Wanted

I used to think that Angelina Jolie was pretty hot. She's still okay, but many fine young ladies have pole-vaulted in front of her. But that doesn't mean I won't watch a good Jolie movie, even if she has 15 kids of every different color.

Wanted is about a fraternity of hitmen (and women, but not drunk college kids) that assassinate people around the world as they are instructed. One day Wesley Gibson's, played by James McAvoy (Last King of Scotland, Atonement, and Narnia) father is assassinated. Gibson finds himself targeted and recruited at the same time while trying to live his normal boring pathetic life.

Jolie and Sloan (Morgan Freeman) recruit Wesley into the fraternity of assassins, but Wesley finds out that life as an assassin isn't quite what he thought it was going to be.

The movie is more fantasy than anything, but it is certainly action-packed. From bullet bending, to leaping from building to building, to an outrageous and unbelievable car chase, this movie should keep your attention for the full hour and 40 minutes. I was a bit surprised by the ending, which I love. I can't stand it when a movie is super-predictable. This movie is not.

Morgan Freeman again does a good job as the bad guy. (Remember his work in Lucky Number Slevin?). Jolie is tough, sexy, and unflappable. You'll find yourself cheering for McEvoy as he goes from LOSER to tough villain back to the point where he wonders how he got to where he is.

The movie is rated R for tons of violence, including frequent slow-motion bloody bullet shots to the head, language (pervasive language according to MPAA), and some sexuality. I think we got a fair shot of Jolie's butt as she was getting into the tub.

The movie is directed by Timur Bekmambetov who has brought you nothing that you ever heard of. I give this movie a 4 star rating. Good plain fun movie.

Das Boot

As we all know, VHS tapes are on the out and DVD's are here for a bit longer. We'll probably all be watching movies digitally in the next few years. However, in that time I still have my VCR and a few VHS tapes. I decided to watch them again for posterity sake while I still own a VCR.

The movie I dug out of my box for this weekend was Das Boot, the German movie about World War II - from their perspective. As any historian will tell you, history is told by the victors. In this case, the Germans decided they wanted to show what it was like for German seamen of the submarine flotilla, or Kriegsmarine.

The movie starts out with a party in some French town and everyone is totally out of their mind stupid drunk. However, they know what they're getting into. Nearly three-quarters of all Germans who went out on a submarine never returned. Most knew that there was a good chance that they would never see land again.

The next day, Captain Leutenant Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock is led to his new boat, U-96 and they head off to sea to intercept ship convoys and sink their prey.

What is interesting about the movie is that there is a strong anti-Nazi feel amongst the men. Most seem to understand that they are being led by an ego-maniac and eminent death awaits the country.

In reading about the movie, the actors were confined to the submarine model that was created for the movie for many hours and denied sunlight. This was to help give a more realistic sense of the anxiety and darkness that the sailors would have experience at sea.

Truly a military movie classic, this is a must see. The only actor that would be known to Americans is Jürgen Prochnow who was in The English Patient, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Dune.

Das Boot is Rated R for violence, language, and tense situations. The movie is long - it's 209 minutes, which for people that attended Baltimore City Public Schools - that's 3 hours and 29 minutes. I give this movie the maximum rating - 5 stars.

Synecdoche, New York

If you are a fan of artistic movies, then you're dumb and you're not going to like this blog entry.

I got Synecdoche, New York from Netflix recently. If you don't get it yet, it's a play on Schenectady, New York. Schenectady being an economically shrinking town in New York full of formerly employed New Yorkers who do not want to live in the state capital of Albany.

Synecdoche, on the other hand, is a part of speech, a term denoting a part of something that is used to refer to the whole. I think of the term Nazi, which when heard conjurs up impages of German soldiers in World War II and a general refrence to Germany as a whole. However, this is not entirely accurate as Nazi was a political party and I think you could argue that most people that lived in Germany were not Nazis, though most were conscripted into service and fought for their cause. Do you think that the Germans would talk about how the Democrats were bombing Berlin?

Back to the movie. Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour-Hoffman, who I think is taking cues from Robert De Niro. Hoffman has starred in 7 movies in less than 2 1/2 years, including Charlie Wilson's War, The Savages, and Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. Also starring in the movie is Catherine Keener, also taking cues from RDN, with 9 movies since 2007, including What Just Happened, with RDN, The Soloist, and Into the Wild. Minor roles include Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, and Diane West.

The movie tracks the life of director Caden Cotard who is staging an autobiographic play of his life. He was won a grant that endows him unlimited resources to produce his play. However, the play never seems to get completed. Cotard ages, his child grows up to participate in unsavory activities, and his wife leaves him. Cotard becomes neurotic and a hypochondirac.

