The Great Escape

 

                Now on to an epic WWII film that I've never seen before, again my own brother was pushing me to watch movies that were in the range of iconic moreover needed to watch these kinds of films to be a cinema fan. Having watched The Great Escape I can now vent and state that there are a few things that are not right with this movie, and that's The GREAT Escape. For many reasons this was not the great escape I've ever witness on screen because for me the only way to consider this the GREAT escape is if the POW's made it out of Germany or Japan and I hate to tell you all this but only three people made it out. The good news is that I can name you a few name ideas to change the title and that's the Half-A** Escape or even the Mediocre Escape, but one you can't use a curse word for a film title and second the other option wouldn't fit on a movie poster.

               Imprisoned during World War II in a German POW camp, a group of Allied soldiers are intent on breaking out, not only to escape, but also to draw Nazi forces away from battle to search for fugitives. Among the prisoners determined to escape are American Captain Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) and British Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborourgh). Outwitting their captors by digging a tunnel out of the prison grounds, the soldiers find their stakes much higher when escape becomes a reality.

               If I hadn't seen the greatest POW movie ever, Stalag 17 with William Holden I would for sure consider this a great movie. Unfortunately I have seen Stalag 17 many of times and so, through the course of watching this film for the first time I felt like it was every other POW film I've ever seen especially with a forgotten POW film called Harts War with Colin Farrell and Bruce Willis even though Harts War is more of a same movie to the Great Escape when you think about it. I will admit that I wanted to like this movie I really do, for all the hard core's that may think about trolling me about saying negative things about the movie and so, I really want you all to know that I wanted to like this film from the bottom of my heart. That being said when you pit this movie with Stalag 17, Billy Wilder's film wins handily because it's the most realistic tone, mainly because if you look at Stalag 17 it's set in the winter time, it's cold and miserable hell, Animal is basically wearing nothing but overalls, a big coat and nothing but slippers furthermore he's having to trudge through the mud hell even I would be miserable. But more importantly there's no sense of escape until the solution reveals itself until the final act of the movie, with this movie there really doesn't seem a whole lot of realism I can get from watching the Great Escape a side that they are all in a prisoner of war camp and their trying to escape, and yet they try to escape during the first part of the movie in which if I were the Nazi's yeah, I would be annoyed with these guys and lock them up in the cooler for a month at least, moreover the other thing I found unrealistic is the prisoners are all caught and brought to the camp during the summer time in which I wouldn't even want to escape because it's at least nice outside and I can be like Steve McQueen's character and just use my baseball and glove to keep me occupied though sure I would imagine the food being terrible and trying to go to sleep would be a nightmare but at least I'm getting some fresh air as well as being in the nice part of the outdoors of Germany, I mean the horrible things prisoners felt during WWII Japan prisons hell, I'd be enjoying myself in the great outdoors of Germany if I was a prisoner of war, though I would most certainly eat my own words once the winter hits. I will say, the main problem I had with the movie is, what I like to call the training montage where all of the prisoners are prepping to escape the compound for which took approximately in hour and thirty minutes and once I paused the movie for obvious reasons I needed a piss break furthermore saw the amount of time I spent I was like OMG! Like they could of cut a good chunk of that portion out of the whole movie and just focus on getting out of Germany and into Switzerland, granted yes it takes a long time to dig that whole tunnel so they can escape but, that whole 90 minutes of the prisoner's working as well as fooling the Nazi's was just everything I saw in Stalag 17, and true I'm mentioning to much of Billy Wilder's film but wouldn't it be more convenient, for writers and director, John Sturges to watch Wilder's POW film and say okay let's not do that, though the interesting thing once I did my research was that according to Sturges, the screenplay went through six writers and eleven versions, and was still work in progress during the filming. For which in his own words he said, "I'm not proposing that's a good way to take a picture but was the right way to make this one", I mean sure, yeah you could probably have gotten away with that in this movie but for me that's like a huge train wreck going through the course of the movie. The convenient thing I learned about the movie, was Steve McQueen accepted the lead role if he could show off his motorcycle skills which is a "OF COURSE" moment because he knew he could show off how much of an adrenaline junkie he is and I would most certainly imagine director Sturges during the process of writing the script, went to the writers and said that we have to incorporate a motorcycle scene and all the writers ugh because they were miserable. And yet the biggest disappointing factor about the movie, was that it wasn't Steve McQueen doing those fence jumps, it was his own stunt double, for which even Johnny Carson himself, when interviewing McQueen loved that stunt but was bummed when it wasn't him. I do have mixed emotions about the movie and I wished they at least have some structure in this movie for obvious reasons way to much training montage which becomes way to boring and I wished they would just at least cut sixty minutes of that training montage and at least focus more on getting out of Germany despite the fact that all of the escapees were sent back and majority of them were killed, either way I praise the movie for its action but it still is obnoxiously long. Though I am going to give Steve McQueen one last chance because I haven't seen Bullitt but if that movie doesn't live up to the hype I think I'm going to be done with McQueen once and for all.  

