The Bucket List

For the finale of “Jack Nicholson Month Part 2,” I will review “The Bucket List,” released in 2007.

The paths of cancer-patients Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) would never have encountered, if they weren’t in the same hospital with serious rules, two patients per room policy. The former is a billionaire businessman who owns the hospital, could easily have asked for a private room. However, cancer has taken its toll on him, and he sees that he is stuck in bed next to an auto mechanic.

Honestly, their difference in their jobs doesn’t mean anything currently, seeing how they’re both cancer patients, grouchy and have been told the same sad news of living for less than a year. Kam Williams said in his review, “The commiserating curmudgeons soon discover that they also share an aversion to the idea of just resigning themselves to their fates and slowly wasting away attached to tubes, monitors and hi-tech machines.”

Planning to die in their own ways rather than let cancer take them, they start writing a “Bucket List” of things they want to do before passing away. Writing down their wildest imaginations, they write down everything from getting tattoos to visiting the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal to car racing and skydiving to climbing the Himalayan Mountains to finding the perfect woman to joining the proverbial Mile High Club while cruising at 30,000 feet in the air on Edward’s private jet.

Sadly, Ed only has one visitor in the hospital, his respectful, glass-wearing assistant, Thomas, played by Jack McFarland from NBC’s “Will & Grace,” Sean Hayes, means that the rich old man basically has no friends and can do whatever he wants. However, Carter, a devoted family man, has the wishes of his wife of 47 years (Beverly Todd) and three focused children (Alfonso Freeman, Brian Copeland and Serena Reeder) to consider. Williams stated, “However, once well-heeled Edward offers to foot the entire bill for their hedonistic getaway, Carter can’t resist the chance to spend his waning days doing everything he ever dreamed of.”

They decide to ignore their doctors’ orders, they decide to go off on their “Bucket List” adventures with the help of Thomas who handles the arrangements at each airport of call. As the courageous gradually check off everything on their checklist, they reminisce, philosophize, and above everything else, misbehave.

Here you have the story to “The Bucket List,” a surprisingly lighthearted film for such a sad theme. Directed by Rob Reiner, the movie co-starts Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in roles they’ve basically embodied. Williams said, “Nicholson steals the show as that bombastic bon vivant we’ve all come to adore, opposite Freeman’s equally-endearing portrayal of a wizened sage wise beyond his years.”

The only problem in this else bubbly friend adventure’s medicine comes when Carter is shortly tempted to cheat on his wife with a ready-and-willing, seductive woman, played by Rowena King. There’s nothing to worry about. Williams jokes, “When was the last time you saw Morgan Freeman touch a woman in a movie who wasn’t dead?”

A feel-good, before dying movie that manages to go beyond its sad subject-matter and surprisingly lifts your spirits.

I know that this film may not be a good film, but it will leave you with a good feeling after seeing it. You have grandparents, and even your parents can watch this with you, definitely see this film. It’s a good film that I feel was unjustly hated.

Well that concludes “Jack Nicholson Month Part 2.” I hope everyone enjoyed my additional reviews on Jack Nicholson movies and I hope I made good recommendations. Stay tuned next month for more reviews coming right at you.

The Lorax

Happy Earth Day everyone. Today, I would like to review an environmental film that was a beloved book by Dr. Seuss known as "The Lorax," the adaptation released in 2012.

Billy Tatum started his review by saying, "Directors Kyle Balda and Chris Renaud tackle the work of everyone’s favorite doctor. No, not Dr. Oz, but  the one who had us introduced to the joys of anapaestic tetrameter as kids, long before we could pronounce the term." Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" is an entertaining and preventive story that stays true to the spirit of Dr. Seuss while delivering a message that couldn't have been better told. With only a few handful of pages of source material to work on, it'd be ridiculous to work on the pages that the filmmakers had to tell the story out into a 94 minute film. Luckily, Renaud brings the writing team (Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio) behind 2010's hilarious "Despicable Me" to help tell The Lorax to today's children.

Less depressing than the book, but staying true to its spirit, the story starts with the Lorax warning everyone that the story is not exactly what we think. Ted, voiced by singer in the "High School Musical" trilogy, Zac Efron, is an intelligent 12-year-old in the town of Thneedville, riding through the streets on a sort of motorized bike. Tatum described, "His town is like a cartoon of a cartoon where nothing grows and everything is plastic, including plastic trees." The only thing real is his crush on an artist named Audrey, voiced by the hot Country/Hip-Hop singer Taylor Swift.

