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Reviews
Curious Caterer: Fatal Vows (2023)
You gotta watch what you eat, or what your bride is eating.
I found this movie on a DVD at my public library, containing the first three movies in the "Curious Caterer" series. This is the third one, filmed about 6 months after the second one, so the young daughter looks a bit more grown up, almost as tall now as her mother.
Nikki Deloach (early 40s) is Goldy. She has a bakery and also takes on jobs catering special events. This story is about a wedding of Tom's former wife and Goldy is making the special, tall 7-layer wedding cake. The morning after the rehearsal dinner the groom is found dead in the lobby, partially in a large fountain. Was he murdered or did he simply drown?
As we saw in the first one Andrew Walker (early 40s) is detective Tom. In the prior two movies Goldy and Tom have come to understand and appreciate each other more, Tom is recognizing how big a help Goldy can be. As in the prior movies she is able to get some information crucial to the case.
As usual with this type of movie there are a few red herrings thrown about, clues designed to sow seeds of doubt for the viewer, and when it is nearing the conclusion lots of explanations are given regarding who and how of the crime.
Even though the overall theme, murder, is very serious the movie is done with frequent humor thrown in and that works well to keep it entertaining, and my wife and I were.
Curious Caterer: Grilling Season (2023)
Gotta watch out for those exploding grills.
I found this movie on a DVD at my public library, containing the first three movies in the "Curious Caterer" series. This is the second one, filmed about 10 months after the first one, so the young daughter looks a bit more grown up.
Nikki Deloach (early 40s) is Goldy. She has a bakery and also takes on jobs catering special events. This story has her catering for an event at the home of a real estate friend. After everyone leaves there is an explosion, at first they think the outdoor gas grill malfunctioned. Upon closer examination it seems to be an attempt to cover up for a murder. But who would do this?
As we saw in the first one Andrew Walker is detective
Tom. As he and his young partner conduct their investigation Tom is frequently frustrated at Goldy's seeming to be launching her own investigation which, it truth, is essential to crack the case.
As usual with this type of movie there are lots of red herrings thrown about, clues designed to sow seeds of doubt for the viewer, and when it is nearing the conclusion lots of explanations are given regarding who and how of the crime.
Even though the overall theme, murder, is very serious the movie is done with frequent humor thrown in and that works well to keep it entertaining, and my wife and I were.
Curious Caterer: Dying for Chocolate (2022)
Hemlock can be very dangerous.
I found this movie on a DVD at my public library, containing the first three movies in the "Curious Caterer" series. This is the first one.
Nikki Deloach (early 40s) is Goldy. She has a bakery and also takes on jobs catering special events. On this occasion she is baking her special shortbread cookies with a drizzle of chocolate icing.
After this particular event her close friend approaches her and says she wants to talk in private. So Goldy is driving to her home after the party is over.
On the way, on a small road through the woods, she is stopped by a police presence at the site of an auto accident, down over the embankment, she quickly finds out it is her friend she was going to see.
At the site she meets Andrew W. Walker (early 40s) as Tom Shultz. He is a detective assigned to the area and he has already started his investigation.
As usual with this type of movie there are lots of red herrings thrown about, clues designed to lead the viewer to believe the perpetrator of a crime is someone who later turns out to not have anything to do with it.
Per the title, the caterer, Goldy, is a very curious person and ends up helping in the investigation.
But overall it is well done and entertaining. The same two actors play Goldy and Tom in the other movies in this "Curious Caterer" series so I suppose thay will develop a love interest as is common in Hallmark movies.
A Match in Manhattan (2024)
Au pair fitting into a wealthy family.
Celeste is a young teacher in a small community. She doesn't like the rigid structure of lesson plans and teaching exactly how others do. She encourages her young students to think laterally and sometimes even has a class outing instead of staying in desks. She sees the outside world as a better classroom.
Unfortunately for her this doesn't meet the perceived requirement of her teaching position and she is told she will not be renewed, she will need to find something else.
