August: Osage County

When watching August: Osage County you will know right away that this was first a play. It has that dependency on great acting to get the story across in an entertaining way because the scenery is very limited and mostly confined to inside a house.

The actors in this are of the highest order. Every single one of them brilliant in their roles and, really, it's a shame not one of them was awarded an Oscar. If Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine beat Meryl Streep's Violet to it, my expectation for that performance are sky high.

And it is Meryl Streep together with Julia Roberts that carry the film, supported by the rest of the stellar cast.

The family gathers for, first, the disappearance and, then, the funeral of Beverly Weston and as the three daughters and Violet's sister descend upon the house with their families, wounds - both old and new - soon break open and every conversation turns into an argument.

All relations are cracked to begin with but some will be broken beyond any hope of repair after a few days, when Violet is left alone with her housekeeper because everyone gets away after yet another explosive scene.

Brilliant.

9/10

Suddenly, Last Summer

They don't make films like this anymore.

Katharine Hepburn plays Mrs Venable, a devoted mother who lost her beloved son Sebastian and has her niece committed for telling an unpleasant story about what happened to Sebastian (the name repeated so often, it is almost like a mantra). She goes as far as trying to get young Cathy lobotomized by one Dr Cukrowicz. Early one, she has an awesome monologue about sea turtles, of all things.

The doctor is played by the wonderful Montgomery Clift, who is the good to oppose Hepburn's bad. He wants to first see for himself, whether Cathy is really as crazy as he is made to believe and an operation is justified.

Cathy is played impeccably by the wonderful, beautiful Elizabeth Taylor. She owns every scene she is in. Quite a feat when you are in scenes with Hepburn and Clift.

All the minor characters have something to gain from Cathy's planned lobotomy. Mrs. Venable has her deluded view of her son untainted by the truth, Cathy's mother and brother stand to inherit $ 100,000,-- and the owner of the asylum Cukrowicz works at a new building sponsored by Mrs Venable.

This is really wonderful to watch, all the way to when Cathy finally tells the truth and everyone is there to witness it.

Quite wonderful.

8/10

3:10 to Yuma

I am not the biggest fan of wild west films. I don't particularly care for Russel Crowe (although I can appreciate that he is a good actor) and I am just so over Christian Bale. Still, I ended up watching 3:10 to Yuma (Alan Tudyk! Peter Fonda! Kevin Durand!) and enjoying it throughout.

Russel Crowe plays the outlaw Ben Wade, who gets himself caught and is set to be brought to the train going to Yuma prison. Yes, yes, it leaves at 3:10. The raga tag band of unlikely characters to get him there include the Doc (a vet, actually), a bounty hunter and farmer Dan Evans, who really needs the money promised him for getting Wade on that train.

Evans' motives go beyond that as he also wants his young son William to respect him (he doesn't). William himself wants in on the trail because he believes himself to be a great shot, even at 14, and also considers his father to be a wimp. Hot on their trail (after a cleverly devised delay) is Wade's gang of outlaws, now led by the trusted Charlie, who wants desperately to fee his boss and keep the gang together.

Many a shootout and several casualties later (Alan Tudyk! Peter Fonda! Kevin Durand!) the good guys almost made it. They are hiding out in a hotel room, having recently obtained the assistants of the local marshal and his two best men. They hightail it soon enough though, because Charlie offers anyone a reward of $ 200,-- if he just shoot and kill one of his boss' captors. Quite effective in making things way harder for Evans, who is the only one left that really wants to put Wade on that train. This not only wins him the respect of young William, but that of Wade, as well.

The final shootout is quite exciting, with only very few survivors.

Not bad at all.

7/10

Lord Richard Attenborough, 1923-2014

Actor Richard Attenborough dies at 90

Day of the Animals aka Something Is Out There

In the beginning, text on screen (very helpful device) informs us that in 1974 scientists started warning about the long term effects of the damage to the ozone layer. And that "This motion picture dramatizes what COULD happen in the near future IF we continue to do nothing to stop this damage to Nature's protective shields for life on this planet."

