Chills and Thrills: the Scariest Movie Moments

You may have remembered my reference of the Bravo channel’s countdown of the "100 Scariest Movie Moments" in my Suspiria post. Since I am much too old to go trick-or-treating, watching this 2004 countdown has become my new favorite Halloween tradition. Sure enough, it’s the thirty-first, and I am writing this as I watch the show, or rather its 2006 sequel of "30 Even Scarier Movie Moments." The shows have inspired me to watch many horror and thriller films that I would have never heard of otherwise. Among them are "Suspiria" (#24), "Don't Look Now" (#22), and "Wait Until Dark" (#10). While the show gives its due to horror masters like Wes Craven and Stephen King and the genres best villains, Freddy Krueger ("Nightmare on Elm Street"), Jason Voorhies ("Friday the 13th") and Michael Myers ("Halloween"), movies like the three above give equal parts psychological thrill and and some gore, which I prefer to slasher blood fests any day.

Here is the breakdown of what Bravo considers the top ten scariest movie moments of all time (according to the 100 countdown). Some I have seen, and others are waiting to terrify me.

10—Wait Until Dark:I saw this movie because Audrey Hepburn is one of my favorite classic movie actresses. She had been well known in the 1950s and early 1960s for being a romantic leading lady with such credits as "Roman Holiday" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's." I wanted to see what she could do in this thriller; a vastly different genre for her. In this, she plays a blind woman named Suzy Hendrix who is terrorized by three thugs who search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment. The leader of the thugs is Roat (Alan Arkin). The scary moment, according to the countdown, is when Roat is looking for the doll and lunges at Suzy's ankle as she attempts to escape. It is a shocking, shadow out of the darkness moment that makes for a good moment in a movie that is sadly overacted by the usually sparkling Ms. Hepburn.

9—Night of the Living Dead: A 1968 classic from writer/ director George A. Romero and his "...of the Dead" series about zombies (see: "Dawn of the Dead," "Land of the Dead," etc.). I have never seen any of Romero's work, but any zombie movie is a quick scare. Romero also claims in the segment that the zombies are his way of expressing his deeper, more political views, and that they represent a sort of revolution. The scary moment is shown as Karen (Kyra Schon) attacking her mother with a gardening trowel after she eats her father. Mmmm...that's good horror.

8-- Carrie: A movie I'm surprised I've kept missing, although I've seen so many of the classic moments from the film that I'm sure I'm not missing what's in between. Adapted by a book from the prolific horror writer Stephen King, Carrie (Sissy Spacek) is a meek teenage girl with a fanatic and abusive mother, as well as telekenetic powers that make her seem like a freak to her teenage peers. She is terrorized by the girls in her class who go to far on prom night when Carrie is named prom queen and a vat of pig's blood is dumped on top of her while she is on stage. A once innocent girl, Carrie becomes full of unstoppable rage and seeks vengeance for what the awful girls did to her. Though Carrie dies in the end, one of her classmates dreams of laying flowers on her grave and Carrie's arm reaches through the grave and grabs her.

7—Silence of the Lambs : The Hannibal Lecter series are some of the few horror films I am hesitant to watch because they seem so unbelievably creepy. Brilliant psycopath Dr. Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) holds the clues to a serial killer's actions. But he is a violent cannibal (who enjoys his body parts with some fava beans and a nice chianti) who tries to escape from his cell, and with a Mike Tyson-like voracity chomps off the faces of the security guards.

6--The Shining : Probably my favorite scary movie (after all, who could not find sharply eyebrowed Jack Nicholson a little freaky even in real life?) from the often brilliant story weaver Stephen King. Jack Torrance (Nicholson), a writer, is asked to look over the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado for the winter. But being stuck there for so long, the hotel starts to get inside Torrance's brain and makes him just a "little" crazy. Filled with classic moments like "redrum," the "come play with us" twins, and the pain and suffering of Torrance's wife, Wendy (Shelly Duvall). Who would ever forget Nicholson's face after he bashed in the bathroom? "Heeere's Johnny!"

5-- Texas Chainsaw Massacre : The 1973 film that was the creator of another legendary serial killer Leatherface. Also, one of the many films inspired by one of the first well publicized real-life serial killers, Ed Gein.

4--Psycho : Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic about a deranged mama's boy, Norman Bates. The film surprised all with the infamous shower murder scene that kills off the would-be heroine of the story played by popular movie actress Janet Leigh only part way into the film.

3--Exorcist : Another classic that put the character Reagan Burns (Linda Blair) through the ringer, and showed us what a trooper young Blair was as she was thrashed about while portraying the infestation of a devil inside her body. Pea soup out of a rotating head, anyone?

2--Alien : Another movie I haven't seen, but am not super anxious to as it seems like another alien encounter movie (though not as endearing as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") where the aliens terrorize a group of space troopers that discover them. The featured moment is of an alien birth scene by the character Kane (John Hurt). All of a sudden, he starts coughing and spasming and his chest explodes, blood everywhere and a baby alien emerges from his chest. Aww, the beauty of birth.

