Evening movie review

In character movies, cartoon or tv series, there are many skills or abilities many people can obtain, lets say thru accident or alien abduction and these aliens put some unknown chemical/element in your body causing it’s composition to change and giving you extraordinary abilities. And some just have the powers since the day they were born. Not all superheroes possess super powers. There are some superhero who who relies on their gadgets, physical strength and special skill. The superhero I am pointing to is struck by lightning, he may not be physically strong but he’s movement speed is unbelievably fast. He is widely known as “The Flash”.

He maybe like an ordinary person, someone you idolize in real life, someone you can run to in case of trouble or emergency, someone who you can play with but he has these abilities that any normal human can’t do - he can run faster than a speeding bullet, he may not be intelligent but what can intelligence do when in a blink of an eye he can go from one point to another. The Flash’s real name Barry Allen. Barry Allen is a Police Scientist, living a normal life, doing the normal way he used to, until one day, he met an accident and was struck by lightning and chemical.

He woke up with this unusual feeling knowing that the combination of lighting and chemical has given him extra ability. He was to discover the hidden powers that lies on him, the super-speed. The accident cause changes in his molecular composition that gave him this awesome power to move fast. Though he can’t control the speed he has gained from the accident, he is still willing to help anyone in need. The Flash is viewed in each series to be an immature type of guy. He is easy-go-lucky and thinks that he is a ladies’ man. He might be a little too immature but he really looks like a comedian. One good thing about The Flash is that he always smile (yeah, a good person always let people see his very bright teeth).

He dreamt of being a pop star, but never reached it but instead he’d become a super hero. I know that the 1998 The Flash series shows that he joined the Justice League of Super Heroes. That would be a great match with him, people with extra powers, but in some series, The Flash has become the comedian of the team, though he really look like one but his still a super hero. Swear to God that this is one of the greatest Hero Series I’ve watched.

BOTTOM LINE: For a comedy there are hardly any laughs, and despite some great production design, visuals and a strong performance by Woody Harrelson, this film is a waste of time, especially with Will Ferrel’s unfunny and stupid lead character.

THE GOOD: I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when going in to this film. The previews seemed to suggest a stupid Will Ferrel comedy and surprisingly, there’s an actual story in here about an ex-70’s pop-star turned manager of the Flint Michigan Tropics Basketball team and his attempt to keep his team alive during the merger between the NBA and ABA. The production design and visuals are very good, having a glossy, authentic feel to them. Woody Harrelson is excellent as the new addition to the team who becomes the coach of the Tropics. He’s the only sane man in the team and he does a very good job of carrying the film when Ferrel doesn’t (see below!). This is a decent period piece film, and the story is sustainable enough for you to sit through it and not got bored.

THE BAD: The film is billed as a comedy but there are no laughs. That might be a problem… Okay, I’m being harsh. I think I suppressed a chuckle once or twice during the running time. Considering the way the film is built around Will Ferrel as a star vehicle, he doesn’t really deliver anything comedic and in fact, it looks as if putting on this performance for him was akin to pulling teeth. He is endearing, but he’s also stupid, and gets up to stupid antics. Wrestling a bear? The Disco-Stu hair cut and outfit? Being the heart and soul of the Tropics team but single-handedly also ruins their chances at every turn? Flapping your arms around and making silly noises will only make a baby laugh and unfortunately you have to sit through 90 minutes of it. To be fair it’s the script; Ferrel just doesn’t have anything to work with except for silly scenarios which given the structure of the story seem completely out of place. Even the two Tropics radio announcers, who are akin to the two old men in the Muppets, are a wasted opportunity for laughs given their unfunny banter. I really hated the final sequence where Ferrel is in heaven talking to his momma… Not good. It’s moments like that that kill the rest of the film, whatever there is that’s good. I don’t know if this film could have been funny, but perhaps if it had been moved towards the more light-hearted drama genre it would have worked better.

Dubbed the ‘Black Widows’, the two women, from Los Angelos, were originally natives of Hungary. As they were sentenced to life in prison, Helen Golay, 77 and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, sat stony faced in court. There would be no possibility of parole. (Whatever that means to women in their late seventies?)

The duo were found guilty, after having met two homeless men, aged 73 and 50, whom they befriended at an Eastern European church. They found accommodation for the men to live in and then took out life policies, (insurance-with-intent-to-murder). They had found an insurance company which would pay, regardless of illness, or accidental cause. The company slogan is ‘No Hassle, No investigations’.

The two women signed the forms, using rubber stamps, onto which they had transferred the men’s signatures. The grannies then arranged to have the two men to be accidentally killed in hit-and-run accidents, in a dark alley.

Both women claimed relationship with the victims. Rutterschmidt said she was a cousin, while Golay claimed she was the fiancée of both men. The women collected just under $US3million, before their deadly scheme was disclosed. The homeless men had only been looking for some neighborly assistance. Sadly they received a lot more than they bargained for.

“The two men you killed needed a helping hand. They thought they were getting this from you. Instead these unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altar of greed,” Judge Wesley said in his closing comments. He had researched the word greed and among other things, found the definition, ‘A selfish desire for money, not to purchase anything, but just to have it’.

What were women, so late in life, going to do with all that money? Even more terrifying is the unanswered question of whether or not the women are responsible for other deaths, involving six life policies which remain unpaid, due to suspicious circumstances. Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid were also insured by Golay and Rutterschmidt. In 1999 and 2005 they were inexplicably crushed by cars.

‘Arsenic and Old Lace’, was a startling break-through from the usual theatre of the day. The producers, Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Crouse, knew what all successful entrepreneurs know - it takes only one whacky idea to either make or break you. They were fully aware of the huge risk they were taking. Either they would be run out of town by outraged citizens, or the play would be a rip roaring success.

“Arsenic and Old Lace”, with 1,444 performances, proudly takes its place among some of the longest running shows on Broadway. It paid its backers 40 to 1. It has constantly been ranked among the most constantly reproduced plays over the last four decades, even in countries as far away as Brazil and Rumania. In 1986 it was seen once more on Broadway, costing far more than the original play.

The Brewster’s were the central figures of the plot. They were renowned for their devotion to each other and their charities. They liberally lavished neighborly attentions on all who needed them. They helped up to a dozen old men who had no families, kindly putting the lonely men out of their miserable existence. The sisters’ self-appointed task was to help the men to attain eternal peace, thanks to the delicious concoction of homemade elderberry wine, liberally laced with strychnine, arsenic and cyanide. They buried the bodies of their victims in their cellar, in graves dug by their unsuspecting nephew. The sisters gave them a proper funeral, complete with appropriate hymns, according to the victim’s religious preference.

‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ was converted into the much watched movie by Frank Capra, starring Carey Grant. The film made considerable alterations to the original script. It included a sugar-coating ending, whereas the original play had a definite feeling of blackness to the comedy. Thousands have enjoyed a good laugh watching the movie over the years.

Some things become classics, such as the 1934 song ‘Blue Moon’, or films like ‘Arsenic and Lace’. Very few ever evolve into real life. Did the Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt, the Black Widows, watch the movie several times before they copied it? Some may have said the widows were merely eccentric. For the victims it was a lethal nightmare, movie plot or not.

Were Golay and Rutterschmidt extremely clever or quite mad? Did they act as morons with twisted logic, lunatics who have no logic, or confused fools looking for entertainment? You be the judge.