When he's told her dream of seeing a real tree, he becomes destined on a quest where he needs the help of his Grammy Norma, voiced by Sue Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls" and Elka Ostrovsky on "Hot in Cleveland," the great Betty White. She tells him of a man who lives outside of town called the Once-Ler, voiced by Ed Helms (former correspondent on "The Daily Show"), who might be able to help. Ted successfully escapes the high metal walls that are around the city to find the Once-Ler. When he arrives, the mysterious man tells him his tale. In flashbacks, we see that the Once-Ler was once a bright young man who wanted to become the next best inventor of a product he invented called the Thneed. To get the right fabric, he had to ditch the forest animals that fastly loved him.

Released on Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel's birthday, "The Lorax" is not only perfectly done from a marketing view, but a well made film that pays tribute to Seuss' brains. It's a preventive story against danger on the environment because of man's non-stop greed isn't as dark as the book, but the story is just as suited despite including kids songs and the little bit of love interest.

Tatum said, "Renaud makes the characters just as cute and offbeat as in the book but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty when showing the Once-Ler’s wreckless ambition, hubris and ultimate quest for redemption. The colorful Truffula trees which resemble giant pinwheels of cotton candy are enticing enough to eat, which makes their loss seem all the more tragic." Consequences are shown without scaring children, but seeing once happy Humming-fish get hit with sludge is enough to even scoff parents.

Tatum said, "The insertion of musical numbers seems a requisite for most animated features, especially in the post-Shrek era. Although they seem a little out of place here, the overall beauty of the animation makes it forgivable."

Danny DeVito as the Lorax who "speaks for the trees" and is introduced in a nice way, uses his voice despite not having superpowers (Remember, this book was made at least 20 years before Captain Planet). Tatum said, "DeVito hits all the right notes lecturing the Once-ler in a stern way that makes you miss real or surrogate grandparents." Rob Riggle as the evil O'Hare is one of the most likable cartoon villains in a long time. Tatum said, "From his inverted bowlcut to his use of twin sinister henchman, you almost feel bad for how he ends up."

Tatum goes on to say, "With 3D being a part of so much live-action, it’s ironic that animation is where it seems the most appropriate. CGI animated chase scenes such as when Ted evades O’Hare and his minions are what truly captures the heart-pounding effects of 3D. While The Lorax doesn’t match the 3D use of How to Train Your Dragon, it’s definitely worth springing for the extra cash."

"The Lorax" is a proof to how a cartoon movie could be done while saying a message that kids need to know. Tatum ended his review by saying, "While their older siblings (and parents) wait to line up for the newest iPad, kids can look at The Lorax and be reminded of what happens when “biggerism” gets out of control and how they can make a difference."

I know that people may not like this movie, but my siblings and I saw this one weekend morning and we all really loved it. I highly think everyone should see this movie, especially if you have children, because it has a message that is really needed. This is a great family movie, especially if you didn't like the live-action Dr. Seuss adaptations.

Check in next Friday for the last installment of "Jack Nicholson Month Part 2."

The Two Jakes

This is how Roger Ebert started out the review of the 1990 “The Two Jakes,” “Here at long last is Jack Nicholson's "The Two Jakes," seven years in the trade papers, center of prolonged teeth-gnashing at Paramount Pictures, and it turns out to be such a focused and concentrated film that every scene falls into place like clockwork; there's no feeling that it was a problem picture. It's not a thriller and it's not a whodunit, although it contains thriller elements and at the end we do find out whodunit. It's an exquisite short story about a mood, and a time, and a couple of guys who are blind-sided by love.”

The movie is set in post-war Los Angeles – Ebert said, “The 1940s of the baby boom and housing subdivisions – instead of the 1930s city where “Chinatown was set. It’s not the loving city it once was. Private eyes like J.J. Gittes, reprised by Jack Nicholson, are a little more tired with time and care. Ebert said, “The Gittes of "Chinatown" was the spiritual brother of Philip Marlowe.” However, not that the war is over, and Gittes has moved out of the two-room suite into his own building with his own staff of detectives. He is owned by a country club, has a fiancée and has gained some weight. Ebert said, “One of these days he's going to stop calling himself an investigator altogether and become a security consultant.”

