Negromancer News Bits and Bites from May 12th to 18th, 2019 - Update #17

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TELEVISION - From Variety:  Oscar-nominated actress, Sharon Stone, and Grammy-nominated recording artist, Marilyn Manson, will appear in HBO's "The New Pope," from director Paolo Sorrentino.

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COMICS-FILM - From Variety:  The site is reporting that Robert Pattison ("Twilight" series) will be the new Batman/Bruce Wayne in director Matt Reeves' upcoming film, "The Batman," which is due June 25, 2021.

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  Chris Rock (yes, that Chris Rock) is joining Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures to reboot the "Saw" film franchise.  The new film is due October 2020.

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  James Gunn talks about being fired from "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" and then, being reinstated.

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MOVIES - From Movieweb:  James Wan ("Aquaman") is rebooting the "Mortal Kombat" film franchise (based on the beloved video game).  Wan will produce the film.

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DISNEY/STREAMING - From Variety:  Disney now has full operational control of the streaming service, Hulu, of which it has at least 60% ownership interest.  Comcast/NBCU retains its 33% ownership interest, which Disney can buy at some point in the future.  Comcast is planning to launch a free, ad-supported streaming service next year.

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  Rami Malek is in talks to join Denzel Washington in the serial killer film, "Little Things" from director John Lee Hancock.

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TELEVISION - From TVLine:  The upcoming sixth season (2019-2020) will be the final season for Fox's soap opera-drama, "Empire."

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BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 5/10 to 5/12/2019 weekend box office is "Avengers: Endgame" with an estimated take of 63 million dollars.

From Forbes:  "Pokemon: Detective Pikachu" debuted this weekend and grossed 58 million dollars at the box office, the biggest opening weekend ever for a movie based on a video game.

From Patreon:  My review of "Avengers: Endgame."

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TELEVISION - From Deadline:  Broadcast television networks announce series orders and pick-ups.

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STREAMING - From TheVerge:  CBS All Access to give Jordan Peele's rebooted "The Twilight Zone," which is in full-color the black and white treatment, beginning May 30th.

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MOVIES - From Variety:  Russell Crowe to star in road-rage thriller, "Unhinged."

OBITS:

From Deadline:  The Emmy-winning actor and comedian, Tim Conway, has died at the age of 85, May 14, 2019.  Conway was best known for his work on the ABC sitcom, "McHale's Navy" (1962-1966), and the long-running CBS variety program, The Carol Burnett Show" (1967-1978).  Conway won six Emmy Awards out of 13 nominations.

From TheWrap:  The actor Isaac Kappy died at the age of 42, Monday, May 13, 2019.  He had a small role in Marvel Studios' "Thor" (2011) and appeared in films such as "Terminator: Salvation" and "Beerfest."

From Deadline:  Iconic American actress and singer, Doris Day, has died at the age of 97, May 13, 2019.  She was known for such films as "Pillow Talk" (1959), which she made with her longtime friend, Rock Hudson; "That Touch of Mink" (1962), co-starring Cary Grant; and "Move Over, Darling" (1963) with James Garner.  She was also known for her TV series, "The Doris Day Show" (1968-1973) and for a string a hit records from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s.

From Variety:  The actress and singer, Peggy Lipton, has died at the age of 72, Saturday, May 11, 2019.  Lipton appeared in the TV series, "The Mod Squad" (1968-1973), as the flower child, Julie Barnes, a role for which she received four Emmy nominations and won a Golden Globe.  Lipton also had a main role in the ABC TV series, "Twin Peaks" (1990-91).  Lipton was married to legendary music producer, Quincy Jones, with whom she has two daughters, actress and producer, Rashida Jones, and model and fashion designer, Kidada Jones.

Review: "Maleficent" is Not Just Another Hollywood Fantasy Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 48 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

Maleficent (2014)
Running time:  97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
Rating:  MPAA – PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images
DIRECTOR:  Robert Stromberg
WRITER:  Linda Woolverton (based on the screenplay, Sleeping Beauty, by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta; and the story adaptation by Erdman Penner; based on the story “La Belle au bois dormant” by Charles Perrault)
PRODUCER:  Joe Roth
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Dean Semler (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Chris Lebenzon and Richard Pearson
COMPOSER:  James Newton Howard

FANTASY/ACTION/DRAMA with elements of adventure

Starring:  Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sam Riley, Brenton Thwaites, Kenneth Cranham, Isobelle Molloy, and Ella Purnell

Maleficent is a 2014 fantasy and action film from director Robert Stromberg and writer Linda Woolverton.  Released by Walt Disney Pictures and produced by Joe Roth, the film re-imagines Walt Disney's 1959 animated feature film, Sleeping Beauty, and focuses on the point of view of Maleficent, the villain in Sleeping Beauty and a classic Disney villain.  In Maleficent the movie, a vengeful fairy curses an infant princess and becomes fascinated with the child as she grows up.

