42

42 (2013)

Written and directed by Brian Helgeland

Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Andre Holland, Christopher Meloni, Brett Cullen, Ryan Merriman, Lucas Black, Alan Tudyk, Hamish Linklater, T.R. Knight, James Pickens Jr and John C. McGinley

After being criticized for not watching movies with a predominantly African-American cast being a certain family member. 42 is a movie that I actually wanted to see. I grew up watching Astros games seeing the game of baseball. It makes you wonder when you were in the stands back in 1947 when Jackie Robinson first took the field.

The movie starts like any typical biopic with the obligatory text about the where the starting point of the film is gonna be. Jack Roosevelt Robinson (Boseman) was a shortstop for the Negro Baseball League team, the Kansas City Monarchs when he is picked by GM Branch Dickey (Ford) to become the first Negro player in the major league. With the help of his wife, Rachel (Beharie) and sports writer Wendell Smith (Holland), Jackie navigates through the murky waters of integrating into white baseball.

Usually movies about pioneering figures would get into saccharine territory, this movie is not exception. The roar and jeers of the crowd, the swelling music and the obligatory slow motion running on the bases. Watching the movie, you have no idea why Branch Dickey decides to have a Negro player on the Brooklyn Dodger until a conservation happens while Jackie is being stitched up.

42 being so squeaky clean could have been major strike against it. It didn't mind that. I was fascinated about the trajectory of this man being plucked out from the K.C. Monarchs into the national spotlight in manner of two short years. Robinson only wanted to play baseball and be good at what he did. He didn't set out to be a hero. That's what he turned out to be in the end. Players commemorates Jackie Robinson with wearing his number in solidarity. It's a wonderful thing.

I was very surprised that Branch Dickey was played by Harrison Ford in the trailers. Boseman as Jackie Robinson was very good. He made him suave, smart-aleck that would get a temper from time to time. I was surprised that Alan Tudyk from Firefly, Serenity and Suburgatory played the racist manage of Phillies. By the end of the movie, I was tearing up. The movie got me hook, line and sinker.

My Rating

Blade Runner - The Director's Cut

Blade Runner (1982)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples

Based on the novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Phillip K. Dick

Currently #125 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars: Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Howard, Daryl Hannah, Brion James, Joe Turkel, William Sanderson, M. Emmet Walsh, Edward James Olmos and Joanna Cassidy

For the longest time, people were talking, comparing, remembering or call back to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. People was saying that it was awesome. I kinda felt out of the loop that I didn't know what people were talking about with this movie. The film was nominated for two Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects. This is like the thinking man's action movie and I enjoyed it.

In the not too distant future -- roughly seven years from now -- Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Turkel) created robots known as "replicants" that were like humans with superior strength and agility that were used as slave labor for the colonization of other inhabitable planets. A revolt by the replicants has made them illegal aliens essentially to the planet Earth. Any replicants that were found on Earth would be killed on sight by blade runners. A police chief, Bryant (Walsh) is informed that four replicants have broken away from exile and come to Earth. He needs to find the best blade runner to "retire" them who is retired, Rick Deckard (Ford).

I will just get this out of the way. I felt that same way like I did with Total Recall. The original, not the remake. I felt that "future" the filmmakers portrayed looked very dated. I can understand that it was eighties and everything has to being dark and dirty with car that look like flying tin cans.

Now, that is out of the way. I can focus on the good things with this film. The replicants of the films are not the bad guys, per se. They are beings that are existing that want to have more life that limited four years lifespan that they have. The movie makes you question you own mortality. Robots should not be able to have emotions, but the replicants of the movie do. Harrison Ford has made a different kind of hero like he did with Hans Solo and Indiana Jones. Deckard felt like unlikely hero that wants to do his job and go home. There was a romance between Ford and Sean Young's character, Rachael that I thought was handled beautifully. It wasn't forced or tacked on. I like that.

My Rating