Alex Cross 2012
101 minutes I had read a few
of the Alex Cross novels, but I hadn’t realized that as a detective he has
powers of observation and deduction worthy of Sherlock Holmes and at the same
time is physically intimidating. In this
story, he chases down a particularly nasty serial killer and the man behind him. Spoiler alert: As soon as I say “the man behind him,” you
know it’s going to be Jean Reno’s character.
Anna Karenina 2012
130 minutes I counted at least
nine versions of Anna Karenina in the Netflix listings. It all starts with Garbo, and then almost
everyone but Meryl Streep has a go at the part.
So what’s a director to do? The
movie is shot on sets that look like the action is taking place on series of
stages. An actor walks through a door
and into a different building at a different time of day. Some scenes take place in the orchestra in
front of the stage. The seats have been
removed and people are dancing at a reception, while other things are happening
on stage in the background. Characters
leave the orchestra, and the camera follows them backstage among the ropes and
pulleys. Keira Knightley does a nice job
as Anna, and Jude Law doesn’t seem to have to work too hard to become the
despicable Count Vronsky. It’s an
innovative presentation of an all too familiar story, and the story is well
told.
Argo 2012
120 minutes Ben Affleck has directed a truly first rate
movie. This is an adaptation of a true
story of how a CIA exfiltration expert , Tony Mendez, used the wildly
improbable ruse of scouting for a location for a science fiction movie to
rescue six Americans hiding in the Canadian Embassy in Teheran. The six had escaped out a back door when the
American Embassy was overrun by “student” protestors in 1979. One of the six, Lee Schatz, was our colleague
in the Foreign Agricultural Service.
Everything is well done, but for me the most gripping thing was Affleck’s
recreation of the atmosphere in the crowds on the streets in Teheran. There were a number of criticisms of Affleck
for his one dimensional presentation of Iranian society and to those critics I
can only say; See the Stoning of Soraya M
and read Reading Lolita in Teheran. While many details of the real story have
been changed for dramatic effect (you can see them all on Wiki), amazingly
there really is a Tony Mendez.
The Battleship
Potemkin 1925 109 minutes
I just read Red Mutiny about
the mutiny on the Potemkin, a
Russian battleship in the Czar’s Black Sea fleet. In the film you get only bits and pieces of
the story and there is a feeling that the Soviet censors were watching Sergei
Eisenstein’s every move, but the film may be worth it just to see the
recreation of the massacre of civilians by Cossacks on the long stairway that leads
down from Odessa to its waterfront. I
think I’ll resist the temptation to go back and see more silent movies. Read Red Mutiny.
End of Watch 2012
109 minutes This may be the
worst film I have ever seen. It is
supposedly made from security footage and the cameras of cops criminals and
victims. If there was a sentence uttered
that didn’t include the f-word, I missed it.
A Late Quartet 2012
105 minutes A string quartet
that has been together for many years and has an international reputation has
to deal with the debilitating illness, Parkinson’s disease, of the first violin
and eventually find a replacement for him.
Naturally all of the problems that the four members have been bottling
up for years have to be dealt with in the evolving situation, which will affect
the livelihood and artistic standing of each of them. I can say I’m a fan of Christopher Walken,
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener, but the fourth member, Mark Ivanir
was new to me. He more than held his own. This is a gem of a film which displays the
strengths of the excellent cast.
The Master 2012
137 minutes This is a really creepy film about a religious
movement called The Cause, which is partly based on the life of L. Ron Hubbard
and his Church of Scientology but has elements from several other sources. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Dodd, the master
who guides the cause, and his character reminds me a lot of Hoffman’s Andy
Warhol, all knowing, self-interested, manipulative. Joaquin Phoenix plays Freddie, a sex-obsessed
alcoholic WW II navy veteran who joins The Cause after Dodd shows some interest
in him. Dodd is a fraud and Freddie is
trouble. I didn’t like this film much,
even if the critics did.
Nothing But the Truth 2008
107 minutes Kate Beckinsale
plays a journalist who outs a CIA operative played by Vera Farmiga. Matt Dillon plays the government prosecutor
who sends Kate to jail for an indefinite period because she refuses to reveal
her source. She suffers in prison, loses
her husband to another woman and sees Farmiga driven to suicide as a result of
her decision. Eventually she gets out,
but we don’t learn until the very last frame why she refused to reveal her
source and who it was. It’s a good film
about a difficult issue, national security vs. the fourth amendment.
Playing for Keeps 2012
106 minutes A washed-up soccer
star who had played at the highest levels in Europe comes back to the US broke
and unemployed but determined to rebuild his relationship with his son, who
lives with his ex-wife. He takes over
the coaching for his son’s soccer team and all the parents love him, especially
some of the moms. Eventually he lands a
broadcasting job with ESPN, escapes from the attentions of Catherine Zeta Jones
and problems with rich guy Dennis Quaid and his oversexed wife, and reconciles
with his ex, played by Jessica Biel. It’s
a romantic comedy with a few interesting twists, and some of the soccer moments
will be interesting to “soccer parents.”
Skyfall 2012
143 minutes I’d say “Bond is
back” except Bond is always back, going on 50 years. This has plenty of action including the usual,
where Bond falls into the clutches of the bad guys. Javier Bardem makes a first rate bad
guy. This is the last we’ll see of Judy
Dench as M, but the new M is Ralph Fiennes so we can look for lots more Bond
films and hope that all of them give plenty of screen time to the new
Moneypenny.
The Stoning of Soraya
M. 2008 It’s 1986 in a village in Iran. A husband falsely accuses his wife of
adultery because she has refused to let him divorce her so that he can marry a
15 year old girl. I put off watching
this because I knew it would be bad, but I had no idea how bad. They tied her hands behind her back and
buried her in the ground up to her waist.
Then they stoned her until there was nothing left but a bloody
pulp. The father made sure that each of
his two sons had a turn stoning their mother.
This was bad, but even worse was the collusion among the village
officials, the mullah and the other men to kill this woman, who had done
nothing but try to care for her children.
Is this Islam?
This Is Spinal Tap 1984
83 minutes Rob Reiner casts himself as the manager of a
British rock group on the skids that is trying to recover with a tour in the
US. It spoofs everything about
rock’n’roll. It’s sort of funny and
sort of sad. There are better ways to
spend 83 minutes.
Warlock 1959 121 minutes
The mining town of Warlock hires Clay Blaisdale and Tom Morgan (Henry
Fonda and Anthony Quinn) to clean up the town by getting rid of the local
rancher and rustler and his gang, which keeps shooting up the town and
murdering the sheriff. Clay is almost
the fastest draw around and Morgan, who is devoted to Clay and always has his
back, actually is the fastest draw. The
two are successful at keeping order, but the townsfolk begin to think they may
have made a mistake. Meanwhile Morgan
bushwhacks a gunmen who is coming to town to challenge Clay and does it in way
that implicates two of the rancher’s hands as the murderers. Richard Widmark had been one of the rancher’s
men but quits in disgust and volunteers to take the job as sheriff. If he can survive that, then there is no need
for Clay and Morgan. It all works
out. All the bad guys get shot by
Widmark and the townsfolk who have decided to back him; Clay shoots Morgan and
leaves town. It’s just another western,
but fun to watch. One forgets just how
impressive Henry Fonda was on screen.
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