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Coming up next:

Okay, I watched this on a complete whim.  I was scrolling through Netflix, looking for a movie to watch and this popped up.  I saw it had Donald Glover and Aubrey Plaza and I loved Donald Glover in Community and Aubry Plaza in Parks and Recreation.  So, how bad could it be? Well, . . .

First off, the cast:

We have Donald Glover as Jason:

Jason is our lead in the movie, he is the center of the Mystery Team, a trio of boys dedicated to solving the mystery’s of the neighborhood.  Glover does a decent job here, playing a version of his character Troy from Community.  He’s got great comedic timing, I just wish the material would rise to his comedic ability.

There is D. C. Pierson as Duncan

He plays the smart one of the group because he read a fact book once.  And that’s not me being flip, that’s how it gets explained in the movie.  Once again, does a okay job but the material is weak.  Pierson has been around for a while, playing lots of one time characters in a bunch of TV shows and background characters in movies, this seems like his first time out being the center of a movie.

Then we have Dominic Dierkes as Charlie:

Charlie is the muscle of the group, even though he ends up just hurting himself 98% of the time instead of helping out.  Dierkes plays the dumb here okay but leans too heavily into most of the time.  Just like Pierson, he’s been around for a while playing either bit roles on TV shows and as background characters in a couple of movies.  He does a lot of writing as well, usually for one or two episodes of a TV show.  Not the strongest writer as is seen in this movie.

Next we have Aubry Plaza as Kelly:

Plaza plays Kelly here pretty close to similiar characters she has played before. Think April from Parks & Rec. but slightly more upbeat.  She does a good job with the role, but the same compliant, the writing just isn’t there to match what she is doing.

As for our main cast, that is it, but there are a ton of cameos.  Such as:

Bobby Moynihan (from SNL) as Jordy:

He plays the local store clerk that the team will visit when they need information.  And Jordy desperately wants to be a part of the group.

Ellie Kemper (from The Office & Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as Jamie:

She plays one of the local kids that live in the neighborhood that will bring cases to the Mystery Team every so often.

Matt Walsh (from Upright Citizens Brigade fame & a slew of bit parts in other movies & TV shows) as Jim & John Lutz (from 30 Rock & a writer for SNL & Late Night with Seth Meyers) as Frank:

They both play characters that work at this company that the kids have to sneak into and they are having a costume party.

Even Ben Schwartz (from Parks & Rec., House of Lies & that he looks like Joe Keery’s character Steve Harrington from Stranger Things that the internet flipped out over this past summer) has a few lines:

The director of this mess is Dan Eckman:

On his IMDB page it says he has 57 directing credits but including this movie, there are only like 3 movies he has directed and a bunch of short comedy pieces.  Which this may explain some of the problems I have with the movie.

The writer.  Well, that’s tricker to pin down.  3 are credited with writing the screenplay (Pierson, Glover and Dierkes) but 5 others are credited with the story (Eckman, Dierkes, Glover, Pierson & Meggie McFadden).  Here’s Meggie:

Meggie has done a little bit of everything, acting and writing some but she is mainly a producer.  So, you’ve got 5 people writing the script/coming up with the story, most of these people have their background in short comedy pieces and a director who has never done a feature length film before this, what could go wrong?  A lot and it’s a shame too.  Read underneath the Spoilers for more.

This movie, it’s just a mess.  It had some potential, had solid comedic actors in the leads, a fun idea and a supporting cast of veteran comedic actors.  So, what went wrong?  The writing and the direction.  They couldn’t get out of their own way and let the comedy come naturally from the characters they had created.

The premise is that Glover, Pierson and Dierkes have been working together since childhood to solve mysteries around town.  Everyone knows about them and go along with the kids playing like sleuths.  But now the 3 of them are seniors in high school and they are behaving the exact same way they did when they were 8, even down to wearing the same type of clothes they did then.  This is the first problem I have.  They want the 3 of them to stay innocent, naivie about the outside world and growing up, so they make them behave like 8 year olds moving around in 18 year old bodies.  I could get behind this idea if it wasn’t taken so literal.  For instance, the way the adults of the town and even the kids own parents talk to them is like they are still 8 years old even though they want them to grow up.  It’s contradictory.  There’s a scene where they are investigating a case and they have to follow their suspect into a strip club.  They pretend to have fancy accents and clothes to pull off looking older and the bouncer just lets them in because he knows that these are just kids and what’s the harm.  Once inside, the mystery team is asked if they want lap dances, they refuse but a kid from school (his mom is a stripper there and he’s just hanging out, coloring or some shit) sees the mystery team and decides to tell his mom and the other strippers to give them a lap dance.  So, the ladies do, for a moment before the team has to move to follow their suspect.  When they get up the mystery team have these massive erections, they even talk about it hurting, but none of them know why or what caused it.  It’s like the mystery team never progressed past the age of 8, mentally or emotionally.  And there other scenes where similar things happen, Duncan and Charlie will talk about how gross girls are and make fun of Jason for liking Kelly.  It’s not until almost the end of the movie where Duncan and Jason get into a fight that Duncan says they should just grow up, especially since they are going to college next year.  The fight and speech kind of come out of nowhere and it’s done on a really well lit baseball field at like10:00 pm at night with no one around.  The whole scene is odd and feels out of place.  Meanwhile, I feel like this

The writing and direction is this film is just not good.  It’s not awful but there is such a lack of focus or clear line of what they wanted to do.  It feels like a bunch of sketch ideas that they were stringing together to make a movie.  There are some funny moments in it, don’t get me wrong but it’s not a movie, it feels like a short comedy piece you would see on Funny or Die or College Humor but dragged out to 90+ minutes.  And where the story ends, with Duncan & Pierson heading off to college and Glover staying in town to join the police force makes sense and works for an ending and you see them growing up in this moment but it’s too little too late.  

