"Snow Cake"

I recently stumbled across another one of those movies, that some how flew under the radar completely. I never saw a preview for it in the movies, I didn’t see any fan fair when it was released on DVD, but when my brother brought it home, and mentioned it had Sigourney Weaver in it, I figured what the heck and gave it a look.

Be warned, this is the only review I have ever posted that DOES HAVE A SPOILER.

“Snow Cake.” Is about an Autistic mother (Linda Freeman) who lives by herself. While autistic, she can function in a normal enough fashion to be left on her own. Emily Hampshire (Vivienne Freeman) plays the daughter of Linda, and is hitch hiking her way back to the small Canadian town she grew up in with her mother. Trying to find her next ride, Alex Hughes (played by Alan Rickman) comes into the story.

(Here comes the spoiler part. It really is not that big of a deal, and does not ruin the movie if you know this part.) Alex and Vivienne start their strange trek together, but tragedy strikes out of the blue, when they are both involved in a car crash. Vivienne dies, but Alex walks away with only scratches. Feeling a huge sense of guilt, Alex continues to Vivienne’s house to personally tell her mother of the tragic event. I will leave the rest of the story so as to not spoil anything else, but this strange and some times uncomfortable story is played out with some masterful acting by all parties.

As I got my first few minutes of watching Sigourney play an autistic adult, I honestly did not buy into it at all, but finally it started to sink in. Once my brain finally let go, and accepted her as the autistic person she was playing, her character just soared. There have been many actors over the decades that have taken on the ridiculously hard role of playing a mentally handicapped person, and with a few exceptions, most have been forgettable but Sigourney really stood out in this film.

Director Marc Evans takes this tragic, yet some times funny story, and brings it to life in very interesting fashion. The interaction between Rickman and Weaver is truly special, and the sadness between the death of Linda’s daughter and the strangeness of her reaction to this life changing event is filmed in way that you would not expect. While there was nothing in particular that was special in the way of set location, or the actual sets they filmed on, the movie still had a nice look to it when all was said and done. Let the watcher beware, this is not a typical Saturday night thriller you might normally rent, but if you appreciate true acting in any way then I recommend this film.

My rating for this movie is 8.00 out of 10.00

"The Prestige"

This DVD I’m reviewing here has been out for a while, so most of you have probably seen it, however since I personally thought this was one of the better movies that came out last year, I’m doing a review now just in case you haven’t checked it out yet.

Director Christopher Nolan has had his name out there on a few movies, but not a really large list that would put him in the top class. “The Prestige” as far as I am concerned now puts him in that top class. Actor Hugh Jackman, better known for his role in X-men, takes on a more serious role as Magician Robert Angier. I was not sure if Hugh could successfully make the turn on a dime transition from super hero, to super serious. I was more then surprised to find that not only did he make the transition well, but took his acting to a new level which will probably find him in much more astute roles in the future.

On the Flip side we have Actor Christian Bale who has quickly become Hollywood’s new man on the spot taking on Angier’s arch rival magician, Alfred Borden. Christian has already cemented his acting abilities in many different roles, serious and otherwise so I was not surprised in the least when he nailed this performance from start to finish.

“The Prestige” is more or less about two close friends who share a love for magic, but after one act goes terribly wrong, they end up becoming not only the worst of rivals, but the worst of enemies, always trying to out do each other at every turn on and off the stage. The pageantry, acting, special effects, filming, and anything else you can think of is superb. The plot is thick with surprises, twists, and turns to the point where you are on the edge of your seat constantly. Scarlett Johannson plays the love interest in this film, and is a key part in the story. Her acting is also top notch. I’m always excited to see such a young actress who is not only beautiful, but can do some serious acting.

