I had high expectations for this movie. While it is definitely a good film, it still did not fully reach those expectations.
For those of you unaware of this movie's premise (it was based off a Steven King book and a 1987 film adaptation of the book) a man who has been blacklisted and can't get a job, finds nowhere to turn but a game show where a man is hunted by people wanting to kill him for 30 days. This premise seems like a perfect fit for director/co-writer Edgar Wright, whose fortes are action and satire. He mostly succeeds but strangely the film feels too restrained, lacking Wright's usual touch.
There is a lot to really like about this film. Glen Powell is fantastic in the main role, giving a real charismatic charm to the main character here. He is both a lot of fun to watch and this role and quite likable. Though the visuals never fully utilize the sci-fi setting (in the way you think Wright would), this is a consistently handsome looking movie. The action scenes are excellent, being a lot of fun and very exciting. For the most part this movie does a good job of mixing its political and social commentary in with mainstream entertainment (though a couple scenes can be too on the nose and preachy). There are some moments of genuinely good commentary.
Oddly for an Edgar Wright film, a lot of the comedy simply falls flat. Despite seeing this in a theater with an audience no one laughed at even one of the comedic moments. These comedic moments felt oddly restrained and often times quite forced. The main problem with this movie though is in a very messy last act, which is full of contrivances that don't make much logical sense and seem to exist only so the movie can reach the desired ending. This desired ending is nowhere near as satisfying as it should be, due to it not feeling earned.
There is a lot to like about this film, yet it never lives up to its true potential.
Hello my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church.
Today’s musical selection begins with the King of the Cowboys and The Queen of the West, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with Jesus in the Morning. This song reminds us that we are not only to leave a small part of the day with Jesus as our focus but all day long as well as everyday. We should wake up each morning with Jesus on our mind and go to bed each night the same way. While few of us will succeed with this every day, we will find that each day we do it will be an enriching day that will makes us grow as a person. This song comes from Roy and Dale’s 1973 gospel album, In the Sweet By and By.
This is followed by Patty Loveless with Diamond in my Crown. This comes from her 2009 gospel album, Mountain Soul II.
Afterwards is Red Sovine with Cast Thy Bread Upon the Water.
Then comes The Sons of the Pioneers with their 1937 recording of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. . This hymn began with a man named Anthony Showalter. As a fan of gospel music and an elder in a Presbyterian church, he held many "singing schools" at various churches in the south. One day he received two letters from former students who were struggling after their wives had passed. To respond to these letters, Showalter consulted scripture. He came across Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." After reading this verse lyrics for a song chorus went through his head and he wrote down, "“Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.” After using this in the letters to his former students he sent this chorus to his friend hymnist, Elisha Hoffman. In the letter he also wrote, “Here is the chorus for a good hymn from Deuteronomy 33:27, but I can’t come up with the verses.” Hoffman then wrote the rest of the lyrics to which Showalter put to music. The hymn was published in 1887.
Next comes Washington Phillips with his 1929 recording of The Church Needs Good Deacons.
Following is Megan Fowler with Jesus Paid it All. Elvina Hall wrote the words to this hymn on the flyleaf of her hymn book and handed it to her pastor. Meanwhile the church's organist John Grape handed the pastor a new piece of music he had just written. Noticing that the poem and the music fit together perfectly, the pastor put the two together and the hymn was born. The hymn came to be in 1865. This recording comes from Megan's 2017 album, Tune My Heart. Megan is a very talented and lovely country singer that has as of yet not received the attention she deserves.
Today's musical selection closes with Johnny Cash with This Train is Bound for Glory. This wonderful recording comes from John's 1979 album; A Believer Sings the Truth. This was a double length gospel album and Columbia Records felt that such an album from John could never be successful. However, Columbia allowed John to release the album on its own and it was successful earning a spot in the Country Top 50. A shorter version of the album called I Believe would be released in 1984, which would feature a select few songs from the double album. A Believer Sings the Truth would not find its way to CD until 2012.
Now for a sermon from Al Green.
Now for today's movie, Cattle Thief (1936) starring Ken Maynard.
Movie Age, 1931
Psalm 91
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he[b] loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. Happy Trails to you until we meet again.
Hello, my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again, it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with Felix the Cat in Bold King Cole (1936). The Van Beuren cartoon studio never enjoyed the success of Disney, Warner Brothers, Walter Lantz or the Fleischer Brothers. One of the main reasons for this was that they lacked strong starring characters that would stay in the minds of movie goers. To try to get some of the success other cartoon studios had, studio boss Amadee J. Van Bueren in 1934 decided to hire Burt Gillett away from Disney and have Gillett supervise all the studio's output. Gillett had been the director of Disney's The Three Little Pigs (1933), the most popular cartoon of the era. Gillett clashed with many of the old hand, who felt a certain amount of resentment towards him. In 1936 Gillett decided to purchase the rights to two popular properties in order to give the studio stronger starring characters (something they were still lacking). One of these was Fontaine Fox's comic strip Toonerville Trolly and the other was Felix the Cat, who had been a major animated cartoon star during the silent era. Three new cartoons were made with Felix, of which I feel Bold King Cole is the strongest. This film has a wonderful sense of atmosphere and a delightfully clever story. However, purchasing these properties all proved to be for naught. The Disney studio left their previous distributor United Artists and found a new distributor in RKO. Unfortunately for Van Beuren RKO was also the distributor of the Van Beuren cartoons. With the Disney cartoons RKO had no further use for the Van Beuren ones and this would mark the end of the Van Beuren studio.