However, he still solves some of the cases he’s used to. The cases where a furious husband breaks into a motel room and finds his wife in bed with an adulterer, and then the investigator jumps in with a camera and takes photos that will help him in divorce court. He knows, Gittes says narrating the film’s beginning, that he shouldn’t take one these horrible cases anymore. He’s way past them and they’re not on his level. Sometimes, he still does the cases.

That’s how he meets the other Jake – Jake Berman (Harvey Keitel), a property developer who thinks his wife (Meg Tilly) is cheating on him with his partner (John Hackett). Gittes tells Berman how he should act when he breaks in through the door, and what to say, and then they find a motel where the cheating is supposed to happen. However, Berman doesn’t follow the steps. A gun appears out of nowhere, and the partner is shot, and the partner’s wife, played by Madeline Stowe, thinks that maybe it wasn’t a cheating case at all. Maybe it was cold-blooded murder, and Berman wanted to kill his partner so that he and his wife could get his partner’s money on the property development. That might be why Gittes is needed for the murder.

So far, what we see is the type of story that any private eye movie might have been happy for. However, “The Two Jakes” uses the story only when it needs the deeper and more worrying things it has to say.

Everyone who worked on this movie looks like they have gone through the private eye genre and come out on the other side. The screenplay is by Robert Towne, who at a time was supposed to direct the movie in the difficult history it had being made. He doesn’t only brought together some characters from his “Chinatown,” added some new ones, and put them in the plot. Ebert said, “This movie is written with meticulous care, to show how good and evil are never as simple as they seem, and to demonstrate that even the motives of a villain may emerge from a goodness of heart.”

Jack Nicholson directed the film, and Vilmos Zsigmond photographed it, in the same way. Ebert said, “This isn't a film where we ricochet from one startling revelation to another. Instead, the progress of the story is into the deeper recesses of the motives of the characters.” We see that Gittes – fiancée and all – still is really scarred by the murder of the Faye Dunaway character in “Chinatown.” He will never forget her.

We see that the property being made by Berman has been seen before by Gittes, so long ago. We see that love, pure love, is a reason necessary to defend shocking actions. We also see that the past has been so important to us, it will never leave our memories.

Ebert said, “The movie is very dark, filled with shadows and secrets and half-heard voices, and scratchy revelations on a clandestine tape recording. Out in the valley where the development is being built, the sunshine is harsh and casts black shadows, and the land is cruel - the characters are shaken by earthquakes that reveal the land rests uneasily on a dangerous pool of natural gas.”

The performances are dark and depressing as well, especially Nicholson’s.

Ebert said, “He tones down his characteristic ebullience and makes Gittes older and wiser and more easily disillusioned. And he never even talks about the loss that hangs heavily on his heart; we have to infer it from the way his friends and employees tiptoe around it.”

Ebert goes on to say, “Right from his first meeting with the Keitel character, when he notices they are wearing the same two-tone shoes, he feels a curious kinship with him, and that leads to a key final confrontation that I will not reveal. And he feels something, too, for the Meg Tilly character, who has been deeply hurt in her past and is afraid to express herself. She is like a bird with a broken wing.”

The moral of “The Two Jakes’ is that love and loss are more important than the automated circulation of guilt and justice. When Nicholson and Keitel, as the two Jakes, have their final meeting of shocks, it is such a good scene because the normal considerations of a crime move are put on halt. The movie is all about the values that people have, and about the things that mean more to them than life and freedom. It’s a deep movie, and a thoughtful one, and when it has ended you will not easily forget about it.

If you haven’t heard of this movie, now you have. If you haven’t seen the movie, see it, especially if you saw and liked “Chinatown.” This is a powerful movie, and an underrated one that I don’t think people must have heard of, or didn’t really like. It’s actually a good one for everyone to see it, so definitely see it and give it a chance.

Stay tuned next week for the finale of “Jack Nicholson Month Part 2.”

The Smurfs

My cousin is spending his Spring Break over at my house, so my mother asked what he wanted to do. When asked what movie he wanted to see in theaters, he said he had a few movies he wanted to watch. I told him I already had seen “Logan,” “Kong: Skull Island” and “Power Rangers,” he said he also wanted to see “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” released on 7^th. Since I was curious to see that one as well, we went to see it. Since this is part of a franchise based on a cartoon that I never saw, I think I should review the previous installments as well.

