Here are the movies I watched in June. Numbering picks up from the rest of the year. Movies marked with an * are ones I had not seen previously. All films rated on a scale of 1 (not so good) to 5 (really great) tuna cans.
65. The Desk Set (1957) – It took me 13 days to see my first movie this month and I picked this Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn ditty about the dawn of the computer age. Hepburn’s Bunny heads the reference department at the Federal Broadcasting Company, where she and her “girls” pick up the phone and answer every kind of question imaginable, and they do it quickly and efficiently. Not efficiently enough for the boss, who brings in Tracy’s efficiency expert and his enormous computer to replace them. This device nearly takes up the whole room. The chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn is palpable, as usual, despite her long-term relationship with an indecisive Gig Young. You can’t imagine a more dated movie, but it is fun to see the office running at top speed– until the computer is installed. But the real reason I watched this movie is that my father, who would have turned 100 years old the day before I viewed it, was once in a community theater production of the play on which the movie is based, starring in the Tracy role. My sister learned every line in the play – for all of the characters – to rehearse with him, but she was so young that she thought he was running off with another woman for real at the end of the play. This was my father’s first and last foray into show business, so this story holds a special place in my heart. Happy 100th, Dad. Dad gets 5 cans; the move gets 3.
66. You’ve Got Mail (1999) – This romantic comedy was about the last time we saw Meg Ryan looking like Meg Ryan. Here she and Tom Hanks couple up again – or try to – as she plays the owner of an independent bookstore and he is the owner of a megachain of bookstores which ultimately will drive her out of business. So on the business end, they are bitter rivals, but what they don’t know – at least immediately – is that they are exchanging on-line messages with each other and developing a rapport that might lead to a relationship. Much as in the other movie in which they paired, “Sleepless in Seattle,” you just wish they’d get together already. Both bring a modest charm to the leads that makes the movie warm and comfy to watch. 4 cans.
67. One Day* (2011) – Adorable Anne Hathaway and cute Jim Sturgiss meet, almost sleep together, and out of that encounter they become best pals. Though we know immediately that they are meant for each other, they grow ever closer without realizing the inevitability of their union. She is a little ditzy, he is a little annoying, but you know that they have to be together. It is just that their timing is off. And then some. I liked it and gasped audibly in the appropriate places. 3½ cans.
68. The Vow* (2012) – Try as I might, I really don’t like Channing Tatum. He is the same wooden, plain vanilla actor in every movie of his that I have seen, and I should VOW to skip the rest of the ones he makes. However, Rachel McAdams is his exact opposite, with warm and adorable qualities that make you love her and her character. Here she is married to Tatum when she has an accident and loses her memory. She eventually remembers her past (including the old boyfriend played by Scott Speedman that she almost married) but still cannot recall anything about her husband, so he sets out to make her fall in love with him again. I don’t think it would have worked on me the first time, no less on the second time around. 3 cans.
69. Burlesque* (2010) – Christina Aguilera doesn’t sing as much as belt her way through this role as Ali from Iowa, who wants to make it big in Hollywood as a singer when she sees the Burlesque review owned by Cher. She is totally entranced by the goings on on stage, so taken with the performances of the lip-synching, writhing dancers that she grabs a tray and starts waiting tables to earn her way into the chorus. Cher is at her deep-throated, wry best as the club owner in danger of losing the club to rich and handsome but evil Eric Dane, who wants to knock it down and build a high rise. Stanley Tucci, virtually reprising his role in “The Devil Wears Prada” as the gay BFF and man in charge, is Sean, who is constantly carrying costumes in need of a glue gun or sewing machine. Back to Aguilera: she is quite the tour de force as Ali, who gets a chance to show off those miraculous pipes when Nikki, the requisite star-with an-attitude-problem, kills the big number and Ali saves the day. Did I mention that she falls for the bartender who takes her in? Cher is given one solo that we are to take as her strong stand against her growing credit problems, but it is Aguilera’s movie all the way, and she does shine. Sure, lots of clichés, a few extra layers of cheese, but this big, bombastic movie is entertaining. Aguilera should see it and remember who she is before she signs on for another go-round as a judge on the TV show, “The Voice,” because she has the best one around. 3 cans.
70. Bye Bye Birdie (1963) – What better contrast to “Burlesque” than the heart-warming, all-American musical with Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh and a way-too-old-for-the-role Ann-Margaret. Van Dyke is a failed songwriter with mother (Maureen Stapleton) issues who would rather be a biochemist. Leigh, his secretary/girlfriend, gets him assigned to write a song that Elvis Presley-like Conrad Birdie will sing to a random teenager who idolizes him (Ann-Margaret) on The Ed Sullivan Show. I first saw the play when my high school put it on, and I can still sing the words to “Have you heard about Hugo and Kim?” It is full of energy and wholesomeness, though any suggestion that Ann-Margaret’s Kim McAfee would be in love with Bobby Rydell’s Hugo smacks of science fiction. If it is a choice between “Burlesque” and “Birdie,” I’d take the latter for Paul Lynde and his number “Kids” alone. 4 cans.
