Future Poltergeist

'Born on the Fourth of July' - Ok. 'Dead Poet's Society' - A great movie. Still has an impact on me almost 20 years later. Robin Williams is excellent. 'Driving Miss Daisy' - A good movie, but not great. (Sorry, Mom.) 'Field of Dreams' - A very good movie, though not as good as 'Bull Durham'. And yes I cry when he plays catch with his father. The movie gives me chills and you have to respect that. 'My Left Foot' - Amazing acting, both from Daniel Day-Lewis and from his younger counterpart, Hugh O'Conor. Impressive movie. 'Driving' won the Best Picture but I'd have given it to 'Dead Poet's'.

"I've got a head for business and bod for sin." That was the famous line from this Melanie Griffith film. Note that her list of attributes doesn't include the ability to act. And while her 'bod' was for sin it wasn't remotely as attractive as the movie wants you to believe it is. Moreso than Sigourney Weaver, but that's a pretty low threshold. This movie is ok at best and it's amazing that it got a nomination. (Actually, looking at the list of other nominees , the cupboard was rather bare. I still would have gone with 'Bull Durham' or 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. Probably even 'Diehard'.)

In 1964, three civil rights activists disappered in Mississippi. There were immeadiate fears of wrong doing although residents of Mississippi were certain that they were up north stirring up trouble. It probably didn't matter as there was widespread belief that they were only creating trouble in an area that they didn't understand. Two FBI agents are sent down to investigate. One of them (Gene Hackman) is from the south and understands it's ways. The other (Willem Dafoe) is a northener who wants to use bureau procedure to proceed. The investigation does not go well. Finding information is very difficult and the locals are afraid to talk to them. Manpower doesn't work. Publicity doesn't work. Finally, Hackman takes over and uses more brutal methods. He pursues justice at any cost and by whatever method is needed. This involves kidnapping and brutality. The KKK ring is broken and several of the ringleaders are jailed. Of all the movies in this project that ...

What happens when a pair of vipers stop admiring each other's work and decide to attack each other instead? That's the situation that this movie creates. John Malkovich and Glenn Close play members of the French nobility that have adopted cruelty as a hobby. They delight in manipulating the people around them, creating destruction and humiliation. They also delight in seduction. Most of this story's tricks involve it. Seducing against one's will, seducing from principle and taking advantage of youth and inexperience. The movie is clever and well put together but it's hard to care for the main characters. The scenery and costumes are very well done. The acting is superb. It's a very good movie.

What happens when you take a character from a low-key family, give him a tragedy that makes him distant and then supply a plot in which almost nothing happens? That's the perfect storm that 'Accidental Tourist' explores. William Hurt (it's not an 80's Oscar movie without him!) plays a business travel writer. He was selected for that job because he doesn't like to move outside of his comfort zone. If a rolling stone gathers no moss, you could use this man to tell which way north is. The story takes place about a year after his son is killed in a sensless random burglary gone wrong. His wife (Kathleen Turner) wants a divorce. She needs someone who'll help her regain her faith in humanity and Hurt can't do that. (By the end of the movie, you'll look for someone to help you regain your faith in screenwriting.) Hurt meets a crazy woman (Geena Davis) who takes in interest in him. The reason behind this isn't explored. She helps him train his d...

A very interesting movie. It's set during WWII, London during the blitz to be specific. The opening scene shows a young boy playing in the backyard while the radio explains that a state of war exists between England and Germany. It's a beautiful day and it's hard to believe they're at war. The mood is a little tense but mostly excited. The boy's husband explains to his mom that it'll be over in six months. This is a slice of life movie I guess. The twist is that it takes place during a very unique time. When the air raid siren sounds everyone must head to the shelter. The bombing raids are indescriminate and even quiet neighborhoods are at risk. There's an incredible scene where the family stands on their front lawn and watchs a dog fight up above. They follow the contrails up high. Life goes on, and the young are particulary adaptable. When the house down the street is bombed, it becomes a treasure trove for the young boys. They collect shrapnel...

Imagine being raised to believe you were a god. You could have anything you wanted. When you were naughty someone else was punished. The only laws you couldn't break were the ones laid down by tradition. The only barrier you couldn't cross was the exit to your own personal city. This was the life of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China. This movie is told as a series of flashbacks. The 'present' is a communist reeducation camp in 1950. Yi and the other prisoners have been asked to write their life stories. Through this we get to see his upbringing and adulthood. We also see his relationship with English tutor, Reginald Johnston. The tutor helps to westernize Yi. To make him a gentle-man. Things collapse as one of the provisional governments evicts Yi from the Forbidden City. He flees to Manchuria and finds himself under Japan's thumb. His childhood has ill served him to detect double-dealing. He finds himself bound in place and the end of WWII places him u...

