Welcome to the 398th Edition of my long-running series. It's hard to believe I am just two weeks away from the number 400. This week I will be starting rehearsals for ROMEO AND JULIET in Farmland. Playing Paris, I will be a lot more toned down and high class than my last show. Now onto my recommendations for the week.
Skyfall
(2012): I start the week out with the latest 007 and as someone who
has seen them all, this is my favorite as well as Daniel Craig being my
favorite Bond. Yes, Connery fans, I said it. I like Craig better than
Connery. Sam Mendes directs what is kind of a third part to a trilogy
which charts the rise of Bond. This follows CASINO ROYALE and QUANTUM
OF SOLACE. In this one, an assignment goes wrong where agents around
the world are being killed. This forces M, reprised by Judi Dench, to
relocate the MI6 agency and her authority also comes in jeopardy to
Gareth Mallory, played by Ralph Fiennes, who is the new Chairman of the
Intelligence and Security Committtee. M then turns to the man who while
is a loose cannon, is the only one she trusts in James Bond. Bond then
goes on assignment, aided by field agent Eve, played by Naomie Harris,
and faces the mysterious and flamboyant Silva, played very well by
Javier Bardem. Ben Whishaw plays Q for the first time in the Daniel
Craig era. Berenice Marlohe, Tonia Sotiropoulou, and Albert Finney have
parts in this film. This Bond film just had it all with great action,
great emotional depth, performances, and all. One part I like a lot
about the whole trilogy is the working relationship in this one with
Bond and M. The theme song from Adele ranks pretty high in James Bond
theme songs. This movie goes a little bit in-depth towards Bond's
childhood and even M's past that is quite interesting. There is also a
greatly shot climatic action scene and has a good end to the "trilogy"
and hopefully we got more in the future from Daniel Craig.
Divine
Trash (1998): This is my documentary for the week which focuses on
Baltimore filmmaker John Waters who was a pioneer in the Underground
film. This movie goes into the childhood of Waters whose friends and
family reflect on his childhood including his parents. It then goes
into detail on his early career when becoming quite the cult favorite.
It also talks about Divine who worked in many of his movies as a
transvestite actress who is many ways was the inspiration to the drag
queen. It also goes into the making of his biggest hit from that era
PINK FLAMINGOS. This does not go into his later career but for those of
you that love that great musical HAIRSPRAY need to give credit where
credit is due for his 1988 film of the same name. This gives some
really good insight into the underground film world of the 70s and to
the careers of the team of John Waters and Divine.
Lawless
(2012): John Hillcoat directed this true story in which Nick Cave
wrote the screenplay to the novel THE WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD
written by Matt Bondurant. This takes place in depression era Franklin
County, Virginia and centers around the Bondurant brothers played by
Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, and Jason Clarke who turn to bootlegging for
survival. They soon must deal with corrupt Special Deputy Charlie
Rakes, played by Guy Pierce, who wants a cut of the profits by any means
necessary. Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, and Gary Oldman co-star
in this film. The author Matt Bondurant is the grandson to Jack, the
one that LeBeouf plays. Nick Cave for years has been a very underrated
singer for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and has gotten more and more
involved with film like writing the music scores to a few films
including this one and now writing like this film and THE PROPOSITION
which was also got a very good reception. Many people bash LeBeouf for
some of his performances but this one is quite different and did a very
good job in his role. Some may notice the subtle reference to my town
of Muncie, Indiana where the jars are Ball jars which was a company
founded in Muncie. This is a very well-written and realistic film
during the Prohibition era and shows the types of choices people make to
survive.
Capriccio
Italien (1953): This is my short film for the week. This is a few
minute symphony concert where Johnny Green conducts the MGM Symphony
Orchestra in a performance of the title work that was written by
Tchaikovsky. It is that simple, if you like Tchaikovsky this might be
something to look up which was pretty well performed.
The
Good Earth (1937): Sidney Franklin directed this tale that takes place
on a farm in China. Paul Muni stars as Wang who then marries a kitchen
slave named O-Lan, played by Luise Rainer in an arranged marriage.
Their marriage soon becomes more about love and they start out as poor
but soon become more and more successful leaving O-Lan to question some
of their morals about their workers. This is a really good study of a
family from that era. It is probably quite obvious to many that Muni,
Rainer, among other actors are not Chinese but are not disrespectful
about it. Muni plays the part well and it is not like Mickey Rooney's
politically incorrect performance in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. This was
very common in this era for Americans to play other races, especially
Asians and blacks. Think of this as a beautiful story about a family
and try not to look at this as racist so that you can enjoy it the way
it is meant to be seen.
