DailyView: Day 78, Movie 133

After watching the season finale of Loki the other day on Disney +, I viewed the review of the series from YouTube critic and personality Dan Murrell and he made a reference to the opening scene and the audio clips from the MCU to the scene from Contact, calling it an homage to the movie. I had Contact on the DailyView list of films as a possible watch, so I thought this would be a nice one to pick up at this point. Dan was right about the similar idea with the Loki scene. The introduction to Contact is very much alike.

Contact starred Jodie Foster as a scientist whose team was involved in the investigation of extraterrestrial contact, mostly with messages from space. The film started with the scientific community looking down upon her and her group, even casting them aside. This led Dr. Elle Arroway (Foster) to desperately search for funding to maintain her project.

During this time, she comes in contact with Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a renowned author and theologian, and they developed a short-term relationship.

After successfully finding funding, Elle’s team had a huge breakthrough, discovering a complicated message from a star called Vega. Within the message, which included the return broadcast of a video of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympics, they found a diagram for a machine they believed was a transportation device to exchange ideas between the two races.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Contact is adapted from a novel of the same name by Carl Sagan. There are a lot of high concepts and scientific properties involved with this science fiction tale. It makes the movie feel smart and realistic despite the fantastical special effects and scenes from the last act of the movie. In fact, the realism of the first part of the film pays off when the more sci-fi aspects take affect.

The performances are all very solid. Jodie Foster is great as the dedicated and, at times, fiery scientist. There is a top notch cast here including Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, David Morse, Jena Malone, William Fichtner, James Woods, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, and Geoffrey Blake.

The movie was set in the middle of the Bill Clinton presidency and clips of President Clinton were used to show his involvement. There were plenty of other journalist and TV personalities who made cameos such as Larry King, Geraldo Rivera, Bernard Shaw, Bryant Gumbel among others. There are also plenty of real life politicians and famous individuals appearing in cameos such as Geraldine Ferraro, Robert Novak, Jay Leno, John Holliman, and Dee Dee Myers.

I was not a fan of the relationship the movie provided between Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. I did not believe this relationship at all, which stemmed from a one night stand. McConaughney’s character did several things to betray Foster that I, personally, would never have let the snake back to my life. It was certainly the weakest of the part of the film.

Contact may have been a tad long too, coming in a 2 and 1/2 hours, but most of the movie was intelligent and compelling. There were solid performances and is probably would really be like if an alien race contacted the earth.

DailyView: Day 78, Movie 132

One of the most acclaimed documentaries of all time is When We Were Kings, the story of the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Africa that became known as “The Rumble in the Jungle.” I had thought about watching this before, but I was under the impression that it was over three hours and movies that long are tough to commit to. However, I was looking at the Showtime app on Amazon and I came across this movie and it was listed as an hour and a half for runtime. I was both shocked and excited. This made this choice for the DailyView a much easier one.

When We Were King was more than just a look at the Ali-Foreman fight. It encompassed the entire black culture of the time, looking at political questions, music and how Muhammad Ali personified all of these. The focus of the film was more on Ali than Foreman for sure because of how charismatic and engaging the former champion was. Listening to the talking heads come on the screen and build the environment of the match was fascinating.

You can’t go wrong just putting the camera on Ali and letting it go. He was so charismatic, so outgoing that even though people did not believe he stood a chance with the young and powerful current champion George Foreman, a show was going to be put on.

The documentary dives into Don King some as well, in particular the efforts he had in putting the fight together. He was able to convince both Ali and Foreman that he could get them $5 million dollars each to create the fight, despite King not having $10 million dollars. Involvement of Zaire dictator Mobutu Sese Seko not only financed King’s match, but brought it to the continent of Africa. Ali had been outspoken about a lot of the politics of black culture and the American treatment of blacks so holding this fight in Africa played into that narrative heavily.

The film brought James Brown, The Spinners and B.B. King to the front as well, discussing the black music festival that was planned. We heard comments from Howard Cosell, Norman Mailer, Spike Lee, George Plimpton, Odessa Clay, and Thomas Hauser.

