Bon Voyage 2003
115 minutes Gerard Depardieu
looks pretty good in this one as a minister in the French cabinet when the
Nazis take Paris. Isabelle Adjani is
gorgeous and convincing as a manipulative actress who can bend almost any man to
her will. It’s a lavishly appointed farce
that brings together more than one story, including one about a professor
trying to escape from France with some large bottles of heavy water. For details google Ebert’s review in 2004.
.
The Company You Keep
2012 121 minutes Robert Redford plays Jim Grant, a small town
lawyer, whom a journalist identifies as a long sought terrorist who many years
ago participated in a bank robbery in which one person was shot to death. As the journalist turns up more of Grant’s
old contacts, there seem to be some doubts about his guilt. Meanwhile Grant searches for a woman who took
part in the robbery who could exonerate him but would have to implicate
herself. That woman is played by Julie
Christie who is still looking good.
.
On the Road 2012
124 minutes This is based on
Jack Kerouac’s Beat Generation novel of the same name. It’s not very good, and now I’m wondering
about the novel, which I read so long ago that I can’t remember anything about
it. I hope it was better than the movie.
.
Oz the Great and Powerful
2013 130 minutes In this Wizard of Oz prequel, circus
magician Oscar Diggs is magically transported to the Land of Oz, where he deals
with three witches and uses his illusionist skills and resourcefulness to
become the wizard the residents have been hoping for. James Franco is sort of OK, but frankly this
film is not very good. The most
interesting thing on the disk was the Bonus Feature, which had a lengthy
discussion of Walt Disney’s desire to film the Wizard of Oz. There’s
footage from all sorts of Oz related Disney productions but no mention of MGM’s
1939 version with Judy Garland, for my money the gold standard of Oz films.
.
To Rome with Love 2012
112 minutes Midnight in Paris is still my favorite Woody Allen film, but this
one comes close. Woody cuts back and
forth among four unconnected stories. (1)
He plays a guy retired from the music business, who directed a couple of
experimental operas in New York, i.a., Rigoletto with all the singers dressed
up as white rats. He’s in Rome with his
wife to meet his prospective son-in-law and his parents. He hears the son-in-law’s father, played by
Fabio Armiliata, singing arias in the
shower and tries to persuade him to go for an audition. It turns out he can only sing in the shower,
and the producer of Rigoletto takes it from there. (2) Jesse Eisenberg plays a young architect
living with his girlfriend and very much in love. Her friend, played by Ellen Page, shows up to
spend a few days with them. You know
crazy things are going to happen. She is
an actress between parts. Jesse falls
for her and they make plans for all the traveling they’re going to do
together. He’s about to tell his girlfriend
that it’s over when Page gets a phone call with an offer of a part in L.A. and
Tokyo. Alec Baldwin plays a sort of
imaginary character who keeps showing up and giving Jesse advice. (3) A young couple arrives in Rome from the
small town where they have just been married.
He’s there to interview for a job arranged by his uncles. After they check into the hotel, the wife
goes off looking for a hair dresser. He’s in the room when a hooker played by Penelope
Cruz barges in and says she there to satisfy his every desire. There doesn’t seem to be any way to persuade
her that she’s got the wrong room, and she already has his shirt off when the
uncles and their wives barge in. He
improvises and passes Cruz off as his new wife.
Meanwhile the real wife gets lost and ends up watching a movie being
shot in the street. She gets invited to
lunch by the male lead and then to bed.
They’re about to have at it when a burglar comes in and then the wife
with a bunch of detectives. (4) Roberto
Benigni plays a clerk who one day finds himself surrounded by paparazzi. Somehow someone has decided he’s famous for
being famous. He sort of enjoys it, but
it only lasts a few days and then someone decides that someone else is
famous. Benigni gives it his all. Why can’t we see more of him?
.
Trance 2013
110 minutes James McAvoy plays
an art auction employee with a gambling problem who conspires with a gangster
to steal a Goya painting. There are
wheels within wheels in this psychological thriller plus some unplanned mishaps
which complicate things further. During
the robbery, McAvoy gets smacked in the head and wakes up in the hospital with
amnesia. He can’t remember where he hid
the painting, and a hypnotist played by Rosario Dawson is hired by the gangsters to help him
retrieve his memory. Dawson is
incredibly good looking, and seems to be a caring therapist, but that doesn’t
keep her from double crossing everyone, just like the other players.
.
Uprising 2001
180 minutes This is
partly based on a memoir of Marek Edelman, one of the survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto. I have seen a number of films on this
subject. Schindler’s List maybe the
best, but this one is right up there. Of
particular interest to me were the battle scenes, as the Nazis tried to invade
the ghetto. Jon Voight plays the German
general who fails in several attempts and is relieved of his command. Equally effective were the scenes of the
escape through the sewers of some of the survivors, including Edelman.
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