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jnaradzay
Reviews
Back to Gaya (2004)
An allegory that needs psychotherapy
Let me start by saying that the animated movie Snurks. Back to Gaya should not be watched by children. Unless you want to explain why the mean little snurk calls people a "putz". Or why the movie is dark and dreary like a new Batman movie. In order to enjoy this movie you must understand that this is a religious allegory with a some very bad ethnic references, the requisite "a female can be a hero too" story line, and a cookie cutter plot.
As far as a CG movie it is good. Not very good, but it has some terrific details. If you like to see pimples, pores, a stray nose hair, and blemishes then you will be impressed by the graphics. The bonus feature is kind of neat because you can watch how they build a skeleton, add "skin", texture, muscle movement, and facial features.
Did I already state that this is not a movie for kids? The story involves a "creator" (Patrick "Jean Luc Picard"), a mythical land where good battles evil (Eden, er, Goya), the good guys need "the light", ("dalamite"). The dalamite gets stolen by an evil genius with a limp and (don't be shocked) a big, bald head!! Lemme explain: evil will take away the light and you have to find the creator to get it back. If you don't get it back then you will be a putz (they said it, not me). Explain that to your kids.
Whose bright idea was it to give the poor little Snurks a shot glass filled with a Mickey? That's right, the Snurks get drugged by a tank-top wearing bar owner. I'm no censor but I know for a fact that cleavage does not belong in a kids movie.
Just to keep adults interested, the artists have decided to show you lot of the barmaid's cartoon cleavage and sagging you-know-whats. I know for another fact that sagging you-know-whats do not belong in a kids movie. And the barmaid's male lackey gets yelled at, scolded, called a putz, then kicked in the head. Way too much violence.
And they didn't miss a chance to make fun of fat people, short people, and anyone that looked different than heros. Sure, they had to cooperate to get back to Eden, er, Goya, but the snurk leader still had to bribe the "creator" to get equal treatment.
And why does "666" keep popping up in the background? Did I like it? Not really. I wish I didn't see it with my kids. What a putz (their words, not mine) I am.
My Blue Heaven (1990)
A mobster kills you with kindness
My blue heaven is a wonderful farce made in 1990 starring Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, and Joan Cussack. In classic fashion this movie presents situations that are so humorous because of their ridiculous nature. But don't underestimate the power of this farce as a vehicle to show the transformation each character. Vinnie becomes an honest citizen, Barney learns how to spice up his life to a salsa, and Hanna gets rid of her Army shoes.
You may see similarities between this movie and Martin Scorsese-type New York gangster movies. Purportedly My Blue Heaven was loosely based on the story of Henry Hill, Good Fella and famous snitch. Many of the external characterizations by the stock characters are seen in both types of "hey-howya-doin" movies.
True to being full of exaggeration, watch how Vinnie (Martin) talks his way out of grand theft auto when talking to Hanna Stubbs (Cusak) a prudish assistant DA. Little things are exaggerated but divulge the essence of each character like Barney (uptight, by-the-book geek) getting caught by his seat-belt harness.
All of the verbal and physical humor is way over the top using deliberately exaggerating gesticulations, footwork, and language.
Great songs set the farce in motion and vaudevillian acting keeps it going. The movie opens with My Blue Heaven as song by Fats Domino; Angel in paradise belted out by Tony Bennet's. You will want to learn how to do the merengue and salsa after watching Barney get an education from Vinnie and girls in New York.
For the action loving fan watch the wham-bam-sock'em number Barney does on Daniel Stern, Hanna's ex-husband.
A real treat is watching Bill Irwin playing Kirby, Barney's FBI partner. Irwin is a Tony award winning comic, mime, choreographer, Mr. Noodle on Elmo's world, and star of the stage. A lot of viewers have no idea the Bill Irwin is the Charlie Chaplin of our time.
And Shaldeen (Carol Kane) as the leopard skin wearing hootchie-mama. Vinnie: It is dangerous for you to be here in the frozen food section Shaldeen: Why is that? Vinnie: Because you could melt all this stuff. And she buckles at the knees. What a hoot!
I gave My Blue Heaven movie ten stars because it is a classic farce that uses quick physical comedy and tight dialogue to generate a good feeling for you.
Annie Hall (1977)
New York angst on the romance couch.
