Change Your Image
btm1
I'm older than sin and ornery as hell.That sentence does not describe me. It's true I'm older than about 90 percent of the US population, but sin has been around for thousands of years. Plus, I'm generally called &nice& by people who know me. They also say I'm very intelligent, but if I am so intelligent why am I trading messages on a chat board? The curse of being nice is that it doesn't promise excitement and edginess that the women, I crave, crave. But I have had an interesting, if safe, life as an analyst at the old McDonnell Douglas Astronautic and nuclear energy regulation.
Ratings
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Reviews
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
Cute premise well acted but last 30 minutes drag a bit.
Story revolves about young Indian chef who emigrates to France and becomes famous. The love story is a secondary plot line. Helen Mirren plays a French restauranteur with her usual Oscar quality panache.I would have preferred if the film ended about 30 minutes earlier than it does.
The Last Laugh (2019)
Kate Micucci is cute
This is a feel good movie. Chevy Chase plays a has been Hollywood talent agent who is probably supposed to be somewhat older than he actually is. Richard Dreyfus plays a comedian who is considerably older than he actually is. Dreyfus is very convincing and his character is like able and suave. The jokes we get to hear him say are only mildly funny. The director made a good decision to show how funny he is by focusing on audience laughter instead of what the comedian is saying. I didn't like the makeup on Dreyfus. Either he was made up to look like he had terrible skin problems or he actually has the skin problems and the makeup staff couldn't hide it. An actress I didn't know, Kate Micucci, played Chase's adult daughter. She has one of those "doe-eyed" faces that can be cute and comical as she wishes. It is a small role but I thought she did it really well.
Killing Eve (2018)
Jodie Comer steals the show
"Killing Eve" is based on the Villanelle novellas by Luke Jennings.
Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is a beautiful woman who works as assassin for a secret organization. She has a decidedly twisted personality. She has no more reluctance to killing a person than to killing a mosquito. She does mean things for fun. She is very talented assassin. And she seems (to me) possibly to have multiple personalties. Jodie Comer does a remarkable instance transformations from one to the other.
Sandra Oh has an Emmy nomination for her part as Eve, a British intelligence analyst who is fascinated by the clues and personality quirks of this assassin. Shed ends up almost accidentally as a field agent pursuing Villanelle, who in turn becomes fascinated with Eve. But the Emmys neglected to nominate Jodie Comer. Sandra Oh gives a remarkable performance in the kind of role she never expected to get because typically she is offered only ethnic roles. Still, I think Jodie Comer's performance as the title character of the books on which the series is based is at least as award worthy.
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
Could have used more history
I really enjoyed the opening moments of the film when the zookeepers wife is cycling through the zoo accompanied by a colt-sized young camel running to keep up and animals greeting them as they pass by their enclosures.
The film is an homage to Antonina and Jan Zabinski. In 1968 the state of Israel honored the Zabinskis with the title "Righteous Among the Nations," a recognition that was given to all those brave citizens who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. To understand the extent of the bravery you need to know that anti-Semitism was not limited to Hitler's minions in Europe. The largest Jewish population in pre-war Europe was in Poland, with about 3,000,000 Jews. Germany had only about 500,000, and they were more assimilated into the German culture, with many German Jews decorated for their World War I military service. While some native Poles were friendly with Polish Jews, anti-Semitism was rampant. During the Nazi occupation of Poland more Poles cooperated with the Nazi's denigration of Jews and reporting Jews in hiding to the Germans was mush more likely than helping to hide Jews. It is notable that even after the Nazis were defeated remaining Jews in Poland were subjected to another Polish Pogrom, the "Kielce Pogrom" in 1946, based on the centuries old blood libel, that Jews were kidnapping Christian children to use their blood for making Passover matzahs (never mind that Jewish law strictly forbids eating anything contaminated with any kind of blood, hence no rare steaks in Kosher cooking). So to risk the Nazi wrath by hiding Jews was particularly brave in Poland.
