Welcome to the 250th Edition of my long running series. That is quite a
number there and the fact that I have been doing it on a weekly basis
for this long of time must make me weird, nerdy, geeky, whatever you
want to call me and I will take them all as compliments. Thanks to
everyone who has supported me through the years old and new. Thanks to
a great cast and crew for ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, it was a lot of fun.
Now to my ten selections for the week. I have more animation than
usual, the start of a Robin Williams series, the continuation of a Paul
Newman series, a silent film, the likely end of a James Bond series,
and many other things.
Gidget (1959): I saw this when it was on
TCM On-Demand where we really have the iconic of the beach films I
would imagine. This also spawned many sequels and tv shows with many
different actresses playing the part including a star-making turn from
Sally Field in the tv series. However, none of the Gidget girls can
match everyone's favorite beach girl Sandra Dee who was just perfect
for the part. Sandra Dee plays Frances Lawrence who just does not fit
in with her female friends. She then meets surfer Moondoggy, played by
James Darren, who lives life on his terms. She then decides she wants
to learn how to surf and joins this clique. Cliff Robertson, known by
most as Uncle Ben from SPIDER-MAN, plays the Big Kahuna, who is kind of
Moondoggy's friend and rival in some ways. This movie was a lot of fun
where we witness our Gidget learn a lot about life and maybe more than
what she wanted. There are some pretty funny moments in here and is a
great guilty pleasure.
Falling For a Dancer (1998): This is my
British mini-series for the week. Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh stars 1930s
girl Elisabeth who at age 19 commits the ultimate sin and gets pregnant
before getting married. The father did not remain in the picture so
through lots of pressure marries a middle-aged man whose children were
not much younger and hopes for things to get better. This is based on a
novel by Deirdre Purcell which co-stars a young Colin Farrell. This was
shown on BBC as four 50-minute episodes. This is a pretty well done
British series that can be found on Netflix.
Waltz With Bashir
(2008): Ari Folman wrote and directed this documentary which he shot as
animation. Folman plays himself where he is a veteran of a Lebanese war
and interviews fellow veterans hoping to be able to piece together
memories he no longer has of the war. The animation was done very well
which kind of added some element to the story where live action would
not have done. I found this on Netflix. This is the first animated film
to be nominated for an academy award in the category of Best Foreign
Language film.
Glimpses of California (1946): This is my short
film for the week which is part of the TravelTalk series they seem to
be showing on TCM On-Demand. This takes a look at some landmarks at
Hollywood like Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park and other things.
Like most of these shorts, James A. FitzPatrick narrates it. This is a
very long series of short films which give us brief tours while we are
still just sitting on our couch.
Happy Feet (2006): This is part
one of a Robin Williams series. As of right now it is a two-parter but
could possibly be five. I remember the first time I saw this was when I
was working at a day care center in the summer and we took a group of
elementary age kids to see this when there was an actual dollar cinema.
Those were the days. As soon as I started watching this I thought "the
Penguin's MOULIN ROUGE" and I continued to really enjoy it. We join the
Emperor penguins who are taught to find a soul mate, they must be able
to sing. Then Mumble, voiced by Elijah Wood, is born and becomes an
outcast as he cannot sing but has the very strange talent of tapping
which does not go well with the rest of the group. Noah the Elder,
voiced by Hugo Weaving, believes Mumble is causing their fish supply to
dwindle with his tapping and exiles him. Mumble then goes on quite a
journey to prove it is not him where he meets a more outgoing group of
penguins, led by Robin Williams, and they join Mumble to find his
answer. Williams also voices the character Lovelace who gives advice
for a pebble. This is a very interesting statement made towards global
warming but the movie still entertains and I love musicals. The music
here is all hit songs like Queen's SOMEBODY TO LOVE, Prince's KISS, and
many others. Hugh Jackman gets to show his musical side as Memphis,
Mumble's Elvis-like father. Other actors include Nicole Kidman,
Brittany Murphy, and many others. If you don't like penguins, you might
like this but it is good family entertainment.
Street Fighter
II: The Animated Movie (1994): This is my anime selection for the week.
This is based on the great game from Nintendo but it is not the same as
the movie STREET FIGHTER which was also released in 1994 which stars
Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yes, the characters are mostly the same but the
story is different and better in this version. In my featured version,
this was actually produced by Capcom who produced the video game and I
do not believe there was ever intention on either side to have both of
these movies so close to each other. In this one, we meet the evil
Bison who is trying to recruit for his terrorist group Shadowlaw. He
uses mind-control to coerce people into doing things they would not
normally do including Cammy who is a very decorated secret agent. He
has never had the satisfaction of having the greatest fighter until he
witness Ryu and his friend/rival Ken Masters both of which are great
martial arts fighters. We then have the American Colonel Guile who must
team up with the Chinese Chun-Li to bring down bison. This was a lot
better than that movie, and likely better than the recent film they did
on Chun-Li. I believe STREET FIGHTER fans will like this version since
it was done a lot by its own creators. This is available on instant
Netflix.
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988): This is actually four
animation films in one week which is quite a rarity and what I like is
that I used four without using Disney though I might use Disney next
week. I found this on Encore On-Demand which was a Looney Tunes film
put together by some newer footage but other shorts and does a pretty
good job. This one really focuses more on Daffy who inherits a lot of
money from a millionaire who dies. That millionaire is working from
beyond the grave to make sure Daffy uses it for good or he will lose
that money which Daffy slowly witnesses. He then forms his own
supernatural detective agency which employs, Bugs, Porky, and
Sylvester. They then investigate some strange happenings and have some
great Looney Tune moments. I like watching these, most of these
cartoons really have no messages shoved down your throats, just some
great cartoon violence.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(1969): This is my western for the week and part two of what will
likely be a three-part Paul Newman series. This one ranks very high on
my western list which is a genre I don't really favor much but this one
makes and exception. Paul Newman and Robert Redford play the title
characters who formed the Hole in the Wall gang who rob trains and
banks. They were a real-life gang and in this movie they flee to
Bolivia when the cops get too close and come down to quite a showdown
in the end. The outlaws are portrayed as anti-heroes in this film and
the leads do a great job. Burt Bacharach wrote a good score and we have
the famous theme song RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD by B.J. Thomas.
I also thought the cinematography was great and loved the silent scene
in the beginning. I guess Jack Lemmon actually declined the Sundance
Kid with commitments to THE ODD COUPLE which I think worked out for
everyone. If you're looking for lost of historical accuracy, this might
not be it but this is a very fun western.
The Busher (1919):
This is my silent film for the week. I saw they were doing a silent
marathon on TCM and I have never really seen or featured a silent
sports movie so I took this one. We meet a young pitcher in the Bush
leagues who gets his opportunity in the majors where he finds it is not
an easy world. Charles Ray plays this person and is very good. It is
also a good, early showing of classic baseball and an enjoyable silent
for silent buffs.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): This is part
three of my James Bond series and likely the end but as always things
are subject to change when it comes to this blog. So far I have used
some Connery work so GOLDFINGER and just last week I used FROM RUSSIA
WITH LOVE. I decided for this one to delve into the Roger Moore era and
my favorite of his. In this one, we see British and Russian submarines
getting hijacked so agent 007 James Bond must investigate what happened
with theirs. On the Russian side, we have the female agent XXX aka Anya
Amasova. Curt Jurgens plays the villain of the movie Karl Stromburg who
is looking to make a world of the sea. Barbara Bach plays Agent XXX who
must team with Bond to find out what happened to the subs. Walter
Gotell makes his first appearance as KGB general Gogol and was in the
Bond film I featured last week, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, as one of the
villains. Please don't dismiss this one if you have seen other Moore
films and hate them. This one is much different where I feel everything
works. We got a good villain, a great opening sequence consisting of
skiing, some good chase scenes, a good Bond Girl. Richard Kiel is fun
as the henchman Jaws who is very hard to defeat. These Bond all
available on Movieplex On-Demand it looks like until sometime this
month.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you love and
what you hate. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes more
Robin Williams, more Paul Newman, and many others.
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