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TxMike
Reviews
Lonely Planet (2024)
Relationship movie, no action but some interesting ideas.
There is a retreat of sorts in Morocco for writers, many of the attendees are acclaimed authors, some have won prestigious awards. One attendee is Laura Dern (mid 50s) as Katherine Loewe. Being well known in this situation works to her disadvantage, she needs to finish a manuscript, she has her laptop to work on, but she has difficulty finding quiet time.
Liam Hemsworth (early 30s) is Owen Brophy who is NOT a writer. In fact he rarely if ever reads fiction. He doesn't know who the well-known authors are and when he is sucked into an evening social game with authors, with his clue of "PIP", all he can think of is the old singing group, "Gladys Knight and the Pips."
He is there because his fiancée, one of the successful writers, has brought him along. He is miserable there but finds solace in meeting Katherine and having meaningful conversations. They both recognize the 23-years age gap is unusual and are hesitant but their friendship deepens.
Fans of action movies would likely find this movie to be overly dull but my wife and I found it interesting and entertaining. The beautiful and unusual scenery in Morocco was a good addition. Plus an event, during a road excursion which resulted in Katherine and Owen in an unplanned visit to the home of a Moroccan family, was an interesting addition. Things that happened in Morocco had positive effects on both of them and, after going their separate ways, were reunited some time later in New York City.
We watched it at home, streaming.
The Fly (1958)
A useful advancement in Science?
I found this classic movie broadcast on the Movies! Channel. Even though I was 12, almost 13, when this was filmed and hit the theaters I had never watched it before now. It is very interesting for the concepts and the horror of a scientist getting scrambled with a fly.
The premise is simple, a scientist with a lab in the basement of his home has been experimenting with a method of instantly transporting an object by a method which disassembles it atomically then reassembles it in the other location. Which here is the adjacent room in his lab. Naturally his chalkboard is filled with complex looking equations.
When it appears that he is close to perfecting it he reveals his project to his wife. It would be useful for virtually instant travel to anywhere at almost no cost. But the script has a large hole when he makes the statement that we could put receiving stations "all over the universe" for travel to those spots.
Problem! How do you get the receiving stations all over the universe? With very, very fast space travel it would still take thousands or millions of years to do so and there is no way to do that in 2024, never mind in 1958. Interesting concept but no way to facilitate it.
Yes, it is a fictional science story but something that basic should not be overlooked. To me it is just a feature of 1950s Sci-Fi movies, while the science is sometimes good science, more often bad science is used.
Another reason to watch movies from this era, how do people behave? This depicts a very wealthy scientist with at least two domestic staff for the household. What does the wife do during the daytime? One scene shows her in a nice dress, reclining on a sofa and reading a magazine.
Now I need to rewatch the version with Jeff Goldblum as the scientist. I see my public library has it on DVD.
Nova: Solar System: Strange Worlds (2024)
Size, gravity, and strange worlds.
This Nova program follows its usual approach, a number of scientists in the field are interviewed and excerpts of their comments are mixed in with photos, videos, and/or computer-generated representations of the subject. As a Scientist myself, who is also a long-time observer of the heavens, I found this program totally interesting. Plus I learned a whole bunch of new things.
Granted some of the things presented are scientific "best guesses", it is impossible to know precisely what happened hundreds of millions or billions of years ago. But it follows the scientific method of gathering data and combine that with known laws of physics to formulate theories.
The running thread through the whole thing is the role of gravity, that mutual attraction that all forms of mass have for each other. Then combine that with size, as it affects the ability of an object in the Solar System to either remain irregular or to form a shape that is generally spherical. As all the planets and larger moons are.
The last subject examined is our home, the Earth. It is just the right size, its gravity keeps the atmosphere from flying off into empty space and provides the pressure to keep our oceans liquid at the temperatures suitable for life. Had Earth been much smaller or much larger, we probably would not be here.
Good, interesting program.
The Tamarind Seed (1974)
Cold War intrigue, British civil servant and Russian spy.
Julie Andrews was 38 and Omar Sharif was 41 during filming. She is Judith Farrow, a British civil servant and he is Feodor Sverdlov, a Russian spy. They meet when both are on vacation in Barbados, he is really aggressively trying to win her affections, she has a hard time trusting him. But they do stay in contact after they part ways.
