DailyView: Day 331, Movie 474

Elvis Presley made a lot of movies in his career. This is the first film that is not a concert film that I have seen from The King, and many people believe that this was one of the best films in the catalogue of Elvis Presley.

King Creole is based on the novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins.

Danny Fisher (Elvis Presley) is a troublemaking 19-year old who has been unable to graduate from high school which caused conflict between him and his father (Dean Jagger). It turned out that Danny could sing and he started to sing for Charlie Legrand (Paul Stewart) owner of the King Creole nightclub. However, local gangster Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau) wanted Danny to sing for him instead.

There is more to the story than that, but it is a little messy. Some of the motives are shaky. I am not sure what Maxie Fields was think through much of the third act of the film, in the final showdown specifically.

However, Elvis was pretty good, Carolyn Jones was excellent as Ronnie, the mistress of Maxie, and the music was great.

King Creole was a fun film even if it is a lesser story. I would guess that this was the best Elvis film around.

DailyView: Day 330, Movie 473

Last Flag Flying was another one of those movies where I remember seeing the trailers quite a few times in the theaters, but never having the movie come to the theater so I could see it.

The film is the story of three former Vietnam vets. They had gone their separate ways after the war. Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carell) had served some time in the brig at the end of the war and then got out and got married. Richard Mueller (Lawrence Fishburne) became a recovering alcoholic and became a preacher. Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) became a bar owner and was constantly getting drunk.

Doc came to find his friends to ask them a favor. His son was killed in Iraq and he needed to go claim his body and he asked his old friends to come with him.

Conflict arose between the old friends whose paths had taken such drastic turns. Especially between Sal and Richard. However, as the days pass, the three of them discovered how important they were to each other.

Directed by Richard Linkletter, Last Flag Flying has, at its core, three great performances from three top of the line actors. This may be one of my personal favorite performances from Steve Carell. The sadness of his loss permeated the character and it was painful to watch him. Even his moments of pure joy and laughter had a ring of anguish behind his eyes. Carell was exceptional.

Bryan Cranston had some outstanding moments too, but he felt a little over the top at times. He was such a blunt character that didn’t appear to care what anyone else felt, but his connection to Doc and Richard was different. Lawrence Fishburne had a quieter performance, but shades of the old Mueller Mauler was brought out by Sal’s buffoonery.

There was a scene with a Marine colonel that felt unresolved, but the storyline with the three men and the loss felt by Doc dominated any other possible secondary story arcs.

The strength of this film is clearly the three stars. Some of the story is not as strong, but the three actors really elevated the material.

DailyView: Day 329, Movie 472

This one wrecked me.

The documentary on Amazon Prime from filmmaker Kurt Kuenne is a heart-wrenching and powerful love letter to Kurt’s friend, Andrew Bagby, who was a beloved doctor by tons of people. Unfortunately, he was murdered by a woman, Shirley Turner, who he had broken up with. Turned out that Turner was pregnant with Andrew’s baby and she gave birth to Zachary, a beautiful boy.

Kuenne started the film as a way of giving Zachary insight into the father that he would never know, but it turned out to be something considerably more tragic.

Andrew’s parents, David and Kathleen, were at the center of the attempts to try and gain custody of Zachary, but they had to play along with Shirley as she was in and out of jail on bail and as the courts in Canada slowly progressed, Shirley manipulated the system.

The documentary showed the despair from the Bigbys about the situation as well as showing them as two of the strongest people around. And they were going to have to be.

I’m not going to go into specifics about what happens with this story. If you can come into this documentary without knowledge of the case, like I did, you will find this to be a gripping, emotional tale that hits on all of your feelings.

I can’t imagine the pain and the anguish these amazing people suffered, with the knowledge that the woman who had murdered their son was now responsible for the life of their grandson. Still, I was not ready for the way this story went.

The ending of the doc was filled with love and heart. It was a tough one to watch, but the love is obvious and the powerful moments made it worth it.

DailyView: Day 328, Movie 471

So I saw that Mean Girls was leaving Paramount + this month, and I had it on my list to watch for the entirety of the DailyView. I also had just watched Three O’Clock High today, which could fall into a similar genre category as Mean Girls so everything seemed perfect.

I have to say, I really enjoyed Mean Girls. I found it funny and sadly more realistic than I would like it to be. I certainly did not have as many “eye-rolling, that would never happen spots” as I did in Three O’Clock High. Sure there were several moments where unlikely events occurred, perhaps taking things into a hyper-elevated exaggeration, but there was more of a ring of truth in Mean Girls than I expected.

Did I mention that it was funny?

