Saturday, December 4, 2021

GOLDEN OLDIE 3: The Big Year


So maybe I just don’t have particularly refined tastes, but it happens that this silly thing is one of my absolutely favorite movies; I’ve seen it at least four times already.  (Others of my favorites include such serious human dramas as Gross Pointe Blank and Major League; this should give you an idea of where I log in on the culture scale.  But then I did like Casablanca.  But then, who didn’t?).

 Okay,  Big Year is a hilarious story based loosely – very loosely - on fact.  It relates the doings of three totally obsessed birders, competing ruthlessly to see which of them can identify (see and/or hear) the most North American bird species in a single calendar year.   (This is a real activity; people do it).  The movie stars three of the funniest guys on the current film scene: Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and Steve Martin, with a couple of great vignettes by Anjelica Huston.  And it has a narrator – John Cleese – whose “explanations” alone make you laugh.  The Big Year came out in 2011; if you missed it then, hunt it down and view it now.  It’s a good antidote to the current news,  A-  

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