Lawrence of Arabia

I watched this movie this week after having had it on my list for at least a year. David Lean along with Alfred Hitchcock has to be one of my favorite directors. This movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Dr Zhivago ( which will be reviewed soon) all have that Lean style which for me make them masterpieces.

I told my son that when I was a child I saw the Bugs Bunny cartoons and heard the " Overture, curtain, lights' song and it was these David Lean movies that made me know what that meant. Overture was the musical score that started to let people know the movie was about to start in a few minutes.

Lawrence of Arabia tells the story of T E Lawrence who led the Arab revolt in WWI against the Turks. Lawrence has to get the various tribes to work together to realize their potential to overthrow the Turks. The Arabs do not even realize that they are Arabs, to them it is a term they do not know, they think of themselves as whatever tribe they are. In truth this is much the same today in some of the countries of the middle east and leads to some of the governmental problems that exist.

The cast led by Peter O Toole, Omar Shariff, and Anthony Quinn is stellar.

Lawrence in his naivety however does not realize that should he help the Arabs kick out the Turks that the Brits and French already have plans to divide the spoils.

In the first half of the movie Lawrence earns the trust of his Arab armies and reports the success to his superiors in Cairo. The first half of this movie is a 10 if there ever was one.

The second half of the movie is very good. For an idealist like me however the real world seeps in. Lawrence after being captured and beaten, though not identified as his true self and thus released by the Turks goes a little mad. He is filled with bloodlust, this from the man who could not bear the thought of violence from his own hand. He develops a cult of personality around himself even as he realizes that in the end he is leading the Arabs to another doublecross from his own superiors. He rationalizes this to himself as he pushes for his goal of getting to Damascus first so that the Arabs can claim it as their own. At the first Arab council meeting it is apparent to him that though they have taken Damascus that they still consider themselves as individual tribes and that they have no capacity to govern.

In the end his time he is going home. Worse for wear, a little less of an idealist but a hero to many.

The second half of the movie rates an 8

Final rating 9.5. Fantastic

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

This movie was my most recent " I cannot sleep what's on HBO" find. I remember when it first came out and all the talk was of Jason Segal and his full nude scenes. And he did. But after you got over that the movie was good.

Playing Peter a composer dumped unceremoniously by his girlfriend Sarah Marshall ( Kristin Bell ) Segal is the star of the show. His everyman looks and natural likability carries the film. Kristin Bell is cute and attractive but her character is not likeable, although she does become more sympathetic when we hear of the rut Peter was in pre breakup.

Mila Kunis form That 70's Show is good as the hotel hostess who starts a relationship with Peter but for me the real surprise was the role of Aldous Snow played by Russell Brand. I had only known of Brand as the nasty comic host of MTV video awards and as Mrs Katy Perry of late but he was quite funny and likable in his role as Kristin Bell's new man.

Nothing unpredictable in this movie but at 1230 at night it was well worth a few chuckles.

Rating: 6

Role Models

Watching this movie I had few expectation. It was a silly, juvenile comedy from the Step Brothers, Superbad, one age bracket below Wedding Crashers family. Watching the movie though a funny thing happened. Yes it did have gratuitous use of words starting in F and rhyming with duck but underneath it there was a story that had value. Two young men who make their living selling energy drink to high school kids as a motivation to keep them off drugs have a bad day and end up before a judge. To get out of jail they end up in a program that pairs them with children in a day program. The movie is predictable, they are paired with an angry 10 year African American boy who swears like a pirate and likes boobies and 15 year old nerd who likes a live action role playing park where participants take on the rolls of knights, kings and lasses and such.

Against their will relationships form and in the end the adults grow , the kids prosper, the parents prosper and the boys get the girls. It is funny, and we do get to see lots of boobies. As these types of movies go this is one of the better ones.

Rating: 6.5

The Big Lebowski

I had heard so much about this movie. Festivals are dedicated to it. It is a real cult classic. The movie is enjoyable and watching it one can tell which lines are inevitably repeated by cultists like words from a higher power. Jeff Bridges as " The Dude" is wonderful and John Goodman plays the buffoon sidekick to the hilt. Somehow The Dude is caught in a caper involving kidnap, mistaken identity and embezzlement. The movie is much better than one might think it would be in reading a synopsis. Bridges is perfect in his role, the script is well done and I enjoyed this movie. It is not Anchorman but like that movie provides many lines which hordes of men of a certain age will quote endlessly. My wife would roll her eyes and call this another one of those movies that is not as good as I think but it was good...I give it a 7. It is not high brow but it does not claim to be. It does not need to be, it is the Big Lebowski


Rating: 7

Neil Young- 3 new albums

Over the weekend I used some gifted itunes cards and purchased some new Neil Young music. I did not have any of this mid seventies albums and also found his 2005 Prairie Wind album to very good. Listening to Borrowed Tune from Tonights the Night, Ambulance Blues from the On the Beach and Barstool Blues from Zuma shows that Neil truly was the artist of the decade in the seventies. Of all of them I think On the Beach is the best album although Tonights the Night may be the most meaningful written for his fallen band members.

Neil surely lives in my Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Big Love

Watching the most recent episode of Big Love this week something unusual happened. Bill has finally done something that makes his character beyond reproach. He, in order to save his campaign, let his best friend and business partner take the fall as a bigamist. Of course it is just a television show and as my wife and I say so many things happen week to week that the show is exhausting. It can only be on for short spurts because clearly this show would burn its viewers out were it on for a half a year.

I enjoy the show. My wife loves it. I find it entertaining. I just liked it better when Bill was not as bad as everyone else. Clearly now for all his good intent he is.

Pleasantville

I watched this movie last week. I had seen moments of it here and there as I flipped through on occasion but on this day I watched the full film. It is a good story. It hit home for me a bit as my son has had a fascination with The Brady Bunch. The appeal of the The Brady Bunch for today's children is understood. Today's world is busy, parents are stressed, and the family iwth a Mom, a maid and a happy Dad is a good story.

Much the same exists for the boy in Pleasantville. A " nerd" obsessed with a Nick at Nite like show called Pleasantville he ends up sucked into the television along with his not so nerdy sister played by Reese Witherspoon. Don Knotts has a funny turn as the TV repairman who sets up this descent into the television for the brother and sister.

Once in Pleasantville they become the siblings on the sitcom. However their presence starts changing things. Tobey Mcguire or Bud as he is known in Pleasantville helps Jeff Daniels learn that things can be done differently at the malt shop and eventually accepts cookies made for the star athlete but given to him after he puts out a fire. The fireman in Pleasantville did not know what to do as all they do on the television show is get cats out of trees. Reese Witherspoon soon attracts the attentions of the boys in town but when she teaches them that there is more to boy girl relationships than holding hands things go wrong quickly.

The books in the library soon have words and those people who come into contact with new ideas soon start to see in color and actually have color. This leads near the end to racism as someone is referred to as being " colored."

I am not sure if the movie has a deeper message.It is a good story though. William Macy as the Dad who is befuddled when his wife is no longer there when he says " Honey I'm Home " nor have dinner ready is very believable.

For those that enjoy the perfect world of the older sitcoms this is one look at how those shows might be if today's modern world intrudes. For me however the question might be why would we want to spoil the pretty view of Pleasantville. I liked the movie but still like The Brady Bunch more.

Rating: 6