The Golden Globes, the Academy Award Nominations, and the Week in Reviews

[I review the movie "August, Osage County" and DVDs "Thanks for Sharing," "Renoir," "The Awakening" and "Adore."]

But first

It's Awards Season at the movies, and for movie lovers, that's our play-offs leading to our Super Bowl, the Academy Awards.

The Golden Globes were last Sunday and there were a few surprises.

The first surprise was how unfunny Tina Fey and Amy Poeller were compared to last year, other than the joke about George Clooney when describing "Gravity:"

"It's the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age."

Jennifer Lawrence stole "American Hustle," but I was surprised she beat Lupita Nyong'o ("12 Years a Slave"). 

Love Jennifer Lawrence, hated her dress. 

But, Lupita Nyong'o had the best dress.

Another upset was Matthew McConaughey beating out Chiwetel Ejiofor for Best Actor in a Drama. I thought Ejiofor was a shoo-in for that.  Now I am wondering what the Academy will do. If he doesn't win, I won't have to learn how to pronounce or spell Chiwetel Ejiofor.

So glad Elizabeth Moss won for the mini-series "Top of the Lake."  She is probably better known for "Mad Men," but here she stars as a complicated New Zealand cop trying to find a missing girl. Her accent is so good I thought she was from New Zealand, but she was born in Los Angeles. I am watching it now on Netflix (streaming).  When it aired on television it was a critical success, but I don't think anyone saw it.  If you liked "Twin Peaks" or "The Killing,"  you will like this.

Highly recommended.

And then there's Jacqueline Bisset. 

Jackie, Jackie, Jackie.  One, I don't feel she didn't deserve that Golden Globe.  Though I loved "Dancing on the Edge,"

her part just wasn't that difficult an acting job.  Hubby said she won because she still looks so good. 


And two, her acceptance speech. What the hell?  Methinks she had been a tippling.

She stood on stage for a full 23 seconds before she said a word and then this is some of what she said:

I mean, does this make sense to you?

"I want to thank the people who've given me joy and there have been many. I say it like my mother ... she used to say 'Go to Hell and don't come back.
I believe, if you want to look good, you have to forgive everybody. You have to forgive everybody. It's the best beauty treatment. Forgiveness for yourself and for the others. I love my friends. I love my family."

Couldn't believe Woody Allen had written and directed 74 films in 48 years.  That is incredible that he not only directed that many, but WROTE that many.  His getting the Cecil B. DeMille award was well-deserved.  Some of my all-time favorite movies are Woody Allen films.

And I have to say, I not only called "12 Years a Slave" as Best Picture and Alfonso Cuaron ("Gravity") for Best Director, I did it BEFORE the nominations. 

And can I just say, why in hell don't people who are nominated and could win, prepare a speech?  There was so much bumbling around with the speeches I thought I was at amateur night at Toastmasters.

As for the Academy Award nominations (which were announced yesterday), few surprises, and I called almost all of them, except I can't believe Tom Hanks did not get nominated for "Captain Phillips," nor did the director, Paul Greengrass. "Captain Phillips" got screwed.  It was a great film.  As I said in my earlier blog "Oscar Predictions," what Tom Hanks did in the last few minutes of that film was acting at its finest. 

And why wasn't Emma Thompson nominated for "Saving Mr. Banks (which I reviewed in last Friday's blog)?"

However, I am glad to see Leonardo DiCaprio getting some props.  I think he is one of Hollywood's most underrated actors.

I had forgotten that up to 10 films can be nominated, so I only called five, but had I remembered, I would have called all of the films with the possible exception of "The Wolf of Wall Street."  But where was "Saving Mr. Banks," "Fruitvale Station," and "Inside Llewyn Davis?"

What did you think of the Golden Globes? 

Did they get it right?

Which Actors or Films were snubbed for Academy Awards?

***In Theatres Now***

August: Osage County 

A funeral brings a dysfunctional family back to Oklahoma.

The movie poster says it all.

Based on Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize winning play (2008), this film brings together an incredible cast:  Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Cooper, Juliette Lewis (good to see her back again), and more for two hours of dark comedy.  Letts also wrote the screenplay, and he deftly brought the visual aspect to what is basically a family getting together around a table to air their dirty laundry. 

As Tolstoy wrote in "Anna Karenina,"
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  And boy is this family unhappy.