The only way I could sum up the cartoon is that a village with small blue people fight off a wizard and his cat. With that said, let’s take a look at the first “The Smurfs,” released in 2011.

Even though the look is different, “The Smurfs” isn’t as annoying as you think it would be and is actually both charming and enjoyable, thanks to active animation, a strong script, several good jokes and amazing performances from a nice cast.

Directed by Raja Gosnell, “The Smurfs” is based on the Belgian comic strip characters created by Peyo. When the evil but ridiculous wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and his equally evil but ridiculous cat Azrael (Frank Welker) find the village of the Smurfs’ enchanted village, they accidentally chase six of them – Papa Smurf (the late Jonathan Winters), Smurfette (the hot singer Katy Perry), Clumsy Smurf (the late Anton Yelchin), Brainy Smurf (Fred Armisen), Gutsy Smurf (Alan Cumming) and Grouchy Smurf (George Lopez) – through a magical portal that takes every one of them to modern-day New York City.

Once there, the Smurfs quickly become friends with pregnant housewife Grace (Jayma Mays) and her stressed-out advertising executive husband Patrick (the man who played Doogie Howser and Barney Stinson on “How I Met Your Mother,” Neil Patrick Harris), who is struggling to come up with a new beauty campaign for his magnate boss Odile (Sofia Vergara). As the Smurfs hide in Grace and Patrick’s apartment, Papa Smurf quickly figures out that they have to get the power from the blue moon in order to teleport back home, but Gargamel is closing in on them and wants to capture their magical essence.

Hank Azaria is the right choice as Gargamel (he looks exactly like the comic character) and fittingly does the hilariously comic, Smurf-obsessed performance that’s the best to watch. I agree with Matthew Turner when he said in his review, “There's also strong, likeable support from Harris and Mays, while the voice cast acquit themselves nicely – Perry proves she's more than just stunt casting as Smurfette (one “I kissed a Smurf and I liked it” joke aside), while Winters is suitably wise and unruffled as Papa Smurf and Yelchin does a good job with making the potentially irritating Clumsy emotionally engaging.”

Turner goes on to say, “The animation is extremely well done, capturing the feel of the source material and nicely integrating the three-apples-high Smurfs into their New York surroundings.” Similarly, Azrael is an entirely CGI-animated cat, which works much better than you might think (a funny credit gives us that no CGI cats were harmed during the filming of the movie).

Turner said, “The plot may be fairly basic and it slightly overdoes both the pratfalls and the sentimentality of the be-true-to-yourself message, but the clever script makes up for it with several good jokes and some nice touches, such as Patrick and Grace looking up Smurfs on Wikipedia.”

“The Smurfs” is an enjoyable, well-made fantasy adventure that will attract children without annoying their parents who they beg to watch it with them. Worth seeing, although I understand if you may not be fond of it because it’s not for anyone.

“The Smurfs 2,” released in 2013, is an enjoyable sequel to the first movie, brightened by decent animation, strong comic performances, a nice voice cast and a funny, nicely written script that says there is entertainment for both adults and children.

Directed again by Raja Gosnell, “The Smurfs 2,” begins with a brief recap of Smurfette’s origin (pop-up book style), saying that she was created by Gargamel before Papa Smurf turned her into a “true blue” Smurf using a magic spell that has Smurf essence.

However, unknowingly to the Smurfs, Gargamel has created two new Smurf prototypes known as Naughties and he sends one named Vexy, voiced by Christina Ricci, through a portal to kidnap Smurfette and bring her to his Paris base, where he plans to harness the secret of the magic spell for his own evil plans.

When the Smurfs see that Smurfette is missing, Papa Smurf makes a rescue team with Grouchy, Clumsy and Vanity, voiced by the host of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, the great British comedian John Oliver (one of my favorite comedians), and they transport themselves to New York to ask their human friends Patrick and Grace to help them find Gargamel.

Turner is right when he said, “Azaria was born to play Gargamel and he duly delivers another terrific comic performance as the hapless wizard, while Winters (who sadly died after filming was completed) is pitch-perfect as the perpetually unperturbed Papa Smurf, and Perry does an excellent job of conveying Smurfette's emotional conflict, torn between her creator, her new Naughty friends and her Smurf family.” Similarly, Lopez, Yelchin and Oliver have a likable connection as the rescuing Smurfs and the film also gives a welcome comic increase from Brendan Gleeson, as Patrick’s well-meaning stepfather Victor, especially when he’s accidentally turned into a talking duck.