Meanwhile, the set for his play becomes larger and larger, eventually occupying a reall large warehouse that comes to include a miniature cut-out of New York City. He hires an actor to play him, who, in an attempt to recreate Cotard, hires an actor to play the actor who plays Cotard.

I get the humor in the movie. I'm sure this would have made a hysterical book. However, the movie is long and drawn out. It's sort of dark humor or tragic comedy. And, yes, spoiler alert, nearly everyone dies in the end, but don't we all die in the end?

Synecdoche, New York is rated R for language, sexual content and nudity, and confusing dialog. Fortunately, this movie cuts out right near the 2 hour mark and not the 40 year mark like the play.

I am not a huge fan of the artistic movies, nor of the dark comedies. I didn't care for Broken Roses. Didn't like Burn After Reading. I did understand the comedy, but I was just not a fan of it. I give this movie 2 stars.

What Just Happened?

What Just Happened? (WJH?) is the 2nd of two movies released this year staring Robert De Niro, the other being Righteous Kill. As one of my co-workers said, "I think Robert De Niro is trying to see how many movies he can make." Based on this movie, he's not being too picky about the scripts that he accepts.

WJH stars RDN as a producer of a movie that is currently being presented in front of test audiences for reaction. The audience does not like the final scene, so the backers of the movie request that the director change the ending. The director goes nuts (which is kind of funny).

Meanwhile, RDN has several former relationships that he is trying to maintain, though unsuccessfully. He spends most of the movie driving from one place to another trying to catch up with everyone via his cell phone.

Moreover, negotiations for a new movie are not going well because Bruce Willis refuses to shave his beard. He begins acting like those brats on The Real World, which is about as real as professional wrestling.

Back at movie land, the director is finally convinced to change his movie and the ending, though predictable, is somewhat funny. However, it took a long time for the movie to get there.

The dialog in this movie is horrible and has no fluency to it. The scenes are choppy from one to another and the constant tension between all of the characters makes for a movie of no protagonists, just a bunch of loosely connected antagonists.

The movie stars, in addition to De Niro and Willis, Sean Penn, his wife Robin Wright Penn, and Catherine Keener. The movie was directed by Baltimore native Barry Levinson, known for such good movies as The Natural, Diner, Wag the Dog, and Bee Movie. Chalk this one up as 'Not one of his Best Works'.

The movie is Rated R for language, depicted violence, sexual content, drug use, and bad acting. Fortunately the movie is 104 minutes long and not 120.

Based on the fact that I was looking forward to the end of the movie, I would have to say that it was not a good one. The comical scenes with the director saved this movie from a 1 star and earned it a 2 star. Be forewarned. Hopefully the 5 movies that De Niro makes next year will be better.

Changeling

I must admit that when Changeling arrived from Netflix, I had no idea what it was about. The movie opens set in the 1920's in Los Angeles. Angelina Jolie plays a single mother named Christine Collins working at the phone company as what appears to be a shift supervisor at a switchboard.

One Saturday Christine is called to work and she is forced to leave her son home by himself. She promises him she'll be home by dark and will take him to the movies the following day. When she returns home from work she finds that he has disappeared.

Calls to the Los Angeles Police Department are dismissed. She's told that he'll show up and they don't start searching for children until they've been missing for 24 hours. Frantic she searches the neighborhood all evening to no avail.

She struggles for months with the L.A.P.D. and finds them uncooperative and arrogant. Finally she is informed that her son has been found and a reunion is scheduled. She arrives at the reunion only to learn that the child they are handing over is not her child. Again, she is dismissed and told that she's been through a lot of stress and is just confused.

Her plight continues to be ignored by the police and she finally seeks help from Reverend Gustav Briegleb, played by John Malkovich, who broadcasts a radio show that criticizes the corruption within the police department and government of Los Angeles.

I do not wish to give away this movie, but the story it tells is a compilation of true stories from the 1920's. Christine Collins did, in fact, have her child kidnapped and she was given a child that was not hers. With the help of Reverend Briegleb, she sues the city and exposes the corruption that has been gripping the city.

Furthermore, though not officially connected, there was a lunatic outside of Los Angeles that had murdered dozens of young boys and buried them on the property. The actual case was never resolved, but Christine Collins continued her fight, not only for missing children, but to fight corruption in politics and in the police department.

Changeling is about 2 hours and 20 minutes long, but kept my interested in the movie. I had to struggle to convince myself to pause it at the hour and 10 minute mark so that I could go to bed and finish watching it the following night. The movie made me angry, it made me sad. Angelina Jolie did an excellent job, as did director Clint Eastwood. In recognition for her work, Jolie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. The movie is Rated R for language and some disturbing violence.

