Movie Review: The Magnificent Seven

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: D

Review: Bland, forgettable, and boring western, comes nowhere near it's predecessors.

The characters in this film are lacking in personality. At the end of the movie I don't feel like I know them at all. I have no idea what their personalities are. A great cast is completely wasted playing these characters. The story feels very rushed and I never got a feeling or danger or excitement. The action scenes are  well made, but since we don't know the characters they quickly become boring. Seven Samurai was three and a half hours and I was never bored watching that movie, but I got bored watching this two hour and twelve minute film with basically the same story. 

On the plus side the musical score is downright fantastic, and should have accompanied a better movie.

Skip this film and watch Seven Samurai (that movie is a masterpiece) instead.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Sully

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade:B+

Review: Well done movie is made even better by a fantastic performance from Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks' performance in this film is incredible. He becomes the character of Sully. While we know the actor so well, we do not see the actor but the character instead. This is something kind of rare in films staring such big name stars. He isn't the only good performance here as everyone in the film is quite good, but there is something special about him in this film. On top of this the story is quite good, and Clint Eastwood's direction is very good. The opening scene and much of the trial at the end are particularly well done.

However on the downside as good as the story is, it can feel a little stretched out. The main problem with this fault is that we see the landing two times. It would have been much more effective to only see it once, as this takes away from how dramatic the second time we see it is, and it feels a little forced in the first time. Also other than Sully I feel we didn't get to know the other characters well enough. Despite this it still is a good story, and it is often very well told.

Overall an excellent film.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Overlooked Classics: Cool Cat (1967)

 

It is no secret how Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons are all time classics. They are some of the funniest, smartest, energetic and all around best cartoons (or even films of any kind) ever made. The characters, the humor, the quotes and the stories have all affected our lives and definitely our culture. That  is why it is so surprising how many Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and characters  have been forgotten or overlooked by the majority of people.

Probably one of the most overlooked Looney Tunes characters is Cool Cat. I am not going to say Cool Cat is as amazing of a character as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig, because he isn't, and his weaker cartoons really pale in compression to the ones made during the golden age of Looney Tunes. However his best cartoons are quite good and really deserve another look by Looney Tunes fans.

The original Warner Brothers animation studio closed in 1963. After 33 years of making Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for movie theaters, it look as if these characters would never see a theater screen again (though like many short films made for theaters, they were enjoying success on TV at this time). However the very next year Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were revived by the DePaite-Freling studio (who were making Pink Panther cartoons at this time). The Freling of Depatie-Freling was Friz Freling, who had worked for the Warner Brother animation studio since the beginning first as an animator and then as a director. Most of DePatie-Frelings Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies centered around the characters Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, The Roadrunner, and Wile E. Coyote. Shockingly Bugs Bunny never appeared in any of these new shorts. The budgets for these cartoons were severely cut and limited animation is used rather than the full animation that was used earlier during the golden age of Looney Tunes. These cartoons were very successful and in 1967 Jack Warner decided to have his own animation department take over Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies again. Bill Hendricks (who had directed some live action documentary shorts for Warners Brothers) would become the new producer of the two series. Since the cartoons would still be made for the same low budget DePatie-Freling cartoons had been, it also seemed natural to hire some one from Hanna-Barbera to take over the job of directing cartoons. This job went to Alex Lovy, who was the current story director for Hanna-Barbera's TV shows.

Alex Lovy would direct more Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales cartoons, but he was also hired to create some new characters. His characters would include Merlin the Magic Mouse (a mouse who had real magic powers and sounded a lot like W.C. Fields), his sidekick Second Banana, Cool Cat (a hip beatnik Tiger perfectly in tune with the 1960's) and Colonel Rimfire (who would always hunt Cool Cat). Merlin the Magic Mouse and Second Banana would be voiced by Daws Butler while Cool Cat and Colonel Rimfire were voiced by Larry Storch.

My favorite Cool Cat cartoon was his first simply titled Cool Cat. In this film Colonel Rimfire, traveling in his a mechanical elephant named Ellie, "Tawt he taw a puttytat" (a tiger type puttytat) and goes hunting for Cool Cat. Colonel Rimfire loses Ellie and Cool Cat thinks she is a poor elephant in need of help, so Cool Cat tries to tech Ellie how to live in the wild. Everything Cool Cat does to help Ellie however ends up saving himself from Colonel Rimfire.

