DailyView: Day 226, Movie 313

This weekend sees the release of Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic West Side Story so I thought that it would be appropriate to watch another musical set in New York for the DailyView. Who would’ve believed that a musical about the 1899 newsies strike would be made by Disney. Heading over to Disney +, I pulled up Newsies, the 1992 musical.

I was shocked when I saw a young Christian Bale as Jack Kelly, the main character of the musical. I did not know he was involved in the film. There were other faces that were familiar in the film such as Bill Pullman as newspaper writer Bryan Denton, Robert Duvall as Joseph Pulitzer, Anne Margret as Medda, David Moscow as David, Max Casella as Racetrack, and Luke Edwards as Les.

Of course, the most important part of any musical is the music and one of the great musical composers, EYG Hall of Famer, Alan Menken, but, in Newsies, the songs were a mixed bag. I think the biggest issue with some of the songs were the fact that the actors who were singing them were not necessarily the best singers ever.

Robert Duvall as the antagonist of the film was so over the top with his character that he was a distraction from the rest of the cast. I am not sure the character choices made here, but they did not work.

The dance choreography was decent and the kids did a decent job with it.

The ending was anticlimactic to me and failed to put a real bow on the story that was being told. Still, some of the young actors were charming and Christian Bale showed that he was going to be a star as he carried Newsies on his back.

While the movie was lackluster at best, the stage musical that was inspired by it actually turned out to be a Tony winner, including Best Musical. That goes to show that it may not have been the material that was the failure in the film.

The movie Newsies had its moments, but a lot of the story was hard to believe and the people in the cast who should not have been singing always seemed to be singing. The film was a little long, but was not without its positives. We’ll see how it compares to West Side Story.

DailyView: Day 225, Movie 312

Christmas has never been so nasty.

Horror/thriller has been combined with Christmas several times, but Better Watch Out really takes the cake in uncomfortable situations and anxiety-filled moments.

Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) had been a steady babysitter for 12-year old Luke (Levi Miller) for years, but she was not aware how his feelings for her had changed. So when his parents were out for a Christmas party, Luke was hoping to see what could develop. However, when it appeared that his house was under attack from an invader, Ashley was forced into protecting the boy from the holiday dangers.

And yet, things were not quite what they seemed.

Better Watch Out was excellent. It was dark, funny, jaw dropping and full of surprises, twists and unexpected events that you do not see coming. This movie is gruesome at times, dark and sinister. It takes a turn right around the end of the first act that changed what we thought we were watching.

Olivia DeJonge and Levi Miller are great. Levi Miller is so believable in his outlandish character that he anchors the unlikely plot. DeJonge is lovely and shows that “it” factor that so many of the stars have. She is great in Better Watch Out.

Patrick Warburton and Virginia Madsen played Luke’ s parents, but, honestly, they do little in the film. Luke’s best friend, Garret, is played by Ed Oxenbould and he is a different energy.

The film takes a dark look at the classic Home Alone, which played a strange homage during this plot.

This was a surprisingly excellent movie that I enjoyed tremendously. I wanted a little more resolution to the story at the end, but there is also something oddly satisfying about it.

I found this on Amazon Prime and it was great.

DailyView: Day 224, Movie 311

Merry Christmas continues at the DailyView with the next Christmas film on the list. It is the infamous 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sinbad film, Jingle All the Way.

What a figurative cartoon this film was.

Arnold played Howard Langston, a successful businessman who has been taking his wife Liz (Rita Wilson) and son Jamie (young Anakin himself, Jake Lloyd) for granted, missing important events like Jamie’s karate meet.

Howard wanted to make it up to his son so he wanted to get his son the hottest toy on the market, the Turboman action figure, the same toy Howard was supposed to have already gotten weeks before. On Christmas Eve, the chances of finding one of the wanted toys was nearly impossible.

As he is standing in line at the toy store, Howard meets Myron (Sinbad) a postal worker who was also desperate to find a Turboman figure for his own son. This led to a series of increasingly ridiculous situations that placed the pair of them into a Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote-esce conflict.

The film also featured a performance by the late Phil Hartman as Howard’s slimy neighbor Ted, who was looking for his opportunity to make a move on Liz. Hartman was always great, but he could not save this turkey.

This movie has some entertaining moments that are just truly stupid. You have to really stop thinking or hoping for depth in character or sensible plot points, and, if you do, it is possible to not be offended by Jingle All the Way…maybe.

