Any die hard movie musical fan knows that MGM produced most of the greatest musicals of all time in the 1950s. The Arthur Freed Unit became the touchstone of musicals with productions ranging from The Wizard of Oz in 1939 to Bells Are Ringing in 1960. While the 1940s was a productive decade for Freed, the 1950s gave us some of the most beloved, classic musicals of all time.

Now, Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has taken two of these MGM classics, plus one from the Warner Brothers library, and has given them a good scrubbing for Blu-ray and the results are astonishing. Best of all, you can purchase your favorite film as a stand-alone disk or get them all in the new Musicals: 4-Movie Collection. The three new titles are The Band Wagon, Calamity Jane, and Kiss Me Kate. Warners has added Singin’ in the Rain as a bonus to the 4-disk set.

The first movie in the collection is The Band Wagon (1953) starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan. The story follows a nearly washed up Hollywood actor (Astaire) who decides to head to Broadway to see if he can untarnish his star in a big stage musical (shades of the Oscar-winning Birdman!). An egotistical director hijacks the frothy musical and turns it into a depressing version of Faust, ensuring a huge flop but the cast bands together to save the show.

The film is very entertaining, and it allows Astaire to take on a different character than we’re used to seeing from him. No top hat and tails this time around, but his dancing is still on point, especially in the scene where he dances with a shoe shine man (who was a real shoe shine man in New York). Cyd Charisse is stunning as always and is simply magnificent to watch in what was her first real starring role. The film also introduced Broadway star Nanette Fabray to movie audiences in what was, surprisingly, her only MGM musical. The movie also has a great score, but it’s most well-known for introducing “That’s Entertainment” as THE song about showbiz, supplanting the standard “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

The film looks terrific on Blu-ray. The image is bright and colorful but still has a film-like quality to it with an appropriate amount of film grain. The 1080p image(presented in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio) has not been completely scrubbed of any detail, and the soundtrack has been given a nice DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix that keeps the dialog and singing front and center, allowing the orchestra to swell, but never overwhelm, from the surrounds.

Bonus features include:

• Commentary by Liza Minnelli and Michael Feinstein
• Get Aboard! The Band Wagon (37:09) — A vintage “making of” looking at the production of the film with many behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the film’s stars, crew and family members.
• The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli (58:25) — An episode of the WNET series focusing on Minnelli.
• Jack Buchanan with the Glee Quartet (6:00) — Comedic musical short film starring Band Wagon c0-star Buchanan.
• The Three Little Pups (6:46) — MGM cartoon featuring Droopy Dog in a variation of The Three Little Pigs.
• Theatrical Trailer (3:14)

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Mankind has long held a fascination with eerie things that go bump in the night and the mysterious fraternal orders that are bound by duty to keep us safe from such creatures. In Universal Pictures’ latest offering Seventh Son, we’re introduced to The Wardstone Chronicles (UK)/The Last Apprentice (US), a young-adult series written by author Joseph Delaney. This book series follows the supernatural adventures of Thomas “Tom” Ward (Ben Barnes), who is the seventh son of a seventh son, and therefore the apprentice of Spook John Gregory (Jeff Bridges). In this fictional world, a Spook is the title given to a knight who is bound by duty to fight against supernatural evil.

Only the seventh son of a seventh son is deemed strong enough to fight the good fight against a gaggle of ghosts, ghasts, witches, boggarts and the like. It seems this is a dying breed, as Gregory is the last of the Spook Masters. All of his apprentices have ultimately failed, having been killed by dark forces during their extensive training process. This is all bad enough for Gregory to contend with, but when you throw in the fact that the blood red moon is rising – an event that only happens once a century – and Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) is once more free and gathering her evil minions to take over humanity, well it becomes a dire situation not for the faint of heart indeed. Mother Malkin is the evil queen of the witches. She is very powerful and dangerous with bloodthirsty, vengeful feelings for the Spook. She will stop at nothing to see that the Spook and his young apprentice fail their quest to undermine her uprising.

After Gregory’s latest protégé (Kit Harington) is killed by Mother Malkin at the beginning of the film, he is tasked with finding a suitable replacement immediately, for the ominous blood red moon is coming in just a week’s time. His travels lead him to young Tom, who is the seventh son of a simple farmer who was also a seventh son. There is more to Tom than meets the eye. He has haunting visions – mostly about Mother Malkin – that he doesn’t understand. One gets the impression that destiny has brought the Spook to his last apprentice, for maybe, just maybe, he is the key to Mother Malkin’s undoing.

While I haven’t read any of the book series, I was instantly drawn to the character of Tom. I love stories about humble, reluctant heroes; stories about people coming of age, meeting their destinies and embarking upon a noble quest or two. I think we all like to believe there is something deep-down special about us and that’s why we look to these types of heroes. I’m also a sucker for just about anything supernatural. When you throw in a good monster or two, I’m definitely down for the fight.

