Sports, A Movie, and a TV Show

A little bit of a smorgasbord this Monday.....

STEELERS 27 -TITANS 24

The Steelers steamrolled the 5-0 Titans in the first half yesterday and took a 24-7 lead into the locker room.  The Titans, who I once again remind you were also undefeated at the time, stormed back into the game, and only a wide right FG attempt at the end prevented the game from going into overtime.  Of course, the never satisfied members of Steelers Nation can only focus on how "they almost blew it."   People in the national media are not nearly as critical of Rooney U as are the yinzers of Pittsburgh.

The Steelers are 6-0.  They are the only undefeated team remaining in the NFL.  I'm happy.

Elsewhere in the NFL....

• The Buccaneers are now 5-2, and Tom Brady seems to be in his Golden Boy Groove.  Now the Bucs are bringing in the wide receiver whose Name Shall No Longer Be Mentioned.  I can't wait to see how THAT plays out.
• After starting 4-0 and talking Super Bowl possibilities and an MVP candidacy for Josh Allen, the Bills lost two games in a row, and managed to beat the crummy Jets yesterday 18-10 by kicking six field goals. Couldn't manage a TD against the worst team in the league.
• Nobody is more fun to watch than Patrick Mahomes.
• Man, do the Cowboys stink.

THE WORLD SERIES

The world Series currently has the Dodgers ahead of the Rays, 3 games to 2, and by all accounts the Series has been quite compelling.  Somehow, though, I have found myself to be disconnected to this Series.  I have yet to watch any of the games to a conclusion.  Instead, I give up after six innings or so and end up listening to the remainder of the games on the radio while in bed.  I guess that there is enough of the Old Geezer Factor in me that finds listening on the radio to be enjoyable.  And I do admit that after listening to that bizarre ninth inning of game four on the radio, I immediately jumped out of bed and switched on the bedroom television to check it out.

Rooting interest?  Does a ten dollar wager on the Rays at the outset of the Series tell you who I'm rooting for?  And no, even now, I'd be hard pressed to name more than a half-dozen or so the Rays' players.

"ON THE ROCKS"

The previews for Sophia Coppola's "On The Rocks" have been showing all over the place, so we checked it out on Apple TV+ this weekend.  Anything with Bill Murray is intriguing to Marilyn and I, and this one was no exception.  In this one, he plays a divorced, wealthy man about town who goes to the assistance of his daughter, played by Rashida Jones, who suspects that her husband might be straying on her.  Murray suggests that they trail her hubby to get to the bottom of what may or may not be going on.

It was interesting, but I expected more comic elements to it (which is what the trailers led you to believe).  Also, it was dark, not in tone, but dark, as in "not bright."  It was hard to make out some of the images as you were watching.  I spent much of the movie wondering if something was wrong with my TV set.

Bill Murray is always worth watching, but, still, only Two Stars from The Grandstander for this one.

"FARGO"

The fourth season of "Fargo" has aired six episodes thus far.  I have gotten through five episodes, and while I am enjoying it, it does not hold up quite so well when compared to the first three seasons of this FX series.

This one takes place in Kansas City in 1950 as the Italian  mob family that controls the KayCee underworld (after wresting control from the Irish Mob, who had wrested control from the Jewish Mob) struggles with the up and coming gang of African American mobsters.   The best part of this current iteration of the series is Chris Rock who plays Loy Cannon, head of the Black mob.  You're used to seeing Rock being funny, but he does a great turn in this dramatic role.

There are some quirky characters in this one, in the tradition of the Coen Brothers world of "Fargo", but that element seems somewhat forced this time around.  I'll stick with it to the end, though.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Movie Review: "St. Vincent"

I will concede that the basic plot line of the new movie, "St. Vincent", written and directed by Theodore Melfi, is not exactly a new one.  

Take one cranky old curmudgeon of a neighbor, mix in a put upon single mother with a cute kid.  Could be the "Bad News Bears", could be "Paper Moon", could be a half dozen others if I decided to think any longer about it, but, please, don't let that keep you away from seeing "St. Vincent".

