in so many words

Last night Emily and I watched a movie that was recommended by a friend - The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally-ill cancer patients who decide to create a list of activities that they want to accomplish before they “kick the bucket”… a list that includes skydiving and a world-wide jaunt, among other things. Directed by Rob Reiner, it’s a thought-provoking movie that was done well, and I especially enjoyed the combination of Nicholson and Freeman. I’ve always enjoyed Morgan Freeman’s performances, and Jack Nicholson is… well, he’s Jack Nicholson, and although this is not the Jack Nicholson of A Few Good Men or The Shining, it’s an interesting and entertaining character and Nicholson does a fine job. In fact, both of these guys do a good job and are what I call “real actors”, unlike so many of the current-day pretty boys that Hollywood tries to sell us. The movie was a box office success but received mixed critical reviews, with some people including film critic Roger Ebert complaining that the film trivializes the seriousness of living with cancer. But the point of the movie is about living life to it’s fullest since few of us know when our time will be up. I liked this movie and, even though she’s not a big Jack Nicholson fan, so did Emily.

I’m just glad to be here, happy to be alive

Another science fiction movie I’ve always enjoyed is Silent Running, which stars Bruce Dern and three small robots called “Drones” that pre-date R2D2 by several years. The premise of the story is that, because the Earth of the future has been developed to the point that there are no longer any forest areas, all of the forests have been relocated into giant domes attached to cargo space ships that are floating around the solar system. When budget cuts force the cargo ships back into commercial service and trigger the destruction of all of the forest domes, crew member and botanist Freeman Lowell (Dern) decides to take matters into his own hands, killing his crew mates and taking over the ship for the sake of saving the forests. With the three drones - which he names Huey, Duey, and Louie - Lowell pilots the ship into deep space and maintains the ship and forests for months, until he is located by a rescue party. Fearful of what the rescue party will do, Lowell fires the last remaining dome into space, sending one of the drones along to care for the forest. It’s an interesting movie with good special effects, especially for 1972, and it’s become a sci-fi cult classic, in spite of the incredibly dated soundtrack that includes a song sung by Joan Baez. But still a movie worth seeing for sci-fi buffs.

Several years ago my then co-worker Jonathan told me about a movie he thought I might like. He described it as a murder mystery, but he said that the movie was unusual in that the time lines of the events in the movie were edited so that one of the two time lines was presented in reverse chronological order, mixed with the other normal time line. This sounded pretty interesting to me, so I rented the movie that night and Jonathan was right - I did like it. Memento is quite an interesting movie, a psychological thriller, although it’s not for everyone… the story lines shift back and forth between the normal time line (in black and white) and the reverse chronological time line scenes (which are in color) and you need to pay close attention to follow both story lines. But I found it very interesting and quite a departure from the usual movie story lines. The film stars Guy Pearce with co-starring roles filled by two alums from The Matrix - Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano. Director Christopher Nolan (who later directed Batman Begins) did a very creative job with this film… this one goes on my “highly recommended” list.

This past weekend Emily and I watched a movie called Tuesdays With Morrie. We rent our movies online from Blockbuster.com, and this movie was a recommendation from the Blockbuster web site. I usually don’t pay much attention to the recommendations - I know that the Blockbuster web site bases its recommendations on my previous rental history, but they don’t always get it right and they end up recommending movies that I don’t care to watch. But this one kept popping up at the top of my recommendations, telling me that since I enjoyed The Pursuit Of Happyness and Eight Below I might also enjoy this one, so I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did - it’s an enjoyable and touching movie, a true story from the book of the same name written by Mitch Albom. Jack Lemmon, in his final role before he died, plays Morrie, a college professor with Lou Gerhig’s Disease. Hank Azirra plays Mitch, a life-in-the-fast-lane sports reporter from Detroit who is a former student of Morrie’s. After learning of Morrie’s illness, Mitch reluctantly decides to visit him, which begins a routine that changes Mitch’s life. This isn’t a cutting-edge next-generation fast-action movie, just an insightful and thoughtful film about looking at life’s priorities. Emily and I enjoyed it.

Dying is one thing to be sad about, living unhappily is another thing.