But this film was made in Poland and Poland does not admit to its complicity in the Holocaust. When the Nazis began their removal of Jews from the walled-in Warsaw Ghetto to extermination camps, the inmates of the Ghetto resisted with a handful of guns and improvised explosives. That Jewish resistance broadcast appeals for support to the larger anti-German Polish resistance but none was forthcoming. The battle of the Warsaw Ghetto lasted 28 days. In the Zookeepers Wife there was no Jewish resistance at all during any of that time.
As the war turned against the Germans in 1944, the Soviet Army was approaching Warsaw, and the Polish resistance was encouraged to launch a rebellion against the German occupation, the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. However, instead of pushing into Warsaw Stalin held his Red Army standing at the line of the Vistula River. Stalin was content to encourage the Polish resistance to rise up and be defeated by the superior Nazi forces. Stalin allowed the Nazis to kill off much of the surviving Polish aristocracy and other Polish leaders so that it would be easier for his installation of a puppet communist government after the Red Army occupied Warsaw. (As part of a secret protocol of the pre-war Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union had previously occupied a portion of eastern Poland two weeks after Germany invaded Poland in 1939.) The film addresses this only in briefly showing the defeat of the 1944 Polish resistance without any explanation of what led to it and their betrayal by Stalin.
Walter (2015)
Enjoyable character study
Very enjoyable and engrossing small film with a well thought out plot and interesting characters. Walter (Andrew J. West) is a young adult who lives an overly-obsessive ordered life. He also believes his father is God and his mission in life is to pass judgment on everyone he meets as to whether that person will go to heaven or hell in the afterlife. He lives at home with a widowed mother (Virginia Madsen) who has her own peculiar behavior pattern. She is unaware of Walter's beliefs but is distressed that Walter is not healthier.
Walter's life is abruptly disrupted by the sudden appearance of a ghost (Justin Kirk, who played Andy Botwin in the TV series "Weeds") who demands Walter send him to either heaven or hell already because he's been on earth as a ghost for 10 years now. Without giving the story away, I can say I felt the author very nicely tied everything together in the end.
Walter H. Macy plays a very unusual psychologist, whose personality is pretty similar to what Macy portrays on the US version of "Shameless."
Neve Campbell has a small but critical role as a nurse.
Jim Gaffigan does an excellent job as the theater manager who doesn't take his own job too seriously but is a good boss.
I watched the film on TV. Perhaps it works better in an intimate setting than in a theater, but I really found it engrossing, enjoyable and worthwhile.
Up in the Air (2009)
Great photography
Yes, the other reviewers are right about what the film is about, how well its acted, etc. I mean it WAS nominated for best picture, best actor in a leading role,best actress in a leading role, best supporting actress, best director, and best adapted screenplay. George Clooney was absolutely terrific, as was Vera Farmiga as people whose jobs keep them flying about the country like old-time traveling salesmen. I wasn't thrilled by the ending, but I really enjoyed the story.
But I wanted to add that the cinematography, particularly the attention grabbing opening montage, was filmed and edited so beautifully that I thought it added much to my fascination with this film.
The White Countess (2005)
Far better than the 2-star rating Comcast Xfinity TV lists it as
I found this film on the MPLEX Chanel TV listings of Comcast Xfinity. The listing gave it just 2 of 4 stars, but as a history buff I found the description blurb compelling: "Intriguing love story, set in 1936 Shanghai, in which a disillusioned blind diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) falls for a ruined Russian royal (Natasha Richardson) working as a B-girl. Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave, and aunt, Lynn Redgrave, costar."
I set my DVR to record it a while back but just got around to watching it I am writing this review to protest the 2-star rating of the listing. Maybe its not 4-star, but it deserves at least 3-star.
