A Long Time Ago...And Not A Moment Too Soon! "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Rated PG-13

Starring Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels,

Directed by J. J. Abrams

The Story:

30 years have passed after the fall of the Empire. Rising from the ashes are the New Order, and they are bent on finding Luke (Hamill) the last of the Jedi and killing him. Thankfully, the Resistance is led by General Organa (Fisher) and she has sent her best pilot (Isaac) to locate the whereabouts of her brother. However, nothing is ever easy for the Resistance, and if not for the conscience of a pacifist stormtrooper (Boyega) and a plucky desert scavenger (Ridley), the galaxy would be reduced to a pile of burning rubble.

Seriously, what's the point of writing any synopsis for this movie. Everyone's seen it by now, right?

Those that haven't either don't want to, or don't want to.
:)

Well, I wanted to, and I took the boys, and we had a blast.

When the lights dimmed, and the logo pops up with the John Williams fanfare...

I got a little misty.

This isn't a movie, this was an event 30 years in the making.

The future trilogy, as promised by George Lucas back in the 70s that he retconned himself into believing he never said, is finally here.

And Lucas is nowhere to be found because he sold the franchise to Disney.

They in turn handed the keys to the kingdom over to J. J. Abrams who successfully, like it or not, revamped Star Trek for a whole new generation.

As you watch this movie, there are many, many, many familiar beats to the story.

Sure, it's because J.J. took the entire original trilogy, dropped it in a blender and poured out The Force Awakens.

And you know what?

I liked it.

You didn't need to see the original trilogy to get what was going on here, but it certainly helps.

You definitely didn't need to see any of the misguided prequels.

Everything you need to know is right here.

J.J. Abrams basically said " I'm going to do one Star Wars film, and this is it." He bridged the gap between then and now and introduced us to a whole new cast of characters that we can get to know and love.

Little kids will now be able to be Finn, Rey or Poe out on the playground, if kids still do that pretend stuff in the 21st century.

Plus almost all of the stars of Star Wars have returned in one form or another, and we get to watch Han Solo (Ford) nearly steal the movie out from under his younger co-stars every time he's on screen.

The movie ends with a nice closing shot of what to expect in the next movie which should be here in about 18 more months.

Everyone's got an opinion about this film. This film is getting picked apart in ways I never dreamed possible. Even by people who claim to like it!

My opinion is: I had a lot of fun.

Welcome to 2016.

Welcome to the first film in the running for Best of the Year status.

Final Grade: A-

You'll Age Faster Than She Does..."The Age of Adaline"

The Age of Adaline (2015)

Rated PG-13

Starring Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Ellen Burstyn, Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker, Anthony Ingruber

Directed by Lee Toland Krieger

The Story:

Adaline (Lively) is a lovely lady after the turn of the century who has it all, a good husband, a beautiful baby, and then she loses her husband in an accident. Moving on without him, one night she is involved in a freak accident that leaves her with the inability to age. She watches as her daughter (Burstyn) grows up and older than she is. She moves every few years to avoid running into people who knew her previously and having to explain why she looks so young. Then, at a New Year's Eve party she meets Ellis (Huisman) who is going to give her a second chance at love and life.

But no, we aren't done just yet! You see, once upon a time, Adaline had dared to love again when she met William (Ingruber). However, she left without a trace, and he was heartbroken. Yet William would age as most people do, and now a much older William (Ford) is celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife (Baker) when their son, Ellis comes home bringing his new girlfriend with him.

Imagine William's surprise to see his lost love standing right before his very eyes.

So where to begin, the good news, or the bad news?

We'll start with the good news.

The cast, from top to bottom, does a great job. Believable, sincere, they never once let you doubt that this tale is unfolding before you and their emotions will help carry your emotions through to the very end of the film.

The bad news, the movie is slow in the pacing as it drags out near the two hour mark.

So one of two things should have happened, add a little to the movie to take it to the full 2 hours (or beyond) by fleshing out a little more of the story and characters which might have given the story a bit more zip and momentum and tighten up a few of the plot pieces, or trim some of the scenes down or eliminate a bit of the fluff to make it move at a quicker pace.

It is the 21st Century after all, and audiences aren't dumb, and you give away half the movie in trailers these days, so let's pick up the pace and get to it.

In other bits of good news for the film, if the world was waiting for the next Harrison Ford, well you could do worse than Anthony Ingruber. While not the spitting image, he's got the physical frame and the voice range of the man who would be Indy or Han. Let's see what the future holds for this guy.