This past weekend I was searching my DVD collection for something to watch, and I pulled out a movie I haven’t seen in a while - Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events. I really enjoy this movie - it revolves around three children and the “series of unfortunate events” that they live through after their parents die. Jim Carey has a staring role and does a wonderful job with the character - very entertaining. The actors playing the three children (Liam Aiken, Emily Browning and Kara and Shelby Hoffman) are superb in their roles (the youngest character has some very funny lines, for someone who cannot talk yet) and there are smaller roles played by Dustin Hoffman, Catherine O’Hara and Meryl Streep. And as much as I enjoy all of these elements, one of my favorite elements is the look of this movie. The lighting and sets are very creative and unconventional - in some scenes almost monochromic - and along with the cool visual effects, they create a distinct tone and mood for the film which is both dramatic and inviting. Even the theme music is not what would be called traditional, but it all blends together with excellent results. It is a very well-done film and quite different from the norm, which I’m sure is why it appeals to me. And also why it is another of my recommendations if you’re looking for a good movie rental.

It’s not too late to see a movie about a happy elf.

Here is another favorite movie of mine that, for a change, is not some obscure sci-fi or eclectic comedy flick. Cast Away starring Tom Hanks, with Helen Hunt as the love interest, was a successful box office hit movie in 2000. It’s about a modern day, Type-A personality FedEx manager named Chuck who survives a plane crash and is marooned alone on a deserted South Pacific island for 4 years. Well, not quite alone… he has a soccer ball named “Wilson” for company, and interestingly enough the conversation is not entirely one-sided. But he spends four years isolated from the busy society that was his life, although eventually he is rescued. He returns to pick up his life, but his time on the island has changed him forever. I enjoy this film and watch it several times a year, but I know that many people didn’t like it. “Nothing happens” is one of the main complaints I have heard, and certainly Chuck’s time on the island is not very satisfying if you are the type of movie-goer who needs to see a car wreak or a gun shoot-out every few minutes. But for me, it is in that time where “nothing” is happening that I see the changes happening to Chuck, and that part of the story, as well as the bittersweet events following his rescue, are quite engaging for me, and why I continue to revisit this movie.

While I do think this is a great movie, I have an issue with one of the scenes, and since this is my blog and I get to write whatever I want, I’m going to comment on that scene. It is a part of the movie, before Chuck is marooned, where he and a co-worker are sitting on a FedEx plane, waiting to leave Moscow. They are talking about some of the delivery trucks did not make it to the airport in time, and the co-worker asks Chuck why he didn’t just wait for the trucks and make up the time in air speed. Chuck’s response is about keeping to the schedule - that if they let it slip a little today, they might slip even more that next time, and even more the time after that until, as Chuck puts it, “next thing you know, we’re the U.S. Mail”. Having been very familiar with the U.S. Postal Service, I take exception to this line in the name of the 500,000 postal workers around the country, and would just like to point this out as the cheap shot that it is. After all, a FedEx guy will deliver, what, a few dozen packages a day, while a U.S. Letter Carrier will deliver over 1000 items every day visiting every address on his route, which by the way is far more addresses daily than any FedEx or UPS driver. But I understand the frustration that those poor FedEx drivers feel, always wanting to be in the big leagues with Mail Carriers, but always being looked upon as “wannabes”. Oh well, c’est la vie, or as I say to my friends who are FedEx workers, we can’t all be professionals (can you tell I enjoy this?).

Anyway, back to the movie - I like it… I like the part where “nothing happens”… I like Wilson, and I like the ending. Well done. Mr. Zemeckis… I just wish I could lose as much weight as Chuck did on that island.

Movie Trivia: What is notable about the music soundtrack to Cast Away?

Answer: There is no music played during the time Chuck in on the island.

Here’s another of my favorite movies that will never make the list of “The Top Selling Movies of All Time”. Tremors is a sci-fi flick set in the Nevada desert starring Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross, Reba McIntyre, Ariana Richards (who also played Lex in Jurassic Park) and a large underground snake-like creature that is dubbed a “grabiod”. In spite of the creature’s name, Tremors is actually a pretty decent monster movie, or a pretty corny one, depending on your affection for monster movies. But I think it’s pretty good, with mostly decent acting and a good script (or at the very least better than the 3 sequels that followed). It has all of the elements of a good monster movie - average working folk living the simple life, mysterious events, an unknown threat, the unbelievable discovery, characters who, after being informed about the previously unknown threat, are stupid enough to walk into the unbelievable discovery, peril and hopelessness for the protagonists followed by extraordinary effort or supreme insight that suddenly destroys the threat and saves everyone who’s still alive. Yes, Tremors has all of this and more, and though you might think that even people like me would grow tired of that format - to the contrary, I still enjoy a good monster movie, and I recommend Tremors if that is what you enjoy as well.

