***** Excellent
**** Great
*** OK
** So So
* Blah
American Sniper is about Chris Kyle,
Navy Seal Sniper. I've avoided this movie for a while due to the violence. There
is no way I could ever be in a war. Granted, the people he had to shoot were
trying to kill American soldiers, but I know I'd be a basket case in such a
situation. So sad he survived four tours to be killed by a veteran right on
American soil. The injustice is mind boggling. Excellent story, excellent
performances. Initially I gave it four stars until I had nightmares all night.
***
Concussion is based on a true story
about the medical studies on the effects of repeated head trauma from playing
football. I've never liked football. It's violent and mindless. Schools spend
mega amounts of money and energy on what is no longer an extra-curricular
activity. It takes priority over learning and people wonder why our education
system has gone downhill. It's less a game or past time as it is an obsession.
With these new medical understandings and publicity on the very real health risks
of the game, why there hasn't been a mass exodus? Other than the mass exodus of
football players killing themselves. The NFL corporate sleazes have known about
the risks and have covered it up for years.
After reading about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the movie
looked interesting and I added it to my list. Then Jada Pinkett Smith threw a
tantrum about how husband Will deserved to be Oscar nominated for his performance
just because he's black. I crossed the
movie off my list. The DVD was sitting all alone on the library shelf looking
neglected waiting patiently to be checked out. I wonder how many people were
turned away from the movie because of Jada's rant of entitlement. Will did a
great job. Great accent. Without the accent I don't think his performance was
special in anyway, but it was good. Valuable story. Too bad no one cares as
they are all too busy watching football. ***
Diana When I first saw this on the
shelf, I thought it was a general biographical documentary. Instead it was a
Hollywood movie about the last three years of Princess Diana's life and her
love affair with a Pakistani heart surgeon. It stars Naomi Watts. Was she
really the best they could get to play the part? Not that she's a bad actress
and I think she really tried, but I couldn't quite associate her with Diana at
all. I'm racking my brain trying to think of an actress who would be better but
I'm at a loss so maybe she was the best choice? Her dried, fried, over bleach blonde hair with black roots
drove me nuts. It was more like Marilyn Monroe than Diana and Diana had a
shyness that Naomi failed at capturing. Not to say she didn't try. I can't
imagine having that lifestyle though...zipping around in convertibles, lounging
on yachts, living in castles, and never worrying about money. Kind of hard to
feel sorry for her. It made her complaints about loneliness seem immature. **
Divine Access is about a man (Billy
Burke) who after his father left, his mother became religiously experimental
dragging her son along with her from commune to commune. His friend runs a
cable network with a religious show that airs at 2am called Divine Access. He asks him to be a part
of a panel, then host his own show, then go on the road for a lecture tour. He
ends up with a following camped out on his front lawn. I love Billy Burke. The
soundtrack is great and the religious perspective is excellent. ****
Eye in the Sky was about the British
target of a Somalian-Kenyan terrorist group that had alluded the military for six
years. They are found using all kinds of really cool spy gadgets, their
identities confirmed, and they are watched as they are placing suicide vests on
two of their recruits. Just as the order is given to alienate them with a bomb
from the above drone, a little girl brings a basket of bread to sell at the
corner of the building. Do they accept the collateral damage of one sweet,
innocent little girl (they show her throughout the movie so we become very
attached to her sweetness) in payment for the estimated 80 or so men, women and
children they will save from the suicide bomb? It takes about 30 minutes of
checking with every politician in Britain and the USA to find out if it legally
complies, how it affects propaganda, and military/political protocols, all the
while everyone is hoping she'll sell all her bread and leave before the missile
is engaged. Shit it was nerve wracking. ****
5 to 7 is about a young writer in
New York who meets an older, married French woman and they began an affair.
Extra marital affairs are an expectation in French culture. However, there are
rules to the game. It was interesting and the ending very bittersweet and
touching. ***
Footloose (2011) with Julianne Hough
is the updated version. Same script with just a few story modifications. Same
soundtrack except they countrified the songs and added some country-western
dancing along with contemporary dance. It was good. I don't know if it had the
original excitement of the first one with Kevin Bacon since it was a remake,
but it was good. ***
Fourth Man Out is about four macho,
bearded friends who have known each other all their lives. One comes out as gay
while the other three guys try to figure out how to deal with it. For instance,
after years of forcing their friend to go to strip clubs, they decide to take him
to a gay dance club. It was contrived and often immature, but at times cute and
sweet with some funny moments. ***
Goodbye World is a
post-cyber-apocalyptic movie about a computer virus that wipes out technology
via cell phones. There is a survivalist-type, 20-something family living up in
the mountains of Northern California, off-grid and self-sustaining. All their
friends come stay with them while motorcycle gangs and army thugs are
terrorizing the countryside. The human relations aspect was somewhat
entertaining when all their licentious secrets are revealed and the
performances were good, but I kept waiting for them to actually do something to
protect themselves and they never did. Their implied compliance was irritating.
