Alan Rapp

The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure

  • Title: The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure
  • wiki: link

Way Back Wednesday takes us back to a mystery involving the Three Investigators whose mantra of “We Investigate Everything” leads them into a pair of cases involving a museum robbery in broad daylight and an elderly woman being tormented by gnomes. The museum robbery starts off the Three Investigators story as a large jeweled golden belt disappears, but that crime is put on hold for much of the book as Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews instead investigate the odd appearance of gnomes up to nefarious purposes scaring an elderly woman, while hiding their true purposes for tunneling under her home, which is brought to the trio by their old friend and mentor Hector Sebastian (Alfred Hitchcock in the original printing).

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MacGruber – A Good Day to Die

  • Title: MacGruber – A Good Day to Die
  • IMDb: link

Originally conceived as a series of sketches for Saturday Night Live, the MacGyver-inspired spoof MacGruber eventually became a feature film in 2010 which was quickly forgotten by all but its most die-hard fans. Now MacGruber is back with a new series on Peacock. Picking up years later, MacGruber (Will Forte) has spent a decade in prison but is released for a suicide mission to exchange for the President’s kidnapped daughter which he’ll eventually get around to after stopping in to see a few familiar faces.

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The Novice

  • Title: The Novice
  • IMDb: link

This character study from writer/director Lauren Hadaway introduces us to obsessive-compulsive college freshman Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman) who joins the university’s rowing team. With goals to make varsity, despite having no experience in the sport, Alex throws herself fully into the project in much the same way she decided to make her weakest subject her college major and overcome what she sees as a shortcoming.

The Novice examines a side normally not highlighted in sports films. While Alex is consumed with winning, the movie is not about her heroic struggle over the odds. Instead, The Novice examines compulsion, fixation, obsession, and the winning at all costs attitude that can be destructive not just in the sport but throughout a person’s life. Alex is often offered help, much of it ignored, as she seems predestined towards proving she will either succeed or fail on her own.

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