Editor's Note and Caution for Readers: These personal reviews are meant to be read by mature, open-minded adults only. Children should be protected from reading these reviews. I am not writing these reviews for children and am not reviewing only movies for children. I am writing these reviews for adults, who can use their discretion in determining what their children should see or not see. I see very little value in writing reviews to make everyone happy, therefore my opinions (and we each have one) are very direct and sometimes raw. My taste in movies at this point in my life generally involves comedies, romantic comedies, and movies about relationships. I understand as I grow older that the most important things in my life are my relationships with family and friends. I do not generally care for movies involving action flicks, heavy drama, disaster flicks and science fiction (I have seen too many, some of which were excellent), and therefore care more to be entertained and uplifted by movies with a lighter or more introspective message. I use a rating system of 4 stars (4 is excellent, 3 is good, 2 is average and 1 is terrible).
The most current reviews (not the most current movies) appear here.
Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley
Movie History - Remembering Audrey Hepburn
Click on the Movie Title Link to Access the Review:
A Christmas Story - 4 Stars (Excellent)
A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italian) - 4 Stars (Excellent)
A Lot Like Love - 2 Stars (Average)
A Man for All Seasons - 4 Stars (Excellent)
A River Runs Through It - 3 Stars (Good)
About Schmidt – 1 Star (Terrible)
Akeelah and the Bee – 3 Stars (Good)
Almost Heroes – 1 Star (Terrible)
An Affair to Remember - 3 Stars (Good)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - 2 Stars (Average)
The Anchorman – 1 Star (Terrible)
Anger Management - 2 Stars (Average)
Antonia's Line - 2 Stars (Average)
Apocalypto - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Arsenic and Old Lace - 2 Stars (Average)
Aviator, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Before Sunset – 1 Star (Terrible)
Best in Show - 2 Stars (Average)
Bourne Supremacy, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Boys Don't Cry - 1 Star (Terrible)
Breakfast at Tiffany's - 3 Stars (Good)
Breakfast Club, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Breakfast on Pluto - 2 Stars (Average)
Catch Me If You Can - 2 Stars (Average)
Chariots of Fire - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Charlie’s Angels - 1 Star (Terrible)
Children of Heaven - 2 Stars (Average)
Chorus, The (Les Choristes in French) – 4 Stars (Excellent)
Chris Rock: Bigger & Blacker - 2 Stars (Average)
Christmas Child, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Corky Romano – 1 Star (Terrible)
The Departed - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Defending Your Life – 1 Star (Terrible)
The Devil Wears Prada - 2 Stars (Average)
Don Juan DeMarco - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Down With Love – 1 Star (Terrible)
Dressed to Kill - 4 Stars (Excellent)
The Emperor's Club - 2 Stars (Average)
Failure to Launch - 2 Stars (Average)
Family Stone, The - 2 Stars (Average)
The Fast and the Furious - 2 Stars (Average)
Fast Runner, The - 1 Star (Terrible)
Fiddler on the Roof - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Five Easy Pieces - 2 Stars (Average)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - 2 Stars (Average)
For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in piu in Italian) - 4 Stars (Excellent)
For Love or Money - 2 Stars (Average)
Friday Night Lights – 2 Stars (Average)
Glory Road - 2 Stars (Average)
Gods and Generals - 1 Star (Terrible)
Good Girl, The – 1 Star (Terrible)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo ) - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Hercule Poirot: After the Funeral - 3 Stars (Good)
Hercule Poirot: Dumb Witness - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Hercule Poirot: Peril at End House - 3 Stars (Good)
Hercule Poirot: Cards on the Table - 3 Stars (Good)
Hercule Poirot: The Mystery of The Blue Train - 3 Stars (Good)
Hercule Poirot: Death in the Clouds - 2 Stars (Average)
Hercule Poirot: Sad Cypress - 3 Stars (Good)
High School Musical - 3 Stars (Good)
Hours, The - 2 Stars (Average)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days - 1 Star (Terrible)
Imagine Me & You – 1 Star (Terrible)
Indian Summer - 2 Stars (Average)
In Good Company – 1 Star (Terrible)
It Runs in the Family – 1 Star (Terrible)
Just Like Heaven - 1 Star (Terrible)
Kiss the Bride - 2 Stars
(Average)
Laws of Attraction – 1 Star (Terrible)
Lion in Winter, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Little Big Man - 3 Stars (Good)
Little Manhattan - 1 Star (Terrible)
Living Sea: IMAX, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Lost in Translation - 2 Stars (Average)
Love Letters - 1 Star (Terrible)
Maid in Manhattan - 2 Stars (Average)
March of the Penguins - 2 Stars (Average)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - 2 Stars (Average)
Meet the Fockers - 3 Stars (Good)
Meet the Parents - 1 Star (Terrible)
Million Dollar Baby - 3 Stars (Good)
Mona Lisa Smile - 2 Stars (Average)
Monster-in-Law - 1 Star (Terrible)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 1 Star (Terrible)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith - 1 Star (Terrible)
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - 4 Stars (Excellent)
My Fair Lady - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Myra Breckenridge - 1 Star (Terrible)
Myths and Logic of Shaolin Kung Fu - 1 Star (Terrible)
Nanny McPhee - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Napoleon Dynamite - 1 Star (Terrible)
National Treasure - 3 Stars (Good)
Never Again – 1 Star (Terrible)
Notebook, The - 1 Star (Terrible)
Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika in German) - 3 Stars (Good)
Ocean's Eleven - 2 Stars (Average)
Of Human Bondage - 1 Star (Terrible)
Once Upon a Time in Mexico - 1 Star (Terrible)
Passion of the Christ, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Phantom of the Opera, The - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Pink Panther, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - 2 Stars (Average)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Pretty in Pink – 2 Stars (Average)
Pretty Woman - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Pride and Prejudice - 1 Star (Terrible)
Prince and the Showgirl, The - 1 Star (Terrible)
The Producers - 2 Stars (Average)
Punch-Drunk Love - 1 Star (Terrible)
The Quiet Man - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Racing Stripes – 3 Stars (Good)
Road to Perdition - 2 Stars (Average)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1 Star (Terrible)
Roman Holiday - 3 Stars (Good)
Royal Tenebaums, The - 1 Star (Terrible)
Rumor Has It - 1 Star (Terrible)
Ryan's Daughter - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Saint Ralph – 2 Stars (Average)
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Adam Sandler - 2 Stars (Average)
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Farley - 1 Star (Terrible)
Secondhand Lions – 4 Stars (Excellent)
Second Jungle Book, The – 2 Stars (Average)
Shall We Dance? - 1 Star (Terrible)
Sleepless in Seattle - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Something's Gotta Give - 2 Stars (Average)
Three Amigos - 1 Star (Terrible)
Tipping the Velvet - 4 Stars (Excellent)
To Kill a Mockingbird - 3 Stars (Good)
Transamerica - 1 Star (Terrible)
Unlikely Angel - 2 Stars (Average)
Upside of Anger, The - 1 Star (Terrible)
Waking Ned Devine - 4 Stars (Excellent)
Walk the Line - 2 Stars (Average)
Wedding Planner, The - 2 Stars (Average)
Whale Rider - 2 Stars (Average)
What Women Want - 2 Stars (Average)
Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley
February 8, 2008
Grace and
Humility Personified
Pardon Me, I Am Gushing Again About
Movie's Incomparable Audrey Hepburn
Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
Like a lot of shoppers at supermarkets, I look at the magazine displays while
waiting in line to check out. Recently I was thrilled to see a recent edition to
LIFE's Great Photographers Series: Remembering Audrey 15 Years Later with
photographs by Bob Willoughby.
In my review of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" I posed this question: Was there ever
an actress who combined these four timeless qualities—beauty, fashion, grace and
humility—better than Audrey Hepburn? My answer was simply, I think not.
You better believe I bought a
copy of Remembering Audrey faster than a single heartbeat, and remain a better
person for having done so.
Willoughby was born in Los Angeles—the city of the stars—and began taking
pictures when he was 12. He was good, very good, and best described as a
prodigy. In 1953, when he was 26, he would be assigned to photograph an upcoming
soon to be actress, Audrey Hepburn. The result of their meeting would produce
one of his most positive relationships, both as a photographer and a friend.
Willoughby pioneered the role of the "special" photographer to take formal
publicity shots and candids of the stars Hollywood's publicity departments
wanted to promote. He was credited by Popular Photography magazine as the man
"who virtually invented the photojournalistic motion-picture still."
The images that you remember
of James Dean, Frank Sinatra, Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn
among dozens of others were mostly the work of Bob Willoughby. All of the major
magazines of the day—LIFE, Look, Saturday Evening Post and Harper's
Bazaar—published his work.
