Jersey Boys.  I always have mixed feelings about making a movie out of a Broadway play, or vice versa.  It’s strange I no longer develop that same inquietude about making a movie from a book.  Maybe the former is because I’m not capable of separating the two media well, whereas the latter is a case where the media is so different that I’m willing to put on a different hat (and maybe realize that Hollywood is going to ruin the original story anyway).  In any case, I can say that something is always lost in the translation.

This is a (fictionalized, I’m sure) history of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.  Drippy nostalgia for old Baby Boomers like me?  (This old Baby Boomer prefers to look to the future, however uncertain it might be).  Many people who’ve forgotten the songs will remember them when hearing them again in the play or the movie.  I understand that the lead role in the movie was played by the same actor who had the role on Broadway.  I didn’t pay that much attention.

(more…)

#11: Tricked.  Although it’s Friday the 13th, there’s nothing supernatural here.  Far from it.  As Michael Moore points out (he’s a bit biased, of course), documentaries just aren’t shown in theaters anymore (our loss).  So, every year, I look forward to seeing some of the best in our Montclair Film Festival.  Tricked caught my attention this year, maybe because it provided valuable background material for my new novel The Collector (scheduled for release later this year—an excerpt is in Aristocrats and Assassins).  Directors John Keith Wasson and Jane Wells provide yet another glimpse at the sordid underbelly of our society found in the sex trade and sex trafficking.  I seem to remember this was scheduled for some cable channel (HBO?), so look for it, but it’s not for people who bury their head in the sands.  Highly recommended.

#12: The Railway Man.  I’m surprised that this gritty movie hasn’t done better in the box office.  Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, who make excellent performances, this is the autobiographical story of Eric Lomax (Firth), who discovers his tormenter in World War II is still alive and returns to pursue him.  Lomax was a member of captured Brits who were beaten and starved as POWs struggled to build a railroad for the Japanese in Southeast Asia.  Some gruesome scenes make this film not one for the squeamish, but this is history, folks, real life crap that has happened.  And I love movies based on books!  Screenplays are OK, but when there’s a good book behind them, good things often happen.  Firth is better here than in The King’s Speech.  Highly recommended.

(more…)

[I might seem remiss with my lack of movie reviews, but 2013 wasn’t all that memorable for great movies beyond those already reviewed, in spite of the hype from Hollywood.  My attendance has diminished to, due to bad movies, ticket prices, too many trailers, and commercials from TV that have kept me away.  But here are a few reviews.]

#6: Blue Jasmine.  Blanchett seemed all too real in this flick while she was two-dimensional and boring in the next.  The rest of the acting is boring, the plot is boring, and the dialogue is stilted and boring.  In other words, the screenplay should be used to paper the bottom of your birdcage.  If you go to the movies to be depressed, though, this is your movie.  Otherwise, forget about it.  Unlike Dallas Buyers’ Club, there are no real lessons to be learned here—well, maybe that Woody Allen likes to beat us over the head with his New York City angst.  The comedic Woody of the old days was much better.  I can only recommend this one to the masochists among you.

(more…)

[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you agree with the posts, just whether you read it!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

#5: Dallas Buyers Club.  I’m ambivalent about this one.  It stars Matthew McConaughey, Jared Lareto, and Jennifer Garner.  Knowing the first actor’s usual physique, this anorexic role couldn’t have been good for his health.  In general, you have an awful glimpse of the early stages of the AIDS epidemic in this country.  Slow, little action, but good acting characterize this movie, which is definitely not a comedy and not for the squeamish.  My ambivalence is due to all that and not the topics.

The movie is based on a true story.  For many people that have trouble remembering why the AIDS epidemic, Vietnam, or Kennedy’s assassination were paradigm shifting events in American society, this movie might be a yawner and/or subject to apathy.  There are two stories.  Ron, one homophobic SOB, played by McConaughey, develops AIDS and is told he has thirty days to live.  He sets out to defeat that prognosis and ends up fighting the ponderous and stultifying bureaucracy of the FDA, which continues today in its refusal to give desperate, dying people the chance to try anything that might save them, thus committing bureaucratic murder many times over.  The other story is the evolution of Ron, the man.  He develops a compassion and friendship for Rayon, a transvestite played by Lareto, and wins the compassion and friendship of Dr. Eve Saks, played by Garner, who also ends up fighting the medical bureaucracy.

(more…)

[TANSTAAFL: Do you read this blog?  I’m not asking if you agree with the posts, just whether you read it!  If so, don’t be passive.  React.  Write a comment—chew me out if you like (no foul language, please).  You can even receive a free ebook—see the bottom of the “Free Stuff and Contests” webpage; or write an honest review of one of my ebooks in exchange for the ebook.  In general, buy, read, and review some of my books.  Your participation motivates me and helps defray the costs of this website and my ebook releases.  Be active.  Help indie authors provide you with inexpensive entertainment.  It’s a two-way street, folks!]

#1: 12 Years a Slave.  Although not for the squeamish, this is Hollywood at its best.  Chiwetel Ejiofor is superb as the musician who is kidnapped and taken to the South.  We see the whole spectrum of this ignoble period in the nation’s history—from a concerned Canadian to a compassionate slave owner to a rat bastard who is a monster, not human.  My only complaint is that the movie is too long—after a few sadistic scenes you get the idea, and you know that no matter what they show on the screen, the real situation was much worse!

#2: Last Vegas.  Basically a vehicle designed to let some marvelous old actors, including the inimitable Mary Steenburgen, frolic around on the set.  Good for a chuckle here and there, but isn’t it terrible to see all these old people making fools of themselves?  This is Cocoon with much less plot, except aging.  Your money is probably better spent elsewhere, or wait for NetFlix.

(more…)