Maybe It's Me

Maybe it's me or does anyone else find that much of the current crop of much touted movies suck?

I heard so much about "Ides of March" with the current heartthrobs George Clooney (which for the life of me I fail to see his sex appeal) and Ryan Gosling (which I definitely DO see his sex appeal).  So I'm all geared up to watch this highly rated movie in my Bedroom Movie Theatre on my 60 inch Sharp flat screen TV and what do I see and hear?  A darkly lit movie (I thought my TV needed adjustment), mumble dialogue (whatever happened to actors clearly enunciating words?) and a story line that I CANNOT follow.  As much as I like Ryan Gosling his romantic suavo lothario act is starting to wear on me.

One of my all time favorite actors Phillip Seymour Hoffman is in this movie and I couldn't understand what his character was about.  And I don't even know the female "actors" (as ACTRESSES like to be called now days).  I was bored out of my skull fifteen minutes into this movie.  I ejected it out of my DVD player and reached for my next Netflix rental, "Kiss the Girls."

Again, two good actors:  Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman.  Again, I encountered the same problem.  Dark lighting, mumbled dialogue and hard to follow story.  Even worse, this movie was obviously made by someone who hates women.  I'm not into women being beaten, humiliated and degraded.  That may turn on some movie goers but not this movie goer.  As I've said many times before, I'm not a Broadway Showtune Gay Guy (never GOT that Gay Gene) but I do like a good movie.  A little violence doesn't bother me but when it is gratuitous, THAT bothers me.  And believe me, I know when it is GRATUITOUS.

I would rent one of these stupid ass ROM-COMS (romantic comedies) but I can't seem to find a good movie there either.  The last good movie I saw was "The Help."  I saw it THREE TIMES in the span of three days.

Maybe it is JUST ME.  What do you think?

The Help

Remember what good movies used to be like?  You fell in love with the characters (or hate)?  You became totally absorbed in the stories and when the movie ended you felt like a better person?

So few movies like that these days.  I can't tell you how many movies I've gotten from Netflix, only to eject them from my DVD recorder because they were too violent, stupid and offensive (like "The Bridesmaids"), or poorly cast (why is Brad Pitt in just about EVERY major movie).

Last night was the exception.  I watched "The Help".  I had heard a lot about this movie and frankly, was expecting an overly sentimental version of "Poor Blacks Mistreated By Evil Whites."  Well, I'm glad to say I was WRONG.

This movie had everything.  Perfect casting from Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Allison Janney, and (surprise of all surprises) Bryce Dallas Howard; daughter of the former child actor and now successful director Ronnie Howard!  I didn't know who she was until the end of the film.  Boy was I surprised because usually children of actors aren't that good.  Bryce has it!

One of my biggest disappointments in movies is that movies that have a good story are poorly cast.  Studios usually go with the tried and true so as not to take any chances with the box office.  This movie, all the casting was perfect even down to the smallest role.  This is so unlike American movies.  I usually only see balanced casting like this in foreign made films, especially British films.  It was so refreshing to see the American actors in this film not be threatened by the smaller roles played by excellent actors and actresses.

Which brings up another point I want to make.  I didn't realize until I was finished watching this movie that it was a "Woman's Movie."  All the major roles are women!  I loved it.  Not that there weren't some good male roles too but they were minor.

The Academy Award suspense is over-
Octavia Spencer - Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis - Best Actress

And another tip of my hat  to the casting director because she (or he) got the two young male parts just right.  Both of the guys are Southern Eye Candy.  I grew up in the Sixties (not in the South) but My Bill (my partner) is from the South (Georgia).

Bill grew up in the late Twenties and Thirties.  Not the time period of this film but his household also had a black housekeeper who he loved.  When Bill grew up he left home and joined the service.  He was in the service for nine years until he had to leave to take care of his ailing mother.  After her funeral he suggested to his family that they give his mother's old cloths to their former maid.  His sister vehemently protested. I won't repeat what she said but it was as bad as you could imagine.

Bill left Georgia and his family that day and returned home to the North (New Jersey) where he lived at that time. I met him about a year later (1964).  When I met him he said he had no family. It wasn't until many years later that I found out why.  He had cut off communication with his family because of that ugly incident.

He probably won't like me putting this on my blog and I'll probably have to take it out when he reads it but I feel responsible for putting it out there that not all white folks in the South had the attitude towards 'the help" that Hilly had in this movie.  I am proud to say that this is the man I have lived with for the past forty-seven years, a man of character.

Hilly would not have liked him.

Film Noir Bad Girls

Recently a fellow blogger posted about the death of a couple of 40's B-list movie stars.  I'm always sad to see this part of my personal history plus American history pass by.  

Back in the late 40's and early 50's I used to go to the local movie house down the street from where I lived in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  The movie house was called the Roosevelt Theater.  It was formerly the Downingtown Opera house, something which I did not discover until many years later when a childhood friend sent me a picture of it when it was an opera house.

Back in those days the price of admission for a kid under 12 years of age was 15 cents.  I dreaded reaching the "adult" age of 12 and over because then I would have to pay a whole 45 cents.  An astronomical sum in those days for a poor kid running around barefoot all summer.  

Some of my fondest memories was seeing the black and white films called film noir.  Of course I didn't know what film noir meant back in those days.  I only knew that the action in most of these films usually took place at nighttime.  They were almost always dark unless the scene was in a smoky nightclub with sparkling, sequined encrusted dresses of the females actresses.  Of course all the men, including the Bad Guy, wore suits and hats.  Even then I knew that wasn't real.  All I ever saw my father wear was a sweaty, grease streaked T-shirt.  Where was the reality?  But when I watched these films I was transported into another world, a world of Dames.  Hard, wise-cracking, no-nonsense Dames.  It was wonderful!

Of course we all know the Usual Suspects:  Bette, Joan and Barbara.  No, I'm talking about those Other Dames.  You've all seen them but perhaps don't know there names. Well, here they are in all their film noir glory.  Ladies please:

Ruth Roman

Lizabeth Scott               

Marie Windsor

Patricia Medina

Hillary Brooke

Beverly Michaels

Gone Baby Gone

Last night I watched "Gone Baby Gone."  This was the actor Ben Afleck's directorial debut.  I didn't like the movie.  It was a muddled mess.  Plus, Ben put his brother Casey Afleck in the starring role.  Big time family nepotism here Ben.  Hey Ben, it didn't work.  The supporting actors from Edd Harris and Morgan Freeman acted circles around the almost unintelligible Casey.  And that brings up the question, what is it with so many movies today that you can't even understand what the actors are saying?  I'm all for realism but when they're mumbling and whispering and speaking in a heavy accent (Boston in Casey's case), you almost need subtitles.


But one good thing I got from this movie.  A title for today's blog posting.


Yesterday I called my mortgage company.  I called to ask them to prepare a payoff statement of my mortgage.  Yes folks that's right, I'm paying off my mortgage.  As of October 15th, I will no longer have a mortgage.  I will be a free man!


One of my earliest goals in life was to own my own home.  I grew up in second floor apartments.  We never had any land.


As I walked to the East Ward School on Washington Avenue in Downingtown, I always envied my school hood friends who had a backyard in which they could play in.  My brothers and I used to play down by the railroad tracks behind our apartment house on 120 Washington Avenue.  One of the constants I remember from my childhood was "Hey you kids!  What are you doing there?  Get out!"  


That about sums up my childhood....."Hey you kids.....get out!"  No summer camps for us, no Boy Scouts, no trips to "the shore."  Nope, just trying to find a little piece of earth where we could play Hide and Seek.


Bill and I brought our first house in Philadelphia in 1969.  We had a mortgage.  Our first goal was to get that mortgage paid off.  It took us seven years but we got it paid off.  That was a wonderful feeling.  In addition to being ahead of the game financially wise, we had our independence.  We didn't owe money to anybody.


When we sold our house in Philadelphia in 1980 and built a new one on 6.875 acres of land in East Brandywine Township, we paid cash.  We didn't have a mortgage.  For the next twenty five years we didn't have a mortgage.  We felt special.


The year 2006 arrives.  I decided that I want to build a new house and retire to Delaware near the shower.  This was my life long goal, to live near the water.


I did what I did the same thing as I did when we sold our house in Philadelphia and built the new one in Pennsylvania.  I got a swing loan to contract the our new house in Delaware.  I had no doubt that I would sell our Pennsylvania house quickly.  I was wrong.


I got caught in the housing market crises and couldn't sell our house in Pennsylvania.  I came thisclose to financial meltdown.  It was the worst time of my life.  Bill threatened to kill himself if he didn't sell our house in Pennsylvania.


I sold the house but at a loss.  I had to take a six figure mortgage, 30 year mortgage that would be paid off until I was 96 years old.  So here I was, back at GO again at this late stage of my life.


This is the burden I've been living with for the past four years, this mortgage hanging over my head.  I didn't realize how much it affected my life until this week when my financial circumstances changed and now I will be able to pay off my mortgage on October 15th.


Now I feel as if a great burden is being lifted from my shoulders.  That dark cloud that has been over my head these past four years is about to disappear.  Suddenly I have an interest in cleaning out my basement room which is still stuffed with unpacked boxes from our move four years ago.


I have a new spring to my step as I walk the boardwalk in Rehoboth.


Little things that were bothering me before suddenly seem small and unimportant now.


And I attribute this new dawn in my life to the fact in two weeks the my ball and chain that was my mortgage will be

 GONE BABY GONE  

HALLELUJAH!

A Tale of Two Movies

"Death at a Funeral" - American version

Last week I watched the movie "Death at a Funeral" with Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence.   I had high expectations for this movie because Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence are two of my favorite comedians.  It was one of the worse movies I've seen this year.


The problem wasn't with the stars.  The problem was with the writing and direction.  As is usually the case with American comedy movies, the writers feel that they have to telegraph the funny lines with a sledge hammer.  They don't know the meaning of subtleness.


Watching this movie, I felt like I was watching a cartoon produced for a five year old.  I was insulted.  I was bored.  I was angry that I wasted my time watching this dreck.


When I wrote the review on Netflix for the movie, I happened to read another review.  That review advised to watch the original English version of this movie.


That's what I did last night.  I watched "Death at a Funeral" that was made in 2007 in England with English actors.  What a difference!  Ironically many of the scenes were verbatim and much of the dialogue was the same.  However, the lines were delivered with a subtle, dry humor that most American actors and American made movies are incapable of producing.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching this English version of "Death at a Funeral" last night.  I had a lot of LOL moments.  Now that is what I call a funny movie.

"Death at a Funeral" - English version