Harry Potter and his friends, as well as director David Yates, are back at the well again to bring the penultimate Harry Potter story to the screen. Of course since the last book will be made into two films the film series still has two more cash cows to milk. Publicity going into the film was odd since the actors are all hard at work on the last two films and seemed confused as to what actually occurred during Half Blood Prince. Not surprising since these kids have been making the films nearly half their lives now as Harry and his friends are all in or near their twenties the whole process has become something of a blur. Plus, what would you do if someone asked you what you were doing at work two years ago?

Now I was not a huge fan of David Yates’ directing style for Order of the Phoenix which is one of my lesser favorites in the film series coming on the heels of the well directed third and fourth installments from Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell respectively. His directing style has improved for HBP though there is certainly still room for growth. Parts of the film seem oddly washed out instead of the vibrant magical world we are used to seeing. The DVD transfer, even in Blu-ray is so dark as to make certain scenes nearly indiscernable. Supposedly there was some cinematographic trickery that Yates introduced which the studio demanded he revert so I can only imagine that the film would have been even more monochromatic had other powers not stepped in. Where he excels this time is that the film is funny in a way that comes across in the books but is missing in most of the other Potter films. This is a good thing considering the dire straits that the wizarding world is in now that Lord Voldemort and his followers are back to their old terrorizing ways.

More than anything HBP is a setup for the final chapter in the Harry Potter saga. Michael Gambon and Alan Rickman get more screen time and more range as Professors Dumbledore and Snape. Jim Broadbent joins the cast as the old potions professor Horace Slughorn and he does well as a character more interested in his own comforts than the greater good. Bonnie Wright comes into her own as Ron Weasley’s younger sister Ginny Weasley though here again the book was much more satisfying than the film.

Half Blood Prince is an odd point in the Harry Potter saga as it is mainly a bridge from the world of the first five books to the final book which breaks all of the structural conventions of the early series. There is significantly less action in HBP and much of the story revolves around a series of flashbacks, or stored memories surrounding the wizard who becomes Voldemort. Dumbledore rises to greater prominence not as the headmaster of the school but as a very personal mentor to Harry Potter. Yates and crew do a great job of moving along what could have been the most plodding of the stories with a deft hand at cutting slowness, ratcheting up the humor, and making the most of the gloom and anticipation in which the wizarding world resides on the eve of Lord Voldemort’s return.

The largest problem is that the books are just so good it is always a disappointment when the film does not match the book. Obviously there are always many things that have to be left out to make such a voluminous series into two to two and a half hour movies. Here though scenes that add nothing to the story are added while significant story points are omitted. Since the Weasley’s home was destroyed and the characters of Fleur Delacour and Ron’s eldest brother were left out one can assume there is no wedding at the start of the next film which is fine as it was extraneous. I’m still curious as to the end of HBP where Death Eaters face no opposition in their romp through Hogwarts. Perhaps the battle and chase at the end of the book were too much like the final fight in book 7? Maybe the film had enough of a climax without a fight like at the end of book 5? It is hard to say what exactly the director was going for but it left the finale of HBP feeling far less satisfactory than that of the book. Perhaps with two more films on the horizon this was planned. Hopefully the next film begins with a certain funeral because it was missing at the end of HBP and it leaves both the characters and the audience without a way to say goodbye to a major character and open up the final chapter of the Harry Potter story.

But for all of my nitpicking it is really because the world created by J K Rowling is so rich and full and no film can truly live up to the books. Half Blood Prince is a very good film and a wonderful implementation of the story, but it isn’t the book. So I suggest that you watch the movie as an aperitif to diving into the book and reading in detail about the exploits of the boy wizard and his friends.

Related posts:

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Paramount’s decision to release this gem in February is questionable at best. The studio decided to push The Lovely Bones for awards season contention and left Shutter Island to rot in the February wasteland. Since the Lovely Bones was generally panned and the only major nomination was for Stanley Tucci I think they backed the wrong horse. Considering the pedigree of this film as the 4th collaboration between Leonard Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese, a collaboration that has already resulted in 26 nominations [for Gangs of New York (10 nominations, 0 wins), The Aviator (11 nominations, 5 wins), and The Departed (5 nominations, 4 wins)] it is surprising that this film was treated so poorly. The only explanation I can think of is that they didn’t know what to do with a film that is at times a psychological thriller and at times a procedural drama. They would have been better served to release this film as originally scheduled in October to capitalize on the Halloween crowd who desires a spooky film with a story and a minimal amount of gore (the anti-Saw establishment).

