Author Archives: Doc

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

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I remember watching Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker on PTL when I was a kid, watching with my mom. They were a bizarre pair, even at first. This movie focuses heavily on Tammy Faye and her reactions to many of the scandals that happened to the Televangelist and his wife.

Jessica Chastain is imperceivable as Tammy Faye Bakker. I had to look up the actress as the film was underway because I did not know who it was under that excessive make up job. Jim Bakker, however, was easier to tell. This is the second film of the day that I have watched that starred Andrew Garfield, who is having a great year (maybe he’ll wrap up the year appearing in the potentially biggest movie of 2021 in Spider-man: No Way Home). Chastain and Garfield shoulder the weight of this film and their performances are fantastic. Without these, The Eyes of Tammy Faye would not hope to be a success.

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker are followed from youngsters to the point where their TV show, PTL, was being viewed by 20 million people a day. Along the way there were moments of weakness that manifested itself as affairs and redistribution of pledges from fans that show the dangers of the excessive life lived by the Bakkers.

As it was going, Jim and tammy Faye maintained their likability and their charisma, showing how they could bilk their viewers out of so much money and still not consider themselves sinners.

Cherry Jones was great as Tammy Faye’s mother Rachel. Her old time beliefs and expectations somehow helped to create the fiery and unpredictable Tammy Faye, Vincent D’onofrio was another master class in make up as I did not recognize him in the slightest as he played another crooked televangelist, Jerry Falwell, who attempted to take advantage of the Bakker scandals to further his own ministry.

The biggest issue I had was that some of the plot felt like it was not connected well enough. It felt like a series of events with little crossover. I would have liked to have seen more effects of the choices made by Jim and Tammy Faye.

However, the performance are great and someone who did not know the story would consider this a wild ride.

3.5 stars

tick, tick…Boom

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Okay, I wasn’t ready for that.

Andrew Garfield is utterly brilliant in the role of real-life music composer Jonathan Larson, who would create one of the great musicals of the last 30 years in Rent.

However, Jon did not explode upon the Broadway scene and take over. He struggled for years on a musical he was writing called Superbia, but he was mere days away from presenting the musical in a showcase for producers. One problem, the musical was missing one key song and Jon was not having success in writing it.

As this is going on, he was having trouble with his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), pressure from his best friend Michael (Robin de Jesus) and money issues. He was having challenges with his agent Rosa (Judith Light) who was not calling him back. Still, some constructive words from legend Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford) kept Jon’s hopes alive through the wars.

This was based on a musical written by Jonathan Larson and you can feel the passion and the energy throughout the entire two hour run time. The music was catchy and engaging and built into some of the more powerful songs I’ve heard in a musical in awhile.

As I mentioned, Andrew Garfield has to be considered a shoo-in for an Academy Award nomination for his performance in this film. He performed the songs himself and he imbued them with such a goofy, but sincere energy that you can not help but love him, which only served the film’s emotional beats well.

Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his feature film directorial debut with tick, tick…Boom and he stands out a he always seems to do. Some of the shots he got during the music were amazing and he was able to move the story along between songs breathlessly. He used Jonathan on stage as a framing devise to help movie the story forward while still being completely entertaining.

Robin de Jesus was given one of the most powerful of scenes and he nailed it. I loved Judith Light’s performance too, avoiding the clichés of the entertainment agent and embracing the realness of the character. Alexandra Shipp is a damn star. You cannot take your eyes off of her while she is on screen. She and Andrew Garfield share remarkable chemistry and it shows.

This is the second amazing musical of 2021 that has had Lin-Manuel Miranda attached to it. In the Heights was a rollicking good time, and I think tick, tick…Boom matches the spark, the vitality of that work.

It’s been a great year to be a musical. This movie is debuting this week on Netflix.

5 stars

The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

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DailyView: Day 205, Movie 291

During the pandemic when we were isolated at home with little else to do, I started a watch of the Studio Ghibli films. I had purchased a DVD set of the whole group of shows, but it was a little skippy at times. I was enjoying the watch for the most part. After I arrived at Spirited Away though I lost my inspiration because it was so good, I just did not find it as vital to continue on after this.

Enter HBO Max. The streaming service had the entire catalog of Studio Ghibli films available to stream without any of the DVD troubles. Because of this, I decided to add some of the Studio Ghibli films to the DailyView. I chose to start with The Secret World of Arrietty.

Based on a novel called The Borrowers by Mary Norton, The Secret World of Arrietty was directed by the debuting Hiromasa Yonebayashi and was written by the iconic Hayao Miyazaki.