A friend tells her about a job in Manhattan for a wealthy man who has two children, a boy about 10 and a girl about 13. They are bright and devious, especially to new au pairs who seem to be replaced quite regularly. They take delight in trying to run the new ones off.
The dad is Richard, a very wealthy Manhattan real estate magnate with his own company and building. But dad is so busy he doesn't have much time to spend with the kids. And, since his wife died, has difficulty telling them that he loves them.
So the story is about all the diverse personalities learning to fit in with each other, and to heal old family wounds. This is a Canadian movie, not Hallmark, but follows the Hallmark pattern very closely, including what my wife and I call "The Hallmark Kiss" during the last minute of the movie.
There isn't anything novel or deep here, the actors are fine and it is a pleasant little movie, entertaining after our usual Saturday night steak and wine dinner, with chocolate cake too, of course.
Looking for Dr. Love (2024)
Single 30-somethings try to rekindle old love.
Jenny is a hairdresser and owns her business. She is recently divorced and has a young son of maybe 8 or 9. While her ex-husband is a nice guy it seems she never really loved him, she probably married him because her opinionated mother urged her to.
Liam is a radio DJ who plays mostly older music and he goes by the radio name "Dr. Love." Jenny is a fan, she listens to his program regularly but has no idea what his real identity is, and frankly doesn't care. Her son thinks he is an old fat man broadcasting from a basement somewhere.
Then one day on a whim, during a book promotional Jenny calls the station and wins, as the 7th caller. She goes to the station and there she meets Dr. Love, only to find out she knows him. She and he met in college then became sweethearts but their romance was interrupted when Liam joined the Marines. He vowed to return to her but she never heard from him again. The "why" is an important part of the whole story.
The story gets more complicated from that point, in many ways. It is not a Hallmark movie but follows the template, there is no bad language or sex, after they start to get close some big relationship wedge interferes, they have to find a way to overcome it.
This movie contains pretty much all the tropes we have seen in many similar movies, there really isn't anything new but the actors are pleasant and attractive and that makes for a pleasant viewing.
Shot mostly in and around Stillwater and Oklahoma City. The rating is skewed a bit on the high side because almost 30% of the ratings are "10" and this definitely is not a "10" movie, compared to all the others. The median rating is "6" and that is just about right for this movie. Pleasant but not outstanding.
At home, streaming on Peacock.
Sweet Charity (1969)
Shirley MacLaine shows us her acting, singing, and dancing chops.
The year 1969 was a memorable one, I finished Graduate School, started my career, watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, and my first daughter was born. And, of course, this movie, "Sweet Charity", came out but I only got to watch it now, in 2024.
Shirley MacLaine turned 90 earlier this year and with the associated publicity I looked to see if my public library had a movie of hers I hadn't seen. "Sweet Charity" came up.
I have always been a Shirley MacLaine fan, here she is in her mid 30s as Charity Valentine who works as a Dance Hall Hostess, spending time with lonely patrons for a bit of cash. As it states in the opening credits, this is "The adventures of a girl who wanted to be loved." Charity is a bit ditzy but always optimistic. One of Charity's friends says to her, "You run your heart like a hotel, you got men checking in and out all the time."
The movie is a comedy and in some of the sketches her character reminded me of Lucille Ball in "I Love Lucy", especially with her red hair. The title comes from a comment her boyfriend made, "You're Sweet, Charity."
The movie contains a number of dance numbers, some with little or no connection to the story, but to show off the Bob Fosse choreography.
Ricardo Montalban who a few years later would star in the TV series "Fantasy Island" is famous actor Vittorio. One night, after a spat with his girlfriend, he invites Charity to his place for innocent fun. The funny part is when the girlfriend shows up later and Charity has to hide in the closet.
A fun movie, most of the second half features her romance with a very nice man who runs a flower shop. Will they end up together, will Charity "Live hopefully every after?" The DVD has, as a bonus, the alternate ending, which is exactly opposite of the ending chosen for the movie.
I enjoyed the movie, for the actors in their prime, and also to see New York City in the 1960s, about 12 years before I first visited the city.