Annie Hall shows us the love story between Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). We watch Alvy as he matures and moves through several relationships set against the true love of his life: Annie Hall.
Alvy helps Annie grow and come out of her shell as evinced by the growth of Annies blossoming singing career. Even the songs are a metaphor for their relationship. Her first song "It had to be you" when their relationship starts. Later she sings in a mature, sultry voice "Seems like old times." Set against snapshots of their romance.
Keep your eye out for these young actors: Christopher Walken pre-Deer Hunter, as Annie's psycho brother "I dream of turning the wheel into the on coming lights." Alvy interrupts him "I have to get back to the planet earth." Jeff Goldblum pre-Big Chill, Jurassic Park, The Fly, In Tony Lacey's house calling his guru: "I forgot my mantra." Paul Simon as Tony Lacey a Californian music star. Carol Kane as Alvy's first wife whose relationship is influenced by Alvy's obsession with JFK's assassination conspiracy theories. Colleen Dewhurst, Annie's WASP mother, talking through the split screen to Alvy's mother. See if you can spot Sigourney Weaver as Alvy's date standing in front of the movie theater when Alvy meets Annie in NY at the end of the movie. Watch Gary Mule Deer in full afro when Alvy meets Annie in California. Now Gary tours with Johnny Mathis. Shelly Duvall as the transcendent Rolling Stone reporter. In a few years she will become Olive Oyl then Wendy of the famous "Here's Johnny" scene from the shining. My, how this movie hasn't aged at all. And that really is Truman Capote walking through the park when Alvy says, "And this guy gets the Truman Capote look-alike award."
You have got to like Tony Robbins, a square jawed ladies man in many of Woody Allen's movies (Radio Days, A midsummer nights sex comedy, Play it again Sam). You don't mind seeing Robbins type cast because you instantly know that he is going to be the perfect opposite of Allen's angst filled Alvy.
Another Woody Allen directing feature that I happen to like is his use of the split screen and the fixed screen. In both, the camera doesn't move thereby forcing you to get involved in the dialogue. These techniques work because Woody Allen has strong, tight dialogue and truly dramatic actors.
Many of the scenes from the late 70's and early 80's are wonderful to watch because they reflect the matter of fact mores and fads of the time: Snorting cocaine was cool, the veggie-burger-tofu California scene, the liberal Columbia college satire.
Listen carefully to the background chatter during the California scene at Tony Lacey's house with swinging' hip background music. Hysterical lines that you can use in your office today: "Right now it is only a notion, but I think I can get the money to make it into a concept then later turn it into an idea." Woody Allen has satirized and captured the language and mind set of the entire movie/music industries.
A memorable scene is when Alvy pulls Marshall McLuhan out from behind a movie placard to refute some bombastic guy pontificating about McLuhan's poetry. You wish you could do the same.
Truly a great movie that ages well and has a sweet message about romance.
Valiant (2005)
Queen, God, and Pidgeons
Five unlikely pigeons band together to deliver an important message to the allied command before D-day. And they save the day. A cartoon that matches great voices to classic British characters: the small guy, er, bird who becomes the unlikely hero; the snooty, erudite who shows guts, the dirty, street smart shell-game bird who talks his way into and out of problems. You know these characters. When you see the sergeant who has to get the rag tag birds together, think: Big Joe (Telly Savalas in Kelly's Heros).
You already know what will happen to Falcon Von Talon, voiced by the devilish Tim Curry. Don't let the predictability and formula stop you from seeing this movie with your kids. And this is a kids movie. Not too scary but you might have to explain why the falcons are "bad".
If you like war movies from the 1940s and 50s and you like really good cartoons then you will like this movie. And so will your kids. Watch this movie on Friday family movie night. Make sure you have room on your couch for the family pet. Take time to give the animals their do.
The Dickin Medal was awarded to any animal displaying gallantry and devotion to duty during World War II.
A very enjoyable light fare for you and your children.
Saints and Soldiers (2003)
Soldiering, Spirituality, Courage, Guns, and Guts. A guys guy movie
Emperor Hirohito: All men are brothers, like the seas throughout the world. Soldiers and Saints brings this to the big screen without preaching it.
