Opening Friday is a terrific new documentary about the notorious Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called RBG, a leading legal mind who has advanced the politics of women rights and legal rights in this country for nearly 40 years, and who remains an important anchor for those left leaner's on the Supreme court, as the court has been pulled to the conservative right in the past decade. We learn about her upbringing, her efforts to educate the old white men on the court about the problems of being a woman in a man's world, her personal family life, and the great achievements she has achieved over the course of her long career. The film is handled with great humor and intelligence, and whatever your political leaning, this film may be an eye opener to many viewers. At age 84 she continues to work tirelessly on the court, and also spends nearly an hour a day doing exercises, including push ups and using resistant cords to keep up her physical strength. Long live the notorious RBG! GRADE--------------------------A
Without special effects or bloody violence, this creepy science fiction film has a family living a quiet, simple life because making any type of noise will bring some horrifying blind monsters to their location to attack and eat them. It's a simple premise, but the film A QUIET PLACE is well made and acted and completely engrossing as the family struggles to survive this plague from outer space. TV comedian John Krasinski from TV'S The Office wrote and directed and stars in, along with his real life wife Emily Blunt (who stars in the upcoming film MARY POPPINS RETURNS) this splendid little film. GRADE------------------------B+
Excessively action packed, overstuffed with Avenger characters, lots of violence, and the most nihilistic ending I've ever seen in a Marvel Avenger movie, that describes the new film AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. The line up of superheroes is too much of a good thing: Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Iron Man, Spider Man, Captain America, Loki, Dr. Strange, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther and half the city of Rowanda and the bad guy Thanos, plus many others. I had to keep concentrating to keep them all straight, and such a large cast limits the screen time each personality gets. It was almost too tiring to process all the action. There were the usual awesome scenes and most of the fighting segments were entertaining, but the film felt rather bloated to me, and so many major characters are "killed" off that I suspect the opening scene of the next Marvel film will start off by saying that AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR was all just a bad dream....... GRADE------B
Here's another gross out teen comedy with a heart of gold. In BLOCKERS, three best girl friends are determined to lose their virginity to their dates on senior prom night, and the parents find out and behave badly, going to extreme measures to stop them. Most of the jokes fall rather flat, or are just plain grotesque--it is hard to have much sympathy for the adults, which include John Cena, Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz, as they behave more irresponsibly than the kids. GRADE------------C+
WATCHED ON TV or DVD!
THE APARTMENT (1960) One of the endearing classics of the master film making team of director Billy Wilder and scrip writer I.A.L. Diamond, this charming comedy drama has a dark bent of cynicism--Jack Lemmon plays a spineless up and coming executive who loans out his apartment to several higher placed executives to accommodate their extra-marital affairs, but things get complicated when his married boss uses the apartment for his affair with an elevator girl that Lemmon is attracted to. When near tragedy strikes, he must face facts and change his life. Fred MacMurray plays a rare "bad guy" role, and this was one of Shirley MacLaine's early roles. The film won five Oscars including Best picture, director and writer. GRADE-----------A
UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE (1967)--This comedy drama of a 60's best seller stars the charmingly eccentric actress Sandy Dennis, who won her supporting Oscar for WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF 1966 (holding her own against Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and George Segal) and several Tony awards for theatre. Her acting was so eccentric that people either loved or hated her. Critic Pauline Kael once said "She has made an acting style of post nasal drip." This film reminds me a lot of TO SIR WITH LOVE, only set in a tough New York City neighborhood, as this first year teacher tries to understand and love a bunch of wild high school students. GRADE-------A-
A DOG OF FLANDERS (1999)--The production and acting were ho hum, but the story remains effective, as a poor motherless boy is raised by his grandfather and becomes encouraged to become a painter. The ending was changed from the book (from tragically sad to happier now) but it moved me none the less. I can understand why there are over six movie versions of this book. Featured actors included Jack Warden, Jon Voight and Cheryl Ladd. GRADE------------B-
JAMES BOND 007 films
GOLDENEYE 1995--Here's the first one with Pierce Brosnan, and he's quite dashingly different. This is also the first for Judi Dench as M, who warns Bond that he's becoming a sexist pig, and Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, and the lively cast includes Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Robbie Coltrane and a young Alan Cumming. There's a spectacular plunge over the edge of a very tall dam, and an amusing chase using a very large tank through the streets of St. Petersburg which rips up the bricks, sidewalks and statues and archways. GRADE--------------B+
TOMORROW NEVER DIES 1997--Brosnan teams up with the smart and tough Michelle Yeoh and the highlight is a high speed motorcycle race while they are handcuffed together as they try to escape from a killer helicopter through the streets of Bangkok--a last minute substitution for Ho Chi Minh City, because Vietnam officials balked at the back lit semi-naked women that always appear in the title sequence of most Bond films--in this one they are smashing sickles and hammers, clearly a symbolism of Communism. Jonathan Pryce plays a deadly, megalomaniac media magnate. GRADE------------B+
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH 1999---Director Michael Apted discussed a large array of actresses for this new Bond film including Vera Farmiga, and Sharon Stone but ended up with the French actress Sophie Marceau, who had to be seductive and very evil too. They choose Denise Richards to play a scientist! (who runs around in short shorts!)--she was effective mainly as an opposite to Marceau. Robert Carlyle is an effective bad guy, and John Cleese takes over for Desmond Llewelyn who had played Q for 17 Bond films. And finally, Judi Dench has a major part in this film, although she is made to look rather stupid a couple of times with her poor judgment. GRADE-----B
DIE ANOTHER DAY 2002--Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson were pleased with the harder edge given Bond by Brosnan, so they signed him up again for this latest one, and were excited with signing up Halle Berry, who would win her Best Actress Oscar for MONSTER'S BALL a few months into shooting DIE ANOTHER DAY. The entertaining film has a number of memorable scenes, including Berry who rises from the ocean in a stunning orange and white bikini, a la Andress in DR NO. Bond is captured and tortured during the sexy opening titles, he has serious issues with his boss Judi Dench as M, and Rosamond Pike and Toby Stephen play the nasty bad guys. (He is the son of Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens .) Madonna wrote and sings the theme song, and has a brief cameo. The finale takes place at an ice palace with an invisible car. Nice and fun to watch. In a surprising twist, this is Brosnan's last Bond, and the producers decide to take 007 into new territory---which results in the best Bond film yet. To be continued. GRADE------------B
James Bond returns all new and vibrant, in CASINO ROYALE --next blog.
ALSO COMING UP NEXT WEEK, the SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (SIFF) starts screening films for Press and Full Series holders this week, so I will begin brief postings on the newest films.
Also, just a heads up for a five season TV melodrama from Australia that I binged upon this month and enjoyed immensely called A PLACE TO CALL HOME. The first two hours did not impress me, but suddenly about episode 3 I really started to like it. It plays like a fast paced DOWNTON ABBEY but more modern, set in the late 1950's, and covers lots of themes like evil matriarchs, holocaust survivors, WWII survivors, homosexuality, mental illness, racial prejudices, evil politicians, cancer issues, infidelity, murder, adoption, blackmail, the list goes on and on, and every single episode ends with an amazingly shocking cliffhanger.
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