1--Jaws : Not really sure why this film has the scariest movie moment out of 99 classic others, but its impact was legendary. A great white shark attacks unsuspecting beachcombers, and the waves are never the same again. Save for the first attack in the opening of the movie where a young woman is skinnydipping alone in the middle of the ocean at night and is without warning pulled underwater and thrashed about by the shark (the scary moment), the thrill of "Jaws" does not seem to be extraordinary. But because a shark attack could happen at anytime, and for me at least, the possibility is in the back of my mind every time I'm at the beach, people were rightfully frightened. The legend of the original "Jaws" (there were three more terrible sequels) has also formed the old comparison which goes "(Blank) movie has done for (blank) what "Jaws" did for swimming."

For the complete list of Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie moments, visit http://www.bravotv.com/The_100_Scariest_Movie_Moments/index.shtml.

(pictures: Movie Moments {bravotv.com}, Wait Until Dark {retrocrush.buzznet.com}, Psycho {hitchcock.tv}, Jaws {tomsgames.com}).

All that Jazz: the real merry murderesses of 'Chicago'

The play “Chicago” has seen many forms: it started out as a 1926 play, was produced into a Bob Fosse-choreographed Broadway musical in 1975 and was made into a 2002 feature film with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger. But its real point of interest is that it was based on a real-life 1924 scandal.

Starring the characters Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, “Chicago” tells of the debauchery of the 1920s jazz age. The decade was marked by a rebellion that made it vastly different from the Victorian period, which had ended not long before. Women especially were letting loose. They became flappers—girls who love jazz, wore long skirts and had bob haircuts. They began to drink, smoke, and wear makeup.

Since there was no television, people were entertained by extensive trials, often murders. Lawyers and their clients became celebrities with extensive coverage from the newspapers and tabloids. The lady jazz killers were the most popular “celebrities,” who often got off scot-free by all-male courtroom juries.

Maurine Dallas Watkins, a reporter for the “Chicago Tribune,” covered many such trials. Watkins was a student playwright at Yale, but wanted to take time off to get some real-life experience. It was from her legendary reporting that she came up with the original concept for “Chicago” from the trials of two murderesses named Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner.

Beulah Annan was the inspiration for Roxie Hart. A Chicago flapper, Annan was married to a man named Albert. However, but she was unfaithful with a man named Harry Kalstedt. On the night of April 3, 1924, Annan shot Kalstedt in the back. Annan’s story changed many times. It was evident that she was drunk when the police arrived. She told police that she had shot Kalstedt in self-defense because he was trying to rape her. Other stories she gave included that they had a fight when she told him she was pregnant, and they both reached for the gun.

Roxie Hart’s portrayal in the movie was similar. Hart shot her lover, Fred Casely, and presented similar stories in court. After she told a crowded courtroom that she was pregnant (though she wasn’t, really), the judge wanted to delay her trial, but her lawyer, Billy Flynn (based off of real-life lawyer W.W. O’Brien), wanted to keep her in court, thinking that the jury would take pity on Hart’s pregnant state. The claim that “they both reached for the gun” was the inspiration for the musical number of the same name.

In the play, Roxie Hart was portrayed as a woman who wanted fame on the cabaret stage, but could not get past the chorus. In real life, Beulah Annan’s trial was a media circus, and she was frequently sent flowers and gifts while she was in Cook County prison. She even posed for photographs with fellow murderess Gaertner.

Gaertner, the inspiration for Velma Kelly, was a cabaret singer who in March of 1924 killed her married lover, Walter Law. (Velma Kelly killed her sister and her husband in the play.) Gaertner too was drunk when the police arrived, but was too intoxicated to remember what happened, even though she was found with blood stained clothes. Though the fact that Law had confessed to his co-worker before his death that Gaertner was an abusive alcoholic who had threatened him with a knife when he tried to leave her, and that he was ten years Gaertner’s junior, Gaertner was acquitted of murder in June of 1924. Her defense team (though it didn’t consist of W.W. O’Brien) convinced the jury that Gaertner was too drunk to remember what happened.

Annan died of tuberculosis in 1928 and Gaertner died of natural causes in 1965. The women’s trials were not the only jazz murder trials of the day, but they will always be legend, thanks to the career-making move by Watkins to capture their stories and put them on stage.

Sources:

Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner on Wikipedia

Chicago: The Origin from ladyjazzkilla.com

(pictures: top--cleavlandleader.com; middle and bottom--hubpages.com)

Movie of the Week: 'Step Brothers'

First Released: July 25, 2008
DVD release: December 2, 2008
Director: Adam McKay
Main Characters:
Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell)
Dale Doback(John C. Reilly)
Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen)
Dr. Robert Hoback (Richard Jenkins)
Runtime: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Rated: R for crude and sexual content, and pervasive language

“Step Brothers” tries to bring a comic spin to every parent’s worst nightmare: adult children living at home long past their time to leave the nest. But after seeing the star characters of this picture, it is clear why these “children” still live with mom and dad.

