Jun 20, 2011
I had a fabulous email from a fan and listener who REALLY gets Harry Potter in a way that I just don’t. So please, allow me the honor of having HER tell you why she and her children are die-hard fans. So without further adieu….Tami Tabone from the Ithaca area of New York: Dear Screen Queen, I listen to Brian & Jen’s show every morning on my commute to work and of course catch your segment on Thursdays. I am 44 years young and have two children of my own. I became a fan by reading the books to my son when he was in third grade (he is now a senior). He didn’t enjoy reading at the time, but he and I got hooked and he became an avid reader because of it. The movies just brought the stories more vividly to life. The actors are beautiful and for the couple of hours that I sit in front of the screen, I am whisked away on a majykal adventure. I forget my problems and I am a Hogwarts student. It is great to feel myself off on an adventure–a warrior child fighting to uphold honor and justice. The majyk just makes it more appealing–since of course the kind of majyk in HP does not exist in the muggle world. Rowlings not only gave my son motivation to read, but she inspired me to write my own book which was published in 2007. I was enthralled with Dan Radcliffe and have seen all his movies and I also saw him both in London and on Broadway in Equus. My daughter and I are going to see him on Broadway in How To Succeed in Business. I also quite enjoy Emma Watson–my son would love to attend Brown University! LOL!! Anyway, we were just so excited about the movie and went to the matinee today and I didn’t want the movie to end. My daughter was so mad that it ended in a cliffhanger–she’s eleven. It was a great movie and we’ll be buying it on DVD when it comes out.
Jun 20, 2011
(Rated PG-13, 161 mins.)
The second of the planned seven movies from J K Rowlings’s popular series, is again true to the book. This time however, director Chris Columbus has gone darker and edgier with a touch more sophistication, having nailed down his niche for round two. Trio of stars, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine (Emma Watson) seem more sure of themselves than the first installment. Most of the cast from Philosopher’s Stone have returned, including the late Richard Harris as the wise headmaster Professor Dumbledore, Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall and Alan Rickman as the unpleasant potions master, Professor Snape. But this time there is a new addition in Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart, a narcissistic yet comical Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unlike the original Potter, this doesn’t spend the time setting up the story since the audience gets it. Instead it jumps headlong from Harry’s home to the adventures of Hogwarts with even more wizardry and surprises.
Jun 20, 2011
(rated PG -13, 106 mins)
Based on Daniel Coyle’s 1993 memoir of coaching Little League baseball in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project, comes the story of a desperate gambler Conor O’Neill (Keanu Reeves), who agrees not by choice, to step up to the plate when he owes money. The deal is orchestrated as such that as long as he coaches a little league team, the loan shark will stay at bay. While coaching should change the children’s lives, somehow it has a miraculous effect on him. The story provides spiritual double duty as Conor finds his redeeming qualities, discovering that money isn’t everything, while the kids learn there is more to life than drugs and guns. Diane Lane portrays a tough-cookie schoolteacher who recognizes the potential in the union of the kids and coach. Director Brian Robbins (off his sports hit “Varsity Blues”) does a smart thing with shying away from the typical white boy saves the ghetto approach. Instead, Conor has his own set of issues that will keep adults interested in the story as well as sell a teen audience with its rough edge. Reeves shows the same spine displayed in “Feeling Minnesota” and “The Devil’s Advocate”. The movies largest flaw will come from its misleading PG-13 rating originally slated for an R, in which the title somehow seems to direct itself to the language coming out of the kid’s mouths on the mound.
Jun 20, 2011
(rated G, 85 mins)
Nominated for two Academy Awards and featuring the Beatles in their film debut. The year is 1964 and four young lads from Liverpool are about to change the world – if only the madcap world will let them out of their hotel room. The film follows “a day in the life” of John, Paul, and Ringo as fame takes them by storm. On their way from Liverpool to a London television stage, they must evade a teenage mob, outwit a press conference, answer fan mail and give one of their trademark, faint-introducing performances. While the year 2000 finds us in sophisticated sci-fi and special effect type flicks, this one manages to maintain its quick, witty and charming approach to being a classic.
Jun 20, 2011
sell. Especially when they’re unexpected, so this latest ensemble dra-medy teaches us. Lisa Kudrow sheds her “Phoebe” sitcom style and loses her blonde hair, to pose as a confused, suburban brunette, living in a world full of past secrets. A twisted independent version of “Love Actually” meets this year’s “Crash” the story is told in vignettes about a group of people whose paths will eventually cross because life is unpredictable. Short of any clichés and gimmicks the movie weaves in and out of the issues of a huge ensemble cast, mainly newcomers but some familiar stars – Laura Dern (a lesbian), Tom Arnold (a lonely widow), Jason Ritter (his gay son) and Maggie Gyllenhaall (pure band-singer trouble), who steals the plot with her usual cucumber cool sexiness. Like these characters, we all have secrets – a history, some of which we’d prefer to forget. This movie forces us to evaluate our mistakes, move to the future and find our own happy endings, by embracing what we’re made of. Because this happy ending has an “all’s well that ends swell” kind of feel, it’s one of the year’s best.
