American Pastime

'American Pastime' a real American story






SARAH DREW and Aaron Yoo in "American Pastime."

"American Pastime" is a story taking place during an historic period for the United States.
It is a story of great promise, irony, life, love, existence in a concentration camp, redemption and, oh yeah, it's a baseball movie.
Lyle Nomura (Aaron Yoo) is American born of Japanese ancestry. He's an all-American boy whose family has a comfortable home and a good business.
He also loves baseball and is thrilled to get a scholarship to a college to play baseball.
Then Dec. 7, 1941 rolls around and his life takes a dramatic change.
He and his family have only days to sell the family business, sell the family furnishings and give the family dog to the neighbor. Because they are Japanese, they must go to a degrading internment camp.
These were dark days in American history. As we learn at the end of the film, there was never any report of espionage by any Japanese-Americans during the war. We also know that no German-Americans were ever imprisoned during the war.
But this is a many-layered film. We also meet Billy Burrell (Gary Cole), a guard at the prison. His dream was always to make the Major Leagues and with so many baseball greats going into the service, he kept his dreams alive, even into middle age, even with a wife and nearly adult daughter.
The daughter, Sarah Drew, seems like the all-American girl of the early 1940s. She loves traditional music, strives to please the family and not make waves.
But when she meets the jazz-loving Lyle and falls in love, all of that goes out the window.
There is definite animosity toward the Japanese in these camps, as ridiculous as that sounds today. Some townspeople tolerate them, simply because the Japanese have kept some of their money and are using it to make their drafty, austere barracks into something more home-like and are buying the materials at local businesses.
One barber would just as soon the Japanese keep their distances and when Lyle's war-hero brother returns home for a visit, he is denied a haircut.
All of this is the setup for a baseball game between the townspeople's premier team and a team created by the internment camp residents.
You may have to suspend belief just a tad at the ending of this film, but it is a great eye-opener to our not-too-distant past.
Whether you like history, baseball or just an old-fashioned love story, "American Pastime" is worth a rental.

AMERICAN PASTIME
Directed by Desmond Nakano
Screenplay by Nakano and Tony Kayden
Runtime: 105 minutes
Not rated but should be fine but all but very young audiences, who probably wouldn't be interested. Fine for preteens and teens interested in sports to give them idea about this period in history
4 stars out of 5

In Bruges

COLLIN FARRELL and Brendan Gleeson in "In Bruge."


'In Bruges' funny, if you get past blood

For Star Beacon WEEKENDER for Jan. 23, 2009

"In Bruges" is about as funny as a movie can be that has to do with a bloody contract killing and children being murdered.
Collin Farrell plays Ray, an Irish hit man who accidently kills an innocent boy.
So he and his partner, Ken (Brendan Gleeson), are sent away for awhile, apparently until the heat dies down.
The boss is Harry, played by Ralph Fiennes.
Well, Harry is as homicidal and blood-thirsty as the next guy, but shows his humanity, too. He decides the boys need to lay low somewhere nice, but cheap, too. So he decides on Bruges, which narrator Harry admits he didn't even know where it was.
Bruges is a fairy-tale type of city in Belgium, steeped in history, with its canal and cobblestone streets and gothic architecture and great beauty.
But it's all sort of lost on Ray. Sure he's a killer, but he's also unintentionally funny. It's Christmas and the pair end up in a quaint bed and breakfast type of boarding house with a spectacular view. But they have to share a room and may end up there a few weeks until Harry gives further instructions.
Ken absorbs the history and beauty, Ray wants to drink.
There's a funny scene early on in which Ray is sitting out on a park bench after taking the narrow, meandering stairs to a rooftop site. Three fat Americans stop in front of him while staring at a map. Ray, actually trying to me helpful, warns they are too fat and too wide to make the trip. When the American man tries to chase Ray, Ray simply side steps the man until he is worn out from the meager chase.
The dialogue, while thick in Irish accident, is pretty pointed and funny, too.
Ray acquires a girlfriend (Clemence Posy) who doesn't seem to mind when he takes all of her drugs. He also hangs with Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), an American dwarf who is making a movie. He also parties with Dutch prostitutes, who do better in Bruges.
When the Fiennes character barks orders, they aren't what the soft-hearted Ken wants to hear. Well, as soft-hearted as a paid killer can be.
The film creates lots of twists and turns. The turns get bizarre, but you won't be bored.
Director Martin McDonagh, who also wrote the script, will keep you guessing.
This film is rated R. It has plenty of violence to go with its history lesson.
If you aren't offended by language and kids being shot down in the street, you'll like "In Bruges."

IN BRUGES
Directed and written by Martin McDonagh
Runtime: 107 minutes
Rating: R for strong, bloody violence, pervasive language and some drug use.
4 stars out of 5
It is airing on Cinemax

White Heat

Warner Bros.
JAMES CAGNEY plays Cody Jarrett in "White Heat."

