Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 269th Edition

Welcome of the 269th Edition of my series. This week, I pay tribute to Bud Greenspan and Anne Francis who both recently left us. Today I will just be watching football, now that the 49ers are not in and the Colts got knocked out, I will support the Eagles and Chiefs to go into the superbowl because of their running backs really helping me in Fantasy Football this year. This edition was very hard to put together but finally came out with a good finished product. I return this week with my DVD review segment for the last film that is featured in the blog.

Domino (2005): This is the 9th link on the chain and this link goes to Kel O'Neill whose movie EASIER WITH PRACTICE I used last week. This will be his only link on the chain. Keira Knightley plays the title character in this film of real-life bounty hunter Domino Harvey. Her father was actor Lawrence Harvey most known for the film THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE so you see a lot of footage of that movie. This movie shows that she comes from a high-class background where she rebels and becomes a bounty hunter, much to the dismay of her mother. Mickey Rourke co-stars as her mentor Ed Moseby who teaches her what she knows. Many actors like Monique, Christopher Walken, Mena Suvari, Jacqueline Bisset, Dabney Coleman, and many others co-star. This film is loosely based on her life and I thought it could have been a more compelling biopic. With that said, I thought Knightley was very good in her portrayal of Domino and my idol Mickey Rourke was also very good as Ed but maybe I'm biased for speaking that way of Rourke. This came out right after SIN CITY so he was in the rebuilding process where his biggest break would come a few years later in THE WRESTLER. The real Domino Harvey died of an accidental overdose months before this movie which the movie is dedicated to her. Tony Scott directed this film and had bee working with the real Domino Harvey for years. Next week, the chain continues with one of the actors, actresses, or director of this film.

Fame (1980): This is one of those 80s classics. Alan Parker directed this film which chronicles a few high school students in New York in the performing arts who then hope to have successful careers in things like acting, singing, theater, etc. One of the interesting parts about this film is that the title of the film did not really reflect their careers but they still gave good performances. The most famous person in this cast would be Richard Belzer and even he just had bit part. Irene Cara has had a few hits like this title song and was pretty good in the film. After this came a pretty successful tv series and one of of the early part of 80s pop-culture. I'm not going to go into detail about the characters but each had their own unique issue where we were with them every step of the way. There were some clever home-made tap shoes in the beginning that I liked. This is actually based on the real-life Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts where New York high school students get in on account of auditions. We also have the iconic scene of the title song being played very loud outside the school. This is available on Instant Netflix.

The Blind Side (2009): I watched this on On-Demand when I was at my dad's house. Sandra Bullock shows that she can actually do something good where she plays the very caring Leigh Anne Tuohy who takes in a homeless black high school student named Michael Oher. Quentin Aaron plays Oher who in real-life would go onto be drafted by the Ravens in 2009 and has been pretty successful so far. When watching this, I had no idea this was a true story. Country star Tim Mcgraw plays Leigh's husband Sean who was reluctant at first to take him in but very supportive. Kathy Bates also co-stars as Michael's tutor who does what she can to help him bring up his grades to get into a college to play football. I really enjoyed this film and it could be very sad at times but very inspiring knowing there are still good people in this world with the whole Tuohy family and Michael who became a part of the family and a successful Offensive lineman in the NFL. I admit, I shed a few tears watching this one.

Jezebel (1938): Now I go to one that is not so inspirational. Bette Davis plays the character Julie who has the title label here. Before we had Southern belle Scarlet O'Hara from GONE WITH THE WIND, we had this southern belle who spends her life going after the successful Preston Dillard, played very well by Henry Fonda, who cannot take Julie's domineering and controlling personality. The film also takes place during a Yellow Fever epidemic which also impacts this film a lot as well. William Wyler directed this film and Henry Fonda had to take some time off the set as this was around the time Jane Fonda was born. This was also a star-making role for Davis who won an Oscar for this film. This film is quite the classic and a great performance from the leads.

Wilma (1977): This is my tribute to the late Bud Greenspan who was known for directing a lot of the Olympic events and directed this tv biopic. I bring you another sports drama that is based on a true story and this one is about Olympic track star icon Wilma Rudolph. This documents Rudolphs physical handicaps in her childhood and her overcoming those handicaps, sorry if you feel I'm being politically incorrect, to become a star in the 1960 Olympic games. Shirley Jo Finney plays Wilma in this and is pretty good in her part. Cicely Tyson plays her mother Blanche who does everything she can to help Wilma even in such hard times. Also of note is the debut of a very young Denzel Washington who plays Robert Eldridge who is Wilma's love interest and shades of what would become a great career for Washington. Not as good as THE BLIND SIDE but still watchable for a tv movie.

King of the Islands (1936): This is one of two short films I have for this week and this one I recorded from TCM but can see this may be a bit hard to obtain. This is actually a musical short where New Yorker Warren Hymer gets shipwrecked on an island and falls for the Princess of what I believe is a Hawaiian island. The hula dancing was good to watch but this is really made for the Technicolor which was great but this short was not but still worth a watch if you can find it for the color and even the dancing.