Um, this is not a movie for the meek at heart. Michael Douglas plays a New York city lawyer with a nice family, loving wife and rather boyish looking young girl. His wife heads to the country one weekend to look at a house. He ends up sharing an umbrella/dinner/bed with Glenn Close. Whoops! They spend most of the weekend together. When he tries to leave the apartment she freaks out. Then she apologizes and slits her wrists. Not exactly a balanced person. He immeadiatly feels guilty. He pays more attention to his wife and reflects on how wonderful she really is. But his fling won't stop calling him. She forces him into a meeting where she tells him she's preganant. He can see his life falling apart. When he tries to cut her off it just gets worse. And worse. How bad? Let's just say that this movie probably didn't up the sale of bunnys. I'd love to know the backstory for this movie. I'm guessing someone somewhere did something really bad to creat...

I'd never seen this movie before. The FP Gal couldn't believe it. The clips I've seen have featured a very unattractive Cher. Maybe that's why I avoided it. Well, I was wrong to do so because it's very charming. The story is simple. A young widow (Cher) is proposed to by her longtime boyfriend. After she makes him get down on one knee, she accepts. This is right before he boards a plane to Palermo to see his dying mother. As he's leaving, he asks her to invite his estranged brother to the wedding. When she offers the invitation, she discovers that the brother (Nicholas Cage) is crazy with anger. His reason is kind of silly. They go back to his place to discuss it. And fall in love. At the same time we discover that her father is having an affair. Somewhere in the middle of this is a story about a strange moon, a bella luna . Her uncle tells of a night when the moon was so close that he thought it would fall on the house. This leads to a very sweet ...

This is a movie written by James L Brooks (of Simpsons fame). It's a funny/smart look at modern professional life. The movie opens with a young boy who is cute but just can't do well at school. He's a future network anchor. It cuts to a snotty young man who is smart as a whip but has the social skills of a mule. He's a future reporter. One more cut, this time to a young girl who has freakish attention to detail and chastises her father for using the word 'obsessive'. She's a future producer. They grow up to be William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter. Brooks and Hunter are well regarded in journalism circles. Both work at their network's Washington DC bureau. Hurt is a local sportsdesk guy who is being fast tracked to an anchor position. Hunter is upset by his obvious lack of credentials. Brooks is jealous of his charisma and upcoming fame. Adding to the conflict is the love triangle that develops. There is a very good scene where Hunt...

Children of a Lesser God Hannah and her Sisters The Mission A Room with a View Platoon No real overwhelming standout movie for this year. Each of these movies could be used to represent a major category of Oscar type movies. 'Lesser God' has handicapped/social issue style covered. 'Hannah' is an intellectual comedy. 'The Mission' is an historical epic. 'Room with a View' is the film version of an English novel. And 'Platoon' is the cutting edge director/war movie. All that's missing is a musical and movie about crime/the mob. 'Platoon' won the Best Picture. I would have gone with 'The Mission'. None of these are great. They're more of an 'Oh, yeah, I really liked that movie' type. Best music was in 'The Mission'.

Everybody's favorite party movie! 'Platoon' details a year in the life Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) while he serves in Vietnam. He's a young man who volunteered to go rather than being drafted. His first lesson there is that no one likes the new guys. They don't seem worth the effort. He'll learn more lessons as he goes. All of them from the 'War is Hell' book (not written by Matt Groening). He serves in an all star platoon. His sergeants are Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe (Forest Whitaker and Johnny Depp are also present). The sergeants represent two different philosophical paths. Berenger is an old blood 'n' guts, do what it takes type. Dafoe is more of a noble warrior, wanting to win hearts and minds in the field while smoking dope back at base. The two come head to head after Berenger tries to beat some information out of a possibly innocent villager. He becomes enraged and executes one of the women. This splits the platoon as sold...

This is a very English film. It begins however, in Florence Italy. Lucy Honeychurch and her chaperone/aunt Charlotte Bartlett. They arrive to discover that they weren't given a room with a view like they were promised. Their plight is overheard by Mr Emerson and his son who offer to switch with them. The Emerson's are free-thinkers and more than a little ecentric. Lucy wants to roam the streets on her own but she happens upon a knife fight. One man is stabbed. Lucy faints. George Emerson (the son) rescues her and they begin to share a moment. A few days later, he kisses her. Just once and quietly, so know one else finds out. Back in England we find Miss Honeychurch becoming engaged. Her fiance, Cecil Vyse, is an insufferable snob. He schemes to get a pair of strangers into a neighbor's rental. These strangers turn out to be the Emerson's. Will Lucy stay with Cecil or end up with George? This movie has some nice moments and nice music. The cast is strong ...

