WCBE 90.5 FM: "Prime," "The Weather Man," "Stay," "The Legend of Zorro"

WCBE#240-FINAL
It's Movie Time
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe For WCBE 90.5 FM

Reviews: “Prime,” “The Weather Man,” “Stay,” “The Legend of Zorro”
Taped: 1:30 pm, October 26, 2005
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 28, 2005
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The script:

John
"Prime” is a prime romantic comedy for our time. . .

Clay
"The Weather Man” is cloudy and gray with no help on the way . . .

John
“Stay” does not STAY with you . . .

Clay
“The Legend of Zorro” is a rumble, jumble of romantic adventure . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
"It's Movie Time" in Central-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Prime")
Clay, recently Shopgirl explored the ramifications of older man/ younger woman romance; Prime deals directly with younger man/older woman. Prime Hollywood again takes an old genre, the romantic comedy, and updates and invigorates it.

As this is New York and every family member jumps into the opinion pit, you can guess 23 year old David Bloomberg is Jewish and his family not happy about his romancing shiksas Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman), much less a 37 year-old divorcee. It’s Woody Allen territory.

Rafi’s therapist, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep) turns out to be also David’s mother. Streep’s performance is one of the best of the year, funny and poignant. Bryan Greenberg’s David is not strong by contrast to the stellar Streep.

Prime is as delicate and thoughtful a discussion about modern romance, with all the “diversity” issues as could be hoped for.

It’s been a good year for this genre.

Clay ("The Weatherman")
Well, folks, the romancing has grown all soggy in Gore Verbinski’s “The Weather Man.” It’s hard to believe this is the same director who brought together Johnny Depp and Keira Knightly in that swashbuckling adventure hit “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Something must have gone dreadfully wrong when he wandered north and left behind those warm, Southern waters because “The Weather Man” is nothing but a big foul-mouthed inexplicable mess.

Set in the midst of an icy grey winter in Chicago’s windy city, sad sack Nicholas Cage plays a TV weather man who just can’t seem to get over his recent divorce. Ex-wife, Hope Davis, treats him both coolly and cruelly, and even his two kids have a hard time getting excited about having to spend time with him.

Sound like a loser? He is, and so’s the picture. Too bad because Cage really tries hard to save it.

John ("Stay")
Psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) may be going psychotic, but he has to move fast to catch his girlfriend, Lila (Naomi Watts) and his new client, young Henry (Ryan Gosling). Lila has attempted suicide; Henry predicts exactly when he’ll do it. Sam must keep from a mental slide by rejecting his alleged encounters with people already declared dead and his growing identification with his suicidal client.

I can’t be certain about anything I say factually about the plot because most of the film is inconclusive about what is actually happening. The ending chooses the most common explanation for inscrutable films like this.

That you might “stay” to see the entire film is a tribute to your abiding interest in seeking truth; frankly, in Stay, the truth strays. Or maybe Oscar Wilde was right when he cynically declared the difficulty of shared truth: “A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.”

Clay ("The Legend of Zorro")
Well, John, legends become true when everyone believes them, and if you’re a true romancer you’ll want to believe in “The Legend of Zorro.”

Full of glowing candles, swirling capes, flashing swords, and passionate lips caressing,“The Legend of Zorro” is a nineteenth century gothic romancer.

Antonio Banderas plays it tongue-in-cheek again as an arrogant hero who is so focused on helping his people that he quite, unwittingly, puts at risk his relationship with his wife and child. Oh, the domesticity of it all. Too bad, because his screen wife is the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is as every bit as striking as Vivian Leigh, Ava Gardner, and Rita Hayworth in their most glamourous on-screen moments.

Sure the storyline is jumbled, and sure the movie’s frenzied seeming never-to-end fight scenes are all a little too much. But it’s fun, fun, fun, and that’s why a lot of the people will go see this movie. And they should.

But enough of Uma Thurman, Nicholas Cage, psychotic movie makers, and heroes in black masks, John, because it’s grading time.

John
Hooray!

John
Prime” earns a “B” for successfully pairing a BOY with a real woman UMMMMMM A . . .

Clay
"The Weather Man” gets an “F” because it’s the first letter in the Spritz’s FAMILY’S FAVORITE FOUR-LETTERED word . . .

John
“Stay” earns a “D” for the plot that DEAD ENDS . . .

Clay
"The Legend of Zorro” gets an “A” because it’s Batman, Spiderman, and The Incredibles, all rolled into one . . .

John
Clay, I hope you won’t criticize me for fraternizing with a Russian Translator a couple of decades younger than I.

In fact, I’m going to fraternize right now. I’m outta here.

Clay
Fraternity, Egality, and Liberty means what’s good for you, John, is good for me . . .

