your Kung-Fu is *not* strong

Average rating: 6

The Doorman (2020) - "In this punishing action-thriller starring Ruby Rose, a former Marine turned doorman at a luxury New York City high-rise must outsmart and battle a group of art thieves and their ruthless leader (Jean Reno)—while struggling to protect her sister's family. As the thieves become increasingly desperate and violent, the doorman calls upon her deadly fighting skills to end the showdown."
length: 1 hour, 37 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library
I watched it because: Jean Reno is my hero
IMDB: 4.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 24% Audience: 24%
my IMDB: 4/10

MPAA rating: R

directed by: Ryûhei Kitamura

my notes: some interesting and well-executed fights, interspersed with some of the most wooden acting I've seen since Pinocchio. Both kids are terrible, the dad not much better. I wanted to care, but couldn't. I then just wanted to be swept along by the action, but it's just no good. The story and its unending coincidences are just too implausible.

    RogerEbert.com's review is here, at which I snorted with laughter. Poorly written and wrong in the details, it is an embarrassment to the memory of Mr. Ebert. 

overall: not  recommended unless you've got a really good (personal) reason to want to. And since I did, and since Jean Reno could film himself watching paint dry and I'd watch it—I will see this again, even though it's kinda awful.

 

The Core (2003) - "Geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) discovers that an unknown force has caused the earth's inner core to stop rotating. With the planet's magnetic field rapidly deteriorating, our atmosphere literally starts to come apart at the seams with catastrophic consequences. To resolve the crisis, Keyes, along with a team of the world's most gifted scientists, travel into the earth's core. Their mission: detonate a device that will reactivate the core."
length: 2 hours, 15 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library
I watched it because: Tchécky Karyo plays Serge Leveque
IMDB: 5.5/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 39% Audience: 34%
my IMDB: 6/10

MPAA rating: PG-13

notable quote: "'I'm married to my work.'

    'So am I. Which makes my wife my mistress. That's why I'm still in love with her.'"

directed by: Jon Ameil

my notes: silly, unintentionally funny, melodramatic ... and thus surprising. I watched with rapt interest. The movie is better than the sum of its parts. 

    Roger Ebert's review is here, which is hilariously tongue-in-cheek. 

Eventually they reach a depth where the pressure is 800,000 pounds per square inch–and then they put on suits to walk around outside. Their suits are obviously made of something stronger and more flexible than Unobtainium. Probably corduroy. 

overall: curiously, recommended

A Working Man (2025) - "Levon Cade has left his profession behind him to go 'straight' and work in construction. He wants to live a simple life and be a good father to his daughter. But when his boss's teenage daughter Jenny vanishes, he's called upon to re-employ the skills that made him a legendary figure in the shadowy world of black ops. His hunt for the missing college student takes him deep into the heart of a sinister criminal conspiracy creating a chain reaction that will threaten his new way of life."
length: 1 hour, 56 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library
I watched it because: I feel like, by this point, everyone ought to know that there is a list of actors whose movies are a must-watch for me, regardless of subject matter (and indeed I don't even care to know the subject matter before I dive in); Statham is right up there on that list
IMDB: 5.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 47% Audience: 87%
my IMDB: 7/10

MPAA rating: R

notable quote: "'Stay on my six.'

    'What does that mean?'

    [nonplussed] '...Follow me.'"
directed by: David Ayer (and co-written by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone)

my notes: I delighted in it. Jason Statham plays to his strengths, seeking out films that highlight the stuff he's good at and enjoys—and it shows. Is it possible to guess, at the beginning, how things will work out in the end? Maybe so. Does it work out just like you imagine? Probably not. 

    I liked David Harbour (as the movie's real heart, Gunny Lefferty), Maximilian Osinski (as the terrifically costumed, wackadoodle Dimi), and Eve Mauro (as the psychopath, Artemis). Arianna Rivas as the plucky Jenny is amazing. Watching her progress from the start of the film to the end is really cool.

    RogerEbert.com's review is here, with which I mostly agree (and at which I giggled a little).

[T]he ability to take the best pieces of the genre, in the process making your own specific brand of action movie, to the point that your name becomes a kind of trademark, is paramount for an action star. Statham has done it. You can only judge Statham’s work on the scale he’s built for himself.  

overall:  recommended

Oliver Twist (1948) - "When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist (John Howard Davies) dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble (Francis L. Sullivan), for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and his criminal mentor, Fagin (Alec Guinness). When kindly Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson) takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes (Robert Newton) plots to kidnap the boy."
length: 1 hour, 45 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD from my parents' collection
I watched it because: I think I last saw it in maybe 8th grade, so it seemed due time to review
IMDB: 7.8/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 100% Audience: 84%
my IMDB: 7/10

MPAA rating: Approved

notable quote: "'The law assumes that your wife acts under your direction.'

