Welcome to the 353rd Edition of my series. I am now in Philadelphia
visiting my friends Ashley and Stephen. I am releasing this much later
than usual because I have not been able to get to a wireless location
until now. I will be leaving Friday evening to fly back to Muncie. We
are also looking to get the first episode of DOPE HOUSE done shortly
after I get back to Indiana. Now I will get to my selections for the
week.
Beerfest (2006): This is a comedy from the
Broken Lizard group and Jay Chandrasekhar wrote, directed, and
co-starred in what you might guess is about beer. Paul Soter and Erik
Stolhanske star as brothers Jan and Todd whose grandfather has died.
They soon travel to Munich to spread his ashes during Oktoberfest.
Along with some friends, they come upon a secret beer competition where
some Germans accuse their grandfather of stealing their drink recipe.
They soon decide to join in this beer drinking competition. This movie
is not for everyone and is quite absurd at times. Cloris Leachman is
rather amusing in her cameo and Mo'Nique is pretty funny in her role.
There is a lot of over-the-top action but it was still a pretty fun
comedy. This is something to watch at a party where there is already a
lot of drinking going on and maybe learn some more games and get some
laughs.
There Will Be Blood (2007): Paul Thomas
Anderson directed and wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Upton
Sinclair. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as 20th century miner Daniel Plainview
who works hard to make money but takes advantage of towns and their
oil. His partner is his son H.W. who proves to be a good partner. Paul
Dano co-stars as a local preacher named Eli Sunday who is also out for
the oil which sets off quite a rivalry between the two. This is not an
upbeat film by any means but is a great story of greed and betrayal.
Dano was very good as the preacher who appears to have his own motives
and Day-Lewis is good in his role of a man corrupted by his greed. This
is one of the best of that year and the decade possibly but is hard to
really explain through words so if you hate my first selection, surely
this will put you back on my side.
War Horse (2011):
This is part two of my two-part Steven Spielberg series which last week
featured his animated movie of the same year THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN.
So my first one of this week is an outrageous comedy, my second was is
very dark but this one while violent is more inspirational. This movie
takes place during World War I. Jeremy Irvine stars as Albert whose
father bought a horse that was a thoroughbred instead of a plough animal
much to the dismay of the matriarch of the family. Albert talks his
parents into keeping the horse so that he can train him and calls him
Joey making them inseparable. Soon, his family falls into some hard
times making his father sell the horse to the British cavalry where the
horse gets captured by the Germans and changes hands other times
bringing inspiration to those around him including another horse who
become best friends. Albert soon becomes old enough to enlist and soon
reunites with the horse doing whatever possible to get out alive with
Joey. This was a very enjoyable film for me. Emily Watson, Tom
Hiddleston, David Thewlis, and many others co-star in this film. I
found this to be a very beautiful story and a good depiction of WWI.
The
Tell-Tale Heart (1941): This is my short film of the week which is
based on the story from Edgar Allen Poe. In this story, a young man is
being abused and degraded by his employer which drives him to the edge
and ends up killing his employer. After the killing, he is convinced he
can still hear a heart beating which makes him more and more nervous.
The performances of the actors were very good and is a good telling of
the Poe story which I recorded from TCM.
The Real Bruce
Lee (1973): This is in a sense a documentary which was released
shortly after his death in the same year. What the movie mostly focuses
upon in the beginning is footage of Lee acting when he was a child
which I did not know he acted when he was in Hong Kong. After his death
spawned many imitators and then shows footage of the two most known
impersonators in Bruce Li and Dragon Lee. I have seen quite a bit of
movies from the 70s and today and I do prefer the martial arts of today
like with Jet Li and Donnie Yen but I do know that Bruce Lee is the one
who made the genre popular. It was very interesting seeing Lee in his
younger days and can be of interest to Lee fans.
Mr.
Moto Takes a Chance (1938): This is a character made famous by Peter
Lorre who is a Japanese detective while Lorre was not Japanese, it was
okay in those days. Moto ends up in a jungle village in Cambodia to
investigate some murders and poses as an ineffectual archaeologist and
as a holy man. He does a very good job of portraying the people he
disguises. Mr. Moto was created after Charlie Chan's creator died and
needed a good Asian character to continue and then to make movies with
non-Asians. This was still a pretty good murder mystery and Lorre good
in his role as always. This is the fourth in the Mr. Moto series. Good
for classic movie buffs and Lorre fans.
Elvis (2005):
This is actually a mini-series which has two 90 minute episodes and as
you might have guessed is based on the King of Rock and Roll. Jonathan
Rhys-Meyers stars as Elvis and focuses on his late teen years up to a
comeback concert in 1968. Randy Quaid co-stars as Elvis' manager
Colonel Tom Parker who was very money-oriented but did not always have
the best interests in Elvis in mind. Parker was the one who took Elvis
to international stardom and got him in some of those movies. According
to this series, the movie studio put him in those cheesy musical movies
to make the money necessary to fund a more dramatic project. Other
events this movie focuses on is his meeting and marriage with Priscilla,
being drafted into the military, and his troubled life on the road with
drugs and alcohol. Rose McGowan plays the part of actress
Ann-Margret. This is a great rock biography with Rhys-Meyers playing
the part to perfection as far as his portrayal and mannerisms go. The
music is of the actual Elvis singing the he lips syncs. This is the
first film where the Presley estate let his actual music get used. This
tv movie beats out many actual rock films and is worth the three hours.
A great double feature with friends in my opinion would be this
followed by BUBBA HO-TEP.
The Rickshaw Man (1958):
This is my Japanese film of the week which was directed by Hiroshi
Inagaki and stars Japanese legend Toshiro Mifune. Mifune plays the
title character whose name is Matsugoro who is poor but very proud and
hard working. He by chance saves the life of a young boy who becomes
friends with the family but the father dies. He spends his off time
helping the single mother and her boy. There still seem to be conflicts
between their class and does not always feel he fits in no matter how
hard he tries but never gives up. This is a story that is driven by
character and a good script and in the Mifune films I have seen is
actually my favorite of his. There is a later scene where Mifune shows
off his great drumming skills. This is a rather sad film at times but
one many can relate to including myself relating some to Matusgoro.
This is something I recorded from TCM and am very glad I did so.
Attack
of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978): This is my cult classic for the week.
This takes place in a small town where the tomatoes have a mind of
their own and start killing people. This movie is not very good but
that's what makes it so good to watch. It does have a great theme some
of the title. One thing I did kind of like is that the tomatoes were
introduced in the beginning of the movie and did no kind of lead-up to
them. They got to the point right in the beginning. One thing I was
not expecting were musical numbers. The tomatoes made some strange
noises that sounded like Ewoks. This movie had quite a bit to it so if
you're not too concerned about plot and have a lot of friends over, this
may be a great one to check out.
Ordinary Decent
Criminal (2000): This movie takes place in Dublin. Kevin Spacey stars
as criminal mastermind Michael Lynch who is very publicity hungry and
more concerned about his image than the money he makes. In his home
life, he is married to two women and has two children and his family
seems to support his livelihood. Stephen Dillane stars as Noel who is
determined to get Lynch convicted but can never produce the necessary
evidence to do so. Colin Farrell, Linda Fiorentino, and Christoph Waltz
co-star in this film. The middle word in the title reflects the movie
in my opinion. Spacey is fun as the flamboyant criminal and does a good
job with the Irish accent. The execution of the crimes was also very
well done.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me
what you like and what you dislike. Stay tuned for next week which so
far includes Steve Buscemi, Christina Hendricks, Kristin Chenoweth,
Peter Dinklage, Natalie Portman, and many others.
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