Back on track - a review of two classics: The Graduate and High Noon

Steve Hackett at the Arcada Theater, 9/21/13

Well, I think I have finally recovered my week off, which was really spectacular. It's always nice to go home, even if it puts me way behind on my movie watching. Not only did I go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as I mentioned, I also ate my way through the East Side of Cleveland, going to favorite places like Tommy's (nothing else like it anywhere) and Melt Bar and Grilled. On my way driving back to Minnesota, I took I minor detour to St. Louis to see Dar Williams (you're not surprised are you?). I blame a friend of mine who said you only live once, so don't have any regrets. What's nine hours out of your way when you get to hear good music? Dar was playing the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill in the Loop, which was a much better location, size-wise, than the other two venues where I saw her. The audience was totally into it and you felt like you were with old friends. I don't want to be pushy, but if you haven't tried listening to Dar after my previous mention, you really should, just to shut me up. I would recommend her best of collection, called "Many Great Companions", it gives a great overview of her career, it's in the car right now. Opening for Dar was Angel Snow; she endeared herself to the crowd because she actually didn't tell us who she was until about halfway through her set when someone yelled out "What's your name?", she couldn't believe she hadn't told us. It was just her and her guitar and a bunch of original songs. She was really good, and I hope she makes it to Minneapolis at some point in the future. If you get a chance to see her live or listen to her stuff, I don't think you'll be disappointed. I ended the trip with a stop in St. Charles, Illinois, a lovely town along the Fox River to see Steve Hackett. Steve (we're on a first name basis) was the guitarist for Genesis during their progressive rock period in the 1970s. I have never seen him and this was the perfect opportunity: he was doing Genesis songs and St. Charles was actually on my way home. So, while Fridays and Saturdays are normally movie nights for me, last week they were filled with music.

9/28/13 The Graduate, Best Director, 1967

It's kind of fitting (although totally serendipitous) that The Graduate had such a great soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel, it ties in nicely with the singer-songwriters I talked about earlier. 1967 was a great year for movies: Camelot, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cool Hand Luke, Doctor Doolittle, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner among others. I've heard about The Graduate forever, it's talked about as a movie of a generation, with Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson, a "cougar", (although I don't think that term was invented 45 years ago) and Dustin Hoffman as recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, who has no real idea of what he wants to do, despite the recommendation of his father's friend "Plastics". Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin fall into a rather emotionless affair, which eventually wanes as Benjamin falls for Elaine (Katharine Ross), Mrs. Robinson's daughter. Oh, I didn't mention, Mr. Robinson is the partner of Benjamin's father, making everything a little awkward. I liked this movie a lot (I was ready to be disappointed, fearing it would not live up to the hype), but it was funny, well-acted, well-written, and the direction/filming kept me interested. Mike Nichols won Best Director (he has also directed Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which is great if you like a lot of screaming, I couldn't stand it; Working Girl, Silkwood and others). I'm not sure what to call the technique, but he liked to obscure the scene, either by lighting or having a character's face hidden or framed by an object, he also used what I can only describe as a use of perspective that was interesting. Bancroft is wonderful as the emotionally vacant, cynical Mrs. Robinson who seduces the young Braddock, played by the stammering, searching and bemused Dustin Hoffman. The exchange between Bancroft and Hoffman when she begins her seduction is worth the price of admission. If you watch this, you will see a lot of familiar faces, including Buck Henry (later of Saturday Night Live fame), Norman Fell (Three's Company), Alice Ghostley (Bewitched) and William Daniels (Knightrider, St. Elsewhere) amongst others. This is on AFI's list of 100 Best Films.

9/28/13 High Noon, Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Music scoring of Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Song, 1952

