Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 225th Edition

Welcome to the 225th Edition of my weekly series. This week I pay tribute to the late wrestling legend Jack Brisco. I have one selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection this week. Next week will have at least three but possibly as many as five. Tonight are the Academy Awards so I will finish my next batch of Netflix selections.

Saved! (2004): The Facebook friend I chose for this week is John who I went to school with at Yorktown and who I'm sure is meant for some great things. This is a comedy that takes place at a Christian high school. Jena Malone stars a Mary who is a good Christian and has a good Christian boyfriend named Dean but then learns he may be gay. She does whatever possible to help him including losing her virginity. When this happens, Dean is sent to a school to cure him of his gayness and Mary is pregnant. I'm sure in these kinds of situations is when you learn who your friend are and she really did. Mandy Moore co-stars as Hilary Faye who is very obsessed with the bible and when learning of Mary's pregnancy, she really turns on her friend. You could easily dismiss Moore as over-the-top but I think it is a pretty realistic performance in playing such a hypocritical Christian . Mary then becomes friends with the outcast types like the rebellious Jewish girl Cassandra, Hilary Faye's wheelchair-bound brother Roland, and a skateboarder named Patrick. Macauley Culkin plays Roland and his pretty good in his role. Other co-stars include Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker and many others. Brian Dannelly directed and co-wrote this film with Michael Urban. It is a clever satire which some say was anti-religious but I believe it was just meant to point out the hypocrisy in a religious school environment and maybe just something to teach acceptance of others.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992): James Foley directed this film adaptation to the David Mamet play which looks at the workings within a real-estate office where times are pretty tough. Alec Baldwin plays the boss Blake who gives five salesmen a strong incentive to succeed in a sales environment. The first prize will get a nice Cadillac Eldorado, second prize gets a set of steak knives and third prize gets fired. There is no room for failure in this environment. With this incentive, people do what they can by any means necessary even committing crime. Jack Lemmon plays Shelley Levene who has a lot of sales experience but has a hard time with the leads he is given. Al Pacino plays Ricky Roma whose sales are through the roof and does not have to take part in the contest. Other actors include Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, and Jonathan Pryce. This is quite possibly the best acting ensemble piece of all time as everyone played their parts to perfection. My dad and step-mom actually saw this on Broadway which starred Alan Alda as Shelley Levene as well as Jeffrey Tambor and Liev Schreiber.

The Unknown (1927): This is my silent film for the week which was directed by Tod Browning. Lon Chaney stars as Alonzo, an apparently armless knife thrower who uses his feet. A young Joan Crawford plays Nanon who fears men with arms and allows herself to fall in love with Alonzo believing he has no arms. Norman Kerry plays Malabar the Mighty who "cures" Nanon of her fears which puts a lot of tension in Alonzo. This was a very interesting and disturbing film which in some ways left me needing to come back for air in the intense 50 minutes of the film. The music score was pretty intense as well but it was very entertaining and enjoyable with a good performance from Chaney.

A Fireman's Life (1933): This is my short film for the week which focus on characters called Tom and Jerry and no they are not that cat and mouse. I got this once again from my classic animated short classics and I really don't know the background of these characters so if anyone knows who I am talking about, feel free to elaborate in my comments.. In this short, they are working for a fire department and in humorous ways show the day in the life of a fireman. This is a pretty entertaining six minutes of animation.

Silverado (1985): This is my western for the week. Four misfits including Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn, and Danny Glover come together to rid the town of the corrupt sheriff and his posse. Danny Glover was good in his part as the tough black man who had a hard time being excepted in many towns for obvious reasons. Other actors include John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, Rosanna Arquette, Linda Hunt, and many others. This is kind of a tribute to the old westerns where the four leads work very well together with some good action scenes.

The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling (2007): This is my tribute to the late wrestling legend Jack Brisco who has a segment in here where they talk about the tag team of the Brisco Brothers with his brother Gerry. This is a documentary where the only people that will really have interest are people who are wrestling fans or they at least liked it in the older days. This takes a look at the many families that have gone through the wrestling industry. There are segments on the McMahons, Harts, Von Erichs, Anoais, Funks, Guerrerros, and many others. It even talks about some of the people who have story-lined families like the Andersons, Edge and Christian, the Dudleys, oh wait, am I supposed to say "Dudleys"? I really like watching these things and even learned some on this. I really liked the brief segment on Ric Flair and how his son David broke into the WCW where Ric takes blame for the way his son was treated there. I also really liked the segments on the Samoan families like The Rock's heritage of coming in the third generation. If you have absolutely no interest in wrestling, this is not for you.

