Welcome to the 218th Edition of my long-running series. This week I pay tribute to the late SPORTS MACHINE host George Michael (no it is not that singer), and French director Eric Rohmer. This one was a pretty easy one to put together unlike last week. Today I will be watching football and the Golden Globes. If you don't like football, you might consider going out and renting one of these movies.
King of California (2007): I found this one on On-Demand when I was at my dad's house for Christmas but due to my rules I had to advance to this one which happens a lot. Mike Cahill wrote and directed this independent film which stars Michael Douglas as the title character whose name is Charlie. Charlie is an unstable but friendly man who is just getting out of a mental institution. Evan Rachel Wood plays Miranda who is his 16 year old daughter who has always taken care of him and must do what she can to scrape by. When her father returns, he does everything he can to convince her that there is a buried treasure that will make them a lot of money. He then believes it is within a Costco building and Miranda finally goes along with her father who is very convincing in some rather extreme measures to get to it and destructive measures. As an employee at an Apple Call Center, I deal with the Costco concierges a lot where they call for help for a customer and then stay on the line with us while we try to help the customer. They sometimes get rather annoying in their questioning of what we do so that became rather fitting to me to see the destruction of Costco and no offense to people who work there or have actually had to make those kinds of calls as I'm sure you're just doing your job. This was a pretty nice take on an American father and daughter who have had a difficult relationship and on the American Dream. Douglas was great as Charlie and is far from the usual ruthless businessman and/or victimized husband he usually plays. I can always watch Evan Rachel Wood who works well with Michael Douglas.
Tin Cup (1996): This is my tribute to the late SPORTS MACHINE host George Michael who has a cameo as himself in that tv show. Ron Shelton co-wrote and directed this golf comedy which stars Kevin Costner as the title character which his nickname and his real name is Roy McAvoy. Roy is a washed-up golf pro who has blown it a lot in his career and owns a beat-up driving range in the middle of nowhere. Cheech Marin plays his caddy and his hapless adviser Romeo. Don Johnson plays golf pro David Simms who has always been a rival to Roy. Rene Russo is David's girlfriend Dr. Molly Griswold who is taking lessons from Roy and slowly starts to take a liking to Roy. Roy then decides to enter himself in the U.S. Open but lacks the discipline to really win where Molly and Romeo must help him. The interesting part of this is how David Simms is portrayed as the villain but has more sense than Roy. Rene Russo makes a good transition from the overly serious psychiatrist and kind of join Roy's world and his other loyal friends at the driving range. I really liked a scene towards the end that used a nice bit of false foreshadowing which reminded me a lot of the fight scene in 1956 film GIANT. Kevin Costner is pretty good here even if he is a bit unlikable at times.
Die Hard (1988): This is the first of a great action film series starring Bruce Willis as the maverick cop John McClane. He is an NYPD cop going to L.A. hoping to see his kids and his estranged wife. When visiting his wife at her work, he gets an unexpected hostage situation when terrorists lead by Hans Gruber, played very well by Alan Rickman, take it hostage but do not catch McClane. They also lock the building leaving McClane to fend for himself to save them while communicating with a police officer played by FAMILY MATTERS alum Reginald VelJohnson who has had a difficult career as a cop who while helping McClane is also helping him gain back his confidence as a cop. There is a lot of great action and look for former Bond villain Andreas Wisniewski who played Necros in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and even Robert Davi who was the main villain Sanchez in LICENSE TO KILL. This is Rickman's feature film debut which is the start of a great career as one of the best character actors in the business in my opinion. If you want realistic action, this is not really it but it still has believable characters and is a very fun action film.
Welcome to Macintosh (2008): I found this documentary on CNBC and found it fitting to watch since I work at a call center where I troubleshoot people's issues with ipods and sometimes itunes. This movie focuses on the history of Apple Inc. which started in the late 70s but has come a long way. It takes a look at the ups and downs of the company. It shows a lot of footage on Steve Jobs and other people in the company. It has a lot of interviews from the corporate side, among other people. It also shows the impact they have made in the world in technology and even film where their computers have been used a lot for editing. It is pretty insightful and I guess it could have been longer but it is still very interesting to watch. Now we will see how the company does now that Steve Jobs is pretty much retired.
Millions (2004): This is my British film for the week which was directed by Danny Boyle. It is a film that questions ethics in the eyes of children. Alex Etel stars as Damian a young boy with lots of expertise towards saints and Lewis McGibbon stars as his older brother Anthony. Together they come across a big load of Pounds. Soon, pounds will be changed into Euros and the brothers disagree on what to do with it. Damian wants to give to the poor and Anthony wants to live it up. There are a lot of interesting dream sequences where Damian is speaking to certain saints who are giving advice. JEKYLL alum James Nesbitt co-stars as their father. I really found myself enjoying this film showing the great director that Danny Boyle is and the performances were very good. Boyle must really like WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE since there is a scene where the family is watching the British version. That show would be an important part in his later award winning film SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE which really made me take note of Boyle.
Toonerville Picnic (1936): This is my cartoon short for the week which centers on the hot-tempered Mr. Bang. His counselor tells him he needs a vacation but no one is making that easy for Mr. Bang when the trolley is very shaky and the people on the beach don't give him much quiet. It was an early cartoon which was pretty entertaining. Toonerville cartoons lasted in the papers for many years but not much were made in actual animation but lives on through my cartoon shorts DVD I have. This might be findable on Youtube. It was cool that they took a flawed, everyday older man who just had a lot of anger issues but still made the cartoons family-oriented.
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944): June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven play singing sisters Patsy and Jean. They meet many people in the military including a navy guy named John, played by Van Johnson, who has quite a bit of money which the sisters do not know. The sisters help him start up a service canteen but John becomes smitten with Jean but Patsy also likes him starting a bit of a love triangle. The reality of this film is that it is more of a variety show than anything. Jimmy Durante was amusing as Billy Kipp and many other singers from that era make cameos like Lena Horne and many others. This movie has some entertaining music numbers but if you are looking for a great story, it does not come here. It was still worth a watch if you like musicals though.
Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932): This is one of two French films I have featured for this week. This is an early film from director Jean Renoir. This movie is a social satire where Michel Simon stars as the title character. Boudu is a homeless man who decides to jump in the river and kill himself. He is then saved by the wealthy Mr. Lestingois and he takes him in, gives him shelter and tries to turn him upper-class. Mr. Lestingois' wife and maid are not very thrilled as he is very lazy and dirty so they must plot to get him out. It is a pretty funny film that holds up very well and was worth watching. Simon was great as Boudu.
Psycho (1960): Well, I bring you Alfred Hitchcock again as BBC seems to be doing a weekly showing of his films but I doubt very seriously Hitchcock will be on here next week. This movie centers around the Bates Motel where we meet Norman Bates, played very well by Anthony Perkins, who runs the hotel and has quite a mother complex. The movie starts with Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, a woman who steals a lot of money and while on the run takes refuge in the hotel where she learns may not have been the best idea. This movie also co-stars Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, and John Gavin who are looking for Marion Crane. This was a great, atmospheric film where everyone knows the infamous shower scene. This is based on a novel by Robert Bloch. Bernard Herman also wrote a good, creepy music score. Unfortunately as great as Perkins was as Norman Bates, that is always the label he gets even though he has done other good things.
DVD REVIEW
-TRAILER
Love in the Afternoon (1972): This is the trailer to my feature DVD review. The trailer really just showed some of the dialogue in the scenes of discussion but gives you a good idea just nothing flashy in the trailer
-SHORT FILM
Veronique and her Dunce (1958): This is an early short film in the career of director Eric Rohmer where a elementary age boy is being tutored by a college age girl and her trying to get through to him in every way possible. The interaction between the two is very interesting with her trying to help him in every way possible and the boy clearly not wanting to work and not understanding the importance of the work. This short seems to have been exposed most in this Criterion Collection of the DVD review since I did not see much exposure or response on imdb.com. It is worth the 18 minutes.
-FEATURE FILM
Love in the Afternoon (1972): This is my tribute to the late Eric Rohmer who wrote and directed this film which is the 6th and last part of his "Six Moral Tales". This movie focuses on a business executive who is happily married and expecting their second child. He tends to have a lot of flirtations and fantasies with a lot of girls which were pretty harmless until Chloe comes into the picture. Chloe was an old flam of his friend and gets herself into his life and he starts to question his ethics on what is right and what is not right. They have many meetings in the afternoon just like the title implies and she decides she wants to seduce him making it hard for him to resist even though he loves his wife. This movie has a lot of dialogue situations which is something Rohmer likes to do and begs questions that we do not always think about. His movies are not exactly flashy or action-packed but are compelling in people trying learn what is right and wrong when there are lots of gray areas.
SPECIAL FEATURE
-Afterward with Neil Labute (2006): Neil Labute talks about how Eric Rohmer was his inspiration. Labute directed films like IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, and DEATH AT A FUNERAL. Labute talks about Rohmer's directorial style where he gives the characters to the audience and let them decide how to feel about them. I did notice that in both his short film and his feature film where each character has a moral dilemma and many shades of gray but does not do things like overplay music and such. He gave disagreements about people's thoughts about him being a boring director and how he tries to use this style in his own work.
OVERALL
-This was put out through the Criterion Collection who puts out a lot of things that have never really had a DVD release. I would have liked to see more insight into the actual film. I liked that they put one of his early short films and the brief interview with Neil Labute. However, I would have liked to see more of an analysis into the film like maybe a director commentary since Rohmer was still alive when the DVDE came out or just some kind of interview with him explaining his thoughts of the film. On the other hand, sometimes the film just speaks for itself where you do not need that kind of thing but I like to get some insight into these kinds of film which did not really happen here. However, it was worth it for the film and is worth a watch to foreign film buffs. I am not going to claim to be an expert towards the "Six Moral Tales" series from Rohmer since I have only seen one of the other ones but both have been rather fascinating and different.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you love and what you hate and stay tuned for next week which so far includes director Ari Folman, Jennifer Lopez, Richard Pryor, Marion Davies, Kevin Bacon, Gary Cole, and many others.
MOST USED DIRECTORS
Danny Boyle 2 (Inspector Morse: Masonic Murders and Millions)
Alfred Hitchcock 2 (The Birds and Psycho)
I do not believe either one of these guys will hit three and I don't have anyone in the plans to join this list next week as of right now but that is subject to change.
MOST USED ACTOR
Tippi Hedren 2 (A Countess From Hong Kong and The Birds)
I doubt Tippi Hedren will have anything featured next week though but things are always subject to change. I have two people in the plans to join Tippi next week but as always, that is subject to change.
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