I can only assume this is a satire.

Otherwise, it is one of the stupider movies I have seen in awhile.

That, however, does not make it a terrible movie. In fact, there are some funny bits in Idiocracy, the next movie in the DailyView. It is not great though. In fact, it leans heavily on stupidity and that tends to be a joke that runs its course early in the movie.

Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) was in the army, and sneaking by without accomplishing anything. Then, he got reassigned to be in a special project, to test a way to freeze him and have him thaw back out in a year. They picked up another test subject, a prostitute Rita (Maya Rudolph). They put both of them into the status chamber and put them to sleep.

Major problem… the military man in charge of the program got taken over and the world went to crap. Joe and Rita spent not one year, but 500 in the chamber. When they awoke, it was 2505 and the world was all dumb people. They tried to make it to a time machine to find their way home, but troubles popped up everywhere.

There were some funny bits, but the movie carried on like an overlong SNL skit.

Luke Wilson is pretty average in the film. That is what the character is supposed to be. There is little personality to Joe and he does not show a lot of emotion. You would think a few of the situations he finds himself in might lead to a touch of emoting.

Maya Rudolph is funny too, but her character has a one trait that they try to milk as a joke throughout the entire movie too. She is a likeable actress so you want to root for her, which is the key for the movie.

Every other character in the movie are completely annoying. Dax Shepard as Frito is desperately unfunny. Terry Crews as President Camacho is too over the top. The rest of the cast is all the same, just playing stupid humanoids.

The movie does not hold up very well either. Some of the words they use are words that most people do not use anymore. They are insulting and not funny.

In the end, the movie did not have enough of a plot to carry itself through the whole time and there is not much in the way of characters. There are some funny moments, but not enough to justify the film.

Today’s DailyView film will wrap up the Bourne trilogy of films that I had not originally seen. There are two more Bourne films and I have seen both of those, and, quite frankly, are a serious step down in quality over the first three.

Bourne Ultimatum sees Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) back in conflict with the secret organization, Operation Blackbriar, within the CIA, now led by Noah Vosen (David Strathairn). Bourne comes out of hiding to meet a reporter (Paddy Considine) who has been running a story on Blackbriar and Bourne’s background. During the meeting, the reporter gets killed an triggered one of the old memories of Bourne’s recruitment into the program to start with and Jason decided that he needed to follow the lead to the end of the road.

The Jason Bourne franchise has been exciting and filled with dramatic action. Matt Damon has been the key to all of it as he plays Jason Bourne with a generousness about him. He is real and honest despite the fact that he is an assassin and has done terrible things over the years. He is intelligent and is a thinking man’s action hero.

Speaking of action, I do wish that there would be less of the “shaky cam” shots during the action scenes. I makes it difficult to see (and yes, I know that is the purpose of the shaky cam). With as much hand-to-hand combat and chase scenes that fill this movie, that shaky cam becomes an annoyance more than anything.

I have to say, the appearance of Nicky (Julia Styles) in this film felt forced and too coincidental. Her use during The Bourne Supremacy (after a much large role in the Bourne Identity) made sense, but this one just felt as if they wanted to toss her in as a hook between the three films. I’m not sure she was needed here. Having said that, Julia Styles is always solid and Nicky has been a good character in the franchise.

Bourne Ultimatum is the loudest, brashest of the trilogy, with nonstop action. This brings the trilogy to a satisfactory conclusion (including an exceptional ending shot) and it does that without sacrificing the thinking man motif that the previous films had adopted.

This was an experience.

A few years ago, there was a special online showing of the Beatles classic Yellow submarine animated movie, and I missed it. I came in near the end and I hoped that I could start it over. Unfortunately, I could not and any time I tried to find it, I was unable to find it.

Since I have been doing the DailyView, Yellow Submarine was one I was hoping to watch, but, again, it was not easy to find. Finally, I discovered it on Apple + and I got the chance to watch the surreal fantasy.

