Tom Hanks Hustle: Saving Mr. Banks

Mr. Hanks has been very good at biographical roles so far in his career. However, we are getting into some territory that, for some, would be a very dangerous undertaking. Walt Disney has always been a man who has touched all of our lives some way or another. He is very much larger than life, the man has his own world for Pete's sake. So, taking on Walt Disney is very tricky and you have to tread very carefully. 

P.L. Travers is best known to the world as the woman who put Marry Poppins on paper. For 20 years Walt Disney has done everything in his power to take Ms. Poppins from the paper to the Silver Screen. For fear that he beloved Marry is going to be turned into something she doesn't recognize she refuses to give him the rights to her book. Now, she is at the end of her money and needs anything she can get. She caves and goes to meet with Disney and see if they can find a way to bring Ms. Poppins to life in a way that has never been done before. 

Like I said taking on the role of THE Walt Disney is something that can be very challenging. However, there is something about Mr. Hanks that as soon as he chooses to become the a certain person he makes you believe it. I hold Mr. Disney in a special place in my heart because, yes, I grew up with his movies but I also share a birthday with the guy. We were both born on December 5th. The people we hold has heroes it's very hard to allow anyone to play them on the screen. I love Mr. Hanks I really do but I was even a bit apprehensive when I first saw this movie.

However, in true Mr. Hanks charm, he wins you over immediately. As I have grown up I have hear that there are very good things and very bad things about Mr. Disney. It breaks my heart some of the things that have been said because he is a hero of mine and I don't wish to imagine him in such ways. However, you have to see that he is human too. Mr. Hanks is able to bring a humanity to Mr. Disney yet be able to portray Mr. Disney in the same light I always wish to see him. A man who loves kids, movies, his family, and his work. A gentle man who wants to being good into the world. 

  

It's roles like these that make me love Mr. Hanks even more. His ability to do what he does on the screen is crazy good. To think that we still have many more roles with him portraying other heroes on the screen coming up soon. You can do the man does his research and really wants to get the intention of each person he plays correctly. Just like Mr. Disney does with his charters on the screen as well. 

Tom Hanks Hustle: Cloud Atlas

At the beginning of the year I posted the video on Tom Hanks with James Corden doing all of Tom Hanks' movies. When we got to Cloud Atlas Mr. Corden started to say that it was a hard movie to follow and Mr. Hanks said it needed repeat viewing. This made me very excited and very nervous at the same time.

This movie, to be put as simply as possible, is about 6 different stories, in different times in history, and how the touch and shape the lives of the other stories as they go on.

That is really the best way I can explain this movie without telling everything that happens. This movie is like the movie Inception in the fact that if you are not paying attention 100% of the time you get confused, lost, and basically have no idea what is going on and have to start the film all over again. 

What makes this film unique is how the story is told. You would think that saying 6 different stories over 500 years time you will go through them in chronological order and see how they all connected. They didn't do that for this film. All of the stories where told at the same time. Which was astonishingly beautiful. The writers and the editors were somehow able to give all the stories enough detail to be told. They were able to have all of the stories hit sad moments and suspenseful moments at the same time. Doing this allowed you to move fluidly between all of the stories without having to change emotional gears. 

What was also very impressive about this story is that there are about 10ish people in the whole film. Almost every actor that stars in this film end up in every story playing a different character. Mr. Hanks himself plays 6 roles and he is NOT the same person in all of them. Sometime he is the bad guy, sometime the good, sometime he is the story, others he is a small but pivotal role. This is a fantastic movie for all of the actors in the film to really show off their acting skills. You would think that would be something that would distracted you the whole movie but it really doesn't. How the whole movie is designed leaves me in awe. They could have just done one scene wrong, or line wrong, or one anything wrong and it would have totally thrown everything off track up it truly didn't. This is a film that really could have gotten away from the actors, the directors, editors, costumes, but nothing did. They kept it straight all the way though and kept it enjoyable. 

What I really love about this movie is that I watched it 24 hours ago and I am still thinking about it like I am still watching the film. There is so much depth in this movie that Mr. Hanks is right, it does need repeat viewing. I just loved how it shows that something anyone does today, can cause a ripple effect through time. That someone who wrote a biography inspired someone hundreds of year later to write a song, who inspires someone to keep going, to inspire someone else to speak the truth that keeps going to convince someone else to start again. I don't think many of us think that simple things in our lives can touch so many people and cause such a big change. Right now I don't think anyone is really interested in what I have to say about movies, or about anything but I don't know really. Maybe someone years from now will come across this blog and like it enough to try something of their own. Or my great great grandchildren will want to know more about me and happen to find this online and get a look inside my head for a little while. 