Willoughby's creations grace the exhibits in more than 500 museums in more than
50 countries around the world.
When first meeting Audrey, Willoughby said, "She took my hand and dazzled me
with a smile that God designed to melt mortal men's hearts.
"The amazing instant contact she always made was a remarkable gift, and I know
from talking to others that it was felt by all who met her."
Audrey had made a big
impression with the studio brass in the 1953 William Wyler film "Roman Holiday".
She won an Oscar for Best Actress as Princess Ann in her film debut playing
opposite Gregory Peck.
In the next 15 years, she would be nominated for 4 Best Actress Oscars for her
work as Sabrina Fairchild in "Sabrina" (1954), Sister Luke in "The Nun's Story"
(1959), Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), and Susy Hendrix in
"Wait Until Dark" (1967).
She also won a Golden Globe for Best Drama Actress in Roman Holiday and had an
additional 6 Golden Globe nominations as Best Actress. Lesser known is the fact
that Audrey was one of the few entertainers to have won an Emmy, a Grammy and a
Tony Award as well as an Oscar.
Bob Willoughby's formal and
candid photographs of Audrey Hepburn will stand the test of time as some of the
greatest ever taken of a woman and an actress. He said that Audrey never took a
bad photograph, or even a mediocre one.
"She could sit next to an old ladder on the set and look terrific," said
Willoughby. With designs by Hubert de Givenchy, the world's most smashing woman
wore the world's most smashing fashions.
She became the most charming, disarming, altogether friendly and charismatic
superstar ever to grace a Hollywood production. According to Willoughby,
everyone liked Audrey and remained loyal to her. The best directors and the
world's greatest designers sought to work with her.
It was said that all of her
leading men fell in love with her, including Gregory Peck, William Holden,
Anthony Perkins, Rex Harrison and Albert Finney.
When making "My Fair Lady" Audrey would not be recognized for her role as Eliza
Doolittle. She had been promised that she could sing her songs in the film, but
Marni Nixon was ultimately contracted to perform Eliza's vocals.
Julie Andrews had played the role of Eliza in the stage production of the Lerner
and Loewe musical, but she lost the role to Audrey in the film. It was perhaps
no accident that the Best Actress Oscar that year went to Julie Andrews for her
role as Mary Poppins.
My Fair Lady cost $17 million
to make in 1964, an astounding investment in its day. It became Warner Brothers
highest-grossing film at the time, and would go on to earn 12 Oscar nominations
and win 8 Oscars. Many film historians consider My Fair Lady to be the last
great musical of Hollywood's studio era.
Audrey would marry twice and have a son by both Mel Ferrer, the actor/director,
and Andrea Dotti, an Italian psychiatrist. She suffered 4 miscarriages during
her 13-year marriage to Mel Ferrer.
In her early life, Audrey's parents would divorce and her mother took her and
her two stepbrothers to London and then to the Netherlands, where her mother was
a bona fide Dutch baroness. In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and the
horror of war would surround her.
She danced in clandestine
locations to raise money for the Dutch Resistance. One of her stepbrothers was
sent to a German labor camp, and her uncle and one of her mother's cousins were
shot and killed for participating in the Resistance.
The Germans seized food and fuel when the Netherlands was already suffering a
winter famine. Audrey would suffer malnutrition, anemia and frequent bouts of
depression. She was 10 years old when World War II started and remained fragile
her entire life as a result of her wartime experience.
Some believe her final act in life was her best when she was named UNICEF's
International Goodwill Ambassador in 1988. Audrey would travel around the world
on 50+ missions to bring attention to the world's suffering children. The sight
of children dying from hunger in distant lands was devastating; she had once
been one of those children and survived.
"I want people to know that
the largest part of humanity is suffering," said Audrey. Despite being terribly
ill herself, she continued to go on missions. She would die of colon cancer in
1993, four months before her 64th birthday. When she died, the world lost a
great human being.
Bob Willoughby said it best: "She left those who came into contact with her
better for having known her. I miss her to this day." Amen, Bob, amen.
Editor's Note: Read my reviews
on romantic dramas, including
"An Affair to Remember", "Breakfast at Tiffany's", "Roman Holiday", "Ryan's
Daughter" and "The Quiet Man".
Movie Reviews Start Here:
A Christmas Story – 4 Stars
(Excellent)
A Christmas Story is arguably the best Christmas movie ever. There is no doubt
that the 1984 version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol starring George C.
Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge is a worthy contender for the honor. Since I have not
seen Fanny & Alexander (1983), I remain a huge fan of A Christmas Story. Can
there be anything greater than Santa coming to your house on Christmas Eve with
the perfect gift of your choice? I think not, especially if it is a genuine Red
Ryder 200-Shot, Carbine-Action BB Gun for a 9-year-old named Ralphie living in
Northern Indiana in the 1940s. Imagine Ralphie's dismay when his mother, his
teacher at Warren G. Harding Elementary School and ultimately even Santa Claus
at Higby's Department Store tell him "you'll shoot your eye out."
A Christmas Story is about much more
than whether Ralphie gets the
Red Ryder BB Gun he covets. It is about a Midwest family with two boys, Ralphie
(Peter Billingsley) and Randy (Ian Petrella), who encounter the normal struggles
of growing up. Ralphie and his friend Schwartz (R. D. Robb) badger their friend
Flick (Scott Schwartz, not to be confused with R. D. Robb who plays the role of
Schwartz) into pressing his tongue against a steel post to see if it will stick.
Flick, who realizes that he might be wrong in saying his tongue will not stick,
is left with no alternative when Schwartz whips a "triple dog dare" on him. To
save face, Flick learns a very hard lesson and this film gets some great footage
in the process. Both the boys and the girls watching this drama unfold are
horrified at the result and the boys have no problem abandoning Flick when the
school bell rings. Flick is left frozen to the post. When their teacher Mrs.
Shields (Tedde Moore) confronts them about who is responsible for Flick's
condition, they clam up, realizing "it's always better not to get caught."
All of the boys also must deal
with the terrifying Scut
Farcas (Zack Ward) and Grover Dill (Yano Anaya), the schoolyard bullies. They
get pummeled on a daily basis and act like cowards until Ralphie sees Santa at
Higby's and gets another dose of "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." Ralphie is so
agitated with rejection over his Christmas wish that when he is next confronted
by the bullies he flies into a fit of genuine rage, charging the much larger
Scut knocking him down and pounding him repeatedly in the face. Scut ends up
with a bloody face and 100 times the embarrassment of being beat up. This event
would forever after be known as the Scut Farcas Affair. I love A Christmas Story
because the exact same thing happened to me growing up in the Midwest. I was
small for my age and was constantly picked on by bullies until I learned how to
fight back no matter what the odds. When the Parker family goes out to buy their
Christmas tree they encounter a flat tire on the way home. Mrs. Parker (Melinda
Dillon) encourages Ralphie to help his father (Darren McGavin) fix the flat.
Ralphie manages to lose the
lug nuts during the tire
change, and, in fit of fright, utters the dreaded F-word to the shock of his
parents. Mrs. Parker demands to know where he learned the word and Ralphie,
desperate to come up with an acceptable choice shoots out a name of a friend.
Ralphie, of course, has heard his father cuss time and again, quoting that his
father could "weave a tapestry of obscenities that is still hanging in space
over Lake Michigan." When their furnace in the basement acts up, Ralphie says
"my father dabbled in profanities like an artist dabbles in oils." This cussing
incident so resonates with me because I grew up in the same kind of environment.
I often believed my stepfather had a 200-word vocabulary and at least 50 of
those words were cuss words. I probably heard the F-word 10,000 times before I
graduated from high school. I used to tell my friends I could speak 5 foreign
languages if I got mad enough. A Christmas Story is loaded with other real life
events, including Ralphie's day-dream about being blind from having to suck on
soap for cussing, his father winning a prize lamp shaped like a woman's leg that
he displays in their living room window for all to see, and the secret decoder
Ralphie gets by eating Ovaltine for breakfast.
There is also Aunt Clara's gift of a
pink bunny costume that
Ralphie is forced to model on Christmas morning, the neighbor's dogs getting
into the house and eating their Christmas turkey, and the surprise on Christmas
morning after all of the gifts are opened. A Christmas Story is based on Jean
Shepherd's book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd does a superb job
of narrating this film about his childhood. The film is so well done, so
authentic to its 1940s time period, so believable and likeable that it gets my
excellent rating without qualification. Director Bob Clark is uncanny in his
ability to orchestrate this timeless story. Peter Billingsley is a 13-year-old
actor playing the role of 9-year-old Ralphie and does so with incredible facial
expressions. Young Billingsley is in the moment and totally professional. A
Christmas Story, a low budget film that was not expected to do well, was
released just before Thanksgiving in 1983. By Christmas the film had been pulled
from theaters because it was thought to have been "played out." It was only
because of complaints from moviegoers that it was brought back to life.