I saw the Broadway touring company of the play a few years ago.  It starred Estelle Parsons as the irascible, drug-addicted mother.  She was in her 80's and running up and down the stairs of the set and she was fabulous.   But Meryl Streep is just magnificent in this film.  Glad to see she is nominated for an Oscar.

Rosy the Reviewer says...See this for the acting, especially Streep's performance. 
As Hubby said, "She is a National Treasure."

 

***DVDS***

You Might Have Missed

And Some You Should Be Glad You Did

(I see the bad ones so you don't have to)

Thanks for Sharing (2012)

Three men struggling with sex addiction.

This could be the poster child for AA, it's so earnest.  Not a huge Mark Ruffalo fan.  His acting puts me to sleep.

Rosy the Reviewer says...A formulaic film, but nonetheless entertaining.




Renoir (2012)

 

Set on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Jean Renoir -- son of the Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste -- returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. Both father and son are enchanted by the artist's muse, Andree.

 

This film depicts the elder Renoir at the end of his life and son Jean, before he became the famous filmmaker.

 

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...See it for the cinematography and the gorgeous French countryside.  As beautiful as Renoir's paintings. (subtitles)

 

  

 

The Awakening (2011)

 

 



It's 1921 and ghost-hunter Florence Cathcart travels to a boy's boarding school to debunk ghost sightings there.

Rebecca Hall is a wonderful British actress who is underrated.  She has been in a ton of things, but has yet to break out as a big star ("The Town," "Parade's End"...).  She is rumored to star in the next "Pirate's of the Caribbean."  Perhaps that will bring her stardom.  She deserves it.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...If you liked "The Sixth Sense," you will like this except this one is scarier.



Adore (2013)

 

Naomi Watts and Robin Wright star as best friends who fall in love with each other's young sons. 

 

Sounds kinky, but this is a really good film.  Filmed in Australia, Watts gets back to her Aussie roots while Wright does a good job with her Aussie accent.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...gorgeous New South Wales scenery, gorgeous young men, gorgeous acting.  Adored it!

 

 

***Book of the Week***

 

Stitches: A handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair by Anne LaMotte (2013)

 

 

 

Lamott strives to make sense of this crazy world of ours and how we put ourselves back together after devastation and loss.  Her solution?  You do it one stitch at a time.

 

To find meaning, Lamott says it is enough to search for it. 

"The search is the meaning, the search for beauty, love, kindness and restoration in this difficult, wired and often alien modern world."  That's helpful to hear as I search for that meaning in my retirement and the rest of my life.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...When crap happens, you need books like this.  It is comforting.  Similar to Harold Kushner's "When Bad Things Happen to Good People."

 

 

 

That's it for this week.

 

See you Tuesday!

 

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it and/or email it to your friends.

 

Check your local library for DVDs and book mentioned.



The Best Food Shows on TV and the Week in Reviews

[I review the movies "Saving Mr. Banks,"  "Last Love," "Tell No One," "Elysium," "Sightseers," and "I'm So Excited" and recommend a great cookbook].

But first

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you have probably already surmised that I like food and my TV, so it's no wonder that I consider myself a bit of an expert on food programs, not to be confused with "cooking shows."  I don't particularly like watching people cook, but I love watching people running around cooking in competition or traveling the world and eating food in exotic locales.

So here are
Rosy the Reviewer's picks for

The Best Food Shows on TV.

Top Chef


Top Chef is the granddaddy of the cooking show competitions. 

Well established chefs from well- known restaurants all over the U.S. compete for money, but mostly culinary props as "Top Chef." This is a slick show with no heavy handedness, though there is unabashed promotion of the City in which the competition takes place (though when they were in Seattle they shafted us by heading to Alaska after only a couple of episodes).  The show is currently in New Orleans. 

The host is Padma Lakshmi, ex-wife of novelist Salmon Rushdie, and I am not really sure what her foodie credentials are.  She is a skinny bitch (pardon my French), who doesn't look like she really likes food, and her main roles on the show are to tell the chef's when they have only five minutes left, taste the food, and basically look good in her tight frocks.  But it's fun to hear her tell the loser "Please pack your knives and go" at the end of each show. 

 "Top Chef Masters" continues the "journey" as past, popular contestants compete alongside other well-known chefs for that highest honor. 

I have to brag that I have eaten at Art Smith's (Southern Art), Richard Blais's (The Spence), Hugh Acheson's (Empire State South) and Kevin Gillespie's (Woodfire Grill) restaurants in Atlanta (thanks to my daughter who lived there for a few years) - all major players in the "Top Chef" franchise. 

