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Reviews
Monday Morning (2012)
Review of "Monday Morning"
Monday Morning is an intellectual exercise mixed in with an intriguing plot, in-your face imagery and a slight bit of something surreal, and it pays off big time.
In the beginning we follow a conservative Minnesota radio host Thomas who is approached to run for the the MN senate. He is also a diabetic. He needs to finalize some personal business in Los Angeles, and then is attacked and finds himself homeless and without his memory. Once in the land of the extremely unfortunates, Thomas (and so are we) is confronted with graphic images on what happens on the streets of Los Angeles. Mind you, some of the images may be offensive to some.
From a screenplay by Nat Christian, who also directed the movie, Monday Morning is very seductive, in that the harsh images come as a surprise to us, they kind of wake us up to the homeless situation. We follow Thomas like the rabbit to where he is attacked, and then we are in another world so to speak.
The director (Christian) very effectively sets us up, hits us hard and then asks us to look inside ourselves when our hero makes some surprising choices.
Thomas is played by Victor Browne who is in almost every scene. He goes from a "playboy" type to being a homeless beggar and to being a political candidate with a lot on his mind. And he gives a hell of a performance. Veteran actors Robert Axelrod, Michael Cohen, Rick Montoya and Bobby Jay Mills give delicious characterizations of homeless people. And Jessica Spotts shines in a very brave performance as "Beth" a homeless mother. Nat Christian is solidly real, implosive and sympathetic as a homeless war veteran. Molly Kidder is delightful as an idealistic aide to a liberal senator performed truthfully by Robert Pike Daniel. Ken Melchior is fun as a manipulative senator.
Monday Morning is the kind of movie that will get people talking maybe even arguing. People will grasp it wholeheartedly or they will turn away from the explicitness and some of the progressive thoughts when the homeless sit around a campfire. But, no mater what, Monday Morning has to be dealt with.
Silent House (2011)
Enjoyed it to a limit
Silent Night is one of those movies that you go to with high expectations. Expectations of terrifying suspense and scary surprises.
Writers Gustavo Hernández and Laura Lau deliver a script that was supposed to deliver just that, something highly suspenseful. Lau directs the feature with Chris Kentis. The premise of this story is very good. And the cast is appealing enough with Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Taylor Ross, Adam Barnett and Haley Murphy. So, what happened? I don't know.
A young woman finds herself sealed inside her family's secluded lakeside house. With no contact to the outside world, events start to happen causing extreme panic and fear.
The elements are there. Maybe one too many directors. Maybe there is no fault. Sometimes a movie just does not work. I mean, it was watchable and there were a few jolts here and there. And the lighting (Igor Martinovic of Nurse Jackie and other features and shorts) was pretty ominous at times, which made me feel anxious. I felt that Martinovic had a handle on the mood.
So, I did enjoy the movie to a limit, but it did not absolutely thrill me.
Big Miracle (2012)
Heart tugging
Okay, The Big Miracle is not an epic or a grand movie. What it is, is a totally enjoyable feature with a good and simple story with no unusual surprises that people can relate to. It is good to see the Hollywood factory machine put out a movie like this. Much credit has to be given to Drew Barrymore (sort of a mogul herself these days).
Ken Kwapis does a really good job in telling this story without relying on massive special effects. He also works very well with his actors. He was given a good script from Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, both of whom also resisted going for any kind of cheap humor.
Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski have a nice chemistry together as they deliver fine performances.
This movie was, I am told, inspired by a true story about a small town reporter and a Greenpeace volunteer who are joined by rival superpowers to save a family of gray whales that are trapped by ice in the Arctic Circle.
The story, the visuals and the very fact that whales are a main character in this movie, all tug at the heart strings.
Chronicle (2012)
Interesting premise
Chronicle is nicely directed by Josh Trank, and well written by Max Landis and Trank (story with Landis).
The actors, which include Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan and Michael Kelly give a nice turn in this movie.
3 high school students make an interesting discovery, which gives them some unusual powers that they can't possibly understand. As they try to learn to master these new posers and use them to their liking, their lives move toward a darker.
There are some choices made with camera moves that are interesting.
Overall, the movie kept my interest and there were only a couple of times where I looked at the time. And the ending is pretty interesting as well.
This should receive some commercial success, given that apparently it was made for a very low budget.
Act of Valor (2012)
Good action sequences
Starring Alex Veadov, Nestor Serrano and Roselyn Sanchez, Act of Valor depicts Navy Seals putting their lives on the line doing what they do. In this case, they go on a secret mission to stop a global threat. There are a lot of scenes with fighting. And it is well done using today;s technology.
The direction of Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh seems to work well given that there were two directors on board (who makes the final decisions?). Of course, they had a good script, written by Kurt Johnstad to work with.
Action movies have to have a solid story or at least an underlying story to keep me interested. Sometimes, if it is not the story, then it is the subject matter. In this case, it was about the Navy Seals. So it caught my interest enough for me to make the effort to watch this movie.
The story kept a watchable pace, and some may disagree with some characterizations, but all in all, the action was well done. They seemed very real compared to many other action movies .
The Hunger Games (2012)
Great to be brought to the screen
Gary Ross directed The Hunger Games, based on the screenplay by himself and Suzanne Collins (she is also the novelist) and Billy Ray, with much aplomb.
Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth were all very good.
Summary: There is an annual event whereby the capital of the nation of Panem makes sections to send a boy and a girl to compete in what is known as the Hunger Games.
Televised all over the nation, the event has Tributes fighting each other until the last tribute is left standing. Our hero (heroine), Katniss, uses her instincts and skills that she learned from a former victor. It's basically the survival of the fittest.
I've read the books. In the book, Katnis has clear thoughts about everything, which is kind of missing in the movie. I really wish that aspect was played up more in the movie. But given that the filmmakers ended up with a fast moving and action packed theatrical piece of entertainment, I can excuse the omission.
Raging Bull (1980)
A great human drama
Unlike most boxing films where our star is the main boxer, this story, based on the life story of boxing star, Jake La Motta and his downfall is brutal and honest.
That's what you get with the wonderfully talented Martin Scorsese movie. Raw honesty. As in a lot of his movies, on gets a sense of a great Greek drama.
Robert De Nero carries that further with his great performance in this film. He physically and emotionally embodied himself in this character. I think I heard that he gained something like 50 pounds and then had to lose it! Whatever he did, the sequences before and after the weight gain looked very impressive.
There are great performances by all of the other actors in this movie, including portrayals by Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty.
Michael Chapman's cinematography was outstanding
Casino (1995)
I liked it a lot.
Casino was a cool movie. I liked it because it didn't follow traditional lines of storytelling. It's almost like director Martin Scorsese keeps wanting to make "non-poetic" gangster movies as a rebuke to the Godfather. perhaps not. But his gangster movies are always "realer". And less likable. All the more reason as to why I enjoyed this movie very much.
Dinero as usual gives and outstanding performance. As do Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone and James Woods. Don Rickles steals the movie. There is great tragedy on this comic's face. The Voice Over narration works well in this movie and I was interested in it all the way through. The songs also kept me interested. Where do they get all of these old songs? it was really great. The editing and pacing kept it moving very fast, but not so fast that you couldn't easily follow the story line.
It's violent, sou you would want to warn any youngsters before you watch it with them.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Easy on the eyes
Sleepless in Seattle is one of those movies that is easy on the eyes. Meaning, if you've already seen it, it won;t be bothersome to watch it again if it happens to be playing on a cable station.
This film, though predictable, worked for me. The direction, set design, settings, acting and all of the music give us our romantic comedy experience. It was not too long either.
Nora Ephron, who is the director and a writer on this movie, demonstrates an understanding, and a love, of certain kinds of relationships. She shows a focus on how she wants her story to unfold and she delivers it. She works well with her actors, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ross Malinger, Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Pullman and the rest.
Tom Hanks is really good Meg Ryan is cute. The chemistry between Hanks and Ryan works well. Bill Pullman, as always is interesting to watch. The editing moved us along a t a nice pace.