If you look at it as a cartoon, this is dumb fun (well, fun might be a stretch). Arnold is totally playing an Saturday morning cartoon character, with facial expressions to match. Arnold has had better acting performances in his career, but Jingle All the Way has to be near the bottom of the barrell.

Oh, and poor Robert Conrad.

This one is bad. Really bad.

DailyView: Day 223, Movie 310

One of the YouTube commenters who I have enjoyed over the years has been John Campea, from days at AMC Movie Talk to his current YouTube Channel. He spends his time on his channel talking about movies, TV shows and pop culture. One of the typical things that he would discuss on his channel was movie trailers, and it was always apparent that he loved the medium of trailers.

Campea took that love of trailers and created a documentary that looked at the history of trailers, how they make people feel, and why they have become such a cultural phenomenon.

It is a fascinating topic because trailers have become a huge business, not only on YouTube, but across the Internet. John Campea brought some of his friends and fellow YouTube commenters/reactors to discuss the history of trailers and how these trailers helped create a greater anticipation for the movies they are trying to promote.

Some of Campea’s colleagues and friends involved in the documentary included Robert Meyer Burnett, Grae Drake, Kristian Harloff, Scott Mantz, Cody Miller, Greg Alba, and Chris Gore. These “talking heads” of the documentary is one of the best parts provided. Watching how Scott Mantz’s face lights up talking about the trailer for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is worth inclusion of all of the speakers.

The documentary is split into several chapters, ranging from the trailer history to a discussion on whether trailers give away too much of the movie. Each section is highlighted from some of the best trailers in movies history.

I was disappointed that I did not see my personal favorite trailer, the “Hurt” version of the Logan trailer. Still, with the massive amount of trailers available, I can understand why some were excluded. There were a lot of focus on the Marvel trailers, and the discussion on how the Iron Man trailer at Comic Con 2007 changed the game was intriguing.

I really enjoyed the documentary very much. I could hear John Campea’s voice in the narration of the documentary, despite it not being his literal voice. There were point made that I had heard Campea make on his show before. His personality did come through in the trailer as did his love for the genre.

If you are a movie fan, you enjoy this documentary. It is a light watch, but it shows the passion that comes with movie fans.

DailyView: Day 222, Movie 309

Today, I went back into the catalogue of Charlie Chaplin with the 1917 short, The Adventurer. Where as the last Chaplin film was starting to feel old for me, this one was back to the original feel for me.

In The Adventurer, Chaplin was an escaped convict being chased by a group of prison guards. Escaping from the guards by swimming out into the ocean along the beach, Chaplin found a group of people who were drowning. Saving them, Chaplin made up a story of him hearing their cries for help on his yacht.

This led to a party and the prison guards returning to chase Chaplin around.

This short shows off one of the greatest skills of Charlie Chaplin, his impeccable comedic timing. The slapstick in this short included several moments where the expert timing had to work at an exact moment or it would not work. I do not know how many takes it required to perform these brilliant moments, but it looks fluid.

Everything was so meticulously choreographed and designed that it was really fun to watch. Chaplin is very funny and his expressions only make the scenes better.

Another fun and funny short with EYG Hall of Famer Charlie Chaplin.

DailyView: Day 221, Movie 308

The second of the Christmas movies in the DailyView this December is a film that many people love. It is one of the most well known rom-coms, Love Actually.

However, it turned out to be not one of my own personal favorites.

I was amazed at the list of actors who were in this movie. I knew a few of them originally, like Hugh Grant, was in the film. However, the film included Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Andrew Lincoln, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley, Martin Freeman, Alan Rickman, Laura Linney, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martine McCutcheon, Gregor Fisher, Rodrigo Santoro, Billy Bob Thornton, Elisha Cuthbert, January Jones, and Rowan Atkinson.

The problem is the director, Richard Curtis, had nine separate stories going on in the script. Even at two hours and fifteen minutes, there was not enough time for all of these characters to have their own individual storylines. Because of that, most of the characters turned out to be one dimensional and some got reduced to the simplest characters or just appeared to appear.

Some of the stories were better than others. I thought the Liam Neeson and his stepson in love story was cute, if not unrealistic. The Hugh Grant as England Prime Minister finding love at work was sweet, but undeveloped. The famous scene with Andrew Lincoln was in probably my least favorite of the stories.

