Tina's October Movies

A moment of panic for me occurred on October 17, when I realized I had only seen one movie so far in the month. I quickly ramped up my efforts, and here is what I saw and liked in October. The best movie is an old one, #109, but I enjoyed the new ones I saw as well. Numbering is picked up from the previous months. Enjoy.

OCTOBER

102. The Town (@ Hillsborough with Dee) – Not exactly “On the Town” or “Our Town,” this intense crime caper movie has a gripping story and an outstanding cast, headed by Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”) and a tougher-than-Don Draper Jon Hamm. I think the last Ben Affleck movie I saw was “Good Will Hunting,” unless his movies have been so forgettable that I just don’t remember him in anything else. He makes up for lost time in this Boston-based movie, serving as director and co-writer in addition to his screen time. I don’t see a lot of action/adventure movies, so this one had enough car chases, gunplay and bloodletting to tide me over for a long while, but it definitely held my interest. My only problem with the movie was remembering I couldn’t do a DVR instant replay when I couldn’t understand the heavily Boston-accented dialog. 4 cans.

103. Changeling (HBO) – Angelina is hardly tres jolie in this Clint Eastwood take on a true story set in the 1920s. Angelina Jolie is the single mother of 9-year old Walter, who disappears one day while she is at work. Anxious to wrap up the case, the police five months later present her with a comparable boy, but she insists, in the words of the Michael Jackson song, “Billie Jean,” that “the kid is not my son.” Despite physical differences (the replacement son is 3 inches shorter, in addition to other, shall we say, more personal, differences), the police and their medical team remain convinced that they are right. Wouldn’t a mother know her own son? And why is this boy playing along if he isn’t? With the help of activist preacher John Malkovich, Jolie continues her quest to find out what really happened to the still missing boy. This is a first rate story, convincingly acted, beautifully staged, with the flapper-type hats and 20s attire that seems authentic to the time. 4 cans.

104. Wait Until Dark (TCM) – Audrey Hepburn’s character may be blind in this movie, but she can see through the bad guys out to trick her into giving up a doll some doll gave her husband to take home temporarily. Audrey doesn’t know the woman who gave him the doll and doesn’t know that it is full of drugs. When her husband can’t find it and leaves the house, Audrey is in jeopardy at the hands of crooks Richard Crenna, Alan Arkin and Jack Weston. It’s lights out for everyone as Audrey senses something’s just not right. This is a suspenseful film based on a play and therefore a bit stagey, but it held my interest, except that I wanted to tell her to just give them the doll and get them out of there. 4 cans.

105. The Hangover (HBO) – Nearly 40 years ago I fell in love with a bunch of young, drunk and stupid guys in a movie called “Animal House.” I still quote that movie (“you f#&$d up, kid, you trusted us,” “7 years of college down the drain,” etc.) and when I watch it I still laugh out loud. Fast forward to “The Hangover,” a movie about a group of guys not quite as young but just as stupid, only their antics failed to amuse me nearly as much as the boys from Delta House. Everyone knows that no good can come out of a bachelor party in Vegas, and when this crew wakes up after a night of debauchery, they are missing the groom (and one of them is minus a tooth but has gained a stripper wife), dealing with a tiger in their bathroom and riding around in a stolen police car with a baby. Silly, but with moments of humor. 3½ cans.

106. The Social Network (Manville, with Chris) – Ironically, the founder of Facebook, Marc Zuckerberg, is so socially inept (as portrayed in this movie) that the man who launched millions of friendships has nearly none of his own. According to the movie, Zuckerberg gets drunk after his girlfriend dumps him, and, holed up in his dorm room at Harvard, trashes her on the Internet. He then concocts a way to capture all of the “Facebook” images of fellow students to rate girls. His rampage becomes an instant hit and attracts the attention of three students working on a social networking site who seek out his computer skills. Zuckerberg morphs their idea into Facebook, leading to suits by them and by his best friend for acing him out of the company just as it explodes with success. The motto here is that you can have a million friends and still be a very lonely guy. Well played by all and written with his usual glibness by Aaron Sorkin. 4 cans.

107. Invictus (HBO) – Here is everything I know about rugby: A bunch of men kick and pass a ball and in between come together in a scrum, pushing and pulling each other in an attempt to extricate the football. They emerge bruised and bloody but ultimately unbowed. And so it was for the 1995 South Africa rugby team, spurred on to capture the World Cup by newly elected president Nelson Mandela, himself bruised but unbowed after nearly 30 years in prison. That makes rugby looks like hopscotch, I’d say. Mandela turned the mostly-white team, considered a national embarrassment, into national heroes who united a country still recovering from apartheid and racial division. In terms of sports movies, I prefer “Rudy” but this movie has a larger and more important message. Oh, and where did Matt Damon get that buff body? 3½ cans.

108. Midnight Run (TV) – Think “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” meets a caper movie in this funny flick starring Robert DeNiro as a bounty hunter tracking rogue accountant Charles Grodin. Grodin’s near-fatal error was stealing from the mob, and when he is arrested and skips bail, the bondsman hires DeNiro to track him down and bring him in. Grodin claims a fear of flying, which leads to a cross country trip by train, bus, car, truck, freight train and even a brief appearance by a chasing helicopter and a prop plane. Grodin’s character is alternately endearing and annoying and DeNiro’s frustration is best summed up in his instruction: “I have two words for you. Shut the *#&A$& up.” This is a really good, unpretentious and funny movie, with plenty of action and great performances. 4½ cans.

109. Cast Away (TV) – Tom Hanks and a volleyball named Wilson star in this captivating movie about a Fed Ex exec who absolutely, positively doesn’t get there overnight. The soul survivor of a plane crash on a remote Pacific island, Hanks spends four years living on minimal food and maximum smarts, motivated by his love for the girl he shouldn’t have left behind, Helen Hunt. There is more than one “awww” moment as he makes it through the worst of times but not to the best of times. Hunt is terrific in her small part, and Wilson is a revelation. 5 cans.

110. Taken (HBO) – One request: If I am ever taken into the white slave trade, please call Liam Neeson to come and rescue me. Retired CIA agent Neeson puts his “particular set of skills” to good use in tracking down his teenaged daughter when she is abducted by Bosnians in Paris. Leaving dozens of men injured or killed, usually with one shot or well-placed blow, he is relentless in his quest to find his daughter. I am always dubious about movies when the main character steals a car and careens around a city, outlasting and outdriving the bad guys who manage to shoot out his windows but somehow miss him. Still, this movie is a gripping thrill ride that I actually liked. 4 cans.

111. Secretariat (Hillsborough with Nancy) – It’s hard to conjure up any drama in this Disney-made, trite but true, tale of the greatest race horse in history and his owner, the formidable Penny Chenery. It’s not like I didn’t already know that the horse won the Triple Crown, so the racing scenes were only partly exciting and, in fact, sometimes looked cartoony. The producers tried death (Chenery’s parents, one at a time), health issues (the horse had an abscess on his tooth and wasn’t eating) and a bragging competitor, but all Penny had to do was talk horse sense into Secretariat and the horse came from behind or pulled out in front to win going away. I love Diane Lane, who played the owner, but even Mr.Ed's Wilbur could have pulled off the part of the horse owner here. Not a bad movie, but hardly a Triple Crown threat come Oscar time. 3½ cans.