Movies 2016

This is an Index to our Movie/TV postings for 2016

1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken
 

The Other Ripken

Happy Anniversary "The Sound of Music"

50 Years ago this week the film "The Sound of Music" was released.

2014 Topps Heritage Flashback - The Sound of Music

Last year Topps commemorated the event as part of the Heritage Flashback Subset.

2014 Topps Heritage Flashback - The Sound of Music (b-side)


The flips side of the card discusses Jule Andrews, Christopher Plummer and discusses the Awards bestowed upon the film. 

Much more than I want to get into here, but I will just mention that this film and musical was a large part of the entertainment world in the team Phungo household when I was a kid.

Sitting 20 feet from Eddie Cicotte Pt 2

A few weeks ago Team Phungo took in some culture in the form of Local Theater. We checked out a production of Anton Checkov's "The Cherry Orchard" at the People's Light Theater in Malvern PA. 

I have seen four productions at the People's Light and this was my least favorite. Following the play I read some background on the play and it is mentioned that directors struggle with the works balance of farce and tragedy.

I think this may have been the issue with the People's Light production of "The Cherry Orchard". The downbeats out paced the fun parts and the strongest character,  Lopakhin, was also the least likable.

My other issue was that several times in the play the dialogue between the characters came to a complete stop. I think this was to allow the audience to think about the action, these dramatic pauses were too frequent for my taste.

Regardless I was glad that I saw the show. Mrs Phungo does a great deal of work in Russian Studies and through her I have learned a lot about Checkovian theater. We have seen several Checkov influenced productions but this is the first time I saw one of the original plays.

1988 Orion Pictures "Eight Men Out" #6 David Strathairn as Eddie Cicotte

The plays lead roles featured a pair of actors with significant resumes for suburban theater, Mary McDonnell and David Straithairn

McDonnell is the star of the TNT drama series "Major Crimes" a spinoff of "the Closer". She has won and Obie and been nominated for several Oscars including Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Stands With A Fist in "Dances With Wolves". McDonnell's Daughter, Olivia Mell. also appeared in the Cherry Orchard. 

The lead male role of Leonid was played by David Straithairn who is familiar to baseball film fans as the actor who portrayed Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out. 

David Straithairn must be a fan of not just the theater, but Theater in Philadelphia. Back in 2010 we Strathairn in the Vaclav Havel play "Leaving" which is Checkov influenced. To see our review of that show click here.

It is pretty cool to see noted stars in a tiny theater in a small town like Malvern. People's Light always puts together quality plays, and despite my reservations presented at the top of the article I am glad that I got to see their production of "the Cherry Orchard"

Sources & Links
People's Light Theater
Eldritch Press
imdb
TNT

OSCARS: Boyhood and Jason Lane 2006 Topps #473

Our final Oscars film posting features the Richard Linklater film "Boyhood"

This the other nominee that team Phungo checked out this year. Linklater like Anderson is another filmmaker whose career I have followed. I have seen the the Before trilogy (including Waking Life which includes an obscure scene related to Before...) and I loved Slacker.

I saw Boyhood in the theater and look forward to seeing it again. A few years from now I see this film getting heavy rotation on the USA/TBS/TNT circuit - think Shawshank. I would have to see it again, but I think the scenes will keep the viewer there until the commercial, and get you to return afterward.

Boyhood has gotten press regarding how the movie was filmed over a 12 year period. I think this is a bit of diservice to the film. Yes the process is ambitious and complicated, but focusing on the method misses out on some of the films other qualities. There are several interesting stories with the "non-story" All the characters grow up, not just Mason. It is obvious that the father (Ethan Hawke) is a man-child, but we also get to see Patricia Arquette's character grow up as well.

When you think about it the filming over 12 years idea is really just a fiction version of the Seven up! documentary series. 

Boyhood on Card

 2006 Topps #473 Jason Lane (snagged from baseball Card database)

There is a scene in the movie where Ethan Hawke takes the kids to a baseball game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the hometown Houston Astros. It is apparent that they shot a live game. I did some research in an attempt to find out what game it was, but was unsuccessful.

Fortunately, I was not the only baseball/film nerd that needed to find out this information.  Spencer Bingol did the research and figured out that Linklater took a bit of creative license with the actual events.

Jason Lane really did hit a Home Run off of the Brewers but it was not a game winner. In fact it was in a game that the Astros lost.

The game was played on August 18th 2005, during Houston's NL Championship campaign. Roger Clemens had the Astros up 2-1 after 6, but the Rocket fell apart in the 7th. A mix of line drives and walks led to four Brewers runs and that was it for the Astros.