What makes this one special is the performance of Bill Murray as the title character, Vincent.  Vin smokes too much, drinks too much, has a regular "date" with a pregnant stripper/hooker (Naomi Watts), and has no use for his new neighbors, a single mother and her nine year old son, played my Melissa McCarthy and Jaeden Lieberher.   However, through a series of circumstances that can happen only in the movies, I suppose, Vin ends up being Oliver's (Lieberher) babysitter.

Of course, Vin takes the kid to the race track, to a neighborhood bar, teaches him how to fight, introduces him to Watts, who he tells Oliver is a lady of the night, which he explains is "the most honest way there is to make a living".  Oliver also gets to see another side to Vin, a side which no one else knows about, and which shows us that there may just be another side to Vincent.  Not that he will ever admit it.

The cast is great...Watts, McCarthy, and the little boy played by Lieberher, but Murray is absolutely terrific.

The role of Vincent is the kind of role that Hollywood will give to an actor who has been around for a long time, and will often times reward that actor with an Academy Award for it.  We are just getting into the season when the really Big and Important Movies, are being released, so who knows if Murray's performance will end up being Oscar-worthy, but it would sure be nice to see him get a Best Actor Oscar nomination at least.

Consider Bill Murray.  It has been close to forty years since he came on the national scene as an original cast member of Saturday Night Live.  His first big, and still most famous movie role was that of Carl Spackler in "Caddyshack" and it will probably remain the role for which he will most remembered.  However, IMDB lists seventy-five acting credits for Bill Murray, which includes "Lost in Translation" (2003) for which he received an Oscar nomination, and "Hyde Park on Hudson" (2012) where he played President Franklin Roosevelt, and for which he probably should have received another Oscar nomination.  

Would you have ever envisioned that back in the 1975 when you watching Murray as Todd de la Bounta or the sleazy lounge singer on SNL?

And if you do want to see a glimpse of Murray's comic genius, be sure to watch the closing credits of "St. Vincent", wherein Murray wrestles with a garden hose while singing "Shelter from the Storm" along with Bob Dylan on his Walkman.  I am guessing that that piece of shtick was completely improvised by Murray, and it was brilliant.

So, see "St. Vincent".  You'll laugh a lot at it, but you'll also need a handkerchief, because it will also bring you to tears.  It had both Marilyn and I opening up the waterworks.

Terrific movie.

Movie Review: "Hyde Park on Hudson"

We went and saw the movie "Hyde Park on Hudson" this afternoon.  The movie stars Bill Murray - yep, Bill Murray of Saturday Night Live and Caddyshack fame - as President Franklin Roosevelt.  Hard to imagine that the guy who can play Carl Spackler can also play the aristocratic FDR, but Murray pulls it off.  In fact, early on, there had been some buzz that Murray might earn an Oscar nomination for the role, but timing is everything, I suppose.  If you want to garner critical acclaim and awards for playing a former President, don't do it in the same year that Daniel Day-Lewis is playing Abe Lincoln.

The movie is really two stories, FDR's relationship, purportedly an "intimate" one, with a distant cousin, Daisy Suckley (played by Laura Linney) and the visit to America by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the President's Hyde Park, NY estate in 1939 to try to gain American support for England in the war in Europe that was sure to come later that year.

This is the third time in recent years that Queen Elizabeth (the current queen's mother) has been portrayed in movies.  First there was "The Queen", followed by "The King's Speech" and now this one.  Each movie presents a different picture of the woman.  Interesting.

The movie also talks about a time "when we were still allowed to have secrets".  One scene I found to be very striking.  With reporters and news photographers gathered around the President's car, FDR is carried, literally, to his car by an aide, lifted into the back seat of the car, and shifted into place. Only then does a staffer give the okay, and only then do the photographers snap their pictures of the President.

Try imagining a scene like that today.

Anyway, a thumbs up for "Hudson on Hyde Park".