"Straight Outta Compton" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Straight Outta Compton" and two feel-good DVDs "Cupcakes" and "Razzle Dazzle." The Book of the Week is "Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family and Forgiveness."  I also bring you up to date on "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "The Evil Dead."]

Straight Outta Compton

A true-to-life biopic about the rise to fame of the rap group N.W.A that revolutionized the world of music in the mid-80's.

Like many bands, N.W.A. (and, if you don't know what those initials stand for, I will let you click on the link to find out - I ain't sayin it) started out with a group of friends writing songs and making music together in a garage in the late 80's.  Here the garage is in the mean streets of Compton, California, where young black men are routinely harassed by the police and confronted daily with the harsh realities of poverty, gangs and discrimination.  With what's been going on in this country of late, this film seems particularly relevant. Some things never change.

Out of that culture came rage and out of that rage came N.W.A., Gangsta Rap and West Coast Hip Hop, a group and set of music sub-genres that changed the face of music forever, making Dr. Dre (real name: Andre Romelle Young), Ice-Cube (real name: O'Shea Jackson)  and Eazy-E (real name: Eric Lynn Wright) big stars. (Arabian Prince (Kim Renard Nazel) was the other original member and they were later joined by DJ Yeller (Antoine Carraby) and MC Ren (Lorenzo Jerald Patterson). 

Eazy-E, wonderfully played by Jason Mitchell, formed the group and started Ruthless Records. They pressed and marketed their first song "Boyz-n-the-Hood" themselves. The popularity of that song brought the group to the attention of Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) who, seeing their potential, became their manager and brokered their first album, "Straight Outta Compton" with Priority Records, a company whose biggest star at that time was the California Raisins. 

The album took off and the band toured amidst many protests about the language and content of their music.  In Detroit, a riot ensued when they played their song "F**k the Police," after the police security detail specifically told them not to.  They were arrested but that only served to heighten their "gangsta" image and popularity.

The guys enjoyed the money and the glamour, but as these things do a rift formed in the band. Ice-Cube (played by O'Shea Jackson Jr.) became suspicious of Heller's business practices and his seeming favoritism toward Eazy and acrimoniously left to pursue a solo career. Likewise, Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) eventually questioned the money and joined forces with Suge Knight (R. Marcos Taylor) to form Death Row Records where he produced records for up and coming rap stars Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg.

Left on his own without Ice or Dre, Eazy started to unravel and realized Heller did not have his best interests at heart and his health deteriorated.  But he was eventually able to make up with Ice-Cube and Dr. Dre and they all start talking about reviving N.W.A.  Alas, that was not to be.

You don't need to be a fan of rap music to enjoy this film.  This has all of the same elements as some of the best biopics about bands ("Love and Mercy," "Jersey Boys"). The band forms in someone's garage, the band cuts a record, the band makes it big, then the band falls apart, one of the members hits the skids and then they all reunite. 

 

That is not to make light of the power of this film or the environment that produced N.W.A or the impact the group had on the music world. It's to say that this film is a classic.  It has the power of "everyman," or should I say "everyband."  Everyone can relate to these guys and their drive to "be somebody."  They were no different from any young guys wanting to be creative and have some power in life, except they were young black men trying to make it in a world punctuated by the beating of Rodney King and L.A. riots.

 

This was a time when my kids were teens and pre-teens and though they were young suburban white kids, they embraced the music because this music was new and loud and shook the walls of propriety.  We Baby Boomers had Jimi Hendrix and The Doors. My kids had Ice-Cube and Dr. Dre.  And now I finally know the lyrics they were listening to.  Yikes.

 

Directed by F. Gary Gray, with an outstanding script by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff and produced by Dr. Dre, Ice-Cube and Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright, this is an engrossing recreation of the times that inspired gangsta rap and it pulls no punches.  The young actors are brilliant and uncanny look-alikes of the real artists, which is particularly no surprise for the Ice-Cube character, since he is played by the real Ice-Cube's son.  The music and performances are right on and the set decoration creates the world that grew N.W.A.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...another great biopic and another Best Film of the year for me.

