Movie Suggestion Post #90

Movie Ratings are on a scale of 1-5. Anything rated over 3 stars and is in bold, is usually a pretty good rating (5 star ratings are very rare with me)! – Content is listed for those who are careful about what they or their children view (or what to be aware of). I usually rate based on content, plot, photography/direction, and acting.)

Gimme Shelter 2014 (w/ Vanessa Hudgens, Rosario Dawson, Brandan Fraser, Ann Dowd, James Earl Jones) -3.25 stars – This is a true story about a teenage girl who has never really had an actual place to stay because she was taken away from her drug addict mother when she was young. She seeks her father out, whom she has never met before in hopes that he will help her out. When it seems like nothing is going well, she ends up in a home to help troubled girls out. She tries to sort her life out while having to deal with her crazy mother and her rich father and his wife and kids while building a family of her own with other teens similar to her. This actually made me cry here and there. It was a good story, though sometimes slow. I liked it. It was sad much of the time though, but there were happy instances. I will say that Vanessa Hudgens did a great job acting in this movie and I was impressed, but I didn’t understand her accent – was that a NYC accent? It was strange and I live 20 minutes from NYC!
content: physical fight between mother and daughter, immodesty (a woman shown with her dress up enough to see her underwear, a girl’s belly shown), a girl is shown throwing up in distance, talk about drugs and alcohol abuse, blood and bruises shown, talk about God, a woman spits in another woman’s face, a woman slaps her daughter, a mother slices her daughter’s face with a razor (blood shown), talk about a teen being pregnant, talk about an adult man touching a little girl inappropriately, language (small “b” word about 3 or 4 times, , misuse of the word “hell”, “d” word, calling someone a “whore”)

Teaching Mrs. Tingle 1999 (w/ Katie Holmes, Helen Mirren, Marissa Coughlan, Barry Watson, Molly Ringwald, Jeffrey Tambor) -3 stars – I remember when this movie came out it did not do well. I was very impressed by Helen Mirren’s acting and character throughout this film that it helped the rating get to 3 stars or it would have been a bit lower. Leigh Ann wants to graduate so badly as valedictorian. She has been number two in school for too long and one teacher who is far too strict has been holding her back: Mrs. Tingle. She has been teaching at the school for so long and seems to just not care about Leigh Ann’s needing a scholarship to get out of town. She has a best friend who has always been there for her and a guy who doesn’t seem to care much for anything gets Leigh Ann and her friend in trouble with Mrs. Tingle which causes them to need to take measures into their hands to fix the problem, though it goes further than they hoped. The plot didn’t really have a solution but it was still well done and I found the film interesting. There were things in it that I did not care for though too (see content). I think that in a way this is a scary film for teens to see because it could lead to some bad ideas in their heads just out of their selfish desires. There are also things that I am left questioning but in a way I like having to think about what the outcome of certain things may have turned out to be.
content:: two characters seen wearing bras – one who has her shirt unbuttoned a bit by another to reveal her bra against her wishes, teen drinking, teens get a teacher drunk, a person held hostage, some blood shown in a few scenes, people using crossbow on others with released arrows, immodest clothing worn, kissing, a scene where you hear noises to imply sex, a woman slaps a man, people trying to choke others, people shown in a blanket with one another after pre-marital sex, a few sexual innuendos, bad language (“f” word, “b” word, “d” word, “a” word), a cigarette shown being lit, a man kisses another man thinking he’s a woman, an affair talked of

The Manhattan Project 1986 (w/ John Lithgow, Christopher Collet, Cynthia Nixon, John Mahoney) – 2.5 stars - Paul really likes science and is excited to work on a project for the school fair. He and his girlfriend Jenny built an atomic bomb together and now he’s hoping it won’t go off! I always heard about that movie but had never seen it to see what it was about. I am actually pretty surprised it was even made! Gotta love how this kid replaced plutonium with something that was overlooked by professional scientists for a few weeks. Haha. Gotta love cheeseball 80s films (I really do), but at the same time it is crazy this kid would want to make such a terrible thing for a science project and that his girlfriend thinks it is attractive.
content: teenage smoking, kissing, talk about going further than kissing, breaking and entering, stealing, language (God’s name used blasphemously, the “f” word, “d” word, “a” word, “s” word, Jesus’ name used blasphemously), small bombs going off, guns pointed at kids, social (adult) drinking

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth 2011 (documentary) – 3 stars - This documentary is about a housing project that took place in the early 1950′s in St. Louis after the idea in the late 1940′s came about that it would be wonderful to help people who live in poverty to have a place to live. Of course this highlights with much video footage and interviews of how bad life was in this project area between the lack of help those people had or the lack of jobs allowed for them and racism. It was quite interesting to learn about, as the project went to shambles only after a couple of decades and was then destroyed and demolished. The 33 buildings built in St. Louis were created by the same architect who made the WTC. The myth by the way is that because this project “failed” therefore all attempts like this must fail, which is not true.
content:: talk about drugs and crime, people shown smoking and drinking

Another Thin Man 1939 (w/ William Powell, Myrna Loy) – 3.25 stars - I’ve written a bunch of reviews of the Powell/Loy combo films. It is always delightful to watch them together. This is the third Thin Man movie. A married couple who are detectives always get mixed up in murder investigations. The movie is also a comedy in the mix of the tragic events that happen. In this story the Charles couple (Nick and Nora) have a baby as well, but that doesn’t tire their hard work efforts! They get contacted by a wealthy man. He states that there is a man who had a dream of a him being murdered. He is going crazy with paranoia that he’ll be murdered. This of course is a funny way of revealing “who done it.”
content: a lot of smoking and social drinking, a woman in a long nightgown shown, punching and shooting, murder and attempted murders (no blood or gore), kissing, a married woman kisses someone she is not married to