Richardson's Countess' job is more correctly labeled as a "taxi dancer" in a cabaret-bar, not a "bar girl." But in 1936 it is still a disgraceful job in the minds of her mother, aunt and sister-in-law, who live with her and are supported by her earnings, but still pretend their royal birth entitles them to a better life. This becomes significant late in the film.
Fiennes' character has given up any pretense of using his reputation as a top American diplomat for the stodgy respectable company that pays his salary, and dreams of one-day owning a cabaret of his own with just the right amount of tension between internationally diverse clientèle, a select group of bouncers, the right entertainment, and the ideal elegant but sad woman to set the sexual atmosphere. He wants to live in his dream bar and shut out the messy real world outside.
Dom Hemingway (2013)
Mesmerizing
I had not intended to watch Dom Hemingway. I never heard about it before it came on while I was tuned to HBO. But its opening scene is hard to ignore. A man in a prison is standing naked while someone (out of the camera view) is giving him a blow job, while the prisoner, who announces that he is the great Dom Hemingway, waxes poetically about the greatness of his cock. Once hooked I couldn't stop watching. Throughout the film Dom speeches have a Shakespeare-like quality about them, not realistic perhaps but fascinating language. I was mesmerized by Jude Law's performance.
The plot involves Dom serving 12 years in prison to protect his crime boss, and his odyssey in pursuit of the reward he feels is his due. Dom has anger management issues and is clearly admired by his fellow prisoners and feared by the civilians who know him. Melody is one of the hookers the crime boss rewards Dom with. Later in the film she reappears as a sort of angelic seer who helps him change his life and his luck.
On his release from prison Dom meets up with an old friend, a criminal named Dickie, who sticks with Dom on his crusade to get his reward for his 12 year sacrifice. Dickie is played magnificently by Richard E. Grant, a British actor who looks a bit like a young Max von Sydow.
Making Mr. Right (1987)
Ann Magnuson reminded me of a young Shirley MacLaine
The two stars of the film are John Malkovich and Ann Magnuson. John Malkovich is now renowned as a consummate actor, and in this film he has a tour de force in a dual role playing Dr. Jeff Peters, an all-serious engineer/scientist and the look-alike android he created for a one-person multi-year deep space mission which the characters believe would be too lonely for a human to endure.
Unfortunately, Ann Magnuson did not enjoy similar success as a film actress following this part. I found that surprising because she was truly excellent as Frankie Stone, a respected publicist hired to convince the government to provide funds for continuation of Dr. Peters' deep space project. Frankie's approach is to make the android (named Ulysses) more engaging and interesting to the general public during interviews. That is, to make it more human-like. Magnuson, a red-head, was around 30 years old when the film was made, and I thought at times that I was watching a 30 year old Shirley MacLaine.
The style of the film as a whole seemed to me to belong to an earlier time in the film industry, more like 1950s era romantic comedies. I checked to see if the film had been made earlier and not released until 1987, but found nothing to indicate that. Perhaps I'm just not remembering that time period accurately.
Killing Them Softly (2012)
Cynical, depressing, but glad I finished it
Comcast/Xfinity: "In this thrilling crime drama, a professional enforcer (Brad Pitt*) probes the robbery of a mob poker game by three low-level thieves, but his investigation is complicated by an alcoholic hit man (a world-weary looking James Gandolfini*), incompetent gangsters, and the playboy host of the game (a corpulent Ray Liotta*)."
* - text in parentheses are my additions -
From that description, despite the phrase "thrilling crime drama," I was expecting a "The Ladykillers" or "Lavender Hill Mob" comedy. That turned out to be completely wrong. There is ZERO humor in this film. I also wouldn't call it thrilling, since its obvious the mob wants those involved to be killed.
Instead the film is a character study. We get to know the motives, fears, desires of the players. In the background are snipers of TV coverage of the 2008 presidential race between Bush and Obama, a time when the economy was in a state of near collapse later called the Great Recession. Crime, too, is in a depression. Basically the film delivers a depressingly cynical message that Jefferson's vision of democracy is a lie, that America is a business, and that way to live life is take what you can.
