X is For X-Men First Class

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 2  more times this month.

Film:  X-Men: First Class (2011)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Positive Tomato: Great action, riveting drama, real dilemmas, and interesting characters... X-Men: First Class is fun all the way. Nikhat Kazmi - The Times of India 

Negative Tomato:  Worst of all, the movie doesn't even look that great for all the money that went into it. David Harris - Spectrum Culture

The A to Z Challenge has, well, it's challenges.  One of those challenges is choosing topics for certain letters.  X is a very difficult letter to pick a topic for.  When I was in Highschool the movie Xanadau came out.  I remember watching it, but I don't remember much else about it, except I didn't think it was very good.  I was planning on reluctantly watching it again, but then I remembered the X-men franchise and decided that any of those movies would be better than watching Xanadu again.

I did not see this movie in the theatre but watched it on t.v. a few years after it came out.  It tells the story of how Professor X and Magneto formed the X-Men and then went on their separate ways.  It Stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kevin Bacon.

I think it was clever to set the film during the Cuban missile crisis, the height of the cold war.  There are some aspects of the movie I wasn't too fond of, but overall it's decent entertainment.

Resiliency: Xavier has 2  major setbacks handed to him at the end of this film.  As this movie was set in the past and is based on well-known comic book characters, we know that Professox X had the resilience to get beyond both setbacks.  

Top 100: I will have 2  possible 3 superhero movies in my top 100, this will not be one of them.

A To Z Connection: This is one of two movies in the challenge that concerns itself with genetics (Gattaca).

 

Next Time: Your basic class comedy.

W is for When

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 3  more times this month.

Film: When A Man Loves A Woman (1994) 

Director: Luis Mandoki

Positive Tomato: Here is a wise and ambitious film about the way alcoholism affects the fabric of a marriage. Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times

Negative Tomato: Does her husband notice her addiction? How could he not? Does he care? Who knows! Jonah Koslofsky - The Spool

I've decided to alter the format of today's entry a little bit. I'll still tell you a brief synopsis of the 1994 Rom Dram but after that I'm going to type a transcript of a conversation I had with my wife earlier this week about the film.  The movie stars Meg Ryan and And Garcia as a working couple with 2 children.  Ryan has a drinking problem and the film examines the couples relationship as she seeks treatment and he copes with the aftermath of her addiction.  

Dave: Amy we've talked a lot about qualities that  movies my top 100 list would have and one of them is re-watchability.  You definitely think When A Man Loves A woman is rewatchable.  What makes it that way?

Amy: It's a really good movie.  It's a good depiction of both an alcoholic and an enabler and how those two things together make a storm.

Dave: How does that make it rewatchable?

Amy: Watching the pain get resolved.  The dual depiction gives it a unique perspective.

Dave: What do you think of Andy Garcia's character?

Amy: We see him as a tough guy at the beginning of the movie who has to help Mag Ryan and realize that he is as powerless as she is in rectifying the situation.

Also, watching the way he loves his children and communicates with them is very beautiful

Dave: Do you believe that this is a Meg Ryan vehicle, and that the title is a little misleading?

Amy:No, I think they beautifully create a movie where  there are two equal stars.  I think Andy's story is just as gripping as Meg's.

Dave: Were you a little surprised that I didn't have When Harry Met Sally as my W?

Amy: Yes! You like that movie a lot more than this one.  But then again, I don't fully  understand your selection process.

The conversation veered to different paths from there.

Resiliency:  If I would have asked Amy about the theme of resiiency in this film, I think she would have said something like that this movie examines the resiliency of this marriage through the lens of addiction and recovery. I didn't aske her, so we may never know.

Top 100: This movie would definitely be in Amy's top 100.  I like the film and enjoy watchingit with her, but at this point I would not consider it for my top 100. 

A to Z Connections: Like Ordinary People, this movie depicts a family in crisis.  Vertigo and Gattaca along with When a Man Loves a Woman were all primarily filmed in california.

Next Time: Xciting time travel movie.  

.

V is For Vertigo

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 4  more times this month.

Film: Vertigo (1958)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

By Saul Bass - http://aliceovolk.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/vertigo-1958-usa-movie-poster-art-by-saul-bass-james-stewart-in-alfred-hitchcocks-vertigo1.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25318666

I haven't seen this movie for a while so I went tot he library today and checked it out and am watching it as I make this post.  I've been watching for an over an hour, and am at the point of the movie where the pieces should be coming together but they are not.  

