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Disney is doing it’s darndest to exploit all their properties and keep us entertained at the same time. A traditional retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” could have worked fine, just as the live action “101 Dalmatians” did a dozen or so years ago. Somewhere in the bowels of the Imagineering Department or in the Production agreement with big movie stars, someone has decided that a straight remake is not cool, and a story needs to be tweaked to make it fresh. The best known example of this in the recent past has been the musical “Wicked”. A couple of years ago, Disney re-imagined “Alice in Wonderland”. Now it is time for a classic fairy tale to get it’s own variation and they have chosen one with a great villainess which makes the visualization a handy shortcut to the story.

There is a great deal to admire about this movie. I thought the opening section in which the character of “Maleficent” is introduced in her child form was really marvelous. The character was appealing and there is a nice romantic edge to the story line that is being developed. The character of Stephan however, is not quite as nicely developed and it was hard to see the conflicting choices he was faced with until the key scenes in the movie. The character development here was incomplete which makes some of the plotting a little muddled. Although a conflict between the two worlds was suggested in the narration, we are not really shown any of that except in a direct combat scene. One side is immediately presented as evil and as a result, they lose any interest as part of the story. A whole Kingdom becomes a cardboard cutout villain. The movie shows armies and battles but nothing that would back up the need or desire for those battles.

My daughter has watched “Once Upon a Time” and we have both seen “Frozen” so the twist in the movie is not as great as it should be. I liked it pretty well but she feels that it is almost becoming a contemporary cliche. The movie is aggressively unromantic and that trend may reflect blowback from all the years that Disney has been accused of brainwashing little girls about “true love” and the handsome prince. The switch in tone is meant to appeal to more modern audiences and ways of thinking, but it feels like something of the magic is being lost by doing this. The outcome does differ from tradition and while that might sometimes be appealing, it does feel strange when being thrust upon a story like this. In a way it makes the calculation of changing the character focus even more noticeable.

Angelina Jolie was obviously perfectly cast in the movie. She almost has the high cheekbones without the prosthetic and special effects makeup. Her eyes do a lot of the acting in the movie but her voice is also used exceptionally well. She is the main reason to see the film. She appears to be invested in telling the story and selling her performance. She has two emotional transformations that she has to pull off and both of them succeed pretty well. The second one is more subtle and takes up much of the storyline but it feels solid because it is allowed to play out. You can see the turn coming, but you can also believe that it might not get here, That is the value of her performance. It is a bit disconcerting that the bad guy has to be the hero and the reverse happens as well. I hope that the desire to tell traditional stories doesn’t require us to subvert what came before every time. I’m willing to go along today because of the casting and performance, but screenwriters should be careful about going to that well too frequently.

This may have been a film where the 3D process would be worth seeing. I saw it in a regular two dimensional form and the edges of characters looked soft and artificial to me. I saw several spots where the extra dimensionality would be exciting in the scene, and make the events in those sequences more dynamic. The creatures of the moors that Maleficent is the de-facto queen over look a bit cartoonish and sometimes silly. There are long sequences where the beauty of the woods is supposed to be a marvel but it just looks conventional and weak. The best live comparison I could think of to make was Ridley Scott’s “Legend”. The enchanted forest in that film looked more real on the sets than anything in this CGI wonderland that has been created for the character here to inhabit.

You may notice that I’ve said nothing about Sleeping Beauty herself. Elle Fanning is a good actress, she was great in “Super 8” a couple of years ago. She is fine in this film but there is so little to her part that almost any pretty young actress would have been fine in the role. It has to be a thankless task to star in a fairy tale as the princess who is subject to a curse, and end up playing second fiddle to a character that might be mostly defined by her horns. The three good faeries are played strictly for laughs and between them and King Stephan, there is no emotional investment in what goes on with Aurora. There is more to say but it is late and I’ve been busy this weekend as you will see if you visit the other blog.  I may come back and add some more to this review but for now i can say it was an interesting experience that I can’t quite warm up to, but did admire at times.

