Yesterday afternoon, I went to the movie theaters to check out Spielberg’s version of “West Side Story”. I’ve been interested in it ever since it was announced and since it was being talked about. I had faith in Spielberg that he would make a great “West Side Story” movie and he did. I thought it was really good and knocked it out of the park.
Was this movie very faithful to the Broadway musical in 1957 and the 1961 film? Yes. Although this movie was more closer to the original 1957 play than anything, though. This movie didn’t do very well in box office opening weekend and reviews are mixed. Some complained that there are “woke” racial politics in this film which is true but that’s how it was in the 60’s though and Spielberg wanted to make this film as a way to show how divided it is in today’s America.
I don’t really care about that, though, Steve did a great job doing his first musical. It was well acted by the entire cast. You know how in Spielberg films he always has big name stars as the lead? Well in this film, most of the cast are “unknown” actors except the only well-known star in this film is Corey Stoll who plays Lt. Shrank. Well, one thing that impressed me the most about this cast was that this movie had an original star from the 1961 film by Robert Wise. Rena Moreno played Anita in the 1961 original and this same woman is in the 2021 version but plays a different character.
In Spielberg’s version, the songs are the same except there were like a few I didn’t hear before? Were they brand new written for the film exclusively or were they songs taken from the 1957 play and not heard in the 1961 film?
Anyway, while Spielberg’s version had lots of similarities of the 1961 movie, there will be a lot of differences too ’cause this is just Steve’s vision. This was how Steve saw it in his head. Same story but there were plenty of things added to explain things better and make things a little more realistic.
I thought Steve’s take on “West Side Story” was very well done but it still don’t top the 1961 original by Robert Wise ’cause I’ll always love the original. I’ll give Spielberg “West Side Story” a score of 8/10. Definitely worth watching if you’re fan.
The Beatles spent a lot of time rehearsing and recording for their album “Let it Be”. There was a day when Paul McCartney invites his wife and his daughter to try and brighten up the band members after working so hard. I think Paul brought little Heather in to cheer the band up some.
There was a funny moment in the doc when little Heather witnesses Yoko doing those weird chants and even Heather looked a little freaked out.
A few minutes later, Heather wanted to join in with the Beatles so she excitedly walks up to John’s mic and John looks at her, nodded his head letting her know it’s “okay” for her to sing with the Beatles.
To be honest, Heather was more enjoyable to listen to than Yoko, lmao. I thought this was one of the cool moments in the doc. It was funny.
So last night, I finished watching “The Beatles – Get Back” documentary on Disney Plus. It’s a 3 part documentary directed and produced by Peter Jackson. Yes, that Peter Jackson the same guy who directed the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the “King Kong” remake. Well Peter Jackson has been working on this documentary for a long time and he finally finished it and it’s now out on Disney Plus exclusively.
As a big Beatles nerd myself, I’ve been looking forward to it and now I’ve just seen it. Watched Parts 1 and 2 over the weekend, just finished Part III last night.
What are my thoughts on this Beatles doc? I freakin’ loved it! It was very good and I was impressed with Peter’s directing style. It’s quite different than his movie making and honestly, I think Peter is way better at making music documentaries and I hope he does a few more of them on different bands.
Anyhow, “Get Back” really focuses on the making of the “Let It Be” album and its famous rooftop concert that the Beatles did. During the making of this album, the Beatles wanted to document all of it for a future TV special. The original goal of the Beatles for this project was that they wanted to write and rehearse 14 songs for an album and perform the 14 songs live and for a TV special. Later on, though, plans sort of changed when George Harrison briefly quit the band. They were unsure where to play those 14 songs so they suggested the rooftop of their own building at Apple studios.
So the Beatles went up there on the Apple rooftop and played for a little bit. The original plan was to play the 14 songs on the rooftop but they were only able to play a few of them on the roof ’cause the city people bitched to the cops about the noise so they had to stop the show. Since Paul McCartney was committed to playing the 14 songs, they finished the rest of them in the studio.
