"Ballerina"

Watched on Netflix Instant Watch. Narrated in English with some subtitles for Russian or French.

This is a documentary about ballet - specifically about a group of ballerinas at the Kirov Ballet Company in Russia. After watching this you cannot deny that ballet is a very beautiful athletic event. The dancers have incredible bodies, born for ballet and then, if they are lucky enough to get into the prestigious ballet schools of Russia, they refine that body so that it is muscular, graceful, coordinated and supple. When the hopeful beginners, who want to be chosen for ballet school are tested, it's painful to watch the "evaluator" lift the dancer's back leg, in it's straight position, toe pointed, up behind them until it almost reaches the back of their head. But, they do it and do it without complaint. A potential must have the "body type" - small head, long neck, long legs and slender (basically no boobs either). They look very delicate and tiny. However, physically and mentally, they are very, very tough.

The film focuses on 5 ballerinas. Some are already prima ballerinas, the highest level of ballerina and the others are hopefuls on their way to becoming prima ballerinas. They are all Russians. Apparently, all young Russian girls aspire to become ballerinas, but of course, very few actually do and only a tiny percentage ever become prima ballerinas.

We get to watch them work and they work very hard. The instructors demand perfection and the ballerina of this caliber, gives it.

Included are actual ballet performances that are breathtaking. The incredible grace and beauty of the ballet movements actually brought tears to my eyes. I was that moved. Wonderful. I appreciate the ballet so much more than I used to after this film.

I've attended a couple of ballets in the past while living in big metropolitan areas and was bored. They are usually lengthy affairs. Watching excerpts was not boring. So, I can't say I would want to sit through another entire ballet, but perhaps so, if these ballerinas were the performers - this is not likely to happen, though. Perhaps I will see if there are ballets on film - that would be a good compromise between attending one where I am somewhat captive and watching one on film, where I can move ahead in the performance or get up and get a snack or go for a hike and then come back later to finish it. I'm sure ballet purists would be horrified......gee I'm sorry about that.

Here's a beautiful excerpt of the ballet "Swan Lake" from UTube. OK, so the guys look a little "interesting". Despite this, watching the prima ballerina is an exceptional treat and when the prima guy dancer (I don't know if they are also ballerinas) does dance solo, you will see such controlled power. There are many other ballet excerpts that can be watched on UTube also by typing in Kirov Ballet.

...and here's the short trailer for "Ballerina".

Rating for "Ballerina"

"Lone Star"

Watched on Netflix Instant Watch - with earphones (as usual)

Chris Cooper, who plays Sheriff Sam Deeds, is such an interesting actor. He has a great voice, deep and gravelly, but not too much so. I like the way he pronounces his words and I am fascinated by his face. He is what I would call "out of prime handsome". In other words, his face is attractive and has hints of handsomeness, but there's a sort of droopiness to it that keeps him from being too attractive and that's all a good thing. He has a little pot belly too, at least in this movie.

He stars in this very good, very well constructed murder mystery. However, the 40 year old unsolved murder is only the cornerstone of this skyscraper of a movie. Many characters are introduced with all of their accompanying predicaments and stories. Layer upon layer is added. You become totally absorbed up until the ending that has it's own special twist.

All of the acting is good. The love interest for Sheriff Deeds is a Hispanic school teacher well portrayed by actress Elizabeth Pena. Petite and pretty, she and the Sheriff have a past together that comes to play throughout the movie.

There is a lot of skipping around between various "stories", past and present. In a couple of instances this is a little distracting but not so much so that you lose interest.

The old unsolved murder also has an unknown victim for a short time until forensics are completed and the skeletal remain are identified leading Deeds to begin the process of investigation of this death.

Kris Kristofferson plays a really bad guy - a corrupt Sheriff of a prior era who is cruel and has no compunction in shooting people who are brown or black at the slightest provocation. KK is another one with a great speaking voice and although I have never considered him a particularly gifted actor, he does manage to create a very unpleasant and threatening presence on the screen here.

I can't go into much of the plot without giving a lot of it away. You will have to watch this movie to find out what happens.

Oh and a very, very young looking Francis McDormand plays a bubbleheaded ex-wife named Bunny. You've got to see her to believe her. She really gets on your nerves, so it's a good thing she only has a small part.

Oh and Matthew McConaughy is also in this movie. It appears that some of the movie trailers and posters try to make him look like one of the main stars, but actually he is only in the movie for maybe a maximum of 10 minutes. I have to say that he is not one of my favorite actors - he seems like he would be very conceited and careless with other people's hearts, but I could be wrong.

Go the the Internet Movie Database here to see trailers and just about anything else you want to know about this movie and it's stars.

Rating for "Lone Star"

UP (Pixar's latest)

Viewed in3D at our local Metrolux theatre. Brought a drink, but actually bought popcorn although it was, as usual, ridiculously expensive and incredibly salty.

UP was, as all other reviews pretty much unanimously agree, very good. I wouldn't put it in the same category as the Toy Storys, Cars or the Incredibles, but it was very entertaining and great to view - especially in 3D.

That's me there in the second row in my formal laughing hysterically. I just wish I'd worn my hat like the bored blond in the third row who looks like she sucked a persimmon. Ah, dressing up for the movies.......a bit different from attire we typically wear now. I actually saw someone in the furry bathroom slippers one time. America is somewhat more casual now, to say the least.


We were wondering about those glasses, they were not the usual old flimsy paper glasses that were used to view 3D back when, but a newer version in heavier plastic and probably more sophisticated in how they work (though I could be wrong). Anyway, they were comfortable and fit over our glasses. At first, it was a little distracting to wear them, but after about 5 minutes, I forgot they were there.

The best part of this movie is that Disney chose an elderly person as the main character. He's a crotchety old bugger named Carl, but crotchety only because the love of his life left him behind after she died. Ellie, his wife, is depicted at the beginning of the movie in a little mini movie about how they met and loved and lived together. After that the story of UP takes off, literally.

It's an adventure story featuring Carl's old house, carried aloft by jillions of colorful balloons as you've probably seen on posters, tv, etc.. It's part of his clever plan to escape the city and find Paradise Falls, a place where Ellie had always wanted to eventually live. A chubby little boy is introduced into the story as Carl's sidekick.

