Brooklyn Movie Review (2015)

After a few missed attempts a girlfriend, my husband and I set off on a journey back in time to 1950s Ireland and Brooklyn, New York City, via the movie Brooklyn. We were not disappointed.

Brooklyn is a beautifully shot period drama that follows the path of a young Irish woman leaving family and friends behind in Ireland to seek a better life for herself. It shares details of life in Ireland, life aboard the boats that brought immigrants to the shores of North America and what it was like to be an Irish immigrant on our shores in that era. It is also a love story with lots of emotional highs and lows on both sides of the pond.

The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson none of whom I was particularly aware of previously. A bit of research reveals that Ronan, the actress who plays the lead role of Eilis Lacey, was actually born in New York City to Irish parents who moved to Ireland when she was three. She has appeared previously in a number of projects including Atonement in 2007 for which she won the youngest-ever Academy Award nomination.

Ronan apparently has an uncanny nack for accents though of course in this movie she speaks in her own very lovely tongue. Her amazing blue eyes were also used to great effect in this film. I am sure we will be seeing much more of this young lady. Meanwhile, take a peek at Brooklyn and Ronan via the official movie trailer:

Brooklyn was adapted into a screenplay by Nick Hornby (who wrote About a Boy and so much more) from the book by Colm Toibin. I have not read that book yet and ahve put it on my must read list.

Brooklyn is rated PG-13 for sexuality and strong language with parents strongly cautioned. In terms of what to watch out for or be aware of, there is really not much for the adult viewer. It has sexual references and one sexual scene though I did not find it to be a very uncomfortable scene. It has drinking and smoking and one death though not a violent one.

RECOMMENDED? Yes, I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves beautiful cinemotography as it was very beautifully shot, to anyone who loves a period drama and history of times gone by and to anyone who loves a love story.  If you need any further recommendation to watch this movie you might consider that Brooklyn was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and best Writing (Adapted Screenplay.)

You can buy or rent Brooklyn right now from Amazon by clicking right here. I think the book and the movie would make a fabulous gift idea for any woman who enjoys a beautifully made film and a love story.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Buy Brooklyn on Amazon.

A Passage To India on Blu-ray

A Passage To India Was One Of The Best Blu-ray Movies of 2008. 

A Passage To India was crafted from the novel by E.M. Forster and tells the tale of the British way of life and racism in colonial India in 1928. It stars Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy AShcroft, James Fox and Alec Guinness. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won for won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and for Best Score (Maurice Jarre.) Director David Lean had previously created 'Bridge on the River Kwai' and 'Lawrence of Arabia.'

High Def Digest said, it is "A rare treat to get something other than science fiction or action movies on Blu-ray, that it is a fine film and a treat to watch in high definition and that it is heartily recommended for the true film buffs out there."

Home Theater Forum called this movie, "first-rate filmmaking to be enjoyed by anyone who is drawn to historical epics."

DVD Talk DVD talk remembered that this film received a the lukewarm reception in 1984 but calls it, "a real movie, a rare item in the lean, mean Reagan years."

A great option for armchair travelers, like me.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Click here to order A Passage to India from Amazon.

This post was originally written for another website in 2009.

Joan Crawford's Oscar for Mildred Pierce Sold At Auction

Joan Crawford's Oscar sold on September 25, 2012,  for $426,000. 

Her win at the Academy Awards was for her role in the 1945 movie, Mildred Pierce.

She won the Oscar after a string of poorly received movies and actually did not believe she would win.

Hollywood lore has it that she pretended to be sick in order to skip the presentation.

When she won, she invited the newspaper reporters into her home and received the Oscar in bed. She said, "Whether the Academy voters were giving the Oscar to me, sentimentally, for Mildred or for 200 years of effort, the hell with it -- I deserved it."

I can recommend Mildred Pierce both the Joan Crawford Academy Award winning version, the HBO miniseries with Kate Winslet AND the book by James M. Cain.

See you

at the movies!

Brenda

Click here to order Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce from Amazon.

The Muppets Acadamy Award Oscar Nomination

The Muppets 2011 movie received an Oscar nomination in Music for Best Original Song. As writer Bret McKenzie said, the song 'Man or Muppet' is a great song that works extremely well within the context of the movie. He wanted to create a powerful ballad with this song and he did.

You can see for yourself in the official music video for 'Man or Muppet', which features Jason Segal and the newest Muppet, Walter:

It's a song that is beautiful, memorable and dramatic and yes, at least it is to me an 'earworm' or a song that will get stuck in your head, especially if you relate to these characters. It makes me really want to sing out the song aloud - and I am no singer.