Brennan Huff is 39 years old, just got fired (or laid off, as he puts it), from his job at PetSmart and lives with his divorced mother, Nancy. Dale Doback, 40, lives with his widowed father, Robert, and is the manager of a fantasy baseball team. He also perfects his drum skills in a spare room of his father’s house, which he refers to as his beat laboratory. Brennan and Dale’s worlds collide when Nancy and Robert quickly wed. Nancy and Brennan move into the Doback house, and the sons instantly dislike each other. They are jealous that their parents no longer give them their undivided attention. However, they bond instantly with their intense dislike of Brennan’s younger brother, Derek. Rich, successful, and head of his own company, Derek can often be a haughty jerk, but at least he is one adult child that has created his life outside Nancy’s home, and is not so much of a burden for her, at least when he is not tormenting Brennan.

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly seem to be the hot new comedy duo. They created success in their 2006 film “Talladega Nights” in which they played a pair of airheaded NASCAR drivers with an affinity for everything redneck: “Walker, Texas Ranger,” Kentucky Fried Chicken, and blonde, bimbo-ish women. Frequently shouting their catchphrase “shake and bake,” Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby and Reilly’s Cal Naughton were a bit obnoxious, but they grew on you. In “Step Brothers,” Brennan and Dale are just plain obnoxious.

If a person is 40 years old and still living at home, it is obvious that they are greatly immature, but Brennan and Dale are not shy about taking it to an embarrassing level. When the two are in rivalry mode after they first meet, they get back at each other by writing crude messages on each other’s clothing, rub certain unmentionable body parts on the other’s property and wrestle each other down a flight of stairs. Had the characters been in their twenties and behaving this way, it would have been a little more understandable. At 40, they really should know better.

The part of this movie that is the most frustrating is the way the parents enable Brennan and Dale to behave the way they do. At first they give the men ultimatums to get jobs and get their own apartments. They even do more than any other parents would and arrange their job interviews and put a deposit on an apartment. However, when Brennan and Dale finally do get jobs and change their attitudes to be more professional, if not a little stiff, Nancy and Robert say they wish they had their old, “fun” sons back.

None of the comedy of “Step Brothers” produced any laugh out loud moments from me; there were more eye rolls. Unlike their roles in “Talladega Nights,” Ferrell and Reilly in “Step Brothers” were not characters, but pathetic caricatures of spoiled, infantile “grown-ups.”

Because I wanted to keep shouting “Grow up!” at the screen, I give “Step Brothers” ** out of ****.
(picture found at baltimoremagazine.net)

'A Clockwork Orange': the film with no appy-polly-loggies

Release Year: 1972
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Main Characters:
Alex De Large (Malcolm McDowell)
Droogs:
Pete (Michael Tarn)
Georgie (James Marcus)
Dim (Warren Clarke)
Runtime: 2 hours, 16 minutes
Rated: R for intense and graphic violence and nudity

Oh, my brothers, what is there to say about “A Clockwork Orange” and its humble narrator, that is, Alex De Large, a boy of fifteen who routinely engages in a bit of the old ultraviolence?

The smooth flow of De Large’s speech is what lures viewers in to a two hour glimpse of the young man’s life. A charismatic sadist, De Large and his gang (known as droogs) get perverse pleasure from acts of physical and sexual violence (referred to as ultraviolence).

So how did a person as despicable as De Large become one of the best known movie characters of all time? Perhaps it is because his persona is so wildly different from any other in cinema history. People who haven’t even seen the film could likely identify by his black bowler hat, right eye-lined eye with long black lashes, and white jump suit with matching codpiece. His use of the slang language Nadsat can be easily quoted (for those who cannot decipher the title of this post, appy-polly-loggies is Nadsat for apologies), as can his love of milk plus (“milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom,” which is what they were drinking); narcotic-laden milk.

Perhaps also it was the fascination in the 1960s and 1970s of movie goers to enjoy a psychology film. De Large goes too far when he kills one of his victims. He is sent to jail, but authorities know that he has to be rehabilitated of his old habits. The government uses an aversion therapy technique called the Ludovico technique that conditions De Large against his ultraviolent ways by forcing him to look at brutal images. Doctors force pin his eye lids back so that he cannot blink. They give him medicine so that he becomes physically ill when he sees those images, and will experience the same feelings if he tries to behave violently again. Doctors inadvertently condition Alex against his favorite piece of music, Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony,” and he gets physically ill when he hears the song as well. All of this is reminiscent of the famous Pavlov dog classical conditioning experiment.

Alex De Large is both the protagonist and the antagonist. Audiences are made to feel sorry for him when the Ludovico technique proves to make Alex crazy and suicidal, and the government apologizes for making him their lab rat. De Large was a rat before, so even though the government tries to cure him from his aversion, it is up to him whether or not he goes back to his old ways.

