What Classics Did You See Last Week, Dec 24 to Dec 30

Hugo / Martin Scorsese (2011). This is sort of a guilty secret of mine, but I like Martin Scorsese’s non-gangster films more than some of his much more famous crime movies. What I have liked most are his non-gangster “small” films like “Kundan” and “Bringing Out The Dead,” and “Hugo,” which although big in budget is gentle, visually rich fantasy, and goes full PG rating with a script based on a children’s book. It is a delight, a love letter to the invention of movies.
    After his father dies, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) goes to live with his Uncle who keeps the clocks wound at Gare Montparnasse railway station. It is 1931. After the Uncle disappears, Hugo has done the job, living in the clock tower, and trying to avoid the station inspector (Sasha Baron Cohen). When Hugo tries to steal some parts from a toy store to repair a clockwork man, an automaton, that had belonged to his father, the owner, Georges (Ben Kingsley), makes Hugo work in the store to pay off his debt. There Hugo meets Georges’ goddaughter Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz). What Hugo learns about to connections between Georges, Isabell, the machinal man and, the very first movies ever, are for you to discover.
    “Hugo” was nominated for 11 Oscars (including Best Picture and Directing), the most of any movie that year, but only won 5 technical awards. Recommended.






Hodejegerne (Headhunters) / Morten Tyldum (2011). Superb, suspenseful Norwegian crime thriller. Starts out following Roger (Aksel Hennie), a high powered corporate headhunter who is at the top of his field, but still doesn’t earn enough to support his lifestyle. So he embarks on the career of a high level art thief who replaces his stolen goods with copies (he says that with a good print, the theft would not be discovered for weeks, maybe months. When he takes on Clas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of “Game Of Thrones”) as a client to present as the CEO of a tech company, Roger decides to steal a work of art from him. But Clas is not the man Roger thinks he is. Roger has to go on the run to escape the implacable Clas who is now out to kill him. Clas had been a developer of tracking hardware and had used it with elite military units so can find Roger wherever he goes. This is an amazing thriller where you really have to stay alert to keep up with the twists. There is a clever ending that ties things up and one great bit of misdirection that fooled me completely.






Star Trek: Voyager
“Repentance” Season 7, Episode 12 (January 31, 2001)
“Prophecy” Season 7, Episode 13 (February 7, 2001)
“The Void” Season 7, Episode 14 (February 14, 2001)
“Workforce, Part 1” Season 7, Episode 15 (February 21, 2001)
“Workforce, Part II” Season 7, Episode 16 (February 28, 2001)
“Human Error” Season 7, Episode 17 (March 7, 2001)
“Q2” Season 7, Episode 18 (April 11, 2001)
“Author, Author” Season 7, Episode 19 ∙ (April 18, 2001)
“Friendship One” Season 7, Episode 20 (April 25, 2001)
“Natural Law” Season 7, Episode 21 (May 2, 2001)
“Homestead” Season 7, Episode 22 (May 9, 2001)
“Renaissance Man” Season 7, Episode 23 (May 16, 2001)
“Endgame” Season 7, Episode 24 (May 23, 2001)

The series finale is a 90-minute, feature length, adventure. We learn in “Endgame” that Voyager did not reach Earth for 23-years. We first see them at 10th anniversary of their arrival back home. One of their crew has died, another has dementia, all are in late middle age, and for reasons we don’t know, Captain Janeway doesn’t want to talk about one of them. She embarks on a highly classified mission. So classified, I can’t even tell you what it is.
………………………………………Season 7 Completed
……………………………………….Series Completed

Doctor Who – Classic Series
Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor
“Day Of The Daleks” Season 9, Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4 (January 1 to January 22, 1972)
“The Curse Of Peladon” Season 9, Episodes 5, 6, 7, 8 (January 29 to February 19, 1972)

Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor
“Meglos” Season 18, Episodes 5, 6, 7, 8 (September 27 – October 18, 1980)

“Day Of The Daleks” is one of the few stories scattered throughout the last 60 years where someone asks: “Doctor? Doctor Who?” In two episodes of New Who, someone has said, “Doctor What?”

Doctor Who – New Series (“New Who”)
“The Church On Ruby Road” Season 14, Episode 0. Christmas Special (December 25, 2023)

The first full episode for Ncuti Gatwa as the 16th Doctor. He is joined by his new traveling companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson. Including the Classic Series, this episode begins season #40 of “Doctor Who” that began 60 years ago on November 23, 1963.

