Fourth Row Center

In Night at the Museum Ben Stiller plays a divorced dad who attempts to gain more stability by taking a full time job as the night watchman at the Natural History Museum, but he’s in for more than he bargained for when he finds that the museum’s exhibits come alive after dark. This was one of those family movies we took our daughter to, and based on the trailer alone my expectations were low. But the end result is a delightful romp through exhibits ranging from the old west and ancient Rome with absurdly entertaining fire-seeking neanderthals, ravaging Huns, a T-Rex skeleton that’s more Labrador Retriever than terrible lizard, and an ex-president (Robin Williams is spot-on as Teddy Roosevelt) who happens to have a crush on a wax statue of Sacajawea. The film is funny, fast-paced and mildly tender, as Stiller’s character brings his son to the museum and proves that as a father he is made of tougher stuff than anyone thought. And seeing Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke on the big screen ...

I have always been a big fan of Tolkien's "The Hobbit." I may be one of the few people that actually thinks that the Rankin-Bass animated adaptation is not that bad, especially if you consider that R&B also made all of the classic CBS Christmas Specials. And, because the story was written for Tolkien's children, it adapted much better to the R&B style then the "Return of the King." Also, I have always enjoyed Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings." Because at the time I was reading LOTR, this was all that was available. I really kept waiting for part two (in fact, I still am). Yes, I know, there are incredible pacing problems, characters are just all wrong (Sam) and some of the design really makes you go hmmm (Treebeard). Move forward to Peter Jackson's films. I have been listening to the newly released "Two Towers Complete Recording" soundtrack. "Two Towers" has been my least favorite of the films. Yes, the ending i...

"It's too early to tell yet, but Daniel Craig may just be the best James Bond." That's what my friend Mike said after a screening of Casino Royale at Seattle's Cinerama. As they progressed, the Bond movies -- as good as many of them were -- began less and less to resemble the novels and stories upon which they were based. Though set in the present, and not in the early 1950's era in which the novel was set, the movie keeps close to the actions and themes of the book. When the action moves to Casino Royale, pitting Bond against a menacing but very flawed and human villain, Le Chiffre, the film stays faithful to the novel. The script, co-written by Paul Haggis ( Million Dollar Baby , Crash ) is taut, layered and avoids the tiresome quips that have plagued too many action movies, the Bonds included. Craig is intense, menacing and vulnerable as Bond, and in my mind plays the character closer to creator Ian Fleming's vision that any other actor who has filled ...

My wife, who teaches high school, reports to me that Star Wars is no longer cool. She has screened the movie for years for her classes and used its elements as examples of mythology, but says it doesn't interest the students these days like it used to. It's hard to remember a time in my life when Star Wars wasn't cool. Of course, I was around and old enough to remember what a phenomenon it was beginning in 1977, and how hoards of people waited outside theaters when The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi opened three years apart. I suppose the kids who came of age when the prequel trilogy was released already had enough to wow and amaze them. It was nothing they hadn't really seen or played before. The Smithsonian hosted a fascinating exhibit 10 years ago or so called The Myth and Magic of Star Wars. I found some photos last week I had taken of the exhibit and a couple of images of the Emperor's Throne Room at Lava Lake were among them. Though the se...

I was never fond of the Lassie television series, but the boy-and-his-dog story at the center of the Eric Knight novel is timeless and often moving. Adapted for the screen in 1943, Lassie Come Home , starring Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor, is an excellent film and holds up well sixty years later. British director Charles Sturridge has returned to the source material and delivers a well-crafted and beautifully photographed film about a poor English family who sells their beloved Lassie to the Duke of Rudling, who takes the dog to Scotland under the care of a cruel and abusive kennel keeper. Lassie escapes and makes the 500 mile journey home to the boy she loves. This is Lassie, after all, and the filmmakers turn up the cute factor as often as they can. But the schmaltz is not overdone, and the result is a pleasing, touching family film that is, incidentally, one of the best-reviewed films out there right now. (The Rotten Tomatoes web site rates it 92% fresh). Peter O'Toole h...

