danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I don’t often eagerly await motion pictures, since I don’t generally go to the theater to see movies anyway.  But a film opening today has me excited.

Walk Hard stars one of my very favorite actors, John C. Reilly, in his first leading role, playing a character named Dewey Cox, a fictional legend of popular music, whose life and career trace a contour reminiscent of scores of rockers and country singers.  The film is apparently a humorous homage to music biopics from Walk the Line and Ray to The Buddy Holly Story.   John C. Reilly sings all the songs in the film, and from the excerpts I’ve heard, he is actually a talented singer.  And the songs, while presumably played for laughs, seem to be genuinely good compositions.  I heard a bit of a tune from the picture called “A Life Without You”, a Roy Orbison-inspired  ballad, and it is fantastic, and, had it been written in 1960 would undoubtedly been a number one hit record, even sung by John C. Reilly.

I encourage you to listen to this extended interview with Reilly and director Jake Kasdan from the December 3 edition of Fresh Air.  At about 24 minutes you can hear an excerpt of “A Life Without You”, and plenty of other music from the film throughout.

And, as an added bonus which I only just realized from looking at the IMDB entry for Walk Hard:  the movie also stars Jenna Fischer.

Filed under: Comedy, Film, Popular Music on December 21st, 2007 | No Comments »

When I was a kid I saw a movie called Invasion U.S.A. with Chuck Norris, in which he shoots two Uzis in seemingly random fashion. It was so over-the-top, preying on Americans’ irrational fear of invading Soviet forces, that I am sure if I was fortunate enough to see it again today I would laugh throughout. At the time I saw it, however, I was terrified by the perilous situations depicted in the film. For instance, terrorists attach a bomb to the side of a school bus sitting in traffic. Back then I rode the school bus each day, so the scene struck a chord with me. A chord of fear. Thankfully, Chuck Norris saves the kids, and dispatches the terrorists with a witty one-liner (and their own bomb).

Fast forward over twenty years, and the Soviets no longer inspire fear in the hearts of Americans, in spite of their backsliding on democracy under Vladimir Putin. There are actual lunatic terrorists on the loose in places like Pakistan, but god forbid we make good on President Bush’s “you’re-either-with-us-or-you’re-with-the-terrorists” rhetoric and come down hard on Pervez Musharraf. I am all in favor of parachuting Chuck Norris into the mountains of Tora Bora and having him deal with Osama bin Laden in whatever manner he saw fit. I imagine it would look something like this, but possibly less swampy.

Still, that doesn’t seem to be a priority for Republican voters or political candidates. Rather, their enemy has suddenly become Mexico, as though we’ve rolled the clock back to 1846. I have a big problem with politicians exploiting people’s bigotry to win office, nevertheless, if they do it like Mick Huckabee does here, I can at least appreciate it as comedy:

Filed under: Comedy, Film, Politics, Rantings on December 21st, 2007 | No Comments »

I enjoy watching movies with the actor Steve Zahn. I think I first saw him in That Thing You Do, and since then he’s been in a lot of things, and, generally, his performances are the highlight of his films. He was the best thing about Sahara; Joy Ride; Happy, Texas; and the only good thing about National Security. Yesterday, however, we watched Bandidas, and as good as Zahn is, he cannot compete with the film’s main attraction (left).

Bandidas, which I had never heard of before, was originally supposed to be released in 2005, then was pushed back several times, and ultimately had very poor distribution in the United States, and no promotion, which accounts for why it was unfamiliar to me. But it had everything I like in an action movie, including a cartoonishly super-evil villain played by Dwight Yokam, mariachi music, trains, Salma Hayek, etc.

Filed under: Film on November 13th, 2007 | No Comments »

Tomorrow is my birthday and I’ll be celebrating it by listening to the best mariachi band in the world and watching Impressions de France and eating a buffet meal while listening to the strains of a German um-pah band.

There’s some big, exciting news coming up, and I’ll write more about it on Sunday.

So long until then.

UPDATE:  Back from Epcot, which was quite crowded due to the Food and Wine Festival.  But we got to do most of what we wanted, including Soarin’, Test Track, plus the 360° films at the Canadian and Chinese pavillions, the beautiful “five minute film about Norway”, and, my favorite attraction of all, Impressions de France. 

Filed under: Film, Food, Special Occasions, Travel on October 18th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

I think it wouldn’t be fair to call myself a movie buff, since I hate far too many of the films that “critics” consider the best, but I still watch a lot of movies. So far this year, for example, I have seen over 180 movies, and by December 31st I wouldn’t be surprised if that number passed 250.

I had heard recently that a major strike is expected sometime next year by members of the various writers’ and actors’ guilds, and, in preparation, they are fast-tracking many productions to avoid disruption. Then, last night I came across a list of films that studios have green-lighted, and are expected to be ready before any labor action. The titles include some genuinely surprising adaptations, like Atlas Shrugged (which I cannot imagine being condensed into movie form, much less a cinematic narrative) and, less impressively, many, many remakes and TV show rip-offs, to wit:

• Alice (presumably based on Alice in Wonderland)
• Escape from Witch Mountain
• A Christmas Carol
• Porky’s
• The A-Team
• The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Fantastic Voyage
• Escape from New York
• Sex and the City
• Capricorn One
• Voltron
• GI Joe
• Castlevania
• 20,000 Leagues
• Fantasy Island
• Barbarella
• Creature from the Black Lagoon
• Land of the Lost

And, most depressingly:

• Clash of the Titans

Why? I can see that Castlevania is due, and maybe GI Joe, but they’ll never do half these movies as well. Barbarella? They’ll pick some big name starlet, and they’ll try to make it seem serious, and it will be no fun at all. Porky’s? I’d bet money that it won’t have the the original film’s best scene, the only scene in the whole movie worth watching.

There were dozens of other movies whose titles I couldn’t identify, and some of them may be remakes, but most of them are probably original ideas. Still, that anyone would dream of remaking Clash of the Titans makes me pretty unhappy, because it could never be as good. I’m sure I’ll write more about this in the future.

Filed under: Film on September 18th, 2007 | No Comments »