Movie Reviews & Links - B
Beloved
| Buena Vista Social Club
Bullworth | Batman & Robin | Bean
| Bliss | Boogie Nights | Brassed Off
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Kudos to Ry Cooder for bringing Cuba's vintage music to us! I bought the CD for my husband on Valentine's Day 1998. If you love the music, you will certainly enjoy this extraordinary documentary. And if you're feeling a little blue now that you qualify to read "Modern Maturity", then get ready for a shot of youth serum as you watch these glorious vintage musicians, some of them over 80 years old -- full of life, talent and sex appeal! |
| Director: Wim Wenders Production Company: Road Movies Filmproduktion Producer: Ulrich Felsberg Cinematography: Jörg Widmer, Robby Müller Editor: Peter Przygodda Music: Ry Cooder, Joaquim Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzáles, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo Source: Artisan Entertainment Running Time: 100 minutes |
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| Gotta tell ya, Gotham City is really cool! This fantasy-adventure, full of the cliches that true fans appreciate, is also a stunning treat for the eyes. The visual effects and inspired use of color throughout is evidence of rich talent at work in the film industry. The plot is okay and the humor tongue-in-cheek; the cast is delightful. Good light, uplifting fun. | |||
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Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean Cast: Peter MacNicol |
You are safe taking the kids to this one -- although I didn't see any the evening we attended the theater. The place was packed to the rafters with an audience that appeared to be mostly middle-aged (perhaps those who bother to watch public television from time to time). While only 13 episodes of the original show were filmed for British television, they are in worldwide syndication, and have sold some nine million videos. I think the first one we saw was where Mr. Bean tries to make himself a sandwich as he sits on a park bench (much to the dismay of the other occupant) and uses his sock as a salad spinner for the lettuce, and example of just the kind of creative (albeit disgusting) thinking Mr. Bean is famous for. Bean has to do with an employee from London's National Gallery escorting Whistler's Mother to a gallery in Los Angeles. An American benefactor (played by Burt Reynolds) has spent $50 million purchasing the American painting from France. There's a big to-do about it all, and the Americans assume that Bean is a Ph.D. of great repute and therefore excuse his evident idiosyncrasies; in reality he is a watchman whom everyone at the National is grateful to have foisted off on the Americans. However, when asked just what it is that he does, he replies that he "looks at paintings," the absolute truth. Totally irreverent, this is a super fun flick with little jabs at the art world. If you were thinking of taking your ten-year-old, go right ahead! You'll both have fun. Although this is not Peter MacNicol's first film (he can be spotted in a number of movies), it is Mr. Bean's debut on the silver screen and has already grossed more than $100 million at box offices around the world. |
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Mark Walhberg Sorry, folks, but I hated this movie. It's about the porno industry in the 70s and 80s. My companion and I just walked away feeling bad. In my opinion, just about anything (including sex, violence, and profanity, all things that this film offers in abundance) can be used as tools if a film's plotline, character development, and script are excellent. However, that's just not the case here. If it's sex you want, you would be better off renting an X-rated video. The best thing I can say about it is that Burt Reynolds played his part well. Mark Wahlberg (formerly known as rap star Markie Mark) modeled underwear for Calvin Klein. |
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| The language in this film, even more than the lovemaking, is apparently embarassing to some people -- the night I saw it, about half a dozen walked out early. | Craig Sheffer Sheryl Lee Spalding Gray Terence Stamp Rated R |
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| Perhaps they should have stayed, because there
really was a point. The scenario: A young married couple seek counseling with a psychiatrist (Spalding Gray). The husband (Craig Sheffer) is amazed during a session to hear from his wife (Sheryl Lee) that she has been faking; soon he learns that she is seeing a sex therapist (Terence Stamp) who uses quite contraversial methods - he sleeps with his clients. Enraged, he pays a call on the therapist, but instead of pummelling him, becomes a student so that he will be able to make love to his wife. During the course of the film we see the wife's catharsis as she comes to understand the source of her frigidity and begins to heal. The husband comes to understand that, whatever the value of his own newfound sexual enlightenment, the most valuable quality he has is his ability to love. |
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Brassed
Off |
| A "colliery" is a coal mine, in case you didn't already
know. (A fact I should have remembered from reading all those D. H. Lawrence novels.)
This movie depicts the lives of certain residents of Grimley village in the Yorkshire
highlands who play in a brass band (or are married to those who do). We see them heading
off for practice, their horns tucked under their arms. Bandleader Danny, played by Pete
Postlethwaite ("The Usual Suspects," "Dragonheart") is
especially charming riding his bike through the working-class village. Danny's dedication
and love for his music blinds him to any concern except the upcoming national competition
which could propel the band to the Albert Hall. Although he's coughing up coal dust, he
seems to be the only person unconcerned about the impending closure. The other members of
the band, faced with redundancy forced upon them by Margaret Thatcher's Tories, are facing
their own personal crises; Danny's loving son (played by Stephen Tompkinson), who has a
family to raise, must deal with his anguished wife on one hand and thugs who come to
repossess their furniture on the other. A young woman who grew up in the village (Tara
Fitzgerald) shows up for a rehearsal and plays the flugelhorn (are you wondering,
"what the heck is a flugelhorn?") so beautifully that gentlemen who were
about to call it quits put their dues in the kitty after all, and a young despondent miner
who dated her at the age of fourteen thinks things are perhaps not so drab. Things do get
pretty hopeless again, but... It's a movie about hope, despair, and the important things in life. Plenty of pathos and touches of humor - not to mention some lovely acting and rousing brass instrumentals - make this film a pleasure to see and hear. Written and directed by Mark Herman A Miramax Release |