***DVDS***

You Might Have Missed

(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)

Cupcakes  (2013)

 

Six friends in Tel Aviv record a song on a mobile phone and find, to their shock, that it is the Israeli entry in the UniverSong Competition.

A group of friends are obsessed with the UniverSong competition, a sort of "Israel's Got Talent" and Eurovision combo.  They get together every year to watch the competition together. When Anat's love leaves her, the friends write her a song to cheer her up.  The song gets entered in the UniverSong competition and starts to get a lot of press. None of them really wants to do it but eventually each comes up with a reason to venture outside their comfort zones: Kerin, the timid blogger; Anat, the baker and mother whose husband left her; Efrat, the aspiring musician; Yael, the former beauty queen turned lawyer; Dana, the overworked political aid; and Ofer, a gay kindergarten teacher with a closeted boyfriend.

The UniverSong (based on the popular Eurovision contest) competition seeks the most popular song from across the globe and the various countries vote.  So even though the friends are reluctant to do this, the UniverSong machine kicks in trying to mold them into an ABBA-like group (ABBA won Eurovision), but eventually they realize they are being exploited and not being true to themselves. 

This is a musical comedy with fun songs and performances that is as sweet a confection as, well, cupcakes, but not sickeningly so. The soundtrack uses songs that have won Univision contests in the past including the freakish American win one year with "You Light Up My Life."

This is director Eytan Fox's satire on Eurovision.  Fox is a celebrated Israeli director who was born in New York City but moved to Israel when he was two. Eurovison is not very well-known to American audiences but it is a big deal in other countries.  Fox remembers his family and friends gathering together to watch when Israel first entered in 1973.  This is his take on remembering what it used to be like in Israel when neighbors all knew and helped each other.  He laments that it's not like that in Israel anymore.  But this is also a statement on how silly the Eurovision competition has become and how when something is sweet and pure (cupcakes), it's not long until someone tries to pervert it for their own gain. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...this is feel good movie about the power of friendship.  If you liked "Mama Mia," you might like this.




Razzle Dazzle (2007)

Mr. Jonathan (Ben Miller) is a politically active dance teacher who wants to do something important with his dance troupe but he also wants to win the Sanosafe Troupe Spectacular competition.

Mr. Jonathan has interesting ideas about how to choreograph meaningful dances. He wants to highlight political causes so in rehearsal he asks his girls how they would move if they were enslaved by a multinational corporation or if they were ants being oppressed and forced to make sneakers.  You get the idea. 

His biggest competition is Miss Elizabeth (Jane Hall) who wants to win at any cost.  She's not quite Abby Lee Miller but close and, yes, there are Dance Moms, one particularly obsessed with her daughter winning. Justine (Kerry Armstrong) is living out her own dance ambitions through her daughter, Tennille.  Other pushy Moms bribe judges and go to outrageous lengths for their children to get ahead.  These Dance Moms make the "Dance Moms" on TV look like saints.

The office manager (Denise Roberts) for Mr. Jonathan's dance school runs the Happy Valley Foster Home and decides who to foster by whether they can dance or not and the mostly mute goth costumer, Marianne (Tara Morice), has some questionable ideas such as employing a gas mask on one of the children that makes her pass out.

Mr. Jonathan can't stand that Miss Elizabeth keeps winning all of the competitions with her standard routines, in his eyes, boring and meaningless.  He decides that his winning piece will be about Afghan women under the Taliban, not a popular idea with the Moms.

Mr. Jonathan's bid to win is being filmed by a documentary crew so we are in mockumentary mode in the Christopher Guest tradition.  Think "This is Spinal Tap," meets Australian Dance Moms.  We see the rehearsals, the preparations and the private moments as they prepare for the big competition.

