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American Hero, 2015, starring Stephen Dorff. Another odd, low budget, indie superhero movie. Dorff plays Melvin, a 30-ish, pathetic loser who hangs out with his other unemployed friends in a poor section of New Orleans, getting high and drunk all the time, while also trying to be in his young son's life . He has few redeeming qualities, other than his love for his mother and friends,  classical music, and great literature. However, Melvin was born with the gift of telekinesis, which all his friends are aware of, but he never puts it to any practical use until one day when he sobers up and decides to clean the drug dealers out of the neighborhood. It's not for everyone, and there's no real cathartic ending, but I really liked it.

The Chase

A 1966 film with Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford and directed by Arthur Penn. Sounds like a safe bet, right? Nope. Other than Fonda being very hot there are no redeeming features of this flick. And how the hell did Brando ever con the world into believing he was a good actor?

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Directed by Billy Wilder??? with no actors I recognized other than Chistopher Lee. Not bad though.

@steve8 posted:

The Chase

A 1966 film with Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford and directed by Arthur Penn. Sounds like a safe bet, right? Nope. Other than Fonda being very hot there are no redeeming features of this flick. And how the hell did Brando ever con the world into believing he was a good actor?

When I was in the video biz I used to call these movies, "How bad can they be movies."  "It's got so and so and it's directed by so and so, so how bad can it be?

FWIW, I disagree with your comment on Brando, he just wasn't in that many good movies. My favorite is often listed as his, and John Houston's worse, Reflections in a Golden Eye.

@steve8 posted:

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Directed by Billy Wilder??? with no actors I recognized other than Chistopher Lee. Not bad though.

Certainly one of the worst of the great Billy Wilder's films. Especially bad because of the attempt to throw a question in there about the relationship between Holmes and Watson. There are a few other recognizable actors in the movie. Particularly notable is Clive Revill who played the guest murderer in the last Columbo episode from its original run.

As for old men and their pronouncements about art, mine is just taking Sturgeon's law one step more.

@The Old Man posted:

When I was in the video biz I used to call these movies, "How bad can they be movies."  "It's got so and so and it's directed by so and so, so how bad can it be?

I would nominate A Guide for the Married Man in that category. Starred Walter Matthau and Robert Morse, with cameos by Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, Art Carney, Wally Cox, Jayne Mansfield, Terry-Thomas, and others. Directed by Gene Kelly. Should've been a slam dunk, but it is the biggest misfire I've ever seen.

@mneeley490 posted:

I would nominate A Guide for the Married Man in that category. Starred Walter Matthau and Robert Morse, with cameos by Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, Art Carney, Wally Cox, Jayne Mansfield, Terry-Thomas, and others. Directed by Gene Kelly. Should've been a slam dunk, but it is the biggest misfire I've ever seen.

Great call. I saw this in downtown Chicago when it came out (my classmates hung out at Old Orchard Shopping Mall but I would head downtown to see first run movies.) I kind of enjoyed it, but then I was barely a teenager. I've never been able to watch more than five minutes of it since then. It is truly a horrible and offensive movie.

The Fortune Cookie

Wilder, Matthau and Lemmon in fine form.

Possessor

I didn't realize who directed this until the final credits rolled. Brandon Cronenberg. The apple did not fall far from the tree. In fact since his father's last several films have mellowed I'd say Jr. has picked up where dad left off about 15 years ago.

Thanks to TCM I finally got around to seeing all the films in Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy"; I'd only seen the first one, the incredible, sensitive, inside view of India that startled "art house" film aficionados, 1955's, Pather Panchali. After seeing the second and third one, Aparajito and The World of Apu I will just say these films are at the top of any list of great movies.

Once upon a time there were "art houses" whose golden age, I think, were between the late 50s and the mid-80s. It was a magical place to go to the movies,  with adult fare, often set in foreign lands. Audiences at these theaters didn't usually talk and the cell phone hadn't been invented yet!

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