This movie shows that all of our lives intertwine in such a way we will never fully be able to comprehend. I think that is one of the most beautiful things about life itself.  

Year of Courage: Haunted Corn Maze

October..... The creepiest time of the year. Earlier this year I did a scary movie for something for me to overcome. So, if you know that I don't do scary movies you know very well that I don't do anything haunted. I am not big of haunted houses or corn mazes. I have never been to either one because they are not my thing. So, October was one of the easiest things I could pick out for the year cause there is a whole month dedicated to scary things. Thus, why the haunted corn maze. 

Now since I don't do scary movies I had a fun time trying to figure out a Halloween related movie that was not actually that scary, and since I already had used Hocus Pocus earlier I knew that I could not do that one. Alaina helped me out with that one and suggest Boo! A Madea Halloween.

To which I thought was perfect! I mean this movie had one jump scare that only got you if you are easily scared, like I am. However, it's hilarious and a good way to detox if the haunted maze was too much. 

So, here is was happened. 

Like the scary movie, I got some help from my friend Austin. This time we took more people with us on our adventure! Dakota, Austin's little brother, and Will, Austin's best friend, joined us. This ended up being way better because none of us had ever done a haunted corn maze. So, everyone was going to experience this for the first time. 

I was totally fine on the way there. We were joking and cracking up for the 40 minute drive, no problem finding the place or anything like. It's was after we bought the tickets, and were standing in line that is started to get to me..... 

The same reason I don't like scary movies is the same reason I don't do haunted houses. I HATE jump scares. I STILL don't understand the point of paying good money to be scared. WHO ENJOYS BEING SCARED! 

Anyways, We are standing in line hearing people screaming in the far off distance, chainsaws going off everywhere and I am dreading my choice.... I willing jumped 14,000 feet out of plane in August but I can't handle a haunted corn maze... go figure. We are finally allowed to go in. We turn the first corner and a man in a Jason mask comes out of the corn to which I scream terribly loud and back into the three boys... I feel like I am not going to make it through this before I start to cry.

We go through I few more turns and nothing scares me too bad. Then we run into the nice couple that was in front of us in the line. They had a way better flashlight than we did and they let us follow them and work together to get through the maze. As soon as we got the better flashlight it was so much easier to get through the maze. Cause with the corn you can hear where people are walking through and you shine in that direction you catch them before they catch you.... that is if you are at the front of the line.... which the boy were not...

This my friends.... is how the scary people in the maze left me ALONE!!! 

These three boys... the same boys who love scary movies, the ones who love scary video games... can not handle clowns..... Everyone in this maze was  clown of some sort!!! I would see them coming I was try to warn them, they would not hear me and get scared and I would laugh every single time! We got to one point were several of these guys, one with a chainsaw, came around all sides and cornered us. The boys are screaming! I am laughing my butt off so hard I want to fall on the ground! That is when I realized that all of the masked people realized I was laughing and left me alone, they let me get by easily, they tormented the boys longer than me and finally let them pass.

This goes on the whole time and I am laughing the whole way to through. That is until we get past stopping post 8. We turn the corner and there is this guy in this bloody, gory, mask... giving out high fives. He keeps saying "you're doing great I am trying to send out good vibes, you guys are almost out your doing great". We turn the corner and see this tunnel. I am like ok, there are scary people in the tunnel, there is gonna be a chainsaw it's gonna be great. So, I am preparing myself when I hear from behind me the same guy say "I'M SO SORRY...." then he started a chainsaw behind us, the guy in the tunnel started a chainsaw, there was another guy right when we got in throw his bloody arm out with a fake knife... THE HAPPY GUY LURED US INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY! 

It was BRILLIANT! It was pure evil, and genius, and I am so mad that I was so impressed with his evil plan. 

I have to say that it's was so much fun because I wasn't one being scared the most. Would I go do it again, sure but I'm not gonna be the one to plan it. If someone else want's to go then I might go but I don't think that is going to be a yearly thing for me! 

Because I was scared I didn't get any videos however, Dakota got a few Snapchats that I got from him to share a little bit of the experience.

However, this one is the after we made it out of the maze! Yes, I did thank the scary man for a good time and he waved to us!

Tom Hanks Hustle: Extreamly Loud and Incredibly Close

The darkest day in recent American history was September 11, 2001. Anyone who was alive that day knows it and knows it all too well. I myself was in Mrs. Williams 4th grade class on that day. Ten years after the darkest day the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close came out.

This story takes place a year after the events of 9/11. In the perspective of a young boy who sees the world differently than the rest of us. He tries to answer questions that we still have not figured out which is simply why. Oskar's father always did scavenger hunts. His father always went big on them and made Oskar follow clues all over the place. A year after 9/11, Oskar finds a key inside of a vase. He believes that his father left him the clue in order to find answers to impossible questions. The only clue is that the envelope in the vase says "Black" on it. Leading to look up every single person with the last name Black in New York reported in the last census. Leading to a journey of healing, not only for Oskar and his family, but for a city still grieving the events of a year earlier.

This movie hurts to watch in a good way. I am not even going to even try to imagine what someone who lost someone in 9/11 or who lived in New York during the time. I can't believe that anyone who was alive and witnessed the news during that day can say there where not effected in some wat. It was a time of great sorrow, of confusion, but the stories or people, of life, of hope, of togetherness that I have gotten to hear after have been amazing. This move, in a small way, shows the hope that comes out of that fear. It shows who people are willing to help each other heal.

I could keep going but I will get to the reason why this movie was watched in the first place.

When I was looking up Mr. Hanks' movies I found that I came across a few titles that I was not sure if he started in. Most he has in a few there have only been a few minutes of. So, I either did not watch them or I watched them and did not write about them cause he was not in them enough. Mr. Hanks' is not the main star in the movie. He is in, but not for very much of the them film. The reason I am still writing about this film is even though he is not the main star, he is the driving force behind the movie.

He is the reason why Oskar goes on this adventure. He is the reason why this particular story is taking place. He is the reason that we gets to see so many people of New York and see how it has thrived  since the events.

In the number of movies that I have seen from all different years, different genres, different topics... I do not recall any movie having a star being such a driving force off the screen than on. I will say that it's very impressive that Mr. Hanks was able to portray so much faith, so much hope, so much emotion in a character so very little seen on screen. It's amazing to watch really. It's amazing how much love is shown from this lost father through the whole movie.

It's simply an amazing film of love, kindness, and the power we have as humans to heal in so many more ways than we could have possibly ever think. It shows how resilient we are as a country and as individuals. It's shows that sometime the best thing we can do for one another is a small gesture, like answer a knock on a door, can bring such lasting impact on our lives.

Alaina's Trial by Movies: Katherine Hepburn

Katherine Hepburn. She is one the most well known actresses off all time. She is mostly known for her roles with Spencer Tracy. However, she is also well versed in comedies, and other roles, outside of her performances with Mr. Tracy. One of the most memorable roles if in Bringing Up Baby.

This movie is about a Professor who has many life changes happening in the same week. He is getting married, a rare dinosaur bone has been found for his museum, and he is trying to win a million dollar grant for the same museum. However, when trying to win over the favor of the lawyer that represents the person giving way the million, he has an unfortunate run in with Susan. Susan is a woman whose head is always in the clouds. She doesn't really know what is going on outside her world. If she sees something that she wants that is outside of her world she will do everything in her power to make it a part of her world. So, when she meets Professor David she finds that she wants him. During the same time her brother sends her a live leopard named Baby to deliver to her aunt. She tricks David into helping her on the day of his wedding.

I have always found this film to be charming. It's one of the best slapstick comedies you will see. So, when it came to choosing what film for Alaina to watch of course it had to be one of the films that made me fall in love with Katherine Hepburn Bringing Up Baby. 

1. What were your thoughts going into this movie? I had no idea really. If I had to guess I thought it was going to be about a baby and not a leopard.
2. What was your favorite part of the movie? Either when they first brought the leopard on the screen, being the movie lover that I am, or at the end when Katherine Hepburn in swaying back and forth on the ladder that should have fallen over already.
3. Favorite character? Cary Grant's character David.
4. Why? He was the only sane one in the whole movie.
5. What did you not like about the movie? I get that you are not supposed to like David's fiancé but it bugs me that he never did get married. As someone who very much looked forward to getting married on her wedding day it made me sad that he like skipped over it.
6. What did you think of the actor we watched this time? I loved Katherine Hepburn's goofiness.
7. What do you think of the movie after watched it? It was nothing like I expected it to be. It was fun and silly.
8. Would you watch it again? Yes
9. Would you recommend? To someone who really like on the nose humor, yes.
10. What relevance does it have to today? Make sure you recognize your leopard and don’t talk to strange women.

I love Alaina. I can not wait to see what she has to say about our next film!