Movie Review: ***^ Transformers (2007) with Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf

 Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is into his great grandfather's history.  He purchased an old pair of glasses on Ebay which appear broken.  But the are special.  He purchases a car with his dad (Kevin Dunn).  An old Camaro picks them.  This is no regular car.  It has been sent to protect him.  He uses the car to meet a girl, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox).  She gets drawn into his adventures.  At the same time strange things are happening.  The Decepticons are on the move, and have accessed U.S. computer data at a couple points.  They are looking for the Allspark cube.  This cube makes inanimate objects come to life.  On the other side the Autobots are trying to keep them from finding the cube.  The key is the glasses on which has been implanted a map to the cube.  The special government agency invade the home of the Witwicky family.  They are all taken prisoner, including Sam, Micaela, father and mother (Julie White).  Agent Simmons (John Turturro) is in charge.  The are set up inside of Hoover Dam where they have the Allspark and Megatron (voice Hugo Weaving), leader of the Decepticons.  

 Secretary of Defense (Jon Voight) is using any resource he can to figure out what is happening and how to combat it.  This includes computer geeks, Maggie and Glen (Rachael Taylor and Anthony Anderson).  And soldiers on the ground who have battled the Decepticons, Captain Lennox and Sergeant Epps (Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson).

Of course Megatron gets free, and they must hide the Allspark because Megatron will use it to change the entire world to Decepticons; the end of humans.  This leads to a major bettle in town as they try to hide the cube and keep it from the decepticons.  The Autobots fight to prevent this, including their leader Optimus Prime (voice Peter Cullen).  Sam ends up with the cube at one point with a promise to push it into Optimus Prime's heart if they are about to lose.  This would destroy it as well as Megatron.  However Sam shoves it into directly into Megatron's heart.  This ends Megatron and the Allspark (except a sliver).

Lots of action and explosions.  I have always thought Transformers are too loud and I am still of that opinion.  

Music Review: Chicago: Night and Day: Big Band (1996)

 Chicago: Night and Day: Big Band, Chicago Records, 1996.

This is Chicago in a different light.  They participated in a TV special for Duke Ellington, and the idea for a big band album was thus hatched.  They in fact sing three Ellington songs on the CD.  Other composers include Glen Miller, Cole Porter, Joe Garland and Fabian André.  I enjoyed all the songs except for the last "Take the 'A' Train."  This song descended into chaos.  However "Dream a Little Dream," "In the Mood," :Sing, Sing Sing," and "Night and Day" are all very nice.  Chicago having many parts easily covers the big band feel.  Regular Chicago members Robert Lamm, Jacob Scheff and Bill Champlin provide the vocals.  This album has many instrumental sections like most of their music.

***The Last Airbender (2010)

 The Last Air Bender (Noah Ringer) can use all four powers, air, fire, earth and wind.  He must learn how to use them efficiently before the fire power destroys all the other peoples.  They plan to do so by killing the sacred Moon Spirit.  Commander Zhao (Aasif Mandvi) is able to accomplish this.  Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) sacrifices her life to restore the Moon Spirit.  Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), who spent most of the show trying to capture Ang, grows and shifts and joins forces with Ang to defeat his father (Cliff Curtis) and the fire people.  Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toob) finally gets through to him.  Katara (Nicola Peltz Beckham) is a water bender and also works with Ang to defeat the fire people.  Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) does not bend, and relies on his intellect to also be helpful.  In the end they are able to repel the fire fleet as Ang takes on the full power of the Avatar.

Movie is directed by M. Night Shyamalan.  It is mildly entertaining.

Tom Hanks Movie: *****Forrest Gump

 The classic movie for which Tom Hanks won the best actor Oscar.  This was his second such win.  The movie also won best picture and Joe Zemeckis best director.  Gary Sinise was nominated for best supporting actor.  The story takes lace on the bus bench as Forrest tells his story.

Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) has some intellectual issues in that his IQ is below 80, the cut off for regular school.  However his mother (Sally Fields) advocates for him and he goes to school.  Forrest has issues with his legs, but he out grows this and is actually very good at running.  He has to run away from the boys who bully him, and with the encouragement of Jenny (Robin Wright).  His running ability gets him through high school and college playing football and an All American.  He meets President Kennedy with the other All Americans. 

  He joins the military after college and goes to Viet Nam were he mets Lieutenant dan (Gary Sinise) and his friend Bubba (Mykelti Williamson).  Their unit is attacked, and Forrest runs away.  However he comes back and one by one takes the other soldiers and runs out with them.  This includes Lieutenant dan who wants to die like his ancestors.  He survives but loses his legs.  He does also find Bubba but Bubba does not survive.  He agrees to do shrimp fishing for Bubba.  Forrest was hit in the buttocks and lands in the hospital.  There he learns ping pong.  He is awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts, which he receives from President Johnson.

