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Reviews
The Last Dance (2000)
A Sentimental, Slow Sunday Afternoon Show . . . .
This is the second movie I have recently seen with a much older Maureen O'Hara. (I will forever picture her, though, as she was in the 1961 "Parent Trap"). She is a retired high school Latin teacher in this film, who encounters one of her old students at a hospital. She has heart problems and he is a nurse. (Him being a nurse was obviously something way more different than usual.)
The movie goes on with his family basically adopting her as a local grandmother. All through the story, the viewer slowly learns of Miss O'Hara's late husband, and how she can never let go of him or their short-lived marriage. This story is definitely somewhat slow and at times too sentimental, but it's an okay Sunday afternoon movie.
Mistaken Identity (1999)
Baby Boys End Up With Wrong Mothers . . . .
(First off, some current information on this IMDB page is wrong. This is not a documentary and it wasn't made by a British company. I sent in a correction for the genre, but not for the company. It clearly shows Vanguard Productions in the photo, though. There is no cast listing, either. The whole page needs to be corrected.)
This is a story about two mothers who give birth on the same day to two boys. The baby boys get switched by accident at the hospital, and it's about a year and a half before the mistake is discovered. Should they switch the boys back? Neither mother wants to do so, but things get complicated.
The biggest complication is the father of the unmarried mother suddenly wants to get back together with her and be a father. It turns out he only wants to do so because he expects a big settlement from the hospital for the mistake. That is obvious to everyone but his girlfriend.
The married mother and her husband want to keep their wrong baby, but also want to be involved in the life of their biological son. They make the unmarried mother a life changing offer and she takes it wrong. Her cad boyfriend sues for custody of both boys.
The movie is a typical woman's drama that pulls on the heartstrings of mothers of babies. Not the usual type of movie I like, but it was interesting enough. Of course, the viewer wants to know how this very complicated issue gets resolved, too, so it's not the type of movie to quit before the end.
P. S. If you want to see a good Japanese movie about switched babies, watch the 2013 film "Like Father, Like Son".
Gary (2024)
Stuck In Height & A Hit TV Show . . . .
I've read about Gary Coleman throughout the years, but never had much interest in him, and never watched his TV show. Thus, I did not know if I would watch this entire documentary. I ended up having no problem watching it until the end. The doc moved along nicely and wasn't repetitious. It does offer some good insight into his life, but not enough to make it more than a sympathetic look, lacking in critical observations.
For example, why did Gary Coleman choose to marry the woman he married and still live with her after they divorced? She was a not-too-bright user who hit him, just as he hit her. With his fame and medical condition, he could have easily found a kind, nurturing woman, such as a nurse, to marry; who would have dedicated her life to supporting and taking care of him. Did he want to keep feeling like a victim, and replay over and over again the way he felt others used him?
His parents were interviewed and they weren't portrayed as the demons some think they were. His first agent was interviewed and he also did not come across badly. His best friend was constantly interviewed, and there seemed nothing nefarious about their friendship, even though his father had his suspicions. The only one who came across badly was his ex-wife, but I somewhat doubt she was responsible for his death. The two of them were a trainwreck waiting to happen, and you don't need a person to cause a trainwreck.
Gunsmoke: New Doctor in Town (1971)
A Memorable Man . . . .
I was a young teenager when I first watched this episode, and it will always be my favorite "Gunsmoke" episodes. Pat Hingle, who was the judge in "Hang 'Em High", was one of my absolute favorite character actors. He did a superb job playing Dr. Chapman, the new doctor in town, a sharp, highly trained man who did not suffer fools gladly.
Fetus is the fool in this episode. He is so shaken by the idea Doc Adams would leave Dodge to go back to medical school, without telling anyone ahead of time, that he can't grasp Dr. Chapman is telling the truth about who he is and why he's in Dodge. He also is not able to read the letter Dr. Chapman hands him from Doc Adams. Of course, it all gets straightened out and the good doctor proves his worth.
Milburn Stone had a heart attack in 1971, which is why Mr. Hingle replaced him in seven episodes. They really should have given him more attention in the remaining six episodes. Alas, the late, great Pat Hingle never did get all the attention and awards he deserved.