I love the Beatles. I am a big fan of their music and the way the movie seamlessly interweaved the music of the Beatles, not only as songs in the movie, but also as part of the dialogue and the story was remarkable. The word play involved in Yellow Submarine was brilliantly manipulated. Sure, some of the jokes were groaners, but that went right along with the Beatles.

The animation was filled with color and flowed through this movie like nothing I had ever seen. The animation was influenced by everything from Picasso to Monty Python. The character designs was so trippy and creative that it is difficult to describe. It is an experimental explosion of color and totally unique.

The people of Pepperland are attacked by the music hating Blue Meanies and Captain Fred (Lance Percival), in his Yellow Submarine, was sent to Liverpool to recruit the Beatles (John, Paul, George and Ringo) to come back and help save Pepperland and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Along the way, the Beatles and the Yellow Submarine encounter all kinds of bizarre creatures and song-induced lands such as Sea of Time, Sea of Nothing, and Sea of Holes among others. They meet Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. (Dick Emery), the Nowhere man who helps them fix the engine of the Yellow Submarine after it breaks down.

I’ll say this again, I have never seen anything quite like Yellow Submarine.

Now, the Beatles themselves did not voice the characters of the Beatles in the movie. They were voiced by he following: Paul Angelis (George and Ringo…as well as the lead Blue Meanie), John Clive (John) and Geoffrey Hughes (Paul). The real life Beatles made an appearance at the very end in a live action shot.

Songs appearing in the movie included the title track, Eleanor Rigby, All Together Now, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Nowhere Man, among others.

If you love the Beatles, you’ll love this too. It is a beautiful mess of chaos and colorful fantasy. It is wild and crazy. Loved it. It is a visual smorgasbord to our eyes.

The DC Animated movies have always been great stories with average animation. One of the biggest beneficial characters of these animations has been John Constantine. Not only has he had his own animated web series (which was compiled into this film), but he also was one of the prime characters in the most recent series of Justice League Dark animated films. It is a character that has come a long way since the Keanu Reeves movie.

Matt Ryan voiced Constantine (and played him in a live-action series as well) and rapidly became a huge fan-favorite among the fandom. Ryan provides a perfect voice for the occult detective and you can tell how well he does during this film.

Constantine is brought into a hospital by his childhood friend Chas (Damian O’Hare), whose daughter has slipped into a coma. The doctors were at a loss and Chas thought his old friend Constantine might have insight that the doctors did not have. He discovered that the little girl’s soul was no longer in her body, and he set off into the darkness to try and save her from the demons.

The animation on the DC films are always the biggest weakness of them. The animation is typically just average, basic as you may see on any television cartoon. However, I will say that there are several moments in Constantine: City of Demons- The Movie where we have what looks like still shots and they are beautiful. So while the animation itself is average, at best, there are some great shots in the film. Those do make the overall movie better to look at.

The story is solid and has a real powerful and emotional twist at the end. The battle between Constantine and the demon Beroul (Jim Meskimen) is extremely well done and works on several different levels. This would lead into the Justice League Dark films that starred Constantine as a major player.

Constantine: City of Demons-The Movie is violent, bloody, gory and a load of fun. Probably not for the youngest viewers, fans of the Constantine movie and live action show should enjoy this take on the demon hunter.

Trying to get the taste of Dr. Giggles out of my mouth from this morning’s DailyView, I went back to an old standby, one of my favorite directors of all-time, Alfred Hitchcock. There have not been many Hitchcock films that I have not enjoyed and this is another one that fits right into that category. The Wrong Man was from 1956 starring Henry Fonda.

Christopher Emanuel “Manny” Balestrero (Henry Fonda) is a kind, honest, selfless man, a great husband and father. He plays in a local band and struggles to get by in the world. Despite this, he is happy with his wife Rose (Vera Miles) and two sons.

Rose was having dental problems and they needed $300 for the trip to the dentist. Manny went to the insurance company to borrow money against his wife’s policy. While there, the staff of the insurance company believed that he was the same man who had robbed their business twice before. Manny was arrested and put on trial for the crmes.

