chance to score with Dev?  Weird she didn’t instinctively want to step aside or at least discuss it with Brooklyn…see how she feels about it?

*always love the B-roll in these Hallmark movies, maybe it’s just that I know these movies are all filmed in Vancouver/Kelowna/Toronto but in storyline take place in “New York” or “Los Angeles”

*also, for these movies are they all “Hallmark” movies…if not do people still call them “Hallmark” movies…is it a catch-all name for TV movies, like Kleenex?

====================

Krull 1983

*finally

*I remember seeing ad for this in the back of comic books, but never seen it until now

*director Peter Yates also brought us “Breaking Away” and “Bullit”, along with “Mother, Jugs and Speed”

*completely coincidental that I’m watching this after seeing “Captain Blood”, which inspired the producers

*again, I think I’m excited to see this due to the fact I’m missing TCM Underground, which has been off during August on TCM for “Summer Under the Stars”

*my Spidey-sense was tingling when I saw the lead actress, Lysette Anthony, then I recognized her as the girl in the trilogy of Bryan Adams videos, “Heaven”, “Summer of ’69” and “Run to You”; her name made the rounds a few years back, I remember reading a “Where are they now?” type article where they interviewed her…cool!

*definately some Errol Flynn-type swashbuckling going on…

*film’s comic relief is David Battley, who looks like what would be produced if Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon had a child

*group of Bandits include Liam Neeson, Robbie Coltrane, Alun Armstrong

*weird production design, as there are some really bad sets (like “The Swamp”) and really amazing ones (like the Spider Cave)

*weird mix of “Star Wars” and “Excalibur”, good guys with swords, bows and axes fight bad guys with laser rifles…gee I wonder who’s gonna win?

*not anything like I anticipated, no humour at all, movie takes itself way too seriously

============

The Four Musketeers 1975

*part of Charlton Heston “Summer Under the Stars” day on TCM

*between this and the original “Three Musketeers”, also produced by the Salkinds and directed by Richard Lester, we have what is called “The Salkind Clause”

*originally intended for The Beatles, which makes more sense when you see the scene with a Yellow Submarine

*The Salkind’s legacy are these movies and the Superman films, where they would want big lavish productions and where willing to spend money for stars, but not necessarily for scripts

*Three Musketeers and Four Musketeers where filmed at the same time, intended by the producers as two films (depending on who you ask), but they told the actors it would be one long four hour film, and the actors only found out at the premiere…so basically the Salkinds wanted to make two movies but only pay the actors and crew for one…and tried this later with Superman I & II as well…hence the “Salkind Clause” forbidding that

*although I do respect the Salkinds a bit, willing to “think outside the box”, filming a movie and having the confidence in it enough to film the sequel at the same time, wanting to give Superman the big movie treatment, etc.

*all star cast indeed, with Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Geraldine Chaplin, Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee, Raquel Welch, Sybil Danning…unfortunately Spike Milligan was in the 1st film but not the 2nd...

*Michael York’s d’Artagnan is quite the ladies man. sleeping with all the girls, apparently not being able to wait for his actual girlfriend RAQUEL WELCH!!!

*in this movie York and Lee have a couple of sword fights (from what I’ve heard) and the 1st one is apparently on ice and it’s pretty funny

*so since this was supposed to be one movie, I’m guessing Raquel Welch had a bigger role in the 1st movie, as she is barely in this…

*and Faye Dunaway steals the movie for sure

*again, having not seen the first movie, but judging this movie on it’s own, this sin’t really a Musketeers movie, it’s a Michael York vs. Faye Dunaway movie, with the Musketeers and Christopher Lee showing up form time to time

*should’ve been called “The Fourth Musketeer”

*wait Raquel Welch DIES??? WTF???  I guess it works out for her character, d’Artagnan would have cheated on her left and right…but still that sucks!

*the final dual between York (who else?) and Lee is great, I watched a video where Greg Proops said it was as good as one from an Errol Flynn movie (not really but okay) and praised it as different, more like a “sword-fight as a brawl” which I do agree with

*good movie, now curious to see the 1st movie and the 3rd (a sequel released 15 years later)

===================

Women Make Films “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 1”

*was really looking forward to this, just like when I watched “This Changes Everything” a while back

*it’s different, apparently each chapter will have a theme with the first one being movies directed by women (obviously), but those movies with great opening scenes

*narrated by Tilda Swinton, no interviews with talking heads, just scenes from movies and Tilda explaining the significance of them

*I think they said there are 14 episodes (either that or 40!)

*series is made by Mark Cousins, who made the great “The Story of Film” series a few years ago…I was surprised to see he was behind this, but glad, as I did enjoy his previous series, but I heard others didn’t, whether they didn’t like his strong accent or him seeming to be pretentious…anyway…

*looking forward to watching the next in this series, I wonder if it will deviate from the theme of this 1st episode, if there will be any female filmmakers interviewed, the “opening scenes” theme of this one kind of ran out of steam towards the end, around the one hour mark (for me anyway), but, again, I’m excited for more!

Merrill We Go to Hell 1932

*part of the Women Make Film series

*directed by Dorothy Arzner, 1st woman to get into the DGA

*Pre-Code! Apparently many newspapers refused to publicize the movie because that racy title!

*not sure how many of these movies that are featured I’ll watch, wasn’t sure about this one until Alicia Malone and Jacqueline Stewart did an intro, explaining why it’s significant and then I had to watch it

*even it’s just to see Cary Grant in an early role!  I mean how can you not?

*synopsis online I read says this movie is all about the lead actress Sylvia Sydney having an affair with Cary Grant, but that doesn’t happen until over an hour into the movie and only after her husband Fredric March has been flaunting an affair for most of the movie

*at one point Sydney talks about “the wonders of marriage, two beds, but all the thrills of being single” after showing up at a party with Grant, while her husband is there with the woman he’s having an affair with and they act like old pals…Pre-Code movies!

*Sydney ends up having a baby who dies in childbirth…Pre-Code movies!

Skyjacked 1972

*part of Charlton Heston “Summer Under the Stars” day on TCM

*w/Heston, James Brolin, Walter Pidgeon, Marietta Hartley and the film debuts of Susan Dey and Rosie Grier

*lots of familiar faces, including Mike Henry (who played “Junior” in the Smoky and the Bandit movies), John Hillman (Higgins), John Fielder (who’s been in 12 Angry Men, The Odd Couple and was the voice of Piglet), and Claude Akins (Joe Burdette in Rio Bravo)

*not a great movie, not even a great “disaster” movie as there isn’t one explosion

*Brolin is terrible as the villain, eyes bulging out, smiling like he’s supposed to be Caesar Romero’s Joker…just bad

*movie just ends out of nowhere…I presume there is a happy ending and everyone returns home safely?

The 39 Steps 1935

*young Hitchcock

*called a “masterpiece” by Orson Welles, so no pressure to like this, is there?

*so strange seeing this movie AFTER seeing other similar Hitchcock movies like North by Northwest and Saboteur, which had movies stars and high actions scenes involving major landmarks

*spotted the Hitchcock cameo!

*this Richard Hanney guy is quite the escape artist!

*at one point he escapes the police by becoming part of a parade, like a similar scene in “The Fugutive”; and in the next scene he evades capture (momentarily) by speaking at a political rally, similar to a scene from “Fletch”…that Hitchcock really liked ripping off other filmmakers didn’t he? (this is sarcasm, by the way)

*co-starring the typical Hitchcock-blonde

*an hour into the film, Hanney gets handcuffed to the blonde (Madeline Carroll) which is what the movie is about, according to the synopsis 

*yet again, I will probably get my “movie buff” card taken away for this, but I just couldn’t get into this…sorry!

===============

Number One 1969

*part of Charlton Heston “Summer Under the Stars” day on TCM

w/Heston, Bruce Dern and Jessica Walter, the real reason I wanted to watch this

*so the poster for this movie…is it Heston beating up Walter?  Or at least wrestling/fighting with her?  No wonder no one saw this is in the theaters…

*and Diana Muldaur is in this too

*Heston’s nickname in this is “Big Cat”…like Ernie Ladd?

*this movie has one of those scenes where husband and wife get into a huge argument, she tells him to get out, he insults her, then grabs her, they struggle, he starts to kiss her, they stop, look at each other, then start making out…I’m not married but this happens a lot in movies/TV shows (more in older movies, granted) but does this really happen?  

*later, he confesses an affair to his wife, he yells at her, she gets defensive cause he’s mad she HAS A JOB, it ends with her apoligizing to him despite the fact HE CHEATED ON HER…horrible…

*movie just kind of ends out of nowhere

*are we supposed to feel bad for Heston’s character?  He’s a dick all through the movie, to everyone not just his wife but his teammates and friends too, never really explains why, just seems like a moody asshole…then it ends…

*I was glad when it did

===================

Corvette Summer 1978

*Mark Hamill’s 1st film released after Star Wars

*never been a car guy, so the idea a guy would follow a car across country (or even from California to Las Vegas) or run into oncoming traffic, as if it was a long lost love…this movie is already behind the 8-ball for me…

*Annie Potts finally shows up, is subtle for about a minute then just yells out “I’M A HOOKER!” just in case no one gets it

*apparently she got a Golden Globe nomination for this, her 1st movie appearance

*cool to see old 1978 Las Vegas, although Circus Circus doesn’t seem to have changed much

*this movie had a budget of (a relatively high) $9 million, not sure where that money went, the movie is basically just Mark Hamill running from place to place, and hitchhiking, and running some more…that car must have been really expensive!

*Potts’ van has a water bed and a fridge and looks huge, as big as a small apartment, where Hamill and Potts can walk around and not bump into each other…plus there’s lots of headroom!

*wait, it’s not even Hamill’s car?  He acts completely looney right in front of cops, how did he not end up in an asylum?  Or do people act like this all the time in Vegas?

*Hamill’s character must stink really bad at this point in the movie, yet Potts still flirts with him, wants to seduce him, yet he just keeps talking about the car…

*at one point he writes his teacher back home says “I’m going steady with a girl, but don’t worry I still like cars…” like it has to be one or the other?

*this movie could have been completely weirdo-bonkers, more of a TCM Underground type movie, but it’s just so…straight?  Is that the right word?

*lots of familiar faces here including Brion James, TK Carter and Dick Miller

*bad guy shoots one bullet at a car and it explodes, did I miss the scene where they filled up the truck with dynamite?  Cause that is possible…that I missed it that is…and that they filled the truck with dynamite too…

*Danny Bonaduce!

===============

No Strings Attached 2011

*finally

*been wanting to watch this for awhile, not THAT badly but I am intrigued by it

*Natalie Portman, Kevin Kline, Cary Elwes, Greta Gerwig, Mindy Kaling, Ludacris, Lake Bell, Olivia Thirlby, Jake Johnson, even Ophelia Lovibond who was the Collector’s Slave in “Guardians of the Galaxy”

*directed by Ivan Reitman

*only reason not to watch this is Ashton Kutcher, really, but that’s enough of a reason…

*I’ve also never seen the similar film that came out at the same time, “Friend with Benefits”

*I liked it, the cast was great, Kutcher wasn’t even that bad, but there was just something off, it just didn’t click

*definately R rated

=================

The Biggest Bundle of All 1968

*know nothing about this other than Raquel Welch is in it

*I think I might have a crush…

*so after reading the synopsis, it sounds like a heist movie, co-starring Robert Wagner and Edward G. Robinson

*I like the movie’s pace, 20 minutes in and a lot has happened

*not to re-write it, but it would be better if they had spent a few minutes at the beginning establishing the main guy as someone who fakes the fact he is a wheeler-dealer, brags about living in a big house, but later, after the bad guys try to rob him, it turns out that he’s the butler or chauffeur or something…

*apparently this movie was similar in execution to “No Strings Attached” in that it was made at the same time as another film that had an almost identical plot being shot at the same time “The Happening” starring Anthony Quinn, Faye Dunaway and Michael Parks…

*Welch is indeed, very beautiful…especially in her pink outfit!

*funny idea when the bad guys exercise to get ready for the heist as if physical fitness is a factor…

*kind of reminds me of Ocean’s Twelve, obviously because it takes place in Europe, but also kind of has a red tint to some scenes, like Ocean’s Thirteen

*Wagner’s character says “Baby” a lot…too much really…one of his last lines in the movie is “coocoo bird”…just sounds wrong

*fun movie, almost a spoof of a heist movie with a bunch of goofballs constantly screwing up getting ready for the heist but still going along with it

*movie has a very Ocean’s Eleven (the Rat Pack version) ending

Elvis on Tour 1972

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

*although it played at 7:15pm but there was no intro, so I assume this just played in Canada; kinda curious to see what played in the US

*looked it up, it was “Let the Good Times Roll” 1973; can’t complain as it’s pretty rare these days Canada gets “blacked out”

*apparently the last film Elvis appeared in before his death (Elvis died in 1977, the year I was born..coincidence?  Uh, yeah…)

*not a ton of “depth” so to speak, B-roll footage is of Elvis and his team going from city to city, literally running out of the stadiums into cars that race away to the next show, but basically just Elvis singing his songs, not that it’s a bad thing, quite the contrary really

*nice to have on in the background, listening to the great songs

*plus some cool early Elvis footage, and him and his friends singing Gospel songs

*at one point they interview an older guy who works at the Arena who will let Elvis into the freight elevator is less than impressed to be asked questions, clearly has a “why are you asking me dumb questions?” vibe to him which is funny, although he does light up a bit when Elvis the person is brought up

*noticed in the closing credits “Montage Supervisor - Martin Scorsese” interesting…his “Mean Streets” came out the following year…

Elvis: That’s the Way it is 1970

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

*not sure which version this is…apparently there are a few different ones, one with more documentary footage, one with just him singing songs…

*this is a little different from the other doc I watched today, it shows Elvis goofing around a lot more with his crew and friends while working, get to see more of Eliv’s personality and sense of humour

Unicorn Store 2017

*finally

*big Brie Larson fan, the reason I haven’t seen this yet is more Netflix’s fault…too many options on there dammit

*Brie’s directorial debut and she shows lots of promise here but there are tonal problems 

*sometimes it seems like a weird Michel Gondry type comedy (almost fantasy like) but then it seems like a straight forward movie where we are supposed to take everything at face value

*I didn’t “get” any of the “office” stuff

*I actually re-watched all the stuff with Brie’s Kit character and Virgil, I liked their relationship and their chemistry, although at certain points you almost wonder why Virgil is so attached to her…sure she’s beautiful and that goes along way with dudes…not to generalize sure…I guess he was getting paid for building the stable and might need the money but at one point did he fall in love with her?  Did he feel sorry for her?  There are times where she comes off as middle handicapped…or I could just be over-thinking it…

*amazing cast with Joan Cusack (who is not around enough) and even Bradley Whitford is good (he is around too much) and I didn’t even want to smack him once…

*there was one interesting scene where Cusack and Whitford “confront” Brie, Cusack is asking Brie questions and Whitford is talking too, but he just keeps looking at Cusack and saying “Tell her…tell her…” and I kind of was fascinated by that scene…but it was too short…

*Martha MacIsaac co-stars, I wonder if she and Brie bonded over acting alongside Michael Cera?

*good to see Ryan Hansen (from “Veronica Mars”) and Chris Witaske (from an underrated show “Love”)

*Hamish Linklater has a distinct honour…he was the “most punchable” member of “Newsroom” which is an amazing accomplishment on a whole cast who played horrible characters…

*but he did have one good scene here, I think the one where his character meets Brie’s Kit and he has a long close up and his expression changes two or three times in a few seconds…well done there…

*cool story about how Brie auditioned for the lead role five years earlier, didn’t get the part, the movie didn’t end up getting made and years later not only is she offered the lead role (after becoming a “bigger star”) she’s offered the director role as well…good for her!

==================

Booksmart 2019

*finally

*didn’t see this in theatres, been waiting for this to be on cable…

*that was a mistake, as I F’N LOVE this movie!

*so so so great, kinda sad for myself that I didn’t see this sooner

*was curious how Olivia Wilde would do as a director and I am very impressed!

*the actors are all great, really reminded me of “Superbad” which is ironic as I found out after that Beanie Feldstein, one of the leads, is Jonah Hill’s sister in real life…and like in that movie, she’s a lot older than her co-star (five years older than Kaitlyn Dever; the same age difference of Hill and Michael Cera in Superbad)

*I didn’t recognize Billie Lourd at first, I think this is the first time I’m seeing her actually act, as opposed to the Star Wars movies where she’s just standing around (a total waste of her, by the way, but what is new for those movies…)

*hard to pin point things that I love, everything was amazing about this film; the humour, the acting, the pacing, the reveals, the music…the music!

*nice to see Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow as the parents…they do a good job but not as good as “the best set of parents in a teen movie” which are Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson in “Easy A”…but why am I talking so much about other movies?

*even Jason Sudeikis isn’t his usual “slapable” self in this movie

*just a great movie, GO SEE IT!  Or stay home…I watched it on Amazon Prime…

===================

Night Editor 1946

*Noir Alley returns!

*no stars, 65 minutes long

*star William Gargan seemed miscast, has a weird “I’m confused now” face that he does a lot

*based on a radio show, and later became a TV show

*nice little film noir with a shockingly happy ending!

*good to see Eddie Muller and Noir Alley back!

Standing Up, Falling Down 2020

*apparently this is a new-ish movie

*Eloise Mumford with pink hair!

*Ben Schwartz and Billy Crystal have great chemistry, although Crystal walks the line of being obnoxious

*I like Schwartz’s chemistry with Grace Gummer, they definitely seem like brother and sister

*Jill Hennessy looks awesome, haven’t seen her in a long time

*you think you know where exactly this film is going but there is a M-Night-type twist which shocked me but I liked where the movie ended up going

*good movie

==================

Mutant World 

*apparently shot in 15 days in the Calgary-area in March 2014

*really just watched this to see Heartland’s Amber Marshall in a different role; she filmed this in between Heartland S7 & S8

*there is a Canadian flag showing in the background of one scene…so is this supposed to take place in Canada?  Probably not, could be that they didn’t have time to take down a flag, or could be the director’s “nod” to a Canadian shoot…just the things you notice watching a bad movie…

*in some spots, you can definitely tell this was shot in 15 days, like the 1st main action sequence where the main actress and a dude have a fist fight…no seconds takes apparently!

*always been kind of fascinated with this kind of “guerrilla style” filmmaking, how they can get a lot done in so little time…kind of cool but at the same time it’s shitty that they have to make films this way…like Syfy couldn’t have afforded to give them more money for another two weeks to film?

*wait so these people have been underground for 10 years?  They haven’t changed much really…or aged really

*so they go outside cause they have to, to fix the “batteries or some such”, but then decide to so exploring…were the batteries fixed?  Probably missed something…or not…

*cool that the “badass roles” seem to all be female…

*is Amber Marshall’s boyfriend in this movie’s named “Ty”?  A nod to Heartland or a mistake?

*another Heartland connection…”Bob”, actor Roger LeBlanc, is in this playing “Rogan”

*another one of those movies where the characters seem to have an unlimited supply of ammo

*40 minutes in and my main reason for watching this is dead…do I keep watching?

*reviews I’ve read about this mentioned “laughs” and such…other than one “Contact” reference, this movie is pretty much dead serious…am I supposed to be laughing at it in a “camp” kind of way?  Like it’s “so bad it’s good” kind of way?

*suddenly it’s now a post apocalyptic western?  

*Sheriff Elmore Leonard?  Played by Greg Lawson, veteran of both Heartland but more so of “Wynonna Earp”  Cool character name btw…

*so the Western stuff doesn’t last and it goes back to blah-blah shooty-bang-bang stuff

*it ends setting up a sequel that will hopefully never come…

Dune 1984

*finally

*one of those things I always heard sucked, yet I understood there are millions of Dune fans…just never felt the need to watch this until today when I saw the trailer for the new Dune movie starring most of the cool people in Hollywood…so I figured why not?

*I actually recorded this, like, nine months ago and it’s been just sitting on my PVR…I guess I was waiting for the right moment…or the right three hours…to watch this finally

*I’ve seen the Siskel and Ebert clips on Youtube where they rip this apart, calling it the Worst Movie of 1984

*so many questions/observations…

*the Virginia Madsen “prologue” was added in post production to make things clearer…didn’t work!  For some reason this makes me think of “The Phantom Menace” which is a crap movie but you do know who the good guys and bad guys are…at least from what I remember, I haven’t seen that movie in forever…

*why are there voiceovers?  It seems some characters are telepathic, so when you hear Kyle MacLachlan “thinking” you wonder “Are we supposed to be the only one who can hear him?”

*not really a big David Lynch fan…my favourite movie of his is probably “The Straight Story” which is his least-Lynch film ever; I respect him of course but his stuff just isn’t for me…

*first big name I see is Jose Ferrer, which is awesome…he’s my favourite Cyrano de Bergerac by far!

*Brad Dourif…is it in his contract he always plays the movie’s creepy weirdo?

*Linda Hunt, Max von Sydow, Madsen, Sean Young, Jurgen Prochnow…so much wasted talent just standing around

*so the villain is gay…has gross pores all over his face..is this supposed to be an AIDS reference?

*supposed to be the “adult Star Wars” so that means gross-out stuff…a bloody premature birth, scabs oozing out puss…but hey no Ewoks so…this is sarcasm…

*one of the biggest roles does to Sting who ain’t exactly known to be a master thespian…

*don’t really see anything quirky here UNTIL the little girl shows up inside the throne room with her glowing blue eyes now THAT is some all time funny shit!

*so “Paul” (great sci-fi name by the way SARCASM) almost gets killed by Sting in a knife fight but when he wins, he screams and floors crumble…oh yeah that makes sense…

*one of my pet peeves is when fantasy/sci-fi characters have “normal names”…like here “Paul” or “Sam” in Lord of the Rings…it’s not like I was going to school at the time to hang out with my classmates Luke, Han or Leia…TRY HARDER writers!

“SPICE!!” indeed…

*wait that little girl, probably the best thing in the whole movie, grew up to be Alicia Witt?  Wow!

*well I’ve seen it…what a mess!  No wonder Lynch refuses to discuss it…or maybe he has other reasons not to want to talk about it…either way, I can check this movie off my list…never again!

*although I will see the new “Dune” movie when it comes out and I am even curious to see the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune”…

Divine Madness 1980

*finally

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

*so Bette Midler was possibly the biggest female star while I was growing up and I remember seeing a lot of her movies at the time “Beaches”, “Ruthless People”, “Outrageous Fortune”…yet never seen this before…

*yup she’s super talented!

*this is a concert film, apparently four different concerts all pieced together to look like one, with Midler singing, dancing and doing some stand up comedy

*not sure what I expected, but it did seem weird that Midler just sang cover songs, like Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” but of course she does it well

*great to see this, not sure I’ll ever see this again…

ABBA the Movie 1978

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

*weird as this is kind of a concert movie but it has a sub plot of an Australian DJ chasing the band around as they tour, as he tries to get an interview with them…

*could’ve just stuck to them singing songs and it would have been a lot better to me…

*I like their songs, liked Mamma Mia…the sequel as much but I still liked it…

*although it is an interesting way to do a doc about the band, could’ve had the band as “talking heads” discussing where they were born, who they ended up together, etc. but here they have the pretense of the DJ, who initially knows nothing about them, do his research about them and that’s how they reveal more and more info about the band…smart…unnecessary but smart

*Lasse Hallstrom’s 2nd feature film, also filmed a lot of the bands’ videos, went on to direct “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”, “The Cider House Rules” and recently, some Nicholas Sparks movies and “A Dog’s Purpose”…and he married Lena Olin!

*okay so later it does become a talking heads doc, with the DJ interviewing ABBA’s fans (and other people) about why they like the band…they do like 50 of these when 5 or 6 would have been enough…

*and some songs, like “Winner Takes it All” become a music video, rather than showing concert footage which is a little jarring…

*wait, so this DJ has a camera crew following him around…he’s a radio DJ…or are the camera people supposed to not exist?  I may have missed something…I might be over thinking this ABBA docudrama

==============

The Kids Are Alright 1979

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

*cool seeing The Who on the Smother Brothers…

Shine a Light 2008

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

MASH 1970

*again

The Song Remains the Same 1976

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

*about Led Zeppelin

*15 minutes in…finally some music

*apparently I’m way more of a Who fan than a Zeplin fan, as I recognized way more songs in “Kids Are Alright” than here, although that could have been due to Robert Plant’s “singing”

===================

Jimi Hendrix 1973

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

Abbott and Costello in Hollywood 1945

w/Lucille Ball (as herself) and Mike Mazurki

*typical (great) Abbott and Costello stuff, just them running around a Hollywood backot as opposed to an army base…

====================

Moonlighting pilot originally aired 5/3/85

The Killer is Loose 1956

*film noir starring Joseph Cotton, Alan Hale Jr. (the Skipper!)

Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema #2

White Men Can’’t Jump 1992

*again, but not since it first came out

*friggin great movie!

======================

Neil Young: Heart of Gold 2006

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

Woodstock The Director’s Cut 1970

*part of TCM’s Labour Day marathon of concert films

*4 hours!!!

*cool to see longer performances, but where the long sections of people talking in the original version?

*they talk to one couple for what seems like ten minutes, and after establishing that they are kind of a couple but yet there to hook up with other people, not sure what else was so important that they had to say

*and to clarify what I mean, I don’t mean what they were saying wasn’t important, but could the “scene” have been there minutes instead of ten?

*another ten minutes dedicated to mud slides and people getting dirty…cool to see that they did that here and at Woodstock ’94 but that sequence could have been edited

*Speaking of which, this movie had seven editors, including Martin Scorsese and his long time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker

*but then again this is the Director’s Cut so…who cares?

*cool to see them setting things up, everything that went into that part of it

*the announcer/public address guy is hilarious!

*interesting to see all the other stuff going on, like the military air dropping supplies, doctors helping people ODing and delivering babies

*wow a kid was born at Woodstock…whatever happened to that kid?

*funny to see all the people lined up for payphone to call their parents

*amazing that so many people were there and there was no violence, especially compared to Woodstock ’99

*nice to see (for the most part) the locals were encouraging and seemed to support the festival

===================

All That Jazz 1979

*awesome final dance sequence

*fascinating subject

*didn’t feel bad for any of the characters except the daughter

*felt detached form the characters, had a hard time figuring out who some of the female characters were; which was the ex-wife, which was the girlfriend, who was the daughter’s mother…?  Had to look on Wikipedia and it didn’t help all that much

*didn’t recognize Jessica Lange at all

Quest for Fire 1981

*in hindsight not real sure why I recorded this…maybe to see a young Ron Perlman?

*amazing makeup, costumes, etc.

Danger Signal 1945 Noir Alley

*meh noir

==================

Point Blank 1967

*again

*adaptation of “The Hunter” by Richard Stark, aka Donald E. Westlake, the 1st of the Parker novels

*Lee Marvin’s character’s name is Walker rather than Parker

*Mel Gibson’s Payback was a remake of this movie

*Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn and Carroll O’Connor…amazing cast!

*according to Wikipedia, critics seem to think Walker is a ghost…seems to be Wynn’s Yost character is the ghost…Yost and ghost even rhyme…

*Marvin confronting O’Connor and saying “I just want my money” and O’Connor not believing him…funny stuff, this aspect is really the only stuff that was good about the remake too

*friggin great movie

Women Make Film “A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 3” 2020

*probably the best episode so far

Plan 9 from Outer Space 1959 TCM Underground

*9/12/20

*again (I think)

*pretty sure I’ve seen this before

*might just be thinking of “Ed Wood” though

*seen so many clips of this, since this is supposedly “the worst movie ever made” so, again, I might not have ever seen this all the way through until now

*pretty bad, not even bad in a good way

===================

The Nanny Diaries 2007

*Scarlett Johansson & Chris Evans team up, years before The Avengers

*that’s the only reason I’m curious about this, really

*Alicia Keys!

*ended up only watching the ScarJo-Evans scenes, even those weren’t great

*I used to think (maybe) Captain America and Black Widow would’ve been a good couple, but after seeing their non-chemistry here…

*Donna Murphy is always awesome, although I’m thinking this might be the biggest role I’ve ever seen her in (as ScarJo’s mom)

Peggy Sue Got Married 1986

*finally

*Francis Ford Coppola directed this?  And he was the 3rd, choice, after Jonathan Demme and Penny Marshall…

*Kathleen Turner was nominated for Best Actress for this?

*heard that Kathleen Turner hated Nicolas Cage and his horrible “choices” during the making if this movie…or was that Cher during “Moonstruck”?

*update: no it was this movie…and I can see why Turner hated Cage…

*time travel movie, the same year as “Back to the Future”, is there incest in this one too?

*young Helen Hunt, Jim Carrey, Joan Allen, Sophia Coppola…

*Sophia Coppola and Kathleen Turner are supposed to be sisters?

*yeah Cage’s “choices” here are…interesting…maybe if Cage had been the geek who wins Turner over, but with him being the main male lead…

*so Cage changed his name to avoid people claiming nepotism but people knew at this point that the director was his uncle right?

*strange seeing young Jim Carrey, it’s weird thinking he had a career before “In Living Color” and “Ace Ventura” (“Earth Girls Are Easy” doesn’t really count as he was covered in fur in that movie”)

==================

Cat Ballou 1965 Western comedy

*again

*starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin in a dual role, which earned him the Oscar for Best Actor

*Nat King Cole had lung cancer while filming this, died before the film was released

Theatre of Blood 1973

*Vincent Price and Diana Rigg (RIP)

*and our old friend Diana Dors

*so many familiar faces, too many to name

*apparently this was Rigg’s favourite movie, so that’s cool

*good movie, kind of redundant after the first few murders (and there are eight) but still good

*as soon as a disguised Riggs showed up I knew it was her…was I the only one?

The Virgin Suicides 1999

*again, but not since it came out

*part of TCM’s salute to female directors

*I remember really liking this when it came out, but have just never had the chance to see it again

*a “Peggy Sue Got Married” connection in that Kathleen Turner and Sofia Coppola played sisters in that movie, and here Coppola directs Turner as the mother of the Lisbon sisters

*great movie!

Rachel and the Stranger 1948

*William Holden and Robert Mitchum

*Loretta Young plays a woman who is basically bought by Holden as an “indentured servant” to replace his dead wife

*Mitchum comes in and out of the movie, forces Holden to realize he loves Young AFTER they are married

=======================

The Magnificent Seven 2016

*again, saw it in theatres

*better than I remembered, but still overly loud and how did they not run out of ammo?

The Rain People 1969

*Francis Ford Coppola wrote/directed this

*George Lucas worked on this

*w/James Caan and Robert Duvall, teaming with Coppola prior to The Godfather

*the Shirley Knight character isn’t very likeable, keeps dumping Caan off, then going back for him, then leaving him behind again…gets old…

========================

Justice League vs. The Fatal Five 2019

*they brought back the “Justice League Unlimited” team here, with Bruce Timm executive producing and using that same animation style

*Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman voiced by Kevin Conroy, George Newbern, Susan Eisenberg

*but no Carl Lumbly (Jonn Jonzz), Phil LaMarr (GL John Stewart), Michael Rosenbaum (Flash) or Maria Canals (Hawkgirl)

*although with NAUGHTY words, blood and kids getting shot in the head from point blank range

*oh and we see Star Boy’s ass

*snappier dialogue than I’ve seen in most recent DC Animated movies - like the hilarious Miss Martian/Robin joke

*good to see Harley & Ivy team up, even briefly

*are the other two members of the Fatal Five going to show up?  So far it’s the Fatal Three

*Jessica Cruz!!!  And voiced by the awesome Diane Guerrero from Doom Patrol!!!

*and dealing with REAL issues!  Refreshing!

*apparently I missed the “10 months later…” graphic…

*the JLU THEME SONG!!!

*Wonder Woman’s line of “Dead Man Walking” is really lame, not sure I get it…plus, harsh!

*Star Boy here has schizophrenia, like in the Geoff Johns character reboot, bonds with Cruz

*in the future JLA museum, they have the Aquaman with the fish-hook for a hand - cool easter egg - also show Flash, Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Green Arrow, someone who looks like The Atom, Jonn Jonzz, Vixen, Steel, Captain Atom, Batman, Dr. Fate, Zatanna, Superman, Wonder Woman, someone wearing what looks like Hawkman’s wings, and two others that look like Huntress and Captain Marvel/Shazam which I guess means they rejoined the League after all?

*I didn’t see a Mr. Terrific statue…

*even show a statue of Miss Martian, which is weird as it gives away that, in the movie’s finale, Batman lets her join the League 

*tribute to Green Lanterns includes Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Cruz herself

*cool looking Validus!

*some more bad language including ”fart nuggets”?

*did they just kill Kilowog?

*THE JAVELIN!

*”Skeletor”?  I see what they were going for but it just doesn’t work…

*very cool how Star Boy’s ending plays out

*critics didn’t like this “small” story but…they friggin blew up the sun…geez!

*I really liked this, could be just nostalgia talking though, I enjoyed this way more than any of the “New 52” inspired animated films

*now if they could make a film about the Rann invasion that the rest of the League and the GL’s were fighting while this was going on…that’d be cool…

==============

Guys and Dolls 1955 TCM Essentials

*finally/again?

*pretty sure I’ve seen this, but if I have, it was a long time ago

*I’m a fan of Sinatra, but never been a huge Brando fan, maybe because I grew up when Brando was in his “Dr. Moreau” phase and I kept hearing stories of his laziness…

*the initial scene where Brando is courting Jean Simmons is VERY LONG…especially where you can see where it’s going…

*Jean Simmons’ uniform looks so much like a Mountie uniform…that’s what I’m paying attention to…

*maybe I was just in a weird mood but I can’t get into this…everytime I see Brando look offscreen I’m thinking “Is he looking at a cue card off camera or is he still in his “giving a sh*t” phase?”

