Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations

Welcome to the 165th Edition of my weekly blog. This has been a rather difficult one to put together. Some dvds have been bad and some just can't be used due to my rules and may get put off until the next week. I don't have anyone from the Random Myspace Profile selection process but next week I will have at least two and likely three. However, like always that is subject to change. I'll shut up now and start giving you some movies to check out.

Pepe Le Moko (1937): Julien Duvivier directed this French film. Jean Gabin stars in the title role who is hiding out in Algier's Casbah where he can elude the police. He then meets a beautiful French woman named Gaby who begins to cloud his judgement and put him in more and more danger of being caught. Lucas Gridoux plays his rival officer Slimane who uses this relationship to get closer to him. This was a very interesting movie with a great ending and said to be the first film noir.

Alias Jesse James (1959): Norman Z. McLeod directed what I believe is my favorite Bob Hope film I have seen so far. Bob hope plays a struggling insurance salesman named Milford Farnsworth who ends up selling a policy to a man named T.J. James who he learns is actually outlaw Jesse James. When his boss hears of this, he orders Milford to keep Jesse alive at all costs. Wendell Corey is pretty good as Jesse James. Things become even more complicated when Milford falls for Jesse's girlfriend, played by Rhonda Fleming. There are some very amusing cameos by such people as Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, James Garner, Bing Crosby, Hugh O'Brien and many other Cowboy legends. Also look for an uncreditted appearance from Ward Bond which was his last movie. Mary Adams played Jesse and Frank James' mother who seemed just as crooked as them. Actor Jim Davis was Frank James. I like how it did not really portray Jesse James as an anti-hero like many movies, especially in those days do.

Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985): Hector Babenco directed this movie of two prison inmates in a South American prison. William Hurt plays Luis Molina, a gay man found guilty of immoral behavior and Raul Julia is a political prisoner named Valentin. Luis tries to keep his mind off things by making up stories of romantic movies and Valentin is more cynical but still listens to Luis' stories. Through time, they come to repect one another and understand each other more. The two actors are great in this movie which can teach acceptance towards people different. Originally, the actors played the opposite roles but in an experiment they found Hurt to be better as Luis and Julia to be better as Valentin. I guess that would be interesting to see how Julia would have portrayed the flamboyant Luis Molina.

Spun (2002): The Facebook friend I chose for this week was Corby who I was in OKLAHOMA with and have taken voice lessons with him. He is an opera singer with a lot of potential. Jason Schwartzman stars as speed addict Ross. John Leguizamo is drug dealer Spider Mike and Mickey Rourke plays The Cook who is the boyfriend of Nikki, played by KING OF THE HILL alum Brittany Murphy. Rourke was pretty amusing as "the Cook" and always had the Insane Clown Posse's Juggalo Championship Wrestling going on his tv screen which might have been the precursor to THE WRESTLER. Other people in this movie were Patrick Fugit, Mena Suvari, Blondie singer Deborah Harry, and a strange performance from Eric Roberts. There is also a very disturbing scene with Mena Suvari which involves the bathroom. This was a very interesting look at the drug culture but not for everyone.

The Thin Red Line (1998): I now bring unexpected tribute to John Travolta, who has a small role in this movie, whose son Jett recently died at 16 years old. That is something no one should have to go through. I now bring you something a little more serious with Terrance Malick returning from seclusion after the successful 1978 film DAYS OF HEAVEN which he directed. He returns to direct this philosophical war film which unfortunately was released around the same time as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and got unneeded comparisons in my opinion. Both were totally different. In this WW2 drama, we see Army Rifle unit C-For-Charlie who must go on against a Japanese unit making people take a look at their own lives. Sean Penn plays 1st Sgt. Welsh, a sergeant very hard to get along with but tries to be fair. James Caviezal plays Private Witt who goes AWOL many times and his scenes are my favorite to watch. Nick Nolte is the intimidating Lt. Col. Tall though in the beginning when we first see him, he is intimidated by his superior officer, played in the small John Travolta role. Other people here are Woody Harrelson, Adrien Brody, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Thomas Jane and many others. We see this war through the eyes of many of these characters where we hear their thoughts through voice-over and long camera shots. There really is no star of this movie. This is based on a novel from James Jones.

The Servant (1963): I now pay tribute to Nobel winner Harold Pinter who wrote the screenplay and even the play version of this British film. Joseph Losey directed this film which stars James Fox as spoiled rich man Tony who hires a butler named Barrett, played very well by Dirk Bogarde. Hugo becomes very power hungry and slowly exposes himself to Tony.Wendy Craig plays the role of Susan, a friend of Tony who sees through Barrett's scheming no matter how subtle he may seem. Sarah Miles plays Vera, the sister of Barrett who comes to work with him and also becomes part of the scheme. This movie won a lot of British awards and is quite disturbing showing a man who slowly loses his authority to his own butler. Definetly something overlooked and worth a view.

Telltale (2007-2008): This is my short film for the week and a local movie shown at the Harvest Moon Film Festival in my town of Muncie. Andy Bond directed this nice modern-day adaptation to Edgar Allen Poe's story A TELLTALE HEART. Alli Miller is the star of this short and becomes very hating of a dog of her next-door neighbors which drives her to insanity. Alli was quite funny and is someone you may all see in the near future. To see more of Andy's movies go to http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65183334. To see this movie go to http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=38159126.

Brighton Rock (1947): John Boulting directed this interesting gangster picture which stars Richard Attenborough stars as Pinkie Brown who murders a rival mobster to make it look like suicide. Hermione Baddelely stars as night club singer Ida who becomes very suspicious. Carol Marsh stars Pinkie's naive new bride who loves him no matter what but he wants to drive her to suicide in a very strange ending which the British Board of Censors ordered a more happy ending than what was intended. This was in tribute to many of the gangster films of the gangster films of the 40s and very controversial for its time.



The Devil's Advocate (1997): Taylor Hackford directed this horror film adapted from the novel by Andrew Neiderman. Keanu Reeves plays a hotshot attorney in Florida named Kevin Lomax who is recruited by a law firm in a New York firm ran by John Milton, played very well by Al Pacino. When Kevin and his wife, played by Charlize Theron, go to New York they find there is a price to pay for their newfound high life. I believe this I Keanu's best performance and other people in this movie include Jeffrey Jones, COACH alum Craig T. Nelson, Delroy Lindo, SANFORD AND SON alum Paul Benedict and Connie Nielson in her American debut. Heather Matarazzo has a nice small role in the beginning and the end. I'm not going to explain much here except that this is a very watchable horror film and for all you youngsters younger than me, Al Pacino was one of the best before he started taking the easy things so this is one to watch.



The Dark Past (1948): I end with another suspense filled movie. William Holden is a killer who he and his accomplices take a home hostage which has many guests at the time, one of which is a psychiatrist, played by Lee J. Cobb, who tries to probe into the mind of what makes him tick. Nina Foch is good as one of the villains. This is by no means one of the best movies of all time but it was definetly worth a watch for the leads. Also look for Lois Maxwell before she became her most known character of Miss Moneypenny from the James Bond films of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore era.



Well, that is it for this week. I really featured some sex, drugs, and violence this week and next week may not be much different. Please leave your comments here on what you love and hate and keep that movie section updated for the Random Myspace Profile selection process. Next week I got some saints, a mask, a Christopher Nolan film, an homage to the late Ann Savage, and the debut of director Mario Bava.

FUN LITTLE TRIVIA

Wendell Corey (Alias Jesse James) plays Jesse James in the movie I featured with him and also plays his brother Frank James in THE GREAT MISSOURI RAID.

THE THIN RED LINE actors Thomas Jane and John Travolta were rivals in the 2004 film THE PUNISHER. Jane plays Frank Castle who becomes the Punisher and Travolta plays the villain of the movie Howard Saint. I apoligize to the haters of this movie but I actually liked this movie.



John Cusack (Thin Red Line) was briefly considered for the role of Kevin Lomax in this week's feature THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE which ultimately went to Keanu Reeves.

Mickey Rourke (Spun) apparently filmed a scene for the featured THE THIN RED LINE which was left on the cutting room floor. I would love to see that scene since he is my idol.