Huffington Post recently compiled a video of movie scenes with actor Christopher Walken dancing. The clip features scenes of Walken’s moves from more than fifty movies, all set to C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).” Movies featured in the montage include The Deer Hunter (1978), Batman Returns (1992), Wayne’s World 2 (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), Wedding Crashers (2005), Hairspray (2007), and A Late Quartet (2012). Seeing the large number of films that feature Walken’s moves, I wonder if some filmmakers hire him on that talent alone. Check it out.
Walken has not only danced in movies. With all of Walken’s great film work, he is also known for his footwork in the great video for Fatboy Slim‘s “Weapon of Choice.” If the new movie montage video has you craving more Walken dancing, here’s the Fatboy Slim video.
What is your favorite Christopher Walken dance? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon announced NBC’s new rule banning all dancing. Coincidentally, that night’s guest was Kevin Bacon, who pulled out his moves from his Footloose days to stand up against the network’s dancing ban.
Is he able to change peoples’ minds about the ban on dancing? You will have to check out the video to find out.
It is hard to believe that it has been three decades since Footloose opened in theaters in 1984. But the 55-year-old Keven Bacon shows he still has the moves (with a little help from a double). And he is a great sport here too.
What is your favorite Kevin Bacon movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.
There are a number of reasons to give the movie About Time (2013) a chance, despite its somewhat generic title. The film is written and directed by Richard Curtis, who wrote Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Notting Hill (1999), and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). While not everyone loves romantic comedies, About Time throws in a twist. In line with a trend previously examined on Chimesfreedom, the film incorporates a science fiction element where the science fiction element, with little or no special effects, is a mere co-star to help explore some interesting aspects of the human condition.
Near the start of the film, a father, played by the wonderful Bill Nighy, tells his 21-year-old son Tim, played by Domhnall Gleeson that the men in the family have an unexplained ability to travel back in time in their lives to change their own past. Before viewers can get too excited about the time-travel concept, though, the dad explains that it is limited to the person’s life, so they cannot go back and kill Hitler, etc. With that limitation in mind and other “rules” we later discover, the rest of the film follows Tim trying to live a good life with his unusual ability to help his family and friends, including the woman with whom he falls in love, Mary, played by Rachel McAdams. As a metaphor for real life, Tim uses his powers much as the way we use our own power to live in the present.
I will not ruin the movie by delving further into the plot (and if you are sure you are going to see the movie, skip the plot-revealing trailer below). But there are additional reasons to see the movie besides the clever writing and the interesting concept, which never comes close to overwhelming the real emotions of the characters. One reason the movie works is the engaging acting by Domhnall Gleeson. His occasional narration will remind viewers of similar narration by Hugh Grant in films like Love Actually and About a Boy (2002), with comparable phrasing and heartfelt insight. But, aside from the Hugh Grant similarities, Gleeson brings much more, adding some goofy humor from a man trying to figure out life. Gleeson, who lacks Grant’s leading-man looks, brings an everyman quality to the role. He interacts well with McAdams, but it may be his work with Nighy as his dad that provides the real heart of the movie. The movie features a fine supporting cast of other secondary characters that are well developed too.
Because of the sweetness of the film is connected to a supernatural element, one is tempted to say the movie is a combination of Love Actually and Groundhog Day (1993). The comparison may raise expectations too much, but you get the idea. Even if About Time does not live up to those movies on your first viewing, it is one that has a chance to grow in popularity with repeated viewings once it starts running on cable TV. After watching the movie for the first time on DVD, I immediately watched it again, which is something I rarely do. And I continued thinking about the movie for several days, a nice respite from the majority of films that vanish from thought ten minutes after they end.
In addition to the engaging characters, the concept of the film makes it re-watchable, as a viewer might analyze the logic of the film’s time-travel concept. Because of the number of questions that are raised by time travel that cannot be completely sorted out in a movie, I could not help thinking that About Time would make an interesting television series.
There were other questions that a TV series might explore more. For example, Tim is a lawyer in the movie. While the movie does not tell us much about his work, someone does make a comment implying Tim has won all of his cases. That off-hand comment makes the viewer wonder if Tim used his time travels in the workplace, which would raise a number of ethical and moral issues. But the movie does not have time to explore them. What the movie does with the time it has, though, is explore the meaning of time, making the viewers think about their own lives. And, even if About Time is not perfect, that experience is a lot more than one expects from most modern movies.
Conclusion? If you like romantic comedies and do not mind an unusual twist that may challenge you and make you think, then you should give About Time a chance. Maybe you will not like it, but then again, it might change your perspective on life.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?: About Time is a movie that seems destined to be loved by a lot of viewers while being scorned by a lot of critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives About Time a so-so rating of 69% from critics while the movie gets a respectable 82% audience rating. Stephanie Zacharek at The Village Voice hated the movie, calling it “mostly dreadful.” Meanwhile, Joel Arnold at NPR enjoyed the film, concluding that About Time “blends genre pleasures with efficient, thematically resonant storytelling and moreover gives its audience a call to action.” Finally, if you get the DVD, check out the deleted scene involving Abbey Road that Curtis was sad to leave out of the movie (no longer available on YouTube).
{Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}
What did you think of About Time? Leave your two cents in the comments.
