When Marnie Was There 2014

     This film is based on a novel by Joan G. Robinson.  Anna is 12 years old, she has closed herself off from people and she hates herself.  She feels very bad because she is a foster child and her foster parents receive money to take care of her.  This makes her feel like they really don’t want her and only take care of her to receive the money.  Her foster parents decide to send her away from Sapporo to the country for the summer school break.  Anna has asthma and they feel the clean air will be good for her condition.  A change of scenery and change of people in her life might help her too.  She goes to live with a couple that are relatives of her foster mother and they live by the sea in the quiet town of Hokkaido.  A run-down mansion beside a salt marsh begins to fascinate Anna.  She gets to know the girl who lives there, Marnie and they become best friends.

     I really liked everything about this film, the animation, the story, the setting and the characters.  You can see that Anna is really struggling at home and at school.  Other teens sometimes tease her because she has blue eyes.  Anna doesn’t know anyone from her biological family.  The relatives, Setsu and Kiyomasa Oiwa don’t put any pressure on Anna and she is able to relax.  4 ½* (I really liked this movie)

103 min, Animation directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi with the voices of Ava Acres, Kyle Arem, Laura Bailey, Kathy Bates, Erick Bauza, Bob Bergen, Taylor Autumn Bertman, Mila Brener, Ellen Burstyn Geena Davis.

Note:  Imdb 7.8 out of 10, 89% critic 88% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 115 reviews.

Special Note:  This is the second film by Yonebayashi, he also made The Secret World of Arrietty.  After finishing this film, Studio Ghibli took their longest break from filmmaking.

I'll See You in My Dreams 2015

     Carol has her best friends Georgina, Sally and Rona.  She also has a daughter Katherine.  Carol does a lot of activities with her friends and they would like her to move into the retirement home where they live.  She doesn’t want to move, she enjoys her home and she has a good life.  Her fourteen-year-old dog becomes ill and she feels numb after he passes.  She has trouble with a rat in the house, she sleeps outside on the patio and she meets her pool cleaner Lloyd.  They go to a bar for karaoke and he falls asleep on her couch.  Rona stops by in the morning and thinks there is a lot more going on?  Carol meets Bill, they go out on his boat, out to dinner and they start to like each other.

     This is a very pleasant movie and some of the scenes are very funny.  Carol goes to her first speed-dating event with interesting and quick conversations.  Her friends still know how to get into trouble too.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

92 min, Drama directed by Brett Haley with Blythe Danner, Martin Starr, Sam Elliott, June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place, Martin Starr.

Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10, 92% critic 69% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*. 

Special Note:  Brett Haley makes a cameo appearance as one of the first karaoke singers.  Blythe Danner is 71 years old and she has TV and film listings of over 100 titles.

The Bouquet 2013

     Bonnie and Cecil Benton own a flower shop.  Bonnie doesn’t know that the business is not making a profit because Cecil makes up fake orders for local nursing homes and other places.  He hopes the arrangements they send will generate real orders but that has not happed so far.  Bonnie is hoping her daughters Mandy and Terri will come home for Easter but both say they are too busy.  The Benton’s have invited the local Reverend to have dinner at their home for the holiday.  Suddenly, Cecil collapses and he passes away.  That event does get Mandy and Terri to come home.  Reverend John tells the family what Cecil has been doing.  Bonnie is devastated but Terri is a businesswoman and she has a plan.

     Mandy and Terri have been in competition with each other ever since they were small girls.  That doesn’t stop now with this business on the line.  Mandy feels pushed out of the way and Terri thinks all her ideas are the best.  I liked this movie and the story is good with Bonnie very depressed but Mandy, Terri and another local Sam are working hard.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

99 min, Drama directed by Anne Wheeler with Kristy Swanson, Danny Glover, Alberta Mayne, Michael Shanks, Nicola Cavendish, Jeremy Guilbaut, Stepehn E. Miller, Daniel Bacon, Andrea Kelly Konno.

Note:  Imdb 5.9 out of 10, 46% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 81 reviews.

From Russia with Love 1963

     This is the second James Bond film adapted from a novel by Ian Fleming.  The Russians have a decoding machine known as Lektor.  James Bond is sent to search for this machine to obtain it for Britain before SPECTRE is able to acquire it first.  Bond becomes romantically involved with a Russian woman, Tatiana Romanova.  SPECTRE has sent an agent to eliminate Bond before he can obtain Lektor.  Donald ‘Red’ Grand and an ex-KGB agent Rosa Klebb are determined to stop Bond from getting Lektor first.

