August Film Roundup

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997): Every scene in this movie made me happy. It’s not the tightest screenplay, it’s got a lot of minor characters and backstory that aren’t relevant to the plot, and you don’t need the feds at all, but all of it is fun and I’m glad they put it in. If the screenplay was really tight it wouldn’t fit the emotional mood; you’d expect something more action-forward like Die Hard . Old video game watch: as soon as I saw the Doom II arcade game in the convenience store I thought “this prop that had to be created specifically for the movie does not bode well for this convenience store in a film that both critiques and celebrates action-movie violence.” Maybe not in those words. Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935): On a slow evening I picked this movie for the obvious Lebowski connection reasons. This 61-minute film felt more like a serial than a “movie”, though such distinctions were still fuzzy in 1935. Gene Autry plays a character named “Gene Autry” which I guess implies that the evil dad in this movie is his actual dad? I dunno. The whole thing makes very little sense, but the music was good, and in that respect it sets the tone for the entire “singing cowboy” genre. I would judge the old movie racism level in this one as medium , but I think their heart was in the right place?