This film can be visualized as both a drug-induced hallucination from the bright colors and artwork were prevalent in all the rooms shown in the movie (perhaps to give it a futuristic feel; the movie was supposed to be set in 1995). De Large’s narration can be likened to subject matter expressed by someone while lying on a psychologist’s couch. While it should be private, the audience is made uncomfortably aware of De Large’s ultraviolence by the graphic portrayal of it onscreen. We are made to experience the same joy De Large feels by having classical music juxtaposed to these images. In the 1950s, the song “Singin’ in the Rain” was visualized as Gene Kelly in a trench coat and umbrella twirling around lampposts while singing in the rain. For “A Clockwork Orange,” it is the theme song to De Large’s rape of a middle-aged woman in front of her bound and gagged husband.

For the sheer uneasiness the film gives me, I am not sure if I can say that I like it. But considering De Large’s character, the exact goal of the filmmakers was to make me uncomfortable. Style-wise this film gets a high rank because of its portrayal of such an unconventional, almost unorthodox character. It takes a taboo subject matter (acts of extreme violence) and portrays it in such a way that exaggerates reality (the imagery, the colors, sets, costumes, and music).

***1/2 out of ****

(pictures: top--filmjournal.net; bottom: moviecritic.com.au)

(Horror) Movie of the Week: 'Suspiria'

Release Year: 1977
Director: Dario Argento
Main Characters:
Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper)
Sara (Stefania Casini)
Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett)
Miss Tanner (Alida Valli)
Runtime: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Rated: R for gruesome images and violence

“Suspiria” may very well have been catapulted into twenty-first century filmgoers’ lexicons by the 2007 film “Juno.” In one scene, the character Juno (Ellen Page) is debating the merits of horror films and mentions “Suspiria” by name. She also says that director Dario Argento is “so the ultimate master of horror.” Personally, I was brought to the attention of this movie by Bravo’s 2004 countdown of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments, where it placed at number 24.

The plot of “Suspiria” is simple enough: an American ballet student named Suzy Banyon travels to Germany to enroll in a prestigious school for training. But as soon as she arrives, trouble starts. A young woman that Banyon saw running away the night she arrived was murdered. Banyon believes that the incident was just a fluke, so she tries to get settled at school. However, when she is overcome by an unexplainable sickness, faces the disappearance of her friend Sara and other mysterious deaths around the school, she discovers that the school is just a front for a coven of witches bent on destruction.

In some ways, “Suspiria” is like a typical horror film. It has multiple bloody murders, and of course, all of the murders overshadow the plotline so that it becomes shallow and cheesy.

What “Suspiria” doesn’t rely on, though, is a terrifying serial killer like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhies. No, what makes “Suspiria” such a triumph of the horror genre is the startling use of Technicolor. Every scene Argento created gives a unique stimulation to the senses. This effect is so well done in the murder scenes especially are incredibly disturbing.

Another fascinating element to this film that is well represented in the above sample (besides how smoothly the assailant seems to stab the knife into the girl) is the score of banshee-like wailing from the aptly-named band, the Goblins.

The entire package of eye-popping colors, brutal murders and haunting music make this film an on-screen representation of your worst nightmare. This film gets such a high rating from me because it is 1970s horror, which is the best kind. Today’s horror flicks rely too much computer-generated effects, which may be technologically savvy, but does not work magic on the senses like something as fundamental as color did for “Suspiria.” Though the plot of this film was incredibly cheesy (though who goes to a horror film for the story?) the other elements of the film could most definitely satisfy any horror-fan’s scare fix. ***1/2 out of ****

Also check out the film's theatrical trailer, which is replete with excellent 70s creepiness:



(movie poster found at best-horror-movies.com)

Audrey Hepburn: the life and the legacy

Audrey Hepburn is best known as a beautiful, talented actress and fashion icon of the late twentieth century; the woman in the slinky black Givenchy dress standing in front of the Tiffany’s window and giving off such an air of confidence in the opening scene of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” But Hepburn should also be remembered as a fighter, having overcome adversity and personal struggles throughout her life. The legacy she left is so unique that it will be hard for any other actress to match.

Hepburn was born in Brussels, Belgium on May 4, 1929 to Joseph Ruston-Hepburn, a British banker, and Ella vanHeemstra, a Dutch baroness. She traveled between Belgium, England, and the Netherlands throughout her childhood.

At age six, Hepburn had to cope with her father’s leaving the family. She did not see him again until twenty years later. When they finally met, he was unable to show remorse for what he had put the family through. Her father’s absence would later affect Hepburn in her two failed marriages, but also the yearning to keep her family together once she had one.

Hepburn also suffered through World War II; most especially the 1940 invasion of the Netherlands, a country that Hepburn’s mother had moved her family to in hopes of safety. Though Hepburn did her part working for the Dutch resistance and carrying secret messages in her shoes, the devastation of the war left her malnourished.

It was this affect that kept Hepburn from pursuing her initial dream of becoming a prima ballerina. Dancing had served Hepburn through the war; she had danced for private groups of people to collect money for the resistance. She studied ballet in Amsterdam and London, most notably under Marie Rambert, who remarked that Hepburn was, at five feet seven inches and 110 pounds, to be too tall and too heavy for smaller male dancers to lift her. The malnourishment from the war also left her too weak. Though she would never be a prima ballerina, Hepburn moved to perfect herself in another field; she moved on to acting.

