Re: Movies
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:24 pm
217 - Skyscraper (1928) - 6/10 - Two construction workers (Alan Hale and William Boyd) who are helping build a new skyscraper are friends, but spend a lot of time pranking each other. When one of them gets a girl, but is injured in an accident, the other one tries to help him overcome his injury, though using a method in line with their friendship. The comedy is exaggerated here, but the film is still fun and I enjoyed it, even if it isn't really a very good movie by today's standards. It did really look like they were up in a skyscraper, though.
218 - The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) - 8/10 - Che Guevara and Alberto Grenada set out on a long quest in 1952 to travel by motorcycle from Buenos Aires to Caracas, visiting Lima, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and many other places along the way. They crash a lot, spend lots of time with people in the areas they visit, and spend time working at a leper colony. It is a big travelogue of a movie with great sights along the way and the trip helped form some of Guevara's revolutionary ideas in his mind. The revolutionary ideas seemed kind of secondary to the buddy picture and travel aspects of the film. Gael GarcĂa Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna had pretty good chemistry as the two friends making the trip and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
219 - The Father (2020) - 9/10 - Anthony Hopkins gives an outstanding performance as an elderly man with dementia whose daughter tries to take care of him while still living her own life. The techniques that they used to portray the confusion that dementia can leave one with were very effective. Olivia Colman was great as his daughter and the rest of the cast was very good as well. This is an excellent film, but I just hope that I never have to live through it as either a caretaker or the person experiencing it.
220 - Topsy-Turvy (1999) - 8/10 - In the mid-1880s, Gilbert and Sullivan were having a few problems. Their latest work wasn't doing well due to the stifling heat wave London was experiencing. The pair did not have a replacement comic opera ready and were at an impasse - Sullivan did not like Gilbert's proposed opera and refused to set it to music. Inspiration eventually struck and the result was The Mikado. The film delves into the relationship between the pair and their partner who ran the theater as well as the various cast members. It also has plenty of singing from rehearsals to performances. I'm not a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan, but I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
221 - Operation Petticoat (1959) - 7/10 - Cary Grant stars as an admiral who reminisces about the adventure the submarine he commanded had shortly after the U.S. entered WWII. His sub was sunk at the base in the Philippines and while they were able to raise it, they weren't able to fully repair it before having to leave the base to evade the enemy. They embarked on a trip with an undersized crew, a group of nurses, and a first officer with a flair for 'acquiring' needed materials. The movie is silly, but I thought it was fun.
222 - The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - 6/10 - Sean Connery and Michael Caine star as two former British soldiers in India who decide to travel across the mountains in search of a remote country known as Kafiristan where they plan to help a local to power in order to gain wealth for themselves. They enlist the aid of journalist Rudyard Kipling and sign a contract stating that they'll give up alcohol and women for the duration of their adventure. The proceed to have an adventure with bandits, blizzards, an avalanche, and so on. I didn't really find the adventure aspects that interesting much of the time, though there were some decent sights. Most of the humor didn't really seem that funny to me either. It wasn't all bad, but I found it highly overrated from other reviews that I've seen.