Week in Review 6/27/10

Decided to try something different today(and maybe try to do it weekly) and review some of the movies I saw this week on TV, DVD, or in theatres. Obviously this will not include movies that won best picture as those will get their own posts.

First lets start with the only movie I saw in theatres this week Splice.
I heard a lot of things about Splice. Critics seemed to be liking it but one person I talked to said it was really bad. So, I had to go see it for myself. Good thing I decided to go see it this week because it was only playing in one theatre in my area. The movie is about a couple(Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley) who work in genetics and splice together DNA from different animals including humans to make a new species. Of course things go horribly wrong and mayhem ensues. I liked it and even though it is a little predictable it has some great WTF moments. The fact that they really to go where they did is what sets this movie apart from other monster movies. Dark, creepy, and bizarre makes it a fun movie. The movie really is about morality of creating life and what happens when we become to attached to what we create.



Also this week I had my ducts cleaned in my house and while the people where here making lots of noise I decided to watch a silent movie. I had Battleship Potemkin from 1925 on my DVR. This movie is on IMDB top 250, 1001 Movies to See Before you Die and a number of other lists. So I had to check it out. The movie is about a Russian Battleship that helps start the Russian Revolution of 1905 with a mutiny. Started out kind of similar to Mutiny on the Bounty where the captain is cruel and unjustly punishes the crew but ends up being much different. I had DVR'd it from TCM and am always glad when Robert Osborne gives me a little background on the movie. Found out that it was the first movie to use montages to show different perspectives of what was going on. Also that they filmed one of the most famous scenes the Odessa staircase scene where the actual Odessa massacre happened. For a silent movie the action was pretty good and is one of the best silent movies I have seen. This movie topped many Greatest Movies of All Times list as late as the 1950's.




On Saturday night went over a friends house and watched Brothers with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire. What a good movie. I wasn't expecting it to be that good. For those who don't know its about two brothers Tommy and Sam. When Sam goes off to war in Afghanistan he is involved in a helicopter crash and presumed dead. Tommy who has been a screw up and recently released from jail helps take care of Sam's wife and two daughters. When Sam is discovered alive and rescued from a POW camp he comes back not quite the same. All the performances are great even the two girls that play the daughters. Tobey Maguire looks very creepy and scary as Sam after he returns from war. He has a tendency to just stare at people with this look like he will just snap at any minute. An unexpected great performance. I liked the movie and the ending, but the people I saw it with didn't like the ending. I thought it ended perfectly. And while I am known for picking movies that have bad endings I don't feel this is one of those.


The last movie I watched this week is the documentary Gasland on HBO. Not the best documentary I have seen, but does shed some light on an important subject. The movie is about the harvesting of natural gas from the ground in America. Natural gas is supposed to be the fuel of the future and help get America off foreign oil. It is very abundant all across the United States. The problem is the method that is used to extract it. The method is call fracking and they use water and "fracking fluid" a high pressure to crack the rock under the ground and release the gas. The problem with this is that some of the "fracking fluid" and natural gas leaks into the water system and people are getting sick. The most powerful part of the movie is watching people set there water taps on fire. Very important movie as more and more natural gas is being extracted all around the country.

http://www.hbo.com/#/documentaries/gasland/synopsis.html/

The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola is the 10Th movie to win best picture. Took me a little longer then I thought it would but I finally made it to number 10. Also means I am almost done with movies from the 30's. While there are good movies that won Best Picture from the 30's a majority of the movies from the 30's specifically the early 30's were just bad. The Life of Emile Zola isn't one of the best but far from the worst. I watched the movie over two days. The first half hour was kind of boring so I stopped it before I fell asleep. But after that the movie picks up a bit and wasn't too bad. This movie is technically the second biopic to win best picture (although I read somewhere that it was the first) a bulk of the movie is about a court case so it really feels to me like the first court room drama to win Best Picture.

As you probably guessed the movie is about Emile Zola. And if you are like me you are probably asking who was Emile Zola and why does he have a movie made about his life. Well, that why we watch movies to learn new things. Emile Zola was a French writer who would write about the poor and lower class struggles. He became famous for his honesty and exposing problems that no one wanted to talk about. The first half hour shows how he got his start and move pretty quickly to him being older and rich and famous. That's when we get to the meat of the story. And I am kind of glad that I restarted at this point a different day. What happens is a French soldier is accused of treason and exiled. His wife try's to prove his innocence but fails. Then she finally makes a plea to Emile Zola to write about the case and gives him some evidence that conclusively proves her husbands innocence. Zola being older and enjoying his semi-retirement brushes her off at first but eventually his curiosity wins out and when he looks over the evidence realizes she is right and finally writes a book accusing the army of conspiracy and cover up. This obviously does not sit well with the army and they charge him with treason for writing the book. The rest of the movie is about the court case and the ramifications. After Zola is found guilty he leaves France for England before he can be sentenced and continues to write books while in hiding. After some years have passed a new French Minister of War takes over the army and the case is reopened and eventually the truth comes out and everything is set right.

