Bust-A-Block Movie Reviews
« Previous EntriesKATNISS AND THE TWO VILLAINS, THE MONSTER AND SABOTEUR
By Cindy Baker Gilbert
The monster villain of poverty and hunger that Katniss survives back home now presents itself in the form of a futuristic society filled with citizens that enjoy an abundance of freedoms while suffering from terminal boredom to the point of gladiator entertainment. Katniss Everdeen, one of twenty-four Tributes from the fallen rebel Sections is sent to the annual Hunger Games to fight to the death for her right to live. The unhinged leaders and their followers have morphed into monstrous concoctions of Lady Ga-Ga progeny at a Mozart and Salieri costume ball with an acid chaser. This societal Monster of opulence, giddiness and sociopathic lack of emotional depth leave Katniss adrift in a sea of confusion as her Saboteur villain prevents her from knowing who she can trust. Certainly not the other twenty-three Tributes, future killers all. Not even her co-Tribute, Peeta Mellark, from her home Section.
Peeta warms to their drunken mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, eager to learn the ways of survival while Katniss hangs back. Haymitch warns she must get people to like her, to remember her so they will donate needed survival items to her during the games. Katniss doesn’t know how to get people to like her. Being liked wasn’t high on her to-do list. She does as Haymitch instructs and gets the necessary results. Her trust in Haymitch grows.
As for Peeta, from adversary to friend to seeming traitor. More adventures reveal Peeta’s longsuffering love for her, his duplicitous nature only for her protection. Trusting Hamitch, trusting Peeta, she defeats the Monster.
THE LOST LOVE VILLAIN AND BASEBALL
By Cindy Baker Gilbert
The Lost Love Villain creeps into the corners of your psyche blinding you to even your greatest achievements.
In Moneyball, Brad Pitt’s “Billy Bean” manages the Oakland A’s on a shoestring budget while the other teams in the league far exceed the A’s available funds to draft the top players.
In order to compete, Billy discovers a number-crunching economics graduate with the ink still wet on his diploma, and they come up with a way to put together a roster of has-beens and looked-overs based on ignored statistics of each player. Rather, what it is they each can do, perhaps not necessarily in the position for which they were drafted. A second chance for many, and Billy wonders how things would be different had this chance been given to him. He was one of the high school stars drafted directly into the pros whose career did not pan out.
It’s a rough go at first, but the plan works and the A’s find themselves in the final race for the world series. Things go wrong and the A’s lose. Billy knows he failed. That’s where his Lost Love Villain has blinded him to his real accomplishment. He changed the way the game of baseball is managed and was such a success he was offered a twelve million dollar contract to manage the Boston Red Sox, which he turned down. The Red Sox implemented Brad’s system of management, and two years later won the world series.
JPH Note: Yes, indeed, the movie had the Lost Love Villain running through it until the very last frame as each character wrestles with the struggle to rise and find their own personal best within: Billy Beane’s determination and belief in his strategy against all odds; a computer geek’s heroic journey propelled by his own unique talent; each player’s relationship with each other and the game; Billy’s relationship with his daughter; Billy’s relationship with his players and his number cruncher – and finally the biggest love of all, Billy’s love for Billy when he turns down the big money and stays with his team.
The movie starts with a quote from New York Yankee, Mickey Mantle, “It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve been playing all of your life.” And that not only sums up the game, but also our life-long relationship with love.
TWO AND A HALF MEN – THE VILLAIN’S PLAYGROUND HAS CHANGED
By Cindy Baker Gilbert
John Cryer’s character, an uptight, affable goof, is controlled by his villains. His Bandit villain, manifested as brother Charlie, ensures John continually comes up short in looks, money and women, no matter how hard he tries. The Sorceress controls John because he is unable or unwilling to find his rightful place in the world and hangs on to brother Charlie for life support ike a cleat-clinging girl to an athlete. The Saboteur causes John to doubt his intelligence, his manhood, his very being. Congratulations, villains. Mission accomplished. Something very powerful must happen to allow John’s character to change.
CUT TO:
Present reincarnation of show. With Charlie’s character dead and gone, brother John has lucked into a similar living situation with the rich guy who bought Charlie’s beach house in which the brothers lived. Hello Sorceress. We see you are still alive and well. While new guy Walden, played by Ashton Kutcher, has the looks, money and girls, he is not the street-wise playboy of Charlie’s character, but rather an innocent who never grew up. This crack in Ashton’s character provides the entry John Cryer needs to realize he has more intelligence and life smarts than he ever suspected when called upon to get Ashton’s character out of scrapes and help him handle romantic situations. Who knew he knew? Certainly not John. If it hasn’t dawned on John’s character yet, he will soon realize his growing confidence and see the importance of the qualities he has in abundance. As the story line progresses we may see the Bandit and the Saboteur begin to fade followed by the Sorceress for he will no longer feel the need to rely on the kindness of strangers. And that’s when the show ends, because watching a well-adjusted person go through life just isn’t interesting or fun. We laugh at characters through our identification with them, and come away feeling much better about our own circumstances.
Bandit Villain running fast and loose in THE BIG BANG THEORY
By Judith Parker Harris
Suppose your character is loaded with blocks, yet has no idea these blocks are causing him problems. In fact, he thinks quite highly of himself and loves his life. Sheldon Cooper in the Big Bang Theory is the physical manifestation of this situation and of the various villains in the lives of his friends.
From the lofty, intellectual tower in his mind he lords his knowledge of everything over his friends but especially Howard Wolowitz who only has a masters degree in engineering and not a PH.D. in physics like Sheldon. Howard lives with an over-bearing, loud mother who controls him, and he is hard-wired for Sheldon’s Bandit Villain.
It is Sheldon’s Bandit Villain that makes him controlling to the point of having his roommate and fellow physicist, Leonard, sign a ridiculous roommate agreement to include but not limited to how far to stand from the bathroom mirror when flossing, leaving Leonard confused and then resigned to this odd behavior.
Sheldon’s Bandit Villain meets up wtih Penny, the neighbor who is a waitress/aspiring actress from the Midwest who is always broke. fact of which Sheldon repeatedly reminds her. Penny’s Bandit Villain has her feeling she is not talented enough, rich enough, or from the right area to succeed, and Sheldon is the happy messenger that affirms her fears.
As in real life, film characters bust through their villainous blocks and take us along for the entertaining ride. A cathartic catapult from stuck to unstuck. Blocked to blockbuster. Or, they don’t change and suffer the consequences.
In television, it is the promise that a character will not bust through his blocks that keep viewers coming back. Writers armed with this knowledge keep these characters continually acting out their villains in varying comic situations.
One Day
By Judith Parker Harris
The Lost Love Villain has a hay day in ONE DAY. On July 15th every year for 20 years we get to see how life is developing for two friends who met in college and established a life long friendship. She is from a working class family, he is from upper middle class; She is a dreamer, he is a player; She never gives up and he succumbs to most every temptation. She knows how to love, he wouldn’t recognize love if it hit him in the heart, that is until…
Ann Hathaway’s Emily Morley and Jim Sturgess as Dexter Mayhew give us almost enough to root for. The problem is that Jim Sturgess is no Hugh Grant, whom he’s been compared to in many reviews. He’s missing an essential element – he never turns from bad boy into a man the woman can finally love, and that’s the dynamic we romance lovers live for. I felt the love in Emily’s smoldering eyes, but not in Dexter’s impish grin.
Both of my favorite definitions of love never saw the light of day in ONE DAY, “Love is the flow of truth and personal power from your heart to another heart,” and “Love is the ability to fully appreciate life.” I wanted more life and love in this movie.
Even the Villain Sorceress couldn’t make that happen as she had both Emily and Dexter saying, “If ___________ happens, then I’ll be happy, then I’ll be loved, then I’ll be successful. The “If,” finally does happen, but for me too late, too little and too lost.
Friends with Benefits
By Judith Parker Harris
The movie begins with a girl in New York, Jamie (Mila Kunis) and a guy in Los Angeles, Dylan (Justin Timberlake) being dumped by their respective lovers. Each decides to forego love and concentrate on other things in life. Soon, of course, the dumpees meet – and it’s predictably adorable. She’s a headhunter and he’s the prey that she succeeds in delivering to GQ Magazine. The new job requires Dylan to move to New York. He knows no one except Jamie, so they become friends with the same goal in mind — not to fall in love or become vulnerable in any way. The Lost Love Villain is in the Driver’s seat, allowing fear to bring in a whole bunch of those pesky complications they think they are avoiding.
Some of the best moments in the picture come when they are making love, I mean – having sex. Why? Because as friends they tell each other exactly what they want sexually, without judgment or fear — something romantic partners seldom do. The result is great sex mixed with exhilarating fun, which when they are not looking morphs into love, but, of course the audience knows that way before they do. Two scene-stealing supportive cast members bring their own versions of lost love to the mix: Jamie’s crazy, hippie “free love” mom (Patricia Clarkson) has lost herself to the ‘60s, and Dylan’s Alzheimer’s –ridden dad ( Richard Jenkins) is slowly disappearing through illness. Both are handled more with poignant humor than sadness, allowing for the love to live on.
The questions become can these two sex partners overcome their lost love villains to find true love and is romance dead or on life support? Fortunately, it’s worth watching to find the answers.
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