The film celebrated its 20th
anniversary in 2003 with
release of a two-disc special edition. There are fans all over the world that
treasure A Christmas Story and will not let it die, and I am one of them. I have
lived so many parts of A Christmas Story that I feel it could also have been the
story of thousands of other young boys growing up in the Midwest. A Christmas
Story is on my personal Top 10 all-time list of favorite movies because it
exemplifies family values and the joy of living those few precious moments that
define us for the rest of our lives. A Christmas Story is an amazing film that
teaches some of life’s great lessons, including determination, courage,
patience, struggle, victory, self-esteem, love, acceptance and belonging. This
is truly a classic movie that only those who have lived these experiences will
appreciate the most. I am blessed to be one of those people.
July 17, 2008
Movie Review:
"A Fistful of Dollars"
Started Sergio Leone's
Masterpiece Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns
Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italian) – 4 Stars (Excellent)
Is it possible for an excellent, groundbreaking film in a specific genre to be
overlooked at award ceremonies? Absolutely, and a perfect example is "A Fistful
of Dollars" that gave rise to what we commonly identify today as "the spaghetti
Western".
A Fistful of Dollars was the first of Director Sergio Leone's masterpiece
trilogy that would be followed by "For A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The
Bad and The Ugly". It was Leone who realized that the American-made Westerns of
the 1950s had become nothing more or less than housing developments designed
with a cookie-cutter pattern of staleness.
Leone's answer was to shoot the film
as if he was orchestrating an opera. The result would become the model for many
Westerns to come, featuring his trademark taciturn characters, precise framing,
extreme close-ups and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone.
All of this would give rise to "The Man With No Name" (Clint Eastwood), who was
originally referred to as "Joe" in A Fistful of Dollars, but became The Man With
No Name in the sequels.
I am very boffo on this film and for good reason. The combination of Leone's
direction is excellent given Morricone's music, the cinematography by Massimo
Dallamano and Federico Larraya, film editing by Roberto Cinquini and Alfonso
Santacana, and sound by Elio Pacella. A Fistful of Dollars was shot in the
Spanish province of Almeria.
Despite its credentials, A Fistful of
Dollars would win only one award—the Italian National Syndicate of Film
Journalists' Silver Ribbon for the Best Score by Ennio Morricone. You could see
this film for the musical score alone and come away very impressed.
Released in 1964, A Fistful of Dollars would not make its American debut until
1967. The film's arrival here was delayed when "Yojimbo" screenwriters Akira
Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima sued for breach of copyright and won, receiving 15%
of the film's worldwide gross and exclusive distribution rights for Japan,
Taiwan and South Korea. Kurosawa said later he made more money off of this
project than he did on Yojimbo, which was released 3 years earlier. The
screenplay was written by A. Bonzzoni, Victor Andres Catena and Sergio Leone.
The story is about a gunfighter (Clint Eastwood) who comes to a small border
town and offers his services to two rival gangs—the Rojos and the Baxters.
The Rojos include the dangerous Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte), Esteban (Sieghardt
Rupp) and Don Benito (Antonio Prieto), Ramon's girlfriend Marisol (Marianne
Koch), Rubio (Benito Stefanelli) and Chico (Mario Brega). The Baxters include
John (Wolfgang Lukschy), his wife Consuelo (Margarita Lozano) and a bevy of
additional lesser-light banditos on both sides.
The bell-ringer in the film, Juan De Dios (Raf Baldassarre) warns the
gunfighter, "you'll get rich here, or you'll be killed." The gunfighter later
acknowledges that the "crazy bell-ringer was right, there's money to be made in
a place like this."
Neither gang is aware of The Man With
No Name's ploy to play one against the other, each thinking they are using him
against their rival, but the gunfighter will outwit them both.
Along the way he will personally kill at least 14 of them, get the Rojos to
completely obliterate the rest of the Baxter gang, rescue the kidnapped wife and
return her to her family so they can safely escape, rescue the innkeeper
Silvanito (Jose Calvo), and eliminate Ramon Rojo in a classic showdown worthy of
any Western movie every made and too good to share here.
Another actor to watch in this film is Piripero the undertaker (Joseph Egger),
who provides the avenue for The Man With No Name's escape when he is incapable
of doing so on his own.
The genius of Sergio Leone is seen in
one of the film's earliest scenes. As the gunfighter rides slowly into town, 3
Baxter gang members fire shots to scare the mule he is riding. After some food
and whiskey, the gunfighter confronts his tormentors with this dialog:
"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people
laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologize,
like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean
it."
Properly incensed and challenged, 4 key Baxter gang members draw to fire and are
cut down in a blink of an eye by The Man With No Name.
While the dialog and action in this scene are excellent, Leone's direction is
even more so and here is why: In American films, when a cowboy was shot, one
camera was ALWAYS focused on the shooter and a split second later, another
camera cut to the victim. Leone captured the scene with the camera over
Eastwood's shoulder, so the moviegoer could vicariously witness the shooting as
if he was doing the shooting.
Leone's genius was as powerful
today—44 years later—as an interactive web site on the Internet, both of which
did not exist in 1964. No wonder it is so easy for moviegoers today to
experience his genius.
A Fistful of Dollars is too good not to experience. Like so many films that are
expected to be nothing and become classics in movie history, the role of The Man
With No Name is littered with big names who did not play the role when an
unknown like Clint Eastwood did.
This list includes Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Charles Bronson and Richard
Harrison. Harrison would later acknowledge that "maybe my greatest contribution
to cinema was not doing A Fistful of Dollars and recommending Clint for the
part."
Eastwood had been in the television series "Rawhide" prior to being tapped for
the role. He helped build the character of The Man With No Name by buying black
jeans form a sport shop on Hollywood Boulevard, buying the hat he wore from a
Santa Monica wardrobe firm, and buying his trademark black cigars from a Beverly
Hills store. He cut the cigars into thirds to give them a more distinctive look.
Leone was reportedly taken with
Eastwood's distinctive style, commenting in Italian that "I like Clint Eastwood
because he has only two facial expressions: one with the hat, and one without
it."
Like another tremendously successful actor Tom Hanks, Eastwood knew how to
instinctively exude enormous charisma that was never evident in his low-key
style. Any real man in America would be proud to strap on The Man With No Name's
gun belt and pistol. Is A Fistful of Dollars a guy film? Certainly.
Leone did not direct the first spaghetti western ever made, but his was the
first one to receive a major international release, not to mention the fact that
it launched Clint Eastwood on an incredibly successful career as one of
Hollywood's most popular, profitable and bankable actors and directors ever.
Read more of my movie reviews on action adventure films, including:
"Pirates of the
Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" with Johnny Depp as Captain Jack
Sparrow
"Pirates of the Caribbean: "Dead Man's Chest" with Johnny Depp as the perfect
pirate
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" with Johnny Depp
"The Departed" with megastars Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon
December 14, 2007
"A Lot Like Love" Is Light
Enough
to Fly Away and Never Be Missed
A Lot Like Love – 2 Stars
(Average)
"A Lot Like Love" chronicles the indecision of two young adults who are
misguided and muddled in both their careers and love life. They haul off and do
nothing with themselves and then wonder why they are not happy. No wonder they
are confused about love.
Perhaps they represent too many young adults today, bouncing around like a small
metal ball in a pinball contest. Small in thought, small in words and small in
deeds.
Drifting, detached, uncommitted, meaningless and terribly out of touch with
themselves and everyone around them.
This is Hollywood, of course, and so they do have unplanned sex that is more
like buying a bologna sandwich, taking the wrapper off, eating it, throwing the
wrapper away, and wondering what's for dinner.
The politically correct
expression for this might be casual sex, but no one is laughing, least of all
the participants.
Life is a pretty good deal to anyone who is paying attention; the two love boobs
in this romantic comedy deserve each other. Of course they end up together in
the end, that is the point of a romantic comedy, otherwise it would be romantic
tragedy.
A Lot Like Love moves along at the same pace as its leading characters, Emily
(Amanda Peet) and Oliver (Ashton Kutcher), slow to very slow.
It reminds me oddly enough of Max McGee's comment to his Green Bay Packer coach
Vince Lombardi. Lombardi liked to start every season with the fundamentals, so
he would hold up a football on the first day of practice, look serious, and say,
"Gentlemen, this is a football," to which McGee—the chief clown among the
players, replied, "Uh, Coach, could you slow down a little. You're going too
fast for us."
The script is the creation of
award-winning writer Colin Patrick Lynch who has apparently done some good work,
but this wasn't it.