Like a said the movie isn't as much about The Life of Emile Zola as it is about the one case he gets involved in. Which is why after a slow start it does get more interesting. I wish they just would have made the movie as a court room drama overall. But the acting is good and its always good to see the little guy prevail over a system that puts him down.

Other notes about the 1938 Academy Awards. While Paul Muni didn't win best actor he lost to Spencer Tracy for Captains Courageous which is the first of two wins in a row for Tracy. Also Louise Rainer won her second Best Actress in a row for the Good Earth. Making her the first Actor or Actress to win back to back years.

The Great Ziegfeld

Well the whole idea of posting one every Monday didn't work out too well. So, it's a little late. I have just been tired and didn't feel like sitting down to watch a three hour movie from the 30's. Pretty sure this is the longest Best Picture winner so far. Once I finally sat down to watch it I enjoyed it for the most part.

The movie is about Florenz Ziegfeld a famous producer in the early 20th century and the creator of the Ziegfeld Follies. The movie starts with his beginning at a fair trying to promote the "Worlds Strongest Man" and follows his career through ups and downs. Always trying to find the next big thing and being a smooth talker he wins over plenty of talent and each success leads to bigger things. But every time he makes money he finds a way of blowing it. Sometimes its gambling but most times it in the form of extravagant gifts. Finally in the end he ends losing all of his money in the stock market crash and during the depression with no one going to see plays he ends up dieing with a great deal of debt.

The movie is structured like a play. There is an overture in the beginning and intermission in the middle and exit music at the end. That's part of the reason the movie is 3 hours long. Seemed to take forever to get through the overture in the beginning. The intermission came at a good time because I started falling asleep. Woke up and realized I didn't miss anything just slept through the nice music they were playing during the intermission. The production numbers were great. They really showed the wow factor that must have amazed theatre goers seeing the follies on stage. Made me wish I could have seen one. My big problem is that as impressive as it was the musical number in the middle was too long. Would have been amazing on stage but in a movie just didn't hold my attention. I read that the studios spend more money on the big musical number in the middle of the movie then it cost to put on one of Ziegfeld's shows. But the movie should have stuck to more about the man. William Powell did another amazing job as Ziegfeld(actually did so good of a job he played him again in another movie 10 years later). He really captured that spirit of a guy who has big dreams and can win over anyone with his charms. No matter how many times he was broke he could always convince someone to give him money for his next big idea.

Luise Rainer who played his first wife Anna Held won best actress for the role. She also won best actress the following year for The Good Earth, making her the first actress or actor to win the same award back to back. Billie Burke his second wife was supposed to be played by Billie Burke herself who after Ziegfeld died left her in so much debt she had to start acting in movies to make money. Unfortunately that didn't happen due to contracts, but would have been interesting to see. She did play a big part in helping writing the script and made sure some of Ziegfeld's indiscretions were not fully shown. So Myrna Loy ended up playing Billie Burke and was the 4th time that Myrna Loy and William Powell were in the same movie. They were both in the Thin Man movies and total they would make 14 movies together. There were a couple of people who ended up playing themselves. Fannie Brice was in almost every Ziegfeld's Follies and Ray Bolger who Ziegfeld discovered played themselves. Ray Bolger became famous for his portrayal of the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, which also starred Billie Burke as Glinda the Good Witch.
Another interesting note. Eugen Sandow the "Worlds Strongest Man" who Ziegfeld is promoting in the beginning of the film went on to a great career and became the "Father of Bodybuilding"
Also the first Biopic to win Best Picture. But next up is the Second Biopic to win Best Picture The Life of Emile Zola.

Mutiny on the Bounty 1936

This week has gone pretty fast. Got the movie in last week but didn't get around to watching it till Friday, but I did clear most of my shows off the DVR and now that most shows have ended either for the summer or for good (RIP Lost and Flashforward) I have more time to watch movies. When I finally did get around to watching Mutiny on the Bounty I found out that the disc had some scratches on it so it skipped some parts. But I don't think I missed that much.