*according to hosts Brad Bird and Joseph Mankiewicz, the behind the scenes of Sinatra vs. Brando was way more interesting 

The Magnificent Seven 1960

*again 

*I think I’ve seen this a million times, but yet as I watched it, it ended up being a lot different than I remembered

*I think I’ve just seen the beginning over and over and over, as it’s on cable all the time but I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it all the way to the end…

*especially when it comes to the deaths of Bronson, Coburn, Vaughn especially…they are shot by men off camera, Bronson even dies after the fighting is over so those seem to be hollow deaths, not really thought out

*part of it could be that Eli Wallach (yes) is the only villain who has any kind of development and after him, his men are all faceless henchmen

*Wallach even dies relatively early in the big fight which is a surprise

*I thought it was more like the remake, with it being a strait forward “hire the gunfighters, they train the villagers, fight the bad guys…” but I guess not

*I was surprised by the surprise but enjoyed it that much more

The Harlem Globetrotters 1951

*part of spotlight on Star of the Month Dorothy Dandridge

*eventhough in this she basically plays “the girlfriend” of the main character

*had no idea the Globetrotters had been around for that long - turns out they were founded in 1926

*amazing watching them warm up, their trick shots, etc.

================

Gilda 1946 Noir Alley

*again

*as I think about it, this could be more like the original Magnificent Seven where I have seen this before but not sure I could say how this ends…

*good movie with a pretty lame ending

==================

Women Make Film “A New Road Movie Through Cinema” Part 4

==================

Around the World in 80 Days 1956

*again

*one of those films I’ve seen a bunch of times, or at least certain parts, but I’ve never quite “got it”, maybe this time?

*lots of familiar faces here…cool to see the cameos, even the ones you kind of have to work for, like Caesar Romero…had no idea that was him at first…

*one of my regrets from the TCM Film Festival is when they would show movies at the Cinerama Dome at the ArcLight and I think I only ever made it to one…”This is Cinerama” in 2017…point being I think they showed this one time and it would have been very cool to see this in the Dome…or IMAX or something similar…

*you can tell immediately with the “bike scene” and later the “train scene” how/where this movie was “supposed” to be seen by moviegoers

*kinda weird that Edward R Murrow does the intro, or kinda random…did he ever do anything like this again?  Also cool to see him, as “Good Night and Good Luck” is one of my favourite films…

*best cameos were from Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Frank Sinatra, Buster Keaton, Victor McLaglen, Gilbert Roland (Gaucho!)…

*must been a good gig for David Niven, he just stands around and says his lines, as opposed to Cantinfias, who jumps around like the guy he’s dressed as, Charlie Chaplin…

*good but I can see why I didn’t love it…it’s a very slow movie, with an intermission, so I can see myself FFing a lot through this film…glad I watched it all the way through, for the cinematography and such…and Shirley MacLaine is always a joy although she didn’t have much to do here…

===============

Enola Holmes 2020

*so this was supposed to be released in theatres but went to Netflix instead due to COVID

*Millie Bobby Brown is only 16 but already a movie producer, as apparently it was her idea to develop this, which is super cool

*a long movie, over two hours…

*Enola sets out to find her missing mother (Helena Bonham Carter) but gets sidetracked constantly with a sub plot with a dude…

*Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes isn’t used enough

*I really like the stuff with Enola on her own, getting around London, breaking the 4th wall, but not really interested in the dude…

*this seems structured more like a TV series, as if finding her mother is the overall mystery for the series and this dude story is just the “mystery of the week”

*she solves the dude story but she still hasn’t found her mother, so the movie keeps going…

*good but not great

The Hospital 1971

*w/Diana Rigg RIP

*interesting nature about how hospitals work by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Arthur Hiller

*George C. Scott is in almost every scene, does a great job especially in the scene where he and Rigg have a heart-to-heart

*lots of familiar faces here

*movie shifts tone to funny to serious and back again

*fun seeing Rigg, as always
====================

The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976 Western

*finally/again?

*not sure if I’ve seen this, might be lumping it in with Clint Eastwood’s other westerns

*okay ten minutes in and I don’t think I’ve seen this before…

*his family is killed, he’s recruited to fight in the Civil War for what is typically shown to be the “wrong side”

*based on a novel written by a former KKK leader and it shows…the North (or The Union) are the bad guys, the South (The Confederate) are the good guys

*eventually becomes one man (and the people he “collects” along the way) against an army of bad guys who are tracking them

*I like how he hates people but keep accumulating companions along the way

*poor dog!

*Chief Dan George is awesome

*weird watching movies with Sondra Locke and Eastwood together, considering what would happen later between them, Locke being blackballed in the industry and winning court cases to prove it

*I was today years old when I found out Locke directed four feature films, good for her!

*anyway, good film!

=====================

Hunt for the Wilderpeople 2016

*PVR kicked the bucket, had to go onto Netflix to watch a movie, strangely difficult finding movies on there

*had heard of this, one of those “just missed it” movies

*love Taika Waititi, so I need to watch this…

*starring the kid from Deadpool 2 aka Firefist!

*kid is about to turn 18, so that means he was 13/14 years old when he filmed this!

*early on and already some familiar faces from other Taika movies

*Taika shows up in the movie, but it’s in a sad scene so that sucks…but he’s great of course!

*2nd movie in a row where I’ve said “poor dog!”

*really great movie, highly recommend it!

*I wouldn’t say I loved it more than other Taika works (especially “Flight of the Conchords” one of my all time favourites) but still great!

======================

The Wild Wild Planet 1967

*a TCM Underground-type movie (at least from the title and the synopsis) on a Friday morning!

*synopsis “A space cowboy save planetary leaders from an alien shrinker’s army of inflatable females”

*sounds like if DC comics’ Adam Strange teamed with The Atom to fight Brainiac!

*1st of the four “Gamme One” sci-fi films

*originally made to be made-for-tv movies but were released theatrically in some countries

*no one is wearing a cowboy hat…how am I supposed to know which one is the space cowboy if no one is wearing a hat?

*and if there is a space cowboy, is there also a gangster of love?

*there is so much to mock, s little time

*the sets are done with miniatures and it so obvious…I guess it can be a in a charming way…

*this movie has to have been featured on Mystery Science Theatre 3000

*at one point they have a chase with the good guys in a flying car chasing a car-car that looks like what will eventually become Luke’s Sandspeeder in Star Wars

*the dialogue could be worse…

*52 minutes in the good guys start to figure out the bad guy’s plan, then the dialogue and acting goes into hyperdrive

*apparently theatres in the future don’t have chairs…I always thought I would hate the future and this confirms it…

*now I’m just thinking about whether it would be hard to remake this, with these sets and costumes…would it be really easy or really hard?

*not only does this make the 1st Star Wars even more like a masterpiece, it makes the worst of the Star Trek TV series look amazing…

*so the TV series Wild, Wild West started airing on 9/17/65…this movie seems to have nothing to do with that…

*Star Trek the Original Series started airing 9/8/66…according to Wikipedia, each episode cost $190,000 ($1.4 million in modern money)…so this movie must have cost less than that…

*the bad guys are clones with four arms and bald heads…called “freaks”…not cool man…

*the good guys blasters are basically mini-flame throwers…again makes the worst of Star Trek look amazing…

*apparently this was made by Italian filmmaker Antonio Margherti, who seems to be the European Roger Corman but cheaper…somehow reading his bio I want to know more about him…I don’t necessarily want to see more of his movies, but more about him specifically…

*the bad guy’s evil lair has some cool mirrors, a big pool…it kinda looks cool I guess…

*they didn’t cheap out on the finale though, with a lot of extras and there being a big flood of pink water…

*but what I noticed is the main actress, through the pink flood and the final scene that takes place with her in a bikini near a pool is that she never gets even a little wet…funny the things you notice

*anyway…I would be curious to see the other three “Gamma” movies, or even more from Margherti, but not enough that I would go out of my way or anything…

================

Trainwreck 2015

*again

*had no idea the “Staten Island Guy” was Josh Segarra, who played “Prometheus” on Arrow

*Amy Schumer’s work crew includes Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, Randall Park, Jon Glaser (from Parks & Rec), Vanessa Bayer

*Amy Schumer and Brie Larson as sisters, kinda weird but it works

*Colin Quinn as Amy’s father I can see, definitely

*Mike Birbiglia as Brie’s husband…interesting choice

*Norman F’N Lloyd!

*wasn’t really a John Cena fan until I saw this…

*or Lebron James…he’s awesome here

*I wonder how much of Schumer’s relationship with wrestler Dolph Ziggler went into this movie’s Schumer/Cena relationship

*Bill Hader and Lebron make an awesome comedy team

*watching this later on, Schumer kind of comes across mean spirited and close-minded…maybe before I had a celebrity crush and didn’t notice?

*everyone else in the movie is amazing though so it kind of balances out

*baby shower scene includes Tim Meadows, Nikki Glaser, Claudia O’Doherty (from “Love”) and Bridget Everett

*so all those pics of Daniel Radcliffe in Central Park walking dogs, smoking, were those just for this movie?  I guess I could have assumed that but never put two-and-two together…

*funny intervention scene with Lebron, Matthew Broderick, Chris Everett and Marv Albert, with Everett flirting with Hader pretty hard

*I hate the ending to this, with her stopping smoking weed (and that’s coming from someone who hates it when there is smoking in movies), dresses as a cheerleader, and changes herself for Hader’s love (although I might be mis-remembering the ending…we’ll see) but, again, everything else seems to balance out

*I’ve always hated the end of Breakfast Club after Ally Sheedy “gets pretty” for Emilio Estevez or any movie ending similar to that…

==================

They Won’t Believe Me 1947 Noir Alley

*Robert Young is married, falls in love with Jane Greer, is about to run away with her, somehow his wife gets him to not do it (I think), he ends up with a 3rd woman (his boss’ secretary I think, who is also having an affair with his boss apparently)…

*so Young and his wife move to LA, Greer moves to Montreal, but Greer ends up in LA and bumps into Young and the 3rd woman, apparently she’s been transferred from Montreal to LA…is this a coincidence?

*so stuff happens…he leaves his wife and runs away with the 3rd woman, they decide to not rob his wife of her money (turns out they are decent people despite the adultery) but she dies in an “accident”, police assume the 3rd woman is his wife, so he goes home to kill him wife but she’s committed suicide…lucky guy, I guess?

*then it comes back to the present and, oh yeah, he’s testifying in a trial…but what is he on trial for, again?

*so then the flashbacks continue, he travels down to South America, and Jane Greer shows up…coincidence?

*they fall in love again, return to LA together, but then he finds out Greer and his old boss are trying to figure out if the secretary’s disappearance is Young’s fault…

*cops go to his ranch and find his wife’s body but assume it’s the secretary…so I guess that’s what he’s on trial for…they couldn’t identify the body properly?

*”the body was battered beyond identification” I guess they didn’t identify with dental records back then?

*couldn’t he have, well, told the truth, even if it just confused the jury, wouldn’t have that made sense…although I guess technically that is what he did since this whole movie is him testifying…I think I’m confused

*this is either a wildly convoluted mess or a masterpiece…

*they did a great job in casting the three female leads as they are pretty distinct and it’s easy to tell them apart…that would add to the confusion…even though I referred to them as “wife, secretary, Greer” I do know their names in the world of the movie

*Young was called an “unreliable narrator” by Eddie Muller during his intro, which you have to remember as you watch this…this could all be a lie, although your instinct is to believe him…

*so Young, just as he’s about to be declared not guilty, goes to kill himself but is shot by a cop and dies…even the movie ending is convoluted…he couldn’t have just jumped out the window, he had to be shot too?  Couldn’t they just grab him?

*and if he’s innocent, that the secretary died in the car crash, that the wife killed herself…why kill himself?

*apparently the ending was to be him committing suicide but the movie code people had banned suicide in the movies…so what did they think happened to the wife?

*the movie’s producer, Joan Harrison is fascinating to hear about and Muller talking about the film afterwards makes me appreciate it more

*thinking about it afterwards I love the film more than I did while watching it…does that make sense?

=======================

C.C. and Company 1970 TCM Underground 9/26/20

*Ann-Margret alone makes this worth watching, but the lead actor is Joe Namath?  The football player?  I am intrigued…

*reviews for this were bad, but the worst was Gene Siskel who, among other things said “Ann-Margret has a brief nude scene in which she proves that in addition to having a foul mouth, she is fat” whoa pump the breaks dude!  That’s shitty! (*assuming this is true, I read it on the internet after all…)

*some reviewers out and out said Ann-Margret shouldn’t be acting, she’s that bad…the next year she got nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Carnal Knowledge…so there!

*Sid Haig!

*so Namath and two buddies find Ann-Margret stranded in the desert, her car broken down, Namath tries to fix the car, his buddies try to rape her, slap her around, Namath slowly saves her, beats up Sid Haig and the other annoying dude, then flirts with Ann-Margret, she seems to get over the assault very quickly

*the gang’s boss is played by William Smith who has been in a lot of things, but I know him from his appearances on Rockford Files…he hams it up to the extreme here…and people made fun of Ann-Marget’s acting?

*Bruce Glover is part of the gang too, who played Mr. Wint in “Diamonds Are Forever” and is the father of Crispin Glover

*so Namath is in a biker gang but doesn’t like anyone in the gang, gets into fights with other members, doesn’t go along with their “antics”, just sits around and smirks alot, doesn’t make sense why he’s even there…

*suddenly it becomes about motocross racing…

*Ann-Margret wears a different outfit in every scene, even different wigs…

*Namath’s dancing…wow

*had no idea that Namath didn’t retire from football until 1977, so he was doing this movie in the off season I guess…

*comes down to a race between Smith and Namath, with Namath racing for Ann-Margret’s freedom…ends in a chase, again Ann-Margret takes her kidnapping and implied assault pretty well…

*not as bad as I was told, but then I’ll watch anything with Ann-Margret really

J.C. 1971 TCM Underground 9/26/20

*another biker movie with initials in the title

*with Slim Pickens but he’s not the star

*boom mic in the shot!

*lots of quick cuts, quick scenes, flashbacks…

*main character JC sits on toilet, camera pans to different headlines about voter rights, meat being unfit to eat, people being arrested, the homeless and hungry…JC is also a hippy, btw…he says groovy a lot and has long hair…so now we know why this movie was made…

*longest scenes early on are JC and friends smoking weed

*boom mic in the shot again!

*smoking weed makes JC have weird hallucinations…so it’s anti-drugs?  Or did they have to throw that in for the censors?

*17 minutes in we have opening credits

*JC is William F. McGaha, who also wrote, directed, produced the movie…has no Wikipedia page…directed four movies around this time, this being the 3rd of those 4, I assume they were all about fighting the “establishment”

*one reviewer says “I thought, when the opening credits rolled, that they were the closing credits and I rejoiced”

*two scenes in a row, JC makes crazy speeches that any normal person would consider the ranting of a lunatic but yet he has a motorcycle gang following him like it’s a cult…

*they go to a small town in Alabama, apparently JC’s hometown, pop in for a visit with JC’s sister, two minutes in town people are throwing around the n-word

*JC’s girlfriend defends the black members of their gang with a speech while they just stand back…white the scene

*Slim Pickens shows up as the town sheriff, finally!  Seems to be a good guy trying to keep the peace, with a hot heated deputy who just got back from Vietnam looking for a fight

*another boom in the shot!

*one of JC’s friends tries to rape his sister, they fight…one scene later she’s making out with that friend…wtf?

*the black friend gets caught by the cops, Pickens and the deputy torture him…guess Pickens isn’t such a nice guy after all

*it’s late at night, no one’s noticed the black friend has been gone…

*so JC rides off after being taunted by some locals, as he rides off he looks like he legit runs over one of the locals but it just cuts away…weird

*so there is a horrible action sequence where apparently Pickens dies, the black friend dies, the deputy dies after being hit by JC’s boot…

*JC “sacrifices” himself and is killed by a mob, apparently there is a message there, I hear Picken’s voice at the end so apparently he didn’t die…

*last shot is JC lying with his arms out…subtle!

*really bad…but in a Underground way…wouldn’t say “so bad it’s good” cause it isn’t good…I’ll never watch this again but it’s not like I want that time back…

Island in the Sun 1957

*part of spotlight on Star of the Month Dorothy Dandridge

*beautiful scenery too bad it’s a fake location (Santa Marta; filmed in Barbados)

*a movie about two interracial romances yet the producers are too scared to show white and black people kissing on screen - odd

*after being nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, Dandridge hadn’t worked in 3 years so this was her “comeback” although in a small role

*apparently this was due to racism but also bad advice from her lover Otto Preminger…which is another detail I find fascinating…Dorothy Dandridge and Otto Preminger?

*alot going on in this movie with several plot lines and sub plots happening at the same time, with James Mason, Joan Collins and others hovering around in the background

*the main story is about the awesome Harry Belafonte and Joan Fontaine’s forbidden love which he decides to step away from, as they could leave the island and be together but he stays to lead the island politically

*not a great movie, kind of over complicated and frustrating since the movie didn’t “go all the way”, or even half-way really

*also interesting watching these movies not for entertainment (or not “just entertainment”) but also for historical purposes, as if the movie is a time capsule and it’s great how far we’ve come but also, in some case, not at all…

Ship of Fools 1965

*a night on TCM paying tribute to movies about characters with disabilities

*Lee Marvin, Jose Ferrer, George Segal, Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Ashley

*Michael Dunn, a dwarf, received an Oscar nomination for this film

*referred to as “Grand Hotel on a boat”

*amazing seeing all the “poor people” waiting on the dock to get on the boat

*contrasting that to the “rich/middle class people” and how they live onboard

*a boat with Southern racists, a drug addict, Nazis, Jewish people, a dwarf, over 600 people all aboard,  crammed together for 26 days…what can go wrong?

*I must have missed where they said that this takes place in 1933…had to read that on Wikipedia

*sad when the Captain scoffs at the Nazi and doubts anyone will ever take him or his beliefs seriously…

*Lee Marvin says “I never had a problem with the Jews” Vivien Leigh “Maybe you were too busy lynching negros to take time out of the Jews“ and the look on Marvin’s face…might as well be clutching his pearls…

*there are some complicated characters like Segal’s artist…he feels bad for the poor artist on the lower deck and wants him to be able to have his tools to work, but is a mysoginistic male who treats his girlfriend bad, wants her to “live her life for him alone”

*”What are they going to do, kill us all?” wow

*Colonel Klink!  Not sure why it took me so long to recognize him…

*apparently the scene where Vivien Leigh beats up Lee Marvin with her shoe is legit, the blood on his face is really his…she got little carried away…

*a long movie, 2.5 hours not including the TCM intro/outro’s

===============

Stand and Deliver 1988

*finally

*what a great F’N movie!

*although I question the timeline, learning calculus seems harder than it’s portrayed in the movie

*Edward James Olmos helped introduce the movie on TCM, got emotional talking about it, very cool!

*so happy I finally got to see this

Women Make Film “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema 05” 2020

*Jane Fonda joins Tilda Swinton as a narrator

================

Go West 1940

*again

*Marx Brothers in a Western

*”Clippity-Clop” is a darn fine song

*like with most Marx Brothers movies (with the exception of Duck Soup probably), I remember bits and pieces…with this one it’s the scene where, as part of the long train sequence/action scene, the Marx Brothers start dumping wood off the train and later strip the train for wood to burn, including boxes of popcorn…for some reason that stands out…

*as always, there is a great harp playing sequence by Harpo and a great piano playing sequence by Chico…the harp playing in particular is always something I have to stop and admire

*reviewers have said this movie is a one-gag movie, the final train sequence, but to me it’s enough of a gag to save the movie…the whole sequence is amazing!

*FYI there was also a Buster Keaton movie called “Go West” in 1925

The Big Store 1941

*again

*Marx Brothers in a store!

*the last Marx Brothers film or at least was supposed to be

*was the last of their MGM deal, they wanted to return but Chico needed money for gambling debts so they made two more movies after this

*final Marx Brothers movie with Margaret Dumont

*another memorable Marx Brothers scene; where they get the kids of the different families mixed up, but not really for a good reason unfortunately

*Groucho’s hair is out of control in this one

*Chico and Harpo tag team a piano in one scene which is great

*and there is the Harpo-harp scene - yahoo!

*so they have concerts in this store?  How big is this place?

*Harpo has a 2nd harp performance? - double yahoo!

*so do Groucho and Dumont end up together in the end?  If so that’s a cool way to “end” the run together (even if this didn’t end up the last Marx Brothers movie, they thought it was at the time)
==================

Road to Bali 1952

*6th of the 7 Road to…movies

*1st to feature surprise cameo appearances

*in color

*starts in Australia, then goes to Bali, Indonesia

*last of the series to feature Dorothy Lamour as the female lead

*weird scene with monkey with a Bob Hope mask, kinda creepy

Cloak and Dagger 1946

*Gary Cooper spy thriller directed by Fritz Lang

*this movie is one reason why screenwriters were added to the Blacklist “Ring Lardner Jr. & Albert Maltz)

*not really into spy movies, usually due to the back and forth or trying to figure out who is good or bad, who is double crossing who, etc.

================

Gold 1974

*this would be good as a documentary about mining Gold, or something showing off the beauty of South Africa but as a movie…meh

*don’t care at all about the romantic subplot between Roger Moore and Suzannah York

*according to Wikipedia, York’s husband finds out about the affair but allows it to continue so Moore will be away from the mine…is that said anywhere in the movie?  It’s possible, I found myself slipping in and out of focus with this movie

*why does that one investor get blown up?  Is that ever explained?  I can guess but do I have to?

*I kinda get the “villains” plot of wanting to blow up the mine to make more money…kinda…

*and why doesn’t Moore fire Kowalski…after he beats up some workers, they have a fight…it would be one thing if Moore wanted to fire him but the evil bosses said “No you can’t…” cause they need him for their evil plot, but Moore says “Don’t ever do that again” and lets him stay…makes Moore look like an idiot and I don’t like rooting for idiots…

*and Kowalski keeps getting into fights…shouldn’t he have a knife on him or something, he keeps getting beat up…kinda makes him look dumb too, really…

*and if lots of people don’t die in the flood, is that bad?

*if I wanted to see Moore acting all cool and making love to any woman he wants, I’ll watch him in a Bond movie

*wait, there are 1,000 people trapped underground? Geez…

*every scene is about two-three minutes too long, as there are a few cool scenes in the end, like the plane doing an emergency landing, or when the boss is run over by a car…

*and without even reading Wikipedia I knew that Big King was going to die…the noble black man cliche…sacrificing himself for the white star…lame…at least he has that pension from the gold hard hat, right?

*the opening credits, and especially the end credits are trying SO HARD to be a Bond movie

*apparently during filming it was controversial that they were filming in apartheid-Africa but it was cheaper to film there so…what could the producers have done…right?

*York, while filming, used every public outlet she could to say how much the miners’s lives sucked and the producers labelled her as a “militant liberal” and they were constantly trying to get her to “cool it”…those poor rich producers were just trying to produce a piece of “ART” and she was trying to improve people’s lives…what a “feminazi libtard” or whatever the cool assholes online are saying these days…lame… 

*Ray Milland is a cranky joy in this movie, though

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines 2019

*so…they are re-doing WW’s origin but in animated form?  With Steve Trevor landing on the island, Dr. Poison, Etta Candy…why?  Isn’t there any other stories they can tell?

*so in the live-action version, Diana and Hippolyta talk and come to an agreement, a heartbreaking one…in the animated version they have a sword fight…cause there is no subtlety in animation

*never been a fan of Steve Trevor, let alone a fan of their romance…to me, Trevor was just another bland cookie-cutter dude in the DC Silver Age like Barry Allen or Hal Jordan…in the live action version Chris Pine at least gave him some life and I actually liked him and Gal Gadot together…which was weird cause I didn’t like Pine in Star Trek or anything else he’d done up to that point…anyway what about THIS movie?

*FYI the best versions of Flash and GL are Wally West and John Stewart, with Kyle Rayner a close second

*so I’m guessing they jump ahead in time form here, but either way this will be set in “present day” as the parademons shot down Trevor’s plane not WW2 Nazis…

*and I’m also guessing this takes place during the god-awful New 52-verse?

*okay there is some subtlety with the Diana/Vanessa relationship, shown in a montage over five years…

*nice way to establish the passage of time using hair styles, facial hair, etc.

*but Trevor saying “Shit” or Giganta saying “Bitch” or Silver Swan ripping out a dude’s heart…are these things really that important to the overall story?

*then the punchy-punchy stuff begins…

*Cheetah injects herself with something and becomes…The Hyena?

*more punchy-punchy…

*so Trevor’s plane crash lands on Themyscira and he and Diana leave on a boat…this is set in modern times so shouldn’t his plane have a GPS tracker or something?

*so Dr. Cyber, Dr. Poison, Silver Swan and Medusa go to Themyscira to attack but before they’ve won, they turn on each other because they can’t get along…and a woman wrote this?  Okay, fair enough…

*so I watched this on a whim, saw it was on cable so I recorded it…so this is my fault (I could have downloaded it or whatever is my point) but seriously Adult Swim Canada…what is with all the commercials??? SERIOUSLY???

*well they definitely raised the stakes, with a giant Medusa destroying Themyscira…and whenever WW decked Medusa it seemed to have impact so the animation is well done

*after having such high expectations from Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS and Justice League Unlimited, it’s hard to accept half-baked DC Animation based on the crappy- New 52; although maybe this isn’t based on New 52 continuity as they didn’t say anything about the Amazons raping men, getting pregnant and killing them…or that Zeus is Diana’s father…maybe in the sequel?

*although there is no Batman so there probably won’t be  a sequel (despite the fact they set it up with the mid-credits-tag)…surprised it wasn’t called Batman-Wonder Woman: Bloodlines

*so is Etta Candy ever SAID to be a lesbian or just shown?

The Queen 1968 TCM Underground 10/3/20

*really cool to see these amazing people so happy and proud of themselves in 1968…here we are in 2020 and yes things have changed…but have they?

*I didn’t see any chyrons so no one is really introduced on camera, at first it seems to be a bunch of random footage edited together but we do start to “meet” the competitors and they talk about some interesting stuff like draft boards

*seeing these people all together in a hotel room in New York, talking about their lives, laughing and joking, I feel sad that eventually, as in the movie’s final scene, they will have to go back to their “normal lives”

*early on the organizer talks about it being difficult finding a venue “cool enough” to allow the performers to stay there, let alone put on their performance

*from what I saw these competitors and organizers seem to be in a bit of a bubble and don’t really let th outside world in, which is great for them and I’m happy they can have that, but as a filmmaker, we really only see a flash of the outside world when the people in charge come in and say “This was supposed to be over…everyone get out!” and the look on his face makes it seem he wants nothing to do with this

*also interesting comparing this movie to the next one…

Wig stock: The Movie 1995 TCM Underground 10/3/20

*a documentary 27 years later…drag shows attract 20,000 people in New York to their shows and it’s a major attraction that has produced RuPaul and attracts Dee-Lite and Alexis Arquette, sibling of Rosanna and Patricia, to participate in the festivities…

*early in one scene Arquette approaches some straight white dudes and hits on them, which brings more of “the real world” into this film…but also you have to wonder if there weren’t cameras there would the dude-bros been angry about getting hit on?  Or would they have been more receptive?

*interesting observation “If you didn’t impersonate someone, you weren’t considered a drag queen” never thought of it that way before 

==================

Made in Paris 1966

*Ann-Margret!

*three guys go after Ann-Margret and the wrong guy ends up with her…lame

*but she is amazing to watch, especially in her dance sequences

*not great but a fun watch

Twice Upon a Yesterday 1998

*on Wikipedia as “The Man with Rain in His Shoes”

*directed by Maria Ripoli, who also directed “Tortilla Soup”

*with a pretty good 2020 cast of then-unknowns Lena Hedley, Penelope Cruz, Mark Strong, Elizabeth McGovern

*a ”Sliding Doors” type of rom-com

*HOLY F this is a great movie!!!  I was totally caught off guard but I loved it!

*and it’s got a “Twilight Zone” style ending that is very cool!

*highly recommended!

Cash on Demand 1962

*TCM Star of the Month is Peter Cushing, fitting for October

*again…2nd time this year!

*Peter Cushing in a Hammer movie that isn’t a horror movie

*great this time too!!!

*disappointed that I won’t be able to see the Peter Cushing Dr. Who movies here in Canada but the other Cushing movies will be good too!

===============

Jack and the Beanstalk 1952

*and Abbott & Costello!

*behind the scenes is more interesting with this movie, frankly…

*Abbott and Costello wanted to make this movie, but the studio Universal wasn’t interested, but they had it in their contract they could make one movie a year as an indy, so they made this…

*and they copied Wizard of Oz, with the movie starting and ending in sepia with the fantasy aspect in colour

*and the copyright wasn’t renewed, so this movie is in the public domain…so technically I think I could remake it!  I won’t but…I could!!!

*movie seems mostly Costello in action, getting into trouble, etc and Abbott showing up here and there

*the main couple are supposed to be teenagers I think but the guy looks like he’s in his 40’s and the girl looks like she’s mid-twenties at least…kinda weird looking…

*saw this on cable (not TCM) so the quality wasn’t great, the colours were crazy…

*I like Abbott and Costello, but like Is aid, it just seemed like this was just Costello which is just odd

 ===================

Women Make Film “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema 06” 2020

*continues to be a great series

The F Word 2013

w/Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis

*filmed in Toronto and actually set there which is super weird but any movie set in Canada I will watch 

*off the top of my head I can think of one other…Scott Pilgrim…I don’t think Goon counts as it’s a Canadian movie

*there are lots of characters in this, so weird that there are completely caucasian characters in the movie, based on the fact it’s set in Toronto, but the cast is really likeable (well, and Adam Driver)

*lots of talking about Elvis but I didn’t recognize any Elvis songs in the movie (unless they were covers, that’s totally possible)

*good movie, apparently they re-shot the end of the movie to give it a happy ending…

*I used to hate people who got mad when a rom-com had a sad ending as I thought it was unrealistic, as people don’t always end up together “like they should” but now I kinda get it…we’ve just watched two hours where the point of the movie was for a boy and girl (usually) to fall in love and be together, and if the end of the two hours they don’t get together, people feel ripped off, and say out loud “what was the point of that?”.  I kinda see their point now, one example being the aforementioned Scott Pilgrim…the point of that movie, really, was for Scott and Ramona to get together and if Scott ended up with Knives, I personally don’t think it would have worked as well…plus Knives deserved better than Scott…

*anyway, good movie!

Topper 1937

*finally

*okay so, strangely, watching this movie is a huge deal for me…

*I’ve always been a big Cary Grant fan, when I became a TCM fan, I wanted to see all the Cary grant movies ever, but this movie has never been shown on TCM in Canada, I’m guessing due to legal/copyright reasons…

*whenever I would see Topper on the TCM schedule I would look forward to it, only to be disappointed to find out that it wasn’t actually being shown in Canada

*I’ve seen the other Topper movies, and even some of the TV series, but never this movie…until now!

*will it live up to the hype?

*Hal Roach’s 1st full length feature film after years of just producing shorts

*Grant driving with his feet…fun…

*this Grant seems like a cross of William Powell’s Nick Charles and his character from Philadelphia Story

*the piano player from To Have and Have Not…Cricket!

*Topper is Roland Young, who got an Oscar nomination for this, and who I know as “Uncle Willy” from the aforementioned Philadelphia Story

*WC Fields turned down the role…

*his wife if played by Billie Burke who was Glinda the Good Witch in Wizard of Oz!

*gossip columnist Hedda Hopper acts in this?

*Alan Mowbray, “Tommy” from My Man Godfrey, plays the butler, and Euguene Pallette, also from Godfrey!

*Ward Bond plays a cab driver…so many familiar faces!

*do ghosts need to shower?  According to the “physics” of this movie, Marion is invisible, not a ghost…

*Grant shows up and talks to Topper’s butler and wife, the butler even touches his shoulder…so they can “turn it on and off”?  Being ghosts?  Apparently they can…

*so is there an overall reason the ghosts are annoying Topper?  Did I miss something?  If this movie was remade today, Topper would have to help them find a monkey’s paw that would help their souls get to heaven or something…it just seems like the ghosts are just extensions of their human forms, just wanting to have fun and such…

*apparently there was another TV show based on Topper, “Nearly Departed” starring Eric Idle that aired in 1989, only 6 episodes were made, only 4 aired…when I heard about it I assumed Idle played Topper, and he was the one who spent all his time “reacting” to the ghosts, but apparently he played the Cary Grant part…

*so much wackiness…

*so the “ghosts” can smoke cigarettes, drive cars, dance with people…seems like they should be intangible if they are ghosts but I guess I’m thinking about this too much…

*whenever I hear Topper’s wife talk I can’t help but hear Glinda’s voice

*so their “good deed” was making it so Topper’s wife realized what a good guy he is?  That was a weird, convoluted way to go about it…so now they get to go to heaven…but yet come back for two sequels…

*always good to see Cary Grant, and all the familiar faces, but this really didn’t live up to the hype that I had built up in my mind…not a bad movie, and I’m sure groundbreaking at the time for the special effects, but I doubt I’ll watch this again

Carry On Screaming 1966

*parody of Hammer Horror Films

*part of the “Carry On” series; #12 of 31 in the series

*good movie, not great, some funny moments…

Dr. Cabbie 2014

*not funny so far - the “VG” back and forth was lame

*Kunal Nayyar (Raz from Big Bang Theory) shows up and his character is annoying!

