Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 245th Edition

Welcome to the 245 Edition of my long running series. We just switched from Dish Network to Comcast so I have a new source for my movies now which is the great On-Demand. Now I get my selections so get your queues out and read on.

Spider-Man (2002): The Facebook friend I chose for this week is Derek who I went to school with. I should also thank Ed who is quite the Blockbuster and lended me a copy of this movie when the library's was very scratched. This is possibly part one of a two-part James Franco series. This is the first of what would become a trilogy and now it looks like we have a Spider-Man revamp coming as well as a Broadway musical which casts Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane but not quite sure who will be the title character. Onto the movie at hand. Sam Raimi directed this superhero film which stars Tobey Maguire as the title character. This focuses on Peter Parker becoming the web-slinging Spider-Man. We first see him as a school nerd that gets picked on a lot until his life-changing moment of becoming bit by what must have been a very powerful spider. James Franco plays his best friend Harry whose father Norman, played by Willem Defoe, owns the big company Oscorp. One of Norman's experiments goes quite wrong giving him another side that becomes the Green Goblin who will be Spider-Man's big threat of the film. Kirsten Dunst plays Mary Jane who is his childhood crush and continues to be the one he loves. Look for an amusing cameo from wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage and even one from my idol Bruce Campbell. This movie gave a bit of a resurgence to the superhero genre. I was not big on the special effects of the Spider-Man scenes where he is slinging around town. I thought they were a bit too computerized. Otherwise, this remains an enjoyable superhero film.

The Women (1939): We now take a step back to what many call the Golden Year for film which produced such greats as THE WIZARD OF OZ, GONE WITH THE WIND and many others. George Cukor puts his contribution into the the great year of 1939 which features an all-female cast which includes Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, and many others. This takes a look at a housewife whose husband is having an affair and her dealing with the affair. I'm not going any further on the plot but performances are very good. It is also quite ahead of its time with some interesting views towards marriage. I know with all these women, some egos had to have clashed behind the scenes.

About Last Night... (1986): Now we have this 80s classic which stars Rob Lowe as Danny and Demi Moore as Debbie. This focuses on these two people who meet, become a couple, and discuss if they are in love. They start out as a one night stand but then it becomes more. There really is not much for me to say except it is a pretty good look at a couple which shows that a relationship is not easy. James Belushi plays Danny's disapproving friend and Elizabeth Perkins, in her film debut, plays Debbie's disapproving friend. Also look closely for a young Catherine Keener as a waitress.

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992): This is my documentary for the week which was supposed to go on last week's Documentary Edition but for certain reasons it got put in here instead. Most people would know the 2003 film MONSTER where Charlize Theron plays the title character for this documentary which takes place after her trial but before she was actually put to death. Wuornos claims to have been raped and then killed her rapist but then went on to kill many others getting billed as the first female serial killer. This movie shows a lot of footage from the trial and interviews with people like her attorney, the judge and one of her friends. Around this time, a tv movie about her was made called OVERKILL: THE AILEEN WUORNOS STORY which starred Jean Smart and shows the real Wuornos talking about the tv movie and how much she did not like it. There were also some very powerful outbursts of Wuornos in court where they wanted to point out that the legal system was very corrupt to her.

Further Prophecies of Nostradamus (1942): This is my short film for the week which I found on TCM On-Demand and as you might guess, it looks at some of the alleged prophecies of Nostradamus. This first looks at some things that happened with Louis 14th but then goes into what they believe he predicted for WWII. I for one do not buy into these predictions but it still made an entertaining 11 minutes.

Sansho the Bailiff (1954): This is my Japanese film for the week which was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. This shows a very compassionate governor who does not do the horrible things wanted and is exiled with his family. From there, the children are abducted by slave traders and the parents are doing everything possible to get the children back together. This is a very beautiful story of honor which spans a few years showing also what happened to the children growing up the way they had to grow up. There is also some pretty disturbing imagery for things like when slaves did not do what was told of them.

National Velvet (1944): I now bring you a movie with some horses. Elizabeth Taylor stars as 12 year old horse lover Velvet Brown. Mickey Rooney stars as former jockey Mi Taylor who is taken in by the Brown family and goes onto help Velvet with a very wild horse who becomes a lot better and trains Velvet for a big horse race. Anne Revere co-stars and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Velvet's very compassionate mother. Donald Crisp plays her father who can be a bit strict but keeps his family's interests at heart. MURDER, SHE WROTE alum Angela Lansbury also co-stars. This is really my inspirational film for the week which shows a young girl who refuses to give up on a horse and even Rooney's character who is a drifter and opportunist but changes through the passion of Velvet.

The Hangover (2009): This is my comedy for the week which I found on HBO On-Demand. Todd Phillips directed this great comedy which features four friends in Vegas for the bachelor party before the wedding which really turns into a night they forgot a lot of. Doug, played by Justin Bartha, is the one getting married and goes to Vegas with his three other friends played by ALIAS and NIP/TUCK alum Bradley Cooper, TRU CALLING alum Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms. They end up waking up not knowing what happened, finding a tiger in their hotel bathroom, a baby in their room, and Doug missing. To find Doug, they must retrace their steps to find him and find that quite a bit happened.. I must say I laughed a lot and with comedy not really being one of my favorite genres this one really did it for me. Mike Tyson makes a rather amusing cameo. Most people at least know of this movie so I don't think I really need to explain much more except this is quite a riot. However, as much as I like this I don't know that a sequel is necessary.

Nashville (1975): Robert Altman directed this film which took place in the title town in Tennessee. This is a very nice slice of America where there is a political convention taking place from someone who cannot even be seen while there are many other characters involved in the music industry where each person has something hectic going on in their lives. This is really a character study on many different characters. Some of the all-star cast includes Karen Black, Ned Beatty, Geraldine Chaplin, Henry Gibson, Jeff Goldblum, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, and many others. Each actor who sang wrote and performed their own music including Carradine's great song I'M EASY. Gibson also had a very good performance. There is not much else to say on this except that it is a great and accurate film on the country music scene.

Total Recall (1990): I end this week with this movie with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Believe it or not, before he became governor, he was in some movies, many of which were action movies. In this futuristic film, Arnold plays Douglas Quaid who is a construction worker but has recurring dreams of being on Mars and being with some girl he has never met. He then hears about a company called Rekall, Inc. where they sell implanted memories so he decides to take a virtual trip to Mars. However, things go terribly awry where he is made to believe he is a secret agent in Mars fighting a dictator. Paul Verhoeven directed directed this sci-fi epic which requires very undivided attention but can pay off in the end.

Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you don't like. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes two of the documentaries supposed to be in the documentary edition, Peter Sellers, Robin Williams, John Wayne, Gene Wilder, and many others.