I give this movie 4 stars.

Roman Holiday

Like the girls of our era that idle such movies as The Princess Bride and The Princess Diaries, I would image that girls of the 1950's worshiped Roman Holiday as their Princess movie.

Roman Holiday was released in 1953 and stars Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Peck, known for such classics as Twelve O'Clock High, Moby Dick, the Guns of Navrone, and the original Cape Fear, plays a journalist covering the news in post-World War II Italy. One evening he runs into a young lady played by Hepburn, most noted for Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady, who had been drinking and was in no condition to be lying on a park bench in the middle of the night. He takes her to his place to allow her to sleep it off.

Before she awakes he hears the news that a visiting Princess is missing. He puts two and two together and realizes that she is the Princess, but he never lets on that he knows who she is. Meanwhile, his buddy, Eddie Albert, helped him conceal her.

To play the game, Peck takes the Princess on a wonderful 1 day tour of Rome. She enjoys herself immensely, but finally she must return and breaks her silence. The next day at a ceremony, the Princess is presented to the press and is asked light questions about politics and travel. Peck and Hepburn exchange knowing glances at each other, but their secret is maintained as she retreats from the gaggle in classic Hepburn style.

In an interview in the 1980's Gregory Peck said that he found out that Carey Grant was first offered the lead role but turned it down. When asked about this Gregory Peck commented that he figured every role he got was something that Carey Grant had turned down.

Additionally, when the movie was finished, Peck was to be the headline on the marquee above the name of the movie and Audrey Hepburn, who was only 24 at the time, was to appear below the name of the movie. Peck demanded that Hepburn be above the title with his name as he knew that she was going to be a star.

Roman Holiday satisfied two of my obsessions. First, I think Audrey Hepburn is one of the finest and most attractive actresses ever. Gregory Peck, on the other hand, is a respectable and classic actor with his distinctive voice and chiseled face.

Roman Holiday is nearly 2 hours long. It is too old to be rated, but would probably get a PG rating, not because of anything like language or violence, only because if it was G, no one would go see it! Easily one of my favorite movies from the 1950's, Roman Holiday gets 5 stars.

Stalag 17

I keep a list of movies that I want to see at some point in my life. This weekend I had the opportunity to knock out 2 of them. The first was the previously reviewed Pleasantville. The second one is a classic black and white movie. A talkie. It was Stalag 17.

Now I would image that most people are not familiar with this movie unless you lived in the 1950's or are a big William Holden fan. I certainly cannot claim the former, but I can claim the latter.

Additionally, this movie was the inspiration for the late 1960's / early 70's T.V. comedy Hogan's Heros staring Bob Crane (Hogan), John Banner (Schultz, who ironically is played by a Jewish actor), Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink - also a Jew), and Richard Dawson (Newkirk). In fact, the guard in Stalag 17 was also named Schultz, and was an overweight, somewhat bafoonish guy, just like the Schultz of the T.V. fame. You may recall his famous catch-phrases, "I know nothing. NOTHING!"

Stalag 17 is like a comedic drama. There are plenty of laughs in the movie, from Shapiro (Harvey Lembeck) and Animal (Robert Strauss), as well as drama from Price (Peter Graves) and Lieutenant Dunbar (Don Taylor). The underlying theme of the movie opens with a failed attempt to have 2 prisoners escape through a tunnel. These prisoners are shot and killed as they exit the tunnel. Immediately everyone in the camp suspects a mole. The sarcastic Sefton (William Holden) is an immediate suspect because he bet dozens of cigarettes that they would not escape. He then barters his reward with the soldiers for an egg, an exotic meal in the prison camp.

Meanwhile, 2 Americans are captured and brought to the camp suspected of sabotage. If this is the case they would not be considered prisoners of war and would be eligible for execution. The camp musters a plan to capture the detained Dunbar and get him out of the camp. Sefton, in addition to wanting to help get Dunbar out of the camp, wants to identify the real mole and untarnish his name.

The movie is too old to be rated by the existing totalitarian MPAA and their evil ways, but I suspect that if it was rated, it would be PG-13 for some violence and some thematic elements, meaning tense situations. The movie is exactly 2 hours long.

I already consider this one of my all-time favorite movies and give it 5 stars. If you are a war-buff, Americana-buff, or a William Holden fan, get this movie on your list and watch it. On a side note, Thomas Magnum mentioned it as his favorite movie in an episode of Magnum, P.I. So if Magnum thinks it's a great movie, you KNOW it's a great movie.

