The Manchurian Candidate

Sorry this is so overdue in posting.

Leighton: ***, Mom: ***, Pop: ***
DVD Rental

Leighton:
I had heard pretty good things about this modern retelling of The Manchurian Candidate, but never got around to seeing it until now. As far as remakes go, it's a pretty good one. They found some clever ways to update it for today's technological and political world. Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber play two Gulf War veterans who are part of a conspiracty to take over the White House.

Pop:
In both versions of The Manchurian Candidate, you have
the common thread of the "brain washing" of soldiers
in the field as part of a longer term plan. In both
cases the objective is the manipulation of our
political process in the election of a president.

In the original 1962 version the conspiracy is part of a "communist plot", where as in the 2004
version the evil perpetrator is a global conglomerate.

Both mom and I give it a *** with your mother's
additional comment that "it was scary within today's
political circumstances."

V for Vendetta

Leighton: *** 1/2 Scott: ***
Theater Screening

This movie is based on a comic written by the legendary Alan Moore (From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Watchmen). A freedom fighter (or terrorist depending on your political leaning) played by Hugo Weaving wearing a Guy Fawkes mask is fighting back against the Orwellian government in England. Natalie Portman plays Evey, a girl he rescues from an assault and takes into his confidence. This movie couldn't have been released at a better time.

Wedding Crashers

Leighton: *** Sabine: ***
DVD Loan

This was a pretty funny comedy about two friends (Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) who crash weddings to meet and seduce women. When they crash the wedding of a daughter of a powerful Washington politician, Owen Wilson falls in love with one of the bride's sisters. It was pretty goofy and mostly funny. I don't like Vince Vaughn as much as I used to, but Owen Wilson is a riot as always.

The Weather Man

Lee ** PoP ***1/2

David Spritz (Nicholas Cage) considers himself a looser, and a disappointment to his successful Pulitzer Prize winning father, Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine). He is a successful television weather man with a opportunity to join a network morning show, ala Good Morning America or The Today Show, but he is not a real meteoroligist, his kids don't really respect him, his former wife is engaged to another man, and he foolishly harbors hope that all will be well and repaired if he gets this job in New York.

This is likely the darkest comedy I have ever seen. When people ask for an autograph, he shuns them. Some people that dislike him pelt him on the street with various food items.
In the end, things get somewhat resolved.

I enjoyed the film, but Lee wasn't quiet as sure about it as I was. Roger Ebert, in his review, expressed my feelings better than I could. He too was high on this film.

Hidalgo

Angela: ** Louis: ***

Based on a true story, or at least a real person, Viggo Mortensen plays Frank T. Hopkins, a cowboy and dispatch rider for the U.S. Cavalry who, along with his horse Hidalgo, had won numerous endurance races across the United States at the end of the 1800's. Given their reputation, they're invited to participate in "The Ocean of Fire", a 3,000 mile endurance race across the Arabian desert - a race normally restricted to the finest bred Arabian horses owned by the greatest of royal families.

We weren't expecting too much from this film, but in the end we found it fairly entertaining. Although slow at the beginning and at times a little hokey, it was exciting and had a good heart. It was interesting to watch the cowboy in a strange and foreign land; the apparent differences and the unexpected similarities between him and local culture/people.

Hidalgo (continued)

PoP ***

Frank Hopkins, as a dispatch rider, carries and delivers the orders which result in the Wounded Knee massacre. He witnesses the massacre, and later as a performer in the Buffalo Bill show, he witnesses the cruel manner in which the native people in the show are treated. This troubles him as he is a half-breed, and has always hidden his native blood.

The arabs he meets in the race assume him to be a cowboy white man with no appreciation of the desert environment. In his conduct durring the race, many of the native ways taught him by his Lacota mother surface to aid him in staying alive.

By the end of the race, he finds that his ancestry has been awakened and uses the prize money to rescue a herd of wild mustangs from slaughter by the U. S. Army. In the end, Hidalgo is released back to this released herd to resume his life as a wild mustang.

Anger Management

PoP ** Mom **

In many ways, a silly, stupid, stupid movie. And yet, we both adore Nicholson. As a result, we both found ourselves laughing out loud at the numerous silly, stupid, and very funny situations Sandler and Nicholson experienced. If you can handle silly, and like Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson, Marisa Tomei, Woody Harrelson, and a cast of other crazies, it should provide an enjoyable two hours.

Schultze Gets the Blues

Leighton: *** Sabine: ***

Schultze is an accordian playing German forced into early retirement at the salt mine where he works. His routine of gardening and playing polka music is a little dull and monotonous. Then one day he hears some zydeco music on the radio and it captures his imagination. This is a cute movie with some beautiful scenery. It is a little slow at times. Maybe this is to make the viewer relate more to Schultze. But it's still slow at times even when he gets to America. Overall, it was a decent movie, though.

Kingdom of Heaven

PoP ***

Another Ridley Scott film, filled with action, containing a good guy, a bad guy, a foxie chick, and Saladin with two hundred thousand muslims. The action sequences were great, with one exception. That is, in some places, it seemed that additional blood splashing was added, in post-production, to what had been shot.

To me, this detracted from what otherwise was a great action sequence. While guys might like this type of film, women will not. The romance doesn't offset the violence.

Sahara

PoP **1/2

This was an enjoyable and entertaining adventure movie and would be appreciated by anyone that had never read a Clive Cussler / Dirk Pitt book. My take on the Dirk and Al characters from the books are two serious aquatic scientists, with a mild sense of understated humor between them.

In the film, they joked and carried on like a couple of fraternity men on Spring break. I made a comparison to someone of the books' characters to the film's as the Lone Ranger and Tonto to Abbott and Costello.

If one wants to view a truly great adventure film set in the Sahara, view the original film Sahara, from 1943, with Bogart.