"Sure, take all our supplies! We don't like it but there is nothing we can
do about it." That bothered me. Maybe I was expecting a typical Hollywood
plot, but it just felt flat and left me with a feeling of incompletion. ***
The Heart of the Sea Why didn't they just call it Moby Dick?? Excellent sets and special
effects, great performances, loved the whale. Very scary. Whaling is not for
the weak at heart. Yet there was
something very sad about those heartless men killing mommy whales with their
babies swimming by their sides. I doubt if the 19th century book had any kind
of an ecological theme, but it was obvious here. Or maybe that's just my modern
day environmental leanings? And perhaps that's why they didn't call it Moby Dick. Yep, the title makes perfect
sense now. Such magnificent creatures.
It made one want to root for the whale. ****
Hugo was a charming, whimsical,
artsy, surreal, beautiful film about a little boy who's clock-maker father dies
and he goes to live in the clock at the train station in Paris. This takes
place after WWI. The sets, costumes, music and cast of characters are delightful.
Asa Butterfield with the beautiful blue eyes plays the kid. It was sweet and
magical, although it felt a little slow and I wanted more of a heart-felt connection
between the characters. I realize that would have been the typical expectation,
but the real reason behind the weirdness was really boring and unrealistic. It
didn't make for much of a climax. Poor choice for a title. You'd think someone would have thought of something more clever and fitting which might have helped ticket sales. ***
The Judge was about a city-slicker
attorney (Robert Downey, Jr.) who goes home for his mother's funeral which
requires facing a ill-tempered, ex-alcoholic father he has never really liked and
hasn't seen in twenty years. His father
(Robert Duvall), is the town judge, and after the funeral runs over and kills
one of the white trailer trash ex-cons he helped put away. Excellent human
relations and plot entanglements. Billy Bob Thornton plays the prosecuting
attorney. I've seen him in a number of movies lately and with each movie he
gets better and better. And Robert Downey, Jr was superb....he used to be such
a loser. So glad he pulled himself out of the gutter and is doing so well.
Excellent movie. ****
Just Peck is coming-of-age story
about a sophomore boy who's exceptionally geeky and awkward. He is kicked out
of band and is forced, by his MIT employed, contract-signing, parenting
theory-driven parents, to join the science club and become a "science
fairy" much to his horror. He has a crush on a tall, beautiful blonde girl
and she inspires his science project. The anticipation of the science project presentation
is delightful. Unusually smart for a coming-of-age type plot with serious
themes that were surprising. Great cast and great performances. ****
A Little Bit of Heaven I saw this on
the movie list starring Kate Hudson and it looked like a typical mushy love
story with a cliché plot. Blah. I
whizzed past it on the list for a while before I decided to read the plot. Nope.
It was an awesome film about life and relationships and, my favorite, death.
Girl who has everything finds out she's dying from colon cancer. I loved her
visits with God and the very end was excellent leaving one uplifted. It was
perfect when she asked the doctor what causes colon cancer and he says no one
knows - she replies with, "Of course you don't. Why would you figure it
out and put yourself out of a job?" LOL !!!!! All star cast of great
actors. It was everything that other best friend movie I watched a couple
months ago was not...****
Match is about a ballet teacher who
is visited by a couple on the pretext the woman is writing her dissertation on
the history of dance. It's all bogus and later during the interview he finds
out why they are really there. I bet this was a play at one time. With only
three characters the simplicity was refreshing and the plot beautifully
developed. It would do well on a stage. Patrick Stewart was exceptional and the
ending was delightful emotional in an unexpected way. ****
Mockingjay, Part 2 is the second
part of the third part of the Hunger
Games trilogy with our hero Katniss Everdeen taking down the Capitol
dictatorship. If you haven't read the books, I highly recommend them. It took
so long to get this last movie I nearly forgot every detail of the story. Great
ending. Excellent everything. ****
Moneyball is with Brad Pitt, Philip
Seymour Hoffman, and Jonah Hill. It's about baseball which is a game I tolerate
a little more than football, and about bringing computer analysis into the
selection of players using statistics and numbers. It was good. For people who
are baseball fans, especially Oakland Athletics fans, they would LOVE it. ***
Newland is a story about a very
strange, damaged little Jewish girl and her brother in a refugee camp in Israel
after World War II. It has an interesting cast of characters and addresses the
horrors of various wartime experiences including the corruption and sleaze of
the refugee camp. It's a bit strange and a little lacking in emotion
considering the subject matter, but that could be due to the performances. **
One More Time is a story about a
has-been crooner (Christopher Walken) feeling old, poor, and washed up. He is
constantly planning his comeback, although claims he never left. It's very sad.
