DailyView: Day 113, Movie 186

We are heading back to the world of the Coen Brothers with one of their best films, the satire O Brother, Where Art Thou? starring George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson.

This was a fun, laugh out loud film that took some great comedic performances from its three main characters and turned it into a fully engaging and entertaining movie.

Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) were together on a chain gang, attached by a chain, when they were able to make their escape. Everett told the others about a grand treasure that he had buried and he offered to split it with them for their help. Pete and Delmar were not the brightest bulb around so they went along, traipsing through the South where they found themselves in all manner of troubles.

The film is a satire on Homer’s Odyssey, and the trials of Odysseus in an attempt to find his way home. In the Odyssey, Homer writes about all of the distractions Odysseus had to face and overcome to continue the journey. Whereas Odysseus had to face the dangers of the Ancient Greece world, Everett, Delmar and Pete had to confront such distractions as a obsessed lawman (Daniel von Bargen), Tommy (Chris Thomas King) who was a black guitar player who claimed to have sold his soul to the devil, the Ku Klux Klan, a fairly crooked gubernatorial political race between Gov. Pappy O’Daniel (Charles Durning) and his challenger Homer Stokes (Wayne Duvall), a group of singing women ‘sirens’, and more.

Each of these trips take time away from the ultimate goal, which may not be exactly what Everett had claimed.

The music of the film is fantastic. Not only do the three escaped fugitives belt out some great music (as the Soggy Bottom Boys), it seemed as if every time they found themselves off target, it was connected to the music. There are some wonderful folk songs played throughout the film, and the music does a great job of punctuating each scene that it is used with.

There was such a clever screenplay behind this movie and the music complimented everything the film was trying to do. Then with three amazing performances from Clooney, Turturro and Nelson, this is one of my favorite Coen Brothers movies, right up there with Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Entertaining film.

DailyView: Day 112, Day 185

Trying to squeeze a movie in today, which has been a very busy one. I went to HBO Max and found The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl from director Robert Rodriguez. I had watched We Can Be Heroes on Netflix and I enjoyed it. It was about the children of the super heroes coming together to face an intergalactic threat. With that enjoyable film, the film that proceeded it had to be good, didn’t it?

Nope.

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl is a terrible movie. The acting is below average. The special effects are cartoonish. The dialogue is laughable. Nothing makes sense.

A bullied young boy named Max (Cayden Boyd) dreams up a pair of super heroes, Sharkboy (Tayler Lautner) and Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley). They come to get Max to help save their planet, the Planet Drool.

This was shot in 3D, though I did not watch it that way. You could see where they intended the 3D to be. And it was distracting.

A lot of bad with this one.

DailyView: Day 111, Day 184

Woke up early today to take care of the DailyView since the rest of the day feels very packed. That meant that I had to return to the world of The Little Tramp, aka Charlie Chaplin.

This time, the Little Tramp starred in The Idle Class. Chaplin sneaks into an upper class golf resort. He meets a woman who is having an argument with her drunken husband who, just so happens, to resemble the Tramp. The woman mistakes Chaplin for her husband and hilarity ensues.

Much like the other silent films from the oeuvre of Charlie Chaplin, the key component is the slapstick comedy and, once again, Charlie Chaplin proves to be brilliant at it. The sequence on the golf course in this movie is genius.

Chaplin does play dual roles in The Idle Class, which is something that he will do several times in his career. There is a clever use of a suit of armor to help when the two roles are on screen at the same time.

Something that is not mentioned enough is the wonderful score that accompanies the film. This score is composed by Chaplin himself, showing off the talent that he has. The comedy is always enhanced by the music playing behind it and that helps the movie flow well.

The Chaplin train continues as it once again helps out the DailyView.

DailyView: Day 110, Movie 183

School has started (well, professional development for staff has started), but it is still technically summer, so I am continuing the DailyView. I have not yet determined exactly how long I will maintain the DailyView. It will determine how busy I get with school.

However, today was a busy day and I am very tired from the work, so I pulled out The Raven, a movie just over one hour in length that fits nicely into my time schedule. The Raven from 1935 was based loosely on Edgar Allan Poe’s classic poem of the same name. When I say loosely, I mean loosely. It featured two of the iconic horror icons of the time, Bela Legosi and Boris Karloff.

Bela Legosi played a retired surgeon Dr. Richard Vollin who had an obsession with all things Poe. So much so that he built several torture devices in his basement. Vollin is begged to come out of retirement to save the life of the injured Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware). He does so and Vollin falls for the woman.

Setting up a plot, Vollin brings in wanted criminal Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff). He turned Bateman into a hideous monster and sent him to capture and torture Jean’s fiancé (Lester Matthews).

There is very little in this movie that connects to the poem at all. They mention the poem a few times, Legosi pictures Jean as his “Lenore” but after that, there is nothing else that ties them together. In fact, the main torture device is from the Poe short story, The Pit and the Pendulum.

