The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) Film Review

Plot Summary - A giant, mysterious sphere zooms through space to land directly in Central Park, out pops an alien being, out pop the United States military guns to shoot the poor fellow and a giant metallic robot figure pops out of the sphere to defend him. But scientist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) is at hand to see the alien's wound is operated on - unfortunately, our alien (who has taken on human form - played by Keanu Reeves) is now in the hands of the U.S. government who hold him for questioning. She helps him make his escape, and soon Helen, the alien, and Helen's little boy (Jaden Smith) are on the run. Smaller spheres have arrived around the world, and the alien claims he has arrived to help save planet earth - but the human race itself is in trouble, based on their destructive behavior.

Review - This was fun and entertaining, I love sci-fi so figured I would enjoy this in spite of the mixed reviews. Special effects are well done (like all films being made now - doesn't seem like film-making can progress much farther on that score). This is a remake of a fifties classic, which I should see (not sure if I ever saw before, if I did it was a real long time ago). Rating - 7.5/10 stars

Doubt (2008) Film Review - Meryl Streep, Amy Adams

Plot Summary - Set in the Bronx in the early 60s, the story of an older, really stern nun (Meryl Streep) (feared by the students that attend their church-run Catholic school) who feels that the parish priest (Philip Seynour Hoffman) at their church may be molesting the boys. A new student, the only black student at this all-white school, is befriended by the priest, drawing the attention of a younger nun, Sister James (Amy Adams), his teacher - who brings this to the attention of the older nun. Suspicions and accusations follow.

Review - Really good - completely drew me in with edge of your seat plotline (just like a good mystery) that kept me wanting to see more. Based on a Broadway stage play, this film is all about the acting - super top-notch all around. Wow - I love Meryl Streep in this, she plays a great nun! I enjoyed Amy Adams nun work too! ( And hey, I always seem to enjoy movies about nuns too, I must say.) Well done, interesting cinematography done on-location, a realistic period feel, and a nice music score by Howard Shore enhances the film. Rating - 10/10 stars

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) Film Review - Woody Allen directed

Plot Summary - Story of two American best friends, Vicky and Cristina (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson), who arrive in Barcelona to stay for the summer and encounter Spaniard charmer/ladies man - a painter named Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who introduces himself at a restaurant and quickly invites them to join him for a weekend vacation, the three of them. The women go, despite Vicky's protests. Vicky's engaged to be married, Cristina more of a free spirit. Cristina and Vicky both progress into sleeping with our ladies man, Cristina moves in with him, and soon the arrival of his hot-tempered ex-wife (Penelope Cruz) who has just tried to commit suicide and has deep entanglements emotionally with Juan Antonio. Love triangles and quadrangles complicate their world, all backdropped by some rather gorgeous Spanish settings.

Review - Woody Allen's style of dialogue is obvious in this, the story keeps you interested. I liked the voice over narration that moves this tale along - the film itself is quite the visual treat, very colorful and pretty. The whole style of this film reminded me of some of the French films I have seen from the fifties/sixties - "Jules and Jim", which I love, pops right into my head in it's similarities to this. Well done acting and entertaining story helps make this film a good one. Rating - 9/10 stars

Professional Sweetheart (1933) Film Review - Ginger Rogers

Plot Summary - Ginger Rogers plays Glory Eden, "America's Purity Girl", popular NYC radio singer forced into pretending she's sweet, innocent, and pure by the radio sponsors (promoting their wash cloth "The Ippsie Wippsie") as they guide her behavior, diet, and dress much to her distress - - she secretly wants to go to nightclubs in Harlem, drink champagne, and wear slinky, see-through lingerie. The power men at the station are after her to sign a new contract, containing such clauses as "no smoking, no drinking, not to attend nightclubs, not to be seen alone with any man"! Glory declares she wants a sweetheart, which gives the powers-that-be an idea for publicity - so they hook her up with a "dream man", found via her mass of fan letters. Dream man Jim (Norman Foster) is seen as sort of a Kentucky hayseed, but he's a real decent guy and handsome too - an on-air wedding is arranged for the two, who have barely met each other - they don't seem to mind either!

Review - This is a cute film, entertaining enough for it's short length and boosted by a coming into stardom, young Ginger Rogers. The film is helped along by a whole troop of top character actors of the day, many are favorites of mine - including Zasu Pitts as a reporter, Franklin Pangborn as Glory's dressmaker (what else?!), Frank McHugh (his laugh makes me laugh), Sterling Holloway, and Edgar Kennedy. 1933 mention of the word "television" is heard in this film. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

Carnival Boat (1932) Film Review - Ginger Rogers

Plot Summary - An RKO Pathe Picture. Precode yarn set in a lumber camp. Beefy Buck Gannon (William Boyd) is a lumberjack with a girlfriend named Honey (Ginger Rogers) - she's a singer on "Delacey's Carnival Boat", a travelling showboat that arrives on the river near the camp now and then, apparently, and clears the men of their ready cash with the boat's featured gambling, booze, and women. Jim Gannon (Hobart Bosworth), Buck's dad and head of the camp, doesn't want the men leaving to go to the carnival boat. Soon to be given a "good rest" by the boss, Jim has ambitions for his son to take over as head of the lumber camp when he's retired, so wants Buck to take his work more seriously and stop thinking about women! Trouble in camp when ambitious dad drives a "double loaded" train with bad brakes down the hill plus later a river log jam emergency, both driving heroic Buck to save the day.

Review - This was an okay b-movie, but dragged just a bit. Well done effects and photography makes for some excitement in the runaway train and log jam scenes. Some of the acting is fudgy - but I did think both Ginger Rogers and silent star Hobart Bosworth were quite good. The film also gave a bit part to silent actress Marie Prevost, who plays river boat gal/sidekick "Babe". Ginger Rogers is given one short song to sing, backed by a chorus of not so talented dancing showgirls, and she delivers her vocals in a rather "Betty Boop" style, with high-pitched voice. Edgar Kennedy and Harry Sweet add some kind of lame humor to the mix as "Baldy and Stubby", two goofball lumberjacks who are sort of bickering pals. I would think this film would be more appropriately titled something like "Timber!", since the Carnival boat itself receives a rather small part in the film. Rating - 6.5/10 stars

The Brothers Grimm (2005) Film Review - Terry Gilliam

Plot Summary - An early 19th-century fantasy/fairy tale telling the tale of the Grimm brothers (Heath Ledger and Matt Damon) who go about Germany with a con game posing their crew as witches and trolls and the like in villages driven by fables, then rid the town of said problem for cash rewards. Coming to one village they help solve the real situation of an enchanted evil forest and the disappearance of young girls from the village.

Review - A take-off on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales (which I loved to read when I was a kid, by the way) - with tiny elements of such stories as Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and such spun together in a sort of messy way - I found this film a bit rambling and confusing - a disappointment as I am partial to fantasies, I'm a fan of director of the film, Terry Gilliam, and especially, I'm a HUGE fan of my lovely Heath Ledger. This film features the sort of stuff you might want in a fairy tale - witches and magic spells and evil men (and evil trees and evil wolf) and mud that forms into a creature - you name it - too bad it didn't work. Rating - 6.5/10 stars

Elegy (2008) Film Review - Ben Kingsley

Plot Summary - Story of a divorced sixty-ish University professor (Ben Kingsley) who starts an affair with a beautiful Cuban student (Penelope Cruz) - - well, he waits 'til the course he's teaching her is over before he makes his move, at his class-end "cocktail party" he hosts for his students. The gal is, as he puts it, "thirty-odd years" younger than he is. He begins to grow jealous of her time away from him - and does stuff like stalk her when she announces she's going out that night to dance at a nightclub with her brother.

Review - This is a quiet, slow, and involving film that I quite liked. It's basically a story about a man feeling his years and unable to commit himself to a long-term relationship with a woman, but it's also a May-December love story that works quite well. Rating - 8/10 stars

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Film Review

Plot Summary - A young man, Jamal, is a contestant in the midst of a successful run on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" - he has been accused of cheating and we see his story as he tells his accusers the part of his life, told in flashback, that led him to know each answer as he plays the game. We see the course of his life through these flashbacks starting when he is a little boy in a slum town in India, his one true love, Latika, who he loves from childhood and tries to find through the years after they are torn apart and he and his brother enter into petty crime survival on the streets as they grow-up.

Review - Original and different, the film went by fast. The plot jumps back and forth between the game show questions and the flashback into his childhood memories. It is very colorful and exotic, with a nice, thumping score in places - love the song (and the Bollywood dance number that accompanies it in the film) that won the Oscar for best song from this, "Jai Ho" (that song seems to always be running through my head lately!). Note: this film was the 2008 Oscar winner for Best Picture. Rating - 9.5/10 stars

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) Film Review - Sally Hawkins

Plot Summary - The Adventures of a happy-go-lucky, rather loopy and overly cheerful thirty-year old London primary school teacher called "Poppy". Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is happily single, lives with a flatmate, hangs and gets drunk with her gal pals at various local pubs and clubs, and never seems to take anything seriously, to the point of annoyance to some she encounters, like her new driving instructor, Scott. Scott (Eddie Marsan) has a rather bad, short-temper for someone teaching driving (reminded me of MY high school driving instructor - a lot!) and the two have a rather odd time of it at each Saturday's noontime lesson. Jealousy sparks over Poppy's new boyfriend.

Review - This is an enjoyable watch, kept me entertained for two hours - and I didn't have any trouble (well, hardly any) with the heavy Brit accents. The film is just sort of a glimpse into this woman's life - her teaching job, classes she takes (trampoline, flamenco dancing, driving), her meeting and date with a new boyfriend - her social life with her friends. Only one thing - Miss Poppy is somewhat of an annoying person - always making a joke out of anything anyone says - - I don't know if she's meant to be annoying, or if that's just my personal quirk (I would find myself wanting to get away from a person like this, I believe). Rating - 8/10 stars

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) Film Review

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS: About the friendship between two eight year old German boys at the time of the Holocaust - one the son of a Nazi soldier, the other a Jewish prisoner in a concentration camp. When young Bruno's family moves from Berlin to the country when his Nazi father is promoted into a new job, Bruno doesn't know what it's all about. Bruno is forbidden to leave the walled gardens around his house, but seeing a nearby "farm" with children from his bedroom window, he sneaks out one day hoping to meet someone to play with there. Approaching the barbed wire fence, Bruno meets Shmuel, a boy his age and wearing the prisoner uniform Bruno thinks of as a pair of "striped pajamas". Bruno has no clue that the farm is a concentration camp - his mom knows, but isn't aware of the full extent of what is going on at this death camp, only the dad is in full awareness of it all. Bruno continues his friendship with Shmuel as they meet at the barbed wire fence each day. I won't go into any more, so as to not spoil the film for anyone.

Review - POSSIBLE SPOILERS: One of the saddest films I've ever seen - this one will be hard to forget. The fact that all the actors are British perhaps, at first, makes it hard to think of these as Germans - but I quickly got into the idea and soon forgot the accents. The actors (Asa Butterfield as Bruno and Jack Scanlon as Shmuel) who play the two boys are both so good - little Shmuel is particularly memorable. All the acting in this is top-notch, and a haunting score by James Horner enhances the film. Rating - 10/10 stars

Milk (2008) Film Review - Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch

Plot Summary - Bio-pic following the true story of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, from 1970 to his death in 1978. The film mainly follows his San Francisco election campaigns for city supervisor, and his male love interests including Scott (James Franco), a long-term partner he picks up in the subway, and a fragile young Latin man named Jack.

Review - This film is a very well done, interesting watch - an interesting weaving of film with real documentary footage and extremely well done performance by Sean Penn as Milk. I also liked Emile Hirsch (one of my faves) in this, who plays a gung-ho young activist assisting with Milk's campaigns. Rating - 9.5/10 stars

Rachel Getting Married (2008) Film Review - Anne Hathaway

Plot Summary - Recovering junkie Kym (Anne Hathaway) checks out of rehab for a few days to go home for her sister Rachel's wedding. Kym is somewhat neurotic and self-absorbed, her family somewhat dysfunctional as they try to put on a rather lavish home wedding and tend to Kym's needy personality. Kym copes with her recovering drug addictions, her strained relationships with her sister, father, and mother - and more importantly, her guilt over her part in the death of her little brother, caused by her addictions.

Review - This film is shot documentary style with fluid hand-held camera which often gives a paranoid feel to the film, as the camera sort of jolts about. The film is absorbing, but the family just a touch too neurotic for it to be that much fun to be with them as the viewer. But - Anne Hathaway gives a terrific, totally believable Oscar-nominated performance here and the colorful wedding is original in style and fun to watch. I must say, this family must be in with some really good musicians, all sorts of great live music at their wedding event - with lots of bright, exotic costumes. Rating - 8/10 stars

Australia (2008) Film Review - Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman

Plot Summary - Sweeping historical epic set in the Northern Outback country of Australia at the brink of WWII - a land of Aborigines, crocodiles, and cattle barons. Lady Ashley (Nicole Kidman) arrives from England to bring her husband home and sell their Australia cattle plantation, Faraway Downs, but instead finds her husband murdered. She fires the head rancher/bad man when she finds he has been stealing cattle, then hooks up with a rough and rugged - yet oh so handsome - man, The Drover (Hugh Jackman), to drive her cattle to Darwin to sell. They put together a rag-tag bunch to run the cattle - including prim, proper Lady Ashley herself - and a charming little Aborigine half-caste boy named Nullah who sort of came with the place and is at risk of being caught by police and sent to "Mission Island" to be assimilated - hmm. Troubles come at every turn with said bad man and his band of toughs who try to stop them. Soon WWII and the Japanese air-raids risk all their safely. And of course - a love match is inevitable between Lady Ashley and our hunk.