He is so good at ping pong he is part of the tour to China.  Completing his tour playing ping pong he again sees the resident, this time Nixon.  However at the hotel he complains of lights in the room across the way--Watergate.  He is also finagled into talking at an anti-war rally, and there he runs into Jenny again.  She is hanging with the wrong crowd, and her boyfriend treats her poorly.  She is with the Black Panthers.  

Forrest Gump then tries shrimp fishing.  He had money from a ping pong endorsement.  Lieutenant Dan joins him, and some how they make out good.  They invest the money in a fruit business Apple, and are set for life.  They even share with Bubba's mother.

At some point Bubba's mother dies, and Jenny comes to him.  They make love, but she doesn't want to marry.  Forrest goes on a run, and keeps running.  He is inspiration for happy face and for "shit happens."  One day he is done running and goes home.  He cares for the lawn at the school.  He has been waiting at the bus stop for Jenny and realizes she is not far away so he runs to meet her, and his son (Haley Joe Osment).  Jenny is sick.  They marry and have almost a year before she passes away.  

There is a feather at the end, indicated the haphazard nature of life.  "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get."

Sandra Bullock Movie: ***^ The Lost City (2022)

 Definitely not my favorite Sandra Bullock movie.  When the hero gets his head blown off, it made me sick enough to not like the movie.  They didn't show the gory details, but showed enough, and they talked of brain matter; pretty gross.  Another gross thing in this movie is leaches.  Nobody likes leaches.  

Loretta (Sandra Bullock) is a romance novelist.  She writes of romance in the jungle and the ancient City of D.  Alan (Channing Tatum) poses as the male lead in her novels.  Loretta thinks he is very shallow.  Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire, Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe).  He is in pursuit of the City of D and feels Loretta can help him find it.  Loretta does have some history with interpreting lost texts.  

When it is known she has been kidnapped, Loretta's manager (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) organizes a rescue.  Alan comes along, but more importantly he recruits a super hero type mercenary, Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt).  He is able to rescue Loretta with Alan tagging along.  However this is when Trainer gets killed.  Loretta and Alan are left together the fend there way against dangerous criminals in the jungle.  Loretta stole a piece of parchment she was to translate for Fairfax.  She also hear's a local folk song talking of the legend, and they decide to find the treasure.  

They succeed, but Fairchild is close behind.  They are trapped by Fairchild and left to die in a coffin.  Turns out the treasure was the love of two people.  So the real treasure is love, but will this be enough to save Alan and Loretta.  They do have an ace in their pocket.  Loretta's manager is coming to the rescue, with Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) a new boyfriend helping.  

Spanish Music Review: RosalÍa: EL MAL QUERER

 Rosalía is from Spain.  Her music has many influences, including Tango.  She tries many different music styles which do not always work.  Her singing is very atypical.  In "Que no Salga la Luna" she almost sounds Arabic.  It does have a Flamenco rhythm.  One of the songs is called Bagdad.  It is very hard to follow because she does lots of ohohoh and ayayay runs.  This is her second of four albums.  You could say that Rosalía started a new Flamenco style of music.  All of the songs were written by Rosalía with cowriters on most.  C. Tangana a rap singer and her boyfriend ag the time was credited with being a co writer on nine of the eleven songs.  Another rapper El Guincho is credited credited on all eleven songs.  In the end we have a combination of rap, new Flamenco, pop, tango and religious chanting on this album.  Sometimes it is effective but other songs less so.  

James Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock Movie: Vertigo

 John Ferguson was traumatized by a police case where he almost fell off a building, and another officer did fall.  He now has fear of heights and vertigo which forced him to retire early from the police force.  A friend, Galvin Elster (Tom Helmore) contacts him out of the blue, and hires him to follow his wife (Kim Novak), who he says may be possessed by an ancestor.  Ferguson follows her, and saves her from an aparent suicide attempt when she throws herself into San Francisco Bay.  They soon become an item.  They travel to San Juan Bautista south of San Francisco.  They kiss and profess their love when she runs off.   It appears that the wife commits suicide by going into the mission and up the bell tower, throwing herself off.  (There actually is no bell tower at San Juan Bautista.  It was added cinematically.)

Ferguson goes into a melancholy depression, and ends up in a psychiatric hospital for about a year.  After he is out he discovers a woman who looks like the diseased wife.  He dresses her up as the deceased wife, but she wears a familiar necklace and then he realizes he was duped as part of a murder plot with him as the witness it was a suicide, not a murder.  

This is a very good movie, and very good portrayal by Jimmy Stewart.  Ferguson has an admirer, Marjorie (Barbara Bel Geddes) who is always available for him but they never make the connection.