Rebecca, Emma, and I watched The Sentinel.  This was surprisingly entertaining---it seemed to be a Rosemary Baby/Exorcist type of movie.  The cover story was rather simple---a young couple in love are having a few relationship problems. The girl decides to look for her own place to stay.  However, there are strange going-on's on her new apartment complex and what do they all mean?   The film had some great moments---some shocking and others scary.  Also adding to the enjoyment was its trim length---only about 95 minutes which was perfect for the story---nothing seemed dragged out.

Rebecca and I rented David Cronenberg's Scanners.  I saw it years ago and thought it might be interesting to see again.  However, the movie is a little slow.  The best parts are, of course, the well known scene of the head exploding (it only happens once---I swear I remember it happening several times!) and the last twenty minutes.   Rebecca fell asleep in the middle of the film and had to watch the parts she missed the next day.  Although the film dragged a little during the middle, (the whole film could have been about 25 minutes shorter without losing much), it was different enough to keep my interest going to the end to see how everything played out.  On a scale of ten, I give it a five. (I feel sorry for all the stars of this film---none of them ever went on to do anything really big)

We were spending the weekend up in Salinas (attending a 50th wedding anniversary) and decided to go out to see a movie after the party.  (Salinas is a little hotbed of gang activity as we learned from a local).  We chose to see Click, not expecting much from the film.  However, we were really surprised how much we liked the film.  Sure, the message might be corny but the film really worked at conveying how important family is and how important it is to enjoy all aspects of life. The film is this generation's It's a Wonderful Life.  I think I would rate it as this years most enjoyable movie!

Val and I watched tonight The Kid From Spain, a movie starring one of our all-time favorite performers, Eddie Cantor.  Eddie plays a person who has to go to Mexico so some crooks whose robbery he witnessed will not kill him September 11, 2009 bullfighter from Spain.  Unfortunately, this was not one of his better efforts.  Eddie was a veteran of Ziegfield broadway shows and was quite an energetic dancing and singring performer.  However, this movie did not show off his talents that well---it did not have many musical numbers in it.  Eddie has far-better films than this such as Roman Scandals and Ali Baba Goes to Hollywood.  It's unfortunate, that a great performer such as Eddie, is slowly, like many great stars of the thirties and forties, being forgotten.

We went to the movies today and saw Nacho Libre, a film by the man who was behind Napoleon Dynamite.  I am certain that this film only works if you like the star of this film, Jack Black.  Since I enjoy him I found the film rather amusing.  However, due to his mugging and his antics, if you are not a fan, I think one would find him quite annoying.  Overall, I found the film rather refreshing since it did not rely on potty jokes, bad language, or sexual situations to be entertaining. 

Later that evening, Rebecca and I watched an old Cecil B. DeMille movie, Four Frightened People.  It's a 1934 film that's about four people castaway on a South Pacific Island after abandoning a ship because of an outbreak of plague.  On the island they meet dangers in the form of wild animals and dangerous natives.  It's all rather mild and uninvolving.  What is curious about this movie is the talk of sex (still mild by today's standards) and which one does not usually see in old movies because of the production code.  However, this film must have been one of the last before the code was enforced in 1934.

This morning, Val, Rebecca, and I watched a great film curiosity---A german version of the Titanic story done in 1943.  It's a totally interesting film. According to the theory proposed in this version, the ship sunk because evil British investors were more interested in gaining profit than the safety of the passengers.  It seems the stock in the ship company was going down and the owners of the company saw an opportunity to make some money.  They would let the stock go down even further (by selling there own shares) and then halfway across the Atlantic (via cable) buy them all back at the lowered price.   At the same time the owners told the captain to speed the ship up to the fastest speed possible so the ship would arrive in New York a day early.  they hoped that the early arrival would impress people so much that they would all want to buy stock in the company and drive the price up!   Also of note is the fact that the only good officer on the ship was of German origin---he wanted to defy the owners' request of speeding up the ship.  At the end, he had helped many of the passengers to survive.

What a disappointment Cars is!  There was nothing laugh out funny and it only had occasional moments when it brought a smile to my face.  I think if one is a fan of Nascar, one might enjoy this movie more.  The voices used were extremely annoying.  Whatever happened to using cartoon voices?  Using real stars to voice these characters really runs the film.  First of all, when the main car in this film speaks, all I think about is Owen Wilson.  It takes one out of the fantasy.  The other voices were absolutely boring.  The girl car and the "old man" car has real human voices which also contributed to ruining the fantasy of the film.  Definitely a film to miss!

This afternoon, Val, Rebecca, Emma, Nick (Rebecca's friend) and I went to see the remake of The Omen.  It was a little better than I had expected.  It wasn't great but it was OK.  The first thirty minutes was a little slow.   However, it then picked up some pacing and provided a few scary moments.  The person who played Damien wasn't really that great---he should have been more menacing. Julia Styles who played Damien's mother also could have been better.  She came off as a little annoying.  This picture has something in it that really bugs me about movies today (don't worry---it's not a spoiler).  The movie has a truck blowing up as it spills gasoline and touches a lit cigarette----THIS DOES NOT REALLY HAPPEN!  Gasoline only explodes it there are millions of fine droplets of gasoline in the air and the right mixture of oxygen and gasoline is present.  The mixture is a very narrow range and without the correct range gasoline will not ignite.  And when gasoline finds a lit cigarette it extinguishes it and goes out.  You can read all about it at Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics web site!  Cars do not explode.

