Movies Watched -- Sea of Love (1989)

113 minute running time so 13 minutes too long … starring NYC and its iconic coffee cup … 1989 pre-cellphone and internet so society not yet destroyed … Al Pacino as mid-life crisis cop … interesting how closely he re-played this role in Heat (1995) and they even re-used the who? who? what are you, an owl? bit of dialogue in the latter movie … Ellen Barkin a strange femme fatale with her weirdly crooked smile, though she does have great tits … John Goodman (6’2”) fat even as a young man … father from Six Feet Under was in a lot of movies in the late 80s, but I never learned his name (Richard Jenkins, I’ll never remember that) … the story wasn’t terrible, I liked the twist, but I don’t think I’d recommend this, though John Farr does.

I believe in animal attraction.

Movies Watched -- Poor Things (2023)

141 minute running time so 41 minutes too long. I’ve seen a lot of Lanthimos movies and liked them all, he’s my kind of nut, but I can’t imagine the general public can watch these. He clearly does some serious drugs and comes up with some wacky ideas, but he’s very funny … a lot of scenes in Poor Things made me laugh out loud … I missed maybe 20% of the dialogue because I couldn’t hear it or it was unclear; I will have to re-watch with subtitles once it comes out on disc (I saw it in the theater). Emma Stone is a good sport and has guts to take on a role like this (lots of screwing).

Bad whore

Movies Watched -- The Rapture (1991)

100 minute running time so the perfect length … W.D. By (written and directed by the same person, i.e., somebody’s baby) … Mimi Rogers has amazing, huge tits, just heavenly … she plays the world’s sexiest phone operator by day who is a swinger by night … meets long-haired David Duchovny, sexiest man alive with his shirt off … soft-core porn in the beginning turns into heavy, dark movie about religion and the Rapture (the Second Coming) … how weird can a movie be?!? What in God’s name did the public make of this movie back in 1991? Just bizarre… Yellow rating alone for Mimi Rogers’ amazing bones and breasts… this was a John Farr reco. I can’t imagine anyone ever gave Tolkin money to make another movie after this one. He’s like a horny sex fiend who is also interested in deep questions and inexplicably tries to combine the two.

[Knock, knock] You have to believe. If you don't, you go to Hell.

Movies Watched -- The Parallax View (1974)

102 minute running time so the perfect length… fed into the conspiracy theories that came out of the tumultuous 1960s, political assassination, shadow government, CIA stuff, distrust of the Warren Commission report, the investigative reporter as hero (Watergate era), etc. … Warren Beatty plays Jim Morrison, sexiest man alive with the movie contracts to prove it, bra-less Paula Prentiss and her fabulous breasts in white sweater … shocking ending … this movie should be a double feature with The Conversation (also from 1974). There are some nice touches in this movie such as the damn spill gates flood, the redneck sheriff, and the final scene with runaway golf cart on the convention floor. I guess it’s a green-go, though this was a re-watch for me so I sort of sped through it. It’s a John Farr reco too.

Jealous ex-lover face … my favorite scene

Movies Watched -- Runaway Train (1985)

112 minute running time so 12 minutes too long … this was a weird one, a combination prison break / existential drama / runaway train action movie starring John Voight and his goofy Hispanic accent … the real reason I saw this (other than it being a John Farr recommendation) was it had Rebecca De Mornay in it, and I loved her in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle… mid-1980s sexism still pretty strong, a lot of cussing in this movie. Yellow rating at best.

The only person on the whole train is a woman.

Movies Watched -- Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

130 minute running time so 30 minutes minutes too long… young Al Pacino… I forgot how funny this movie is, they’re all such nitwits, both cops and robbers. I also totally forgot about the sex change angle, but of course it’s a tragedy in the end. This is a John Farr recommendation and I’d recommend it too if it were 30 minutes shorter.

He doesn't have plan. It's all a whim.

Movies Watched -- It Could Happen To You (1994)

101 minute running time so a perfect length … movies from the early 90s are the end of an era, right before cell phones and the internet destroyed everything … this is really cute, Nic Coppola playing a doofus (again) and skinny-assed Bridget Fonda (nepo babies both) along with Rosie Perez, who was annoyingly fun, not unlike the role Luis Guzmán played in Out of Sight … the undertaker from Six Feet Under, also co-starring NYC and the old coffee cups, I don’t know who else I recognized… this was not from John Farr, but from the same person who recommended The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, which I also really liked. I tried to send “Elizabeth Ervin” an email and a tweet in thanks, but received no response.

This is feel-good stuff, wholesome fun for the whole family, green-go, recommended. No swearing, no tattoos, no cell phones, plus goofy, often slightly racist humor is a win!

You want a sick day, get sick.

Zippo Armor SunBeam Pendant No. 169-097076

High Polish Brass, two-sided Deep Carve $97

Zippo Armor Pattern Design, No. 49290

Antique Silver Multicut $100

Celebrating Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, American Hero

No sound is key.

Movies Watched -- Helter Skelter (1976)

183 minute running time … that’s over three hours long, but amazingly I didn’t fast forward much, so it must have been well made … it was hilarious how incompetent the police were, and these were rich white people who got murdered, which makes it doubly shocking. The actor who played Manson was really good (meaning really scary). Prosecutor Bugliosi comes across well, which is not surprising since he wrote the script. This was a John Farr recommendation.

Blackie will wipe out whitey…

Movies Watched -- Mean Streets (1973)

110 minute running time but felt like forever… Who cares about these lowlife Italian guys, other than Marty Scorsese? … gritty early 1970s Manhattan … went to fast forward after 20 minutes and never looked back .. stars Harvey Keitel and Bob De Niro… I just didn’t care. John Farr recommended it, but I sure don’t.

