Thursday, October 23, 2025

At the Movie: ***Pets on a Train (2025)

 This is an animated movie to which I took Grand kids.  The Badger Hans (Frantz Conviac) betrays the Raccoon Falcon (Damien Ferrette) to get even with the police dog Rex (Hervé Jolly) is basically what happens.  Hans takes control of the train and sets it on a high speed collision course.  Inside of that there ar many animals challenging themselves to overcome.  Grandkids liked it overall, even Bronny who hadn't like the previous Pets movies.



Thursday, October 16, 2025

Movie Review: ***^Gone (2012)

 Jill (Amanda Seyfried) was kidnapped a year ago, but when the police could not find anything after a week they concluded she was crazy and having a paranoid reaction to her parents having passed away.   She was court ordered into psychiatric hospital.

Now her sister, Molly (Emily Wickersham) has come up missing, and Jill concludes that the kidnapper/murderer is back.  But still no one believes her.  She is sure she will be murdered if she does not find him quickly.  She decides to find her herself.  However in questioning people she flashes a gun around, and the police are now after her for having an illegal gun.  Her investigtion leads to the killer's phone number so she calls, and makes arrangements to meet him, in Forest Park, where she was thrown in a hole when she was kidnapped.  She was able to use a bone from a murdered girl as a shiv and stab the killer, Jim or Digger (Socrotis Otto).  In the forest she finds definite proof Jim is the murderer.  In his tent are pictures of the women he has killed.  She struggles with him in the hole.  He has the same bone she used to stab him.  The struggle and she is able to shot him.  

She gets back to her home, and her sister is there after being tied up and drugged, when she wakes up she finds herself under the house.

This movie has received very poor reviews and did not make lots of money at the box office.  However I liked it.



Monday, October 13, 2025

James Bond Movie Review: ****^Octopussy (1983)

 This movie again uses the Bond formula, but adds an island of just women and a circus with knife throwers.  Someone is selling jewels and making fakes to raise money.  Turns out the project is backed by a Soviet fanatic (Steven Berkoff) who wants to incite war as he feels the Soviets would win easily.  He finances a nuclear bomb, which he hopes to explode on an American base.  Kamal (Louis Jordan) works with him.  He hires people on several occasions to kill Bond (Roger Moore).  However Bond befriends Octopussy (Maud Adams) who says he can stay on her island of women.  Kamal send mercenaries to kill him.  They do not succeed.  Kristina Wayborn plays Magda who is Kamal's girl.  Robert Brown plays M, Desmond Llewelyn Q who has a bigger roll, and brings a hot air balloon into battle.  Lois Maxwell again portrays Miss Moneypenny.  



At the Movies: *^The Naked Gun (2025)

 This movie missed with me.  I saw it at the theater a couple months ago.  The only gag was when the officers were paying homage to their parents, and the man couldn't pay homage to O.J. Simpson.  That was just too much for him.  And when Neeson says take a chair, so she takes a chair home with her.  Sometimes comedy just doesn't hit for everyone.

James Bond Movie: ****^For Your Eyes Only (1981)

 This is a very good Bond movie.  Roger Moore again plays James Bond.  He is joined by Melina (Carole Bouquet) Whose parents have been murdered and she is seeking revenge.  A British spy ship has gone down off the coast of Greece.  It has an encryption device the British want to recover, and the Russians would love having.  Britain hires Melina's father to find it, while the Russians hire Kristatos (Julian Glover).  Kristatos' man Locque (Michael Gothard) hires someone to kill Melina's parents.  Kristatos teams with Bond and points him to Columbo (Topol) as the likely villain that Bond will likely have to kill.  However Columbo is able to talk to bond, and convince him the real culprit is Kristatos.  He runs an intricate smuggling operation of heroin and other products.  Kristatos actually gets away with the encryption device and awaits the Russians so he can deliver it.  Bond is in a race to locate him and recover the device.  

This is a fun movie.  Bond and Columbo and Melina confront Kristatos on the top of a mountain.  Lynn Holly Johnson portrays Bibi who is a young ice skater and infactuated with Bond.



John Wayne Movie: ***^Hatari (1962)

 This movire is filled with rhinos, elephants, monkeys, giraffes and so much more.  It starts with Little Wolf (Bruce Cabot) being gored by a rhino and ends with elephants chasing through town helping Sean Mercer (John Wayne) find Dallas D'Allesandro (Elsa Martinelli) as he plans to marry her.  This has many views of Africa, and the dangers involved in catching animals for the zoo.  Pockets (Red Buttons) provides some comic relief.  He comes up with a contraption for catching monkeys.  He also gets the girl in the end, Brandy (Michèle Girardon).  She is the daughter of the owner who was killed by a rhino.  Now Mercer runs the outfit.  Two others vied for her affection, Kurt Muller (Hardy Krüger) and Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez (Valentin de Vargas).  Muller is a race car driver.  

The animals don't much like being captured.  Except the baby elephants who keep showing up.  But this show is cute.  I don't care for the excessive drinking, which seems to end each day.



James Bond Movie: ****^Moonraker (1979)

 Here is another James Bond (Roger Moore) movie using the same formula with some additions.  In this Bond movie we have a battle in space.  They were using space shuttle type vehicles but the battle was outside of the vehicles, man-to-man using laser weapons.  The space ship is called Moonraker, and there is not one but like six of them.  In this film, the deranged soul Drax (Michael Lonsdale) wants to kill all the people on earth with a gas, and then repopulate the earth with his genetically superior people.  Jaws (Richard Kiel) is in this film as well.  He even has a girlfriend, and realizing he and his girlfriend will not be selected, he grows a heart, and helps Bond escape.  Bond is also helped by Holly Goodhead (Lois Childs).

I think this Bond is better than most.  Lots of scifi action.