Bella and Lisbeth – NPR's John Powers

“Two Ladies:  Are You Team Bella, or Team Lisbeth?”  NPR’s Fresh Air’s John Powers has written a very insightful essay on this year’s two most popular – and contrasting – female role models – Bella of the Twilight series and Lisbeth of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy.  An excellent read.

Note to Patricia:   The only reason that I haven’t yet seen The Girl Who Played With Fire, is that I’m waiting for my wife to finish the book before we go; she assures me that we’ll make it to the theater this weekend.  I’m glad that you found Played With Fire gripping.

The Town

The trailer for The Town has just been released:

Ben Affleck proved in Gone Baby Gone that he is a fine director.  Now, in The Town,  he brings us another Boston crime drama about thieves desperately evading the FBI.  Stars Affleck, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper and The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner.  Releases September 17.

Kisses

I just saw a preview of Kisses, which releases August 6.  It’s a sweet Irish indie about two suburban tweens who run away to Dublin for a very exhilarating, then scary night.  The first time lead actors are excellent.  There is a very inventive chase.  Stephen Rea has a brief uncredited cameo as a Bob Dylan impersonator.  Writer-director Lance Daly kept the film only 75 minutes long – which is just the right length, and won the Irish Best Director award.

Danny Trejo and his scary friends

 

Danny Trejo in Machete

 

I just saw an ad for Danny Trejo in Machete.  Danny Trejo is one scary looking dude and has 188 acting credits, often as One Scary Looking Dude.  Danny has brought to life more fully formed characters in indies like Mi Vida Loca and Sherrybaby.  And the guy is a legitimate action star at age 66, which must be some kind of record.

Still, I get the feeling that Danny is often cast for his intimidating appearance.  Here are some similar guys that you’ll recognize.

Danny Trejo

 

Sid Haig (117 credits)

 

Sid Haig in Brotherhood of Blood

 

Timothy Carey (86 acting credits)

 

Ron Perlman - 174 acting credits

 

Ron Perlman in makeup

D-Box motion effects seats

Color me unimpressed.  I have endured a test run of the latest Hollywood gimmick – D-Box motion effects seats, which will be in use for the release of Inception this week in a few theaters across the nation.  To “enhance” the action or tension on the screen, the theater seat jolts, wiggles, tilts, swerves, etc.

First, which really engrossing movies need to be “enhanced” by the furniture?

Second, this technology just isn’t that impressive to those of us who have experienced virtual reality rides (like Disneyland’s “Star Tours”) at amusement parks, boardwalks and carnivals.  (BTW “Star Tours” is over twenty years old and is closing this summer for a “re-imagining”.)  The D-Box is more like the experience of dropping a quarter in a motel massage bed.

3-D is here to stay; but I think that motion effects seats will go the way of Cinerama and Smell-O-Vision.

Movies To See Right Now

The “must see” films in theaters remain Winter’s Bone and Toy Story 3.  Winter’s Bone has been out for a while, so, if you haven’t seen it in a theater,  you’d better see it soon.  For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

It’s summer vacation, so I am letting people catch up with my most recent DVD recommendations:  Eight Men Out, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl on the Train, John Adams and The Deep End.   For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

 

 

The Crying Game

 

 

Movies on TV include The Crying Game and Before Sunrise on IFC this month.  Freaks, Soylent Green and 12 Angry Men are coming up on TCM.

Tod Browning and his cast for Freaks

 

Updated Movies I'm Looking Forward To

I’ve updated Movies I’m Looking Forward To with Kisses, Dinner for Schmucks, Cairo Time, and The Town.

Kisses is a promising Irish indie about two surburban tweens who run away to Dublin for a very scary night. Stephen Rea appears as a Bob Dylan impersonator.   Kisses releases more widely on August 6.

Ben Affleck proved in Gone Baby Gone that he is a fine director.  Now, in The Town,  he brings us another Boston crime drama about thieves desperately evading the FBI.  Stars Affleck, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper and The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner.  Releases September 17.

Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner in The Town

 

Toy Story 3 with an early inspiration for our Oscar Dinner

 

There's a surprise in store for Mr. Potato Head

 

As you know, each Oscar night we prepare a dinner with dishes that are featured in or are inspired by the Best Picture nominees. Toy Story 3 is certain to be among the ten nominees, and so I have decided that it will represented in our 2011 Oscar Dinner with……….a tortilla.  (If you’ve seen the film, you’ll understand.)

