Welcome to the 375th Edition of my series. The 49ers are now in the
conference championship against the Atlanta Falcons so I will be paying
close attention to this game in hopes that for the first time since 1994
the 49ers are in the Super Bowl. On Saturday night, come see Action
Packed Wrestling at the Mill Creek Civic Center in Chesterfield,
Indiana. The show features former ECW star Sabu and former WWE
superstar Eugene. Tickets are $15 for front row and $10 for general
admission. I will now get to my selections for the week.
Rango
(2011): This is last part of my five-part Johnny Depp series. Gore
Verbinski decided to take his stab at animation after years of directing
the PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN films. Johnny Depp takes the voice of the
title character who is a chameleon and a pet who ends up in a western
town called Dirt after an auto accident. The town of Dirt is lacking of
water and appears to be something very sinister. Rango then takes the
role of sheriff, which for him is more of an acting job, in order to
look into figuring out why they lack water so much. This is Verbinski's
first animation movie and won an Oscar. This was a very clever
animation film combining the western genre and talking animals, mostly
reptiles. Depp does a great job in his role. Other voices include Isla
Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Harry Dean Stanton, and many
others. This is probably not something for pre-school children but late
elementary on will enjoy this as well as the adults. This is available
on Instant Netflix.
King Kong (2005): Peter Jackson
directed this version of the big gorilla which does not include the
sequels. The first one was in 1933 which was an absolute classic that
still holds up today. The second one was 1976 which was a different
story and is more of a guilty pleasure at most. This version more a
remake and even homage to the 1933 version and this one is my favorite
as well as one of my favorite movies. Jack Black stars as producer Carl
Denham who is out to get what he wants whatever the danger might be.
He soon leads a cast and crew to go to the mysterious Skull island.
Naomi Watts plays struggling actress Ann Darrow who Carl casts in his
next movie. Soon, when they arrive, then encounter a dangerous group of
indigenous people who soon abduct Ann for their next sacrifice. Soon,
she is saved by Kong and when Denham encounters him, he sets out to get
Kong to New York. That is the basic plot so I'm not going to go any
further there. What I like better about this version than the 1933
version is that the relationship between Kong and Ann Darrow becomes
very two-sided where she develops a caring attitude towards the
gorilla. In the 1933 version, it is very one-sided where Ann wanted
nothing to do with Kong. Also in the 2005 version when Kong is taken to
New York to be exploited, then escapes, Ann tracks Kong down and gives
herself to him. I really thought that the interaction in this film
between the two was so beautiful. Watts is great in this movie and Andy
Serkis plays Kong as well as the character Lumpy. Other co-stars
include Adrian Brody, Colin Hanks, and many others. Peter Jackson
showed he had a lot of respect for the franchise while making it his
own.
Fast Five (2011): Justin Lin directs the 5th
entry to the Fast/Furious series. This cast consisted of Vin Diesel,
Paul Walker and alums from the first four like Jordana Brewster,
Ludicris, Tyrese, among others. The group comes together to pull off
the biggest heist of their lives as well as the most dangerous. They
plan to rob a drug lord, played by Joaquim de Almeida, of a lot of
money. Another issue they have is a very determined federal agent named
Luke Hobbs, played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who is determined to
take the group down but finds that they are not his only troubles. If
you like this series, you will love this entry. If you hate the whole
series and concept, then this will not be what you want to watch. If
you have had mixed reactions to the others, I believe you will like this
one which is a pretty decent entry. This would be a great selection
for a "Guys' Night" but probably not one for the first date. Also, to
enjoy this action movie, disbelief must be suspended for a couple hours
and just enjoy the action no matter how unrealistic.
Romantic
Nevada (1943): This is my short film for the week from the Traveltalks
series. This one takes a tour through the state of Nevada about the
natural wonders, a mining town, and a dude ranch. There is also an
interesting segment that talks about Reno and made famous for being the
city where people get divorced. This is a pretty informative and
entertaining short film worth the nine minutes.
The
Fall of the Roman Empire (1964): This is part one of what may be a
six-part Christopher Plummer series which will be at least two. Anthony
Mann directs this Roman epic which is very similar to the 2000 film
GLADIATOR. Alec Guinness plays Marcus Aurelius who is the emperor of
Rome who does not want his reckless son Commodus, played by Christopher
Plummer, to succeed him and hopes that his very loyal soldier Livius,
played by Stephen Boyd, will become emperor instead which then sets
forth much greed and betrayal which leads to the title of the movie.
Sophia Loren plays Lucilla who is the daughter of Marcus and the love
interest of Livius. Plummer plays the part of Commodus pretty well.
James Mason, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, and Mel Ferrer
all co-star in this film. This is a pretty good take to the Rome legend
with great scenery, action, and performances to make the three hours
enjoyable.
Forbidden Planet (1956): This is my
Sci-Fi film for the week which is a 50s Sci-fi film and one that goes
beyond B-movie. Leslie Nielsen plays Commander J.J. Adams who leads a
starship crew to a planet to investigate the colony. They find that it
is inhabited by a scientist named Dr. Morbius played by Walter Pidgeon,
his daughter Alta played by Anne Francis, and Robby the Robot, the best
robot actor of all time in his debut film. On the planet they find
their appears to be a hideous monster and Adams tries to get information
from Morbius that he does not seem open to share. This is an early
film for Nielsen where he was a mostly dramatic actor before he became
king of the spoof movies in the 80s. This is a must for fans of the
genre and even people who are not into Sci-Fi as much can enjoy this
one. This is based loosely on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST.
The
Island on Bird Street (1997): This takes place in a Nazi occupied
Jewish ghetto during WWII. Jordon Kiziuk stars as 11 year old Alex
whose relatives have all been taken to Concentration camps and must rely
on his own survival instincts to avoid Nazis. This is from the eyes of
this 11 year old who proves very resourceful in his efforts to avoid
the Nazis while hoping his father, played by Patrick Bergin, will
return. Jack Warden also co-stars in this film. Kiziuk was very good
in his performance and the film is a very moving film taking place in a
very bad time period. Uri Orlev wrote the novel the movie is based on
and is a true story that is based on his own life.
The
Man from Nowhere (2010): This is my South Korean film for the week.
Bin Won stars as a mysterious pawn shop owner named Tae-Sik whose
pre-teen neighbor becomes fascinated with him as she has her own
problems with her mother involved in drugs. Soon, this little girl is
abducted and Tae-Sik sets out to rescue her showing he is far more than
just a pawn shop owner and has a mysterious past. This movie is very
violent so if you do not have a stomach for it, then this is not for
you. While it is very violent, it is also quite moving. There are some
very good action scenes and Bin Won was very good in his role. This
Asian action film is available on Instant Netflix and if you can
tolerate subtitles and violence, this will be a great selection.
The
Hurricane (1937): First, see the year. This has nothing to do with
that 1999 movie of the same name which stars Denzel Washington. John
Ford directed this film that takes place on an island on a French
colony. Jon Hall stars as Terangi who falls in love with Marama, played
by Dorothy Lamour. Terangi soon gets into with a drunk who he punches
in the face after some very offensive racist remarks. He is soon
sentenced to six months even after testimony that is actions were just.
He soon tries many times unsuccessfully to escape and each one adding
time to his sentence. Finally after 8 years, he is successful and sees
Marama and his daughter he had not met but everything changes when a
hurricane hits. Raymond Massey, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, among
others co-star in this film. This is a pretty good drama on being
wronged by the system and the price of it. They also did a good job
making the hurricane look very realistic even in this time period. Jon
Hall was very good as the lead despite not being as known today and
Lamour was also good in her role as well as the rest of the cast. This
is one that has gone under the radar and hope now others will want to
see this one.
A Woman Called Moses (1978): This is
part two of my three-part Cicely Tyson series and is my tv movie for the
week. Tyson stars as the real-life Harriet Tubman where we see her in
her younger days as a slave, and then her escape to the north. She did
not accept only freedom for herself an put her life on the line by
leading many slave escapes. This is a two-part movie which consists of
two episodes of about 90 minutes each and covers a lot of ground with
Tyson perfect as Tubman. Will Geer, Robert Hooks, and James Wainwright
all co-star in this well-done tv movie with Orson Welles doing some of
the narration. I have done a movie this week focusing on the Nazi party
and this one focus on the slavery period and the most important slave
in our history. This is more than a tv movie and deserves more
exposure.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what
you like and what you hate. Stay tuned for next week which so far
includes James Stewart, more Christopher Plummer, more Cicely Tyson,
Gary Oldman, Chuck Norris, Martin Scorsese, James Spader, and many
others.
No comments:
Post a Comment