July Vacation in Portsmouth NH

Seeing Joan live was a treat.

Amanda Seyfried in Letters to Juliet. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/letters-to-juliet/37890/main?icid=movsmartsearch

Vanessa Redgrave & Amanda Seyfried.

I was on a much needed two weeks of vacation during July. However it didn't start off well as I was called driving home on Friday/my last day of work and had to return for two emergencies that kept me there for over three hours. I worked one morning to cover for my backup who had an appointment he couldn't postpone. I was able to catch up on paperwork so I wouldn't have a ton waiting for me when I return. Meanwhile there was the usual phone calls about problems I fortunately could solve from home.
>>Last week we got away for a two night stay in Portsmouth. The weather was in the mid 80's and a bit on the humid/roasting side. It didn't stop us from doing our usual activities. I won't bore you with them since they're covered on older blog entries. DVD/CD/book shopping... lobster dinners.... sightseeing....
>>We stayed at a Hampton Inn next to the mall where there's a huge Barnes & Noble and it's a five minute drive to downtown where hotels are $200+ this time of year, even our favorite old Sise Inn. Because I paid ahead and used my AAA discount, we got a room with 2 beds and a free breakfast buffet and cocktails & snacks at 5:00PM. for $153 - taxes included. I prefer to stay downtown but we're watching our money. No free breakfasts at the big two and the inn has a continental one but no pool. The last time we stayed at the Hampton Inn was about 7 years ago with our son JR and his buddy/our neighbor Adam. It's a good place with a huge heated indoor pool. So we have to pay a few bucks for parking downtown and the inn has a shuttle van if we needed it.
>>Sunday night we saw Joan Armatrading in concert at The Music Hall downtown and a film the next night. Weather was in the high 80's so we wanted to go to the beach Monday afternoon. We went to the concert at 7:30PM at The Music Hall. A singer/songwriter named Jamie McLean opened for Joan. He was talented, pleasant, but unmemorable. This is not to knock him but he sounded like any other singer/songwriter strumming a guitar and we passed on buying his CDs he was hawking in the lobby. He played for over a half hour and announced that Joan would be coming out soon. By 8:40 still no Joan and I was tired/impatient/cranky/ while waiting. At 8:45 she came out with her band and stood motionless in front of the audience with a big grin that got larger with the mounting applause. It was worth the wait as she played for almost two hours including a two song encore and all was forgiven.
>>She charmed the audience with her banter between songs and playfully chided us for not waving during a song while she rocked the place with her three piece band (bass, keyboards, drums). She replayed part of the song for us to wave as she doesn't take no for an answer. Joan switched between four guitars demonstrating her skills. We were seated in the fifth center row of the balcony where we had a good view of the stage with no heads blocking our sight. She played most of her hits and several songs from her new/20th CD, This Charming Life, pictured above. She's been around for thirty years and will be sixty this year but you would never know it from her performance. She had us singing & clapping along and up on our feet with the up tempo numbers. You can see & hear the title track and some of her old songs on her website: http://www.joanarmatrading.com/ and more on You Tube. The video gives you a good idea of what she's like onstage. On the new CD she played all the instruments except for the drums. Here she was supported by fine musicians who were given chances to shine with solos.
>>The next afternoon we went to a nearby beach but my splashing around in the water was interrupted by a warning about a coming thunderstorm. So we left the beach and returned to our hotel to use the pool and Jacuzzi. At night we returned to The Music Hall to see a movie. On an earlier entry I mentioned how I became friendly with an employee who selects the films. He's booked some of my recommendations and a while ago I wrote to him asking what he will be showing the night after the concert since the schedule was empty at the time. He planned to show Letters to Juliet which we haven't seen.
>>The film can be described as a pleasant but predictable chick flick but I enjoyed its relaxing warmth and good natured humor. No heavy thinking demanded. Amanda Seyfried from Mama Mia plays Sophie an aspiring writer on a trip to Italy with her fiance. While he's too preoccupied with his business interests, she meets a group of women in Verona who pen answers to letters left for Shakespeare's Juliet asking for advice on matters of the heart. Sophie discovers an old letter from an Englishwoman named Claire who jilted her lover Lorenzo fifty years ago Sophie answers Claire's letter and as you would expect, Claire comes to Italy seeking Lorenzo.
>>Vanessa Redgrave is wonderful as the widowed Claire. I swear she gets better with age. Here she's warm, wise, and funny in a role you don't don't usually see her perform as she allows Sophie to join her on her search. Christopher Egan plays her accompanying, priggish grandson who feels she's wasting her time and he's constantly at odds with Sophie, the dreamer & romantic. Halfway through the film you can guess the ending but the movie ends the ways you want it. Call it contrived... corny... sentimental... but what's wrong with that? The audience was pleased and so were we.
>>The Italian scenery is a treat and Franco Nero, who was Redgrave's lover during the making of 1971's Camelot and has been married to her for the last several years, plays Lorenzo. He's aged well too. Seyfried is sweet and funny. This is a romantic comedy that delivers what it promises. When it comes out on DVD, we'll show it to Mom, another Italian who at 92 is getting too wobbly to take to movies.

'Inception' reviewed

A dreamscape from Christopher Nolan's Inception. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/inception/36931/main

Don't be fooled by the preview. Inception looks like a promising sci-fi thriller and I read some interesting articles about the making of it. We saw this film today and after the first ten minutes, we lost track of its serpentine plot. I'll give a reward to anyone who can offer a plot summary.

>>Let me try. Leonardo DiCaprio and his hi-tech gang use their sleep-induced brains to enter the dreams of corporate bosses to learn their secrets to sell to their rivals. This time he's hired to plant an idea or 'inception' in Cillian Murphy's head so his client Ken Watanabe can use to his advantage. It's never been done before and Leo jeopardizes their mission by bringing his own baggage of guilt feelings over his wife's suicide into the plan. An intriguing premise that unfortunately spins out of control for the characters and the audience.

>>This film was overly complicated with all sorts of dreams within dreams within dreams scenes that were hard to follow and where one started and one ended, your guess is as good as mine. All the money is up on the screen but for what purpose? Leonardo and the rest of the cast are good enough but they had the advantage of the director explaining the story to them. Ken Watanabe's soft spoken accented English is hard to understand. I'm not sure how the story ended and the rest of the audience exiting didn't say a work except for me who complained loudly without anyone contradicting me. We left the theater feeling weary instead of entertained.

>>Inception surely needs repeated viewings to comprehend it but not so soon after wallowing through two & a half hours of this bloated special effects extravaganza. And it seemed longer than that! Confusion would be a better title for this mess. Save your money and rent 1984's Dreamscape, which this movie resembles and is much better.

>>Fans of this movie wrote defenses in newspapers and one online buddy explained the premise to me. I understood it but I still think Inception was overly complicated to the point of confusion. We agree to disagree.

'The Last Airbender' reviewed

Noah Ringer in The Last Airbender, based on the Nickelodeon animated series. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-last-airbender/36563/main
M. Night Shyamalan's last three movies were critical and box office failures. His career suggests his first film and biggest hit The Sixth Sense was just a fluke but we don't want to think cruelly of him as he still able to get financial backing for his projects. It's because his films aren't expensive to make and they probably break even or make a tiny profit from DVD & cable sales and foreign theater tickets. Here's his latest opus and I'm sorry to say it's a big disappointment again. It made plenty of money during its July 4th opening weekend despite the harsh reviews. We saw it because the previews promised a spectacular kung fu fantasy in 3-D.
>>The film is based on a Nickelodeon cartoon series I've never seen so I can't compare them. As a film it's draggy and repetitious and could use better martial arts sequences. The plot concerns a young boy named Aang who's the lost Avatar needed to prevent the Fire Kingdom from conquering more kingdoms. He can 'bend air' to create forceful winds as weapons, and he's aided by a female 'water bender' and her brother who convince him that he's their last chance in defeating their enemy and develope his other powers. Dev Patel , the hero of Slumdog Millionare, is sorta wasted as a scowling Fire Nation prince who needs to capture Aang so he can use the boy's powers as a means to win back his father's favor.
>> The dialogue is what you expect in these kinds of films with pseudo-Eastern philosophies only it seems to go on and on as if you didn't understand the simplistic explanations the first time. The production design is attractive on the big screen and the appropriate musical score helps but not much to compensate for this ponderous bore. The fighting scenes are lackluster for this type of story and when it's over, our feeling was 'EH.' As for the 3-D, if you blinked you would have missed it. The film was only converted to 3-D and not as good as other conversions like Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans. I'm guessing the producers thought this would help at the box office since they knew the film might be another Shamalama dingdong turkey. Either way, paying extra for so-called 3-D is a ripoff.
>>This expensive movie will probably do OK until word of mouth catches up with it. The kids in the audience seemed to enjoy The Last Airbender if being quiet during the showing and exiting the theater is a positive sign.... unless they were as numb struck as us. It also suggests a sequel but don't hold your breath waiting.... Last Airbender indeed?

'Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work' Review

Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/joan-rivers-a-piece-of-work/10024268/main?icid=movsmartsearch

Love her or hate her, you have to admire Joan Rivers for being a survivor. She's had her share of personal and professional disasters that would have defeated most of us. Yet she's still here and working hard at 77. This new documentary covers everything you need to know about her tumultuous life. There's the usual interviews with people who know her best and the best segments are with Joan. You see her warts and all as cameras followed her for a year. Although there's plenty of info packed into 90 minutes, you wish it was longer.
>>Her comedy is a matter of taste. If you think she's obnoxious on TV, seeing her live is another matter. I remember my parents seeing her show years ago in Atlantic City and telling us how filthy she is in person. In fairness to her, that's true about many comedians you know only from TV. Recently a co-worker walked out of Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett show at a local casino because of his coarse language. Be prepared to hear Joan during a club date tossing out four letter words along with some gross jokes. It's shocking but funny.
>>She's candid about her triumphs & tragedies including her husband's suicide. She survived because she's a tough businesswoman who looks out for number one but is also generous to her friends and performs charity work. She lives in a lavish NYC apartment comparable to Versailles and is entitled to it because she earned it.
>>She's hard on herself too and hates not to work. How many of us can say that? Included here is her triumph on TV's Celebrity Apprentice. She hates looking old and her excess of cosmetic surgery makes her look like she's wearing a Daisy Duck mask. She's candid about her vanity and can afford to please herself. How many of us can do that? Long live the Queen of Comedy!

'Robin Hood' Review

Russell Crowe and Kevin Durand in Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/robin-hood/33539/main

I doubt there is anyone who doesn't like the 1938 version of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn & Olivia de Havilland looking their best filmed in glorious Technicolor. How could you not enjoy hissing at the nasty villains Basil Rathbone & Claude Rains? And lets not forget those spectacular fights and acrobatics aided by a stirring music score. All other versions of the Robin Hood myth pale in comparison. So now we have director Ridley Scott's big blockbuster and it doesn't disappoint.
>>Scott is known for his visual strength with classics like the first Alien and look how Blade Runner has influenced the production design of many futuristic sci-fi films. Scott's Kingdom of Heaven about the Crusades was good but not a big hit but making it gave him the experience for directing another medieval story that involves the same time period.
>>So how does his Robin Hood differ from the rest? Actually it's more a prequel to the familiar myth we know by heart. Here a band of Crusaders lead by an archer named Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) pose as messengers returning to England with the crown of the dead King Richard the Lionhearted. Robin steals the sword of the dead Sir Robert of Loxley and passes himself off as the late knight. Loxley's widow Marion played by a feisty Cate Blanchette allows him and his friends to keep up the pretense since there never was any real love between her and her husband and she needs their help running the estate. She's good in these strong lonely women roles; catch her in a similar role in the underrated western The Missing with Tommy Jones. Watch for the wonderful Eileen Atkins as the crafty Eleanor of Aquitaine, the mother of both kings and a real scene stealer without chewing up the scenery and her fellow actors. Kevin Durand as Little John and Scott Grimes of TV's ER as Will Scarlet offer comic relief as some of the later named Merry Men.
>>Meanwhile the new vain King John (Oscar Isaac) raise taxes and squeezes his subjects since the Crusades have bankrupted the country. There's also treachery as the heavy Sir Godfrey sides with the King of France to invade the weakened country. Godfrey is played with high caliber scowling evil by Mark Strong who easily filled these roles in Sherlock Holmes, Stardust, and to a lesser degree in Young Victoria. It's up to Robin to save to the country and Cate's estate from the tax collectors. Crowe's performance never overshadows the scope of the film or his fellow actors in a scene. Obvious comparisons will be made to Gladiator but that's not a bad thing...
>>There's plenty of action and big battle scenes that need to be seen on the big screen as well as the period sets and costumes. The story unfolds slowly over two hours as takes its time for us to savor the visual details. We weren't bored and don't let some negative reviews hamper your enjoyment. This film is really about how Robin Hood became the legend and cries out for a sequel. Because of the under whelming box office return for a picture that cost almost $200 million to make (and yes the money is up there on the screen), it will probably break even due to worldwide sales. I don't expect to see a sequel soon..... if ever.