Shutter Island is ostensibly the story of Teddy Daniels played with intensity by Dicaprio. He is a US Marshall of the hard-boiled no-nonsense gumshoe variety sent to Shutter Island, a prison for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of a potentially dangerous patient. If that one sentence synopsis doesn’t excite you then perhaps this isn’t the film for you. The setup of a mental institution that is perhaps not what it seems is pitch perfect for this type of film. The film starts with Dicaprio retching into a sink then staring up at his pale clammy looking visage in a grimy mirror This is not a sexy look, but it is perfect for a film in which the hero is not the perfect leading man of Hollywood but a seriously flawed and tragic figure.

The supporting cast is no less impressive cast perfectly to fit in with the 1950s time period. Mark Ruffalo is perfectly cast as Dicaprio’s new partner Chuck Aule. I have long thought that Ruffalo, though a fine actor, is miscast as a romantic lead as he was in 13 Going on 30. But he excels as a supporting character especially here as a sympathetic co-conspirator to Teddy’s plans. Ben Kingsley does well as Dr. Cawley the head of Shutter Island who is both a help and a hindrance to Daniels’ investigation. Max von Sydow has a creepy turn as Dr. Naehring in a memorable scene. As with most film-noirs it is a woman, here Daniels’ long dead wife, who exposes the hero’s most vulnerable points that lead to his undoing.  Michelle Williams does a great job as Daniels’ wife Dolores Chanal in what could have been a forgettable small part and instead makes it the most colorful and mystifying part of the film. Jackie Earle Haley has a brief appearance as inmate George Noyce and Ted Levine makes a memorable appearance as a truly menacing Warden.

This is the third film based on a Denis Lehane novel after Clint Eastwood’s magnificent take on Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. The man writes characters with layers within layers. Then he allows the story to peel the layers usually leaving the characters and the audience reeling from the perversity that they find beneath. Shutter Island is no exception. The film has such unexpected twists and turns and the characters such devastating history that the ending is astonishing and shattering.

The cinematography in this film is miraculous. The scenery is so lush and menacing. The colors are so rich and the entire island and all of its imposing buildings are a character unto itself that inhibits the progress of the stalwart hero as much if not more than any of the questionable characters living at the hospital/prison. The addition of a terrible storm pits even nature itself against the hero and he does all he can to unravel the mystery before him.

Scorsese reminds us constantly that it is 1954 by having the characters smoke almost non-stop in the film and always having them look for a light. It is a bit distracting, did everyone really smoke that much? Otherwise Scorsese has a steady hand, letting the story and the actors develop slowly and quietly without racing the film to its conclusion. He shows mastery not only of modern film but of the filmmaking of the past for which he has so much reverence.

Shutter Island is the best film to come out in 2010 and it deserves a first and even a second look. Though it doesn’t have the 3D cache of some of the bigger films out this year the lush scenery of Shutter Island deserves a viewing on the big screen. This is a film that has it all, a veteran director at the top of his game, his favorite current star, and a layered and complex story from a noteworthy modern writer. The atmosphere, the glorious cinematography, and the grade-A supporting cast all make this a film to remember. At the end of the year I would wager that this is still one of the five best films of the year even if the short term memories of the industry have forgotten it.

Related posts:

1. The Island

Avatar is a beautiful looking film. Its use of 3D is subtle and entrancing and far less gimmicky than other 3D films. It is really used as a tool to enhance the overall feel of the film which is really how technology should be used, to enhance the reality of the film, not to overwhelm the audience with its cleverness. Now if only Cameron had included a real story. Perhaps it is asking too much for a film to have groundbreaking film technology, a solid story, and good acting but I expect a lot from the biggest movie of all time. My favorite joke about Avatar was the SNL reference to Avatar as “Dances With Smurfs”. I personally thought of it as a combination of Dances With Wolves and the ewok storyline from Return of the Jedi. Either way the story lacks any emotional depth and has only those twists and turns that can been seen approaching from a mile or two away.

Let’s just get the story out of the way so we can talk about how cool it looks. After all that seems to be how the film was made. Romance, check, as usual the hero falls for the chief’s daughter. Why doesn’t the hero ever fall for just some ordinary girl from the clan? Not as interesting I guess. Gung-ho military types who wipe out the landscape and the natives without any moral or emotional angst. Check. Scientists who actually know the slightest bit about the natives and thus want to keep them from being destroyed so they can continue to study them? Check. Though notably the story never ventures into what the scientists did to said natives to get dna to make the avatars. Too morally ambiguous I guess. Then there are the natives, here called the Na’vi, but interchangeable with native Americans or ewoks or what have you. Avatar spends so much of its time introducing the audience to the impressive looking world of Pandora and of creating an entirely new way to make films that they forgot to introduce anything new in the storytelling. Perhaps they decided that they would be best served by recycling every old film cliché they could find flavored with the adoration of nature which ties organized religions into knots. That is really it for the story. It heads to just the kind of big showdown between the groups that you would expect.