Turner noted, “Gosnell's experience with CGI/live action hybrids (e.g. Scooby Doo) makes him pretty much the perfect director for the Smurfs franchise and the blending of live action and animation is commendably seamless here, with the Paris locations used inventively throughout. Similarly, the witty script is packed full of good jokes (for both adults and children) and manages to deliver a strong message (about the importance of any kind of family) without resorting to sickly sentimentality.”

Turner noted, “The main problem with the film is the depressing amount of completely unnecessary product placement (especially considering the age of the film's target audience) – prime offenders here include Gargamel learning how to use an iPad and the Smurfs apparently having both the internet and ‘Smurfbook’, while the aggressively pop-friendly soundtrack feels both distracting and out of place.”

Along with that, J.B. Smoove’s Hackus (the other Naughty) is underdeveloped and never really becomes a character, while the animation on the entirely-CGI cat Azrael (a deservingly nice accomplishment) is once in a while a little scary.

“The Smurfs 2” is a pleasing and enjoyable sequel that should attract both children and adults who are asked to watch this with their children. Once again, I say you should see it, but if you don’t like it, I completely understand.

Now with all of that said, it’s time to talk about the latest in the franchise, “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” which isn’t a sequel, but a restart to the series, especially since they were planning a third movie, but cancelled it since Jonathan Winters has passed.

How many times can you go back to a seemingly creative place before it gets old? It looked like we had done that with the Smurfs after the two previous films that had failed and didn’t succeed in resurrecting the franchise.

Barbara VanDenburgh stated in her review, “The prospect of a third film sounded less like a fun family outing and more like a sociological experiment in pop-culture Stockholm Syndrome.”

Thankfully, “Smurfs: The Lost Village” is what the franchise needed in order to be fixed. It doesn’t go anywhere near the bad idea of combining animation and live action and the juvenile humor that no one really liked in the last two movies, and aims the jokes and joys at the children audience. This fully animated reboot captures the Smurfs Saturday morning cartoon roots and creates an energetic, brightly colored, age-appropriate movie for children that are new to the Smurfs.

Smurfette, voiced this time by the hot singer Demi Lovato, is the main character here. She’s going through some sort of an existential problem. Originally created by evil wizard Gargamel, voiced by Rainn Wilson, from a lump of blue clay, Smurfette isn’t exactly like her members – she doesn’t even know if she can call herself a “real” Smurf. In a village where everyone is named by their one characteristic – like her friends Clumsy (Jack McBrayer), Brainy (Danny Pudi) and Hefty (Joe Manganiello) – Smurfette is different.

While she’s thinking where she belongs in Smurf Village (and anywhere in life), really close to the wall that separates the Forbidden Forest she sees two big eyes and a little bit of blue skin – a Smurf! However, the mysterious Smurf runs off into the Forbidden Forest.

Meanwhile, Gargamel is still really focused on his hunt for Smurfs, creating new evil plans to capture the Smurfs and drain them of their essence. When Smurfette accidentally informs Gargamel about the existence of a possible lost Smurf Village in the Forbidden Forest, the wizard runs off to capture them. Smurfette must warn the Smurfs, so she leaves with Clumsy, Brainy and Hefty through the area that is forbidden to them to save them.

VanDenburgh credited, “The animation is bright and simple, unsophisticated but not artless. The Forbidden Forest is flush with creative, often treacherous flora and fauna, such as fire-breathing dragonflies and bioluminescent “glow” bunnies.”

VanDenburgh assures, “Importantly, this Smurfs adventure isn’t suffused in the sort of crude potty humor that has become de rigueur. There’s a touch of it — butt-biting “bottom feeder” fish, belching flowers, a noxious reference to underpants cheese — but mostly the experience is pure. It’s also not drowning in anachronistic pop-culture references, and the pop-song interludes are mostly harmless — except for a remixed resurrection of Eiffel 65’s Europop hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” which is better left buried in the ashes of the late ’90s.”

“Smurfs: The Lost Village” keeps its focus on positive messages delivered by the main characters. It’s a story about women in power, staying with your friends and making your own mission in the world, regardless of who you are. It’s a kid’s movie happy to be just that, and after the last two Smurf films, the serious ambition is a welcome relief.

