Blade Runner

Warner Bros.
HARRISON FORD hangs on in "Blade Runner."

Time to go back to future in ‘Blade Runner’

“Blade Runner” is one of those movies that keeps coming back.
I’m not saying these are sequels or remakes. It’s the same movie, restored, recut, re-something elsed every few years.
“Blade Runner,” directed by Ridley Scott, has been re-released to the big screen. and any number of times on video.
At one time “Blade Runner” was the reason to buy a now-defunct Laserdisc player. In the 1990s, before DVD, Laserdisc was the way to see movies on television with any sharpness and clarity.
So every few years we are treated to a new version of this 1982 science fiction classic. The most recent version drops the narration by the main character, but adds moments to the love affair he has with a replicant played by Sean Yung.
With each new video technology, we get a new version of “Blade Runner.”
Warner recently released all sorts of versions of the film on the new hybrid DVD formats, Blu-Ray and HD.
You get a couple of different versions of the movie, along with commentaries, special features, a new spatula, well no new spatula, but lots of stuff.
The film looks and sounds great. It takes place in 2019. It is the far future when the movie was made in 1982. Now we are looking at a mere 11 years hence.
Scott’s vision of the future is already correct in some ways. For example, it is always dark, gloomy and rainy in 2019. Global warming does cause weather problems.
But when Harrison Ford, playing Rick Deckard, needs to make a phone call, it isn’t on a teensy, tiny cell phone. No, it’s in a phone booth. A phone booth? Who sees phone booths in 2008, let alone 2019?
This is an OK film plotwise. It’s the whole set, it’s the scenery that makes this picture work in this apocalyptic tale.
Ford plays Deckard, a blade runner who must track down and terminate (or retire) six replicants who hijacked a space ship. Replicants are like almost-human robots who are even implanted with childhood memories. They were designed for labor in far-off colonies. They aren’t supposed to be on Earth.
Ah, but these six are return to Earth to meet their maker, literally.
Ford, as a blade runner, must track down these errant replicants.
Replicants on average live only four years. These replicants end up in Los Angeles, looking for ways to extend their lives.
The Ford character hunts down these creatures, but in the meantime he learns from these replicants.
The replicants appear to be the victims in this epic saga.
There’s plenty of graphic violence. What the replicants do to their creator is, well, anything but nice. Beware.
If you are a science fiction buff, you’ll want to get a version with the fancy case, available in Blu Ray, HD or standard DVD. You have at least one of those, don’t you?
You’ll get the theatrical cut, the version Scott wanted to do at first but the studio wouldn’t allow, deleted scenes, audio commentary, interviews and a few documentaries.
By the time you get done with all of this, it will actually be 2019.
You’ll have all of those memories of watching this film and its extras. Are they real memories? Were they just planted in your brain?
Something to think about.
Blade Runner
• Rated R for violence and brief nudity, which is cut from some versions
• 117 minutes
• 3 stars out of 4
This appeared in Weekender Feb. 1, 2008 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.

Bridge to Terabithia

Walt Disney

AnnaSophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson in “Bridge to Terabithia.”

Bridge to Terabithia: An imaginative film for everybody

By day, it is a film about a 10-year-old at his grammar school.

He’s quiet. He spends his time drawing. He is also a target for bullying, from both boys and an amazon girl.
He is the center of the family film “Bridge to Terabithia.”
Jess Aarons (played by Josh Hutcherson) is the son of a hardware store clerk. The family has little money.
Things are so bad, his favorite running shoes were tattered so Mom threw them away. She gave him his sister’s pink shoes instead. Poor Jess used a black marker to change the color.
Enter 10-year-old Leslie Burke, played by AnnaSophia Robb. Leslie becomes targeted for teasing as well. This might be the only grade school where the entrance to the girls restroom is outside and a bully can charge $1 to use the facilities without anyone stepping in to stop her.
The two children at first have little to do with each other, mostly because Leslie beats Jess in a race on her first day.
But the kids, who live next door to each other, soon become friends.
Leslie notices a rope tied to a tree that can be used to swing across a small creek to the wooded area on the other side.
And that’s where their adventures begin. The two build a treehouse where they can sit and talk and discuss the world. They name this wooded area Terabithia.
But their quiet time is disrupted as they are attacked by squirrels who throw nuts down on them.
That is quickly followed by various flying and walking creates the pair must battle, at least in their imaginations.
A giant tree comes alive, complete with feet and toejam.
Kids will love it!
This is a family friendly film. Kids can relate to the pressure at school, the bullies, the mean teacher. They can revel in the imaginary fun at Terabithia.
One fun part of school is music class, where the young pretty teacher, Ms. Edmunds (played by Zooey Deschanel), leads the kids in daily sing-a-longs.
She takes Jess on his first trip to an art museum. He is enthralled by what he sees.
But tragedy awaits him when he returns home. There is a death in this film that is pretty shocking. It may affect younger children. Parents may restrict the film to those 10 and older.
The violence is more of a fantasy. There is no bad language.
A special salute to Bailee Madison, 8, who plays Jess’ younger brother. She is very believable in this film.
This is a great, ultimately uplifting film for slightly older children. It encourages use of your imagination and is a fun adventure for all.
Give it a look, but don’t walk through the woods immediately afterward.

