Month: August 2022

Right before her IRS audit meeting, struggling laundromat owner Michelle Yeoh is visited by an alternate universe version of her husband Ke Huy Quan who entreaties her to connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent the destruction of the multiverse. I had seen many positive reviews for this film, but I was not prepared for how endlessly entertaining and thought provoking this film would be. Michelle Yeoh is a goddess who brings all her skills, including the ability to switch from being beaten down by life to kicking ass on the flip of a coin, to this fight. It doesn’t hurt that she’s supported by incredible performances, not only from Quan but also James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Stephanie Hsu. I love all the multiverse concepts and how committed the film is to fully realizing each and every one of them.      

Another edition of Peter Ustinov as the famous Belgian detective, here Poirot travels to a hotel on the Adriatic Sea run by Maggie Smith to relocate a ring that Colin Blakely’s mistress Diana Rigg stole from him. Once there, a murder is committed amongst the intertwined group of hotel guests, giving Poirot a further mystery to solve. Maybe a tad sillier than the others, but I enjoyed the central mystery here better than Murder on the Orient Express or Death on the Nile. Even with a less lavish production than the other two, the location is stunning, the period details are delightful, and the cast, which also includes James Mason and Roddy McDowall, are top notch making it an entertaining murder mystery.   

Two American showgirls, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, are best friends with different tastes in men; Marilyn wants them rich while Jane just cares that they’re attractive. The two head to France on a cruise, unknowingly followed by a detective Monroe’s suspicious future father-in-law has hired to spy on her. The story is clichéd and uninteresting, the men are almost universally immature jerks, and the continuity is so off that I had to rewind multiple times to see if I had missed something. What it does have going for it is a refusal to condemn the women for their romantic choices, particularly within the constraints of the era in which they lived. Russell gets a chance to shine by frolicking with the entire American Olympic team who are clad only in flesh colored short shorts while Monroe has her iconic ‘Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend’ number.   

While the majority of the Crawley family is off to the south of France to visit a villa that Violet (Maggie Smith) has surprisingly inherited, Mary (Michelle Dockery) stays behind to supervise over a film crew who is using Downton as a location to shoot their film. The film has very few stakes for anyone involved, but it is a fine continuation of the Downton saga that is simply easy to just settle in to its coziness.. My only complaint is with so many new characters in two separate locations, some of the original core characters get short shrift in the story telling but it’s a minor complaint especially if the story continues on.

Two American detectives, Don Knotts and Tim Conway, who work for Scotland Yard are called to an expansive manor house to investigate the murders of its owners. It’s essentially an extended episode of Scooby-Doo where Scooby and Shaggy are replaced by these two comic greats. The story’s pretty predictable and it doesn’t feature the bungling duo in their prime, but it’s still fun and appreciative for being the last lead role pairing of the two.   

When a pair of quarry workers discover a strange white substance bubbling up from the ground, the powers that be decide to sell the sweet, addictive Stuff as a food replacement. Discovering that the Stuff has unusual properties including turning his family into a type of zombie, young Scott Bloom teams up with industrial saboteur Michael Moriarty and advertising executive Andrea Marcovicci to put an end to all consumption of the product. An absurd premise is made even more ridiculous with strange story choices and awful editing. Regardless, it makes for a perfect 1980s blend of 1950s SciFi horror mixed with Reagan era consumerism that somehow managed to bring in the talents of Paul Sorvino, Garrett Morris, and Danny Aiello to tell its strange tale.