Welcome to the 109th Edition of my series. I return to putting it out
on Sunday due to this weather, I don't know if I'll be able to do it
again next week but you know it will come. I focused quite a bit on
comedy this week, I had limited selection and I did the best with what I
had. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog and now your 10 for this
week.
Three Ages (1923): I decided to use this Buster Keaton movie after
using one of his shorts for last week. I believe this is his first
feature length film. Keaton wrote and directed this parody on D.W.
Griffith's INTOLERANCE which is about love through the ages and this one
is about the mishaps of love through the ages where Buster looks for
love in the Stone Age, the Roman age, and the modern age of the time of
this film. Keaton is hilarious, especially as the caveman and his dismay
towards the modern industrial age. This movie paved the way for some of
Mel Brooks' films, check this one out.
For One More Day (2007): We go from the '20s to our modern era with
this tv movie from Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions which is based on
the Mitch Albom novel and he also wrote the script for television.
SOPRANOS alum Michael Imperioli goes from being a mobster for years to
being a washed-up baseball player named "Chick" Benetto whose live he
feels is not worth living until he sees his deceased mother who is
granted one day with him to try to fix his life. This movie jumps around
to many stages from his childhood, to his life in college and pro
baseball to his post-days after the game. Some people may not have liked
it but some people did and I was one of them and I was glad to see
Imperioli in a different role as much as I loved THE SOPRANOS. Ellen
Burstyn plays his mother and someone named Vadim Imperioli plays the
young Benetto, I don't know if he is a son or a younger brother to the
star but has a lot of resemblance to Michael which I thought added an
element to the movie.
La Femme Nikita (1990): Luc Besson wrote and directed this French
film which would give way to two remakes and a decent tv series.
However, none beat the original. Anne Parillaud plays the title role who
is a street thug convicted of murder about to face the death penalty
but finds herself in an even stranger world when she is recruited by a
government agent to be an assassin. Tcheky Karyo plays her trainer who
as crazed as he may be, wants Nikita to succeed. Look for Jean Reno as
an assassin and he would go onto be in LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL. This
movie has some great action and interactions with Nikita trying to lead a
normal life and even finding a boyfriend. Eric Serra wrote the
soundtrack which was a very good one. This movie works on many levels
and was a diversion from the comedies I'm sure you were all looking for
in this blog.
Short Hymn, Silent War (2003): This was a pretty acclaimed short film
I found on Sundance and was shown in many film festivals. This film is
mostly of imagery of four African-American women whose lives changed
after a shooting. It is definetly worth a look.
Courage of Lassie (1946): I wanted to show a Lassie film and since I
have done LASSIE, COME HOME, I wanted to use SON OF LASSIE which was
better than this one but the dvd I checked out at the library was a bad
one and couldn't get through the last half hour. so I had one last
chance with this one so I settled on it. I have been very open to
admitting that when I watched the first one mentioned here, I was in
tears the whole movie, I experienced that some here and the last one I
tried but not nearly as much. This movie really is not a sequal and
while it stars Elizabeth Taylor, she does not reprise her role in the
first Lassie film. This one starts out with Lassie and some of her
puppies in the wilderness and when she gets picked up, the real curious
one gets left behind and becomes a dog of the wilderness until he is
accidently shot by hunters and Taylor nurses him back to health and
calls him Bill. Bill immediately has the genes of his mother and is
trained as a sheepdog until an accident gets him picked up by the army
and gets caught up in the army and gets away as a hero but experiences
post-war trauma. This has the usual storyline where the collie is
separated from his/her owner and wants back and it always saddens me to
watch these. Nothing great but still a good family film and I liked the
beginning with the collie in the wilderness and his interactions most
notably with a black bear and it has some interesting messages of coming
home from war and that humans were not the only people affected by war.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006): I know I have featured this in the past
but I told you all that I reserve the right to feature something again. I