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
• Directed by Gabor Csup, written by Jeff Stockell and David Paterson, starring Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Zooey Deschanel, Robert Patrick and Bailee Madison.
• Rated PG for thematic elements
• Runtime: 95 minutes
• Three stars out of four
This appeared in the Star Beacon WEEKENDER Nov. 9, 2007

Breach and Iris

THE VIPER

Lions Gates Films

CHRIS COOPER and RYAN Phillippe in “Breach.”

Two fact-driven films worth seeing

JIM BROADBENT and Judi Dench in “Iris."

They didn’t exactly heat up the box office.
But two recent films, based on true stories, are really worth seeing. Trust me.
“Iris” is a smart story about free-spirited author Iris Murdoch. Early in life she is played by Kate Winslet. Her dutiful but bumbling husband is played by a heavily made up Jim Broadbent and in his young days by Hugh Bonneville. Those two look like father and son, a very good choice because of their similarities.
The young Iris was this beautiful author who had relationships with both men and women, who loved to joke and have fun, but took a serious look at life, literature and philosophy.
While they seemed like different people, the intellect of a fellow professor, John Bayley, brought them together.
It hurt him when he saw her with other people, but she made it clear she wasn’t going to change. He stuck with her anyway.
The film switches between early years and more recent times. Events early on give us insights into more recent times.
Slowly her world clouds. She repeats the same phrase, catches herself, then seems surprised at herself.
Iris writes in longhand but finds she can’t spell. “That’s a puzzle,” she says. Then she writes the word ‘puzzle.’ She jots it down three times, satisfied she is OK.
But it’s clear she is not and after awhile aging John must chase after her as she leaves the house and walks in traffic, oblivious to the danger.
He dreams of her indiscretions which still rattle him years later. He wakes up and screams in anger at what is left of his dear Iris. Somehow, she musters some coherency and soothes him. It is a moving scene.
It’s a film that champions the victims of Alzheimer’s and their families.
It also questions the belief that people who keep active and intellectually stimulated are less likely to get the disease. Iris was still a much-in-demand author and writer who traded literary quips with her husband at the grocery store shortly before the illness was discovered.
Something else I need to point out. These are real people in real situations. Iris died of her disease in 1999.
We see their home, cluttered and messy, get progressively worse when she is helpless and he spends his time looking after her.
Another excellent film shares a few common aspects to “Iris.”
“Breach” is based on a true story and it’s a one-word title, too.
After that, there’s few similarities.
Chris Cooper plays the creepy, straight-arrow Robert Hanssen. Hanssen is a far-to-the-right FBI agent who happens to be a devout Catholic, likes to mail off videotapes of himself and his wife having sex and is also a spy.
Ryan Phillippe is Eric O’Neill, a new agent who wants to make a name for himself. He is placed under Hannsen’s tutelage
His job is to get the goods on the boss while appearing loyal and do his bidding, despite routinely being called “idiot” and “imbecile.”
Boss and his submissive wife, played by Kathleen Quinlan, show up at Eric and his wife’s doorstep and prepare dinner, while Boss makes cracks about her needing to provide lots of babies. The perplexed wife is played by Juliana O’Neil.
When Hannssen fears the job is too much for Eric, Hannssen counsels him to pray more.
This is a rich, suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat espionage drama, even though it is mostly dialogue-driven.
Films like “Mission Impossible” deal with espionage through an array of gunfights and explosions and special effects. Within 10 minutes, I was totally lost. What the heck is going on here?
But “Breach,” perhaps because it is based on fact, flows effortlessly.
Acting is top notch. Cooper deserves a best actor nomination.
But this film was released in February and the Academy is apt to forget.
Two diverse films, two different themes but well worth seeking out.