Together they face danger, a bad guy, an exotic bird and some weird dogs in the land of Paradise Falls. All ends well, as you would expect.

The animation is beautiful with softly bright colors - somewhat like a painting, particularly when the house is floating through the cloud covered sky. Going through the clouds in 3D was especially delightful. The 3D experience was novel at first, but then you get used to it and the way things pop out at you isn't that new anymore. Not that it isn't great, it's just that the newness of the technique becomes natural. Did I feel like it added a lot to the movie viewing experience? No. I could still view Pixar movies without it and like them just as much. Based upon previews we saw, though, it looks like more 3D is on the way. Here's the trailer, simple, but beautiful.

"Star Trek" (2009)

The Originals

The "New" Originals

Viewed on the big screen at the local Metrolux with the usual contraband snack foods.

We are science fiction fans and especially science fiction with great special effects. Movies about space, the final frontier, tend to get us pretty excited too. So, after seeing the high movie rating on Rotten Tomatoes, we made the trek to the theatre on a rainy Saturday evening in anticipation of being entertained for a couple of hours.......and we were.

Totally engrossing, very well put together, full of action, with fine looking people and certainly the best Star Trek ever.

The movie, without giving away a lot of the story, goes back to the beginning, when each Star Trek character was just starting out. This had to be fun to write, nothing was pre-ordained regarding how the characters came into being (as far as I know) and ended up together on the Enterprise. So, we get to see James Kirk as a baby, a youngster and then as a brash, reckless but brilliant young man. How he gets to be the captain of the Enterprise involves lots of very fun to watch action and interaction with the other people who will eventually populate the bridge of the spaceship with him.

The casting was impeccable. You can see that it was done to try and come close to the original look of each character. But, it's different enough to make it better. Spock, played by Zachary Quinto, is perfection. There is no one else I can think of who would have looked so dead on. (He was the really bad guy in the TV series "Heroes".) His Spock interpretation and camaraderie (or not) with Captain Kirk is fun to watch. Captain Kirk, played by an attractive young man named Chris Pine was also perfectly cast. About the only resemblance between he and the original Captain (William Shatner) is the slightly stocky build and the thick neck topped with a nice thatch of thick hair. Beyond that, they don't look the same. The 2009 Captain Kirk is much more of a rowdy and has a rebellious streak that, combined with his apparently very high IQ, makes him a lethal combination when it comes to being a leader and dealing with arc enemies.

All of the sidekicks on the Enterprise bridge, Scotty, Bones, Uhura, Chekov, Sulu are superb. and of course, extremely smart or they wouldn't be in such lofty technical positions. Also sexy (in the case of Uhura), funny (Chekov), tough (Sulu), fiery (Bones) and precociously outspoken (Scotty). This Star Trek has a nicely added feature of romance between two of the characters that I won't reveal. Suffice to say, it's good and unexpected.

The Romulan bad guy, who I didn't recognize due to his makeup, was played with nasty gusto by Eric Bana. Throughout the movie I knew I sort of recognized him by his eyes, but was never able to place him. Now that I've looked at IMDB and know it was Bana, it's pretty obvious. The makeup job on he and his fellow nasties is very punk, with piercings, tattoos and sort of crudely rendered patterns of scar tissue. Their faces are broad, menacing and unshaven. The Romulan ship, the Narada, is a nightmare with sharp, barbed features, darkness throughout punctuated by the occasional green glowing something or other. Tubes. Leathery things. Dark Water.

Lively, intelligent story, lots of super spacey images and special effects. One of my favorite scenes is in the Iowa of the future where James T. Kirk has grown up. There are flat lands, corn fields and then suddenly a space station.

What a movie. Can't wait to see more of this next generation of Star Trek. They have hit the jackpot and with this successful new beginning are sure to reap a whole new set of fans to follow it's latest franchise. The only negative thing to say is that it will be hard to keep up this pace - this movie set a very high standard.

Rating for "Star Trek"

Here's the trailer.

"Diarios de motocicleta" ("The Motorcycle Dairies")

Watched on Netflix Instant Watch. Language is Spanish, movie is subtitled.

This seemed like a long movie. A little over 2 hours. I've watched movies of this length and didn't feel like they were long. So, either there were slow spots in this one or reading subtitles became tiring (I suspect the last). Nevertheless, it was very good.

I did not realize until the end that it was a story about part of the early life of Che Guevara. I have since read quite a bit about this revolutionary figure and found it to be very fascinating. This movie is based upon diaries he wrote on a cross country motorcycle trip through Latin America with his best friend, Alberto Granado. They were both educated, Che or "Fuser", his nickname, had almost completed medical school and his friend had already done so. Both came from educated, well-to-do families compared to the average Latin American citizen. However, this trip apparently opened Che's eyes to many injustices and inequalities that shaped him into the world renowned revolutionary he eventually became.

The movie depicts the travels of these two best friends in the early 1950's with pathos and humor. The plan is to travel an 8,000 mile route. They traverse all types of terrain, have many adventures and meet many people. They ride on an old worn out motorcycle that they name "The Mighty One". Eventually, "The Mighty One" dies and they travel on foot for the rest of the trip.

Both men are handsome. Alberto is fun. Fuser is more serious. To watch Alberto dance and concoct pickup lines to use on the ladies makes for lively entertainment and some laughs. Fuser is more contemplative, but nevertheless joins the fun occasionally.

Most of the movie centers on their visit to a leper colony in San Pablo. As physicians, they volunteer to help. Despite the rules imposed by the nuns of the colony that requires all visitors to wear rubber gloves when in contact with the lepers, they refuse to do so and in this way, Che shows everyone that he considers the lepers his equal, despite their disfiguring disease. They work hard, doing manual labor and treating patients. The lepers are on their own island across the river from the staff, but Che spends much time in the leper colony and as a result, endears himself greatly with the patients and staff. The movie conveys to us that this particular time in the colony, along with the prior trip encounters with poverty and helplessness, turn Che into another person, the one who will fight injustice.

I did read a history of Che Guevara on Wikipedia - see link above in Paragraph 1. Although I believe he was misguided, it is of note that he still had a great conviction that he acted upon and that is more than can be said of most of us. His ideals and methods were not necessarily good, though. There are millions who would disagree with me on that. It appears that he, although very compassionate in many ways, was also brutal. But, what do I know of revolution? In order to make changes of great magnitude, maybe armed warfare is sometimes the only solution.

The Motorcycle Diaries is a movie worth viewing in order to see one that is done well with a good story and acting. Also, it's based on fact, so that makes it more interesting. In addition, the scenery of Latin America is breathtaking.

We get to see the regular, real citizens of the country, not Hollywood stereotypes. I think that many times, those of us who live in comfortable, easy circumstances, do not think that people in other, less comfortable, less easy circumstances are as "good" or as "fulfilled" as we are. This movie made me think about how wrong that it is to assume such things. We have traveled some, not much, but some, and if you travel at all and see other places in the world, you realize that some places are much better than where we live. Not necessarily in material ways, but in peace and contentment and way of life.

Rating for "The Motorcycle Dairies:

"Doubt"

Rented at Blockbuster, viewed at home whilst refreshing rain pelted down outside and we dined upon Chipolte naked chicken burritos - with guacamole.

I just realized that my last review was on the movie "Knowing". Kind of weird that this one is on "Doubt". Just a coincidence, I'm sure. But really, are there ever any coincidences or is there some sort of heebie jeebie cosmic plan afoot? ...........please, excuse me, I digress.

Meryl Streep. What can I say? She is the best actress in the world - at least of any actresses I've ever seen. I also suspect that she is a really nice regular person too. When I saw her at the Academy Awards on television recently, I was certainly struck by how dignified and humble she appears. She doesn't do Hollywood glamorous, but she looks great. She is not caked with makeup, doesn't appear to mind a few lines on her face and seems rather peaceful. As Sister Aloysius Beauvier in Doubt, she once again creates a brilliant character in our memories.

I was hesitant to watch a movie revolving around religion, as it just didn't sound like something that would be entertaining. Possibly enlightening, but not entertaining. I was wrong. This is a full scale drama that is entertaining. Every character is interesting. Philip Seymour Hoffman, also another great actor in my opinion, portrays the role of Father Brendan Flynn and just as we see with the Meryl Streep performance, he becomes the character. Their performances are so finely tuned, that you no longer watch their performance, but you watch their characters as if they are real. This is acting. Both were deservedly nominated for Academy Awards although neither one won (not that they haven't before, though). They were powerhouses on the screen together - wow.

Amy Adams, she of Enchanted, Junebug (the first movie I saw her in), Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day and many others, is Sister James, a wide-eyed young nun who teaches in the Catholic school where Sister Aloysius is the principal from hell. Sister James and Sister Aloysius develop a sort of interesting relationship that is part admiration for each other mixed with outrage on the part of Sister James and I believe, envy on the part of Sister Aloysuis. Whatever the case, it's great to watch it unfold and develop.

The story revolves around a suspicion regarding Father Flynn and one of the male students at the school. Sister James believes she has seen something that is untoward and so she shares it with the principal. This sets the principal off on a quest to remove him from the parish based mainly upon her suspicions and lack of hard facts. You will have to watch the movie to see how this all turns out.

It's a movie for mature audiences, not for any language or sexual content, but for sophistication of the dialog and story. My movie partner and I liked it a lot.

A side note: I am very, very excited to see that Meryl Streep will star as Julia Child and that Amy Adams will co-star with her in an upcoming movie. I have several Julia Child cookbooks, used to watch all of her cooking shows, have made lots of her recipes and so, so look forward to seeing my favorite actress playing my favorite chef. Can't wait.

Rating for "Doubt"

Here's the trailer:

"Knowing"

Viewed at the local Metrolux during the matinee with contraband foods from my pursey/backpack.

In a word, GREAT. This is a great movie. Stunning, very suspenseful, surprising, incredible special effects and super acting. Our man, Mr. Nicholas Cage picked a winner this time. He is very convincing as an MIT professor who stumbles upon a number code from a time capsule that predicts disasters. The time capsule has been opened at his son's elementary school after being buried for 50 years. Envelopes inside, placed by the children 50 years before, are handed out to the present day students. His son ends up with the one that is the premise of this story.

Nicholas is John Koestler and he does a fine job of depicting this man as an intelligent, sad, intense man who is a good father and loves his son. He is a widower who drinks to blot out the memory of his wife's death and may have continued down that path except for the disturbing discovery that puts him on a path to prevent predicted disasters and to finally to discover the final disaster that will end the world.

Mind blowing disaster special effects. We were agog. I won't reveal what they are, but suffice to say, they are scary in their reality. There are deaths, but they aren't gory, so I didn't have to close my eyes.

Can John, his son and the woman and her daughter they meet save the world? Why are the two children so connected? Why is it that only they can hear the whisperings of the strange, tall creatures waiting in the fog and who are the strange, tall creatures waiting in the fog?

There's lots of fog in this movie that certainly adds to the suspense. Speaking of suspense, one of the best ways I've seen it depicted is used here. A car is being driven at night through a forest-ey place and you are looking out of the windshield seeing the headlights sweep the oncoming stark tree trunks, tall grasses and deep foliage. You are in anticipation of the headlights suddenly revealing a thing of terror - or emptiness, which can sometimes be more frightening.

This movie has some Biblical overtones, Hollywood style, of course. The end of the world, predicted in the scriptures, is very simlar to the one in this movie, but without certain embellishments that are extraterrestrial in nature. John's father is a minister and so there is a little spiritually related dialog there. As a side note, I have noticed that so many movies now are tinged with a dark spiritual atmosphere - it's strange and I don't know what it means about the people who make the movies and those of us who watch them although I do have some thoughts about it that I may share some other time.

Whatever the case, if you like an intelligently made, suspenseful movie filled with great characters, having excellent cinematography and fantastic special effects, see it. It's PG-13. This is not a movie for children.

You will be entertained.

Rating for "Knowing"

Here's the trailer:

"Only You"

Viewed on Netflix Instant Watch sitting on the bed eating a bowl of Raisin Bran

When I start surfing Netflix Instant for something to watch, I get caught up in the surfing and its takes me a while before I find "the movie" to watch. I will see one offering that looks promising, but wait, on the next page there might be a better one or on the next page. Anyway, I keep paging through the choices until I've forgotten what it was that was originally promising.

This movie choice happened to be on the front page and I actually chose it right away. I like both Marisa Tomei (Faith in the movie) and Robert Downey Jr. (Peter in the movie). I also think Bonnie Hunt is cute. She plays Faith's sister, Kate. Every time I hear her in a movie now, I think of the Pixar movie, Cars. She voices the cute blue little love interest girl car and does a memorable job - great voice, sort of husky and lively.

In describing this movie, I would say part travelogue (Italy), somewhat shallow and a little too cutesy for my tastes. But that's not to say I didn't like it. It was entertaining, with a few interesting turns in the story to keep your interest. I love the way both of the stars looked. Both have dark, shiny full heads of hair. Marisa is delicately lovely and somewhere in her mouth vicinity, maybe it's her teeth, there's a sort of Pretty Pony face look that is very lovely. (That's a very strange, but apt descripton.... ) Robert Downey has the best eyes and the rest of his face ain't chopped liver. This movie was made in 1994 and he looks much better now (Ironman) - maybe because he is no longer a drug addict. At least we hope he has managed to escape that nasty trap.

The story revolves around Faith's belief that a guy named Damon Bradley, whose name was foretold to her and who she doesn't even know exists, is her true soul mate. When a Damon Bradley calls from Italy a few days before her wedding to congratulate her fiancee, it sets Faith and her sister on the trail to find him which involves their traveling to Italy and so on... The rest of the movie follows their various escapades on that quest. Faith runs into Peter, Peter falls in love with her and woos her under false pretenses. She finds out, dumps him but he won't be dumped. Meanwhile, Kate, whose marriage is rocky, explores Italy with a gigolo, but maintains her purity. After much to do, all ends well for everyone involved. In the meantime, we get to see some of the most gorgeous Italian countryside imaginable and watch Faith do some serious drama - almost too much at times. She's very passionate about her quest, she's very angry at deceit, she's very nervous about meeting Damon, she's very depressed and so on. A wide range of emotions are played out, giving Ms. Tomei a chance to show her wide range of acting skills. I liked her best when she was being mushy, her eyes are so big and bright, set like two soft brown pools on her perfectly flawless face. She must have the freshest skin in Hollywood - it looks like she bathes her face in morning dew.

If you are looking for a romance movie with some good scenery and great looking stars that won't challenge you much, then this is a movie you should see.

Rating for "Only You"

"The Lucky Ones"

Rented from Blockbuster. Watched while eating Papa Murphy's Gourmet Chicken Garlic pizza which, by the way, has gone way down in quality and flavor during the past 5 years we've ordered it. (Heads up, Papa!)

OK. So the first thing that attracted me to this movie was Tim Robbins on the front cover looking sort of muscle-ly in a white tee shirt. Then the 5 stars caught my eye, I read the back cover and decided to believe the raving reviews this time, especially since this movie was not a box office hit, if it even did make it to the theatres. I'd never heard of it.

It was great. A movie about a relationship between 3 Army soldiers on 30 day leave. Two males and one female who, though a series of transportation issues, end up traveling together cross country. The movie is about how they relate, who they run in to, mishaps, laughs and upsets. Each soldier has a service related injury that figures into the story to varying degrees. There are tender moments, crass moments, sad moments and funny moments.

Tim Robbins, who, in real life is married to Susan Sarandon (the Hollywood star that has gone to jail on principal), is a peace activist (as is Susan, hence her jail stint). So it's strange to me that he plays a straight forward Army soldier (Fred Cheaver) and there are no overtly impassioned negative statements that carry an underlying message. This is probably because, although he and his spouse are peaceniks, he realizes that soldiers are just people who sometimes enlist for reasons having nothing directly to do with wanting to fight and put themselves in danger for their country - it just happened that they got to do just that after they enlisted. So, this movie is sympathetic to military personnel for the most part and, certainly so to these three personnel.

Rachel McAdams plays Colee, a sort of bubble headed little tough girl who is really quite sweet. She's probably a lot cuter than most girls who enlist, but hey, American movies are rarely able to show real people or no one would go to see them. Whatever the case, she is great in the part and does a wonderful job.

T.K. Poole is very aptly played by Michael Pena. T.K. is an intelligent, caring, tough on the outside, but heart of gold kind of guy. He gives you the impression that he has got it all together and knows just what he is going to do with his life, which turns out to be only partly true. You get the impression he was raised in a rough setting, but one where his family unit survived and thrived. It would have been easy for the storyline to have he and Colee to "get it on" and for the movie to be cheapened by the experience. As it is, they have an attraction that is obvious, but only slightly approached. We figure that maybe, sometime in the future, if they both live, they may come back together for a lifetime.

All in all, there are many very good moments in this movie. It was rated R. There is some language as you expect from soldiers, there are some sexual things also. The movie wouldn't be good without them, I'm afraid. When these types of things are realistic to the story being told and not just there because someone wanted to be sure all their Hollywood friends would think that they were "trashy and cool", I feel they can be justified as long as it doesn't get to be too "in your face".

Rating for "The Lucky Ones":

Here's the trailer.

"QUANTUM OF SOLACE"

The Mediterranean

Low profile sports cars with stick shifts, revving engines and screaming tires

Tough and sexy thin girl that is seeking revenge against killers of her family and is at odds with Bond, but we all know they will have sex

Monte Carlo or Port Au Prince or Italy or other exotic international locale with lots of small, one-way, cobbled streets

An American Idiot (what else)

Car chase

Boat chase

Aircraft chase

Beautiful Judy Dench as M using face cream in an incredible bathroom

Martinis in pretty glasses at a glittering bar with a slick international bartender

Violence that would kill you, but only leaves a little dirt and a few well placed scratches on Bond and the Bond girl

Double agents who infiltrate everywhere

Villains without conscience who kill on a whim and want to sexually abuse the Bond girl

Extravagant resorts and hotels with shiny entrances, doormen and women in slinky dresses being escorted in by dudes in tuxes

A villain's yacht with lots of his villain henchmen in sleek smaller boats that chase Bond in his speedy working man's boat

Bond, tougher than nails, able to kill with one shot after leaping from one to the other of many badly maintained Mediterranean roof tiled structures while chasing his prey

Bond, dispassionately able to look his adversary in the eye and release his hold on the man's lapels allowing him to fall many stories down and land on the hood of a car full of villains, one of whom gets out of the car and shoots the man who is struggling off of the hood

A beautiful girl sent to manhandle Bond (ha) and ends up having sex with him but after he leaves, she gets killed and covered in oil by the villains while on the bed

Bond, being doubted by M, being ostracized as a rebel spy, but coming out smelling like a rose

OK. That's about it in a nutshell. It was mediocre, as expected. I didn't fall asleep although my eyes were heavy.

