Criterion Thoughts—12 Angry Men (1957) ****

Juror #1: Martin Balsam

Juror #2: John Fielder

Juror #3: Lee J. Cobb

Juror #4: E.G. Marshall

Juror #5: Jack Klugman

Juror #6: Edward Binns

Juror #7: Jack Warden

Juror #8: Henry Fonda

Juror #9: Joseph Sweeney

Juror #10: Ed Begley

Juror #11: George Voskovec

Juror #12: Robert Webber

United Artists presents a film directed by Sidney Lumet. Written by Reginald Rose. Running time: 96 min. Not Rated.

I was lucky enough to have performed in a stage production of Reginald Rose’s “12 Angry Men”. It’s hard to find a play that offers such a diverse set of characters that each inhabit the stage for a play’s entirety. It’s kind of an actor’s dream play. Even if you’re playing one of the smaller roles in terms of number of lines, you still get to flex your acting muscles throughout.

Not that line count was a problem for me, I was also lucky enough to land one of the primary roles of the production, that of Juror #3, the antagonist to Juror #8. I hadn’t seen the movie at that time, and as a purist, I didn’t seek it out in order to preserve my original interpretation of the character. I wish I had, though. For one, I’m not much like Lee J. Cobb, who played #3 in Sidney Lumet’s 1957 big screen adaptation. I couldn’t have stolen his mannerisms or instincts. The main reason I wish I’d seen the film, though, is because of a key mistake my young acting mind made in my interpretation. I judged him.

The Trip to Italy (2014) ***½

Steve: Steve Coogan

Rob: Rob Brydon

Lucy: Rosie Fellner

Emma: Claire Keelan

Joe (Steve’s Son): Timothy Leach

IFC Films presents a film written and directed by Michael Winterbottom. Running time: 108 min. Not Rated.

“The Trip To Italy” might be the most unlikely sequel of the year. It follows the 2010 movie “The Trip”, which saw British comedians Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan playing fictitious versions of themselves. When Brydon takes a job writing a food/travelogue column for a magazine visiting restaurants throughout England, he invites his friend Coogan along with him and they spend the time joking, doing impersonations, eating good food and making poor moral choices. Critics lauded the film, however, I felt it was a little uneven, couldn’t decide what it really wanted to be, and dragged a little too much to keep me interested.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Towering Inferno (1974) ***

PG, 165 min.

Director: John Guillerman

Writers: Stirling Silliphant, Richard Martin Stern (novel “The Tower”), Thomas N. Scortia (novel “The Glass Inferno”), Frank M. Robinson (novel “The Glass Inferno”)

Starring: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakley, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, O.J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Sheila Mathews, Normann Burton, Jack Collins, Don Gordon, Felton Perry, Gregory Sierra, Ernie Orsatti, Dabney Coleman, Mike Lookinland

I think “The Towering Inferno” was the first movie for which I ever developed an obsession. It was a major score for the major networks—back in the day when they were the only three channels to choose from—to get this film on their “Movie of the Week”. I’m not sure which one had it first, but when it aired, it was a two-night event.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Team America: World Police (2004) **

R, 98 min.

Director: Trey Parker

Writers: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Pam Brady

Voices: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa, Daran Norris, Phil Hendrie, Maurice LaMarche

So in light of the critical failure of “The Interview”, many critics have been recalling the feature length puppet movie from “South Park” creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, “Team America: World Police” as a more satisfying skewering of a North Korean leader. While there are certainly aspects of that film that are more successful than “The Interview”, I believe these recollections are more like wishful thinking for what either of the films could’ve been rather than what they actually are.

Horror Thoughts ‘14—The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) *

R, 86 min.

