Stars Over Broadway (1935)
Nice, if a bit creaky tale of a promoter (Pat O'Brien) fallen on hard times who finds his meal ticket with a great singer (James Melton) whom he finds working as a bellboy in a hotel. There is also a young woman (Jean Muir) who keeps claiming she is a great singer that the promoter is attracted to. Melton is mainly an operatic singer, and O'Brien is paying him to take lessons from a great opera teacher (William Ricciardi), who trains him for about a year, then drops the bomb that it will take at least five more years to train Melton in the ways of the opera, like in acting, stage presence, etc. etc. O'Brien cannot wait that long or pay the money that it will take, so he promotes Melton as a crooner in all the big night clubs in the city, where he's an instant hit. Melton also gets a swelled head and thinks he can do anything and takes to drinking every day. This gets him in big trouble with practically everyone. The rest of the movie deals with those closest to Melton trying to straighten him out, and with O'Brien wanting to tell Muir, who is a great singer, that she's no good so she won't fall into the trap that Melton did. It's all very dramatic in a 30's manner and mostly a good film. A great supporting actor of the era, Frank McHugh, is on hand as O'Brien's buddy who works at a music publisher, and inserts a few laughs into the mostly downbeat goings-on. But it all ends well. Not a bad movie if you want to see something a bit different.
Unfriended (2014)
I had a little bit of difficulty getting into this film at first, simply because of all the typing and messaging that we see from the characters' point-of-view appearing on their computers. Some of the writing was so small, even on my large-screen TV that I had to get closer to the screen. That helped immensely. The movie was pretty decent, although easy to figure out and like a lot of these films of this type, I pretty much had the end figured out. But still, the acting from the young performers was good and helped make the goings-on more believable. It's worth at least one look.
Run All Night (2015)
I truly enjoyed this action flick. It stars one of our "new" action heroes, Liam Neeson. What I like about this is that Neeson is not really what you'd call a good guy in this. He has a horrible history of killing for the mob. He is estranged from his grown son (Joel Kinnaman), who hates him for leaving the family, although it was to keep them out of harm's way or getting caught up in any of the mob business. Anyway, the mob boss (Ed Harris) is best friends with Neeson, although Neeson is not the great mob soldier he once was. Or so they think. Harris' son (Boyd Holbrook) is out of control, trying to get his dad to deal with drug lords, something Harris has left behind. His son tries to kill Kinnaman but Neeson kills Holbrook first and that sets up the bulk of the film with Harris out for revenge by wanting Neeson's son dead. He sicks all of his mob soldiers on Neeson and son, plus the crooked cops on Harris' payroll, plus a vicious assassin (Common). Neeson and Kinnaman race through the city, with bad guys on their trail the whole way. There is action galore, with car chases, car crashes, gunfights, stabbings, foot chases, explosions, etc. etc. The whole cast is fine, with Bruce McGill and Vincent D'Onofrio lending fine support, plus a nice cameo by Nick Nolte as Neeson's brother. Probably my favorite of the recent glut of Neeson movies.
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