Movies, Mom & Me

• 
  Commentary:  This is the first movie in the Planet of the Apes Reboot series, and it's a honey of a movie. It's one of the best super-hero origin stories I've seen. Andy Serkis, an extraordinary actor, plays the role of Caesar, the chimpanzee who is born into super-hero ape status.
    My mother, who was famous in our family for her love of the original Planet of the Apes series, did not live long enough to see this reboot. I think she would have loved it, even though there are several differences, the first and most significant being that the apes don't speak English, they speak Ape. There are a few words they pick up, here and there, most significantly, the word, "No!", but communication between apes is handled so well that a watcher is never in doubt as to what is communicated. Really a magnificent reboot of the series. I often hope, as I watch each of the three reboot movies, that, if there is a survival of consciousness after death, my mother is watching over my shoulder as I watch these movies.
  Update 6/9/2022:  This post was originally published on 1/16/2021 but disappeared from public view. I am now reinstating it.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  James Franco	Dr. William Rodman	Freida Pinto	Dr. Caroline Aranha	John Lithgow	Charles Rodman	Brian Cox	John Landon
  Tom Felton	Dodge Landon	David Oyelowo	Steven Jacobs	Andy Serkis	Caesar	Karin Konoval	Maurice
  Terry Notary	Rocket/Bright Eyes	Richard Ridings	Buck	Devyn Dalton	Cornelia	Christopher Gordon	Koba

  
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    This Wikipedia article provides an excellent overview of all the Planet of the Apes movies. It also hints at a fourth installment of the Reboot series.
    Release Date: 2011
    Directed by Rupert Wyatt.
  Update 8/27/2024:  I've actually had this movie for quite awhile but the post became corrupted and I had to salvage what I could, repost, redate it and re-enter it into my Alpha List. It seems to be okay, now.
  

Labels: action2, adventure2, andy-serkis, animal, biography1, cgi-animation, drama2, fantasy1, political1, reflective, science-fiction1, super-hero1, tragedy1, violence1, war1

# posted by gail @ 19:05    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  This, the second installment of the Planet of the Apes Reboot trilogy. essentially defines and exacerbates the conflict between those humans who have not been wiped out by the Simian Flu Virus. Caesar, throughout most of the movie, remains hopeful that apes and humans can separately and peacefully coexist. Bad actors on both sides, though, due to both human and ape nature, make this impossible.
    This movie has very sad undertones. It, essentially, sets up the large scale conflict between apes and humans that plays out in the final Trilogy Reboot.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Andy Serkis	Caesar	Toby Kebbell	Koba	Judy Greer	Cornelia	Nick Thurston	Blue Eyes
  Terry Notary	Rocket	Karin Konoval	Maurice	Doc Shaw	Ash	Lee Ross	Grey
  Jason Clarke	Malcolm	Gary Oldman	Dreyfuss	Keri Russell	Eli	Kodi Smit-McPhee	Alexander
  Kirk Acevedo	Carter	Jon Eyez	Foster	Enrique Murciano	Kemp	Keir O'Donnell	Finney

  
  Update 6/9/2022:  This post was originally published on 1/16/2021 but disappeared from public view. I am now reinstating it.
  Update 10/1/2023:  This post was originally published on 1/16/2021 but, yet again, it disappeared itself from public view. I am now re-reinstating it.
    Here is the Wikipedia write-up of this movie.
    Release Date: 2014
    Directed by Matt Reeves.

Labels: action2, adventure2, andy-serkis, animal, biography1, cgi-animation, drama2, fantasy1, political1, reflective, science-fiction1, super-hero1, tragedy1, violence1, war1