At this point I found myself wondering, is he really that attracted to her or does he just want to get close to gain some spying advantage? The British intelligence are equally curious and they monitor her every move and phone conversation. The Russian intelligence are equally attentive to the goings on between the two of them. I don't know if the comedic elements were intended but I found that very humorous, how the two agencies were keeping tabs on the two while they were just trying to develop a romance, it seems.
Interesting movie, especially for the two leads. I found it streaming on the Movies! Channel.
Classic Albums: Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (2001)
A deep look into making this album.
Among my favorites over the years, two that I consider "musical geniuses", are Billy Joel and Elton John. I knew that Elton John is a highly accomplished pianist, and I knew that he wrote music to the lyrics written by Bernie Taupin. Beyond those facts I knew little.
This documentary which focuses on the making of the double album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" fills in lots of gaps. This IMDb page lists it as a 90-minute program but what I watched, streaming, on Freevee was only 50 minutes. I have no idea what they cut out but is seems like a complete program.
Years ago when I toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland it was fascinating to me to see a few original manuscripts for lyrics of songs that became very famous, and how original words and phrases were crossed out and the words we have come to know were written by hand. I just assumed that happened pretty much all the time.
However what Elton John says in the program implies that he pretty much took what Taupin wrote and put it to music. When they started together their approach was to try to sell the finished songs (lyrics + music) but had no success. John never considered himself a singer but out of desperation he started recording the songs himself and now we know how that worked out.
Also, I had imagined that after John received lyrics from Taupin he would spend hours in his own home studio to work out the music. But no, he says that Taupin would bring a stack of lyrics to the recording session and John would make up the music on the spot. You gotta be a musical genius to be able to do that, over and over and make hit after hit.
In short, a very entertaining and educational documentary.
Wolfs (2024)
Clooney and Pitt in an unconventional buddy movie.
Let's get this out there first, Clooney and Pitt are producers of this movie, they star in it, that covers "why was this made?" This is simply an entertaining dark comedy. Looked at that way it is a fun watch, for us on a Saturday evening after our usual weekly steak and wine dinner, with chocolate cake, of course. The wine tonight was a BV Cabernet.
As the movie starts, right away the lady panics. She met a young man in the hotel bar and had brought him up to her fancy hotel room, he decides to jump up and down on the bed, falls and crashes into some glass furniture, and apparently is dead. She needs a fixer, someone who will make it all go away. See, she is Amy Ryan as district attorney Margaret.
There is an air of mystery to the whole thing that follows. George Clooney, who we only know as Margaret's Man, gets the call. But soon after he gets started Brad Pitt, who we only know as Pam's Man shows up, for the same reason. Yet the two don't know each other.
Lots of things develop, there is an ample amount of swearing and gunfire, but it is all done in a darkly comedic sense. If you analyze the actual story here there isn't anything novel, the whole fun, if you have any, is the interplay between Clooney and Pitt.
It has an ending strongly reminiscent of the ending in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
We found it streaming on Apple+.
Classic Albums: Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell (1999)
The whole story, how "Bat Out of Hell" came about.
Meat Loaf was his stage and performer name, he was born Marvin Lee Aday in Texas. The album featured here is from the 1970s, a time when I was preferring to listen to things like "Mamas and Papas", "Three Dog Night", and other popular groups. In fact, I tended to ignore Meat Loaf.
Now, all those years later, "Bat Out of Hell" is one of my favorite albums, it is among the music I have on my USB drive to play music in my car. Over the years I have gained a good respect for Meat Loaf, both his singing and his acting. Sadly he died in 2022 from COVID complications.
Now, only today, I came across this documentary, streaming on Prime. It is not too long, not too short, just the right length to show us what all had to happen for "Bat Out of Hell" to even be produced. It was such an anomaly in the music industry that no one wanted to produce it. Until they did find one and, as they say, the rest is history.
Totally enjoyable.
The White Lotus (2021)
The many stories at the White Lotus resorts for the wealthy.
I had heard some positive things about this limited series so I found seasons one and two on DVD at my public library. In a nutshell, dark comedy episodes involving the super wealthy on vacation. Each season starts with a tragic incident at the end of the week of vacation, then the series is told as a flashback.
Season one, Hawaii: I became concerned early when one character, a husband, exposed his genitals to his wife as he worried that he may have cancer. In an interview Zahn, playing the character, said "I didn't even have to do that part, it's somebody else wearing a prosthetic. That's about as absurd as it gets, right?"
About that time I considered abandoning it because I wondered if the whole thing would be a series of distasteful sex and toilet humor. Fortunately I didn't and the remainder was just well-written, dark humor.
