Directed Oscar winner for Best Art Direction-Set Direction (Star Wars) Roger Christian, Joseph & Mary is a compassionate, preponderate and riveting story of the all familiar Bible story. The story follows Elijah, played by Stephen McCarthy, a devout Rabbi, during a time of discontent when King Herod the Great slaughter of innocents claims the lives of two boys Elijah had sworn to protect. Elijah makes it his life mission to avenge their deaths, but he meets Joseph, played by Kevin Sorbo, Mary, played Lara Jean Chorostecki, and Jesus, played as a young boy by Lucius Hoyos and as a young man by Joseph Mesiano.
Elijah strong desire to revenge the two boys killed by King Herod are put into question. When the time comes for him to face his true enemy, Elijah finds himself wondering if to kill or forgive. Hence, this is a Christian Faith movie that has received the “Faith-Based Seal” by The Dove Foundation.
Elijah is one of the several stories in the movie about meeting Jesus but is the main story line. The acting is very well done and artfully depicts the biblical parents of Jesus as their newborn son helps them inspire faith in unlikely places. The scenes and direction are captivating with mesmerizing scenery, the miraculous journey delivers a powerful message of mercy and forgiveness.
Obvious a low-budget production that is meant to educate and enlighten, the movie is not for everyone because it is written to be shown at all Sunday School classes. The message is strong, offering the idea love your fellow man despite all efforts to do otherwise.
I worked with a lot of chefs when I was a casting producer at Demand Media studios. Each chef was a unique and talented problem solver. When they are given their freedom to create in the kitchen, the results are bon appetite – marvelous. With that freedom comes a lot of responsibility. In the feature-length documentary Noma: My Perfect Storm, we meet celebrated chef René Redzepi set against the backdrop of the Copenhagen-based restaurant, Noma, The Best Restaurant in The World 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
Written and directed by Pierre Deschamps, the documentary stages Redzepi as a famous chef, rightly so, for his reinvention of Danish cuisine and pioneered approach to “foraging”, sourcing nearly all ingredients from the various environments of Scandinavia. Though the dishes do not seem appetizing, Noma is at the forefront of experimenting with new techniques in food. The documentary follows Redzepi, co-owner of Noma, on a creative culinary journey as he traverses the Danish landscape for inspiration, striving to achieve perfection and concoct bold, exciting dishes for travelers from around the world.
Truly a creative genius, Redzepi has been credited with revolutionizing the food world with his radical take on classic cuisine. When I say radical, I mean, not everyone is going to like his dishes. Still, Noma has won its fair share of awards. That is what makes the documentary hold its own. But, you need to be a foodie to appreciate all the complexities and personalities that go with celebrating a famous restaurant.
Perry Mason Movie Collection Volume 5 continues to satisfy my viewer palate and is the final collection released by CBS Video. For a couple years now, CBS Video has been releasing the entire program of the Perry Mason TV series and movies. That equals 271 episodes and 30 post series movies for television.
Growing up, Perry Mason was one of my family’s favorite television series to watch every week, and we were never disappointed by the stories because the writing never lets us down. The acting is first-class. There were no handheld camera shots or tight shots of beautiful women. The series was pure plot-driven. Perry Mason always found the real killer.
Some of you may have purchased the other Perry Mason Movie Collection Volumes, so you know what I am talking about. I hope you intend to purchase this final volume as well. They are not cheap, but worth the value of good drama and priceless productions.
I was fortunate to be given a copy of Perry Mason Movie Collection: Volume 5. The DVDs are in top quality condition with six wonderful and brilliant movies. Burr’s other co-star, Barbara Hale, had such wonderful rapport with him that can’t be reproduced in any other television show I have ever seen.
It can’t go without mentioning that Raymond Burr played a prosecutor inA Place in the Sunwith Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. I guess, he was meant to be in the courtroom, though in Perry Mason he is on the other side of the court.
Below is the list of the final Perry Mason movies. The last four are without Raymond Burr and do not give the legendary series justice, but if you are going to collect these, you might as well have them all.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host (starring Raymond Burr)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss (starring Raymond Burr)
A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Wicked Wives (starring Paul Sorvino)
A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle (starring Hal Holbrook)
A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor (starring Hal Holbrook)
A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Jealous Jokester (starring Hal Holbrook)
The Bible mentions the story of Noah’s Ark, which is about two paragraphs or a page long, depending on the book. I watched Russell Crowe’s version called Noah and concluded that Noah was under much pressure. A massive rain storm was coming, where it would rain for forty days and forty nights—raining so hard that it would wholly submerge the world in water, a great flood. He had to build an ark large enough to hold all the world’s animals in pairs, male and female. He could not take all of humanity; he could only take his family. Then, he had to feed all the animals and his family until the world was no longer flooded. Right, there is a great story with enough conflict to keep you at the crossroads of Heaven and Hell.
Directed by Kenneth Glenaan, Noah’s Ark is more biblical than Crowe’s version. The stories are the same to a certain degree. Still, Glenaan’s take on the story is an educational message about faith. They portray Noah as a man who believes in God. An impressive cast includes David Threlfall, Joanne Whalley, Nico Mirallegro, and Ashley Walters.
Noah’s Ark is a familiar tale of a man, his family, and his passion to do what God wills, building an ark that saves his family, the animals, and humanity. If you are familiar with the story, you know God told Noah to build an ark, and then he did it. The movie takes a license because the story is so short in the bible.
Noah is a good farmer and a generous family man, but his family doubts him when he tells them an angel instructed him to build the ark in the middle of an arid desert. He means what will happen and how he will save his family and the animals. He asks them to be faithful and believe a devastating flood is coming. His sons reject his proposal and decide not to help their father build the ark. But Noah has faith in God, so he risks ridicule from his caring but infuriated family. He, of course, endures embarrassment from the townsfolk as well. He has a devoted and loving wife who changes her mind and decides to build the ark with him. She wants to show her support and love.
The flood arrives close to the end of the movie. The forty days and forty nights of rain go rather quickly. Before you know it, the ark lands on dry land, and the film ends. With dramatic flair, the movie ends. Yet if your faith is strong, you should enjoy the film for what it is — a validation of your faith in God.
In the ring, Randy Orton is close to being WWE’s most lethal idol. Being a third-generation wrestler gives him the DNA talent that makes him a legend in his own honorable way. “The Viper” is his ring name for the way he can strike like a snake from nowhere. By the token of his talent in the ring, one would think his acting hits the mark as well.
Directed by Roel Reiné, The Condemned 2 is not the ringer WWE fans would like to see. The movie is a sequel to the Steve Austin movie released in 2007. The movie was knocked out before the end of the first round. Surprisingly, WWE Studios never throws in the towel and keeps making modicum movies with its wrestlers.
With the visceral of taking on the bad guys, Orton plays bounty hunter Will Tanner. Tanner and his team are on a mercenary mission to capture a leader, played by Wes Studi. He runs a tournament where challengers are forced to kill one another in televised games. Tanner’s operation hits a glitch right off the bat, and his team misses out on any potential cash they would have been rewarded for the capture of the leader. Similarly, Will is in trouble with the law because they are unhappy with his day job as a bounty hunter.
Tanner turns into more than a wanted man once a newcomer to the games, Raul, played by Steven Michael Quezada, recreates the televised games. Not only does he make Tanner the primary target, but Will is kidnapped not long after. He is hurled into fighting for his life and survival against his former team. A flash of big shots betting on Tanner’s chance of survival is set among a lively cast of warriors and places Tanner up against interesting fighting styles.
Reine seems to do a decent job of directing with the budget available. He can blow things up with cookie-cutter choreography, mapping out a so-so plot. The hodgepodge, dull soldiers take whimsical shots at Tanner through rifle scopes. They even put him through a desert with land mines. Still, nothing seems to work for the movie because so much potential is lost in the acting and budget constraints
Baseball is America’s favorite pastime. We certainly have our fair share of baseball heroes who have become legends in their own time. Watching the four documentaries in Baseball Legends, I learned so much about four very different athletes. All special and talented in their own way, some are Gods, and they built the foundation of what we have today.
Co-directed by Josh Oshinsky and Jeff Spaulding, Baseball Legends is narrated by Martin Sheen. The DVDs offer epic tales of four baseball heroes. Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron and Lou Gehrig turned baseball into the National Pastime that it is presently.
Each story is inspiring while bringing a fresh historical and poignant perspective of the lives of these sports icons. Using rare and enhanced archival material and state-of-the-art production techniques, these films are perfect for anyone interested in baseball and history.
Some key points covered in the movies are Babe Ruth, his bat turned him into a household name; Ted Williams, the last player to hit .400; Lou Gehrig, who won 6 World Series before illness ended his career; and Hank Aaron, who rose from adversity to break the record of a king.
DVD Special Features include The Making of American Hercules about Babe Ruth, and his rare player interviews with historic game footage. Ted Williams Hall of Fame induction is included. Saving the best for last, there are several extended interviews with various experts and archival footage from the Major League Baseball Film and Video Archive.