'Clash of The Titans' Review

Sam Worthington as Perseus. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/clash-of-the-titans/36930/main

I have fond memories of the '81 version. Although the special effects might look dated by today's standards, to me the best part of the movie was the fun watching Sir Lawrence Olivier as a crafty Zeus toying with the lives of mortals while protecting his half-human son Perseus played by Harry Hamlin (who went on to star in TV's LA Law) and outwitting his fellow and notable Olympians including Claire Bloom as Hera, Maggie Smith as Thetis, and Ursula Andress as Aphrodite. And who could forget Ray Harryhausen's wonderful stop-motion animated creatures. This was his final film and his Medusa was the crowning achievement in a long career including The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason & The Argonauts. Watch the preview: http://www.videodetective.com/movie_trailer/CLASH_OF_THE_TITANS/movie_clip/P00183052.htm
>>The previews for this new version prepared us for a high tech extravaganza filmed in 3-D. There were a few story changes. I guess Anthony Hopkins or Ian McKellen were busy so Liam Neeson was hired to play a dour Zeus who's upset because the mortals below don't respect the gods and need to be taught a lesson. He does well enough but he doesn't have the charm or humor of Olivier's old rascal. Instead of plotting against his goddesses, this Zeus is pitted again his brother Hades played by a mannered Ralph Fiennes who seeks revenge for being banished to the Underworld. The rest of the gods seem to be window dressing as they take a back seat to the feuding brothers. Avatar's Sam Worthington replaces Hamlin minus his flowing locks. In a interview Worthington said the filmmakers deliberately avoided the earlier hairy look. This Perseus is rather sullen and hates the gods who killed his adopted family. He refuses his father's help and offer to become a god in Olympus. He has no time for a story book romance with the Princess of Argos whose peril forces him to save her and her city from Hades's wrath.
>>The same creatures (and some new ones) from the first film are here but are computer generated to have more movement and the film's bigger budget allows for more spectacle. The film was converted into 3-D and really doesn't add a lot to the visuals. It's like watching through a Viewmaster but with movement. A throbbing music score accompanies the action. If you like these sword & sandal fantasies, you should enjoy this one. The reviews have been mostly negative but this Clash is a big hit. It's nowhere as bad as they said.

'The White Ribbon' Review & Portsmouth NH

Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-white-ribbon/38469/main?icid=movsmartsearch

