Tampa Film Fan

happy 4th of july

I’m one of the lucky ones who has a four-day weekend ahead of me. Aaaaahhhh…..

I’m taking a break from everything, including blogging. See you next week!

documentary well founded fear screening july 5

From WMNF’s online calendar:

Human Rights Video Project film at Spirit of Life UU

Wednesday, July 5 — Well Founded Fear is a riveting documentary on U.S. immigration policy. It has wide appeal because of the diversity of ethnicities, religions and nationalities represented by those seeking asylum.

Spirit of Life Unitarian Universalists are hosting this film as part of its summer series on human rights in cooperation with the New Port Richey Library. Come to the church at 18412 Burrell Road in Odessa for the 7:15 p.m. screening.

Call (813) 792-1622 or visit spiritoflifeuu.org for more info.

film fan finding:the break-up

The Break-Up is one of those movies where the preview is just as good as the actual film. In the preview you get to see most of the funny parts without having to sit through the dumb and/or not-so-funny parts. The Jennifer Aniston character is a successful, beautiful woman who works in a Chicago art gallery, wears beautiful clothes and is annoyed by her live-in boyfriend, played by Vince Vaughn. The Vince Vaughn character is the co-owner of a successful tour guide business who likes to sit around the house playing video games and drinking beer with his buddies. Their incompatibility (and Vaughn’s spoiled, selfish behavior) causes them to break up, but their investment in their condo causes them both to continue to live there while trying to force the other person to move. She embarks on a series of first dates to make him jealous; he buys the pool table he’s always wanted for the dining room. And so on.

Interesting enough plot, but it’s ruined by several things. The Vince Vaughn character is so obnoxious, so annoying, so rude and thoughtless that he deserves to get dumped. When he seems to start learning a lesson from all of this, it’s too late. You don’t care. You never believed that the relationship between two such ill-matched people was possible, and now you want them to just sell the damn condo and move on.

Aniston and Vaughn are better and funnier when they’re mad at each other, so you never really want them to get back together. It’s still hard to think of Aniston as anyone other than Rachel from Friends, and she’s so overly bronzed, sculpted and wrapped in tight clothes that you wonder why she ever moved in with Vaughn’s loutish character in the first place.

Wait til The Break-Up comes out on DVD and then rent it as part of a chick-flick marathon.

Film Fan Finding: B

film fan finding:superman returns

And boy, does he ever. Superman returns with style, sexiness, humor, action and …did I mention sexiness already?

In Superman Returns, we learn that Superman has been away for six years, trying to track down remnants of his home planet Krypton. He (as Clark Kent) is able to easily pick up where he left off with his job at the Daily Planet, but not so easily in other areas of his life: his mother (Eva Marie Saint) has been lonely and alone, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has been released from prison because the star witness (Superman himself) wasn’t around to testify against him, and Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) is engaged with a young son and has just won a Pulitzer for writing an editorial about why the world doesn’t need Superman anymore.

The casting is almost perfect: Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey bicker beautifully; James Marsden, as Lois’ fiance Richard, is touching when he worries that Lois might be in love with Superman; and Brandon Routh is phenomenal as Superman/Clark Kent. I didn’t think he’d be up to the task, but he proved me wrong. I adored Christopher Reeve as Superman and Routh reminded me a lot of Reeve, at times even seeming to mimic Reeve’s Clark Kent mannerisms (but in a good way). Kate Bosworth made a convincing Lois Lane (I’m so glad Katie Holmes was in Batman Begins and not this, because the effect wouldn’t have been the same!). The only casting choice I didn’t care for was the little boy who played Lois’ son. I agree with Roger Ebert’s comment that Tristan Lake Leabu “mostly stares at people like a beta version of Damien, the kid from The Omen.” I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Marlon Brando’s voice as Jor-El. That was a nice touch from the original pictures.

This film is about redemption: who needs it, who provides it, and the fact that at one time or another, we’ve all been on both sides. Superman Returns succeeded at redeeming and revitalizing this franchise, breathing new life into beloved characters without sacrificing what made them beloved in the first place.

Film Fan Finding: A+

opinion:a prairie home companion

Fellow film fan Jim MacEachern has generously shared his review of A Prairie Home Companion with us:

I did see A Prairie Home Companion and loved it. I think it’s Altman’s The Reivers for the Faulkner comparison. At 81 he’s in fine form. The ghostly Virginia Madsen as an apparition that wanders through the film is a bit heavy handed but Mr. Altman has never been subtle. Keillor wrote the script so he is at least partly to blame for that. But he has to be given credit as well for the creation of this wonderful, droll commentary on old time radio and Midwestern values. Altman was born in Kansas City and shares those roots but looks at them with a more jaundiced eye. It’s an eye for human behavior filtered through 50 years of a marijuana-induced LA haze that sees everyone as characters in the movie of life. His characters are tragic and funny and they know this about themselves. The lucky ones know the role they are playing and the sad ones don’t have a role to play yet and that can eat at you.It opens and closes at a Roadside Diner that looks like a Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover. Altman and Keillor know that this innocent Americana is a lie but they have great affection for those who know this but yearn for that myth anyway. The actors are incredible. The teaming of Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin as the surviving members of a family of singers specializing in gospel and old-time inspirational songs is wondrous. It’s been a rough life for them in many ways but they go on. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly as Dusty and Lefty, a cowboy singing and comedy team, seem like they have been working together all their lives. The joy of performing even brings the juvenile/ suicidal Lindsay Lohan to life.There is nothing terribly profound in Prairie but Keillor’s script and Altman’s searching eye give us insight into a world gone by and the people who inhabited it. The movie is too short!

five questions with local film commissioner krista soroka

Tampa Film Commissioner Krista Soroka graciously agreed to answer Five Questions:

1. What’s the last movie you’ve seen?

The Da Vinci Code (in the theater); Wedding Crashers (on DVD).