Seventh Son throws an abundance of monsters on the screen to delight the audience. Some of them are funny, some of them are creepy and some of them are cool to look at. The 3D effects enrich the overall experience, but it felt like the effects could have been better at times. When Mother Malkin summons her evil cronies, one is almost overwhelmed by the variety of creatures being presented. There’s Urag (a man who transforms into the most vicious-looking bear you’ve ever seen), Radu (the fearsome leader of a band of ninja assassins who also transforms into a dragon), Sarakin (a lady who transforms into a fierce jaguar), a four-armed, sword-yielding maniac known as Virahadra and Mother Malkin’s twisted witch sister, Bony Lizzie, who also (yawns) transforms into a dragon of a different color. By the end, it feels more like a dragon fight instead of a fight between good vs evil.

A friend of mine suggested I go into the film picturing everything Jeff Bridges says in his Dude voice from The Big Lebowski to make it more enjoyable if my interest started to wane. I don’t have the heart to tell him that this would be almost impossible because Bridges’ character mumbles almost unintelligibly throughout the film and sometimes I’m not even sure what he was saying, yet alone did I have the time to picture someone else saying it.

That’s not to say I didn’t like Seventh Son. I’d be lying if I said that my inner 10-year-old who often ponders such questions as “what do monsters have nightmares about?” wasn’t satisfied on some level. There are elements to it that interested me, and I especially enjoyed the fact that Ben Barnes was in it. In fact, I just crushed on him a couple of weeks ago in the historical television miniseries Sons of Liberty in which he played the affable Sam Adams. There’s also a love angle involving Tom and one of the witches (Alice played by Alicia Vikander) that is tender and playful and provides nice breaks from the effects-heavy action sequences. I also believe the villains were all well cast, especially Djimon Hounsou as Radu. He was a badass.

However, much like The Hobbit, I think some of the richness of the fictional world was perhaps lost in this film adaptation. While I enjoyed it, I felt it never quite managed to transcend into the film it possibly could have been given the imaginative subject material (and perhaps some of the higher-ups felt this too, for I read the film’s release date was pushed back). Upon reading an online synopsis of the first book, it seems the story was almost completely changed (including the addition of new characters), and I’m not sure it was for the better. While I won’t bash the film as much as some of the other reviews I’ve seen, I can certainly understand why fans of the book series might be disappointed with the final product. I think Seventh Son had lofty goals of being the next great supernatural fantasy, but it fell more than a little short of the prize. If you’re looking for a cheesy fantasy a la the ones of your childhood, it should be right up your alley.

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Refreshing! That’s the first word that came to mind as I walked out of the movie theatre after seeing the new movie musical Annie. Annie isn’t a new story, it’s an old story revamped with a funky fresh point of view. The story takes place in modern day New York City, and you’ll see a lot of changes; changes you can live with. There’s a diverse cast, Annie is no longer an orphan but a foster kid, she lives in a row house instead of an orphanage in the present instead of The Great Depression, and Daddy Warbucks is now William Stacks.

Annie follows a ten year old foster kid (Quvezhane Wallis) through her day-to-day interactions with fellow foster kids and foster mother all while in pursuit of her real parents. Annie tries to have an upbeat attitude, making the best of each situation even when she’s often disappointed by her lack of parental love. Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz) doesn’t make life any easier for her or the other girls in her care.

Wallis is an adorable Annie with just pinch of sass! She has a sweet voice and I especially like her singing “Opportunity.” I like that the writers connected the old with the new by having Annie do an oral book report on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At times I thought her acting was a bit one-dimensional, that she should have had more facial expression and a little more zing; other times she seemed to nail it!

It took me a while to warm up to Jamie Foxx playing Will Stacks, the cell phone billionaire. At times the acting seemed stiff, especially at the beginning when he was handing out free phones and being a germaphobe; the spitting mashed potato scene was absolutely horrid! I slowly but surely warmed up to his character. Jamie Foxx can carry a tune though. Yes girls, he can really sing and bust-a-move too!

Diaz seemed a little miscast in this role as Miss Colleen Hannigan. This role has always been tailored for a crotchety older woman; Cameron came across as trashy and vapid instead of cranky and cantankerous. Her voice is not robust but she can carry a tune. I liked that Miss Hannigan had been a lost soul; she eventually found that she did care about Annie’s welfare. She was like the Grinch whose heart grew three times its size that day!

Rose Bryne played the attentive assistant, Grace, to billionaire Stacks. I liked when Grace joined Annie outside the restaurant showing so much compassion in such a simple act of waiting to see if her parents showed. Just being there talking and waiting with a little girl who hadn’t dared to give up hope of one day being reunited with her parents was one of the more heartfelt moments of the film.

Annie kept true to the original score with these important, milestone songs: “Tomorrow,” “Maybe,” and “It’s a Hard Knock Life.” The movie added an updated cool twist to “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here,” “I Don’t Need Anything But You” and “Little Girls.” More importantly, they came up with new original tracks like “Opportunity,” “Who Am I?” and “Moonquake Lake.” I personally loved “Who Am I?” and “Opportunity” the best!

