Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations

Welcome to the 154th Edition of my long-running series. Annie went very well and it was sad to see it come to an end but I must move on for I have A TIME FOR CHRISTMAS now which I look very forward to. I am now 4-3 in Fantasy Football after a big loss which was mostly due to Jets QB Brett Favre but due to my competitive division, I am still in the lead so hopefully I can get a win to keep my division lead. I never thought I would be so grateful to youtube but it really helped me get into my role as Cordell Hull as they had one of his videos where I watched many times to try to get his voice and mannerisms down so I don't know what I would have done without it. I'm sure it would have been fine but by no means the same.

Polyester (1981): I start this week out with the strange but great mind of John Waters. Divine stars as a suburban housewife Francine Fishpaw whose pornographic director husband is unfaithful to her (or is it him?), their daughter becomes pregnant and their son is suspected of my the serial foot-stomper. She then meets Todd Tomorrow who brings her life up a bit. This is by no means for everyone but if you can accept this kind of humor, you'll love it. I liked HAIRSPRAY (1988) better but this was still very fun.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971): We go from Waters to Robert Altman. Travis showed this in his Co-Op film series which stars Warren Beatty as John McCabe who starts his own tavern and meets professional madam Mrs. Miller, played by Julie Christie, who helps him get it started. They then form a relationship and a successful business until a corporation wants to buy McCabe out. He refuses which has a lot of negative results on the small town. This was a very dark and poetic film as only Altman can do with good performances everywhere and some beautiful songs sung by Leonard Cohen.

Things We Can Do Without (1953): This is one of the short films which is one of the Pete Smith specialty shorts which he narrates situations and here he took a look at household items that were not necessary and some rather state-of-the-art household items. I believe this is the 3rd or 4th Pete Smith specialty short and they are a lot of fun to watch where he takes a bad situation and turns in really funny.

Spaceballs (1987): Now I turn to Mel Brooks in this spoof of STAR WARS in a time when a spoof meant something where we actually have a story instead of the annual movies where a bunch of movie clips are put together. Bill Pullman is Lone Star and John Candy plays Barf who are meant to parody Han Solo and Chewbacca. They are in debt big to Pizza the Hut and are hired by the King to find his daughter. I don't need to explain much more of the plot. Rick Moranis, before he dropped off the face of the planet, plays Dark Helmet, an obvious parody to Darth Vader. Joan Rivers provides the voice of Dot Matrix. Mel plays a dual role as President Skroob and Yogurt. This is something very fun to watch and maybe not Mel's best but still one of the greats with good film references. Also, know that Mel went to George Lucas before making this movie.

Dropping In: The True Story of Don Wimmer (2007?): This is a movie that my friend Bill asked me to view since he is friends with the director of this documentary. Don Wimmer was a CPA who was very burned out by his job and at 42 decided to drop everything and pursue his dream of being a professional skateboarder much to the dismay of his family. This movie kind of reminded me of AMERICAN MOVIE which focuses on a person who does everything possible to pursue their seemingly impossible dream. You can get more information and even purchase this movie on http://www.droppinginmovie.com. Now to any filmmakers who read this, I am always willing to view your films with a possibility of giving you publicity on here. This is not the first time I have done something like this so please check out the website.

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror (1922): I guess this is my only real Halloween-related film for the week but his is a good one though. This is a silent film which is based on DRACULA by Bram Stoker but due to it being unauthorized, people's names were changed. F.W. Murnau directed this classic which stars Max Schreck as Count Orlak who may very well be the ugliest vampire in film history. He is visited by a real estate agent who talks to him about buying land which starts a lot of havoc. One thing interesting about this dvd that I got from Netflix was that the title cards actually addressed all the characters by the Dracula names like Count Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Mina, Renfield, etc. If anyone has information on why that was, please elaborate. In 2000, the movie SHADOW OF A VAMPIRE came out which was a fictional (or was it real?) account of the making of this movie.

The Bourne Supremacy (2004): In the second of the Bourne trilogy, Matt Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne where we see in with Marie (Franka Potente) and they believe they are to lead a good life but when an assassination attempt on Bourne's life goes bad, he must get back in the game. He must go against a new hired assassin played by XENA alum Karl Urban. These movies have some great action sequences and while not as good as Identity in my opinion, it was still quite fun to watch. Also look for Joan Allen, Brian Cox, and Julia Stiles. While it is a trilogy now, I understand we're in for more Bourne.

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938): This is an early teaming between Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart where we have Robinson as the title character who is a doctor and masquerades as a criminal in the underworld while Bogart is "Rocks" Valentine, an experienced mobster who has trouble buying into Clitterhouse. Claire Trevor plays the mafia girlfriend in this. This was a very interesting performance by Robinson and draws a very thin line between good and bad. This is a very over-looked gangster film that should be watched.

Chaplin (1992): Richard Attenborough directed this biopic on the legendary Charlie Chaplin. Robert Downey Jr. plays the silent film comedian in a great performance spanning many years where he plays Chaplin in his rise on Vaudeville to his last days when he accepts a special Oscar award. For those of you that do not know much about Chaplin, he was big in silent film for years and used situations he hated and made them into comedy like THE GOLD RUSH, MODERN TIMES, and THE GREAT DICTATOR. Kevin Kline plays his friend Douglas Fairbanks and Dan Aykroyd is Mack Sennett, a director he worked under when he was younger. We also see his many marriages and affairs in his complex life. This was a great biopic. It is too bad that Downey had all those drug problems that might have cost him some good roles. Playing this role and Tony Stark in IRON MAN were two great performances from a possibly over-looked actor.

Gorilla at Large (1954): I now end with what I guess is rather Halloween oriented. This movie takes place at the Garden of Evil and in the Garden of Evil, a man is murdered by either a gorilla named Goliath or by someone dressed as an ape with everyone being a suspect. Lee J. Cobb, Anne Bancroft, Lee Marvin, Raymond Burr and many others star in this murder mystery. I found this on AMC. Nothing great but great fun.

Well, that is it for this week. Please leave your comments on what you like and what you hate and stay tuned for next week.

FUN LITTLE FACTS

John Schuck (McCabe and Mrs. Miller) played the role of Walt "Painless Pole" Waldowski in Robert Altman's MASH and I played Waldowski last year in the September production of MASH at Lee's Theater in Anderson.

Rene Auberjonois (McCabe and Mrs. Miller) played shapeshifter Odo in tv series STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE and Karl Urban (Bourne Supremacy) plays Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 remake of the original STAR TREK.

Mel Brooks (Spaceballs) plays Dr. Van Helsing in DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT and Anthony Hopkins (Chaplin) plays the role in BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA.

Brian Cox (Bourne Supremacy) played the first Hannibal Lector in MANHUNTER and Anthony Hopkins made the role iconic THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, HANNIBAL, and RED DRAGON.
Joan Allen (Bourne Supremacy) and Anthony Hopkins (Chaplin) played Pat and Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone's NIXON

Anthony Hopkins (Chaplin) co-stars as Chaplin's fictional biography editor in CHAPLIN. Kevin Kline co-stars in CHAPLIN as Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks played Don Diego de La Vega aka Zorro in THE MARK OF ZORRO in 1920 and Hopkins played the the role as an older person in THE MASK OF ZORRO in 2005.