In the evening Val and I watched Ziegfield Follies,  a great old movie from 1946 starring many of the great MGM stars.  It was produced is truly dazzling technicolor (oh, how I wish they made films today using that saturated technicolor.  The film had no plot but was just a sequence of musical number and comedy sketches.  The film lets you see greats  such as Fanny Brice, Red Skelton, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, and others all in one film.  No sequence is longer than about six minutes so the movies moves fast---if you don't like one number-don't worry there's another one in a few minutes.  The best number in the film is the number where Gene Kelly dances with Fred Astaire---amazing dancing!

Emma and I rented Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale.  We are both great fans of De Palma and love the way he directs a film, and this movie is a great example of how well he can direct a film.  However, what brings this film down is the story.  Rebecca Romijn plays an assassin who helps some bad guys steal some diamonds.  She double crosses them and they spend the next seven years searching for her. Like another film of his, the disastrous Mission to Mars, De Palma has trouble with stories.  Many times he has great stories to tell like Scarface and The Untouchables and they are near-masterpieces.  But beware of his Dressed to Kill and Raising Cain.

Emma and I watched Scarecrow (1973) starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino.  I had seen this movie on tape two years ago and was a little upset about how they framed it for standard TV.  The one we watched today was a beautiful copy in widescreen which allowed us to watch the movie as originally framed.  There were many scenes in which characters talked to each other and this time we could see both together (rather than the tape version where there was cutting back and forth between the speakers).  One scene in particular (in a restaurant) had Hackman and Pacino talking together for about 5 minutes without any cutting (the actors had to really know their lines!).

The movie is a extremely interesting character study.  It is about two drifters who become friends.  Hackman has a dream of opening a carwash while Pacino wants to see the child he never saw (he ran away when his girlfriend got pregnant).  The movie follows their journey across the country as they attempt to accomplish their goals.  The movie excels in the depiction of its minor characters.  All of them seem totally real through their low-life dialect and low-life look.  Other than Al Pacino, there is not one character in this movie that one would consider good-looking (how did the studio allow that!).  Scarecrow is an overlooked movie that deserves more attention---one of Al Pacino's best before he started to over-act.

Yikes!  I just saw, along with Amanda, and Emma, the Da Vinci Code.  It was one of the most annoying 2 1/2 hours of movie I've seen in years.  I did not read the book and I knew absolutely nothing about the story so I am not one of those people who compare movies to the book.  However, this film was SOOOOOOO confusing and convoluted.  I could not follow the story logic and not could I keep track of the players.  The girl who played the lead was really annoying with her French accent.  The director, Ron Howard, kept cutting back and forth between people speaking.  He also annoyed me by the extensive use of subtitle (Note: to directors who use subtitle---if you want us to read something on screen, don't put action that we are suppose to watch behind the subtitles---I cannot read subtitles and pay attention to important action at the same time).  I know this film is fiction, as I guess most people know that, but I can understand why the church does not like this film---it is extremely and unfairly anti-church.

One final thing about the miserable film---it is EXTREMELY talky and so much of the film is dimly lit.

This morning, Rebecca, Emma, and I watched 1980's Class of 1984.  This film took place in the future of 1984 and wanted to show how schools might evolve if kids keep getting out of hand and "punks" take over.  Well, the rough school that they created for the film, is really not much different than the way the schools are today.  In 1980 is was probably unheard of to have metal detectors in school---but they really do have them today!  Overall, the movie was kind of slow for the first hour, with all of us getting a little bored.  But, the last thirty minutes took off and kept us all quite interested.  And I want to add one more thing---this movie certainly wasn't written by any wimpy leftest who feels sorry for misunderstood kids.  In this movie the bad kids got what they deserved!!!!

The second film that I saw was South Pacific at the Egyptian Theater.  Val and Rebecca also came.  It was a brand new 70MM print of the 1958 movie.  The music was great however, I felt the direction of the film was far to stagy and unnatural.  Many of the extras in the scenes just sort of stood around awkwardly.  Some of the musical numbers had colored filters which were annoying. I realized the story was quite dated when my daughter didn't understand what the characters were fussing about.  Back in the 1950's, interracial marriage (even between a Caucasian and an asian) was quite unheard of and shocking.  Unless you know that, one doesn't understand why people in this movie are having problems. Nevertheless, the movie is saved by the dozen or so of classic songs that were introduced with this play.  The best number in the film was Mitzi Gaynor doing "Honeybun."

Watched "Lost".  Ana-Lucia cannot be dead! Ana-Lucia cannot be dead!  Ana-Lucia cannot be dead!  Ana-Lucia cannot be dead!  Ana-Lucia cannot be dead!  Ana-Lucia cannot be dead!

I guess no matter how many times I say it, it won't change the fact that she is gone!  My favorite character on the show is dead! Everyone that I know who watched that show tells me she is dead.  The only hope I have that she is not really dead is the fact that this would make Michael a cold-blooded killer.  Michael has always been a good guy since the beginning of the series trying his best to protect and help his son.  So if Ana is dead, and Michael killed her to swap for his son, then Michael becomes a tainted character.  Ana-Lucia cannot be dead!