Maleficent is set in a land where there are two kingdoms, the Moors, the magical realm of the faeries, and a human kingdom that borders it.  An ambitious human monarch, King Henry (Kenneth Cranham), covets the Moors, but finds his efforts to conquer it stymied by Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), the queen fairy.

Stefan (Sharlto Copley), a human who has known Maleficent since they both were children, believes that he has a solution to the conflict between the humans and the denizens of the Moors.  However, this solution leads Maleficent to place a curse on Aurora, an infant human princess.  Years later, Maleficent discovers that Aurora (Elle Fanning) may be the only one who can restore peace and hope to the troubled land.

One the books that I have had in my possession for the longest time is the 1980 edition of The Classic Fairy Tales by the husband-and-wife folklorists team, Ioan and Peter Opie.  The book contains some of the best-known fairy tales in the English language, including “Sleeping Beauty” (as “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”).  The emphasis of The Classic Fairy Tales is on the earliest English publications of stories like “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” rather than reprinting, as the text on the back cover declares, later “prettified” versions of those classic fairy tales.

Maleficent is certainly pretty, even gorgeous.  The costumes, clothing, head-wraps, and jewelry that Angelina Jolie dons as Maleficent can be described as “classic couture.”  The production design is lavish and simply beautiful; in fact, the director of Maleficent, Robert Stromberg, is an Oscar-winning production designer for how work on Avatar (2009) and Alice in Wonderland (2010).  The creature design and CGI on the fairies of the Moors and on the dragon in the final battle have qualities that make them both tangible and magical; they're quite lovely.

However, Maleficent is not prettified.  It is not the prettiness and beauty or the baroque wonderland that is the Moors that make Maleficent a unique and splendid film.  The thematic richness that digs beneath the pretty and simplified surface of classic fairy tales makes Maleficent something that is rare in modern film – a fairy tale that is an allegory about the complexities of the human condition.  Linda Woolverton composes a screenplay that offers a feminist reinterpretation of Sleeping Beauty, and the result is Maleficent.  This is a film that does not portray women as princesses waiting for the prince-hero or knight-hero who will save them and then, marry them happily-ever-after.  This film is about women, but it portrays them with complexity and subtly in depicting their relationships with other women, with the world, and with themselves.

That is not to say that this movie does not kick-ass.  The battle scenes in Maleficent are far more exciting and visually interesting, even striking, than all those fantasy movies that desperately tried to copy Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films.  Somehow, the man versus magical creature battles in Maleficent manage to seem fresh and new.

I do have some complaints about Maleficent.  Much of the first half-hour of this film lacks a sense of direction and is stiff.  [Perhaps, that is why writer/director John Lee Hancock assisted on the re-shoots of the opening scenes.]  The pixie trio and Stefan are under-realized characters, exemplifying the character missteps that keep this film from being a truly exceptional fantasy masterpiece.

Overall, however, I like this movie a lot.  Angelina Jolie proves her star power and talent, because this movie could not exist without her playing the lead.  Maleficent is not a Disney classic, but I think it will be memorable, because it is a distinctive dark fantasy film, where as so many other American epic fantasy films seem as if they come from the same bag of stale cookies.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, October 31, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Emma Thompson Saves "Saving Mr. Banks"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Running time:  125 minutes (2 hours, 5 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements including some unsettling images
DIRECTOR:  John Lee Hancock
WRITERS:  Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith
PRODUCERS:  Ian Collie, Alison Owen, and Philip Steuer
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Schwartzman (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Mark Livolsi
COMPOSER:  Thomas Newman
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/HISTORICAL with elements of a biopic and comedy

Starring:  Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Annie Rose Buckley, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitford, B.J. Novak, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Bigham, Melanie Paxson, Ronan Vibert, Rachel Griffiths, and Kathy Baker

Saving Mr. Banks is a 2013 drama from director John Lee Hancock and is an American, British, and Australian co-production.  The film is a fictional account of author P.L. Travers’ trip to America, as she considers selling the film rights to her Mary Poppins books to Walt Disney.