Positive Tomato: One of Hitchcock's finest achievements, layering drama, a love story, adventure, and hair-raising suspense into a psychological murder-mystery that simply has no peers. Mike Massie - Gone With The Twins 

Negative Tomato: Even such a master-craftsman as director Alfred Hitchcock sometimes forgets that more than enough is too much, as he proves in this photogenic San Francisco suspense-mystery, which is still badly in need of the cutter's shears. Clyde Gilmour - Maclean's Magazine

Jimmy Stewart starring in his 4th Alfred Hitchcock film plays a retired detective who is asked by an old friend to protect his wife from herself, but all is not as it seems.  

Leyostone Tube Station

By Mike Quinn, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45941673

I just got to the point of the big plot twist, I had forgotten all about it.  Things are getting interesting, I'm not sure how its going to end.

Resiliency: This movie is a psychological thriller in every sense of the word.  The way the killer operates here is to steal all of Stewart's resiliency.  He is unable to move forward so instead he moves backward.

Top 100: I just finished watching the film , and I am leaning towards the verdict of the negative tomato rather than  the positive one.  I mentioned in a previous review, that I don't know what my #1 Hitchcock film is, well It is not Vertigo.

I was disappointed in the ending.  It made sense and it kept me guessing until the end.  I just didn't like how it played out.  One reason is that Barbara Bel Geddes isn't in the last act of that film and she made every scene she was in so much better by her presence.   Bel Geddes who played the matriarch in the T.V. soap Dallas, plays an interesting role in this movie.  I would have liked to see her utilized more in the film.  Not to say that the star Kim Novak doesn't do a good job, she does.  It's just I fount myself rooting more for Bel Geddes than Novak.

A to Z Connections: This is the second Alfred Hitchcock directed film in the challenge (North by Northwest).  

There are 3 A to Z connections with It's A  Wonderful Life: 

• They both star Jimmy Stewart.
• They both have a scene where Stewart jumps into water to save someone who doesn't need saving.
• Neither did well in their original cinematic runs and over the course of time became more and more well regarded.  They are both in the top 25 of the American Film Institutes (AFI) Top 100 Film List

Next Time: Will there be swans?

U is for UHF

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 5  more times this month.

Film: UHF (1989) 

Director: Jay Levey

Weird Al's Apartment in UHF
By Mountain Mike Johans…, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47260199

I love parodies. I grew up listening to one of the greatest parodists of all time, Allan Sherman.  My Mom and Dad would send out a Christmas Card each year where they would write our family's annual exploits to the tune of a Christmas carol.  I myself have written a number of parodies and have posted many in my blog. 

I even wrote a parody last Saturday to publicize my S is for Silverado post and put it on my Facebook page.

 (Sung to the tune of Desperado by The Eagles) 

Silverado, you are in my top eleven.

You star two great Kevin’s 

Plus one Glenn, and one Glover 

You’re a western

 But so much more than your genre 

Which is why I’m so fond a 

 This joy I’ve discovered.  

But with no disrespect to Alan Sherman, my parents, or myself, my favorite parodist is Weird Al Yankovic.

When Weird Al first started out he would send his songs to Dr. Demento who would play them on his syndicated radio program.  My favorite of which, and my all-time favorite Weird Al Song, is It's Still Billy Joel to Me, performed to the tune of It's Still Rock and Roll to Me by (Wait for it ....) Billy Joel.

 

I mean Weird Al had the audacity to rip Billy Joel's music while performing Billy Joel's music. I was impressed. In 1989, Weird Al set his sights on television and the movies at the same time by starring in and co-writing UHF a movie about a t.v. channel.  

At the time most network television was broadcast on VHF (Very High Frequency) and most independent stations were broadcast on UHF (Ultra High Frequency).  While some might argue about the quality of these frequencies.  The quality of the programming was generally regarded as infinitely better on VHF. 

 Positive Tomato - The individual parts may be greater than the sum of the whole, but man, are those parts funny. Austin Trunick - Under The Radar

Negative Tomato - This is the dreariest comedy in many a month, a depressing slog through recycled comic formulas. Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times 

If I were to give UHF a 6 or less-word film review it would be: Walter Mitty meets SCTV. The film is essentially a bunch of parodies with a plot sandwiched in between them.  The movie begins with a pretty good Raiders parody.

