Below are some links to good reviews of some good movies that we liked that you might have missed in the theater. They are now available on Blu-Ray and DVD.
(1) Obsessed with Film gives It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010) a mediocre review, but I kind of like its conclusion that if the movie is “taken as a light-hearted comedy that weaves in a few serious issues in along the way, then it’s not too bad.” I agree there is a lot one may criticize about the film, but if you just go with this coming-of-age story about a teen facing depression who checks himself into a mental hospital, it is an enjoyable movie. It was refreshing to see Zach Galifianakis play a more serious role than he does in movies like the Hangover films.
(2) Unstoppable (2010) features big stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, so it was not under the radar when released. But like me, you may have missed it when it was in theaters. The movie, based on a true story, is about a train with nobody on board that is running on the rails through towns at high speed. The cast, including Rosario Dawson, is excellent and Washington and Pine do a great job as two regular Joe railroad workers. Unstoppable is not your typical action movie.
Because Unstoppable is based on a true story, it is not overblown and is realistic, focusing on character as well as some excellent tense action sequences. It creates a nice balance between story and action. Big Hollywood has a good review. See the preview below.
(3) Finally, Listal.com has a list of “The 20 Most Underrated Movies and More. . .” Most of the choices are very good, including In the Valley of Elah and A Perfect World (and I even found lesser movies like Fever Pitch entertaining). There are a few I have not seen yet, but the list makes me want to check them out.
{Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they may not have received the recognition they deserved when released.}
What did you think of these movies? Leave a comment.
James Arness passed away today at the age of 88. Arness was best known for his role as Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955-1975. I remember regularly watching the show as a kid, as well as his performance in the mini-series How the West Was Won (1978-1979). Those were the days when a man was a man and we did not have politicians lying about a mistress and sending crotch shots. Oh wait, there was Watergate, and maybe some other stuff. But Arness was the real deal. For his army service in World War II, he received the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
Several websites have stories about Arness, including Entertainment Weekly’s explanation why Arness was the greatest TV lawman and E! Online’s list of 5 reasons Arness was a legend. He was so cool, he apparently had had not one but two “official” websites.
Although the role of Matt Dillon was originally offered to John Wayne, Wayne recommended Arness. The Duke introduced the first episode in 1955 with high praise for his friend Arness. In Wayne’s introduction, he predicts Arness will be a big star, “so you might as well get used to him.” That was pretty easy for us to do.
What are your memories of James Arness and Gunsmoke? Leave a comment.
On Sunday, May 22, 2011, Joseph Brooks — the writer of the song “You Light Up My Life” — was found dead in his Manhattan apartment, apparently having killed himself while waiting trial for the sexual assault of more than twelve women. Prosecutors claimed that he brought women to his apartment through an online ad saying he was giving auditions for a movie role, and then he allegedly drugged and raped them.
According to some reports, he would sometimes show the Academy Award he won for “You Light Up My Life” to help gain the trust of the young women. In killing himself, the 73-year-old Brooks wrapped a plastic bag around his head and attached it to a helium tank. On top of those allegations, his son was arrested five months earlier for strangling his girlfriend to death.
A jury had yet to hear the case against Brooks, so we do not know the extent of his guilt or innocence of the charges. His 3-page rambling suicide note left no clues about the alleged crimes and alluded to his health problems, as he had suffered a stroke in 2008 followed by declining health.
For those of us who grow up hearing Debby Boone’s version of the song “You Light Up My Life,” it was a sad coda to the story behind the mega-popular song, which originally was sung by Kasey Cisyk for a movie of the same name. Actress Didi Conn lip-synced the song in the movie, which was written and directed by Brooks. The song won the 1977 Grammy for Song of the Year and an Academy Award, and Boone’s version set records as the biggest hit of the 1970s. But it was so overplayed, I doubt that many people listen to the song nowadays except at weddings.
“You Light Up My Life” is still a very good song, but we are just sick of it, on top of the covers by LeAnn Rimes, Whitney Houston, and others. Still, I cannot help wondering how the news about Brooks will affect how people hear the song.
In music, can you hear the artist’s life in the song? In addition to Brooks, consider producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector, and how his conviction might affect how we view the great songs he produced throughout his career. Maybe because Spector was a producer and not the performer, his troubles do not hinder my enjoyment of his songs, such as one of my favorite songs of all time, “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes. But I do sometimes think about the man when I hear the songs, wondering if the madness occasionally peeks through the swirling layered sounds.
Brooks’s ending may tarnish “You Light Up My Life” more than Spector’s life may tarnish his songs. Spector’s work was so broad with different artists, while Brooks’s work will always be summed up with “You Light Up My Life” as his one gigantic hit song. Thus, while each Spector-produced song may carry a little part of his madness, “You Light Up My Life” bears the entire weight of Brooks’s demise. But it is also true that the relationship between the artist’s crimes and her or his music may diminish over time, such as in the case of other artists like Lead Belly or Chuck Berry.
