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One of the first movies I bought off of iTunes was an Oscar nominée for short live action film of 2006, Cashback. While it didn't win the Oscar, it became fixture on my iPhone for the simple fact that for a long time it was the only movie I had. Not until I figured out how to rip anime torrents did I have something else to watch.

I've watched the short film many times, and when I got Netflix I noticed that there was a full length feature similarly titled. How could I not notice. That damn one sheet with the topless girl on it kept popping up as a Netflix recommendation. I wasn't so sure that it was the same movie, but I eventually added it to my queue. After several months it has finally popped to the front.

Cashback, the feature, expands on the story from the short. Ben Willis is working the night shift at the local grocery. He's working his way through art college. It gives him the opportunity to stop time and draw the lady patrons naked. But it wasn't all that. The back story included his breakup with his girlfriend, causing him insomnia, forcing him to take the night job to keep from being up all night, and falling in love with his co-worker.

Yup. It was a love story.

It was also a story about the work place. His supermarket was filled with the standard characters -- an extreme stunt biker, the biker's obnoxious hanger on, and the manager a la Michael Scott except into football. While he doesn't hate his work or co-workers his passion for art makes him an outsider. He's got ambition and while he gets over his breakup, he'll make some money at work.

That's about it. I really don't have much to say except for boobies. Yeah, it wasn't so bad as a film, but it really didn't go beyond the short. I think that it could've been better if it focused more on his time stopping power. But it did have a wonderful moment: after being caught kissing his ex by his co-worker, whom he likes, he spends days in stop motion time trying to figure out how to win her back. All he knows is that he has to get her back, because he loves her. He shows it in an art show which I found somewhat creepy, but I don't know - do girls dig that? Well, at least it had that moment in the movie.

One last note, did Trainspotting influence every British movie or what?

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

Last year's Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film went to Toy Story 3. In the Annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool, most everyone picked it for the winner and the other one for How To Train Your Dragon was most likely a fat finger vote. I think we all need to change our minds. I have just watched the forgotten choice, Sylvain Chomet's L'illusionniste and couldn't be more impressed with it. Toy Story 3 can't compare to L'illusionniste.

The story tells the tale of a magician in 1959 whose fortunes are running out in Paris. He gets a billing in remote Scotland at a small pub wherein he meets a young lady. Impressed with his magical prowess, she follows him to Edinburgh, Scotland. The magician treats her like his daughter buying clothes and gifts for her while trying to keep up his illusionist trade. Yet, the era of magic as entertainment is dwindling and his ill fortune follows him so that it is impossible to make a living doing sleight of hand.

The film reminds me of the joie de vivre first 10 minutes of Pixar's Up and the silent melancholia of the early part of Wall●E. It is mainly a silent movie as the film makes do with gestures to convey the emotions of the story. What little dialog there is and what little speeches there are end up sounding like Esperanto. Chomet's animators make it all work though. The emotion of every scene is clearly conveyed in the hand drawn animation. The lack of words do not hinder such a sweet tale. It makes it all the more poignant. There is still a place for hand drawn animation.

In last year's Oscar Pool, I rooted for L'illusionniste to pull off an upset. It didn't but most likely because no one saw this movie. When you do, you'll change your mind. Toy Story 3 will just be a slight cream puff of a movie while L'illusionniste will be a full banquet of delight.

5 of 5 stars

Labels: animated, movies, Netflix Queue, review

Tried this one back in 2008. Glad to see I've moved up a notch. Slowly but surely I am going to clear out the whole list. Starting up the Netflix download... NOW!! You too can join in here.

Labels: games people play, lists, movies, Netflix Queue

I really don't have much to say about the latest DVD I received in the mail from NetFlix, Fantastic Mr. Fox, but I need to. The movie is good. It is a Wes Anderson movie through and through. The triptychs, the kid, the heists, the plans: it's all Wes Anderson.

