movie reviews, Volume 7 number 6, June 2005, © by Thela Clayton Video Dreamland June. Happy Solstice, everyone! Sometimes I save a film for when the pickings are limited. One of those films is in this review. Take my advice and tuck a special movie back to save for a night when you are really hungry for something excellent to watch. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers Geoffrey Rush delivers quite a punch in his portrayal of Sellers. You’ll be surprised to see the versatility of his acting, as he literally glides from one characterization to another in this film. Sellers’ career started in radio, moved to the stage, then advanced to the big screen. Finding success in his early comedy films, he starred in several flops before finding triumph in the movie Being There. The movie does gloss over his wild, drugged-out days of Hollywood and that is okay. Sellers’ creative mind comes by way of a troubled childhood that resulted in illusions of grandeur. The illusions he had at different points resulted in making him a creepy person to be around and only further alienated him in his work and personal life. This is especially shown in the scenes of Sophia Loren and him. It’s a fascinating story of a very talented man and one that carries a touch of sadness. If you are interested in a human story, I think you’ll enjoy this sensitive portrayal of a man some people have called a genius. One thing for sure, Rush’s talents will not go unnoticed by you. Suspect Zero, R So I watched this video and thought it was okay. When I went to write about it, I refreshed my memory by reading reviews on the Internet. Frankly, I was surprised to see the low grade reviewers gave it. Granted it was not the best thriller out there, but it didn’t deserve the slamming it got. This film is about remote viewing. We have two people who are intertwined as the messenger and the receiver. The receiver is an FBI agent (Aaron Eckhart) experiencing headaches while receiving written clues through the mail about a serial killer. Ben Kingsley is the one sending the messages and the killer of the first victim found. It seems we are hunting a serial killer and that person is Kingsley. I admit up front that the movie interested me, as I wanted to see how they would treat the subject of remote viewing. Remote viewing is a fascinating subject and I’m sorry the film was made in this manner to introduce the public to this concept. Only if someone watches the special feature on the DVD afterwards and sees an example of how it is done, will they even dip a toe into understanding what this film was trying to convey. Several very good books have been written about remote viewing and you need to know it follows a very precise protocol. To start any investigation of it, I recommend the books by Joe McMoneagle, who was the subject #1 in the army program or Russell Targ, who headed up the research at Stanford Research Institute. Yes, my friend, the government used this psi-ops method for a long time, over ten years, then announced one day it didn’t work and disbanded it. Too bad they couldn’t make a movie about the real story; for that you’ll just have to read a book. Want to learn about one of your hidden abilities? In Good Company, PG-13 There was something missing in this film, so I couldn’t give top value. I believe it is the lack of passion on Scarlett Johansson and Toper Grace’s part. If Dennis Quaid had not been in the movie, it would have flopped completely. This light, romantic drama is about a sports magazine being taken over by a mega media corporation. Dan Foreman (Quaid) is one of the major ad salesmen who bring in the cash the old-fashioned way through a soft sell approach. Toper Grace is the young executive craving a path straight to the upper management. Being the yes man of the corporation, he is put in charge of a department he has absolutely no experience in. Along the way he falls for Foreman’s daughter. This was an excellent story line that became a lame duck somewhere around halfway through. Toper’s character starts off strong and believable, and then he does this about turn and just fades into the woodwork. The chemistry of the little romance never gets off the ground. Since Quaid’s character remains strong, it would have been a better movie if more emphasis had been placed on him. It’s an okay movie for Saturday night if you want something low key and light. I wanted that, but the lack of substance left me feeling like I had been cheated. Hotel Rwanda, PG-13 This film is reviewed for the two or three people out there who will actually rent it and watch it some night. If you are holding back because you think you’ll have to look at bloody corpses and very violent scenes of machete hacking; you’ll be happy to know that is not the case. Yes, there are some scenes of people being beaten, but shown at a distance instead of close-up action work. The national media critics gave this film a B+ and said it was too long and they got tired of a weeping woman. They said it was too personal and didn’t really tell the story about the genocide in Rwanda. Not enough blood in it for them, I guess. One scene that delivers a gut punch is when Col. Oliver (Nick Nolte) looks at Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) and says, “The West is not coming to your aid. You are dirt; you are seen as nothing but dirt. You have nothing to offer them. You are black and African.” Of course, as I write this, there is genocide going on in Darfur, Sudan. Where is the help? It’s not there and it’s not coming. You might ask yourself if this is for the same reason. This is the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu, who housed over 1200 Tutsi in a hotel that was deserted by foreigners and left for him to manage alone. Dealing with foreign diplomats over the years, he knew how to grease palms and get what was needed. A very interesting note was that the machetes were purchased from China for 10 cents apiece. Now you know why every Hutu had one to kill their neighbors they had lived beside for fifty years. The film is a story about heroism and survival. It is the love story of Paul, who saved his Tutsi wife and children, as well as all the refugees who flooded the hotel. It gets personal, and Don Cheadle portrayed the man with such focus and intent, you have no choice but to feel his mental and emotional state as if it were your own. Last year, I saw a TV interview with Col. Oliver and I would say Nick Nolte did an excellent job capturing the anguish of this UN peacekeeper who had his hands tied in every manner possible. I believe this film was not made so much for entertainment purposes as it was to open hearts and minds to injustice in this world. It is a long film and I found myself feeling very antsy. This whole subject of Rwanda is still very disturbing to me, as I watch the different warlords in different regions of the world fighting to hold on to power. I also watched the bonus feature and saw the memorial to the 45,000 who were killed on a remote hilltop and buried in mass graves. The lye poured on the bodies preserved many and they are now placed in rooms where you can see how badly they were hacked to pieces. For those of you who saw the film The Killing Fields, this film will also move you to remember those not as fortunate as ourselves. Ray, PG-13 Yes, I’m happy to report that I saved the best for the last. This film was definitely academy award material and Jamie Foxx’s best actor Oscar was well deserved. It covers Ray Charles’s life from his sharecropper’s childhood in rural Georgia to 1965 when he recovers from drug addiction. Foxx’s portrayal of Charles is mesmerizing. Every actor and actress delivers strong and in-depth performances. The music, of course, is the second lead in this film and I found my heart skipping a beat while I listened to those sweet, sweet words once again. Watch it now or save it for a night when you want to see to see a film that will capture your attention and keep it. You’ll find yourself hitting the store the next day to buy the soundtrack or any number of Mr. Charles’s other recordings. Georgia On My Mind will forever remain one of the best songs ever written and you will say a thank you to Ray for taking a path that had never even been thought of and creating a musical genre that touches our very soul.
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