Tag: Midweek Myers Movie Review

Midweek Myers Movie Review: Signs (2002)

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Ah, the early 2000s.  A chubby young Portly was still sweating his way through high school (and, from 2003-2006, college); America’s love affair with patriotism was in full swing; and M. Night Shyamalan was bringing The Twilight Zone-style stories to the big screen.

M. Night could do know wrong in those days.  He’d scored a major success with The Sixth Sense (1999), the film that spawned the instantly iconic line “I see dead people.”  Then his twists became progressively more schlocky and insulting, starting with The Village (2004).  For many years, he was, like the intro to the television show that inspired his stories, spiraling, before mounting a comeback in the last decade.

But he was enjoying his salad days in the early aughts, and this week’s film is an example of Shyamalan during his early peak.  I remember seeing this flick at the movie theater in the mall in Indianapolis, Indiana, on a church music trip, and found it quite enjoyable as the chubby, sweaty young man referenced in the opening paragraph of this introduction.

Well, enough of my puffing. Here is Audre Myers‘s review of 2002’s Signs:

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CLXVII: More Movies, Part XXXI: Midweek Myers Movie Reviews, Part II

The Portly Politico1 Comment

When putting together this weekend’s edition of Lazy Sunday, I thought that surely my longtime reader, contributor, and Internet friend (eFriend, perhaps?) Audre Myers had submitted more than these remaining two Midweek Myers Movie Reviews.  I’m sure she has submitted film reviews prior to the institution of this semi-regular, roughly-twice-monthly feature, but I’m too lazy to go scouring my vast archives for them (it is Lazy Sunday, after all).

But these are two pretty good ones, and while I usually like to feature posts in triplets for LS, I figured—as my beloved Meat Loaf, my God Rest His Soul, once sang—two out of three ain’t bad:

  • “Midweek Myers Movie Review: Finding Neverland (2004)” – According to Audre, “Finding Neverland is the story of how J. M. Barrie came to write his best known play, Peter Pan.”  High Britishness, indeed, albeit with Johnny Depp in the main role.
  • “Midweek Myers Movie Review: Hidden Figures (2016)” – Audre offers up a review of a movie that, while not necessarily historically accurate (NASA was fairly progressive on race even in the 1950s), at least sounds entertaining.  You’ll also learn that a “computer” is not just a beige machine to which we chain ourselves for eight hours a day.

Thanks again to sweet Audre for all of her contributions.  Here’s to more movie reviews to come!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Midweek Myers Movie Review: Hidden Figures (2016)

The Portly Politico26 Comments

We’re back with another movie review from Audre Myers, who is tossing in reviews of her favorite flicks whenever the mood strikes (or whenever I e-mail her asking her to contribute something).

She offers up her review of the 2016 film Hidden Figures, about three black women “computers” working for NASA.  It was a darling of the critics for its frank depiction of segregation.

Unfortunately, some its iconic scenes—like the lady having to walk half-a-mile to use a segregated bathroom—are Hollywood hogwash.  The segregated facilities were abolished in 1958—three years before the films setting—and while there were segregated restrooms in one part of NASA’s facilities prior to that year, they were unlabeled.  Katherine Johnson, one of the titular “hidden figures,” unwittingly used the whites only bathroom for years, and ignored the one complaint that was ever issued without any further escalation.

These inaccuracies—perhaps dramatic artistic license?—don’t mean segregation wasn’t real—it certainly was—but it seems that NASA was not exactly the hotbed of segregationist sentiment that the film depicts.  That makes sense—an organization reaching for the stars probably isn’t all that concerned about such earthbound issues as skin pigmentation.  Besides, there are plenty of alien species we can discriminate against in the distant future.

With that, here is Audre Myers’s review of 2016’s Hidden Figures:

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CLXVI: More Movies, Part XXX: Midweek Myers Movie Reviews, Part I

The Portly Politico5 Comments

At some point I’m going to dedicate a Lazy Sunday to something less lazy than looking back at movie review, but The Portly Politico is rapidly turning into a film review website that occasionally plops out some Right-wing Truth nuggets, so why not embrace destiny?

Doing that is a lot easier when you have awesome contributors.  I’m fortunate to have one of the best:  Audre Myers.  She always delivers, often when I need her most!  Lately, she’s been contributing some excellent film reviews, which I run on Wednesdays (when available) as Midweek Myers Movie Reviews.  Here are three of her choice morsels for your (Turkish?) delight:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Midweek Myers Movie Review: Finding Neverland (2004)

The Portly Politico47 Comments

It is perhaps a sad commentary on our times—or on my own twisted imagination—that when I saw the title of the film Audre Myers‘s reviewed this week, I thought it might have something to do with Michael Jackson’s troubled, unusual relationships with minors.

Fortunately, that was not the case (which would have been quite incongruous for Audre), and instead she offered up a lovely review of what sounds like a lovely film.

There seems to be a whole genre of these films now, something that might be called a “whimsical biopic.”  They tend to focus on harmlessly eccentric Brits who lived quirky lives and created memorable children’s book characters or the like.

Well, I’m all for them.  Give me a rose-tinted view of historic Britishness any day!

With that, here is Audre’s review of 2004’s Finding Neverland:

Read More »

Midweek Myers Movie Review: King Kong (1933)

The Portly Politico22 Comments

Good ol’ Audre keeps delivering the goods with these film reviews.  Of course, all these movie reviews make me wonder if I should just morph The Portly Politico into a film review blog—maybe re-brand as “A Portly Night at the Movies” or something.

But there’s just too much other good stuff to bloviate about.  Still, there’s something magical about a good movie, and few movies are quite as magical as 1933’s King Kong.  There’s something whimsical—completely captivating—about this film:  the stop-motion Kong; the iconic scenes; the mighty ape fighting a Tyrannosaurus Rex.  It’s all so… cool!

So I was thrilled when Audre—quite out of the blue!—contributed this review of the film.  She captures that whimsy and magic and adventure so beautifully here.  And for a woman obsessed with Bigfoot, well, it makes sense she’d like movies about giant apes.

With that, here is Audre Myers’s review of 1933’s King Kong:

Read More »