The latest trailer for the twenty-first James Bond film, Casino Royale , has been posted at AOL Movies web site. Judging from this trailer, it is true that this new Bond, played by Daniel Craig, will be a much "harder" Bond when compared to the cavalier Moore or Brosnan. And, as much as I enjoyed watching Brosnan's four outings, I never bought in to him being Bond. He was still Remington Steele to me. So, November 17th will tell about Daniel Craig, but for now, enjoy the trailer. Roll em

The Illusionist is at times a mesmerizing retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story about a magician separated by class from the woman he loves. The fact that the young duchess is engaged to the Emperor's son only serves to complicate matters for the love-struck conjurer. In a controlled and understated performance, Edward Norton is convincing as Eisenheim the Illusionist, who must cross swords - and match wits - with Crown Prince Leopold in order to be with the woman he loves. Leopold's jealousy prompts him to order the chief of police (Paul Giamatti in a wonderfully annoying performance) to shut down Eisenheim's theater. High production values and solid performances compensate for a script that is not without flaws. But the film looks great, the illusions are imaginative, and in the end my friend Mike and I were glad we shelled out our ten bucks.

I remember watching the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon as a child, back in the 1970s when stars like Sammy Davis, Jr., Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and the like entertained America in order to raise money for a good cause. For me, there was something magical about the telethon in those days. I enjoyed seeing the big stars, the musical numbers and Broadway show performances. It was nice spending several hours this year enjoying the telethon. I don't want to get into the controversy about Lewis saying he "pities" the kids, as if pity is a dirty word. Whatever his motivation - and I personally believe it to be pure - he has raised a lot of money to help a lot of kids. There are not many people - celebrity or otherwise - who have done so much good for so many for so long. At 80, Lewis is looking better than he has in the past few years, having lost a lot of weight. He raised $61 million this year to fight muscular dystrophy. They may love him in France for his ...

Little Miss Sunshine is a warm, quirky, funny film about a family of losers who have only one another. When the chips are down (and in Little Miss Sunshine , the chips for this oddball family are nothing but) they somehow manage, each in his or her own way, to rise above their own personal and professional crises to meet the deep needs within one another. I left the theater feeling that this was one of the sweetest movies I have seen in some time. The troubled adults in the movie, dealing with professional failures, suicide attempts and broken hearts, rally around a young girl who chases after her dreams as a contestant in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Olive is so outclassed in this almost grotesque pageant with little girls parading around like adults that the film seems close to becoming farce. Or heartbreaking. But the deft touch delivered by the two first-time feature film directors perfectly blends comedy and melodrama without descending into the melodramatic. As sweet as thi...

"A man of action is his own son!" bellows John Lithgow to a confused Jeffrey Tambor in the new NBC comedy Twenty Good Years , an uneven but sometimes funny show about two retirement-age men who realize they have about twenty good years left and decide to live life to its fullest. Going in I wanted to like this show. I have not regularly viewed a show on network television since Frasier ended its run, and I thought Tambor and Lithgow might have enough chemistry to make this one soar. They are both talented and funny and they do click on screen. Unfortunately, their scenes together are the only ones in this premiere episode that work. I found the first act rushed, sloppily written and unfunny, and I was about to give up on the show when plastered surgeon John Mason (Lithgow) arrives late for his own birthday party and tells Jeffrey Pyne (Tambor) he's changing the way he lives. At this point the jokes become crisp and edgy, and the force of Lithgow's pesonality keeps me...

I saw Scoop this week, the new Woody Allen film starring Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman, and both Allen and the film felt tired. Although there were a few laughs, I did not find the film particularly funny, and I wonder if the 70-year-old actor/director still has a comic touch. Allen's one-liners seem familiar and the plot is not particularly imaginative. Set in London, Allen's new cinematic home, Scoop seems like an afterthought to his 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery . That one, with Diane Keaton, Angelica Huston and Alan Alda, was a much better comedy. Scoop suffers from familiarity more than anything, Allen's performance as magician The Great Splendini included. Johansson is fine as the young student reporter investigating a millionaire she suspects (with help from beyond the grave) to be a serial killer. Hugh Jackman, as millionaire Peter Lyman, holds the film together with his breezy and convincing performance. But it's not enough.

Many years ago my friend and roommate Chuck and I found that fourth row center was the optimum place within most auditoriums to view most movies. Heaven knows in all of the hundreds of movies we have seen together over many years we tried just about everywhere else. In the large auditoriums the seats are a reputable distance from the screen, and the fourth row is close enough to be enveloped by the cinema experience without being so close that one’s view of the motion picture is distorted. In the smaller venues which offer smaller screens, any further back than fourth row and one may find oneself distracted by restless audience members and the occasional top hat. Since then, Fourth Row Center has come to mean to me an ideal location for viewing not just movies, but the world around me. A view from near the front, but central enough to put what I am seeing into some sort of context. I have established this blog for that purpose - a forward but centered viewpoint from which I plan to mak...