Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 240th Edition

Welcome to the 240th edition of my blog. GUYS AND DOLLS had a great run but it is now over. It will be a difficult adjustment for a week but I'll be fine. I am once again writing this at the last minute so forgive me if my writing seems a bit rushed. I have one selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process. Next week will likely have none. Get your Netflix and Blockbuster queues and read on.

Lilies of the Field (1963): Sidney Poitier stars in this film as Homer, an unemployed construction worker who comes into a small town and encounters five nuns who speak very limited English. They believe he has been sent by God to make a church that is much needed. He agrees to help a little bit but intends to move on but then with them not understanding his English and his heart, he stays to build this church. This movie moved very well for me on account of Sidney Poitier who was very good in his part of someone who just could not bring himself to leave the nuns no matter how much he wanted to leave. Poitier won best actor for this film and agreed to less of a salary in order to be in the movie.

The Wild Bunch (1969): This is a selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this one I chose Producer Phill. This is my western for the week which ranks very high in the western genre. Sam Peckinpah directed this western which shows an aging group of outlaws who decide to do one more job which then results in a very violent shootout. It is an interesting look at people who cannot really adjust to the changing times with the technology and the ending of the wild west. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Robert Ryan, and many others star in this iconic western. This is not a very upbeat film and it is also very violent but also realistic.

High Fidelity (2000): Steven Frears directed this movie which stars John Cusack as Rob who is the owner of a small-time record store whose girlfriend dumps him. Rob then decides to make a top 5 list of his worst breakups to see what happened that made them want to leave. Jack Black and Todd Louiso co-star as his socially inept employees who bring a lot of comic relief as well as Cusack as there are lots of good music discussions in this movie. Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Natasha Gregson-Wagner, and Joan Cusack all co-star in this great film of the music scene and a mid-life crisis with a great performance from John Cusack.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988): The Facebook friend I chose for this one was Yu-Ching who was our great piano accompanist during BIG RIVER. I also know that my friend John will like that I have done two weeks in a row with Anime films. This one is regarded as one of the best anime films by many. In this movie, we focus on the teenage Setsuko and his 4 year old sister Seita who are living in WW2 Japan and struggle to survive as their mother has died in an air raid and their father's status in the war is unknown. This is a rather sad film at times but can be inspirational and is quite different from a lot of Anime films where there is not much of the supernatural. It is really a story of the cost of a war and the lost innocence of these children where the teen was forced to grow up but really could not and the little girl who could not really act her age. Ayiyuki Nosaka wrote this book after losing his sister whose death he blamed himself for.

The Four Feathers (2002): This is part one of what might be a multiple part Heath Ledger series. Shekhar Kapur directs this film based on the novel by A.E.W. Mason. There are actually many versions of this film but I have not seen any. This takes place in a war in 1894 in Sudan where the British are fighting a war with some rebels in the country. Heath Ledger stars as Harry Fevelsham who is a British officer who resigns and then his fiancee, played by Kate Hudson, and three other friends each give him a white feather which symbolized cowardice. What they do not know is that he is then going undercover which might earn redemption. Wes Bentley and Djimon Hounsou also co-star in this story on another film in this that kind of shows the price of war with Ledger good in the lead and even Hudson was pretty good in this film.

I Love Sarah Jane (2008): This is my short film for the week which I got off the IFC channel for their GRINDHOUSE SHORT FILMS. This short takes place in a Zombie ridden world where children appear to have to fend for themselves. In their zombie quest, Jimbo becomes more obsessed with winning over a young girl named Sarah Jane. This was actually a pretty good 14 minutes so check it out if you can find it.

Gentleman (1993): This is my Bollywood film for the week which holds its place in history as the first Tamil-language spoken film. I'd be lying if I said I totally got this movie but we have a certain modern-day Robin Hood who wants to help provide education to the poor by taking from the rich. With Bollywood, their movies are long, colorful and have some very lavish song and dance numbers. There was also a very interesting fight scene that takes place in the balls of a Chuck-e-Cheese type place. Some of the musical numbers seemed rather unrelated but the movie still provided some entertainment. I found this on Netflix.

The Giant Gila Monster (1959): This is my sci-fi B-movie for the week which I found on the Colours network. This takes place in a small town in Texas where there is a giant lizard who is wreaking havoc all over town. The Sheriff with the other townspeople must band together to stop this lizard. This is something to check out when you have a bunch of people over. If you want a great movie with a good plot and acting, this might not be it.

The Enchanted Cottage (1945): I found this one on TCM. This was a nice love story where we first have a homely maid named Laura, played by Dorothy McGuire, who is not the most physical attractive person in other people's minds and especially hers. Robert Young stars as Oliver Bradford who is just getting back from the war and is scarred so does not feel he has much to live for. When they first meet they are not attracted to each other but as they get to know each other, they understand each other and slowly falling in love becoming beautiful to each other which begins to show the beauty in the characters we do not see where the title of the movie comes into play. This was a beautiful story and a very enchanted one as well.

Anna Karenina (1935): I now go to a more tragic love story that I found on TCM which is one of many film adaptations of the Leo Tolstoy novel. Greta Garbo stars as the title character who is very unhappily married to the authoritarian Karenin, played by Basil Rathbone. She falls in love with Count Vronsky, played by Fredric March, who is willing to take the risk of being with her even though Karenin will not grant a divorce. Freddie Bartholomew plays their son Sergei and Maureen O'Sullivan plays Anna's sister Kitty. I think this takes place in the 1800s and is an interesting look at the social situations of the country. Garbo and Bartholomew have some good interactions and Rathbone is perfect for his part and we had quite an ending. I thought this was a pretty good love story but it's hard to explain.

Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you hate and stay tuned for next week which so far includes Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, Rudolph Valentino, Wes Craven, Jet Li, and many others.