I watched this on a Comcast/Xfinity cable TV digital recording device. Half-way through I decided that I wasn't enjoying it and turned it off. But several days later I went back and finished it. I'm glad I did.
The Object of Beauty (1991)
Definitely worth more than the 2 star rating given on Comcast Xfinity
John Malkovich (Jake) was really good looking in 1991 when he was 38. Andie MacDowell (Tina)was 33. In a nude scene from the rear and partial side she is drop dead gorgeous.
Jake and Tina are stylish, selfish and broke. He is a wheeler dealer who's latest gamble on a shipment of cocoa is a disaster, and his credit is maxed out. She owns, and adores, a small Henry Moore bronze figure of which only 9 were cast and then the mold was broken. It is their only thing of monetary value. She muses about reporting it stolen to collect on its insurance, but he says it is too risky. The sculpture goes missing. A deaf-mute hotel maid admired the sculpture for its beauty rather than its value. The plot thread about her is perhaps the heart of the film, but I enjoyed most of all the character development of Jake and Tina.
The film is a delightful exploration of how the two lovers deal with the disappearance. Spot on acting and directing. I loved it.
Stay Hungry (1976)
See famous movie actors in early roles
Jeff Bridges as born into southern gentry but trying to find what he wants to do in life after his parents leave him the family mansion. I loved the part where he dances a jig at a blue grass music hootenanny. This film introduced a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in a role where he is a body builder who also plays a country fiddle. Sally Field plays a country girl out of place among the southern aristocracy Jeff's character belongs to.
Scatman Crothers has a small part as the faithful family retainer. Fannie Flagg and Joanna Cassidy are gentry acquaintances of Bridge's character. "
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Better than just great battle scenes.
I'm not a fan of action movies that spend heavily on crashes, fires, and other special effects, but skimp on the screenplay. Kingdom of Heaven, however, is an action epic about who rules Jerusalem at the time of the first Crusades, but with a decent and interesting plot.
While it contains some historical characters, it is a fictionalized account. One of the things that is historically correct is that King Baldwin (actually Baldwin IV) did have leprosy, was retained as king despite that, led troops in battle and even defeated Saladin in one. Also, when the King was still young, he did have a regent, Raymond III (1140-1187), Prince of Galilee and Tiberias, who the film only calls Tiberius (Jeremy Irons). Also, princess Sibylla (Eva Green), sister of Baldwin IV, did marry Guy of Lusignan and there is some historical claims about her involvement with Baldwin of Ibelin, but not Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom), who actually was a younger brother of, and vassal to, Baldwin of Ibelin. But there isn't anything in the few historical sites I looked at about Balian ever being blacksmith.
Liam Neeson, as usual, impresses, although in relatively short part, as Godfrey of Ibelin. (The actual name of the historical father of Balian of Ibelin is not Godfrey but Barisan.)
What makes the plot interesting is the moral code of the hero, (played by Orlando Bloom) and his father. It gives a morally sympathetic treatment of Saladin and Islam; its treatment of Christianity favors Christ's teachings about doing good being more important than rituals, and mocks false piety of a medieval Christian priest and bishop.
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Pretty bad, except for special effects
The film starts by telling us how beautiful is the young princess, Snow White, but while the young actress is pretty enough, she isn't prettier than other young girls. She doesn't resemble a pageant winner. Kristen Stewart, who plays the mature Snow White, seems to me to have 2 unusually large front teeth. She never in this film has "skin as white as snow" except when she is supposedly dead, and never has "lips as red as blood (or lips as red as rose, depending on the story version). The evil queen (Charlize Theron) is more beautiful except when she is shown as aging. The Queen's aging in this film is supposedly reversed by her sucking the beauty out of young girls, who then become old hags. But in the film she is rapidly aging in some scenes while in the next scene she is back to her original beauty, with no explanation.