I genuinely enjoyed Annie. It was musical; it was light, and also educational. It was a movie for the whole family. The storyline had a decent flow to it; the musical numbers were enjoyable with lively dance routines, plus there were cool guest appearances by Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, and Rihanna! It was educational, because it helped to redefine today’s definition of family. There were also posters and Discussion Guides available so parents could open up a dialogue with their children on important issues facing today’s youth and families. Some valid question they asked were “How can you build a better tomorrow in your community?”, “What lessons did Annie teach her friends?” and “How do you handle life’s hard knocks?”

Kudos to the Annie cast for going above and beyond entertainment, for opening the door to something relevant!

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Although it’s been nearly five months since Robin Williams died, the devastating ripples his death left on the entertainment industry – and really the world at large – are still being felt. Ever the busy entertainer, Williams had five films released posthumously, the latest being 20th Century Fox’s Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. I think the only other film with Williams that has not yet been released is Absolutely Anything, which is due in February according to IMDb but he is credited for voice work only in that film. To my knowledge, Night at the Museum marks the final time one can view him on the silver screen, which makes it somewhat special despite what other film critics are saying about it.

I’ve been a longtime fan of the Night at the Museum franchise since the first installment came out in 2006 for several reasons. One, I really love that it makes history come alive in a fun, meaningful way that children especially can relate to (for if we don’t learn from the past, we’re doomed to repeat it). I know I’ve said this before, but anything we can do to get kids interested in – and actually revved up – about history from an early age should be done. When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was a Canadian children’s program titled Today’s Special, which featured a department store at night. The main characters were Sam Crenshaw, a night security guard, Muffy the talking mouse, Jodie the store’s window dresser and a mannequin named Jeff who magically came to life each night as long as he was wearing his special magic hat. The premise of the Night at the Museum franchise has always reminded me a lot of that old TV show. Each night, the magic of Ahkmenrah’s tablet brings all the inanimate objects in New York’s American Museum of Natural History to life and only the night security guard Larry Daley gets to witness it all.

Secondly, these films feature great casting, from Ben Stiller as the affable Larry Daley and Williams as a stoic President Teddy Roosevelt to Ricky Gervais as Dr. McPhee (the museum’s stuffy, not-a-clue director), Patrick Gallagher as a hilariously over-the-top Attila the Hun, the hunky Rami Malek as Ahkmenrah and Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan as the miniature best buds duo Jedidiah and Octavius. Finally, the special effects are amazing each time. In my opinion, the third film is no exception. This time I was blown away by the constellations in particular. Being able to see Orion the Hunter and the various other star clusters that make up the zodiac dance over the heads of the museum benefit-goers was nothing short of bedazzling.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb welcomes back all your familiar favorites, including Dick Van Dyke, the late Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs as former museum security guards Cecil, Gus and Reginald, who give helpful advice to Stiller. Even Dexter (Crystal the Monkey) is back for the final curtain bow. The only characters noticeably missing are Amy Adams as the plucky pilot Amelia Earhart, Bill Hader as George Armstrong Custer and Christopher Guest as Ivan the Terrible. It also introduces a few new characters that I instantly loved – Rebel Wilson as Tilly, the London museum’s night security guard, Dan Stevens as Sir Lancelot and Ben Kingsley as Ahkmenrah’s pharaoh father Merenkahre. Skyler Gisondo has stepped in as Stiller’s now grown-up son Nick. Also look for Stiller portraying an additional character – one of the cavemen named Laaa. At times, this character can grate on your nerves, but I think your kids might love him.

The plot is a relatively simple one. We learn that the power of Ahkmenrah’s tablet is fading and Stiller and crew must travel to the museum in London where Ahkmenrah’s parents’ mummies are located to discover the secrets of the tablet from the only person who knows them all (his father), including why it was created, how it works and what can be done to prevent its power from fading away completely.

There’s a finality about the third film that makes me believe it was planned to end the trilogy long before Williams’ unexpected death. The goodbye that Stiller’s character delivers to Williams’ Roosevelt in the end felt painfully real to me. It brought tears to my eyes, along with the dedication. It was fitting that the series began with Williams and ended with him. Williams was Stiller’s right-hand man, always there to dole out kind, intelligent words of advice when things looked despairing or particularly out of hand. I honestly can’t visualize anyone else filling the role of Roosevelt, so I hope the powers-that-be leave this franchise alone. It felt like it came full circle with the trilogy and I don’t need to see another Night at the Museum. I’m afraid they might wear out the magic and wonderment of it all if they did so.