Sam Worthington has had a big year between Terminator: Salvation and carrying Avatar as the paraplegic Marine Jake Sully. But I still don’t think he comes across as a very strong leading man. Thus far his films have been so overwhelmed with technology that it doesn’t seem to matter that he displays no warmth or personality onscreen. He is in danger of being typecast in technological whiz bang blockbusters without emotional evolution unless he learns to develop some kind of on screen personality. The chisel jawed automaton thing can only take you so far, just ask Paul Walker.

The rest of the cast hit all of the same old tired notes as well. Sigourney Weaver is a long time Cameron collaborator and here she is justifiably pissed throughout the film as her Dr. Grace Augustine gets ridden over roughshod in the nefarious scheme to take Pandora away from its original inhabitants. The only thing I was disappointed in was her not taking out one of the exo-skeleton military devices to kick some butt ala Ripley in Aliens. Joel Moore makes a serviceable humorous sidekick. Zoe Saldana perhaps shoulders the widest responsibility and shows the greatest range of emotion as the Na’vi Neytiri.

Now Avatar looks great, really really great, especially in the nice big Real 3D in major cineplexes across the country. Avatar introduces the audience to Pandora; a world of fierce beauty with plants and animals in stark hues who think nothing of eating each other and maintaining the fragile ecosystem on which their world is based. I don’t know the reason so many plants developed phosphorescence on Pandora, but it certainly looks nice there on the big screen. One can almost forgive James Cameron the leisurely pace which the movie takes getting to its point just to admire the lush scenery. Pandora is an impressive looking planet, wild, with lots of things willing to kill the unsuspecting, and many impressive panoramas. The military technology is impressive too but even that feels like we have seen it before. The exoskeleton suits for example featured prominently in another Cameron/ Weaver collaboration, as mentioned above, though here they look more smooth and lethal.

The technology of the film is of course amazing but it causes some other issues. The first was that aside from Sigourney Weaver’s truly astonishing avatar it was sometimes difficult to tell the Na’vi apart. This was especially true in action scenes. At one point I was convinced we were watching Jake Sully’s avatar do some damage on a ship but when the Na’vi was killed I realized this was probably not our hero. The other is that I experienced, and to hear some anecdotal evidence I am not alone, a massive headache after watching the film in 3D. Something in the 3D technology and wearing the 3D glasses for a full 2 hours and 40 minutes plus previews causes some people, like myself, headaches and nausea. Of course 3D is really the way to see this movie so if you aren’t prone to get headaches or you are willing to put up with the discomfort this is really the way to go.

Overall Avatar was an enjoyable enough movie. Were it just another summer blockbuster I would be perfectly happy with its thin and obvious storyline and its penchant for overacting. I have pause however when it gets swept into the whole ‘greatest film of all time’ basket. Avatar is a beautiful film full of technological wizardry, if it included compelling characters and a quality story line it would be all one could ask for in a multi-million dollar 3D film.

No related posts.

Best Picture

Avatar – I didn’t love it but there are certainly enough people willing to overlook the plot and give this award based on how much work it took to make the film. Plus since Cameron won’t win for Best Director this is sort of a 2-in-1 award. I think Inglourious Basterds deserves to win, but it is doubtful that it will get past Avatar and The Hurt Locker.

Best Director

This will be an interesting year as I am picking to split Best Picture and Best Director which seems to be happening more and more frequently. Faced with the serious prospect of being able to give the first Best Director Oscar awarded to a woman I can’t see the Academy voters denying the gesture. Kathryn Bigelow will win for directing The Hurt Locker.

Acting Awards

There aren’t going to be any major upsets here so I thought I would group them all together. Jeff Bridges will get his award after four unsuccessful tries. Christoph Waltz has walked away with every major award this season and this should be no different as his role in Inglourious Basterds will win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Best Actress could go to the serious actress in the comedy or the comedic actress in the serious film. I am going with Sandra Bullock though Carey Mulligan might be a dark horse favorite since they Academy seems to favor young actresses. Best Supporting Actress should go to Mo’Nique in a walk for her devastating role in Precious.

Technical Awards

Avatar should clean up in the technical awards picking up awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. I am picking District 9 to win for film editing, but that one will probably go to Avatar as well.

