Tag Archives: Nicholas Cage

5 Get-In-The-Holiday-Mood Movies

21 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in Holiday, Movies

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I don’t know about you, but there’s a set of movies I like to watch at time this year to help me get in the “holiday mood.”  Today I thought I’d share some of my not-so-typical holiday favorites, in case you’re looking for new sparkle to make the season bright.

1. “Last Holiday” with Queen Latifah

XMAS_LastHoliday_Right before Christmas, shy New Orleans cookware sales clerk Georgia Byrd (Oscar® nominee* Queen Latifah) receives the news from her doctor that she has less than a month to live. The reality forces Georgia to rebel against the timid life she’s lived, and jetting off on a dream vacation, living like there’s no tomorrow (because for her there isn’t). Georgia succeeds in shaking up a glamorous European resort spa with her new let-loose attitude, embracing a new look … new moves … and commanding the attention of senators and hotel staff alike! LL Cool J, Georgia’s handsome suitor in New Orleans, isn’t about to let Georgia slip away, and chases after to a surprise happy ending. Timothy Hutton, Gerard Depardieu, Alicia Witt and Giancarlo Esposito have rollicking roles in this comedy that’s deep with meaning and big with heart.

This movie delivers on the laughs, but it’s the lessons that keep me watching it again every year. It’s a great reminder about what’s important in life … especially how to live it well.

[This movie is available on Netflix, as well as on Amazon for a very reasonable price (under $10.00).]

2. “The Family Man” with Nicholas Cage

XMAS_TheFamilyMan_Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) is king of the Wall Street sharks, scoring killer deals by day and cavorting with escorts by night. He “thinks” he’s happy, but his life of empty luxuries is turned inside out on a lonely Christmas Eve when a gun-packing punk (Don Cheadle)–an angel in disguise–responds to Jack’s altruistic gesture by giving him “a real-life glimpse” of the life he could have had. That is, if he’d married the girlfriend (Téa Leoni) he abandoned 13 years earlier, raised two adorable kids with her, worked in his father-in-law’s retail tire outlet, and lived in suburban New Jersey. Living this “glimpse” of the path not taken—Jack is an Armani-man in a Sears-special world—wondering if he’ll ever get back to luxurious life of callous wealth, or if he even wants to.

This story pulls back the covers on a high-rolling materialistic lifestyle and compares its emptiness with the fulfillment of an average working-class family. Without being preachy, this story conveys what really matters in life.

[This movie is available on Netflix, as well as on Amazon for a reasonable price.]

3. “The Bishop’s Wife” with Cary Grant

XMAS_TheBishopsWife_It’s Christmas, and the Yuletide spirit has yet to warm Bishop Henry Brougham’s (David Niven) Victorian home. Struggling to raise funds for a new cathedral, the preoccupied clergyman neglects his loving wife Julia (Loretta Young) until divine intervention is the only thing that can save their failing marriage. But the handsome and powerful angel (Cary Grant) that is sent in answer to the clergyman’s prayers has a mind of his own, and teaching mortal Henry an immortal lesson in romance isn’t the only surprise he’s got up his wing!

This is a true classic, with enough magic and charm to warm the Grinchiest heart. The recent remake, “The Preachers Wife” doesn’t come close to touching the original! The fact that I’ve had a life-long crush on Cary Grant has nothing to do with my avid recommendation of this movie either.

[This movie is available on Netflix, as well as on Amazon for a reasonable price.]

4. “Annabelle’s Wish”

XMAS_AnnabellesWish_When Annabelle the calf is born on Christmas Eve, Santa comes and gives all the barn animals a special gift: they can talk on Christmas Day! Annabelle is good all year long and decides to ask Santa for a special wish the next year — to fly with his reindeer! But when Billy needs her, she postpones asking for her special favor … at least for a while.

This touching story has many lessons, the best of which is the beauty of unconditional love.

[This movie might be hard to find. It’s not available on Netflix, and the price on Amazon is totally insane. If it comes on TV, record it. If you know someone who has an old copy of this DVD, ask them if you can come over and watch it with them.]

5. “Eloise at Christmastime” with Julie Andrews

XMAS_EloiseatChristmastimeYes, that Eloise, and of course…The Plaza. This delightful story is set just before Christmas, when Eloise learns that Rachel, the daughter of Plaza owner Mr. Peabody, is returning after a long absence to marry mystery man Brooks Oliver. Eloise insists on helping with the Yuletide nuptials, all the while scheming to get Rachel, the true love of her best pal Bill (a free-spirited hotel waiter), together instead. Through all her shenanigans, Eloise infuses everyone with holiday spirit, especially her beloved Nanny, played “rawther” marvelously by Julie Andrews.

Seeing The Plaza resplendent in its holiday finest never fails to get me in a festive mood. Add zany Eloise and her wacky Nanny on top of a pull-at-the-heart-strings love story, and any bah-humbugging vanishes instantly.

