Only eight movies this week; German tax-funded TV rolled out Season 20 of Inspector Barnaby in Originalton and my physical therapies have resumed.
Beethoven (1992)
I wanted to watch this in the Beethovenjahr next to the biopics with Gary Oldman and Tobias Moretti, but I didn’t get around to it and now I’ve ruined my own joke. A bit darker than I remember–I had taken my little brother to see it in a theater the year it came out–but solid fun for older children (me). And I reveled in the fashion! Delightful surprise: Patricia Heaton as a yuppie DINK.
Circus World (1964)
No matter how cool you are, you will never be John Wayne saving a baby lion from a shipwreck cool.
I found the characters unsympathetic, except for Aldo Alfredo, and I didn’t care for the background love story, but I enjoyed all the circus performances with clowns and animals, and the grandiose action scenes, and the shiny sets and costumes.
Curious observation: I watched it in the Arte Mediathek in original with French subtitles, and even though I know I don’t know any French, I still found myself trying to read the subtitles.
The Wedding Party (2016)
All US wedding comedies are dumb and bad. So I tried some European wedding comedies, and they are all exactly the same as US wedding comedies. So I’ve been trying some Nigerian wedding comedies…and they are exactly the same as the European wedding comedies, but with gaudier, shinier costumes, jewelry, and headpieces.
I was sort of hoping to experience something different when I started this film, but the plot and the wedding and the reception were pretty much the same as the last few US weddings I have attended–church service, fairy lights and monochromatic floofy crap, mid-shelf booze, and no one gets to eat until the bridal pair has finished their side quest and their attendants have awkwardly “danced in”. Friends and relatives unhappy with the match. Conflict between the sophisticated city family members and the country family members (guests preferred the country cookin’ to the Euro-trash plates, heh). The real star of the show was the bride’s mother. The characters we were meant to sympathize with were nice and the evil slutty bitches were evil and slutty, and I will view the sequel.
Holmes and Watson (2018)
Mr Radish said this was hard to watch because it was so dumb, and instead of laughing he felt Fremdschämen. I sat on my side of the couch under my cat and laughed my fool ass off.
It’s not a Great Film. It was a pleasant way to pass an evening.
Curious observation: Middle-aged Will Ferrell really does look like George W. Bush.