Why I decided to write a post about the movie is that Roald Dahl wrote the book was married to Patricia Neal who sadly died over the past weekend. Very coincidental if I do say so myself. She acted in The Day the Earth Stood Still and A Face In the Crowd. Watch those movies, because I liked them myself.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue

Departures (Okuribito) was the 2009 Oscar winner for best foreign picture. I was browsing my Netflix recommendations to fill out my queue to the "recommended" six movies when I saw this. I remember wanting to watch it after reading the blurbs for the movie as I prepared the ballots for my Oscar pool, so I added it to my queue. This may have been several weeks ago since it takes me at least three weeks to watch one DVD received from Netflix. Luckily, I had this DVD for a couple of days before watching it. I am glad I did because it was a nice movie. I'm not sure if it was the better of the five nominees, but I was moved by it.

Departures is about a cellist who has to move back home to the country from Tokyo after the orchestra he played in disbanded. He moves into the house his mother left for him when she died. The one which was his father's coffee house, but turned into a corner bar after his father left his family. He moves back with his wife who dutifully followed him but is inwardly disappointed in this setback.

In his hometown, he searches for a job and the only one he finds is that of a casketeer (?), they prepare the bodies of the recently departed before their funeral. It is not a very respectable career as he finds his friends and his wife embarrassed for him. Yet, as he goes about learning the customs, he finds an inner peace that allows him accept it and an inner strength that to prosper at it. His wife doesn't and she leaves him only to return if he decides to find a new job. His boss convinces him that he was meant to be a casketeer (?). He finds, through the acceptance of the job, what it means to live.

This movie shows the dignity that is extended to the recently deceased in the meticulous preparation of the body. This is expressed through the casketeer (?) trying to make the body beautiful for their families. The lowly work is elevated once the casketeer (?) goes through the elaborate ritual. The families who enlist their services are grateful to them because it makes their last goodbyes just a bit better. The respect shown to the bodies is reflected back at them for the work that they do.

Reconciliation happens for the couple when she comes back to their house to tell him she's pregnant. She begins to accept her husbands job as she sees that he is suited for it and that it is a dignified career. She finally accepts his work when he must prepare the body of his estranged father. She grew to love him all over again watching the ceremonial preparations of the body. It makes him human and a man.

The death of his father allows him to put to rest his past. He doesn't at first want to go, because he doesn't remember his father, but his wife and his co-workers cajole him to go. There he finds that although they never saw each other for over thirty years, his father still had thoughts of him in his heart. He prepares his body, his wife loves him, and they share this moment for them and for their future.

I'll admit that I shed a few tears in this movie. Watching it brought back memories of the days leading up to my father's funeral. Dignity is extended to the dead and it is acceptable to know and celebrate them. When we can accept it, we can accept death as a part of living. It is paying respect to the dead that we can go on living for the future. It is for the past, a way for looking towards the future, and an acceptance of our present.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

Watching the weather and seeing the snow come down in bunches, it's best to stay in doors. I've got nothing better to do, so I pop my latest Netflix into the DVD player. It's early for this DVD almost a week and I've just put this in -- a new record.

Today's movie is The Ramen Girl. It has been in my queue for a year now always the bridesmaid but never the bride. I keep pushing in down, but since the movie stars the late, Brittany Murphy, I figured I would have to honor her memory by finally watching her flick. No disrespect to her and her memory.

The Ramen Girl is about Murphy's character going to Japan to follow a boy who then dumps her. Stuck in a foreign land what is she to do. One night in the rain she follows her tears to a ramenya. There she tastes heaven and decides that she should be a ramen cook. The rest of the film is about her learning to cook ramen.

The best part of this film is that it explains the mystery of ramen. You think it's all about the noodles, but really its the broth. I've got plenty of ramen in my cupboard, but I don't really want the packet broth. If I can make a decent broth, those square dry ramen noodles may almost taste good.

So, Murphy attempts to become a ramen chef. It is hard life made even harder by the her lack of understanding Japanese. But she does learn. Little by little. Not Japanese, but ramen and the broth. Eventually, she gets to become the successor to her sensei, and learns about ramen.

After the movie, I had a bowl of arroz caldo. Not ramen. But I don't think I do a good broth just yet.

