Movies I Watched in January, Part 2

The second chapter of the January recap, with a bunch of movies I've seen before and a great documentary I caught for the first time...


You’d think that, given their long careers, the fact that they both worked at Warner Bros. and their repeated roles as gangsters, Edward G. Robinson and Jimmy Cagney would’ve co-starred in many movies, but believe it or not, this 1931 gambling tale is the only time they shared the screen. Robinson stars, in fact, with Cagney lending support. (Robinson’s “Little Caesar” had opened in January, but Cagney’s “The Public Enemy” didn’t open until this movie had wrapped filming, so Robinson was still the bigger name on the marquee.) “Smart Money” is a classic example of Warner Brothers’ early pre-Code style, with the plot essentially a series of one thing happening after the other, then the movie just coming to an end, with the entire production an excuse for putting a charismatic performer onscreen. And Robinson is certainly charismatic here, playing a barber/gambler who works his way up the illegal gambling ladder, encountering various blondes – nefarious and otherwise – along the way. It’s a lot of fun, with none of the brutal edge that fueled “Little Caesar” (or, for that matter, “The Public Enemy”), but you do get a vintage dose of early ‘30s racism, with Robinson treating every African-American character like a good luck charm, rubbing their heads in an especially demeaning way. Not everything about the good ol’ days was good, you know.
Fascinating (I know I use that word a lot, but I really mean it this time) documentary about how bootleg VHS tapes helped bring about the fall of Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceausesu. No kidding. Using movie clips, onscreen interviews and some surprisingly well-filmed recreations, writer/director Ilinca Calugareanu takes us back to those grim days of the 1980s when the Berlin Wall was still standing and life was so grim in places like Romania that mediocre mainstream American movies were received like manna from heaven. Families would buy tapes and VCRs on the sly, then rearrange their brutalist apartment living rooms in movie theater fashion and invite everyone over. With nothing but state-run programming normally available on their sets, films starring Norris, Stallone and Van Damme were more than entertaining -- they were reassurances that a world of freedom and excess did indeed exist outside their country's borders. And, slowly but surely, these visions of big cars, colorful clothes and loud mouths inspired them to drive their cruel rulers from office, try them for their crimes and shoot them in cold blood. On Christmas Day. Talk about an '80s movie ending. One of the best things about "Chuck Norris Vs. Communism" is that it doesn't just tell that story -- it tells several stories, large and small, all about people living in desperate circumstances who dream of -- and sometimes manage to carve out -- something better. There's a lot of talk about how everyone fell in love with the unseen woman who dubbed the films (all voices, off the cuff), and then we eventually meet Irina Nistor in person (after seeing her played in re-enactments as younger woman), and you know what? She's still pretty damned cool. Then there's Zamfir, the charismatic smuggler who made this all possible, bringing hundreds (thousands?) of VCRs into the country and duping all those tapes. His business was so booming that top government officials protected his business because, after all, they wanted to keep watching those American movies, too. The title "Chuck Norris Vs. Communism" promises some sort of goofy romp, but that's not what this movie is at all. Sure, it's funny in spots, but it's also touching, surprising and even inspiring. And it's on Netflix right now. Watch it already.

Another one of Allie's favorites, which explains why it's constantly showing up on this blog. (Back before I started these monthly recaps, she was a much younger girl, and movies like "Finding Nemo" and "Cars" were in heavy rotation.) I still like "Ant-Man" quite a bit, finding it to be one of the more purely entertaining movies in the Marvel Universe. And I especially like the fact that the entire fate of that universe is not hanging in the balance. Sometimes, a small story is just what's needed.Having the climactic battle taking place on a Thomas the Tank Engine train set is no coincidence --it's more like a statement of purpose.


Not much else to say (har har) about this one. I've reviewed it before and liked it quite a bit. This time around, we showed it to the aforementioned Allie, trying to develop an appreciation for horror movies in her by starting out with ones that aren't too terribly horrifying. She liked it too, in large part because it stars Rita from "Edge of Tomorrow" and Jim from "The Office."


Another horror movie (well, the word "horror" is in the title) that we showed the kid because we figured, hell, she's old enough. I grew up in an era when this movie was simply not available for home viewing -- even when videotape was common in the 1980s and early 1990s, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" didn't get a release, with everyone figuring it was something best experienced with a crowd at midnight, where toast and toiler paper was sailing through the air. That's not wrong -- it's still the sort of movie that works best in a theatrical setting with an enthusiastic audience -- but I've always liked it purely as a movie, too, enjoying its combination of sex, catchy songs and heavy dose of nerdy pop culture. Plus, let's be honest here: Tim Curry gives a performance for the ages here. Jack Nicholson won the Oscar that year for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and he's great, there's no denying that, but Curry is so good, so energetic and so iconic that I'd argue he deserved the statue -- even though, of course, he didn't come within miles of a nomination.

Up next: A Mamet thriller, a journalism doc, a Spencer Tracy political fable and a movie that scared the hell out of my daughter.