Welcome to the 350th Edition of my series. Last night was closing
night for THE PRODUCERS. The show went very well and the audiences
loved it. I will soon be moving onto another acting project which I will
announce later in time when there is more details.
Moneyball (2011): I start the movie out with this
baseball movie. This is a true story which stars Brad Pitt as Billy
Beane who is appointed General Manager for the Oakland A's. He finds
that he has a very low budget to work with and has a different way of
selecting his players. Jonah Hill co-stars as Peter, who is an
economics graduate recruited by Billy to use his degree towards his
player selection but adding up statistics. Their selection process
causes a lot of debate in the baseball world, especially with the
manager, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who does not like the player
selection methods. Robin Wright also co-stars in this film. This is a
movie that works on so many levels and it keeps you wanting Billy to
succeed in what he is doing. Check this out, you'll be glad you did.
The
Producers (2005): Last week, I included the original version directed
by Mel Brooks and this is the musical remake. I just closed on this
show last night and it went very well. In this version, Nathan Lane
plays Max Bialystock who is a struggling Broadway producer who resorts
to crooked methods to get his backers. Matthew Broderick co-stars as
accountant Leo Bloom who finds a discrepancy in Max's books. Bloom soon
finds that creating a flop can make more money which then gives
Bialystock to put on the biggest flow possible. Bloom is reluctant but
hates his job so much he joins the scheme. They soon find a script
called SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER which is sure to flop. Uma Thurman plays
Ulla who is their receptionist that speaks rather limited English. Will
Ferrell also co-stars as Franz who wrote SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER and is a
lot of fun in his role. They soon go out and get the worst director
they know and seek out the worst actors possible to make this show bad
until the audience ends up really liking the show putting them into a
lot of trouble. Lane and Broderick work great together and I'm sure the
show was better on Broadway but not everyone can afford Broadway and
must settle for this movie. Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, Roger Bart, and
Gary Beach co-star in this musical. Ferrell and Thurman are the only
actors that did not reprise their parts from Broadway. It does not beat
the original but I felt it still delivers well. This has a lot of fun
musical numbers and is a musical that ranks pretty high for me. This is
available on Instant Netflix just like the original so have a little
double feature sometime.
Wall E (2008): I have doing a
lot of Disney lately so I'm trying to keep that trend going. This was a
Disney film that had limited dialogue. This takes place in a distant
future which mankind has abandoned Earth after it has been so populated
with trash. Wall E is a garbage collecting robot who is alone on earth
along with a little cockroach. Wall E tries to make the most of his
time collecting trash and making the community look as good as possible
and has a fascination with showtunes. Soon, he meets a female
reconnaissance robot who is sent to see if Earth is still sustainable
and falls in love with her. He soon ends up on the ship where the
humans ended up and looks to protect Eve. This was a satire towards
what humans can do and a good statement making it into a beautiful
film. This movie features robots who have better chemistry than many
couples in the history of film and the chick flicks. It also delivers
many laughs with the lazy humans. It is a great achievement for Pixar.
It also features Peter Gabriel in his song DOWN TO EARTH that he wrote
for this movie with Thomas Newman so featuring Peter Gabriel is always
something that wins me over but the movie in general won me over.
Destination
Earth (1956): This is my animated short for the week that was put on
by the American Petroleum Institute. This movie has a little martian
being sent to Earth to figure out why we're so great which is rather
ironic to say the least. If you're looking for some actual quality,
this really is not it. This was pure propaganda and something to watch
for entertainment reasons. This is likely findable on Youtube.
Joe
(1970): John G. Avildson directed this overlooked film. Dennis
Patrick stars as Bill Compton, no not that vampire from TRUE BLOOD, who
is a very successful businessman and has a daughter who is a junkie and
decides to confront her boyfriend. Bill soon accidentally kills her
drug-dealing boyfriend. Peter Boyle co-stars as the title character who
is a regular among the bar Bill ends up at and hates just about anyone
who is different. He soon picks up on Bill and knows that he is the one
that killed the drug dealer. They soon form an unlikely friendship but
Joe makes things very complicated for Bill. Susan Sarandon makes her
film debut as Bill's daughter. This is a very intriguing film that
should be more noticed. Boyle and Patrick work very well together.
This is available on Instant Netflix.
Outward Bound
(1930): Leslie Howard stars as Tom Prior who is on a ship but finds
that things are rather odd as well as some of the people. Nobody on the
ship seems to know why they are there or where they are going and
learns they are going to heaven or hell. This comes from a stage play
and is hard to really describe. This was an early talkie which has a
very intriguing storyline. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. also co-stars in this
film. This is Howard's first American film. This is available on TCM
On-Demand on Comcast.