Rating for Quantum of Solace:

"ERNEST GOES TO JAIL"

Viewed at home on Netflix Instant Watch.

OK. I think I told you my tastes in movies covered a very wide range. When you consider that my favorite movies are Italian, like the Bicycle Thief and Divorce Italian Style and La Strada, it's probably hard to see how I could like the movie Ernest Goes to Jail. But I do.

1949 - 2000

Jim Varney. Without him, there would have been no "Ernest Goest To Jail". He is the reason this movie was made and the main reason that it is so funny. His rubber like face contorts into shapes that boggle the mind. The ever present, non changing uniform of jeans, tee shirt, jeans vest and ball cap. The absolute silliness. The moments when he feigns a dignified air and spouts Shakespearean gibberish. His innocence in a world of cynics. He is a a very likeable character.

The plot revolves around him in his job as bank janitor which, through a series of events, leads to him ending up in jail but eventually saving the day. Two bumbling security guards at the bank provide additional hilarity. One of the guards named Chuck is played by Gailard Sartain. I looked him up on Wikipedia and it appears that not only is he a talented comedic actor, but a very successful artist. Here's a website showing some of his art - I'm impressed. I love his performance in this movie and I wouldn't be surprised if Kevin James in Mall Cop (see my 1/29/09 movie review) based some of his character on that of Chuck in this movie. Both are big men, both light on their feet and both serious about their jobs to the point of ridiculousness. When Chuck dances to a Latin tango, oblivious to mayhem taking place in the bank, I'm hooked. His sidekick, Bobby, played by Bill Byrges, is the direct opposite of Chuck. Scrawny, false teeth missing, buggy eyed, a character very similar to Barney Fife in the Andy Griffith Show, only he never speaks (I think once in the entire movie). Here are Bobby and Chuck.

Jim Varney made several other Ernest movies and we did not enjoy them as much. This is the best one in our opinion and one that we will continue to watch occasionally just because it's guaranteed to make you laugh. Every few years, when we watch it, we feel a twinge of sadness to know that this talented guy is no longer around.

In closing, here's one of the most hilarious scenes in the movie. If you don't laugh, I think you might need to have your funny bone examined.

Rating for "Ernest Goes To Jail:

"Watchmen"

Viewed at the local Metrolux. Rated R and I went knowing I would probably have to shut my eyes in certain parts.

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I walked out in the garage where MerleMan was working on something. "I want to go see Watchmen", says I of the "urge to do SOMETHING - TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE". Roger Ebert gives it 4 stars and says it's good."

MerleMan eyeballs me as his mind, otherwise occupied with said task, starts to awaken to the proposed prospect of going to the movies and seeing superheroes. "That sounds OK."

It's a matinee at 5:10p, so we think we'd better to eat our dinner first - homemade green chili stew and flour tortillas. We decide to take our dessert with us and eat it in the movies - a big square of the chocolatey-est chocolate cake from the grocery story where they charge you $2.50 a slice. Just think how much they make on one sheet cake. "Better put that in a quieter container", says MerleMan who hates the sound of someone chewing gum or the rattle of candy wrappers or popcorn masticating (look it up). I had already planned to do just that and so I proceeded to transfer the decadent, moist, mouthwatering cake-iness to a nice plastic and virtually soundless container along with a napkin, two plastic forks and a small bottle of milk nestled in my backpack with those blue cold things from the freezer. We hit the road.

I write all of that stuff above because the movie isn't going to take up much space here. OK. It wasn't boring, at the least parts I could watch. It was VERY violent. It had violent cutting off of arms, violent sex, violent smashing of faces, heads, kicking of faces and bodies, sharp glass cutting human flesh, numerous crunchings of broken femurs and such, shootings, clubbings and pools, no, not pools, but lakes and seas of thick viscous blood. It had a particularly gruesome business about a 6 year old kidnapped little girl, one of the numerous times I had to shut my eyes. I could still hear and occasionally I would peek a bit to see if the really bad parts were over - they weren't. I remember telling myself "You knew it was R rated, you were the one who really wanted to see it, so you cannot complain. This is what you get when you decide to go to an R rated movie that says "violence, sexuality, language". What did you expect?"

Well, of course, the whole movie wasn't just violence, only about 85% of it. Some parts were quite funny. In fact, I suspect that much of it was supposed to be funny. The special effects were pretty great. There's a big blue guy who was a regular human until he had an accident with radiation and he's interesting..... a deep, naked thinker. There's a superhero girl who of course, kicks some serious butt and bares her own upon occasion adding to the great enjoyment of all the males in the audience.

I guess I needed to read the DC Comic book about these characters and maybe I would have been able to get into it a bit more. As it was, the story was back and forth and a little choppy in jumping from one scene to the next. The world faces annihilation, the Watchmen could be getting killed off, is one of the superheroes the villain?, will the superhero girl and the superhero guy who looks vaguely like an owl get it on? (yes, they will - in the superhero aircraft that looks like a fat, stubby pickle).

I read the entire Roger Ebert review after I got home and I don't know how he came up with such a high opinion of this movie. He obviously is much more intelligent and sophisticated than poor little moi because he was able to really write a boatload of highly complimentary "stuff" about it. I just couldn't relate although I could agree it possibly had a few intelligent moments. They were just spaced way too much apart to allow this movie to be considered well done.

HOWEVER. I did think the best part of the movie was the opening credits - they really were different, creative and fantastic. Totally the best opening credits I've ever seen - really. They grabbed me right away and I was primed for this movie. Sadly, though, it never measured up to it's wonderful beginning. It's almost like they wasted all of their best creative efforts on the first 5 minutes of the movie.

Rating for "Watchmen"

"Vatel"

This is a movie I watched on Netflix Instant Watch. I love this movie! I saw it several years ago (rented) and watched it again for probably the 4th time a couple of evenings ago. It is beautiful to look at. The acting is great. The story (based upon a true one) is wonderful.

