The Cinder Path 1994

     This series is based on a novel by Catherine Cookson.  Edward MacFell owns a farm in Northumberland but he is a bully who likes to humiliate family members and workers.  One of the farm hands arranges for Edward to fall off his horse but he didn’t mean for him to die.  Edward’s son, Charlie inherits the farm and 2/3 of the money.  His mother receives 1/3 of the money but his sister receives nothing.  Chapman is a nearby farmer who wants Charlie to marry his daughter Victoria.  Charlie has money, Chapman has land and that makes for a good partnership?  World War I has started and Charlie is conscripted into the Army.  Unfortunately, he is doing his training under Sergeant Ginger Slater who used to work on the farm.  Charlie's father made Slater crawl on a path of cinders.  Slater is in Charlie’s face every minute of the training until Charlie is selected for a commission.

     Charlie didn’t have the courage to stand up to his father or the choices brought into his life.  He was kind to those around him but filled with self-doubt.  It seems like his only luck is bad luck.  This series is good but a bit melodramatic.  3* (This movie is OK)  

145 min, TV min-series with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lloyd Owen, Polly Adams, Antony Byrne, Ralph Ineson, Maria Miles, Victoria Scarborough.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 29% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, 4.3* out of 5* on Amazon with 42 reviews.

Extant 2014

     Molly Woods left behind her husband John and their son Ethan to go into space for a solo journey of 13 months.  Ethan is a prototype android called a humanich and he was created in John’s lab.  When she returns home, she has a difficult time reconnecting with her work and her family.  Surprisingly, she learns from her physical that she is pregnant but she was alone on her journey?  Molly wants answers and she tracks down another astronaut to ask about his solo mission.  Molly’s boss tries to quarantine her after he learns she is pregnant.  Molly, John and Ethan retreat to a remote island to stay with her father.  When they return from the island, John begins to doubt Molly’s mental state and the pregnancy.  Molly is taken to a hospital and her baby is removed from her body and placed in an artificial womb.  Molly is determined to find her baby when she learns he is alive. 

     There is a lot going on in this series with many plots tossed into the air at the same time.  They go back and forth in the episodes.  Most of this is hard to believe but there was Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien!!  This keeps you interested and waiting for the next episode.  3 ½* (I liked this series)

42 min for each episode, 13 episode TV series, Sci-Fi directed by Mickey Fisher with Halle Berry, Goran Visnjic, Pierce Gagnon, Hiroyuki Sanada, Grace Gummer, Camryn Manheim, Michael O’Neill, Maury Sterling, Sergio Harford.

Note:  Imdb 7.0 out of 10, 83% critic 65% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic 68%/100 critic 6.7 with 108 ratings.

Special Note:  Episode Titles: Re-Entry, Extinct, Wish You Were Here, Shelter, What on Earth is Wrong, Nightmares, More in Heaven and Earth, Incursion, Care and Feeding, A Pack of Cards, A New World, Before the Blood, Ascension. 

Hidden in Silence 1996

     This film is based on a true story and the setting is Poland in 1939 just before the German invasion.  Fusia is a 17-year-old Catholic living with a Jewish family.  The family transfers their home and belongings to Fusia when they are sent to the ghetto.  Fusia takes care of them and sells valuables to get them food until they are sent away to a concentration camp.  Fusia moves to a larger place with an attic and she begins hiding Jews in the attic.  This is a difficult secret to keep and it is not easy to provide food for 13 extra people for 2 years.  A German officer comes to tell Fusia her place is too big for her and her 7 year old sister, Helena.  They need to leave in one hour and the Germans are confiscating the house.  The officer changes his mind and instead two German nurses begin living there with Fusia and Helena.

     There is danger every minute, people are being rounded up and some are shot on the street.  The ghetto is a terrible place with little food for the large number of people living there.  Fusia wants to join the family when they are taken from their home but German soldiers hold her back.  She travels to her family home in search of her mother but learns from her sister that their mother was sent away to work for the Germans.  This is interesting and even more so because it is a true story.  3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

 

90 min, TV drama directed by Richard A. Colla with Kellie Martin, Tom Radcliffe, Marc Warren, Gemma Coughlan, Marta Hrachovinova, Luke de Lacey, David Nyki, Anna Geislerova, Jan Nemejovsky, Jakub Wehrenberg.

Note:  Imdb 7.6 out of 10, 94% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 326 reviews.