*movie picks up when a pregnant Adrianne Palicki shows up

*Chris Diamantopoulous from Silicon Valley is here too…does a great job playing a dickhead…

*really a shocking indictment on the Canadian family-doctor system - yes everything is free but there are only so many doctors to go around…

*funny when she takes care of him after he eats meat and throws up

*Nayyar’s character is still annoying, I’m sure he was making choices to make people see him as someone other than Raj but again…annoying!

*I like Adrianne Palicki in a rom-com…usually she’s playing aggressive SFC stereotypes (Strong Female Character) where she doesn’t get to laugh or smile and only kick ass (like Wonder Woman, or Mockingbird or the character she played in GI Joe) but here she plays a real character here and she is pretty great

*always love a good Bollywood dance sequence

*good movie, not great but Palicki was great

*over the credits they have bloopers, deleted scenes that aren’t funny (mostly with Nayyar’s character) and part of a Bollywood dance number, not really worth sticking around for

Onionhead 1958

*Andy Griffith, known for his Army comedies, makes this Army comedy-drama that apparently was such a bomb that it “drove” Griffith to working in TV…so it’s thanks to this movie we got The Andy Griffith Show…

*Griffith is a jerk here, especially with his girlfriend

*waiting for Walter Matthau to show up…finally does in 25 minutes but didn’t recognize him at first, he has blonde hair!

*this came out a year after Griffith and Matthau were in “A Face in the Crowd” together

*after this, it turns into a comedy, with Griffith becoming the ship’s cook despite not knowing how to

*and Joey Bishop shows up, along with Claude Akins from Rio Bravo

*turns out later that the girl is a horrible person so I guess it’s okay that Griffith is a jerk to her, right?  (that’s sarcasm btw)

*the more I watch this the more I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it already…

*also James Gregory, who played Luger on Barney Miller

Dracula 1931

*finally

*never been a big horror movie fan, or a fan of the “Universal monster” movies…the Hammer films I’ve seen are rarely the horror ones despite it being what Hammer is famous for…so it makes sense that I’ve never seen this before but it’s “the original” besides “Nosferatu” (which I have seen, years ago), so let’s watch this…

*besides, TCM in October is probably the time of the year I watch the least amount of movies, based on their programming choices of mostly horror movies, other than Noir Alley, Underground and this month the “Women in Film” series…

*anyway, what about this movie?

*this is one of those movies that I haven’t seen but almost feel like I have as I’ve seen so many clips of Bela Lugosi as Dracula…so, I might as well just watch it…

*beautiful looking movie but…

*Really.  Slow.  Moving.  Movie…

*the pace is slow, did I mention that?

*dude playing Renfield (Dwight Frye) is off the charts, only energy in this movie really 

*so here Van Helsing doesn’t look like Hugh Jackman at all! (sarcasm, btw)

*Lugosi gets one of those roles where he just has to stand there, look scary and doesn’t have that many lines…apparently he got paid very little and hated playing the role, getting typecast because of it…

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My Blind Brother 2016

*a great cast with Adam Scott, Nick Kroll, Jenny Slate, Zoe Kazan

*written/directed by Sophie Goodhart

*so Kroll’s overachieving blind brother (Scott) ends up dating Slate, but Kroll tries to steal her away…

*Charlie Hewson plays GT, a blind guy but I don’t think he’s a blind actor…are there no blind actors who could play a character who is blind?

*movie kind of just ends, usually there is a scene at the end where they show that Zoe Kazan’s character ended up with GT, or the Adam Scott character even…not a bad thing, but just something I noticed…

*this got bad reviews but it’s not that bad…the four main leads are great so that carried it for me…

Green Hornet 2011

*again, but not since it came out

*I remember watching this while waiting to board a plane, on my laptop, and hated it…well maybe not hated it, thought it was lame and boring…

*this came back into my orbit recently when I was reminded how awesome Michel Gondry is, after i re-watched a bunch of music videos he directed in a Youtube binge watch

*is Tyrese from The Walking Dead one of Christoph Waltz’s henchmen?

*I would have thought that Rogen and his partner Evan Goldberg wanted to make this and somehow convinced Gondry to take this on, but apparently in 1997 Gondry was first attached to make this but it never happened, even when Mark Wahlberg was attached

*2009 Gondry again became director, going full circle

*David Harbour is in this…is there anything he isn’t in?

*I remember when Kevin Smith was attached to write and direct and not being all that surprised when he walked away, although I didn’t know he had talked to Jake Gyllenhaal about it

*half an hour in, there are no signs that Gondry is director, nothing with his “touch”

*then there is a fight sequence and it seems like Gondry, but then it goes back to be a “straight” movie…

*Cameron Diaz shows up and Rogan calls her old, is he joking, he’s being so obnoxious I can’t tell

*Edward James Olmos!!!

*apparently Rogen has said making this was “a nightmare”…I believe it

*WHY IS CAMERON DIAZ IN THIS?  I’m guessing she wanted to work with Gondry?  She should have been the Green Hornet…otherwise she is wasted here…

*wow the exposition/info-dump 90 minutes into the movie with Rogen and Harbour is really lame…

*okay a twenty minute segment with lots of gunshots and explosions, I wasn’t paying attention honestly but that’s not even it…Rogen and Kato show up at Cameron Diaz’s house for bantering…end this movie!!!

*super lame!

*I just saw on Instagram that Kevin Smith will be making a Green Hornet cartoon…so weird, such a coincidence…that being said…not looking forward to it really, and really, when Kevin Smith announces something is happening, what is there, like a 35% chance of it actually happening?  40%?  We’ll see…

Peppermint 2018

*interested in this as it seems like Jennifer Garner going back to her “Alias” roots, directed by the person who directed the 1st Taken movie

*starts with Garner in a fight inside a car…the movie apparently has already started which is fine but I kept waiting for the “5 years earlier” flash back to begin…

*they took a little longer than usual but then IT HAPPENED!  Such a cliche that it’s a joke now, where they just start with something exciting then cut to “__ years/hours earlier” graphic

*Garner tending to her wound is super-gross!

*so Garner is a boring person, with a boring life, and this goes on for ten/fifteen minutes…why do I care?  I want to FF to the part where she is wronged and starts kicking ass

*so in the Liam Neeson Taken movies his family is kidnapped, and with John Wick’s dog is killed, which will this be…?

*her family is murdered and her daughter was killed eating peppermint ice cream which is where the title of the movie comes from, apparently

*Garner is in the hospital, looks at a police lineup, start packing her home…mourning her family…there is a court case where I presume the bad guys get away with it just cause it wouldn’t make sense that they go to jail for life…when is she going to start kicking ass?

*then it goes back to the future and Garner is a badass, so time to start paying attention again…

*but then there is a LONG talking sequence with a bunch of characters who aren’t Jennifer Garner…

*then the bad guys talk for a LONG time…is Garner in this at all?

*she is…she beats up a dead beat dad and points a gun at him and the clerk and then “borrows” the liquor store clerk’s car in broad daylight…does this place have security cameras?

*so they FFed from Garner being a mourning mother to a ninja, did they explain how she got these moves?  Not that I mind, but just curious…are they going to do another freaking flashback showing her training with a sensei “Kill Bill” style?

*she starts a shootout, six guys shoot at her with nothing between them being some drywall and of course she doesn’t get hit…they must be future stormtroopers

*then we have more LONG scenes with people who aren’t Jennifer Garner…

*more scenes without Garner…now I’m looking at Wikipedia, noticed that five of the top six actors’ names start with “J”…also the detective’s actor’s name is John Ortiz and there is someone else in the cast named Johnny Ortiz…then I look up to the TV and the detectives are STILL TALKING…where’s Garner???

*Garner pops out from under a manhole cover, steals a car, drives off…and then we’re back to the villains talking…I hope Garner didn’t get paid by the minute…

*why get a star like Garner but then have her, apparently, be the least interesting character in the movie?  I say that because the writers gave the other actors way more to say/do and then Garner just pops in here and there, and rarely says anything, just stands around making faces, pointing guns, etc.

*I actually like John Ortiz, but there rest of the cast are unknowns, to me anyway…why are they given so much screen time?  Remember how much screen time anyone other than Keanu Reeves got in John Wick?  Not much! 

*I’m intrigued by Annie Ilonzeh…when I look her up apparently she appeared on 8 episodes of Arrow season 1 but I don’t remember her…Janina Gavankar playing McKenna Hall I remember but not her character Joanna De La Vega oddly…

*oh hey Method Man is in this!  Cool!

*big shootout and I’m hoping this will be over but no it keeps going..more scenes with the non-Garner characters…I’m guessing there will be twists and turns and someone will turn out to be a bad guy…do I care?

*yup it happened…and the guy I would have guessed would be the shady cop is the shady cop…whatever…

*and there have to be kids who are main characters as it causes Garner to have flashbacks cause she was a mother…of course…

*was there a scene in Taken where Liam Neeson is killing bad guys, sees a random woman who reminds him of his daughter, he gets a flashback and that leads to him getting beaten up…I never saw any of the Taken movies but I’d be surprised if there was a scene like that…

*better yet, was there a scene in John Wick where Wick is killing people, sees a random dog and stops, has a flashback of his dog and that leads to him getting beaten up?  I don’t remember that scene happening but if I had to guess I’d say no…

*is it sexist or just bad writing?

*Garner kills a bunch of dudes but there is an endless supply of bad guys apparently…are there more bad guys now than before?

*this movie just keeps going…and going…

*Jennifer Garner deserves better!

I’m Yours 2011

*Canadian film with two favourites, Don McKellar and Nicholas Campbell, so let’s give this a chance

*as I look it up on Wikipedia, it got horrible reviews, and that’s by “nice” Canadian reviewers, too!

*story is pretty easy to follow, normally indie movies try to hard, only problem is that I don’t really care about what’s happening to these characters…

*I did enjoy the lack of shouting…

*the dude (another Sutherland son/brother but one of the lesser talented ones, who knew the Sutherlands were like the Canadian Baldwins - some super talented but some just…there but get opportunities due to their last name presumably) just goes along for the ride after being essentially kidnapped by the girl and I did like this, as opposed to the standard “standing-on-the-side-of-the-road-yelling-explaining-the-plot” scene

*she is beautiful but would you just go along with her, taking you over the border to another country and not explaining anything…I would at least require some exposition here…

*so the filmmakers seem to say to themselves, at the half way point, we need some drama…so turns out she only slept with him cause Don McKellar paid her to…but a lot has happened since so…who cares?

*but even then there is no “yelly” scene…it would be one thing if there was amazing performances or the dialogue is awesome or the leads are super charismatic…she (Karine Vanasse) is great but he is just not that interesting to watch…I don’t care!

*he does say one thing that is correct, that is “Your parents sound like assholes” so why is she even blackmailing him into doing this?  

*More importantly, Why do I care?

*Vanasse is a great actress, plus she produced the Denis Villeneuve film “Polytechnique” so that’s cool

*so on the bus to her parents he admits to her that he stole a bunch of money…she could use that to blackmail him further…but whatever…part of me I guess respects that they aren’t doing the typical scenes but I just aren’t drawn into these characters or their problems

*then we get to the part of the film where people get mad for no reason, resent each other for no reason, things are said with facial expressions…

*okay the dude calls McKellar and he answers the phone “Homicide”…I thought this was a twist but was it just the character trying to be funny?  Apparently…I don’t know…again I just don’t care enough to care…

*wow that ending…just comes out of nowhere…did they run out of time and just had to end it?  the happy ending is jus terrible and retroactively ruins the previous movie, what little good it had accomplished…is he going to keep the money he stole?  Did they ever say how he stole it?  Does it matter?  Apparently not!

*wow I wrote a lot about a movie I didn’t like…I do respect just the fact it got made at all…

*but don’t watch to see Don McKellar or Nicholas Campbell, they had about 10 lines combined

The Call of the Wild 2020

*I’m actually watching a movie released in 2020!  I barely watched any released in 2019, yet here we are!

*Harrison Ford is an actor, like Eddie Murphy, who I will always be interesting what they are working on…I get used to the disappointment, unfortunately

*also Karen Gillan is in this…so that’s two reasons to watch this

*this was a box office bomb, released in February, people saying the use of a CGI dog was “uncanny” and thirty seconds into the movie I’m like “yup…I get it…”

*and despite him being the narrator, Ford isn’t in this al that much…the movie is a movie about a dog named Buck and how he has many adventure…how many “dog movies” have there been the last few years?  It seems like there has been a lot…

*lots of action sequences, lots of dog-on-dog violence, lots of parts with no dialogue…or what I call, lots of FFing…

*the actors do a good job “Acting” with a fake CGI animal…in fact I’d be more interested in watching a documentary about the making of this movie…

*didn’t recognize him at first but Buck’s 3rd master is the guy from Legion

*and Bradley Whitford is in this…one of those actors who is seemingly in everything…I’m sure he’s a nice guy but I hate his face…nothing personal…

*the big action finale in this is pretty laughable…almost embarrassing really

*so Karen Gillan was in this, but barely, less than Ford for sure…I mean, did she even get one closeup?  If I didn’t recognize her voice I might not have even known she was in this…

*only thing worse than one dog from “uncanny valley” but a whole pack…

*way too long and takes itself way too seriously

Cameraperson 2016

*Kirsten Johnson documentary about being a documentary cameraperson for 25 years

The Three Musketeers 1948

*finally

*amazing cast with Gene Kelly, although Lana Turner gets top billing, June Allyson, Van Helfin, Angela Lansbury, Vincent Price, Keenan Wynn…

*seems odd that the 2nd and 3rd Musketeers are the 9th and 10th billed actors (including Robert Coote who played Hickenbottom in Gunga Din)

*early on, especially in the scene where Kelly first sees Allyson (spies on her kinda creepily actually), his over-acting is amazing…like a cartoon character…

*when people say “Acting in old movies was terrible” I always say they don’t know what they are talking about…but if they showed me a clip of that scene, I would have to agree with them…

*but then, was Kelly making fun of this role years later in Singing in the Rain?  That kinda makes up for it

*amazing sword fights, choreographed by Kelly of course, especially the one on the cliffs with the waves crashing on the beach in the background…

*Frank Morgan plays the King…he was also the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz!

*in the TCM intro, Ben Mank talked about something I’ve always thought…how weird it is that in all the adaptations of this, the title is always “The Three Musketeers” when it’s actually “The Four Musketeers”

*but especially in this film, it’s basically all about Kelly’s d’Artagnan, with Van Helfin’s Athos coming in and out and the other two Musketeers disappearing for long stretches of the movie

*so apparently I have no clue as to the story of the Musketeers, I’ve seen two versions now in the last few months and both times I was surprised when Lady Dewinter kills d’Artagnan’s wife/gf/whatever…

*the ending kind of comes out of nowhere, the sword fight is meh compared to the other ones

*feel bad for the other two Musketeers…

*other than the cool sword fights, I definitley liked the Michael York Musketeers better

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The Racket 1951 Noir Alley

*”rare example of a movie being remade by the same producer Howard Hughes” according to Eddie Muller

*original was made in 1928

*a great example of Hughes constant tinkering and micromanagement…this movie had 5 directors, including Nicholas Ray and 4 different writers

*good movie, Robert Ryan outshines Robert Mitchum but Mitchum is the guy left standing in the end

*although they get over Officer Johnson’s death pretty easily

*William Talman has quite the range, from the crazy guy i The Hitch-Hiker, to the straight laced cop in this to DA Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason…

House on Haunted Hill 1959

*I hate horror movies but 1) there’s not much else on TCM in October 2) I should watch the classics/originals just to say I have

*plus Vincent Price!

*plus Elisha Cook Jr.!

*okay I watched it…it was fine…but never watching it again…

The Front Page 1974

*again but not for a long time

*love Lemmon and Matthau as a team, but first time I saw this I didn’t really like it, maybe cause nothing compares to “His Girl Friday” but let’s give this another chance

*kinda weird seeing a young Susan Sarandon opposite already-old Lemmon and Matthau

*1 hour 40 minutes into the movie and a black man shows up!!!  Is a prisoner in the jail, of course…

*I liked it better this time, watched to see how they changed it (no Louie, Sarandon’s character doesn’t keep getting arrested)

*apparently, according to Jack Lemmon, Wilder hated the rapid fire dialogue of the original (which is actually one of the reasons it was so special), and, maybe since he wrote it, Wilder wanted the audience to hear all the words loud and clear, and as a result, the movie has a way slower pace and it shows

Sixteen Candles 1984

*not honestly sure if I’ve seen this, I get this confused with Pretty in Pink

*so this is the one with Anthony Michael Hall, but not Jon Cryer, right?

*I don’t hold the John Hughes teen movies up on a pedistal…I hate The Breakfast Club, like Weird Science, love Ferris Bueller, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck, never seen Curly Sue - so maybe I do love John Hughes more than I thought!

*surprised to find out that this was the 1st movie he directed

*Joan Cusack!  In a neck brace-thingy!  Is this performance why there are always a girl in a neck brace in reunion movies?  I’m thinking of Jenna Elfman in “Gross Pointe Blank”…

*had no idea that Molly Ringwald breaks the 4th wall Ferris Bueller style (or does Ferris break the 4th wall like she does?)

*John Cusack!

*surprised so much of the movie takes place at the dance/the night of

*the “I could violate that girl” “then why don’t you?” dialogue is troubling for the supposed hero of the movie…and that’s not just the 2020 speaking…that should have been troubling back in 1984

*kinda sweet how the jock and the homecoming queen end things but I had no real interest in their relationship up to this point so…

*so this is the movie where Molly Ringwood ends up with the “right guy?” right?  People were okay with her not ending up with Anthony Michael Hall, but not okay with her not ending up with Jon Cryer…but what about John Cusack???

*good movie, I can see why people loved Molly Ringwald back then, she’s awesome…

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The Odd Couple 1968

*again, for the millionth time

*that theme song!

*part 2 of the Lemmon-Matthau double feature after “The Front Page”

*Matthau’s reactions and facial expressions make this movie!

*my favourite Lemmon-Matthau movie might be “The Fortune Cookie”, although I understand not many other people will say that…#2 is either this movie or “Grumpy Old Men”

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Beauty and the Beast 2017

*again

*except I FFed to all the singing parts, so does that count???

Double Trouble 1967

*Elvis!

The Babadook 2014

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Women Make Film “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema 07” 2020

*something wrong with the audio volume, at times we can barely hear the narrators…weird for such a normally professionally made series

Meek’s Cutoff 2010 Western

*directed by Kelly Reichardt, shown as part of TCM’s Women in Film series

*Michelle Williams, Zoe Kazan, Shirley Henderson

*also Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Paul Dano

*slow paced Western although not the typical Western

*I think if you look up the term “ambiguous ending” you’ll see this movie pop up…

*almost as if they are setting up a sequel, with how it ends, but they weren’t…

Jailhouse Rock 1957

*Elvis!

The Story of Mankind 1957

*all star cast that is a bit of a mishmash, including the Marx Brothers, Vincent Price, Cesar Romero, Peter Lorre, Hedy Lamar, Edward Everett Horton, Dennis Hopper

*only Technicolour Marx Brothers movie, although they don’t have any scenes together

*last American movie of Hedy Lamar, who plays Joan of Arc

*included in the book “The Fifty Worst Films of All Time” but the book came out in 1978 so if there is an updated version of said book, this can’t be on that same list…it’s not that bad…these days would it crack the top (or bottom) 1000 movies?

*funny how they handle Columbus…Price even mentions all the bad things he did, even back then…

*Groucho plays the guy who bought Manhattan for $24 dollars…played for laughs, whereas other scenes are played straight…weird tone overall

*Harpo plays Sir Isaac Newton, who had an apple fall on his head as he was playing the harp…of course!

*okay, any movie with Hitler, in general, can F Off, but seriously what accent was that actor using?  Didn’t sound German to me but I’m not an expert…

Breakaway 2011

*a hockey movie written by and starring Vinay Virmani, aka Dr. Cabbie

*pretty good cast with Rob Lowe, Camilla Belle, Russell Peters, Noureen Ahmed (from the TV show Anger Management but in a trivia note is married to NHL goalie Ryan Miller)

*the disappointed father is played by Anupam Kher, who played a very similar role (if not exact same) in “Bend it Like Beckham”…good thing he’s good at it!

*star Virmani has a constant smirk that I didn’t notice in Dr. Cabby (and is slightly annoying)

*always love a good Bollywood dance sequence, although they mix it up and instead of just a regular dance number they do figure skating

*just remembered Rob Lowe was in “Youngblood” in 1986…a hockey movie with Lowe, Patrick Swayze and a young Keanu Reeves (yes this happened look it up)

*not a bad film, not great either, not going to sh*t on it…good for them

*although…while I do like a Bollywood sequence (like everyone does, I’m sure), they played a Bollywood music video over the end credits with the cast making appearances…it’s friggin hilarious seeing Rob Lowe and Russell Peters acting like hip hop gangstas surrounded by cliche hip hop hootchie girls…granted this came out in 2011…almost as bad as that music video where Ron Howard played a hip hop gangsta…

*and what is Ludacris doing in this?  Another one of those movies where, frankly, the behind the scenes stuff is probably more interesting than the actual movie…

The Great Buster 2018

*finally

*weird seeing a “quick” 1 hour 45 minute documentary on a legend…in the days where we have 10 part Ken Burns style docs on everything, by comparison this doc goes by at a break-neck speed…

*lots of famous talking heads pop in and out to say how awesome Buster is…of course he is!

*Johnny Knoxville, French Stewart, Richard Lewis…but then also Mel Brooks, Dick Van Dyke, Norman Lloyd and Carl Reiner

*Bill Hader too!  Cool!

*although there is one part, with the director of a recent Spider-man movie where he talks about how Spidey is like Buster (since he has a mask and is also therefore a Stone-Face) and how he wanted Tom Holland to be like Buster…but as I heard that, that doesn’t really make sense to me, at least we can see Buster’s eyes…wouldn’t Spidey be more like Chaplin?  I thought that was kind of dumb but whatever…

*director/narrator Peter Bogdonovich is a cool dude and I do like hearing his stories and such, but here he comes off as so pretentious…he (literally?) tells me I don’t need to watch “Seven Chances” except for the finale where Buster falls down the hill…maybe he could just say that the final sequence is amazing but leave my opinion about the rest of the film for me to figure out?

*I know “docs with a perspective” are the norm now, and in some cases they are like fresh air, but for some reason it bugged me here…

*also the format is a little weird, how they get to his “Great 10” decade and then by pass that, saying “We’ll get back to those later”, follow the rest of his career, then the last fifteen minutes or so are a “Best of” collection from those movies…

*I might need to go back and watch that last part on it’s own as I found it a little jarring the first time I watched it…

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Seven Chances 1925

*more Buster Keaton!

*although from all the Buster I’ve seen lately, I kind of know I’m “supposed to” ignore most of the movie until the big finish when he goes rolling down the hill (based on “The Great Buster” doc I just watched)…but we’ll see

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Cas & Dylan 2013

*just happened to be on HBO Canada so let’s watch it

*I think I might have watched it already…

*starring Tatiana Maslany, Richard Dreyfuss in a road movie, characters drive from Winnipeg to Vancouver (although filmed in Ontario and Calgary…)

*directed by Jason Priestley

*Tatiana’s character breaks up with her boyfriend over the phone, as the conversation progresses, he isn’t sure who she is, she breaks up with him, turns out they’ve been living together for a year…doesn’t make any sense really but I’m guessing it’s a minor detail…

*later she and Dreyfuss leave after she broke up with him, he comes after them with a shotgun…this relationship has more layers apparently…

*watching this due to Tatiana and seeing what Dreyfuss is up to these days…

*plus curious about Preistley directing a Canadian movie although it’s not that unusual and he’s been doing a lot in Canada the last few years…

*so they run over her boyfriend, are on the run, Dreyfuss says “We need to ditch this car” so, has he done this before, or just seen a lot of movies?

*they go on the road to Vancouver, she figures out that he is going to kill himself, offers to help write his suicide note as they go…

*some wackiness occurs and he starts to think she’s a hooker..I’m going to assume she isn’t…

*at one point she roofies his coffee (while he’s driving, which makes total sense) and it’s supposed to be funny…

*although it does lead to Dreyfuss’ character becoming more likeable…for a few minutes anyway

*not great but I did like the ending, where his “legacy” note (not suicide note) ends up being the recipe she had been bugging him to give her the whole movie…kinda sweet although the whole “and she lived happily ever after with no problems whatsoever” ending in itself is…whatever happened to the boyfriend?  If it was explained I forget…

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The Thing 2011

*technically I watched this, yes…

*mostly FFed, curious to see Mary Elizabeth Winstead play a Ripley type role…she was great of course

*not a horror fan, but curious as this was a prequel to the original Thing…but it was, you know…what I thought it would be…

*nice how they wrapped it up, over the end credits, to lead directly into the original

*not my cup of tea

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Johnny Guitar 1954 Western

*directed by Nicholas Ray

*Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Ernest Borgnine

*and Ward Bond!

*Crawford runs a saloon in the Old West, has trouble with the locals, Hayden is a pacifist guitar player who doesn’t want trouble but finds it defending Crawford

*was panned when it came out, now considered one of the best Westerns ever

*kind of interesting how the men in the movie treat older actresses Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge as if they were Marilyn Monroe, then again they are the only two women in this town, apparently…

*Crawford wanted the other woman role to be either Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck but they were too expensive…also, according to Wikipedia, Crawford and McCambridge got along just as well as Crawford and Davis did (as in, badly)…

*another movie where the behind the scenes stuff sounds very interesting, but the movie is good too

*only problem in the movie is that it routinely paused for long scenes between Hayden and Crawford where he constantly has to get her to admit she loves him, she is too proud at first but finally she does or she “breaks up” with him…this happens over and over and hurts the momentum…it’s established early on that they love each other, not sure why they thought we’d forget or something

*lots of shots of people riding horses over the desert or over the plains…

*nice detail where the posse is in a hurry, chasing down the “bad guys” and their nice clothes are covered in mud, after coming from a funeral…most Westerns don’t worry about such details

*although when Turkey shows up at the saloon all bloody, Crawford holds him in her arms but yet her white dress has no stains on it a few minutes later…

*lots of speeches…long speeches…good performances, especially by Crawford, sitting at her piano, nearly wins over the posse with her words…but long speeches when frankly a few dirty looks would probably get the same point across…

*that saloon takes a LONG time to burn down

*interesting how it’s called Johnny Guitar but it’s really about Crawford’s character…I supposed that’s how things were done back then

*cool to see it come down to a shootout between the two women

*lots of back and forth and double crosses, people with interesting dynamics between them, could have been confusing but its all easy to follow

*Francois Truffaut loves the film, calling “Beauty and the Beast” of Westerns”

*great movie!

Enter the Ninja 1981 TCM Underground 10/17/20

*started the “ninja movie” craze of the early 80’s apparently…cool beans

*so the initial (bad) fight sequence is supposed to be a training exercise and everyone is okay because they had, not bullet proof vests or kevlar, but wood boards under their clothes…okay…

*so, the lead actor looks like he wants to be anywhere else…

*was the best friend supposed to be James Caan but he wanted too much money?

*so if a dude has a hook for a hand and someone just yanks it out…like how much would that hurt?  I’m guessing a lot…not like your arm being pulled out of it’s socket kind of pain but…but it’s gotta be more than what this dude is selling…

*okay so the two main dudes get back from a fight, go to a bar, the conversation picks up with the James Caan-guy saying “My wife wants it all the time but I’m impotent…anyway, we really kicked some butt tonight didn’t we?”…cut to the next scene, no dialogue, she walks into main dude’s bedroom, they look at each other, she gets into bed, he turns the light off…next scene the three are having breakfast, Caan is talking away, main dude and main girl exchange guilty looks…nothing really makes sense here to me anyway…

*main villain is effeminate…what a shock

*so later the Caan-dude (or Caan-man?) starts getting jealous of the wife and the main dude…didn’t he, like, encourage them to get together?

*so the Caan-dude is murdered brutally in front of his wife…then they cut to the effeminate villain going into this hotel, all the guards KOed and they play this kind of “do-do” or “whap-whap-wha” silly music…this movie’s tone is all over the place

*so many people die…and main bad guy Hasegawa gets beheaded…

*and then the main dude and the wife never end up together, so what was the point of that scene where they did it?  There wasn’t even any nudity so the scene was there so the guy would get jealous later but it wouldn’t lead to anything?  Weird…

*starring Frank Nero as Cole…he says “I’ll be back” before Arnold did…does he come back for the sequel?  I guess we’ll find out…

Revenge of the Ninja 1983 TCM Underground 10/17/20

*no, Frank Nero does not return for the sequel…rats!

*okay, opening sequence is very violent and bloody

*little kid-fight is hilarious on one hand but horribly cartoony on the other…

*just curious, when it says a movie is “cult classic” does that mean there are people who genuinely love these movies, or is that code for “this movie is awesome if you watch it when you are high AF”…sincerely curious about this…

*Professor Toru Tanaka is in this?

*dude gets his neck snapped by having his neck twisted in a way that my chiropractor would laugh at…

*okay hold on…dude dies from someone hitting him in the head with a ninja star…as if a sniper did it but instead of bullets in his rifle he had ninja stars…and that’s fine I guess but then they have to show a closeup of where the ninja star entered his head and it’s off to the side, it didn’t even go in his eye or anything…this is supposed to be funny right?  That can be the only explanation…

*just one scene later we get a person murdered by a pin…a tiny pin, like something I’d get out of my mom’s sewing kit…was it dipped in poison?

*also in that scene we got some female nudity…so there’s that…

*later it’s explained that the ninja star has to go through the eye to hit the brain in order to kill someone…before it clearly showed the ninja star missing the eye…it was an extreme closeup…weird

*main guy fights bad guys in the back alley of a mall…including a Native American with a knife (couldn’t have been a bow and arrow?)…closest thing to good fight choreography

*guy then chases down the van they escape in, climbs on top of it, fights them inside the van…someone’s been watching Jackie Chan movies…

*they crash the van, another fight, one bad guy left drives off in the van, main guy chases the van down again…a bit repetitive…but then main guy fails as he;s too beat up to hold on…fair enough…

*main guy is Sho Kosugi…apparently he was in “Enter the Ninja” but as a different character…he was Hasegawa the main bad guy ninja who was beheaded…he went on to star in more movies…was choreographer on “Scorpion King” so he’s worked with The Rock…

*bad guy ninja, who is Sho’s best friend apparently, kills the grandmother and the little kid-ninja witnesses it…

*bad guy chases little kid…are they going to have a full-on fight sequence?  No the kid escapes because he is tiny…would’ve been interesting though

*wow apparently the little kid’s name is Kane, which is Sho’s son’s name…coincidence?  

*No…that is Sho’s son, who ends up later in a lot of movies!  Cool!

*bad guy saves blonde girl (who flirts with Sho but he rejected earlier) from being raped by Toru Tanaka, then hypnotizes her to finding the kid for him…did I miss the scene where it explained why the blonde was with Tanaka in the first place?  Didn’t seem like she went there willingly…

*wow little Kane and blonde have a full-on fight sequence and it’s no Crouching Tiger or anything but it’s pretty fun…the blonde is “Cathy” played by Ashley Ferrare

*bad guy puts Kane in a sauna and Cathy into a hot tub to torture them/kill them…that is…a unique way to do that…is Cathy going to get wrinkled to death?

*bad guy ninja walks through building an kills random people, including two people in a staircase which is really bad…

*again, lots of people die in this movie…but this time it seems like these are random people, people in business suits as opposed to other ninjas…

*okay another reason to pause and pay respects…Sho also goes into the building killing randos (apparently he started on a top floor and is working his way down?) and at one point he is unmasked but then spits like 20 little knives into the face of a bad guy…then there is an extreme closeup…okay…wtf?  Did Sho have these 20 little knives in his mouth this whole time?  When he was scaling the wall?  I can see one or two and that working but 20 just seems a little much to swallow…pun intended!  Cool visual I guess…

*so Cathy is drowning in the hot tub and they did initially turn on some taps but they seem to be off now and yet she is still drowning, even though the tub doesn’t seem to be any fuller…luckily Kane escapes and kicks the guards’s ass…good for him!

*the very next scene is Cathy and Kane calling the cops…but her hair is barely wet and her clothes are completely dry…did she blow dry her clothes and hair?  Did she hang out in the sauna after to dry out?  Minor detail but it’s stuff like this you notice…

*builds up to the final ninja fight on top of a skyscraper inside an apparent badminton court…nice set up, they bow to each other, the music cues are good, the fight starts but gets a little silly…

*so twice the bad ninja has (apparently) robots working for him?  Hands reach out for Sho, grab him, he cuts them off but they look like mannequin hands…but since they moved and grabbed Sho, they must be mechanical, right?

*another part of the final fight is set around a hot tub…where they new in 1981?

*frankly Sho isn’t that great or a ninja…or the bad ninja is way better than him despite being a gaijin…Sho is snuck up on way too many times…

*the rooftop fight sequence goes on way too long including Sho being thrown off the roof but is saved when he throws a grappling hook…I didn’t realize he had Batman’s utility belt…in fact he has no belt at all, as evidenced by the many full-body master shots in this last bit

*Sho kills bad ninja and then Kane and Cathy show up…their hair looks wetter now than it did before…did it start raining?  Or was the elevator broken and they had to climb the stairs and are now sweaty?

