Movie Mondays

I finally caught up on a bunch of movies this weekend after Dan’l told me I needed to give up some space on the DVR. I saw some good movies and some so bad they’re funny movies.

I’ll start with the good… “Marty.” Marty is a butcher who lives with is Ma. All his brothers and sisters are married and people keep asking him, “When are you going to get married Marty?” I’m not sure people are asking because they’re curious. I think they ask him because they like to rub in the fact that he’s not married. Anyway, Marty goes to a dance and meets a fellow “dog” (that’s what you called ugly people back then). They go for a walk and end up talking; well, he does most of the talking, but they talk, go to his place to pick up some money and ciggies and then he escorts her home. While they’re at his house though, he tries to kiss her and she freaks out. Eventually, they do kiss and Marty practically floats all the way home after he sees her home. The next day, Marty is clearly in a good mood. Not that he was brooding before—pre-girl from the dance he was content. But soon his friends and his mother start making fun of the girl and he doesn’t call her. At the end, he finally realizes that his friends are losers and calls her.

I liked this movie because I was glad to see Ernest Borgnine gets the girl in the end, at least, that’s what I think happens. I couldn’t help but root for him because he was such a nice guy. Plus, he has giant hands. I like big hands.

Dan’l and I saw “Iron Man” at the discount theater. That’s another good movie (like you need me to tell you that). I was afraid it would be too violent for D, but it wasn’t. It was a fun movie and I’ll see it again when it comes out on DVD. I didn’t get a good look at RD Jr.’s hands, but they looked big when he was Iron Man. Also, who knew Jeff Bridges could be a bad guy?

One of the movies that was sitting in my DVR was “Valdez is Coming.” The description said it was about a Mexican American lawman that seeks revenge on the rancher who left him for dead in the desert. I thought it sounded interesting, but sometime between March and this weekend, I thought it sounded boring. I couldn’t erase it though because it had been on my DVR for so long. So I saw it. It wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t that bad either. What was great about it? Webster’s mom was in it. That was pretty cool. Also, the bad guy flashed his cheeks. And just when I thought it was going to suck, Hector Elizondo appeared on screen and showed me that he’s been bald for almost half a century. The bad? All the Mexicans (OK, Mexican Americans) had beautiful blue eyes. But before I could roll my eyes, I realized Burt Lancaster was playing this roll with quiet grace and integrity and I approved.

The bad guy has all the lawmen available and his own hired guns shooting at this shack where the bad guy said he saw a guy who killed some Army general. Valdez walks to the shack to talk to the guy and the guy says he’s innocent. While they’re talking, one of the hired guns shoots at the holed up guy and the HUG thinks it’s a trick. He shoots at Valdez and Valdez kills HUG. Turns out he was innocent. Valdez buries DHUG and packs the widow to take her back to the reservation. He goes to the bar where all the other men are and passes a hat saying that they owe the widow a pension. He collects $4 and tells them he had something like $200 in mind. They said if bad guys gives $100, they’ll kick in the rest. Valdez asks bad guy for the money and the bad guy tells his men to kill him. Valdez doesn’t die and goes back because “fair is fair.”

Would I recommend this movie? It’s not for everyone. It’s one part “Silverado” and another part “Legend of Billie Jean” and based on a book by Elmore Leonard. So, if you ‘re like me and like those three in a blender, then I recommend this movie.

“Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” is one of my all time favorites movies, but after watching it 1.5 times this weekend, I started to wonder why. I think I thought (ha) I loved this movie because I had to see it so many times before I could understand it. Why else would I see the same movie so many times in a row? The movies starts great, but then it goes on and on about Laura and what a bad girl she is. OK, we get it. I don’t want to say that I don’t like the movie because I don’t hate it. But it’s not my favorite movie either. I love that the movie reminds me of the cool indie movies of the early ‘90s that I used to watch at the Village. Although I think that if I go back and watch those movies, I’d get frustrated at everyone’s whining and yell at them to grow up. I think the only movies that still play well today are “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert” and “Murial’s Wedding” except they’re not indies, they’re foreign films. Oh well.

Would I recommend this movie? Ugh, I don’t know and I’m torn up about not knowing and admitting that I’m not a big a fan of this movie as I thought I was.

Finally, the movie that was so bad it was funny, “Infected.” It starts Gill Bellows with special guest performances by Isabella Rossellini and Judd Nelson (you can’t have a SciFi movie without Judd, can we?). This is another movie that sat in my DVR for months. Every time I started watching it, something distracted me. Well, it turns out I didn’t need to give this movie my full attention because like all other bug SciFi movies, the hero kills the bugs and gets the girl. The end. But Isabella Rossellini (who appears in two David Lynch movies that I do like) is in this movie, so I couldn’t erase it without watching it. So I watched it and it was funny.

Would I recommend it? It’s on again on SciFi Sept. 7.