Into the Woods (2014)

“I wish, more than anything...”

            I am a big fan of the show Once Upon a Time. I like how all the fairy tale stories and characters are brought together. Magic, in the show, is used for both good and evil. The good and the bad characters struggle with their ability to use magic. As one character has said over and over again throughout the series “Magic always comes with a price.” I have no doubt that the concept for Once Upon a Time came from the Broadway musical Into the Woods. The musical has been made into a movie. In this story characters from different stories come together to learn that magic, either good or bad, comes with a price and they all pay in one way or another.

            The story revolves mainly around a baker and his wife, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Cinderella. The Baker and his wife have been married for a few years and have no children. The Baker’s Wife (Emily Blunt) desperately wants a child. The Baker cannot stand to see his wife so upset but he has some trepidation about being a father since his walked out on him. The Witch (Meryl Streep) from next door comes barging in. She tells the couple the reason they cannot have any children is because she put a curse on the Baker’s father. The father came into the Witch’s garden years before and stole from her. The Witch’s mother had told her to never pick the magic beans. The father had taken the magic beans and the Witch turned to her ugly self. Because of this theft, the Witch made sure anyone in that house would never be able to have children. But, she tells the couple, the curse can be broken. They need to find a red cape, hair the yellow color of corn, a cow as white as milk, and gold colored shoes. The Baker has to go into the woods to find what he needs. His wife wants to go but he tells her to stay behind. Before he leaves they find the magic beans in the pocket of his jacket that had once belonged to his father.

            Little Red Riding Hood had stopped in the Baker’s shop on her way to her grandmother’s in the woods. She helps herself to some cookies and bread and is on her way. In the woods a wolf (Johnny Depp) tries to tempt her to come with him. He wants to eat her. As much as Red would like to go with him to pick flowers and do other things she cannot stray from the path to her grandmother’s. Of course you know the wolf makes it to the grandmother’s eats the grandmother. In this version the wolf does eat both the grandmother and the girl but they are saved by the Baker.

            Jack and his mother are very poor. Their cow Milky White has not given them any milk. His mother (Tracy Ullman) makes him go through the woods to the next town to sell the cow. He comes across the Baker and his wife who refused to be left alone. The Baker’s Wife talks Jack into giving them the cow in exchange for some beans. Of course the beans are magic and the next day there is a large beanstalk next to his house. He climbs up and steals three large gold coins from the giants. He finds the Baker in the woods to buy back his cow but the cow dies.

            Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) lives with her step-mother and two step-sisters. There is a festival at the palace that she desperately wants to go to. The cruel step-mother and sisters make her clean up in the hopes of possibly going and then cruelly tell her no. Cinderella decides to go to her mother’s grace under a large tree in the woods. She tells her mother she wants to go to the festival. The mother comes to her daughter and grants the wish. Cinderella is dressed in a beautiful gold dress with matching gold shoes. She dances the night away with the prince (Chris Pine). Then she takes flight like she is frightened into the woods. She gets nervous and runs away all three nights of the festival. The prince, each night, runs after the beautiful girl. Each time she runs away Cinderella crosses paths with the Baker’s Wife who desperately wants her shoes.

            Everyone gets their wishes eventually but there comes a price even for the Witch.

            The cast was fantastic. Meryl Streep is just incredible in whatever she does. She is Meryl Streep she can do anything! She actually looked gorgeous in all blue when the Witch got her beautiful looks back. Anna Kendrick was brilliant. Her Cinderella was perfect. Emily Blunt I just adore the more I watch her in movies. Her singing voice was fantastic I had no idea she could sing. She was perfect in her role because she can go from doing drama to comedy flawlessly. Johnny Depp is not in the movie very long but he was the only one who could have played the Wolf it was almost as though it was made for him to do. James Cordon as the Baker was adorable. He and Emily Blunt were paired wonderfully they worked so well. Tracy Ullman is not in the movie too long either and she was brilliant in her few scenes. Chris Pine… I have issues with him in general so I was not thrilled with his character. He did a song with another prince called “Agony” and let me tell you it was pure agony to sit through.

            Into the Woods is a type of movie that drives me crazy. It started off well and then the last like half hour just went in a totally different direction and it blew the whole thing. If you see the movie you will know exactly the scene I am talking about. Ugh, the last half hour drove me nuts! It was literally a WTF moment. So many things happened so suddenly and out of nowhere that, to me, just messed up the whole movie. I think Once Upon a Time takes this type of queue from the movie. So many times has the show done something good for one of their characters (especially the Evil Queen who I adore. They always screw with her) and then messed everything they had built for the one character, brought them down and changed them out of the blue.

            Besides the poor ending Into the Woods was not terrible. I did not even know that it was a musical so that surprised me a bit when it started. The songs were good, the acting was perfection, the sets and costumes were gorgeous, and the direction was really good. Into the Woods is worth seeing at least once because of the cast. 

Mamma Mia! (2008)

“Mamma Mia does it show again my, my just how much I’ve missed you?”