Screenplay

I expect that original screenplay will go to Quentin Tarantino for his strange parallel finale to the Second World War Inglourious Basterds. As an Adapted Screenplay Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner are my choice to win the award but the category is much closer.

Other Awards
This is the area I always do so badly in. I just don’t have the opportunity to see most of the foreign films and live action shorts.

Foreign Language Film – Ajami
Makeup – Star Trek
Costume Design – The Young Victoria
Live Action Short – Miracle Fish
Animated Short Film – A Matter of Loaf and Death
Documentary Short – The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Original Song – The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart
Animated Feature – Up
Documentary Feature – Which Way Home

Related posts:

1. Oscar Review 2006
2. Golden Globe Picks 2005
3. Golden Globe Picks 2006

District 9 tells a not so unbelievable story of what humans might do if aliens came to Earth. The aliens, here termed ‘prawn’, come to Earth nearly death with a disabled space ship and hover over Johannesburg South Africa. Beneficent beings that humans are, the aliens are rescued, fed, and locked into a ghetto called District 9. There the humans proceed to exploit them in every way possible buying and selling the aliens’ stuff and do ungodly tests on them while keeping them as downtrodden as possible. The humans would probably have eradicated them entirely but the prawns have fantastical weapons that do not work with the human physiognomy.

Weta did the effects and they did a phenomenal job integrating the aliens and their technology into the South African landscape. It is as bleak and fraught with danger as anything from Slumdog Millionaire. The flat dun colors highlight the squalor of District 9 and the gross, disconcerting, and obviously alien prawn scurry through the shantytown like cockroaches.
District 9 is not a film that is easy to watch. It doesn’t make the obvious choices and the aliens are as foreign looking and as likeable as the insects they resemble. They are not cute and accessible to the audience and most of them have little personality or differentiation. The people scurrying around the Johannesburg landscape are littler better though they think themselves the superior race. There is no nice guy to root for, merely a scrabble for survival that is heart-wrenching. It is a story about how beings can willfully misunderstand one another.

District 9 is also the story of Wilkus Van De Merwe a middle management bureaucrat of no particular talent or beauty. He is a thoughtful if somewhat ridiculous husband who married fairly well but doesn’t seem cutout for greatness. Sharlto Copley, heretofor unknown, plays him as an average sap barely able to grasp the events unfolding around him much less react sanely to them. Copley has never carried a major film before but here he does an incredible job as an ordinary joe who suddenly develops kinship with the aliens after he is exposed to a technology that slowly turns him into one of the prawns.

Blomkamp gives the film a strange feel by beginning the movie with a documentary feel then moving to a larger scope of an action film. Initially coworkers are interviewed about Van De Merwe’s strange behavior and disappearance. Then the film goes back in time to follow Van De Merwe during the serving of notice to the inhabitants of District 9 that they are being moved further from town into and even more cramped slum named District 10. Sequel anyone? The film could have become tedious if the documentary approach had continued through the film but as Wilkus starts to diverge from his standard life and turn into one of the prawns the film steps back from the documentary perspective.

District 9 is at times a satisfying action film, making far better use of the human in a robot suit than either Avatar of GI Joe, it is a nail biting war film, and a heartfelt drama. I admit that the film was so intense that I had to get up and leave the room for a few minutes near the end. District 9 definitely deserves to be considered among the five best films of the year.

No related posts.

I know another list that has been done to death. But I like to have my say as well. What with the Big Dance ending and the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning I have sports on the brain. Again, I’ll name my ten favorites but I’m not sure whether I’ll put them into any particular order.

Slap Shot (1977) - This is a fantastic comedy starring Paul Newman as washed up minor league hockey player Reggie Dunlop. As far as I am concerned sports movies should have humor in them, and bring something to the sport that it either misses normally, or is not practical to include. In this case it is the antics. No team could get along playing like this team plays in this film. For one thing most of their players would get lifetime suspensions from the sport. In an actual game it is dangerous, but in a movie it is hilarious. The Hanson brothers add a hilarious element both by being extremely funny, and by lending credence as real hockey players skating through scenes.

Miracle (2004) - This is a movie about true events. The three things this lends to sports movies that are not apparent in a normal game. 1. History, the film is well couched in the events of the time from gas shortages to the Iran hostage crisis. 2. Camera angles - this is the way you wish hockey could look, fast pace and with tons of camera angles. Of course this is not practical because some of the cameras would have to be in the center of the ice and the players would have to skate around it. 3. A happy ending - historically the Americans did win the gold and crowd onto the podium together, you couldn’t ask for anything more. Oh yeah and it includes Kurt Russell’s best performance and a tender family story.

