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MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

It’s no pun to say you’ll be moved by this unique and acclaimed Mexican movie about a life-changing motorcycle odyssey. It is the real-life eight-month, 8,000-mile journey on worn-out bike and tired foot through Latin America of Argentinean Ernesto “Che” Guevara with his fellow med student friend in 1952 that changed Che’s passion from becoming a doctor to a legendary social revolutionist. Mexico’s exciting young actor, Gael Garcia Bernal, lives the part of Che, projecting a caring for socially and politically victimized peasants of the Latin Americas while lightening the load with charm, warmth, and good humor. If you see only one movie this month, make it this one. “One of the great films of this, or any year,” says critic Jeffrey Lyons, and he got that right. From Universal.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and lots of tail wags.

THE RETURN

A terrific film from Russia that has deservedly won international acclaim. Two young brothers wonder why their father suddenly returns to them and their mother after being mysteriously away for seven years. The movie follows the boys’ fishing trip with their returned father, but to tell more would be to spoil the mystery and discovery for you. The boy actors are amazing, especially the youngest, Ivan Dobronarov. Watching him trying to understand why his father left and then returned is great drama. In Russian with English subtitles. From Ren Film, released in the U.S. by Kino International Corp.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and a dozen “Woo Woo’s!”

EDGES OF THE LORD

In this film from Poland that I also highly recommend, the Warsaw parents of a 12-year-old Jewish boy send him to live with Catholic peasant farmers in a remote village, hoping he can escape the Nazis during World War II. Haley Joel Osment plays the boy well, but a Polish boy his same age, played by Liam Hess, steals the show from him in an incredible performance. Willem Dafoe plays a village priest who knows the newcomer’s secret and helps him to become a nominal Catholic in public through what you learn are the “edges” of the Lord. The movie was never released in the U.S. because distributors didn’t think it had commercial possibilities. Movies of this stature rarely show at the malls, which is why I believe American moviegoers are stuck in a “smut and stupid” rut.

From Canal+, the DVD is distributed in the U.S. by NuImage.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and tail wags.

ZELARY
Also set during World War II, this film from the Czech Republic is about a woman resistance fighter in Prague who hides from the Nazis by becoming the wife of a peasant in Zelary, a remote village. There is romance in how the woman, at first a reluctant bride, comes to return the love of the husband who agrees to marry her in order to save her life and give her sanctuary. Besides a strong story, the Czech scenery is gorgeous. From Wellspring.

Max’s rating: Two paws up.

LIAM
Liam is a boy living during the Great Depression in Liverpool in the 1930s. The British film tells what happens to a middle-class family when the father loses his job and falls under the influence of fascists. It is very atmospheric, recreating those times, and be warned that a tragedy in the family creates violence that comes as a shock. But still I highly recommend it as an excellent movie. A nude scene makes me unfortunately only recommend the movie for adults, but it is essential to the story. From Lions Gate Films.

Max’s rating: two paws up.

P.S.
Laura Linney, one of Hollywood’s best young actresses, plays a divorced college admission’s officer who is amazed by one of the school’s young applicant’s uncanny resemblance to her deceased high school sweetheart. The plot thickens when he becomes haunted by the notion that he may be her love reincarnated. Where does love go from there? I’ll never tell, but you’ll enjoy learning more in this romance from the producers of “You Can Count On Me.” The young male co-stars are Topher Grace and Paul Rudd, two actors doing good work today. From Sony Pictures.

Max’s rating: Two paws up.

NEAREST TO HEAVEN
Beautiful Catherine Deneuve co-stars with William Hurt in this modern-day romance that may seem familiar at first because it involves lovers arranging to meet atop New York City’s Empire State Building, as others did in the classic 1939 “Love Affair” and its 1957 remake, “An Affair to Remember.” But the plot changes from there, and you’re taken on a different romantic adventure. It’s a good one, and I’d watch Catherine Deneuve if she just sat on a stool and read the Paris phone book. From Wellspring.

Max’s rating: Some “Woo woo’s!” for Catherine.

GRAND ECOLE
I don’t usually recommend X-rated movies, but this one from France is a worthy exception. Two handsome twenty-something young men at an elite private college discover they have strong feelings for each other as well as for two young females, and one of the young men also is attracted to a handsome Arab youth working on campus. But there’s much more to it than what is admittedly sensual, since this film explores the roles of power, privilege, and poverty; class and racial prejudice; and sexuality in relationships.