’cause this is thriller… thriller night

Another movie that is a favorite of mine is Drop Dead Gorgeous. It is a film done in comedy documentary style, or mockumentary, very much like Best In Show or This Is Spinal Tap (two more of my favorite films). The story is set in a small Minnesota town and follows the events surrounding several local contestants of a nationally-sponsored beauty pageant. A well-written script with a lot of good actresses - Kirsten Dunst, Kirstie Alley, Denise Richards, Ellen Barkin, Mindy Sterling, Brittany Murphy and Amy Adams, as well as a hilarious performance by Will Sasso. It is a very funny and well done movie, but apparently it didn’t do well at the box office because these days you can find the DVD in close-out bins at places like Wal-Mart. And that’s a shame, given the quality of this movie. If you happen to find this one in your local close-out bin, I recommend that you pick up a copy. If you enjoyed any of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries, I believe you’ll like this movie as well.

For Christmas, my son Danny gave me a Best Buy gift card, which I immediately cashed in for Paul McCartney’s latest DVD, The McCartney Years. This is a 3-DVD set consisting of most of Paul’s music videos (including early 70s tunes as well as MTV’s Unplugged and recent videos such as “Fine Line”), concert footage from several concerts (including the 1976 Wings Over America and the 2002 Driving Rain tours) and a few interviews and documentaries. For someone like me who’s been buying Paul’s albums since 1971, this is a very cool addition to my collection of Beatle and solo Beatle videos. For those not as connected to Paul or the Beatle years, some of the videos are not going to be very entertaining. For example, Emily was not at all impressed with the video for London Town, which I have to admit is unreasonably terrible. And if I were in Paul’s shoes, I sure wouldn’t have included Say, Say, Say, although it is nice to see Michael Jackson when he looked normal. On the other hand, I do like having the video for Coming Up, with Paul in different costumes and makeup acting out the parts for the whole band (Emily didn’t even notice that all of the band characters were Paul until I pointed it out to her). What I’m saying is, if you’ve always followed and enjoyed Paul’s music, or at least most of Paul’s music, you’ll like this DVD set, so go buy it right away. If you like some of Paul’s music but are not a big follower, you will be skipping over a lot of the videos, but you will probably enjoy the live performance videos and the extra features, so pick up this DVD when you have some extra spending money, or ask for it as a gift. If you are in neither group and you simply hate Paul McCartney, you probably shouldn’t buy this DVD. HTH. HAND.

You’d think that people could have had enough of silly love longs…

Here is another installment in the series “My Favorite Movies”, and the movie in focus today is That Thing You Do, which was written and directed by Tom Hanks. The story, set in the 60’s, is about a rock and roll band called “The Wonders” who “make the big time” with a hit song, but then fall apart. There are several references to The Beatles and other 60’s groups, and it’s a fun movie, but the thing I admire most about it is from a musician’s standpoint. With most movies that show music being performed, the music is not performed live. Usually the actors on screen have to act and lip-sync to a music track. Additionally, many times the actors are not musicians, so the actor has to pretend to play their instrument while lip-syncing to the music track. This is usually very obvious to real musicians - as a musician, I can tell if the actor in a movie/TV show can play their instrument or if he/she is just faking it while playing to the music track. And most of the time, the actors are just faking it. The movie may even have a scene with a band on a stage in the background, but they usually don’t hire real musicians - they just hire actors known as “extras” to stand in the background, hold the instruments, and pretend to be playing. Again, this is very obvious to actual musicians. In That Thing You Do, the starring actors were also lip-syncing to music tracks. But even though they weren’t musicians, they practiced with their character’s musical instrument for weeks before the filming started, and when it came time to film their music scenes, the actors played along with the music tracks just like they were actually playing the song. The end result is that the actors played the guitar notes and drum beats just as though they were really playing the song, which made the music scenes look very realistic. Throughout the movie it is obvious that attention was paid to the details of each music scene, for each of the scenes either has real musicians (like the trio in the bar) or actors who have practiced with instruments and are playing along with the music. After watching years of movies that pay little or no attention to the technical details of performing music, it is quite enjoyable to find a movie made by people who took the time to make it look real. And, as I wrote, it is a fun movie, with good characters and an interesting story (especially if you are a musician) so I definitely recommend That Thing You Do.