Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations

Welcome to the 145th Edition of my long-running series. Recently, we lost both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes so this week I pay tribute to them. I don't have much to say so I will recommend my movies for the week.


Bad Day at Black Rock (1955): I start this week with this John Sturges classic which stars Spencer Tracy as a drifter named Macreedy who is coming through a small town called Black Rock who does not lead onto why he is there but the people in the small town are not welcoming to Macreedy. This movie does not seem to get the recognition it deserves but is a great movie to check out and is a great mystery.



Stand By Me (1986): I choose my Facebook friend Angie this week who I went to High School with. Rob Reiner directed this film based on the novella THE BODY by Stephen King showing he can do non-horror. What else can be said about this 80s classic which stars STAR TREK alum Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and SLIDERS alum Jerry O'Connell as friends who go in search of a dead body of a teenager but much be careful of a knife-wielding gang lead by a young 24 alum Kiefer Sutherland. This is a great coming-of-age story which everyone should view. Also look for John Cusack as Wil Wheaton's late brother and Richard Dreyfuss as "the writer".



Son's Room (2001): This is my foreign film of the week which was directed, written, and starred by Italian Nanni Moretti. Moretti stars as a psychoanalyst who seems content in life and in his job but experiences an unexpected tragedy with his family. He then must pull together when his family and his patients need him most. This was a very moving film which I was pulled into from the beginning and was a great effort by Moretti who was involved in about every aspect of the film.



Three Tough Guys (1974): This is my unexpected tribute to Isaac Hayes which I meant to do next week but this was the Grindhouse film I had slated for this week and conveniently it had Isaac Hayes. Isaac Hayes plays Lee in his film debut who is a cop but is kicked off the force and teams up with a priest to take down a gang in revenge of a friend. Blaxploitation star Fred Williamson stars as the villain of the game. The normal movie watcher may not like this but if you understand the Blaxploitation genre, you will have a lot of fun.



China's Stolen Children (2007): This is my documentary for the week which I found on On-Demand at my dad's house. This movie takes a look at the child laws in China and takes a look at people who had to sell their children or lose their children due to these strange laws. This takes a look at couples who decide they must sell their children, a tracker who people hire, and one of the traffickers. Each person is filmed so that you understand each one. This is very depressing but it had a lot of impact in China on the "One Child Policy"



Some Like it Hot (1959): Billy Wilder directed this classic comedy which was directed by Billy Wilder. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis star as out-of-work musicians who accidently witness the St. Valentines Day Massacre. They then disguise themselves as females to join an all-female band lead by Marilyn Monroe who has her own problems. They do what they can to keep away from the mafia but complicate things a lot. The three leads were great and they did a great job of making a hilarious movie about a serious situation like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.



Army of Darness (1992): Sam Raimi directed the third part in the great EVIL DEAD trilogy which once again stars my hero Bruce Campbell as Ash who is trapped in 1300 AD where he must battle a group of zombies and tries to escape back to his own world. It was unfortunate that the Civic Theater was not able to do EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL but maybe someday they will. This is not for all tastes and reading this I think you'll figure it out if you are or not. Lots of comedy and violence make this a great watch.



The Body Snatcher (1945): Robert Wise directed this horror classic written by Robert Louis Stevenson which has Boris Karloff and Bela Legosi in their last movie together. Henry Daniell stars as a ruthless doctor who hires Karloff to steal bodies for him. Legosi portrays Daniell's servant who is in a small but good role. Karloff was great in this role considered by many to be his best. Horror buffs must check this out, everyone else use your own judgement.



Mr. 3000 (2004): I now pay tribute to the late Bernie Mac. Bernie stars as a washed-up baseball player who learns that his 3000 hits had a mistake which made three hits not work. He then decides nine years later to go back into baseball to get those three hits. This was surprisingly quite good. He starts out as a very self-centered person worried about himself and not so much the team but when going back he sees a teammate who is just like him and sees his error. It was a very funny movie and a well-written comedy.



Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937): This was an era where we seemed to love Non-Japanese people playing Japanese detectives. We had many people play Charlie Chan, we had Boris Karloff playing Mr. Wong, and we now have Peter Lorre playing the title detective here. This is the second movie with Peter Lorre as this character and was great as the detective which was different than his usual roles. He then finds himself searching for seven scrolls which reveal the tomb for Genghis Khan and must stop others from getting these scrolls. Peter Lorre makes this movie worth watching.



Well, that is it for this week, hopefully next week I can make an announcement of the next play I am in. Please leave your comments telling me what you like and what you hate. Stay tuned for next week which will include a tv mini-series, an early Stallone film, another depressing documentary and Laurel and Hardy.