Paint Your Wagon

If the movies you like say something about your psyche, then this movie must say a lot about me because I just love it! When Lee Marvin sings, "I was born under a wandering star," in that deep, gravelly voice, I just thrill!

"By Gum, they're Mormons!"
"Whats A Mormons?"
makes me laugh everytime I hear it.

There's just something stupidly madcap funny about this lowlife, decrepit musical.

Netflix has got it and Amazon has it for a great price. No reason to miss it.

"Got a dream boy, got a song, paint your wagon and come along!"
"Where am I goin' I don't know, when will I get there, I ain't certain, all that I know is I am on my way."

I like to have this one playing in the background for company once in awhile. You can watch it with little or no attention and enjoy the music and the adventure.

The Dilemma

The Dilemma should have been a great movie. Ron Howard directed, Vince Vaughan and Kevin James are excellent comedy actors. There were moments that were pretty funny and yet after it was over, Jeanne and I both thought it was worth watching, but we won't need to see it again.

So what went wrong? Maybe it was the subject matter, which tended to be rather serious and wasn't handled in a slapstick manner..it was somewhat, but there were many instances where they played for the one laugh when there should be been much more. When Vince had the plant problem, they gave you a couple of laughs, but the problem cleared up way too soon and wasn't played for the comedy.

Queen Latifa was completely wasted in this movie. Was she the token black person? She was given some stupid embarrassing lines and that was all! Her character was a waste of space and should have been a great comedy element.

In fact, that's what was wrong, this was a comedy that was played too seriously or else it was a drama played for laughs, it just didn't do either as well as expected. There just wasn't that heart warming feeling that we expect from great films. The ending hockey scene was meant to be great finale, but it seemed forced.

Ron Howard just phoned this one in. No one took the time to tweak the script. Someone should have stood back and asked..is this funny? Sadly, it wasn't.

School Of Life

This movie came out in 2005 and I'd never heard of it till I stumbled onto it on Netflix. What I liked about this comedy is that they didn't go for stupid, easy laughs that so many comedies go for. They played it straight, let it be funny without going for stereo types too much. It's a great story about a teacher who has been overshadowed by his father (John Astin) for years and now he gets his turn to shine. But the new teacher is pretty spectacular.

This was worth watching twice and it's just that good. Jeanne and I were both inspired by it and it may belong on my list of favorites.

The Note

I found this movie advertised on some other DVD and it looked intriguing, so I ordered it from Netflix. Some movies that teach positive values are a little sappy. This one seemed to avoid that problem. There were many times when the opportunity was there for juvenile behavior and bad acting that takes place in the sappy shows, and they didn't lower their standards, the actors, director and editors kept the movie a good solid story. Maybe it's because it was based on a book, so the author kept it steady. Whatever the reason, this is a good solid piece of entertainment!

Netflix and the video streaming

I don't have any of the cool video equipment that will stream netflix to my TV so if I want to watch a movie on netflix, it's at my computer. Mostly I find it a way to verify that I want to rent or pass on a movie. I usually pass on R rated fare. It's usually so unsavory. The other day I clicked on Zombieland, because it had been one whose preview had looked interesting. I didn't make it through the opening credits, the gore was way over the top. It just wasn't going to be something I wanted to fill my mind with.

But everything rated R isn't necessarily bad. I stumbled upon "The Oxford Murders" with Elijah Wood. There was a sex scene and a couple of f word instances that got it the rating, but otherwise, I found it to be a highly intelligent, concise and well written piece of drama.

I'm going to continue to avoid R rated fare, but this streaming is great to preview a few minutes of a flick and see if it's worth seeing. I watched a minute or two of "How To Murder Your Wife" with Jack Lemmon. It reminded me of what a cute movie it was and It's at the top of my Netflix Que.

Peacock

This should have been good, maybe it was, but I didn't like it at all. There were moments where I wondered what was going to happen, but it was so unsettling and slow that it wasn't worth my time. It's a twisty, strange story about a man who has lost his mother. It's like Norman Bates of Hitchcock fame, mets Lars and the real girl with none of the humor. From the very first it has an unsettling, creepy feel about it. Why they wrote it and why some good actors thought it would be good is beyond me.

If you try it, I'd really like to hear your opinion of this worthless story.

Despicable Me

This is one of the best movies of all time! I had no expectations, I thought it was going to be stupid or insulting. Instead, I discovered a priceless little nugget. A real heart warming adventure. The story and voyage of self discovery and how it effects all around is a message that can and should make us all strive for a better life, to be a little less despicable.

Dinner For Schmucks

I really had low expectations for this one, I was sure that a dinner where you bring your candidate for worst loser sounded like a horrible idea and a horrible premise for a movie. Several of the characters in the movie felt the same way.

But you know sometimes in the opening moments of a movie that you've stumbled on something with promise, like the opening of Ghostbusters. The music of this was from the beginning, funny, or promised to be and it delivered.

I was surprised, there was a lot of story before the dinner and it was not just bearable, it was down right charming. But the dinner just promised to be a train wreck and the set up is part of the comedy genius of this flick.

This was a great comedy! Thinking people will enjoy the life lessons, the rest of us will just laugh at it!

The Lottery Ticket - Eck

This is a movie that had some value, but you had to suffer through too much to get to it.

The ghetto, lowlife idots that populate the movie are uncomfortable to watch. I wouldn't want to live in their neighborhood, because I'd be afraid they would drag me down to their level. This is about living in the projects and having little hope of getting out. The thing is, it's not pleasant and it's dangerous and why would anyone want to pay to see this movie?

It's well done, well edited and has a very good plotline, it's just so difficult to watch!

Flipped, I flipped for it!

Rob Reiner directed this film and it was quite an unexpected nugget. Throughout the unusual film which shifts from viewpoint to viewpoint and back again, I wondered where is this going to go?
We start with the neighbor boys' viewpoint and then shift to the same story from the neighbor girls' viewpoint. In this story it worked and it couldn't have been easy to adapt the book to film.
You never know how the story will turn out but you feel that whatever happens, it will be the right thing for Julie in the end.
A heartwarming look at people, relationships and family.