     I thought Dr. No was better than this film.  Dr. No seems to have a steadier and more believable plot.  Ursula Andress as the Bond girl is more attractive than Daniela Bianchi as well, in my opinion.  A lot of new standards are set in this film that continue on in the future films.  This is the first appearance of Q as a character.  Q stands for Quatermaster in the same way that M is a job title rather than a name.  He is head of Q Branch or Q Divison in the research and development section of the British Secret Service.  Q briefs Bond on the latest gadgets engineered for his latest mission.  Q would like at least some of the devices returned in at least reusable condition but this does not always happen much to his distress!!

115 min, Action directed by Terence Young with Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Daniela Bianchi, Pedro Armendariz, Bernard Lee, Eunice Gayson, Walter Gotell, Francis De Wolff, George Pastell, Nadja Regin.

Note:  Imdb 7.5 out of 10, 96% critic 83% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 465 reviews.

Special Note:  This movie was filmed in Turkey, Scotland, Wales, England, Italy and Spain.  Broccoli thought this was one of the best Ian Fleming stories.  This film also started the beginning array of gadgets used in the Bond films.

Woman in Gold 2015

     During WWII the Nazis went into Jewish homes and apartments to loot them of valuables.  It didn’t matter to the Germans that the people were still living there at the time.  Art pieces, jewelry, musical instruments and anything else of value were taken.  Maria Altman is encouraged by her friend’s attorney son Randy Schoenberg to try to get the valuable Mona Lisa of Austria returned to her.  It is a painting of her aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt.  It has been sixty years since Maria and her husband barely escaped from Vienna.  There is a lot of opposition from Austria and the Belvedere Museum.  The Museum believes they have a right to the painting because they have it now in their gallery. 

     I didn’t know what this movie was about before I started to watch.  This has a similar theme to The Monuments Men but much more personalized.  Helen Mirren makes Maria come alive on the screen including her Austrian accent.  She also looks different with her dark hair.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

109 min, Drama directed by Simon Curtis with Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Bruhl, Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany, Max Irons, Charles Dance, Antje Traue, Elizabeth McGovern, Johnathan Pryce.

Note:  Imdb 7.3 out of 10, 54% critic 80% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 3286 reviews.

Special Note:  Tatiana Maslany plays the role of Maria Altmann as a young woman.  She stars as the multiple clones on the series Orphan Black.  This movie was filmed in West Sussex and West Kensington England UK, Vienna Austria, Encino, Culver City, San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills, California.

McFarland, USA 2015

     This film is based on the actual 1987 McFarland High School cross-country team and their coach.  Jim White was a high school football team coach but he was fired after a pre-game session turned into verbal and physical abuse of a player.  Now he doesn’t have many job choices and he moves his wife and two daughters to McFarland, California.  He has a job as assistant football coach but the coach wants him fired after one practice session.  Jim is still a teacher but he's now not a coach.  He begins to think about cross-country running since he has seen how well some of the guys can run. 

     The runners are all Latino and some of them get up before school to help their parents pick in the fields.  This is how they put food on the table and they need everyone in the family to work.  White learns he needs to work training sessions around their schedules in the field and communicate with the parents to keep the runners.  The team starts off with no chance to win but they start moving up.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

129 min, Sport directed by Niki Caro with Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Ramiro Rodriguez, Carlos Pratts, Johnny Ortiz, Rafael Martinez, Hector Duran, Serfio Avelar, Michael Aguero, Diana Maria Riva, Omar Leyva, Morgan Saylor, Elsie Fisher.

Note:  Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 80% critic 88% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*.

Special Note:  The director Niki Caro is a woman from New Zealand. This movie was filmed in Kern County, California.

Love, Rosie 2014

     This movie is based on a novel written by Cecelia Ahern titled Where Rainbows End.  Rosie and Alex have been best friends since they were five years old.  It’s possible they could be right for each other and Alex wants Rosie to attend college in Boston with him.  Unfortunately, Rosie isn’t able to travel to America and she marries Greg.  Alex wonders if Greg really loves Rosie and he writes her letters but Greg doesn’t give them to her.  Rosie decides it’s time to let Greg go but just then Alex marries Bethany.

     There are a lot of times where Rosie and Alex could’ve just talked and straightened things out between them but that would be too easy?  There has to be a lot of mistakes in between before the possibility of anything going right comes along.  3* (This movie is OK)

102 min, Comedy directed by Christian Ditter with Lily Collins, Sam Claflin, Christian Cooke, Jamie Winstone, Suki Waterhouse, Tamsin Egerton, Jamie Beamish, Lorcan Cranitch, Ger Ryan.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, 27% critic 62% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*.

Special Note:  This movie was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and County Wicklow, Ireland.  Lilly Collins is the daughter of Phil Collins and Jamie Winstone is the daughter of Ray Winstone.