Five films -good & bad-----

---recently watched:

Elizabeth, The Golden Age (2007) Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Clive Owen. The continuation of the reign of Elizabeth I, through the beheading of her sister, Mary, Queen Of Scots. The Armada of Philip Of Spain sent to invade England, and the battle that ends Spain's designs on England and slowed their conquests in the New World, makes a interesting film for those who enjoy costume dramas. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414055/

Sex & The City (2008) Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth. The girls are getting ready for Carries big wedding to Big. At the big dinner the night before the wedding, Miranda bitterly makes a comment that they should just stay single. She is so angry with her husband for having an affair she wants others to be miserable too. The next day, Mr Big can't get ahold of Carrie and is panic stricken and leaves the church without getting out of the car. Carrie in her gorgeous wedding dress is crushed. The girls decide she must take the lavish wedding trip she had planned for the honeymoon, and they will all go with her. Off to a gorgeous beach and hotel. For the scenery, the fashions, the girlies and their crazy antics, and a problem or two, I enjoyed this visit with the fab four. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1000774/

Nothing Like The Holidays (2008) Alfred Molina, Elizabeth Pena, Debra Messing. A large Latino family get together to have Christmas. One son is a Marine just arriving home from Iraq. Each child has issues with either their Father or their Mother or both. So many characters and problems, none can be treated with depth so we just get a bit of information on each one. Film is not bad, but we don't get a sense of why we should care about these people. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1151915/

I Love You, Man (2009) Paul Rudd, and a bunch of actors I don't know. I disliked this so-called comedy intensely. But I usually like the amiable Rudd so stuck to the end. Bad idea. It got worse as it went on - and on. The idea of a man who is getting married, suddenly aware that he has never had a friend, and so trying to find one is so stupid, I am amazed to see intelligent people writing that this is a sweet quirky film. And the guy he hooks up with is such a smuck I don't see how he stood him for a minute. Give me a break. 4/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155056/

Love Happens (2009) Jennifer Aniston, Aaron Eckhart. The stars are attractive but the story is just not that interesting. Guys wife dies and he becomes a best selling author and self-help guru, telling all about how to cope, appearing at seminars at swank hotels, where our Jen as Eloise, is the florist doing the huge arrangements in the lobby and halls, etc. They meet. They have a falling out. Will they get back together? Will our guru, Burke get a new pair? Will Eloise decide he is worth a second chance? Seriously? Jen and Aaron don't seem to click. Scenery of Seattle is nice. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0899106/

I'm caught up now and will do my comments on New Years Eve films in the new year. Everyone have a safe celebration and Happy New Year.

Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster, The Phantom-----

----great actresses, and an all-time favorite film;

The Madness Of King George (1994) Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm. The "colonies" have been lost, and England's King George is depressed and some say bonkers. Queen Charlotte tries to keep her son, the Prince Of Wales, from plotting with courtiers to usurp the throne. Prime Minister Pitt brings in a new doctor from the country, who demands absolute obedience from all. The treatments tried for the Kings ailment are the same as what is called torture today. Julian Wadham as Pitt is marvelous as are all the principal players. We now know that the king suffered from a real episode of dementia experienced by George III [now suspected a victim of porphyria, a blood disorder]. As he slowly regains his senses, the film ends with the Royal Family once again on display for their subjects. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110428/

Nell (1994) Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson. Filmed in the lush forests of North Carolina, this is a beautiful meditation on a person who is so isolated that she has never learned to speak any way but the language she and her twin devised before the twin dies. Their mother and Nell continue to live in the forest cabin and after the mother's death, Nell by herself. When Dr. Lovell stumbles across the cabin and then Nell herself, he is fascinated and tries to learn how to communicate with her. Paula, a student researcher at the nearest psychology center, wants her brought to the facility to observe her closer. They bring the case before a Judge, who gives the Doc 3 months to observe and work out what is best for Nell. The final courtroom scene with Foster as Nell telling all why she wants to stay in her forest home is very moving. And Jodie (Oscar, Best Actress) is a genius. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110638/

