Pick your movie of the week: Westerns of the 2010’s (Sept 5-11/21)

I’ve never been an enormous fan of the genre, but I can’t deny that I love a good western. We’ve voted on great westerns before, but all of these are taken from the last decade. I enjoyed them all, which is usually why I choose the nominees I do each week. But I’d like to know which one(s) you liked and which you think could be our movie of the week:

True Grit (2010)

Django Unchained (2012)

The Revenant (2015)

It’s Movie Trivia Time Again!

• When Bob Hoskins’s son watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) he wouldn’t speak to his father for two weeks. He was so angry at his father for working alongside cartoon characters and not giving him the opportunity to meet them too.
• If you like Jane Lynch’s comedic performances, you can thank Christopher Guest. She was largely unknown until she landed the role of Christy Cummings in Best in Show. Guest cast her after he directed her in a Frosted Flakes commercial.
• In Awakenings, Dr. Sayer (Robin Williams) treats his catatonic patient Leonard (Robert DeNiro) with a drug called Levodopa. This same drug was used to treat Robin Williams’s own Parkinson-like symptoms shortly before his death in 2014.
• Awakenings is the debut film for Vin Diesel.
• Kurt Russell played Wyatt Earp in 1993’s Tombstone, but did you know there is also an actor in the film’s cast whose real name is Wyatt Earp? Yes, he was named after the lawman, his fifth cousin. He plays Billy Claiborne.
• At the end of the credits of Airplane (1980) there is an FBI warning where the producers inserted the words “So there” at the bottom. This got them a phone call from the FBI voicing their disapproval. They even wanted the two words removed, but the movie was already widely distributed.
• Actor Billy Bob Thornton has a phobia of antique furniture. Director/producer Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, etc.) has a phobia of chimpanzees. I find this funny considering he directed Planet of the Apes (2001).
• Joy and I were watching Funny Girl (1968) and there was an actress in it that I was sure I’d seen before. I finally figured out that it was Aunt Bethany from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (the one who wraps her cat and recites the US Pledge of Allegiance when saying grace). She was also the voice for Olive Oyl in the Popeye cartoons and Betty Boop.
• Chris O’Donnell was a hot ticket in the 90’s, so it was no surprise when he was cast to play Robin in Batman Forever. In fact, Leonardo DiCaprio auditioned for that part but was passed over for O’Donnell.
• As a result of preparing for her role as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (2016), Margot Robbie learned how to hold her breath for 5 minutes.
• In 1987, a relatively unknown actress named Kate McCauley Hathaway played Fantine in a Les Miserables musical tour. Her 5-year-old daughter would play that same role in 2012’s feature film version. And Anne Hathaway really did have all her hair cut off in the making of the film. Her hairdresser, a man, was put in a dress to appear as a woman while he did the cutting.
• Sacha Baron Cohen is a life-long wrestling fan and is good friends with John Cena.
• Even if you haven’t seen Psycho (1960), you most likely are familiar with the iconic music played during the shower scene. Alfred Hitchcock knew how great it was the first time he heard it. The shower scene was planned to be shot completely silent, but when he heard what his composer, Bernard Herrmann, had scored for the scene he instantly agreed to put it in. He also doubled his composer’s salary because he was so impressed with the score.
• Jordan Peele stated that part of the reason he chose the title Get Out for his immensely successful 2017 film, is a reference to how black audiences yell this phrase at the screen during horror movies.
• In 1979 there were protests of Monty Python’s Life of Brian from denominations of every imaginable variety of Christianity around the world. John Cleese would joke about it with Michael Palin telling him, “We’ve brought them all together for the first time in two thousand years!”
• Two months after his death and burial in 1977, Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen right out of the ground. It took another two months to find his remains again, after which he was reburied in a cemented vault.
• “Eh” is said 174 times in Strange Brew (1983).
• Max Von Sydow played the role of Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). He said the hardest part was expectations from other people for him to stay in character. He said that he couldn’t smoke on breaks, have a drink at the end of a day of shooting, or show affection to his wife.
• Over 20,000 children auditioned for the role of Dennis in Dennis the Menace (1993). Ten were then selected to test the role with Walter Mathau, who played Mr. Wilson. The casting directors were inspired to cast Mason Gamble after he pulled a live worm out of his pocket during his audition.
• In 1998 on their movie review show, At the Movies, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave The Truman Show two thumbs up. They then proceeded to apologize to Jim Carrey on air for saying that he would never have a career after they’d watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
• The animated feature film with the most Oscar nominations is shared between two Disney movies: Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Wall-E (2008). Each have 6.
• Over 5,200 feet of trenches were dug in the making of 1917 (2019).
• Fiddler on the Roof (1971) illustrates the challenges of tradition and depicts it as less useful and prone to crumble. This made the movie a surprise hit in Japan.
• Like many people, I thought that Ron Howard’s performance in American Graffiti, as well as the subsequent success of the film, was what earned him his spot on the Happy Days cast (AG was released in 1973; Happy Days premiered in 1974). But it turns out the opposite is true. Happy Days wasn’t picked up initially, but ABC did show the pilot on an anthology series they aired in 1972 called “Love, American Style.” George Lucas watched the pilot and thought Howard would be a perfect fit as Steve.