Director: Charles B. Pierce

Writer: Earl E. Smith

Starring: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Jimmy Clem, Jim Citty, Charles B. Pierce, Robert Aquino, Dawn Wells

The original 1976 version of “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” is so bad I really don’t want to talk about it much. It’s an indie that came out a couple of years before John Carpenter’s original “Halloween”. I mention the Carpenter film because they both focus on serial killers who terrorize a small town. Both killers wear fairly non-descript masks and breathe heavily under them. I don’t recall much about Carpenter’s inspiration for “Halloween”, but I would find it hard to believe that “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” didn’t play some part. The killer’s are too similar and the sound effects of each film’s killer sounds as if they came from the same source.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / ** (PG-13)

April O’Neil: Megan Fox

Vernon Fenwick: Will Arnett

Eric Sacks: William Fichtner

Bernadette Thompson: Whoopi Goldberg

Voice & motion capture performances:

Raphael: Alan Ritchson

Michelangelo: Noel Fisher

Leonardo: Pete Ploszek

Leonardo (voice): Johnny Knoxville

Donatello: Jeremy Howard

Splinter: Danny Woodburn

Splinter (voice): Tony Shaloub

Shredder: Tohoru Masamune

Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present a film directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Written by Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec and Evan Daugherty. Based on the comic book by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman. Running time: 101 min. Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence).

I’m gonna be honest here. I’ve never liked “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. When I first started collecting comic books in 1986, the independent comic book scene was on the rise, and leading the charge was Mirage Studio’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. I understood that it was meant to be a parody of popular comic books at the time, but I just couldn’t get into the humor and attitude of the book. As such, I am not the audience for any cinematic incarnation of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Tiny: A Story About Living Small (2013) ***

NR, 66 min.

Directors: Merete Miller, Christopher Smith

Writer: Merete Miller

Featuring: Christopher Miller, Merete Miller, Daryl Gibson, Jay Shafer, Logan Smith, Paul Smith, William Smith, Tammy Strobel, Dee Williams

I hate, hate, hate home improvement shows. My wife loves them and invariably I will walk into the living room on a Saturday afternoon and one of the cursed things will be on my TV. However, there is one home designing phenomenon that I have to admit is a guilty pleasure of mine—tiny houses. I will click on any Facebook link that has anything to do with tiny houses. I love the ultra-simplification philosophy that goes into them. I like the lower environmental footprint they promote. But mostly, I just love to see how their designers find different ways to fit all the basics of living and even one or two luxuries into less than 200 square feet.

Transformers: Age of Extinction / * (PG-13)

Cade Yeager: Mark Wahlberg

Tessa Yeager: Nicola Peltz

Joshua Joyce: Stanley Tucci

Harold Attinger: Kelsey Grammer

Shane Dyson: Jack Reynor

James Savoy: Titus Welliver

Darcy Tirrel: Sophia Myles

Su Yueming: Bingbing Li

Voices:

Optimus Prime: Peter Cullen

Galvatron: Frank Welker

Hound: John Goodman

Drift: Ken Watanabe

Lockdown: Mark Ryan

Paramount Pictures and Hasbro present a film directed by Michael Bay. Written by Ehren Kruger. Running time: 165 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief innuendo).

After seeing “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” in 2011, I promised myself I would never darken the door of a Transformers movie again as long as Michael Bay directed it.  So, when I learned that Michael Bay would be directing the fourth “Transformers” film, I thought I was done with the franchise. Then last fall I went to see the stand up of T.J. Miller, who has a role in the newest Transformers. Miller hung out with the patrons before and after the show. He was one of the nicest and most down to Earth celebrities I’ve ever met. For that reason alone, I decided to lift my “Transformers” ban. Let me just warn anyone who might be going to see the film for T.J. Miller—don’t. Miller will be in other projects more worthy of his and your time that will have a more profound effect on his career under the circumstances.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Tree of Life (2011) ****

PG-13, 139 min.

Director/Writer: Terrence Malick

Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan, Fiona Shaw

With the Summer Solstice upon us, my thoughts have drifted back to Terrence Malick’s 2011 film “The Tree of Life”. While certainly encompassing a larger scope than just the season in which many of its events are set, the film is a remarkably summer movie. When it was set for a summer release date, I questioned it. Malick hardly makes summer blockbusters. Even though it most certainly wasn’t a blockbuster, summer was most definitely the right time to release the movie.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) ****

Director: Joseph Sargent

Writers: Peter Stone, John Godey (novel)

Starring: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, James Broderick, Dick O’Neill, Lee Wallace, Tony Roberts, Tom Pedi, Beatrice Winde, Jerry Stiller, Nathan George, Rudy Bond, Kenneth McMillan, Doris Roberts, Julius Harris, Anna Berger, Mari Gorman, Michael Gorrin, Maria Landa, George Lee Miles

The 16^th Annual Roger Ebert Film Festival unofficially begins today in Champaign, Ill. It is the first to be entirely organized without Roger’s involvement. Suddenly the profound loss the cinematic community felt last year when he passed just a couple weeks before the 15^th Annual is felt all over again.