2. Which movies have meant the most to you and why?

Vita è bella, La (Life is Beautiful, 1997) – I think Roberto Benigni (Guido) did an incredible job writing, directing and starring in this film that inspires you to believe that hope conquers all in the midst of some of life’s worst tragedies. Guido’s eternally-optimistic character was inspiring and humorous as he thought of new ways to keep his son’s focus away from the horrible tragedies surrounding him. In one scene where the Nazis enter the camp to inform the prisoners of the rules, Guido – who doesn’t understand a word of German – volunteers to translate to his son solely to convince him that they want to play a game where the winner gets a full-size tank. If we all had an ounce of that optimism, I really believe this world would be a better place. 

Cinderella Man (2005) – I thought R. Howard/R. Crowe developed an inspiring storyline that captured snapshots of James Braddock’s struggles to maintain his integrity as a husband-father-professional athlete while battling a hand injury AND the Great Depression. I’ll never forget the scene where Braddock swallows his pride and walks into Madison Square Garden to ask for pocket change so he can pay for electricity for his family. Not only did he struggle to keep his family alive, he carried the burden of his community and the nation, and came out on top.

Top Gun (1986) - just because I grew up during the 80’s!

3. Which movies could you watch more than once and still enjoy?

I have to categorize here if that’s OK…here are my trifectas:

History/Period Pieces: Gladiator, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Drama: A Beautiful Mind, Godfather, and Shawshank Redemption (Andy Dufresne has a great quote in Shawshank: “Get busy living, or get busy dying”)

Comedy: Billy Madison, Dumb and Dumber, and Tommy Boy (I hate to admit I probably quote those movies every day!)

4. If you could meet any film character, who would you choose?

Hmmm, good question…here’s my Top 5:

Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator) – great quote to Commodus when he is discovered to still be alive: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

James Braddock (Cinderella Man) - considering this is a true story, I truly admired his character, strength, and integrity.

John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) – Absolutely brilliant…I’d love to meet his wife as well.

William Wallace (Braveheart) – Can sum up why in one quote: Every man dies, not every man really lives.

Aragorn (Lord of the Rings) – although he’s a “middle earth” character, he’s selfless, courageous, and continuously fights battles on faith.

5. If you could meet any filmmaker (living or dead), who would you choose?

I can’t even go with a top 5 here…so here’s a few off the top of my head..Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Rob Reiner, George Lucas, Stephen King…most influential I’d say Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Wells, Stanley Kubrick… 

film fan finding:x-men:the last stand

Call me crazy, but I thought X-Men:The Last Stand was just as good as the first two. Great special effects, a good story, the gorgeous Mystique and the sexy Wolverine….what more could you ask for in a blockbuster based on comic book characters? The movie includes so many characters that sometimes you barely see some of them, but hey, we get to see stuff blow up.

In this film, we find out that Jean Grey really isn’t dead. Not only is she alive, but her previously hidden class 5 powerful alter-ego Phoenix is back too…and she’s pissed. Against this backstory is the main plot of a “mutant cure” being available. Some mutants want a chance to be “normal” (like Rogue), while many others insist that there’s nothing to cure. In addition to the usual cast of characters, there are many new ones in the mix, most notably Beast, played by Kelsey Grammar.

The Last Stand kills off several characters, which is unsettling. But, if you pay close attention at the end — and stay to the very end of the credits — you’ll see that there’s hope for a few of them. Perhaps it’s not really the last stand after all. (Or perhaps they’ll be alot of guest appearances in the Wolverine spin-off.)

Film Fan Finding: B+

bionicon this weekend

I have to work tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at my Second Job. Sigh…. I wish I were attending the Bionicon instead. I had a crush on Marc Singer in the tv show V (yes, a little cheesy and dated when you watch it now, but to a junior-high school student in the mid-80’s that was riveting TV and Singer was wonderful). If you go, tell him I said hello.

serenity now

On Saturday, June 24, the movie Serenity is playing at the Tampa Pitcher Show at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.50 and all profits are going to the charity Equality Now, an organization dedicated to fighting for women’s rights around the world.

Serenity, created by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), is based on the short-lived but much-beloved TV series Firefly. The charity screenings are part of a worldwide fan campaign planned for the weekend of June 23, Joss Whedon’s birthday.

Visit www.serenitynowtampa.com for more info.

film fan finding:the notorious bettie page

The Notorious Bettie Page is a brief glimpse into the life of 50’s pin-up legend Bettie Page. Raised in a strict religious environment, the naive Page wanted to be an actress but ended up being immortalized for her nude and dominatrix photos and short films, even though she abandoned the industry after a few years to live out the rest of her life in religious activism.

Gretchen Mol is amazing in the role of Bettie Page. I had no idea she possessed the acting chops for a role like this. The story is interesting, the 50’s fashion and ideology impeccably recreated, but the movie falls short. The Notorious Bettie Page offers only a hint of the real woman behind the legend and leaves the viewer knowing nothing new about such an interesting woman.

Film Fan Finding: B