Congratulations American Graffiti. This is your week.

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Actress: Cindy Williams as Laurie in American Graffiti.

Best Actor: Robert DeNiro as Leonard Lowe in Awakenings.

Best Quote: “We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.” — Parker Posey as Meg Swan in Best in Show.

I read one piece of trivia that makes me want to rewatch 1979’s The Muppet Movie. Apparently, the whole movie is an allegory about Jim Henson’s rise to fame!

 

Pick your movie of the week: Laverne & Shirley (Aug 29-Sept 4 /21)

I was a big fan of this TV show as a kid, which aired from the time I was 4 til the year I turned 11. Doing some reminiscing I realized that each of the main actors have been in some pretty cool movies. So you can vote for a movie you like most, or for which character you liked most in the show. Whatever works. Here are the nominees:

American Graffiti (1973)
Starring Cindy Williams, aka Shirley

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Starring David L. Lander, aka Squiggy

Awakenings (1990)
Starring Penny Marshall, aka Laverne

Best in Show (2000)
Starring Michael McKean, aka Lenny

Can I make peace with gangsta rap?

To kill a police officer is disgusting and unthinkable. It’s right up there with killing a firefighter, or a first responder. So it’s no surprise that when I first heard of songs like “Cop Killer” (1992) by Body Count and “F*** the Police” by NWA (1987), I hated them! I hadn’t even heard the songs, but with titles like that, did I even have to? That was my introduction to Gangsta Rap.

I don’t apologize for those titles enraging me. I have always had friends, family, and acquaintances who served in the police force in some capacity. How could anyone sing about doing something like that?

I am thankful, however, to have a better understanding than I did 30 years ago. To try and make sense of stuff like this, I will sometimes take all the people, places, and things in these situations and turn them upside down in my head. Seeing things from that perspective is weird, just as it would be standing on your head to watch a hockey game or a stage musical. 

For instance, the perspective of Gangsta Rap (as well as the recent backlash against police in the past couple of years) is one that I find very hard to see and appreciate. But to turn it upside down, I take an event like the police shootings in Moncton and Fredericton that happened in this past decade. Those events hit us all hard. They still do. If someone who lost, say, their own brother that way, and wrote a song about it that was offensive and hard to listen to, I would at the very least be sympathetic.

Then, to proceed with more upside-down-ing, I imagine what it would be like if this had been going on for longer than a decade. Police officers serving their community being shot senselessly for, let’s say, over 20 years. 50 years. 100 years. The higher the number, the higher the level of frustration, desperation, and desire for change would be. And I’m sure the number of artists writing about it would also be proportionate.

Then I wonder, what if the killings were all done by, say… nurses. Yes, for some reason this was the pattern. And it was happening all over the country for a hundred years or more. And those nurses kept getting acquitted for it. The shootings in this province… THAT happening this often? And in this way? Yes, I believe I would understand a song like “F*** the Nurses” getting released.

Then I imagine what it would be like if most of the population was shrugging their shoulders about the problem and simply didn’t believe in “all the hype” of what was being reported. I try and picture those people accusing me of being a nurse-hater. Yeah, I don’t think I’d worry too much about this group getting offended. If anything, that might help get their attention. I would want something to wake them up, and I’m sure artists with broken, angry hearts would too.

So, yes, I look at these songs differently when I can upside-down. And the more I do it the easier it gets.

Congratulations Straight Outta Compton. This is your week.

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Actress: Kim Basinger as Stephanie in 8 Mile. Honourable mention to Naturi Naughton as Lil’ Kim in Notorious.

Best Actor: O’Shea Jackson, Jr. as Ice Cube. You may remember this was Ice Cube’s son playing him. I was never sure why Jason Mitchell was getting more Oscar love for his role as Easy E. Jackson’s performance stole the show. Btw, Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur in Notorious deserves some props here..