And here I am with Richard Blais at his restaurant. 

Yes, I also groupie for famous chefs!

 

Next stop:  Aragona, here in Seattle.  Chef Carrie Mashaney was just booted off "Top Chef" last week after a stellar showing.





The Taste

Think "The Voice" for food. 

Contestants for The Taste prepare one perfect bite of their dish for each judge to try in a blind taste test.  As in "The Voice," the judges choose the best tastes from a blind taste test, the winners become part of their team and the judges mentor them for the rest of the show.   

Marcus Samuelsson joins the judging team this year (it's on now).  He was born in Ethiopia and was adopted by a Swedish couple and he grew up in Sweden. He won "Top Chef Masters" in 2010, and I have had the privilege of eating at one of his restaurants in Stockholm (American Table Brasserie and Bar).  I have fond memories of the cute bartender.  But I digress. Samuelsson now runs a famous restaurant in NYC.  You can read about his life in "Yes Chef: A Memoir."




Anything with Gordon Ramsay

 

Gordon is really a pussy cat.

I know he yells, but from Hell's Kitchen to Kitchen Nightmares to Masterchef, I am a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay's.  Yes, Hell's Kitchen has some ridiculous contestants and, yes, Gordon yells a lot, but I love watching Gordon do his stuff. However, if you are not a fan of people who tell it like it is, you probably won't like Gordon or Tony (see below).  But being direct is also my credo, so I get them and appreciate their talents despite their sometimes jarring sensibilities. 

Read Marco Pierre White's book "The Devil in the Kitchen" if you want to find out why Gordon yells so much.  It's the kitchen culture he grew up with.  But if you want to see him get all warm and fuzzy, watch "Kitchen Nightmares" where he not only helps people get their restaurants solvent again, he imparts personal advice too.  He's a sort of foodie psychologist.


MasterChef


If you like "Top Chef," you will like Master Chef.

Yet another show we stole from the Brits. As one of the judges, Gordon Ramsay is actually a teddy bear in this one.  Similar to "Top Chef," but with amateur cooks, the contestants are thrown difficult food challenges using strange ingredients and with little time to prepare them.





Anything with Tony Bourdain

If you like food and travel, you will love Tony.

Tony's book "Kitchen Confidential," where he skewered the restaurant industry, brought him to the public's attention, but his TV shows "A Cook's Tour," "No Reservations," "The Layover" and "Parts Unknown" have made him a big star (he is also a judge on "The Taste.")  His shows are not just food shows, but travelogues.  He travels the world and eats, yes, but he also shows the viewer an interesting, unusual and personal side to the countries he visits.  "The Layover" is particularly fun as he shows us what to do in a particular city when we have a 24-48 hour layover.

2015 Update:  Tony came to town and we were able to see him and do a Meet and Greet.  He's a really nice guy!


Food Network Star

Want your own show on the Food Network? 

Contestants are put through their paces to see who has the personality and cooking and TV skills to host their own show.  Winners do actually get their own show and become a Food Network Star, in varying degrees. Guy Fieri and Melissa d'Arabian have been past winners.  Not sure if there will be a 2014 series, but you can find past shows on YouTube. 
(2015 update.  Yes, there was a 2015 series).






Check Please NW/Come Dine With Me

"Check Please" is a TV show that airs in various U.S. cities. 

Three people choose their favorite restaurants and all three eat there and then get together on camera to discuss what they thought.  Yours truly appeared on the show in July of 2012 and if you care to see my star turn, take a look.  "How To Cook a Wolf" was my restaurant.




Currently, you can find this show in Phoenix, Miami, San Francisco and Kansas City, in addition to Seattle.

"Come Dine with Me" is similar, except in this case 4 or 5 people gather at each other's homes to eat a meal prepared by the host.  At the end of the evening, they rate the meal and at the end of the week, the host with the most points wins money.  What makes this show fun is the narrator who tosses out snarky comments throughout.  I started watching this program on UK TV (and you can find it on YouTube), but this year, Lifetime picked up the Canadian version for a few episodes.  Fingers crossed that a U.S. version gets made because it's a great show if you are a foodie.

What are your favorite Foodie shows? 

 

***In Theatres Now***

 

 

 

Saving Mister Banks

 

 

 

 

 

The supposed true story of how Walt Disney secured the rights to make a movie of "Mary Poppins," despite the reluctance and downright irascibility of the author, P.L. Travers.

