Posted on September 7, 2015 at 7:00 am
Pajama factory workers celebrate Labor Day in this musical number from “The Pajama Game” with Doris Day, John Raitt, and Carol Haney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkdWgMFzVNE
Posted on August 23, 2015 at 8:00 am
A young down-and-out British shoe salesman named Harry Witherspoon takes his dead American uncle to Monte Carlo for the best time of his life—a week of fun, dancing, gambling and sun. If the young man fulfills his uncle’s request to the letter, he will inherit the $6 million left to him. If he doesn’t, the money will go to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn. As Harry races from casino to nightclub to beach to bedroom with his dead uncle, he is chased by a desperate put-upon optometrist; his controlling, myopic, trigger-happy sister; an avaricious French chanteuse; a mysterious Italian playboy; as well as a young woman from Brooklyn dead set on getting that money for the dogs. Guns go off, disguises go on, champagne corks pop, nightmares come to life, romance blossoms, dogs bark, and everyone sings!
Posted on July 3, 2015 at 8:00 am
Happy Independence Day! Every year, I recommend the rousing musical about the Declaration of Independence. “1776” makes the Founding Fathers vivid, human, and interesting characters, and is so involving that you almost forget that you already know how it all turned out. William Daniels is the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams, Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, who would rather be with his wife than work on the Declaration, and Howard da Silva is a wry and witty Benjamin Franklin. As they debate independence, we see the courage that went into the birth of the United States, and, in an especially sobering moment for us now, we see the tragedy as they compromise with the South to permit slavery in the brand-new country. It is outstanding family entertainment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iiiy8GnBNI
Posted on June 30, 2015 at 6:02 pm
“We’re healers,” one of the male exotic dancers, explains to another in “Magic Mike XXL.” They’re here to bring a smile to women who have not, through tragically misguided oversight, been worshipped and adored. They have not been ap-PRE-ciated. They have not been treated like QUEENS.
No fear. Men have arrived who want nothing more from life than to worship, adore, and appreciate their queens, and to do so with the power of powerful, rhythmic, body movements that involve arching and thrusting.
The original “Magic Mike,” based very loosely on some of Channing Tatum’s experiences as an exotic dancer, was directed by Steven Soderbergh and had a few things to say about the economy and income inequality between the bumps and the grinds. This sequel, produced by Soderbergh but directed by Gregory Jacobs (the underrated “Criminal”), is just out for a very good time, and on that, like its characters, it delivers.
As it opens, Mike (Tatum) has the furniture design company he was dreaming of, and it is successful enough to keep him very busy but not successful enough for him to be able to buy insurance for his employee. Uh-oh, you think. Sharp tools and no insurance. There’s going to be some awful accident that will make Mike go back out to raise money a dollar at a time tucked into his g-string.
But no, this is not that movie. No artificial stress. It just wants to make you smile.
Mike just misses his friends, and so he decides to join them for one last big road trip, a bro-trip, with adventures along the way and the world championship exotic dancing competition at the end. There are adventures and many, many opportunities to make women smile along the way, with a few personal problems to resolve, the most pressing finding a woman who is willing to have sex with Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello). Spoiler alert: he does.
But before that, he has a great scene in a convenience store, doing a dance number to an 90’s pop confection that never goes out of style. The guys stop off in a southern mansion where ladies old enough to be their mothers drink a lot of wine and reveal that they have just never been properly ap-PRE-ciated. That problem will be at least temporarily solved.
And Mike visits a lady from his past, played by a smokin’ Jada Pinkett Smith. She now runs a private club for ladies to be treated like QUEENS. Will she help them by emceeing their big number at the convention? Are healers gonna heal? Are they going to go beyond the Village People typecasting and find dances that express their inner beings and make the ladies smile while so doing?
Yes, yes, and yes. Gorgeous men dance for your pleasure and bro-out enough that boyfriends will enjoy it, too, especially when they realize that there is a certain fantasy element on a road trip like this one. No one takes anything too seriously except for having fun and that is exactly what they deliver.
Parents should know that this movie has extremely explicit and crude sexual references and situations, nudity, drinking, drugs, and very strong and crude language.
Family discussion: Why do the guys like to think of themselves as “healers?” If you created a dance to show your personality, what would it be?