Oh Gary Cooper, how you vex me. Everyone who has watched movies or television over the last 60 years has heard of this movie and maybe even knows a little about the storyline, but I wonder how many people have actually seen it. Gary Cooper is Will Kane and the movie starts with Kane and Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly) getting married by a Justice of the Peace. Will is the outgoing Marshal of Hadleyville; he and Amy are leaving town, looking for a more peaceful life, except an old foe is headed back to town and Will feels obligated to stay and try to protect his friends in the town. File this one under 'no good deed goes unpunished' because his intention is not appreciated by most of the townspeople or his new bride. Amy is a Quaker and believes in non-violence, and she doesn't want to be a widow less than 24 hours of getting married; some of the townspeople are kind of short-sighted and don't appreciate Will's efforts to make the town safe. Basically, the poor guy is on his own. One of the cool things about the movie is that it follows the events of the day in 'real-time', so the action takes place in a little over an hour and that adds to the tension of watching the clock tick down to 'high noon'. If you're read my previous entries on Gary Cooper, you know he and I have a complicated relationship, and that is not helped by this movie. I get that the Marshal would be expected to be very stoic and somber, but there are more than a few moments where Cooper is so stiff, but he won Best Actor for his efforts; Jose Ferrer was nominated for his role as Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge and he was excellent in that; I also saw Sir Alec Guinness in The Lavendar Hill Mob, which I did not love, I have not seen the other nominees. Grace Kelly was hardly in the movie and honestly, not very memorable, not when compared with To Catch a Thief. The actress, who played Kane's previous love and was also the lover of Frank Miller, the bad guy, Katy Jurado, was very good and very memorable, and I think she should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actress. What I did really like about the movie was the way it ended, that was priceless (but I'm not going to tell you how it ended, you'll have to check it out yourself). So, you're asking...should I watch it? Yeah, go ahead, it's on the AFI list of the best 100 movies, and it is a classic, it won't kill you and the soundtrack (which also won an Oscar) was also quite nice. It's family-friendly and you can judge for yourself. I am glad I watched it, and I don't have to do it again.

Winner of Best Foreign Film 2012 - Amour

9/14/13 Amour, Best Foreign Language Film, 2012

Amour is one of those movies you want to see because you've heard great reviews, but you don't want to see because of the story line, so you hem and haw, and then jump in so you can cross it off your list. So, it is off my list, and it is very good. So it's in French, that's what subtitles are for, get over it. It was nominated in five major categories, including Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, winning for Best Foreign Film. Amour is the story of Anne and Georges, an elderly couple in Paris. Anne suffers a stroke and the movie follows her gradual decline, and how Georges struggles to take care of her. There are no real surprises in the movie, but it doesn't pretend to be full of suspense, it simply tells the story of two people, still in love, dealing with the eventuality that is old age. Having seen first hand how devastating a stroke can be to the patient and the family, the movie was hard to watch, and yet it was somehow comforting to have it represented with honesty and love. Emmanuelle Riva was nominated for Best Actress, and she certainly gave an incredible performance, especially considering that for a lot of the movie she was really immobile and communicating with very few words. She lost to Jennifer Lawrence, and now having seen all the nominees, I think Jessica Chastain should have won for Zero Dark Thirty. From a film perspective, it was hard to believe that Amour was directed by Michael Haneke, the same man who directed The White Ribbon (2009 nominee for Best Foreign Language Film for Germany). The White Ribbon is dark, and eerie and taps into the darker side of human nature. Then again, maybe the fact the Haneke can tap into the very best and the very worst of human relationships is the link, and it's not so hard to believe.

I have also seen all the Foreign Language nominees except one (War Witch and that should arrive next week), and I think this was the best out of the four I saw, although I did like the Danish entry A Royal Affair which is based on the romance between Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (wife of King Christian VII) and Streunsee, the royal physician. We don't get a lot of Danish history in American movie theaters and I liked the novelty of that, and it's a great story. Kon-Tiki is about the 1947 voyage led by Thor Heyerdahl (not to be confused with the actually documentary about the same journey which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1951). Heyerdahl is trying to prove his theory that people from South America could have settled in Polynesia. Considering that this trip really happened, it was interesting to see how it might have transpired, although there were some changes for dramatic effect. My only complaint is the version of the movie I saw was almost all in English, when I thought it would be (or had to be for this category) in Norwegian. That aside, the film was beautifully shot. If you have any kind of interest in adventures of this kind and appreciate the spirit of the adventurer, I totally recommend this movie. No was the Chilean entry about the campaign to oust General Augusto Pinochet in 1988. I thought the topic was interesting, but I could not get into the movie, which is a shame. The events in the 1970s and 1980s in South America (Chile, Argentina, and other countries) were in part directed by or contributed to by the US government, and depending on what else is going on in history class, we don't learn a lot about them.

You can go home again - a flashback of sorts

To my faithful readers, and I know there are at least three of you out there, sorry I've been away for a bit. I'm having some family time back in Cleveland, and am still recovering from the drive and now today, my little brother and I spent the day in Cleveland, doing all kinds of fun stuff, including visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a gorgeous day on the North Coast.

Free Stamp, Cleveland, Ohio

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio

So, today's blog will be about Oscar-winning movies that have a Cleveland connection (however tenuous or tangential).

