Oppenheimer - 2023

I'd been wanting to watch this movie for a long time, but the family wanted to watch it together, so it had to be at the right time. The man J. Robert Oppenheimer intrigues me and knowing Cillain Murphy was in the movie was just icing on the cake.

This is the story of Oppenheimer's life. It isn't told in a linear way, which I believe makes it more interesting. Normally, that wouldn't work for me, but this time it kept the movie going. It doesn't sugarcoat Oppenheimer. He was a womanizer and definitely not a saint, but the things he did doesn't make him an obvious villain either. Many saw him as that because of his moniker as "father of the atomic bomb," but I'm not sure he deserves all that hate.

I'm not going to talk about the bomb. What I think about the atomic bomb is irrelevant to what I think about the movie. I will address the amount of time/what was shown about that part of his life. I saw some people felt not enough screen time was spent on the effects of the bomb, but that's not what this movie was about. It was about the man. The movie was already three hours, and deviating to spend an appropriate amount of time that topic would deserve wouldn't be practical.

I liked the movie, but the first hour felt a bit slow. The other watchers with me agreed with that. Even though a lot of the visuals were stunning, something about that beginning hour was just something of a slog. I also didn't understand the nudity/sex scenes. They were unnecessary. They never showed any sex with his wife, so why bother to show it at all? Anyway, once the plot picked up, I was entranced with the frameup they were setting up for Oppenheimer. It was unfair and frustrating.

The movie is getting a Good Movie! review, but it's not something I would watch over and over. It's tough to watch injustice in action, and the scenes at the end with Albert Einstein were sad. It was good to see Tom Conti again. I saw a lot of other familiar faces, but he was an especially welcome sight. Great acting by everyone, and a super visual spectacle. Good Movie!

 

A Christmas Kiss II - 2014

Last night was movie night. We decided to do some "Hallmark" bingo. In this case, it was technically MarVista bingo. I wasn't in charge of picking the movie. My confidence was low after The Nanny Christmas affair. This is a sequel, which we didn't know when we started it. On the list, it was called Another Christmas Kiss. Afterwards we looked into the first one, A Christmas Kiss, and we're pretty sure we've seen that one as well.

In this movie, a workaholic woman gets trapped in an elevator with a creep. Cooper snatches a kiss in the elevator (who is the weirdo that put mistletoe in an elevator?), and Jenna is into it. Later, she finds out the stranger she kissed is her boss's brother. After that, it's the usual formula.

Except...Sebastian! He is the highlight of this movie and makes it watchable. He's the coolest best friend to Jenna and always has her back. Whether it's pretending to be Jenna's boyfriend or pointing out Cooper's issues to him, Sebastian doesn't hold back. I think all of us cared more about Sebastian than anyone else. We wanted closure for Sebastian - Abby and a job.

And then there was this weird woman that kept popping up. We assumed she was part of the first movie, and after a bit of looking, she was the snooty high-level exec from the first movie. I hope she treats Helmut well. He was our other favorite character.

Only one of us got a bingo, and the movie itself was a bit of a slog when Sebastian wasn't around. Cooper had a frog smile and was a bit slimy. He bothered me, and I hated how he had so much confidence pushing his way into Jenna's life. And what was up with Jenna's dad? He was all about treating her like crap until Cooper did...what? He just pops up at the end. I'm guessing Cooper kidnapped her dad. It reminded me of the stupid nanny movie. Why do these men not care when their kids are upset, but when a stranger contacts them out of the blue, they suddenly have a conscience?

Dante's Inferno (An Animated Epic) - 2010

I saw this movie when I was randomly scrolling. I remember watching my husband play the video game for this, so I was interested to see it.

The plot is pretty straightforward. Dante's beloved Beatrice is taken to Hell because he betrayed her. He then travels through the Circles aided by the spirit Virgil. He will defeat many foes to get to his beloved and face Lucifer himself.

I really liked this one. It is rated R for a reason. It's pretty gory, and there's plenty of nudity in there. The thing that was driving me crazy was Dante's voice. It seemed familiar, so I had to look it up. He was Dijkstra on The Witcher. He also made a couple of appearances on the show Lucifer (appropriate). 