The film started off with a monologue from Alfred Hitchcock himself stating that this movie was unlike any one he had done before because the movie told the case that was real and that every single word was true. He said that there were twists that created the same amount of suspense as anything that he could have made up.

Henry Fonda is very compelling as the innocent man accused of the crime. Watching him as he trustfully allowed the police to do whatever they wanted, walking him through the shops he was meant to have robbed was just amazing. If these are true, the evidence collection of the police is totally tainted. This was one of the best parts of the film, watching the police doing their job, honestly, but incompetently, collecting evidence. The lineup seemed to easily argued against with the way they ran it. I kept waiting for the defense attorney to go after the lineup, but it did not happen.

The nervous breakdown by Rose was a hugely tragic moment of the film and with it being a true story, this really showed how painful this false arrest caused. Manny was such a respectful and honest guy, but his milquetoast personality allowed things to go too far. Someone a little more confident would have stopped things earlier. The costs to prove his innocence was more than just monetary.

The tension of the story came from the reality of the situation. Knowing off the bat that this was a true story and that every word was true, as Hitchcock said, limited the film in my opinion. However, the details did still feel as if it were made up, proving that the cliché about truth being stranger than fiction is completely true.

Ooh boy.

I was scouring through Starz this morning looking for the first movie for the day of the DailyView when I came across a movie that I had never heard of. I read the Amazon Prime synopsis and I I was intrigued. It said, “When the psychopathic son of a mass-murdering doctor escapes from a mental institution, he seeks revenge on the citizens of the town where his father was finally captured.” It sounded like a tense and anxiety filled thriller. However, that could not be farther from the truth. This was a ridiculous movie that surely set the genre back.

That psychopathic son was played by Larry Drake, spouting one liners after every murder that he committed, horrid puns that were almost never funny. He went about a reign of terrors of murders that have little connection to him. He seemed to have that slasher movie villain power of being right where he needed to be in seconds. His performance was meant to be comically eerie, but it was much more cartoony than it was eerie.

There was the daughter from Picket Fences (I loved that show) and Mark Healy from Roseanne. They were a couple of teenagers, and she had a bad heart. We see no evidence of that besides the weird monitor she had to wear. She does a lot of active stuff in the film for the bad heart.

Larry Drake had to giggle through the whole film too, thus the name Dr. Giggles.

For a little bit, I thought that I might be able to classify this one as “So bad, it’s good.” The more it went on though, I realized that category was too good for this movie.

I’m not spending one more minute on this one. It’s terrible.

Creepy children.

The DailyView today heads back into 1960 to one of the classic horror/sci-fi films of the time featuring the horror trope of creepy children. The Village of the Damned was directed by Wolf Rilla and starred George Sanders and Barbara Shelley.

one normal day, the entire village of Midwich all at once passed out and stayed unconscious for several hours. It was unclear what had caused the phenomenon, but everything was kept silent. A few months later, several women discovered that they were pregnant, including a few of them who could not possibly be pregnant.

When women gave birth, it was all on the same night and the children seemed more advanced than they should have been. As they grew, it became clear that the children were special. Gordon Zellaby (George Sanders), the father of one of the children, David (Martin Stephens), and a scientist, believes bringing the children together is the way to determine exactly what was going on with them. It does not take long to see that this may not have been the best choice ever made.

Village of the Damned is a classic horror movie that has a remarkable eerie feel and a tone that can’t help but create a ton of anxiety and tension.

Creepy children always work well in horror to build suspense and an uneasiness among the viewers and these children with their blonde hair and strange glowing eyes absolute fill that mark.

It is intriguing as well that the film really only touches upon what is going on with these children and does not go into great detail. I think that is effective and helps continue to build an uncertainty in the movie.

Great film with some gore-less scares.

I wanted to get an older movie watched again in the ongoing DailyView. I have been doing several movies of the last three decades or so, but it was time to head back in time once again… this time to a movie that holds a surprising amount of relevance in today’s world, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

The Frank Capra classic starring James Stewart as Mr. Jefferson Smith, leader of the Boy Rangers, was appointed by a crooked governor to replace a senator who had died. Smith, honest and true, if not quite a bit naïve, admired his state’s other senator, Senator Paine (Claude Raines), who knew his father, a former senator too. Smith arrived in Washington with his eyes filled with patriotism, fawning over the monuments and statues, unable to see the nefarious actions of those around him.

Senator Paine was involved with Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), a businessman from his state, to push through a bill to build a dam that would provide Taylor with more money. In fact, Taylor is shown as a political influencer, manipulation the press and controlling what many senators would do.

When Smith discovered the truth, he was preparing to reveal it to the Senate when Paine, backed by Taylor, framed him for a crime.

Jean Arthur played the role of Clarissa Saunders, Smith’s secretary. She does a great job in the film as a disillusioned cog in the wheel of Democracy who slowly becomes inspired by the actions and words of Jeff Smith.

Smith engaged in a filibuster to get his message out, showing a whole different world than today’s Senate. At this time, the filibuster meant that the senator performing the filibuster had to stand and continue to speak on the Senate floor. If he would have yielded his time, the filibuster would have ended. That is perhaps the way the filibuster should return to in today’s divisive political landscape.

It is a powerful film showing how easily it is for senators to slip under the control of other forces and how that can limit the work of the lawmakers. Even at this point, the Congress had a feel of corruption, a group of men (all men at this point) who had their own concerns and were only worried about being reelected. Sadly, it feels as if this is still a major problem in the Senate today.

It was funny. At one point, Saunders mentioned that there were 96 senators, and I thought to myself, what about the other four? I had not realized till a few minutes later that this movie came out prior to the admission of Hawaii and Alaska as states, and the 96 senators would have been the proper number.

James Stewart is great in his role, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Lead Actor. He was a perfect star to portray the honesty and naivety of Senator Jeff Smith. His wide eyes told the audience how important this was to Smith and gave the people the hope that this institution could give it its best.

If only there was a Jefferson Smith in the Senate today.

The DailyView continued today with the quintessential 90s high school movie, Clueless. This was, again, one of those movies that I had not considered to be interesting to me. I was wrong. I really enjoyed this one.

Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a Beverly Hills student, at first glance, seems to be the stereotypical Valley girl type of character, but nearly immediately, you can see how much more there is to her than just a vapid, blonde teenager. She goes through several different issues such as grades, boyfriends, fashion and social status in the school.

Cher is concerned with her friends and their lives and she wants to be the friend who helps the others out. It is selfish of her, but she does it in such a sweet manner that you can’t help but like her for it. Alicia Silverstone is wonderful in the role and creates a character that plays both into and out of the expectations.

A young Paul Rudd is here too, playing a step-brother, of sorts, named Josh. Josh’s mother was married to Cher’s father (Dan Hedaya) for a minute. They were now divorced, but Josh would still come over to help with the work on Cher’s father’s lawyer cases.

We get several other characters in Cher’s orbit including her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) and her boyfriend (Donald Faison), a new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy) who becomes Cher’s ‘project’, Christian (Justin Walker) the boy who dresses better than Cher, and teachers Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) and Miss Geist (Twink Caplan) who Cher hooks up so they would ease off and give students better grades.

I loved every scene with Mr. Hall. Of course, I love Wallace Shawn (Vizzini from The Princess Bride) and, as a teacher myself, I loved his banter with his class. He was so funny and witty with this group of odd ball high schoolers that I would have liked even more from him.

We also got stoner/skateboarder Travis (Breckin Meyer) who had a thing for Tai but was not considered datable material by Cher and the popular girls. Travis’s arc of the movie was one of the better ones and he gets quite a bit done for the limited screen time he got.

There were many legitimately funny moments that I laughed out loud at, as well as several smart and subtle moments of humor. The script was very clever, showing these potentially generic characters in a much more three-dimensional light. Clueless was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who also directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Heckerling clearly has some comedy chops when it comes to high school movies.

