Summer is Here

The days turn longer and warmer. We enter into Daylight Savings Time (kicking and screaming). Typically, people long to head to the beach, hang out in the park, have a backyard barbeque, or have a summer romance. I however long for a darkened room and the smell of popcorn.  Summer is blockbuster movie time and I am so excited. (Though this year my ability to see them may be impeded....just lost my job last week.) Regardless, let me give you the lowdown on some of the summer movies that I am looking forward to.

Iron Man 3 (May 3)
Robert Downey, Jr. reprises his role as the ever-arrogant, ever-brilliant, ever-sleepless Tony Stark. I've already seen this movie, and it did not disappoint. Tony's wit and confidence continue even though they both take a beating. His beautiful counterpart Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) continues to show why she is the perfect partner and foil for Stark. There's plenty of action and a few twists in the storyline to keep a viewer interested.  I went with a friend who had never seen the other two movies and she LOVED it.

The Great Gatsby (May 10)
I don't know that the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic would normally fit into the summer blockbuster category, but under the direction of Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby it promises to look and feel much more like a summer blockbuster than the original Robert Redford/Mia Farrow film. I have a soft spot for Baz Luhrmann, the Australian director is responsible for one of my all time favorite films, "Strictly Ballroom" but is best known for his takes on "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo and Juliet." It promises to be an amazing vision of the decadence of the 1920's. I am anxious to see how DiCaprio approaches the character of Gatsby in comparison to Redford's iconic performance. Luhrmann's approach to the music is amazing with using the likes of JayZ, Kanye West, Florence and the Machine, Brian Ferry along with Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin.

Star Trek: Into Darkness (May 17)
The reboot of this iconic series has been so much fun.  The casting of Chris Pine (This Means War. It matches him and Tom Hardy...sigh) as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto (He will always be Sylar on Heroes to me) as Spock, Simon Pegg (He was awesome in Ghost Protocol) as Scotty, and my personal favorite Karl Urban (If you've not seen Red, he was perfect) as Bones has breathed new life into the characters.  J.J. Abrams direction has balanced homage to the original with a vision of for the future of the series. I loved the first one, and this one should be its equal and may perhaps pass it depending on whether Benedict Cumberpatch (the BBC's latest Sherlock) is as compelling as the villain as I think he's going to be. 

Man of Steel (June 14)
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love superheroes. They take us out of our every day world and show us what could be. Superman has been done and done again. There's certainly not be any sort of shortage of steel-jawed men to play him. From the beginning of the serial with Kirk Alyn to Christopher Reeve to the latest iteration in Henry Cavill. I am not a comic book reader, so I don't know how close to the actual story this will be to the comic book world.  For me, it looks like it has the potential to be a super appealing story and have portrayals that endear me to characters again that I have seen many times.  Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, and one of my all time favorites Amy Adams as Lois Lane add to the superb casting of Henry Cavill. Cavill brings a manliness to the man of steel that is more than the clean cut Clark Kent we are used to.

Between Star Trek and Man of Steel are several weeks of movies that I hold little or no interest in.  The Hangover Part III, though I love Bradley Cooper, these movies are not my cup of tea. Disney's offering EPIC seems like a reboot of Ferngully. I may grow some interest in Will and Jaden Smith's After Earth, but I am thinking if I'm still unemployed, I'm not wasting my money on that one.

There is one other film before Man of Steel that is a must see for me.  It's Joss Whedon's take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. (June 7) It's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It's done by one of my favorite director/producers, Joss Whedon. (see my earlier posts) It has a great cast that might not be your usual major motion picture cast (Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker are not lead actors usually, but I love them both). I love that the idea for the movie is borne out of the parties Whedon would have at his home to read Shakespeare. And of course, I am super giddy that Nathan Fillion is in it.

I am going to address the other summer films in another post!  Mark your calendars!

Olympus Has Fallen

Saturday I went to see "Olympus Has Fallen." If I were to sum it up in a short sentence it would be "Die Hard takes place in the White House." It was a good action movie. Gerard Butler looked great as a Secret Service agent, square-jawed and clean shaven wearing those aviator sunglasses.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the basic premise is this, terrorists take over the White House and Gerard Butler saves the day. Like I said, Die Hard at the White House with Gerard Butler replacing Bruce Willis.

The writer did a great job of nearly immediately endearing the audience to the President (Aaron Eckhart--the guy with the huge dimple in his chin--also known as Harvey Dent), his wife (Ashley Judd) and their young son Connor (Finley Jacobsen).

Now, perhaps it's just the recent news about North Korea, but I have to say that it completely freaked me out to watch how the swiftly and completely the Korean terrorists took out the White House.  (And I say Korean because this terrorist was born in North Korea and grew up in the South.) Lots of of blood, lots of booms, and lots of shooting.  Don't get too attached to any one character in this film, because like an episode of Downton Abbey or The Walking Dead, they'll be dead in a minute.

