Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 153rd Edition

Welcome to the 153rd Edition of my series. I am now 4-2 in Fantasy Football with a lead in my division. It was a pretty lopsided game between both myself and my opponent but thanks to Redskins RB Clinton Portis, Colts WR Marvin Harrison and Giants RB Brandon Jacobs who closed the game out for me, I was able to pull off a victory. Hopefully next week I go 5-2. ANNIE is going very well despite what the reviewer said. We still have performances next week. Okay, like always, I have rambled on way too long, you want your 10 movies for the week so here it goes but get your Netflix and Blockbuster Queues before you read though.

No Reservations (2007): The Facebook friend I drew for this week was Emma who was in a couple classes with me at Ball State. She made my selection rather tough but never hearing of this before I took some interest. This is a love story which takes place in the fancy restaurant industry. First we have Catherine Zeta-Jones who plays experienced chef Kate who has no real life outside of her restaurant. A tragedy brings her estranged niece, played very well in my opinion by Abigail Breslin. In the time Kate must take off, the restaurant hires another chef named Nick, played by Aaron Eckhart. Nick is not nearly as serious as Kate and is free-spirited and loves opera. I think you all know where it goes. I really enjoyed watching this and watched most of it straight through. Some may dismiss it as a chick-flick but I don't mind an occasional one. After all, I try to accommodate to everyone if possible.

Apollo 13 (1995): Ron Howard directed this movie based on the failed but triumphant mission. Tom Hanks stars as Jim Lovell, an astronaut who feels he is in Neil Armstrong's mission and is chosen to head the Apollo 13 mission. Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon also star as the other two astronauts Fred Haise and Jack Swigart. Their mission was to go to the moon but some flaws in the ship made that mission fail and more importantly it endangered their lives. The three astronauts and Mission Control had to band together in their battle for survival and to get back to their families. Gary Sinise plays Ken Mattingly who was supposed to go up with them but was deemed sick for the mission. He did however do a lot to help them on the ground. This was a very moving film and showing a team of people to both in the ship and in mission control doing everything possible to land them back on Earth.

Halloween (1978): I found this on IFC and felt this would be the perfect movie to show this month. John Carpenter directed this movie which introduced the world to slasher Michael Myers and to Jamie Lee Curtis. Michael Myers is a psycho killer who escapes his mental institution to go back into his old hometown and wreak havoc. Donald Pleasance plays Dr. Sam Loomis who worked with him as a child and must help try to stop Myers. Curtis plays Laurie Strode who is a high-school student targeted by Mike Myers. There have been many sequals and a remake but none have matched this one. Many might observe that I don't include much horror in these blogs but I feel this is one of the best. We have a nice atmospheric music score and a movie which manages to scare.

Wild Man Blues (1997): This was another thing I found on my favorite IFC channel. Barbara Kopple directs this movie which is a documentary focusing on a European tour in 1996 with a Jazz band lead by none other than Woody Allen. He plays the clarinet and has a band of other instruments. I really enjoyed watching this and even listening to Woody Allen explain his career in the movie industry. I have always had a liking for Woody no matter who he might marry.

Lolita (1962): Stanley Kubrick directed this classic based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. James Mason stars as Professor Humbert Humbert who moves into a house occupied by a lovesick woman named Charlotte, played by Shelley Winters, and her precocious daughter, played by Sue Lyon in her film debut. Humbert forms a strange obsession to Lolita which she gets to through Charlotte. After a tragedy, he has Lolita to herself. Peter Sellers is great as Clare Quilty whose intentions towards Lolita are not much better than Humbert's. In 1997, Adrian Lyne directed a remake to this movie which in my opinion was just as good but this still stands through time and might have been a bit ahead of its time like many of Kubrick's films. Sue Lyon seemed to have a very promising career with this and her next film THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA but due to some personal problems her career did not take off like it should have.

Imago (2005): This is my short film for the week which is an animated short film from France. I loved the animation and the music to this beautiful short which shows a boy through the ages. It shows him with his grandfather flying toy planes and him growing up. I got this off of my 2005 short films DVD. There was a time in the world of the movie theater where we got to see a couple short films before the feature presentation. Well, that was long before my time but it's a good thought. If they would bring back this ritual, I might have an easier time going to the movie theaters.