Nicely paced, the film took its time and used each of the 90+ minutes extremely well. Each character received a well-written and charming scene to develop who they were as characters. There was a great scene with Cher and her father that told us everything we needed to know about them.

I was truly clueless thinking that I wasn’t going to like Clueless. This was funny and clever, filled with great characters and a ton of fun. A top notch cast handles the surprisingly deep script with a deft precision.

The second of the Jason Bourne movies that I avoided for no good reason is the next movie in the DailyView binge. It is The Bourne Supremacy with Matt Damon returning to the roll of the amnesiac assassin.

As I said in the review for The Bourne Identity, I avoided the Bourne movies when they came out and I am not sure why. Once again, this movie was fantastic.

We catch up with Jason Bourne and Marie (Franka Potente) in hiding in India, happy together. Unfortunately, they are discovered and, in an attempt to escape, Marie is shot and killed. Bourne heads back to the real world to find out why this happened.

In The Bourne Identity, I claimed that I wanted some more stakes for Jason Bourne. He always felt as if he was several steps ahead of those pursuing him that I did never thought he was in jeopardy. With Marie’s death, that was immediately turned around. Then, Jason Bourne struggled through much of the film, being injured and shot. He still is ahead of the people chasing him but Bourne took the damage of his efforts and I liked that.

The action is top notch and I really love the fact that there is not an excess of gun play in the film. There is some, but it still feels as if the gun action is kept to a minimum and that the film is more about intelligence. The only problem in the action is that there was too much bouncy camera for my taste. I do not remember if there was bouncy cam in the first film and I just did not notice it, but this time, particularly in the hand to hand, it was obvious.

Directed by Paul Greengrass, I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was a step up from the original, building on all of the positives from Identity. It was about the perfect length of time for the feature and Matt Damon is excellent.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a topic going around social media (I don’t remember if it was Facebook or Twitter or both) that said “The movie that was #1 at the domestic box office on your tenth birthday is the way the rest of your 2021 is going to go.” Interested, I looked it up and my movie was 1979’s The Warriors. I had never heard of it before so I placed it on the DailyView list.

Now having watched it on HBO Max, two thoughts come into my head. One, the film is about gang warfare and that does not bode well for the rest of my 2021. And two, what the hell was this?

I legitimately hated this movie.

It has 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I don’t care. This was terrible.

All the gangs of New York met at a big summit. They were all gangs like you might see in the Mystery Men. Then, one of the gang leaders named Cyrus (Roger Hill) started to talk to the assembled gangs. He actually said the line “Can you dig that?” several times making me think of wrestler Booker T. Cyrus even threw in a “sucker” at one point. Then, one of the other gang members, Luther (David Patrick Kelly) shot Cyrus and blamed the gang The Warriors. So the Warriors are suddenly being hunted by all the other gangs and had to try to make it back to their own turf.

Absolutely zero character development. I had no idea who this Cyrus was and why his death caused all of these other rival gang members to go so bonkers. Cyrus was giving off some distinct cult leader type vibes so it did not surprise me that someone took a shot at him. Then, with Luther, I have seen better villainous motives on The Laff-a-Lympics. When asked why he shot Cyrus and blamed the Warriors, he said “no reason. I just like doing stuff like that.” Profound. Deep character depth. NOT.

Director Walter Hill spent more time on style than he did on substance. The film had a tone about it that is not your typical film. However, I could not have given two craps about anyone in the story and it doesn’t matter how creative the imagery is or how great the music is (and the music was a strength) if I don’t care about any of the people.

Apparently this has become one of those cult classic films over the years, but I am not interested in that either. I disliked this from early on and the conclusion of the film did little to sway my opinion.

I’m not sure what I had against Jason Bourne. I like this genre of action movie. I never had any issues with Matt Damon. I just never was interested in watching any of these movies. I did watch The Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner, and it was okay. Then I did watch the Jason Bourne (2016) which was not very good. Here it seemed as if my choice was justified.