3 of 5 stars

Labels: mmm, movies, Netflix Queue, review

While watching the Jets/Colts AFL championship tilt, I have some time to jot down some thoughts on this film. Usually, I would write a review for a movie that had moved me, good or bad. I liked Linda! Linda! Linda!, but not moved enough. I'm writing this just to ponder some of the comments I have read on the internet about the movie.

Comments about it being slow and boring. Hmm. What they are most likely criticizing is the static nature of the shots in the movie. The director, Nobuhiro Yamashita< eschews the normal medium shot-close up-reaction cross-cutting. What he does do is just set up the scene in a medium shot and let's it roll. In fact, I wanted to see the interaction between the characters: their reactions or their emotions, but was hardy treated to it close up. I can see that this static set up can make the movie seem slow, less dynamic, but it can't be boring. It's about girls doing rock and roll that can't be boring!

Linda! Linda! Linda! is about rocking out. The movie's plot is about a music club (K-ON!) upon loosing members still wants to participate in the fall school festival. They're search gets them a lead singer, the Korean exchange student, who's comprehension of Japanese gets her into hilariously awkward situations. They've got three days to come together as a band. The rest shows them practicing and going about their high school lives: preparing for the school festival, warding off love confessions, etc.

It's a fine movie culminating in the rocking cover of The Blue Hearts, "Linda Linda," the namesake. It's a movie that inspires the awesome episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, "Live Alive!" K-ON! also seems to be inspired by it.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

Considering I have had this DVD in posession for two months, I'm gonna have to provide a summary review just to cleanse it from my conscience. I shouldn't hold onto my netflix for this long, but I still want to watch the DVD. My problem is to hold onto it for so long. I should find room in my entertainment time for watching netflix. There's got to be a way to find the time in between reading manga, surfing the internet, watching torrented anime, watching television, reading, and sleeping. I mean I don't need to sleep much.

Anyhow, I had Sunshine, Danny Boyle's sci-fi thriller, at home for longer than I wanted. I watched it last night.

The plot: Earth, in the future, is threatened by the dying light of its sun. They send a scientific team to jumpstart the star. The movie follows the second attempt to save the Earth.

Surprisingly, to me, that Boyle chose to direct a science fiction flick. I didn't think he had it in him as his style seems unsuited for the genre. Off course, he's able to make the film successful because the science fiction genre adapts well. Maybe Boyle at the helm makes this movie slightly more interesting.

Like all save-the-world flicks, the mission's crew are on a one way ride. Not all will survive, and when they start falling, they start to be picked off one-by-one. It is how they meet their grisly fate that is interesting. Do they know it's a one way ticket? Do they care for saving themselves or the earth? Do they realize the enormity of the responsibility in their mission? And does that scare them or enable them?

One thing about space, it makes you aware of how alone man or mankind is in the universe. This makes you think too much and adapt religion or scientific skepticism. Is the universe awe inspiring because of god or is it awe inspiring because of the physics of it all? Space makes dying a lonely thing.

As I watched the movie, my palms were sweating. Something about the cramp crew quarters, the heat from the sun, and the spooks. I could actually understand the desperation. Finish the mission. Don't let anything get in the way.

If you send religious minded people, expect them to flip out when confronted with the universe. Crazy. Don't send these people. They'll end up wearing Nikes, packed onto bunk beds, sleeping the eternal sleep under black sheets. They'll also expect the grim ending to be in concurrance with god's plan and ruin the mission.

It ended up a good flick for waiting two months to watch. Worth the long wait, but I have to stop doing that.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

I didn't plan on blogging the movies I saw today, but a scene in Amélie was directly copied in Ghanjani. It's kind of weird to notice these things. Similar to Julius Caesar from yesterday. Is it coincidence?

The scene: The girl helps out a blind man.

She spots him lonely on the curb. Then she goes to help him. Takes him by the hand. Leads him to his destination all the while describing what she sees. She gives a running commentary on life being led around them.