The show is a somewhat exaggerated view of what the very wealthy are like and how entitled they are in satiations such as this, a vacation at a luxury resort. And, how the resort staff resent the poor treatment.
So yes, I was entertained by the whole thing. The last episode is really dark humor and a key character dies.
Season Two, Sicily: The Jennifer Coolidge and Jon Gries characters became husband and wife after the Hawaii week, they are the only two carryovers from season one. It gradually becomes clear during the week in Italy that he is not representing himself in a totally faithful manner. She brings along her assistant (Haley Lu Richardson) to the great disapproval of her husband. It might muck up his plans.
Aside from that, we see two couples, all 35-ish. The men were roommates in college and both became very financially successful but still battled certain personality flaws. This springs some inter-couple tension.
Then there are the three men, grandfather, father, and son, whose ancestry is Scillian and they want to see if they can find distant relatives. Plus the two young hookers who like to hang around hotels to see if they can get some funding from wealthy vacationing Americans. And usually succeed.
For me the test of a series like this is if at the end of an episode, I look forward to what will happen next, and this does that for me. Highly entertaining.
The closing song over the credits is "The best things in life are free."
Network (1976)
'I am mad as Hell and I am not going to take this anymore.'
Years after seeing this movie, if we remember nothing else we will remember news anchor Howard Beale shouting, on-air during the 7PM news, "I am mad as Hell and I am not going to take this anymore." At least that was all I remembered after almost 50 years. Now, watching it again, on DVD from my public library, I have a greater appreciation for its message.
In this fictional 1976 story, before cable or internet streaming, there were four national TV networks, the three that we know, ABC, CBS, and NBC, plus a fourth, fictional UBS. The characters we see work for UBS. Their ratings are not good, they are losing money on the news segments, and then by a stroke of luck things change.
This is my favorite Faye Dunaway role, as Diana Christensen, one of the UBS executives. She is a driven woman by her own admission probably incapable of love but plays around like male executives are supposed to.
William Holden, already in his late 50s and just a few years from his own death, is UBS executive Max Schumacher who seems to be the only one who wants to have a straight and honest news program.
Arguably the most important character is played by Peter Finch as on-air newsman Howard Beale. One night, without warning, he goes off script and the executives are horrified. Howard will be dispatched quickly. However their ratings suddenly skyrocket. The viewing audience can identify with Howard who stands up on-air, raises his hands and yells his memorable line. Further he tells viewers at home, "Open your window and yell it outside.' And many do.
The final main role is played by Robert Duvall as ambitious UBS executive Frank Hackett. He doesn't care so much whether Howard is reporting the best news, he cares about ratings and the bottom live.
It doesn't end well for Howard Beale. The message, that ratings and profit are more important than honesty and accuracy, pretty well predicted what is going on now, in the 2020s as we see many news outlets with little concern for truth and accuracy.
Freud's Last Session (2023)
My review #6000. Fictional meeting of Freud and Lewis in 1939.
(Note at the end regarding my 6000 IMDb reviews.)
I watched this at home on DVD from my public library, my wife wasn't interested.
Part of the core of the story here is factual. Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud in what is now known as Austria, relocated to London in 1938 when Naziism began to threaten his wellbeing in Vienna. The story here is set in early September, 1939, just a few weeks before Freud would die at the age of 83.
Anthony Hopkins plays Sigmund Freud, he had a habit of using code words to log his sessions and the one purported here was an "Oxford don", not specifically C. S. Lewis. However the author's idea was, "Maybe it was C. S. Lewis, why not?" And maybe Freud and Lewis met to debate the existence of God, Lewis being a Christian and Freud being an Atheist.
Matthew Goode plays C. S. Lewis, he takes the train from Oxford to London to meet with Freud but is very late. He apologizes, he explains that the trains were loaded with children being relocated to the interior of the country to protect them, fearing a Nazi attack was imminent. This is factual.
Most of the movie takes place in the London home of Freud, they discuss a range of topics while Freud is suffering with the jaw cancer that eventually became unbearable. There is also an important side story about his daughter Anna who was shortly to establish Dorothy Burlingham as her partner.
I wasn't enraptured with this movie, Hopkins and Goode are very good in their roles and that kept it interesting. It is mostly a work of fiction as no one really knows if Freud and Lewis met and, if they did, no one knows what they discussed. Still, it is an interesting "What if?"