I'll be watching The Academy Awards on February 26, 2012, to see if The Muppets (or rather Bret McKenzie) wins the Oscar for Best Original Song and to see if they make an appearance. In past years, it was normal for the nominated songs to be presented on stage but I read today that neither of the two nominated songs will be performed.  However, we can still hope that The Muppets will make an appearance of one sort or another...

See you
at The Oscars!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Buy The Muppet Movie Soundtrack from Amazon.

Hallmark's The Lost Child Movie Review

The Hallmark Hall of Fame 2000 movie The Lost Child is based on a book called Looking For Lost Bird by Yvette Melanson. Both share the story of a young girl named Rebecca who grew up happily in an adoptive family. After her parents pass away, she searches for her natural family and when a Navajo woman, searching for her siblings stolen at birth, contacts her, she finds them.

 
Most of the story deals with Rebecca and her family moving to the reservation and attempting to learn the language and culture of their Navajo ancestors. Three of them are warmly welcomed; her husband, however, is seen as an outsider and not so easily accepted. The family struggles to work through the issues that arise between the two cultures, recommitting to each other and to this new heritage that they are discovering.

The star of this movie is an actor who was familiar to me and it turns out that she is Academy Award winner Mercedes Rueh. Rueh won her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Fisher King, which I have not seen. It turns out that I know her from the Thanksgiving movie What’s Cooking.

If you are looking for a family movie and you love a heartwarming Hallmark Hall of Fame story, you will enjoy The Lost Child. This movie might also be of special interest to those who have been adopted, are searching for their birth families and/or who have a connection with the Navajo. It is a movie is filled with sorrow, love and truth. Find your copy of  The Lost Child on Amazon by clicking right here.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Buy the book, Looking For Lost Bird by Yvette Melanson, on Amazon.

Elizabeth Taylor The Signature Movie Collection

If you are looking for some of Elizabeth Taylor's best movies, you may want to consider buying a boxed set like the Elizabeth Taylor Signature Collection.  It contains four interesting and noteworthy films, including National Velvet, Father of the Bride, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butterfield 8. 

National Velvet is the movie that launched the 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor to stardom, although it was not her first movie. This movie was so well received that it planted Taylor firmly in the hearts of movie goers everywhere.

Father of the Bride features Elizabeth Taylor with another legendary actor, Spencer Tracy. This movie had such a good story that it launched almost as many remakes as Taylor had marriages.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features Elizabeth Taylor with Paul Newman, a pairing I am anxious to see. Nominated for six Academy Awards, this movie was one of the films that saw Taylor moving on to adult roles.

Finally, Butterfield 8 saw Taylor nominated for and WIN her first of two Academy Awards.  It is a story taken from a 1935 book written by John O'Hara, which was in turn based on a true story -- that of a 1920's New York City call girl.  Amazon customer reviewer Michael C. Smith sums Taylor's performance up, calling it a PERFECT Oscar scene and adding that Taylor "gave it to us with both barrels blazing."

Individually some of these DVDs are very inexpensive. However, the presence of Butterfield 8 makes this set worth buying because Butterfield 8 alone is selling for about $50 used and even more if you find a new copy.  If you are interested in purchasing BUtterfield 8, buying the entire Elizabeth Taylor Signature Movie Collection from Amazon by clicking here may be the best way to do it because it adds four movies to your collection for not much more than the price of one. 

And by the way, I have been unable to find any Elizabeth Taylor movies on blu-ray. If you find one that I've missed, I would be thrilled to hear about it.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Read more about The Best Elizabeth Taylor Movies.

The 2011 Best Picture Academy Award Nominated Movies

Almost every single one of the 2011 Best Picture Oscar nominated movie is available on Blu-ray and DVD.  Here's the list:

127 Hours
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Winter's Bone
The King's Speech 
Black Swan  
The Fighter 
True Grit   

I already wonder what movies will be on the list for the Academy Awards in 2012.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Photo by Martti Salmi on Unsplash.

True Grit Blu-ray Movie (2010)

Literally just in time for Christmas 2010 was the 1969 John Wayne True Grit Blu-ray movie. I think it created and continues to create the possibility of a magnificent Christmas gift for anyone in your family who loves John Wayne movies and owns a Blu-ray player.

Simply buy a copy of John Wayne's True Grit movie on blu-ray and add a copy of the 2010 True Grit movie and voila, an instant gift set.

The John Wayne version of True Grit was one of his most memorable roles and it is the movie for which he won his only Academy Award.  This would be the great place to start a collection of his movies.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Order your copy of John Wayne's True Grit on blu-ray from Amazon.
More John Wayne movies on blu-ray.

