At Middleton 2013

     George and Conrad Hartman visit Middleton College for a tour and to find out information about the college.  Also, on the tour and visit are Edith and Audrey Martin.  George and Edith decide to go off on a tour of their own while their college bound son and daughter take the guided tour.  Both George and Edith have a GREAT time while they are together.  They are surprised at how well they get along and how much they have in common because of their children.  Conrad and Audrey cannot understand why their parents are not taking the tour with them?
     This film is targeted at adults because its themes involve the challenges of long-term marriages and the feelings associated with sending teens off to college.  The one point I need to make about this film is that this comes across as more of a fantasy and not something that would really happen in life?  Plus, it doesn’t seem like the personalities of George and Edith would mesh?  George is very serious but Edith is over-the-top silly??  There are not very many scenes without Edith laughing her head off or acting crazy?? 2 1/2* (This movie is just so-so) 

99 min, Comedy directed by Adam Rodgers with Andy Garcia, Vera Farmiga, Taissa Farmiga, Spencer Rocco Lofranco, Nicholas Braun, Tom Skerritt, Peter Riegert, Mirjana Jokovic, Stephen Borrello IV, Daniella Garcia, Saxton Johnson, Sean Cook Loretta Underwood, Kenny Parks Jr., Briana Henry.

Note:  Imdb 6.5 out of 10, Roger Ebert 2* out of 5* Susan Wloszczyna, Rotten Tomatoes 59% critic 45% audience, Common Sense Media 2* out of 5* S. Jhoanna Robledo, age 16+, 2* out of 5*, 1* positive, 1* violence, 2* sex, 3* language, 1* consumerism, 4* drinking, drugs & smoking, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 324 reviews, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Middleton College is a fictitious name.  Vera and Taissa play mother and daughter but actually they are sisters.  Daniella Garcia-Lorido is Andy Garcia’s daughter.

Charlotte's Web 2006

     This film is based on the children's novel by E.B. White.  Wilbur was the runt of the pig litter but Fern, the farmer's daughter said she would raise him.  Wilbur is a very BIG pig now, he was sold to Fern's Uncle Homer Zuckerman and you would never know that he was the runt.  Wilbur the pig is very frightened about the start of the winter season.  He knows that he could end up on the family's dinner table?  Charlotte is a spider and she is Wilbur's best friend.  She has an idea to spin something into her web that will astonish people and let them know that Wilbur is a special pig!!
     People come from far and wide to line up to see what Charlotte has spun in her web about Wilbur.  Everyone thinks it's because Wilbur is such a special pig but isn't it really because Charlotte is a very special spider.  Home Zuckerman takes Wilbur to the county fair and he wins a medal because he is a very special pig.  This will enhance his chances of not becoming dinner!!  Charlotte spins an egg sack and Wilbur takes care of it for Charlotte.  When the eggs hatch, he takes care of Charlotte's children.  Loyalty, acceptance and faith in your friends are important themes of this film.  4* (I really liked this movie)     
 
97 min, Family directed by Gary Winick with the voices of Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Robert Redford, Thomas Haden Church, Andre Benjamin, Dominic Scott Kay, Sam Shepard, Abraham Benrubi, Kevin Anderson. 

Note:  Imdb 6.3* out of 10 with 34,431 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 78% critic 62% audience, Plugged In 5* Bob Hoose, Common Sense Media 5* Cynthia Fuchs, age 5+, 2* educational, 4* positive, 4* role models, 2* scariness 1* language, Amazon 4 1/2* out of 5* with 1043 reviews, Letterboxd 2.7*.

Special Note:  Estimated budget was $85 million with a worldwide gross of $144,877,632.  Most of the filming was done in Victoria Australia.  The season was not correct in Melbourne during the country fair scenes.