There’s a dedication at the end to Rooney and Williams that brought fresh tears to my eyes as the credits rolled, mostly because of Williams. Don’t get me wrong, Rooney is equally missed, but he lived a long, rich life. His death wasn’t quite as shocking as that of Williams. He also only appeared in the film in one brief scene. No, it was the touching tribute to Williams that made me shed more tears. I believe it said something like, “And for Robin Williams … the magic never ends.” It’s Stiller and Williams – their chemistry and their heartfelt performances – that make this franchise shine. While I don’t feel this film is the strongest of the three, I enjoyed it for what it was – the ending to an imaginative trilogy that made being a dork who revels at the prospect of visiting a museum seem so much cooler. Although Williams may have departed this Earth, his memory will live on in the lives of all those he touched with his prolific acting career, and especially, in all those children who grew up watching this magical series.

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Previously on The 100: What. The. Fudge. Critics can talk about Scandal, they can talk about The Walking Dead, or they can talk about a host of other much-hyped shows that provides shocking twists and turns, but for my money, The 100 has them all beat.

I was describing the show to a friend this summer, trying to explain how the show kept ramping up the action. I told her there was a big shocking moment at the end of the pilot that left audiences jaw-dropped. Then Clarke topped it at the end of episode two. Then Charlotte topped it once and then once again in the following episodes. There’s nothing like The 100 on television anywhere, and I’m damn glad the show is back.

I talked to the cast and crew at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, and I was particularly struck by something showrunner Jason Rothenberg said. The full quote is in the video below, but he basically didn’t think that the show deserved its reputation for killing off characters; other than Wells, none of the characters killed was portrayed as a regular character. Rothenberg implied that since the show received that reputation, they were going to attempt to live up to it in season two. Boys and girls, if that statement does not scare you, you are not paying close enough attention. There’s an influx of characters on the ground with the return of the Ark, the Mountain Men (People?) and more Grounders. More characters to track makes it considerably easier to chop off a couple here or there as the story allows.

The end of last season left most of our characters a scattered, battered, bloody mess, separated and in a heap of trouble. Clarke, Monty, Jasper and 45 others have found themselves in relative safety in the welcoming arms of the denizens of Mount Weather. It seems that some aspect of the American culture and government were saved from the holocaust, but are now trapped by the radiation their bodies were protected from. Mount Weather’s comforts – including power from Philpott Dam (which in reality is a three day walk from Mount Weather) – are too good to be true. Other than Clarke’s feeling of unease, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly what is off about Mount Weather, but something obviously isn’t right.

The finale and premiere have introduced a variety of game-changers, none of which are going to be as impactful as the landing of the Ark. Kane saving the boys was a hint of the safety that the returnees (can the show come up with a cool name for them stat?) represent, but Bellamy’s arrest proves that whatever trials they experienced on the Ark, they will likely never comprehend what the 100 experienced on the ground. The politics of the myriad groups now on the ground are going to play a major role in the story arcs this season, but none will be trickier than the reintegration of these two groups … if it is even possible.

One of the other things Rothenberg mentioned in our conversation was the possibility of learning more about Murphy, and how that might humanize him a little. He obviously was referring to his conversation with Raven in the drop-ship. Rothenberg was clear to say that Murphy wasn’t necessarily going to be redeemed, something I think is impossible. I don’t particularly care that he had a particularly good childhood; very few of the 100 did. Bellamy was hard on everyone early on for the right reasons without realizing it, but Murphy was a sociopath. It’s hard to embrace someone who urinates on someone who just wanted a water break. Raven wasn’t there for the worst of things. She might show a little mercy, but it is doubtful others will.

The return of the Ark, the mysteries of the Mountain Men, the savagery of the Grounders and the resolve of the 100; so much of what we learned last season will soon be disproven. Our heroes are going to face challenge after challenge that continues raise the levels of WTF in ways that the first season couldn’t even begin to prepare us for.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnrZ4Lzi4Qc

• I have seen the first three episodes of the season, so it is admittedly difficult to dance around what I already know. A smarter man would have stopped in between episodes, but I was too damn excited.
• One of the few truly “fun” things that The 100 gets to explore is the relationship between Jasper and Monty, and tonight’s cake/pie interchange is a great example.
• There were several WTF (and for the record, the F stands for “fudge”) moments, but Kane shooting Tristan through the head was the first of several times that got me off the couch.
• Speaking of which … how did a politician on a space station become such a great shot and a tactical leader?
• Some of the casting cross-over is due to where the show is filmed, but the show adds a Cylon tonight in Rekha Sharma (Kate Vernon appeared and was too-quickly killed last season) and will add another Battlestar vet next week.
• We’ll get more into Octavia and Lincoln next week, but I am really interested in where their story is going. Ricky Whittle was one of two recurring actors upgraded to regulars this year (Lindsey Morgan) and was extremely entertaining at SDCC – I’ll be sharing that video in a week or two.

The story of Dracula has been around, well, since Bram Stoker published his book in 1897 (which was by no means the first vampire tale). Stoker introduced the world to the aristocratic count from Transylvania, but Stoker’s tale was made up from whole cloth. The author’s point to the story was actually about Continental Europeans invading England. The book wasn’t even titled Dracula until a few weeks before publication when Stoker came across the name and historical accounts of Vlad Tepes (the character was originally called Count Wampyre).

