Movies Monthly: August

I am still counting the movies we watch, just to find out whether the number reaches 1,000 by the end of the year. So far, we have seen 602 various films and tv shows.

In August, I asked members of The Polish Lady Abroad Club what their favorite detectives and detective stories were (the ladies, born in Poland, live in various countries/ all continents). I created a mini poll, listing a few series which the two of us enjoyed watching. Here are the voting results:

1. Columbo - 5 votes
2. Sherlock Holmes (traditional version) - 3 votes
3. Hercule Poirot - 2
4. Father Brown -1

0 votes:

• Midsomer Murders
• Murdoch Mysteries
• Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
• Miss Marple
• Whitechapel

Apparently, the ladies either did not know the 0 votes series or they did not find them interesting. Or both. However, they named other crime and detective stories which they liked:

• Bron/ The Bridge (original Swedish version) - 6 likes/votes

• 5 votes: Twin Peaks

• 4 votes - Sherlock (newest series) , Dexter, The Mentalist,

• 3 votes - Dempsey & Makepeace, Monk,

• 2 votes each: The Bridge (American version), True Detective, The Killing, Wallander, Father Dowling Mysteries,

• 1 vote each: Hannibal, Ripper Street, CSI, Murder She Wrote, Gotham, Bones.

One could say - as many people, as many likes. I also watched some series mentioned above when I lived in Poland (Twin Peaks, Monk, Bron, Wallander, CSI-LA, Dempsey & Makepeace). In some cases, having seen a few episodes, I skipped following them, as they were not of my interest (Dexter).A long time ago, my favorite series was Father Dowling Mysteries as well. I have tried to find it on the local TV channels since I came to Texas, but so far - only a Christmas episode was aired last December.

Our movies of August were:

563. Brooklyn - 2015 (drama) - directed by John Crowley
590. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 1993 (SF) - directed by Steven Spielberg
591. The Bourne Identity - 2002 (action) - by Doug Liman
592. The Pink Panther Strikes Again - 1976 (comedy) - directed by Blake Edwards
595. Braveheart - 1995 (drama) - directed by Mel Gibson
598.  Mars Attacks - 1996 (SF, comedy) - directed by Tim Burton
600. Forrest Gump - 1994 (drama) - directed by Robert Zemeckis

Other shows:

The 33 - directed by Patricia Riggen. A true story of 33 miners who survived in a collapsed mine for over two months.

• 539. The 33 - 1945 (biography)

Yakov Smirnoff - We had not heard about this comedian before. His stand up shows made us laugh loud, many times. Totally our kind of humor - no bad language or low jokes just pure word play. Hilarious!

• 599. Yakov Smirnoff: What a Country - 1996 (comedy)

 Ted 2 -  Not our cup of tea at all. We watched only about a half of the movie - we did not find it funny (although we knew when we were supposed to laugh, we did not), so we stopped watching it.

• 580. Ted 2 - 2015 (comedy)

The Tunnel (detective story) - the second season of this British-French series ended. We also enjoyed watching the final season of Inspector Lewis with Kevin Whately and Lawrence Fox

Are You Being Served (British comedy series) - in our opinion, John Inman as Mr. Humphries was the funniest character in the series, and a very talented actor as well.

•  552. Are You Being Served: Bliss Girl - 1978 (comedy)
•  573. Are You Being Served: Happy Returns - 1978 (comedy)

 

Curious documentaries:

The Olympics Berlin, 1936 - It was strange to learn that many things - which we had thought had been part of the Olympics since always - the Olympics torch, festive openings and such, were actually first time introduced by the Nazis in 1936.

• 546.  The Nazi Games - Berlin 1936 - 2016 (documentary)

 

Nazi Secret Files - little-known facts about Nazis, their ideas, and developments.

• 537. Nazi Secret Files: Nazi Killer Bugs (documentary),
• 593. Nazi Secret Files: Hitler's Messiah Complex - 2016 (documentary),
• 601. Nazi Secret Files - 2016 (documentary) 

• 564. Evolution of Evil - part 1 - 2014 (documentary)
• 565. Evolution of Evil - part 2 - 2014 (documentary)

What was your movie of the month?