Tina's September 2015 Movies

With my move to a new house in September, lack of internet and TV service for a few days and all the unpacking, there was only time to see five movies in September, making the month hardly blog-worthy.  However, I cannot disappoint my loyal readers, so here goes, with numbering continued from last month.  Movies are rated on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, and movies not seen previously are marked with an asterisk.

111.  Revenge* (1990) – The young and handsome version of Kevin Costner stars here as again a Navy man, Jay, this time as a pilot who has finished his work and goes to Mexico to visit his friend Tiberon Menoza (Anthony Quinn) a powerful and wealthy man with a posse of protectors and a young, attractive wife (Madeleine Stowe; it took me half the movie to recall that she also starred in the TV show, Revenge).  When the inevitable spark between the attractive Jay and the beautiful Miryea leads to an affair, Tibby is tipped off and chases them down to get his revenge.  Costner knows his way around women, and Stowe is alluring and more than willing to stray.  What will happen to the ill-fated lovers?  Any additional info would ruin the story, but it is worth watching despite the brutality.  3½ cans.
112.   Ghostbusters (1984) – On paper at least, it would be safe to assume I would hate this movie about paranormal activity and ghostly invasions of the city.  It is full of slime and demands that I suspend my sense of reality, which I typically am loathe to do.  However, the trio of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis is pretty irresistible, even for someone who hates moves with special effects.  Aykroyd and Ramis co-wrote the film, which Ivan Reitman directed, around the time that these clever and crazy guys began ruling Hollywood with a string of likeable comedies (“Stripes,” “Animal House” and, later, “Caddyshack.”)  And who can forget that song?  Who ya gonna call?  Ghostbusters!  3½ cans.
113.  Million Dollar Arm* (2014) – Don Draper takes on major league baseball, as Jon Hamm is Jason Bernstein, a sports agent with virtually no clients, barely making a living and watching his world slip away.  But one day he sees a cricket match on TV and, with nothing of substance going on in his US business, he decides to promote a contest in India to find athletes who can be trained in America to play baseball.  I recall reading this true story in Sports Illustrated, as two men who won the contest came to the US and trained to become major league pitchers.  Eventually, both signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but those signings barely made any inroads in American baseball.  Hamm is good at conveying a sense of desperation, and that’s surely the character’s MO.  Will these guys get the training they need to make the big time?  Can Bernstein ride their coattails?  Much of the humor is cultural in nature, as the vastly different Indian culture is not exactly comparable to the crazy California life to which these young men have to adjust.  Lake Bell plays Brenda, a neighbor who befriends the erstwhile pitchers and serves as the movie’s conscience.  While the movie didn’t strike out completely, it was more like a pop-up than a home run.  2½ cans. 
114.  Grandma* (2015) – This is Lily Tomlin’s movie from the moment you see her aging character break up with her much younger girlfriend until you see her walking down the street alone at the end.  She is Elle, a feisty feminist academic/poet who is fiercely independent and still recovering from the loss of her long-time partner the previous year.  On the very day she unceremoniously dumps Olivia, her young girlfriend, her granddaughter Sage (Julie Garner) shows up looking for money to pay for an abortion.  Broke and having cut up her credit cards so she can’t go into debt again, Elle sets out in her old, classic car with the young woman to find the funding, leading to encounters with people from her past and the memories – good and bad – that they conjure up.  Elle is not your prototypical grandma.  This one smokes weed, gets tattoos, wears a denim jacket and is like the post-modern Sophia Petrillo (from “Golden Girls”) but without the zingers.  Her past is revealed with subtle humor and poignant memories as the two women struggle to come up with the money and avoid revealing Sage’s predicament to her judgmental mother (Marcia Gay Harden), the daughter with whom Elle has a prickly relationship.  This movie is a different kind of buddy movie/road trip, and Lily Tomlin triumphs, displaying arrogance and vulnerability at different times.  3½ cans.
115.  The Remains of the Day (1993) – If you are looking for an action packed movie full of special effects or a torrid affair between consulting adults, skip this perfect gem of a movie that features none of those attributes.  But if you like Downton Abby and have not as yet seen this glorious movie about the unspoken love between a diligent butler, Mr. Stevens (Anthony Hopkins), and the head housekeeper, Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson) at the English estate he manages, then please rent it, find it, stream it, buy it – whatever you need to do to relish the story.  The era is pre-World War II and Stevens has been in service there seemingly forever, running the home and the lives of the people who reside there with perfection and dedication.  When the young Miss Kenton arrives, she is a bit of an upstart compared to the starched and formal Stevens, but the relationship between them grows even though Stevens resists having a personal life.  The plot is secondary to the characters and the cast, including the handsome and virile Christopher Reeve as well as Hugh Grant, is superb.  If not for Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson could well be considered the best actress of her generation (Helen Mirren might have a different view).  5 cans for a perfect movie that I rarely can resist watching yet again.