Witness (1985)

Before murder mysteries involving the Amish were a staple of The Hallmark Channel there was Witness. This is a great movie, a Harrison Ford vehicle that transcends mere Harrison Ford vehicle. After a young Amish boy (Lukas Haas, a cute kid but now an odd looking man) witnesses a murder in a Philadelphia train station, Ford's Det. John Book must keep him and his mother (Kelly McGillis, whatever happened to her?) safe when it becomes clear that corrupt cops are involved. The film largely breaks from its traditional thriller angle for a protracted, near anthropological stay, hiding in the Amish community. This is where the movie excels, the mystery is fine, but its Ford dealing with his new, forced surroundings that is most engaging, this must have been particularly novel in the mid 1980's, I can't think of an Amish themed film older then this. Quite ably directed by Australian Peter Weir. There is some beautiful cinematography here and a nice score as well. I loved this movie. ****

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

While the original Kick-Ass was novel and transgressive its sequel felt for the most part tired and pointless. Most of the original cast returns, and we have the addition of Jim Carey, in a part that there was no good reason to have Jim Carey play other then to pad the cast with a fading star, a role Nicholas Cage filled in the first film. The 'Mean Girls' type subplot with Chloë Grace Moretz was at least something new, Christopher Mintz-Plasse just seemed sad in this. Towards the end the film seems to be wrapping its franchise up, then second guesses itself and lightly teases another sequel, something which hasn't yet happened, and likely and hopefully will not. *1/2

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Walt Disney spent the better part of 20 years trying to get the rights to make a film version of Mary Poppins, a book and a character much beloved by his own daughters. These efforts finally culminated in a series of meetings in 1961 between Poppins creator P.L. Travers and various folks at the Disney studios, where they hammered out an agreement acceptable to the very reluctant author. Tapes of these meetings survive and form much of the basis for Saving Mr. Banks, a film not so much about the making of 1964 Disney classic, as about how it came to be.

Tom Hanks is perfectly cast as Walt Disney, sunny and ingratiating, but shrewd. He is surrounded by a capable supporting cast including Bradley Whitford, Kathy Baker, Melanie Paxson, and B. J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman as the Sherman brothers, veritable music making machines for Disney from the 50's through the 70's. The bustling Disney studio and the sunny, optimistic California of the early 60's are well represented here and a treat. But the central character is Travers, a difficult woman, at least in the context of signing over her treasured creation.

The events of the Disney negotiations are counterpointed with a flash back narrative of Travers, born Helen Lyndon Goff, childhood in Australia circa 1906. Her father Travers Robert Goff, from whom she would take her pen name, was a fanciful and alcoholically Irishman, with whom she would have a loving, but ultimately scaring relationship. The genesis of Mary Poppins seemed to come from a woman who stayed with the family to help care for her father when he was dying of tuberculosis. Colin Farrell does an excellent job of playing Travers Goff, and the whole flash back portion of the film has an unexpectedly dark tone, contrasting with the sunny ambiance of the 1960's sequences.

Emma Thompson plays the grown Travers, and its a perfect part for her, she gets to be all persnickety. While the scenes with Walt, of which there are surprisingly few, are of course central to the story, Paul Giamatti is brought in as an affable limo driver with a disabled daughter as yet another counterpoint to the grumpy Travers, and this is actually pulled off as a nice little arc. The movie ends with an emotional catharses experienced by Travers watching the films depiction of Mr. Banks, a surrogate for her father, finding a redemption his real counterpart never quite received in life. The fact that Travers was always luke warm at best about the film adaption is somewhat brushed over, but hey its a Disney movie. Watch for Mary Poppins Returns, coming this Christmas. ***1/2

How to Steal a Million (1966)

William Wyler, the director who made Audrey Hepburn a star with Roman Holiday, and later directed her in a well made downer called The Children's Hour, teamed up with the muse for a third and final time in How to Steal a Million, a chic heist comedy co-staring a then very in demand Peter O'Toole. The films a light caper, set in Paris, about the two leads efforts to steal a purported  renaissance sculpture before testing can prove it a forgery, and possibly land Hepburn's pop (Hugh Griffith) in jail. There is a nice, easy going chemistry between Hepburn and O'Toole, which is really the whole point of the film. It's actually a bit boring for the first half, but once the caper proper gets going its thoroughly enchanting and cleaver. Eli Wallach plays an American business man smitten by both Hepburn and the statue. I'm pretty sure I saw part of this film as a young child, there is a sequence where O'Toole uses a boomerang to trip some security sensors and it triggered a faint memory, I would have been very into anything with a boomerang in it between the ages of say 3 and 7. ***1/2

Othello (1951)

The production of Orson Wells theatrical version of Shakespeare's Othello was notably troubled, even by the standard of a director with a history of troubled productions. After the films Italian producer went bankrupt in the early stages of shooting, Wells production become an on and off effort for the next three years, with the director/star halting production to make other movies so he'd have enough money to resume production. At one point Wells and several of the principal cast members even went on a theatrical tour of other plays to raise money. The production was such and odd and straining experience that actor Micheál Mac Liammóir, who plays Iago, wrote two memoirs just about it.

Filmed on two continents the movie is beautifully and inventively shot, the perspective skewering opening sequence alone is worth seeing the movie for. As is inherent to Shakespeare plays the dialogue can be somewhat tough going if your unfamiliar, rusty, or just not in the mood. Othello is not a play I was that familiar with, the plot is about a vengeful man sabotaging an interracial marriage, so it feels way more current then its 16th century setting. One of relatively few films for Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier, who plays Desdemona and was married to the actor Peter Ustinov. ***1/2

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (2012)

This is not a good movie. Based on the same titled 'mash up novel' by Seth Grahame-Smith, whose Pride and Prejudice and Zombies worked far better as a film, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is just that, our 16th president hunting vampires. The movie wedges the undead menace into a very simplified narrative of Lincoln's life, this movie hates superfluous characters, leaving out any real world siblings, romantic interests, children, friends and associates not absolutely necessary to the plot, and replacing them (when it can be bothered to) with composites. The early parts, particularly the young Mr. Lincoln in Illinois parts, work best, once he's president it becomes a whole new level or ridiculous. Jefferson Davis countenanced slavery, but would he have countenanced vampires? Still, it was strangely watchable. **

Captain Phillips (2013)

For as many times as Tom Hanks has faced life threatening danger on screen its remarkable that his performances can still seem fresh, emotionally honest and earned. Captain Phillips, done in the signature realist style its director Paul Greengrass brings to his true story films, tells the tale of Richard Phillips, the American commercial freighter captain taken hostage by Somali pirates in early 2009. I remember when this story happened, it was the first real 'foreign policy crises' of the new Obama administration, which was kind of funny because its African pirates, the kind of thing that the Adams and Jefferson administrations had to worry about 200 years earlier. I remember very few details about the events so it was nice going into the film largely unawares. This is one of those movies where everything is left on the screen, so there is not a lot to analyze, its very straight forward and its very good. A gripping watch. ****