Friday, May 25, 2012

Ball Of Fire (1941)

I love the oldies and I love movies starring Barbara Stanwyck!  In this film, Barbara Stanwyck stars as  "Sugarpuss" O'Shea a nightclub singer who is the girlfriend of a mob boss named Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews).  While working at the club, she meets professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) who wants to ask her questions about modern American slang words as he is writing an encyclopedia about all human knowledge with some other professors.  She is not too thrilled with this and turns him down. 

When she finds out that she is going to be questioned about her boyfriends mob activities, she is told by his henchmen to skip town.  The only place that she can think to go is to the professors house where he and his other professors live and work.  These professors are lovably geeky and take to her right away.  The housekeeper however is not thrilled with her at all and wants her gone.  The professor and Sugarpuss eventually grow close and he asks her to marry him and she accepts.  Unfortunately her boyfriend wants her to marry him so that she can't testify against him. 

I recently read that Barbara Stanwyck had 12 soldier pen pals during WWII, what a gal!  Love the hair and clothing in this film!

Really cute film!  Love it!

111 MInutes.  Not Rated.  I give this film FOUR AND ONE HALF STARS!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Melancholia (2011)

This movie, directed by Lars von Trier, was apparently well received by critics as well as some people. It was not well received by this person! I didn't even finish it.

The film is about a woman, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) who falls into a depression after marrying her husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) at her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law's (Kiefer Sutherland) resort. Her parents are both a mess and give rotten and inappropriate speeches and Justine wanders the grounds instead of mixing with her guests. She even falls asleep with her nephew at one point. Her relationship with her husband degrades during the movie as does her relationship with her sister. This is all happening as a yet undiscovered planet is hurtling toward earth.

I found this movie weird and boring, not entertaining at all. I got about half way before I had to shut it off. I am not sure what all the accolades were with regard to this film. A lot of it was supposed to be because of Dunst's acting, but I did not think that the acting was exceptional. The first 10 minutes of the movie (at least it felt that way) was of the bride and groom trying to get their limo up a hill. WTF?

Rated R. 135 Minutes.  I give this movie ONE AND ONE HALF stars.