GOLDEN OLDIE 59: Maverick

 Well, of course, the original Maverick was James Garner, but that was on TV, and a long time ago.  When they decided to make this 1994 movie they gave the role to Mel Gibson and cast Garner as his father,  To spice up the offering they cast Jodie Foster, at the height of her lusciousness, as a conniving but flawed card shark.  The plot, such as it is, involves a high-stakes poker game aboard a large and luxurious river boat, on the Mississippi, I guess – the geography is somewhat puzzling, but immaterial.  Of course there is cheating, participants tossed overboard – but refreshingly little serious gun play.  Graham Green adds some offbeat humor as an Indian chief on the take.  All in all, Maverick is an acceptable way to waste an evening.  Drama it ain’t, but what the heck. C+/B-

In passing, it was gratifying to see Jodie Foster in a light-hearted role.  I associate her with such gut-wrenchers as Taxi Driver, Silence of the Lambs, The Accused and Panic Room.  She has had an unusual career, but what can you expect from a kid cast as a pre-teen street prostitute at the age of 12?        

GOLDEN OLDIE 58: Kindergarten Cop

 

So, here is the movie that made all of you who thought that Arnold could only portray a machine (“Fuck off, asshole”) change your mind.  Lawrence Olivier he’s not, but he is perfect as a tough city cop with a grudge.  He even manages to look moonstruck in the presence of a woman – but which of us wouldn’t be, if she were Penelope Ann Miller?  Pamela Reed is terrific as Arnold’s diminutive, hyperglycemic side-kick.  Even the bad guys are good, so to speak.  Linda Hunt is her usual excellent self.  The kids are cute,  Arnold’s interaction with them is amusing.  As I say now and then, what’s not to like?  B

Well, some ultra-liberal whackos in Portland found lots to dislike.  In fact, they tried to get this film banned, because it “over-romanticized policing”.  Of course, they also wanted to ban Gone with the Wind.

Not all book-banners are right wing.

GOLDEN OLDIE 57: The Freshman

 

Well, here is a genuine Oldie.  It was released in 1990 and starred Marlon Brando, Mathew Broderick, Bruno Kirby – and a very large lizard.  Brando, in a way, satirizes his role as The Godfather, and generates a lot of chuckles thereby.  Broderick is fine as a mystified and misplaced yokel in the big city, Kirby is great as a would-be mafia sleaze ball – too bad he died so early – and Penelope Ann Miller is suitably scrumptious.  However, the movie belongs to Brando, and the reptile.  Just thinking about a Komodo dragon loose in a mall makes me smile.

The plot?  Well, nothing much and entirely preposterous, but what the heck.  It certainly beats watching the news on TV.  C+

A COMPLICATED STORY

 Sisters

Do you know what a Rube Goldberg is?  If you are old enough you surely do, if not, Google it.

Sometimes it seems as though our bodies are biological Rube Goldbergs.   The article below describes a new wrinkle in treating ovarian cancer.  As I see it, the following concepts are involved:

1)     The body has a first line of defense; the immune system.

2)     In order to keep the immune system in check, our cells carry with them protection, in the form of “immune inhibitors”

3)     Some forms of cancer have somehow evolved to protect themselves from the immune system by displaying their own species of inhibitors.  OVCA is one such.

4)     So-called “immune inhibitors” can be used to break down these defensive barriers – but not in OVCA, apparently.

5)     This new research announces the identification of an enzyme that is responsible for this bit of defense work. So….

It seems to follow that, by “inhibiting” the enzyme it would be possible to defeat the tumors protective armor, and kill the damned thing!

Nobody ever said that cancer biology is straightforward, nor in the least bit simple!

 

https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/102688/new-combinatorial-strategies-to-treat-ovarian-cancer/  

ovarian-cancer/ 

GOLDEN OLDIE 56: The first wives club

 Having recently enjoyed a movie about three oppressed, vengeful women (GO 52), I looked forward to visiting this 1996 tale of three more women – wives, here, not office workers – that give male-kind its well-deserved comeuppance.  I was not disappointed.  