Walt Disney is really a supporting character in Saving Mr. Banks, as the movie focuses on Travers as she reflects on her childhood and on her relationship with her troubled father.  The parts of the film that focus on Travers’ childhood are melancholy.  The parts of the film that take place in the film’s present (1961) are lively and colorful, and I wish all of the movie were set at Walt Disney Studios.

The film opens in the year 1961 in London, where it finds author, Pamela “P.L.” Travers (Emma Thompson), experiencing financial troubles.  Travers does have a way out of her money woes.  She can sell the film rights to her Mary Poppins books to Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), who has been pursuing Travers for the rights to the books for 20 years.  Travers travels to Los Angeles, where she is whisked to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

In America, Travers meets a kind limo driver, Ralph (Paul Giamatti). She meets Mr. Disney.  She meets the creative team assigned to adapt Mary Poppins to the screen:  screenwriter, Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford); and musical composing brothers, Richard and Robert Sherman (Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak, respectively).  For two weeks, Travers plans on working with the team to get Mary right – at she sees it.

However, everything about her Mary Poppins book may be too personal for her to accept anyone else’s vision of Mary Poppins, especially Walt Disney’s version of Mary Poppins.  As she works on the film, Travers’ mind goes back to her life in Australia as a girl (Annie Rose Buckley) and she recollects her relationship with her troubled father (Colin Farrell).

I have to admit that I like Saving Mr. Banks because of its fanciful and real-life complication-free look at Walt Disney, his employees, and life at Walt Disney Studios.

I will grant that Emma Thompson gives a fantastic performance, one that is worthy of the Oscar nomination Thompson did not receive.  I will also grant that the story of Travers’ past is heartbreaking and fairly well-executed by director John Lee Hancock and his collaborators.  I will finally admit that I don’t think Hanks deserved an Oscar nomination for his performance as Walt Disney, especially not as a lead actor.  His Disney is clearly a supporting character in this story… and this is not close to being one of Hanks’ better or memorable performances.

Mostly, I think Saving Mr. Banks is a soapy television movie with big name actors trying to be a prestige motion picture.  I think the film sometimes portrays P.L. Travers as a contrary old kook and also glosses over her legitimate concerns about how her characters will be translated to film.  After all, she clearly knew that more people would see a Mary Poppins movie than would ever read her Mary Poppins books.  Because of that, many people would know Mary Poppins only through the film, so she had right to be concerned that the screen Mary Poppins be as close as possible to her Mary Poppins.

After all that granting, I am back to what I like about this movie. Saving Mr. Banks presents a… well… Disney-fied version of some of the events surrounding the production of the 1964 Mary Poppins film.  That is okay by me, but I realize that there is much more to the real story than is in Saving Mr. Banks.

6 of 10
B

Monday, May 05, 2014


NOTES:
2014 Academy Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Thomas Newman)

2010 Golden Globe:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Emma Thompson)

2014 BAFTA Awards:  5 nominations:  “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (John Lee Hancock, Alison Owen, Ian Collie, Philip Steuer, Kelly Marcel, and Sue Smith), “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Thomas Newman), “Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer” (Kelly Marcel), “Best Leading Actress” (Emma Thompson), and “Best Costume Design” (Daniel Orlandi)

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Snow White and the Huntsman" is a Fractured Fairy Tale

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 78 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hour, 7 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sensuality
DIRECTOR: Rupert Sanders
WRITERS: Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, and Hossein Amini; from a screen story by Evan Daugherty
PRODUCERS: Sam Mercer, Palak Patel, and Joe Roth
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Greig Fraser
EDITORS: Conrad Buff IV and Neil Smith
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard

FANTASY/DRAMA/ACTION

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Sam Claflin, Sam Spruell, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones, Johnny Harris, Brian Gleeson, Vincent Regan, and Noah Huntley

Snow White and the Huntsman is a 2012 action fantasy film starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron. The film re-imagines (a word I’m starting to hate) the German fairy tale “Snow White” as an epic fantasy.

The film opens in the Kingdom of Tabor, where King Magnus and Queen Eleanor welcome a baby daughter they name Snow White. Sometime after Eleanor dies, Magnus marries the mysterious Ravenna (Charlize Theron), who turns out to be a powerful sorceress. After usurping the throne, Ravenna imprisons Snow White (Raffey Cassidy) in the north tower of the castle. With her brother, Finn (Sam Spruell), at her side, Ravenna rules over the kingdom, while draining the youth from young maidens in order to maintain her own youthful appearance.