Gunsmoke: Arizona Midnight (1973)
Too Ridiculous To Be Amusing . . . .
I recently started watching "Gunsmoke", after not seeing it since the 1970s. After watching episodes where so many individuals were harmed or killed, this episode seemed like it would be a nice break. In some ways it was because no one is harmed or killed, or even threatened with violence.
The problem with the story, however, is it is totally absurd. How Arizona snuck an elephant into town, hiding him in a barn right in the middle of town, was never explained. Moreover, the explanation as to why he did what he did was a total letdown.
Then we are expected to believe the elephant and the huge horse would be adequately taken care of by three not so bright guys with little or no money. That was not funny. The story simply did not work.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
If There Is Nothing Else To Watch On A Saturday Afternoon . . . .
This movie fortunately did not have all the violence I feared, but the profanity was way over the top. It also wasn't a particularly interesting film. Hijackers of a subway car want one million dollars in cash in NYC in an hour. Sure.
The hijackers were not captivating at all, and the passengers were not given enough time in the movie to really care anything about them. No, you did not want them to get killed, but you knew nothing about them and their lives.
There are also offensive racial slurs, but that was obviously to show how realistic the film was in the 1970's. That and the profanity. This is mostly a movie for those who like action films, and want everything to happen quickly.
The end of the subway ride was dramatic enough, but the end of the movie was predictable and downright silly. Or maybe it was supposed to be amusing. Walter Matthau was good, as was Robert Shaw, Julius Harris and Doris Roberts.
Housewife, 49 (2005)
A Purposeless Housewife Acquires Purpose . . . .
This is one of those British movie perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Nella Last is a housewife who has many neurotic fears, and is trying to deal with the fear her life is meaningless. The only time she seems really alive and happy is when she is with her two sons and their friends, having little parties at her home. World War II is starting to drastically change life in England, though, and both her sons leave home.
What's left? She sees an ad for requests for diary entries for the Mass Observation Archive, and starts to write, getting little support from her aloof husband. The writing starts to give her life more meaning and she starts to do her bit for the war effort. Mrs. Last volunteers for the WVS and the British Red Cross. This also changes how she sees herself and her worth. Moreover, it allows her to be strong when others try to knock her down with their unkind words.
If anything should have been different in this film, based on a true story, I think it should have shown much more how important her diary writing was to her. It totally transformed her life. After her death in 1968, her diaries were published in book form, too. Victoria Wood provided a nice understated performance as Nella Last. David Threlfall creates an aloof husband who still can get sympathy from the viewer.
Christopher Harper; who I erroneously thought for sure was a Fox, as in a member of the British Fox acting family; provides a painful performance as a warm son who goes cold. Stephanie Cole, as Nella Last's volunteer boss, also goes from warm to cool at some point in the film. Nevertheless, the movie offers little but optimism at the end, and provides good insight on how a sheltered, neurotic housewife regained all her senses and a purpose in life.
Murder in Coweta County (1983)
A Bad Man, A Good Man & Even A Good Witch . . . .
Wealthy John Wallace thinks he owns Meriwether County, Georgia. He is the king of the land and the sheriff is in his pocket. He makes a big mistake, though, when he kills a man in Coweta County and there are witnesses. Sheriff Lamar Potts is not in his pocket and couldn't care less if John Wallace was the King of England. He intends to arrest him and put him on trial for murder.
Andy Griffith is not the good sheriff in this movie. He is the ruthless, heartless criminal who treats blacks and poor whites like slaves. Johnny Cash is the sheriff. While he's not the best actor in the world, he has always been very effective in the fiction stories I have seen him in. This movie is based on a true story and is an excellent made-for-TV movie.
The Waltons: The Conflict (1974)
Another Matchless Performance By Beulah Bondi . . . .
This is the first of two episodes with Beulah Bondi playing Martha Corinne. She is Grandpa's sister-in-law and she is astounding in both episodes. You would think she was a real person and this was a documentary. She deserved an Emmy for both this episode and the second one--"The Pony Cart".
In this episode, the government wants her house and land so a highway can be built. She has lived in that house since the day she married in the 1800's. Living elsewhere is unfathomable to her. She would rather die fighting, but she is not an ignorant, backward woman. She believes in fairness, land ownership and honoring the past. She is a truly unforgettable character.
Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore (1992)
Bell & Cobb Take On The State . . . .
This is the second movie in the "Incident" trilogy starring Walter Matthau and Harry Morgan. It was not as good as the first one, but much better than the third. In this film, Judge Bell has gone into private practice in Baltimore and recruits Harmon Cobb to be his partner. The judge gives him a good salary, a house and a car, but no interesting cases.
Mr. Cobb discovers one, however, when a stranger in a diner follows him after he leaves and begs him to get a young woman out of a state mental hospital. (Mr. Cobb was telling lawyer jokes in the diner, so his occupation was obvious.) Judge Bell is against taking the case since the state will have to be sued, but his partner won't back down.
There are some very distressing scenes in the hospital, including what the young woman looks like, but it's still TV type distressing. While there are two evil money-making psychiatrists in the movie, there is one heroic one, too, trying to stop the abuse and lies. Barton Heyman gives a touching performance as an orderly in the mental hospital who had been there since he was three. The reason he was committed? He was a "feeble child".
While the case is going on, Harmon Cobb also has to deal with his daughter-in-law dating for the first time since her husband was killed in the war. (She and his granddaughter moved to Baltimore with him.) He is not doing a very good job dealing with the matter, because it's forcing him to deal with the death of his son. The regulars in these movies are all likable characters, and these movies are good when the script is good.
Incident in a Small Town (1994)
Plot Too Predictable . . . .
There are apparently three of these "Incident" movies starring Walter Matthau and Harry Morgan as attorney Harmon Cobb and Judge Bell. This is the third one and sadly was nowhere near as good as the first one. It was too easy to predict where the storyline was going. Way before the end of the movie, one could easily guess what happened the morning of the murder.
Some of the scenes were touching involving long-term estrangment and the wishes of a boy to have a father, but not good enough to save the film from a lower star rating than the first film in the series. Walter Matthau is outstanding, though, as a laywer always trying to beat the odds. Maybe the second film in the series will be better.
The Incident (1990)
Well Done & Well Balanced . . . .
This movie was interesting and unpredictable. Walter Matthau is ordered by a federal judge to defend a German POW accused of killing the town's doctor. He doesn't want the job and has no defense to present. The townfolks react badly at times to him having the case, but fortunately the reaction is mild and the movie doesn't dwell on that, as a million other movies have done. There is no real threat to him or his daughter-in-law or granddaughter.
William Schallert, the town cop and a family friend, ends up helping Mr. Matthau look for evidence of what happened the night the doctor was killed. They find out something shocking. Just as it's revealed the judge has a shocking agenda. But is the prosecuting attorney in on it, too? A well-done film that balances the events of a murder trial with a family dealing with the war on a very personal level.
A Thousand Men and a Baby (1997)
Surprisingly Superb . . . .
This is one of those TV movies that looked vaguely interesting and turned out to be exceptional. It's a true story, too, but of course has made-up stuff to make things more dramatic. For example, unlike in the film, the Navy doctor who adopted the baby had no qualms about having to quit the Navy if he adopted a foreign child. He was drafted and already planned on getting out of the Navy as soon as the Korean War ended. Moreover, his wife never met the baby until he brought him home and they had a daughter.
Richard Thomas does a good job playing the fictional conflicted doctor in the movie, as does Eve Gordon as his wife. Gerald McRaney is perfect as the captain of the ship. Jonathan Banks is splendid as the Catholic chaplin, and Doris Roberts makes a great Irish nun running an orphanage. The film starts and ends at Christmastime, too, so it can also be seen as a sort of Christmas movie for the whole family to watch.
Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (1992)
No Soap Stories Allowed . . . .
