Category Archives: Movies & TV

Not in front of the civilians

I am patient. I’ll watch hyped-up must-see movies when I get around to them. They’re not going anywhere.

There’s a trick to watching such movies: I deliberately didn’t anticipate Watchmen before it came out, and I didn’t read reviews after it came out. So when I fired up the new 3 hour directors cut, I watched it unbiased. I didn’t need it to be good, and I wouldn’t care if it was bad. Perfect.

Turns out, Watchmen is really good, and worth watching on its own terms. It emphasizes different aspects of Alan Moore’s story, while other aspects are lost. I respect the changes they’ve made. It’s all coherent, (unlike that mess The Dark Knight).

One thing that’s toned down is the right-left political axis. It’s still there, but clumsily handled compared to the comic book. (Which side is right, and why? The answer will start an interesting discussion.) And it’s ironic that the director satirizes violence one moment, then indulges in typical super-awesome super-hero brutality later. Rorschach and The Comedian’s brutality serves a point. Nite Owl’s undermines it.

Which just means you should also read the comic book, then continue with the rest of Alan Moore’s less famous catalogue. My personal favourite is Promethea.

But the movie stands on its own feet. I’m impressed.

40’s movies marathon – part 19

Suspicion (1941, USA) – Rich girl Joan Fontaine falls in love with Cary Grant to spite her parents, and marries him, but he turns out to be a no-good moneyless slacker. Doesn’t he always? Watched it all.

Manpower (1941, USA) – Macho drama about the brave men who fix power lines. Watched: 15 minutes.

Target for Tonight (1941, UK) – Shows how a bombing raid against Germany is carried out, from the planning stage to the actual bombing. Turns out there’s a lot of dull work behind raining fiery death from the sky. Watched: 5 minutes.

That Uncertain Feeling (1941, USA) – A woman goes to a psychoanalyst to cure her hiccups. That’s funny, but the movie isn’t. Watched: 8 minutes.

Hold Back the Dawn (1941, USA) – Rumanian fortune hunter Charles Boyer seeks some naive American girl to woo and marry, so he can move to America and be with his girlfriend. Takes place in a hotel in Mexico, where everybody is waiting for their entry visa, and everybody has their own plan for getting it. Watched it all.

Horror Island (1941, USA) – There’s a treasure buried on an island. A .. horror island. Boring. Watched: 7 minutes.

They Drive By Night (1940, USA) – Humphrey Bogart is a truck driver for an apple company. He may not make his delivery on time, oh dear. Watched: 9 minutes.

That Night in Rio (1941, USA) – A silly musical in Glorious! Techni! Color!, starring Carmen Miranda, mother of all fruit-hat-wearing Latin-American stereotypes. Watched: 14 minutes.

40’s movies marathon – part 18

Sullivan’s Travels (1941, USA) – Satire about a movie director who sets out to live as a tramp to learn what it’s like to be poor, so that he can make that big serious movie he always dreamed about. He’s followed by a bus full of journalists, looking for a human interest story. Best line: “How do you feel about the labor situation?”, said to a pair of hobos on a train. Watched it all.

Topper Returns (1941, USA) – The original Topper had Cary Grant as an irresponsible playboy who kills himself and his wife in a drunken driving accident, then returns as a ghost to teach others to do likewise. This does not. I’m not sure what it has. Watched: 10 minutes.

Peer Gynt (1941, USA) – I wish there was some way to separate Peer Gynt from Grieg’s music, which is all wrong for it. This is a silent movie, which means you get to watch Charlton Heston (at 17, his first role) for 90 minutes while you listen to Grieg. Watched: 12 minutes.

Confessions of a Boston Blackie (1941, USA) – Stupid art world crime stuff. Watched: 9 minutes.

Western Union (1941, USA) – IMDB reviewers say this western about building telegraph lines is really good. I bet they’re just saying that because it’s directed by Fritz Lang. Watched: 16 minutes.