71. The Emperors Club* (2002) – This is Kevin Kline’s “Dead Poet’s Society” movie, where he portrays Mr. Hunderd, a dedicated classics teacher at a boys’ prep school. There, in 1976, he teaches Cicero and Caesar to a mostly willing bunch of eager students whose lives he molds and inspires. Until Sedgwick Belle (Emilie Hirsch) comes along, that is. Belle is a charismatic cut-up, defiant in a non-threatening way, but pre-occupied more with pranks than homework. The rigid Hunderd, also the assistant headmaster, is thwarted in his attempt to teach and motivate the teenager, so he prevails on the boy’s powerful father, whose sole phone call results in an only-in-the-movies renewed interest in learning. In fact, Belle improves so much that he qualifies as a finalist in the annual Mr. Julius Caesar competition. He soon reverts back to his egregious behavior, and 25 years later, his path once again crosses with Mr. Hunderd. Will he have learned his lessons? Kline – who does not make enough movies to suit me – carries off his role with considerable grace and presence, and Hirsch is a good bad boy. The settings are lovely and the music is soaring, but the movie didn’t have enough bite to appease my appetite, though I liked the ending. 3 cans.
72. Moonrise Kingdom* (2012) – I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Despite a promotional campaign touting Moonrise Kingdom as “best movie of the year,” two people I trust claimed to hate it. I didn’t hate it, but I’m not sure I can describe adequately the immense quirkiness of this odd little film. The story centers around two 12-year olds living on an island in New England. The roads aren’t paved, there is one police officer (Bruce Willis) and a very strange young girl living with her equally bizarre family (parents played by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand, who personifies quirkiness). The girl runs away with the boy, who escapes his Khaki Scout camp to meet her. They are in love, or at least desperate enough for the girl to leave her strange family. The boy, an orphan, is a misfit, sweet and artsy and destined for bullying by the other boys. Their adventure includes a whopper of a storm, an odd Scout leader (Edward Norton), a woman from Social Services who is only referred to as Social Services (Tilda Swinton), and the ongoing schlepping of a suitcase as they escape through the woods. Bizarre, strange, quirky, but visually arresting – sometimes you have to color outside the lines, I guess. 3 cans, and probably a slew of Oscar nominations.
73. Moment by Moment (1978) – This misguided romance goes down in my annals of movies as one of the worst ever made – a feeling I had when I first saw it that holds true today. I wondered, would I still want to throw things at the screen and shout at the inane dialog? John Travolta is Strip, a drifter who latches on to Trish (Lily Tomlin), a lonely, rich Beverly Hills matron newly separated from her husband. Though she is considerably older, with their look-alike haircuts, they could be brother and sister, making their romance all the more unlikely. Strip, who is only too happy to doff his clothes and strut around in his “Saturday Night Fever” drawers, is a lost soul looking to make a connection. Trish, who is not looking for anything initially, finally succumbs to his rich mane of hair (unlike in “Saturday Night Fever,” you are allowed to touch his hair here) and having someone to love. Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife had more heat between them than these two, and their romantic scenes are excruciating to watch. Those scenes are matched by the equally ridiculous dialog, and, since the main characters are on the screen almost exclusively for most of the movie, you are either hearing them talk or watching them in bed. There is one line that has stayed with me for all these years – and it isn’t when Tomlin’s character keeps calling, “Strip!” It is Strip’s message in a bottle: “What a world.” When it comes to movies, what a movie! I hope I spoiled it for you, because no one should ever be forced to see this train wreck. An underachieving 1 can, just for the pleasure of hating it so much.
74. Rock of Ages* (2012) – Big, bad hair and loud rock anthems set the tone for this musical pastiche of 80’s rock and roll. Like its more mature musical predecessor, “Mamma Mia,” “Rock of Ages” takes a collection of songs from the era and stitches them together with a story about a small town girl(Julianna Hough) living in a lonely world who arrives in Los Angeles to become a singer. On her first night, fresh off the bus, her suitcase is stolen but she meets a nice young guy (Diego Boneto) from the big rock mecca on the Sunset Strip. He is also determined to be a singer. And what better role model to emulate than the outrageous Stacie Jaxx (Tom Cruise, in a bravura performance), an aging rock star with a coterie of burly body guards and pretty girls and a monkey named “Hey Man” who can tend bar. What I liked about this movie is that it never takes itself too seriously. Cruise is absolutely over the top as rocker Jaxx, stuffed into his leather pants and wailing his many songs with gusto. Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand are hilarious as the guys who own and run the club, and Catherine Zeta-Jones virtually chews the scenery as the rightwing crusader determined to put a stop to the evils of rock & roll. Everybody gets a song, including Paul Giammati as Jaxx’s manager. Mary J. Blige, wearing costumes Cher once had in her closet and sporting Venus Williams' old beaded hair, comes to the rescue of Hough’s character – mainly so she can join the party and belt out a tune or two. There was more cheese in this movie than Kraft makes in a year, but it was a joke the cast was in on, so why not enjoy the ride? (Compare this movie to “Burlesque” above, which thought it was Oscar-worthy.) When it comes to rock and roll, my advice is: “Don’t Stop Believing.” 3½ cans.
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