Review - Very entertaining and gorgeously photographed on location - a vista full of colors. The film includes a bit of humor in the form of a sort of Indiana Jones type story - - the love story here is strong. The young actor, Brandon Walters, who plays Nullah is very special - and what a beautiful face, his big eyes just fill the screen! This film got better as I got into the story - the nearly 3-hour length helped me get involved with the characters. I love epics like this, the film caught me. By the way, the Blu-ray looked great! Rating - 9.5/10 stars

I've Loved You So Long (2008) Film Review

Plot Summary - French language film centering around two sisters. Older sister Juliette arrives to live with her younger sister Lea and family after being in prison for fifteen years for murdering her young son. The secret is kept from friends, colleagues, and Lea's two little girls who can't understand why they never met Auntie before. Juliette is very quiet and stand-offish but gradually starts to come out of her shell, get a job, and reconnect with her sister.

Review - This is an absorbing film, quiet and slow for the most part - it completely held my interest. Kirstin Scott Thomas does an excellent job playing the quietly troubled Juliette. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Thursday Notes

Well, I've been on a sort of vacation at home all last week - I went to the World Figure Skating Championships with an all-event ticket over at the Staples Center here in Los Angeles, spent about 55 hours over the course of the week snug as a bug in my seat watching live figure skating by top skaters from around the world (row 4 ticket but ended up being front row of my section with a few rows in front removed for photographers - luckily below eye level - woo hoo!), and had a really great time! Wish I could do something like that every year - see I do have other interests besides movies!
Here's my blog write-up on the event, for those interested.

I have a back-up of movie reviews I have written but haven't posted yet - watched them a few weeks ago, and I've already seen two movies yesterday and today that I'll be putting reviews up for soon as I can.

Mulholland Drive (2001) Film Review - David Lynch directed

Plot Summary - A psychological thriller, set in Los Angeles - written and directed by David Lynch. A woman (Laura Harring) - just about to be executed at gunpoint by two bad guys - is in a car wreck on Mulholland Drive, then finds herself amnesia-bound, with no memory of who she is as she sneaks from the accident scene and into a nearby apartment. Actress Betty (Naomi Watts) comes to L.A. seeking stardom, and arrives the same day to stay in the apartment while her aunt, who owns it, is out of town. Oddly befriending the woman who is found camping in the apartment, the two join forces to solve the mystery of who this woman is. Meanwhile, a separate story involves a director who is being "coaxed" by some mafia types into hiring a certain actress for his new film. How these, and other - seemingly unrelated stories - piece together is the mystery of it - really the mystery!!

Review - Okay, this film is an odd one - and being written and directed by David Lynch, that's no surprise (hmm, the most bizarre film I've ever seen in my life, Eraserhead (1977), was his creation). I found the film confusing in a way - but thought-inspiring and, well, what I might call "creepy cool". The style of the film is interesting, tense, sort of mesmerizingly weird - with lots of facial close-ups, odd camera movements, and typical David Lynch background music and assortment of odd characters. Rating - 9/10 stars

Libeled Lady (1936) Film Review - Harlow, Tracy, Loy, Powell

Plot Summary - Romantic comedy with a touch of screwball and featuring four great Thirties stars. When a New York newspaper is facing a libel suit for five million dollars over a false story calling one of the "richest girls in America", playgirl Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy), a "husband stealer", gung-ho newspaper man, Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy), must come up with a way to get rid of the lawsuit and save the paper. He recruits former colleague and libel expert Bill Chandler (William Powell) to help and they come up with an idea to prove Connie an actual husband stealer. So - Bill marries Warren's fiancee Gladys (Jean Harlow) - a hot-tempered blonde often sporting frilly negligee and a pair of mules - with plans to set up Connie for a fall with Gladys posing as a "wronged wife" (then later sending Gladys to Reno for a quickie divorce). Bill heads for London to travel back on the same ocean liner as Connie and her father, then attempts to befriend the pair basically by kissing up to the dad, exchanging fish stories and posing as a great angler (dad's favorite hobby) - - as it happens, Bill has never fished and has to study up in books! Bill and Connie start to fall for each other - will he go through with the frame up, will she drop the lawsuit? Hmm - just you watch.