This one earns a Good Movie! seal. Good watch for sure. I'm drawn to this dark stuff for some reason...

Dr. Strange - 1978

I'll admit. Dr. Strange is my favorite Marvel character. Part of it is Benedict Cumberbatch, and part of it is his powers. I've read some of his original comics, and I really like those. Since we've been on the hunt for superheroes, I was excited to see if 1978 Dr. Strange could be a good fit. I had high hopes...

Morgan Le Fay is talking to a strange thing with glowing eyes. It tells her that she has three days to take out the Sorcerer Supreme (old man) or his successor. She heads to Earth to begin her quest. When she gets there, she stares people down, then she possesses a young woman so she can throw the old man off a bridge.

Where's Stephen Strange? Working at the hospital. He comes across the young woman who is afraid to fall asleep. She sees Morgan in her dreams and is afraid she'll die. Eventually, the old man seeks out Strange and tells him they can help the woman, but only if they work together. After that, he goes on an acid trip and sucks her out of the void. In the last 20 minutes, Dr. Strange (sorcerer) is born, and he turns a bouquet of flowers into a bird. I guess he does a bit more than that, but he doesn't really accomplish too much overall.

Okay, I was so open-minded. I was still on board with this movie even when we didn't have a Dr. Strange (superhero) after almost an hour had passed. But then it all started to fall apart. Wong took one for the team (don't worry, he's fine), and the old man was stuck in a spider web. Morgan gave Stephen some fairly cool robes (ignore the bling, it's a bit much), but then What. The. Heck. They turned his outfit into some weird pastel/silver star/yellow cloak nonsense.

What was accomplished in this movie? After 90 minutes, not much. Stephen Strange has embraced his destiny (I guess) and has decided to learn the ways of magic. Old guy is still around with his power waning, Wong is still hanging out making breakfast, and...Morgan is still making trouble. Yep, that's right. She may have lost the battle, but now she's helping young people embrace their destinies or something. I don't know. She was doing an infomercial on TV while Stephen was trying to take the young woman home.

I hate to say it, but this version of Dr. Strange has not made it into our superhero universe. This movie didn't really have the umph to recommend it. I'm not expecting nonstop action, but the story was weird. I'm usually okay with that, but in this case, he didn't even get rid of the villain! I needed more from this Stephen Strange. I'm ignoring this version of the timeline...

 

Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen - 1968

On the hunt for more heroes for our cinematic universe. I also love Egyptian treasures, so this movie intrigued me.

A group of thieves steal the mask of Tutankamen [sic]. There's a man trying to get the mask back, and the thieves are starting to take each other out.

This movie was probably the least enjoyable of the ones I've seen so far. I started out seeing a man all in black, apparently wearing dress pants and a belt as well, taking people out on a boat. Then the news was praising Fenomenal for the drug bust. After that was a booooring theft attempt that went on for like 15 minutes. Fenomenal was present at the theft of the actual mask and just watched. Not sure what that was about.

He was a normal dude. No special powers. Also, he was barely in it. He would punch people here and there, and then he'd disappear. I guess he smuggled himself to Tunisia in the roof of the plane? I don't know. There were a couple moments I found amusing, like when he was standing on the shore in his black outfit with a "disguise." The other one was when one of the thieves was trying to double cross another. The dude pushed the guy in the wheelchair into the ocean. Hilarious. (He was fine. He was faking, so it's fine.)

Other than those two moments, I wasn't having a good time. Fenomenal isn't a superhero. He kept getting punched, which is fine, but a lot of times it didn't make sense. For instance, at the sauna (?) there was this huge fight where none of the women left, and I never did understand why they were fighting. Pass. So disappointing...the poster on Tubi was so intriguing!

Poster on Tubi

Billion Dollar Brain - 1967

Scrolling through Tubi, I came across this movie. The title intrigued me, and I was ready for some excitement. Spy movie! Harry Palmer (our main character) is from a series of books by Len Deighton.