I was talking to someone earlier in the week and told them I was going to watch Mutiny on the Bounty and they asked me what it is about. I was like its right in the title theres a mutiny on the Bounty. Sums up the whole movie, what else needs to be said. But, just in case you haven't read the book, or seen any of the movies (I think there have been at least 3 versions)here is a quick plot synopsis. Basically the Bounty leaves from England to go to Tahiti to get breadfruit trees. The captain of the ship is William Bligh who is very harsh to his men and believes strict discipline is the only thing to keep them line. Fletcher Christian is the 1st Lieutenant and after witnessing one too many beating he organizes a mutiny and takes the ship back to Tahiti. Back on Tahiti the men live in relative peace with the natives and many men marry Tahitian women. When they see another British ship coming they know they are going to be hung for their mutiny so they take the Bounty and find a deserted island to live and burn the Bounty so no one will find it.

The movie was pretty good. The acting was excellent and the three main characters Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian, Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh, and Franchot Tone as Byam all got nominated for Best Actor. The only time 3 actors all got nominated for the same movie oddly enough none of them won the winner was Victor McLaglen in The Informer. It was soon after this that the Academy added the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories to prevent it from happening again. It was also the last movie to win Best Picture without winning any other awards and the second Best Picture winner in a row to star Clark Gable. Along with the acting everything else in the movie was well done too. The action sequences were pretty good. The love story was quick but just enough. Although I might have missed some of the love story because that is where the DVD skipped the most, but it worked for me.

What I didn't know till after watching it that the movie is based on true events. While a lot of liberties were taken the basic plot is true. The fact that Captain Bligh managed to sail his life boat through open waters using only a sextant and a pocket is pretty amazing. And then I was reading about the mutineers who lived on Picairn Island. There were 9 Britons, six Tahitians and 11 women who landed there. And at first it seemed like a tropical paradise but there were a lot of fighting and dislike between the Tahitians and Britons. Eventually after most of the original men had died there was peace on the island. Obviously with lots of inbreeding there were some health problems but today there are about 50 people that live on Pitcairn Island which oddly enough is now a British Overseas Territory.

It Happened One Night

Well my goal was to try and have a new post every Monday. I know I haven't really had a schedule but was going to try. Well didn't make it this week. The Lost Series finale took up four and a half hours of my time on Monday. That used up all my thinking for the day. So here it is a day late.

I decided to try something new this week. For the first time I watched a movie from netflix.com. I didn't realize that I could watch movies on the Internet and it didn't affect how many DVDs I would get a month. And it worked pretty well. I watched most of it at once but towards the end my dog was making a lot of noise and wanted to eat. I was hoping she would let me finish the last 15 minutes but she wouldn't wait. So I paused till the next day when I watched the last 15 minutes.

The movie is about a rich heiress(Claudette Colbert) who runs away from her father to meet up with a man she secretly married. She leaves her father in Florida and takes a bus up to New York. On the bus she meets up with a reporter(Clark Gable) looking for his next story. He promises to help her as long as he can have exclusive rights to the story. Of course as they travel together they fall in love and by the time she gets to New York she needs to make a decision as to stay married to her husband or have that marriage annulled and marry the man she just fell in love with.

This was the first romantic comedy to win Best Picture, and it was funny and entertaining. The playful banter between the two stars is great, and they get into some funny situations.
The end when she finally admits she loves him is a little over the top for my tastes but not horribly bad. The best line in the movie is at the end when the father asks Clark Gables character if he loves his daughter and Clark Gable says "YES! But don't hold that against me, I'm a little screwy myself!" Although one of the most famous scenes is probably the hitchhiking scene where Clark Gable is trying to show her how to hitchhike using his thumb and it isn't working. And she goes out there and shows a little leg and gets a car on the first try. He says "Why didn't you take off all your clothes? You could have stopped forty cars." Then she replies "Well, ooo, I'll remember that when we need forty cars."

It was one of the first movies to go on to become a real classic. The American Film Institute had it listed as 35 on their Top 100 movies and 8 on the Top 100 Comedies and 38 on their Top 100 Romantic movies. And not only was it the first romantic comedy to win best picture but it was the first of only 3 movies all time to win all 5 of the top Academy Awards. Those are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. That wouldn't happen again for over 40 years. It was also the first of three wins in five years for Frank Capra for Best Director.

While the movie was good and went on to become a classic and probably deserved to win. I am personally liked The Thin Man better. The Thin Man is another comedy (ranked #32 on AFI List of Comedies) about at Nick and Nora Charles a private detective and his rich wife and cant forget their dog Asta who help the police solve a murder while on vacation in New York. This movie is very funny with a lot of good one liners. After watching It Happened One Night I decided to rewatch this one to compare the two. And while The Thin Man had some slow moments I still find it funnier. All Nick cares about is getting his next drink but he still solves the case. The dinner party at the end is hilarious when he invites all the suspects to dinner to reveal who the killer is. They ended up making 5 more Thin Man movies. Definitely one of my favorite movies of the 30's.

