K.C. Ligon's Blog

Music and Lyrics

This delicious film is becoming a firm favorite, and I was speaking with an old friend yesterday who hadn't seen it, which is when I thought I really should speak up about my appreciation here for anyone else who may have missed it, or thought it was too lightweight or too cute or too something.  See it for the witty yet heartfelt script, ditto music and lyrics, excellent cast led by Hugh G and Drew B, also, for all the daffy humor there is this core of reality about life, love, fame, and the power of vibrations, what we say and the song we sing. Enjoy.

Shine a Light

A film by Martin Scorsese--well done, a gem--about and starring the Stones--now out on dvd.  It's the recent concert done at the Beacon Theatre in New York, plus interviews, rehearsal and archival footage, stylishly presented with simpatico. Actually better than being there, since it gives you so many fascinating views of the total experience.  Mick's bravura and showmanship is outstanding, Keith Richard's heart and wit cut to the core, Ron and Charlie are in their own personal ways, awesome. Band and backup, stellar, star guest artists, yes it's all right now, in fact it's a gas. Thanks, Marty. You hit this one outta the park.

Hellboy II: The Golden Ron

Ron Perlman, a swell actor I worked with years ago on B'way, has found that part, and is he great.  The NY Times review put it like this:  "Like Bogey, but with a really big fist."

Congrats, Ron.  Here's lookin' at you, kid. :)

Yankee Doodle Dandy

If there's a film I have seen, o, hundreds of times, it's this beauty. It's always on sometime on or near the 4th, since it is about George M. Cohan, who wrote the title song and lived the life of it, starting with being born, rather famously, on the 4th of July.  It gives you vaudeville extraordinaire, swell song, dance and patter (that's dialogue, for any newbies), and James Cagney as Cohan--if anyone could top the old showman, it's Jimmy.  If you're ambitious for a career in musical theatre, this one is required viewing.

So Tivo TCM--it's on at 2am (technically the 5th) here.  Check your local listings.

And for more Independence Day musings see:

http://kcligon.typepad.com/acting_accents

and my post on 1776.

Screen Gems 3

I also adore:

Galaxy Quest (1999) Someone named Jeff Cross wrote a terrific summary of this witty romp about make-believe and real heroism, at imdb:

"Eighteen years after their sci-fi adventure show "Galaxy Quest" was cancelled, actors Jason Nesmith, Gwen DeMarco, Alexander Dane, Tommy Webber, and Fred Kwan are making appearances at sci-fi conventions and store openings in costume and character. They're wallowing in despair and at each other's throats until aliens known as Thermians arrive and, having mistaken the show for fact and consequently modeling their entire culture around it, take them into space to save them from the genocidal General Sarris and his armada."

The performances are first-rate, and what a cast! Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, Alan Rickman, Darryl Mitchell, Sam Rockwell, Missi Pyle, Robin Sachs, Patrick Breen, Enrico Colantoni and Justin Long each strike just the right notes. David Howard and Robert Gordon wrote the alternatively very funny and touching script, and Dean Parisot directs with a sure hand.  The dialogue is simply choice.  A sample:

Mathesar: We have enjoyed preparing many of your esoteric dishes. Your Monte Cristo sandwich is a current favorite among the adventurous.

Sir Alexander Dane: I played Richard III.
Fred Kwan: Five curtain calls...
Sir Alexander Dane: There were five curtain calls. I was an actor once, damn it. Now look at me. Look at me! I won't go out there and say that stupid line one more time.

Brandon's Mom: Where are you going with those fireworks?
Brandon:  Well, the Protector got super-accelerated coming out of the black hole, and it, like, nailed the atmosphere at Mach 15, which, you guys know, is pretty unstable, obviously, so we're gonna help Laredo guide it on the vox ultra-frequency carrier and use Roman candles for visual confirmation.
Brandon's Mom: Uh, all right, dinner's at seven. [Brandon exits. Mom turns to a dubious Dad] Well, he's outside.

Jason Nesmith: As long as there is injustice, whenever a Targathian baby cries out, wherever a distress signal sounds among the stars, we'll be there. This fine ship, this fine crew. Never give up... and never surrender.

