Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 189th Edition

Welcome to the 189th Edition of my blog. Last Wednesday, a little part of me was on the backstage segment of AMERICA'S GOT TALENT. I was in the background on an interview which you could really only see my shirt but you could see my mom's red hair and a jean jacket she was wearing. I have one movie from the Random Myspace Profile selection this week and next week I will have none. My thoughts go out to the friends and families Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett.

Singles (1992): Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this story of relationships at during the big boom of the Seattle scene in the 90s. People who lived during this time might appreciate it more and who understands the big Seattle Grunge music boom at the time. Bridget Fonda stars as Janet who has a tough relationship with her rock-star boyfriend Cliff, played by Matt Dillon who she can't leave no matter how hard she tries. Kyra Sedgwick plays Linda who forms a friendship with Campbell Scott and can't decide how far she wants it to go. These are a lot of interrelated stories within each other used with lots of music from the grunge era and even a cameo from Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. Other actors include Bill Pullman, Ally Walker, Tom Skerritt, Peter Horton, MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE alum Christopher Masterson, Paul Giamatti, director Tim Burton, Debi Mazar, and ALIAS alum Victor Garber all have parts.

Grease (1978): I bring you my musical for the week where John Travolta stars as greaser Danny Zuko and Olivia Newton-John is good-girl Sandy Olssen. They meet one summer and meet again in the last year of high school when Sandy realizes how much Danny has changed since that time they met. Danny is the leader of his little gang and starts to rethink his ways for Sandy. What more can be said here. Stockard Channing was good as Rizzo. Lood for Lorenzo Lamas as Sandy's date. Other appearances include Jeff Conaway, Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Frankie Avalon and even an uncreditted part by Michael Biehn, and many others. I have always like Frankie Valli's title theme song. I don't think I need to explain much. Most people know if they like or don't like this one. Travolt and Newton-John were great together. Most people did not exactly look high school age but I got over it.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957): This is quite the tale of greed, power, and corruption. Burt Lancaster stars as J.J. Hunsecker, a very ruthless New York columnist who is determined to keep his sister from marrying a jazz musician. He then employs press agent Sidney Falco, played by Tony Curtis, who is almost as corrupt but begins to hate himself for who he becomes and his determination to impress Hunsecker. There is not much to explain here except it was quite daring for the era and J.J. Hunsecker was kind of like a pre-Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas in WALL STREET). Hunsecker and Curtis were great in their roles in this dark film.

Hidden Blade (2004): The Facebook friend I chose for this one is John who I had a class with at Ivy Tech. This is a samarai film that takes place towards the end of the Samarai era. This takes place around Yaichiro, who is sent to become a Shogunate but is imprisoned to to a failed political maneuver and is put in solitary confinement. He escapes and his friend Munezo must kill him to prove his innocence while Yaichiro takes hostages. This is very hard to really explain but it is a very beautiful film with the great forbidden love story and friends who must become foes. It also talks about a lot of values of the Samarai.

JCVD (2008): I now mark the first time I have ever used a movie from Jean-Claude Van Damme, which is not to say that I won't use his early work in the future but his newer stuff just usually goes through me when it comes out. This was almost one of them when I saw the DVD at Wal-Mart but then I looked a little closer and this actually sounded pretty good so I went ahead and purchased it and I was not disappointed. Van Damme plays himself returns to his country of France where he is a has-been, has a lot of financial troubles and a custody battle for his daughter that he loses. He still can't find good film projects but before anything can come around, he becomes a hostage at a post office and must try to help the others stay alive but becomes suspected of being the person holding the place hostage. This was a great part for him and he was great in this movie, including a great monologue towards the end on what his career has become where you really feel for him. I really hope they can do something like this for Steven Seagal sometime. I will never be able to look at him the same again after this one and I am so glad he got to do this one. Mabrouk El Mechri directed this and came up with the scenario for the film and all I have to say is wow. If you think Van Damme can't do a good movie, think again and check this out.