The analysis during the footage of the fight was fascinating and gave a real inside knowledge to not only what happened leading up to the fight, but how Ali was able to pull off what was considered one of the great upsets in sports history. It was mentioned that George Foreman went into an extended depression for two years following the knockout, which sounds like an extremely intriguing story as well.

Muhammad Ali is one of the brightest lights of both black and American sports, transcending past just an athlete. This doc does a beautiful job of highlighting that fact.

When We Were Kings Bomaye!

DailyView: Day 77, Movie 131

I have recently come to appreciate the character of Conan the Barbarian from his current run in the Marvel Comics run. When the original movies came out starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was not interested. I have recently seen Conan the Barbarian from 1982 and I did not love it. The sequel to this brings Arnold back to the sandal, sword and sorcery genre of pulp films as Conan the Destroyer.

Created by Robert E. Howard, Conan has been a successful pulp[ character for years, including several successful runs in comics. Conan the Barbarian #1 (Marvel) has been inducted into this year’s EYG Hall of Fame while Conan was inducted las year.

You probably do not find a better actor to play Conan than Arnold Schwarzenegger. The original film was darker and more tragic, focusing on Conan’s early life and his search for vengeance. Conan the Destroyer is considerably less dark, bordering on silliness, including some dumb comedic moments such as a drunk Conan.

Conan is hired by Queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) to escort her niece Princess Jehnna (Olivia D’Abo) in retrieving a magical crystal that will help them procure the horn that legends say can awaken the god of dreams, Dagoth (Andre the Giant).

Conan has a band of people with him including Jehnna’s bodyguard Bombaata (Wilt Chamberlain), Zula (Grace Jones), wizard Akiro (Mako), and the cowardly Malak (Tracey Walker).

This is a silly movie with a ridiculous plot and special effects that are laughable. I felt for poor Andre the Giant beneath the terrible costume they had him.

I was disappointed to see that Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway were credited with writing this. As two of the extremely talented comic book writers, including those already writing Conan comics (Roy Thomas was credited with writing the aforementioned EYG Hall of Fame comic Conan #1) because the dialogue was atrocious and the plot was simplistic.

I actually had several belly laughs from this movie, which I assumed was not supposed to be the case. I am not sure what they were going for here, but it finished off the Conan franchise in movies for years, despite ending with the coolest shot of the whole film, Arnold sitting on a throne as King Conan, clearly a movie that they would have liked to make, but never did. I wonder why? (Sarcasm)

DailyView: Day 77, Movie 130

With Loki coming to a close today, I spent a good chunk of the morning with that series and the variety of YouTube reactions for it. Because of that, time slipped away so it meant that I would be watching another Charlie Chaplin short for the DailyView. Today’s film was called The Rink and it goes all the way back to 1916.

Charlie Chaplin is his typically bumbling, clumsy self as a waiter at a restaurant who takes his lunch break to a roller skating rink where he meets up with a young lady (Edna Purviance).

Charlie Chaplin on roller skates was way more fluid and graceful than I thought he was going to be. However, when others would get in his way or cause him to off balance, the resulting pratfalls and slapstick was hilarious. While the material at the restaurant was fairly typical, the roller skating scenes were tremendous.

I enjoyed the music that served as the film’s soundtrack more than several other Chaplin films. I am not sure why I noticed this one as much as I did, but it was great.

Charlie Chaplin’s roller skating was certainly the highlight here and worth the time. It was a lot of fun and quick.

DailyView: Day 76, Movie 129

Luc Besson has directed a bunch of great movies such as Lucy, La Femme Nikita, and my personal favorite of his, The Fifth Element. Today for the DailyView, we will be looking at another one of Besson’s thrillers, Léon: The Professional.

Léon: The Professional was the debut of Natalie Portman in the young role of Mathilda, the 12-year old girl whose family is murdered by police officer Stansfield (Gary Oldman) and his staff from the DEA. She escaped from the same fate by hiding out in the neighboring apartment of Léon (Jean Reno), a professional hitman. She convinces him to let her stay with him and teach her the tricks of the trade of being a “cleaner.”