Hepburn’s initial work came on the stage. She starred in a stage production called “High Button Shoes.” Producer Cecil Landau, quoted in a 1993 “PEOPLE Extra Magazine” article said, “I saw this girl running across the stage. I remember two black eyes and a fringe. I got very excited.” Hepburn was cast because she was so visually stimulating. And to Rambert’s possible dismay, Hepburn’s tiny proportions enhanced her on-screen presence.

Though many of her first silver screen roles were small, Hepburn was “discovered” by a French writer named Collette when she was filming “Monte Carlo Baby” in the early 1950s.

Hepburn passed a wheelchair-bound Collette in a Parisian hotel, which caused the woman to exclaim, “Voila! There’s our Gigi!” Hepburn was given the lead part in the stage adaptation of Collette’s novel of the same name.

In 1953, Hepburn achieved what few other new actresses could: an Academy Award for Best Actress for her break-out film, “Roman Holiday.” Perhaps it was co-star Gregory Peck’s insistence that Hepburn’s name was to be given equal billing to his. (Originally, the marquee was to read “Introducing Audrey Hepburn.”) It was no question, though that Hepburn had remarkable screen presence. Director William Wyler had initially cast her after her legendary screen test in which she showed moments of spontaneity after he yelled “cut,” but the camera kept rolling.

Hepburn continued success later in her career. She was nominated for Best Actress Oscars for “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Sabrina,” and “Wait until Dark.” Audiences loved her as Eliza Doolittle in the movie version of “My Fair Lady” (originated on stage by Julie Andrews), but she was not nominated for an Oscar in this role.

She worked steadily from the 1950s into the late 1960s, but took a semi-retirement from acting after the 1967 release of “Wait until Dark.” She married actor Mel Ferrer in 1954, with whom she co-starred in the play “Ondine” in 1964. They had a son named Sean. Her marriage to Ferrer lasted only until 1968, and a year later she married psychiatrist Andrea Dotti. Hepburn and Dotti divorced in 1982, but had a son, Luca. During the time away from the big screen, she chose not to accept any film roles, but to raise her sons in Europe instead. “I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision because I missed my children so very much…I was happy (in my decision); it was not as if I was at home, biting my nails,” she was quoted in her son Sean’s biography of her.

Hepburn’s last film role was a cameo in Steven Spielberg’s “Always” in 1989. Then she took a permanent retirement from films. She chose to focus instead on her humanitarian work, and became an ambassador for UNICEF, and worked there until the year before her death, 1992. She wanted to “speak for the children who could not speak for themselves.” In a way, Hepburn had been a part of UNICEF her entire life; they were the organization that gave her shelter and sustenance during the war, and she had always been grateful to them.

During the last years at UNICEF, Hepburn became increasingly fatigued by the work. Not only was seeing the impoverished countries increasingly difficult to her, but she was becoming physically ill with stomach pains. This caused her to visit a doctor, and the prognosis was abdominal cancer that had spread unbeknownst to Hepburn over five years. She died from colon cancer in January of 1993.

By the kindness she had shown over her life and her eloquence onscreen and off, Audrey Hepburn has built a lasting legacy; twin legacies, according to TIME magazine reporter Richard Corliss: for one, “her effortless chic in movies;” for the other, “a consciousness-raiser for UNICEF.” She was a humble and loving person, who had a “lifelong craving for affection and (a) need to give it,” Corliss wrote.

Hepburn summed her life perfectly: “My life has been much more than a fairy tale. I’ve had my share of difficult moments, but whatever difficulties I’ve gone through, I’ve always gotten the prize in the end.”

Article compiled with information from:

The Audrey Hepburn Children's fund online

Audrey Hepburn from MSN Encarta

Audrey Hepburn: Still the fairest lady by Richard Corliss

Audrey Hepburn: An Elegant Spirit by Sean Ferrer

Lighting Up Broadway from PEOPLE Extra magazine

Audrey Hepburn by Hubert deGivenchy

Audrey Hepburn from the Internet Movie Database
Audrey Hepburn: A son's reflections by Ted Kreiter

(images found at allposters.com (top) and flickr.com (bottom)

Movie of the Week: '27 Dresses'

First Released: January 18, 2008

DVD release: now available
Director: Anne Fletcher

Main Characters:

Jane (Katherine Heigl)

Kevin (James Marsden)

George (Edward Burns)

Tess (Malin Akerman)

Runtime: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated: PG-13 for language, some innuendo and sexuality