It's back in the day of Louis the XIV. His self absorbed kingship decides to honor one of his subjects who owns a beautiful French country estate, with a lengthy visit. He arrives in full regalia with his court entourage of beautiful concubines, his wife (the Queen), her handmaidens (concubines), a brother of a gay sort with his own entourage and then Tim Roth, who plays Marquis de Lauzun, a creepy "ear to the King" guy. However, it's the French estate and it's master steward that are the heart of the film. The master steward, named Vatel, is played by Gérard Depardieu, a big, kind hearted man with incredible talent for creating foods and events such as this one that he orchestrates. The food preparation, the hot, crowded noisy basement kitchens filled with all foods imaginable, the artistically designed pastry, the dessert - incredible. The sumptuousness of it all is so much fun to watch. In addition, the various stage settings that are designed for the King's amusement are quite breathtaking. Opulence taken to the extreme. It's beautiful and it's incredibly wasteful, but this was Louis the XIV, don't you know.

Uma Thurman plays one of the Queen's handmaidens who is at the beck and call of the King for his sexual pleasure. She is attracted to Vatel and he to her. However, the Marquis de Lauzun is attracted to her and pursues her in fashion that might be described as sleazy, sexual snake style. I don't know what else to call it. His pompadour wig is big with a sort of Elvis swoopy thing on top that makes you want to laugh. Suffice to say, Tim Roth pulls it off in a fascinatingly decadent way.

I won't give away more. It has to be seen. Although I don't believe it was a box office smash, it's one of those sleeper movies that most people (probably most women) will totally enjoy.

Rating for "Vatel"

"Then She Found Me" (TSFM)

Rented from Blockbuster

Awful. At first, it sort of seemed like maybe it was going to have something going for it, but a big NOT on that. I'm afraid Helen Hunt, who directed this, had better take directing lessons or something.

This brings me to the topic of those movie review blurps that are printed on the outside cover of the DVD. The ones that say "exceedingly funny", or "the best movie of this quarter" or "the acting is superb, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen". Who are these liars? Who paid them to lie? I'm at a loss. This movie had these types of things written on the printed DVD cover and it was nothing like that. I know, everyone has different tastes, but there are some basic things and although this movie tried, it didn't work.

Now, being a middle aged woman, I have no stones to throw when it comes to beauty. However, Helen Hunt, who not only directed, but stars in TSFM, was not looking good. Both my husband and I were appalled at her thinness, which we believe is the main reason behind the fact that she looked haggard and unhealthy. She is not an older woman, but she looked older than her co-star, Bette Midler, who is a woman of a slightly older age. I appreciate the fact that Helen is not afraid to show her "real self" in front of the movie camera but to also have dialog at various times stating, in Colin Firth's words, "You are a beautiful woman", was just a bit incongruous considering that she was not just prettily plain, but obviously suffering from the effects of a close to, if not totally, anorexic lifestyle.

Sorry about that. It's just so obvious that she needs to put on a couple of pounds that will make her face look softer.

I can't waste anymore time with the movie. I wish I had more cowpies to give it so I'll use brown type instead.

Rating for Then She Found Me

Television: Madmen

Renting the seasons of this television series as they become available.

I've viewed almost all of Season I and I'm hooked. I was hooked after the first Episode. It's the characters and how everything looks. The story is secondary, as far as I'm concerned, although it also is very good. Revolving around the characters in a New York 1960's ad agency there are the clothes, the hair, the smoking, the drinking everywhere including in the office, the dominating males, the sleazy males and females, the secretarial pool, the switchboard operators - just everything that is reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn and Rock Hudson. It's just too, too cool.

I heard the remnant of an interview on PBS with Matthew Weiner who wrote it. He had it down pat. I was only about 10 years old at this time, but I remember no seat belts in the car and having no fear of dry cleaning bags. I remember wearing big petticoats that made my gathered skirt stick out like a flower. Garter belts - I wore one, but remember that my Dad said I was so skinny I probably needed suspenders to hold it up. I remember I wore those cat eye glasses, too.

Anyway, it's really just a very glamorous soap opera with all sorts of tomcatting by both sexes. But that's not all. There are intrigues of the ad agency sort, some serious backstabbing and office gossiping. It all adds up to a very entertaining series. It does move slowly, but that's OK. I want to be able to savor the pink dress with the tiny white belt, the 1960's era home decorating or watch the slatternly, bohemian artist maneater wearing a belly baring Mexican top and stacks of funky bracelets on her arms. Her friends are inclined to beatnik rebelness. (That's like in rebel)

The language is not terrible. The dialog includes what typically chauvinistic males of that era might use and it's at times rather vulgar. The affairs are steamy, but not too much so. It's the atmosphere that draws you along with the assortment of characters that are not easily forgotten.

Just watch it if you have cable or rent it if you don't.

Rating for Mad Men

Gran Torino

Viewed at the local multiplex full theatre

This is one of the R rated movies. It was great.

Clint Eastwood directs and stars. He has gone way past the days of being Rowdy Yates in the 1959 television western series Rawhide. Or being Dirty Harry.

He plays a grouchy, recently widowed old fart named Walter Kowalski. Wait, that's only the beginning. He's a foul mouthed, ex-Korean war soldier who is a bigot of the highest order. He sits on his porch, in his old intercity neighborhood where all of his white neighbors are being slowly replaced by individuals of other races. He mutters disparaging remarks about them to his dog as he reaches for another beer from the cooler next to his chair.

His neighbors are Asians and his mutterings are particularly aimed at their existence. Their old patriarch grandmother sits on her porch and glares at him. This continues until he feels obligated to take a forceful stand against a despicable gang that is trying to recruit the young son of the family. I guess if Dirty Harry was a old man, he might be Walt . Walt doesn't actually say "make my day", but that's what he means.

Other encounters ensue and as time progresses, a better side of Walt is seen. This, despite his continued verbal abuse and there is plenty verbal abuse. We, the theatre audience, chuckled in disbelief and some discomfort at the numerous racial slurs that are uttered. I wonder. If I was Asian, Mexican or Italian, would I have been offended?

A young, fresh faced priest from his parish who knew Walt's wife and promised to make sure Walt went to confession, persists in visits to Walt. Walt is very annoyed. However, the dialog between these two is crucial in plot development. As my daughter would say - this was a movie about the "human condition". She avoids "human condition" movies. I tell her she is missing a lot.

