The Hero 2017

     Lee Hayden is a former actor and his best film was the western titled The Hero.  That was 40 years ago and he’s hasn’t had any movie offers in a long time.  He lives in Malibu and he gets by with voice over jobs for commercials.  He learns from his doctor that he has pancreatic cancer.  He can’t decide if he wants to tell anyone or if he wants to seek treatment.  He meets Charlotte Dylan, she is a friend of Jeremy Frost.  Lee and Jeremy acted together in The Hero and they remained friends.  Lee is offered a Lifetime Achievement Award and he asks Charlotte to be his date.  She agrees and there is a surprising turn of events at the ceremony.

     Lee smokes a lot of weed with Jeremy and drinks a lot of booze.  This is how he gets through his days.  He gets a real shakeup from the cancer diagnosis.  The plot is very familiar with other movies about a selfish man reaching the end of the line?  Sam Elliott is 72 years old and he can say a lot by saying nothing.  The current survival rates for pancreatic cancer are 20% for one year and 7% for five years.  The scenery of the coast and the ocean is very beautiful.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

93 min, Comedy directed by Brett Haley with Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman, Katharine Ross, Ali Wong, Cameron Esposito, Dough Cox, Max Gail, Jackie Joyner, Patrika Darbo, Frank Collison, Andy Allo.

Note:  Imdb 6.6 out of 10, 78% critic 60% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*, Amazon 3.3* out of 5* with 262 reviews, Metacritic 61 out of 100 with 28 critics 6.9 out of 10 with 18 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Los Angeles, California.  Recently Sam Elliott has been in the film Grandma with Lily Tomlin.  Katharine Ross in the role of Valarie, Lee’s former wife hasn’t been in a film in ten years.  She is also married to Sam Elliott.  The original title was Iceberg.  Laura Prepon is a principle character in the series Orange is the New Black.

The Last Face 2016

     Wren Petersen has taken her father’s place as director of an international aid agency in Liberia and South Sudan.  She meets Dr. Miguel Leon and he is a relief aid doctor.  They are both working during a political/social revolution in these countries.  There are many tough choices concerning humanitarianism and saving lives during this civil unrest.  Wren and Miguel have different and opposing opinions on how to resolve this war. 

     I wanted to like this film but it becomes such a muddle that I had to wonder what was going on?  The focus is too much on the romance between Wren and Miguel??  I didn’t understand anything about the conflict except the devastation.  How did the rescuers become so much more important than those needing rescue?  2 1/2*(This movie was just so-so)  

      

130 min, Drama directed by Sean Penn with Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Adele Exarchopoulos, Jared Harris Jean Reno, Denise Newman, Oscar Best, Zubin Cooper, SEbelethu Bonkolo, Hopper Penn, Marritt Wever, Tina Jaxa.

Note:  Imdb 4.6 out of 10, 5% critic 35% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1*, Amazon 3.4* out of 5* with 129 reviews, Metacritic 16 out of 100 with 20 critics 5.6 out of 10 with 5 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Cape Town, South Africa and Geneva, Canton de Geneve, Switzerland.  Originally, Robin Wright the former wife of Sean Penn, tried to get this filmed in 2004.  She brought on board Javier Bardem and Sean Penn.  Her funding fell through and she was forced to abandon the project.  After their divorce, Penn took on the directing job and cast his then girlfriend Theron in Wright’s role.  The principle actors are not from the United States.  Theron from South Africa, Reno and Exarchopolus from France and Javier Bardem from Spain.  Penn has been involved in a lot of humanitarian work and he raised millions of relief dollars for Haiti.  He can’t seem to make an impact and bring out his passion in this film?

Fast and Furious 1939

     Joel and Garda Sloan work together as detectives and they also sell rare books in New York.  Garda wants to take a vacation to Seaside City.  New York is already having a warm spell but she turns up the thermostat and puts a heating pad under Joel’s chair at his desk.  He agrees to go on the trip but it doesn’t turn out as Garda planned.  Joel’s pal Mike Stevens is managing and preparing for a beauty pageant.  Joel is selected as a judge and he has invested $5,000 in the pageant.  The promoter of the pageant is Eric Bartell.  He arrives on the scene and he plans to con Stevens.  Bartell ends up murdered and Joel and Garda investigate the murder.

