365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 259 -Magnolia

Magnolia is an original ensemble drama about the nature of coincidence from writer director Paul Thomas Anderson. The film features Jason Robards, William H. Macy, Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, Alfred Molina, John C. Reilly, Melinda Dillon and Melora Walters as strangers with interwoven lives who come together one day in 1999.

Magnolia is an ambitious movie that explores multiple themes including the search for meaning, influence of the past on current events, father/son relationships and the confluence of unexplained events.

The film was a critical success and Tom Cruise was highly praised for his performance as a motivational speaker and he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance. Magnolia is audacious and daring in what it attempts and I believe whether it succeeds or not is up to the individual viewer.  

At The Movie House rating ***1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 258 -Zelig

I picked up a DVD of Woody Allen's Zelig at a bargain price of $3.99. Zelig is one of Allen's best films. It is made in the mockumentary style of his earlier film, Take the Money and Run and stars Allen as Leonard Zelig, a man who has chameleon like powers to resemble anyone he is near.

Without the use of computers Allen and cinematographer Gordon Willis artfully combine new footage with old archival newsreel footage to put Allen into scenes featuring popular and famous people from the 1920's and 30's.

Zelig is a completely original comedy from the mind of Woody Allen that is both satire and love story. The extensive special effects are extraordinary and still hold up in today's CGI world. When people think of Woody Allen's great films Zelig does not come immediately to mind, but it should because it is one of his masterpieces.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 257 -State and Main

State and Main is a satiric look at Hollywood from the mind of David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, House of Games, Wag the Dog, The Verdict). The film takes a very funny look at a Hollywood production crew that invades a small Vermont town. There is chaos everywhere and in the center of it all is the writer, a Hollywood newbie, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film also stars David Paymer, Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker and William H. Macy. With whip smart dialogue and tongue firmly in cheek the film is a hoot.

At The Movie House rating ***1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 256 -Flawless

The Movie House is starting a mini Philip Seymour Hoffman film festival. For the first half I will look at early roles before he won the Oscar for Best Actor in 2005 and then afterwards I will look at his post Oscar films.

Flawless from 1999 was one of his first big roles. The film starred Hoffman and Robert DeNiro as to very different men brought together by unique circumstances. DeNiro is an Walter, a former NYPD officer, he has no use for the drag queens and other "freaks" that inhabit his NYC resident hotel. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Rusty, a drag queen and Walter's upstairs neighbor.

After Walter has a debilitating stroke he begins to take singing lessons from Rusty in order to regain his ability to talk. These two very different men are brought together and come to understand each other a little better.

Aside from the performance by Hoffman, there is absolutely no reason to see this film. It is overblown melodrama directed with the usual lack of editing by Joel Schumacher. The story is all over the place and filled withe most cliched characters and tired dialogue imaginable. The film does not know if it's a comedy, drama or suspense thriller. DeNiro plays the same guy he played in Awakenings only 10 years later. It's always good to see him act, but I never once stopped thinking I was watching DeNiro act. Hoffman on the other hand, disappears into his role and does his best with the script he has to work with.

The film is a mish-mash of message and schmaltz that goes no where.

At The Movie House rating ** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 255 -Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work

A surprisingly honest and funny documentary about a year in the life of comedienne Joan Rivers. Very good film. 

At The Movie House rating *** 1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 254 - Bottle Shock

Uneven but entertaining true story of how the small California wine growers triumphed over French wines at a blind tasting in 1976, and put Napa Valley on the map as a capital of wine making forever.

At the Movie House rating ** 1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 253 - Amadeus: The Director's Cut

I love Amadeus. I have loved everything about it since I saw it in the movies in 1984. And now with the new Blu-ray release of Milos Forman's Director's Cut, there is even more to love. The new version is 20 minutes longer and highlights the relationship between Mozart and Salieri, and explores more of Mozart's troubles as he struggled to gain success in Vienna. The image and sound are stunning on Blu-ray. This is what high definition and digital sound were made for.

