Z/Web

Author: Kirk Jones (III)

Director: Kirk Jones (III)

I knew very little about this film going in… what a delight! Go out and rent it right now! This is set in a tiny village in Ireland, where someone in the village has one the lottery, but whoever it was won’t admit it. Villagers go out of their way being nice to their neighbors, wondering if he or she’s the winner. It’s finally discovered that the winner is Ned Devine, a 66-year-old man, but the shock of winning has killed him! He’s found dead in front of his television, the winning ticket in his hand. Soon the whole village has entered into a conspiracy to pretend that Ned’s still alive and claim the 7 million pounds. Hilarious, and the characters are so real and wonderful, you wish your own town was so homey. Favorite moment? When the little boy asks the priest if he’s met Jesus. The priest says, “Not exactly,” then presses the boy to see if he’s possibly interested in joining the priesthood. The boy says, “I don’t think so. I couldn’t work for someone I’ve never met and for no pay!”

Author: Campbell Bruce (I) (novel) and Richard Tuggle

Director: Don Siegel

I’d never seen this; it was pretty much like the title says: Clint Eastwood’s put in Alcatraz and escapes. Still, the specifics of the escape were interesting, and like most prison escapes, it’s amazing the amount of effort that goes into the attempt. (I remember visiting the dungeons of castles in Europe when I was little; one of the most amazing things I saw was a hole in a rock wall dug with part of a spoon by a convict. It had taken years and years, scraping and scraping, and yet the man had only gotten a few feet into the eight foot thick wall! Truly that’s got to be the most frightening thing about incarceration.)

Author: Bill Kelly (II)

Director: Hugh Wilson

In this movie a couple holes up in their fallout shelter in 1962 thinking nuclear war has happened, and their son grows up entirely underground only to emerge in 1997, completely cluelss as to modern life. I was expecting a silly, rather lame film, but this turned out to be quite charming. It was surprisingly accurate in terms of scientific detail (i.e. one scene shows the dad pulling a live fish from a tank, which makes sense, since you couldn’t live exclusively on canned goods for 35 years), and it was quite fun. It’s obviously light, and could have used a bit more satiric bite (e.g. making more fun of modern day life), but well done. A nice feel-good movie.