The Man Who Knew Too Little, 1997

THURSDAY MOVIE CONNECTION!!!
Alfred Molina--Bill Murray



Director: Jon Amiel (Entrapment)

Stars: Bill Murray, Peter Gallagher, Joanne Whalley, Alfred Molina




It's his birthday, and Wallace (Murray) heads to London to visit his brother James, who unfortunately, is busy that night, so he sends his brother on a unique London experience for a few hours.  He gets him tickets for the "Theatre of Life", where you don't even have to learn your lines, and you can be an actor for a night in a thrilling plot!

James drops Wallace off at a phone booth where the "Theatre of Life" will begin, and Wallace gets  a mysterious call for "Spenser," giving him an address and instructions.  Wallace goes along with the evening, not knowing that he's in on an assassination plot, and that call was not from the "Theatre of Life!"

Obviously, this is a spy comedy of mistaken identity, and it truly is funny how it keeps going on.  It's not the cleanest, though not that dirty.  If you're in the mood for a spy comedy, you'll like it.

Flushed Away, 2006

THURSDAY MOVIE CONNECTION!

Kate Winslet--Hugh Jackman

Directors: David Bowers, Sam Fell

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno

Roddy (Jackman) is a rat living in High Society London, where he has everything he could ever want in the home of his owners. One day when his owners are on vacation, and he is on a pleasant stay-cation, settling in for a movie on the big screen, when a dirty sewer rat shows up and throws a wrench into Roddy's plans for relaxing. The rat eventually tricks Roddy, and flushes him down the toilet, sending this townie rat into a very unfamiliar world beneath his feet.

There, Roddy meets Rita (Winslet), captain of the Jammy Dodger, and convinces her to take him home, in exchange for helping her on the boat. Soon they are on the run from some French toads (who are hilarious!) because Rita stole something from them.

It's brilliant! Very, very funny!

The Muppet Christmas Carol, 1992

Director: Brian Henson

Stars: Michael Caine, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear, Rizzo the Rat, and Gonzo the Great as Charles Dickens (also David Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Jerry Nelson, and Frank Oz)

Yes, the Muppets take on the Dickens classic like you've never seen it before! Come to think of it, this has got to be one of the most used Christmas stories EVER! Everyone has a version of this!

Anyway, the Muppets version has always been my favorite, and soon it will be your favorite, as well. Ebenezer Scrooge (Caine) hates Christmas and everything to do with it, but after he is visited by 3 ghosts (actually 5 because there are two Marleys in this version, and they show up first to warn him about the other ghosts- and they are HILARIOUS), and is shown what Christmas is really about, he begins to rethink his ways. I guarantee it will warm your heart!

I love how the credits in the beginning don't mention the actors, but the Muppets. Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchett, Miss Piggy as Emily Cratchett, Rizzo the Rat as Himself, etc. I love the Muppets!

Gaslight, 1944

Director: George Cukor (My Fair Lady, The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib)

Stars: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury

When her aunt is murdered in London in the apartment they share, young Paula (Bergman) moves to Italy, and lives there for many years before she meets Gregory (Boyer) who sweeps her off her feet. After the wedding, he wants to move to London, and she finally feels ready after all these years to face the apartment, which was left to her, and all the feelings that go with the unsolved murder that happened there. As long as her husband is with her, how can she not be safe?

But in that house, she starts to hear things when her husband is gone for the night at work. And the gaslight in her room always goes down a little as if someone has turned on the gas in another part of the house, but no one has. She finds a letter addressed to her aunt, but later her husband tells her she had only imagined finding it. Is she losing her mind?

I thought it was excellent! I didn't know beforehand that Joseph Cotten was in it, and I am a fan, so that was a nice surprise. And then the rude chambermaid also surprised me: unmistakably Angela Lansbury! She's great!

The scene at the end that Paula shares with her husband is probably my favorite. Chilling!