Here are four movies that I watched simply because I wanted to see them – or see them again. For once, even the worst of them was at least entertaining.
To see one of these movies, click the film’s title.
A- Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Technically, it’s more like three weddings, one funeral, and another wedding – but who’s counting? In this very funny romantic comedy, Hugh Grant goes to the five events mentioned in the film’s title. Once, he’s the best man. Another time, he gets laid. And yet he never seems to be the groom. The woman he really wants is the beautiful and unattainable Andie MacDowell. It’s a British film, so we get that wonderfully sardonic Anglo humor, along with some old and beautiful churches. In the funniest scene, Rowan Atkinson plays a rookie priest who makes hash out of the ceremony.
A- Mean Streets (1973)
Martin Scorsese comes into his own. He made other films before Mean Streets, but this story of young hoodlums is the first that has the word Scorsese written all over it. You get the moving camera, the guys who don’t know how to talk to women, and the sudden violence. Charlie (Harvey Keitel) works in the mob. He’s a good gangster, by which I mean that he understands the mafia hierarchy and what he’s supposed to do. His friend Johnny Boy is a wild and violent man (Robert DeNiro). When you first meet Johnny, he’s dropping a bomb into a mailbox. With a friend like Johnny Boy, Charlie has his hands full.
B+ Project A (1983)
It’s the turn of the 20th century, and pirates are blocking Hong Kong. So, the government decides to…don’t worry about the story. Project A is really about Jackie Chan fighting, leaping, running, and riding a bicycle in very narrow streets. The movie exists to prove that Chan (who also co-directed) is a real-life superhero. But unlike other superheroes, he can be funny, and he does his own stunts. With Chan’s true-life friends Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao in the cast.
B- Non-Stop (2014)
I finally saw a Liam Neeson movie other than Schindler’s List, which isn’t what we think of these days as a Liam Neeson movie. Non-Stop is an extremely ridiculous but often suspenseful movie about an airline flight where one person is murdered every 20 minutes. Neeson plays an air marshal whose job is to keep everyone on the plane alive. He’s also an alcoholic. The bad guys’ motive is never all that clear. Much of the events in the film are just impossible. I mean, how many guns will you find in a normal commercial flight? Somehow, the ending reminded me of Airplane!
Bayflicks 