Musical Movie Review: **** Annie (1982)

 Annie is a delightful musical.  Several of us in the family have been in the musical, so we are always comparing the movie to the musical; why didn't they do this song or that one? etc.  Annie (Aileen Quinn) lives in an orphanage whee Miss Hannigan (Carol Burnett) is in charge.  Annie has it coming as she ran away, and came home with a dog.  Grace Farrel (Ann Reinking) shows up to select an orphan to stay with Daddy Warbucks (Albert Finney), the billionaire for the weekend.  Where Annie is by the office, she makes sure she is selected.  Rooster (Tim Curry), Miss Hannigan's brother and Lily (Bernadette Peters) enter the scene as con artists intent on stealing the reward money Daddy Warbucks has offered for Annie's birth parents.  With the help of Miss Hannigan, and an old necklace, they actually pull it off; but the plot is foiled when the other orphans arrive to the mansion to say, "they was bad people."  This movie relies on technology more than the musical with a helicopter, and security guards from different lands.  As I said it is a cute, delightful musical.  And of course Annie sings "Tomorrow."  Edward Herrmann plays President Roosevelt.  

Movie Review: ****^The Hunt for Red October (1990)

This is early in the career of Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin).  He is pulled into a case because of his knowledge of Russian Captain Ramius (Sean Connery).  A year after the death of his wife, Ramius plans to defect to America, with a new submarine that does not make noise.  Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) is retired Navy and CIA director and Ryan's boss.  Most of the officers aboard the Red October, Ramius' submarine are in on the plot.  The crew is not.  Captain Borodin (S
am Neill) supports him and wants to visit America.  They have to get the crew off, and convince them the Red October has been destroyed so the Americans can take the ship and study it.  The medical officer on the ship is Dr. Petrov (Tim Curry).  Admiral Painter (Fred Thompson) is the commander aboard an aircraft carrier Ryan sees on his way to get to the submarine tracking the Red October captained by Bart Mancuso (Scott Glen).  They are able make contact through periscopes, and then actually visit.  There is a problem in a saboteur aboard the Red October.

Lots of good excitement and intrigue as Ramius tries to defect without someone killing him; either American or Russian.

Movie Review: Curious George 2: Follow that Monkey (2009)

This is a cute story about Curious George, but it lacks the peppy music of the original movie.  The music is written by Heitor Pereira, who actually wrote music for the first.  Pereira and Carbon Leaf provide the vocals.
The story centers around George determining that the performing elephant for a magic show is not happy.  He wants to see his siblings, who live in California.  George and the elephant are in new York.  that doesn't keep George from leading the elephant to freedom, and onto the California Express.  The man in the Yellow Hat follows.  There is a crazy security guard who wants to capture them all for kidnapping.  However, in the end, the magician turns out to be an OK type, and he even buys the other elephants so they can all be together.
Frank Welker provides voice for George, with no real words this would be hard.  Ted, the man in the Yellow Hat is voiced by Jeff Bennett.  In this version Nickie Bryar takes over the roll of Maggie, Ted's girlfriend.  Jamie Kennedy plays the crazy security guard, and Tim Curry portrays the magician, Piccadilly.  Of course this is based on the characters of H.A. Rey and Margret Rey.