In the end, if you didn’t like the last two Smurf movies, then definitely see this one. You will love it, I promise you. As a matter of fact, I find all of these movies to be harmless, family fun films.

Thank you for joining in on my review of the Smurfs movies. Stay tuned next Friday for the next installment in “Jack Nicholson Month Part 2.”

Chinatown

From the great screenwriter Robert Towne and the look of director Roman Polanski was made a modern film noir that gives us a look at from long ago of dark, complex and slow-paced detective stories that had sleazy and cool characters, every one of them dangers and desperate besides intelligent.

“Chinatown,” released in 1974, takes place in Los Angeles in 1937. Private investigator Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), who formerly worked for the Chinatown’s police department, is assigned a case to settle the betrayal of Hollis Mulwray (Darrel Zwerling), the Chief Engineer for the city’s water company. Los Angeles has been in a season of a drought. The people are pushing workers to build a new dam. Mulwray is trying to figure out a midnight plan to mysteriously row large amounts of water from the city’s lake. Jake takes photos of Mulwray with a young woman. Soon, Mulwray is found murdered.

As Jake looks around one of the city’s water lakes to uncover who murdered Mulwray, his nose is cut open by a Man with a Knife, played by director Roman Polanski, who was hired to scare him off. It doesn’t take Jake long to find himself accidentally pulled into a huge difficult scheme involving a fake water crisis being planned for a few magnates to get control over large amounts of real-estate and design the future of the city.

Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), the widow of Hollis, is stuck in the middle of her late husband’s legacy and her powerful father’s (John Huston) clean foul, and goes to Jake for help. As another murder is done, the police, including Jake’s former partner, played by Joe Mantell, start to look all over Jake, and he slowly begins to realize that Evelyn is hiding a deep, dark secret that threatens to be the end of her and anyone standing too close.

Ace Black Blog stated in their review, “For Chinatown, Polanski re-creates a depressed Los Angeles as a small town filled with the thin veneer of respectability, but with a rotten core almost punching through to the surface. Jack Nicholson portrays Jake Gittes as a smart mouth happy to make a good living cruising through the underbelly of LA, who nevertheless soon realizes that he is facing events much bigger than he can handle. Faye Dunaway oozes, in turn, power, mystery, danger, seductiveness, and ultimately sheer vulnerability as she loses her husband and finds her life hurtling towards sudden destruction.”

In a fantastic reference to the golden era of film noir, John Huston comes in as Noah Cross, the man behind the plan to get the power back in his hands once taken over the entire city. Ace Black Blog said, “In 1942, Huston wrote the screenplay and directed The Maltese Falcon, one of the foundation stones of the noir style.”

Towne’s “Chinatown” script gives the film to collect the details of depression and destruction as the story is told. Every time Jake learns more about Hollis, Evelyn, or Noah, he figures out hwo little he knows about what is unfolding, and how much larger the plan being played out around him really is.

With Jake trying but not able to control the awesome people uniting around him and Evelyn, the film slowly but certainly goes towards a dark ending inevitably in Jake’s old Chinatown field. In the end, with nothing form Jake’s plan having worked, Towne writes one of the best movie lines in history for someone who has lost: “Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.”

Jake will not forget what happened that night, just as “Chinatown” is a smart unforgettable movie, and one of the best ever made.

Forget reading my review on this movie, go out and see it. This is one of those movies that just have to be seen to be believed, and is another one of my favorite movies.

Look out next week when he look at the sequel to this movie in “Jack Nicholson Month Part 2.” Also, I will be going with my cousin to see the new Smurfs movie. Review to come later in the day.

The Last Detail

I really want to apologize to everyone. I was really occupied yesterday that it completely slipped to post my weekly Friday movie reviews. Don’t get me wrong, I was thinking it, but then I completely forgot. So today, I will post my review. I want to apologize for posting this late, and hopefully I don’t forget again.

For April, I’m thinking of doing another “Jack Nicholson Month” where I review other famous movies that he starred in. Let’s get it started again with the 1974 classic, “The Last Detail.”

This is one amazingly funny, hysterically smart performance, plus two others that are excellently good, which work very well given the reflective harshness that it looks like a new definition for anti-comedy. Vincent Canby said it best when he said, “It's a good movie but an unhomogenized one.”

