April 29, 2013

More Encores; one new film---

ENCORES:

The Story Of Seabiscuit (1949) Shirley Temple, Lon McCallister, Barry Fitzgerald, Rosemary DeCamp. Some black and white scenes of the real Seabiscuit winning his races. It fancies up the true story of the trainer and the jockey but still enjoyable. 7/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041923/combined

King Solomons Mines (1950) Stuart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Richard Carlson. Won Oscars for Cinematography and Editing. It is gorgeous and Granger is grand. Deborah is okay. The natives are wonderful. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042646/combined

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins, Claude Rains. I finally watched the whole miserable thing. Guinness is fine and Sharif is gorgeous. O"Toole is a bore and so is the film. There are some gorgeous scenes of the cliffs and magnificent huge rocky areas rising out of the desert. The desert itself looks unpleasant at best and horrible at worst. AND no women except the o-la-la-ing as they leave the village at one point. From a distance. In all the years Lawrence was doing his thing, did he never interact with one woman? Nor any other guy speak to a woman? Awful to see and a bore! 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/combined

A Few Good Men (1992) Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland. Love it and watch often. 9/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104257/combined

Mona Lisa Smile (2003) Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal. New art teacher at Wellesley in the 1950's uptight world tries to open her students to new ways of thinking. I was part of that world although farther down the social scale, but very much brainwashed into thinking marriage and children and home was all there was for a woman. Love this story and the prof. All the actresses are fine. 9/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304415/combined

The Good Shephard (2006) Matt Damon, Anjelina Jolie, Alex Baldwin, Robert DeNiro, William Hurt. The recruiting of a young college man to the OSS during WWII which becomes the CIA after, and his very uptight life of idealism turning to paranoia. Interesting history as seen by one guy from before the war up to his involvement in the Bay Of Pigs and beyond. Damon is completely different from his Bourne character. Stiff and uncompromising and wonderful in the role. Jolie is wasted as the wife. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343737/combined

Life As We Know It (2010) Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel. Two opposites are named in the will of their mutual friends as the guardians of their baby girl if anything should happen to them. Which it does as they are killed in an accident. How these two manage to come to an understanding and eventually love, is the story. Nice. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1055292/combined


FIRST VIEWING:

Paparazzi (2004) Cole Hauser, Robin Tunney, Denis Farina. An interesting story of a guy whose film hit it big and he becomes an overnight star. And his life is turned upside down by sleazy thugs who have cameras and chase him down and cause a horrible accident. His wife and son are both injured and taken to the hospital. He sets out to find his revenge. A good take on the suffering sometimes caused by the pictures we see in the tabloids 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338325/combined

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