The Wrestler

Nominated for Best Picture in 2009, The Wrestler is a poignant movie about the life of an aging former professional wrestler and his attempt at a comeback.

Love. Pain. Glory. The movie stars Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, who, ironically, has an almost paralleled life to the wrestler. Rourke's career is pretty much over, no one cares about him, and he makes a big movie to try and make a comeback. Oh, and he's old and ugly. And to top off the king of creepiness, he owns an old Chevy van.

Also in the mix are his daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood - Running With Scissors, Thirteen) and a stripper that he tries to engage in a relationship, Cassidy (Marisa Tomei - My Cousin Vinny, What Women Want). After experiencing a heart attack Randy attempts to reconnect with his daughter. He sees the end of the road and he wants to make it up to her. But he has never been there for her and has always found a way to mess up his life and their relationship even more.

Meanwhile, Cassidy the stripper sort of feels bad for the guy. He's a has-been, but he's always good to her. He tries to light a flame under her and their relationship, but she IS a stripper.

While staging his comeback, Randy becomes observant of his fellow wrestlers and what they've become. Is this how he wants to end it? Will he ever be able to make something of his life? Or will he end up as another footnote in the tragedies of professional wrestlers?

The movie is Rated R for language, thematic violence (remember those crazy wrestling matches?), drug use, and sexuality and nudity (she IS a stripper!) and the movie is 105 minutes long.

However, depressing this movie is, it is a great movie. I'm not sure if this movie will jump-start Mickey Rourke's career, but he sure did a great job with the character and he deserves the nominations that he received. I give this movie 4 stars.

Pleasantville

I finally watched Pleasantville for the first time in my life. I know, can you believe it? So many movies I haven't seen.

My main objective for watching the movie is to fulfill my fantasy of dating Reese Witherspoon. I figure if I see every movie she's ever been in and she learns about how obsessed I am, she'll like me. Sounds like a high school tragedy, doesn't it? (And by sheer coincidence, Tragedy by the Bee-Gee's is currently on the radio as I write this.)

As I mentioned, the movie stars Reese Witherspoon, in addition to Spiderman, I mean Tobey Maguire, as her brother, William H. Macy as their father, and Joan Allen as their mother.

Tobey is obsessed with an old T.V. show called Pleasantville, sort of a spoof on late 1950's, early 1960's T.V. shows like Leave It To Beaver and My Three Sons. His sister Jennifer, on the other hand, likes to get around. A lot.

On the day of the big Pleasantville marathon, Jennifer plans to have her boyfriend over, but Tobey plans on watching the marathon. They get into a fight over the remote and it breaks. But not to worry, Barney Fife the T.V. repairman mysteriously shows up at the door with a new magical remote. Unbeknownst to Tobey and Reese, the remote sends them into the T.V. show - black and white and all. As my son would say, this is a gray T.V. show. They then spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out how to, so to speak, 'get back to the future', only this version is funny.

The presence of the 2 kids in town changes the balance of harmony and things start to fall apart. Then colors start appearing and people start to freak out. What's going on? Will the town tolerate these new changes? I mean, some people have color and some don't. The funniest thing in the movie was a sign in the window that read, "No Coloreds", alluding to segregation in the early to mid-1900's, though the reference is to people in technicolor. In fact, I don't think there were any African-Americans in the movie at all, or black people.

This movie is clever and funny. I'm disappointed that it took me this long in life to see the movie. If you haven't seen it, then you need to knock it off of your list. Because after you see it, "Fire! Fire! Fire!.......Dog in a tree!" will have a lot more meaning to you.

The movie is rated PG-13 for language and sexuality. And Jeff Daniels painted a naked picture of Joan Allen on the window of the diner. It's not a bad picture either. And her in the tub...quite a visualization.

I gave this movie 4 stars, and that's without the Reese bias.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick is Michael Cera (Juno), the typecast insecure nerdy guy who girls kinda like. Norah is Kat Dennings (40 Year Old Virgin), the somewhat insecure girl who knows what she likes, knows who she's not, and is quite glad about it. Together, they have Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Norah attends a hoity toity rich girls' school, along with Alexis Dziena (Broken Flowers), but doesn't quite fit in. She and some girls meet at a local music venue that specializes in gay bands. In an act of desperation, Norah runs up to Nick (the non-gay member of the band) and asks him to kiss her and pretend he's her girlfriend.

Nick actually sort of likes Norah and his friends decide that she's the girl for him. Problem is that Norah's friend Caroline needs to get home because she's super sloppy drunk. The gay guys say they will take her home and Norah agrees. Now the shenanigans begin.

