This is the last time I’ll write one of these columns (unless, of course, someone wants to hire me to do so), but I just wanted to mention how much fun it has been.  I know that I haven’t been doing these as frequently as I should.  My real job has been taking precedence, and now that I actually will have some time, there ain’t gonna be no Screengrab no more.  So, since we are near the end, I wanted to write a super-deluxe column.  Luckily, cable tv has made that easy by scheduling a ridiculous number of great movies in the near future!

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Here's the Weekend Edition of Set Your DVR!  These three movies should carry you through until Monday, and all are on IFC on Sunday, February 1. 

First up is an Akira Kurosawa double-feature.  IFC is showing Drunken Angel at 7 am central/8 am eastern.  Drunken Angel is Toshiro Mifune's first film with Kurosawa.  It's a yakuza/gangster flick, and I've never seen it, so I'm excited about it. Also starring Takashi Shimura.

Immediately afterwards is Ikiru at 8:45 am central/9:45 am eastern, which is easily one of the most profound and touching films you could ever see.  This one has Shimura in the lead as a dying bureaucrat who wants to leave his small mark on the world.  I know that sounds like an opportunity for the worst sort of Forrest Gump-like cinematic idiocy, but remember that it's Kurosawa behind the wheel, not some Hollywood hack.

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CHICAGO (2002)



Hot chicks behind bars? Check. A large, in-charge corrupt female warden? Check. Mean girl sparring between the new fish and the reigning cell block queen? Check. Nude lesbian shower orgies and bloody riot scenes? Sorry...Rob Marshall’s Oscar-winning adaptation of the toe-tappingly cynical 1975 Kander/Webb/Fosse musical adaptation of crime reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins’ 1926 play about celebrity criminals ain’t that kind of Women-In-Prison film. Helping to restore America’s faith in the potential entertainment value of movie musicals a year after Baz Luhrmann did his level best to destroy the genre with the Excedrin-headache known as Moulin Rouge, Chicago served up catchy tunes and light satire grounded by (relatively) gritty scenes of the “real-world” Murderess Row underpinning the fantasized production numbers. For all the literal and figurative song-and-dance surrounding the press and public’s fascination with lethal jazz babies Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie (Reneé Zellweger), there’s also the other side of the coin: the grim fate of a Hungarian inmate who, unlike her media-savvy cellmates, is probably innocent but gets the noose rather than justice because she can’t speak English and doesn’t know how to game the system for her own benefit. But that’s about as serious as things get: those who prefer more harrowing musical depictions of doomed immigrant ladies destroyed by American xenophobia are welcome to seek out Dancer In The Dark, the entertainment equivalent of a swift hard kick in the crotch you’re not entirely sure you deserved. The rest of Chicago, meanwhile, is a feel-good romp about getting away with murder featuring Zeta-Jones at the top of her game, an unusually tolerable performances by Zellweger (in a role Divine would have really knocked out of the park) and a surprisingly unembarrassing performance by Richard Gere (although as fellow Screengrabber Scott Von Doviak correctly noted at the time, Christopher Walken in the razzle-dazzle role would have been godhead).

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I don't know if your Christmas week is anything like mine (if you even have a Christmas week, that is), but every year, I spend an inordinate amount of time on the couch.  It's a good way to be with family without having to, y'know, talk with anyone.  I usually lay there, using my mind only to ponder how full my belly is and wondering how long it will take me to digest enough to make room for another slice of pecan pie. But this year, instead of mindless entertainment, I intend to engage with some movies!  Maybe that will take my mind off of food.  For a little while, at least.  Here's what's good this week, in the central/eastern format.  I'm also moving overnight movies to the prior day write-up, which is my policy from here forward.

Monday, December 22:

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First off, many apologies for my absence last week.  With houseguests (I call them “Mom and Dad”) around for a few days past the weekend, I didn’t have any time to do the research or write the column, and I figured that very few of you want to read me repeating variations on “I got nothin’ but I sure like booze.”  Because I’m all about keeping the high standards around here.
So to change things up a wee bit, I’m going to list a schedule and then write about sentence or two about the movies at the end.  Or a few of them, at least.  Here’s what’s worth watching in the upcoming week!

Monday, 12/8:
Well, I got nothin’.  But I sure like the booze.

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