Old Man @ The Movies

The critics and I disagree strongly on this film which stars Mark Wahlberg as a small plane pilot and Michelle Dockery whom I fondly recall from Downton Abbey.  She is cast as a U.S. Marshal charged with accompanying a vital witness set to testify against a crime boss. She has chartered Wahlberg's plane to fly them from Alaska to Seattle, with the witness shackled in the rear of the plane. Mid-flight, she realizes that Wahlberg is really a paid assassin assigned to kill the witness and her. She manages to subdue him and is flying the plane with no previous experience. And she learns through radio conversations that the plot was arranged by someone inside the marshal's service. Sure it's hokey and contrived, but it comes across as an old-fashioned mystery thriller, the kind Hollywood doesn't make any more, and we enjoyed it even with its flaws. Only 26% of critics and 64% of audiences gave FLIGHT RISK a thumbs up. perhaps because they don't like Mel Gibson who direct...

The most recent movie I saw starred two women I really don't like at all, but they and the film were excellent.  And unlike the near silent film I saw before this, Wolf Man, THE ROOM NEXT DOOR sparkled with intelligent dialogue.  It was beautifully acted, well written and well directed, but it had one problem, at least for me. It was likely the most depressing movie I remember seeing, because from almost the very beginning you knew what was going to happen, and it never deviated from that theme. Tilda Swinton, as a reporter for The New York Times who covers wars, and Julianne Moore, as a successful novelist, are old friends, having worked on the same magazine when younger, who haven't seen one another in ages, reunite when one visits the other in the hospital. Trying not to reveal more of the story is difficult, but they begin to see a lot of one another and talk about the fact that they both had an affair with the same man, played by John Turturro, who is still seeing one of ...

It's amazing. We're only 15 days into the new year, and I already have a nomination for the worst movie of the year.  WOLF MAN is just plain awful, and I noticed that it only lasted three days in my theater.  I guess the smell emanating from the theater was enough to close it down.  First of all, it gives the impression of an old time silent film because there's practically no dialogue—only incredibly loud discordant sounds and semi-animal sounds. This is the story of a man who inherits his father's farm in Oregon when his father disappears and is declared dead. I never recall seeing a farmhouse surrounded by dense forest before.  His wife doesn't want to join him to see the place but goes anyway with their young daughter in tow.  They arrive in the middle of the night of course (the whole film looks like it was filmed in the middle of the night with no lighting) and are attacked by something. Later, Dad begins acting strangely, that is if you think eating his o...

Looking for s depressing movie?  I strongly urge you to see THE LAST SHOWGIRL, starring, of all people, Pamela Anderson, who I only remember as an over-endowed, publicity-seeking, no-talent, flash-in-the-pan. I hereby sincerely apologize to Ms. Anderson who, in this movie, performs perfectly as a woman whose 30-year career as a topless showgirl in Las Vegas is about to come to an end. The end comes abruptly as she and the other girls at the Razzle Dazzle resort are told the new owners will end their show snd install a new, more potentially popular one. This seems to be the only job the glamorous Shelley (Ms. Anderson) has ever held, and she is at a loss when considering where she goes from here, with a young kind of estranged daughter about to graduate from college. The role and Shelley are sad and poignant, and the actress hits a home run with her performance. Not so with Jamie Lee Curtis in a supporting role as a former showgirl now serving as an acid-mouthed cocktail waitress we...

I think BETER MAN was one of the most creatively imaginative films I have ever seen. It was a biopic, a true story, of a very successful young British pop star, Robbie Williams, of whom I have never heard.  I don't understand why the director/producers/writers did to Robbie Williams what they did in this film because I suspect it was intended to be symbolic—in a way, perhaps, known only to them. I certainly didn't have a clue as to why Robbie was shown throughout the film as a chimpanzee, incredibly created, I learned, computer generated.  Not s disguise, and not recognized by anyone else being unusual looking. Maybe one of you reading this review, such as my brilliant children or grandchildren, can explain it to me. The film takes Robbie from boyhood where his father, inspired by the likes of Frank Sinatra, sings with him and has aspirations of being an entertainer. His father leaves to pursue his dream, Robbie has a lousy childhood, becomes a successful member of a boys' ...

I have no rational reason for going to see MUFASA: THE LION KING on a chilly Friday afternoon. I knew in advance that I wouldn't be interested and be bored, and I knew the audience would be comprised of parents escorting wee folks yelling and wandering all over the place.  My predictions were correct, so I wasn't disappointed. I never liked anything about The Lion King when it appeared on Broadway, but this was purportedly life before the grown kin ruled. I suspect most kids these days know all about the story, even two- and three-year-olds, but they wouldn't have a clue about what was going on because I had a difficult time comprehending the narration and dialogue.  It was written for a much more sophisticated audience but who cares.  I was intrigued by the computer generated animals and scenery which were really amazing. Story line?  A cute lion cub, Mufasa, is separated from his parents and wanders far and aimlessly until he is befriended by another cub whose dad'...

If anyone were to ask what THE DAMNED, the film I saw today, was about, I would say it certainly was about guilt and humanity but it seemed much longer to reveal than the hour and 29 minutes the film ran. It was well acted and well directed and the setting more than adequately depicted the utter isolation of a fishing station somewhere remote, with absolutely miserable weather. Headed by a widowed wife, the fishing crew spots a sinking ship offshore, and there was a discussion on whether they should try to rescue them or ignore it and try to get through the winter with an inadequate food supply (which wouldn't have lasted long with more people eating).  No rescue is the decision and the rest of the film reveals the growing guilt among all the characters resulting in violence and even suicide. This is what might be described as a folk horror movie, because it obviously occurs in the last century or earlier. I can't say I liked the film but it was professionally produced but not ...

I was surprised to see as many people in the audience as were there for what I thought was a relatively obscure horror film starring Willem Dafoe. NOSFERATU takes place in Germany in what I would call the Victorian era, the mid to late 1800s. It is about a young woman who is possessed by an evil spirit from a very early age, a spirit known as Nosferatu, identified by scientist Dafoe. Her new husband must go on a business trip to the mountains to sign up a new client for the company he works for—a strange count living in a typical spooky, dark castle. He is abused and imprisoned there but manages to escape and return home to find his wife in dire straits. She is advised by Dafoe that she must succumb sexually to Nosferatu in order to save the world from the plague he has foisted on the country. If this seems too complex to comprehend, I apologize, but that's what I saw and I'm sticking to it. It jumped all over the place, but the actors were good, the scenery and costuming well ...

The movie I saw today with one other person in the audience happily was only 1 hour and 23 minutes long. If it had been any longer, I don't think I would have still been in the theater.  Billed as a satire and comedy, BLOODY AXE WOUND missed the boat in both of these categories but was adequately titled because there were a lot, snd I mean a lot, of bloody axe wounds. The movie was ludicrous, which I think is worse than ridiculous.  A badly disfigured man (at least he looked that way to my failing eyes) and his teenaged daughter (their name is actually Bladecut (that alone ruined the satire) run a failing video rental store, but have s second business—creating horror films by actually killing people, usually with axes. He is ill and asks his daughter to fill in for him by killing fellow students from her school. She appears to have a crush on one of her classmates and is reluctant and finds it difficult to carry out the assignment.  Is that enough for you?  It was fo...

Happy New Year all. If the movie I saw today bodes well for 2025 then maybe movies are headed for a banner year because this one was a fine one, and I liked it very much. A COMPLETE UNKNOWN is supposed to be the true story of singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, and I may be one of the few people in the world who doesn't know very much about him, although I did recognize his name and some of the songs he sang. He is very well played by Timothèe Chalamet (what on earth possessed his parents to spell his name with an accent mark?)  Dylan arrives in New York from the midwest with his guitar in search of his heroes, folks singers Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and goes on to be an incredibly successful folk singer/songwriter on social issues and inspiring major changes in the music business. He comes across as not too nice a person, particularly in his relationships with women, one of whom is Joan Baez whose name, like Dylan's, I heard but knew nothing about. Despite my shortcomings, I thou...

I feel as though I've seen every movie about boxing that was ever filmed as far back as the 1940s, including Champion with Kirk Douglas, Bogart in The Harder They Fall, Newman's Somebody Up There Likes Me, Rocky 1 through 17 and beyond.  Most were exiting and bloody and well produced and written and acted. The movie I saw the other day was none of those things, and perhaps it was because it was a true story and depicted women boxing. I found THE FIRE INSIDE dull, boring, with mostly boring and dull performances. I napped often and soundly. This 17 year-old girl beat the odds and won an Olympic gold medal not only once but in successive Olympic games, but in my opinion she was a nasty, unappreciative teen who eventually got rich as a professional boxer. The fight scenes were mercifully brief and never bloody and I guess I will always be indifferent to or disinterested in women in the boxing ring. The only character I liked was the man who played her coach, voluntarily and never ...