tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37244536281201518352024-03-17T21:59:04.838-05:00Kirkham A Movie A DayIf I Saw it in a Theater, You'll Read About it HereRichard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.comBlogger1482125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-19808809029786245422024-03-15T10:08:00.002-05:002024-03-15T10:08:52.772-05:00Drive-Away Dolls (2024)<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oy0RYiQRWUk?si=is9YrJrVgn6g9e7W" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>You would think that a film from one of the Coen brothers would draw a lot more attention and interest from the film community than this slightly misbegotten exercise in excess has received. I didn't hate the movie but I was surprised at how over the top some of the things were in the film, and that the director's choices were also obviously designed to provoke and be distinctive, without being particularly creative. Ethan Cohen has created another crime drama about off-center characters, and crimes gone bad. From the makers of Fargo and No Country for Old Men, this is natural except that the comedic elements are created to accentuate the odd instead of using those odd elements to highlight small parts of the story. The result is an over full collection of vulgarities, violence, and elegant dialogue that would work a lot better if it was used more sparingly.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had originally planned for this to be a film that we covered on the Lambcast. Unfortunately not a single one of the podcasters or bloggers of our 2,000 members signed up to talk about it. This should have been a signal to me that there was something not quite right about the project. I read after deciding to cancel the podcast, that the original title of the project was Drive-Away Dykes. The change in title was probably designed to avoid putting off people who didn't care to have that element of sexuality front and center in their crime story. However, a title change doesn't change the script, and we still get lots of lesbian love, phallic foreplay, and some of the most vulgar and descriptive language that you can imagine. While there are moments of nudity in the film the vast majority of those things that sexualize the film are in the dialogue. And they are not sexy but rather obnoxiously provocative.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure that this is a film that will be embraced by the LGBTQ+ community, because the stereotypes in the film seem to be at odds with what would be a more inclusive approach. There is a caricature of a lesbian relationship that seems particularly offensive, and there are sexually based sequences that seem to cater to offensive stereotypes about lesbians. I am also dubious about the desirability of flexible phalluses as the love toys preferred by committed gay women. For a movie about the empowerment of lesbians, the perspective it takes seems to be one of amusement rather than real agency.</div><div><br /></div><div>Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Vishwanathan, are the two leads and each of them has some pretty effective moments in the film. Qualley was familiar to me from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, where she played Pussycat, the hippie girl that gets Brad Pitt's character up to the Spahn Ranch where the Manson family is living. Vishwanathan, was very appealing 3 years ago and a fill my liked quite well, “<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-broken-heats-gallery.html" target="_blank">The Broken Hearts Gallery</a>”. In this film she plays a more innocent character to her partner’s Wild Child. The story involves a mis-matched pair of women who take a road trip and inadvertently have in their possession what at first seems like a McGuffin. Later the secret does in fact get revealed. You might think it was drugs, because of the violence involved and obtaining the suitcase with the soon to be revealed contents, but unlike the mystery of the suitcase in Pulp Fiction, we finally see what the contents are, and it's another one of the crude jokes that the film is based on.</div><div><br /></div><div>The girls are pursued by a team of inept criminals, similar to the pair in Fargo, or Pulp Fiction. Their dialogue is also frequently over the top, with just enough wit to make it interesting but not enough to allow it to be compared to some of those sparkling sequences in those other films. When we discover what the whole Enterprise is about, it makes even less sense, because most of this could be dismissed without anybody having to be murdered or any money exchanged. A simple denial would be more than sufficient to eliminate the risk that the ultimate antagonist seems to feel exists. We have no providence for the relics, except some perv collectors. The movie has a couple of prominent actors in secondary roles that might almost count as a cameo. Pedro Pascal shows up at the start of the movie, and then a part of him continues to be a present in the film. He was perfectly fine but I'm not sure why director Cohen thought that it was necessary to have such a well-known actor in the part. Conversely when Matt Damon shows up near the end of the film, we understand his casting because the film needs someone with some charisma, to become the antagonist that the movie needs at this point. Once again though, his motivation seems to be highly exaggerated. Denial is not just a river in Egypt, it is a legitimate strategy for public relations. It just doesn't seem to have been considered.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzV2cpYlYk01fSUYIwNcVzD_r5RlObdsd4eA3DhPe0x8tvM2DoLindJVXQhXbHOkhwVkSgcrckCCeNbeo6df9KZAOLJ2sQYhVbTaivJLc4CozzqCq5GXdY8DNP1g5_XpJVAGzrBdo-14ZT-EdaGCdj88XYzO40Ihm-ipJaR0lq6SeuHzAEQ-eHM4ROBp4U/s755/driveaway_dolls_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzV2cpYlYk01fSUYIwNcVzD_r5RlObdsd4eA3DhPe0x8tvM2DoLindJVXQhXbHOkhwVkSgcrckCCeNbeo6df9KZAOLJ2sQYhVbTaivJLc4CozzqCq5GXdY8DNP1g5_XpJVAGzrBdo-14ZT-EdaGCdj88XYzO40Ihm-ipJaR0lq6SeuHzAEQ-eHM4ROBp4U/w270-h400/driveaway_dolls_ver3.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>I probably already given away more than I should have about the film. There are three or four transition sequences that feature psychedelic visuals and remind me of a Saul Bass James Bond title sequence. They don't make much sense, until the end, and even then they don't really do much to make the film interesting, they mostly just make it weird. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There are plenty of films that go over the top as a stylistic choice to try and make the movie interesting to a specific audience. I enjoyed the movie “Shoot ‘em Up”, from more than a decade ago, but by the time it was finished I was bored by the excess. This film provides excess on a different subject, and I was bored by it in the first 20 minutes. There is some clever stuff here, and I think you will laugh a few times, but I also think you'll shake your head and say " I've seen this before”. There's nothing new to see here, it's recycled and overdone. You'll forget about it almost immediately, which is not something I've said about many Cohen Brothers films before. Perhaps Ethan needs his brother Joel, to rein in the more preposterous elements of the movie, and make it feel less like a cartoon and more like a satire of crime dramas. That is really what it wants to be. You can safely skip this, but if you watch it at home later, maybe you should send your parents to bed before it starts, trust me it's a little awkward.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wY1An5jvHRk?si=SXnuqwotM8xyiDUt" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-75777656838714397412024-03-08T12:47:00.006-06:002024-03-08T12:47:59.085-06:00Dune Part 2 (2024)<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Way9Dexny3w?si=yGyeIyODlksgCRWR" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Completing one of the great film projects of my lifetime, Director Denis Villeneuve delivers a terrific part two to the "Dune" stories he began three years ago. Actually it was four years ago, we got delayed a year by Covid, and this film was delayed by six months due to the actor's strike. Maybe those were not bad omens but rather good luck charms. My original review of the first film was positive, but muted by some less than favorable comparison to the David Lynch version. As a film, "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2021/10/dune-2021.html" target="_blank">Dune Part One</a>" is more successful, but less vibrant than I had hoped. </div><div><br /></div><div>The biggest reservation I had about the first film, was the surface level storytelling of the Harkonnen adversaries. That flaw has been redeemed substantially by the story choices made with this film. To begin, Baron Harkonnen, played by Stellan Skarsgård, is more than a floating figure in the background. We finally begin to see the long game he is playing. The murderous political life of Geidi Prime is revealed, and when he indulgences in his vices, we get a significantly greater reason to have distaste for this fearsome antagonist. The complexity of the Harkonnen plot is extended when Feyd-Rautha's character appears on screen. Feyd is the figure actually being groomed to take over Arrakis and maybe a lot more. That he is the Baron's nephew does not eliminate the subterfuge that takes place in the family, and is an additional plot that the Baron ids cooking. I might be a little critical of how vociferously he is cheered by the crowd, especially when we see his murderous behavior towards his servants, but the culture seems to be a martial one , so maybe the actions are viewed in the same way the Spartans of ancient Greece might view their own behavior toward the weak. </div><div><br /></div><div>Back on Dune, Paul and Jessica are finding their way into the Freman culture, which is frankly also brutal, but without being cruel. The Fremen are more fatalistic and many of them are fervent believers in the narrative that has been set out over thousands of years by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood. Fanaticism is very dangerous when mixed with messianic expectations. The fact that Paul's genetic background is leading to fulfillment of both Freman Prophecies and Bene Gesserit genetic manipulation, is probably an unexpected consequence of Jessica's disobedience in providing a son to the late Duke Leto. I liked the slow way that the prophetic arrival of a messiah is being introduced to the native population of Dune. It is much clearer in this version of the story that the Bene Gesserit have nurtured this mythology with the intention of using it. One of the differences in the film version and the original text, is the way that Chani is depicted in the context of this prophesy. She is something of a heretic by rejecting the story, and she turns the religious drive behind it, into a suspect of political proportions. It is her contention that adhering to the religious fundamentalism is what has held the Fremen down. The awkwardness of that attitude however is revealed as it is the prophecy that finally liberates the forces of the Freman as an army capable of being lead by the outsider Muad'Dib. It is also a little strange that she can accept Paul's prescience, but reject the description of that very thing in the stories of her people. </div><div><br /></div><div>The slow take on the prophesy is not limited to Jessica and the Freman. Paul does his best to resist the call of becoming the Kwisatz Haderach. He has visions of the devastation his ascension to power will result in. Having followed his story, we want to see justice for House Atreides and revenge on the Emperor and especially the Harkonnen. It is clear that the Harkonnen are evil, and that at the very least the Emperor is a Machiavellian ruler with no moral compass except power. The problem is that it looks like Paul will fall into the same patterns, and do so for the sake of Fremen Paradise. In the end, Paul is not the hero of the story, he is an instrument of chaos, the likes of which will change the universe, the question is, will it be for the better? The sequence where Paul takes the Water of Life, is dramatically well played, but it is the moment when he confronts the Fremen Cavalcade that his threat becomes realized. It is both awe inspiring and frightening, a fact that he recognizes with his own words in the script. Screenwriters Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts have adapted Frank Herbert's novel in a more expansive way than was done with the David Lynch version. Having twice as much time, they still trimmed elements that are not essential for this story. The timeline in this film is different, and the easiest illustration of that is Jessica's pregnancy and the fact that Alia only appears in a flash forward for a brief few seconds. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjXPFJxcGX0xv5K7SLm_D5C3Dy_oio2RW3JRggOje0FPNGQl1kmIuAqL0No9r7Bdj3LzY3r5T7slUGhFOCa5pDWsF0pZM2SOLTv3ax0ovYEivpVGfY0OwDcmJSEAHYDLzPBV3gy03LeQiLUVCMGm7sFGxflQeWJyFNhqCiH1JpvZ3xy13RdMSTyWL4AgkAu" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="518" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjXPFJxcGX0xv5K7SLm_D5C3Dy_oio2RW3JRggOje0FPNGQl1kmIuAqL0No9r7Bdj3LzY3r5T7slUGhFOCa5pDWsF0pZM2SOLTv3ax0ovYEivpVGfY0OwDcmJSEAHYDLzPBV3gy03LeQiLUVCMGm7sFGxflQeWJyFNhqCiH1JpvZ3xy13RdMSTyWL4AgkAu=w316-h460" width="316" /></a></div>When it comes to the technical aspects of the film, I found nothing deficient. The sequence when Paul conquers the Sandworm is one of the most impressive scenes in a science fiction movie. The sense of realism is overwhelming, with the sound design of the moment a big part of that. The scope of the visual, combined with the enveloping sound, lets the audience experience the ride, almost as a participant rather than just an observer. The power of the worms also comes up in the conclusive battle as they crash though the shield walls and mountains of Arrakeen. The story, for those of you unfamiliar, will not be spoiled here, but suffice it to say, we get a clear sense of what desert power is. </div><div><br /><br /></div><div>There are still many production touches that I prefer in David Lynch's vision of the story, but the choices that Director Villeneuve makes are completely appropriate for his. I think the desert environments, the tents and Sietches of the Fremen, are vastly superior to what we have had before. The black and white palate of Giedi Prime is startling, but when we enter the halls of the palace, the slight color pops make it all much more intriguing, and there is a sense that the culture reflects the supposed black sun of their system. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is easy for me to predict that this will be one of the top films of the year, since it is unlikely that anything comparable is likely to be released any time soon. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jpULJxjwhjs?si=NuFtCcIGBdI-MF3N" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-73383499880109615542024-03-01T15:54:00.005-06:002024-03-01T15:54:40.678-06:00Ricky Stanicky<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WXpBN_31-Cw?si=k_9z1xH18DzECjO8" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure if this movie will be getting a regular theatrical release. It is from Amazon and they are streaming it next wee, so it seems dubious. That's too bad, because one of the joys of a good comedy is bathing in the laughter of the audience surrounding you, and believe me, this film will have lots of laughter to go around. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you watch the trailer, you will get the premise, but I know some of my on-line friends have gone trailer free, so for them, here is a brief synopsis. Three friends have invented another friend, that they have used as an excuse for thirty plus years. "Ricky Stanicki" is the kid who brought the fireworks to the wedding, threw the cat in the pool, or conveniently, as they got older, scheduled something opposite a family event they would really like to avoid. They have kept an elaborate "bible" of Ricky's illnesses, rehabs and assorted other excuses, and their families believe Ricky is a real person.. Of course with a comedy, there are exigencies that require over the top solutions, and the guys back themselves into a situation where they have to produce the famous friend.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SnKqhJXzXDZsTjA5KF7oMWAjOfnS1aXy1WG-yDpHvNw83rAYkvi2pL7vTD-c_9ivexNZarY-cvOGu4I_h6wWHQioUmAfhsLPY6t3nSxSZiOYvP9vw3C6Yop5mMB7GcyRdxYB1dYljN9kM9PjGAywKLmbRHVMIPqYD4Kdki5HM2N8PrhZqkQaIvyKbwxQ/s755/ricky_stanicky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SnKqhJXzXDZsTjA5KF7oMWAjOfnS1aXy1WG-yDpHvNw83rAYkvi2pL7vTD-c_9ivexNZarY-cvOGu4I_h6wWHQioUmAfhsLPY6t3nSxSZiOYvP9vw3C6Yop5mMB7GcyRdxYB1dYljN9kM9PjGAywKLmbRHVMIPqYD4Kdki5HM2N8PrhZqkQaIvyKbwxQ/w270-h400/ricky_stanicky.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>For years John Cena has been known as a wrester who has taken up acting, but I think it is fair to say now that he is an actor who has taken to comedy. His boisterous persona and physical characteristics have been exploited for laughs in films like, "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2018/04/blockers.html" target="_blank">Blockers</a>", "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-suicide-squad-2021.html" target="_blank">Suicide Squad</a>" and "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2024/02/argylle.html" target="_blank">Argylle</a>". This may be his masterpiece. As Rock Hard Rod, an off color singing impersonator, Cena is hysterical as the desperate and sad entertainer in a dive bar/casino in Atlantic City. He encounters the three friends and they decide to hire him to be their unseen friend. Cena was just getting started at being funny, for the rest of the movie, he sells it all. </div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Peter Farrelly, along with his brother Bobby, made some of the greatest comedies of the 1990s. In the last few years he has made some more serious films, like the Academy Ward winning "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2018/12/green-book.html" target="_blank">Green Book</a>", and the under appreciated "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-greatest-beer-run-ever-video-review.html" target="_blank">The Greatest Beer Run Ever</a>". This time he is back in his sweet spot, gross out comedy, and we should be glad to welcome him back to that arena. He is working here with Zac Efron, who was the star of "Beer Run" and recently played a wrestler himself in "The Iron Claw". To top off the top knot cast, William H. Macy has a supporting role as a clueless executive who has some awkward hand gestures. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you enjoyed films like "There's Something about Mary" and "The Hangover", you will certainly relate to this project. It is irreverent and heartfelt at the end. Exactly the kind of stuff that those who remember will appreciate. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-69919630917741385402024-02-28T08:00:00.003-06:002024-02-28T08:00:55.647-06:00Kotch (1971 For Movie Rob's Genre Grandeur Series) <p> GG (Feb) chosen by Richard of Kirkham A Movie A Day! GG (Genre Grandeur) is a series Rob started a few years back where each month a different blogger chooses a genre for everyone to write a review of their favorite film (s) of the particular genre. (There is no limit or restrictions on the number of reviews)</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-EJbyHAxsw?si=Y6tKpznhSx1dLaW0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><p>A 1971 picture that contains a nomination for best actor, by one of the big stars of the sixties and seventies, that has largely been forgotten, despite the fact that is the lone directorial effort of another oscar-winning actor. Kotch features a sentimental story about an aged man, coping with the complications of being a burden to his family, while he is still relatively active, cogent, and financially independent. It also contains a sweet story about an unwed mother who's only 15 and is trying to navigate her pregnancy.</p><p><br /></p><p>I saw this movie when it came out in 1971, and I remembered it slightly. The details of the story are hard to hold on to because nothing too dramatic happens in the course of events. This is really a character piece and that's the thing that's easy to remember here because Walter Matthau is a character in every role he plays but in particular in this one, where he is cast 30 years senior to his actual age. In fact he was only 5 years older than the actor who was portraying his son. Mathau had been in three successful sex comedies in the preceding 3 years, and was probably thought of as a comedian with the leading man's charisma if not looks. 20 years down the road he would be playing this same part at his own age and making a big success of that as well. If you want to you can kind of think of this as a prequel to “Grumpy Old Men”.