The movie plays a lot of good music, hence the infinite playlist. Nick and Norah fall in and out of, well, we won't call it love, but maybe a budding interest in each other.

The movie is fast movie, funny, and lovable. I found myself cheering for both of them. The movie is rated PG-13 for teen drinking, sexuality, language, crude behavior, and gayness and is just over an hour and a half long. I gave this movie 4 stars.

Broken Flowers

I got this movie out of the library for a few reasons. First, I was watching Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist and noticed one of the characters. I thought she was pretty hot, but before I publicly announced that she was hot, I wanted to make sure she was over 18. So I went on www.imdb.com.

To my delight, Alexis Dziena is 25. Then I noticed she was in Broken Flowers. I did a Google image search and out popped a totally nude picture of her. As Joey Lawrence would say, "Whoa!" So I reserved it from the library.

When it arrived I read the back and it was rated R for language, drug use, and graphic nudity. Graphic nudity? What does that mean? I was thinking extended sex scenes or something.

Now, the movie itself is a dark humor movie starring Bill Murray, a former comedian. He receives an unsigned letter informing him that he has a 19 year old son. With the help of friend Winston (Jeffrey Wright), Murray decides to drive around and reconnect with former girlfriends to find out if they are the mother and if they typed the letter on a typewriter.

There is nothing overly funny about the movie. It is filled with long awkward pauses, which at first were funny, at least the first 41 times, but after that they got annoying. Murray is down on life and every former girlfriend that he finds reminds him that he sucks. Some of if was mildly funny. But for the most part I was unimpressed.

The movie also stars Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton, and Jessica Lange as former girlfriends. But as I mentioned, the reason I watched it was Alexis Dziena. And based on what I saw and the rating, I have come to the conclusion that MPAA description of graphic nudity means that it shows pubic hair. A boob? That's just nudity. Pubic hair? That's graphic. How ridiculous is that?

So I give this movie only 2 stars. Bill Murray is no longer funny. And the graphicness of the movie was not enough to win me over. Booo!

My Best Friend's Girl

I have to admit that I will receive the Doomass Award this year. I watched this movie and near the end I was like, "How many more times are they going to play that song by The Cars??? Oh, then it hit me. The song is called, My Best Friend's Girl. Duh!

My Best Friend's Girl stars Dane Cook, the profanity-laden closet homosexual comedian as Tank, Kate Hudson, the real-life daughter of Goldie Hawn, as Alexis, the real-life Socialist Alex Baldwin as Professor Turner, the misogynistic father of Tank, and pussy-whipped boyfriend in American Pie Jason Biggs playing Dustin, the pussy-whipped want-to-be boyfriend in this movie.

The premise of the movie is simple. If you want to look like a better boyfriend, hire Tank to take out your girl (or ex-girl). He'll show her the worst time of her life and she'll realize how great she had it and she'll come back crawling on her knees to you. However, his newest assignment, Alexis, isn't so simple. The problem is he actually falls in love with her.

The movie is mostly a battle of profanity and put-downs, many of which are very funny. Kate Hudson prances around in her bra a lot in the movie showing you how small her boobies are - not that it's a horrible factor, but just something that I noticed.

Overall, the movie is somewhat funny. Dane Cook has perfected playing the likable spontaneous jerk and Kate Hudson surprises us with her witty spunkiness. Baldwin and Biggs, however, are no surprises.

The movie is rated R for profanity, sexual situations, profanity, crude humor, and profanity. I give this movie the average of 3 stars.

Pineapple Express

I originally thought this was a movie about Hawaii's new transportation system. Perhaps a mental transportation, but certainly not a physical one.

Seth Rogen and James Franco star in Pineapple Express, the zany comedy where they're being chased by the bad guys after they witness a murder while doing a stakeout in order to issues a summons. Seth Rogen is the average guy who likes to smoke a little pot, okay, a lot of pot. This is a character that Seth Rogen has perfected, almost as if he really likes to smoke a lot of pot.

James Franco, best known as the son of the Goblin, is Rogen's dealer. Rogen figures out that they'll probably find the roach and figure out that it's the pineapple express blend, track down the dealer and find him. So both go on the run.

Also in typical form, Rogen uses the movie as an opportunity to break the world record for dropping the F-Bomb in a 2 hour movie. I thought the South Park movie held the record, but according to this site, Pineapple Express actually comes in 62nd place.

The movie has some cameos by some has-beens and some future has-beens, including Nora Dunn, Ed Begley Jr, and Bill Hader.

Pineapple Express is rated R for persistent and pervasive language, some drug use, wait, lots of drug use, some sexual innuendo, and lots of violence. But don't get me wrong the violence is mostly hysterical. The movie is 129 minutes long.

Overall I give this movie 3 stars. Most of my friends gave it 4 stars, but all will admit that I'm slightly turned off by foul language. The movie is a good laugh, though. Check it out!

Fred Claus

Every year there has to be a Christmas movie. It's the law. And usually the Christmas movie sucks. I present Deck the Halls, Christmas With the Kranks, The Santa Clause 1, 2 and 3, and Jack Frost . I dare you to challenge me on that one. I've even heard that Christmas movies are where actors and actresses go to die.

Fortunately, despite some reviews by the pundits, Fred Claus is actually not that bad. It stars Vince Vaughn as Santa Claus' brother. Fred grew up the older brother of Santa, played by John Adams, I mean Paul Giamatti. Santa is the carefree, jovial kid who has good intentions, but seems to be making life miserable for his older brother Fred, who's more down to Earth.


"Why can't you be more like your brother Nick?" This is what Fred heard all his life. Fred was never as good as Nick and resented his mother for all of the attention that Santa got. So Fred skipped town, only to struggle through life with bitterness and failure. Santa, meanwhile, went on to become the bearer of gifts on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, Fred gets into a bit of a bind and needs money, which Santa agrees to give him if Fred agrees to come to the North Pole and work for it and help him get through the Christmas season. Fred agrees and the drama ensures.

To add to the fun, Kevin Spacey plays the mischievious accountant that works for the government who's inspecting the North Pole operations, which Santa must prove is in working order so that he can maintain control over this domain.

The movie is full of laughs, lots of site gags and slapstick humor. Vince Vaughn plays the best character that he knows - Vince Vaughn without the potty mouth. Fred Claus is rated PG for some mild language and some rude humor, per Netflix. It was decent enough that I didn't feel bad allowing my 6 year-old son to watch it.

The movie also stars Kathy Bates as the Claus' mother, Ludacris (who was hysterically midgetized), and Elizabeth Banks as Fred's girlfriend.

Overall I give this movie 4 stars. This is a great movie to watch with your family, which is important to do at the holidays.

Operation Petticoat

I have been trying to see the classics for a couple of years now. I'm not so sure that Operation Petticoat is considered a classic, but it does star Tony Curtiss (father of Jamie Lee) and Cary Grant, who is a classic actor. The movie was directed by Blake Edwards, director of the infamous Pink Panther movies and Breakfast at Tiffany's. The movie even casts minor roles for Marion Ross (Happy Days) and Dick Sargent (I Dream of Jeanie).

Operation Petticoat is a comedy about the U.S.S. Sea Tiger, a U.S. submarine during World War II. The movie follows the zany adventures of the sub and it's eclectic and often times dysfunctional crew members.

The movie starts off with an attack on the naval base and the Sea Tiger is sunk. Cary Grant (Lt. Commander Sherman) is given permission to raise and repair his ship, but only with a skeleton crew. Furthermore, he is given Naval dandy supply officer Lt. JG Nicholas Holden (Curtiss). Holden's naval experience does not exceed organizing some social activities for the Officers' Ladies Club.

Because of the shortage of supplies, Cmd Sherman cannot repair his ship. Holden, however, uses ingenuity and comes up with the supplies through some creative acquisitions.

Once off at sea, they attack a ship near an island, only to learn that some American nurses are trying to escape. The rest of the movie deals with interactions between the men and the women and Captain Sherman trying to maintain some sort of normalcy on their voyage. Things are only complicated when the ship needs to be primed and painted because of the recent repairs. The paint situations causes them to paint the ship pink.

This movie is clever and classical funny from the days of yore, not the in-your-face kind of funny of today's movies. Operation Petticoat was made in 1959, the same year that Grant starred in the critically acclaimed North By Northwest. Had it been rated by today's standards, it probably would have been rated PG-13 for theatrical violence and some sexual undertones.

I give this movie 4 stars. I enjoyed it, but remember that I have a bias towards older movies. But this one is in color, so don't be too afraid to watch it.

Brigadoon

Another "talkie" as my wife puts it. Brigadoon is the classic musical from 1954 starring Gene Kelley and Cyd Charrise.

Set in Scotland, Tommy Albright (Kelley) and Jeff Douglass (Van Johnson) are in Scotland hunting when they come across this hamlet set in the hills. This hamlet, however, is not on the map. They decide to explore the area and discover a town that seems to be stuck in the past. Everyone is dressed as if it were 200 years ago. The town they have found is Brigadoon.

Also during this day a wedding is planned for Jean Campbell, the sister of Fiona Campbell (Charrise). Albright and Kelley meet and they fall in love and sing lots of songs. Albright learns that the town was put under a spell. It is to sleep for 100 years and awaken for only 1 day. So to the people of Brigadoon, only 2 days have passed over the last 200 years. The problem is that if anyone leaves Brigadoon then the spell will be broken, but everyone will disappear and be gone forever.

Oh, the conundrum. True love is found, but cannot be held. Is their love strong enough to find an answer to their problem?

Brigadoon was directed by Vincente Minnelli, the same director of An American in Paris, another Gene Kelley movie, Meet Me in St. Louis, and Father of the Bride.

The movie predates the MPAA rating system, but would probably deserve the PG rating since people are smoking and drinking. The movie is 108 minutes long and about 100 minutes of that is singing. So if you like singing, this movie is for you. I give this movie 3 stars. It has a compelling storyline, but just a bit too much song and dance for me.

WALL-E

Hyped as one of the best PIXAR movies of all-time, this movie generated over $485 million in the theatre. After I got through the first 20 minutes of previews and the musically fancy and important production and ownership logos flashing across the screen, we finally made it to the actual movie.

WALL-E is a little robot, similar to Short-Circuit, but a little dumber. WALL-E appears to be living in a lifeless world in the future. His primary objective is to scoop and compact trash into tiny neat squares and stack them into tall buildings. He is cleaning the Earth. Unfortunately, though, it appears he is the only WALL-E type machine left to do the cleaning.

EVE is introduced to the Earth by a probing robot to determine if there is any life left. WALL-E falls in love, robotically, of course. EVE leaves Earth and WALL-E is determined to go with her. He wants her to stay. He is the robot with a personality who wants companionship, sort of like weak-minding salesmen.

EVE is sent back to the mother ship where all of the Earth people are living. WALL-E is now trapped, but wants to find EVE and get her back to Earth. There is the subliminal, or maybe not so subliminal, struggle between man and robot as read in Isaac Asimov's I Robot, not much unlike Will Smith's I, Robot. There are the 3 Laws of Robotics that help govern the relationship between man and robot. PIXAR did a good job of incorporating this.

You'll notice the voices of several people including John Ratzenberger (Cheers), Sigourney Weaver, and Fred Willard.

Overall, I thought the movie was okay. It wasn't great, though I heard a lot of acclamation for the movie and it was really hyped by the over-caffeinated movie critic crowd. My wife, the science-fiction detesting loving wife that she is, said that this was the worst movie she ever saw - worse than Star Wars. Take that as you may.

Upon informing a friend of my wife's comments, she replied, "Mrs. Eludius does not have a heart." That's not a logical statement. My wife has no mechanical electrodes that detect the emotional presence of other mechanical beings.

The movie is about 1:38 minutes long and is rated G, which means there's not too much to look forward to in the movie if you're over 12 years old. WALL-E wasn't horrible, but I'm in no hurry to see it again. I give it a 3.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for a James Bond movie. I know. The movies are usually hokey. He always gets the girl. Or, more accurately, he gets lots of girls. I think this makes him a slut. But I'm still drawn to the movie and I'm going to make you read about it.


On Comcast OnDemand this week they have several James Bond movies. I am still in the cycle of trying to rewatch the movies as I have seen them all at one point, but many I haven't seen for 20 years. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of those that I have not seen in a long time.


After playing James Bond for several movies, Sean Connery stepped down and George Lazenby was selected. Some interesting points - it was the only Bond movie for George. He later went on to star in some more important movies - the Emmanuel series of European skin flicks. Connery later returned and did another Bond movie before the role was offered to Timothy Dalton.

No, you say. It went to Roger Moore. Correct. Timothy Dalton turned down the offer saying that he was too young for the role. He went on to star in Flash Gordon and Roger Moore became the new James Bond. Dalton was reoffered the role after Moore retired from the role.

Another interesting note is in one scene a janitor is seen emptying the trash and whistling the theme to Goldfinger.


But enough about that. This movie is actually the third in the trilogy. Wait - there are +25 James Bond movies! Correct. However, there was a trilogy in the series. Many of the movies dealt with the evil scientist and his organization known as SPECTRE. However, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Diamonds are Forever are the trilogy of an ongoing story line. SPECTRE continued to make appearances in later Bond movies, but a new terrorist organization known as Quantum is the new villain in both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.


The story line of OHMSS, Bond is initially relieved of his duty and resigns, but Money Penny cleverly changes his resignation into a request for a leave of absence. Bond uses this as an opportunity to infiltrate SPECTRE to absolve himself of a perceived failure. However, along the way he keeps running into and eventually falls in love with Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo. In my opinion, she is one of the most influential characters in all of the Bond movies and she is mentioned in later movies, including The Spy Who Loved Me, License To Kill, and in For Your Eyes Only.


