This shot was taken from the alley (and I can no longer remember why I was walking down the alley) instead of the street. I’m intrigued though. It’s where a blue house used to sit. I took a picture of it a few months ago and good thing, because it’s gone, baby. Gone. But what are they building here? Two skinny houses with a shared driveway? That was my initial thought, but I’ve been by since I took this photo and seen six water shut-off boxes. So maybe this will be six separate units?
While new actors are fun to discover, there’s something to be said of watching a film made with industry veterans.* This is a heist movie and also a family dynamics movie and it has some very funny scenes.** Overall, this is a very good investment of 90 minutes of your time.
Cost: free from library (recommended by Jan)
Where watched: at home
*Russell, Dillon, Kenneth Welch, Terrance Stamp have over 400 acting credits between them. The rest of the cast brings their A-game too.
**Jay Baruchel at the border was hilarious
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/canada/2013/art_of_the_steal.html
My expectations were low going in and indeed, this is a long, slow movie broken up with some good dancing now and then. Characters from the earlier film* are fleshed out** and there is a merry-go-round full of cameos and other supporting roles. What could have been the romantic subplot is oddly subverted and only half developed and thus, this movie just becomes a very long wait for the next striptease.***
Cost: $5.00
Where watched: Regal City Center 12 with Christi.
*Interestingly, though the character of Matthew McConaughey’s Dallas is explained away, there seems to be no mention of Alex Pettyfar’s Adam, even though he was the main supporting actor in Magic Mike.
**Hah! By which I mean their personalities are more fully developed as we’ve already seen most of their flesh
***I look forward to coming across the DVD at the library in future years so I can just get to the dancing.
posters from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/magic_mike_xxl.html
(best comment: We all know what the focal point is on this poster… Channing Tatum’s manatee-faced torso)
http://www.impawards.com/2015/magic_mike_xxl_ver2.html
(the second one is a little more subtle)
Just as I always fall prey to Vince Vaughn’s talky-talky thing, so did I enjoy Eddie Murphy’s chamelon-like trove of characters to get himself out of all sorts of situations. Though I will never understand the early 80s fascination of Judge Reinhold, both he and John Ashton were perfect foils to Murphy’s color-outside-the-lines brand of detective work.* This movie also has bit parts with Paul Reiser and I was delighted to find a pre-Balki Bronson Pinchot who cracked me up with his portrayal of Serge, an Associate Art Director at a gallery.
*This movie also includes two 80s movie staples: boobs (in the strip bar) and a lot of ridiculous shooting of guns that totally wouldn’t happen in real life.
Cost: free from library. I think I ended up requesting this because I was really going after Beverly Hills 90210 season 1, and this came up in the search results and I realized I’d not seen it.
Where watched: at home.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1984/beverly_hills_cop.html