</p><p><br /></p><p>Joe Kotcher is a 73 year old man currently living with his son Gerald, daughter-in-law Wilma, and their toddler child Duncan,in a nice suburban house in Southern California. Kotch does not have dementia, there is no disease on the horizon, and he does not pose a threat to anyone except those who jump to the worst kinds of conclusions about what an old man is doing at a park. However, anyone who has lived with a person, who has personality quirks that may be bothersome, knows that it can be stressful. His daughter-in-law, is maybe wound a little too tight, but of course Joe Kotcher is an avuncular guy who is free with information, opinions, and advice. Those things may not always be welcome and sometimes seem like a bombardment of information that's unnecessary. Imagine a child who is telling you about their day, and tells you the name of every child that they sat with at lunch, and what they had to eat. It's not a bad thing but it's an unnecessary thing for the listener, it seems to be a needed function for the old man, he has to talk,and Kotch is a talker. He keeps a running commentary on all sorts of things, he has a vast knowledge of arcane information he's happy to drop into every conversation. That's the kind of thing that is driving a wedge into this family. Walter Matthau plays Kotch as a genial old man not as a curmudgeon, but sometimes you can just be too genial.</p><p><br /></p><p>The son Gerald, is played by veteran television actor Charles Aidman, who anybody who has seen 70s television, will recognize from some program that they have watched. Aidman is great casting because he has the same hangdog face as his costar. Gerald is a sympathetic son and he is a little bit dominated by his wife who is struggling under the pressure of having her father-in-law live with them. At one point they have the delicate moment when the father and the son have to confront the possibility that Joe is going to relocate to a retirement community. The daughter-in-law is not a monster, she sees how tough this is for her husband and his father. She is the one in fact who sheds tears at the thought that this has become necessary by the way, she is played by the director’s wife). But like “Harry and Tonto”, which will arrive in a couple of years, old people can be a lot more resilient than their children want to think. Kotch has no intention of giving up living the life that he wants just to make his children feel secure.</p><p><span style="border: none; clear: right; display: inline-block; float: right; height: 351px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 230px;"><img height="351" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/UuPlUh0ho5i8gU5RwHLqcOCWErzCTz1UxIySWYv5_51i_4903i9jsCbw1vgIq3UbX0yXikWpZpg-XC1I-2uD2wSILniT0x8bZ3p6m8X9WYqvvbOHfm_XBeW61OBwJB9nqxs9HUBlZfFKRq-ZbS-Gg1g" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="230" /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-322019b9-7fff-c8a2-bfcb-3dbfedf95029"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><p>At one point the old man feels a little bit like an informer because he has to share with his son the fact that the babysitter, while not being negligent, was distracted by having sex on the living room couch during an evening supposedly taking care of the grandson. When he shares this information we think he might simply be acting out of the feeling that he is being nudged out of his child care responsibilities by this young interloper. There's a nice moment done in a flashback, which reveals that Joe and his late wife Vera, faced some of the same issues that the babysitter did. The location for their assignations was An old Hudson, instead of his parents' living room couch. Erica, the babysitter, subsequently becomes an important character in the story. After Kotch has spent a little time away from his family traveling, he returns home to discover that the babysitter has been pushed out of school, sent to San Bernardino, because she became pregnant. We learned that her much older brother is her guardian, and there is a brief moment of sadness when we discover the story behind her orphan status. Koch is not going to take this lying down, he feels that he might have betrayed the girl and pushed her on this path because he told his son that the babysitter had misbehaved. He decides that he's going to help her as best he can.</p><p><br /></p><p>The film meanders along, giving us a few incidents about how these two, the pregnant teen and the slightly distracted older man, form a dependent relationship and care for each other over the course of her pregnancy. Nothing too dramatic happens, they go out to eat, or they fix meals at home, where they spend time sitting in the living room working on some hobbies that are a little strange but charming. As the end of her term comes, she is faced with some important decisions about her future. And without telling her what to do, Kotch has a huge impact on the decisions that she makes.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the only film that Academy award-winning actor Jack Lemmon directed. He got an Oscar nominated performance out of his close friend and frequent co-star Walter Matthau, and efficiently tells the story without an excessive amount of sentimentality, but with just the right amount of humor to keep us going. This time period looks grand in the film, and you might think that Palm Springs would be a reasonable place to move to. Maybe the one big flaw in the story is the location, because even in 1971, Palm Springs was overpriced and maybe not a wise choice for a retiree and an unemployed pregnant girl.</p><p><br /></p><p>The film received three other Academy Award nominations, so it was widely respected and even though it didn't win any of those Awards it seems to have gathered enough Goodwill to make it a multiple nominee. I bet if you ask anybody who the nominees for best actor were in 1971 people would only be able to name the winner, Gene Hackman, and maybe one other nominee and not this one. This for the most part is a forgotten film. Kotch is largely done in a style that is not typical anymore. It's not fast paced, it doesn't have surprise plot twists, and the characters are all generally good people without there being a villain in the scene. It's a nice story, about the struggles of a couple of nice people, who find a way to make the world work for them. That seems enough to recommend it.</p><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-51597243515954242192024-02-26T14:31:00.000-06:002024-02-26T14:31:05.053-06:00Land of Bad<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yTFazxfrXVw?si=ABiKjc6jmaFQ5INi" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>I'm getting to this almost a week after I saw the film, sorry. I've been under the weather for a few days and just not in the mood to think much about blogging. There's nothing particularly special about this film, it's also getting such a limited release that it will probably be out of theaters after the first week, which was when I saw it. That's too bad, because this is a pretty successful action film for those who are looking for some combat activity to get them through an afternoon.</div><div><br /></div><div>The setup for the film is pretty simple: a Commando team is being sent to a remote island in the Philippines, in order to retrieve a human asset for the CIA. The thing that makes this an intriguing film is the detail that is added by the use of high altitude drones that contain not only sophisticated Communications equipment, but also a substantial amount of weaponry. Most of the time the Drone in this particular scenario was being used to assist the team on the ground with surveillance of the site that they are about to engage in. There are however some dramatic uses of the weapon at appropriate times to create diversions or potentially rescue members of the team. The way the Drone communication is integrated into the mission is the thing that was new to me. An operator flying the Drone at a location in the States, is communicating information to the team on the ground about enemy activity and potential locations for the asset. It looks like it's a pretty sophisticated set up and I don't doubt that the film is reasonably accurate in presenting how the basics work. Of course for drama purposes, they're always going to be complications and distractions and anybody who is dependent upon this technology would be frustrated with the behavior of some of the team at the Drone base.</div><div><br /></div><div>Liam Hemsworth is the odd man out on the team, he is basically the Communications tech and not the warrior that the other people on the team are. He is of course a trained soldier so he has the basic ability to handle himself, but obviously the Special Operations group is used to having their own people there and that throws in a few wrinkles. Hemsworth is perfectly fine in the action hero mode, he performs admirably, makes some basic mistakes, and redeems himself a number of times on the mission. So it's easy for us to have him as a rooting interest.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqhMcV_0Ul8WJ-j254V9SBsXjyaKn5ScdMHw_79irSvEj056FsV5uswO0sTsglcxE5TliDq45g-utNkapH8D587-r23UKbNSvt1F-c1VFMER90wxJxMvIO5cixa19fhOH98RJZ5OhuovwV2q6YFVASsGdO9v2fQvvm-CkqXO5SkKsUYsnVhaYXKzdVNqVJ" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="511" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqhMcV_0Ul8WJ-j254V9SBsXjyaKn5ScdMHw_79irSvEj056FsV5uswO0sTsglcxE5TliDq45g-utNkapH8D587-r23UKbNSvt1F-c1VFMER90wxJxMvIO5cixa19fhOH98RJZ5OhuovwV2q6YFVASsGdO9v2fQvvm-CkqXO5SkKsUYsnVhaYXKzdVNqVJ=w270-h400" width="270" /></a></div>I'll probably get in trouble with some people for the way I'm about to describe the next actor in this film, he's the biggest movie star in the world, …by weight. Russell Crowe at one time was a lean mean fighting machine, but in the last several years his waist has expanded much like my own, so that now when he appears on screen, it's much like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, a little bit lumbering. The guy can still act his ass off, and he's great as the Drone operator, although even sitting in a chair behind a console I would assume the Air Force has some physical fitness requirements that they are going to be imposing on their officers. Russell Crowe still has great screen charisma, and He commands the screen even if it doesn't require him to do any tumbling, running, or hand to hand combat.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There are really no big themes or messages in the film. At one point the villain wants to suggest that hiding behind a drone is a cowardly way of engaging in combat, but when that comes from a guy who decapitates a helpless woman and wants to do the same for a child, he pretty much loses all credibility. Alan Rickman made a film not too long before his death, that featured a more nuanced View of drone Warfare called “Eye in the Sky”, if you're looking for a message, that would be the film to seek out. If you're looking for shootouts, dramatic firefights, explosions, tense torture scenes, and a few people surviving a lot longer than you might expect, then this is a film that you should probably look for. Good guys taking out the bad guys in modern combat situations is what this whole thing is about. Of course it's going to be a lot harder to find unless you have your own Drone to assist you.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-77124224228673645472024-02-21T11:21:00.008-06:002024-02-26T08:52:48.187-06:00Dune 1984 Revisit and Comparison<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9okZCiGtUTI?si=6y5k1mlJ2fLAEbrz" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Here is a brief video comparison of some of the visual styles of the David Lynch film in contrast to the Denis Villeneuve version. </div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-60837559298582843042024-02-19T09:57:00.000-06:002024-02-19T09:57:00.643-06:00Madam Web<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s_76M4c4LTo?si=mr1YcowdQG4WzTEH" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>The amount of hate this movie is receiving is hard to understate. I have seen reviews that suggest this movie will be able to be the measure of bad films for the next 15 years. People have even suggested that a root canal is more entertaining. I haven't seen this level of disdain for a movie since <a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2022/04/morbius.html" target="_blank">Morbius </a>opened a couple of years ago.</div><div><br /></div><div>It will certainly not be my position that this is a good movie, but the notion that this is going to be the worst film in the last 20 years and for the next 10 seems to be hyperbole of the worst sort. Madame Web certainly has flaws, and will not be well thought of over time, but I found it perfectly watchable, and kind of interesting in how long it took to set up the character at the heart of the story.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a superhero movie about a hero that you've never heard of, with a villain who basically is evil Spider-Man. The idea of this Hero's superpower is kind of a strange one, it's a psychic ability to see a short distance into the future. And when I say a short distance it seems like it's probably less than just a couple of minutes. It’s a little bit like the Omega 13 device from “Galaxy Quest”. Does it allow you to change the future? Maybe. The other problem with the film, in addition to the fact that you have an obscure hero, is that it seems to be setting up another Trio of Heroes, that is going to be another girl Power Team, and that just seems a little trite.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dakota Johnson is the star of the film, and if you are not a fan of hers then you probably are not going to care much for this movie because she is in 90% of the scenes. I think she's been fine in a number of films, and there is a certain quality that she has on screen that makes her appealing. That does not mean however that she is ready to carry a whole movie on her own. That is pretty much what's required in order to get this movie off the ground, and an interesting screen presence is not necessarily sufficient to keep us intrigued.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are two or three lapses in logic that make plot holes large enough to drive an 18-wheeler through. Maybe that is the cause of so much of the dissension about this film. It's hard for me to know though because most of the reviews that I've seen, from fans online and from professional critics, all spend their time looking for the greatest put-downs they can come up with, rather than explaining what the faults of the film are. An evaluation without any context or explanation just seems like an exercise in stringing together adjectives and adverbs. I much prefer an analysis that tells me why a person thinks the things that they do.</div><div><br /></div><div>So the reservations I have, concern the cliche tropes of this movie, and some of the logical lapses that occur because of the superpowers involved. Just to give you an example near the climax of the film, the villain is smacked down by an ambulance, essentially falling from a building, and that's not enough to kill him. A few minutes later however, a much less significant object is more effective, for no reason that we can discern.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8PCG8Xqr8VlwnfvNZSm4Igo7wo-nlDZkFLdHmm6qnaHC9T7coYDImQ1Hq2guvuIV55fkwaqMeTbPL09YxyvJxU0WwXyY4LndVIzZDF_PYDJkBkZHonozogXeGNY8jO61bV-iaBLZ_KmVW0cNG1WZ1uhnTwo5epzVvBUXB80-oWFwOhNMni2TYLzPg1IK/s755/madame_web_ver2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="509" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8PCG8Xqr8VlwnfvNZSm4Igo7wo-nlDZkFLdHmm6qnaHC9T7coYDImQ1Hq2guvuIV55fkwaqMeTbPL09YxyvJxU0WwXyY4LndVIzZDF_PYDJkBkZHonozogXeGNY8jO61bV-iaBLZ_KmVW0cNG1WZ1uhnTwo5epzVvBUXB80-oWFwOhNMni2TYLzPg1IK/w270-h400/madame_web_ver2.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>The three girls who are being set up to be a superpower team in the future, are as annoying as all heck. They do exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to be doing, and most of the time they simply end up screaming and running. They need to be a little bit more interesting, and they need to have a little more agency in the film. The villain doesn't seem to have very much motivation either, except for nightmares, and of course we're getting a Time Loop story where the nightmares might very well be created by his reaction to the nightmares. There is such a thing as a circle of life, but circular reasoning never convinced anybody except those who are exceptionally undemanding. His acquisition of the powers that make him a supervillain seems to be pretty artificial, and apparently there's a curse, but all that gets explained in exposition that wasn't written very well. The time setting of the film is largely done for the purpose of limiting the influence of Technology. That way it is just the one tool, stolen by the villain, that's going to be important in the story. Everything else can just happen the way it did before people had easy internet connection and access to mobile phones.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again I'm not saying it's a great film, in fact I'm saying it's a poor film, it's just not the wretched pile of crap that so many other people are saying it is. You shouldn't be embarrassed by going to see it, but you won't remember it for long, and you'll have a better time with the popcorn then with the story.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-34656388469910229032024-02-15T12:54:00.002-06:002024-02-15T12:54:50.844-06:00KAMAD Throwback Thursdays 1975: The Fortune<p><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Throwback Thursday #TBT</b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Throwback Thursday on the KAMAD site will be a regular occurrence in the next year. As a motivational project, to make sure I am working on something, even in a week where I don't see a new film in a theater, I am going to post on movies from 1975. Along with 1984, this is one of my favorite years for movies and it is full of bittersweet memories as well. 1975 was my Senior Year in High School and my Freshman Year in College. The greatest film of the last 60 years came out in 1975, as well as dozens of great and not so great cinematic endeavors. Most of the films in this weekly series will have been seen in a theater in 1975, but there are several that I only caught up with later. I hope you all enjoy.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Fortune</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yM3vtaKemG4?si=yWvRXSO12HV_sxUz" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>As usual, I tried locating a trailer to accompany my film selection, but this does not seem possible with "The Fortune". I was unable to locate a trailer on YouTube, which is the most likely site that it would be available on. I looked at Google to search for the same thing and also got no results. Maybe this is the reason that this film was a Blind Spot for me, I never remembered seeing anything promoting it, except newspaper ads. The fact that the movie flopped on release probably accounts for it never being available for me to see in 1975. To catch up with it today, I purchased a copy from Umbrella, an Australian Media company, this actually had to clear customs before being delivered to me. Anyway, the above video is a clip from TCM when they showed the film a few years ago.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The Fortune" stars Jack Nicolson (This is his fourth film in the Throwback Thursday Series) and Warren Beatty (Only his second). They were both big stars at the time and the movie was directed by Mike Nichols. With that pedigree, you would think this was a surefire smash. Unfortunately, like "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/01/kamad-throwback-thursdays-1975-lucky.html" target="_blank">Lucky Lady</a>", also in 75, casting cannot make up for all the elements of a movie. Somehow this light comedy farce, just lacks the delicate touch that it takes to pull off this kind of material, and part ofd the problem is the two stars.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nicolson and Beatty are both laconic actors, who need some pushing to feel like active participants in a movie. Here they seem to be cruising rather than working, and the script and direction are not enough to compensate for a lack of wattage from the stars. There is a scroll at the start of the movie, to explain the complication that the story is trying to deal with. This immediately suggests trouble. When you have to have a history lesson before the story starts, it is never very promising. Basically, the two are small time scam artists, who are trying to get a hold of the wealth of an heiress by marrying her. Unfortunately, the man who wooed her is unable to complete a divorce, so if he takes her with him across the country, he could be violating the Mann Act. </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> During the 1920s, in the United States, the law known as the Mann Act was much feared. It prohibited transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes. Because of the Mann Act, a man who wanted to run off with a woman and was willing, or unable, to marry her, would sometimes go to unusual lengths.