Review - This is a great film - I've seen it a number of times before and it still makes me laugh, very amusing! With the star power of Myrna Loy, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, and Jean Harlow all together in one film, it would be hard for this one not to work. The script is well written and features lots of snappy dialogue, the story is fun to watch. Loy and Powell certainly have their usual onscreen chemistry together - and I really think Jean Harlow practically steals the show, even with all those other stars - she's over-the-top, even a bit campy in this, and she dominates every scene she's in - fun stuff. I love this movie! Rating - 10/10 stars

Zach and Miri Make a Porno (2008) - Seth Rogen

Plot Summary - Zach (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are childhood friends/platonic roommates who don't earn enough from Zach's job at a Pittsburgh coffee bar to pay the bills (I don't know if it is ever explained in the film what Miri does or doesn't do/is she out of work or what?). When first their water, then their electricity is shut off they come up with a plan to earn some cash - make a porno movie starring each other! They also round up a few wannabee porn stars to fill out the film, come up with a title, and start shooting. Um - silly stuff to come, with a little romance thrown in between our two stars (coulda seen that coming).

Review - A very silly comedy, not very funny (I believe I had one laugh-out-loud in this) - includes a few pieces of gross-out humor which I don't like. This film actually started okay, then got worse as it went along - I was getting sort of bored waiting for it to end. Seth Rogen is an amusing guy (I am a fan of all the actors from "Freaks and Geeks") but this, while not a super bad movie - is far from good either. For those wondering - there is some nudity and simulated sex scenes done in a comedy style (so this one is not a comedy for the kiddies), including male full frontal. Rating - 5.5/10 stars

The Phantom of the Opera (2004) Film Review

Plot Summary - In 1870 Paris, the Opera House is haunted by the infamous "Phantom" - a disfigured man who wears a mask covering half his face and lives in the underground sewers below the Opera. The Phantom loves from a distance a beautiful teenage singer named Christine - he gives demands to those who own the Opera company via letters to give Christine the lead. Christine's singing voice has been well coached, by the voice of the Phantom himself - - she believes he is the "Angel of Music", the spirit of her deceased father. The Phantom encounters her and brings her to visit his chambers via boat - - and meanwhile, Christine is romanced by her handsome childhood sweetheart who she still loves, sparking jealousy in the heart of poor Phantom. A real Gothic love triangle is basically what's at the heart of this story.

Review - Okay, yes, I am a fan of musical theater and of Andrew Lloyd Webber - I have seen this performed on the stage here in Los Angeles. I must say this film version of the stage musical is just terrific, the costumes lavish and colorful, the art and set direction spectacular - I absolutely loved this. Of course, the whole thing is helped along by featuring a wonderful music score and vocals, which fills the majority of the production. Emmy Rossum, who plays Christine, has a lovely singing voice - Gerard Butler makes a very attractive Phantom, I must say, even with his mask off you could still see his handsome features shining through - hmm, I half thought Christine should just go for him, so what about the scars! And by the way, this film looked stunningly gorgeous on Blu-ray. I just watched this and already feel like seeing it again! Rating - 10/10 stars

Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943) Film Review - Alice Faye

Plot Summary - WWII Technicolor musical set in the lively Barbary Coast music halls of the last turn-of-the-century. Alice Faye plays Trudy Evans, honky tonk singer who performs in a foursome with her fellow, Johnny (John Payne), and their two sidekick pals (June Havoc and Jack Oakie). After getting fired for performing their "new act", the four start giving free performances on the street in front of all the honky tonks, prompting bribes from the owners to stop - and leading Johnny into enough cash to open his own club, the "Grizzly Bear" (featuring "Girls - Girly Girls - Shapely Girls" with "food wine liquors unsurpassed"). Soon successful Johnny owns a string of music halls, including a Rollerdrome, and Trudy is famous on the Barbary Coast for her vocals (and beauty, I would guess!). But ambitions to get himself to wealthy Nob Hill leads Johnny into a relationship with another woman, Nob Hill society gal Bernice Croft, aggressive pursuer of Johnny and soon down on her luck. Troubles for Johnny, but more success for Trudy to come.

Review - Full of colorful, entertaining musical numbers including a fun act on roller skates featuring a great skating duo, plus Alice Faye singing the famous "You'll Never Know" three times during the film, her vocals so wonderful, rich and deep. The film is rich in music but lacks in the romance department, which fairly falls flat, Faye's relationship with her man sort of a side issue to all the production numbers - and I find it hard to really root for her relationship with Payne's character when he's such a heel and oh so non-appreciative of her loyalty to him. The Technicolor (which looks very nice on the DVD) makes for some brilliantly colored productions, by the way, the costumes and gowns in the film are lavishly bright and gorgeous! Alice Faye perhaps never looked more beautiful than in this film; it's really all about the songs, the colors, and the big feathered hats when watching this film - not so much the plot, which I found just a tad boring. Rating - 7.5/10 stars