In the meantime he's having an extra marital affair behind the back of his
sixth (?) wife. His dysfunctional family rallies around him as his support, but
it all seems to focus on his youngest daughter (Amber Heard) who is
directionless, but not screwed up enough to be interesting. I kept waiting for
the story to get past the background and take a twist so the plot would begin,
but nothing ever transpired. His singing was cringe-worthy. So was her's,
although everyone kept saying how much talent she had and if she'd just apply
herself she'd be as famous. I wasn't seeing it. I kept asking myself Who is Amber Heard??? I didn't recognize her, but yet her name
sounded familiar. Ah ha! She's the soon-to-be-ex of Johnny Depp currently
headlining the tabloids. So weird to make your mark on the film industry as
someone's ex-wife. **
Philadelphia with Tom Hanks and
Denzel Washington about a lawyer who is wrongfully fired because he has AIDS.
What an outstanding film. Is it any wonder why Tom Hanks won the Academy Award
for Best Actor? *****
Pitch Perfect 2 was really horrible
with stupid humor fit for prepubescent teenagers and unrealistic characters
with dialogue that was written for children. I didn't even like the music. I lasted 15 minutes. *
Race is the story of Jesse Owens and
his Olympic Game wins that slapped the Nazis in the face. Great story, great
acting, excellent everything. ****
The Rapture was horrible. Bad
acting, bad script, , bad cheap sets, really, really bad religion shoved down
the viewer's throat. We are all going to hell in a hand basket and it's too late to convert! <zero stars>
Risen is about the Resurrection of
Christ as seen through the eyes of a Roman centurion (Joseph Fiennes). Jesus is
crucified, he rises, and the centurion is sent to find the body as the
powers-that-be (Jewish priests and Roman magistrates) are sure it was stolen so
Jesus' followers could fabricate a miracle and create another social
disturbance. The problem is the
centurion finds the body very much alive. This is another aspect of the Jesus
tale that is rarely used as a movie or book theme. (See also below The Young Messiah...It's a Jesus-themed
movie month!) It was very well done, great sets, great costumes, great
performances, good script and an interesting take on a well-known biblical
story. Loved the apostles especially Bartholomew. ****
St. Vincent is about a mean,
alcoholic man (Bill Murray) who babysits the new kid next door after school. He
takes him to the race track where he can learn commerce, to the local bar to
learn social studies and teaches him how to defend himself against bullies. It
has some great LOL moments and Naomi Watts is a superb pregnant Russian
stripper-prostitute. ****
Summer Magic the 1960s Disney movie
with Hayley Mills about a family who loses money and moves to the country to
live in a big yellow house. Dorothy McGuire plays the mother. She must have
been a smoker with those yellow teeth and sallow looking skin. Hayley Mills is
adorable. The costumes are beautiful. Good ole fashioned Disney. I used to LOVE
these movies as a kid. ****
This is Where I Leave You is about a
man who has done everything possible in his life to avoid mistakes so he can
live a perfect, predictable, rational life. Then he catches his wife sleeping
with his boss, loses the wife and his job, his father dies and his world
unravels. The whole family gets together with all their strange dysfunction.
All-star cast of characters, great performances, interesting relationships.
Jane Fonda looks great. I'm envious. Crappy title.***
The 33 is a true story about the
thirty-three miners who were trapped in a Chilean mine for 69 days. It stars
Antonio Banderas and Lou Diamond Phillips. Very good, suspenseful, human
interest drama with outstanding performances. ****
Twice Born is a very complex story
about two young lovers, one Italian and one American who meet in Bosnia and
fall in love. She can't have children and they devise an elaborate surrogate
plan but the Bosnia War intervenes. Twenty years later the woman brings her son
back to Bosnia to show him where she met his father. By the end we find out
it's not as it seems...***
Valley of the Dolls I can't believe
I have never seen this movie. I've always heard a lot about it. I think it must
have been scandalous back in the sixties when it came out with all that
subversive behavior. OUTSTANDING theme song. I've always loved the song. It's
so haunting. And to have Dionne Warwick sing it throughout the movie was
awesome. I used to have my mother's old Dionne Warwick album with this song on
it. The whole album was superb. I miss it, but long gone are the days of turn
tables. The clothes were fantastic - matching coats, hats, purses and shoes. I
loved it. Sharon Tate's clothes especially. In one scene she wears this hot
pink pant suit ensemble with white shoes. Nothing special (except the color)
until she removes the coat (she's out by the pool) and the hot pink hip hugger
bell bottoms have a wide white belt and she's wearing a lime green bikini top.
WOW. I've never known Sharon Tate other than as the woman the Manson Family
murdered. She was really beautiful. Many have wondered throughout the years how
far she would have gone in the entertainment industry and now I see why. And
the HAIR STYLES! Long tresses ratted up high and sprayed with a whole can of
toxic lacquer to hold it all in place. Of course, the story is a melodramatic
Hollywood-themed soap opera - everyone is drinking, popping pills, and having
premarital sex. Scandalous! They called people "fags" and
"queers" a lot just to enhance the subversion theme. The acting was
not so good although Susan Hayward and Patty Duke weren't too bad. Well, OK,
they were better than the others, but still bad by today's standards. It was
fun. And long. Very long. A wonderful example of classic 1960s culture. I can't
stop humming the theme song. ***
The Walk is the Hollywood version of
the true story of Philippe Petit (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the wire
walker who walked a tight rope (wire) between the Twin Towers of the World
Trade Center. It's hard to believe someone actually did it or even wanted to do
that. The theme is not only "follow your dreams" but emphasizes the people it
takes to make dreams come true as individual feats are rarely individual. It
was a beautiful memorial to the Twin Towers. ***
Whiplash is the Academy Award winner
I tried watching months ago and couldn't stomach the abuse. I tried watching it
again and powered through the disrespectful screaming of the instructor, temper
tantrums, throwing cymbals at his students and still hated it. I'm not sure if it's
more about the student's obsession at perfection or the teacher's idea that
abuse makes musical genius. Great performances, but I still didn't care for it.
Too much confrontation. ***
The Young Messiah is the story of
Jesus as a seven year old who is raising the dead, curing the sick, and healing
the blind, but he doesn't quite understand what it all means. I found this
idiotic. He might have been only seven years old, but HE IS GOD. There is very
little about Jesus as a child in the Bible and I can't think of any movie that
features this time period. Christopher Moore's hilarious book Lamb does, but this is a rare portrayal.
I get the impression the writers had to decide how to handle it: historical
realism or supernatural surrealism. They picked realism with a touch of oddness
just to remind us the kid is GOD. Hmmm...not a good choice, I think.
There is a weakness of plot, dialogue and performance (well, everything except
the sets) that makes the movie boring. I would have liked to have seen a little
more emotion and conflict. For instance when he brought the dead bird back to
life instead of his cousins just looking
at the bird as if that was perfectly natural, I would have liked some facial
expression and dialogue of surprise and awe...or fear..or what the hell?? Maybe his mother could have swooped down, grabbed
him by the arm, drug him to the wood shed and whooped his ass. When he is being
questioned by the rabbi on his knowledge of the scriptures, instead of mindless
recitation, little Jesus should have recited and then added his I AM GOD special knowledge in some way
that made them all take a step back as if to say, "Holy shit, HE IS
GOD.". There are some scenes of divine cloud formation (Girl Alive would
have liked this...) and holy sun rays, but their usage was inappropriately
melodramatic and didn't fit with the story as if they just stuck the scenic
photographs in as a post-production afterthought. It was like looking at illustrations
on a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet. I think every time little Jesus prayed is when
they should have shot sun rays down on him and every time he cured someone is
when the clouds should have opened up. Granted, the bonus features do admit
it's was low budget film, but little inexpensive additions would have added
some pizzazz and interest. The little boy they found to play Jesus is stunning,
the perfect choice, but if he had acting skills, they didn't show. I would have
liked the character to show more divine wisdom and understanding of the world.
After all, HE IS GOD. I would have liked him to have had blue, sparkling eyes to beat in the idea he was
holier than thou, too. It was OK, but it could have been great.***
No comments:
Post a Comment