The animators on this film are Ted Bonnicken, Laverne Harding, Volus Jones and Ed Solomon. Of these animators Ted Bonnicken was the only one to work for Warner Brothers before the studio originally closed in 1963, as he was animator for Robert McKimsons unit in the 1950's and 90's.

Cool Cat remains a very entertaing cartoon, the humor is quite good, for how limited the animation is the cartoon is still quite pleasant to look at, the voice acting is excellent, the story is a lot of fun, and the new characters are quite good. This is definitely a cartoon Looney Tunes fans should check out.

So bye for now and remember, stay cool you hear.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin

Movie Review: Tri

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland












Michael's Movie Grade:A

Review: The feature film debut of director Jai Jamison, is a fantastic uplifting movie.

This film has an undeniable great sense of charm. The characters are very engaging. Both the writing and acting for these characters are fantastic, and they really come to life on the screen. The story is a simple and very well told uplifting story with a great message. The photography is great here and gives a great look at the nature that surrounds much of the Triathlon. The pacing is perfect, it is slow enough for you to fully get into the characters and story, but fast enough for it not to ever be boring. However the best thing I can say about this movie is even though the story is essentially complete, I still wanted to see more of these characters lives after the film was over.

Though you may not have heard of this movie, you really should see it. This is a fantastic movie that definitely deserves more attention than it is getting. I have to check out what this director does in the future, I have a feeling more great stuff is in store.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Silent Film of the Month: Felix Saves the Day (1922)

 

Run Time: 7 minutes. Studio: Pat Sullivan Cartoons. Director: Otto Messmer. Producer: Pat Sullivan. Animator: Otto Messmer

During much of the 1920's Felix the cat was the world's biggest cartoon star. Those who only know the cat for his sound work might be a bit surprised at this, but during the silent era he appeared in some of the cleverest and most inventive cartoons. Beyond this Felix showed a great strive towards personality animation. This is when the animation not only shows the character doing something, but thinking as well. Though this had been done by Winsor McCay in the fantastic Gertie The Dinosaur, before Felix it had not been done with a regularly occurring character.

Though the Felix cartoons were only credited to Pat Sullivian. However Otto Messmer was extremely important to these. films. Otto Messmer didn't really get much attention for his contributions until much later thanks to such historians as Leonard Maltin and John Canemaker. There has been some argument to just how much Messmer contributed to these cartoons. Some say he did almost everything for these films, but others say while he was important to the cartoons Pat Sullivan was a much bigger contributor. Before Felix, Messmer and Sullivan did a short series of cartoons with Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character. Otto Mesmer as the main animator on these cartoons studied Charlie Chaplin closely to get his mannerisms down. Messmer would later claim this as his main inspiration for his animation for Felix. Indeed this was picked up by many film critics, who often favorably compared Felix and Chaplin. Felix made his debut in a 1919 cartoon called Feline Follies. In that film Felix was called Master Tom. In the cat's second cartoon Musical Mews, he received the name Felix. These cartoons were so successful, that Pat Sullivan decided to make a series out of the cat, where shorts would be released on a monthly schedule. Felix Saves the Day was the first cartoon made for this new schedule. Messmer considered this film to be his favorite Felix cartoon. Film Historian Leonard Maltin believes this is because he made this film virtually by himself.

In this film Felix is a huge fan of the Tar-Heels baseball team. Felix practing with the team accidentilly hits a ball that knocks off a policeman's hat. Willie Brown, the star of the team is blamed for it and winds up in prison. Felix tries to get Willie out but his efforts don't work. Felix muxt then take the place for Willie in the game.

This cartoon is very entertaining. It has some good humor (a joke about a Fly Cop is esspicially funny), the film looks great and most importantly Felix is very likable. This film features some blending of animation and live action. This is expertly done. It not only looks very cool, but the prencese of both animation and live action somehow adds to the reality of the character of Felix. Most of all though this film is very creative. Things like Felix climbing question marks that appear above his head, and him getting into a live action taxi, are just so imaginative that they are a joy to watch.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resourses Used
Of Mice and Magic: The History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat by John Canemaker