Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 339th Edition

Welcome to the 339th Edition of my series. Happy Mothers day to all the moms out there. I hope you all had a good day with your mother that day. This week I pay tribute to MCA of the Beastie Boys and George Lindsey who recently left us. Now for my recommendations for the week.

Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam (1987): This is my documentary for the week which was presented by HBO. This documentary focuses on actual letters written by American military men in Vietnam. It consists of some war footage, news footage, and uses some actors to narrate the letters like Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr., and many others. It also shows the fate of many of those soldiers who wrote the letters. This is a very informative and moving documentary with a good soundtrack on it.

Manhattan (1979): This is part two of a two-part Meryl Streep series. Last week, I used KRAMER VS. KRAMER where she had a feature part and this one is a smaller part where she did the filming for this movie in between last week's feature. Woody Allen directed and stars in this film that takes place in the famous New York town and this is considered by many to be his best. Allen stars as Isaac who is divorced by Jill, played by Streep, who is with another woman. She is about to write a book about their relationship which leaves him quite concerned. He is currently dating a 17 year old girl, played by Mariel Hemingway, but takes to his best friend's mistress Mary, played by Diane Keaton. That's the storyline they put in place in this tribute to Manhattan which is very well done in black and white. This is available on HBO Go.

Betty Boop and Little Jimmy (1936): This is my short film for the week. In this cartoon short, Betty is trying to lose weight but her exercise machine goes haywire and sends Jimmy out to get an electrician but Jimmy gets sidetracked. There were some funny moments and a weird ending. I got the idea to do this one with I saw the name Little Jimmy being such a fan of Rtruth in wrestling. This is probably available on Youtube.

The Weather Man (2005): This is my tribute to MCA of the Beastie Boys and their song TRANSITIONS was featured in this movie. Nicolas Cage stars in this film as the title character who is named David who works out of Chicago. He has a good career but his life is going through a downward spiral with his ex-wife not fond of him, difficult relationships with his kids, his dying father, among other things. It is also interesting to see how he handles people who recognize him in public. He soon must decide if he wants a great job in New York while dealing with all the things in his life. Michael Caine plays his writer father and is very good. Gore Verbinski directed this movie that is a good character study. Nicolas Cage does not always make the best decisions but made a good one here. This is available on Instant Netflix.

The Lives of Others (2006): This is my foreign film for the week which was my first movie watch at The Cup on my computer. I finally found another locally owned coffee shop to hang out at on my days off and intend to spend some time out there. This movie takes place in '80s Berlin before the wall fell. Sebastian Koch stars as playwright Georg Dreyman and Martina Gedeck stars as Dreyman's companion Christa who is a successful actress. They do not always side to the party line which makes the Minister of Culture instructs Agent Wiesler, played by Ulrich Muhe, who puts surveillance on them leading to tragedy. This was a pretty realistic portrait of that era which was a pretty dark period. I really did not know what to expect when I put this DVD into my computer but was really brought in leading up to a great conclusion. This movie won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and really deserved it.

The Aristocats (1970): This is my tribute to actor George Lindsey who is most known for playing Goober in THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW but voices Lafayette in this film. This is my Disney film for the week. A family of Perisian felines are set to inherit money in the future but are abducted by the jealous butler who leaves them in the country. With the help of other animals including the smooth talking O'Malley, they must find their way back to their home. This is a Disney film that is good for the family and has a really good animation to it which did not require computers to make. This movie had some great animal characters with a good story remaining an animated classic.

A Tragedy at Midnight (1942): John Howard stars as Greg Sherman who in his radio broadcasts helps solve murders that the police cannot solve much to the dismay of the police. He is soon framed for a murder he did not commit and must solve the mystery himself. This is a B-Movie from Republic but not a bad one and rather amusing at times. This movie is a little less than an hour and is available on Instant Netflix.

Wintervention (2010): This is another documentary for the week from Warren Miller films. This ski film shows footage of skiers in Antarctica and going into the lives of many who just cannot stop no matter what. This was not the best documentary I saw but it did grab my interest while not being something I will ever do. I did like that Nick Cave was featured in the soundtrack. This is available on Starz On-Demand.

Windprints (1990): I end this week with this early movie from Sean Bean. Bean plays investigative journalist named Anton in South Africa who is looking to do a story on a man who is killing black laborers in Africa. John Hurt co-stars as the Charles, a reporter teaming with Anton. The performances from these two as well as the cinematography are what carry this film. This is something that can be watched on Comcast On-Demand that is pretty far from the radar but worth a watch especially to watch for a young Sean Bean.

Well, that is it for this week. Forgive my lackluster writing but I just put writing together this evening. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Tina Fey, Paul Muni, and many others.