The Dark Past - 1948

I was scrolling through the Leaving Soon category on Tubi and was intrigued by the summary for this film.

A criminal breaks out of prison and takes a bunch of hostages. One of them happens to be a psychologist, who immediately puts his pipe in his mouth and starts analyzing. There's a woman hanging out with the killer, and she tells the doctor about the killer's nightmare while he sleeps.

From there, it's a race to discover what the dream means and cure him. The doctor believes he can cure the killer, so why not? On the other hand, this dude has killed a bunch of people, so it might be a bit late. I mean, once they capture him, he's probably going to get put to death or just spend the rest of his life in prison. He murdered the warden in cold blood, so I'm leaning toward them giving him the death penalty, especially in 1948.

The point of the movie is that if the doctor had been allowed to treat the killer when he was a child, he may have prevented the whole murdering thing. He's telling the story to a cop who is questioning his choice to pull a criminal from the lineup to have chats with him. I mean the policeman got smacked in the head by the kid, so you can't blame the cop for his skepticism. 

Anyway, I did find the mystery of the dream interesting, and the story itself was cool. I was glad Fred lived, because I was going to riot if he got killed. I liked the dynamic between the killer and the doctor, and I think it was well acted. I'm recommending this one to my daughter who is minoring in psychology. I hope she likes it. Good Movie!

Man-Made Monster (1941) & The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) - Double Feature!

Now that summer's winding down, we're back to our Universal Monsters list. These two were next in line (I've already seen The Wolf Man), and since they're around an hour, we decided to watch them both in one night. Little did I know it would end up being a Lionel Atwill double feature!

In Man-Made Monster, we started off great. A miniature bus wrecks and gets zapped. Everyone died except one man: Dan. He apparently had a carnival act where he messed around with electricity, so he had an immunity. An evil scientist decides he wants to make an army of "electric men." It's a bit confusing, but he keeps zapping Dan until he turns into a blinking head. Dan also has a canine friend, Corky. He plays with the dog until he accidentally zaps him one day. After that, the dog still loves him, but he is wary of being near him.

In The Ghost of Frankenstein, we're back! This time, the monster has escaped death by being preserved in sulfur. The mayor of the village is dealing with rowdy villagers, and he doesn't want to lose the election. So, he tells the superstitious people they can blow up the castle of Frankenstein. This frees the monster, and Igor is there to help his "friend." They get cleaned up and take a road trip to the town where the current Frankenstein has a clinic. The doctor believes he can cure the monster by replacing his brain with one of a good man (RIP Kettering). The monster has other ideas and kidnaps a little girl. He'd like her brain instead. Little does Frankenstein suspect his partner has plans to betray him and swaps patients so the monster gets the brain of Igor. Apparently the vocal cords as well.

These movies were wild. The first one made no sense, and I never understood why his head blinked. Also, why did he kidnap the girl? He didn't act like he was falling in love with her or anything, so that was confusing. The dog at the end was heartbreaking. Poor Corky. And Lionel got zapped to death.

The second movie also made no sense. I was struggling with the whole concept of the monster surviving in the sulfur pit, but when it dried (?), it preserved him. Once he was out, I just had to put it aside. We have the brother of the last movie's scientist and the son of the OG scientist performing brain surgeries where they remove them from the skull, repair them and stick them back in. I'm still not sure why the partner (Lionel) agreed to put Igor's brain into the monster. Also, what the heck was up with keeping the little girl!? We had a whole mob coming to the house because they were upset about the little girl, but she was safe upstairs at the house the whole time. Why hadn't Frankenstein's daughter taken her back home?! Oh - and Lionel got zapped to death.

These movies are infuriating and fun at the same time. I was so amused at the similarities between these two, especially when it came to the fainting women and the boyfriends. I peeked at the list, and this isn't the last I've seen of Frankenstein, but since it's Igor's brain, and he's super irritating, I don't mind when they try to kill him now. The electric man thing was just weird, and the dog was the best part. These were entertaining to me, but I wouldn't sit down and watch them again with people I care about.

Christmas Getaway - 2017

It was our last movie night before taking my daughter back to college. We got out our bingo cards and started the movie.

A travel writer is trying to experience an "old-fashioned" Christmas, aka a normal Christmas, because she hasn't had one in many years. She's always traveling. She ends up in a small town where she meets a man with a daughter. I don't remember anyone's names, and I don't really care enough to look it up.