Arrietty was a Borrower, a group of tiny people just taller than a tree leaf, who would “borrow” items from the larger humans that they would not miss. It was said that if any Borrower was seen by a human, they needed to leave their home and find a new place to live because the human’s curiosity would never be satisfied.

On her way home one day, Arrietty was seen by the human boy, Shō, who was staying for the summer with his great aunt, Sadako. Shō was weak and frail as he had a heart defect and was preparing for surgery soon. He spotted Arrietty, who was on a “borrow” mission with her father Pod. She was stealing a sugar cube. When she realized that Shō had seen her, Arrietty dropped the sugar cube and she and her father left as quickly as they could.

Shō found the sugar cube and laid out another one as a replacement to hopefully show Arrietty that he was friendly. She was confused by the offering which seemed to be opposite what her parents had been saying about the humans. She went to see Shō several times, eventually befriending the boy.

The unlikely friendship is put to the test when the housemaid Haru realized what was happening and discovered Arrietty’s mother borrowing from the doll house that had been designed years ago as a hopeful present for the little people.

As always with Studio Ghibli, the animation is gorgeous. The hand drawing is so precise and intricate in every scene that the accomplishment is off the charts. There is a beauty contained in the artistry of this animation that many other animation studios just can never hope to reach.

I had a English voice cast and it was a significant group, including Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Bridgit Mendler, David Henrie and EYG Hall of Famer Carol Burnett.

The Secret World of Arrietty was a beautiful story of friendship and being able to put aside differences for the betterment of everyone.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

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The 1984 Ghostbusters is one of my favorite films of all time. I remember seeing it in the theater downtown with my friends. My friend Darin made the “They go up” joke about the stairs before Bill Murray did. I’ve rewatched it a ton of times and love it every time.

Now, the sequels and reboots have not been as great, although I do believe that Ghostbusters 2 is better than people remember. It is not up to the first film, for sure, but if you are not comparing it to the original, Ghostbusters 2 is not bad. I also did not hate the 2016 Ghostbuster reboot that received so much hate for the sin of casting a whole team of female Ghostbusters that it barely had a chance. It was okay.

So when the announcement came about a new Ghostbusters movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, I was happy, but cautious. Then the pandemic pushed the film back several times and there were moments when it seemed as if we would never see the new film, a sequel to the original films, set in the 1984 universe.

I am happy to announce that Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed by Jason Reitman, the son of the first two Ghostbusters movies, Ivan Reitman, is a lot of fun and takes the series in a new direction while showing love to the original film and the characters from within it.

Life has been hard for Callie (Carrie Coon), as she is having money problems and faces eviction. She then discovered that her father, who had deserted her when she was but an infant, had passed away and left her an old, spooky house in Oklahoma. Callie packed up her son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and headed for the small town in Oklahoma.

Turned out that Callie’s father was Egon Spengler and he had apparently deserted his friends and family and retreated to this farm where nothing ever grew, a place where people around town called his the Dirt Farmer. Although, as it always was with Egon, there was more to what was happening than we saw, and supernatural occurrences once again began to occur.

Phoebe went to summer school, where she met teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) and they hit it off over the strange happenings of earthquakes in a city where there should not be earthquakes. Gary was also a fan of the 80s Ghostbusters and geeked out over a ghost trap that Phoebe had discovered in her grandpa’s house.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife felt like the Star Wars: The Force Awakens of the Ghostbusters franchise. There are several beats that are similar or homages to the original Ghostbusters movie. tweaked just a little with the new cast of kids that are now involved. There are plenty of returning things/story elements in Afterlife, which I thought might bother me, but honestly felt nicely organic in its uses.

Mckenna Grace absolutely carries the new film on her shoulders. Her Phoebe is a wonderful character, the outcast girl who has trouble making friends but loves the ways of science. She could have easily been a cliché but the film takes it time introducing us to Phoebe, her quirks and her personality. Later in the movie, you totally believe in every minute of her story because you care so much about her.

I also loved her new friend, Podcast (Logan Kim), who is making his feature film debut, and he does a tremendous job. He is very funny and works with Phoebe beautifully.

Finn Wolfhard was fine too, but he was honestly the one who had the least to do as Phoebe’s older brother Trevor. He does maximize his screen time and does what he can to build his character. He has some chemistry with Celeste O’Connor, playing on screen potential girlfriend Lucky. They do not get enough time together to really focus the film around them, but Afterlife does not push them to the forefront.