Like I said, I liked the movie.  I liked the premise.  I liked the performances. Morgan Freeman played the Speaker of the House, for goodness sake. (Who we never see take the oath of office to be the president....they did that on the West Wing when John Goodman became President) Gerard Butler was totally believable and likeable as the super-tough guy Secret Service agent in search of redemption. This is the thing I didn't like. It is my understanding that the Secret Services' job is to protect the President, at all cost. I get that, so while I hated watching them get mowed down, I understand it. It is my understanding that the President's job, and the job of the people who work for him to protect the country, no matter the cost. Now, I realize that the movie has to move forward, but I have to say I got really irritated when the President ordered his subordinates to do things that placed the nation in jeopardy so that he could be the big hero.  "They'll never get it from me." Also, the Speaker of the House caving to terrorists to save the life of the President, didn't sit well with me.

If you're looking for a fun and action packed movie experience, go see this. If you're a student of how our government works and how the succession of power and the protection of the government works, you might want to leave that all at the door.

The Crowd Has Spoken

This week something extraordinary happened. Yeah, yeah, the Catholic Church chose a new Pope. What I am talking about is way more exciting than some white smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel.  They did it! Veronica Mars is going to be a major motion picture!

I was not an original "Marshmallow" as Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell, likes to refer to us. I was converted while laying flat on my back after my cancer surgery. My good friend Deb not only did my laundry during that time, but she gave me the wonderland of Neptune, CA and the sassy Veronica Mars on DVD to help pass the time.

It was there I discovered the UPN/CW Network short-lived series about a high school girl who sidelined as a private detective. Veronica came by her obsession honestly, her dad was the local sheriff. Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni) was a single dad to a very unwieldy teenaged girl. Veronica did her best to take care of her dad despite her penchant for trouble. I liken their relationship to that of Molly Ringwald and Harry Dean Stanton in the John Hughes 80's classic Pretty in Pink, except Keith Mars wasn't a loser drunk. Veronica's best friend Lily Kane (Amanda Seyfried) is murdered and Veronica dives in head first into the nefarious doings of her small town to find out who her killer is. All the while, Veronica is still a high school student wending her way through the usual challenges of boys, and classes, and expectations, and well, more boys. There's the bad boy Logan (Jason Dohring), all his smoldering looks and misunderstood ways, Veronica's best friend and fellow investigator, Wallace Fennel (Percy Daggs III), the resident gang banger Eli (Francis Capra) and many many more. I was truly upset that I never made this show a part of my regular viewing and thereby helped to kill it, perhaps before it's time.

Now, however, I have taken part in breathing life back into this show. You see, this movie isn't being made because the studios thought it would be a good idea. This movie is being made because the people who watch TV and movies thought it would be a good idea. Writer/creator Rob Thomas and Bell took it to the people through the Web site Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a site that does what is referred to as crowd-sourcing. If you have a project, whether it be creative, business, or charitable, Kickstarter allows you to collect funding for the project. The goal to get the movie made was $2 million. The site went active on March 13, 2013, and took all of 11 hours to fully fund the project. At the moment I am writing this 50,312 people have backed the movie and $3,3210,038 has been raised. And every time I toggle over there, it goes up and up. Check it out here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project


I know, it seems kind of silly and shallow. Can't that money be given to feed the poor or support something important?  The answer is yes, yes, it could. But, it's also kind of exciting to see we are in era where anything is possible and that the voice of the people can matter. So, if we can raise $2 million to make a movie, then maybe other more important things can be brought to the forefront and funded.

In the meantime, I am waiting patiently for my T-shirt, my shooting script, and my glimpse of what Neptune is like in 2013.

Best Picture

Ok, I have just a little while to get this together. It's been a busy couple days!  Here's the last one I'm going to do.

The Academy has these nominees from which to choose:

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

And the Oscar goes to:

Lincoln. I think that the movie that wins in this category should have it all. It should be well written (check). It should have an amazing cast (check). It should have top-notch performances (check). It be clear in its directorial vision without it being heavy-handed (check).  It should have a great score (check). It should look amazing (check). It should have great costumes (check). It should be edited well (check).  You get the idea. I have seen a number of the other nominees, and the only other one that I think is close is Les Miserables. Silver Linings Playbook is really great, but it is missing in some of the other areas. 

So, one more time, let's have some fun with this.

Dream Nominees:

Skyfall
The Dark Knight Rises
The Avengers
Trouble with the Curve
Flight

And my Oscar would go to:

The Dark Knight Rises.  This is the best of the Dark Knight movies. I love the story, I love the casting, I love the way it looked.  I love that it surprised me in a couple places. I loved Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and Marion Collitard. The ending was THE BEST! This is one of those movies that would never win at the real Academy Awards, but it was a great movie that rode the line between intense and fun so well.

The red carpet is almost over. I need to get settled in for the broadcast.  Enjoy!

Best Animated Film

The Academy has these choices for Best Animated Film:

Brave
Frankenweenie
Paranorman
Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck It Ralph

And the winner is:

I believe Disney's Brave will win. Disney's strongest female character yet is a shoo-in. It's a strong story, fun, and funny. As a person with curly hair, I appreciate the head of beautiful curly red hair they gave her! 




So, let's find a few more to consider.

The Rise of the Guardians
Hotel Transylvania
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
Ice Age: Continental Drift
The Lorax

Ok, I haven't seen that many animated films this year. I saw Brave and I liked it a lot. The other one I saw was The Rise of Guardians.  I loved this movie. It was beautifully drawn, and well acted.  I loved Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny, and Alec Baldwin as a Russian Santa. I loved that it was all about finding your inner strength and childhood wonder. I would love to see a sequel to this movie.

