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karmajun
Reviews
Connie and Carla (2004)
Great light movie, topic of Drag Queens a bit much for youngsters
I really wanted to love this movie as a family flick, but the drag queen situations are a little beyond my 5 year old's comprehension. Still, I was in stitches multiple times due to Nia Vardalos Comedic writing and competent acting.
The premise - show tune singing lounge singers/dinner theater singers witness a mafia hit and leave town to hide out - in plain sight in LA - as Drag Queens singing Show Tunes! Very "Some Like it Hot" with the only box office star of stage and screen being Debby Reynolds - I mean, although Nia and Toni are good actors, it is no Marilyn Monroe/Tony Curtis level dynamic going on. Duchovny does a decent job as Nia's love interest in the movie. Good acting, just predictable plot movement.
I kept thinking through the movie that the singers would contact the LA FBI office anonymously and explore helping with the investigation in the mafia hit back in Chicago. Still, the rather lame plot development - given that it has been done several times before - treated the gender bending situations in a modern light that was humorous and actually inviting. I'm as straight as the day is long and I love show tunes, so to see a room full of actors & extras belting out "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" or "I'm gonna Wash That Man...." -- well, it was so stereotypical and at the same time, poignant! Of course, no "Some Enchanted Evening" or "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" was used in the production of this movie, and if "I feel Pretty" was covered, I missed it - thankfully.
Absolutely delightful, can't wait to watch it with my sons when they are older - it might prompt some discussion of why men are called "Drag Queens" rather than "They are weird".
Smoke Jumpers (1996)
Good movie about a true smoke jumper incident
One of the better "B" grade movies these days.
Other than the dark topic of smoke jumpers, their risk of death or injury with each jump - and one answer during a lecture about shifting winds - "How does the fire view you?" "AS FUEL"...
It was a good movie. A nice way to pass time with a youngster. My children are preteens so it was a little dark for them with the theme of risking life for the benefit of others. Family relationships were the dramatic twist, possibly based on one of the smoke jumpers this movie commemorates***spoiler - movie is loosely based on one of the largest smoke jumper tragedies of our time***** - but I don't know if it was Hollywood license or biographical.
No heavy emotional drama, no amazing acting, just good on-screen chemistry and a predictable storyline. The family dynamic portrayed may have been the Hollywood storyline or real. Still, I think it was tastefully shot, reasonably well edited and an excellent way to teach my sons that hard work can be dangerous even if rewarding. I'm applying it to their chores (lawn mower, hedge clippers), but after the movie we discussed smoke jumpers working and knowing the terrain, the fire, the normal wind patterns; and yet, a group of experienced smoke- jumpers were caught and burned to death. None of the aftermath was shown, my sons wondered why Adam Baldwin didn't "just keep running?".
Maybe the concepts of nature being wonderful but dangerous were lost on them, but it will be a movie I return to when I think they are taking nature for granted.
Good family movie even if it ends with the dark commemoration of a tragedy.