Its interesting that both movies were up for best picture. These days you hardly ever find any comedies nominated for best picture and here you had two really funny movies nominated. And they both have to do with rich heiress'. I think its because of when they were made. It was in the middle of the depression and people just needed an escape. And what is better then seeing rich people just enjoying themselves and getting into hilarious situations. And after saying that we will see how Sex and the City 2 does this weekend. Another movie about rich women in funny situations. Funny how history repeats itself. I just don't think Sex and the City 2 will be nominated for best picture. But you never know now that there are 10 movies nominated.

Cavalcade

I was excited to rent this movie since I had never seen it before. The problem is that it is one of the two movies that won best picture that are not available on DVD. So I had to go down to the local library and get a library card then have the VHS tape sent over from another library since my library didn't have it. Then when I finally got it I wasnt sure if my VCR would work since I havent used it in so long. I was just glad the VCR was connected to the TV since I wasnt sure I did that last time I moved. So I popped in the tape and started watching the movie. And at first it was all snowy and staticy. I was like oh crap how do I adjust tracking again??But it must have been the tape because after a minute or two it started working. So all I missed was the begining title cards. But at one point I was having trouble hearing because the sound quality was kind of poor I was thinking I should put subtitles on but then realized you cant do that with a VCR. After changing the battery in the remote I was finally all set so I could pause and rewind when needed(for example when the dog was barking or my wife called me on the phone).

So after all the excitement of getting the movie and getting the VCR to work I finally watched it. The movie follows two British families from 1899 to 1933. One a rich family with two sons and the other their servent family with a daughter. It starts with the two fathers going off to fight in the Boer War then moves on from there. Most movies like this would take about 2-3 hours to tell the story this one did it in 1 and a half hours. So, it moved pretty quick through time. First their kids are young then the one is getting married, then he dies on the titanic, then their other son joins the army and fights in WWI.

The quick pace of the movie makes it hard to really get invested in any of the characters. Its hard to really care about any of them. The one we are supposed to care about is the mother of the rich family who struggles through all the hardships of losing her boys. But that doesn't really come across very well and she just turns into a depressing character. The only real interesting part is how the one family goes from being servents to being upper class when their daughters becomes a famous dancer. The movie definetly falls to the bottom of best picture winners. Maybe not the worst but very close.

Other movies that came out in 1933 that went on to become classics.

Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel

The 5th movie to win Best Picture. The story of the comings and goings of people at a luxurious hotel in Berlin. The movie mostly focuses on The Baron who is friendly and charmes almost everyone. We come to find out that he is a gambler and a thief and his only reason for being at the hotel is steal some pearls from a famous ballerina. The rest of the cast of characters are just a interesting. Especially Mr. Kringelein who is dying and decides to spend his savings and his last precious time living life to the fullest. He even gets to confront the owner of the company that he worked for who also happens to be staying in the hotel.

The appeal of the movie during the original release was the cast. It had some of MGM’s largest stars of the time and was considered financially risky because of the large salaries paid to the stars. Guess it would be similar to Oceans 11 today,lets see how many big name stars we can get into one movie. The two biggest stars in it are the two female actresses Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. Also in the movie are the brothers John and Lionel Barrymore who are the grandfather and grand-uncle of Drew Barrymore. It seems like the behind the scenes of the movie might be more interesting then the movie. Apparently Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford did not get along and the never appeared in a single scene together so neither one could upstage the other, and after initial previews MGM went and added more scenes of Greta Garbo so it didn't seem like Joan Crawford was the star of the movie.

The first time I watched this movie a few years ago I must have been real tired and fell asleep or just wasn't paying attention. I remember thinking the movie made no sense. But this time I paid attention and actually followed the movie. I found out its really not that bad. The characters were really interesting and I enjoy movies that have multiple characters that meet randomly and we get to see how each one makes a difference in the others life. It reminds me a little of another best picture winner Crash just on a smaller scale. The love stories in the movie were kind of the least interesting part but overall the movie was good. I was reading something online about movies that aged badly over time. It listed this one as an example. While it might not be a great movie it certainly isn't the worst movie, and I don't think it aged that badly.

Interesting note. This is the only movie to win Best Picture that was not nominated for any other Academy Awards. Also AFI had the line "I want to be Alone" as number 50on their 100 Best Lines from movies list(Not sure why, I don't think it was that memorable). Also that year at the Academy Awards Walt Disney won an honorary award for the creation of Mickey Mouse.