Blackboard Jungle (1955): This is my tribute to Anne Francis who recently left us. Glenn Ford stars as Richard Dadier who gets his first teaching job in a difficult urban-city school where the students did not seem to want to learn. However, he just did not buy that and did everything he could to get through to his students. Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow have early roles in here as a couple of his students. Poitier is very good as Gregory Miller who Richard takes the most interest in of his students. Anne Francis plays Richard's insecure and pregnant wife he is trying to support. This film helped launch the song ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK by Bill Haley and the Comets. This film is based on author Evan Hunter's experiences as a teacher in the South Bronx and Hunter himself would become known as author Ed McBain. This film is a statement towards juvenile delinquency and our need to address it in our school system so yes there were juvenile delinquents even then and our world was not perfect even then. Ford was great as Dadier and is one of my favorites from this era.

The Antichrist (2002): This is my second of the short films and as you see this is a more modern short which I found on IFC Short Film Showcase. This was a Polish short film and very dark. We have four child friends who are at a mining excavation where they play all kinds of pretty dangerous games. Szafran is the leader of these kids and claims the title of the film where he is the one who has them do some pretty extreme things. This is something that really kept my attention for the 27 minutes with all the crazy things they did. The children were pretty good in their parts as well.

The Immortals (1995): This was definitely not one of my original choices but when I found this on Encore On-Demand it sounded interesting to me so I checked it out and ended up liking it. Eric Roberts stars as Jack who is a seedy nightclub owner who recruits eight small-time hoods together for what turns out to be a double-cross to a rival gangster named Dominic, played by Tony Curtis. The more that happens, the more that there is a lot more to these heists that meet the eye. SNL alum Chris Rock, Tia Carrere, SOPRANOS alum Joe Pantaliano, Clarence Williams III, William Forsythe, among others play these criminals. There are actually some pretty funny moments, especially from Rock, as well as some very violent ones. It also shows that pairing criminals who have no knowledge of each other is not always the best idea. There was a very interesting climatic standoff where many guns pointed in many directions. I had forgotten about Carrere who was pretty big in the 90s but have not heard much from here since. This is a straight to video film but one that is actually quite good in my opinion with interesting reasons as to why the criminals were recruited.

DVD REVIEW: METROPOLIS (1927)

TRAILER

This is actually a trailer which features the 2010 release and its 25 additional minutes which obviously shows footage from the film.

FILM

Fritz Lang directed this early German sci-fi film which in many ways is one of the first sci-fi epics we have had. This is a futuristic film that takes place in a Utopian city where the residents lead a care-free life including Freder but changes his mind when he discovers the workers that are used to keep this Utopian lifestyle going. The most known thing from this film is the robot that was used and the very elaborate set that was used for this very expensive film. The model of the robot was the inspiration for C-3PO of STAR WARS fame. I'm not going to go too much more into details but sci-fi buffs should check this out as this was cited as an inspiration to many. There has been many releases of this film where footage continues to be found but this one is apparently the masterpiece that Lang had in mind and which he was made to cut a lot of its footage. This movie actually had over 37, 000 extras. It is also said to be one of Hitler's favorite films. With the expenses of the film, the box office did not make up for it almost putting the movie company UFA into Bankruptcy. I also had the pleasure of watching it on my dad's flat screen television which gave a great picture even for a silent film.

INTERVIEW WITH PAULA FELIX-DIDIER

This is a brief interview with the curator of the Museo Del Cine which is the museum credited for finding this lost footage. She talked about how lots of footage was burned and goes on to say that was because nitrate was very expensive if not protected and many did not have the equipment to preserve it. I was still unclear of how the footage was found but that is okay as long as it was found.

VOYAGE TO METROPOLIS

This is a 50 minute documentary which talks about the troubles of making the film. It also talked about inspirations it had with the huge set and how the idea for it came from a visit to New York where Fritz Lang felt overwhelmed by the buildings. It would then go onto talk about how much of a box-office flop it was and the studios demanding Lang cut many things out of it and many years of trying to find that lost footage. It is a pretty informative documentary that covered the needed bases.

FILM NOTES BY BRUCE BENNETT

This is the booklet that came with the DVD. This really just covers what the documentary covers with a little more detail. It also goes on to mention the screening at a theater in Berlin which was the first screening since 1927 when it came out as well as a screening at the TCM theater. This is a pretty good, short read.

OVERALL ANALYSIS

My dad got me this, among other dvds, for Christmas. Kino Video is who released what is called THE COMPLETE METROPOLIS. No, it does not have a big load of features but just that fact it could be released this way is enough. It is an iconic silent film which the movie buffs should watch and if possible try to obtain this version which is the 2 and a half hour masterpiece that Lang first envisioned rather than the cut 90 minute version. I thought the extras with this film covered enough of what needed to be covered. I'm going to try to do this on a more daily basis but no guarantees.

Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you do not like and stay tuned for next week which so far includes Charlotte Rampling, Lon Chaney Sr. and many others.