Movie Review: ***^ A Beautiful Mind (2001)

 Russel Crowe stars as John Nash, a mathematical genius who developed a genius idea about economics when he was in school.  He also suffers from a mental illness.  The journey is very intense.  He has to learn how to distinguish what is delusion or hallucination vs what is real; and then ignore the hallucination.  He says he chooses not to acknowledge them even though he still sees them.  John Nash received a Nobel Prize for economics and this movie portrays this and how he overcame his mental illness.  In addition to Russel Crowe, Jennifer Connelly plays his wife, Christopher Plummer plays the psychiatrist, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany and Vivien Cardone all play hallucinations. School companions include Adam Goldberg, Josh Lucas and Anthony Rapp.  This is a film directed by Ron Howard.  He likes to direct movies based on true stories. 

 

Tom Hanks Movie Review: ***^ Here (2024)

 This is a non linear presentation of several different generations, all from the dining, living room of a house across from the William Franklin (son of Benjamin Franklin) estate.  Richard and Margaret (Tom Hanks and Robin Wright) are living in his father's home, which father gave to them in which to raise their daughter, Vanessa (Zsa Zsa Zemeckis).  Father moved to Florida after his wife had a stroke.  When she dies he moves back in with them.  The move shows scenes of the same area from the dinosaur age, to the original owners of the home, John and Pauline Harter (Gwylim Lee and Michelle Dockery) never make it big.  Paul likes planes, but dies in a flu epidemic.  One resident (David Flynn) of the home makes the first LaZ Boy chair.  After WWII, Al and Rose Young (Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly) but the home.  They raise three children, Richard, Elizabeth (Lauren McQueen) and Jimmy (Harry Marcus).  As noted it is Richard who stays in the home, much to the chagrin of Margaret who always wants to move to her own home.  However Margaret becomes pregnant early and Richard, who aspires to be an artist, instead sell insurance to provide for his family.  This creates a wedge and they eventually divorce but remain friends.  At the end of the show, Richard brings his wife to the home which he had sold some years before, and there helps her to remember the good times they had there as she has dementia.  She remembers a special incident with their daughter when she lost a blue ribbon and she found it for her.  

So what starts as a convoluted jumble becomes a remember your past with dementia movie like Lake House.

Harrison Ford Movie: **** Firewall (2006)

Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) works in security in a large bank.  He and his family, his wife Beth (Virginia Madsen) and kids, Sarah and Andy (Carly Schroeder and Jimmy Bennett) are held hostage by a group of thieves intent on stealing $10,000 from 10,000 richest customers.  The thieves have studied the family for some time, opening a gambling account in Jack's name and a bill of $85,000.  The thieves are very treacherous.  They are lead by Bill Cox (Paul Bettany).  Jack's coworker, Harry Romano (Robert Forster) introduced Jack and Cox.  His boss is Arlin Fiorester (Alan Arkin). His assistant is Janet Stone (Mary Lynn Rajskub). They control Jack by threatening his family.  They try to get away but fail.  Stanfield is forced to help them get the money, erase tapes and allow cox into sensitive areas.  They also set him up as a jealous husband, making his wife record that he is leaving for Romano.  Cox visits Romano and murders him using Stanfield's gun.  

However Stanfield is able to do a double cross, having taken a picture of the account numbers where the money went.  He recruits Stone to help him.  The family after the operation was being taken to a rural area for their murder.  Stanfield overwhelmed the man sent to kill him and iill hi instead.  He lets Cox know his money is gone and won't come back until he gets his family.  The family is still alive, and the dog with a gps tracking device is with them.  Consequently they are able to track them.  

This movie is very good.  The fighting at the end had me really riled up.  Very exciting.  They bad guys are easily hated.  None of them would help the family as they were all committed.  When asked why you hate us the answer is, we don't, we just don't care about you. 

Movie Review: ***^Da Vinci Code (2006)

 This movie plays on themes of conspiracy within the Catholic Church.  A murder is committed at the first and Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a specialist in symbols, is recruited to help in the investigation.  He is drawn into a plot to find the holy grail, and thereby prove that Jesus was not divine butt mortal and sired an heir through Mary Magdalene.  Sophie Neceu is his side kick who recruits him.  Sir Leigh Teabing financed the murderer.  Captain Bezu with with the police.  Silas is the assassin who also likes to beat himself in self penance; and Bishop Manuel works with him.  Directed by Ron Howard.

written by Dan Brown.  He must have had some vendetta against the Catholic Church.  Of course none of this is proved in the end.  This movie is a bit difficult to follow.  Even after it seemed to end it kept going.

