Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 265th Edition

Welcome to the 265th Edition of my long-running series. This week, I don't really have any holiday selections except for a film that has a Christmas scene and a religious one for the holidays. Next week will have more. This week I pay tribute to Leslie Nielson who recently left us. I lost last week in fantasy football as my opponent had Tom Brady who killed me. I am now in a very close race for the division lead and this week is the last week in our fantasy football regular season so hopefully I will win and also win the division. Last Thursday, I went against Colts players Reggie Wayne and Jacob Tamme who had pretty minimal production so maybe I can take advantage of that.

Capote (2005): This is the fifth link of "The Chain" and the second link for Chris Cooper and will continue next week with him. This is my biopic for the week which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as the flamboyant writer Truman Capote. This is in the part of his life where he is writing his very controversial book IN COLD BLOOD. Truman hears of a very brutal murder in 1959 in the small town Holcomb, Kansas where two men murder a family of four. He and his partner Harper Lee, played by Catherine Keener, travel to the town to research it. Lee is most known for writing TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD but has not yet had that success. Capote then interviews the two men who committed the killings Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Hoffman was great as Capote and really studied the character to get into it. Cooper plays the police officer Alvin Dewey who helps arrange for Capote to meet the prisoners. In 2006 there was an HBO film called INFAMOUS also based on Capote and the making of this book which was also very good. This one focuses on the writing of the story while INFAMOUS goes into the alleged relationship between Capote and Smith where this particular one just mentions the possibility.

In the Valley of Elah (2007): Paul Haggis directed this film which stars Tommy Lee Joes as Hank Deerfield. He learns of his son's disappearance after returning home from a tour of duty from Iraq and sets out to uncover the truth. He is a retired military investigator in his own right and teams up with Detective Emily Sanders, played by Charlize Theron, to find the truth where all he has to go on at first are distorted videos. This is actually a pretty moving film with a good performance out of Jones and Theron. This is actually based on a true story but won't say what it is so that I don't give it away. Jason Patric, Susan Sarandon, James Franco, Frances Fisher, and Josh Brolin co-star.

Koko, a Talking Gorilla (1978): This is one of Travis' films in the Co-Op film series which is the first documentary to focus on the famous gorilla. Barbet Schroeder directed this documentary. Penny Patterson is a grad student who is working closely with Koko to teach him sign language and other human values and pretty much lives and breathes this work. This really is not some kid-friendly film as it really looks at the ups and downs of their relationship as you see him on some bad days and good days. It has some people, most notably from the zoo who is against Patterson's project and sees this as exploitation. There has been a lot of follow-ups to this and some of us may remember in elementary school reading about Koko's kittens. You can actually learn more about Koko on www.koko.org. This documentary is available through Netflix as I see this is not the most known documentary of all time.

Sucker List (1941): This is my short film for the week which I found on TCM On-Demand which is one of those wonderful propaganda shorts which is part of the "Crime Doesn't Pay" series. This one takes place at the horse racing track where people are giving out phony tip sheets where a man is fooled and loses a lot of money. This was released through MGM and I guess this is number 36 in the "Crime Doesn't Pay" series.

The Poor Little Rich Girl (1936): This was also found on TCM On-Demand and stars Shirley Temple. Shirley stars as Barbara who is the daughter of a wealthy businessman and gets lost in New York. On the way she meets and joins a song and dance team of down-on-their-luck performers in Jack Haley and Alice Faye. Most of us know Haley as the Tin Man in the 1939 film THE WIZARD OF OZ. This is a great vehicle for the three of them to showcase their talents. Michael Whalen plays Barbara's father and Gloria Stuart co-stars as his love interest. Stuart would be most known to us as the elderly Rose in the 1997 film TITANIC. Shirley actually lost her first baby tooth while filming this one.