Best Quote: “What kind of grown-ass man calls himself Puffy?!” — Angela Bassett as Voletta Wallace in Notorious

My top 10 favourite musical biopics

1. Selena (1997)
2. Notorious (2009)
3. Straight Outta Compton (2016)
4. Judy (2019)
5. 8 Mile (1999)
6. The Pianist (2002)
7. Walk the Line (2005)
8. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
9. Amadeus (1984)
10. Rocketman (2019)

My top 10 most anticipated musical biopics I’ve yet to see

1. What’s Love Got to Do With It? (1993)
2. Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
3. Love and Mercy (2014)
4. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)
5. Ray (2004)
6. The Runaways (2010)
7. Get On Up (2014)
8. Sid and Nancy (1986)
9. La Vie en Rose (2007)
10. Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Pick your movie of the week: Rap & Hip Hop (Aug 22-28/21)

Whether or not you’re a fan of rap and hip hop, their impact on pop culture is gigantic, not to mention most of their own stories are compelling. These three movies all tell pretty great stories, and if you haven’t seen them, click on the links and check out the plot descriptions. Which rap artist biopic would you pick to be our movie this week?

8 Mile (2002, Eminem)

Notorious (2009, Notorious B.I.G.)

Straight Outta Compton (2015, NWA)

 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury…

Top 10 Movie Lawyers in order of iconicity: (Yes, it’s a word. I looked it up. I’m that good.)

1. Elle Woods, Legally Blonde series (2001)
2. Jim Garrison, JFK (1991)
3. Lt. Daniel Kaffee, A Few Good Men (1992)
4. Fletcher Reede, Liar Liar (1997)
5. Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy (2019)
6. Paul Biegler, Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
7. Vincent Gambini, My Cousin Vinny (1992)
8. Arthur Kirkland, And Justice for All (1979)
9. Erin Brockovich, Erin Brockovich (2000)
10. Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Thurgood Marshall, Marshall (2017); Kathryn Murphy, The Accused (1988); Jake Tyler Brigance, A Time to Kill (1996); Joe Miller, Philadelphia (1993)

Top 10 Courtroom Movies:

1. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
3. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
4. Just Mercy (2019)
5. Philadelphia (1993)
6. A Few Good Men (1992)
7. My Cousin Vinny (1992)
8. Erin Brockovich (2000)
9. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
10. 12 Angry Men (1957)

HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Marshall (2017); Legally Blonde (2001); Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Top 10 Courtroom Movie Quotes:

1. “The Constitution was not written for us. We know that. But no matter what it takes, we’re going to make it work for us. From now on, we claim it as our own.” — Marshall
2. “That’s right, we’re not goin’ to jail because of what we did, we’re goin’ to jail because of who we are!” — The Trial of the Chicago 7
3. “Imagine a far away place, Hank, where people value your opinion. Now go there.” — The Judge
4. “I am constantly surprised that women’s hats do not provoke more murders.” — Witness for the Prosecution
5. “You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order!” — And Justice for All
6. “Truth has been driven from this case like a slave, flogged from court to court, wretched and destitute.” — Amistad
7. “So before you come back here with another lame ass offer, I want you to think real hard about what your spine is worth, Mr. Walker. Or what you might expect someone to pay you for your uterus, Ms. Sanchez. Then you take out your calculator and you multiply that number by a hundred. Anything less than that is a waste of time.” — Erin Brockovich
8. (Vinny Gambini’s opening statement in court) “Uh, everything that guy just said is bullshit. Thank you.” — My Cousin Vinny
9. “You never really understand a person . . . until you consider things from his point of view.” — To Kill a Mockingbird
10. “You can’t handle the truth!” — A Few Good Men

Congratulations Erin Brockovich. This is your week.

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Actress: Aside from Julia, I think Cameron Diaz as Kimberly in My Best Friend’s Wedding is the best. She was one of the highlights of this movie.

Best Actor: Rhys Eifans as Spike in Notting Hill. I feel robbed that I haven’t seen more of this actor. If I made a list of funniest performances of all time, he would be in the top 5.

Best Quote: “They’re called boobs, Ed.” — Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich 

I’ll never forget the summer I went to my Aunt’s house in Corwallis, NS in 1984. The memories I have from that summer, other than the adventures I had with my Aunt and Uncle, were connected with movies and TV. I didn’t sit around all day watching the tube, but that was the summer I first experienced Kramer vs Kramer, History of the World Part I, All of Me, The Jerk, and much to my Aunt’s dismay, the first 45 minutes of Warriors. It was also the summer I discovered Michael J. Fox, and courtroom TV.

 

Pick your movie of the week: Julia Roberts (Aug 15-21/21)

Joy and I just finished watching the episode of “The Movies that Made Us” on Netflix, that was about the making of Pretty Woman (1990). I have never been a huge fan of it (I do like it, just don’t love it.), though I can see why so many people are; and it’s unarguably one of the greatest rom-coms ever made. I am a bit surprised that I haven’t focused on Julia Roberts’ movies yet, so this seems like the perfect time to do it. I better not include Pretty Woman… it might just win too easily. But these ones are classics, too. Take your pick…

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

Notting Hill (1999)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

 

Old Yeller: the first champion for mental health?

