Old Man @ The Movies

On Sunday I saw a very long, but very good drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob, a disillusioned and failed activist and revolutionary, living with his independent teenaged daughter Willa. His fellow revolutionary wife left them shortly after the daughter's birth. Bob is on drugs and drinking and thoroughly defeated, deflated and hiding out. A purist group is pursuing him and others and the chief pursuer is Colonel Steve, played viciously and evilly by Sean Penn, whom we are led to suspect as possibly being Willa's real father. Benicio Del Toro plays another revolutionary who is helping Bob and Willa get sway. When Colonel Steve captures Willa, Bob is crazed and insists on trying to free her no matter how risky it would be. Despite its length of 2 hours and 41 minutes, it was like a good book you couldn't put down until you finished. Critics liked it a lot, with a 96% thumbs-up rating and 85% of audiences followed suit. DiCaprio's performance, along with the others, ...

On Saturday I saw a movie that affected me physically. I felt cold throughout the entire film because it took place in winter, with lots of snow, and I think it was in Minnesota, not that I have anything against Minnesota. THE DEAD OF WINTER stars Emma Thompson, a fine actress and Academy Award winner, in the unusual role of a heroine in a thrilling chiller. She is Barb, a widow, in the wilderness, planning to ice fish on a frozen lake like she used to do with her husband. She inadvertently stumbles on the kidnapping of a young girl by a married couple in which the wife is clearly the instigator, the leader and the most evil. I confess I was never quite clear on why they were kidnapping the girl, but am sure the reason was revealed. Barb is persistent in attempting to foil the two and gets into real trouble without cell service and any means to get help in her frigid surroundings. It was well acted and kept my attention despite the bone chilling atmosphere that never ended. Critics gav...

Ugh! What a terrible movie I saw yesterday. And I usually like movies about sports. This one failed in every aspect, starting with the plot and going downhill from there. Can you imagine a sports movie ending up as a horror film? And a bad one at that? HIM in one hour and 36 miserable minutes set the film business back to the silent movie era. The star here is Cam Cade, a great quarterback prospect, who suffers a brain trauma when he is attacked by a crazy fan. When things look darkest for him, he is contacted by his hero, a multi-times championship quarterback, Isaiah, who proposes to train him to regain his superior stuff. Training methods at Isaiah's isolated facility are bizarre, but seem to be working until Isaiah stops being Mr. Nice guy and turns into a monster. And there it goers from bad to worse with mayhem and beheading snd stabbing and lots of blood by Cam and others. Only 36% of critics and 68% of audiences gave Him a thumbs up. My vote is 👎. 

I may have revealed in other reviews, and if I'm repeating myself forgive me, but I am an incurable romantic. Lead me to a film about love and romance and I turn into putty. The movie I saw today, A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY, starring two of the better actors in these times, Margot Robbie as Sarah and Colin Farrell as David, I rate them better because I recognize their names and most times know what they look like. But beware. This is not a traditional romantic film. I'd call it a romantic fantasy and it is bizarre. David and Sarah meet at a mutual friend's wedding held outdoors and in the rain and don't seem to like each other. David (and ultimately Sarah) rent a car from a weird car rental firm, and while he is driving in the rain (it rains a lot in this one), the car's GPS begins to speak to him, asking if he wants to go on a big bold beautiful journey, and he answers yes. She answers yes to the same question in her rental car, and they find themselves parked si...

Yesterday I saw another movie, THE HISTORY OF SOUND, that I didn't understand and whose message I could not comprehend—if it had a message. This boring, endless two hour and 7 minute movie takes place in the early 1900s and follows the life of a young man living on a farm in the wilds of Kentucky, who has a marvelous and unique singing voice. Somehow he is discovered and receives a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music, where he meets a piano player playing the folk music he loves.  They bond and that night become lovers. The piano player enlists in the army when WWI starts and is sent overseas. The singer quits school and goes back to Kentucky where he is contacted by the friend, now on the faculty of the Conservatory, who invites him to join him on a school project, wandering the remote areas of Maine recording the songs of the folk singers they find on a device that uses wax rollers. They part but somehow meet again in Italy where both are employed in some aspect ...

Back home yesterday I saw a finely made, well-acted movie that was sad and depressing. But I'm glad to have seen it. In an hour and 56 minute movie, I watched a journey in the future, I watched 50 young men selected to embark on a walk that would take them on a 300-plus mile trek endorsed and sponsored by the government that survived a civil war. This annual government program promises the only survivor anything he desires. Along this desolate and bleak land, friendships evolve and groups reformed as they struggle to survive because you are given three warnings to continue and then you are shot. Philosophical in content and revealing about the participants backgrounds and desires, it is painful and disturbing to watch as the ranks diminished one by one, until only two men stagger toward the finish line. One a white man and the other black, who have forged a deep friendship on the week-plus time they have been walking.  91% of critics and 56% of audiences gave THE LONG WALK a thumbs...

In New York for a visit, I saw a movie with a companion, and it was a real pleasure. At the risk of being trite, it was like visiting an old friend to renew acquaintances and finding them as nice to be with as ever. DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE was every bit as good as I expected it to be. The Crawleys and their staff were as impeccable, funny and genuine as they ever were, despite the dire circumstances.  Lady Mary had a divorce and all had to face the realities of disgrace in their perspective societies, And then she had to add to the misery by having a one night affair with an American scoundrel and con man who also played a role in their declining financial circumstances, as Mary assumes the leadership role in family matters. Everyone was there, from the imperious head of household staff Mr. Carson and his wife to newly promoted to head cook, Daisy, and the insecure Mr. Moseley, star struck by the appearance at dinner of Noel Coward. All was grand in this grand finale, and I...

Oh no, I thought, as I watched my latest movie, another two hour and 15 minute sleeper about two paranormal investigators who come out of retirement to solve another psychic mystery at the request of a priest acquaintance. It was as boring snd spooky as the other I had seen in this series featuring Lorraine and Ed Warren. Perhaps it's just me, but I thought they just repeated the dimly recalled plot of the other one. They move into a new house and soon enough they realize, particularly their daughter, that the house is haunted. They are persuaded by a priest friend to investigate strange events in another city, and when there they realize the ghosts have followed them. Typically spooky things happen accompanied by eerie loud noises and dark settings, but I wasn't the least bit frightened. Enough is enough. 56% of critics and 79% of audiences were duped (or frightened) into giving THE CONJURING: LAST RITES a thumbs up.  Thank heaven for movies like Hamilton. 

When my daughter Alison paid the extravagant and outrageous ticket price to see Hamilton shortly after it opened on Broadway in January of 2015, I thought she had made a mistake and that it would be closing shortly. I owe her a sincere apology, particularly after seeing it in my theater last weekend. This movie, very innovatively and creatively filmed, was of the actual live stage production, using multple cameras, camera angles and closeups and was, in my opinion, a choreographic milestone. Try to imagine a movie theater screen filled with an enormous head-only scene of the young actor from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (where I live), as King George, singing the funniest song in the show. HAMILTON was colorful, with wonderful singing and dancing—it is superior entertainment, and I really liked it. I did some research and learned that this film was streamed on television in 2020, and it may have been a wonderful experience, but cannot be compared to its magnificence on a huge theater...

The movie I saw today was unusual, and although it featured electronics (not one of my areas of expertise), it was interesting and filled with excitement and thrills and suspense and mystery. A young lady in New York City is seeking help. It seems she worked for a major chemical company and came across some documents about a new product that conceivably could kill thousands and thousands of people all over the world. She wants to expose the facts to the proper authority but she says she is being harassed and is frightened. She is referred to an organization that specializes in situations like this and she calls them.  The audience sees who she is talking to—a man who explains he is using relay technology and sounds to her like a woman. Relay is a complex form of communication, but if I could understand it, all of you will easily get it. There's a complex series of negotiations conducted by the relay group on her behalf, which keep getting changed, and the corporation they are negot...

As I began to write this review, I realized that most of the films I have seen lately have one thing in common. All of them were about real people—as opposed to aliens and grotesque creatures, and it has been refreshing. In addition, I recognized that every movie is overwhelmed by what I consider foul language. Filmmakers rely on the "f" word to fill the dialogue. But the best thing is I believe I understood what was going on in most of the latest films I've seen. For example, the movie I saw on Labor Day, CAUGHT STEALING, was about a young man who was a terrific baseball player in high school, but never pursued it as a career. He appears to have a good life, has a girlfriend, and works as a bartender in the neighborhood—until his kooky neighbor asks him to take care of his cat while he is away. And then his nice lifestyle changes 180 degrees. He is pursued and beaten up by a couple of lowlifes for no apparent reason, and the rest of the film is him trying to avoid confro...