Alan Rapp

The Rumors are True

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Rumor Has It…
  • IMDb: link

Rumor Has It...

What if you found out that a well known book and film were based off the real experiences of your family?  That’s what happens to Jennifer Aniston’s character as she realizes that, for her family, The Graduate may just have some added meaning.

Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) is going through a crisis.  She’s unsure about her recent engagement to Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) and is traveling back home with him for her younger sister Anne’s (Mena Suvari) wedding.  All this anxiety is nothing compared to what will happen next.  A discussion with her grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) and her mother’s best friend (Kathy Bates) lead her to believe that the book and movie The Graduate was written about her family.  She travels to San Francisco to find the man who romanced both her mother and grandmother, Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner), looking for answers and wondering if this man could be her father and if not will she fall under the same spell as her mother and grandmother?

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Spielberg’s Best Film in 12 Years

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Munich
  • IMDB: link

munich-posterStephen Spielberg‘s Munich is a personal story that is deeply moving and emotionally challenging to the viewer.  Hard questions are asked about the nature of revenge, assassination, and the right of a people to protect themselves through any means necessary.  Not since Schindler’s List has Spielberg taken on such a momentous undertaking that produced such extraordinary results.  This is his best film in over a decade and, it can be argued, the best film of his entire career.  In Munich Spielberg becomes the storyteller of a very personal story of pain, loss, vengeance, betrayal, murder, and death.  Munich is tremendous filmmaking and one of the best movies of the year.

The film begins with the abduction and murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.  Munich tells the story of the fallout of this tragedy as Avner (Eric Bana), a Mossad officer and son of a hero, is chosen by the Israeli Prime Minister (Lynn Cohen) to lead a team and hunt down and kill all 11 of the terrorists responsible.  Avner accept the assignment and leaves his pregnant wife; he travels to Europe with his team to track down and assassinate the members of Black September.

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The Eel and the Cave

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Memoirs of a Geisha
  • IMDb: link

Memoirs of a Geisha wants to be a grand and epic story; it’s not.  Beautifully shot the film lacks the story and the emotion to tell the tale worthy of the performances it wastes.  Though incomplete and somewhat shallow the film does give some worthy moments to compliment its magnificent look and is worth viewing, but I wanted a little more than the film was willing to give.

The story tells of a young girl Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo) who is sold by her father (Mako) to become a geisha.  She grows up the house as a slave and eventually realizes her dream of being trained and reborn as Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang) a true geisha before all is taken away by the war and she must then decide how to put her life back together.

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Serenity Soars on DVD

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Serenity
  • IMDB: link

serenity-dvdA TV show made into a movie; a movie made into a DVD.  Although a hit with a small and vocal fan base (and a fair amount critical support), Joss Whedon’s sci-fi western never found a home and was cancelled after only twelve episodes.  Whedon’s drive and the fans furvor wouldn’t allow the series to die and Universal Pictures stepped in to provide the opportunity to continue to explore these characters in a feature film now available on DVD.

In a year that brought us Episode III of the Star Wars saga, Speilberg’s re-interpretation of War of the Worlds, the clones of The Island the best movie of the genre by far is Joss Whedon‘s Serenity.  The well designed and lived in ‘verse of the television show is recreated and retold as a cinematic event that still stays true to the original tale while adding layers and depth to the original story.

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Patrick

/ / Uncategorized

Stephen Lawhead has written one of the best King Arthur series in recent memory and the wonderful Song of Albion trilogy.  His latest historical novel examines the early life of the man who would grow up to be the Irish saint Patrick.

Patrick: Son of Ireland
3 Stars

I’ve been a fan of Stephen Lawhead since I read his Pendragon Trilogy (which has had three books added to it and is now referred to as the Pendragon Cycle) years ago.  Lawhead understands how to fit events into a specific time period and describe them in a way in which you are really there.  His latest Patrick examines the early life of a young Briton sold into slavery in Ireland who would eventually become the Irish saint Patrick.

Succat is a spoiled young noble who enjoys spending his father’s money, drinking, gambling and whoring with his three good friends at the local tavern, and avoiding any responsibility.  When the town is sacked by Irish raiders Succat is taken prisoner and sold overseas to an Irish King.  From noble man to slave, Succat is given the job shepherding the sheep.  For seven years he fights to survive.  Two unsuccessful escape attempt leave him bloodied and near death.  Only through the friendship of a Druid does Succat realize a chance to find his freedom by becoming a bard.

The book chronicles Succat’s tale through his time as a slave, his training by the druid priests and his eventual freedom and travel to Gaul and Rome and his own internal struggle and trying to find his place in the world.  His journey leads him through the life of a slave, a soldier, a trader, a husband and father, and a druid.  Lawhead’s main character is complex in his selfish needs, plotting, and deviousness and betrayal as a slave who wants nothing more than to escape to a home that no longer exists. 

As with Lawhead later works there are strong religious themes though the book is more accessible than his Celtic Crusades.  An interesting and winding tale that spans many years and locations all described in exacting detail by the author.

 

Lawhead’s ability to recreate the historic time period and specific locations is very much in evidence here as Succat’s travels take him around the known world.  Though not his best work, I would love to see him return to the more mythical books like the Song of Albion trilogy, it’s a good read for fans of historical novels and of Lawhead’s work.

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