Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
November 9, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Went Looking For…
Believe it or not, I sometimes do have a predetermined playlist while browsing for movie titles. Generally, there is a week between my adding them to the playlist and actually watching them. The movies under “Went Looking For…” are typically the movies that I had slotted as “Ended up with…” the previous week.
Monk Season 3
I sometimes wonder why Monk is set in San Francisco. It certainly adds to the quirkiness. Season 3 is when the crossover from Sharona to Natalie happens. While Sharona is a bit of a motor mouth and bullies Monk from time to time, Natalie is a much softer, even submissive assistant to a demanding boss.
"Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan" finds Monk and his entourage making that rare trip outside the San Francisco bay area. This is a follow up to the clue revealed in the last episode of the previous season pertaining to the car bombing of Monk’s wife, Trudy. Apparently NY is a lot crazier than SF, as Monk is seemingly more disoriented in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. The central mystery for this episode involves a foreign diplomat but Monk reveals the motives to be quite domestic.
"Mr. Monk Gets Fired" finds Monk struggling to retain his detective license as the Police Commissioner (the fast talking Saverio Guerra (Bob from "Becker") takes a particular disliking to him. Monk has to solve a murder while staying away from the Commissioner’s line of vision. The verbal abuse from the Commissioner extends to Stottlemeyer. The funniest part of this episode is when Sharona takes matters into"her own hands" and helps solve the case.
"Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf" works better as a comedy than a murder mystery thanks to a guest appearance from "Reno 911" star Niecy Nash. Nash is a substitute nurse/assistant as Sharona takes some time off to deal with stress related hallucinations.
In "Mr. Monk and the Game Show," a little bit of Trudy-related melodrama is thrown in as Monk helps his former father-in-law solve a work-related puzzle. A game show that Monk’s father-in-law produces is getting rigged but nobody knows how. Monk steps in as a participant and figures it all out in a buzzer round that puts everyone on edge.
"Mr. Monk and the Election" is one of the early episodes with Natalie. The plot and the eventual solution are a credit to the writers and is a tribute to old Agatha Christie novels in the way they deceive the audience.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
I don’t think this is the kind of remake that will discredit the original. It is more of an inspired retelling set in a different place and time. I have to say, the opening scene with the snake in the water is quite effective. The slithery reptile swims freely as water rises steadily inside a prison. I found myself looking for metaphors every time an animal came into focus. There is a crocodile taking in the scene of a freeway accident before walking away uncaring. Two lizards or iguanas seem to get into a psychedelic trance while the Lieutenant himself appears to be sober.
It is established that Lieutenant Terence McDonagh has chronic back pain, which becomes the excuse for drug abuse. He is more "bad back" lieutenant than just bad. No such explanation was found necessary with the original Bad Lieutenant. Every time he seems to commit something bad he counters that with a good act – an act of kindness. It doesn’t look like he instigates the sexual favors, either. Nicolas Cage’s Bad Lieutenant is more of an apprentice, a reluctant wannabe to the original Bad Lieutenant, Harvey Keitel. Lieutenant McDonagh is not bad by choice. There is no big reason given for his gambling addiction other than the assumption that it feeds his first craving. The sequence with the football player is the only instance where he is in full blown evil mode. The football player’s performance is equally convincing. I was surprised with the insignificant and small role that Michael Shannon is given in this movie.
Sudden Impact
Everything about this movie screams '80s – be it the background score, the vigilante theme or just the presence of Dirty Harry. We are back in San Francisco to trace the antics of another crazy cop. This edition of Dirty Harry is directed by Clint Eastwood himself. Quickly into the movie, punks get routinely manhandled by Messrs. Callahan, Smith and Wesson. A court hearing, a restaurant heist, giving a don a heart attack, head butting with superiors, refusing vacation, getting shot at, hitting back, the rudimentary car chase (in a retirement home bus) are all pieces in a day in the life of Harry Callahan. The highest-grossing of the Dirty Harry film series, Sudden Impact made $67 million at the box office. The story this time revolves around a female vigilante avenging rape and assault on her and her sister. The drama shifts to San Paolo and by way of poetic justice to the scene of the central crime. The end is a little too convenient and might have been different if it were done today.
Ended up with…
Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably end up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my “Ended up with…” list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.
Far from Heaven
This has been in my list for a long time and I added it knowing that it has well received performances from Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. As a 11th hour act, I watched it with my wife just before it went off instant watch on NetFlix. Reviews due next week.
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Unlike Far from Heaven, I added this movie, the second in the Millennium series, the day it came up for instant watching. As I was still working on the book I didn’t watch it immediately but can’t wait to see the screen adaptation of a great crime thriller.