Positively No Gambling

Movies Watched -- The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

91 minute running time, which is a good length, but I still watched this one on fast forward since it was weird and had pedo vibes … Jodie Foster not acting her age (being precocious) … Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez played a gorgeous pedophile (I guess that’s why John Farr recommended this one) … I wasn’t thrilled with this and certainly wouldn’t recommend it.

You’re a regular hippie, huh?

Movies Watched -- The China Syndrome (1978)

122 minute running time so 22 minutes too long … Hanoi Jane (she’s a good actress), long-haired Michael Douglas and old Jack Lemmon playing a serious role (very well) … nuclear power (a pity Douglas says nuke-you-ler, but Fonda pronounced it perfectly), women’s lib, corporate greed and bad guys, public safety … don’t forget that Three Mile Island happened on March 28, 1979 and Chernobyl happened April 26, 1986, so this movie was pretty timely! I guess everybody should see this one and John Farr also recommended it, so I’ll make it a green-go even though it’s 22 minutes too long.

Don’t worry your pretty head about a nuclear meltdown.

Movies Watched -- A Simple Plan (1998)

121 minute running time so 20 to 30 minutes too long … my DVD wasn’t subtitled so I couldn’t watch it on fast forward so I just fast forwarded it without the dialogue… I saw this 25 years ago and liked it then but wasn’t thrilled with it on re-watch, just too long and predictable (“greed ain’t good”) and sort of second-rate acting … Billy Bob playing his usual simpleton, Bill Paxton with a bad haircut, a very pregnant Bridget Fonda, which was nice to see … looked like it was filmed in my neck of Appalachia, but no, that was Minnesota. John Farr recommended it, but I wouldn’t.

See how simple it is?

Movies Watched -- Taxi Driver (1976)

114 minute running time so 14 minutes too long … Martin Scorsese has made only a couple of great movies and this is one of them, a green-go for sure. Robert De Niro is so good, Cybill Shepherd, 12-year-old Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, they’re all good… the story is good (though 14 minutes too long) and well told (Paul Schrader script), holds up great nearly 50 years later … America in the early 1970s was about as low as it got in modern times, just brutal … I liked the fantasy ending, I think that was a Scorsese joke on “happy” Hollywood endings, because Travis is in hell for sure. John Farr recommends it too: “alienation in an urban wasteland.”

Taking me to a place like this is about as exciting to me as saying, “Let’s f*ck.”

Movies Watched -- The Illusionist (2006)

110 minute running time so 10 minutes too long, but I enjoyed this one, green-go. It stars Eddie Norton and his lisp, Paul Giamatti and his pimply forehead, and Jessica Biel and her great bones. I fell in love with Biel because of Season One of The Sinner. She’s both smart and beautiful, a rare combo in Hollywood.

Anyway, this is a fun story, well told. I had heard nothing about this movie, so went in with no expectations, which is always best. John Farr recommends it too.

Movies Watched -- The Fugitive (1993)

130 minute running time so 30 minutes too long … 90s action movie, bus crash, train crash, dam dive, helicopters, subway fights, one-armed men, evil Big Pharma, Ralph “Who-are” Cifaretto, Tommy Lee Jones playing a jerk, which he does naturally … some nicely done twists, but this was just too damn long. John Farr recommended this one: “Over two three decades after its initial release, it's worth another peek if you haven't seen it since. As to first-timers — well, it'd be a crime to miss it.” Nah, you can miss it.

Provasic

Movies Watched -- Basic Instinct (1992)

128 minute running time so 28 minutes too long … as if Hitchcock had made a soft-core porn thriller … this movie made a 22-year-old boy I know pretty horny at the time, but it just makes me laugh now … Verhoeven really went to town with all the Hitchcock stuff, the music, San Francisco, the blonde, the brunette, the rivalry, etc. Gorgeous police shrink has fake eyeglasses, Newman as D.A. in the classic leg-crossing scene, black and white Lotus Esprits (see why we had that poster of a red one on the bedroom wall?), lesbian love (super risqué in 1992), Lieutenant sniffs Douglas’s gun after the I.A. guy is shot (big laugh), no way a cop could afford that apartment in S.F., even in the early 1990s, lots of mentions of cocaine, Pizza Hut box for product placement, Michael Douglas age 48 in da club wearing a V-neck sweater with nothing underneath (another big laugh), Miss Crawford County, Pennsylvania’s bod still good at age 34, Douglas beat the hell out of that Mustang driving it up those S.F. steps, and he’s just fine after being hit by a car and then backed over … “magna cum laude pussy” (another big laugh), “She’s evil! She’s brilliant!” (another big laugh). Michael Douglas has a fantastic smoker’s voice, so much so that I think he got throat cancer (let me google that), so yeah, this is a classic in many ways (but not a John Farr reco). It’s way too long and dumb to get a green-go, though it’s good for laughs 30 years after the fact, and should be seen for nostalgia reasons.

Exactly what do you have in mind, Newman?.

Movies Watched -- Mystic River (2003)

138 minute running time so 40 minutes too long … cellphones fairly new in 2003 and smartphones non-existent … Terrible fake Boston accents throughout … Sean Penn is sort of a so-so actor, I don’t know why he’s showered with praise, and he even won an Oscar for this?!? Give me a break. Big goofball Tim Robbins as best supporting actor a little more believable, but nah … hated the ending of this with Laura Linney saying her husband was a king and they’d rule this town, it’s just so dumb, cut all that out. Also cut out the storyline of Kevin Bacon and his silent wife, and cut out Dave’s wife losing her mind at the end, becoming a mumbling village idiot … the story is basically good (Dennis Lehane), abduction, trauma, childhood bonds, damaged adults, could he be a killer etc., but the movie was way too long and the acting was lame, Clint Eastwood needs a firm editor. John Farr recommended this but I sure wouldn’t.