Since then, it’s been believed that Stoker’s Dracula was based on the real Dracula, blurring the lines of fact and fiction. No film has really touched upon the historical Dracula except for a brief prologue in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and further blurring that line is the new horror/action thriller Dracula Untold.

The new film tells the mostly true story of Vlad Tepes (Luke Evans), Transylvanian ruler trying to protect his land from the Turks. Transylvania has been enjoying a time of peace until Turkish ruler Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) demands 10,000 boys as young as 10 years of age to fight in his army. Knowing an invasion is imminent unless he complies, Vlad seeks out a creature living in a distant mountain to gain the strength to fight Mehmed’s army.

It turns out this creature is a centuries old vampire who can offer Vlad what he needs, but there could be consequences. Once Vlad drinks of the elder’s blood, he’ll have the power he needs but he has to fight the thirst for blood for three days. If he fails, the elder’s curse is broken and Vlad is doomed to an eternity of hiding in the darkness.

Dracula Untold isn’t a great film, but it’s not a bad film either. The first part of the film, especially the scene with the elder, is pretty riveting. The last part of the film, when Vlad has to make a decision that will defeat the Turks but could come with some tragic consequences if he doesn’t quite think things through is also great fun. The mid-section of the movie, with the back-and-forth between Vlad and Mehmed, and Vlad trying to hide his condition from his family while fighting his thirst gets a little draggy.

The performances are all fine, but Luke Evans dominates the screen as he’s in pretty much every frame (unless he’s a bunch of special effects bats). He’s strong, loving, magnetic, devoted to his family and the people of Transylvania. Also a standout is Charles Dance as the elder, bringing a true sense of dread to his one scene with Evans. The movie really could have used a little more of him.

Director Gary Shore tries to keep things moving along, and while it is a big special effects extravaganza he does keep the use of CGI under control, used mainly during the big battle scenes. What’s really interesting about the movie now is that it has apparently become a launching pad for a new series of movies featuring the classic Universal monsters. The Mummy is already in the works, and as that will take place in the present it appears a new ending was added to this film bringing Dracula into the present as well (sort of like at the end of the first Captain America movie). It’s an interesting ending if you know your Dracula trivia, but it leaves one big unanswered question about another character who technically should not be there (unless I missed something).

Dracula Untold does use a lot of historical fact to bring the story of Vlad Tepes to the screen, so it gets points for that. I just wish it could have been a little more interesting between its bookends. It will be interesting now to see if Universal can create its own Marvel-style universe with its most famous movie characters.

“Peter Devereaux, you know what we used to call you? The November Man ‘cause after you passed through, nothing lived.”

That is hands down one of the most badass quotes used in a movie trailer I’ve seen in a while. However, I don’t think the trailer for Relativity Media’s The November Man does it justice. Based loosely upon the novel There Are No Spies by Bill Granger, the film had an interesting plot in that Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) is an ex-CIA operative forced out of retirement to embark upon one final personal mission that finds him pitted against high-ranking CIA officials, the Russian president-elect Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski) and his former protégé David Mason (Luke Bracey), who is like the hot-headed, impetuous son Devereaux never had. Devereaux’s mission is to find and protect a former refugee who may hold the secrets to the Russian president-elect’s political undoing and the unraveling of a decades-old conspiracy.

Of course I knew Brosnan had been James Bond in fan favorites GoldenEye, Die Another Day, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough, but I didn’t realize the film’s leading lady Alice (Olga Kurylenko) had been a former Bond girl starring opposite Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace. While this film tries really, really hard to be a smart, sleek and sexy spy thriller in the vein of James Bond, it comes up a little short of the prize. Like any other movie in this genre, there are a plethora of swerves along the way – some of them you will see coming a mile away because they’re that clichéd, while others may take you by surprise. If you go into this blindly and aren’t bothered by the foreign names and accents that are sometimes difficult to follow, the confusing and at times unnecessary plot twists, the sometimes uncomfortable scenarios and the fact that this far removed from the Cold War I don’t think anybody really cares about Russian politics anymore, then you should be fine.

The best scenes are the ones in which Devereaux plays cat-and-mouse games with Mason, who apparently still has a lot to learn from his former instructor. They banter well together, particularly in the chase scene in which they converse on their cell phones. I enjoyed seeing Brosnan toy with him while trying to teach him valuable lessons about what it means to be involved in the world of espionage, which is apparently something you can’t ever escape. It seems they have a great deal of unspoken respect for one another, even as they’re busily trying to outwit and outlast each other at every twist and turn.