Rising Sun 1993

     Web Smith is a police detective in Los Angeles.  He’s called in on a case involving the murder of a woman during a gala in the office building of the Japanese Nakamaoto Corporation.  Also working on the case is John Connor, he’s a former detective police Captain and an expert on Japanese culture and affairs.

     There are major problems with this movie.  They show the same scenes of the crime tape over and over with different twists until you don’t want to ever see it again!  Also, there are too many plot twists and they are difficult to keep in line.  I could not generate any emotion about any of this?   2* (I didn’t like this movie)

129 min, Action directed by Philip Kaufman with Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako, Ray Wise, Stan Egi, Stan Shaw, Tia Carrere, Steve Buscemi, Tatjana Patitz.

Note:  Imdb 6.2 out of 10, 35% critic 40% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*.

Special Note:  Director Philip Kaufman as also worked on The Right Stuff and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  The writer is Michael Crichton is the writer of the novel this film is based upon.  He also authors The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery and Jurassic Park.

Born to be Wild 2011

     This movie was filmed in IMAX 3D, narrated by Morgan Freeman and it’s about orphaned baby orangutans and baby elephants.  In the rainforests of Borneo primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas works with baby orangutans that have lost their mothers.  They are too young to live in their natural habitat of the rainforest but they live here in this sanctuary until they are old enough to return to the wild.  The baby elephants have also lost their mothers and they live with Dame Daphne Sheldrick in her sanctuary until they are also old enough to return to the wild. 

     The babies are very interesting.  The baby orangutans need to be taught how to hang from the vines in the forest and how to hunt for the fruit they need for food.  The baby elephants have been traumatized by the loss of their mothers and they don’t sleep alone but a caretaker sleeps with them.  They remember the bad events of their lives and they can’t get to sleep.  They need to be covered with blankets and have sunscreen for their delicate ears because they are lacking the shade provided by their large mothers.  Both of these animal groups are very fortunate to have these sanctuaries to care from them until they can get older.  It is very unfortunate that their mothers have been killed.  4* (I really liked this movie)

40 min, Doc directed by David Lickley with Birute Galdikas, Daphne Sheldrick, Morgan Freeman.

Note:  Imdb 7.5 out of 10, 98% critic 84% audience, Amazon 4* out of 5* with 76 reviews.

Hateship Loveship 2013

     This film is based on a short story by Alice Munro.  Johanny Parry works in the homes of people who need her.  This has been her job since she was 15 years old.  She works with the elderly and the young.  She gets her jobs by referral and she usually stays at each job as long as she is needed.  She starts working for Mr. McCauley in Iowa as a housekeeper but she is really there for his teenage granddaughter Sabitha.  Johanny meets Sabitha’s father Ken the day she arrives at their house.  She receives a thank you letter from Ken and she purchases a card to reply.  She makes a mistake when she gives the card to Sabitha and her friend Edith to mail.  They open the card and start a written conversation and then emails of their own pretending to be Ken.

     The trick Sabitha and Edith are playing on Johanna is very cruel.  Sabitha steps aside from this writing game but Edith continues.  Johanny is naïve and she can’t see between the lines of the letters and then the emails.  She allows herself something she hasn’t thought would come into her life, hope and a life of her own.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

104 min, Drama directed by Liza Johnson with Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sami Gayle, Christine Lahti, Nick Nolte.

Note:  Imdb 6.1 out of 10, 50% critic 40% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*.

Transcendence 2014

     Dr. Will Caster and his wife Evelyn are working together in the field of Artificial Intelligence.  They are trying to develop a machine able to express all human emotions along with knowledge of everything ever known.  Will has been made a target of terrorist groups believing in anti-technology.  They are afraid of a takeover of mankind by this type of machine.  Will is wounded by one of these groups and he dies.  Emily and their friend Max Waters upload his essence into their machine.  They can't be sure this is really Will and his thirst for knowledge as a machine also involves a need for power.  Electrical power and control of the world.

     I have a problem with the music and cinematography of this film.  The score keeps yelling, “This is a GREAT movie!”  But, this isn’t a great movie?  How many times does destruction rebuilt by Will need to be shown and the length of the film is also too long?  Everything about this film seems superficial?  2 1/2* (This movie is so-so)

119 min, Drama directed by Wally Pfister with Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Paul Bettany, Cillian Murphy, Kate Mara, Cole Hauser, Clifton Collins Jr., Cory Hardrict, Falk Hentschel, Josh Stewart.

Note:  Imdb 6.3 out of 10, 19% critic 38% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*.