    'If the law supposes that, then the law is an ass, an idiot! If that's the eye of the law, then the law is a bachelor. And the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience.'"

directed by: David Lean

my notes: win some, lose some. David Lean's Great Expectations (1946, reviewed here and here) is a favorite, beautifully filmed (for its day), compelling, and fun. This adaptation is kind of a mess, somehow managing to be both frantic and dull. It is not objectively bad, just not my thing. It is worth seeing, and is clearly well-regarded. Prehaps I'm just not the "urchin" type?

overall: marginally recommended

 

[the title quotation is from The Core]

everybody wants to be somebody fancy. Even if they're shy

1 When's the last time you had to give a speech? How did it go? 

    early in my last tour of duty at the financial company, I was part of a 3-person team giving presentations aimed at encouraging staff to take advantage of the 401(k). My co-presenters were the head of my department—also an attorney, and one of the most frighteningly extroverted and pointy females I've ever even seen—and the head of Human Resources. That person was approaching retirement, as motherly as can be, and skillfully hiding her sharp observational skills behind an air of mellow distraction. Needless to say, we made a peculiar group. They shared the first half of the program and I handled the last part. 

    It was nerve-racking, sleep-depriving, boring, time-consuming, annoying ... and it was a lesson in anxiety. Those restless nights of diffuse worry taught me that pre-panic is pointless. Though many of the presentations had awkward moments or did not go particularly well, a couple of them were flawless, well-received, and had the desired effect—and those good results did not correlate with the degree of stress I'd placed on them beforehand. Since going through that experience, I've been less prone to sleepless nights, preoccupied by imagining the worst. Even though I disliked the experience, and still don't think of speeches as a good thing, I'm less anxious now than I was before going through that. It was worth it.

     

2 What annoys you most about women? 

    when she, individually, is annoying. I'm NOT a fan or proponent or blind acceptor of gender stereotypes. 

 

3 What's the best thing you ever built or created? 

    this blog 

 

4 If you could wave a magic wand and stop any one thing, what would you stop? 

    Canadian (and all other) wildfires. As I write this, my view of the hills near my house is obscured by a layer of yellow-gray haze. It makes me angry and afraid, to imagine what it's like anywhere more near than I am to the actual fires. 

 

5 If you were offered free cosmetic surgery by the best plastic surgeons in the world, would you take it? 

    in a heartbeat 

 

6 When are you shy? 

    unaccompanied, in a social situation involving people I've never interacted with before 

 

7 When did you get your first traffic ticket? Share the details. 

    I've never, just two verbal warnings (one in high school, one during college) and one written warning (a decade ago). I'm not over-confident but also not timid, I know my limitations and work within them. 

 

[from The Complete Book of Questions : 1001 Conversation Starters for Any Occasion; the title quotation is by Donald Miller, from Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality]

no sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind

Book Review 

 

Rating * * * * *

 

Title: Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained Commando Took Down the Strip to the Tune of Five World-Class Hotels, Three Armored Cars, and Millions of Dollars

 

Author: John Huddy

 

Published: this nonfiction book was published in 2009; I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Blackstone Audio, Inc.; read by Stefan Rudnicki; 13 hours) 

 

What is the story? 

Network producer and onetime Miami Herald columnist Huddy tells a gripping story of greed, violence, theft and public relations. Las Vegas had just launched its new blitz of advertising advancing itself not as "Sin City" but as a family-friendly vacation destination when Jose Vigoa (a Cuban-born commando veteran of the Soviet Army) hit town in the late 1990s. Vigoa and a small crew embarked on a violent 16-month crime wave, targeting some of the Strip's most prominent (and, as Vigoa showed, vulnerable) institutions. A 23-year veteran of the Las Vegas Police Force, Lt. John Alamshaw was charged with finding and capturing the men behind the crime spree without allowing the robberies to become national news and spoil Vegas's new image. Huddy traces Vigoa's personal history from his childhood in Castro's Cuba to fighting for the Red Army in Afghanistan, his return to Cuba and eventual resettlement in the United States. Then he chronicles the Cuban's increasingly audacious grabs for Vegas riches and his ultimate sentencing to more than 500 years in prison with no possibility of parole. This debut is a must for true-crime enthusiasts. --from Publishers Weekly 

What type of language does it use—technical, complex, standard, or colloquial? primarily standard, some technical (a background in criminal justice or law would help, or a strong interest in true crime)

 

Does the level of language make it easy or difficult for the reader to follow? it was written by a journalist, so the language is easy to understand and the story is engrossing

 

Did you like this book? very much! Best book I've read this year.

 

If you could change something, what would it be? Jose Vigoa is portrayed as near a hero as possible. Considering what a reprehensible guy he is, the choice of words, and the ratio of his own words to analysis of actions, can be hard to swallow. 

