The Lego Movie, Bad Words, Sabrina, War of the Worlds - something for every movie taste

Wow, this was a tough one. Not that the movies I watched were bad, they weren't, but it has been so hard to sit down and type. But I have another five movies in the queue, so I best get to it before I forget what I watched.

8/18/2014 War of the Worlds, 1953 Best Special Effects and National Film Registry

Science fiction movies from the 1950s bear very little (or no similarity) to 21st century sci-fi movies. The special effects are so different, nobody could have imagined the CGI or costumes and make up that we see in Guardians of the Galaxy or the latest Star Trek movies, but if you were a sci-fi fan in the 1950s, you were probably blown away by the work in War of the Worlds, based on the novel by futurist, H.G. Wells. To quote Leonard Maltin (probably not for the last time, either) from the introduction to The High and the Mighty, you have to take War of the Worlds on its own terms, not compare to more recent movies.  A strange object crashes into a beach in California and the locals all come to look at it; a scientist, Clayton Forrester, played by Gene Barry, tries to examine it. Eventually, something comes out of the capsule and fires a heat ray (not a nice way for visitors to behave). Soon the 'martians' get even more hostile and we learn that these capsules have landed all over the world. I guess the good thing is, it brings the other countries together. Although, it wasn't the united forces of the nations that beat the martians, but anymore than that would give the ending away. Anyway, the plot isn't very complicated, but it was kind of a fun movie to watch. There are a couple people that get vaporized, but there's not a lot of bloodshed and practically no profanity, and the aliens aren't as scary as what is in any of the Alien movies. An interesting note, Edith Head did the costumes for War of the Worlds.

8/18/2014 Sabrina, 1954, Best Costume Design

Sabrina stars Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden and I wish I could say I loved it. I didn't. I liked it and that will have to suffice. Hepburn plays the titular Sabrina, the daughter of the Larrabee family chauffeur, who has grown up on the Larrabee estate (on Long Island and I was reminded of The Great Gatsby) and has a crush on David Larrabee (William Holden). Sabrina's father sends her to Paris to study the culinary arts and when she returns, she is a little more mature and worldly and seemingly over her crush on David, and then she's not. While David could less about his family's empire, his older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) is extremely focused and driven, even to the point of encouraging David to marry for strategic purposes instead of love. Some consider this a classic romantic comedy, and Holden has shown the chops to carry that off in Born Yesterday, and he provides many of the comedic exchanges here; Bogart plays Linus as pretty straight-laced, and Holden and Hepburn use him as a foil. Edith Head won the Oscar for the costume design, most particularly Hepburn's dresses. Billy Wilder directed and he is known for his romantic comedies, including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment and  The Fortune Cookie; he also worked with Holden before (Stalag 17, Sunset Boulevard). The movie was nominated for five other Oscars, including Best Direction for Wilder and Best Actress for Hepburn. I guess I would say if you love Hepburn, you should watch this. but if you want a good comedy/romance, I would say Born Yesterday or The Apartment might be a better bet, or even, To Catch a Thief with Hepburn and Cary Grant.

8/23/14 Bad Words, not yet nominated

As much as it might gall Oscar-watchers that I say 'not yet nominated', the fact is, anything can happen, so I want to cover my bases. Bad Words is so inappropriate; I'll call it my 2014 Bad Grandpa moment, although I did not laugh as loudly or often as I did at Bad Grandpa. Bad Words was directed by, and starred, Jason Bateman. Bateman is Guy Trilby a middle-aged man who has started competed in school age spelling bees. Apparently, there was a clause in the rules that allows anyone who has not graduated the 8th grade to participate. Guy's foils include Allison Janney as Dr. Bernice Deagan, the spelling bee director and Dr. William Bowman (Philip Baker Hall), the founder of the Golden Quill Spelling Bee. One of Guy's competitors is Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), a young man of Indian heritage, who  tries desperately to befriend the cranky and foul-mouthed Trilby. Chaitanya is not at all fazed by Guy's stereotypical, politically incorrect rants. In fact, it seems to spur him on; Guy gives Chaitanya the attention he does not seem to get from his parents, even if it is totally age inappropriate. I'm not sure what age is appropriate for the movie, but it was funny. Bateman is really good when he is exchanging 'pleasantries' with his young contestants, especially Chand. One of my favorite lines comes after Guy has been mercilessly making fun of Chaitanya's Indian ethnicity and Chaitanya screams out "I was born in Cleveland". If you are looking for a good laugh and you don't mind a lot of bad words and maybe learning how to spell a few others, check it out. Just make sure your kids are out of earshot.

8/23/2014 The Lego Movie, not yet nominated

There is a pretty good chance that The Lego Movie will be nominated for Best Animated Feature this year. The movie features the voices of Chris Pratt as Emmett Brickowski; Will Farrell as Lord President; Morgan Freeman as wizard, Vitruvius and Liam Neeson as Bad Cop/Good Cop and a lot more. Emmett is an everyman kind of character, thrust unexpectedly into the role as the hero who has to save Bricksburg from Lord President and the Kragle. This was a fun movie, with familiar characters, like Batman and Wonder Woman and new characters, like Metal Beard and Unikitty. It's like a lot of good animated films, there are things for the kids as well as their parents, who will undoubtedly have to watch the movie at least five times (until they just put it in the DVD player and run away). There was a twist a little more than 3/4 of the way through that I thought was original and a nice way to tie everything together. Here's my one wish: please don't make a sequel, you will not recapture the magic of the first time.

8/25/2014 The Broadway Melody of 1929, Outstanding Picture

The Broadway Melody of 1929 won the Best Picture, and it was the first sound picture to do so. It kind of seems like it would have a little of George M. Cohan in it, and in fact, his "Give My Regards to Broadway" opens the movie and he gets a quick mention by a Cohan wannabee, Eddie Kearns. Kearns has a musical he wants to have Francis Zanfield (a not so subtle nod to Flo Ziegfield) produce. The musical would star a sister act that features Eddie's girlfriend Harriet Mahoney (fondly called "Hank") and her younger sister, Queenie. I enjoyed the movie, it was funny, had some plot twists, rivalries and music.  I looked up the other nominees for Outstanding Picture and I honestly have not heard of any of them (Alibi, The Hollywood Revue of 1929, In Old Arizona, The Patriot) and I had not heard of any of the actors in the film, either, including Bessie Love, who was nominated for Best Actress as Hank Mahoney; Anita Page as Queenie and Charles King as Eddie. Irving Thalberg  was one of the producers. If you are interested in vaudeville, early Broadway or early movies, this might be a good film to see; some of it definitely seems tied to the time period and limitations of film at the time, but there are other scenes that seem like they could be in a move from 2014.

Damn those Law and Order: Criminal Intent marathons on Saturdays. I got sucked in AGAIN. The one cool thing about that is, I know my mom is 700 miles away watching it, too.

Have a great Labor Day, and hopefully, I'll get through those movies sitting on the telly.