At The Movie House rating *****

note- since Amadeus is already a four star movie the new Director's Cut gains a rare fifth star to enhance the original rating.

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 252 - The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a stylish, funny and entertaining children's animated series on Nickelodeon. This live action adaptation in the hands of director M. Night Shyamalan is a pile of dreck. Bad acting, poor casting choices, lame script, ridiculous special effects and comepletely lacking the charm and humor of the cartoon series. 

At The Movie House rating 0 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 251 - The Killing

Stanley Kubrick shows what a talented director can do with "B" film material. With sharp dialogue and unique camera moves he elevates this simple heist film into a stylish film noir. Film has a great ironic twist ending. Film suffers from a 1950's "Dragnet" style narration and lacks the substance that Kubrick would add to later films. Does not hold up as well to repeated viewings, unlike Kubrick's other early films such as Paths of Glory. Sterling Hayden is excellent in this type of role. He defined the hard-boiled 50's gangster in the film The Asphalt Jungle.

At The Movie House rating *** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 250 - The Girl With A Pearl Earring

This 2003 costume drama starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson is a fictional account of how Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (Firth) created his masterpiece. The film is based on the best selling book of the same name. As usual Colin Firth is excellent as the talented, but obsessed artist. Highly recommended.

At The Movie House rating ***1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 249 - Young Sherlock Holmes

It is rare when I can't remember anything about a movie. I even remember things from bad movies that I will never see again, but in the case of Paramount's Young Sherlock Holmes I could not remember anything about the film, beyond the premise, which has Holmes and Watson meeting as young boys and solving there first case together.

The movie has quite a pedigree. It is executive produced by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment, directed by Barry Levinson (The Natural, Rain Man) written by Chris Columbus (Goonies, Gremlins) and features the first ever fully digitized character created by John Lassiter of Pixar. With that amount of talent you would expect a substantial film, but it is not, and that is probably why I didn't remember anything about it.

Released in 1985 the film was a big budget action adventure yarn for the Christmas season. Paramount was probably planning a franchise of Young Sherlock Holmes adventures, especially considering the ending, but the film failed at the box office and no sequels were ever made. On a budget of $18 million the film made $19.7 million. This was a big disappointment when you consider that Back To The Future,another film aimed at the same audience, released in 1985, grossed over $200 million.

Then again I question who is the audience for Young Sherlock Holmes? The movie has many literary references that would go over the top of most kids and yet the action is clearly in the Goonies mode and won't appeal to most adults. The film is cast entirely with unknowns, so there is no star for the audience to recognize and identify with. Both characters, young Holmes and Watson are written as if they are miniature adult versions of their future selves, not real children, with the real emotions of adolescent boys. 

The movie itself is cobbled together from parts of other movies including Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I don't feel the need to go into a plot description here.

The film does not have any sense of authenticity. It is obvious throughout the film that the entire thing is made on a sound stage made up to look like Victorian England. 

But there are two things lacking in the movie that made it so completely unmemorable. A sense of true emotion and adventure and a complete lack of humor. Both of these are required for any kind of action adventure movie.

Young Sherlock Holmes is a fun, entertaining adventure that like me you will probably completely forget a few hours after watching it.

At The Movie House rating ** stars

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 248 - Manhattan

I had Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue in my head and decided to take a look at Woody Allen's Manhattan again. The first four minutes of the film is a mini-movie unto itself. Allen narrates from a book he is trying to write, while Gordon Willis' stunning black and white cinematography explores the island of Manhattan and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue plays over the picture punctuating every image with glorious music.

While watching the film I tried to play close attention to the locations. Allen intended this film to be a love poem to Manhattan as it explored modern romantic relationships. Manhattan is an amazing film in every aspect, and New York City has never looked better. This film never gets old and two hundred years from now anthropologists and historians will study it to observe life in the latter part of the 20th Century.

At the Movie House rating **** stars.