really don't feel like going through my archives to figure out when I
featured it so you can do it yourself if you want. My mom decided to
watch this and I decided I wanted to see it again so I figured I would
go ahead and feature this hilarious movie. What I liked was the
diversity of these characters within the family who played off real well
against each other. This movie got a rare Oscar nomination, being a
comedy. Greg Kinnear is great as the aspiring self-help guru who is
convinced he will become big someday. Toni Collette plays his wife and I
always like her in what she is in. THE OFFICE star Steve Carell is good
as Collette's suicidal brother. Paul Dano is pretty funny as the son
who has taken a vow of silence. Alan Arkin is hilarious as the obscene
but good-hearted grandfather who is training his granddaughter, played
by Abigail Breslin, for the title competieion. Together, they all set
out to get her to the competition no matter what it takes and it took a
lot. There are many hilarious road moments up to the climatic finale
where Breslin performs her routine for the competition. People are bound
to find this overrated but I laughed the whole way through so I can't
say that. Also look for MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE alum Bryan Cranston, whose
movie LAST CHANCE I featured last week, as Kinnear's agent
Smokey and the Bandit (1977): We return to the road but this time to
evade the law from an overzealous sheriff. Burt Reynolds stars as Bo and
along with his partner Cledus played by Jerry Reed, they illegally set
out to get a truckload of beer and bring it back home. They are joined
by a runaway bride named Carrie, played by Sally Field in an early
performance who comes to admire them and enjoy running from Sheriff
Buford T. Justice who is far from his jurisdiction. Jackie Gleason plays
the sheriff here. These four plus a basset hound make for some
entertaining moments and set off sequals and imitations in the future.
Gremlins (1984): Here is my holiday film for the week. We start out
with an inventor, played by Hoyt Axton, who wants to get something for
his son and decides up a cute, furry little creature. Zach Galligan
plays his son who really takes a liking to his new pet, naming him Gizmo
but breaks two of the biggest rules, one of which by giving it water
which makes Gizmo multiply, then inadvertingly feeds them after midnight
which makes them much worse. Gizmo was a pretty nice little gremlin but
unfortunately the rest were not the same and wreak havoc all over town.
This movie had a lot of comedic moments and is a great movie for the
80s and look for Corey Feldman and Judge Reinhold. It was interesting
the way that when the father brought the gremlin home that no one even
questioned what it was or what it might do, they just accepted him like a
pet which seemed to bring jealousy to that dog.
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914): I start out with Buster Keaton,
now I go to Charlie Chaplin who stars in his first feature-length film
which is actually perceived as the first feature length comedy, put out
before A BIRTH OF A NATION. These were the days before Chaplin would
multi-task into directing, writing, and producing where here he was only
a star of the movie who this time plays a con artist named Charlie cons
his way into Tillie's life hoping to get her father's inheritance
leading into some pretty funny moments. It's interesting to watch for
historical purposes. Mack Sennett directed this movie and Chaplin would
go onto making some much greater comedies than this one but this was a
start in the right direction.
Bye Bye Birdie (1963): I finish with this musical which is a satire
to the times of the obsessions of young girls over a singer named Conrad
Birdie who is seemingly modeled from Elvis Presley. Conrad has been
drafted by the military much to the dismay of his young female fans.
Dick Van Dyke stars as Conrad's songwriter Albert who is about to become
unemployed and his girlfriend Rosie, played by Janet Leigh, hatches a
plan to get him on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW and have a lucky female fan win a
nationally televised kiss from Conrad. A young girl named Kim McAfee,
played by Ann-Margaret, "wins" this contest much to the dismay of her
boyfriend and at first her father which lead into some pretty hilarious
moments. Ed Sullivan plays himself in this film. Jesse Pearson plays
Conrad Birdie who is okay, but the real standout is Dick Van Dyke in his
first feature movie.
Once again, PETA will be pissed at me but what do you all think. What
are your favorites here and what are your least favorites? I can't
satisfy everyone so let it be known of your feelings. I'll be back next
week.
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