Long Shot (2019)

 A recently unemployed journalist (Seth Rogan), gets a job as a speech writer for a Secretary of State with presidental ambitions (Charlize Theron), who was also his next door neighbor growing up and his childhood crush.  Guess what happens? I thought this romantic comedy/political fable struck the right balance, a pleasant/ boarderline endering watch. Rogan and Theron have a surprising chemistry. Also staring Bob Odenkirk as the sitting president, a former actor who played the president on a success TV series, and Andy Serkis under heavy makeup as basically Roger Ailes. ***

Brewster McCloud (1970)

 With the recent passing of Bud Cort, I figured I'd never have a better excuse to finally watch this somewhat devicive Robert Altman film. The directors follow up to the hugely successful 'M*A*S*H', he went in a very different direction, high concept, dry, satire-ish and kind of mystical, 'Brewster McCloud' has a tone unique to its self. Bud Cort is an orphan who lives in a fallout shelter in the Houston Astrodome, where with the assistance of the mysterious Sally Kellerman, he works to construct a set of working wings based on the works of Leonardo DiVinci and the Wright Brothers. He also might be a serial killer.

A string of murders, in which the victims are always found with bird droppings on them, prompts the Mayor of Huston (William Windall) to bring in a high profile, celebrity detective from San Francisco to solve the case. The detective is played by Altman regular Micheal Murphy and is a play on the Shaft/Dirty Harry detective trops of the time, this character could have his own movie.

Eclectic cast includes a 29 year old Stacy Keach under heavy make up as the elderly third Wright Brother; John Schuck as one of the countless cops he played; Jenny Salt as a young woman with a crush on Brewster; the Wicked Witch herself Margret Hamilton as the wife of the owner of the Astrodome; René Auberjonois as the films ornithologist narrator; and Shelly Duvall with an 'introducing' credit as Brewster's flighty tour guide love interest (the Duvall film persona came fully formed). Music from John Phillips of 'The Mamas and the Papas'. 

I think I'm going to need to wait a bit and then watch this movie again to fully digest it. I liked it, if I had to sum the movie up in one word I'd go with 'playful'. Even among Altman's mass of ideocentric film output, this proto-'Nashville' may be his most ideocentric. ***1/2

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005)

 A kind of meta Comedy from the 'War on Terror' era. Quasi-mockumentery style film has Albert Brooks (who also wrote and directed), playing a version of himself sent to the Indian sub-continent by a government commission, to better our understanding of Muslims by learning what makes them laugh. While not a Muslim, my laughter here was limited principly to the tee-pee and "underground Pakastaini comedians" scenes. The topper joke was Brooks causing an international incident due to both India and Pakastain assuming he must be a spy. I admire the idea of this movie, it's certainly off the beaten path, but in execution it mostly flat. *1/2

Revenge of the Gweilo (2015)

Turns out '"Gwelio" is a Chinese term for a foreigner, particularly a westerner; learning that was the highlight of this movie for me. Nathan Hill takes on Chinese gangsters after they kill his Chinese fiancee. This is a standard Nathan Hill Aussie action / boob's film. I think I've gotten everything I can get from these. Don't plan to watch another. *

Star Trek Voyager Season 1 episode Guide for Beginners

Episodes 1 & 2 'The Caretaker"

Voyager would be at least a little hard to understand without this pilot movie, which introduces our main characters, gives us some background information and sets up the general concept for the show. The survivors of the Federation Starship Voyager team with the surviving crew of a rebel Maquie ship, after they are both sucked to the otherside of the galaxy by a sporositian life form known as 'The 'Caretaker', who is trying to cross breed in order to provide a replacement to his self appointed role as a kind of God/provider figure to a race known as the Ocampa, after his people accidentally make the surfice of their planet uninhabitable, forcing them to live underground. 

The Caretaker is unable to succeed at his mission, leaves the underground Ocampa with a 5 year energy supply and dies. The Alpha Quandrant crews team up and sacrifice the Maquis ship in order to destroy the Caretaker's orbital array (which might have gotten them home), to prevent a Kazan sect (vaugly Klingon like Indian/street gangs surrogate aliens) from using it to genocide the Ocampa. Voyager then begins its trip home from the Delta Quadrant, which would take an estimated 70 years to accomplish. Along the way they will continue to explore the galaxy and search for a means to get them home faster. This pilot is mid tier, but does a good job with the necessary set up.

Main Characters

Captin Kathryn Janeway - Captian of the Federation Starship Voyager. From a Starfleet family, native of Indiana.

Commander Chakotay - Former captain of the Maquis ship; Native American, former Starfleet officer, he takes the position of the ships first officer after the death of Commder Cabot.

Belanna Torres - Half Klingon, half Latina, second year Starfleet Academy drop out, fmr Maquis. Takes over as chief engineer after the death of her predecessor.

Tom Paris - Lt, fmr Starfleet (from a  Starfleet family, who was courtmarshled for a covert up, joined the Maquis, was captured on his first mission, and was on Voyager to earn a sentence reduction by helping Voyager find the missing Maquis ship. Takes over as ships main pilot after the death of his predecessor.

Harry Kim - Koren/American operations officer, recent academy graduate on his first assignment. Grew up in South Carolina, kind of a Boy Scout, plays the clarinet.

Lt Tuvok - A black Vulcan, cheif of security, very proper and by the book, confidant of Janeway, he had been undercover for Starfleet on the Maquis ship. 

'The Doctor' - Emergency Medical Holographic Program, intended for short term use, he must take over the position as the ships doctor after the death of his predecessor. Confined by his holographic projectors to the ships sick bay.

Neelix - Talaxin trader, native of the Delta Quadrant who joins Voyager as a guide owning to his knowledge of this area of space and his outgoing demeanor. He will also become the ships cook and self appointed moral officer.

Kes - Young Ocampa woman in a romantic relationship with Neelix (for some reason). She will train as a nurse under the ships doctor, and will assist with hydroponic farming on the ship as she grew up working in that field on the Ocampa home world. Mildly telepathic. Ocampa only live about nine human years, at the start of the series she is about two.

Episode 3 'Parallax'

Various adjustment pains as the crews integrate. Belanna becomes chief engineer after impressing the Captian in handling the threat possed by a quantum singularly. Kes is put in charge of setting up the ships hydronic gardens, Paris becomes the Doctors assistant, and Kes gets the Doctor to thinking how he might adjust to long term useage/start thinking of himself as a person. Introduction of Seska, a Bajoran Maquis who is hidding a big secret that will be explored over the next two seasons.

Episode 4 'Tme and Again'

This is a time paradox episode, feels rather NextGen. A roughly 21st century level civilization is messing around with an unstable power source which causes the destruction of their world; only maybe it wasn't them, maybe it was Voyager attempting to rescue Janeway and Paris when they are slung back in time about 36 hrs after visiting the now uninhabited planet to investigate what happed to it? Kes's extrasensory perception start to manifest in this episode, a hold over from her ancestors 500 generations back. By the end of the episode the time paradox is resolved, the alien civilization saved, and Kes is the only member of the crew to retain some sense of what happend. Here they seem to be preparing Kes to serve in something similar to Deanna Troi's role on NextGen, though if memory serves this use of Kes's character is largely abandoned, leaving Kes the most underused character on Voyager.

The Outfit (1973)

 This movie should really be better known. This very competently handled, well paced and beautifully looking film, is loaded with details to savor; 'lived in' looking shooting locations, the aging debris of a 1940's story updated to a 1970's setting. It is a caper/revenge story come ensemble character study, with a top flight and eccentric cast of characters including Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, and Robert Ryan, with cameo appearances from character actors of the black and white era, including Timothy Carey (in the kind of slimey roll he excelled at), Elisha Cook Jr. (as a cook), Marie Windsor (always welcome) and former B tier leading lady Jane Greer. I started this on a whim, not expecting to finish it, but it really pulled me in. An unexpected surprise. ***1/2

The Marvels (2023)

 Sequel to 'Captian Marvel', ect all MCU fair. 'The Marvels' teams Brie Larson up with characters from two related Disney+ shows, played by Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani. It's a mess of a movie that drops the viewer into the middle of several on going story lines, with little by way of context. There is a flashback sequence that gives you in condensed form, what was probably intended as the plot for a second stand alone 'Captian Marvel' movie, which would likely have been more interesting then this IP loaded and over stuffed hour and 45 minutes. Still it's watchable, and no character is given enough screen time to really get on your nerves. **