DailyView: Day 144, Movie 222

To wrap up the International Talk Like a Pirate Day DailyView, I decided to watch the Disney classic Treasure Island, an adaptation of one of the greatest of all pirate novels ever written. Treasure Island, written in 1883, by Robert Louis Stevenson, has been adapted plenty of times over the years, but this 1950 version is perhaps the best ever (outside of Muppet Treasure Island, of course).

Captain Billy Bones (Finlay Currie), drunk on rum and in fear for his life, brought Captain Flint’s treasure map to Jim Hawkins (Bobby Driscoll). a young boy who worked at his mother’s inn. Before his death, Billy Bones passed the map on to Jim, but not before warning Jim to beware of the one-legged man. Jim gave the map to Squire Trelawney (Walter Fitzgerald). Trelawney organized a secret trip to go find the treasure. He hired Captain Smollett (Basil Sydney) to take charge of the vessel, but his cautiousness of crew selection made Trelawney anxious. Trelawney hired the ship’s cook, Long John Silver (Robert Newton) and asked for his help to fill out the crew.

As the ship sailed toward the island, Silver showed himself to be the mutinous traitor, a part of Flint’s original crew, and in it for the treasure himself.

This is a great adaptation. There is a ton of drama and exciting moments and Robert Newton as Long John Silver was fantastic. He brought the energy to the entire movie and it was successful because of his performance. The performance of Bobby Driscoll was solid too, and his connection with Silver was true and worked well. You have to believe in the connection between them if the story is to work.

There is no better example of the pirate life in cinema than Treasure Island. Everything after this came because of the Stevenson novel, and the fact that there is at least this excellent adaptation, is a great thing.

DailyView: Day 144, Movie 221

Ahoy, me mateys! I be hopin’ that ye would be enjoyin’ International Talk Like a Pirate Day! How better to be celebratin’ the special occasion than by singin’ a song! Aye! and toss in some dancin’ as well and you have got yerselves a debauchery. Yo ho ho!

To be fillin’ this perscription be the 1983 movie that was based on the Broadway musical, Pirates of Penzance.

Frederic (Rex Smith) has left his band of pirates, led by the Pirate King (Kevin Klein), and has fallen in love with sweet innocent Mabel Stanley (Linda Ronstadt). However, his crew has followed him to the land and has attempted to abscond with Mabel’s sisters. After quick thinking from their father, Major General Stanley (George Rose), the priates were prevented from running off with the women.

Shiver me timbers! Kevin Klein as the scallywag Pirate King is utterly brilliant. The dance moves that he perform are crisp, clean and beautifully executed. He carries himself with a aura of excellence that I was not expectin’. Every step in the finale was something special.

The angelic voice of Linda Ronstadt carried much of the tunes from the Gilbert and Sullivan comedic opera that the film and the Broadway play were based, but ye should not be overlookin’ the contributions of Angela Lansbury as Ruth. Lansbury dove into the role and added some real hutzpah to the cast. Her experience in musical theater shined through.

The film was shot with a background much like the theater, instead of the more realistic setting. It made the film feel more like a theatrical experience than a cinematic one and it worked for this film.

Aye, The Pirates of Penzance was a lot of fun and had plenty of laugh out loud moments. An outstandin’ performance from Kevin Klein among others in the cast brought this adaptation to life, and the music is updated wonderfully, giving some wondrous musical interludes.

Aye, this movie be quite the booty, a treasure to behold. Savvy? Yo ho, yo ho….

DailyView: Day 143, Movie 220

The next film I looked at in celebration of tomorrow’s Talk Like a Pirate Day was a documentary found on Disney + from a few years ago. It was a National Geographic film that detailed the story of the infamous pirate city of Port Royal that sunk into the ocean in the 17th century.

Port Royal, which was the city used at the beginning of The Pirates of the Caribbean film to introduce Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, was known as the ‘wickedest city on earth.’ It was a British port that was designed to protect the Kingston Bay area from the Spanish. The doc revealed that there was a deal in place between England and the pirates to split the treasure of attacks on Spanish vessels.

However, the power of Mother Nature took over as the city was sunk beneath the ocean by the combination of a massive earthquake, powerful quicksand and a series of tsunamis.

Marine archaeologist Jon Henderson went to the area, using the most cutting edge science and technology, to attempt to piece together what caused the sinking of Port Royal and to see what they could find beneath the surface of the ocean.

It is a fascinating documentary, dealing with the discovery of many parts of the city that remained in tact beneath the waves. They carefully investigated the area and uncovered some fascinating info that helped them make their hypotheses on what happened to this city. Mixed with the historical accounts from maps and survivor’s testimony, the doc does a solid job of laying out the details of the apocalyptic event.

I would have liked more of the historical information connecting the city to the pirates. Was there well known real life pirates involved here and did any of them reach their fate during the destruction of Port Royal?

Still, it is an easy watch filled with a lot of good information and intriguing use of new technology. The 47 minute film flew by and was paced extremely well.

DailyView: Day 143, Movie 219

Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day and to celebrate at EYG and the DailyView, I am going to be watching several classic films with a pirate theme. Starting off tonight, I watched the live action 2003 version of Peter Pan, with one of the greatest and most iconic villainous pirates of all time, Captain Hook.

Peter Pan has not had many good movies, outside of the original Disney animated classic. In fact, most adaptations of the boy who would not grow up fell desperately short. However, this 2003 version was able to capture much of the magic of the original one and managed to bring the book to life.

Telling the classic story, Peter Pan (Jeremy Sumpter) took the Darling children, Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), John (Harry Newell) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell) to Never Never Land and introduced them to an adventure facing off with Captain James Hook (Jason Isaacs) and his crew of buccaneers. With the aid of The Lost Boys and Tinkerbell (Ludivine Sagnier), Wendy and Peter face off with the pirates.

Jeremy Sumpter does a good job as the title character and Rachel Hurd-Wood is excellent as Wendy. These two characters must work if this story is to be any good at all. Jason Isaacs is very compelling and sinister as James Hook, the opposite side of the coin to Peter Pan. Isaacs, who also portrayed Wendy’s uptight father, brings a surprisingly deep performance for a character that could be very one-note.

There are some wonderful imagery in the film as well. Some of the shots are beautiful and do stand the test of time. The giant crocodile is a cool visual as are the scenes of flying through the London nighttime sky.

This is way better than Hook or that atrocity Pan (with Hugh Jackman as Hook). One of the better versions of Peter Pan.

DailyView: Day 143, Movie 218

“Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”

Way back at the beginning of 2021, WandaVision was a huge hit on Disney + and there had been a bunch of comparisons to some aspects of The Truman Show. So when I started the DailyView, The Truman Show was one of the first films on the list to watch. It got ignored and passed by for 142 days, but here on day 143, it was finally time to watch the Jim Carrey vehicle.

What took me so long?

The Truman Show was a remarkable movie that I thoroughly enjoyed from the very beginning to the uplifting and powerful end, and I could definitely see why some people made comparisons to WandaVision, even though the specifics of the two worlds-within-a-world ended up differently.

Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) was living a normal, typical life, filled with the daily drama of the real world. Little did he know, the real world was a long way away. He had a marriage with Meryl (Laura Linney) and they were contemplating having a baby, his mother (Holland Taylor) was caring and dedicated, and his job at the insurance company was thriving. It seemed as if everyone knew who Truman was.

How true that statement would be.

Unbeknownst to Truman, his entire life had been orchestrated since birth as a reality TV show and broadcast, 24 hours a day, to the viewing public. Directed and controlled by Christof (Ed Harris), the entire world of The Truman Show was populated by actors and extras to maintain the illusion of a real life. However, as some of the cracks began to show, Truman became paranoid about how the world of Seahaven Island seemed to center around him. Afraid of water since the accidental drowning of his father (Brian Delate), living on an island isolated Truman inside the TV dome.

Jim Carrey is outstanding in this role as he appeared to be losing his grip on his mental state, but is dedicated to finding the truth as the world watched along breathlessly on TV. Carrey displayed the full range of his ability and he carved out more than just the comedic roles for his career, despite there being some comedy in The Truman Show as well.

This movie was filled with such creativity and originality, even over twenty years later, that it was a joy to watch. The plot was intricately developed, and yet was simple to follow. The performances were top notch and the special effects were perfect. I was extremely impressed with The Truman Show.

DailyView: Day 142, Movie 217

We go back to the independent movie scene with a film from 2012 called Sleepwalk With Me. It was based on Mike Birbiglia’s one man, off-Broadway show and his first book, Sleepwalk With Me & Other Painfully True Stories.

Mike Birbiglia wrote, directed and starred in the film version, bringing the basic true story to life of a comedian in a long term relationship with his girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose), but knowing deep down that he was nowhere close to being ready for marriage. The anxiety of the situations with Abby as well as his struggling career as a stand up comedian, brought forth a sleep disorder that lead to him sleepwalking during dreams.

Narrated by Birbiglia as well, the story proceeds nicely as Matt (Mike Birbiglia) begins to spend more time on the road as his act slowly becomes better… by his talking about his relationship.

This is a funny film, but it is also very poignant. We take a journey through the mind of a stand up comedian whose relationship was not going to succeed. We could see that this pairing was doomed, but Matt and Abby had blinders on. Neither felt happy in their lives, but they were unable to admit it.

The seriousness of the sleep disorder, REM behavior disorder (RBD), shines through the comedy as Matt places himself in even more potentially dangerous situations because of his dreams. RBD is a “sleep disorder in which people act out their dreams. It involves abnormal behavior during the sleep phase with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep” (Wikipedia).

Matt is totally awkward and uncertain about himself and that plays even more into the character.

The film also featured Carol Kane as Linda, Matt’s mother and James Rebhorn as Frank, Matt’s father. The credibility of these two top notch actors brought a gravitas to the film, and they were both extremely funny as well.

This was a solid independent film that I had not heard about before I started looking into films under 90 minutes. These are the kind of films that fall by the wayside in many circumstances and that is too bad.

DailyView: Day 141, Movie 216

Primer was a psychological science fiction movie unlike anything I had seen before. This seemed to be the ultimate independent film as it felt as if this was completely down to earth and grounded like we were watching the every day life of two friends who stumbled across an unbelievable scientific discovery.

While it was treated like real life, it was a challenging watch, with the scientific lingo being very difficult to follow. In fact, much of the story of Primer was difficult to watch and I believe that was the filmmaker’s purpose.

According to Rotten Tomatoes:

“Intellectual engineers Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) build and sell error-checking technology with the help of their friends Robert (Casey Gooden) and Phillip (Anand Upadhyaya). But when Aaron and Abe accidentally invent what they think is a time machine, Abe builds a version capable of transporting a human and puts the device to the test. As the two friends obsess over their creation, they discover the dark consequences of their actions.“

This feels like a film that has to be rewatched several times if you want to truly understand what is going on. I have always considered myself an intelligent film viewer, but I am not ashamed to say that much of Primer was over my head. There have been comments that this film deals with time travel in a manner that is the most realistic, which I found funny considering how unrealistic the concept was.

For me, this was too much like those college science classes that I did not understand. While I appreciate the originality and taking the big swing doing something unlike that has ever been before, I did not enjoy the movie much. I am glad it exists and I am happy to have watched it, but I am not sure I know what had happened.

DailyView: Day 140, Movie 215

We return to the oeuvre of Charlie Chaplin tonight to come across one that is unlike many of the others… a short that is not very funny.

A Day’s Pleasure ha Charlie and his family, (including longtime co-star Edna Purviance) headed out for a day of fun and frolic, boarding a ship for a cruise. First, they had to endure the car that would not start. Once that bit was over, we had a whole series of bits involving seasickness. After the cruise, they had trouble with a cop and hot tar on the way home.

Overall, this has been the weakest Chaplin films that I have seen so far. There are moments of brilliance, such as when Chaplin has to wrestle a deck chair. This scene placed Chaplin’s expertise at physical comedy front and center, but this was the lone standout in the film.

The music, composed by Chaplin himself, is, as always, entertaining and fits the film wonderfully.

In the end, this is below the high standards of Charlie Chaplin, but at a scant 18 minutes, it is hardly a bother.

DailyView: Day 139, Movie 214

Director Stanley Kubrick and one of his earliest films is the DailyView today. The Killing was a film noir that told a story about a carefully plotted heist at a horse race which was based on a novel called Clean Break by Lionel White.

Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) has come up with a daring idea: a robbery of Lansdowne Racetrack as one of the biggest horses, Red Lightning, was racing. Johnny compiled a five-man team to play their respective parts. Johnny believed that he could get away with over $2 million. Unfortunately, everything did not go quite the way it was intended.

The storytelling gimmick of the film was telling the story in a non-linear manner, something that was not being done as much in 1956 as it is today. There is a voice over narrator helping the audience keep track of what was going on. It was an intriguing way to present the story of the film and may have been too ahead of its time for the 1950s audiences.

Joining Sterling Hayden in the cast was Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Ted de Corsia, Elisha Cook Jr, Marie Windsor, Joe Sawyer, and Kola Kwariani. The cast was outstanding.

I enjoyed this movie. It felt a film of its time, yet had some creative ideas that made it more than just another 1950s movie. The ending is great, filled with irony and comeuppance.

DailyView: Day 138, Movie 213

The DailyView choice today is a coming of age drama focused on a couple’s nasty split and how it affected their two sons. The name of the movie came from the American Museum of Natural History exhibit/diorama, The Squid and the Whale.

Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) were married, but growing apart. Joan had been unfaithful and Bernard was an intellectual snob and they were not happy. The separation was particularly hard on their sons, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline), with each boy bonding with the opposite parent. Walt becoming more like his father, struggling with his relationships and pretending that the song Hey You by Pink Floyd was his creation. On the other hand, Frank began drinking beer and masturbating, spreading his sperm in strange places.

Meanwhile, both Bernard and Joan started different relationships to a varying success. Joan stated dating Frank’s tennis instructor Ivan (William Baldwin) and one of Bernard’s students, Lili (Anna Paquin), moved in with him.

You have four distinct characters who all have major problems, energized by the failed relationship of the parents. It is a fascinating look at these people who have made so many poor choices in their lives. The performances of these four actors carry the movie and are engaging as can be.

There are some scenes that are truly brutal between Bernard and Joan and the words they use cut deep to the kids. The third act confrontation was difficult to watch as Walt and Frank were literally between their parents.

Director Noah Baumbach tells the semi-autobiographical tale of two boys in Brooklyn. The direction of the film is outstanding and builds a tone of discomfort with the characters and the audience as well.

The soundtrack was great, with a variety of songs from Pink Floyd’s Hey You to Figure 8 of the Schoolhouse Rock collection.

The Squid and the Whale was not a movie that I was familiar with and it is a shame that a film this good is under the radar.

DailyView: Day 137, Movie 212

Um.

Okay. WTF.

Yes, I knew that The Wicker Man (2006) is considered one of the worst movies ever made, but it couldn’t be that bad, could it?

Yes, it could. Yes, it is.

I watched this on Apple TV but it was weird. The movie ended and I realized that the infamous scene of Nicolas Cage having a cage around his head with bees poured into it was not in the version I was watching. Did Apple TV edit the version of The Wicker Man? I had to go to YouTube and find the scene in order to see it. It was weird, but the dialogue of the scene was included in the Apple TV version, dubbed over top of the women carrying Cage to the giant wicker man. I thought it was odd when Nicolas Cage said “My legs!” as he was inside the bag being carried, but now it made sense. Too bad the rest of the movie did not make any sense.

There were so many things in this movie that had absolutely zero reason for being in the movie. One of the very first scenes, one that is repeated multiple times, is a scene where police officer Nic Cage pulled over a woman and her daughter alongside the road. I guess the girl had thrown her doll out the window and the cop stopped them to give it back to her. The car was then struck by a semi and exploded into flames. Nic Cage tried to get the girl out, but failed. This is apparently a massive, vital scene for the film…. no. It plays no part in the story. Nic Cage kept remembering it…dreaming about it…but it had no ties to the story.

The film is littered with examples like this. Nic Cage bought a self-help tape at the beginning and the movie went out of its way to show it, so, of course, it will play a role in the story later, right? Nope. There was a burned doll in a grave on this mysterious island so this is a prominent piece of storytelling, right? Forget it.

Nicolas Cage is doing his most Nicolas Cage performance in The Wicker Man, delivering these insane lines with such a ferocity that they are laughable. I loved it when Nic Cage just hauled off and punched the one woman right in the face. It was a laugh out loud moment. He then put on a giant bear costume and joined in with the rest of the crazy women. Nicolas Cage was dressed up as a bear. Not even kidding. There is so much unintentional humor in this movie that I laughed more with The Wicker Man than I did in the last couple of comedies I have seen (certainly more than Observe & Report).

I’ve skipped over the plot summary in this review because it does not matter. Nothing in the film makes any sense and the plot is just meant to give Nic Cage a reason to run around this island and yell out crazy things.

You owe yourself a chance to see this horrendous film, but do not go to Apple TV and their censors. I still can’t believe that the version I saw had the most infamous scene removed. This is a terrible movie, but still strangely entertaining.