Undefeated (2011)

  This wasn't as depressing or infuriating as I thought it would be. You may have surmised by now, gentle readers, that your beloved movie goddess is not what you would call a "sports" person.  I must admit, the concept of "team" has always eluded me.  I understand intellectually, of course, but I never felt cohesion and team spirit in my entire life.

Bill Courtney is a volunteer coach for the Manassas High School in East Memphis, Tennessee.  It is an inner city school with no budget for athletics and all the inherent dilemmas of at-risk students.  These kids are halfway fallen through the cracks of society, which are more like a yawning abyss of endless poverty and lost opportunities.  Over six years, Courtney has brought the pitiful football team up to competitive levels by believing in these boys and showing them they can believe in themselves.

I have serious issues with the influence of professional sports.  I think they're pointless parades of vanity and greed that perpetuate violent mentalities on and off the various fields because they are ultimately all about money.  Players are excused all sorts of excesses because they are commercially viable.  They are commodities.  And the moment they have exceeded their usefulness, they are cast aside.

However.

I also understand that only a select few athletes have the ability to participate at these upper levels and competition is extremely fierce.  For some kids, this is their only opportunity to get out of the life they had and move to something better.  I'm not going to hate on anyone for that.

This got really off-topic and I apologize.

If you liked The Blind Side and wanted to see a similar documentary, this is on Netflix streaming.

The Imitation Game (2014)

I wasn't sure I'd be in the mood to watch this again since I've seen it fairly recently.  I also wasn't sure how it would hold up to a second viewing.  Turns out, Alan Turing's life was still tragic and filled with unnecessary persecution.  Much sad.  Many feels.  Of course I bought it.  Originally posted 31 Jan 15.  Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design    This was far more entertaining than any of the previous Oscar nominees I've seen this year.  I was actually a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed it, seeing as I'm not a huge Cumberbatch fan.  I know that's not going to win me any Internet friends, but I just don't see the appeal.  I think he's serviceable as an actor, but I wouldn't call him outstanding.  As far as I'm concerned, that race is down to Steve Carrell, Michael Keaton, and Eddie Redmayne.

Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) essentially recruits himself to work at Britain's top secret Bletchley Park facility.  He joins a team of top-ranked mathematicians working on cracking the German enigma machine, but soon runs into serious problems due to his extreme social awkwardness.  Fortunately, he meets Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), a budding mathematician shut out by a male-dominated field, who teaches him to utilize more human interaction in the interests of accomplishing his goal:  the creating of a "thinking machine".  The stresses of war and the crippling British losses wear down on the entire team, even more so when it is revealed that one of them may be a Soviet spy.  Suspicion naturally falls on Turing, who is harboring a secret just not one about espionage.  He is gay in a country that prosecutes homosexuality.

Alan Turing's tragically short life was so rife with drama that I'm amazed it took this long to get a movie made about him.  He was a genius without whom we would not have this magical device I'm typing on now, who was vilified by his government and thrust into obscurity.  The film covers his boarding school years through to his post-war teaching position.  The script is good, the performances are excellent, and the production design is beautiful.  I don't know about its chances at the actual awards ceremony, since it looks like it's coming down to Boyhood and Birdman, but I'll probably end up owning it.

Philomena (2013)

  Double feature this with Spotlight and you'll really hate the Catholic Church.  Priests molest kids and nuns sell them to the highest bidder.

As a young woman, Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) was forced to give up the baby she had out of wedlock.  Fifty years later, she has never given up hope of finding him.  An out of work journalist named Martin (Steve Coogan) hears about her story and agrees to write a human interest piece where he helps her search for her missing child.  The journey takes them from a restrictive nunnery in Ireland all the way to Washington, D.C.

It would have been uplifting if it weren't so horribly depressing.  And it's not funny.  I don't know what kind of crack those reviewers were smoking.  Judi Dench is wonderful, of course, but I have never liked Steve Coogan in any role I have seen.  He always seems to play a pompous asshole, so maybe I just don't like the typecasting.

