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Jumanji and the Homeless Man's Paradise

Monday: Dead Ringer (1964)
       Edith goes to the funeral of her twin sister's husband, Frank. Her sister is very wealthy.  Edith runs a bar and is behind on her rent. She hasn't seen her sister, Margret, in years. Her would be boyfriend didn't even know she had a sister. While visiting they start arguing about how Margret stole Frank from Edith. Margret has always claimed it was because she was pregnant. Later that day Edith finds out that there was no baby. Enraged she comes up with a plan. She lures Margret to her apartment and kills her. Then she switches clothes and makes it look like she, Edith, died. She pretends to be Margret. She goes back to the mansion. Edith does a pretty good job convincing most people that she is Margret. But she is unable to convince Margret's lover. She has to find a way out. I liked this movie ok. It is a thriller. They tried to use this music to make it seem more intense, but the music is just annoying so it doesn't really work.

Tuesday: That's Life! (1986)
        Gillian gets some testing done on scar tissue in her throat. She is a singer and any kind of surgery on her throat could impact her singing. The results won't come till Monday. She is having a party for her husband, Harvey, over the weekend and doesn't want to ruin it for him. He is also a hypochondriac, so he would freak out about any illness. He is also depressed and sometimes manic. She has to do her best to support and comfort him. At the same time Gillian is freaking out about her test results. This all makes what should be a fun weekend very stressful. I liked this movie. It stars Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews. The movie was directed by her husband. It was actually a version of what they were going through. He was also a hypochondriac and she had surgery on her throat. They filmed it in their own home and her two daughters were in it.

Wednesday: Of Human Bondage (1934)
         Phillip is a disable man who is studying to be a doctor. He meets a waitress named Mildred. He falls in love with her. She is cold and unfeeling. She always does something terrible and they split up. Phillip starts to move on but then she needs him and he is right back where he started. This tragic relationship threatens to destroy both their lives. I thought this movie was ok. On some less preserved older films there are scratches on the film. You can see it on the screen. You can hear a crackling sound. Sometimes you can even hear the camera rolling. I like it. There is something comforting about it.

Friday: Jumanji : The Next Level (2019)
       The original group is back home for winter break from college. Spencer comes home to find out that his grandpa Eddie is staying with them while he recovers from surgery. Eddie's former friend, Milo, comes to visit. Spencer is unhappy. He wants to recapture how he felt in Jumanji. So he goes back into the game. The rest of the group come looking for him and get sucked back into the game. But they are not the same avatars. Fridge is the map reader avatar (Jack Black). Eddie and Milo get sucked into the game too. Eddie is Bravestone and Milo is the zoologist (Kevin Heart). They must play the game and find Spencer. This is a good movie. It is as good as the first one. One of the new character's is Ming played by Awkwafina. I enjoyed seeing her in this movie.

Saturday: It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
        A homeless man, Aloysius, has figured out how to stay in a mansion in New York while it's owner is gone for the winter. The owner is a wealthy man named Michael O'Connor who only cares about making more money. Aloysius meets a veteran named Jim who has been kicked out of his building to back room for a building owned by O'Connor. Jim has no where to live. So Aloysius invited him to stay with him at the mansion. O'Connor's daughter, Trudy, runs away from school and lives with them in the house. She pretends to be a thief, she doesn't want them to know who she really is. She falls for Jim. Jim meets some former army buddies who are also homeless. They end up at the house. The army buddies come up with an idea to make money and get them a home. Michael finds out what his daughter is doing. She tells him how unhappy she has been since he divorced her mother. The only thing to make her happy is Jim. She wants him to meet Jim, but not as himself. So he also pretends to be homeless and stays at the house. He has a hard time adjusting to the life style. Soon enough his ex-wife ends up doing the same thing to meet Jim. This is a good movie. I enjoyed it. I watched it before some other films because I thought is was a Christmas movie. While it does have some scenes around Christmas it isn't really a Christmas movie.

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