As the story unfolds, however, I lose the connection with the implications made in that statement. See, the danger to humanity as depicted here are animals. Considering that we are animals, as well, something is very wrong with the premise. But of course, there is no point in arguing with logic in a 1970's disaster (sort of) film. The damaged ozone layer influences animal behavior and that is that.

Our group of characters is out on a hiking trip. In what appears to be the worst timing ever. As soon as they set off, there is increasing news coverage of impending danger in places of high altitude. The hikers are heading - you guessed it - up, up, up.

Soon, the first of the group is attacked and injured. Luckily, she is still fit to walk and is sent back down the hill with one of the hikers going with her. A man. For protection. As weirder and more dangerous things start to happen to the group, not least of all the ravaging of their food supply, the group splits into two teams - one headed by the guide of the expedition and the other by Leslie Nielsen.

This is Leslie Nielsen before he became a total goofball and still pulled off bad guy. He is a loudmouthed, arrogant, racists (someone had to make bad jokes about Native Americans with one of them around - for tracking, no doubt) but still manages to convince a few of the idiot hikers to go with him even further up the hill while all the others decide to go down.

It is then that Leslie Nielsen goes bat shit. And it is glorious.

People continue to die, despite the men trying to keep the womenfolk safe. The job of the female in the film is to stand in corners, shaking from fear and/or point and scream at some dangerous sight. Also, they are given ridiculous lines like, "But they're dogs... Just dogs." And when the few survivors flee from the dogs they head straight for the water, where they believe themselves safe from the dogs. Because, you know, dogs fear the water (in this version of the future). Too bad that the woman in the scene can't swim. Always need someone to save them.

How does it all end, you ask.

Why, all the animals just drop dead, of course.

4/10

Bernie

If there ever was a role written for Jack Black, Bernie is it.

This is based on the true story of a well-liked small town mortician and his unusual friendship with a mean old woman.

Nobody likes old Mrs. Nugent. Everybody loves Bernie, who was involved in most local activities and took it upon himself to visit newly widowed little old ladies a few days after officiating over their deceased husband's funerals. One of those widows was Mrs. Nugent, loathed by everyone. She took a shine to Bernie, who appeared to be the only one to be nice to her and give her the time of day.

The friendship that sprung from his initial visit took him around the world with her money and gave him a taste of the good life. All the townsfolk maintained that he was simply being the nicest guy in the world and were impressed by how he could even stand her.

Then, one day, after Mrs. Nugent became more and more possessive of Bernie's time and jealous of his activities, he shot her and dumped her in the freezer. And there she stayed for 9 months while Bernie spun a tale of a series of strokes and a prolonged stay at a hospital and/or old people's home.

Of course, he did eventually get caught and despite confessing to the crime, the people in the small town wanted nothing more than see him go free. So much so that the DA had the trial moved to another county to get his conviction of a life sentence.

Peppered with interview sequences with the townsfolk to give it more of a real feeling and as realistic as can be with the way the everyday Texan people are made to look.

You see the real Bernie talking with Jack Black during the end credits.

Nice.

5/10

La montagna del dio cannibale (Mountain of the Cannibal God)

Italian horror films of the 1970s are very entertaining once you give in to the ridiculousness of it all. This applies to Mountain of the Cannibal God as well as to any other example of the genre. Usually, there are one or two actors of international fame. In this case: Ursula Andress (yes, she will be naked at some point) and Stacy Keach.

She travels to New Guinea to look for her husband, who is lost in the jungle. Or so she claims. Her brother Arthur (one of a long list of Italian actors that always fill up all the less important roles) and her have quite a different agenda, but require the help of the rugged adventurer played by Stacy Keach - and later one Manolo that they pick up at a mission that they end up banned from. They brought sin and death with them.

Initially, they are also aided by a handful of locals that either die or run away or go to the dark side, which in this case is a cannibal tribe. The Keach character once was captured by the tribe and had to participate in their disgusting rituals. No wonder he is all emo.

Ultimately, only white people make the destination only to be captured by said tribe. While brother Arthur becomes dinner, Manolo is held captive and the Andress character is believed to be a God's wife. See, her late husband is believed to be a God and carried a photograph of the two together. He is also believed to be immortal because a Geiger counter he carried is still ticking away in lieu of his heart.

After some more unpleasantness, the two surviving Caucasians make their escape.

3/10

A Long Way Down

Turns out Pierce Brosnan doesn't always annoy the hell out of me after all. I actually quite liked him in this. He still got way too much screen time (compared to the others) and I would have preferred more Toni Collette and Aaron Paul and less of him and Imogen Poots (whoever she is).

I vaguely remembered the story, as I had read Nick Hornby's book and very much enjoyed it at the time. The translation to screen was pretty decent, I thought. Sure, the book is better. It almost always is. And, yes, Toni Collette played the same role she did in About a Boy (Nick Hornby again and still suicidal). But I enjoyed myself anyway.

It helps that I loved Breaking Bad and - consequently pretty much anyone that was on it - appreciate Aaron Paul. So much so that it actually outweighed my dislike for Brosnan. I'm not sure I would have watched A Long Way Down with only Toni Collette tipping the scale. Lucky I did.

Another shortish review here, but that is really all I got.

6/10

Guardians of the Galaxy

What to do on a rainy day in New York City? Watch a film, of course.

Now, on paper, I should not enjoy a film like Guardians of the Galaxy. I have never been much of a sci-fi fan to begin with and I am so over comic book films and superheroes. But, you know what...it was fun.

What set it apart from the pack for me were the raccoon, Groot, and the Awesome Mix of (mostly) 1980s tunes.

Most of the full-on action scenes were downright stupid and I don't quite see the point of disguising a handsome man like Lee Pace. I mean if you got it why not show it off, ya know? Fortunately, it was also very funny (Groot FTW).

Of course, I couldn't retell the story if my life depended on it. Something with a metal globe that everyone wanted to get their hands on and the main character turned out to be much more genetically blessed than he appears...and he appears just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Zoe Saldana is showing up a different hue this time around. Here she is green instead of blue. Seriously, girlfriend needs to find herself a film that does not play in outer space.

7/10

Robin Williams, 1951-2014

Oh captain, my captain...

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

What is one to do on a 7+ hours flight? Watch a movie, of course. Preferably, a film that does not require one to think too much about what is happening on screen. So, action flick it is.

This happened midway between London and New York and the film chosen was Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Actually, it was the second attempt at a film. The first try was Fading Gigolo, which sounded awesome on paper but turned out to be very dull and it also made Vanessa Paradis as ugly and uninteresting as it possibly could, so I turned that off after a mere 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, Jack Ryan wasn't much better. After serving up the oh-so-tragic-but-totally-heroic intro of the war wounded Ryan and his way back to strength, aided by the insufferable Keira Knightly character, Ryan is recruited by the shady Kevin Costner character (I couldn't be bothered to remember any of the names) and soon appears to be the only undercover hot guy with brains available to assist in a covert operation in Russia - because that is where the bad guys still operate because Russia = bad and Hollywood simply has no other concept of any nation serving that particular purpose while still seem somewhat believable as a highly sophisticated nation (all the other baddies are in the religious extremist/Muslim category and they all live in dug-outs, wielding machine guns manufactured in the US).

Anyway, as if all of the above wasn't cliche enough, the Russian is played by a Brit. Because, of course he is. Luckily, that Brit is Kenneth Branagh (the films sole agreeable feature). He plans to attack *gasp* Wall Street. And who is the one who figures this out? The Keira Knightly character. Because, of course she does. What other purpose besides distraction device could she possibly serve?

Jack Ryan and his cohorts save the day.

Because, of course they do.

2/10