This was a pretty good made-for-TV disaster movie, that fortunately lacked the ususal soap opera storylines found in other similar films. There were also no passenger scenes on the airplane. That was probably due to it being about a real airplane crash that happened in July 1989, and the desire to keep the movie tightly focused on what was going on in the cockpit.
A United DC-10 was heading to Chicago and had to make an emergency landing in Sioux City, Iowa. The city had just recently had a disaster drill which didn't go over well with everyone, according to this movie. James Coburn was not happy being bossed around by Richard Thomas. The drill proved to be a godsend, however, when a real disaster happened.
Charlton Heston is very good as the plane's pilot, trying to keep the plane from total disaster. Tom O' Brien is also excellent as the Southern soft-spoken air traffic controller who talks the pilot down at the Sioux City airport. Arthur Rosenberg stands out, too, as an off-duty pilot who joins the men in the cockpit, desperately trying to keep the plane level.
Injuries to the passengers aren't too graphic, and it was astounding seeing survivors suddenly walking out of a cornfield. The one big fault of the film, however, was not disclosing what happened to the three other men in the cockpit, as well as the flight attendant, but focusing strictly on the pilot at the end. You have to go online and do research to discover what happened to everyone in real life.
Walk the Line (2005)
Dragging The Line . . . .
Remembering all the praise this movie received when it came out, I was surprised to see it was actually nothing more than a dull, dragging film about a depressed drug addict with daddy issues. Even worse, Joaquin Phoenix did not remind me of Johnny Cash for one second. Did he not watch any TV shows with Mr. Cash in them? Any interviews? Even the "Columbo" episode where he was the guest star? They would have been better off if they got a Johnny Cash impersonator to star in this movie.
The film also didn't even touch on the fact that Johnny Cash divorced his first wife possibly because she looked black. (Watch the 2020 documentary "My Darling Vivian"). He knew his country fans would not accept the idea of him being married to a black or part-black woman. (She was Italian and lived white all her life, but later DNA testing done by one of her daughters revealed African DNA.) No, in this movie, she is as white as white can be.
Johnny Cash was an intelligent man with an edge. In this movie, no intelligence whatsoever comes through, and the only time he shows real edge is when he's performing for prisoners. How Hollywood! The glorification of a drug addict with daddy issues, who identifies with those locked up, and who is "saved" from self-destruction by a woman who will always rescue him. Only watch this movie if that's the type of pathetic story you like. I'm now going to have to go look at pictures of Johnny Cash so I can get Joaquin Phoenix's face out of my mind!
Amen (1986)
Lots & Lots Of Laughs & Benevolence . . . .
I never saw this series when it was on back in the '80s-'90s, but just finished streaming all the episodes on Tubi. For the first three years, the series was so funny and often downright hilarious. The late, great Sherman Hemsley was a brilliant sit-com comedian. Even his slapstick is funny in this series, and I am not a fan of slapstick. He deserved way more recognition and awards than what he got during his lifetime.
The other characters are also a delight, and you get pulled right into it all, watching episode after episode. It also gives a good picture of the importance of a black church in a large city, and how it helped to welcome, unite and pull up everyone who needed pulling up. How they all referred to each other was also charming--sister, brother, deacon, elder, etc. In addition, there was more than one Christmas episode!
Unfortunately, the series took a nosedive during Season 4. The continuous storyline about Thelma and Rueben not getting married became totally absurd and uninteresting. Anna Maria Horsford, too, started playing her character as a caricature. She was obviously playing to the live audience, and they awarded her every exaggerated word and action with wild applause. At home, it was more irritating and ridiculous than amusing and applause-worthy.
Season Five got more on track, but the series was never as funny as it was during the first few years. One of the Hetebrink sisters was missing, too, since Barbara Montgomery left to do another series, and they never mentioned her again. It's like she never existed. Not wise for a beloved character on a TV show. They could have at least said she was off doing missionary work or something. By the final episode of that final season, I was ready to let the series go, but I'll always remember it as being one of the funniest sit-coms I have ever seen.
Murder in the Hamptons (2005)
Too Much Of The Story Is Missing . . . .
While this movie is interesting enough to watch to the end, there is too much missing information to rate it any higher. It is also extremely anticlimatic. The closer you get to the end of the film, the more the story fizzles out.