In both movies, it signifies something important in the girl. In Ghanjani the girl is carefree, and shows her kindness as helping towards others: it comes naturally. In Amélie, the girl needs to become carefree and she slowly comes out of her shell.

Qué un shell!! Audrey Tautou is plain cuteness personified like an anime girl come to life. Moe in French.

Amélie is a charming movie. Love and the search for love will always be fun to watch. When the girl is as cute as Tautou it's even more charming. When her character is as shy as that, I'm easily charmed. Reminds me of all the quiet, shy anime girls I so dig. (Mio! Yakomo!) You just want her to find that love. The search is darn cute as well. Find the man. Give him clues. Show him you love him. It's as easy as that. Where's my quiet anime French girl in my life.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

It took me three sitting, but I finally finished Millenium Actress. The first time it put me to sleep in twenty minutes. The second time just under ten. This last time was the pure sitting and then I found out how good of a love story it was.

Millennium Actress is an animated film by Satoshi Kon. He's another celebrated Japanese animation director famous for Paprika and Three Godfathers. I've seen Paprika but didn't think anything of it. I've partially seen Three Godfathers but didn't think anything of it. I almost didn't finish this film, but glad I did. Satoshi Kon while not as great as Miyazawa is a cut above Makoto Shinkai.

In Millennium Actress, a documentary crew goes to interview the reclusive titular actress, Chiyoko Fukiwara. Her story is told in flashbacks that are filmed like the movies she starred in. It plays around with the settings. What era are we in? Is this one of her movies? Are they saying the script or what she said in real life? And her story is one of finding the love of her life. She helps an left-leaning artist escape for a time from the police and falls in love with him. She doesn't seem him again until she follows him to Manchuria under the guise of being an actress. But the times are tough for them to meet as war follows and he is imprisoned because of his politics.

The movie plays out in how she yearns to reunite with him. She lives her life always looking for him and a chance to find him once again.

There is a prop that reminds me of Notorious. It is a key that Chiyoko longs to return to her love. And just like the key to the wine cellar in Notorious that was given back to Hitchcock from Ingrid Bergman at a celebration before he died. I liked how Millenium Actress reminded me of that.

One thing I love about animation is that it can tell many stories well. It is a stylistic choice that a strong creative person can use to great effect. I wish it would expand from the children story ghetto we've currently got it slotted into in the US.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: anime, Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, movies, Netflix Queue, nostalgia, thoughts

Since cutting back on my Netflix watching, I haven't been too concerned when holding onto a film. It takes me a few days to get to my latest red envelope and a few days to send it right back.

My latest was the Japanese romantic comedy, Densha Otoko (Train Man). I've watched it twice and feel that I like it.

It's the story of a Japanese otaku who saves a woman on a train from a drunken salary man. The savior gets a nice thank you gift from her, and they end up going out for dinner. You can imagine where it goes from here: straight to love.

What's interesting about the film is that it was inspired by a seemingly true tale on 2channel, a Japanese message board. The eponymous Train Man wrote the tale onto this message board and received the help of its denizens to woo this girl.

Could this have been real? Or was it another internet hoax?

I don't know but I liked the simple tale of geek falling for the girl. Or the girl falling for the geek. Simply adorable. And so heartwarming. It's for all the inhabitants of the internet who get no love and want to aspire to that transcendent state.

The film follows the Train Man as he gets up the nerve to ask her out. His internet buddies cheering him on. He cleans himself up to not be too geeky and to be more human. His internet buddies guide and coach him. He falls for the girl and his internet buddies help him move their relationship forward. His internet buddies also gain from him as they take on assess their lives, loves and relationships they have in the meatspace.

While this is not for everyone, it's really enjoyable for those lovelorn geeks in all of us. And also Miki Nakatani is cute.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: I'm a fool, movies, Netflix Queue, review

Netflix queue is stuck.

I've been too busy watching School Rumble or The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.


Plus maybe I've reached my limit for wanting to watch a movie. I should just change my subscription to the cheapest one they got. I wonder what that is.