All in all, I discovered information I had never known about these four legends. Babe Ruth cut his teeth as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. He developed into a lethal opponent with both his arm and bat, helping Boston win a couple of World Series titles. Lou Gehrig was an Ivy League student and played baseball while going to school at Columbia. Ted Williams left baseball twice in order to fight for the Marines. He was a jet pilot during both World War II and the Korean War. Hank Aaron went unnoticed as a player for the Milwaukee Braves, yet he broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record when the team transferred to Atlanta.
Directed by James Ponsoldt, The End of the Tour brings to life the true story of 1996 when Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky, played by Jesse Eisenberg, and writer David Foster Wallace, played brilliantly by Jason Segel, hang out together for five days.
Some might call it an intellectual movie, a road movie or a dramedy. The movie begins in 2008, when we are informed that Wallace has committed suicide. Lipsky is invited to present a tribute on NPR. Here, he slowly flashes back to 1996, when Wallace’s book Infinite Jest was released to worldwide acclaim, including a citation in a well-read magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
Lipsky thinks it would be a great idea to interview Wallace and pitches it to his editor. He agrees that it is about time Rolling Stone did a piece on a gifted writer, and off Lipsky goes to Ohio for his interview. How the story plays out is what the movie is all about, and I would rather not spoil it for you. Though there are some interesting points about the movie, I’d like to point out.
The movie is based on Lipsky’s memoir, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself. Published in 2010, the book was well-received by his peers. Wallace and Lipsky hit it off right away and engage in philosophical conversations about loneliness, love, writing, fame, and the meaning of life.
In other words, they spend time looking for the answers to life that plague them. Clearly, the movie is not for everyone. It lacks the action-packed drama that populates our movie theaters today.
Jason Segel is very good as Wallace, and this role is quite a contrast to his other characters in movies like The Muppets and The Five Year Engagement. Watching him in this movie is pure pleasure because there is so much depth to Wallace as a novelist, short story writer, essayist, and college professor.
The Danny Elfman soundtrack is brilliant and enhances the story. Elfman adds a bit of spice to the movie with songs from REM and Tindersticks, an English indie rock band.
If you don’t know about Lipsky and Wallace, then it might be difficult to understand and follow the movie. It is worth watching, though, for the acting is great, including the supporting actors.
The big yellow feathered bird on Sesame Street has been a household icon for decades. The documentary I Am Big Bird celebrates more than Caroll Spinney’s life and contributions performing Big Bird for over 40 years. The movie celebrates the making of the Muppets and puppeteers far and wide.
Directors Dave LaMattina and Chad N. Walker keep the pace even as they feature family home movies of Spinney’s beginnings in both his personal life and career. Interviews with Spinney, his family, the original cast and crew of Sesame Street relate tales of early educational television.
For example, Spinney and some of the crew tell a time in the early days when he almost quit the Muppets because he felt he wasn’t contributing enough to the show. But he was talked out of it, and soon Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, Spinney’s other Muppet persona, became well-known puppets on Sesame Street. Eventually, Big Bird became the most popular character on the show.
The interviews openly discuss his first marriage, which resulted in three dearly loved children, who are also interviewed in the documentary, clearly showing their love for their dad. Unfortunately, he and their mother divorced, and Spinney suffered through the ordeal.
He met the girl of his dreams after three unsuccessful attempts to date her. Debra tells the story so pleasantly. You can’t help but admire their relationship. Debra is interviewed at length in the movie, and her love and understanding of Spinney are very clear. Other items in the documentary are surprising and out of the ordinary. Never explained was why they didn’t have children of their own.
Finding out the staggering complexity of Spinney’s work in the puppet costume is spellbinding. The demands alone for being a Muppet are amazing, but Big Bird is so much more complex and taxing on Spinney’s body. You need to see it. Just being a Muppet is highly demanding, but to be Big Bird is even more so.
The documentary shines a light on Muppets creator and genius Jim Henson. Clearly, a very good friend of the Spinney, seeing Henson, is heartfelt. The documentary shows footage and memories of working alongside Henson. Big Bird sang “It’s Not Easy Being Green” before the packed cathedral at Henson’s funeral, one of the most memorable scenes in the documentary.
She’s Funny That Way is a good movie, coming across sometimes funny and sometimes serious, but has a great cast that keeps the show on the road.
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who helmed such winners as Paper Moon and The Last Picture Show, does a fine job with this movie as it seeks an amicable ending. Another favorite of mine, Wes Anderson, who directed such witty movies as The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr. Fox, is one of the many producers of this movie.
It starts off with a sit down interview with Izzy, played by Imogen Poots, who is a hooker-turned actress and now successful. She talks about her rise to stardom and her first Broadway role. She reflects on the people involved in her breakout role, and the movie cuts to that time on Broadway, where they are thrown into a state of romantic uncertainty and confusion.
A salacious, but bleeding heart director, played convincingly by Owen Wilson, hires Izzy, a former hooker he solicited, now turned actress, to star alongside his wife, played humorously by Kathryn Hahn, and his wife’s ex-lover, played by Rhys Ifans. Playing on the outer edge of this confusion and adding a lot of hilarity are Jennifer Aniston, Cybil Sheppard and Will Forte. There are also numerous cameos, including Tatum O’Neal, Quentin Tarantino and Peter Bogdanovich himself.
The movie really gets fun when the director’s wife (Hahn) discovers his fetish for soliciting and then helping call girls. It comes to light when one of the more recent call girls he helped, Izzy, auditions for a role in the play he is directing. She does a fantastic reading because she is reading for a call girl, typecasting. A hilarious scene follows where his wife, who wants to get back at her husband, rehearses with the lead actor (Ifans) in a passionate love scene, and she makes real sexual advances toward him. The director tries to stay professional, as her husband is jealous. I was laughing at his reactions, so funny all the way through, and Wilson is hilarious.
Jennifer Aniston plays someone that I have never seen her play before, an unlikable character, so I was uncomfortable with it at first. She does a great job of being the typical psychologist who totally makes the patient feel inadequate and weak. Adding to that, in their face, telling them what is wrong with them. Aniston is great and funny.
There are so many good qualities in this movie. The reason I really enjoyed it is that the director, Peter Bogdanovich, brought together all these fine actors, some of whom I had worked with before. He is such a wonderful director, and I am delighted to see him working again.
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe grazes the surface concerning the part of the entertainment industry where malicious people lurk. These life suckers are few in numbers, but the few that are there can wreak havoc because they are sly and go unnoticed. This movie answers the questions of what happened to the demise of Judy Garland, Brian Wilson, Elvis Presley, Robin Williams and so forth.
Remember when Marilyn Monroe died, she was under the unfaithful care of a psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson. This mini-series is not all that factual about her true demons, but it does show the demise of her life relating to the demise of her mother.
The mini-series frames Marilyn as a tragic figure, pouring her heart and life out to a psychologist, played by Jack Noseworthy. The director, Laurie Collyer, has Noseworthy play the doctor as one who listens as Monroe recalls her life. The story begins with Marilyn being taken away from her mother. Susan Sarandon’s daughter, Eva Amurri Martino, plays the younger version of her mother while Sarandon plays the older version. We learn that Marilyn was raised by a guardian she named Aunt Grace, played convincingly by Emily Watson. She was also in an orphanage, but married at 16 just to find a place to live.
Within a few years, Norma Jean, now played honestly by Kelli Garner, launched her modeling career and slowly began to pursue her ambition to work in the movies. Soon, she discovers that being beautiful isn’t the end all to success. She advances once she establishes relationships with powerful men, including Johnny Hyde, played by Tony Nardi, a studio executive and her agent. He points her career in the right direction and changes her name to Marilyn Monroe. She is on her path to stardom.
Marilyn’s success came with new pressures. As professed in the mini-series, the studio pushed pills to keep her functioning. In truth, the studio doctors pushed the pills. The studio just wanted her stable and working. They didn’t have the solution to help her, so they counted on the resident psychiatrist to help her.
Despite all the pressures, Marilyn begins her sizzling romance with Joe DiMaggio, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Their relationship ends, and she falls in love with playwright Arthur Miller, played by Stephen Bogaert.
So far, the series hasn’t shed any new light on Marilyn. Where are the secrets? We’ve all heard and seen this before. Still, the acting and directing keep the interest high.
We also get a glimpse of John F. Kennedy. Here we see Marilyn’s famous performance singing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to him. Garner not only looks the part, but her voice and mannerisms also match Marilyn’s. It is an honest performance worth mentioning because of the nature of the material.
Yet, as the director Collyer takes the adapted screenplay and tries to explain away Marilyn’s troubles with mental illness. That is not her job as a director – just tell the story. Sure, being a successful artist in any field is stressful and should be addressed with honesty. I am sure there is a side to Marilyn that is very positive and endearing. But this series portrays her, like most interpretations, as pitiful. “Everyone uses everyone,” according to a line in the movie. I beg to differ because if she truly had help, she would still be alive today.
We need to help artists in any way that is non-destructive with drugs and confinement. Do no harm, but help with safe and sane methods.
