Yesterday's Movies

The Woman in Red

August 15, 2013August 16, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

This is billed as a comedy, but it sounds like it could be more serious. How many moody dramas follow the dissolution of a marriage because the man had his head turned by a beautiful woman? The summaries point out that he’s happily married at the start, which makes it sound sadder.

On the other hand, a lot of comedies track the beginning of a relationship at the expense of another, and Wilder would do well at the flustered sort of unfaithful man like the type in The Seven Year Itch.

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Fletch

August 9, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

I always had the idea this was a movie extrapolated from a recurring Saturday Night Live character. My logic was that Fletch is often considered Chase’s most iconic character, and the title is simply the character’s name, as if we’re expected to already know him. When I got the disc and learned Fletch is a master of disguise, it just seemed more logical that this would be a vehicle movie to showcase Chase’s talents. I only found out just now that this is an adaptation of a novel.

Not much has changed in my expectations. I still expect some digressions to do characters more to be funny for a while than to advance the plot. However, since it’s based on a book, the plot will probably be a little more fully realized than with a typical vehicle movie.

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D.O.A.

August 2, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

How often can a murder victim solve their own murder (aside from ghost stories)? The idea doesn’t seem quite as unusual as it’s hyped up to be for this film, but probably more of that is from 60+ years of speculative fiction covering the territory than from promotional overhyping.

Doctors tell the man there’s no antidote for the poison he took, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the investigation into the crime leads him to one. I’ll be interested in seeing how the film handles the process of his dying. I picture a poisoning victim as someone too ill to run around town questioning people.

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Easy Money

July 26, 2013July 26, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

Rodney Dangerfield should be able to play a slob pretty convincingly. It’s a large part of his persona. And all he has to do to inherit a windfall is give it all up. It’s an interesting conflict for an actor known for one personality to do a movie where he has to give up a large part of that personality. Vaguely like Jerry Lewis turning ultra-suave in The Nutty Professor.

Beyond that (admittedly large) nugget I’m going into this movie pretty blind. I don’t know how it’s going to play out in any detail beyond a guess at the basic plot structure.

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Bad Boys

July 19, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

Action movie, probably some laughs but not exceptionally comical, though I think Will Smith and Martin Lawrence both have a comedy background. The main thing I know about this is that its sequel is widely considered the best action movie ever made, or something to that effect. But I’m not watching Bad Boys II right now.

There’s something in the summary about the two guys having to switch lives for some reason? Not sure how that works, but that should make things interesting. There’s a lot of room for comedy in them criticizing each other’s impressions. Otherwise, it looks like a pretty standard bit of fun with explosions.

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Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

July 12, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

This film’s use of archive footage within the narrative reminds me of What’s Up, Tiger Lilly?, but when I try to draw a tighter comparison, they aren’t really all that alike. The Woody Allen film takes a few foreign films and uses the audio to dub a new story onto it. I can’t quite tell if this is new material supported by old films or new material stringing old film clips together, but there’s much more new content on the screen than in “Tiger Lilly”. I get the idea it has more in common with Forrest Gump than the other. I’m sure there’s a better example of new material interacting with old material to tell a new story, but I can’t bring it to mind.

Otherwise, this looks like a standard noir detective spoof rested on Steve Martin’s capable back. It’s hard to say much past that, since everything I can find about it focuses on the classic clips.

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MASH

July 4, 2013July 4, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

I’ve seen a handful of episodes of the series, but I couldn’t say I know it very well. As I understand it, the book this is based on is intensely serious, the movie is a dark comedy, and the series started out almost at Hogan’s Heroes-level hilarity before getting even more morose than the movie (perhaps because the series lasted so long the war was longer for them than in reality).

So I guess what I’m expecting here is a cynical but amusing picture of the Korean War. I don’t know what characters from the series are there, and which are played by different actors, but I don’t know half of them anyway. There’s probably going to be a lot more money on the screen than a television sitcom can afford.

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1776

June 27, 2013June 28, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

Grill some hamburgers, butter some corn, …load some muskets? warm up your singing voice? A brief look and page turn at your calendar will point out that next week is Independence Day. And what better movie to mark the event with than 1776? Okay, there are better choices, but I’d seen most of the ones that came to mind and/or couldn’t get them on short notice.

I can see the potential for the War for Independence to be a musical epic, but no individual major events really suggest songs to me. The writing and signing of the Declaration will probably have centerpiece song(s), but beyond that, I have no idea.

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The Wedding Singer

June 20, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

So, romantic comedy? Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore? Doesn’t sound like anything special. On the surface, I don’t understand why this is something of a cult favorite. I find the tagline (various turns on “he’ll party like it’s 1985”) more annoying than anything. I’m not clear on if the story is actually set in the 80s or if it’s just the aesthetic Sandler’s character and band go for. It doesn’t seem to have any reason to be set in the 80s (again, from the outside looking in).

This has the potential to be a less annoying Adam Sandler character than I usually think of. A romantic lead who performs at weddings doesn’t sound like a character that would lend himself to being particularly weird or manchildish. Drew Barrymore is always welcome on my screen.

I think I won this in a random draw at work on a big retail day last year. I considered reselling it since I wasn’t very interested in it, but then I realized I could blog about it, and here we are.

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What about Bob?

June 13, 2013June 13, 2013temporalparadoxLeave a comment

Before watching the movie:

Neurotic characters are a staple of comedy. So is the Double Act. Offhand, I’m not sure how a neurotic man butting in on his therapist’s vacation could go far wrong. It occurs to me though that while I’ve seen Bill Murray play several odd characters, I’m not sure I’ve seen him do neurotic and dependent.

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