 

What were your favourite parts? Stefan Rudnicki is my favorite audiobook narrator, and his voice is such a great match to this deeply disturbing, sometimes unbearably tense subject matter. In the end, the good guys are all the more admirable, and the bad even worse, thanks to Rudnicki's terrific narration.

 

Who stands out, among the characters? Lt. Alamshaw of the Robbery Division of the Las Vegas Police Department was—as fleshed out by Huddy—pretty danged cool. Tenacious, smart, dedicated, and even funny, he came off as someone I'd like to work with. 

 

What is your recommendation? great book for lovers of true crime, Las Vegas history and culture, law enforcement, and (surprisingly) modern Cuban history and politics

 

5 adjectives you would use to describe this text: violent, engrossing, bizarre, surprising, extreme

 

[book review template 5 adapted from here; the title quotation is by Hunter S. Thompson, from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream]

close is a lingerie shop without a front window

Average rating: 6.5 (which doesn't even begin to tell the real story...)

Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) - "Veteran police detective Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is only days away from retiring when he and his tough partner, Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), are roped into an important internal affairs case. Working with the beautiful, no-nonsense Sergeant Lorna Cole (Rene Russo) and aided by the shifty informant Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), Murtaugh and Riggs begin to close in on a black-market weapons operation involving corrupt cop and arms dealer Jack Travis (Stuart Wilson)."
length: 1 hour, 58 minutes

source: I own the DVD series
I watched it because: I bought the set and wanted to watch them in order

    previously reviewed here
IMDB: 6.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 60% Audience: 61%
my IMDB: 6/10

MPAA rating: R

notable quote: "'After all the shit we've been through, don't you get it? Don't you get it? When you retire, you're not just retiring you, you're retiring us. You're retiring us.'

    'That's not my problem. That's not my problem!'

    'You're the only family I've got! I've got three beautiful kids, I love them, they're yours. Trish does my laundry, I live in your icebox, I live in your life! What am I gonna do? What am I supposed to do?'"

directed by: Richard Donner

my notes: a little Joe Pesci goes a long way. The super-sexy interplay between Gibson and Russo breathes some life into what would have otherwise been a stale montage of reruns from the first two films. It's worth seeing but maybe not worth remembering too well.

    Roger Ebert's review is here, with which I mostly disagree.

overall:  marginally recommended

 

Cimarron (1960) - "After Sabra (Maria Schell) marries cowboy Yancey Cravat (Glenn Ford) against her parents' wishes, the newlyweds travel to Oklahoma to participate in a land rush for territory taken from the Indians. Settling down in their new community, Yancey becomes locally prominent as the editor of the town newspaper. When he turns down an offer to run for governor because his oil-money backers would demand more property from the Indians, Sabra's disapproval drives Yancey to leave."
length: 2 hours, 27 minutes

source: I bought the DVD... 
I watched it because: ...on the strength of my interest in Glenn Ford
IMDB: 6.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 53%
my IMDB: 4/10

MPAA rating: Approved

notable quote: "Oh, you women. If you didn't have anything to worry about, you'd worry about that."

directed by: Anthony Mann, Charles Walters

my notes: It was with this film that I finally accepted that my affection for Glenn Ford is limited to a couple of movies I've already seen. Much of the stuff he made was crap. For instance, this film is a mess. Misogynistic hedonist with a VERY chequered past inexplicably marries a buttoned-up woman half his age, and promptly hauls her cross-country with a plan of farming in Oklahoma. 
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Color—George W. Davis, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Hugh Hunt, Otto Siegel

• Best Sound—Franklin Milton
overall: not  recommended

A Very Long Engagement {Un long dimanche de fiançailles} (2004) - "Mathilde (Audrey Tautou) is told that her fiancé (Gaspard Ulliel) has been killed in World War I. She refuses to believe this, however, and begins trying to find out what actually happened on the battlefield the night he was supposedly killed, enlisting the help of a private investigator. During her search, she stumbles across evidence of the inhumane and morally bankrupt system used by the French to deal with deserters, and hears from other men who were sentenced to extreme punishment."
length: 2 hours, 13 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library
I watched it because: Tchécky Karyo is in it
IMDB: 7.6/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 79% Audience: 85%
my IMDB: 9/10

MPAA rating: R

notable quote: "Tears say what you can't say."

directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

my notes: I LOVE this movie! Sad, sweet, funny, ridiculous, sexy, heartbreaking, and lovely. Beautifully filmed, amazing cinematography, terrific lighting and costumes. The casting is outstanding, in particular: Ticky Holgado (sweet and funny Germain Pire), Marion Cotillard (gorgeous and psychotic Tina Lombardi), Jérôme Kircher (indescribable Bastoche), and especially Albert Dupontel (ridiculous and mesmerizing Célestin Poux).

