Spielberg Week - COMING SOON

"Spielberg Week" will be the kick-off to our next 100 films!

946. Les glaneurs et la glaneuse/The Gleaners and I (2000)

Running Time: 78 minutes
Directed By: Agnes Varda
Written By: Agnes Varda
Main Cast: Agnes Varda, Bodan Litnanski, Francois Wertheimer

THE FIRST "MUST SEE" MOVIE OF THE 21st CENTURY?

Well, according to the "1001" book, "The Gleaners and I" IS the first "must see" film of the 21st Century, as it gets the coup in kicking off the year 2000. The film is a documentary, directed by Agnes Varda and while it certainly sounds like a very boring synopsis, it's actually not too bad.

I always have a hard time describing documentaries, but I'll give it my best shot, as always. I also ask that you bear with me if this review isn't up to snuff, because I have a cold that is walloping my butt big time. Quite simply put, "The Gleaners and I" is about people who salvage. The term originated back in the days of farmers and farming and the word "glean" was used to describe people who would scour harvested land, picking up any crops that were left lying on the ground. To "glean" is to take what has sprouted out of the ground and to "pick" is to take what is hanging from a vine or tree. The film follows several different types of modern day gleaners, people like homeless men and women, who are forced to pick their meals out of dumpsters and artists who use the items that people have thrown away to create art. Agnes Varda takes the trip with us, interviewing and conversing with these gleaners and through the film you're able to criss cross on the roads of Europe. It's hard to believe how many legal barricades, bar people from taking leftover crops or trash that people have thrown out.

I'm not going to spoil anything, so no need for a warning. I read the synopsis for the film and I started watching it and I thought this was going to be TERRIBLE. I mean, why on Earth would I want to watch a nearly ninety minute documentary about people who pick things up off the ground. In actuality, once the film started getting going, it was quite interesting. Surprisingly this was a nice movie to watch when I was sick, because it was fairly laid back and was kind of perfect for a Saturday afternoon in bed. I think the most appealing part of the documentary to me, was getting to be Agnes Varda's passenger as she traveled through France. I've always been fascinated with foreign countries and to hear the people of France speak from the heart and see the French landscapes and sights, was quite interesting.

"The Gleaners and I" certainly isn't the best documentary I've seen thus far, but it held up and didn't really disappoint. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "must see", but I'd say if you get the chance to kill seventy-eight minutes, it'd be worth your time and despite the way it sounds, it's NOT at all a bad film.

RATING: 6/10 Again, sorry for the short and sweet review, but I just wanted to get in here and jot some things down. This really isn't the film that called for a LONG review anyway, so I think all is well.

MOVIES WATCHED: 297
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 704

Note: I plan to be finished with this 100 films on Monday and ready to have my TOP 20 posted by Monday night, Tuesday morning at the latest.

July 16, 2011 10:17pm

769. Moonstruck (1987)

Running Time: 102 minutes
Directed By: Norman Jewison
Written By: John Patrick Shanley
Main Cast: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia, Danny Aiello

ISN'T IT ROMANTIC

Tonight, as I was trying to decide what to watch, knowing that I wanted to watch SOMETHING, so as to reach my goal quicker, I went to the DVD shelf and yanked a movie that my wife recently purchased - "Moonstruck".

"Moonstruck" is set in Brooklyn, New York and is a tribute to the Italian-American family. Loretta Castorini (Cher) is an accountant for several local business in her neighborhood. One night at dinner, the man who's been courting her, Johnny Cammareri (Aiello), asks her to marry him and after some correcting (forcing him to get down on one knee, forcing him to give her his pinky ring) she accepts. That night, Johnny hops a plane to Sicily to be with his ailing mother, but promises Loretta that when he gets back they'll be married. He only has one request - that she visit his younger brother and clear the bad blood that exists between them and invite him to the wedding. Loretta, wanting to make everything perfect for her special day, contacts Johnny's brother, Ronny Cammareri (Cage), a bread maker with a wooden left hand, who blames Johnny for the loss of his limb. Ronny is a bit of a nutcase, but Loretta, being the mothering type that she is, straightens him out with a juicy steak and a glass of whiskey...and then he carries her to bed. One thing leads to another, full moons rise and before Loretta knows it she's forced to choose between the two brothers - the one she likes, the safe bet in Johnny or the one she loves in Ronny.

I actually have a little history with this film, that I wouldn't mind sharing. I saw this film many years ago, prior to the honing of my "film buffery" and I loved it. I went out soon after and purchased it on DVD and a few years later I watched it again, not remembering too much about it, simply remembering that I DID like it. The second go around wasn't as enticing, as "Moonstruck" actually ended up in the "FOR SALE" pile, obviously not holding up as well as the first time. Recently my wife watched "Moonstruck" and liked it so much that she immediately purchased it, giving it new birth on our DVD shelf. Tonight, I pluck it for a third watch and fall in love with it all over again. I don't know what happened that second time around, but I must have gone temporarily mental or something, because this is one fine movie. It's actually a film that really reminds me of an old, black & white movie. It has those tones of old, with nothing too risky and a really fun plot that you can get lost in. "Moonstruck" is a very inviting movie and to tell you the truth, as I write this in July, I watched it at the wrong time. This is the kind of movie you watch in the middle of winter, with the furnace roaring, huddled under a blanket, on a big comfy sofa. It's such a warm, friendly film and it invites you into the city of New York and instead of showing off the city, it places you right into the nooks and crannies of the city and experience it.