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus and 106.7 FM in Newark.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2005 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Good Night and Good Luck," "North Country," "Separate Lies," "Domino"

WCBE#239-FINAL
It's Movie Time
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe For WCBE 90.5 FM

Reviews: "Good Night and Good Luck," “North Country,” “Separate Lies,” “Domino”
Taped: 1:30 pm, October 19, 2005
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 21, 2005
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The script:

John
“Good Night and Good Luck” is good for journalists and blue states . . .

Clay
"North Country” is a bad place for a woman to take the job of a man . . .

John
"Separate Lies” separate friends and lovers . . .

Clay
“Domino” is as subtle to watch as a face breaking glass . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
"It's Movie Time" in Central-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Good Night and Good Luck")
Clay, Edward R. Murrow represents the epitome of the crusading and self-sacrificing newsman. He risked his career in the 1950’s to bring down the most infamous senator of the last century, Joseph McCarthy, whose witch hunt for “Reds” created cowards by the score and a few heroes, Murrow one of them.

Director George Clooney’s left-leaning, hero-worshiping “Good night, and good luck” is not surprisingly pro Murrow and CBS. Clooney brilliantly directs a classic journalism film noir in which the heroes are real and the bad guys scary.

Television journalism was the big winner, for it became with Murrow a part of the checks and balances necessary in a democracy.

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty” is a mantra for our times, echoing down the 50 years since Ed Murrow dared to proclaim it.

That’s heroic in any age.

Clay ("North Country")
Well, folks, for one woman who worked in the open mining industry in northern Minnesota, the federal courtroom was the only place that would hear her complaints against workplace abuse. At least that’s the story told by Niki Caro (Whale Rider) in her new film North Country.

Set against snowy landscapes ravaged by massive explosions and earth moving machines, North Country features Josie Aimes (Charlize Theron), who chooses to work side by side with the men she grew up with. Her father, uncles, cousins, schoolmates, and even an old boyfriend, however, turn against her because she, and a handful of other members of her sex, have invaded their previously male-only domains.

Not as feisty as Sally Field in Norma Rae, nor as cocky confidant as Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, Charlize Theron nevertheless holds her own in this trio of Hollywood’s crusading women who learn how to say “no” to the systems and men who would abuse them.

John ("Separate Lies")
Anyone who has attended a family Thanksgiving dinner knows that under all the patter and bonhomie is a time bomb of regrets and recriminations waiting for the moment someone reveals a family secret or lie. The new film Separate Lies has everyone in barrister James Manning’s household knowing the current dark secret in the first half hour.

The maid’s husband has died from a hit and run accident, and the offending car may have been driven by Anne Manning (Emily Watson), wife of James (Tom Wilkinson) while she was with her lover, Bill Bule (Rupert Everett). Everyone must decide the right course of action. During the time they agree to hide the crime, the old worm, conscience, works on them all in different ways.

Manning’s exclamation at one point reduces all the intrigue to its common denominator, placing our wealthy players with the rest of us when he says, "I'm afraid that's a little too Jerry Springer for me.”

Clay ("Domino")
Jerry Springer, John? Tony Scott’s new film “Domino” gives you the real Jerry Springer in action plus a whole wacked out world more. Christopher Walken plays a sullen producer of Reality TV. Mickey Rourke plays a bounty hunter hovering in his own grizzly five o’ clock shadows. And Keira Knightly plays a displaced Brit model who does the L.A. bounty hunting thing just for fun.

But buyers beware, because if YOU take this movie too seriously you’re as dead as the dormouse in Alice’s Wonderland because “Domino” is nothing more nor less than a shameless rip-off of movies about poor little rich girls and sexy-beast bad guys.

You know, John, now that our President is in desperate need of another Tony Scott moment, like the one he used from Top Gun, maybe he should shag the hair of his recent supreme court nominee, then have her come out fighting with guns blazing under each arm. No wonder Karl Rove loves Tony Scott.

But enough of chain smoking newsmen, Minnesota mining girls, lying aristocrats, and double barreled bounty hunters, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Hooters Hooray!

"Good Night and Good Luck” earns an “A” because it shows AMERICANS are rarely UN AMERICAN . . .

Clay
"North Country” gets a ”B” because justice, not BATHOS, is what we need in a courtroom . . .

John
"Separate Lies” earns a “B” because BARING lies is more fun than BURYING them . . .

Clay
“Domino” gets a “B” because cinematic BALLISTICS also are a means of revealing character . . .

John
Clay,

You and I have separate LIES: You lie about your age, and I just---- lie about . . . he, he …

I'm outta here.

Clay
John, that I have lied makes me “perfect” indicative; that you would lie, makes you perfect “conditional” . . . touché.

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus and 106.7 FM in Newark.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2005 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Serenity," "Thumbsucker," "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"

WCBE#238-FINAL
It's Movie Time
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
For WCBE 90.5 FM

Reviews: "Serenity," "Thumbsucker," "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
Taped: 1:30 pm, October 5, 2005
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 7, 2005
Streaming live on the web & back shows being archived at:
http://www.wcbe.org .

The Script:

John
"Serenity" is Star Wars and Star Trek worthy . . .

Clay
"Thumbsucker" is about a teenage boy with a digital addiction . . .

John
"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" will give a stop-motion Corpse a run for box office gold . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
"It's Movie Time" in Central-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Serenity")
Clay, Joss Whedon’s Serenity is the bastard child of Star Wars and Star Trek: Sardonic, world weary, childlike, universal, didactic are some of the adjectives shared by all three.

A band of rebels aboard the spaceship Serenity is transporting a brain-tampered young girl with strange visionary powers and recently-acquired martial-arts skills. The problem is that the Alliance (something similar to righteous US neocons dominating the universe) wants her, and the Reavers (cannibal bandits similar to contemporary terrorists) have an interest as well.

Whedon, like George Lucas, doesn’t trivialize his film with his often tossed-off wisecracks; he uses them to add to the ironies inherent in a good film.

The Star Trek parallel kicks in at the thematic level, where Whedon explores such topics as the pursuit of a moral universe at the expense of personal freedoms, currently played out in the US with fundamentalist Christians and neoconservative politicians legislating morality.

It’s a thinking person’s sci-fi.

HIT CD: “THUMBSUCKER,” ESTABLISH, THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay ("Thumbsucker")
Well, folks, in “Thumbsucker” morality is relative and “whatever works for me” is the deepest thought you’ll find. Set in an upscale west coast suburb filled with teenage angst (think American Beauty, Donnie Darko, or Elephant) and you’ll get the picture. Everyone has everything, but no one has a clue.

Young Justin (Lou Taylor Pucci) plays the shy teener who just can’t stop sucking his thumb. Vince D’ oh-NO-frio plays the macho Dad who’s ashamed of his son, and Tilda Swinton plays the coddling Mom who wants some coddling of her own. Neither as dark nor violent as those classic Mendez, Kelly, Van Sant films; Thumbsucker’s first time writer-director, Mike Mills, settles for answers most bland.

Nevertheless, the cast is colorful, the settings pleasant, and the teen age sex scenes are mildly titillating. But best of all, the movie does at least raise the question as to whether or not drugging kids to increase their academic performance is, or is not, a good thing to do.

CD: “THUMBSUCKER,” UP, THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John ("Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit")
In the stop-motion British animated comedy "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, " Wallace, eccentric owner of the “Anti-Pesto” pest control firm and his mute dog, Gromit, deal daily with veggie lovers, British peerage, and morning wakeup mechanics worth the price of admission.

Big hands, big teeth, Brit cheeky self-deprecation and self-satisfaction are the stuff of this brilliant satire. We are cursed with the genius of a were-rabbit whose big sin is to love vegetables. It’s a Whole Foods celebration.

E.V. Lucas spoke convincingly of the latent amusement in Brits, saying, “In England, it is a very dangerous handicap to have a sense of humor.” It’s the reluctance to be funny that makes this film and England itself a rich source of satire.

Clay ("Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit")
John, the rural countryside of ruddy old England does come to life in "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Reminding me, of course, of the night we found ourselves stranded on a country road in Cornwall somewhere between Lands End and St. Ives. All rolling moors, rustic farms, and hewn stone pubs filled with natives seemingly humourless and droll.

Wallace & Gromit, however, is so full of sight gags, Rube Goldberg contraptions, and outrageous situations that you’ll soon be laughing along though the humor is dry. You’ll also soon find a place in your heart for the poor rural villagers, who in this movie as well as so many others, always seem to find themselves on the victim end of some kind of monster.

What with The Corpse Bride and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the funky and clunky old technique of claymation is proving it can hold its own with the slicker technique commonly refered, less affectionately, as CGI.

But enough of thumbsucking serenity and rascally Were Rabbits, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John
Hooray!

"Serenity” earns an A because it ADDS to the greatest in the sci-fi canon . . .

Clay
"Thumbsucker" gets a “C” because CHANGING your addictions is not as good as CHANGING your CIRCUMSTANCES . . .

John
"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" earns an A because crawzy wabbits are AMERICAN as well . . .

Clay
"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" gets an “A” because ARCHAIC techniques are sometimes more human than modern . . .

DRUMS DOWN AND OUT

John
Clay, If you could put thumb sucking together with your public snoring, who knows how many more national awards we could win.

I'm outta here.

Clay
Better a thumb in the mouth, John, than other places you might put it.

I'm outta here. too

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus and 106.7 FM in Newark.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2005 John DeSando and Clay Lowe