    Roger Ebert's review is here, with which I completely agree. 

Academy Award nominee:
• Best Cinematography—Bruno Delbonnel 

• Best Art Direction—Aline Bonetto
overall: highly recommended

The Expendables 3 (2014) - "Years ago, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) co-founded the Expendables with Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). After Stonebanks became an arms dealer, Ross was forced to kill him—or so he thought. Now, Stonebanks is back and he's on a mission to end the Expendables. Ross decides that the way to fight old blood is with new blood, so he assembles a team of younger, faster, more tech-savvy recruits. The battle to topple Stonebanks becomes a clash of old-school methods vs. high-tech expertise."
length: 2 hours, 6 minutes

source: I borrowed the set through the public library
I watched it because: I want to watch them all in order
IMDB: 6.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 32% Audience: 48%
my IMDB: 7/10

MPAA rating: PG-13 ...WTAF??!

notable quote: "I missed you, too—you demented bastard."

directed by: Patrick Hughes

my notes: this must have been incredibly fun to make. Everyone on the cast is insane, and they become more so as they go. As always, Jason Statham is my favorite, particularly given the microscopic scene time of Jet Li. Also kinda like the adorable combo of Antonio Banderas (Galgo) and Ronda Rousey (Luna). The allusions to the collective filmography are hilarious, well-timed, and incredibly nostalgic. Go Expendables! Let's get to the choppa!

    RogerEbert.com's review is here, with which I vehemently agree.

We’ve come to the part of the review where I’m supposed to justify my favorable rating by telling you to “turn your brain off” in order to enjoy The Expendables III [sic]. I’m not going to do that, because that’s an insult to you, me and the movie. Instead, I want you to pay close attention to The Expendables III, because if you’re on its wavelength, you’ll discover an incredibly self-aware streak of obsessive compulsion running through it. When it comes to nostalgic detail, this is a Russian nesting doll of a movie. Allusions beget deeper allusions, tying the levels together in an almost endless game of “Six Degrees of Action Movie Separation.” There’s a Marvel Universe-sized dollop of slavish devotion for fans of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Statham and Gibson. 

overall:  recommended

 

[the title quotation is from Lethal Weapon 3]

powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less

1 If the person who loves you could see into your heart, what would they find?

     if a person loved me, what they would see in my heart would look like this photo

 

2 Describe a moment where you felt you witnessed the purest form of love.

    my neighbor, age 90, caring for his 86-year-old wife who's been under the weather. He is a darling man, she a delightful woman, and their relationship is a terrific example of how to behave toward someone you love. 

 

3 What’s one thing you did to impress a partner in the beginning, but that you wouldn’t admit to later? 

     I used to spend a stupid amount of time cleaning before a date would come to my place. Even if they would be there for 5 minutes while I grabbed my wallet and shoes, I was overly concerned about the impression they would get from my typical relaxed approach to tidying. At this age, I've come to realize that anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to use the door at which they'd entered. 

 

4 What is one thing you admire about someone you know, that they might not even realize? What specific qualities or actions do you find deeply inspiring or attractive? 

    someone I worked with at an earlier job has become an even closer friend since I left that company. We both make a special effort to get together once a month or so. We meet for lunch—inevitably starving because we've so been looking forward to the lunch itself—and spend an hour or two eating, talking, laughing, reminiscing, making fun, and generally behave like children. She never fails to ask me about stuff that was important to me during our last conversation, which I find touching and kind. She really listens. 

 

5 What’s one thing your partner does (or a past partner did) that you secretly wish they wouldn’t?

    small talk, sometimes quite vehemently and at length. Turns out I'm kinda Swedish...

 

6 Have you ever forgiven someone who hurt you deeply? How did it change your perspective on love? 

    ha! Yes, I forgave someone who hurt me deeply. It was detailed in this post. How did it change my perspective on love? It caused a sea-change. Trust is more difficult, understanding is strained, forgiveness is unlikely, and solitude is by far preferable to opening up to that sort of betrayal again. 

 

7 What does it take to make you feel emotionally safe and vulnerable? 

    ironic to encounter this question right after the last.

    • being listened to, without interruptions

    • only gentle teasing, never making fun

    • being remembered, and worth remembering (see #4 above) 

    • reciprocal sharing, so it's not one-sided vulnerability

    • the ability to be silent sometimes

 

 [from here and adapted; the title quotation is by Robert Greene, from The 48 Laws of Power]

our siblings are friends gifted to us by fate

1 Which work-related app or tool could you not live without? 

    it seems strange to say this: the Note Pad accessory. It is faster to launch, and bypasses a lot of the crankier Microsquish programs that are updating, needing updates, wonky, or mysteriously "down" when needed.  