            I think any credibility I may have or think I have has just gone down the drain. My dignity is no longer intact. I must confess I have seen Mamma Mia! two times on Broadway and I saw the movie three times. Let me defend myself here when I first saw Mamma Mia! on Broadway I was eighteen and I was nineteen when I saw the show for a second time and the movie came out. And in all sincerest honesty I have not watch the movie since it came out on DVD five years ago because I absolutely killed it. I cannot even begin to tell you how embarrassed I was watching this again BY MYSELF!!!! Through the embarrassment I had a fabulous time watching Mamma Mia!.

            I am not going to go into too much detail in the summary because there is nothing to really go into detail about. Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried), her mother Donna (Meryl Streep), and her fiancé Sky (Dominic Cooper) live on a Greek island. Sophie never knew who her father was because her mother never told her about him. She would like to have her father at her wedding. Sophie tells her two best friends that when she was cleaning out some old junk she came across her mother’s old diary and found out she has three possible fathers! Sophie finds Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan), Harry Bright (Colin Firth), and Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgard) and sends them invitations to her wedding in the hopes that when she sees them she will be able to tell who her father is.

            Well that idea blows up in her face big time and she has no idea who her real father could be. Donna finds all three men together and she is not happy about seeing them.

            A whole bunch of other things happen in between and after but if you are brave enough or however you may feel up to seeing this you will see what happens.

            I think the cast was perfect acting wise but singing wise… that is a whole other story. As Cam said on Modern Family “Meryl Streep could play Batman and be perfect.” That is very true. I loved her as Donna. I liked seeing her in something comedic. Pierce Brosnan I cannot look at seriously anymore. All I can think when I see him in this movie is oh my god James Bond is singing! Now when I watch him in a Bond film I am ready for him to bust out singing an ABBA song! I think Amanda Seyfried was the only really professionally trained singer out of the cast. She trained to be an opera singer for a while. Dominic Cooper was not bad at all singing “Lay All Your Love on Me.” I just want to know who thought it was a good idea to let Christine Baranski sing. I loved her as Tonya but not when she sang. Julie Walters was hilarious I loved her so much. Same as Pierce Brosnan when I see Julie Walters in the Harry Potter movies as Mrs. Weasley I am ready for her to start singing.

            So I am sure it is obvious that I like ABBA. Do not judge me for this. They are so much more than “Dancing Queen.” That is not their best song by a long shot. Their songs are beautiful

and moving and complicated and heartbreaking and fantastic. I read somewhere that one of the guys in the group said that “Lay All Your Love On Me” is like a hymn. Go and listen to this song and the description is perfect. You can hear the pain and sadness in “The Winner Takes it All”, “One of Us”, and “Knowing Me Knowing You.” ABBA’s music is great and unfortunately too many people do not give the rest of their music a chance they just think of “Dancing Queen” and roll their eyes and shut their ears.

            Mamma Mia! the Broadway show was amazing. I would honestly go see it again. I liked the show a lot better because the singing is much better and there are more songs in it. Mamma Mia! the movie only takes the cake because it is obviously on location and not on a stage. I think when I saw this in the movies my friends and I were consistently the only ones under 70 in the theater! As I have said I have lost any credibility and any dignity I may have had by admitting I have seen Mamma Mia! and that I like watching it but everyone needs a guilty pleasure movie and this is one of them.

            And come on I own Xanadu and know that craptastic cheese by heart. I think I get a bit of a break on this one… no, I don’t because this is based on ABBA music?... eh whatever, that’s fine I can live with that.

 

The Deer Hunter (1978)

“You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it's all about. A deer's gotta be taken with one shot.”

            The subject of war is loaded. Think of all the stories of war that have been told throughout history. Think of all the stories of World War II alone that have been told since it was still happening. So many men and women sacrificing their lives for their countries and their freedom. So many families and towns sacrificing their sons in the name of freedom. One war it seems not too many speak of the Vietnam War. I say “it seems” because I remember barely learning about in school and most likely because it was never covered in my academic career I do not understand why America even had to enter the conflict in the first place. What I have taken most from watching some programs about Vietnam or other movies about it is that the generation of men who fought were worse off when they came home then those who fought in World War II or Korea. The young men and women at this time were more vocal about politics than at any other time in America. They were vocal about their opposition. That is what I know most about the Vietnam War, all the opposition and the horror of what the men faced fighting it.

            When I chose to watch The Deer Hunter I had not read anything about the plot until I looked it up as the movie was starting. Had I known the plot I most likely would not have watched it but I hear about it a lot amongst the film community I follow online and from some of my film major friends.

            Three friends Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Steve have grown up together in a small coal mining town. All three have signed up to fight in Vietnam. Steve gets married the day before they are about to leave. His wedding also acts as their going away party. They all have something to lose. They do not discuss leaving even with their other friends.

            In Vietnam Steve, Nick, and Michael are captured and tortured by the Viet Cong. Their preferred method of torture is making each of the captured men play Russian Roulette. Steve has a break down waiting for when he will be called hearing the click of the guns over and over. Michael manages to kill their captors and get away with Steve and Nick. Unfortunately all three get separated.

