Category Archives: Uncategorized

Movie Review: Being the Ricardo’s

Posted on by • Posted in Uncategorized • Tagged , , • Leave a comment

Every time we see a new movie written by Aaron Sorkin we all know we will be hearing a great deal of rapid dialogue. Dialogue that is for the most part, unlike how most people talk. The good part of this rapid dialogue is that it will keep most people riveted to the movie, because it is so easy to miss something important that was said.

For a movie about the hugely popular 1950’s TV series “I Love Lucy” casting is everything. Ironically the title role of Lucy played by Nicole Kidman is the one area where the casting was somewhat off, because she did not look enough like Lucille Ball, where the other characters, especially J.K. Simmons as William Frawley are perfectly cast.

This story, typical of Sorkin, who also directed this movie, is told in an unusual way – starting with interviews with the late writers and producers of I Love Lucy, who narrated some of the stories and facts about what is arguably the most popular TV situation comedy of all time – with at its peak had 60 million viewers every Monday night. Sorkin concentrates on 3 main themes throughout this film. How the cast and crew created one episode of the I Love Series TV series, the fact that Desi Arnaz cheated many times on Lucille Ball, and the time when Lucy was accused of being a Communist. These 3 stories create an interesting and engaging two hours that in my opinion is worthy of higher numbers than the 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

I thought the acting was very good throughout this story and anyone has to admire any actor who can master the rapid-fire dialogue that Sorkin always writes. Overall I thought this story was well told and I do recommend “Being The Ricardo’s”.

Movie Review: Julia

Posted on by • Posted in Uncategorized • Tagged , • Leave a comment

There is probably no better example that I have ever seen in a movie that so very often the people in charge, those who make the most important decisions, have no idea what they are doing. After spending 12 years with her partner Simone Beck, putting together hundreds of the best food recipes of all time, Julia Child’s first book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I: 50th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook – was rejected by a publisher. The reasons of course were idiotic and after that first rejection this book went on to be the #1 recipe book of all time – ultimately the inspiration for hundreds of recipe books that followed.

After Julia Child’s first book was a huge success, she went to PBS in Boston Massachusetts and was the star of her own cooking show for many years. The new movie “Julia” is an excellent documentary of the life of a woman who made cooking interesting to the world for the first time – with the obvious exception of France, where food is everything.

Julia Child was married to her husband Paul child for almost 50 years, they never had children. She went on to write almost 20 books in her career, all best sellers. As far as this documentary, I agree with the 98% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and do recommend it.

Netflix Movie Review: Bruised

Posted on by • Posted in Uncategorized • Tagged , • Leave a comment

Like many people who are fans of normal boxing, that has rules, 16 ounce gloves, a referee and long standing history and traditions – it will always be hard to understand why so many people seem to like MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Athletes can kick each other in the head. When a person is knocked down, the other fighter and leap on top of them, and continuously punch them in the head. In other scenario’s one fighter can almost strangle the other fighter into either submission or unconsciousness. One can only wonder how many fighters have died in the ring or are permanently brain damaged. So did boxing all of the sudden become either too boring or not violent enough? Women seem as prevalent in this sport as men and again for most of us, nobody really wants to see two women in a ring almost killing each other.

Recently on a talk show, Halle Berry who directs the new Netflix movie “Bruised” admitted she has always Recently on a talk show, Halle Berry who directs the new Netflix movie “Bruised” admitted she has always been a fan of MMA – for reasons unknown, and this is the reason why she decided to both act and direct this pretty bad movie. Every scene is dark and depressing with the main character (a former women MMA champion, Jackie Justice played by Berry) mired in an abusive relationship with her former manager. Jackie is reunited with her young son from a previous relationship, who refuses to talk(perhaps because the young actor was embarrassed be in this film). The payoff is Jackie’s comeback after years of inactivity, with the rest of this movie just filler until the final championship fight. Who really cares about yet another Rocky-like-clone-payoff-in-the-end ripoff?

The Rotten Tomatoes average reviews for this bad MMA movie is a correctly low 57%. Miss this mess and see any other boxing movie.