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Wonder Woman – rm

You take a $149 million budget (which thus far has earned six times that amount), pull together a cast and crew with behind the screens technicians probably totaling at least a thousand people (based on the credits), put it together in at least four different countries (USA, Italy, Hungary and New Zealand) and build a story around a character who has been a heroine to at least three generations of girls and you get magnificent Wonder Woman! (Gal Gadot) She, of course, can leap buildings in a single bound (like Superman did), can stop bullets with her wristband or even catch them, has super strength and of course she has a magic lasso which will make anyone tell the truth.

We meet our heroine as a young girl as she is training to be an Amazon (all powerful women) on a secret island. It is during World War I and a British pilot (Chris Pine) on a spy mission is being chased by a flotilla of German boats with lots of German soldiers. He crashes into the water and is saved by our heroine who fights off the pursuing Germans until the other Amazon women come to help and wipe them all out. But our spy knows that the Germans have a new secret weapon that involves a deadly gas and he must, get the news back to the Allies. They’re in a tremendous battle, a confrontation with the evil of all evil men and many other things that you can imagine.

But the real heroes and heroines of this film have to be the behind the scenes technicians who produced the tremendous special effects that are throughout just about every scene with appropriate sound effects and music. This is all under the direction of Patty Jenkins with a screenplay and story by Zack Snyder and Allan Heinberg. There was an excellent supporting cast including Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston, David Thewlis and many others.

We understand that most women viewers have been quite touched and even tearful at the end of this film and the female member of our duo was also moved. We don’t know if many guys felt that way and it could be a whole new discussion figuring out what this film is tapping into. But all should agree that we are seeing a classic and there will probably be a sequel (2017).

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People Like Us – sp We know of several instances, from personal life as well as from our professional work, of friends and relatives encountering siblings who they never knew previously existed. Each story is different but the impact on the people involved is usually quite powerful. No matter what age this revelation occurs it has the potential to shatter one’s concept of your parents, rework your ideas of honesty and truth and lead to a reexamination of your own identity. The writing team of Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert each had some personal experience or first hand knowledge of such events which they were able to draw upon to put together this remarkable story. They weaved the details of the story line of each character together with the emotional reveal in a manner which riveted the attention of the viewer throughout the whole process. Although most of the characters were quite likeable and the story was sprinkled with some heart warming comedy, we were still witnessing a tragic story which appeared to be doubling down on the bad luck that each character was experiencing. Sam (Chris Pine) and Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) are the family members who once they confront each other have to relive and deal with the meaning of their unhappy childhood. Michelle Pfeiffer has the role of Lilian, Sam’s mother who is hardened, bitter and looks it which in itself is a great accomplishment for this very fine and beautiful actress. Michael Hall D’Addanio is Josh, Frankie’s 11 year son in a performance which may very well be remembered after he establishes himself as an adult star. Josh’s recently deceased grandfather Gerald Harper was a music and record producer who has created all the misery on the screen as he has fathered both Sam and Frankie while neither knew of each other’s existence. Throughout most of the 115 minutes of this movie , it seemed almost impossible to imagine how any type of satisfying ending was remotely possible. Much of the success for the resolution of the story and execution of the movie should go to Alex Kurtzman who not only co-wrote the story but also directed it. In the end not only are the characters all in a better place with a new prospective on life, but the audience has the chance to reconsider our own relationships with parents and children because the movie we have just seen in one way or another is about “ people like us.” (2012)

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Bottle Shock – nf – We finally caught up with this movie that we had been wanting to see since we missed it at the local movie theatres. As new Californians the pride we have in California wines is nothing compared to the passion that Napa valley vinters had in their local wines which 35 years ago were hardly recognized world wide as compared to French wines. This movie, which is based a true story, centers on Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) a Brit living in Paris who had a wine store there and his pal and confidant (Dennis Farina). Spurrier decided that he would stimulate interest in buying wine by showing that in the 1976 bicentennial anniversary year, the upstart Americans still could not make wine, which could hold a candle to the established French products. He travels to America and meets Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) owner, but deeply in debt, of the Montelena Chateau and his son Bo (Chris Pine) as well as a group of other California vintners. He convinces 12 of them to give him two bottles each to enter into a French wine tasting event in which the wine would be blindly judged. The California group knew that “if one wins, they all would win.” As they say, the rest is history. There are a few subplots which include Sam (Rachel Taylor) the beautiful graduate student wine intern, Bo, Barrett’s son who gets boxed around by his father and Gustavo (Freddy Rodriquez), the Mexican-American farm hand who is owner of a small wine maker operation with his father (Miquel Sandoval). The movie also stars the beautiful green California grape yards, the spirited Napa Valley Wine growers and the very French wine guys in Paris. There is the expectable dramatic blind wine tasting contest in Paris which has subsequently come to be known as Judgment in Paris. There were no big surprises although you do come away from the movie feeling good and also having learned an important history lesson about a product many people love and revere. (2008)