Overview: The Great Muppet Caper

cast/trailer/info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082474/

   This movie was G-rated and I rated it a 3/5 for cleanness, light humor, big song/dance sequence and simple story.  The deduction was that this was not my top 100, that it's not a film that people will go ohh...ahh, and it being a sequel (The Muppet Movie was first one).

  This movie starts off where Kermit is a private detective for a company and has Gonzo (Camera) and Fuzzy (news/note jotter).  But while working on a case they cause havoc and their boss gets mad at them.  He gives them a second chance by sending them to London to solve a case of some missing jewelry.
   Soon after arriving in London, they discover theat they have little funds left over for expenses and thus have to find a cheap hotel called the "Happy Hotel" to reside in.  Here they meet all their friends from the first movie (The Muppet movie), and a song breaks lose.
  After finding their residence, they start on their case by trying to find Lady Holliday (played by Diana Rigg), but instead mistaken miss Piggy (brand-new secretary for Lady Holliday) to be her.  Miss Piggy uses this to try and impress Kermit and get him to go on a date with her.  She also tells him a fake address where a funny scene with John Cleese happens.
   After this ordeal, Kermit and Miss Piggy dine out at an exclusive restaurant where the real Lady Holliday and her companion. a jewel thief, Mr. Holliday (played by Charles Grodin) are dining.  Soon a song/dance routine occur where Miss Piggy is the star and center of attention of this.  But soon after this, the lights are turned out and the necklace is stolen by three ladies who work for Lady Holliday.
   Soon after the lights turn out, Kermit and his gang (all the people of the hotel they were staying at wanted to meet Lady Holliday [the fake one but unknown to them] went to the dinner with him and miss Piggy).  Gonzo thought that he was able to get a picture of the criminal in the act, when the lights were out, so Kermit and Fuzzy and Gonzo all went to try and process the picture.  After processing the film, they discovered that they didn't get a picture of them, but since miss Piggy was in the picture Lady Holliday assumed that she stole it (they found out miss Piggy was a fake when they saw the real Lady Holliday at the dinner).
   After Finding out who the real thief was, from Gonzo overhearing Mr. Holliday and the three girls he was with, the muppets made a plan to try and stop the jewel thieves before they made their midnight snatch of the necklace.  Once the thieves arrived, arguments and fights occurred.  But after the fight, the muppets were able to retrieve the diamond and the thieves were apprehended.

Overview: The Muppet Movie

cast/trailer/info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muppet_Movie
info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muppet_Movie

  The movie was G-rated and I rated the movie a 4/5 for being clean, G-rated, simple-songs, and involving the muppets, big bird, and some famous stars such as Richard Pryor and Steve Martin.  The deduction was for it being not in my top 100 and for some strange/odd parts of the movie.

   The movie starts out with Kermit singing in a pond.  He gets approached by a man who is a Hollywood talent agent and tells Kermit he should try out for a role where a frog is need in a movie.  So Kermit decides to go after some thought.
   Along his travels, he does some singing and finds Fuzzy the Bear at a type of Salon.  While there Kermit gets roped into a stage act but thankfully runs off before people start to attack them for their poor performance.  This is where they get "a bear's natural habitat, a Studebaker".
   After much driving they stop at an abandoned church where a band is currently playing (Animal is at the drums).  A song occurs here and Kermit and Fuzzy drive off on the road with a new tie-dyed type colored Studebaker.  While driving, they encounter other people who want to go to Hollywood, such as Gonzo (with his chicken), miss Piggy (at a carnival beauty contest) and others, Bird Bird travelling to New York and a literal fork-in-the-road.  Also at a fancy restaurant, Kermit meets Ruff and they do a song there.
   But things get more exciting when miss Piggy gets captured (by a man who wants Kermit to be his spokes-frog for his new restaurant).  Kermit finds the whereabouts of miss Piggy.  He happens to get captured but manages to escape by slipping out of his hand-cuff handles and electrocuting the restaurant owner.
   Once they escape they all board their bus (gotten from the band people meet at the church), they all head to Hollywood to try out for the audition.  They all go in together into the reception office and demand to see the man for auditions.  At this the receptionist, tells them that he is busy but barge into the big shots office anyways.  At this they tell him that they are there to be Hollywood stars and the big wig likes the group and ends up with them all being hired for a movie.
   In the End, Kermit and the rest of the muppets do a big song (in a giant stage) at the end which recaptures some of the best and memorable moments of the movie and leaves people with a happy smile on their smile (or a puzzled look).