Resiliency: Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) is the best part of this movie.  He plays Stanley Spadowski who shows resiliency after being fired from the best t.v. station in town where he worked as a janitor and ended up getting hired as a janitor at the station Yankovic manages to host a wildly successful children's t.v. program. 

Top 100: This movie straddles the fence between so dumb it's funny and so dumb it's dumb. It has many fine moments, but it is nowhere near making my top 100.

A to Z Connection: This is the 2nd film in the challenge about television (Quiz Show). 

Next Time: VHF (Very High Fears)

T is For The Muppet Movie

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 6  more times this month.

Film: The Muppet Movie (1979)\

Director: James Frawley

One of our most famous family quotes goes like this.  My wife was asked why she didn't like a certain movie.  Perhaps it was Princess Pride, perhaps it was something else  Her reply was:

"I like movies about real things, like the Muppets."

I don't remember if she was being serious or silly, but there is a degree of seriousness we can find in it.  Just like Roger Ebert talks about in the review below, in a way, The Muppets are real.

  

Positive Tomato: Jolson sang, Barrymore spoke, Garbo laughed, and now Kermit the Frog rides a bicycle... If you can figure out how they were able to show Kermit pedaling across the screen, then you are less a romantic than I am: I prefer to believe he did it himself. Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times

Negative Tomato: while The Muppet Movie is certainly entertaining, the shift to a coherent, linear, feature-length narrative deprives the film the show's brilliantly structured inanity. James Kendrick - Q Network Film Desk 

The Muppet Movie is a movie within a movie.  We watch the Muppets screening The Muppet Movie, a movie about how The Muppets became rich and famous.  For those who grew up watching The Muppet Show, we are familiar with the basic concept, Muppets and humans interacting together in the real world.  

  

 

Resiliency: In the show the world was limited to the Muppet Theatre.  In the film, The Muppets are in swamps, churches, county fairs, restaurants, bars, and Ghost towns, all on their way to Hollywood. Jim Henson and all the Muppeteers had to show great resiliency in performing and filming. Click here to get an idea of what Henson had to go through to film the opening sequence of the movie.

Kermit at the Smithsonian

Scooter and Steve Martin on The Muppet Show

On The Muppet Show, the Muppets did perform many musical numbers but the majority of these were either pop tunes or standards.  The Muppet Movie is a musical and none of the songs existed until Paul Williams wrote them for the movie.  If you ever wonder whether the Muppet Movie has any lasting impact, try to imagine a world without Rainbow Connection or Movin' Right Along.

  

Top 100:  I have mentioned before that I basically have 3 favorite movies of all time that are essentiallly in a tie for my favorite film.  In the Challenge so far, I have revealed that 2 of these films are It's A Wonderful Life and Ordinary People.  The Muppet Movie is the third.  

Next Time: Used T.V Station available cheap.  

SILVERADO (1985) Featurette – A Return To Silverado with Kevin Costner

Earlier today I posted about the 1985 film silverado. This featurette is a nice interview with Kevin Costner about his experience with the movie.

S is for Silverado

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 7 more times this month.

Film: Silverado (1985)

Director: Lawrence Kasdan

Silverado is exactly what a Western should be.  In the 80's Westerns were few and far between and when Silverado came around in 1985 it revitalized the genre. The photography is breathtaking, The writing and the acting complement excellent direction and production by Lawrence Kasdan. This trailer gives you an idea of what to expect in this wild western romp of a movie. 

 

 Positive Tomato: This is a story, you will agree, that has been told before. What distinguishes Kasdan's telling of it is the style and energy he brings to the project. Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times

 Negative Tomato: ...In other words, there's a lot less going on in Silverado than pleases the eye. Gene Siskel - Chicago Tribune

Scott Glenn as Emmett

Kevin Cline as Paden

Danny Glover as Mal 

Kevin Costner as Jake

Brian Dennehy as Cobb

John Cleese as Sherriff Langston

The movie is very nuanced.  In many ways it plays as a straight western filled with, scenic vistas and plenty of shootouts, saloons, and stampedes.  It is both plot driven and character driven and has plenty of humor weaved in throughout the movie. One of my favorite bits that's thrown in just before a jail break sequence is when John Cleese is playing chess with his deputy on the day of a scheduled hanging.  He is contemplating his next move, and he just turns the board around so he is now playing his deputy's pieces.  Moments like these are unexpected in a movie that's not a comedy but they certainly enhance the picture.

Resilience: At one point in the film, Mal (Danny Glover) finds out from Sherriff Langston (John Cleese)  that he can't stay (or be served food or aclohol)  in that town because of his race.  Mal states "that ain't right." and Langston replies that he decides what is right in his jurisdiction.  Later when the 4 heroes are in Silverado they again encounter injustices.   The 4 have the resiliency to stand up to "what ain't right" even when they are seemingly standing alone.  

Top 100: Silverado is my all time favorite western and has really opened the genre up to me.  Thanks to Silverado there  are 6 or more Westerns that will make it on to my top 100.  Silverado just misses out of my top 10 and is currently ranked at 11.

A To Z Connection: This is the 2nd film in the challenge to star Kevin Kline (Dave).

Next Time: The Talented Mr. Ribbit.

  

 

R is For Return To Me

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 8 more times this month.

Film: Return To Me

Director: Bonnie Hunt 

I like romantic comedies as much as the next guy.  I actually do like romantic comedies, so I might actually like them more than the next guy. There is a sub-genre of romantic comedies that I will call the hard to believe obstacles genre.  In these movies there are "suspend your disbelief "road blocks  for our couple to navigate.  Examples of these are falling in love with your comatose fake fiancé's brother (While You Were Sleeping) or trying to make a relationship work with someone with severe memory issues (50 First Dates).  Return To Me takes an even more outlandish premise, falling in love with your late wife's heart recipient, and makes it seem not only plausible but captivating as well. 

  

Positive Tomato: First-time director Bonnie Hunt has taken what could have been an incredibly sappy story and used her sense of comedic timing to fashion a date flick that even the guys might enjoy. Al Brumley - Dallas Morning News

Negative Tomato: This is a melodrama wrapped in a sitcom inside a Hallmark card. Wesley Morris -

 San Francisco Examiner

This movie works on multiple levels.  David Duchovny shows great range of  emotions as a man who loves his wife and loses her suddenly.  We see him grieve and we watch him dedicate his work to her memory.  Minnie Driver shines as someone who gets a heart transplant and gets more than just her life back.  

Bonnie Hunt directed, co-wrote and co-stars as Driver's best friend.  I think that her direction  and the overall quality of her script are key to the films juxtaposition of lighthearted and serious moments without ever feeling like a melodrama. The film is well paced and seemingly every scene contributes to the audiences entertainment. 

This is also due to the fine ensemble acting.  There are  many one or two scene performers who deliver even in their limited roles. Two of the best of these are the "anonymous" zoo benefactor (played by Dick Cusack, the father of John, Joan and Ann) and the Italian Cafe worker. The supporting players are led by Carol O'Connor as Driver's Grandpa.  A special mention to the great actors who play O'Connor's friends. In addition, Jim Belushi steals every scene he is in as Hunt's husband.  

Resiliency: The resiliency of an organ to be involved in a trauma that can kill it's original owner and be transplanted into another person's body and continue it's purpose.  

Top 100: This is definitely one of my 100 favorite movies.  

A to Z Connection: This is the 2nd movie with Bonnie Hunt (Dave). This is also the 2nd movie in the challenge to be filmed in Chicago (Ordinary People).

Next Time: Saddle up.

Q is for Quiz Show

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 9 more times this month.

Film: Quiz Show (1994)

Director: Robert Redford

Positive Tomato: Redford's best film to date is a poignant examination of pop culture, TV, greed, and race relations in American society of the 1950s, with the perfect casting of John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes, and particularly Paul Scofield. Emanuel Levy - Emanuel Levy.com

Negative Tomato:  As a pure period piece Quiz Show delivers beautifully, but Redford's foursquare, documentary-like approach, however artful, unspools a story with about as much drama as a game show itself. Monica Hayde - Palo Alto Weekly

Quiz Show is Robert Redford's amazing take on the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. This trailer gives a pretty good synopsis...