It has been 34 years since Charlie Brown last appeared on movie theater screens, with 1980’s Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!). That drought will end next year on November 6, 2015, when Peanuts not only appears on the big screen but Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang will appear in 3D.
Peanuts creator Charles Schulz passed away in 2000, but one of his sons, Craig Schulz, is a producer of the new film and Craig’s son is one of the screenwriters. Craig Schulz assures everyone that the new film will preserve and respect his father’s legacy.
The plot is still a secret, but the movie will feature the beloved characters from the comic strip and TV specials, while revealing the famous “Little Red-Haired Girl.” The producers also promise that we will get to see Snoopy’s fantasy world in glorious 3D. Below is the teaser trailer for the upcoming film.
Who is your favorite Peanuts character? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On March 11, 1818, The Modern Prometheus was published, although the book is better known by the first part of its full title: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the 21-year-old author, is credited with creating a whole new type of novel, blending gothic horror with science fiction.
The Book
Shelley began writing the book in June 1816 while staying in Geneva with her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Their friend Lord Byron suggested they each compose a gothic ghost story. And Mary Shelley produced the classic we know today. Well, what we sort of know today.
I remember reading the book in high school and being surprised to discover that the book differed somewhat from the movies. In the book, the Monster’s creator Victor Frankenstein is tracking the Monster. But “the Monster” can speak intelligently instead of merely deliver grunts as the character does in the classic films.
There are many elements from the novel that do appear in the movies. For example, there is the Monster’s desire for a mate, and the story raises interesting ethical questions about the creation of life.
Few characters in a novel have inspired so many creations, from movies to TV characters to a cereal character, although many mistakenly call the monster “Frankenstein,” which is actually the last name of the scientist who created the creature.
1931’s “Frankenstein” Film
Actor Boris Karloff is most famous as the Monster, beginning with his portrayal in 1931’s Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. Karloff creates a sympathetic creature that is both scary and sympathetic in the way he is misunderstood.
The Frankenstein film had a dark sense of humor, but it also was a product of a director who lived through World War I. Different viewers find different parts more disturbing than others.
But part of the scene below was originally cut by censorship boards in some states. They found the Monster throwing the little girl in the water (and accidentally drowning her) as too disturbing.
1935’s “Bride of Frankenstein”
Many consider the 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein to be even better than the original. Again Whale directed the movie, which again starred Karloff as the Monster and Colin Clive as the Doctor.
Elsa Lanchester defined the role of the bride in a brief scene. But many forget that she also played the role of Mary Shelley in the movie.
Universal Studios played on the popularity of Frankenstein and its other monsters by putting them together in different movies in the 1940s. For example, there was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and various other films followed with mixed results. Some movies expanded on the subtle humor in the original films.
Funny Frankenstein
One of the most famous funny versions of the monster appeared in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Glenn Strange played the monster. The clip below from A Million Movies recounts “10 Things You Don’t Need to Know About Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.”
One of my favorite versions of the Frankenstein story remains the Mel Brooks’ interpretation, Young Frankenstein (1974). The Mel Brooks movie is a wonderful funny tribute to the original film and its sequel while still being a great comedy in its own right.
In Young Frankenstein, Peter Boyle played the monster while Gene Wilder played the young doctor. Below is this movie’s take on the blind man and cigar scene from Bride of Frankenstein above.
The Frankenstein humor was taken to a surreal extreme in The Munsters. In that TV series, the monster character was imagined as a father in a sitcom setting.
The Munsters originally ran on CBS on Thursday evenings from 1964 to 1966. In the clip below, Herman Munster tries out for the Dodgers.
Modern Frankenstein
In 1994, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. That film tried to be true to novel’s plot while modernizing the scariness. The movie also starred Robert De Niro (as the monster) and Helena Bonham Carter.
Branagh’s movie, however, was a disappointment at the box office. I saw Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the theater and enjoyed it for what it was. But it did not come close to the classic original films. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 40% critics score and a 50% audience score.
Another 1990’s take on the story with mixed reviews was Frankenstein Unbound. The 1990 film that combined science fiction and horror elements was directed by Roger Corman. The movie features a scientist from the future, played by John Hurt, going back to the 1800s and encountering Mary Shelly and the characters from her most famous novel. (Thanks to Tony Fontane for reminding me about Frankenstein Unbound.)
Even though it is almost two centuries since the story was written, there will continue to be new versions of the Gothic tale. Many more folks today know the story of Frankenstein than know the Greek myth of Prometheus, who supplied the subtitle to Mary Shelley’s monster book (and a poem by her friend Lord Byron).
The Titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. Because of this rebellious act, Zeus punished Prometheus by binding him to a rock, where every day an eagle would return to eat his liver, which would then grow back for the next day’s torture. Like Prometheus, Dr. Frankenstein stole something from the gods — the ability to create life — and because of that, he was a tortured soul.
Most recently, Paul McGuigan directed a new version of Frankenstein called Victor Frankenstein (2015). The movie considers the story from the viewpoint of the assistant Igor, played by Daniel Radcliffe. The film also stars James McAvoy as Dr. Frankenstein. The movie received poor reviews, but I am certain it will not be the last retelling of the story that Mary Shelley published in 1818.
What is your favorite version of Frankenstein? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Photo of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein in Bride of Frankensteinvia public domain.
.jpg){kind=link}