Autumn at Apple Hill (2024)
Hallmark, two 40-ish single people find a way to make it work.
Erin Cahill is Elise Jacobs, newly divorced, and having inherited her grandparents' property. It is a rustic inn in a smaller community. It needs saving, it has a lot of deferred maintenance, and it is not clear that Elise will be able to afford to save it.
Wes Brown is Luke Bellwether, son of a lady who is the chief of their company. Luke tends to be an overachiever, rarely taking any personal time. His mother basically orders him to get away. So he goes away to where he grew up, Apple Hill.
It turns out Luke and Elise were in school together but he being a couple of grades ahead of her, they didn't recognize each other after 20-ish years. But it is clear that she despises him at first. Then he shows that he is not so bad, therefore it is following the familiar Hallmark story arc.
My wife and I watched it, streaming, as pleasant entertainment. There isn't really anything novel but it is done well with attractive actors.
At home, streaming.
Love at First Sight (2023)
Is it love at first sight for two who meet on a plane to London?
This movie is based on two of my favorite topics. One being is there really such a thing as "love at first sight"? (personally I don't think so, you need to get to know each other before real love can be built.)
The other is the importance of random events that shape our lives? (I know for a fact that this is perhaps the strongest driver of what and where our lives will lead. My own life is filled with random events that shaped it.)
Haley Lu Richardson, about 27, is American Hadley Sullivan. She grew up close to her dad, a professor of poetry, but in recent months had hard feelings from the breakup between him and her mom. Her dad is in London and getting married again, she is traveling for the wedding.
As fate and random events will have it, she misses her flight by 4 minutes because of airport delays and, perhaps, she has a "lateness" habit. So she is put on the next available flight.
Ben Hardy, about 27, is Brit Oliver Jones, studying Statistics at Yale. He is returning home for a memorial service for his mom whose cancer has returned. She is still alive but wants everyone to tell her goodbye while she can still interact with them.
Hadley and Oliver interact briefly in the airport terminal in New York, nothing special, and when they board are apart, he in coach and she in Business Class. Until he has an issue with his seat and is moved to be next to her. The second random event.
All that as the movie begins sets the stage for what will happen in London. The movie is rather well written and the actors all do justice to their characters. I am especially a fan of Haley Lu, she is cute and very genuine in her roles.
Looking at the distribution of IMDb ratings it has a nicely normal distribution with "7" as the median and nearly equal numbers of "8" and "6" votes. This is a very pleasant and entertaining movie.
Canary Black (2024)
Mix in some John Wick, some Reacher, some Equalizer, some M.I. and end with a bit of Nikita.
My wife and I watch movies to be entertained. When this one finished I asked, "Were you entertained?" She replied, "Yes, I stayed awake the whole time." Which doesn't always happen on her comfortable couch.
There are a couple of quick reviews which don't say much and rate this movie "1". Which is absurd, no way this is a "1". The midpoint of a 1 to 10 rating system is 5.5, so this one is likely best rated as a 5, 6, or 7. No, it isn't a unique and great movie but it does have decent entertainment value.
Movies are a business, nothing else, and the Producer is Kate Beckinsale who also stars as Avery Graves. She is a high level secret operative, the kind that can put on a disguise, a fake identity, carry the weapons, and take out a whole crew when the assignment calls for it. As she mentions at one point, she has a high pain tolerance.
The overall story involves foreign operatives who have a scheme (using Canary Black) for getting about one trillion dollars by a ransom play that seeks to hit every nation on Earth, otherwise a doomsday virus will be selectively released that would basically doom the countries that don't comply. Avery has to save the day almost single handedly.
For the complexity of the story this is a relatively low budget movie shot in Croatia. For my tastes there is a bit too much gun battle and a somewhat questionable chase scene with some really bad crashes but it does serve to move the story forward. In the end Avery gets into lots of trouble because of the techniques she was required to use but the ending has a sort of "La Femme Nikita" feel to it. A chance to put it all behind her.