(Note: Regarding my 6000 IMDb reviews. It started just over 25 years ago, my first review was "The Big Green." I actually was an acquaintance of Milt Oberman who plays the referee. We both belonged to an internet-based motorcyclist club. The SabMag society for riders of Sabres and Magnas.
Anyway, 6000 reviews in 25 years works out to about 240 per year or about 4.6 per week on average. I started just about the time I had retired and was phasing out my part-time job as a traveling auditor. I really enjoy watching movies, and I wanted to put up a review for each just so I'd have a handy reference, to be able to search and remember IF I watched a certain movie and if so, what I got from it and if it would be re-watchable.
While most of my reviews are for movies I also have a number of TV series and documentaries, plus PBS Nova and others. I never set out to accumulate a specific number of reviews but here we are, all these years later and they are still going up. Cheers!)
Love Switch (2024)
Frantic couple and their two kids in Utah.
Set and filmed in Utah. Beautiful scenery. And a clean movie, no swearing, no sex, not a gun in sight.
The conceit of this story is that a married couple somehow switch bodies on the eve of his job-related trip. So he as to fill in for her, in her body, while she has to fill in for him, a computer expert, something she knows nothing about.
The first approximate one-third of the movie establishes their frantic lifestyle. They are on the verge of celebrating their 13th anniversary but we can see there is friction, mainly because each feels underappreciated. The daughter is 12, in junior high, and is having normal boy issues for that age. The son is maybe 8 and seems incapable of doing his own assignments without parental help.
Aside from the novelty and the awkward situations that arise, the main result of the body switch is to have each parent gain a better appreciation of the other's role, and things improve for both of them in the end.
The premise of the story is fantasy so we watch to be entertained. And my wife and I were entertained. At home, streaming on Prime. After our weekly steak and wine dinner, of course with chocolate cake for dessert!
Killer Heat (2024)
Private Investigator from Queens is hired to investigate a death in Greece.
It is the world we live in now, any person can say anything about a movie even if what they say makes no sense. Like here, the first day of release streaming on Prime, one so-called review establishes an account and trashes it and gives it a "1" rating. Which is totally absurd and misleading. Makes me wonder the motive.
We are seeing many mediocre to bad "made for streaming" movies but this is not one of those. In fact it is a cut above most of them. The actors are good and while there aren't many really novel ideas here it is suspenseful and the last 30 minutes or so reveal a few surprises.
It reminds me of the old 1940s and 1950s detective movies where a Private Investigator is hired to sort out what really happened. Was it really an accident? Or was it murder? Shot in beautiful area of Crete, Greece.
As the movie opens we see a death in the first minute, it is a 30-something man free climbing a cliff in a public assessable area but only by boat. He seems about 2/3 of the way up when he falls, the investigative report estimates he fell about 30 meters, which for us Americans is about 100 feet. The quick investigation rules it an accident but how would they know how high up he was? From the brief glimpse we don't really have much of a clue.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (early 40s) is a Greek-American private investigator Nick Bali. He is hired by Shailene Woodley (early 30s) as Penelope Vardaki. The dead climber is her brother-in-law, she is married to his identical twin brother, of the wealthy Greek shipping family of the area. She secretly approaches Nick, she hires him to investigate the death because she strongly suspects that it was murder, not an accident, but keep her involvement quiet. We quickly find out there was some tension between the twin brothers.
The movie is made in the style with ongoing narration by Nick, basically telling us what he is thinking and what he suspects. I like both Gordon-Levitt and Woodley and both are excellent in their roles. The cinematography makes good use of the local scenery.
As with most movies nowadays there are few novel ideas, however we watch a movie like this to be entertained and my wife and I found it entertaining. Curiously, we each watched it at different times in different cities. Golf trip...
Monster High 2 (2023)
Sequel, a year later at Monster High.
It was right at 12 months ago that I watched 'Monster High", where Clawdeen, half human and half monster, longed to get into the school where humans were not allowed. With some help she was able to get in and prove herself worthy.
This one, "2", is a year later and was filmed about a year later, so all the returning cast members are of course a year older. The story begins as the new school year is starting.
A main theme is the choosing of a new student prefect and in competition are Clawdeen and a new student. They don't get along well at all and the friends of Clawdeen have to be inventive to keep her in the race.
There are a couple of sub-plots and the movie is nothing but a fluff of a movie to kill time. As with the first one there is a message of learning to accept those with differences.
