George H W Bush

I read an interesting article that described Bush well.  He viewed himself more as a caretaker than a leader.  He didn't have the vision thing.  Per the Constitution, the president enforces laws that Congress passes which is how he saw his domestic position.  He had spent his life preparing for the Cold War and then it ended in the middle of his presidency.  With no Soviet Union, the country was willing to take a risk with an anti-war Democrat.

 

The first opportunity I had to vote in a presidential election, I voted against George Bush.  He won despite me.  The next time around, I voted for him.  He lost.  I have a very bad record with presidential voting and it all started with Bush.

 

The most memorable thing about President Bush is Dana Carvey.  What a terrific impression.

 

RIP

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

1991: Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a successful writer and author, has fallen on hard times.  She has no job, her agent won't return her calls, she's months behind on rent, and her cat is sick.  It is so bleak that she takes a framed letter from Katherine Hepburn from her wall and sells it.  Later, while researching for a book she's planning, she encounters some letters that she pockets and sells.  This proves lucrative so she decides to write some originals.  When buyers start getting suspicious, she uses Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant) to sell her forgeries.  Then the FBI arrive.

Billed as a biographical crime comedy, this had very little comedy.  Melissa McCarthy, who can be enormously funny, has almost no material here.  She is a sad alcoholic cat lady who has resorted to crime.  Lee is an unlikeable character throughout the movie.  Even when she tries to be funny, it is the sort of humor that is mean.  For instance, a used book seller didn't want the majority of the books she brought to the shop so she phoned him a few days later and said his apartment building was on fire.  What a sense of humor.  The scene where she and Jack discover that the cat has been pooping under her bed - and she had gone weeks without noticing - was just pathetic.  There is virtually no comedy and the main characters are terrible people.  Jack is a homeless homosexual alcoholic and drug abuser.  His only redeeming feature is he can be charming.  Lee doesn't even have that.

 

This is the unfunny story of a criminal who got off lightly and then profited further by publishing a book of her exploits in 2008.  Unable to sympathize with their hardships or laugh at their antics, this story offers nothing to enjoy.  Skip it.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Farrokh Bulsara (Rami Malek) is working at the airport as a baggage handler when one of his co-workers call him a Paki (Pakistani).  It is 1970 and he has big dreams.  Over his family's objections, he goes out that night to see a band, Smile.  As luck would have it, Smile's lead singer leaves and Farrokh - who goes by Freddie - jumps at the opportunity.  Also that night, he met Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), the inspiration for the song Love of My Life.  Shortly after joining Smile as lead singer, the band name is changed to Queen, Freddie switched from Bulsara to Mercury, and the hits start coming.

 

The movie is basically a history of the band from 1970 until about 1985, focusing primarily on Freddie.  There are some origin stories for the various hits, most notably Bohemian Rhapsody.  It plays as a greatest hits album with story.  Queen did the score for a couple of movies and now for their own biopic.  Cool.  The inclusion of Mike Myers (aka Wayne of Wayne's World) as a music executive who doubts the merits of Bohemian Rhapsody was great. 

 

Here is a movie that is about the rise of Queen and also the tragic life of Freddie.  I don't know how accurate a portrayal of Freddie this is.  When onstage or working on music with the band, he was aggressive and controlling.  Away from music and the band, he came off as somewhat shy and uncertain.  An interesting contrast.  He also is seen as easily manipulated into becoming a meal ticket for the unscrupulous.

 

Fun movie, mostly for the music.  A must if you are a fan of Queen.

Overlord (2018)

It is D-Day and a particular plane full of paratroopers is bound for France.  Their mission is to knock out a radio tower to aid the landing.  However, flack is heavy and the plane is shot to pieces.  Only a handful of the platoon survives and gathers.  The highest-ranking survivor is a corporal who is utterly ruthless.  The central character is Private Boyce (Jovan Adepo), who is viewed poorly by most of the soldiers.  Not because he is black but because he declined to kill a mouse in the barracks during training.  To the good, it turns out he speaks French.

 

No sooner do they arrive at the target than they notice some strange goings-on.  There are Nazi scientists who are collecting corpses for some reason.  Boyce accidentally finds his way into the complex and - inexplicably - explores almost all of it without being spotted.  He witnesses the revival of an apparently dead soldier.  The Nazis are working on a super soldier formula.  I almost expected to see Red Skull and Captain America!

 

A lot of the movie is hiding and fleeing, which provides lots of tension but gets old.  The big fight had entirely too few zombies.  The goal may have been to limit the zombies entirely in the underground complex to explain why this incident is unknown to history.  But speaking of history, the US Army was segregated during World War II.  There were no black paratroopers on D-Day.  There certainly wasn't a black sergeant in command of mostly white soldiers.  This sort of historical revisionism is rampant.  History wasn't inclusive and it was mostly ugly and brutish.  It should not be rewritten to match modern sensibilities.  If you want black and white troops together, set the story in Vietnam.  Or maybe embrace an alternate history and have the zombie run wild.  Pick one.

The movie is so-so.