Category: Movies

The Best of the Best

Published on by Sharron BurnettLeave a comment

i282600889619816127._szw1280h1280_Another Oscar ceremony is now history. I find that I have seen fewer and fewer of the featured films with each passing year. With the many means of watching the movies for far less than the cost of attending a performance at a theater I tend to wait until the films are available for rental. So it was with this year’s contenders, some of which are not yet showing on Netflix, Apple TV or On Demand. 

Even though I am loathe to spend my money on first run movies at my local cinema I am still a great fan of the arts and I tend to watch films through the lens of a reviewer. From that perspective I have to say that there was no really breathtaking movie in this year’s offerings, at least from those that I have seen. I loved Game of Spies not just for its story but for the acting. I wonder if there is ever really a time that Tom Hanks doesn’t light up the screen with nuanced brilliance. He has a way of brining out the best in his co-stars as well. It didn’t surprise me at all that Mark Rylance, who played a Russian spy during the Cold War, walked away with this year’s gold in the Best Supporting Actor category. Tom and Mark managed to make their on screen relationship not just believable but relatable. Still the movie itself was far from being in the same league as Best Pictures of the past.  Continue reading “The Best of the Best” →

A New Star

Published on by Sharron BurnettLeave a comment

i282600889618003436._szw1280h1280_I love to hear stories about people who work at jobs that they truly love. Too many people go to work day after dreary day, dreading everything about their occupations. Sometimes they feel trapped in professions that don’t suit them. Changing careers means making great financial sacrifices that they are not willing to endure. They simply remain miserable. Then there are those who risk everything to follow their dreams. Those are the people that I really admire. 

At Mike’s fiftieth class reunion I finally had the opportunity of meeting someone of whom he had often spoken. The man was Ken Magee. It seems that Ken had gone out to Hollywood shortly after graduating to try his hand at acting. He never became famous enough that anyone would quickly recall his name but he did make enough of an impression on the powers that be in the movie industry that he earned a living doing small parts. Hollywood became his home and acting his lifetime career. In fact, he had hundreds of roles in movies and television over the years. His filmography is extensive and even impressive. He played in The Shawshank Redemption, Seabiscuit, Human Nature, The Majestic, E.R., Cold Case, and so many more. He portrayed everything from a scoutmaster to an intellectually deficient murder suspect. He possessed a somewhat forgetful, everyman kind of face that made him perfect for a variety of character roles. Over the years Mike had fun spotting him in different films. Mike liked to brag that he had known Ken before he was famous.  Continue reading “A New Star” →

My Name is Nickerson

Published on by Sharron BurnettLeave a comment

i282600889616502388._szw1280h1280_Way back in 1956, when I was seven years old I received an invitation to a birthday party for the daughter of my father’s best friend. Her name was Shirley and she was a great deal older than I was. In fact she attended Hartman Junior High at the time. She was blonde, beautiful and always nice to me so she became a kind of goddess in my eyes. Shirley introduced me to rock and roll and showed me how to dance. When my family visited with hers she always took me to her room and entertained me as though I was an equal to her. Of course I adored her so when my mother told me that I was going to get to accompany Shirley and some of her school friends to a movie on her birthday I was over the moon with excitement. 

A bit of controversy revolving around me put a monkey wrench in the plans. Shirley had wanted to see Trapeze, a story involving a love triangle between Burt Lancaster, Gina Lollobrigida, and Tony Curtis all set under the big top of a circus. My mother was concerned that the material in that movie might be a bit too adult for me and so Shirley’s mom made a last minute decision to take all of us to see Moby Dick instead. This put me in a most unfortunate predicament with Shirley’s friends who complained that I was too immature to be part of their celebration anyway. I recall feeling quite uncomfortable as the group grudgingly accepted the change in venue. As it ultimately turned out I think that I was far more traumatized by the violence from the infamous white whale than I would have been by the romantic scenes in the circus plot. Nonetheless the damage had already been done and I had my introduction to one of the most revered stories in American literature, Moby Dick.   Continue reading “My Name is Nickerson” →

A Beautiful Mind

Published on by Sharron BurnettLeave a comment

i282600889614492548._szw1280h1280_For most of my adult life my mornings were spent rushing around in the dark attempting to hit the roadways before the traffic built up so badly that I would be late for work. I never had the luxury of sitting at my kitchen table eating a nice warm breakfast while reading my newspaper as is depicted in so many images of American life. I  regularly subscribed to the Houston Post and eventually the Houston Chronicle but rarely had time to even move either of them from the driveway much less peruse their pages. I ate my morning meal inside my car and got my news from the radio. 

My evenings weren’t much better. There were always dinners to be cooked, chores to be done, children to love, papers to be graded, events to attend, time to spend with Mike. I only paused long enough to to read the headlines and toss the pulpy newsprint into the trash after Mike had managed to squeeze in a glance through his favorite sections. Once the big news began to appear instantly on my computer and my phone it seemed to make little sense to keep paying for the local paper to arrive on my driveway each morning only so that I might flatten it with my tires as I frantically left home. I cancelled our membership as faithful supporters of Houston journalism and began to rely solely on the Internet.  Continue reading “A Beautiful Mind” →

You’re Kidding Me!

Published on by Sharron BurnettLeave a comment

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I devoured the Harry Potter series of books. I preordered the final installment and read it in between sessions of a summer class that I was taking. I had followed the story from its remarkable beginning and I worried that J.K. Rowling might ruin the adventure for me with a bad ending. To my utter delight the conclusion was as satisfying to me as the entire journey had been. I marveled at Ms. Rowling’s genius because I had been disappointed by the final chapters of so many volumes in the past. It would not have surprised me if she had somehow managed to ruin the spirit of the story.  Continue reading “You’re Kidding Me!” →