The Stone Tape (1972)

 This British television film originally aired on Christmas day, though it's not exactly uplifting. 'The Stone Tape' tells the story of a group of audio experts attempting to capture what may be the sound of a ghost on tape. A gothic mansion, obsession, in fighting, and a very clever explanation for supernatural phenomena. I'd been wanting to see this for around a decade, it's currently available as a two dollar rental on Prime. **1/2. 

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (2011)

 I liked this film a fair deal better then the 2009 'Sherlock Holmes' also staring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. The first film in this, seemingly already dead, franchise had a stupide plot that annoyed me and a style that I found off-putting. It wasn't Holmes. 'Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows' isn't really Holmes either, though it comes closer. It's like a hybrid of Holmes and James Bond, a Eurocentric adventure consisting mostly of unmemorable dialogue and over produced action sequences. It got better as it went along, but never properly captilized on the death of Rachel McAdams character earlier in the film as a motivator for Sherlock. Jared Harris was a fine Moriarty, I wish he'd had that part in a better film. I'm a Noomi Rapace fan, but as too often happens this film gave her relatively little to do. The plot is surprisingly similar to that of the  'League of Extraordinary Gentleman' film of 2003, which was also bad. *1/2 

In retrospective I'd downgrade the first film form *1/2 to *. 

The Little Things (2021)

A friend who had seen 'The Little Things' on HBO Max recommended it to me. This is a Warner Brother's film so it's being simultaneously released on HBO's platform and in theaters. I don't have Max so I opted to see it theatrically, I like to try and get out on occasion as like many these day's I'm largely living as a shut in, and several chains are currently operating in the Salt Lake area and they ain't crowded. 

Recommendation and outing however are secondary reasons for going to see this particular film, I was intrigued when I learned that it is set in the 90's. While of course many films were made in the 1990's it's not an era subsequently much depicted as period piece. It further turns out that 'The Little Things' did not begin as a period piece, the first draft of the screenplay was completed by John Lee Hancock ('The Blind Side', 'Saving Mr. Banks') in 1993. 

Eventually Hancock himself, now a director, opted to personally bring his vision to screen, though over the nearly thirty years it took to get this film made the project was attached to various named directors to helm, including Clint Eastwood, Danny DeVito and Warren Beatty. Steven Spielberg turned down the film on the grounds that it was too dark. This intrigued me because as I sat watching it in the theater I kept thinking how refreshingly straight forward this serial killer film seemed. Outside of the shots of nude bodies it felt like a movie of the week that could have aired on CBS some Sunday night thirty years ago. Though I do mean that in a good way what truly makes this film are 'the little things'. 

Denzel Washington seems to always bring it even in crap, and this movie ain't crap, at least not in my estimation, though many film critics seem to disagree. He plays a burnt out former LA County homicide detective who is back in the city after five years running an errand for the small force up north for which he now works. As he was once considered great at his job, a young detective played by Rami Malek (nicely cast against type) brings him in to consult on a series of murders of young women. This case bares some similarity to the one Washington burnt himself out on, and though they butt heads at first Denzel and Rami soon become equally obsessed with the murders, and their prime suspect, a creepy appliance repair man played by Jared Leto.

This police producorial mystery becomes increasingly a cat and mouse game, and is deceptively well constructed. The 90's setting helps set it apart some, and does away with the prevalence of cell phones and computers that can blunt some the tension and difficulties of contemporary crime stories. 'The Little Things' doesn't break new ground or reinvent the wheel, but it does harken back to an earlier ethos of crime drama and makes a fairly standard mystery story feel fresh again. ***

Three Men and a Baby (1987)

 You know I don't think I'd ever seen this one all the way through. 'Three Men and a Baby' was the biggest box office hit of 1987, making $240 million off an $11 million budget. The idea of a comedy being the biggest grossing film of a given year is almost unfathomable in this (I suspect now fading) era of super hero blockbusters, yet it the 80's it was pretty common. 

A remake of a French film from a couple of years before 'Baby' was directed by Leonard Nimoy of all people, coming off his success both before and behind the camera in 'Star Trek 4'. Steve Guttenberg, plus TV stars Tom Selleck and Ted Danson are lady loving bachelor buddies sharing an apartment in New York City. They end up in unexpected custody of a six month old girl, while also landing in the middle of an underdeveloped hereon smuggling plot. 

The script's not great, but you will get to like the three men, as well as the baby. Having 'tough' guy's lookin after a baby was apparently considered a hilarious concept back in 1987 and I expected it would date poorly. However the thing holds up, again not out of the strength of the story, or because anything is particularly funny, but because you just really like these characters, even if they're hardly deep. ***

 If you opt to see 'A Ghost Story' go in knowing this is not a conventional film, and is what you might call slow. It is a meditation on the idea of eternity, it likes to hold it's shots for longer then you're used to and is not in rush, there is a scene of around 6 minutes where Rooney Mara grief eats a pie. Mara eats her pie in the aftermath of the death of her lover Casey Affleck. Affleck has died in a car accident and rather then enter the portal to the next world that conveniently opens for him in the hospital, he opts to stick around, wanders back to his old home and just kind of stays there, literally a ghost in a sheet, but invisible to the mortal world (with a possible exception or two). 

Affleck occasional messes with electricity in an involuntary way, but when he gets angry he can do things like nock books off shelves. When Rooney moves out of the house he stays, through multiple subsequent renters, and even after the place is torn down, and an office tower built in it's place. The film takes a turn near the end which I won't go into here. Only an hour and thirty two minute's in length it will probably feel longer. I enjoyed it, I thought it had some interesting ideas but I wasn't greatly moved as I had been bracing myself to be. Currently on Netflix. ***

A Ghost Story (2017)

 If you opt to see 'A Ghost Story' go in knowing this is not a conventional film, and is what you might call slow. It is a medication on the idea of eternity, it likes to hold it's shots for longer then you're used to and is not in rush, there is a scene of around 6 minutes where Rooney Mara grief eats a pie. Mara eats her pie in the aftermath of the death of her lover Casey Affleck. Affleck has died in a car accident and rather then enter the portal to the next world that conveniently opens for him in the hospital, he opts to stick around, wanders back to his old home and just kind of stays there, literally a ghost in a sheet, but invisible to the mortal world (with a possible exception or two). 

Affleck occasional messes with electricity in an involuntary way, but when he gets angry he can do things like nock books off shelves. When Rooney moves out of the house he stays, through multiple subsequent renters, and even after the place is torn down, and an office tower built in it's place. The film takes a turn near the end which I won't go into here. Only an hour and thirty two minute's in length it will probably feel longer. I enjoyed it, I thought it had some interesting ideas but I wasn't greatly moved as I had been bracing myself to be. Currently on Netflix. ***

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952)

 'The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men' is the second fully live action film Disney produced, the first being 1950's 'Treasure Island'. The film takes many of its ques both visually and structurally from the the 1938 Fox version, though it contains more back story on Robin and Marion's early relationship and what motivatived Loxley to become Hood. Not a lot of character development which actually works for this film, it's streamed down only an hour and twenty four minute running time. It's a simple bedtime story put to film, upbeat as I think Hood is meant to be. The cast is mostly unremarkable, Joan Rice is cute, and Richard Todd his usual bland self. Future Oscar winner Peter Finch is the Sheriff of Nottingham, and there is a fun scene where he is guilted by a crowed to donate more money to the fund to free King Richard then Robin and his men donated from 'stolen' funds. **1/2