Welcome to the 95th Edition of my blog. The NFL season has begun but
myself and my opponent, Mike's Space Cowboys, had no players in that
last game so our game begins today and may the best man win, hopefully
that is me. As you can see, I am now in Frankenstein in October. Now on
with the show. Things happened the first time I wrote this so forgive me
if this writing seems a bit rushed.
The King and I (1956): This
is the Rogers and Hammerstein adaptation to Anna and the King of Siam.
My mom saw this live one time with Yul Bryner who is also in the movie
and has cited she'll never watch it again due to Bryner's great
performance as the King of Siam. Deborah Kerr plays Anna who accepts a
job as the governess for the King of Siam to teach his children English
and other European ways. At first, she finds herself at odds with the
stubborn King of Siam but I think you all know what happens next. This
was one of the great musicals in the Golden Age which still holds up
today.
The Milky Way (1940): I found this animated short in the
DVD extras of the Marx Brothers' Go West and The Big Store. The second
title is what I featured last week. This short starts out with the three
little kittens losing their mittens but then they are sent up to the
actual milky way which unbeknownst to us is filled with lots of milk.
This was a very funny animated short and the first Non-Disney short film
to win an Academy Award. I will be featuring a live-action short next
week from this DVD.
Too Late For Tears (1949): I got this from
the Classic Film Noir DVD I checked out at the library and I continue my
Film Noir series with this one. Like many from the category, it lives
on in obscurity but still respected. A Femme Fatale wife finds $60,000
and when her husband wants to turn it in, things get quite ugly. Trying
to find a way out, she is then visited by her first husband's brother
who is quite suspicious of what happened and things go from there. I
will be featuring one more Film Noir from this collection next week.
Troy
(2004): This epic on the war between Troy and Sparta is an adaptation
of Homer's The Iliad. I might take some heat for this pick but I really
like this movie, and found myself liking it even more when I watched it
for this installment. Brad Pitt plays the Trojan named Achilles who has
unbelievable strength but has his own code of conduct much to the dismay
of the unlikable King Agemenon, played by character actor Brian Cox.
Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom play Sparta brothers Hector and Paris.
Paris' relationship with Helen of Troy, played by Diane Kruger, is a big
part of what starts this war. Peter O'toole has a great role as the
King of Sparta, and the father of Hector and Paris who has an
interesting encounter and scene with Achilles. There were some pretty
good looking fight scenes, most notably the fight between Achilles and
Paris. Many will say "read the book instead" but I don't usually get
into books much so I'll just stick to this film. Look for former WWE
wrestler Nathan Jones in the beginning.
Sixteen Candles (1984): I
now take you from the war in Troy and Sparta to the Brat Pack, most
notably Molly Ringwald and Dead Zone star Anthony Michael Hall. Molly
plays a teen girl whose 16th birthday is forgotten by her family, has a
crush on a guy unaware that he likes her back and neither know how to
tell each other, and is bothered to no end by the king of the nerds
played by guess who? I am not a die-hard Brat Pack fan but they are
important in history and this movie was pretty good, though I thought
Michael Schoeffling, who played Molly's love interest was rather dull
but we still had a politically incorrect performance from Gedde Watanabe
as Long Duk Dong. Look for up-and-comers John and Joan Cusack and Jami
Gertz.
The Mission (1986): My mom recorded this to the DVR so I
thought I would go ahead and feature this one. Jeremy Irons heads a
group of 18th Century Jesuits who are in South America to protect an
indian group from being enslaved by Portugal. Robert De Niro plays a
slave trader and killer who comes to regret what he has done and
converts to the Jesuits. This movie has some great interaction and
historical moments and a climatic and depressing action scene in the
end.
The Liberace of Baghdad (2005): I found this documentary on
Sundance. This movie centers around an Iraqi piano player named Samir
Peter who wants nothing more than a Visa so he can get to America to see
his ex-wife and children. He struggles in Post-War Iraq everyday with
his daughter who had some interesting pro-Saddam beliefs not agreed upon
by her father. The director was a reporter from BBC who had a lot of
balls to go to Iraq to get this compelling story.
Godzilla vs.
King Ghidorah (1991): I have always wanted to see a Godzilla fight movie
and Fearnet On-Demand has a few so I decided to check this one out. If
you are looking for something with a great story, scary and awesome
special-effects, this is not the one. It looks like a cheesy Sci-Fi
movie from the 50s and 60s so if you are big into them, this is the one
to watch. We had a great fight between two unwanted monsters and it is
still an entertaining movie.
Rollercoaster (1977): I was looking
for a 70s film for this week on On-Demand and came across this
interesting thriller. George Segal stars as an inspector who is dismayed
when the rollercoaster he inspected and approved has an explosion. He
soon finds out that it was a clever mad bomber. When the authorities
don't give him much help, he takes it upon himself to stop the bombers.
Underrated actor Timothy Bottoms plays this unlikely bomber and gives
George a big run for his money. Look for a young Helen Hunt. Nothing
great, but still interesting and entertaining.
Mr. Smith Goes To
Washington (1939): In a year that boasted such classics as The Wizard of
Oz and Gone with the Wind, this movie stands right there with them. If
you have hated my first 9 picks, surely this one makes up for
everything. Capra actor James Stewart stars as Jefferson Smith, first
running a children's group called the Boy Rangers, then becoming a
replacement senator, assuming he is easily exploited. The patriotic
Smith is excited at first until he sees corruption and at his expense.
Claude Rains stars as the higher-up Senator who was at one time a good
man but corrupted through the years by politics. Jean Arthur is Smith's
love interest who thinks he's too nerdy at first but grows on her and
she helps him bring down the corruption. Jefferson Smith has a great
tour through the D.C. area and is still excited to see the sites, even
as an adult. Great movie with the great Capra message.
Well, that
is it for this week. Last Wednesday I featured a wrestling blog, this
Wednesday I will write a personal blog on my life in community theater.
Next week, I will be charting some untread waters so stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment