Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Fun British comedies on TV

Two months ago I subscribed to Acorn TV via Amazon Prime which offers some great British and Australian TV shows and movies. Since I live in the USA this is a real treat for me, as Acorn offers many shows I like, including mysteries new to me like "Rake" and "Murdoch Mysteries" and lots of goodies like "Midsomer Murders" and "Endeavor", dramas, and some fun comedies. Plus it is only five dollars a month. I dropped cable two years ago, which was costing seventy dollars a month and didn't have many shows I like.

My favorite show thus far on Acorn is "Ladies of Letters", which is fabulous fun. Two quite mismatched English ladies meet and then keep in touch via letters. Their letters are often wildly untrue which makes for much laughter from me. The first photo is of Maureen Lipman who plays Irene, and the second is of Anne Reid who plays Vera. Anne Reid does a wonderful performance in "Last Tango in Halifax", by the way.
Some people who enjoyed the books and radio series do not like this rendition of "Ladies of Letters" but this is my first introduction to it and I find the ladies to be hilarious while being not very pleasant in the way they treat each other. Their letters to each other show them to be out of touch with reality, which causes funny situations. There are 20 episodes and some of the episodes are rather dark.
Two other funny comedies I am watching are "French Fields" (English couple moves to France and this show is a continuation of "Fresh Fields") and "Boomers" (3 English couples who are long time friends).
I watched all 20 episodes of "Ladies of Letters" and miss those gals, wish they would make more. Another good comedic find is P.G. Wodehouse's "Blandings" which I am watching.
I enjoyed the movie "The Man Who Lost His Head" about a man who works for the "British Imperial Museum" and travels to New Zealand on assignment to get the Maori people to allow the museum to keep a famous Maori chieftain's carved head. Will romance occur? A nice glimpse of very rural life of a group of Maoris. I saw this on Acorn TV.
Today on Facebook I saw an ad for Britbox_US which offers shows from the BBC and ITV, and claims to be the biggest collection; it is $7.99 a month and apparently became available in the USA earlier this year. Have you tried it?
Do you have any favorite British or Australian TV shows or movies you suggest I look for?

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Favorite Movies

Just for fun let's share our favorite movies.
I think you can build a bit of a picture of someone by knowing their favorite movies, tv shows, or books.
Here is a list of my favs.

The Way  Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez
The Passion Mel Gibson
Silver Linings Playbook
The Mighty Wind, also Best in Show, great ensemble cast and director
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Midnight in Paris
Sea Biscuit
African Queen
Casablanca
Blind Side
Zombieland
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Thin Man, the whole series with Nick and Nora Charles and dog
Bringing Up Baby
Babe
Lost Boys
Labyrinth
Never Ending Story
Master and Commander

Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis
and thanks to Laurie's comment, I am adding Christmas Story (the young boy wanted a Red Rider rifle). I also add The King's Speech.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Avatar and Gone with the Wind battle it out

Hi Friends,
Recent headlines trumpet "Avatar biggest money making movie yet" and I always wonder about such headlines. It turns out that headlines that say this are not correct and are very disingenuous.
My dh and I enjoy seeing movies in the theater on the big screen and give a high rating to our most recent film viewed, Sherlock Holmes.
We haven't seen Avatar yet, and aim to, soon.
I saw this fun link http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
The link shows movie gross earnings adjusted for inflation. The key here is "adjusted for inflation"!
Using this benchmark, the experts there determined that Avatar is no. 26 for earnings, thus far. Numero uno is Gone with the Wind, followed by Star Wars, Sound of Music, and more, and you can read the ratings by following the link.
What impresses me is that there are more than six billion people on earth now,  vs. perhaps one billion when Gone With the Wind was released, and today there are so many more theaters and abundant technology, yet Gone With the Wind has not been toppled from its rank, at least not yet.