 

This film embodied what you expect from a Disney film.  It's thoroughly entertaining.  Tom Hanks embodies Walt Disney (it's been a good year for Tom) and Emma Thompson will surely be nominated for an Academy Award for her portrait of Travers, though one could say her performance was a bit on the one note side. 

 

Though I  enjoyed the film very much, my one complaint would be the script.  Throughout the film, I wanted to know why P.L. Travers turned out to be so bitter. In my mind, I couldn't make the leap from her childhood to the bitter middle-aged woman she became.  Yes, she had a traumatic childhood and there were some allusions to other aspects of her life, but the events of her life from childhood to middle age were left unexplained.  But other than that, Mary Poppins is a beloved figure and movie and people sitting near me were singing along with the tunes and smiling, remembering Mary Poppins and her movie and, no doubt, their childhoods, and I think Hubby was blubbering a bit.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...fans of Mary Poppins and Disney films will love this.  The acting is first rate. Recommended.

 

***DVDS***

You Might Have Missed

And Some You Should Be Glad You Did

(I watch the bad ones so you don't have to)

 

 

Last Love (2013)

 

A grieving, widowed American philosophy professor living in Paris makes a connection with a wounded young French woman.

 

Michael Caine can do no wrong in my book, though why they made him an American, I don't know.  His accent is fine, but I like him better as a Brit.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...If you liked "Amour (won Best Foreign Language film in 2012 and Emmanuelle Riva was nominated for Best Actress)," you will like this one. 

 

In fact, I loved this one. This one is less dark, utterly charming and captures the beauty of Paris and the French countryside.  Not to be missed. 

Tell No One (2006)

A French doctor is suspected of his wife's murder which happened eight years earlier.  He gets involved in trying to solve the case when he starts getting emails from his dead wife!

 

Hubby wanted to see this because he was reading a book about French parks and it said Parc Monseau, one of the parks in the book, figured prominently in this film.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my favorite French actors - Francois Cluzet - was in it.  I call him the French Dustin Hoffman, because they look so much alike. 

 

Am I not right?

 

 

 

You may have seen him in a more recent film, The Intouchables, where he played a paralyzed man, whose nurse tries to help him get the most out of life.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...A fast paced mystery (you won't even notice the subtitles), photographed beautifully and well-acted.  If you are a Hitchcock fan, you will like how this unfolds. Highly recommended.

Elysium (2013)

It's 2154, the earth is a wreck and the wealthy have moved to a space station and left the poor to rot on earth. 

Matt tries to save the earth.

This is similar to "Upside Down" (2012), which I reviewed in an earlier blog and which I actually liked better.  Directed by Neill Blomkamp, who directed the excellent District 9, (which I highly recommend), this is bloody, fast-paced and has a great villain.  Speaking of bloody, Jodie Foster is bloody awful as the villainess Delacourt.  I couldn't figure out if she meant to play it campy or not.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like dystopian thrillers, you will enjoy this, but it's not in the same league as "District 9."





Sightseers (2012)

A dream caravan holiday turns into a killing spree.

Caravan is Brit speak for a trailer. Both of the stars are British stand-up comedians who perfected these characters in their routines and they are perfect for this. These characters are not nice people. This is a very dark, but humorous treatise on what it means to be a good English person from the viewpoint of a serial killer. Let's just say this guy has high standards and if you don't meet them, well...

The ending was reminiscent of "The War of the Roses." If you like dark, dark comedy and, if you like British humor, or should I say, humour, you will like this.  If not, proceed at your own peril.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Think gorgeous English countryside, quirckiness and lots of blood. If Ricky Gervais and Simon Pegg collaborated, this would be it.

 

 

I'm So Excited (2013)

 

 

 

 

A flight from Madrid to Mexico City encounters some problems and everyone on board must face the danger in their own way, and let's just say, much kinkiness ensues.

 

Almodavar! 

 

Nobody's movies look like his.  The colors are so vibrant and the characters so flamboyant. I have been a fan since his first big hit "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (1988).  Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz make cameo appearances here because Almodavar made them stars in Spain before they hit it big in the U.S.  When I saw Banderas in "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down (1990)," I went...drool... and predicted he would become a big star, despite the controversy surrounding the film (see it and see what you think). I consider myself a feminist, but couldn't understand what all the sturm und drung was around that film. So there was some bondage and some forced sex.  Stuff happens.  Penelope was his muse in "All About My Mother" and the rest is history. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...after seeing this movie flying in a plane will never be the same.  Or movies, for that matter.  No one makes movies like Almodavar.  But they are kinky, so if you are easily offended, perhaps his movies aren't for you.

