Visiting Where Kevin Costner was Inspired....

Springbreak we traveled north into Wyoming and then east into South Dakota. Stopping in Deadwood, South Dakota for the night, in search of some family history, my husband's great grandfather had brought a team of horse and help grade the path for the railroad between Deadwood and Leads the next mining town up the canyon in 1890.
I'm sorry, but Deadwood is a very "yucky" town. Historical yes, with hype from the shooting of Wild Bill Hickcock and for where he and other famous characters of the West like Calamity Jane are buried up in the Mount Moriah Cemetery. You can see the grave for a $1.00 and the trolley will take you up there if you are too tired from gambling. But the town is full of slot machines and old people wasting away their social security checks.  It was off season, maybe it would be more interesting in the high season and without kids in tow.....No I hate gambling.

But what was interesting, about the town, was the connection to Kevin Costner, who discovered it while filming Dances with Wolves....

 

Filmed a little bit in Wyoming, it was mostly filmed in the grasslands of South Dakota and while there or soon after Costner became interested in Deadwood.

 

Well, we did find some refuge from the smoke and ding ding of the casinos in his sportbar, part of The Midnight Star, Costner's very own, Western style casino, complete with memorabilia.

 

from The Untouchables...



 

 

Saw it, I think, but that Era of movies isn't something I go back to watch again.

 

The Bodyguard...

 

 

So reflects the early 90's, I got married and tried to figure out how to be an adult and The Bodyguard reminds me of that world that was so long ago!

 

 

The Postman...

 

 

A Western in the Future, Postman was not received well, but I always like watching it when it comes up on Netflix.

 

Open Range...

 

 

Open Range, with Robert Duvall is a slow moving, setting the scene of the West at a slow pace with not that much of a story line, come to think of it, I can't remember what the story line was, but I do remember there was a probably very accurate, if not boring shoot out, where a lot of wood chips flew around the shots, but no one could hit much of what they were aiming at with their pistols. But it is a beautifully filmed movie.

 

 and of course quite a bit from Dances With Wolves...

 

I didn't see any memorabilia from my favorite Costner movie...

 

 

I have probably seen most of Costners movies, his most recent effort on the History Channels Miniseries Hatfields and the McCoys, still available on Netflix.Com download.

 



Best Line: The Wedding Date

Yesterday I was thinking about this movie, THE WEDDING DATE. It's nothing heavy. Just a daughter (Debra Messing- SMASH, WILL AND GRACE)returning home for the wedding of her sister, the favored one, when her life is not so great, so she hires a "male escort" (Dermot Mulroney-MY BEST FRIENDS WEDDING ) to pose as her date.

Sadly there is much I can relate to in this movie...well apart from the particulars, escpecially paying the male escort part, but I can relate to scenes like this where they're are on the plane, headed to London and the cloud of dread is already over her head...
   KAT (to NICK- who is calm and smartly dressed):

Oh, I should warn you.

You know those families

where everyone's out of their mind
 but they're your family

 so you Iove them?

 Mine's not like that.

 

(she pause to think, then adds...)

 

I Iove my dad.
But since he's my stepdad,
he's technically not family.
He's more like a hostage.

 

I think of that line often......helps keep me sane! 

 

 

Don't Google "Downton Abbey" if you're watching in the US

Under NO circumstances, if you are enjoying watching Season 3 of PBS's Masterpiece Theater- Downton Abbey- Google, Yahoo, read the news, or Image Search- you will be greatly disappointed. Disappointed is not the word, Deflated is more what I am feeling right now. I just wanted to find some nice pictures to put up so your "right brain" could be entertained while I told you some tidbits about the life of the "Countried Gentry", I have been reading about, inspired by the first few episodes we have seen here.
But now, after spotting some  images of "events" that HAD NOT happened in the series so far in the US of A in my images searches, I HAD to look into it further!
The shocking ending of Season 3 is  "Old News" in the "Old Country"  ended at Christmas last year. Let's just say that according to the news- there were some "pissed off" Brits- declaring their Christmas was ruined because of the "Downton Abbey Christmas Special 2012"- but DO NOT GOOGLE that- no matter how intrigued you are- ignorance is bliss!
Done whining....
Well,  actually- I do not understand the staggered release dates that different countries do in our Internet age-
In Cinema, like the latest Bond offering, even the ten days- two weeks that is the norm...

 released in October in the UK and in most of Europe- even Egypt saw it before we did in the US which was in early November-
We do the same thing here in the US...