Labels: hunh?, Netflix Queue

Toots and the Maytals's 54-46 Was My Number opens the film, This is England, playing over news reel footage of the turmoil and strife of Britain in the 80s during Maggie Thatcher's reign. And that song hooked me.

The film is a semi-autobiographical story from the writer and director, Shane Meadows. It's about a young english lad, Shaun, growing up without a father who had just died in the Falkland War. His father is replaced by a band of skinheads who become a surrogate family for him. They make him a skinhead. They are not the kind of skinheads that we are used to today. Woody, the leader, is compassionate. He takes Shaun under his wing, shows him respect, shows others respect, and preaches unity for all in his clan. Of course this is broken up.

Combo, just released from the pen, shows up preaching National Front ideology. Quickly the movie devolves to showing the nazi punk skinheads. Shaun must choose between Combo or Woody, hate or compassion. He sides with Combo, but soon realizes the mistake. Yet, Combo, for all his hate has a side that realizes what he misses the most and why it has made him susceptible to National Front rhetoric. It goes back to the father figure. He missed out on it, and it makes him a bleak, void needing something to fill it up.

So was Shaun. Woody tried to guide him away from Combo's ways, but he had to find out for himself what depths Combo would sink to. That means being caught up in a horrendous beat down of an immigrant fellow skinhead/rude boy, Milky, who had expressed the truth to both Shaun and Combo of the good of a father figure.

While not expressly awesome as a film, I found that I liked it. The soundtrack I want to get. Including that Toots song it had some other ska that's fun to hear. The young actor playing Shaun, Thomas Turgoose, gives a decent performance in a first role. But it is Joseph Gilgun as Woody as the kind hearted skinhead and Stephen Graham's, frightening but sad, Combo, that makes it.

An early scene in the film has Shaun playing on the beach. Of course, as a coming of age movie, I thought that the film should end with him on the beach, looking into the camera a la Antoine Doniel. Damned if it didn't end up like that.

One thing, I couldn't find the English subtitles on the disc. Their English accents are tough to make out. I think I have to see this again to fully understand what they're saying.

4 of 5 stars

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review, ska

The Baron of Arizona is a DVD from Criterion's Elise line of restored minor works of some feature directors, in this case being the incredible Sam Fuller. It's an early work of his. Written and directed by him based on a true story of the real life swindler cheat, James Reavis. He actually did try to steal the Arizona Territory from the US government

Vincent Price plays Reavis who forged phony Spanish land grants to the entire state of Arizona. He finds a foster girl and raises her up to believe that she is the heiress of the Baron de Peralta owner of the entirety of Arizona. She believes in him as she grows up and that belief turns to love.

The movie starts slow. I wasn't engaged. It was still interesting as it documented the swindle from meeting the girl to make his plans work to forging the documents in a Spanish monastery to playing a gypsy gigolo to forge the last document in the royal halls of Madrid. Then it picks up with the Baron's return to Arizona. The locals are riled up. He makes deals and takes their money all the while knowing it is a lie. The US government gets to him, he pleads guilty, but the lynch mobs show up. I won't spoil the ending, but I was taught in my seat hoping for a happy one.

Fuller is a favorite. While this was an out and out B movie, Fuller is still the B movie specialist. There was the kindly Sofia de Reavis-Peralta standing by her man just as Barbara Stanwyck in 40 Guns. There was Price being all show, carrying the picture. And then there was Griff. He's in everyone of Fuller's movies. The heroic government agent out to prove the falsity of Reaves's claim. He studied forgery. He knows, but can't really prove. Yet, still the man for it all standing tall throughout.

Watching this was a pleasure. Though it is not up to par as his more acclaimed and accomplished films, it's great to know his roots and great to know he'll grow as a storyteller.

3 of 5 stars

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

In 1939, the producer, David O. Selznick released a quaint little melodrama,Intermezzo. It's not a well known movie, but only has a small value as being the film to introduce Ingrid Bergman to Hollywood.