The Addams Family (1991): This is based on that 60s sitcom of the very weird but loving family. Raul Julia is Gomez, Anjelica Huston is Morticia, Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman are Wednesday and Puggsley. In this story, Uncle Fester has been missing for many years after a fight between him and Gomez. Dan Hedaya plays their crooked attorney who is trying to a money loot in the Addams home and realizes a man named Gordon, played by Christopher Lloyd, could pass perfectly for Fester who then becomes Fester while having other motives though he slowly begins to like being Fester and the Addams family. All the cast members were perfect for their parts and Ricci was great as Wednesday in her breakthrough performance. One of my favorite scenes was Wednesday and Puggley's performance in the school variety show. While I have lacked Christmas oriented films in this edition, the opening scene does have some carolers so that is my holiday reference for this week.

The Man From Laramie (1955): This is another one I found on TCM On-Demand. Last week I focused on John Wayne in RED RIVER and this week's western is the fifth and last collaboration between director Anthony Mann and James Stewart. Stewart plays the title character Will Lockhart who finds he is not the most wanted person in the town of Coronado where he is at odds with the local Vic, played by Arthur Kennedy, who wants him out at all costs. His real motivation is to find a man who is selling weapons to the Apaches who killed his brother but runs into lots of other problems. This is a pretty violent western for its era and quite dark but pretty well done and acted. I may avoid this genre next week though but we'll see.

Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning (2008): This is my martial arts film for the week which is made in Thailand and is directed and starred by Thai star Tony Jaa. This movie takes place in 1941 where Jaa plays Tien whose family is brutally murdered in the Kingdom of Ayutthayan. Tien is then saved by a rebel group who trains him in fighting where he eventually takes his revenge. In Jaa's other films ONG-BAK and THE PROTECTOR, it focuses a lot on his stuntwork and this film focuses more on the fighting. I had a hard time with it at first but then as I go on, I realized what I just wrote. First off, this title is quite misleading as this is not a sequel nor a prequel to the 2003 film ONG-BAK. One thing I was complaining about was the lack of dialogue but when I think about it more, maybe it did not need that dialogue as this was a story told by the action which really does tell the story quite well just like a good wrestling match is told by a "story" where words do not come into play. I watched this at my dad's house instantly through Netflix on his Blu-Ray player on their new big-screen tv and it was quite an experience to watch it this way. I look forward to ONG-BAK 3 as I am really getting into Tony Jaa. Do not expect the Jackie Chan formula which is a lot of slapstick or the Jet Li formula which combines some comedy with a lot of honor. This is a very violent martial arts film and not much comedy with it.

The Reluctant Astronaut (1967): This is my tribute to the late Leslie Nielson. I know he has a lot better comedy films but I needed something from this era and this was available through Instant Netflix. Don Knotts stars in this film Roy Fleming who is a kiddie-ride operator and very afraid of heights. Soon, Roy's father signs him up for a space program which he reluctantly accepts as his father did not seem to want to listen. When arriving he soon finds out that he is just a janitor and even that is hard for him. However, things change when NASA is looking to prove the worthiness of a new automated spacecraft and choose him to be the one to test it showing that anyone can do it. Knotts fans will love this one and Leslie Nielson plays a more experienced astronaut.

Jacob (1994): I end this week with this installment of "The Bible Collection" which was a tv movie on TNT and my holiday selection I guess you could say. Matthew Modine plays the title character and Sean Bean plays his brother Esau who are rivals. When their father Isaac is dying, their mother feels that Jacob is the one who is the rightful heir over Esau. When Jacob deceives his father, Esau becomes angry swearing vengeance so Jacob sets out on a journey where he envisions a ladder thus coining the phrase "Jacob's Ladder" and sets out on his journey for God and later marries Rachel, played by THE PRACTICE alum Lara Flynn Boyle, while having 12 sons and some daughters with is favorite being Joseph. His son Joseph is who much of us would later know him from JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. I felt they did a pretty good job on this adaptation to the biblical story with Modine good as the title character. Joss Acklund and Christoph Waltz co-star. I have never seen anything else from "The Bible Collection".

Well, that is it for this week. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes more Chris Cooper, Naomi Watts, Claire Danes, and many others.