What's on your Daily Viewing List? (3 Viewers)

[Thomas T]

 

[John Sparks]

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Anónima (Anonymously Yours)
Originally Released: 12/10/2021
Watched: 01/21/2022
1080P HD digital streaming on Netflix, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra; Mexican Spanish with English subtitles

This Generation Z teen take on The Shop Around the Corner centers around two alienated students at an elite private high school. Vale is the wealthy daughter of the man who owns Mexico's most prosperous elevator company. Alex comes from a working class family, and has just started attending on scholarship. Vale and Alex dislike each other from the first moment they meet, their opinions of each other colored by their own preconceptions. But when Alex gets a fake phone number from a girl at a party, he and Vale become unwitting pen pals, falling in love via text messages.

The version of the movie on the US Netflix is an interesting hybrid. The original Spanish audio is available with English subtitles, but all of their stylized onscreen text messages are displayed translated into English rather than just subtitled next to the original Spanish onscreen text.

Recommended?

On What? Whether two extremely likable leads is enough to overcome a script that bogs down its timeless premise with shallow plotting, thinly drawn characters, and stale clichés. The contrivances that keep our two protagonists apart don't feel earned.

 

[Robin9]

View attachment 125725

Never seen this film and have always wanted to. Where did you find it?

Last night I watched Bachelor In Paradise, an enjoyable light comedy starring Bob Hope and Lana Turner with a dazzling support cast. Some of the one-liners were superb. The Blu-ray disc is very good and I was particularly pleased with the soundtrack. Henry Mancini's score is just right for this movie. He had a remarkably good ear. I'm going to check later but I think his RCA recording of the title song is different from the soundtrack take.

 

[Thomas T]

Never seen this film and have always wanted to. Where did you find it?

From Amazon.de. It's got Italian, German and English tracks. However, the DVD (not blu ray) is an inferior transfer. Watchable but of VHS quality. As to the film itself, this is what I wrote for my blog:
Set in Egypt, a millionaire and amateur archaeologist (Robert Taylor) is on the trail of an ancient tomb that contains a priceless glass sphinx. Directed by Luigi Scattini (WAR ITALIAN STYLE), this potboiler is sloppily put together and any potential adventure elements fall flat. In the 1960s, many a fading Hollywood star went to Europe to help resuscitate a career and here an aging Robert Taylor is used for the name value he might still have in the U.S. In the European prints, it's leading lady Anita Ekberg as Taylor's showgirl turned secretary that gets top billing while Taylor gets top billing in America. Filmed in Techniscope, the Egyptian locations are attractive but Taylor and Ekberg are an unlikely screen pair and their romance is not believable. They don't even get that much screen time as a subplot involving Gianna Serra as Taylor's niece and the two men (Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Angel Del Pozo) pursuing her takes up a large portion of the narrative. With Ahmed Kamis and Remo De Angelis.

 

[Robin9]

From Amazon.de. It's got Italian, German and English tracks. However, the DVD (not blu ray) is an inferior transfer. Watchable but of VHS quality. As to the film itself, this is what I wrote for my blog:
Set in Egypt, a millionaire and amateur archaeologist (Robert Taylor) is on the trail of an ancient tomb that contains a priceless glass sphinx. Directed by Luigi Scattini (WAR ITALIAN STYLE), this potboiler is sloppily put together and any potential adventure elements fall flat. In the 1960s, many a fading Hollywood star went to Europe to help resuscitate a career and here an aging Robert Taylor is used for the name value he might still have in the U.S. In the European prints, it's leading lady Anita Ekberg as Taylor's showgirl turned secretary that gets top billing while Taylor gets top billing in America. Filmed in Techniscope, the Egyptian locations are attractive but Taylor and Ekberg are an unlikely screen pair and their romance is not believable. They don't even get that much screen time as a subplot involving Gianna Serra as Taylor's niece and the two men (Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Angel Del Pozo) pursuing her takes up a large portion of the narrative. With Ahmed Kamis and Remo De Angelis.

Oh dear, it seems I haven't missed much. Thanks anyway.

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight: To be honest I couldn't really get into this movie. It was a Christmas gift.