Intermezzo was at first a film from Sweden. David O. Selznick saw it, bought the rights to have it remade in America, and signed its star, Ingrid Bergman, to a contract. She would play the young ingenue pianist who captures the heart of the violin virtuoso, Hulger Brandt, and breaks up his marriage. They gallivant around Europe as a duo both on the stage and in the hearts. Yet, she has regrets. Regrets about how she is the other woman. Regrets about separating Hulger from his family especially his young daughter. Regrets about putting on hold her piano studies.

She leaves him and he returns to his family. Complications ensue as he does eventually reconcile with his estranged son, wife and daughter. It's a happy ending or at least less bitter than he deserves.

As I said, it was a swedish film at first. Watching it you can't but help feeling the foreignness of the film. It's pacing seemed all wrong for Hollywood. And even more un-Hollywood is its plot. "Man leaves wife and kids for a young hottie" just doesn't seem to have been a regular plot of a 1939 film. Especially, that it is played as drama. I can imagine this being a film noir, but not in the bright days of 1939 Hollywood.

But Ingrid Bergman is so radiant in it. Very young looking. Only 23 at the time. She was still a little unsure of her English accent, but she manages to make her english charming. Oh, how beautiful she is in this film. Here's a screen capture from her entrance. This is what early stardom looked like.



3 of 5 stars.

Labels: Ingrid Bergman, movies, Netflix Queue, review

Adventures from my Netflix Queue: Arizona

It seems that it's been nothing but westerns. I caught 3:10 To Yuma last week (someday I'll be reviewing it). My Netflix queue has been filled with the old timey stuff. And I totally loved Miss Stanwyck in Forty Guns. It's an all-american genre, and it has some great movies to love. And it is good to look at some decent work in that genre outside of the major, important films.

Arizona could be one of them. It may not be memorable, but it has a lasting impression on the western genre. Columbia Studios built a fascimile of old Tucson, and it has been used since for other westerns.

Jean Arthur stars as Phoebe Titus, a gal stuck in Arizona making a go of it. She is ambitous and she plots to finally own the largest ranch in the Arizona territories. As her fortunes rise so does the prosperity of Tucson. She has a rival, a suave gentleman named Carteret, who acts nice but is duplicitous. He constantly is sweet to her all the while planning for her downfall. She has suitor. William Holden as Peter Muncie swept into Tucson at the head of a wagon train, courted Ms. Titus with a banjo, goes to California for some shade, comes back a soldier, gets her 500 head of cattle and finally marries her. He also has to settle the Phoebe's score with cateret as her husband/man of the house.

It's a sweeping movie. Epic in proportions. Filmed in 1940, you could say this was in reaction to the success of Gone With The Wind. Or you could say that it's one in the long line of westerns. It makes due with the genre's conventions, and churns out a solid effort of a movie.

Yet, there were some hilarious things. Ms. Titus made her living selling pies. Yes, pies. I loved that. She goes from selling pies to being the cattle baroness of Tucson. Hilarious. And everyone loved her pies. Muncie especially.

Jean Arthur is another favorite. Actually, I couldn't stand her at first. Her melodious voice grew on me, and now I own several DVDs of movies she's been in. Strange that.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Arthur, movies, Netflix Queue, NewsRadio quote, review

In the pantheon of American directors, Samuel Fuller seems to not get the recognition he deserves. I think his "Forty Guns" is one of Barbara Stanwyck's best pictures. Growing up, Capitol Swell loved his "The Big Red One." He pops up in cinema as an influence on the French Nouvelle Vague.

In a Fuller movie, you have either a gruff, but lovable sergeant or tough woman. The Naked Kiss is not a war film. In it, the main character played by Constance Towers is a former prostitute and of course with heart of gold. She gives up the street walking life running from her pimp whom she beats up in the pre-title sequence, and she finds a new life in small town America. All isn't as it seems. She falls in with the town's chief of police (Griff, you find one in every Fuller movie) for one last trick before going legit. She gets a job at the hospital helping disabled children. She falls in love with the town's pretty boy who has a sordid secret. Things in small town America ain't what they seem.

The movie is dramatic with a hint of noir. It's shot in crisp black and white. In 1964. It's another story written and directed by Fuller. And it's surprisingly frank in depiction of things. Prostitution and abortion. Love and lust. The naked kiss signifies her senses for the dark. And there is a twist in the movie that makes it even darker. Yet, she wins the town over. And becomes a new woman.

I liked this a lot. Coming from only knowing Fuller as hard boiled, it is an interesting flick. The woman is both hard but sympathetic, loving but bad.

There is a touching scene with the disabled kids singing a song and she with her pretty voice joins in. It's part of the ending twist, but it makes it all the more touching.

Fuller's opening is a can't miss. You'll love it. And then the hair comes off and you love it even more. The end is satisfying enough, because our heroine becomes a winner. So is Sam Fuller.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

Now this post isn't about one movie per se. It's about two movies that I had put in my queue a while back expecting them to get to me during the fourth of July week, but I lost one of them in the mail and the other was stuck in the short wait queue.

Both deal with the US armed services in the Philippines in 1942 as they made their gallant stand on the Bataan peninsula. One is about the army nurses who served close to the front and helped put the soldiers together to keep fighting. The other is about the navy in particular the PT boat captains that tried to keep the Japanese from closing the supply lines. I had wanted to see these films just for the patriotic feelings it would give me. One did the other not so much.

So Proudly We Hail! was stuck in mail hell. I had to wait that extra week before getting this disc because it was lost in the mail. It would've been a great flick to have seen on the fourth, but you can't have it all.

So Proudly We Hail! was about a set of green army nurses shipping off to Hawaii in December, but routed to the Philippines once Pearl Harbor happened. The unit is lead by Claudette Colbert and they pick up Veronica Lake from a torpedoed ship. Paulette Goddard falls is the third star of the film. She falls in with a hick from the sticks whom she names Kansas. Colbert falls for a corpsman played by Superman, George Reeves. Lake has a dead fiancee who perished at Pearl Harbor, a wicked hatred for the Japanese and a death wish. These nurses care for the wounded throughout those desperate days until they are ordered to the Rock, Corregidor, and finally, flown out to safety in Australia. The film is about the ladies with love in their hearts and a soft gentle hand to ease the pain of the soldiers.

What a movie! It is best to watch and remember that the movie was released in 1943 so the memories were very recent to the audience. And it ends with hope. Will the lovers re-unite? You have to remember Gen. MacArthur's return in 1944 had not happened yet so the women were separated from the men the loved without knowing if they went on the Death March.

I'll admit to tearing up at the finale, because I expected a happy ending. Seems I forgot that the ending wasn't written yet. They'll keep hope alive was the most I can feel.

4 of 5 stars.

They Were Expendable is a John Ford movie with John Wayne. I expected action. With a title like that I expected some final defensive stand on the Bataan peninsula. Sadly, no.

They Were Expendable was about the PT boat captains who harassed the Japanese. It was also about PT 41 who's commander won a CMH for helping to transport Gen MacArthur from the Philippines. This was more of a conventional story. Too trite, because I needed John Wayne to start kicking ass onscreen. The only neat part was the PT boat attacks. That's what I wanted to see, but there was not enough of it.

Again, this film had an army nurse played by Donna Reed (sigh). She falls for John Wayne. Unlike So Proudly We Hail. It is the nurse that we don't know what happened to her. Is she one of the few that made it off Corregidor? Or did she get caught in the retreat from Bataan? Since I saw this movie after the other, I expected them to meet in Australia (Wayne was sent there to help get the plan set up for more PT boat usage), but they didn't. Sad.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

Like other weekends of the year, this weekend I saw a movie. The one where the young woman goes out for a wild night on the town, drinking, dancing, and carousing with young men. Eventually, when she sobers up from her night out she finds out that she's pregnant. The imminent arrival of a baby causes much trouble. Hilarity ensues. It had me laughing.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is another of the Preston Sturges oeuvre that I received in my Netflix queue. What you thought I was talking about Knocked Up? Wait a second and I'll get to it in a minute. The Miracle of Morgan Creek has a similar and familiar plot to that of Knocked Up, but the morals are distinctly rooted in the forties.