</i></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxEnRrpnOZSYlKUNYd06cJImzx6cOLjcRVb7y-0_Da6eYWPZYj_khUfpkyGx4MpnSxsqFTL8RrfXsFiZSlbKYQCo1-8W90E_xGE4HTooUbCqcdMn780R-2m63ZYgjAIhk0mpDO9ZtgGBSOFRWeAU1aTZB189sDedre1ZviESegucpUPLdcacETwVPFtrq/s550/fortune_ver1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="350" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxEnRrpnOZSYlKUNYd06cJImzx6cOLjcRVb7y-0_Da6eYWPZYj_khUfpkyGx4MpnSxsqFTL8RrfXsFiZSlbKYQCo1-8W90E_xGE4HTooUbCqcdMn780R-2m63ZYgjAIhk0mpDO9ZtgGBSOFRWeAU1aTZB189sDedre1ZviESegucpUPLdcacETwVPFtrq/w255-h400/fortune_ver1.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>So Beatty wants to marry Stockad Channing, but can't, so he has her marry his pal Nicholson, as a way of getting around the law. Of course that presents some awkward moments in the story, and those are the only places where the film comes to life.<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-family: times;"> The movie is less than an hour and a half long, but it seems to take forever to get to the real complications. A car ride, train trip and Airplane flight, all use up a lot of screen time, without really building the story or the characters. Once the trio arrives in Los Angeles, and settles into the same courtyard apartment that was used in "The Day of the Locust", the comedy feels more connected to the goings on. There just isn't that much of it.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-family: times;">Channing is in her first credited role here, and for the most part she is great, but there are a couple of scenes where bickering is featured and she was given the direction "louder". It annoys rather than amuses. The final section of the film, is where the slapstick humor comes in, and the hapless con men, having decided to murder the woman they both claim to love, can't quite pull off the act. There is a scene of a traffic jam on a bridge that showcases what the film could have been, if only that spirit was infused in the rest of the story. </span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); letter-spacing: 0.5px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px;">Anyway, it's not as big a misfire as "Lucky Lady"<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">, </span>it still isn't something you need to add to your list of essential viewing. </span></span></span></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-70959541976261576182024-02-15T08:43:00.000-06:002024-02-15T08:43:03.819-06:00Lisa Frankenstein<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bvI3F95w8ns?si=H-FF9byLk1MRhtQv" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>I didn't hate this movie but I didn't love it the way I wished I had. Diablo Cody has written a couple of films that I do admire quite a bit, both “Juno” and "Jennifer's Body" are regular visitors on our TV screen. So it was with some enthusiasm that I looked forward to this newest film penned by this talented screenwriter. I can't say the fault for this film's failures is entirely with the director, because the screenplay is a mess. Instead of being funny or cute or sexy, it's just gross and it relies on obnoxious stereotypes to sell some of its jokes.</div><div><br /></div><div>The premise is a cross between “Heathers” and “<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2013/02/warm-bodies.html" target="_blank">Warm Bodies</a>”, two films with horror at their heart that also try to slip in some romance. Maybe “Heathers” can successfully pull that off because its black heart is clear from the very beginning. “Warm Bodies” just didn't work when it was released a few years ago, and this film has the same problem, dead bodies are just not sexy or romantic. Dress them up in period clothing and try to style them as if they were poets of the era, they are still decaying, oozing, cold bodies that would not be attractive to anyone.</div><div><br /></div><div>This film takes the idea of a wicked stepmother, and tries to update it into Dawn of the Dead. There's not enough humor to make it work when the film's tone changes dramatically after the first murder. At first the film seems to want to be a wacky romance between a girl who's an outsider and a little odd, and the idea of a Lost Boy from the old days, you know, when men were cravats and vests. The idea that a short circuiting tanning bed will substitute for the elaborate Laboratory of Dr. Frankenstein, is funny at first, but the joke gets repeated several times and it never really makes sense in the story why this would work. I know this is supposed to be a fantasy, so I shouldn't take most of these things seriously, and I don't, but come on. There needs to be a little bit more of an explanation about why a body that's been in the ground for almost 200 years suddenly rises from the grave because of the lightning strike. Lisa, the teen girl who is the protagonist in the story, is suffering from PTSD after the loss of her mother by an Ax Murderer, and the acquisition of a sister and mother when her father remarries. So okay, she's not stable, but her reaction to the character that shows up in her bedroom makes no sense at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of teen comedies that this film borrows from, we also get a little bit of “Pretty in Pink”, where there is a romantic interest, but not the one that we should be rooting for given the setup. It just doesn't make much sense that Lisa continues to want the editor of the school literary journal, after practically engaging in voodoo to get the corpse of Victor Frankenstein animated. Expecting the corpse to go along with this, without any jealousy also makes no sense. This is just a series of scenes that are supposed to be funny but don't work. We get ax murders that aren't funny, and characters who act as if there's no consequence to their actions, when in fact anybody can see the consequences coming from a mile away.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh85HRAX-z8cWysLsnIMoTWRFp7XcP_WZOjJUPeiOHBA_2YArD-KUGLn58GLI3eFf521VWe4NGlkSTMoYStiYLxQDuWBkPA0KlTODmSRYVAX8BOk9Bv2AxdofSneqOojD_LMwyRZP-ieaN71OG95l2tUKy4swF_DrbIPhxDYZ0YkDpIq-jDeBHkiwH5wlvU" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh85HRAX-z8cWysLsnIMoTWRFp7XcP_WZOjJUPeiOHBA_2YArD-KUGLn58GLI3eFf521VWe4NGlkSTMoYStiYLxQDuWBkPA0KlTODmSRYVAX8BOk9Bv2AxdofSneqOojD_LMwyRZP-ieaN71OG95l2tUKy4swF_DrbIPhxDYZ0YkDpIq-jDeBHkiwH5wlvU=w270-h400" width="270" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div>Oh, and another team comedy that we can throw in, “She's All That", where the dowdy little girl turns into a teen Queen that all the boys at school want to be with. Not sure that this is the right way to go from a screenwriter who came up with the clever premise of “Jennifer's Body”, and the terrific contrarian “Juno”. This movie feels like it was manufactured by somebody who is trying to make a successful Teen Movie by doing the same thing that Dr. Frankenstein did, sewing together the parts of dead films and hoping to revive them as something new. It's been tried before and rarely is it successful.</div><div><br /></div><div>Comedy in horror, it's hard to pull off well. When it happens, like in the film “American Werewolf in London”, we are lucky that we can laugh and be scared at the same time. Lisa Frankenstein doesn't pull this Balancing Act off, it's not as disappointing as Five Nights at Freddy's, but the number of laughs is almost as low, and despite the cute actors, and three or four clever lines, there's just not much here to recommend.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-64819706639504217022024-02-13T13:33:00.004-06:002024-02-13T13:33:37.565-06:00Dune Part 1 (Revisit)<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n9xhJrPXop4?si=ZVZ651fyyaU79Pj8" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>In anticipation of the second chapter of Denis Villeneuve's Dune films, the first part from 2021, has been released in theaters for a week so that we can all catch up. When I say we, I was hoping that there would be other Dune fans in the theater, sadly I was by myself without another soul in sight. That didn't change the movie much for me, I still liked it very much, and was happy to see it on the big screen.</div><div><br /></div><div>There was an interesting phenomenon in the film and my experience in the past 3 years which showed up at yesterday's screening. I had read the original book again for a book club 3 years ago, and we had talked about some of the scenes that were missing in the film. Apparently my memory of the book intruded on my memory of the film, and I kept waiting for a scene that I saw vividly in my head, but was never in the film to begin with. That's just my imagination working overtime and filling in some blanks. I may have done the same thing 40 years ago when I saw David Lynch's Dune, and I thought the film was great even though others saw it as occasionally incoherent. My brain apparently wants me to embrace the concept of Dune as a film in a more complete form than either Lynch or Villeneuve was able to complete. </div><div><br /></div><div>Next week I am seeing the David Lynch version of Dune on the big screen, and I'll make more comparisons between the films then, but for now I'm happy to have the new version of Dune. This version has a magnificent score, some terrific visual effects, and casting that is quite effective. Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, and Oscar Isaacs are all excellent in their respective roles. It's taking me a little while to get used to Zendaya as Chani, and I'm still not sure why we had to gender swap Dr. Keynes. Timothée Chalamet has turned out to be a much better choice for Paul Atreides than I had hoped. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggUUdyneuhxkzH6CvhuGd6WJRUflPRN6MQG4gFLguSfhBJlzUux-0JflE6_ZwouH0JUcdbnXxoTQ5pb5SYcuEAkwDFlgbE9Qr4f2IAAle7XwHk9hs2SHzsl_CcosZXFCvEXPYZXNDIABddS48zsiJOY_CflmwuRj6cavq46mKioaBQU_lxe_LpnXb40_iG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="517" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggUUdyneuhxkzH6CvhuGd6WJRUflPRN6MQG4gFLguSfhBJlzUux-0JflE6_ZwouH0JUcdbnXxoTQ5pb5SYcuEAkwDFlgbE9Qr4f2IAAle7XwHk9hs2SHzsl_CcosZXFCvEXPYZXNDIABddS48zsiJOY_CflmwuRj6cavq46mKioaBQU_lxe_LpnXb40_iG=w273-h400" width="273" /></a></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I know several film fans who are irritated that the film stopped where it does in the story, but given the impracticality of having a 7-hour movie, I think it was the correct cut off point. The story finishes at a spot that completes what is essentially the First Act of the story and sets up what is to come pretty effectively. At the conclusion of the film screening, we got an 8 minute preview style trailer, which featured a long segment that will certainly be coming near the beginning of part two. Paul, riding a giant sand worm for the first time, is the important plot point, and it's a little surprising that they give away this sequence in a trailer. I guess they don't think any real Dune fans are unaware of what's going to happen, and those fans who are casual fans, need a little inducement to push the button.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course I have already purchased my tickets, I'm excited for the movie, and I would be happy to go to a double feature and see both part one and part two playing together. I'm sure that will happen sometime down the road, until then the spice must flow.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-14654160323345175672024-02-08T08:17:00.002-06:002024-02-08T08:17:11.351-06:00KAMAD on the Forgotten Filmcast<p> </p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="208" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://podomatic.com/embed/html5/episode/10684957" width="504"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I visit with Todd tp talk about an obscure Jimmy Stewart film, featuring Strother Martin.</div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-7342016042493284482024-02-07T12:07:00.000-06:002024-02-07T12:07:28.014-06:00My Fair Lady (2024 Revisit)<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pIh3v-JZ_lA?si=dW5AxQrAH1xGlUt1" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-ee8c944e-7fff-0328-aa09-956d708dc5a7"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I've been watching reaction videos on YouTube this week. When I see Gen Z kids reacting to bands that I listened to back in the seventies, and they are emotional in the way they hear the music and the voices, it reminds me quite a bit of the way I feel every time I see a movie like “My Fair Lady”.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It would be completely inappropriate for me to simply video myself in a theater while watching a movie, but that's sort of the way I think this review should go because my reaction to this movie is completely emotional and spontaneous. If you watched my face while I'm watching the movie, you would see smiles and tears and a hundred other emotions because this movie evokes some of the nicest feelings you can have about a film. I'm not a huge fan of musicals on stage. I have seen my share, and I usually enjoy them, but I'm not a completionist and I don't insist on seeing every musical that comes along in a stage production. I've never seen the stage version of “My Fair Lady”, but I have seen this film a dozen times and it gets to me with each viewing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The presentation of this movie on Sunday, included an overture, which is one of the things that is frequently missing from modern films. The musical score is given sort of a greatest hits montage of themes from the film in a brief preliminary before the start of the movie. In the background are screenshots of dozens of different kinds of flowers, which of course evokes the reminder that Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl. Just hearing the themes gets my emotional Mojo going. When the title comes up I'm ready for just about anything. The movie could easily have won the Academy Award for costuming after the first 3 minutes of the film, during which none of the principles actually appears. A crowd leaving the Opera is filled with elegant gowns and elaborate headpieces that make you wish you were going to the same Opera just to see what everybody is wearing. When the story finally starts, the costumes of Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn are not particularly interesting, but they do sell the characters and their social position. But don't worry, there is greatness to come,</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">First though, we have to meet our main players and set up the plot. Rex Harrison created the role of Henry Higgins on Broadway. The rumor is that Jack Warner offered the part in the film to Cary Grant, who said that if the part didn't go to Harrison, not only would he not do the movie he would not even see the movie. Whether this apocryphal story is true, it does reflect the accuracy with which Rex Harrison is appropriately cast in the role. Henry Higgins is a self-righteous, accomplished, over privileged, snob. Yet his snobbery is not based on wealth or social status, but rather on the enunciation and dialect of the people that he interacts with.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhtJtHDBT1sfWLa41zqxMxkmL-DF0BmU8vLMQk0PANGjNJt0MEI_TBvF4S24hiY_VbNqJdZFewA04j4v9mHs5QyRyGwOR27W2kGzXJrE07fbTNQtFU-7Pr-URlWIa6Oo0uVE7ja1sHYRWjKomW3hOM39pV--yYTmDwQPhOCk9uh0AEk1RhptsCSM9336Uwo" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhtJtHDBT1sfWLa41zqxMxkmL-DF0BmU8vLMQk0PANGjNJt0MEI_TBvF4S24hiY_VbNqJdZFewA04j4v9mHs5QyRyGwOR27W2kGzXJrE07fbTNQtFU-7Pr-URlWIa6Oo0uVE7ja1sHYRWjKomW3hOM39pV--yYTmDwQPhOCk9uh0AEk1RhptsCSM9336Uwo=w255-h400" width="255" /></a></div><br /></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My background is in rhetoric rather than in linguistics, but sometimes those two fields cross paths, so I have a natural interest in many of the things that Henry Higgins points out. I would have very little patience for practicing an elongated “e” or an abbreviated “i” or any of the other tools that are used to make Eliza's speaking voice more effective. As an American it's probably true that I'm much less influenced by the manner of speech than I would be if I were a subject of the British Empire. We are a little more egalitarian, but not without our prejudices. Those biases that we usually do have, reflect cultures that are expressed more in clothing and manners than in pronunciation. While not completely outside of the realm of enunciation prejudice, it is the British who are notorious for their obsessions with dialects and vowels.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Audrey Hepburn was cast in the role of Eliza Doolittle, despite the fact that Julie Andrews originated the part on the stage. Jack Warner was unwilling to allow a first-time screen performer to try and carry his movie. As we all know, the irony is that Julie Andrews won the Academy Award for best actress this same year, for “Mary Poppins”, after being passed over for the role in “My Fair Lady”. Still, Hepburn does a magnificent job in portraying Eliza, regardless of the fact that her singing voice is usually dubbed. She gets great comic power out of her speaking voice and facial expressions in the first act. She also looks glorious on screen. She has the magnetic quality that real film stars possess. Paired with Rex Harrison, the sparks really do fly. Harrison has a highbrow attitude and vocal disdain for Eliza, and can manipulate her with his snarky comments and indifference. The fact that the supporting cast of household servants all see Professor Higgins as the oppressed person in the relationship is particularly amusing. There are glorious moments of laughter when he mocks Eliza's pronunciation, and when Eliza herself reacts to something that Professor Higgins said.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The production design on this film is extraordinary. The house the professor Higgins occupies and moves Eliza into, is a multi-storied puzzle, which gives the characters the chance to move up and down a set of stairs while singing both in frustration and in happiness. The drawing room/library and the workroom where Eliza practices her vowels, are rich with little details that make it clear that Professor Higgins is a meticulous academic and certainly qualified in his field to undertake the transformation he is attempting. The production design doesn't let down even in moments of obvious backlot work, for example the race at Ascot. Even though it is clearly not an actual race track, the emphasis is appropriately on the characters rather than the horses. The black and white gowns worn by all the ladies at the track are simply stunning. Each one seems more elaborate and stylish than the one that came before it, capped off by the Beautiful form-fitting gown that Eliza wears, putting everyone else to shame. In regard to her speech however, she has mastered her pronunciation, but her pace and rhythm are not yet representative of someone from the upper crust. Her vocabulary also contributes several moments of hilarity in the situation. The fact that she is dressed to kill, makes all of those moments even more preciously funny.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The first half of the film is just about perfect. The presentation we saw on Sunday, through another Fathom event, included an intermission. The third Act that plays after the intermission has some of the best songs, but some of the weaker parts of the book that the play is based on. Eliza's dilemma and Higgins' resolution does not make a lot of sense, but it does have an emotional component to it that makes it work. There are songs throughout the film that you could probably sing on a continuous loop like an earworm that simply won't go away. Not only could you have danced all night, you could have hummed all night.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7XD6s58B6Dxa49rvsSS-6bkPiVYvyxBjEYcZ7c6C9tuRZ_6tIIeb22_8KL9aGGOjKxX41sGxsfEE3smeywbUWxgv9Pj_5JXONBhepQDLGQPu62zrp5QRo5U4qX6MC_3Nk6NCna0m3_EcZJeoyaeJYLfhn9jnwg9qFgdLUzG69Cj6veh1QFzSUyUtYMlGA" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="494" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7XD6s58B6Dxa49rvsSS-6bkPiVYvyxBjEYcZ7c6C9tuRZ_6tIIeb22_8KL9aGGOjKxX41sGxsfEE3smeywbUWxgv9Pj_5JXONBhepQDLGQPu62zrp5QRo5U4qX6MC_3Nk6NCna0m3_EcZJeoyaeJYLfhn9jnwg9qFgdLUzG69Cj6veh1QFzSUyUtYMlGA=w262-h400" width="262" /></a></div><br /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I have no hesitation applauding the changes that took place in the film industry in the years following this movie. Storytelling has gotten better, and actors are all more naturalistic. I am however still very nostalgic for the kinds of quality and craftsmanship that showed up in this film, a quintessential studio movie of the era. Director George Cuckor does a masterful job. The film glides along effortlessly, making use of a massive street set, detailed Interiors and Professor Higgins house, as well as the ballroom in the Transylvania Embassy. This is the kind of stuff that was done to perfection in the old Studio factories. The artifice works because the details look wonderful. The Craftsman who created these settings are incredibly talented. Today most of this work would be done by computer technicians creating a CGI environment, with the actors performing in front of green screens and being inserted into the context. Somehow we've lost something despite adding to our toolbox.