However, as I was going through Peacock today for choices in the DailyView binge, I came across The Bourne Identity. I have heard nothing but positives about this film (and the ensuing two that follow it) with some even going as far as to state it is one of the best spy movies ever made. While that is clearly hyperbole, The Bourne Identity fit beautifully into the concept of the DailyView and allowed me to, if nothing else, close another hole in my movie viewing.

And you know what? I was so wrong about not being interested in these movies. This film was tremendous.

A man with two bullet wounds in his back is pulled out of the ocean by a fishing boat and they try to help him. Little did they know how dangerous that would be. Springing to life, the man realized quickly that he did not remember anything, who he was, how he got into the water, or even his name.

He discovers some of the smaller details of his life, including his name, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). He found money, several fake passports, and a gun that belonged to him. He did not know what was going on, but his instincts were keeping him safe and ahead of those around him. He met up with Marie (Franka Potente), a woman he offers $20,000 to if she would drive him to Paris. She accepts and they begin to unravel the mystery of who he really is. Meanwhile, he is being pursued by agents led by Conklin (Chris Cooper), the head of some shadowy governmental agency.

This was a lot of fun, with exciting action and cool stunts. While there is some, this film does not rely on gunfire as the main weaponry. Jason Bourne’s intelligence seems to be the top weapon. The development of the character of Jason Bourne is awesome too since we have no idea what he was like prior to his amnesia and solving the riddle was something for the audience to get involved in. A big part of how we saw Jason Bourne was the relationship that was developing with Marie. He was very straight with her and was clearly protective of her. I got a feeling that he would have done anything to help her because it was the right thing to do. I wonder if pre-amnesia Jason Bourne was the same way or was that something that changed as he floated in the water.

Something that was fun too was the fact that I was anxious to see how Bourne would get out of the next problem. They placed him in seemingly impossible situations only for him to professionally find ways out. I never really was concerned that he was in any jeopardy, which was fine here, but there should be something more compelling in any sequels because if he is just a Superman-type character that waltzes in and out of danger without any issue then he could become boring. While Marie was with him, he had a character to protect so the concern was for her (or the others in his surrounding area). I do not think he can continue as that without some level of doubt.

The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Robert Ludlum. Directed by Doug Liman, The Bourne Identity spawned a total of four sequels, three of which starred Matt Damon.

The Bourne Identity was a much more enjoyable film than I ever gave it credit for. As I stated, I am not sure why I was so opposed to watching these thrillers, but I do believe those days are now past.

I was looking through the movie section on Peacock, looking for something interesting to watch this Sunday afternoon for the DailyView, and I came across a documentary called Ghostheads, which looks specifically at the fandom of the movies under the Ghostbusters umbrella. I was a huge fan of Ghostbusters so this one drew my attention.

My guess is that this documentary was created to help promote the reboot attempt of Ghostbusters (2016). We see a press junket at the end of the doc, but most of the movie focused on the fans of the original two Ghostbusters movies. I did not hate the 2016 Ghostbusters movie and I think it got a bad rap from the fans. I am curious to see what these fans focused on in this doc thought of the new film.

The doc told the story of several of the people involved in the fandom for this film. There were so many people with their own jump suits, their own unlicensed nuclear accelerators, their own Ecto Mobiles. People who live their lives around the movie and the joy and inspiration they are provided with from the movie.

One of the best things the documentary does is provide us with a picture of how important in their lives Ghostbusters had become. There were several powerful stories of how it brought them together, how they found their spouses, how they felt accepted for the first time.

There was one Ghosthead that talked about his son who had cerebral palsy but the ability to cosplay Ghostbusters helped give him a positive in his life. The doc ends with this kid tying his shoes for the first time, shoes that he said he could learn to tie. It was powerful stuff.