Harry (Michael Caine) comes home with his Corn Flakes and finds his previous employer, the Colonel, searching his home. The government wants him back for an important case, but Harry isn't interested. Right after the man leaves, Harry gets a call from a robot telling him he's received a key and 200 pounds. All he has to do is deliver a package. Harry agrees, and he's off to deliver eggs to Finland.

The plot of this movie is crazy. After Harry delivers the eggs to his naked friend, he finds a dead body and takes the job with the government. A man is trying to wage war on communism by starting a war between Russia and Latvia. Or something. The second half of the film, from when Harry goes to Texas until the end, is basically the crazy Texas oilman and his invasion.

I'm curious if Palmer is as useless in the book as he is in this movie. Basically, he doesn't serve a purpose. He doesn't collect the eggs for his government, he gets captured all the time, and he isn't even responsible for stopping Crazy Texas Man. I did like he was left out on the ice at the end of the movie. It seemed fitting.

The other thing I want to mention is the opening credits. They are so cringey. James Bond's first movie was in 1962, and I'm guessing these were supposed to mimic those. But they were awful. I don't know what they were thinking, but they should've done something different.

Overall, this movie started out ok, but it got boring pretty fast. Maybe the other movies in the series had some of the humor I saw glimpses of, but I was just confused. Palmer was the worst spy ever. My favorite character was the Russian Colonel Stok (Oskar Homolka). He was funny and crafty. Props to him helping me get to the end of the film.

The Devil's Party - 1938

I saw this movie when we were scrolling the other day, and I wanted to watch it. I had some time this morning, so I put it on. It's based on the book Hell's Kitchen Has a Pantry by Borden Chase.

Marty leads a gang of young criminals who meet in the basement of a building. When a robbery goes wrong, he takes the wrap and refuses to give up the names of the other kids who were with him.

Fast forward many years. Marty owns a business, but he's a bit ruthless. He has enforcers he sends out when a man won't pay his debts. The man dies, and one of the other friends, Joe, suspects foul play. Marty isn't happy about the crossover of his personal and professional affairs and tries to separate them. Unfortunately, Joe ends up dead, and his brother feels the need to avenge the death.

The whole dynamic between the friends fractures eventually, which is to be expected. The end also was pretty much what I expected. There wasn't anything spectacular that stood out to me, and I think the best part was the closed captioning. It was one of those times when I needed it since the audio wasn't super clear. The things that would pop up on the screen at time were amusing, so I had more fun with that than the movie itself. DEATH TO SQUEALERS!

A Nanny for Christmas - 2010

It's been a while since we've played Hallmark Bingo, so we picked this movie and got ready to play! Since Dean Cain was in this one, Mom wanted to see what he looked like. Unfortunately, that led us to the next hour and a half.

Okay, so a woman loses her job at an advertising firm, because she didn't know their client was left at the altar. Dean Cain has a hissy fit and keeps repeating, "MY WEDDING?!" fifteen times before storming out of the office. Weird. So, Ally asks her friend to see if she can hook her up with a job at this other lady's company. Due to some weird mix-up, she ends up being hired as a nanny. Instead of clearing things up, she goes with it. She promises to follow the weird, strict rules of the woman's house, but then proceeds to break literally all of them. She also wraps up the kids in her life of lying...

Ah, the lies. They start for no reason and continue for the same. She meets "raspberry scone man" AKA Justin, and immediately lies about who she is. Instead of just telling him she's the nanny, she says she works for the New York office for the husband. But...WHY?! She claims (later) she thought being a nanny wouldn't be enough for a bigtime executive, but she didn't know who he was when she met him. Garbage. This man deserves better for sure. For some reason, everyone forgives Ally at the end of the movie after her half-hearted apologies, which made me angry. And can we discuss the dad for just two seconds? This man doesn't care when the kids are upset he won't be there for Christmas, but an email from someone he's never met gets him on a plane home? And he shows up with a puppy he's trying to suffocate in a plastic tub?! You know they make carriers for those?! Or at least put some air holes in there...GAH!

And the icing on the crap cake that is this movie. When I went to find the cover, I found this travesty. Justin isn't even on the cover!!! I know they didn't even introduce an element of romance until after 1/3 of the way through the movie, but still. Give the man some respect. They put the kids on the cover! They put Dean Cain on the cover! And he was a strange Danny Donner chocolate man with a quick temper who showed up at the other company's Christmas party!

I wish Ally had left for Ohio before anyone called her. I love Ohio, and the state didn't deserve her, but Justin definitely deserves better! This movie was terrible. It should have been accidentally lost before anyone released it, and I wish the best for Justin. Everyone else in the movie is terrible and should leave him alone. Trash movie!

PS - No Bingos with this one...not even close.

The Man Who Walked Alone - 1945

This was a blind pick for movie night. I was excited to see Captain Midnight, Dave O'Brien, in the cast list.

Marion is on his way to the city. He's got his uniform in his suitcase, but he doesn't seem to want anyone to know who he is. A woman picks him up on her way to the city in a stolen car, and they end up getting caught. A quick call clears up that mess, but then they get arrested again when she convinces him to break into her "employer's home."

It soon comes out that Willie is actually Wilhelmina Hammond, a rich young woman running away from a marriage to a political candidate. Willie has seen the uniform and assumed he was a deserter, an assumption others will also make later on.

This movie was pretty good, but Willie was something of a weird one. She keeps telling everyone she's not getting married, and they just tell her okay, sure, and proceed to ignore her. She doesn't really stand her ground very well, so in my mind, she doesn't really deserve Marion. BUT, she's what he wants, so more power to him I suppose.

Anyway, there were some elements of a few movies in here. I was reminded of Bringing Up Baby (stolen car - the sheriff), The Philadelphia Story (oddball younger sister) and It Happened One Night (wealthy socialite fleeing marriage). All together, I suppose this one was okay, but I don't think I would go out of my way to watch it again. On top of the irritating Willie (who started out ok but got worse as the movie went on), I don't think I would've understood anything if we didn't have the closed captioning on. Middle of the road for me.

Argoman the Fantastic Superman - 1967

I was hunting for a new superhero to add to our universe, so I turned on Tubi and searched for superheroes. This movie popped up, and I felt like it might be a candidate.

 A man has "superpowers" and uses them to do things. I spent an hour and a half watching this, and I'm not entirely sure what I saw. I'll try to explain the plot. The Queen of the World steals the Royal Crown as a show of her power. Scotland Yard tries to hire our guy to hunt down the woman. Little do they know, he's already "seen" her. Eventually, he tracks her down and defeats her. 

This movie is wild. At first, I was a bit worried. He has the strangest house where a good chunk of the furniture is hanging from the ceiling. While that looks fun, it's just weird. He also wanders around in his robe. I understood why when he put on his "I'm at home" clothes. He had on a really awful ascot. It was just a hint of his taste in clothes, however.

Argoman has questionable morals. He steals things, crashes people's cars and is kind of a putz. He's sleazy to women, and he has a dude just hanging out next to a car behind a door in his house. When he changes into Argoman, his "superpowers" are not amazing. He wears a cape, but he can only leap about so I'm not sure what the point of it is. He also moves around in just a strange way, and sometimes he'll just laugh, "ha HA!"

The costumes in this movie are insane, and after the first half hour, it was pretty good. Up to that point, it was still interesting, but I'm not sure it would meet our high standards. The other thing is, this man definitely doesn't meet the qualifications for our heroes. At best he's an antihero, but I'm leaning toward villain. I need more input on that. But regarding the movie itself, I think it was pretty fun. I mean, when you start out with the knowledge that when this guy has sex he loses his superpowers for six hours, I immediately have questions. I think he'll be in the universe - we just have to find the right place for him. Good Movie!

Song of the South - 1946

This is one of the few older Disney movies I've never seen. I thought I had, but after watching it, the only thing I know is "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah."