Katherine Heigl stars as Jane, a woman who definitely fits into the sentiment of “always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” She is a selfless woman who hosts all of her friends’ showers, as well as served as their maid of honor. No matter how ugly the dress, Jane has slipped into them, and stood beside the bride-to-be no less than 27 times. Jane eagerly awaits the day she herself will marry, though she has had the groom in mind for quite some time: her boss, George. However, when her attractive younger sister Tess comes to live with Jane from having lived in Europe, she wins George’s affections, and puts to shame all of Jane’s many years of crushing. Jane must again play the selfless bridesmaid and plan Tess and George’s quickly decided on wedding, though she is fuming because she not only lost the man of her dreams, but Tess gained the respect of George through lies she told him. Meanwhile, a journalist named Kevin is pseudo-stalking Jane after having found her planner on the floor of a taxi. He is intrigued by Jane’s love of weddings, and wants to use her as the subject of an article she is writing. Little does Jane know from the cynicism toward weddings that Kevin displays to her, that he is actually the writer of the “New York Journal’s” commitments column, which is Jane’s favorite. When Jane realizes that she may never get George under her spell, she realizes that she has more in common with Kevin and begins to fall in love with him instead.

Before watching this movie, I had a bit of trepidation about seeing Katherine Heigl as the star of a romantic comedy. I was not overly familiar with her work, except that she is on the wildly popular ABC show “Grey’s Anatomy,” which I have also never watched. I only knew that she had made some rather ungracious, near-backstabbing actions toward the “Grey’s” writing crew when she withdrew her name from Emmy consideration this year, citing that none of the work she did this past season was worth considering. It was a bit of a turn off that someone of that caliber could bite the hand that fed her, so I didn’t make any quick moves to watch this film when it was first released on DVD.

I was home from school this weekend, however, and I must say that Katherine Heigl and this whole film worked well overall for me. After all, she seems to be the perfect lead for this genre of movie—she’s pretty, blonde, and can easily give off a perkiness in her personality. While I’m not a huge fan of romantic comedies, I like them every once in a while for an easy, schmaltzy film-going experience.

Like many romantic comedies, “27 Dresses” was not without its moments of cheese and unrealistic plot events. My favorite cheesy moment was when Jane and Kevin get a little tipsy and dance on a table at a bar to Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets.” “B-b-b-Benny” was certainly ringing in my head all night afterward. The most unrealistic part was that beautiful Jane could not be seen as anything more than an assistant by the attractive, but not necessarily drop-dead gorgeous George. However, Kevin was hardly a bad rebound. At least she found happiness in the end. Yes, of course “27 Dresses” is one of ‘those’ films. What I liked most, though, was that Heigl and Marsden were fresh faces to the genre. In the 1990s, people like Jennifer Aniston dominated romantic comedies, so I'm glad the torch was passed to some new leads.

Even though I liked the film enough, I’m not sure I could give it an “automatic” must-see status. Mostly only females would appreciate it, and males would pretend to, for their girlfriend’s sake. People that also love weddings can definitely relate to this film. But for an overall “don’t have to think about it” experience (seriously, writing the synopsis for this review didn’t take too much thinking back to the film on my part), I say watch it.

I give “27 Dresses” *** out of ****

(image found at impawards.com)

Moviegoing: All in the Family

We all know how much I enjoy movies, but I have probably gotten my cinematic appreciation from my family, especially my grandmother. I sat down with both my grandmother and mother and discussed their favorite films.

Asking my grandmother what her favorite movie is can be difficult because she is an avid movie lover and has seen countless films over her seventy-five year life. However, the one piece of cinema that has proved to be an everlasting favorite, she says, is "Gone with the Wind." Based on a novel by Margaret Mitchell, "Gone with the Wind" is an epic love story that in the nearly seventy years since the film’s release has proven to be a favorite of audiences; it has the prestige of being watched more than any other film in history. My grandmother can agree with its enduring popularity. She counts the film’s epic span through the Civil War (including the romantic plot between Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara) as why she enjoys it so much. Having read the novel first, she and some of her high school friends saw the film at the theater and discussed it afterwards. She liked the fact that the film was innovative for its time period: it was presented in Technicolor, it used a curse word for the first time on screen (in Rhett Butler’s infamous line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”), but more importantly that it featured characters of color (Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel, who went on to be the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar; the Best Supporting Actress for her performance). She has seen the film only once in theaters, but watches it nearly every time it is on television. She is even so attached to the film that she nearly named my mother Melanie after one of the characters (Melanie Hamilton, played by Olivia de Havilland).

Like my grandmother, my mother enjoys good films. Her most vivid childhood memory is sitting in the theater with my grandmother and seeing "The Sound of Music" when it was first released. She was only six years old at the time. She too loves films that have an evolution of characters (she liked how Julie Andrews’s character, Maria, evolved from trying to become a nun to being the nanny for the vonTrapp family). She also counts the beautiful Austrian Alps setting and catchy songs sung by the talented Julie Andrews as her favorite elements of the film. She also liked the whole story of how the vonTrapps escaped the Nazis and found comfort in music while experiencing struggles. She even frequently read up on the lives of the real vonTrapp family because of the movie.