Remember the Titans (2000) - Any sports movie that deals with race relations has to tread carefully. Another film based on a true story, this one deals with the integration of a high school football program. The coach will be fired if they lose a game, so the go undefeated. A film that gets you to cheer along with the action is a great movie and this one had the audience cheering like they were in the stands. One of Denzel Washington’s finest performances and that is saying a lot.

Eight Men Out (1988) - Starring John Cusak, D.B. Sweeny, Charlie Sheen, and David Strathairn Eight Men Out tells one of the saddest true stories in sports history, the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal. The film depicts a group of men whose whole life revolves around baseball, on the greatest team in the league, but are so squeezed for cash that when gangsters approach them and offer bribes to throw the World Series. The team came back from a 3-1 game deficit the win the World Series, but when the scandal arose months later the eight players were banned from baseball for life while the gamblers who made so much money from the games walked away scot free. This film is moving in its portrayal of both the game and the condition in which the players lived at that time hardly believable in this day of multi-million dollar athletes.

Rocky (1976) - This is the ultimate underdog story of a smalltime Philadelphia boxer given a chance at the heavyweight championship. It may be a marketing ploy by the champ but for Rocky it is a chance to ‘go the distance’ and garner his self-respect. One of the few films on this list critically acclaimed enough to win the Best Picture Oscar far and away Sylvester Stalone’s best film, don’t laugh, and the start of a large and long franchise. The film is as much a view of Philadelphia and the city has so taken to the underdog boxer that they have a statue of Rocky outside of their sports complex.

Bull Durham (1988) - One of the only Kevin Costner movies I can stand this film again follows a minor league team, this time in baseball as three people dream about the majors and what the expect of life. Susan Sarandon plays Annie a baseball fan that has an affair with one player a season. This year she coaches Tim Robbins as Nuke a young up and coming pitcher with a shot at the majors. Making thing more complex is Kevin Costner as Crash Davis a seasoned catcher who has been to the majors and knows that Nuke has a lot of growing to do before he can compete at the majors. The down and out theme works well for sports and the combination of humor and disappointment works well here.

Chariots of Fire (1981) - Another critically acclaimed sports movie based on true events. The film is slow but it tells the story of the 1924 Olympics and the British track team. This film is as much about the decline of the British Empire between the two World Wars as it is about the aristocracy and the friendship of competitors. It tells the story of Harold F. Abrahams played by Ben Cross and Lord Andrew Lindsay played by Nigel Havers a Jew and a devout Christian and the roadblocks that their religion place before them in their sport. This film is a really impressive detailed study of sports when dignity and honor were just as important as winning.

The Pride of the Yankees (1942) - A classic, and often cited, sports film. Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig as the film follows him from his childhood to his farewell speech in 1939. As you all probably know Lou Gehrig died of ALS, often called Lou Gehrig’s disease in his late thirties and this film was a tribute to him. Made only a few years after his death it tends to do the Hollywood gloss over most of Gehrig’s less friendly personality traits, Cooper plays him flawlessly as a man who loves the game and feels his life slip away from him from a disease he cannot control. Interestingly the film also features Babe Ruth playing himself.

Seabiscuit (2003) - A fantastic energetic film and certainly better than the sappy drivel that passed for horse racing movies in the 1940s. Seabiscuit is the true story of a little horse and his big jockey who surmount numerous obstacles to be the best and win. The acting is all around great, the costumes are colorful and beautiful, and the horse racing sequences are a dramatic blur of horse flesh, dirt, and color.

The Hustler (1961) - The story of a group of pool grifters and one big game. Paul Newman plays Fast Eddie Felson a young up and comer on the pool circuit who takes on Jackie Gleeson’s Minnesota Fats in a high stakes pool game. Fast Eddie has to learn the ropes from the bottom up to cool his hothead and learn the rules of engagement but risks losing himself to the shadowy world of pool sharks. Fun and cool as were most of Paul Newman’s films of the 60s.

Runners Up

The Longest Yard
North Dallas Forty
Raging Bull
Hoosiers
Breaking Away

Related posts:

1. Miracle

1. Singin’ In the Rain (Singin’ In the Rain 1952) - magic on the screen, truly a moment when the sum is greater than all of its parts and the movie gods smile down.
2. Somewhere Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz 1939) - nobody belted them like Judy here singing her standard.
3. White Christmas (Holiday Inn 1942) - So good they used it in two movies, here it is a little less stylized than later versions.
4. I Could Have Danced All Night (My Fair Lady 1964) - exuberant and joyous song, one of the best songs from one of the best musicals ever.
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Meet Me in St Louis 1944) - not the most famous from the film at the time, The Trolley Song got the Oscar bid, but this is the one we still sing every Christmas
6. Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953) - mythical icon of Marilyn in that pink dress
7. Rainbow Connection (The Muppet Movie 1979) - sweet, and sincere, and sung by a muppet
8. Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid 1989) - the little kids were singing this for two years straight, remember
9. As Time Goes By (Casablanca 1939) - the quintessential star-crossed love song
10. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (Song of the South 1947)
11. My Gal Sal/Blue Skies(The Jazz Singer 1927) Maybe not some of these songwriters most memorable work, but ah, to hear it up on the screen!
12. When You Wish Upon a Star (Pinocchio 1940) - one of the best of the old Disney films and a truly wishful and hopeful song
13. Get Happy (Summer Stock 1950) - Judy looked back in form for this final number of the film
14. I Wanna Be Loved by You (Some Like it Hot 1959) - immortalized by Ginger on Gilligan’s Island
15. I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy (Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942) - had you marching in the aisles
16. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Mary Poppins 1964) The only reason I can think of that Chim Chim Cher-ee was nominated and won the Oscar is that it is easier to spell.
17. New York, New York (On The Town 1949) - What a wonderful town.
18. Mrs Robinson (The Graduate) - the quintessential inappropriate love song
19. Hard Day’s Night (Hard Day’s Night) - the music documentary started here
20. Stayin Alive (Saturday Night Fever) - Dance your heart out
21. My Heart Will go On (Titanic 1997) - we all got swept away in a wave of sentimentality
22. The Way We Were (The Way We Were 1973) - edit previous entry, we all got swept away again.
23. The Time of My Life (Dirty Dancing 1987) - every 13 year old girls’ fantasy
24. In Your Eyes (Say Anything) - the perfect use of a song in a movie
25. On The Good Ship Lollipop (Bright Eyes 1934) - Shirley Temple at her sweetest

Runners Up:
Moon River (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) I know this probably made the list. It is a good song, but I never thought it suited the movie very well.

Que Sera, Sera (The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956) Anytime there is a musical number in a Hitchcock movie it has to raise a few eyebrows, and it won the Oscar for best song.

I Was Born Under a Wandering Star (Paint Your Wagon) Lee Marvin singing? Whose idea was this anyway?

Somewhere Out There (An American Tale 1986) - plantative and sweet

Rock and Roll High School Soundtrack - anything with half the soundtrack by The Ramones has to be good.

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969) Again, a good song and an endearing scene, but somewhat extraneous to the film.

Moanin’ Low (Key Largo1948) Clair Trevor won her best supporting actress Oscar as Gaye Dawn with this one song. It is torturing to see her washed up alcoholic singer punished into singing for a drink.

The Trolley Song (Meet Me in St Louis 1944) The more popular song from the film

Theme from Shaft (Shaft 1971) yeah baby!

Ich bin von Kopf bis Fu

Related posts:

1. Top Ten Movie Musicals

1. A Christmas Story (1983) - I can’t imagine Christmas without a 24 hour marathon of this film on TNT (or in this year’s case TBS). I don’t know what people watched on television Christmas Day before this movie came about nor would I want to. It seems un-Christmas-like to not watch this movie at least 3 times in fragments throughout Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The adventures of Ralphie Parker and his hilarious family on the days leading up to Christmas inn the 1940’s is a wonder. Performances by Peter Billingsly and Darren McGavin are over the top but put this heartwarming film on the map. Since I already mentioned that there are a number of great Christmas movies from the 40’s it is interesting that the greatest Christmas movie of the modern era is set in the 1940’s in a typical suburban family.

2. Holiday Inn (1942) - Personally I’m not a big fan of the Christmas film White Christmas though I am sure that it tops numerous other Christmas film lists. I always felt that it was too slick and refined. That is why I prefer this earlier Bing Crosby gem that features the first use of White Christmas. Of course this being a film about an inn that is only open for major holidays it occurs over a number of years and includes songs for Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, and Lincoln’s Birthday as well. But all of the major action occurs around Christmas and the films is suitably festive. Some of the numbers seem dated and have not worn well, but Bing crooning White Christmas never gets old.

3. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) - I suppose this is what everyone watched on Christmas before A Christmas Story came along. I am a big fan of Jimmy Stewart and of Frank Capra and this film is a gem. Oft repeated this is the story of George Bailey who loses faith in life at Christmas when things turn bad for his savings and loan. An angel named Clarence comes to earth and shows George how his life affected those around him and gives him the perspective he need to keep living his life. It points out that every life no matter how small has a big impact on those it touches. It is a bit overly sentimental and some of it hasn’t aged well, but the story and the acting is timeless.

4. A Christmas Carol (1951) - You can take your pick of the Scrooge related remakes of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic but it is generally agreed that no one played Scrooge as well as Alastair Sim. If you don’t like the old man in a bathrobe character try the updated Scrooged starring Bill Murray as a miserly television executive.

5. The Santa Claus (1994) - Tim Taylor as Santa? This film starts with the concept that if you kill Santa on his yearly route and take up his suit that you become the new Santa. Though I thought this morbid, kids seem to gloss over that for the amazing visuals of the North Pole. Tim Allen made the jump from television to movies based mainly on this portrayal of Scott Calvin, Santa Claus-in-training. Scott is a man who is too tied up in his business to take time with his family who eventually grows into the job of taking an interest in everyone’s families.

6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) - The Griswold family events are well documented even if the series is somewhat uneven. It reached its pinnacle with this Christmas disaster film, starring Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, when the family, including cousin Eddie get together at the Griswold homestead to celebrate Christmas. The mayhem includes a septic system explosion, an inhabited Christmas tree, electrocution, and of course a kidnapping. If only all of our holiday’s went so well.

7. Elf (2003) - There have been a glut of so-so Christmas movies of late but Elf is truly a fun fest for the family. About an orphaned baby who climbed into Santa’s sack one Christmas and was raised by elves. Will Farrell is endearing as the man-child, or would it be man-elf, who goes to New York to meet his real father. He of course turns the city on its ear with his bizarre elf ways not the least of which involves putting syrup on everything. Think Crocodile Dundee with a Christmas theme.

Runners Up:
Nightmare before Christmas - love it but I see it more as a Halloween movie
White Christmas - the story of old army buddies and a snowless inn, shiny and full of songs, see above
Christmas in Connecticut - fun story about a city girl columnist pretending to be a Connecticut homemaker entertaining a soldier for the holidays
Miracle on 34th Street - courtroom drama about a man claiming to be Santa is charming but at times slow

No related posts.

1. Halloween (1978)
Babysitting teenagers who get picked off by an escaped psychotic mental patient named Michael Meyers. The body count and camp in the first film aren’t high but it is far better than the films that came after. Plus it introduces the queen of scream Jamie Lee Curtis. If you want a good quality slasher flick with the frisky teenagers who meet their end, this is the one.

2. Scream (1996)
A slasher flick for the jaded Gen-X crowd. This film’s characters know the slasher genre and all of the films that went before thus the film can be clever in playing with the rules of the genre. The teens know better than to wander off for drinks or sex when a mass murderer is on the lose, but they do it anyway. The gore factor in this one is high as is the fun.

3. The Lost Boys (1987)
This flick from the Cory and Cory era is a scream. About a group of suburban teens whose neighborhood is infested with vampires these kids run around trying to find the lead vampire and kill him. An 80s blast from the past with Jason Patrick in the pre-Speed 2 era and Jami Getz living the teen dream of partying all the time and never getting old.

4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
A new entry and one not available on video yet this one will no doubt become a classic Halloween party movie. Shaun is a twenty-something in a rut whose greatest joy in life is hanging out at the local pub with his best buddy. Of course a zombie invasion spoils his do-nothing life, but it leads to some hilarious consequences as he gathers his friends and heads to the pub to wait out armageddon. Until then watch Dawn of the Dead about some survivors holed up in a shopping mall.

5. The Evil Dead (1981)
This entry should also include Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness the Sam Raimi/ Bruce Campbell trilogy of Ash’s fight against evil. Though these are creepy movies and contain a lot of images of violence against women, they are also campy, and gory, and fun. Watching the stoic Bruce Campbell do anything would be fun, but even more so is watching him fight his own hand and chop up the dead.

6. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The best of the Wes Craven slasher films is guaranteed to keep guests from falling asleep. A story of Freddy Krueger the man with the razor fingers who kills children in their dreams. Nightmare is fun and frightful though the series devolved rapidly.

7. The Frighteners (1996)
From Peter Jackson before he got into all things Hobbit this story starring the charismatic Michael J Fox centers around a man who can talk to the dead and someone in a small town who is trying to make sure he has lots of people to converse with. Well written and with nice effects this underappreciated film is highly watchable.

8. The Birds (1963)
Alfred Hitchcock’s story of a flock of birds that terrorize a small town. Yep, that’s it. Though the film is really frightening in parts, for the most part the film is campy and hysterical as people in the small town run screaming from groups of mostly normal and harmless looking birds.

9. Gremlins (1984)
More 80s memorabilia, remember when everyone loved Gizmo and the dolls were selling out all over the place. If not you might want to check out the film that caused all of the fuss and see where the fuzz ball began. Remember the rules, no bright lights, don’t get them wet, and never, ever feed them after midnight.

10. Child’s Play (1988)
The debut of Chucky, the homicidal maniac doll. Need I say more?

Related posts:

1. 10 Best Scary Movies

1. The Exorcist (1973)
For my money the scariest and most disturbing movie ever made. I watched this in a fully lit room with my roommate and neither of us wanted the other to get up and go to the bathroom and leave us alone to watch. The Exorcism is the story of a little girl possessed by the devil and the priests who come to help her by performing an exorcism. (By the way the Catholic Church still recognizes exorcism as a viable activity.) The 2000 reissue adds some truly horrifying effects and is worth seeing. Ignore this year’s prequel.

2. Psycho (1960)
After this movie the late Janet Leigh would never take another shower, she wasn’t the only one. Landmark for its time this film started the slasher genre and changed many of the rules of filmmaking. If you don’t know the story, Norman Bates runs the Bates Motel where people check in and they don’t check out. Combine that and a twisted oedipal complex and you have one of the most terrifying movies of all time.

3. The Shining (1980)
Certainly some of the scariest acting in Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. The only problem with this original is that it is hard to believe that Jack was ever sane. Purveyor of ‘Jack’s back!’ and ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’, this horror fest from Stanley Kubrick is both unnerving and beautiful.

4. Alien (1979)
As if giant murderous Aliens aboard a spaceship weren’t scary enough, these acid dripping aliens want your innards to nest in. Just ask poor John Hurt’s Kane in one of the most gut wrenching, literally, scenes in Hollywood horror. True this is one of the picked off one by one sort of films, but it introduced the captive group fighting the big bad evil later seen in Predator and other horror films as well as one of the toughest kick-ass woman heroes in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

5. Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter started the 80s fascination with slasher films with this high anxiety story of a homicidal maniac on the loose. Jamie Lee Curtis became the queen of scream off of this film and for good reason. Don’t be surprised when you watch this movie, the body count is quite low compared to the sequels and focused more on tension than gore.

6. Poltergeist (1982)
If there is one lesson to take from this it is that no place in suburbia is safe enough, especially when that new tract home is built on a cemetary. Poltergeist has a number of nightmare inducing scenes using ever household device from chairs, to televisions, to toys. If you what more horror check out the string of incredibly bad luck following the cast and crew of these movies that lends itself to great paranoid conspiracies.

7. Jaws (1975)
Jaws is proof that a blockbuster can scare the pants off you too. An awesome movie from all angles it is also tremendously scary. The film is also proof that less is more as the giant shark appears for less than 15 minutes of the film. If only they had continued that trend for the other films. Jaws features great acting and a story that kept people out of the ocean for years.

8. The Others (2001)
A dark atmospheric almost Gothic tale of a woman and her two children who suffer from a strange disease that keeps them from going in the sun. Thus the family members are virtual captives in a large house that seems to be inhabited by spirits. The house is overlarge and foreboding and the house staff are unnerving at best. Nicole Kidman’s Grace holds this film together with the fierceness of a tigress defending her cubs and makes the whole story, twist ending and all, work.

9. Diabolique (1955)
A truly suspenseful and scary movie this one may not appeal to the modern horror fan as it is in black and white, and entirely in French. But those who know the appeal of The Ring in its original Japanese form Ringu can grasp the appeal of a true original classic. Remade hideously in 1996 as a Sharon Stone vehicle the original casts one of the biggest French stars Simone Signoret as the buxom other woman. The story is simple a man is killed by his wife and his mistress at a boarding school where they are all teachers. But murder is never so simple as the body goes missing and clues point that the man might not be dead after all.

10. Carrie (1976)
High school angst the Stephen King way. Not your ordinary adolescent coming of age story, though this one does involve the prom, it also includes telekinesis, pig’s blood, and religious fanatics. Spacek’s Carrie is a weird girl who you can’t help feeling sorry for, especially when you meet her mother.

Runners Up:

Scream (1996) - plays with the slasher flick conventions
The Ring (2002) - a video that invites death sound stupid, but turns out to be a pretty cool gimmick
Seven (1995) - by far some of the most disturbing corpses on film
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - great acting. Fava beans anyone?
Night of the Living Dead (1968) - classic, the granddaddy of all zombie movies
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) - rather dated for today’s audience

Related posts:

1. Halloween Party Movies
2. Scary Movie 4