This movie is known for two things, the first of which happens very early in the film. The story begins with the dictation of a letter to the Pope. The letter concerns a series of missions in the Amazon basin. The first priest to the area is shown amongst the tribe. They've lashed him to a wooden cross. They carry the cross into the river and let it go. The camera follows it down the river until (spectacularly) it goes over the falls. The movie deals with the complex world of South America in the 1750's. Brazil was a Portugese territory while the rest of the continent was firmly Spanish. Jesuit missonaries had gone into the jungles to convert the natives. Some attempts were disasterous and resulted in martydom. Others were very successful. Especially the ones that used music. The movie notes that if the Jesuits had had an orchestra, they could've conqured the all of South America. But not every plan for the natives was benevolent. Slave traders also went into t...

This movie is simple to review. If you like Woody Allen you'll like it. If you don't, you won't like it. Simple, no? This movie centers on a woman named Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her two sisters, Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Diane Wiest). The movie is told chapter style with different chapters focusing on different characters. It opens with Hannah's husband, Elliot (Michael Caine) lusting after Lee. This forms the central part of the story. Another part of the story centers on Hannah's ex-husband played by Woody Allen. He's a nervous hypochondriac who has a near brush with bad news. This causes an existential crisis in his life. He starts exploring other religions in an effort to comfort himself about the afterlife. All in a witty manner. Allen's movies always make me want to move to New York. They show the city as a cosmopolitan dream. His taste in jazz music is also quite nice. But his characters always leave me cold. They seem to be actor...

William Hurt plays a teacher who is newly arriving at a deaf school. His approach to teaching is not traditional. Think Robin Williams in 'Dead Poet Society'. He's hip and modern. One of the first things he does is to start his students singing along with rock music. He soon meets an angry young woman (Marlee Matlin) who works at the school. She was one of the students since the age of five. Completely deaf and unwilling to learn how to read lips or speak. Hurt falls in love with her. She rebuffs his efforts to help her and we learn that she was taken advantage of when she was younger. He eventually breaks through with his vulnerablity. The movie shows their continuing relationship as he works to gain her trust. There is a very interesting tension in this story. Matlin wants to be accepted only on her own terms. She seems to think that lip-reading or speaking will harm her self image. Make her less her own self. Hurt tries to respect that but he can't help ...

The Color Purple Witness Prizzi's Honor Out of Africa Kiss of the Spider Woman (It took too long for me to get this roundup together. I guess these are the dog days of the movie project. I still feel bad that I couldn't get to all five movies.) This is a real mix of movies. 'Witness' is a straight crime movie. 'Prizzi' is a twisted plot driven movie. 'Purple' is a story about abuse and retribution while 'Africa' is an epic of freedom and security on the frontier. Good movies but the only one I thought was great was 'Witness'. 'Africa' won the Best Picture and I think that's reasonable. If you showed this set of movies to 100 people I doubt any movie would top 30% as a favorite. My favorite music from this set is the barn-raising piece from 'Witness'. The overall score of 'Africa' was wonderful.

I've run into a problem with this movie and I don't know how to solve it. Simply put, I can't find it anywhere. Netflix doesn't have it (it's not out on DVD). The rental stores don't have it. The Minneapolis Public Library doesn't have it. Frankly, I'd doubt that it ever really existed. So I'm going to move on to the next film. I've put this post up here in case any of the few people that read this blog have seen it and can comment on it. Note: I could probably find it on Amazon but I'm not willing to go to that much trouble.

"I had a farm once, in Africa." Thus opens this sweeping epic of a movie. It's based on the writings of a Danish Baroness (Meryl Streep). She has quick marriage of convenience that takes her to Africa where she runs a coffee plantation. While there she takes an interest in educating a tribe that lives on her property. This ruffles some feathers amongst the English that make up her neighbors. She also makes an acquaintance with a pair of ivory traders, one of whom is played by Robert Reford. They discover that she has a great talent for storytelling. This launches a friendship that gradually becomes a love affair. This becomes an odd situation as her legal husband has taken to living in town to persue an open bachelorhood. The relationship is doomed as his need for independence clashes with her need for security. I've never been a big Streep fan. I've thought of her as a fine actress but haven't seen anything special from her. This movie changed my m...

This is a mob movie with a nice twisty plot. It's directed by John Huston which surprised me as I think of him as doing western's like 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre'. There's a very nice early shot of the Prizzi mob boss, William Hickey (the father from 'Forget Paris'). The plot revolves around a mob hitman (Jack Nicholson) who falls in love with the wrong woman (Kathleen Turner). There is betrayal, surprise and a nice bit of conflict between love and family. But...Nicholson is terrible in this movie. His Italian accent is Joey-esqe. His character is supposed to be high up in the family's orginization but he comes across as a slow witted oaf. His transition into being in love is utterly unconvincing. I'm generally a fan of Nicholson, but this movie would have greatly improved with someone else. It's good and you can see where it could have been great but that sinks it.