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I don't drink or use hallucinogenic drugs because I understand how damaging an addiction can be. The euphoria that comes from seeing a movie like this is probably as close as I will ever come to the rush that the heroin user first feels when they shoot up. I am perfectly happy living within the boundaries of that kind of high. As long as I get my fix every once in a while, sitting in a theater, watching a film and listening to the music and being overcome with emotions as a result, I don't really feel I've denied myself anything by refusing illicit drugs.</span></p><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-22045103417832790572024-02-05T20:59:00.000-06:002024-02-05T20:59:15.530-06:00Argylle<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7mgu9mNZ8Hk?si=C7J67MhIQF-E9GH8" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-a4689e36-7fff-356c-609c-ef2ed80dd1a5"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I will confess from the beginning that I am a Matthew Vaughn fan. Out of the films that he's made there hasn't been one that I haven't loved to some degree or other. I anticipated “Argylle” like I would have one of the Kingsmen films, it's a spy thriller with that Vaughn touch that makes them so entertaining and unique. I must also confess however, that this is probably the weakest of the films that I've seen from this director.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Let me point out the things that are problematic before I get to the things that I love so much. Everybody expects that there will be twists in a spy Thriller. After all, betrayal, double agents, and hidden agendas are all part of the field. So of course there will be some surprises along the way. The issue this film has is that it has a change, twist, or revelation every 10 to 15 minutes that makes the movie suddenly change direction and make us question not just our loyalties but the plot structure itself. Sometimes you can just be too clever for your own good. That's what happens here, screenwriter Jason Fuchs seems to be operating under the assumption that if we're going to give up any sense of reality in the visuals, then we don't have to be realistic to the plot points.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It's a Fantastical story, that asked us to suspend our disbelief from the very beginning,and then it asked us to do so again, and then one more time, and then several more times, leading to a little bit of exhaustion in trying to keep track of what the hell is going on in this movie. They have compensated for those faults by creating inventive action sequences and interesting characters, but action sequences are not plot, and when characters change repeatedly, we begin to distrust our own sense of what it all means. Those are not the kinds of things that are going to make most audiences happy.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The main things that keep this film from collapsing altogether are those action moments and the main characters that we get to know from the very beginning. Let's just face it, Sam Rockwell makes everything better, and when he dances, the movie is probably going to be a lot more worthwhile as a result. Rockwell does dance in this movie. Bryce Dallas Howard, plays a somewhat introverted character for the first half of the film, and without giving away a big spoiler or two, there are some dramatic changes that take place in the second half of the film that even the greatest of actresses would have trouble pulling off. She does the best that anybody probably could with what the script gives her.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Two other actors in the film also have their plot lines substantially seem to change the characters they are playing, at least for a short period of time. When it happens it's a little disconcerting, until we get another twist that reveals why even these characters have changed their personalities. The story also gets complicated by the fact that we are jumping back and forth between three different World Views. In one, Bryce Dallas Howard's character Elly Conroy, is visualizing the fictional story that she has written in her spy novel. The second viewpoint comes from Sam Rockwell's character, Aidan Wilde, as he appears to be a real life spy who is intervening in the story in a way that makes Elly extremely nervous. When we finally get to two more big twists, another perspective is added that we bounce back and forth between, without being sure where we are going to land. I'm sure the director and writer thought that this would be a fun ride for the audience, but I think you have to win the audience over before you can pull off something like this, and they don't quite accomplish that in time.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As is usual with a Matthew Vaughn film, there are cleverly directed and visualized gun battles throughout the story. The most effective one, includes a lot of scenes of hand to hand combat, as well as the use of firearms, on a speeding train in the first half of the film. There are inventive moments where Aidan acts quickly and definitively when dealing with the threats to Elly. One thing that might slightly undermine all of this is the presence of a CGI cat and an exit by Parachute that is also clearly a CGI moment. It's my belief that the CGI in a more primitive form is being used this way to remind the audience that this is all a fantasy, and not to take all of the murder and death too seriously.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As the plot gets more ridiculous, which distances us a bit from the movie, we get rescued by over the top visual sequences which are also ridiculous but are completely entertaining. On the podcast this last weekend one of the guests cited two sequences near the end of the film that she was bored by, these were the two sequences that I was most amused at. The fight in the hallway with the different colored smoke and the gas masks made me laugh hard. When we get to the next sequence which involves an oil slick, a couple dozen thugs, and some improvised ice skates, I not only laughed at how preposterous it was, but also how confident Vaughn and Fuchs were in designing this silly but nicely rendered moment. I didn't just have to suspend my disbelief, I had to suppress all reasoning and just enjoy the stupidity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi59YXvCvOvIpqLx0Snf_v2sVtDJzsVVUnSvzqTWtenFB32kR2SHhNRARnqwdtNjjaITlgUEc71jCWjo57AsUvA7zcfMvE8Lv9SuRUeIVeV44lzRNY415YVjSEMLIZeQfgDgc8f_VWgbRMDpSilcu-7Ka0D8PrYFt-kdViHmIpN9qaPuOoQG3HFMhb3x6e_" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="477" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi59YXvCvOvIpqLx0Snf_v2sVtDJzsVVUnSvzqTWtenFB32kR2SHhNRARnqwdtNjjaITlgUEc71jCWjo57AsUvA7zcfMvE8Lv9SuRUeIVeV44lzRNY415YVjSEMLIZeQfgDgc8f_VWgbRMDpSilcu-7Ka0D8PrYFt-kdViHmIpN9qaPuOoQG3HFMhb3x6e_=w253-h400" width="253" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">There are some very clever moments in the film where the main character Elly, mixes the events that are happening to her with the visualization that she has of her fictional spy. She sees the very same events that she is going through through the lens of her hero. Henry Cavill seems to be auditioning for at least the third time to be the next James Bond. These spy films have very different tones, and this one would suggest that Cavill would be playing Bond closer to the Roger Moore version, then to the Sean Connery or Daniel Craig versions of 007. I'm not sure that this is the best direction to take. John Cena is in the movie briefly, but was completely delightful in the moments that he had. Samuel L Jackson plays Samuel L Jackson as usual in this case, as an ally rather than an antagonist. <br /></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The most valuable player in the film, aside from Rockwell, is Catherine O'Hara who is playing Elly's mother, and her plot line is dramatically different from what I had anticipated. Of course that's one of the twists that you will probably wonder about when it shows up. On the other hand, Bryan Cranston is chewing the scenery exactly how a villain is supposed to in this kind of movie. There are a couple of other characters that pop into the story a little bit, and they provide exit strategies and some ridiculous answers to difficult plot choices. I just had to keep reminding myself that it's all in good fun. Otherwise, you're going to have a better time mocking some of the things that happened in this film, rather than laughing at the silly things that the filmmakers want you to laugh at.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-20101571770943861002024-02-03T01:00:00.001-06:002024-02-03T01:00:00.388-06:00A Birthday Game<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1WE9CesA1b4" width="320" youtube-src-id="1WE9CesA1b4"></iframe></div><br />As the years go by, I find more time to indulge in some distractions. To celebrate another trip around the Sun, I have given you a quote from a movie, from each year I have been around. The question is "can you name the movie?"<p></p><p>Some are easy, some will be difficult. If you bother to answer, I will bother to tell you what you got right and what you missed. Have fun storming the castle. </p><p><br /></p>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-83393521545150027482024-01-24T09:06:00.000-06:002024-01-24T09:06:31.482-06:00Galaxy Quest Revisited<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VtHM77IRkus?si=TVhyPgspsNQNdJ-o" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>Last week I got to talk about The Princess Bride and add it to my list of perfect films. The <a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2013/03/three-perfect-movies.html" target="_blank">original post</a> that I wrote several years ago included three films that at the time I would classify as perfect. I haven't changed my assessment of those films, but I continue to evolve in my appreciation of them every time I see them, and I got to see one of them again this week.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's been said that Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek film ever made. I think that's probably a correct assessment. Those things that we loved about Star Trek, the characters, the camaraderie, and all of the tropes that make up science fiction television of the 1960s are present in this send-up of a Star Trek type television show. The lead actor played by Tim Allen, is a thinly disguised version of William Shatner's Captain Kirk. The outsized ego of the star, gets put in contrast to the attitudes of the secondary players and co-stars of the series. Sigourney Weaver gets a chance to play comedy, and boy does she nail it. She does let her wig do half the work however. Oh and her push-up bra. I'll get to the work of the other actors in just a minute.</div><div><br /></div><div>The thing that makes this film resonate so much with its loyal audience, is that it represents them not in a satirical way but in an affectionate one. We all know those fans who take the minor portions of the thing they love and obsess about them. In this film The “Questers” attend a fan convention and do the usual cosplay, and line up for autographs at $15 a pop. That episode of Saturday Night Live where William Shatner went off on the fans of Star Trek and told them to get a life, feels like it is the basis for several of the moments in the early part of the film. The actors in the cast of the canceled TV series Galaxy Quest, struggle for relevance, while having to make do with personal appearances that cash in on their celebrity from their time on the show. When they are at the fan convention, they recognize for the most part that it is the fans who have sustained any career that they might have. When Tim Allen's character Jason Nesmith goes off on a fan in the autograph line it, frustrates everybody else and surprises them. Even though they are all irritated that this is what their careers have been reduced to, they still recognize that the fans are sincere and care about them. None of them would want a fan to be disappointed. This film takes geek culture seriously while still mildly lampooning it. The fan boys and girls have their fantasies about the characters, read online sources for information about the show, and have a depth of knowledge that befuddles the cast of the show. It's those very things that allow the Thermians to be perceived as fans instead of the aliens that they are. Jason has a private gig booked, and it was with some of the fans that he dissed at the convention, and he mistakes the Thermians for the group that he is supposed to visit.</div><div><br /></div><div>Harold Ramis was supposed to be the director for the film, but he dropped out when Tim Allen was cast as the lead. He thought that this was the wrong move. In fact it was the perfect move because Allen was at the height of his TV Fame and was just crossing over into movies, and the confluence of those situations with the character that is written in the script is just perfection. Sometimes you just get lucky. Speaking of lucky, the supporting cast is so deep with talented actors that it's a little ridiculous. Tony Shalhoub gets laughs with the mildest kind of expression on his face, looking a wee bit high and befuddled, but also extremely confident in some situations and frantically overmatched in others. I think the implication was that he was chemically treating his emotional issues, and that is reflected in the performance of his character. He is frankly hysterical. Of course hysterical is a relative term and if there is a level that is one step up from that, that is where you'll find Sam Rockwell in this movie. Almost everything he says is a comic gem, and his desperation, fear and ultimate redemption add some real spark to the story as well as making the emotional heart of the movie even more solid. This may have been the first time I recognized Rockwell's genius, and I have been enjoying it ever since. I can't wait until next week when he stars in “Argyle”, the new movie from my favorite contemporary action director Matthew Vaughn.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fandom is well represented by Justin Long as the leader of the fan group that has big questions for Jason, and is a little too obsessive about the technical readouts of their spaceship The Protector. If you have not seen the film and don't know what I am referring to, I'm not going to try and explain it to you, this site has never been about simply restating the story for the readers. This is a movie that's been out for 25 years now, and if you don't know the premise, you're just going to have to see it and then come back and read these comments to make sense of it all. Long has the earnestness of a young fan, and the whining voice of a frustrated teen when dealing with his mom. Enrico Colantoni, Patrick Breen, and Missy Pyle all score laughs at some point as the Thermians. At one point Raiin Wilson is in the film, but he disappears completely once we are on The Protector. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUXMxn40UBcuupY27JaaoyI-43RRQAmKwIhfQZdCOpUFiYl9J1TmiSyngtQKuQtCSfv33wkCyecvM40fZZBFKOKVxCL-GjGhcH_Paz0yXLQst52myz83Nm-La5PEAJKFbseldDHbT-_YZmjbXWbjY3xBHsOzvBmAITdRe2RgKa3BLEVvWTwCIXYrTLl8p_" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="533" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUXMxn40UBcuupY27JaaoyI-43RRQAmKwIhfQZdCOpUFiYl9J1TmiSyngtQKuQtCSfv33wkCyecvM40fZZBFKOKVxCL-GjGhcH_Paz0yXLQst52myz83Nm-La5PEAJKFbseldDHbT-_YZmjbXWbjY3xBHsOzvBmAITdRe2RgKa3BLEVvWTwCIXYrTLl8p_=w282-h400" width="282" /></a></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The CGI may be a little wonky, after all it is 25 years ago, but none of that matters because the special effects in the original Star Trek were never great, and that never mattered. The value of these shows was in the characters and situations, not in the flash and visual extravaganzas that we get in so many science fiction films these days. I really enjoy the fact that the Thermians built their version of The Protector based on the television show, because some of the technology looks like an adoption of a game console, and some early computer technology. Exactly the kind of thing that might have been done on Star Trek. Even if it is sometimes just Christmas lights, the fans don't really care because they came for the characters. Which is what I've been doing for the last 25 years with this terrific film. Alan Rickman, a comedic performance that is equal to all the dramatic work that he did in the later part of his career. “<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2017/06/galaxy-quest-special-presentation.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Galaxy Quest</span></a>” along with “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves”, contain two of the most iconically hysterical comedic performances of the 1990s. Rickman is sorely missed, but we at least have this iteration of him to cherish in our memories.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-17119325378097337302024-01-20T17:39:00.008-06:002024-01-20T17:40:39.979-06:00The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes <p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O3CIXEAjcc8?si=5ws2KZDb3LYCLuwb" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-35a6b840-7fff-2d03-293b-a4580b7e8f38"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It's rare that you find a perfect movie. A few years ago I had a post up about three films that I thought fit that category. When I say perfect I don't mean that it's the best film of all time, or that it's essential for everyone to see it, although I could never understand why somebody wouldn't want to go and see a perfect film. What I mean by perfect, is that it could not be improved by any changes made to it. The parts that are there, have been assembled in the correct way, they all fit together, and they work exactly as they are supposed to. “The Princess Bride” certainly belongs on the shelf with any film that could be described as perfect.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Once again I had the opportunity to see this perfection on the big screen with a receptive audience. On top of that, it was screening at my new favorite theater, The Paramount in Austin Texas. And just to add frosting to the cake, the star of the film Cary Elwes, who wrote a book about the making of the film a decade ago, was there to share some stories after the film was finished. What can I say about “The Princess Bride” that hasn't been said by hundreds of people before me? This movie is funny and dramatic, full of the swashbuckling kind of adventure that I have loved since I was a child. It also has a heart to it that beats and moves us like no other film I can think of. When I was asked by my daughter what my favorite moment in the film was, I had to admit it's the last line when the grandfather, played by the great Peter Falk, says to his grandson, when asked to return and read the book again to him tomorrow,” As you wish.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">That moment gets me every time, because I think of my own children and my parents and grandparents and everybody who cared for those who came before them or after them. This is a story for everyone. And it's a story about true love, the rarest thing in all the world. And I'm not just talking about Wesley and Buttercup. We all get a chance to feel embraced by and loved by this film. It makes a Giant feel like a human being that we would want to be friends with, it makes us cheer when the bad guys get their comeuppance, and we're all willing to sit through the kissing parts in order to get to the good stuff.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I saw this film originally when it was released in 1987, after my parents had gone to a screening at the studio. They enjoyed it but we're not overly impressed by it. My father's half sister Cherry Ann worked for Norman Lear, and she had arranged for my parents to go to the early screening. My wife and I were really jealous because we had looked forward to the film. In spite of my parents' lack of enthusiasm, we rushed to see the film as soon as it came out. And like those who have come after us, who scratched their heads and wondered why this wasn't a bigger hit, we could not understand why the movie was not being embraced by audiences everywhere. Frankly we loved it from the moment we saw it.<br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu0MKMEECzYj00Kr14Baximaq8EH_IAXOlMEmamYJV1dNSz5LF4TPDzEuhZP1vRtv5AMMAZqI6VOKiYvBV2R8UPMmy2d3Tbc1O2bn0_AuiDipDnCpWjV9h8mci7AczPRtcX56KkIKgJjKekOPrDif0DjcM1MUMeAlp90nKkd6Vhp8w-UkmGRZKNCMoZGgI/s3648/20240119_183303.