Cady (Lindsey Lohan) had spent her whole life living in Africa and being home schooled by her parents (Neil Flynn and Ana Gasteyer) until her mom got a new job and she had to go to public school. She was the new student with little understanding of the social cliques that exist in a high school. She met Janis (Lizzy Ian) and Damian (Daniel Franzese) who told her about the Plastics. The Plastics were the “popular” girls who no one liked, but everyone idolized, including Queen Bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and her two followers Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried).

When Regina brought Cady into the circle, Janis convinced Cady to become a spy inside the Plastics and to tell her all the terrible things that they did. However, as Cady was portraying her role, her role became too method and Cady became as bad any any of the girls.

And look out for those buses.

I found the film to be extremely well-written, clever in the dialogue and the voice over (done by Lohan) and the crazy situations were elevated just enough to not make them totally unbelievable.

There were some awesome performances. I loved Tina Fey as the down-to-earth math teacher and Tim Meadow as the put-upon principal, Mr. Duvall. Both of these SNL alums knew how to deliver the comedic moments while staying real. I was not a huge fan of Amy Poehler’s role as Regina’s mother. She felt too fictional, too hyperbolic.

I found this to be one of my favorite teen comedy films and I thought this was really well done.

DailyView: Day 328, Movie 470

I saw this film mentioned on Twitter the other day and I looked into it on Vudu. Historically, as a teacher, I do not like movies set at a school that featured part of the plot that would never happen in a million years, and Three O’Clock High has plenty of moments like that. However, there was just something charming about the film, which is clearly not great, that made me ignore those times throughout when I rolled my eyes and just enjoy the basic story.

Jerry Mitchell (Casey Siemaszko) was a nerdy high school student who was in charge of the school student store at Weaver High School. The infamous new student Buddy Revell (Richard Tyson) came in with a reputation for being a bad boy filled with violence. Jerry was assigned to get an interview with him for the school paper and all hell broke loose.

Jerry touched Buddy on the shoulder and it was known that Buddy had a thing about people touching him. Buddy immediately scheduled a fight with Jerry at 3 o’clock in the school parking lot. Panicked, Jerry spent the entire day doing things unlike him to try and get out of the fight.

There are so many things that happen in this day that just would never happen, even in a fantasy film that happen here. There is a whole thing about a switchblade knife that, even back in 1987, would have sent Jerry home with a suspension, not just released back to the classes. The whole book report fiasco would never have been allowed, nor would the results of the situation.

There was a whole Buddy cheating off of Jerry bit that, apparently, Buddy did not need to do. That entire plot point made no sense whatsoever.

The fight itself after school would never have happened the way it did either. To ask the audience to accept all of these ridiculous premises stretched the boundaries of credibility.

And yet I did not hate it. There was something about poor sap Jerry that was relatable and made for someone to root for. He was the underdog and the pathetic protagonist that we hoped could overcome his troubles. Buddy made for a good villain, even though everything about him was contradicting what we thought we knew about him as a character.

I’d like to think that most of the most was some kind of daydream or exaggerated fantasy, but there is no indication that this film was doing that. Mixing this together as some kind of adolescent dream makes the silliness make more sense.

It is no doubt a stupid movie. However, if you could get past the obviously ridiculous situations, there are things to like about the film. It is a painless watch and has a couple of interesting performances.

DailyView: Day 327, Movie 469

Based on a 1971 novel, Hell House by Richard Matheson (who was the screenwriter on this as well), The Legend of Hell House became one of the more iconic films of the “haunted house” subgenre of horror films. Directed by British director John Hough, the film featured a cast including Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowell, Clive Revill and Gayle Hunnicutt.

A group of investigators including psychic mediums were sent into the Belasco House, a location where a group of investigators had been killed 20 years before. The only survivor of that group was Benjamin Franklin “Ben” Fischer (Roddy McDowell), who accompanied physicist Dr. Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill), his wife Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt) and mental medium Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) back into the Belasco House in an attempt to finally put the spirits inside to rest.

I had a little difficulty getting into the film at first, but after awhile, I was engaged and was enjoying myself. The main reason was the exceptional Roddy McDowell. McDowell is an iconic horror movie star, fitting right into this type of film beautifully. Roddy’s work elevated those around him and made me interested in the story of the film.

This was 1973, so some of the special effects were less than what we are used to in 2022. That is understandable, but the whole cat stuff was really weak and looked terrible. The rest of the film looked considerably better.

There are some well done creepy moments in the movie and the story is well done. It was simple enough without being too easy. It is well developed and the performances work within the story very well. The Legend of Hell House is one of the better haunted house films you will find.

