Old Man @ The Movies

Am I seeing too many movies or are they just getting worse?  The one I saw last week was just a poor excuse for a movie. It was filled with disfunctional people of all sizes and shapes, including my nominee for the most dysfunctional actress to ever grace the screen or should I say disgrace the screen—Jamie Lee Curtis as the mother of Ella, looking for herself in all the wrong places. The high point of ELLA MCCAY is when Jamie Lee offers her daughter some helpful advice on what to do—scream at me—at which point both women began to scream at one another. It wasn't the best or worse scene in the movie but it will have to do do for this 1 hour and 55 minute too-long movie, which also starred Woody Harrelson who continues to make poor choices for the roles he takes on. Critics gave this film a 24% thumbs up, while audiences favored it with 42%

I have often written that I don't like or like to see animated films and yet I break that rule on too many occasions, and I did it again today. Seeing Walt Disney's ZOOTOPIA 2 and walking out before it ended only reinforced my need to avoid them in the future. I always believe they were made for children and yet I know they aren't. Today's film was too complex for children to comprehend. In general, most of the animated films I have seen are too loud and too silly, the characters speak too fast, and this one is no exception. It is a sequel and about two animal detectives who presumably, but clumsily solved a  difficult case in the first version, but are basically inept and are assigned a hopeless case as punishment. That's the best I can offer. You're on your own with this one, and if you happen to see me in the theater watching another, please chase me out. Not surprising, because animated films are very popular and generally draw large crowds, critics (91%) an...

Today and probably Wednesday, I watch the leftover films—those not expected to be blockbusters or star big, recognizable names. There were two in that category and I flipped a coin. ETERNITY won and is about what the title implies—death and the hereafter. A bickering elderly couple are driving to a family  get together and she remarks, "We have to tell them." It seems that she has incurable cancer, but he chokes on a snack and dies and the rest of the movie takes place in the hereafter. He arrives on a train not aware that he is dead and mingles in the enormous waiting room with hundreds of new arrivals. He is told he must choose his eternity location where he will survive forever. He, Larry, opts to wait for his wife so they can choose together, but when she arrives she is met by the guy she was going to marry who died 67 years ago and has been waiting for the love of his life. She must choose one of them and that essentially is what the rest of the film is about. Guess you ...

I went to a movie on Thanksgiving with my two daughters and my grandson from Los Angeles who happens to be a documentary filmmaker. The film we saw was his choice and he picked a winner.  Finally saw a movie that was clever, very well done and acted and was made for adults who think. And it was filmed in Tokyo and was primarily in Japanese. Despite my worsening inability to read subtitles, I was able to understand what was going on easily. Brendan Frazier stars as an actor living kind of aimlessly in Japan and fluent in the language who is hired by a rental agency, a business which I assume is indigenous to Japan. He is retired to take on roles to react with strangers in various situation, attempting to aid them in some way. He has a difficult time adjusting to these roles, but eventually begins to care too much for his clients and their needs. This is an intelligent film with poignancy and humor and Frazier is perfect in the role. I truly enjoyed this film far more than I expected...