Michael Cane makes a come back in this one, as the guiding voice of reason for Robert Angier as also does a great job. There is even an appearance by David Bowie as the renouned scientist of the time Tesla, and while Bowie has done a little acting in his career, he also grabs his role and makes it his own. The entire cast of this movie seems to just come together and tell this strange and fantastic tale in a way that probably could not have been done with different actors. I hope in the future that these folks get a chance to work together again. The ending will absolutely knock you for a loop. Pure Magic. If you only watch this movie once, then you simply didn’t get it.

My rating for this movie is 9.00 out of 10.00

"Christ the Lord"

I recently had the pleasure of reading a book that took me completely by surprise, so I thought I would share with you all, and hopefully you might check it out. Regardless of whether you are “Religious” or not, this book still makes for a fantastic read.

Up until just recently when someone spoke of Ann Rice, the first thing that came to mind was one of my favorite movies, “Interview with a vampire.” To me this movie was truly a masterpiece. The pageantry, the acting, the sets, the story, all just great, and of course I had heard of other vampire and witch books that Ann had written, and because I had enjoyed Interview with a vampire so much, I had promised myself that someday I would read some of her books and see how they came across written instead of acted.

While browsing through my local book store, I stumbled across the section of books with Ann Rice in it, and I started to peek at the different covers trying to decide which book to start with, when a particular title caught my eye. “Christ the Lord.” I thought to myself, this must have been placed in the wrong section, this is for sure not something written by Ann Rice. I picked the book up and noticed it was in fact written by Ann, so I read a little more information about the book, and it captured my attention enough to make it the first Ann Rice Novel I have ever bought.

“Christ the Lord” is the story of Jesus as a child between the ages of around 7 years old; up until I think he is about 13 years of age. Some would read this and dismiss the book quickly, but there is a different twist to the book that when you stop to really think about it, it grabs you by the shirt collar. The book is written in first person, in other words, Jesus, as a child is telling the story!

Stop and ponder that just for a moment. As adults, the magical world that exits in a child’s eyes has long since been blinded. The ugly truth about life has been revealed. There is no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, you have to work for a living, and play time is no more, and so on. The problem with this is that there is no going back. We can no longer see the world through the eyes of a child knowing what we all know, so with this simple and painful fact, writing a first person account of a child would be difficult at best. Not only does Ann write this book in a masterful way through the eyes of a child, but she does it through the eyes of JESUS CHRIST! I don’t know what else to say. This is a masterpiece.

The story itself is a bit dry if you are not at least the smallest bit religious or were at one point in your life, but the details Ann goes into with regards to the historical facts, places, events of the time during the life of Christ is exceptional. Her research is more in depth then any writer I have read. To say that the book was written with historical accuracy would be a ridiculous understatement. “Christ our Lord” was without a doubt one of the best books I have read this year, and I highly recommend it.

My rating for this book is 8.50 out of 10.00

"We own the night"

My apologies for not having posted anything in a few weeks. I did make it back out to the movies this past weekend, and checked out the latest Wahlberg / Phoenix movie, “We own the night.” I had a pretty good idea as to how this movie would play out, what would be good, what would be bad, and what my overall impression or review would look like even before I walked in the doors, and as with about 90% of my intuitions, I was correct on almost all accounts.

“We own the night,” is about a father Burt Grusinsky (played by one of my favorite actors, Robert Duval) and his two sons, Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) and Joseph Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg.) Burt is a police chief in 1988 located in New York. His son Joseph has followed in his footsteps and become a respected law enforcement officer, while his other son Bobby, has gone in the complete and opposite direction, and has even discarded his last name as to not be recognized as a Grusinsky, or anything having to do with the law enforcement family.

Bobby runs a successful nightclub that is owned by a rich Russian Mob boss. His life style is hedonistic to say the least, and when his own brother raids his club because one of the Russian mob boys hangs out there, the brothers have a major falling out. I won’t go much more into the story line, but I did like the way the story line was switched up a little from the direction where you would normally expect this kind of plot to go.

