Welcome to the 407th Edition of my series. I look forward to next week when the actual football season starts and I now have my fantasy team put together. Please keep my friend Brittany in your prayers. She was in a bad motorcycle accident and broke her pelvis. She got out of the hospital, she will live but has a long road ahead for rehab but thankfully she is alive. With that being said, I will now get on with my selections for the week.
Comedy Central Roast of Denis Leary (2003): This is part five of my five-part Christopher Walken series who was one of the roasters for Leary. I know this really is not a movie but it is my blog and I'll include it if I want to. I have always enjoyed the very daring comedy of Leary who has no problem smoking and drinking on stage. Jeff Garlin hosts this roast for Denis which includes Jim Breuer, Dane Cook, Nick DiPaolo, Michael J. Fox, Gina Gershon, and many others who give their insults and then their compliments. If you enjoy this type of thing and are a Denis Leary fan, I think you will enjoy this one.
Home on the Range (1940): This is my animated short for the week that takes part out in the farm to the title song. This has a cow and a calf bedding for the night but the calf is frightened by a shadow but turns out to be a jackrabbit. The big conflict is a wolf who is trying to get to them. This is a pretty harmless animated short that just goes along to music and no dialogue and is an extra on last week's feature BOOM TOWN.
Anna Karenina (1935): This is likely the first notable film adaptation of the novel by Leo Tolstoy. Clarence Brown directs this adaptation which stars Greta Garbo as the title character. Anna is in a loveless marriage with Karenin, played by Basil Rathbone, but have a child together, played by Freddie Bartholomew. She soon meets Count Vronsky, played by Fredric March, who she falls in love with and tries to get a divorce from Karenin but is not given one. Despite this, they carry on with their relationship giving up everything including their social status. Maureen O'Sullivan, May Robson, and Reginald Owen all co-star in this film. This is a very good adaptation to the literary classic with Garbo very good in the title role.
Les Miserables (1952): As people see I have lately gotten into a kick on this classic Victor
Hugo story as I included the 1935 version last week and a few weeks ago
featured the Liam Neeson version. Lewis Milestone directed this
adaptation to the novel. Michael Rennie, who was fresh off his success
with the sci-fi classic THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, plays Jean
ValJean who feels the need to help his starving family who cannot
afford food nor can he find work to obtain the money and ends up
breaking into a home to steal bread. In this era of 19th Century
France, everything was very black and white and in their eyes, he broke
the law and was sentenced to a long term in prison. He finally gets
paroled but even then getting the label of convict, he gets shunned by
society for finding work and just getting food that he can pay for but
the restaurant will not serve him. He then meets a very noble priest,
played by Edmund Gwenn, who then helps him to start a new life. Valjean
then starts his new life with a new name and becomes very respected
and successful but then finds he can never escape the presence of
obsessed police officer Javert, played by Robert Newton, who is looking
to arrest him for violating his parole. The other story is with the
persecuted Fantine, played by Sylvia Sidney, is dying and asks Valjean
to care for her daughter Cosette, played by Debra Paget. I have become
a big fan of the musical which made me want to look into other
versions and find this is a story that still stands today which I think
is why it is still very popular. Cameron Mitchell, Elsa Lanchester,
and Joseph Wiseman also co-star in this adaptation. At this point, I
know I will not get an unpredictable story and if I do, then they are
butchering what they should not which I did not find here. What I was
looking for were elements that might have set it apart from others.
What I liked about the priest in this one is that I saw more of the
priest trying to help Valjean morally. In most versions, the priest
does take him in for food and shelter but in this one I found more
dialogue where the priest looked to help him become a better person to
make that necessary change. I also thought they portrayed Javert
really well in this one as just an obsessed cop. When Valjean is
getting out, he actually shows a rather good side when Valjean is about
to be screwed over the money owed and Javert does not let it happen.
For this character, the law was what revolved around him and there were
no gray areas even being asked at one point if he is a machine. Also,
there was a really good story with Marius, played by Cameron Mitchell,
who is in love with Cosette but has a hard time getting through
Valjean and the interaction between Marius and Valjean was very well
played. I actually enjoyed this more than I did the 1935 version which
I hope I can get more exposure and I plan on looking into other
versions in the future.