Woman at War 2018 (KONA FER I STRIB)

     Halla is an Islander woman in her forties.  She declares a one woman war on the local aluminum industry and their smelter.  She wants to prevent it from disfiguring the landscape of her country.  She is worried about the highlands of Iceland and she goes to extreme means in her opposition.  Halla disrupts the operations of the plant by purposely damaging electricity pylons and wires to cut their power supply.  Helicopters and drones are used to try to locate the person responsible for the outages.  Halla is too smart to be caught out in the open and she is successful in avoiding their surveillance.  Halla has an identical twin sister Asa and she is not involved in this war.  Asa is planning to go on a sabbatical to India to study with a guru.  Asa is into yoga and meditation.  There is a complication when paperwork that Halla submitted and forgot about from four years ago is approved?  The authorities would not suspect that Halla is the person creating the disruptions.  She doesn’t have a car, she rides a with a basket and she is a choir director?  
     There is no way to deny that this is a very weird movie from the beginning to the end!!  If there is a small secret door that you knock on to get the movies you watch, this would be hidden in that area.  I was amazed at the connection Halla has to the land of her country.  She lays down upon the landscaping to gather strength from the different types of ground cover.  There are some interesting elements added into the mix.  Juan Camillo is Spanish and he is always being arrested for something he did not do?  There is a three piece band included in random scenes with a drummer, sousaphone player and an accordion/keyboard player?  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)    

101 min, Adventure directed by Benewdikt Erlingsson with Halldora Geirharosdottir, Johann Siguroarson, Juan Camillo Roman Estrada, Solveig Arnarsdottir, Gunnar Bersi Bjornsson, Helga Bra Jonsdottir, Charlotte Boving, Iryna Danyleiko, Vala Kristin Eiriksdottir.

Note:  Imdb 7.5 out of 10 with 4,720 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 974% critic 91% audience, The Guardian 3* out of 4* Peter Bradshaw, Roger Ebert 4 1/2* out of 5* Tomris Laffly, Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 125 reviews, Metacritic 81 out of 100 with 24 critics (22 positive, 2 mixed) 5.1 out of 10 with10 reviews (6 positive, 4 negative).

Special Note:  Filmed in Iceland and Ukraine.  This was Iceland’s submission to the Foreign Language Film Award for the 91st Academy Awards of 2019.  Also submitted for the 76th Golden Globe Awards of 2019.

Lady in the Water 2006

     M.Night Shyamalan wrote a children’s book with the same title and the illustrations were done by Crash McCreery.  It was released the same day as the movie.  Cleveland Heep is an apartment superintendent and he has a problem, he stutters.  He meets a girl named Story swimming in the pool of the complex.  He learns that she comes from the Blue World?  She has a message for mankind?  Is it possible that Cleveland can help her with her mission?  Story is a water nymph and her life is in danger from a vicious wolf-like mystical creature called a Script.  This creature is trying to prevent her from returning to her watery “blue world.” 
    Critics thought Shaymalan was too self-indulgent by casting himself in the film?  There is also a lack of consistency and a problem with the film’s characterization.  I think it was unfortunate that Shaymalan broke away from Disney.  They really know how to go all out to promote a film with tie-ins such as dolls, toys and coloring books.  The characters draw you into them and you feel the situations that are going on.  It's a movie with hope and a good feeling.  Just go with the flow and enjoy what is presented!!  3 1/1* (I liked this movie)  

110 min, Drama directed by M. Night Shayamalan with Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury, Cindy Cheung, M. Night Shayamalan, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin, Mary Beth Hurt, Noah Gray-Cabey, Joseph D. Reitman, Jared Harris, Grant Nomohon, John Boyd.

Note:  Imdb 5.5 out of 10 with 9,873 reviews, Roger Ebert 1 1/2* Jim Emerson, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 591 ratings, Rotten Tomatoes 25% critic with 212 critics 49% audience with 419,547 ratings, The Guardian 1* Peter Bradshaw, Metacritic 36 out of 100 with 36 critics (2 positive, 20 mixed, 14 negative) 6.3 out of 10 with 433 user scores (243 positive, 66 mixed, 124 negative).

Special Note:  This movie is based on a bedtime story the director wrote for his children.  Filmed in Levittown and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This film had a shockingly high budget!!  The setting was just one location but the apartment complex and the pool were built for the film.  There is also a half city block of row houses.  Jacobson Logistics Warehouse was also a filming site after their work hours.  Kevin Costner was considered for the role of Heep.  Giamatti accepted the role before Costner was contacted.  This is the first film for Cindy Cheung and her agent demanded $1 million for her role?  Shayamalan was prepared to pay the SAG minimum of $65,000.  They settled at $100,000.  Originally, Disney was involved in production but the president of development took her son to a party instead of reading the script?  It was personal couriered to her and she also didn’t like it.  There were “creative differences” and the script was given to Warner Bros.  Because the film didn’t receive the usual marketing campaign that Disney uses for their films, this movie was a box-office flop.  The gross was $72 million against a $70 million production budget.

Award nominations:  Teen Choice Awards: Young Artist Awards with Noah Gray-Cabey as Best Young Actor - Ten or Under; Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Director a win, Worst Supporting Actor a win; Stinkers Bad Movie Awards: Worst Supporting Actress a win and Most Annoying Fake Accent - Female a win for Cindy Cheung, Worst Ensemble a win for the entire cast, Least Scary Horror Movie a win. 

Night Flight 1933

     This film is based on a novel by French writer and pioneering aviator Antonine de Saint-Exupery.  The film covers a 24 hour period featuring the operations of the fictional airline Trans-Andean European Air Mail.  Polio breaks out in Rio de Janeiro.  The serum is in Santiago and the only way to get the medicine to the hospital is by plane.  Pilots must risk the treacherous weather and the peaks of the Andes during their flights.  A little girl is waiting for the medicine to arrive before she becomes even more sick.  Her mother is very worried about the medicine getting to the hospital in time to help her daughter.  She could die or become crippled if the medicine doesn’t arrive in time!
     This film has a many stars as the actors.  There is a LOT of talk at this time about the night flights being pulled back because too many disasters give aviation a bad name.  The people manning the radios are trying to keep track of where the planes are and where the storms are located.  The biplanes are crude and they are basically giant kites with motors and propellers.  It’s not clear just how much control the pilots has over the planes?  They are flying using the primitive instruments and relying on the dashboard gauges to determine where the plane is without being able to see where they are.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)
 
84 min, Drama directed by Clarence Brown with John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, C. Henry Gordon, Leslie Fenton, Harry Beresford, Frank Conroy, Dorothy Burgess, Irving Pichel, Helen Jerome Eddy, Buster Phelps.

Note:  Imdb 6.2 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 33% audience, Amazon 4* out of 5* with 29 ratings (32% 5*, 40% 4*, 19% 3*, 8% 2*, Letterboxd average 3* out of 5*, www.dvdtalk.com Movie Good +, Video Excellent, Sound, Excellent.

Special Note:  Author Antoine de Saint-Exupery based his novel on his personal experiences while fling on South American mail routes.  There was a dispute between MGM and Saint Exupery and the re-release was delayed until 2011 after legal obstacles were overcome.  Saint-Exupery is also the author of the popular novella The Little Prince first published in April 1943.
 

Jack Ryan Season two 2019

     Jack Ryan is a CIA analyst and he’s sent on a mission to Venezuela with a US Senator.  He is there to bring stability to a country on the brink of collapse.  He has been criticized by the government for allegedly promoting an invasion of the country by Americans.  Another reason for Ryan to be in the country, is to find out why a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms were sent to the Venezuelan jungle.  There may be illegal activities under the direction President Nicolas Reyes.  A US Special Activities team lands in the country and Jack’s intel leads them to a militia guarded compound.  James Greer has left his post in Russian and has arrived in Venezuela.  The President and his team are not in office to help the people but themselves.  The people of the country can’t get jobs that pay enough for their families to have the food they need for themselves and their children.  Gloria Bonalde is running against the President.  There is a possibility she will be killed if the polls show her to have a high advantage against the President.  Also in the background is a mysterious woman is a shady and super mysterious woman, Harriet Baumann.  Maybe she knows more about what is going on than Jack?
     I think the first season was better than this season?  It seemed more current with what is happening in our world now.  Venezuela seems like it hasn’t been bothering the US lately?  We do have sanctions that began on 27 July 2017.  The government is prohibited from accessing US financial markets.  This is in place to minimize the impact on the Venezuelan people and US economic interests.  I think some of the things that happen would not really happen?  If you were on a secret mission and told to do something, would you not do it and go your own way?  Wouldn’t you think about your own safety and the safety of others that would be at risk  to look for you?  3* (This season is OK)  

Created by Carlton Cuse, Graham Roland with John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, John Hoogenakker, Jordi Molla, Franciswco Denis, Cristina Umana, Jovan Adepo, Michael Kelley, Eduar Salas, Kevin Kent, Marcela Vanegas. 

Note:  Imdb 8.2 out of 10 with 59,623 reviews,Rotten Tomatoes 80% critic 63% audience, gin.com 3 1/2* out of 5* David Griffin, collinder.com 2*, Rotten Tomatoes 80% critic 63% audience, Metacritic 56 out of 100 with 6 critics (3 positive, 2 mixed, 1 negative), 6.3 out of 10 with 24 user scores (13 positive, 3 mixed, 8 negative), Amazon 3 1/2* out of 5* with 2889 reviews.

Special Note:  This season is not based on any of Tom Clancy's novels.  CIA Headquarters in Langley Virginia granted the production access to parts of the complex that had never been filmed before.  The scenes in Venezuela were actually filmed in Bogota, Colombia.  The dog tags say Ryan, Jack P.  The character's full name is John Patrick Ryan.  Dog tags would have his full correct name.  There is a drop of a boat from an airplane and parachutes are used to cushion the impact on the water.  This is an authentic procedure that is used. 

Bosch Season 1 2014

     This series is based on novels written by Michael Connelly.  Bosch is a LAPD homicide detective.  He begins working on the solving of a crime in the LA hills.  The bones of a thirteen-year-old boy were dug up by a neighborhood dog.  LAPD will use DNA to try to locate his family and determine what happened to him.  The LAPD forensic scientist is brought in to find out what the bones can tell him.  The boy is Raynard Waits and they learn his sister still lives in the family home.  They contact his father and the sister.  His mother divorced his father and she has been estranged from the family.  She moved to out of California.  Complicating matters, Bosch is on trial for the murder of a suspect he was tailing?  His partner stayed in the police car but Bosch followed the suspect on foot.  If this wasn't complicated enough, Bosch is getting cell phone calls from an on the loose serial killer.  LAPD is also trying to solve this case.

     Every minute you don't know what is going to happen in this series.  I was surprised that Bosch was brought before a judge over his handling of the suspect he followed.  A LOT of information was taken from the bones of the young boy.  Keeping track of the serial killer and handling his murders is tough.  Receiving phone calls from him makes it worse!!  Bosch is divorced from his wife, she lives in Nevada and she has remarried.  Bosch has a teen age daughter Maddie and she lives with her mother.  4* (I really liked this series)

 

TV series, each episode 51 minutes, 8 episodes created by Eric Ellis Overmer and Michael Connelly with Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino, Lance Reddick, Gregory Scott Cummins, DaJuan Johnson, Scott Klace Deji La Ray.

 

Note:  Imdb 8.4 out of 10 with 35,771 , Rotten Tomatoes 83% critic 90% audience, Metacritic 71 out of 100 with 17 critics (14 positive, 3 mixed) 8.2 out of 10 with 109 user scores (91 positive, mixed 14, negative 4), Amazon 4.6 out of 5* with 101,326 ratings, ign.com 4* out of 5* Matt Fowler.

Special Note:  Filmed in In Los Angeles, California.  Some of the filming was done inside the LAPD Hollywood Station (1358 Wilcox Avenue).  The scenes were done late in the day after most of the detectives had left.  Various off-duty police volunteered their time to play extras.  Bosch has prints hanging on his wall based on fictional films of the Harry Bosch books.  Bosch's partner Jerry Edgar is depicted as having something of a clothes fetish and this is the opposite of Bosch.  He is heavily into designer fashion.  In reality, Jamie Hector has his own fashion label called "Royal Addiction".  The name Bosch is from a fifteenth century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.  The last name in Dutch would be pronounced more like Box and not with a prolonged schh sound.