The young Trudy Kockenlocker (great name) finds herself pregnant AND married (I told you it was the forties) after a night of seeing the service men off to war. A combination of champagne and a knock on the head causes her to do the foolish thing of marriage and sex. In the morning she can't remember his name. She used a fake one herself so she'll never know who's on the marriage license. Scandalous! It's a low down dirty shame if the town finds out. She spends the film trying to enlist the help of her 4F childhood sweetheart, Norval Jones. Scheming with her younger sister to make her situation legitimate, they plan another sham marriage for the license. Then she can divorce the serviceman and marry Norval and make her pregnancy respectable for her, her familiy, and for the town. I told you it was old timey.

The Miracle of Morgan Creek is very much another of Sturges's comedy of remarriage in which the second marriage makes the first one legit like The Lady Eve. Although he wasn't married to her at first, Norval eventually gets to be the husband as decreed by law. It's all tidied up nicely. This is a wonderful funny film. In fact, it was a big hit the year it was released in 1944. The funniest thing about it is how it got through the censors of the Hayes office. It's basically a girl who got drunk and pregnant. That's got to be against the code. She also wants to perpetrate bigamy, dual marriages at the same time. Weird that they could make a movie with such topics in that era. Perhaps the comedy genre makes it more acceptable. It's a farce so what can be wrong here.

Anyway, it's got wonderful performances. Betty Hutton does the hysterics of the knocked up Trudy Kockenlocker (great name). William Demarest as the beleaguered father puts up with it all. Dianna Lynn the younger sister, Emmy, gets to be the smart gal, saying lines that wouldn't seem out of place coming from Jean Harrington (The Lady Eve). It's all so fun. And funny. Sturges does it again.

I also saw Knocked Up. That ones funny, too. It was riotous. Like Sturges who relies on a cast of regulars, Judd Apatow, has his regular troop. It's great to see these dudes working. Triumphing over the dumb tv execs who didn't have the sense of knowing comedy gold if it smote them over the head like a hammer. I would say that Apatow follows the footsteps of Sturges. He writes and directs his own stories. After Knocked up becomes the comedy hit of the summer, he may also be considered a comedy genius.

It too starts with a night on the town where the girl has sex and gets pregnant. Yet unlike the forties, there is no marriage then sex. Just sex. Marriage maybe later. The wonderful modern world. Except what was queer about it is that the morals are just as conservative as they were back then. She doesn't think about a shma-shmortion. She wants the baby to have a father engaged in the child rearing. Even the fact of marriage comes up to make it all work out. Would it have been any less funny for the girl not to need a man to make it all fine in the end? See Waitress for that. That's what was bothering about the film. She didn't need him. And he didn't need her. In fact, when you think about it. The plot is straight out of a sitcom. Or it could be the basis of one. A more realistic plot would've been nice, but perhaps its just as big a farce as one of Sturges's work. I wonder if Knocked Up's modern setting makes it harder to imagine if it was a farce.

There are some truly hilarious scenes. The pregnant sex. The crowning. Vegas on shrooms. Doc Brown. Then again, Apatow likes his movies long. Should comedies last longer than two hours? The best I can say about that is this one didn't feel as long as his other films. The 40 Year Old Virgin was 30 minutes too long as was Ron Burgundy and you knew it. Knocked Up didn't feel like it. Some scenes could've been excised, but it seems that Apatow has learned to move things along. Thank god.

I should've put my Waitress review here too. It seems to fall into this film genre, the unexpected mother. Weird that I would see a set of disparate films with the same plot. When are the hobo films coming then?

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek: 4 of 5 stars.
Knocked Up: 4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

The problem I had with this "expose" was that they talked about the film, but only show several minutes throughout the entire show. If it was a real film they would've filmed the entire autopsy from beginning to end.

Also, what was purported to be film looked like grainy video. Couldn't they at least shown it as film?

It's all fake.

1 of 5 stars

Labels: hunh?, Netflix Queue, review