 

 

Herb Stempel, Charles Van Doren & Jack Barry on 21
By Macfadden Publications, no photographer credited - https://archive.org/stream/radiotvmirr00mac#page/20/mode/1up TV Radio Mirror, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91457687

By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9071793

Resiliency: Robert Redford who is a director better known for his work in front of the camera was able to convince director Martin Scorsese to act in Quiz Show. The Resilient Scorsese looks really good in this clip.

 

Top 100: The 1955 film Marty is mentioned multiple times in this movie.  My wife and I decided to watch Marty after seeing this film, and Marty is now one of our favorite movies.  Quiz Show is definitely in my top 100, but Marty is in my top 10.

A to Z Connections: Robert Redford also directed Ordinary People.  Paul Scofield (A Man For All Seasons) is mesmerizing as the father of Charles Van Doren. 

Next Time: Random Hearts

P is For Persuasion

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 10 more times this month.

Film: Persuasion

Director: Roger Michell

By Rwendland - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38421041

19th-century author Jane Austen completed 6 novels in her lifetime and in the late 20th century and the early 21st they were all made into movies or mini-series, or both.  Persuasion was originally made for television and was shown on B.B.C Screen Two in April 1995 and again on Christmas Day of that year.  It was also shown in the U.S. in 1997 as part of Masterpiece Theatre.  In between, long before streaming services would do the same exact thing, it was released in U.S. theatres in September of 1995 where it earned 5.5 million at the box office.  

Positive Tomato: Persuasion is proof that the most repressed love stories can have the sweetest payoff. Like Anne herself, the movie reveals its wonders slowly. David Ansen - Newsweek 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_High_Wall_on_the_Cobb,_Lyme_Regis_-_geograph.org.uk_-_318518.jpg#/media/File:The_High_Wall_on_the_Cobb,_Lyme_Regis_-_geograph.org.uk_-_318518.jpg

 

Negative Tomato:  Austen was always fun to read, and known for her candid insight into human affairs, but somehow Michell and Dear seem to have left these basic ingredients out. Barbara Shulgasser - San Francisco Examiner

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheldon_Manor-by-Roger-Cornfoot.jpg#/media/File:Sheldon_Manor-by-Roger-Cornfoot.jpg

By Bow and flag, HMS Victory, Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth by Robin Sones, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128835950

The film stars Amanda Root as Anne Elliot and Ciaran Hinds as Fredrick Wentworth.  Years before the film takes place Wentworth proposed to Anne and was rejected because she was (wait for it) persuaded not to accept the match because of class differences.  Now fortunes have changed.  Anne's family is as snobby as ever but is dealing with the repercussions of years of living beyond their means.   Anne is achieving spinster status and is generally overlooked by her self-absorbed family, while Wentworth is now an eligible bachelor due to a lucrative naval career in The West Indies.  

The book is about the transformation of Anne, to use an analogy from the movie, The Holiday, from best friend to leading lady. As the pages turn she becomes the star of her own life.  In the film, she shines even brighter.  The acting is stellar, the locations (many of them pictured here) are spectacular and the musical arrangement  is exquisite.  The antepenultimate  scene in the film where Anne and Wentworth  walk down a promenade as a circus performers  marches past is one of the  most exquisite multisensory experiences I, have ever seen in a film.  

Resiliency: The resiliency of Anne's and Wentworth's love for each other is best summed up in this letter from Wentworth to Anne.  

Note: This Youtube video continues after the letter scene to show the leasd up to the circus scene I just mentioned plus.  If you have not watched this movie yet, and plan to, I would stop watching this clip after the letter scene ends at the 1:28 mark.

Top 100:  This is definitely in my top 25 movies of all time.  I think it will end up somewhere in the late teens.  There will be 3 Jane Austen movies in my top 25, and this is my favorite.  

A to Z Connection: Corin Redgrave plays Anne's obsequious father here and portrays Sir Thomas More's son-in-law in A Man For All Seasons.

Next Time: Quite scandalous.  

O is For Ordinary People

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 11 more times this month.

Film: Ordinary People (1980)

Director: Robert Redford

Robert Redford has long been one of my favorite actors.  Through the decades he has been in one outstanding film after another, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid  (1969), The Sting (1973), All The President's Men (1976), The Natural (1984), and Sneakers (1992), just to name a few.  It is very surprising to me, therefore,  that I admire Redford more for his work behind the camera as a director than his work as an actor. In 1980 Redord made his directorial debut in Ordinary People, the film version of the 1976 Judith Guest novel.