*okay that’s the end of the movie apparently…hmmm…okay THIS is see as a cut classic…it’s pretty bad but there are moments of greatness…not like Enter the Ninja which was just bad

*having Sho as the lead character makes sense, he isn’t that great with delivering his dialogue but neither was Frank Nero and Sho actually can kick some ass!

*I’d like to see more of Sho and Kane!  Why didn’t they make a whole series of movies about them going around kicking ass?  Kind of like the “Lone Wolf and Cub” series…

*apparently Sho came back for the 3rd movie in the series “Ninja III: The Domination” (1984) but Kane didn’t…what a mistake!

*turns out neither Sho or Kane turned out to be superstars (neither became Jackie Chan or Jet Li) but had solid carers…

*turns out next week on TCM Underground they are showing “Ninja III: The Domination”…looking forward to that!

Little Shop of Horrors 1960

*finally

*Roger Corman version

*okay so I’ve never seen the musical 1986 version…always wanted to, just never happened

*so I for sure hadn’t seen this version…but here we are

*Roger Corman is fascinating, but this…am I reading it right that they shot this in two days and one night?  Seriously?

*the closest thing I’ve heard of this in modern filmmaking is Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing which was filmed in 12 days

*the chase through the giant tires was a cool visual

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I Married a Witch 1942

*Veronica Lake!

*okay so the opening scene…they open on a fire with people surrounding it, they talk and then say “now we will take a short intermission” and a vendor starts selling snacks…I thought this was a re-enactment as part of a fair or something but then it turns out this was a real witch burning, but in a funny way?  Okay…

*I like the pace of this movie so far, everything seems to make sense, as much as a movie with ghosts/witches can…

*apparently Joel McRea was supposed to be in this, reunited with Lake after Sullivan’s Travels but they did’ like each other so that sucks to hear…

*Lake is great here in a mischievous role but it also kinda makes her look like she’s 14 years old…

*a couple cute twists and turns along the way, funny bits

*a good but not great movie

Only the Brave 2017

*again

*saw this in theatres when it came out, haven’t seen it since

*this was gut punch then and now, I bought it when it came out on DVD but haven’t watched it, due to, well, it being a gut punch

*very well done movie with great performances but if you don’t know the story going in (like I didn’t) be warned…

*the ending is incredible but the reactions afterwards by the people let behind is heart breaking

*Jeff Bridges and Jennifer Connelly in the car, in particular, are devastating

*Miles Teller when he walks in that gym and realizes no one wants him to be there…wow

*then it ends really quickly which might have caused a bit of whiplash

*not sure if this qualified as a bomb but it didn’t do well at all at the box office…87% on RT, so maybe word of mouth was that it was, well, a gut punch…?

*great movie, highly recommended

*side note: on the DVD there are lots of trailers (kind like it I had seen it in theatres again) for “Agatha Christie’s Crooked House” (56% on RT); “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women” (86% on RT); “Accident Man” (83% on RT); “November Criminals” (0% on RT!!!); “All Saints” (95% onRT!!!); “Golden Exits” (67% on RT)…why do I mention this?  Other than “Professor Marston…” I was today years old when I found out those other movies existed…some movie buff I am!

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Air America 1990

*again but not for a few decades

*one of those movies I had recorded on a VHS tape and watched over and over but it’s been awhile

*Roger Deakins was the cinematographer?  Cool

*remember when Mel Gibson was the biggest star in the world?  Was a LONG time ago…

*so I wonder how much of this movie I am actually going to remember…

*funny scene with RDJ confronting the accident looki-loo but totally ridiculous…

*directed by Roger Spottiswoode, a Canadian director who I had never heard of until today, but apparently he directed “Turner and Hooch”, “Stop or My Mom Will Shoot”, “Tomorrow Never Dies (the Bond movie with Teri Hatcher)” and “The 6th Day”

*at one point this was supposed to be Sean Connery, Kevin Costner or Bill Murray in the RDJ role and Ally Sheedy in the Nancy Travis role

*wait so that one guy with the mini-golf course in his backyard just died offscreen?  Lame

*when Gibson comes to pick up RDJ and the other guy…what is that music playing?  Weird music cue…

*starting to remember a lot of this movie and how it ends up…

*just kind of ends abruptly, with title cards coming up saying where everyone ended up…

*movie is fine…some nostalgia attached to this but really, in the end, what was the point?  The movie can’t decide if it’s trying to be a serious dissertation on war or a buddy comedy…not sure I’ll watch it again but it was a nice trip down memory lane…

Frankenstein Created Woman 1967

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*strangely, of the Cushing movies available to me right now, this was the one I was least interested in, so there we go…

*Hammer Films!

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed 1969

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Hammer Films

*meh

Stop-Loss 2008

*finally

*I’m a fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kimberly Peirce, so this movie has been on my radar but I’ve just never watched it…

*Laurie Metcalfe is in this, I don’t see her in the cast list anywhere - she had like three lines…

*although I look at the cast list on Wikipedia and it looks like someone has messed it up with fake names…

*same with Mamie Gummer although I assume she was just starting out in 2008…

*also heard Margo Martingale’s voice…

*I admire the message but the Ryan Phillippe character seems kinda naive, frankly…that he can just go AWOL and then go see a Senator that he’s talked to once and everything will be fine…once you see that the plot of the movie you are spending two hours with is full of plot holes you kinda stop caring…

*maybe “Modern War” movies are cursed…other than, say “Three Kings”?  Or “Blackhawk Down”?

*does the Rob Brown character want to be a filmmaker?  If so that’s cool but how does he edit those videos together?  Back in the early ’00’s did they have laptops powerful enough to have programs like Final Cut Pro?  I know in 2008 when I went to film school that was possible but you had to be kinda rich as well to be able to afford that plus a huge external hard drive to store all the footage…not important to most people but it was distracting to me…

*Phillipe’s accent is just distracting…I almost respect Channing Tatum’s decision to just talk normally as it sounds natural

*Phillipe’s scar over his eye heals fairly quickly…

*so after all that he just goes back in the army, no problems?  Well that was easy…

*not a great movie but still, it’s disappointing that Kimberly Peirce has only made a few films she deserves better…

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Women Make Film “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema 08” 2020

Destination Murder 1950 Noir Alley

*wow Eddie Muller really loves this movie

*it was good but after Muller’s intro I was expecting something a little more wacky

*seem to make it look like it will be about Joyce MacKenzie’s character but she’s kind of just the one character connected to all the dudes who the movie is really about

*good but not great

 The Hound of the Baskervilles 1959

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Hammer Films

*Cushing AND Christopher Lee!

*Lee actually plays a regular dude which is kind of a letdown, really

*seemed like there was more Holmes than Watson in this, at least early on

*kind of disappointing…I might have dozed off a few times trying to get through this one unfortunately

Love’s Labours Lost 1975

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The Curse of Frankenstein 1957

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Hammer Films

*Cushing AND Christopher Lee!

*Cushing is the doctor and Lee is the MONSTER!  Here we go!

*so when the monster finally shows up…that makeup looks really freaky!

*who is this Paul guy?  And so Baron Frankenstein is going to marry his cousin?  But is sleeping with the maid, but then literally laughs in her face when she gets jealous and tells her “get back to work”…yeah that won’t end badly at all…

*there’s really not much to this…Lee just stumbles around as the monster, Cushing acts his ass off but there’s not much material here…no character development at all…Cushing wants to do something, Paul tells him it’s a bad idea, he does it anyway, bad things happen, that’s kind of it…

*so the monster goes nuts, attacks the cousin, Cushing seemingly save her and kills the monster, but is then arrested for the murder of the maid…which technically he caused…but he pleads his innocence and says “the monster did it” but they don’t believe him…it’s nice twist but what is the problem?  Apparently the monster is lying dead at the Baron’s mansion, did the cops not find it?  It looks like a person, kinda…the only way this really works is if there’s one last shot of the monster, Lee, walking along the countryside, still alive after all…did I miss that shot?  

*I actually reminded the movie a few times to see if I had missed something but it didn’t seem like it…if the point of the movie was “Cushing has ambition, flies too close to the sun and is punished for it” then I guess that’s fine but in these movies isn’t the monster really the most important character and the most ripe for character exploration?  Seems like a waste of a talent like Christopher Lee…

*Are we supposed to care if Paul and the cousin end up together?

*great to see Cushing and Lee but really this movie just made me appreciate the original Frankenstein from 1931 with Boris Karloff

*where’s Igor at? 

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Horror of Dracula 1958

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Hammer Films

*Cushing AND Christopher Lee!

*now THIS was awesome!!!

*Lee is Dracula and Cushing is Van Helsing

*the movie moves along at a great pace, lots of things are happening, characters are interesting…

*a third legend is in this, Michael Gough (aka Alfred in the Batman movies)

*apparently Lee and Cushing appeared in a bunch of sequels, hopefully TCM will be showing those…

*awesome trivia note all three of Cushing, Lee, Gough appeared as villains on the awesome British spy show, one of my favourites, “The Avengers”

*highly recommended

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The Tingler 1959

*Vincent Price!

*I don’t like horror movies, so usually TCM in October isn’t very exciting for me, but apparently if the movies star Vincent Price, Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee, I’m in!

*so I thought this was the movie about the movie theatre that scares people as they watch movies, but I had it twisted around; this is the movie that was shown in theatres where they had gimmicks in the theatres to “enhance” the viewing pleasure of the movie…

*I think I was thinking of John Goodman’s “Matinee” now that I did some research…

*producer/director William Castle introduces the movie and then would put gimmicks like buzzers in the seats of the movie theatres so when something happened on screen, the people watching the movie would get a literal jolt in addition to the scare

*so watching this in my house, buzzer-free…is this going to be like watching a 3D movie on my non-3D TV?  We shall see…

*so seems like Vincent Price is the good guy which is going to be different…

*but then he holds his wife at gunpoint, shoots her with a blank, she faints so he can take X-rays of her body, then she wakes up, all is forgiven, apparently?

*later Price comes home, the wife is still cheating on him, still acts smug to his face…does she want to get shot for real next time?

*amazing effect with the red blood filling the bathtub; but all this stuff that makes the deaf woman “scared to death” is kind of elaborate, is this one person doing this or a whole team of people?

*”The Tingler” is huge, if it was attached to someone’s spine you’d probably notice…if it was too high on their spine they’d look like Hunchback, wouldn’t they?

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Ninja III: The Domination 1984 TCM Underground 10/24/20

*part 3 in the trilogy of Cannon Films’ Ninja series

*again starring Sho Kosugi with Lucinda Dickey, who also starred in Breaking and Breaking 2: Electric Boogaloo, which makes me wonder if she’s won a Lifetime Achievement Award of any kind…legend!

*okay this opening ten minutes is bonkers!

*ninja has a hidden stash of weapons next to a golf course, then the next day he murders a bunch of golfers…is there a reason?  If he had a stash of weapons near a shopping mall would he have killed everyone at the mall?

*then cops show up, he murders them too, including PUNCHING through the roof of a cop car

*then he jumps on the side of a helicopter, puts a ninja star between his toes and murders the pilot…okay, the star is how going into the pilot’s head on the other side, that’s not possible unless the ninja star curved like a bullet in “Wanted”

*so much murdering…

*so he got shot apparently, one of the 15 cops he killed got in a lucky shot I guess…

*Lucinda Dickey finds him, they lock eyes and he takes over her body or something…she keeps the katana

*one of the cops, who was there during the murder spree, sees her at the station and hits on her…not traumatized at all!

*he basically stalks her, she rejects him, she saves a woman from being raped, beats up four dudes (while about ten people just stand around watching, including the cop), then the cop takes HER to the police station…or just uses this to hit on her…

*so later he stands up to her and that turns her on, they go back to her place and have sex…not cool…

*her apartment…deserves a movie of it’s own…has a video game arcade in it, although it’s a game I’ve never heard of before…

*she pours V8 juice own her neck…this is supposed to be sexy but absolutely isn’t

*he’s scary hairy!

*the katana “comes alive”, he finds it, apparently doesn’t recognize the weapon that killed a dozen-isn of his buddies…

*the sword is clean, so did she clean all the dead cops’ blood off of it?  Is it a self-cleaning sword?

*now…since her body was taken over by the ninja, and she had sex with the male cop, does that mean the ninja was gay?  Am I overthinking it?

*the arcade game is “Bouncer” and has a restaurant theme I think…so when you are playing the game are you a bouncer for the place and have to kick out troublemakers?  Interesting concept…

*Lucinda gets possessed after a lightshow that comes out of the arcade game…how is that related to the sword?  Then she then has a make up job that I guess is supposed to make her look Asian?  Did they really try to make her eyes look smaller?

*is this the only way they could have a ninja movie starring a woman?

*twice in this movie (1st time a golf ball, second a pool ball) someone crushes something with their bare hand…try that in real life!

*so Lucinda/the ninja tracks down one of the cops who survived the mass murder spree and tracks him down in his house and kills him…are these dirty cops?  Is there more to this?  Are we going to find out?

*can’t get over how hairy the cop is…she takes comfort by putting her head on his shoulder…gross!

*they only been dating two days and are acting like an old couple…he has a key to her place already?

*hot tub sequence…these movies love their hot tub sequences!

*tease of a three-way or a four-way technically but then it’s murder-time!

*James Hong!

*so she shows up at Hong’s place, they don’t talk at all, she gets tied up, then starts talking like a guy…Wong is shocked by this, but what did he expect?  Didn’t he think this was a possibility and that was why she was locked up?

*so this guy, the cop, knows this girl for two days, sees her spinning around and talking in tongues…call me fickle but I’d be outta there…

*Sho shows up, attacks the police station (or the morgue, where cops hang out), but also there is just a little something more in these action sequences than most movies…he kicks a cop in the face, and then the cop staggers and headbutts the wall, just to make extra sure he is KOed

*flashbacks!

*Lucinda is fine later, sitting on his desk at the police station, eating yogurt, now with grey streaks in her hair and bruised up, but pretty care free…

*just gonna watch now, no more notes…

*where did they film that final sword fight?  Looks awesome!

*they love each other…known each other three days and she tried to kill him…true love in 1984!

*some great earthquake acting!

*awesome but little Kane in the 2nd movie (and the  face full o’knives!) puts that one over the top!

***also shown with “Heavenly Bodies” 1984 a Canadian cult classic starring Cynthia Dale!

Flesh and Fury 1952

*a “film noir sports drama” starring Tony Curtis

*interesting concept, a deaf boxer rising the ranks…

*eventually he has surgery to fix his hearing and starts talking…picks it up really fast considering…sounds just like Tony Curtis!

*surprised they didn’t make a bigger deal over the scene where he overhears her making a bet against him…

*would have been interesting if he hadn’t told his wife about getting his hearing back, he pretends he’s still deaf around her (and her friends) and hears what they really think about him…but what about this movie?

*also, if he’d accepted that he’s potentially going to lose his hearing during the fight, could have had a scene where he walks around the city, hearing things and taking it all in for what could be the last time…but what about this movie?

*the final fight, where he’s fighting but as it goes along, he’s losing his hearing, the audio editing is very well done…

*he loses his hearing, but he can talk, knows sign language and can read lips…not so bad…but then we get the happy ending after all…

*Tony Curtis is always great, good movie…

Macao 1952 Noir Alley

*again

*Robert Mitchum/Jane Russell film noir

*haven’t seen this in awhile, it’s shown a lot on TCM…it’s also one of those movies where I’m not sure I could tell you the plot despite seeing it a lot

*great film noir

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Andre the Giant 2018

*again

*this seems to be on HBO Canada all the time, so let’s watch this again…they really want me to apparently

*normally if WWE is attached to a documentary about a wrestler or anything in wrestling, it’s usually BS but this was done by HBO “in association with WWE” so this was done well

*they seemed to downplay the BS despite Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair being involved, and even got to make fun of the “mythology” of Andre and the BS stories about him

*Flair still does tell the story of Andre drinking 106 beers at one time…it might be true but just the fact that a wrestler is telling me this story I assume it’s at least partly made up…no offense to Flair but it’s wrestling in general, people in the business just get used to “stretching” the truth, to say the least…

*not to overstate this, but now that I think about it, Ric Flair is one of those guys, like Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan, who I assume is always “working” which is a nice way of saying they are always full of sh*t…

*movie is worth it alone just for the early footage of Andre as a teenager and from the start of his career

*funny when Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal talk about “Andre didn’t do the bad guy well” when after this movie came out he turned heel and he was a heel the rest of his career

*it’s touching seeing the love that Cary Elwes, Robin Wright and Billy Crystal had for Andre, it comes through when they talk about him

*good doc but weird how they have heroic music playing as Hulk Hogan bodyslams Andre at Wrestlemania 3…I guess Andre was the hero for letting Hogan slam him and for “doing the time honoured tradition” of putting Hogan over?

Corridors of Blood 1958

*with Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff

*recorded it off AMC so there will be LOTS of commercials, so not sure if I will make it through this without a lot of FFing

*okay, this movie is going bay at a lightning fast speed…

*first commercial break is 4 1/2 minutes long…lots of commercials and Walking Dead (or is it Fear the Walking Dead) ads…

*okay WTF…so this movie is 86 minutes according to Wikipedia, but I just noticed the length on AMC is 18 minutes (including the commercial break)…

*and yes…it’s over in 15 minutes…is this a thing?  AMC edits old movies into 15 minutes chunks?  And then “The End” comes on the screen after Karloff’s character dies, after throwing acid (I think) into Christopher Lee’s eyes…I’m baffled…

*still baffled…

*I’ll never be recording a movie off AMC again…not that I normally do but I wanted to see this one due to Lee and Karoff…f*ck this!

Wife vs. Secretary 1936

*wasn’t doing to record this but saw the trailer on TCM in between movies and it looks funny!

*w/Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow

*funny how I think of Loy and William Powell as an on-screen couple but Loy also teamed with Gable in 7 movies

*or Gable just liked consistency, as he teamed with Harlow in 6 movies

*James Stewart is the 4th character, Harlow’s boyfriend, while Gable and Loy are married, with Loy worried Harlow is going to break up their marriage

The Wonderful Country 1959 Western

*Robert Mitchum in a Western, as Chili Palmer would say “playing a Mexican”

*as I watch it, seeing Mitchum with a broken leg lying on that table, I’m getting a sense of deja vu, but I could also be thinking of “El Dorado”

*John Banner, who played Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes”, is in this playing another Mexican…although when I read the Wikipedia synopsis, he is playing a “German immigrant”…Hogan’s Heroes premieres in 1965 so my theory that this was an inside-joke is bust

*so apparently Mitchum is American but has an accent because he lived in Mexico for years…I think

*kind of a pacifist Western, with Mitchum trying to settle down in a small town but trouble keep finding him

*not a lot to this, unfortunately…interesting seeing Mitchum in this kind of movie though

Angel and the Badman 1947 Western

*John Wayne pacifist Western

*never seen Gail Russell before but she is pretty amazing, plays a naive Quaker girl but has a charisma that is great, a sort of fire behind her eyes…

*just looked her up on Wikipedia, quite the tragic story unfortunately…

*kind of surprising movie from Wayne who later made Rio Bravo (and a few remakes of it) in response to High Noon being “un-American” but maybe I’m overthinking it…

*Harry Carey, who I recognize from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, plays a bad ass sheriff but doesn’t seem to steady on his feet…

*as I watched this I kept thinking “Is “Witness” a direct remake of this?” but apparently it was “inspired by” it (according to Wikipedia anyway)

*kinda funny how to approaches the crotchety old neighbour, the one holding back the nice family’s water supply, and everything turns out okay…the look on his face when it turns out they are all friends now (and that maybe their prayers were answered, as opposed to him having to use his guns to make his point), when he was clearly expecting the worst is hilarious…

*total coincidence I watched this and “The Wonderful Country” back to back

*great movie!

Tycoon 1947

*John Wayne but not a Western

*with Anthony Quinn!

*so this is a romance, mostly about Wayne falling in love with Laraine Day, and her father (who is coincidentally Wayne’s boss) disapproving…

*lots of long, longing looks…very slow pace to this movie…

*it actually becomes an interesting movie when it becomes about building a railroad tunnel/bridge in the Andes, how Wayne’s character become bitter and cuts corners…it becomes about a battle of wills between Wayne and Sir Cedric Hardwicke and that is more interesting…

*still a too long film though…

=========================

Mabel’s Strange Predicament 1914

*Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp

*an early version of the Tramp, the movie for which Chaplin came up with the character…as it looks like someone doing an impersonation of the Tramp…

*only Chaplin’s 3rd film overall

*directed by Normand, who had a good career until a few scandals derailed it and she ended up dying at 37

*if you’ve seen the “Chaplin” movie, starring Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei played Normand in that movie…and so I guess when, in that movie, RDJ “discovers” the Chaplin look, and comes out and films his first scene as the Tramp, they should have been recreating a scene from this movie…but they aren’t, so they fudged the facts a bit there to fit their narrative I guess…

*17 minutes long

Women Make Films “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 9”

Somewhere in Sonora 1933 Pre-Code Western

*young John Wayne

*actually, the first scene has two women driving a car…so is this a Western?

*John Wayne is framed for cheating at a rodeo so he has to flee the law before he gets arrested…for cheating?

*couldn’t really get into this one…

Valley of the Sun 1942 Western

*Lucille Ball Western!  Really!

*I really liked this movie!

*not much about it online, but Ball is great in an action-ish role, James Craig does well as a smirking action hero (and not in an annoying smirking kind of way, either)

*a movie where the Natives aren’t the bad guys, and the good guys are trying to help them not get robbed by the evil white man…was this normal for 1942?

*it’s an action movie with comedy, tongue-in-cheek…almost to the point where I assumed the good guy and bad guy would end up as buddies in the end…that didn’t quite happen but the villain is still alive when the end credits role so that’s different!

*also starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke (who I just saw in “Tycoon”, coincidentally) and Billy Gilbert as the Judge, who I recognize from “His Girl Friday”

*great movie!

The Man in the White Suit 1951

*Alec Guinness and Michael Gough!

*described as a science fiction movie, but it’s pretty straight forward about 15 minutes in…

*kind of takes awhile for this to get going…

*funniest bits (but funny in a chuckle kind of way as opposed to lol) are when Guinness just wants to work for free or not take breaks but everyone around him get mad as that’s against union rules, or as one lady says “Union fought hard for that tea break, so you’re taking it!” or something like that…

*at first, when I saw Guinness taking out the trash, I assumed he was the lab’s janitor, so I thought this would be a funny version of “Good Will Hunting”

*when Guinness finally makes the white suit it picks up and the wackiness ensues…

*cool idea that the main conflict in the film is that Guinness wants to invent a suit that’s unbreakable, in theory then people will only need one suit in their lives, and everyone wants to shut his idea down as that would mean the end of the textile industry…and not in an evil super villain way but that would mean lots of people would be out of work…he wants to invent something that will “help” but it would end up a bad thing…

*kind of a complicated concept for a movie where, right in the middle of it, there is still an entire sequence full of silly prat falls and wacky slapstick

*described on Wikipedia this is a “British satirical science fiction comedy film” which is a mouthful

*the old man is hilarious, constantly trying to get out of chairs, swinging at nothing with his cane, flailing away and crawling on the ground, wanting to fight but his body won’t let him…”let me in, coach!” type of energy…

*most have been hard for the costume people…the idea that the suit can never be stained or get dirty and it’s totally white…in modern times they would make a hundred suits just in case but back then I’m guessing they had one suit and if it got stained they’d come along with lead-based white paint and paint over the stain…just a guess of course…

*so almost no one in this town is on Guinness’ side, and I’m not sure who side I’m on either…interested to see how this goes…

*after all that, if the old lady saying she won’t have anymore washing to do is what finally convinces Guinness to give this thing up…

*nope…movie ends with him going off to try again…with the Flubber music playing…why would they give him his notes back?  Dumb…

*good ending although it makes no sense really…

Sagebrush Trail 1933 Western

*young John Wayne Western!

*so Wayne has been in jail for a crime he didn’t commit (murder) so he breaks out of jail to find the real killer…but the movie starts with him on the run already having broken out of jail…interesting…

*unless I missed it, it’s ever explained until later on, in passing, that Wayne is innocent of whatever he has been accused of (which, again, is vague) and that the guy he’s been palling around with is the real killer, but Wayne wants to rehabilitate him…

*meanwhile there are lots of horse-chases and shootouts, so I don’t think the plot was ever much of a priority…

*that being said it’s a well made film, with some fun under water shots of Wayne using a reed like a scuba mask, a fun time lapse using a melting candle, the movie starting in “the middle” of the story, even some “shaky-cam” camera work…were these innovations at the time or am I underestimating what they were capable back then…

*not much info about this on Wikipedia

*the director, Armand Schaefer is Canadian, so suddenly, in my eyes, he’s a genuis!

*Wayne had a permanent smile on his face the whole movie which is kind of funny considering what his character was going through…

*kind of strange though why Wayne’s character stuck around, he’s on the run but sticks with this gang…did I miss it when he said he figured out his pal was the real killer?  He sticks around with the gang but constantly foils their plans to rob banks, stage coaches, etc…kind of confusing but, again, the point of this movie seemingly was to have cool action scenes so mission accomplished there I guess…

*lots of wasted eggs in this movie…as an egg fan this was pretty upsetting to me…

*good movie…not great…

Devil’s Canyon 1953 Western

*apparently this was shot in 3D…

*so Virginia Mayo is the star, but she’s had like two scenes so far (one where she didn’t say anything) in the first twenty minutes

*the main guy, Reynolds, is living a quiet life, two gun fighters come to kill him, he defends himself and kills them first but then the town convicts him of murder, goes to prison, the same prison as the brother of the two people he’s killed, who is coincidentally the boyfriend of the brother…

*seems unfair that he is in prison to me, honestly…

*Reynolds tells the warden he intends to escape…so was the TCM theme of these movies “jail breaks”?

*I recognize Earl Holliman (the Cook from Forbidden Planet), Jay C. Flippen, Arthur Hunnicutt…

*so for absolutely no reason whatsoever, the girl, Mayo, is convicted and sentenced to spend her jail time at the same prison, which they even admit has no other female prisoners…

*later Mayo, who now apparently is the prison nurse, is mad at Reynolds cause she beat up her boyfriend, although she did warn him before…kinda confusing…

*they boyfriend, Jesse, is sent back out to work in the yard with a dislocated shoulder, which is strange…couldn’t they pop it back in?

*standard “female-in-a-movie” thing where in one scene, she hates the main dude and in the next is in love with him…once you get past that…

*ends up a good movie, although 4 guys vs. like 500 is pretty bad odds but they made it work

*plus in this movie a gatling-gun can only hit one person at a time…couldn’t it get at least two people at once?

The Hired Gun 1957 Western

*the Rifleman, Chuck Connors!

*and Kay Francis, who I recognize as Altaira from “Forbidden Planet”, 2nd movie in a row with an actor from there…

*movie doesn’t waste time, as Francis has been convicted of a crime she didn’t commit (another theme is developing) and she BREAKS OUT OF JAIL just like the characters in last few movies I’ve watched…

*anyway, the movie starts with Chuck Connors breaking her out of jail, they ride to New Mexico from Texas, Texas people send a “hired gun” to go to New Mexico to get her, Rory Calhoun…

*Calhoun wastes no time kidnapping Francis and they start heading back to New Mexico and along the way, of course, they fall in love and she convinces him that she is innocent

*and once they get back to Texas, it takes very little time for Calhoun to get evidence to prove her innocence, then kills the bad guy, which I would think would be a problem but they ride off into the sunset anyway…

*not great but not horrible either…I appreciated that they didn’t waste my time, necessarily…

Haunted Gold 1932 Western

*young John Wayne 

*weird seeing his sidekick played by Blue Washington, an African American actor

*just when I thought this was progressive, Blue has to act like a coward and talks like Jar Jar Binks…it’s pretty bad late in the movie when he gets captured by the bad guys and has to go into a mine…

*wow this movie’s treatment of Blue Washington…even Wayne’s horse Duke pushes him around…

*a scary Pre-Code Western, with ghosts and phantoms, I would have assumed this was released around Halloween but apparently it was released 12/17/32, just in time for Christmas…

*only 58 minutes so at least it didn’t take long…

=====================

Party Girl 1995

*part of TCM’s Women in Film Tribute

*directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer

*great movie!  I really enjoyed it!

*watching this, I realize I’ve never seen young Parker Posey, or Parker Posey this young, before…I’ve seen Dazed and Confused (technically) and seen her in the Christopher Guest movies…but she always seemed to play older, if that makes sense…not a big deal but something I noticed…

*and even back then she’s awesome!

*would have been interesting to watch this back in 1995 and seen the reaction to the “diverse” cast of characters…it fits right in in 2020

*a quite from the director: “I think the world is messed up and “Party Girl” is normal…” amen!

*reminded me of the look of “Chasing Amy” which was made for $250,000…this was made for $150,000 in 19 days…again proves that movies are awesome and don’t need hundred of millions of dollars to be awesome

*highly recommended!

Nothing but the Night 1973

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*not Hammer Films

*Cushing AND Christopher Lee!

*apparently Lee produced this but it was a flop…only movie the production company ever made

*Cushing and Lee are barely in it for the first 45 minutes

*couldn’t get into it…

Madhouse 1974

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Cushing AND Vincent Price!

*it’s mostly Price, he is in basically every scene, whereas Cushing only shows up here and there…

*Cushing’s role does get bigger as the movie progresses…no spoilers though

*Price crushes it though, has a monologue late in the film that’s great

*why wasn’t this movie called “Dr. Death”?…it’s right there…

*nice ending, the idea isn’t original but how they did it was well done…

*”Toombes” is a great name for a horror character…as a trivia note that was Rowdy Roddy Piper’s real last name…his real name was Roderick Toombs, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan…

Scream and Scream Again 1970

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Cushing AND Christopher Lee AND Vincent Price, although apparently Cushing’s is only a cameo and Price and Lee only share one scene together…

*supposidely “one of the best sci-fi films ever made in Britain”

*not really a slasher film…

*theme song is like the British Avengers theme song

*that’s it for Cushing?  If I’d bought a ticket I’d almost sue for false advertising…

*the violence against women in this is pretty horrible

*a long chase sequence, both by car and by foot then by climbing a mountain, is pretty lame, long and tedious

*and just when you think it’s over the bad guy escapes and he’s running again…

*Lee is barely in this too, until the end

*and there are Nazis…lame

*Vincent Price wears jeans at one point…

*Price and Lee face off in the end but Price just lies down in some acid, all causal like and that’s it…

*meh

=========================

The Satanic Rites of Dracula 1973

*Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Cushing AND Christopher Lee

*Hammer Films!

*Lee as Dracula and Cushing as Van Helsing again (for the 3rd time!)

*this is the 8th of Hammer’s Dracula series, and the seventh, and final, one to feature Lee as Dracula

*apparently the last Hammer Film Lee and Cushing would make together, and it would be another ten years before they teamed up again

*Lee hated the original title so it was changed…they original was a funny title, suggesting this is a comedy, so they changed it…good idea as this is no comedy…

*Joanna Lumley is in this too!  And is a redhead!

*takes twenty minutes for Cushing to show up

*they keep cutting back to the naked-girl ceremony, over and over and over…

*1st half hour of the movie is no one believing a satanic cult is anything more than just some kids having fun…or some adults “indulging themselves”…when does Dracula show up?

*around 33 minutes in, Dracula shows up…

*lots of talking and explaining, people not “getting it”…kind of frustrating to watch…haven’t these people seen the other Dracula movies??

*okay so Lumley’s character is Cushing’s understudy or something, when she is introduced he says she is very smart, knows all about his studies, etc.  Later she goes into a den of vampires without any garlic or even wearing a cross, let alone have a wooden stake with her…barley escapes being bitten by five female vampires (one who has her top open conveniently…) and she has to be saved by a dude…the same dude who told her to shut up and stay out of thier way earlier…luckily she recovers from the attack quickly enough to clear away the dudes’ tea cups…cool, cool, cool…

*later she and Cushing are explaining to the dudes how they kill vampires…proving she should have known better…I guess if she had known better she wouldn’t have had to been saved by the dudes

*what are the odds she is now in love with the dude who saved her and they end up together?

*more explaining…

*whenever I’ve seen a Dracula movie, I’ve often wondered “This could use more politics-talk…” just like those Star Wars prequels…only other thing this movie could use is talk of trade embargos…

*over an hour into the movie, Lee and Cushing have a scene together…and Cushing isn’t quite sure Lee is Dracula and has to set a trap to “catch him”…weird

*dude fights off the basement full of female vampires by setting off the sprinklers…was there holy water in the sprinkler system?  Garlic water?

*Cushing wants to kill Lee with a silver bullet, I thought that was for werewolves?

*Lee’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are four really old (presumably rich) white dudes…are they American politicians as well, cause that would put this over the top…

*have to balance out the one scene with the old dudes talking with two young dudes having a fist fight…

*Cushing kills Lee by making him walk through a thorn bush…but then Lee dies with a crown of thorns…symbolism!

*and…that’s it!

*love the “Shaft-like” closing credits music…

*definately the right call that they changed the title, people coming into this thinking this was a comedy would have been annoyed…

*movie picks up speed once Lee and Cushing get together, but that’s over an hour into the movie so skip ahead to that, with pauses to check out Lumly as a redhead!

Dracula AD 1972

*the final film in the Peter Cushing tribute on TCM all October

*Cushing AND Christopher Lee

*Hammer Films!

*Lee as Dracula and Cushing as Van Helsing again (for the 2nd time!)

*so strangely TCM showed this movie’s sequel before they showed this…

*so now we see Cushing and his grand daughter fight Dracula again but with a younger non-Joanna Lumly grand daughter!

*movie begins with a big action sequence between Lee and Cushing, more action here already then between those two in the last movie

*Lee is impaled on the wheel of a chariot after it crashes…could be seen as comedic…they ever do that on Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

*so they both die in 1872, then fast forward to 1972…when hippies bring back Dracula…gosh darn hippies!!!

*Cushing’s grand daughter is played by Stephanie Beachum, who I recognize from “Dynasty” but she’s not even a red head!

*those hippies sure are dull hippies…

*so according to Wikipedia, the events of this film contradict the continuity of the previous Dracula movies…so the modern X-Men series aren’t the only movie series who doesn’t care about it’s own continuity…or pissing off it’s fans…

*40 minutes in and Lee is back!

*I recognize the bad guy, Christopher Neame and looked him up but don’t see anything that makes me think “Oh yeah that guy!”

*wait, Inspector Murray is in this movie too?  So going into the sequel, he knows about Van Helsing and the grand daughter?

*so on both movies Lee’s Dracula goes after Jessica in both films, and considering her adventures in this film, her going into that basement full of vampires in the sequel makes even less sense!

*the disciple guy is killed by falling in the shower…again, how does regular tap water kill vampires?  Was this movie covered on Mystery Science Theatre?  There are some badly comedic moments…

*comes down to Cushing vs. Lee and for old dudes I guess they have adequate action sequences…

*so did the person who wrote the 3rd movie not even watch the 2nd movie?  Granted, I’m not the best judge as, despite how long this review is, I didn’t take lots of notes…but whatever…

*okay movie…

Sleepy Hollow 1999

*finally

*never had the need to see this, but it’s Halloween so what the hell…

*amazing cast with Johnny Depp, Christina Ricco, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Martin Landau, Christopher Walken and Christopher Lee!!!

*other than Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, I’ve never been a fan of Tim Burton movies, to me it always seems a matter of style over substance and this didn’t do anything to change my mind

*way too long, too many twists, trying to be too clever

*it looks great though

*I knew immediately that Miranda Richardson was the villain…there’s only three women in the whole town (well four as Sarah is there too) but also it’s Miranda Richardson!

*Ricci looks like she is 12 here which is kind of weird…wasn’t there some controversy over her casting?  If I remember correctly, it was that Depp was nearing 40 at the time and Ricci was like 21 or something and so on…the actors get older and the actresses get younger…and didn’t he play her brother in a prior movie?  Something like that…I could do some research but I don’t care enough to be honest…

*Burton has said he was influenced by Hammer Films, using Lee is a nod to them

*Burton was coming off of the failed Superman movie

*I did like Depp’s Crane character who is a coward, using others like human shields

*but like I said, it just was too long, dragged out…

==================

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man 1943

*Svengoolie

*this is mostly a Wolf-Man movie, an hour in the monster shows up…

*its been awhile since I watched a Svengoolie movie on MeTV and I’d forgotten that he does so many gags and skits in between commercial breaks…not like the intro/outro of TCM’s hosts

*so the Wolf Man wants to die but can’t as he can’t get rid of his “energy”, so he wants to transfer that energy to the monster (not Frankenstein) but then when he does, he still doesn’t die, but the monster does get stronger and suddenly becomes homicidal, so they fight…

*and an unseen person (but we know who) blows up the damn and “drowns them” and presumably everyone in the town below but they cut to credits as soon as the water busts down the model of Frankenstein’s castle…

*Baroness Frankenstein is way too excited to lead the townspeople in a torch-and-pitchfork style raid on the castle

*so Bela Lugosi turned down the monster role, and then-unknown Boris Karloff got the no-dialogue role and it launched his career

*the big fight is kinda late in the movie, and the monster really only gets a few minutes on screen

*this did launch the crossover type movies so there’s that…

The Seventh Victim 1943 Noir Alley

*film noir/horror by Val Lewton!

*”a masterpiece of atmospheric moviemaking” according to Eddie Muller

*a memorable shower scene, 17 years before 

Psycho”

*love noir but Muller admits he picked this as a horror film simply because it’s Halloween when this airs

*couldn’t get into it…

================

Fleshpot on 42nd Street 1973 TCM Underground

*10/31/20

*premiere of Underground’s 14th season

*can’t find much about this on Wikipedia, it’s listed in an article about movies with “unsimulated sex”

*apparently there are two versions of this movie “Fleshpot” is the hardcore original and “The Girls of 42nd Street” is the softcore version; in the opening credits it’s called “The Girls…”

*I’m guessing the “hardcore” version included showing actual penetration, or if it did would it then just be a porno?  I don’t know “the rules”…

*there are a bunch of sex scenes, but they were edited so I’m guessing this is the softcore version

*anyway, director Andy Milligan was very prolific and produced a lot of movies that are now considered “lost films”

*and the star, Laura Cannon (or is her name Diana Lewis) is really good here and I liked her character, as well as her roommate, Cherry Lane, who is listed as being played by Lynn Flanagan (but as Neil Flanagan on IMDB)

*a tragic ending that comes out of nowhere so that was kinda weird just as I was getting to the movie

Guru the Mad Monk 1970 TCM Underground

*another movie directed by Andy Milligan

*and Neil Flanagan plays “Father Guru”

*opening credits, and the music, make it seem like this is going to be a movie like “The Adventures of Robin Hood” or something…but early on it’s definitely low budget although seemingly a higher budget than “Fleshpot” was, at least they spent more on costumes, presumably

*I recognize Paul Lieber, who I just saw on a Barney Miller repeat a while ago…

*some of this plot early on sounds like the final few scenes of Romeo and Juliet

*well…there is one scene filmed outside where the Monk is talking to his hunchback Igor and you can hear sounds in the background that sound like kids playing basketball and even what sounds like an ice cream truck…indie filmmaking!

*plus in a few scenes you can see modern appliances, a light switch, etc. so they weren’t too concerned about continuity…

*okay so Paul Lieber is in love with a girl, they have a past at least (when they see each other they kiss), even though when they were initially talking they didn’t recognize each other’s voices, but then she tells her why she is in prison (she’s in prison BTW), she had a baby in between but the baby died so it’s been awhile since they’ve even seen each other, he’s cool with her having another man’s baby and then does whatever he can throughout the rest of the movie to save her, then they go off in a happily-ever-after type situation…a tale as old as time…

*movie is less than an hour so there’s that…I think I enjoyed “Fleshpot” more, this one seems to be “classier” in a sense but it seems to take itself too seriously…if that’s possible…

*but Andy Milligan has directed way more feature films than I have (I’m currently at zero), so good for him!

The Three Musketeers 1939

*young Don Ameche, who I know as Mortimer from “Trading Places” (and “Coming to America”) and an Oscar winner from “Cocoon”

*and Gloria Stuart (from Jim Cameron’s Titanic)

*a musical version of the Musketeers, apparently

*all this “…or give me satisfaction” is pretty funny

*so it’s the standard d’Artagnan wanting to join the Musketeers, but in this case, the Ritz Brothers (who I had never heard of until today) impersonate the Musketeers and wackiness ensues

*no offence to the Ritz Brothers but weren’t the Marx Brothers available? That would have been funny…

*songs aren’t that great, sword fights aren’t that great…

*the whole movie I keep looking at d’Artagnan and thinking…”seriously…that’s Don Ameche?”

*okay that scene with the poor guy distracting the guards, falls on the ground and starts screaming…that was good…I rewinded it three times to keep watching him kick his legs in the air…

*after that the movie picks up…probably because it’s almost over…

*so the whole movie rested upon getting the Queen her broach?  okay…

*not great, of the three Three Musketeers movies I’ve seen lately this was the worst, with the Michael York one the best still…

The Gunfighter 1950 Western

*again

*still a great friggin movie, Gregory Peck is awesome

*story has a great pace to it, establishes all the characters easily, stakes are raised as they go along, the ending is tremendous!

*highly recommended!

Dual at Diablo 1966 Western

*again

*still a great freakin’ movie!

*starts slow but gets great quick

*James Garner and Sidney Poitier are awesome!

*weird quirks like a deeply Irish accepted Lieutenant in the Army, but he definitely stands out as a character!

*the reveal of who killed Garner’s wife is a little weak but the resolution of it works

*great movie, highly recommended!

=======================

I had eye surgery

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Women Make Films “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 10”

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One Spy Too Many 1966

*Feature length version of “The Man from UNCLE” S2 two-part season premiere “Alexander the Greater Affair”

*w/Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Iiiya Kuryakin

*they add a subplot for the movie involving Yvonne Craig

*Rip Torn plays the villain, an Alexander the Great wannabe

*apparently they did this a lot, turn two-part Man from UNCLE episodes into feature films

*episodes aired 9/17/65 and 9/24/65; movie was released 2/28/66

*Craig debuted as Batgirl S3 Ep1 airs 9/14/67

*not as much wacky stuff as I anticipated, until Solo has a fight with a weightlifter and beats him with…weights…

How to Steal the World 1968

*Feature length version of “The Man from UNCLE” S2 two-part series finale “The Seven Wonders of the World Affair”

*w/Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Iiiya Kuryakin

*villain is played by Barry Sullivan who played the director in “The Bad and the Beautiful”

*plus Leslie Nielsen!  and Eleanor Parker…

*and Hugh Marlowe from “All About Eve”

*originally aired 1/8/68 & 1/15/68; movie was released 3/7/69

*this one starts with a bang - cool action sequence, seems like they wanted to go out strong, with this being their final two episodes…

*Nielsen doesn’t show up until a half-hour into the movie

*they filmed the scenes with the exterior of the bad guys’ lair at LAX?

*just like the last movie, not much wackiness, although the music in this final action sequence seems to think there is…pretty straight forward action stuff

*Leslie Neilsen is about the 4th level heel in this at first but eventually emerges as the big bad…

*they are using the heck out of that matte painting

*so it’s weird how, in the end, they focus on the other characters (Sullivan, Neilson, Parker) and the stars of the show, Solo and Kuryakin, aren’t really that involved other than shots of running around and, technically, striking the “final blow”, plus a lot of their dialogue is ADRed so was this put together in post?  Seems lame for a series finale to end like this…

*okay movie, doesn’t make me want to go watch the other UNCLE movies, let alone the entire series…

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Noises Off 1992

*again

*was inspired to watch this again after listening to the latest TCM Podcast with Peter Bogdanovich and Ben Mank, hosted by Alicia Malone, where they talked about this…

*I have the DVD and watched it awhile ago, I bought it when I was on a Christopher Reeve kick

*I remember when I watched this initially and thinking “This is an amazing cast, why isn’t it funnier? I should be laughing, right?” but for some reason I want to watch it again…

*and why is this called “Noises Off”?  Should have been called “Doors and Sardines”…I get what “Noises Off” means but it’s still a lame title…

*Kathleen Kennedy is in the credits as an executive producer (as well as her husband Frank Marshall and Bogdanovich)

*John Ritter was awesome!  But someone probably saw this and thought he was just doing his same schtick from “Three’s Company”

*everyone is great in this…so good to see Reeve in a great role…

*Marilu Henner steals the movie for me, being in everyone’s business and always with a smile on her face…she comes off the best in the movie…

*for some reason, again, this just doesn’t work for me…I appreciate what the actors are doing but I don’t know if it’s the constantly moving camera or all the closeups (maybe) but it doesn’t work and maybe seeing the hamming it up (by the characters, not the actors) is just too much

*casting Julie Haggerty and Mark Linn-Baker seems off to me, at first they both come off as idiots whereas they could be played as if they are competent but just surrounded by weirdos…they come off a little better in Act Two but not by a lot…

*also, in Act Two, we see the actors pantomiming and it’s very well done, I actually didn’t notice the first time I saw it (and Bogdanovich pointed it out) that it was done in long takes, so bravo to the actors, but it’s not funny…also we don’t hear the audience in the theatre laughing so that’s weird…

*by the time the 3rd act comes along and we’ve seen this scene three times I got tired and kind of wanted it to end…

*that “happy ending” is pretty awful, apparently something the studio insisted on, unfortunately

*amazing cast but this doesn’t work…

*according to reviews at the time, this is a “practically a perfect stage piece” and making into a movie was never going to work…

*note: I looked up this play on Youtube and ended up watching a video of the play being performed in front of an audience (have no idea from where but it was the whole play in one shot and it came up first so I watched it…) and it was awesome!  Why was it so different?  There was an audience!!!  Even in the first scene, where there isn’t supposed to be an audience, with the people there laughing at the jokes and the wackiness made it 100 times better!  This is one of those things that NEEDS an audience…

*I’d love to see this in person someday as a play (if they ever do plays again), whereas, after two viewings now, I don’t think I’ll ever need to watch the movie again…

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*nothing - election results finally, Netflix (Space Force, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Queen’s Gambit)

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The Shakiest Gun in the West 1968 Western

*Western comedy w/Don Knotts

*remake of Bob Hope’s “The Paleface”

*Pat Morita has a cameo

*plus William Christopher (Father Mulcahy on MASH)

*pretty much what you would expect with a Don Knotts Western

*almost do a “Some Like it Hot” type ending but must have got cold feet…

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Naked Alibi 1954

*film noir w/Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame

*and Chuck Connors with a crewcut!

*a movie where we’re not sure who the bad guy is; the disgraced police chief (Hayden) or the guy he thinks is the bad guy (Gene Barry)…I assume since this isn’t Pre-Code, the cop ends up as the good guy but the way Hayden plays a good guy it’s hard to tell

*Graham plays a lounge singer/dancer and she really shouldn’t…seems like her voice is dubbed and her dancing isn’t the best…

*Berry and Graham are running from Hayden (Graham is a prisoner), Berry shoots Graham, Hayden shows up, steps over Graham to go after Berry…total Sterling Hayden move…

*definately a film noir with that ending…

The Outriders 1950 Western

*again

*still a good/great movie

*Barry Sullivan, from “The Bad and the Beautiful” again…he’s pretty annoying in this movie

*weird…on Wikipedia it says Sullivan, Joel McCrea and James Whitmore are “released” from a stockade…actually they escape, killing a young solider in the process…bet they won’t make the mistake of giving prisoners a bath again…

*gets a smidge complicated, they join up with a wagon train after Chavez, the leader, tells them to get lost…but then they save the wagon train from some Natives…that was kind of a coincidence wasn’t it…

*McCrea and Sullivan get involved in a love triangle with a widow in the wagon train…and of course the spurned Sullivan turns on McCrea…

*the bad guy, Keeley, tries to talk to McCrea and the guy in charge of the wagon train, Chavez, but Chavez shoots him dead…that was unexpected…but then Chavez is dead soon anyway…

*so the leaders of both groups are dead, not real sure why the two groups are now going at it…I guess they both want the gold now, I guess?

*the widow gets over her dead brother pretty quickly, and the wagon train group get over the three guys’ “betrayal” quickly too…

*apparently the widow is played by Arlene Dahl, who is the mother of Lorenzo Lamas…

*Keeley is played by Jeff Corey

*the finale, the “how many bullets you got left, Jesse?” scene is pretty great!

*nice happy ending for a Western!

The Horse Soldiers 1959 Western

*again

*running out of things to watch apparently…re-watching things I’ve already seen

*w/John Wayne, directed by John Ford

*a “Pacifist” Western (William Holden is the pacifist, it wasn’t going to be Wayne)

*apparently the only Western that Ford directed that takes place during the civi war

*Festus w/black hair!

*my original quickie review: “interesting at first (Holden plays a pacifist doctor in the army, Wayne doesn’t like him), but then becomes a lazy love triangle”

*Wayne is a man’s man in the Union army, Holden is in his unit as the doctor, but could care less about the war

*soldiers are injured but Holden leaves to help a local black family deliver a baby, Wayne is pissed

*show up at a plantation, the mistress hosts them but uses this as a way to spy on them

*according to Wikipedia, based on Harold Sinclair’s 1956 novel - in April 1863, Colonel Benjamin Grierson led 1,700 Illinois and Iowa soldiers through Tennessee to Louisiana through several hundred miles of enemy territory, destroying Confederate railroad lines and supply lines - this was described as “the most brilliant of the war”

*although this is only loosely based on this; the movie is a fictional account

*as they go through the South, the Union Yankees set fire to towns, kill Southern soldiers who attack but have no weapons, rip up railroad tracks and melt them so they can’t repair them, blow up trains, etc. - real dick moves but apparently won them the war…

*the real Benjamin Grierson (Wayne’s character) was a music teacher, not a railroad engineer

*the South hear they are coming, recruit kids from a local military school, who go into battle proudly

*amazing scene where the mother of one of the kid soldiers (a drummer), grabs the kid and drags him back to their house, but he escapes and heads back into battle with his “men” - this stuff is some amazing anti-war type stuff…

*this happens while Wayne and Holden have a fist fight cause Wayne doesn’t like doctors for some reason

*the older South soldiers fire shells at the Union soldiers as the kids march in the middle…pretty messed up

*surprisingly, it ends humorously, with Wayne seeing the kids advancing and decides to retreat…the one drummer kid gets captured, the soldier asks Wayne what to do with him, he replies “Spank him!”

*I was waiting to see the kids gets slaughtered…nice to see that didn’t happen

*not really much of a love triangle after all, the woman falls for Wayne for no good reason (he took her prisoner and got her friend/slave killed) but it’s a movie…if she was going to fall for either of them you’d think it was Holden but I imagine Wayne’s contract wouldn’t allow that…

*just after Wayne and the girl admit they love each other, he rides off and blows up a bridge…what a guy!

*Wayne rides off, with the woman and Holden watching him ride off, she can’t look away until Holden forces her to turn away and walk back into their make shift hospital…but then Holden himself can’t help but look back at Wayne, as even as a handsome heterosexual man, Holden can’t help himself admire that amazing man known as John Wayne…

*whatever…good movie though

*I think I got this movie mixed up with something else cause my original (quickie) review said this was nothing but a movie with a lame love triangle…I was wrong…I liked this a lot!

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Slumber Party Massacre 1982 TCM Underground

*two minutes in…nudity!  Off to the races!

*apparently originally written as a parody but filmed as if it’s a straight forward horror…so that will be interesting…

*written by a woman, Rita Mae Brown, and produced/directed by Amy Holden Jones, so this fits in with TCM’s Women in Film theme…

*a Roger Corman production so there’s that…

*apparently the director wanted to get out of editing and into directing but by doing this she had to turn down the job of editing ET…

*and before that she was Martin Scorsese’s assistant on Taxi Driver…and then went on to direct a few films but mostly known as a screenwriter, including Mystic Pizza and Indecent Proposal…

*is it me or do the girls in this movie look like they are in their early-30’s?  Is it the lighting?  Or is it like most Hollywood projects and they actually are in their 30’s but are asked to play teenager…

*and there is another girl across the street, Valerie, who is babysitting her younger sister Courtney, who at one point is eating a massive lollipop…is she supposed to be 10 years old or younger?  She looks like she is in her early 20’s…who cast this?

*at one point the girls listen in on their friend’s conversation and the friend finds this out and says “I think our First Amendment has been violated”…interesting dialogue…

*so at first it seems like it will be a mystery as to who the murderer is but later they show his face like it’s no big deal…

*okay I got the characters confused…I thought Trish and Valerie were opposite characters…I thought Trish was the girl who was made fun of and went crying out of the locker room but I guess it’s the other way around, which then does make sense why Valerie doesn’t want to go to the party…maybe if they had cast those two girls to look differently…

*cool where the one kid (Jeff?) gets the power drill through the chest…

*so the murderer is across the street in the garage, kills the one kid, then sprints across the street but apparently then goes through the alley, as the approaches the other kid coming from Valerie’s back yard…then kills the other kid…weird blocking…

*okay where the crazed killer opens the trunk of his car and rationally counts the amount of dead bodies and is annoyed he can’t fit one more in there…that’s funny!

*and then in the next scene, the girls check on the pizza guy to see if he’s really dead (about ten minutes after he arrived in their living room with a knife in his back), then one girl asks if the pizza is okay, then takes a really loud bite…again, funny stuff…but it sounded like she was taking a bite out of an apple or something…the audio is pretty terrible…

*so the one girl sees the killer coming, tells her little sister to go out the front door while she voluntarily goes into the basement…

*the killer drags the pizza guy’s body along the floor, dumps him into the basement (after carving out his eyes, gross), but there is no blood to be found…

*there is a thunderstorm that comes and goes…

*in the basement, the girl (Valerie?) finds a power saw, runs towards the door but, and I saw this coming, but in a good way, runs out of extension cord…

*the girls’ basketball coach shows up and gets killed while the other girls(?) just watch…Trish tries to help I guess…

*Valerie cuts off the end of his drill bit…very subtle!

*ends up with the killer, with only one hand left, is still able to nearly fight off three girls…but then he dies a bloody death…

*I am curious to see where they go with Slumber Party Massacre 2 but only to the point where I’ll look it up on Wikipedia, not like I’ll try to find the movie online and watch it…I barely got through this until it started getting funny…

*apparently the sequel stars the younger sister Courtney…but she got re-cast…hmmm…

Killer Party 1986 TCM Underground

*Canadian film!  I feel such pride…

*so it starts with a funeral…but that “scene” is from a movie-within-the-movie, that a girl is watching at a drive-in theatre, but then that scene turns into a music video, which doesn’t even happen during the opening credits…I’m hypnotized watching this movie…so far anyway…

*but then it just becomes…a movie…typical stuff…but what a beginning!  That stuff is the wackiness I enjoy/expect from TCM Underground…

*Paul Bartel is in this…is this one of the reasons this movie was chosen to play on TCM Underground?

*I actually didn’t know Bartel directed Death Race 2000…surprised I hadn’t learned that before today…

*I also recognize Ralph Seymour from Fletch…

*a big disappointment after that beginning…

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Women Make Films “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 11”

*1st episode I didn’t really enjoy, one of the segments was about non-tension in a movie, which kind made me sleepy to be honest…plus this far into the series they seem to be showing clips from the same movies over and over…I watch this to see different examples of great female movies…not the same ones over and over…

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Caesar and Cleopatra 1946

*Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, Stewart Granger

*a few minutes in I’m like “Was this a play?”

*after doing some research…yup!  It was!

*the way Claude Rains plays him, this Caesar guy was a pretty cool dude!

*they way Vivein Leigh plays her, Cleopatra was pretty annoying!

*so there is a war going on, Caesar is kinda busy but Cleopatra gets herself rolled up in a rug cause she thinks “I wanna go for a visit!” okay…

*interesting concept by Caesar…if a prisoner tries to escape, let them as that means there is one less mouth to feed…

*this doesn’t really get interesting until Cleopatra starts thinking for herself, “betraying” Caesar by killing a man who was his guest and Caesar gets a nice monologue but by then the movie has just been them looking and smiling at each other for the most part

*this is one of those movies where the behind-the-scenes stories seem more interesting…the director ordered legit sand from Egypt to “get the right cinematic colour” as if people in Iowa would look at the movie and think “nah, that sand aint’ right…”

*also, tragically, this is the movie where Vivien Leigh had a miscarriage and that triggered problems she had for the rest of her life…I’ve been hearing about this in various Hollywood audio books, specifically the Kirk Douglas autobiography and having now seen the movie kind of puts those stories full circle in my mind…

*so it ends with Caesar going to Rome without his protector, and will meet up with Marc Anthony, and Cleopatra is pissed at him…so I’m not a historian or an expert about this time period, I know that Marc Anthony is the one who kills Caesar (“Et tu Brute” and all that) but if I remember some parts (mostly from Shakespeare) doesn’t Cleopatra seduce Marc Anthony and then he kills Caesar…so was there a sequel to this?  I never thought I’d say this but I’d like to watch the Elizabeth Taylor “Cleopatra” to get the full story…

*did I miss the part where Cleopatra has Caesar ban her brother?  Or was that when he sent everyone off and the brother went with them?

*good to see Claude Rains but another movie that I’ll probably never watch again…

*just read the Wikipedia summary of the Cleopatra-Elizabeth Taylor movie and there is definitely more to the story…

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Nightfall 1956 Noir Alley

*strangely brief intro/outro by Eddie Muller

*Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne Bancroft

*directed by Jacques Tourneur

 *good, standard noir

*very similar to Out of the Past in that there are spots in the woods…I know there are other things too of course…

*awkward transitions to the flashbacks but they work

*according to Muller, the lighting for movies from this point on needed to be “brighter” in order to be shown on TV later on, despite them being “noir”…interesting concept “bright noir”

*strange coincidence…just listened to a Mel Brooks interview (with Conan O’Brien) and then watched this movie and had no idea Anne Bancroft was in this…she’s awesome so it was good to see her

*Aldo Ray’s character is quite the trusting person, from Bancroft to James Gregory (Barney Miller’s Luger!) and a smile to go with that trusting personality

*good movie!

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It Aint’ Hay 1943

*Abbott and Costello, with Shemp Howard!

*basically Abbott and Costello and a race horse!

*pretty good, typical A&C stuff…not much else to say

*always good to see Eugene Pallette

Gas Food Lodging 1992

*part of the TCM Women in Film Tribute

*written/directed by Allison Anders

w/Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, James Brolin, Robert Knepper (who played Clock King in the Arrowverse), Jacob Vargas (who played Yayo in Get Shorty)

All the Marbles 1981

*again

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The Jesus Rolls 2020

*spinoff to The Big Lebowski “finally” (I say this sarcastically)

*John Turturro stars and directs this, about this Jesus character…the minutes in and I’m not interested in any of these characters…

*all star cast with Jon Hamm, JB Smoove, Tim Blake Nelson, Audrey Tautou (who I haven’t seen since Amelie), Christopher Walken, Susan Sarandon, Michael Badalucco, Gloria Reuben

*and Pete Davidson

*even though they do make a joke out of it, it’s weird that Sonia Braga plays Turturro’s mother when she is 7 years older than him…also, I know Turturro is older now (as we all are) but he looks old here…

*ten minutes out of jail he steals a car…

*will there be any bowling in this movie?

*they make sure to explain that he’s not really a sex offender, that it was just a misunderstanding, so we can like him but then…the rest of the movie happens so he’s definitely not a likeable character…he steals and lies and ditches his friends but at least he’s not a sex offender…

*how does Audrey Tautou find them in the train station?

*WTF is this movie?  Why is this movie?

*40 minutes in they finally go to a bowling alley…

*the movie starts getting interesting when Susan Sarandon shows up…she’s still amazing at 74!

*so they steal back the same car they made a “death trap” earlier but don’t notice?

*apparently this is also a remake of a 1974 French film “Going Places” as well as a spinoff…

*I try to watch more modern movies, not just “classics” but when I do I get this…

Top Secret Affair 1957

*Kirk Douglas

*with Jim Backus (Mr. Howell from “Gilligan’s Island”) and Paul Stewart (again with Kirk Douglas after “The Bad and the Beautiful”)

*so this is about Kirk Douglas’ character basically being perfect and Susan Hayward wanting to destroy him for political reasons but of course, falls in love with him

*he seemingly makes one mistake that will end his career, but then gets vindicated of course cause he’s perfect but not before being betrayed by Hayward…

*but of course he forgives her cause there has to be a happy ending…

*at one point Douglas says “…and then I had her shot and got on with the war” and the room erupts with applause and if the room was bigger the people inside it would have put this on their shoulders…very odd

*I have a Smoking Meter in some reviews…I hate it when people smoke in movies (especially modern movies) but yet in old black and white movies it doesn’t bother me as much…this movie, though…seemingly every character smokes like a chimney (at least all the important characters)…in one scene Douglas smokes 5 or 6 cigarettes at once and it’s pretty gross

*anyway, despite the ludicrous trial at the end and the last minute revelations, it’s an okay movie…

Afghan Luke 2011

*Canadian film starring Nick Stahl

*set in Afghanistan but apparently filmed in Ashcroft and Cache Creek, BC (an hour outside Kamloops)

Into the Spiderverse 2018

*again, but not for awhile

*Best movie of 2018, just loved it when I saw it in theatres and I saw it two (or three?) times but haven’t seen it since

*it’s been on cable a few times but I’ve been hesitant to watch it, maybe I was scared it wouldn’t hold up?

*but I was wrong to think such things, still loved it just as much…

*so amazing…that soundtrack is so great, I listen to “What’s Up Danger?” all the time (in fact I’m listening to it as I type this…”  and of course “Sunflower” is great too…

*the animation alone makes this amazing let alone the writing, the tone, the acting…

*have you seen this?  You owe it to yourself to see it, so great…

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Columbo: Prescription Murder 1968

*shown on MeTV

*weird as I thought the 1st Columbo episode was the one directed by Steven Spielberg, but apparently this was a “pilot episode” shown as an NBC Movie of the Week…the Spielberg episode was episode 1 of season 1 of Columbo the series…

*based on what I’ve seen before watching it (in a couple of pictures) Columbo is a bit different, not as shabbily dressed, has slicked back hair and doesn’t do the “one more thing…” schtick so, other than being played by Peter Falk, is this really Columbo?  We’ll see…

*as usual we don’t meet Columbo until the murder happens, so in this case 

*when I first discovered Columbo, I was fascinated in how it “flipped the script” of mystery shows, how it revealed who the murderer was and how they did it, and there was never any question, and the joy was in seeing how Columbo figured it out…

*okay, so he did do the “one more thing…” but he was way more confrontational, especially when confronting the mistress of the killer, he got in her face and made her cry, which is completely un-Columbo like

*the mystery was well planned and the performances were good…but I was confused…so the wife was alive the whole time?  That was a quick reveal that kinda came out of nowhere…

The Grey Fox 1982

*Canadian (kinda) Western

*takes place in 1901, Richard Farnsworth, who looked old in 1982

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2nd eye surgery (left)

Fear (1946) Noir Alley

*more “threadbare production I’ve shown on Noir Alley”…that mean this movie was made cheap?

*pretty basic story, based on “Crime and Punishment”

*just had eye surgery (for the 2nd time) so I had to watch this in two stages…it kinda dragged…

*halfway through, it becomes a procedural, with the police chief taking the main suspect/killer through the evidence and we see how they dealt with finger prints and fibre threads back in 1946…pretty interesting…

*”an Americanized, Cliff Notes version of Crime and Punishment” says Eddie Muller “which a budget of about $29.95”

*after the film, Muller makes fun of the “it was all a dream” cop out finish, which frankly makes watching this movie “worth it”

*not great noir but the entire Noir Alley package makes it worthwhile…

*also cool to see Anne Gwynne, who is Chris Pine’s grandmother…

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nothing (Arrow S8, Legends randoms)

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Women Make Films “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 12”

Man of the West 1958 Western

*again

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Nothing But Trouble 1944

*Laurel & Hardy!

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story 1993

*finally!

*the director Rob Cohen said in an interview that “reality is not exactly adhered to…”

*that’s a major understatement

*around the time this movie came out, I was just starting to become a movie guy, wanted to know about movies, watched Siskel and Ebert, had a friend who worked at a video store and hung out there, etc.  So I’ve seen the trailer for this many times but never seen it until now…

*the fight scenes would be cool except for the fact it’s supposed to be “real”, involving real people and not fictional characters…in that sense they are pretty ludicrous, especially the “Big Boss” fight sequence

*not bad but not great either

Hello Dolly 1969

*never seen this but it’s one of those musicals where the songs were familiar…mostly from watching “Wall-E” which is my favourite Pixar movie

*so Michael Crawford is the poor man’s Dick Van Dyke in this, walking like him and making facial expressions…I guess at the time they made this Van Dyke wouldn’t have passed for 28 and 3/4’s?

*strange how in this movie Barbara Streisand’s Dolly is built up like a mythical figure, yet she ends up with Walter Matthau’s character?  Who is, until the last few scenes, is basically a dick?

*I’ll watch anything with Matthau in it, and it was a treat seeing Matthau sing and dance…

*always great to see Louis Armstrong

*apparently this was a bomb when it came out, and was also one of those movies that seemed to be more interesting behind the scenes

*I’d like to see a movie about Streisand yelling at Gene Kelly on set (and vice-verse) and I’m intrigued by the idea that Streisand and Matthau had an intense fight on set “on a hot day in Garrison the day after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy” according to Wikipedia

*great songs but not sure I’ll ever watch this again

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead 2007

*again, but not since it came out

*Sidney Lumet’s last film before his death

*I remember really enjoying this when it came out

*there are TWO Aunt May’s in this movie (Rosemary Harris and Marisa Tomei)…just need Sally Field to show up for the hat trick!

*good to see Michael Shannon…same with Amy Ryan who I wouldn’t have known as actors back then…

*kind of surprising (after watching modern films) to see lots of nudity by Tomei and lots of use of the F word (and I don’t mean F*ck)

*great how they play with the timeline and narrative, never gets confusing until towards the end where the lines get blurred

*great movie

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The Green Slime 1969 TCM Underground (kinda)

*another example of a TCM Underground movie that they only show in Canada

*apparently they showed “Earth Girls are Easy” on the main US broadcast which I’ve seen recently so I’m not that disappointed

*an unofficial 5th member of the “Gamma One” movies (like the “Wild, Wild Planet” I reviewed earlier) so this is a nice surprise 

*nice to see Richard Jaeckel; for the longest time I only saw him in “The Dirty Dozen” but it seems that I’ve been seeing him a lot lately, including in “The Westerner”

*the sets and spaceships are obviously models but it doesn’t matter really…

*obvious love triangle alert!

*women of the triangle (Luciana Paluzzi) says the words “I don’t have feelings for him anymore” and “I told him I never want to see him again” about the main character (Richard Horton) so what are the odds they end up together in the end?

*and what are the odds the third point in the triangle, Jaeckel, will end up dead just to make things less awkward for the happy couple?  We’ll see…

*so it’s about people going to an asteroid/meteor, drilling down into the core, planting bombs to blow it up before it destroys Earth…plus a love triangle where they fight bad guys in a shootout…so this is “Armageddon” meets “Pearl Harbour”???  Michael Bay was a fan apparently…

*wow, when the alien creatures show up on the ship…wow!

*interesting that (I’m guessing by coincidence) that TCM is showing this and “2001” hours apart…

*apparently this movie was used in the pilot for “Mystery Science Theatre 3000”

*so Jaeckel stands up for himself, proves himself to “be a man”, then dies heroically…probably for the best as there’s no way he’s getting between Horton and Paluzzi…

*actually there is no big kissing scene to wrap up the movie but only a few looks back and forth…

*Horton does a weird “thumbs up” thing a few times in the movie, it’s awkward…like Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the WWF but it makes even less sense

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948

w/Bela Lugosi, Lon Cheney

*so in one movie we get Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula and the Wolfman!  And in a quick cameo, we get the Invisible Man (voiced by Vincent Price!!!) as well!

*this was shown on both Silver Screen Classics and on Svengoolie within a few hours of each other

*pretty great movie overall, with funny stuff but also some great bits, with the shot of Dracula biting the girl’s neck and we see the reflection in the mirror, and the revolving door bit, the use of animation…

*although vampires aren’t supposed to have reflections are they?

*thought I had already seen this but that was Bud and Lou meeting The Mummy apparently…

*running gag of them wanting the brain of Lou to put inside the monster is pretty funny

================

The Martian 2015

*again

*still great

*although I cringe at the one scene where all the dudes are talking about Lord of the Rings and Kristen Wiig, the only girl, doesn’t get the reference.  Was it because she had cooties?

*and besides, wouldn’t it been a lot funnier if Sean Bean had been the one not to get the reference?

*appreciate other details like how subtle the Sebastian Stan/Kate Mara relationship is…a worse film would have made a bigger deal out of it when it didn’t need to be…or made it a love triangle with them and Damon’s character or something dumb like that…you appreciate how everyone is a professional and also everyone is smart…and they assume you are too

*such a great cast and great movie

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop 2011

*again, but not since it came out
================

The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery 1959

*starring a young, unknown Steve McQueen

*McQueen didn’t have his TV show, “Wanted Dead or Alive” yet; this seemingly has the budget of a TV show at the time…this movie could use a re-mastering…

*archetypal heist movie…the gang go through their plan, time things out, case the joint, etc…

*as the movie plays there is a weird humming noise, as if I’m playing it off an old VHS tape on an even older VCR…

*the woman who plays Ann (Molly McCarthy) has a very slow deliberate way of delivering her lines, and how she writes a warning to the bank the night before the robbery, I thought maybe I had misunderstood something and she was supposed to be McQueen’s little sister or something…she seemed to be, as they used to say “a little slow”

*of course things to haywire and the heist’s plans are re-done at the last minute, leads to heightened tensions and people having to take on roles they weren’t prepared for…

*odd how the cops would fire randomly into the bank where there are civilians inside…

*good little thriller

*funny how after watching this movie, then they (Silver Screen Classics) showed previews of more upcoming movies and they were remastered and the difference is amazing, as if I just watched the last movie through a dirty windshield

===================

Christmas with the Darlings 2020

*watched this for Katrina Law (who played Nyssa al Ghul on Arrow)

*this movie was kind of an Arrowverse reunion, as sisters Madeline Hirvonen played Pippa on Legends of Tomorrow and Isle Hirvonen played Grace on The Flash

*and I’m guessing this was filmed in Vancouver as co-stars Carlo Marks was on The Flash and Smallville and Steve Bacic was on Arrow…and so did all the co-stars at some point…according to their IMDB pages

*it was a little weird hearing Law in what I would imagine is her “real voice” and not her Nyssa accent but I did eventually

*plus seeing her play a nice person, who like smiled and stuff was different too

*but anyway, sweet movie, just what you expect from a Hallmark Christmas movie

==================

An Angel at My Table 1990

*part of TCM’s Tribute to Women in Film

*directed by Jane Campion, the movie that was her “breakthrough” and she next did “The Piano”

Women Make Films “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 13”

Centre Stage 2000

*again but not since it came out

*love this friggin movie…not ashamed either…

===================

A Fine Madness 1966

*part of the Sean Connery tribute on TCM (although there was no intro, plus I had seen it advertised that they were showing Thunderball in this timeslot so I’m guessing only us “lucky” Canadians got to see this “gem”)

*wow what a f*ed up movie, just horrible

*Connery, the “hero” of the movie, in the midst of his James Bond career, plays a poet who beats his wife (Joanne Woodward) and cheats on her repeatedly, smashes things, hits cops and shows zero remorse, up until the end of the movie, and this is the character we are apparently supposed to be rooting for…

*the only thing I can think of is that the movie makers thought Connery’s charisma was so overpowering even he could make this asshole seem likeable…it didn’t work in the least…

*he takes swings at Woodward, calls her stupid and constantly tells her to shut up, nearly gets her fired from her job as she has to run out constantly to stop him from killing people, he (accidentally or not, he causes it) throws her down/has her fall down a flight of stairs and in the end…okay I gotta get a head of steam and run into this one…

*in the final scene, right after it’s apparent he’s cheated on her with another man’s wife (who just paid off his alimony and kept him out of jail, and when she offered to leave her husband for Connery, he mocked her and she ran off crying btw), he storms off, Woodward runs after him like a little puppy dog, tells him she’s pregnant, HE PUNCHES HER IN THE FACE…he then swoops her up in his arms, the music swells like this is a big romantic gesture, a crowd gathers as they just saw this man PUNCH HIS PREGNANT WIFE IN THE FACE (and they probably knew she was pregnant, as she announced it loud enough) to shame him and try to help her, he takes Woodward into the lobby of their building, then he chases the crowd away, then comes out swinging (and the leader of this group was a woman, so he was swinging at her probably), Woodward comes out and jumps on his back to stop him from killing anyone, the shot makes it look like he’s King Kong swinging at airplanes, and then THE END comes on the screen…What the Serious F*CK?

*what is this movie?  who was it made for?

*I was going to write about, even as a writer, this made no sense, he is constantly working on a poem, worried about finishing it, yelling at Woodward when she interrupts his train of thought…for a poem.  Not a novel, not a script for a play…a poem…but that’s nothing…compared to the overall BS of this movie…

*the only slightly likeable character is the psychiatrist Woodward wants Connery to go see to help with his rage issues…but later he’s called a murderer and a butcher by his wife because he authorized another doctor to try to perform a lobotomy on Connery to calm him down and make him a reasonable person (which obviously doesn’t work)…the psychiatrist only goes for this after seeing, with his own eyes, Connery and his wife having sex and he feels jealous…but in this movie’s eyes he’s worse than Connery, the wife beating, adulterer with no conscience, who smashes things like he’s The Hulk…

*I admit having to FF through some parts, this movie was infuriating…there is long scene where the psychiatrist’s wife has to fight off a third doctor from raping her…and then that woman dumps her husband, goes to Connery, professes her love for him (apparently not knowing he was married, either) and gets mocked for it…just shit…

*what is the message for this movie?  Connery’s character has no arc.  He seemed to slightly chill out once Woodward told him she was pregnant, and technically she dared him to punch her BUT THEN HE DID…wouldn’t a “learning moment”, if anything, would be if she taunted him and then he DIDN’T PUNCH HIS PREGNANT WIFE?  That’s just grasping at straws…nothing in this movie is redeemable…

*there was one shot…one…of Connery walking across the steel beams on the Brooklyn Bridge…that looked kinda cool…but other than that…this movie is SHIT!

*and in the interest of being thorough, I looked the movie up and it was directed by IRVIN KERSHNER, then man who directed “Empire Strikes Back”…wow…

*this was written by Elliott Baker, which originally was a “comic novel”…which I had never heard of before today…this was a comedy apparently…

*I’d always heard that Connery was a dick in real life, so maybe he thought this guy was a hero…

*there was a monkey at one point…and you can’t have a monkey in a drama…so there’s that…

*anyhow, in case I’m being vague F*CK THIS MOVIE

Much Ado about Nothing 2013

The Christmas Chronicles 2018

Cry Wilderness 1987 (MST3K Turkey Day 2020)

=================

Alien from LA 1988 TCM Underground

*from Cannon, by the Golan-Globus company…starring Kathy Ireland…this is gonna be awesome, obviously!

*ended up watching the MST3K version of this…

The Christmas Chronicles 2

==================

RocknRolla 2008

*again, but not since it came out

Shag 1988

*part of TCM’s Tribute to Women in Film

*directed by Zelda Barron

*starring some of my favourite actresses yet I’ve never heard of this…

*this girl with the glasses (the one who isn’t Phoebe Cates or Bridget Fonda or Annabeth Gish) is such a square!

*apparently she is Daryl Hannah’s sister…among other things she has accomplished…

*the director Zelda Barron has a son Steve Barron who directed the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “Coneheads” and the “Take on Me” music video

*Cate’s fiancé is played by Tyrone Power Jr., who apparently married Carla Collins, who is a Canadian comedian who I used to see a lot but haven’t for awhile…

*one of the “badgirls” is Carrie Hamilton who is the daughter of Carol Burnett…lots of interesting family trees involved in this movie…

*so the Cates character…her fiancé is a loser and the guy who she hangs out with is a dickhead…some great romantic options there…

*so back when “America Was Great”, women had to choose between “boring” or “asshole”…but hey people didn’t get divorced so there’s that…”Murica! (sarcasm!)

*so this guy Cates is with, within five minutes he’s saying “let’s have sex” and even touches her breast, then is rude to her all night…by the “Rules of Cinema”, her happily ever after includes her being with this asshole…

*Annabeth Gish was/is great!  In fact Fonda and Cates are awesome too, but I rarely see them anymore…

*Cates has only appeared in “The Anniversary Party” in 2001, which was a great movie, directed by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, which I should watch again soon…

*Fonda is married to Danny Elfman?  I had no idea…or that, like Cates, Fonda is retired from acting so I guess that makes sense as to why I never see them anymore…

*I hate this movie crap where the stuck up woman is insulted by the romantic interest and this is supposed to be her being “challenged” by life and she becomes a better person…lame…this is the reason I hate “The Breakfast Club” too…

*I like that everyone paired off and the finance and the square girl found each other, but I would have liked it more if Cates had decided to be on her own…which I guess they do hint at in the last scene, but also they hedge their bets and infer that she does, in fact, end up with Buzz…

*at one point she says “Well, I have to marry someone…” it would have been nice for someone to reply “Why?”

*nice that it’s seemingly a tribute to the old beach blanket bingo-type movies, made me think specifically of the awesome movie “Where the Boys Are”…

*but anyway, any movie where I get to see Phoebe Cates’ smile and where Annabeth Gish wins a trophy is a winner to me I guess…

Yentl 1983

*part of TCM’s Tribute to Women in Film

*directed by/written by/produced by/starring Barbra Streisand

*interesting trivia: Amy Irving was nominated for both Best Supporting Actress and the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in this…

*I like most of this movie, the cast, the cinematography is all great…

*the songs, though…they are very literal…like Streisand is narrating the scenes/montages that the songs play over…there is literally a scene where she sings “Doors open…” and on the screen, a door opens…

*weird how Many Patankin looks more “Mandy Patankin” here than when he was in “Princess Bride” which was four years later…

*and the songs become more and more of the narrative as the movie goes on…

*Patankin’s character is a bit of a dick…takes Streisand under his wing sure but treats Irving like a slave…when Yentl asks “what do you think she is thinking?” his response is “Who cares?”

*so Streisand is Patankin’s roommate and he doesn’t figure out she’s a woman…obviously it’s a movie but my brain can’t shut off the questions like…seriously? That’s it, that’s the question….seriously?

*did Yentl ever fake shaving her face, for instance?  She never got caught shaving her legs?

*so Steven Hill did research on Patankin and uncovered that he lied about his brother’s death…Hill didn’t do research on Streisand and find out she’s a woman?

*okay so it would have been better if Streisand talks to Irving on the wedding night, says “I know you love Patankin so we won’t…” and Irving says “I don’t love that guy he’s an asshole” and then what does Streisand do?

*well they got there, but it took longer their way…

*the songs got annoying…especially when Irving is trying to seduce Streisand and they talk, it’s a nice moment but then the music starts and it took me out of the movie…

*so couldn’t they just say Yentl is gay?  I mean not publicly of course but rather than her revealing herself as a woman…probably me just thinking in 2020 terms but…

*and why does Streisand love Patankin, really?  He’s revealed himself as a jerk…Irving saw that…Irving is the better match anyway, they just couldn’t consummate the marriage…that’s not that big a deal right?  (clearly I’m single…)

*Streisand and Irving should just run away together, adopt a bunch of kids and leave Patankin in the dust…

*of course the “Papa Can You Hear Me?” song is great, especially in the closing number but the other stuff just doesn’t hook me…

*and then Streisand goes off alone and Irving and Patankin end up together…lame…

*so Streisand goes off and chooses to be alone and get an education rather than be married and no longer being able to study…I like that message but she should have taken Irving with her…

*kinda crazy that after this movie, Streisand only made six more movies (so far), two of which were the “Fockers” movies…

***kind if interesting that I watched Yentl and Shag back to back considering the subject matter…

Road to Singapore 1940

*again

*1st in the series…

====================

Basic Instinct 1992

*again but not for a long time

*I remember this coming out around the time I started appreciating film more, had heard this was trash but sexy trash 

*plus there was the controversy about portraying lesbians as killers in movies too 

*I remember eventually watching this movie and liking it as a good little thriller…of you don’t think too much about it…

*no one wears seatbelts in this movie

*they really screwed up Jeanne Tripplehorn’s character, although I guess her being crazy makes sense later…but it’s also bad writing

*this has been called trash but also a “neo-noir masterpiece”

*funny watching two Leilani Sarelle movies so close together (this and “Shag”)

*so the Roxy thing had nothing to do with anything?

*after all this that has happened, I thought Douglas was on “leave” yet he and his partner are still involved in the investigation…

*I guess technically this could be compared to “The Big Sleep” which is famous for having awesome plot holes yet is a great movie, so I guess by that standard, this could be called a “masterpiece”

*speaking of “The Big Sleep” good to see Dorothy Malone…although now my over-thinking brain thinks they specifically cast Malone so they are saying “Look, it doesn’t have to make sense…just like that Bogart movie…”

*for some reason, the soundbite of George Dzundza saying “Ah man…!!!” is burned into my brain…

*Douglas’ neighbours must go through a lot of popcorn with all the shows they get looking through his windows…

*the sound of that old school printer…that took me back…

*funny how, in one scene with some eery music and lighting, they make Dorothy Malone, despite only having maybe five lines in the movie, seem like it’s possible she’s been the one in charge the whole time, even though it’s a red herring, like most things in this movie…

*Dzundza takes Douglas to question a person, yet leaves Douglas in the car, says “You’re on leave, pal” and of course is killed…a whole lotta dumb in that sequence

*nice tension in the elevator scene though

*that lieutenant sure is touching alot of evidence without gloves on…

*interesting note is that screenwriter Joe Eszterhas later apologized for “glamourizing smoking” in his movies after he was diagnosed with throat cancer…

*funny looking back how hot Eszterhas was at the time, mostly through self promotion, how bizarre it was that a writer (as opposed to an actor or even a director) was so popular for a little while and was able to get so much publicity, but that kind of ended after “Showgirls” bombed…

*apparently he wrote a movie called FIST starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by Norman Jewison…I had no idea this movie existed but now want to watch it…

*I just read how his FOUR PAGE OUTLINE for “One Night Stand” sold for $2.5 million, with an additional $1.5 million to be paid once filming had started…he later took his name off of it due to the producers changing the script…did he have to pay the money back?

*some crazy over-dramatic music in that last scene

*funny how this was a big hit and started a “sex-thriller” craze with “Sliver”, “Jade” and “Body of Evidence” but this one was the only one who was a hit and has, I guess, “stood the test of time”, whatever that means…

=================

How to Marry a Millionaire 1953

*one of those movies I just have never watched until now

*had no idea William Powell was in this!  Maybe if I did I would have watched it sooner…

*Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe are great of course but I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a movie with Betty Grable in a leading role

*and frankly, her character is really annoying!

*funny stuff with Monroe being blind 

*if this was just about Powell and Bacall falling in love that would be better!

*why is the door handle in the middle of the door?

*so it comes down to Bacall and Powell smoking cigarettes and talking like human beings, seemingly the first real conversation in the whole movie…

*so Powell has to talk the other guy into marrying Bacall?  He seems like a dick..but he ends up rich in the end so…

*besides being annoyed with so much smoking in movies, another pet peeve?  People who smoke while they are eating…disgusting!

*and that guy ends up with Marilyn Monroe…I guess it is a comedy!

*poor William Powell…they couldn’t have Myrna Loy show up at the last minute to offer him a martini?

==================

Women Make Films “ A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 14” - the final one

==================

Very Annie Mary 2001

*part of TCM’s Tribute to Women in Film

*written/directed by Sara Sugarman

*starring Rachel Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys…

*Pryce is Griffiths father and he’s an asshole!

*he laughs at her when she talks about moving out of their house, gets her a cabbage for her birthday and when his feet are cold at night, he makes her sleep while lying on top of his legs…

*”I fed your budgee….to the cat…” funny line but if true, what an asshole!

*I can’t tell if Griffiths character is “awkward” or mentally challenged…

*Gruffudd and Rhys are the best part of the movie as a presumably gay couple who are friends with Griffith’s character

*so when Pryce’s character has a stroke, we almost cheer for it…but then Griffith’s character has to shut down whatever dreams she has to take care of him, but then she becomes kind of a jerk so are we supposed to cheer for her?  The movie is named after her so yes, but Pryce’s character is just a bunch of funny facial expressions at this point and becomes pretty funny, so then we start rooting for him…

*one funny part when she starts to take over the family bakery but has never done it before, tries to sell her crappy bread, people complain about it, she then says her father made it, plays to their sympathy and they pay for it out of pity…funny stuff

*but then later she goes the market, buys a bunch of bread and re-bags it as her own…not sure how much profit there is in that but it’s kinda cute…

*clearly they are trying to be a quirky, heart warming movie like “The Full Monty”…in fact there is a scene, totally at random, where the neighbourhood kids all dance and rip off their clothes as if they are the cast of that movie…kinda weird homage

*Griffiths has a sleep over with her friend (Joanna Page) who is sick in a subplot where the town is trying to raise money to send her to Disneyland…anyway, who is taking care of Pryce while she is at her friends’ house?

*okay so at one point she’s trying to carry Pryce down the stairs, he hits her for some reason, so she drops him, he lands hard at the bottom of the stairs and then she kicks him in the back…Pryce makes a funny face so clearly it’s supposed to be funny but it’s kinda sad…

Cleopatra Jones 1973

*blaxploitation movie with Shelley Winters!

*2-time Oscar winner Shelley Winters!

========================

That Touch of Mink 1962

*fun intro to listen to on TCM where they discussed how this is an “embarrassing” film, how Cary Grant was “stuck in the past regarding romantic comedy tropes”, etc.  I love it when they are honest…to me that makes the film even more interesting…”let’s watch the movie where Cary Grant phoned it in!”

*eventhough the movie wasn’t something anyone in the movie was apparently proud of, it made a ton of money as people wanted to see Grant and Day…

*movie pet peeve: Doris Day gets a bunch of food, sits down to eat but then gets dragged away, leaving the food on the table un-eaten…what a waste of food and doubtful someone who wasn’t working and needed the food would just walk off like that…also when people storm out of restaurants after ordering food…I don’t care how angry I am I’m sticking around until I get my food to go!

*funny how I had just listened to an interview with Mel Brooks by Conan O’Brien where they discussed lunch counters/automat and here Doris Day goes to one…and where Audrey Meadows, Richard Deacon work

*also John Astin and Dick Sargeant show up too, plus cameos by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris…

*I see so many movies with scenes where a woman (like Doris Day) sits in a store and watches as models show off different outfits…I’d be interested about a movie that talks about the in-store model “implosion” where they figured out women (and men) could come into stores and just look at dresses/clothes, try them on, etc. without models walking around in them…

*both stars’ friends, Audrey Meadows and Gig Young are kind of annoying…

*so, when push came to shove, was Cary Grant expecting sex from Doris Day in Bermuda?  He slept on the couch, so there was only one bedroom, so they would have had to have slept together, whether they had sex or not…

*there is some funny stuff with Grant and Young “If you don’t get out of here, I’ll raise your salary!”

*so Gig Young goes to his therapist and has been giving him stock tips, but through some wackiness, the therapist thinks Young is gay, so he cancels the stock tips…so because he’s gay that makes his thoughts on stocks unreliable?  Okay…

*the gag with Doris Day and the bus is pretty good

*Grant is pretty low key until the second time they are in Bermuda…we get a glimpse of “Bringing Up Baby” Cary Grant but it doesn’t last long…

*the Gig Young character is growing on me, it seems like it would be a fun role to play…“You deserved everything I got!”

*and as the movie goes on, the Day character is really getting annoying…

*Grant runs around in only a towel, it was kind of rare to see Grant without clothes, or even anything other than a suit and a tie, wasn’t it?

*John Fiedler is in a lot of movies!

*I can see how this is “old fashioned”…someone in 2020 might look at this as just an old movie, but even in 1962 this must have been a throw back…was Doris Day the only one in movies not having sex?

*a good gag in the end with Gig Young and the baby…

*I liked this but probably won’t watch it again…

Lolita 1962

*finally

*as a total coincidence, another 1962 movie…

*don’t know why I’ve never watched this, just never have…

The Flight of the Phoenix 1965

*finally

*Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, George Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, Peter Finch, Dan Duryea…quite the cast!

*and out of all of them, Ian Bannen got a Best Supporting Actor Nomination…no offence to him but did they just pick a name out of a hat?

Kiss Me Deadly 1955 Noir Alley

*opening scene with Cloris Leachman in her film debut

*”one of the most important and influential film noir of all time…”

*lots of familiar faces here!

*that was quite the ending!

Suspense 1946 Noir Alley

*the first “million dollar production” of Hollywood’s “Povery Row” and the King Brothers

*Barry Sullivan smokes the f*ck out of this movie…I wonder how much of the budget went to that or were the actors expected to provide their own?

*Sullivan apparently liked being a “big fish in a small pond” and enjoyed starring in Poverty Row pictures as opposed to supporting roles at Universal or MGM…this is the kind of stuff I want to learn with TCM!

*Belita, who Eddie Muller seems to have a crush on, is fine and all…being “film noir’s ice queen” is a pretty cool nickname…

*unfortunately the last movie of Eugene Pallette, who I’ve always loved since “My Man Godfrey”

The Trip 2010

*for the dozenth time

*on DVD, saw trailers for “Super” which I’ve seen, but also “Cold Weather”, “Flypaper” and “Tabloid” which I didn’t know existed until today…

===================

The Trip to Italy 2014

*again

*includes trailers for Kelly & Cal, The Last Weekend, Days and Nights; none of which I had heard of before

====================
Twice Upon a Yesterday 1998

*again

*watched this movie just out of pure chance on cable, liked it so much, bought it

*re-watching it, it’s still good but there are ALOT of plotholes that I didn’t notice the 1st time

*why does he and Lena Hedley have to hide in that closet backstage at his play?  Who were they hiding from?

*why does reading that passage from Romeo & Juliet make him go running to Louise?  And where did it come from?  Did it fall out of her bag?  Was there a passage of time and she dropped it off later?

*towards the end of the movie time goes by really fast, months go by in minutes and it’s kinda hard to keep up…

*so he takes the umbrella back to the bar, gives it back to the redhead, who then gives it to the musician, who later, while working as an usher for the theatre where they hold the BAFTA’s, he gives it to Lena Hedley…was the musician’s dream come true to work as a usher for the BAFTA’s?

*there’s a lot of potential here, another re-write could have tightened things up…like it might have made more sense it the piano player was the one pulling the strings…

*he randomly ends up on a BBC sitcom…since he knew the future, couldn’t have he had manipulated it somehow to get on the show, not just randomly get the show?  Did being with Louise help him get the part?  If there is an overall point I didn’t see it…

*and the alternate title “The Man with Rain in his Shoes” what does that even mean?  The other alternate title was “If Only…” which is slightly better…

*anyway, still a great film but not a perfect “hidden gem” as I thought the first time i saw it…

*and seriously what’s with all the smoking?  Did the director have some kind of fetish?  Or the cinematographer?  Even people in the background are constantly smoking…it got kind of gross frankly

Africa Screams 1949

*Abbott and Costello spoof safari documentaries

*co-starring a couple of future Stooges

=================

The Revenge of Frankenstein 1958

*Svengoolie

*Peter Cushing

*Hammer Films!

*sequel to “The Curse of Frankenstein”

*with Sylvia Trench!

*Svengoolie did a pretty funny gag with the “Sven Hill” (Benny Hill) spoof!

*Cushing is pretty spry here, which is funny having seen him acting in these movies in his later years

*Dr. Frankenstein disguising himself as “Dr. Stein” - pretty brilliant

*as pointed out by Svengoolie, it was a lame ending…bit I liked it otherwise…

*although Frankenstein was killed, his protege took out his brain and put it in another body so then that body inherited Peter Cushing’s face?

==================

Goldfinger 1964

*again

*recorded a bunch of Sean Connery Bond films, I assume they were shown as a tribute to Connery (but not necessarily as it seems to be a fall tradition of showing marathons of Bond movies on cable)

*I kind FF’d through Dr. No and From Russia with Love, seen them before and frankly, I’ve never really “got” Bond, even though I’ve tried many times, re-watched the movies over and over…

*Funny though how Bond came out mostly fully formed…with Dr. No there was no cold open, just right into the funky credits, and in From Russia with Love, there was a cold open but it was introducing Robert Shaw’s character (in fact Bond doesn’t show up until 15 minutes into the movie) but Bond pretty much was Bond from the start…

*Goldfinger is the 1st to have Bond in the cold open, then the credits…plus to me it’s just a more enjoyable overall movie…there’s even a fun golf sequence, of all things…

*plus I have fond memories of seeing this at the TCM Film Festival (I believe it was a Sunday morning) at the Grumman’s Chinese Theatre…

*”No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!”…

*”Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus…” my instinct was to assume this was a Monty Python homage but the Pythons didn’t come around until 5 years later…

*so Goldfinger sends Oddjob to kill the Solo gangster with a gunshot to the chest while he gassed the other gangsters…why not just kill Solo with gas with the others?  Seems like busy-work to me…

*they smash up Solo’s car but did they get the gold out of the trunk first?

*the tropes of “man-forces-kiss-onto-unwilling-woman-who-ends-up-willing” “all-she-needed-was-a-strong-man-to-show-her-the-way” crap is infuriating…

*so Pussy Galore just wants to get rich, but Bond forces a kiss on her and she turns full babyface…okay…

*so watching this again, a lot of questions just from this scene…Felix is watching Bond but sees him with Pussy and figures he’s goofing off and leaves…Bond forces a kiss (and who knows what else) on Pussy and between the last few seconds of this scene and the start of the next scene, theoretically Pussy helped Bond calls the Army, explains to them Goldfinger’s complicated plans, they switched the gas on the planes and the Army at the base told all the soldiers to fake being knocked out by the gas…so how long was it between those two scenes?  An hour?  A day?  Did they have time for a rehersal?

*the final battle is cool but takes too long to get to the point…

*and when the clock stops with 7 seconds left…nice

*looking ahead at the schedule, they are showing all the Bonds not just the Connery films so I’m guessing it was a coincidence, or, again, the winter tradition of showing all the Bonds in a row

Entrapment 1999

*been a lot of Sean Connery movies on cable lately…

*again, but not since it came out

*I remember seeing his in a cheap movie theatre in Vancouver when it came out…actually I think it was New Westminster, they had all day matinees for $2 a ticket…I saw lots of movies when I lived near that theatre…

*this was one of those movies people kind of rolled their eyes at, with near 70-year old Connery cast alongside 30 year old Catherine Zeta-Jones as love interests…but then who doesn’t love a heist film?

*from what I remember, the love story wasn’t that much of a big deal (as opposed to “In the Line of Fire” with Clint Eastwood and Rene Russo and from minute one Eastwood is flirting with Russo)…let’s see if I remembered properly…

*around this time I remember having a huge crush on Zeta-Jones (mostly due to “The Mask of Zorro”, if I remember correctly…but then I wasn’t the only one, as she was in many, many movies after this and to me was over-exposed…or I’m just fickle…

*I had two goldfish that I named after my two crushes at the time…”Zeta” and “Buffy”…but what about this film?

*Ving Rhames plays kind of a bad guy which is kinda strange after seeing him in “Out of Sight”, the “Mission Impossible” movies, etc.  Strange seeing as he was Marcellus Wallace in “Pulp Fiction”…

*so it’s not a passionate relationship, but she spends most of the movie making goo-goo eyes at Connery and he keeps telling her to keep it professional…not sure which option is worse, really…

*a heist based on the Millennium bug…have there been more of these?  Seems like a perfect opportunity to do some heist-y goodness…

*good stuff until the end when it gets to be predictable shooty-shooty bang-bang jumping-off-buildings-and-surviving stuff…

*and too long as well

======================

Hollywood Party 1934

*so they hype Laurel and Hardy, but they don’t show up until 53 minutes into the movie

*and we see the Three Stooges but they go uncredited…

*this movie had lots of uncredited directors (including George Stevens) and James Wong Howe as cinematographer

*includes a Mickey Mouse appearance and a technicolour cartoon that really sticks out on a black and white movie

*the cartoon is about chocolate soldiers (literally) going to war with gingerbread soldiers and was probably the best thing in the whole movie…

*there were some large, elaborate Busby Berkley style musical numbers too, or someone copying his style

Mouline Rouge 1952

*Jose Ferrer was always been a favourite of mine since I watched Cyrano de Bergerac as a kid

*but it’s weird that this movie is called “Moulin Rouge” when it’s really a Toulouse-Lautrec biography with little time spent in the actual Moulin Rouge

*I didn’t really care about his upbringing or his love life honestly

*I was surprised to see Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing…was this made by Hammer Films?

*Cushing doesn’t show up until around 1:45 into the movie…I’ve only seen Lee once so far (I think…he’s hiding behind a beard…)

*it became more interesting to me how they filmed Ferrer to look shorter than the others…

*one scene where Ferrer was walking down the street, is was all done in closeup then he walks past a carriage and on the other side, the wide shot, they had a dwarf walk out wearing his clothes…very well done…

*I’m more impressed when they do these techniques in older movies, as opposed to Gary Sinese in Forrest Gump or John Leguizamo in the other Moulin Rouge…

*and Zsa Zsa Gabor is in this!  I wasn’t sure she actually was an actress, I thought maybe she was one of those people who were famous for being famous…long before Youtube or Instagram stars…I thought she was famous for being her sister’s sister, and later slapping that cop and going to jail…

*Ferrer got three Oscar nominations, all for playing French men, after being born in Puerto Rico…cool!

*Can-can!!!

Zero Dark Thirty 2012

*again, not since it came out

*in my memory, Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director for this and not “The Hurt Locker” but after looking it up I had them flipped

*good movie but I FFd through the torture scenes…not something I needed to watch again (or ever)

*pretty sure this was the first time I knew who Jessica Chasten was (I’ve never seen “The Help” which I think was her “breakout role”)

*was surprised Mark Strong, Chris Pratt, Mark Duplass, James Gandolfini, Jennifer Ehle and especially John Barrowman were in this…

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When We Were Kings 1996

*again, but not for a long time

*kinda shocking to me I haven’t seen this in a long time, as I love this movie

*such a great doc, covers boxing, politics, music, Ali, Foreman, Don King…one of the all time best

*interesting to see among the talking heads are Norman Mailer and George Plimpton “wax poetic” about this subject…

*amazing how much footage there is, and if someone was filming all this footage, how come it took until 1996 to release this doc…they might have explained this early on and I may have missed it…or it’s a compilation of footage from a bunch of different places…either way…

*something I just noticed…during the concerts they don’t show any (or very little) crowd footage, almost seems like the acts were just performing for themselves to keep themselves entertained…maybe?

*mostly just a doc about how amazing Ali was, how charismatic he was, and, as they say in the doc, he just seemed to be a genuine person and someone you’d want to be around…

*but the doc also shows how “clueless” (if that’s the right word) Foreman was of African culture and also didn’t want to learn about showmanship compared to Ali…which is ironic as Foreman seemingly “learned his lesson” and later on he became more like Ali

*crazy that Ali fought 22 more times after this

*one of those movies where you don’t turn it off right away, you watch the credits, listen to the soundtrack, let it happen, let the movie’s impact register, almost like you don’t want it to end…

*“Ali Bomaye!”