This is a funny faux documentary written and directed by Darren Ashton, and it's a biting but delightful send up of dance teachers and competitions. It's the age old story of the underdogs overcoming adversity to win but in a fun way.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you are a Christopher Guest fan and like "Dance Moms" or "So You Think You Can Dance," you will love this little film.

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***

294 to go!

The Evil Dead (1981)

Five college students travel to a cabin in the woods of Tennessee only to discover their little vacation involves demons. 

 

A shaky camera moves ominously fast across a swamp and a forest floor.

 

Next we see five college students - Ashley (Bruce Campbell), Scotty, Cheryl, Linda and Shelly in a car singing and kidding around and wearing really terrible early 80's clothes.  We know they are college students because one of them is wearing a sweatshirt that says "Michigan State." As they head to the cabin, they cross a bridge with a sign that says, "Dangerous Bridge," and one wheel of the car sinks into the weak boards of the bridge.  Not a good sign.  Either is the ominous music.

 

They make their way down a heavily wooded road accompanied by eerie music until they get to a rundown cabin where a porch swing is banging against the wall of the cabin.  They struggle to find the keys to open the door.

 

"Don't go in there!" (That's me talking to the screen from my armchair).

 

They inspect the cabin and settle in for the night but not before a clock stops working, a strange force takes control of one of the girl's hands while she is writing and a trap door starts to open by itself.

 

I would say those are all things that would make me say, "Time to leave."

 

When the door to the cellar opens to the sound of symphonic music and cymbals, one of the guys decides it's a good idea to go down there.  Huh?

 

"Don't go down there!" (Me again).

 

But of course he does.  When he doesn't come back, Ashley goes looking for him and encounters a closed door.

 

"Don't go in there." (I can't help it).

 

But of course he does.  Turns out Scotty has found a recording of a past occupant of the cabin, a professor who was studying "The Book of the Dead."  They play the recording and the professor says in the recording that his wife had become possessed and then he recites an incantation.

 

Well, folks, that incantation was not good. All hell breaks out now as one by one, the students turn into demons and make Ashley's night a living hell.

 

Horror films work on our basic fears:  dark basements, locked doors, the occult, unexplained noises, thunder and lightning, fog, dark woods - and it's all here along with incredible blood and gore.  However, there is a scene where one of the girls is raped by a tree and that doesn't really fall into my basic fears category.

 

In 1979 a group of Detroit friends raised $375,000 to make a horror film about five college students possessed by demons.  They wanted to make a film that was "the ultimate experience in grueling terror."  I'm not so sure about the terror part because it was so over the top it was laughable at times, but it was certainly gory.  Stands as one of the early "Don't go in there" films that inspired others.

Why it's a Must See:  "This 'ultimate experience in grueling horror,' as it immodeslty bills itself in the end credits, changed the history of its genre.  Sam Raimi took the gore of Italian horror movies and mixed it with a proudly juvenile sense of humor -- making its teenage heroes so vapidly wholesome that we cannot wait...for them to die or be zombiefied.  Such self-consciousness would subsequently come to dominate screen horror...Today, it is hard to see anything but comedy...but we must remember that in 1982 the film had the same terrifying effect on audiences as The Blair Witch Project seventeen years later..."

---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...girls as ghouls and gratuitous gore.  Glorious. If you liked "The Blair Witch Project," this one is kinda like that so you might like it, but again, this one is very campy and very gory.

***Book of the Week***

Life from Scratch by Sasha Martin (2015)

 

A food blogger with an unhappy childhood seeks to cook a meal from every country in the world as a way to heal.

Growing up with an eccentric mother who eventually couldn't take care of Martin and her brother, Martin lived in a series of foster homes and eventually under the guardianship of her mother's friends, who moved to Europe, where Martin spent her formative years. She did not adapt well to her new family and changing environments, and when a tragedy entered her young life, it fell apart.  But the one thing that was a constant was her memories of cooking with her mother and her love of food. 