Transcendence / ** (PG-13)

Will Caster: Johnny Depp

Evelyn Caster: Rebecca Hall

Max Waters: Paul Bettany

Bree: Kate Mara

Joseph Tagger: Morgan Freeman

Agent Buchanan: Cillian Murphy

Martin: Clifton Collins, Jr.

Colonel Stevens: Cole Hauser

Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Wally Pfister. Written by Jack Paglen. Running time: 119 min. Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi action and violence, some bloody images, brief strong language and sensuality).

Before I get to the review of the new sci-fi movie “Transcendence”, I’d like to pose a little common sense question to any scientists or screenwriters out there. I had a psych teacher who told me once that there wasn’t any such thing as common sense, but humor me. Let’s say you want to create some sort of area that is blocked off from all sorts of electronic transmissions and something like a copper mesh can actually do this. Does it make sense to hang the mesh from the ceiling of a structure you wanted to protect, or would it be a whole lot easier to encase the exterior of that structure?

Penny Thoughts ‘14—12 Years a Slave (2013) ****

R, 134 min.

Director: Steve McQueen

Writers: John Ridley, Solomon Northup (memoir)

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael K. Williams, J.D. Evermore, Paul Giamatti, Christopher Berry, Scoot McNairy, Taran Killam, Tony Bentley, Liza J. Bennett, Scott M. Jefferson, Alfre Woodard,  Garrett Dillahunt

“12 Years a Slave” won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2013. It’s a worthy film. It isn’t your average slave film, although I’m not sure there really have been enough films about that dark time in our country’s history that any could be considered average. It tells the true story of Solomon Northup, who was a free man who was kidnapped in Washington D.C. and sold into slavery, where he remained in service for twelve years before he could finally find someone to contact his family in the North to confirm his free status.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) ***

R, 139 min.

Director: Anthony Minghella

Writers: Anthony Minghella, Patricia Highsmith (novel)

Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn, Sergio Rubini, Philip Baker Hall, Celia Weston, Rosario Fiorello

I wasn’t a huge fan of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” when it first came out. I felt Ripley’s success as a manipulator and murderer was almost too random and although Matt Damon played the role well, I couldn’t see him becoming the master of skills that Patricia Highsmith’s ultimate anti-hero would eventually become. I also didn’t feel there was enough suspense, especially considering the almost accidental success of the character. Upon a second viewing 15 years later, I liked it better. It was easier to observe the nuances of the character this time around, but I still feel the world around him lacked equivalent nuances. The later film “Ripley’s Game”—starring John Malkovich in the role of an older Ripley that seems written expressly for the strange character actor—is a much better example of what Highsmith’s character is all about.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Mickey Mouse in Third Wheel (2014) **½

TV-G, 4 min.

Director: Clay Morrow

Writers: Derek Dressler, Clay Morrow, Paul Rudish, Aaron Springer

Voices: Chris Diamantopoulos, Bill Farmer, Paul Rudish, Russi Taylor

I’m a big fan of the new set of Mickey Mouse shorts that Disney has produced as interstitials for its cartoon network programming. I’ve seen a few now, and they do a wonderful job recapturing the original spirit of the Mickey Mouse shorts originally created by Walt Disney himself. They’re more innocent than today’s cartoons, and yet they’re indelibly clever. They’re bright and vibrant. They’re never too loud and boisterous.  At 17 and counting, it seems the studio is also quite committed to them.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Trinity & Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (1995) ***

Not Rated, 92 min.

Director: Peter Kuran

Writers: Scott Narrie, Doug Pugsley

Narrator: William Shatner

Featuring: Dr. Edward Teller, Dr. Frank H. Shelton

“Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.”

