What I've Caught Up With, July 2025 Part 2

While I slacked off with movies in the second half of the month, I watched a ton of television, focusing on shorter shows in general. I finished the rebooted Battlestar Galactica right at the start of the month, and while it’s good, it’s also one of the bleakest shows I have ever seen. I finished The Irrational, a show that really should have gotten a third season, and also completed the fourth and final season of The Righteous Gemstones—the end of this feels like a step down, but it's a solid series all the way through. At the end of the month, I went on a huge TV kick, watching the second season of The Last of Us, finishing the NetFlix series Derry Girls, and watching both seasons of the animated Star Trek cartoons. I’m recommitting to the MCU and watched Agent Carter. Finally, I watched the first season of High Potential, and I’m looking forward to season 2.

What I’ve Caught Up With, July 2025 Part 2
Film: Alias Nick Beal (1949)

Hollywood has long had a fascination with Satan in one way or another. In old Hollywood films, the Prince of Darkness was generally portrayed as a charming, but ultimately evil man. The Ray Milland of this era is our Satan, who arrives to tempt District Attorney Joseph Foster (Thomas Mitchell), a many who is scrupulously honest in virtually every way. Under the titular alias, Old Scratch slowly worms his way into Foster’s life, advancing his political career, but at a terrible cost. The question is if Foster can save his soul with the help of his wife (Geraldine Wall) and pastor friend (George Macready). It’s an obvious morality play, but the strength of the cast makes it worthwhile. The idea of making “a” deal with the devil always leading to more and worse deals is rarely done this interestingly.

Film: Blues in the Night (1941)

Plenty of films noir feature an ingenue singer, but there aren’t that many that come to mind for me that are about a full band. Enter Blues in the Night, a film with the whitest-ever blues/jazz combo in film history. Pianist Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) and a group of musicians comprising a bass (Peter Whitney), drummer (Billy Halop), clarinetist (Elia Kazan), trumpeter (Jack Carson), and the trumpter’s singer wife (Priscilla Lane) go on the road, eventually playing for gangster Del Davis (Lloyd Nolan). A femme fatale who used to date Del (Betty Field), a pregnancy, and gambling problems get in the way of the music. The music is good, but these are the whitest jazz musicians I’ve ever seen, and I say this as someone two degrees of separation from the Bill Evans Trio.

Film: Carry-On (2024)

Typically, if something is a couple of years old or newer, I do a full review. Bluntly, Carry-On isn’t worth the time or effort. TSA agent Ethan (Taron Egerton) wants to move up, so volunteers to work a machine on Christmas Eve only to get caught up in a plot to smuggle a nerve agent onto a plane. The mastermind of the plan (Jason Bateman) threatens Ethan’s pregnant girlfriend (Sofia Carson) to get him to do what he wants, but Ethan—who had aspirations of being a cop—naturally fights back. Notable for one of the best driving/car crash sequences I’ve ever seen and a badass performance by Danielle Deadwyler, this is predictable and one-dimensional. Honestly, do the guys who feel me up at the airport deserve to be action heroes?

Film: The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)

For some reason The Emperor’s New Groove is one of the most frequently memed movies in the internet age. The truth is it’s a dandy little film, and I think you can make a strong case that Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade) actually is a Disney princess. On the eve of his 18th birthday, Kuzco decides to wipe out a village so he can build himself a summer palace. Along the way, he fires his advisor Yzma (Eartha Kitt) and her associate Kronk (Patrick Warburton). She tries to kill him in revenge, but instead only turns Kuzco into a llama. Through a series of misadventures, the man whose house Kuzco was going to destroy (John Goodman) is now Kuzco’s only hope for getting back to his palace and restoring his humanity. It’s fun, off the rails, and worth a watch. Had Best Animated Feature been instituted a year earlier, it would have rightfully been in the running.

Film: King of Hearts (1966)

I don’t really know what to make of King of Hearts. It feels in many ways like an homage to Catch-22, although it takes place during World War I. The Germans, who are occupying a town in France, have decided to blow up the town. A nearby Scottish regiment, wanting to defuse the bombs, sends in Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates), who is not a demolition expert, but someone who cares for message-carrying pigeons, is sent in. What he finds is a town that is occupied only by the residents of the local insane asylum. Hilarity ensues, as this very clear a farce. In many ways, it feels like someone taking Paths of Glory, but aiming for comedy. The depiction of the asylum residents is potentially damaging—they all share a common vision of insanity. They are “wacky” and not troubled or ill in any meaningful way. I get it for comedy purposes, but it does feel dismissive. Still, bonus points for the very young Geneviève Bujold as the sort-of love interest.

Film: The Three Musketeers (1973)

I have never read the original book so I have only other filmed versions of this story to go on. This might be the most star-studded for the time version of the tale, including (among others) Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Raquel Welch, Michael York, Christopher Lee, Charleton Heston, and Faye Dunaway. There are a lot of sword fights, all of which center around a diamond necklace given by the Queen of Austria (Geraldine Chaplin) to her former lover, the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward). Hilarity, battle, and illicit sex abound, much of which is caused, involving, or protected by the titular Musketeers (Reed, Chamberlain, and Frank Finlay) and Musketeer wannabee D’Artagnan (York). It aims for comedy, and while actually funny in places, the whole joy of the Musketeers is that they’re supposed to be essentially indestructible and this makes them much more bumbling. In that respect, it’s kind of a bummer.