I loved the Paul Rudd character in the first half of the film, but he becomes a stand in for the Rick Moranis role.

This was an example of the film trying to recreate too much of the same beats as the first film. There are some things that I don’t mind about reusing the ideas, but this almost felt like Paul Rudd doing an imitation of Rick Moranis, and that betrayed the interesting character that he was at the beginning.

The tone of Ghostbusters: Afterlife is somewhat different than the original. This played more serious in many ways, with less straight up comedic bits as the first one did. I did not mind that either, since there were some solid humor involved. And yes, the dad jokes by Phoebe neve failed to get a sincere laugh out of me.

The final half hour or so was utterly fantastic and surprisingly emotional. I never expected to get misty-eyed in a Ghostbusters movie, but I did experience some “feels” in that third act. Something happened in the third act that could have felt desperate, but worked surprisingly well. No spoilers.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife looks great, with some fantastic CGI. It is filled with moments that border on nostalgia for the original Ghostbusters film. It has some wonderful moments of fan service that goes extremely well with the story that they were telling.

At this point, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is my second favorite Ghostbusters movie and I hope that there is more of this to come.

4.2 stars

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)

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DailyView: Day 204, Movie 290

Sherlock Holmes is called in to help the war effort of World War II in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, one of the classic Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes series of films from the 1940s, the first produced by Universal Pictures.

Nazis always make great villains, and it was a real life concern at the time of this movie’s release. The Voice of Terror was the name of a broadcast sent over the radio broadcast, claiming responsibilities for acts of terror being perpetrated by Third Reich saboteurs against Britain.

In desperation, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and his trusty doctor sidekick Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) were called in by the “Inner Circle” in an attempt to do something about the broadcasts.

As with all of these Sherlock Holmes films, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are solid in their roles and provide an excellent pair. This film moves Holmes and Watson ahead in time, into more of a present day situation of the 1940s instead of the late 19th century/early 20th century as it had been before.

These have all been solid and fun so far.

National Gratitude Month-EYG November 18

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I love the reactors on YouTube. I spend a lot of time watching their reviews, reactions, riffs and all around fun content. From The Geek Buddies to pReview’d, the Reel Rejects to Settle the Score, the Schmoedown to John Campea, Dan Murrell to Jeremy Jahns… YouTube provides a great forum for me to see these entertaining and engaging personalities. It may not be perfect for the content producers, but I am grateful to have their skills at my fingertips.

Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

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DailyView: Day 203, Movie 289

Tonight’s DailyView is taking us into the world of Disney + for a 1947 package film from Disney that featured two animated films. During the forties (in particular during the war), Disney produced these package films to save money. Fun and Fancy Free included two animated shorts connected by Pinocchio’s Jiminy Cricket.

Film number one in the package was entitled “Bongo” and it included the narration of Dinah Shore. Bongo, based on a tale by Sinclair Lewis, tells the story of a circus bear cub who wanted to be free from his situation. Escaping from the train, Bongo found himself in the wilderness, facing the dangers and uncertainty of a bear cub who had never been outside the circus.

Bongo meets a female bear cub named Lulubelle and instantly fall in love. However, with Bongo unable to understand a custom of bears in the wild, loses her to a brutish rival. Thankfully, Bongo comes across a song and dance routine that explained the very confusing ritual, whihc was when bears are in love, they express it with a slap.

Who knew?

Bongo was unremarkable. The Dinah Shore narration and songs felt lacking and there was just not the energy one would expect in a Disney animation.

Film number two is much more classic Disney fare than Bongo. “Mickey and the Beanstalk” placed Disney’s three main characters: Mickey Mouse (voiced by Walt Disney, himself), Donald Duck and Goofy in the iconic fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk.

This version was narrated by Edgar Bergen with his ventriloquist dummies, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd in a live action section mixed with the animated tale. Jiminy Cricket was involved in this as well. Bergen was telling the story to child actress Luana Patten’s birthday party.

Seeing Mickey, Goofy and Donald together in the classic fairy tale is fun and certainly has more going for it than Bongo did.

Kids might enjoy Bongo more than I did, but you can’t go wrong with the Disney triumphant trio.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

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DailyView: Day 202, Movie 288

The iconic director Alfred Hitchcock claimed that “Shadow of a Doubt” was his favorite movie in his list of classic films. I had never seen this black and white noir before and I do love Hitchcock, so I was looking forward to adding this to the list of DailyView.

Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright) was becoming tired of her boring life in the small town in which she lived. So when her beloved Uncle Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) announced that he was coming for a visit, she was thrilled that her namesake was joining them. Little did she know that Uncle Charlie was bringing more with him than she expected.

When two men, Jack (Macdonald Carey) and Joseph (Henry Travers), come to town interested in Uncle Charlie, Miss Charlie starts to doubt the sincerity of her uncle’s story and life.

Alfred Hitchcock is a master of suspense and building tension throughout a movie and he does so brilliantly with Shadow of a Doubt. The audience is aware of Uncle Charlie’s background early in the film, although there is still a question of exactly what he had done. We could see the shenanigans he was pulling on his family members who clearly adored him, making them much easier to manipulate. Who wants to see the worst in someone you love?

With Miss Charlie slowly putting the pieces together, even after refusing to believe what Jack had told her, you could see how the secret was tormenting the young woman, making her uncertain about what she could do.

The conclusion of the film was great and satisfying. The story was well constructed and took steps that continued to build to the eventual end. The scenes with the stairs and the car in the garage were exceptional, clouding what the expectations were for what was going to happen.

The performances were solid, especially from Joseph Cotten as the dark and brooding Uncle Charlie. It was fun to see Macdonald Carey, whom I knew for decades as Dr. Tom Horton on Days of out Lives, in a role that was different from what I was used to from him. Patricia Collinge, Hume Cronyn, Wallace Ford, and Edna May Wonacott all had important roles in the ensemble and they all provided memorable moments.

Hitchcock may have flashier and more well-known films in his oeuvre, but Shadow of a Doubt is certainly one to consider as one of his sleepers.

National Gratitude Month- EYG November 16

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EYG Hall of Fame food, PIZZA!!!!

I love pizza. I could eat it constantly. But only with meat and cheese. None of that horrible stuff like pineapple or fungus or green things.

Canadian Bacon! Pepperoni! Some sausage. Ham! Bacon! Beef!

That’s what I want. YUM!

Top Five (2014)

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DailyView: Day 201, Movie 287

I remember when the trailers for this movie was coming out and I was interested in seeing it. However, Top Five, the film written and directed by Chris Rock, never came to any theater in my general area and then it disappeared. Earlier during the DailyView, I was looking for a copy of this to watch, and I was not able to find it then either.

Finally, I was able to find it on Vudu today so I rented it and got a chance to watch it. It was very funny and was a deep character drama with some intriguing characters.

Andre Allen (Chris Rock) was a former stand up comedian who had a huge franchise film series that was incredibly popular. Andre wanted to be taken seriously and wanted to be away from the fandom of that movie series. He made a much more serious film and was on promotion for it before he would head off and get married to Bravo reality star Erica Long (Gabrielle Union).

During one of his days of promoting the film, he was joined by New York Times writer, Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), who brought an honesty to the interview that appealed to Andre.

Top Five is raucous, at times obscene, very funny film with some top notch dialogue. Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson have great chemistry and are fantastic together.

There is an amazing cast involved including Cedric the Entertainer (involved in one of the most lewd scenes in the film), Leslie Jones, Kevin Hart, J.B. Smoove, Anders Holm, Kevin Barnett, Ben Vereen, Whoopi Goldberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandberg, Michael Che, Sheri Shepherd, Tracy Morgan, Taraji P. Henson, DMX, Gabourey Sidibe and Charlie Rose.

Top Five was absolutely worth the wait. It was a really fun movie and, although there may have been a few of the scenes that made me uncomfortable and they used the N-word a whole bunch, it was funny and surprisingly deep.

The Black Dahlia (2006)

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DailyView: Day 201, Movie 286

Sick day. So I am able to lounge around on the couch and try to feel better. Unfortunately, the film I chose to help that along was The Black Dalhia.

The Black Dahlia is a 2006 film noir centered around the infamous murder case of Elizabeth Short in the 1940s. Former boxers Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are now policemen who wind up assigned to the Dahlia case. Lee becomes obsessed with the case, to the fear of his girlfriend Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson), while Bucky becomes involved with Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), who has a tie to the victim.

The film has a definite feel of a 1940s noir, and looks great. However, the story itself is needlessly confusing and tosses away some great actors in some miscast roles. I am still not 100% sure what Scarlett Johansson was doing in this movie.

The Black Dahlia started with a whole different storyline that felt very foreign to what the plot of the film was. Character motivations were inconsistent and confused at best and totally nonsensical at the worst.

Who knew one of the most sensational murders of the 20th century could turn out a film this boring?