                                                                                                    —Dr. Ian Malcolm, “Jurassic Park”

There is a nuclear physicist interviewed in “Trinity & Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie” who doesn’t question for a second that helping to develop the atomic bomb was the right thing to do. His reasoning is that it was going to be done anyway and it was his opportunity to be a part of scientific exploration and guide it in a direction he felt was helpful to humanity. This documentary, without ever blatantly pointing any sort of finger, demonstrates that eventually it was no longer about scientific discovery; and considering the fact that the U.S. military began their nuclear program out of suspicion that the Germans were developing nuclear armaments in World War II, scientific discovery was certainly not the impetus for developing these weapons of mass destruction.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—The To Do List (2013) **

R, 104 min.

Director/Writer: Maggie Carey

Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader, Alia Shawkat, Sarah Steele, Scott Porter, Rachel Bilson, Christopher Mintz-Plaase, Andy Samberg, Donald Glover, Adam Pally, Clark Gregg, Connie Britton

Maggie Carey’s “The To Do List” is another coming of age movie set during summer break. I don’t like how I’m getting to see these at Christmas time, but that’s just how things work out with a Netflix queue sometimes. Anyway, this coming of age story sets its focus on the teenage obsession with sex.

Thor: The Dark World / *** (PG-13)

Thor: Chris Hemsworth

Jane Foster: Natalie Portman

Loki: Tom Hiddleston

Malekith: Christopher Eccleston

Odin: Anthony Hopkins

Heimdall: Idris Elba

Frigga: Rene Russo

Sif: Jaimie Alexander

Fandral: Zachary Levi

Darcy Lewis: Kat Dennings

Erik Selvig: Stellan Skarsgård

Marvel Entertainment presents a film directed by Alan Taylor. Written by Christopher L. Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeeley and Don Payne and Robert Rodat. Based on the comic book by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. Running time: 112 min. Rated PG-13 (for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some suggestive content).

If “Thor: The Dark World” proves anything, it’s that Marvel’s Phase 2 movies promise to keep up the quality escapism level just as high as their Phase 1 movies, including the ones that don’t involve Robert Downey, Jr. “Iron Man 3”, released earlier this year, has so far been the best of the Disney/Marvel outings and is possibly the best comic book superhero movie made yet, but the second solo outing of Marvel’s Thor also tops its predecessor. The Thor movies lack the depth of the Iron Man movies, but “The Dark World” keeps the entertainment level at “Avengers” velocity.

Horror Thoughts ‘13—Toy Story of Terror (2013) ***

TV-G, 22 min.

Director: Angus MacLane

Writers: John Lasseter (characters), Andrew Stanton (characters)

Voices: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Carl Weathers, Stephen Tobolowsky, Timothy Dalton, Wallace Shawn, Don Rickles, Kristen Schaal, Kate McKinnon

Several years ago, the filmmakers who made the movie “Shrek” restarted the tradition of holiday specials starring popular animated characters from feature films. Finally, the animators at Pixar have gotten into the game of lending their characters to the holiday special with the first “Toy Story of Terror” to celebrate the upcoming holiday of Halloween. With all the original voice talent returning to their popular roles, the animators at Disney/Pixar have put together yet another fun “Toy Story” romp.

Horror Thoughts ‘13—Tenebre (1982) ***

X, 110 min.

Director/Writer: Dario Argento

Starring: Anthony Franciosa, Christian Borromeo, Mirella D’Angelo, Veronica Lario, Ania Pieroni, Eva Robins, Carola Stagnaro, John Steiner, Lara Wendel, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, Guiliano Gemma

The first in my series on Italian horror, “Tenebre” see’s Dario Argento taking the sensibilities of Itlalian horror he helped to make popular in the 70s into the 80s. He forgoes the supernatural element for a more straightforward serial killer storyline, but that change doesn’t mean he holds back on his extreme style. He’s got a thing about smashing through windows and that happens three or four times during this feature.

Penny Thoughts ‘13—Tonight You’re Mine (2012) ***

R, 80 min.

Director: David Mackenzie

Writer: Thomas Leveritt

Starring: Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena, Mat Baynton, Kari Corbett, Sophie Wu, Gavin Mitchell, Ruta Gedmintas, Alistair Mackenzie, Gilly Gilchrist, Joseph Mydell

“Tonight You’re Mine” is a romantic comedy in one of the more unique settings I’ve seen. The entire movie takes place during the T in the Park rock festival in England, and it was actually filmed during the festival. It involves two musicians who get handcuffed together at the beginning of the festival and must remain cuffed until they can find the key or someone willing to help with the right equipment.