Archives December 2009

 
 
BROTHERS     Rating 8 ½
An excellent film which brings out the worst of war. The setting is two-fold, a happy home life with an Army Captain played by Tobey Maguire and his devoted wife played by Natalie Portman. Enter Maguire’s ex-con brother ( Jacob “Jake” Gyllenhaal) who lives hand to mouth, but embraced by the family once released from prison.
Maguire serves in Afghanistan where he’s captured and forced into the most egregious of acts. His arrival home is laced with PTSD personified, (post traumatic stress disorder) resulting in some of the most intense and emotional movie scenes you’ll ever see.
Look for an Oscar nomination for Maguire
 
THE ROAD    Rating    6 1/2
Another dark and gloomy film. This is the year for depression in movies. Maybe that’s a reflection of our economic and political state.
This movie received high ratings from most reviewers, but I had mixed emotions. Viggo Mortensen is much like Daniel Day Lewis and Bob Deniro, they just can’t make a bad movie, even if the script is bad. The acting is superb.
Viggo and his young son are survivors of Armageddon, struggling to exist amidst the bleak existence of death and destruction all around them. Flashbacks bring the viewer to a few scenes with Charleze Theron, who plays the wife/mom no longer in the struggle, though we don’t know what actually happened to her. The movie moves slowly through all this drab, dreary sadness. It’s certainly worthy of some awards, in acting, costume, photography, etc., but it’s definitely not an uplifting picture. Some implausible scenes also scar the story to me.
 
NINE  Rating   7 1/2
Though it’s loaded with star power, this musical doesn’t match up to “Chicago” or even “Moulin Rouge.” It’s hard to identify the missing element in this movie, but it somehow leaves you flat.
Daniel Day Lewis, arguably the greatest living actor, plays the accented Italian director, Guido Contini. His performance is superb. Yet, the character comes across as one-dimensional and shallow, with the focus entirely on his sexual exploits outside of marriage and with an invariable habit for lying. While he’s touted as the greatest living director, nothing in the picture features his genius.
Marion Cotillard (who played Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose) is equally superb as Contino’s jilted wife. Penelope Cruz is gorgeous, as is Nicole Kidman, as is Kate Hudson, but their dancing skills leave something to be desired. Judi Dench, the costume maker, is fabulous, as is Sophia Loren, a well-tucked Dame of the movies who plays Contini’s mom. Casting Kidman and Hudson as Italians just doesn’t work for me.
Entertaining, yes. Worth the ticket, yes. Academy Award material, no.
 

BROTHERS     Rating 8 ½

An excellent film which brings out the worst of war. The setting is two-fold, a happy home life with an Army Captain played by Tobey Maguire and his devoted wife played by Natalie Portman. Enter Maguire’s ex-con brother ( Jacob “Jake” Gyllenhaal) who lives hand to mouth, but embraced by the family once released from prison.

Maguire serves in Afghanistan where he’s captured and forced into the most egregious of acts. His arrival home is laced with PTSD personified, (post traumatic stress disorder) resulting in some of the most intense and emotional movie scenes you’ll ever see.

Look for an Oscar nomination for Maguire

THE ROAD    Rating    6 1/2

Another dark and gloomy film. This is the year for depression in movies. Maybe that’s a reflection of our economic and political state.

This movie received high ratings from most reviewers, but I had mixed emotions. Viggo Mortensen is much like Daniel Day Lewis and Bob Deniro, they just can’t make a bad movie, even if the script is bad. The acting is superb.

Viggo and his young son are survivors of Armageddon, struggling to exist amidst the bleak existence of death and destruction all around them. Flashbacks bring the viewer to a few scenes with Charleze Theron, who plays the wife/mom no longer in the struggle, though we don’t know what actually happened to her. The movie moves slowly through all this drab, dreary sadness. It’s certainly worthy of some awards, in acting, costume, photography, etc., but it’s definitely not an uplifting picture. Some implausible scenes also scar the story to me.

NINE  Rating   7 1/2

Though it’s loaded with star power, this musical doesn’t match up to “Chicago” or even “Moulin Rouge.” It’s hard to identify the missing element in this movie, but it somehow leaves you flat.

Daniel Day Lewis, arguably the greatest living actor, plays the accented Italian director, Guido Contini. His performance is superb. Yet, the character comes across as one-dimensional and shallow, with the focus entirely on his sexual exploits outside of marriage and with an invariable habit for lying. While he’s touted as the greatest living director, nothing in the picture features his genius.

Marion Cotillard (who played Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose) is equally superb as Contino’s jilted wife. Penelope Cruz is gorgeous, as is Nicole Kidman, as is Kate Hudson, but their dancing skills leave something to be desired. Judi Dench, the costume maker, is fabulous, as is Sophia Loren, a well-tucked Dame of the movies who plays Contini’s mom. Casting Kidman and Hudson as Italians just doesn’t work for me.

Entertaining, yes. Worth the ticket, yes. Academy Award material, no.

What’s wrong with this scenario?

An unkempt young man boards a plane in Nigeria bound for the United States, with one stop in Amsterdam. He has no luggage. The man spends over $2,000 cash to buy his ticket nine days earlier, in Ghana. Though his name is clearly on an international watch list of people with known or suspected ties to terrorist organizations, he manages to pass through customs with the necessary passport and visa. Then he passes through screening without any liquid or chemical substances being detected. Neither do they detect the hypodermic syringe in his possession. Though the airport has been provided with full body imaging machines by the U.S., they are not in use. Such machines would have detected PETN, the same chemical used by shoe bomber, Richard Reid.

In Holland, the passenger list is transmitted in full to U.S. authorities for review before Northwest Airlines Flight 253 leaves Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Authorities clear the list for take off. The man, a Muslim, continues on without a problem. (Most people from Nigeria are Muslim)

Feeling safe yet?

After a trans-Atlantic flight, wannabe terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, spends about twenty minutes in a rest room before the plane approaches the Detroit airport. After returning to his seat, he tries to ignite the crude combination of liquid and chemical substances which erupt into a small fire. The attempt fails as he is subdued by other heroic passengers. It is a poorly made bomb. The White House calls it an apparent terrorist attack. Brilliant.

Once in custody, the suspect speaks freely to authorities — presumably after his Miranda warnings — explaining that he was a trained operative for al Qaeda, and was told to detonate the bomb in the United States over a land mass. All terrorists should be so cooperative.

Answer to the question: Everything is wrong with this scenario.

It demonstrates how incompetent the screening process is, regardless of country. He should not have been issued a visa to the U.S., but he was. He should never have passed through screening, but he was. His cash-bought ticket, absence of luggage and shoddy appearance should have sent up red flags all over. It highlights how investigators and security personnel should be profiling all passengers — particularly Islamists — who exhibit suspicious behavior. Does anyone doubt that Mr. Mutallab would ever have seen the inside of that airplane if the letters on the outside read: El Al Airlines?

It was poor planning and clumsy execution of a supposed terror attack sponsored by an organization known for its deadly accuracy. al Qaeda would not be proud, unless, of course, this was the intended outcome.

The suspect could have detonated the device during his stay in the rest room where there was no chance of being subdued by neighboring passengers. Why not?  Could the screw-up have been…deliberate?

Neither does it gel, that the suspect allegedly talked freely with authorities, admitting everything and handing up al Qaeda as the culprit. What does he, or al Qaeda, have to gain by his being a blabbermouth? If only Paul Harvey were alive, so he could tell us the rest of the story.

The dots don’t connect. It’s only logical to conclude that the attention of the United States government and our people may have been cleverly diverted from a more sinister plot.

I certainly don’t have the answer. But I sure hope the Homeland Security Department and the FBI have considered the strong possibility that this was a bogus act for intended for another purpose. There is more to come, to be sure, because the ease with which this man carried out the plan, in the wake of 9/11, is not only frightening, it emboldens the enemy who are licking their chops to kill…you, me and ours.

Remember, everything is not always as it appears.

A few links, for resources:

Click here: Passenger Jasper Schuringa Sphere News

Click here: US Approved Flight 253 Passenger List, Source Says

Here’s the knee jerk reaction:

Click here: Security Measures Ramped up

Read Debbie Schlussel’s report, which suggests that the suspect was allowed to board without a visa or passport. Not confirmed, as yet.

Click here: EPIC FAIL: Terrorist Abdulmutallab Allowed on Flt 253 w/out Passport

Thank you.

I have appreciated all your thoughts, comments, ideas and dissent on this blog site over the last couple of years, many of which have been enlightening and informative. I know we are not always in agreement, but America is a wondrous place where free speech and exercise of our rights give us the forum to espouse whatever opinions we have, so long as we don’t incite the violation of laws or threaten harm to anyone else. Few places on planet Earth allow that. Yet we take it for granted. We think it will always be here. It might not.

As we speak, countries all over the world, including some in Europe are acquiescing to intimidation which will prohibit the exercise of free speech and expression of opinion. The change is happening. Those kinds of restrictions exist throughout Asia, Africa, the mid–east and some places in South America. We don’t want that ever to reach America.

In that regard, please indulge me with a very short story. Not long ago, in preparation for an upcoming performance, I was practicing music with a Russian-born friend who immigrated to the U.S. in 1990. We’ll call him Nicolas. A humble man, he had come to America as a scientist and raised his family here. He played great Russian folk music on guitar, and I enjoyed playing a schmaltzy violin with him.

I mentioned that we would soon get some local publicity for our show. At that moment, the mood changed. With his thick Russian accent he said to me, “No. No. Please, don’t use my name in the newspaper about us playing music.”

“Why not?” I asked, somewhat stunned.

My friend bore a somber look on his face. “Well, ” he hesitated. “No one at my work knows I play this music.”

“So?” I said. “What’s the problem?”

“Well, I don’t want to get fired. You never know.”

Then it hit me. Nicolas’ fears were still mired in totalitarian Russia. He had long left the oppression of strict communism — eighteen years — but communism never left him. It was a stark reminder of how much of the world is prohibited from free exercise of thought and expression. The KGB left a mark on Nicolas that still burned inside his belly.

I am a great lover of this country. I never want to see that happen in America. That’s why I write so passionately about retaining the freedoms our forefathers outlined for us, and that every inch we move closer to a more powerful government controlling our lives is another inch toward the dissolution of our individual liberties. When those inches start adding into feet and yards, then miles, it’s a slow process which we don’t often realize until the end result. Then it can be too late. There are forces at work today who have fierce designs on doing just that. It doesn’t take a scholar to know that, only a person who delves a little and cares a lot.

Meanwhile, I will always respect those who disagree on this site so long as it is done respectfully. I think I’ve only deleted four responses in two years, and that was because of foul or insulting language that had no place on my blogs. And to all my supporters, my deepest appreciation for all the contributions you have made. Even if you do not comment on line, I know you are reading and — when you so choose — passing my articles on to others.

And for those who cannot present logical arguments, and assign me labels like “radical” or “right wing extremist” and so forth, remember the story of Nicolas.  I’m only doing my part in preventing you and me from heading in that direction.    

Wishing all of you a great holiday, and a wonderful 2010.

Thanks

Marshall Frank

 
PRECIOUS      Rating:   9
On the upside, this is a movie you will be talking about as you leave the theater, and probably for days after. It’s powerful, it’s dark and dirty, it invades the deepest bowels of urban depravity and it’s about reaching inside the victim of horrible circumstance that 99.99 percent of will never have to experience (thankfully).
On the downside, it’s not for people who want to walk out feeling good, as it is one of the most depressing motion pictures I’ve ever seen. But, kudos to the director, writer and actors who pull off a tremendous job. Gabourey Sidibe plays the lead role, an overweight teenage girl who has born two illegitimate babies, stripped of self esteem by an ignorant, selfish, violent mother powerfully played by MoNique who is deserving of an Oscar nomination along with Sidibe.
Meanwhile, see if you can identify Mariah Carey who plays a significant role. It took me a few minutes to realize who she was. Her performance showcases her as a superb acting talent as well as a pop diva. I was amazed.
EVERYBODY’S FINE Rating 7
The movie drags slowly, following Robert DeNiro’s every move as he travels the country trying to unite with his adult kids for Christmas for the first time as a widower. A lot of deep feelings and messages that many families might relate to. DeNiro, as always, is superb, but don’t expect any Oscars this year. Drew Barrymore also stars as one of the daughters.
It’s about compassion, loss, love and the need for family bonding. Worth seeing.
BLIND SIDE Rating: 8
Probably the best acting role for Sandra Bullock ever. Based on a true story, the Bullock character is an upscale rich-bitch who inadvertently meets a giant black homeless kid from the ghetto and rebuilds his self image until he becomes a good student and a star football player. Quinton Aaron, who has done a few movies as well as appearances in Law And Order shows on television, does a credible job playing Michael Oher.
It’s an old worn-out plot where the underdog is given a second chance at life by a caring philanthropist and succeeds, making everyone feel good.
INVICTUS   Rating  8
Another Clint Eastwood gem but not on the same level as The Unforgiven or Million Dollar Baby. This is a good movie, not a great movie. Morgan Freeman will undoubtedly be nominated for a Best Actor portraying Nelson Mandela. Matt Damon probably reached the pinnacle of his acting career, well deserving of a supporting Actor nomination for his role as a rugby team captain for South Africa.
The upside: Great acting, an interesting exposure into the divided worlds within South Africa, revealing scenes about the sensitive and forgiving Mandela, and lots of action on the rugby field.
The downside: It’s more about sports than it is about the struggle of Mandela as most of the story focuses on rugby as the catalyst for mending the nation’s wounds. The handheld camera on the rugby field is enough to drive the viewer insane, as it is almost impossible to make out what is happening with the constant blast of herky-jerky close-ups.
Next: The Road starring one of today’s finest actors, Viggo Mortensen. Then, Up In The Air with George Clooney, touted as a possible Oscar nominee.
With the Oscar race in full gear, this is the best time of the year for movies, if you love the cinema.