Movie Monday - December 24, 2012

Movies, movies...everywhere!  I did see a couple...

On DVD:
When I was in elementary school, I would race home after school in time to watch Dark Shadows...then, my friend Patty and I would discuss the previous day's happenings on the playground the next day.  It was a gothic soap opera in the late 1960s and was campy as all get out, but entertaining for sure!  Tim Burton decided to make a movie of the same name, starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Johnny Lee Miller and Helena Bonham Carter.  Depp plays the tragic hero Barnabas with the perfect pitch that only Depp can deliver. The story is that Barnabas had been turned into a vampire by the spiteful witch Angelique when he spurned her feelings in favor of the sweet Josette. Then, he was chained into his coffin and buried for eternity. That was back in the 1700s.  In the early 1970s, Barnabas is released from his prison and he returns to a world that has passed him by.  I thought it was a pretty good adaptation of the series (although some DS fanatics would think otherwise) and I really liked it.


Still in theaters:
Flight, stars Denzel Washington as an alcoholic pilot who actually saves most of the people on board when he has to crash land a plane gone bad.  The story deals mostly with the investigation after the crash to elucidate what happened and who was at fault.  Whip Whitaker (Washington) begins to see himself as the hero in all the mess, as the public is leading him to believe in the early days after the crash.  However, it soon becomes apparent that he was flying high, and the efforts of his attorney and union representative to cover up this information do nothing to dissuade him from the good opinion he has of himself.  The movie is not all doom and gloom, but the comedic relief (chiefly supplied by John Goodman) is a little dark too.  Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood also star.  It was a good story and it was well acted.  I really liked it.

Run...don't walk...and see Life of Pi.  See it in 3D - it's one of the few movies out there that benefit from the technology and it is worth it.  The movie is based on a popular book by the same name.  Pi's family owns a small zoo in India.  When it goes broke, the father books sea passage to Canada for the family and the animals where they hope to start over.  A terrible storm comes up and Pi ends up on a life boat with a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena and a zebra.  Through a series of events, Pi grows wise beyond his years and miraculously lives to tell about it.  I loved it.

Having mentally ill people in my family, I was ready to dislike Silver Linings Playbook.   Hollywood tends to take liberties with most topics and I was not in the mood for the exploitive treatment it frequently hands out.  Much to my surprise, I didn't hate this movie.  Sure, people who have undergone a breakdown take longer to pick up the pieces of their lives - if they ever do - than the characters in this movie did.  I forgave Hollywood for that.  I liked how they portrayed mania.  It was pretty spot on.  Overall, the story was good and the acting was pretty good too.  It was more than a movie about two crazy people who get together - It was about love, acceptance and loyalty.  Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro and Jacki Weaver star in this comedy about serious topics.  I really liked it.

MK out.