Will there be a sequel? Time will tell.
Streaming on Prime, good video and very impressive sound if you have a decent home theater setup.
399: Queen of the Tetons (2024)
Sad news today, October 24, 2024.
It is with a heavy heart that I write this. I watched this excellent program earlier this year. #399, with her four grizzly cubs, was an outstanding oddity. A grizzly mom rarely gives birth to more than two cubs and she had four, and by appearances was taking of them well.
Now the good and the bad of tourism. This week momma grizzly #399, at the age of 28 and after birthing 18 cubs, was hit and killed by a vehicle near Jackson Hole. At this time she had one cub about 18 months old, they are looking for it. I suspect the conservationists will evaluate the situation and do what is best for them.
R. I. P #399, you lived your life well.
Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)
A cautionary tale for the future.
This Monday morning I spoke into my Xfinity remote "Free this week" and one that came up is this movie from 1960 depicting a test pilot accidentally traveling to our current year, 2024. I am always curious how older movies (I was a teenager in 1960) depict the future and compare it to how 2024 actually is.
Unfortunately it is not exactly that type of movie, we only see what represents people living in an underground society. They use lots of triangle and pyramids with sliding triangular doors as their futuristic set design.
Robert Clarke is top test pilot Maj. William Allison and on this day in 1960 is taking a test plane with secondary rocket assist up to 500,000 feet. Something happens, when he lands back at the base everything is old, dilapidated, and deserted. He manages to walk to a place where he is observed and captured, treated as an enemy.
It takes until about the half-way point for him (and us) to figure out he has time-traveled to the future. And things are bad because of a plague during the 1970s caused by radiation from various atomic bomb tests destroying the Earth's atmospheric protective layer. About half the world's population has died and most survivors are deaf-mutes. The bigger problem might be the widespread sterility which makes keeping the world's population up.
The main female character and one that becomes a love interest is Darlene Tompkins, about 19 during filming, as Princess Trirene. She is fertile but also a deaf-mute, however has developed ESP and can read the Major's thoughts.
So the story takes on two options, the Major can stay in 2024 and help propagate future generations or he can try to return to 1960 by doing a similar test flight in the opposite direction, warn people so that the future catastrophe can be avoided. Sadly, the climax in 2024 is a big fight with fists and guns and many key characters get killed.
Did I enjoy this short movie? Yes, I did, as it is a good representation of this type of movie made in the 1950s and 1960s. It DID take the time for 2024 scientist characters to give a good, thorough explanation for how time-travel happened, using the speed of the Earth's rotation, the Earth's orbit, and the whole solar system traveling through space, even though it is bad science it makes sense within the context of this story.
Streaming on Prime.
McLintock! (1963)
Now Katherine, are you going to believe what you see, or what I tell you?
"McLintock! Everyone pronounces his name as "muh-clin-tic" but his wife always says, very properly, "Muh-clin-tock."
Filmed in Nevada, set in the town of McLintock at 6000 feet elevation, John Wayne (about 55) is former Indian fighter and now wealthy cattle baron George Washington 'G. W.' McLintock. He owns most of the land in the area, he hires and fires but respects a man who gives a hard day's work. "I don't give out jobs, I hire men."
His somewhat estranged wife is Maureen O'Hara as Katherine Gilhooley McLintock, she returns still pursuing a divorce which G. W. wants no part of.
Patrick Wayne, the real life son, about 23, plays Devlin Warren who needs a job. His father died recently and he needs to provide for his mother and younger siblings. Devlin had gone to college for two years, at Purdue, but had to quit and return home for financial reasons. They said Purdue was a good college "for a backwater state like Indiana." I chuckled, I went to Purdue in 1967, just 4 years after this movie came out.
Stefanie Powers (about 20) plays the daughter, Rebecca 'Becky' McLintock, returning home from college out east to a big celebration at the train station. She and Devlin are at odds quickly which we know, in movie-making, means they will likely fall for each other later.
