A very Pip-centric set of movies this week, because it’s his birthday today (a birthday he shares with Marie Skłodowska Curie, making it nearly impossible for him to do better than second in the “Most important person of Polish heritage born on this date” competition), so he got to make all the choices.
Beverly Hills Cop:
SteelyKid opted out of Movie Night on Friday, and The Pip again asked for R-rated comedy/ action. This is a hard request, given that he’s vehemently opposed to any sexual content at all (he wants R-rated movies because he enjoys cursing). I’d been toying with this one for a while, but wasn’t sure how it would have aged, so kept holding off. Happily, this has aged very well; the action-to-comedy ratio was a little higher than I remembered, but it all played well.
Some time back I listened to the Rewatchables podcast episode for this, and heard the theory that Axel and Mikey (his ex-con friend who gets killed to set the plot in motion) were lovers, and that’s why Axel is so driven. I don’t think you need that to explain the movie, but as weird-ass theories about the secret meaning of 80’s movies go, it’s on the more plausible side, based on the performances.
Maverick:
When we stayed at my grandmother’s house for a weekend back in August, The Pip got really into playing blackjack with the poker chips she had (we used to play cards a fair bit, usually ridiculously complicated variants of poker). So, we gave them to him as a semi-joke gift. This prompted one of the two requests he made for Saturday: that the movie have something to do with poker. (The other was that all four of us watch together.)
The first poker-centric movie that come to mind was Rounders, which didn’t seem like a good call, so we ended up with Maverick, a Mel Gibson Western from 1994 based on a James Garner show from the 50’s; Garner is in this as well, along with Jodie Foster and Alfred Molina. This is not particularly well remembered (though it did well at the box office), but I’m not sure why. The script is by William Goldman, so it’s fun and zippy, and it’s directed by Richard Donner, so everything looks really good. Gibson’s operating at peak charm, Garner is entertainingly irascible, and there are some fun references to other movies (there’s a Danny Glover cameo as a bank robber, and a bit where Maverick tries and fails to ride a bicycle, and a fun interlude with Graham Greene).
Gibson has since turned out to be an awful person, which sucks, but this is a fun movie. The poker scenes are ridiculous in the usual movie fashion—lots of four-of-a-kind hands—but the rest of it is as good as you’d expect from the talent involved.
Bonus Zeitgeist-y Content: Squid Game:
The temperature really dived last week, making the idea of riding my bike outside much less attractive, so I spent a while on the exercise bike, and ended up finishing the much-talked-about Squid Game. Which was pretty good for what it is, but not especially profound. They did a great job creating tension in the game scenes, though I kind of wanted more from the undercover cop plotline, which just sort of… stops.
I guess the ending is kind of a cliffhanger, and SteelyKid was chattering about the possibility of a second season (SK hasn’t watched the show, mind, just You Tube and TikTok commentary about it). I don’t think that’s a thing I really need in my life, though.
My last biking-to-nowhere session I watched a couple of episodes of Only Murders in the Building, which is good fun and should keep me occupied until the Wheel of Time series debuts in a couple of weeks.
And there’s your regular update on our media consumption. Here are the traditional buttons:
And if you know of R-rated comedies with minimal sexual content I could watch with The Pip, please leave me a comment, because I’m running out of ideas…
I loved maverick as a preteen/teen. Gotta watch it with my kids now.
Happy belated birthday, Pip! Not R-rated, but I thought The Three Idiots was a great comedy (rom-com iirc) when I watched it. You'll need subtitles though since it's in Hindi (I think). I don't think I've watched many R-rated movies, let alone comedies. Deadpool might count? I'm not sure how much you'd like to watch it though, considering it's, as my friend calls it, "capeshit". Plenty of swearing though iirc.
Now to get on my soapbox. I haven't watched a proper English show in a while (subbed anime was my go-to), but I follow a lot of Riot Games' stuff and they released a TV show this weekend called Arcane. It's made its way up my rankings real fast and is currently sitting right around Transformers Prime, possibly a bit higher. Pretty mature cartoon, though probably not what the Pip is looking for. Not much by way of swearing.