Snow White escapes from the cell in a tower where she has been kept for years. The Queen is distraught and orders her evil brother to find her and bring her back. But in a later scene the Queen has used magic to locate and poison Snow White all be herself. Why then did she need to send her brother and a small army to find her?
Part of the story has the animal world enchanted by her, but some in the "dark forest" frighten her and definitely seem unfriendly, with the exception of a science fiction beast that fights Snow White's escort but then becomes docile when it approaches Snow White.
While the story line is inconsistent, the special effects are very good, if unnecessary and not all particularly original. In most Snow White stories the magic mirror displays a face in the mirror that answers the "who's the fairest in the land" question. In this version of Snow White the mirror melts into a liquid mass that forms a man-like 3-D figure to answer the question. Clearly this was done just to demonstrate that the special effects crew knows how to do that. (The same kind of liquid metal effect was first done in Terminator-2 way back in 1991.)
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
A Tibetan version of "Lawrence of Arabia."
Like "Lawrence of Arabia", the scenery (Tibet and the Himalayan Mountains) add to the appeal of this film. But there is also a story line connection -- a British office/Austrian mountain climber with personal psychological issues becomes adviser to Prince Faisal/the Dalai Lama. That's about as far as I can stretch the analogy because Lawrence led the Bedouins to victory over the Turks while Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt) was not a military adviser and Tibet was had no victory over Communist China.
I thought that Brad Pitt did a splendid job of showing arrogance, disdain and sensitivity at the appropriate times of the story.
David Thewlis is perfection as Peter Aufschnaiter, a more disciplined and sensitive leader of a German mountain climbing expedition.
Harrer, who already is recognized as a champion European climber, is a member of Aufschnaiter expedition to conquer Nanga Parbat in British India. During the climb they encounter adverse weather conditions. Harrer want to continue to a higher level that he hopes will be above the storm, but team leader Aufschnaiter insists on descending instead. At the bottom they are imprisoned as enemy aliens as World War II has begun and Germany is now an enemy of the British. (Note:Austria was annexed into Germany before the Allies declared war on Germany.) They plot to escape but have limited options of where to escape to. Tibet is the closest independent nation but no foreigners are allowed in Tibet.
Le cadeau (1982)
Clio Goldsmith
When I saw this film I'm pretty sure it was called "Le Cadeau" ("The Gift"), and IMDb listed it for many years as Le Cadeau. The "gift" was a surprise paid-for evening with an elite high-class call girl. It is given by his friends to a bank employee on his retirement. Clio Goldsmith plays the call girl, Joyane, who also uses the pseudonym Barbara.
Clio Goldsmith, a 25 year old German actress at the time this film was made, was one of the most stunningly beautiful women I'd ever seen. To my regret, she left the theater profession in 1985.
It's comedy of mistaken identities, but all I really remember is Clio Goldsmith. (I'm writing this more than 30 years after seeing the film!)
Hope Springs (2003)
Has all the elements for a good romantic comedy except for the story details
The plot is thin but had potential: a British artist (Colin Firth) becomes dazed and despondent on receiving an invitation to the wedding of his fiancée, Vera (Minnie Driver), to another man. He promptly flies to America and takes a sleepless overnight Greyhound bus ride to a Vermont Town ("Hope Springs," population 18,459) where he knows no one. (He chose that destination because of its name.) He gets a room at a motel where the the owner/desk clerk, Joanie (Mary Steenburgen), immediately notes his despondency and sends an attractive young amateur psychologist, Mandy (Heather Graham), to his room. Eventually they fall in love, but his former fiancée arrives, wants him back, and does things to disrupt his affair with Mandy.
The only funny bits in the movie are Vera's attempts to find a place in town where smoking isn't prohibited. I didn't find other comic attempts particularly funny. In one scene Vera in only a bra and panties in a crowd but what seems like a comic opportunity is ignored.