It's been almost six months from our last trip to Portsmouth NH. We needed a good reason for another jaunt so we checked the schedule at The Music Hall for April. Michael Haneke's acclaimed German film The White Ribbon was playing the Sunday after Easter Sunday. An added reason was that our favorite inn downtown, which is a quick walk to the theater and our frequented stores, had an off-season rate that was almost half of the highest/summer price. So we made reservations and departed at 7:00AM. Before we left town, we stopped to get the newspapers to read in the room (Sunday is not Sunday without my NY Times), and coffee for the ride.
>>The drive was uneventful and relaxing. Instead of going directly into Portsmouth, we took the route through Seabrook and the Hamptons so we could eat at our favorite Breakfast place in Hampton and hit certain stores. At a small book store I traded in a bag of audio books on CD for a book about the rock group Cream and Martha got the Shutter Island paperback since we saw the movie. We stopped at Dress Barn to get Mom a belated 92nd birthday gift (the store has a large selection of petite sizes for Mom & Martha; I sat in the car reading the papers). The weather was sunny and at 70 degrees.
>>We got to the Sise Inn http://www.siseinn.com/index.html about 12:15PM but it was too early to check in. So we parked there and walked downtown for some serious shopping. I carried two bags of DVDs & CDs to trade in at my favorite shop, Bull Moose Music. I got $95 of store credit and browsed for two hours. I found almost everything on my short wish list and a few surprises: 1. A Criterion edition of A Christmas Tale, an acclaimed recent French film about a dysfunctional family's reunion: this film was on the top of my list. 2, A double CD of Joan Armatrading's hits (She's playing in Portsmouth in July so there's another trip planned.) 3. A DVD Armatrading concert 4. The Essential Philip Glass CD -used. 5. a Robyn Hitchcock CD/DVD concert. 6. A used DVD documentary about Roman Polanski. 7. A used DVD documentary about Robert Evans, a film producer. 8. A DVD called Gods & Monsters with Ian McKellen playing James Whale who directed the first two Frankenstein movies. All good prices and I still have $7 of credit left for another visit.
>>Martha met me at 2:15 after her shopping and we checked in at the Inn. We unpacked and rested until it was time to go to the theater to catch the movie's 3:30 showing instead of going to the 7:00 one. There's a nearby cafe/bakery that has a special offer: two movie tickets & $29 worth of food for $40. http://www.popoversonthesquare.com/menu/bakery.html
>>The White Ribbon was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar and rightly so. The story takes place in a German village before the outbreak of WWI. This seemingly peaceful town becomes riddled with strange occurrences. A doctor is injured when his horse is tripped by a hidden wire. The Baron's son is kidnapped and beaten. The doctor's son who's mentally challenged is almost blinded. Other acts of cruelty involve animals but in both cases, we only see the aftermath of the violence. It's enough to keep you thinking about the reasons for them. Why are certain people chosen?
>>On the surface the adults and children seem respectable but the young school teacher has his suspicions as to who is causing the incidents and confronts the pastor (who doesn't practice what he preaches) for answers. The movie slowly unwinds for almost two & a half hours as incidents keep you offguard. It was filmed in color that was desaturated to achieve an eerie effect like looking at old photographs or a silent movie with sound. There's no movie score except for people singing and playing instruments. All this created an unsettling effect as you begin to question each character. A remarkable film worth seeing again. Imagine Village of the Damned without the sci-fi but that's not really accurate. It's creepy in a different way that sneaks up on you. Some reviewers have noted that the film shows how these people could later evolve into Nazis and I can see that here.... Here's a good article about the director and his film:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/movies/01klaw.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=the%20white%20ribbon&st=cse

>>When Martha first heard about this film, she didn't want to see it because she read about violence done to children & animals. The violence is not explicit except in a few brief scenes and she couldn't stop talking about the movie for days. One of the ushers talked to us about it giving her own theory about the plot. We went to the cafe for a light dinner capped off with Indian Pudding with a dollop of vanilla ice cream (a New England treat) and returned to our comfy room to later watch Celebrity Apprentice.
>>After a deluxe continental breakfast buffet (included) downstairs in the Inn, we checked out and drove to the nearby mall to the big Barnes & Noble. I'm happy I bought my items downtown because the French film DVD and the Armatrading CD were $10 more at B & N. I bought an audio book and Martha bought two books. We browsed in a few other stores and at Ocean State Job Lot I found the DVD for Starting Out In The Evening for $2! I reviewed the movie in an earlier entry. We headed to Al's Seafood in NorthHampton for twin lobster dinners (two one-pounders, great fries, and coleslaw for $19.95 - a real deal.)
>>A few months ago we heard about a fire on the boardwalk at nearby Hampton Beach http://www.hamptonbeach.com/ so we wanted to see the damage. The sunny, breezy beach had a few kite flyers and the waves were pounding the sand. We walked to where there was a block containing a favorite gift shop but all that was destroyed and in the process of being knocked down behind a fence. We headed for home after spending two relaxing days and less money than usual.