Why did the Beatles choose to play on the rooftop of Apple? There was no reason actually, they just simply wanted to. They just went up there and did it. Even the people in the city streets loved the Beatles playing up there, not everyone liked it ’cause like always there will always be complainers and whiners so they got the cops to get them to stop the show. Even though the Beatles got in trouble with the cops, it didn’t seem to bother them at all ’cause after all that the Beatles were all smiles and laughing so obviously they were very proud they did that.
Anyway, even though it seems like it may be fun to play in a band… it’s not as fun as you might think it is. Being in a band can be overwhelming and tough. It takes a lot to keep a band together and to try and get all members to get along which is what Paul McCartney tried to do. The Beatles didn’t always get along. As you watch this documentary, you will see some pretty heated arguments with members of the band.
After watching this doc, it made me get new profound respect for Paul McCartney ’cause he was never my favorite Beatle. George Harrison was always my favorite but now my respect for Sir Paul grew pretty massively. Paul is my favorite Beatle now. Paul is a real musician. He definitely knows what he is doing musically, he knows what all the notes and chords sound like. Paul plays every instrument too. He’s mostly known for playing his small Hofner bass guitar but he also plays electric guitar, bass, piano and drums. Plus, Paul has a killer singing voice too.
After watching this Beatles doc, makes me want to get more of Paul McCartney solo albums and the albums he did with Wings. I’m gonna start getting some of that stuff soon.
Anyway, it was an interesting doc and definitely the best rock documentary I’ve seen in a long while.
I’m listening to the Beatles “Let It Be” album as I type this and I’m trying to figure out why the album only has 13 songs when the goal was 14. That’s because one song was dropped from the album release, “Don’t Let Me Down”. It’s a shame ’cause it’s an incredible song and the best song out of the 14. It turned out that Phil Spector dropped the song from the album release. If you want to get the “Let it Be” album with the song “Don’t Let Me Down” on it, you would get the alternative version, The Beatles “Let It Be… Naked” ’cause the song is on there.
It’s interesting to see the Beatles rehearse ’cause all they do is clown around and laugh most of the time. The movie did have some comedic moments, though.
My only negative is that Yoko can be quite annoying with her awful singing ’cause she sometimes joins in with her annoying chanting or whatever she does.
Other than that, this was a really good doc. Yeah, I’m a Beatles nerd myself. I have most of their albums and trying to get them all with only 5 more to go.
Well, as some of you may or may not know I mostly like to watch horror films and action films but I do like to watch comedies too. “Clerks” is one of my favorite comedies of all time. It’s definitely Kevin Smith’s best directed film.
As you can see, I have this BluRay of the first “Clerks” movie autographed by most of the main cast. I got “everybody” pretty much except for the director Kevin Smith who also played Silent Bob and the woman who played Caitlin Bree. I can’t get the woman who played Caitlin to sign it… whose name is Lisa Spoonauer ’cause she passed away in real life a few years ago I think… so really the only cast member I need to get signed on this BluRay is Kevin Smith himself.
How did I get this BluRay signed by most of the cast members? Well, Saratoga Comic Con of course. The stars were there signing over the years.
I got Jason Mewes, Marilyn and Scott Schiaffo to sign it a few years ago. I went to Saratoga Comic Con yesterday and the film’s two leading stars Brian O’ Halloran and Jeff Anderson were there signing so I got those two guys to sign it as you can see above.
I chatted with both Brian and Jeff for a little bit and they took their time to chat with me and they were both hella nice guys as expected. Both of those guys seem impressed that I got most of the cast to sign the “Clerks” BluRay and both of them said I need to get Kevin Smith to sign it somehow and I told them I’ll try my best ’cause as you know, Kevin Smith is the most famous of them all so he’ll be the hardest one to get. I was talking to Jeff Anderson about it who plays Randall and Jeff says to me and joked, “Well you gotta track him down”… which was funny. haha… and I told him, I’ll try my best. When I was talking to Brian, I was asking him about “Clerks III” and he says they already shot it… it’s all done and it’s coming out soon. I told him I’m looking forward to it and he says, “Thanks for being a fan”.
Getting Kevin’s autograph on it…. ooohhh, that’s gonna be a tough one, I don’t know how I’m gonna do that one but I’ll my best. Ya know, Kevin lives in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles ’cause you always see him posting hiking pics and videos in the Hollywood Hills. It’s gonna be hard to reach out to the man… I could probably mail the BluRay out to him “self addressed stamped envelope” with his permission of course ’cause I don’t want to get in trouble and stuff, ya know? Gotta do the autograph thing right so my best bet is I’ll have to wait until Kevin does an autograph signing around here. I heard that Saratoga Comic Con is gonna try to get him there so I’ll wait for that, maybe. I would like to meet Kevin Smith in person ’cause that would be cool. I’ve been watching Kevin Smith movies most of my life and grew up watching him. Of course, with the first “Clerks” being my favorite ’cause it’s a funny ass film and it’s one of those films you laugh hard at each time you watch. It’s a well-made film ’cause it’s realistic.
Meeting Brian and Jeff the two leading guys of “Clerks” was something and like I said above, they were very cool to talk to and they made it very easy to talk to them. Down to earth guys. They’ll talk with ya and shake your hand and everything. Guess they want their fans to have an experience. I told Brian and Jeff I re-watched the Clerks movie last Friday night and they seem flattered.
Going to Saratoga Comic Con was definitely a good day. Gonna go to these events more in the future, I think. Love the Clerks movies but the first will always be best. I may have seen the second one once but I’m planning on re-watching that one.
If you’ve never seen “Clerks” before you should definitely check it out. It’s a hilarious 90 minute film. It’s a real good one. Definitely Kevin’s best film in his career, in my opinion.
I’m sure you read the reports by now that got out today and you’re probably wondering my thoughts. About Mel Gibson not only reprising his role as Martin Riggs for “Lethal Weapon 5” but he will also be directing it too, replacing Richard Donner who died earlier this year.
Of course, there will be all kinds of controversy around this ’cause of Mel’s past and I’m sure many are attacking Warner Brothers studios and threatening to boycott and all that crazy stuff.
There are some that are gonna be unforgiving and won’t let the past stay in the past but “who cares”. Mel’s still a great director and a talented man.
I’m sure he’ll make a great “Lethal Weapon” movie, he’ll make it action packed and funny as hell like the first 4 were. Mel is taking over Richard Donner to honor him after his passing which is great. Mel and Danny Glover reuniting would be awesome and that definitely have to happen but will the other cast return? Like with Joe Pesci, Renee Russo and Chris Rock? I’m sure Mel is gonna try to bring back the whole gang, we’ll see. Can’t wait.
Mel is mostly an actor and he’ll direct a film occasionally. While “Man Without a Face”, “Braveheart” and “Passion of the Christ” were all good flicks, I thought his best directed movie was “Apocalypto”. He may have had a controversial past yes but he’s still directed award nominated movies ’cause his last directed movie “Hacksaw Ridge (which was also pretty good) got some award attention.
I’m a big Lethal Weapon fan but is Lethal Weapon 5 gonna be HBO Max exclusive only? I hope not ’cause I don’t want to get HBO Max, I’m hoping they’ll release it for the big screen too. We’ll have to wait and see.
So I’ve finally gotten around to watching the rest of the “Fear Street” trilogy on Netflix this month. I was pretty impressed with this trilogy to be honest with you. This trilogy is getting mixed reviews but who cares, I thought this trilogy was entertaining as hell from start to finish. Loved them. The “Fear Street” movies were based upon the book series by young adult author R.L. Stine and the movies were directed by female director, Leigh Janiak.
It’s about these kids that try to save their town Shadyside from this curse which causes people to murder others.
The cinematography and film direction is pretty interesting and unique, though. It’s a very colorful film. The writing was surprisingly good, in my opinion and finally we get a slasher horror series that tell a story. Most slashers over the years have no story, just blood and gore. With these movies there is plenty of blood and gore yes but there is also a story to tell. I love the details in the storytelling and the writing is actually smart. Something we haven’t really seen in a slasher film before.
I thought these movies were pretty well done. Most Netflix original movies are pretty much garbage but finally Netflix makes something that I actually liked a lot. I loved this trilogy and I also loved Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead” too. Netflix is trying to get better with their original content.
