Jack Lemmon | the m0vie blog

267. Some Like It Hot – Christmas 2021 (#136)

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, with special guests Charlene Lydon and Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot.

In late 1920s Chicago, band members Joe and Jerry witness a brutal mob hit. Forced to flee for their lives, the pair disguise themselves as women and join an all-female band taking a trip down to Florida for the winter. However, things very quickly become complicated when the duo encounter a blonde bombshell Sugar Kowalczyk and attract the romantic attentions of a lonely millionaire named Osgood Fielding III. Hilarity ensues.

At time of recording, it was ranked 136th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: Billy Wilder, christmas, gender, Jack Lemmon, marilyn monroe, some like it hot, The 250, tony curtis, transgender | Leave a comment »

162. The Apartment – Christmas 2019/New Year’s 2020 (#113)

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, a Christmas (and New Year’s) treat. Billy Wilder’s The Apartment.

As the fifties give way to the roaring sixties, C.C. Baxter finds himself slowly climbing the corporate ladder by loaning out his apartment to other executives so they can conduct illicit affairs. However, things quickly become complicated when Baxter finds himself falling for the elevator operator Fran Kubelik.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 113th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: Billy Wilder, christmas, comedy, eisenhower, holiday, Jack Lemmon, kennedy, new year's, Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair, Shirley MacLaine, sixties, The 250, the apartment, x-mas | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Apartment

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Darren

The Apartment is a classic romantic comedy, and deservedly so. Reuniting director Billy Wilder with actor Jack Lemmon, it’s a wonderfully dysfunctional look at life in the big city, and the compromises the people find themselves forced into. While I think the movie probably works better as a romantic drama than as a comedy – with some outstanding moments of bleakness, including a serious suicide attempt and another false alarm towards the end – Wilder and Lemmon do an exceptional job keeping the movie just light enough that the darker elements don’t overwhelm the film. It is a piece of cinematic history, and one that holds up as well today as it ever did.

The neighbours were wondering about the racket…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Apartment, Billy Wilder, film, Glengarry Glen Ross, Greyhound Lines, Jack Lemmon, Karachi, kevin spacey, Lemmon, Metro Areas, Mississippi, Movie, Natchez Mississippi, new york, New York City, non-review review, Pakistan, review, Shirley MacLaine, Social Security number, the apartment, the apartment (1960), Times Square, United States | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Short Cuts

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Darren

Short Cuts is perhaps “the” big defining ensemble drama. Even those who haven’t seen it are familiar with Robert Altman’s epic three-hour twenty-two-character crisscrossing drama about life modern Los Angeles. It’s bold, ambitious and challenging. Personally, I prefer Altman’s skewering the studio system in The Player, there’s no denying that this big drama has its charms.