Disney Watch: The Shaggy Dog (1959)

Watched:  08/09/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Charles Barton

First, this movie's opening sequence slaps.  

The rest of The Shaggy Dog (1959) was never going to live up to whatever that was, but I basically enjoyed it.

I tell you what - for what this movie is, which is a near 70-year-old movie for kids probably up to age 12 or so, and adults looking for utter nonsense, this fit the bill for some silly viewing.

The basic plot is not basic - it is, in fact, a "shaggy dog story".  I don't know why we call intentionally long stories with side-plots and a sad trombone of an ending a "shaggy dog story", but we do, and Wikipedia has a theory as to why.  But, yeah, it's an entire movie leading up to a punchline about Annette Funicello finding a better guy than the two guys initially interested in her.

Jim Lovell Merges With The Infinite

Astronaut and honest-to-God-American Hero Jim Lovell has passed.  He was 97.

Lovell was a Naval Aviator who joined NASA after the Mercury missions.  He was part of Gemini 7 and 12, but most famously was key on Apollo 8, which first circumnavigated the moon - and Apollo 13, which was the famous disaster in space which became this solar system's most amazing story of survival.

Back in 2009, I saw Mr. Lovell on a panel with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders  at the LBJ Library discussing the Apollo 8 Mission.  It was awe inspiring.

Marvel Second Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  08/06/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Matt Shakman

Note:  Blogger added a 'add hyperlinks automatically to your post' feature, and I've tried that out with this post.  I don't think it's too annoying.

Jamie was out of town, and nonetheless saw Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) with Dug, K and Rob.  This is how I saw the movie by myself at 9:00 AM a couple of weeks back.  But we two decided to catch it again together before it disappears into an eternal twilight of streaming on Disney+.

I was pleased to find that, even knowing what was coming - from story points, to the design, to gags and the incredible score, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit again on a second viewing.  I still want to spend more time with these characters and their problems and their world.  It is, of course, impossible to know how much of my pre-disposition to like the FF in general and want a not-terrible FF movie plays into all of this, versus how someone coming to the FF fresh might feel.  

But, my chief complaint about the movie the first time was that I wanted more of it.

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (1988)

Watched:  08/03/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Zucker/Abrahams/ Zucker

With the Liam Neeson-starring reboot out, I wanted to limber up those particular muscles again before seeing the new era of Naked Gun films.  

It's hard to know anymore if I'm laughing with The Naked Gun (1988) or with 13-year-old me who saw this in the theater and laughed so hard during just the opening bit with the police car driving through a variety of scenes that I literally slipped out of my seat at the Arbor IV theater.  

That kid, in 1988, was not prepared for what was coming for the next 80 minutes or so.  Or that he'd be quoting this movie in 2025.  Or still find it funny to just say "It's Enrico Palazzo!" for absolutely no reason, but find it makes him feel better.

I'm fairly certain if I had bracketed out all the comedies I like, this one *might* make it to the end as my favorite.  At least today that's true.  Leslie Nielsen is at his absolute apex of Nielsen-ness, the jokes land with a wry smile to a full laugh even now - and I've seen this movie maybe 25 times.  

I have no doubt this movie both plays to my sense of funny and helped shape it, just as Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker did for my entire generation with these movies, Top Secret! and the Airplane! flicks.  I mean, how many times as things are going south, do you hear someone say "looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue..."?

I miss Hollywood trying to be funny.  Look, my favorite show as the moment is probably The Bear, but it is insane that anyone is letting it get nominated for Emmy's as a comedy.  I can't remember the last time I paid to see a comedy in a movie theater that wasn't actually a genre film with a comedic bent - Google is claiming Knives Out is a comedy, and... maybe?  It literally may have been Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 - which was good.  Is there a sequel coming?  I feel like there is.

Anyway - Naked Gun would play well now, I think, even if I'm not sure what The Kids would make of timely and topical jokes (is Queen Elizabeth automatically funny in 2025?).  I'm far less worried about the un-PC jokes as they zip by - and we mostly knew they were in bad taste then, by the way, and that was the point.  And of course OJ's legacy did not turn out to be that of a wacky physical comedian.   But there's something timeless about accidentally setting off a player piano while the curtains are on fire or *gestures broadly at every baseball joke in the movie*.

I still love this movie, and I very much look forward to the new one, which I've heard from some corners is very, very good.

Loni Anderson Merges With The Infinite

Loni Anderson, star of TV and movies, has passed at 79.  

Anderson will be best remembered as Jennifer Marlowe, the beautiful, secret brains behind the radio station in the classic sit-com, WKRP in Cincinnati.  The character essentially blew up the idea of the ditzy blonde, which was insanely prevalent in the 1970's and 80's.

I really don't know much about her other than that she was a major part of a favorite show of my youth, was on a private-eye show with Lynda Carter, and was one of the loves of Burt Reynolds.  

Christmas at Sea: I Watched a Hallmark Christmas Cruise Reality Show

The word that comes to mind, over and over, when watching Christmas at Sea (2025) over on the Hallmark Channel is "awkward".  

The concept of a cruise where people get on a boat to share oxygen with working actors while also desperately celebrating secular adult Christmas a month early with hundreds of tipsy strangers is just kinda... awkward. 

The folks who they recruit for the show?  We'll get into that. 

Trying to make something of a 3-day cruise?  And try to film it and make it look natural when it so clearly is all staged and stage-managed?  Awkward.

I've long withstood the slings and arrows of others' discomfort by throwing on Hallmark movies at Christmas - which led to me spending the first half of 2025 watching 70-odd Lacey Chabert movies.  But for a few years I've been aware that the Hallmark company now has basically Christmas Cons in Kansas City each December over two separate weekends, and now there's a Christmas Cruise, where one can set sail with Hallmark devotees and a handful of stars from Hallmark movies.

Yes, Hallmark has it's own galaxy of stars.