Welcome to the 251st Edition of my long running series. I have my
fantasy football draft on Monday so I'd better pick the best team
possible because I want to win this year. I return this week with one
selection from the Random Myspace profile selection process. On here
this week, I continue a Robin Williams series, end a Paul Newman series,
and much more.
Dead Poet's Society (1989): This is part two of
at least three of my Robin Williams series. Peter Weir directed this
film which stars Williams as English professor John Keating which takes
place around the 50s I believe. It is a religious boys school and very
strict. Keating decides to do something very unheard of which is teach
the kids to think for themselves. He encourages his students to "Seize
the Day". The main students we deal with are Todd and Neil. Todd, played
by Ethan Hawke, is the brother of a former valedictorian and is very
much in the shadow of his older brother. Neil, played by HOUSE co-star
Robert Sean Leonard, is very bright and gets good grades but can never
satisfy his overbearing father, played by THAT 70s SHOW alum Kurtwood
Smith. Neil's father is determined that his son make a better living
that he did so he is who decides his future. Robin Williams is great as
Weir and the movie still takes a good look at all the students in his
class. It shows that tradition is not always the way to go and the
portrayal of Neil's father was a way to show how not to parent because
he was only interested in his son's accomplishments in school but not
his son and his son's interests like in you'll see when Neil decides to
be in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
Rachel, Rachel (1968): This is
part three of what is likely the last part of this Paul Newman series
and in this movie however, he goes behind the camera in what would be
his directorial debut. I recorded this from TCM. It is based on the
novel by Margaret Laurence. Newman's wife Joanne Woodward plays the
title character who is a 35 year old teacher and has never married. She
lives with her demanding mother but meets a man who wants to be with her
but she has a hard time in her relationship inexperience. There are
also some interesting flashbacks to her childhood which show the woman
she would become. Newman and Woodward's daughter Nell Potts, plays
Rachel as a child. Woodward carries this movie very well and Newman
jumped through a lot of hoops to get this movie made where he did not
disappoint. It is a great character study.
Gran Torino (2008):
The Facebook friend I chose for this one was Dennis who I work with at
the call center. I had heard a lot of great things going into this movie
and for me it lived up to everything. Clint Eastwood directed and stars
in this film as bitter Korean war veteran Walt Kowalski who has just
lost his wife. He does not get along well with his kids and his
neighborhood sees lots of change as much of his neighborhood consists of
southeast Asians. We then have Walt's next-door neighbor Thao, played
very well by Bee Vang, who is a very shy kid and his gangster cousin
challenges him to steal Walt's 1972 car of the title name. Walt catches
him and scares Thao but starts to see that he is not such a bad kid and
slowly becomes friends with the family including Thao's older sister. He
then takes Thao under his wing to teach him about life and goes to the
extremes of getting him free of his cousin's gang. Descriptions of this
film describe Walt Kowalski as a bigot but I feel the bigotry is of the
types of people these Asians are. Many in his neighborhood are gang
members but once he gets to know the kids next-door, he sees they are
not like that and becomes friends with them. The racism in this film
really exists on all sides. Even Thao's family was not keen on him
coming over for dinner. We also saw a lot of arguments between Koreans
and Mexicans which really exists. Racism is something that's learned and
when all they are seeing is gang activity, it becomes understandable. I
am not racist and know crime exists in ever race. This is a very
rewarding film to watch and has a great ending.
She Was an
Acrobat's Daughter (1937): This is my short film for the week which I
found on a dvd to a film which will be featured next week. This is an
animated short which takes place at a movie theater but that the
audience are animals. It is a great look at the movie experience in the
30s where before the film they had the newsreel, a short film, and other
things. It also has some funny moments of disruptive patrons. It also
contains little spoofs of films like THE PETRIFIED FOREST and no that is
not what this short was on.
When the Last Sword is Drawn (2003):
This is my samarai film for the week which was directed by Yojiro
Takita. This movie centers around a family man and samarai who is not
getting paid enough to support his family and must leave for the big
city. It starts out where the samarai is older and is taking his
grandchild to the doctor and sees a picture of a man in the past and it
goes into flashbacks to explain his association with the samurai and his
later life. There is not much more to explain but if you like this
genre, this is quite possibly the best of the modern-day samarai films
and quite moving. It is still very violent so caution yourself there.
