Thursday September 15
Just a Kiss [e.tv.20.30]
Friday September16
TOM CRUISE IN BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY; PART OF OLIVER STONE'S VIETNAM TRILOGY. THE OTHER TWO WERE PLATOON AND HEAVEN AND EARTH
Born on the Fourth of July [M-Net.02.05]
Everybody’s Hero [e.tv.14.30]
Saturday September 17
Free Willy : Escape from Pirate’s Cove [M-Net.07.00]
9 [M-Net.18.00]
Reality Bites [SABC3.19.30]
THE MOVIE USES A PROCESS CALLED INTERPOLATED ROTOSCOPE-DON'T AJUST YOUR SET
A Scanner Darkly [SABC3.01.00]
Sunday September 18
White Palace [SABC3.02.25]
Monday September 19
(190110094330)creation_paul_bettany_2.jpg)
MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO
Creation [M-Net.00.30]
Pure Country [SABC3.01.35]
Tuesday September 20
Zip
Wednesday September 21
9 [M-Net.09.30]
Resident Evil: The Afterlife [M-Net.01.35]
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove [M-Net.03.10]
The Believers [SABC1.22.00]
Dad [SABC3.01.35]
Trapped [e.tv.00.15]
There is an opportunity this week to watch Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July [M-Net.Friday.02.05]. Made in 1989, this movie stars Tom Cruise in what was probably his finest hour; he played, quite superbly disabled Vietnam War veteran, Ron Kovic.
OSCAR WINNERS FOR FILM EDITING- DAVID BRENNER AND JOE HUTSHING
Stone deservedly won his second Oscar for direction and the film also picked up a film editing award. To put the movie in cinematic perspective, Driving Miss Daisy was film of the year, while Cruise, who was in with a real chance, lost in the end to Daniel Day Lewis who won his first Best Actor citation for My Left Foot.
AN ALMOST UNRECOGNISABLE TOM CRUISE
But then was then… and now is now. The film may be brilliant and is one of the finest mainstream movies of the decade, however, we don’t live in a vacuum; 9/11 happened and since the war against terror began, gung ho is back in fashion as America straightened its military backbone and ‘the flag as shroud’ has become a familiar motif once more.
JOHN WILLIAMS SURROUNDED BY SOME CHARACTERS HIS MUSIC ENHANCED
These recent events date Born on the Fourth of July historically, but as dramatic cinema it stands proud, enhanced by some emotive music from John Williams.
TOM CRUISE WITH KYRA SEDGWICK IN BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY-YOUNG LOVE DIDN'T LAST LONG
Just for the hell of it, I’m going to play a game of family ties as my link this week, Kyra Sedgwick, who plays Ron Kovic’s girlfriend in Born on the Fourth of July has been married to actor Kevin Bacon for over twenty years.
KEVIN AND KYRA
Sedgwick and Bacon make a low profile, highly talented team, she has won numerous Golden Globes and Emmys, while he was in Taking Chance, one of those post 9/11 movies, where his thankless job was to inform a mother that her boy was coming home in a box.
KYRA SEDGWICK IN ANOTHER VERSION OF THE MAX OPHULS CLASSIC
Sedgwick is also in Just a Kiss [e.tv.Thursday.20.30] a rework of the La Ronde theme, or as is often said in cliché circles, ‘what goes around, comes around.’ Patrick Breen stars and wrote the play on which this fluff is based, Marisa Tomei makes a showing, as do the aforementioned Ms Sedgwick and Ron Eldard.
SUSAN SARANDON IN WHITE PALACE
White Palace [SABC3. Sunday.02.25], based on a novel by Glen Savan stars Susan Sarandon in a knockout performance; she was once married to Chris Sarandon, and kept his name after their divorce in 1979.
KATHY BATES WINS HER OSCAR; AS DO JEREMY IRONS, WHOOPI GOLDBERG AND JOE PESCI
White Palace dates from 1990; also in the cast was Kathy Bates, who in the same year made that gloriously creepy movie Misery, cleverly nicking the Oscar from under the noses of both Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep.
BARBARA PAYTON IN TRAPPED- FOR SOME REASON, e.tv SHOW THE DAMN THING ONCE A MONTH
Beau and Jeff Bridges are from an old Hollywood family; dad Lloyd keeps appearing in an old movie called Trapped [e.tv.Wednesday.00.15] that e will insist on recycling over and over again. The kind of late 40s/ early 50s movie that wasn’t popular even when it was popular.
THE BROTHERS BRIDGES
Beau, of course, is not as high profile as Jeff, but on the day, he is a pretty fine actor too. He is in Free Willy: Escape From Pirate’s Cove [M-Net.Saturday.07.00 and Wednesday.03.10], another in the Free Willy franchise; a rather ripe case of ‘whale meet again.’