# posted by gail @ 19:59    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  This final Planet of the Apes reboot is probably the hardest to follow. Apes and humans have engaged in an all out war. The war, itself, is blamed, simultaneously, on bad human actors, bad ape actors and, well, inevitability, which is what mars the events portrayed in the film. About half the war is between two arms of the military against one another, one of which is holding the apes captive. It is hard to determine, frankly, if the second branch of the military is ape friendly or if that even matters.
    At any rate, Caesar's dies at the end of this movie, thus bringing his biography to an end, as well. The apes as a group, however, survive and look forward to continued existence.
    There has been talk about a fourth Planet of the Apes Reboot film. I'm not sure this is necessary, or even desirable. It will have to be a damned good one, taking a completely different trajectory, thus requiring some super thoughtful creativity. If you've watched the initial Planet of the Apes Sextilogy, you'll know that the movies declined in quality and thoughtfulness as the stories continued. I hope that isn't the fate of this Planet of the Apes Reboot.
    Finally, once again, here are the results of my search crawl on RogerEbert.com for, simply, "Planet of the Apes movies". It pulled a lot of material, continuing on to a second page. Go ahead. Click and try it yourself. I'll bet there are even more articles on these movies than there were on 8/7/21, when I performed my crawl. These movies, the old ones, the middle one by Tim Burton, the "new" ones seem to be endlessly fascinating to our species, even as we are creating them, ourselves. Ver-r-r-r-(roll that "r")y Inter-r-restingk!
  Update 6/9/2022:  This post was originally published on 1/16/2021 but disappeared from public view. I am now reinstating it.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Andy Serkis	Caesar	Woody Harrelson	The Colonel	Steve Zahn	Bad Ape	Toby Kebbell	Kobo
  Gabriel Chavarria	Preacher	Judy Greer	Cornelia	Karin Konoval	Maurice	Terry Notary	Rocket
  Michael Adamthwaite	Luca	Ty Olsson	Red	Devyn Dalton	Cornelius	Sara Canning	Lake
  Aleks Paunovic	Winter	Amiah Miller	Nova	Max Lloyd-Jones	Blue Eyes	Roger Cross	Rod Wilson

  
    Here's the Wikipedia write-up on this movie.
    Release Date: 2017
    Directed by Matt Reeves.

Labels: action2, adventure2, andy-serkis, animal, biography1, cgi-animation, drama2, military, popcorn-and-soda1, science-fiction1, super-hero1, tragedy1, violence1, war1, woody-harrelson

# posted by gail @ 09:04    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Ah! My second chance to use the "horror" label in my catalogue of films!
    I came by a circuitous route to owning this film. I did see this movie in the theater when it was initially released. I was 12. I watched the movie at an outdoor theater on Guam, which certainly added to the ambience of the film. I followed the movie with a reading of the short story, which was anti-climactic. Hitchcock used Daphne du Maurier's story as a springboard. However, the film had a huge impact on me. I think it may have been the first bleak film I'd seen. It left me so hungry for an upbeat ending that I spent days after my viewing rearranging my thinking about stories, films and life. Mind you, I was not unused to bleakness in literature. By the time I'd seen this movie I'd already read, and reveled in, Of Mice and Men, Two Years Before the Mast and Moby Dick, as well as a few other bleak classics. No, I never saw filmed versions of those. But, then, The Birds is in an entirely different class of film adaptation for me. It ushered me into an appreciation of the bleak film genre.
    One of the treats of this particular press of this movie is all the extras. I haven't gone through all the supplemental material but what I've seen has increased my enjoyment of the movie at least a few-fold. This, however, isn't the reason I purchased the movie. A few months ago I read Camille Paglia's latest book and began catching myself up on interviews with her posted on YouTube. I'd read (and often been provoked by) almost everything she's written and love listening to her; it's like listening to an intelligent machine gun. Anyway, I thought I knew her book literature inside out. In addition, I was an original subscriber to Salon magazine in the old days when it was a startlingly good site and included the forum "The Well". Camille Paglia was an original contributor and I enjoyed her column. It came as a surprise to me, though, that she'd written a book about the movie The Birds. I searched it out. Reading it was a bit of a disappointment, but it heightened my interest in the movie, scenes from which had lodged in my memory long ago, especially since the reviewer of Paglia's book about the movie, in the previous link, included derisive pronouncement on the movie, itself, in contrast to how much it's been lauded over the years since its initial release. So, I checked the movie out of the library.
    My memory of the movie had not failed me. There was good reason for it to have branded itself into my memory. I have very few Hitchcock movies in my collection. His movies are only occasionally of interest to me. Psycho, for instance, to me was, to quote out of context Myles Weber, the reviewer who wrote the above mentioned review of Paglia's book on The Birds [link to the Wikipedia write-up of this movie], a "dud"; I've never been interested enough in the film to figure out why it struck me that way. I knew, though, after checking out The Birds, I wanted to add it to my collection. I've watched it once since it arrived. I'll be watching it again.
    The review for this specific movie, by the way, can be found in the page linked to the title of this post about halfway down DVD Savant's page. He reviewed all the movies found in "Alfred Hitchcock The Masterpiece Collection", so you'll need to scroll through other material before reaching the review for this movie.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Rod Taylor	Mitch Brenner	Tippi Hedren	Melanie Daniels	Jessica Tandy	Lydia Brenner	Veronica Cartwright	Cathy Brenner
  Suzanne Pleshette	Annie Hayworth	Ethel Griffies	Ornithologist Mrs. Bundy	Charles McGraw	Sebastian Sholes	Lonny Chapman	Deke Carter
  Elizabeth Wilson	Helen Carter	Ruth McDevitt	Mrs. MacGruder	Malcolm Atterbury	Deputy Al Malone	Richard Deacon	Mitch's S.F. Neighbor