This is a musical and for me, a musician, the most enjoyable parts of the movie. None of the singers are outstanding but all are passable. It sounded to my ears that some of the singing was autotuned. But they are high energy and fun.
By all measures a quickly forgettable movie but still entertaining if you are in the mood.
At home on DVD from my public library.
Miia Harris
Clawdeen Wolf.
Behind Her Eyes (2021)
A complicated relationship among four people. Astral projection.
Astral projection (also known as astral travel, soul journey, soul wandering, spiritual journey, spiritual travel) is a term used to describe an intentional out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of a subtle body, known as the astral body or body of light.
This phenomenon becomes the key element and driver of this story, presented in a series of six episodes of roughly 50 minutes each. Several of the reviews here with "spoiler alert" explain carefully what happens, one would be wise to avoid reading any of them before watching the series.
I purposely went into it knowing nothing. Simona Brown is
Louise who works in the office for a small Psychiatry practice. I wanted to watch it mainly for Eve Hewson who as Adele plays the wife of a Psychiatrist, and that is Tom Bateman as David. The fourth main character is played by Robert Aramayo as Rob, a young man seemingly disappointed with society and life in general. He and Adele meet when they were both in a treatment facility but Rob is happy to be an ongoing addict, he enjoys that life.
So, in the first five episodes the four main characters gradually develop an assortment of interesting relationships, some pleasant and some not. In episode six it is all tied together and the developments come to most viewers in a totally unexpected manner. I myself was totally caught off guard, in a good and entertaining manner.
If we watch a series like this it is to be entertained and I was entertained. It does require a lot of patience, the shows jump around it time a lot and by the middle you have to trust that it will all be brought together in a satisfying manner. I was highly satisfied with how it ended, what it revealed, very wicked I say.
At home, streaming. My wife watched the first episode or two with me but never became invested so she quit.
Sparks Over Brooklyn (2023)
Traditional female chef meets virtual reality designer.
My wife and I were looking for a light, entertaining movie after Saturday night dinner with wine and found this one, streaming on Peacock. It is NOT a Hallmark movie, in fact it is a Canadian movie set in Brooklyn but shot in Canada, but it follows the Hallmark formula very closely.
Two single strangers meet quite by happenchance, they immediately repel each other, then they start to take a liking to each other, then a big issue comes up to split them apart, then followed by new choices and what my wife and I call "the hallmark kiss" comes during the very last minute of the movie. Yep, that's how you do it!
Lidia is a traditional chef running the small family Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. The recipes and menu are hold overs from past years, the food is superb but dining traffic has dropped off. Lidia is concerned about keeping it afloat.
In an evening out with her good friend they happen upon Daniel at his restaurant. It is futuristic place with a barely edible, eclectic menu of experimental foods. Lidia brushes him off but Daniel is persistent. He wants to partner with Lidia, he wants to modernize her restaurant, all the things she does not want.
If things stayed that way then there wouldn't be a movie. They gradually meet in the middle and each has to make hard choices about the joint endeavor.
The actors are attractive, the story is plausible, we found the movie to be suitably entertaining.
Arcadian (2024)
"Arcadia" means to designate a place of rustic innocence and simple, quiet pleasure. During the day, apparently.
The following comment here on the IMDb site for this movie gives us a good clue. "Writer Michael Nilon is Nicolas Cage's agent, manager, and producing partner." I'm just guessing here but it seems to me they just said "Let's make this movie and see if we can generate some revenue."
This seems like only part of a movie. It opens with the concussive sounds of munitions exploding and the wail of emergency sirens in the background, with people scrambling for safety. Nothing else is revealed, we are left to wonder when, where, and what was happening. The star, Nic Cage as Paul, stealthily trots through alleys with a large backpack on, then in a rural area far outside town he comes upon what seems to be an overgrown, crumbling house. Going inside he finds two babies. We learn nothing about the mother, presumably she died. All that in the first four minutes as an introduction.
Then it switches to "15 years later", things seem peaceful in a rural setting (filmed in Ireland) and the two babies have grown into teenage fraternal twin sons, they call Paul their father. They have a home, it is not clear how they provide for themselves, nor how post-apocalyptical they have access to candles, cigars, ammunition, and fuel for their buggy. But they are happy until nightfall.
The core of the movie is how they can survive when some really strange creatures attack after nightfall. There is no hint where these creatures might have come from, time would be too short for them to have evolved. Unless they were a product of a bioengineering project gone bad. They don't seem hungry, they just aim to kill.