The relationship between Jean Reno and Natalie Portman is so wonderful and just a little bit uncomfortable. This is one of the most intriguing relationships in the movie. Gary Oldman is just wicked as can be here too. Oldman is an amazing actor and he creates a character here that is just horrendous and you cheer for him to get his.

This is a simple story and depends on the skills of its performers to carry it through. It is extremely violent as well, as it does not shy away from showing the viciousness of that life style. Léon is shown as being an example of one of the best hitmen around.

Léon: The Professional is a wonderful film, a story of connections amidst a world of violence and corruption. Jen Reno and Natalie Portman created the most unique pair on the screen ever and Gary Oldman is as evil as you’re ever going to see. There was humor, thrills and excitement throughout.

DailyView: Day 75, Movie 128

The EYG Hall of Famers Monty Python had some classic movies in their careers. Monty Python and the Holy Grail has always been my favorite and the Monty Python movie that I returned to several times. I had never seen the Life of Brian before and so I thought this would be a good time to change that.

Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman) was a young Jewish-Roman man who was born, on the same day, next door to Jesus and was mistaken as the Messiah. Brian joined a political movement to get the Romans out of Judea, and he was able to paint slogans on the wall in Jerusalem. The desperate people of Judea hooked on to Brian, looking to him as a prophet, despite no evidence. Captured by the Roman army, Brian faced an unhappy fate of the same man he was born beside.

Putting their spin on the story of the Christ crucifixion, Monty Python is not afraid to go for the laugh in whatever topic they satirize. In this case, they faced plenty of cries of blasphemy from the religious people of the world. The fact that it works and is very funny gives Monty Python the ability to get past the aanger.

The movie ends with one of the greatest moments with the song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” sung by Eric Idle and the rest of the people being crucified. It is a brilliant end to the movie and is one of the best songs Monty Python has ever done.

Monty Python is Eric Idol, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. They were fearless and went for the laugh no matter what.

DailyView: Day 75, Movie 127

I knew I had to really focus on this one because David Lynch has been creating bizarre movies and shows for decades. I was a huge fan of Twin Peaks, even when I was not sure exactly what was going on. So when today’s DailyView was to be Mulholland Drive, I knew I had to pay explicit attention. Even then, I came out with the same surreal feelings I had during Twin Peaks (especially season three from Showtime).

Outlining a narrative here is a challenge as well, since there is so many parts that seem to have no purpose or that dangle without any real explanation. Reportedly, this was originally developed as a pilot for a TV series and perhaps some of those plot threads were meant to be developed more during a season.

We start with a terrible car crash on Mulholland Drive in California where a beautiful woman is injured and wanders around the neighborhood. She winds up in an apartment that was empty and is found, naked in the shower, by Betty (Naomi Watts), a wannabe actress who is staying temporarily in the apartment, owned by her Aunt Ruth. The woman realizes that she has amnesia and cannot remember anything. She calls herself Rita (Laura Harring) after Rita Hayworth whose name she sees on a movie poster.

They discover Rita’s purse is filled with packets of money and a mysterious blue key. Betty and Rita begin to try and discover Rita’s true identity.

Meanwhile, there is also a subplot involving a director Adam (Justin Theroux) and his movie. He is trying to find the perfect lead for his film but his efforts are being rebuked by the mob, which has wormed their way into the project and who wants Adam to cast Camilla Rhodes.

There are so many things that happen here that are bizarre, including a strange man hiding behind the diner called Winkie’s. There were several dreamlike situations that made you wonder exactly what was happening during the movie. There is also a time when Betty disappears and Naomi Watts begins playing the character Diane Selwyn and we see this story from a new perspective, with Rita now being the mysterious Camilla Rhodes.

There was a hilarious scene involving (former LOST star, Mark Pellegrino- who was Jacob) as a hitman who is trying to locate Rita (I think) and winds up killing three people. It was a dark humor for sure, but his bumbling made the scene really funny.

The film is filled with the imagery much like many of David Lynch’s projects are. The dancing dwarf from Twin Peaks, Michael J. Anderson, is here too as a man with a small head in a wheelchair. He was apparently behind the movies in Hollywood and called Mr. Roque.

This is a wild experience and I am not sure I know what happened, but I enjoyed what I saw. It made me think back to Twin Peaks and that is always a good thing. Naomi Watts was great , as she always seems to be. Give it your attention and get your mind active.

DailyView: Day 74, Movie 126

I have come to really enjoy the work of actor Jimmy Stewart. I had only a limited exposure to Jimmy Stewart before I started this DailyView, but since I have added Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance, and this one to my previous knowledge of Stewart’s work including Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Rope, and, of course, It’s A Wonderful Life. Anatomy of a Murder fits right in with this list of classic movies from Mr. Stewart.

Directed by Otto Preminger, Anatomy of a Murder is one of the greatest courtroom drama films of all-time. The case from the film, based on a true murder, is filled with twists and keeps the audience guessing about what is truly going on.

Local Michigan attorney and recently disposed district attorney Paul Biegler (James Stewart) is approached to take the case of Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara), a lieutenant in the army, who had been accused of murdering a bartender Barney Quill, who had supposedly raped his wife Laura (Lee Remick). Biegler knew his case was thin and that his client looked guilty, so he came up with the defense of temporary insanity.

The district attorney brings in hotshot prosecutor Claude Dancer (George C. Scott) to help with the case. Dancer tried his best to keep the reputed rape out of the trial, but once it came in, he went after Laura with a vengeance.

What I enjoyed most about the story was the way there felt as if there was something being hidden by everyone involved. I was never quite sure I knew exactly what had happened the night of the rape and eventual murder.

None of the character involved in this case, with the possible exception of Judge Weaver (Joseph N. Welch), were above reproach. Both sides of the case were shown or implied that they were coaching witnesses or downright putting witnesses into the case that were not necessarily the most honest. Laura was shown as a definite flirtatious woman who did not seem to be happy in her marriage. Manion may or may not have beaten his wife at times.

There are top line performances here including Jimmy Stewart and George C. Scott. Arthur O’Connell was an intriguing character, Parnell McCarthy, an alcoholic lawyer who teamed up with Biegler on the case. I say he is intriguing because he has little importance on the story, but he does provide an important detail for the defense.

This was a long movie, but the pacing was really solid so it seemed to pass quickly. I thought this was an exception film with a cast that took the quality material and brought it to another level.

DailyView: Day 73 Movie 125

One of the most iconic films from the late eighties is Weekend at Bernie’s, but it always looked to be too stupid to watch. Yes, it was a cultural classic, but I just did not have a lot of interest. It seemed like the right time to finally watch the film for the DailyView.

This was just too stupid for me.

Two schmucks, Richard (Jonathan Silverman) and Larry (Andrew McCarthy), discovered an error in the finances of the company they worked for worth millions of dollars. Thinking this was their big break, they took the error to their boss, Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser). Little did they know, the error was from Bernie, who was stealing from the company. Bernie invited them to his weekend house where he planned to make it look like a murder-suicide.

However, Bernie had some trouble of his own with his mafia partner (Louis Giambalvo), whose girl (Catherine Parks) Bernie was having an affair with. He decided that Bernie needed to die instead and he sent hitman (Don Calfa) to kill him. He gives Bernie an overdose and leaves him to be discovered. Richard and Larry arrive and find Bernie dead and they decide to continue the part that arrived at Bernie’s house.

They hauled Bernie around in a ton of slapstick scenes, apparently meant to be funny.

I guess Bernie’s body does not stiffen after death.

This was so frenetic and chaotic and just downright stupid that I checked out early into the main arc of the story. I did not like either of the leads and using the dead body as a prop overstayed its welcome. I have no idea how they squeezed out a sequel to this, but I will not be finding out.

There was nothing funny here. Bernie is dead. That was the entire joke. That was not funny. I do not even remember giggling once. I disliked Weekend at Bernie’s no matter how much of a classic it is considered.

This one was DOA for me.

DailyView: Day 72, Movie 124

I remember seeing trailers for this movie and having a laugh that they did not want to put the name of M. Night Shyamalan on the trailer. They would list something like “From the writer of The Sixth Sense” or something like that. M. Night was still pretty toxic at that point.

However, the film was a surprise for me. I enjoyed the film way more than I expected.

The basic premise is that five people are stranded together in an elevator as some magical force began to work on the building and the elevator which lead to the death of some of the passengers. A police detective (Chris Messina), who was working on a suicide case in the building already, took over the handling of the elevator case and desperately tried to save the remaining victims.

The claustrophobic setting created a great deal of tension in the elevator as you were never sure who was the one doing the killing. The movie implies that the devil can take the form of a human to punish those who deserve it, and we find that everybody in the elevator had a severely checkered past or were a downright rotten person.

Most of the cast were actors who I had not recognized or who have had roles that I was not familiar with. I recognized the Old Woman, as IMDB named her, in Jenny O’Hara and Logan Marshall-Green was a name I recognized (he played the first Shocker in Spider-Man: Homecoming). The other main actors of the film included Bokeem Woodbine, Caroline Dhavernas (from TV show Hannibal), Jacob Vargas, Geoffrey Arend, Matt Craven, Joe Cobden, and Bojana Novakovic.

It is far from a perfect film. The story is a bit conventional and there is little effects for the frights. The film does do a solid job with the low budget on creating the anxiousness of the tone.

In the end, I am happy that I gave this a chance. It was more entertaining than I thought it was going to be. Perhaps this could be considered the start of the M. Night Shyamalan resurgence with his new movie Old coming out soon.

DailyView: Day 71, Movies 123

I needed something to cleanse my palate after watching that atrocious Benchwarmers movie, so I picked out something with George Burns. Going in Style was a buddy film from the 1970s with George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg.

I had seen the remake of this movie a few years ago with Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin and Michael Caine. That movie was not a very good film and was quite different from the 1979 version.

Wanting to feel young and get some excitement back into their lives, three friends, Joe (George Burns), Al (Art Carney) and Willie (Lee Strasberg) decided to rob a bank. Led by Joe, the three of them planned and executed the robbery, getting away with over 35 thousand dollars. Unfortunately, after the robbery, their age began to catch up with them.

The film is based mainly around the likeability of George Burns and Art Carney and their performances are just great in this movie. While the remake tried to bring more of a reason behind the robbery, this version’s reasoning why the three guys robbed the bank is simple and something that everyone can understand.

There is also a strong emotional beat in the movie. The three lead characters show how tight they were and how important they were with one another. Their friendship was such a vital part of the film. I was emotional with the involvement of Pete (Charles Hallahan) and his family in a couple of specific scenes. There was so much kindness in the scene that hit a note with me.

Going in Style is a solid and an enjoyable film that holds up.

DailyView: Day 71, Movie 122

DailyView struck out today BIG TIME!

The Benchwarmers was leaving HBO Max this month so I put it on. I had not realized that this was a Rob Schneider/David Spade film. That was strike one. I started it up anyway with the hope that it might surprise me.

It didn’t.

It was mean-spirited, crude, and a total insult to the game of baseball. It tries to use an anti-bullying message to give it more depth, but it only succeeds in making further fun of the topic. It is amazing that an anti-bullying movie can be so much of a bully.

There are fart jokes, one puke joke, sex jokes. The movie is downright sophomoric and stupid. It is insulting and idiotic.

It goes into my list of most hated movies. I hated every second of this film.

DailyView: Day 70, Movie 121

The DailyView movie for the day is an older John Travolta movie called Domestic Disturbance that also featured Vince Vaughn in the villain role.

John Travolta played Frank Morrison, a shipbuilder, whose ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo) was getting married to a new man named Rick (Vince Vaughn) and Frank and Susan’s son Danny (Matt O’Leary) was acting out because of it. Danny had a history of bad behavior and lying when things were bothering him, so it seemed to be nothing new. However, when Danny told his father that Rick had murdered a man (Steve Buscemi), the young boy’s word comes into question.

The movie is okay. There is nothing terribly bad about it. Travolta and Vaughn do a decent job in their roles and Matt O’Leary is solid as the young boy. Issues with the movie fall into characterizations and specifics.

