Movies Watched -- Flight (2012)

138 minute running time which means it was 40 minutes too long…. way way way too long. Denzel as alcoholic airline pilot, makes miraculous crash landing, but people still die. Story about the aftermath. I wasn’t thrilled. And it was way too long, did I mention that? Heavy on the heart string violin music. Beautiful skinny redheaded heroin addict gets in the picture. Boring. And how would it have worked if the pilot were white? Audience similarly sympathetic? Give it a miss.

The call of the minibar

Movies Watched -- Female Trouble (1974)

97 minute running time, so the perfect length, but this is John Waters so you have to be in the mood for it… seems very tame now, but in 1974 this must have been off the scales insane … it is funny, but it’s also sick sick sick, hilariously so … I have no idea how this movie was shown in the 1970s? Was it shown exclusively in porno theaters? It’s not that there’s graphic sex, it’s just that it’s so absurdly obscene, it couldn’t be distributed in any conventional way. Cult classic viewers only please.

From Dick Brody’s brief review: “Waters smashes the bowdlerizing codes of Hollywood morality with self-consciously delirious parodies of classic Hollywood genres and tropes; the resulting feast of sex, violence, cruelty, and frivolity mocks sentimental notions of family, work, and love, and turns the egomaniacal furies of pop culture inside out.“

Divine, wearing skidmarked underwear no doubt.

Movies Watched -- Midnight Run (1988)

127 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long … this wasn’t terrible, but they tried to cram in too much stuff and made it overly long and ruined what could have been a wonderful movie … some scenes are great, very funny, Grodin plays a great straight man, you can see that he makes De Niro laugh when the script doesn’t call for it. But there was too much profanity and the ending was predictable. Yellow rating at best.

Hal Hinson’s correct review: “Oscar and Felix on the road. Grodin is the overfastidious, nagging wife to De Niro's chain-smoking, junk-food-eating slob husband.“

Why were you unpopular in the Chicago police department?

Movies Watched -- The Gambler (2014)

101 minute running time so the perfect length, but this movie was no good … Marky Mark playing an English professor! / rich kid with a gambling problem. Gets in debt to both the Korean mob and Chalky White. Beautiful mom (Jessica Lange) tries to bail him out to the tune of $260K but he blows that too. Eventually has to seek bailout from mobster John Goodman wearing a fat suit. Scenes with Goodman are the best since he always has fun with his characters. Sub-plot about love affair with one of his students (Brie Larson). Sports betting, double crossing, blah blah. Re-born a free man followed by a run across town.

Why the movie is no good … it’s just not that interesting in the end, who cares? — gambling / self-destructive stories never holds any interest, even to people who gamble and are self-destructive. RottenTomatoes actually gets one right with a 44% fresh rating. Rex correctly called it a “wet battery.”

Hair over ears is Marky’s professorial look

Movies Watched -- Seven Days in May (1963)

117 minute running time so around 20 minutes too long. Another Frankenheimer movie after being wowed by Seconds … imagining a military coup in the US … Kirk Douglas and his cleft chin save the day, aided by a number of tall WASPs with silver hair. Nice to see Ava Gardner, who aged very well. Propaganda for the status quo. It’s interesting, Frankenheimer way ahead of his time, but I’m not going to give it a vaunted green rating.

We’re a nation of laws, of rules

Movies Watched -- The Iceman (2013)

105 minute running time so they could have shaved five minutes off. Mob movie (you know, Ray Liotta, Robert Davi) about a Polish-American hit man in the 1960s/70s/80s played by 6’ 3” Michael Shannon, who always does a good psychopath. Nona Horowitz plays his wife and I’ve always loved her. It’s a well made movie, good production values, but it’s depressing … deeply depressing, nothing glamorous about it, no humor to leaven the violence. For some reason I hesitate to give it a green rating, but it’s a solid yellow (consider) for sure.

Rex liked it, but bungles some of the details (forex not stock market, Schwimmer the courier killer) as usual.

Doesn’t kill women or children

Movies Watched -- D.O.A. (1950)

83 minute running time so the perfect length, but this was a convoluted story, and ultimately dumb. I guess it’s “classic noir,” but I wasn’t thrilled. Best part was seeing the old Bradbury building. Give it a miss.

A correct review.

Luminous poisoning

Baby's Born to Run

Love the sound … Pacific Northwest hipster central (casting). Major bonus points for the clarinetist.

http://KEXP.ORG presents Mega Bog performing "Diary Of Fight (It Was Long, Long, Long)" live in the KEXP studio. Recorded August 19, 2015. Host: DJ Sharlese Audio Engineer: Kevin Suggs Cameras: Jim Beckmann, Scott Holpainen & Justin Wilmore Editor: Justin Wilmore http://kexp.org

Movies Watched -- Player 5150 (2008)

91 minute running time, so the perfect length, but this was a badly made, low-budget movie … dumb story, bad acting, so-so production values. Supposedly about a day trader with a gambling addiction (something I’m familiar with), but the guy was a stockbroker or “investment advisor" as they’re now called, not a day trader. And he was a sports bettor, something I know nothing about. Bad movie, waste of time, only stick with the best.

Trying to get back to even

Movies Watched -- Seconds (1966)

107 minute running time so could have trimmed seven minutes, but this one was a mind-bender, a real thrill ride, I enjoyed it. Boring banker “re-born” as Rock Hudson, groovy Malibu artist, not a bad start. Mid-60s so heavy dose of anti-materialism, anti-conformity, anti-authority … the trouble with squares. Guy who made Mad Men definitely a fan of this movie. I don’t know why I haven’t heard of it before, it must be a well-known classic. Recommended.

We get along.