The Parent Trap (1961) Classic Film
The Parent Trap with Haley Mills is a Classic "Baby Boomer" family movie. I do a love bit of Disney fluff.

The Parent Trap stars beautiful Maureen O'Hara and handsome Brian Keith; and gives us a double helping of a very young Hayley Mills, who plays twin sisters. The movie may be sugary sweet, but it is a real tribute to children, parenthood and love.

Brian Keith (Mitch Evers) and Maureen O'Hara (Maggie McKendrick) divorced when their twin daughters were very young. Each took a child--one parent lives free and open California style (he), the other lives in stiff old upper Bostonian style (she). The children reflect their respective parent’s lifestyle. By a fluke the girls end up in the same summer camp, of course they (Sharon and Susan) meet; and that's when the fun begins. Nancy Kulp of the 1962 television hit The Beverly Hillbillies is one of the camp counselors.

After initially disliking each other, they find they have more in common than their disturbing identical looks. Once connected, they decide that their parents must be reunited. However, neither is counting on papa Brian Keith having a gold-digging sweetheart (Joanna Barnes) and her greedy mother lurking about. Never mind, the girls soon take care of that.

The Parent Trap has some hilarious moments. Some are laugh out loud funny; just watch Leo G. Carroll who portrays Reverend Dr. Mosey, as he listens (and watches) the interaction between Mitch and Maggie after she arrives unexpectedly at her ex-husband’s home, the same day he and his fiancée (Barnes); and her mother, are finalizing wedding plans.

The movie has a superb cast, Una Merkel is Verbena, Mitch's very wise and knowing housekeeper, Cathleen Nesbitt and Charles Ruggles are the wonderful and doting grandparents. John Mills (Hayley's father) appears briefly as Mitch's golf caddy. The Parent Trap pioneered the processed split-screen technique, which allowed Hayley Mills to appear as twins. If you look very carefully you can spot a few tell-tale glitches. But why look for minor technical problems, just enjoy and introduce your children to this wonderful Walt Disney classic.

See the original 1961 film and The Parent Trap II made 25 years later. The twins, Sharon and Susan (Hayley Mills) are all grown up. Single mom Sharon is finding out how her parents must have felt when she and her sister were playing matchmaker. Daughter Nikki and her best gal pal have decided that her mom and Mary's widowed dad are just perfect together. When things stall, the girls get help from Aunt Susan. Available from Amazon.com. The Parent Trap (1961) and The Parent Trap II (1986): 2-Movie Collection (2-Disc Set)

Mission: Impossible III (2006)


Ethan Hunt is back in this action packed film, Mission Impossible III. In this latest offering of IM movies. Tom Cruise reprises his role as the IMF super-spy. He has retired and is now living a quiet life with his girlfriend Julia (Michelle Monaghan).

Julia knows nothing of Ethan's past, she believes that he works in transportation; in fact, he is now a trainer for the Impossible Mission Force. When Ethan learns that one of the agents he trained (Keri Russell) was been captured while on a surveillance mission, his old friend Musgrave (Billy Crudup) persuades him to accept one more assignment. Hunt and his team Luther Stickel (Ving Rhames), Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Zhen (Maggie Q) set out to save the young agent, Lindsey, from torture and sure death. The team comes up against Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a cold and deadly man who provides information and weapons to anyone and any country who can meet his price. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar in 2006 for his brilliant and realistic portrayal of author Truman Capote in the movie"Capote."

"IMF director Brassel (Laurence Fishbourne) has given another mission to Ethan; he must locate a weapon called "Rabbit Foot". His team remains with him and together they seek out the deadly weapon, look for the mole with in the IMF organization and rescue Julia who has been kidnapped to weight the odds against Hunts success in finding "Rabbit Foot." We follow Ethan as he goes on high-speed chases, has outrageous shoot-outs, and leaps from very tall buildings. You have not seen anything until you see Ethan running at the speed of a locomotive.

Rated PG-13
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Will there be a MI-IV? Could be. Here is the dialogue at the end of the Mission Impossible III. Ethan thinks it is time to tell Julia who he is and what he really does. Ethan: "I'm part of an agency... called the IMF." Julia: "What's that stand for?" Ethan: "Impossible Mission Force." Julia laughing "Yeh, right!"

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2006) Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
Meet the Smith's, in therapy because their floundering marriage has lost its joie de vivre.

Meet John and Jane Smith better known as Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are among other things, a dysfunctional married couple in this action/thriller spoof of assassin movies.

Pitt and Jolie are equally matched here, in beauty as well as talent, as a bored married couple. On the surface their separate lives are as sedate and boring as their married life, she works on Wall Street, he owns a large construction company. They are in therapy to save their six year marriage because, although they are still in love, their marriage has lost its snap. However, both have a secret; each is a paid assassin. They keep money and weapons in their secret hidey holes around the house and go about their assignments as you would go to your 9 to 5 office job.

