January 25

Billy Crystal is a personal favorite of mine. He created a stand up comedy concert film that was based on a book that he wrote about his childhood and his family. It originally aired on HBO and I watched it on HBO Max.

It reminded me of the Charles Nelson Reilly film Life of Reilly, although that movie was darker than 700 Sundays. Both comedians talked about their childhood and their eccentric families with an honesty that you might not usually hear. They included the best of their lives, but also the tragedies that made them who they were.

Billy Crystal’s film was entitled 700 Sundays which was the count of Sundays that Billy had to spend with his father, Jack Crystal, before he died when Billy was 15.

Billy Crystal was remarkably funny, bringing out laughter between the tears in his stories. The set up for each tale brought the humor to the front, even with the deep loss that might also be present.

There were parts of the act that I recognized from previous stand up performances from Crystal. However, everything really fit together well. The stage featured a image of the old house that Crystal grew up in. This house became a important structure in the stories that he would tell.

The show was poignant, powerful and touching. Billy Crystal moved through everything with a flow that kept things moving and kept everyone laughing.

It was a wonderful show.

January 24

Charlie Chaplin has been a staple of several of my DailyViews and watches. I have truly enjoyed many of his shorts and movies, including most recently The Great Dictator during this year’s Genre-ary. So when I noticed that this biopic on Chaplin, starring Robert Downey Jr., was listed as a Comedy/Drama, I added it to the list for this month.

I had watched some of this film when I was younger, but I remember stopping it because I was not interested. I was too young to truly appreciate the artistry of the story.

According to IMDB, “An elderly Charlie Chaplin discusses his autobiography with his editor, recounting his amazing journey from his poverty-stricken childhood to world-wide success after the ingenious invention of the Little Tramp.”

This has a remarkable cast, led by RDJ, who would receive an Oscar nomination for his brilliant performance. Other cast members included Paul Rhys, Anthony Hopkins, Dan Aykroyd, Marisa Tomei, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Penelope Ann Miller, Milla Jovovich, Kevin Dunn, James Woods, Diane Lane, Nancy Travis, David Duchovny, and Geraldine Chaplin.

The definitely strongest aspect of the film is Robert Downey Jr. He is amazing with his physical performance as well as his Chaplin replica. It was said that Charlie Chaplin’s actual daughter was in the film and she was impressed and unnerved by his creation of Chaplin.

The film ended with the Academy Award night where they gave him an honorary award and they showed the actual clips from the real movies with the real Charlie Chaplin. It was very powerful.

I thought this movie was really great, led by Robert Downey Jr. I would have liked maybe more about some of the controversies that were brought up during it. Still, I liked this a lot.

January 23

On a no school day because of the frigid temps, I got to watch the Genre-ary film early this morning. I pulled up HBO Max and watched a film starring Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña called War on Everybody.

Skarsgård and Peña are crooked cops that seem to flaunt authority at every turn. After returning from yet another suspension, Terry Monroe (Skarsgård) and Bob Bolaño (Peña) discover a heist that is about to be done. This led them to all kinds of trouble with two powerful and dangerous criminals (Theo James, Caleb Landry Jones).

During the investigation, Skarsgård is paired up with Tessa Thompson, and they are one of the best parts of the film. Thompson’s character, Jackie, fits right in with the damaged Terry Monroe. Some of their scenes together are fun and loose.

I think Skarsgård and Peña do a great job of creating these extremely unlikable characters and make them someone whom we want to root for. They are horrible people, but yet they are strangely charming and people you want to see do well. Anti-heroes have been around for years, but these two almost do not fit into that category. The skill of these tow actors is why the characters work so well.

The story is fairly skimpy. The two villains are cardboard cutouts. The action is, at best, okay. This film succeeds or fails on the strength of its lead actors. That is a good thing for this movie.

January 22

I do love Steve Martin. One of the first films of this Genre-ary was Steve Martin in The Jerk. That was really funny. Cheaper by the Dozen, not so much.

According to IMDB, “With his wife on a book tour, Tom Baker finds his life turned upside down when he agrees to care for his twelve children while simultaneously also coaching his new football team.”

Wow. These kids were brats. That might be harsh, but why not try some discipline? They can’t have all suddenly turned into evil little harpies because they moved away. Both Steve martin and Bonnie Hunt also showed they couldn’t have been good parents because good parents do not just become selfish ones.

There is really not much of a plot in this movie and these kids were acting like a nightmare. None of it made much sense to me, and the idea of this many kids is just insane.

There were a couple giggles during the movie, but the most laughs I had were from the end credit bloopers.

Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt led the cast which included Tom Welling, Hilary Duff, Alan Ruck, Richard Jenkins, Kevin G. Schmidt, Piper Perabo, Jacob Smith, Morgan York, Liliana Mumy, Forrest Landis, Blake Woodruff, Brent Kinsman, Shane Kinsman, Wayne Knight, and Ashton Kutcher. There was a cameo from Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa as well.

This felt more like a sitcom than a feature length film. I was also not sure about the message of the film… outside of the “Do you really want children?” one.

I did not hate the film, but there were so many things about it that made me wonder.

And puke jokes… those are not for me.