Soldiers and Saints is better than Saving Private Ryan (SPR). Soldiers and Saints has intimacy, guns, guts,explosions without big scenes, big names, or big guns. As a matter of fact, for most of the movie there is only one gun and four bullets. But four men fight for sanity, sleep, food, and their own salvation just as hard as anyone involved in Operation Overlord.
Four Americans and one reluctant Brit must bond and persevere cold, snow, and fear in order to make it to safety. When the four Americans live after the Marmady Massacre they learn about themselves through the actions of Deacon.
Don't be fooled that this is a simple war movie. This is a movie about spirituality and God. What happens when you know, I mean lived with and loved, the enemy? Are they still your enemy? What happens when you let "your enemy" live? Do you become "the enemy"? Deacon, superbly and humbly played by Corbin Allred (Josh Kirby--Time Warrior, Men in Tights). Deacon is confronted with a classic moral dilemma: is it our duty to do what is right when the outcome might be bad? For example, does Deacon shoot an unarmed German soldier? The medic Gould asks Deacon: Would he kill Hitler after Deacon admitted that "they are just like us only in a different uniform"? Deacon raises his Bible and says to the medic (Alex Polinsky: Perfect Fit, Law and Order)"You are the one with a lot of questions, I think you need this book more than me."
This movie is for fans who have seen every war genre movie. You must be familiar with black and white, good vs bad, us vs them movies such as From Here to eternity, Tora, Tora, Tora, or In Harms way. The message was so simple: we are good--they are bad.
The viewer must understand what happens to the man in the uniform: Sargent York, Das Boot, Mr. Rogers, The Big Red One, The Deer Hunter, and SPR.
The war movie aficionado must empathize with what happens to men who have been through war: The Best Years of Our lives, Born on the Fourth of July, or Full Metal Jacket.
If you have made it through all of these movies you will understand that there is never a good war or a bad peace (B. Franklin).
What happens in the zone between war and peace are well done in Saints and Soldiers. The intimacy in this movie is seen in the details: the psychological battle between the Brit with a cigarette and the Yank who wants a cigarette, telling the German guard "Mein Frau" when the German guard is going to throw away Deacon's picture of his wife (the Guard slips it back into Deacons pocket).
This movie is on the A-list above Band of Brothers, Windtalkers, and Saving Private Ryan. A must see movie.
Pay attention to the score. It sounds very familiar to the theme heard in SPR. I wonder which one came first?
The DVD contains a terrific bonus feature that has all of the major actors, producer, director and others talking about the making of the movie. Who knew that potato flakes make great snow?
Thank the friend that gives you this movie or become a better friend by giving this movie to someone.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Inhumanity brought to life to save humanity
D-Day. Operation Overlord. What we say here cannot do justice to what they did on that day. Tom Hanks and his patrol must recover Private James Ryan before his mother gets her fourth flag delivered by an Army chaplain. It all makes perfect, illogical sense to kill many to save one.
After surviving the Normandy landing, Hanks is volunteered to put his men in the line of fire again and again. Just to save one man.
Or is it?
A bridge is saved, a town is secured, a bigger battle is won..All because Hanks saved one shoe for one horse...
Beautifully realistic to make the atrocities of war invade, assault, and overpower all five senses. You feel the bullets whizzing past your head. You see the man looking for his arm after it was blown off is shoulder. You smell the burning hatred for the Nazis as one US soldier yells to his comrades "Don't shoot them..let them burn."
It is too much to watch..but you have to see it.
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Suspense and Class: All in a Day for the Jackal
The OAS must recruit an assassin from outside their ranks to kill Pres. DeGaull. What no one expects to see is a debonair, disciplined, and determined Edward Fox, The Jackal.
Director Fred Zinneman (High Noon, From Here to Eternity, A man for all seasons, Julia) keeps the action tight and moving. I have to ask myself How did they he get the parade scenes? Realism and plausibility keep the movie together. You don't know what the Jackal is doing until 2 seconds after he does it, then the little light bulb does off: That is why he set up an apartment months in advance, or why he hooked up w/ a guy: to stay out of hotels.
The actors on both side of the English channel are terrific to watch. I was cheering for the French and English Inspectors. They epitomized skilled, dedicated, seasoned investigators who did things very, very well despite the handicaps of having two govts watching their every move or leaking vital secrets. Two cheers for a young Derek Jacobi. YOu can see him later in Ken Branagh's Henry the V. He is one of the many fine actors in this film.