So know going in that it's going to take a bit to get the ball rolling, but the last half of the movie delivers.

Final Grade: C+

Third Time's The...Yawn... "The Expendables 3"

The Expendables 3 (2014)

Rated PG-13

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas

Directed by Patrick Hughes

The Story:

Barney (Stallone) is on a mission with the team when he runs across his old partner-in-crime, Stonebanks (Gibson). They founded the Expendables together, and Barney thought he was dead. Instead, it's Stonebanks who is going to try and kill Barney and his all new team that he has assembled. So naturally it's up to the old gang to help save the day and stop the bad guy.

Piece of cake!

I'm not sure how I feel about this entry in the franchise.

One, everything changes.

Gone is Bruce Willis, replaced by Harrison Ford. Meh... I guess that works.

Mel Gibson is given prime crazy time to chew scenery and play the bad guy, and he does that well. You know there will be a straight up fight at the end that will leave someone dead.

Only this time, Gibson plays the Gary Busey role!

:)

Then there is Wesley Snipes who gets out of prison, and winds up right back on the big screen. He seems to get quite a bit of screen time which throws off the chemistry of the main characters a bit, in my opinion.

In fact, that's the biggest problem with the film, look at that poster. There isn't enough time to have much character interaction because there are just too many characters.

Don't even get me started on how shortchanged Banderas' part is. : /

So naturally, of the 3, this is my least favorite of the franchise.

If it was the end, so be it. It was a fun ride. The first one was good, the second one was a hoot.

This one was a suitable bookmark.

Audiences seemed to have finally had enough, but really, it was more of the same.

I guess in reality though, we've gone through just about every action start out there.

Except Steven Seagal.

Or Michael Dudikoff.

There's hope for 4 yet!

Final Grade: C+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Maybe...no hurry though.

War Is Just A Game With A More Serious Outcome..."Ender's Game"

Ender's Game (2013)

Rated PG-13 for violence

Starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Aramis Knight

Directed by Gavin Hood

The Story:

In the future, the Earth was threatened by an alien race.  Saved by a heroic pilot (Kingsley), the Earth regrouped and has formed a battle fleet that will chase down the aliens and ensure that they are never again threatened by the species.  To do this, the military uses children who they push and assess to see if they can find their next great leader. Colonel Graff (Ford) believes he has found such a prodigy in Ender Wiggin (Butterfield) and he is recruited to lead the forces into battle.  But is a child really the right leader in the balance of life and death?

Well, it was no After Earth, thank goodness!

But again, I've been stuck in a rut with a bunch of average movies.

Granted, at the end of the day, that's way better than a bunch of terrible movies.

This film feels like it could have used a bit of trimming to shorten it's almost 2 hour runtime down to 90 minutes.

A few tweaks here and there, could have lifted this one a little higher.

No complaints with Harrison Ford, thankfully growing his hair back.  His gruff demeanor lends more believability to the film and tries to anchor it with his performance.

Ben Kingsley is also a nice, but wholly underused, addition to the cast. The character is integral to the film, and I would have liked to have seen more.

Otherwise, the kids engaging in military games, pushing each other in the pursuit of their objectives and the final question of who were the real monsters keep this film from being a total letdown.

Final Grade: C

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I could watch it again, but I'd be in no hurry.

Is The Movie Boring, Or Am I Suffering From "Paranoia" ?

Paranoia (2013)
Rated PG-13  for language

Starring Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, Harrison Ford, Amber Heard

Directed by Robert Luketic

The Story:

Adam (Hemsworth) is a cocky know-it-all at a technology firm run by Nicholas Wyatt (Oldman).  When he gets fired, he takes his company card and his team out on the town for one last hurrah.  Wyatt is irritated and drags Adam back in.  He's going to set him up to go undercover for his rival, Jock Goddard (Ford) and steal secrets.  What a tangled web we're weaving...

Another "should have been better..." film.

You've got Oldman and Ford, but the two barely spend any screen time together.

The two do everything they can to elevate the proceedings whenever they are onscreen, but really, it's not a lot to keep you engrossed.

The sinister-ness is downplayed and mostly the movie peddles along at a clip just around boredom.

That, and Ford should leave his hair alone, he looks terrible with that short-cropped stubble.


If you want a good twist and turn movie, watch The Firm instead.


Final Grade: C-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: That's a neither to both.

