Welcome to the 420th Edition of my long running series. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. This week I starts the next holiday season which is a rather enjoyable time for me. I do kind of get caught up in this season but I also hate the weather that comes so I just hope for a rather mild winter and not too much snow. After a rather fun night last night, I will now get to this week's recommendations.
A
Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism (2009): I start this week
out with this documentary where a mother of an autistic child becomes
determined to understand her autism and to help the child become a
useful member of society. She then meets many people that include
parents of autistic children and people who work at schools to learn of
how they go about teaching these kids. She also meets Temple Grandin
who is autistic and is a college professor to understand how she got to
where she did in life. It is very informative and very admirable to see
a parent who really does not know what to do go out and learn from
others. This is available on Instant Netflix.
Reefer
Madness (1936): How can I have a 420th edition without this cult
classic. This was originally meant to be an educational film about the
really horrible menace known as marijuana. A couple of teens who smoke
marijuana are then lead to do horrible things. By now, most can see
that the effects are very exaggerated. It is now known as a b-movie and
I'm sure a great movie to smoke marijuana to. It has also been turned
into a musical. This is a good b-movie for the friends to gather and
smoke marijuana if they want to as I do believe in the legalization of
reefer. This is also available on Instant Netflix.
Shop
Talk (1936): This is my short film for the week which features Bob
Hope. Hope stars as art student Robert Hope Jr. who inherits his
father's department store on the condition that he successfully runs it
for a year. Acting manager Bill Hobbs, played by Richard Lane, wants to
keep his job and schemes to drive Robert away. There are some pretty
fun moments in this short and fans of Bob Hope will love this one.
Brick
(2005): Rian Johnson wrote and directed this modern-day film noir
which takes place in the world of high school. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
stars as Brendan who is a loner teen whose ex-girlfriend Emily, played
by Emilie de Ravin, is killed and tries to piece together what happened
leading himself into a dangerous world. Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah
Fleiss, Richard Roundtree, and many others co-star. This is a really
well-told, gritty mystery film with many good twists. Gordon-Levitt is
great in his role and is a really different take to the film-noir
genre. This is also available on Instant Netflix.
A
Clockwork Orange (1971): Last week I featured Kubrick's DR.
STRANGELOVE and now I follow up with his adaptation to the Anthony
Burgess novel. Malcolm McDowell stars as Alex who is the leader of a
gang called the Droogs. They go around terrorizing homes. Soon the
rest of the gang turns on Alex which gets him arrested. When in prison
he learns of an experimental program which will get him out of prison
that he agrees to do. This makes him fear everything he loves including
violence and even Beethoven. Back on the streets he is left
defenseless to those who seek revenge for his past misdeeds. This movie
takes place in a very bleak futuristic England. The imagery is very
bizarre and the violence is quite strange too but very compelling. For
some reason I always get amused on the scene where Alex is torturing a
couple and singing SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. I understand that Gene Kelly
was very bitter towards McDowell for singing that song in this type of
movie. This was originally rated X mostly because it was so bizarre and
unconventional that no one knew really what to think. Through time it
has been taken down to R. This is by no means for everyone but very
compelling. It has some great performances, cinematography, and a
really good music score. I have heard that this is a statement towards
psychological drugs and the reform system. 
A Bronx Tale (1993): This is a movie that has always stuck with me. Robert De Niro made his
directorial debut in this film and also co-starred as local bus driver
named Lorenzo who may not make a lot of money but is proud that he makes
an honest living. His son Calogero, played by Lillo Brancato in his
older days, witnesses a killing from a local gangster named Sonny,
played by Chazz Palminteri, and does not implicate him. Calogero and
Sonny soon form a bond which Lorenzo does not approve. Sonny becomes
like a second father to Calogero in teaching street smarts while his
biological father is trying to teach him things like integrity and
working hard. I remember seeing the plot description and finding it to
be rather misleading where it says that Sonny is trying to turn Calogero
into him. I do not find that to be the case and he just wants to teach
him certain street smarts. One thing I always found interesting about
this movie is how Lorenzo is trying to keep him from Sonny but Sonny is
trying to keep him away from a youth gang he hangs out with which are
clearly a worse influence that Sonny. Look for Joe Pesci who has a
cameo appearance. Lillo Brancato was very good in this movie but
unfortunately never got to propel his career soon getting typecast in
gangster roles like in THE SOPRANOS. Unfortunately now he is doing a
ten year sentence for a burglary that resulted in the murder of a police
officer which was by his accomplice. This is actually based on a play
written by co-star Chazz Palminteri. The play is a one-man show where
Chazz Palminteri tells the story of Calogero. De Niro really liked the
show and bought the rights under the agreement that Palminteri can write
and screenplay and play the part of Sonny. I would love to see the
play sometime which he revived in 2007 and lasted for over a year. 
Stakeout
on Dope Street (1958): Irvin Kershner directed this this movie which
feature three teenagers who come across a briefcase and throw everything
away. Soon they learn that there is a can of heroine so they seek to
recover it and do so. They decide to look into making money but find
that the people who had it first are after them. I came across this and
thought that there are not a lot from this era that really deal with
drugs like this so I took an interest. It does a really good job with
its low budget and has a good jazzy music score. If you can get past
the absurd scene where they actually go to a landfill to find the drugs
and find them, this is a pretty well done film by Kershner in his
directorial debut. This is right now available on TCM On-Demand.
Dredd
(2012): This is I suppose a reboot to the 1995 movie JUDGE DREDD which
starred Sylvester Stallone in a movie that did not get a very good
reception. Pete Travis directed this action film that takes place in a
violent futuristic city where the police become judge, jury, and
executioner. Karl Urban stars as Judge Dredd who teams with a trainee
named Cassandra Anderson, played by Olivia Thirlby, to take down a drug
empire lead by a ruthless female drug lord named Ma-Ma, played by Lena
Headey, possibly a take on Ma Barker I suppose. This is a far more
serious take than the original and is very gritty and violent. This
holds nothing back on violence and I admit there were scenes that just
made my jaw drop. This is a very dark film based on a comic book. This
is available on Instant Netflix.
Santa
Claus Conquers the Martians (1964): I decided to start the holiday
season out with this great B-movie. Martians on Mars learn about Santa
Claus on our planet Earth and are upset that there is not someone like
him on our planet. They soon decide to abduct Santa and bring him to
Mars. While most were well-intentioned, one of the martians did not
like the idea of Santa bringing joy to the planet and attempts to get
rid of him. This is one of the top b-movies and remember it is not a
very good movie but it is just so bad it is good. This is available on
Instant Netflix and on Thursday theaters are showing this through
Rifftrax so check out the movies at your local movie theaters and might
get to see this on the big screen brought to us by MST3K alums Michael
J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett.
Land
of the Heads (2009): I end this week with this animated short film.
This is really hard to describe. It is centered around a vampire couple
where the male vampire must go after something really strange. There
are some pretty funny moments and some really good visual moments in
this short film. If I describe too much I would be giving it away. If
you can find this, it is a good one to check out.Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and dislike and stay tuned for next week.
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