There was just not enough time to develop anything past the surface level and if that is enough for you, you probably love this movie. I want more than what was given and I would have liked to have seen some of these stories eliminated and expanded. They could have saved the other stories for a potential sequel.

I don’t consider Love Actually a complete wash, but it was not to the level that I have heard some raise it to.

DailyView: Day 220, Movie 307

One of the movies listed on HBO Max’s leaving in December queue was an Oscar winner, Gods and Monsters, a semi-fictionalized story of the last days of the life of director James Whale, who directed classic movies Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein.

James Whale (Ian McKellan) had retired and was facing poor health, including strokes that affected his mind. Openly gay, James would still have younger men in his home for a variety of purposes. James’ housekeeper Hanna (Lynn Redgrave) disapproved but she loyally remained by his side, helping the old man through his life.

James took a liking to the gardener, Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser), a strapping young man, and he struck up a friendship with him. Clay was uncomfortable with the homosexual lifestyle, but the ambiance of the movie director intrigued him and, despite some outbursts, began to bond with James.

During the time with Clay, James was suffering flashbacks to World War I and the loss of loved ones in his past. The memories would cause serious repercussions to the old man’s present.

In the real world, James White was found dead in his pool, which is dealt with in the movie, but it is one of the parts, along with the relationship with Clay, that has been fictionalized.

The film dealt with uncomfortable feelings and the pain of loss and trauma that existed in the lives of men. It also handled the importance of compassion and seeing someone for who they were.

Ian McKellan was amazing as the troubled artist/director. Being most famous as the director of the first two Frankenstein movies, the film was able to place James into several “monster” metaphors that could look at the real monsters of the world. I have never been impressed with Brendan Fraser as an actor outside of the Mummy-type action films, but he does an outstanding job here as the gardener who felt uncomfortable at first and developed into someone who could see past the surface level of behavior by James into the pain beneath.

Gods and Monsters was tough to watch at times, but the underlying text is important for people to understand.

DailyView: Day 219, Movie 306

Tonight’s DailyView comes from Disney +, and it is a movie that is the answer to the question, “What if Treasure Island The Swiss Family Robinson had a baby?” The answer is Shipwrecked.

A Norwegian film based on Oluf Falck-Ytter’s book Haakon Haakonsen: En Norsk Robinson stars Stian Smestad and Gabriel Byrne. Yes, that Gabriel Byrne.

Haakon (Stian Smestad) was a young boy whose father came back from sea with a terribly injured leg. He would not be able to go back out to sea and, because of that, the family would lose their farm. Haakon volunteered to head out on a two year voyage to make enough money to save the farm.

Once on the ship, however, he came across Lt. John Merrick (Gabriel Byrne) who had plans to kill the captain and take over the ship. Merrick was successful in his attempt, but the ship gets wrecked in a storm and Haakon is stranded on a deserted island.

On the island, he discovered a treasure left there by Merrick and he began planning for the day when Merrick would return.

He was accompanied on the trip by family friend Jens (Trond Peter Stamsø Munch) and a stowaway they met named Mary (Louisa Milwood-Haigh).

The film was a family adventure with reasonably likeable actors in a story we have seen 100 times. There are very few surprises in the plot (although the strange appearance of a gorilla in the middle of the film was odd- especially since we never see the gorilla again), and the acting was so so.

Still, it is a quick watch and fun enough as a film for the whole family. There are certainly worse films made for young viewers that are pretending to be family films. Shipwrecked has a few moments and is not a waste of time. Maybe that is not a rave review, but still…

DailyView: Day 218, Movie 305

The unexpected death of The Princess of Wales, Diana, was a moment of tragedy felt across the entire globe, and the movie The Queen looks at that time period that could have threatened the very state of the monarchy in Great Britain.

It was well known that Diana and Queen Elizabeth had a tempestuous relationship, especially after Diana left the Royal family and divorced Prince Charles. So when Diana was involved in a fatal car accident in France, there were a gamut of emotions stirred up in England, not only from the people of the country, but also the Royal family.

This biopic focuses on this time of British history as Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) struggled to understand the reaction of her country to, not only, the death of Diana, but the Royal family’s seemingly cold response, or lack thereof, to the tragedy. We also meet and follow new Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), who sees the Queen in a different light than everybody around him and who helped to advise Elizabeth she needed to reconsider her stance on the death.