The Naked Spur (1953): Anthony Mann directed this "Who can you trust?" western which stars James Stewart as a bounty hunter after a murderer, played very well by Robert Ryan. He must accept the help of two other people to catch him and then take him in. They get their man and his girl played by Janet Leigh, but tension forms between everyone. This was a very entertaining western with good performances from the very small cast.

Annie (1982): I thought it only fitting to feature this musical since I am in the show. This also includes my facebook and myspace friends Burt, Tommy (Rooster), Robyn (Duffy), Sara, Glenn and Kirby. John Huston directed this version of the Broadway musical. Aileen Quinn stars as the title character who must live under the evil Miss Hannigan, played in a nice over-the-top performance from Carol Burnett who I believe makes her debut on this blog. Albert Finney is fun as Oliver Warbucks, a billionaire who as a publicity stunt wants to take in an orphan for the week which turned out to be Annie. He then falls for Annie and wants to adopt her but Miss Hannigan, her brother Rooster who is played by Tim Curry, and his friend Lily who is played by Bernadette Peters, have other plans in mind. Last year around this time I featured the 1999 version to much dismay from my readers giving their preference to this one. I did enjoy this one but I still liked the later version better. I liked the Annie in the 1999 version better as well as the one that we have now in our show. This one is quite different to the Broadway show with a more dangerous climax than usual where even Miss Hannigan draws the line.

The Mad Miss Manton (1938): This is a very early teaming of Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck. This is a very comedic murder mystery where Stanwyck is the leader of a group of debutantes and she stumbles upon a murder but the police do not believe her and the group really gives the police a very hard time. Enter Henry Fonda, who is a reporter assigned to the case and forms an uneasy alliance with the women. This was a fun movie and something underrated from the great Henry Fonda.

The Devil Commands (1941): I now end with the third Boris Karloff film for the month in this quest to get him exposed as the great actor he was. Edward Dmytryk directed this tale of a scientist whose wife dies. He is then determined to communicate with her through his research on communicating with the dead. This has one of the classic horror themes with a scientist with good intentions whose judgement is clouded.

Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you love and what you hate.

FUN LITTLE FACTS

If you can think of something else I missed that sounds interesting, then put it down on the comments. I'm just not doing the connection thing but any reader here is welcome to do Connection Time if you would like.

Donald Pleasance (Halloween) plays James Bond's arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and is the first time we see Blofeld's face. Lois Maxwell (Lolita, bit part) plays Miss Moneypenny in the Sean Connery and Roger Moore era. In a 007 spoof from 1967 called CASINO ROYALE, Woody Allen (Wild Man Blues) plays Jimmy Bond, Peter Sellers (Lolita) plays James Bond, and John Huston (Annie director) plays M. I admit that is not something I have seen.

Anthony Mann (The Naked Spur director) was originally set to direct SPARTACUS but due to a falling out with Kirk Douglas, Stanley Kubrick (Lolita director) was brought in as the director.

My facebook friend Becca portrayed Annie in the Muncie Civic Theater production of ANNIE and Aileen Quinn played the role in the 1982 film that I featured here. I found Becca to be far more likale than Quinn. Sorry Quinn fans. Other facebook friends in this production include Martin as Oliver Warbucks where Albert Finney plays the role in the 1982 version and Kristin played Lily St. Regis which like many of her performances showed a large range of talent and where she can sing, plays comedy very well especially in OKLAHOMA that I was in with her and she plays serious. Maybe one day I'll be featuring one of these people's movies. Bernadette Peters played Lily in the featured version.

Carol Burnett (Annie) plays Miss Hannigan and my facebook friend Katherine played Carol Burnett in the stage variety show BEEN THERE, SCENE THAT where she sung NEW YORK, NEW YORK.

Boris Karloff (The Devil Commands) does the voice of the Grinch in THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS and my facebook friend Eric played the Grinch in the Anderson version of SEUSSICAL and my facebook friend Joe played the role of the Grinch in the Muncie version.