Both my mother and my grandmother agree that they like old classic movies such as those much better than many of the films released today. They both always comment that those films were great because they relied on the story, and not special effects, language or other shock values as the cinematic aesthetic. They say that their favorite movies are their favorites because the films have a story, actors, and music that mesh well together.

(Pictures: Gone with the Wind--bennettauctions.com; Sound of Music--movieposter.com)

Movie of the Week: 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'

First Released: May 22, 2008
DVD release: October 14, 2008
Director: Steven Spielberg
Main Characters:
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford)
Col. Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett)
Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf)
Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen)
Runtime: 2 hours, 2 minutes
Rated: PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images

Indiana Jones is up for another adventure in this fourth installment of the “Jones” series. It’s 1957, during the Cold War, when Professor Henry Jones (Indy’s day job persona) receives a coded message from a demented colleague that sends him and a young sidekick to Peru in search of a legendary skull made of quartz. All Jones must do is return the skull to the right place, but he is tailed by the Soviets, whose forces are led by the brilliantly maniacal Irina Spalko. If she captures the skull, Jones must face reckoning with the supernatural.

I’ve only ever seen one “Indiana Jones” movie, way back in the sixth grade. It was so long ago that I don’t remember which film I had seen, but let’s just say that it was the first, 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But my time with the “Indy” series is not the only thing that’s been long. It’s also been about 20 years since the last release of a film in the series, 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

A lot of things have happened in 20 years. First and foremost is the film’s star, Harrison Ford. Back in the 1980s, his Indiana Jones was a slick, whip-wielding adventurer who always triumphed over evildoers, whether Nazis or malevolent spirits. When Indy won, it was only natural. (Ford had also enjoyed superhero status as Han Solo in the 1970s “Star Wars” films.) With the dream directing/producing team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, the series was instantly a hit. Now he is reduced to is a man in his mid-60s who is trying too hard to reprise a role that only worked in his younger years (same to you, Sylvester Stallone). When the lines in your face are deeper than the canyons you used to jump over and you move at about half the pace you used to, Ford’s Jones would be better off sticking to his day job as a tenured professor at the fictional Marshall College.

Ford should also know he’s getting too old when younger blood is brought in to do all of the dirty work; this time in Hollywood’s new “It Boy,” Shia LaBeouf. As the film was set in the 1950s, LaBeouf plays staple teen stereotype of the time, a greaser named Mutt Williams who only cares about combing his hair back and beating anyone up who scuffs his black leather jacket. He’s also the annoying sidekick to ask all of the “What’s this for, Indy?” questions. He also echoes the audience sentiments with his dubiousness of elder Indy’s abilities. “You know, for an old man, you’re not bad in a fight. What are you, like 80?” I do not feel that this character should have been included, but some way was needed for Indy to re-unite with his lady fair, Marion Ravenwood. Marion turns out to be Mutt’s mother, and his father is revealed to be Jones.

The film in its entirety was lackluster. It was replete with lame story lines, mediocre action (falling over three waterfalls with not a scratch on anyone and a monkey see, monkey do by Mutt while swinging from vines in a jungle with real monkeys). The villain was a standard mad Russian doctor played by the uninspiring (but usually excellent) Cate Blanchett. Ford’s dialogue delivery was nothing more than him squaring his jaw and muttering the cheesiest of lines.

That’s the trouble with waiting 20 years between films and film series in general. Even the best characters get stale after a while. Even though there’s talk of a fifth film (apparently this film made so much money that George Lucas thought this was a good idea), but your own sake, Harrison Ford, hang up the brown fedora.
I give this film **1/2 out of ****

(picture found at impawards.com)

'Angels in America' Heavenly

Theatre: Mary L. Welch Theatre, Lycoming College
Main Characters:
Joe Pitt (Vincent Sisley)
Harper Pitt (Melissa Newman)
Louis Ironson (Elijah Perry)
Prior Walter (Ross Tieken)
Roy Cohn (Barry Schaub)
Director: N.J. Stanley

This weekend and next, my college put on Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play Angels in America. My review appeared in the October 9 edition of the school newspaper.

The theater department’s first show of the 2008-2009 season, “Angels in America,” was my fifth theater experience at Lycoming, so I already knew of the hard work and dedication students and staff put in to make each production amazing, and “Angels” was no exception.

The story line of “Angels in America” surrounds the intertwining of the lives of two couples. One couple is lovers Louis Ironson and Prior Walter. When Prior learns that he has AIDS, Louis panics and leaves him. Louis then meets Joe Pitt, a lawyer and a Mormon who is struggling in his relationship with his wife Harper. Harper has her own struggles with an addiction to Valium.

“Angels in America” is set in the mid-1980s in the emergence of the AIDS crisis, but also in the conservatism of the Reagan era. In her program notes, director N.J. Stanley writes that “playwright Tony Kushner intentionally shoves a variety of marginalized peoples into his spotlight—homosexuals, Mormons, Jews, African Americans—and examines their personal struggles in a country that still…struggles with its ability to distinguish tolerance from acceptance.”

To fully portray such struggles, a strong and diverse cast was needed, and the company of “Angels” certainly provides that.

