Undercover Girl (1950) Dir. Joseph Pevney LAPD Lieutenant Michael Trent gets a dying confession from a murdered contact, including the name of a NYC cop who supposedly has helped a gang of drug runners evade the law. When he tracks down the man in question in New York, he has only just been the victim of a murder. Whilst Trent suspects him of having been murdered by his criminal associates, his actual demise was caused by the man in question, Hank Miller, growing a conscience and trying to bring in the ring leader of the gang he had been on the payroll of. Hank's bereaved daughter Christine is a recruit policewoman who volunteers to help Trent catch the men who killed her father. Trent feels dubious about the plan, primarily because he cannot expect objectivity from a woman out for revenge. Yet he does like the idea of sending in a woman undercover, who might be less easily suspected of being a police plant. Eventually the fact that Christine was the most highly regarded young police academy recruit of her class sways him, and Christine travels to Los Angeles under an assumed identity, to attempt to make contact with the gang and catch them in the act of making a large drug sale... Fun crime noir, with a good lead performance by Alexis Smith as an undercover policewoman and Scott Brady - the spitting image of his brother Lawrence Tierney - as her handler and eventual love interest. Also features a cast of slimy and colorful characters among the baddies, including the silent and loud duo of Collar and Tully, as played by Mel Archer and Harry Landers.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) T'Challa, the Black Panther and king of Wakanda, is dead. But Wakanda still needs protecting. As T'Challa made public that Wakanda has a large supply of the wonder metal vibranium, every other country in the world is eager to get some - by any means. But it is discovered that more that one vibranium-containing asteroid hit the Earth long ago. A second hit in the ocean near Mexico, where it indirectly gave birth to a centuries-old civilization of underwater people. They are even more concerned about the surface world getting their secret, and are far more willing to kill to keep it. They want Wakanda to help them protect vibranium from the rest of the world, and if Wakanda won't they will force them to. I thought the movie moved well even though it is an incredible 2 and a half hours long. I really like the Shuri character and her path - in fact, I liked all the characters with their interesting dilemmas except the polymath superscientist from MIT which is a way overdone type in the Marvel Universe. I do wish a movie called "Black Panther" had a bit more Black Panther in it. There were some interesting ideas about international relations and colonizing but they didn't get fleshed out as the fight between the Wakandans and the underwater people got personal (as often happens in comic books movies). The final fight was inventive with its verticality, but while I could easily picture it done in a comic book it veered a bit on the ridiculous in its real/CGI form. They made a structure that was supposed to be stormed, and didn't have a single attribute to make it difficult to do so, despite that being part of human technology since before there was writing. Love the design of the new suit. The bold use of the accent gold was very fitting and definitely livened up one of the most boring outfits in comic books.
More than ever. (Plus que jamais) 2022 Highly recommended drama about a young woman Hélène who discovers she has a terminal disease. per Wiki Hélène is a 33-year-old French woman who lives in Bordeaux, France and has been in a happy marriage with Matthieu for many years. Their life turns upside down when Hélène is diagnosed with a rare lung disease. Hélène is lost on how to deal with this new situation. Looking for answers, Hélène stumbles across a Norwegian blogger by the name of Mister, who is seriously ill and documents his life with a mix of sincerity and a dry sense of humor. Vicky Krieps is excellent in this role. Many of the scenes are a tough watch. I like that it doesn't descend into scripted diatribe and she struggles to explain her thoughts. The guy playing the Husband ironically died soon after the film was shot.
