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3rd Rock From The Sun - Season 5 Episode 4

Dial M for Dick Solomon

                                                                                  

     The aliens in human bodies are still having problems understanding human behavior and society.

     Dr. Albright ( Jane Curtin ) offers Dick ( John Lithgow ) and his family free tickets to the Cherrywood Who-Done-It Mystery Weekend. After arriving at Cherrywood, Dr. Albright comes down with food poisoning from eating prawns, and has to return to her room before the show starts.

     The members of the Solomon family do not understand that the show is fantasy, and they think that actual murders are being committed. Things go from bad to worse as Dick tries to solve the murders himself.

   

3rd Rock From The Sun - Season 1 Episode 7

Lonely Dick Solomon

     Dick ( John Lithgow ) orders Sally ( Kristen Johnson ) to look like the earth women he sees in the glamour magazines.

     She takes Tommy ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) and Harry ( French Stewart ) with her to the cosmetics counter at the local Department store. Tommy meets a girl, and Harry gets a free facial and a job selling men's cosmetics. Sally gets free make-up samples and buys a mini-skirt. She turns out to be gorgeous.

     Dr. Mary Albright ( Jane Curtin ), Dick's love interest, leaves town for a much needed one-week vacation at a spa. She leaves instructions with her secretary that she does not want to be disturbed.

     Dick becomes depressed and desperate without Mary, and when the secretary refuses to give him her phone number he searches the office for clues.  Finding none, he breaks into Mary's house, puts on her slippers, and makes romantic overtures to her sweater. When she returns to work the following week, he is so overcome with emotion that the secretary has to beat him with a book to get him off Dr. Albright.

     

3rd Rock From The Sun - Season 5 Episode 9

The Loud Solomon Family Dickumentary

     This comedy ran from 1996-2001, and is one of the funniest comedies I've ever seen.

     A four-man team of alien scientists come to earth on an intelligence gathering mission. To avoid suspicion they take on human bodies and the common names Tom, Dick, Harry, and Sally. They picked their last name, Solomon, off a delivery truck.

     Dr. Dick Solomon ( John Lithgow ), is the High Commander who gets a job as a Physics professor at the second-rate Pendleton College.

     Sally Solomon ( Kristen Johnson ), is a Lieutenant, Security Officer, and a former commando. Ended up in a female body because of a lost bet and is being passed off as Dick's sister. Sally eventually becomes so comfortable in a female body that she develops a taste for mini shirts and stiletto heels. Also falls in love, and begins dating a police officer.

     Harry Solomon ( French Stewart ), is an idiot with no impulse control when it comes to women. He was only allowed on the mission because some of his high-ranking relatives on the home planet pulled some strings to get him aboard. He has a communications chip implanted in his head and he serves as a two-way radio which keeps them in contact with home base. He is supposedly Dick's brother.

     Tommy Solomon ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) is the Information Officer who was placed in an adolescent body. He is passed off as Dick's son.

     Dr. Mary Albright ( Jane Curtain ), is an Anthropologist at Pendleton College. She shares an office with Dick and eventually becomes his love interest.

     Dr. Albright receives a grant to do a documentary about a typical American family, and she chooses the Solomons. During the filming, Dick slips up and refers to Sally as Lieutenant. This causes the Solomons to tell one lie after another to cover up the mistake.



                                                                               

Sunshine Cleaning

     Some people can't move forward until they are willing to let go of the past.

     A 2009 independent film about the Norkowski family. The father, Joe ( Alan Arkin ), and his two daughters,  Rose ( Amy Adams ) and Norah ( Emily Blunt ) have had a dark cloud hanging over them for many years. When the children were young, Mrs. Norkowski committed suicide, leaving a deep feeling of emptiness in the survivors.

     They are lacking in the skills and education that would allow them to make a good living.

     Rose suffers from low self-esteem due to her job, many failed relationships, and not understanding why her mother chose to leave her when she was a child. She cleans houses for a living, and was once treated with quiet disdain when she tried to have a friendly conversation with the employer's daughter. The teenager just looked at her with contempt, then turned her back and walked away. Rose has a young son, Oscar, who is having problems in school due to his high energy level. She needs to find a way to make more money so she can give her son a private education. The identity of the child's father is unknown.
Rose is currently dating Mac ( Steve Zahn ), a married police officer. He had been her boyfriend in high school when he was the football quarterback and she was captain of the cheer leading squad. For some reason, Mac chose to marry and raise a family with another woman. He and Rose meet once a week for sex at the local motel. She is his dirty little secret.

     Norah, the younger sister, seems totally indifferent to life, can't keep a job and is too apathetic to care. Her last job was working as a waitress for Asian owners. She didn't look happy to be there, and when she tripped and dropped a customer's food, the owner fired her. Norah took off her apron and dropped it on the floor on her way out of the restaurant.

      Joe is a dreamer who makes his living jumping from one money-making scheme to another. He is also a loving parent to his daughters and grandson.
 
     During Rose's weekly visit with Mac, he tells her about responding to a call from a gun shop. A man walked in and shot himself in the head, leaving a mess all over the store. He mentions the big bucks paid for crime-scene cleanup, and tells Rose that she could easily do this as it's not so different from regular housework. Just gory.

     Rose places an ad in the paper, and calls her business Sunshine Cleaning. After several days, she gets a call from a property owner who needs someone to clean up a room where a man had been shot to death by his wife. Rose takes Norah with her. They make $500 for one day of work.

     Excited, Rose calls Mac at home to get more pointers about the job, but he tells her never to call his house again, because his wife might answer. She looks depressed and hangs up. Norah tells her he will never leave his wife and that she is wasting her whole life waiting for him. Rose realizes she can't move forward in life unless she cuts her losses with him, and tells him so when she sees him again. Sadly, Mac does not seem to understand that before he can be a decent husband and father, he also needs to turn loose of the past. He tries to see her again, but she refuses.
   
     Rose and Norah make friends with Winston ( Clifton Collins Jr.), who is the owner of an industrial cleaning supply store. He has only one arm and is very shy around Rose, who he obviously likes. He serves as a mentor for the two women, explaining that they need to use special chemicals, wear bio-hazzard suits, take classes, and buy liability insurance. Rose does not buy the insurance, and when she sends Norah out on her own to start the cleanup in a house, there is an accidental fire and they will have to pay over $30,000 in damages out of their own pockets.

     Rose goes back to work as a house keeper, thinking her dream is dead, but her father sells his house and invests in resurrecting Sunshine Cleaning. He will be working as her partner since Norah has decided to travel across country. Winston will continue to assist them.

     Amy Adams as Rose Norkowski   also in Leap Year, Julie and Julia, 
     Junebug, and Catch Me If You Can
     Emily Blunt as Norah Norkowski   also in The Young Victoria,
     Wind Chill, and The Devil Wears Prada
     Alan Arkin as Joe Norkowski   also in Marley And Me, Get Smart,  
      and Catch-22
     Steve Zhan as Mac   also in Comanche Moon and Management
     Clifton Collins Jr. as Winston   also in Abraham Lincoln Vampire  
     Hunter, Pacific Rim, and Capote

   

Saving Grace B. Jones

     Strange how a simple change can destroy a whole family.

     This 2009 independent film was written, produced, and directed by actress Connie Stevens. The story is based on an incident in Ms. Steven's life. When she was 12 years old she witnessed a man being murdered at a bus stop in Brooklyn, New York. She was so traumatized that her father thought it best to get her out of the city, and sent her to live with friends in Boonville, Missouri.

     The lives of the couple she lived with became very chaotic when the husband's unstable sister, Grace ( played by Tatum O'Neal ), came to stay with them after being released from the insane asylum where she had lived for 18 years. This causes the dynamics of the family to change for the worse at a time when Boonville is faced with one of the worst floods in U.S. history. Grace is present during the drowning of her niece and does not have the presence of mind to stay calm and save her. Her own feelings of guilt, plus the silent blame she feels from her family and members of the community cause her to have a psychotic break. She walks through the house with a pair of scissors in her hand while mumbling in a confused manner. Her sister-in law decides to wrestle the scissors from her, and Grace accidently stabs her. Grace's brother has now lost both his wife and daughter.

     This fine film concludes with a very troubling and unexpected event at the end of the movie.

Cast

     Michael Biehn as Grace's brother Landy Bretthorst   also in The 

     Terminator and Aliens

     Tatum O'Neal as Grace B. Jones   also in Paper Moon and
     Woman on Trial
     Penelope Ann Miller as Grace's sister-in-law   also in The Relic 
     and Kindergarten Cop
     Evie Thompson as Grace's niece

     Raylee Fansler as Carrie Staley ( the little girl from Brooklyn )

The Purpose Of This Site

     Now that I am a retired baby boomer, I've had time to catch up on many of the older motion pictures, TV movies, sitcoms, and independent films.

     For unknown reasons, some of the best motion pictures I have ever seen never received the publicity and play in the major U.S. theaters which they so richly deserved. As for the independent films, you almost never hear of them unless you do an internet search for independent films. Some of these are wonderful movies.

     In this blog, I'll be discussing my favorites. When you get the chance to see some of this fine entertainment, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have.