The sudden death of the enigmatic celebrity, the
electrifying performer, the virtuoso musician Prince made me jump immediately
to a movie I’d never seen before. Purple
Rain was Prince’s first movie. He starred in it and of course wrote all the
music that his character, The Kid (a somewhat autobiographical version of
himself), performs. He won an Oscar for Best Original Musical – the last time
that Oscar category was even awarded. Purple
Rain has never a bright reputation. It’s no work of cinematic gold and is
only remembered today because it stars Prince and his music. By most accounts,
it is the best of Prince’s four films so I can only imagine just how bad Under the Cherry Moon must be.
A blog mostly dedicated to cinema (including both new and old film reviews; commentary; and as the URL suggests - movie lists, although it has been lacking in this area to be honest), but on occasion touching on other areas of personal interest to me.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Woman in Gold Movie Review
I’m a big “West Wing” fan, so excuse me if you don’t know
what I’m referring to when I say, “Crime. Boy, I don’t know.” That is a line
from “Posse Comitatus,” the season 3 finale and the lynchpin moment when
President Bartlett decides he’s going to take it to his opponent in the
election. Woman in Gold is the
Holocaust equivalent of that sentiment, an empty gesture at acknowledging
something inexplicably awful.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens Movie Review
J.J. Abrams took the reins of the Star Wars franchise and reinvigorated it with The Force Awakens, otherwise known as Episode VII and taking place some three decades or so after the
vents of Return of the Jedi. This new
chapter is a more than welcome addition following the ill-reputed prequel
trilogy and even the Special Edition versions of the original trilogy.
Friday, April 8, 2016
Rocky II Review
So here’s the thing: the Rocky
franchise sequels have a truly poor reputation, but revisiting the first
sequel, Rocky II, reveals a film that
is not so bad as might be remembered. If it were a standalone film, it would be
a moderately successful little boxing movie, probably largely forgotten by now,
but decent. As the sequel to the wildly popular and Best Picture Oscar-winning
first film, it had a lot to live up to.
Essentially, Rocky
II follows the formula of the first film almost to the letter. It exists
purely to have a rematch between Rocky and Apollo, a recreation of the sports
drama of the previous film. Like the first film, this one was written by
Sylvester Stallone. However, this time he took on directing duties in addition
and of course starred in the film. Carl Weathers returned as Apollo, as did all
the other principals: Talia Shire as Rocky’s love interest, Adrian; Burgess
Meredith as Mickey the trainer; and Burt Young as Adrian’s brother, Paulie.
Best of Enemies Movie Review
“That was a time when television was still a public
square, when Americans gathered and saw pretty much the same thing. There’s
nothing like that now.”
“The ability to talk the same language is gone. More and
more we’re divided into communities of concern. Each side can ignore the other
side and live in its own world. It makes us less of a nation. Because what
binds us together is the pictures in our heads. But if those people are not
sharing those ideas, they’re not living in the same place.”
Those quotations above reverberate for me long after
hearing it in Best of Enemies, the
documentary about the Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley television debates ahead
of the 1968 election. Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville wrote and directed the
documentary, an examination of the series of ten debates between Vidal, a
liberal author, and Buckley, a conservative pundit.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Classic Movie Review From My Collection: Rocky
It’s easy to forget after the deluge of increasingly
absurd sequels through the 80s that Rocky – the original – as not only a great
film, but is raw and gritty. I guess because I grew up on the sequels, the
whole of the series sits in my memory as polished Hollywood filmmaking. And I
even watched Rocky ten or fifteen years ago!
The movie truly feels like something out of another era.
It’s low-budget, it’s seedy and dirty. Interestingly, I watched John Huston’s
Fat City for the first time last year. That’s another 70s boxing flock that
predates Rocky by a few years. I remember thinking how gritty it looked and
felt and was shocked to find how similar the pacing and look of Rocky (at least
in the first three quarters or so is to Huston’s film. I wonder if it was
viewed by director John Avildsen and cinematographer James Crabe to achieve a
real brown street look.
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