Old Man @ The Movies

I saw a movie the other day, aptly described as a comedy, and I actually enjoyed it and laughed at many of the antics of a presumably ideal English couple, Ivy and Theo Rose, with great careers and with two great children. I don't know if this was intended as a British version of The War of the Roses, which wowed audiences nearly forty years ago and starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen 'Turner. Are either of them still alive? From my recollection, THE ROSES was much better. Theo is an architect who doesn't follow the rules and gets fired after a museum he designed falls into the sea. And Ivy's career aa a chef and then restauranteur soars as he wallows in self pity and spends his time training his children in fitness. Their perfect marriage begins to fall apart, watched by two friends, his lawyer and wife, very well played by successful television performers Andy Samberg and Allison Janney. And I must not neglect to praise and acknowledge the leads, dramatic actors Bene...

I saw a strange and unusual one hour and 47 minute film early this week. I guess it would be called a western because it concerned a rare artifact, known as a gold shirt, which is a sacred treasure of the Lakota tribe of native Americans, better known today as Indigenous People. Somehow it becomes the possession of a waitress and her military boyfriend. They are pursued by an evil criminal who is trying to get it for an antiquities dealer and things erupt violently and fortunately, because I don't remember, I don't know how it ends. It stars Sydney Sweeney, who was in another movie I saw recently and some guy I don't believe I ever saw before. I'm not anxious to see either of them again even though the movie was tolerable. 66% of critics and 78% of audiences gave Americana a thumbs up. 

While visiting my daughter in Virginia, we saw HONEY DON'T, probably because there was nothing else new playing. We agreed that you should follow the advice of the movie's title—Don't! Don't waste your time and money seeing this one. It's gross and ridiculous and just plain bad, and the acting leaves much to be desired. Honey is a private detective in a small town, trading barbs with the homicide detective who is pursuing her as well as some unsolved murders in town. She informs him constantly that she is only interested in girls, not him, and she reveals it graphically. And that's the best I can say about this one hour  and 26 minute disaster. Only 45% of critics and 43% of audiences gave Honey a thumbs up. Is it my imagination or are movies getting worse as the year progresses?

This past Monday I regrettably saw a movie sequel to s movie I hope I never saw a couple of years ago, which starred the same two women who starred in the original.  As I understand it, they are mother and daughter who, by some weird circumstance, switch roles—mother becoming daughter and vice versa,  The same thing occurs in the sequel, the only difference being the two actresses (Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan), neither of whom look as good as they used to, particularly Ms. Curtis, whom I continue to urge to give up films and start playing mahjong. The movie was silly and contrived, spiced with a lot of sight gags, and I did my best to stifle an urge to gag audibly. This film took an hour and 51 minutes to finish and was given a thumbs up by 73% of critics and 93% of audiences, which suggests I'm unable to recognize a good film when I see one.

My companion and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie we saw the other day. I had seen its predecessor and was looking forward to seeing this one. Starring Bob Odenkirk, who made an impression on television in  two  popular and successful series—Breaking Bad snd Better Call Saul--this is the story of a man with a wife and two teenaged children, forced to work to repay his father's massive debt (hundreds of millions of dollars) as an assassin for gangs of criminals. He manages to get time off for a family vacation and he insists on going to a resort where he and his brother were taken when they were kids. It was the only vacation they ever had. On arrival, Odenkirk and family (including his crusty and unruly father, played by Christopher Lloyd) immediately get into trouble with the corrupt sheriff who works for a man who owns the resort and the town in which it's located. Eventually, Bob is pitted against an even more influential foe, an evil woman malevolently played by an unrecogni...

I watched all two hours and eight minutes of WEAPONS because I wanted to see what happened. It was a mystery and a thriller and I needed closure. The film is basically a Hollywood version of a documentary, supposedly based on a true life serial killer in California who was known as Mister Shiny, a man who killed countless people during a 30-year career, It begins when an entire classroom of children (with one exception) disappears on the same night st the same time. The film follows events by jumping from interviews of the investigators to depiction of what is happening. The townspeople are outraged by what appears to be a lack of progress and focus their concern on the class teacher and the classmate who wasn't taken, The investigation eventually points to several unsolved murders and mutilations all over California and points to an individual who is identified by the media as Mr. Shiny, but they cannot find him or the missing children. Things get very weird when the aunt of the b...

I find it hard to explain why I saw and liked a movie with such an unappealing title as SHE RIDES SHOTGUN, but I did. It was not a western as the title implies, but the story of a young girl who is unexpectedly picked up after school by her father whom she hadn't seen for a long time because he just got out of prison, and who explains to her that they had to get out of town because he is being pursued by enemies who have already killed her mother. Wary and untrusting, she reluctantly goes with him and they slowly bond as he begins to teach her how to defend herself from the pursuers who eventually catch up to them. Surprisingly, it is a sentimental story of relationships and I guess I liked it because I could watch them and enjoy their evolving interaction instead of being besieged by aliens and other mystical creatures. Both leads, neither of whom I recognized, did a more than credible jobs with their roles, and it didn't get too violent. If you enjoy old fashioned melodramas,...

The movie I saw on Sunday began its life as a TV series on television way back when and starred comic Leslie Nielsen as a bumbling detective named Frank Drebin, a member of an elite unit known as the Police Squad. It was funny and silly and relied heavily on sight gags and ridiculous actions and banter.  Costarring with him were actors and non-actors such as Priscilla Presley, O.J, Simpson, George Kennedy and many other familiar faces--funny and otherwise. The latest version of THE NAKED GUN stars decrepit Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin, Jr., also a member of the elite unit Police Squad. I can promise you that Neeson is no Nielsen, not even close. Even such performers as my favorites Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks would have been better choices. As the equally bumbling son, he isn't very good and neither is the film, which tries hard to emulate its predecessors. And while I would have liked for it to work, it didn't, although there were a few rare instances when I found myself laughing ...