Ted and Generosa get married, Generosa gets crazier and crazier, they split up, Generosa wants everything. Ted gives Generosa everything she wants, while claiming he only wants partial custody of their two adopted children.
Ted is then killed before the divorce case is settled, Generosa marries her boyfriend shortly thereafter, both are suspected of killing Ted, Generosa gets cancer and dies. Her boyfriend is arrested and found guilty.
That's it. There's no real plot buildup, no suspense, no surprises. Apparently, Poppy Montgomery is supposed to carry the whole film by being fascinating. She's not fascinating. She is simply a crazy woman who had a crazy mother. Best to go find a book on this true crime case . . . .
Young Sheldon (2017)
Young Sheldon The Formulaic . . . .
Well, I've watched 18 of the 141 episodes of the series so far, starting at the beginning. I got a Netflix subscription, with commercials, and the series is so far worth the $6.99. I don't particularly find Sheldon that endearing, though. Same goes for his sister and brother.
I do really like his father, mother and grandmother, however. (Except when Meemaw is really mean to Sheldon's father.)
Some of the other semi-regular characters are amusing, too, such as Pastor Jeff, Tam, Herschel, Billy Sparks, Dr. Linkletter, Coach Wilkins, the child psychologist, the librarian and some of the teachers.
In addition, the setting is Texas, a state that always ends up being funny in one way or another. Hey, Texas can't help it! Thus, I guess I will keep on watching, even though I find Sheldon himself irritating a great deal of the time. His phobias are not funny, his scientific explanations get boring fast, and his words and actions are predictable.
Moreover, he has no interest in doing anything that doesn't benefit him. He lives in a totally self-centered world. Even when helping others or trying to save the world, he is doing it for his own glory. Not liking him has nothing to do with being jealous of his intelligence, as some have amusingly suggested.
It has to do with having no interest in extending unlimited empathy to someone who shows no empathy to others. Is he going to be like that for 7 years? If so, I'm not going to make it to the end of the series, unless it focuses more and more on the other characters in the series.
P. S. 6/8/24--It was not hard watching the entire series. It's made in a way that moves each 22-minute episode swiftly ahead. Only a few episodes bogged down, such as the IRS one, although I did end up FF through many Sheldon scenes after a few seasons. The older he got, the duller and stiffer he got. I've reached the conclusion those who love his character must be those who love the idea of a "special child forever". Someone who is so special everyone must accomodate his specialness or should do so. Those who don't are "mean" or "jealous" or whatever. No, Sheldon is unlikable because he is dull, stiff, predictable and shows no empathy for others.
Unfortunately, Season 6 really started slipping. Plus, the situation with Georgie created way too much verbal fighting. While Georgie himself grew to be an interesting character, his wife is not and her mother is unbearable. There is going to be a spinoff of his story? What are they all going to do? Argue all the time? Is his daughter going to be "special" in some way or another?
Killing off the father was a big mistake. Yes, maybe in "The Big Bang Theory" Sheldon's father died when he was 14, but according to some reviewers, Sheldon's father George was nothing like he was described by adult Sheldon anyway, except for the beer drinking. He wasn't a drunk and was a loving, responsible, hardworking father. "Young Sheldon" should have been seen as an alternative reality of adult Sheldon's childhood.
Hey, maybe they can bring George back in the Georgie spin-off as an alternative reality. Georgie dreams of his father's funeral, wakes up depressed, is sad all day until his mother, Melissa and home-on-break Sheldon arrive for a planned dinner, and his father is with them! He later confides in Sheldon his shock and happiness, and Sheldon explains alternative realities and nightmares. Yes, many viewers would see the situation of George being alive as hokey, but many, many more would be overjoyed dear old dad did not actually die! It was all a bad dream, Georgie . . . .
(By the way, Netflix doesn't have Season 7, but Paramount + does. Only, you will want to get that without commericals. With commercials, the episodes are chopped up and basically unwatchable. Look for a free trial week of Paramount+ at their website or Amazon. If you already have the channel with commericals, you will have to use a different email address to subscribe without commercials.)