The
Godfather (1972): Francis Ford Coppola directed this film that was
based on the mafia novel from Mario Puzo and in turn really made the
careers of many. This movie centers around the Corleone family which is
headed by Don Vito Corleone, played very well by Marlon Brando. His
grown kids consist of Sonny, played by James Caan, Fredo, played by John
Cazale, Michael, played by Al Pacino, Connie, played by Talia Shire,
and his foster son Tom Hagan, played by Robert Duvall. The main premise
of this movie is that a drug dealer named Virgil Sollazzo, played by Al
Lettieri, is looking to get the Corleone family involved in the drug
industry but Don Corleone sees nothing but trouble in the future despite
the money that can be made. This sparks a bit of a war between other
mafia families that got involved with Sollazzo and the family must
adjust to the new times. One of the main subplots is with Michael who
when we meet him has just gotten back from the military and does not
want to be involved with the family. However, certain events happen
which slowly get him into the family business finding that he probably
is the smartest of the Corleone family in his dealings. Pacino is one
of the few actors whose careers were really made after this one was
over. I had heard that Coppola really had to fight for Pacino to be in
that part when the producers wanted a more known actor in the part and
it turned out that like usual in these types of situations that the
director was right. Richard Castellano, Abe Vigoda, Sterling Hayden,
John Marley, Richard Conte, Diane Keaton, Gianni Russo, Al Martino, Alex
Rocco, Richard Bright, and many others co-star in this film. Also, the
baby which is being baptized is Coppola's daughter Sophia who has come
into her own as a director. Many people I know refer to this movie as
"long and boring" in which I can agree on the long part obviously but do
not agree with the boring part. This movie was nearly three hours but
they were a good three hours. If you are just looking for a lot of
violence, this really is not the one. It is really a very good movie
about a family and when the violence happens, they let know. I have
also read the actual novel and it is really good to read even if this
has already been seen because it does lend a little more detail to
certain scenes and goes a little more in-depth on much of the supporting
characters. In many ways, this film and book predicted the downfall of
the mafia in my opinion. People in the mafia were getting arrested for
drug dealing which turned out to be much harder raps to beat with all
the investigation put into it making people on the inside testify for
lesser sentences. This movie is considered by many to be one of the
best and I do not disagree. There are many memorable quotes, scenes and
has been parodied on many occasions. An interesting story that I read
was that Gianni Russo, who plays Connie's abusive husband, had
connections to organized crime and using them to look into the role.
Brando did not like the idea of him in the part being so inexperienced
that Russo made actual threats to Brando in which Brando thought he was
acting making him believe that Russo was perfect. Brando based his
voice on real-life mobster Frank Costello. I don't usually talk about
awards in this but Brando won the Oscar for best actor while Pacino,
Caan, and Duvall were all nominated for best supporting actor. This is
the start of what is one of the best trilogies of all time. 
The
Angry Red Planet (1959): Now I go into a b-movie where a crew of four
is sent to Mars in a mission gone bad. When making it back, only two
are alive and one is unconscious while the other is traumatized. Naura
Hayden plays Dr. Iris Ryan who is unharmed but traumatized and agrees to
go up to rather extreme measures in order to piece together what
happened. This is one that must be watched open minded to enjoy this
b-movie that is so bad that it's good. It has bad dialogue and some
really bad special effects with much of the aliens that made it very
enjoyable. This is one that should be viewed by a group of friends to
enjoy this guilty pleasure. This is available on Instant Netflix. 
Batman:
The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012): This is my animated superhero
movie for the week which is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller
and left me pleasantly surprised. It has been ten years since Bruce
Wayne, voiced by Peter Weller, put on his costume and Commissioner
Gordon, voiced by David Selby, is nearing retirement. There is a new
kind of evil in Gotham City in which Bruce feels he must become Batman
again at 55 years of age. These are also many years after Dick Grayson
who became his own superhero and Jason Todd who was the Robin that
died. Ariel Winter voices Carrie Kelley who is a high school age girl
who likes what Batman is doing and finds her chance becoming the new
Robin. The other storyline is of Harvey Dent, voiced by Wade Williams,
who now has his full face back after being Two-Face and is supposedly
rehabilitated but finds that is not very easy. I really enjoyed this
one. This is actually darker in my opinion than the Christopher
Nolan/Christian Bale trilogy so if you did not like it for that reason,
this may not be for you. I have always favored Batman in a more darker
take like this one. This one is really quite violent and gory where
nothing is held back. I really loved the action scenes in this movie.
There were many elements I really liked about this like in the beginning
when Bruce and Gordon were reflecting on their times and discussing the
future. I also thought that Carrie Kelley was a very well-developed
character and was able to accept a girl being Robin. Watching this one
really makes me want to see the second one and I usually don't get quite
that eager. I almost always enjoy DC animation movies and this did not
disappoint at all.
The
Jungle Book (1967): After all this sex and violence, I finally bring
one that is more for the family. This is my Disney animation for the
week and loosely based on stories by Rudyard Kipling. In this movie, a
young boy named Mowgli, voiced by Bruce Reitherman, has been raised by
wolves in the jungle. Sebastian Cabot voices Bagheera the panther who
learns that a tiger named Shere Khan, voiced by George Sanders, is
coming to track down Mowgli due to his hated for humans and decides it
will be best to Mowgli to go into a man village despite Mowgli's
disagreement. Along the way, Mowgli meets Baloo the Bear and they
become good friends while singing quite a few musical numbers including
THE BARE NECESSITIES. Soon, Baloo and Bagheera must protect Mowgli and
look to get him to a man village even though Baloo does not want that
for him. Sterling Holloway, Louis Prima, and Clint Howard all lend
their voices to the cast. This is the first time I have seen this
Disney film and have seen the 1942 live-action version and both of these
are really quite different while each have their own qualities. I will
say that I enjoyed the movie but was a bit uneasy about the ending. I
do not want to give anything away so if you want my thoughts just
message me.
Greyout
(2009): I end the week with this animated short film that was a
student film from Jackson Mill of the Etobicoke School for the Arts.
This is a five minute animation film about a man who seems disillusioned
with the world around him and tired of all the apathetic people and
society. I'm not quite sure of this person's actual image but the movie
does entertain with the animation style and dialogue. Here is the
website http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJBO-a8_AVk.Well that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and dislike and stay tuned for next week.
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