            Nick is placed in an army hospital. He has a difficult time processing questions a doctor asks him. He has a very lost look in his eyes. Michael has been sent home. The night he gets home his friends and family are waiting for him but he tells a cab driver to keep driving and he spends the night in a motel he cannot face anyone. Steve has returned home but his wife will not tell anyone where he is. Michael eventually finds out that Steve is in a local hospital. He is missing both legs. Steve shows his friend that he has been receiving a lot of money from someone. Michael figures out that it must be Nick. He and the whole time believe that Nick has been missing. Michael goes back to Vietnam to find Nick. He tracks Nick down to a place where men play Russian Roulette and other men bet on who will die. Nick looks terribly thin, withdrawn, and angry at the world. He make Michael play him in the deadly game. Unfortunately, Nick’s life ends that night in the game.

            The movie was three hours long! I in all honesty have ADHD and my attention started to drift so between the length and my horrible attention what I have written is what I was able to get out of it.

            I watched The Deer Hunter mostly for the cast. As soon as I saw Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, and Christopher Walken on the DVD I had to check it out. Meryl Streep plays Nick’s girlfriend. She was, as always, excellent even though her part was small. Robert De Niro’s character does not say much. I liked Michael and how little he had to say. To me Michael was the audience’s eyes into the small town, the people in the small town, and to one story of the Vietnam War. In De Niro you can see Michael’s mind working, thinking about what is going on around him. Of the movies I have seen De Niro in The Deer Hunter is my favorite. Christopher Walken is an actor I am usually on the fence about. He really did not have too much to do in the movie either but his character at the end really moves you. Walken did a great job with Nick after he was rescued and did not return home. But, before that there is really nothing interesting about Walken or his character. It was cool watching these three great actors in an early role especially De Niro and Streep who went on to make incredible movies and became such acting giants.

            The Deer Hunter was not a bad movie. For its length it went along at a nice pace. The only scene that dragged to me was the wedding scene. That could have been a bit shorter. I felt terrible seeing these three men so torn up after they went through war and being captured. I always feel terrible seeing men and women come home from war broken physically and mentally. The movie was excellently filmed and acted. Of most of the war movies I have seen this one has felt the most realistic and most heartbreaking. It was not so much a story of men fighting in a war it was what the war did to them before and after they fought. We only get maybe forty-five minutes to an hour of Michael, Steve, and Nick in Vietnam. That was another aspect of the movie I liked that the war scene was not long. I do not have any plans on sitting through The Deer Hunter again in the near future but I would definitely recommend seeing it if you are a movie fan or not.

The Iron Lady (2011)

“I AM the Prime Minister.”

            Before viewing The Iron Lady I had only known that Margaret Thatcher was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Through the movie I learned she was a tough lady who knew what she wanted and never backed down. She served as Prime Minister for eleven years even though her terms in office were times of utter chaos for the country.

            The film is told through flashbacks as an older Margaret thinks about her life after the death of her husband Denis. The flashback scenes are thrown around and not very coherent. They do start when she was younger working in her parents’ store and being accepted into Oxford. The film works its way through when she began an interest in politics and how she was very passionate about them from a young age.

            In between her flashbacks Margaret hallucinates that her husband is still alive and going about his daily business. She picks out his clothes and tells to remember his scarf and watches home videos with him.

            The flashbacks become interesting when she reflects on her years as Prime Minister. Apparently she just wanted to run to shake things up she was not running because she wanted to be the Prime Minister but her advisors told her she could run the country. We see some of her defining moments and some moments where the country completely turned against her.

            I liked seeing how some of these moments in career still kept her up at night so many years after she left her post. Since I do not know too much about Margaret Thatcher I would have liked to have seen the more political moments of her career (even though I hate politics I am a HUGE Anglophile so I would not have minded even learning about their politics). But from what I have read her time as Prime Minister was very controversial and critics would have had things to say no matter what side was shown.

            Meryl Streep absolutely deserved her Best Actress Academy Award without a doubt. The thing about Streep is that no matter what kind of character she plays she becomes that character to perfection. The woman is amazing, she does what every actress/actor is supposed to do they are supposed to play their characters convincingly.

            Jim Broadbent was fantastic. He had some funny scenes and lines and some really touching especially at the end where I teared up a bit.

            Makeup artists Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland absolutely deserved the Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup for turning Meryl Streep into Margaret Thatcher. It is unbelievable how incredible she looked both as a younger Thatcher and an older Thatcher with wrinkles and jowls.

             Now I thought The Iron Lady was good but there are a few flaws where Meryl Streep’s acting comes in to save the day. The flashbacks at times are muddled and confusing and they go through a certain event too quickly. The direction by Phyllida Lloyd was exceptional especially with showing the personal aspects of this once great and powerful lady. The Iron Lady despite some of its flaws is an excellently made film in every aspect.