DailyView: Day 326, Movie 468

I have to say, after watching Ghostwatch, I am quite unnerved and have a tightness in the pit of my stomach. I can’t imagine watching this live on the BBC and not knowing that it was a piece of ficiton.

Broadcast originally on Halloween night, 1992, the mockumentary style live film was filmed weeks before, but the audience was not fully aware of the situation and it reportedly caused quite a furor with viewers. It had never been rebroadcast on the BBC since that night and it is a difficult film to get a chance to watch.

In fact, I have been looking for a version of this since the beginning of the DailyView, but it was no longer available on Shudder or Amazon or any of the other streamers that I use. However, today I found the full film on Internet Archive, a sight where I finally got a chance to see what was considered one of the most controversial shows on television.

British broadcaster and journalist Michael Parkinson hosted the documentary, which looked like a news special, by talking in studio to a parapsychology expert Dr. Lin Pascoe (Gillian Bevan), and sending the camera to other locations, including inside the house that was considered ‘The most haunted house in Britain’ and where the investigation was taking place with Sarah Greene (who played herself) anchoring the coverage along with a camera crew.

At the location was a single mom (Brid Brennan) and her two girls, Kim (Cherise Wesson) and Suzanne (Michelle Wesson), who were being tormented by a spirit that Kim would call ‘Pipes’ from the banging sound that would be made in the house. Dr. Pascoe had been with the family and was a believer in what was going on, though plenty of the people involved were more skeptical, including Parkinson.

They had a section of the studio assigned to take phone calls from the viewers, who would see things on their screens that others could not see…including the mysterious Pipes.

The program built through its hour and a half slowly, providing details and information that fueled the story, and continued to keep viewers on edge. You could feel how it was building toward something happening (and happen it damn sure well did).

The film did an expert job of providing not only those people who believed in what they were seeing as well as those experts who considered it a fraud. When Suzanne was found banging on the wall, it seemed as if the case of fraud had been proven, making Parkinson confident that the program had shown the truth.

I thought this was brilliantly constructed and exceptionally worked the tension of the moment up with every step of the time. Everything about the program screamed credible and made you think it was truly happening. Even I, who knew this was a program, found myself embroiled in the mystery and the story.

Ghostwatch was written by Stephen Volk, who was a known Welsh horror screenwriter and novelist, and directed by Lesley Manning. It has been awhile since a horror film has left me feeling as uneasy as this one did. It was a fantastic special and I am so glad that I finally got a chance to see it for myself.

DailyView: Day 326, Movie 467

Lured is a 1947 film noir featuring the talents of Pre-I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball and directed by Douglas Sirk. The cast featured a group of other talented horror actors such as Bela Legosi and George Zucco.

There is a serial killer running around London meeting eventual victims through the personal ads. He would then write a poem to taunt the police about his upcoming murder. When night club dancer Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) came to the police to report a missing friend, the police, led by Chief Inspector Harley Temple (Charles Coburn), found her to be bright and intelligent and just the perfect woman to be their “bait” in an attempt to capture this killer.

Sandra responded to many different ads and wound up in several unlikely situations, but she was being shadowed by Officer H. R. Barrett (George Zucco). The plan to catch the killer hit a snag when Sandra met and became engaged to socialite Robert Fleming (George Sanders).

This was an extremely enjoyable film that showed off some talented actors. Lucille Ball in particular was a breath of fresh air. I loved how the film portrayed Sandra as intelligent and quick-thinking, and not just as a damsel-in-distress. She was an active participant in the operation to catch the killer, and, along the way, stopped some other potential criminals. The scenes with Lucille Ball and Boris Karloff as Charles van Druten, crazed fashion designer, were worth the film watch alone.

Admittedly, the movie did bounce between tones. There were plenty of moments of humor, especially in the dialogue, and that prevented the movie from fully becoming anxious and tense. However, I thought the balance was perfectly struck as I still felt nervous for Sandra in every situation that she found herself in.

While the killer’s identity is fairly apparent once introduced, it did not prevent the wonder of how they were going to bring the culprit to justice. I enjoyed the relationship between Sandra and Temple as well as Sandra and Barrett. There was a friendship and a mutual respect among them that you do not usually see in films of this time.

Lured was a completely enjoyable film that I am glad I got to watch for today’s DailyView.

DailyView: Day 325, Movie 466

Bill Murray said that he considered retiring after the making of Broken Flowers because “he felt that it was the best acting performance he could ever give.” Broken Flowers was a very compelling character study and an intriguing mystery.

Bill Murray played Don Johnston, a man who made a fortune in computers and has now retired, regulating to longue around his house. After a fight with his girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpry) in which she leaves him, a mysterious, unsigned letter arrived claiming to have been from an old girlfriend of Don’s who gave birth to Don’s son two decades before. The letter indicated that his son was going on a road trip to perhaps find Don.

Don initially dismissed this letter until he showed it to his mystery-novel enthusiast neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright), who pushed Don to investigate the possibilities and he set up Don’s entire trip. He goes on the trip and checks in on four of his former flames.

The four former girlfriends were played by Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton. Each character got progressively worse as the film moved on. All four of them were fantastic and I did not even realize that Penny was Tilda Swinton.

I really did enjoy this movie quite a bit, but I was a little put off by the ending of the film. It came out with such an uncertain resolution that it bothered me a bit. I think that just speaks to how effective the film and Bill Murray were in establishing the movie’s central mystery. I wanted to know more about each of the girlfriends, especially those last couple who seemed to have something unspoken going on.

The Jeffrey Wright/Bill Murray pairing was also excellently carried off. Nearly opposites of each other, the dynamic really helped to create the lure of the mystery.

Directed by Jim Jarmusch, Broken Flowers is a great film with a engaging hook of a story with some top notch acting from a high level cast.

DailyView: Day 325, Movie 465

One of the YouTube reactors that I enjoy watching is Ashleigh Burton. She is a millennial who has not seen very many classic movies and she watches and reacts to them. Every once in awhile, she does a film that I have not seen either. Many times I just do not watch that episode, but this week, the Boondock Saints came up and I thought it was a good choice for the DailyView.

I was wrong.

I did not like this movie at all. It was crude, racist, homophobic, and full of violence in the name of religion. It has just about every bad trait imaginable.

Two Irish brothers Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus), kill a couple of Russian mobsters in self-defense. They turn themselves in to the police, including FBI agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe) and they are released. The brothers see this as a calling from God and they become vigilantes, killing criminals in Boston. Smecker investigated the murders, but he started to believe in the righteousness of the mission.

Dafoe is way over the top. Flanery and Reedus are fine, but they do not standout as they should. David Della Rocco played a character named Rocco who joined up with the brothers as a way of vengeance toward the crooks who looked down on him. He was sloppy and careless and it was hard to believe that the MacManus brothers would waste their time with someone like Rocco.

It really was a film filled with hatred toward people and I found it quite insulting.

Now to see what Ashleigh thought.

DailyView: Day 324, Movie 464

On Amazon Prime, there are a bunch of interesting documentaries that I listed on my “My Stuff” section. Tonight I watched Missing Mom, a doc about the search by two brothers for their mother who disappeared when they were children.

Filmmaker Rob McCallum and his brother Chris Byford started the search for their mother, who they had not seen for 25 years.

I enjoyed the doc, but, honestly, it all felt a little easy. You could not help the fact that they were able to be as successful as they were in short fashion.

I liked the way the movie used a bulletin board as a transition,

There were some moments of intrigue in the doc. Rob and Chris were engaging as the leads of the documentary. The others in the story are fine, but nothing really stands out. It was okay.

DailyView: Day 323, Movie 463

St. Patrick’s Day brought an animated film called The Secret of Kells to the DailyView tonight and it is a gorgeous artistic masterpiece. This film was nominated for the Academy Award in 2010, losing to the eventual winner, Pixar’s Up.

The animation style was very reminiscent of last year’s Wolfwalkers, what was considered the third in the Irish Folklore trilogy from director Tomm Moore.

The protagonist of the film was named Brendan (Evan McGuire), a boy who lived with his Uncle Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson) in the Abbey of Kells. Abbot Cellach wanted to build a wall around the Abbey to prevent any Viking attacks and has not allowed Brendan outside of the Abbey.

However, things change when Brother Aidan (Mick Lally) arrived with his cat Pangur Bán, after his own monastery was destroyed in a raid. Aiden brought with him the book that he was still illuminating the pages. Aiden sent Brendan out to the woods to find gall nuts to make ink. Once out of the Abbey, Brendan meets the fairy Aisling (Christen Mooney) who helps him find the gall nuts. They become friends and she said he was welcome to come back again.

I found this animation style absolutely gorgeous and perfectly suited for the story being told. The sequence where the Vikings were attacking the Abbey of Kells is one of the most sensational animated sequences I may have ever seen. It was stunning, both visually and emotionally.

The narrative may be fairly simple, but the imagery and the colors were out of this world. The character design are beautiful and fit wonderfully in the tale being woven.

I will say that it felt a little rushed at the end, with the basic story wrapping up quickly. The last ten minutes of the movie was spread over years of story time and I would have liked more where the film skipped a chunk of time. Still, it resolved the main conflict skillfully.

This was exceptional. One of the best visually animated films I have ever seen.