Next comes the Terry Toons short, Pick-necking (1933).
Now for the Mickey Mouse Works cartoon, Mickey's Mix-Up (2000). This cartoon would later air as part of the House of Mouse episode, The Mouse Who Came to Dinner (2001). The short really benefits from a very strong ending gag.
Next is the Terry Toons short, Swooning the Swooners (1945). This film was written by John Foster. As well as writing plenty of Terry Toons cartoons, Foster also directed plenty of them. Studio head Paul Terry would sate about John Foster, "John Foster was the best, the most brilliant. They say if you can take a little out of this and a little out of that it's called research. But if you take a big bite out of one thing, that's plagiarism and you're a thief. So, we used to have a saying, John Foster and I, 'Never steal more than you can carry.'" Director Connie Rasinski began working on Terry Toons shorts in the 1930's and would continue to do so through the 1960's. About Rasinski Terry stated, "He came to work when it was Terry, Moser and Coffman. An old friend of mine named Litchfeild, who was a painter, passed away, and his wife sent this kid over to get a job, and I gave him a job. And that's Connie. Connie, who came to work for me as a kid, developed rapidly and he was with me for practically all his life. He was fat and everything he drew was chubby and round and well fed."
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Now for an old Stop Motion short that is not creepy at all, Dolly Daisy in Hearts and Flowers (1930). Also, the poor kid who just gets run over by two cars. There are no words that can describe just what you are about to watch here.
Next comes Porky Pig in Porky's Prize Pony (1941). In this cartoon, Porky sings We're in The Money with modified lyrics. This song was written by Al Dublin and Harry Warren for the movie, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). Since that was a Warner Brothers movie, this song appears in many classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts.
Now for the Walter Lantz produced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Kings Up (1934). One of the animators on this film is future legendary cartoon director, Tex Avery (credited as Fred Avery). Tex Avery later remembered how he came to work at Walter Lantz studio and found himself as an animator. "I met a fella who knew a girl who was head of the inking and painting at Walter Lantz's, so I inked and painted for a while. . .. Then I worked up into inbetweens, then about that time Disney raided the whole West Coast for talent. And the three quarters of us who were left knew nothing of animation. We had just been inbetweening." Taking this into account, despite the flaws, it is impressive how much of the animation actually works.
Today's cartoon selection ends with The Simpsons in The Art Museum (1988). This is one of the short Simpsons cartoons for The Tracey Ullman Show, before the cartoon family got their own TV show.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin.
This film follows the true story of Sarah Rector, a young 11-year-old black girl, who is given a plot of land that she believes God is telling her oil is on. When she hires a company to check for if there is oil on her land, they try to swindle her out of her land.
What makes this movie work is that it shows us the ugly side of humanity, while still remaining hopefully about the future. The film never sugarcoats when it comes to racism and human greed. We see the absolute worst of both of them here and some of these scenes can be heartbreaking to watch. Yet this is a movie about how sometimes human decency and kindness can sometimes overcome hatred and greed. We may know that this may not always be the case but knowing it can happen sometimes gives us hope, especially as sadly this kind of hatred and can sadly still exist.
This movie also benefits from some strong concise storytelling that doesn't waster a moment, as well as some strong acting. While Zachary Levi gives one of his better performances here, it is young Naya Desir-Johnson as the titular character who steals the show. She is so charming, likable and completely believable here that she makes the whole movie work very well.
I will say though that this movie is very predictable and it is very often that you can see exactly where it is going. There are no surprises in the whole movie.
This animated movie from France and Belgium is one of my favorite movies of the year.
This movie falls a little girl from her birth to three years old, with the girl narrating the story for us.
From this simple premise comes one of the smartest and most insightful films, I have seen in quite a while. Telling this story directly from the point of view from such a young child proved to be a brilliant idea. When you are a child, everything is new to you and because of this, the joyous moments feel more joyful, and the sad moments feel sadder. Very early on, this movie puts us directly in this state of mind. We feel these emotions in that exact same way. There are times when this movie makes us feel the greatest joy at the absolute simplicist of moments such as running through the flowers on a spring day or feeling rain fall down upon you or seeing the ocean. At the same time, you feel great sorrow over the idea of someone you love having to leave. This is one of the most emotional rides I have had in a movie theatre in a long time. All of this is helped by a gorgeous art style that captures how beautiful the world can look to us when we are that young.
Even if this movie focuses on a young child, its insights into life are very important to anyone any age. It talks about how nothing and no one is truly lost if they live on in our memories. This is a very real and insightful message that helps us with the painful emotions we experience without sugarcoating anything. The message is also told to us in a very intelligent and insightful way, with some truly well-written dialogue.
As smart and mature as this movie is, it is not one of those artsy animated films that can only be enjoyed by adults. This film is completely approachable to a child of any age, and it is never too early to introduce them to a great work of art.
If you watch this film in theaters, it will be accompanied by a short film, titled Éiru, from the Irish animation studio, Cartoon Saloon. This is a delightful short film that is well written, very creative and full of fantastic artwork.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a must see for fans of mature, smart and insightful animated films. It is a pure masterpiece.