I know I didn’t get into the rest of the story but there is no reason to I think.  It’s because it’s taking the same themes from above and it just keeps recycling them until we have to have a climax in the movie.  It’s a waste of potential, it  could of been a comedy about lost of innocenence and youth and having to grow up but just because you have to grow up doesn’t mean you have to stop being yourself.  At the end of the movie, we get a little bit of that but it’s very rushed and almost shoehorned in like the writers and director realized they needed to have an actual ending.  If they put more time in developing that out instead of watching the mystery team wonder around in a strip club and seeing the freaky things that happen behind close doors and them not understanding it or having to get a ring out of a toilet full of crap that was up a stripper’s vagina, then maybe it would of worked out better.  A lot of the time it seemed like they were just going for the gross out joke or the easiest joke.  And that’s just being lazy, so lazy, it just makes me

Coming up next:

Wow.  Just wow.  I got to see this film in the theater and I’m so glad I did.  Talk about watching a masterclass in acting.  Everyone was incredible.  The direction was simple but effective and the writing was top notch.  Just a little issue during the climax but first, the actors.

First up, we’ve got Denzel Washington as Troy Maxson:

He plays the father to Cory and husband to Viola Davis.  And wow, this is Denzel at his best.  The layers going on here and what he brings to the character, it’s just amazing.  It was heart breaking to watch Denzel at the Oscars when he lost to Casey Affleck for Best Actor.  During Casey’s accecptance speech, the camera would cut to Denzel and you could just see the heart break and disbelief in his face when he lost.  What does this man have to do to win an Best Actor Oscar for a role that deserves it?  I know he won Best Actor Oscar for Training Day back in 2001 but he didn’t win the Oscar for that role, it was really for being passed over in 2000 for The Hurricane.  It’s just a shame.

Then there is Viola Davis as Rose Maxson:

What a powerhouse Viola Davis is.  She is incredible.  She goes toe to toe with Denzel Washington and passes him by in some scenes.  Having the both of them as the leads in the movie just elevates this movie to a whole new plane.  She totally deserved the Best Supporting Actress Oscar this year.  I would actually argue that she should of been in the Best Actress Oscar race and she would of won over Emma Stone from La La Land.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved La La Land and Emma Stone in it and she’s a great actress but Viola Davis crushed it this year.

Next there is Stephen Henderson as Jim Bono (”Bobo”):

He plays Denzel’s long time friend and adviser to keep each other on the good path.  Henderson does a fantastic job of this, bringing such warmth to Bobo, you could really buy that these two guys just hang out every Friday night and shooting the shit and getting drunk.  Acting at it’s simplest and most focused.

Then there is Jovan Adepo as Cory Maxson:

Another wonderful performance as the son of Denzel & Viola.  Cory has the difficult job of growing up in Troy’s house and never living up to his father’s expectations.  Adepo handles this character well and layers him nicely.  Just giving enough of the “teenage angst” but being grounded in the real world and dealing with his father.

Playing Troy’s oldest son from a different woman is Russell Hornsby as Lyons:

The much older brother to Cory, Lyons is off living life with his new wife but he still needs Troy’s help come payday for Troy.  Lyons isn’t around a whole lot in the movie but when he is there he becomes the focal point for Troy, a reminder of his past.  Hornsby does a nice job with his character, just wish we got to see him more in the movie.

And rounding out the main cast is Mykelti Williamson as Gabriel, the brother of Troy who suffers from shell shock he got fighting in WWII:

Here Williamson’s acting is great here.  It’s not over the top with the shell shock and you can still see in his eyes the true Gabriel in there, holding on and trying to make sense of the world again.  With Troy’s interactions with Gabriel you get to see his humanity, which is not always present when talking with Rose or dealing with his own son Cory.  Troy is capable of compassion, he just chooses who it goes to.

The director, Denzel Washington:

Denzel has only directed a few times, Antwone Fisher in 2002 & The Great Debaters in 2007.  I think he does a fine job here with one exception which I get to later in the spoilers section.  Playing the lead and directing the movie couldn’t of been easy but he makes it seem like it is easy.

The writer, the late great August Wilson:

He writes such rich and thoughtful characters and ones that sounds like real people, it’s amazing.  His writing is always top notch.

And that’s our cast.  Now, onto thoughts and the story and that ending.

So, the story is pretty straight forward.  It’s the 1950′s in Pittsburgh and Troy and Bobo work for the city as garbage collectors, they ride on the back of the truck.  Troy wants to better himself and become a driver one day and he wants for his son Cory to learn a trade and begin to work right away.  Cory and Rose have a different vision of how Cory’s future should be (going to college to play football) and that brings the initial conflict to the story.  Troy, Rose and Cory almost work their way through that conflict when the bigger conflict gets dropped in Troy’s lap and blows the movie open.

When Troy gets promoted to driver of a garbage truck, he goes out to celebrate.  He had been flirting with a woman from the neighborhood and he ends up sleeping with her.  Bobo finds out about it and tells Troy he needs to be honest with Rose.  So, Troy comes clean about the affair to Rose and now the other woman is pregnant with Troy’s child.  Well, the shit hits the fan.

Rose and Troy fight, Troy wants to do the right thing and take care of her and let her have the baby.  Rose is furious and let’s Troy have it.  It’s a great scene to watch for the acting.  The baby comes but the mother dies in child birth, so now Troy has to ask Rose to help raise the child.  OH, FUCK!

The ending is where this all starts to fall apart some.  After the baby is born, Rose spends all her time taking care of baby and basically tells Troy to Fuck off, she doesn’t care about him, just the child.  Bobo won’t really talk with Troy anymore, Lyons doesn’t come around anymore and that just leaves poor Cory.  Cory is furious with his dad for everything he has done and feels like it’s time to say something about it.  But Troy is still Troy and he knows he can take Cory down and he does.  They get into an argument, then a physical fight and then Troy banishes him from the house.  Then we get a weird time jump.  We jump about 6 years ahead and Troy has died and everyone is back at the house for the funeral.  We get to see the baby as a little girl, her name is Raynell.  And Cory comes home for the first time in 6 years.  He went off and joined the Marines after being thrown out of the house.  There’s a nice scene at the end between Rose and Cory about Troy and who he was as a person.  And then the movie ends with Gabriel coming in to blow his horn for Troy to let him into Heaven.

Here’s the problem I have, the time jump and how Cory is treated at the end.  The way the time jump is used is bizarre.  After Troy throws Cory out of the house, he goes into this long monologue in the back yard and it’s like he’s talking to God or something and the camera does this weird visual effect towards the end of the monologue and then time shifts to six years later.  And I’m like, huh?

It really takes you out of the story.  This movie that has been steeped in realism and almost pulls a fantasy visual effect move, it’s really jarring.  Now, I know that this might be because that’s what the play does but plays have the benefit of intermissions to put between act breaks, so it makes jumps like that a little smoother.  But the way it’s handled here is just bad I think.

And then there’s the treatment of Cory at the end.  Cory comes home, been gone for 6 years and hasn’t seen any of them and he stills feels really hurt by what Troy did to him.  Cory begins to bad mouth and talk about all the things wrong with Troy and Rose just stops him and tells him that’s he’s wrong for feeling that way.  What?!  She actually begins to defend some of Troy’s actions. This felt very weird too.  Troy was nothing but a giant prick to Cory because Troy’s father had been that way with him.  For Rose to react this way seems a little out of left field.  She had basically written him off as dead 6 years ago when the baby was born for the giant asshole he was but Cory is not entitled to his feelings about his own father kicking him out of the house?  And he kicked Cory out because Cory was standing up for himself and Rose and telling Troy what an awful human being he was to her.  Now, this might be another transferring the play to screen something might of got lost but I don’t know, I didn’t like it.  The acting in the scene was great, it’s just what’s being said that took me out of the movie.

Next up:

When I saw this film, it was only playing in one theater in town and only twice a day.  So, I had to schedule myself to be able to see it.  I had heard good things about, especially Natalie Portman’s performance in the movie, so I was curious about it.  And I’ve always found the JFK stories very appealing to watch.  I remember watching Oliver Stone’s JFK a lot when I was younger and all the different documentaries about JFK.  Even in high school one year I did a duet scene from Assassins, where I played Lee Harvey Oswald.  I was excited to see this movie.

First up, our cast.  We’ve got Natalie Portman playing Jackie Kennedy:

Now, I’ve liked Natalie Portman as an actress ever since The Professional and I feel like she has just gotten stronger with each movie she has done.  And she does a knock out job here.

Next, we have Billy Crudup as The Interviewer, who is interviewing Jackie several weeks after the assassnation of President Kennedy: 

Billy does a fine job here, there’s just not much to the character.  His character is just used as a means to tell the story of Jackie in the weeks after Kennedy was killed.

Then we get Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby Kennedy:

Sarsgaard does a good job as Bobby Kennedy.  He plays Bobby not the man with all the answers or as a charismatic younger version of his brother but as a real person struggling to keep everything together, be there for Jackie and help transation Johnson into the presidency.

These are main characters but there are a bunch of supporting roles that help give this story life.  Such as:

Greta Gerwig as Nancy Tuckerman, Jackie’s aide and friend:

Richard E. Grant as Bill Walton, Jackie’s aide in the White House that helps with the interior design:

John Carroll Lynch as Lyndon B. Johnson & Beth Grant as Lady Bird Johnson:

And the late great John Hurt as The Priest that Jackie visits to try to restore her faith:

That rounds out our cast.  A lot of great actors in leading roles and veteran character actors filling in the supporting roles and everyone is bringing their A game to this movie, not a weak performance among the bunch.  Where this movie falls down for me is in the direction.  I’m not sure how much I can actually spoil this for people, it’s based off of true events but just in case, here is the spoiler warning.