 

[Dave Moritz]

January 22nd, 2022 Saturday

Nobody
HD DIgital / HBO Max
Dolby 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1

The Book Of Boba Fett
4K Digital / Dolby Vision / Disney +
Dolby 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1

Episode 3: The Streets of Mos Espa
Episode 4: The Gathering Storm

 

[Thomas T]

 

[Robin9]

I watched Damn Yankees yesterday. I've never much liked this film and I still don't. When the film was over, I got out my CD of Peggy Lee singing Heart. I might watch another musical today, maybe Silk Stockings.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Spent the weekend watching French films:
Le Mépris - odd cocktail of Brigitte Bardot (has she ever looked better on film), Jack Palance and... Fritz Lang (playing himself). Great blu ray with excellent extras.
Le choc - a simple tale about turkey farming! Delon and Deneuve are wonderful together.
Un flic - classy crime film by Melville, starring Delon and Deneuve again.
Army of Shadows - not just Melville's masterpiece but one of the greatest films.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I recently did a solo watch of Greenland:

This was a film which I new very little about, but remember seeing the trailer on TV and that it caught my eye. Plus, I find Gerard Butler engaging. So it was a fun enough movie, but as I made my way through it as this family implausibly was separated and reunited and separated and reunited, I kept wondering about what was going on with the rest of the world as this incredibly serious storyline was playing out. And, frankly, I was left to wonder if that wouldn't be the more interesting film. PQ and SQ were both excellent.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Peg came to me recently and asked if I knew anything about this film. She had read a description of it and it came recommended to her:

So I ordered the DVD off Amazon.com for a mere $8. After all, it's got Donald Sutherland, Michelle Rodriguez, Mia Kirshner and David Sutcliffe (Gilmore Girls). So this 2016 film HAS to have something going on, right? Well, the answer is NO!

THIS IS A HORRIBLE MOVIE!!!

And its no fault of the aforementioned stars. None at all. The entire fault lies in the words they say. The basic premise is one we've seen in a million other tales. A young boy, about to turn 12, is having to deal with a number of burdens in his life: a bully at school, a girl is showing some interest, his parents are having apparent financial troubles and constantly fighting, and they are not paying much attention to him.

Throw in some difficult school assignments, an aggressive neighbor dog and you've pretty much got the picture. Then, in rides his grandfather who is coming to visit for the kid's birthday. He gives the boy some insight on how to deal with his problems and also helps the kid's parents deal with their issues. Donald Sutherland rides in on his white horse to save the day!

We've seen this tale in any number of films or TV sitcoms or family dramas. It can be quite effective in entertaining and in helping us remember some effective life strategies for dealing with difficult situations.

But this movie somehow finds a way to destroy the potential for good feeling that can come from this slam dunk of a scenario. The packaging crows about how the film is based on the book Milton's Secret by Robert Friedman and Eckhart Tolles (author of "Power of Now).

After watching this inexorable mess plod on and be confusingly hap-hazard in the character's emotions and motivations (Why did the boy do that? Why did his parents react THAT WAY?!?) I watched a few of the bonus features to see if I could discern how such a simple movie could have gone SO WRONG. And I was treated to Tolles pontificating upon some mumbo-jumbo that made no sense about states of consciousness and compulsive, incessant thinking, stress, anxiety and becoming more "present." Nothing but a bunch of academic hogwash about which very few people might care.

This is potentially THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE.

Stay. Away.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Mixtape
Originally Released: 12/08/2021
Watched: 01/23/2022
1080P HD digital streaming on Netflix, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

Recommended?

Why? It's really disconcerting watching a period nostalgia film set with characters who were born after I was, and it's especially disconcerting to see Julie Bowen playing a grandmother. But this is a wonderful, wholesome coming of age story with a lot of darkness peaking in around the edges. It's Fall 1999, and middle schooler Beverly Moody's grandmother is preparing for the end times as Y2K looms. While cleaning out the basement so it'll be ready to serve as a bunker, Beverly finds an old mixtape made by her parents, who died when she was very young. But when she tries to listen to it, her Walkman eats the tape. With only the track listing to go on, Beverly sets off on a quest to track down all of the songs.

The Y2K setting serves multiple functions. It provides thematic insight into how Beverly's grandmother sees the world. It means that the playlist is an analog artifact rather than just a file on a harddrive somewhere. And it's just about the most recent time when tracking down an obscure list of songs would involve going on a quest instead of just opening up Spotify.

