With more of my hours spent exercising senior sitting, entertainment for the older age group is a topic of interest. Some of today’s options for movies and live TV are, honestly, not appealing. The only topics I watch on live TV are sports and then not always. Because of my deteriorating hearing abilities, I stream everything and use headphones over the top of hearing aids. I cannot stream all sporting events on the services I use. Therefore, I have been watching older movies and TV series that I never had time to enjoy. Readers may consider my reviews as encouragement to look backwards, as well as forwards.

Twisters (2024)

Starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones. I’m sure Powell was supposed to attract the viewers. He is always worth watching, but this film did him no favors. Coming off a huge success with Top Gun: Maverick, I will look forward to the third installment of Top Gun. Same with Edgar-Jones. She is much more entertaining in Normal People and Where the Crawdads Sing. Don’t waste your time. Watch a rerun of the original Twister instead.

**Directed by Lee Isaac Chung. I watched this 2 hour movie on Peacock.

Lonely Planet (2024)

Lonely Planet is a 2024 movie starring Liam Hemsworth and Laura Dern. I know! It seemed an awkward combo to me, at first. 

The title, alone, sets the tone for a story that unfolds in a very lonely place outside Morroco. A writer’s retreat is organized at a lush location in the Sahara Desert. Famous writers have been invited to brush shoulders with other writers while enjoying the private climate and ambiance of the accommodations. One writer, Katherine (Laura Dern), attends the retreat as she seeks not the food, drink and fun with the group, but rather the solitude and serene quiet occupation of a storage room to write on a novel with a deadline. The complete opposite type of guest also shows up for the retreat after writing her first novel, that became a blockbuster. This novelist brings her boyfriend, Owen (Liam Hemsworth) in tow. It’s clear he doesn’t want to be there.

What appears as mundane and boring actually comforts a few of the attendees. Good food, drinking, and dancing, and all that follows, is the excitement and exhilaration that others were seeking and enjoying, courtesy of their hosts. What a drastic contrast within the same walls. Follow the slow and sensual journey of Dern & Hemsworth, not age appropriate, to find what is really important to them. 

This movie did not get rave reviews. I think it was because there’s not a loud explosion every 30 seconds, a creepy zombie jumping out of the walls, something sinister or something shocking happening like a wild or hilarious party or even over-the-top, knock-your-socks-off sex. It was more real, like mundane, real life. It won’t win any awards, but it’s a simple, feel-good movie. 

***Written and Directed by Susannah Grant. I watched this 96-minute movie on Netflix.

The Forgiven (2021)

Stars Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain and Matt Smith create a well-balanced cast. Set in the middle of the Sahara Desert, it is littered with foreign languages and customs that, I guess, one must know to be a safe traveler. It starts slow with a wealthy couple driving to a grand villa of a friend in the desert when they unintentionally hit and kill a young Moroccan boy who was selling fossils on the roadside. 

As you constantly try to figure out how this lavish oasis exists in the middle of nowhere, a somber storyline unfolds on the loss of an only son by a native family. High heat and humidity appear to affect travelers far greater than natives. Natives always wear long flowing robes with head coverage that is made of enough fabric to cover a king-size bed. Travelers are clueless and insist on doing their own thing under the entitlement clause of being wealthy. When entitlement is not enough for the grieving family to retrieve the body of the deceased boy and leave, a trek across the unforgiving desert begins for one member visiting at the lavish villa. With redemption and forgiveness for a dead child as the goal, natives vs. travelers prepare to square off. 

Director: John Michael McDonagh

**** I watched this 2-hour movie on Hulu 

The Fall Guy (2024)

This is an all-out action movie from the get go. Loud, fast-paced, explosive film starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. It’s a movie about making a movie, primarily from a stunt man point of view. You do view many behind-the-scene activities and some pretty cool stunts, like setting actors on fire. 

There is a love story on the fringe that gets lost for most of the film. In the end, it didn’t measure up to all the carnage performed on the path to finding each other. Watching Gosling transform from tough guy to down and out and back to a solid contender is the one positive thread. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, good over evil prevails and boy gets girl, but no one can match up to the requirements needed to overcome all the unforeseen road bumps. 

It’s not gonna be for everyone.

**** I watched this 2-hour+ movie on Peacock.

The Boys In The Boat (2023)

If you love a come-from-behind, underdog story, this one is for you. Sports fan or not, you will be rowing the boat with the team by the time the movie is finished. 

An event that happened nearly a century ago, written as a book not that long ago and then committed to film recently in 2023 is directed by George Clooney. 

An 8-man rowing team for the Washington Huskies was not the varsity team, but rather the underdog junior team that competed and beat top-notch colleges on the water. That same team of younger men went on to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Germany. Against a backdrop of hard times after the Great Depression, one of those American colleges, beat by the Washington Huskies, donated money to help put a USA team on the road to Olympic history. Watch the movie to see which college financially helped their foe represent the USA while Hitler watched from the stands. 

***** I’m glad I carved out the time to watch this film.

Call Me Kate (2022)

A most impressive partial autobiography and documentary about Katharine Hepburn with real audio and video footage.

What an amazing beacon for women’s rights that was instilled in her by her mother. Kate was raised by progressive parents as the only daughter of 4 children. Her father, a successful surgeon, struggled with the progressiveness of his only daughter, while her mother was a very active feminist campaigner and a leader of the women’s suffrage movement.

Kate, as she was called, experienced it all in her lifetime, including a family tragedy when she was a teenager. Her proclivities sometimes seemed odd, but she held true to her beliefs and many idolized her for a variety of reasons, not just acting. How she succeeded and survived the 30-year relationship with a married Catholic man back in the day is, and of itself, an example that she was not to be denied. Not even for what some considered a grievous sin. She had been married at one point in her life, but never to Spencer Tracy.

**** I watched this 90-minute eye-opening documentary on Netflix.