Best Director

The Academy has the following to choose from for Best Director.

Best Director Nominees
Amour--Michael Haneke
Beasts of the Southern Wild--Behn Zeitlin
Life of Pi--Ang Li
Lincoln--Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook--David O. Russell

And the Oscar will go to:

I believe the Academy will choose Steven Spielberg's Lincoln.  This is his 9th nomination in this category and the last time he won was in 1999 for Saving Private Ryan. The sweep of this movie and the way the story is told is worth the Oscar.  I don't know that he had much to do with the creative process that made Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln, but I would think wrangling everyone else around that had to be a job and a half. I have not seen Life of Pi, but I know that Ang Li is a favorite as well and the imagery even in the previews makes this a tight race, I think. I loved Silver Linings Playbook, but I feel like there were too many continuity errors for it to win best directing, he's supposed to have the all the movie in mind. I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild, it is an interesting concept, but I would be surprised if it won. I have not seen Amour.

My choices for best directing would be.

Dream Nominees:
Tom Hooper--Les Miserables, he made brilliant choices all around. I am sad to see he wasn't picked for real.
Ben Affleck--Argo. Ok, so I haven't seen Argo, but he won every other award, and I've loved Gone, Baby Gone.
Joss Whedon--The Avengers.  The post-credits scene is worth an Oscar by itself.
Asger Leth--Man on a Ledge. He made Sam Worthington seem like a real actor.
Robert Zemekis--Flight. His choices in story telling and analogy are outstanding.

And if I could nominate someone for worst directing it would be Gary Ross for the Hunger Games. That movie could have been so much better if I hadn't needed to keep my head cocked to one side or the other half the time.

And my winner is:

Joss Whedon for the Avengers. Yes, I love Joss Whedon. I am a closet (not any longer) Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fan. I love Firefly. If you haven't seen Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, you are missing a cult classic. (Thank you Leighton!) The man wrote the screenplay for the original Toy Story for goodness sake! And I can't tell you how excited I am that he has done a version of my favorite Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. No one else could have wrangled all these superheroes and not turn it into a 100% cheesefest. The movie was what movies are supposed to be FUN! That's all comes from the vision, straight from the director. Thank you Joss!

Best Supporting Actress

The choices for Best Supporting Actress are:

Best Supporting Actress Nominees:
Amy Adams--The Master
Sally Field--Lincoln
Anne Hathaway--Les Miserables
Helen Hunt--The Sessions
Jacki Weaver--Silver Linings Playbook

And the winner will be:

Anne Hathaway as Fantine in Les Miserables. Her performance, though brief, is so very, very strong. I think in part due to the fact that David Hooper designed this more like a play, where the singing is done live. This race is almost too close to call though, because I think they will also lean toward Sally Field's performance as Mrs. Lincoln. She does an excellent job of riding the line between the ambitious woman that pushes her husband and the grief-stricken crazy woman. I felt such empathy for Jacki Weaver as Bradley Cooper's mom in Silver Linings Playbook. Again, I have not seen The Master nor The Sessions.

So, let's have some fun with this idea:
Dame Judi Dench--Skyfall--She has been an amazing M. Can you tell I love her and secretly want to be her?
Samantha Barks--Les Miserables--Her Eponine was excruciatingly beautiful.
Scarlett Johannson--Avengers--For her opening scene alone, I think she deserves a nod, and I don't particularly like her. I mean, who gives up Ryan Reynolds?
Anne Hathaway--The Dark Knight Rises--I know, I know, twice in the same category, but her Catwoman was worlds above Halle Berry's.
Charlize Theron--Snow White and the Huntsman--She takes this classic Evil Queen to a whole new level (and does it so much better than Julia Roberts did --sorry Julia, I still love you).

The winner is:

This is probably the category I had the hardest time with. I made my bed, now I have to lie in it as the saying goes. Well darn it! This isn't real! I choose....




Dame Judi Dench, Anne Hathaway, and Samantha Barks! Dame Judi Dench has always played M tough with this soft spot for Daniel Craig's Bond. Perhaps that's why I love her so much, cause I too have a soft spot for Daniel Craig (sorry, Rachel Weisz). Dench is an amazing actress and is so British. I chose Anne Hathaway partially because my brother would never speak to me again if I didn't, he has a little (well, a big thing) for her. But, not only did she look great in this role, but she was great as this tough, street-smart character. A long way from the Princess of Genovia. Lastly, there is Samantha Barks as Eponine. First of all, by far the best voice in the entire movie. Secondly, how is it possible that someone's waist could be that small?  Really though, the scene where she watches Cosette and Marius fall in love and then her death scene are both so well acted!