                    

Easter Sunday Recommendation: The Prince of Egypt

 

              Usually, I would review a new season of The Chosen since they made the genius idea of putting out the new season in your local theaters. Sadly, I couldn’t watch the first part of season five of the Chosen because they just released each part every week and I didn't realize this until it was too late. So, hopefully next year I'll have back-to-back reviews of seasons five and six of The Chosen. But for now, I have a movie that's been quite a long time since I watched this amazing film. Moreover, it reminds me of the legendary actor, Val Kilmer's passing two weeks ago. The Prince of Egypt is an amazing animated Biblical movie released in 1998, but more importantly launched DreamWorks Animation in an all-out rivalry with Disney Animations. For the time being, in my Monthly recommendation of April when I talked about what makes a good or great catholic movie or show in acquiring great actors. The Prince of Egypt is another great example of that.

               An Animated retelling of the Book of Exodus adopted Prince Moses (Val Kilmer), upon discovering his roots as a Jewish slave, embarks on a quest to free his people from bondage. When his plea is denied by his brother Ramses (Ralph Fiennes), the new Pharoah, a series of horrific plagues strike Egypt.

               It's always kind of a strange ironic twists on life that certain broadcasters and even actors played a huge impact on your childhood, and of all actors in the world the late great Val Kilmer was a big part of it I mean I remember watching Batman: Forever and he was my sort of very first Batman movie experience, and then three years later he provides his voice in what may be the most iconic biblical movies of all time. Moreover even into my teenage years, I begin to watch the movie Heat, and Val Kilmer provides supporting role for legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro so, I all retrospect Val Kilmer was a big part of my childhood in movies, almost the same way Joe Buck was a big part of my childhood when it comes to sports, with the exception of Monday Night Football because that technically doesn't count. The great thing about this movie and this is an important fact, is Kilmer doesn't just play Moses but he also provides the voice of God, as great of a voices he provides for Moses, he does an outstanding job in providing the voice for God because once you hear his voice in the burning bush scene it's just so great as well as so powerful, that you get chills hearing it on your TV screen, and even the creators made a decision that Kilmer would provide the voice for God moreover they made the best decision ever. To make a brief history on the development of the Prince of Egypt, former Walt Disney Studio's chairman Jeffery Katznberg had always wanted to produce a film adaption of the life of Moses. Unfortunately, the turn of events happened during his final years with Disney that forced him to resign, and so Katznberg came in to form DreamWorks Pictures, with Amblin Entertainment and Steven Spielberg. So, Katznberg talks about wanting to tackle bigger-than-life-stories like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Terminator as well as Lawrence of Arabia and of all people to pitch the greatest ideas, Spielberg told Katznberg face to face and told him that he should do The Ten Commandments, and rest became animation history. I've said before when making a great and memorable Christian or Biblical story, is to assemble a cast of talented actors, even if you can't afford a certain actor or any actor you always have to find any talented actor that can fit the mold in telling the story like the Prince of Egypt, and you have a great ensemble group of actors supporting Val Kilmer and Ralph Fiennes like Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren long before she won in Oscar for the Queen and even the surprising greats in Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny Glover along with Steve Martin and Martin Short, I mean that's what I call assembling a great list of actors in this one animated biblical movie. Though the supporting list of actors is great, the best one that stands out among the supporting group was Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock who plays Moses’s sister Miriam. Now granted there some of Sandra Bullock's films that I'm not a huge fan of but when it comes to this film she really does a tremendous job being the soul and support to Moses, not matter if he wanted to believe it at first but listens even when he has doubt and Bullock does a great job playing that part in the film. And even with religion involved, the production team including Jeffery Katznberg conferred with roughly 600 religious experts to make this movie accurate and faithful to the original story as possible. After previewing the developing movie, all the religious scholars, experts, and leaders associated in making in the making of this movie noted that the studio executives listened and responded to their ideas and praised the studio for reaching out for comment from outside sources so, talk about late nineties listening for once unlike today. There many Christian and Biblical movies out there that are classics from start to finish (moreover they don't make them anymore in terms of movies), but Prince of Egypt stands the test of time being one of the all-time greats in animations, as well as biblical genre and for certain whenever your celebrating Passover or Easter with your family, I would highly recommend watching the Ten Commandments. But no question whenever it's Passover or Easter season I would highly recommend watching the Prince of Egypt because there's something about Hans Zimmer's music as well as the songs and more importantly the cast of great actors. And even if your kids can't be patient with the Ten Commandments, the youngsters of today would for certain enjoy The Prince of Egypt until the final frame goes to black.