  
    Release Date: 1963
    Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Labels: alfred-hitchcock, animal, drama4, fantasy1, film-art1, folk-horror, science-fiction1, suspense1, violence2

# posted by gail @ 11:20    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G
• Mentions:  None
• 
  Commentary:  This movie surprised us both. I rented it on the strength of Lasse Hallström's, Morgan Freeman's and Robert Redford's participation, even though it's gotten little favorable press. While it's true that it's an example of Hallström's uneveness as a director, it's also true that it's a solid story solidly presented with so few stilted scenes that these are easily ignored. Mom refers to this movie as "the bear movie" and we've watched it several times. It's not hard for me to watch repeatedly, either. It has more than a few interesting, subtle moments that catch one's eye: the smile on Griff's face when she's driving the truck; Jean's handling of a couple of assholes in the restaurant in which she's waitressing; several of the scenes between Griff, Einar and Mitch. The bear, as well, is commanding. There is a priceless scene in which the bear is roaming a neighborhood and during one section of the scene a woman exits, sees the bear, and quickly reenters her home. It's a short, sweet, telling little scene of what it's like to live in bear territory.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Robert Redford	Einar Gilkyson	Jennifer Lopez	Jean Gilkyson	Morgan Freeman	Mitch Bradley	Josh Lucas	Sheriff Crane Curtis
  Lynda Boyd	Kitty	Damian Lewis	Gary Winston	Camryn Manheim	Nina	Becca Gardner	Griff Gilkyson

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 2005
    Directed by Lasse Hallström.

Labels: animal, drama7, jennifer-lopez, mom-favorite1, morgan-freeman, popcorn-and-soda3, robert-redford

# posted by gail @ 00:41    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G (marginally)
• Mentions:  *1* *2*
• 
  Commentary:  This video was a surprise I would not have considered on my own. One of my sisters sent it to me for my 2006 birthday. It was an excellent choice. Aside from the comments above, I think it is turning Mom into a watcher of the TV show. I noticed, when she watched the video, that she smiled through the entire three episodes, which were watched, pretty much, back to back. The reason I list myself as having watched it "marginally" is that I was doing chores and preparing dinner while it was on. However, I caught quite a bit of the episodes; enough so that, Mom and I had extended conversations about dogs, our previous ownership of dogs and possible future ownership (I'm still thinking, out of the question, but, you never know).
    In order to access the article linked to the title of this post, you might have to register for a free account with The Age, an Australian newspaper. I had to register to access the whole article.
  Update 2/7/18:  I no longer have this DVD in my collection, unfortunately. I didn't voluntarily weed it. A few years ago I lent it to a friend who always owns a passel of dogs and sometimes has trouble controlling them. She must have found the DVD valuable because she never returned it and has left the neighboring city in which she lived for parts unknown. I've designated it, by color, as a "no longer owned" video, but I have hope ... I think it would be one of those videos where I'd watch it and remind myself of Mom and me watching it.
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 2004-2012
    Directed by SueAnn Fincke & Jim Milio.

Labels: animal, audio-visual, female-director1, TV2

# posted by gail @ 13:16    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G
• Mentions:  *1*
• 
  Commentary:  I think I covered everything in the "mention" above. Despite this, I've kept it. Although we haven't seen it again, I'll bet, one of these days when Animal Planet, Discovery and National Geographic all have shit on them and Mom's not interested in anything but animal stuff, it'll come in handy. I think it's the only animal special we have on DVD. Well, besides The Planet of the Apes movies, which I'm sure Mom considers the best of animal specials.
  Update: 7/31/21:  Well, dear reader, this one went in the library bin. I don't remember when, but it was probably during the first library dump after Mom died.
    Narrated by Morgan Freeman.
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 2005
    Directed by Luc Jacquet.

Labels: animal, documentary1, mom-favorite2, morgan-freeman, science

# posted by gail @ 22:31    0 comments    email......this post