Movie – Raising Arizona (1987)

I first saw Raising Arizona when it came to HBO back in the late 1980s.  I laughed quite a bit and remember thinking those Coen Brothers had a good future as makers of comedic movies.  I had no idea they had already done a dramatic crime movie prior to this one.  This film was the first time I had ever heard of them.  I had seen Nicolas Cage before, but this was also the first time I ever saw Holly Hunter in a movie.  As it turns out, it was her first starring role.  Both she and Cage do great jobs playing stylized characters with very distinctive vocal patterns – something that would become a Coen Brothers trademark.  In future movies both would go on to win Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively.

Movie – What’s Up, Doc? (1972)

The movie What’s Up, Doc? is a love letter to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.  Co-writer/director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show) sets this film in San Francisco and makes inventive use of a number of famous locations in the city, most of them during an extended and very funny chase scene involving dozens of characters.  This film touches on, or even reproduces, many of the events from classic screwball comedies.  But by making the movie in the 1970s Bogdanovich was able to get away with some jokes that would not have been allowed back in the 1930s.

Movie – Seven Chances (1925)

Seven Chances is not often mentioned first when people are naming the greatest Buster Keaton films of all time, but it is one of my favorites.  It contains a constant sequence of gags capped off by one of the most insane and funniest foot chases in movie history.  Anyone who has seen a Keaton movie knows that he uses his physicality and athletic ability to do any number of crazy stunts.  While this movie doesn’t have some of his wildest, like hanging off a waterfall or having a house fall on him, it does have him dodging a virtual avalanche.

Movies with Funny Chases

“Son, you got a panty on yore head.” – Hayseed in Pickup, Raising Arizona

Way back in 1998 IMDB first created message boards.  They didn’t look like they do today.  They were divided into “Men’s Room” and “Ladies Lounge” and the idea was to give each gender a place to discuss movies.  The real reason for the separation was likely the fact that Amazon had just bought IMDB and they wanted to link to gender-specific products in each message board.

I mention this because the very first post ever made in the Men’s Room was “What is the best car chase in movies?”  All the usual suspects were named.  Since then the same question has been asked several thousand more times (and that’s probably a conservative estimate.)

While I’m not ruling out doing a car chase category in the future, I figured I’d put a little different twist on the subject and recommend some movies that have funny chase scenes in them.

The movies I am going to write about involve a man looking for a bride, a mix up over some suitcases, a bickering husband and wife in a van, and a man just looking to pick up some Huggies.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and add links here for those posts:

Seven Chances (1925)
What's Up, Doc? (1972)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

On to the reviews…

Earthquake!

I hadn’t planned to post today, but as I was reading everyone else’s blogs I just got a hell of a scare.  An earthquake, preliminary estimates of 4.6 magnitude, just hit about five minutes ago as I write this.  The epicenter was only 7 miles from my house.  It was felt as far away as Nova Scotia and New York State.

Those of you in California, or other earthquake prone areas, may be giggling a little bit at how small this is, but for someone who lives in an area that almost never has one, this was a shock.  It’s only the third one I have ever felt in my life, and it’s the strongest, probably because it’s the closest I’ve been to the epicenter.  The last time Maine had a damaging earthquake was 1940.  This is in the range that might start to cause damage.

If you are wondering, I had no damage that I know of.  I’ll need to wait for daylight to look at the outside of my house.  I had no warning.  It was just a literal “boom!” and I thought my new furnace was exploding.  I raced down the stairs and opened my cellar door, but by then the noise was starting to subside.

The weird thing is, it wasn’t really a gradual shaking like I had felt in a lighter earthquake many years ago.  That was a longer rumble that started out as just noise like a truck was driving down my road, then a gentle shaking as the noise peaked, then the noise gradually fading away.  This earthquake was immediate.  There was no noise buildup.  It was an immediate strong shaking that eventually got weaker and stopped.

Anyway, I got my stair work in for tonight, so I guess I’ll go back to catching up on your blogs.

This is My 500th Post

As you can tell from the title of this post, I am celebrating a milestone.  I’d like to thank everyone who takes the time to come here and read my posts, and especially those who join in the discussion by leaving comments. 

I figured for this post I would take a quick look back at some of my favorite recommendations.

Below are my ten favorite movies from among the hundreds I have reviewed.  Please note: this is not a “greatest movies of all time”, or “most technically proficient movies of all time”, or best of whatever criteria you might use for what makes a favorite movie.  I simply go on the impact the movie had on me when I watched it.  Also, this is not my complete Top 10 movies of all time because I simply have not reviewed some of them yet (i.e. Lawrence of Arabia).

Movie – Heathers (1989)

“Dear Diary: My teen angst bullshit now has a bodycount.”

