My computer has been out of commission for nearly a month and is
still across the country waiting to be mended (had to ship it to the manufacturer for warranty-covered repairs
), but here's what I've watched since the last time I posted:
The Hangover, 2009. Four dudes go to Vegas for a bachelor party. Three dudes wake up in a hotel suite with chickens and a tiger. Oh! And a baby. Don’t forget the baby. A search for the fourth dude commences, limited by the fact that no one can remember what happened last night. (After they remember, of course, that they’ve left a baby alone with a tiger and several chickens.)
Legend, 2009. Tom Hardy plays the Kray twins, who ran London’s underground in the fifties and sixties.
Being There, 1979. A simple-minded gardener who has been raised in a townhouse and has never been beyond it is forced to leave after the Old Man of the house dies. He wanders the streets and becomes one of the most influential men in the world. Fascinating movie, especially the ending.
All the Way, 2016. A film about LBJ’s rise to power and his attempt to secure it via the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. Some amazing acting, especially from Bryan “Say My Name” Cranston.
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. 1982. A re-watch, obviously. Still the best ST film. Great music, effect, acting, and story.
Rumors, 2024. Take the leaders of the ‘free world’, the G7, and have them meet at a private chateau in Germany. Now make it a surreal horror movie with subtle absurd-humor aspects.
Star Trek: The Search for Spock, 1984. Unexpectedly funny, unexpectedly heart-wrenching. “My God, Bones, what’ve I done?”
Risky Business, 1983. Tom Cruise is a prep teenager whose parents have left him the house for a few days. After being encouraged by one of his friends to live a little, he winds up in hock to a prostitute, at war with Joey Pantoliano, and short one $40,000 Porsche. I have never seen Joey Pants with hair.
Nights of Cabiriai, 1957. An Italian lady of the night is thrown into a river and her money stolen by her last john and nothing good happens.
Blow Out, 1981. John Travolta is a sound engineer who accidentally records evidence of a politically explosive murder. Thriller with a downer ending, but if you’re into ‘70s & ‘80s audiotech it’s interesting.
The Baader Meinhof Complex. 2008. Obnoxious students steal and blow up stuff for political propaganda. Most of them get shot.
The Illusionist, 2010. A beautiful but melancholy animated film, the screenplay of which was done by Jacques Tati (
Mon Oncle), about a musician in the 1950s whose work is being supplanted by rock and roll and blockbuster movies. While performing in Scotland, he meets a young woman who has a childlike wonder about his illusions and believes him to be a real musician; she follows him as he pitches his tent in Edinburgh, sleeping in the bed he rents while he makes do on the couch. Her belief in him seems to give his career a little new life, but as time passes, they both ‘put away childish things”. There is an amusing
Mon Oncle cameo in the film.
Saturday Night, 2024. A dramatization of the chaos leading to SNL’s first-ever episode. The cast is solid, especially the guy playing Ackroyd who was eerily good.
^^
