Category: Movies

Movie Review: Absolution (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, One and a Half Stars, Two StarsLeave a comment

Liam Neeson plays an unnamed thug, a grizzled gangster and former boxer in Boston. He does thug jobs for a local small-time crime boss. He realizes that he is approaching the end of his “career” because he keeps forgetting basic stuff, like the names of his friends and places he was supposed to go. He has himself checked by a doctor and finds out he has Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repetitive brain trauma, such as concussions from boxing. There is no cure and no treatment. The doctor tells him it will just get worse. He won’t live long.

As a result, he tries to get his affairs in order. He finds a girlfriend who has her own ghosts but somehow sees a kindred spirit in him. He has a daughter whom he abandoned in his younger years and she has a son. The daughter wants nothing to do with him, but he manages to get a connection with the grandson and he tries to redeem himself.

But the underworld has him solidly in its grip, and he can’t escape.

Absolution is not a Liam Neeson old hero action movie. It’s a slow study of an aging gangster with no place to go. As such, it is difficult to watch. There is not much of a story, or lesson, or feel-good spirit. The thug has a bad life, and it’s not getting better.

Absolution is boring and deeply depressing film.

Movie Review: My Penguin Friend (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two StarsLeave a comment

My Penguin Friend is inspired by a true story.

A young Brazilian fisherman named João lives with his young wife Maria and their young son Miguel in a picturesque fishing village. On his birthday, Miguel asks to go out fishing with this father. The weather is not good, but João can’t say no to his son, and they row out. Soon a storm overtakes them and in the struggle to survive and get back, Miguel drowns. João’s heart is broken. 

The story skips forward several decades, and João and Maria still live in the same house. They are old now, but it appears that they have not touched Miguel’s room. They live in eternal grief with no apparent joy left in their lives. Just the hard work of a fisherman. 

One day, João rescues an injured penguin from an oil slick, brings him home, carefully cleans his coat, and feeds him back to strength. The penguin stays for a while, recovering, and a village girl gives him the name Dindim. Maria is not all that happy about the new pet in her kitchen, but she sees João blossoming with joy about being able to care for an animal that needs help. 

Penguins are migrant birds, and one day Dindim leaves for the south. To everyone’s surprise, and most of all to João’s, Dindim comes back the following winter to stay. And the next winter. João’s life is transformed. He has a penguin friend. 

I found out later on IMDb that 10 rescue penguins portrayed Dindim in the movie. Approximately 80% of the scenes feature real penguins. For the remaining 20%, where real penguins would face safety risks, CGI was used for 15% of the shots, while animatronics accounted for the final 5%.

This is a feel-good movie with a simple message, a little corny at times, but a nice change to the usually Hollywood fare of fast action and superheroes. It’s just about a man and his penguin friend.

Movie Review: Good One

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two StarsLeave a comment

Sam is a well-adjusted 17-year-old high school girl. Her father invites her to go on a backpacking trip in the Catskills, a couple of hours north of New York City. Scheduled to come with them are Chris’ best friend Matt, and his teenage son. But during the morning of the departure, Matt and his son have a huge fight, and Matt ends up going alone. His marriage is shot, and his son is suffering from it.

During the trip Matt and Chris are the immature ones, and Sam keeps an even keel. What 17-year-old girl wants to go hiking with her middle-age dad and his friend? Sam apparently does, and she actually enjoys herself. Until Matt does something very wrong.

Good One is a slow-moving film. I have hiked in the Catskills and the Adirondacks. It’s remote, green, muggy, buggy, often muddy, with rough trails and steep hills. It’s a place to get away from it all. Good One brings that to us. There is no sound track. Just crickets and frogs and bugs and talking. Most of the talking is done by the two men, unloading their problems, their regrets, their hurts, and the girl does most of the listening. The movie creates this slow walking mood that gradually turns into unease.

Then Sam takes charge.

Movie Review: The Six Triple Eight (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half Stars, War1 Comment

During World War II in Europe, mail delivery from and to the troops in the war became spotty at first and eventually was completely halted. Entire aircraft hangers filled up with undelivered bags of mail with no hope in sight. This demoralized the soldiers, who did not get any mail from home, and also created horrific anxiety when parents and relatives at home didn’t hear from their sons and daughters overseas in the war.

The 6888th Battalion was an all-black Woman’s Army Corps, with 855 female soldiers, commanded by Major Adams. The military brass didn’t believe women, let alone black woman, could meaningfully serve in the war. The soldiers faced open racial discrimination and abuse not only from common soldiers, but all the way from the general corps. When the 6888th was mobilized to Europe to sort and deliver the mail, nobody believed it was possible and they were set up to fail.

They were given six months to do the job, and Major Adams agreed to get it done. Little did she know that there were 17 million pieces of mail involved,  entire mountains of letters.

The Six Triple Eight is a historical drama with appearances of a few major actors in minor roles, including Dean Norris, who we know as Hank in Breaking Bad, as General Halt, Susan Sarandon as Eleonor Roosevelt and Sam Waterston as President Roosevelt. Also notable is Oprah Winfrey as Mary McLeod Bethune, the famous civil rights activist and member of the inner circle of Roosevelt. Kerry Washington does a remarkable job playing Major Adams.

This movie is about racial discrimination and the challenges black woman faced in the mid 20th century. There are a lot of heroes in the story, and eventually the underdogs succeed against all odds. It’s a bit of a tear jerker and overall a quite satisfying movie.

Movie Review: Conclave (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Three Stars1 Comment

I went to see the movie Conclave not expecting to enjoy it much. Its subject matter does not personally appeal to me.  The word conclave comes from the Latin word clavis (key) and the prefix con, which means a place that can be locked up.

Based on ancient church custom, the cardinals that elect the next pope are sequestered in the Sistine Chapel until a pope is chosen. It’s a very political process. Back through the ages, they just had to be locked in, but in today’s world of communication devices, mobile phones, and “bugs” this is a little more challenging. As everything related to the old Catholic religion, the process is terribly ritualized.

After the previous pope dies unexpectedly, his good friend, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is assigned the task of running the conclave. What he didn’t expect  was that he’d discover a trail of secrets and intrigues that could upset the politics of the church.

There are some tremendous plot twists along the way that make the movie not only an educational experience, teaching about this obscure process in the church, but give it the feel of a thriller.

 

 

 

 

Movie Review: Carry On (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

When we searched for a Christmas Movie on Christmas Eve, we found only the old and cheesy ones that we view every year, or the ones with bad or drunk Santas, and of course a lot of Christmas chick flicks. Then we stumbled upon Carry On.

The first five minutes were boring, and I thought I might not make it very far into this movie. Then it picked up, sort of like Die Hard did, when very bad guys started showing up.

It’s Christmas Eve at the LAX airport, one of the busiest travel days of the year. The TSA team is getting a pep talk from their boss Phil Sarkowski (Dean Norris, who we know as Agent Schrader in Breaking Bad). Everyone is assigned to their stations. The rookies, the ones with one bar on their epaulettes, get to do the grunt work and interact with the public, while the leads, the ones with two bars, man the scanners. Young agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) has not received any promotion in three years. His girlfriend, who also works at the airport, is pregnant. He knows he needs to get a promotion, and the lobbies Phil to let him work the scanner for the day. Phil gives in.

It just happens to be a day when a group of terrorists try to smuggle a bomb onto a plane. They were expecting another agent at the machine whom they were going to blackmail. When Ethan shows up, things get complicated quickly, both for the terrorists as well as the TSA. The action escalates quickly, and soon I found myself riveted. The entire plot line is reminiscent of Die Hard, when a single hapless hero is forced to take on a band of ruthless terrorists.

Carry On is full of action and suspense, but there are also some very serious plot holes. When they come around they are obvious and you just have to look the other way. At the end, I was surprised how much I enjoyed watching this movie. I am not sure how realistic the TSA action was represented, but I am sure I will never see the TSA guys at the airport quite the same way.

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown

On By Norbert HauptIn Cool People, Four Stars, Movies, MusicLeave a comment

When Bob Dylan arrived in New York City in 1961 he was 19 years old and a complete unknown.

That’s the start of the movie A Complete Unknown. I was too young then, not even five years old, so I didn’t witness that epoch of music. I didn’t really get into Bob Dylan music until I was about 14, around 1970. But ever since then, I would call Dylan my favorite musician, and I do it to this day. Many years ago I painted a Dylan portrait, as I liked to do with some of the iconic artists I admired (Beethoven, Henry Miller, Nietzsche). Dylan belonged in that collection.

Over the years, I accumulated pretty much all of Dylan’s vinyl records, and  lost them in later years during one of my moves.