Positive Tomato: Ordinary People is rare moviemaking and easily one of the best films of 1980. But to spurt volumes of superlatives would not do it justice. Redford's film is deceptively quiet and subtle. Dann Gire - Chicago Daily Herald

Negative Tomato: The movie is about the harm that repression can do, but the movie is just as repressive and sanitized as the way of life it means to expose, and it backs away from anything messier than standard TV-style psychiatric explanations. Pauline Kael - New Yorker

The movie features Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, and Timothy Hutton as the Jarretts, an   "ordinary" suburban family still caught in the wake of a series of tragic circumstances. Judd Hirsch also stars as the psychiatrist who works with Conrad Jarrett (Hutton) to work through those circumstances.  

Resiliency: While there is much to be said about resiliency in this film, much of this movie's strength comes from showing a family failing to find that resiliency.  This scene shows that lack or resiliency in what should be just a simple family photo.

The direction by Redford is top-notch.  Each of the 4 main stars is arguably in the best role of their careers.  Mary Tyler Moore is known for playing vibrant and loveable characters.  She is amazing here as a woman seemingly incapable of loving her family when they need that love the most.  

The film was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and won 4.  Mary Tyler Moore was nominated for Best Actress but lost to Sissay Spacek (Coal Miner's Daughter).  Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton were both nominated for Best Supporting Actor. As seen here Hutton prevailed over Hirsch.  Hutton makes one of the best and briefest acceptance speeches I have ever seen. 

Redford won for Best Director.  Ordinary People also took home Oscars for Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay.  

Top 100: I'd like to take a moment to correct some things I've said recently in other A to Z Posts. Last week when talking about It's A Wonderful Life, I mentioned it was my all-time favorite film.  The truth is, I have 3 all-time favorite films that are pretty much in a virtual tie.   It's A Wonderful Life is one of them and if pressed I'll sometimes say it's my favorite.  Ordinary People is another one of those three.  So obviously it's in my top 100. The third film that shares the top spot will be featured sometime next week.

In yesterday's post, I made a comment about Northwest Highway saying that I can't really expect a film I don't watch very often to really be in my top 100.  After I wrote that I realized it's been a long time since I've watched Ordinary People.  This is because of some of the subject matter in the film, and also because of some family situations over the past few years.  However, this does not diminish my feelings for this movie.  My wife and I love this film and do hope someday to be able to sit down as a family and be once again captivated by this story.

A To Z Connection: Cary Grant's (North by Northwest) last film was Walk, Don't Run (1966).  One of Grant's co-stars in the film is Jim Hutton, the father of Timothy Hutton.  Ordinary People was the younger Hutton's first feature film.

Next Time: Power over past choices.       

  

N is For North By Northwest

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 12 more times this month.

Film: North By Northwest (1959)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock<

By Ante Brkan - Dr. Macro, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14857139

Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite movie directors.  So, it's no surprise that one of his efforts has ended up here in the challenge this month.  If you are not familiar with North by Northwest, here is Hitchcock, himself to introduce it for you.  

Positive Tomato: It is consistently entertaining, its excitement pointed by but never interrupted by the jokes... But it is on Mr. Grant's own performance, intent, resourceful, witty, as always beautifully timed, that a large part of the pleasure depends. Dilys Powell - Sunday Times (UK) 

Negative Tomato: Hitchcock  apparently hopes that his fans will laugh off the glaring lack of dramatic nourishment in this concoction on viewing the hilarious and impossible situations In which he throws the long-suffering Grant. John Vosburgh - Miami Herald

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cary_Grant_North_by_Northwest_still.jpg#/media/File:Cary_Grant_North_by_Northwest_still.jpg

By Mike Quinn, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45941549

This painting depicting a scene in North by Northwest is part of a mural in the Leytonstone (The section of London where Hitchcock was born.) Tube station

As an homage to the scene where the airplane is spraying bullets at a frenzied Grant, I will now spray you, the reader, with bullet points about the film its director, and some of the cast.

• The above  painting depicting the aforementioned scene  is part of a mural in the Leytonstone (The section of London where Hitchcock was born.) Tube station.
  