After coming of age, Snow White (Kristen Stewart) escapes into the Dark Forest. Ravenna orders Eric (Chris Hemsworth), a huntsman, to find Snow White, but Snow White’s destiny may prove to be bigger than any one person’s plans for her.

I discovered that Snow White and the Huntsman is the first feature film directed by Rupert Sanders, which may explain why the movie’s narrative develops in fits and starts. Sometimes, Snow White and the Huntsman is overly serious, and sometimes, it is painfully dull. It’s as if Sanders wants to treat some of the movie as if it were Lord of the Rings (which it is not). When he’s not trying to do his own version of director Peter Jackson, Sanders is trying to create some character drama and that’s mostly awkward.

First, let me say that I am a fan of Kristen Stewart. I think Stewart is perfect for Sanders, because, as an actress, she is overly serious. In practically any movie in which she appears, Stewart will spend part of that film kind of hunched over, like a dog waiting to be smacked across the head with a newspaper even when she does something good (like rescue Timmy from a well). I could be nice and say that her acting is decent, although she delivers dialogue with all the stiffness of a graduate of the Keanu Reeves School of Acting. Her big speech scenes in the last act of Snow White and the Huntsman are not inspiring and are, in fact, dry as dust.

Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron try, and Theron really tries, but the script seems unsure about what it should be – action movie or fantasy drama… or Evil Queen movie? The script isn’t even sure who the lead character is, and I’m not sure Sanders knew which characters should be the focus and when they should be. This movie should have been titled “Sometimes Snow White and sometimes the Huntsman and sometimes the Queen.”

I’m being critical because this movie and its story/concept have so much potential, and there are times when Snow White and the Huntsman seems like it is going to be an exceptional fantasy film. A clunky opening act and its occasional meandering are what keep Snow White and the Huntsman average rather than special.

5 of 10
B-

Sunday, October 14, 2012

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Tom Hanks to Portray Walt Disney in "Saving Mr. Banks"

“Saving Mr. Banks” Begins Production in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Disney began production today on “Saving Mr. Banks,” the account of Walt Disney’s twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to P.L. Travers’ popular novel, Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project’s pre-production in 1961.

Two-time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump”) will essay the role of the legendary Disney (the first time the entrepreneur has ever been depicted in a dramatic film) alongside fellow double Oscar®-winner Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) in the role of the prickly novelist. Before actually signing away the book’s rights, Travers’ demands for contractual script and character control circumvent not only Disney’s vision for the film adaptation, but also those of the creative team of screenwriter Don DaGradi and sibling composers Richard and Robert Sherman, whose original score and song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee) would go on to win Oscars® at the 1965 ceremonies (the film won five awards of its thirteen nominations).

When Travers travels from London to Hollywood in 1961 to finally discuss Disney’s desire to bring her beloved character to the motion picture screen (a quest he began in the 1940s as a promise to his two daughters), Disney meets a prim, uncompromising sexagenarian not only suspect of the impresario’s concept for the film, but a woman struggling with her own past. During her stay in California, Travers’ reflects back on her childhood in 1906 Australia, a trying time for her family which not only molded her aspirations to write, but one that also inspired the characters in her 1934 book.

None more so than the one person whom she loved and admired more than any other — her caring father, Travers Goff, a tormented banker who, before his untimely death that same year, instills the youngster with both affection and enlightenment (and would be the muse for the story’s patriarch, Mr. Banks, the sole character that the famous nanny comes to aid). While reluctant to grant Disney the film rights, Travers comes to realize that the acclaimed Hollywood storyteller has his own motives for wanting to make the film — which, like the author, hints at the relationship he shared with his own father in the early 20th Century Midwest.

Colin Farrell (“Minority Report,” “Total Recall”) co-stars as Travers’ doting dad, Goff, along with British actress Ruth Wilson (the forthcoming films “The Lone Ranger” and “Anna Karenina”) as his long-suffering wife, Margaret; Oscar® and Emmy® nominee Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under,” “Hilary and Jackie,” “The Rookie”) as Margaret’s sister, Aunt Ellie (who inspired the title character of Travers’ novel); and a screen newcomer — 11-year-old Aussie native Annie Buckley as the young, blossoming writer, nicknamed “Ginty” in the flashback sequences.

