Movie Review: ***Men In Black (1997)

 Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith star as the Men in Black, a team of super secret agents who fight crime amongst aliens who come to our planet from other worlds.  The bad thing is there is a bug who has come to find the galaxy which is on Orion's belt.  Turns out Orion is a cat, and the belt is his colar.  World's will kill for the galaxy.  This is a comedy action movie which has a very good premise; and who knows who might actually be an alien.  I enjoyed it.  Linda Fiorentino stars as a morgue doctor and future recruit.  Rip Torn stars as the boss.  Vincent D'onofrio stars as the bug.  Bugs are killing machines.  

Opera Review: Blue Beard's Castle.

My grand daughter and I saw the opera at the Holland Center.  Blue Beard's Castle was written by Béla Bartók with the libretto by Béla Balász, with just two singers, and the Bard who introduced the opera.  Is the story without or within?   The original was written in Hungarian.  This is probably what they were singing, or German.  The words showed up above the singers in English as they sang.  Ryan McKinney sang baritone the Duke and Michelle DeYoung soprano the wife.  Her hair reminded my of the character the Bride of Frankenstein.  The orchestra was conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya.  The light projections were provided by David Murakami.  This is a collaboration with Opera Omaha.

What a story.  The story is very macabre.  The couple, Blue Beard and Judith elope and he brings her home for the first time.  The castle is dark.  She insists on opening the house to let in more light.  She opens one room at a time.  The first is the dungeon and torture room.  You see this through the use of lighting.  Then you see the instruments of torture are covered with blood.  The second room is the armory with many weapons.  Again they are covered with blood (shown by dripping blood on the screen and red light.)  The third room is the treasury with gold and jewels.  Then again the blood.  The fourth room is the garden.  The projectionists showed this in black and white, then also going to blood.  The house is becoming lighter, but the new wife insists on opening all the doors.  The husband keeps asking her not to open them all.  

The fifth door is the husbands many kingdoms.  In this case the lights are on the audience, looking far off because his lands and kingdoms are vast.  But again everything turns red.  The sixth door is water, which are actually tears.  Then we come to the seventh door.  The husband says don't open it.  It is the room with all the former wives.  Did he kill his former lives or are they living in the room.  The husband sings of the morning, noontime and evening wives.  She is the night time wife he met at 12 a.m.  The opera ends with  darkness taking over.  

The story has me thinking.  Is the story without or within?  I think it is both.  It is without, but we interpret the story within and each come to our individual conclusions.  The lighting was  ery eerie.  As thins got darker they but a light on the conductor and her shadow flashed upon the wall.  It was. very effective.

The venue did not allow pictures, so I stole a couple from Facebook from the Omaha Symphony.

singers

conductor

Music Review: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sings Hymns of Faith

 The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sings Hymns of Faith, Bonneville Communications, 1991

This is a very nice collection of songs for a Sunday, or just a spiritual lift.  It includes gospel favorites as well as LDS favorites.  "How Great Thou Art" is very well done.  As are "The Lord Is my Shepherd," "Abide with Me" and "Abide with Me; "Tis Eventide."  Those represent some of my favorites.  However on the LDS side of music this includes more of my favorites, "Come, Come Ye Saints," "The Morning Breaks," "The Spirit of God" and "Come, Come Ye Saints." Also the popular words written by Bruce R. McConkie and set to music by John Longhurst, "I Believe in Christ."  This is great Sabbath music.

Sandra Bullock Movie Review: ****Miss Congeniality (2000)

This is a very funny movie with enough action to keep it very interesting.  Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is an FBI agent who goes undercover at the Miss USA pageant as a bomb threat has been made.  Her partner is running the operation, agent Matthews (Benjamin Bratt). Victor Melling (Michael Caine) is brought in to make Gracie seem plausible as a contestant.  The pageant hosts are Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen) and Stan Fields (William Shatner).   Miss Rhode Island (Heather Burns) plays prominently as Gracie's friend and is very funny.  What would be your ideal date?  "April 25th because its not too cold and not too hot."  That really cracks me up.  I like the personalities of the characters.  Bullock is very fun, as are the contestants.  I very much recommend this movie.  The fight over the crown at the end is pretty funny as well.

Sandra Bullock Movies

Sandra Bullock has been in movies for sometime.  I really enjoy seeing her in the movies.  This list contains her movies that are not rated "R".  Some years she was in three or four movies, a testament to her maketability as an actress and the characters she builds.  

Love Potion #9 (1992)

The Thing Called Love (1993)

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)

Speed (1994)

**** The Net (1995) When your identiy is stolen by the internet

**** While You were Sleeping. (1995). Love story

Love and War (1996)

Speed 2 (1997)

 ***^ Hope Floats (1998)

**** Pratical Magic (1998). A good Halloween movie about siblings who are witches

The Prince of Egypt (1998). Animated story of Moses

Forces of Nature (1999)

28 Days (2000)

**** The Lakehouse (2000) Love story with Keanu Reeves and a time shift of two years, and a dog.

**** Miss Congeniality (2000)

Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000)

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood (2002)

2 Weeks Notice (2002)

Miss Congeniality 2 (2005)

Premonition (2007)

The Proposal (2009)

All About Steve (2009)

***^ Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011). 9/11 movie

Gravity (2013)

Aningaaq (2013)

****^ The Blind Side (2014) Very good football movie

*^ Minions (2015) Animated feature I didn't care for

*** Bird in a Cage (2018). Netflix scifi movie

Oceans's 8 (2018)

The Lost City (2022)

Movie Review: National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (2007)

 The gang is back with another adventure, but this time they also have to disprove that their ancestor was involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  So Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) involves his ex (Diane Kruger), his parents (Jon Voight and Helen Mirren) and his partner (Justin Bartha).  Their rival (Ed Harris) is using the groups knowledge to get what he wants.  The clues lead them to Europe, France and London, and then back to the White House.  It even leads to their kidnapping the president to get to the book; the book of government secrets passed down from president to president.  There are two people going for this treasure, the big lost city of gold.  They get there at the same time.  They eventually find it under Mount Rushmore.  

Fun ride.  

In Theaters: **** Project Hail Mary (2026)

This movie is based on the book of the same name.  The book was written by Andy Weir.  It is about a high school science teacher (Ryan Gosling) who is sent to space.  He is the only survivor of the three man crew.  His sleep condition has caused amnesia, but he is much further into space than he realizes on a desperate journey to see if they can figure out why the sun is dying and how to fix it.  

The movie starts very cerebral, and I felt very slow.  However when he meets an alien things pick up greatly.  This is Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz).  Turns out the movie is more about the relationship between the teacher and the alien than it is about the sun.  Sandra Hüller plays the project leader who forced the school teacher to go on the journey.

Very intriguing plot after it got going.  The theme of living with others who are different was also very good.  There is an interesting twist in the end which I won't give away.