 

2 If you had no choice about whether to do it, with whom would you most like to swap lives for a week? 

     one of the pets living in the household of a grade-school friend. Never has any living being been so utterly pampered.

 

3 Who in your family would you turn to if you were in trouble and why? 

    my brother. I went through something truly awful a couple of weeks ago, and he was the first person I thought of, to call for help. To say that he was willing and able is such an understatement, I'm in tears just thinking about it. 

    If I had to choose the one best aspect of returning to my hometown a few years ago, it's getting to know and appreciate my big brother in a whole new way. 

 

4 Who among your colleagues do you think has the best sense of humor? 

     in very different ways, it's a tie between Blackbeard (the ex-military, concert-loving, goofy and casual coworker) and Lord Farquaad (my almost painfully laid-back, low-key, easily-frustrated immediate supervisor). Blackbeard is in his 30s and all communications with him reflect that—no caps or punctuation, a little silly at times but mostly quite sensitive. Farquaad is in his 40s, more of a meme-er, and a lot like me in his habits and interests. 

    Blackbeard often leaves me smiling (at the time, and later when I recall our conversations). Farquaad makes me laugh.  

 

5 Have you ever ghosted someone you were dating and why? 

    first, let me be very clear: I did not ghost him, and we weren't dating.

    What is a relationship called, where adults are spending time together as time allows, not going places out together but staying in, talking about old times and what's new in their lives, sharing concerns and triumphs and ruminations? Where they are more likely to take up "their half of the couch" with a beer and a blanket than to wrestle about, dramatically? It's not exactly friendship, certainly not dating, and both more or less than either?

    I wanted the dating part, too, though. He wanted more immediate access, and was definitely more the talker than the listener. Neither of us quite got what we wanted, then—or, more accurately, each got what we wanted and wanted more of it, which was not feasible to the other. We genuinely like each other, which makes all the rest of this even more stupid than it would have been.  We persisted in hammering away at each others' nerves and resolve. It came to a head one day when he was particularly insistent, which was so totally the opposite of what I was feeling; for reasons I no longer recall, I was sobbing when I received his usual, playful message (ramped up 50% due to his particularly boisterous mood). I sat with the phone in my hand and tried to come up with a response that was not: a. melodramatic (since crying was not part of our communication repertoire); b. mean (because there was no way for him to have known that my world had just tilted); or c. incomprehensible (as, at times like that, language sometimes fails). Overwhelmed by whatever had me crying in the first place, overlain with the struggle to answer in a way that made sense ... I didn't answer. 

    Then, later, it seemed too late to explain.

    In my conscious mind, I wasn't ready for the arrangement to be totally over, but upon reflection prehaps my subconscious was standing up for my deeper emotional needs. I wish it hadn't ended, and especially that it hadn't ended that way.

 

6 How do you feel about the balance of give and take in a relationship? 

    it's not a fixed ratio. In the best case, it slides back and forth as things come up and circumstances demand. 

 

7 What do you think is your sibling's most admirable quality? 

    helpfulness. That's easy for me to say, given that I am often on the receiving end of it. It is his willingness to be available to our parents, though, that means the most. The two of us "share responsibility" to meet our parents' needs, as we are both local. I generally do the little stuff—bringing in the mail when they are away, troubleshooting technology, and joining extended family excursions now and then—while my brother takes care of the bigger stuff, like yard maintenance (they live on a ridiculous, hilly lot with loads of vegetation needing corralling), hauling & fetching, and for playing the Bad Cop as regards both parents' acquisition leanings. My job is busy and complicated, but nowhere near the amount of time or degree of involvement of my brother's. He also has a family. His openness to prioritizing our parents means a lot.

 

[from here, divided and adapted; the title quotation is by John Joclebs Bassey, from Night of a Thousand Thoughts]

after five days of agonizing pain, the cobra died

Average rating: 7

Gorgeous {Boh lei chun} (1999) - "Young and beautiful Bu (Shu Qi) finds a romantic message in a bottle near her family restaurant in Taiwan. On a whim, she flies to Hong Kong to meet her potential soul mate, who turns out to be Albert (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), a gay makeup artist pining for his ex. Taking pity on the girl, he brings her to his workplace, where she falls for the wealthy and lonely C.N. Chan (Jackie Chan). But when Chan's lifelong enemy, Lo (Emil Chow), discovers Chan's new happiness, he decides to ruin things."
length: 2 hours, 1 minute

source: I borrowed the DVD from the public library
I watched it because: I love Tony Leung Chui Wai, and am becoming more of a fan of Jackie Chan
IMDB: 6.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 56%
my IMDB: 9/10

MPAA rating: PG-13

notable quote: "'I'm confused! I think I'm in love.'