IRIS
• Directed by Richard Eyre
• Runtime 91 minutes
• Rated R for sex, nudity and profanity
• 3 1/2 stars out of 4
BREACH
• Directed by Billy Ray
• Runtime 110 minutes
• Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language
• 3 1/2 stars out of four

‘Big Lebowski’ crazy but fun film

THE VIPER

JOHN GOODMAN and Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski.”

I saw it when it came out, but I must not have appreciated it.
That was a full decade ago.
“The Big Lebowski” is a product of those crazy Cowen brothers, best known these days for “No Country For Old Men” and great classics like “Fargo” and “Raising Arizona.”
No less grand is “The Big Lebowski,” written by brothers Ethan and Joel Coen and directed by Joel Coen.
The picture opens with a tumbleweed blowing across the screen. Maybe it symbolizes the vast wasteland that is this picture. It’s highly entertaining, but the characters are so shallow.
This is a film about nothing and about everything.
Lebowski, who calls himself the Dude,” hangs with his friends, bowls nightly but doesn’t work. It’s a great part for Jeff Bridges.
He likes to drink, especially alcoholic beverages with milk.
The film opens with him staggering into a grocery store in his bathrobe and flip flops, opening a carton of milk and sniffing the inside. He decides to buy the milk and scrawls out a check for 69 cents to give to the bored cashier.
Welcome to Lebowski’s weird, skewed world.
He returns home to find two thugs in his home demanding money, stating wife Bunny is good for it.
But the Dude has no wife. Plus the wife says Lebowski is rich. Looks like a case of mistaken identity. But before the crooks realize their mistake, one stuffs Lebowski’s head in the toilet. The other urinates on his rug, the beloved rug that went so well with his fleabag home.
Much of the plot is furthered at the bowling alley, where the Bridges character talks things over with his pals Walter Sobchak, a Vietnam veteran with some bizarre opinions, played hilariously by John Goodman; and Donny Kerabatsos, the sort of Larry Fine of the group, played by Steve Buscemi. Steve Buscemi, need I say more?
The actors must have had a great time in this romp.
The Dude decides to visit the rich Lebowski, the one whose wife owes the money. He wants a replacement for his beloved rug.
In the meanwhile, he meets the rich Lebowksi’s nerdy but loyal aide, played with hilarious results by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
The rich Lebowski, played by David Huddleston, is the clip-voiced, no nonsense millionaire who has no sympathy for the Dude.
“Did I matriculate on your rug?” the Huddleston character asks, before suggesting the Dude get a job.
In leaving, the Dude helps himself to a rug at the house, is escorted out by Hoffman and meets the money-owing Mrs. Lebowski, played by Tara Reid. The former porn star offers the Dude a sex act for $1,000.
Mrs. Lebowski is supposedly kidnapped and the Dude, for some reason, is asked to help deliver the ransom.
Somehow, the Dude becomes involved in all of the twists and turns, almost like a 1940s gumshoe movie. He’s hit on the head, meets beautiful women and must come up with the solution to the mystery.
All with generous visits to the bowling alley.
If you’ve never met the Lebowskis or it’s been awhile, it’s time to revisit this wacky bunch.
And while you are laughing, try not to pee on the carpet.

Big Lebowski
• 117 minutes
• Rated R for pervasive language, drug content, sexuality, brief violence
• 3 1/2 stars out of four
This appeared in Weekender Sept. 18, 2008 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.

Away From Her

GORDON PINSENT and Julie Christis in "Away From Her."