The three principal characters are played by Dianne Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and the ever-delightful Bette Midler.  Their husbands,  selfish cads all, have cast them aside for younger women .  This turns out to be a big mistake.  In the end the ladies get their revenge, but not necessarily the return of their rat-faced ex-husbands, whom they appear to largely devalue.  Maggie Smith appears in a supporting role, as do a whole raft of real people playing themselves – including, believe it or not, Ivana Trump.  I think she was the first wife of #39.  If so, she got out while the getting was good.

So, this movie is a load of harmless fun.  Worth a gander.  B

GOLDEN OLDIE 55: Doc Hollywood

 

Last night I watched this amusing little bit of nonsense, and enjoyed it.  The plot is nothing to puzzle over: young hotshot doctor, derailed by fate while on his way to riches and fame in Los Angeles, is forced (again by that same lucky fate) to stop over in a tiny, bucolic, idiosyncratic southern town - with which he falls in love.  Love here is aided by the presence of a winsome lass (Julie Warner – quite seriously winsome here), several intriguing local screwballs (principally Wood y Harrelson and Bridget Fonda), and one very handsome pig.  The setting and support cast are excellent. However…..

This is Michael J. Fox’s movie.  He is fully graduated here (1991) from his Back to the Future days  and shows a fine talent.  Doc Hollywood gives you a glimpse of what his career might have been like if only Parkinson’s had left him alone.  I admire him for how he has handled his bad luck.

This isn’t a great movie, but it is fun.  B

BOOK REVIEW: Red Storm Rising

 

Please excuse me for posting two Frivolities in one day.  It’s not that I’m feeling particularly frivolous; far from it.  It’s just that I didn’t sleep much last night, hence lack the energy and enthusiasm for any sort of useful work.  Thus I have time to kill, before being picked up and transported to a glorious Easter crab feed. So, I decided to report on some recent reading – and here it is.

When I finished the Hillerman Navajo cop books I fully intended to tackle the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin series, or perhaps Barbara Mertz’s splendid Amelia Peabody Egyptian mysteries.  However, both seemed so daunting that I read Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising.  I enjoyed it.

God knows Clancy was no artistic word smith, but he certainly does know how to whip up an exciting tale.  This one concerns a war between NATO and the Soviet Union, nefariously foisted on the world by the evil Commies, of course.  Naturally, we win.  I particularly enjoyed it because much of the action takes place in Iceland, which my daughter Karen and I visited a few years ago.

One thing I took away from the book was the totally anonymous nature of the war Clancy dreamed up.  In previous wars you usually saw the person you killed; bashed his head in with a rock, stabbed him with a spear, chopped him up with a battle ax, etc.  Not so in the 1980s, apparently.  Plenty of people were dispatched, for sure, but always at long range, using gadgets: radar, sonar, self-guiding torpedoes, SAM rockets, depth charges, and so forth, and lots of other sophisticated stuff.  And the computer reigned supreme.  Or so it seems.

So, I began to think, what will WW3 look like, if we have one – Heaven forfend.  Well, it is a fair bet that it will be fought by a few dozen pimply-faced kids in dark, blast-proof rooms, surrounded, of course, by trillions of dollars’ worth of electronic gadgets.

GOLDEN OLDIE 54: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

 

I have had several bleak days lately, so last night I decided to kick-start my life.  And it worked.  I had a nice dinner with a nice woman and consumed several glasses of a very nice wine – and then I returned to my apartment and dialed up this little gem from the recent past.  Now I feel a lot better.

Wedding is a very funny movie.  Moreover, there isn’t a mean-spirited bit in it.  It gets its laughs without dumping ridicule on anybody or anything.  Its star, “Nia” Vardalos, is a Canadian of Greek descent, who has had a successful but not overwhelming career in the movies, as actress, writer, director, and producer.  You probably wouldn’t recognize the names of the supporting players so I won’t list them; they were uniformly excellent.  I will praise Michael Constantine who played Nia’s father (see picture), who could demonstrate that every word in the English language had a Greek root – and that a squirt of Windex could cure practically anything.  (I keep a small jug of the stuff in my medicine cabinet.  Who knows?) 