The Sixth Sense Blu-ray Movie Review

My husband surprised us this weekend when he carried home a copy of The Sixth Sense on blu-ray. I had heard of The Sixth Sense but I did not realize that when it was released it was a surprise blockbuster and went on to be nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture.

The story is a sad one, the tale of a nine-year old boy who has a secret, which he eventually shares with his psychologist. The secret? He can see the ghosts of dead people. The psychologist is skeptical but is desperate to help the boy and to save his own marriage, which is falling apart. It turns out that the reality is much more complicated than he expected.

All four of us, my husband, my teenage boys and myself, were enthralled. The Sixth Sense is a thriller and a ghost story with an amazing finish. It is a well-written and well-acted movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It features Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Donnie Wahlberg, Olivia Williams and Toni Collette. Here's a peek at this 1999 Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment production, which is, by the way, rated PG-13. The movie does have some graphic images which may be disturbing to even some high schoolers.



The Sixth Sense is a haunting story with a great story line. It is perfectly done as a thriller but it is not a horror movie. High-Def Digest calls it a "simple, haunting, and ultimately uplifting ghost story." I think that is perfect.

The blu-ray version? This movie received a good transfer and an interesting package of bonus materials.  A great film, it comes highly recommended by Blu-ray.com and by my family.

Does The Sixth Sense sound like a movie for you?

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Link:

Order your copy of The Sixth Sense on blu-ray from Amazon.

The Five Best Blu-ray Movies For Mom

Looking for the five best Blu-ray movies for Mom? This is my take on the five best choices but be aware that ‘best’ has different meanings for different people.

 

I have chosen the best based on four criteria:

1. Five-star overall Blu-ray quality, meaning these movies all have the best sound and vision quality reviews.  You won't find better movies in that regard.
2. Five-star movie reviews, meaning these movies all have great storylines that people really enjoy.
3. I have thrown a bit of my personal judgement in. Since we are looking for the five best blu-ray movies for Mom, I eliminated action movies. I don't mean to say that moms in particular or women in general do not like those movies, just that I was trying to target movies that Mom would pick for herself more than ones Mom would pick to watch with a family or as part of a couple.
4. Finally, these are all Blu-ray movies that I would like to own.

On with the list!

The five best movies on Blu-ray for Mom are:

• Forrest Gump
• Gone With The Wind
• Hairspray
• Ratatouille
• The Wizard of Oz

Am I surprised? Not really, I know that The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind were given top-notch transfers by the studios. I believe that Ratatouille and Hairspray were made with the Blu-ray format in mind. Forrest Gump though? He was the surprise for me.

Forrest Gump is the story of a man with a low IQ who winds up being part of important events in America between the 1950s and the 1980s. It was a very successful movie with a Best Picture Oscar in 1994 and it holds the number 74 spot on the American Film Institute’s list of greatest movies. So the story is definitely a good one.

High-Def Digest says the Blu-ray transfer has “stunning audio and video presentations” and a “complete host of extras.” High-Def finishes with: “Paramount has put together a Blu-ray release that is a must own for anyone.”  Which means that the Blu-ray is good, too, and done in a way that is appropriate for a movie that is an American classic. Sounds like a movie I need to check out on Blu-ray.

Find your copy of Forrest Gump here on Amazon. 

What do you think? Are there some great movies on this list for your Mother or did this list not provide you with what you were looking for?

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

March of the Penguins Nature Documentary

"In the harshest place on earth, love finds a way,” announces Morgan Freeman and he is right. March of the Penguins is a love story, which portrays the struggles of the Emperor penguin to survive in one of the most difficult parts of the earth, Antarctica.

March of the Penguins is a National Geographic Feature Film production from 2005. It is an Academy Award winning film and won an Oscar that same year for the Best Documentary Feature film.

Watch March of the Penguins and you will learn a lot about these handsome birds…about how year in and year out they follow the same migration path to find their mate and bear young. It is definitely a love story but also a story of survival of the fittest.

The Blu-ray? Well, after reading some grumbles from the Amazon customer reviews, I was surprised to see that both High-Def Digest and Blu-ray.com recommend this film on Blu-ray.

It is a wonderful nature film and is great family entertainment, deemed suitable for children from kindergarten age and up. If you love nature films, you will enjoy this one. The penguins are spellbinding.

See you
At the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Order your copy of March of the Penguins from Amazon.

Who Was Humphrey Bogart?

The release of the movie The African Queen on Blu-ray also had me curious to know a bit more about Humphrey Bogart. He, like Katharine Hepburn, was a movie legend who appeared in many film and stage productions; in thirty years, he appeared in 75 productions.