If any one line from the movie Heathers can possibly sum up what a viewer should expect in both plot and presentation, it may be that one.  When Heathers burst on the scene at the end of the 1980s it was the anti-John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles) teen movie.  It showed teenagers as the venal, vicious, violent little creatures that they can be…and put a smile on your face while doing it.  Think the Mean Girls (2004) were mean?  They were pussycats compared to the Heathers in this film.  It is an irreverent, funny, very dark, “they did not just do that” kind of movie.

Movie – Beau Pere (1981)

Beau Pere is the kind of movie, like Talk to Her, that makes some people uncomfortable because they find themselves understanding or even empathizing with someone that they would have otherwise condemned.  In this case, the person who inspires such emotions is the character of Remi, played by Patrick Dewaere (Going Places).  Remi finds himself in a relationship with his teenage stepdaughter Marion (Ariel Besse).  It’s not just that plot point that might bother some people, but also the way the entire story is presented.  Writer/director Bertrand Blier (Get Out Your Handkerchiefs) handled it with sensitivity and seriousness, not lurid B movie tactics.

Movie – Freaks (1932)

The movie Freaks was controversial even when it was released in 1932.  After negative reaction to the original version the studio cut almost 30 minutes out of it and tried to make it not quite as horrific.  It still ended up being banned in the U.K. for 30 years and in some states in the U.S.  So why am I recommending it?  Because it is a piece of cinema history that plays differently today than it did when it first came out.

Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

“They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” – Lament from every person who’s gotten old enough to dislike the current movies, shows, plays, books, music, games, etc. that are coming out today.

Over the years there have been movies made that for one reason or another could never be made today.  Usually that reason is that the subject matter is one that modern audiences would not want to pay money to go see.  Sometimes it is not the subject matter, but the way it is treated that would cause offense.  In both cases studios would simply avoid giving the go ahead for these kinds of movies nowadays because they don’t want the controversy, nor to lose money.

For this category I’ve got movies about circus freaks, a relationship between a stepfather and his teenage stepdaughter, and a dark comedy about teen suicide.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and add links here for those posts:

Freaks (1932)
Beau Pere (1981)
Heathers (1989)

On to the reviews…

Movie – XXY (2007)

XXY was Argentina’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2008, although it didn’t make it to the final nominations.  It did win its home country’s Silver Condor (Best Picture), as well as Spain’s Goya (Best Foreign Film), and a host of other countries’ and festivals' Best Picture awards.  I say all of this because I had never heard of this film until it showed up as a “new to DVD” movie in Netflix.  Luckily I decided to watch it and discovered a great performance from a young actress named Ines Efron.

Movie – St. Trinian’s (2007)

When I first watched this film I didn’t realize what a British institution the St. Trinian’s stories were.  As an American I had never heard of them.  I found out afterwards that a set of cartoons of the misbehaving St. Trinian’s girls were widely circulated in the 1940s.  These were followed by a series of popular movies in the 1950s and 1960s, and even a revival in 1980.  Finding this out helped explain to me how this little comedy, starring at the time relatively unknown actresses, could attract such a notable cast of adults in supporting roles.

Movie – Hairspray (2007)

The 2007 film Hairspray is not a direct remake of the original 1988 John Waters movie of the same name.  It is actually a film adaptation of the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, which was itself a musical adaptation of the non-musical 1988 movie.  I have not seen the original film, but a friend who was a big fan of it also watched this version of Hairspray and found that he liked it even more than the original.  I feel that Hairspray is a lot of fun and one of the best musicals of the 2000s.

Movie – Transamerica (2005)

The title “Transamerica” has multiple meanings.  The literal meaning is accurate in that it is a road movie where two people drive across the country, learning about each other as they go.  It’s also a play on words because one of those people is a pre-op transsexual and the other doesn’t know that.  Nor does he know that this woman he is with in this comedy/drama is actually his biological father.  I’ll explain.

Movie – The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

I can’t remember how or why I rented this film back in the mid 1990s.  Maybe the cover looked interesting or maybe the description sounded like it would have some good laughs in it.  In either case I ended up getting a lot more than I bargained for when I watched this film.  While it does have comedy in it, it also has some drama.  While it does have a couple of flamboyant characters, its heart is really the more reserved, worn down by life character.  The result is that I found that the movie simultaneously has some depth to it, while at the same time it still knows how to have fun.

September Movie Status

We interrupt the regularly scheduled set of movie reviews to bring you the following post:

I only saw 24 movies this month – a lot less than the last couple of months.  I had some issues around the house that needed to be dealt with which took me away from movie watching.  I also spent time re-watching Castle Season 4 (18 hours).  Finally I was also in a reading mood.  I think I read 10-12 books.

Currently, the two main lists that I am taking movie suggestions from are the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list and a list I put together of every Oscar Best Picture nominee.  You can see those lists by clicking on these titles:  1,001 Movies; Oscar Nominees.  