[This movie isn’t available on Netflix either, but it is available on Amazon for a very reasonable price (under $10.00).]

What’s your favorite holiday-mood movie?

Secret American History

07 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Supernatural, Suspense, Thriller, Vampire

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The REAL Abraham Lincoln … Vampire Hunter

History prefers legends to men … It prefers nobility to brutality … soaring speeches to quiet deeds. History remembers the battle and forgets the blood. However history remembers me before I was a President, it shall only remember a fraction of the truth … [from the trailer below]

The premise of Seth Grahame-Smith’s bestselling novel, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, is awesome. Somehow though, I never got around to reading it. So when the movie came out, I had to see it. It was obvious from the trailers that the story was anything but a joke. Still, I couldn’t fathom how — given everything we know about our 16th President — the history could be believable. OK, so you have to buy into the whole Vampire’s-are-real thing. But after that … Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is disturbingly plausible.

Which got me to thinking … What if? What if … what we’ve been taught about that time in history is only part of the truth? The possibility is awesome.

Hollywood has given us some other more-than-believable options for American history…

A Secret National Treasure Map

National Treasure is a perfect example … A secret from our nation’s past leads to the greatest adventure (and treasure) in history.

Benjamin Gates’ (Nicolas Cage) life-long journey leads him, and his nerd-savante sidekick Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), to an invisible map that is encrypted on the back of the Declaration of Independence.  However, what they thought was the final clue turns out to only be the beginning of their hunt.

Gates soon realizes that to protect the world’s greatest treasure, he must steal the most revered, best guarded document in American history before it falls into the wrong hands. In a race against time, Gates must stay one step ahead of his ruthless adversary (Sean Bean), elude the authorities, and unlock a 2000 year-old mystery behind our greatest national treasure.

What makes this story so believable are the historical facts that are woven into the story at every turn. Nine of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence were Masons. The invisible map (encrypted using Masonic symbols) points to the hiding place of King Solomon’s treasure — an unfathomable storehouse of wealth — that vanished after the Knights Templar (precursors to the Masons) uncovered it beneath King Solomon’s palace.

And let’s not forget the clue Gates discovers on the Independence Hall clock tower on the back of a hundred-dollar bill, or the special glasses needed to read the map — made by Benjamin Franklin himself, the inventor of bifocals — that are hidden in that very clock tower. And the final believability gem (pun intended) comes when Gates realizes the treasure is deep beneath Trinity Church (Trinity Wall Street at 79th Street in Lower Manhattan), which was founded in 1696. Again, the magic of … what if?

More National Treasure … in a Book of Secrets

National Treasure: Book of Secrets starts out with the promise of a great premise…

This time Benjamin Gates sets out to discover the truth behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, by uncovering the mystery within the 18 pages missing from assassin John Wilkes Booth’s diary. A Gates ancestor has been accused of being an accomplice in Booth’s crime, and Benjamin  believes the missing pages will clear the family name. His conviction drives him to uncover clues to the location of the mythical City of Gold, Cibola.

The historic facts laced throughout this story are viable. Such as the hidden inscription on the scale model of the Statue of Liberty on the Île aux Cygnes in Paris that points to the two Resolute desks; one of which is in the Queen’s chambers in Buckingham Palace, the other in the Oval Office of the White House. All well and good. But they lost me with the Mayan-style temple of gold beneath Mount Rushmore.

It might just be me. But the only way I’d believe that one is if they proved George Washington used his hatchet to cut crop circles to signal aliens (instead of chopping down that cherry tree). Because the aliens could totally have helped the Mayans build a temple of gold beneath Mount Rushmore. Which of course, is why George’s face is now on that mountain.

But seriously … a city carved into the walls at the bottom of the Grand Canyon — similar to Petra in Jordan — and filled with tons of golden artifacts would have been much more believable. I’m just sayin’. Are you listening, Jon Turteltaub?

I’m hoping National Treasure 3 — if and when it happens — brings the series back on track to its original suspense filled, believable glory. Without aliens, crystal skulls, or nuked refrigerators. Please!

How to lose an audience…

What I learned from these stories was … to keep a story believable the audience needs a consistent trail of plausibility that’s easy to follow. A logical set up of known historical facts woven throughout the story so they pay off in a believable secret history.

Let’s face it. On some level we all want to believe the secret history could be true. We want to believe, because it takes us out of our day-to-day lives and lifts us up into realm of infinite possibilities. That … What if? … place, where anything can happen.

A storyteller’s mistake comes when their plausibility trail hits a wall that requires us to pole vault over it. The end result … you lose us … an audience that wanted to go along for the ride, not go out for the Olympics.

What’s your favorite piece of secret history … American or otherwise?

Inquiring minds want to know!