The characters are diverse, the acting great. The storyline is predictable to some extent, but with never a dull moment. At the end of the movie, most of us sat quietly for a couple of minutes in a sort of reverent silence. When it comes out on video, we'll rent it.

RATING FOR GRAN TORINO:

Baby Mama

Viewed by moi* at home
* "me" in French

I became a Tina Fey fan while watching 30 Rock on Netflix Instant Watch. She's good - what can I say. Cute, witty, a great writer and actress, saucy and sassy. I really like her. So, I was looking forward to seeing her on the big screen. Instead, I saw her on my DVD player while sitting on the bed wearing earphones and my jammies

I was not disappointed, in Tina or her co-star, Amy Poehler. Actually, I think Amy upstaged Tina in this movie, but the part she played gave her the chance to upstage anyone - a hillbilly, weirdly fashion conscious, white trash surrogate mother person for Tina Fey. No, I don't remember their screen names, but that doesn't really matter in this review.

Tina Fey is supposedly infertile because her uterus is T shaped. OK. Events leading up to this discovery are constructed so that that they introduce other important characters into the picture. She goes to an agency for surrogacy run by Sigourney Weaver, who is looking her age, by the way, but looking good. Enter Amy Poehler, the surrogate. Dumping her loser boyfriend, she moves in with Amy. After these two hookup, it's one funny thing after another. Tina's uptight, Amy's not. Tina wants her baby (inside Amy) to eat healthy food, Amy doesn't give a rip. Tina begins child proofing the house which results in a hilarious scene when Amy cannot get the toilet lid open. They go to child birth classes together where Amy's comments regarding certain child birth aspects are something you must hear to appreciate. No, I won't quote them. See the movie.

Greg Kinnear (a cute guy, of course), Romy Malco (the doorman) and someone I've haven't heard of before and Steve Martin add greatly to the mix. Especially Steve Martin, who plays Tina's boss - a pony tailed, very new agey, health food grocery store tycoon with a pretty amazing ego.

Like most movies today, there are instances of uncommitted relational sex, sexual references and so on. If these are offensive to you, then don't see it. If you want to enjoy a movie, have some laughs and get over these smaller moral issues, then by George, rent that puppy and have a great time!

Rating for Baby Mama:

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Viewed at the multiplex theatre whilst dining on contraband snacks

We just got back from seeing this movie and have declared ourselves fans of Kevin James. We loved him in "Hitch" and now we love him as the Mall Cop.

He is a vigorous man, light on his feet for someone who is on the heavy side. But let me be very clear on this, he is a cute guy, in like handsome and attractive because of his bulk, not in spite of it. He exudes vulnerability, sweetness and he makes us like him. I hope he never plays a bad guy. I looked him up on IMDB and his career looks like it has always been on the comedic side, so I think we are safe there.

This movie was tailor made for him and this would be because he co-wrote it.

He is Paul Blart, a mall cop on a Segway who takes his job very, very seriously. (Segway sales will probably climb now....) Paul and the Segway move as one and it's clear that many of the scenes are written around it's use.

Paul's earnestness regarding his job lead to some hilarious encounters. The elderly wheelchair speeder, the fight between to women over the last push up bra at Victoria's Secret and more. This is a very physical part for Kevin James and he performs the stunts and falls with great zeal insomuch as they look like they probably hurt some (if he did even some of them, they look that way).

The story line in brief: A single dad with one daughter and living with his mother, Paul Blart has failed at the state police academy multiple times. Not because he can't do the physical stuff, but because he is hypoglycemic and sort of just passes out sometimes. To combat this, he ingests tubes of sugar with a flourish that only Kevin James can pull off. He is in love with the cute, mall kiosk girl, she shows interest but then he manages to get incredibly and innocently drunk and make a utter fool of himself. It goes on and suffice to say he redeems himself and wins her over. His redemption comes in the form of a big mall crime that he singlehandedly squashes.

We laughed a lot. We felt good when we left. We didn't feel abused like we sometimes do after leaving the movies. We didn't hear one bad word, see anyone half or wholly naked and any violence was slapstick. Despite it's lack of these typical Hollywood scenarios, it was not a boring or goody two shoes movie. It was just good.

You can't ask for much more than that.

RATING FOR PAUL BLART: MALL COP

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly or Scaphandre et le papillon

Watched at home on Netflix Instant Watch.

Based upon a true story. Fast living, on top of the world Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a massive stroke that leaves him completely paralyzed except for his left eye.

I started watching this movie in the garage riding my exercise bike. I find that watching something while I'm exercising helps the time goes by more quickly. After finishing the "ride", I was so engrossed in the movie that I skipped the shower until later and watched the rest of it.

Movies like this that are based upon true, painful events are sometimes hard to watch. There was one time when I had to avert my eyes and another time when I actually started to cry. I'm not into weepy movies, but somehow, knowing that this was true, that I was not being emotionally manipulated, made me feel OK with getting a little weepy.

Max von Sydow plays Jean Dominique's old father who is suffering from early Alzheimer's disease. Their interaction before the stroke (seen in a flashback) is affectionate and moving, but not maudlin. After the stroke, the old man calls him at the hospital, unable to travel to it. This is a real heart breaker to watch and Max is so excellent in making the scene work. He is the only one who can talk, except through Jean Dominique's "translator" and that makes the scene particularly poignant - he does not get to hear his son's voice ever again in his life.

The only way Jean Dominique can communicate is by someone reciting a list of the most common letters used in words and when they say letter he wants to use, he blinks once. Once for Yes, twice for No. Laboriously, they do this over and over until he makes words that turn into sentences.

He says he has his intelligence and imagination and that he will not feel sorry for himself. At this point, he decides to write a book about his experience. Using the alphabet/eye blink method, he and the young woman who helps him, write the book. It becomes a best seller and is made into this movie. He dies of pneumonia 8 days after it is published.

Everyone in this movie is great. For parts of the movie we see life and the characters with him through his good eye. Sometimes the people with him forget he has limited range of vision and move out of his/our sight. We hear, throughout the movie, his voice conveying his thoughts and they are the kinds of thoughts you would expect a person in his condition to have. Angry and frustrated thoughts. Lonely and regretful thoughts.