This is a comedy through and through. An example is when G. W. arrives at an intended hanging of an Indian because a man's daughter is missing. He just assumes the Indian had something to do with it. G. W. Arrives to restore order, soon the missing daughter arrives, there is a big fight and virtually everybody slides down the slippery, muddy slope into a water hole. There really was no point to the fight, it was just done for comedy.
The movie also includes several musical numbers and, in one scene where G. W. is coming home drunk, we even hear him singing.
While I knew about this movie over the years, I had missed seeing it until now, on the Movies! Channel via antenna in my attic. I have a special connection to John Wayne, he and my dad were both born on May 26, 1907. My dad was a big fan so watching a movie like this reminds me of him.
Shrinking (2023)
For my taste in entertainment I found it to be unwatchable.
This came available recently streaming on Apple+ service. We have a trial subscription and were pondering if we should continue it and this programming answered my question - it is not worth it.
For my taste in entertainment I found it to be unwatchable. Well, I watched half of the first episode. My biggest complaint is the language, constant filthy language. No conversation can be held without each character spicing up their delivery with multiple F-words. I have lived in several similar neighborhoods over my adult life, not one time did a friend or neighbor interact with us with this kind of incessant, filthy language. It is not believable, it is not entertaining.
So, after about half of the first episode it kept grating and grating on my senses more and more and I just had to turn it off. Jason Segel approves, he is the writer and producer, and stars as therapist Jimmy. This kind of writing, with excessive filthy language is not "cool", except for certain target audiences, it is just an attempt to substitute filthy edginess for smart writing.
It is a shame so many shows are headed in a similar direction. What happened to civility?
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Murders following the discovery of crude oil in 1920s Oklahoma.
First regarding the title, some Native American tribes refer to the full Moon in May as the "Flower Moon" because flowers spring forth across North America in abundance around this time. "Killers" refers to those who were killing Native Osage members as a means to get at their royalty money from the discovery of crude on their lands.
This is a long movie, right at 3 1/2 hours. I found myself wishing it had been closer to 2 hours. Not that there is any fluff in the running time, it just takes lots of patience to stay with it for that long.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Ernest Burkhart, an actual person involved in all this, it is easy to look him up online and read what his fate was.
Robert De Niro is William King Hale, also an actual person involved in all this, his details are also easy to find online.
Lily Gladstone is Mollie Burkhart, the wife of Ernest, also an actual person involved in all this, her role is a major driver of the story and the actress was nominated for an Oscar for her role.
From my brief web searches it appears that what is presented in this movie is very faithful to what actually happened back then. In essence white men would move into the Fairfax, OK area after crude oil was struck, and find an Osage woman to marry. Then, if the Osage heirs gradually disappeared eventually they would enrich themselves as only surviving heirs by marriage. Most deaths, being on Osage land, were not investigated. Ultimately the newly-formed FBI through the initiative of J. Edgar Hoover went into Osage Nation and got to the bottom of everything.
Good movie, we watched it at home, streaming on Apple+.
Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage: The 6:10 to Lubbock (2024)
To little programming, too much commercials.
This show has received lots of hype leading up to episode one tonight, October 17th. The stars are cute, Emily Osment as
Mandy McAllister and Montana Jordan as Georgie Cooper, brought over from the "Young Sheldon" show.
I settled in, a bowl of popcorn on one side of me and a six pack of cold beer on the other side. The show started, I was excited and ready to see where this would go.
Bam! Only two minutes in we get ... you guessed it ... a FOUR MINUTE COMMERCIAL BREAK! So, the first six minutes has exactly two minutes of Georgie and Mandy. I was so disappointed. I sulked the rest of the way, I found it reasonably entertaining, very lite fluff, with the young couple staying with her parents and resenting every minute of it. Just typical parent and young adult strife.
I noticed there are a number of "10" votes in the early ratings, completely bogus. This is not a "10" show, in a generous mood I give it a "5" which is average, not good nor bad, for a half-hour comedy TV series.
But way too much commercial time, way too little programming. They are trying to pull a fast one over the audiences.
Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage (2024)
Little programming, lots of commercials.
Tonight was the premier of this new show, a spin-off from "Young Sheldon" which itself was a spin-off from the "Big Bang Theory." We saw in "Young Sheldon" that brother Georgie got a girl pregnant and they decided to get married. They did, they have a daughter almost one, and they move in with her parents. He goes to work for her dad in his automotive shop.
The premise is good and the stars are cute, but frankly there is little continuity with barely 20 minutes of programming and about 10 minutes of commercials in the half-hour time slot. In fact, the first 4-minute commercial break came at only 2 minutes into the first episode. That is disappointing, 2 minutes of programming in the first 6 minutes. I doubt that I'll watch many more episodes, if any. There isn't anything especially striking about the show, it just shows two struggling young parents trying to find their path forward.
Emily Osment, about 32, is Mandy McAllister, and Montana Jordan, about 21, is Georgie Cooper. They are pleasant enough but with such a limited amount of show each week it doesn't seem worth a watch. I can watch commercials anytime if I wanted.
Abigail (2024)
Disappointing movie, I now wish I had not taken the time.
I had watched the trailer for this movie and was intrigued by the character of Abigail, a young girl who was a ballet dancer. The first scene in the movie features this prominently, in an empty performance hall. The movie begins interestingly, the last scenes are interesting, but I found the vast middle to be a real mess.
The main premise is a group will kidnap the young girl and hold her for 24 hours for a large ransom. But things don't work out for them at all and as the expression goes "all hell breaks loose." There are no redeeming characters, and they are all unlikeable. So there is really no reason to watch it.
Another problem I had is casting Dan Stevens as the very bossy and mean Frank. Stevens was great in "Downton Abbey", as a nice, well-spoken, gentleman. I could never see him as the character he plays here and in fact think it was a very poor casting choice. He just is NOT the actor for that role.
The movie has an end credit recognition for one of the actors,
Angus Cloud who played the terribly unrefined and simple-minded driver Dean. It turns out in real life he died in 2023 at the age of 25 from a drug overdose.
I found this movie on DVD from my public library. My wife watched the trailer and decided to skip. She made the better decision.
The movie was filmed entirely in Ireland but what good would it do to mention that?
A Missed Connection (2024)
It seems that they might all have gone to Abilene.
There is an old decision-making story about a group of people in Texas who went to Abilene on a hot summer day to eat lunch at a greasy spoon restaurant that no one really liked, but they all went because they thought the others wanted to go. It is story to illustrate how easy it is to make a bad decision because no one wants to speak up.
And that is a big part of the theme here, the decision to have all family and friends travel to a resort in Hawaii for a wedding that might turn out to be a bad decision. Because neither the bride nor the groom wanted to speak up.
The story starts in New York on a commuter train platform, where
Meggan Kaiser (with that Mandy Moore look about her) as artist
Vickie is taking her folder with her to a job interview. She drops everything and Alex Trumble (with his Rufus Sewell mannerisms) as photographer Max is pleasant to her, helps her pick up her things, and fails to get her phone number because the train is on time and she is running late. She then quickly moves to Duluth.
Cut to five years later, they have an encounter at an airport check-in, they seem to realize they have met but can't place it. Turns out they are now both off to Hawaii, to the same destination, where she is getting married and he has been hired to be the wedding photographer.
So most of the movie is at the resort in wedding preparations as the groom is delayed for job duties. So Vickie and Max gradually get to know each other by virtue of his job as they both ponder if her getting married is the right thing for her.
My wife and I watched it at home, streaming on Prime. It is a pleasant movie for light entertainment and for passing an hour and a half before bedtime. No guns, no sex, no foul language, basically put together like a typical Hallmark movie.
Lonely Planet (2024)
Relationship movie, no action but some interesting ideas.
There is a retreat of sorts in Morocco for writers, many of the attendees are acclaimed authors, some have won prestigious awards. One attendee is Laura Dern (mid 50s) as Katherine Loewe. Being well known in this situation works to her disadvantage, she needs to finish a manuscript, she has her laptop to work on, but she has difficulty finding quiet time.
Liam Hemsworth (early 30s) is Owen Brophy who is NOT a writer. In fact he rarely if ever reads fiction. He doesn't know who the well-known authors are and when he is sucked into an evening social game with authors, with his clue of "PIP", all he can think of is the old singing group, "Gladys Knight and the Pips."
He is there because his fiancée, one of the successful writers, has brought him along. He is miserable there but finds solace in meeting Katherine and having meaningful conversations. They both recognize the 23-years age gap is unusual and are hesitant but their friendship deepens.
Fans of action movies would likely find this movie to be overly dull but my wife and I found it interesting and entertaining. The beautiful and unusual scenery in Morocco was a good addition. Plus an event, during a road excursion which resulted in Katherine and Owen in an unplanned visit to the home of a Moroccan family, was an interesting addition. Things that happened in Morocco had positive effects on both of them and, after going their separate ways, were reunited some time later in New York City.
We watched it at home, streaming. With 2.7K votes the median rating is a clear "6" which puts it just above the 5.5 midpoint of IMDb's 1 to 10 rating scale.
The Fly (1958)
A useful advancement in Science?
I found this classic movie broadcast on the Movies! Channel. Even though I was 12, almost 13, when this was filmed and hit the theaters I had never watched it before now. It is very interesting for the concepts and the horror of a scientist getting scrambled with a fly.
The premise is simple, a scientist with a lab in the basement of his home has been experimenting with a method of instantly transporting an object by a method which disassembles it atomically then reassembles it in the other location. Which here is the adjacent room in his lab. Naturally his chalkboard is filled with complex looking equations.
When it appears that he is close to perfecting it he reveals his project to his wife. It would be useful for virtually instant travel to anywhere at almost no cost. But the script has a large hole when he makes the statement that we could put receiving stations "all over the universe" for travel to those spots.
Problem! How do you get the receiving stations all over the universe? With very, very fast space travel it would still take thousands or millions of years to do so and there is no way to do that in 2024, never mind in 1958. Interesting concept but no way to facilitate it.
Yes, it is a fictional science story but something that basic should not be overlooked. To me it is just a feature of 1950s Sci-Fi movies, while the science is sometimes good science, more often bad science is used.
Another reason to watch movies from this era, how do people behave? This depicts a very wealthy scientist with at least two domestic staff for the household. What does the wife do during the daytime? One scene shows her in a nice dress, reclining on a sofa and reading a magazine.
Now I need to rewatch the version with Jeff Goldblum as the scientist. I see my public library has it on DVD.
Nova: Solar System: Strange Worlds (2024)
Size, gravity, and strange worlds.
This Nova program follows its usual approach, a number of scientists in the field are interviewed and excerpts of their comments are mixed in with photos, videos, and/or computer-generated representations of the subject. As a Scientist myself, who is also a long-time observer of the heavens, I found this program totally interesting. Plus I learned a whole bunch of new things.
Granted some of the things presented are scientific "best guesses", it is impossible to know precisely what happened hundreds of millions or billions of years ago. But it follows the scientific method of gathering data and combine that with known laws of physics to formulate theories.
The running thread through the whole thing is the role of gravity, that mutual attraction that all forms of mass have for each other. Then combine that with size, as it affects the ability of an object in the Solar System to either remain irregular or to form a shape that is generally spherical. As all the planets and larger moons are.
The last subject examined is our home, the Earth. It is just the right size, its gravity keeps the atmosphere from flying off into empty space and provides the pressure to keep our oceans liquid at the temperatures suitable for life. Had Earth been much smaller or much larger, we probably would not be here.
Good, interesting program.
The Tamarind Seed (1974)
Cold War intrigue, British civil servant and Russian spy.
Julie Andrews was 38 and Omar Sharif was 41 during filming. She is Judith Farrow, a British civil servant and he is Feodor Sverdlov, a Russian spy. They meet when both are on vacation in Barbados, he is really aggressively trying to win her affections, she has a hard time trusting him. But they do stay in contact after they part ways.
At this point I found myself wondering, is he really that attracted to her or does he just want to get close to gain some spying advantage? The British intelligence are equally curious and they monitor her every move and phone conversation. The Russian intelligence are equally attentive to the goings on between the two of them. I don't know if the comedic elements were intended but I found that very humorous, how the two agencies were keeping tabs on the two while they were just trying to develop a romance, it seems.
Interesting movie, especially for the two leads. I found it streaming on the Movies! Channel.
Classic Albums: Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (2001)
A deep look into making this album.
Among my favorites over the years, two that I consider "musical geniuses", are Billy Joel and Elton John. I knew that Elton John is a highly accomplished pianist, and I knew that he wrote music to the lyrics written by Bernie Taupin. Beyond those facts I knew little.
This documentary which focuses on the making of the double album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" fills in lots of gaps. This IMDb page lists it as a 90-minute program but what I watched, streaming, on Freevee was only 50 minutes. I have no idea what they cut out but is seems like a complete program.
Years ago when I toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland it was fascinating to me to see a few original manuscripts for lyrics of songs that became very famous, and how original words and phrases were crossed out and the words we have come to know were written by hand. I just assumed that happened pretty much all the time.
However what Elton John says in the program implies that he pretty much took what Taupin wrote and put it to music. When they started together their approach was to try to sell the finished songs (lyrics + music) but had no success. John never considered himself a singer but out of desperation he started recording the songs himself and now we know how that worked out.
Also, I had imagined that after John received lyrics from Taupin he would spend hours in his own home studio to work out the music. But no, he says that Taupin would bring a stack of lyrics to the recording session and John would make up the music on the spot. You gotta be a musical genius to be able to do that, over and over and make hit after hit.
In short, a very entertaining and educational documentary.
Wolfs (2024)
Clooney and Pitt in an unconventional buddy movie.
Let's get this out there first, Clooney and Pitt are producers of this movie, they star in it, that covers "why was this made?" This is simply an entertaining dark comedy. Looked at that way it is a fun watch, for us on a Saturday evening after our usual weekly steak and wine dinner, with chocolate cake, of course. The wine tonight was a BV Cabernet.
As the movie starts, right away the lady panics. She met a young man in the hotel bar and had brought him up to her fancy hotel room, he decides to jump up and down on the bed, falls and crashes into some glass furniture, and apparently is dead. She needs a fixer, someone who will make it all go away. See, she is Amy Ryan as district attorney Margaret.
There is an air of mystery to the whole thing that follows. George Clooney, who we only know as Margaret's Man, gets the call. But soon after he gets started Brad Pitt, who we only know as Pam's Man shows up, for the same reason. Yet the two don't know each other.
Lots of things develop, there is an ample amount of swearing and gunfire, but it is all done in a darkly comedic sense. If you analyze the actual story here there isn't anything novel, the whole fun, if you have any, is the interplay between Clooney and Pitt.
It has an ending strongly reminiscent of the ending in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
We found it streaming on Apple+.
Classic Albums: Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell (1999)
The whole story, how "Bat Out of Hell" came about.
Meat Loaf was his stage and performer name, he was born Marvin Lee Aday in Texas. The album featured here is from the 1970s, a time when I was preferring to listen to things like "Mamas and Papas", "Three Dog Night", and other popular groups. In fact, I tended to ignore Meat Loaf.
Now, all those years later, "Bat Out of Hell" is one of my favorite albums, it is among the music I have on my USB drive to play music in my car. Over the years I have gained a good respect for Meat Loaf, both his singing and his acting. Sadly he died in 2022 from COVID complications.
Now, only today, I came across this documentary, streaming on Prime. It is not too long, not too short, just the right length to show us what all had to happen for "Bat Out of Hell" to even be produced. It was such an anomaly in the music industry that no one wanted to produce it. Until they did find one and, as they say, the rest is history.
Totally enjoyable.