All in all a wonderfully suspenseful movie. Once you watch this movie you get a good sense of comparison of how very little can be done to show a lot of action. No blood and guts but you know that people die. Compare this version to Bruce Willis' over the top, "show the severed arm, show the tongues flicking in the air (when he plays tonsil hockey w/ his male lover), and glass starts flying when he unleashes his machine gun. Heck, The Jackal (Edward Fox) uses a gun made from a crutch and you know that someone's head will explode like a watermelon.
Lots of class and suspense at a bargain price.
Jerry Naradzay
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
A lot of things don't appear as they seem
It was a wildly awful plan: kidnap Churchill from his seaside cottage. Don't kill him, just borrow him for a while to negotiate a better truce. How sensitive. Hey, they did got Il Duce in the same way. As the fates would have it, Duvall was given the job of making it happen and luck was on his side. The plan needed a gutsy, "nothing to lose" type of officer. Luck again: Michael Cain. A highly decorated German SS officer is about to face the death sentence (for saving a Juden. Why? Who cares, logic will only get in the way of the plot). Things are going just great when, BAD LUCK. A small group of US Rangers are camped out in town. How did the great Nazi's miss this point. For goodness sakes, they had Donald Sutherland parading around town as a Marsh Warden, they had a mole in town scoping everything out at Churchill's abode! How did they get every detail about the town correct and overlook a whole bunch of US Army Rangers?! Don't let another lapse in plausibility spoil the plot. OK. so the Germans land in town disguised as Polish (I thought they lost the war?) paratroopers (not the ones who bought parachutes that open on impact). The German/Poles are running around town practicing maneuvers (wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Just to add some spice, Donald Sutherland, using a great can of red hair dye that came with a thick brogue, gets a little innocent 19 year old girl to fall in love with him. How nice. How did he do it? Must have been the way he espoused poetry. Plausibility has to be suspended again for us to believe that smack in the middle of a war, the lass is ready to give up, nay, SHOOT, her long time beloved.
The best action scene is when Sutherland opens up a can of pugilistic poetry on the nose of the town's only sensible guy. I love it when Sutherland says: Don't worry father, we were just discussing the trinity: Foot work (bam, a shot to the guy's nose, Timing (whack, anothe shot to the nose), and jabbing (pow, sock'em, down goes the good guy). It reminded me of Ingrid Bergman teaching the street urchin to fight in The Bells of St. Mary.
The novel by Higgins was good because I believed that the Germans were actually German. The movie fails to convince me that Michael Cain,Anthony Quayle, Donald Pleasance, and every other English speaking actor is a German. Accents come and so fast that the actors lose the plausibility factor.
And Larry Hagman's acting is over the top. Did the director intentionally ask him to be a buffoon. I knew after he spouted his first lines that two things were going to happen to him: 1) he was going to be dead very soon. 2) He was going to jeopordize the mission (the Germans could pull it off) 3)Michael Cain was going to show his keen bravado by making Hagman's character die young. It was a set up. Larry Hagman is a great dramatic actor. If you don't think so, then I suggest you watch him in go line for line with Henry Fonda in Fail Safe.
The "action" scenes are reminiscent of a gunfight scene on "The A team". GI Joe's jump, roll, and come up firing. Perfect shots, right through the narrow window casing that happens to have a crack German paratrooper positioned perfectly in the center of the frame. What luck again!. The crack German paratroopers forgot everything they learned about having a low profile. Even I know that you should not stand in the middle of a window. But then, how would we get to see them do the famous front head dive with a half-gainer.
I wanted to feel something for Michael Cain's character: A man with conviction. A man of valor who happened to be wearing the wrong uniform. But I just couldn't believe it. He is the character that knows better than everyone else. If he knows so much why does he end up so dead?
This was the last film for director John Sturges. He really gave depth to the characters he directed in The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven. But he missed the "depth" chapter for characters in this movie. He chose all English actors (a casualty of ITC, the movie's distributor?) to act like Germans. Whassup with that? In the Great Escape he had Germans play Germans, Americans play Americans, and Donald Pleasance play an Englishman. What a concept.
Well, the Germans couldn't pull off taking WC. Everyone gets their just rewards.
Don't bother watching it. Even Winston Churchill was a fake. If you want to see a good movie with many similarities then watch Went the Day Well.