Peach January 25th, 2009
Never let it be said that if you make a movie for the blue hairs they won’t show up in droves. Thus it was last night when I looked around at the audience. We decided to hit the movies after a day at the Fernbank and dinner. We never do late movies because of the crowds but GranTorino had been out 43 days so we were sure no one would be there but us and our 3 “friends”. Not so the theater was packed. Packed I say!
Can I tell you just how shocked I am! This movie that cost 33 million to make has raked in 85 million so far. Doesn’t sound like much but considering that Benjamin Button and Marley and Me hasn’t even paid for it self old Clint snuck in there with a sleeper.
About the movie. Its the usual plot - grumpy old war vet takes on gang bangers beating up on good kid. It’s the language thats interesting especially in light of our conversation on the term “Paki”. This movie is filled with abusive cringe worthy adjectives. I don’t think they miss one group - blacks, Italians, Irish, whites, asians (asians from all over) Jews, Catholics… I guess Hollywood feels as long as a old war vet says this stuff they can get by with it, it’s the characters “style” I’m not sure what they are saying “Clints character needed the name tags to make him seem more gruff?” Hollywood was showing us some people can say certain things while others can’t - even comedians? The humor was sort of Dirty Harry the big hearted bigot.
Thing is we love Clint Eastwood, we can see him driving around in a Gran Torino (my husbands choice car of the 70’s, we had 3) grumbling and pretending to shoot all the bad guys. To be honest to me the movie wasn’t really all that good. It was good to see a old friend who makes no apologies for his age, it was nice to sit in a room full of blue hairs and laugh right along with them and cheer him on even if we already knew the end of the movie. I guess I feel a bit guilty about laughing at the verbal abuse being flung back and forth, even if Hollywood only intended it to be just “light entertainment” somehow it just doesn’t seem in keeping with the times.
rehna January 23rd, 2009
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor” (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon” (Universal)
Sean Penn in “Milk” (Focus Features)
Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)
* Continue Reading »
rehna January 21st, 2009
There are two ways to view “The Reader;” one is as an excellent movie with an intriguing storyline full of surprises and topics for debate, and the other is as an historical treatise on the Holocaust. The film succeeds on the first point, and fails miserably on the second. Continue Reading »
rehna January 21st, 2009
I just watched Barack Obama officially sworn in as the President of the United States. I feel elated, and more optimistic about the future of this country than I have ever felt. In an auditorium on the campus of South Carolina State University, the site of the first Democratic debate, I sat with Black students and watched history being made. There were applause, whistles and a few tears; some of the latter came from me. Continue Reading »
rehna January 20th, 2009
In case you’ve missed the news; there is a small, low key event taking place in Washington today. Some guy starting a new job or something. Continue Reading »
Peach January 17th, 2009
When did I stop eating candy canes and start using them for decoration only? Maybe if I hadn’t stopped eating them I would have noticed that they no longer resemble the candy canes of my childhood. You know back when they had taste. Here it is in the middle of January and I still have candy canes about the house. About the house means I take them from one place to the other trying to decide what to do with them because although I don’t want them I can’t throw them out either. I have given some to my neighbor, some I’ve even snuck in packages to family, yet like coat hangers they seem to be breeding because I still have some left.
So there I was with a sugar thing going on and I decided to eat one. As I removed the cellophane it crumbled in shards like glass. So OK I opened another one only to have the same thing happen. Now I’m determined so I pick up the largest shard and plop it into my mouth. A very unusal flavor - I think they call it cardboard. A candy cane that had no zip, no zing it could have been sugar coated cheerios for all the flavor I could get out of it. Another product of China. China with the lead tainted Barbie toys that got recalled, China of the fishing in Alaska selling Americans Alaska King Crab legs, China of the sub standard anything. Baby food, pet food, furniture, toys you name it and if it’s in America you can bet it came from China. Now it’s trickled down to cardboard candy canes.
I guess I need to get used to crappy candy canes because they say China and India are set up to be the next world powers. Welcome to it, let the word rant at them when things go wrong. However as an American I won’t be able to rant because by some slight of hand it was my government that set these things into motion. I guess they figured we didn’t need the jobs. I’m glad I didn’t invest to much time in learning Spanish from Dora because there are two childrens channels now teaching Chinese… ah the sign of the times.
The subject is candy canes. The subpar quality we have come to accept in order to pay less.
rehna January 17th, 2009
Meryl Streep has spoken out against the ageism and sexism she has encountered in the film industry.
Continue Reading »
rehna January 16th, 2009
Prince Harry had a little ‘Paki friend’ called Ahmed in the army 3 years ago and like a plummy Tony ‘Scarface’ Montana, introduced us to him in a wobbly home video. Continue Reading »
rehna January 15th, 2009
BEST FILM
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ceán Chaffin
FROST/NIXON – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
MILK – Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen
THE READER – Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti, Redmond Morris
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson Continue Reading »
Peach January 14th, 2009
I’ve read the book and I hated it - let me get that out of the way, then again I’m not much of a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Maybe it’s not his intent to come across as a sexist racist, maybe he’s just showing us a world only the privileged knew. I wondered how the screen writer would bring such a complex idea to the big screen. Turns out it was easy. He trashed the book and made it his own, the only thing that is the same is the characters name and the fact he ages backwards. Smart move.
My reason for seeing the movie was to see how they aged Brad Pitt backwards and to see if he could carry it off. When you scrape away the celebrity that is Pitt, you find a really fine actor underneath. The movie brings to mind Meet Joe Black in that it deals with the beauty of life..”it goes by in the blink of an eye” How complex life is and yet how simple. I found myself watching the movie thinking how sweet and calming, how things just flowed without the aid of bombs, blood and foul language. It was a throw back to when actors actually knew how to use dialogue to get a point across. It was a love story between two characters who I was introduced to in the book but unlike the book who had Benjamin selfishly discounting his wife as she aged, in the movie she was the love of his life. It’s a romance story, a really lovely romance story.
As the story teller lay there with the storm of Katrina raging behind her the daughter never noticed it. On a side bar I’ve heard people say “Brad Pitt had to get Katrina in there some how” Again those are the people who have not seen the movie. The point was the daughter never noticed the war outside being waged with the weather, she only saw the person in the bed. I’ve been there. While my mother lay in the hospital bed, a quarter of a million people died in a tsunami, I never saw them, I only knew the person in the bed.
The movie was a costly affair, the production costs were 150 million - GCI probably. I hope it does well, it’s really a beautiful movie. I wonder if it’s Brad Pitts “Elizabeth” his signature role, as Elizabeth was Cate Blanchettes.