I’m not going to go much into the story of the movie, that part is pretty basic.  We meet Billy Crudup’s character at Jackie’s house a few weeks after the burial of her husband and he’s here to get the story about what happened from her point of view.  Jackie begins to tell him the story, insisiting that certain things be left “off the record” and the movie cuts back to the two of them talking every so often and we end the film with them.  So, these scenes act as our narrative devise to drive the plot of the movie.

From Jackie, we get a very brief moment at the beginning of how their lives were before flying off to Dallas.  We get to see Jackie create the TV interview where she lead the cameras around in the White House showing off all her restration work but then off to Dallas.  We get the whole day of Dallas through Jackie’s eyes, as information was coming to her and how she behaved through it all.  She gets back to D.C., has to tell the children, plan the funeral and the move out of the White House.  All the while Bobby is trying to help her and she visits a Priest to help her figure out why something like this could of happened.  And that’s it, that’s pretty much the story.  This movie isn’t about the things that happened but how they emotionally felt to the people who were living through these moments.   

The performances in the movie really help sell that.  Natalie Portman does an amazing job portraying Jackie, the anger, the guilt, the pain and the sadness she had to go through all while the eyes of the world were upon her.  There are long stretches where there is no dialogue for Natalie Portman and the camera follows her around and Portman keeps you riveted with what she can do with a look.  Sarsgaard does the same, you can see on his face what he is thinking or feeling, he doesn’t have to tell you.  All the performances were solid and held there own.

The direction of the film is where I have problems.  The writer and director are reltatively new.

The director, Pablo Larrain:

He only has a handful of directing credits to his name, got an Oscar nomination in 2013 for Best Foreign Language Film for No.  He also got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for The Club (2015) & Neruda (2016).

The Writer, Noah Oppenheim:

Just like Larrin, only has a handful of writing credits to his name, including Allegiant and The Maze Runner.

So, where I think this movie suffers is through lack of direction and clarity.  There are these moments in the film where the camera will follow Portman through the hospital that Kennedy just arrived at and it will be these quite moments except for background noise, so you the audience can feel like you are living the experience as it happened to Jackie.  Or the car ride to the hospital, you are sitting right there with Jackie, the Secret Service man on top of the car and Kennedy in the seat next to you bleeding out.  These are very effective moments and have a point.  But these kind of shots are used through out the entire movie, so it kind of makes everything feel the same, when these moments should stand out and be heightened.  We get these same type of shots when Jackie is just moving through the White House.

Now it might be that these scenes were written that way into the script.  In that case, I feel like the script needed to be tighten up a bit and the same goes for the shots themselves.  Some of the shots go on for too long, well after the point has been made.  A little editing would go a long way.

First up:

I saw this movie on a whim.  I took a day off from work, had a gift card to Regal Cinemas and I was going to watch Fences but there wasn’t a good start time for me to see Fences.  I was at the theatre, free money in hand and deceided to take a chance on The Founder.  I vaguely remembered the trailer and I like Michael Keaton, so I thought why not.  I’m glad I saw it, it was good.

First off, the cast.  Our POV character and lead, Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc:

Michael Keaton did an amazing job as Ray Kroc.  We are introduce to Ray as a down on his luck salesman, selling multi milkshake mixers to drive in diners.  

Next up, we’ve got Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald:

And John Carroll Lynch as Mac McDonald:

Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch did an incredible job as the McDonald brothers.  Nick channeling some of his Ron Swanson character here but for dramatic effect and John is one of those constant character actors.  You always see him in the background of movies or in small supporting roles, so it’s nice to see him here front and center as the McDonald brother with a heart of gold.

We even get Laura Dern as Ray Kroc’s wife, Ethel Kroc:

Now, I’ll be honest here, I’ll get into this in the break down of the story but poor Laura Dern in this movie.  She is a great actress but she’s not given a whole lot to do in this other than to be a side plot that turns out to be weak.

Then we have the always wonderful Patrick Wilson as Rollie Smith:

And Linda Cardelini as his wife, Joan Smith:

They both are good actors and I always love seeing Linda popping up in movies or TV shows (I have loved watching her since she starred in Freaks and Geeks) but their part of the story, like Laura Derns, just feels forced into the movie.

Speaking of forced moments in this movie, B.J. Novak as Harry J. Sonneborn:

I don’t know about him.  I don’t think he’s that great of an actor.  I liked him okay in The Office but I thought he was very one note and after the inintial joke about his character had worn off he stuck out like a sore thumb among the cast.  And since then seeing him in other shows or movies it feels like he is still playing Ryan the temp.  In The Founder, he is just monotone and forgetable.  Actually, when his character showed up in the film, it took me out of the story.  And I felt like, great now I have to watch B.J. Novak act:

The film was directed by John Lee Hancock:

He has had some recent success as a director with Saving Mr. Banks and The Blind Side.  The direction in the movie is pretty good, some nice visuals and good performances he brought out of the actors.  All the issues I have with the film come from the writing.  Speaking of which . . .