The film used real life news footage and archived video featuring the real Princess Diana interspersed with the film’s exceptional performances, in particular from Helen Mirren, who won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her role in The Queen.

Helen Mirren was outstanding as Queen Elizabeth II, a woman who had never been a fan of Diana and who had become out of touch with her subjects. The connection between Elizabeth and Tony Blair was impressive, especially since the pair do not share screen time much.

James Cromwell and Sylvia Syms played Charles and Queen Elizabeth I respectably and both are impressive. Other cast members of the film included Helen McCrory, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, and Tim McMullen. The side characters are wonderful, helping to build the isolation of the Royal Family from their subjects which showed them as uncaring and separated.

Yet Helen Mirren is the reason to watch this movie. She is amazing in the role and gained remarkable praise, even from Queen Elizabeth herself. It is a solid film that is elevated by some powerful performances and some intriguing use of news footage.

DailyView: Day 217, Movie 304

As the calendar changes over to December, the DailyView will be doing some selected holiday flicks during the month. I do not expect that we will watch as many Christmas movies in December as I did horror movies during October, but I will be doing some. The first one is today on Disney +. It was a film that I was going to do last week, but I pushed it back until December. It was A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is perhaps my favorite Christmas movie of all time. I absolutely love that film and I watch it every Christmastime. So, when this popped up on Disney +, I was intrigued. I had never heard of this film, which felt like a made-for-TV special. Even still, I usually see a new Muppet project, so I was surprised when this showed up.

It is about what you would expect from a Muppet film. The typical group of Muppets, led by Kermit the Frog, had to go on a mission to help deliver a letter to Santa Claus after a mess up at the post office prevented Gonzo from mailing the letter as he promised he would do.

Of course, there are songs. These were, once again, written by Paul Williams, who wrote the classic songs from The Muppet Movie, including Rainbow Connection. Williams was also in the movie in a cameo role.

Cameos were a huge part of any Muppet film, and this had its share too. Whoopi Goldberg, NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Nathan Lane, Jane Krakowski, Richard Griffiths, Tony Sirico, Steven Schirripa, and Jesse L. Martin (from Flash and Rent) all had roles in the movie.

The story does seem to be rushed and could have been stretched out to allow some of the emotional beats to hit more than it does. Still, you can’t ask for much more than the Muppets at Christmas.

DailyView: Day 216, Movie 303

Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of my lifetime. Of any lifetime, actually. He is a master at his trade. Spielberg is capable of turning any genre into a classic film. Science fiction? Adventure? Horror? Thrillers? He can do it all.

Back in 2005, Spielberg directed a film that wound up being nominated for several Oscars and yet it was one of the few Spielberg films that is criminally underrated. If you were listing off Spielberg movies, how long would it take you to reach Munich?

Munich is a historical thriller that tells the story of a group of assassins organized by the Israeli government to track down and kill the 11 terrorists from the Palestinian organization Black September responsible for the horrific events during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics where members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered.

Although the Israeli government denied their connection, Avner Kaufman (Eric Bana) led the group of four Jewish men with specific skills in the attacks on the terrorists. However, the group had reservations about exactly what they were doing with arguments among each other between missions.

Daniel Craig played Steve, a South African driver. Mathieu Kassovitz played Robert, the toy maker who was also a bomb expert. Ciarán Hinds played Carl, the former Israeli solder and ‘cleaner’. Hanns Zischler played Hans, the forger. Geoffrey Rush was in Munich as well as the go between with the team and the Israeli government.

There are some tense moments in Munich and the last act of the film was truly the best part. Seeing how the events that occurred and the knowledge of what the group had done burrowed into the mind of these characters is fascinating. Eric Bana does exceptional work. I have never been a huge fan of Bana, but this is easily one of my favorite performances of his.

I did think Munich a a tad long and could have used with some fewer moments in the first two acts, but that third act pay off is very strong.

This is based on a book Vengeance by George Jonah, who recounted the Israeli Operation Act of God in retaliation of the events in the Munich Olympic Games. There have been some questions raised about the authenticity of the book in historical accuracy, but that does not mean anything. This is not a documentary and total accuracy of the events is not a requirement.

Spielberg continued to show his directorial skills that cross so many genres. Munich is another example of his talent that simply can not be denied. He is one of the greatest directors in movie history.