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Regarding Billy (2005)
Gay Christmas Romance
Regarding Billy
Written, Directed and Produced by Jeff London. His three-hander peopled by two first time actors whose awkwardness is relieved by the chemistry the three share onscreen. Shot in South-Central California in a beach town which explains the green landscape at Christmas and the fact that a short drive can find one sledding down a mountain slope. The dockside and beach scenes are idyllic.
Billy is the older brother who comes home to be with his mentally deficient younger brother when they are orphaned by the death of their parents. Johnny has known nothing but love and his adoration of Billy helps ease the obvious burden.
The second plot device is that of two gays who love one another but are afraid to broach the topic for fear of jeopardizing their friendship. The fact that Dean shares Billy's affection for Johnny seals the deal.
That this DVD costs 5 times more in Canada than the US is of note. I picked it up in Canada the year after it was produced.
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Blows up Real Good
The original Star Trek was a 3-year TV Series. These big budget extravaganzas cost hundreds of millions as evidenced by the 5 movie studio's logos we have to sit through before the actual movie starts. Most of the action does not take place on the Enterprise the crew's penchant for destroying trillion dollar vessels seeming to continue as does Scotty's ability to get ancient relics back into space. Simon Pegg who plays Montgomery Scott had a hand in writing this one. Kirk, Bones and Spock are the essential trio and we learn of the death of Nimoy both in the script and in a memorial in the credits which also mention Anton on a first name basis only. The ability to survive space exploration does not extend to surviving old age or wonky earth technology.
As the saying goes it blows up real good and in the movies sound still manages to travel through space.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
A dissident beats city hall
Granted that I have little sympathy for the military and its methods I have to ask, if the treatment given men in training in this movie and others I have seen is indicative of the way recruits are treated what possible background could they possibly have to define harassment, sexual or otherwise?
If Hollywood can lose the casting coach could the military find less demeaning ways to train its men?
Andrew Garfield is much more likable than the bible thumping hillbilly we meet in the archival footage of Doss near the end.
Mel Gibson directed this film largely in Australia, only the early scenes were shot in North Carolina. As IMDb points out the island of Okinawa is volcanic, not the red sedimentary rock of Aussie.
A little Nepotism is good for the soul, one of Gibson's sons is cast in the show.
Outlander (2014)
decent adaptation
No adaptation can live up to the power of the human imagination and this one is no exception. The essential story is there and the author tells us she is satisfied. Chief among my problems with the series is the actor playing Jamie. His hair is auburn, not the glowing golden red described in the book. He is big but not head and shoulders above the rest of the cast and I would not describe him as strikingly handsome or heavily muscled. Were not so much emphasis put on these points in the book it would not seem so significant.
I cannot comment on the authenticity of the tartans and so many scenes are so dark one can hardly tell. Must check to see where it was shot and what building is used as Loech Castle—it certainly is an oppressive looking heap.
After the awkwardness of the initial episode and its inventions the series becomes more true to the novel upon which it is based and grows on one.
This is another series in which greedy studios have split a season into two parts and part one ends with Claire in the clutches of the villainous Captain Randall just as Jamie appears inside the armed British Camp to rescue her.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Opening shot of a marathon
Peter Jackson invokes memories of his Lord of the Rings though stretching a single book to four long films seems slightly extreme. We begin with Frodo and Bilbo at Baggend before slipping back to Bilbo's youth. His hobbit hole is invaded by house-guests from hell, dwarfs who proceed to raid his substantial larder and eat and drink everything in sight plus play Frisbee and other games with his plates and cutlery. Had he not joined them he'd have had nothing left to eat.
The Dwarfish cast have the deepest basso profundo voices the agents could find and their voices rumbling in song vibrate the window panes as much as their snoring does later.
Somehow the pacing here seems to drag.... By contrast the pivotal scene in the entire 24-hour-long saga in which Bilbo burgles the one ring passes rather quickly. It's been too many decades since I read the original for me to comment on the faithfulness of the adaptation We get to see extended views of spectacular New Zealand scenery, lengthy fight and chase scenes riddled with special effects but three hours is a long time to sit.
Battleship (2012)
Summer Blockbuster B-Movie
Canadian actor Taylor Kitch has not had much good fortune in finding starring roles in action/thrillers. Possessed of everyman good looks he does not often take his clothes off on screen. This film plays very much like the video game upon which it is based. It blows up real good, the actors play secondary roles to the transformers, what acting skills they possess played mostly for laughs. The movie box office failed to recoup the cost of production, never a good sign. he battleships look like toys on screen their main function being to lob shells and blow up. Although thousands die it is all rather bloodless and we see very few injured or dead. The women on screen are there for eye-candy value, not their brains.
I Am Number Four (2011)
Blockbuster Adaptation
Casting for the film adaptation of this book involved a search for hunks casting Alex Pettyfer of Magic Mike Fame as John and Timothy Oliphant from Justified as his minder. In selecting a dog to portrait the Chimera who protects them the producers opted for cute in selecting a winsome beagle, hey, rather a beagle than an iguana.
Not unusual for a movie to deviate radically from the original text but the emphasis here is on making a summer action blockbuster. From the opening scenes this flick blows up real good. Gone are many of the scenes between Four and Henri in which Four learns of his past history and is trained for his coming mission.
As I've commented about book two in the series it appears to have been written with film adaptation in mind.
The Jungle Book (1994)
Typical Disnification
The hype surrounding Disney's latest animated take on Rudyard Kipling's Story moved me to dig out the 1994 live-action VHS version of the tale. The Goofy movie preview probably tells us more about the take we are about to see than the studio would prefer. To put too fine a point on matters one wonders where in the jungle Mowgli found a bodybuilding gym or a martial arts Sensei.
The grown Mowgli performs like a trained parrot with a fondness for kicking a certain sergeant in 'the sweets'--this is a children's show, and a smart aleck mentality. Cary Elwes plays his villain's role with malicious delight.
I have decided it's about time I read the original.
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Private School Heaven or Hell
If I'd taken note of it at the time I'd forgotten this was a Disney Joint. Along with School Ties three years later it proved to be a masterclass in acting for an entire classroom of 18-year-olds. Interesting to view this movie in light of more recent events in Robin Williams' life. Would Mr. Keating have chosen to end his own life? What the movie makes clear is the fact that most schooling is a plot to train students for a 9-5 assembly line. Creativity and independent thought are to be discouraged or spanked out of kids though canings and paddlings as such are looked down on today. Private schools are seen as an opportunity to meet up with and make associations with the right kind of people from the right backgrounds to become the corporate movers and shakers their parents expect them to become. Any attempt to deviate from this path is strongly discouraged. The miss-guided control parents attempt to exercise over their children's lives is shown to tragic degree in this movie. My dislike of Kurtwood Smith probably stems from watching this film.
I was bussed 25 miles to a consolidated high school, no private residential school for me but this movie brings back memories. I may have had an average in the 90ies but I took great pleasure each June once I'd gotten my exam results in sitting in front of the old drum that fed smoke to our smokehouse and ritually burning an entire year's scribblers and classroom notes. Our books were provided so we had to turn them in at the end of term.
Watching a DVD provides the opportunity to see deleted scenes and other supplements. Watching the young actors 12 years later and now in their 30ies talk about the experience of making the movie makes me feel better about my own memory--they can't agree on some rather basic details.
What this movie drives home in spades is the fact that parents may encourage their children, empower them, give them opportunities to thrive, love them and praise them; but they should not expect to live their lives for them and certainly not fulfil their parents dreams.
I fell in love with Robert Sean Leonard as an actor with this movie and have followed his career ever since. His next movie had him playing Paul Newman's rather straight-laced son in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, an entirely different role. In Safe Passage he plays a pot smoking free spirit. Leonard is proof that one can be a great actor without becoming a movie star. You've probably seen him in many roles and not even realized who was playing--to my mind that's the mark of a great actor. In this movie he definitely a leader among men.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Mid Series Set-up
This is my critique of the film adaptation of book 2 of The Hunger Games. In a lot of ways it were better to say that the book was the inspiration for Catching Fire the movie. Strangely Gale gets more air time here than he did in the first movie though he barely figures in the book. The Gamemaker's character is written in to move the story along. Alliances are played up and Finnick has a much expanded role, was there a need to provide a strong character to support Katniss and match her strength pushing the wimpy Peetah to the background. This time round most of the killings occur off-screen their occurrence marked by the cannon shots. Much is implied and fore-shadowed in this middle movie of the series. In a lot of ways it sets the scene for the epic battle to come.
Justified (2010)
Better than the sum of its parts
As I got around to watching Season Five it was learned that the show will be discontinued after number Six, the present on-air season. On paper a show about a US Marshall raised by a backwoods hill-billy racketeer in Kentucky who uses his local knowledge to fight organized crime sounds rather pedestrian. As Raylan Givens Timothy Oliphant uses his acting chops and a suave mien to bring life to an old-style quick-draw lawman. The ensemble cast and continuing plot lines draw the audience into a show that is difficult to stop watching. The cast of characters and the actors who portrait them continue to be well-drawn and performed. This season we meet Dewey Crow's Florida Cousins and the fifteen-year-old Kendall, a doe-eyed criminal-in-training. Ava's sojourn through the prison system provides Boyd with an interesting sub-plot. As usual it is difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys here, rarely are situations black and white. Raylan's sometime partner Timothy, the Afghan sniper, and Boyd's henchman Jimmy bring handsome good looks and straight-man qualities to a cast that too often appears inbred and lacking intelligence. Underlying criminal menace is never cause for anything but polite, if sometime exaggerated, cordiality here. The show may have sexual content, nudity, and violence but proves this can be done convincingly without undue foul language.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
actors in search of a plot
Two versions: Andrew Garfield is the second actor to don muscle enhancing spandex in the current Spiderman franchise and his tenure is rumoured to be capped at two outings. Half way through this 140 minute marathon Peter Parker has spent most of his time stalking Gwen. Finally they attain lip lock in an Oscorp service closet. To my way of thinking there is nothing wrong with either actor who has played Spidey a good script wouldn't have fixed. Sally Field as the Weepy Widow is rather insufferable. That this superhero goes home to mummy/auntie to get his dirty underwear washed is rather laughable and sad.
This flick takes ages to get anywhere and the audience may die of boredom waiting for it to do it. Definitely not for the vertigo challenged. There is cartoonish violence and people do die here. One may believe the gangly Garfield as a spider but spider venom gives that little twerp unbelievable strength. One is given too much time to ponder these conundrums.
Some movies seem way too long. Had I paid $15 to watch The Amazing Spiderman Two live I'd have probably toughed it out, otherwise I'd have walked out after 15 minutes. Takes way to long for anything to happen in this 140-minute marathon. Radio-active blood or not this gangling spider has only 4 limbs and only enough brains to control one of them. Someone should stomp on him and put him out of his misery. Too much angst and not enough action here. Spidey spends nearly an hour stalking Gwen as only a spider could from vertigo-inducing heights. The movie can't decide if it's an unrequited love story, a tragedy, or an action movie. The final action sequence is truncated lest the audience die of boredom.
The Giver (2014)
Thought provoking
Rarely does the adaptation of a good book result in a great movie. Meet the exception, but then the Bridges Family have been working on this project for 20 years. Do watch the family reading of an early script to see Lloyd, dynastic sire of film royalty do the part of The Giver clad in pajamas and robe with his young grandson the receiver. Son Jeff takes the role of Giver here. Credit them for going outside the family to find a blue-eyed Jonas in the person of Brenton Thwaites, brown-eyed by the way. Those eyes are not in evidence for most of a movie shot in black and white. The movie concentrates on the 12-13-year-old Jonas and his work with the Giver. In so doing in a 98-minute film we do not get the same chance to become immersed in Sameness as we do when reading the book. Nor does the menace of this Orwellian society grip us to the same extent. The horror of the release process is glossed over in a film meant for a G rating. Included is a study guide intended to invoke the moral issues of a managed society.