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Let's all go to the lobby

Kim Hollis: Which movies have you seen lately? What did you think about them?

Brett Beach: OK, as usual, I am all over the place. But I am willing to be honest.

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland: Finn is going through an Elmo phase, so I figured I would take the plunge in case it would become a regular in the future. At 73 minutes it is too long, but I give props to the makers for realizing that even that much of Elmo is too much, He barely appears in half the film.

Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour: Last week's Bucky Larson and Creature are two of the worst openers ever, but this 2008 family film (written, produced, directed and starring various members of the Comrie clan) that somehow got out to 1200 screens isn't far behind. It grossed half a million its first weekend and still didn't hit the $1 million mark. It is amateur hour all around, but it has its convictions and since I was expecting a Scooby Doo type answer to the mystery (and not a climax featuring a sweet grandma possessed by an evil spirit sending off shotgun rounds), it kept me watching.

Still of the Night & Summer Lovers: A pair of On-Demand available flicks both from 1982. The former has Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep in a would-be Hitchcockian thriller. It's terrible and not scary except for a very disturbing dream sequence. Streep is mannered and not convincing but she still manages to take a climactic expository monologue that runs about five minutes in length and sell it for everything it is worth. The latter is a menage a trois romp in Greece from writer/director Randall Kleiser (his followup to Grease and The Blue Lagoon). It is surprisingly sexy, good-natured and as about as intelligent as a sex comedy can get. There's no Daryl Hannah nudity but full frontal Peter Gallagher (!) and I must say 30 years ago the man was ripped. It all leads up to a feel-good climax set to the tune of Chicago's then brand-new hit Hard To Say I'm Sorry.

I re-watched American Graffiti and Purple Rain in prep for my next column on their respective sequels. I would have paid to see both of them multiple times in their respective days. I finally caught up with Oscar nominees/winners Crazy Heart and The Town. I admired the way the former shamelessly flirted with every cliche in the washed-up singer songbook and then zagged at the last minute (in most cases) to find something new to say. Jeff Bridges was incredible, but in his small supporting role, Colin Farrell was revelatory. The Town was tense and not a bad example in the heist genre, but I didn't feel Affleck injected fresh insight into the genre as he had with the similar milieu-ed Gone Baby Gone.

And though I am sure there is much more I am forgetting (my wife watched Your Highness the other day and from what little I heard and saw, I don't think I need to see it), I did want to mention watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog for the first time. Loved the first musical number in particular, Fillion's uttering of the word penis, and I did not see that ending coming.

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