The doc had interviews with several of the cast from the original film including Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, director Ivan Reitman, Jennifer Runyon, William Atherton, and Ernie Hudson, as well as others tied to the movie including Ray Parker Jr, the daughter of Harold Ramis, Matt Cardona, Dave Coulier, and Paul Feig.

If you are a fan of the Ghostbusters franchise, this is a documentary for you. It gives the real world examples of how important movies can be for real people. It is a quick run time and I liked this doc.

Sylvester Stallone returned to the franchise that made him a superstar when he came back for Rocky Balboa, the sixth movie in the Rocky franchise. When it first came out, I had had enough of Rocky and was not interested in seeing it. That makes it a perfect addition to the DailyView binge.

An aging Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) owns a little restaurant in Philadelphia and mourns the loss of his beloved wife Adrian. Rocky starts to get that pull back into the ring and wants to resume his fighting career. Brash young world champion Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver), after a computer simulation of a dream match between them had Rocky winning, wanted a shot at the Italian Stallion in an exhibition match. The match, however, was anything but an exhibition.

The first part of the movie is done very well as we see Rocky flailing in his life, with Adrian gone. He put up a good front, but the anger inside was still there. With his family and friends also struggling through life, Rocky returned to the world that he knew best.

I’m not sure what the subplot involving Marie (Geraldine Hughes) was meant to be. She played a woman who had been walked home as a child by Rocky. I do not think it was meant to be a physical relationship at all, but it was certainly a weird one. She wound up in the crowd during the fight taking the place of Adrian, and her son Steps (James Francis Kelly III) was in Rocky’s corner. The movie had a mixed message about what this relationship was going to be.

Rocky and his son Robert (Milo Ventimiglia) had some issues during the first half of the film and they had a nice scene together outside the restaurant, but those issues magically went away and, in the second part of the film, Robert was fully supportive of Rocky.

The boxing match itself was thrilling, filled with great shots and beautiful imagery. Some of the black and white shots with either the blue trunks or the red of the blood breaking the color are just great. Rocky films have always had great montages and the fight is extremely well done.

This was a strong goodbye to the character of Rocky as a fighter. Of ocurse, Stallone returned in Creed as a trainer for Michael B. Jordan, but that was more about post fighter Rocky than this was. This was the way Rocky wanted to go into retirement, with one more major slugfest. Rocky Balboa delivered that.

One more musical today as I headed to Disney + for this entry in the DailyView. O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A… Oklahoma, Ok?

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma has been another film that I had an eyeball on for awhile, but it was quite long (2 hours 25 minutes- including an intermission).

Oklahoma is the story of a group of cowboys and farmers competing for the attention and love of the local ladies. The main story includes first, a love triangle between cowboy Curley (Gordon MacRae) and handyman Jud (Rod Steiger) for the affections of Laurey (Shirley Jones) and second, a cowboy Will (Gene Nelson) and Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame) try to get their relationship together while a peddler (Eddie Albert) gets in the way.

I knew many more songs in Oklahoma than I did in Hairspray or In the Heights. Even still, a few of the songs I had not heard of were really fun. My favorite was when Curley went to troll Jud and sang about his death and funeral, and had Jud singing with him. The lyrics of these songs were very clever. The song about the farmers and cowboys that kicked off the second part of the movie was great too, full of funny lines.

Rod Steiger’s Jud made for a menacing villain. His work during Laurey’s dream sequence was particularly frightening and he had several moments of sincere cruelty in his pursuit of Laurey’s love.

The film does not have much of a story outside of the two couples getting together. At times, Oklahoma does feel like it is a bunch of entertaining and fun musical numbers with great choreography strung together by minor story elements. Still, there is a lot of entertaining music and dancing and the actors are strong and charismatic. Plus, they talk with a funny accent.

One more shout out for the cast goes to Charlotte Greenwood who played Aunt Eller, the wise voice of the show. She was a hoot from the beginning and every moment of every scene she was in, she stole.

Is it a little too long? Yes. Could there have been more of a story? Probably. Oklahoma is still highly engaging and entertaining and worth the time.

Ok?