To a large extent, most of us probably enjoy music because we like how it sounds, not because of the life of the musicians. I enjoy music by jerks too, but when the artist is a decent person, it can add something. It may be something unconscious in the back of one’s mind, but I like to think that upon listening to the whole body of work of some artists, their decency may come through into their songs.
For example, I feel fortunate that two of my favorite artists have been Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle, not only because of their great music but because they have struggled to live good lives. Like all humans, they are not perfect, but I was lucky that after I was drawn to their music I later discovered their work for good causes and attempts to be decent men. You may find it in other artists you like, such as John Lennon, Emmylou Harris, Elton John, or U2, which has been involved with causes such as Amnesty International.
Can I find the troubled mind of Joseph Brooks in “You Light Up My Life” now? I may be imagining what I hear in 2011 in the song that won the Academy Award and the Grammy so long ago in 1977. But now the sadness of the song stands out a little bit more. I hear it in Debby Boone’s recording, and I hear it in this 1979 version below by punk rocker Patti Smith on “Kids Are People Too.” In Smith’s performance, she is accompanied on piano by a young Joseph Brooks, decades before he knew how his life would end.
At around 3:10, Smith, who also performed the song in concert, begins explaining why she chose “You Light Up My Life.” With the brilliant Patti Smith, though, one may speculate there is more to the reason she often sang the song. Brooks appears at around 3:45.
Do you think the lives of the artists affect how you see and hear their work? Do hidden stories, like the story behind “Heartbreak Hotel” affect the music? Leave a comment.
In honor of the NBA finals, Chimesfreedom presents a quiz about one of the greatest basketball movies of all time, Hoosiers. Since our previous Baseball Movie Quote Quiz, we gained the technology to make a quiz more reader-friendly, so we hope you enjoy these twelve questions to test your Hoosiers knowledge.
Your score and the answers, as well as explanations for some of the answers, appear at the end.
How did you do? Were you surprised by any of the answers? Leave a comment.
This final installment of the Chimesfreedom analysis of the Lonesome Dove franchise concludes with our overall recommendations. Additionally, we rank the performances of the six actors who played the main character in the series.
In the previous posts, Chimesfreedom rated on a scale of 1-10 the various miniseries, listed here in chronological order: Dead Man’s Walk (7), Comanche Moon (5), Lonesome Dove (10), Return to Lonesome Dove (8), and Streets of Laredo (6). We also discussed the two seasons of the syndicated television series, starting with the first season, Lonesome Dove: The Series (4), and ending with Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (6), a hidden gem. See the previous posts for more details (links below).
Where should you start?
If you have already seen the original Lonesome Dove, you have a number of options. If you wish only to learn about events directly connected to the original, you might watch Comanche Moon and Return to Lonesome Dove, skipping the independent stories of Dead Man’s Walk and Streets of Laredo. You could start with Dead Man’s Walk and follow the characters chronologically. Or, if you are only interested in Larry McMurtry’s vision, you might watch all of them except Return to Lonesome Dove and the television series, which are the ones that do not follow his books.
For most people, though, you probably want to start with the superior original Lonesome Dove. If you like it, you may pursue the other series. And if you do not like Lonesome Dove, you probably will not like any of the other series and should go on to something else. Then, if you do like Lonesome Dove, what next? The next best series and the one that continues the great story the best, is Return to Lonesome Dove. So I recommend following the sequels before delving into the prequels.
Bonus Ranking of the Woodrow Calls
After watching all of the series together, one realizes that the entire franchise is about Woodrow F. Call. In each of the five miniseries and briefly in the television series, Woodrow is played by a different actor, leading to another question: How do you rank the six different Woodrows?
Chimesfreedom ranks them: (1) Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove; (2) John Voight in Return to Lonesome Dove; (3) Johnny Lee Miller in Dead Man’s Walk;(4) James Garner in Streets of Laredo; (5) Karl Urban in Comanche Moon; and (6) Lee Majors in one episode of Lonesome Dove: The Series. In fairness to Majors, he had much less to work with than the other Woodrows.
Thus ends the Chimesfreedom series on Lonesome Dove. If you missed the previous posts on the franchise, check out Part 1 — where we considered the original Lonesome Dove and the prequels, Part 2 — where we rated the sequels, and Part 3 — where we discussed the weekly television series. If you are not sick of reading about Lonesome Dove by this point, there are a number of fan pages where you may seek out more information, including this fan page.
Which is your favorite Lonesome Dove series? Leave a comment.
Obsessed with Film gives It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010) a mediocre review, but I kind of like its conclusion that if the movie is “taken as a light-hearted comedy that weaves in a few serious issues in along the way, then it’s not too bad.” I agree there is a lot one may criticize about the film, but if you just go with this coming-of-age story about a teen facing depression who checks himself into a mental hospital, it is an enjoyable movie. It was refreshing to see Zach Galifianakis play a more serious role than he does in movies like the Hangover films.
from 1955-1975. I remember regularly watching the show as a kid, as well as his performance in the mini-series How the West Was Won (1978-1979). Those were the days when a man was a man and we did not have politicians 
. Since our previous