Here’s the page on our annual Oscar Dinner.

Why hasn't there been a good Babe Ruth movie?

 

Babe Ruth as Babe Ruth in The Pride of the Yankees

 

Why hasn’t there been a good biopic of Babe Ruth?  The three extant have ranged from unmemorable (1992’s The Babe with John Goodman and 1991’s Babe Ruth with Stephen Lang) to execrable (1948’s The Babe Ruth Story with the remarkably unathletic William Bendix).

Here is the greatest baseball player who ever lived.  (Only Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays were in his league as a hitter, and Ruth was also a star pitcher in his early years – so there’s no argument that he was the greatest.)  Ruth transformed the game itself from station-to-station to the power game.

On top of that, The Babe was a great character:   a boisterous man of unrestrained appetites, a great athlete who did not look athletic, nevertheless charismatic and very funny.  He was made for the movies.  Unfortunately, the great Babe Ruth movie hasn’t been written.

Incidentally, Babe Ruth has been portrayed in 30 movies, the first seven times by Babe Ruth himself.

poor William Bendix

Ten Best Baseball Movies

We’re at the All-Star Break, so let’s talk baseball.  Here are the Ten Best Baseball Movies.

1. Bull Durham (1988):  This comedy is the ultimate baseball film, depicting the minor leagues and players on the way up and on the way down.  The very smart screenplay celebrates all of the little customs, superstitions, traditions, idioms, etc., that make up the culture of baseball.   Plus there is the all-time funniest conference on the mound.

2. Eight Men Out (1988):  Director John Sayles tells the true story of the Black Sox Scandal – the Chicago White Sox players who fixed the 1919 World Series.  Sayles used actors, not baseball players, but the baseball scenes are totally authentic.  The characters of star players Eddie Cicotte, Buck Weaver and Shoeless Joe Jackson and owner Charles Comiskey vividly come alive.

3. A League of Their Own (1992):  This film is set during the man shortage of WW II, when there was a professional baseball league of women players; grizzled manager Tom Hanks is not enthusiastic about managing the girls, but finds that they really do play baseball – real baseball.  “There’s no crying in baseball.”

4. Baseball (1994):  This is Ken Burns’ history of baseball, told in nine “innings”.  The first inning probes the hazy origins of the game, and the ninth inning explores modern corporate baseball.  In between, we see the one-base-at-a-time game of the 1910s, the Black Sox scandal, Babe Ruth and the new power game, the Negro Leagues, Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, the move of MLB into California, expansion, and so much more.  Burns uses a delightful array of talking heads (players and observers), the most compelling of whom are Buck O’Neil, Stephen Jay Gould and Bob Costas.

5. The Natural (1984):  This is the beautifully shot fable of an promising player whose career is aborted by violence, but who, with a magic bat, reappears in middle age under a different identity as a once-in-a-lifetime slugging star.

6. Bang the Drum Slowly (1973):  Michael Moriarty plays the hotshot pitcher and Robert DeNiro plays the simple-minded catcher on a minor league team.  Roommates, they share the secret of the catcher’s alarmingly progressive disease.  This is the best sports tear jerker.

7. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976):  This film is the story of the Negro Leaguers who barnstormed the countryside.  It’s also a rowdy and earthy vehicle for Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor.  But the baseball scenes are really, really good by themselves.

Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor

 

8.  Field of Dreams (1989):  This is the lyrical fable of a dreamer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield to connect with players of yesteryear, including his own father. “Build it, and he will come”.

9. The Pride of the Yankees (1942):  This classic tells the true story of the taciturn superstar Lou Gehrig (the taciturn Gary Cooper) who is stricken by a debilitating illness. Co-stars Babe Ruth as himself.

Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees

 

10. (tie) Major League (1989), Angels in the Outfield (1994) and Damn Yankees! (1958): Major League is the crass joke-a-minute baseball comedy – the Airplane! of baseball.   Angels in the Outfield is the sweet fable about a boy who sees angels, and enlists them to help his favorite ball club.   Damn Yankees! is the musical on our list, and asks what baseball fan wouldn’t sell his soul to have his cellar-dwelling heroes win the Series?  Gwen Verdon has a show stopping rendition of “What Lola Wants”.