Try and get any one of those controversial themes in even one American movie. The movie’s title means “great school” but more accurately translates to “great education.”  It has been a sensation in Europe, and deserves a wide American audience because it attempts to explore male-male and male-female relationships more intelligently than we are usually offered in U.S. films. Be warned that there is more than a little nudity in the movie. From Wellspring.

Max’s rating: Two paws up.

From TV to DVD

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

The popular NBC television series is about three twenty-something best friends living in Los Angeles who fall in love with each other or with the wrong people, audition chickens, and one of them writes a eulogy for his parents.

Scott Bairstow, Jennifer Garner, and Eion Bailey are the likeable, attractive young stars of this 1998 TV series now on DVD from Columbia Tri-Star. It’s from the creators of another hit TV comedy series, “Party of Five.”

Max’s rating: Two paws up.

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED
This British TV series consists of 23 half-hour stories that are, as one critic says, “A cross between Hitchcock and O. Henry.” They are dramatizations of Roald Dahl’s and other writers’ playfully macabre stories that may be mysteries but always involve interesting people to whom sometimes weird things happen. Like the “Umbrella Man” who becomes involved in a married couple’s infidelity, and the archaeologist friends who unearth a mummy in Egypt that is enough to drive them not only apart, but mad. The stars are some of the best, including John Guilgud, Nigel Havers, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon, Robert Morley, Joan Collins, Rachel Kempson, Michael Kitchen, etc. Each story is a little gem that will entertain and surprise you with its twists and turns and unexpected ending. Set 2 is now available, and you also can order Set 1. I really like these tales, wonderfully told. From Acorn Media.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and lots of tail wags.

OLIVER’S TRAVELS
Alan Bates is an eccentric involuntarily retired professor of comparative religion who goes on a motor trip and meets Sinead Cusack, a suspended policewoman. Together they try to solve a classic British mystery in this delightful mystery-romance with some very witty dialogue that was first seen on the British BBC Mystery! TV series and is now on DVD. >From AcornMedia.

Max’s rating: Two paws up.

Oldies but Goodies

GONE WITH THE WIND has never shown better on DVD than in this new release with restored picture and sound. The boxed set includes just about everything you could ever want to know about the movie and how it was filmed, including an interview with its last surviving star, Olivia de Havilland. Among other things, you learn – if you didn’t already know it – that both Clark Gable and Leslie Howard didn’t want to be in it, which is ironic because both are probably best-remembered for their marvelous performances in the picture.  And of course you know that everyone from Bette Davis to Zazu Pitts wanted the part of Scarlett O’Hara before Vivien Leigh got it. Even if you already have a DVD of this great movie, the new boxed set is a must for any home DVD library. From Warners, although it was made by the David O. Selznick studio in 1939 and released by MGM.

Max’s rating: The highest.

 

TWENTIETH CENTURY
John Barrymore plays an egomaniacal Broadway producer who tries to make a star of a shopgirl, played by beautiful, vivacious Carole Lombard, in this excellent DVD restoration of the classic, filmed in large part on the speeding train from which the movie derives its title. It’s one of the greatest of the screwball comedies of the 1930s, a genre which America badly needs now to remind it how to laugh in times of adversity. Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht wrote the delightful story and the very versatile Howard Hawks directed its humor masterfully at lightning-fast speed. The great John Barrymore gives one of his finest performances in what practically becomes a one-man show. From Columbia Pictures and Sony.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and lots of tail wags.

More oldies but goodies being released on DVD this month are two Barbra Streisand favorites: “FUNNY GIRL” and the sequel, “FUNNY LADY,” both from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Also “ARROWSMITH,” a medical drama with Ronald Colman, “BARBARY COAST,” a Gold Rush drama with Miriam Hopkins, “COME AND GET IT,” a northwoods lumberjack drama with Joel McCrea and Frances Farmer, “DEAD END,” a crime drama with Humphrey Bogart, and “STELLA DALLAS,” a family classic with Barbara Stanwyck. Each one a great movie from the 1930s, made by Samuel Goldwyn and now on DVD from MGM.

