Month: May 2006

Yeah, yeah, a Monday Movie Roundup on Tuesday, but it was a long weekend so in a way this is kind of like Monday besides I’m a teacher so it’s actually kind of like Saturday for the next two months. So there.

To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)

I showed To Kill a Mockingbird to my classes during the last week of school. One class had read the book and I figured the rest of my classes would enjoy it as well. Many of the kids had already seen it in their regular schools, but all who had seen it were thrilled to see it again. Some even told me that it’s “pretty good for a black and white movie.” I didn’t mind watching it five times in one week either. The performances are great, especially Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.

200 Motels (Frank Zappa, Tony Palmer, Charles Swenson, 1971)

I like Frank Zappa’s music, and the blurb for 200 Motels made it sound like a documentary about the Mothers of Invention. Sometimes a movie sounds good, but then you find that it’s really just an opportunity for someone to expose some film and try to capture all kinds of weirdness. I think the Mothers were trapped in a fake nightclub. I think it was weirdness for the sake of weirdness. Sometimes that can be okay. This time it wasn’t. I suppose some people liked Zappa for his bizarre sense of humor, but I’ve always been very impressed with his musicianship as well as that of the Mothers. Unfortunately that’s not what this movie was about. Made dinner and turned it off after fifteen minutes to watch something on the science channel about the ion engines on NASA’s Deep Space One.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (George Lucas, 2005)

If I were to be a Star Wars character, I would – like everyone else – be Han Solo, but apparently if I were to be a Jedi Knight, here’s who I would be…

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

Revenge of the Sith was the best of the three Star Wars prequels. Honestly, I think it might be a bit better than Return of the Jedi. The thing that is so frustrating about the prequels is that the ideas are great. The story is great. There’s a lot to sit around and talk about as my sister-in-law and I do on many occasions. Unfortunately, George Lucas did it all himself and I think that’s part of why these three movies don’t live up to their potential. Still, I do enjoy watching them from time to time and I like the way everything comes together in this final installment. I don’t buy everything about the story (Padme dies of a broken heart ?!?) but then this is a series of movies in which space ships make noise in the vaccuum of space so I guess I can suspend disbelief a bit here. Technically well made, but flawed in writing and direction.

X-Men: The Last Stand (Brett Ratner, 2006)

We saw X-Men: The Last Stand yesterday. Despite the lousy reviews it’s gotten, I enjoyed it. It focused on the resurrection of Jean Grey aka Phoenix, a classic story in the X-Men mythology. Once again mutants are being oppressed by normal humans who have now developed a “cure” for mutation. Magneto, the best super villian ever, builds an army of mutants to take over the world and make it safe for mutant kind. The movie is a perfect example of a smart summer blockbuster filled with interesting characters (where was Nightcrawler, though?) and dynamic action sequences. It’s a solid end to the X-Men trilogy, but leaves plenty of room to expand the franchise. Probably indefinitely. Well made, fun, entertaining.

The Endless Summer 2 (Bruce Brown, 1992)

The Endless Summer 2 follows the trajectory of Bruce Brown’s brilliant 1966 surf documentray The Endless Summer but adds modern cinematic technology as it follows the adventures of Pat and Wingnut who retrace the path of their heroes from the original Endless Summer. The two look for the best waves and surf spots in Costa Rica, South Africa, Indonesia, Fiji, Australia, and Hawaii.

There are a few changes from the original itinerary and the movie isn’t quite as a innocent as the 1966 film, but it’s still a great diversion and the cinematography is truly stunning. As with the original Endless Summer, my favorite parts are when the surfers explore South Africa. They return to the “perfect wave” from the original film, though because of development it’s not quite as perfect, and they have plenty of run-ins with the local wildlife. Apparently, lions really like to eat wetsuits.

If you like surf guitar, beautiful ocean photography, gnarly surf sequences, and a sweetly dorky sense of humor you can’t go wrong with either of the Endless Summer films.

It’s been awhile since I watched any movies to round up.

The Count of Monte Cristo (Kevin Reynolds, 2002)

I Showed The Count of Monte Cristo at school. It was in the lesson plans for one of the classes I had to take over, and the kids had been looking forward to it. It was a solid action-adventure with a little bit of romance and humor. Everything was well done. Works nicely as a school film because it gives a lot to discuss in terms of revenge, forgiveness, and perseverance. Big Hollywood action that gets you cheering for the good guys. Three and half stars.

My Side of the Mountain (James B Clark, 1969)

My Side of the Mountain is another movie that the kids in one class were looking forward to watching after finishing the book. The book, which I recently read and really liked, tells the story of young Sam Gribley who runs away from home in New York City to live off the land in the Catskills. He spends a little over a year living off the land by gathering plants, hunting (often with the help of his falcon, Frightful), trapping, and fishing. It’s a neat tale about learning to live with nature. I wish I could say the same for the movie.

Good lord, it was bad. Almost everything that made the book so charming was stripped from the movie which attempts to sanitize Sam’s experiences living off the land. Sam doesn’t hunt or trap; he only steals a deer that some poachers had already killed so that it won’t go to waste. In a particularly stupid break from the book, Frightful gets killed by a hunter who accidentally shoots her while trying to kill a game bird that Frightful was attacking. Sam calls the hunter a murderer and the hunter tells him that Frightful was a killer too. Sam is sad, but the point is made that killing animals is supposed to be wrong. Now, I’ll go with the idea that trophy hunting is repugnant, but if you’re living off the land, you’re probably going to have to hunt. And if you’re an animal, such as a falcon, hunting is probably okay. I mean, those talons and razor sharp beak aren’t there for giving hugs and kisses to smaller birds.

The movie descends further into idiocy when Sam packs it in after getting snowed in (he lives in a sort of hollowed out tree/cave) one day around Christmas. This happens in the book as well, but Sam manages to survive and learns to avoid that predicament in the future. He makes it through the winter and is able to see the mountain blossom into new life with the coming of spring. Not in the movie. Sam gets rescued by two adults and he happily goes home, thus giving up on his dream of living in nature at the moment when he finally starts to see that nature is for real.

The last thing that bugged me, though my students didn’t notice, is that the whole story had been moved north. No longer did Sam run away from New York, now it was Toronto. Instead of the Catskills, he ran away to Quebec. Oddly enough, it was a Quebec in which no one spoke French, and Sam had no problem communicating with the few people he ran into because they all – every one of them – spoke flawless English. Stupid, stupid, stupid movie. No stars.

Scotland, PA (Billy Morrissette, 2001)

Dimwitted Joe and his ambitious wife Pat McBeth work at Duncan’s, a small fast food joint in Scotland, PA sometime in the late 60s or early 70s. Joe dreams up the concept of the drive through window but he’ll never profit on it as long as he works for Duncan. Three witchy carnys and Pat all convince him that Duncan’s could be his. Pat and Joe kill Duncan and create their own fast food kingdom: McBeth’s. Everything looks good until Lieutenant McDuff (Christopher Walken) shows up and starts asking questions.

Scotland, PA is a witty and dark comedy based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Despite the comic tone, though, the film is not a parody. It’s a retelling in a modern context. If you know the story of Macbeth, you know this is a tragedy, and it doesn’t end well for the McBeths or for a number of the other characters. It’s funny, sad, at times grisly (interesting deaths can occur in a fast food joint), but always witty and clever. Four stars.