Beverly's late mother had her when she was fifteen, and Beverly's grandmother had Beverly's mom when she was only sixteen. That background takes the movie into more adult territory than most movies like this wade into. But Beverly herself is a beacon of light, someone who genuinely likes people and has a way of bringing out the best in them. Gemma Brooke Allen, as Beverly, looks even younger than her character and that makes Beverly's journey feel more fraught. Her upbringing in Spokane Washington is safe and comfortable, with adult authority figures worthy of her trust and respect. But the truth is not entirely without perils.

The movie uses Julie Bowen's uptight, Type A persona well -- I believed her character endured the unimaginable loss of a child, and all of the trauma and defense mechanisms that come out of that. I also really liked Nick Thune as the local record store owner, who embodies qualities of both of the characters played by John Cusack and Jack Black in High Fidelity.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Cutting Edge
Originally Released: 03/27/1992
Watched: 01/24/2022
1080P HD digital streaming on Apple TV app, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

Recommended?

Why? With the Winter Olympics beginning next week, it felt like a good time to revisit this movie, which competently blended the tropes of a sports film with the tropes of a romantic comedy. Doug Dorsey, from a working class background, is one of the top collegiate hockey players in the country. Kate Moseley, from an extremely wealthy background, is a world-class pairs figure skater. Both have their Olympic dreams crushed in Calgary, as Doug suffers a career-ending eye injury and Kate is dropped by her partner seconds before completing a gold medal routine. These two very different skaters find themselves thrown together when they've exhausted all of their options. They'll create magic on and off the ice, if they don't kill each other first. D. B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly terrific as the romantic leads, with deliciously vicious verbal sparring and genuine chemistry. The great British thespian Roy Dotrice and future "Lost" star Terry O'Quinn shine as Kate's coach and father respectively. It's a movie that takes figure skating seriously, and focuses a significant amount of screen time on the athleticism involved. And the major climax of the movie brings the personal and professional threads of the movie together beautifully.

Yes, there are no great surprises with this one. But damn, it does the formula well.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The Cutting Edge
Originally Released: 03/27/1992
Watched: 01/24/2022
1080P HD digital streaming on Apple TV app, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

View attachment 125962

Recommended?

Why? With the Winter Olympics beginning next week, it felt like a good time to revisit this movie, which competently blended the tropes of a sports film with the tropes of a romantic comedy. Doug Dorsey, from a working class background, is one of the top collegiate hockey players in the country. Kate Moseley, from an extremely wealthy background, is a world-class pairs figure skater. Both have their Olympic dreams crushed in Calgary, as Doug suffers a career-ending eye injury and Kate is dropped by her partner seconds before completing a gold medal routine. These two very different skaters find themselves thrown together when they've exhausted all of their options. They'll create magic on and off the ice, if they don't kill each other first. D. B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly terrific as the romantic leads, with deliciously vicious verbal sparring and genuine chemistry. The great British thespian Roy Dotrice and future "Lost" star Terry O'Quinn shine as Kate's coach and father respectively. It's a movie that takes figure skating seriously, and focuses a significant amount of screen time on the athleticism involved. And the major climax of the movie brings the personal and professional threads of the movie together beautifully.

Yes, there are no great surprises with this one. But damn, it does the formula well.

I love this movie!

 

[Robin9]

Today I watched LandumC's YouTube feature on True Grit. So I re-watched the Blu-ray disc! It's still a very good film on a very good disc.

 

[Robin9]

Last night I watched The Unfinished Dance which stars a particular favorite of mine, Cyd Charisse. I didn't enjoy the film as much as on previous viewings. I felt that everything was slightly over played and that both Margaret O'Brien and Danny Thomas should have been held back a bit. This surprised me because the movie was directed by Henry Koster whose work is normally precise and a bit restrained.

So today I watched another Henry Koster film, A Man Called Peter, in which his skill with actors is very apparent. This is not a much admired film but I like it. The speeches delivered by "Peter" contain numerous brilliant and memorable phrases. The Blu-ray disc from Twilight Time is superb with directional dialog and excellent 2.55:1 images.

 

[Thomas T]

 

[Mike Frezon]

So today I watched another Henry Koster film, A Man Called Peter, in which his skill with actors is very apparent. This is not a much admired film but I like it. The speeches delivered by "Peter" contain numerous brilliant and memorable phrases. The Blu-ray disc from Twilight Time is superb with directional dialog and excellent 2.55:1 images.

Peg and I really liked this film. But we were also both more than a bit familiar with the life stories of Peter and Catherine Marshall.