Quantum of Solace (2008): This is a selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and the profile randomly selected was GJreviewer. This is the last James Bond movie so far where my favorite Bond of all time Daniel Craig reprises his role as 007 in this follow-up to CASINO ROYALE. In this film, Bond is seeking revenge for the death of Vesper Lynd. In his investigation he comes upon her death, he stumbles upon environmentalist Dominic Greene, played by Mathieu Amalric, who has his own personal agenda towards the environment. Judi Dench reprises her part as M and is now sure is Bond can be trusted with revenge on his mind. I really liked Giancarlo Giannini as Bond's ally who reminded me of the Valentine Zukovsky character of the Brosnan era. Olga Kurylenko played the part of Camille who was Greene's girlfriend but got sick of him being mean to her and joins Bond. I really love the way Craig plays Bond kind of like a very loose cannon who has just enough to get the job. He worked very well with Judi Dench. This is really the first sequel to a Bond film which I guess is intended to become a trilogy. This is based on a short story by Ian Fleming. Daniel Craig worked really hard as he got injured quite a bit during filming. Not the best Bond film and not as good as CASINO ROYALE but I think ranks in series in a pretty high spot in my opinion. I have recast Daniel Craig as the man to play me in THE RISE AND FALL OF SHAUN BERKEY.

The Big Doll House (1971): Jack Hill directed this women in prison film which was produced by Roger Corman and was the first feature role with Pam Grier so just think of those things. This is a pretty decent exploitation film showing the horrors of life for women and prison. This movie is not for everyone as it has some pretty disturbing scenes but they did a pretty good job with the film. Sid Haig also co-stars in the movie. I watched this in the car when I was on a road trip to go down south with my mom and watched it while she was driving. This was a pretty good car film to watch.

The Candidate (1972): This is my political film for the week which stars Robert Redford as the title character. He plays an idealistic young lawyer named Bill McKay. He runs not really to win but to expose certain issues to voters. Things happen where he chances increase but his integrity begins to decrease. This is a very good character study showing what can happen to a person running for a political office where one's ideals and ambitions can really clash. Look for Groucho Marx in a cameo which was his last appearance in film.

DVD REVIEW: SAN FRANCISCO (1936)

-THEATRICAL TRAILER
--This is a trailer to the featured film which advertised a lot of Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald. I like trailers from this era. Usually I do not get all upset about how the new movies just aren't the same and all that. In fact most of my favorites probably come from this era. However, I think the trailers of today have really lost their art. These previews are always very entertaining and have a good narrative. These previews hook me more than the ones today's look.

-SHORT FILMS
--Cavalcade of San Francisco (1940): James K. FitzPatrick narrates this short film which is part of the Traveltalk series. This was technicolor tour looking at the landmarks and history of San Francisco like the Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, among others. It gives a very interesting nine minute history lesson.
--Night Descends on Treasure Island (1940): This was also narrated by James K. FitzPatrick and this one takes a look at the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition. This takes a look at a lot of art including James Chapin and Thomas Hart Benton. It also takes a look at the lights and the decorative fountain giving a cool light show.
--Bottles (1936): This is an animation short taking place at the drug store. A druggist mixes a potion and falls asleep. The skulls and crossbones on a bottle come to life and shrink him where much of the pharmacy comes to life in a big musical number. This provided a lot of entertainment and may have been some big acid trip for the druggist.

-FEATURE FILM
--San Francisco (1936): Can you guess what city and state this movie takes place? Jeanette MacDonald stars as aspiring nightclub singer Mary Blake who comes to the town looking for work. She then arrives at a gambling hall which is run by Blackie Norton, played by Clark Gable, who gives her a job but sees it will not be easy. People working for Nob Hill offer her a job in Opera but Blackie has her under a two year contract with him. Spencer Tracy plays Father Tim who is a long-time friend of Blackie but does not like the life Blackie leads and intervenes on him a lot. I really liked Tracy in this movie and also has a good scene where he is sparring with Clark Gable and knocks him down. The big part is the climax of the film where there is an earthquake and some great special effects for the time. There is also some interesting use of religion here where Blackie does not believe in the things that Father Tim believes in but must reconsider his beliefs during the earthquake. There is also even an emotional breakdown by Clark Gable which he hated but I thought it was compelling. This was a pretty good drama with good performances from the two leads considering they did not get along. This was one of the last movies where Spencer Tracy took second billing but still did a great job.

-ALTERNATE ENDING
--This ending seems to just expand on looking at San Francisco. I really didn't see much significance to it.

-CLARK GABLE: TALL, DARK, AND HANDSOME (1996)
--This is a TNT special which was hosted by Liam Neeson that talks about the private life and career of Clark Gable. This gave some very good insight and even named off lots of movies I had not even heard of. It talks about the affairs he had and it even has some interviews with his children that did not know him very well.

-OVERALL ANALYSIS
--With it being a 30s movie, there really are not much special features to use but I liked the use of the short films and the documentary on Gable. There is not really much reflecting on this movie but the film did speak for itself though. Robert Osbourne on TCM always reminds us of the theatrical experience of this time period when you paid so much and got some short films and a newsreel rather than endless previews for paying even more today. I think it would be a great idea for theaters to show some of these short films before a movie though it would reduce the advertising and we don't want to do that I guess.

Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you have and please leave me a suggestion in my comments. I want one per person so think hard. Last week The Critic Wannabe gave me a suggestion which I put to Netflix for a future selection. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes a music documentary, Richard Dreyfuss, Mickey Rourke, more Lon Chaney, and many others.