Ten days between the US and UK releases.

In comparison, most of the world got to see the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, a word wide effort for sure,

 after the premieres in New Zealand and London were done.

Publishing also irritatingly does this- the early Harry Potter books  were released a year later in the US. The later books were released at the same time, probably to avoid world wide riots.

I can understand when there was  a time when staggering release dates grew anticipation, allowing time for the word to spread, but now it is just irritating, cause I know, real time what the "word is" in the UK, well actually also Turkey, Greenland and other parts- cause, I catch up every morning on Google Reader- surround by dogs, a cup of tea and a view across canyons and pinons to distant Blue Mountains in Utah.
These places are also now in my backyard- as far as "gossip" goes at least  and well, it it just too darn easy to find out something you haven't seen yet or read yet- cause everyone else in the world is talking about it around the virtual "water cooler"!

What was I going to tell you about Downton Abbey, which sent me to Google Images in the first place... I'll save for another time.

Are you kidding me...

 

Believe it or not, there was literally NO Movie, I could take my 14 year old to. I take that back, I am sure young teens and children were gleefully in the theaters this weekend, munching on popcorn, popping Dip and Dots on to their tongue as blood spattered across the screen, but, well not my kids....

Here what was playing at our two local theaters- eleven theaters, two locations, I might add...

 

"Rated R"

Always like the "fun ride" of a Jason Statham movie, but there is usually a lot of entertaining killing scenes, not taking my kid...

"Rated R"

Like these guys as well, but very few of their movies are kid appropriate....

"Rated R"

Don't even know what this movie is about but I'd say the poster is rather telling what it might "show"

"Rated R"

My 19 year old daughter, who I think was eighteen before I took her to a R Rated movie, said this was pretty good and I want to see it, just not with her little sister in tow!

"Rated R"

Huh? Wonder what this movie is about?

 

"Rated R"

 

This looked fun, a little off the wall Romantic Comedy, but uhhh, not taking my kiddo, who still hides her face when people kiss, or are NAKED! I actually like that fleeting innocents in her and want to hold on to it as long as I can. Maybe the mistake of taking her to see this...

 

 

Yeah.... when he time travels, he's NAKED! and he time travels....a lot! I think she is scarred for life.

 

Oh, sorry, there was one PG 13 offering....

 

And it's a kid movie, right? Here is the description....

"Annabel and Lucas are faced with the challenge of raising his young nieces that were left alone in the forest for 5 years.... but how alone were they?"

 

ahhhh.....I don't think so.

 

Oh, if you are counting that is not eleven theater but PARKER was in two theaters and this movie...

 

was in several and in 3D! so you could almost touch the blood spatters as they fell at you!

 

Come on Hollywood!

 

 

I am debating on going off on one of my "Get a Grip Hollywood" rants or telling you a funny story to end this post. Think I will tell the story.

 

I remember well my first R rated movie I saw in a theater. Well back then, pre even home videos, it was the only way to see a R rated movie and it was this...

 

     I can still hear the theme song in my head! I so wanted to see this movie, but being a "good girl" the thought of sneaking in did not occur to me, so I ask my mother to take me. She thought it would be too embarrassing to sit there with me, so I took my grandma, yup, you read right, I took my grandma, actually drove her there myself, I was 16, and she happily snacked on popcorn while we watched Debra Winger and Richard Gere, and I mean ALL of Richard Gere on the big screen, a very big screen!

My innocent was further scattered when at 19, I enrolled in Art School and took figure drawing.

But daughter #2 is sweet and innocent and it's all kind of cute right now, so, we didn't go to a movie this weekend, which is a bummer. Headed to see daughter #1 at college this coming weekend, one can only hope there is something for all of us to see!

 

P.S.- as also a teacher with playground duty it is boggling to the mind to watch a few kids who DID get to go see the current blood spattering movie, i.e. Hansel and Gretal, give enough cliff notes to the "innocent and sweetly ignorant kids" so that a rousing, pretend violent reenactment can happen on the playground!

 



 

 







Review: Skyfall

Did manage to get over the pass, dealing with our first snowfall of the season and see SKYFALL. Daughter #1 and Boyfriend came home from college for the weekend so there were five of us and arriving at the theater the line was out the door.
We had ordered advanced tickets, but still needed to wait in line to get them and so we divided and conquered, I stood in the long line for popcorn, cause you got to have popcorn, some kids held the line to get into the theater and Jon got the tickets.
I was still waiting for concessions when the theater line started to move and by the time we got into the theater, five seats were only to be had in  the second row, which I have learned is not so bad, if you are on one end or the other. My neck does feel a little bit croocked.
To say this movie had a whole lot of hype going into it would be an understatement, I am even guilty of adding to it. SEE HERE, But looking at the reviews this morning, the movie is consistently favored amongst the critics.
So......I tread lightly.
Do I think SKYFALL is the best Bond movie ever?
Personally, no, CASINO ROYALE will always be one of my favorite movies, But knowing the Bond Franchise well, I now know why SKYFALL is getting such rave review.....It is Bond at it's purest form, because other than CASINO ROYLE, all the Bond movie's follow a formula and SKYFALL follows it well...
Exciting chase scene
Opulent opening credits
International Exotic locals
Gadgets
Quippy comments
More interesting way to kill the bad guys
and at least two Bond girls, one good and plain, one bad and exotic, both cave to being ravished by Bond, and one ends up dead with little remorse from the man himself.
Aston Martins and PPKs
Oh, and a few martinis, shaken not stirred.

Many Bond lovers come to the theater with a mental list ready to be checked off, as the above are reveled, and SKYFALL does not disappoint, Bond even using a giant lizard to take out one of the henchmen, before he climbs out of the pit and dusts off his tuxedo and says something quippy

SKYFALL does go the other way too, trying to give us more of 007 inner turmoil with much interaction with M and even a look into where he came from, though it is quickly blown to bits, not much of a "spoiler" for a Bond movie, I think.

The "Bond Bad Guy" this time is played by Javier Bardem...

Who is very good at playing bad guys...

Money, Power and well Ruling the World, have always been a part of a good Bond movie and one criticism I do have with SKYFALL, is there was only Revenge behind the evil powers hurdled at MI6 this time. The "why" for me had to be a little bit more convincing.

There certainly was a little bit of everything in SKYFALL...

a little bit of previous classic Bond

 

 

                                                         a little bit of Bourne Identity

                                                   Even a little bit of McGyver...

and  Wuthering Heights, see it and see if you don't think Bond is

channeling  Heathcliff a little bit in the end...

 

So, yes, SKYFALL definitely delivers a good Bond Movie, oh and the last of the Iconic characters are back, Q and Miss Moneypenny, so why am I not as thrilled as I was hoping to be?

 

 

I think the answer lies with my love of CASINO ROYALE, that movie had a lot action, beautiful locals but it also lead with a lot of heart and it was raw, not polished, dare we say it was "character driven?

 

What should Bond movies "lead" with, pure testosterone and they have ever since 007 rough handled or took advantage of the first Bond girl to get information out of her and didn't even shed a tear when she became "collateral damage".

 

So yes, Bond is definitely back, a formulaic, guaranteed good ride of action, suspense and all that has been Bond for the last fifty years.

 

Huh, guess there is a part of me, a girly part, that wants something different. I only know so much about Bond because my older brother controlled the TV channels on Saturdays, since he could sit on me, but like I've said, I'll watch about any thing to watch a movie, so 007 got under my skin.

 

Reality is Bond IS a Bad Boy, as he explained, in Casino Royale, laying on top of Dimitrios' girlfriend when she lamentates on her opertunity to be with someone good, a day before she became colliteral damage, and reality is- in Film or real life, us girls too often are just that in what is still a man's world.
That is why I think we gravite to that little glimmer of a hero when we see it, since it comes all too infrequently. 

 



Review: Chasing Mavrick

Took daughter #2 and a friend over to Durango to "do lunch" and see a movie, all with gift cards from the past year. Kind of a fun adventure, to try and go see some entertainment and not have to pay for it. The movie passes were from the grandmother of one of my Navajo/Ute students, who must like me as a teacher, so that was an honor!
The girls went to see Hotel Transylvania, but I picked CHASING MAVERICKS, starring Gerald Butler...

Who has had kind of a hit or miss film career, with hits like...

 

and some misses, but lets move on.
I first noticed Butler as the five minute love interest of  Lara Croft sequel CRADLE OF LIFE.
BTW, if you want to see a young Daniel Craig, check out Croft's five minute love interest in the first Croft movie...

 

There might be "Bond girls" but Craig and Butler are "Croft boys"

 

Back to CHASING MAVERICK'S. Relatively new comer Jonny Weston portrays  Jay Moriarity, who gained world fame at 16, surfing one of Central California's most dangerous waves. Butler plays "Frosty", a hippie-esque surfer who literally teaches him "the waves" and becomes a father figure to the young boy.

                                

If you are really into surfing, you'll probably like the movie, though there are few  exciting surf scenes, it is more about the building the story of Frosty and Moriarity's relationship.

Come to think of it, building a story is much like waiting for a wave to build, to ride it to the shore. A story should build and build slowly, through Act 1 and Act 2 and then at it's peak, or climax provide an exciting ride to the shoreline.......CHASING MAVERICKS was more like still waters for 2/3 of the movie and then a fast crash to the end.

And I am sorry, but I just don't get it, IT. That thing that makes certain males go and surfing monster waves,  climbing dangerous mountains, or extreme skiing for the hell of it.  

There is a name for that, "counting coup"

explained HERE at the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains site, but basically it is getting close enough to your enemy to touch them, but not kill them and getting away so they don't kill you.

We don't usual "count coup" anymore, but I honestly think that is the motivation in these extreme sports, that eventual all to often do claim the life of the young men who we idolize. Such the case, sadly, with Moriarity in his early twenties, deep sea diving.

I think it is something ingrained in boys DNA, something I discussed in my review of 127 HOURS.

I know there are stories out there of heroes who were not "counting coup" but had to face the enemy and dangerous obstacles in the course of saving themselves or others, one of my favorites...

oh yeah, a great movie starring one of those "Croft Boys".

 

 

This I am Looking Forward To...

and I love the UK version of the movie poster which I found on COLLIDER.COM , a little bit of London in the background?

 

Here in the US poster, we will have to wait until November 9th to see the film....

 I always find it interesting how the same film, or book for that matter, gets a different cover for advertising in different countries. Guess the powers that be think the UK market is a little bit more classy and the US, well we just like guns! 

Collider.com is saying the film is getting really good reviews, so that makes me extra happy. Wow, a good movie coming out this fall, who thunk it!  

It is also Bond's 50th anniversary, he doesn't look it! Big feature in last month's Vanity Fair...

Love Craig's interview...for the shear fact you can tell how much he hates to give interviews!

There is also a good spread of all those who have uttered the words, "Bond, James Bond."- can you name them all? I can- Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Bronson and that one that made just one movie- On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

This post is more a report from one of those funny Samsung Galaxy phone commercials knocking the people waiting outside the Apple Store for the new iPhone release...

Have you noticed, as of late, be it movies, TV shows, phones that we are actually getting less then we use to but the powers that be are very good in making us believe we are actually getting more?

Movies for one have been regurgitated and regurgitated to the point where they do not have anymore nutritional value in them what so ever. How many remakes and sequels have we had pushed down our throats and half thrown together high end "effects" but low end stories have we paid good money to go see, just like the confused souls I often see in line in front of Apple stores- really?

But what do we do at the movie theaters?

About the same thing, get excited that Spiderman this time will be in 3D!!

Thus why I am salivating to see Skyfall- something new- even if it is from a fifty year old franchise.

I often tease my kids- that texting is really about the same as sending a Western Union telegram- you know...

"That form of communication STOP that you often say in old black and white movies STOP" 140 characters was about what you could get on a telegram.

but now it is cool again- to wait five minutes between sentences.

And I love the whole, lets watch a movie on a 4 inch by 6 inch screen together or alone, instead of a big screen, comfy couch and a bowl of popcorn. 

Are we really this stupid to think that these are advancement in our society- interacting by facebook in 149 characters or less instead of real face time together? Now being able to watch movies by ourselves on tiny screens instead of with someone else or seeing it as it was meant to be on a screen the size of a building. Listening to music feed directly into our brains through our earphones, instead of filling a house with music, as part of a evening around the table with good food and company.

Now I here that they are in talks to make a fourth, or would that be a seventh Star Wars...

 one going forward, with Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker segwaying a new cast of characters, the fact that someone like Harrison Ford is even considering such a thing really speaks to the "Nothing New in Hollywood", concern of the general public.

Or could it be that every story that is interesting has actually been told on the big screen....let's hope not!

BTW, the original Star Wars poster above is listed on the Internet for $12,000 and the poster from the first Bond Movie, Dr. No....

 

$12,000 again. So when you go to see Skyfall, or already snatched one from Casino Royale, we won't mention the other movie, roll it up and stick it under your bed for your grandchildren!