Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 251st Edition

Welcome to the 251st Edition of my long running series. I have my fantasy football draft on Monday so I'd better pick the best team possible because I want to win this year. I return this week with one selection from the Random Myspace profile selection process. On here this week, I continue a Robin Williams series, end a Paul Newman series, and much more.

Dead Poet's Society (1989): This is part two of at least three of my Robin Williams series. Peter Weir directed this film which stars Williams as English professor John Keating which takes place around the 50s I believe. It is a religious boys school and very strict. Keating decides to do something very unheard of which is teach the kids to think for themselves. He encourages his students to "Seize the Day". The main students we deal with are Todd and Neil. Todd, played by Ethan Hawke, is the brother of a former valedictorian and is very much in the shadow of his older brother. Neil, played by HOUSE co-star Robert Sean Leonard, is very bright and gets good grades but can never satisfy his overbearing father, played by THAT 70s SHOW alum Kurtwood Smith. Neil's father is determined that his son make a better living that he did so he is who decides his future. Robin Williams is great as Weir and the movie still takes a good look at all the students in his class. It shows that tradition is not always the way to go and the portrayal of Neil's father was a way to show how not to parent because he was only interested in his son's accomplishments in school but not his son and his son's interests like in you'll see when Neil decides to be in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

Rachel, Rachel (1968): This is part three of what is likely the last part of this Paul Newman series and in this movie however, he goes behind the camera in what would be his directorial debut. I recorded this from TCM. It is based on the novel by Margaret Laurence. Newman's wife Joanne Woodward plays the title character who is a 35 year old teacher and has never married. She lives with her demanding mother but meets a man who wants to be with her but she has a hard time in her relationship inexperience. There are also some interesting flashbacks to her childhood which show the woman she would become. Newman and Woodward's daughter Nell Potts, plays Rachel as a child. Woodward carries this movie very well and Newman jumped through a lot of hoops to get this movie made where he did not disappoint. It is a great character study.

Gran Torino (2008): The Facebook friend I chose for this one was Dennis who I work with at the call center. I had heard a lot of great things going into this movie and for me it lived up to everything. Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this film as bitter Korean war veteran Walt Kowalski who has just lost his wife. He does not get along well with his kids and his neighborhood sees lots of change as much of his neighborhood consists of southeast Asians. We then have Walt's next-door neighbor Thao, played very well by Bee Vang, who is a very shy kid and his gangster cousin challenges him to steal Walt's 1972 car of the title name. Walt catches him and scares Thao but starts to see that he is not such a bad kid and slowly becomes friends with the family including Thao's older sister. He then takes Thao under his wing to teach him about life and goes to the extremes of getting him free of his cousin's gang. Descriptions of this film describe Walt Kowalski as a bigot but I feel the bigotry is of the types of people these Asians are. Many in his neighborhood are gang members but once he gets to know the kids next-door, he sees they are not like that and becomes friends with them. The racism in this film really exists on all sides. Even Thao's family was not keen on him coming over for dinner. We also saw a lot of arguments between Koreans and Mexicans which really exists. Racism is something that's learned and when all they are seeing is gang activity, it becomes understandable. I am not racist and know crime exists in ever race. This is a very rewarding film to watch and has a great ending.

She Was an Acrobat's Daughter (1937): This is my short film for the week which I found on a dvd to a film which will be featured next week. This is an animated short which takes place at a movie theater but that the audience are animals. It is a great look at the movie experience in the 30s where before the film they had the newsreel, a short film, and other things. It also has some funny moments of disruptive patrons. It also contains little spoofs of films like THE PETRIFIED FOREST and no that is not what this short was on.

When the Last Sword is Drawn (2003): This is my samarai film for the week which was directed by Yojiro Takita. This movie centers around a family man and samarai who is not getting paid enough to support his family and must leave for the big city. It starts out where the samarai is older and is taking his grandchild to the doctor and sees a picture of a man in the past and it goes into flashbacks to explain his association with the samurai and his later life. There is not much more to explain but if you like this genre, this is quite possibly the best of the modern-day samarai films and quite moving. It is still very violent so caution yourself there.

Now and Then (1995): The Facebook friend I selected for this one is Katie who is the youngest sister of my childhood friend Ross. This is also a two part Cloris Leachman series where here she has a small part as a grandmother but important part. I suppose you could call this my chick flick for the week and maybe even a good mother/daughter viewing when the daughter is about late elementary to early middle school. We start out with four childhood friends reuniting as adults after about 10 years due to a pact they made as children that they would always be there for each other. The adults are Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie Griffith, Demi Moore, and Rita Wilson. If any of these names throw you into panic, don't worry for they only appear in the beginning and the end. Most of the film is them reflecting on a summer they had in the early 70s when they were about 12 years old. Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffman, and Ashleigh Aston Moore play the younger version and I have them in the order of the adults they play. This was a summer for them when they really had to learn a lot about life at that young age and learned from a lot of mistakes. I found this to be a pretty realistic look at childhood and the struggles they have that we don't really think about unless we can look back to when we were their age. This is actually based in the town of Winchester, Indiana which is about an hour from where I live but Winchester declined to have their name mentioned so they called it Shelby, Indiana. I heard someone call this female's STAND BY ME and I can see where they are coming from there. This is not my favorite but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I do believe it is something girls can relate to more and I'm sure I lack that in this blog so I figured I would give that audience something to recommend.

Around the World in 80 Days (1956): I now bring you some Jules Verne. This is an adaptation to his novel of the same name where David Niven stars as Phileas Fogg. He makes a bet with some of his fellow Englishman that he can do exactly what the title says so he sets out to do so. Cantinflas is very amusing has Fogg's butler who comes along on the journey with him. Along the way he meets lots of colorful characters and gets into situations which jeopardize his big bet. Many other actors make cameos like Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, Frank Sinatra, and many others. I found this on Instant Netflix and is a very fun film. No, I have not seen the 2004 remake.

The Way West (1967): This is my western of the week. Andrew V. McLaglen directed this western which stars Kirk Douglas as Senator William J. Tadlock who sets out with a group of settlers to go to a settlement in Oregon. It is interesting the evolution of this character. He was a good person with good intentions and when things started going wrong it clouded his judgment making it difficult for the others to follow him. Robert Mitchum plays Dick Summers who was the protection and hunter of the group. Richard Widmark plays Lije Evans who does not take well to Tadlock's ways. I thought this western moved very well and had some good characters. Sally Field, fresh of tv series GIDGET, makes her film debut which was the start of quite a career.

The Ring (2002): This is my selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this one I chose We Love Movies. This is my horror film of the week which is a remake of the 1998 Japanese film RINGU. This was a pretty decent remake. Naomi Watts stars as investigative journalist Rachel who is investigating the deaths of people apparently dying because of a tape that was watched. She then watches it and gets a phone call saying "7 days". She then sets out to find what it is that causes these deaths in the seven days. Horror is not my genre but this was a good horror film with a good story and good characters. I have not seen the sequel or the original Japanese film.

The Glenn Miller Story (1954): I now end with some James Stewart and I found this movie on Movieplex On-Demand. James Stewart stars as the real-life title character who was the bandleader for the Glenn Miller Band. This documents Miller's early struggles and his determination to form his own band. June Allyson plays his very loving wife who does not want him to settle for what he does not want but to continue to work for what he wants no matter what their financial situation is. It goes starts in the early part of his career until his tragic death. Stewart was very good as Miller. Louis Armstrong has a cameo as himself.

Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you hate. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes Harvey Keitel, Bette Davis, more Robin Williams, Howard Keel, more Cloris Leachman, Drew Barrymore, and many others.