1776 (1972): This is my musical for the week and is really one of my favorites. I know this should have been done around July 4th but again, it's my blog and I'll just do it when I want to do it. This is the musical version of how the Declaration of Independence came about on July 4th of 1776. The basic story is that congressman John Adams, played by William Daniels, wants independence from British rule and along with Benjamin Franklin, played by Howard Da Silva, are able to convince the young Thomas Jefferson, played by Ken Howard, to write up their declaration and hope that the other states will go in with them. Sherman Edwards wrote the music for this really well done musical. Daniels was great as the rather unlikable Adams who had some ideas that were really ahead of their time and sometimes misunderstood. Da Silva was a very believable Franklin who always had a pretty good sense of humor but got the job done. Blythe Danner co-stars as Martha Jefferson who Thomas longs to be with making it hard for him to write what they need. This is a very hard musical to do in theaters with it requiring 26 men which cannot be doubled. I would love to one day do this show and would take about any part. This has a great story, performances and songs and I feel has always been a bit under the radar so hopefully it will get a little notice now.
Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957): This is my cheesy sci-fi film and is directed by Roger Corman who I seem to be on a kick with right now. The simple story is that a team of scientists are on an island to study the effects of nuclear tests only to be stranded. They soon find that the nuclear tests have quite an effect on the crabs who have mutated into giant, intelligent monsters. This is really a must for B-movie fans and is rather fun. This would be good for a group of friends to get together and just have a great night of commentary. This is available on Instant Netflix.
Superman: Unbound (2013): This is my animated superhero movie of the week. In this movie, Superman must take on the cyberkinetic Brainiac who has taken over many worlds by actually capturing them and one of the worlds he takes is the world of Kandor in Krypton. Helping him is his cousin Supergirl who is staying on earth but who lives on Kandor. This was a darker look at the Superman legend and meeting one of his biggest matches. Supergirl is also portrayed very well as more bitter than Superman and does not possess the ethics of Superman but tries to go along as much as she can when saving her planet. I will admit this is really my first look at Brainiac and was a very well developed character who matched the Krypton cousins with just about everything he had. I also really liked the drawings of the characters as well as very good portrayals. This one has a PG-13 rating due to the violence of this movie so may not be for the family but still very enjoyable for adults.
Wyatt Earp (1994): This is my western for the week which was directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Kevin Costner plays the legendary lawman in this one which goes a lot more in-depth than other movies that have been done. Most movies on Wyatt mostly consist of leading up to the OK Corral shootout in Tombstone but this one starts from his later childhood, even to later times in his life that most people do not portray. Dennis Quaid plays Doc Holiday which I actually liked him better than Val Kilmer in TOMBSTONE which came out in 1993. The other two members of that side of the OK Corral shootout are Linden Ashby playing Morgan Earp and Michael Madsen playing Virgil Earp. In the beginning, Gene Hackman plays the Earps father during their childhood and have some good moments in those scenes. Jeff Fahey, Catherine O'Hara, Bill Pullman, Isabella Rossellini, Tom Sizemore, JoBeth Williams, Mare Winningham, James Gammon, Mackenzie Astin, Jim Caviezel, and many others co-star in this western epic that was received to many mixed opinions. Some did not like the casting of Costner as Earp but I think he played the part pretty well. Another element different from others is this one portrays more of Earp's dark side and portraying him as more human than hero which is really a more accurate portrayal of the legendary historical figure.
Waking Ned Devine (1998): This is my Irish film for the week which was wrote and directed by Kirk Jones. In this comedy, the title character, who is part of a local and small village, wins the lottery and dies of a heart attack when hearing of the great news. Ian Bannen and David Kelly co-star as loyal friends Jackie and Michael who believe that Ned would want them to split the winnings with the town. They soon form a scheme and let the people in town know of their scheme to split the winnings between everyone but find secrets are not always easy in that town. This is a very good-hearted comedy of a small town pulling together even if it is not very legal but have good intentions. Bannen and Kelly are very fun and work very well together in this really good independent film which has many laughts. Fionnula Flanagan and James Nesbitt also co-star in this film and this is available on Instant Netflix which is really worth a watch to help get more exposure.
A'Mare (2008): I end this week on this short film from Italy. Martina Amati co-wrote and directed this short film which centers around a couple boys named Andrea and Felice who mostly live their lives at sea. They soon find a man floating who they look to save and while helping him to float they must worry about if there will be any rescue and who the man is. I found this one and recorded it from Sundance and is a pretty well done 15 minutes with good performances from the kids which is from their point of view and worth the time to check it out if found.Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and dislike and stay tuned for next week.
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