Richard Linklater 2015 
Prior to becoming a film director Richard Linklater went to Sam Houston State on a baseball scholarship. Later this year Linklater returns to the diamond for his upcoming film That's What I'm Talking About, about, yep college baseball - preview copy describes it as a spiritual sequel to "Dazed to Confused"

Jason Lane
The photo on Jason Lane's 2006T Card was likely taken during the 2005 season, which puts it in the time period of the Boyhood clip. Lane is in a road uni on the card so it is definitely not the same game as the film, but captures Lane in the the era.

After being out of Major League Baseball for seven years, Lane returned in 2014. However, he didn't make his return as a power hitting outfielder, he came back as a pitcher. In 10+ innings for the Padres Lane gave up only one run while picking up six Ks. He is among San Diego's non-roster invitees for the 2015 season.

Sources and Links
2015 Oscars Index
Washington Post - Michael Cavna
Slashfilm
imdb
Baseball Card Database
Baseball-ref

Vittles Film n TV Index

Oscars
2015

Movies
2015
2016

The Dark Knight (2008) 
Eight Men Out (1988)
Grand Canyon (1991)
Moneyball 
The Sound of Music

Folks
Abe Vigoda Memorial (1921-2016)
Bernie Mac Memorial (1957-2008) Mr 3000
David Strathern
John Cusack
Leslie Nielsen
Mary McDonnell

Movies 2015

Movies and Movie Related items Team Phungo checked out in 2015 with snapshot reviews

Phungo 2015 Oscars Index 


The Grand Budhapest Hotel - Good, 2015 Oscar Contender
Moonrise Kingdom - Disappointing, liked some of the Music Stuff.
Sound of Music - 50th Anniversary Posting

2015 Oscars Index

A couple of postings related to the 2015 Oscar Nominees.

American Sniper - Bradley Cooper in Elephant Man
Boyhood - Astros Game
the Grand Budhapest Hotel - Al Hrabosky Auto
Imitation Game - Breaking the Code Review

1953 Topps #1 Jackie Robinson

The Jackie Robinson Biopic "42" gets its official release tomorrow Friday April 12 2013.

1953 Topps #1 Jackie Robinson

To mark the occasion we are going to take a look at one of the favorite cards in the non-Phils portion of the Phungo collection. If your a collector with enough money to purchase a hobby box, you may want to consider picking up a vintage Jackie Robinson card instead. If your not too picky about condition you can even have a vintage Jackie Robinson card.  What crummy game used relic is going to top that?

For the Collector
The above Jackie Robinson card which is a bit soft on the edges with a couple of creases but no marks went for $80 in January of 2010.

Recent completed auctions for the card went as low as $26.50 (trimmed).  Untrimmed cards in ok shape started at $54.  A low end graded card ( PSA1 Poor) went for $62.  There were roughly 10 auctions of 53 Topps Jackie Robinsons that ended between $54 and $80 - all of which were cards in similar condition to mine.

Going up the ladder in graded cards we have the following:

PSA Condition	$$$
PSA 1 Poor	$129
PSA 3 VG	$143
PSA 4	$210
PSA 5 EX (BIN)	$295
PSA 5 EX	$330
PSA 5 EX (BIN)	$465
PSA 6.5 EX-MT+	$705
PSA 7 NM	$893

Rookie Card
Jackie Robinson's Rookie Cards are from 1949.  For more info on those special Cards check this posting from Cardboard Connection

Jackie Robinson HoF Index
1953 Topps #1 (b-side with special guest John Thorn)
1956 Topps #30 (100th anniversary of birth / Phungo card)
1997 Upper Deck #3
2008 Topps Stadium Club #91 
2012 Topps Allen & Ginter's #31
2016 Topps Berger's Best #BB-5 (Ken Burns PBS Documentary Release) 

2011 Phungo Retired Numbers #42-PHI (Citizen's Bank)
2012 Phungo Retired Numbers #42-WASa (RFK Stadium)

Sources, Links, & Updates
Topps #1 Club

ebay
2016 01 31: Update - Card image upgraded

Moneyball 2011 - the Movie

I am a little susprised that the film "Moneyball" received prededominently good reviews.  While I enjoyed the movie, I thought at moments it dragged a bit and I would think that a person that is not a baseball fan would find the film somewhat long.  Slow pacing is a pet peeve of mine - like when I am watching the Cardinals continually rotate in pitchers with a 5 run lead, I suppose that may happen less in the future...

 

Other than that I found Moneyball to be an enjoyable experience.  Brad Pitt played Billy Beane as a thoughtful and challenging leader.  Comedy stalwart, Jonah Hill, plays a straight roll as the stats guy well - The always enjoyable Phillip Seymour Hoffman has an excellent turn as the old school Manager Art Howe,   Bennet Miller is able to balance a little baseball into the story and conveys a bunch of ideas on film that might otherwise be dry - One Base Percentage, Major League Scouting, Bill James, Giving away outs via Sacrifices and small ball, Working Pitchers, etc.  There is a background story regarding the Beane family that is built into the narrative that I don't recall from the book.  The film also all but neglects Jeremy Brown and the draft that the book details which covers at least 2 chapters of the Michael Lewis story. 

