Angels, Devils, and Bad Hygiene

Through the green haze provided by the colored hops of several pints of St. Paddie's Day Ale, I paused from digesting my corned beef and cabbage to attend my fourth funeral of 2010. I have seen some great men pass, so far this year. In the midst of all this, I've had plenty of time to contemplate my own mortality. Life is funny. Death is inevitable. Somewhere, in between, there are times to watch our fleeting, tentative, and shifting existence cry out for meaning. While this philosophical rambling has landed me many opportunities to realize the things for which I should be ever thankful. I have been blessed with an amazing, loving family. I got the chance to extend a warm embrace to my niece as she entered this world. I have found myself completely altering my definition of happiness as every conversation with SVC ends with me feeling better about myself and life in general. Though we live in different cities, the hopes of watching more movies with her is motivation enough to handle any situation I've yet encountered. I have good friends that take great care of me. I have theatre, who is always a loving and caring mistress. And, I have a massive movie collection to keep the idea of ennui out of business in my home.

19.) ANGEL HEART
Years ago, I remember watching an episode of E! Television's True Hollywood Story on The Cosby Show. This program alluded to a career choice that Lisa Bonet made in the early days of the show's existence that caused a rift between her and her onscreen father. I somehow missed the title of the film, but knew that it had some controversial subject matter that the Cos did not appreciate. I sat down, put in this disc and suddenly knew why Denise became a peripheral player after only a few seasons. This movie should have been utterly forgettable (despite boasting performances from Robert De Niro and Mickey Rourke) but for the soft-core scenes depicting a writhing and possessed Cosby kid. The plot is as convoluted as a Sarah Palin campaign speech. Mickey Rourke is private detective hired by an enigmatic De Niro (boasting some extra-creepy fingernails) to find a jazz crooner who has gone missing and owes a debt to the mole-man. Through plot twists that make as much sense as the previous sentence, our gumshoe tracks his singer to the depths of New Orleans' Voodoo country. Somehow, a bargain with the devil is revealed, and Mickey Rourke chews scenery like the starving actor he would one day become. C- for the movie B+ for seeing why Lennie Kravitz had so much fun in the early days of his career.

20.) ANGELS IN AMERICA Pts 1 & 2 (Millenium Approaches & Perestroika)
This epic, made-for-HBO marathon is breathtaking in both its scope and storytelling. The All-Star cast features some outstanding performances by Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson, and Justin Kirke. However, what left me feeling utterly amazed was what Mary-Louise Parker and Jeffrey Wright were able to do to lift this film from the realm of "good adaptation" to "magnificent cinema". Taken from TonyKushner's two award-winning plays, this miniseries was originally going to go into this post as two separate parts. After much deliberation, I felt that doing that would have made as much sense as separating two acts of the same play. Clocking in at nearly six-hours, this is no easy watch. However, the story completely enveloped me and I found the time passing with much ease. I had read the plays for a drama course back in college. Unfortunately, I have never seen either one in production. After watching this movie, these plays just jumped up on the list of shows I want to produce before I die. Truly amazing! Each day is truly a gift. And this message couldn't have come at a better time in my life

21.)ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES
This is a great classic featuring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and Pat O'Brien. Admittedly, I have seen parts of this movie over the years. Though, everytime I would stumble upon (usually late at night on TMC), I was only able to catch certain parts. I have been wanting to view the whole thing for some time now. This was remedied when I settled in with some popcorn, Sam Adams, and an hour and a half of great movie-making from Hollywood's heyday. Telling the story of two childhood friends who have taken disparate life-journeys, this film offers a great moral: there is good in all of us. Sure the dialogue is antiquated, and the plot takes a few leaps that require your disbelief to be suspended just a litte more, but this I thoroughly enjoyed this gem.

22.) ANGER MANAGEMENT
I almost skipped over this one because I had seen almost half 0f it when it first came out, and had no real desire to finish what had been started. Thankfully, I gave it another chance. For all intents and purposes, this is another trite Adam Sandler vehicle where he plays his man-child alter-ego right into the contrived world of zany situations that must have a lesson to be learned somewhere. The real comedy doesn't come from Sandler (though he does have a few grin-worthy moments), but from his co-star Jack Nicholson. There's something rewarding about seeing an actor who has intimidated and frightened you perform a role that is shameless. Watching Jack as the scheming psychologist who is assigned to help Sandler's character assuage his own brewing angst, is like watching De Niro in Meet the Parents: you're glad he had a great career before this film, because there's no way to respect him now. It was more entertaining than I anticipated. Probably won't warrant a repeat viewing.

23.) ANIMATRIX
Ok, so this is really just a collection of short films, but this disc was next on the shelve. And, I felt I would be betraying the spirit of this project if I started making justifications on what qualifies as a "movie". 9 animated shorts that fill in the gaps and flesh out the world of The Matrix films. I'm really not a fan of Anime, but I do respect it as an art form. Plus, they usually animate women with very little clothing. Some of these were better than others. The first four were written by the Wachowski brothers, so their relevance is clear and entertaining. Overall, I was glad these were only short films. The final installment, "Matriculated" is just terrible.

The real irony of this week's entries is that four of the six films include the word "angel" in their titles. Dealing with the ups and downs of life like I have had to do in the past few weeks, I can't help but feel the warmth of a few angels in my own life. At the risk of giving Hallmark a run for it's client-base, I will gush and say that I'm thankful for my own guardians of peace and love. "May flights of angels sing you to your rest".