After seeing “Fear Street” makes me want to read the books by R.L. Stine. If you’re going to start reading the books, I’m sure the books will be more family friendly since they’re “young adult” genre but it’s even more interesting that they made the movie versions into “R rated” versions.
I would recommend you see “Fear Street” trilogy yourself if you’ve haven’t yet. Will “Fear Street” movies be an ongoing series like the books? This was meant to be considered a “trilogy” but ya never know if there will be more and I wouldn’t be surprised if they make more. I feel there is more story to tell after the third one… I felt it wasn’t really over yet so yeah, there probably will be more coming.
Alec Baldwin was filming a movie called “Rust” which is a Western movie I just found out and they were filming near Santa Fe, New Mexico. They were shooting a scene where Alec was required to use a prop gun and he accidently kills cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and seriously injured the director. They halted filming as soon as possible while the police investigates the incident and Alec the man himself has been cooperative 100%.
On twitter, I’m already seeing “AlecForPrison” over this trending… while I’m not a fan of Mr. Baldwin, I don’t like him at all… I don’t think he’ll get charged for this but it was simply an accident. I would say though that this makes him looks like a hypocrite after being so anti-gun and hating on the NRA for so many years. Yet the man continues to use guns himself in action films, thrillers and now Westerns.
Yeah, prop guns are fake but they can still be just as dangerous. It wasn’t the first time ’cause Brandon Lee was killed by one while filming “The Crow” movie.
Accidents happen.
Yeah, movies are fake and make believe but if actors really wanted us to take their “anti-gun” arguments seriously then they would stop starring in movies that uses guns but they don’t. They continue to star in violent movies with guns even though they continue to debate about gun violence in the media.
RIP to Halyna Hutchins and speedy recovery and well wishes to the director, though. They didn’t deserve that and god bless their families. While Mr. Baldwin probably won’t get charged, the family of Halyna Hutchins could file a civil lawsuit against Baldwin and the studios if they wanted to and the director Joel Souza could do the same. I doubt Joel will sue ’cause he would know it was just an accident but Halyna’s family might sue, though. We’ll have to see what happens.
Terrible thing that happened but Hollywood movie stars really need to look at their hypocrisy when it comes to gun control and their anti-gun violence.
How would they think about gun safety after this one?
So yesterday I saw the movie “Halloween Kills”, yes the new Michael Myers movie. As some of you may or may not know, this new Halloween series going on takes place after the first one, completely ignoring the rest of the series. So this new series is a continuation after the first one.
A lot of the characters are played by the same people from the first one except for that little kid in the first one, Tommy Doyle, the kid with the bowl cut hair who discovered the Boogeyman aka Michael Myers. The original actor who played Tommy Doyle, whose name is Brian Andrews is retired from acting I think. That’s why they ended up getting child star legend, Anthony Michael Hall to play Tommy instead. Yes, that Anthony Michael Hall who played in movies like “The Breakfast Club”, “Weird Science”, “Sixteen Candles”, “National Lampoon’s Vacation”, etc. He was part of the brat pack in the 80’s and now he’s one of the leading roles in a Halloween movie. Anthony Michael Hall did a good job, though. I was impressed with him.
Michael Myers is still being played by the same guy, Nick Castle. Of course, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and the cop guy from the first one, Brackett is played by the same actor too.
I think the director David Gordon Green is doing a fine job with these movies. Does a good job trying to match Carpenter’s style. This is a guy who mostly makes Drama and Comedy films which is impressive, really.
I thought the story was pretty well written and the kills in this movie, man. The Myers kills in this movie getting real interesting and different. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers in this movie and I don’t want to say whether or not Laurie and Michael faces each other, you’ll have to find out yourself.
There’s one more Halloween movie after this one which will be the final one, “Halloween Ends” but it’s gonna be interesting to see how they’re gonna kill Michael for good.
Since this movie “Halloween Kills” is streaming on Peacock, I decided to watch movie on the big screen instead first ’cause that’s how movies were supposed to be seen, ya know? It’s more fun seeing movies on the big screen with the giant screen and loud speakers. I went to see it with a friend of mine ’cause not everybody subscribes to Peacock, ya know?