You Know Him. You Just Don't Realize It Yet. "Drew: The Man Behind The Poster"

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster (2013)
N/R- Documentary...does contain a bit of language and a few artistic nude paintings

Starring Drew Struzan, Harrison Ford, Michael J. Fox, Steven Spielberg

Directed by Erik Sharkey


The Story:

You may not know his name, but you know Drew Struzan's work.  At least assuming you've ever seen a movie poster between the 1970s and now.

This is his story, and it's actually pretty interesting stuff!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I could put my 5 favorite Struzan posters on this review and call it good.



Hmm... I still might...

But that misses the point!

This is the story of a man who made a name for himself by being himself.  A dedicated artist who loved to work, and with a few twists of fate wound up becoming famous in Hollywood, and shaping how fans around the world came to view the movies.



You will hear Michael J. Fox, Harrison Ford, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and many, many others gush about how great his work is, and how amazing it is to have Drew complete a poster for their movies.  In fact, it's quite praiseworthy how much they realize they need to make their movies as good as Drew's posters make them out to be.



You will also be amazed at the business venture that Struzan wound up in that went horribly wrong, but had the ultimate revenge at the end.  You can't script a story better than that!

Most remarkable, Struzan seems to be the most humble, likeable guy to ever be in any Hollywood circle.

THAT, is amazing, and elevates this piece even more.  Usually you'll hear someone say, yeah, but he's an @#$@#@#$...



Not here.  There is nothing but universal praise for his body of work and the man himself.

Amusingly, as many point out, even Drew's work on inferior movies never diminished his paintings, which most considered to be better than the movie they represented! :)

Count me as another fan, who is happy after all these years to put a name and face to the man who brought me a lot of joy on movie posters and VHS/DVD cases over the years.

Available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: A-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor:  I could definitely watch it again, probably a viewing in the near future with my art students is in the works.  A purchase?  It's possible...As I glance Amazon I see they have books that contain his work... and that might be better still. : )

The Only Number That Matters in Baseball: "42"

Big changes often come with small steps.

The Story:

This is the story of Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) and his pursuit of adding a black baseball player named Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945.

How's that for a plot summary?

Simple, yet effective.

But it doesn't even begin to summarize what you'll watch on the screen.

Sure,  it's a lot of history condensed into a 2 1/2 hour movie, but it flies by and doesn't feel like that long of a movie.

The director/writer Brian Helgeland isn't very prolific, but I've enjoyed his output before (Payback and A Knight's Tale)

The performances are great.  Boseman carries the majority of the movie on his back.  Dealing with racism with quiet dignity.  All Robinson wants is a chance to play ball, and eventually even his critics come around.

Harrison Ford plays gruff in his sleep, and he does a fine job as Branch Rickey.

The tale is an interesting one, as it parallels both Rickey's insistence to put Robinson in the game, and Robinson's efforts to succeed.

Thankfully, as history tells us, he will.

It's amazing, that as much as I don't really care for baseball, I sure love baseball movies.

: )

Final Grade: B+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I could see adding this to the baseball wing of the DVD library.  Good stuff.

Up Before the Crack of Dawn... "Morning Glory"

Go back to bed, it's early...

The Story:

Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) lives for the news.  More specifically, she has dreamed of being the producer of  The Today Show since she was a little girl.  Doing her best at a local morning show in New Jersey, her life abruptly changes when she is canned due to budget cuts.  She is desperate to get back in the game, and takes the plunge at the ratings challenged Daybreak show on IBS.  Can she pull her series out of the ratings basement before it's too late?

This is a comedic gem of a movie.  I absolutely love to watch it, and I make no apologies for that.

First and foremost, it's a comedy about the morning news programs.

Second, and wisely, there is a romantic comedy entanglement that plays second-fiddle to the first part of the story, which works great because in the real world, that's exactly what would happen.

Becky has an odd assortment of characters on her show to deal with.  She opens her career with a bang by firing one co-host, leaving her other star (Diane Keaton) to wonder what's going on.  Combing the archives, Becky realizes that she can get curmudgeonly anchorman Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) on her show due to his contract.

Becky tries, but the ratings keep getting worse, and her boss (Jeff Goldblum) threatens cancellation.  Becky pulls out all the stops... and amazingly the ratings begin to rise.

It's good fun throughout, and I can't help but think this is the best role that Harrison Ford has had in the movies in over a decade (Air Force One). 

It's well written, believable, and funny.  And when the weatherman (Matt Malloy) rides the roller coaster, I bust up laughing.  Every time.