The Dirty Dozen, Best Sound Effects, 1967

The Dirty Dozen is a World War II action movie with a great cast of characters played by Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas and Jim Brown among others. Lee Marvin plays Major John Reisman who is asked to lead a group of soldiers in what is certain to be a death mission. The soldiers in question are either sentenced to death or life in prison, but if they survive, their sentences will be commuted. Part of what I liked about the movie is watching the characters learn to work together and go through the drills, and then putting the plan into action. It's kind of like the original A-Team. Is it the best movie ever? No, but it doesn't claim to be, but it's one of the few movies that I will watch whenever I find it on television. And it didn't win for Best Picture, but Best Sound Effects. If you like World War II movies, like Kelly's Heroes, The Guns of Navarone, you might like this as well. The Cleveland connection? Jim Brown, one of the greatest running backs of all time (I say the greatest, but I'm biased) who played for the Cleveland Browns.

Jim Brown, Cleveland, Ohio

Superman: The Movie, Special Academy Award for Visual Effects, 1978

This is the Superman movie, the first in a tetralogy of Superman films starring Christopher Reeve. This is Superman's origin story, how his father, Jor-El (played by Marlon Brando) popped him in a capsule to rescue him from Krypton's impending doom. The effects for 1978, thirty-five years ago, were done before CGI and the fancy stuff we are so used to these days. I never bought Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, it seemed too clowny, I mean Luthor is evil, and I always thought the movie had a hard time deciding if it was going to be melodrama, serious, comic book-y. I do like Christopher Reeve, and I think he may be the best Superman. Margot Kidder is Lois Lane, Ned Beatty is Otis, Luthor's henchman/sidekick. This is a good family night movie, and for all my complaining I do above, I do like that Reeve does not play Superman as a brooding, uncertain, reluctant superhero (at least not yet) and recommend seeing the movie, for historical perspective if nothing else. Superman was created by two Clevelanders, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

The Untouchables, Best Supporting Actor, 1987

Kevin Costner stars as Eliot Ness and Robert DeNiro is his nemesis, Al Capone during the Prohibition Era. Ness's exploits during this time are legendary, the incorruptible government agent during a time of corruption. Costner is not my favorite actor, and there are times when I watch him, I think, eh. It feels like you can tell he's acting. Sean Connery is the reason I will watch this when it's on TV, and it is quite often. How do you not love Sean Connery as Jimmy Malone, the Irish cop, who's Ness's mentor and has this Obi-Wan Kenobi type of presence? Connery won  the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in this movie. There are so many movies about Prohibition and the gangsters of that time period, you could have a whole film festival, maybe show episodes of Boardwalk Empire in between The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Scarface, Road to Perdition and others. I think even when I don't like a movie, I like Robert DeNiro, so you have two reasons to watch: Connery and DeNiro. After his fame in Chicago and 'capture' of Capone on tax evasion, Ness moved to Cleveland to become the Safety Director and he faced a foe he was never able to defeat, the Kingsbury Row murderer (although he did make life miserable for Cleveland mobsters).

Road to Perdition, Best Cinematography, 2002

Tom Hanks is Michael Sullivan, a member of the Irish mob run by Paul Newman's character, John Rooney. Rooney is a contemporary of Al Capone. Daniel Craig is Connor Rooney, John Rooney's son, who has some, um, control issues, as in, he doesn't have any. Sullivan's son sees Connor kill a man which scares Connor enough to try to kill Sullivan and his family. Sullivan is generally quiet, not a lot of bluster, but he quickly seeks his own kind of retribution by robbing banks with Rooney and Capone's money. Meanwhile, there's a hit out on him, and Harlen Maguire (Jude Law) is a super creepy hit man. It's a cat-and-mouse game between Sullivan and Maguire, and you're not really sure how it's going to go. Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) directed and he uses a lot of restraint, which makes some of the violent scenes more intense and tension-filled. Hanks and Craig are good foils for each other, vying for Newman's approval. Newman was nominated as Best Supporting Actor but lost to Chris Cooper in Adaptation (which I haven't seen, and I like Chris Cooper, but I like Paul Newman better).You never seem to hear about this movie, but it had good box office results, and I liked it. Paul Newman was from Shaker Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb and Tom Hanks had his start (or part of his start) with The Great Lakes Shakespeare Theater Festival in Cleveland. 

A Cleveland Original, Jane Scott, World's Oldest Rock Critic 

Something different for today

I'm just shaking off the fog of last night, and it's occurring to me that I am not twenty-five anymore. Three concerts in three weeks and out of body experiences all of them. Last night was my sixth or seventh (more?) Indigo Girls concert, the second with one of my best friends. It was a concert to benefit the Honor the Earth organization held at one of my alma maters, the University of St. Catherine in St. Paul, and as I was driving home, my ears were still ringing and I probably had one of those goofy grins you get when you're so stupidly happy, I was remembering. If there is any group that singularly defines my adulthood, my coming out, coming of age, it would have to be the Indigo Girls. I think a lot of people can define moments of their lives or their whole lives by music groups, or songs, or albums, and those are unique to each person, even though we may share those moments with our peer generations or social groups, etc. The Indigo Girls music is intelligent, insightful, uplifting, educational, and fun, and the musicianship is some of the best. Attending one of their concerts is truly an experience, and if you've been, you know, and if you haven't been, you should go. Anyway, last night was amazing and I look forward to the next time.

Keeper of the Plains, Wichita, Kansas

Back to our regularly scheduled reviews and silliness.

9/6/13 Cabaret, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song Score, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, 1972

There are so many cultural and cinematic references to Cabaret, I just wanted to see it. I do not know if I really liked it, but I can appreciate what it was trying to do as a movie and that it seems like it was groundbreaking in 1972 and holds up in 2013. There were more than a few moments where I swear Judy Garland was onscreen instead of her daughter, Liza Minelli, and that is not a bad thing. If you have not seen Cabaret, you may only know Minelli from some of the tabloid nonsense of the past ten or fifteen years; if that is the case, then you should really watch Cabaret because she really can sing and she does seem to embody the character of Sally Bowles (there is something that reminded me of Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's with her very egocentric actions). The movie starts in 1931 hinting at the eventual rise of Hitler and the abuse of the Jews. It also features the underground lifestyle that was characteristic of interwar period Berlin; depending on which side you stand, it was hedonism at its best or deviance at its worst. There is no denying that Berlin was the place to be. Perhaps the most well-known character from the film (which was a musical before a film, and a series of stories before that) is Joel Grey's character, the Emcee, and he is almost like a Greek chorus, popping up to make commentary or observations represented by songs performed in the Kit Kat Klub. I found him very creepy (perhaps that was the point). Michael York is Brian, an Englishman teaching English in Berlin. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed. This might be worthy of another viewing (after everything else is crossed off the list). This is on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Greatest American Movies (unlike When Harry Met Sally, which is not on the list).

Berlin, 1990

Berlin, 1990

9/5/13 Exit through the Gift Shop, nominated for Best Documentary, 2010

Huh? That was pretty much my reaction throughout this whole cinematic experience. The other reaction was, are people really that gullible/stupid/naive? If you watch this movie, you may be screaming 'YES!!!" more than you'd like. It's about graffiti artists, and more specifically Thierry Guetta who begins filming these individuals and eventually turns into one of them. I'm sure I sound like one of those cranky old ladies yelling at the kids to get off of the grass, but um, graffiti done on other people's property is kind of like vandalism, isn't it? If not, why do they do it at night with masks and stuff? I will grant you, some of it is very creative and really cool, and I would imagine some of the artists find that part of their creativity is fueled by the subversive nature of their actions. So, almost right off the bat, I was annoyed. I actually would have preferred more information on how the artists come up with some of their ideas because some work is fun to see. Thierry Guetta is really not about the art or any kind of artistic statement, he strikes me as the PT Barnum of the art world, a sucker really is born every minute. Some of the reviews of this movie called it 'joyous'; I don't know, we may have different definitions of 'joyous'. If you want 'joyous', watch Undefeated or Music by Prudence, but if you want callous and cynical, please watch this. The winner for 2010 was Inside Job which was definitely not joyous, but much more intelligent than this film. (You may be wondering where all my feelings of joy and happiness went from the first paragraph to now...me too.)

