THE HEART OF THE GAME  3.5***

A 2015 documentary about high- school basketball that took seven years to make, this film will be compared to Steve James's Hoop Dreams, which is a high compliment indeed. But the films are different.

Director Ward Serrill  began following the girls' basketball team at Seattle's Roosevelt High School when they hired a new coach, tax law professor Bill Resler in the late 1990s. Amazingly Resler proceeded to build a powerhouse in his first year at the job. An eccentric but effective motivator, he chose a different "theme" for his team each year: Pack of Wolves, Pride of Lions, Tropical Storm, and then whipped his players into a frenzy. His motivational skills and his ruthless physical workouts gave the team the confidence and endurance  to often beat their opponents even when they were bigger, taller, or more talented.

In his second year at the job, he noticed a young freshman by the name of Darnelia Russell. She stood out for a number of reasons. She had been an outstanding basketball player at her middle school. And she was black Her arrival helps Resler build Roosevelt into a city dynasty and a threat at the state championships. But there are ups and downs. And if you wonder why the film took seven years to make, Serrill admitted that he just filmed everything and waited for the story to emerge.

There is real drama and excitement, both on and off the court, and it's also good to see the contribution of people like Bill Resler recognized, a good man who is instilling not just a love of winning, but of playing, and living.

"Have fun," coach Resler tells the players after every timeout. And have fun you will if you let yourself watch these winners play.  

PROLOUGE;

Sara and I were surfing thru the Netflix movies and found E.T. and said why not even though we seen it before. back in 1982 when it premier. Well it was like seeing a long lost friend, a very special and beloved best friend. The profound joy, the exhilaration and the sublime peacefulness of seeing and being with the old fiend.

I felt like a kid again experiencing the heights of joy and sadness & what it means to have a unique special friend.

I could go on and on . But the point is for you to draw from my unfettered enthusiasm for a truly remarkable one-of-a-kind movies.

I urge you, I implore you to see” E.T.” even if you’ve seen it before but especially if you’ve never seen it. A MUST see film.

(PS: I you’d  like to read some fascinating Trivia about the making of the movie just reply to this email and ask for the trivia…for instance: Most of the full-body puppetry for E.T.was performed by a 2' 10 tall stuntman, but the scenes in the kitchen were done using a 12-year old boy who was born without legs but was an expert on walking on his hands. (I have several more)

         E. T.  4.0*** 

This  movie delivers an awesome emotional punch.. Spielberg (with the help of John Williams' magnificent score) expertly tugs at the heartstrings of his audience, and makes it look easy. "E.T." is the ultimate in family feel-good movies, and it's truly a portrait of a man at the top of his game in Hollywood entertainment. The heroes are so good, and the message so pure, that it's practically impossible for a human being to walk out of this movie with dry eyes (except the “macho” guys who are really crying inside).

This is a wonderful fun, heartwarming fairy tale of a story for both kids and adults. In terms of a “feel good” science fiction story, no one has ever been able to touch Stephen Spielberg's classic.

The fairy tale begins when some alien explorers visiting earth for samples inadvertently leave behind one of their own on this strange, bewildering new planet. The adorable little alien  is discovered by a 10 year old boy named Elliot, who finds him foraging for food in their garden shed. The friendly alien (ET, as he comes to be called, for Extra Terrestrial) comes to stay in the boy's home. Elliot, his older brother, Michael, and younger sister, Gertie, sort of take him under their wing. But as they learn to communicate, they discover that ET is lonesome. He wants to go home, and to that end, concocts some type of device he thinks might help get him there. However, if he succeeds, Elliot (whose own parents are going through a divorce) will lose his new friend.

It's all so cute, especially the little alien himself. Basically, he kind of represents every homesick kid (or adult) who ever lived. Despite his newfound human friends, he just misses his own home world and fellow critters. Memorable scenes for me are of course the legendary ones...ET hiding among the stuffed animals and assorted junk in a closet so Elliot's mom won't spot him, Halloween trick or treating, and the famed flying bicycle scene. And of course the ongoing "ET phone home".

Great acting by everyone, especially the three kids. ET is simply a fabulous movie with some fancy modern effects and a space age theme, but mainly a story about the bonds of friendship revolving around a touching little guy that needs love and help from his new earthling buddy. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry...just like any truly good movie should. This is one that perennially appeals to the kid in all of us.

Clark (a kid again and yes I cried with tears of joy at the in)

 

LOGAN LUCKY    3.5***

 Steven Soderbergh’s (Director..  Oceans 11,12 & 13) describes this movie as an "anti-glam version of an Ocean's movie", Logan Lucky is a return to the style of film-making that made his Ocean's trilogy box office hits. The film moves at a neat pace, features a strong ensemble cast and is packed with enough twist and turns to keep things interesting throughout its two hour running time. 

 Recently let go from his construction job due to, "liability reasons with insurance," former football prodigy Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) decides to put in motion a robbery plan he's obviously been thinking about for some time. He recruits his siblings, hairdresser Mellie (Riley Keough) and one-handed bartender Clyde (Adam Driver), to aid him. Then they knock on the prison door of infamous local demolitions expert and safe cracker Joe Bang (DanielCraig) whose incarceration proves the first snag of many in the plan to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during the Coca Cola 600.

 As with all heist movies, much of the entertainment stems from the tension created when the plan, as described deviates ever so slightly risking exposure. What Logan Lucky doesn't just get right but gets near perfect is the way it plays with that convention. Minor problems come across as inspired character moments for which Jimmy, Clyde, Joe Bang and his brothers Sam and Fish Bang  show their goofy, simple, superstitious selves

. The movie had unique visuals in details like the painted cockroaches, jelly beans in the bomb, Joe Bangs favorite: two hard boiled eggs and salt, and strangely artistic stripy prison uniforms. And many steps of the Heist were  creative and a lot of fun and kept me smiling and engrossed throughout.

Rated PG-13 for language and some crude comments.

Clark 

BATTLE OF THE SEXES  3.2***

    A sports story based on the highly publicized  tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs and which was one of the most watched televised sports events of all time, reaching 90 million viewers around the world.  

In 1973 Billie Jean King (Emma stone), and other professional women tennis players, were sick of getting paid peanuts compared to the male pros. So they start their own women's tournament, and find sponsoring through a cigarette company. Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) is a retired ex-champion tennis player, who also thinks he should be paid more money for a game than he's currently being offered, and he sees a chance to make a lot of money by challenging Billie Jean King to a match. King knows it's all a publicity stunt for Riggs, so she's reluctant to accept his challenge, but then she feels obligated to defend all of women tennis players, by participating in the match after he defeats Margaret Court , the then number 1 women’s player.

The movie is funny, surprisingly emotional, and inspiring too. Both Stone and Carell are fantastic in the lead roles, and I really like how the filmmakers didn't make Bobby Riggs the 'bad guy' of the movie. He was obviously doing it just to get back in the game, and make some money in the process, and he's actually a somewhat sympathetic character. The real villain in this story is not Riggs, but Jack Kramer, (a smug Bill Pullman) the head of the Association of Tennis Professionals, whose unapologetic institutional sexism pervaded the sport at the time. We come to learn that Kramer's genuine disdain for women's equality is one of the motivating factors that  light a fire under King.

  Stone, as King, is also excellent and  makes a great badass heroine in the movie too. There are some classic intense dialogue scenes as well, and some intimate emotional ones too. It's an all-around really well made, and an effective movie  And my, wife, Sara agrees.

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and partial nudity 

Mother !     3.0***

        I can't explain this horror movie without giving something away. But I will say this; This film is unlike anything else out there and this is largely due to  Director Darren Aronofsky (did “Black swan”) pushing the envelope and crossing boundaries. It is not a remake of Rosemary's Baby despite there being some similarities. It will bring you an intense feeling of despair and disbelief. But this is what the horror genre should look like,  It's a slow burn that explodes at the end with something beyond any normal functioning mind.

(That said, A WARNING: This movie is intensely horrific, disturbing and graphic and people should not see it unless they are prepared to be shocked, shaken and horrified. There is a sequence toward the very end as well as the ending itself that is beyond words or belief !! )

Jennifer Lawrence plays “Mother’, a nameless woman married to Javier Bardem, a nameless man. They live in a large house that was carefully rebuilt by Lawrence and is located within a wilderness as he is trying to find inspiration for writing a new book. Suddenly, an unknown husband and wife( Ed Harris & Michelle Pfeiffer) come to their house and are allowed to stay by Bardem despite Lawrence’s objections.  I don't want to go any further than that, but I will say that at this point there is a sudden escalation of events which is incredibly surprising and very bizarre. I wasn't  sure exactly what was happening but I was pulled into the movie by the very unique story and the amazing performances from  Lawrence,  Bardem,  Harris, and  Pfeiffer.  Although it seemed like a traditional psychological thriller at the start, by the second and third acts, the film derails into one of the most terrifying, disturbing and absolutely haunting pieces of art  put on film. It is the type of horror that goes right through your skin and your bones, and psychologically affects you both during and after the movie is over.

From the start you are launched into movie from the perspective of Mother(Lawrence) (not a single name is ever said in the movie for any character). The movie uses almost entirely a hand-held, often shaky camera with many, many close ups of Mother…. over her shoulder shots, into her face shots and point of view shots to emphasize what she’s seeing and feeling and show her disbelief and fear/horror about what is happening.

 

Rated R ( a strong R) for strong disturbing violent content, some sexuality, nudity and language.

