We hit double digits with this bad boy! That’s right, “The Movie Review Show” turned ten with this show. We’d originally planned to have a special guest on the show like we did when David Rasumussen was on episode #5 when we reviewed the epic “Avengers: Endgame” https://youtu.be/4wVuueh3Vfk but after we discovered the person couldn’t make it, we decided to change the format of the show. Instead of Stephen’s Recommendation and my Jokes of the Week, Stephen and I each revealed our favorite movie of all time, regardless of genre.
First “Spider-Man: Far From Home”. https://youtu.be/Nt9L1jCKGnE
We both really, really liked this film. I gave it almost a perfect score and Stephen wasn’t far behind. I mean, what’s not to like? The F/X, like you’d expect from Marvel Studios, is exquisite. The cinematography is awe-inspiring as we hit Venice, Austrian Alps, Prague, London, and New York City. The cast is excellent. From titular Spider-Man/Peter Parker played by Tom Holland and Nick Fury played by Samuel L. Jackson to Mysterio by Jake Gyllenhaal and a fine supporting cast led by Zendaya, Jacob Batalon and Jon Favreau as Peter Parker’s love interest, Peter Parker’s best friend and Peter Parker’s assistant, respectively, the acting is topnotch. For details, watch our show on YouTube. The plot, like “Avengers: Endgame” begins slowly as it sets up the story lines and action that follow, but once the first elemental creature appears on screen, look out. It’s action and eye candy galore!
Our only issue with the plot is the thinly-disguised “Night Monkey” costume he uses in Europe. Other than the darker color, he still looks like Spider-Man and he acts (i.e. – shoots webs, swings around, etc.) like the arachnid-inspired superhero so that came off as kind of lame. Not a huge deal but still, it was a mark against the movie.
Now onto our favorite movies of all time! First Stephen Craig chose “Joe Versus the Volcano” https://youtu.be/cmQDIne3CLo.
It received mixed reviews from the critics. Among the film’s fans was Roger Ebert, who officially gave it 3.5/4.0 but later on publicly wondered why he didn’t give it a perfect 4.0. Stephen loved it so much because of the fabulous love story and the way the story worked on multiple levels. The main character symbolizes the average Joe, and hence his name Joe. In one scene the Tom Hanks-portrayed character has a defect in one of his shoes and declares “I’m trying to save my sole”, which also could apply to him trying to save his soul. There are metaphors for heaven as well.
Quotes from the movie that Stephen read:
#1: Patricia: My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.
#2: Joe Banks to Angelica Graynamore: Listen to me. If you have a choice between killing yourself and doing something you’re scared of doing, why not take the leap and do the thing you’re scared of doing?
And for my own favorite of all time, I give you “American Beauty”! https://youtu.be/3ycmmJ6rxA8
Correction: In the show I said the movie won two Oscars but it actually won five Oscars.
Again Roger Ebert surfaces in our movie-review world. He gave the film a 100 while writing for the Chicago Sun-Tribune as did two other major movie reviewers. It got an 86 on Metacritic. Perhaps the thing I like most about the movie is that it makes you think about really big, important, and interesting topics: 1) Nature of God; 2) Human beings’ connection to God; 3) Existence and nature of life after death; 4) Disparity between our outer and inner realities; 5) Truth: how can we find and remember it.
Kevin Spacey plays an unhappy, dysfunctional, 42-year-old man whose personal relationships and career leave him dead inside. At the beginning of the movie, he declares he will die within six months and that he doesn’t, at this point, know that, but in some ways he’s dead already. The movie is about showing not only how Lester ends up dying but also how he truly discovers how to be alive right up until he’s murdered.
My two quotes were:
1) Lester: You know those posters that say ‘today is the first day of the rest of your life’? Well that’s true for every day except one. The day you die.
2) Lester (right before he’s shot in the back of the head by the secretly gay next-door neighbor nicknamed The Colonel): I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn’t a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time… For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars… And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined our street… Or my grandmother’s hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper… And the first time I saw my cousin Tony’s brand new Firebird… And Janie… And Janie… And… Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.
In both movies there’s an undercurrent of magic running through the main character. In both films the director is straining to show the audience just what a truly amazing, astounding and awe-inspiring world we live in. The key is the individual must be be like the mythic hero figure and leave their old, boring, and unfulfilling life behind and be brave enough to embark on a dangerous but exciting journey into another world.
| Bill Moyers interviews author, editor and teacher Joseph Campbell on the PBS series, The Power of Myth. |
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Joseph Campbell
The Movie Review Show starring Stephen Craig and Lee Eide 