Young at Heart

I got this from the library because it had Doris Day and Frank Sinatra in it. The singing was incredible, the movie was horrible.

Strangers on a Train - 1951

My wife, oldest child, and I were so excited to watch this movie- we got it from the library. It is supposed to be one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films that aired in America. 2 stars for me. There were some great shots, and the lighting was incredible, but not as good as Psycho or Dial M for Murder for example. Just okay.

Seven Days in May - 1963

I loved this film. "Fredric March is the President of the United States. He has just gotten a nuclear disarmament treaty signed with the Soviet Union's leader, and it has (barely) been passed by the U.S. Senate. Both countries agree to get rid of their nuclear arsenals, and to end decades of potential nuclear catastrophe. But there are many who oppose this treaty, including Burt Lancaster, the greatest military hero of the day and head of the Joint Chief of Staff. He is in contact with several others regarding these fears, and they are planning a coup, to replace the President and his supporters and rip up this dangerous treaty. That is the background and story of "Seven Days In May", except that Lancaster's closest assistant, Kirk Douglas, is appalled at the scheme and tips off March and his associates (Martin Balsam, Edmond O'Brien, George Macready). We are also aware that there is certain information that can be gotten by the President that would tarnish Lancaster's American patriot and family man image - his love letters to his mistress (Ava Gardner). Also, as the film goes on, we are aware of the spread of the coup - how Edmund O'Brien is held imprisoned by mutinous soldiers. And how Balsam may have gotten a confession out of one of the weaker links in the scheme. This film is interesting on so many levels. Not only does it include so many good performances in it, it is one of the most "Oscar" filled film casts one can think of - March, Lancaster, Douglas, Balsam, O'Brien, and even the uncredited John Houseman (as the weak-link Admiral Barnswell) all do well in the film. But what is most interesting to me is that the film was made when it was. Because it brings up the issue of whether a political coup can happen here or not." What a treat- I think you would like this. Burt Lancaster had the premier postponed due to JFK's death, but it still did well in theatres." 4 stars!

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House - 1948

It took me A LOT of Cary Grant films before I found his worst- what a disaster!

Dan in Real Life - 2007

Dan Burns is a single father who dedicates his life to his children, but one day he meets Marie at a bookstore. They get to know each other, but then Dan finds out that Marie is actually dating his brother. blah..blah..blah... Go watch sleepless in seattle instead. 2 stars. Wasn't that great for how many times I have been told to watch this movie.

Soylent Green - 1973

Edward G. Robinson made 101 movies, and this one was his last. He was dying of cancer during filming, and actually lost his hearing. He died 10 days after shooting wrapped up. I watched this movie because Charlton Heston and Robinson were such good friends and made this movie together. It was the worst Sci-fi film I have ever seen. 0 stars. What a freaking joke. The story is about the future- the year 2022. There is no food left on the earth. Violence everywhere. When people die they process their bodies and eat each other. What a stupid movie.

The Out of Towners - 1970

This is the original starring Sandy Dennis and Jack Lemmon. The remake stars Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn (1999). My spouse wathced this with me, we enjoyed watching the comedic genius Lemmon have fun with this one. 2.5 stars. Basically Lemmon and Dennis play a couple from Ohio who go to NY for a job interview. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

This is 40 (2013)

Not funny, turned it off after about 35 minutes.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

High school was bad enough to live through the first time, I am not sure why I inflicted myself with the emotional drain of it again by watching this movie.  For a brief period of the 7th and 8th grades I was the poster child of being wallflower.  We follow a young Charlie as he enters high school and struggles with feeling welcome in the mainstream of students.  He is befriended by two seniors that make him feel valued.  We follow their antics and growing pains throughout the year, and are introduced to periods in Charlies life that have led him to be the young man that he is today.  This movie has funny, sad, poignant, and emotionally shocking moments in it, but I am not sure that I would recommend it because I do not know that many people would want to inflict this emotional roller coaster on themselves one more time in life. I am still percolating on if I liked this show or not.

Argo (2012)

In 1979 a mob of Iranian Revolutionaries stormed the US embassy and took many hostages and held them for over 400 days, however six members of the embassy managed to escape the mob and took refuge in the Canadian Ambassador's residency. Our CIA department almost immediately began to develop plans and schemes to help them escape the country unharmed. To help out the planning they called in Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) who is specially trained to rescue hostages in international situations. He comes up with a scheme to pose as a Canadian filming crew looking to film a science-fiction movie in Iran. To pull this off though he would have to make it look like an actual movie by hiring the actors, buying the rights to the story of Argo, hiring a director and producer, and have a film company buy into the idea of the movie. On top of that he would have to convince the Iranian government that it is a real movie, and he would have to get the six Americans to buy into the idea of playing a role in this scheme. Even more on top of this he would have to have the Canadian Government's blessing of the idea. The acting was incredible, and the way the movie was directed was beautifully handled, Ben Affleck was truly snubbed by not getting a Oscar nod for this movie. Reading up on the events that took place in the movie he did take some liberties with the end of the film in making the escape from the airport more intense than it actually was, but I can forgive him on that point since the rest of the movie was so well done. The only thing that kept me from giving this movie five stars was the use of profanity near the beginning of the movie. It felt tacked on and unwarranted. I would recommend watching this film.

Nashville (1975)

This movie was on AFIs Top 100 Movies of All Time Tenth Anniversary list, and for that reason I am not sure why.  Nashville was a satirical political statement set in the heartland of country music, and was true to most films of that era where they focused on each persons conversation as the camera panned across a scene.  Our generation finds this to be annoying and distracting from the actual movie storyline.  I cannot reccomend this movie becasue frankly I am not sure what it was about, and I do not know why it made it on this list.  Just watch the trailer and you will see how confusing and lame this movie actually is.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

I expected a lot more out of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas then I was left with at the end of the film. We all love the story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday's friendship but this film didn't work for me. 2 stars.

Shane - 1953

before I forget- I am going to watch Kings Speech this week while I do my ironing. Okay time to blog about a great movie..... What a great western this movie turned out to be. I loved how slow it was at times, and the old school way of portraying a villain. Not a lot of dialogue, just bad dudes sizing each other up by looking and each other and using non-verbal communication. The fist fights in the bar were fantastic. Jack Palance was an incredible bad dude. This movie is a reminder of hate and prejudice that exists today as much as it did long ago. I couldn't help but think of the Mormon's being driven from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois while watching this movie. People being tormented by others for just believing in something. Van Heflin and Jean Arthur play Mr. & Mrs. Starett. Regular run of the mill homesteaders just trying to make ends meet by clearing land, farming, and raising a family out in the meadow. They are one of about 7 local families all in the same boat. Rufus Rykyer is a cattle baron who feels he is entitled to 400 acres of land, and tries to run everyone out that tries to homestead. He hires a bunch of thugs to harass anyone that tries to stick around- they call these homesteaders sod busters. They are willing to kill them, burn their homes down, etc. Enter Shane- Shane is a reformed gunman (played by Alan Ladd) who is drifting from town to town. He starts to work for Mr. Starett and soon realizes that he is now in a war. The movie is really about Shane- and whether or not he can put his pistol shooting days behind him. I loved his character and the ending was fantastic. Brandon De Wilde almost steals the show as the 8 year old son of the Starett's. He is given a lot of lines and screen time. De Wilde was the actor that I liked in HUD (a movie you didn't like). Both he and Alan Ladd died very young. Wilde of a car crash and Ladd of a suicide. This movie is on AFI's top 100 list and was nominated for 6 Oscars. It is slow at times but the character development is a 10! 4 stars for me!

GI Joe: Retaliation (2013)

As a young boy I spent many hours, and days playing war in the neighborhood.  We would run around through all of the yards jumping fencing, digging holes to hide in, it was a magical time of imagination.  When we weren't playing war, we were playing with our GI Joe figures or little green army men; as maturity began to dwindle away the innocence of imagination we began to put fire crackers on those toys and would blow them into non-existence.  However, before that destructive time, the story lines that we would create for our play were corny, yet as manly as we could make them.  Sitting through this movie I felt as though I was reliving some of those story lines, but frankly I wanted so much more from a multi-million dollar production.  The screenplay was awful, and I felt sick to my stomach that they didn't take the opportunity early in the film to kill all of the Joe's and put all of us out of our misery.  It felt as though a nine year old group of boys wrote the storyline and the script, I have never felt like asking for my money back for a movie, but I have lost over two hours of my life to this mindless show that will never again be available to me.  Awful, doesn't even begin to explain this movie, how about predictable, tedious, tired, lame, worthless...On the other hand there was enough eye-candy to satisfy my wife's desires to see this wretched piece of trash again.  Flat out turkey of a movie, booooooooooooo!!!  (to which my wife just says YUUUUMMMMMMMMM)

South Pacific (1958)

When I was nine or ten years old, my best friend and I were walking around Washington Terrace sucking on ice that we had stolen out of the freezer chest at the Smith's Food King.  As we walked along we began to dial 911 at all of the different pay phones.  We would wait for an answer, pretend to be injured, and then hang up the phone.  Eventually a cop pulls up along side us as we are walking down the street and asks us if we had been prank calling 911.  As any good young boy would do, we lied and told him no, in fact, it was two other boys that were walking in the other direction who were making the calls.  Well the cop looked at us and knew instantly that we were lying.  He told us we should not be doing it and drove off.  WE LIED TO A COP.  We both dropped the ice from our hands and walked in separate directions to our respective homes.  We were sick to our stomachs; when I got home my mom was watching this movie on the TV.  Ever since then, when I have heard a song from this musical I have gotten sick.  It was just the other night that I was able to watch this show for the first time with my boys without guilt or feeling ill.  I loved the music, but hated the cinematic direction the film makers took with it.  Would I watch the movie again?  No, but I would love to see a stage production of this musical.

High Sierra - 1941

This was Humphrey Bogart's big break through film- so I just had to see it, and I enjoyed it. Bogart plays an ex-convict who has a soft side to him along with a cruel and mean side. 3 stars. Here is the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QePONKgWBZ0