I can't in good conscience recommend this movie.  If your tastes are anything like mine, you will hate it.  And if your tastes are nothing like mine, you're probably not reading this blog.

The Illusionist (2006)

  This is not the French animated film of the same name.  You probably didn't think it was but I have to specify, because I did review that one.  This came out the same year as The Prestige and got its ass handed to it.  A sentimental little love story just could not compete with a juggernaut featuring Batman and Wolverine fighting for magical supremacy.  But that doesn't mean The Illusionist deserves to be ignored.  It's a vastly different movie from The Prestige and should be treated accordingly.

Eisenheim the Illusionist (Edward Norton) is performing in Vienna, the seat of power for the Hapsburgs.  His illusions are amazing and soon draw the eye of Leopold, the Crown Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (Rufus Sewell).  Eisenheim only has eyes for the beautiful Sophie, Duchess von Teschen (Jessica Biel), whom he knew from their childhood.  Sophie is betrothed to the Prince but longs to escape with the charming magician.  The local Chief Inspector (Paul Giamatti) is warned to keep a very close eye on the pair.  Tragedy strikes and the Inspector finds his loyalties at war with his own conscience.

I enjoyed this more the second time I watched it, which was years ago.  I bought it at that time but only opened it this past week.  And I enjoyed it even more this time.  It just seems to be one of those films that grows on you.  Keep a sharp eye out for young Eisenheim, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson before he grew up into Quicksilver.

The Phantom (1996)

  God, this movie is so campy!  He's wearing purple spandex, for fuck's sake.

Kit Walker (Billy Zane) has inherited the mantle of The Phantom, protector of the jungle nation of Bengalla, from his father and spends his days foiling evil and stopping incursions from shadowy pirate organization the Sang Brotherhood.  But a new evil is stirring far away in New York City.  Xander Drax (Treat Williams) is putting his millions into searching for three mystic skulls that will grant their bearer unlimited power.  Only plucky Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson), Kit's college sweetheart, has the guts to stand up to Drax.  She crosses paths with The Phantom and off they go.

This is the perfect antidote to all the dark, depressing superhero movies of recent years.  Again I say, purple spandex.  The Phantom is candy-coated bubblegum meant to evoke the early radio serial days.  Plus, it has a Catherine Zeta-Jones as the female villain.  How can you not love that?  If I remember correctly, this was a box office failure but that just means it's ripe for a resurgence.  

Headhunters (2011)

  I was really looking forward to watching this but I have to say I was kind of disappointed.  Which only goes to show that you should be open but not expectant of experiences.

Roger (Aksel Hennie) is a successful headhunter for a private firm but the real money for his lavish lifestyle comes from art theft.  When his wife (Synnove Macody Lund) introduces him to a smug recently-retired executive named Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), Roger sees a golden opportunity to take the rich bastard down a peg or two.  Clas is no ordinary mark, however, and soon the stakes are life and death.

It's a decently suspenseful film and it's always nice to see good contemporary foreign cinema.  I just found myself wishing it were funnier or more clever or darker.  Something to give it just that little extra oomph to boost it out of the middle of the pack.  It wasn't there for me.  Maybe it'll be there for you.

Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

  This was another one from the Bowen's largesse.  I have all four of them on my server but I've only reviewed Continental Drift.  It seemed like as good a time as any to re-watch this on DVD, since it was there and all.

The Ice Age is coming to an end and the animals are forced to relocate to the other end of the valley to avoid the influx of water.  Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) is worried that he may be the last of his kind but soon meets Ellie (Queen Latifah), a female mammoth.  The only problem --other than their incipient demise by flood-- is that Ellie believes that she is a possum because she was raised by a family of them.  Meanwhile, Diego (Denis Leary) must confront his fear of water and Sid (John Leguizamo) tries not to die of his own stupidity.

As sequels go, this isn't terrible.  It certainly didn't sink the franchise.  There's no denying that it lacks some of the wonder of the other films but it's honestly been so long since I've seen the first one I couldn't tell you what made it seem so special.  I remember the third one because it was hilarious and the fourth one because I've seen it most recently but it's been ages (no pun intended) since I watched the original.