The woman was irritating. She couldn't pass up a chance to mention somewhere she'd been. I joked that if you took a shot every time she mentioned a place she'd been, you'd die. When she was "experiencing" Christmas, she was so focused on the pictures, she was posing and asking the child to take the photos. She also entertained the child by sitting her down with an iPad slideshow of her travel photos...wow.

Anyway, the woman feels like she might be ready to settle down, and the man is ready to love again now that he's done mourning his dead wife. It hasn't been that long since I watched it, but the movie didn't make much of an impression on me. The only thing I remember for sure is the scene where we heard an airplane noise, and when people looked out the window, someone had just driven up.

We got some bingos out of the movie, but that's probably the only positive thing I can say about this movie. It was pretty cookie cutter, and nothing really helped it stand out from the others.

 

The Christmas Contract - 2018

I was on a cleaning break yesterday, so we picked a Christmas movie and got out the bingo cards.

Jack and Jolie are in Louisiana for different reasons. Jack agreed to pretend to be Jolie's boyfriend to make her ex, Foster, jealous. Jolie is celebrating Christmas in the most Louisiana place ever. Jack has to ghostwrite a romance novel set in Louisiana, and he has a weird list of "plot points." It's more like a checklist but whatever.

This movie was strange. I refuse to address the absurdity of the contract. The family was suspicious from the very start. I don't know what these two did on the plane trip from New York, but it definitely wasn't going over their story. Also, Jack wasn't able to finish a romance novel. Weird. Anyway, they make Jack sleep in a Louisiana spare office, because apparently this huge house doesn't have enough bedrooms upstairs. This humongous house.

Jolie has a few run-ins with her ex and his oily hair. Jack checks off a few of the to-dos off his plot events. I'm not sure how a turtle rustling a tree counts as fleeing from danger, but with imagination, he turned it into an alligator. 

The conflict in this movie was dumb. Jolie finds the list and gets mad. She won't let Jack explain, but he doesn't help by calling it "work stuff" even though he's already declined to write the book. Then, once they reconcile, Jolie is on board and wants him to write it because it is now based on a true story.

The movie is pretty bad for bingo. There's no snow (Louisiana), and it doesn't feel Christmas-y. Only one of us got a bingo, and it wasn't me. Jack was okay as a character, but Jolie was irritating. I blame her parents. They just brushed off the whole "I lied about having a boyfriend." Her mom even told her she had nothing to apologize for. I'm sorry, what?! Pass on this one.

  

Snowed Inn Christmas - 2017

Movie night! We decided on some more Hallmark bingo. Well, this isn't officially Hallmark, but you get the idea. We had a bit of luck last week, but my daughter picked this one because she was tired of me "complaining" I needed my 'quaint lodge/inn' square. I can't help it that my inn square is in a strategically inconvenient location!

Two completely different journalists are sent to Aspen to fight for their job at a magazine. It's weird, because the boss claims she's sending her two best writers, but only one of them will have a job afterwards. Umm, what? Moving on...

Jenna is extremely organized and neat. Kevin is unorganized and a slob. These people are extreme, even though most people fall somewhere in between. I mean, Kevin is loud and unruly on the plane. He even takes off his shoe right in Jenna's face. Anyway, a weird storm causes their plane to land in Santa Claus, Indiana. The storm is so bad, there is no way in or out of Aspen for days! 

They end up at the Winters Inn, a building where Christmas itself threw up inside. I mean, it worked out great for us, we all ended up with multiple bingos. But that place was something else. And it had obvious Santa and Mrs. Claus running it. Not even subtle. Anyway, Kevin and Jenna fall in love in three days, save the Inn, and Christmas is the best day ever!

The plot itself was a bit unbelievable, but it wasn't one of the worst ones. I just want to mention the weather. I spent ten years in Indiana. You're not wandering around outside in the middle of the night in December without shivering or seeing your breath. Also, those pajamas? Not warm enough...

I'm letting this one slide. They fell in "love" in three days. Really? At least they didn't get engaged. I give it props for giving us so many squares on our bingo cards. This movie had a lot of fringe things we hadn't seen in a long time (stranding), so I liked it for that. I'm not sure I'd give it a Good Movie! review on its own merits, but my opinion can be swayed by bingo. There's been a drought around here, and it was a good night. Bingo Movie!