The Phantom Of The Opera (2004) Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossen, Patrick Wilson. Joel Schumacher directed this lush and beautiful version of Andrew Lloyd Webbers musical masterpiece. I always watch it again on the anniversary of the day I first walked into the theater, already knowing I loved the music, to sit and be mesmerized by the film from the opening - the match that lights the candle as the music begins. Only once before had I been brought into a film by the candle being lit - the great "The Red Shoes(1948)." Is it a homage to that great film? All the main players are so perfect, it is like a Divine hand was doing the casting. Gerard Butler, as The Phantom, just breaks your heart. Emmy, as the sweet innocent object of his desire and obsession, is wonderful and sings like an angel. Patrick is dashing and handsome and has a beautiful voice. In "Music Of The Night" when Gerard sings "let the dream begin" with his muscular voice, after the sex without sex scene just before, with his beautifully gloved hands roaming up and down her body, it raises temperatures around the world. The music, the actors, the visual beauty, make this film an all time favorite. 10/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293508/

I have a few more films I need to comment on before the New Year. Later, peeps.....

Two more ---

---still catching up on films I watched this month:

On TCM

Andy Hardy Meets A Debutante (1940) Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Judy Garland. Andy is too big for his britches, as usual, and lies about knowing the number 1 deb in New York City. His school paper is going to feature him on the cover and he must find a way to meet her for real. At the same time his father, Judge Hardy, must go to NYC to appear in court to save the inheritance and fund that was set up to run the foundling home. He decides to take the whole family. Typical of Andy Hardy films, the Judge not only solves his court case, but also gets Andy out of his jam, along with Betsy Boops help. But Judy as Betsy Boop is just darling and sings two numbers. Her simple joy and great voice make this film a must for her fans. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032206/

Casablanca (1942) Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, & a bunch of great character actors! A favorite which I watch often. 10/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/

to be con't....

Mickey Rooney, Russell Crowe, Bradley Cooper---

--from charming, to intense, to intensely uncharming; the men in these films:

Ah! Wilderness! (1935) Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Berry, Aline MacMahon, Spring Byington. Based on a famous Eugene O'Neil play this is a charming coming of age story of a graduation, mixups of young love, drinking and the wages of sin. All done by a great cast. The family interaction around the dining table is charming, in this day and age, when no one is expected to be at the table at 5 p.m. every evening. Although Mickey is billed seventh, he was soon to become Andy Hardy and be the highest paid actor in Hollywood. This was a good springboard of family values to begin with. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026046/

State Of Play (2009) Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren. Playing on HBO now and I have watched it a couple of times. Interesting story of a Congressman caught in a web by a powerful corporation that is like an octopus with tentacles in everything. Crowe is investigative reporter McCaffrey and McAdams is the cute rookie who writes for the papers web site. Mirren as the editor of the paper assigns them to work together on this story, which promises to be big, especially when there is a murder that involves the powerful in Washington D.C. My kind of story, full of intrigue, characters you like but are just a bit sleazy, and a tad of menace to keep all on their toes. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473705/

All About Steve (2009) Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church. What was so bad? Sandra was cute/silly/hyper. Story of a smart, strange woman who creates cross-word puzzles for the paper she works for, but has no social skills. Her folks fix her up on a blind date with a cameraman for a TV station, Bradley Cooper, as the Steve of the title. He is a complete ass, but naturally he is so wonderful in his own eyes, he ditches Mary asap. After she writes her next puzzle "all about Steve' she is fired and decides to go on a road trip after Steve. Her adventures and the crazy situations the writers have her in, made me chuckle and smile. Bullock is just a person I want to spend time with. Even though Mary would drive me mad, Cooper is just awful, looks and personality. Thought so in The Hangover where he was mean and despicable to his so-called friends. For a leading man, he is just charmless. Church is always worth watching, but the writers failed him and Bullock in this script. But I still enjoyed it more than a lot of the stuff coming from lala land. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0881891/

to be con't----

Powell, Loy, Gable. What a sandwich!!