Most of the action takes place after dark and isn't well-lit, making it hard most of the time to really tell what is going on. And, I can't really tell what the writer-director had in mind communicating to its audience. IOW, "Why was this movie made?"
In all I now wish I had NOT taken the time to watch it, although it was a free rental from my public library. In a generous mood I rate it "3" for some good qualities, including some deep bass in the soundtrack, and because I in general like Cage, but in all this seems like a big miss to me.
There are a number of glowing reviews and "10" ratings. So I checked those accounts to see what else they rated. Several of them rated everything "10". Many of the accounts have only one review, this one. Basically don't trust any of the "10" reviews, they all seem to be bogus.
The "1" reviews all seem to be bogus too. While not a stellar movie it does have some good qualities.
The Union (2024)
Wahlberg and Berry in an entertaining action-comedy.
When this movie starts, and the first scene shows a special ops assignment go bad, we really didn't know how to take it. Was this going to be a serious MI or Bourne story?
Pretty quickly we realized that this was not made to be a serious movie, instead an action-comedy movie. One of the producers of this movie is Mark Wahlberg, here he is a New Jersey construction worker Mike, the kind that climbs and works on high beams in a building being built. The kind of guy who after work hangs out with his buddies in the pool hall and bar.
Halle Berry is Roxanne, she and Mike had a thing back when they were very young, he had not seen her in years when she shows up at the bar. They make small talk, they leave, and the next thing Mike knows is he woke up in London.
Roxanne, it turns out, is a highly trained agent with the Union, and they needed someone with no visibility, no trail, to help them carry out a special ops recovery mission and Mike was the one she recommended.
I always like J. K. Simmons, here he is part of that special ops group, as Tom Brennan. The other character I enjoyed is played by
Jackie Earle Haley as Foreman, a computer and data expert. I first saw him when he was a teenager in "Breaking Away."
Evaluated as a totally serious movie it would get a poor rating. But it isn't, it is more of a comedy and my wife and I were entertained. My only complaint is they portray very much shooting and killing with about as much concern or remorse as swatting a fly and that just isn't very funny.
At home, streaming.
The Principal (1987)
Enthusiastic new principal tries to reform his school.
This movie falls in the genre of teachers in difficult schools, as with the 1955 'Blackboard Jungle' starring Glenn Ford, or the 1996 'The Substitute' starring Tom Berringer. In each a well-meaning teacher has to deal with not only misbehavior but also crime among small bands of students.
One difference here is Jim Belushi is a "softer" actor, not as menacing as either Ford or Berringer, as a result the whole story is harder to take seriously. Here he is Rick Latimer who has a run-in with the law and as a result is assigned as Principal of a "last resort" high school, filled with students who in general had been expelled from other high schools.
Then there is the one "student", played by a 30-year-old actor, who considers the school "his school" as he runs drug operations with the younger students. He resents the new principal and all he is trying to do and naturally the closing of the movie involves a reckoning between the two of them.
Interesting but just a mediocre school angst movie. It is just not realistic that so much misbehavior could be going on in a public school without swarms of police there too. I found it streaming on the 'Movies!' TV channel.
Uglies (2024)
'I don't want to be free, I want to be pretty.'
This movie just became available and judging by some of the 'reviews' here many watched it (or didn't) just to leave a negative review.
While it cannot be considered a masterpiece it in fact is a fairly entertaining parody of modern society. The idea that people place an inappropriately high value on "how someone looks." When friends meet at an event or party a common greeting is "You look really good in that outfit." Or "I love your new hairstyle." I suspect being "pretty" or "handsome" helps people get jobs or elected for public office.
Some reviewers point out that the actors, including Joey King, aren't really ugly. That misses the point, in this society they are considered ugly because they are ordinary. When we see those who have turned 16 and undergone their transition, their beauty is about what you get when someone has a glamor makeup session. Or the usual makeup movie stars get for the role they are playing.
But that is only part of it, they also are brainwashed to believing that "Free thinking is a cancer" and conforming will make everyone happier. (Shades of 'Pleasantville.')
So Joey King plays 'Squint", she is about to turn 16, her mantra is "I want to be pretty." But there is a rogue world outside her city where rebels are living the old way, children with their parents, growing their own real food. And the movie ultimately gets the 'Rusties" as they are called pited against the establishment.