Film a necessary look at Alzheimer's

I don’t know anything about Sarah Polley or Alice Munro. They are writers and Polley the director of “Away From Her.”
But I suspect these people know a great deal about the terrible disease known as Alzheimers.
Remember Oscar-winner Julie Christie of “Doctor Zhivago” and “Demon Seed” fame?
Today she plays Fiona Anderson, the wife of a retired college professor. They lived the intellectual life in a country home lined with books.
We see them sit together as husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent) reads to her.
But their comfortable lives take a terrible turn. Fiona shows signs of Alzheimer’s.
She labels the drawers so she can remember where the dinnerware is housed, vs. cutlery, pots and pans and more.
She easily becomes disoriented.
At one point, she heads out walking along the highway. It takes hours for Grant to find her and bring her home.
During her lucid moments, they plan for the future, the future being life in an institution.
He plans it as a temporary situation. She knows better. You don’t get better from Alzheimer’s.
Grant visits the facility first. It’s all new, with large, bright rooms and plenty of natural lighting.
The administrator begins to show him the second floor, where the more progressed patients are living. Grant says no, there’s no need. She won’t be going there. Progressed patients, you see, are those who are deteriorating.
On the way to the home, the Christie character reminds her husband of his many affairs with students. Her short-term memory may be gone, but for now, long-termmemory is intact. It won’t be for long.
Christie is such a good actress and especially after her character deteriorates, her scenes seem so chillingly real.
The hospital has a policy. After a patient is admitted, he or she can see no one from the outside for a month.
This proves tremendously bad. When Grant returns, he is shocked to find her mothering another patient, Aubrey, played by veteran actor Michael Murphy. Murphy’s role is to sit frozen in a wheelchair, occasionally crying.
She agrees to talk to her husband briefly, as long as Aubrey isn’t disturbed.
Eventually, Grant visits Aubrey’s wife, played by Olympia Dukakis, and out of loneliness or because he feels he should, starts an affair with her. Aubrey is only a patient while the Dukakis character is away from home. He leaves the facility when she returns and Fiona starts to deteriorate.
Fiona treats Grant politely but coolly. She doesn’t appear to know who he is anymore.
Eventually what wasn’t going to happen does happen. Fiona must move to the second floor.
And like other patients, when she seems to have gotten worse and worse, she suddenly seems fairly lucid for a day.
This is a very real, very compelling, very necessary story.
This isn’t one of those films with the classic rock soundtrack populated by beautiful young people. You won’t find a lot of computer-generated imagery in this picture.
But it is so worth seeing.
Julie Christie has made a career out of playing interesting people very well. This must have been a particularly difficult part to perform, but she’s more than up to the task.
This is a stellar effort.
It isn’t “Doctor Zhivago,” but in it’s own way, it’s just as good.

Away From Her
Starring Grant Anderson, Julie Christie and Olympia Dukakis
Runtime: 110 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some mild sexual situations
Three stars out of four

This appeared in Weekender January 11, 2008 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.

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Astronaut Farmer

DreamWorks

BILLY BOB Thornton and Virginia Madsen in “The Astronaut Farmer.”

Following dreams in ‘Astronaut Farmer’

Sometimes, wives in Hollywood movies are too pretty.

That’s one of my first impressions in watching “The Astronaut Farmer,” starring Billy Bob Thornton as Charles Farmer, a scientific genius who couldn’t make it as an astronaut, but decides to build a rocket on his own.
In one way, it’s nice to see a movie about a dreamer, a person with determination and grit. As wild as it seems to others, Farmer is determined to reach his goal.
But the Farmer character is a bit of a flake, a character. A lot of this film is difficult to believe, one of them being this guy could be married to someone as good looking as Virginia Madsen. She seems too smart and engaging to be going along with his dream.
To be realistic, Billy Bob needs a slightly older, dowdier, less pretty wife.
Farmer is focused on what he wants to do, build a rocket and fly in space. He sees it as inevitable and is methodical and serious about his goal.
He meets with an individual to buy fuel for his endeavor. When the man tells him it will cost $50,000, Farmer nods his head as if there is no problem. You get the impression he’s a millionaire.
But next we seem him, he’s at the bank trying to get his umpteenth mortgage on his farm house, being perfectly honest about what he needs it for. The banker, an old friend, tells Billy Bob’s character he is mortgaged to the hilt and needs to abandon his dream.
This is small town and rural, but from a Hollywood perspective. When the bank serves foreclosure papers, Farmer’s answer is to throw a brick through the bank’s window.
The judge decides he needs counseling. Now if you were a Hollywood screenwriter, where would you figure a person in an agricultural area would get therapy? Why, from the high school nurse, of course.
The FBI gets wind of his plan because of the attempted fuel sale and the government sets up hearings on the proposed launch.
When the FBI gets wind, the media isn’t far behind. That’s when the circus really begins.
The highlight of the film is an aborted launch. Until this point, the film sort of plods along. But then, wow. Excellent special effects.
Bruce Willis plays a retired astronaut who plays along with Farmer until the Willis character realizes he is serious.
Particularly good as Thornton’s 15-year-old son is Max Thierlot, who plays his part subtly.
Crusty Bruce Dern plays Hal, Virginia Madsen’s father in the film. Hal proves the savior for the Farmer family’s finances.
Hardly gripping, much of this film can be watched while doing a puzzle or reading e-mail. There are a few places you want to put whatever you are doing down to watch.
“Astronaut Farmer” is at least worth a rental. There are some tense moments. There’s some excitement.
It is nice to see a film where someone has dreams and a goal beyond visiting a bar and picking up chicks, the theme of too many films.
ASTRONAUT FARMER
• Directed by Michael Polish
• Rated PG for thematic material, peril and language
• 104 minutes
• 2 1/2 stars out of four

In the Star Beacon WEEKENDER Nov. 2, 2007

Premonition

Tri-Star Pictures

Sandra Bullock in “Premonition.”

