darlenefblog
A few of my favorite things
Musings on life, art, travel, cooking, gardening. Anything that catches my eye or makes me laugh, with the hope of being entertaining and informative.
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Falling in Love in Niagra - 2024 - Hallmark
To be avoided at all costs. I made it 20 minutes including commercials. My instant dislike was deep and abiding.
The female AND the male lead were awful, the snarky fighting between them was in no way cute. I began grinding my teeth when Madeline's fiancé dumped her in a restaurant weeks before the wedding. I don't know how he managed to stay with her long enough to get engaged. She was one of those super anal people who drive everyone nuts. The first clue was she had taken his laundry to her apartment to clean because he didn't sort colors from whites. What? She also threw out his lucky socks because they had holes in them. Unrepentant she said she'd get him new lucky socks. No apology just blew off his feelings. Anyway, he dumps her after telling her he can't spend the rest of his life with her ordering his food & planning their life to the minute and color coded. Whew, he dodged a bullet.
Madeline has planned a honeymoon to Niagra just like her grandparents had, down to the exact locations with itinerary. The tour guide, Mike seems to work only to feed himself. The sniping was too much. How could they fall in love in a week after such loathing, 2 hours would not have been enough.
I couldn't subject myself to another moment & deleted it from my DVR list.
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Blind Date Book Club -2024 - Hallmark
Cute plot about a bookstore owner and a writer trying a move into a new genre. Erin Krakow is a Hallmark staple, When Calls the Heart, and she doesn't disappoint. A YA author has tried to branch into adult mystery, but it's mixed with a romance and none of it works. He hears about the Blind Date with a Book Club and takes off for Nantucket for validation and inspiration. Meg (Erin) owns the bookstore so they're kinda shoved together. Of course they get together romantically and we all know the formula for Hallmark and romance books in general. Robert Buckley is adorable as our romantic male lead (Graham). I'd not remembered seeing him before but he's been in a few Hallmark movies and the Chesapeake Shores series. They're good together and there seems to be chemistry which every romance movie needs in spades. I'd recommend it as a good 2 hours well spent.
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Wicked - 2024
The road show is still fun, the staging hasn't changed in the years in-between my first and this second time. Glinda is such a fun character and gets the best lines and songs. Elphaba appears to be a foil for her. When they sing For Good how they end their friendship is said truthfully, the words are so right. The relationship between Elphaba and Fiyero is a surprise and turns out so sweet, a true happily ever after with a twist.
I could listen to the song Popular over and over again. It's funny and the Glinda character is so goofy it works perfectly.
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Mrs. Doubtfire - The new musical comedy.
"All the benefits of film, and all the limitations of theater when it lazily follows in a film’s footsteps, are starkly evident in the numbing, dull, and astonishingly flat Mrs. Doubtfire." Just one of the reviews of this irritating show.
Rob McClure played Daniel; he was also the lead in the Broadway show. Why he was in the road show production is a mystery to me. He's ok but not anywhere as witty or funny as Robin Williams, but then who could be. Lots of the audience laughed and had a good time. I wanted out. The whole transformation of Daniel to Mrs. Doubtfire didn't work well on stage, we saw too much of the mystery and yet not enough of the inner workings of what amounts to drag. It's hard to explain but trust me it wasn't interesting or very funny.
Another thing that drives me up the wall is when singers are loud for no reason. There's one song, Let Go, where Miranda belts it out and gets soprano and drags out the notes until I wanted to scream. You can hold a note, we get it. Unnecessary for a song that I thought was insightful and would have benefitted from a softer touch. Lydia did the same with a song that needed to portray upset and anger. The arrangement isn't better coming from a child when she hit all the high notes very high and long.
Maybe it was just me I didn't believe the relationship between Miranda and Daniel. It's played without much chemistry between them. More of Daniel wanting his kids than anything else. In the beginning Daniel didn't want the divorce and wanted to get his family together again. It was dropped and they couldn't be civil at all. The actors didn't seem to like each other either, you could feel it. The couple said all the right words about co-parenting but it sure didn't come across in the actions.
My thought on the way home was I should just watch the movie. The show was part of my yearly subscription package, so I stayed till the end. I was also afraid to leave early and walk to the parking garage alone.
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Austenland - 2013
I recently rewatched my DVD of this movie. I was culling out my stash and decided to watch this one again before I gave it away, I've decided to keep it after all. It's so cute. A true-blue Austen fan, Keri Russell, decides to break into her savings for a once in a lifetime trip to Austenland in England, a Jane Austen theme resort. Her apartment is an American's dream English flat, there's stuff everywhere including a huge cutout of Colin Firth. Turns out she can only afford the basic package & that adds to the humor in the plot. Jane Seymore plays the owner of the theme resort & Jennifer Coolidge is a clueless guest who's a hoot as Jennifer always is. Everyone is in period costumes with the guest all being quirky and the resort workers even more so. The workers off duty hanging out around the pool in their quarters is priceless.