In another movie, the killings may be too grim to watch, here they are just tongue-in-cheek silly. Mr. Smith walks into the back room of a bar, says a few words, kills his target who goes by (went by?) the name of "Lucky" and walks out. With this, his work day is over and he heads home for dinner. His wife asks where he has been. He says that he has been to a sports bar; she asks how he made out and he says "I got Lucky". Silly? Definitely, but that's what makes this movie so much fun.

All goes well for the Smith's until they are given the same target to wipe out. They bungle the job because each one gets in the others' way. After they botch their jobs, Jane and John are given special assignments in a remote dessert location. It is here that they find out the truth about each other. They now realize that they are assassins for separate agencies and have been assigned to kill each other. When the couple becomes aware of what the other one does, the dynamics change and the real action begins. Look for Vince Vaughn as Eddie, a master assassin who still lives at home with his mother because she is a good cook. Eddie tries to give some advice to the Smith's, he states, "If you two stay together, you're dead".

Do they stay together? Do they separate? Or do they complete their assignments and kill each other? Go to this movies and find out. There is not much substance to this movie, but it is such fun that you will have a good time anyway. Vince Vaughn is wonderful, it is too bad he had so few lines. Not to worry. You can catch him starring in another summer movie The Wedding Crashers (2005) where he really shines. Although you don't see the person giving John Smith his assignment, you do hear her clearly. That is the voice of actress Angela Basset. Angela Basset is probably most remembered as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It (1993). She was also Stella in How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998). Basset was also in Waiting to Exhale (1995).

Rated PG 13
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• Jolie was awesome in the 1998 movie Gia. Although this movie has no rating, it does deal with heavy drug use.
• For those who do not know, Angelina Jolie is the daughter of Actor John Voight.
• For more Jolie information go to http://www.wutheringjolie.com/nuke/ much fun.
  
  

Crash (2005)

It was a surprise to everyone in the Acadamy Awards audience and the home audiences as well, when Crash won the 2005 for Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year. The audience went wild when this film was announced as the 2005 winner.

I am usually not at a loss for words, but this movie has so much going on I just could not get a handle on it. It was definitely not what I expected. The basic premise is that we often make decisions based on ethnicity or skin color before looking beyond that, and when we do look past the obvious, we still have problems with our perceptions. The race relations (or non-relations) you see here are raw and ugly. Bigotry, intolerance, anger, distrust, fear, nationalism at its worse, you name it, it's shown in Crash. I think that some of the characters were over-the-top stereotypical, but that seems to be the point of this movie.

This is not a feel-good movie. However, there is something about it that won't let you walk away--there is the scene where LAPD police officer (Matt Dillon) who had earlier searched a woman (Thandie Newton) in an inappropriate manner, comes to her rescue when she is in an auto accident. The interaction between the two during this second encounter is very moving.

The movie is excellent, but it is also disturbing and unsettling. I came away feeling quite uneasy. Still, this is one of those movies that I will definitely buy for my collection when it becomes available on DVD. It is a "must see" movie that you and your friends will be discussing for days.

The large cast includes: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Esposito, Larenz Tate, Loretta Devine, William Fichtner, Ludacris, Michael Pena and others. Tony Danza appears briefly. I would not be surprised if director Paul Haggis, who is responsible for the story and the screenplay, receives an Academy Award nomination later. Don Cheadle does a grand job as actor and co-producer of this fine movie. CRASH is rated 'R' in the U.S

Add Crash to your movie collection, but be sure to get it in the widescreen version because you don't want to miss one second of any of the action in this film.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)



The Devil Wears Prada was first a novel written by Lauren Weisberger whose profile very much resembles that of ficticious Miranda Priestly's assistant. Ms. Weisberger worked for Vogue magazine for a short while, where she was assistant to editor, Anna Wintour.

There has been so much talk about Meryl Streep in this movie, that it has turned out to be the chick flick of the summer. And yes, I do believe that it is a chick flick even if you can get 'him' to go to the movie theater with you. This is not a knock, the movie is great fun. It is just perfect for a day out with the girls. See the movie, then head off for a knosh, some laughs and girl talk.

The movie stars Meryl Streep, Anna Hathaway and marvelous Stanley Tucci as Miranda's right hand guy. In The Devil Wears Prada, Streep captures “the devil, Miranda Priestly”. Priestly is ill-tempered, ill-mannered, self-absorbed and rude. She has no redeeming qualities, except one; she is brilliant at what she does. Priestly, the editor-in-chief of “Runway”, a slick Vogue-like, magazine cannot keep an assistant because she runs them ragged and saps every ounce of their dignity.

I loved this movie. Great for girls night out-eat, drink and trash the powers-that-be.