Flashbacks are used to show his life prior to the stroke. Surreal sequences are shown to convey his imaginative thoughts. His ex-wife and children visit. Other visits tell us more about what kind of person he was. We watch his therapy sessions. All of this was carefully put together in such a way that it has a wonderful cohesiveness.

The movie was made in French and dubbed in English. This is not distracting, as it can sometimes be when it is not done well.

I found the movie to be very satisfying and sad, but not in a bad way. Here's the movie trailer.

Rating for

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Ghost Town

Watched rental movie at home

I was anticipating this movie simply because I really enjoyed Ricky Gervais in The Office and yes, he was good in this movie, but I felt he was not used to his best potential. He was funny, but not FUNNY. The material was at fault, in my opinion, as it did not provide him with enough FUNNY stuff. Nevertheless, he had his moments, albeit too few.

Tea Leoni and Greg Kinnear were both very good as a wife (Tea) and her recently deceased, philanderer husband (Greg). I have to say that Greg Kinnear does seem to play the typical nice, sometimes not nice guy very well and possibly too often. From the movies I have seen him in, I don't see that he plays any edgy roles, stays sort of in the middle of the acting field. However, he is very good and I suspect that one of these days he will get the role of his lifetime that will transform his acting image and probably result in an Oscar nomination.

The story was an original one - a funny "I see dead people". After a general anesthesia faux pas, he is able to see deceased people and communicate with them. They, in turn, want to take advantage of this unique situation by asking him to take care of unfinished business for them which he is loath to do. This sets the stage for his interaction with Greg Kinnear and Tea. It goes on from there as Ricky, who starts out as a dentist and a jerk of the highest level, is slowly changed into a person of goodness.

So, it's good, but not the greatest. If you want to see Greg Kinnear singing, Watch This. OK, so he's more versatile than I've given him credit for......

Rating For

GHOST TOWN

Valkyrie

The theatre was full for the latest matinee on a Saturday. However, we arrived early enough to get our favorite seats. These are on the top row at the the top of the stairs on either side of the theatre. We like these because we have leg room and because those kinds of people who like to kick the back of your seat are not able to sit behind us. That said, we still had to deal with the "Texting Teenagers" (TT's). The TT (a girl) sitting to my left finally got the message when I actually turned in my seat with my back to her so I wouldn't be distracted by the screen on her cell phone. I noticed that she finally put it away. It's a good thing or I might have had to grab it from her and toss it all the way down to the Exit sign by the theatre screen.

Anyway, about the movie. It was very good. Somber, as would be expected, but great performances. Tom Cruise was not spectacular, but he wasn't supposed to be as a disciplined German soldier. This brings me to the TT again that was sitting next to me with her other TT friends. Why were they at this movie? This was not a movie most teenagers would go to on a Saturday afternoon. The only thing I could figure out is that they hoped to swoon over Tom Cruise. However, Tom Cruise in a Nazi uniform, with a missing arm, missing fingers and a black patch over his eye isn't exactly "swoon material" in my book.

This was a movie where you know it's not going to end well for these guys. And it doesn't, of course. But, the events leading up to the doomed finale were very interesting. Based upon facts of which I was not aware, it tells the story of a fairly courageous group of German soldiers who plot to assassinate Hitler, one of 15 other assassination attempts according to a note at the end of the movie. They had consciences as opposed to the majority of other Germans. It is nice to know that someone wanted to stand up to the monster.

The costumes, the filming, the script and the acting were all first rate. Go see it but leave your TT home, please.

Rating for

VALKYRIE

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Viewed at our local theatre.

We liked it contrary to about half the people that reviewed it and some regular folks we talked to about it.

Brad Pitt gets the accolades here from the general reviewing popluation, but Cate Blanchett rules. She was stunning to look upon and achieved her usual high level of actressing. She pulled off some very real looking ballet moves too, I must add. Faune Chambers, who I've never heard of before this, played the black housekeeper that raises Benjamin after finding him on the doorstep. She did an excellent job. I just IMDB'd her and cannot believe what a babe she is - she was not looking like that in the movie, I can tell you.

The script, based upon the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, was intriguing enough to keep us engaged for it's lengthy 166 minutes. We were not bored. We liked the characters and wanted to see what happened to them. If there was anything I would have changed about it, it would be the switching between the hospital scenes where Cate Blanchett, as a dying, aged woman, reveals through her diary read by her daughter, the story of Benjamin Button. There were too many instances of the hospital/past story switches. Despite this, it was a good movie at which to while away a cold, snowy afternoon at the matinee with snacks we snuck in with us in my extra large leather Fossil handbag. (What can I say, we are on a limited budget....)

Rating for:

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Viewed at our local theatre.

We have the original version on DVD - it's awesome. Filmed in black and white. Black and white movies are good.

The current version is quite awful. After having read the "real" reviews online for this movie that were 98% bad, we still opted to go just in case the special effects were worth it. They weren't. We were especially dissapointed in Gort who was no where near as cool as the original. Gort, in the original, had a little personality, whereas Gort, in this movie, was probably totally computer generated - there was no flesh and blood person inside a suit. Somehow, although you never did see the person inside the original Gort suit, you knew he was there and it really did add something to the character. Really.

The storyline sucked. They "modernized" it and as a result, it lost something critical in the translaytion. The original was simple, this was way, way too complicated.

About our stars. I am quite at a loss on how Keanu Reeves keeps getting any movie roles - he hasn't had a good movie since the days of the Matrix. He didn't display great acting skills then and the same can be said for his performance in TDTESS. Suffice to say it was totally leaden (like lead, heavy, dull).

Ms. Jennifer Connelley Beware! It seems that you, although a good actress (you won an Oscar once, so you must be), have an agent who is not making sure you get roles that will give you the acclaim you no doubt desire. Did you actually read this script and decide it was Oscar material? If so, you guys need help in the script assessment department.

HOWEVER, I suspect, in the cases of both of these stars, that the big bucks were what made them make the movie although by now, I would imagine Keanu Reeves would be "on the sale rack", having not produced any great smashes at the box office for some time.

Will Smith's cute young son Jaden did a good job with crappy material. His character had a very convoluted parentage issue that was distracting from the beginning.

Kathy Bates was good - what can I say. She was practical, logical and good.

Rating for

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL