Movie Mondays

A recap of this weeks screenings.  Proof in writing that I watch too many films.


Victory (1996): Slightly suspenseful love story in exotic local.  This had been moldering in my queue for months and I'm glad I finally watched it.  Love Sam Neill, but he played a bit of a creep!

My Life so Far (1999): Scottish family character study set in the turn of the century.  Beautifully filmed and acted well.  A quality production, even if it lagged and dragged in areas.  Colin Firth stood out, of course, but if you like this genre you will probably recognize several faces.

Lost in La Mancha (2002):  This is one of the most depressing films I've seen since Sophie's Choice.. well not that bad but a big bummer for sure.  I love Terry Gilliam and I hate to see him sad :(  This is a film about the making of a film (Don Quixote).

Night of the Comet (1984):  A comet hits earth and those left have a lot to deal with.  This 80s zombie (kind of?) flick was probably my favorite screening of the week.  Low budget, under the radar, not too gory, not many cheap scares, and several scenes that more than earn it the status as a cult film.

Night of the Comet

Captain America, The First Avenger (2011): Action and adventure comic book flick- with a good looking lead and a fun storyline.  My husband and I watched this movie the other night and had a good time.  The effects weren't awful either.

Starcrossed (1985):  Made for TV movie about an alien lady and an earthling guy and their desperate flight from many baddies.  Lots of fades in and out where there used to be commercial breaks, WAY too many scenes that reference unnecessarily/ glorify automobiles (produced by Gulf Western- did that have something to do with it?).  This movie was painfully bad in several areas, but I do love a young James Spader!

Beverly Hills Cop (1984): Fun cop revenge action story.  Eddie Murphy is good and there are many funny characters that pop up throughout.  Plus the opening scene with the police chase is probably the most impressive and destructive I have seen--- this was 1984, and there are no fancy computer tricks, just demolition derby style mayhem!

Superstar (1999):  SNL film based on a popular skit.  Sigh... know when you watch a movie you liked as a kid and it is truly awful.  Welcome to my experience when watching Superstar.  If I'm being honest, I mopped my floors while most of this played.  Just really bad... not funny at all.

Tommy Boy (1995):  Chris Farley being Chris Farley in all his Farley goodness (at his peek in this one maybe?).  I hadn't seen this film in years, but of course when it came out it was hugely popular.  A solid 90s comedy with some lol parts.

Of Dolls and Murder (2012): Documentary on the Nutshell Studies, which are a series of doll house dioramas based on actual unsolved murder cases.  They were made by a millionaire lady who had an unfulfilled desire to be a detective and so constructed these doll houses to help police officers hone their skills.  These are beyond creepy.. I could have done with less modern day forensics and more about the doll houses.

Comedians of Comedy live at the Troubadour (2007):  This beast of a comedy show features 10 plus comedians assembled by Patton Oswald for a night of stand up.  It's over two hours long and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998): Captain Picard heads up a Star Trek adventure.  I don't really know any of the characters in these Star Treks, as I'm a TOS girl, but this was watchable. I felt I missed a lot of the jokes because I haven't seen any of the Picard TV shows.

Merton: A film Biography (1984):  Documentary on the famous mystic monk Thomas Merton.  This struck a chord with me, and I think I'll get one of his books to read.  Interesting man.

Masquerade (1988): A suspense thriller starring Rob Lowe.  This was so-so, but to the film's credit, I thought I had the plot figured out but didn't!  Lots of glorification of consumerism, but hey- it was the 80s!

Neverland (2011):  British miniseries about Peter Pan.  OK, so it's made for a young audience but still- It was way too long and boring and and dragged on and was repetitive and painful.  And by the end I honestly did not care what happened to the characters, even though I had invested about three hours of my very divided attention into the thing.

Shooting Creek (1995):  A very low budget and sometimes awkwardly acted film set in the south right after the civil war.  There were parts of this movie I enjoyed; there were a lot of good horse chase scenes and I have been in a western mood.  But I didn't really relate to the main character and like I said, there was some pretty bad acting-- main union soldier guy, I'm talking to you!

Stiff Upper Lips (1998):  A cheeky, irreverent spoof of the period piece film genre and some novels.  Since I love British period pieces, I enjoyed this satire on them.  Some of the scenes are very naughty ;)

Stiff Upper Lips

Buskers (2000):  Documentary about street performers.  Pretty straight forward and not too in depth-- you don't get too personal with any of the performers, the very opposite of a film like Confessions of a Superhero.  This was a good background noise movie.

More Business of Being Born (2008):  This series of films will stick with me for a long time.  It's a follow up documentary about the trends of modern maternity care.  It blew my mind in a lot of ways.  My opinion (coming from complete inexperience) is that I think we are going down a weird and probably unsafe path in the ways woman give birth.

Marilyn in Manhattan (1998):  A documentary about a period in Marilyn Monroe's life.  Came out in the late 90s and is good but doesn't have many frills.  A few good interviews but in general pretty mediocre.

Jackass Number 2 (2006):  Honestly, what can I say about this movie?  If you've seen any Jackass, you know what you are getting in to.




This concludes this week's screenings.  I hope some of these films seemed interesting enough for you to check out.  I watch movies almost exclusively on Netflix instant streaming, and you can find most of the films there.

Thank you for reading!