Lucy 2003 (w/ Rachel York, Danny Pino, Ann Dowd, LaChanze, Madeline Zima) - 2.75 stars – This is a made for TV movie about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s relationship and career together. It that wasn’t that bad, but some of the acting at times was terrible. Other times I felt like Rachel York recreated some of the classic I Love Lucy scenes perfectly where she even sounded like Lucille Ball. The marriage of Lucille and Desi was pretty sad at times, and the film showed that. This could have been done much better. I was a bit disappointed, though I am sure many people would like this just since it does tell their story and has a great wardrobe set up.
content:: a teen girl disobeys her parents, kissing, a woman in lingerie and underwear, a married couple shown in bed on top of one another making out (actually this scene to me was a bit too graphic and unnecessary though it showed no nudity), bad language throughout it, smoking, drinking/drunkenness, talk about infidelity, divorce/talk of divorce, immodesty

Breaking Amish 2012 (TV, season one) – 2 stars - Four Amish and one Old Order Mennonite woman are chosen to go to NYC to learn about the ways of the world. I found this show to be heartbreaking honestly. Two of the people in this were adopted into their families and it seems they never were able to properly deal with understanding who they are as it is that when mixed up and confused and put into a place where they don’t really get a good educational understanding of what is going on really can ruin them. Another girl is the Bishop’s daughter who wants to be a model when it is not allowed for Amish to be photographed as it is. The last two seem to be most in touch with their roots and don’t really want to experiment but just don’t want to be Amish anymore and they show a bit of their love story in this. Basically this was like watching The Real World but with the Amish.
content: lots of swearing, kissing, people mocking others, a lot of immodesty (mainly of strippers in a city area – the Amish’ reactions to this are either repulsed or they embrace it), talk about hooking up (not sure what that means to these Amish), drinking and drunkenness, lots of flirting, pranks

12 Years A Slave 2013 (w/Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson) – 3 stars - Based on the autobiography and true story, Solomon Northup is an accomplished violinist who lives in Saratoga, NY. He goes to Washington D.C. when led by men who are really slave owners that make him believe he is getting a job to perform his music in a circus. This movie shows the atrocities of the treatment of people having African roots during the mid to late 1800s. Solomon wants to make his way back home to his family. There was a LOT of various content in this movie, though some of it I don’t think was necessary, I understand why other parts were shown (in a very horrific way to show the reality and sickness). Please be cautious when watching this film even though it is very good. It is interesting because I was saying a couple of years ago how I felt there were hardly any movies about slavery, be it past or present day slavery and then I saw that this film was in the making. It was a great representation about how very terrible 19th century slavery was. There is nudity in this film and if there were not I would have rated this five stars, easily.
content: At one point in a room filled with people a woman has a man grasp her breast under her clothing (her breast is not shown) and then has him touch her even lower as she has an orgasm (nothing shown but her body is moving around), kissing, a man shown being beaten with a board and then whipped, drinking/drunkenness, the backsides of men shown, racist remarks/connotation used, a man is stabbed to death, many scars shown on people’s bodies or missing limbs, women and men shown bathing outside naked and then lined up humiliatingly to be sold, a woman is separated from her two small children, a man gets kicked around, a man spits, a man gets hung a bit at a time as torture and punishment, men being lynched to death, a slave girl is raped by her “master” (we see that he is on top of her and their faces are shown), immodesty, a woman is slapped at and hit in the head with a jar, a slave owner likes to watch his slaves dance in their night clothes, adultery, a woman scratches a slave with her nails, a woman gets whipped in the back after being stripped and tied to a post to be whipped, language (God’s name used blasphemously 3x, long “b” word, short “b” word)

As You Like It 2006 (w/ Bryce Dallas Howard, David Oyelowo, Brian Blessed, Romolo Garai, Kevin Kline, Alfred Molina) – 3.25 stars - This was a very unique take on Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy. What I liked about this film version is that it was so uniquely done!! They made the setting in Japan during many people from England’s venture there because of the silk and trade. They also included interracial couples in the story which I believe was beautifully done! The entire movie is done using Shakespeare’s play language of old English. The story revolves around Rosalind (yes, not to be confused with Romeo & Juliet’s Rosalind who is briefly mentioned). Anyway, so the setting is done in Japan where there is a wrestling match and some things happen to make a father and daughter become banished into the woods. The young woman decides to pretend to be a young man while there. She meets Orlando who sweeps her heart up so much but he doesn’t recognize her when he meets her again in the woods as a “man”. He confesses his love for Rosalind without knowing that the one he is speaking to IS Rosalind. She wants to find a way to let him know that she is who she is but there are all these various things that happen that make it hard to do! It was very funny and beautifully filmed. I laughed and enjoyed it. I had not known about this play before.
content: immodesty (much cleavage shown), a woman is bathing in the water (her back is seen) and she hides behind a large tree to cover her entire front side, men dressed as sumo wrestlers are shown and sometimes close up, kissing, mockery especially of women being called ugly or looking manly, people fully dressed being in a barnyard together and a guy seems to kiss a woman’s cleavage, mention of the word “slut”, some violence (someone gets killed, blood shown, no gore), a lion attacks a person (blood is shown)