 Click the Poster for a link to the KAMAD Vlog Review

Another in the series of classics at the AMC Theaters. This one appears to finish off several weeks of gladiator based type films. I went and saw “The Ten Commandments” and “Gladiator” but I missed “Ben Hur”, I think it was playing on Easter Sunday and we had family plans. As I’ve said before, movies are best in a theater and “Spartacus” is no exception. Interestingly enough, this is not the first, second or even third time I’ve seen it on the big screen. Much like “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Jaws” I will always make an effort to see “Spartacus” on a theater screen. In college, I went to a screening at a revival theater. When the movie was restored in 1991, I saw it a couple of times. Four or five years ago, there was a one night festival at the Hollywood Arclight theater. They had a different classic movie playing in each theater, just the one time, all screening at the same time. They did that program at least twice and I had to make some tough choices. You see all of the screenings were hosted by someone affiliated with the movie. I skipped George Lucas and “Star Wars” and Warren Beatty and “Reds”, because in the Dome, “Spartacus” was being introduced by Kirk Douglas himself. At nearly ninety and having had a stroke several years earlier, he was still a great story teller and a wonderful host. The ten minutes he spent talking with us was one of the best memories I have of my movie going life.

Mr. Douglas did not make an appearance today, at least not in person. We expected some friends of my wife but they never showed up. For a few minutes it looked like we would be the only people in the theater. Three other groups finally came in just as the movie was starting with an “Overture”. The house lights went down and we settled in for the kind of epic that does not get made much anymore. The three and a half hours do have quite a bit of action and there are some big battle scenes near the end, but this is really an intimate story of a man struggling against slavery and fashioned by the circumstances he finds himself in. I was impressed with how well it hold the attention even though there is not a bunch of quick cutting, CGI grandeur or  plot twists that surprise at the end. It is a solid drama with a passionate and surprisingly tender love story to go along with it.

Famously written by blacklisted screen author Dalton Trumbo, who got a screen credit because producer Douglas was having none of that blacklist stuff stop him, makes the character of Spartacus come alive. The story is based on a real uprising of gladiator slaves in the century before Christ. Events are not clear and almost certainly large liberties were taken in the personal story that was told in the film, but historically, the movie seems to get a lot of things right. This is the one film that Stanley Kubrick directed that he did not have total control over. He did however make spectacular use of the widescreen process and managed to get the cinematographer an Academy Award for his work on the movie. There are a couple of very effective choices that Kubrick made when shooting the film. My favorite was his decision to focus on Kirk Douglas and Woody Strode as they awaited their turn in the arena. Instead of highlighting the combat that was taking place before they were to fight, we see only glimpses of Rex Harrison and his opponent through small openings in the paddock that the gladiators waited in.  The tension and resignation on the two faces tells a completely different story and the more important one. It becomes clear why the victor would not kill his opponent and why the revolt started.

The other choiceI admired is a combination of the script and the director. They postpone the romance through an interlude where Spartacus is mocked for not mounting and taking the woman provided to him. The love story between the slave girl played by Jean Simmons, who is used as a sexual reward by the trainers of the gladiators, and the reluctant Spartacus, is amazingly sweet given the conditions that the two of them find themselves in. When they ultimately come together as human beings rather than animals being mated, it is a victory for humanity and restraint.

The cast of the film is amazing. It includes Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis in a subtlety sexual moment. The scene in the bath, where Olivier discusses oysters and snails with Curtis, had been cut and when the restoration was done, the dialogue was re-looped by Anthony Hopkins filling in for Lord Olivier.  It is much clearer why Antonitus runs off in the middle of the speech Crassus is making about submitting to Rome. It is only clear after hearing the bath conversation that Antonitus was about to be violated by Crassus. This and a dozen other moments in the movie make the story work so effectively. When Tony Curtis entertains the gladiator rebels with magic and a poem (song), it is a quiet moment that sets up another romantic clinch between Douglas and Simmons. The movie just gets each of this moments right, and it does so at a pace that is slow but correct for the story.

The movie will be playing two more times on Wednesday at a variety of AMC theaters.  Look around and see if you can find one in your area that is playing this wonderful film. You will be happy to see some terrific actors doing great work on a noble film that will enthrall you with a story not just visual effects.

Outdoor Movie LA Calendar Hollywood Forever Cemetery

This list rocks and if you want to enjoy the Southern California Summer, you need to find one of these events to attend.

From the Thirty Years on Project. Click the poster to go to the entry.

Also from 1984, the John Hughes classic. Again, click the Poster and enjoy.

Returning to Santa Anita for the second day of the Eighth Annual Best Picture Showcase. Last week we ducked out just before the start of “The Wolf of Wall Street” since it was not a well liked film at our house. We drove over to dinner at a local salad place, cruised back home. Settled Mrs. K in since she was not feeling well, drove back to the theater, stopped for some drinks at the snack bar, and still ended up watching the last forty minutes of the movie. Geez is that thing long.