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 247 - No Highway In The Sky

No Highway In The Sky made it's premiere on Turner Classic Movies on Sunday. The film reunited James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, twelve years after they starred together in Destry Rides Again.  If it was not for these two big named stars, No Highway In The Sky would be a small "B" movie made in England and produced by 20th Century Fox. But Stewart and Dietrich's star power elevated the film to "A" status.

The movie was one of the first to feature a commercial air disaster as a plot device. Stewart is Theodore Honey, a scientist who is experimenting with the effects of metal fatigue on aircraft. He theorizes that constant vibration will cause metal fatigue and cause a plane to fall apart at a certain point.

By chance he finds himself on just such a plane when it is nearing the point of failure. His attempt to warn the Captain is fruitless, but he is believed by passenger and film star Monica Teasdale (Dietrich) who share a tense night together.

When the plane lands safely in Gander, Honey is removed from the plane. After it passes inspection the Captain plans to fly on to Montreal so Honey sabotages the plane in order to prevent it from flying further.

Now his sanity is in question and he must find a way to prove his theory is correct before a plane falls apart in mid-air and hundreds are killed.

Based on a novel by Nevil Shute the story mirrored real life plane crashes that happened three years later, all attributed to metal fatigue.

At The Movie House rating *** stars.

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 247 - The Town

The Town is an engaging heist movie in which Ben Affleck performs a trifecta of writing, acting and directing. From a story standpoint there is not much new. A gang of close knit buddies in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood hang together and rob banks together. They are beholden to an older gangster who helps organize the heists and they must pay him a cut of the loot. 

From the trailer we learn the gang takes a female hostage on one of the robberies to ensure a safe getaway and later on the Ben Affleck character forms a romantic relationship with her. She does not know the man she meets in the laundromat is the same man who held her at gunpoint.

The film lives up to the trailer with a suspenseful story of a man who has known nothing in life but crime and wants to find a new life for himself. 

Ben Affleck is Doug MacRay the head of the gang. Jeremy Renner in another strong performance is James "Jem" Coughlin a member of the gang who's violent tendencies are beginning to worry Doug. Rebecca Hall is Claire the bank manager who falls for Doug and John Hamm (Mad Men) is the FBI agent pursuing the gang. Pete Postlethwaite, in one of his last roles, is Fergie the Florist, a crime boss. Chris Cooper has a small role as Doug's father in prison. Blake Lively is very strong as a Jem's sister, a woman who is also trapped by her environment and does not know how to escape..

The movie uses the Charlestown locations and accents to capture a sense of authenticity to the film. Affleck does well to overcome some of the cliches inherit in the plot. A movie like this could go in multiple directions and I was glad that I couldn't be sure where the film would take me until the end.

Gone, Baby Gone, Affleck's first film was a stronger character study, but The Town is a strong second effort from an up and coming director.

At The Movie House rating *** stars

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 246 - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Does not capture the magic or emotions like other fantasy films, such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

At The Movie House rating ** 1/2 stars.

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 246 - Moulin Rogue

6

One of the best films of the new millenium.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 246 - Tron Legacy

Tron legacy is a toys for boys movies that stays true to the Disney original, while giving the viewer a wonderful look at the modern state of computer generated special effects. See this film in Imax 3-D for the pure experience of being immersed in the Tron world. 

At The Movie House rating *** stars

Great Movies for New Year's

Are you ringing in the New Year by staying in and avoiding the after, after Christmas sales? Well here are some films that help celebrate the New Year in style.

The ultimate New Year's Eve movie and now a camp classic. One of the best disaster movies ever made.

Wolfgang Petersen's 2006 remake is no where near as good as the original. The special effects for the ship capsizing are amazing but the rest of the film falls flat.

When Harry Met Sally probably feature the most memorable New Year's Eve scene ever put on film. Twenty-one years later the film is still as funny and poignant as ever.

The ground breaking musical Moulin Rouge celebrates truth, beauty, freedom and most of all, love at the dawn of the 20th century.