Pretty sure I'll pull out this DVD again some night when TV programming sucks.
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Sound of Freedom - 2023
Jim Caviezel, great actor I first saw in The Passion of The Christ in 2004. The entire movie was spoken in Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic, I was impressed.
In the Sound of Freedom he plays real life former Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard. He works on child pornography cases and see so much ugly child abuse of all kinds. How he stayed sane at all is a mystery to me. He quits and gets into child rescue in countries around the world, chasing the people running the rings of child prostitution. It's a form of slavery that happens everywhere & it's not just sex; kids are used as low cost or slave labor too. It happens at factories in America and sometimes they're caught so it makes the news. I've read that the US is the largest consumer of child porn and child prostitution, sad but I believe it. I cried through most of the movie knowing it was true, how awful and cruel people can be. As much as it upset me it's also nice to know that there are good people out there who care & take action.
After the movie came out and became a hit Tim Ballard was accused of child abuse himself. My personal opinion is that a light was shined on the ugly money-making business and the wealthy people who become wealthier off it had to smear the rescue business. We all know that it happens and bad will do anything to thwart good. Ballard's operation accepts donations to help fund rescues.
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Uncharted - 2022
Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas are a threesome of talented actors who show off their skills in Uncharted.
The official storyline is: "Street-smart Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs. If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world's oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate's long-lost brother...but only if they can learn to work together."
I thought it was interesting, exciting, well written, lovely locations, some thrilling stunt work & CGI, & well casted. I caught it on a free movie channel weekend, I love those freebies, and am glad I took a chance. I'd watch this one again.
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Love & Jane - Hallmark - 2024
Alison Sweeney is one of my favorite Hallmark actresses. She always delivers an excellent product. Benjamin Ayres is another Hallmark staple. I'm sorry to say that I didn't feel the chemistry between them on-screen. The romance fell flat; I blame casting, it should have been obvious.
The movie itself had an interesting & entertaining plot. Jane Austen appears to help Lilly when she's having trouble with a PR campaign & doubts about the writing career she put on hold. Everyone has to pay the bills & it's got to be scary to take a leap into possible homelessness & have no insurance. The Jane character wasn't up on current computer lingo but she wasn't very surprised either. If you go around helping people a couple of hundred years in the future I suppose you take it in your stride. I'd watch it again for the interaction between Lilly & Jane but I'm not buying the DVD.
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Crimes of Fashion: Killer Clutch
Hallmark Mystery movies - 2024
Fashion psychologist? It's a stretch but I suppose you can make a job if someone is willing to pay for it. Actually, it might be a good idea, keeping creative types from having 24 hour panic attacks.
The movie is labeled S1/E1 like it's going to be a series but when I googled it there was the usual Hallmark interviews about maybe, like to, actors excited. Nothing on the schedule or announced. It's a shame since the movie was good. Brooke D'Orsay is one of my go to Hallmark actors, she's good but not over the top. She looks like a rom-com actress with lots of blonde hair and pretty enough to make me jealous. The male lead, the French detective, isn't familiar. Olivier Raynal isn't new to acting but hasn't been in anything I've seen. He's ok in that French needs to shave actor look. The plot was interesting and the writing was fine. That's been a problem for Hallmark recently. It's taking some time to get back into their grove after GAC started up & took a lot of talent. Here's hoping this makes it into series status.
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Shifting Gears - 2024, Hallmark
Actually, the plot was ok, a TV car restoration competition but I can't watch this movie any longer. From the first I thought it was miscast & I'm positive it was. Tyler Hynes couldn't save it, did he read with the female lead? He should have run. Her list of credits is short & she seemed to have no idea what to do with the script. If the first 5 minutes has me yelling at the TV about what an idiot the lead is then it's not worth finishing. Who decided the female lead storyline would be so negative and do really stupid stuff; she turned down a chance to save the car shop she was going to inherit. Snark is ok in small doses but spit out every other sentence complete with a smirk is too much, way too much. She and the poorly written character ruined a movie that had promise. Oh, the guy that played her dad wasn't much either. He was so lackluster that he's in financial trouble and can't work up a decent facial expression. Hallmark use to do better casting but since the big names left they've had lots of trouble. Aren't there plenty of soap opera actors out there that'd like a chance?
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Another! Yeesssss!
Will There Be a Third Downton Abbey Movie?
Downton Abbey: A New Era isn't the end of the Downton universe.
Athird Downton Abbey movie is officially in the works. Actress Imelda Staunton, who played Queen Mary’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Maud Bagshaw, in the first two movies confirmed the exciting news in March of 2024.
“There will be the final film—there you go,” Staunton said in an interview with BBC Radio 2 breakfast show host Zoe Ball. At this point, no other details about the film have been shared publicly—other than it's happening! But as soon as we know anything about a premiere date, the plot, and which characters are set to return to the screen, we will be sure to update this post.