Cagney goes ballistic in ‘White Heat’

WEEKENDER for Jan. 9, 2009

Violent, psychotic killers are a staple of modern movies.
Remember the demonic Joe Pesci in “Good Fellas,” who had a quick temper and with a gun usually in the hand, made the outburst fatal for somebody.
That character and so many others can be traced to the film noir classic “White Heat.”
If you've never seen this film, or it's been awhile, it's time to revisit this giant 1949 gangster film.
It was a combination of the times the film was made, the changing Hollywood and the people who were dedicated to its excellence that made it such a prize.
James Cagney plays Cody Jarrett, a psychological time bomb who can only see short-term solutions. Nobody dares cross Cody Jarrett.
The film opens with Jarrett and his gang robbing a train. When one of his henchman refers to him as “Cody,” they both realize the two workers on the train must be killed. Lots of people die in this film.
When one henchman is badly burned from steam and the gang wants to leave their cabin retreat, Cody promises to send a doctor to care for him. But the specialist turns out to be another henchman with a gun.
God old Cody.
Among those in the gang is his equally devious mother, who cares for him when he goes into one of his violent fits that might somehow explain his deviant personality.
There's also his lovely wife, played by Virginia Mayo, who exchanges glances at other henchmen, and maybe more than that when Cody goes to prison.
Edmund O'Brien plays a federal agent who poses as a fellow inmate and Cody's cellmate who wants to find out what happened to the money from a big heist.
When Cody breaks out, the O'Brien character goes along for the ride.
You can bet Cody seeks revenge for his mother's death, for who has made time with the wife he neglected and any guy who talks to or dances or especially marries his 18-year-old sister.
At this point, hold on for a jarring, bloody, pulse-pounding good time. Early in the film Mom says, “Top of the world, Cody,” for which he replies, “Top of the world, Ma.” The phrase returns in the electrical — literally — and violent ending.
The DVD also includes the alternate ending the studio wanted, in which Cagney's character dutifully goes through the judicial process and meets his appropriate fate. The studio ending wouldn't have gotten the repeat showings in best-of clips show as the original does.
The DVD also includes a Warner Brothers night at the movies, with a short subject, Bugs Bunny cartoon, coming attractions and newsreel.
It is part of the whole Warner Bros. Pictures “Gangsters” DVD package, which includes other great films like “The Public Enemy,” “Angels with Dirty Faces,” “Little Caesar,” “The Petrified Forest” and “The Roaring 20s.”
This is Cagney at his best, and that is saying something.

WHITE HEAT • Directed by Raoul Walsh • Story by Virginia Kellog and screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts • Runtime: 113 minutes • Not rated, but not for young children • 4 stars out of 4

Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers

1950s sci fi films reflective of times

DANA WYNTER and Kevin McCarthy run from aliens in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

MICHAEL RENNIE is an anlien in “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

Adult-style science fiction films came of age in the 1950s.

They were picked up for television in the 1960s, laughed at in the high-tech days of "Star Wars" in the 1970s and 80s and remade with reverence in the new century.

The trouble is, the remakes aren't as good as the originals, even with all of today’s high-tech gadgetry. (Check my review of the original “War of the Worlds” vs. the recent Tom Cruise debacle.)

I haven't seen the updated “Day the Earth Stood Still” yet, but the critics haven't been kind. The original 1951 version has been considered a classic, the first adult-style sci fi story that comments on the Cold War of its day.

Then there’s 1956’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” a short but exceptionally effective story about aliens who replace humans with emotionless creatures by creating duplicates first in seed pods. When the actual human falls asleep, the alien creature takes over, but with all of the memories of the original person.

“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is a suspenseful tale centering on a small California town. Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is the town's handsome young physician who is away at a medical conference. His nurse summons him home because a myriad of townspeople aren't feeling right. They are suspicious that family members and friends aren't who they seem to be.

McCarthy hooks up with an old flame, Dana Wynter, who plays Becky Driscoll. They meet with some of the suspicious townspeople who suddenly decide all is right with the world.

Well, that of course is because they aren't who they seem to be. They have been taken over by aliens!

Remember, this was filmed during the Cold War, when we were all supposed to watch our neighbors, fearing we were being infiltrated by the Communists.

The suspense builds in this masterpiece, directed by Don Siegel.

The film was so popular it was effectively remade in 1978 starring Donald Sutherland and included a part for, yes, Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy, by the way, is still making movies even as his age, 94!

The summer 2007 version, title shortened to “The Invasion,” came and went at the theater and stars Nicole Kidman in the title role. She plays a psychiatrist who fears people are being taken over by aliens. The new version works pretty well too, although with a lot more car crashes.

The original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” holds up pretty well. This 1951 tale has a spacecraft land in Washington, D.C. Americans, paranoid over the Communist threat at the time, take the first opportunity to shoot one of the aliens, who is played by the underused Michael Rennie.

The Rennie character is taken to Walter Reed Army Hospital where he soon slips out to live amongst real Earthlings. He wants to save Earth, not destroy it. But if Earth doesn't heed his message to stop wars and nuclear testing, it will endanger other, more advanced planets. The result: Earth will need to be destroyed.

The Rennie character takes a room at a boarding house where a young Billy Gray lives (later Bud on "Father Knows Best,") along with Frances Bavier, who a decade later would play Aunt Bea on "The Andy Griffith Show," and Patricia Neal, the film's love interest.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" has an exceptional ensemble cast and is carried as much by young Billy Gray as it is by the adult cast.

Sam Jaffe stars as a scientist and one of the great brains of Earth at the time. Jaffe later became popular as Dr. Zorba on “Ben Casey.”

Earth is bent on destroying what it doesn't understand.

Commercials for the “Day the Earth Stood Still” remake say it is “only in theaters.”

Well, that's not entirely true. The original, much heralded version, is available in a few forms on home video, including a new, pristine Blu-Ray version.

Will the remake hold up as well in 57 years as well as this one does?

INVASION OF THE

BODY SNATCHERS (1956)

• Directed by Don Siegel

• Written by Jack Finney and Daniel Mainwaring

• Runtime: 80 minutes

• Not rated but intense for younger children

• 4 stars out of 4

DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

• Directed by Robert Wise

• Screenplay by Edmund H. North, based on a story by Harry Bates

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Not rated but intense for younger children

• 4 stars out of 5