Welcome to the 225th Edition of my weekly series. This week I pay
tribute to the late wrestling legend Jack Brisco. I have one selection
from the Random Myspace Profile selection this week. Next week will
have at least three but possibly as many as five. Tonight are the
Academy Awards so I will finish my next batch of Netflix selections.
Saved!
(2004): The Facebook friend I chose for this week is John who I went to
school with at Yorktown and who I'm sure is meant for some great
things. This is a comedy that takes place at a Christian high school.
Jena Malone stars a Mary who is a good Christian and has a good
Christian boyfriend named Dean but then learns he may be gay. She does
whatever possible to help him including losing her virginity. When this
happens, Dean is sent to a school to cure him of his gayness and Mary
is pregnant. I'm sure in these kinds of situations is when you learn
who your friend are and she really did. Mandy Moore co-stars as Hilary
Faye who is very obsessed with the bible and when learning of Mary's
pregnancy, she really turns on her friend. You could easily dismiss
Moore as over-the-top but I think it is a pretty realistic performance
in playing such a hypocritical Christian . Mary then becomes friends
with the outcast types like the rebellious Jewish girl Cassandra,
Hilary Faye's wheelchair-bound brother Roland, and a skateboarder named
Patrick. Macauley Culkin plays Roland and his pretty good in his role.
Other co-stars include Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Martin
Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker and many others. Brian Dannelly directed
and co-wrote this film with Michael Urban. It is a clever satire which
some say was anti-religious but I believe it was just meant to point
out the hypocrisy in a religious school environment and maybe just
something to teach acceptance of others.
Glengarry Glen Ross
(1992): James Foley directed this film adaptation to the David Mamet
play which looks at the workings within a real-estate office where
times are pretty tough. Alec Baldwin plays the boss Blake who gives
five salesmen a strong incentive to succeed in a sales environment. The
first prize will get a nice Cadillac Eldorado, second prize gets a set
of steak knives and third prize gets fired. There is no room for
failure in this environment. With this incentive, people do what they
can by any means necessary even committing crime. Jack Lemmon plays
Shelley Levene who has a lot of sales experience but has a hard time
with the leads he is given. Al Pacino plays Ricky Roma whose sales are
through the roof and does not have to take part in the contest. Other
actors include Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, and Jonathan Pryce.
This is quite possibly the best acting ensemble piece of all time as
everyone played their parts to perfection. My dad and step-mom actually
saw this on Broadway which starred Alan Alda as Shelley Levene as well
as Jeffrey Tambor and Liev Schreiber.
The Unknown (1927): This
is my silent film for the week which was directed by Tod Browning. Lon
Chaney stars as Alonzo, an apparently armless knife thrower who uses
his feet. A young Joan Crawford plays Nanon who fears men with arms and
allows herself to fall in love with Alonzo believing he has no arms.
Norman Kerry plays Malabar the Mighty who "cures" Nanon of her fears
which puts a lot of tension in Alonzo. This was a very interesting and
disturbing film which in some ways left me needing to come back for air
in the intense 50 minutes of the film. The music score was pretty
intense as well but it was very entertaining and enjoyable with a good
performance from Chaney.
A Fireman's Life (1933): This is my
short film for the week which focus on characters called Tom and Jerry
and no they are not that cat and mouse. I got this once again from my
classic animated short classics and I really don't know the background
of these characters so if anyone knows who I am talking about, feel
free to elaborate in my comments.. In this short, they are working for
a fire department and in humorous ways show the day in the life of a
fireman. This is a pretty entertaining six minutes of animation.
Silverado
(1985): This is my western for the week. Four misfits including Kevin
Kline, Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn, and Danny Glover come together to
rid the town of the corrupt sheriff and his posse. Danny Glover was
good in his part as the tough black man who had a hard time being
excepted in many towns for obvious reasons. Other actors include John
Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, Rosanna Arquette, Linda Hunt, and many others.
This is kind of a tribute to the old westerns where the four leads work
very well together with some good action scenes.
The Most
Powerful Families in Wrestling (2007): This is my tribute to the late
wrestling legend Jack Brisco who has a segment in here where they talk
about the tag team of the Brisco Brothers with his brother Gerry. This
is a documentary where the only people that will really have interest
are people who are wrestling fans or they at least liked it in the
older days. This takes a look at the many families that have gone
through the wrestling industry. There are segments on the McMahons,
Harts, Von Erichs, Anoais, Funks, Guerrerros, and many others. It even
talks about some of the people who have story-lined families like the
Andersons, Edge and Christian, the Dudleys, oh wait, am I supposed to
say "Dudleys"? I really like watching these things and even learned
some on this. I really liked the brief segment on Ric Flair and how his
son David broke into the WCW where Ric takes blame for the way his son
was treated there. I also really liked the segments on the Samoan
families like The Rock's heritage of coming in the third generation. If
you have absolutely no interest in wrestling, this is not for you.
Quantum
of Solace (2008): This is a selection from the Random Myspace Profile
selection process and the profile randomly selected was GJreviewer.
