What I’ve Caught Up With, January 2026 Part 2
Film: Our Man Flint (1965)
It’s the mid-‘60s and you want to make a cool, funny spy spoof, a sort of American answer to James Bond. Who do you get? Lee Marvin? Steve McQueen? No, you get James Coburn and you put him in Our Man Flint. It’s a pretty typical “take over/destroy the world” plot, with Flint being the sort of super spy who knows everything, can seduce anyone, and can just as easily kill anyone. You don’t really watch this for the plot. You watch it for the cultural impact. A huge amount of this film wound up spoofed in the Austin Powers movies—almost as much as those films spoofed Bond. Bad guy characters include the fiendish Dr. Wu and a thug named Hans Gruber as well as a friendly British agent codenamed 0008, and Flint’s lighter has 83 functions. It ain’t serious, but it’s fun.
Film: In the Cut (2003)
Someone somewhere has the movie kink of watching Mark Ruffalo and Meg Ryan have sex with a surprising amount of nudity from America’s sweetheart. Ryan plays a writing teacher who lives in a neighborhood where a serial killer attacking attractive women has become active. She starts a passionate affair with Ruffalo’s surprisingly misogynistic cop character, who she suspects might be the actual killer. With a lesser script and cast, this is a late-night Cinemax film from 30 years ago. It’s surprising what a difference having well-known actors does for your classiness. There’s also a fun character turn here for Jennifer Jason Leigh who is almost always better than expected for some reason. Nice role for Kevin Bacon as well, making this a useful movie for Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Film: The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
While most people are going to know the Robin Williams remake Flubber, the concept of Flubber, short for “flying rubber,” came from the film The Absent-Minded Professor. Fred MacMurray plays the titular Professor Brainard, who misses his wedding for the third time because of his creation of Flubber—a substance that releases more energy than it absorbs. While there are plenty of potential uses, Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn) threatens to shut down the college if he can’t monetize the discovery, even though Professor Brainard wants to give it to the government. Ah, the naivety of the 1960s. It’s wacky fun, but probably not required viewing. And, as usual, our hero is 20 years older than his love interest, played by Nancy Olson.
Film: Beavis and But-Head Do the Universe (2022)
When someone recommends a movie to me, I take the recommendation seriously. This is evidenced by the fact that I watched Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. Here’s the thing: I don’t like Beavis and Butt-Head and I never have. I like plenty of stupid humor, but they don’t work for me. Anyway, they wind up on the space shuttle in 1998 and after they screw everything up, they go through a black hole and end up in 2022, which has created a situation where the universe is now in peril. I don’t really care that much. I tried to like it, and no shame if you like it, but it’s not for me.
Film: The Unsuspected (1947)
Partly film noir and partly Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, The Unsuspected is probably a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. The secretary of radio murder mystery host Victor Grandison (Claude Rains) is discovered hanging from a chandelier, an obvious suicide. This happens around the same time that Matilda (Joan Caulfield), the ward of Grandison, dies in a shipwreck. But it turns out Matilda isn’t actually dead. But why doesn’t she remember her marriage? And why does her husband have a picture of Grandison’s dead secretary. It’s a pretty good, twisty plot, but it also has a hell of a lot going on. Claude Rains is always a charmer, though. By the way, when did people stop having wards?
Film: Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022)
Based on the true story of Jerry and Marge Selbee, Jerry & Marge Go Large is about the Michigan couple (played by Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening) who discover a mathematical flaw in a lottery game. When the lottery in Michigan stops playing the game in question, the Selbees head to Maryland and start winning. Eventually, they decide to bring in the rest of their dying Michigan town to share the wealth, and also sign on the owner (Rainn Wilson) of a convenience store where they purchase their tickets. Jerry and Marge are easy people to root for, and the story here is one of those movies where the bad guy is more of an inconvenience than anything else. It’s an easy watch, sweet, and harmless, and while it won’t change your life, it’s a difficult movie to dislike.
Film: Inherit the Wind (1988)
The 1960 version of Inherit the Wind is one of my favorite movies, so I thought I would try out the other versions just to see them. The 1988 version is considerably different, but it’s also quite similar in a lot of ways. A lot of the dialogue is still here, but it’s in very different places and used to very different effect. This version cuts the intro a great deal—we don’t learn much about the characters or the town, and instead dive head-first into the trial, which takes up the bulk of the film. The relationships between the characters are truncated as well. The cast, though—Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards, Darren McGavin, Jean Simmons, and Michael Ensign—is worth seeing, even if the film is a pale shadow of the original.
Film: Inherit the Wind (1999)
Another made-for-TV version of the classic story, this version again has a surprising cast, with Jack Lemmon as the defending attorney against George C. Scott as the firebrand political preacher. Beau Bridges manages to live up to the standard set by Gene Kelly in the original, and Piper Laurie is such a great choice as Sarah Brady. To be fair, this doesn’t live up to the impact of the original version, but it’s perhaps more accessible to a modern audience, cast beautifully, and has the additional benefit of being in color. If you can’t find the original, this is a dandy substitute. It has the added benefit of following the original script pretty well.
