"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.