Nowadays when I get the news that a musician is going to try their hand at acting, I get a little sketchy, as usually it turns out being a not so good performance and a flop of a film. Believe it or not, Cher was a damn fine actress and honestly, that goes for Nicolas Cage too. Cage has had some really questionable movie choices as of late, but there was a time when I was a big Cage fan and I'm not sure if he still is, but he used to be a really good actor. Dukakis, Gardenia, Aiello and John Mahoney are all actors that add to the greatness that is "Moonstruck" and add, as the book says, a little extra spice to an already sizzling romantic comedy. "Moonstruck" is such a romantic film, that is dealing with romance in the unlikeliest of places, at the unlikeliest of ages, in the unlikeliest of circumstances. With Dean Martin tunes and music from "La Boheme" echoing in the background, it only serves to amp up the heart of "Moonstruck" and John Patrick Shanley's marvelous script and superb dialogue. For me, "Moonstruck" is the type of comedy that won't make you laugh out loud so much, as it will just make you smile a lot.

RATING: 8.5/10 This film really does have some of the most romantic dialogue. The kind of dialogue you hear and try to memorize so you can pop it on your wife.

MOVIES WATCHED: 296
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 705

July 16, 2011 2:44am

882. Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Running Time: 99 minutes
Directed By: Peter Jackson
Written By: Frances Walsh, Peter Jackson
Main Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison

JACKSON, PRE-HOBBIT

Edging closer and closer to my short term goal of 301 films watched, I clicked off another film tonight and another good one at that. Let's hop right in, shall we...

Pauline Parker (Lynskey) is a 14-year old girl, living in New Zealand in the 1950s and attending an all girls school. She's a fairly lonesome child...that is, until Juliet Hulme (Winslet) transfers to her school and the two are paired up for an art class assignment. The two waste no time striking up a bond and soon they're inseparable. Together the two waste away the days painting, writing stories and sculpting clay figurines and devising their own fairy tale world called "The 4th World", a place where they escape to in their imagination, referring to one another as Charles and Deborah. In the real world, however, their parents grow increasingly hesitant about the relationship that the two girls have. When Juliet comes down with tuberculosis, she is sent to a hospital and the girls go nearly mad, as they're forced to correspond to one another via letter writing. Ultimately Juliet's mother (Kent) and father (Merrison) announce that they are getting a divorce and that Juliet will be sent to South Africa to stay with her aunt. As the girls relationship becomes closer and closer (it's hinted that the two may have been lesbians), they'll go to any length to stay together. "Heavenly Creatures" is based on the true story of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker.

You can really start to see Jackson's spark for creating imaginary worlds in "Heavenly Creatures". Of course, Jackson would later go on to direct the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (which I'll eventually be watching and reviewing for the book), "King Kong" and "The Lovely Bones", all films that allowed Jackson to open up his box of fairy tale magic and blow it toward the big screen. However, "Heavenly Creatures" is based on a true story - the true story of a grisly murder that was committed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1954. Jackson adds a dash of fantasy to this true story though, as he brings to the screen the very imaginative minds of the youth of this film, as the two girls enter into a fantasy world where they're happy and safe and where their clay figurines can speak to them and dance with them. It was ultimately the girls blurred vision of reality and fantasy that may have drove them to commit murder, who knows.

The acting finds of this picture were quite substantial, with Kate Winslet making her film debut and basically putting her name on the map and gearing up for bigger roles in bigger pictures, like "Titanic". Melanie Lynskey was also quite good and while the book asks "what ever happened to this promising young actress?", some of you may know her as "Rose" from "Two and a Half Men". While "Heavenly Creatures" was quite good, I didn't get the greatness feel from it and instead it wound up being a film that was just as good as I thought it would be. I'm starting to hate when that happens - when a film doesn't surprise me, but simply, merely lives up to it's expectations. It happens more when I watch movies outside of the "1001" book, films like "The King's Speech" and "The Kids Are All Right" - films that are just about as good as I thought they'd be and nothing more...or less. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes I like to be "WOWED" and this movie didn't have that WOW factor. Good, but not great, in shorter terms. However, the film did house some absolutely spectacular visual woes and coupled with an above average script, great performances from the leads and some outstanding cinematography, it did it's duty in providing me with a good time at the movies tonight.

RATING: 6.5/10 Maybe in time my opinions of this will go from good to great, but for now call it a good flick with really good performances by the two leads and some outstanding visuals.

MOVIES WATCHED: 295
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 706

July 15, 2011 11:04pm

Spielberg Week - COMING SOON

203. Secret Beyond the Door (1948)

Running Time: 99 minutes
Directed By: Fritz Lang
Written By: Rufus King, Silvia Richards
Main Cast: Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere, Barbara O'Neil, Natalie Schafer

LAYING DOWN THE LANG

I recorded "Secret Beyond the Door" sometime last year, off of Turner Classic Movies, because it was nowhere to be found elsewhere. Since I watched and reviewed "The Big Heat" last night and had such a good time with it, I figured I'd might as well finish off the Fritz Lang contributions to the book.

Celia (Bennett) is a picky woman when it comes to men. When her brother dies, she finally decides to settle down with one of his former colleagues and promptly gets engaged. Following the engagement and while on vacation with friend Edith (Schafer), Celia locks eyes with a ominous, yet handsome looking man named Mark (Redgrave), a wealthy owner of a magazine. They eventually become acquainted, fall head over heels for one another and via a note Celia breaks off her engagement and quickly marries Mark. While on honeymoon with Mark, he begins to act a bit odd. One night, all of a sudden, Mark comes to Celia and tells her that he is going to sell his magazine. He tells her that he's gone to be gone for a few days and that eventually he'll send for her to come live with him in Levender Falls. Mark eventually sends for her and Celia is all of a sudden making her home in a strange house, with strange people and finding out new things about Mark, like the fact that he was previously married and that he has a son. Mark continues to fluctuate between strange behavior and normal and eventually reveals to Celia his collection of rooms. Mark re-creates grisly murder scenes in various rooms of his house, right down to the tiniest of details. There's just one room that Mark keeps locked - a room marked with a number seven and a room that may hold the secret to Celia's fate.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!

As I watched "Secret Beyond the Door" I couldn't help but be reminded of Hitchcock's "Rebecca", of which, according to the book, inspired Lang to make this film. The film is actually quite good, as it takes on a very powerful demeanor, making it's presence known through the use of strong music and towering sets. The film is very mysterious and it didn't take me long to attach myself to the very beautiful Joan Bennett and wonder what would happen to this innocent character. As the film progresses, many small mysteries are set up - little things that seemed to stick in the back of my mind, so that when the final climax came I kept trying to guess at what might happen. At first, I thought the entire movie was going to be a dream. I mean, the film did start out with Joan Bennett's character recollecting a book she once read about dreams. But it wasn't all cheaply chalked up to a dream, instead we do get answers to our questions.

Now whether or not I was satisfied with the explanations that were given, I'm not really sure. On one hand, they weren't anything I really expected and at least I can say that they "got me" on the big twist. But on the other hand, it just didn't seem to be enough. It had just a small dose of that "that's it!" factor to it and with a film as brooding as "Secret Beyond the Door", I expected to be dropping my jaw by the time the final credits rolled. Otherwise, if you can look past the lackluster explanations and final twists, it's actually quite a good movie, that's sure not to bore you and provides some exceptional performances from Bennett and Redgrave. I would say to track it down and give it a look, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to track down. Keep your eye out for it on TCM instead.

RATING: 7/10 Lackluster review? Well I'm still fighting this cold so bear with me, please. Only seven films to go before I'm ready to make another TOP 20!

MOVIES WATCHED: 294
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 707

July 15, 2011 1:53am

784. The Naked Gun (1988)

Running Time: 85 minutes
Directed By: David Zucker
Written By: Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Pat Proft, from television series by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker
Main Cast: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson

FROM THE FILES OF POLICE SQUAD!

Today, with a cold setting in on my poor head, I needed something that required very little to no thought and that somehow managed to get into the pages of the "1001" book, despite being extremely stupid...but stupid in a good way. I found my film.

Frank Drebin (Nielsen) works for Police Squad, a special division of the LAPD. When Drebin's partner, Nordberg (Simpson) is critically wounded while investigating a lead, Drebin is on the case to avenge his partner's injuries. In the meantime, The Queen of England is making a special trip to the United States and Police Squad is focusing all their attention on her protection. Drebin's investigations eventually lead him to Vincent Ludwig (Montalban), who despite his notable reputation in the city, is planning to kill the Queen. Throughout Drebin's accidental findings, he manages to inch closer and closer to the truth, all while falling in love with Ludwig's assistant Jane (Presley). In truth, the plot isn't really the focal point, but instead it's the visual and verbal puns and gags that are more focused upon.

Please forgive my shabby review today, as I do have a head cold that is walloping my butt pretty good. Honestly, there's not much to say about "The Naked Gun". If you enjoy silly humor, sight gags and puns, then you're going to love it. If you're a more serious kind of guy when it comes to your movies, then you probably won't like it. There was a time that I actually really enjoyed "The Naked Gun", but I think those days are behind me. Sure it's funny and Leslie Nielsen is always good for a laugh or two, but in the end it's simply a very silly, stupid comedy, that really had no right being a part of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" book. It's sad to think that Nielsen died earlier this year and that Priscilla Presley used to be a very beautiful woman, but now she looks like a walking advertisement for a plastics factory.

RATING: 5.5/10 It's good if you're having a day like I'm having and you just need a nonsensical comedy and maybe a good laugh.

MOVIES WATCHED: 293
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 708

July 14, 2011 3:55pm