    'Well, love is just a state of mind, more fantasy than truth. Love is like a radiant dream that quickly turns into an ugly nightmare.'"

directed by: Vincent Kok

my notes: this movie is amazing! I laughed out loud several times, at least once needing to pause the DVD while I brought myself back under control. Shu Qi (Bu) is wonderful, realistically conveying the young, silly Bu's growth and changes. Tony Leung Chui Wai is WAY funnier than I'd ever realized, terrific with physical comedy (not much of a surprise, given his many awesome action roles), and hilariously deadpan as Albert, the reluctant sidekick. I was surprised and impressed by Bradley James Allan (Alan), the hired fighter. 

    And Jackie Chan is really, really good. My mind had opened to him when I first saw Little Big Soldier (2010; reviewed here) and my admiration has grown over time. He produced, co-wrote, and co-stunt coordinated the film, in addition to starring. 

NOTE: this is only the second movie I've loved so much that, while I was watching it, I bought a copy for myself.  

overall: very highly recommended

 

The Expendables 2 (2012) - "Mercenary leader Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and the rest of the Expendables team reunite when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) hires them for a seemingly easy job. But things go terribly wrong, compelling the mercenaries to seek revenge for a comrade's murder. With the odds against them, Barney and his team are hell-bent on payback and cut a path of destruction through opposing forces, only to encounter an unexpected threat: six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium."
length: 1 hour, 43 minutes

source: I borrowed the set through the public library
I watched it because: I want to see the series
IMDB: 6.6/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 68% Audience: 67%
my IMDB: 7/10

MPAA rating: R

notable quote: "'You don't talk about him much.'

    'No, that's how we deal with death. Can't change what it is so we keep it light until it's time to get dark—and then we get pitch black.'"

directed by: Simon West

my notes: a tour of action stars, old and new. Liam Hemsworth is surprisingly good as Billy. Chuck Norris! Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jet Li and Jason Statham. Mmmmm

    It's not the best story ever, or the most easy to follow, but it's exciting and entertaining, with some terrific effects.  

overall:  recommended

Stalag 17 (1953) - "One night in 1944 in a German POW camp housing American airmen, two prisoners try to escape the compound and are quickly discovered and shot dead. Among the remaining men, suspicion grows that one of their own is a spy for the Germans. All eyes fall on Sgt. Sefton (William Holden) who everybody knows frequently makes exchanges with German guards for small luxuries. To protect himself from a mob of his enraged fellow inmates, Sgt. Sefton resolves to find the true traitor within their midst."
length: 2 hours

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library

I watched it because: I like William Holden and was looking for something in WWII
IMDB: 7.9/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 91% Audience: 92%
my IMDB: 7/10

MPAA rating: Approved

notable quote: "Is there anything in the Geneva Convention that'll let a guy sleep?"

directed by: Billy Wilder

my notes: well, it's WWII and William Holden. It's also a comedy (?) and very noisy. Holden was good, though this wasn't his best or most comfortable role. I liked Neville Brand (Duke), Gil Stratton (Cookie), and Don Taylor (Dunbar). It's a good story, and worth seeing. 

Academy Award winner:
• Best Actor—Holden
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Supporting Actor—Robert Strauss

• Best Director—Wilder
overall:  recommended

Taking Lives (2004) - "An insidious serial killer is impersonating his victims' identities as he travels across Canada. A recent spate of murders in Montreal has brought FBI Agent Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) north to investigate. Scott's unusual methods quickly earn the suspicion of the local police but bring her close to art dealer James Costa (Ethan Hawke), who says he was an eyewitness to the latest murder. Sparks develop between the two as Costa's role becomes crucial in their effort to apprehend the killer."
length: 1 hour, 43 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library
I watched it because: I'm on the hunt for Tchécky Karyo movies
IMDB: 6.2/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 22% Audience: 54%
my IMDB: 5/10

MPAA rating: R

notable quote: "'What kind of gun did he have?'

    'He had the kind that leaves really big holes in people.'"

directed by: D.J. Caruso

my notes: is there a term for mystery, suspense, thriller movies that rest entirely on bizarre and elaborate coincidences? 

    The quote that I shared is typical of this script: wince-inducing, pathetic, and bland. Jolie's Ileana is mesmerizing but tedious. Ethan Hawke is either really good (e.g. in Dead Poets Society [1989, reviewed here and elsewhere], Before the Devil Knows You're Dead [2007, reviewed here]) or terrible, and just guess which one this is? I liked Oliver Martinez as the meathead Paquette, and especially Jean-Hugues Anglade as Duval. Karyo was good, though wasted in the small role of the wistful Leclair. 