Best Supporting Actor

Members of the Academy have these choices for Best Supporting Actor:

Best Supporting Actor Nominees:

Alan Arkin--Argo
Robert DeNiro--Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman--The Master
Tommy Lee Jones--Lincoln
Christoph Waltz--Django Unchained

Winner: I believe the Academy will pick Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained.  They like him, as evidenced by his win for Inglorious Bastards. They all secretly like Quentin Tarantino (even though I completely don't get it.) This is way they can give him a nod and give Waltz a nod as well.  I probably won't ever see this movie, at least until they put it on TV. I made the mistake of seeing several Tarantino films because of a boy, and they are just too much everything for me. The language, the violence, the kitchiness; it's all too much. I haven't seen Argo yet, though I want to. Alan Arkin is a legend and I am pleased he continues to work.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is a great actor, but since his role in the Master is likened to L. Ron Hubbard, I think it probably hit too close to home for many of the Hollywood crowd who are surrounded by Scientology. Personally I think it should go to either Tommy Lee Jones for his portrayal of the abolitionist Senator Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln or to Robert DeNiro for the emotional rollercoaster he takes us on as Bradley Cooper's dad in Silver Linings Playbook. 

Now, here's some other options for this category.

Dream Nominees:
Jeremy Renner--The Avengers--It's Jeremy Renner with a bow and arrow slinging wit and death
Clark Gregg--The Avengers--He has been the best character in all the Marvel movies
Justin Timberlake --Trouble With the Curve--Justin may have been Justin as a former baseball player, but I can't help but love his personality.
Michael Caine--The Dark Knight Rises--The best Albert ever, had to make the most awful of choices
Javier Bardem--Skyfall--There hasn't been a Bond villain that I was more afraid of and hated more than him.

The Winner:

Another tie, it seems I can't decide which male characters I like the best. This time between good and evil. Clark Gregg's and Javier Bardem's performances are classics. Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson is the unexpected tough guy who has the safety of the world in his hands at all times. He keeps his cool and is smarter than most the people in the room. His death in Avengers made me gasp and pretty mad. Javier Bardem's evil Silva was creepy, scary, nasty, violent, and every other dark adjective you can think of.  His use of "Mommy" in reference to M was just one of the creepiest things I've ever heard.

Up next: Best Supporting Actress

Best Actress

Now, let's look at the ladies. These are the Academy's choices.

Best Actress Nominees:
Jessica Chastain--Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence--Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva--Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis--Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts--The Impossible

Winner: It's a toss up between Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence. Both have won Golden Globe awards and Lawrence also won the SAG award. However, if I had an vote at the Academy, I would vote for Naomi Watts. Her performance in The Impossible was strong and moving.

Here's my additions to the Oscar crowd. Again, perhaps not the most academic of choices, but here it goes.

Dream Nominees:
Judi Dench-The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel--I would vote for her in almost any role.
Amy Adams-Trouble with the Curve--I always love it when the girl knows a little about baseball.
Katherine Heigl--One for the Money--Stephanie Plum gets to have a thing for Jason O'Mara, enough said.
Rachel McAdam--The Vow--She gets to be in love with Channing Tatum, forget to you are in love with him, and then fall in love with him again.
Reese Witherspoon--This Means War-- She gets to have Tom Hardy and Chris Pine fight over her, I completely envied her.

Winner: Amy Adams as the feisty daughter of a baseball scout (Clint Eastwood) in Trouble with the Curve. This was one of my favorite movies of the year. All she ever wanted was to spend time with and be noticed by her dad.

The Oscars are Coming

This Sunday night is a very exciting night for me. It is, for me, how many of you approach the Superbowl. The night of all nights, the big show, the single most important broadcast of the year. Most years, I could care less who wins the Superbowl. That is, unless the Steelers are in it, or I've found some player to whom I've found a particular attachment. But, seeing as I may watch 10 minutes of football all season, it is not likely to happen.

This Sunday night is the Academy Awards, or the Oscars, as some are likened to call it. This is Hollywood's biggest night. The stars will be out in their finest to celebrate, as the Academy picks what they deem as best in film. I know it's a night of self-aggrandizement. I know it's wrought with liberal grandstanding. I know that most of the films I love will never make it to the ballot. But, I love it anyway. The movies, for me are all about the story; gritty stories, funny stories, moving stories, thought-provoking story. larger-than-life stories, real-life stories, I love them all. It's about the actors you've grown to love, those you don't get, or even those you hate. Most years, (like this one) I haven't even seen all the films.  I have friends who luckily have the time in their schedules to do the now, two-day Oscar marathon at the local theater.  I don't have time for that anymore, teaching lessons on Fridays and Saturdays take precedence. But, I have made an effort to see a lot of them.  I am going to put myself out there and give you my predictions, as well as who I would really want to see nominated and win.

I will post each one as a separate post...hope it's fun for you!

Best Actor

Let's start with the men.  The Academy had these gentlemen to choose from.

Best Actor Nominees:
Bradley Cooper - Silver Lining Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
Denzel Washington - Flight

Winner:  Daniel Day-Lewis will likely win this, he's won everything else. He truly became Lincoln, or what we perceive as Lincoln. People who play historical figures are nominated a lot. Though, I have to wonder why one of my favorites, John Cusack, was not nominated then for his role as Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven. The only movie I haven't seen is The Master. The others were all outstanding performances in their own right, but if anyone other than Daniel Day-Lewis wins this, I will likely faint.

Now, we all know that Oscar-worthy films aren't usually the ones that draw the big crowds, so aside from these great performances, here are a couple more that I think are award-worthy.