 

We all know what happened because this is relatively recent history - but I must mention a minor spoiler alert here - don't read rest of paragraph if you fear this will ruin your experience.  During the epilogue of the Movie it is mentioned that the Bosox won the 04 World Series using Moneyball methods.  It does not mention that they also outspent the rest of the league other than the Yankees.  And I could go on further and mention that a key play for the Red Sox was Dave Roberts critical Steal of second base in the ALCS vs the Yankees. 

 

Moneyball works for a few reasons - Both Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill give likable performances in the lead roles of two guys trying to challenge the status-quo.  There is enough baseball in the film to provide a fan with a few chuckles - several players and people with Phillies connections are mentioned during the film.  Finally as a non-baseball movie about baseball "Moneyball" does successfully bring the romance of the game to the fore (even if they have to tell you they are doing so)

 

Moneyball 2011

 

Links to  previous MB 2011 posts

Bennett Miller

Billy Beane

Jeremy Brown

Michael Lewis

Michael Oher 

Tony LaRussa

 

etc

Here is a link to a Moneyball and Collecting related article in Beckett that I first saw referenced by Chris Olds via Twitter. 

"Grand Canyon" and Roberto Clemente

2008 Allen & Ginter #144 Grand Canyon

1959 Topps #478 Bob Clemente

Recently I had a free HBO weekend and re-watched the 1991 Lawrence Kasdan film " Grand Canyon ". It's an interesting movie to watch again 17 years later. Grand Canyon is a reference to the vast void that exists between people due to differences in race and wealth. This territory has been covered by more recent films such as "Crash" and "Babel" - unfortunately part of this is because race money sexism and all the other -isms will probably always be part of our lives. This is another theme of "Grand Canyon" - Basically the Mack (Danny Glover) character makes an analogy to the Grand Canyon , The rocks are large, old, and timeless - they are just laughing at us mortals - they have been around forever and will outlive us and our issues for eons.

There are also some sports themes that run through the movie. The main character Simon, played by Kevin Kline, is a Pittsburgh Pirates fan - and named his son after Roberto Clemente. The movie opens at an LA Lakers games - Magic Johnson rumbles down the court - The release of the film happened not long after Johnson announced that he had been diagnosed as HIV positive - The game is watched by Simon's Son Roberto in a comfortable suburban home, while Mack's (Glover) Nephew watches the same game from his mother tiny home in a much more dangerous area of Los Angeles. On his way home from the Forum Simon makes a wrong turn and find himself in a bad section of town. Essentially this is how close Simon and Mack are to each other geographically, but because of their racial background there exists a chasm the size of the " Grand Canyon " between their lives.

Some of the films issues are timeless but one thing that has quickly evolved since 1991 involves Simon's venture into the rough neighborhood. His Mobile Phone symbolizes Simon as a man of wealth. Here we are less than two decades later and I recently left a cell phone on a SEPTA train - it ended up being returned to the lost and found.

There are a variety of subplots that keep the movie running at a quick pace and it is definitely worth a new look here in 2008. I also want to mention that the film contains Warren Zevon's classic "Werewolves of London" as well as a beautiful new (at the time) tune "Searching for a Heart".

Phungo Roberto Clemente HoF Profile

1968 Topps #374 

The Dark Knight

I always thought that action hero movies really weren't my thing, but it seems I do see a lot of them. Batman has always been the most interesting of the superhero stories to me, and for the most part I have enjoyed whatever incarnations of Batman I have seen - TVs Adam West, Tim Burton, and Batman Begins.

I found Dark Knight, while pretty grim and dark, to still be a fun ride and that was occasionally confusing. There were many layers of betrayal and the never-ending endings. I expected more of the highly doubted movie, but I still give "Dark Knight" a thumbs up.

Plus

Lots of action and I did not find the CGI affects overwhelming as often happens in the new actions films. Temps were in the Hi 90s all day across the mid-atlantic -very good day to take in a flick.

Movie conflicted w/ Saturdays Phils game which turned out being quite painful from what I understand.

Meh

"Small" soda ran $4.50 @ the movies. .

Blahblahblah
"The Dark Knight" seemed to be pretty violent, and carry some pretty heavy themes for PG-13.

coda
There has been a lot of excitement about Heath Ledger's performance in "The Dark Knight". Curiosity will always surrounds those who die very young (or very old) and this obviously influences ones perception of the actor and the part. I bought Ledger as the Joker, but I was not overwhelmed by the performance.