Multiplicity (1996): Harold
Ramis directed this comedy which stars Michael Keaton as Doug. Doug is a
construction worker and family man who feels he has no time for
himself. He soon gets an unusual offer for help that involves cloning.
There ends up being four different Dougs and each have their own
personality which confuses his wife, played by Andie Macdowell. Michael
Keaton does a good job of playing each personality and delivers many
laughs in his trying not to expose the other clones to his family.
There is not a lot more to describe but is a very fun film to watch.
D.O.A.
(1950): This is my film noir for the week. Edmond O'Brien stars as
Frank Bigelow who learns he is the victim of a slow-acting poison that
there is no cure. He uses his last time on earth to figure out who
killed him. In his quest, he meets some rather deceptive characters
and finds that investigating his own murder is not easy. I liked the
start of it where he visits the police to report his own murder which
sets the stage. This is a very good entry into that genre and one of
the best in my opinion. This is available on Instant Netflix.
The Dragon Painter (1919): This is my silent film for the week
which stars Sessue Hayakawa who was an actual Asian playing an Asian.
He stars as Tatsu who is the title character and paints dragons in his
obsession of finding a princess. Soon, a master painter named Kano
Indara sees his ability and Tatsu soon believes his daughter is the
princess and agrees to stay. Kano was hoping for an heir to pass his
abilities to but after Tatsu finally finds love, he loses the passion.
This was a rather intriguing silent film. Hayakawa was very well known
at the time and possibly one of the most popular actors. This is
available on TCM On-Demand.
The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling
(2007): I end this week with this wrestling documentary. This is a WWE
produced documentary which focuses on the WCCW which was on the rise in
the 70s and 80s but tragedy and other bad decisions brought its fall.
The legendary Fritz Von Erich built this promotion mostly around his
sons which were mainly David, Kerry and Kevin Von Erich. One of the
main things it talked about was the tragedy among the Von Erich family.
The first son of Fritz whose name was Jackie Jr. died at the age of 7
from electrocution. David Von Erich was known as the best in ring
worker. He was about to have a big career but died in 1984 on a tour
with All Japan Wrestling where many believe he died of an overdose but
others do not believe it was overdose. Many believe it was a heart
attack caused by ruptured intestines causing enteritis. His death will
never be known for sure and this did not do much to discuss it except a
couple wrestlers believing it was not an overdose. The next Von Erich
to go was Mike Von Erich. Many say he did not really want to be a
wrestler but wanted to follow in the family footsteps but did not have
the ability like his other brothers. He suffered from Toxic Shock
Syndrome and should have never returned to wrestling. He died of a drug
and alcohol overdose in 1987 likely due to not being able to live up to
his brothers' success in wrestling. Chris Von Erich was the youngest
of the brothers who really wanted to make it in wrestling but lacked
height and had asthma as well as brittle bones making it very hard for
him. He became a wrestler in 1990 but lacked success and in 1991 took
his own life. Kerry Von Erich was probably the most successful of the
Von Erichs but like the others had a lot of personal issues that kept
him from his potential success. He is the only Von Erich to be in WWE
and had some success there but likely his drug problems kept him from
rising to the top. He had been indicted with some drug and forgery
charges and in 1993 he took his life. Kevin Von Erich is the only
survivor of the family interviews quite a bit on this documentary. He
had his own success and feel he goes down very underrated. He is known
for wrestling barefoot. It also talks about the death of their wrestler
Gino Hernandez who died of a drug overdose. World Class Championship
Wrestling did a lot of rather innovative things like put focus to the
wrestlers like at their home which no one did at the time. It also had
some very good gimmick wrestlers. The big thing in my opinion about
WCCW was that they had possibly the best feud of all time between the
Von Erichs, mostly David, Kerry, and Kevin, and the Fabulous Freebirds
which mainly consisted of Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy
Roberts. A couple notable bad decisions made by Fritz were bringing in a
"cousin" named Lance Von Erich which turned out to be a lie which was
not the kind of like that should have been done. There was also a heart
attack angle by Fritz which did not really go into much detail except
Kevin claiming that it was never meant to be a heart attack but I have a
hard time believing that one. This documentary does leave out some
facts but sets out what it wanted to do and is a good education for
wrestling fans. World Class Championship Wrestling is very important to
the history of Wrestling. This was a Dallas promotion which at the
time was very big and possibly bigger than the Dallas Cowboys. There is
also some pretty good matches but does not include a Ric Flair vs.
Kerry Von Erich match where Kerry won his only NWA championship but
lasted only 18 days which was likely due to Kerry's lack of reliability
and happened right after David died who was probably first supposed to
have it. Well, I have gone on long enough, just watch this and research
further to learn even more about this legendary promotion.
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