     

                 

April Recommendation: The Third Miracle

 

             Closing in on Easter Sunday, everyone. Though usually and yet technically Easter always begins in April and for some reason a year ago it started on the last day of March. And granted I don't make the laws in the world, but it does get confusing sometimes when Lent begins in the earlier parts of February or the earliest part of March either way makes no sense. Okay getting back on track, we are indeed closer to Easter and as always in my monthly recommendations I talk about faith-based movies. And the Third Miracle is most certainly one of these hidden gems that need to be out of the darkness and brought back into the light. Staring ever talented Ed Harris and the late Anne Heche though I should be making some jokes, but I can't mainly I don't have any as well as, it's not been long enough years to take something tragic to become funny, just ask David Carradine.

             Roman Catholic priest Frank Shore (Ed Harris), who is struggling with his faith, is an investigator in the canonization process of a woman who is said to have performed miracles during -- and after -- her lifetime. Shore interviews the woman's daughter, Roxanne (Anne Heche), who tells him of the horrible neglect she suffered from the would-be saint. The priest must reconcile the daughter's stories with other tales of the woman's worthiness, while also wrestling with his own carnal desires.

             The Third Miracle was another one of these movies that my Mother has been recommending me for quite some time, and in all fairness I was either not sure what to make of this movie mainly because Anne Heche didn't make a whole lot of good movies or thinking of other things that necessarily don't matter because I now watched the movie furthermore consider it worthy for my monthly recommendations. Anyway, this is one of those hidden gems that is great from start to finish, and yet how did this film get lost in the realm of good movies, though sure it obviously didn't do well at the box office like most hidden gem treasures. But this was a really good film that blends a lot of great themes between miracles and reason, moreover you have a protagonist played by Ed Harris whose a struggling priest, having doubts on his faith and yet he begins to see things that can't be explained he can't go back from it and realizes that he needs to fight for this woman's worthiness to become a saint. What's also great about the movie not just miracle vs reason, but the film explores family relationships as well as the struggle to reconcile faith with personal experiences and there are moments in my life and today where I just have troubles with my faith and I don't even know how to express these emotions but in the end I tend to go to church for some piece and silence as well as reading the bible. Ed Harris is exceptionally great in this movie, I mean anything the man does from being in a supportive role or playing an anti-hero, he always finds ways in making his role memorable. As great as, Ed Harris was in the movie, actor Armin Mueller-Stahl shines in the supporting role as Arch Bishop Werner, who challenges Harris's character as to what is and what's not a true miracle or false miracle and there battles in the third act of the film are great, for many reasons they have these great points about priests or bishop's judging people in their troubles almost as if they think their God, and I had to watch the film twice for reasons I felt I missed something when watching the movie the first time and watching the film again I begin to spend the missing piece that I've been missing and it was a mind blown experience and the other surprising notion when looking up Stahl's filmography is that he was the antagonist in Eastern Promises (a film that praised Viggo Mortenson's performance), for which I was surprised as well as thought it was cool. Granted the film is not perfect in fact their certain scenes or subplots I wished they would have taken out, but neither is the remake to 1959 classic Ben Hur and for anyone who needs a reminder, yes there was a remake released in 2016 with Morgan Freeman. But what the 2016 version Ben Hur and The Third Miracle have in common is they both have themes in religion that give the films interesting take for the movie and with The Third Miracle this for sure explores a lot of great themes of faith and doubt but more importantly struggling with keeping your faith as well. Furthermore, The Third Miracle is another great example like The Chosen, when you make a great Christian movie or show, is to surround the story with great actors. For a moment I wasn't sure if this movie would be able to be seen but thank the Lord himself as well as Tubi, because Tubi when I looked up the movie is featured on the streaming app so, for all Christians, Jewish or Muslims even Non-Believers, I would most certainly check this movie out in the month of April for great acting as well as great themes that would make great discussions for anyone who have their own struggles between faith and doubt. 

