Movie Review: **** Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

 Daniel Craig again stars as detective Benoit Blanc.  He shows up at a murder scene at a Catholic Church.  He is brought in at the request of the chief of police, Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis).  The priest, Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin) has been murdered, and the new assistant priest, Father Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) is set up to take the fall.  But there are many suspects.  Wicks had made enemies of most the parish; or driven them off.  This includes Martha Delacroix (Glen Close) who has been with the church since being a child, DR. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) the local doctor.  Vera Draven (Kerry Washington) a local lawyer.  Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack) who turns out to be the Monsignor's illegitimate son.  The Monsignor was murdered in a closet off of the chapel where he was drinking some alcohol before delivering his sermon.  He collapses and is found with a "devil's blade" in his back.  The father was the first to him, and the doctor the second.  After they leave, the father returns and removes the Monsignor's flask.  This was a vital clue.  He removes it to prevent embarrassment for the head priest now that he is dead.  The twist in the plot is when the Monsignor resurrects and the priest chases after him, to wake up with the gardner murdered, by him.  Duplenticy is about to confess, when Blanc steps in the divulge the truth of what happened.  Too much to tell here, and not wanting to divulge the murdered, this movie is a good mystery thriller with a couple of twists.  

Movie Review: *** The Karate Kid (2010)

 This is a remake movie of the Original Karate Kid but this time the action takes place in China.  Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) moves to China with his mother (Sherry Parker).  He quickly gets on the bad side of a gang of Kung Fu students and gets beat up a couple times, until Han (Jackie Chan) intervenes.  Meiying (Wenwen Han) is the girl interest.  The coach of the bullies is Master Li (Rongguang Yu) who is intent on showing no weakness, no mercy, no pain.  They confront them at Master Li's dojo, and agree to fight at a tournament.  In the meantime Han trains Parker, very much like in the original.  We see much of China including a tall mountain and the Wall of China.  

Smith does very good with handling the emotion, and reacted to the pain inflicted on him during the tournament.   It is also very well done when the students of the Li Dojo pay respect to Master Han.  

Harrison Ford Movie Review: ****Regarding Henry (1991)

 Harrison Ford stars as a vicious lawyer, Henry Turner.  He and his wife, Sarah (Annette Bening) and daughter, Rachel (Kamian Allen) have quite an affluent life.  However Henry is quite vicious in his relationship with his daughter.  He has a mistress.  And he is above ethics in court. 

He goes for cigarettes and is shot by the person robbing the store.  He loses oxygen to his brain, and with that his memory and is in a coma for a long time.  

He goes th4ough a lengthy rehabilitation.  He has to learn to walk; he has to learn to talk; he has to learn everything again.  Still he has difficulty remembering even his family.  His teacher is primarily the physical therapist Bradley (Bill Nunn).  They form a good attachment.  In a way Henry becomes overly attached.  When it comes time for him to go home, at first he refuses, but his daughter convinces him otherwise.  So he returns home and starts over.  After a few months he returns to work, without memory of what he use to do.  It doesn't take him long to realize he hid information to get a verdict in his favor.  He wants to set it right.  He doesn't want to go back to his old life.  

This is a very good character study, and going through a tragedy to get a new start.  This includes his family.  He quits his lawyer job and focuses on being a good father.  

Harrison Ford always looks the same, but I hardly recognized Annette Bening so much younger. 

Netflix Movie Review: ***^ Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

This is a very good Netflix film.  It is part of the Knives Out franchise and has the same detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig).  However this is a different case, and a different bunch of suspects.  Blanc invites himself to a murder mystery party at the request of Helen Brand (Janelle Monáe), the twin sister of Andi Brand.  She suspects Andi was murdered, she did not commit suicide.  They are sure someone at the party is responsible.  Helen also is coming to the party as Andi to help with research.  The party is hosted by Miles Bron (Edward Norton).  The invited friends are: Claire (Kathryn Hahn), Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), Duke (Dave Bautista), Peg (Jessica Henwick), Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) and Whiskey (Madelyn Cline).  They are all enmeshed with Miles, and lied for him in court so he could take over Andi's business.  However she found some information that would prove the case, and that is the night she was murdered.  Claire is a politician dependent on Bron for support, Duke is an internet personality and hopes Bron will put him on t.v. news, whiskey is his girlfriend, but she sleeps with Bron and it is known to Duke.  Peg is Birdie Jay's assistant.  She is negotiating with Bron about a mistake Birdie Jay made.  Birdie Jay is a former model, now fashion designer and her business is dependent on Bron.  Lionel is a scientist and working on a new energy source.  Bron announces that he has used this new volatile source in his home.  Lionel protests for the lack of testing.  It was this source of energy that lead to the split between Andi and Bron.  Andi did not believe it was a viable product.  So there are a set of people who would benefit from Bron's death, here to play a game of Bron's murder.  Turns out Duke saw Bron leaving Andi's house, and so he is murdered via pineapple to which he is highly allergic.  He steals Duke's gun and shots Helen, but a book in her pocket stops the bullet.  Helen finds the evidence in Bron's glass onion room; but Bron burns it.  Sounds like everyone will lie for Bron again, so Helen starts to destroy his things, and everyone joins in.  The energy source explodes.  Everyone makes it out, and it sounds like Bron's friends are remembering things and appear willing to testify.  Money cannot buy everything forever.   

Disney Animated Movie Review: **^ Oliver & Company (1988)

 Oliver and Company was made during the time when disney had sort of lost their way.  Several of their movies were not up to their usual quality, and Oliver and Company is one of them.  This is a take on Olive Twist with a cat as Oliver and dogs as the other members of the gang.  There is a Bill Sykes and a Fagan.  Sykes and his two dogs are very much the bad guys as they are true criminals.  Fagan for his part is more a wantabe criminal but has too much heart.

Billy Joel plays the Dodger, Joey Lawrence plays Oliver.  The other dogs are voiced by Cheech Marin, Richard Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Bette Midler.  The girl who takes Oliver in is played by Natalie Gregory, Fagan by Dom Deluise and Sykes by Robert Loggia.

Music Review: 50 Classic Wagon wheels

 50 Classic Wagon Wheels: Legendary Songs of the Old West, The Beautiful Music Company, Sony Music Special Projects, 1992. 

This is a pretty good collection of old songs.  Some of them are pretty good and AI have heard them before.  While others I have never heard.  I was really looking forward to the song "(I've Got Spurs that) Jingle, Jangle Jingle" but did not really like the way Tex Ritter sang it.  Gene Autrey sings a very nice "Home on the Range."  Autrey also sings, "Back in the Saddle Again" and "Have I Told You Lately that I Love You." I really like "Mule Train" sung by Frankie Laine even though it is new to me.  Marty Robbins sings, "The Streets of Laredo" and Slim Whitman Down in the Valley."  Tex Ritter does better with "Jealous Heart and the c.d. concludes with "Deep in the Heart of Texas" sung by Bob Wills.  This is sides E and F of six sides.  

Music Review: American Heritage Songs Volume 1 and volume 2

American Heritage Songs: 200 Years of American Heritage in Song, CMH Records, Los Angeles, CA, 1991.

Some of this music has a definite bluegrass feel.  Many songs are instrumental, such as dueling banjos.  Most of the songs were not known to me.  There are well over 100 songs on four CDs.  It does have the Bob Dylan songm "Blowin' in the Wind."  It also has "Greensleeves" which I always thought was a British song.  It has a wide variety of artists.  Tommy Faile sings "Yellow Rose of Texas."  He and the Jones Brothers sing many of the songs.  Dick and Jacquie Schuyler sing "I'll Give my Love and Apple."