For Puppies, Children, and Teens

 

BAMBI
Finally, one of Walt Disney’s greatest animated movie achievements is on DVD, and the restoration print is gorgeous. This is another “must have” for DVD home libraries and for the whole family to see together as the brave fawn learns about life, friendship, and later, love. From Buena Vista.

Max’s rating: The highest.

TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS
The BBC miniseries seen on Masterpiece Theatre is wonderful family viewing on DVD, from the classic novel following the schoolboy adventures of a lad in Victorian England. It’s fun knowing you never had a school adversary as mean and nasty as “Flashman,” the older boy who bullies Tom and everyone else until he gets his inevitable comeuppance.

Max’s rating: two paws up and some “Woo woo’s!”

For preschoolers, “Here Come the A,B,Cs” teaches the alphabet in song and puppet fun, from Disney Sound, and The Monkeydoos offer a dozen fun songs to inspire active play in “Gallop, Hop, and Stomp!”, from Thinkeroo.   For teenagers, “Disney Mania in Concert” is a DVD with young music stars performing on the stage at Disneyland Resort in California, doing favorite Disney movie songs their way.

 

 

Bones to Pick

 

First bone: I can’t recommend “I HEART HUCKABEES” because I couldn’t figure out what it is about. All I kept thinking, besides not finding it funny when it is supposed to be a comedy, was what a waste of a talented actor like Jude Law in a picture so muddled that Roger Ebert said he was mystified about its plot, if it had one, and thought it had a joke, but couldn’t figure out what it is. I think it is a joke on psychoanalysis, but am not sure. Maybe the joke is on anyone who bought a ticket to see it. In case you’re wondering about the title, Huckabees is the name of the department store chain Law works for, and the word “heart” can be substituted for the word “love,” not that any of this matters because the movie is incomprehensible.

Second bone: Why do scenes in so many new movies cost millions of dollars to make, when they are shot so darkly that you can’t see what’s in them? I won’t single out any one movie that leaves me in the dark, because most every new movie is filmed in scenes of almost total darkness.

Third bone: If the movie studios and the manufacturers of high definition DVD players and recorders don’t soon agree on a single format for the machines, I suggest they just forget about it. And if they make us choose between two incompatible formats, they’ll be giving us too many fleas to scratch.

Fourth Bone: Be sure you know what the “no late fee” deal is, if you rent from Blockbuster. It’s being investigated because renters of videos and DVDs may not realize that if they return them after the due date, they may wind up owning them, for a fee. And in another matter, Blockbuster stocks some DVDs of older movies now restored on DVD, but the emphasis definitely is on newer titles. My nearest Blockbuster store is woefully lacking in stocking many of the classic movies now on DVD, while they put several dozen copies of new titles on their shelves. What gives? Can’t they buy at least one fewer title of a new movie and use those dollars to buy at least one copy of a classic movie per store? Someone at Blockbuster marketing must be about 16 years old and ignoring the purchasing taste of anyone over 30. My solution to the problem has been to rent DVDs from Netflix, the online service that stocks both new and classic movies. Netflix’s selection is virtually limitless and like having two dozen Blockbuster stores as close as your computer and your mailbox. No driving, no gas, no traffic, and you’re supporting an outfit that respects classic movies.

Fifth bone: The Oscars... Well, I watched and thought it was a mediocre show, but my master says he remembers when really great movies and actors were nominated. Chris Rock?

Well, at least he kept his street language to a minimum, and I loved his Bush-bashing. But I don’t know what he must have against Jude Law, saying he’s in too many movies.

Maybe he’s jealous he’s not in any, and Jude is one of the best-looking guys around. A best picture about a woman boxer? Not our idea of Oscar material, when my master compares it to “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “How Green Was My Valley,” “Gone With the Wind,” “Hamlet,” “From Here to Eternity,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” and “My Fair Lady.”

But then, times change and, sadly, so does Hollywood.

I bet you didn't know, but besides reviewing movies, I sing opera. Click here to see and hear me rehearsing the Barcarolle from "Tales of Hoffman."

Maybe you would like to visit my master's web site with highlights of his huge collection of old movie magazines, Bijou Follies
Two more web sites I recommend are: Errol Flynn and Jeffrey Hunter