• 

  Tom Hanks

  Robert Langdon
• 

  Audrey Tautou

  Sophie Neveu
• 

  Ian McKellen

  Sir Leigh Teabing
• 

  Jean Reno

  Captain Bezu Fache
• 

  Paul Bettany

  Silas
• 

  Alfred Molina

  Bishop Manuel Aringarosa

TV Review: ****Wanda Vision

 I was a faithful watcher of WandaVision as the series ran on Disney +.  It was very hard to figure out at first, and was very confusing as they went through different decades of television sitcom styles.  However the characters are very intriguing with Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda and Paul Bettany as Vision.  The sit-con episodes center around them but Vision slowly realizes that things aren't as they seem.  The have twins, Billy and Tommy played by Julian Hilliard and  Jett Klyne, who age very quickly but have their own superpowers.  Kathryn Hahn plays Agnes, who plays an important part but unwilling to give the show away won't say more.  Teyonah Parris plays Monica Rambeau (a character introduced in Captain Marvel.) Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) also shows up.  She is a character from the Thor movies and has expertise on unnatural phenomena, because the town of Westview where everything takes place is very strange and has a protective energy field around it.  Rambeau and Lewis are studying this energy.  Another interesting additional character is Pietro, Wanda's twin brother who died at the end of Avengers Ultron.  However things are not quite right as he is played by Evan Peters, who played a similar character in X-men universe rather than Marvel.  With these characters we have the making of a very good time and that is was this series is; a very good time.  I really enjoyed myself.  It will be interesting to see how these characters play into future Marvel offerings.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

If you ever wondered how Chewbacca and Solo hooked up, this movie gives the answer.  They met in prison.  Chewbacca being the monster who was suppose to do away with Solo, but instead they form an alliance, and go off to a life of smuggling--very ill.
What was not expected was the serious love relationship between Solo and Qi'ra.  They are a thing at the beginning of the movie on Corellia, and then separated by circumstances.  However when they finally get back together there is still steam between them. 
This movie has plenty of futuristic adventure.  It also has an intriguing plot.  There is a major twist when at the end of the movie Darth Maul is introduced. 
Great fun here.  I must admit I prefer Harrison Ford, but this Solo does an admirable job.

	Alden Ehrenreich	...	Han Solo
	Joonas Suotamo	...	Chewbacca
	Woody Harrelson	...	Beckett
	Emilia Clarke	...	Qi'ra
	Donald Glover	...	Lando Calrissian
	Thandie Newton	...	Val
	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	...	L3-37 (voice)
	Paul Bettany	...	Dryden Vos

Dryden Vos plays the villain, smuggler who doesn't hesitate to take a life to protect his interest.  We see a card shark, younger version of Lando Calrissian.  Beckett is the head of a smuggling ring where Chewbacca and Solo land. 

Movie Review: ****Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Here is a movie that combines two film dynasties, the Avengers and Defenders of the Galaxy.  Even with their combined strength, they still are a bit inadequate to confront Thanos (Josh Brolin voice) and his hoards.  Thanos is on a quest to retrieve the five stones with which he will have all power: The Power Stone, The Reality Stone, The Space Stone, The Time Stone and The Mind Stone.  He destroys Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) hammer in retrieving the Space Stone.  He is successful in getting three stones, but the Mind Stone is in Vision’s (Paul Bettany) forehead, and the Time Stone is kept safe by Dr. Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) deceptions.  Thanos is gathering the stones to complete his life-long task of killing half the people in the universe, and thereby eliminating hardship and hunger.    Thanos is the father of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillam).  Gamora and Dr. Strange have the best chance of stopping Thanos.  There is a confrontation with Thanos on his home world with Iron Man ((Robert Downey Jr.), Spider Man (Tom Holland),  Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff),  At the same time Thor is off to forge a new hammer.  He travels with Groot (Vin Diesel voice), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper voice).  Others prepare for a confrontation on the Black Panther world of Wakanda.  They are joined by many as the attempt to destroy the Mind Stone without killing Vision.  These are: Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Don Cheadle-War Machine, Chadwick Boseman-Black Panther, Elizabeth Olsen-Scarlet Witch, Anthony Mackie-Falcon, Sebastian Stan-Winter Soldier.  There are many more in this epic battle.  I must admit, the ending of this movie left me with a bad feeling of despair.  Thor battles hard, but with all five stones in place, Thanos has unlimited power.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Marvel Comics is out with another Avengers, and this is as exciting as the first.  I thought I might hit overload with all the action taking place.  However this movie also has some humor and some drama mixed in.  We discover that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has a family.  The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is still caught up with "I can't trust myself," and Iron Man (Robert Downing Jr.) is not willing to listen to anyone's advise, which gets him in  trouble as Ultron (James Spader) is born.  Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is in love with the Hulk, and using this love to control him, at times.  We learn more about all of the Avengers, (other than Hawkeye) when they are put under mind control by a new nemesis, Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).  Another nemesis is the the witch's twin, Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who has incredible speed.  Thor (Chris Hemsworth) also deals with past issues so he is more effective in the present.  Captain America (Chris Evans) is everyone's favorite leader.  He too deals with issues of having outlived his time.  We are also introduced to a new character, Vision (Paul Bettany) who is the physical version of Iron man's computer, Jarvis.  Fury (Samuel Jackson) also shows up, and his support is needed in the end.  This movie is lots of fun as our heroes try to save the world with as little collateral damage as possible.

Marvel Universe