Summer Movie Catch-Up: Lists for Kids, Couples, and Hipsters

Posted on July 2, 2014 at 12:00 pm

Summer is a great time to catch up on some classic and even not-so-classic films, the movie version of beach books. The nice folks at Entertainment Weekly have come up with a terrific list of films all children should see before they get to high school. This is a good chance for parents to share some of their own childhood favorites with their children, like “The Princess Bride” and “Babe” and perhaps discover some they missed like “The Red Balloon” and “Duck Soup.” These are the movies that should inspire the scheduling of a monthly family movie night where we re-invent the idea that everyone sits down with a bowl of popcorn and enjoys the same movie at the same time in the same room.

And for couples, Esquire has helpfully put together a list of romantic comedies that men will enjoy. No Katherine Heigl, Jennifer Aniston, or Adam Sandler in the bunch, and some very well-chosen black and white classics like “Trouble in Paradise” and “Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.”

In case you’ve been waiting for some suggestions from perennial polymath James Franco, Vibe has published his list of some favorites. I was especially glad to see “Dogtown and Z-Boys,” one of my favorite documentaries, about a group of kids who transformed skateboarding and helped invent the idea of extreme sports.

Screen-Free Week 2014 Starts Tomorrow

Posted on May 4, 2014 at 8:58 am

Check out these ideas to help your family detox from television and the internet. And before you turn off your computers for a week, watch this to remind you what we miss when we look at screens instead of each other. Be sure to stay for the end.

Rodgers and Hammerstein Musicals Get New Releases from Fox

Posted on April 10, 2014 at 3:37 pm

Fox Home Entertainment is releasing the Rodgers & Hammerstein Blu-ray Collection on May 6. This Amazon-exclusive collection will feature six of the 15-time Academy Award-winning movie musicals by the EGOT and Pulitzer Award-winning team of Rodgers & Hammerstein, including Best Picture winner The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, The King and I, South Pacific, State Fair, and Carousel.

The set features brand new 4K digital restorations of The King and I and Carousel, the only two films made in CinemaScope55, and Oklahoma! meticulously restored in 4K from 8K scans of 65mm Todd-AO film elements in its original road show version at the unusual original frame rate of 30 frames per second.

Bonus materials include a Sing-A-Long version of The King and I for die-hard musical theatre lovers and more than an hour of behind-the-scenes features for Oklahoma!

Fox will release Oklahoma! and The King and I in stand-alone Blu-ray and DVD combo packs October 7 in commemoration of their 60th anniversaries in 2015 and 2016.

Half a Century of The Beatles!

Posted on February 8, 2014 at 3:57 pm

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first performances in the United States — and the half century of great music — be sure to watch the CBS Grammy tribute tomorrow night, featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. And you might want to take a look at this special issue of Smithsonian Magazine, produced with the Grammy Museum, with tributes from Smokey Robinson, Pat Benatar, Brian Wilson, Lester Bangs, and many more, plus never-before-seen photos and recollections by Ringo Starr.

Back in 1964, the Beatles looked like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqrauzHPpwE

Their career in music is unmatched. And they made some great movies, too.

By any standard, A Hard Day’s Night is a brilliant film, directed by Richard Lester in an intimate, improvisational style that still seems very fresh today. Because it seems like a documentary, people often forget that it was fully scripted by the talented Alun Owen, who was nominated for an Oscar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIqi9zY4V-A

Their next movie is the silly spoof Help!. It is still fun to watch.

Magical Mystery Tour is an incoherent mess, but the music is still great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjW8Rv5bp7Q

Yellow Submarine is one of the all-time greats of animation, with a charming story and wildly innovative visuals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7lRMw6f3EY

Let It Be is a documentary about what would turn out to be the last days of the Beatles, featuring an exhilarating rooftop concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhHRaleljHE

Cosmos Reboot on Fox and National Geographic Channel

Posted on February 3, 2014 at 8:00 am

Carl Sagan’s stunning “Cosmos” series is being updated for a return to television, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. It will premiere on Fox March 9 and be rebroadcast on the National Geographic Channel. Bill Moyers writes:

deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist with a gift of explaining complicated ideas simply, says the newCosmos will continue Sagan’s “epic exploration of our place in the universe,” and examine new discoveries of the past four decades.

“We have other stories to tell beyond the ones that went on back then … At the time of the original series, there were no known planets outside of those orbiting the sun. Right now, we’re rising through 1,000 planets happily orbiting stars that are not the sun. So that’s not simply new science. It’s new vistas of thought and imagination,” deGrasse Tyson told Bill Moyers in an interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBTd9–9VMI

In the meantime, take a look at the original series and the extraordinary online archive of Sagan materials at the Library of Congress.