When we entered the Regal movie theater on the afternoon on Christmas day, opening day for A Complete Unknown, all seats were full, and the average age of the moviegoers was probably around 75. We were on the younger side. And there it was quite obvious: Dylan had a momentous impact on not only the music of his generation, and many other musicians that followed him, but also on the emotional lives of his followers. When you search this blog for “Bob Dylan” you get dozens of entries returned, referring to movie and book reviews, and many other references to Dylan, and how he influenced my critical thinking, my artistic endeavors, and how his style affected my own poetry writing. I have to admit that I am not much of a musician; the only instrument I ever used was a harmonica – and fittingly, the first song I ever learned on the harmonica as a 16-year-old was Blowing in the Wind.

A Complete Unknown follows Dylan’s early career through his initial quest toward electric music during the iconic performance at the Newport folk music festival of 1965.

Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan, and he does an amazing job. During the movie, he has to play and sing 13 Dylan songs. He practiced for over five years preparing for this so he could sing and play his own guitar as well as the harmonica. Dylan’s style on the harmonica is unique and unpredictable, and even that Chalamet mastered, along with the voice and the guitar. Noteworthy is also that Monica Barbaro, who played Joan Baez, also did her own singing and brought a convincing performance imitating the iconic singer’s unique voice.

How do you cram four extraordinary and foundational years of an iconic artist into a two hour movie without shaving off many details, like the massive influence of the Beatles on American music during the same period, and how that affected Dylan? You have to pick your battles and focus on the most poignant episodes and illustrative events. Those of us who are really interested in Dylan, the artist, have read numerous biographies for all the detail we need.

A Complete Unknown is just one more adventure to have when experiencing Dylan, the icon, and for me, this made a 4-star movie.

 

 

Movie Review: Wicked (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Zero Stars2 Comments

My wife, son and I decided to go to the movies on Thanksgiving Saturday afternoon. I just got back a week ago from New York City, and I remembered that Wicked was advertised everywhere, on huge billboards on Times Square, in my hotel, and at random places around the city. We had also heard that it got high ratings and praises. How could we go wrong?

We went very wrong. Within five minutes I noticed that I had lost interest in the movie, and there were two hours and 35 minutes more to go! Pretty soon I found myself nodding off. I stuck with it because I wanted to be there for my family. By the time an hour had gone by, all three of us were looking at each other. We had noticed some people in front of us leaving earlier. We ended up leaving just a little over an hour into the movie. It turns out that all  three of us had trouble staying awake. We thought the singing was bad and cringy. There was no story. We kept thinking that it would get better, but it just never did.

Walking out of the movie was a relief. The post-movie conversation over a pizza  and beer was all about the utter disbelief that we had just spent over $19 times three for this film. It was an outright painful experience.

I can’t remember the last time I had actually walked out of a movie theater. This was therefore memorable. I can’t give anything better than zero stars.

Do not go.

Movie Review: Dreamchild (1985) – by Jean Claude Volgo

On By Norbert HauptIn MoviesLeave a comment

Dreamchild

British Drama, 1985, 94 minutes

Starring Amelia Shankley as Alice
Ian Holm as Lewis Carroll
Special Effects by Jim Henson

The film Dreamchild is an ambitious surreal drama, adapted from a play of the same name. On a lake near Oxford University in Victorian England, a random boat-ride forges a surprising camaraderie between a witty storyteller and a spirited young girl. The storyteller is an Oxford mathematician, Charles Dodgson; the young girl is Alice Liddell, daughter of the Dean at the same university.  Their serendipitous encounter will inspire the classic novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a fantasy yarn which continues to enchant children worldwide. Dodgson published his famous work under the familiar pseudonym, Lewis Carroll.  The enthusiastic reception of the book (translated into 174 languages) would propel Alice Liddell into celebrity status beyond her native England.

The plot of Dreamchild unfolds through a series of flashbacks from Alice in her old age. During a visit to Columbia University in 1932 (to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Lewis Carroll), the octogenarian Alice re-imagines her various encounters with Carroll. Her memories fuse reality with fantasy, as the camera alternates between events from the life of the real Alice and iconic scenes from Wonderland.  The talented British actor, Ian Holm, plays Charles Dodgson. The vivacious Amelia Shankley would garner the Best Actress Award (1986) for her nimble performance in a double role as Alice (not only as Alice Liddell but also as the heroine of the novel which immortalized her name).

Movie Review: In the Land of Saints and Sinners

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Liam Neeson in 1974 in Northern Ireland

1974 was during the height of the religious unrest in Northern Ireland. A World War II veteran, Finbar Murphy (Liam Neeson) leads a quiet life in a small Irish village. He lives by himself, he goes target shooting cans on a fence in the countryside with his friend, the local policeman, and his widowed neighbor would like him to be more interested in her than he is. But he leads a double life. He is also a hitman working for the underworld, murdering his targets in cold blood after he has them dig their own graves.

Doiraenn McCann (Kerry Cordon) is the gang leader of  a group of IRA rebels who set car bombs in front of restaurants to target their ideological enemies. When Finbar notices that a young girl in town is being controlled and abused by a thug, he helps her out and in the process ends up killing him. The guy turns out to be Doiraenn’s brother, and she wants revenge.

This sets off the opening of a small war between Finbar and the IRA terrorists that quickly escalates.

There are no good guys in this story, only victims. In the Land of Saints and Sinners highlights the absurdity of the Northern Ireland conflict of the 1970ies without lecturing about religion or politics. Small lives, small towns and everyday people suffer at the hands of those who think they have justice or righteousness on their side. Lives are shattered, lives are lost, and after it’s all done, dreariness and hopelessness continues on.

It does make you think.

My Humble Tribute to Kris Kristofferson

On By Norbert HauptIn Cool People, Movies, Music2 Comments

Kris Kristofferson was always in my life.

He entered it with a bang with the movie A Star is Born, alongside Barbra Streisand, which remains one of my favorite. The soundtrack still haunts me and catapults me back to the early years of my adulthood. The last time I saw him was at a concert right here in Poway, California. It was a very small venue, we sat quite close. It was an unimposing, empty stage. There was a microphone, a chair and a stand with a bottle of  water. He was a thin and humble man, apologizing for his cold. He had to blow his nose on stage between songs. The only instrument was his guitar. That may have been some eight years ago.

When we were in Maui recently he had just played at a hall there, and we were sorry we had missed the date.

Kristofferson was an amazing and talented person. In San Mateo High School he wrote award-winning essays that were published in magazines. When he went to Pomona College, his achievements in rugby, American football and track and field got him to appear in Sports Illustrated on March 31, 1958. He graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude, in literature. Then he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and went to the University of Oxford. There he won awards for boxing (of all things), he played rugby for the college, and started writing songs. Soon he recorded records.

Under pressure from his family, he joined the U.S. Army, eventually became a captain and a helicopter pilot. He also completed Ranger School. When he was stationed in West Germany in the early 1960s, he resumed his music career and started a band. He was offered an assignment to teach literature at West Point, but turned it down.

He tried to get Johnny Cash to record a tape of his, but he didn’t get his attention. So he flew a helicopter and landed it on Cash’s lawn. With a beer in one hand and recordings in an other, he finally got his attention and his music career took off.

But that was not enough. He started acting and was quite successful in a number of films.

Finally, one of my readers just commented that he discovered John Prine and Steve Goodman. At this time in the late 60s, early 70s, Goodman and Prine were playing in small local clubs in Chicago. Not only did he have talent himself, he recognized it when he saw it.

In January 2021, Kristofferson announced his retirement. His final concert was held in Fort Pierce, Florida, at the Sunrise Theatre on February 5, 2020, accompanied by the Strangers.

This man was good at everything he touched!

It’s an astounding and intimidating resume. Per his Wikipedia page, he is said he would like the first three lines of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on the Wire” on his tombstone:

Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free

Kris Kristofferson died yesterday at his home in Maui. I will miss him.

Movie Review: Lee (2023)

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Movies, Three StarsLeave a comment

I must be on a Nazi grand tour. After reading Slaughterhouse Five and then Woman at 1,000 Degrees, both of which deal with Nazi atrocities and how they affected the individual lives of innocent contemporaries, I now watched Lee, a biopic about the war correspondent Lee Miller, starring Kate Winslet.

Lee Miller was an American fashion model who eventually became a photographer. Before World War II she was in France working for Vogue magazine. As Germany occupied France and Paris, she asked to be sent to the front lines as a war correspondent. As she followed the action, she came in contact with the local populations, including the innocent women and children. What she saw compelled her to tell the story in pictures, and she quickly made a name for herself. Eventually she ended up at the Dachau concentration camp at the time of the liberation by the Americans and there she witnessed the full impact of the Holocaust. Ravaged by post traumatic stress syndrome for pretty much the rest of her life, she was not a very happy or successful mother to her only son, Antony. She said she did the best she could.