Manhattan Melodrama (1934) Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy. One of the best crime dramas of the era. Two boys are brought up by a man who lost his son in the disaster of a river boat that caught fire and sank. One boy grows up a gangster; the other to be the D.A. who puts his friend away for execution. Along the way, both meet and fall in love with a woman of the demimonde. The gangster does a killing to help his friend and the friend ends up almost ruining himself to keep from lying. But D.A. Jim Wade convicts Blackie Gallagher of the murder, marries the woman; runs for, and wins the Governor's office, and then must decide whether to commute Blackies's sentence. The scene in which Gable tells Powell not to be silly, to let him make the final walk, is very effective. As Powell walks into the darkened corridor the overhead lights dim and his friend is gone. The final scenes between Loy and Powell reconciling seem tacked on. It would have been more powerful to end with both men taking their final walk, one to death; one to greatness. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025464/

to be con't....

Two classics; 2 other films.

I watched these films recently:

Mr. Skeffington (1944) Bette Davis, Claude Rains. Beauty marries for money and has to live with the consequences, including a daughter she never wanted. A meditation on beauty, wealth, selfishness and fantasy lives. Begins in horse and buggy days and ends during WWII. Rains as the title character, a Jewish banker, is great as always. The story is a good 'Matinee' Ladies' film. My only quibble is Bette's high pitched delivery of her lines. Fanny is fake, but the voice is like chalk on a blackboard. Thanks goodness the writers delivered the daughter to a husband who takes her far, far away. Still for a afternoon by the fire I give it - 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037094/

Nights of Cabiria (1957) Guilietta Masina. I tried to enjoy seeing this film because it is praised to the heavens. Another of the prostitute films where we are forced to watch her being mistreated, cheated, almost killed. All the while the actress is screeching half the time and crying and acting all coy the rest of the time. Geezus in a pancake! If this was an USA film with Julia Roberts screaming her lines, and acting this stupid - all Hell would be rained on her head. But the fanboys have anointed Fellini and his wife above reproach. Well, eeeexxxxcuse me! 3/10 Bad, bad, bad! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050783/

Taken (2008) Liam Neeson in a great action film about a former spy, retired and trying to reenter his estranged daughters life, who has to use his old skills to rescue her when she is kidnapped on a trip to Europe with a girlfriend. Action, start to finish. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/

Lovely Bones (2009) Lots of fine actors take part in a film about a serial killer. We are guided through the film by one of the victims as she watches and waits for her body to be found because then she......ah what? I was stupefied. And have forgotten it already! 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380510/

Con't another day....

A classic and 2 newbys---

--I have recently watched:

Daisy Kenyon (1945) Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda. My collection, but watched on FMC. Wonderful Crawford "matinee' ladies" film. Dana Andrews does a wonderful cad role, and Fonda has some of his most romantic lines. Joan suffers beautifully. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039294/

New In Town (2009) Renee Zellweger, Harry Connick, Jr. Renee as Lucy Hill, rising star on the corporate ladder, is sent from the home office in sunny Miami, to a frigid Minnesota town to downsize and restructure the plant, the main source of income for the locals. A fish out of water film, with our gal arriving in snow and ice covered streets in 3 inch heels and no warm coat. Some of the locals are eccentric in the extreme and Connick as the local labor leader is gruff but cute. Not a great rom/com, but not too bad. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1095174/

Super Size Me (2004) Morgan Spurlock's saga of eating nothing but McDonalds food for a month. It ain't pretty! While I know he was making a point that too much is not good, and fast food should not be allowed into schools as a regular lunch choice, occasional indulgence cannot be a killer. The film itself becomes repetitious and is rather sickening after a while, but worth seeing. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/

To be cont'.....