This is the last James Bond movie so far where my favorite Bond of all
time Daniel Craig reprises his role as 007 in this follow-up to CASINO
ROYALE. In this film, Bond is seeking revenge for the death of Vesper
Lynd. In his investigation he comes upon her death, he stumbles upon
environmentalist Dominic Greene, played by Mathieu Amalric, who has his
own personal agenda towards the environment. Judi Dench reprises her
part as M and is now sure is Bond can be trusted with revenge on his
mind. I really liked Giancarlo Giannini as Bond's ally who reminded me
of the Valentine Zukovsky character of the Brosnan era. Olga Kurylenko
played the part of Camille who was Greene's girlfriend but got sick of
him being mean to her and joins Bond. I really love the way Craig plays
Bond kind of like a very loose cannon who has just enough to get the
job. He worked very well with Judi Dench. This is really the first
sequel to a Bond film which I guess is intended to become a trilogy.
This is based on a short story by Ian Fleming. Daniel Craig worked
really hard as he got injured quite a bit during filming. Not the best
Bond film and not as good as CASINO ROYALE but I think ranks in series
in a pretty high spot in my opinion. I have recast Daniel Craig as the
man to play me in THE RISE AND FALL OF SHAUN BERKEY.
The Big
Doll House (1971): Jack Hill directed this women in prison film which
was produced by Roger Corman and was the first feature role with Pam
Grier so just think of those things. This is a pretty decent
exploitation film showing the horrors of life for women and prison.
This movie is not for everyone as it has some pretty disturbing scenes
but they did a pretty good job with the film. Sid Haig also co-stars in
the movie. I watched this in the car when I was on a road trip to go
down south with my mom and watched it while she was driving. This was a
pretty good car film to watch.
The Candidate (1972): This is my
political film for the week which stars Robert Redford as the title
character. He plays an idealistic young lawyer named Bill McKay. He
runs not really to win but to expose certain issues to voters. Things
happen where he chances increase but his integrity begins to decrease.
This is a very good character study showing what can happen to a person
running for a political office where one's ideals and ambitions can
really clash. Look for Groucho Marx in a cameo which was his last
appearance in film.
DVD REVIEW: SAN FRANCISCO (1936)
-THEATRICAL TRAILER
--This
is a trailer to the featured film which advertised a lot of Clark Gable
and Jeanette MacDonald. I like trailers from this era. Usually I do not
get all upset about how the new movies just aren't the same and all
that. In fact most of my favorites probably come from this era.
However, I think the trailers of today have really lost their art.
These previews are always very entertaining and have a good narrative.
These previews hook me more than the ones today's look.
-SHORT FILMS
--Cavalcade
of San Francisco (1940): James K. FitzPatrick narrates this short film
which is part of the Traveltalk series. This was technicolor tour
looking at the landmarks and history of San Francisco like the Golden
Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, among others. It gives a very
interesting nine minute history lesson.
--Night Descends on Treasure
Island (1940): This was also narrated by James K. FitzPatrick and this
one takes a look at the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition. This takes a look
at a lot of art including James Chapin and Thomas Hart Benton. It also
takes a look at the lights and the decorative fountain giving a cool
light show.
--Bottles (1936): This is an animation short taking
place at the drug store. A druggist mixes a potion and falls asleep.
The skulls and crossbones on a bottle come to life and shrink him where
much of the pharmacy comes to life in a big musical number. This
provided a lot of entertainment and may have been some big acid trip
for the druggist.
-FEATURE FILM
--San Francisco (1936): Can
you guess what city and state this movie takes place? Jeanette
MacDonald stars as aspiring nightclub singer Mary Blake who comes to
the town looking for work. She then arrives at a gambling hall which is
run by Blackie Norton, played by Clark Gable, who gives her a job but
sees it will not be easy. People working for Nob Hill offer her a job
in Opera but Blackie has her under a two year contract with him.
Spencer Tracy plays Father Tim who is a long-time friend of Blackie but
does not like the life Blackie leads and intervenes on him a lot. I
really liked Tracy in this movie and also has a good scene where he is
sparring with Clark Gable and knocks him down. The big part is the
climax of the film where there is an earthquake and some great special
effects for the time. There is also some interesting use of religion
here where Blackie does not believe in the things that Father Tim
believes in but must reconsider his beliefs during the earthquake.
There is also even an emotional breakdown by Clark Gable which he hated
but I thought it was compelling. This was a pretty good drama with good
performances from the two leads considering they did not get along.
This was one of the last movies where Spencer Tracy took second billing
but still did a great job.
-ALTERNATE ENDING
--This ending seems to just expand on looking at San Francisco. I really didn't see much significance to it.
-CLARK GABLE: TALL, DARK, AND HANDSOME (1996)
--This
is a TNT special which was hosted by Liam Neeson that talks about the
private life and career of Clark Gable. This gave some very good
insight and even named off lots of movies I had not even heard of. It
talks about the affairs he had and it even has some interviews with his
children that did not know him very well.
-OVERALL ANALYSIS
--With
it being a 30s movie, there really are not much special features to use
but I liked the use of the short films and the documentary on Gable.
There is not really much reflecting on this movie but the film did
speak for itself though. Robert Osbourne on TCM always reminds us of
the theatrical experience of this time period when you paid so much and
got some short films and a newsreel rather than endless previews for
paying even more today. I think it would be a great idea for theaters
to show some of these short films before a movie though it would reduce
the advertising and we don't want to do that I guess.
Well, that
is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you have and please
leave me a suggestion in my comments. I want one per person so think
hard. Last week The Critic Wannabe gave me a suggestion which I put to
Netflix for a future selection. Stay tuned for next week which so far
includes a music documentary, Richard Dreyfuss, Mickey Rourke, more Lon
Chaney, and many others.
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