The movie is written by Robert D. Siegel:

He only has a few writing credits to his name, The Wrestler, The Onion Movie, Turbo and Big Fan.  Where this movie falls down is the writing and story structure.

So, at this point if you haven’t seen the film or don’t want it spoiled for you, stop reading now!

The story centers on Michael Keaton’s character, Ray Kroc, a traveling salesman who keeps looking for the new gadget that will make him rich.  He meets the McDonald brothers and it changes his whole life and theirs.  Ray convinces the brothers to let him franchinze McDonalds in other states and that he would help manage them.  After a very rigid contract is signed by everyone, Ray works to open McDonalds all over.  The rest of the movie follows how the McDonald empire began and how Ray Kroc stole it out from underneath the McDonald brothers in just a few short years.

Now, I know what you might be thinking, this sounds boring, and as I am typing it, I get that but it’s not.  This story is brought to life through the actors and direction, how they get you to feel for Ray at the start.

From the start, we are in Ray’s POV, so we as an audience are forced to create this connection with him.  And it works, you feel bad for him, he can’t sell anything, he keeps trying and is willing to work hard.  Ray’s character reminds me of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, hard working salesman, not incredibily good at selling but tells everyone that they are the best.  And wants that American Dream so desperately, they will do anything for it.

Ray keeps hitting roadblocks with opening up new McDonalds because of the McDonald brothers rigid standards and you start rooting for Ray to bend the rules as much as he can because his heart is in the right place.  But that’s when the story shifts and unfortunately, the writing doesn’t live up to the shift it wants to do.

The catalyst for the change in Ray is supposed to happen when he mets Joan Smith, played by Linda Cardelini.  As Ray is opening McDonalds all over Minnesota, he meets Rollie Smith (played by Patrick Wilson) who owns a very nice steak restaurant.  He is looking to get into opening a McDonalds for himself and have his wife Joan help run it.  From the first time Ray sees Joan, he’s head over heels in love with her.  Fast forward, Joan & Rollie open their own McDonalds, Joan and Ray end up talking a lot because of this and during one of their conversations Ray talks about how he feels that the brothers aren’t taking him seriously and any of his ideas are automatically bad.  Joan tells him that she likes men who are certain of themselves and take action.  And then WHAM!  CHARACTER CHANGE!!!

Ray becomes much more of a hard ass.  He flat out tells his wife he wants a divorce, tells the McDonald brothers he is going to do what he wants and screw them, does all this press about how McDonalds was his restaurant chain, a whole subplot with boring B.J. Novak happens about how he is able to pull this off (has to do with Ray keeping control of the land the McDonalds are on and renting the land to the owners of the building as opposed to selling the land and building to the owners) and it’s really important to the story but I just wish it wasn’t him.

And then at the end of the story, Ray has completely destroyed the McDonald brothers to the point where the only thing they have left is the original restaurant they had in California but they couldn’t call it McDonalds.  And we are back fully in Ray’s POV as he is living in this giant mansion, married now to Joan, getting ready to go to a fancy dinner with Gov. Reagan and he is practicing his speech and he has not an ounce of remorse in him for all the lives he has destroyed along the way.

I actually really like the ending and how it doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending.  I have a problem with the mechanism that is used to get Ray to the end of the story.  The stuff with Joan feels shoehorned into the story, how their relationship didn’t get the development it needed to push Ray the way it is supposed to.  If the director would have taken out some of the stuff about all the different McDonald’s opening or cut Ray going to his rich friends first to get them to buy McDonald franchises and seeing them mess them up and gave that time to developing Joan and Ray’s relationship, her being the catalyst for change might of worked better.  It just felt at times that the script wanted to add EVERYTHING in instead of pairing down and focusing.  It felt like the script needed another round of editing.

365 Movies in 365 Days . . . .

So, I’ve been away for a while, been really busy/dealing with personal stuff.  And as I’ve been dealing with my personal life I realized that I miss movies.  I realized I would see some of the big name movies each year but miss a lot of the others.  Movies had a huge impact in my life as a kid and while growing up and I felt like I have abadoned them.  Then I found myself just watching TV shows all the time and seeing a movie every once in a while.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love TV/Neflix/Amazon/HBO shows but it’s not the same as watching a movie.  A movie can do something that TV shows rarely do or do well, tell a complete story complete with emotional impact in about 2 hours.  Some shows can do this within a single episode or over a two part episode and some can do it over a season but there are always the episodes that fall flat or the “filler” episodes.  And by the time they reach the end of 5, 6 or 9 seasons, you forget why you cared in the first place.  Now, I know that movies have their issues with pacing or completing itself (looking at you Peter Jackson) and some shows can keep a tight reign on it but these are exceptions to the rules, not the standard.

I love storytelling and the structure of stories and I feel that’s what I’ve been missing, how to tell a story well.  Hopefully through doing this, I can gain a new & better understanding of storytelling.  And watching the experiences that fictional characters are going through in these movies help me with my own personal problems as well.