9/7/13 127 Hours, nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Film Editing, 2010

I was really avoiding this film for no other reason than I'm a big baby and because I knew about the real Aaron Ralston and what happened, I did not want to watch it onscreen, and apparently, I'm a wee bit claustrophobic. But, I really wanted to work on the 'nominated' lists so I could get caught up heading into the next awards season (this is where you have to ask, am I managing the list or is the list managing me?). And I have a love/hate relationship with James Franco; but anyone who loves their grandma as much as he does can't be all bad (and she's from Cleveland, so it becomes a moot point). 127 Hours tells the story of Aaron Ralston who went hiking (alone) in Utah and has the unfortunate experience of falling and getting his arm stuck under a rock. The filming and editing are done so well, I really felt like I was stuck in that tiny space with him. Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire and the producer of the Opening Ceremonies at the 2012 London Olympics) does a great job of splicing scenes of Aaron as he is trapped, with flashbacks to his family and friends and hallucination scenes as Aaron experiences severe dehydration and hunger. If you are squeamish, there are some scenes that may make you look away (I did), but the movie is worth watching to see Franco embrace his role as Ralston and his fight to survive. The last five minutes are an incredible tribute to the power of the human spirit.

9/7/13 Gold Rush, originally released in 1925, re-released in 1942 and nominated for Best Sound Recording and Best Dramatic Score, AFI's 100

Most people would probably not be disappointed if a silent film turned into a film with sound, but I was. I thought I was getting the original silent version of the movie, but I got the 1942 version that had new narration by Charlie Chaplin and a musical score added (the copyright expired on the original, so Chaplin made an updated version). I was so disappointed, his narrative, which replaced the dialogue cards, seemed very intrusive, but because Chaplin is pretty much universally recognized as a genius of early films (through the 1950s, really) I watched it. The Gold Rush features Chaplin's most well-known character, The Tramp, looking for his fortune in Alaska. He has various encounters with other prospectors, fugitives, and dance hall girls. The Gold Rush has a few scenes that most movie goers have seen, probably in tributes or compilation videos; the one scene is where The Tramp and Big Jim were very hungry and Big Jim envisions The Tramp as a chicken; the other is where Chaplin puts two rolls (I always thought they were potatoes) on forks and makes them dance. I am glad I saw it, and it's not terribly long, so if you are interested in early cinema, and one of the greats, you should try to see it, otherwise, I think you'll be okay if you do not. This is also on AFI's 100 Films (as are a few other of Chaplin's works, which is a testament to his influence more than fifty years after his last film).

The original 'Amazing Race' - The Great Race with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Natalie Wood

9/1/13 The Great Race, Best Sound Effects, 1965

I loved this movie from beginning to end, yes, all 160 minutes of it. As often as I warn you about extra-long movies (which may very well be a new search category), I hardly noticed the length at all. There are laughs from minute that poor Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk get smacked on the heads by a collapsing hot air balloon. Let me start at the beginning:  The Great Race was directed by Blake Edwards, and when I looked at his filmography, I was stunned by the number of films he wrote, directed and/or produced beyond the Pink Panther series, where he employs his comedic expertise again; Breakfast at Tiffany's (which will be reviewed here in the future), 10, Operation Petticoat, Days of Wine and Roses (also with Jack Lemmon). Tony Curtis plays The Great Leslie, a handsome daredevil, who's kind of like David Niven meets Dudley Do Right meets the Road Runner; Jack Lemmon is Professor Fate who is the antithesis to Leslie, Dastardly Dan crossed with Wiley Coyote and Daffy Duck. Leslie is almost always dressed in white and Professor Fate almost always in black, even visually setting up the conflicts ahead. Natalie Wood plays a Nellie Bly-like character, an intrepid female reporter, Maggie DuBois, who is not afraid to compete with the men, especially when it comes to her story. It is 1908 and to help promote a new automobile, Leslie suggests a race, from New York to Paris (going westward); of course, Professor Fate and Max (Peter Falk) enter and conspire to sabotage all the cars. Even when you know what is coming, it's hilarious. Blake doesn't try to surprise you, there's no element of suspense, his delivery (and the actors', of course) is impeccable. Curtis and Lemmon are perfect foils for one another, Curtis, is elegant, with very good diction, manners, and an annoying habit of looking like an oasis of calm; Lemmon is animated, occasionally hysterical with a maniacal laugh and very bad luck. The movie has an element of the Keystone Cops and the road trip fun that came later in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  Did I mention that they cross to Russia via Alaska? If you're a fan of American television in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, you may recognize some faces under the makeup and scratch your head, thinking, hmmm, where do I know that face? Well, here are some people to look for: Vivian Vance who was in I Love Lucy; Denver Pyle, Uncle Jesse Dukes of Hazard; Larry Storch from F Troop and so many other shows; Ross Martin, Artemis Gordon from The Wild, Wild West (one of my all time favorites). Good comedy holds up ten, fifteen or forty years later, and that is the case here.