Dream Nominees: 
Josh Brolin - Men In Black III --he truly was the young Tommy Lee Jones.
Steve Carrell - Seeking a Friend for the End of the World -- I want to see him win for one of these roles I love him in.
Joseph Gordon Levitt -- Looper -- he was truly the young Bruce Willis
Daniel Craig -- Skyfall -- Someone should win for playing Bond, I think Craig is the best since Connery.
Robert Downey, Jr -- Avengers -- Tony Stark is the guy you love even though he's everything you hate.

Winner:  Tie between Josh Brolin and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  These two actors managed to do some of the best impression work since Rich Little.

So, what would you have picked? It was fun to pull some names together, and a lot harder than you might think! Up next: Best Actress

The Wreckage from Flight

If you saw the previews for "Flight" you may have thought it is the story of an American hero, an airline pilot who lands his plane in impossible circumstances like Sully Sullivan, the pilot who landed the flight in the Hudson River a couple years back. Denzel Washington does an amazing job in this film, not because he's heroic, but because he is completely flawed and broken.

The movie opens in a hotel room, Whip Whitaker (Washington) and a woman (we find out she's a flight attendant on his plane) wake up from a bender, still messed up from the night before. He has a colorful telephone argument with his ex-wife about money before he takes a takes a nose full of cocaine. Then Whip leaves the hotel, dressed in a pilot's uniform.

The subplot is of an young woman named Nicole (Kelly Reilly). She is walking the razor's edge of addiction. She falls off hard when she scores some very strong drugs and chooses to shoot up rather than sniff it.

In the meantime, Whip reports for duty, completes all his pre-flight checks, and takes off through some incredibly bad weather. He manages to find the one sliver of calm in the clouds and though it's scary getting there, he is able to thread the needle and put the plane into smooth air. The 40 minute hop from Orlando to Atlanta is on its way, he slips from the cabin to grab a couple bottles of vodka while the plane is on auto pilot. He goes back to the cabin and falls asleep at the controls.  Suddenly, everything goes south, literally, when the plane pitches into a dive. He is immediately awake, immediately in control, and immediately the consummate professional. He is calm in the face of the panic of everyone around him. I won't give the details away, but what he does with that plane is genius and heroic. He lands the plane with minimal loss of life and like the typical drunk driver, he is virtually unscathed.

When Whip wakes up in the hospital, he finds his old friend and union rep Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood) waiting in his room. He knows that he landed the plane, but has no idea what happened to everyone on board. Protocol is the NTSB must be the first contact after the crash. At the news that members of his crew are amongst those who died, he is visibly shaken. It seems that he knows that his secret is about to catch up with him. He knows he needs to be clean. In fact when his friend (and dealer) Harling (John Goodman) shows up, he refuses the additional "help" he's brought.

It is in the hospital we understand the intersection of lives. Broken people manage to find other broken people. In the stairwell one night, Whip meets Nicole. She lived through the overdose and wants to be clean now. He is drawn to her. He leaves the hospital and goes to his family farm, away from the media circus waiting outside his condo. Once there, he dumps the considerable amount of alcohol and drugs he has stashed away. Determined to be clean, determined to tough it out. He finds Nicole and brings her to stay with him. Like I said, broken people manage to find other broken people.

But, every alcoholic is only one incident away from their next drink.  Whip's comes in the form of a breakfast meeting with Charlie and a Hugh Lang, a lawyer (Don Cheadle). Whip asserts that the airline put him in a broken plane, and no one else could have landed it (which turns out to be true). He asserts that he is a hero. He is prepared to take any blood tests the NTSB may require. The tipping point comes when he finds that those blood tests were already done immediately after the crash. Those tests reveal what we (and he) already knew, he was drunk and high when he stepped on to that plane.

It is from here, the story goes from bad to worse. Whip falls deeper, and deeper into his own nose dive, but he doesn't see it. He continues to assert that the problem was it was a broken plane, why did they send him up in a broken plane? That is where the blame lies. For a brief second, we think that he is going to be okay, and then he crashes again.

I won't give away the ending, since well, what's the point in watching a movie, if you're not going to watch the ending. Let's just say that even though the plane crashes, there are survivors.

This is not an easy movie to watch. It is definitely not a movie where you are going to like very many of the characters and root them on. This movie does contain nudity, some very tough language, adult situations, and a very scary plane crash. Washington's performance is once again top notch. I vacillated from hating the man to feeling horrible for him and back again. It does, however, give an clear picture of the incredible damage that addiction does to lives. I love the incredible metaphor built by the filmmakers here. Whip's life in parallel with what happened in the plane crash. The wreckage all around him, and yet he continues to not see what really happened.

The Up and the Down

I have a new love. It fills my thought processes and distracts me in my daily life. I find myself longing for it and my heartbeat speeds up as it approaches. I'm a little sick when it's over and turn to it whenever I can. If I am afforded the opportunity to share about it, I do. That sounds like love doesn't it? I've not met an interesting new man, or reconnected with someone from my past. Even more embarrassing, it's not a renewed fervor for Jesus that has me all a twitter. No, I have fallen hard for a television show. Downton Abbey.  (No spoilers, I promise.)