So, I wanted to get back in touch with movies and not just the ones I have seen a thousand times (like Little Shop of Horrors, Clue, Amelie, etc.).  I started watching at the start of Feb. and so far, I’m only 2 movies behind, that’s not bad.  I have started with only watching movies I’ve never seen but ones I was curious about or have been recommended to me.

Next up is:

This movie has such a special place in my heart.  The first time I saw this movie it was on HBO when I was about 6 years old.  From the opening number I was hooked.  I would start watching it every time I could find it on HBO, I recorded it onto a VHS at one point so I could watch it whenever I wanted.  I loved all of it from the musical numbers to the actors to the puppet work of Audrey II to the dark comedy of it all.  I’ll get into the specifics of the movie in a moment but first the history of this movie, because it’s a good one.

So, it first started off as a 1960 “horror” film:

I say “horror” because it can’t be taken seriously as a horror film, think of it as a horror comedy but in 1960 there weren’t too many of those type of films.

As you can see in the poster the original film was directed by Roger Corman, this guy:

If you don’t know who Roger Corman is or his legacy to B movies and independent films, look up his stuff.  I’m not saying it is great or even good but it’s important and influential to many film makers.  Also, a whole lot of film makers that are making movies today (like James Cameron) got there start with him.  I’ll probably do a whole different post about him at a later time.

Anyways, Roger Corman made Little Shop of Horrors on a bet.  By 1960, he already had a rep. for making movies fast and cheap.  A friend of Roger’s, who was a director, was having lunch with Roger and talking about their current projects.  Roger had just finished a movie and looking for his next project and Roger’s friend had just finished shooting on a studio set and was venting his frustration about having to rent the set for a month but he finished shooting in 28 days and couldn’t get his money back on the days he wasn’t using the set.  Roger said he could make a movie in the time that was left on the set, 2 days.  His friend said it wasn’t possible and Roger said let’s make a bet.

Roger shot the movie in 2 days and one night.

The movie ended up being one of the more successful Roger Corman films and gave Jack Nicholson some exposure in a minor role (playing the dentist patient).

Here he is:

After it’s release in 1960, the movie was pretty much forgotten.  Fast forward to the early 1980s, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (both of who would later go on to work for Disney on The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin), adopted the film into an Off - Broadway musical.  They kept the same characters, for the most part, and tone of the original film but changed some of the details and ending for the musical.  It ends up being a huge hit and then it was turned into the 1986 film version.  So, it was a 1960 movie turned into a 1983 Off - Broadway musical and turned back into a 1986 musical film.

So, let’s talk about the movie now.  First off, look at the cast:

Our reluctant hero, Seymour (played by Rick Moranis):

Who is absolutely perfect in this role, some of his finest work here.  Now I know that he is not the strongest of singers but I think that fits this character beautifully.  You don’t want/need someone who would sing perfectly for this character, he’s supposed to be rough around the edges and very unsure of himself.  I feel it would of been odd to have someone act like Seymour but when they sang it sounded like Neil Patrick Harris.

Our love interest, Audrey (played by Ellen Greene):

Ellen Greene originated the role of Audrey in the Off - Broadway show and in the movie.  Just this past year she reprised her role as Audrey opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as Seymour on Broadway.  She is Audrey and you completely believe her in this role and feel for her during “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly Seymour”.  It is the most simple of things that she wants in “Somewhere That’s Green”, to be married, to have 2 kids, to live in a small house with a garden, etc. but knowing she will never get that kind of life because she feels she doesn’t deserve it.  It’s heartbreaking.

Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend, Orin Scrivello (played by Steve Martin):

What an incredible role for Steve Martin.  His scenes were some of my favorite in the whole movie growing up.  From his introduction on the motorcycle singing “Dentist!” to his quiet reactions to Bill Murray’s crazy character, he makes every scene he is in feel fresh and alive, he injects each scene with such electricity that the frame can barely contain him without it being like he is chewing scenery.

And there are all the small cameos peppered through out the movie, such as:

John Candy as Wink Wilkinson, the radio host:

It was a bit role but he did it so well.  Miss him.

Bill Murray as Arthur Denton, the dentist patient:

Once again, he does a fantastic job and brought such a maniac energy to contrast Steve Martin’s stillness in the scene.

James Belushi as Patrick Martin, the salesman that wants to take Audrey II worldwide:

He did a good job as the smarmy salesman.

Christopher Guest as the First Customer:

Just a nice cameo appearance by him.

Of course, where would be without the Greek Chorus, played by Tichina Arnold, Michelle Weeks & Tisha Campbell-Martin:

They worked great together and helped create the magic of this world so well.  Any time they came onto the screen, they held my attention and you knew something grand was about to happen.

Then there was the wonderful Vincent Gardenia as Mr. Mushnik:

This has always been a role that been close to my heart.  I loved what he did with the character and even though his character is written differently in the stage musical, it still works.  I’ve always wanted to play this role, maybe someday I will.

And of course, Audrey II:

All the plants in the movie were practical effects, all puppets, none were done with CGI.  And they all look incredible.  And there’s a reason why for that.  The guy who directed the movie was Frank Oz, this guy:

He worked closely with Jim Henson and his studio and was the voice and puppetier for Miss Piggy, among other puppets.  Also, he did the voice and controled this guy:

Yup, that’s Yoda.  And here he is with Yoda:

So, give a movie all about a plant that has to talk and move to a guy who understands how puppets work and you get a movie that works and doesn’t come off cheesy.

Why does this movie stand out to me?  Well, all the above plays into why I love this movie but it’s more than that.  You get a story about, for a lack of better words, 2 losers who find love and try to make a go in this crazy world.  Oh and there is a giant talking plant that thirsts for human blood but can make all your dreams come true, like some demonic genie.  And there’s music.  On paper it sounds like this shouldn’t work, it sounds like it should be so cheesy and done with bad effects that people flee from it.

But people don’t.  In fact, people love it.  The musical and movie both have such a genuine heart to it.  And the characters are never played as stupid or for the laughs, just as unfortunite and people trying to make the best of what they got and dreaming to get just a little bit more.  So many people can relate to that.  And I think that’s why myself and other people keep coming back to this movie.

Day 6:

 If you were the Doctor, what would your catch phrase be?

This is a hard one.  This is like the go to phrase for The Doctor when he wants to amp things up, so it's got to have some power behind it.

I always loved the 9th Doctor's catch phrase:

So, I think mine would be:

Dazzling!

Day 5:

 What’s your favorite episode?

One of my favorite episodes would have to be the Human Nature and The Family of Blood story.

In this episode, you get to see The Doctor as a human and it's great!  You see him get flustered, angry and even fall in love.  I'm not saying that The Doctor doesn't have these feelings as a Time Lord as well but in human form, they are amazing to watch, especially seeing The Doctor allow himself to fall in love and act upon it.  We also get introduced to:

The Fob watch, which will play an important part at the end of this season.

I love how in these 2 episodes you get to see The Doctor go from heart wrenching moments, like choosing if he was wants to remain human, where he see's that he will get married, have a child and live a happy and rich life or go back to being The Doctor and how the choose affects him:

To how he deals with the Family:

Day 4:

Who has been your favorite historical appearance?

Mine would have to be Shakespeare:

This was an early episode for The Doctor and Martha and The Doctor wanted to show off the TARDIS.  The Doctor considers Shakespeare a genius and they both are excited to hear him speak:

And when he does, The Doctor is not impressed with him:

Day 3:

Invent a new feature for the Sonic Screwdriver. We know it doesn’t do wood, but can it clean up spilled drinks?

New feature for the Sonic Screwdriver?  Well, if wood is out, than how about a Danger Detector?

Day 2:

Who is your favorite companion?  Donna Noble.  When we first met her, I wasn't sure about her, she was very gruff and very different from Rose and Jack.  But then when she showed up at the start of Season 4 like this:

I thought, oh yeah, she's going to be great!  Through her season with The Doctor, I fell in love with her character and her character development was amazing.  Then when we reached this moment:

I was a mess, I just cried.  I felt so bad for both her and The Doctor.  Everything she had become and learned and then taken from her in one moment to save her life.  RTD really knows how to go for the heart and trample on it.  One more happy picture of Donna to remember her by:

Okay, so I'm going to try my hand at this and see if I can keep it going.

Day 1:

I remember being about 5 years old and my parents were watching Doctor Who on PBS and I remember seeing this man with an incrediably long scarf blowing behind him as he ran across the English countryside.  This was my first impression of The Doctor, though I was too young to stay up that late and watch the show with my parents.

The next time I remember watching The Doctor was the movie with the 8th Doctor with my parents.  I thought it was fantastic and wanted to watch the actual show but unfortunely the show wasn't being played much at that point in the US.

Next up, is:

This is such a great TV show.  It ran for only 2 seasons on ABC from 2007 - 2009.  It was another show that got told it was being canceled about halfway through it's 2nd season and it tried wrapping up some of it's loose ends by the last episode.

If you don't know this show, watch it.  The way the stories are told are just incredible.  The story centers around a pie maker, Ned (Lee Pace), who can bring people back from the dead for less than a minute without any dire consequences but more than a minute and something or someone has to die to take there place.  Ned works with Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) who is a private investigator whose interested in collecting reward money for the deaths.  Along the way Ned brings his childhood sweetheart, Chuck Charles (Anna Friel) back to life and the real problems begin.

First, look at the actors in this show:

Lee Pace:

Kristin Chenoweth:

Chi McBride:

Anna Friel:

Ellen Greene:

Swoosie Kurtz:

Plus, a whole truckload of cameos George Hamilton to Paul Rubens.  And the show has Ellen Greene!  Ellen Greene!!!!  For those of you who don't know she was Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors:

She is such a fantastic character actress!  And Little Shop of Horrors is amazing but I'll get to that later.

And the show was created by this guy,

Bryan Fuller:

He has created other shows such as Dead Like Me (I'll talk about that later as well), Wonderfalls and Hannibal.  He got his start writing episodes for Star Trek Voyager and all of these shows are just great as well.

This show had such a unique voice.  From the rich and vibrant colors to the narrator to the way it would blend humor in the show.  And how, especially in the 1st season, it would almost always have a "awwwww" moment between the pie maker and Chuck.