Overview: 4192

cast/trailer/info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663128/
Pete Rose info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Rose

  I think that this movie was rated PG for references of language (but I could be mistaken) and I rated this a 4/5 for being a sports documentary, good narration of the life of Pete Rose and showing actual sports footage of his 4192 hit.  The deduction was for it being slow in some parts and not being on my top 100.

   This story starts off just telling about Pete Rose and his early life.  They talk about how he grew up in Cincinnati (Cincy), his father and their relationship.  Also they discuss how he picked up his 100% all the time attitude from his dad.
   Later in the movie they discuss his climb from the minor leagues to Cincy and how he made his Rookie of the Year debut, at 2B, on the same team as the great SS Joe Morgan and 3B Brook Robinson, and that later in his career got to play with C Johnny Bench and 1B Tony Perez.  This was when they were called "The Red Machine" and were winning world series in the 70's under Sparky Anderson.  Also later on in his career, he was traded to the Phillies and played with the great 3B Mike Schmidt (Pete played 1B and LF and RF [I think]).  Also they talk about how his popularity got him to be on commercials for Aqua Shave for several years.
   After winning a world series with the Phillies in the 80's, Rose was then traded to the Expos ands then back to Cincy.  While in Cincy, he became the player-manager.
   But the climax of the movie comes on September 11, 1986 (15 years before 911), where he gets his 4192 hit.  They show this clip in the movie as well as the reaction of the fans, his son and his teammates to reaching this achievement and beating Ty Cobb's former all-time hit record.
   The movie ends with the narrator (J.K. Simmons) talking about this great achievement and the other achievements of Pete Rose's life.  The credits show Pete Rose's career numbers and also which reords he holds in baseball such as hits (4,256), at bats, outs and many more.

Overview: Golf: Links in Time

Info: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/183297/Golf-Links-in-Time/overview

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_Majors
history of golf ball: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_ball
History of St. Andrews: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_and_Ancient_Golf_Club_of_St_Andrews
History of golf clubs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_clubs

   This movie had a G-rating and I rated it a 4/5 for being a sport documentary, informative about how golf became the game it has become today and its history.  The deduction was for being a little on the slow side and not being in my top 100.

   This movie starts off with a history of how golf became a game but first introducing the golf ball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_ball; skip if went to link).  All that the movie went over is in the "History" part of this link.  But in summary, they used a stitched ball and after many different types of balls, and by accident, they came up with the ball that is used today.
  Also, they went over how the game of golf was just a hobby among elites at first until it became competitive.  This leads to more holes being made and then when more holes were made the elite demanded that they be more complex.  The most famous of these courses is the famous St. Andrews Golf Course (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_and_Ancient_Golf_Club_of_St_Andrews) located in Scotland.  It is also known as the "Golf Paradise" for hard-core golfers.
  Throughout the movie they also went through how with each new golf course a club house had to be made, the improvement/changes (including limiting the number of golf clubs to 14 from as many as you can carry) and history/design of new golf clubs types including woods, hybrid, irons and putter, and the change of golf from a hobby to a game to a career.  This is were the introduction of golf events and major were introduced such as the four majors that are in golf today (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_Majors).  Also men such as Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were talked about throughout the film.
   This lead into the discussion of how golf went from just a spectator sport to a popular TV program during the era of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer due to their increased fame and famous duels.
   In the end, It leaves off talking about Tiger Woods and how he will become one of the best golfers of all-time (funny since we know the outcome).

Overview: John Carter

cast/trailer/info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/
John Carter info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_of_Mars
A Princess of Mars book info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Princess_of_Mars

  This movie was rated Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action by the MPAA (Motion Pictures Rating) and I gave the movie a 4/5 for good depictions of Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas and many other aspects of movie, compared with book, and for staying fairly close to book (even though it was not the same).  The deduction was for depiction of John Carter (I imagined him smooth shaven), for having a Thern in the movie (when none are in the book this is based off of "A Princess of Mars") and for not being a movie I would put on my top 100.


  This movie starts off with John Carter (played by Taylor Kitsch) roaming around the streets to deliver a message at the same time Edgar Rice Burroughs (his nephew, also writer of the Martian books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom) is going to John Carter's estate.  But also the backstory of the villan (Tardos Mors played by Ciaran Hinds) and how he achieves his superweapon unfolds through the first few scenes as well.  While Edgar Rice is going to the estate, he is reading a letter, which will play importance later in the movie, that is from John Carter and is short and almost pointless (except for later in the movie).  When Edgar gets to the estate he learns that John Carter is presumed dead and that John Carter left some possesions to Edgar including a book (memoirs of John Carter's exploits to Mars; used in Barsoom books by Edgar Rice Burroughs books [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom]) and his estate, which will be Edgar's after it is used for income the first 20-30 years.  Also, Edgar is told the John Carter has desired to have his coffin left with a door on the inside (find out why later in movie).  After receiving all these news, Edgar is left alone in John Carter's office and starts reading John Carter's memoirs of Mars.
   At this point, John Carter is played out and shows him on Earth, then going into a cave and soon after being transported unto Mars.  On Earth, Carter is a virginia millitary man with a fighter/never say die attitude that gets him into a lot of trouble.  But is still highly regarded as an excellent soldier and thus gets assigned a task which leds him into a cave, meets a Thern (Matai Shang played by Mark Strong) and gets transported to Mars.
   Once on Mars, John Carter realzies that he has super-powers (stronger, faster and jump farther due to the lower gravity of Mars vs. Earth) and is also confronted by Tharks (first introduced to future Jeddak of Tharks, Tars Tarkas voiced by Willem Dafoe).  They attempt to kill him since he is found near the nesting area of the Tharks but Tars Tarkas stops them.  This is where the first reference of John Carter being called "Virginia", by the Tharks, is played from through the rest of the movie.  But John Carter is soon captured by the Tharks as a slave.  Once among the Tharks, John Carter behaves brashly and almost gets killed several times if it were not for Tars Tarkas intervention, which leads him to be the owner of John Carter.
   But after developing the characters of the Tharks and John Carter's relation to Tars Tarkas, John Carter and Tars Tarkas soon grow to be friends, despite the Tharks Spartan-like beliefs.  But soon after this occurs Helium and Zadanga (Helium is lone remaining power against Zadanga, among the red-people of Mars; Tharks are green-men), engage in a fleet war with one another where the Tharks pull back to allow the "red-men to kill each other" but John Carter comes to intervene and rescues Dejah Thoris (princess of Helium, played by Linda Collins) from the Zadnagas.
   But despite these efforts John Carter and Dejah Thoris are both taken as slaves under Tars Tarkas ownership.  But before these two were to be slain Sola (his biological daughter; rare among Tharks [explained in books]), John Carter and Dejah Thoris all runs away to escape slavery with Tars Tarkas help.
   After escaping from the Tharks, Dejah Thoris leads them to a place Carter believes to be the Temple of Issus (discussed in movie as place where John Carter can get back to Earth from, but actually is not [learn later in movie what it actually is]; discussed in books as heaven for people of Mars but learn in 2nd book of Martian series "Gods of War" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_of_Mars] that it actually is not).  But Dejah Thoris is actually leading them to her home of Helium, which John Carter and Sola learn quickly and cause Thoris to bring them to correct path to the temple of Issus.  But while on the path Carter and his companians are suddenyl attacked and thus must resort to escape where they are lead back towards Helium.
   On the way to Helium, Dejah Thoris and John Carter soon grow close to one another but Thoris is to be wed to someone else (this is due to the fact that the leader of Zadanga will use this marriage to save Helium and unite Zadanga and Helium together; Thoris is against this marriage but agrees only after her father tells her that is has already been agreed to).  Upon hearing about this, he decides to try and recruit the Tharks to help save Dejah Thoris.
   This attempt to recruit results in both John Carter and Tars Tarkas being thrown into a gladiator-type arena where he must fight to the death.  But instead of dying, they conquer all the creatures as well as destroy the corrupt leader of the Tharks and avenge the death of Tars Tarkas wife, Sola's mother (explained in books).  This arena fight leads John Carter on a frenzy to get back to Helium to stop the wedding and save Dejah Thoris and Helium from the clutches of Tardos Mors, Matai Shang and the rest of the Therns (holy men of mars; explained in "Gods of Mars" book, link pasted two paragraphs above).
   John Carter and his army stop the wedding in time and an all-out war against Zadanga occurs.  The irony of this scene is that the Tharks and Helium men are so accustomed to fighting each other that they almost kill each other instead of Zadanga (explained more in books).
   After the battle, John Carter and Dejah Thoris get married and the nation of Helium is saved from Zadanga but the Therns still live to possibly set-up for a sequel.  Also John Carter, involuntarily gets transported back to Earth by a Thern.
   This then leads back to Edgar Rice in John Carter's office where Edgar learns that the therns may be tracking him (the men following John Carter in the beginning) and that they may try to destroy his grave.  But Edgar finds a way to get to the grave and open the burial site to try and save John Carter's body.  Once Edgar opens the burial site, through the letter he received earlier in the movie, he soon discovers that John Carter's body is not there and before he looks all the way around discovers that John Carter has knocked out a Thern that was waiting for the burial site to be opened so that they could destroy the body of John Carter.
   After this event, John Carter tells Edgar the reasons behind the letter, how he faked his death and why he needed the door to be able to be opened on the inside.  This leads to John Carter picking up a portable device, from the Thern, that allows him to be able to transport back to Mars through some martian verbal commands.  Thus leaving the door open for a sequel based on the 2nd book of the Martian series called "Gods of Mars".