     

            

On the Waterfront

 

               

          Trying to find movies I haven't touched in my 38 years of existence, and well, it does occur to me that I haven't seen any of Marlon Brando's earlier films. Granted, a lot of this must go to my brother's credit for many reasons once I told him of many movies I haven't seen well, the rest you'll figure out. On the Waterfront is Marlon Brando's first of two Academy Awards, furthermore, launched his career into high standards. The funny thing about this movie is, browsing through the movie on Wikipedia is a huge story about McCarthyism for which I don't know how this has anything to do with communism hell, not to go in so much detail but the way I got out of this movie was that it's all about corruption as well as faith and justice. 

          Dockworker Terry Mallory (Marlon Brando) had been an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuaded him to throw a fight. When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charlie (Rod Steiger).

           What I like most about the movie and this was coming into at least fifteen minutes into the movie is that the film was made for only 910,000 dollars, though sure back then it's a typical big budget but if you make this film now it's mostly nothing compared to making movies right now. Moreover what struck me more about the film was it's real locations in fact majority of the film was shot in Hoboken, New Jersey, but getting to the point when you see real locations at times on film in the thirties, forties or fifties it almost feels like they only shoot at local studio lots and the only time you see real locations are either in westerns back when they were making cowboy films or The Third Man staring Orson Wells. And so, with this movie it feels like a real city their shooting at including the docks of the harbor as well and even the church for which I liked about the movie mainly because it's really the trend of one director making a film work where the actors are making the film believable. The most important thing in what makes this film great is that you see Marlon Brando's rise to stardom in this film, and he really does a fantastic job in this film as well as being the lead in what lead to his rise to fame and the interesting thing about the filming, is that Brando's mother had recently died furthermore he had to go into therapy to resolve his issues with his parents so, when you watch the movie through, you can see the pain and emotion he's bringing through the course of the film. The other thing in what makes the films great to watch is not only just Marlon Brando is that they have acquired a bunch of talented actors in the supporting roles like Lee J. Cobb who I remember seeing 12 Angry Men, and he played the last guy to say not guilty and Karl Madden who played the abusive father to Anthony Perkins in Fear Strikes Out and I thought his performance was great because he's doing everything to give faith to the people about the corruption in their town as well as convincing Brando's character to not use violence but give faith by testifying against Cobb's character. I would most certainly recommend, for everyone to watch one of Marlon Brando's earlier works but more importantly shows a ton of themes of corruption and crime as well as Christianity blending through the course of the movie. Furthermore, whenever I see a movie that has a low budget and depends on talented actors, I'm always intrigued in seeing films like On the Waterfront.