Amber Alert (2024) Dir. Kerry Bellessa Jaq is running late for an appointment and just then, her Uber drives away on her. Through dumb luck, another Uber stops near her location to drop of a customer and she convinces the driver Shane, who was just about to end his shift, to take her on as the last ride of his workday. As they are driving to their destination, an Amber alert comes on their phones, where police are looking for help locating a vehicle suspected to be involved in the daytime snatching of a seven year old girl. The fact that the make and model of the car, a dark colored Toyota Camry, is ubiquitous means that the police gets inundated with calls. As they near an intersection, Jaq's attention is drawn to a Toyota that matches the description. Just as Shane is trying to convince Jaq that specific model Toyota is so common there must be hundreds driving around in their immediate area, the car in question suddenly speeds off in an erratic manner and this convinces the pair to investigate after all... Not the worst premise in the world and the two leads are both good. Was especially nice to see Tyler James Williams in a non-comedic role, as I mostly know him as Gregory Eddie on Abbott Elementary. I would say that the most interesting section of the movie has the two leads stuck in the car, following the suspect Toyota Camry and once it becomes a more run of the mill thriller, it deflated my interest.
The Merry Gentlemen - 2024 Broadway dancer Ashley gets fired from her show, for being too old, right before Christmas. She returns home to find out her parents bar/music venue is about to be evicted in favor of a juice bar. She enlists the new guy in town, Luke, and a few others, to do a "male revue" dance routine to bring in the crowds and raise enough money to save her parents' business. Just as things are going well Ashley gets and offer to go back to her old show, with a raise, and agrees to leave. The final night of the show is falling apart until she shows back up, deciding against leaving. Simple, straightforward, and well done by all involved. Britt Robertson is good as Ashley. Chad Michael Murray comes across like Dukes of Hazard era John Schneider. The parents are played by Michael Gross and Beth Broderick, and their chemistry is so good that I'd love to see them play the grandparents on a modern family sitcom. Netflix stunk the joint up with their first Christmas film this year, but the last two have been among the better ones this year.
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) Dir. Danny Cannon A year after the events of the first film, Julie James is still living with the trauma of the murders of her friends and the near death that she and the one other survivor, Ray, had to endure. Now a college student who is trying to rebuild her life, her roommate Karla has been trying to set her up with handsome fellow student Will, since her long distance relationship with Ray is not really working out. Karla's attempts to distract Julie from the paranoia her trauma has left her with fail, until she wins a radio station contest in which the prize is an all expenses paid trip to the Bahamas. Accompanying them is Karla's boyfriend Tyrell, and Will, since Ray ended up being a no-show even after Julie inviting him along for the trip. Once they arrive on the island, they find the resort mostly deserted for end of season. And then Julie becomes convinced that Ben Willis, the fisherman who almost killed her a year before has returned and has somehow found his way to the island, a notion that is rubbished by her friends. I saw this sequel upon its original release and remember not thinking much of it. Revisiting it has slightly improved my opinion of it. I don't think this franchise, basically created to feed off the Scream hype, is particularly original, but this sequel is better than I remembered it being. It has the slightly ironic quality of the Scream films, without leaning quite as far into that tone. And the cast in this one is surprisingly deep. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddy Prinze Jr. return from the first, but it's the actors around them that kind of took me by surprise. Besides Brandy as roommate Karla, we have a pre-BoB Matthew Settle, Mekhi Phifer, a youngish John Hawkes (!), a young Jack Black and Jeffrey Combs among the supporting players. One other thing I had not remembered is Hooverphonic having a song on the soundtrack (they famously had one in the first film as well). It's interesting that Jennifer Love Hewitt sort of ran away from doing any more horror after this film, since I do think she had the makings of a classic scream queen/final girl.
Three Wiser Men and a Boy - 2024 The follow up to the surprisingly good 2022 film, Three Wise Men and a Baby, this one time jumps about 5-6 years from the previous film. Circumstances require all three to move back into their mother's house for Christmas while they attempt to save Thomas' (the kid) school Christmas play and solve their own personal issues. The addition of their mom dating a local pastor adds just enough to the tension while a new potential love interest for Tay helps move his character beyond the one note it had in the first film. This is the rare sequel that's better than the original. The additions of Christopher Shyer as Pastor Roy and Erin Karpluk as Caroline helped improve the overall story. I realized that both of these movies have done a good job of limiting Andrew Walker's attempted acting, since he was atrocious in Jingle Bell Run, and they really lean on the other two brothers for most of the family dynamic. The first one has an extended cut (I haven't watched it) on Hallmark+ and I can't imagine that this one won't get the same treatment. I don't know how they work the pun for a third film, so this might be it.