Did we even know what we were watching at the time? The lovable Labrador/Mastiff may have been an early pioneer for helping us all learn to sympathize and to understand mental health.

SPOILER ALERT: I guess it should be established now that this post will spoil the end of 1957’s Old Yeller. This is one of those movies that most of us know the ending to anyway, but just in case you want to see this one without knowing how it ends, proceeding from here will make that impossible.

It’s an unforgettable story that’s hard not to love. The titular character is a loyal family dog who not only offers unconditional love, he also protects the family from the likes of bears, wolves, and wild hogs. “The best doggone dog in the west” is the ideal of the perfect pet. He’s the dog your grandparents had on their farm. The dog you could always count on to be a good boy. This is what makes the end of his story so conflicting for us. While saving the family from a rabid wolf, the dog is bitten several times. This inevitably leads to Old Yeller contracting rabies himself, and becoming the antithesis of what he was. Now he is ferocious, mad, dangerous.

Many adults identify this film as the most emotional movie of their childhood. If you thought The Lion King, Bambi, and Up had soul-crushing scenes, Old Yeller makes them look like a walk in the park. As a child I was truly torn. In a little over an hour I had a love for that dog as if it was my own for the last ten years. But I knew that if there was no magical cure, Travis had to do what he had to do. I hated that this was the only option. But it was. Without “putting him down,” Yeller would now more likely kill a child than save one.

But it wasn’t the dog’s fault! No, it wasn’t. He wasn’t doing anything wrong to put himself in this situation that brought upon him the disease; he was heroically rescuing a family! As a child I saw that snarling, barking dog and felt fear first, then compassion. It’s not him. It’s his sickness.

This is a perfect picture of the emotional wrestling match we find ourselves in when seeing someone we love becoming consumed by a failing mental health condition. Sadly, when it’s someone we are not connected to, it’s much easier to judge. When Charlie Sheen spends millions on gambling and doesn’t pay child support, or Tiger Woods cheats on his wife, or Lindsay Lohan is caught intoxicated in public, none of us want to hear the word addiction to describe their situation. Sure, it’s easier to have compassion on, say, a person who becomes addicted to pills that were prescribed to them. But the sickness is the same. And how do we know the full story on anybody’s emotional and/or mental breakdown?

The sickness doesn’t justify the behaviour, but seeing it as a result of a bigger problem gets us on the road to helping and preventing instead of just shaking our heads and tsk-ing. Unlike in the case of Old Yeller, there are things that can be done to bring healing and restitution. Metaphorically “shooting” the person who is self-destructing isn’t the only option we have for making things right. What would you want someone to do if you were in such dire straits?

Sometimes watching those difficult scenes in movies help us grow. So remember Old Yeller. The way it tore your heart in two can make you wish you hadn’t watched, but it can also make you self reflect and become a better person.

Congratulations Old Yeller. This is your week.

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Actress: Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Campanula Tottington in W&G: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Best Actor: Tom Hanks as Scott Turner in Turner and Hooch.

Best Quote: “I’m sorry, Gromit. I know you’re doing this for my own good, but the fact is I’m just crackers about cheese.” — Peter Sallis as Wallace in W&G: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

When it comes to movie dogs, sometimes the likes of Benji, Lassie, Beethoven, Bud, and Toto steal the limelight and overshadow some true greats. So…

Top 10 Movie Dogs who deserve more attention:

1. Hercules, The Sandlot (1993)
2. Max’s Dog, Mad Max 2 (1981, aka The Road Warrior)
3. Fly, Babe (1995)
4. The Alaskan Malamute, The Thing (1982)
5. Bruiser, Legally Blonde series (2001, 2003)
6. Brandy, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
7. Unnamed rottweiler, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
8. Milo, The Mask (1994)
9. Einstein, Back to the Future (1985)
10. Hachi, Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009) — If you like dog movies at all, I swear you’ll love this one. It’s a very underappreciated Richard Gere movie.

And the Animated Edition:

1. Chief, The Fox and the Hound (1981)
2. Percy, Pocahontas (1995)
3. Fifi, Open Season (2006)
4. Zero, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
5. Charlie B. Barkin, All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
6. Wylie Burp, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)
7. Pooka, Anastasia (1997)
8. Peg, Lady and the Tramp (1955)
9. Footstool, Beauty and the Beast (1991)
10. All the dogs on Isle of Dogs (2018)

 

Pick your movie of the week: Movie Dogs (Aug 8-14/21)

This weekend we got a puppy! Her name is Ruby, a golden-doodle, who is by far the most popular member of the family. So this week we focus on actors of the canine persuasion, which we have done before, but it’s never old to discuss dogs. Or movies. Or movie dogs. Here are your choices:

OLD YELLER in
Old Yeller (1957)

HOOCH in
Turner & Hooch (1989)

GROMIT in
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)