Currently available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: A-

Would I Own It: Yep, and I do.  Very re-watchable.

100 Greatest Movies of All Time...That I Own. # 2 ~ Raiders of the Lost Ark

If the theme from Raiders is playing in your head...

I can't blame you.

If you would argue that this movie, is truly the greatest movie ever made, I wouldn't argue very hard with you either.

Raiders and Jaws have battled for years as to which is my favorite movie of all time.  Pick a day, I would change my mind.

Ultimately, just like in the opening of Raiders, Indy came up 2nd again.

Otherwise, Spielberg's direction, John Williams score... they combine to make for some great movies over the years.

The plot, if you've never seen Raiders...

Archaeologist and professor Indiana Jones is on a mission in Egypt to find the lost Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can locate it.

That's right, Nazis!

The movie spawned two successful sequels.  The 2nd, following most trilogy lore, was not as good as the first.  It did, however, usher in the era of PG-13 as it was so dark and spooky for kids in the 80s!  The 3rd, if not for the rule of sequels, would have easily made this list on its own merits.  Sean Connery as Indy's dad was a stroke of casting genius.

This is the movie for Harrison Ford.  Sure, Han Solo was great, but nothing even remotely compares to Dr. Jones.  Even the abysmally bad 4th movie was almost worth enduring just to see Ford back in the fedora once more.

And for the record, it's Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Not Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Suck it, George Lucas!

: )

100 Greatest Movies of All Time...That I Own. # 70 ~ The Fugitive

To every armchair movie critic out there (myself included) who says:

"They need to stop remaking old television shows into movies...."

I give you: The Fugitive.

The exception that proves the rule.

Because for every 100 that suck, one comes along that makes you giddy and say, "Now THAT was a movie!"

And so it was with this one.

Andrew Davis, you remember him from Under Siege, decided to come back with a bigger budget and bring Tommy Lee Jones along to chew the scenery again.  This time, he plays a U.S. Marshal who is in hot pursuit of an escaped fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble.  And if you can read that last sentence without hearing Tommy Lee Jones intone "escaped fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble" then you are a better man than I am.

Technically, Marshal Gerard is the bad guy of the movie...

And yet...

It's hard to dislike the guy.  I mean, seriously, he's just doing his job.  As he says in the movie when Kimble professes his innocence... "I don't care."

But he will, don't worry.  And that is why the audience has a hard time rooting against him, while naturally rooting for the man we all know is innocent.

This tour de force of a role also earned Tommy Lee Jones an Oscar, as he stole the movie right out from under the hands of Harrison Ford.

So yes, onto Harrison Ford.  Andrew Davis had to give up something from Under Siege, so he traded in Seagal for Ford.  Good trade.  This is one of those roles where Ford excels best in:

He gets to act, while at the center of spectacular stunt pieces.

No offense to the guy, I love me some Harrison Ford... but the roles where he is a talking head... or just not involved in the action are often the snoozers in his career.  Call it typecasting, I don't care, I call them like I see them.

Yeah, this was a great movie, and while the sequel wasn't nearly as good, it was an admirable effort to bank on the likability of Tommy Lee Jones.  He just needed a Kimble that was directly in proportion to his screen presence.

100 Greatest Films of All Time... That I Own. # 100

A Long Time Ago...

Let's kick off this highly controversial list with a movie that almost didn't even make the cut.  Star Wars.   Not Episode IV.  Not Greedo shooting first Star Wars...

So you can see why it almost didn't make the list.  It's been so tampered and changed over the years, it's almost a shell of what it used to be.   The 3 prequels have sucked all of the mystery and mystique from the story.

But ignoring all of that... the original story is a lot of fun.  An homage to the Saturday morning serials, it's the timeless story of good versus evil.  I'd say boy meets girl... but eww... we know how that turns out.

While it may be the story of Luke Skywalker, everyone with half a brain gravitates to the cocky smuggler, Han Solo who steals the movie, and launched the career of Harrison Ford.  It also introduced the world to the coolest looking villain of all time, Darth Vader.

Honestly, the criteria for this listing is a movie that provides such great enjoyment, that at any time if someone says, "hey, let's watch this...." I'm ready, willing, and able!  To be honest, looking over the list again, I could easily remove this one, as I just don't get that feeling anymore.

But, for the sake of starting over and finding another movie to replace this one, this will stand as # 100.  However, the grasp on this list is tenuous at best for this movie, and if I were to couple it as a franchise, there's no chance it would make it when adding in the first 3 films.