A little boy is visiting his grandmother's plantation when he makes a couple new friends. He also finds a couple bullies. To deal with his problems, Uncle Remus tells Johnny stories of Br'er Rabbit. Johnny's mom thinks these are bad for him, but they are actually helpful. 

I liked this movie. I have to say I was more fond of the live action parts than the Br'er stories. I can't really narrow down why, I just was more involved with the relationships going on with Johnny, Uncle Remus, Toby, and Ginny. And Teenchy. I loved Teenchy. Uncle Remus (James Baskett) did a wonderful job on screen. He sang and acted really well, and I was always looking forward to scenes with him in it.

I'll briefly address the controversy about the movie itself. The portrayal of African Americans in this movie has caused a lot of tension over the years. The setting was a plantation for a reason. Uncle Remus is a character that tells stories from that era, and he is a freedman. What I saw was a kind older man helping a lonely boy. Johnny also found friends his own age from the area that could have been seen as questionable at the time, but no mention was made of who Johnny played with. It didn't matter if they were black or white, rich or poor. It was just kids playing together. 

Overall, I thought the story was sweet. Yes, there is child acting in this. I don't know how old Johnny's actor was, but sometimes he could pull off crying, and other times not so much. I enjoyed James Baskett the most in this movie (if we ignore the puppy). He really stole the show! Good Movie!

Murder by Death - 1976

I saw an article about this movie, saw some of the cast, and immediately tracked it down.

This movie is poking fun at 5 of the most famous detectives of fiction. Represented are Nick and Nora (David Niven and Maggie Smith), Charlie Chan (Peter Sellers), Sam Spade (Peter Falk), Miss Marple (Elsa Lanchester), and Hercule Poirot (James Coco). I'm not as familiar with the last two actors as I am with the others.

Truman Capote also appears in this, and there's a blind butler that brings a physical comedy to the movie that hits and misses. The whole movie is full of those to be honest. Looking at the movie through today's eyes, there's a lot people could get offended by (Peter Sellers playing the Chinese/Hawaiian detective for instance). BUT, if you're familiar with the detectives, you could get a few chuckles out of this movie. I did.

I liked the movie. Did all the jokes hit? No. But I was familiar with most of the detectives, so the pokes at them were funny. The only one I wasn't super familiar with was Sam Spade, but I knew a bit about him. He's the age of noir, and you can tell. The end was pretty funny, even though the cackling went on a bit too long. I'm giving it a Good Movie! review, but if you aren't familiar with the detectives being spoofed, I'm not sure you'd agree with me.

Skyscraper - 2018

My husband and I settled in to watch this movie. I knew a little bit about it, but he hadn't seen it.

A skyscraper (!) is making sure their safety procedures are adequate so they can be insured. They've hired the small company The Rock runs (because that's what happens), and they give him all access to the digital security measures. The tablet that runs everything is connected to facial recognition, so when the betrayal by his "brother" happens, they just have to shove the tablet in his face and viola! 

Screwing with the bad guys' plans are Rock's family. They were supposed to be seeing the pandas, but Timmy (I can't remember his name) ate a "weird candy," and so they're back early. Bad guys set a fire on the floor below the family's, turn off fire suppression and CHAOS!

There were so many crazy things that happened in this movie. It reminded me of San Andreas on the reality scale (meaning there's very little reality). I think the end cracked me up the most. This man, who through the entire movie has worked with little to nothing to solve problems, decides to sit on the floor, rocking back and forth and burn to death. Never mind the dead guys with frickin' parachutes or anything. I guess he ran out of duct tape...

Movie is pretty ridiculous, but it wasn't boring. I'm not going to give it a good review, for the sole purpose that I really didn't care about anyone, and I kept waiting for Timmy to fall into the fire (which he technically should have done a few times). I mean, the weak child (character, not actor) could sometimes barely breathe and other times was fine. Then he had the superhuman ability to hold onto his mom's back as she slowly (I think molasses moves faster) tightroped her way across that bridge and then tripped. I did learn the valuable life lesson of whenever something isn't working, all you have to do is turn it off and turn it back on - works every time!