As you can see , I'm trying to upload images--if no luck, there will be at least something to read by lunch time. Thanks for your patience,Kay.
No luck, have some nice photo's though, will load them as soon as possible.Again thanks for all the support. Kayxx.
The school holidays and the inevitable crop of fantasy action heroes stay with us this week, including The Incredible Hulk [M-Net.Sunday.20.00] and our old buddy Batman, battling Mr. Freeze this time [TV3.Sunday.15.30.]
Michael J. Fox is as entertaining as ever as Marty McFly, as he time dashes through the centuries in the Back to the Future* series. Recently, I saw the now retired star on Oprah. There, he spoke eloquently about the reality of living with Parkinson’s disease.
MICHAEL.J.FOX WITH CHRIS LLOYD--BEFORE TIME RAN OUT
He stressed how embryonic stem cell research has become vital, as it will not only benefit Parkinson’s patients, but also people suffering from another 118 conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Epilepsy and spinal cord damage.
He came across as brave and caring human being, speaking for those unable to speak for themselves.
Another actor whose career was blighted by circumstances beyond his control was Christopher Reeve. Before his spine was shattered in a riding accident, which left him a quadriplegic, he was best known as Superman.
SUPERMAN SANS CAPE, WITH JANE SEYMOUR IN SOMEWHERE IN TIME
Reeve played the Man of Steel four times, three of these occasions are being shown on TV3 this week#. For the good looking, likable actor, playing the refugee from the planet Krypton was a relatively easy task. Equipped with the Cape, the Suit and the Boots, he had lift-off. Superman was his moment of glory.
The handsome, well built man was the comic book hero come to life. The movies, all studded with well known names, are fun and frolicsome. The first two are probably the best of the bunch.
When, in1989, Christopher Reeve was grounded forever, the real hero emerged. For the rest of his life, he bravely sought ways to cope with his disability.
Like Michael Fox, embryonic stem cell research was one of his weapons. He lost his personal battle in 2004, but The Christopher Reeve Foundation keeps his work alive.
The third Superman movie was undoubtedly the worst, despite or should that read because Richard Pryor.
While I watched the Michael Jackson Memorial on Tuesday night [didn’t everybody?] I kept hearing the same message, that Michael opened doors for her black performers— on reflection, yes, he did.
And Richard was certainly one of them. His manic, ‘in your face’ style had traditionally been for black eyes and ears only. After Michael Jackson leveled the playing fields, the 1980s saw Richard Pryor emerge as an international star.
Michael’s boundary stretching really helped to put black actors into the mainstream. Suddenly it was okay to be black, and not just play the manservant or the maid.
Wesley Snipes, who got a huge boost from appearing in Michael’s video, Bad, appears in Jungle Fever [TV1.Sunday.22.00], a Spike Lee movie from 1991. It’s a little talky and too many subplots obscure the main thrust of interracial and intercultural relationships.
The music, by Stevie Wonder, is up to his melodic best [wasn’t Stevie marvelous the other last night, when he sang ‘I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer’?] The cast list of Jungle Fever is pretty impressive and includes Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Halle Berry and Spike Lee himself.
Samuel Jackson, pictured above, won a Best Supporting Actor award at Cannes for his subplot antics in Jungle Fever. He stars with Bruce Willis in Unbreakable [TV2.Monday.22.00], a film by M.Night Shyamalan.This director's feel for fantasy, which worked so well 6th Sense, comes to a rather sticky end in this one.
James Earl Jones, of course, is from an older generation of black movie stars. He was only the second black actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, back in 1970 for The Great White Hope [banned in this country at that time.]
Mr. Jones is the best thing about The Benchwarmers [e.tv. Saturday.20.00 and Sunday.12.45] doing his Darth Vader thing as a joke. He’s also in Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins [M-Net.Saturday.03.10] with actor/comedian, Martin Lawrence.