The show tells a love story about two people who can never touch or the other would die.  How do you keep that fresh without it becoming annoying?  This show finds that balance and goes with it.

In the first season, it's all about "monster of the week" type story lines.  In the second season, they try to go with an overarching villain but it falls apart quickly.  It's still really worth watching, just to watch the scenes between Chi McBride and Kristin.

Oh, and Kristin Chenoweth and Ellen Greene sing songs in the show.  There is no musical episode but there are random songs that they sing and they are wonderful!  In fact, early on in the 1st season Kristin sings a song to herself in the pie shop (called the Pie Hole) while cleaning up, which is great.  Then the night janitor comes in to clean the floors and has headphones in and she continues to sing and dance behind his back as he waxes the floors.  That's the moment I fell in love with the show.

The show doesn't take itself too seriously and allows crazy things to happen to it's characters.  It was so pleasant to watch this show while it was on the air, it was like a nice gift each week to look forward to.  It has this idealistic view of love and how romance should be but it's set in such a far off, fantasy place that you know it's only true in stories.  The 2nd season tried to start dealing with the realities of love between Ned and Chuck but it felt forced and awkward in the show's format and the side characters like Emerson and Olive and the Aunts become more entertaining to watch.  It's like Ned and Chuck become a train wreck you can't take your eyes away from.

I wanted to share some of my favorite TV shows, movies, video games, etc. with everyone because it seems like fun.  But not just a list of them, I want to share they why and the "so what?" factor that they have on me.  So, here goes the first one.

This was such an incredible show and it lasted only one season.  Half way through the season the show got it's marching orders and so the creators of the show sped up the story lines to try to give the show some closure.

Some of you will know this show right off and love it.

Some of you will know about this show and hate it.

Some of you will be like,

This show aired on NBC during the 1999 - 2000 season.  Director and Executive Producer of the show, this guy:

Mr. Judd Apatow.  He and along with this guy, 

Mr. Paul Feig, who was the creator and exectuvie producer of the show.  The show was loosely based off his book,

I adore and love Paul Feigs' work.  He is fantastic.  Some of his other works include:

Director:

The Heat

Bridesmaids

Lots of episodes for:

The Office

Arrested Development

Parks and Recreation

He's also an actor, writer and producer.  Great, funny guy.

I know the moment I fell in love with this show.  Towards the beginning of the pilot epsiode there is a dinner scene with the mom, dad, and the two kids, Sam and Lindsay.  Here's the set up:

And the following conversation happens:

Jean Weir (Mom): You know, I ran into Mrs. Patten today at Farmer Jack. And she said that she saw you smoking. Lindsay: Well she's crazy. Mom, I can't believe you. You seriously think I would start smoking? Harold Weir (Dad): You know, I had a friend that used to smoke. You know what he's doing now? He's dead! Lindsay: Daddy, if I started smoking I would tell you. Mr. Weir: Oh. Good. Now I don't have to worry.

Mrs. Weir: Alright, kids. HIgh school is for learning but it's also where you should be learning to socialize. That's what high school dances are all about. Lindsay: No they're not. It's a chance for popular kids to experiment with sex in their cars. Mrs. Weir: Lindsay! Mr. Weir: Hey! Lindsay: I mean, if that's what you want me to do then I'd be happy to go. Mr. Weir: You know, there was a girl in our school, she had premarital sex. You know what she did on graduation day? Died! Of an overdose. Heroin.

Mr. Weir: You know who used to cut class? Jimi Hendrix. You know what happened to him? He died! Choking on his own vomit. Lindsay: Daddy, I skipped Latin. Mr. Weir: Oh. Well I can understand why you wouldn't want to learn about that. It's only the building block of our language. Mrs. Weir: Well I'm just glad your Grandmother wasn't alive to hear about this. Mr. Weir: You can't cut corners in life! You know who cut corners? Kennedy! Kennedy cut corners when he was running the Bay of Pigs. A lot of good men lost their lives because of it. You know who else cut corners? Janis Joplin. Lindsay: Dad! What are you talking about?! You don't make any sense. I just cut class and guess what? Everybody's still alive. Just leave me alone!

After this scene, I knew this was going to be a great show.  Just the way the dialogue flowed and how the kids interacted with the parents, it just felt very natural.  And the dad, Mr. Weir, became one of my favorite characters.

As I watched the show I felt I connected more with the geeks, like Sam,

I think I made this face in gym class before.

I liked how it showed the all the hardships of high school, I was a junior in high school when the show was on, so I could really relate to it.  But the show made it realistic, not something over the top or soap opera like.  We saw with shows like Beverly Hills 90210 how there were no real characters and everything is manipulated.

The show also had some good actors in it when they were just starting out like,

Seth Rogen

James Franco

Jason Segel

And Busy Philipps

This show will always have a soft place in my heart.

Now, the "so what?" moment.  What makes this show about teenagers in high school different from all the others?  I think it has to do with there being a heart to the show.  So many times you see shows about teenagers and you can tell it's being written by people who've never had those experiences and the way they approach it is just awful.