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu0MKMEECzYj00Kr14Baximaq8EH_IAXOlMEmamYJV1dNSz5LF4TPDzEuhZP1vRtv5AMMAZqI6VOKiYvBV2R8UPMmy2d3Tbc1O2bn0_AuiDipDnCpWjV9h8mci7AczPRtcX56KkIKgJjKekOPrDif0DjcM1MUMeAlp90nKkd6Vhp8w-UkmGRZKNCMoZGgI/w360-h270/20240119_183303.jpg" width="360" /></a></div><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This was the middle screening of three showings of the film with guest Cary Elwes at the Paramount Theater this month. Of course we had bought our tickets when the first show went on sale, and then two shows were added, one in front of and one behind the screening that we were going to go to. A decade ago we went to a fantastic screening, also with the star of the film, when he was doing a signing of his newly released book,” As You Wish”. It was one of the best outings I had with my wife in the last decade of her life. </span><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2014/12/as-you-wish-evening-with-cary-elwes.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">You can read the story of that event here.</span></span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mr Elwes, I'm sure, has told the stories that he shared with us many times before. However, as with all good storytellers, he enthralled us with details, spoke with voices that recalled the people he was talking about, and was thoroughly enthusiastic about the moment. There was nothing artificial at all about his conversation, even if it is something he's done a thousand times before. He recalled the story of his injuries on the set, and took full blame, even when others may have contributed a little bit to his on-site mishaps. He recalled with great fondness everyone's friendship with Andre the Giant, and he does a great impression of both Andre and director Rob Reiner. It feels a little bit after having listened to him, as if we were on the set as well and went through the adventures with him. Which is exactly how you want to feel in an event like this, with a movie that's perfect.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">One of the great things about seeing a movie that you have already seen dozens and dozens of times, is experiencing it with others who feel the same way about it as you do. Last night a capacity house, laughed and cried and cheered as “The Princess Bride” took us on the adventure that we all know so well. We were all a little incredulous when we heard that Mr Elwes had only watched the movie three times. After all, collectively among the people in this audience there may have been a million views of the film. It's doubtful that any of the 1,000 or so people there had seen the film only a single time. Okay so maybe a million is a little hyperbole, but you get the idea, this audience knows the movie.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Like many of the films of this era, the special effects, production design, and cinematography make the film feel so much richer than it would be if it had been produced in the era of CGI. The Cliffs of Insanity and the Fire Swamp, looks so real yet it's clear that it is artifice. And we the audience are swept up by the fervor of those Charming effects, and the spectacular, beautiful, cinematography. Watching The Man in Black chase Fezzick, Vincini, Inago Montoya, and Buttercup up the cliffside, is thrilling. It's also funny, and filled with some of the lines that people have memorized over the years. It was easy for me to foresee that this film would have long-term legs, I once judged at a speech tournament where one round of the impromptu speeches were all quotes from this movie, and that must have been in 1989.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The sound of laughter was also highlighted by regular applause when our heroes were introduced and our villains taken down. The occasional lone applause clap when Mr. Elwes was telling a story would be amusing because sometimes it was for something completely incongruent. For instance one member of the audience happened to have lived in the area where the movie was filmed. Mr. Elwes laughed at the single clap, and was gracious in acknowledging the beauty of the area. When questions were submitted by the audience ahead of time, they were read out loud by the interviewer, and Cary answered enthusiastically. The host called out one question in particular as his favorite, and asked where the little girl was who had submitted the question. Her family was quick to wave their hands, and Cary, left the stage and went over to talk to her personally to answer her question. But she was young, maybe eight or nine and the thought that a thousand people would be looking at her made her even more shy, Mr. Elwes did his best to minimize her discomfort, and draw attention away from her and back to the question. It was a moment of warmth from the star who was being considerate both in trying to see the girl personally and in withdrawing from her because of her shyness. It was a moment of complete sweetness, in keeping with the whole evening.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhs6Xo6e0PBWVihC3trv26y4Z_cnRPUiXFgacIUOEprbRjLBOdsBaq6E3gtusrETMMQ1rhbkjvRN3D0j30SysFyW9dhBzljWMj_Y-tZft6ETxn1H5t9-2TiD6xetqiwQMyulIs2Z5WVfr5QbI4iPa1S3aHNUbs9ryACX2-oE-m-sH8x6H0Tj3Cac9pCLVgu" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="535" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhs6Xo6e0PBWVihC3trv26y4Z_cnRPUiXFgacIUOEprbRjLBOdsBaq6E3gtusrETMMQ1rhbkjvRN3D0j30SysFyW9dhBzljWMj_Y-tZft6ETxn1H5t9-2TiD6xetqiwQMyulIs2Z5WVfr5QbI4iPa1S3aHNUbs9ryACX2-oE-m-sH8x6H0Tj3Cac9pCLVgu=w568-h405" width="568" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><br /></span><p></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-82808052366694458822024-01-18T09:41:00.001-06:002024-01-18T09:41:47.387-06:00Deep Blue Sea<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oSz9MDN-iac?si=ppEZHduRPWbLGJ2v" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>The best Shark film not directed by Steven Spielberg, came out 25 years ago and was directed by Renny Harlan. “Deep Blue Sea” is a disaster film with sharks or maybe it's a Shark film with a disaster, either way it is hugely entertaining and accomplishes exactly what it's supposed to, entertaining us while giving us jump scares, characters that we can enjoy, and an opportunity to see sharks rip people apart.</div><div><br /></div><div>No one is going to mistake it for great art, but it is easily great entertainment. Those of you not familiar, the story involves a laboratory set in the ocean in order to analyze the brains of sharks that are being manipulated in order to produce enzymes that would be useful in reversing brain damage or dementia. Of course genetic manipulation is supposed to be prohibited in this world, but you know there wouldn't be much of a story if the scientists didn't act like most scientists do. They are Headstrong and full of themselves so they don't need to listen to what anybody else thinks.</div><div><br /></div><div>This movie has so many moving parts that you could easily do a podcast on it just one chapter at a time and fill up a Year's worth of material. I wonder if anyone has thought of doing that? Sometimes the confluence of our film interests and others' maniacal love of a particular film will cross paths. I invite you to visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-blue-sea-the-podcast/id1522738259" target="_blank">Deep Blue Sea: The Podcast</a>, but before you do that ,you can pay attention to a few of the comments but I have to make here.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Deep Blue Sea” came out in a Time when CGI technology was just beginning to give filmmakers the ability to visualize things on screen that had not been seen before. For the most part the technology was up to Snuff for this film. There will however be occasions when maybe the technology is a little obvious on the screen and that can be disconcerting for a moment. The filmmakers in this case however also had life-size models that they could use in the laboratory scenes and there's some animation of those models that helps pull off some of the technical mumbo jumbo that goes on in the setup. Once the story really starts we get mostly CGI sharks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thomas Jane is the action star at the center of the film, as a Shark wrangler. Yeah you might ask what a shark Wrangler does, but you probably won't get a better explanation from anyone else than the film gives us. He basically makes sure that the sharks in the film get put into the laboratory lift when it's time for their examinations. Apparently it's also his job to go out and hunt down the sharks should they happen to get out of their pens. Which is of course the start of the film, where Jane's character Carter shows up just in time to rescue young couples on a catamaran in the middle of the ocean. Later in the film we also discovered that he is supremely confident about being able to move through the water when the sharks are free, at least until he discovers that they have started hunting in packs. Then his confidence seems to be shaken, don't be surprised however when it is restored in the final scenes of the movie.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film takes the “Earthquake” disaster film and “The Towering Inferno" and puts them together on the ocean and then throws in some sharks. The Aquatic station suffers from a massive hurricane that disables a number of its systems. Once there is an injury on the station which requires a Medevac helicopter to pick up the injured party, we also are going to get a crash that is going to light things on fire and do even more damage. So inevitably the survivors who are trapped on one level have to figure out a way to get to another level while avoiding sharks and being fried. Along the way you know that some of them are not going to make it, and of course that's what you were hoping for all along.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sharks with Genetically Enhanced brains just sounds dangerous, without even having to see what they are capable of doing. When we do learn that they can swim backwards, that they hunt in packs now, and that they can read the plans and Technical layout of a water-based research Institution, and have figured out how to herd human beings through the debris so that they can take advantage of what the humans can do, suddenly it seems like developing opposing thumbs isn't really all that important to evolution.</div><div><br /></div><div>The sharks in this film are not simply eating, they are malevolent and intentional in the attacks they make on the humans in the story. At least the writers didn't try to give the sharks dialogue in the story, that might be a bridge too far. What's not a bridge too far however are the quips, problems, and personal disputes that make up the rest of the film. If you've never seen “Deep Blue Sea", I don't want to spoil it for you, but there is a very famous jump scare that occurs just at the point that it should. It also looks plenty frightening.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRArD8wvVSYyqtZ8YWJPYNGAv-3KzgndNHoTgG6dhAWfb7Qv0VZkZtHG07smDrSru3GzlNsH21zqlpHuHAJuPIxCVtse60cXYO07e0x2T5sct5HnAY_DSQc4F9KZJqqTS8h-d0pl3Rw_F6qER17rNb3rfb3UXz58-Rz1Mf_wHnA2FQS5vicr0LKKaj72G-" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="492" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRArD8wvVSYyqtZ8YWJPYNGAv-3KzgndNHoTgG6dhAWfb7Qv0VZkZtHG07smDrSru3GzlNsH21zqlpHuHAJuPIxCVtse60cXYO07e0x2T5sct5HnAY_DSQc4F9KZJqqTS8h-d0pl3Rw_F6qER17rNb3rfb3UXz58-Rz1Mf_wHnA2FQS5vicr0LKKaj72G-=w260-h400" width="260" /></a></div>In addition to Thomas Jane, we get Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, and assorted other performers who will struggle to get to the surface. Actor Stellan Skarsgård takes a jump on all of the violent action, and is part of the most memorable moment in the film other than that jump scare I mentioned. He really has very few lines, but he still manages to convey intellectual weight, because after all he smokes a cigarette in a laboratory environment, what can be more confidently certain than that behavior? Michael Rapaport is also in the film as an engineer who knows the station inside and out so he is in essence the Google resource that gets used for most of the film when our survivors are trying to get from point A to point B.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Jurassic Park movies laid the groundwork for large animals ripping people apart on screen and leaving the pieces to be dealt with by others. The sharks treat at least two victims as if they are wishbones at the Thanksgiving dinner. And even when it is a solo shark that's chomping down on one of our forlorn Heroes, that shark makes an effort to insure that the body ends up not just chewed up but divided. There is a lot of CGI viscera in this movie, and we can all be thankful for that.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As with most horror films, some of the human beings have to make stupid choices in order for the events to take place. It's not just the stupid people that suffer, smart guys, confident women, and street smart chefs are all subject to being eaten or at least gnawed on a little bit. Oh, and don't get too attached to the parrot.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've seen this film at least a dozen, and I've been a guest on the “<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-blue-sea-the-podcast/id1522738259" target="_blank">Deep Blue Sea</a>” podcast, but going out to see the movie the other night may be the most memorable experience, because we had to brave sub freezing weather to get to the theater. Maybe the rest of the world is used to doing that, but this transplant from Southern California does not like when the temperature is in single digits. This was one of those times we're ordering the popcorn not just to satisfy a desire to eat something but also a desire to have something warm in my hands while watching the movie. Still, it was worth it.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUYwkoJtRszTZOH9A7RQ2Y2lg9mHHUFRKDLMVw0_kP3A3PaH9RCh0wCzPZAQO7r4gGz4xVdaolTaFMS3tAHhCqCjTbIX_s3OhCL9FNKKFqfx9fwRvEm64dOJDf-MlfUy2n0zHm61BiwXU6iZPrdpROmmnffAp8vkgIbj9gKp2OmI8_KATtxJ09W9s1VUl2/s2944/20240115_190602.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2944" data-original-width="2208" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUYwkoJtRszTZOH9A7RQ2Y2lg9mHHUFRKDLMVw0_kP3A3PaH9RCh0wCzPZAQO7r4gGz4xVdaolTaFMS3tAHhCqCjTbIX_s3OhCL9FNKKFqfx9fwRvEm64dOJDf-MlfUy2n0zHm61BiwXU6iZPrdpROmmnffAp8vkgIbj9gKp2OmI8_KATtxJ09W9s1VUl2/s320/20240115_190602.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-10639705208166292682024-01-14T22:18:00.002-06:002024-01-14T22:18:15.869-06:00The Beekeeper<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SzINZZ6iqxY?si=3pEqFX_6uob7LFOB" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>I love it when a movie does exactly what it's supposed to do for you. Some films have a very simple objective, to entertain you in the genre that they're made in with the talent that is brought to bear. I can't say that every Jason Statham film I've seen has been satisfactory, but the majority of them fall into that category, and with “The Beekeeper", the average is going to go way up, because this film is exactly what it sets out to be.</div><div><br /></div><div>As usual Jason Statham is wreaking revenge on individuals who strongly deserve to be punished. There is virtually no attempt to add humor to the story, or to make it dramatically deep, at least not past the requisite set up. Statham plays a man who has retired to take up beekeeping in its literal form, after serving in a Secret Agency where he was referred to as a Beekeeper, primarily to protect the hive when things go wrong. It's an agency so Secret that even the director of the CIA has little information about it, and that turns out to be a big part of the story.</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe someday Jason Statham will be recognized as an actor with Incredible thespian skills, but until that day he should definitely be recognized for his action star persona and credentials. Statham is a one-man Wrecking Crew, much like Bruce Lee in those early kung fu movies where he would take on an army of opponents and single-handedly crush them all, Statham does the same thing. He usually uses his martial arts skills, he certainly does not limit himself to hand to hand combat. He is perfectly willing and able to engage in Small Arms combat, sabotage, booby traps, and assorted other violence to get his way. In this film Statham plays Adam Clay, which may or may not be his real name but it doesn't matter, what does matter is that he was a beekeeper. The beekeepers are warriors that make the SEAL Teams, the Army Rangers, and assorted CIA Black Ops look like sissies by comparison. They strike fear into the hearts of even the most hardened assassins, and the antagonists in this film have crossed paths with maybe the most dangerous of the beekeepers. You know this is not going to end well for them.</div><div><br /></div><div>It might be good to think of Adam Clay as The Terminator, because he is an Unstoppable Force that can't be bargained with, that will never stop and absolutely will reach its goal. Fortunately for us, in this film, the Terminator is the good guy, and we can applaud the way he knocks down the pins that the bad guys represent to this bowling ball of a human being. Basically he hits a strike every time and the pins fall with mechanical precision in interesting ways each and every scene. John Wick would do most of this work with his gun, Adam clay does most of his with his fists, feet , elbows, and head. And when those don't work he'll find a gun or a flamethrower or some other handy tool that he can use to kick some more ass.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the film needs any weight, it gets it from Phillicia Rashad in the opening section as an older woman who has offered Clay some assistance in his transition to actually taking care of beehives instead of international intrigue. When she is the victim of cybercrime, the perpetrators have crossed the wrong path and Statham is on them relentlessly. It doesn't hurt that three of the villains are so smarmy that you want to kick their ass yourself. And when they finally get their individual comeuppance, let's just say, it's the kind of satisfaction that people like me, who treat “Taken” as high art, are going to be applauding.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7N-cKBXB_Tvc4tZG9tlYp9zTRi18GfopoQAo9zmOQ4P-c6lyOgkiIEw_ZjFB4byMQNLZWaBQh5_rxKY0CSEGSmeBX9ZCZHC52ffTp-h0tlg7xgyDubAb1buMEVTQbiQtDuZIQZvuNLnGYknYnLLLh4Jw73YqHcC8mR9bsC5vHG-kykpB6m8wfpmsfC0Bi/s755/beekeeper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7N-cKBXB_Tvc4tZG9tlYp9zTRi18GfopoQAo9zmOQ4P-c6lyOgkiIEw_ZjFB4byMQNLZWaBQh5_rxKY0CSEGSmeBX9ZCZHC52ffTp-h0tlg7xgyDubAb1buMEVTQbiQtDuZIQZvuNLnGYknYnLLLh4Jw73YqHcC8mR9bsC5vHG-kykpB6m8wfpmsfC0Bi/w270-h400/beekeeper.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>Jeremy Irons also lends some credibility to the film as the former CIA director who is tangentially connected to the Enterprise that ripped off Adam Clay's friend. He also knows what's coming, and half the fun of the movie is watching people who think they understand what they're getting into discovering that they are in way over their head. When Statham shows up at a call center with two gas cans and he tells everybody that he's going to burn the place down, you can bet that it's going to seem incredulous at first as if it can be laughed off. But when he proceeds to do it we're going to smile and think, hell yeah that's the way to handle a Consumer complaint.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This movie is not going to receive any awards for its dramatic integrity, but if the Academy finally caves and creates an award for stunts, then there's a good chance a film like this would get some appreciation. When these sorts of films are providing the backbone for keeping movie theaters in operation and for acting as tent poles for the rest of the theatrical releases by the major Studios, then it seems it would be an appropriate time to maybe have a category at the Academy Awards for face punching, ass kicking, straight shooting, and generally amazing creative fight sequences.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-34553565175743317712024-01-13T11:55:00.004-06:002024-01-13T11:55:55.561-06:00Mean Girls (2024)<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fFtdbEgnUOk?si=fLmoA4izBy7naGYS" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>The film Mean Girls came out 20 years ago and was a big success. It has become a touchstone for that generation and continues to be a film many look back on fondly. A Broadway musical was made from the film and has apparently done well enough over the years to justify a film version, which is what we got this month.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before this week I think I may have seen the original film twice. Once when it came out and once when it was released on home video almost 20 years ago. I revisited the movie the night before last, in anticipation of the new film. It continued to be very entertaining and maybe the high point of Lindsay Lohan's career in front of the camera. It wasn't too much longer after this that Lohan seemed to go off the rails and have difficulty in her life and her film choices went severely downhill. Still the movie is warmly remembered, but it's not that old, so the question then becomes is a new version really necessary? The one thing that the new production has going for it are the songs that are being transferred from the Broadway show. If they were not a part of the film then I would say that this whole Enterprise was superfluous. However the songs are here and they make the movie entertaining enough and distinct enough to give it a mild recommendation.