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Reviews
Christmas Bedtime Stories (2022)
Incredible
The fact that this was written by Nancy Grace and Andrea Canning tells you all you need to know. As you can find in other reviews, the ending is just stupid, not gratifying. Up until then the feelings of the widow about marrying a good friend, who isn't really who she thought he was, are nicely portrayed. They decide not to marry after all just in time. Then the husband just magically pops up at the dance, with no notice. And he certainly looks good after his time in captivity, especially with his brand-new uniform. Where did that come from? And the General hadn't heard about any of this? Incredible. Rotate your tires or back-wash your Water-Pik, as Carson used to say, instead of wasting time on this.
I'll See You in My Dreams (2015)
A movie about old age which rings true to me
Most of the other reviews of this film which I read were negative. There is no way to tell the age of those reviewers, but my age is 68. I like this movie, which was touching but not maudlin. It's true to life to me. My wife is still living, and I don't have a big enough retirement savings account to buy a boat and a Cadillac. But we are fortunate enough to have our only child in the same city, and our only grandson (and very likely the only one there will ever be) there also, so we are already ahead of Bill and Carol. But you have to be in old age to appreciate this story. If one of us dies, what will the other do? Would we consider remarriage? How would you find somebody, if you wanted to? If one of our beloved pets dies, what will we do? Do we want to start with another one, even an older one which might die before we do? Do we go to a retirement facility or keep the too-large house? Old age is generally not exciting, even if you have enough money to eat and buy medicine, and it's little things where you find happiness (even if it is TV or golf). This was intentionally a low-key story, which didn't answer any of the questions it raised. We only know tiny tidbits about Carol, but nobody else. Where did Bill come from, other than Dallas? What does Carol's daughter do, and where does she live, and why haven't they seen each other more often? You can draw you own conclusions or just accept this little snippet of Carol's life and move on, as she will, but to what we don't know. It's life, where we come into contact with people but know nothing about them. And nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. If you are lucky enough to have a tomorrow.
The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987)
An OK Alamo presentation, but only just
Only saw the second half, and not that sorry I missed the first. Brian Keith and James Arness are too old for their parts, as others have pointed out, but TV movies need names to draw viewers. Baldwin did a good job, perhaps a little under-whelming; while Raul Julia seemed to me to be a bit more "intense" than needed. Apparently David Ogden Stiers' character was well-paid by Santa Ana, or had designs on the Mexican Presidency, to stay around and absorb the crap dished out by His Excellancy. (Maybe that was addressed earlier in the film, which I didn't see.) The final battle was weak, and lacked any sort of reality. One of my complaints was the rapidity of fire from the defenders' single-shot weapons. And they couldn't push those rickety ladders off the walls faster than that? Anyway, it's more believable than The Duke's version, but in general only barely worth the time to watch it.
Airspeed (1999)
Luckily I only wasted my time on the second half
Rated it 1 only because 0 not available. The girl is pathetically pathetic, the parents are pathetic, the tower crew is pathetic, the pilot of the tanker is pathetic. Ever seen a plane being refueled from the SIDE? The boom is strong enough to support a man? Why not send a pilot to land the crippled plane? Tanker planes don't need indicators or controls, or a co-pilot? I only saw the second half, so I had fun trying to figure out what happened; I speculated that everybody but the girl ate the fish. I expected Paul Ford to come in to talk her down, and fall out of the tower. I kept waiting for Steven Segal. I wanted Montegna to apologize for all the time away from home with the Bureau. I figured the girl would be as effective using the bat on the controls as she was on the boom. But the best part of all is the perfect stop, nowhere near the run-out area, even though the plane came in far too fast, and she took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to throttle back and pop the flaps. Thank somebody for great brakes. Movie must have been made with the intent of it being a tax shelter. If you have the choice, pick the swine flu--it would be less painful.