Back to OHMSS, Bond is able to infiltrate SPECTRE, which eventually leads to him being discovered, a gun battle, and his ultimate escape. This follows most of the Bond movie plots. In the end, Contessa Teresa helps him escape. Their love is stronger than ever and Bond asks her to marry him. They get married and they drive away eventually stopping on a cliff-side perch to remove flowers from the car. A passing car containing Blofield opened fire on them and Tracy is killed. The ending is emotional and Bond is visibly distraught, almost to the point of denial. As mentioned previously, she is mentioned in later movies and in For Your Eyes Only, Bond lays a wreath on her gravestone.


Of the Bond movies that I have seen (I have yet to see Quantum of Solace), I think On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best movies. Lazenby was an excellent Bond and one can only imagine how successful he would have been had he stayed with the character.


Overall, I give this movie 4 stars. There is a lot of gun violence, explosions, subtle sexual references, some not so subtle sexual references, and some partial nudity, not that there's anything wrong with that.


If you're a Bond fan, don't forget about this movie. It's one of the best.

Get Smart

I saw Get Smart in the theater 25 times. Would you believe on bootleg copy before it was released on DVD? How about last Tuesday?

Steve Carell stars as Maxwell Smart, the quirky gizmo-loving detective for the American intelligence agency known as CONTROL. We works along side Agent-99, played by the young and beautiful Anne Hathaway.

As you will remember from the Mel Brooks-produced 1960's show, Maxwell Smart fought against the implied Russian agency known as KAOS. Always lucky, but never Smart, he always seemed to get his man, though with a heavy hand from Agent-99. If you were born in the 1980's, you're definitely thinking right now, "Get Smart was a TV show in the 1960's???"

This movie adaption of the TV show has many familiar faces, such as former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, former Sesame Street star Alan Arkin, and a Godfather, James Caan. And this movie does not disappoint. They cleverly included many of the sight-gags and vernacular of the original TV show. Steve Carell is funny, as he usually is. And Anne Hathaway is sexy - as she has been since the day she turned 18. Prior to that day, this editor had no relevant opinion of her.

Get Smart is 110 minutes long, 10 minutes short of 2 hours. It is rated PG-13 for some crude humor, mild violence, language, and would you believe plentiful nudity? If you blinked, then you missed it by that much.

I really liked this movie and I give it 4 stars. Make sure you see this movie.

THX 1138

Ever see the beginning of a movie and the far away to close sound check with THX is on the screen? Ever wonder what that is? Well, it is part of George Lucas' production company. And THX was the character in one of his earliest films.

THX 1138 was a character played by Robert Duvall in the movie of the same name. Lucas started producing the movie in 1969 and it was shown in 1971. It is a very futuristic science fiction movie. Many of the scenes do not appear to go together and there is very little dialog. For those of you who don't like thinking movies - stay away. Stay far away. This movie makes you think. And it's the actions of the characters that make you think. Or perhaps the lack of dialog that make you think.

One thing that I thought about during the movie is how similar this could be to George Orwell's 1984. It definitely appeared as if the government was in charge of everything, including mind control, destiny, and prescription drugs, though that may not be far off from the current truth.

In the movie people are drugged up and not allowed any free thought or action. Instructions are given by "Big Brother" throughout the movie. One day Duvall decides to not take his mind controlling drugs and then hooks up with a girl, which is illegal. Both are removed and sent to some sort of endless walled prison. Duvall then spends the rest of the movie trying to escape.

I found it interesting that during the chase Big Brother was providing budget statistics for each action, which determined future actions. Another point of interest was during an explosion at the police manufacturing plan (where they manufacture police robots). After the clean-up, a friendly Big Brother voice informs the other workers that the explosion killed x amount of people, bringing that group' death toll to 200 and some, which is lower than their department's death toll, so keep up the good work!

The only reason that I got this movie was because I knew that George Lucas had produced it in or just out of film school. If I had watched this movie without any knowledge, I would have thought it to be totally nuts. However, knowing that it was a Lucas production, I actually caught glimpses of Star Wars in the making. A lot of the settings and electronic communications reeked of Star Wars. I'm not sure if it is worth watching the movie to see this, but I found it interesting.

THX 1138 is rated R for sexuality, nudity, and scientific confusion. The movie is 88 minutes long, but seems a lot longer since there is very little dialog. I gave this movie 3 stars, but would have given it 2 1/2 if Netflix would have allowed it. It's not the kind of movie that I would normally like, but science fiction fanatics would probably love this movie.