So far in 2012 I have seen 310 movies that were new to me.  Among those 310 films, 121 were from the 1,001 Movies list and 50 were Best Picture nominees. 

Here are the 24 new movies I saw in September.  An asterisk indicates the movie is from the 1,001 Movies list.  A plus sign indicates it is a Best Picture Oscar nominee.  Highlighted movies are ones to which I would give at least three stars out of five.  I will single out the four and five star films in the paragraph below the list.

Movie – The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

The title “The Year of Living Dangerously” refers to the time period and location that the movie takes place in.  It is 1965 in Indonesia – the year that the dictator Sukarno faced a coup d’etat.  He crushed any opposition, and even worked to drive out any foreigner who was caught in the country.  Imagine, then, the peril that foreign journalists were in trying to cover these events for their home countries.  This concept was an influential one and several other films about reporters in war zones soon followed (i.e. The Killing Fields, Salvador, etc.)

Playing the Other Gender

“Girls will be boys and boys will be girls/ It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world/ except for Lola.” – Lola, The Kinks

You can probably think of a couple dozen movies where a character masqueraded as the opposite sex – Yentl, Tootsie, Just One of the Guys, Shakespeare in Love, etc.  This category isn’t about those kinds of “playing the other gender” movies.  In those cases the character was the same gender as the actor/actress, and their character was pretending to be the other gender.

No, this category is for those rare movies where an actor/actress played a character who was actually a different gender.  An example is the first movie I will review – 1982’s The Year of Living Dangerously.  Actress Linda Hunt played a Eurasian man…and won an Oscar for it.  She is the only actor/actress in this category to do so, although in my opinion there is another who also deserved an Oscar, as you will see when I get to that movie’s review.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and add links here for those posts:

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
Transamerica (2005)
Hairspray (2007)
St. Trinian's (2007)
XXY (2007)

On to the reviews…

This Has Been an Expensive Month

Experiencing the joys of home ownership means also experiencing some of the not so joyful moments.  You have to take the bad with the good.  My furnace’s boiler cracked so I am now the proud owner of a shiny new furnace and someone else is the proud owner of more than $3,200 of my money.

Combine this with $1,200 to keep my vehicle on the road and another $600 for two other things I had to have done to equipment at my house and this has been a damn expensive month.

I probably shouldn’t complain.  I’ve got the financial wherewithal to absorb this.  (Save your money kids.)  This would be a disaster for some folks.  Still, any month where I end up spending $5,000 I didn’t expect to is not a good one.

My new furnace.  Isn't it shiny?  ("Shiny" as in the visual sense, not the Firefly sense.)

Castle TV Show, Books, Graphic Novels, and Videos

“There are two kinds of folks who sit around thinking about how to kill people: psychopaths and mystery writers.  I’m the kind that pays better.” – Richard Castle, Castle

Back in March of 2011 I wrote a series of posts about the TV show Castle, which was then part way through its third season, as well as the two books that had been published at that point.  I even included some videos of the cast together at Comic Con 2010 to show how much fun they have with each other.  It is now time for an update. 

In the time that has passed since I did my posts the show has completed four seasons, with the fifth having just aired its first episode.  There have also been two more Richard Castle novels published, as well as a graphic novel “adaptation” of his first Derrick Storm novel.  Another adaptation is on the way next month.

The ideal way to experience all sets of media is to watch Castle Season 1, then read the book Heat Wave, then watch Castle Season 2, then read the book Naked Heat, then watch Castle Season 3, etc.  Rather than make you search for my original posts, I am re-doing them now in order to better present a flow or sequence to follow.  I will separate each season into its own post, as well as tweak the text to improve it a little.  The first two books already were separate entries, so I will not re-post those.  I will have links to them, in the correct sequence, below.

TV Show Intro and Season 1

Book - Heat Wave (posted March 10, 2011)

TV Show Season 2

Castle Cast at Comic Con 2010 (posted March 10, 2011)

Book - Naked Heat (posted March 10, 2011)

TV Show Season 3

Castle Cast at Comic Con 2011

Book - Heat Rises

Book - Richard Castle's Deadly Storm

TV Show Season 4
(The Castle cast did not have a panel at Comic Con 2012)

Stana Katic Singing at a European Film Festival

Book - Frozen Heat
Book - Richard Castle's Storm Season
TV Show Season 5
Book - Deadly Heat
Book - Richard Castle's A Calm Before Storm
Book - Storm Front
The Castle Cast at the Paley Center
(The Castle cast did not have a panel at Comic Con 2013)
Book - Wild Storm
Book - Richard Castle's Unholy Storm - No full review for this one because I cannot recommend it.  Both the story line (voodoo instead of spy craft) and the shoddy artwork are a disappointment.

TV Show Season 6
Book - Raging Heat
TV Show Season 7
Book - Driving Heat

On to the reviews…