Born in Flames 1983 TCM Underground

*interesting to see Kathryn Bigelow as an actress

*an early role for Eric Bogosian

*had never heard the term “Afrofuturism” before today…

*movie is about (if I got this right) a futuristic America where “equality” was won in a war ten years ago, but it’s not a reality and the struggle by women and minorities to fight back inside the “fake socialist state”

“suppression of feminism by introducing the concept of wages for housework…”

The Fog 1980 TCM Underground

*by John Carpenter

*after doing some research, I see Carpenter himself didn’t think this movie was all that great…

*“this celebration tonight is a travesty…we’re honouring murderers…” I thought this tool place in California, not the Deep South…

*cool seeing Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh in a movie together

The Hurt Locker 2009

*again, but not since it came out

*I had totally forgotten this won Best Picture…I remembered that Jeremy Renner got nominated for Best Actor

*now that I look it up a remember assuming Avatar would win but not really caring, as none of the 10 movies nominated didn’t “lit my fire” so to speak…my favourite of the group was definitely “Up”, and I liked “District 9” and “Up in the Air”…have never seen “Precious”, “An Education” or “The Blind Side”

*and I remember this was the 1st year they opened things up and had potentially up to 10 nominees for Best Picture…

*I was happy Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director, though…especially since she beat James Cameron…although (as mentioned in the Zero Dark Thirty review) I thought she had won for that film and not this…this is a better movie IMHO so it all worked out!

Cutthroat Island 1995

*finally

*yeah this is bad…confirmed!

*it’s no Pirates of the Caribbean (the 1st one was great, I think I saw the 2nd one…) 

*how does looking at a giant hand with numbers on it reveal to Geena Davis “LONGITUDE!”

*Modine preforms surgery, he has tools inside her stomach the whole time and once she goes “ouch!”…that must be some strong brandy to dull the pain…

*script is bad, but also surprisingly similar to the “Pirates of…” script…only better as if someone studied the “Cutthroat…” script and figures out why it was so terrible…

*so, like cop movies in the 80’s, there is an unlimited amount of cannonballs…

*yup bad movie…and not even bad in a good way…just bad

A Nutcracker Christmas 2016

*mostly watched this to see Katherine Barrell (Officer Haught from Wynonna Earp)

*also to see Sascha Radetsky from Centre Stage and what he’s up to

*apparently Amy Acker was a ballerina as a kid but then suffered a knee injury…had no idea

*okay so Kat Barrell’s character dies ten minutes into the movie…lame…if I was rating this movie on a scale of one-to-ten this would be -100…

*not sure how, but I knew before I looked it up that this movie was filmed in Toronto…so easy to distinguish a movie filmed in Toronto with one filmed in Vancouver once you know what to look for…

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The Trip to Spain 2017

*again

*saw trailers for “Band Aid” and “Wakefield”, two movies I’d never heard of but they look good, I want to watch them!

*love these friggin movies…

*I’ve never really longed for travelling to Europe (I’ve always wanted to see North America first) but seeing these movies makes me want to go explore there…the first time I watched one of these movies, as soon as I was done I looked up “Euro-rail passes”

*this movie might actually be the best of the 1st three (I haven’t seen the 4th one yet), as they don’t really on impressions as much and start doing skits (like the one about the Spanish Inquisition as a game show)

*only bad part is the cliffhanger ending…was just…random…

The Undertaker and His Pals 1967 TCM Underground

*bad

*one of those movies that prove it’s not always good that anyone can make a movie…some people probably shouldn’t have been able to…

Time Bandits 1981

*finally

*one of those movie blindspots for me…just never seen it before despite being a huge Monty Python fan…

*another movie pet peeve…when someone says “We got 30 seconds!” or whatever, and they do that thing in what is clearly longer than the time stated…when they say that here, it clearly takes at least 90 seconds…

*interesting in their portrayals…Robin Hood seems like a bit of a dope and Agememnon is a cool dude…

*I have to admit I didn’t really “get” this movie, which is really disappointing…especially with how’s it’s been hyped my whole life

*I started getting into it more when they reached the Castle of Evil…typical amazing design work for Terry Gilliam but up to that point I was kind of bored…

*it was written by Gilliam and Michael Palin so I guess I thought it would be funnier…it’s pretty much played straight, which is strange with Palin involved…although Gilliam has to be the 6th funniest Python, right?

*so the kid’s parents get killed in the end…is this supposed to be a happy ending?  I guess for a Terry Gilliam movie, it kinda is…

*I do love the idea of the six dwarves representing the six personalities of the Pythons…it gives everything they do a little big extra…

*I still have to see Jabberwocky and now I’m afraid to as I don’t want to be disappointed…

Motel Hell 1980 TCM Underground

*Rory Calhoun!  Wolfman Jack!  John Ratzenberger!

*so…is this attempted rapist of a sheriff our good guy?  The person we’re supposed to be rooting for?

*okay some random guy escapes and is he the guy we’re supposed to be rooting for?

*nope, it’s the sheriff- guy…

*so tonights TCM Underground theme is cannibalism, apparently, with this and “The Undertaker and his Pals”

*pretty good chainsaw fight in the end…I’m guessing they needed to put a giant pig head on Rory Calhoun’s stunt double to make the big action sequence look, well, credible?

*”My whole life’s been a lie…I used…preservatives…” pretty good last words…

*the girl in the movie, Terry, in the end suggest they just burn the house down cause “it’s evil”…or they could do an investigation, get answers and closure for all the dead people’s loved ones…but sure, burn down the evil ol’ house…

*pretty good satire of horror movies…could’ve used more Wolfman Jack…he’s kinda wasted…

*wondering if this was Rory Calhoun’s last movie but no, he kept working…in fact he was in “Hell Comes to Frogtown”!!!

=================

The Wedding Wish 2007

*interested in early-Katee Sackoff, around the time she was ending her Battlestar Gallactica run (I think)

*bad movie, only kept watching due to the fact I saw that it was filmed in Regina and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan…

*filmed at Albert E Peacock Collegiate in Moose Jaw, I saw more into researching this aspect than watching the movie…

*interesting trivia: Katee Sackoff talked a lot (after Battlestar) about how much she hated Vancouver, yet she spends a lot of time filming there (and Canada in general), and is engaged to someone from Vancouver…isn’t it ironic?

Harum Scarum 1965

*Elvis!

*five minutes in, Elvis is on his 2nd song, if you don’t count the opening theme song…(if so then it’s the 3rd song)…

*lots of songs in this one

*the little girl is cute but her dancing is a little weird

*Billy Barty!

*Elvis didn’t like this movie, so…

Dodge City 1939 Western

*again

*still a great movie

*still an awesome saloon brawl

*funny that Ann Sheridan is 3rd billed but is barely in the movie

Blood on the Moon 1948 Western

*again

*still a great movie

*Mitchum is probably the best guy for this role

*the villain is played by Robert Preston, the friggin Music Man himself, which somehow makes me think of the Simpsons line “It’s more of a Shelbyville idea…”

*the love interest in the movie is Barbara Bel Geddes who played friggin Miss Ellie on Dallas!

*always great to see Walter Brennan!

================

The Scalphunters 1968 Western

*again

*still awesome

*funny how all of a sudden, Dabney Coleman is part of Telly Savalas’ group…

Valley Girl 2020

*a juke box musical remake of the original

*actually finished filming in 2017 but release was delayed for 3 years because the cast a dickhead in one of the main roles (Logan Paul)

*Randall Park, Judy Greer, Rob Huebel, Thomas Lennon, Nicole Byer are some of the adults in this

*always good to see Mae Whitman

*great soundtrack

*like the slow (at first) version of “Kids in America”

*also wanted to see this since Chloe Bennett is in this, haven’t seen her in anything other than Agents of Shield…apparently this is where her an Logan Paul met and dated for awhile so that sucks…

*and Ashleigh Murray, who played Josie from Josie in the Pussycats on Riverdale is in this too…

*Paul plays a convincing asshole, a role he was of course born to play

*the star, Jessica Rothe, looks ALOT like Melissa Benoist (Supergirl)…

Shenandoah 1965 Western

*again

*an anti-war Civil War film

*youngest is played by Phillip Alford, who played Gem in “To Kill a Mockingbird”

*lots of talking in between action scenes, lots of scenes where Jimmy Stewart gives advice to his kids or significant others of his kids; you’d think Stewart was paid by the word…

*George Kennedy!

*still an awesome movie but I definitely noticed more talk-talky stuff, all by Jimmy Stewart, this time around

Tremors 1990

*again for the millionth time…

*one of those movies I will always watch when it’s on

================

Jewel of the Nile 1985

*again, but not for a long time

*sequel to Romancing the Stone, which one of my old screenwriting teachers used as an example of a perfect script (or at least the opening few scenes)…from what I remember, this movie isn’t quite as good

*some good lines “How much romance can a girl take?”

*”No sheep is safe tonight”

*kinda just focused on the Michael Douglas, Danny Devito scenes as they have good chemistry, the stuff with Kathleen Turner is fine but it’s just her and she has no one to act off of or react to here, at least not at first

*so then around 35 minutes in, they switch partners, Douglas and Turner are reunited and then Devito goes off on his own…

*Douglas and Turner then start bickering, which is weird as their break up seemed very amicable before…

*pretty fun when they are driving a jet around…

*but apparently jets are very flammable

*it’s strange, as the Turner character, at the end of the 1st movie, seemed to become for badass, in fact she fought the bad guy in the end while Douglas was chasing a crocodile (I think), yet in the opening scene of this movie, the pirate fantasy sequence, she picks up a sword to fight but then is always yelling “Help Jack!”…if she broke up with him and wanted to go off alone on an adventure, that’s fine…she goes on an adventure but always needs him to save her…

*wait, is Turner walking around barefoot?  Through the mountains and over rocks?  Her shoes must be flesh coloured or something, there’s no way she’s barefoot…maybe she is badass after all…

*no she’s wearing shoes…they are clearly there when she screws up jumping on the train and has to scream for Jack to save her and they get caught…yes to the shoes, no to the badass…

*weird lack of music in the last scene, almost silent…I thought maybe one of my speakers stopped working

*perfect example: in the last scene the bad guy is threatening Turner, he asks her “Who will save you now?” and Douglas swoops in and saves her…kinda lame…

*read on Wikipedia they are looking to reboot this (like all things) and the only way it would probably work today is if they switched roles and the dude is the writer…

*the theme song, “When the Going Gets Tough” by Billy Ocean, featuring Michael Douglas, Danny Devito and Kathleen Turner dancing in the music video, is probably more enjoyable than the movie, really…and it seems like they had more fun with the video too…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n3sUWR4FV4

Western Union 1941

*again, although I have no memory of what this is about, other than what I can guess from the title…

*funny comedic subplot about a cowardly cook who keeps trying to get away but can’t

*Randall Scott in a movie about how Western Union conquered America, basically

*pretty good although not totally historically accurate, as no one was against it, except in this movie…but whatever it’s a good Western

================

A Sunday Kind of Love 2015

*indie Canadian film starring Melanie Scrofano that was crowdfunded on Indiegogo

*just watched this because of Scrofano, really

*lots of walking and talking through Toronto

*dude is approached by Death, is told he’s going to die, but she takes a liking to him and stretches out his last day so she can enjoy life a bit

*lots of debating about life, legacies…

*he kisses her too early in the film, could have stretched that out…should have waited until after breaking up with the girlfriend

*he keep telling her to quit her job, did I miss her saying that was even possible?  Can Death quit?

*is the message that kids these days just think too much about stuff?

*there are a couple of times in this movie when the dude gets up and walks off, leaving his bag with his laptop inside…NEVER happens in real life…and frankly once it did, I already didn’t like him, regardless of when he cleated on his girlfriend…just irresponsible

*so dude goes and impregnates his girlfriend (I think; it happens of screen) and then finds Death as it’s his time to die, then she contradicts everything she’s said so far, lets him live, and then will get fired and then will “take his place” so he gets to live…weird ending

*watching this in 2020 is funny, so the message of this is that two cool women are sacrificing/giving up things for this completely average white dude…movie gets a side-eye from 2020 for sure

*nice little Canadian indie rom com that is kind of a rip off of “It’s a Wonderful Life” but it also wouldn’t be the first to do that so…

Never Say Never Again 1983

*finally

*initially wrote “again” but after about twenty minutes, I realized I have never seen this movie before, which is kinda strange

*maybe it’s not included in the usual Bond marathons because of it’s “unofficial Bond” title

*directed by Irvin Kershner!

*weird with no big credits sequence, a different M, a different Moneypenny, a different Q, a black Felix…

*plus they keep the names of the other characters Largo, Domino but not Fatima

*funny how about 35 minutes in, Spectre hijacks two nukes, which would normally be in the cold open…this movie takes a while to get where it’s going…

*I like Fatima as a villain and was sad when she died…she had a distinct energy…apparently she was nominated for a Golden Globe for this role!

*Rowan Atkinson in a Bond movie!

*Max Von Sydow as Blofeld!

*and then there’s Kim Basinger…

*and Bond has an actual sex scene in this…aren’t these scenes usually just implied and mostly happen off camera?

*funny how this is a remake of Thunderball which, from what I hear, isn’t one of the better Bond movies (I think I fell asleep during one of those underwater sequences) but of course it’s not like they had the rights to “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” or any of the other Bonds…

*one of those weird movie anomolies, Bond being made by Warner Bros…like if Sony released a Batman movie…

*looking up the reviews, not a lot of love for this movie but I liked it…

*although really people probably hate it for that one scene where Bond wears overalls…gotta be the reason…

==============

Tomorrow is Another Day 1951 Noir Alley

*again, apparently

*got deja vu just as I started watching this…

*the main character has been in jail since he was a kid, and he acts like his brain hasn’t developed in any of that time 

*hiding out in the car trailer to get out of town is a pretty good idea…

*this love story, like all good romances, started with him trying to force himself on her, possibly rape her if she hadn’t got away…such romantics these Hollywood types…

*they have seemingly escaped but he gets paranoid, so she shoots him…he probably had it coming…

*but he didn’t die and somehow, they are both innocent…weird

*a happy ending in a noir?  weird

*she could do better

*Eddie Muller’s ending: she shoots and kills the dude, but then it’s revealed that the police weren’t chasing them after all

*Steve Cochran, the star, apparently had a more exciting life than this movie…

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism 2007

*a movie about movie critics

*kind of an interesting subject, made around the time when the medium of film criticism was undergoing a massive shift towards the internet

*actually had no idea of the Pauline Kael vs. Andrew Sarris feud

*in my personal opinion, film criticism died with Roger Ebert…I can’t even remember the last time I actually read a movie review since Ebert died, but that could be me being lazy…

*I have tried finding a podcast that helped me keep up with current movies, with the one that I’ve listened to the most being “Filmspotting” but even then, it can get a little pretentious when it comes to reviewing blockbusters, particularly the Marvel movies

*I only use Rotten Tomatoes when there are five movies to choose from to watch and I go on there to see the consensus, but even then that isn’t always the ultimate decision maker…just a tool to help me make a decision… 

*anyway what about this movie?  It was cool seeing people like Richard Corliss, Lisa Schwartzbaum and other reviewers who I used to read; Elvis Mitchell is said to have walked away from film reviewing and is “now” a filmmaker but from what I see on Wikipedia he’s still listed as a film reviewer; as opposed to Richard Schickel who I actually know more as a documentary filmmaker than a critic

*and seeing former Golden Boy of all things digital media, Harry Knowles and seeing how he turned out…

*and towards the end of the movie, it seems the director (Gerald Peary also a critic) is seeing bad things on the horizon for film criticism…and he was right!

*nice nostalgia but kind of a bummer, since we know how things turned out…

==================

Whiplash 2014

*finally

*just watched this to see Melissa Benoist in a role other than Supergirl or Glee

*been putting off watching this since it came out, I don’t really like the idea of the message being that in order to inspire greatness you have to be an asshole…

*the scenes when JK Simmons is being emotionally abusive to his students are hard to watch and I ended up FFing through them…I like watching scenes like that like I enjoy watching scenes where people are being tortured…I have no need for it in my life

*Iike I said, this concept of being an asshole/torturer to people to inspire greatness, whether it’s being a hockey coach or film director or music teacher, I think is BS and frankly why I stopped pursuing trying to be a director is that I was told “to be  great director you have to be an asshole…” and I had no interest in that…or I was lazy, one of the two…

*but then again maybe it’s true…I’m just not that person…

*but anyways, I have never seen this wide-eyed evil from JK Simmons, when he was on Oz he was a pretty laid back evil, so this is new and I can see why he won the Oscar

*not really a Miles Teller fan so there’s that…

*and Melissa Benoist was great in a small role, I thought it would be bigger as she is 3rd billed…Paul Reiser actually has a bigger role as Teller’s dad (and did a great job too)…

*Benoist I actually almost didn’t recognize as she looked as very “plain” as could be which was the role and those were great choices with her hair, wardrobe and (lack of) makeup…and it was great how her character stood up for herself to Teller…and glad her character didn’t end up with Teller as she could definitely do better…

*anyway, never gonna see this again…but I can see why people gave it so much acclaim when it came out…I respect the movie but disagree with the message…

Dutch 1991

*again but not since it came out

*I remember watching this as a kid, and not really liking it at the time, but let’s give it another shot

*I saw this show up online in some list about the best holiday/Thanksgiving movies and it was on cable so I thought what the heck…

*happy/goofy Ed O’Neil is kind of strange, after being grumpy on “Married with Children” and “Modern Family”

*the kid, Ethan Embry, is a real dick but it’s funny seeing him as a kid, I didn’t remember that he was in this and I think of him as a teen from “That Thing You Do” or “Empire Records” or “Can’t Hardly Wait”

*apparently O’Neil and Embry re-teamed later for a modern version of “Dragnet” in 2003 which I knew but didn’t get the “Dutch” connection…not sure I’d want these two characters solving crimes…

*as for this movie, I still don’t like it…he leaves the kid on the side of the road in the middle of the night and literally just leaves him there, goes to a hotel and waits for him…at that point after hating Embry I kind of flipped and started hating the O’Neil character…what a dick

*just not funny or emotional, John Hughes is ripping off his own concept from “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”…

*funny seeing EG Daily in this, as I just saw her in the “Valley Girl” remake…purely by coincidence

*also with Ari Meyers who was on “Kate and Allie” and I think I had a crush on back then…

Postman’s Knock 1962

*Spike Milligan!

*I’ve heard so much about the Goons and Spike Milligan in particular from being a Monty Python fan, yet unfortunatley there isn’t much out there to watch…so when I saw this I jumped at it…

*but well, it’s not that great, standard country bumpkin in the big city stuff, lots of slapstick…

*a character is called “Fordyce” which I note is the same name as Peter Cushing’s character on “Cash on Demand”, which was said constantly in that movie, but I thought the person was saying “Four-Eyes”…just something I noted…so apparently this movie isn’t capturing my attention…

*a young John Wood plays a deputy who is trailing the Milligan character…Wood played Dr. Falken in “War Games” among other things

Hero at Large 1980

*John Ritter in a super hero movie

*funny opening scene where it looks like Ritter’s girlfriend is telling him she’s pregnant but really they are actors going over lines for an audition

*Ritter is an actor (one of many) hired to go to local theatres and portray Captain Avenger to promote a movie coming out and while wearing the costume he stops bad guys

*it starts out being spontaneous and turns into a publicity stunt…etc.

*some good stuff but not great…

Man in the Moon 1999

*again but not since it came out

*I remember not liking it that much but could be because I knew a lot about the material…maybe

*part of it was that I couldn’t see Andy Kaufman, just Jim Carrey pretending to be Kaufman

*start off great, with him pretending the movie is actually over, playing the credits, then just goes into a “normal movie”

*so he bombs at at club, then without any explanation, he goes to another club and is amazing…why?  How did he get so good?  What inspired him?  How did he figure out the foreigner character?  It’s great stuff but it’s weird…

*then suddenly he’s on the 1st episode of SNL, and has figured out the Mickey Mouse gag…how?  Did he just pull it out of his ass?  

*People criticised the Chaplin movie for portraying how Chaplin came up with the Tramp character, but at least it was something!

*then he gets Taxi…this movie is flying by!

*amazing watching Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Christopher Lloyd, Carol Kane as their Taxi characters, they don’t look that much different than when they actually did the show…although it would have been super meta if Danny Devito had appeared as himself, weird that they didn’t do that…

*then suddenly he’s doing sold out shows (well half-attended shows) and that is at least plausible after being on a hit show but again this show is going by quickly…

*according to the executive producer of Taxi, the stuff about Tony Clifton/Andy being unprofessional is pure BS so that’s stupid

*at least they seem to explain how he came up with the idea of wrestling women, kinda

*so Kaufman “just shows up” in Memphis and…well I don’t know how to digest this, they do reveal later that it was all a “work”, to use pro wrestling lingo, but I guess it’s well done…

*so what really happened was Kaufman wanted to do his act in Madison Square Garden for the WWWF, but Vince Sr. wanted nothing to do with it, and really no promoters did, so he had to settle for Memphis, more because Jerry Lawler knew it would be great publicity for himself, not Kaufman

*and I love when they have Lawler and Kaufman talk to each other in the middle of the ring in an arena with screaming people and everyone can hear them…this is why wrestlers are always holding microphones, people

*and when Kaufman wrestles Lawler…okay why is Jim Ross doing the announcing when Lance Russel IS RIGHT THERE?  

*still good to see Russell though, and funny how Lawler de-aged a lot with some hair dye and a fake goatee

*and seemingly at this point Kaufman and Courtney Love are a couple…why?  WTF does she see in him?  Why are they together?

*and why are they playing the Rocky theme music?  Was the music library cheap?  I know composers rip off other artists but could they not afford a new soundtrack?  It’s so weird…

*and then Lorne Michaels does the “vote Andy off” the show thing (which isn’t historically accurate btw), when was he on SNL doing the wrestling gimmick?  He did that on “Merv” and then they did the montage…when was he on SNL after the 1st episode?

*so later DeVito calls Andy to tell him Taxi has been cancelled…he was still on Taxi during all this?  So he was doing Taxi, SNL and wrestling all at the same time?  They could have made that more clear…

*I do love the ending with even his own family not believing that he has cancer, and him laughing at the irony that he got “duped” while looking for a cure…although I got that through reading the Wikipedia plot description, the movie itself was vague as to what was happening and why he was laughing

*and after he dies, it goes “One Year Later” at the Andy tribute at the Comedy Store where Tony Clifton performs, and we’re to assume it’s Paul Giamatti’s Bob Zmuda, then the camera pans the crowd and we see Zmuda in the crowd watching…nice moment but really, WTF?  In the movie, they portray Andy’s death as real, his wife is upset at the funeral, and she’s alway portrayed as someone who was never “in on it”…so are we supposed to believe that Andy faked his death?  That makes no sense in the world that this movie is showing us…I get being “ambiguous” but that just is dumb…

*plus, again, thanks to the Wikipedia page, it’s explained that that last scene takes place at an Andy tribute show but that’s never explained either…neither is the fact that, from what I’ve seen in documentaries about Andy, that he vowed he would return (I’d have to look it up to be sure, but I think I remember the legend being that he would return exactly one year after his death to perform as Clifton at the Comedy Store but I’m not 100% sure) but they never mention anything like that in the movie…so the ending is just confusing…

*and they never reference the Freddie Blassie “My Dinner with Freddie” movie…I understand it’s a movie and it couldn’t be 3 hours long but still…

*and would Lawler have gone to Andy’s funeral?  Wouldn’t that have broken kayfabe?

*anyway, yeah I still don’t like this movie…there are parts that are great but overall it’s kind of a mess

Cable Guy 1996

*finally

*just one of those movies that I always was told it sucked, yet some people think it’s brilliant…and life is too short to watch movies I could possibly not like so why bother?  But what the hell, it’s on cable, must be a sign…

*lots of younger versions of people who are big stars today like David Cross, Jack Black, Bob Odenkirk, Leslie Mann, Kyle Gass, Judd Apatow…

*so…this isn’t funny…it’s just not…or scary

=============

Waking Ned Devine 1998

*again

*still a great movie

Dusty and Sweets McGee 1971 TCM Underground

*made with real people, not actors, so they are basically playing (sort of) fictionalized versions of themselves

*so weird this was made by Warner Bros

The Social Network 2010

*again but not since it came out

*one of those movies that glorifies assholes, so not my thing, didn’t really like it when I first saw it, had no reason to watch it again, but it’s reputation has grown in stature over the years (not that it wasn’t huge at the time, getting 8 Oscar nominations), and it’s on cable so what the hell…

*opening scene with Rooney Mara, I can barely hear what they are saying, the dialogue is good but hard to hear, which sucks cause I know this is an important scene…

*and is this the only time we see Mara? I don’t remember…

*written by Aaron Sorkin, directed by David Fincher…this movie was going to be loved by certain people even if it was three house of people reading a phone book…so there’s that…

*so Facebook already exists when the movie starts

*Andrew Garfield “maybe we should shut it down before we get into trouble…” not maybe we should shut it down cause you’re assholes?

*yep Rooney Mara, she’s in it more…

*Rashida Jones!

*so cloning Armie Hammer…kinda weird, like Fincher is showing off…he couldn’t have cast two actors who are twins?

*lots of time jumping…let’s see how confusing this gets…

*the scene in the “bike room”, the audio is again terrible…

*Malese Jow is in this, I guess she’s Zuckerberg’s “groupie”…she later played Linda Park/Dr. Light on The Flash…

*man Zuckerberg’s a dick…

*Justin Timberlake playing Sean Parker (inventor of Napster) is kind of funny

*some great exchanges of dialogue here and there, and it “settles down” a bit in the storytelling, easier to follow…

*President of Harvard is a dick too…

*the audio is terrible in any scene in a restaurant, club…the scene with JT and Eisenberg in the club is horrible, it should have been subtitled like “Trainspotting”…I guess it could be the cable station, almost want to buy the DVD and see if it’s bad there…

*Zuckerberg, IRL, said he didn’t make Facebook to get girls he did it cause he likes building things…no clearly he made Facebook cause he hates girls…

*Sorkin is quoted “What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy’s sake…” with all due respect f*ck you…

*so is there a point in showing that Garfield’s girlfriend is crazy?  Is it just to show another icky girl?

*women are lightly sprinkled through the story and the few that seem intelligent (Mara, Jones, Dakota Johnson’s brief appearance, in her underwear no less) they still are there to insight incidents for the main (male) characters…Jones’ last scene of the movie, her character’s main objective is to make Zuckerberg seem like an okay guy if he just stopped trying to be an asshole…he asks her out on a date and she doesn’t say no, she says she can’t…big difference there

*apparently there is a movie in the works with Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg and I would be interested in that, even if it just the same movie but with women in the main roles and dudes in their underwear…

*it is a great movie, but not as great (IMHO) as people say it is…it’s been compared to Citizen Kane, which, as far as quality level is a joke but I can see it if people are comparing Charles Foster Kane to Zuckerberg…plus did Orson Welles want Kane to, in the last scene, be portrayed as a “not so bad guy” after all?  I think the flaw in the movie is that they want the cliche “their cake and eat it to” where they want to show the business side of this stuff but that Zuckerberg is redeemable, that all he wanted was to be accepted and have friends…maybe so they didn’t get sued?

*and I resent that Sorkin doesn’t think the truth is that big of a deal, and that a lot of people seem to think that these days…the idea of “if you want the real story, watch a documentary about it”…if you can’t write a movie about a real person without turning it into fiction, then don’t write about real people…

*that being said, if they do make a sequel I’d like to see it, a lot has happened in the meantime…

Marie Antoinette 2006

*finally

*always interested in anything Sofia Coppola does although I’ve heard this isn’t her best work

*Steve Coogan!

*Rip Torn!

*Molly Shannon!

*Danny Huston!

*not a big fan of the soundtrack…I like when a movie like “A Knight’sTale” has modern music but a “historical” movie like this I don’t think it fits

*it’s a kind of movie where things just happen and we’re expected to follow along, which is fine but I wonder how people who have no historical context react to this movie…

*beautifully shot movie, costumes look great but again, just like with “The Social Network”, they are playing with history…isn’t history interesting enough?  I am baffled how people want to make a movie about a historical figure but then want to play it loose with their lives, timelines of events…etc.  Why?  Why not just make a movie about Josie Smith and do whatever you want?  Make up fictional characters that you create and do that…just so strange to me…I just don’t get it…

*anyway beautiful movie but kind of shallow, not much to it…I’ll never see this again…

The Burglar 1957 Noir Alley

*Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield and Martha Vickers (Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep)

*burglars have to lay low after a heist and the cabin fever and paranoia get to them…

*some over the top hand-acting in this!

*it all builds to a chase through an amusement park which is pretty cool

*Eddie Muller points out that the director sure tried to emulate Orson Welles, with the newsreel at the beginning of the movie and the chase at the end…

*I’m just realizing now that somehow, this is the first Jayne Mansfield movie I’ve ever seen!

*and how did I not know that Mansfield is the mother of Mariska Hargitay!

=================

Promised Land 1987

*movie with Meg Ryan, Keifer Sutherland, Tracy Pollan and Jason Gedrick that I’d never heard of before…

*apparently the 1st movie commissioned by the Sundance Institute, with Robert Redford credited as an executive producer

*Meg Ryan after Top Gun, before Interspace, two years before When Harry Met Sally

*weird that they only flash ahead two years, seems like five years minimum has passed…the Gedrick character has already been to college, left, went through training for becoming a police officer, is a cop and, apparently, is up for a promotion…I guess the other characters (Sutherland, Pollan) it’s believable but with him two years doesn’t seem that long

*nice cinematography when Sutherland and Ryan are on their road trip

*what was up with the old men at the gas station?  The one guy with no teeth especially, there’s no way they were actors…they’ve stolen the movie at this point, not sure what more the rest of the movie can give me…

*I assumed this would be a standard reunion movie, with most of the movie being Gedrick and Sutherland hanging out and realizing how their lives have turned out a lot different than they thought they would…but it’s two separate stories that wind up on a collision course so that’s different

*so Ryan freaks out, speeds through a highway construction crew and crashes the car through a barbed wire fence and has a break down…the workers, after recovering, applaud and don’t call the cops…oh did I mention she shot bullets at them?  Yeah that’s realistic…Ryan has a melt down and it seems like she is on drugs rather than she is crazy…to me anyway…

*Meg Ryan watching Keifer cry…watch Ryan’s reactions, it’s like she’s an alien watching this happen to a human for the first time…she cleary has no idea what to do

*Ryan’s character goes full psycho after being kinda kooky for most of the movie…again I thought the car-meltdown thing was about her being on drugs…so Keifer “being a pussy” triggered her?

*in one shot of “dead” Kiefer, he’s clearly taking a breath, is that the only take they had?

*well done story with the two guys “out to prove something” and it builds to that confrontation…

*Gedrick’s “breakdown” scene is kinda bad though

*towards the end, Pollan is outside with wet hair…it’s cold outside, that’s how you catch a cold, madam!  You grew up in a small town you should know better!

*always good to see Tracy Pollan, she is always great and too bad she doesn’t act anymore (or at least very rarely…)

*on a side note, who writes the Wikipedia synopses for movies?  I feel like I’ve learned more about the characters from the write-up than the actual movie, and this has happened a few times…do the writer(s) write them?  Is it just a random person who watched the movie and it’s their interpretation?  Who am I supposed to believe?  Just a thought I had…

==============

Philomena 2013

*by coincidence, another non-fiction movie…

*I had kind of heard of this movie, but then was reminded of it watching a lot of Steve Coogan stuff lately and had been surprised he was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay

==============

Kiss of Death 1947 Noir Alley

*Richard Widmark’s film debut “changed motion pictures forever” according to Eddie Muller

*he got nominated for Best Supporting Actor

*also he’s said to have modelled this character after “The Joker” as he was a big Batman fan and later, Frank Gorshin would model “The Riddler” after Widmark…

*Colleen Grey gets to do a rare female voice over in a noir

*with Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Karl Malden, Anthony Ross, Millard Mitchell

*apparently back then if something was filmed “documentary style”, it meant it was “filmed on location”

*the holiday tie-in with this movie (shown 12/19/20) is that there is a robbery attempt early in the movie and it takes place on Christmas Eve…

*Widmark doesn’t get to really “show off” until around 45 minutes into the movie, where he throws a woman out of her wheelchair and down a flight of stairs

*in the end, Mature gets shot three times, and Widmark also gets shot three times but the both survive!  And a happy ending!

*poor Patricia Morison, whose only scenes in the movie were her character getting raped and committing suicide, with both scenes being edited out of the movie due to censorship…

The World is Not Enough 1999

*I remember this is the 1st Bond film I’d seen in theatres, probably the 1st bond film I’d seen all the way through, as I wasn’t really a Bond fan when I was younger…

*just realized I am watching these out of order, “Tomorrow Never Dies” was the 1st Bond movie I saw in theatres, and it came out two years earlier in 1997…I watched a lot of movies in the theatre those days, lots of matinees while I was in college

*despite being thought of as one of the worst Bonds, I really enjoy this movie, good action, it’s got great actors and a fun story…despite what others say…

*Denise Richards aside, the movie has Robert Carlyle, Robbie Coltrane, Sophie Marcheau (whatever happened to her?), John Cleese, Judi Dench, Serena Scott Thomas, Colin Salmon (who played Walter Steele on “Arrow”) and the last appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as “Q” although from what I understand it wasn’t supposed to be, only Llewelyn died in a car accident shortly after the film premiered…

*a fun action sequence to start the film, a long one too, before we see the opening credits

*a great theme song, important for any Bond movie…

*Carlyle and Marceau are a great villain team, with them switching roles from what you would think, and I like that chemistry…him as the cold blooded killer but she is the Lady Macbeth who is manipulating it all…

*people like to dunk on stuff, and also like to dog pile on stuff when others dunk on them, so is Denise Richards really that bad?  Probably but who cares?  Since when is a Bond movie the measuring stick of believability?  Or good acting?

*I like an injured Bond, it helps when he has an “achilles’ heel” so to speak…

*and this is the first Bond movie where M gets involved in the action (but not the last), but she is capable, not just a damsel in distress…

*I like the sequence inside the pipeline…

*those helicopter tree-trimmers are pretty cool…

*kinda gross when Coltrane falls into the Caviar-juice…also, do people eat caviar with sour cream?