It is almost impossible to pick the best Humphrey Bogart movies because there were so many great ones. However, a look today at Amazon's bestselling list reveals the following five movies:

* The African Queen
* Casablanca
* In A Lonely Place
* The Big Sleep
* To Have and Have Not

The American Film Institute named Bogart the Greatest Male Star of All Time and he won an Academy Award for his role in The African Queen. The Film Institute also credits him with the most famous movie quotations on their top 100 list of quotes. I am pretty sure you would recognize all five quotes. They include, "Here's looking at you, kid" from Casablanca and "The stuff that dreams are made of" from The Maltese Falcon.

A quick check reveals that one more of Bogart's movies than Katharine Hepburn's has made the transfer to Blu-ray but that only means you have two to choose from, The African Queen and Casablanca.  High-Def Digest says, that "Casablanca is a title you simply have to add to your Blu-ray collection." And The African Queen? It receives an equally positive review. I'll be back to write more on that movie later. It was good to discover that these two classic movies that have been given an excellent blu-ray transfer.

Humphrey DeForest Bogart December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957. His birthday, a subject of debate.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Buy Casablanca on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.

Who Was Katharine Hepburn?

The recent release of the movie The African Queen on blu-ray has me wondering who Katharine Hepburn was. I am sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that is interested in movies that she was a legendary actress who appeared in many film, television and stage productions.

However, do you know that Hepburn holds the most Best Actress Oscar wins ever? She won an unheard of four Oscars and received twelve nominations. She also won an Emmy Award and received four more Emmy nominations.

The American Film Institute has Hepburn in the number one spot as the greatest female star in the history of American movies. (Coincidentally, her co-star in The African Queen, Humphrey Bogart, takes the top spot as the greatest male star.)

Katharine Hepburn won Best Actress for her roles in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981.) She was also nominated for her roles in Alice Adams; The Philadelphia Story; Woman of the Year; The African Queen; Summertime; The Rainmaker; Suddenly, Last Summer; and Long Day's Journey into Night.

Katharine Hepburn once said, "I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good -- or because they're lucky." I think that this partial list of Katharine Hepburn's movies demonstrates that Katharine Hepburn was definitely a great actress.  What do you think?

Katharine Houghton Hepburn May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Buy African Queen on blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.

A great collection of Katharine Hepburn's movies, The Katharine Hepburn Collection, features Morning Glory, Undercurrent, Sylvia Scarlett, Without Love, Dragon Seed and The Corn Is Green.

Who is Colin Firth?

Colin Firth was born in England on September 10, 1960. He is an Oscar-nominated actor who has appeared in many movies, on television and on the stage.  Perhaps his most well known role is that of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 version of the period piece, Pride and Prejudice.

His list of films is impressive and some of the ones that I have enjoyed are Bridget Jones's Diary, Circle of Friends, The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, The Importance of Being Earnest, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Love Actually and Nanny McPhee.

More recently, Firth has been working on A Single Man (for which he received an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA for best actor) and The King’s Speech.

A Single Man is a drama movie based on a novel written by Christopher Isherwood. Firth appears as the leading figure, a gay university professor in 1962 who has struggled to be happy ever since his partner died in a tragic car accident. The film takes place in a single day when we visit his past and his ‘empty’ future.

Currently, he is working on The King’s Speech, a historical drama set to appear in a limited release in theatres on November 26, 2010. In this story, Firth plays King George VI. When his father abdicates the throne, he must assume it and the film chronicles his efforts overcome his stammer.

You can watch seven of Colin Firth’s movies on blu-ray.  Which Colin Firth movies do you recommend?

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Link:

Colin Firth movies on blu-ray.

Columbia Best Picture Oscar Winning Movies

The Columbia Best Pictures Collection is a very interesting 14-disc set featuring 11 Best Picture Oscar winning movies and a film synopsis of each along with information about the Oscars it won. It covers Columbia Pictures' movies that were made between 1934 and 1982 including:

1934 It Happened One Night
1938 You Can't Take It with You
1949 All the King's Men
1953 From Here to Eternity
1954 On the Waterfront
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1966 A Man for All Seasons
1968 Oliver!
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer
1982 Gandhi

A pretty great package full of legendary movies which Amazon has featured at almost 50 percent off plus, of course, it is eligible for Amazon's FREE shipping program.  I think it would make an amazing gift for a movie fan like my husband.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Quick Link:

Buy the Columbia Best Pictures Collection from Amazon.

The African Queen Blu-ray and DVD Release Date

March 23rd, 2010, is the official and much-anticipated date of the release of The African Queen on blu-ray and DVD. Classic film lovers have been anxiously awaiting this release for a long, long time.

C.S. Forester wrote the novel, The African Queen, in 1934 and, in 1951, the novel was made into the movie starring the legendary Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. The movie opened on December 23rd in order to be eligible for the 1951 Oscars and Bogart won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film also received nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director.

The story is one of romance and adventure, of love and of human character. It is set in Ceylon and tells the story of a grumpy bachelor and his female opponent. The adventure is against all of the elements found in Africa, World War I and each other. Of course, love and character win out in the end.

The movie was released on Region 2 DVD in parts of Europe but only available in North America on VHS and Laserdisc. There is a Region 1 (North American) DVD version available. However, what I have read indicates that it is questionable on two counts, one based on quality and the other whether or not it is an authorized disc.

If you have been watching The African Queen on an old VHS tape or only when it shows up on television reruns, you are probably anxious to view the fully restored version which will be available in just over three weeks.

If you haven’t seen The African Queen at all and you enjoy classic movies, you should see this one for which Humphrey and Bogart occupy the Number 1 spot on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest American screen legends of all time.

Will The African Queen be one of the best blu-ray movies of 2010? If Paramount does it well, I am sure it could be...but only time will tell.

See you

At the movies,

Brenda

Quick Links:

Click here to order The African Queen on Blu-ray or DVD.

Gone with the Wind, One Of The Best Blu-ray Movies of 2009

The final movie on Sound and Vision Magazine's 10 best Blu-ray movies of 2009 is Gone With The Wind, an award-winning classic movie. 

The novel Gone With The Wind was published on June 30, 1936. It took seven years to write and eight months more to check that the historic and social facts were accurate. It was Margaret Mitchell's only novel (a herculean effort) and won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize.

The story was adapted into the movie in 1939 and starred Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland. It won ten Academy Awards, a record that would not be broken for twenty years.

In the 1998, the Top 100 American Films of All Time named Gone With The Wind number four.

About this top blu-ray movie, Sound and Vision said, "The studio (Warner) pulls out all the stops again for another 70th Annversary Ultimate Collector's Edition. When you aren't being amazed by the remarkably fresh picture and sound, you can dig into the extras."

Classic movie fans will definitely want to check out the Blu-ray version.  A top-notch transfer of a very important film. You can find your copy of Gone with the Wind here on Amazon.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Slumdog Millionaire, One Of The Best Blu-ray Movies of 2009

Number 8 on Sound & Vision magazine's list of the 10 top movies in 2009 is Slumdog Millionaire.  Despite the huge buzz that this movie generated, I have to admit that I was unable to watch it because of the violence and I do, therefore, assume that it is not for everyone.

Amazon customer reviews of Slumdog Millionaire were mixed, too. I assume for the very same reason, that this movie was a bit hard to take. 

In terms of quality of the Blu-ray disc, Sound & Vision said, "dazzling visuals and exhilarating sonics" and that the "two extended sequences are remarkably revealing" so from that perspective, it sounds like it is worth checking out Slumdog on Blu-ray.

If you are interested in this movie, I hope that I have not put you off and I would love to hear what you have to say about it if (or when) you watch it. 

Order your copy of Slumdog Millionaire here from Amazon.

See you
at the movies!
Brenda

Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke on Blu-ray

Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 Paul Newman movie that was nominated for four and won one Academy Award. It is one of Newman's most memorable performances and tops many all-time movie favorites lists.

The Cool Hand Luke Blu-ray? Well, it is reported to be quite good with an excellent video transfer and a not-quite-so-good audio. (It is mono only.) It does feature some great new features and, since it is a classic movie, is well worth considering on Blu-ray. Click here to buy Cool Hand Luke From Amazon.

See you
at the movies.
Brenda

True Grit Movie Remake Coming in 2010

A friend pointed out that True Grit is being remade this year. With a scheduled release date of December 25, 2010, that leaves you and I lots of time to schedule our viewing of the original.

Not necessarily my ordinary choice of movie but, as I've said before, I'm up for trying a lot of different movie genres. This 1969 Western film starred John Wayne as the infamous Rooster Cogburn. As a matter of fact, Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor in this film.

Apparently, the book by Charles Portis is good as well so, if you like the movie, you might want to check out the book, too.

So if you'll excuse me now, I'm off to check out the movie with my teenage son. I'll be back.

See you
at the movies.
Brenda

Quick Links

Buy your copy of True Grit on DVD.
Buy the book True Grit by Charles Portis.