Escape in the Fog (1945) Dir. Oscar Boetticher Jr. Eileen Carr is a war nurse on R&R in San Francisco. One night, she has a very vivid dream in which she is the witness to a murder. The next day, she realizes that one of the guests at the inn she is staying at looks exactly like the murder victim in her dream. The man and her get acquainted and he invites her to spend some time in the city together. As Eileen and Barry, the man in question, start to become romantically involved, she becomes more and more convinced that the dream was not just a dream but a premonition that something bad is about to happen to Barry. Especially once it is revealed that her new beau is actually a government agent on the cusp of departing for a foreign assignment of importance to the war effort. War time noir/thriller, starring William Wright and a pre-musical and sandal epic Nina Foch. Oscar Boetticher Jr. Is actually a pseudonym for Budd Boetticher, whom I greatly admire for his later Ranown Cycle westerns. Decently entertaining and I always love the efficient story-telling of any one hour movie.
Christmas on Call - 2024 This was good. Not just Hallmark Christmas movie good, but actually good. Hannah moves from Seattle to be an ER doctor in Philadelphia, right before Christmas. Early on she meets EMT Wes. They have a few miscommunications, a few meet cutes, and eventually they end up together. Sanjay gets transferred over to a different police precinct and ends up riding with Danielle, whom he met the year before but both think the other ghosted them. They help with a few local neighborhood issues, figure out what their miscommunication was, and eventually they end up together. There are some really nice supporting storylines as well. The real key is the acting being top notch. Sara Canning as Hannah puts in a performance that reminded me a good bit of early Sandra Bullock around the While You Were Sleeping era. Ser'Darius Blain is really good as Wes and it was killing me trying to figure out who he was until it finally clicked that he played Fridge in the 2 most recent Jumanji movies. Erik Athavale as Sanjay was good, but I have to say it added some chuckles that his character name was Sanjay but he looked and sounded a lot like Steve Buscemi. Reena Jolly as Danielle was also quite good. Tamara Almeida as Wes' EMT partner was a good supporting character, as were a few others.
A Novel Noel - 2024 (Hallmark Mystery) The schizophrenic nature of the HM movies continues, this time with a pretty good one. Harper, the book editor of a major YA series needs a break from work. Just after putting in for time off, she gets an email saying she's at the top of the list to spend the winter as a volunteer in a bookstore in a small town in Maine. She gets there, meets Sawyer who runs it for his parents, and very mild conflict ensues. Things go extremely well, outside of an overblown moment where Sawyer gets made at Harper for not telling him what her job was after she reads his manuscript. Everything is resolved and it feels like the movie should wrap up, but then you look at the time on the DVR and realize there's 25-30 minutes left on the recording. That's when arguably the best plot twist I've seen in one of these happens and it adds genuine uncertainty to the end of a Hallmark Christmas movie which is definitely the exception. Julie Gonzalo is really good as Harper. It took me a few minutes to realize where I had seen her before, but then it clicked that it was nearly everywhere in the early to mid 00s (Dodgeball, Veronica Mars, Freaky Friday, A Cinderella Story, etc.). Brendan Penny is better than the average Hallmark leading man as Sawyer. The supporting characters played by Kaitlyn Bernard (Josie), Christiaan Westerveld (Rhys), and Kheon Clarke (Wes) are pretty good as well.
