Music Review: Half Nelson: Willie Nelson

Half Nelson: Willie Nelson, Columbia, 1985.

This Music C.D. gives us ten duets, some Willie Nelson songs and some songs of others but Nelson is always part of the duet.  We have: "Poncho and Lefty" with Merle Haggard, "Slow Movin' Outlaw" Lacy J. Dalton, "Are There Any More Real Cowboys" Neil Young, "I Told a Lie to My Heart" Hank Williams, "Texas on a Saturday Night" Mel Tillis, "Seven Spanish Angels" Ray Charles, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" Julio Iglesias, They All Went to Mexico" Carlos Santana, "Honky Tonk Women" Leon Russell and "Half a Man" with George Jones.  Of these songs the one I preferred because it is most familiar is "To All the Girls I've Loved Before."  I also really like "Texas on a Saturday Night."  It really seemed like a party and everyone is having fun.  

At the Movies: **** The End of Oak Street (2026)

 A very exciting movie and a bit too graphic a couple of times.  A suburban dinosaur romp, with the dinosaurs winning for the most part.   Denise and Greg Platt (Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor) and their kids Audrey and Brian (Maisy Stella and Christian Convery wake up one morning and their neighborhood is infested with dinosaurs.  Denise and Gregg were having their problems with communication, but an event like this will solve that.  They see friends and neighbors eaten or killed and left for later.  They pick up another party in their struggle, Jeannette (Jordan Alexa Davis).  Her parents did not make it.

Plenty of tension and action.  The dinosaurs are having a hey-day.  But the dog manages to survive. Even though they had to throw in an "F" word towards the end people clapped for this movie.  I enjoyed the philosophical and theological questions brought up during the movie.  Do you believe in God?  Is this the end?  And discussion of pessimism vs optimism.  

Movie Review: ***^ Æon Flux (2005)

Æon Flux is a futuristic world that is not going perfectly.  Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas) and his brother, Oren Goodchild (Jonny Lee Miller).  Æon Flux (Charlize Theron) is assigned to kill him.  She is joined by Sithandra (Sophie Okonedo).  They get to where they can kill him, but then Æon recognizes him from her somewhere.  Sophie is highly motivated for the rebellion because her sister was murdered.  But now she is in a quandry trying to figure out what is going on.  

She discovers that the world is based on clones.  However this is her first cloning, while others have been cloned seven or eight times.  The clone master (Pete Postlethwaite) was told to destroy her DNA but instead he saved it for the right time.  The reason for cloning is there was an illness which prevented people from having babies.  Cloning was the only way to keep going.  

Turns out that people have been getting pregnant.  Oren has been wanting to keep the old ways so he has been killing those who get pregnant, including the sister.  Of course there is a big battle, actually starts with three sides, Æon's handlers want to kill her, and the brother wants to kill Trevor.  We are relieved to know things will work out if they are left alone.  

Music Review: Sarah Brightman and the London Symphony Orchestra: Time to Say Goodbye

 Sarah Brightman and the London Symphony Orchestra: Time to Say Goodbye, Angel Records, 1997.  Sarah Brightman has a beautiful high soprano voice.  Most of this CD is sung in Spanish some in Italian and some Latin and a few in English.  It is all enjoyable.  She sings the titular song with Andrea Bocelli.  It is a classic.  It is mostly in Italian with a bit of English thrown in.  She sings "Just Show Me How to Love You" and "There for Me" with José Cura.  Even though I could not make out every word, it was all beautiful.  I really like the last two numbers, "O Mio Bambino Caro" and "Alleluja."  "Naturaleza Muerta" is about the sea takijng a man because it is jealous of him, and his girl waits for him and turns to stone.  

In Theaters: ****^ Brink of War (2026)

 President Reagan (Jeff Daniels) and Mikhail Gorbachev (Jared Harris) meet in Iceland to discuss nuclear arms.  Secretary of State George Schultz (J.K. Simmons) is with him.  At one point they agree to total disarmament, but it all falls apart over the Strategic Defense Initiative.  Gorbachev has his wife (Branka Katic) there, but Nancy Reagan (Hope Davis) is home working on hospitals for children.  Reagan talks to her daily.  There are also two reporters, Cleo and Alexander (Aya Cash and Guy Burnet).  They mostly cover Gorbachev's wife as the negotiations are behind closed doors.  They do get a picture of a hand shake at the end.  So the talks on nuclear weapons fall apart, but they do negotiate the sister of a music conductor getting to see his sister as the president agrees she will be sent back.  With that small crack, the Soviet Union crumbles in just three years, the iron curtain falls, and today there are ten percent of the nuclear arms in the world there were at the time of the meeting in Reykjavik.  Reagan explains to Schultz the meeting was not for nuclear arms, but for the Soviets to see you can't just keep people locked up and be right.  

I really enjoyed this movie.  The negotiating was very intense.  Daniels portrayed Reagan with continued issues with his having been shot.  This included arm immobility and tremors as well as bad dreams.  There are also some lovely views of Iceland, tall water falls, the ocean and snowy mountains.

Music Review: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., The Fabulous Ratpack disc 2

 Disc 2 has 20 songs, eight by Frank Sinatra, eights by Dean Martin and four by Sammy Davis Jr.  Many of the songs are taken from popular musicals like "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Some Enchanted Evening" and "People Will Say We're in Love."  Some are covers of popular pop songs, "Baby Its Cold Outside," "I Only Have eyes for You," "Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," "Candy Kisses," "What I've Got in Mind," "You Won't Be Satisfied Until you Break my Heart" and many others.  These three are very good crooners and the each put their own personal touch on songs.  So together the C.D. is very nice.  In addition to musicals and pop there is jazz and big band songs.  

Ewan McGregor Movie: ****^ Big Fish (2003)

 The Big Fish is fantasy, or is it?  It is a good story about tall tales and what is truth and what is not.  Ed Bloom (Perry Walston age 10, Ewan McGregor young, Albert Finney old) has quite a history.  And he tells it over and over.  His son, Will (Billy Crudup) does not believe most of what he says and is frustrated with the telling.  He talks of meeting a giant, Karl (Matthew McGrory) when he leaves town, of wandering into a town which is off the map and includes a poet, Norther Winslow (Steve Byscemi) and a witch, Jenny (Helena Bonham Carter older and younger, Hailey Anne Nelson age 8), of being forced to work for a circus to get information about the girl he saw and loves.  The ringmaster is Amos (Danny DeVito).  When he finally gets information about his love, Sandra (Jessica Lange older, Alison Lohman younger) is already engaged.  Her intended, Don Price (David Denman) beats him up, but because he told her Sandra he would not fight back, he takes the beating.  Sandra decides Price is not the guy for her, and waits for Ed to heal to marry him.  He has been drafted an goes to war.  He tells of meeting Siamese twins, Ping and Jing (Ada and Arlene Tai) and they agree to help him escape from North Korea for fame.  They become part of the circus.  Ed becomes a traveling salesman and is away from home alot.  Will decides to check out his father's stories.  He goes to the town of Spectre and meets Jenny who explains how Ed saved the town.  It was in decay and for sell and Ed bought it and restored it.  Ed was not unfaithful to his wife.  

Ed has a stroke and is in the hospital.  Will visits him.  He is beginning to understand a bit better by his father's story telling.  He tells his father of a story of their escape, and gong to the river where when he is put in the river he becomes a big catfish.  Ed no knows his son understands and passes away.  At the funeral the people from the stories attend.  They were not as grandiose as in the stories, but they were real.  

This is a delightful story about imagination and love.