stusviews

A charming book has been turned into an equally charming movie. The club of the title is comprised of a group of older adults in a senior living community--four in all--who have decided to spice up their humdrum lives by solving some of the murder cases that have stymied the local constabulary for years. As the story begins, in fact, they're looking into one such cold case already; but when a hot case--a much hotter one--falls into their laps quite by accident, they can't resist the chance to prove their mettle by solving that one, too. (The victim, it seems, was someone they all knew--though not, perhaps, nearly as well as they thought.) "The Thursday Murder Club" is one of those movie mysteries in which the story itself takes a back seat to the cast that brings it to life; there are worse ways to spend your time than by watching revered old pros like Helen Mirren & Company bounce lines off each other with consummate skill. It's funny, diabolically clever--ultimately (and happily) the answers to all their questions make perfect sense, an absolute requirement for a successful whodunit--and, especially toward the end, it turns touching and even heartbreaking. Senior citizens have a lot to offer, the film is saying, especially if they're as resourceful and unwilling to sit on their keisters as this brave bunch. Based on the novel by Richard Osment, and I can't wait till the next book in the series is adapted to the screen. Sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy.

When a new family moves into a dusty old farmhouse, little do they know that stuck in a crate down in the cobweb-covered basement is an angry leprechaun--who has been waiting for years to reclaim his pot o' gold. The set-up has some promise, but it's quickly sabotaged by a low budget, TV movie-of-the-week vibe, and kid-friendly approach to material that--in better hands--would have had us on the edge of our seats. (How kid-friendly? The little boy in the cast hangs around with a guy--the handyman--who's got the Pillsbury doughboy body of a full-grown adult, but the demeanor and mind of a child.) A pre-"Friends" (and surprisingly effective) Jennifer Aniston co-stars with Warwick Davis, who morphs from merry prankster--I actually wondered, if he ever found the gold, would he have a change of heart and leave them all alone?--into the kind of malevolent monster a movie like this demands. (His horrifying make-up may look terrible, but it does give him a face that positively reeks of evil...and that's evil with a capital "E.") The first of a series. For Aniston, Davis, and "Leprechaun" lovers only.

Everyone else might want to look for their pot o' gold elsewhere.

Mistake-prone FBI agent Gracie Hart, given one last chance to prove her mettle, ends up working undercover--as a contestant, naturally--at a beauty pageant that's been targeted by a bomber. The movie plays its hand early--the Big Reveal, or the identity of the person behind the threats, is served up to us on a silver platter before you'd expect it to--so you know "Miss Congeniality" was never supposed to be an edge-of-your-seat mystery, but something lighter and fluffier: another vehicle for the comedic talents of the always reliable Sandra Bullock, and a dependably amusing parody of the beauty pageant business itself. (Nearly every one of Bullock's fellow contestants, from their accents to their attitudes, is an unmistakable, albeit entertaining, stereotype.) Co-starring such gifted old pros as William Shatner, Candice Bergen, and Michael Caine, "Miss Congeniality" may not be absolutely bursting with belly laughs and surprises--it's actually rather predictable--but it's also not without its charms. Worth checking out.