12/3/2014 Steve Hackett, Genesis Revisited, Hard Rock Casino
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| Steve Hackett, 12/3/2014 |
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| Steve Hackett, 12/3/2014 |
12/4/2014 The Theory of Everything, not yet nominated, 2014
My brother and I went to my favorite theater, the Cedar-Lee in Cleveland Heights, right across the way from our high school. I wanted to see The Theory of Everything with my brother because I was interested in his reaction. It's a pretty safe bet that it will be nominated for several awards, most particularly Eddie Redmayne for Best Actor for playing Stephen Hawking, and possibly Best Picture. The Theory of Everything is about Stephen Hawking, his first wife Jane and Hawking's fight with ALS, the neurological disease that eventually put him in a wheelchair and almost took his life. Like Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot as Christy Brown, Redmayne becomes Hawking, taking on the physical characteristics, limitations and speech patterns. Felicity Jones plays Jane Hawking. The movie begins in the 1960s when Hawking was a student at Cambridge, before he had been diagnosed with ALS. This lets the viewer see Redmayne transform from walking upright as a healthy young man, and slowly lose functionality in his legs, his hands and his voice, but never his mind. All the while, his wife Jane is by his side, encouraging him and finding ways to help him, and raise their children. It's a wonderful love story, but there are ups and downs as you would imagine, as Hawking's condition worsens and Jane feels overwhelmed at different points in their relationship. Hawking was only given a couple of years to live, and that may have been Jane's expectations when she married him (that sounds really cold, but I'm just suggesting it) and not expected him to live so long (he has lived 50 years with ALS). I liked the movie and so did my brother, but neither one of us was ready to give it a 10. He gave it a 7/8 and I agree. Redmayne was tremendous as Hawking and I think Jones was up to the task as Jane, but there was something that I was waiting for, but didn't happen. I don't know what that was, but I felt like I wanted more. There were also times the movie seemed to drag for me. I recommend it for the performances, but I don't know if you need to see it in a theater, DVD would be just as good.
12/4/2014 Fury, not yet nominated, 2014
I thought I had missed my opportunity to see Fury starring Brad Pitt and Shia LeBeouf in the theaters, but lucky for me, it was still showing. My brother and I caught the 10:00 pm showing (I'm still surprised I even considered it, because I'm in bed by 10), but we both wanted to see it and since I was on vacation, I thought I could splurge and stay up until one o'clock in the morning. Fury is about an armored tank crew towards the end of World War II. The crew is lead by Staff Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt), and they are repeatedly sent into situations that you think they will never survive. Shia LeBeouf is Boyd "Bible" Swan, the gunner in the tank (everybody has a nickname). There are others in the tank crew, Gordo and Coon-Ass. The tight knit group is joined by Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) who was only trained as an Army typist, but he his tossed into these battle-hardened men and forced to learn the war game in a matter of days; he soon is given the name "Machine". I have watched a lot of war movies and I cannot recall any where tank warfare is featured, so from that perspective, I found it really interesting. What a claustrophobic atmosphere, and you're kind of trapped. The same armor that can protect you, can also confine you and be death trap. The movie does not shy away from the brutality of war, there is no sugar-coating here. It is filled with violence, close up and from a distance, the battlefield casualties as well as the civilian victims. The action was incredible, and as I mentioned, you feel like you are there. The acting, on the other hand, was uneven to me. I tried to explain to my brother that when they (Pitt, et al) were in the middle of battle, it was engrossing and believable. When the action was removed, it seemed like they were acting; like someone had written the words they were saying (which, in fact, someone had). The last 15 minutes were incredible, and we were both on the edge of our seats. I had a problem with Brad Pitt's hair. What was that? My brother thought it was one of the best movies he's seen. I definitely think that the movie will be nominated for sound editing, editing, possibly make up, screenplay and possibly acting for Brad Pitt.
12/6/2014 Birdman, not yet nominated, 2014
Birdman has been getting so much buzz lately and it was recently nominated for several Golden Globe awards. It stars Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, an actor who starred in a superhero franchise years ago, and is now looking for validation and legitimacy on the Broadway stage (if you don't know, Keaton starred as the first Batman in the first two Batman movies in the late 1980s and early 1990s). His somewhat distant daughter, Sam (Emma Stone) is his reluctant assistant, recently out of rehab. Naomi Watts is Lesley, an actress in her first Broadway play (Watts was also in St. Vincent, another 'small' film getting great reviews) and Edward Norton is Mike Shiner a Broadway actor who steps into Thomson's play at the last minute. Thomson is haunted by his alter-ego, Birdman, who pokes and prods Thomson, taunting him, even giving him the illusion that he has super powers. The interplay between Shiner and Thomson was fun, and you can imagine theater actors and film actors having this type of conflict (in fact, the recent television production of Peter Pan was criticized for not having more theater actors in the main roles of something that was a successful Broadway musical). I love Edward Norton's versatility as an actor; in Birdman he is an unapologetic egomaniac jerk; in The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Monsoon Kingdom he plays quirky authoritarian characters. Keaton is really good and raw in this role, and it was nice to see him back (he hasn't really been in a lot the last few years); this is the same guy who was in Beetlejuice and Mr. Mom. He does a great job. I liked how the movie was filmed, one scene seamlessly evolving into the next (very much like in Anna Karenina, 2013). I'm not sure if there is a technical name for that, but it was cool and it worked. The film begins during the previews for the play, so it has not opened yet. Something happens every night of the previews, and Thomson wavers between closing the show, his show, and continuing to prove something, to himself and the critics. Opening night has its own surprises, which you'll have to see for yourself, because that would spoil it. I don't know how I feel about the ending, I don't usually like whimsy mixing in with my comedy/drama, and it was not something I expected. I didn't hate it (the ending), but I didn't love it. Overall, it was worth seeing.