Movies like this are made to entertain and my wife and I were entertained, watching at home, streaming. As the movie went she said she thought maybe she had read the books some years past and later found out she did. They are considered 'Young Adult' books and that fits with the themes here.
Wicked Little Letters (2023)
August 1920, based on real people in rural England.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this movie is the story which for the most part really happened in England in 1920. A lady is receiving the most vile, "wicked little" letters you can imagine and she suspects it is the somewhat vulgar lady next door. This leads to an arrest and eventual trial heard all around England through the newspapers.
Jessie Buckley is Rose Gooding, the vile lady next door, but always in a direct, spirited sense. Someone starts an argument in the pub and she head-butts him. That type of assertiveness.
The lady next door getting the vile letters is Olivia Colman as Edith Swan, a very religious spinster women that some refer to as "The Nun." She is a spinster and even at her age of late 40s still lives at home and sleeps in a bed in the same room as her parents.
Her dad, a demanding and difficult man, is played by 65-yr-old Timothy Spall looking more like he was 85. He is always good and creates a superb character in this role.
Buckley and Colman are two of the best and they are both really great here. About the middle of the movie we learn where the letters really are coming from, the second half to show how it was all sorted out.
It contains lots of the most vile language and descriptions imaginable but it is never gratuitous, it is part of the real story. It is a very entertaining, very British comedy-drama.
I watched it at home on DVD from my public library, it contains several short "making of" extras that are very interesting. My wife skipped, she is not a fan of British movies.
Eden (2024)
Ron Howard project.
Set in the Galápagos Islands, but filmed in Australia.
I was able to see the press conference that Ron Howard and the four main stars gave. Howard explained that he had the project in mind for a time, worked on it some during the recent COVID pandemic and lockdowns. He knew it would not be a project that a typical studio would go for so he went at it his way.
The movie is a fictional drama based on real people and their attempt to find their own Eden in the Galápagos Islands (filmed in Australia). It doesn't work out as hoped because, in the end, people are people and they can cooperate together for only so long.
This is analogous to the theme that played out in the year 2000 movie, "The Beach" with Leo Dicaprio. As I wrote in my comments for that one, "Even though these 20 or 30 men and women all went to the island for "pleasure seeking", ultimately roles need to be taken, duties accepted, not everyone agrees, jealousy starts to erode relationships, certain people seek power, and when some get seriously injured, "out of sight, out of mind" is the remedy so as not to upset "paradise." In other words, they end up creating on a smaller scale the same world that they sought to escape from. Eventually this "house of cards" starts to fall down, and ultimately everyone realizes paradise is internal, not some idyllic place."
Good for Howard to bring this story to the screen.
The Perfect Couple (2024)
'Anything that feels this good, must be illegal.' (closing song)
I chuckle at the handful of very negative reviews here, along with a "1" rating. One guy even says he would give it a zero if he could.
These kinds of people have no clue how to evaluate a show, I suspect some of them have not even watched it but for some reason only they know want to trash the show.
Let me give a balanced perspective.
The story revolves around a wedding, one of the three sons of this wealthy family is getting married the next day. There is a rehearsal dinner outside, overlooking the bay. It goes late, the next morning a female is found dead in the water, the close friend of the bride to be. Was she killed, or was it just a tragic accident?
The show has a fine cast, better than some made-for-streaming shows. The dialog, while not groundbreaking, is fine, except the whole family members have a fondness for F-words in normal conversation. That characteristic does not add anything and in many cases seems strange and unwarranted. To me it represents poor writing.
So, how good is it? I'd say about equal in interest and entertainment to a weekly TV show with a murder mystery theme with some infidelity thrown in. It has elements of an Agatha Christie mystery. When it is all revealed it makes perfect sense but hard to guess as the story unfolds. I'd say a rating of 5 or 6, maybe 7, which is a very "average" rating for this type of show. (Keep in mind, the midpoint of a 1 to 10 rating scale is 5.5.)
My wife and I watched the whole six episodes and were entertained, often in a 'dark comedy' sense. Kidman, playing a well-known novelist, and Schreiber, a wealthy man who never worked, are perfectly imperfect as the parents of this diverse clan. It is set in Nantucket, I am a bit surprised there wasn't "I know a girl from Nantucket..." poem because it would have fit with all the sex between every eligible "of age" character.
When it was all done I had a better appreciation for the show than I had at the mid-way point. And the closing, several months later in London was a really good way for the key characters to move on.