***Book of the Week***

 

The New Midwestern Table: 200 Heartland Recipes by Amy Thielen (2013)

 

 

This ain't the food I ate growing up in the Midwest.

I don't remember "Sweet and sour potluck meatballs."  I remember Swedish meatballs.

I don't remember "Braunschweiger Mousse," I remember just plain old braunschweiger.

I don't remember "Fancy meatloaf with bacon, mushrooms and pistachios," I just remember plain old meatloaf, though my mother did use ground beef, pork and veal. Pistachios in meat loaf?

I don't remember "Wild Boar Sloppy Joes," I just remember plain old sloppy joes.  Are there wild boars in the Midwest?

And the Seven Layer Salad wasn't a Russian Seven Layer Salad.

But, hey, we all have to grow up sometime.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...I love reading cookbooks and this one is fun. Create some new memories.

Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned. 
Also Netflix is currently streaming "Sightseers."


That's it for this week. 

See you for Tuesday for
"The Year of the Baby Boomer."

 

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it and/or email it to your friends.

Oscar Predictions and The Week in Reviews

[I review the movies "American Hustle," "Magic, Magic;" "Killing Season;" "World's End;" Jayne Mansfield's Car;" "Passion" and "Stranger Within" and recommend a novel]

Happy New Year, everyone!

I am back on track with my usual Friday reviews. 

But first, I want to weigh in on who I think will be nominated for Academy Awards, which will be announced on January 16th (the awards will be telecast on March 2nd).  The Golden Globes have already announced their nominations, and though Academy Award nominations often follow suit, not always, and I think there were some major omissions this year.  Plus the Golden Globes divide films into dramas and comedies, thus making many more nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor and Actress than the Academy Awards will.  And I have to add, these were my nominations before the Golden Globes were announced, I promise!


So here is what I think some of the nominations will be.

Best Actor                                                        Best Actress

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)            Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Joaquin Phoenix (Her)                              Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)
Christian Bale (American Hustle)               Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)                     Judi Dench (Philomena)
Matthew McConaughey                             Amy Adams (American Hustle)
(Dallas Buyers Club)         
                                       
          

Best Supporting Actor                                Best Supporting Actress

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyer's Club)                 Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)       Julia Roberts (August:Osage County)
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)                  Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

I am only going to put in three nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, because in the famous words of Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live's Weekly Update, "Who really cares about this award anyway?" 

Best Picture                                             Best Director

12 Years a Slave                                        Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
American Hustle                                         Paul Greengrass  (Captain Phillips)
Captain Phillips                                           David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Gravity                                                      Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
Her



Winner Predictions (by me):

Best Actor:  Chiwetel Ejiofor, though I think Tom Hanks outdid himself in "Captain Phillips," especially the last 15 minutes of the film and Christian Bale was, well, Christian Bale, the chameleon.  This is the deep category this year.

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock should never have won for The Blind Side. She should win for "Gravity," EXCEPT here comes old Meryl Streep again and she gives an amazing performance, but of a very unpleasant character. The Academy doesn't usually like unpleasant characters. They could cancel each other out and Thompsom or Dench could get it. 

But I am voting for Streep.

Best Supporting Actor:  I am completely against first time actors and children winning Academy Awards, so that eliminated Abdi.  Though Leto was amazing (he's come a long way from his "My So-Called Life" days), I am banking on Fassbender to win.

He was just astonishing.  As I was watching him in "12 Years," I said out loud Academy Award.  He just let it all hang out.

Best Supporting Actress:  Again, I don't want Nyong'o to win.  She needs to do more work first, but is Julia Roberts' part really a supporting role?  If not, that isn't fair. 

I think Nyong'o will probably win.  The Academy tends to reward first timers in this category.  But Jennifer Lawrence stole the show in "American Hustle."

Best Picture:  I think"12 Years a Slave" is a shoe-in, but the sheer amount of work it took to make "Gravity" was amazing.  And "Captain Phillips" was riveting, and there weren't even any women in it.  I usually don't like films with all men.

Best Director:  If "12 Years a Slave" wins Best Picture it stands to reason that Steve McQueen should win for Best Director (and don't get him mixed up with that other Steve McQueen), but it doesn't always work that way. 

I vote for Alfonso Cuaron, because of what went into making "Gravity."

The only other category I am going to weigh in on now is Best Documentary - if 56 Up doesn't win Best Documentary, there is no god. 

This series has followed 14 British children every seven years from the age of seven in 1964 to present and, in addition to the incredible determination it took to follow these fourteen people every seven years, it's riveting viewing.

OK film lovers, what do you think?

***NEW ON DVD***

American Hustle

The con is on.  As they say in the film, everything is a con and everyone is conning everyone.  It's what we do in America.
                
Jennifer Lawrence steals the show, but this is really an acting extravaganza - Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, DeNiro.  Fresh script, great acting, humor...what more could you want? 

And a shout out to my friend, Barb, over at Living Richly in Retirement (a great blog, by the way), Jeremy Renner does you proud.  Don't you love his pompadour?  Hair seems to play a big role in this film.

Rosy the Reviewer says...run, don't walk to see this.  It will pick up many awards.  Loved it!


                           

***DVDS***

Some You Might Have Missed

(and some you should be glad you did).

I see the bad ones so you don't have t).

                                      

Magic Magic (2013)

A naïve American girl goes on a road trip in Chile with friends of friends that turns into a nightmare.

Rosy the Reviewer says...This is more of a nightmare for the viewer.  Love Juno Temple, but she needs to find some better vehicles for her talent.  Some of the things she has been in lately are wearing thin on me.

Killing Season (2013)

Two veterans of the Bosnian War -- one American, one Serbian -- form an unlikely friendship that turns deadly.  I didn't think I would like this one and John Travolta's accent got on my nerves at times.

Rosy the Reviewer says...this isn't "Captain Phillips," but it's a tense game of cat and mouse.  If you like movies about "human hunting," such as "The Most Dangerous Game, you will probably like this one.

World's End (2013)

Five friends attempt to relive their attempt to conquer "The Golden Mile," an epic pub crawl of 12 pubs culminating in The World's End pub which they had failed to do 20 years before.  In so doing, they, of course, encounter an alien invasion.  

It is the third and final film in Simon Pegg's the "Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy," following Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007).

Rosy the Reviewer says...If you liked "Shaun of the Dead" and/or British humor, you will enjoy this. I loved it.

Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012)

Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed and starred in this film of two disparate families coming together in the South of 1969 for a funeral.  

Jayne Mansfield was a blonde bombshell actress who was famously decapitated in a horrific car accident. Thornton uses that allusion as a centerpiece for this story reminiscent of Tennessee Williams - think "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."  I can't decide if Robert Duvall is good in this or not.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Thornton is a talented writer and actor, but this is no Slingblade.  But if you like Wes Anderson or movies about quirky Southern families, you might like this.

Passion (2012)

Think "All About Eve" in a business setting except with murder in mind. Remake of the movie Love Crime ("Crime d'amour" 2010) starring Kristin Scott Thomas, so I have to ask myself, why remake this film three years later?

 And what is really strange, the first one was French/English/Japanese and this one is French/English/German.  Albeit the first one had more subtitles but other than that, a literal remake.  De Palma is a big Hitchcock fan, so there is homage to "Psycho" and "Vertigo" and stylish cinematography and music a la Hitchcock.  I notice that he has reversed the hair colors of the stars from the original:  in the original the villain had dark hair and vice versa.  It's the little things, I guess.

Rosy the Reviewer says...What is happening to our great directors?  Spike struck out this year with "Oldboy" and this one does not live up to De Palma's best work.

Stranger Within (2013)

After being attacked, an acclaimed actress and her psychiatrist husband retreat to a remote Mediterranean island where they meet a mysterious and troubled young woman who becomes a threat.  

William Baldwin's hair could have been a character all it's own.  Warren is a model-turned-actress and you can tell.  It was like a really, really bad Lifetime movie and that's giving Lifetime movies a bad name.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Rosy, repeat after me.  I will never, ever again put a movie in my Netflix queue based on the preview alone.  "I will never, ever again put a movie in my Netflix queue based on the preview alone."

***Book of the Week***

The Borgia Mistress by Sara Poole

Book three in the "Poisoner Mysteries" series, Francesca Giordana, Borgia court poisoner, is once again center stage, this time to avenge her mother's death and save Pope Alexander VI from his enemies.  

Francesca is a plucky heroine, but the writing is sometimes a bit stilted at times.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you are a fan of historical fiction and mysteries, you should enjoy this.

That's it for this week. 

See you Tuesday where I will check in on my retirement, six months later!

Thanks for reading!

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