The cast also includes Emmy® winner Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing,” “The Cabin in the Woods”) as screenwriter Don DaGradi; Jason Schwartzman (“Rushmore,” “Moonrise Kingdom”) and B.J. Novak (“NBC’s “The Office,” “Inglourious Basterds”) as the songwriting Sherman Brothers (Richard and Robert, respectively); Oscar® nominee and Emmy winner Paul Giamatti (“Sideways,” “Cinderella Man,” HBO’s “John Adams”) as Ralph, the kindly limousine driver who escorts Travers during her two-week stay in Hollywood; and multi-Emmy winner Kathy Baker (“Picket Fences,” “Edward Scissorhands”) as Tommie, one of Disney’s trusted studio associates.

“Saving Mr. Banks” will be directed by John Lee Hancock (“The Blind Side,” “The Rookie”) based on a screenplay by Kelly Marcel (creator of FOX-TV’s “Terra Nova”), from a story by Sue Smith (“Brides of Christ,” “Bastard Boys”) and Kelly Marcel. The film is being produced by Alison Owen of Ruby Films (the Oscar®-nominated “Elizabeth,” HBO’s Emmy®-winning “Temple Grandin”), Ian Collie of Essential Media (the Aussie TV documentary “The Shadow of Mary Poppins,” DirecTV’s “Rake”) and longtime Hancock collaborator Philip Steuer (“The Rookie,” “The Chronicles of Narnia” trilogy). The film’s executive producers are Ruby Films’ Paul Trijbits (“Lay the Favorite,” “Jane Eyre”), Hopscotch Features’ Andrew Mason (“The Matrix” trilogy, “Dark City”) and Troy Lum (“Mao’s Last Dancer,” “I, Frankenstein”) and BBC Films’ Christine Langan (Oscar® nominee for “The Queen,” “We Need to Talk About Kevin”).

Hancock’s filmmaking team includes a trio of artists with whom he worked on his 2009 Best Picture Oscar® nominee, “The Blind Side” — two-time Oscar® nominated production designer Michael Corenblith (“How The Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Apollo 13”), Emmy®-winning costume designer Daniel Orlandi (HBO’s “Game Change,” “Frost/Nixon”) and film editor Mark Livolsi, A.C.E. (“Wedding Crashers” “The Devil Wears Prada”). Hancock also reunites with Academy Award®-nominated cinematographer John Schwartzman (“Seabiscuit,” “Pearl Harbor”), with whom he first worked on his inspiring 2002 sports drama, “The Rookie.”

“Saving Mr. Banks” will film entirely in the Los Angeles area, with key locations to include Disneyland in Anaheim and the Disney Studios in Burbank. Filming will conclude around Thanksgiving, 2012, with no specific 2013 release date yet set.

Review: Sandra Bullock Shines in Winning "The Blind Side"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 27 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Blind Side (2009)
Running time: 129 minutes (2 hours, 9 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references
DIRECTOR: John Lee Hancock
WRITER: John Lee Hancock (based on the book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis)
PRODUCERS: Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove, and Gil Netter
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Alar Kivilo (director of photography)
EDITOR: Mark Livolsi
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/SPORTS

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Jae Head, Lily Collins, Ray McKinnon, Kim Dickens, Adriane Lenox, and Kathy Bates

Michael Oher is a professional football player for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL), and he was also a college All-American at Ole Miss. Oher spent much of his youth living in foster homes or being homeless. During his high school years, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, a couple with a daughter and a son at Oher’s school, took Oher into their home and eventually adopted him. Oher’s story became a book by Michael Lewis, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, which was adapted into the 2009 Best Picture nominee, The Blind Side. This film will likely be remembered as the movie for which Sandra Bullock won her “Best Actress” Oscar.

Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is a homeless African-American youngster who has lived with different foster families. The father of one of his friends gets Oher enrolled in an exclusive Christian school. There, Michael, called “Big Mike,” befriends a younger boy named Sean Tuohy, Jr. or SJ (Jae Head). SJ’s mother, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), a fiery interior designer, takes notice of Michael with her son. After a pre-holiday Thanksgiving school event, Leigh Anne sees Michael walking in the rain and offers to let him spend the night at her home. That leads to Michael spending Thanksgiving with Leigh Anne, her husband, Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw), her daughter, Collins (Lily Collins), and SJ.

Michael begins to thrive in his new environment with the Tuohys, and his presence leads the Tuohys to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. However, this new life offers a new set of challenges for Michael. Leigh Anne also decides to make her and Sean Michael’s legal guardians, but that means delving into Michael’s troubled past. Suddenly Leigh Anne, her family, and their latest addition, Michael, find road blocks on the way to their happy ending.

I imagine that most viewers will feel very good after watching The Blind Side. This movie is the real deal because it is more than just another heartwarming story about Black people and White people coming together. Writer/director John Lee Hancock makes The Blind Side different from most inspirational sports drama by actually not contriving phony explanations for why the characters make the peculiar and surprising choices they do in relating to other people. He simply dazzles us with the Tuohys’ stunning generosity and the spirit of Christianity displayed by many of the characters. We don’t have to ask why they do it, but accept on faith that they are doing it for the right reasons.

As the spitfire Leigh Anne Tuohy, Sandra Bullock is certainly deserving of her Academy Award. Bullock not only embodies the fierce stubbornness of a modern Southern woman; she also personifies the inscrutable nature of humans. Sandra allows us to see Leigh Anne’s care and concern for Michael’s well-being and future, as well as her don’t-stand-in-my-way attitude, but shuts us out of what really goes on in Leigh Anne’s head. In reality, neither Bullock nor the audience knows why the real or fictional Leigh Anne does what she does, but in this movie that is not important. We’re supposed to be blind sided by people’s actions, especially Leigh Anne’s, because we don’t see them coming, as Leigh Anne is blind sided by her own feelings for Michael.

While much is made of Bullock’s performance (and rightfully so), Quinton Aaron gives a calm, but powerful performance as Michael Oher. In his quiet way, Aaron actually makes “Big Mike” that much more interesting, attracting the viewer to the character. Every time Aaron is on screen, he has the viewer trying to dig into Oher. As SJ, young Jae Head is a lovable scene-stealer, and the young actor makes SJ solidly the third most interesting character after Leigh Anne and Michael Oher. Consider him the adorable extra in The Blind Side, one of the great sports movies and fine family drama.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2010 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Sandra Bullock); 1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove, and Broderick Johnson)

2010 Golden Globe: 1 win for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Sandra Bullock)

2010 Black Reel Awards: 4 nominations: “Black Reel Best Actor” (Quinton Aaron), “Best Breakthrough Performance” (Quinton Aaron), “Best Film,” and “Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted” (John Lee Hancock)

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"The Rookie" is a Warm Family Sports Drama

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 37 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Rookie (2002)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
DIRECTOR: John Lee Hancock
WRITER: Mike Rich
PRODUCERS: Mark Ciardi, Gordon Gray, and Mark Johnson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Schwartzman (director of photography)
EDITOR: Eric L. Beason
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell

DRAMA/SPORTS

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, Beth Grant, Angus T. Jones, and Brian Cox

Jimmy Morris’s (Dennis Quaid) perennially losing baseball team made a bet with him. If they won district, he would give his dream of being a Major League Baseball player another shot. Of course they won, and he did try again.

Director John Lee Hancock, a television director and screenwriter (A Perfect World), and writer Mike Rich (Finding Forrester) take the ideas of dreams and wish fulfillment and force them into the harsh light of day in the film, The Rookie. They remind the viewer that getting what you want isn’t always easy, but they have a bigger surprise in store for the viewer. It’s how this film deals with what happens when you get what you want.

In the case of Morris, he does make it to the big leagues (no big spoiler), and the majors is what he expected it to be. It’s just that he had a life and responsibilities before he got his dream job, and now the two conflict. He also discovers that being a big leaguer is a little more complicated than just “playing ball.” Director and screenwriter weave a story and create characters that seem real, because, not only is the story based on real events, the Morris struggle is universal – the desire to do what you want to do and the need to do what you have to do. This is the most intense and heaviest G-rated film in history. The creators still manage to make it fun and uplifting because they encourage us to identify with Morris’s quest.

Quaid gives a very good performance as man navigating his life, between the responsibilities and the dreams. It’s the performance that endears us to him, and Quaid sells us on a story that could have been very down beat. His every gesture, each look into his eyes and his face sells us that the reward at the end is worth the struggle along the way. In Quaid’s Morris, we see that there are rarely ever any pat resolutions to the problems we face in life.

The movie does seem a bit long, and some of the other characters (Morris’s wife and father) should have had more screen time, as they are obviously important to the growth of the character. There’s also a religious element in the film that’s clumsily underplayed. However, The Rookie does deliver both a message and fine entertainment. One other nice thing that it is subtly played throughout the film – regardless of how tough it is to achieve a dream and no matter how lonely one might feel, there are a lot of people around the dreamer supporting him along the way.

6 of 10
B