Time not on their side in ‘Premonition’

I didn’t know what to expect from my double-feature evening.
But I knew the titles would be easy to remember. They’re both called “Premonition.” One is the original, the other being a remake from 2007 starring Sandra Bullock.
Both deal with the death of a loved one who at some point, isn’t dead anymore.
This isn’t ghosts or horror. The films are about the juxtaposition of time.
The original “Premonition” dates all the way back to 2004. If you are wondering why only a three-year gap, it’s because the original is a product of Japan.
It’s actually called “Yogen.”
And let me tell you, there’s few similarities between the two.
“Yogen” has a compelling opening.
Professor Hideki Satomi, played by Hiroshi Mikami, is riding home from a vacation with his wife and young daughter. Mom and daughter are singing a kiddy song. He is engrossed in finishing an important report in the backseat on his laptop.
Unfortunately, the cell connection isn’t working, so they stop at a roadside telephone booth so he can transmit his report.
Mother and daughter are across the road in the car. As he waits for the file to finish uploading, he sees a scrap of newspaper. A story states a young girl was killed by a truck along a roadway.
The girl is his daughter and the accident is scheduled to happen at 4 p.m., just seconds from now.
And boom, he watches in horror as the runaway rig slams into the car. The daughter is trapped inside. Mother can’t get the child’s seat detached. The car bursts into flames and the child dies.
The result is the parents split up and the Satomi character learns about others who received premonitions based on future newspapers.
In the Americanized version, Bullock is a housewife who gets a knock at the door. It is the sheriff informing her that her husband was killed in a traffic accident while away on a business trip.
Bullock’s character had just gotten a cryptic voicemail from her husband, played by Jim Hanson. She’s numb as her mother and a friend try to help her get through the ordeal.
She must inform the children. She must handle the funeral.
The next morning she awakens to find her husband brushing his teeth in the bathroom, alive and well.
Boy, she thinks, that was some realistic dream.
But it turns out her timeline has turned upside down. One day she awakens to a time a few days before the crash. The next she awakens to find him dead and people downstairs awaiting the funeral.
She finds some prescription drugs dissolving in the sink one morning. Another morning she dumps them there.
Making a chart, she determines each morning where she is in the time continuum and learns the circumstances leading up to the inevitable crash.
Both Bullock and Mikami, essentially playing the same character in the two pictures, try to use what they learned to eventually stop the deaths.
The Japanese version is more harrowing and suspenseful. At various points the father finds himself in the car with his daughter trying to get her loose before the truck hits.
You’ll get jolted when things switch and he’s in the runaway truck with the unconscious truck driver and Mikami can’t pry the driver’s head away from the steering wheel.
Both have shocking endings. Neither is happy. But my prediction is you’ll like the Japanese version more. It is darker and more exciting.
Premonition (2004)
• Directed by Norio Tsuruta, starring Hiroshi Mikami and Noriko Sakai
• Rate R for disturbing images
• In Japanese, runtime 95 minutes
• 3 stars out of 4
Premonition (2007)
• Directed by Mennan Yapo, starring Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon
• Rated PG-13 for some violent content, disturbing images
• Runtime 96 minutes
• 2 1/2;2 stars out of 4
This appeared in the Star Beacon January 25, 2008

'Architect' builds on family problems

Magnolia Pictures

Anthony LaPaglia in "The Architect."

"The Architect" is a disturbing yet engrossing family drama in which each family member has his or her own demons.
Anthony LaPaglia plays Leo Waters, a wealthy architect who not only designs buildings but teaches the craft in college.
He has two children, Christina, played by Hayden Panettiere; and Martin, portrayed by Sebastian Stan. His coldfish wife, Julia, is played by Isabella Rossellini.
Leo is immersed in his importance, to the point he doesn't see the pain of others.
One of his crowning achievements is a public housing complex he designed more as a piece of art, a tribute to his own talents, than as a practical, useable place for people to live.
Viola Davis is Tonya, an activist who could live elsewhere but chooses to remain in the housing project as she fights to get the whole place demolished.
The reasoning is simple, while Leo's masterpiece may look good with its balance of light and space and all, it also allows gangs to take over the buildings, the elevators, the open space and cause havoc for the residents.
Tonya's teen-aged son gets so fed up, he climbs to the roof of the complex and jumps. A daughter is farmed out to a more affluent family so she only puts up with public housing when she visits mom.
Rossellinii's Julia character is cold and unflinching in her disdain for her husband. He babbles on oblivious to her feelings, puffing on a cigarette, dumping the ashes on her good plates.
She eventually gets so angry she grabs the plate and smashes it.
Daughter Christina is searching for a human relationship. There's a hint of impropriety with her father and Christina can't understand why her mother doesn't treat him better.
She is befriended by a college student who gets her into a bar where a number of men get interested in her developing attributes.
She seeks refuge outside where she is befriended by a beer distributor. Christina doesn't want to go home, so she goes with him on his rounds. At one point, she begs him for acceptance by having a sexual relationship. But he, knowing she is only 15, begs off, leaving her feeling rejected again.
Son Martin drops out of college, feels too depressed to work, but then becomes drawn to the housing complex his father designed.
He asks directions there of a young black man, played by Paul Jones, who among other things, likes John Denver music. The Jones character befriends him and ultimately they have their own relationship.
It sounds depressing and sad. But the characters come off so real and the story so compelling, it makes it worth wading through the suds.
Rossellini is the weak spot. How the daughter of Ingrid Bergman could look so plain and lifeless is difficult to comprehend. After all, she's been named one of the most beautiful and sexist stars a number of times.
The plot keeps you guessing. There is no easy-to-discern formula to this picture.
The film boasts a number of characters who you will find easy to follow and stay interested in.
Like a piece of architecture, it builds on you.

This appeared in the Star Beacon Weekender on July 6, 2007.

An Inconvenient Truth

AL GORE and director Davis Guggenheim worked together to create "An Inconvenient Truth."

Gore persuasive in 'Inconvenient Truth'

Guess what. Al Gore isn't as stiff and robot-like as we all thought.
I recorded "An Inconvenient Truth" a month ago and put off watching it for better than a month. Had to be in the right mood.
But after a few months, with more and more stuff accumulating on the harddrive, it was time to sit down and learn how much trouble we were all in.
Gore, who introduces himself as the guy who "use to be the next president of the United States," presents his case for the global warming of Earth.
He's affable, he's funny, he's candid. He pokes fun at himself. He pokes fun at the current administration. (Who would have thought?)
He uses huge panels to make his case. He shows us illustrations. He quotes many "friends" and their take on Earth's problems.
And at the end, Gore offers us hope we can salvage the planet. He notes everything we can do to save Earth is easily within our capabilities today. We don't need scientists to do massive amounts of research. We don't need new inventions.
Gore chronicles other challenges the U.S. has faced in the past, from fighting two major powers at the same time and winning in World War II to landing a man on the moon to solving the ozone problem.
Global warming can be solved too, he says.
Gore is entertaining as he shows us the polar caps and how they've changed. He shows what has happened in Antarctica.
Polar bears are drowning because they normally stop on ice floes to rest while swimming hundreds of miles. But the ice is no longer there.
We are seeing an increase in nasty insects and bugs because they aren't killed by the cold. Trees are dying, being infested.
He talks about the violent storms we are experiencing in places we've never had them before. They are more frequent. They are more severe.
He tells how Katrina picked up force by moving across the warmer waters after leaving Florida, picking up more speed toward New Orleans.
The film's star is the Earth, but Gore isn't far behind. He isn't just a man at a lectern. We get little insights into his life. His perspective on life changed when his son was severely injured in a traffic crash and the family lived in the hospital.
As a boy, he lived on a sprawling farm four months of the year. His father was a U.S. senator. The rest of the year they lived in a small hotel.
From the accident, we learn how he changed priorities. From his boyhood, we learn how he came to appreciate the land.
It's also interesting to see him traveling by himself. If there are secret service agents, they stay in the shadows. He's carrying his suitcases, checking his luggage alone as he travels from airport to airport, flying to the next city to tell his message.
Not what you would expect from the man who was once the next president. It's a little humbling.
The film's emphasis remains on Earth and we find how we can all work to bring it back. We also learn the U.S. is far behind other countries in preserving our planet.
By the way, you don't have to wait a few months to watch it.

AN INVCONVENIENT TRUTH

• Directed by Davis Guggenheim, hosted by Al Gore
• Rated PG for mild thematic elements
• Runtime 100 minutes
• ***** out of five stars

This appeared in Weekender July 20, 2007 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.

'Akeelah' a true family film

Lions Gates Films

KEKE PALMER and Laurence Fishburne star in "Akeelah and the Bee."

Family-oriented movies are often syrupy or obnoxious cartoons.

In fact, family films often mean kids-only films.
But there are a few nice exceptions. One of them is "Akeelah and the Bee."
It's the story of a smart, South Los Angeles student who ends up competing in the national Scripps Howard Spelling Bee.
Keke Palmer is a remarkable young actress. She was only 12 when she made this picture, playing Akeelah Anderson. She's a talented young actress, completely convincing in her role.
This is the best "Rocky" movie since "Rocky," and it isn't even about sports.
Young Akeelah is teased by other students in this urban district because it isn't cool to be smart where she lives.
Akeelah has a mother, played by Angela Bassett, who works in a hospital. She wanted to be a doctor and got a chance to go to college, but dropped out because she didn't feel a part of it all.
Akeelah talks to a photograph of her beloved father, who was an innocent victim of a shootout. Her brother is hanging around with the wrong crowd.
Her principal, played by Curtis Armstrong, sees something special in Akeelah and orders her to take part in the school's spelling bee. You know it isn't taken seriously when the first speller misspells a word and mutters, "Who cares?"
Akeelah wins the school bee and goes on to the district spelling bee in Beverly Hills, where a whole new world opens up to her.
She makes friends with kids there and spends hours on a bus to visit them to study.
Akeelah eventually makes the National Spelling Bee in Washington.
Akeelah's mom is one deterrent to her success in the spelling bee. Bassett's character is afraid Akeelah's studying for the bee will cause her academics to go down.
Laurence Fishburne plays a professor who lost his own daughter to unexpected illness, resulting in the breakup of his marriage. He sees Akeelah as a surrogate daughter, even calling her "Denise" at some point.
There are many subplots to this film and all work to the betterment of the plot. If you think a movie about spelling can't be compelling, see this movie.
I mentioned Keke is a remarkable actress. Not only is she convincing as this inner-city girl, but she must hold together virtually every seen of this movie. She is more than up to the challenge.
Eventually, her fellow students and neighbors who made fun of, or were suspicious of her talents, are won over as well. A montage shows everyone helping her learn the thousands of words she must know in order to be competitive.
It's a great film for children to watch. It's about learning. It's about how to study. It's about overcoming adversity.
At one point, one of Akeelah's friends uses a common, crude term for excrement. It's the only obscenity I can think of in this film. Far different than most films about South Los Angeles.
Sometimes schools show movies to students on the last day before a vacation. It's usually something like "Flushed Away" or "Shrek." This would be a better, inspiring alternative.
The film keeps you rooting until the end. There is a wonderful scene where Akeelah spells the last word. In her mind, she sees all of the people in her neighborhood helping her out.
It's a movie to learn from and enjoy. Watch it with your kids.

This appeared in the Star Beacon Weekender on April 27, 2007.

Akeelah and the Bee
· Rated PG for some language

· 112 minutes

· Five stars out of five

51 Birch Street

DOUG BLOCK and his father, Mike, in "51 Birch Street"