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941, USA) – The movie came D.O.A. Watched: 5 minutes.

40’s movies marathon – part 17

Big Store (1941, USA) – This is the first Marx Brothers movie in the marathon, because I’ve watched most of them already. There’s little reason to bother with their later movies like this one. Watched it all, but only because I’m a Loyal Fan. For a Marx Brothers masterpiece, watch A Night at the Opera, Duck Soup or Horse Feathers.

Tobacco Road (1941, USA) – Georgia is full of stupid white trash and/or hillbillies. You’ll laugh your false teeth out. Watched: 8 minutes.

Hellzapoppin’ (1941, USA) – Fourth wall breakage, nonsense slapstick, and my second favourite jazz scene so far. Many movies are fun. This movie has fun. The Broadway show it was based on was supposedly even less coherent. I wish I could have seen it. Watched it all.

Blood of Jesus (1941, USA) – All-black Christian proselytization effort. Good music, odd style, terrible acting. Watched: 16 minutes.

Among the Living (1941, USA) – Recipe for a MST3K-worthy B-horror: Spooky house, mad twin brother who’s been hidden in the cellar for decades, and some old fool who does things for no good reason, which would be okay if he wasn’t a lead character. Watched: 15 minutes.

Spooks Run Wild (1941, USA) – Bela Lugosi is neither dead nor undead, but he really needs to lie down for a rest, he looks terrible. Some unruly teenagers from the city go on a camping trip, but there’s a killer on the loose. Watched: 16 minutes.

40’s movies marathon – part 16

Sieg Im Westen (1941, Germany) – The story so far: Germany has successfully defended itself against Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France, and somehow finds itself in control of Western, Northern and Central Europe. Now if only some stupid fuck doesn’t go and invade the Soviet Union, nothing can go wrong. Anyway, this is a movie for and by war nerds. No I don’t want to know how they captured that fortress in Holland. Watched: 26 minutes.

‘Pimpernel’ Smith (1941, UK) – “In Nazi Germany, nobody can expect to be saved by anybody!” boasts the spokesperson for the Ministry of Propaganda as he dismisses rumors of a modern-day pimpernel who rescues scientists from Germany. Nazi stereotypes from during the war suffer from a lack of imagination. They’re just small-time crooks, mean and stupid. Watched: 7 minutes.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941, USA) – An over-eager Angel of Death fetches the soul of boxer Robert Montgomery before his time. As compensation, he gets to do the Quantum Leap thing, jumping into bodies to make things better. This could be enjoyable if the main character wasn’t so retarded. Watched: 32 minutes.

Sergeant York (1941, USA) – Gary Cooper is a violent drunkard. But Jesus and the Great War will no doubt sort him out. Watched: 18 minutes.

Stukas (1941, Germany) – No subtitles, but the message seems to be: Our wholesome and cheerful pilots, when the time comes, for the Fatherland their lives joyfully sacrifice will. Watched: 4 minutes.

Better to fight your wars with duct tape

From the moment when, in the first episode of Burn Notice, Michael Westen solved a problem with duct tape, I was hooked. The show is a sexier version of MacGyver, with many of the same plot formulas (“Hi, I’m your old friend who you haven’t seen in ten years and I need your help, and we can’t go to the police! Please go con some Miami drug dealers for me!”). There are fewer ingenious mechanisms, and more conning and spying, but the spirit of the macgyverism is preserved, down to the educational voiceovers. It’s all very stupid, and fun. And it has Bruce Campbell in a supporting role.

So I watched the first season two years ago, and then I tried watching the second season last year. It just didn’t work. I hated it. I gave up.

Now I learn that the third season has started, and I think: Why did I stop enjoying that stupid macgyverish show? And I realize what happened. I watched most of the first season in the summer, and the second season in the fall. There’s something about summer and stupid fun shows. I think it’s the heat. It makes you dumber, so you don’t mind that all the episodes are the same.