This week includes the one film I have yet to see an that is Spike Jonez “Her”. I here good things and I will have a mini review later this weekend.

The folks at AMC have elected to start the screenings at noon this year, which is a lot later than has been the case. I’m hoping that the 10:30 start time for “Gravity” does not make this a hard one to stay up for. The space drama would be my favorite for the big award this year, but my prediction is that “12 Years a Slave” will be honored. It is a worthy film, but not quite the achievement that some have suggested.

It should be another great day with the Yennys. Last week they only did one round of trivia, we still came home with some loot. Let’s see if we can get in on it again. Below are the previous review links.

We went Tuesday to this screening at the Archlight Theater in Hollywood. The show was not quite sold out but it was quite full and everyone was very enthusiastic. Before the Q and A and the movie, the theater was filled with the sounds of Ted Neeley’s new music project and it sounded quite good. We arrived about half an hour before the show so we got to hear most of the album called “Rock Opera”. The Panel consisted of the promoter for the tour Frank Munoz, who acted as M.C. and interviewer, Ted Neely who played Christ in the movie, Barry Dennen who was Pontius Pilot, and Robert Iscove the choreographer who was essentially a second director on the film. Each of them shared some charming stories and some dramatic behind the scenes pieces of information. All of them spoke warmly of the late Carl Anderson, who fans know was Judas in the movie and had a terrific soul voice.

Jesus Christ Superstar is a phenomenon that many of the young people of today would not recognize. The idea started as a concept album, it was turned into a stage piece, than a touring Broadway show and finally it was adapted to the screen. Imagine a record without any pop stars on it, becoming a huge best seller and dominating the charts. Then try to visualize that being turned into a show. Basically, it started as a recording and everything else followed.

I saw the staged version of the musical in a touring production of a Canadian Company at my high school auditorium. I suspect that this was one of the many unauthorized versions that were subsequently shut down by lawsuits around the world, they were playing before the Broadway show had even opened. After the Broadway run , Jesus Christ Superstar did a stand at the Universal Amphitheater in the open air. I did not get a chance to see it there but I remember television coverage of the event and I thought the show under the stars with the lights of the San Fernando Valley off to the side would have been wonderful. 

When the film opened in 1973, I did go to see it. I think my screening was at the old UA Theater on Colorado Blvd. but it is forty years ago now and I am not as sure of this as I am of other memories from the time. It was one of the films on the original “Movie A Day” project that got me started blogging in the first play. However I did not do that post. I was in Alaska for a week and my daughter Amanda covered it for me. You can find her original post here. As a kid, Amanda had a little cassette “Walkman” (remember those?) and I had recorded a copy of the movie soundtrack for her that she listened to incessantly. To this day she still rates Jesus Christ Superstar among her favorite movies. Of course we watch it every year along with other religious epics at Easter time.

The touring version of the film is an amazing looking digital film with a spectacular sound mix. I was very impressed with the way the movie looked but especially the way it sounded. The little girl sitting next to me [the one who was eight or so and not my daughter , who had turned back into a little girl while we were watching] sang every song and hummed along with the music. She could not contain her enthusiasm and clapped out loud by herself several times. She was joined in applauding by the rest of the audience after some particularly great pieces. “Gethsemane” brings tears and it nearly brought the house down.

During the Q and A, Frank and Ted asked if anyone in the audience had actually been in the movie. Only in Hollywood my friends, there were a half dozen dancers and background performers who had come out for the show. They all came down at the end for a group picture. One of them had played the apostle Matthew in the movie and several of “the women”, were also there. Each time one of them appeared on screen in the movie a whoop would go up and we could tell exactly which actress was there.

After the show there was a merchandise table and I had the pleasure of being served by Wil Wheaton. I’m sure there is a connection there, but I don’t know what it is. I’m not usually a celebrity stalker but Josh Groban reached over my shoulder to shake hands with someone at the table at about the same time. Close Encounters of the Odd kind I guess. We did take a picture with Barry Dennan who was so fantastic in the movie and he was quite sweet to us as we greeted him. There was a long line to a meet and greet with Ted Neeley, after waiting about 45 minutes without much movement, we had to move on. It was still a great experience.

I don’t really collect autographs but I do collect posters and there was one for the film screen tour that was signed by Ted Neeley, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennan and Josh Mostel. I could not say no and I look forward to getting it framed. For now here is a little sneak peek.