Let it ride (3 Stars)

In this light-hearted comedy Richard Dreyfuss stars as Jay Trotter, a taxi driver and compulsive gambler. The film begins with him swearing to his wife to quit gambling. As a typical non-gambler she thinks of "gambling" and "losing" as synonyms. In Jay's case this is true. The very next day he overhears passengers talking about a horse that is sure to win a fixed race. He goes to the race track, places a $50 bet and wins $710. Convinced that this is his lucky he bets his winnings on a second horse ("letting it ride") and wins again. A series of bets makes him richer and richer.

I had never heard of this film before today. I watched it on Netflix after searching for films made by Jennifer Tilly. She's made over 50 films, but I've hardly seen any of them. In what I've seen she seems to be typecast as a slutty bimbo, a role she plays so well. In "Let it ride" she plays Vicki, a gold digger dating a rich gambler. For me the film was only interesting because of her breasts spilling out of the top of her tight dress. The film's humour, most of which comes from the social interactions of the eccentric gamblers at the race track, wasn't funny enough to make me want to watch it again.

In recent years Jennifer Tilly has made a name for herself as a highly successful professional poker player, frequently appearing in televised tournaments. Everyone must be asking the same question: how do the other players manage to concentrate on their cards? She's a woman who always wins.

RED (4 Stars)

I suppose that "RED" is the correct spelling of the film's title, one word all capitals. Technically it should be "R.E.D.", since it stands for "Retired Extremely Dangerous", but I'll stick with the name that's been given to it. Sometimes there are discrepancies between the posters, the DVD covers and the title in the film myself. The example that springs to mind is "Run Fatboy Run". I'm surprised I didn't mention it when I wrote my review. That's the way it's spelt on the splash screen of the film itself, but both the posters and the English DVD covers write "Fat Boy" as two words. The American DVD covers write "Fatboy" as one word. That must make it confusing for mailorder companies.

I've avoided watching "RED" since it was released in 2009, despite the nagging of a friend who absolutely loves it. Something seems terribly un-sexy about a group of old men and women reuniting to face a common enemy. I needn't have worried. The film is perfect. It's a very good story, and the age aspect adds a certain poignancy to it.

Frank Moses is a retired CIA agent. He lives a comfortable but reclusive life in Ohio, receiving a generous pension. He has a crush on Sarah Ross, a woman who works at the pension department in Kansas City. He's never met her, he just likes her voice and makes excuses to ring her as often as he can. His comfort is disturbed when a heavily armed assault team comes in the middle of the night to assassinate him. He escapes them, but in the process his house is destroyed, and he's on the run. The first thing he does is drive to Kansas City and pick up Sarah, because he thinks that Sarah might also be in danger, since she's his only friend. That's sad. He finds out the assault team was made up of CIA operatives, and he also discovers that several of his former colleagues have also been killed. He realises that they all have in common that they took part in a mission in Guatamala in 1983, so he rounds up the survivors from that mission to find out why the CIA wants to eliminate them.

CIA agent William Cooper in a previous life

This is a very good film. I particularly enjoyed the performance of Karl Urban as Frank's nemesis, the young CIA agent who is just "doing his job". Apart from appearing in "Star Trek XI" this is the first time I've seen him since his regular role as Julius Caesar in "Xena Warrior Princess". He's an underrated actor who deserves bigger roles. The main roles, the old guys, are played by Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren, all first rate actors in their own right.

I didn't realise until today that the film is based on a DC Comics graphic novel. If I'd known that I might have watched it earlier.

Mr. Holland's Opus (4 Stars)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought this film because it was highly recommended by a friend. It wasn't her recommendation alone. The majority of reviews I read online were positive, and Richard Dreyfuss was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in this film.

A young man, Glenn Holland, becomes a high school music teacher in 1964. Not out of enthusiasm for teaching, merely because he didn't have anything else. "I'm nervous. Boy, I never thought I'd be here. Like most people I only got my teaching certificate so I'd have something to fall back on. And now I have." At first he's totally disillusioned because the children have no interest in what he teaches them about classical music. He only begins to have success when he shows them that rock'n'roll has musical structures in common with Beethoven. But still it's a daily fight to inspire the children.

At home all is not well. Glenn has a son who he hopes will become a great composer. He names him Coltrane Gershwin Holland, though he nicknames him Cole. But Cole is deaf, which alienates Glenn. He largely ignores him and doesn't even succeed in learning sign language to communicate with him. He puts other children ahead of his own son. A recurring theme is Glenn's "opus", after which the film is named. Before joining the school he started to write a symphony which would make him famous, but as the years pass by he keeps changing it and adding to it, but it's never completed.

The story progresses in intervals up to 1980, punctuated by events in political and musical history. The Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, "Saturday Night Fever" and the Sex Pistols are mentioned in passing. The final big event is the murder of John Lennon, which is crucial in repairing the relationship with Cole.

From here we leap forward to 1995. Times have changed. Glenn has been a teacher for over 30 years. I won't say anything more to avoid spoilers.

I admit that for the first hour of the film I had difficulty watching it. It seemed erratic, meandering on aimlessly without any direction. I even considered turning it off. I'm glad I remained patient. As it continued it gained in emotional depth, and the seemingly random strands of plot were tied together, leading to a dramatic climax. This is a deeply moving film that I would recommend to anyone. Especially to teachers.

Click here to view the trailer.

RED [Guest Writer] (5 Stars)

Frank (Bruce Willis) is retired, bored and lonely living off his government pension in a nondescript suburb in an equally nondescript house. The only joy in Frank's life are his calls to the government pension processing center when he gets to talk to his case worker Sara (Mary-Louis Parker). Sarah is as bored and lonely as Frank and marks her conversations with the unknown Frank and her spy novels as the only things fun in her life. When something in Frank's past forces Frank back into his old line of work and puts an unwitting Sarah in the middle of the intrigue, Frank and Sarah begin a journey into Frank's past and the people he used to work with. Like Frank they are all RED...Retired Extremely Dangerous.

This was a good movie in my opinion and the actors did their characters well. Bruce is a veteran at this and I had no trouble believing he was an ex-bad-ass spy that was ready to take your ass out in a heart beat- he does these roles the best. I think that this was action-packed, lighthearted, and a potential tear-jerker (depending on how much of a softie you are). I saw this movie probably four times and I wasn't bored once which means that in my book it stands the test! Good movie. Good plot. Great actors. Ass-kicking action. Belly laughs sprinkled throughout. A splash of re-kindled romance. Really...what more could I ask for in a movie?! Absolutely nothing!