At best, Lynch understands the teenybopper set as the only award for this film
was the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Rockstar Moment when Ashton Kutcher
sang "I'll Be There for You". As tennyboppers are slaves to the latest fashion
trends and pop music it comes as no great surprise.
The premise of A Lot Like Love, directed by Nigel Cole in an apparently somber
moment, has two people meeting on a flight, toying with the idea of liking each
other, and then dismissing the relationship only to keep bumping into each other
over the next 7 years.
The movie has its comedic seconds, twists and turns, and a decent ending. What
it lacks in substance among the characters it makes up for in slow development,
which is why it was not a stunner at awards time and came off as an average
effort.
Both Amanda Peet and Ashton
Kutcher deserved a better script and character development. Peet must play a
pothead with a fried brain and Kutcher plays a dipstick who lives at home with
his mother and sister.
Eventually Peet's character ends up in a halter-top party dress and looks like a
million bucks as long as she doesn't open her mouth. Kutcher's character is
hopeless, it's a wonder he can find his way home. This was supposed to be a
comedy, but it was not THAT funny.
See this film once, and if someone invites you back a second time, tell them you
have already seen it five times and are sick of it.
Editor's Note: Read my
reviews on kids and youth who are inspirational, including "Akeelah and the
Bee", "Saint Ralph", "High School Musical" and "2 Movies About Young Adults That
Prove Their Integrity and Substance".
August 13, 2007
"A Man
for All Seasons" Demonstrates What
Integrity Should Be in the Middle
Ages and Now
A Man for All Seasons - 4 Stars (Excellent)
A Man for All Seasons poses the question: What would a man sacrifice for his principles?
When King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) seeks approval to divorce his aging wife Catherine of Aragon who could not bear him a son, and marry his mistress Anne Boleyn, the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church stand in his way.
Henry VIII's new Chancellor of England and Cardinal--Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield)—stands in his way as well. Henry VIII wants Sir Thomas More's blessing in his action but does not get it as Sir Thomas More, a good Catholic and Cardinal, will not go along with such heresy.
More resigns as chancellor, seeking to live out his life as a private citizen, but Henry VIII will settle for nothing less than More's public approval of his headstrong course. Sir Thomas refuses to either endorse or denounce the King's action, and remains a man of principle.
Great effort is made to convince More to change his stance on Henry VIII's action. One of More's rivals, Thomas Cromwell (Leo McKern); another religious, Cardinal Wolsey (Orson Welles); and The Duke of Norfolk (Nigel Davenport) all take their turns at More.
One example is when More testifies before an inquiry committee and Norfolk attempts to persuade him to sign an oath of allegiance:
Norfolk: "Look, I'm not a scholar, and frankly I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not—but Thomas, look at these names! You know these men! Can't you do as I did and come along with us for fellowship?"
More: "And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Heaven for doing according to your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing according to mine, will you come along with me—for fellowship?"
There are several lines by More that merit mention but there is not enough space to do so. Here is one of the best: "I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos."
Sir Thomas More was a very smart and savvy—as well as principled—man.
Henry VIII gets every person of any consequence in England to sign his oath (the Act of Supremacy), endorsing his action, except Sir Thomas who will not sign, and remains silent as to the reason why he will not sign.
Cromwell is an English statesman and the chief minister to King Henry VIII. It is Cromwell who presides over King Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon in 1533 and Henry's subsequent break with the Roman Catholic Church.
When More proves himself to be loyal to King Henry VIII by not speaking out against him and also shows himself to be a loyal subject by not inciting rebellion, Cromwell appears to prosecute Sir Thomas out of personal spite.
In the end, Sir Thomas is the only person in England who will die for his principles, and commit himself to God for judgment. He is betrayed by an ambitious, lower level appointed attorney general, Richard (John Hurt), whose outright lie condemns Sir Thomas to be beheaded.
Sir Thomas More loses his head (no pun intended) but most importantly, not his soul. Sir Thomas is later canonized as Saint Thomas More by the Roman Catholic Church.
Henry VIII subsequently dies of syphilis, and the evil Thomas Cromwell who orchestrates Sir Thomas More's tragic demise is himself judged a traitor to England 5 years later and is also beheaded.
The riff subsequently leads to England's split from the Roman Catholic Church and the creation of the Anglican Church, the Church of England.
A Man for All Seasons does not deviate from the truth of Sir Thomas More's stance, and as such provides a role model for acting with right thinking and right motives, even at the cost of one's life.
What makes A Man for All Seasons even more impressive is that the plot for the movie is based on the true story of Sir Thomas More. Sir Thomas More was a scholar and statesman who became the leading humanist of the Renaissance Era.
A Man for All Seasons is a story about everything that is right in England and life (Sir Thomas More's integrity to his principles) and everything that is wrong in England and life (greed, avarice, lust, lying, cheating, stealing, the corruption of power, and the corruption of religious leaders).
A Man for All Seasons was writer Robert Bolt's greatest success, first as a play and then as the screenplay for its 1966 movie release following a successful Broadway run. Bolt's 16th Century period piece has exacting details of the era.
A Man for All Seasons would win 6 Oscars at the 1967 Academy Awards: Best Picture (Fred Zinnemann), Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Best Writing (Robert Bolt), Best Actor (Paul Scofield), Best Cinematography (Ted Moore) and Best Costume Design (Elizabeth Haffenden and Joan Bridge).
The film also received Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Shaw) and Best Supporting Actress (Wendy Hiller as Sir Thomas More's wife Alice).
In addition the movie garnered another 27 wins and 5 nominations, including Golden Globe wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor and a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Interestingly, Charlton Heston lobbied heavily for the role of Sir Thomas More, but was not seriously considered. Richard Burton was offered the part and turned it down.
The producers originally wanted Laurence Olivier as Thomas More and Alec Guinness as Wosley, but Director Fred Zinnemann insisted on Paul Scofield and Orson Welles in the roles. The rest is history. Zinnemann obviously knew how to direct a great film and a huge box office success.
"A River Runs Through It" Is a Good Film
With a Bad Message That Develops
Slowly
A River Runs Through It – 3
Stars (Good)
A River Runs Through It is based on a true story about the relationships in a
family of two brothers with a Presbyterian minister for a father, a love for fly
fishing they all enjoy, and a stay-at-home mom.
One brother—Norman Maclean (Craig Sheffer)—is good and grounded, and the other brother—Paul Maclean (Brad Pitt)—makes a lot of bad choices and pays for it in the end. They grow up in the beautiful wilderness of Montana after World War 1 and before the Great Depression.
Norman and Paul are pretty much the same before Norman goes to Dartmouth for six years and returns to become a teacher. Paul is a rebel at heart, a college graduate, a newspaper reporter, and a lover of liquor, gambling and women.
Paul plays a lot of poker, plays on borrowed money, bets with losing hands and does not pay his debts to his card-playing creditors. His creditors have a limited tolerance for his indiscretions.
The film opens with Norman as an old man fly fishing by the river, cogitating on the life he has lived, recounting what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and why he felt helpless to change his brother's ultimate destiny.
In the end, Norman says "It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us." This movie is a guy's film if for no other reason than it is without doubt the greatest movie on fly fishing ever filmed. The scenes of the river are spectacular, and the scenery even more spectacular.
A River Runs Through It won an Oscar for Philippe Rousselot's cinematography. You will not see better cinematography about fly fishing anywhere. The movie says they are fly fishing on the Blackfoot River near Missoula, but the filming was done on the Boulder River about 270 miles east of Missoula.
Mark Isham's original musical score and Richard Friedenberg's screenplay were both nominated for Oscars.
Even director Robert Redford picked up a Golden Globe nomination as Best Director. The real Norman Maclean wrote the story about his family that became the film. Redford spent years trying to gain the rights to Maclean's autobiographical novella.
There is much to recommend A River Runs Through It and at least two drawbacks to enjoying the story and the scenery.
First is the depressing helplessness of Paul's family to reach him emotionally and turn his life around. This forces us to watch a depressing story with a terrible ending.
Second is that you may go to sleep waiting for something to happen as the story develops slower than molasses sliding off of a stick.
Ultimately we are presented with Paul's warped values as he slowly and willfully self-destructs. All of the truly wonderful fly-fishing adventures do not offset the destructiveness of the script's end result.
This is a good movie but who wants to be part of its depressing message? I ask myself, am I a better person for having seen A River Runs Through It? No, I am not.
This film is a story that focuses on warped values and teaches us little about what is really important in life (hint: it is not fly fishing).
About Schmidt – 1 Star (Terrible)
Jack Nicholson is Warren Schmidt in this movie, an actuary whose angry,
miserable life is interrupted by retirement and the sudden death of his wife
when he discovers his life has no real meaning, and he has no real relationships
to comfort him. Nicholson (as Schmidt) stays in character in this effort, but
the 2 hour 5 minute movie is really about 2 hours and 3 minutes of being angry,
miserable and negative, and then a moment of redemption at the end that comes
from a 6-year-old boy in Tanzania he has sponsored.