          

60th Anniversary of The Sound of Music

 

           Well believe it friends, the impossible has happened. The Sound of Music has just reached its sixtieth birthday. And I got to tell you, the more these classic movies get older the more I start to realize how much I'm getting older. If I had to pick at least one movie/musical in my mom and dad's all-time favorite movie/musicals of all time it would most certainly be The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews fresh off her success in Mary Poppins and another up and coming actor, Christopher Plummer for which you'd be surprised in terms of how young he was in the mid-sixties. So, everyone, let's all grab our guitars, play clothes as well as find the nearest mountain we can climb and together, we'll solve the great unsolved mystery in "How do you solve the problem like Maria".

           Based on the real-life story of the Von Trapp family singers, one of the world's best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II. Julie Andrews plays the role of Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey who becomes a governess in the home of a widowed navel captain with seven children and brings a new love of life and music into the home.

           The movie is based off the memoir of real-life Maria Von Trapp, who published the book around 1949, to help promote her family's singing group following the death of her husband in 1947. Through the course, Hollywood producers hounded interest in purchasing the title only, but Maria refused, wanting her entire story to be told. Amid 1956, Paramount purchased the US rights, and while the film was going through a stressful negotiation, producers approached Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to compose one song for the movie. But the composers felt differently about the idea furthermore offered producers to write a new score for the entire production if the producers were willing to wait while they completed a recent project. The producers (hopefully Paramount) agreed with the terms for which leads to both men creating a Stage Musical to the Sound of Music for which led to a ton of Tony awards including Best Musical. Sadly though, Paramount's plans fell through and in June of 1960, Twentieth Century-Fox purchasing the film adaption rights to the stage musical and the rest became history. The smartest thing Fox at the time did was hire one of the directors of West Side Story, Robert Wise to direct Sound of Music, in which I almost envision a water cooler moment were everyone in charge of the movie are just like "hey, how about hiring the guy who won best director for West Side Story", "Who? Jerome Robbins", "No, Robert Wise", though a long story indicating Robbins being fired and Wise taking over. The surprising factor is that a lot of the movie was shot first in the studios in Los Angeles and then went to Salzburg, Austria where a lot of the filming was done so, basically all the scenes from Maria's bedroom and the Abbey cloister and the graveyard were all filmed at 20th Century Fox studios. It's been close to fifteen years since I sat down and watched West Side Story, but deep down if I had to choose which musical to watch that Wise directed, I wouldn't hesitate in picking The Sound of Music, mainly because this film is an iconic film moreover Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest achievement in film adaption, though sure West Side Story for sure has great imagery as well as scenery in terms of the color and more importantly staging the musical numbers but at the end of the day West Side Story is a modern day telling of Romeo and Juliet and it's tragic so, who wants to watch a movie especially when one of them dies, sorry not sorry but here's the thing Tony dies at the end which in all Musical standards that's just eh. But with Sound of Music you have a great director who knows how to make movies as well as being able to put the camera where the right shot would look and feel great at especially when you see some of the wide angle shots they look incredible when it blends with the performances and dances, and even when we get to the helicopter shots in like the opening scene when you first see Julie Andrews character and she does her infamous twirl, now I can guarantee they hand to zoom in because they didn't want to have the chopper be blowing the grass and yet I don't know how they were able to pull that off and yet, still looks amazing at the same time. But more importantly it also has suspense by the midst of the third act where you feel worried for the family and the standoff is great even though I remember seeing this movie for a thousand times. Look deep down there's nothing to say about the cast especially Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, like these two are amazing actors and actresses that after this movie they become living legends. I even love the puppy dog love between Charmain Carr and Daniel Truhitte who plays Liesl Von Trapp and Rolfe I mean their performance of is always puts a smile. In all my Childhood memories, I grew up with musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis and then watch other Rogers and Hammerstein films like Oklahoma and South Pacific for which I may have to look into those films because it's been quite a long time for those movies, but I have to say that The Sound of Music for me is the one of the greatest of all musicals and I may be talking crazy in saying Sound of Music is better than Wizard of Oz but granted I haven't thought out my top five greatest musicals of all Time. Though there's something special of Sound of Music that puts a smile on your face from beginning to the very end of the final frame, and I watched forty minutes of Hamilton with my niece and I'd feel like Musicals now aren't the same so thank God for these movies like The Sound of Music where we can begin watching the film and it still stands the test of time and so, sixty years, time well tested for The Sound of Music.