Old So What

 In the mood for something spooky this fall? Look no further than Repo! The Genetic Opera. This hard rock Opera movie, has songs with great lyrics, blood, and a great premise. A bleak future where people seek perfection through constant surgeries; sound familiar? Only if you miss a payment, they repo back what they operated on. Paul Sorvino is a powerhouse as the head of the company that performs these surgeries. Alexa PenaVaga belts out ballads that will have you rebelling against your own inherited genetics. Anthony Head is tortured Repoman forced to do all the dirty work to protect his family. But my favorite character is the mysterious Graverobber, who wrote the movie. You won't be disappointed with this movie.

  to go for! Did you know that YouTube has free movies! And some of them are really good, and well worth watching again or for the first time. One example is Dangerous Liaisons (the Chinese version.) Starring the very attractive actors: Zhang Ziyin, Jang Dong-gun and Cecila Cheung, who form an appealing and most accomplished cast. (A mention must be made for the director as well, Hur Jin-ho.) The plot is the sexual dares of two of the characters which end in disaster for all the characters.   Love triumphs just so far.   You know the chance for a happy ending all around is very slim, but this movie captures your interest (and, yes, your heart) until the very end.   Watch this one. You won’t be disappointed!

  The Veil on Hulu. This is a very convoluted series of 6 episodes.   If like me you are left with questions, I suggest you go on-line and do a little research.   Or you can stress yourself out trying to figure all the plot twists and turns by yourself. Is it worth the effort? In a word: YES! This show is excellent. It’s sharp, it’s edgy. It’s keeps you off balance, not knowing what will happen next. It has an international cast, most of whom are extremely attractive, and more than that, they are talented. Elisabeth Moss is not one of my favorites, but the fact that she was one of the executive producers who put this show together, speaks well of her. It should be mentioned that the writer for this project and another executive producer is Steven Knight. If you like spy thrillers, interesting characters, and a production (except for the music which is peculiar at best and jarring at worst), that is well done on a professional level then this series is for ...

  You will enjoy this 2015 film I’m very sure. It has everything:   good script, good director (Steven Spielberg) good producers, (one of whom is Steven Spielberg)   good actors. Based on a good story. A true story.   It grabs your attention and holds on in no small measure to the acting ability of its star, Tom Hanks.   He should be called:   Mr. Believable. You find yourself so caught up, so captured by the story and actors that you end up rooting for everyone, even a communist villain. Warning:   This is a feel-good film!

An internationally, well-respected actor is now appearing in a film on a YouTube channel. I won’t say his name… I won’t name the other stars or cast… Because I want to shield him. Why? Because he was a rare talent, a one-of-a-kind, and one of everyone’s favorites.   Now deceased, when he was young, he was truly beautiful…OK, then, handsome complete with a charming accent.  (Maybe most accents seem charming to us, Americans, I admit.) Now, as an older actor, he was still charming, but clearly should no longer be playing romantic leads. When a close-up view of the back of his head appeared on the screen, wearing a large bald spot, really large, toupee-style large, then I became angry. The following scenes had the toupee in place, that’s how we know for certain that this lapse was a giant mistake. It’s clear that no one on-staff at the film or in his employment had looked out for his interests, for his dignity, which I am certain included concealing missing hair. There is us...

  If you read my book, A Quick Read: Short-Short Stories , then you have at least an idea. These dramas are addictive!  Really, maybe I should get a life, but I look forward to the story line, the actors, the sets, the costumes, the smallest details which have all been included just for me! And everything is more than well done, it’s almost, yes, almost, perfect.   All of which show: care, expense-not-spared, sensitivity to the viewers, extraordinary imagination, above- and-beyond writing, acting and directing. It's nice to think that there are still creative, bodies of pure talent in this world, at least in Korea. These dramas end with a “Thank you” to “our” audience. I rest my case. P.S. The one flaw and the only reason for the almost perfect score instead of perfect, is that in order to grant the viewers’ wish for a happy ending, sometimes the endings don’t really make sense, as when the heroine swallows poison, gushes up blood, but ends up just fine! How...

  you have not been absent from the planet, or living on the very fringes of it, so, therefore you are acquainted with the actors (meaning actresses, too) that I’ve written about so far.  If this is of no interest to you, please let me know through this blog, I don’t wish to waste your time. However, if you do find this topic valuable, please let me know that, too. SO, since this may be my last entry on the subject, I feel free to add my favorite actor, and that’s saying a lot! People just adore this man. Johnny Depp One of the most gifted actors of our time. Go see the film, “Minamata,” starring and produced by Mr. Depp as the American photo-journalist, W. Eugene Smith.  Go see the film, “Minamata.”   It’s so much more than just a motion picture.

  If you don’t know the work of Michael Keaton, then Hulu is giving you the opportunity. “Dopesick” is produced by Mr. Keaton, who is also the star. He is gifted, believable and (in a time of overuse of this word): charismatic!   You always root for Michael Keaton! He captures your attention as soon as he enters the screen.   I literally cannot take my eyes off of him. I know that whatever he is doing it will be interesting and capture my thoughts, my imagination, and, probably, my heart. (Mr. Keaton has made many amazing films. You can look them all up, of course.   My favorite is one from 1994, a comedy/drama named, “THE PAPER”, which also stars Marisa Tomei, Glen Close and Jason Robards. You simply cannot go wrong with a cast like this.)