Canby went on to say, “"New" is perhaps a poor word to use in connection with the film. Like the recent "Cinderella Liberty," which was also based on a novel by Darryl Ponicsan, "The Last Detail" considers the lives of career United States Navy sailors with a gravity that recalls the atmosphere of the late nineteen-forties and fifties, when World War II was still freshly won, Korea was being brought to a close, and Ike was going to throw the rascals out of Washington. In the years that preceded the political and social upheavals of the nineteen-sixties and seventies, ignorance still possessed some innocent charm.”

Canby continued, “It doesn't any more. It seems frivolous and a bit scary. So much so that I suspect that Hal Ashby who directed "The Last Detail," and Robert Towne, who wrote the screenplay, may have thought of their leading character, who is 20 years behind the times and only vaguely aware of the fact, as a lot more representative of many American lives today than the rest of us would care to think.”

This character, greatly played by Jack Nicholson, is Signalman First Class Buddusky, a 20-year Navy man of funny and frequent unnecessary confidence. Buddusky and Gunner’s Mate First Class Mulhall, played by Otis Young, are tasked to take from Norfolk, Virginia to the naval prison in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an 18-year-old sailor sentenced to eight years in jail for trying to steal $40 donations for polio.

“The Last Detail” is the story of this travel, which takes up a good amount of a week and performs the growing anxiety of Buddusky as he tries to show the prisoner what he thinks is a good time. The three have a beer party in their Washington hotel room, where Buddusky gets the kid inebriated for the first time and tries to make him happy. “Think of it this way,” he says in result, “you’ll get two years off for good behavior.”

In New York, they go into a Nichiren Shoshu prayer meeting and en up at a Village Party where Buddusky tries to sleep with a pretty, completely serious young woman, played by Luana Andres, by talking about the romance of the sea, while she would rather talk about President Nixon or race relations.

On their last day in Boston, Buddusky and Mulhall take the prisoner to a corrupt prostitute club where they show him their introduction to intercourse by paying his tab. This experience, with a girl, played by Simka Dahblitz-Gravas from “Taxi,” comedian Carol Kane, who is softly sweet and a down-to-earth professional at the same time, is what finally disturbs the prisoner who, up to that point, has more or less accepted what’s going to happen.

Jack Nicholson controls the film with looks like a collection of boastings optimistic, knowing, angry, foolish and lonely. It might be the best performance he ever did. Canby said, “If anything it's almost too good in that it disguises with charm the empty landscape of the life it represents.”

Otis Mulhall, by being African-American and playing a man who is as thoughtful and persistent as Nicholson is naughty, is the one person who gives the movie an up-to-date look. Canby noted, “In World War II, black sailors seldom got out of the galley.”

Randy Quaid, who had a small role in “The Last Picture Show,” is a genius stop for Nicholson as the always polite prisoner who, for a good majority, refuses to share Buddusky’s anger at the injustice of his sentence. Early on, he has admitted to Buddusky that he had trouble with the police before enlisting in the Navy. Buddusky professionally asks, “Was it in the nature of a felony or a misdemeanor?” The prisoner responds, “It was in the nature of shoplifting.”

Hal Ashby continues in making comedies that are never as funny as the behaviors he gives them would have you believe. Canby credited, “"The Last Detail" is his most interesting and contradictory so far. You'll laugh at it, not through your tears but with a sense of creeping misery.”

As I have stated, this movie has to be seen to be believed. It’s actually a good movie to watch and you’ll love it, especially if you’re a Jack Nicholson fan. This even has the line where Nicholson yells, “I am the mother****ing shore patrol mother****er, I AM THE MOTHER****ING SHORE PATORL!” Yes, I did censor that, and you know why.

Check in next Friday when I review a masterpiece in “Jack Nicholson Month Part 2.”

Power Rangers (2017)

Well everyone, one of my old Community College friends asked me to go see the new “Power Rangers” movie, which came out last month. Since I had a hard time trying to find parking, we missed the first few minutes of the movie, and since I had to use the bathroom, we asked for our tickets to be readmitted for a later showing. Seeing how this is technically a superhero movie, I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing this. I probably would have best left it as a DVD rental, but since my friend asked if I could go with him, I couldn’t say no. I went into this movie with really low expectations because, if you read my review on the two 90s adaptations, I thought this movie was going to be mediocre at most, seeing how that’s the rating it’s been getting on Rotten Tomatoes. However, enough of that, let’s get on with the review.

