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Visit my previous Blog "Movies and More: Positively Personal Reviews" for my earlier (pre-May 2011) reviews and ramblings.

Friday, November 30, 2012

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

The first part of the movie was hard to take --especially with wonderful Robert De Niro doing a superb job of playing the obnoxious father of Bradley Cooper who has just come home to live after spending court mandated time in a mental institution after he "lost it" when he found his wife in the shower with another man.   Lots of yelling, not one of my favorite things.   However, if you can endure the first half hour or so, it gets better and better, especially when Jennifer Lawrence enters the picture.  She's irresistible,  although she's considered rather nutty.  She's definitely not ordinary. She offers to help  Cooper win his unfaithful  wife  back -- because she is friends with a friend and can get them connected -- in a rather unique way.  You may love this movie, you may hate it.  I'm sort of in-between.  Marvelous Cast Directed by David O. Russell, the acting is flawless.     

Saturday, November 24, 2012

LINCOLN

If you've read the rave reviews, you can believe them! This is a magnificent film.  With a huge, superb cast Directed by Steven Spielberg, the acting is so good, it doesn't seem like acting.  Daniel Day-Lewis, as they say,  "inhabits" the role of LINCOLN beyond any wildest expectations!  (Oscar, Oscar, Oscar!) Tony Kushner's screen play provides marvelous, lifelike dialogue.  The movie focuses on the last few years of Lincoln's life, reveals his home life, especially his loving relationship with his youngest son, as well as the impossible achievements he accomplished, getting the 13th Amendment passed (abolition of slavery, and bringing an end to the Civil War . Tommy Lee Jones is wonderful as "Thaddeus Stevens" -staunch supporter of Lincoln.  Sally Field is "Mary Todd Lincoln," his wife, known to have been mentally unbalanced, and Miss Fields is great in the role. I loved seeing Hal Holbrook, just to mention one more of the many gifted players.  This is an epic not to be missed.  (The film lasts about 2 hours and 40 minutes, but you can't be bored!)

Sunday, November 18, 2012

SKYFALL

Daniel Craig IS 007!  This latest James Bond thriller is a winner.  With a marvelous cast, including the inimitable Judi Dench as "M" (better than ever , so is Javier Bardem (one of my favorite fine actors) as the bad guy (but with a reason out of his past), and Ralph Fiennes, excellent as always. Directed by Sam Mendes, the Photography is   gorgeous. 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

LATE QUARTET

Exquisite MUSICsuperb cast ably Directed byYaron Zilberman.   Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, and Mark Ivanir play the members of a marvelous and successful string quartet.  The young (age 23) Imogen Poots plays the daughter of Keener and Hoffman.  This drama, perhaps I should really call it a melodrama, was simply marvelous. It actually brought me in tears in parts. Walken's character discovers he is in the early stages of Parkinson's disease.   The film has drama, some humor (not a lot) and  emphasizes the intensity of the dedication and concentration of true musicians.   Excellent film.