However, there are several things about this film that made me cringe. While I know that war crimes and sex trafficking go on in the world at large, they’re topics that make me squirm in my seat. Women are not treated well in this film. Whether it’s the CIA agent being told she’s just a pair of tits to the real men in charge, the strippers in the gratuitous strip club scene or the Chechen refugees who were raped and held in captivity by the men who wielded all the political power in the Soviet Union, women are treated as objects of pleasure for vile, dirty men and nothing more. The one notable exception is Amila Terzimehic, who portrays the deadly Russian assassin Alexa. I find it refreshing any time a woman is portrayed as being strong, even if she could kill you about a million different ways in your sleep.

I’ve got a confession to make aside from the fact that I’m not really an action/spy thriller aficionado. I’m also a horrible person to watch a film with when I know an actor or actress in it but I’m having trouble placing where I’ve seen him or her before. In the case of The November Man, the actor in question was Bill Smitrovich, who portrays Devereaux’s friend/mentor and high-ranking CIA official Hanley. He looked and sounded so familiar to me, but I couldn’t fathom where I’d seen him, so I did what any self-respecting freelance film journalist does and I IMDb’d him. Of course he has a long and varied resume full of impressive movies and television series, but I know him best as Corky’s father on ‘80s favorite Life Goes On, and I’m not ashamed to admit that! I wasn’t at all familiar with newcomer Luke Bracey, but he appears to be quite the Hollywood up-and-comer, with four titles currently in post-production on IMDb and the lead role in the upcoming Point Break remake, which comes out next year.

Sorry Daniel Craig, but nobody does it better than Pierce Brosnan. It’s that sexy accent and boyish smirk. Even if it wasn’t my favorite film I’ve reviewed this year and even if it wasn’t the best film in its genre, it was good to see him in a spy vs. spy role again, speeding dizzily down narrow foreign streets with the beautiful girl he’s protecting in tow – he clearly shines in that capacity. I’m not saying you should remember him fondly for what he was because I think he’s still got it in abundance — Brosnan is as handsome and charming a spy as ever. If you can get past all the clichés and plot holes, The November Man can be a fast-paced, adrenaline-filled ride if you’re looking for that sort of thing. And I hear the idea of a sequel is already being tossed around. Maybe they’ll give Brosnan a better script to work with next time if that ever comes to fruition.

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I feel good. I knew that I would. I feel good, so good, so good, I got you. I feel nice, like sugar and spice. I feel nice, like sugar and spice. So nice, so nice, I got you.

I always wondered why James Brown was referred to as “the hardest working man in show business.” After watching Get On Up, his biopic from Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, I’m beginning to understand that moniker a little better. Prior to now, most of my knowledge about James Brown was based upon his cameo in The Blues Brothers (one of my all-time favorite movies) and the old SNL skits with Eddie Murphy impersonating him doing ridiculous things like singing about his hot tub or doing an over-the-top rendition of Annie. I always enjoyed his music casually from afar, but never really delved into the heart and soul of it. After watching this movie, I’m exploring more songs from Brown’s vast catalogue of hits and discovering that maybe, just maybe, I have a little bit of the funk in me after all. (Well as much funk as a white girl in her thirties from the Midwest is capable of anyway.)

Directed by The Help’s Tate Taylor, Get On Up follows along the lines of other past heartfelt musical biopics such as The Buddy Holly Story, La Bamba, Walk the Line and Ray. It tells the story of Brown’s rise to the super stardom stratosphere after a pretty dismal childhood speckled with bouts of domestic violence, poverty, fear, racism and abandonment. It is at times just as poignant, artsy and transcendental as other biopics, while at other times, it is difficult to follow because the story of Brown’s life is told out of sequential order. It’s as if the director wanted you to feel like you were in Brown’s befuddled mind, mixing up the order of personal and career milestones, while taking the audience on an unforgettable journey through one of the music industry’s most enigmatic, charismatic personalities.

Chadwick Boseman gives an amazing performance as James Brown. I must confess I had to look up the IMDb credits for him because I didn’t recognize him from anywhere else. Aside from doing a lot of television work for shows including All My Children, Fringe, Castle, Persons Unknown and Lie to Me, Boseman was also Jackie Robinson in the movie 42, which I missed. While I can’t vouch for his performance in 42, everything about him in Get On Up is on-point, from the groovy pompadour hairstyles and elaborate ‘70s stage costumes to the outrageous dance moves and over-the-top persona that was James Brown. Brown is certainly not an easy act to follow, but I believe he nailed it, even if he was lip-syncing the soundtrack. And his co-star Nelsan Ellis gives an equally remarkable performance as Brown’s right-hand man, Bobby Byrd. I’ve always loved Nelsan as Lafayette in the HBO series True Blood, but seeing him in this role gave me a newfound respect for him and his acting abilities. He’s so much more than just another pretty face in Hollywood. As the best friend constantly standing in a superstar’s shadow, his character shows the most emotional depth and growth when compared to anybody else in the movie.

Much of Get On Up centers around the complex relationship between James Brown and Bobby Byrd. Bobby discovered James when he was just 17 years old and in prison for petty theft. Taking him under his wing in his church’s gospel group, it quickly becomes apparent to Bobby that James is meant to shine in the spotlight. Although James develops a bigger ego as the years wear on, Bobby is the one person who understands his genius and doesn’t seem to take it personally when he goes off on his tirades. From watching this biopic, one can ascertain that James Brown was some kind of mad perfectionist when it came to his music. If his band members were late or held up the musical process in any way, he belittled and fined them for wasting his precious time. The man may have marched to the beat of his own drummer far more often than most, but you have to have mad respect for someone that disciplined, innovative and motivated to succeed. There’s a reason why James Brown is one of the most sampled artists in the long and illustrious history of music, as this movie so clearly demonstrates.

I was not a big fan of Brown’s many asides to the audience throughout the movie. While they occasionally made me laugh, they sometimes felt a bit stilted and disjointed. I don’t think the movie would have suffered any without them. It felt as if they relied too heavily upon this gimmick to reveal key pieces of information that probably would have been more effectively revealed in dialogue. But even if there are minor flaws in the seemingly scattered storytelling, the casting for Get On Up is spot-on. Dan Aykroyd plays to his acting strengths as James’ manager Ben Bart, while Brandon Smith puts in a memorable, colorful portrayal of Little Richard. Also look for The Office’s Craig Robinson as a leading – and very vocal – member of the band, Octavia Spencer as Aunt Honey (the woman who raised Brown when he was abandoned by both of his parents as a young boy) and Jill Scott as DeeDee Brown, a woman who manages to come across as strong and fiery even if the movie hints about Brown’s drug use, infidelities and spurts of unpredictable domestic violence.

All in all, I found Get On Up mesmerizing because of the music and the passion that went into making that music. James Brown was one of those rare artists who was able to reinvent himself to fit every era. Whether he’s Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother Number One, the King of Funk or the Godfather of Soul to you, there’s no denying the man belonged in the spotlight. It’s about time Hollywood gave him his due in the theatrical limelight. Now I’m just patiently waiting for a movie about Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke.

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Comic-Con is what you make of it.

And, being the event comes but once a year for a brief portion of a week, it’s best you hit the floor with all thrusters at full when you descend on San Diego.

Plans in place, I did just that Friday …

• My day started with a tradition I maintain every year at Comic-Con, a visit to the San Diego Blood Bank for my annual donation. With my partner in crime Ivey in tow, we made the short trek to do our thing. Lo and behold, the same gentleman who poked and prodded me last year — Ramon — drew from me once again. I think the two of us are becoming “a thing” …
• I got the opportunity to do quite a few interviews Friday, all of which will be posted in some form or another in the coming week. Included in those Q&As were a comic property (Eric Powell of the popular comic The Goon), a couple television show press rooms (Falling Skies which had to be cut short due to scheduling conflicts and The Walking Dead) and something new I wanted I sought out to learn more about, God Is Disappointed In You by writer Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler of Too Much Coffee Man fame.
• Ivey sat down with the cast from Dominion, or putting it another way: Ivey sat down with Giles and Charles Widmore … and David from Kings and Doreah from Game of Thrones.
• I caught an extended look at iZombie in one of the spacious meeting rooms, something I thought might be packed to the gills. To my surprise, I was able to walk right in, unlike Thursday with the Toy Story That Time Forgot. (That panel was stuffed to capacity. You win some, you lose some.)
• In a stark contrast to last year’s The 100 press room, Ivey said series star Isaiah Washington was comically tight-lipped about what is coming up for his character on the show this year … but in all honesty, his being in attendance is a spoiler in and of itself.
• Do I have to mention there was a gaggle of photos taken and the Con floor traversed in search of personalities and old friends? Naturally.

Busy as the day was, there were still evening parties to attend.

• En route to the Warner Bros. fest, I bumped into a crowd of luchadores (Mexican wrestlers) going the opposite direction. Every year we hook up at some bar or restaurant in San Diego’s Gaslamp to enjoy pitchers of cerveza and offer photo opportunities to any passersby. (The kicker is the fact these guys are real luchadores from Tijuana. I’m the token gringo of the bunch who they’ve welcomed with open arms as a brother.) I told them I would seek them out a bit later in the evening.
• The Warner Bros. party Ivey and I attended was located at a spacious, open air rooftop of The Hard Rock. This shindig boasted more talent than you could shake a stick at. Talent from The 100, Mike Tyson Mysteries (including Iron Mike himself), The Vampire Diaries, iZombie The Flash, Arrow, Person Of Interest, Gotham, The Originals and The Following mingled about. There could very well have been more but, with a list like that, it was dizzying enough keeping track.
• Post party, Ivey headed back to the hotel while I went on the hunt for my wrestling brothers. I was unsuccessful … but I did wind up at an after-Eisner Awards festival with full of talent and fellow writers.
• Missed opportunity of the evening was The Last Ship party on the USS Midway. Wouldn’t it have been cool to have been rubbing elbows on an aircraft carrier? A wish for another time.
• Of a few things Ivey was involved in, he realized a dream this year which was unfulfilled in 2013: A photo opportunity on Game Of Thrones very own Iron Throne. Geek nirvana for certain.
• Additionally, he commandeered some pretty cool GoT swag — exclusive T-shirts HBO distributed at their Survive the Realm Experience. Artist Robert Ball, of GoT/HBO’s “Beautiful Death” series earlier this year, was the creator with a different piece debuting each day of The Con. Pretty cool swag if I do say so myself.

Saturday? Look out: We’re comin’ to getcha …

The rags-to-riches story Jersey Boys, which chronicles the career highs and lows of Frankie Valli and the Four Season, made its Broadway debut in 2005, racking up four Tony Awards (including Best Musical), spinning off international versions and launching a US tour in 2006 which is still on the road today. Now director Clint Eastwood brings that show to the big screen with several cast members from Broadway or touring companies reprising their roles.

The story, if you’re not familiar, traces the origin of the group that became known as The Four Seasons. Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) has a band that performs in a local nightclub in Belleville, NJ. One night he gives friend Frankie Castelluccio (John Lloyd Young) a shot at singing with the group and brings him in as their lead (and Frankie changes his name to Vally and then Valli). When their friend Joey Pesci (yes, that Joe Pesci, played by Joseph Russo) introduces Tommy, Frankie and Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) to songwriter Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), who had a hit song when he was 15, Frankie decides he should be an equal partner in the group, very much against Tommy’s wishes. Needless to say, Frankie was right but not everything was sunshine and roses as Tommy dug himself and the group into a financial hole that Frankie vowed to get them out of.

Jersey Boys, the movie, follows the stage musical fairly closely save for some extra expository scenes at the beginning of the movie. But the movie is just missing something that makes the show so wonderful, and it’s just that lack of energy that you get when this great music performed live on stage. The film itself is oddly quiet for the most part, with very little musical underscoring during the non-singing scenes. Perhaps Eastwood felt a score would take away from the songs, but it just makes the movie feel a bit empty and lifeless.

The performances are quite good across the board, with Young reprising his Tony Award winning role as Frankie … although it’s a little hard to buy him as a 16-year-old at the film’s start. His Frankie Valli is the group’s, and the film’s, anchor but he seems to always have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Even when he sings with that amazing voice, he rarely smiles. Even looking through all of the press photos, I could not find a single instance of him smiling. And Eastwood claims the actors all sang live on set, but there are times when that seems questionable (and the credits list many of the songs as “performed by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons” which makes the situation even more curious).

Piazza bring the most spark to his role as the volatile Tommy and Renée Marino, reprising her Broadway role as Mary Delgado (eventually Mrs. Valli), also brings some much needed fire to her scenes with Young. Russo does a pretty good young Joe Pesci, but the actor who will probably get the most notice is Mike Doyle for his flamboyant portrayal of writer/producer Bob Crewe. Some may say it’s a bit too over-the-top, but Doyle plays the role pretty much as it was played on stage, and with input from Valli and Gaudio, the depiction is probably accurate.

Eastwood directs the film with little flash, restraining himself from incorporating a lot of modern camera moves and quick edits during the musical numbers which is fitting for the era. The film is production designed perfectly, and cinematographer Tom Stern gives the film a very muted, almost sepia-toned palette. For the most part, the musical segments sound terrific, but things go horribly awry at what should be the film’s big moment.

In the stage version, when Frankie performs his signature song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” it’s a moment that is meant to give you goosebumps as he gets to the chorus and a full orchestra is revealed. In the movie, that reveal comes off a little more awkwardly because Eastwood is shooting the reveal too much in close-up. But that’s not the worst of it. The audio mix is atrocious, and the song has been re-orchestrated to include some brash, sharp, too loud saxophones which almost make your ears bleed, and they completely omitted that signature Bob Crewe musical touch that tells you it’s a Bob Crewe song (and if you’ve ever heard the music Crewe did for the movie Barbarella, you’ll know what I’m talking about). It was a terribly off-key musical moment in an otherwise perfectly fine audio mix. And let’s not even talk about the terrible old age makeup and wigs applied to the actors for their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction scene.

Eastwood closes the film with what is essentially a curtain call, uniting the entire cast to dance and sing down the street to “Oh What a Night.” It would have been nice had he also put the actor’s names with their faces since so many of them are virtual unknowns to movie-goers. I had really high hopes for Jersey Boys, especially after enjoying the stage version so much earlier this year but having that so fresh in my memory probably made it nearly impossible to appreciate the movie. And be warned, the movie is rated R mainly for the extremely colorful language which has also been imported from the stage version. If you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, you may want to think twice about seeing either. If you’ve always wanted to see the show but haven’t, then this is an okay introduction (for the most part), but if you do have the chance to see it live, don’t pass it up.

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