Fantasia (1940): This is a selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this one I chose Bostonmovie v2.0. This was a very innovative film from Disney which shows animation sequences to a lot of Western classical music like Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Stravinski, and Dukas. There is a great animation sequence to Tchaikovsky's THE NUTCRACKER SUITE. There is also a good one showing the animation of evolution through the years. The most famous one is where Mickey Mouse is an aspiring musician who oversteps his bounds. There is many great sequences that are carried by the music including the great DANCE OF THE HIPPOS. These were days when computers were not necessary for animation.

Turner and Hooch (1989): Tom Hanks stars as a very clean-obsessed detective named Scott Turner who is leaving for the big city and trains FAMILY MATTERS alum Reginald VelJohnson who will become his replacement. Things come to a halt when one of his close informants is killed and the witness is a slobbering dog and very messy dog named Hooch. Turner must then adopt Hooch in order to find the murderer but sees it is hard to train Hooch. COACH alum Craig T. Nelson co-stars as his boss. It is interesting to see something again from Hanks' comedy days and was enjoyable. Mare Winningham plays a veteranarian and Hanks' love interest.

My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts (1999): This is my animation short for the week. This is based on the history of Norway during the WWII era. It shows that Norway hires a king and a grandmother is hired to iron his shirts but things fall apart with the Nazi invasion but the king refused to give in leading him into exile but the grandmother counters the plans of the Nazis in a funny way. I found this on the IFC channel and when watching about four shorts, I made the judgement on this one to be included. This was a nice short film written and directed by Torill Kove which I assume writes about her grandmother.

The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963): Vincente Minnelli directed this comedy which stars a young Ron Howard as the title character whose mother has died and feels his father Tom, played by Glenn Ford, needs to marry again. He then schemes to get him to marry a woman he really likes but Tom is seeing someone that Eddie does not like which makes things difficult for him. It is a pretty funny movie but Howard does a good job of conveying how a young child might work through the hurt of losing a mother. Ford and Howard are great together as father and son. Shirley Jones co-stars as the woman that Eddie really likes and Jerry Van Dyke is amusing as radio DJ Norman Jones. Clint Howard, Ron's brother, makes his debut in an uncreddited part which is the start to quite an interesting career.

Blue Steel (1934): I really had a hard time fitting a movie from the 30s in here so I resorted to some very early John Wayne in his days with the Lone Star Stock Company. John Wayne stars as U.S. Marshall John Carruthers who must go undercover in a small town to uncover that the town's leading citizen plans on robbing everyone blind. This was a decent one, he becomes the legend and icon he is now much later in his career but this is a start. You can find this on any of those John Wayne boxed sets.

Well, that is it for this week. Leave your comments and tell me what you like and don't like. I will return next week which will include a mini-series, Tommy Lee Jones, the late Michael Jackson and Ed McMahon, and Aaron Eckhart.

FUN LITTLE FACTS

Kyra Sedgwick (Singles) does the voice for Lois Lane, the girl who can't choose between Clark Kent and Superman, in the 2008 film JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER. Glenn Ford (Courtship of Eddie's Father) plays Clark Kent's adopted father Jonathan Kent in the 1978 film SUPERMAN.

Kyra Sedgwick (Singles) formed a relationship with John Travolta (Grease) in the 1996 film Phenomenon

Ally Walker (Singles) and Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD) team up in the 1992 film UNIVERSAL SOLDIER

Eric Stoltz (Singles) and John Travolta (Grease) must work together to revive Mia Wallace.

Bridget Fonda (Singles) plays FRANKENSTEIN author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in the 1990 film FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND. Eric Stoltz (Singles) plays Shelley's husband Percy Shelley in the 1988 film HAUNTED SUMMER.

Tom Skerritt (Singles) plays Duke in the 1970 film MASH. My Facebook friend Thom played the role in the stage version at Lee's Theatrical Productions.

Christopher Masterson (Singles) and John Travolta (Grease) are both Scientologists.

John Travolta (Grease) read for the part of Allen Bauer in the 1984 film SPLASH but the part would ultimately go to Tom Hanks (Turner and Hooch)

Craig T. Nelson (Turner and Hooch) and Jerry Van Dyke (Courtship of Eddie's Father) coached a university football team in the long-running series COACH.