Charlie Wilson’s War

Posted on April 22, 2008 at 6:00 pm

charlie%20wilson.jpg It is not easy to take a wealthy socialite, a powerful Congressman, and a CIA agent, have them played by three Oscar-winners, two who are genuine box office gold, and make them look like the underdogs, but in this “extraordinary story of how the wildest man in Congress and a rogue CIA agent changed the history of our times” (as put in the unusually accurate book subtitle), that is what they are.

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Reservation Road

Posted on April 7, 2008 at 10:13 pm

Weâ€™ve all done it. We know we shouldnâ€™t. We know it is dangerous. Dwight (Mark Ruffalo) is racing to get his 10-year-old son home after a ball game went into extra innings. He is talking on the cell phone to the boyâ€™s annoyed and anxious mother. And he is going too fast around the curve, just as his son slips out of his seatbelt to change the channel on the radio. Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix) has a 10-year-old son who is standing too near the edge of the road, freeing some fireflies from a jar.

And the unthinkable happens. A sickening thud. The driverâ€™s son hits his head on the dashboard. And the car keeps going. The father speeds away, in shock and denial, seeing to his boyâ€™s bruises and still trying to get him home on time, desperately, irrationally, magically thinking that maybe if his boy is safe, the other one will be, too.

But he is not. As Luke Arno (Eddie Alderson) is being returned to his mother, holding a bag of frozen peas to his swelling eye, the other boyâ€™s mother and sister are huddled in the back of a police car, shattered by grief.

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Based on a book Drama

I am Legend

Posted on March 18, 2008 at 8:00 am

Will Smith plays the last man on earth in this third movie based on Richard Matheson’s novella. Scientist Robert Neville was immune to the virus that wiped out everyone. He spends his days hunting for food in the deserted streets of Manhattan, now overgrown with brush and inhabited by deer, and working in the lab to find a cure for the virus. And he spends his nights barricaded to protect himself from the infected creatures who are hunting him. Once human, they are now mindlessly enraged vampire/zombie killers who can do nothing but devour.
Okay, they can do one other thing. They can learn. In their feral, furious way they can cooperate and plan. Neville can trap them for his experiments or throw them off his trail, but they keep getting smarter. He is not just their prey — he is their teacher, and he is teaching them how to get him.

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One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Posted on March 4, 2008 at 7:00 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Characters in peril, no one hurt
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	1961
Date Released to DVD:	February 9, 2015
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00OZLF4AG

“One Hundred and One Dalmatians” is one of the best-loved Disney classics (and the first of its animated films to take place in a contemporary setting). There is nothing more irresistible than 99 frisky spotted puppies and there has never been a more deliciously scary villain than the fur-mad Cruella De Vil. It is a great family movie because it is exciting and funny and because it is all about the importance of family and community and the love parents have for their children. And just because it is a lot of fun.

Like “Lady and the Tramp,” 101 Dalmatians is told from the perspective of dogs, this time two dalmatians, Pongo and Perdita, the cherished pets of Roger and Anita. Anita’s old friend is the aptly named Cruella De Vil (Betty Lou Gerson). Her henchmen kidnap Perdita’s puppies and eighty-four others so she can make them into a dalmatian fur coat. Pongo (Rod Taylor) and Perdita (Cate Bauer), with the help of their animal friends, undertake a daring rescue. The puppies are adorable, and the movie is delightful (with a sly poke at television and the kids who watch it). 101%20dalmatians.jpg

Movieline magazine once asked actresses to name the most memorable female villain in the history of the movies — Cruella was at the top of the list. She just might be the most ruthless villain of all time and any gender. Hannibal Lecter may be “Hannibal the Cannibal” but he never tried to make darling little puppies into a fur coat.

This gorgeous new Diamond edition is a treasure. This was a transitional film between the hand-painted classical style of the fairy-tale Disney films and a looser, more modern look. It was the then-new invention of the photocopier that made this movie possible. Without that technology, the Disney artists would still be painting all those spots.

Families who enjoy this movie might also like to see the 1997 live-action version, with Glenn Close as Cruella. Close is wonderful, but the movie relies too much on slapstick and the real dogs do not have the personality and range of expression of their animated predecessors. The 2000 sequel, “102 Dalmatians,” also featuring Close, is disappointing, too much silliness and not enough sweetness. The animated original is still the best. And the book by Dodie Smith is very different, but also wonderful.

Into the Wild

Posted on March 3, 2008 at 8:04 pm

Every one of us at times hears the call of the wild, to match the wild of the outdoors to the wild that is inside us, to leave behind all of the petty complications of civilization and test ourselves down to the deepest essence, to test our nature, in both senses of the word.
In 1992 Christopher McCandless left behind everything — family, friends, jobs, money, even his name, and went on a journey to find something that felt authentic to him. Actor Sean Penn has written and directed a superb film based on the best-selling book about his journey and its tragic conclusion.

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