Overview: Hoosiers

cast/trailer/info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/
more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosiers

  This movie was given a PG rating (I think it was given this for the drunk man and his manner/state of being and  language).  I rated the film a 4/5 for being a sport film, having a happy ending and it being based off a real team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Milan_High_School_basketball_team).

   This movies starts off with the hiring of a new basketball coach (Gene Hackman as Coach Norman Dale) to return a favor to a friend.  While visiting his new school he finds out that basketball is regarded as the supreme sport around the place in the small town.  This put massive pressure on the coach to turn the team around and make it excell.  While attempting to change the team to a winning program, he is meet with much criticism about his style of play early in the season.  This continues even after he starts to win a lot of games.
   But what complicates things even more is that he has fallen for a local women and a local drunk that causes havoc at almost every game.  But instead of making these challenges he uses these people to help make his team even better.  The local women is the guardian of a local basketball prodigy who decides that he doesn't want to play for anyone (the coach whom Coach Dale is taking over for was his mentor ans very close to him), whom allows the boy to play later on in the season (the boy decides to play for the team, during a town meeting to vote on firing coach Dale due to the coach's radical change of style from fast-paced shooting off to a defensive team that takes smart shoots (with only 8 players), and she allows it).  The drunk is the father of one of the basketball players on his team but coach Dale makes him an assistant coach to try and help him on the straight and narrow path, who ends up being a valuable asset to the team and gains the respect of his own son.
   With the prodigy boy on their team, the team goes through the rest of the season in sync and makes it to the state championship game.  While preparing for the game, the coach takes the team out to the court and shows them the largest stadiums these boys have ever seen by a long shot.  While the coach is showing them this, he takes a tape measure and measures the features of the court to show them that the court is exactly the same dimensions as the one back hone.  This helps calm the team down and prevails them to a close victory over a highly-favored and very large school.
   This victory not only brings a championship to the coach and his team, but also unties a town that was very much in need of something to be proud of.  Also the coach gets the girl, the drunk and his son plan on spending more time together and the coach coaches a high school that was 8x smaller than any high school in the history to ever to win the state championship.  The end shows the banner of the real 1964 team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Milan_High_School_basketball_team) that accomplished this same feat in just as dramatic fashion.

Overview: Mr. Moto's Last Warning

cast/info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031678/

  This is a movie is the 6th of 8 Mr. Moto movies that starred Peter Lorree as Mr. Moto (9th movie didn't star Peter Lorre; http://www.drberlin.com/mr_moto.htm).  The Mr. Moto movies are based off of the Mr. Moto books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Moto).

   It was not-rated since this movie was made before such standards were made but I would have to give it a G rating since it is a very clean movie.  I rated this movie a 4/5 for it's cleanness and good/simple story plot as well as having "Pee-ter Lo-rree" (how I like to say his name).  The deduction was for not being spectacular in anything and not top-performances from actors/actresses in the movie.


   This movie starts off where several people are on a boat having a good time but one of these people is actually trying to use these people to find Mr. Moto.  After several scenes and introductions of characters the man finds who people claim to be Mr. Moto.  He goes after Mr. Moto, with his henchmen who are all disguised on board, and get rid of Mr. Moto.  But they happen to get rid of the wrong man who was used as a double for Mr. Moto to investigate the henchmen and find out what their scheme is.
   Upon arriving on shore, the henchmen go visit a saloon where they hold their headquarters (upper floor).  In these headquarters the scheme of these henchmen is found out but not before one of the henchmen is found to work for the British Secret Service.  During the henchmen's stay Moto, while hiding and trying to listen in vain, meets with the British agent.  But this event unexpectanly results in the demise of the agent later when his identity is compromised.
   Also along the way Mr. Moto discovers a fellow, besides the British agent, who has been around these henchmen whom the real Mr. Moto (Lorre) uses to find out exactly what these men are up to and the specifics.
   Once Mr. Moto discovers that these men intent to cause a war for financial and personnel gain, he forms a disguise and discovers the warehouse in which the henchmen are currently meeting in.  But while in the warehouse he gets caught and must fend for his life using his jujitsu skills.
   In the end, Mr. Moto is able to narrowly put an end to the start of a war and saves the day once again.