Reviewing Movies

In the first place there really is a red fern.

This movie is based on the book of the same title by Wilson Rawls. Although it is not to my knowledge on any Canadian Syllabus it is apparently required reading by at least half of all classrooms in the USA. Therefore the story is widely known. I have read the book but the background information about how it was written is new to me and quite fascinating. For more background see:

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rawls.html

Not surprisingly, this is not the only movie treatment given this book but this version gives the story the full Disney Treatment. My one observation would be that if Dave Matthews were only an inch or two shorter he could pass for Billy Coleman his son played by Joseph Ashton. Only 11 years separate the two and as the picture above shows he looks boyishly young. As grampa Dabney Coleman inhabits the part fully.

This being a Disney show although Billy covers the smokehouse wall with coon skins we never see one shot even during the competition where guns are present. One of the Pritchard boys gets killed but we are not shown his injury. Given the violence that permeates the media these days this seems to be a rather sanitized version of the story. Watching it gave me the perverse notion that it should bear a Restricted to those 10 years of age or under rating.

Dante’s Cove is an island beach resort where clothing is optional and even the women have buns of steel and six-packs. The producers don’t spend a great deal on wardrobe but must supply sun tan oil by the 45 gallon drum. Aside from the parade of taut bodies there is much coupling which takes place wherever the spirit moves mano a mano, female on female, and even hetero on rare occasions. I’ve gotten accustomed to gay sex on screen but must say I still don’t see the point of the lesbian variety. Into the mix is thrown witchcraft and magic, ancient curses and demon power—the casting of spells, Wiccan, and Druidic Rites. People don’t just get murdered here; they just plain disappear or get reduced to little piles of ash.

In the end though the reason for watching this guilty pleasure is the boys; and they are beautiful.

By the time Season Five of 21 Jump Street rolled out in 1990 I was no longer watching it. After all these years I don’t remember why but there was probably something else programmed at the same time in those years before VCR’s became generally in use. By season five it would appear that Johnny Depp’s contract had run out and he was too hot a commodity to remain on the small screen so he made the jump to movies opening in Edward Scissorhands that year. Dustin Nguyen left as well. In the first two episodes of season 5 David Barry Gray appears as Garrett but doesn’t remain long enough to rate as anything but a guest, he isn’t even an officer in every episode in which he appears. Michael Bendetti is then introduced in episode 3 as Officer Tony (Mac) McCann. Apparently the huskier Gray lacked sufficient ‘sex’ appeal. The ‘hunk’ factor had no part in the arrival of the chunky Peter DeLuise’s brother Michael as Joey Penhall; both having inherited their father’s fat genes. Although Holly Robinson and DeLuise remain both are now too mature to go undercover as teens so they infiltrate as substitute teachers.

There doesn’t appear to be any lack of new original ideas or writing quality in these new episodes; nor is there any fall-off in production values. It would seem the loss of it’s original stars and the fact that the cast members out-grew their roles led to the show’s demise.

To appreciate Beowulf it helps if you’ve read the book though you’ll be hard-pressed to recognize the original story in this Hollywood rewrite. The saga is an oral tradition and the producers of this adult animated movie engaged Neil Gaiman to create a storyline that would hold up to modern viewers on the big screen. Indeed there is a 3-D IMAX version of this film. Though an ancient English saga this tale has its origins in ancient Viking mythology complete with longboats, mead halls and dragons.

The mead hall scenes are deliciously licentious and bawdy with much debauchery, drunkenness, and ribald humour. King Hrothgar wanders around for much of the movie with little but a poorly draped rag to cover his immodest parts and he makes no pretense in taking a nubile “bed-warmer” to his chambers in front of his Queen.

If the storyline and the monsters that drive this plot are totally improbable the animation which presents them is utterly realistic leaving one to pinch oneself to remember that the characters on screen are not live actors. If computer technology ever masters the production of believable human speech Hollywood will be able to dispense with over-priced stars altogether.

If your imagination allows you to engage the fantastical elements of this story you’re in for a wild ride. move

Being a mountainous country it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Afghanistan has been a popular place to engage in kite flying. This is a country that still plays a game on horseback that involves a carrying around a dead goat; a competition that can actually kill people. Therefore I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that kite flying is also an aggressive sport involving cutting your competitor’s kite string with your own.

As the better off of the duo about whom this story is told Amir is not a nice guy. Feeling jealous of the attention paid his friend Hassan, the son of his father’s servant he engineers the circumstance that leads to their departure from his home. Thus when, having escaped to American when the Taliban take over his homeland after the Russian Invasion his return to seek out the offspring of his now deceased childhood friend is as much an exercise in remorse as anything else.

Amir has always been bookish and reclusive; never standing up for himself in anything. His friend Hassan, though nearly half his size has the heart of a lion and fought their joint battles while Amir watched often in hiding. Nothing much changes when he returns to Afghanistan and he is given a beating by the Taliban leader he attempts to confront in seeking the release of his dead friend’s son. Indeed it is that boy who helps engineer their eventual escape.

There are no heroes here, only flawed human beings attempting to make their way through life as best they can despite the obstacles that get thrown in their way. The movie was shot in China and California not the country in which it is set. The most engaging portions of the movie centre on the early relationship between the two boys. The bond that is set there drives the remainder of the film.