My big fat Greek wedding came out in 2002 to considerable critical acclaim.  It made a bunch of money, and Vardalos got a heap of honors.  Good.  B+/A-

GOLDEN OLDIE 53: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

 

Golden years, bah!  It is true that most of us change fundamentally as we age, and rarely for the better.  Take me, for instance.

When this film came out ten years ago I admired it from a number of viewpoints.  I liked it a lot.  I regarded it as, basically, a comedy.  Last night I watched it again; somehow it had transformed itself into a faintly sorrowful commentary on the aging process.  Of course, I was in a faintly sorrowful mood myself.  The funny bits were still there, but they were overwhelmed by the sad stuff’

Marigold is an English movie.  The River Thames, and maybe all the other rivers in the U.K., must somehow manage to flow over and dissolve a geologic stratum that contains some mysterious chemical that transforms ordinary people into great actresses and actors.  There are a bunch of them on display here, most noteworthy Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nightly, and Penelope Wilton.  Any one of these could carry a movie single handedly; put them together and you have a cinematic juggernaut.  And, yeah, the rest of the cast is plenty fine, too.  It certainly wasn’t the acting that I deplored last night, nor even the plot.  It’s just that Marigold left me – sad.  But watch it anyway.  You will enjoy it, on several levels.  B+

GOLDEN OLDIE 52: 9 to 5

 

Here is some harmless fun.  The principals are Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and the ever-despicable Dabney Coleman.  It is basically a revenge-of-the-oppressed tale with a happy ending and some funny bits along the way.  It came out in 1980.  The critics didn’t dump all over it, and the public liked it.  Apparently it sparked a TV series of the same name – which is news to me.  So, bottom line: no great masterpiece, but worth a look.  B-

GOLDEN OLDIE 51: Open Range

 

I love this movie!  It is my favorite western of all time.  In my view it ranks as Kevin Costner’s best effort, even with no baseball in hand.  Robert Duvall has had a long and distinguished movie career, but this also may his greatest role.  Anita Benning is magnificent.  The backdrop (filmed in the eastern Rocky Mountain piedmont of Alberta) is my idea of the anti-room to Heaven.  Hell, even the cows are cute.  I watched it last night (for the third time), and I just may watch it again tonight!

Yeah, this movie is damned good.  See it soon, and often.  I give it a resounding A

The plot isn’t much, except for the love affair between Costner and Benning.  Town overrun & dominated by a real bad guy.  Kevin and Robert wipe them out, in a bloody sequence that in my opinion went on too long.  And a happy ending!  Lord, what more do you want?

Open Range was directed and produced by Costner.  It was released in 2003.  The critics liked it, sort of, but it got zilch from Oscar.  Screw them!

IF IT AIN'T BROKE...

 

This is me when I was 18.  I was probably a lot smarter then.

Why can’t I learn?  I have two iPads, on which I do most of what passes for work.  For some reason, I never can remember NOT to leave them plugged in overnight.  Of course, overnight is when Apple maliciously “upgrades” their operating system.  Every time they do that, I lose hours trying to figure out how to do things that I was doing perfectly well with the PREVIOUS operating system!

All my life I have tried to adhere to the simple axiom, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  I wish Apple would consider this homely bit of country wisdom.  But, of course, they never will

I spent most of the day getting my iPads in order. As a consequence I missed watching the stock market go for the first time in a week or so.  Nuts!

So now, maybe, I’ll remember to unplug my gadgets when I go to bed.  Nah, probably not.

 

OF THE IRS, AND ME

 

This posting ideally should be read to the accompaniment of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

Three years ago I personally prepared my income tax for what proved to be the last time.  As I had done for over 60 years, I did it with a pencil, paper and a simple calculator.  As usual, I briefly scanned the IRS literature for important changes, then slammed the thing together, using the previous year’s effort as a guide.  I vaguely remember saying to myself, “You’re getting too old for this nonsense.”  I vowed at the time to go to a pro the next year, which I did.  I went to Scott Nissen & Associates, here in Bellingham, who now does my income tax for me, with exemplary efficiency and modest cost.

Well, about a year ago I received a love letter from the IRS, informing me that I had screwed up my 2018 return (the last one I did myself), and consequently owed them $7,269  -- on which they were gleefully charging interest!

Well, hell, what to do?  Obviously, get Scott involved.  So, I dumped the whole sorry mess in his lap.

Miracle workers that Nissen & Associates appear to be, within six months or so I got another missive from Uncle Sam, informing me that I only owed them about $3,250 - on which they were still charging interest, of course.  I thought I should just pay, to get them off my back – but Scott said “no”.

As well he might!  Yesterday I received another slender envelope from Washington.  It informed me that they actually owed me a refund of a few tens of bucks! 

Thank you, Scott.  Do you think I could charge them a little interest?

GOLDEN OLDIE 50: Orange County

 

When this movie came out, in 2002, I thought it was the cat’s meow.  At the time I was a callow youth of 68. Now, at nearly 89, have I turned into a sour grouch?  Maybe.  Anyway, it didn’t amuse me nearly so much the second time around.

The theme here seems to be adolescent angst, the inanity of Southern California beach culture, and, of course, young love.  The star is Colin Hanks, Tom’s son, who is perfectly adequate.  Sharing the spotlight is Jack Black, usually one of the funniest guys around.  He generates a few chuckles, but is far off his best, in my estimation.  A host of Hollywood A-listers make brief and for the most part effective appearances – Lily Tomlin, John Lithgow, Harold Ramis, Chevy Chase,  and even Kevin Kline (not listed under cast, for some reason).  They help, but do not rescue, the movie.

I guess I just was disappointed that this film generated so few honest belly laughs.  Excessive use of Black, usually high, running around in his underwear, just didn’t do it for me.  And, besides, I know I’m right – the critics mostly liked it, and you know they’re usually wrong!

By the way, the heroine in this movie, playing Hank’s loving, longsuffering  girlfriend, is named Schuyler Fisk.  She is Sissy Spacek’s daughter.  C+

GOLDEN OLDIE 49: Legally Blonde

 

Well, having been expelled from the Willows Mexican Train group, apparently for being male, last night I decided to console myself by watching this entertaining bit of fluff.  It did the trick: cute (if highly improbable) plot, cute actress at her best, happy ending.  Could one ask for more?  Well, yes – but this will do.

The star is Reese Witherspoon, who deftly dominates.  She is at her best here. The supporting roles are very well played, and the story is appealing.  You know the plot: ostensible California airhead loses boyfriend and goes to Harvard law school to get him back.  With miraculous, and entertaining, consequences.  Just the right salve for a bruised ego.  I rate it B+.

By way of a P.S., I would like to applaud Jennifer Coolidge, whom I also appreciated in Best if Show.  With her looks she is unlikely to play leading lady in a romantic production, but she is perfect as a faintly comical character actress.  Previously she appeared in the American Pie film series, about which I know nothing.

UNSIMPLE CELL SCIENCE

      On the Via Dolores of an ancient monastery on the island of Rhodes

Okay, here’s one to stretch your biochemical understanding.  To make sense of it, you need to know the following:

Apoptosis:  The killing of cells.

Angiogenesis:  The growth of blood vessels.

Transcription factor:  A sequence in the genome that controls how fast, or whether, a gene gets transcribed and eventually turned into a protein.

Well, these guys (and girls, mostly) from various institutions all over the place have combined efforts and discovered a transcription factor that somehow discourages apoptosis in tumor cells, apparently by encouraging angiogenesis.  Thus, the enemy is revealed and science can get on with suppressing it.  At least, that’s what it seems like to me.  Read the article, and then explain it to me!

