The Gray Man (3.5 out of 5 shades of gray)
I wouldn't call it great. It's a good first step for a new action franchise. It sets up the myserious "Six" and dumps him into action against his handlers. They've already greenlit a sequel and I'm not mad about it. Am I clamoring for it? Not really. But I'm a sucker for action movies.
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I'm listening to "How Did This Get Made," a podcast devoted to bad movies and deconstructing them. The episode I'm listening to is "Kate & Leopold." It starred Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan.
I have memories of this movie because I went to see a sneak preview showing of it. I left the movie going, "Well... that was fine." But after it came out it got absolutely destroyed.
As it turns out, between the cut I saw and the cut that came out, they just absolutely demolished the film.
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Amadeus (1984) - 3/5 Operas
I've loved Amadeus for a long time. It came out the year after I was born, so I'm not sure when or where I saw it. Maybe my parents rented it from Blockbuster, or something. But I've watched it, and owned it, for a long time. But I hadn't watched it recently, and I decided to give it another watch. The music definitely makes the film more enjoyable for me, I love the classical music so much. But below that, I have begun to lose my fancy for the plot.
As I watched it, I was also what (if any) basis it had in fact. I had no doubt it was largely fictional, but where did it cross from history to fiction? How real were the theater and opera scenes in terms of look and costumes and effects, etc?
I found these two articles:
Amadeus: the fart jokes can't conceal how laughably wrong this is
You're welcome to read them, I found them quite educational and the short takeaway for me is that that on a scale of 1-10 for historical accuracy, I'd put this move at a 2. Real people, some real events, but almost everything else is wrong or made up.
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Only 29 silent Indian films remain of over 1,300
I'm ashamed to admit how extreme my America-centrist view is in regards to film, I had never really considered the silent film era of other cultures and countries. A very interesting read about a very sad loss of creative art creations.
At 85, Virchand Dharamsey should be leading the retired life, but he is hard at work, digging deep for the hidden and unknown.
For the past few years, the Mumbai-based researcher has been writing a book tentatively titled Archaeology of Early Indian Cinema with Iyesha Geeth Abbas, a colleague from Kerala. Covering the period between 1895 and 1945, the project is as noble as it is challenging, given the shortage of reliable information on the earliest years of Indian cinema.
Just over 1,300 silent movies were made in India in the first three decades of the last century. By 1931, India had produced its first sound film, Alam Ara, and by 1934, the "talkies" had taken over the screens. But only 29 of the silent films made in India survive.
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