At home, streaming.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Alternate title, 'The 40 day wasteland war', according to Furiosa.
I had watched trailers for this movie from time to time and my main interest in seeing it was because of Anya Taylor-Joy, she is one of my favorite young actresses. She has exotic looks with her large, wide-set eyes and perfect lips, but she is also a fine actress as she demonstrated in the miniseries "The Queen's Gambit.'
Here she takes over the role Charlize Theron played in the 2015 movie, as Furiosa. This is a prequel to that 2015 movie, for the whole first hour in this 2024 movie Furiosa is played by a young girl of 11 or 12. Then the last hour+ is approximately 15 years later and Furiosa is grown up.
The cast is very large and varied but the other actor of note here is
Chris Hemsworth as Dementus and it is clear that he is having fun with the role. There is a thin story, for the second half of the movie Furiosa is on her own special mission to get back to her home and the people there. But you don't watch this movie for the story, you watch it for the action and the fantastic visuals, and they run through the whole movie.
I wrote of the 2015 movie, and I repeat it here because it is equally germane, "So whether one considers this boring or exciting depends on one's frame of mind. In the chases across the desert it is almost nonstop action. Chases, shooting, flame-throwing guitar playing, cars and motorcycles crashing, explosions. I have to give credit to the filmmakers, and the sound track has much deep bass to emphasize all the action, you need a home theater with a good subwoofer to really appreciate all of it. I watched it at home on DVD."
A bit long for my tastes at almost 2 1/2 hours but I enjoyed it as whimsical entertainment, not much of what goes on in this post-apocalyptical world is possible.
At home on DVD from my public library. No "making of" extras.
The Magic of Lemon Drops (2024)
Entertaining Hallmark movie, whimsy filled with life truisms.
When my wife and I look for a movie on Saturday evening after our usual steak and red wine dinner, of course with chocolate cake for dessert, we mainly want to be entertained and this movie is entertaining. We have lived long enough to know most of life's truisms but it is nice to be reminded.
Set in Minnesota and Ohio, but filmed in Canada, Lolly is a 30-something single woman who works with her dad's long time family restaurant. Lolly has a knack for food, she likes to experiment with new blends and tastes but dad is adamant, no new items on the menu. On that he is as stubborn as can be. So Lolly dreams of having her own restaurant.
There is also an old unfulfilled romance with Rory, now a sports team doctor. They grew up next door neighbors, had a romance some 10+ years earlier but parted ways. Now he is back in town for a time, fresh off a divorce.
All that sets the stage for the events that shape this movie. Lolly's old aunt presents her with an opportunity. She gives her four lemon drops. Right before falling asleep at night if Lolly will take one lemon drop and out loud say what she wants to see, she will get one day, only one day, in that reality. After doing this on three different nights, going to three of her alternate realities, she can take the fourth drop and say which one she wants, but she never returns from that last one.
This sets up a series of interesting developments and interactions, each alternate reality filled with surprises for Lolly. My wife and I both guess correctly what she would do in the end.
At home, streaming on Peacock. As with almost all Hallmark movies, there is exactly one "Hallmark Kiss" and it comes during the last minute of the movie.
The Gray Man (2022)
Lots of action in a common, recycled concept.
You know what they say when something isn't completely clear? It is referred to as a "gray area." That is the meaning here of the gray man, it is not completely clear who he is or what his missions are.
Ryan Gosling is the gray man, known only as 'Six'. As he says, "007 was already taken." There is a lot of whimsy in the script, including his being referred to at one point as a "Ken Doll" which of course Gosling played in the "Barbie" movie. The idea here isn't novel, it has been used in many movies, where an unofficial assassin has to go rogue when he becomes the target.
The really, really bad guy here is Chris Evans as Lloyd Hansen, a freelance security guy with zero morals and who has lots of assassins working for him. To eliminate Six becomes his mission. He has no worry about lots of innocent, collateral deaths in the process.
To add attractiveness we have Ana de Armas as Dani Miranda, an agent who ends up helping Six. And one of my long-time favorites, Billy Bob Thornton as agent Fitzroy who first gives Six the proposal, become an agent and his prison sentence will be commuted. Sounds a lot like la Femme Nikita, doesn't it?
My wife and I watched it at home, streaming. In places there is a lot of action overload with car chases and shooting, plus a few explosions. Excessive guns and shooting is not my favorite approach to a movie like this but we were entertained mostly. More so for the actors than for the story.