*I like it when Bond uses it’s side characters more, like Dench’s M and how Coltrane gets a bad ass moment towards the end…

*admitied silliness: you’d think Bond was The Flash the way he outruns several explosions, fireballs and helicopters…

*pretty funky torture chair

*I like the detail that Marceau’s character is missing half her right ear, and that she enjoys it when Bond is chasing her, I like that energy…too bad she dies soon after…

*don’t like how Marceau dies, Bond just shoots her…he should have left M to guard her, gone after the sub, then M and Marceau could have had one last scene together, with them struggling and M killing Marceau…but it’s a Bond movie, so…

*I guess later Bond needed Marceau to be dead (or at least he needed to know that) so that later he could tell Carlyle that she’s dead…but whatever…he could just lie…

*lots of boats/subs/water in this movie, yet no mention of the fact Bond is a Naval officer 

*people criticize this for a convoluted plot (including Brosnan himself apparently) but I didn’t have a problem following along

*beside a slow middle part, I like this Bond!  I don’t love it, not like how I fell in love with Daniel Craig’s “Casino Royale” when I saw it in the theatre, but enough that I remember looking forward to the new Bond when it came out later…

================

Black Christmas 1974

*again

*great GD movie!

*classic Canadian movie shot in Toronto on a $620,000 budget

Tomorrow Never Dies 1997

*again

*so this was actually the 1st bond movie I saw in a theatre, and enjoyed it but I didn’t love it

*mostly the greatness of Michelle Yeoh shines through

*admittidely at the time, I didn’t get all the stuff about computers ruling the world and Jonathan Pryce ruling the world through the media…but now, that opening scene where World War 3 is almost started due to a screwed up GPS…totally get that!  Been there!

*I also remember people dumping on Teri Hatcher at the time, not as bad as how they dumped on Denise Richards, but still pretty bad…I read a review at the time that said “why would anyone pay to watch Teri Hatcher act?” which was a dick move…

*re-watching it, they could have done more with Stamper, the main henchmen, who actually is the “final boss” of the movie as Pryce dies “Boba Fett” style pretty early in the final fight…Stamper could have been even more bad-ass

=================

Casino Royale 2006

*again

*love this movie, I remember watching it in the theatre and being like “So THIS is why people like Bond movies!”

*just awesome, but a few notes…

*I had forgotten that this started with the black and white stuff, with the new way to have Bond spin and fire at the camera, then it goes into Le Chiffe in Uganda THEN the long, amazing chase sequence…

*I remember laughing out loud in the theatre the 1st time I heard Bond say “Stop touching you’re ear!”

*I remember thinking they wanted to put a new coat of paint on Bond and it was definitely due, after “Die Another Day”…woof…

*I remember Bond calling M “mum” and people being confused, wondering “wait, is she is mother?” which was funny…

*Le Chiffe was an awesome villain, too bad he died…was it a “Boba Fett” type-death?…as in “like a bitch…”

*I remember the gut punch I felt when Le Chiffe was torturing the naked Bond…the sound effects…truly horrifying…

*could have done without the part when Bond is poisoned and has to have Vesper revive him…I guess it shows that she could have let him die but whenever I see that sequence how I just FF…

*nice to see where stuff comes from, like Bond putting on the tuxedo for the first time, and everytime after when you see him wearing the suit, it’s a tribute to her…

*although the whole bit where they explain where the “martini, shaken not stirred” came from is kinda dumb…if it was a drink she came up with that would make sense, but when Bond orders it, it’s like he’s making it up on the spot, and if so, it’s totally random…

*Bond never gets jet lag, eh?

*kinda cool how they get to destroy a whole building in Venice for an action sequence…in this movie, Ocean’s Twelve, The Italian Job…lots of sequences in action movies in Venice!

*nit pick…should they have gotten a different actor to play Mr. White?  He’s pretty plain-jane for such an important role and I think I remember, when watching this in the theatre, in the end wondering “who’s that guy again?”  Maybe that’s the point…I don’t know…not saying Jesper Christensen isn’t awesome, just not sure he fit in this role…

*also interesting there is no “Q”, they saved that for the next movie…I remember that being controversial at the time…

*also they keep mentioning “the organization” which I remember people speculating that this would one day lead to Spectre, which it did, but isn’t it revealed in the next movie that the “organization” is called “Quantum”?…

*but in hindsight, re-watching this, it’s kind of sad that Craig’s Bond never reached these heights again, others may disagree and I am re-watching the others up to Spectre (and will watch the latest Bond whenever it comes out) but I definitely never got that charge of adrenaline from a Bond movie like I did watching Bond in that foot chase…

*Stuart Baird edited this…kind of a legend…I first heard of him due to his involvement with Superman…has been an editor, turned to directing (with US Marshalls, Executive Decision and Star Trek: Nemesis) then went back to editing…

Casino Royale 1967

*again, but not for a long time

*I remember hearing about this as a Bond parody, and hearing that Quentin Tarantino thought this was amazing (if I’m remembering it properly) and so I think I even bought the VHS tape, just based on his recommendation, and then watched it and hated it…

*so in other words, this was one of the 1st times I started to realize maybe Tarantino and I had different tastes in movies

*because I hated this movie…but here we are again, it’s on TCM and I have the opportunity to compare the movies with the same names…who what the hell…

*kinda fun seeing William Holden, John Huston, Charles Boyer and David Niven in the same scene together…

*so the early David Niven/Deborah Kerr section is horrible…why does Niven’s Bond stutter?  Terrible stuff…

*then it kind of gets better when Peter Sellers shows up but that’s not until nearly an hour into the movie; him and Ursula Andress have some funny moments together…

*in the TCM intro, Dave Karger says this movie has nothing in common with the 2006 Daniel Craig movie, other than both having James Bond in them…

*Ursula is playing Vesper Lynd, so the movies so far have that and James Bond in common

*and I heard Le Chiffre mentioned, he’s the character Orson Welles is playing…that’s another thing in common…

*MI-6’s taylor is named Fordyce…yet another character named Fordyce, I never hear this until recently now it seems every 3rd British movie I watch has a character named Fordyce…

*there’s a dance number in this Bond movie…

*oh and I forgot the opening scene with Sellers meeting Mathis, so that’s another thing in common…also looking back at that scene, did they want people to see Sellers and be like…okay once we get through this opening terrible-ness, Sellers will return, right?

*I was wondering why we needed to follow Bond’s daughter, but then she goes to an international spy training school where she meets Ronnie Crobett!!!  Some funny stuff here…

*Bernard Cribbins!!!  Kicking ass!

*Jacqueline Bisset (billed as “Jackie”) as Miss Goodthighs!

*so in this movie, Sellers got to make out with Ursula Andress and Jacqueline Bisset!

*so Le Chiffre needs money so he puts on a cards tournament at Casino Royale, “Bond” shows up, beats him and wins all the money, Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, Bond goes after them, gets tortured (including there being a hole in his chair), Le Chiffre fails to get the money back from Bond, so another bad guy shows up and shoots him between the eyes…so that’s another 8 things that the two movies have in common…

*although there was one weird cut, Sellers gets in a car to go after Vesper (slowly), but then they cut to him already captured by Le Chiffre and about to be tortured…

*so…there’s a random spaceship…

*and there’s Moneypenny…

*oh and Niven isn’t stuttering anymore…

*so Bond and Moneypenny are running down a corridor and it there are a bunch of quick cuts, between Bond and Moneypenny are holding hands, then back and forth, it’s really bad editing and continuity…but then people will just say “it’s a parody!”

*Woody Allen shows up, playing Dr. Noah (get it?) who is the mute (at times) nephew of James Bond…Jimmy Bond

*random Frankenstein monster…

*random cowboys

*random monkey with a blonde wig

*random girls covered in gold paint

*random George Raft…playing himself…

*so this was better than I remembered it being, admittedly I may have just hated that first twenty (or so) minutes so much that I hated the rest by default…but it still wasn’t great, the chaotic final fight was kinda fun but not as good as the final chaotic fight in “Blazing Saddles” was…

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone 2001

*again for the hundredth time

*annual holiday tradition of watching all the Harry Potter movies as they show them on Canada’s sc-fi channel (used to be “Space” now it has a boring name, so boring I can’t be bothered to look it up)

*weird seeing those kids so young…

Quantum of Solace 2008

*again but not since it was in theatres

*so a long car chase, followed by talking, all of which you’d have needed to see the last movie to understand, then a foot chase…kind of already feels like this movie is trying to hard, although to be fair, “Casino Royale” is a tough at to follow…

*I remember watching this in the theatre, having not seen “Casino Royale” probably since it came out, had the chance to re-watch it before hand but didn’t, thinking “Bond movies don’t connect storylines…” then being confused a bit when it turned out this movie starts about ten minutes after the last one ended…

*so they go into heavy-exposition-mode, reveal that Vesper’s boyfriend is dead but then isn’t, at the same time they say a bunch of other stuff…kind of confusing…

*weird that in this movie they forgo the “Bond-shoots-at-the-camera” opening, when they did it so well in the last movie AND he does it (shoot at the camera), at the end of the “swinging from ropes” fight…

*David Harbour is in this?  Currently in the running for most-overexposed actor David Harbour?

*not really a fan of the Jack White/Alicia Keyes theme song…

*and almost right away we have another fighty-fight, in close quarters, very “Bourne”-like…at least it’s short…

*probably a bad idea to try to “out-Bourne”, as it brought forward a whole new style of up-close fighting (at least to me)…

*why is Bond trying so hard to save this girl, is it supposed to be that she represents Vesper?

*well he saves her, then just dumps her off and abandons her at the harbour…unconscious…

*I remember when they revealed “Quantum” to be the big name of the organization it was a major let down

*now an airplane-chase…just need a scene with two trains chasing each other and we’ll have the complete set!

*the girl Olga Kurylenko is good but I can barely hear her dialogue…also she’s walking barefoot over gravel…not cool!

*Gemma Arterton could have done more, is cast as an office worker, seems like her character had potential for more but is “fridged” very early on

*when M shows Bond her dead body, covered in oil (as a cool homage to Goldfinger), M says “her lungs her full of it”, how does she know?  Did they do the autopsy then bring her back to the hotel?

*overall the use of the Bond girls in this movie is subpar…Stana Katic is there but not used…and there’s no real henchmen for the bad guy so who is Bond supposed to fight?  

*I can see trying to get away from formulas but somethings need to happen…like Bond needs someone to fight…him vs. Greene and an axe doesn’t quite get it done…this was shot during a writer’s strike…

*poor Mathis…

*reading the Wikipedia entry for this movie, the character summaries, in particular, are so over the top…so much is said about each character, like Arterton’s Fields character (whose first name is “Strawberry” apparently) and especially Greene’s henchmen, whose name is “Elvis” apparently, and described as colourful, edgy, a bit of a goofball…” okay…they got to come up with elaborate backstories, for four minutes (on average) of screen time…cool beans

*is Oona Chaplin the girl who gets slapped around and nearly raped by the General?  Hard to tell as that character never gets a closeup

*the most villainous aspect of Greene is his yellow teeth…

*they didn’t blow up his whole house, I thought I remembered it being blown to shit…

*still no Q, or Moneypenny, so it must be the next movie…

*Stana Katic did a great job in one scene going from happy to scared to a moment of clarity to acceptence and only says two words I think…should have brought her back for another movie…

*I remember thinking “wow, M is in this a lot…” but wait until Skyfall…

*apparently this the most violent Bond movie yet…and the shortest!

*pretty meh after Casino Royale…from what I remember the next one is a lot better but that’s all because of Javier Bardem…but we’ll see…

The Lavender Hill Mob 1951

*Alec Guinness

*Audrey Hepburn is briefly on screen

*apparently this is also an early acting role for Robert Shaw, too

*pretty sure I saw a young(!) Desmond Llewellyn too!

*this started slow but ended up being an awesome parody of a heist movie

*the two leads, Guinness and Stanley Holloway, are great together as two intelligent yet bumbling thieves who steal a bunch of gold from a bank in a genius way and yet somehow screw it up

*too bad Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon never did a remake of this that would have been great!

*all the back and forth is pretty funny, I wasn’t expecting this to be so good!

*I like how the Guiness character gets a “wrap up” of his story, but we never see the other two thieves, played by Sid James and Alfie Bass

*also the camerawork with the “running down the Eiffel Tower staircase” scene is very well done

*apparently this won the Oscar for what would be “Best Original Screenplay” today…cool

================

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002

Skyfall 2012

*okay mostly skipped the punchy-punchy stuff in the beginning, other than when Bond jumps onto the train from the grater, that was cool

*like the Adele theme song

*so Bond is having sex with that woman, slams her against a brick wall, she must have loved the concussion mid-thrust…

*having Wolf Blitzer announce the plot points isn’t cool, to me anyway…only time it worked was when he appeared in that Mission: Impossible movie…

*it’s this movie where they start to blur the lines of the Bond continuity…M says Bond has “been doing this a long time”…no he hasn’t…he just got his 00 status at the beginning of “Casino Royale” and then “Quantum” took place ten minutes after it…so what, four years he’s been doing this?

*but later they bring back the classic Astin Martin, and hint that it’s the same one he’s used before, meaning Craig (to me) they did “CR”, then “QoS” then Connery happened, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, then this movie…or at least that’s the least confusing option…until later in the film when it gets even more confusing…

*the Bond “re-hab” stuff is kinda interesting

*bring back not only Q, Moneypenny but the Walter PPK…apparently Mendes just had to ask and said “sure”, it was just that simple…

*there was a whole four years in between Bond movies (due to MGM money issues), so they should have had a better outing here, especially since there was no writer’s strike during the filming of this one…

*so Berenice Marlohe is great but there isn’t much for her to do…she “gets to” smoke in a Bond movie, but I’m guessing it was all for the shot where she exhales smoke into Bond’s face…cause she’s like a dragon…dragon lady…see she’s asian, so…get it?…ok writers…whatever…

*and then Javier Bardem shows up and the movie STARTS!

*then they do the standard trope of “the villain WANTS to be captured” that the Joker in Dark Knight popularized…and it kinda turns into just another action movie…just kidding…

*lots of bangey-bang and shooty-shooting…

*great scene with Bardem and Dench, although gross…

*the effects of cyonide capsules!

*nice cat and mouse chase though the tube, and when that subway car attacks Bond!

*the courthouse shoot out is well done, with Bond kicking Moneypenny a gun, showing he does trust her after all (or at least that’s what it meant to me)

*although other than Moneypenny, the “good guys” sure are a bunch of white people!

*there were rumours that Sean Connery would play the character Albert Finney plays…I think it would have been awesome, but not if the character was just “the gamekeeper” but if Connery was another former 00 agent (like Bardem) or something like that…

*but then again the Finney character refers to him as “James Bond”, and later the gravestones naming his parents, so any theories of “Bond” being just a name that’s handed down from agent to agent is blown…

*target practise seems like a waste of ammunition…

*Finney refers to M as “Emma” which is fun

*got an A-Team style montage of getting ready for war…

*it would have been cooler if they just left the Astin Martin seeming as if it was just a cool car they drove in with, and then when it starts blowing shit up, that would have been a kicks ass moment but they kind of ruined that moment with the “ejector seat” joke…

*funny how when the bad guys shoot INTO the house, the brick is flimsy, but when Bond shoots OUT of the house at Bardem, it’s pretty solid…

*so only one Bond girl (unless you could Moneypenny and M, which I don’t) and no distinct henchmen for Bardem…

*and is the reveal of Bond’s parent’s names supposed to be a big reveal?  Other than to the people who read the original novels, maybe?

*and…a bigger question…does that help or hurt the mystique of James Bond?  The fact he’s not a superhuman spy machine, he has actual parents, does that make him more relatable?

*nice that they gave Dench a suitable send off

*like the two british bulldog jokes…

*kinda sucks that Moneypenny just quits being a field agent, it should have been her who was shot in the shoulder, not Fiennes, which would have brought that storyline full circle, and her recovering from the gun shot wound be the reason why she takes the desk job…her just deciding that “field work isn’t for everybody” is pretty lame, frankly…

*so, again, the continuity…Bond already had the Astin Martin (with an ejector seat!), but at the end of the film, we now have in place Miss Moneypenny, Fiennes as M, with the puffy door…if Bond said something like “this looks familiar” it would be one thing but this just melts everything up…not as bad as the X-Men franchise timeline, which is head ache inducing, but still…

5 to 7 2014

*watching this due to Berenice Marlohe…and the interesting premise…

*this got 80% on RT…

*Frank Langella and Glenn Close are in this?

*Anton Yelchin doesn’t look like he’s ever lit a cigarette before…

*and Olivia Thirlby!

*frankly, 16 minutes in, I don’t see what Marlohe sees in Yelchin’s character…

*not even a hint, when he’s walking through the hotel lobby, that this movie has seen “The Graduate”?

*seeing Lambert Wilson makes me think of the Matrix sequels (or was he in just one of them?) and that makes me sad

*Yelchin is freaking out when the husband invites him to dinner, when this was all explained to him earlier…

*so they are having an affair so he introduces her to her parents?  Sure now we get Langella and Close as a bickering married couple, so that’s cool but really?  What a moron!

*”she f*cked her twice” wtf?

*is Langella being paid by the word?

*kinda cool when he’s playing with the kids in Central Park…

*Thirlby telling him to “get your head right!” is 1000% right…man he’s a loser…

*cool it’s Eric Stoltz!  I hope he isn’t being paid by the word…

*so at one point she says the “5 to 7” part isn’t literal but then it is literal and they can only do things together between those 2 hours

*at one point they go to a movie together…maybe in New York this is a thing but no where around where I live are movies shown between 5 and 7pm.  A late matinee may start at 3:30pm or 4pm here but this I’m over thinking I guess…

*okay, so he has $6,000 to spend on some jewelry for her…he’s a freelance writer living in New York, I know his parents are rich, I guess, but f*ck!

*I ended up FFing through the proposal scene…is that bad?

*husband shows up and slaps him (in a fake way) but I’m like yeah, slap him again but for real!  Dude has a great set up here and he’s gotta go screw it up

*”see to her”…again wtf?

*why does he have that huge gym bag with him?  He only spends two hours with her in the hotel room…did he think they were leaving the country together?

*so Thirlby broke off her affair out of loyalty for him, and they don’t even end up together?  This guy is a dick…or I’m guessing he did try to go after her and she was smart enough to tell him “no way”

*so let me guess this inspires him to blah blah…”movie writers” or I should say “writers in movies”…okay…

*smile you asshole smile…yup…

*I like Thirlby’s happy dance…

*okay it’s a nice reveal but, like, he didn’t know the book was being published, the release date slipped his mind?   Like he didn’t…bah! Sh*t like this is so dumb…

*his voiceover is lame…

*so she kept the ring?  the ring he spent $6000 on?  Did he cash the $250,000 check then?  I had no idea getting one story published in the New Yorker was the same as winning the lottery!

*obviously no offence to Anton Yelchin, RIP…I think he was miscast despite being a great young actor…I didn’t believe she would fall for him…and that’s a pretty important plot point…

*watching this in 2020, all this for an average white dude so he could be great writer…yup…

==============

Spectre 2015

*again

*1st time Daniel Craig’s Bond does the “shot at the camera” thing before the movie starts…

*great stuff in Mexico but it goes on too long, especially the helicopter stuff, I’m sure it was hard to film and a technical triumph and all that but I got bored…

*speaking of “I got bored”, the opening credits and that song are pretty bad, I nodded off a few times and had to rewind…

*but what do I know…apparently that song won the Oscar for Best Song…

*so it goes on for awhile, including the trope that really annoys me these days…the hero, who works for a government agency, has to go it alone to prove his clueless bosses he’s right…this happens in, like, every Mission: Impossible movie and now Bond…

*Bond steals the cool car from Q’s lab…how?  Bond isn’t exactly a hacker, and it does’ look like he picked the lock, so Q’s security system must suck!

*Monica Bellucci, why is she in this?  Just so they could right the wrong of not casting her in “Tomorrow Never Dies”?  Or say that they cast a 50-year old as a Bond girl for the 1st time?  All for three minutes of screen time and ten lines?

*Dave Bautista looks weird in this movie, although not as much as he did when I first saw this, I guess I’m getting used to his post-facelift look, maybe?

*it does seem like Bond is a real dick for ditching the car, that he stole…there really should be some consequences for that…like his insurance premiums go up at least…

*this Bond movie is a almost parody…cool gadgets, women who fall for Bond in 30 seconds (less time if, as a bonus, they just came from their husband’s funeral and extra bonus points if Bond was the one who killed said husband), how many famous landmarks can we shoe-horn in to action sequences…

*it looks great, of course, but there is nothing here, it seems so empty…

*so he goes to a spa in the mountains…so this is an homage to “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”?

*Andrew Scott, who I didn’t like as Moriarty on Sherlock, plays a pencil-pusher here, seemingly just to give Ralph Fiennes something to do…

*Scott, I like more now after Fleabag, FYI

*oh and the continuity (already faulty) is blown up here, and Quantum is just a off-shoot of Spectre…okay…

*and Bond, after establishing his parents in the last film, now says he was too young to remember them (or something like that)…but was he raised at Skyfall by other people?  In the last movie Albert Finney mentioned he was young when his parents died but how young was he?

*and should I care more?  Probably!

*Walz’s catchphrase “coo-coo”…that’s hard for anyone to make sound cool…

*and Bautista gets to play a powerful henchmen, something the other films lacked, but he has only one line and…well he didn’t really stand out to me…other than it’s Batista in a suit…obviously…

*so Mr. White kills himself with Bond’s gun…I thought Bond’s gun was marked with his DNA and only he could fire it?

*so at first Dr. Swann wants nothing to do with Bond, even after he saves her life, but yet all he has to do is tell her (again) that he’s doing this cause he promised her father…ten minutes later she’s telling him and Q all about Spectre and what L’Americain is…which to me says she’s not in love with Bond but with Q, but I doubt Daniel Craig’s contract would have allowed that…

*one funny bit with Bond “interrogating” the mouse

*Bond has to punch through a wall to get to the secret room, but it has a doorway…how did Mr. White get in there before?

*”I’m coming with you…” “No you’re not…it’s too dangerous…” and she does go with him of course…blah blah…

*why did they get dressed up so fancy for dinner on a train?  Is it a fancy train?  Would it be covered by a Euro-rail-type pass?

*the dinner scene seems like it was added during re-shoots, as if they needed something to make the movie more sexy and make people think of the Bond-Vesper scene on the train in “Casino Royale”, but then Batista shows up…

*they kill Batista (pretty quickly) and then say “what do we do next?” and have sex…did they check out the rest of the train for other bad guys?  I wouldn’t have necessarily assumed Batista came all that way alone with no backup…also was NO ONE else on the train?  They showed a waiter earlier…during their sex-capade did the conductor knock on their door and ask “What the hell did you do to my train?”

*so when Bond and Swan show up at the bad guy HQ, they are expecting them…maybe they should have sent Batista with some back up?

*this movie continues another movie cliche…the big reveal of a villains’ real name…the biggest being Benedict Cumberbatch’s reveal of him being Khan in Star Trek…

*oh and the reveal that not only is Christoph Blofeld, but he’s Bond’s freaking half-brother?  LAME!

*they couldn’t come up with any other reason for Blofeld to hate Bond?  It had to come down to a Daddy issue?  Really LAME!

*according to Wikipedia, the girl in Mexico who accompanied Bond to the hotel room was “Estrella Luna” played by Stephanie Sigman and she is a Mexican agent…so she just wanted sex from Bond and stayed in the hotel room while he went out to kill the bad guys…pretty shitty agent…but then again she is a woman so how could she possibly resist Bond’s charms?

*”I love you?”  Did she really just say that?  She’s known him for what, three days?  F*ck off!

*so as this movie goes along I remember I had a theory about this, that would have, to me only probably, made this an awesome movie and a fitting end to Craig’s Bond…so my theory is that Blofeld kills Bond with the brain-drill, and the rest of the movie after that is all in Bond’s mind…so his watch frees them, blows up Blofeld (but doesn’t kill him even though it was right below his feet when it went off), the aforementioned “I love you”, then they escape, with Bond, after just having minor brain surgery, literally takes out each henchmen with one shot each (go back and look) even one many yards away…one shot each…I think all this from this point on is in his mind or dreaming or he’s died and this is his mind coping somehow…anyway…I remember watching this movie in the theatre and waiting for the “it was all a dream” reveal and it never came…and the fact they have done another movie means this can’t happen, I guess…oh well…so they just made lots of sh*t blow up real good instead…

*and apparently the brain surgery healed his problem with his aim, as in the last movie he couldn’t shoot straight…

*so she walks away and immediately it’s obvious “she’s gonna get kidnapped and be the damsel in distress that Bond will have so save…”

*so it turns out Scott is the bad guy, so he stops smirking and starts frowning and looking angry…quite the transformation!

*okay…”C stands for careless”…whatever

*again, okay…the final battle taking place in the old MI-6 HQ is cool but how long have they been planning this showdown?  all the string work, the putting Bond’s face on the targets, all the bombs, kidnap the girl…it’s almost like Blofeld knew that Bond would escape…so elaborate and it took a few hours to set up, apparently!

*so the watch blew up in Blofeld’s face and all he got out of it was a nasty scar!

*know what would be interesting, just once?  The villain tells the good guy “hey, I kidnapped your woman, she’s in this building somewhere, you got three minutes to find her before the…blah…” and it turns out he was bluffing and just sent the good guy on a needless wild goose chase?  And the girl was totally fine, having a drink at a pub a few blocks away?  I think that would be interesting…again, admittedly I’m probably the only one…

*man women are just trouble aren’t they Bond?

*so Bond and the girl go after Blofeld, and the rest (M, Moneypenny, Q and Tanner) just stand there watching?

*Bond takes down a helicopter with a pistol…cool cool cool…

*was it revealed who Moneypenny was sleeping with?  I assumed it was Scott, especially after the look she gave him at one point…was it revealed she was the mole (unintentionally or not)…or did they take that out cause then the movie would look REALLY misogynistic?

*and after all that, Bond just drives off…lame!

*so yeah my opinion about this movie hasn’t changed since I first saw it in the theatre…meh…lots and lots of meh…

==============

Scrooge 1970

*Alec Guinness, Albert Finney

*there’s songs!

*Alec Guinness, Obi Wan himself, is singing…kinda!

*this is really well done adaptation…

*wow, the crowd cheering as Scrooge’s casket is taken away…brutal…

*great movie!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004

Some Kind of Wonderful 1987

*again, for the hundredth time

*Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, Lea Thompson; written by John Hughes

*also, 1st time I remember realizing who Elias Koteas was

*also John Ashton, Candace Cameron, Molly Hagan, Chynna Phillips

*watched this randomly on TV when I was a teen, I think I only new Thompson at the time from Back to the Future, and I loved this movie ever since…

*directed by Howard Deutch, who ended up married to Lea Thompson a few years later after they met working on this movie…

*funny now knowing that Stoltz and Thompson were supposed to work on “Back to the Future” together the year before, before Stoltz was replaced by Michael J. Fox 

*love how the Stoltz and Koteas characters become friends…very realistic, as in high school, one day someone is a total stranger, then you have a conversation with them or share a class project and you are then officially friends…

*had no idea that this movie was a reaction to Hughes not being happy with the ending of “Pretty in Pink”, so he wanted to re-tell the story but with the genders reversed…

*also that Molly Ringwald was supposed to play Watts but she turned down the role and that pissed off John Hughes and they stopped working together after this, after Hughes thought of Ringwald as his “muse”

*and Thompson turned down the role of Amanda Jones at first, but “Howard the Duck” flopped and Thompson accepted the role after all…

*weird how the top three actors don’t work much anymore, I guess with Thompson being the most active, although I see Masterson is on a show called “For Life” that I’d never heard of until today…

*apparently Stoltz is indeed busy, as a director of TV shows…

*this movie doesn’t waste time…

*the scene where Masterson’s Watts gets emotional and “breaks up with” Stoltz kinda comes out of nowhere…

*Thompson crying and running out of school when her friends snub her seems almost funny now, watching this years later, but as a teenager I’m sure that is realistic

*second part of the movie comes across like they are planning a heist and it’s pretty fun

*why didn’t Stoltz and Masterson work on more stuff together?  I like their chemistry…

*super intense when John Ashton asks “Where’s the f*cking money Keith?”  Watching this in 2020, I definitely relate to the dad, finding out his kid spent all his college money on earrings for a girl he’s going on his 1st date with…

*the 1st scene in the restaurant when Thompson and Stoltz argue seems to also come out of nowhere, like there was a scene missing…

*lots of familiar faces when Watts is playing dice in the alley

*cool seeing the Hollywood Bowl, especially since, in the years since I first watched this, I’ve been there and watched concerts…

*also intense when Stoltz hands her the box with earrings and says “This is my future…”

*I gave into that hatred and turned on what I believed in” okay that might be a bit much for a teen movie, more like something you’d hear in a Star Wars movie…

*I remember when I watched this, and Stoltz is about to get beat up and Koteas shows up…epic moment!

*and Craig Sheffer is a great villain

*funny to think of the same movie but with Kyle MacLachlan (post-“Dune”) and Kim Delaney instead of Sheffer and Thompson 

*I’m just learning that Stoltz and Thompson where in a movie called “The Wild Life” in 1984, with Chris Penn and Rick Moraines…cool

*also that Stoltz and Koteas later starred in “The Prophecy” in 1995

=================

Love Me Tender 1956 Western

*Elvis Presley’s 1st movie

*movie starts at the very end of the Civil War, Rebels sneak attack Yankees just as they are told the war is over, they take their clothes and wait for the Yankee train with payroll to show up, steal the money…

*later they tease stealing the money, rather than taking it back to the Confederacy (so I guess they are honourable thieves)

*the thieves shows up at a Confederate base and find out the war is over, the brigade is scattered…the thieves think now that, since the war is over, maybe they can keep the money…

*one of the thieves say they have to give the money to who it belongs to, the Confederacy (actually it belongs to the Yankees, who they stole it from), they decide to split up the money, return home, the leader, Vance (Richard Egan) is going home to get married

*these are the Reno Brothers, apparently

*Elvis plays Clint, the youngest brother, who stayed home to take care of their mother…

*the Reno Brothers return home and find out that they thought Vance was dead, so Elvis married his sweetheart

*also they spend some of the money they stole, I’m sure that won’t come up later…

*it’s awkward and the girl seems to just keep making it worse by wanting to talk to Vance, and Vance is like “hey, it’s cool, I get it, you thought I was dead…” and she’s like “but why don’t you understand?” and it goes on like that for twenty minutes, with Elvis singing a few songs along the way including “Love Me Tender” which he sings to his brothers and mother, but not his wife…

*soldiers show up as they’ve figured out that the Reno Brothers stole the money (as they are bad at covering their tracks…they figured it was all good as it was part of the “spoils of war” but the war had ended the day before…etc.)

*the army want them to go with them, retrieve the money, etc. but they insist they are innocent, are arrested and are put on a train to Tyler(?) to go to prison, if I identified by the train engineer (whose life they spared)

*the Reno Brothers’ army buddies show up late to warn him, then take Elvis with them to spring the brothers from the train…

*Vance agrees to turn over the money but then the boys show up and it goes to hell…they escape but are on the run…

*Vance wants to get the money and turn themselves in, and make a deal, but the boys don’t trust that they will “be forgiven”, Vance and the brothers take their guns and Vance goes to get the money…

*Elvis, his other two brothers and the boys wait for Vance, he’s late showing up, the boys tell him all about how Vance wanted to marry his wife, that’s all he talked about, make him jealous and convince him Vance has taken off with the money and Elvis’ wife

*Elvis does a heel turn and turns on his two brothers to get revenge on Vance

*Vance is at the home, which is being searched by the army, the wife sneaks off with the money, meets up with Vance, they are caught together by Elvis and company, etc…this is way more complicated but that’s basically what happens…

*Elvis shoots his brother but then feels guilty about it, try to stop the boys, they shoot him, the army shows up, everything is forgiven

*Elvis dies, the rest of the family lives, all is well as Elvis’ ghost sings to us to end the movie

*pretty good, gets convoluted at the end but still good

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2005

===============

Queering the Script 2019

*a Canadian documentary of the representation of LGBTQ characters in media, specifically TV shows

*talk about older shows like X-Files (and the origins of the term “shipping”), Xena, Buffy, Ellen, The L Word, Glee

*but also Wynonna Earp, One Day at a Time, Riverdale, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Black Lightning, Orange is the New Black, 

*The 100 is focused on a lot, as for the couple “Clexa”, how that relationship developed and excited fans but then left them feeling betrayed when Lexa was killed off…I was worried they wouldn’t talk about this but they did and handled it very well, even talking to the man who wrote that episode…

*some shows I had never heard of like “Carmilla”, “Pose” and “Vida” (and now want to watch!)

*also mentioned are Supergirl, Lost Girl, Orphan Black, Person of Interest, Jane the Virgin

*this doc talks about SO MUCH, even how these shows affect the ballot box, and it’s all done incredibly well…

*awesome doc!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007

=================

Carmilla S1 Marathon

2:26:00

Carmilla S2 Marathon

3:01:00

================

Carmilla Christmas Special

7:20

Carmilla Season Zero

Almost Adults 2017

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009

===============

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 2010

Thor the Dark World 2013

*again

Air Raid Wardens 1943

*Laurel & Hardy

================

Carmilla S3 Marathon

3:36:06

Carmilla the Movie

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 2011

Happy New Year!