Lewis
“Reputation” Pilot Episode (July 30, 2006)

Midsomer Murders
"The Straw Woman” Season 7, Episode 6 (February 29, 2004)

A Toch Of Frost
“Care and Protection” Season 1, Episode 1 (April 3, 2010)

Re-watches, all cheerful favorites:

One Special Night (1999) TV movie (on Prime Video)



Babe (1995) Nominated for 7 Oscars, including Best Picture



The Miracle on 34th Street (1947)



The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Correctamundo! - "A word I've never said before and hopefully will never say again" - The Doctor

At the time we drink champagne or cheaper bubbly cider, doesn't matter, cheers everyone!

Here are the movies Tele have lately seen...


No Time to Die 2021 directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and based on characters once created by Ian Fleming.
A retired Bond is called back to duty to chase a new technology and encounter old enemy Blofield.
Some great scenery, but felt tired at nearly Ben-Hur length. Standard action, if well staged.


Happiest Season 2020 directed by Clea DuVall.
A Christmas movie with a HBTQ twist. A daughter takes home her girlfriend for the seasons, but is afraid to reveal that she is gay, and presents her GF as a friend and they have to sleep in separate bedrooms.
This could have worked if it had a funny and witty script, something it sadly hasn't.
It's watchable though.


The Etruscan Smile 2018 directed by Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis and based on the novel 'La Sonrisa Etrusca' by Jose Luis Sampedro.
Rory MacNeil (Brian Cox), a rugged old Scotsman who reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island for San Francisco to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son, Rory's life will be unexpectedly transformed through a newly found love for his baby grandson. He also want to outlive his old arch enemy on the islands, and finds a sort of romance with a museum curator (Rosanna Arquette).
Charming, warm, a bit sad and with a wry kind of humor that I liked.


Love Actually 2003 directed by Richard Curtis.
Follows the lives very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Far from perfect but it is entertaining and dares to have a sad love story too.


The Apartment 1960 directed by Billy Wilder.
A Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue. Takes place in New York during December and the Holiday seasons.
Smart and witty with a bit of satire, takes a sharp turn and becomes serious for awhile but it has a happy ending, at least for two of the leading actors. One of my favorite movies.


It's a Wonderful Life 1946 directed by Frank Capra.
I know that I once thought of this movie as schmaltzy and sentimental. I have changed my mind over the years. It's actually a well constructed story and I've grown to like it rather well, even if I might not embrace it. As usual I had totally forgot about the early outer space scenes.

Two animated classics:

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)--With all of the cheap tinsel of countless cookie-cutter Hallmark Chrismas movies, and the endless repetitive airings of A Christmas Story and the tacky National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, there was no room for a single showing of this classic. Yeah, it can be streamed, but it should be required viewing on broadcast TV, and it's a shame it isn't. A great message, witty dialogue, and a fantastic jazzy soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi trio. I got my special edition DVD years ago so I could have this must-see holiday special in my possession.

Peace on Earth (1939)--I happened on this when a cable channel was airing a late-night cartoon program on Christmas Eve. It starts with some cutesy squirrel children asking Grandpa Squirrel the meaning of "Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men." They want to know what "men" are. Grandpa tells them what happened to mankind in a surprisingly gloomy cartoon with a haunting antiwar message, made more grim by its year of release. Not a typical kiddie cartoon, it's an unforgettable viewing experience.

Two live-action films by a couple of maestros of weirdness:

Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)--R.I.P. Paul Reubens. Thankfully, he left behind this record of his bizarre creation, Pee-Wee Herman, and his insane world. Proudly silly, and lots of fun.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)--You don't have to be a Weird Al fan to enjoy this. As someone who grew out of my Dr. Demento devotion once I left my tween years, I missed out on the rise of Weird Al music, and wasn't interested in it after hearing it. I did enjoy UHF, and his kids' show was very good and should have lasted years longer than it did. But, if you're tired of hackneyed movie bios, particularly recent Oscar bait such as Judy (good job by the makeup crew! and Zellweger's drug-addled stumbling around may be insulting, but that's entertainment!), Bohemian Rhapsody (Malek's big teeth are just like Mercury's!) and Maestro (Cooper looks like Bernstein! And it's set in the world of classical music, so it's, you know, classy? ) you might have fun with this film, which is basically the antidote to those pretentious wastes of time and several more. Pretty much straight fiction, it has a lot of fun with the bio genre, as well as with that other overlong, overly praised waste of time, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with that movie's pointless cameos. Like too many recent movies, it runs just a bit too long--once the Madonna character shows up, it starts to run out of steam (Madonna ruins everything, even in knockoff form), but it's mostly on-target in its skewering of the modern movie biographies. Worth a watch.