This does not get my 2-star rating as
even average because it is so unredeeming. Just watching this angry,
negative, miserable movie for 2 hours and 3 minutes put me in a foul mood,
despite the pathetic try at redemption in the end. Who wants to watch a two-hour
movie and feel miserable when you are done? This film has to be the worst film I
have even seen Jack Nicholson in, and did absolutely nothing to enhance
Nicholson's image as one of the great actors of our time. Unfortunately for
Nicholson, he gets involved in this film which lacks a good story line, a good
script and good direction (one might say, he struck out). None of this has any
affect whatsoever on Hollywood as Nicholson was tapped for a Best Actor
nomination (this is Jack, right?) and Kathy Bates for a Best Actress in a
Supporting Role nomination; neither won an Oscar. Small justice for a lousy
film.
Akeelah and the
Bee – 3 Stars (Good)
Learn how an 11-year-old from African American girl from South Los Angeles (Akeelah
Anderson, played by Keke Palmer) sets a goal to make it to the Scripps National
Spelling Bee and win. Learn how she wins, and another 14-year-old Asian boy
contestant wins as well. Learn how she becomes a friend of a Hispanic boy who is
another contestant. Learn how and why she becomes such a good speller BEFORE she
even realizes there is a national spelling competition.
Learn how a school
and community can come together to support her, much like a pro sports team
bringing a community together with positive effects, and ripples of wholesome
change. This is a very well made movie that is a model for families and children
to watch and learn about the importance of making goals, of thinking well of
yourself, of courage, of determination, of taking chances, of standing up for
yourself, of appreciating how others help make us successful, and of not
isolating on your society-driven minority tag so you can become a real winner in
the game of life. See this film for your family, for your children, and
mostly for yourself. This movie can open your heart and your mind; you can
become a better person by watching, learning and applying its many messages
about the goodness of life, and what can be achieved when you stop blaming
others and become open to change. When you blame others, you give up your
ability to change. Akeelah arises above the blame game, and she is 11 years old.
How about you? Do you have what it takes to realize your potential through
personal growth, and the help of others? (notice I did not say professional
growth, and if you do not know the difference, please do yourself a service and
find out).
Almost Heroes – 1 Star (Terrible)
Chris Farley in Lewis & Clark’s Time - Really Bad Flick, as bad as Austin Powers. I like Chris Farley as a comedian; some of his sketches on Saturday Night Live are classics. I am saddened that this film did nothing to showcase his real talent, and contribution to American comedy.
An Affair to Remember - 3 Stars (Good)
This 1957 film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards and has become one of the classic “romantic” films of all time, with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr as two shipboard passengers falling in love as both are “engaged” and headed for marriage. Female movie buffs gravitate to this film like bees to honey, remembering the scene where the two smitten lovers agree—for their relationship to continue— to meet again in 6 months at the top of the Empire State Building. An accident prevents their fateful meeting, and their relationship appears all but over with no communication. Every woman in America who has seen this film knows if they ever get back together (this is a romance story, right?), but guys will have to check it out to see. An Affair to Remember was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Music, but none of the nominations were in the 6 major categories (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director). The big winner in 1957 was The Bridge on the River Kwai, with 8 nominations and 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. Reviews of An Affair to Remember in 1957 ranged from an ideal romance to sensitive to silly. In viewing this film, you have to remember it was made in 1957, and does not benefit from the technology and production techniques we enjoy today. Also, the word lovers had a totally different meaning in 1957 than it does today. In An Affair to Remember, Cary and Deborah did not really even enjoy a single passionate kiss on film, much less make it into the sack. Actually, the film is quite refreshing from the sex standpoint, as today the “stars” involved in too many films cannot spend enough time groping and pawing each other in sweaty excitement, with virtually no emotional commitment but plenty of raw physical lust without consequence. Evidence of just how popular this film is with women especially is the fact that 2 million DVD copies of An Affair to Remember were sold after Sleepless in Seattle was released in 1993, 36 years after the release of An Affair to Remember, that is called staying power (no pun intended). Sleepless in Seattle was a remake of An Affair to Remember (if only for the rendezvous at the top of the Empire State Building), which was in turn a remake of the original Love Affair from 1939. Not to be outdone, Love Affair (the third version) surfaced again in 1994 with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening; unfortunately for Beatty and Bening, the third and latest version did not enjoy nearly the same success as An Affair to Remember and Sleepless in Seattle.
July 30, 2007
"Drag Queens in the Desert" – An Alternative
Film that Has Survived the Test of
Time
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – 2 Stars (Average)
What would Hollywood be without
its share of bitchy, catty, gaudy, outrageous and crazy films?
That is perhaps why Stephen Elliott wrote and directed "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". It is rare when the writer/director of a film can pull it off without the film becoming average to a disaster.
Elliott now officially joins a list that is very long and includes Kimberly Peirce, Vanessa Parise, Peter Weir, Nancy Myers, Thomas Bezucha, Michael McGowan, Jared Hess, Robert Rodriguez and Paul Thomas Anderson.
The worst of the lot? Paul Thomas Anderson for "Punch-Drunk Love".
Elliott's film has two drag-queens—Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Felicia (Guy Pearce)—and a transsexual—Bernadette (Terence Stamp)—contract to perform a drag show at a resort town in the remote Australian desert.
They head west from Sydney aboard a lavender bus called Priscilla (do not ask, just be patient and accepting). En route we get a snapshot of drag queens being bitchy, catty, gaudy and outrageous.
This movie is certifiably crazy with a couple of poignant moments, but is saved from being a terrible movie by Terence Stamp, who earned a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination. Stamp is actually passable as a transsexual.
The "famous" thong dress was part of the wardrobe that won an Oscar at the Academy Awards for Best Costume Design by Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel. The dress cost only $7. I did not even remember seeing this apparently famous dress in the movie.
ABBA fans will love this movie as the drag queens spent a lot of time lip-synching to ABBA's music. ABBA was a Swedish pop music group active from 1972 to 1982.
People who live alternative lifestyles probably loved Elliott's movie. I came away from this film feeling that the drag queens and transsexual were really unhappy people desperate for acceptance they could not find.
The Anchorman – 1 Star (Terrible)
Will Ferrell as a self-absorbed nightly news anchor who falls from grace. This
movie is worse than bad, it is terrible beyond belief. There are a couple of
laughs in it, but it is the absolute pit to watch. Farrell will never make it as
an actor of note with these kinds of roles. The female lead is Christina
Applegate (yes, that Christina—Kelly Bundy—of Married With Children), who is now
grown and pretty darn attractive in spite of appearing in this awful choice of a
movie. We will pray that both Ferrell and Applegate get better roles, although
it looks like Ferrell is making a career out of stupid, crummy roles. He
certainly has more talent than this movie shows. I would date Applegate, at
least once, to see if she had more going for her than just looks; you certainly
could not tell by her choice of movie roles.
Anger Management – 2 Stars
(Average)
Anger Management brings young Adam Sandler together with old Jack Nicholson in a
dippy comedy that borders on a romantic comedy without the dramatic bent. Dave
Buznik (Adam Sandler) is a businessman who is wrongly sentenced to an
anger-management program following an incident on airline flight, but insult is
added to injury when Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson), an aggressive,
unorthodox therapist, becomes his live in roommate during rehabilitation. This
film is dominated by Nicholson, has a script that begs for better lines, and
becomes annoying after awhile, which is very similar to Nicholson's character in
the movie. I am not altogether sure this movie would not have been better if the
roles of Nicholson and Sandler were reversed. Imagine Nicholson as a
problematic, anger-management reprobate (not hard to do) and Sandler as a recent
psychiatrist grad about to deal with his first real patient (easy to do). I
propose this because I felt very little chemistry between Nicholson and Sandler
as they were cast. Anger Management is not a film I would see twice under any
circumstances. Apparently a lot of judges felt the same way as awards were
really absent for this effort.
"Antonia's Line" Got Some Real Hype,
But Its Dark Side Is Simply Too Much
Antonia's Line – 2 Stars (Average)
A disappointment for me. The postscript said “Winner of the 1995 Academy Award
for Best Foreign Language Film and many other prestigious international honors,
Antonia’s Line is the remarkable story of a woman who builds a new life with her
daughter in a quiet Dutch village after World War II. Earthy, sexy, romantic and
filled with laughter and warmth, it’s a joyous, multi-generational celebration
of simple pleasures and enduring passions.”
Shoot, sounded good to me, but it just did not live up to the billing. There is a dark side to this film that the postscript fails to observe or mention. Yes, there is some sex, some romance, some horrific moments, some tender moments and some multi-generational moments.
There is also a daughter who wants (and gets) a baby but has no need of a husband and a father for her newborn (proving, I guess, that Hollywood was not the first to go here).
There are two brutal rapes of children (which, of course, adds to the wholesomeness of a wannabe family film). There is downright cruelty mixed in with all the fun and laughter. There is a cold-blooded murder.
But perhaps the most distressing issue is a total lack of spiritual development by anyone in this film, including a priest, who manages to have sex with a young girl in a confessional (no wonder Hollywood gave this film an Academy Award).
People in this film have no belief in God, they are simply passing time until their end time. Whatever your religious beliefs, having some spiritual development is a really good idea in this world, and it is possible to have spiritual development without practicing a religion.
In the Bible the word fool does not mean someone who is stupid, but rather someone who orders his or her life as if there is no God.
This would be a much more meaningful film if the person who wrote the script recognized the existence of a greater power than the passage of time, simple pleasures and enduring passions. I did not become a better person for seeing this film.
If you want to see a much better foreign film with subtitles than this Academy Award-winning film, try "The Chorus (Les Chroistes in French)", an absolutely superb film by first-time Director Christophe Barratier, which to my knowledge has won no awards whatsoever.
Apocalypto – 4 Stars (Excellent)
Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" shows the raw, violent face of the advanced Mayan
civilization in its decline, with its rulers insisting that the key to continued
prosperity is to build more temples and offer more human sacrifices to their
Gods. The result is the story of innocent Mayans being viciously attacked and
their communal way of life being destroyed to meet an insane desire. Killing
your own has never been a good idea historically and is perhaps a lesson we need
to take more seriously today.
The focal point of this film is Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and his family.
He is one of many sons of Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead), the leader of a
small, isolated Mayan community in the tropical jungle of Mexico's Yucatan
Peninsula just before the arrival of the Spanish in the New World. Flint Sky and
his progeny wish only to be left alone to pursue their destiny in a peaceful
environment. Enter Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo) and his raiding party looking for
victims to sacrifice to the Gods. Jaguar Paw and pregnant wife Seven (Dalia
Hernandez) and their son Turtles Run (Carlos Emilio Baez) escape the attack.
Jaguar Paw quickly finds a hiding place to keep his family safe, and then he
returns to help fight off the attackers. Many in his village are killed and many
more are captured. This story is about how the captured Jaguar Paw can possibly
survive the enforced march to an untimely death and then return to save his
family. In the end, he must choose to greet the oncoming Spanish as their ships
roll into the harbor, or retreat to the jungle and continue to live a hidden
life. I promise you that when
you see this film you will be glued to the edge of your seat.
Apocalypto will hold your interest like very few films can. Some historians were
falling all over themselves to criticize inaccuracies in the film, I suspect
mainly to get some badly needed publicity which they obviously could not do on
their own. Gibson is a film producer in Apocalypto, not an historian. Good
grief, if I want exact history, I will read history books. Gibson brings history
to life and does what no one else in Hollywood dares or cares to do.
Gibson's film is an excellent
presentation of how we would like life not to be, and also a reminder
that no matter how smart we think we are we can sow the seeds of our own
destruction right here in the greatest nation Earth has ever hosted. Apocalypto
is produced by Mel Gibson, Farhad Safinia and Bruce Davey, and written by Gibson
and Safinia. It is worth the price of two tickets to see. I highly recommend it
for adults. It is a not-so-subtle reminder of what civilization was and could be
again. The fate of the Mayan civilization remains a mystery even today. We know
that around 300 BC the Mayan calendar was invented in the Yucatan and was more
exact than older calendars. We know the oldest Mayan temples in Central America
were built around AD 200. We
know that the Classic period of Mayan civilization occurred between
AD 250 to 900 with the development of hieroglyphic writing and advances in art,
architecture and science. We know the Post-Classical period of Mayan
civilization began in AD 900 and extended to 1519. The Mayan civilization was at
its apex in the early 8th Century before eventually falling into decline and
ultimately suffering abandonment. We do not know why the civilization collapsed
but can only speculate that its fall was from within, sowing the seeds of its
own destruction. Apocalypto picked up nominations for Academy Awards in Makeup,
Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. I thought the cinematography was spectacular,
the close up shots of Jaguar Paw running for his very life, the look of fear in
the faces of those innocents who were violently executed by their attackers, and
the jungle with its teeming flora and fauna.
Cinematographer Dean Semler used a
Spydercam to shoot from atop the 170-foot waterfall when Jaguar Paw
jumps to escape Zero Wolf and his killer squad. Semler filmed Apocalypto
digitally, using the high-definition Panavision Genesis camera. Semler is an
artist disguised as a cinematographer. The Central Ohio and Dallas-Fort Worth
Film Critics Associations saw what I did in giving Apocalypto their Best
Cinematography Awards. Apocalypto should have garnered more awards, but Mel
Gibson's unfortunate drinking habit and run-in with a law enforcement officer
did not endear him to the Hollywood community.
Gibson insisted on making the main
sets based on actual buildings rather than computer-generated images.
Three cheers for Gibson as I believe authenticity counts. I am so sick and tried
of seeing stupid kung fu films showing actors jumping 150 feet straight up into
the air and then fighting on a twig. I would like to see these wannabe clowns
fighting Bruce Lee on his best day. Was Apocalypto an epic? Absolutely. There
was a main cast of 39 along with 700 extras. Ever wonder what a support cast is
to a film? For Apocalypto there were 179 people in the Makeup Department, 67 in
the Art Department, 50 in Sound, 36 in Special Effects, 153 in Visual Effects,
33 in Stunts, 80 in Camera and Electrical, 8 in Casting, 22 in Costume and
Wardrobe, 18 in Editorial, 62 in Transportation and 100 more additional crew.
Total support: 800+. Cost of the film: $40 million. Total box office and rental
revenue figures: $72 million and counting.
Many of the speaking roles were by
Mayan people who had never acted. The sick child who curses the
hunting party as they lead the captives on a forced march to their death was
played by a 7-year-old girl who lived in a dirt-floored hut in a village not
unlike Jaguar Paw's. This was a haunting scene as the girl who was affected with
the plague and untouchable upbraids the hunting party by saying "You fear me? So
you should. All you who are vile. Would you like to know how you will die? The
scared time is near. Beware the blackness of the day. Beware the man who brings
the jaguar. Behold him reborn from mud and earth. For the one he takes you to
will cancel the sky, and scratch out the earth. Scratch you out. And end your
world. He's with us now. Day will be like night. And the man jaguar will lead
you to your end." Herein we
learn how Jaguar Paw avoids being beheaded only to run the gauntlet
of spears and arrows in his escape back into the jungle. This is a brutal and
graphic film with beheadings like sound bites. There are too many gems in this
film to list here. Suffice to say a village elder uses animals to tell a story
about how man will never be satisfied despite using the Earth and everything in
it for his own gain. You will cringe when Jaguar Paw's wife and young son face
downing as she falls and must deliver her newborn facing certain death. In the
end Jaguar Paw uses his wit and wisdom to claim the forest as his own. Get out
and see Apocalypto. This is a film nearly everyone could benefit from seeing
before they pass from this Earth. It will remind you of how fragile and perilous
our life is.
Arsenic and Old Lace – 2 Stars (Average)
A drama critic discovers that his two elderly aunts are helping their male
callers by poisoning them with arsenic and burying them in the basement. Their
nephew who is mentally ill and apparently harmless, digs the graves in the
basement and believes that he is President Teddy Roosevelt. This film, made in
1944 (the year I was born), is in black and white; color films had not yet been
perfected. Arsenic and Old Lace stars Cary Grant in what must have been his
first film, or one his first films, as his performance is not star quality. The
film is funny and gives a real snapshot of how the movie business has changed in
a half century.
"The Aviator" Earned Cate Blanchett the
Supporting Actress Oscar as Kate
Hepburn
The Aviator – 2 Stars (Average)
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Howard Hughes in a film that captures Hughes life
from his arrival in Hollywood to the onset on his illness that forced him into
seclusion for the rest of his life.
Hughes was a billionaire who also was a great visionary in the aviation field and a movie maker of some note. His obsessive-compulsive disorder shortened his contribution to the world, but not his impact.
DeCaprio is nothing short of sensational in this acting assignment. He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar but lost to Jamie Foxx in Ray, the story of Ray Charles. I have not seen Ray yet, but believe that DiCaprio could not have won the Oscar even if he did out act Foxx.
The reason is The Aviator has a tough beginning, and is not nearly as likeable film as a film about Ray Charles, who is loved by any who have heard his music and story.
