Last movie you watched......

Watched "Breezy" (1973) this morning on Retroplex.

Very very very weird.

Directed by Clint Eastwood; featuring Kay Lenz, then 18-19, as a knockout-hot brickhouse-body hippie chick unexplainably horny for divorcee real-estate agent William Holden, then 55 and looking and acting not a single day younger than 75.

(I'm now about that age myself and my first thought when the movie came on was, 'damn, that dude STILL looks like he's 40 years older than me.' Some of it is clothes, some of it is even hair, and a lot of it, I'm sure, has to do with the fact I haven't torched off two packs a day for the past 40 years, but I swear Holden at 55 still seems to look and act like my dad would if he were still around [he'd be 89]. )

Lenz gets naked (well, topless) about four times, finally generating some apparent interest out of Holden on about the third try. I never thought she was particularly hot in most of her older roles in the 1980s and 90s, but she was smokin' at 18.

Perhaps in keeping with the free-love era of the early 70s, there are only a few brief moments during which the dirty-old-man nature of the relationship is really discussed. Holden grouses a few moments (basically he grouses about everything the whole movie long) about "what will my neighbors [or my ex-wife and her new fiancee] think," but pretty quickly it is established that Breezy is legal (if not a legal adult of drinking age), so Holden has no more qualms about the 18-year-old lying shirtless in his bed.

It's not even discussed TOO much, in any detail, why a knockout 18-year-old would hook up with a crusty, craggy, tobacco-wizened 55-year-old who spends about 3/4 of the movie bitching about why these young whippersnappers and hippie freaks won't get off of his lawn.

(In compensation for making Holden the stereotypical early 70s upper-middle class asshole martini-swilling real estate pimp, they make Lenz the typical bubble-brained flower-power hippie who names her dog 'Sir Lovealot.' Gag me with a spoon.)

Holden's constant kvetching eventually gets irritating to the point where you think, "Jesus man, will you just STFU, obviously you have come to the moral decision it is OK to get naked and nasty with this bombshell babe 35 years your junior, so quit yer bitchin, shut the hell up and dive in there."

It was kind of interesting how much of the movie did seem to foreshadow "Million Dollar Baby" -- without the boxing angle.

In the final 10 minutes of the movie ...

=== SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER =====

... the craggy ole Holden decides Breezy is too goofy and spacey for him, he successfully drives her out using all his 55-year-old asshole-persona repulsiveness cranked up to 11. She storms out the door and you figure, "that's it."

Then his ex-wife is nearly killed in an auto accident, Holden visits her in the hospital, she acts like a shrewish bitch to him anyway, so Holden decides the hell with it, walks out the door, tracks Breezy down in about 5 minutes and the two of them walk into the sunset hand in hand as the credits roll. Awwwwww, Crusty Ole Bill is going to get laid with hot young Breezy again!!!! Who says there are no happy endings anymore??

 

Draft Day. Meh.

All the previews were about the wheeling and dealing and the rush of the draft. Heads up, and somewhat of a spoiler, perhaps, but that's only the last 20 minutes of the movie. The first 80-90 minutes are much more ... boring.

 

American Hustle last night. I thought Bale gave the best performance. From the opening scene it was obvious the film was going for a Scorcese feel. I thought all the performances were pretty good, but the story was just underwhelming. Amy Adams' side boob was nice though.

I liked it, but was still disappointed.

 

I did forget to mention Adams' dresses. They do make the movie worth watching by themselves.

 

Finally took "The Grey" down off the mantle - where it's been since last May, I think – and gave it a twirl. Workmanlike, but with some quite arresting visuals. I liked the ending rather a lot.

 

Took the little one and her friend to see Muppets Most Wanted. Made me feel like the old guys in the balcony, trying to think of many ways to describe just how awful it was.

 

Finally got around to seeing Gravity. I liked it. It wasn't a great movie per se but the visuals were fantastic and it kept me entertained. Plus, it's creepy as hell.
I particularly liked that the explosions in the movie were done without sound. That made it about 1000 times scarier for me.

 

I saw Captain America: Winter Soldier on Saturday. I was not expecting a spy movie, but that's kind of how it played and we loved it. I also liked how this week's Agents of SHIELD tied into it. That show started slow, but is coming along nicely with its latest twist. All in all, Marvel is doing an excellent job and its movies keep getting better.

 

I knew what it was going to be, but they still made it an entertaining ride.

And I agree with the last bit. That is what Agents of SHIELD should be. I do wonder having such a game-changer built was a problem for earlier episodes.

 

Pacific Rim was on HBO last night and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hit all the action beats, but took the time to make us care about the people we were watching.

 

Pacific Rim was an absolute blast.

 

I was sent free passes and I didn't go. I toyed with the idea of using the passes to get in and then going into another theater to see Captain America 2 and then I remembered that I'm an adult.