At the Movies: ****^Wicked: For Good (2025)

 Family night at the movies last Tuesday.  We took the entire row with all of us.  This movie is Act II of the Wicked musical.  The music and acting are great.  I had forgotten that NessaRose (Marissa Bode) was considered a wicked which.  She is Elphaba's (Cynthia Erivo) sister.  The public relations boss Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) has labeled Elphaba the Wicked Witch.  Meanwhile Glinda (Ariana Grande) is labeled the good witch.  Then there are the men.  Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is Captain of the guard.  He loves Elphaba but cannot find her.  He is to arrest her for wicked deeds with regards to animal rights.  Boq (Ethan Slater) loves Glinda; but Nessarose loves him.  Nessarose casts a spell on him so he will love her, but it goes wrong and shrinks his heart.  To save him Elphaba turns him into a tin man.  At the wedding of Glinda and Fiyero, Elphaba frees all the animals the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) has in cages.  It destroys the wedding, but Fiyero discovers where Elphaba is living and puts her in a castle.   Madame Morrible causes a tornado which brings Dorothy's house to land on Nessarose.  When they are to arrest Elphaba, Fiyero saves her, but the guards turn on Fiyero and beat him up.  Elphaba changes him to a scarecrow so he will not feel pain.  Dorothy, the cowardly lion, the Tin Man and Scarecrow are tasked by the Wizard to kill the Wicked Witch.  They seem to do this, but instead the Scarecrow and Elphaba are seen crossing the desert out of Oz.  Of course Glinda and Elphaba meet before Dorothy throws water on elphaba, and sing of their undying relationship, "For Good."  This is the showstopper song and it is great to hear it.  

We really enjoyed this movie.  It is not the best movie I have ever seen, but it is good.

Christmas Music Review: Christmas with Julie Andrews

 Christmas with Julie Andrews, CBS Inc, 1982.

Julie Andrews is a tresure, and she is in this CD album.  Her voice is beutiful and she sings the high notes so clearly.  This CD features Oh Come All Ye Faithful, In the Bleak Midwinter, What Child is This?, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Away in a Manger, I Wonder as I Wander and Silent Night among others.  I really like the instrujental flute and harp on What Child is This?  This has long been one of my favorite songs since it was included in Krueger's Christmas.  

CD Music Review: Gordon Lightfoot: Gord's Gold

Gordon Lightfoot" Gord's Gold, produced by Lenny Waronker and Joe Wissert, Warner Brothers, 1975.

This album includes many of Gordon Lightfoot's favorites, and his distinctive sound and voice.  I enjoy the Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Early Morning Rain, Sundown, Beautiful, Rainy Day People, If You Could Read My Mind and Carefree Highway.  In If You Could Read My Mind he is longing for something that he has lost in his relationship, "I don't know where we went wrong but the feelings gone and I just can't get it back."  Lightfoot has a very distinctive voice and this CD brings bak memories of listening to the radio when I was young.

Christmas Music Review: Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration

 Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration,  Chloë Agnew, Órla Fallon, Lisa Kelly, and Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, with violinist Máiréad Nesbitt.  David Downes producer and arranger.  Manhattan Records, 2006.

For the past 20 years no one has made music like Celtic Woman.  This is an early Christmas album, in fact their second album.  Their combination of Celtic themes with traditional hymns is magnificent.  On this album their are 15 songs, inluding: O Holy Night, Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Let it Snow and many more favorites.  I enjoyed this album very much.

Christmas Movie Review: ***^ Jingle all the Way

 This is a Christmas story of a different type.  It shows the commercialism around Christmas very well, as people fight for the perfect toy, an action figure, Turbo Man.  Most particularly Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Myran Larabee (Sinbad) are after the toy on Christmas Eve, which has long been sold out.  They fight and trick each other, and go to the radio station and look for the toy.  In the end, Langston ends up in a Turbo Man costume for the parade, and Larabee steals the Dementor (Turbo Man's enemy) costume and they face off over the toy.  This includes Larabee grabbing Langston's son, Jamie (Jake Lloyd).  Cameos to Robert Wagner as the police officer who keeps crossing paths with Langston and James Belushi as a store Santa Claus running a con game..  Langston must also contend with the divorced neighbor, Ted Maltin (Phil Hartman) who keeps hitting on his wife.

It has it funny parts, but sometimes the fighting is just over the top.  

DC Movie Review: *** The Flash (2023)

 Lots of action but the time line, multiverse thing is very confusing.  The Flash (Ezra Miller) goes back in time to save his mother.  He does so by changing something insignificant.  However he gets pushed out of his own timeline, and meets himself at a younger age.  And based on the changes he made, his mother is living, but the world is changed.  The superheroes are different.  We get Batman (Michael Keaton instead of George Clooney).  We do not have a Superman, but they rescue Supergirl (Sasha Calle).  They stand against someone from Krypton, General Zod (Michael Shannon),  come to conquer the world.  It isn't until The Flash realizes that things are hopeless.  He needs to go back and change what he changed to put things right. 

There were a cameos by Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Batman (George Clooney).  

This movie has its action, and it is so good to see Michael Keaton back in the Batman role.  However the plot is confusing with the different times or universes or whatever.  

DC Animated Movie Review: *** Superman: Doomsday (2007)

 In this Superman (Adam Baldwin) dies, a lot of times.  He faces a being from Krypton, made as a super warrior.  In killing the creature he too dies.  But that is not the end.  Lex Luthor (James Marsters) wanted to kill Superman and he feels cheated.  So Superman is restored by Lex Luthor who then kills him with red sun and kryptonite.  In the meantime  Luthor clones Superman.  The new Superman is not the same however.  He does not have qualms about killing others in keeping Gotham safe.  Luthor mentions he has a fail safe, so the new Superman finds the lead line Kryptonite ball in his head, and removes it.  In the meantime Superman does come back to life as his body heals itself.  He goes to face the cloned Superman before he is fully healed.  The cloned Superman destroys all the other clones Luthor has made, and leaves Luthor under a pile of rubble.  It is only with Lois Lane's (Anne Heche) help that he is able to bring done the cloned Superman.