The start of this film shows his mother planting the seed in his mind that he will never be safe from germs, which he buys into and it affects him the rest of his natural life. Cate Blanchett did win the Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Katharine Hepburn in the move.
The Aviator had 11 Oscar nominations and five wins, including Blanchett's. Despite the performances by DiCaprio and Blanchett, I cannot give this film a 3 even though it is my intention to do so; the movie was simply too negative and too graphic in its presentation.
Before Sunset – 1 Star (Terrible)
Before Sunset is the story of a young couple who reunite 10 years later in Paris
after an original fling. There is no story line in this movie, apparently they
forgot to write one. Before Sunset follows the male and female leads walking
around Paris and talking until they come back together. The production in this
movie not really well done (despite being in Paris), and I was not always able
to hear the audio. It is filled with what are supposed to be cute lines that get
very tired after awhile. If this was meant to be a movie about relationships, it
failed miserably.
August 7, 2007
Only a Dog Lover Could Really Love
"Best in Show" – A Mockumentary
Best in Show – 2 Stars (Average)
Director Christopher Guest teamed with Eugene Levy as writers for "Best in Show"
that looks at the funnier side of the legendary Westminster Kennel Club's annual
competition, otherwise known as a prestigious dog show.
Premiere voted the result as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time" in 2006. Premiere, an American and New York City-based film magazine, was published from 1987 to 2007 before becoming an online-only publication.
Best in Show uses a camera crew to follow the foibles and fortunes of the owners (and handlers) of five show dogs headed for the annual Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philadelphia.
Traveling from Florida is Cookie Fleck (Catherine O'Hara) and Gerry Fleck (played by film writer Eugene Levy). Gerry literally has two left feet and Cookie apparently bedded hundreds of men on her way to marrying Gerry.
She meets many of her former lovers in the film, aggravating her bumpkin husband to no end. Cookie was "hot" and apparently very available.
Coming from North Carolina is Harlan Pepper (played by director and writer Christopher Guest, the real-life husband of Jamie Lee Curtis, a marriage that has lasted since 1984). Pepper owns a fly-fishing shop and is enamored with his Bloodhound "Hubert".
Shari Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) is a voluptuous, wealthy blond bimbo and gold-digger married to Leslie Cabot (Patrick Cranshaw). Shari owns Rhapsody in White, a perfectly manicured poodle who is the two-time defending Best in Show champion.
Her husband Leslie says not a word in the film, appears dead, embalmed and strapped to a wheelchair. Shari is not only enamored with her poodle but also with her handler Christy Cummings (Jane Lynch). Christy and Shari are in more heat than any masculine, healthy dog could muster.
Coming from who knows where with their entry are Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean) and Scott Donlan (John Michael Higgins), an outgoing, outrageous, stereotypical gay couple.
These four entrants are joined by Meg Swan (Parker Posey) and Hamilton Swan (Michael Hitchcock). The Swans are anything but graceful, quiet and beautiful to be around.
They are DINKs (double income, no kids) who constantly scream at each other throughout the film, raising their invective to an art form. Meg and Hamilton are so up tight it is a wonder they can even relieve themselves at appropriate times.
Despite being a comedy, the behavior of the Swans in Best of Show is so well done and lifelike that their tirade ceases to be funny and becomes disturbing. Neither Posey or Hitchcock received an acting award for their performances, but I could not fault them for their effort.
Two more notable performances in this film come from Buck Laughlin (Fred Willard) as the "color commentator" at the prestigious competition, and from Mark Schaefer (Ed Begley, Jr., almost my namesake) as manager of the Taft Hotel that put up with the dog show owners in Philly.
Fred Willard's commentary in this film lives on; it is used occasionally by sports talk radio hosts Groz and Gas as a humor segment on the most popular sports talk station in the country, KJR 950 in Seattle.
Despite its rating as one of The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time by Premiere magazine, Best in Show comes up short on the awards end. It earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Comedy and a few lesser awards.
Best in Show earned only $16 million at the box office, perhaps because of its slow start. It opened the 1st week at only 13 theaters nationally, moved to 53 theaters its 2nd week, 291 its 3rd week and finally broke though with 497 theaters its 4th week, topping $2 million before dying off after 12 weeks.
Best in Show is referred to as a "mockumentary", a word that does not appear in The New Oxford American Dictionary (my personal word bible). One might call Best in Show a parody of a documentary with humor as the centerpiece. It is good for some laughs.
The Bourne Supremacy – 2 Stars (Average)
In a CIA sting in Berlin two agents get murdered and a former agent, Jason
Bourne (Matt Damon), is framed for the hit. Bourne was in India with his
girlfriend at the time, having dropped out of the CIA after suffering amnesia.
The sting gone wrong was an inside job, which was one of CIA’s own, just not
Bourne. In the meantime, the CIA wants Bourne dead, and so does the ruthless
cartel that was paid to frame him. This is an action adventure, and not a bad
start to a movie, but the presentation suffers because it is too hard to follow
the story line, the sound is terrible (you just cannot hear much of the movie
without turning up the volume very high), and the main auto chase scene in the
movie is beyond ridiculous. Yes,
there are cars crashing everywhere, but what happens during the chase
is just stupid. Why is it that in the movies, always, always, always, there are
5,000 cops and police cars chasing the wronged victim, and the police officers
chasing the "bad guy" are cast as idiots? The police in The Bourne Supremacy are
presented as dumber than a rock when, in real life, just the opposite is true,
as the criminal is more often than not captured because he is dumb. This flaw in
moviemaking hurts the reality of the presentation in a suspenseful drama, and
makes it tougher to swallow. Please, leave the dumb, bungling cop routine for
comedies (I believe we call this associating appropriately).
January 17, 2007
"Boys Don't Cry" Stirs Our Basic Emotions, But
Fails Miserably to Increase Our
Understanding
Boys Don't Cry – 1 Star (Terrible)
How can a film produce an Oscar winning Best Actress performance and a Best
Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and still be a terrible movie?
Easy, just fail to deliver an important message involving understanding and knowledge when you have millions of moviegoers who are glued to your presentation.
Give Kimberly Peirce credit for tackling an extremely controversial subject in "Boys Don't Cry", the true life story of Brandon Teena, a transgendered teen who was born a woman named Teena Brandon that preferred life as a male until it was discovered that "he" was born female.
To say that this is a disturbing and powerful film is much more than an understatement when Brandon's biological identity becomes known, the script gives us an all too familiar scenario of events: betrayal, humiliation, rape and murder.
Please, Kimberly Peirce, if there is to be a subsequent controversial movie in the offing, do not repeat this scenario as it only reinforces all of the stereotypes, prejudices, bigotry, stupidity and transphobia already present in our society and culture.
(I am not sure what the phobia is for transgendered people so I simply created transphobia because homophobia means an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people, which is not what we are talking about here.)
In fairness to Peirce, Boys Don't Cry was her first film as a director, and she shared the screenwriting credits with Andy Bienen. Peirce drew some minor praise for her direction and script with the Stockholm Film Festival's Best Screenplay Award and even a Best Film nod from the International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
However, artistically this is not even an average film and certainly not a pleasant viewing experience because of the R-rated violence, including an intensely brutal rape scene, sexuality, language, drug usage and murder. Good grief, Lucy would have been aghast!
The point is that none of this graphic violence would have been needed to make this a great and moving film that engenders more understanding and compassion rather than being a disturbing drama with romance gone wrong.
Kimberly Peirce is not the first director/writer whose effort in a dual role breeds more failure than success. Any trophy she won for her directing and writing effort in Boys Don't Cry is metal without real meaning because it does little to help viewers better know and understand the transgendered community.
Peirce (terrible rating) joins the non-so-exclusive club of fellow writer/directors who have fallen short, including Vanessa Parise (average rating) for Kiss the Bride, Peter Weir (average rating) for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Nancy Myers (average rating) for Something's Gotta Give, Thomas Bezucha (average rating) for The Family Stone, Michael McGowan (average rating) for Saint Ralph, Jared Hess (terrible rating) for Napoleon Dynamite, Robert Rodriguez (terrible rating) for Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Paul Thomas Anderson (terrible rating) for Punch-Drunk Love.
The absolute worst of this lot is Punch-Drunk Love.
Boys Don't Cry must have been a low-budget movie because the star of the film Hilary Swank reportedly earned $75 a day for the filming and walked away with a paltry $3,000. Let aspiring actors know that Hollywood is not all glamour and wealth.
Hilary Swank delivered even though the movie did not. She earned both Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actress Awards as Brandon Teena. Swank also won another 18 lesser Best Actress Awards.
Chloë Sevigny played Lana Tisdel, Brandon Teena's love interest in the film. Sevigny earned both Best Supporting Actress Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and won another 7 lesser Best Suipporting Actress Awards.
