Mrs. McGinty's Dead (2008)

A perfect televised adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel, beautifully filmed and very faithful to the novel. The one change they make, that there are two women who are profiled in the newspaper article instead of four, is a good change. I particularly loved Sarah Smart as Maude Williams, and, of course, Zoe Wanamaker as one of my favorite Christie characters, Ariadne Oliver.

Piranha (2010)

A modern grindhouse pic that gets it almost entirely right. At Lake Havasu (well, it's called something else in the film) during Spring Break, a rift in the bottom of the lake unleashes a swarm of prehistoric piranhas on to the nubile flesh cavorting above. It's well-paced, campy without being ridiculous, and it does not skimp on the exploitation; there is tons of gratuitous nudity and gore. In fact, my biggest problem with the film is that the gore, especially during the feeding frenzy scene in the third act, gets just a little too gruesome. A couple of the shots were a little too nasty even for the tone of the film, and I've had a hard time shaking them. Maybe I'm just a wimp.

The acting is solid, with Elizabeth Shue as a tough-as-nails sherrif, Adam Scott as an earthquake expert, and a hideous Jerry O'Connell as, essentially, Joe Francis, the Girls Gone Wild impresario. His death scene, gruesome as it is, was pretty enjoyable. Oh, and the lovely and talented English actress Kelly Brook is in it to add some RADA-trained classiness. Image below.

Mrs. McGinty's Dead (1952)

Unusual in that this is a classic village mystery but it is not a Miss Marple, it's a Hercule Poirot. A classic whodunit with Poirot brought in by Superintendent Spence to re-investigate the murder of Mrs. McGinty before the accused is hanged. There are multiple suspicious village inhabitants, a second murder, and an unforeseen and clever conclusion.

What I liked most about this one was the presence of Ariadne Oliver, who shows up in roughly six Poirot novels. She is a successful writer of detective fiction and Agatha Christie uses her to both satirize herself, and air her own grievances. Mrs. Oliver has created a successful Swedish detective who is a vegetarian. The public loves him, she cannot stand him. This mirrors Christie's own feelings about her most successful creation, Poirot.

Film Frames Friday

Hint: Losers.

Hall Pass

There's definitely some sort of larger, pretentious, piercing analysis that I could come up with in regards to my reaction to the Farrelly Brother's new movie Hall Pass, but I am not sure I have the interest and/or energy to do it. It would have something to do with the current studio film culture that pairs idiot man-children with full-grown adult women. Not that I have anything against idiot man-children, a subject that the Farrellys covered with aplomb in both Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin. But those characters only dreamed of being married to characters like those played by Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate, and in this movie they actually are married to them, and are granted hall passes, a week in which they can cheat on their wives guilt-free.

But is it funny? Sporadically. The gross-out humor is very very gross, and Stephen Merchant is particularly watchable as one of their suburban pals along for the ride. But I kept wanting to get back to their wives and their week spent on the cape, being pursued by non-dweeby players and coaches of the Cape Cod baseball league. It was so much more interesting, and there was no explosive diarrhea.

Imitation of Life (1959)

Another brilliant melodrama from Douglas Sirk. Like most of his films, it moves at that characteristic 1950s studio pace (something akin to molasses) but it is more than the sum of its pokey parts. A selfish but strong actress (Lana Turner) helps out a black woman down on her luck (Juanita Moore) by bringing her into her home and employing her as a maid. Both women are single mothers and together they raise their daughters while the men come and go. The maid's daughter grows up obsessed with race, especially since she can pass for white, and all the horrors of a divided society hammer down on her. The scene with Troy Donohue (you'll know it if you've seen it) is truly terrible to witness.

Susan Kohner, who retired young from acting, is the standout as the daughter trying to pass as white, and John Gavin is suitably handsome in the role that usually goes to Rock Hudson in one of these films. 

It's a Sirk film so I have to include at least a few more of his perfect compositions.

RIP Jane Russell

Ernestine Jane Russell, 1921 - 2011