Antony never knew his mother’s past and legacy. He only discovered her documents, her photographs and mementos after she had died in July 1977. He documented her life and wrote her biography, which became the basis for the movie.

Lee is not a feel-good movie. It’s hard to follow at times, especially in the beginning. But it builds, and without sensationalizing war, without explicit battle scenes, it tells a story of great suffering and immense evil. And in these times, where dictatorships seem to be in vogue again – pun intended – Lee is a good movie to watch to remind yourself about what happens when one group of people suddenly decides to give one person the power to persecute and harm entire populations of others they don’t understand and therefore they don’t like.

Movie Review: Hillbilly Elegy (2020) – Take Two

On By Norbert HauptIn Four Stars, Movies, PoliticalLeave a comment

After reading J.D. Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy last month (review here) I decided to watch the Ron Howard movie of the same name. When I did, I realized right away that I had seen the movie before. After watching it again, I checked my records, and sure enough, I had already reviewed the movie on December 29, 2020. I had given it 4 stars, and I stand by that review now.

It turns out, the movie was made in 2020, long before Vance became a senator, but after 2018, when he first thought of running against Sherrod Brown but eventually decided not to. He started his senate career with funding from Protect Ohio Values, a Peter Thiel super PAC, in 2021.

Just like after reading and reviewing Vance’s book, upon watching the movie again, I am seriously puzzled. Vance pulled himself out of a severely disadvantaged childhood and youth, eventually became a senator and then vice-presidential candidate. That is frankly astonishing when you witness his struggles in early life and his youth. His resulting set of values and outlook on life could not be more opposed to those of Trump. The two just don’t reconcile. This explains that Vance had to retract and change his statements about Trump in years past. The only explanation I have is that he purposefully is using Trump to gain access to the highest levels of the United States government. He is only 40 years old and obviously has a career ahead of himself, no matter what eventually happens to Trump.

This is a movie review, not a statement about a political candidate, but somehow I can’t separate Vance, the public  figure, and his book and the movie about the book. The two come as a package.

For a movie review – I recommend you watch Hillbilly Elegy, then read the book, and then come back here and tell me what you think is going on with J.D. Vance and the weird persona he is projecting in this campaign.

Movie Review: Thelma

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two StarsLeave a comment

Thelma (June Squibb) is a 93-year-old woman who lives alone. Her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) looks in on her from time to time, helps her with her computer, and has her back when she needs him. One night she gets a frantic call from Daniel, telling her he is in prison and needs $10,000 in cash right away to be sent to his lawyer. But it wasn’t Daniel. She falls for it.

When she realizes she has been scammed, she takes matters into her own hands. With her friend Ben (Richard Roundtree) she embarks on a journey around town to get her money back.

Thelma is lighthearted comedy with some feel-good elements and a lot of fairly demoralizing scenes. It casts a bright light on the plight of our seniors. They often live alone, even when they have a loving family, like Thelma, and watch their peers die away one by one. There are a number of scenes in an assisted-living home where we get to glance into lives of the tenants.

I am currently going through this with my own parents, who I always remembered as capable, independent, active and healthy. That is no longer the case, and they need care, lots of care in lots of situations. Our modern world does not offer good solutions for the elderly, and due to improved health care, the elderly are getting older.

Thelma was funny and light, but I walked out of the theater somber and almost depressed. It made me think of my own life, and the fact there there is a lot less sand in the top of my hourglass than there is in the bottom, and it made me wonder how much Thelma there is in me already.

If the objective of the movie was to make us think about our lives – I guess it met the objective.

 

Movie Review: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

A group of renegade operatives is sent by Churchill himself to Africa to sabotage the Nazi U-Boat supply line. This is supposedly based on a true story that changed the course of the Allied war in the Atlantic before the United States joined in.

Think Ocean’s Eleven in Britain during World War II, except that they are not breaking into a casino, they are putting their lives on the line for their country. Since it’s a black operation, there is almost no way to win. If they fail, they get killed by the Nazis. If they succeed, they get arrested by their own country for disobeying orders.

Ungentlemanly Warfare is definitely an action movie. There is a lot of shooting and slicing and stabbing going on, where five fighters take on an entire army, sort of like in the Rambo movies. The heroes somehow never get killed, but they put away Nazis like I’d be swatting mosquitoes.

While it’s unrealistic, it’s surprisingly entertaining. I found myself rooting for the underdog as they fought against impossible odds to pull off a crazy plan that no sensible person would ever sign up for.

Could this really have been based on a true story? It made me want to look it up in the history books.