    Roger Ebert's review is here, by which I am terribly amused: 

This keeps reading like a negative review. I’ve got to get a grip on myself. See, I like movies that make me ask goofy questions..., as long as they absorb and entertain me, and have actors who can go the distance.

overall: marginally recommended

 

[the title quotation is from The Expendables 2]

my eyes half envision you

This has become of and not of; or we can only know 

another’s pain from their verbal or physical action; or 

you have to open your eyes before you can close them. 

 

I believe in the new measurements: 

a tablespoon of hair, an inch of blood. 

 

You’ll want to write this down. 

 

Kissing him was not intuitive. 

Slicing open a fish was not intuitive. 

To kiss him while he sliced 

open a fish was intuitive. 

 

I read somewhere that pilots see better, in part, because they are asked to. 

 

Later, I’ll remember it as: A girl pretends she is lost so strangers 

will go door to door with her, 

seeking her apartment. My mother pretends not to know me. 

 

My eyes half envision you, but 

the way you appeared to me, roughly, is not sacred. 

Pretend you weren’t asked here at all. 

 

 [Pavneet Singh, 'Letter 6']

absence unfathomable becomes something I can carry

'Dead Reckoning' 

 

to estimate one’s position 

without instruments 

or celestial observations 

 

calculating direction and distance 

traveled from the last known fix 

while accounting for tides, currents, grief 

 

drift     numbness 

sudden storms of pain 

unexpected joy 

 

to reckon is to believe 

something true 

to reckon with the dead 

 

is to believe I can know them 

an airy thinness 

gleaming 

 

despite 

the distance 

traveled 

 

I’d like to know how far 

I’ve gone 

how much farther there is 

 

to go         how absence 

unfathomable 

becomes 

 

something I can carry 

 

[Hyejung Kook, 'Dead Reckoning']

your lucky ring stinks

Average rating: 5, though more fairly it would be an average of 8 + two ignorable crappy craps

Lust for Gold (1949) - "During the 1870s, the ruthless Jacob Walz (Glenn Ford) becomes very wealthy after locating a legendary Arizona gold mine and securing sole ownership by murdering his partner. Walz then travels to Phoenix, where he catches the attention of a beautiful and crafty woman named Julia Thomas (Ida Lupino), who has learned of his exploits. Eventually, Walz falls in love with Julia, unaware that she's already married to Pete (Gig Young), who is eyeing his fortune."
length: 1 hour, 30 minutes

source: I bought the DVD
I watched it because: I like Glenn Ford and am trying to his more highly-rated films
IMDB: 6.8/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: N/A% Audience: 67%
my IMDB: 1/10 🦃

MPAA rating: Approved

directed by: S. Sylvan Simon

my notes: yuck! The characters are flat, and none of them is likable or compelling. Ford's Walz is handsome and rugged and abhorrent. Ida Lupino was not a good actress, and Julia was not a good role.     3 thumbs down.

overall: not  recommended

 

The Expendables (2010) - "Mercenary leader Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his loyal men take on what they think is a routine assignment: a covert operation to invade the South American country of Vilena and overthrow its dictator. But, when they learn that the job will be a suicide mission, they must choose redemption or the destruction of their brotherhood."
length: 1 hour, 43 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD (set) through the public library
I watched it because: I haven't seen the 4th film in the series and wanted to watch them all, close together, beforehand

    previously reviewed here (I've seen it at least four times)
IMDB: 6.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 42% Audience: 64%
my IMDB: 7/10

MPAA rating: R

notable quote: "'Come on. Why don't you man up? Jesus! She wasn't your type.'

    'Why don't you keep saying "She wasn't my type?", so I could put a bullet in your bleak brain! Look who I'm taking to: Dracula's life coach. No wonder you're alone.'" 

directed by: Sylvester Stallone

my notes: this viewing spurred a rare increase in rating for me. This film is fun, fast, fresh, and just complicated enough to be interesting but not so complicated that one loses the thread. I especially like Jason Statham's Lee Christmas character, and the fact that he was caught on film actually laughing, twice! (He's more of a smirker.) Jet Li is amazing (as the unfortunately named Yin Yang), realistically conveying plucky + kick ass + intimidated when faced with death. 

    (My only quibble is that the one-DVD set doesn't have closed captioning. Annoying.) 

overall:  recommended

GoldenEye (1995) - "When a powerful satellite system falls into the hands of Alec Trevelyan, AKA Agent 006 (Sean Bean), a former ally-turned-enemy, only James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) can save the world from an awesome space weapon that—in one short pulse—could destroy the earth! As Bond squares off against his former compatriot, he also battles Trevelyan's stunning ally, Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), an assassin who uses pleasure as her ultimate weapon."
length: 2 hours, 10 minutes

source: I borrowed the DVD through the public library
I watched it because: one of my faves is in it
IMDB: 7.2/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 80% Audience: 83%
my IMDB: 3/10

MPAA rating: PG-13

notable quote: "Oh, grow up, 007."

directed by: Martin Campbell

my notes: good GOD, are these movies dumb or what?! I liked two things about it: Tchécky Karyo as Defense Minister Mishkin (one of the few gray-area roles in this film) and Famke Janssen as the completely deranged Xenia Onatopp. It's fun to watch that lunatic, though even that gets old after a while. This movie is also way too freakin' long. 