Tank Force (No Time to Die) - 1958

I saw this one on Tubi as leaving soon. It was released in the U.S. as Tank Force, but elsewhere as No Time to Die (with or without an exclamation point). Sometimes I wonder if I'm channeling my dad when I throw on one of these random war movies. When I was younger, he'd always throw these things on, and I'd moan and complain. Now they seem to be one of the first things I choose to watch. It seems this movie is based on a 1954 novel by Ronald Kemp called No Time to Die.

Anyway, this movie doesn't have any big names in it (to me), but it starts out with a tank battle. Spoiler: it ends with one as well. The Allies aren't doing too well. The Panzers are blowing things up, with crews abandoning tanks left and right. They're immediately taken prisoner where a few contrary individuals don't want to play by the rules of escape.

One contrarian (we'll call him Scarf) cares about himself. His wife was sent to a camp and killed, and apparently he failed in an attempt to blow up Goebbels. The other contrarian (The Pole - not kidding, he's listed that way in the credits) is a psycho killer who just takes people out because he feels like it. When a sandstorm combines the escape plans of the normal people and the contrarians, they're trapped together trying to get back to Allied territory.

I don't think the characters in this movie were very nice. The ones that lived that is. I was partial to Bartlett, but he was killed. I'm not sure why. He was sleeping next to the truck, the Arabs came up, looked at The Pole, then killed Bartlett for no reason. They didn't kill The Pole. Just confusing. I found the credits for this movie interesting. Half the people don't have actual names. It's all Camp Commandant, Italian Girl, The Pole, The Sheikh, German Srgt, etc. Poor actors...

Anyway, with the choices made on who died and who made it out alive, this movie was a bust. Two whole people made it out. One of them was the dreaded Scarf. The survivors asked to borrow a shovel, but then they bury the one sergeant and stick his hat on top. That tank isn't getting that shovel back! Thieves! Oh well, the movie wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't watch it again voluntarily.

The Chase - 1946

It's been a while, but I read about the restoration of this film in an article and ended up putting it on my watch list. It's based on a book by Cornell Woolrich (he might sound familiar for being the brains behind Rear Window). I mean, the film looked great, so good job on that one!

In this film, Scotty finds a wallet on the sidewalk. When he returns it, he's honest about removing enough for breakfast, impressing the man who owns it. Scotty immediately gets the chauffeur's job and starts driving around this insane guy, Roman. This man has magic pedals in the backseat of his car where he can control the speed of the car. It's interesting.

Scotty drives Roman's wife to the beach a couple times. She's desperate to get away, and she convinces Scotty to help her. What follows is a series of events that aren't what they seem. When Scotty wakes up, he has some weird memory issues and jets off to his doctor. I saw the end coming a mile away, and it wasn't super satisfying. I thought the movie was going to address the mental health thing a little more, but it just got brushed away like it didn't exist once he got his memory back. I would've liked to know more about that for sure.

The story itself had me interested, but I'm not sure about the execution. I'd like to read the book, but it looks like there were issues with Woolrich's estate, so I might have to do some hunting for it. If the main ideas were Woolrich's, I'm intrigued. The movie itself didn't wow me. It wasn't boring, I just don't think it was for me.

Marnie - 1964

This came on my radar as it's a Hitchcock film I haven't seen (or heard of), and it also stars Sean Connery. It's based on a novel by Winston Graham, an author I've read a few times. Those were entries in his Poldark series, though, and I was unaware he had written thrillers.

In this film, Marnie is a thief. She tries to buy nice things for her mother, because she's never quite felt the love she craves. Eventually, she steals from the wrong man, and she ends up married to a man who wants to help her. She just wants to be left alone, but he won't give up until he learns the truth about what made Marnie who she is today.

This movie is a bit of a strange one for me. The middle of it dragged a bit for me, but I was engaged at the beginning and the end. The truth of Marnie's past was complex (as I knew it would be), and it was well done. I liked Connery in this movie, and it was nice to see Alan Napier (Alfred - OG Batman). Tippi Hedren did an okay job, but her range was narrower than I expected for what she was dealing with. That might sound weird for a woman that would have complete freak-outs, but it's hard to explain.

There's one more negative to point out. I'm an animal person, so the scene with Forio (a horse) was disappointing. Movies can murder characters the whole film, but don't touch the animals! Putting that aside, I did enjoy the beginning and the end, but the middle and the death of Forio would prevent me from watching this one again. I'm sad to admit that since I liked the performances of Connery and Napier...I might look into reading the book one day.

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