Welcome to the 98th Edition of my blog series. Last week in Fantasy
Football, I took on Tony F. and I defeated him in a very close battle to
go 2-1 in Fantasy, this week I take on the Rub and I hope to go 3-1.
Another note, I am going to take part in Cavepearl's Horror Movie
Marathon contest where I will just add that onto my recommendations blog
so not all recommendations will necessarily be part of the marathon nor
will all the marathon selections be put into my recommendations though
they could be in the future. Now, on with my picks.
Magnificent Obsession (1954): This is a tribute to underrated actress
Jane Wyman who recently died so I chose this remake of a 1935 film.
Long before we had "The People's Champion" The Rock, we had Rock Hudson
who many people probably regarded in the same light in the world of
acting until his secret came out after his death and many fans were
dismayed. Myself, I still look at people's art, not their sexuality. In
here, Rock stars as spoiled, rich playboy Bob Merrick whose reckless
ways on his boat cause him to have an accident where on the other side
we have Jane Wyman who plays Helen and has a husband who dies and was
not able to be saved because they were busy trying to save Merrick. This
finally makes Bob see a little more humanity and does what he thinks is
right and unfortunately his eagerness to help inadvertingly causes
Helen to have an accident and to become blind. Now Bob's obsession to
help Helen knows know bounds. I won't go any furthur than that except to
tell you that this is a movie which will play with all your emotions
and if you're looking for something violent and dark, you'd better look
furthur.
Deconstructing Harry (1997): We go from a sentimental film to this
absolute non-family film. Woody Allen stars, writes and directs in the
way that only Woody can where he plays a writer named Harry Block. Harry
is suffering from writer's block (coincidence?) and must deal with all
the people he has hurt in his life when he writes a book which obviously
references many of his friends and family. He deals with his
characters, real people, and even satan a bit. This will garner a lot of
mixed opinions and if you offend easy, you will not like it. If you do
not like Woody Allen, you will not like this. This star-studded cast
also includes "Cheers" alum Kirstie Alley, Billy Crystal, Elizabeth
Shue, Demi Moore, Robin Williams, Mariel Hemingway, and much, much more.
Also look for "Alias" alum Jennifer Garner and Paul Giamatti.
Rodeo Dough (1940): I found this short film on the Tarzan DVD set I
checked out and this mostly features a lot of cowboys from this era like
Roy Rogers and Gene Autry as well as some that are unknown today. It
also has an amusing role from Tarzan himself Johnny Weissmuller. Pretty
entertaining little short film.
Rocky IV (1985): Now we have another rock in Rocky Balboa whose
character that I dream of writing a musical and calling it Rocky: The
Musical. If you are looking for the most unpredictable movie of all
time, this is not it. However, if you want what might be the best part 4
sequal of all time, this this might be it. Sylvester Stallone returns
to star, write and direct this movie and he embraces the real-life cold
war between the U.S. and Russia which brings a Russian boxer named Ivan
Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren, to America hoping to make it in boxing.
Rocky's rival turned friend Apollo Creed feels that he must show the
Russian up and prove that Russia is not superior to America doing so
fatally unsuccessfully. Of course, Rocky feels he must bring redemption
to the death of his friend and to America and agrees to go to Russia to
take on Drago. The highlight of this film is the training montage scene
where Drago had the state-of-the-art technological advances of training
and Rocky trained using only what he had. The other scene that I really
like is after one of the rounds when Drago is bleeding, Rocky's managers
inform him that he is human after all and at the same time Drago
remarking that Rocky is not human.
Rumble Fish (1983): Matt Dillon stars in his third adaptation of an
S.E. Hinton novel, the first two are "Tex" and "The Outsiders", which
was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In this movie Dillon plays Rusty
James, a local hoodlum who is in the shadow of his older brother, The
Motorcycle Boy, and longs for the old days of rumbles and such. My hero
Mickey Rourke plays the Motorcycle Boy who returns to town with his own
issues. Coppola is very good about casting unknown actors and making
them a star and here he casts his nephew Nicolas Cage and Christopher
Penn. Look for a very young Sophia Coppola who I was tolerant of since
her character wasn't real important in this one, unlike "The Godfather
Part III". I like this movie better than "The Outsiders". The black and
white camera work is interesting and only shows color on certain scenes.
Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939): I bring you another love story which
stars Leslie Howard who would later that year go onto co-star as Ashley
in some movie called "Gone With the Wind". Here, he plays a concert
violinist who falls for his daughter's piano instructor, played by
Ingrid Bergman in her english-speaking debut. This movie might have been
a bit taboo for its times and still plays with your emotions but not as
much as the first movie I featured in this edition.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts (1978): Well I found this camp-classic
(if you even want to call it that) on On-Demand which stars the Beatles,
no wait, it stars Peter Frampton and the Bee-Gees as an up-and-coming
band in a movie that features Beatles music sung by many other people. I
won't even try to go into this strange plot. George Burns plays the
narrator. Steve Martin makes his film debut in a very amusing scene as
Dr. Maxwell Edison. Earth, Wind, and Fire and Aerosmith weren't bad and
Aerosmith was called the Future Villain Band. Others include Donald
Pleasance, Alice Cooper, and many other people. If you are an absolute
die-hard Beatles fan you most likely will not want to see this but it is
a little fun, I laughed a lot at it and thought many times "What the
F&@" but it doesn't sound like the Beatles really objected to this
movie.
Horror Hotel (1960): This is a pre-Horror Movie Marathon selection
which stars Christopher Lee as a professor whose student wants to do a
paper on Witchcraft in New England and he suggests a place to go. When
she arrives, things seem really strange as well as the professor. This
was an interesting low-budget horror film which is very entertaining. I
won't give away anything more than what I have which is not much. I
found this at a dollar store so I thought I would try it. Worth the
buck, that's for sure.
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005): Albert Brooks stars as
himself in this reverse-Borat film where he is assigned to go to India
to find out what makes them laugh thinking it might help our relations.
He gets himself into many misunderstandings and has some pretty funny
moments. This is nothing great, but if you want a little entertainment,
you might try this one. There is an amusing beginning scene with Penny
Marshall looking for someone in the remake of "Harvey" and wanting the
next Jimmy Stewart. This also has a lot of references to Albert's other
movies.
Maria Full of Grace (2004): This is my foreign film for the week
which takes place in Columbia, then in America. A young Columbian girl,
who learns she is pregnant feels the need to start over in life and
learns of becoming a drug mule. Catalina Sandino Moreno stars as the
title character in a great movie debut where she finds things are
getting way out of hand when one of the mules ends up dying. This movie
shows a lot of the desparation of people down there to get to America,
which is not to take over but to build a little better life.
Well, that is it for this week, it's hard to believe that I am
approaching the 100 mark and next week will start a big contest, I doubt
that I'll win but we'll see.
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