    Roger Ebert's review is here, which I think is too kind.

overall: not  recommended

The Palm Beach Story (1942) - "Married New Yorkers Tom and Geraldine Jeffers love each other, but money, or lack thereof, is causing problems in their marriage. Tom, an ideas man, needs $99,000 to finance his latest project—the working model of a suspended airport—money which no one is willing to provide. Gerry is feeling like a burden around her husband's neck as she, self-professed, has no marketable economic skills beyond her feminine wiles. So Gerry decides unilaterally to run off to Palm Beach, Florida and give Tom a divorce. Without money, she uses those feminine wiles to finesse her way to Palm Beach via train and yacht. One of those that assists her on her journey is extremely wealthy, single and straight-laced John D. Hackensacker III. Gerry thinks that John may be the answer to Tom's financial backing worries. So when Tom follows Gerry down to Palm Beach, she introduces him to John not as her soon to be ex-husband but rather her single brother, Captain McGlew, who John renames Mac. But with Mac being single and handsome, John's flamboyant and man-hungry sister Maude, also known as the Princess Centimillia, thinks she's found her next husband, just as John thinks he's found his future wife."

length: 1 hour, 28 minutes

source: I own the DVD
I watched it because: I hadn't seen it in a while, and it was the perfect fit for a day of mind-numbing work

    previously reviewed here
IMDB: 7.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 97% Audience: 81%
my IMDB: 9/10

AFI: 100 Years…100 Laughs (2000) #77

MPAA rating: Approved

notable quote: "Right now I don't like you, although I may get over it later."

directed by: Preston Sturges

my notes: this is such a charming film! Joel McCrea is realistically lovelorn, and just a big handsome lug of a man. Claudette Colbert has an unusual look for a lead, but she does it well. Mary Astor is such a sophisticated lady, so this performance as the brassy Centimillia is particularly funny. And Rudy Vallee... what a cutie, and what a voice! 

overall: highly recommended

 

[the title quotation is from The Expendables]

see what you can recall from our brief years

When my keen fury fades 

and time has blurred these eyes, 

after your grief subsides 

and tactile memory goes, 

can you recapture me? 

Each year in a private hour 

visit the rock-edged sea 

where winds across the shore 

blow as they used to blow 

and in the rhythmic swell 

you hear old poems. Now 

see what you can recall 

from our brief years that still 

beat like a wave-struck bell. 

 

[Jan Schreiber {1941- } 'What's Left', from Peccadilloes]

if you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine

1 How particular are you about the maintenance of your car? 

    I vehemently loathe everything about car maintenance. For a while, when I was newly single, took some pride in taking care of it all on my own and on time if not early. I would spend Saturday mornings getting an oil change, taking it to the car wash, and even vacuuming the interior. Now I can barely be bothered to pay attention when it squawks for new oil or to chisel the bugs off the windshield.  

 

2 What's your strongest sense? 

        indignation 

 

3 How many different conversations can you adequately carry on at the same time? 

    that depends on your definition of "adequately." Most workdays I'm actively involved in at least three different Teams chats, one of which is almost entirely personal. I have text threads going with several family and friends, including the work person referenced above. I communicate by FB Messenger with two friends almost daily and a handful of others quite regularly. 

    And only once, that I can remember, have I sent a message to the wrong recipient. I guess that means I can handle it fine.

 

4 Do you ever double- or triple-check things? 

     sure, in lots of situations—that I've set my alarm, before going to sleep; that there's no traffic coming before moving out of an obscured spot when walking or driving; that an eBay package is properly addressed; and that it's the correct day to take my migraine shot

5 Do you read or study best in silence or in a place with background noise? 

    oh, blessed silence! How I love thee.

    Despite some evidence to the contrary (see, e.g., my answer to #3, above), my brain works best when allowed to focus.

 

6 What's one thing you would rather pay someone to do than do yourself? 

    heck yeah. Painting walls; anything relating to plumbing or electricity; auto maintenance; grocery shopping and delivery; or washing and detailing cars. I'd love to add cooking, cleaning (especially windows and floors ... and bathrooms), laundry, and general errands, but one needs must be realistic. 

 

7 What one word sums up your high school experience? 

    fun.  

    I'm not saying "those were the best years of my life," just that I liked more than I disliked about school, the people I was with, and the way it all turned out. 

 

[from The Complete Book of Questions : 1001 Conversation Starters for Any Occasion; the title quotation is from Ernesto 'Che' Guevara]