Bobby’s girlfriend in this film Amanda Juarez (played by Eve Mendes) plays the typical “sex toy” she has played a dozen times before which I found most disappointing. I was hoping she had finally started making a turn towards better roles for herself. She is still beautiful, and a few scenes did have show off a little of her acting abilities, but overall this was the wrong role for her. Wahlberg’s role seems to be a duplicate of things he has done before, and was nothing special, Joaquin however found several spots in this story for his acting to shine. While the story itself was boring, and un original as most films coming out of Hollywood, Joaquin managed to carry this movie long enough to hold my interest until the end.

Writer / Director James Gray doesn’t have much previous works to compare to when looking at his bio, but I have seen much worse come out established directors this year to complain about this project. The movie overall was shot well, and had a decent look to it, but character base was to scattered, and the story line did not make well enough use out of the big names that stared in this film.

My rating for this movie is 7.00 out of 10.00

"We are Marshall"

I’ve had a movie sitting around the house for two weeks now, and I guess I must have just been avoiding it because it was another “Sports” movie. Just like with my previous review, sports has been a reoccurring theme in Hollywood movies for longer then I have been alive. If you can think of a sports topic, or story, it’s already been done, and re-done. Naturally I went into watching “We are Marshall” with a bit of trepidation, but being a fan of Mathew McConaughey, I figured what the heck, and just tried to let myself get into the movie and see what happens.

“We are Marshall” is about a college football program for Marshall University that deals with the tragic loss of the entire team, coaching staff, and some of the teams fans, via a horrific plane crash. Yes, this is a true story, which does play a major role in making this film watchable. The question left after the tragedy happens is “Should the school continue on with the football program, or just shut it down out of respect for the lost team?” A powerful scene with a player on the team (Nate Ruffin played Anthony Mackie) that was not on the plane when it crashed but was back home with an injury sets up the whole story. There is a closed door meeting in which the football program will be scrapped, but Nate Ruffin, and few thousand students decide for the school that it should be saved.

From there a coach must be found. After the president of the school is turned down by every possible person that could take the coaching position, Jack Lengyel calls the school and offers his services. The next major hurtle is finding a team. There are only 4 seniors left alive that can play, and the NCAA rules prohibit freshman from playing, so what do you do? Well I’ve said enough about the story, I have to leave some of it for the potential watcher, but needless to say, there are quite a few major miracles that happen to get the program up and running again and along the way the pain and suffering of the school, the parents and family, and the entire town comes into play at almost every turn.

“We are Marshall” is not so much a movie about sports, as it is about a town that is devastated by this unbelievable tragedy, and the steps it takes to heal itself, and try to move on with their lives, while still keeping the memories, and traditions of there lost teams hopes and dreams alive.

There are so many bright spots in this movie with regards to acting, it would take to long to get into, but Matthew does such a fantastic job playing the part of Jack Lengyel. He seems to take his acting to a new level, and it was truly a pleasure to watch. Another bright spot was the small but very effective role of one of the lost football players girlfriends, Annie Cantrell (played by Kate Mara) The pain and suffering of this poor lost girl, is very easily felt with every scene she is in.

Director McG does a wonderful job of bringing you back to the early 70’s in every way. For those of you who had the unfortunate task of growing up in this time period as I did will feel my pain when you get a load of the clothing that was in fashion at the time. YIKES! “We are Marshall” is for sure a movie that is worth a look regardless of whether you are a sports fan or not. The story is heartbreaking, and triumphant, and is worth the DVD rental price, or even purchase for your collection.

My rating for this movie is 7.5 out of 10.00

"Black Book"

Over the past decade or even longer, there have been a slew of war movies. Different wars, different angles, different sides, but they all have some things in common that are always hard to watch. Suffering, sadness, and death. “Black Book,” is another helping of this, but along the lines of a “Grey zone,” Schindlers List,” or “The Pianist.”

The Main character in this movie Ellis De Vries (played by Carice Van Houten) is an innocent young Jewish woman. She and her family living in Belgium, are desperately trying to avoid the German occupied Holland and move to some place safe. In doing so, her family along with many others are betrayed, killed, and then robbed of all the possessions, money, and treasure they were carrying with them. Ellis manages to escape the massacre.

Now homeless and her family dead she joins up with the local resistance group and agrees to infiltrate the local Gestapo, and even go as far as to sleep with the enemy in order to gain their trust. Along the way Ellis actually becomes attached to the head Gestapo agent. Ellis does her job well, and goes to work for the group and the cloak and dagger begins. There are many twists and turns as the plot of the movie unfolds. Some are obvious, others are a surprise which makes things more interesting as you're watching the film.

I applaud Director Paul Verhoeven for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I liked the fact he kept the movie spoken in German. It just gave the script a more real feeling to it. Lets be honest, no one really likes movies that are subtitled, but this needed to be. I also applaud Paul for the over look and feel to the movie. The set designs, the filming locations, the pageantry, lighting, and costumes all were fantastic. “The Look” as I have come to call it, is the sense that the movie is filmed in such a way that it simply sucks you in, and makes you a part of the action. This movie does that very well.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this DVD preview, there have been so many war movies done that I don’t even want to try and count them. As every angle and every war has been done, and re-done, it’s hard to believe that another war movie could be made at the quality, and originality that this script provides. This is a fresh look into the terror that all Jews faced during WW2, and the lengths they would all go to try and survive as Hitler’s “Final Solution” was being implemented. There is great acting between all the characters, and there are just too many to list. Oh I also wanted to give high praise to the musical director of Black Book. The entire musical score was genius. I forget some times how much better a movie is with the right music going in the background.

My rating for this movie is a solid 8.00 out of 10.00

"Feast of Love"

OK guys, the movie I checked out this weekend, is pretty much the definition of “Chick Flick,” but have no fear, there is a little something in it for everybody. “Feast of Love” is a modern day story of several couples that meet, fall in, and out of love, suffer through hardships, and try to move on with life even with the pain that love causes.

Morgan Freeman has been a favorite actor of mine since I was child, and he played a main stay on the kids TV show “Electric Company.” If there is anyone out there besides me that remembers this show, then you may now officially consider yourself OLD! In this film Morgan plays College professor Harry Stevenson who witnesses this crazy thing called love every where goes. Being the teacher of young adults for many years, his eye has become very keen on seeing these things that most other people are simply blind to, some times even the very people that these things are happening to.

Greg Kinnear must be the most filmed un-known actor out there as far as I’m concerned. I barley recognize him from previous works, but I think he does a pretty good job with his character, Bradley Thomas, a coffee shop owner in the middle of down town Portland. He sees all kinds of people in and out of his coffee shop, and even has one of the main players in this movie “Oscar,” (Toby Hemingway) work in his coffee shop. Both Bradley, and Oscar meet and fall in love with people in his coffee shop. Harry, a frequent customer of Bradley’s shop, tries to give advice to both men, but some times people only hear what they want to hear, and of course this ends up with things going sour.

To make things worse for Bradley, he just happens to buy a house next door to Harry’s house, but what Bradley is unaware of is the so called curse that belongs to the house. The previous couples that move into the house, one after another for many years end up moving out of the house separately. Harry and his wife being witness to this supposed curse, tell Bradley about it, but just like other advice, he simply ignores it, and ends up paying the price.

There are many very well acted scenes in this movie, both happy, and un-happy. For many people watching the film, they will probably be moved in both ways remembering past experiences in their life. While none of the situations in this film may exactly mirror any one particular person’s experiences, the emotions dealt with are felt in a very real way. The pain of love gone wrong is something all of us have had to deal with, and all of us deal with this pain in different ways. This script runs the full gambit of how people deal with this pain. It brings to light certain ways that are not always healthy, be it physical, or emotional. While there is a very sad part to this movie towards the end which I will not spoil, the very end is good. Hollywood actually got an ending right for once, even if they had to go about it the hard and sad way.

My rating for this movie is 8.00