Bela Legosi is way over-the-top with his performance as the mad doctor. He seemed to be Count Dracula but obsessed with torture and Edgar Allan Poe. So much of what Vollin does make little sense and he truly becomes little more than a mustache-twirling villain. You can see what is going to happen miles off.

This is one of those movies that could be a lot of fun with the Rifftrax guys riffing it. It is corny and silly.

DailyView: Day 109, Movie 182

With the inclusion of the movie, Easy Rider, I have had at least one movie during the DailyView from 2020 back to 1964, as Easy Rider’s year of 1969 was missing.

Easy Rider is considered a classic, a symbol of the 1960s. Unfortunately, I found most of the movie to be pretty boring and aimless. However, the end of the film is a shocking moment that helps bring much of the film together.

Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper), two hippie bikers from, LA who, after a drug deal, decided to head south to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Their time traveling the land of America dealing with the counterculture and the prejudice of the time followed them the whole way.

Fonda and Hopper gave good performances, apparently making much of the trip up on the spot. I think that is part of what made the film feel so erratic.

My favorite part of the film were two main things. One, the use of the amazing soundtrack with their impressive travel scenes. The countryside was beautifully shot and the music worked perfectly. The second part was the arrival and performance of Jack Nicholson as lawyer George Hanson, who joined with Wyatt and Billy on their journey for part of their trip. Nicholson was amazing as the man searching for the freedom that Wyatt and Billy were enjoying.

Then there was the ending. The third act had some bizarreness to it that was pulling the movie down for me even more. However the final shot of the film was unexpected and doubled down on the theme of prejudice that had been shown across the movie. It was a strong and shocking conclusion to a movie that I had not enjoyed that much.

A strong ending can help a movie, but in this case, there is too much wandering for my tastes. Easy Rider lacks some essential points that are important for me and so the movie is a passable one at best.

DailyView: Day 108, Movie 181

Today’s DailyView heads back into the 1950s in a black and white movie dealing with black and white racial issues with the Oscar winning movie, The Defiant Ones.

In The Defiant Ones, two criminals, John “Joker” Jackson (Tony Curtis),a white man, and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier), a black man, who were on a chain gang and chained together by their arms, escaped when the truck that was transporting them crashed. As they started their flight, the two men hated each other, but as they struggled to survive, they gained a mutual respect.

The dialogue is some of the best in The Defiant Ones. It does a great job of showing these two men and their developing friendship across the racial divide.

One of the best characters in the film is the kind sheriff who was pursuing the runaways, Sheriff Max Muller (Theodore Bikel) who doggedly chased them, insisting on doing things the right way.

However, the movie depends on the the two lead actors to carry the load and Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier come through big time. Both men received well deserved Oscar nominations as Lead Actor for this performance. Poitier became the first African-American actor to be nominated in the Lead Actor category.

A simple premise leads to a deeper story. A classic movie with big time performances.

DailyView: Day 107, Movie 180

Since today is Friday the 13th, I thought it was a good idea to watch one of that franchise’s movies. The thing is…I was not sure if I had seen the first Friday the 13th. I knew of things that happened in the movie, but it was iconic so I may have just heard about it. I knew the conclusion, but again, it has been around for 40 + years. I was never a fan of slasher movies, but it is a well known one. I knew about Camp Crystal Lake, but that is something that is part of the culture.

So I put the film on and it was not long before I realized that I had not ever seen it which meant that it qualified for the DailyView.

Of course, there are a ton of horror movie clichés in the film, but they were not necessarily clichés at the time. The camp killings have been done many times before, but this is what started it all.

Jason Voorhees is the villainous murderer of the franchise, known for his hockey mask. Ironically, the first film does not include that hockey mask. I had known that, but it was still strange to see. Jason himself does not make much of an appearance since the culprit was in the family.

I was surprised to see Kevin Bacon in the cast. I may have known that in the back of my head, but, if I had, it was not something that I remembered. Most of the rest of the cast were not faces that seemed familiar to me. As with these kin of horror flicks, the characters are not specifically developed. They are in the movie to be victims and to die in terrible ways.

I really liked the way the film set up each killing, showing it to us from the killer’s POV. It was handled like a mystery although the reveal of the killer came out of nowhere. I would have liked to have the Jason stuff sprinkled in the film at least a little. Still, it works for what it was.

Slasher films have never been a favorite of mine, but you have to respect those films that started the craze. Friday the 13th has lasted for years and still is watchable.

DailyView: Day 107, Movie 179

Titan A.E. is the DailyView for today and it was a spectacular animated science fiction adventure. For some reason, it is rotten at 50% on the Rotten Tomatoes web site. That makes no sense to me because this was a beautifully animated adventure with a strong voice cast and plenty of classic twists.

Earth has been destroyed. It is the 31st century and a young boy Cale (Matt Damon), whose father left him on a question when he was but a boy, suddenly becomes a sought after resource because he has a ring, given to him by his father, that gives a map to Titan, a ship that holds the key to saving the human race.