A Snowy Day in Oakland (2023)
Needed A Script Doctor . . . .
This movie had good intentions and likable characters, but the script had major problems, particularly at the end. Latrice, a psychologist, decides to leave San Francisco and return to the neighborhood she left when she was an 11-year-old. She wants to live among "her people", not stay in a relationship with a cheating boyfriend, and not stay counseling only self-absorbed, wealthy clients with trivial problems.
"Her people" do not readily accept her. They wonder what in the world a beautiful black woman, who obviously has money, is doing opening a counseling office in their struggling neighborhood. Doesn't she know people like them don't share their emotional problems with strangers? Well, it turns out about everyone ends up on her couch telling her their problems. They have real problems, too.
A major problem that soon arises for all of them is the owner of the block plans to evict everyone, and sell the land to a company that needs it for a parking lot. Latrice is the only one he can't evict because she has a lease, not a rental agreement. When the landlord goes to visit Latrice is where the script really starts to fail. She tells him she will never let him break her lease, but bizarrely ends up whispering that in his ear, even though they are alone in her office.
The nosy mail woman sees this through the front window, thinks Latrice is actually kissing him, and tells everyone on the block she is in cahoots with the landlord! The only thing that comes of this incident is like 60 seconds of anger at Latrice during a neighborhood meeting at the church, before she clears things up. The point of that misunderstanding?
The ending of the story goes weird, too, when all the main characters in the film, including Latrice's cheating boyfriend, burst out of a building on the street and start dancing in the street. Huh? Is the movie over or something? Next, short scenes are shown where wonderful things happen to various characters, including one winning the lottery. After those scenes, the movie obviously was over, and it's too bad the script failed so miserably, with all of those tacked on happy endings.
Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)
Twenty Kids, A Dog & A Pack Rat . . . .
Unlike the first movie, this sequel doesn't have much of a plot. It's basically Tom (Steve Martin) and Jimmy (Eugene Levy) trying to out father each other at the lake. Both men have lots of kids, but Jimmy now has money and wants to gloat about that. Apparently, he was very jealous of Tom back in the day, and now wants Tom to be jealous of him.
The children in both families are growing up and moving on, which is causing distress for both fathers. Tom hates the idea of his kids moving away, and Jimmy hates the idea of losing control of his kids and all that they do. There's lots of slapstick comedy in the film, as well as the rambunctious dog, plus one pack rat living in the cabin.
Watch the first movie before watching this one, or you may end up rating it lower than you would if you had seen it, since you didn't have some familiarity with the characters. As stated, there is not much of a plot here. The addition of Eugene Levy, however, does improve the story somewhat. He and Steve Martin bounce off each other pretty well.
Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
Twelve Kids, One Dog & One Frog . . . .
I can't remember if I ever saw the 1950s version of this film, but know I read the book. Only, I can't remember what I read. Thus, no comparisons here. This movie was better than I expected. I feared it was going to have a lot of truly obnoxious kid characters, but that didn't happen. All the trouble the children get into is more amusing than anything else. Disrepect towards adults is limited.
Steve Martin surprised me. He's not the type of man who seems capable of handling a whole lot of kids. Yet he comes across totally believable in this movie. The only unbelievable part was how it seemed like the mother was on a book tour for weeks and weeks, instead of only two weeks. All's well that ends well, though, in this movie, which stresses if you mess up raising your kids, nothing else will compensate for that.
P. S. Pitbull lovers will be happy to see the family dog is a pitbull, and he's perfectly safe and playful around all those children.
Only the Lonely (1991)
Undesirable Decade . . . .
The best thing about this movie is it starts off with Roy Orbison's song "Only The Lonely". It's not a bad film, mind you, it just would have been much better as an old-fashioned one. Namely, all the sex talk should have been eliminated, and the incredibly shy mortuary cosmetologist in it should not have wanted to sleep with the nice cop after only a couple of dates. It was a bit unbelievable, too, that she so quickly went from being so shy that she could hardly speak to being a self-confident woman. (Maybe the movie was proposing that sex instantly changes someone for the better.)
Maureen O'Hara, in her last movie role, was not a pleasant character. Yet she is not so offensive that she comes across as repulsive. What she says is indeed that offensive, but Miss O'Hara fails to seem truly hateful. She is simply repeating stereotypes she learned as a child. Anthony Quinn is once again a Greek in this movie, and he is the stereotypical Greek lover type. Ho-hum. John Candy comes across extremely well and extremely sweet. His actions in the film seemed unbelievable at times, but that didn't wreck the story. What damaged it is it's like a '60s story set in the 1990s.
Titanic (1953)
A Sentimental Sinking . . . .
This wasn't the worst movie about the Titanic. The 1997 one takes that award. Yet this movie, too, focuses more on a relationship than on the boat and the sinking. American Barbara Stanwyck is taking her two teenage children to the United States to live. She doesn't want her daughter to make an "international marriage", or for her son to grow up shallow.
She is leaving her British husband Clifton Webb and does not tell him of their trip. He finds out at the last minute, though, and offers a third-class passenger a lot of money for his ticket. He points out the man can take a later ship, and have all that extra cash for starting a new life in America. He assures the man his wife and children will be okay without him on the Titanic voyage.
What happens aboard the ship between the estranged couple is very soapy, but does have some touching moments when the Titanic is sinking. Robert Wagner is also on the ship playing a very Hollywood type college man from Purdue. J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, is not on the ship, as he should be in any Titanic movie.
In addition, this film's sinking is a very sanitized version of all that happened. No man, except for one, was unchivalrous. No one was blocking the third-class passengers from getting up on the deck and into the lifeboats. The entire crew is very calm and accepting of the sinking. On deck, passengers were calmly singing the hymn the band was playing right before the ship sank for good. No one in the water was screaming and desperately trying to get into lifeboats. And on and on . . . .
Sister Boniface Mysteries (2022)
If You Don't Like The Main Characters, Forget It . . . .
After watching all the "Father Brown" episodes, I tried watching this series a few times; but was unable to make it through even one episode, until I saw the Christmas episode in Season 3. That was a captivating story and it motivated me to watch Seasons 1 & 2, before there were finally seven more episodes of Season 3. (Still with me here?)
If you develop a liking to the main charcters in the series, you can make it through all of the stories, regardless of how dull or weird. There are definitely some very dull stories, as well as some very weird ones. I found the doll episode in Season 3 so strange I had to turn on the captions to understand what was going on and what was being said!
The scriptwriters also have Sister Boniface fantasize wacko things, which makes the series seem "psychedelic" at times. (Trying to capture the '60s?) This may be a Father Brown spin-off, but don't expect any spiritual words or actions from Sister Boniface. Unlike the Father, she is way more interested in solving crimes than saving souls. Little attention is given to the other nuns, too, most of the time.
In addition, like "Father Brown", this series tries to make the viewer believe there was no prejudice against blacks in England in the 1960s, not even in small villages. What an outrageous fantasy! That's even more outrageous than Sister Boniface's fantasies. So, once again, you should be able to make it through all the episodes and fantasies if you grow to like the Sister, Sam, Felix, Peggy, Mrs. Clam*, Miss Thimble, Tom, the Chief Constable, Sister Peter, Sister Reginald . . . .
*Mrs. Clam was a standout in Season 3.
Unfrosted (2024)
Limited Laughs . . . .
As a Baby Boomer, I of course understood many things that were being made fun of in this movie. There are some laughs, but nowhere near as many needed to give this film a high rating. Even Hugh Grant wasn't funny most of the time. At least, however, the movie had very limited crudeness. (This was made by Jerry Seinfeld, not Adam Sandler.)
Strangely, some things seemed totally out of place or out of the time period. For example, why the 2021 Capitol attack was being parodied is beyond me. A question, too, for whoever came up with the Gus Grissom part, and for all who thought that should be included the film: If someone you loved was reduced to ashes in a horrific accident or terrorist attack, would you think it was funny if their death was joked about in a comedy movie? (I knocked off a star just for that cold-blooded part.)