NATURALIST CHARLES DARWIN
When and how did the world begin to turn? Nobody really knows, but just about everybody has their own theory. Charles Darwin wrote his down and backed it with (albeit 19th century) scientific proof.
PAUL BETTANY AND JENNIFER CONNELLY STAR AS THE DARWINS
His On the Origin of the Species has caused all sorts of violent debate over the years. Creation [M-Net.Monday.0030] tells this potentially dramatic story in a rather pedestrian way. Creation stars Paul Bettany as the English naturalist and Jennifer Connelly as his devoutly Christian cousin who became his wife.
THE COUPLE IN REAL LIFE
All kinds of moral issues are hinted at; inbreeding being just one of them. The film, based on the novel Annie’s Box by Darwin’s great great grandson Randal Keynes does convey a nice sense of history and Bettany and real life wife Connelly do work well together. The Annie of the title was Darwin’s favourite daughter who died, aged just eleven in April, 1851.
BRITISH DIRECTOR JOHN SCHLESINGER
The Believers [SABC1.Wednesday.22.00] is a horror movie dating from 1984; made by John Schlesinger, who found fame as a British new wave director in the early 60s and later won an Oscar in 1969 for Midnight Cowboy.
PATRIACH OF THE SHEEN CLAN
Schlesinger was a splendid craftsman who never did loose his touch; there is a really frightening satanic edge to The Believers, as well as a deeply resourceful performance from Martin Sheen; who in private life is the patriarch of the family whose surname isn’t Sheen at all and has its genetic roots in Spain and Ireland, an extremely volatile combination.
LIVVY WITH COUSIN MIKE
Dad [SABC3.Wednesday.01.35] is a film about tenuous family ties, an oldie dating from 1989, that heady period when Ted Danson almost became a big screen star, Olivia Dukakis was fresh from winning her Best Supporting Oscar and her cousin Michael almost become Mr President.
JACK LEMMON ALWAYS MADE LIFE A LITTLE BRIGHTER
The best part about the movie is a well honed performance from Jack Lemmon, who, although a little mannered, was always believable in a middle classed American way. He has the distinction of appearing in many people’s favourite old movie Some Like It Hot and also, in two of mine The Apartment and Avanti.
EVERYONE HAS 15 MINUTES OF YOUTH
Reality Bites [SABC3.Saturday.19.30] was Ben Stiller’s directorial debut, he chose to examine Generation X and does a fine job; he pulls some sterling performances from Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke, who was so cool back then—some seventeen years ago.
THE STILLERS
Stiller is still very much around; as is his 84 year old dad, American comedian Jerry Stiller, who sometimes guests in sonny’s movies, not this one. A friendly warning, Reality Bites was made and titled long before the current vampire craze.
BACK AGAIN? I DO HOPE SO!
Winona Ryder was very much the girl most likely in the 90s, but gin and rum and destiny play funny tricks… I think she may be coming around again… I do hope so.
A STARTLING KIND OF ANIMATION
She also appears with Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson Robert Downey Jr (why Jr?— Sr is a underground filmmaker—so now you know!) in an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly [SABC3.Saturday.01.00].
PHILIP K DICK
Dick was a wonderful Sci-fi writer who was never recognized in his own lifetime; his visions of dreams, alternative realities, and mind control, all told with a sharp paranoid undertow seemed far fetched back in the 60s, now his work is mainstream and spot on.
THE TECHNIQUE SUITS DICK'S VISION
Try and find some of his short story collections and or novels; they are/were available in paperback. A Scanner Darkly stalks on the dark side of hope and is quite magnificent in it’s own idiosyncratic way.
THE BAT AND THE BAMBINO
End of Happy Families…Start of the American Dream, featuring two American phenomena, Country Music and Baseball. George Strait lays it straight and gets to sing some pretty songs in Pure Country [SABC3.Monday.01.35], while tragic Superman star Chris Reeve died while making a movie about Babe Ruth and a magical bat ; Everyone’s Hero [e.tv.Friday.14.30] .
NUMBER 9, NUMBER 9, NUMBER 9
Sticking with animation, in 9 [M-Net.Saturday.18.00 and Wednesday.09.30] we are back or forward in the world of post apocalyptic holocaust, where days are numbered and the battle between good and evil continues. Seriously, this is a terrific movie, filled with wit and alacrity.
MILLA JOVOVICH AS ALICE
Way back when, horror at the movies, preferably at the local drive-in, was a forbidden treat in the same league as liquor chocolate. Now the genre is as boring and predictable as breakfast cereal, Resident Evil: Afterlife [M-Net. Wednesday.01.35] proves this point very well.
DIRECTOR RICHARD LINKLATER SCANS HIMSELF DARKLY
My pick is A Scanner Darkly [SABC3.Saturday.01.00]. For Phil.