Film: Real Genius (1985)
There is a particular trope in movies that geniuses are either straightlaced nerds or wackaloons. Did this come from Real Genius? Probably not, but it feels perfected here. High school genius Mitch (Gabriel Jarret) gets headhunted by a technical college where he will work alongside super genius and free spirit Chris Knight (Val Kilmer) under the tutelage of Dr. Hathaway (William Atherton), who is predictably slimy. The plot is a fun one, honestly, even if the characters are frequently annoying. The potential sexual relationship between the 15-year-old Mitch and his 19-year-old classmate Jordan (Michelle Meyrink) is troubling. However, it’s fun to discover that it’s Uncle Rico living in the steam tunnels, and the concluding scenes are a lot of fun.
Real Genius is awesome as I love that film though it will make me sad whenever I re-watch it because of Val Kilmer. In the Cut didn't work for me as I am a fan of Jane Campion but I thought Meg Ryan was miscast. I have seen The Absent-Minded Professor when I was a kid as that was a long time ago. I'm hesitant about watching Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe as I just think it's nostalgia-bait as I never watched the recent revivals of the series. I'm an original fan during the 90s as I still have a book of that series.
ReplyDeleteI feel like virtually all of In the Cut was miscast. Ruffalo seems out of place to me as well.
DeleteReal Genius is specifically worth watching because of Val Kilmer and the last 20 minutes or so of the movie.
As for the others you mentioned, you can live without them. You might enjoy the Beavis and Butt-Head movie because you are a fan of the original show. It feels like it's in the same place, nostalgia bait or not.
Mike Judge has the uncanny ability to revive something decades after its heyday and perfectly recreate the original vibe. I love B&B and loved this movie. He did the same thing with the recent King of the Hill revival.
DeleteIt did feel a lot like the same vibe, but again, that's coming from someone who wasn't a fan and never paid them a lot of attention.
DeleteFrom that era on MTV, I liked Daria a lot more.
Inherit the Wind is also one of my favorite films and I doubt that there could be a better version made than the Spencer Tracy/Fredric March standoff, but the other versions do make interesting comparisons.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the ’88 & the ’99 versions but in both I thought the balance of power (which was exactly right in the film) between the two leads was somewhat off and oddly it was the star performer who came across the less assured. I didn’t think either Kirk Douglas nor Jack Lemmon were bad, far from it, but Jason Robards’s craggy self-possession fit the Drummond character and evoked Tracy’s take on the role vs. Kirk’s more mannered Brady, whereas George C. Scott crotchety irascibility likewise made him ideal for Matthew Brady (though he was obviously ill-this was his final role) against Lemmon’s more folksy Drummond. Both productions certainly had quality supporting casts, actually I prefer Darren McGavin’s Hornbeck to Gene Kelly’s. McGavin does cynical world-weariness better than just about anybody. I like Jean Simmons much more as a performer than Piper Laurie but she is a good fit for Sarah Brady.
There is another version of the play out there, produced in 1965 for Hallmark Hall of Fame (back when that meant the best that you were going to see on television) with Melvyn Douglas as Henry Drummond (Paul Muni originated the role on Broadway), Ed Begley as Brady (he repeated his Broadway role), Murray Hamilton as E.K. Hornbeck, John Randolph as Rev. Brown and Diane Baker as Rachel which I would love to see but as is the case with so much early television if it still exists it is locked up tight in a vault somewhere.
Our Man Flint, and the sequel In Like Flint, are fun little opuses geared strictly towards entertainment with the least amount of thinking needed. Coburn’s brashness, and ability to wear those 60’s fashions! make him a perfect fit in the lead more so even than Marvin or McQueen would have been.
Oh, I used to watch The Absent-Minded Professor all the time when I was a kid!! So much so that when I watched Double Indemnity for the first time, I had a tough time believing the goofy, rather dudley Professor was the same MacMurray playing the cooly vicious Walter Neff. It’s pure escapist claptrap but I’ll always have a soft spot for it.
The Unsuspected might be a little overloaded plot wise but when you have Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Joan Caulfield and Fred Clark all being guided by the sure hand of Michael Curtiz through a broody noir who cares!
I enjoyed Real Genius when I watched it along with the pile of other similar 80’s teen flicks but I don’t remember it being particularly memorable from that pack.
I’ve never heard of Jerry & Marge Go Large, but it sounds worth checking out. I’m a big Bryan Cranston fan so it will have that going for it if nothing else.
I’ve had various chances to watch In the Cut through the years and passed, it always struck me that Meg Ryan just seemed so miscast I’d never be able to get into the film.
You would have to tie me to a chair and immobilize my head to get me to ever watch Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe!!
I love the 1960 Inherit the Wind and the other two versions aren't going to topple it, but they were interesting. Then 1999 version is very true to that script, so it rang truer for me in a lot of ways.
DeleteCoburn was perfectly cast as Flint. McQueen could've done it and Lee Marvin would have been interesting, but Coburn was the right type of cool to make it work. It's fun, if lightweight, but sometimes lightweight is what you want.
One benefit of Real Genius is that unlike a lot of other comedies of that era, it's not openly misogynistic. Sure, there's a party scene with girls from a beautician college, but this is not a movie that has the problems that films like Porky's or Revenge of the Nerds does.
Bryan Cranston is an easy actor to like. Despite being most famous for Breaking Bad, he plays likeable very well. Jerry & Marge is not a deep film. It's softball, but a good softball and an easy watch. That's far less true with Beavis and Butt-Head. The movie is a touch over 80 minutes and it took me three days in short bursts to get through it.
You're safe on In the Cut. The entire film feels like a miss except for Jennifer Jason Leigh, who rarely feels miscast in anything.