Filmmaker learns more about his parents

Doug Block is a documentary filmmaker.
His parents, Mike and Minna, were approaching their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a natural he record the event, doing interviews with his mom and dad, sisters and friends.
Plus Mike was always aloof. The family really didn’t know that much about Dad. He was the typical 50s dad. An intelligent man, he was an engineer who fought in World War II. If he had any insecurities, he didn’t let them be known.
Mike and Minna seemed like a solid couple, although they weren’t what you would call affectionate.
Thus starts the absolutely fascinating movie “51 Birch Street.”
Nothing happens as we expect and after 54 years of marriage, Minna contracts pneumonia and dies.
Minna was a feisty woman. She seemed personable, somebody with a sense of humor. Somebody you would want to meet.
Three months later, Mike takes a vacation in Florida.
He shocks the family by announcing he met his secretary from the 1960s there, Kitty, and they would be married.
There was also something different about Dad. He and Kitty held each other and kissed often. That never happened with Mom.
In fact, we see video of Mike and Minna, in which Minna says of her husband something like, “He’s better than most guys I know. I guess I love him.”
Mike smiles and says, “That’s good.” Not exactly a storybook romance.
Then the questions start popping up. Sisters aren’t exactly thrilled their mother was being replaced, even though they appear to be somewhere in their 50s.
The question comes up, were Dad and Kitty possibly having an affair before Mom died?
Nothing is as it seems and this story grows and grows. The family finds Minna’s diaries, going back to the 1960s.
If Mike was the typical 50s dad, Minna was certainly the typical 1950s mother. She wasn’t a real loving, doting mother. She had her hair done once a week at the beauty parlor. She went out with her friends.
After her death, her best friend speculates that it was difficult for Minna to live in the 1950s. She was intelligent but she was stuck at home playing housewife.
She eventually sought help from a therapist because of her doom and gloom.
Her diary reveals she garnered a huge crush on her therapist and let him know she wanted a sexual relationship. She was rebuffed by the therapist, although her crush lasted for many years.
Eventually, she sought fulfillment by having a sexual relationship with an unnamed family friend.
Being a filmmaker and journalist, this sparks Doug Block to finally ask his father questions about what it was like supporting a family in the 1950s and his relationship with his mother.
He also gets what he believes is the truth about the early relationship of his father and Kitty.
This is one film you will be thinking about for a long time.
Do you really know your parents? Do you know what kind of people they really are, their fears, their insecurities, their relationships within the times they grew up and raised a family?
The extras include a short film on the family since the movie was released. Now Kitty was considered the interloper. Until she saw the movie, she didn’t realize Mike’s daughters were wary of her and upset.
She found the movie so enthralling, she went to see it 24 times.
“51 Birch Street” isn’t just about a family. It’s a snapshot of a time in U.S. history and the way people conducted themselves.
You will find it far more interesting and thought-provoking than much of the fictional films you will see this year.
51 Birch Street
• 1 hour, 30 minutes
• Not rated
• Produced by Copacetic Pictures
• Four stars out of four
This appeared in Weekender December 21, 2007 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.

'14 Hours' a tall tale about tall buildings

It's St. Patrick's Day in New York City.
A crowd is forming for the big parade.
Suddenly someone notices a man on the ledge.
Long before the TV series "24 Hours," there was the 1951 film "14 Hours."
Richard Basehart, who later gained fame on the TV series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," plays the main character who wants to end it all.
This film noir was pretty much forgotten until the DVD was released this past August.
It might best be remembered as the film debut of Grace Kelley, who went on to make classics like "Rear Window" before cutting her career short five years later to become a princess.
In fact, Kelley's role in the movie, that of a young woman ready to divorce, probably could have been cut altogether since it has little to do with the primary plot.
Basehart plays Robert Cosick, a man we know little about at the beginning of the picture and don't know much more about at the end.
He has an overbearing mother, played by Agnes Moorehead, who played an overbearing mother in "Citizen Kane" and played an overbearing mother in TV's "Bewitched."
His alcoholic father is played by Robert Keith.
My favorites in the film are Paul Douglas, playing Charlie Dunnigan, and Barbara Bel Geddes as Virginia Foster.
The Douglas character is a traffic cop who is first at the scene. He tries to talk to the Basehart character, offers him a cigarette (everyone offered everyone a cigarette in 1951) and tries to relate, unlike the professionals at the job who show no humanity.
It's too bad Bel Geddes wasn't in more films. She plays Basehart's former girlfriend, who still loves him and wants to help.
Bel Geddes, Moorehead, Keith and Dunnigan are all paraded to the window to try to help Basehart.
This is a technically superb picture. It looks authentic and there are some heart-in-the-mouth scenes as rescuers work behind the scenes to save the guy.
The movie is based on an actual event that took place in the 1930s.
While technically it looks good, let me tell you, in the year 2007, no reporters would be allowed inside the building, let alone inside the room in which Basehart climbed out onto the ledge from. I doubt if they were permitted to roam around like that in 1951 either.
If you wonder why he's Basehart is out on the ledge, you either have to be very perceptive or listen to the audio commentary by film historian Foster Hirch or check out the Internet movie database or keep reading.
OK, I'll tell you. Basehart feels ostracized because he is homosexual and well, you can't talk about being homosexual in 1951.
Heck, you couldn't be homosexual in 1951.
It would be interesting to see a remake of this picture, giving it a more contemporary feel.
Still, it is worth seeing just for the atmosphere of the film and performances by Bel Geddes and Douglas.
It's a tall tale about adventures on tall buildings. Give it a look.

This appeared in Weekender May 25, 2007 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.