Now
and Then (1995): The Facebook friend I selected for this one is Katie
who is the youngest sister of my childhood friend Ross. This is also a
two part Cloris Leachman series where here she has a small part as a
grandmother but important part. I suppose you could call this my chick
flick for the week and maybe even a good mother/daughter viewing when
the daughter is about late elementary to early middle school. We start
out with four childhood friends reuniting as adults after about 10 years
due to a pact they made as children that they would always be there for
each other. The adults are Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie Griffith, Demi
Moore, and Rita Wilson. If any of these names throw you into panic,
don't worry for they only appear in the beginning and the end. Most of
the film is them reflecting on a summer they had in the early 70s when
they were about 12 years old. Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Gaby
Hoffman, and Ashleigh Aston Moore play the younger version and I have
them in the order of the adults they play. This was a summer for them
when they really had to learn a lot about life at that young age and
learned from a lot of mistakes. I found this to be a pretty realistic
look at childhood and the struggles they have that we don't really think
about unless we can look back to when we were their age. This is
actually based in the town of Winchester, Indiana which is about an hour
from where I live but Winchester declined to have their name mentioned
so they called it Shelby, Indiana. I heard someone call this female's
STAND BY ME and I can see where they are coming from there. This is not
my favorite but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I do believe it is
something girls can relate to more and I'm sure I lack that in this blog
so I figured I would give that audience something to recommend.
Around
the World in 80 Days (1956): I now bring you some Jules Verne. This is
an adaptation to his novel of the same name where David Niven stars as
Phileas Fogg. He makes a bet with some of his fellow Englishman that he
can do exactly what the title says so he sets out to do so. Cantinflas
is very amusing has Fogg's butler who comes along on the journey with
him. Along the way he meets lots of colorful characters and gets into
situations which jeopardize his big bet. Many other actors make cameos
like Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, Frank Sinatra, and
many others. I found this on Instant Netflix and is a very fun film. No,
I have not seen the 2004 remake.
The Way West (1967): This is my
western of the week. Andrew V. McLaglen directed this western which
stars Kirk Douglas as Senator William J. Tadlock who sets out with a
group of settlers to go to a settlement in Oregon. It is interesting the
evolution of this character. He was a good person with good intentions
and when things started going wrong it clouded his judgment making it
difficult for the others to follow him. Robert Mitchum plays Dick
Summers who was the protection and hunter of the group. Richard Widmark
plays Lije Evans who does not take well to Tadlock's ways. I thought
this western moved very well and had some good characters. Sally Field,
fresh of tv series GIDGET, makes her film debut which was the start of
quite a career.
The Ring (2002): This is my selection from the
Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this one I chose We
Love Movies. This is my horror film of the week which is a remake of the
1998 Japanese film RINGU. This was a pretty decent remake. Naomi Watts
stars as investigative journalist Rachel who is investigating the deaths
of people apparently dying because of a tape that was watched. She then
watches it and gets a phone call saying "7 days". She then sets out to
find what it is that causes these deaths in the seven days. Horror is
not my genre but this was a good horror film with a good story and good
characters. I have not seen the sequel or the original Japanese film.
The
Glenn Miller Story (1954): I now end with some James Stewart and I
found this movie on Movieplex On-Demand. James Stewart stars as the
real-life title character who was the bandleader for the Glenn Miller
Band. This documents Miller's early struggles and his determination to
form his own band. June Allyson plays his very loving wife who does not
want him to settle for what he does not want but to continue to work for
what he wants no matter what their financial situation is. It goes
starts in the early part of his career until his tragic death. Stewart
was very good as Miller. Louis Armstrong has a cameo as himself.
Well,
that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you hate. Stay
tuned for next week which so far includes Harvey Keitel, Bette Davis,
more Robin Williams, Howard Keel, more Cloris Leachman, Drew Barrymore,
and many others.
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