Every female in the film auditioned for part that Hilary Swank won over hundreds of other actresses. Katherine Moennig who plays the part of the lesbian playgirl Shane on ShowTime's The L Word, a lesbian drama, also auditioned for the part.
Swank is no longer a name but a force in the acting community. She earned a second Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe for her part as the struggling waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in "Million Dollar Baby", which also earned Clint Eastwood another Oscar as the Director.
Hilary Swank is only the fifth actress to win two Oscars in her first two nominations as Best Actress. She joins Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field and Luise Rainer.
Swank brings to her roles the legendary, tenacious preparation of Dustin Hoffman. Swank dropped her body fat to 7% for the role as Brandon Teena and then went into serious training and put on 19 pounds of muscle for her role as Maggie Fitzgerald. She is athletic, having been a swimmer and gymnast of note while growing up in a trailer park near Bellingham, Washington.
Boys Don't Cry is a sad, disturbing movie to watch, not just because of the subject matter but because the way it was presented nixed any opportunity to increase knowledge and understanding about the transgendered community.
Because of the violent explosiveness of the film, viewers are left to choose up sides and launch multiple topics of debate which regrettably settle or advance nothing.
It is like getting a group of overreactionary people together to settle the right way to think about pro choice-pro life issues, all of which is like civilization running in neutral gear when it could be moving forward to better knowledge and understanding of the critical issues people face in their ordinary lives.
This is not a job for a talented Hollywood scriptwriter; it is a job for someone more enlightened than a Hollywood scriptwriter.
December 26, 2006
Hollywood's Most Perfect Actress Had
Beauty, Fashion, Grace and Humility
Breakfast at Tiffany's – 3
Stars (Good)
Was there ever an actress who combined these four timeless qualities—beauty,
fashion, grace and humility—better than Audrey Hepburn? I think not, especially
when I see her again in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Even an actress who could come close (and I can think of none) would in no way match the humility of Audrey Hepburn. We shall not see another like her in our lifetime and by then the film industry may be on the way out when some newer, better technology unknown to us today arrives.
All the more reason to purchase her five most memorable movies in DVD now while they are still available.
First would be her Oscar winning Best Actress performance in Roman Holiday opposite Gregory Peck, which was also her first starring role in an American film.
The next four would be her Best Actress Oscar nominations for Sabrina, The Nun's Story, Wait Until Dark (one of the two scariest movies I have ever seen) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (the Oscar went to Sophia Loren for Two Women).
Breakfast at Tiffany's had two great assets, Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, the young New York socialite (we say socialite because this movie was released in 1961, 45 years ago), and Director Blake Edwards, whose deft, sensitive handling of Hepburn's character (a high-priced prostitute) could not have been done better.
Holly Golightly's beauty, sense of fashion and pure innocence prohibit me from thinking of her as a woman of the night. She is so inherently stylish. God has not made a woman that could wear clothes better than Audrey Hepburn.
She has Holly Golightly floating around in Givenchy gowns with matchless grace and glamour.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is based on Truman Capote's novel with the screenplay by George Axelrod, who also garnered an Oscar nomination.
Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) teamed up to win an Oscar for the Original Song "Moon River" while Mancini earned another Oscar as well as a Grammy for Best Musical Score.
The story line has the two romantic interests dependent upon others for financial support, Holly as a lady of the night and Paul Varjak (George Peppard), a wannabe writer who is kept by the married and wealthy Mrs. Failenson (Patricia Neal). Eventually Holly and Paul experience some personal growth and find love together.
There are matchless moments in this film that find places forever in your heart. One is Hepburn sitting on the fire escape plaintively singing "Moon River," especially when you remember that the theme of your high school senior prom was Moon River, and that you were with the girl you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. It is a rare opportunity to hear Hepburn sing in the movie.
She recorded singing vocals for her role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady only to discover that professional "singing double" Marni Nixon had overdubbed all of her songs.
Hepburn was not nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in this film, but her love interest Rex Harrison won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Professor Henry Higgins.
The "little black dress" worn by Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's was designed by Givenchy and sold at Christie's auction this year (2006) for $920,000 with the proceeds going to aid underprivileged children in India. It was not the one worn by Hepburn in the movie.
The only two dresses she wore are now in the Givenchy archives and the Museum of Costume in Madrid, Spain.
In Audrey Hepburn's performance there are times when we are delighted by sweet innocence in a woman. You cannot imagine how difficult this is to find in today's world.
Audrey Hepburn became a beauty and fashion icon, and although she did enjoy fashion, she placed little importance on it, preferring casual and comfortable clothes away from the bright lights and cameras.
I do want to give Breakfast at Tiffany's an Excellent rating but cannot because of too many flaws in the film. I can easily give Audrey Hepburn an Excellent rating for her performance as Holly Golightly.
After 15 years as a highly successful actress Audrey Hepburn chose to lead a quieter life far away from Hollywood. She was married twice, first to actor Mel Ferrer and then to Italian doctor Andrea Dotti and had a son with each.
Hepburn was Belgian by birth and would grow up with her mother in The Netherlands, nearly starving to death during the Nazi occupation in World War II when the Dutch food and fuel supplies were cut off. Tragically, she suffered through watching her uncle and cousin being shot to death for being part of the Resistance movement.
She rose from the horrific atrocities of her youth to find fame and fortune in America and in the last four years of her life (1988 to 1992) became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund).
Only four months before her death from abdominal cancer she went on a mission to Somalia and was devastated to see the nightmare of famine and carnage.
Audrey Hepburn was the picture of beauty, fashion and grace but never for a minute let her success go to her head, and most certainly never led a Hollywood lifestyle of overblown debauchery so much in evidence in moviemaking and Tinseltown today.
See Breakfast at Tiffany's because Audrey Hepburn became an important contributor to our time and culture. She not only represented the best in professional growth but made her life a legacy with her personal growth. She was a model of grace and humility in a world with little of either.
The Breakfast Club – 2 Stars (Average)
This film focuses on five teens who spend all day Saturday in detention at a
high school. They arrive not knowing each other and leave as new friends, having
experienced some personal growth as their self-defense mechanisms crumble under
the stress and proximity of the situation. They are Andrew the Jock (Emilio
Estevez), Brian the Brain (Anthony Michael Hall), John the Criminal (Judd
Nelson), Claire the Princess (Molly Ringwald) and Allison the Kook (Ally Sheedy).
The Breakfast Club was written and directed by John Hughes. The number of awards
this film received was zero, zip, nada (or, you might say, average). This is a
film about the interpersonal relationships among the teenagers, all of whom
suffer from difficult relationships with their parents. The impact of the
parents' treatment and expectations is more than evident, and underscores how
impressionable teenagers are at this point in their understanding and maturity
about life.
"Breakfast On Pluto" Is Really Not
About an Alien From Outer Space
Breakfast on Pluto – 2 Stars
(Average)
Breakfast on Pluto is a gender preference movie about a boy who really wants to
be a girl, and settles for being a transvestite trying to find a place in a
world that curses his very existence. Irish actor Cillian Murphy plays Patrick
“Kitten” Braden in a controversial film due to the subject matter.
It is very difficult to make a great film. It is difficult to make a good film. It is almost impossible to make a good film when the subject matter is not even on the radar screen of the average viewer.
Alternative lifestyle films do not win awards even if the actors involved get an Oscar (as Hilary Swank did in Boys Don't Cry), get nominated for an Oscar (as Felicity Huffman did in Transamerica) or get nominated for a Golden Globe (as Cillian Murphy did in Breakfast on Pluto).
The typical moviegoer does not want to talk about alternative lifestyles much less see them. We are uncomfortable with what we do not know or understand, and even if we did, men would have a fondness for the distaff side only if they are genetic girls.
There will be no great acceptance for alternative films now or in the distant future.
Hollywood is OK with accepting alternative lifestyles, but Hollywood is generally far more liberal, permissive and self-absorbed than mainstream America.
Some of us in mainstream America are interested in relationship films and put no restrictions on the individuals and lifestyles involved. I endured Boys Don't Cry and Transamerica and am pleased to say I did not have to endure Breakfast on Pluto.
I think that Neil Jordan is the reason why. Jordan not only directed the film but wrote the script based on Pat McCabe's novel. McCabe plays the role of the schoolmaster. Jordan's script does not follow McCabe's novel, and the film is made better by his decision.
Jordan achieves something that few of his counterparts have been able to do and that is direct and write and produce a good product. I have a laundry list of wannabe writer/directors who have tried to do both and failed miserably.
The only other effort that immediately comes to mind besides Neil Jordan is Tim McCanlies' Secondhand Lions. McCanlies is a master storyteller in Secondhand Lions.
Unlike Boys Don't Cry and Transamerica which missed