Rumors about another chapter in the Crawley family's story have swirled since the second film premiered in 2022. "Honestly, I thought the fifth was the last series," creator Julian Fellowes told Town & Country at the time, when asked about the possibility of additional sequels. "Then I thought the sixth was the end of them. Then I thought the first movie was the goodbye. Who knows?"
The Downton Abbey creator continued, "If there's a big demand and everyone wants them back, I suppose I certainly wouldn't say no, because I've long since come to terms with the fact that, when I die, Downton will be the main item in any article about me going. So I might as well continue the ride for as long as it goes. But I don't know. I think it's an audience decision, really."
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An American in Austen - Hallmark - 2024
Good grief, has Hallmark set out to find the most awful leading lady characters ever written? From Christmas onward I've not found much to write a kind word about. In this Loveuary movie Harriet is a librarian trying to write a novel...what librarian isn't. She messes up her life, wishes on a falling star & winds up in Pride & Prejudice. She's the most unlikable character in the movie & she's the lead! The Austen characters are fine, what you'd expect from a historical movie. I found Harriet to be uncouth, no manners at all. For someone who says Jane Austen is her favorite author & loves her books she's uninformed as hell, no idea what life in 1813 might be like & has trouble speaking English without every other word being 21st century slang. At first she thinks it an immersive experience & does everything in her power to ruin it. There's also a movie full of Harriet actually ruining the Austen story. She puts things to right & goes home to her boyfriend & they get engaged. Why he wants her is a mystery to me. If I never see this movie again I'll be just fine.
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Watched the first 2 episodes of season 2, I didn't know there was a season 1. I've got to backtrack and find it. I'm loving it. I hadn't thought about Truman Capote in a long time. He was a mess of a human being, drunk, snarky, a one trick pony as a writer, indiscrete.
In Cold Blood was a huge hit but it also was a nasty piece of business. Truman got close to one of the killers, Perry Smith. He never admitted it, that I know of, but he led him on convincing him they had a friendship/relationship. Not a nice thing to do even to a murderer.
Capotes Black & White masquerade ball is considered the party of all time. It's said his idea was taken from the Ascot race scene in My Fair Lady where everyone was in black & white. There are photos from the party available in lots of places on the internet. It was huge and lavish.
I remember reading a book, whose name escapes me, about a rich society woman, I think it was Barbara Hutton. An encounter with Babe Paley was described & it stuck with me. She was on the best dressed list multiple times. "Once, she tied a scarf around her handbag and a tidal wave of other women emulated her." We still do this today. She was the gold standard for rich women who lunch.
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Gilded Newport Mysteries - Murder at the Breakers - Hallmark, 2024
Hallmark has lost their minds. This was so bad I'm not sure where to begin. There's the playing fast & loose with the 1895 era. So out of it that it was unbelievable from the start. Good grief, there were so many errors and outright falsehoods that it was distracting. Then we get to the murder, it could have been better but the real problem comes with the language, the words used. It's 1895 not 2024, they didn't try. If anyone in this movie ever had an acting job before it doesn't show. If they're not wooden they're overacting. I can't tell you "who done it" because I turned it off. I wish I could find something nice to say but I didn't like the costumes so I'm out of ideas. I hope this isn't picked up as a series but given the other bad reviews I've read I sincerely doubt it.
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New Year's Eve concert fun
The local PBS channel had an evening of reruns on December 31st and I found this gem in the lineup. The 50th Anniversary of the Doobie Brothers concert in 2022 at Radio City Music Hall. No commercials! You forget how much you like something or someone once they're not on your radio or TV anymore. I rocked out and sofa danced while they ran through their greatest hits. Since I need closed captioning these days, I saw lyrics that I'd had wrong for decades.
In Romancing the Stone Michael Douglas had a great line I still remember. Inside the wrecked plane he finds old newspapers & says "Awwww man...the Doobie Brothers broke up.
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Regency Tidbit compliments of Sabrina Jeffries
"Letters in the Regency were expensive to receive, since the person receiving them had to pay for the postage (unless the letters were franked, which is a whole different thing). There were no postal stamps and no uniform postal rates. There were penny posts within cities and towns but writing from town to town required using a complicated system of distance, weight, and number of sheets to determine postal rate. The uniform postal system wasn’t founded in England until 1840, well after the Regency. No one used envelopes (why would you waste money on a piece of paper that only contained the letter?). The letters were written on sheets that were folded in such a way that they could serve as both letter and envelope."
Letter writing and folding were complicated & bizarre in 21st century terms. Paper was expensive & letters were expensive to send. Sending by way of mail coach could take days depending on how many stops the coach made. If you'd like to take a look at the complex letter system of the Regency era there's a ton of information on-line. It's a fascinating rabbit hole of research to fall down.
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