Cale is approached by Captain Korso (Bill Pullman), who is trying to help Cale get to Titan before the evil Drej, a species of pure energy that is hoping to destroy Titan before it is activated. On Korso’s ship there is Akima (Drew Barrymore), Stith (Janeane Garofalo), Preed (Nathan Lane), and Gune (John Leguizamo).

Titan A.E. is a fun, energetic science fiction romp f an animated movie that has amazingly beautiful images. Combined 2D animation with CGI, Titan A.E. is an amazing looking film. The animation, especially of the time, was cutting edge and really should have been more of a draw than it appeared to be.

Cale and Akima had a great relationship, albeit a little typical for this type of story. They started out not liking each other and developed feelings for one another as the adventure progressed. It had a Han/Leia vibe to it.

This is the reason I think it received several of the rotten reviews. Titan A.E. has a bunch of the science fiction beats that we see in other areas and string them together into this film. While there may not be a lot of material that we hadn’t seen before, there should be some consideration about how effectively the material is presented. Have we seen a lot of this before? Sure, but has the material ever been presented with such flair or energy? I’m not so sure.

The film is paced well, as events move through the short runtime, but it does not feel rushed.

Titan A.E. is an exceptional animated movie that provides some epic sci-fi action. If you are a fan of the genre, you should check out this movie.

DailyView: Day 106, Movie 178

I saw a film on Netflix that indicated that it was from the director of Babysitter: The Killer Queen, which I liked, so I figured I would give Rim of the World a chance for the DailyView today.

This one was stupid.

Yet, I was entertained. There was just something about this movie that hit a few chords with me. Don’t get me wrong, it is terrible. Absolutely nonsensical drivel.

Four kids, three of which had attended a summer camp called Rim of the World, end up with a McGuffin that is the key to stopping a worldwide alien invasion. They had to get the key to a building in Pasadena in order to save the world as they were being pursued by an indestructible alien that was mad at them for killing its dog. Not even kidding.

Think Stranger Things meets Super 8 and The Monster Squad, but with more stupidity.

Our main kid protagonist is Alex (Jack Gore) whose mom sent him to the camp to get him out from behind his multiple computer screen. A typical nerd who has little personal skills, but is intelligent and kind-hearted. He was a good choice as the lead. ZhenZhen (Miya Cech) came to the camp from China, sneaking into the country, following a flier that she had. Why she came was really not dealt with, but she was a likeable young actress. The character was whatever the film needed her to be, and she formed a cute relationship with Alex.

Kid #3 was Darius, played by Benjamin Flores Jr- who does much better work in the Fear Street trilogy that just came out. Darius is the kid that I wanted the aliens to get right up until the very end of the movie. Darius is a giant cliché that kept going. Finally, there was Gabriel (Alessio Scalzotto), who they met in the forest at camp, but not a member of the camp. He had a weird backstory of stealing money (sort of) from his mom’s work and winding up in juvey. He is another huge cliché, but at least he felt likeable. He reminded me of Rudy from the Monster Squad.

Whoever wrote this movie or the director, McG, really have little idea about what kids are like. I have rarely seen any kids that are less like kids in a movie in a long time. There is no way kids actually talk or act like this. Still, by the end of the film, I was liking the group more than I did in the first act.

The film is inconsistent with its characters, atrocious with its dialogue, has a plot barely strung together and is filled with coincidences and obvious character flaws that have to be overcome to succeed.

What keeps the film from completely falling apart is the performance of Jack Gore as Alex. That character is just likeable and you want to see him make it. He also has the most depth of any of the characters here (albeit not a massive amount), but his backstory with his father had some emotion in it.

This is a terrible movie, but it has enough moments scattered here and there to make it a guilty pleasure.

DailyView: Day 105, Movie 177

Okay, the day got busy. We had the debut of what If..?, new comics day, a haircut, reaction videos on YouTube… and then I found out the Dodgers were going to be on ESPN. All the while, I needed to do a DailyView for the day. Because of all that, it was time for another Charlie Chaplin film! And this one, A Night in the Show, is actually very short in length (25 minutes) as well as being the oldest film I’ve watched in the DailyView so far (1915). Thank goodness for Charlie Chaplin and HBO Max.

This is actually a film where Chaplin did not play his iconic “Little Tramp” character. He had two characters that he played attempting to see a stage show at a theater. One, was Mr. Pest, a wealthy drunkard who had little concern for anyone else in the theater. The second was Mr. Rowdy, a poor man in the balcony who nearly fell off several times and kept dumping things into the audience below.

With the shenanigans of the two audience members, the show is ruined.

There were the same type of slapstick that you normally see in a Charlie Chaplin movie. Most of it is funny. The score of the silent film is great, helping to sell the mood of each scene.

I really appreciate the availability of these classics that help me complete the DailyView despite having a day where time got away from me and that there are other things I would like to do.