Words to live by.  And you'll hear them again at the very end of the credits, quietly spoken, but with deep feeling by Enrico as Mathesar.

Screen Gems 2

More favorites I can watch again & again with pleasure:

Dave (1993), the story of a look-alike who stands in for the President of the United States with Kevin Kline, outstanding in the dual roles of the real Chief and the stand-in. Sigourney Weaver displays both wry comic skills and emotional depth  as the chic, smart and principled First Lady, Frank Langella is at the top of his game as the Machiavellian White House Chief of Staff, Ving Rhames scores as the Secret Service agent, as do the hilarious Kevin Dunn and Charles Grodin, Faith Prince, Laura Linney, Ben Kingsley and the rest of the pitch-perfect cast.  Highlights: Kline taking the podium in the White House pressroom for the first time, and he and Weaver singing "Tomorrow." Underneath the frivolity and make-believe is a statement of integrity and worth, especially in 2008.  I leave it to the reader to decide which admininstration is more fanciful, the film's or the real deal.

Inside Man (2006) I repost here my comment at the imdb:

Reading the mixed reviews posted here I wonder if you have to possess that special brand of irony with which New Yorkers are imbued, a sense of humor in the face of disaster or the threat of it anyway, if you're going to 'get' this movie. Spike Lee and his phenomenal cast (besides the incomparable Denzel, Clive, Jodie and Chris, there's a rich gathering of NY character actors and 'real people') deliver the tragi-comic nuances of an adventure where perception is continually being altered by circumstances that look one way while the full dimensions of the actual reality hide in plain sight until the very end. The dialogue is as savvy and witty as I've heard in a long time. I think a really big clue to appreciating this film is the understanding that everyone, no matter what their pay grade (Foster refers to Washington's as a means of putting him in his place--she changes her view completely by film's end), takes actions according to their perceptions and everyone therefore can fail to see what is directly in front of them. Everyone makes what in movie plot terms are stupid mistakes, but what in real life terms are manifestations of a tragic flaw in consciousness. And people can wise up sometimes, as some do in this film.

I recently watched the film again, and what fun it was to see the set-ups realizing exactly what they meant. Or at least I had a better idea! Great film, don't miss it.

I should also have mentioned Chiwetel Ejiofor and Willem Dafoe, also outstanding.

Screen gems

There are films I find I enjoy seeing more than once, some I delight in so much I will watch them, or certain scenes in them, as often as I run across them while surfing all those channels (my cable service package bills itself as 'it's all here' and it pretty much is).  Here, in no particular order, are two of them:

Michael (1996) The story of the archangel as an overweight beer-drinking smoker, who's also a wisecracking, amorous, battle (and sugar) loving dancin' fool (John Travolta) on his final (26th) mission to Earth.

Travolta is flat-out brilliant, Andie MacDowell, William Hurt, Robert Pastorelli, Bob Hoskins are all wonderful, as is the rest of the stellar supporting cast, including Jean Stapleton and Teri Garr. On the way to Chicago, Michael and his companions stop at a roadside cafe.  The dance Travolta does here to the sound of Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools," beginning with two ladies and ending with every female in the place following his every move, belongs in the pantheon with Fred & Ginger's "Night and Day," Gene Kelly's 'Singin' in the Rain,"  and James Cagney's "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Nora Ephron directed and is credited as one of the writers.  It's a masterpiece: sweet, human, adorable and well-done. 

The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Michael Mann's glorious, riveting rendition of the James Fenimore Cooper novel with Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, Russell Means as Chingachgook, Eric Schweig as Uncas, Madeleine Stowe as Cora Munro, Wes Studi as Magua, and a superb ensemble cast. The gorgeous, haunting original music is by Randy Edelman and Trevor Jones. Every frame of Mann's film is exquisite, and no matter how bloody sometimes, heartfelt, pure storytelling.

And the sight of Daniel Day Lewis streaking through the forest, and leaping into a waterfall, is a thrill not to be missed.

Hawkeye: You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you.