The actors are fine but the the story jumps from one situation to another without taking time to develop even a hint of credibility. In one scene in a car Mandy, with no explanation, chugs a large bottle of what seems to be hard liquor while Colin merely watches. Apparently that was just to create the comic situation of Colin having to take over the driving so hey can have a comic bit of a driver used to driving on the left side of the road trying to drive on American streets.
I didn't find the comic moments particularly funny. Inconsistencies abound: the bus trip from a Boston international airport to Vermont can't be much more than 3 or 4 hours. The restaurants and town hall seem to big for a small town. In one scene Colin is first in a towel and then dressed. Colin does some stupid things for no apparent reason other than to create comic situations.
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
On the same high level of Pulp Fiction
I was drawn to this movie because I loved "In Bruge," also written and directed by Martin McDonagh. It also featured Colin Farrell. (Originally, I watched "In Bruges" because I had visited that city not long before and climbed the bell tower where a large part of the film was shot. But "In Bruges" is a great film, not merely a travelogue.) In "Seven Psychopaths" Farrell plays a script writer who is Irish, drinks to excess, and has a germ of an idea for a film title, "Seven Psychopaths," but no characters or storyline yet.
"Seven Psychopaths" was listed as a comedy; I was in the mood for a comedy. I also wanted to see Woody Harrelson's performance (he plays a psychopathic mob boss who is obsessed with his pet Shih Tzu). I first saw Harrelson merely as a comic actor in the great "Cheers" TV sitcom, I've since learned to respect him as a serious actor who (like Jodie Foster) seems to accept roles only in films with very good scripts.
In fact, the entire ensemble consists of notable performers, including the inimical Christopher Walken as a small-time con man who collects rewards for "finding" and returning "lost" dogs to their owners. The dogs are lost because they have been kidnapped by an accomplice played by Sam Rockwell.
Sam Rockwell's character, a psychopath and friend of the script writer, turns out to be the juiciest part and Rockwell plays it perfectly. Perhaps it is his performance that made me think it was the best part, but maybe not. His mannerisms brought to mind Robert Blake as Tony Baretta in the popular1970's television series "Baretta."
Quentin Tarantino's violent comedy "Pulp Fiction" is one of my favorite films. "Seven Psychopaths" is of the same genre and, in my view, of comparable quality.
Cedar Cove: Cedar Cove: The Beginning (2013)
Andie MacDowell shines as Judge Olivia Lockhart
I don't normally watch the Hallmark channel but was curious about their first TV series, which is based on a book series of the same name.
Cedar Cove is set in a fictitious small Washington State coastal town. In the first episode we meet the small town judge who is ethical. wise, unpretentious, and who is offered a federal judgeship by her Washington State U.S. Senator. They knew each other from law school, but he chose to nominate her for the federal position because only one of some 20 decisions of hers that had been appealed was overturned by the higher court. Other characters in the story are the town's newspaper editor who is a newcomer to small town life, her daughter who is dating a wealthy older man, a younger man who wants to renew a relationship with her, and a young couple who are in her court for a divorce.
The plot of the episode, which mostly dealt with problems couples had in their relationships but also involved political and legal issues, kept me interested. For the most part the acting was good, particularly Andie MacDowell's. I thought the actor playing the reporter was a trifle hammy. My impression of Hallmark is that it is akin to the Harlequin Romance novels, but I didn't feel that way about this pilot episode. Hopefully the future episodes will continue in this same manner.
It's nice to have at least one dramatic series that doesn't involve criminal investigations or vampires.
Tadpole (2002)
How can you not smile at this?
"Tadpole" is a joy to watch. It's low-budget and not a long film, but shortly after it began I found myself smiling through every one of its 80 minutes. Okay, perhaps it is not realistic for a 15 year old boy to be smitten by a 40 year old woman, or for a 40 year old woman to brag openly to her friends about her seduction of him, but it's just fun to watch. (However, 9 years after the film release a 40 year old school teacher, who was arrested due to her affair with a 15 year-old student of hers, had the charges dropped after the two married in 2010.)
