Welcome to the 307th Edition of my series. Today starts this hears
Horror Movie Madness contest so I will be having a lot of selections
having to do with that plus "loopholes". Right now I am 1-2 in Fantasy
Football. I'm hoping to be able to bounce back this week but we shall
see. Let's get to this week's selections.
Rembrandt's J'Accuse
(2008): This is my documentary for the week where it focuses on
Rembrandt's famous painting Nightwatching. This painting has 34
characters who had motives for the killing in the painting. Peter
Greenaway directed this documentary which featured some actors in a
theatrical setting to reenact some of the things. This is a rather
strange film but entertaining especially for Rembrandt enthusiasts.
This is available on Instant Netflix.
Panic Room (2002): David
Fincher directed this thriller which stars Jodie Foster and a
pre-TWILIGHT Kristen Stewart as mother and daughter. Foster plays Meg
who is estranged from her wealthy husband and Stewart is Sarah, Meg's
tomboy daughter. They soon by a nice house which has something very
unusual of the title of which when in that room it can only be opened
from the inside. They must take refuge when there are three thieves.
Things get very complicated for them when learning that what they need
exists in that room. Forrest Whittaker, Dwight Yoakam, and Jared Leto
co-star as the thieves doing what they can to get to that room. This is
a pretty suspenseful film and gets very violent throughout the film. I
believe this may very well be Kristen Stewart's first time to make it
into my blog. Foster is also very good as the resourceful mother with
Stewart faring well herself.
Forbidden Passage (1941): This is
my short film for the week and from the great Crime Does Not Pay series.
This focuses on an issue very big today in the world of illegal
immigration. It shows the U.S. Department of Immigration in their
efforts to stop people from smuggling in the immigrants who cannot wait
to go through the legal process and pay high fees and lead to their
deaths. It was a pretty well-made short about immigration.
The
Drums of Jeopardy (1931): Former Charlie Chan actor Warner Oland stars
as a mad scientist who is determined to take revenge on a family he
believes is responsible for his daughter's death. This is a pretty
unknown film but a pretty decent one. Oland's name in the movie is Dr.
Boris Karlov which can be associated as a reference to Boris Karloff but
I do not believe that is the case as Karloff did not rise until about
this year when he was the Creature in FRANKENSTEIN but even then the
credits did not show his name but a question mark. This was available
on my Pub D Hub app on my roku player which shows public domain
material.
A Boy and His Dog (1975): L.Q. Jones directed this
post-apocalyptic sci-fi film based on the novel by Harlan Ellison. A
pre-MIAMI VICE Don Johnson stars as Vic and has a dog named Blood who he
seems to be able to talk to but no one else can. Together they
scavenge the world for food and sex. Vic then ends up in a strange
underground world in a community that lacks people and have strange
methods of keeping up the population. This was a very interesting
sci-fi film that kept me from the beginning. This is not for everyone
and is quite vulgar but very entertaining. Jason Robards has a small
part as the leader of the community. This is available on Instant
Netflix and was quite worth it.
Zombieland (2009): So I finally
got around to watching this great zombie comedy which takes place in a
zombie filled world where there are few humans. Jesse Eisenberg stars
as shy college student named Columbus who has learned the art of
survival in this world and has many rules. Woody Harrelson joins him
and calls himself Tallahassee. He is a tough guy who loves Twinkies but
shows a soft side. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin round out these
humans who are two girls also out to survive by any means necessary.
The four of them must then band together in hopes of getting to an
amusement park in L.A. leading to a good climax. Bill Murray has a
cameo where he plays himself. Other cameos include Mike White, John C.
Reilly, and Amber Heard. This is a very fun with pretty good
performances from the leads to carry the film.
Ikiru (1952):
This is my Japanese film for the week which is directed by Akira
Kurasowa. Takashi Shimura stars as Kanji Watanabe who has worked in a
local city office for many years as a bureaucrat. He soon learns he has
terminal cancer will die soon but then looks back to realized he has
not lived much in his job and family life. He then decides to make a
difference through his job. We then lead into his death where people
who have known him for a long time try to piece together his unusual
behavior. This was a very moving film and the title is a translation
for "to live" which is what are protagonist finally learned to do when
he knew he would die. This is the inspiration for the later Kevin Kline
film LIFE AS A HOUSE.
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
(1972): This is my western for the week which stars Paul Newman as the
title character who establishes an unusual form of law and order in a
town that he makes. Roy Bean has become known as "the hanging judge".
Anthony Perkins as a good cameo as Reverend LaSalle in the beginning.
John Huston directed this film and has his own amusing cameo as Grizzly
Adams. Ned Beatty, Stacy Keach, Roddy McDowell, Jacqueline Bisset, Ava
Gardner, and many others co-star. This is a pretty fun western and
while Roy Bean was a real character had a great billing of "Maybe this
isn't the way it was- It's the way it should've been!" This is an
underrated performance from Newman.
Little Monsters (1989): This
is my guilty pleasure film for the week. WONDER YEARS alum Fred Savage
stars as Brian who soon finds that there really are monsters under the
bed and the main one is named Maurice, played by Howie Mandel. He soon
makes friends with Maurice and even goes with him to pull pranks on
kids. He soon learns that not all the monsters are as nice as Maurice.
Fred Savage's younger brother Ben, most known from BOY MEETS WORLD,
co-stars as his movie brother Eric which is his acting debut. Daniel
Stern plays their father. Stern and Savage play father and son here but
play the same character in THE WONDER YEARS where Stern narrates as the
grown Kevin and Savage plays Kevin. This may not be for all children
and likely those in later elementary school as it does have a bit of
language and dark moments. I know Mandel is quite the germaphobe so I'm
not sure how he felt about putting on so much make-up. He is the one
person in this edition that I have met when going in front of him this
year in AMERICA'S GOT TALENT. This is available on Instant Netflix and
may be a good one for the family this month.
Lenore: The Cute
Little Dead Girl (2002): I had a hard time coming up with this last
spot as nothing fit my "rules". This is a comic series and has a few
animated shorts that is inspired by the Edgar Allen Poe poem LENORE.
This is about a dead little girl whose actions result in the death of
things around her but not what she intends. She is a very odd little
girl but the other characters are pretty strange too. This is a series
of shorts available on youtube. I first learned about this when I was
at my friend Bill's house and I think they had it on DVD and I just
could not take my eyes off this.
Well, that is it for this week.
Tell me what you like and what you do not like. Stay tuned for next
week which so far includes Rutger Hauer and many others.
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