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Reviews
Wonka (2023)
Where's the origin?
This movie was enjoyable enough, but really horribly written. It made no sense. You can enslave people through ridiculous lodging contracts? Why is Willy Wonka illiterate, what was the point of that? Why would all other chocolate makers be fine with each other as competition, but not this new guy?
But most annoying, how is this an origin story? There was no explanation whatsoever as to how he made floating candy. Not to mention, he didn't have any in the original movie, so how did he have it in the origin story?
Show me Loompaland where Willy met and saved the Oompa Loompas, remember that from the original? Show me how he built the Chocolate Factory, where he got the ideas? Why was he so zany? Show him being betrayed by workers, giving rise to why he only employed Oompa Loompas. Give me some reason why he wanted to give it all away.
You know, keep continuity with what we already know instead of just creating some random story, that means very little in the context of Willy Wonka.
Hollywood is nothing but remakes, prequels, sequels, spinoffs, etc these days. It is nothing but taking properties that have existing fanbases, but then what they create simply isn't in line with that property. While Wonka is less offensive than many others, this is a pretty big missed opportunity to me.
Star in the Night (1945)
Scrooge as the Innkeeper
Star in the Night is able to deftly portray both the secular and nonsecular true meaning of Christmas in a mere 21 minutes.
The secular story is told in A Christmas Carol fashion, not with a greedy curmudgeon full of contempt for humanity as our scrooge, but a humble innkeeper beaten down by seeing too much of the inhumanity in people. We don't get 3 ghosts, we get 3 grumbling guests at the inn.
The nonsecular story is a pretty straight forward retelling of the Nativity story complete with a baby being born in a shed and 3 wise...cowboys bearing gifts.
Through these interconnected stories, our Scrooge/Innkeeper is able to see the goodness in humanity and in himself. In a very touching ending, as the innkeeper closes up, he sees his calendar with a picture of the Holy Family while a choir sings Away in a Manger in the background. He tears up as he realizes "goodwill toward men" is more than just words.
What's My Line? (1950)
The Mystery Guest Alone Is Worth The Watch
As a classic movie fan, I came across this show because of the mystery guest. Celebrities that come on and force the panelists to change from What's My Line to What's My Name.
I am always interested in seeing how these old celebrities used to act off the set, but once I watched the interactions between the panel and the guests, the pure joy some of them took in hiding their voices and trying to trick the panel, I was hooked. I found myself cracking up as Danny Kaye lied to the panel or Judy Garland was ringing a bell for yes or when the celeb would realize they were busted and drop the fake voice to say YES.
But I think what is most endearing about this show is the civility done in all things. From the panel introducing each other, usually in glowing terms except for Bennett Cerf and John C Daly's good natured ribbing, to the men standing to shake people's hand, to everyone wishing each other a good night at the end, this show was just class.
While our shows today seem to get trashier and trashier, it is great to stumble across an old show that is able to make me laugh and entertain me just as much done in such a civilized and intelligent manner.
Babylon (2022)
What the heck was that?
This movie was in a word, horrible. As a big fan of classic Hollywood, I was very interested in this movie. I was thinking it would be about the early Hollywood movie making experience, and about some of the off the screen shenanigans that we knew took place.
Instead we got a movie that was farcically vulgar just for the sake of being vulgar. While I wasn't there, I find it hard to believe that anything portrayed in this movie actually happened in the 20s. How in the world did they get actual stars with an actual career in this movie?
I didn't laugh a single time. I felt really nothing except occasional disgust. Was there a point to this movie? For a pointless movie with nothing worthwhile to say, it sure was long. So it's got that to further up its suckitude.
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Michael Keaton, scene stealer
It seems a lot of people are critical of Keanu Reeve's in this film, I'm more critical of Robert Sean Leonard. There are some great actors at work here and those not up to snuff do stand out. Many of the supporting actors are British Shakespearean stalwarts who do a typically great job. Branaugh and Thompson are about perfect, Denzel is great, but Michael Keaton reigns supreme.
If this were a play, I could see the loudest applause coming for Keaton's curtain call. Most don't expect to laugh out loud at a 200+ year old play, but Keaton will have you rolling. He uses every second of his rather small role to it's fullest.
All in all, this is a wonderful airy movie that you really won't believe is an hour and 50 minutes. It just floats by and seems to be gone in a flash. Time flies when you're having fun.
A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
It's only missing one thing
Comedy.
I thought this movie did a great job of paying homage to the original and making callbacks without just remaking the original again like some sequels do. They nicely worked in the original characters and gave them a moment. If you're familiar with Jean Shepherd's book that inspired A Christmas Story, Ralphie was actually sitting in Flicks bar reminiscing of his youth with Flick. So bringing the bar into this movie was another nice nod.
They clearly wanted this to be a wholesome, heartfelt movie seeing as there was no dirty jokes. Maybe that's why I didn't laugh, it was just too PG. But the laughs were the only thing it was missing for me.
I loved the ending though. The essentially turned Ralphie into Jean Shepherd and made a move I thought strange in the beginning of the movie pay off in the best possible way. The ending raised this movie from a 4 to a 6 for me. If it would have made me laugh throughout, it probably would have been a 9.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Thank you for a return to entertainment!
This movie was made to entertain. There was no message, it wasn't trying to get me to accept anything, it was just trying to give me a 2 hour distraction from life and some enjoyment. Mission accomplished!
They called back and honored the original without just making the same movie. Yes there were some implausible moments, but they weren't going for an Oscar, they were trying to entertain.
My only complaint is that they actually spent too much time on Maverick. I think if they took 5 minutes away from Maverick's love life and used that to focus on the students and given Mav and Rooster a 1 on 1 scene to sort out the past, this could have created a better setup for the ending and got a 10 star for me.
Confess, Fletch (2022)
Not a Fletch movie
When you use the name of a well liked older movie, you are inviting comparisons to that movie. This movie bit off more than it could chew in that comparison.
I like Jon Hamm, but he is not even in the same league as Chevy Chase in the comedy department. He doesn't have the timing or delivery skills to be Fletch. A hallmark of the Fletch movies was disguises and characters to gather information, where was that in this movie?
I didn't laugh out loud a single time. And why the heck didn't Fletch solve the crime? That's the whole point of the originals. Fletch was a slacker. He was sarcastic, irreverent, and everything was a joke, but despite his off the wall method, he was very good.
This was just Hamm making some quippy one liners that fell flat and not much else. Not a heck of a lot happened. It was an ok movie, but compared to the Chevy Chase movies.....that's why it gets 3 stars.