Marjorie Baumgarten started her review out by saying, “These indomitable, color-coded superhero teens are back on the big screen, starring actors who are too young to have been alive for the last hurrah of the film series in the mid-Nineties yet a smidge too old to pass as genuine high-schoolers.” However, seeing how relatable, tolerable kids that star along with high-profile actors like Elizabeth Banks, Bryan Cranston and Bill Hader, they make this new installment of the film series of a TV series that was inspired by the Japanese “Super Sentai” a surprisingly enjoyable, if completely predictable, film.

The story can be told by fans of the original “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” TV show, which was the American version of “Super Sentai.” Those who know nothing about it will think it makes no sense. 65 million years ago, Zordon (Bryan Cranston) who apparently was in a couple of episodes of the show, hid the Zeo Crystal, “the source of all life,” from Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks, who apparently likes to eat gold). Asleep for those years, the crystal is now found by a group of high school kids who are gifted these superpowers from the stone, but have to learn to “morph” before learning the crystal’s hidden powers. For a good majority of the film, they undergo training. The Power Rangers have always been a diverse group of different personalities, and this film is no exception. Red Ranger Jason Scott, played by Dacre Montgomery is his school’s quarterback that has problems with the police. Kimberly Hart, an improving bully and former cheerleader, played by the hot English actress Naomi Scott, is the Pink Ranger. Blue Ranger Billy Cranston, played by RJ Cyler, is autistic, but says that he is “on the spectrum.” Black Ranger Zack Taylor, played by Ludi Lin, is an Asian-American boy taking care of his mother on bed rest (Fiona Fu). Finally, we have Trini Kwan; a misunderstood girl who is lesbian, played by the hot rapper Becky G, and is also the Yellow Ranger. (Baumgarten credited, “Kudos to the filmmakers for creating the multicultural mix of black, Asian, Latina, and female Rangers, a move which is, nevertheless, undercut by making the white, male quarterback the leader of the group.”)

For a good part of the film, we learn about these kids (three of them are first seen in detention) and see them get trained by Zordon, who now has his face on the Command Center’s wall (looking like one of those old toys that kids used to put their faces and hands on to make a needle copy of), and Zordon’s robot companion Alpha 5, voiced by Bill Hader. The final action is put into the film’s final act. “Power Rangers” feels like a mixture of “The Breakfast Club,” “Transformers,” “The Walking Dead,” and different superheroes like “Spider-Man,” “The Avengers” and “Man of Steel.” The film actually makes a couple of references to Michael Bay’s “Transformers” series. The attacks ruins the student’s hometown of Angel Grove (which we have seen in “The Avengers” and “Man of Steel”) as they learn to work together and bring their Zords together to make the MegaZord with their metallic suits to beat Rita Repulsa, who walks through the streets looking with her rock giant Goldar, voiced by Fred Tatasciore, for gold to eat, along with the Zeo Crystal, that Billy says is inside a Krispy Kreme (product placement anyone?). Baumgarten credited, “The donut chain’s product placement pays off handsomely in the end. From now on, I fear I will always subliminally think of Krispy Kremes as harbors for the crystalline source of life. Alas, all that shines there is glazed sugar.”

As I have already stated, I wasn’t surprised that I felt this film was just average. It’s a mediocre, enjoyable film, but that’s about it. However, I will say that this is the “Power Rangers” film that I wouldn’t mind seeing again, as opposed to the 90s movies. As an old school “Power Rangers” fan who grew up watching the original show in the 90s all the way up to “Wild Force,” I remember eagerly waiting to come back home from school every day just to watch this show. In the end, if you want to watch this film, go ahead, but I don’t recommend it, seeing how I just thought this was ok. There is a lot of good stuff in the film, but it wasn’t enough for me to give it a higher rating. I just give it a “Go, Go Power Mediocrity.”

No surprise that they are planning sequels to this film. They are actually going to make this into a six-film franchise. I would imagine that in the next film they introduce Tommy since in the mid-credits scene (spoilers) the detention teacher, played by John Stewart, is giving attendance, and Tommy is not at his seat, except for his green jacket. Also, Jason David Frank and Amy Jo Johnson make a quick cameo in this movie.

Thanks for joining in on my review of this film. Stay tuned to see what I have in store for everybody in April.