Welcome to the 347th Edition of my series. This Friday on the 13th
Ashley Gray will be playing from 7-8 pm at Freaky Tiki Friday in
Downtown Muncie. Another band will be going to likely around 10.
Ashley is coming back from Philadelphia so come check out one of the
best singers I know. Now I will get to my selections for the week.
Taking Woodstock (2009): Ang Lee directed this
tribute to the music festival of 1969. Demetri Martin stars as Elliot
who is still working for his parents in a run-down motel ran by the
family. He soon inadvertently sets events forward for the most famous
concert when letting a group of hippies stay who are about to organize
the concert which gets a lot of backlash from the conservative town they
live in. Martin puts on a great performance in this film and Liev
Schreiber and Paul Dano have rather amusing cameos in this film. If you
expect to see any concert footage this is not really what to watch.
This is a very good and realistic tribute to the big concert of 1969
which changed the world of music forever. You could have a great double
feature with this movie and the movie WOODSTOCK which is the
documentary.
Tangled (2010): This is my Disney movie
for the week and this is their take on the Rapunzel fairy tale. The
long-haired blonde has lived her whole life in a tower. Mother Gothel
runs the tower and kidnapped Rapunzel as a baby knowing that her hair
holds healing powers. She never has allowed Rapunzel to leave the tower
but in her teen years she is very curious to see the outside world.
Soon, a charming bandit named Flynn Rider tries to scale the tower but
is outsmarted by Rapunzel but she strikes a deal that she will guide him
on a journey if he helps her see the outside world embarking on the
biggest journey of her life. This was a great entry from Disney has
some great songs written by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. Mandy Moore
provides the voice to Rapunzel and Zachary Levi voices Flynn. Ron
Perlman also has a voice in this movie. This has a lot of action and
comedy like with the horse Maximus who delivers a lot of laughs.
Millennium
(2010): This is technically three Swedish movies from 2009 which are
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, and THE
GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST which they put together in a
mini-series format. Last week, I used the American version of Dragon
Tattoo which starred Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara which was a good
version but this one is good too if you are okay with subtitles.
Michael Nyqvist stars as Mikael Blomkvist who is a disgraced journalist
and hired by the patriarch of a rich but dysfunctional clan named Henrik
Vanger to investigate the disappearance of his niece 40 years ago who
he believes was murdered. Mikael soon gets an unlikely partner in the
tough hacker Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Rapace. They soon
stumble upon other murders and find there is a very dark secret. This
has some very good action scenes and moves very well even with
subtitles. This is pretty dark and intense at times and is not for
everyone. I do not want to give away too much as what I described was
the first movie. This is available on Instant Netflix which is called
DRAGON TATTOO TRILOGY: EXTENDED EDITION which contains six 90 minute
episodes with addition footage on each movie. You can also watch the
individual movies I just decided to watch the whole series. These are
all from the novels of Stieg Larssen. I also have not heard of anything
going on as of right now with American remakes to the other two.
Six
Murderous Beliefs (1955): This is my short film for the week that was
from the National Safety Council which entertains more than educates.
We hear all the time about the seven deadly sins but now we hear about
six common beliefs that could get us killed. Some of them include
things like "safety is for sissies" and "your number is up" and then
plays out an example of these beliefs of how you can end up dead. These
are worth about 10 minutes or so and can likely be found on Youtube. I
found this on TCM with the Underground Shorts program they have.
My
Name is Nobody (1973): This is my western for the week which is kind
of a Spaghetti Western comedy. Henry Fonda stars as the legendary
gunslinger Jack Beauregard who is looking to retire. Terence Hill stars
as a younger gunslinger known as "Nobody" and has always idolized
Beauregard. He wants to see Beauregard go down in a blaze of glory and
arranges for him to take on a gang called The Wild Bunch. This movie
has some good gunfights and some very funny moments. Fonda was great as
Beauregard and Hill was equally good as the title character. These
guys worked very well together and this has gone down as a very
underrated western. Sergio Leone is credited for the idea and did some
of the directing though not credited. Ennio Morricone wrote the music
score for this film like he did for many of Spaghetti westerns and
spoofs his own scores. This is available on Instant Netflix and great
for western lovers.
How to Frame a Figg (1971): This
is another comedy that stars Don Knotts. In this movie he plays Hollis
Figg who is a bookkeeper and the dumbest in town. The people he works
for are very crooked and have him on hand knowing he will not catch on
to their plan. They soon buy a computer to cover up their shenanigans
and even frame him for embezzlement. Soon, he stumbles onto their plan
and with the help of some friends look to uncover the plot and clear his
name. This is an average comedy that is mostly for Don Knotts fans and
does deliver some laughs. One highlight was his friend being played by
Frank Welker who is known for voices in cartoon characters like
Scooby-Doo, Garfield, and many others. Watch this for some
old-fashioned Don Knotts humor and is available on Instant Netflix.
No
Impact Man (2009): This is my documentary for the week brought from
Colin Beavan who along with his wife and daughter live for a year in
Manhattan to generate no trash and give up things like electricity,
cars, and even toilet paper where they use cloths instead. His wife is
named Michelle Conlin who runs a magazine and has a harder time with
this journey but tries to stick by him and go along with it. This is
someone who came up with an idea and stayed very dedicated to it where
he found benefits to his plan. He also makes people think of the
everyday things we can do to try to make the world a better place. One
of the things I found interesting was an interview with a dairy farmer.
This farmer did not do the organic milk and explains that if he went
organic he would not be able to treat his cows if they were sick with
things like antibiotics. This was a very well-done documentary and can
open a lot of eyes. This is available on Instant Netflix.
Street
Scene (1931): This takes place on a stoop of Hell's Kitchen during a
day on a heat wave so very fitting right now. King Vidor directed this
film where lots of gossip takes place in front of a residential
building. Lots of things are going on like affairs, juvenile
delinquents, and many others things. Each story in this film counts and
fits into the story leading into a big tragedy in the end. The
performances were good in this film and the characters were very really
good. In some ways, this kind of reminded me of what would be many
years later AVENUE Q minus the puppet element. I believe this is
considered pre-code. This was a play before it became a movie and much
of the actors played there parts in the movie. It is hard to really
describe the plot as there are many but it is worth a watch and I found
this on TCM On-Demand.
The Naked Truth (1957): This is my dark British comedy for the
week. Dennis Price plays a tabloid writer named Nigel Dennis who loves
to write about celebrities and then promise to suppress the story for
money. He soon begins to mess with the wrong people in people like
Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, and Peggy Mount. They each for their own
reasons try to kill Nigel but each fail in very humorous ways. Soon,
these people team up when they find out they have a common enemy. Peter
Sellers is great in his role and shows he is good with disguises. This
is one of my favorite British comedies from that era which had a lot of
very amusing characters and a good farce that may be overlooked right
now. This is available on Instant Netflix.
Tiny
Furniture (2010): I end with this independent film that was directed,
written, and starred in by Lena Dunham. She stars in this film as Aura
who has recently graduated college and returns home not sure of what to
do. She is joining her artist mother and sister who she has a hard time
getting along with. These people were played by her actual mother and
sister. Dunham did a good job playing Aura who is someone that many can
relate to. She does not have have a model body or a skinny body but
she is real and she is human. This is a good effort from Dunham and
hopefully is the start of things to come. She is now the writer of the
HBO series GIRLS which i have heard good things about. This is
available on Instant Netflix.
No comments:
Post a Comment