"Tadpole" is a nickname that 15 year old Oscar (played perfectly by then 24 year old Aaron Stanford) thinks he's outgrown. "Nobody calls me that anymore," he tells the doorman at his father's New York swank apartment building. But it is also a metaphor for how he appears to a coterie of 40+ women who he intrigues.
Oscar's divorced mother is French so he is fluent in French as well as English. He prefers the pleasure of reading Voltaire, both for Voltairs's wisdom and his satire, rather than to listen to pop music or other interests of the average teenager. Oscar is bright, sophisticated beyond his years, and finds girls at his boarding school (who are attracted to him like moths to a flame) to be vapid and boring. Instead he is infatuated with Eve (Sigourney Weaver, who at 51 in 2000, looked a bit old for the part) his 40 something stepmother. Not to give away too much, but Eve's friend Diane (Bebe Neuwirth) has a major part of the action. Neuwirth won awards for her performance in this film.
"Tadpole" deserves to be seen by more people. It's rating in TV movie reviews is too low.
Cookie's Fortune (1999)
Delightful wry comedy with excellent cast
I loved this wry comedy that takes place in a small Mississippi town where everybody is, at least outwardly, friendly with everybody. It was directed by the late Robert Altman (1925-2006), who also gave us M*A*S*H and Nashville, and much more. Terrible title, however. It has nothing to do with fortune cookies, or cookies of any kind. The fortune refers to the assets that the heirs of a family matriarch, whose nickname is Cookie (Patricia Neal), will inherit when she dies.
One of the little comedic touches I appreciated were the historical markers in the town, one of which I think read "nothing historical occurred at this spot."
I enjoyed the treat of four generations (each about 20 years younger than the next) of noted actresses in one film. In addition to movie legend Patricia Neal (1926-2010) who won an Oscar for Hud, Glen Close (who has had 6 Oscar nominations so far) played Camille Dixon, Cookie's over-bearing theatrical-obsessed niece. Four time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore played Camille's subservient and perhaps dim-witted younger sister Cora Duvall. Cute Liv Tyler (who was Arwen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) is Emma Duvall, Cora's estranged daughter.
Charles S. Dutton is great as African-American Willis Richland, who is kind of a genial gentle care-taker for Cookie. At the end of the film we learn he is more than a friend.
Famed singer Lyle Lovett plays a spooky peeping Tom character who is interested in Emma. His role didn't seem to be fully developed and didn't contribute much to the film.
Chris O'Donnell plays a Barney Fife type sheriff's deputy, except he is very good looking and is romantically involved with Emma.
Cookie, who's mind is beginning to go, misses her late husband and kills herself to be with him. Camille Dixon discovers the suicide and initially is shocked and horrified that people will learn that her aunt killed herself (nice people don't commit suicide) and affect Camille's social standing. So she makes it look like a thief murdered Cookie. But once she does that her horror turns to appreciation. She now can move into Cookie's grand house. But she hadn't counted on anyone in the town becoming a murder suspect.
Out Cold (1989)
Good cast, good plot, but rhythm is off
The plot of "Out Cold" could have made a movie as funny as the 1950's era Alec Guinness/Ealing Studios comedies. But something didn't click for me in the way "Out Cold" was filmed. Most notably, the music was way off. Music and sound effects was a big part of the Guinness comedies. But in addition to the poor music choices and lack of comic sound effects, there were stretches that didn't seem to accomplish anything except take up time.
There is a twist at the end of "Out Cold" that is left for the viewer to interpret. Was Dave (John Lithgow) not the bumbling naif he seemed to be?
Gun Shy (2000)
Reminded me of Alec Guinness comedies
"Gun Shy"is a comedy posing as an action film. It actually starts out as an interesting post-traumatic stress special agent story. But it is at the climax when it gets hilarious.
I was a big fan of the Alec Guinness comedies, including his "crime" films, "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "The Ladykillers." The cinematic style is different but the understated humor is similar.