12/6/2014 Children of a Lesser God, Best Actress, 1986
Children of a Lesser God is a movie based on the play by Mark Medoff, who also co-wrote the screenplay. It is set at a school for the deaf in the Northeast and John Hurt is a new speech teacher, James Leeds, working with deaf students to speak so they can communicate with the hearing world. He is able to use sign language, but he is always trying to get the students to speak to him. He meets Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin), a former student of the school and now a custodian there. They initially have a combative relationship, with Sarah refusing to speak, and even when they begin a romantic relationship, they struggle with expectations of one another. James wants Sarah to try and speak, and Sarah, for reasons she does not disclose, she does not want to. Piper Laurie plays Sarah's emotionally distant mother, but their relationship eventually heals. You kind of get the feeling that this was originally a play because there is a small main cast, and I would love to see this on the stage. That doesn't take away from the movie at all. Hurt and Matlin were very good together, and Matlin was incredible when you think that she really is a deaf actress, acting with an experienced actor in Hurt, and she did so much with barely speaking (as she would sign, Hurt's character would speak aloud what she she was saying), and she took the Oscar over actresses like Jane Fonda, Sissy Spacek, Kathleen Turner and Sigourney Weaver (Aliens). The only movie that I had seen was Aliens, and you couldn't find two more disparate roles. Matlin was also the youngest Best Actress winner at the time.
12/2014 The Carol Burnett Show, 1970s
Okay, let me explain, oh, hell, I don't have to explain. I wanted some comedy and I love Carol Burnett, so there. Seriously, I remember watching The Carol Burnett Show with my family on Saturday nights. I don't remember everything, and I'm sure I didn't understand everything, I just remember laughing. Carol and her cast, including Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and an incredible variety of guest stars never disappointed. I watched about six episodes, and honestly, some were funnier than others, anything with Tim Conway made me laugh. What I enjoyed was seeing this show from almost 40 years ago and who her guests were: Shirley MacLaine, Vincent Price, Maggie Smith (yes, from Downton Abbey fame) and the Jackson Five, including Michael. I got some good laughs and I'll be ordering the other DVDs from the library over the next several months, especially when things get too serious.
12/10/2014 Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 1982
This is for a friend of mine who is a loyal reader of this blog (I know there are a few of you); as a going away present she gave me a collection of movies that admittedly have not won any Oscars, but they were fun movies. So, my friend, this is for you. This is a movie that is referenced all the time, and yet, I have managed never to see it. It stars Sean Penn as Spicoli, the school pothead, Judge Reinhold as Brad, the high school senior with aspirations of, I don't know, fast food management? Jennifer Jason Leigh is Brad's younger sister, Stacy who is in a big hurry to lose her virginity and Phoebe Cates is her wise friend, Linda. I think the movie would have made more of an impression on me if I would have seen it when it first came out, because it was filled with naughty high school moments and great music. But, since I am watching it thirty years later, and I am old and jaded, it didn't impact me that much. There were some funny parts and the music was definitely great, songs by Jackson Browne, Don Henley (actually most of The Eagles), The Go-Gos and other 80's music stars. The retrospective aspect of seeing this movie so long after the release, is you can look back and see what stars some of the actors became: Sean Penn, Eric Stoltz, Forest Whitaker and Nicholas Cage to name a few. Cameron Crowe wrote the screenplay and was directed by Amy Heckerling.
12/13/2014 What About Bob? 1991
I just kind of threw this movie on my list. I was interested to see Bill Murray after recently seeing St. Vincent. Murray plays Bob, a very neurotic man who develops an attachment to his new psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin, played by Richard Dreyfuss. Bob's attachment is so strong that he follows the doctor and his family to their vacation home in New Hampshire. This distresses the uptight doc, but his family become very fond of Bob. The main friction of the story is Dr. Marvin's intense and over-the-top reactions to Bob's antics, and the fact that his family, son Sigmund, daughter Anna, and wife Faye, all connect with Bob in some way that Leo cannot. You get the feeling that Bill Murray is not acting, that he really is like this, and as in St. Vincent, his interplay with the kids seems natural and fun (Kathryn Erbe who is known as Detective Eames played Anna). It was a fun movie, but I kind of went in and out of attention towards the end, however the end had an ironic twist. Dreyfuss's character was really an angry bombastic guy, which makes you wonder how good of a psychiatrist he was. I am glad I saw it to see Murray in another vehicle.
12/13/2014 The November Man, 2014
Hmmm. What to say? Pierce Brosnan taps into his spy background (he was one of the more recent 007s) to play a jaded CIA agent who comes out of retirement to get revenge on the people who killed the mother of his child. Lukey Bracey (who? that's what I said) is his protege. To be honest, I kind of stopped paying attention. There was action, some shooting, some punching, but I didn't care. This could have been good. It was worth the dollar rental from the library, but that's about it.
