Movies (#SFWApro)

GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014) is the delightful Wes Anderson film in which writer Jude Law recounts millionaire F. Murray Abraham’s story of growing up under the influence of Ralph Fiennes’ sleazy but elegant hotel manager with a fondness for sponging off elderly women (whch would make The Producers a good double bill). When one of the women (Tilda Swinton) dies leaving him a priceless painting, everything becomes much more dangerous as the heirs start going for the gold. An all-actor movie with Jeff Goldblum as Swinton’s attorney, Adrien Brody a disgruntled heir, Willem Defoe as a psycho, Edward Norton as a military captain, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray as hotel staffers and multiple other names in bit parts. “’If this be the end, farewell,’ cried the lonely piper boy.”
When I met Jay Potts of the World of Pain blacksploitation webcomic at last year’s NC Comicon, he recommended TROUBLE MAN (1972). Despite this being frequently cited as one of the worst films in the genre, it’s actually good: Robert Hooks plays “Mr. T” (no relation), an LA trouble-shooter who agrees to protect small-time vice-lords Paul Winfield and Ralph Waite from a rival muscling on them. He doesn’t know they’ve set him up to take the fall when they take out “Mr. Big”—and they don’t realize that setting him up for a fall is a stupid villain moment. The directorial debut of actor Ivan Dixon. “I’m too busy looking for Vladimir Walnitzki.”