Skip to main content

Jimmy Doolittle and the Art of Chinese Cuisine

Monday: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
           This is one of the early film adaptations of the Shakespeare classic. The Duke of Athens is getting married. As part of the celebration they will have a play performed. We see the idiotic actors preparing for the play. We also meet the young lovers. Hermia is in love with Lysander. But she is engaged to Demetrius, who is loved by Helena. Hermia and Lysander run away into the forest. Demetrius follows them and Helena follows him. The fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, are quarreling. Oberon is jealous of Titania's love of a changeling. He asks Puck for some help getting a magical flower. The juice of the flower is placed on the eyes of a sleeping person. Whoever they see first they fall in love with. Puck finds one of the actors and uses magic to give him the head of a donkey. This is who the queen sees when she wakes up. Oberon wants to help the young lovers but Puck gets them mixed up. Lysander is now in love with Helena and so is Demetrius. Comedy and chaos ensues. This is my favorite Shakespeare play. Mickey Rooney was Puck. He was crazy and overly energetic. James Cagney was really good as Bottom. It was interesting to see how they showed magic with little visual effects. It is a little weird but they still did a good job.

Tuesday: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
          Ted is a young pilot fighting in WWII. He is called to serve under Jimmy Doolittle for a special mission. They train and prepare, but they don't know exactly what is happening. They fly to the West Coast. Their planes are put on a ship. Then Jimmy tells them they are going to bomb Tokyo and other important places in Japan. It is a dangerous mission. Ted and his crew bomb their targets. But they crash land in China. They are all injured. The Chinese help them, but the Japanese are looking for them and no where is safe for long. I thought this movie was well done. I mostly watched it for Jimmy Doolittle (Spencer Tracy). I thought it would be more about him. But it centered on Ted and his crew. I do like that Spencer Tracy portrayed Jimmy.

Wednesday: Atlantic City (1980)
          Lou is a semi-retired con man living in Atlantic City. He has a crush on his young neighbor, Sally. Sally works at a casino and hopes to one day be a dealer. Her estranged husband, Dave, unexpectedly shows up at her casino.  She reluctantly agrees to let him stay at her place for one night. Dave stole drugs in Philadelphia. He plans to sell them in Atlantic City to make some money. He figures out Lou has connections that could help him. They work together to sell the drugs. Then the men he stole the drugs from show up and cause trouble for everyone. I thought this movie was ok.

Friday: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
         Seymour works at a failing flower shop. He has a crush on his coworker, Audrey. Audrey is dating an abusive dentist named Orin. Seymour finds a strange plant. He calls it Audrey II. He puts it on display in front of the shop. It draws in customers, and soon the shop is booming. Seymour struggles to find out what the plant wants. It seems to be dying no matter what he gives it. One night he discovers it wants human blood. Audrey II grows. As it grows it can no longer be satisfied with human blood. It wants more. Seymour sees no choice but to do what it wants. It starts to get bad from there. This movie is ok. A cult classic to be sure. I just didn't enjoy it that much. This is a remake. The original wasn't a musical.

Saturday: Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
        This is a Chinese film. Chu is a widow. He has three adult daughters. He is also the head chef of a big restaurant. Chu struggles to run the restaurant when he starts to lose is ability to taste food. Also he struggles with his three daughters. His oldest, Jia-Jen, is a math teacher. She has long been heartbroken over her college  boyfriend. The new volleyball coach at her school might change that. Jia-Chien, the middle daughter, works at an airline. She is very successful. But her true passion is cooking, like her father. He would never accept her being a cook. The youngest, Jia-Ning, is a student working at a fast food restaurant. Her coworker is purposely neglecting her boyfriend. Jia-Ning keeps him company. They end up falling for each other. This is a really good movie. I liked it a lot.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tornado Wrangler and the Amish Safe House

 Wednesday: Just One of the Guys (1985)       Terry is a high school student with dreams of being a journalist. She loses a summer job at the Sun Tribune to two male classmates. Terry believes she lost because she's a girl. Frustrated and still determined to get the job she comes up with a plan. She dresses up as a boy and registers at the other high school in her town. She will then enter her article in the contest. Her article was rejected again. Terry realizes it really is the article that needs work. While finding a new topic she makes friends with another student, Rick. She helps him to get a date to the dance. The closer they get to the dance the more Terry realizes she has feelings for him. I thought this movie was alright. The actor who plays Rick is the brother-in-law of my neighbor. Friday: Witness (1985)        An Amish widow, Rachel, is taking her son to the city for the first time. While at a train station her son witnesses the murder...

Musical Connection and the Bakery

 Friday: Flora and Son (2023)     Flora is a young single mother. She struggles to get along with her 14 year old son Max. Her ex, who used to be in a band, is little help. Max is constantly getting in trouble. He has a case manager who is running out of options from keeping him out of jail. One day Flora finds a guitar. She gives it to Max thinking music will be a way to keep him occupied and off the streets. He rejects it. So Flora decides to take guitar lessons herself. She finds an American man, Jeff, who does lessons online. Flora starts to really get into her lessons. Then she learns that her son it making music on his computer. He is really good. They finally have a connection and their relationship gets better. I thought this movie was good. Saturday: Dumb Money (2023)       This is based on a true story. Keith is a financial analyst. He has a youtube channel where he talks about the stalk market and things like that. He notices the stock in the sto...

Black Cat and the Glam Rocker

 Tuesday: Woman of the Hour (2024)       This is based on a true story. Set in the 70s, Sheryl is an aspiring actress in Hollywood. She books a gig as a contestant on The Dating Game . She hope it will give her exposure. She ends up picking Rodney Alcala. He seems like a great guy. Little does she know he is a serial killer. I thought this movie was alright. I had heard about him before on a podcast I listen to. It was interesting to see it from her point of view.  Thursday: The Black Cat (1934)       The movie, as the credits say, is suggested by the Edgar Allan Poe story. Peter and Joan are newlyweds on their honeymoon in Hungary. They ends up sharing a train compartment with a doctor named Vitus. They gets off at the same stop and take the same taxi bus. There is an accident. Luckily they are near Vitus's destination. The home of famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig. He reluctantly lets them in. Joan was hurt in the crash. While she is recovering Pe...