Entry Six

Bee Movie: Starring the voice and co-scripted by Jerry Seinfeld, this is just as wacky as you'd expect. Seinfeld voices Barry B. Benson, a recently graduated worker bee who's not too keen on working at one job until he dies, on in inaugural trip outside his hive, he is saved by a human from being squashed and decides to reveal to her that he can speak (breaking the prime rule amongst bees), before joining forces with her in a lawsuit against the honey industry, claiming that they're stealing what honest bees work for their entire life. It's all over the place, plot-wise, but I loved it. It's consistently hilarious throughout, and fans of Seinfeld's previous work should definitely get a kick out of it, with a suitably loopy performance from Renee Zellweger as a human and Barry's potential love interest(!).

The West Point Story: Hugely disappointing musical, considering the cast on offer. James Cagney stars as a washed-up theatre director, who is given one last chance by helping the cadets at West Point put on a good show and get the lead singer (Gordon MacRae) to quit the academy in favour of showbiz. Doris Day, Gene Nelson, and Virgina Mayo provide good support, but it doesn't really come together very well, with silly contrivances to keep the plot working properly. There's only a couple of decent songs, and since when did a musical in 1950 get made in black and white?

Cherry, Harry & Raquel!: This 1970 drama from Russ Meyer isn't as good as his best films, but does have its moments. Harry is a corrupt sheriff, helping a local drug dealer for money so he can pay for his silver mine. Cherry is a prostitute caught between them, and Raquel is Harry's girlfriend, though both are very highly sexed. The druglord tells Harry to take out a business partner he suspects of cheating, but his attempts only bring the victim closer and closer to killing Harry, leading to a climactic shoot-out at a deserted homestead. The problem with the movie is its inconsistency of tone, and could've probably been better as a straight comedy or drama, but n trying for both, Meyer fails. As usual, the women are very attractive, but Charles Napier is the standout, in a grizzled performance as Harry.

Heidi: Shirley Temple stars in this adaptation of the popular novel. She plays the titular Heidi, an orphaned girl who is sent to her Grandfather after the death of her parents, but is kidnapped and placed as a "playmate" for a crippled wealthy girl. It's decent stuff, with admirable support from reliable supporting players, though if you're not a fan of Temple, this is unlikely to convert you.

The Time Travelers: This 1964 sci-fi film has a decent premise (which was blatantly stolen in the inferior Journey to the Center of Time): scientists experimenting with time travel are trapped in a future where humanity has been all but wiped out, leaving only barbaric mutants and the last vestiges of civilized humanity desperately trying to escape to a different, inhabitable planet. It's pretty well handled for a low-budget Sci-Fi movie from the 60s, with only its insistence on lousy humour marring the overall product.

The Plainsman: A Cecil B DeMille western epic about the "lives" of Wild Bill Hicock and Buffalo Bill Cody. It's absolute rot, the lot of it, containing about as much veracity as Star Wars. Gary Cooper (who I've always though was over-rated) slouchs his way through the movie, while Jean Arthur is decent as Calamity Jane, but far too attractive for the role. It does have it's good moments - the Cheyenne attack on a military troop is pretty exciting, for 1936 - but they're few and far between in this 2 hour movie.