If you like this, try: “Magic Mike” and the “Step Up” movies
Posted on May 14, 2015 at 5:48 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for innuendo and language |
| Profanity: | Some strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Comic peril and violence, no one hurt |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | May 15, 2015 |
| Date Released to DVD: | September 21, 2015 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B00NYC3SG4 |
“Pitch Perfect 2” is — bear with me — the musical comedy variation on the “Furious 7” recipe for success. The sequel jettisons any pretense of seriousness of purpose, structural logic, or psychological authenticity, joyfully tosses off any pretense of taking itself, its heartwarmingly diverse characters, or its storyline seriously. And both, unexpectedly but utterly deservedly, will make you teary-eyed. Substitute exquisitely harmonized snippets of popular songs for cars flying out of planes, and it’s basically the same movie. And there’s nothing wrong with that. “Pitch Perfect 2” is even more fun than the first.
Beca (Anna Kendrick) was just starting college in the first film, about her reluctant agreement to join the all-girl acapella group called The Barden Bellas, led by Aubrey (Anna Camp) and her loyal lieutenant Chloe (Brittany Snow). Now Aubrey has graduated but Chloe is still there, deliberately flunking so she will not have to leave the now-three-time national champion Bellas. Beca is a senior, hoping she can take on a dream internship with a musical producer (Keegan-Michael Key, the “angry Obama”) without disrupting the group.
But the group has been disrupted. The Bellas performed at the President’s birthday celebration (footage of the Obamas is inserted to make it look like they were really there), with Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) coming in like a wrecking ball on a trapeze. It was a triumph until it became a disaster when Fat Amy’s skin-tight jumpsuit split open and she wasn’t wearing underwear.
The Bellas are banned from collegiate competition, and are not even allowed to conduct auditions. Too bad for those hoping for a reprise of one of the first film’s most entertaining scenes, but there is simply no time. We hardly get a chance to hear Barden’s male acapella group, the Treblemakers, either. This is all about the Bellas fighting their way back with the only option left to them — an international competition, up against the world champions, Germany’s Das Sound Machine, a group so terrifyingly huge and technically perfect it is a kind of acapella Triumph of the Will.
But we’re not here for the plot; we’re here for the music, and there is a ton of it, all so good and so varied that it is frustrating to get it in such short snippets. Songs made popular by the Andrews Sisters, Hansen, Taylor Swift, En Vogue, Mika, Montell Jordan, and Carrie Underwood zip by, most hilariously in a sing-off that tops the original’s. Categories include “Songs About Butts” (one character points out that’s pretty much everything on the radio) and “I Dated John Mayer.” Hilariously, one of the competing acapella groups is the Green Bay Packers. And Snoop Dogg shows up to sing a Christmas song.
There is one new addition to the Bellas, though, “True Grit’s” Hailee Steinfeld as Emily, an eager but shy freshman whose mom (Katey Sagal) was a Bella, so she’s a legacy. She also writes songs.
Will the Bellas get their mojo back? Will Beca impress her boss? Will Aubrey show up for a pep talk? Will there be some delicious silliness along the way? Will Emily’s new songs be game-changers when the long-standing tradition is covers only? How about some romance (a bit) and some comedy (a lot)? But what’s the deal with the false eyelashes on everyone? Did Elizabeth Banks bring on her Effie Trinket makeup team? Fat Amy’s no/yes from Fat Amy when Bumper (Adam Devine of “Modern Family”) says he wants to have sex with her is ooky and just plain off.
But first time director Banks, who co-produced the first film and the sequel, and returns, this time as both commentator on acapella competitions and as head of the organization, manages a very large cast and an even larger set list. She keeps the tone light and breezy, balancing the outrageous (hate mail from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor?) with the touching. A call-back to the first film’s breakout hit “Cups,” is simply lovely. If some elements of what we can barely dignify by terming a storyline are pat and predictable, the song choices are not. From the very first moment, with an a capella rendition of the Universal” logo music, we are in mash-up heaven. It is worth the price of admission to hear “MmmBop” acapella, and then, icing on the cake and cherry on the sundae, we get some Kris Kross “Jump” action as well. Acca-heaven.
Parents should know that this film includes some crude sexual and bodily function humor, some strong language, and comic violence (no one hurt). There is a joke that seems to imply that a woman’s “no” to an invitation to have sex is not to be taken seriously, but it later turns out that this is part of a consensual relationship.
Family discussion: What makes you special? What makes your friends and family special? How do you find your voice to express who you are?
If you like this, try: the first “Pitch Perfect” and the television show “The Sing-Off”
