Clue (1985)

At our book club my friend Martha said "Clue is my all time favorite movie".  So, having not seen it, it was available on Amazon Prime.

Based on the classic board game, we have the familiar characters of Col. Mustard, Professor Plum, Mr. Green, Mrs White, Mrs Peacock and Miss Scarlet.  A closed door murder in an old gothic house on a dark and stormy night.  The butler Wadsworth summons each person there, giving them an alias.  He says they are are related somehow and it turns out they are all being blackmailed to hide a secret and that gives them a motive for murder.

It was an inventive way to turn the game into a movie.  In this case people starts dying at the hands of the familiar weapons, the knife, the candlestick, the rope, the pipe, the revolver and the poison.  And there are many room and passageways between them to give a number of solutions as to "Whodunnit".

Certainly campy and somewhat slapstick, it was evocative of the comedy of those days - Mel Brooks, Rocky Horror, Monty Python.  The casting was done with most characters in upper middle age, a much different look than today.  Witty dialogue and rambunctious action made it kind of fun to watch.

Very clever ending.

* * * * of 5

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

A fun little heist movie -

Knocked Up (2007)

Hard to remember way back when Katherine Heigl was the next "it" star.  Here's she takes a romcom turn as the up and coming TV star whose life takes a turn when she gets pregnant from a one-night stand.

This being a movie, Allison decides not to get a "shemsbortion" and keep the baby while trying to make something work with the schlub of a father Seth Rogen (Ben).  Allison lives with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband Pete (Paul Rudd) whose life is not quite as good as it appears.  Pete and Debbie would late get their own spin-off movie This is 40.

The real stars are Ben's stoner friends who would all go on to bigger things, Jason Segal, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr.

Also memorable small performances by future stars Craig Robinson, Ken Jeoug, B.J. Novak.

* * *

Whatever happened to Katherine Heigl?

The Perks of Being A Wallflower (2012)

It's a truism that some actors just never seem to be in a bad movie.  Add Emma Watson to that list.

She stars with a few other no-names in this coming of age story telling a familiar tale:  High school misfit moves to a new school, meets his new crew and comes into his own.  Sprinkle with a good dose of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.  Add some bullying, and a few other taboo topics and as they say in the movie "it becomes an after school special".

Logan Lerman is Charlie, a freshman, just returned from the mental hospital.   He enters high school and after the obligatory false starts, he meets and is befriended by two seniors Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson).  Charlie of course falls for Sam, but they have a brother/sister relationship unlike Charlie's actual sister Candace (Nina Dobrev).

Suffice to say each character has a deep, dark secret that gets revealed as the school year goes by.  As noted it is like the After School Specials of the 1970s where the teenagers would be faced with very adult problems and situations.

Set in the 90s, it's got some good music and is kind of old fashioned in a pre-social media world.

* * * * of 5

A League of Their Own (1992)

I watched this recently for the first time in a century and was so impressed with it!  Five Stars!

Directed by Penny Marshall, it tells the story of Dottie and her sister Kit, who grew up on a farm in Oregon during the 40s.  With the men away at war, a baseball team owner had the idea to form a Girl's Baseball League and scouts were sent out to find women for tryouts.  Dottie (Geena Davis) and Kit (Lori Petty) were recruited by the weasly Jon Lovitz to tryout and off on the train to Chicago they went.

Four teams form up and the rest of the movie is their coming together, with the skipper a washed up ballplayer Jimmy (Tom Hanks) who eventually comes around to his job and captains the team all the way to the championship.   There we have an epic showdown of pitcher v. batter which is well done.

Some great things:  the story was told in flashback and it is neat to see the old women together at the end, remembering what they did when they were young.  The cinematography is very neat, particularly the photos evoking the old times.  And there's just enough drama to keep it interesting while maintaining a PG rating.  Certainly an adult story.  The music by Hans Zimmer is excellent as well, with original music by Madonna to boot.

 Ahead of its time for an all-female cast, female director, strong female lead stories, with the men being interesting but not schlubs.  Also starring Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Pullman.

* * * * *  Loved it!

The Search for General Tso (2015)

A fun documentary about the evolution of Chinese food in the USA.

Black Widow - May 1

This is the start of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the Eternals scheduled as the next film in November.

No push back of this release date yet due to Coronavirus.