Charlie Mayeaux (Liam Neeson) is an undercover agent suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. He is on a case involving an unpredictable psychotic killer, Fulvio (Oliver Platt). He is sure that he will die in this assignment. It's a follow up to an earlier assignment in which he was about to be killed when he was saved by his task force. All the bad guys were killed, except for one. The gangsters killed in that raid worked for Fulvio, and the DEA wants Charlie to renew his contact with Fulvio's people in the hope that Charlie will meet Fulvio (whom he has never seen except as imagined in his nightmares). They are less interested in catching Fulvio than having him lead them to the big drug cartel bosses.
I agree with the critics who complain that the ending of the film doesn't fit with what came before, but by then we know not to take the story as a serious one anyhow.
Faithful (1996)
An unexpected delight
Comcast cable gave "Faithful" just 2 stars, so I wasn't sure I wanted to see it. But I love films Cher has starred in, so I watched it not expecting too much. It's a small but delightful film about the interaction of a woman and the hit-man hired to kill her.
Maggie (Cher) is an extremely wealthy housewife. She drives a Rolls, and lives in a modern mansion that seems large enough to house a hotel or resort. But she is depressed. Her husband of 20 years, Jack (Ryan O'Neal), has been neglecting her. They haven't had sex for months and she is sure he is having an affair. A hit-man, Tony (Chazz Palminteri), sneaks into her house and ties her to a chair. He explains that her husband hired him to kill her, but he has to wait until the husband signals (by phoning and hanging up after two rings) that he has reached his alibi location.
While waiting, Maggie tries to convince Tony to work for her instead of her husband. Tony becomes distressed and calls his psychotherapist, Dr. Susskind (Paul Mazursky, who also was the film's Director).
While this does not sound like a comedy, in what drama does a hit-man call his therapist during a job? Besides, there is the anticipation that Maggy will come out on top. She is Cher after-all!
Chazz Palminteri is excellent as the troubled hit-man. He also wrote the play the film is based on, and wrote the screenplay. Robert De Niro is listed as the Producer.
There are some minor problems that I didn't think about until writing this review. They don't really matter:
1. Maggie considers herself a housewife. But how does she spend her days? Wouldn't such a person have a circle of girlfriends who discuss each others family problems?
2. Shouldn't such a large home have a staff to run it? It has an elaborate security system but no staff to respond to intrusions? A cook? A maid to keep the many rooms clean? 3. Cher's acting seemed to me to somehow to be a little off, as if she didn't put her full effort into it. In other films she has been a superb actress.
The film was adapted from a play, so it is not surprising that nearly all the scenes are in the mansion.
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
One of my two favorite biographies
This movie is based on the biographic book written by two of the 12 children of Frank Gilbert, Sr. Frank Gilbert, Sr., was a prominent pioneering efficiency expert. Efficiency experts were hired by manufacturers as consultants on how to increase the productivity of 20th mass production. (An example of the kind of work Gilbert pioneered is in the musical comedy, "The Pajama Game". Eddie Foy, Jr. plays the time-control manager, Hines.) But the movie and book are about his home life. With a huge family and limited bathroom facilities, organization is needed to make the parents' lives manageable and to prevent chaos. Some of his ideas seem good (such as decorating the children's bedrooms with educational material so that they will become familiar to them without studying. But others, such as an industrial scale tonsillectomy on the 12 children makes for a good story. The title of the movie and book come from the father bargaining for quantity discounts.
This is a comedy the whole family can enjoy. It gives us an opportunity to view what life was like in an upper middle class family at the dawn of the 1920's jazz age. It hasn't any car chases, pratfalls, and its more of a series of vignettes (individual chapters of the book relate incidents in the family's life) than a story following a plot.
I saw this movie when it was first in the theaters and after I had read the book. It remains one of my fondest biographical films, with the other being "Aunty Mame."