I'm somewhat of a anglophile. Not to the extreme, my house isn't decorated with Union Jacks. I do however, have a collection of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte movies. I collect adaptions of Shakespeare's works and I love the Elizabeth movies. My hope for my 50th birthday is for my high school friend Jill and I to go to England.  One of my favorite movies is "The Holiday" with Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, and Kate Winslet. Go to an quaint English village, meet a interesting, and quite handsome widower. I could handle that.

I honestly don't even know how I happened upon Downton Abbey. It may have been through my Netflix cue since I have a tendency to watch things like "Being Jane" and "Lost in Austen". But from the very first sound of the piano keys and violins, I fell in love.

For those of you who don't know about Downton Abbey (which is amazing to me since I've seen parodies of it on everything from Jimmy Fallon to Sesame Street) it is the story of the aristocratic Crawley family and their bevy of servants, who live in the palatial estate of Downton. Downton is a major character in this show.  The house is actually Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England. It has been the location for several films and music videos. It is a picture of days gone by with its enormous doors, impressive staircases, and antique-filled rooms all on acre upon acre of rolling English countryside. (Can you tell I am smitten?)


Much like it's predecessor,  the BBC's Upstairs, Downstairs, the show uses the differing lives of the aristocrats and the servants to tell the story of England. The show opens on the day that Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) learns that his heir and daughter Mary's fiance has died in the sinking of the Titanic. And thus begins the tale of woe that propelled the Crawley's into my heart.

Robert has three daughters: beautiful and spoiled Mary (Michelle Dockery), beautiful and kind Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay), and plain and well, plain, Edith (Laura Carmichael). Robert is married to Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), an American heiress. He married her so her money could save the estate, but fell in love with her years ago. We meet Robert's mother, Violet Crawley (the amazing Maggie Smith), the Dowager Countess who uses her age and position to manipulate, impart wisdom, and be as snarky as she likes. The thing I love about this character is that she is not unchangeable and made of stone. She has eyes that see the wide implications of every choice, and her very English exterior has a mushy center. Since the rule of law in England does not allow for estates like Downton to be passed to daughters, a new heir is found, the decidely middle-class son of a distant cousin, Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), a lawyer by trade (shivers) and his ever-industrious mother Isobel (Penelope Wilton). That completes the "basic" Crawley clan. They are full of intrigue, hatefulness at some times, and deep love at others. One minute you want to smack almost any one of them upside the head and the next you want to give the same person a big hug.

Then there's the "down" of Downton, the servants.  Lead by Mr. Carson (Jim Carter), the butler, and Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan), the housekeeper. Carson, a man of decorum who is all about doing things properly, has a surprising past. Mrs. Hughes has never married and dedicated her life to "service." She finds herself mothering a flock of somewhat unruly children. Anna (Joanne Froggatt) the head housemaid is the angel of the crew, not given to gossip, hardworking, and trusted lady's maid to Lady Mary. It's that trust that leads her to trouble after trouble. If Anna is the angel, then O'Brien (Siobhan Finneran) is the devil. (Shouldn't it be a clue that she's the ONLY character they refer to by her last name alone?) She sets her sights on making misery for as many people as she possibly can, perhaps in hopes of easing some pain we've yet to discover.  Her partner in crime is the footman Thomas (Rob James-Collier) a handsome young man with who yearns for more.  Enter John Bates, (Brendan Coyle) a former army comrade of the Earl's.  He comes in to take the coveted spot as his Lordship's valet. He sets O'Brien's and Thomas's brains to scheming and Anna's heart to fluttering. Then there's the cook, Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicole), her kitchen maid Daisy (Sophie McShera), and about a million other characters to keep up with all of which have a little place of love or loathe in my heart.

I must confess that I grew up watching what my mom called her "stories."  Days of Our Lives, The Doctors, Search for Tomorrow, Another World, Young and the Restless, General Hospital, I watched all of them, plus more. That may be why this type of continuing drama appeals to me. (If you're not familiar with some of those names, just know that they were cancelled before your time.) You meet interesting characters and follow them through fantastical life elements. However, the difference is that Downton is set in a historical context that produces its own fantastical life elements; elements that were real. The sinking of the Titanic, the peerage of land and titles in England, World War I, woman's suffrage, the fight for Irish independence, the Spanish flu epidemic, and many more things yet to come. On top of that, they lived in a time when people thought of things like family and others when they made their decisions. Even though they lived lives of privilege, it was definitely not all about me. They lived a life most of us can't imagine, where the only day of the week that was different than any other was the Sabbath. One of my favorite moments is when Matthew Crawley speaks of "the weekend" and the Dowager Countess has no idea of what he is speaking. Of course, the beautiful setting and amazing costumes don't hurt.

If you have yet to discover the world of the Crawley's, I encourage you to do so.  But, be prepared. No one is safe in this world. And unlike the "stories" my mom and I watched, there are no dream sequences to bring back those who find an untimely end. But be assured that you will find a world filled with loyalty, love, hate, intrigue, despair, hope, joy, pain, and each thing to which Scripture tells us there is a season. Along the way you'll get some witty gems from the Dowager Countess to use as your Facebook status.

So, for now, I will take my leave.

Enough Good

I watched NCIS last night, as I do most Tuesday nights. Last night's episode took a turn from just the normal crime procedural to focus on perhaps the show's most lovable and quirky characters, Abby.