   WIND RIVER   3.5***

  Rape and murder on an Indian reservation with Jeremy Renner really coming into his own as a not particularly handsome leading man. He provides a very strong performance as Cory Lambert, a U.S. Wildlife hunter with a high powered rifle often on a high speed snowmobile. The picture opens with a long sequence of a young Indian woman running barefoot across a vast nighttime snowscape until she finally drops dead. Eventually we will find out that she was brutally  raped and was fleeing for her life.  Renner, starts an informal investigation on his own. A rookie FBI agent, (Elizabeth Olsen) is called in to assist with the investigation. A junior woman agent is all the FBI cares to spare for this case, obviously regarded as unimportant because who. cares about Indians ?!? But, since only the FBI has police authority on Indian reservation territory they have to make at least a token contribution to the investigation If this all sounds a bit heavy, well it is, but Writer- Director Taylor Sheridan is careful to inject a healthy dose of suspense and  action to keep the drama gripping rather than overbearing; The finale in particular turns the movie on its head in an unpredictable but extremely effective manner.

Sheridan allows the snowy Wyoming setting to completely envelope the characters in a world that feels like it has no exits, either physically or emotionally. Bravo to Director Sheridan and all others involved in this remarkable outdoor production ( at least 90% was filmed outdoor in the winter ) . The movie was filmed in Utah although the setting is supposedly Wyoming on the Wind River Reservation. An added reality perk, real Indians, not Hollywood palefaces, portray the Native American characters. And do it so well!

I know this is not much of a summary, but that is all you really need to know, besides the fact that I REALLY enjoyed it. Make no mistake: this is a dark film that deals with very haunting subject matter, so there is quite a bit of weight to it, but Sheridan treats this story with the highest level of respect by allowing his very well written script to drive it while still shooting it beautifully. To see such beautiful winter landscape almost took my breath away while at the same time reminding me how dangerous such a hard cold snowy environment can be.  

From a performance standpoint, both Renner and Olsen are excellent in how they dialed it WAY back within their characters with Renner keeping Lambert simple and focused on the task at hand and Olsen showing how Agent Banner is just trying to do the right thing while attempting to understand the situation she’s in while delicately asserting the authority she has representing the FBI.. Graham Greene, as the Indian policeman, gives great balance and levity to their dynamic while keeping his character involved as a reminder of the heightened sensitivity of their situation.

An intelligent, slow burning and provocative movie that enthralls from start to finish, Wind River is an understated gem that deserves an audience which is growing by very favorable “word of mouth”.

Rated R for strong violence, a rape, disturbing images, and language.

Clark

The DARK TOWER    2.5****

   The Dark Tower", is an adaptation of Stephen King's longest story offering as the series covered 8  books.  The series ran from 1982 to 2004  The movie tells the story of the last Gunslinger, Roland (played by Idris Elba) who has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter also known as the Man in Black (Mathew McConaughey), to prevent Walter  from toppling the Dark Tower. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil collide leading up to  the ultimate battle between them since Roland is the only one who can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.   The Man in Black is fixated on destroying the Dark Tower, which protects the many worlds in the universe from the outside evils that look to destroy them. Along with a young boy from Earth with very special mind skills named Jake (Tom Taylor), Roland must find a way to save the universe . Roland is the last of the "Gunslingers", a Knight-like group who protect the world.  Roland is highly skilled and unlike his now dead father and other companions, is impervious to the deadly magic of Walter which has allowed him to remain alive and continue his quest to stop Walter.

The screenplay is awful (done by 4 writers which is always a bad sign). It goes all over the map in terms of tying to tie the quite lengthy story elements together. Having four screenwriters shows throughout as the story rises and falls .. but more often falls creating a huge lack of cohesiveness leading to a mediocre movie. Rumors of a 2 plus hour original run with more background on characters and the fantasy world Stephen King created would have been much better in giving depth to the characters and narrative. But the studio objected to such hefty run-time, and its quality has definitely suffered from its sparse 95 minute run time resulting in the loosely-strung-together story.

A few years back, Peter Jackson was somewhat criticized for turning a relatively slim book, THE HOBBIT, into a sequel of 3 very successful movies, adding characters and adventures that were not in Tolkien’s beloved novel to stretch the franchise out. THE DARK TOWER, has the opposite problem.  This thin (95 minute) film is based on  8 novels from Stephen King and so much is left out, that I walked away thinking I had just seen a Cliff Note's version of this material.  They had 8 novels to choose from, and instead of doing a film as the 1^st sequel, they wrongly decided to cram  all 8 novels into one short run time of 95 min. and that is just not enough time to engage even average viewers and is a tragedy for King fans. Actually this would have been great material for an HBO or Netflix miniseries.

One positive note is the performances. Matthew McConaughey as Walter/The Man in Black was perfection every time  he is on the screen.  He is a ruthless badass villain that he can kill you even without touching you. Idris Elba as Roland the last Gunslinger is basically perfection too.  He goes around shooting the bad guys with special 6-shooter pistols in the most badass way…. the dude is Chuck Norris and a young Clint Eastwood combined. Tom Taylor plays the kid Jake and is impressive and carries his role quite well.

Rated PG-13 for material including sequences of gun violence and action.