Later in life when she had reconnected with her mother, but was at loose ends after the birth of her child and haunted by her past, seeing the movie "Babette's Feast" and a gift of spice jars from around the world gave her the idea to cook food from every country in the world.  She embarked on that journey, eventually starting a popular food blog, "Global Table Adventure."  She gained some peace from that, learning to reach out and enjoy a sense of community.

"Though I may not have secured a new future, I'd secured something much better by filling those empty spice jars nearly four years ago. Cooking the world has opened my eyes to other ways of being, loving, and mothering.  Most importantly, it has taught me to savor the present moment...There's an ease to not knowing what will come next -- an ease I never could have felt before."

This book joins the many with recipes interspersed among the text. 
However, what sets this apart is her quest to prepare and eat a meal from every country and sharing many of those recipes. "Kabeli Palau" from Afghanistan; Bulgarian "Kompot;" Samoan Chocolate & Orange Coconut Rice Pudding." She shares her search for the sometimes strange ingredients and her successes and failures with the recipes. That quest and blogging about it helped her to express herself and to heal her sadness and regrets about the past and is the strongest part of the book. Unfortunately, it doesn't start until two-thirds of the way through.  I hate to say it, but some of the earlier parts of the book lumber a bit under Martin's rather slow-paced and sometimes melodramatic narrative.

However, I totally relate to her project and how her blog helped her at a time of change and stress. My blog has also helped me as I make my way through my "1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" and this strange realm called retirement.

So this is a strong entry in the memoir plus recipes genre and the self-help world of food as healer.  Hopefully it will spur others to find an interesting project that will help them express themselves and find a sense of community and peace.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like your memoirs with recipes, you will probably like this book.  Now stop me before cooking my way around the world becomes my next big project!

Thanks for Reading!

That's it for this week.

See you Tuesday for

"Make Someone Happy"

 

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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

 

Note:  Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 

 

 

Find the page for the movie, click on "Explore More" on the right side panel and then scroll down to "External Reviews."  Look for "Rosy the Reviewer" on the list. Or if you are using a mobile device, look for "Critics Reviews." Click on that and you will find me alphabetically under "Rosy the Reviewer."

 

 

Why Movies Matter

When one spends a great deal of time doing a particular thing, it is only natural that one would question the importance of it.

You know, we all try to find meaning in life.  So it is no wonder that I question watching movies and writing about them as a meaningful way to spend my time.

But you know what?  It is. 

I wrote about how to "read a film," a couple of years ago.  In that post I talked about all of the elements that make a film great and how those elements help us enjoy films. I believe that understanding what goes into making a film enhances the enjoyment of it.  But that doesn't really constitute why movies matter.  It's much more visceral than that.


Here is why movies matter.



Movies are enjoyable.
Well, most of them are anyway.  And that is why we like to go to the movies and watch them at home.  For 90 minutes or so, we are transported from our daily cares and stresses and allowed into a world we can only dream of.  We can be a soldier in the Civil War ("The Red Badge of Courage") or an adventurer like Indiana Jones or even "The Queen."  Woody Allen had fun exploring this issue of living another life through the movies to comic effect in his wonderful film "The Purple Rose of Cairo."

And you know what?  It's perfectly OK to take a break from reality and enjoy yourself.


Movies create memories.
In that earlier post, "Reading a Film," I spoke about the bonding time I enjoyed with my Dad watching movies.  He was an only child, probably a lonely one, and spent many days and nights at the movies.  Later in life, as a Dad, he took me with him to the movies as my Mother was not particularly interested.  Likewise, he and I would stay up late on the weekends and watch the late movie that would come on every night at 11:30 (remember those?). 

So I have wonderful memories of those nights with my Dad.  My Dad was a softie so when there was a particularly sad scene or happy scene, he would chuckle softly and take out his ever present handkerchief and wipe his eyes, but pretend he was wiping his forehead.

I also remember going to see "Gone With the Wind" for the first time with my Mother when I was five.  Whatever you may feel about "Gone With The Wind" and its stereotypes, it was a powerful film, especially for a 5-year-old.  After seeing that film, I declared I wanted to be an actress, not so much for the "art," but because I wanted to wear Scarlett's clothes (c'mon, I was 5)! 

Seeing it again when I was 12, it was more about kissing Clark Gable!

I also remember at that screening when I was 12, sitting in the theatre waiting for the movie to start and reading the last few pages of the 1037 pages of the book.

Movies create bonds.
We all have our favorite films, movies that particularly affected us either through laughter or shared experience.  When we love a film, we often want to savor it and share it. Think of "Star Wars" fans who dress up as their favorite characters to see the films or at conventions. People get together to bond over their love of that film.  Many a person dressed as Chewbacca has bonded with another dressed as R2D2. 

My daughter and her husband have a particular affinity for "There Will Be Blood" and love to say the lines to each other in Daniel Plainview's voice, Daniel Day-Lewis' character in the film. It's annoying as hell but they enjoy it and bond over it.

Movies explore the human condition.
I once had an argument of sorts with someone (actually an ex-husband which is probably why he's an ex) who said that reading fiction was a waste of time. I couldn't believe it because I felt I had learned so much about life from reading some of the great novels.  Movies are the same.  When we go to the movies we can experience lives that are not our own; we can empathize with people going through things we have never gone through.  And through that, we become better people when we are more understanding of others. 

Movies are cathartic.
Whether it's a two hanky film like "The Notebook" or an inspiring film like "The Theory of Everything," movies make you feel something and allow you to release your emotions.  Nothing like a good cry to get the emotional kinks out and refresh you to face another day of life.

Movies inspire.
I know when I saw my first movies, I was inspired to be an actress and devoted over ten years of my life to that pursuit.  Movies show us lives, jobs, and pursuits we could aspire to.  They also get us fired up about causes and call us to action. They inspire discussion and controversy, all important in a country that reveres free speech.  They remind us of some of our dark history and inspire us not to repeat it.  They inspire us to overcome adversity.  They inspire us to be our best selves.

Movies are meditative.
Since I have retired and decided that I wanted to fulfill my dream of being a movie critic, I have started going back to seeing movies in the theatre.

When movies started coming out on VHS and then DVD and then through all kinds of various media, it seemed there was no real reason to get dressed, comb your hair, and head out into the night to fork over $10-15 to see a movie.  Why do that when you can watch in the comfort of your own home?

But now I know the answer.

Because sitting alone in the dark, just you and the flickering screen, is a sort of meditation.  It is for me, anyway, literally, especially now that I am retired. When I go during the day, I am often the only one there.  For those few hours that I sit in the dark, I am alone with myself and the story.

Which takes me to the reason why you should see a film in the theatre.

It's one of the same reasons why people go to church or join clubs or attend a lecture.


Movies let you tap into the collective consciousness.
You get to be with your fellow humans, all of whom are enjoying the same thing as you.  Sitting in a theatre watching a comedy and hearing others laughing is far more fun than sitting at home laughing all by yourself.  It reminds you that your fellow humans are just like you...human.  And you are a part of that rich fabric (just ignore the kids running up and down the aisles and the person in front of you texting and the kid behind you kicking your seat).

So movies are an important and powerful part of our existence.

I believe I am doing something meaningful and powerful by promoting films.

And if you doubt that power, remember this image - a two-year-old at his first movie.

Now you will have to excuse me, I am off to the movies!

Thanks for Reading!

See you Friday

for my review of the new movie 

"Straight Outta Compton" 

and

The Week in Reviews

(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)

and the latest on

My 1001 Movies I Must See Before

 I Die Project."

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer

"American Ultra" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "American Ultra" and DVDs "Taken 3" and "Big Hero 6." The Book of the Week is Ann Rule's "The I-5 Killer."  I also bring you up to date on "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel."]




American Ultra

Jesse Eisenberg plays a CIA field operative who is so deeply under cover he doesn't even know he's a CIA agent.

Mike (Eisenberg) is a stoner and a total screw-up.  He works the night shift at a convenience store and lives with his long-suffering girlfriend, Phoebe (Kristen Stewart).  Mike has issues.  He can't leave the town they live in (Liman, West Virginia) because he has a panic attack whenever he tries to  leave, and he screws up so much, I started to think that Phoebe was Mother Teresa.  What can she possibly see in this guy?

However, enter CIA agent Lassiter (Connie Britton) and we discover that Mike is no ordinary screw-up stoner.  No, he is actually a CIA agent screw-up stoner who was part of an experiment to create super agents.  When the program was deemed too dangerous, it was called off and Mike was "de-activated" and now remembers none of his life before coming to this small town. But when Lassiter finds out that Mike has been targeted for extinction (he was her pet project), she finds him and reactivates him. So when CIA killers come looking for him at his convenience store (and they keep coming no matter where he goes), his early fighting skills and programming start coming back to him, and he doesn't understand any of it.

Mike says to Phoebe: Something very weird is happening to me: I keep killing people! There's a chance I may be... a robot!

It was at this moment that I realized this movie was a comedy.  A very dark and bloody one, but a comedy nevertheless.

Eisenberg continues to play against type as he did in the recently reviews "Night Moves" and show what a versatile actor he has become.  Likewise, Kristen Stewart continues to show she is an actress of substance as she did in "Clouds of Sils Maria."  Those Twilight movies did not do her acting cred any justice so it's good to see her starting to mature as an actress.  I think she actually smiled in this movie too. Eisenberg and Stewart have real chemistry here (they were together before in "Adventureland" in 2009). Connie Britton moves away from her starring stint in TV's "Nashville," to good advantage on the big screen.

John Leguizamo has a funny cameo as Rose, Mike's drug-dealing, conspiracy theory spouting friend and Topher Grace makes for a dapper bad guy.

Written by Max Landis and directed by Nima Nourizadeh, who directed "Project X," this film is original, exciting and fun.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Quentin Tarrantino meets "The Terminator."

***DVDS***

You Might Have Missed

(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)

Taken 3 (2014)

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) returns, this time accused of a murder he didn't commit.

The movie has one of those cold openings where Russian mobsters kidnap a guy and make him open a safe because his boss owes them money.  It's not pretty. This kind of opening is designed to show us just how badass these bad guys are and the biggest badass is Malankov (San Spruell), who of course will show up later to vex our hero.

Roll opening credits.

Bryan shows up at his daughter's apartment to present her with a giant stuffed panda for her birthday.  He is no longer married to Lenore (Famke Janssen), but he invites her to dinner to celebrate their daughter's birthday.  She declines but later shows up at his apartment to complain about her current marriage and to let Bryan know she wishes she was back with him.  Bryan wishes it too.  However, Lenore's husband, Stuart (Dougray Scott) doesn't and he later visits Bryan to tell him to please stay away from Lenore.

The next day Lenore asks to see Bryan for breakfast and bagels and when he returns to his apartment with bagels, finds Lenore dead in his bed.  Not good.  The cops are there almost immediately and assume Bryan is the killer, which Bryan also realizes is not good and he had better get the hell out of Dodge.

So goes the rest of the movie as Bryan uses his immense talents to wiggle out of every sticky situation to try to prove his innocence and find Lenore's real killer as per the earlier films in this franchise, "Taken (2008)" and "Taken 2 (2012)"

The tag line for this third installment of the "Taken" series is "It ends here," and all I can say is "Thank the Lord!"

The first one was pretty good.  Liam's daughter was "taken" and he had to find her before it was too late.  Out of that one came the famous lines,

 "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you,"

delivered as only Liam could in his deep Irish brogue.  Good stuff.

Then "Taken 2" came along and, OK, you know how I feel about sequels.  This time his wife was taken and the whole thing seemed familiar.  Hey, isn't this just like the first one?

But now, in "Taken 3" no one is even "taken."  It's Liam being framed for his wife's murder and his being chased all over the place.  Of course that doesn't mean he is not going to turn things around and STILL hunt those bad guys down and kill them.

Luc Besson is back as the screenwriter (along with some others), but I think he should give this character a rest.

The music is melodramatic and this entire affair is cartoonish.  I'm not sure how Liam could keep a straight face.  And even Forest Whitaker as the cop trying to find our Bryan can't save this thing.

Liam Neesan has admitted he does these movies because they pay him too much to turn them down, but, Liam...listen to me.  I love you madly because you are a nice big handsome man who is a good actor.  Pleeeez, no more of these or you will ruin any acting cred you have and I will no longer love you madly.

NOTE: I had decided that I was only going to review movies that I could recommend, hoping that I would turn you on to some films you might not have put in your queue at Netflix or watched On Demand or however you get your DVDs.  I am going against that vow here because this movie has a relatively high profile and you might just want to grab it off the shelf.  DON'T!

I decided that you needed to be warned.

Rosy the Reviewer says...This movie is terrible!





Big Hero 6 (2014)

An unlikely group form a super-hero team.

Hiro is a robotics genius in a futuristic San Fransokyo (what if Japanese immigrants rebuilt San Francisco after the earthquake and named it San Fransokyo?)  He and his brother, Tadashi, are being raised by their Aunt Cass, because their parents died when Hiro was three.  Hiro spends his time participating in illegal robot fights and getting into trouble.

When Hiro's brother invents a robotic nurse, Baymax, at his school, Hiro decides he wants to get into his brother's "nerd school" and invents "microbots," swarms of tiny robots than can create anything you think.  This is how it works:  if you can think it, the microbots can become it. Need a giant gun?  The microbots can become one. Need a tank?  Think it and the microbots can become it.  When Hiro shows his invention to  Callaghan, the head of the school, Callaghan is impressed and lets Hiro enroll.

Meanwhile Alastair Krei, owner of Krei Tech, hears about the microbots and wants to buy the invention but Callaghan warns Hiro that Krei is a questionable sort, so Hiro says no, staying at the school instead. But when the school catches on fire, Tadashi and Callahan are killed.

Depressed, Hiro activates Baymax and together they discover that someone has been manufacturing microbots.  When they find them being manufactured in an abandoned warehouse, they are attacked by a man wearing a mask.  Hiro and Baymax team up with Tadashi's friends, GoGo, Honey, Wasabi and Fred, to form a superhero group to find out who has stolen Hiro's superbots invention and why.

You have your stock characters:  the feisty girl, the scared guy, the clueless hippie and the smart girl but Baymax is the fun part of this film.  He is like a giant sweet and very loyal marshmallow. 

Writers Jordan Roberts, Daniel Gerson and Robert L. Baird have adapted a Marvel comic into a screenplay that lives up to the high standard we have come to expect from Disney and it has a moral, which is also very Disney: using teamwork, you can think your way out of the problem.

This is Disney's 54th animated feature and based on Marvel Comics superheros of the same name, their first action hero themed film.  It also won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2014.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like the "Iron Man" films, you will like this.  Personally, I liked this one better!

 

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***

295 to go!

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Guests at a dinner party find that they are unable to leave.

 

Upper class guests arrive at a dinner party at Senor Nobile's (Enrique Rambal) mansion following an opera.  After dinner they retire to the drawing room, where after listening to a piano sonata by Blanca (Patricia de Morelos), one of the guests.  After the music, instead of leaving the men remove their jackets and ties and everyone settles down to go to sleep. 

When they awake in the morning, they all realize they can't leave.  Though nothing physically is stopping them from leaving, psychologically none of them are able to leave the room.  Conversely, for some strange reason, after preparing dinner the night before, all of the servants except one were compelled to leave. As time goes by and all of the food and water start to run out and the guests realize they are stuck together in this room for who knows how long, these so-called upper class people start to become hostile, hysterical and animal-like.

 

Likened to Sartre's "No Exit," where we discover the characters are in hell, here we don't know why they can't leave.

 

Spanish auteur Luis Bunuel ("Un Chien Andelou," which is de rigeur in any history of film class, "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," "That Obscure Object of Desire"), a leader in avante-garde surrealism, made this film at the end of his 18 years in Mexico.  Here he explores class conflict, religion, politics and morality.

Bunuel is recognized as one of the great movie directors of all time.  He made films in Spain, France and Mexico in practically every movie genre and his work spanned from the 1920's to the 1970's. Six of his films are included in "Sight and Sound's" 2012 critics' poll of the top 250 films of all time.

Woody Allen alluded to this film in "Midnight in Paris" when Gil (Owen Wilson) meets Bunuel (Adrien de Van) and suggests a story to the young Bunuel about guests who arrive for a dinner party and can’t leave. Buñuel asks, "But why can’t they leave? I don’t understand." After Gil leaves, Buñuel is still muttering to himself, "...What's holding them in the room?..."  A very Woody moment.

 

Why it's a Must See:  "One of Bunuel's most celebrated Mexican films, [this film] appears to wear its political satire lightly, but beneath the banter, the diretor's sardonic hand delivers one of its most powerful blows.  This group represents the hypocrites who believe they have raised themselves above the morass of the lower classes and beyond whatever judgment should be passed on them for their deeds. They are the Spanish elite, the supporters of Franco, whose duplicity Bunuel despised."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

This film is considered by Mexican film critics as the 16th best film of the Mexican cinema and one of the best 1000 films by the New York Times.

 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a strange but delicious skewering of the upper classes that is not to be missed!

 

***Book of the Week***

 

The I-5 Killer by Ann Rule (1984)

 

Randall Woodfield looked like the boy-next-door but he was anything but.  Trolling up and down 800 miles of Highway 5, he managed to kill 44 women.

Woodfield was an unlikely killer.  He was a good student and star athlete.  He was drafted to play for the Green Bay Packers and chosen by Playgirl Magazine as a centerfold candidate.  So why did he choose to rape and kill?

Ann Rule reigned as one of our best true crime writers until her recent death at the age of 83.  She was writing right up until the end, her last book "Lying in Wait" was published in 2014. 

She wrote 36 books in the course of her 30-year career as a true crime writer, mostly about crimes in the Pacific Northwest, where she also lived.  This one was only her 3rd book, written right before one of her most famous books, "The Stranger Beside Me (1986)," her true story of sitting beside Ted Bundy at a Seattle suicide prevention hotline, unaware that he was a serial killer. That book brought her fame along with "Small Sacrifices (1987)," the story of Diane Downs who tried to kill her children and "Green River, Running Red (2004)," the story of the Green River Killer in Washington State.

Though this book is an early example of her work, her later style is already apparent.  She wrote her books with meticulous care for detail, making you care about the victims and the law enforcement personnel who tried to solve the murders.  This was particularly apparent in "Green River, Running Red," where serial killer Gary Ridgway targeted prostitutes, hoping no one would miss them and no one would care.  Rule created portraits of the young women that did make you care.

In "Small Sacrifices," Rule told the story of Diane Downs who shot her three children and pretended she and her children had been shot by a man trying to carjack her car. One child died and the other two were seriously hurt, but were finally able to testify against their mother.  Diane was in love with a married man and she thought if she got rid of her children, he would marry her.  Rule wrote such a compelling tale of this terrible deed that it was made into a TV movie starring Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal.  It was this book that turned me into a true crime fan and no one wrote true crime quite like Ann Rule.

Rosy the Reviewer says...this one is for those of you who have read Rule's other books. If you haven't read Rule before start with "Small Sacrifices" or "Green River, Running Red," when she was at the top of her game.  Rest in peace, Ann Rule.  You were the Queen of Crime Writers and you will be missed.

 

 

Thanks for Reading!

That's it for this week.

See you Tuesday for


"Why Movies Matter"

 

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