Horror of Dracula - Hammer Films

Actors: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, Jophn Van Eyssen
Rating: 6 out of 10, a film from my youth when movies used to be recycled through theaters because there were no VHS or DVDs. I just loved the Hammer horror films, they were so English. I received a boxed set of them for this past Christmas. Both Cushing and Lee were favorites of mine and these movies scared the crap out of me in the 1960s. I guess its a comment about how much movies have changed but as I watched this last night I was amused at how tame it is now. Christopher Lee has been around for so long, recently appearing in the Lord of the Rings as Saruman. He was always the scariest Dracula for me - much more so than Lugosi or any of the modern incarnations. The real star of this series of films was Cushing, a really good actor, who plays Doctor Van Helsing here. It's interesting that both he and Lee became associated with the Star Wars series; Cushing as the original villain, Tarkin, in the first movie and Lee as Count Dooku in the newer films. I really enjoyed watching this purely from the nostalgia it presented. The dialogue was also so polite; it reminded me of a bygone era.
MVP: Cushing as the stalwart but at the same time frail Dr Van Helsing

Music Man

Actors: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Paul Ford, Ron Howard
Rating; 6 out of 10, a timeless classic that I remembered fondly from my youth, especially because it was one of my mother's favorite musicals. I bought this as a fling when I was ordering something else from Amazon. I clearly remember being inspired by the ending scene when Preston leads out the huge marching band - just thinking it was so cool. If you read my other blog you know I love parades - maybe it started then. I was a little disappointed that the scene doesn’t play as well for me now - it just didn't have the emotional punch I remembered. Maybe I grew up but I still love that song. Watching it on blu ray you can see some the really extravagant makeup they used on Preston to make him seem younger. Preston is one of my favorite actors but he seemed to almost be walking through this - which is really his signature role. I had forgotten how devastatingly beautiful Jones was and what a great singing voice she has. This movie seems a little hokey now but it is a great example of the bygone era of Hollywood musicals. It was funny to see Ron Howard as a lisping six year old.
MVP: Jones is the best thing about this movie as Marion the Librarian

The A-Team

Actors:  Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Sharlto Copley, Quinton Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bloom, Gerald Macraney
Rating:  8 out of 10, I love it when movies don't try to be anything they're not and just relish in being outlandish.  The A-Team TV show upon which this movie is based was totally over the top and didn't even try to get you to believe this was truly possible and the movie is true to that premise.  It has a truly great ensemble cast called upon to do some of these really over the top action sequences.  M1 tanks cannot be lifted by a C130 aircraft and cannot be parachuted yet here we have the boys not only lifting one in a C130 and then jumping the tank when the plane is shot down, using the weapon systems to have an aerial dogfight while parachuting and then using the main gun to steer to tank into a lake and then driving the tank out of the lake.  While the self-important, overly serious (pompous) movie critic would roll their eyes at this - I love it!  This movie rocks because it doesn't take itself seriously.  You have a loose plot that lets us follow the engaging characters through a series of totally outlandish action sequences.  This the A-Team not Macbeth!  A total escapist, popcorn mess of a movie that any true lover of action movies will rejoice in.  The only downer in the movie is Biel who is totally miscast as an Army investigator - I used to work with some of them.  They were all much smarter and incredibly uglier than Biel.  She just doesn't work but as stated above the rest of the cast is spot on, led by Neeson who is turning himself into an action hero late in his acting career.  Copley steals every scene he's in, as he is demonstrating in all of his movies so far, real talent and incredibly funny.
MVP:  Sharlto Copley as Murdock the truly crazy pilot but the best actor in this movie

The Adjustment Bureau

Actors:  Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, John Slattery, Anthony Mackie, Terence Stamp, Michael Kelly
Rating:  8 out of 10, really interesting love story set in New York City with a heavy dose of science fiction.  Damon and Blunt make a very appealing couple and have real chemistry with each other.  It was nice to see Blunt allowed to show a little bit of personality instead of playing a wan, English waif as she is all too often cast as.  Damon is really growing into a superb actor and is pitch perfect as the flawed but idealistic politician haunted by a lost love.  He is inadvertently allowed to see the adjusters at work and spends the rest of the movie trying to get Blunt back.  I really liked the theme of love conquering ambition.  The final chase through the doors which open at random places all over NYC was a lot of fun.  Seeing the adjusters forced to adjust on the fly was exciting and added a lot of tension.  Mackie, as Damon’s sympathetic adjuster is an extremely interesting actor - I think we're going to see some very good things from him in the future - boatloads of talent.  This movie is based on a Philip Dick short story.  So many great movies have been generated from this talented sci fi writer who died too young that there must be a team from Hollywood burrowing through his unpublished work to find even more gems.  A lot of people didn't like this movie and I think its because of the heavy science fiction.  If you love sci fi (guilty) and romance you're going to love this movie.
MVP:  Damon as earnest young David Norris pursuing a hopeless love that carries a potentially tragic price

Avatar

Actors:  Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore
Rating:  10 out of 10, Cameron surprises again.  Even thought this movie had a huge amount of buzz before it came out I went into it thinking it would be another one of those CGI dependent movies that just wanted to awe you with what they could do and forget about an actual story.  Boy was I wrong, this movie is simply great.  He did the same thing to me with Titanic.  This movie is groundbreaking because it takes CGI to a new much higher level.  Earlier animated type movies made you think you were watching cartoons.  Here you quickly forget this is an almost completely CGI world.  Everything seems so real, the special effects truly are seamless.  Cameron truly is a genius for putting all the money he spends on a movie up on the screen for all of us to see.  The story is incredibly engaging and a sledge hammer subtle jab at what we're doing to our own world ecologically.  I still don't know what to make of Worthington.  He's extremely competent but I just don't get the reason he is getting all the roles that he is.  Saldana is once again transcendent as the romantic interest even though most of her character is computer generated; her performance shines through.  Lang is a little over the top as the mad, military leader of the humans but it wasn't too far off the mark as I met many guys like this in the military.  It would be easy to see one of them going off the deep end in an isolated post such as this.  Bravo Cameron, once again you have made movie history by not forgetting why we go to movies in the first place; a great story, characters you care about and the magnificent fight against impossible odds.
MVP:  Saldana as Neytiri, still incredibly, yet uncomfortably, sexy even as an 8 foot tall alien

Bad Teacher

Actors:  Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, John Michael Higgins, Phyllis Smith
Rating:  8 out of 10, another very strong, female led, R rated comedy with Diaz playing against type as a foul mouthed, socially irredeemable teacher.  This movie takes chances by refusing to descend into mediocrity as so many comedies do by playing it safe.  It is very cool to see Diaz abandoning her good girl type roles and she is a very good comedic actor to begin with.  Timberlake once again surprises with an extremely solid supporting role as the geeky, rich boy and the target of Diaz' gold digging character.  This is one of the real strengths of this movie.  While Diaz does an adequate job as the lead, the supporting characters lend depth and some of the truly funniest moments.  Diaz is generous enough to allow this and even the small roles are allowed to shine.  Diaz is probably at the tail end of her ability to come across as a sexy vixen but she carries it off here, barely.  Higgins, always funny, scores again here as the dolphin loving principal as does Segel, so much better in supporting roles.  Punch is absolutely hilarious as the squeaky clean teacher Amy Squirrel, the foil for Diaz' depravity and competitor for Timberlake's affections.  A very funny movie, strictly for an adult audience.
MVP:  Diaz as the foul mouthed Elizabeth Halsey relishing being a bad girl

Battle for Los Angeles

Actors:  Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Pena, Bridget Moynihan, Ramon Rodriguez, Jim Parrack, Corey Hardict

Rating:  9 out of 10, a movie that finally gets the dynamics of a small infantry unit right and strangely enough does it in an alien invasion movie.  I was leery of this movie after Skyline, which was an unmitigated disaster of a movie from the prior year with basically the same plot.  I could not have been more pleased to be wrong.  As with all good science fiction the focus here is on the people and their story with the science fiction providing the backdrop.  Eckhart does a fabulous job capturing the importance and role of the non-commissioned officer in the US military.  The NCO is the backbone and real strength of the US military and they get it right here without turning his character into a caricature.  Rodriguez once again plays the plucky female military type - does she do anything else?  The movie starts out a little slow but once the battle starts it's hold onto to your seat excitement.  I did have some problems with the scenarios like over flying an active impact area with helicopters and then sending a ground unit to extract civilians by helicopter - why not send the helicopter in first?  These are minor issues and the struggle against the overwhelming alien force is epic in dimension without going over the top.  I also liked that these aliens, while possessed of a significant technology advantage were not invulnerable and had to deal with their own problems.  I left the movie thinking this is how many of the infantry units I was blessed to serve with would have performed; especially the last scene where the battle scarred survivors head back into the fight.  Great movie.

MVP:  Eckhart as Tech Sergeant Nance embodying all that is good about the NCO