Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

 

        I've slowly begun to realize that January is the month of comedies in my opinion. Just because Christmas season is over you must go back to reality, and of course nothing is going your way in life, more important you lose a sense of inspiration. Luckily Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls was the only Ace Ventura movie I haven't seen and with Jim Carrey back at the helm, I knew this movie was going to be amazing. And yet the most puzzling thing I can't solve about these films is that we didn't even get a third installment of an Ace Ventura franchise though in all fairness it's best to quit while you’re ahead of the game. 

        Legendary Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) returns for another adventure when he's coerced out of retirement while on a soul-searching retreat in the Himalayas. He must now retrieve an endangered white bat from a village located in Africa. 

        For sure I've seen the first movie in fact there many times I've seen the movie but never watched it whole, but for sure I've watched the first film all the way through. And, I may have seen this movie all the way through, though I doubt I personally remembered watching the movie. Of course Jim Carrey is excellent in the movie despite the fact that he really didn't want to do the movie, but the man is a master of being this cartoonish goof ball that you really can't help but laugh at him and really this movie is one of the many reasons as to why he was a talented comedic actor in the nineties. But the best part of the whole movie is the entire actors in the entire movie, and even though Jim Carrey is great in the movie the supporting cast where excellent as well as the Himalayans monks who through the course of the first act don't show the distain for Ace but, the head monk hears about the news in Ace taking on a case, desperately wants him to leave even giving him a special medal just so, that he can leave and the fact that we see all the monks celebrating, you can see all of the Monks were annoyed by him and desperately wanted him gone and it's just fantastic furthermore the funniest thing I've seen in the movie. Even actor, Ian McNeice does an excellent job in the movie as Ace's aid who at times is extremely patient with Ace especially when they’re about to leave Ace wants to play with a slinky and I just love how he's either patient or somewhat bewildered on the man's craziness, for which either way his performance is fantastic and the same with Simon Callow who plays the main antagonist in the movie and the most interesting thing is both McNeice and Callow where in episodes of Doctor Who back when Doctor Who was an excellent show for which is awesome to see their filmography. After watching the movie I never quite understood why they didn't make arrangements for a third installment and doing some research I believe it had a lot to do with Jim Carrey not wanting to do despite having to do with the contracts dispute, moreover coming to blows with producers as well as the director of the film which I think that was one of the main reasons but props to the guy for at least giving out a great comedic performance. This film was entertaining from start to finish and seeing critics bashing the movie it proves time and time again that movie critics are nothing but trolls because if you want something new from this movie then you’re expecting way too much from a goofy comedy and should just shut up and accept the film for what it is. If you're feeling down and needing something refreshing, the Ace Ventura films are an excellent way of finding a perfect comedy to laugh at as well as having a great time, along the way.  

  

Killer's Kiss

 

        Found another Stanley Kubrick movie! And this is one of those films, Rosie Perez most infamous for White Man can't Jump. Talks about this film as a great film of course but was made on a very low budget out of the creation of Stanley Kubrick. Directed by Kubrick, this film is in fact his second film he's made two years after developing his first film Fear and Desire. I think out of all the earlier Kubrick films I've seen besides Dr. Strangelove, I got to say that this film is probably in my top five or six favorite Stanley Kubrick movies because of the very limited resources he had to work with. 

        Davey Gordon (Jaime Smith), a New York City boxer aging out of his profession, meets dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane), and they begin a romance. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera).

        Now this film is, in fact, an independent movie to the point where there was no money involved so, if you’re expecting a great Stanley Kubrick movie, this is technically a twenty-six-year-old learning how to make movies. What I like most about the movie, is that this has absolutely no budget, though it was a 75,000 dollar budget that really goes to camera as well as actors, but Kubrick while making the movie had no permits to shoot at any section of New York City and had to be unnoticed through the course of filming and when you watch the film your surprised at how he was able to pull off some of these shots as well as the boxing match because they look so realistic, and your curious as to how he was able to stage a boxing match with tons of extra's it's just astounding to see. And even some of the action/chase scenes are on top of roof buildings in the lowest part of New York City, and all the guy used hand-held cameras. Moreover when you think about it, the film was shot entirely in NYC, nobody would care what you were shooting because it's a huge a** city that I doubt any cop s would come by and say "you can't film here", and I think if you can shoot a film now in the Big Apple maybe you'd get caught making a movie without a permit but back in the fifties I would imagine you'd get away with anything, though I could be wrong but granted this is New York and crime could happen anywhere so, plus riot's happening as well as cops not doing the best at their own jobs. Kubrick did in fact have to fund the movie with the help of relatives and friends, but even with some of the great photography that he uses, he had a hard time with filming the dialogue as well as having to fire a veteran sound guy so, Kubrick had to post-sync a lot of the dialogue to make it work. The film is in fact on Tubi, for which time and time again, Tubi is proving why it's a great streaming service for some of these lost and underappreciative movies and even though you have to watch commercials, but it's also free to watch and you'll never know what underrated classics you'll find but also some crazy and weird movies that you'll never expect to relive in terms of watching. Still, Killer's Kiss is one of those films that's extremely great as well as another one of those films that has a very limited budget with no permits and basically using very limited resources furthermore making it work, and again I might say this is up there in the top five of Kubrick's best films in my list so, this film says a lot on how great this film is just like On the Waterfront for which both films came out the close to the same year so, both films say a lot of great movies with limited resources.  

     

80th Anniversary of The Lost Weekend

 

          

        Well, Happy New Year everyone, we've all made it to the year of our Lord, 2026. And holy crap I'm going to apologize for absolutely none of my actions this year so, if you hear me trashing about the latest movies or Academy Award nominations, well as the great Shoresy once said, "Give your Balls a tug, T*tF**ker". Well, I'm sure these past couple of days got you drinking to the point of a hangover and so, I thought what better way than celebrating a 80th Anniversary about alcoholism, well a movie that explores alcoholism hence Billy Wilder's Best Picture classic, The Lost Weekend. Now, if you have anyone whose experienced this disease before just keep an open mind that this movie will make you feel empty inside.

        Writer Don Birnam (Ray Milland) is on the wagon. Sober for only a few days, Don is supposed to be spending the weekend with his brother, Wick (Phillip Terry), but, eager for a drink, Don convinces his girlfriend (Jane Wyman) to take Wick to a show. Don, meanwhile, heads to his local bar and misses a train out of town. After recounting to the bartender (Howard da Silva) how he developed a drinking problem, Don goes on a weekend-long bender that just might prove to be his last. 

        It's been five years since I sat down and watched this film and I thought to myself, that it's a Billy Wilder movie of course it's going to be a good movie, and through the course of the film I felt horrified on the films premise for which is about alcoholism but usually when you see movies like this you tend to have a sarcasm in joking about how desperately this man goes to finding booze but this, this film makes you feel horrified as well as watching a trainwreck in fact this was almost the same type of horrific feeling I had when watching A Clockwork Orange. So, really, I'm not sure which film is the most horrific, moreover giving you a panic attack, The Lost Weekend or A Clockwork Orange, I mean both films are disturbingly f**ked up, but they also have interesting topics furthermore were way ahead of their times in terms of the film’s release. When you look at the movie Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart you think of him as a loveable goof who at times drinks, moreover, enjoys life and sees an imaginary bunny almost like a PG-rated version of Edward Norton in Fight Club. This film really dives deep into the disease of alcoholism and the way Billy Wilder tells the story is both serious and scary at the same time, but more importantly you have an excellent performance out of Ray Milland, who through the course of the movie, you have this complexity of hating this guy because of manipulating everyone around him then of course you feel a little or more pity due to the guy just being pathetic as well as a drunk, and Milland does an excellent job at making you hate this guy for what he's doing to other people but then you slowly remind yourself that he's going through a disease and alcoholism is a serious disease in terms of addiction that everyone and the whole, entire globe of earth suffer through all the time. And both Jane Wyman as well as Phillip Terry give excellent performances as the supporters to Milland's character moreover each of them share a great dilemma of helping him no matter what or just letting him hit rock bottom because he doesn't want help. What's more, that's the same dilemma we all have dealt with when it comes to any kind of disease, I mean my own father help is own brother whose "down syndrome" as well as having Alzheimer's so bad that he doesn't remember anything (sadly he passed away years ago) and there we times of helping him was such a madness in its own that you're close to having homicidal thoughts and granted if I was Ray Milland's brother I would set up a contraption like A Clockwork Orange and force him to watch drunks in the psychiatric ward, who are going through withdraws and seeing things in their mind, just to make him stop. In fact, this would have worked for both famous baseball legends Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle because both of those guys were massively drunk and nobody told them to get some help (though Mickey went to get help), now granted that it would be a bad idea BUT, could at least help? Though thankfully I'm glad I'm not a problem solver because my ideas would be the worst ideas ever. Even after the film’s release, people in the forties and going into the fifties, sixties and even the seventies, all of them ignored the problem of alcoholism and granted all beer corporations and hard liquor corporations hands out money just to ignore it, it's almost the same as the cigarette companies as well, but sure people back in the late forties who've seen the movie were obviously horrified but then, hell I would at least think they would take a glimpse on their drinking life but then again it's always the biggest problem is never solving the problem just ignoring the problem and blaming it on somebody else. It's crazy that movies like this are crossing the threshold and anyone who hasn't seen this on either Turner Classic Movies, though I doubt I've seen it on TCM, but still this is a movie that everyone needs to see especially when any relative or best friend is suffering from alcohol addiction, for great reasons this is one of the few films out there that dives deep into the darkness of booze and too much of it is in fact dangerous. Now fair warning you’re not going to find it on your local streaming service (convenient), you'll have to rent the movie or buy it. But this film is an excellent film from start to finish and the fact that this film is 80 years old is simply outstanding, moreover it is relevant to the subject of booze addiction and to the people who suffer through it.