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scisignal.abm2496

 

On
 

GOLDEN OLDIE 48: The Devil wears Pravda

 

I almost wish Merrill Streep weren’t such a great actress.  As far as I can fathom she is without peer amongst American cinematic divas, and she easily holds her own in company with the famous Brits:  Dench, Smith, Mirren, etc.  My problem is that she us so  famous that my peculiar little first name, Myrl, all too often gets transmogrified into Merrill, or some similar spelling rendition.  Heck, I had an American colleague, with whom I worked in Chile on and off for fifteen years, who never learned to call me anything else!  (Alternatively, I had a Greek colleague who called me “Moo” – but that’s another story.)

But to get to the review:  Wow!  This is a darned good movie, but Streep so dominates  it that you almost forget to follow the plot.  She is Amanda Priestly, the sharp point on the very tip of the pinnacle of Fashion, writ large.  Designers go bankrupt if she yawns at their showings.  Even her closest and most valuable sidekick, Stanley Tucci (brilliant, as usual) is a bit afraid of her.  Her way of dismissing people (“that’s all”) would strike fear into your heart, if you were anywhere nearby.   For cool, her way of taking off/.putting on sunglasses rivals Humphrey Bogart’s way with a cigarette.  I could go on and on, but you get the picture – this is Streep’s movie, and she is terrific!  The young people in the movie are good, too – especially Anne Hathaway, its ostensible star, who weathers the Priestly storm, attains success and then gives it all up for a newspaper job and, of course,  young love.

Oh, the plot?  It’s a skillful send-up of the fashion industry; the skullduggery that lurks behind all those skinny models and their expensive clothes.  Go see it; it’s a blast.  A-

GOLDEN OLDIE 47: Breaking away

 

Well, last night turned out to be a deep dip into personal nostalgia.  The film I watched was Breaking Away, released in 1979 to considerable critical acclaim.  As it happens, Breaking Away could be considered the theme song of a brief but intense relationship I enjoyed with a woman who happened to be Linda’s best friend.  It was through that fascinating, complicated woman that I met Linda Joyce, who – after a brief hiatus - turned out to be the absolute and complete joy of my life for the next three decades. Thanks, Parkfriend.  You played a very important role in my life.

But enough maudlin personal history; this is supposed to be a movie review!  In a nutshell, Breaking Away is a damned good movie, not chock full of meaning and all that, just plain good fun.  It revolves around bicycles, bicycle racing, town-gown rivalry, and – of course – young love. It introduces two guys who went on to important movie careers – Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern.  The others in the cast also are excellent.  I was particularly taken by Barbara Barrie, as the hero’s mother.  She has had a long and, one hopes, highly remunerative career in film and television.  For instance, she was Barney Miller’s wife in the highly popular TV series of the same name.  She is 90 now and, for all I know, still working.  Thanks, Barbara.

So, to summarize:  good movie, verging on great.  A-  

"GOLDEN" OLDIE 46: Best of Show

 

Well, hell, another $3.99 wasted!

Last night, cruising Amazon Prime for movies to “review” I stumbled on Best of Show.  I saw it when it first came out, in 2000, and I remember thinking it was hilarious.  You’ve probably seen it:  it is a non-stop send up of dogs, dog owners, and dog shows in general.  It aims at comedy.  In 2000, when I was a lad of 67, I thought it was really funny.  Now, with greater “maturity”, I admit that it deserves a few laughs – but, mainly, it comes across as mean-spirited. 

As I see it, comedy comes in several flavors.  The best kind invokes laughter at situations, incidents, and things.  I now find that I regard comedy based on ridiculing people as distinctly distasteful.  Of course, that’s just me.  Anyway, I set the flic aside before the dog show hijinks, which I remember as being the best part.  So, I cannot recommend this movie.  D+

Of course, if you love dogs and don’t mind watching them made fools of, dig in.