     I didn’t think this was very good?  It certainly is very different from the Fast and Furious franchise of this time period!!  I recently watched Between Two Women from 1937 with Franchot Tone and I thought it was good so I watched this film.  I wasn’t interested at all in the beauty pageant!!  There is a LOT of arguing between Joel and Garda over the pageant.  There is a LOT of none pageant business going on between some of the men and the contestants?  Possibly it’s too dated?  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

73 min, Comedy directed by Busby Berkeley with Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey, Lee Bowman, Allyn Joslyn, John Miljan, Bernard Nedell, Cliff Clark.

Note:  Imdb 6.2 out of 10, Letterboxd 3.2* out of 5*, TCM Leonard Maltin 2 ½* of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed at Rainbow Pier, Long Beach and Culver City, California.  There are several actors listed in the studio records for this film but they never appear?  This is the third and last film in the Fast trilogy.  It started in 1938 with Melvyn Douglas and Florence Knight in the film Fast Company.  Then there was Fast and Loose with Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell of 1939.  This was the first film shown in newly liberated Copenhagen Denmark after a five-year German occupation during WWII.

Bus Stop 1956

    This film is based on a Broadway play starring Kim Stanley in the role of Cherie.  Bo travels from his ranch in Montana to a rodeo in Phoenix.  He rides a Greyhound Bus with his partner Virgil Blessing.  Bo has been doing a LOT of training for this rodeo and he hopes to win.  He talks to Virgil about finding an ‘angel’ in Phoenix?  He meets café singer Cherie at a saloon and he right away he wants to marry her.  Cherie doesn’t want to get married and she tells that to Bo.  He doesn’t want to listen and he forces Cherie onto the bus returning to Montana. 

     I didn’t like the character played by Marilyn Monroe.  It buys into the theory that she must be empty headed and of course she would want to marry a cowboy!!  Bo is stump dumb and he doesn’t think he needs to listen to anything Cherie tells him!!  This is another stereotype!!  I know this is a classic film but I thought it was very dated!!  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

 

96 min, Comedy directed by Joshua Logan with Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray, Hope Lange, Hans Conried, Max Showalter.  

Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10, 79% critic 62% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 3.5* out of 4*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 219 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Phoenix, Arizona.  Don Murray suffered painful facial cuts when Monroe overdid a scene with her slapping him with the sequined tail of her costume.  Originally, Elvis Presley was to play the role of Bo but Col. Parker prevented this from happening.  Susan Hayward previously wore the same green top with black-lace overlay worn by Cherie.  Susan wore it in the film With a Song in My Heart of 1952.

Paris Can Wait (Bonjour Anne) 2017

     Anne Lockwood has been traveling in Europe with her movie producer husband Michael.  He is taking a small plane to another destination to check on a movie but Anne's been having trouble with her ears.  The pilot advises her that it will be difficult and painful for her to take this flight.  Jacques Clement is an associate of Michael’s and he offers to drive Anne to Paris instead.  It should be a two-day drive but it starts to last several days with their side trips.  There are stops at picturesque sights, dining on fine food, wonderful wine, wisdom gained and a little added romance?  Anne feels she is at a crossroads in her life.  She has been married a long time, her husband is successful but he is driven and inattentive?

     This film is listed as a comedy but I find it very stiff and meandering!!  Anne wants to speed up the journey but her heart isn’t really into quickly getting to Paris.  As the audience, there is the feeling is of constantly dragging out the trip instead of enjoying the trip.  There has to be some kind of an ending?  You don’t know what it will be and if it will ever arrive??  The scenery of France is very beautiful and the food looks delicious!!   I think viewers can gain weight just by looking at the food?? 

92 min, Comedy directed by Eleanor Coppola with Diane Lane Arnaud Viard, Alec Baldwin, Elise Tielrooy, Elodie Navarre, Serge Onteniente, Pierre Cuq, Cedric Monnet, Aurore Clement, Davia Nelson, Eleanor Lambert, Severine Bichon.  2 1/2* (This movie is so-so)

Note:  Imdb 5.8 out of 10, 46% critic 40% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Metacritic 48 out of 100 with 25 critics 4.9 out of 10 with 11 reviews, Amazon 3.6* out of 5* with 39 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Bouches-du-Rhone, Paris, Alpes Martimes, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Cogte d’Azur, Provence, France.  This is the first feature film by Eleanor Coppola since her Emmy Award winning documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse of 1991.  Also, this is her narrative feature film debut at the age of 80 years old.  This makes her one of the oldest first-time directors of this type of film.  The oldest person to direct was Takeo Kimura, 90 years old at the release of Dreaming Awake of 2008.

Victoria 2016

     This series is about the early life of the British Queen Victoria.  She ascended to the throne at the age of 18 in 1837 after her uncle the King died.  Victoria struggled in the beginning of her reign because her mother and also her mother’s companion Sir John Conroy were smothering.  Her mother and Conroy tried to influence her every move and decision as the new queen.  Conroy pressed to be her private secretary so he could be in control of the government instead of Victoria.  They tried to select Victoria’s ladies-in waiting to further influence and pressure the Queen.  Some men in the government favored a regency including Sir John.  Instead, the Queen turned to Lord Melbourne for support and guidance.

     There is plenty of substance to the life of Queen Victoria without including information that isn’t true?  Much work and expense went into this production so it seems it would’ve been easier to follow history than invent it?  3 ½* (I liked this series)

60 min each episode, TV Series, Bio created by Daisy Goodwin with Jenna Coleman, Rufus Sewell, Daniela Holtz, Adrian Schiller, Catherine Flemming, Tommy Knight, Margaret Clunie, Anna Wilson-Jones, Alex Jennings, Bebe Cave.

Note:  Imdb 8.2 out of 10, 82% critic 94% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 685 reviews, Metacritic 67 out of 100 with 22 critics 6.4 out of 10 with 43 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, County Durham, West Yorkshire, Berkshire, Westminster, Leicestershire and London, England, UK.  Jenna Coleman in the role of Queen Victoria had to learn the waltz and how to ride sidesaddle.  Jenna read Queen Victoria’s diaries for her research.  She wears blue contacts to depict Victoria’s blue eyes.  The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel as Dash in this series also played this role in the movie Young Victoria.  According to Time Magazine the truth is stretched in this series.

The Big Sick 2017

     This film is based on a true story.  Kumail was born in Pakistan and he is working on becoming a stand-up comedian.  He meets grad student Emily and they start a relationship but they don’t know where it’s going?   Suddenly, Emily is hospitalized with a lung infection.  It’s so serious that it requires her to be put into a medically induced coma.  Kumail wants to be there for her but the comedy business is tough and he feels a coma is beyond his scope of involvement?  He wonders if he’s known her long enough to become a part of the hospital situation?  Plus, another complication is that his background includes an arranged marriage to a woman from Pakistan.  Kumail meets Emily’s parents and he begins to get to know them during hospital visits.

     You can tell that this is a Judd Apatow produced movie!!  Some of the comedy scenes are very funny and others fall very flat!!  I’m not sure about the scenes with Ray Romano and Holly Hunter as the parents?  A lot of their scenes are just annoying?  3* (This movie is OK)

120 min, Comedy directed by Michael Showalter with Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Shroff, Adeel Akhtar, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant, Kurt Braunohler, Vella Lovell, Myra Lucretia Taylor.

Note:  Imdb 7.7 out of 10, 98% critic 89% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 1258 reviews, Metacritic 86 out of 100 with 47 critics 7.1 out of 10 with 258 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Chicago, Illinois.  Emily V. Gordon and her husband Jumail Nanjiani wrote the screenplay.  It’s loosely based on their real life courtship before their marriage in 2007.  A meeting with Judd Apatow inspired the idea for the film.  They met working together on a 2012 episode of You Made It Weird podcast.