I’m probably gonna re-watch “Halloween Kills” ’cause I’m planning to start at the beginning with the Halloween (1978) and Halloween (2018). Halloween day is just around the corner and I’ve been watching a Halloween horror movie marathon myself.
“Halloween Kills” was brilliant but I”m sure the next movie is gonna be even better. Trust!
Why is Daniel Craig done with Bond and stepping down? Well, he just simply had enough really. Doing a little reading and research on this on why he is stepping down and retiring the Bond character, well, he was gonna quit after “Spectre” but Sony talked him out of it and made him do one more so they can close out his series. News reports were speculating that he hated playing Bond but it turned out that he never hated playing the character, he was just getting too burned out and tired of it, ya know?
Think about it, the first Bond film that he starred in “Casino Royale” came out in 2006. It is now 2021 and he made 5 Bond movies so far. That’s about 15 years he’s been making Bond flicks so I would think that was how it would be a bit overwhelming for him. So it sounds like that’s what it is, he got too overwhelmed of the workload so he wants to get away from it and relax. Some speculated injuries is a reason… maybe that’s a small part of it but doubtful. He just got too burned out, period.
I also read somewhere that another reason he wants to move on that he wants to give someone else a chance. Passing the torch wasn’t Sony’s decision… it was Daniel himself that wanted Sony to give someone else a chance to play the iconic hero. He just felt his time was up.
Daniel probably just wants to move on to other film projects, ya know? He is a talented man and he’s done other good films too. He’s probably one of the best actors in Hollywood right now, I would say. I read somewhere that Daniel is slated to start filming “Knives Out 2” after Bond 25. I saw the first “Knives Out” movie and it was good, I liked it although the ending was predictable and I knew who the killer was all along, haha.
Anyhow, I was glad to get to see all 5 Daniel Craig Bond movies and once again, “Quantum of Solace” was the only bad one he did but I liked the other 4.
It’s gonna be interesting to see who Sony is gonna pick next and I already have a feeling on who it is ’cause the Bond replacement was already introduced in “No Time To Die”. Sony is gonna get that person. I don’t wanna say who it is as of this time ’cause it’s pretty huge. I’ll wait until Sony makes it official with the press.
So yesterday I went to see the new 007 Bond flick “No Time To Die”, yes, it is finally here. So far, the movie is getting mixed reviews, like a “love” or “hate” thing but what’s new with the Daniel Craig Bond films? They all got mixed reviews so far except for “Quantum of Solace” which that was the only Craig Bond film that got trashed on the most but I agree though, “Quantum of Solace” was probably the worst and I didn’t like it myself but anyway…
… I freakin’ loved it… I loved every second of “No Time To Die” so it was definitely the best of the Daniel Craig 007 series for sure. They ended his series beautifully and perfectly. I think the director, Cary Fukunaga did a brilliant job.
I don’t want to give any of the story and plots away ’cause there are some huge surprises and shockers in the film… but I gotta say that I think Sony already picked their Bond replacement ’cause this movie was kind of a “passing of the torch” kind of movie, ya know? It seems the new Bond was already chosen in the film itself. I won’t say who the new 007 is, won’t say whether it’s male or female, you have to go see the film yourself and then you’ll see. Sony didn’t sign this possible replacement yet but I’m sure they will and they will make announcement real soon despite all of these different names spinning around on who the next Bond will be but it seems the next Bond was already named in the film itself like I said.
The film had great direction, great writing and good acting by everyone in the cast. The film was of course, very action packed and man… the action scenes were very different than other Bond films in the past. There were a few scenes that will make you want to say “holy shit” out loud. That’s how an action movie should be… thrilling, exciting and unpredictable.
Daniel Craig still got it, though and I understand that he finally had enough and wants to move on to other things. It’s time to pass the torch to someone else. I’ve seen all the Daniel Craig Bond movies when they came out in theater: “Casino Royale”, “Quantum of Solace”, “Skyfall”, “Spectre” and now “No Time To Die”. Only one I hated was “Quantum” but the other 4 were real good, though.
Thanks Daniel for a great ride.
Kev
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