GR&DF, again I must thank you for your kind and supportive comments for yesterdays post. Coming in and opening up such nice words always starts off the morning so nicely!!
I think today I need to do a few movie reviews - as always there was lots of DVD's and TCM played on the Boob Tube -
Let's do them chronologically - starting off with a real classic Film Noir - "Key Largo" - 1948 - starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G Robinson, Claire Trevor and Lionel Barrymore. I thought I had seen this flick a long time ago, but after getting part way through I realized that I had either wiped it from my brain or I had never seen it. The basic story line has some gangsters held up off season in a Hotel on Key Largo holding the owner, his daughter in law and a visiting army buddy hostage during a hurricane. There are some very subtle performances - especially Bacall's - very good without much dialogue. Then there is Trevor who plays Robinson's "drinking" girl friend - she was as good as it gets and won an Academy Award for this performance. Between Barrymore and Robinson there was very little left of the scenery after they chewed their way through every scene - good, effective, but sometimes a bit much. I enjoyed the film and at 100 mins well worth a look. It was the last of the four movies that Bogart and Bacall did together.
Here is the Trailer for the film -
The next film was a much more current piece - "How About You..." - 2007 - starring Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Redgrave, Joss Ackland, Brenda Fricker and Imelda Staunton. The film came from a short story by Maeve Binchy - a really wonderful story teller/writer. Revolving around a retirement home - most of the residents have left for the Holidays leaving the 4 worst when the owner must leave to take care of her mother. This leaves a single, new, young, inexperienced caregiver in charge - over the course of a few days they must all come to terms with each other and their pasts. A great little film with a good ending.
The last film for today I saw last night - "Percy Jackson & The Olympians:the Lightning Thief" - 2010 - starring Logan Lerman, Brandon Jackson, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Kevin McKidd and Uma Thurman. I had some really high hopes for this film - and as usual the Hollywood machine took an excellent book with a great story line and "adapted" it for the screen - what that means is they kept the title, and characters and a bit of the story and made a movie from that. I really enjoyed the books!! and what I saw was not the story from the books for the most part. There was some very good to excellent CGI and there was some nice acting - especially Kevin McKidd and Uma Thurman - top notch!!- It did seem a bit long for what it was - and if they hadn't added new story stuff and taken away existing story stuff it might not have seemed so long. This was a total "wait for the DVD" type of film and I am certainly glad I waited. If there is a sequel - there are 5 books in the series - I will again "wait for the DVD" and not bother to see it theatrically.
There you go sports fans - thanks again for stopping by, do come again!!
Take care,
edgar
I think today I need to do a few movie reviews - as always there was lots of DVD's and TCM played on the Boob Tube -
Let's do them chronologically - starting off with a real classic Film Noir - "Key Largo" - 1948 - starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G Robinson, Claire Trevor and Lionel Barrymore. I thought I had seen this flick a long time ago, but after getting part way through I realized that I had either wiped it from my brain or I had never seen it. The basic story line has some gangsters held up off season in a Hotel on Key Largo holding the owner, his daughter in law and a visiting army buddy hostage during a hurricane. There are some very subtle performances - especially Bacall's - very good without much dialogue. Then there is Trevor who plays Robinson's "drinking" girl friend - she was as good as it gets and won an Academy Award for this performance. Between Barrymore and Robinson there was very little left of the scenery after they chewed their way through every scene - good, effective, but sometimes a bit much. I enjoyed the film and at 100 mins well worth a look. It was the last of the four movies that Bogart and Bacall did together.
Here is the Trailer for the film -
The next film was a much more current piece - "How About You..." - 2007 - starring Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Redgrave, Joss Ackland, Brenda Fricker and Imelda Staunton. The film came from a short story by Maeve Binchy - a really wonderful story teller/writer. Revolving around a retirement home - most of the residents have left for the Holidays leaving the 4 worst when the owner must leave to take care of her mother. This leaves a single, new, young, inexperienced caregiver in charge - over the course of a few days they must all come to terms with each other and their pasts. A great little film with a good ending.
The last film for today I saw last night - "Percy Jackson & The Olympians:the Lightning Thief" - 2010 - starring Logan Lerman, Brandon Jackson, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Kevin McKidd and Uma Thurman. I had some really high hopes for this film - and as usual the Hollywood machine took an excellent book with a great story line and "adapted" it for the screen - what that means is they kept the title, and characters and a bit of the story and made a movie from that. I really enjoyed the books!! and what I saw was not the story from the books for the most part. There was some very good to excellent CGI and there was some nice acting - especially Kevin McKidd and Uma Thurman - top notch!!- It did seem a bit long for what it was - and if they hadn't added new story stuff and taken away existing story stuff it might not have seemed so long. This was a total "wait for the DVD" type of film and I am certainly glad I waited. If there is a sequel - there are 5 books in the series - I will again "wait for the DVD" and not bother to see it theatrically.
There you go sports fans - thanks again for stopping by, do come again!!
Take care,
edgar
I haven't seen Key Largo for ages - must check it out again!
ReplyDeleteI have seen "How about you" on Netflix - loved that movie.
ReplyDeleteAhhh....Key Largo. My first hubby, who turned out to be a stinky-faced, monkey's behind - (sorry, off-topic rant)...but one of the good memories I do have of our early marriage days was of us snuggling up under a blanket watching Key Largo on an OLD hand-me down rabbit ears tv. I loved that movie!
ReplyDeleteI watched this same movie the other night, with my 2nd hubby, who is NOTHING like the monkey's-
behind guy. It was much more fun watching it on a bigger screen in our comfy 'lil beach cottage w/ the right person. (right person - except for the parts when he would sing that "duh, duh, duh" scary music when he knew something bad was going to happen. Gotta love the old movies for that quality alone!) Ha ha. For some unexplainable reason, this movie will always be one of my favorites. I'm glad you gave it a mention. Thanks for letting me share my goofy, meaningless memories.
Hubby and son gave the same feed back for Percy as you...Books-awesome (good enough to be read 3-5 more times during the summer); Movie-disappointment. It is always sad when movie producers do this to books that kids are reading, because I know some kids decide not to read and wait for the movie - thus, not getting the full impact of the story nor the benefit of reading written word.
ReplyDeleteOh, well...as always, I love reading your movie reviews and getting a heads up on some of the oldies/goodies showing on the old box!
Take care.