What I've Caught Up With, January 2026 Part 2

I watched some television in January as well. I finished a show from Shudder called Horror's Greatest, and it was a decent look at different aspects of the horror genre. I also finished the Fargo television show as my workout show, and I cannot recommend the show enough. Even if the stories weren't great (and they are), the cast list is one of the most impressive ever put together. The most out-of-the-norm show I watched was the She-Ra cartoon series that is soon being removed from NetFlix. Normally, that's not really my speed, but when an openly pro-gay, pro-trans, pro-feminist show that is not completely transferred to discs is about to disappear, potentially forever, I think it's important to watch.

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.