The film, directed by Spike Lee’s cousin, Malcolm, is not an unpleasant piece and quite thought provoking in a fairly obvious way. Look out for Michael Clarke Duncan who is a very interesting actor indeed.
After playing James Earl Jones’s son in Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, Martin Lawrence does a turn around and plays a possessive father in College Road Trip [M-Net.Friday.03.40], a lot of noise about not much at all. Donny Osmond’s teeth are in good shape, he still can’t act though.
Don Cheadle, so good in Hotel Rwanda, is excellent as Petey Greene, an unlikely radio personality of the 60’s in Talk To Me [M-Net.Saturday.01.10 and Wednesday.02.25]
HOW 60S IS THAT? DON CHEADLE AND FRIEND
Halle Berry has one of her good days opposite Benicio Del Toro in Things We
Lost In The Fire [M-Net.Sunday.22.50] Terrence Howard plays ‘Rhody’ Rhodes in Iron Man [M-Net.Tuesday.11.00.]
Incidentally, Howard played Michael Jackson’s brother, Jackie, in the 1992 series, The Jacksons : An American Dream.
Damon Wayans I don’t talk about unless I can help it. Suffice to say, he appears in Bulletproof [TV1.Saturday.22.00.]
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The Douglas’s, Kirk and Michael, each have a turn this week. Kirk in, The Big Trees [e.tv.Sunday.01.45], where he is more ‘bad guy’ than hero.
MICHAEL LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE HIS DAD,KIRK, PICTURED ABOVE WITH EVE MILLER IN THE BIG TREES.
Michael stars in Don’t Say a Word [M-Net.Sunday.0045], a drama that should be tense, but too many plot inconsistencies ruin the potential effect.
Both men wear heroic roles like an ill fitting suit. There is a touch of underlying menace there, they make much better slightly off key villains.
How do you film ‘magic realism’? Ask Mike Newell, he does a superb job in his adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera [M-Net.Monday.21.30.] Javier Bardem is a standout as a hero who isn’t really one at all.
An Oscar winner in its day, for score [Giorgio Moroder] and script [Oliver Stone]. Midnight Express [e.tv. Sunday.22.05] is a bit dubious as far as character accountability is concerned. The hero was, after all, a drug smuggler.
Mommie Dearest [TV3.Saturday.02.10] the classic camp biopic, effectively killed Faye Dunaway’s career. Until then she had been a much sought after actress, with an impeccable record and an Academy Award, for Network
[[1975], on her mantelpiece.
FAYE DUNAWAY, LOOKING MORE LIKE JOAN THAN JOAN.
After she donned Joan Crawford’s shoulder pads, nobody took her seriously ever again.
Joan Crawford wasn’t an actress, she was ‘a glimmering, shimmering star in the cinema firmament.’ Instead of playing it for laughs, the film tried to take itself seriously, that’s what makes the whole thing so funny.
Joan Crawford was such an invention, that even her name was given to her in a fan magazine competition. She was not an unintelligent woman and when stardom beckoned she grabbed it with both hands and clutched to her bosom for over forty years.
According to those tinsel town tabloids that I never read, she was not adverse to a game of sexual mixed doubles. One of her purported playing partners, Barbara Stanwyck, stars in our Buff Bag movie of the week, Meet John Doe [e.tv.Saturday.02.45]
MISS CRAWFORD'S FRIEND MEETS JOHN DOE
It’s too long and Gary Cooper is a little too suave to be a believable Mr. Average Everybody. Cynics have daubed director Frank Capra’s work Capra-Corn but the film evokes a lot of what Hollywood was all about, the celluloid American Dream.
My pick of the week must be Love in the Time of Cholera [M-Net.21.30], it is the best movie around this week.
#Superman [TV3.Friday.22.00]
Superman 2 [TV3.Saturday.21.30]
Superman 3 [TV3Sunday.00.15]
*Back to the Future [TV3.Saturday.19.30]
Back to the Future Part 11[TV3.Saturday.1930]
Back to the Future 3 [TV3.Sunday.22.00]