Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations

Welcome to the 162nd Edition of my series. This week I pay tribute to a couple people who have recently left us. I am also featuring 3 more people from the Random Myspace Profile selection which are parts 4, 5, and 6. I will have one of the movies from the RMP selection process next week and maybe one more, I doubt that I will have the last one but like a wrestling card, that is subject to change.

Senor Droopy (1949): I start this edition with an animated short film of the famous dog. Tex Avery directed this short showing Droopy and the Wolf as bullfighters in Mexico. Not much to say except a nice little animated short back when they meant something. If you like Droopy, you'll like this.

What's Love Got to Do With It (1993): Now we have the bio-pic of Anna Mae Bullock who you will know more as singer Tina Turner. We start with her rough childhood, her rocky marriage with Ike Turner, and her rise to fame. Angela Bassett is great as Tina and Laurence Fishburne plays well off her as the abusive Ike Turner who seems to become jealous of Tina's popularity in their band together. There are some really disturbing scenes but is still pretty inspirational.

The Miracle Worker (2000): I bring you another movie based on a true story and it is the Disney remake of the famed story of Helen Keller. I pay tribute to playright William Gibson who wrote this and recently died. I have featured the 1962 version in the past and I could not obtain the 70s version so I went with this one which may get some mixed opinions. Hallie Kate Eisenberg plays Helen Keller, a young girl who can hear nor see and a family who does not know what to do with her. Allison Elliot plays Annie Sullivan who is sent in to teach her to communicate and has had her own rough past as well as a rough time with Helen but she never gives up. David Strathairn is Captain Keller, who is very indifferent towards Annie Sullivan's methods. Lucas Black plays the straight forward brother of Helen and I actually liked him in that role. This is not the greatest thing I have ever seen but I thought it was a pretty nice update for modern-day families to watch. For those of you that don't know, Ms. Keller became an author and activist as well as the first deaf-blind person to graduate college.

Get Smart (2008): I now bring you a remake of the famed tv series which stars Steve Carell as the inept Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway is the sexy and more experienced Agent 99. They are teamed up much to 99's dismay. They must battle the terrorist group of the KAOS who plot to explode a bomb during a concert. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, sorry I can't keep the name the Rock out just yet, plays the funny Agent 23. Alan Arkin is the chief of the agency. Dalip Singh, better known as the Great Khali in wrestling, plays the conflicted henchman who can remind some of Richard Kiel who played Jaws in 007 films THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and MOONRAKER and some possible references to the second mentioned. Kiel and Singh also played the role of Turley in each version of THE LONGEST YARD. Terrance Stamp is the head of the KAOS organization. This is a great blend of action and comedy with some nice cameo appearances.

Jules and Jim (1962): I was fortunate to find this French film from Francoise Truffaut about two friends and their decades long love triangle. Jeanne Moreau plays Catherine, an impulsive woman who becomes friends with both Jules and Jim. Oskar Werner plays Jules and Henri Serre plays Jim. This is a story done through the times between WW1 and WW2 and goes on through many years. I was not sure what I would think of this movie but I found it to be a very beautiful story and movie.

Dawn of the Dead (1978): This is part 4 of 9 of the Random Myspace Profile selectioin process and for this one I choose Jimmy Buttons who makes some of the best one-inch buttons out there. Visit his site at jimmybuttons.com to check out what he has. George Romero wrote and directed this sequal to the 1968 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Stephen, Peter, Roger and Francine must band together at a mall where the Zombie epidemic is getting worse and must deal with the zombies who seem to love the mall. We also see all the media coverage, the SWAT team and a team of bikers they must also contend with later in the movie. I know this is the wrong time to feature this, it should have been done in October but this has some great action, gore and social commentary that is not for everyone. They also managed to do this without a bunch of stars and lives on to be one of the greatest horror and zombie films of all time.

The Karate Kid (1984): This is part 5 of 9 of the RMP selection process and this time I choose Jimmy Pine, who is the #1 wrestling fan in Central Indiana. I now bring you another classic 80s movie from ROCKY director John Avildson directs this coming of age story of a boy named Daniel, played by 80s icon Ralph Macchio whose mother moves him from New Jersey to California where he has a very difficult adjustment to make. He immediately starts having problems with the head of the Cobra gang whose ex-girlfriend Ali, played by Elizabeth Shue, takes a liking to Daniel but at a price. Daniel learns that his handyman Mr. Miyagi is a karate master and agrees to teach him but in very unorthodox ways that teach him that fighting is the last resort. Pat Morita is great as Mr. Miyagi, whose "wax on, wax off" routine will live on forever. William Zabka is the main bully Johnny, who you can kind of understand when you see him in karate class and his sensai is a boot-camp style instructor, played by Martin Kove, who knows the moves of karate but does not seem to know the reasons to use karate. He then teaches his students the wrong way of karate. We are then led to a great climax at the end. This was Elizabeth Shues first movie. Macchio was actually in his 20s when doing this movie but believably is cast as a high-schooler.

Braveheart (1995): This is part 6 of 9 of the RMP selection process and for this one I selected Rod, a friend and owner of the local shop Wishbone Gifts and someone who has managed to stay in business even in times of the financial crisis. If you're in Muncie, check out his store in Downtown Muncie. Mel Gibson directed and stars in this epic tale as 13th Century scotsman William Wallace who is enraged at the murder of his wife by the tyrannical English ruler and after hopes of a life of peace and quiet have ended, he bands his fellow scotsman and some Irishman to take down the corrupt British rule and hope to win their freedom. This may get some mixed opinions and it is by no means for everyone. Randall Wallace wrote the screenplay and learned about William Wallace when looking into family history but there is no proof one way or the other if they are related. Sophie Marceau was Princess Isabelle, who was with Britain but more compassionate than other family members and takes a liking and sympathy towards William. I really like Marceau and feel she is quite underrated and her most known performance was as the Bond female villain in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH which I recently featured.

It Happened One Night (1934): I bring a little Frank Capra to this blog in one of the best romantic comedies of all time and one filmmakers who want to do a romantic comedy should look at. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie, a spoiled Heiress who does not want to marry the man she just did and runs away. On a bus, she runs into unemployed reporter Peter Warne, played by Clark Gable. She soon must accept his help in getting home even knowing he will do a story but then they start falling in love through all the bickering. Apparently the two stars really did not want any part but it turned out great and I think it will for you too.

Dangerous When Wet (1953): I now bring you the debut of both Esther Williams and Fernando Lamas to my series. I admit I never knew anything about Esther Williams until I saw this and one that will be featured in a couple weeks. She did a lot of swimming in her movies and was pretty well-built, not someone I would want to pick a fight with. Here, she plays a swimmer who along with the rest of her family attempt to swim the English channel. Fernando Lamas is a Frenchman who she falls in love with. One highlight of this film is the aquatic dream scene with the famous cat and mouse Tom and Jerry. Definitely worth a look for that scene, the great aquatic sequences, and the fancy musical numbers. Williams was known for the "aqua-musical" genre.

Well, that is it for this week in the movies. I know I have lacked Christmas movies so I will make up for that in my Honorable Mention section.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

-TV

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): I will never tire of this wonderful tv special. All our favorite Peanuts characters are here with Charlie Brown becoming dismayed of the commercialism of Christmas and along with Linus pondering the real meaning. Charlie is enlisted as the director of the school play and runs into his commercialism issues there as well and even gets a horrible Christmas Tree. Maybe I like Charlie Brown because I relate to him some, maybe too much. A timeless classic and as I say if you have children, please expose them to this.

-Song

Do They Know It's Christmas by Band Aid: I have never done a song before but I felt this wonderful 80s charity song to Ethiopia would be perfect for my weird thought process for this blog. Bob Geldof wrote this song which has many of the notable British singers of the 80s like Bono, John Taylor, Boy George, George Michael, Sting, and many others. You can find it anywhere on Youtube and just remember that through all our problems, remember those in Africa who won't have that snow.

-Theater

Christmas Windows (Artists Studio Theater): This was a theater in Fishers, Indiana where my friend Kellin does a lot of shows. This a musical which was written by the people who own the theater. It was about a family who goes and sees through many windows of the times of Christmas. I can't really explain much from there but it was a very fun show to see and great to see Kellin playing a drunk grandmother.

FUN LITTLE TRIVIA

My facebook friend Zach was in a Ball State version of THE MIRACLE WORKER as Captain Keller, the movie of which I featured on this one.

Allison Elliott (The Miracle Worker) played the role of Percy in the 1996 film THE SPITFIRE GRILL. My Facebook friend Shanna was in a recent musical version at the Jay County Civic Theater where she played the same role.

Mel Gibson (Braveheart) played the role of Fletcher Christian in THE BOUNTY and Clark Gable (It Happened One Night) played the same part in the original 1934 version MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY.