Med City Movie Guy

How much do you know about these films that “Made the Grade?”

Like the flicker of a Bunsen burner’s flame so goes another school year. But before you start celebrating, there’s this one last final exam. Pencils, err..., popcorn ready?

1. Gabba gabba, hey! In Rock 'n' Roll High School, P. J. Soles not only convinces these punk rockers to hear the song she wrote, but also succeeds in mainstreaming their controversial musical genre:
   a. The Clash
   b. The Ramones
   c. Iggy Pop and the Stooges
   d. The New York Dolls

2. “Hey bud, what's your problem?” This impertinence brought Jeff Spicoli precipitously closer to a showdown with Mr. Hand in Fast Times At Ridgemont High
   a. taking delivery of a pizza in class
   b. piping Van Halen through the P.A. system
   c. burning incense
   d. chewing the gum he found on the bottom of his checkered Vans

3. Though old enough to teach at the time, he played a high schooler in three movies: Carrie, Grease, and The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
   a. Sylvester Stallone
   b. Mickey Rourke
   c. John Travolta
   d. Jason Acuna

4. Director Amy Heckerling literally went back to school to make Alicia Silverstone’s Cher Horowitz and Co. realistic in this 1995 classic:
   a. Clueless
   b. American Pie
   c. The Principal
   d. Loser

5. Addressing The Breakfast Club’s John Bender, Dick Vernon warns, “Don't mess with the bull young man, you'll get the horns.”  What was Vernon's position at Shermer High School?
   a. The principal
   b. The assistant dean
   c. The basketball coach
   d. The guy who stocks the Pepsi machine

6. Leelee Sobieski offers Drew Barrymore “a certain amount of protection” if she'll join this club in the 1999 romantic comedy, Never Been Kissed
   a. The pi R squares
   b. It’s all geek to me
   c. Rebels without a subordinate clause
   d. The Denominators

7. In arguably the high point of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, two parking attendants take Cameron's father’s Ferrari airborne in one of the few opportunities to spy this apropos customized license plate:
   a. NRVOUS
   b. IJUST8
   c. TRUBOL
   d. FARARI

8. Fame, which documents a group of students at The New York High School of Performing Arts, starred:
   a. A young and spry Irene Cara
   b. A young and lucid Paula Abdul
   c. A young and slim Kelly Clarkson
   d. A young and restless Jeanne Cooper

9. This TV series was reportedly based on the 1957 breakout hit, Cooley High
   a. 'What's Happening!!'
   b. 'Good Times'
   c. 'Welcome Back, Kotter'
   d. 'Chico and the Man'

10. Today there is hug therapy and sensitivity training, but back in 1980 Chris Makepeace addressed his problem with a bully the old-fashioned way in this feel-good tale from The String producer Tony Bill:
   a. Summer School
   b. 187
   c. My Bodyguard
   d. I’m Tellin’

11. This Oscar winner was a disruptive student in The Blackboard Jungle and went on to teach a bunch of them in To Sir, with Love
   a. Paul Winfield
   b. Sidney Poitier
   c. Vic Morrow
   d. Jim Backus

12. In Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams tells his students that if they feel “daring” they may call him this
   a. “Hey you!”
   b. “John”
   c. “O Captain! My Captain!”
   d. “The One”

[1.B, 2.A, 3.C, 4.A, 5.A, 6.D, 7.A, 8.A, 9.A, 10.C, 11.B, 12.C]

“Salvation” has redeeming qualities

The year 2018 is predictable in the new film, Terminator Salvation, the fourth episode of the saga that began twenty-five years ago: Skynet runs amok, California passes a proposition allowing cyborgs to marry and Norm Coleman files another appeal after four hundred ballots are found inside an abandoned ATM machine in Polk County.

     John Connor (Christian Bale) is a rebel leader fighting the formidable self-aware computer network known as Skynet and is #2 on their hit list. Number one is Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), a young outlier Connor will send back to 1984 to beget himself and for now shows his mettle by rescuing Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington). Wright, who is a remorseful death row inmate just now awakened some fifteen years after donating his body to Cyberdyne Systems, learns he is actually a machine but is nonetheless intent on not squandering his second chance.
     Using a secret radio frequency that immobilizes the terminators (déjà vu, Lukas Haas, Slim Whitman’s “When I’m calling yooooooooouuuu,” Mars Attacks!), they set-out for Skynet’s San Francisco headquarters to put a stop to the bionic brigands.
     The film features Christian Bale – who last year starred in The Dark Knight, and this year in a youtube on-set meltdown – and the relatively unknown Australian actor Sam Worthington. All eyes, though, are on the T-800 endoskeletons that are introduced at the very end. These are the first terminators to sport the T-101 organic shell that resembles a certain governor. (Yea, I am a little embarrassed to know these things, but Trekkies are still bigger dorks.) Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3) as John’s wife Kate and Moon Bloodgood (Eight Below) as fighter pilot Blair Williams round-out the cast.
     Notwithstanding a few over-the-top effects like the gigantic terminators that spawn motorcycle-riding mobile miniatures, Terminator Salvation, does not disappoint and even manages to shoehorn-in the iconic catchphrases “stay with me if you want to live” and “I’ll be back.”
     Still, critics were not kind to Terminator Salvation, whose weekend box-office take was only slightly less than co-debutante Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. But the film has redeeming qualities. Although it is not helmed by James Cameron who brought us the first (and best) two installments, The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), this one will surely satisfy fans. Director “McG” (Joseph McGinty Nichol), who made his bones with the Drew Barrymore big screen version of Charlie’s Angels and has steered dozens of music videos, delivers a gritty sci-fi action piece that fills-in a few blanks while at the same time moving the plot forward at a comfortable pace.

3 Honks
MPAA Rating:  PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action, language, and an audience almost entirely devoid of women.

And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2009/05/chris-miksanek-med-city-movie-guy-happenings.html

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810025211/trailer.

Sequel rights

Friday's Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian picks up where the successful 2006 Ben Stiller "dramedy" left off. Critics will chime in, naturally, but exactly how good this sequel really is will be decided by moviegoers voting with their dollars. We'll have to wait for the weekend box-office numbers to see what they say, in the meantime:

     Best sequel: The Godfather Part II 
     Worst sequel: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

What's on your list?

“Museum” franchise is a national treasure

In Battle of the Smithsonian, the sequel to the wildly successful 2006 film, Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller once more proves that history really does come alive … which explains the ping-pong playing silhouettes of Will and Charlie that I saw Tuesday night while driving past the Olmsted County Historical Center.

     After several of the Museum of Natural History’s exhibits are sent to the Smithsonian Institution archives, night watchman Larry Daley (Stiller) again takes-up his flashlight to watch over the likes of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck), and most significantly Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) whose tablet brings them, and everything else in the storied halls, to life. That wouldn’t necessarily be bad except that pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) and henchmen Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), Napoleon Bonaparte (Alain Chabat) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal) aren’t happy merely wandering around admiring Dorothy’s ruby slippers or Fonzie’s jacket and wage an epic battle to take over the entire museum. To restore order, Larry teams with some old friends (Dexter, Octavius, Attila the Hun) and some new ones (General Custer, Amelia Earhart, The Wright Brothers).
     Sequels are notorious for disappointing even the most loyal fans—Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Ocean's Twelve for example, were tremendous letdowns (to say nothing of Herbie: Fully Loaded)—but it would be hard to screw-up here. Comedian Ben Stiller is at the top of his game, last year orchestrating the wonderfully entertaining Tropic Thunder, and the franchise’s museum premise is rife for introducing new characters without coming off as hackneyed.
     What delivers Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, though, is the cast. Buoying Stiller is Academy Award nominated Amy Adams (Doubt) as love interest Amelia Earhart. Favorites like Robin Williams, Owen Wilson and Ricky Gervais are back and joined by SNL’s Bill Hader as Custer, The Jonas Brothers (voicing the Cherubs), Eugene Levy (voicing Einstein) and perennial mission control technician Clint Howard (Austin Powers,  Apollo 13) in one of the few movies not helmed by his brother Ron.
     With such a broad palette of characters and a canvas woven of drama and comedy, Battle of the Smithsonian ought to please just about everyone though there will undoubtedly be the few scholastic types who’ll take exception to the perpetuation of the myth that Custer was an egomaniacal reckless bumbler or the absurdity of Kahmunrah speaking perfect English. Let them. The rest of us will enjoy the film..

.
2 ½ Honks
MPAA Rating: PG for mild action and brief language.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810028001/trailer

And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2009/05/chris-miksanek-med-city-movie-guy-happenings.html

Chris Miksanek / Med City Movie Guy Happenings

Friday at 8:35
Listen to the Med City Movie Guy at 8:35 am every 3^rd Friday of the month on KROC AM 1340: Rochester's Good Morning..

Most Wednesdays

Catch the Med City Movie Guy "Live at Five" on KTTC.

 

 

 

.

The Med City Movie Guy on Facebook

. . .

"Earth" does a world of good

In Earth the first film from the new Disneynature label, we get a close-up view of spectacular animals like the polar bear and its natural activates which, many may be surprised to know, do not include putting ornaments on Christmas trees in Coca Cola commercials.

     Director Alastair Fothergill, the BBC, stunning digital photography and the magnificent oration of James Earl Jones bring us this big screen documentary so compelling that it is only when the end credits roll that we realize we’ve gone ninety minutes without roads, strip malls or cell phone towers. In fact, there is no human activity whatsoever. Yet the hour and a half has not been without characters or drama.
     Earth is a year in the life of our planet, capturing, from pole to pole, the diverse and often entertaining spectrum of faunae rarely seen. It unfolds in January with the introduction of a family of arctic polar bears and finishes at the extreme south where the humpback whale concludes its long migratory treks. Birds of paradise provide comic relief, though the real spectacle is the grand scale of it all. Three million caribou cross the tundra (old school, no C.G.), a mass of swordfish dart through the ocean waters at speeds up to seventy miles per hour, and a group of lions break their “fragile alliance” with elephants at a watering hole in the Kalahari Desert.
     Thankfully, the film spares us the harshness of nature. When a cheetah takes down its prey, for example, the scene quickly cuts-away with Jones shrugging it off as part of “the circle of life.” It is precisely at that moment, too, that we are reminded how perfectly complimenting is this Lion King’s diction, which has also brought life to characters like Santa Clause and Darth Vader.
     The film also manages to avoid politicized environmental pontifications, as well. Some allusions are made to the challenges species face due to the changes this alive planet has experienced since long before humans called it home, but it is all in context. Dolphins aren’t caught in tuna nets and grizzly bears don’t cut their paws on broken pickle jars.
     Alas, Earth is one of those films that very few moviegoers anticipate with excitement. When it premiered on “Earth Day” (naturally), there were no red carpets, long lines or costumed fans. Still, it managed a respectable top-10 box office opening. And though it may appeal most to the “Animal Planet” or “National Geographic” crowds, this awesome digital experience will hold everyone’s attention.

  
 
2 ½ Honks
MPAA Rating: G
 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809427488/trailer

And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2009/05/chris-miksanek-med-city-movie-guy-happenings.html

In “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” Michael Douglas is so funny it’s scary

In the new romantic comedy, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past Matthew McConaughey plays a philandering photographer who goes through women like the Clinic goes through alcohol wipes.

     After losing his parents at a young age, Connor Mead (McConaughey) was reared by his playboy Uncle Wayne (Academy Award winning Michael Douglas), a legendary ladies man who imparted just one bit of advice on love: “don’t fall for it.” So when his brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) asks him to be the best man at his wedding, Connor is understandably conflicted. After all, he just orchestrated a conference call break-up with three of his most recent conquests because he is patently against getting involved with anyone for even a week, let alone a lifetime.
     The night before the wedding, however, he is visited by the long dead uncle who confesses that in retrospect, his own loveless life was unfulfilling and to save his protégée from a similar fate, three ghosts will soon come to him. Borrowing from Dickens, these spirits of girlfriends past, present and future, show the younger Mead not just the errors of his ways, but how he may win back the love of his live, Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner), as well.
     Trite as it is, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past works. It’s a cute date movie chock with laughs. Though Garner is only adequate as girl who got away, McConaughey is brilliantly cast as the committed no-strings bachelor. Anne Archer and Robert Forster are entertaining as the bride’s hot mom and ex-Marine father, respectively. Emma Stone, as Allison Vandermeersh, the ghost of girlfriends past, is a hoot, but the real treat is Michael Douglas whose shallow Uncle Wayne is truly the Gordon Gekko of players. His is the most entertaining character with all of the best lines. For example, early in his tutelage, after the 9th-grade Connor suggests the best way to hit on a “dame” is to instead approach her girlfriend and make the target jealous, Douglas takes a measured pause to catch his breath and says, “Hand to God, kid, I never thought of you as my son until just now.”
      Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is that rare ‘chick flick’ that satisfies the guys, too. It has it all -- from romantic redemption to the requisite Cadillac flying though a solarium window while blasting Elvis Presley’s ‘Burning Love.” Most of all, it has an unrelenting Michael Douglas who can’t help but hit on everyone in sight, including other ghosts like young Allison Vandermeersh whose objection (“Eewwww, I’m, like, sixteen!”) is rejoined with, “Hey, we’re ghosts, baby. We’re ageless!” 

3 Honks
MPAA Rating:  PG-13 for sexual content throughout, some language and a drug reference

Viuew the trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809994768/trailer

And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2008/08/shameless-self.html..

.