Having seen all four main stage theater productions last year, I had come to admire the performances of current seniors Melissa Newman, who played Harper, and Barry Schaub, who played Joe Pitt’s slick, crass business mentor with a deadly secret, Roy Cohn.

Harper is a woman that I saw to be almost at the center of the characters. Her drug-addled and hallucinogenic antics are the most visible problems of the main characters, but she is someone who her husband Joe cannot seem to leave, though he seems to come back only to spar with her. Her hallucinations also intersect with Prior’s dreams and fantasies as both wish for a life in which they are healthier.

Although Roy Cohn is a supporting character and not seen as much as some of the others, his scenes are still powerful. Cohn believes he has the ability to say and do whatever he wants because of his influential work as a lawyer (he was a prosecutor for the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case which convicted the couple of treason and sentenced them to death.) But when he finds out that he, too, has AIDS, his secrets are revealed and his insecurities begin to take over him.

Newman and Schaub delivered their typically outstanding performances, as did theater regular Vincent Sisley, who played Joe Pitt. However, I was blown away by the debut performances of two freshman leads, Elijah Perry and Ross Tieken, who played Louis and Prior, respectively. Though each of their characters were strong and emotional on their own, their ability to blend their performances while portraying a couple was phenomenal.

While the props were sometimes no more than a table and chairs or a bed, they were subtle enough to highlight the actors on stage, and the lighting did this well also. While the play itself was overall a job well done, I think the ability to understand some of the characters that appeared toward the end, especially Ethel Rosenberg (portrayed by senior Tyler Winthrop) and the angel (played by sophomore Brianne Shaw), was a bit taken away from the fact that “Angels in America” is actually two full-length plays. Lycoming put on Part I, “Millennium Approaches.” Hopefully, the theater will some day put on Part II, “Perestroika.”

(picture from www.amazon.ca)

Stars talk about classic movies and money woes

By Michael Cidoni of the Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - It was movie stars celebrating movies, as Sean Connery, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Jodie Foster, Dustin Hoffman and a host of others gathered in Hollywood for the American Film Institute's annual night at the movies.

It was also movie stars voicing concerns for an ailing nation following the Senate's approval Wednesday of the $700 billion economic bailout plan.

"Well, it's great," said Annette Bening, who arrived at ArcLight Hollywood with husband Warren Beatty. "I think we all need to be educated more about why it's important to pass the bailout. And from everything that I understand, it's a way of us moving forward. I'm glad that the Senate did that, and I hope that the House follows."

Bening was at "Target Presents AFI Night at the Movies," which screened 12 classic American films in a single night, to introduce "American Beauty," the Academy Award winner in which she starred with Kevin Spacey.

Jim Carrey, there to introduce "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," walked the media gauntlet with girlfriend Jenny McCarthy, who commented, "People are going to be relieved a little bit that there is going to be some help. But then there is the other side that thinks the rich are only going to get richer."

Added Carrey, "They will figure out a way to consume it. ... I think it's a good thing, temporarily. I don't know in the long run. Who knows? It's kind of a strange thing to take taxpayers' money and be doing that kind of thing with. I don't trust anybody."

Carrey's fellow Canadian, "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" actor Mike Myers, was somewhat reluctant when asked to do some bailout banter. "I have made some comedies and that's how you know me, so . . . I don't know what the etiquette is about one's political beliefs. I am very concerned for people that the economy turn around. ... The strength of democracy is not how well we agree but how well we disagree. The strength of a society is how well we take care of our most disenfranchised."

The high-profile gathering reunited actors with some of their famous films: Cameron Diaz introduced "There's Something About Mary"; Shirley MacLaine, "The Apartment"; Steve Martin, "The Jerk"; Denzel Washington, "Glory"; Rita Moreno, "West Side Story."
Connery introduced "The Man Who Would be King"; Reeves, "The Matrix"; Hoffman, "Tootsie"; and Foster, "The Silence of the Lambs" — a rare thriller that went on to both commercial and artistic triumphs.

"It was an absolutely beautiful novel and was beautiful in the details, the tapestry of the details, as it was in this just really primal, unconscious thing," Foster said. "It caught us intellectually, but it also caught us in this really primal place that none of us really understand, and hit both things."

Bening said "American Beauty" was "made for the right reasons."

"People just were following their heart," she said. "When I first saw it, I have to say, I was just blown away, because I thought, 'This really came together as we hoped it would.' ... I've made some movies that I really loved that nobody saw. ... So, the fact that this was a success, on top of being something that I was really proud of, it's like a dream come truly."

Bening was also asked about Thursday night's impending debate between vice-presidential candidates Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin.

"I just want to be educated. I am a student of politics and these are our experts and we deserve to hear everything — especially from Governor Palin because we don't know that much about her," Bening said.

"I am feeling really good about this Sarah Palin," Carrey said, "because I used to live in Canada and you could to see Alaska from there. So I know everything there is to know about her."

Article via Yahoo! Movie News

(picture: The Associated Press)