Right now we’re at the end of a week-long heat wave here in Oslo. My apartment is a greenhouse. So I started up an episode from season 2, and .. hey, this is fun! I like this! Does that prove my theory? We’ll see when the heat ends.

40’s movies marathon – part 15

Dumbo (1941, USA) – Hey, this is brilliant! Not because of the story, but because of all the perfect scenes and details on the way. This is how Disney conquered the world, (after declaring their intentions with Fantasia.) Watched it all.

All Through the Night (1941, USA) – The gangster movie is dead, but the corpse is shambling along as a parody of itself. This time it’s gangsters vs nazis. Oh brother. Watched: 12 minutes.

Two-Faced Woman (1941, USA) – Sleaze-bag rich guy Melvyn Douglas meets, gets skiing lessons from, and marries, Greta Garbo as Ninotchka, all within 8 minutes. Watched: 8 minutes. IMDB verdict: “They fool around on a dance floor!!!!!” (Count the exclamation marks.)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941, USA) – It’s ironic that this story has remained so popular, while Victorian morality hasn’t. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is Victorian morality. Keep your emotions under the lid, or you’ll release your lustful inner beast. But then, doesn’t all horror reflect old-fashioned morals? Anyway, it’s a good story, and I like that Spencer Tracy doesn’t play Hyde in silly monster makeup. Watched it all.

49th Parallel (1941, UK) – Hey America, look! This war of ours can come to your front steps as well! How about giving us a hand, eh? Watched: 15 minutes.

40’s movies marathon – part 14

The Lady Eve (1941, USA) – Barbara Stanwyck goes on the prowl on a cruise ship, looking for a sucker to swindle, and finds Henry Fonda, a naive millionaire. The production code means that no matter how delightfully crooked Stanwyck is, she and Fonda must eventually fall in love and get married and settle down forever and ever until death does them apart, but the route by which the movie fullfils that obligation is rather clever. Watched it all.

The Ghost Train (1941, UK) – Arthur Ashley tries to be a Marx brother. Watched: 8 minutes.

Spare a Copper (1941, UK) – George Formby tries to make a comedy. Watched: 6 minutes.

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941, USA) – I’m tired and sick of Nora and Nick. Watched: 13 minutes.

Road Show (1941, USA) – Seems I’m getting all the bad comedies today, or maybe I’m just cranky. There’s possibly a marriage, or whatever. Watched: 5 minutes.

Sun Valley Serenade (1941, USA) – Sonja Henie is an implausibly affectionate refugee from Norway who is sent to live with American jazz musician John Payne. They go to a ski resort, where she steals him away from his girlfriend with her downhill skills. Bad, but charming, and Glenn Miller’s music is excellent. Weirdest / saddest scene: On arrival in New York, Henie hears a siren, and throws herself down on the floor, screaming “air raid!” Watched it all.

40’s movies marathon – part 13


Ball of Fire (1941, USA) – Gary Cooper is a word nerd who heads out into the streets of New York to learn current slang for the dictionary he and his seven bachelor roommates are working on. Instead he finds a nightclub singer (skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood) on the run from the police. Barbara Stanwyck’s jazz number is my favourite musical scene in the marathon so far, (watch to the end!) Another thing that stands out is the sheer nerdiness of the movie. The climax hinges on a room full of lovable dorks outwitting crooks with their knowledge of ancient history. Watched it all.

Turned Out Nice Again (1941, UK) – Oh, the wacky things that occur at a textile factory. Inferior yarn quality, clumsy technicians, it’s a laugh. Watched: 5 minutes.

The Little Foxes (1941, USA) – As members of a wealthy family in the post-Civil War South, Bette Davis and her brothers scheme against each other for ownership of a cotton mill. This is a dark movie, made more so by the contrast between the few good people in the family and their heartless relatives. The family’s happy and subservient black servants adds to the dissonance, but, this being 1941, that may have been unintentional. Also contains the marathon’s first genuine teenage rebellion. Watched it all.