Watchmen: Chapter II (2024) Dir. Brandon Vietti Following the events of the first chapter, Laurie has moved in with Dan and the pair have bonded ever more. Dan tries to convince Laurie of the fact that there might be some truth to Rorschach theory about the Comedian's death, Dr. Manhattan's exile and the attempt on Adrian Veidt's life all being connected. The only problem: Rorschach is in prison for having been found at the scene of Moloch's murder and several of the inmates he helped put there are out for revenge. At the same time, Dr. Manhattan is still on Mars whilst Adrian Veidt is putting into motion the last parts of his master plan. I think I liked the second chapter slightly less than the first one. Still a straightforward and pretty faithful adaptation, though in the areas where it does stray from the comic, it is not entirely clear to me why those choices were made. The best thing about it is still the of some very good work on the part of the voice actors, especially Matthew Rhys as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II, Katee Sackoff as Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre and Titus Welliver as Rorschach.
Conclave (2024) Dir. Edward Berger After the death of the sitting Pope, the responsibility of managing the Conclave that will elect his successor is left to Dean-Cardinal Lawrence. A man who does not want the responsibility but whose resignation was refused by the Pontiff shortly before the man's death. Cardinal Bellini, one of Lawrence's closest friends is among the favorites to become the new Pope, representing the more progressive faction among the Cardinals. The polar opposite of Bellini is Tedesco, an Italian Cardinal who is hyper-conservative and even seems intent on rolling back some of the advances of the second Vatican Council. After the Conclave itself has commenced and the Cardinals are sequestered until such a time they have chosen the new Pope, there emerges a suggestion of scandal around some of the candidates, in a context where Lawrence has little opportunity to investigate their truthfulness. The premise, essentially a psychological thriller almost shot like a murder mystery, set during a Conclave, is honestly brilliant. I'm not familiar with the book it's based on, but on the screen it works like gangbusters and I found this an enthralling watch from start to finish. Ralph Fiennes is fantastic as Lawrence, as is Sergio Castellito as the vainglorious Tedesco. Those glasses and that vaping habit really complete the whole villainous persona. The movie is shot in a handful of locations, among them a recreated Sistine Chapel, but also the dormitories and cafeterias where the Cardinals sleep and eat. And just like the Cardinals, the audience is not given any information about what is ongoing outside, something that becomes ever more important as the story progresses.
Stolen from a tweet, to present the point that yes, apart from being very entertaining, the movie is also quite nicely shot.
Damaged [2024] I don't know if this went straight to the DVD, but it should have gone straight to the dumpster. Even though the movie had Sam L Jackson, Vincent Cassell, and Josh Hannah, this is pure garbage. Really nothing original and the actors basically slept walked through this thing.
It made a whopping $390,143 at the box office. It's also apparently so bad that even the IMDB score is under 5/10. RT critics are 27% fresh with a 4.5/10 while users are 13% with a 1.6/5.
there’s a lot of beautiful, subtle performances in conclave but none of the subtle performances are as beautiful as sergio castellitto’s extremely unsubtle evil guy performance— Amelia™ (@RealiaAmelia) November 22, 2024 I mean yes, there is a joyfulness in how much he leans into his characters innate horribleness.
To Have and to Holiday - 2024 Celeste and Jason date for a few months in NY. She goes home for Christmas after her temp job ends and he comes with her. At the reveal of the church her dad pastor's needing to be renovated, he proposes and they decide to get married on Christmas Eve. Pastor Dad is too over the top against them for too long, but finally comes around. The conflict moments don't really work but everything else does. Mrs. Widowski, Mailman Withers, and the over competitive couple of Tim and Tracy feel like the kind of oddball characters that were a lot of fun in 80s TV and made for TV movies. Madeleine Arthur is fascinating to me, since the only thing I've seen her in before in The Devil in Ohio. She's got the Fiona Apple heroine chic look but plays a more believable small town girl trying to make it in the city than most. This was charming despite my attempts to not really like it.
Oh, I actually watched that piece of tripe. I don't remember where, but I think it was on an airplane coming back from Nova Scotia. It was absolutely awful. I don't like Samuel L Jackson, anyway. They were all being generous.
Ironically, I watched it on the way to London. I wanted to write to Virgin Atlantic and tell them to remove this movie.