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't want to say anything negative about the young lady who takes on the role that Lindsay Lohan had. She sings quite well and her performance is sturdy. Angourie Rice was in “The Nice Guy” a few years ago and she was great, but when comparing the two Mean Girls ,films which was easy for me to do having seen them back to back on subsequent nights, it's clear that Lindsay Lohan had some kind of charisma that made her much more effective on screen. It's not so much that she was a better actress, it's that her personality and her facial expressions feel more in tune with the material. The current film suffers a little bit because of this lead role. The strongest performance in the film comes from the actress Reneé Rapp,who plays Regina George, the queen bee of the Mean Girls. She has a terrific voice and sells the songs that she's doing very effectively. In the last part of the film she also successfully transitions from a villainous character to a more sympathetic comic one. When looking at the film, I think it will be judged by each of the musical sequences that make up the 90 minutes of the movie. Regina George has two of the best numbers, and as a consequence Cady, fades into the background a little bit more than she should.</div><div><br /></div><div>The director of the film has made several cinematic choices that work pretty well in bringing the Broadway play to the big screen. There are for example, several points where we get a selfie shot video from the phones of the stars of the film. That justifies a little bit more of the musical sequences. I never felt however that there was a knockout sequence in any of the musical numbers. There are some effective lyrics, and some funny moments, but the choreography seems relatively tame for a film that is spoofing High School and is spoofing the high school spoof that it is based on. “Anna and the Apocalypse”, a film that probably had 1/10 of the budget, was much more creative and integrated the student body into the big numbers, making it feel like the film really was a musical come to life. In this film the musical sequences seem staged and occasionally perfunctory rather than essential to the tone of the film.</div><div><br /></div><div>Most of the new film follows very closely the structure of the original. Most of the lines are repeated and there's not really an essential need for updating the dialogue, with a couple of exceptions. The story of Cady being a transplant from Africa, is largely extraneous to the events that happened in the film, unlike in the first film where her unfamiliarity with the culture explains some of the things that her character does. In this film the African background merely allows for some of the musical sequences to play around with animal motifs and references to more primitive social structures. It's all well and good and definitely some fun, but it misses the point that was being made in the original film.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj90cV8CYh5YqfI7kWL-wrI5rrBX38WsqBqR3QWRZnVIllbIGDeKCx2uwiRrykwsRaf95w0_06QR05IRV8xkPYebNJE2O1uz_6D_GlYchS4WdUv6tReOu8bIZWqcGjENz59Gzw5vENmoFPZKhZ6RHGdKSuCfQq1RUOaNdvhaqnxPP0QZpq_MeBcXP0x5zbT/s755/mean_girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="484" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj90cV8CYh5YqfI7kWL-wrI5rrBX38WsqBqR3QWRZnVIllbIGDeKCx2uwiRrykwsRaf95w0_06QR05IRV8xkPYebNJE2O1uz_6D_GlYchS4WdUv6tReOu8bIZWqcGjENz59Gzw5vENmoFPZKhZ6RHGdKSuCfQq1RUOaNdvhaqnxPP0QZpq_MeBcXP0x5zbT/w256-h400/mean_girls.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /></div><div>Some minor changes have been made to the characters in the film. The most noticeable one may be that there is now a romantic relationship between the teacher played by Tina Fey and the principal played by Tim Meadows. That was missing from the earlier film, and it allows for some slightly different humor than some of the things that took place 20 years ago. Although I'm not sure that the humor was more fun.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As I said the only thing that really justifies this film are the songs, and they are acceptable but not particularly strong. If the sequences where the songs were being presented were more elaborate, perhaps along the lines of the “Barbie” movie, then I might find this film to be more successful. As it is, it is entertaining enough and if I run across the movie in a few years I will probably stop down and watch for a while, but it doesn't feel like I will be putting this film in myself to watch on a regular basis. And that to me is one of the ways that you can mark a really good film.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-13853258956813971592024-01-08T10:44:00.006-06:002024-01-08T10:44:57.436-06:00The Lord of the Rings Trilogy<p> </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kMD16QImEBI?si=uunV8MsrhhvH7R6d" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><p>I'm starting off 2024 with a challenging proposition, seeing all three of The Lord of the Rings films in one setting. I've done it before, in fact twice. But as I get older it does seem to be a little bit more of a challenge to both stay awake and not have my ass hurt at the end of the day. This is going to be a lot of fun regardless of whether I fall asleep or have a sore butt tomorrow.</p><p>These films are impressive regardless of the atmosphere that you watch them in, but when they're presented on the big screen they do take on a special quality. And nowadays it's most likely that you will see the extended Editions which is indeed what this was. Whenever people ask me which of the three films is my favorite I do answer, but I want to remind people that it's really just one film broken into three parts. I have a special affinity for the first of the films “<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2011/06/lord-of-rings-fellowship-of-ring.html" target="_blank">The Fellowship of the Ring</a>”. I like the setup in Hobbiton, I like the brief references to Bilbo's backstory, and I like the introduction of Gandalf as if he is just a traveling performer that the locals both love and fear. Of course the New Zealand surroundings make all of us wish that we could live in the Shire. It is a truly beautiful composition that includes Hobbit holes, quaint Pony Corrals, and a lively Inn where Rosie Cotton serves the drinks.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmB521G5L-i4qqP-LZ3KJqvieTx47JwV_XKwd0_fM6vlTql6EmuwtjWrjrBl-mmIzc-f50pi_N7RjCH0Ttb9TMGCDeKfh-RKobVqBkK6TLsFExGLLKNW4oKV2S4TSW77-FqnBHeqZcx2hiNao5NH6ZqMTnPyD6z5iqOavkl3aLOgTEM1AOCdqYKX9Pu-ww/s755/lord_of_the_rings_the_fellowship_of_the_ring_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmB521G5L-i4qqP-LZ3KJqvieTx47JwV_XKwd0_fM6vlTql6EmuwtjWrjrBl-mmIzc-f50pi_N7RjCH0Ttb9TMGCDeKfh-RKobVqBkK6TLsFExGLLKNW4oKV2S4TSW77-FqnBHeqZcx2hiNao5NH6ZqMTnPyD6z5iqOavkl3aLOgTEM1AOCdqYKX9Pu-ww/s320/lord_of_the_rings_the_fellowship_of_the_ring_ver3.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The Fellowship also has my favorite sequence in the films, the journey through Moria. Gandalf's confrontation with the Balrog is one of the iconic moments in all of the films, and I love seeing it played out on the big screen in all of its Glory. I've written about all three of these films in the past, so I'm not going to cover them again in great detail, or note where changes to the stories are made in bringing them to the screen. The performances continue to be outstanding, and each time I see Sean Astin's version of Samwise Gamgee I am impressed and wonder how it is that he was not given some sort of award for his performance.</p><p>One of the things that I noticed in the special editions is that the title caption comes up in a different spot than in the original theatrical versions, and with Fellowship, I really do think that the original theatrical caption of the main title was Superior. That however may be the only thing that is superior because all of the additions and changes that are made in the special edition really do seem to strengthen the storytelling and build character more effectively. Like most fans of the original books I do miss having Tom Bombadil in the story, but I can completely understand why that would have been a complication that made the movie less efficient.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYInU3B-Ba_Pb2YrQxlV_rosepCoN3P0vTfDYwHTL9aXVZNRVZUnPIe17LjDba2dd2AglrJv1bXTus43hl_8_C_6fuTUbGyCzsxJhrgcHXl8SzZgTrBMY-g-dV_dj8TfU90wWo6tDrPAtPnDwfsBnusVI0nGMeU1_4BembnVUdGhoE12QNhYRPIlydvgpD/s755/lord_of_the_rings_the_two_towers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYInU3B-Ba_Pb2YrQxlV_rosepCoN3P0vTfDYwHTL9aXVZNRVZUnPIe17LjDba2dd2AglrJv1bXTus43hl_8_C_6fuTUbGyCzsxJhrgcHXl8SzZgTrBMY-g-dV_dj8TfU90wWo6tDrPAtPnDwfsBnusVI0nGMeU1_4BembnVUdGhoE12QNhYRPIlydvgpD/s320/lord_of_the_rings_the_two_towers.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>So many people like “<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2011/06/lord-of-rings-two-towers.html" target="_blank">The Two Towers</a>" as their favorite of the films, including my own daughter. I do think that “The Two Towers" is a very good film, and it introduces my favorite character in the stories, King Theoden. Bernard Hill is the embodiment of the character I always saw in my head when I read the books as a kid. The transformation from the possessed version of the king to the restored Theoden is a very solid piece of CGI Magic that works to convince us that evil is in fact in control in Rohan. I also like that Eowyn is depicted both as a Fearless Warrior who must hide her participation in battles, but also as an incompetent cook whose food is not really edible. The films do have small pieces of humor like that which make the movies even more ingratiating. “The Two Towers” is also the film where the character of Gollum appears in his more complete form, and Andy Serkis delivers a great CGI enhanced performance, sometimes against other actors, but in very effective scenes, against himself.<br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBt4jtC07DaHDGPyYlI9nE9M8k-rp0aUd-sSxAvnDegzNY819aYieetaXDYZ63_BJxuEzcYaDR3LcCtjcnyTI-KZxIdkZR7LAhAarvQoYzYn0C_HHlQZofq0-qxpcxDaMLe-H2GlxnDixioYhhmzu00A3RYo2LrsrHDspxMvl2Jg85oiktI4PoU-1MpFeo/s755/lord_of_the_rings_the_return_of_the_king_ver7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="504" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBt4jtC07DaHDGPyYlI9nE9M8k-rp0aUd-sSxAvnDegzNY819aYieetaXDYZ63_BJxuEzcYaDR3LcCtjcnyTI-KZxIdkZR7LAhAarvQoYzYn0C_HHlQZofq0-qxpcxDaMLe-H2GlxnDixioYhhmzu00A3RYo2LrsrHDspxMvl2Jg85oiktI4PoU-1MpFeo/s320/lord_of_the_rings_the_return_of_the_king_ver7.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>The spectacular combat that dominates “<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2011/06/lord-of-rings-return-of-king-extended.html" target="_blank">The Return of the King</a>”, is of course deserving of the accolades that it received at the time of its release. It still holds up on screen as one of the most elaborate uses of visual technology, integrated with actors performances. Just as in Fellowship, “Return of the King” has a great moment when Eowyn confronts the witch King and reveals that she is no man. The extended Editions also contain the creepy sequence where the Mouth of Sauron appears on screen and delivers a bone chilling threat to our heroes. In trying to induce a moment of despair, it is Aragorn's optimism and refusal to accept that Frodo is dead that is the Turning of the tide. Of course the speech that Aragorn gives men of the West is also a moment that will raise the hair on the back of your neck and make you glad that you were watching this movie one more time.<br /><p></p><p>We came well prepared for the event, with sandwiches and scones, which would have to substitute for lembus bread, and we also had clotted cream, butter and jam to add to the scones. We tossed in a piece of chocolate, and we had a blanket that we could lay under if we got tired. It was a long day and I did take a break at one point to come home and feed the dogs, while Amanda stayed in the theater. There were intermissions between the features but they were not clearly marked as to how long they would be. For the third film we went ahead and got our usual popcorn and soda to finish off the day, because after all, we were in that theater for 13 hours watching the three films, and we deserved some movie treats. I don't know if I will ever be able to do the trilogy again on the big screen, but I do know if I get the chance I might be willing to attempt it, these films are that good.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzxNv3oee11saM0xiWZS_Sqoc6EaigEoUI9eOHjgJRU8h-XIKiqb4mwjoLXys0Q7msbAg2dVpVaghm9oOn3OMIE8SlwOXbmvHWK1XpxAfUMaFjHumRyoZa5A_U9fPvHbovRyW5f9HdyN1Gmoy7CfQtX_cCY0s9b-vwgHwgWoJDsg7YE7D7C4ggIw5KTYy/s1404/LOTR%20Trilogy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1404" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzxNv3oee11saM0xiWZS_Sqoc6EaigEoUI9eOHjgJRU8h-XIKiqb4mwjoLXys0Q7msbAg2dVpVaghm9oOn3OMIE8SlwOXbmvHWK1XpxAfUMaFjHumRyoZa5A_U9fPvHbovRyW5f9HdyN1Gmoy7CfQtX_cCY0s9b-vwgHwgWoJDsg7YE7D7C4ggIw5KTYy/w640-h416/LOTR%20Trilogy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-85969168524678824202024-01-02T09:10:00.000-06:002024-01-02T09:10:37.205-06:00End of the Year Wrap Up<p><br /></p><p>It's that time, when we look back at the last year and consider our accomplishments and our failures. Everyone has high and low points that make up their lives, and some of us feel the necessity of sharing that information with others. This blog is focused on movies, so you won't read about car troubles, health issues, tax problems or insurance frustrations. There are other venues for that. Here, we talk about movies and the experiences in our lives that surround our movie going. As a blogger/podcaster , it is easy for me to inventory some of these things that I do each year, because there is a record of them. </p><p>So, here we go.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Top Ten Film</span>s of the year. Look for the video for this at the end of this post.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>10. Godzilla Minus One</b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/12/godzilla-minus-one.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="539" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsePFg80ChOftVlleIw6gAIXpjDnTsAbxUpzqTCbKRDRxmFepAgGIvrQBsM-9pl9KCuVVyaqzOhFC7UzAAsVlO9MfUnVGogGfwOWmKeATPRxfjkcRsd1LpukUGui6VY4IfBX4kwELRtbCyzJkH8CHCNTiGDfdu8Z3AaqzCfTFwe6Tvk5Jgra6SDEuUhyphenhyphenxp/s320/godzilla_minus_one.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>I would never have thought I'd have a Godzilla movie on a "Best Of" List, but here it is. It narrowly beat out "Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse", and it may have done so because of recency bias. This was a great Kaiju film that shows all those "Transformer/Pacific Rim/Monarch based Godzilla" films, how this should be done. Give us characters we care about before you start killing them of making them just plot devices for the destruction of the big monster. This is a film from Japan, with all Japanese actors and I had to read subtitles, but it was still more engaging to me than "Godzilla vs. Kong". <p></p><p>The special effects seem to combine the traditional man in a suit wit some CGI to make Godzilla come to life. There are a couple of scenes of mass destruction, which mix the actors with the CGI work pretty effectively. There is a nice sense of Japanese redemption after the war, and there is no real finger-pointing about the atomic weapons, making this a non-political but still philosophical story.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3</b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/05/guardians-of-galaxy-volume-3.html" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="517" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMQMjHHt-fA88mLMug-dITIIxMK1Yi8BE3yoFkfasm_HPEx8vAdZqSG-Z03qX_tOVeXW7Z1FKW1IeOV1uPRaaIRdDehOaLHmC_3BRXL-uadFdzymgpx9d9eCM_psi89ICbtDfWYd1xdBs9Eib7cnvTAbztfI1bZXPZin2HCgZAmxLDNLGjzp6UEC3TTHN9/s320/guardians_of_the_galaxy_vol_three_ver19.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>There seems to be a lull in the love of comic book movies. The DCEU has never taken off the way it might be expected to, but even the vaunted MCU has petered out. "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/02/ant-man-and-wasp-quantumania.html" target="_blank">Ant-Man and the WASP :Quantumania</a>" fell flat, and "<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-marvels.html" target="_blank">The Marvels</a>" was a huge financial flop, and did not do much better critically. Fortunately we got this final entry in the Guardians franchise, wrapping up loose story lines, but more importantly exploring the origins of our favorite misanthropic marsupial. <div><br /></div><div>Although the soundtrack selections are not as familiar as the other entries, there are still several awesome needle drops. The set pieces in the movie are inventive, but the passageway battle leading to the conclusion is the best. "No Sleep til Brooklyn" was a great choice and I am not a Beastie Boys fan. </div><div><br /></div><div>The film also contains the most emotionally wrenching scene in all of the MCU. Make sure you have Kleenex handy.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>8. SISU</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/04/sisu.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="528" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiiQ2GRVga6VrcxNSrhHJrjXFiOsRSy9PwuvBjkEOAHkDlvWbbiQ8zjjbcqul6KYmwyZDZ-f801XzNEo1uNOk2gLb_5P05RENQuYZ_vGn5LJEDSm4Qw8hIbU4keN69frrQ3vyvd7RwAhUELF_z_vCAkyo5KWAiwg8yo7vdITXHQQeFfK65Igm5b3LjJhQ3/s320/sisu%20(1).jpg" width="224" /></a></div><br /> This is a second non-English language film on my list. It is a simple story of retribution and revenge against Nazis, so there is no equivocation about who the bad guys are. This film contains some of the most over the top violence on screen this year, which is precisely why it ended up on my list. It is always satisfying to see the injustices of the evil, being corrected in the most direct way possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our hero is hardly heroic, he has no dialogue until the very final moment of the movie. Still, he made us laugh a few times at his determination and brutality. If all of Finland had been like him, the Nazis might have decided to skip the rest of the war and go home and hide. </div><div><br /></div><div>The score for the film is almost as brutal and is a nice counterpunch to the laughs that some of the violence provokes. I may not be a good person, I loved this too much.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7. Sound of Freedom</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/07/sound-of-freedom.html" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaWsJXTYHOKHXNA5hOmL_BYdPF5_GNnUfBTRD6Bdl1p1NS29LbWMw2Nht8wUVOjTy_PmhlTTAHfYYF5c-UEdCQpuODbHJRlpUXWxlsptAVPGnkd_AM2FiZSplt1JmU9bodJAjkMKOMp2AEeih-fHjAapPUlElh1nieLdIfOcbbHfo73S5LC-dSn_LHIO9l/s320/sound_of_freedom.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>The brutality of "SISU" is imaginary, the story in this film is equally brutal, but it hits home in a completely different way, one that will not make you laugh, and certainly not comfortable. This movie sat on a shelf for three years because the studio was timid. The producers bought back the rights, released it in an innovative way, and hit paydirt financially but also artistically. <div><br /></div><div>Let me warn you, the opening scenes of the movie will make you sick, especially if you are a parent. Nightmares begin this way and the truly terrible truth is that these stories are real. Jim Caviezel looked so different to me, that I did not realize he was the star until halfway through the film. That may also be a function of the suspense that this movie manages to build as well. The final segment may have been invented for the movie, but it plays very realistically and will tighten your sphincter. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>6. Maestro</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/12/maestro.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRA10dZLmDHAvKXHg77DPdpUYyUuxO2BtnN8ctD4ho7k8fLLz1y6VkKHF8RY3a3vjFNQHPMdnHFIHZTVvJFG3iQPFJJ1-0uswzRSzeO0EpuqdLWZ2K8HURqOX7N_DUtT0B_uVY6uShOWsrC3DadUc6X0cdiwKvk937SWfUzJv91o8OFPvg-ZGEJ896QgQj/s320/Maestro.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>Netflix does not always make it's films available to theaters. One of the reasons that the AMC Best Picture Showcase has vanished is that the theater chain won't play a film that was not offered to it for screening. This year, Netflix did make the film available to exhibitors, for one week. <div><br /></div><div>That is a ridiculous window for fans who want to see a movie, and I was fortunate that I had a local theater that made the effort to get the movie, otherwise it would not have been included on my list. Bradley Cooper, co-wrote, directed and stars in this unusual biopic about a towering cultural figure of the 20th Century.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is not a greatest hits, by the numbers story. I focuses more on the relationship of Leonard Bernstein to his wife than on his compositions and conducting. Carey Mulligan is fantastic as Felicia Montealegre, the actress married to bi-sexual Bernstein.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>5. Wonka</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/12/wonka.html" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-l4Ld7nNEBJzMw8sD5mL9JAmKxnSZ_b9513thr6mae4JJ9HivF_T1qckEudNRtv5g3T2Q5Yj3HRGICTMt26gpmG0xetrd_YXKegv_EsZLn4QgI-i_3n_PWOaX18-pXZn_xb2pF0hGXDFG1O26xjeRNxZcONfpMEdNnIn-HgdIOF1VTXpTjchyphenhyphen5s5jdJoi/s320/wonka_ver18.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>I did not have high hopes for this film. I did not think that we needed another version of Roald Dahl's famous chocolate maker. I was wrong. This was exactly what we needed at this holiday season. A well made, beautiful story that families can enjoy together.<div><br /></div><div>Add on top of everything else, it is a musical, and the songs are great. There is not a show stopper that you will be whistling on your way out of the theater, but the songs are tuneful, utilitarian for the story, and you can actually understand the amusing lyrics.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other thing that is great about the movie is that it respects the 1971 Gene Wilder film, while still being it's own movie. There are subtle nods to the production design of that fifty year old movie and to the performance of it's star. </div><div><br /></div><div>Oh yeah, we also get the cranky Hugh Grant as a cranky Oompa Loompa. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>4. Air</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/04/air-2023.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="604" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx7P3Dh7sv2HCO-RN3_WNH05zWpxe-ROifTLMBGMOLQ0WzTXYqOWiAqn4DPI_8NF_MmyzEIxbsLKW30RWcdQnf_0f9rpWnx28n2SvMGurZBXNzUlsE1GYfeC_32U_vrvpNJubk42jW5NGelpRSwUy122NAa9T9a3a1y6Hd6zoWfFMdbpxBSFw-pUYjSEfL/s320/air_ver3.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><div>This is a movie about a shoe. </div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, it's really a movie about how the Nike Company became the biggest firm in shoe business, by nabbing Michael Jordan at the start of his career. It's about how the shoe came about, how it was marketed and how consumer demands are both met and created by clever people in the industries that they work in. </div><div><br /></div><div>Matt Damon, Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck portray the key men behind the scenes at the biggest marketing coup since Evian filled a plastic bottle with water. Viola Davis shows up as the iron-willed mother of the future superstar, and we can see where he gets his determination from</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>3. The Holdovers</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-holdovers.html" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiapmycff6ZWeSbyYvZ8kVSyaxKvNyrfQbsyvBbUaUBIF6I1g0vNgo8ccECVyVYlw1P30xVvQxbYK0lFqusWZKs5UYRic9yKmIGJY-iSnPTqw8PzkQqeZVLlungGy07fnQvntSMpqrDVy9fglG3QAbb63mZaR-0n5dkoNYC6BOAFGIvYj6-o5seCq8LIokU/s320/holdovers_ver2.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>The grown ups are still here, and they are still making quality films that are not aimed at teen aged boys. Alexander Payne bounces back from the underwhelming "Downsizing" to score with another entry into the private schools boarding genre. Dead Poets Society", The Emperor's Club" and ""Scent of a Woman" have a companion, and it features the formidable Paul Giamatti. <div><br /></div><div>Mr. Hunham is not warm and fuzzy like Robin William's Mr. Keating. He is prickly, demanding and he smells bad. Da'vine Joy Randolph provides a little warmth, and she is likely to win the supporting actress Academy Award, but in the end, the movie reflects the times, sometimes bitter and cynical. </div><div><br /></div><div>This will be a Christmas movie to add to your annual viewing pleasure, and it will add pleasure to your annual holiday viewing. <br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>2. Oppenheimer</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/07/oppenheimer.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="604" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghCIZYaJgyJVqe0wsGRmG5ip81xtgmiMk-qHGkTox_gDBDyBUD2CRosk3OPzQc8vWnzUZf0LwM4ZK76xXgEs9LjMF5hSS1bs5rchJyi4FkkruKw_zlRoaVeKcFwpxtgNQxWvV9RdlVdMdQ2rgD_HgjuevoJOOEfzetaJthSZwrcT-Pu5gBirmvkMrm1o45/s320/oppenheimer_ver4.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>The good half of last summers Barbenheimer phenomenon. This is another biopic, but it is not just about Robert Oppenheimer, but also about his progeny, the atomic age. It is a WWII movie without combat, a spy film without spies, and a heroic scientist who ends up being treated like anything but a hero.</div><div><br /></div><div>Christopher Nolan should be polishing up his speaking skills, he will be giving a multitude of acceptance speeches this winter as he collects award for writing, producing and directing this film. </div><div><br /></div><div>Cillian Murphy is hypnotic as the title character and will give Bradley Cooper and Paul Giamatti all they can handle in competition for acting honors.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a film that justifies the existence of the more high end theaters out there, with IMAX/XD/70MM. The sound design on it's own might be enough to justify seeing the movie</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>1. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant </b></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2023/05/guy-ritchies-covenant.html" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimcM1vmx3g9DiNW9qJTpVB5YKmU9PvskJaFc4vlaPKpsqj64dXP-SlIs4xDpTt4MKL-aJJiih9PqENeK2-7OooHL66D0FyCsjvNg4VZmchYhZcFlQ4-0cehYleldgvYEJTCmP1xL9f2R0c8Te6osXM7sHxoi1MfDkX_d3qLQB7mKlAA4alKbzGU0crQkB_/s320/covenant.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>Originally called "The Interpreter", the film's title was changed to "The Covenant", and then because there is a 2006 film with that title, the director's name was added to the title. Regardless, it is certainly a change of pace from the kinds of films Ritchie is known for. He had another film out in March, and both of them were largely ignored. The fate of "Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre" was deserved, but the neglect of this film is unfathomable. <div><br /></div><div>This is a gritty war film, set in Afghanistan, and reflects the shameful way we treated many of our allies in that conflict. This is based on a real story, one that is harrowing for both of the individuals at it's center. It is also a great piece of suspenseful film making, that kept my body tense for two hours. </div><div><br /></div><div>The performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim will go unrecognized by Awards groups but they will be remembered by you. <br /><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Film Breakdown</h3><div>I saw 120 films in theaters this year, what is truly amazing to me is how they divided up.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtLGlhKTW2Yp_VJuUXuKI3yDp5E5hdhkApTw2d39Fu8I-65TgPHN3X8aEYznoa9ATK6LAhhsmKifLFvw5MktgDSWFRFlRZLJyCEDhawYonAHj_qRTwjlwDOonxSIY-LqE6b7y-FXMKn6ocqG5NuQYKCOFeHUTUfh7vF3pwwOgffoA2cjHHqSh_ITvlOY2/s547/Pie%20Chart%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="547" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjtLGlhKTW2Yp_VJuUXuKI3yDp5E5hdhkApTw2d39Fu8I-65TgPHN3X8aEYznoa9ATK6LAhhsmKifLFvw5MktgDSWFRFlRZLJyCEDhawYonAHj_qRTwjlwDOonxSIY-LqE6b7y-FXMKn6ocqG5NuQYKCOFeHUTUfh7vF3pwwOgffoA2cjHHqSh_ITvlOY2/w640-h400/Pie%20Chart%201.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>I was perfectly divided between new films and those that were revisits. As a fairly recent transplant to the Austin Area, I needed to find a supplier of classic films, living in Southern California made finding screenings easy. Fortunately, I found a dealer for my addiction pretty quickly. In addition to the Fathom Events at the chain theaters, Alamo Drafthouse provided some excellent opportunities to see older films on the big screen. All of that however was dwarfed by my new favorite place, The Paramount Theater in downtown Austin. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUGHrk1ZDF4ojZoX-l5i8G88TYWy8roTYeF4f6PFWVE4dp5BP2Ba7AK55JiQNwxOCY7iKtYoyZt24XPXOHNNa_GGq1bMYlZk4flll0ZXVQGH-dAc6UP8C-kGn5YrrWczySQHdEOMYlVS06L1IhxSV4ovLj4M8LWm3c2NlwJt4TreZlCDFmG42i2L-Fg4l/s549/Pie%20Chart%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="549" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUGHrk1ZDF4ojZoX-l5i8G88TYWy8roTYeF4f6PFWVE4dp5BP2Ba7AK55JiQNwxOCY7iKtYoyZt24XPXOHNNa_GGq1bMYlZk4flll0ZXVQGH-dAc6UP8C-kGn5YrrWczySQHdEOMYlVS06L1IhxSV4ovLj4M8LWm3c2NlwJt4TreZlCDFmG42i2L-Fg4l/w640-h398/Pie%20Chart%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>In fact, we were at the Paramount so often, that Erin, from their outreach program, reached out to us to interview and included us in the latest fundraising e-mail update.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgP364c5tIo5LyFO16c7sH0_70Sgsn1WZgD9C_Q1roSaofOA51GPVEvIE6jkgq4Aa_KwgkkW_M0c2VziRjx_jMAcE43lKVYY7eZHVVN-m0s1Uny076nKzGvexuMWxzcJ65r7LkD5gHP9GRBqpFd7wpiDwnU-JrdJDw3FtaQ4mHIxVSONrDMOXQDzmcwVPH/s714/Paramount%201.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="478" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgP364c5tIo5LyFO16c7sH0_70Sgsn1WZgD9C_Q1roSaofOA51GPVEvIE6jkgq4Aa_KwgkkW_M0c2VziRjx_jMAcE43lKVYY7eZHVVN-m0s1Uny076nKzGvexuMWxzcJ65r7LkD5gHP9GRBqpFd7wpiDwnU-JrdJDw3FtaQ4mHIxVSONrDMOXQDzmcwVPH/w429-h640/Paramount%201.jpg" width="429" /></a></div><br /><div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPGi7lC8YGYlgvI87OmXrdKYNauBSRfiuEivTzK5WniSIODSnb-d-8caiSlJNry_tC0YRCgr3fivCxWEHHrq63D5S9ZhqT6hmKDpFTerfeJJdC9tTOWzzkAir-MDaGX3M9HACpGbh3bwRJh_0JvfaIYF8kAvIOZ77sRKJ9_oiqxXWOzQFOx2bPJb186JnO/s732/Paramoint%202.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="463" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPGi7lC8YGYlgvI87OmXrdKYNauBSRfiuEivTzK5WniSIODSnb-d-8caiSlJNry_tC0YRCgr3fivCxWEHHrq63D5S9ZhqT6hmKDpFTerfeJJdC9tTOWzzkAir-MDaGX3M9HACpGbh3bwRJh_0JvfaIYF8kAvIOZ77sRKJ9_oiqxXWOzQFOx2bPJb186JnO/w404-h640/Paramoint%202.jpg" width="404" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ASZ5xnyvhGnMzrn0vOoPq2jEaAAIBqYRM-O7gTYREM-cxNaq6FJVNKm3VXzlFAURGx6z7mbjajSN_xWRXlWYL2a9t8UJ4nPPuoNHioLqGmQQuYqYeXUB59GdE-HOY8cOJnkGgsiIVOtFXgjUMcSWF2vaIkFdzIuRd1Ami2cSSZOWkuKSLh9Gt6x5h4rM/s732/Paramount%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="463" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ASZ5xnyvhGnMzrn0vOoPq2jEaAAIBqYRM-O7gTYREM-cxNaq6FJVNKm3VXzlFAURGx6z7mbjajSN_xWRXlWYL2a9t8UJ4nPPuoNHioLqGmQQuYqYeXUB59GdE-HOY8cOJnkGgsiIVOtFXgjUMcSWF2vaIkFdzIuRd1Ami2cSSZOWkuKSLh9Gt6x5h4rM/w404-h640/Paramount%203.jpg" width="404" /></a></div><br />I can hardly wait for the 50th Summer Season at the Paramount this coming Summer.<p></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Throwback Thursday Project</h3></div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>My plan had been to post weekly on this project, but I was at so many movies during the week, I fell behind by October. The 1975 project will continue for the next few months, bit here is a piece of data for the films I did cover.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMrZuUDaqXP91SNtcLp7B8vK6kqPCeg-OxcAl6fbWkG7I8QTj4CLKusb5f08IraCLeoGpgE8YujDkrToUYUys_neA5Zv5MKfGxtyUxXGydbeWP6a2ZNCyebSJelSRILo2JMoZB6QPqeWMcoqhhrlHpummXjRJgaEp0mj5I1wYA6gaelOt9h9vRRysrSRj/s546/Pie%20Chart%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="546" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMrZuUDaqXP91SNtcLp7B8vK6kqPCeg-OxcAl6fbWkG7I8QTj4CLKusb5f08IraCLeoGpgE8YujDkrToUYUys_neA5Zv5MKfGxtyUxXGydbeWP6a2ZNCyebSJelSRILo2JMoZB6QPqeWMcoqhhrlHpummXjRJgaEp0mj5I1wYA6gaelOt9h9vRRysrSRj/w640-h400/Pie%20Chart%203.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>There were six 1975 films that I had not seen before, including an obscure Robert Shaw film that I had to buy on VHS thru ebay to be able to own it. Also, the same year he won the Academy Award for Cuckoo's Nest, Jack Nicolson appeared in the hard to locate "The Passenger".</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Lambcast Podcast</h3><div>I'm the host of the LAMBcast, the official podcast of the<a href="https://largeassmovieblogs.com/" target="_blank"> Large Association of Movie Blogs </a>(The LAMB). Each week we have guests on the show who talk about movie related subjects. Of the fifty shows we did this year, I hosted forty six, and guest hosts covered the rest. The shows broke down like this:</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXDyFVyngHQPeWf9c13Jzk8-x2ML_3KixskuqTPNoR7SD6pIxECZctQtJsx3j_bXtHvtmskDFOC8fb-t0Os6dcvm-Mt2gnnb4q8UVuqmoHt979fX8OM4LWbbb1D3rXKWBTzWA0n1g1ulJaaV5qot1mTIo3eU5V960AGwyfwidfOozM-800jHTBc4NP7znz/s891/Lambcast.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="891" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXDyFVyngHQPeWf9c13Jzk8-x2ML_3KixskuqTPNoR7SD6pIxECZctQtJsx3j_bXtHvtmskDFOC8fb-t0Os6dcvm-Mt2gnnb4q8UVuqmoHt979fX8OM4LWbbb1D3rXKWBTzWA0n1g1ulJaaV5qot1mTIo3eU5V960AGwyfwidfOozM-800jHTBc4NP7znz/w640-h398/Lambcast.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Obviously we had twelve Movies of the Month, but we also averaged one new movie each month. There are several theme shows that included doing lists like :Off the Beaten Path, Roll Your Own Top 5, and Blindspot Alley. We had two draft shows, including a very fun 1980s Fantasy Film Draft. If you have not listened, you can find the shows on most of the services, i-tunes, Spotify etc. The easiest is <a href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/lambcast" target="_blank">Podamatic</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">YouTube Channel</h3><div>Starting last April, I also began posting the Lambcast on YouTube. Instead of five talking heads, each show features images from the movies we are talking about and some connective illustrations as well. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQzbpxZAGqkTDKwxfWh4jIw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="1215" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwh69gWGgKCriPXSbaXckkrDsOyWar3LV6iWofXMYS9pRzdqMEc_Hn1pOA9yIjwHn6wbeSe3VpaulCAzXQ5yh1YwvYP4J5PhGrSKIGR6oeE4TOVoOy8Kh4Re7lmcSUlZCgVXjst1wH5pF0K86cHpxG56qbeTSKjKT8O8dXIvjVnjmjeAmaeXTMKL04PBo/w640-h354/Lambcast%20YouTube.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div> </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?si=y-P7Eb7aSs1uj88e&list=PLYtQkpUCt_3BDep2V6iV4p0UmoHMVLznZ" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>It is a time consuming process, but I am picking up some tech skills as I try to make the content as interesting as I can.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Top Ten Favorite Films 2023 The Video</h3><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/st8-OgXQzkQ?si=05KaNHCzq_UUINqr" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-86998738763184906872023-12-31T17:15:00.002-06:002024-01-01T11:15:17.076-06:00Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom <p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TWqxHhSS218?si=AC4XSUL_Km65fdFU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>Remember when you were a kid and you got a new box of crayons with dozens of colors that you hadn't had before and you wanted to use them all, whatever you were drawing next? Well that's the way James Wan has gone about making the Aquaman movies, like “they gave me a whole bunch of money so I'm going to spend it on stuff that I think looks cool”. And for the most part it does look cool, but does it make any sense? No it doesn't. That doesn't mean that you can't have some fun anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>This Is the End of the DCEU as we know It. None of the actors who have been playing the recurring characters for the last decade are coming back. A new team has taken over the direction of all of the comics in the DC world. And the planned sequels have been canceled. This is the final film in what was the original phase of those movies, and Aquaman was always the silliest of characters and the most outrageous of visuals and the one that seems closest to the spirit of what a comic book should be. Fortunately they cast Jason Momoa as the titular figure who we also know as Arthur Curry. His physique, his long hair and his general demeanor have been key elements to making the silliest of characters one of the most fun things in the DCEU.</div><div><br /></div><div>This film continues a few plot lines from the previous movie and doesn't contain any guest appearances by the superheroes of the Justice League. We do get a return by Nicole Kidman as Arthur's mother, and Patrick Wilson also returns as his half brother. Yeah I don't know if people will remember why Dolph Lundgren is a king but not married to Nicole. It doesn't matter because it doesn't make sense anyway. The villain returns and has been given greater powers and is even more malevolent than before. His main motivation is now simply revenge for the death of his father, and if it takes destroying the whole world to accomplish that he doesn't care. Randall Park is also back as Dr Shin, a character that I have no memory of from the original film but again it doesn't matter. And if you can't tell what his story arc is within the first minute and a half of the movie you've never seen a movie before.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again the world is filled with fantastical creatures, colorful vistas and technology that is far beyond that which is known currently. That's another one of those comic book inventions, where ancient civilizations were so far ahead of our modern times that we look antiquated by comparison even though they were centuries before us. I think you'll have a hard time trying to figure out why all of this technology has stood up to being at the bottom of the ocean for nearly two Millennia, but if you're spending time trying to come up with an explanation for that you're missing the point of this movie. And the point of this movie is to have some fun, pretend that the things that are happening are real, and enjoy the oversized personalities that the main characters represent.</div><div><br /></div><div>Except for the visual images there is nothing new or innovative about the story. In fact when in doubt, the screenwriters simply steal from other films, books and myths to make up the events that are taking place. You can have a lot of fun looking for the Easter eggs that represent other films, for example the black trident might as well be the One Ring. There is literally a character that is a direct rip off of Jabba the Hutt, and he's voiced by Martin Short. Heck they even throw in a reference to the MCU, when Aquaman makes a disparaging comment about his brother and refers to him as Loki. About the one original thing that this movie produced is that at the screening we saw at an AMC theater Nicole Kidman's promo for AMC was missing. Maybe there's something about a conflict of interest in having that play in front of a film that she is starring in, but that still doesn't make any sense. It's also noticeable that Amber Heard has had her role substantially reduced, she has maybe 10 lines in the movie. Her main value is to show up with her supersonic powers just in time to help out Arthur when he is stuck.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvPSKPT28u0F8FeZRQKrRCjz5gcR46GchcTP08sp9cLlSeqCEfmP60ISTRajEMDhNk-aJYDHbw4rmCEhzcLMayYc3CLoHEZrKJCOAWROBUPBbiG97X3XkFTXDqWtuDeugkAmw6PcTtswuK6sbRAPI1-WyWi3VlkKV74rLVg3wfXNlUFNfVNqK8UtO2MiIt/s535/aquaman_and_the_lost_kingdom_ver14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="535" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvPSKPT28u0F8FeZRQKrRCjz5gcR46GchcTP08sp9cLlSeqCEfmP60ISTRajEMDhNk-aJYDHbw4rmCEhzcLMayYc3CLoHEZrKJCOAWROBUPBbiG97X3XkFTXDqWtuDeugkAmw6PcTtswuK6sbRAPI1-WyWi3VlkKV74rLVg3wfXNlUFNfVNqK8UtO2MiIt/w400-h200/aquaman_and_the_lost_kingdom_ver14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There are battles galore, and animals that are right out of the Jurassic Park series, and a long sequence that involves running through the jungles on an island trying to escape those creatures. If it wasn't for Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, and a whole bunch of other creative people who came before him, director Wan may have nothing to work with. They even crib from Willow by having a child who is endangered by the villain's plot . Still it looks great, the colors are a lot of fun and there are some silly jokes that most of us could probably enjoy. This is not a film that anybody's going to remember 10 minutes after seeing, but you will enjoy it for the 2 hours that you're watching it. I just don't know if you'd recommend it to anybody after having done so.</div><div><br /></div><div>Look if you like the first <a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2018/12/aquaman.html" target="_blank">Aquaman</a> you're probably going to like this one, it's cut from the same cloth. It's full of colorful visuals, outlandish characters, familiar plot points and the leads are attractive and humorous people. For my money Patrick Wilson steals the movie on a regular basis. His dry delivery with some snarky overtones is a nice compliment to Momoa's casual bravado. It's like a gumbo that has to come together just right in order for the flavors not to undermine each other. Still I think you're going to have to add some sauce to make this palatable to most people's tastes. In other words if you like this you're probably already all wet.</div></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-35864640967917996302023-12-31T08:17:00.000-06:002023-12-31T08:17:49.873-06:00Ferrari<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PZEBVVS9V_Q?si=Jxz78kYeuYTba_3b" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>Director Michael Mann Returns to the big screen with a biopic about Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the sports car company. This was a film that was highly anticipated and one that I had looked forward to a great deal. I've admired some of Mann's other films a lot, including “Last of the Mohicans” and "Manhunter”, two terrific films from nearly three decades ago. But like many of the directors who have come back to the screen this year the results were decidedly mixed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The subject matter should be fascinating for people who are excited about cars. I'm not a huge racing fan but I have appreciated several movies in recent years that featured car racing as their main subject. Both “Rush” and "Ford versus Ferrari" were entertaining films and they made my best of the Year film list. Heck I even liked “Speed Racer”. The problem I had with this film is that it is less about racing and cars than it is about Ferrari and his love life. Although there is supposed to be a duality in his commitment to his wife and his mistress which is then mirrored by his desire to be successful on the racetrack and to achieve financial stability for his company. That parallel does not sustain itself very long in the movie. The domestic drama overtakes the racing issues and shoves them off stage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Adam Driver has been made up to look older, thinner and more Italian so that he can play Ferrari. For the most part he seems adequate in the role, although most of the time his voice is low-key and he sometimes mumbles his words. Although his accent seems reasonably accurate, as is often the case when dialect and sounds are being used to convey a language rather than the words themselves, it is sometimes difficult to understand what is being said. It might as well have been in Italian to begin with.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a plot line about the financial instability of the Ferrari company in the 1957 timeline in which the movie is set. That story never gets completely explained once it has been set up. The idea that winning the Big Race at the end of the film will result in sales of automobiles that will be significant enough to rescue the company from its financial cliff needs to be Illustrated for us to both understand and care. But the script and the director have decided that once they've explained it in a piece of dialogue, there is no need to elaborate further. This means that the stakes of the race don't seem as significant and important as they should be. Heck, there are no scenes in which the participants go over the cars, except after an accident.</div><div><br /></div><div>The race scenes themselves are pretty exciting although there are times when it was difficult to understand what was going on. For example in the major race that it caps the film, there are five drivers for the Ferrari team, and they all drive the red Ferrari Color cars. It seems however that some of the Maserati cars are also red, and because the drivers are wearing helmets and goggles it is often difficult to tell which car it is we are looking at at any given moment. In fact it was not until the end of the scene that I realized that a driver who had lost his car and had to get a ride from one of the Ferrari drivers was in fact driving a Maserati rather than being a member of the Ferrari team. A point like that is very confusing when you are at the climax of a film.</div><div><br /></div><div>It seemed to me that the whole point of the film was to highlight two spectacular crashes that occurred and were turning points in Ferrari’s story. I'm not sure that we needed to see the crashes in the spectacular detail that is provided by the film. However the one crash that occurs close to the end of the film is devastating to watch and of course that means that it is quite dramatic. Unfortunately the car crashes are the only dramatic things that seemed to happen in the story. Confirming the ugly belief that the real reason people watch these kinds of races is to see the crashes. I suspect that the real reason people will see this movie is to watch these scenes. Not a very pretty thought.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggd21QJ1ZKe3Ma1LF4yrWbbkhYXwKTv8ub6WXTQ9C8yRaWGmQsmhsZE5hbMI5fVrLapyAZ2P8-av-T-58fvLmyVZzeTQP4GvLoh66BreD6rXC7GFtGQRqT0h0HWmlgesNWmDI8PueMkuYRRN1UXz4YKsjr4qRM-u029hav7iF1vtyTot7YWrmy0ywHhArE/s755/ferrari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggd21QJ1ZKe3Ma1LF4yrWbbkhYXwKTv8ub6WXTQ9C8yRaWGmQsmhsZE5hbMI5fVrLapyAZ2P8-av-T-58fvLmyVZzeTQP4GvLoh66BreD6rXC7GFtGQRqT0h0HWmlgesNWmDI8PueMkuYRRN1UXz4YKsjr4qRM-u029hav7iF1vtyTot7YWrmy0ywHhArE/w270-h400/ferrari.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Enzo is supposed to be torn between Penelope Cruz who plays his wife and Shailene Woodley who is his mistress. Neither of them is given very much to do in the film, and we barely know their characters at all. Woodley especially is underutilized, with only a brief flashback to explain how she and Ferrari got together, and that appears to be the extent of their 12-year relationship. With Cruz it was a little bit clearer that there were elements of the marriage that were important to these characters, but that does not really get used in the story except in one scene where it is made clear that an incident in the family's past is responsible for most of the division between Ferrari and his wife. This could have been a rich vein of drama to explore, but it simply gets used as a plot point to give a short hand for why the couple's marriage is on the rocks and why the wife resents the mistress, even though she seems accepting of the infidelity.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a good film but it is not a great movie and the reason is that the script does little to engage us. Frankly there's so many scenes that go on far too long that I was often slightly bored. That's not something that should be happening in a movie where car racing is involved. I could recommend the film to people by saying it is a reasonable biopic about the man, but not about the legend of the car. And I think for most audiences they have very little interest in the man without also being interested in the car. So the movie is simply imbalanced.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-3661795487269651322023-12-28T11:15:00.001-06:002023-12-28T11:15:39.332-06:00The Boys in the Boat<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dfEA-udzjjQ?si=zWNUjKpizywD-EbD" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>Everybody loves an Underdog Story. When they happen to be true it makes them even more compelling. George Clooney has directed a film that takes the underdog motif and uses the 1936 Olympics as a way to engage the audience in a rooting interest. The rowing team at the University of Washington was a consistent loser to the University of California team for 20 years, but the coach at Washington found eight men who could pull together and overcome their tradition of losing to become winners. The story however does not stop with a success against a local rival. There is also the little guy against the entrenched forces, the rich and well-off against the poor and struggling, and eventually Western democracy against Nazi totalitarianism.</div><div><br /></div><div>Clooney seems to have an affinity for historical settings, three of his best have fallen into that category. I think the film “<a href="https://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2014/02/monuments-men.html" target="_blank">Monuments Men</a>” is his best work, but that's not to undermine “Good Night and Good Luck “ which was another piece set after WWII. He also did a quite good job with a football film set in the early days of the NFL. So it appears that the Depression era United States is a palette that he feels comfortable painting from. The visualizations of the era are authentic, in fact it is a little disconcerting that the shanty town at the beginning of the film is labeled Seattle, but the year 1936 could easily be replaced with 2023. The idea that widespread homelessness accounted for much of the trauma of the 1930s is a little depressing when we look at contemporary times. Maybe we'll get lucky and some extraordinary story will grow out of these times. For now we have the story of the 1936 Washington Huskies eight-man crew.</div><div><br /></div><div>Actor Joel Edgerton is nominally the lead, but he is supported by several actors that you will probably not recognize. The story does require that the rowers work as a team and that may be one of the reasons that there is not an individual story for everyone. For the most part we get entry into these events through the experience of a single man who is struggling to work his way through college and takes up rowing simply to be able to earn a living and pay for school. I'm not sure if the NCAA existed in this time era, but it sure looks like some of the boosters would be violating what used to be the rules of College athletics, at least before NIL.</div><div><br /></div><div>The real main character is Joe Rantz, who is trying to get through college after having been abandoned by his family at age 14. There are others on the team who have gone through similar struggles but the focus here is really on the athletic event and the hard work that it takes for a team to truly become excellent. So except for a love story and a brief callback to the past, even Rantz's story is limited to the team. </div><div><br /></div><div>Edgerton as the coach is relentless in finding ways for the team to mesh. As entertainment a movie like this can't really be an instructional film on how the sport of rowing works, but we get enough detail and we see a few examples that let us know how each person's behavior and skill contributes to the team effort. In addition we get a little bit of personal story about the coach and his struggles to keep the team going in the face of limited success and budget shortfalls, and Joe Rantz and his romantic relationship with a coed at the University. Neither of these side paths takes up much time, which is a good thing because we have at least three major competitions that provide plenty of drama.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously the team manages to be successful so they can end up in Germany for the 1936 Olympics. So the outcome of some of those contests is a foregone conclusion, but director Clooney, like most people who make these films, has found a way to make those kinds of foregone conclusions entertaining and suspenseful. It helps that we got some details about how the crew develops a strategy and in particular how this group, who are actually the JV team at the University, managed to be a force to be reckoned with. I assume that it is relatively accurate when it comes to the way this event was covered by the media. I know that in contemporary times you're not going to get 100,000 people showing up for a crew race between college teams. But in 1936 the world was a different place, Sports occupied a preeminent place in the culture because there were limited entertainment alternatives, and because it was radio friendly. Maybe the radio friendly thing is the thing that draws Clooney to a story like this.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not familiar enough with the story to say if all of the drama that takes place at the Olympics was in fact historically accurate, but I can say it felt authentic. The showdown at the Olympics is the major set piece of the movie, and it requires some elaborate production design, multiple teams representing different countries to be portrayed on screen, and a special guest appearance by Adolf Hitler himself.</div><div><br /></div><div>As inspiring as it is to see other nations challenging the Third Reich on the field of sports, the emotional high point for me came earlier when the team had to find a way to finance their way to the Olympics. After having struggled to qualify it seems that only Elite schools would be able to go because they had the financial resources to do so. The University of Washington team had to find what would be a substantial sum of money in order to make the trip. It is in this section of the film that real sportsmanship is demonstrated by somebody who has only been a very tangential part of the story, and in fact would be classified as an antagonist. At least until that moment when we all choke up at the gesture that is made by someone who understands what sports is supposed to be about.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmULW5OmFOSEyCCzhjmaZMmX2OGKjpMoAnF105k7bKAYrWJ9cgTL4FKkK2iwPqA7QvXwCgvbpA8C0UiGqoCx32qt7hRF6d3A4LaAyP0M98yb397Kuba3I9s5fCC2iJKwsvfZf2REPF5lGGIDaGZdOm5aJi__fQ7FLjoAJjAMkE8iUuHvMCD29itXGVtbMy" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="511" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmULW5OmFOSEyCCzhjmaZMmX2OGKjpMoAnF105k7bKAYrWJ9cgTL4FKkK2iwPqA7QvXwCgvbpA8C0UiGqoCx32qt7hRF6d3A4LaAyP0M98yb397Kuba3I9s5fCC2iJKwsvfZf2REPF5lGGIDaGZdOm5aJi__fQ7FLjoAJjAMkE8iUuHvMCD29itXGVtbMy=w270-h400" width="270" /></a></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It was a little curious that the actress Hadley Robinson who appears as the romantic interest in this film, was in the film we saw last night "Anyone But You”. Congratulations to her for having two films that open in the same week. That is fairly unusual and is usually an indication that an actress is on the cusp of a breakthrough. The Romantic subplot is not overdone, but it does help give us something to focus on other than the grinding preparation of the boat and team.</div><div><br /></div><div>I found the movie quite fulfilling, it touched me in an emotional way at a couple of points, and I learned a lot more about the eight man crew and the sport of rowing than I ever expected to know. Although the events occurred nearly a hundred years ago, I think the story still resonates because we all love underdogs, we admire sports, and in our heart we want the good guys to win.</div></div><div><br /></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3724453628120151835.post-25218699568421563002023-12-27T09:16:00.003-06:002023-12-27T09:16:39.865-06:00Anyone But You<p> </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UtjH6Sk7Gxs?si=HUjPoGDmdoHx7Tgj" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div>For some reason romantic comedies get a bad name, especially among cinephiles. I suppose the reason is that they are so formulaic and as a consequence hold very few surprises for the audience. Of course comfort food is the same way, not very challenging but something that people still enjoy. So to me, a good romantic comedy is like enjoying a familiar entree of a favorite food type. It may not be as interesting as something new, but it offers a lot of satisfactions, if done right.</div><div><br /></div><div>The new romantic comedy “Anyone But You” follows a large number of paths created by the films that have come before it. An attractive couple gets together, develops a relationship, but then some unexpected antagonism separates them and the rest of the film concerns whether or not they will overcome that barrier. Of course it's also necessary that the two people involved appear to despise each other when in fact they are very attracted to one another. So it is no big surprise that this is exactly what happens in the current movie. The only things that are innovative are the scenarios and the characters that come into play, in attempting to make it a more interesting path.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the case of this film, the couple who were initially brought together and then separated, turn out to be connected to two people who are going to connect with one another. One person is the sister of a woman who is getting married to the sister of the other person's best friend. Naturally they then must travel to a destination wedding, providing them with opportunities to show how much they dislike each other well at the same time being surrounded by romantic trappings that will bring them together. In a somewhat farcical nature, the other people in the wedding party are interested in pushing the couple together, for their own reasons.</div><div><br /></div><div>Glen Powell and Sidney Sweeney play the attractive young people who do have a connection, but through their own faults have pushed one another away. Since it's a contemporary story, the wedding that the two are involved with will be between two women, and it will take place in Australia. This gives plenty of opportunities for outlandish behavior, and for the other characters to plot, plan, and tell stories, which will prove embarrassing but also set the stage for reconciliation. Some of the plot devices are completely ridiculous, and some don't seem to go very far. The bride's parents are interested in seeing their daughter, who is the sister of the bride, back together with the boyfriend that they have known since they were children. The ex-girlfriend of the boy in the story also shows up creating a romantic complication, along with producing a physically imposing romantic rival to offer amusing comparisons with.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know Sydney Sweeney from any shows or films that I can remember, but she's as cute as a button and a nice match for Powell. Glen Powell has been in two or three movies in the last year where as a supporting character he stood out enough that he now deserves leading man status. He may be in the early Matthew McConaughey stages of his career. Hopefully whatever other romantic comedies he does will not sink to the depths of some of the movies that McConaughey made, but will stay relatively solid like this one.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGvLUPoBATb4ElqfNrPzxDWazgyVuLg06_GlJBSAkqHIB_lIJJtD9dTRkL5F4orUj6YgCChq1p65JhXS2MwN0vmfWjX0pbL8hGef1SpSAHxuF7pKV5VLFhCvTNSKdzvIW5NWXuuQNQtllJCfhTBOW8u39tRuofuy3YQAKk3MKLL9mn4MQOgqLg3pmmnbuQ/s755/anyone_but_you_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="509" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGvLUPoBATb4ElqfNrPzxDWazgyVuLg06_GlJBSAkqHIB_lIJJtD9dTRkL5F4orUj6YgCChq1p65JhXS2MwN0vmfWjX0pbL8hGef1SpSAHxuF7pKV5VLFhCvTNSKdzvIW5NWXuuQNQtllJCfhTBOW8u39tRuofuy3YQAKk3MKLL9mn4MQOgqLg3pmmnbuQ/w270-h400/anyone_but_you_ver3.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>It's amusing to see Dermont Mulroney and Bryan Brown as the elder Statesman in the film, when 30 years ago, they would have been the lead. They still have some of that charisma that made them charming in the 70s 80s and 90s, but they have aged out of most romantic plots and now are consigned to the Geezer role. Nothing in the story is hurt by the fact that it takes place in Australia, with its beautiful coastlines, fantastic vistas, and interesting local fauna. There's a great scene, at least from a romantic comedy point of view, that takes place with the Sydney Opera House in the background. It's an example of some of the striking views that can be found in parts of the world that haven't been used to the death for locations in movies.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There are a few good laughs in the film, and the story is not too insulting to our intelligence. The leads are attractive, some of the supporting cast is appealing and there are some funny moments that deal with a musical cue. That should be enough for a pleasant afternoon at the movies, or date night with your honey. It was the day after Christmas and I was happy to say that the theater was full, there were lines at the concession stands, and I saw lots of families and couples going to see other movies. Maybe the film business isn't doing as well as it might be hoped, but this screening at the theater that I went to gives me hope. All you need is something that's mildly entertaining, maybe a little provocative, and gives you a couple of laughs, and the audience will show up.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Richard Kirkhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428986542891346618noreply@blogger.com0