More on movies, or is it Moron Movies?

When Mr. Beagles doesn't post for a few days my imagination can run away with me as he usually posts on a regular schedule.  My first thought is "Is he okay?" followed by "Have we bored him to inactivity?" and then the usual cause "Computer problems?"  It's always been computer problems before but still, I wonder.

I think he's mentioned having problems with Google and I can see why.  Google grabs a lot of data and has a lot of cookies embedded in the sites you visit.  Things can go awry if you don't have your security settings tuned just so.  That's why I've changed my default search engine to DuckDuckGo, an independent little engine that values privacy.  Oddly enough, it seems to be a little more effective than Google at times.  I did a search on my old army MOS (military occupational specialty) which I suspected doesn't exist anymore.  Google turned up a total of three, count them, three hits and DuckDuckGo had more than forty.  And yes, they killed my MOS sometime in the Seventies.  RIP 83D20.

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Any time that Uncle Ken and I agree on a movie is a time for celebration; it happens so infrequently.  I found A Place In The Sun online and gave it a viewing.  Time has not been kind to it and I thought it was very weak.  Elizabeth Taylor was charming and likable but I thought there was zero chemistry between the Shelly Winters and Montgomery Clift characters.  There was no reason those two would get together except for their proximity in the workplace.  I would describe their acting style as wooden.  Thumbs down for me.

But Raymond Burr portrays a pretty good hardass and I wish he did some heavier roles in his career, like Rear Window.  There was one Perry Mason episode where he played two roles.  In addition to Mason he played a salty British merchant seaman, and did a fine job; almost didn't recognize him.  Perry Mason did lose one case, though, The Case of the Deadly Verdict.  In true television style he later discovers the real killer and frees his wrongfully convicted client.  So even though he lost the case he won in the end.

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Since the death of Burt Reynolds last week I managed to see one of his last films, The Last Movie Star.  He was around 80 when the movie was made, and it shows.  The reviews are harsh but I think the critics are too young to have remembered his career; older folks might appreciate the movie more.  It's a small film, low budget, and no big stars unless you count Chevy Chase.  The way the movie is structured, with clips from his actual films and TV appearances, is remarkable in the way that you can't tell if he is depicting a character or his actual life.  Some critics have described the film as a farewell letter to his fans, and I agree.  Not many films have shown such a poignant portrayal of a life gone a little wrong on the slide into old age. It could have been a maudlin tearjerker but it's not, and the little puppy at the end gives one hope.  There are some laughs, too, but they're kind of corny.  You'll either like the movie or you won't.  I liked it.