Invictus Joyeux Noel!

Hi Everybody!
I may not be the master of my soul or the captain of my fate, but I love sports movies like INVICTUS. Clint Eastwood is the most colorblind of our major directors, and his long partnership with Morgan Freeman is enduring proof of his taste level in actors. While Eastwood has often cast amateurs in his movies, clearly Freeman has been his go-to guy for over a decade, and for obvious reasons.
With the end of Aparteid in his rearview mirror, Eastwood uses South Africa to deliver a rousing ode to brotherhood without the usual sermon which has plagued other such efforts. It is in the small touches where Eastwood shines: how the rugby captain's maid is invited to the World Cup, how a street begger listens to the game on a police unit's radio, how Mandela's estranged daughter ends up rooting for the despised Bokke team despite herself.
The last 20 minutes of the movie is essentially an escalating montage and, again, it is Eastwood's storytelling that makes it effective and not incoherant. Eastwood may direct with a stopwatch but, particularly in a movie with so many crowd scenes, he prevents his extras from mugging and sometimes catches something close to authenticity.
Freeman's professionalism along with his genuine warmth keeps the movie entertaining, while Matt Damon throwing himself physically into the Rugby field allows us to have a real actor delivering his ground-level lines with authority.
Eastwood makes it look easy, but most major directors flub the small moments that become the heart of this film. Another big winner from Clint, and you can stick that in your GRAN TORINO!
Merry Christmas to you all and be good, for goodness' sake! Talk to you, soon!
Brad

Up, Up In The Air!

Hi Everybody!
First, a quick update:
Since I have gotten no reply from the publisher concerning by JSA: THE MODERN idea, I've set that project aside and have fortified my SANTA: WOO WOO book to include three smaller stories featuring WOODY, POCAHONTAS and WONDER WOMAN. These will be short, regular-sized books for young readers featuring double-paged spreads and simple verse to tell the stories. Even though they each have a Christmas theme, I hope they can be enjoyed at any time of the year!
Now, I just saw UP IN THE AIR, and it's one of "those" movies. It could have been a character study of a downsizing expert (George Clooney) who himself gets downsized, but no. It could have been a mentor/mentee movie about how Clooney trains his replacement (Anna Kendrick) and how they combine forces to defeat a common foe, but no. It could have been how an isolated Clooney makes a deep connection with a fellow air travel addict (Vera Farmiga) and reprioritizes his life, but no. Like its' protagonist Clooney, the movie ultimately refuses to commit to anything more than a day-in-the-life, when it could have gone after bigger game. Like a seatbelt that is not quite long enough to fasten shut, this movie simply floats off the screen, squandoring a charming Clooney, a disarming Farmiga, and a crisp Kendrick.
Happy shopping, be good!
Brad