Watched May, 2026.
For a B-grade flick, this is surprisingly funny, in a British, 1960s, cold war, space race kind of way. The comic twists and eccentric characters are ingenious. Margaret Rutherford rules! "What are the Russians doing? I think they're building a wall." "Don't forget to feed the bobolinks!"
Watched February, 2026.
Two groups of bad guys who think they are each right battle it out. The problem is that one group beats the other group. The moviemakers picked a side, which is politically commendable whether I agree or not, but real life is not so black and white.
Watched December, 2025.
The story is classic, though the first half is tough to endure due to Emma's heartless insults which, I suppose, are necessary to inspire the ultimately soaring romance. However, that's probably what it takes to set this apart from uninspired 21st-century romance stories. The settings and music are constantly magnificent, in contrast to the social ugliness.
Watched August, 2025.
Very impressive how this movie was not about obesity, really. Obesity is a factor, but the character was a person, not just fat. The missionary kid was just annoying and cost this movie a couple stars.
Watched June, 2025.
There were a couple of plot issues, like, when the young husband goes downstairs to Orlok's crypt, why does he push the cover off the casket? Really? I am not a big fan of movie vampires because they are always invulnerable, but if so, they would quickly wipe out every human in the world. However, for the pieces of this movie with some actual drama, they're well done.
Watched May, 2025.
This is a great 1950s (French) heist flick, with fantastic details on how the safe is cracked and the heist is accomplished, and then the aftermath when the thieves fence the jewels and attempt to hang on to the cash. The thieves had to circumvent the security and police tech, which were primitive (but not negligible) in 1955, but when you throw in a couple molls everything becomes beaucoup complicated.
It bugs me when a new movie is made in the 21st century but takes place in the past before modern tech. Cell phones and tech kill the plausibility of many 21st-century plots; an encrypted email cannot be hacked (no matter what you see on NCIS) and all catastrophes are solved by an easy phone call. Stick with Rififi: the characters are inherently just tough guys with no tech knowledge and it all just makes sense.
Watched April, 2025.
If there was one likeable character in the whole story, this might be rated higher. The acting was superb, but eventually, you just want all those miserable people to go their separate ways and stop bothering the rest of the world, including the people watching the movie, and including Oscar voters who chose this as Best Picture.
The Royal Wedding of Will and Kate
Watched 2011.
The family members looked great and the crowd behaved well. The Anglican Church of England let us down by not including a female priest.
Watched 2014.
It drags a bit for over an hour before finally divulging the scholars' conclusions, but it is an objective treatment of a topic that probably irks many Christians.
Watched 2024.
I can't really give more than an 8 to something that has no plot. Each episode is a vignette, but even in that short format, it would be nice to have more ongoing character development of certain recurring characters. Some episodes are great, some are OK. The recurring characters are endearing (even the mobsters and sex workers), but they don't evolve from episode to episode except in a couple rare cases.
Watched May, 2014.
Good effects, realistic production. Schmaltzy at times in that Spielberg way, and not as emotionally gripping as I had expected. Final episode was great.
Watched April 20. 2024.
The plot is a two-hour slog through the day-to-day life of a pre-industrial Polish farming community. The people dredge up as much drama as possible to make their lives anything more than drudgery. The plot is a 6/10.
But the joyful relief of the holidays, harvests and weddings is the point of this movie. We Americans each remember our cultural heritage because of how our ancestors celebrated the gift of life. The soundtrack consists of modern renditions of traditional music, and is breathtaking.
The live action video was painted over in an oil-painting style, then smoothed by software, to good effect.
Watched July, 2023.
You have to watch a few episodes to get to the good parts. I felt I could have read the script without seeing the video and that would have been just as enjoyable. I assumed for the first few episodes that the Christian elements were intended to be simply satirical and derogatory, but the last few episodes show a profound understanding of progressive Christianity.
Watched April 13, 2024
This is a well done telling of the Osage story. I liked the way the events were compared to the Tulsa race massacre. Gladstone was good, but she plays a monotone style that movies often use to portray Native Americans, so I'm not sure she was a historically good Oscar winner. Maybe just better than anyone else in 2023...
Watched August, 2023.
This series begins with well-acted, interesting plot complications. In episode 2, miracles occur to resolve the biggest complications. But, an interesting, deep exploration of enology (wine and wine-tasting).
Watched March, 2024.
This is the German version (subtitled in English) of The Interpreter of Silence. Considering this runs for five hours, characters were underdeveloped and their actions were always a surprise. To some extent, we are to be horrified by the indifference of all Germans to the Holocaust all around them, and the movie shows recognition only in the eyes of the next generation. But that seems like the moviemaker just didn't want to give any humanity to any German citizen, no matter what Germans actually might have felt.
Purchased February, 2023
The internet radio part is great. Thousands of stations are available and most begin streaming in a few seconds. A web site with station stream addresses uploads the settings to the IP address of the radio on your local area network (easy to use, just need to navigate the radio display occasionally if your router changes the IP address. Custom stream addresses can be added, but stream addresses can be hard to find, especially for iHeart stations. Four preset buttons is not enough, but many presets can be loaded and scrolled through, which is annoying if this is your bedtime radio and you just want to touch a button. Sound quality is good, but I always use a headset. There is a remote control. The knobs and display are not easy to use in bed, and the radio slides on a smooth surface, so I had to put the radio on a pad so that it does not slide off the table when I press a button. The clock is hard to read while the radio is playing. I have not been able to find an internet radio with a truly independent alarm clock. The WiFi works, no wired ethernet port. I'll be darned if I can find a station (terrestrial, internet or otherwise) that plays Halloween songs year 'round.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 Watched August, 2026. Painfully boring with no humor. A little bit of high fashion, but not enough to make it worth ...