Vince Vaughn goes from good and decent man trying to get Danny’s approval into dirtbag murderer really quickly, and the movie does not go into much specifics about why he was the way he was. It really was jarring to go from fishing on a boat with Frank and Danny to burning the dead body of an old associate and threatening Danny with violence. Because of the rapid quick change, it hurts the overall narrative of the movie. The trope of adults not believing a child is here too, which, at first, I thought Frank was going to break. It seemed as if Travolta was going to believe Danny, but he lashed out at the boy verbally at a point showing us that he did not believe him. That was a disappointing moment of the movie.

The film implies that Frank and Susan’s marriage fell apart because of Frank’s drinking and we see one scene where Frank drinks some, but there is little else spelled out.

There are plenty of scenes that are rushed through too. The entire custody section of the film takes all of three scenes to deal with and feels as if it were tacked on for the movie to get to the conclusion.

It is amazing how Rick has been able to get by this long since he reacts in violent manners so quickly. None of the characters of the movie really feel consistent, with the exception of Danny.

This movie feels like one that could have used another trip through the editing process and a recontextualizing of how these characters are meant to be portrayed. It is not the worst movie and the actors are fine, but the the film’s overall quality is not to the point it could have been.

DailyView: Day 69, Movie 120

One of the movies that is heading off HBO Max this month is this black and white comedic classic from 1949. Adam’s Rib stars two of Hollywood’s gigantic stars, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in a early day of the sexual revolution.

Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) and Amanda Bonner (Katharine Hepburn) are a happily married couple and they are both lawyers. When a case of an unhappy wife (Judy Holliday) trying to shoot her adulterous and uncaring husband (Tom Ewell) come up, Adam becomes the prosecutor, and Amanda, seeing a case that could forward her ideas on equality of the sexes, takes the defense. As the trial becomes competitive, cracks begin to form in the marriage between the lawyers.

Tracy and Hepburn are great here. They are funny, engaging and filled with chemistry. They were a real life couple in one of the worst hidden secrets in Hollywood at the time. You can tell how strong of the feelings there are between them and it surely transfers to the screen. The movie is absolutely carried by the pair of them.

Having said that, I did have some issues with the trial in the movie. There were a lot of the witnesses that were called that did not seem to have anything to do with the case at hand. I know it was done as comedy, but some of the things from the trial did pull me out of the movie.

This movie did feel ahead of its time and does a great job showing how both similar and different men and women can be.

DailyView: Day 69, Movie 119

I came across this movie on HBO Max and I had never heard of it before. It starred Robert Redford and the synopsis made it sound like Grizzly Adams. I used to like that show back when I was young, so I put this on my queue.

There was little comparison between the two. Redford looked like Adams a touch and there was a Mad Jack type character early in the movie, but he gets left behind and Jeremiah Johnson becomes a different story than a greenhorn trying to learn how to survive in the mountains.

Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) made his way into the mountains to live a life of seclusion. After learning to survive in the harsh environment of the mountains, Johnson began his trek through the countryside. As he did this, he ended up an Indian bride (Delle Bolton) and a traumatized boy who did not speak (Josh Albee).

When leading a rescue party of the US Calvary, Jeremiah had to lead them through the Native American tribe, the Crows’s sacred burial ground and this triggered a long vendetta from the Indians. Tragedy and revenge followed for the remainder of the film.

Robert Redford was excellent in this role. You can see how he developed from a “pilgrim” as he was called by Bear Claw (Will Geer), a fellow mountain man, to a legend who was spoken about in hyperbolic terms.

Directed by Sydney Pollack, Jeremiah Johnson is slowly paced, allowing the viewer to understand the passage of time and to enjoy the surroundings of the film. There are some gorgeous scenery in these mountains and they act almost like a second character. Some may claim that this is a boring movie because of the pacing, but I found it to be fully immersing in the character and the manner in which his life developed.

The movie is based on Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker’s book Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson and Vardis Fisher ‘s novel Mountain Men. It was an impressive movie, especially since I had not heard of it before.