  
• Alfred Hitchcock featured the motif of the "wrong man" in several of his films.  
• Hitchcock and Grant collaborated on 4 films from 1941- 1959. North by Northwest was the last of these films. 
• North by Northwest was Hitchcock's 2nd highest-grossing film 2nd only to Psycho.  It was Cary Grant's highest-grossing film.
• Leo G. Carrol (who was in 6 Hitchcock films) plays the head of a secret international counterespionage and law-enforcement agency in the film and essentially plays the same type of role in the 1960s television phenomenon The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 

Resiliency: Hitchcock directed 53 films in 51 years.  Grant was in over 70 movies in a 35-year span.

Top 100: I do not have a ready answer when asked what my favorite Hitchcock film is.  I sometimes think it might be this one.  If that turns out to be the case, I won't have any Alfred Hitchcock movies in my top 100.  That's not a slight against this film.  It's an enjoyable well written, superbly acted thrill ride of a movie that sits on my D.V.D. shelf more than a top 100 film should.

A to Z Connection: This is the second Cary Grant film in the Challenge. Arsenic and Old Lace led off the alphabetical review of films, and North by Northwest gets us started on the 2nd half of the alphabet. 

M is for A Man for All Seasons

 A to Z Challenge

A Month At The Movies

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 13 more times this month.

Film: A Man For All Seasons (1966)

Director: Fred Zinnemann

By w:Robert Bolt - Scanned by uploader, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54061906

A Man For All Seasons is based on the play of the same name. It is the story of British Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More. According to Wikipedia More in addition to having served as Lord Chancellor was also an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist.  More is one of my heroes, which is odd because He was a Roman Catholic opposed to the Protestant Reformation and I am a former Catholic who is a big fan of the Protestant Reformation.

The reason why I am such a fan or More and A Man For All Seasons is that More was an exemplar of standing up for your faith with dignity, grace, and intellectual integrity.  

The plot synopsis for A Man For All Seasons in IMDB is so rock solid I will just quote it here rather than bore you with a lesser synopsis...

 

Thomas More (Paul Scofield) is at odds with Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) over the kings wish to divorce his wife, Catharine of Aragon; so that he may marry Anne Boleyn. More  understands that from the standpoint of the Roman Catholic church, the king would be heretical. 

 

More , the appointed Lord chancellor, is so highly regarded that his outspoken unwillingness to break with Rome makes Henry VIII look and unreasonable and the king is furious. As the king's wrath rows, he tries to discredit More by attempts at legal trickery, but the attempts fail. More feels the heat being turned up and determines it best to resign his post to retire to private life. Unfortunately, because More's resignation speaks so loudly of the kings intended impropriety, the kings will stil settle for no less than More's approval of the divorce. More, however refuses to relent. 

Henry now has legislation passed that establishes himself as having supreme power in English religous affairs, breaking with Rome and, thereby, establishing the Church of England. He then has legislation passed establishing it as treasonous for any member of the king's court to refuse to sign off on it. More's refusal to sign off dooms him to be beheaded, but he will be remembere as a deeply principled "man for all seasons."

This clip is proof that you can make a great movie and a bad trailer for it.  

    

Positive Tomato: Such a film as A Man For All Seasons makes the silly efforts of avant-garde and "new" picture directors look raw and hideous. This film combines so many qualities of excellence that it stands alone as an example of what a motion picture can be. Marjory Adams - Boston Globe

Negative Tomato: Despite the awards which have been extravagantly heaped upon it and the cool brilliance of Paul Scofield's performance, it remains a costume drama which adds nothing to our understanding of the times, or indeed of men.  Craig McGregor - Sydney Morning Herald

This film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 6 including Best Actor, (Paul Scofield), Best Picture, and Best Director (Fred Zinnemann). While I agree with all of those selections, I think the award that highlights the greatest strength of this film is the Oscar for Best Cinematography going to Ted Moore. Moore gives us a gorgeously filmed picture from beginning to end. 

Resiliency: Paul Scofield won a Tony award and an Oscar for his portrayal of More.  

Top 100: I sometimes am questioned about whether my list of top 100 films is for technical excellence or for how much I enjoyed the film.  I have yet to land what I would call a satisfactory answer to that question.  I will say this, the excellence of the Zinnemann direction, Moore cinematography, and the Scofield portrayal of More are 3 reasons why this film resonates so much with me and why it is certainly in my top 100 favorite films.  

Next Time: Not the spy you're looking for. 

The Gettysburg Address - A to Z Easter Egg