The race begins - Brooklyn Bridge, NY (it didn't actually start here, this is just for color)

St. Petersburg, Russia

 Oh, You're a Vegetable: stories of an around the world adventure

The end of the race - Paris, France 

Money is the root of all evil - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

9/1/13 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, 1948

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is not just a Western with horses (actually burros are more common in this movie) and good guys and bad guys, gunfights; it's a bit of a morality play, Aesop's fable with a little cactus and cilantro on the side. Humphrey Bogart is Dobbs, a down on his luck American in Mexico, looking for a break. He seems like an honest guy, at least in his relationship with Curtin as they partner up to seek their fortune in the hills of the Sierra Madre, hoping to avoid the banditos and the Federales. They meet an old-timer, played by Walter Huston, the director John Huston's father. Howard knows the hills and understands the ways of the people who live there, he also speaks better Spanish than the other two, which comes in handy. As one might expect, the three are quite chummy and talk about how they trust each other, (especially Dobbs and Curtin), but that all for one, one for all bit starts to show bits of wear soon after they discover the gold. Dobbs, in particular, seems susceptible to envy, jealousy, and overall distrust, while Curtin appears to be very grounded and altruistic and Howard is almost like a Western version of Yoda, and Huston won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. John Huston directed movie classics like Moby Dick, The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon and more. He won the Oscar for both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. John Huston was also an actor and played the creepy father in Chinatown, and had a cameo at the beginning of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Who knew a parable could be so entertaining. The movie is sixty-five years old, but it holds up well; the acting doesn't have that 'dated' feel where it seems so obvious that the actors are trying to act, and the story, with it's quest for gold and the good life it could bring, is probably still relevant today. It's got adventure, some good lines, good acting, and a twist at the end that makes you go hmm. Since there is virtually no profanity (maybe none), the violence is pretty tame compared to what is on television these days, it would make a good film for family movie night (if you do that, which you should, by the way, and invite me over for free color commentary and mention in the blog).

The Eighth Wonder of the World.....not this time: King Kong 2005

8/30/13, King Kong, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, 2005

First things first: there is no reason in the universe that this movie needed to be three hours, this was not some epic that covered 150 years of history, had multiple complex characters or even a complex plot line. Seriously, Peter Jackson needs an editor, and not someone to make sure there is continuity in the scenes or that the story is cohesive, someone to look and go 'Dude, seriously, 20 minutes of stampeding velociraptors is way too much'. I think most people are familiar with King Kong and the story of the great ape and the beautiful blonde and their romp through New York City, so I am not going to recap the plot here. If you have never heard of or seen King Kong, you should start with the best and the original from 1933 (bonus, it's only 100 minutes and it is on the AFI's list of best 100 films). There is something that is so nostalgic for me with the original, including the special effects, which seem almost as prehistoric as Skull Island, but endearing nonetheless. King Kong 2005 spends forty-five minutes setting up the voyage to Skull Island, introducing us to actress Ann Darrow played by Naomi Watts, Jack Driscoll, a playwright played by Adrien Brody, and Jack Black as single-minded movie director Carl Denham. As we are all used to from a Peter Jackson film, the movie is visually stunning, things are bigger, brighter, and I'm sure if I had a high-def television, it would have been like the dinosaurs and giant bug-things were in my living room, and that is probably the reason the movie won the award for Best Visual Effects. Honestly, I didn't hate the movie, I hated the fact that it was freaking long, okay, and there were parts that seemed utterly ridiculous, but if you're watching a movie about a giant ape, I'm not sure that you watch it with the seriousness of Hamlet. There was a 40 minutes period (it may have been shorter, but it didn't feel like that) where it was special effect after special effect, creature after creature, and it was overkill). A few moments after she met Kong, I felt badly for Naomi Watts who did a lot of screaming and flopping around, and I thought this must have been good practice for her role in The Impossible (and she was great in that). Hats off (again) to Andy Serkis who played King Kong through motion capture technology, and he was incredible; if his name is familiar, Serkis brought the personality-challenged Smeagle/Golum to life in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, as well as other roles where he is not actually on stage. He's amazing. There has been discussion that roles like this should be under consideration for Best Actor/Best Supporting Actor, and I totally agree. He brings a humanity to Kong that could have been lost. There isn't anything too scary or inappropriate, so I think kids who like these kinds of movies (Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mummy, etc.) would enjoy this (you can skip the first 45 minutes in the interest of not boring them to tears). But please, watch the original first.