Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 146th Edition

Welcome to the 146th Edition of my series. Last Sunday, the Muncie Civic Theater had an awards show. I was not going to attend it, my plans were to try out for ANNIE at Anderson Mainstage Theater and then hang out at my friend Bill's house for the evening but as I arrived to Bill's, him and his wife Betsy had other plans to go to the Colts game in the evening so I left about 5 pm and when I got back to Muncie, I thought I'd go to the awards show. I got there, saw some friends and I won an unexpected award called the "Sorry You Died" award which was a joke award given to people who had died in shows that year and I was killed in FRANKENSTEIN. While it may not have been Best Actor, it was still exciting to get that certificate. As you can all see, I got a part in ANNIE at the Anderson Mainstage Theater which is my first show in about 3 years and I play many chorus roles. I'll know more when I get to rehearsals. This week, I have a lot of more unknown films to look into so now for the movies.

Alice in Wonderland (1985): My local theater recently did a version of this which included my Facebook and Myspace friends Stevie (King), Missy (White Rabbit), and Lauren (Gryphon). I have already used the Disney version so I thought I would look into this two-part mini-series. Natalie Gregory plays Alice in this adaptation to both ALICE AND WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. This was a very fun version of the Carroll classic which included quite the all-star cast of cameos and some decent musical numbers. One of my favorites was Ringo Starr as the Mock Turtle.

Death Race 2000 (1975): I now go back ten years from the first movie. With the recent release of DEATH RACE, I was aware that this version produced by Roger Cormon existed so I decided to check this out. This was a rather bizarre film where we have a cross-country race where not only do they need to get to the finish line but they must kill as many pedestrians as possible in a society where they condone these practices. David Carradine stars as Frankenstein, why that is his name I have no idea, who is one of the contestants and the protagonist even though he still does what he has to do. One of his biggest rivals was Machine Gun Joe, played by a young Sylvester Stallone in an interesting performance. If you are looking for the greatest movie of all time, you will not find it here but if you want some fun and something unusual, this is it.

The Bridge (2006): I found this depressing documentary on the IFC channel where they looked at suicides off the Golden Gate Bridge and the friends and relatives of the victims are interviewed. This was very compelling, I think I have explained enough for you to decide if you want to see it or not.

Brats (1930): I believe this is the debut of Laurel and Hardy to my series of nearly three years. They had a marathon of them on TCM so I found this short and thought it sounded interesting. In this short film, the two buddies are babysitting for two bratty children which seem to have a lot of resemblance to but they play good dual roles in the strange photography to make them look small.

The 47 Ronin- Part 1 (1941?): Kenji Mizoguchi directed this two-part samarai epic of which I included the first part. This one focuses on Lord Asano who leads a group of 47 Samarai. Lord Asano is murdered after not accepting a bribe and his 47 loyal samarai prepare for revenge. This was one of the first movies made in WW2 and was meant to be a morale booster for the Japanese and Pearl Harbor was attacked a week after release. This was a slow-moving film where I hear the second part has more action but it still gave you a chance to know the characters. This is actually based on a play about the real-life Ako Vendetta and is said to be very accurate.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999): This was my intended tribute to Isaac Hayes who for many years voiced Chef until he left the show being offended by the Scientology episode. This was a movie based on the long-running hit cartoon which yes it is still going. In this feature-length movie Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny all go see the movie based on the Canadian characters Terrance and Phillip. After seeing this movie, they all become very foul-mouthed causing the mothers to lead a revolt against Canada who they blame for these two characters. Down below, Satan and his uneasy boyfriend Saddam Hussein hope for an all-out war between America and Canada. This movie was based in Iraq for Hussein's portrayal. This movie was pretty good for something being developed out of a current series and I like this better than THE SIMPSONS MOVIE though I still like that one and this has some musical numbers and I know I have a couple readers if not more that despise musicals so if you hate musicals, you may not like this.

Read or Die (2001): I have a rare 2nd cartoon which is an Anime which I unexpectedly found when I was watching Monday Night Raw on the Sci-Fi channel which was there because of the Golf tournament on USA and I saw what was called Animonday so I thought I would look and see what they are showing and even include what I have not included in a while here. I believe this is a comic series and is based on a seemingly clumsy agent nicknamed Agent Paper who can do some cool things with paper. She becomes obsessed over a book she found at the library and people who wanted it so that she could not read this book. What else can be said here? It's anime, if you don't like that genre, you won't like this. If you do, it's worth a try. Not the best but still entertaining.

High and Low (1963): I bring you my 3rd Japanese movie of the week this time by the legendary Akira Kurasowa which stars his favorite actor Toshiro Mifune. This time he stars as a wealthy business executive who reluctantly pays the ransom to a kidnapper who thought the child was his but was not which sets him to broke. This is a great tale of morale and choice with a great performance from Mifune showing he can do more than play a samarai.

Transamerica (2005): Duncan Tucker directed this road movie which stars DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES star Felicity Huffman as a Transexual who has one more operation left to officially become a woman but learns that he fathered a son who is very troubled and together they take an unforgettable trip in a car. Huffman was great in her role which almost made me believe was a transexual man.

Indiscreet (1958): I end now with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Ingrid plays a professional actress and Cary is a U.S. Diplomat who claims to be married. It's a good romantic comedy, making Grant another great person Bergman plays well off of and has quite a bit of comedy in it. This was a very underrated film and has Bergman making sort of a comeback after a scandal.

Well, that is it for the week. I have my fantasy football draft in a little bit. Tell me what you like and what you hate.