New Year's Eve 1958 and Micheal Corleone says the immortal line to his brother Fredo, "I know it was you Fredo; you broke my heart." as the Cuban government collapses around them.

(The Movie House recommends watching all three Godfather films as a New year's day marathon.)

The Apartment has one of the great ending lines in film history. Watch as Miss Kubilick (Shirley MacLaine) and Mr. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) ring in the New Year together.

The Coen Bros. whimsical business fairy tale that concludes at midnight on New Year's Eve.

The Irving Berlin musical that introduced White Christmas and is the perfect bridge to end the Christmas Holiday and begin the New Year.

The original Rat Pack plan a daring Las Vegas heist on New Year's Eve.

Underdog Rocky Balboa in the boxing match of his life on the first day of the bicentennial year of 1976.

Desperate to keep Joe Gillis to herself, Norma Desmond commits a serious act. watch as Norma embraces and entraps him at the stroke of midnight.

Eddie Murphy's second big hit was this buddy comedy that relied on future's trading. Dan Aykroyd, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche and Jamie Lee Curtis star in this very funny movie.

Woody Allen's charming and heartwarming nostalgic look back and the days of radio. You'll feel a warm glow by the time the masked avenger wishes you a Happy New Year.

Peter's Friends is a British comedy directed by Kenneth Branagh about a group of friends that gather together to celebrate New Year's. Think of it as an English Big Chill.

Another heist film. This one takes place at the dawn of the new millennium.

The 1933 winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, the film opens on new Year's Eve 1899 and follows the lives of a British family through the first 30 years of the 20th century. The first film to use the sinking of the Titanic as a plot device.

Happy 2011 from The Movie House. 

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 245 - The Muppet Movie

Without the use of computers 1979's The Muppet Movie gave us some ground-breaking special effects by giving Kermit the Frog legs. He was able to run, jump, swim and ride a bicycle. For the first time we saw his entire body. The movie within the movie opens with Kermit sitting on a log, in the middle of a swamp, playing a banjo and singing The Rainbow Connection (the fact that Jim Henson was concealed under water in a special box, manipulating him was unimportant).

The Muppets transition from TV to the big screen was a huge hit. The full Muppet ensemble was present along with a galaxy of guest stars. The film featured cheerful and uplifting songs by Paul Williams and told the "factual" story behind the Kermit's journey to Hollywood and how the Muppets got started.

You have to have a heart of stone not to appreciate the humor and general good spirit of The Muppets. Kermit, Fozzie, Miss Piggy and Gonzo can bring a laugh to almost anyone with their crazy antics. And with Charles Durning, Austin Pendelton, Bob Hope, Orson Welles, Cloris Leachman, Richard Pryor, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Milton Berle, James Coburn, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Khan, Carol Kane, Elliot Gould, Telly Savalas, Steve Martin and Mel Brooks, the film is a virtual who's who of 1970's comedic talent. The success of The Muppet Movie led to many other feature films and Kermit succeeded in his dream of making millions of people happy.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies in 365 days: Day 244 - Phantom Of The Opera

Joel Schumacher was the wrong choice to bring Andrew Lloyd Weber's fabulous musical to the screen. Just like in the batman movies he over emphasized glitz while stripping the film of any suspense or danger. The key scene when Christine follows the phantom into his lair is an over blown production number that lacks the passion, romance and mystery the scene should have. Schumacher forgot that what is dazzling on stage does not translate to film. In his slavish devotion to following the stage production he sacrificed everything the medium of film can bring to art.

The cast is uniformly good, considering that none of them were professional singers. But Gerard Butler was to young to play the phantom. He should have been an older man that appealed to Christine's need for a father figure. There were 18 years separating Micheal Crawford and Sarah Brightman in the original production of the show.

The film has some artistic merit and there are some stunning visuals, but over all the production is lacking. One can only wonder how the movie would have turned out if someone like Tim Burton directed. After all, look what he did with Sweeney Todd.

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars