92. UMBERTO D.

A MAN AND HIS DOG

By Darin Skaggs

     There are many different types of films that I respond to, genres like science fiction films or most recently the Western.  There are films that get a big reaction out of me.  Those are the films with real simple stories that are over shadowed with large amounts of emotion that is most of the time held in until the climax of the picture.  Films that fit the criteria are Ikiru, Kes, Bicycle Thieves and 1952’s Umberto D. 

     Umberto D. is a film about an older man who slowly but surely loses every possession he has.  The film starts out with Umberto in a protest against the government.  He is around other older folks who are poorer. Umberto at the beginning of the film has no job.  He begs for cash, desperately trying to sell his watch.  We find out soon enough that he is trying to do this because he needs to pay rent to his uptight landlord. 

     Throughout the film he continues to lose several of his possessions.  At one point he is taken to the hospital.  He is a little upset, but still goes on.  He is in danger of being evicted but does not give up or show any sign of stress.  He is shown constantly sad but still has a bit of optimism during his constant struggle.  There are a few things in his life that he cannot seem to live without.  The first thing is his dog Flike.  While in the hospital he gets a visitor, she says that Flike it outside.  This makes him get up at a fast pace to go see his dog.  This moment and others make you feel a real connection with this dog.  It is a connection that he seems to share with no one else.  The only person that even comes close is his next door neighbor, a pregnant young lady.  Throughout the film he is lecturing the young women on what to do with her life.  Yet, Umberto is not judging her for not being married and pregnant or for living in such bad conditions.  This man is giving her advice because he really seems to care for this woman; he only wants the best for her.  He wants her to have the best life she can and he takes on the father role for this young lady.

     This film is about Umberto but the director occasionally will focus on the struggles of random characters.  These people get one scene usually but are used in the film to show that the elderly are not the only ones who are in rough times.  All walks of life during this time were in challenging circumstances and like Umberto it all depends what your mood will be like when you face the reality.

     Most of the film Umberto handles life pretty well but because he’s human he gets aggravated and takes it out on the one he loves the most. Sometimes he has to let go for the best solution to his problems. This leads to the ending of the film, which is one of the most heartbreaking yet uplifting endings in all of cinema.  By the end you know our protagonist will be just fine, he will still struggle but that will not stop him from finding peace.

     Umberto D. is a heartbreaking film. At the same time when I see it the film gives me hope to carry on and I think I’ll make it through. 

93. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

…AND THANK GOD IT HAPPENED

By Darin Skaggs

     As you may know I love film.  I try to respect all genres, but most romantic comedies are just not that good.  However some of them are good and others I consider masterpieces.  Films like The Goodbye Girl, When Harry Met Sally… and Annie Hall are among the greatest of the genre.  The staple, the centerpiece, the first amazing romantic comedy is also one of my favorite films.  That film is Frank Capra’s 1934’s It Happened One Night.

     The film has many of the cliché moments you would find in the cheesier and worse of the genre, but in this film they work.  The film is about a young rich woman named Ellie who is set to marry a man she does not love, so she runs away.  On her trip she encounters a charming yet annoying man, Peter.  Like most romantic movies, the two do not get along.  Of course throughout the film they learn each other’s characteristics and start to fall in love.

     This film is one of few films to win every major Academy Award.  Those include Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture.  The film deserves all of these awards.  The couple played by the great Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable do a great job performing the equally great dialogue.  Their shocked or nervous faces they make while people are searching for Ellie are hilarious and impressive.  The film is not very long yet the direction and screenplay make their short time together falling in love incredibly real and emotionally satisfying.

     The dialogue in the film is done at breakneck speeds and humor competes with any good comedy made today.  Some of the funniest scenes include describing the wall of Jericho, the way they rid a man who realizes Ellie has a reward if you bring her back to her family.  My personal favorite is when the cops are looking for Ellie, Peter decides to pretend that they are a couple in the midst of a big fight.  The cops find it so awkward while she cries into her hands and Peter yells loudly at her so they just leave.

     This film is defiantly one of the funniest films ever made and still funny today.  This film stood the test of time and probably will for the rest of time.  It has a lot of heart and makes you root for these silly people.  When you watch you will find yourself smiling the whole way through.

94. THE GREAT DICTATOR

BAD DICTATOR, GREAT FILM

By Darin Skaggs

     In the silent era one man was king.  That man was the comedy star Charles Chaplin.  He had the world in the palm of his hand mixing slapstick hilarity with huge emotional moments.  Then in the late twenties talkies came and Chaplin and many others didn’t know where to take their career.  Some tried to adapt to talkies and had film careers, others did not adapt very well and their film career was over.  Chaplin was a more stubborn man, for the first decade of talking films he decided to make two silent films.  In 1940 Chaplin finally let go and made his first talkie and it is one of his greatest achievements.

     The story goes as so, there is a barber who is fighting in a war.  He ends up in a plane with an enemy fighter and saves his life, though hitting his head and losing his memory.  At the same time a dictator, who looks a lot like the barber because they are both played by Chaplin,  demands to segregate many towns, including the barbers living area.  After many different situations and circumstances the barber is mistaken for the dictator and takes his place.  He gives one of the most inspiring speeches of all time.

      Like I said Chaplin must have been stubborn to not make a talkie and only make silent films while everyone else was adapting and in the opening of his first talking film he still has a scene that is silent and mostly psychical jokes.  Chaplin finally gives in and people talk and for Chaplin’s first talkie it is on par with any other.  Chaplin adapts well. 

     A big part of this film is the dictator.  He looks a lot like Adolf Hitler.  At the time the film was made Hitler was just rising in power, but Chaplin takes on how dark his power was.  Obviously the good guys in the film were Jewish and the bad guy’s leader looks like Hitler.  Chaplin makes the dictator character silly though making him say stupid sounding phrases while talking his “foreign” language and he stubbles around a few times in his huge office. While still being a hilarious comedy Chaplin still makes a dark film with the Jewish people being pushed around, a few buildings are destroyed and some people make sacrifices to save others. 

Chaplin mixes these two elements very well making one of the funniest films and also one of the most telling, especially because of how close to the time this stuff was happening.  Like always, Chaplin gives a great performance and the old silent movie star gives one of the greatest speeches.  That moment the master was on top again.

THE HANGOVER PART III Review

THE HANGOVER PART III Review

By Darin Skaggs

     The movie sequel is one of the hardest aspects of film to try and pull off.  At first glance it seems lazy, they take the same characters and put them in a similar situation as the first movie with a similar conclusion.  This works only sometimes in the films like Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight and the first two Indiana Jones sequels.  Other times it falls apart like the Star Wars prequels, The Godfather Part III and the fourth Indiana Jones movie.  The Hangover, one of the better comedies to come out for a while, came out with it’s Part II back in 2011.  The film was panned, even by me, for being the same film with the same plot even down to the same realization at the end of the film.  The more I think about Part II the more I respect it. Now in 2013 Part III has come out it can be added to the good sequel list.

     In the first movie the characters go to Las Vegas and wake up forgetting everything that happened the previous night and try to figure it out.  In Part II they go to Bangkok, and then wake up not knowing anything from the night before, just like number one.  This time around Todd Philips, director of all three movies, skips over the reliving the same event over and over and he creates a new plot.  This time the characters Phil, played by Bradley Cooper, Stu, played by Ed Helms and Alan played by Zach Galkifinakis head off to a institution for Alan to go due to him being off his meds and him struggling with the passing of his father.  The very first seen however is Chow, played by Ken Jeong, who is the crazy criminal Asian man who is somewhat of a villain in the first two films who breaks out of the prison in Bangkok, where he was arrested in the second film.  While the guys are on their way to drop Alan off they are driven off the road and captured by Marshall, played by John Goodman.   He does this because Chow has stolen his gold and Alan has been writing him letters so he thinks that he would know where Chow was.  He takes Doug, who throughout all the movies has been called a good friend of all of them but always seems to get left out of the adventures. Marshall says he will kill him unless they bring Chow to him.  This is where the film takes off.

     The first two films are mostly played for comedy, and more shock comedy but this film while still having funny moments and the shock comedy is more of an adventure film.  The two others had adventure, but the first one was about 80% comedy and 20% adventure.  The third one is 20% comedy and 80% adventure.  When they get kidnapped it’s treated nearly like an action scene.  Some scenes are stylized to be tense and make you feel scared to what happens next including a break in to a highly secured home.  There is even an edge of you seat chase scene that makes you root for our heroes.  Now even though I said this film is only 20% comedy it does not mean the film is missing big laughs in it.  Again like the first two Galifanakis is king.  There are several great jokes from him like during a tense scene asking Phil where he got his shirt and sharing several scenes with the equally great Melissa McCarthy.  The other guys have good jokes as well, even Chow has some great lines, and even though I felt he was too over the top in the first two he has some solid gags including him preforming a monotone karaoke version of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt.” It’s a pretty funny film though every joke doesn’t land, but most of them do.

      The shock comedy in this film is dark, but not as dark as Part II.  That is one big problem I had with the second one.  I felt that it was trying too hard to gross us out and shock us that it misses a lot of the jokes and ends up being mostly offensive.  This film has some pretty shocking stuff like a giraffe is decapitated by a highway bridge and causes a pile up and later on some characters end up dead.  The film theme, which is in the other two but in this one focuses on it even more than the others, is friendship.  Alan who has always been a screw up is mostly together by the end and turns into a good friend.  Phil and Stu who sacrifice a lot for Alan feel less mad about it.  By the end of the film they are all grown up or at least as grown up as they will be.

     The ads having been saying this is the finale in this trilogy and with all the characters being better people and the last few scenes make it feel this way.  Also by making it sound like this it makes the stakes feel even higher.  Some of the characters mention death with worry and occasionally with glee.  Hopefully this is the last one because the film as a whole ties everything together with plenty of references to the other two.  It also makes Part II seem better.  Both endings to this film make it feel like Philips enjoyed making these films and loved these characters.  He is not a fan of humanity in general, but he loves these people.  This is why I left this film satisfied with the stories that were told and the characters I’ve gotten to know.

     The film is funny and works well with its suspenseful moments.  Hopefully it will be the last one and as time goes on could be considered one of the better trilogies.  It is a good time at the movies and I hope you check it out.