A car accident involving the death of a young Marine and a young woman suddenly takes Abby back to her very first case, when she was a little girl in pigtails. (Not that her hairstyle has changed any.) Remembrance of this case drives the normally upbeat and sunny Abby into a dark place more befitting her gothic appearance. This is cause for much concern and conversation amongst the members of her team. The ever-brilliant forensic scientist makes mistakes and displays a surliness we have never seen in her, even when stalked or kidnapped.

The mini-Abby's case begins in a junk yard, with a wrecked truck. She finds a teddy bear in the floorboard and is determined to return the bear to its young owner. What she finds is a family divided by prejudice and misunderstanding. It proves to be a divide that cannot be closed, even by a young girl with all the optimism and love that is our Abby.

Of course, the team solves the case, but the story line isn't really the point of this post. I want address the inner conflict that took Abby to that dark place. At the end of the episode, Abby sits on the floor and pours out her heart to Gibbs. "I'm afraid I'm not enough," she says. "Not enough what?" Gibbs replies. "Not enough good to push back all the evil." Gibbs says, "You are forgetting the ripple effect" Abby is confused and Gibbs asks her to remember the first day they met. In Abby-fashion she remembers every detail including the fact that she shared her fortune cookie with him. He pulls from his wallet the fortune, it reads, "Today's new friend is tomorrow's family." As a viewer, I loved the moment between them and was relieved to see a little of the old Abby shine through as the scene faded to black. I do however wish I could have written that ending, because it was a perfect place to address Abby's real need.

I, like Abby, ache over all the evil in the world. I, like Abby, try my best to be light and hope to those around me. I wonder if I am am enough, could do enough to keep it at bay. But, unlike Abby, I understand that evil will exist until the time that Christ comes back and brings that new heaven and earth. And, unlike Abby, I know I can't rely on myself or even my friends or family to be the source of my hope. Jesus is my only hope. The Psalms say it over and over again, our hope is in The Lord. Corinthians tells us that three remain, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest is love. I John tells us that God is love and that we love because he first loved us and Romans says that God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were sinners Christ died for us. That is where the "enough" comes from. I can't muster it from somewhere inside. I can't draw it from those around me. I can, however, seek it from the fountain of hope, love, and faith that never runs dry. It is there that "enough good" is found. Like a favorite song of mine says, "All of you is more than enough for all of me."

Lincoln-The Gentle Giant

I think it's easy for Americans to forget that Presidents are just everyday people in extraordinary circumstances. Spielberg's "Lincoln" gives us a vision of both the everyday man and the grand statesman.

The story sits in front of the backdrop of the days leading up to the vote in the House of Representatives on the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in the US with all its political wrangling. We meet all sorts of interesting characters. William Seward (David Strathairn), Lincoln's Secretary of State and closest adviser. Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field) Lincoln's wife, trying her best to appear cosmopolitan and hide her insanity and grief. The abolitionist Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) and his sparing partner the Democrat Fernando Wood (Lee Pace). The political operatives asked by Lincoln and Seward to procure the votes for the amendment are perhaps my favorite, even though they are the most profane, William N. Bilbo (James Spader) and Colonel Robert Latham (John Hawkes).

And of course, there's Lincoln.  Daniel Day-Lewis is completely transformed into the Lincoln that I had in my head from grade school.  Tall, thin, bearded, and stooped, with his stove-pipe hat and black suit.  The first we see him, he is sitting out in the rain as Negro soldiers tell him of their valiantly fought battle and argue for Negro Army officers. Two young soldiers approach him and begin to quote the Gettysburg address to him. His self-effacing humor and concern for these young man is our first glimpse at the depth of this man's character. Day-Lewis plays Lincoln as a gentle man, who indulged his youngest son Thad (Gulliver McGrath) while he held his eldest son Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fought to be noticed by his father. He portrays Lincoln as the last person to speak in the room and when he did speak he spoke in stories and parables to the chagrin of his friends and cabinet. This Lincoln was on a trajectory toward greatness despite himself because of his belief that all men are created equal.

Spielberg's masterful casting and storytelling makes this movie so much more than a history lesson. I connected with the characters and even found myself rooting for the amendment to pass, even though Civics class taught me long ago that it was so.

The Brilliance of a Silver Lining

I saw "Silver Linings Playbook" last night. I really loved this movie. I laughed out loud a lot, sometimes because it was just uncomfortable to think two people like this are actually in a family somewhere.

Bradley Cooper was dreamy, even when he is playing person who is really pretty unbalanced. He deals with bipolar disorder by muscling his way through his episodes with positivity and self discipline with mixed results. The scene where Pat looks for his wedding video is part of what got Cooper his best actor nod. Jennifer Lawrence was great as Tiffany, the young widow on the edge of self-destruction, but not great enough to beat Naomi Watts for "The Impossible" or Quvenzhané Wallis for "Beasts of the Southern Wild" for the Oscar. Her nomination, however, is well deserved.

I loved that we never saw their dance in full until the competition. I loved how important the Philadelphia Eagles were to this family. Since I grew up in a family where the Pittsburgh Steelers were a Sunday ritual, I get this family.  DeNiro as the father and Jackie Weaver as the mother were delightful and painful as they try to help their youngest son find his way out of the mess that bipolar disorder has made of his life. The "R" rating is for the salty language and frank discussions.

While the story, the acting, and directing are great, the production was definitely "small". I saw several continuity flubs, and I'm not generally the person who catches those things. There's even a spot where you see a piece of the camera equipment, again, not something I normally catch. I have to say I am a little surprised by the best picture nod for this film in that respect. To me, a best picture movie should be a movie that is as flawless as can be in all the aspects of film, not just the story elements, the acting elements, or the direction.

But, I definitely got caught up in this movie. I held my breath, and then cheered or sighed in the appropriate spots. The brilliant performances of all the actors is what makes this film more than just another romantic comedy.

For the Love of NCIS

I had a Facebook friend post the other day, "Why is NCIS the most popular show on television?" It was evident that he didn't like the show.  I am not surprised that some have disdain for the show. It's not cinema d'arte, or black comedy, or particularly intellectually challenging. My friend's husband who is an NCIS agent says that it's not even close to what they really do.  But, I would like to submit that there's lots to like and even love about this show.  I am not a person who watched the show from the outset.  In fact, I am a USA marathon convert, watching on rainy Saturday afternoons or to occupy myself during football season, I soon turned to its prime time version. Here's a few reasons why.

I love the characters. Donald Bellisario and Don McGill, the creators of NCIS, gave us a group of characters that while remaining true to their original design, have grown and developed.

• Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) is a Marine to the core, has vulnerabilities and flaws and occasionally a sense of humor. He is a compassionate boss, a loner, an old fashioned guy with a strict code, and a patriot. 
• Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) has taken longer to give us what we really want, a glimpse of how he really feels for his co-worker Ziva David (Cote De Pablo) He remains the movie-loving,  goofy yet dashing guy we want to ask us out for a drink.  
• The trained assassin, Ziva, still struggles with her demons as she does with American idioms, but we see a longing to be something more. 
• The resident geeks Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) provide stability and a sense of wonder at the same time. Both quirky in their own way, they love what they do and the team they do it with. 
• Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) has been a character that has been hard to like, butting heads with Gibbs and balancing the politics of working for a federal agency. The glimpses at how hard a demanding job can be on the only family man of the group, have been at times heart wrenching. 
• Then there's the autopsy suite, Dr. Donald Mallard, or "Ducky" (David McCallum) provides wisdom, professionalism, and class while Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) imbibes us with some humor and innocence. 

There have been other characters of note, Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander) and Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) who met untimely demises and of course Gibb's father played by the great Ralph Waite.

I love Mark Harmon. He's more than just a nice-looking man. He's a nice man. He's been married to Pam Dawber for 25 years. He's a dad. He's a team player. Always has been, dating all the way back to when he was the quarterback for UCLA.  I love that he's always quick to point the spotlight away from himself and to some other member of his team.  I love that he has built a team that seems to genuinely love working together and keeps each others ego in check. I loved him way back in 70's when he was in the mini-series "Centennial" and the adventure "240-Robert." Then came the role that proved he was more than a pretty face, Dr Bobby Caldwell on "St. Elsewhere." Caldwell was the first person to contract and die of AIDS on a network television program. That was followed by a stint on one of my favorite shows of the 80's "Moonlighting" which lead up to People Magazine naming him as the "Sexiest Man Alive." He continued to work over the next ten years or so until he took the role of Jack McNeil on "Chicago Hope." A couple years later he took one of my favorite roles, the Secret Service Agent Simon Donovan on "The West Wing." I have to say, I was pretty upset when they killed him. Then came Gibbs, and like I said before, it took a while for the show to grow on me.  But, goodness the man whacks his team on the back of the head when they mess up.  Haven't YOU always wanted to do that to the people you work with.

I love that after 10 seasons they still find ways to keep me on the edge of my seat. I'm a seasoned enough TV-watcher that I know probably most major characters aren't going to leave. This is not the Walking Dead, after all.  However, at the end of last season when Ducky had his heart attack, I was truly concerned that this wonderful character would be gone forever. (That is until I surfed the internet and found that David McCallum had renewed his contract.) This season the twists and turns that have occurred are making me excited about what might be next.  I was heartbroken as Cote De Pablo gave the performance of her life the past couple weeks. I wonder where this new tragedy will take her.  Like many others, I hope it will take her to the arms of Tony, but, I too, wonder what that would do to the show.

I love that they try to portray our military in a respectful, yet honest way. The military is full of fine people, but just like any organization, there's plenty of bad to go around. I love the respect they have for veterans of all ages.  One of my favorite episodes featured the late great Charles Durning as a WWII vet haunted by the death of a fellow Marine, a death he thought he caused. The sensitivity and respect the script brought to this older vet was something that all involved in the show should be proud of.

I could continue on, but I won't. I figure, if you don't already like NCIS, you're probably not going to like if after my few words. Maybe if I were able to give you a good Gibbs-slap-upside-the-head, you might. I hope however, that the folks who make the show might understand why people such as me do like it.  Congratulations on ten seasons NCIS. Congratulations to Mark Harmon on getting a star on the Walk of Fame. Even though I've never actually met you, seems to me that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Here's to as many more episodes as you'll give me, regardless of what other people say.