Celebrity Deaths in 2016

David Bowie
At first, more of a character my sister listened to, Bowie invented the particular glam rock hair that hs been copied repeatedly be newcomers, and it was Labyrinth that inspired my sister to name her daughter after the protagonist, whereas I also used the same name in one of my stories. Ziggy Stardust would approve.

Alan Rickman
The great actor who most was noted in the next gen for playing Snape, the villainous teacher in Harry Potter, also did other roles before that, but will most likely be known for Snape. He also played an evil angel in a Kevin Smith movie! I think he was one of the Monty Python people also.

Nancy Reagan
The first lady of the 1980s, who likely led the country in Ronnie's last two years, was most noted for that, and for the hideously unpopular Just Say No campaign. She outlived Ronald Reagan who died of Alzheimer complications, contrary to propaganda.

Prince
The Purple Rain guy, loved in the 1980s as the probably bisexual love ballad rocker. He was in several movies, had a bizarre career where he made himself a symbol, literally, and went on to start the YouTube music scene, so long as he was compensated. One of his band people went on to be part of the local Milpitas church where I hail from, the famous sax player Eddie M. Also I went to one of his concerts when he was the symbol, the artist formerly known as Prince, in the 1990s, in San Jose! Weepy movies have been trying to copy Purple Rain for years, even now.

Gary Marshall
The producer behind the Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley shows died. He was influention to 1970s TV pop status.

Anton Yeltchin
The second Chekov on the rebooted Star Trek died after production wrapped on Star Trek Beryond in a freak accident involving his car. He was 27. He had starred in action movies and weird punk movies also. The first Chekov, Walter Koenig, from the classic 1960s show  is still alive, but into his late 70s.

Florence Henderson
This name may sound familiar, as the matriarch of the Brady Bunch, a 1970s TV show, which in its first run failed, but in reruns took off so much they made TV movies and a rather pointless darker spin off in 1990.  She was actually in a lot of stories, including the grandmother in the Brady Bunch films in the late 1990s. Her bizarre life is chronicled elsewhere.

Gene Wilder
A staple of comedies in the 1970s and 1080s, Gene Wilder was most noted for Blazing Saddles and Willy Wonka, the psychedelic original. He starred along side Brooks, Pryor and many other comedians.He was a well known wild eyed character.

John Glenn
The astronaut from the history books who went with Armstrong to the moon, he was well noted in history.

Carrie Fisher
Just recently, Carrie Fisher died of a heart attack while on a lane flight back to LA from London. She was most noted for Star Wars as the main character, Princess Leia. Her scenes for Episode 8 wrapped a month back, but she was not doing well. She has become an icon in pop culture going back 40 years, and has been in many movies and TV appearances, and also is a clever comedy and story writer. The wild past she had is personified in books and film.

Debbie Reynolds
The mother of Carrie Fisher, also died recently. She was in her late 70s. She was famous for older movies and TV spots way back when, and had a bizarre life also.

Zha Zha Gabor
This crazy and smart tongued character had been noted through film history for being over the top and self absorbed. One time she even slapped a policeman who pulled her over for some kind of traffic violation. Comedians have made fun of her stuff for decades. She was very old.

Martha Mossberger
Daughter of the mid western folk singer and musician Estelle Knapp (Grandma, d. 1996), she was the first family Trekkie, and also the first to live in Las Vegas for half a year for 30 years. She died of Alzheimer complications in Chicago.  Only sister of Bob Browne, former Mayor and city councilman, Milpiass, California (Dad, d. 2009). Although not a celebrity outright, she was the aunt Martha inspiring many stories, and she was an uncanny gambler. She also served in WW2 as a radio assembler.

Clara Movie Awards Choices Movies of 2016 All Fantasy Again

Clara Awards are separated into appropriate category based on genre!

If we didn't see it by January 1, it is not nominated! The only exception is that Marx Cards might have recommended it. Exceptions and additions could still be added in the 'drama' category as runners up.

The Nominees are:
Best Drama
Edge of Seventeen
Snowden
Sully
Deepwater Horizon
If the Oscars can pick three movies I've never even heard of, and cannot go see because they're not even playing, I can pick Edge of Seventeen. It best personifies this insane year.

Best Comedy
Keanu
Hail Ceaser!
Sausage Party
Deadpool
Barbershop The Next Cut
Although originally a fan idea, the movie becomes the most original comedy and super hero farce of the year, possibly of all time.

Best Horror Thriller
10 Cloverfield Lane
Blair Witch 3
Midnight Special
This movie was really, really nuts. The ending can be forgiven.

Best Fantasy
Star Trek Beyond
Rogue One a Star Wars Story
Midnight Special
The Jungle Book
Pete's Dragon
Star Trek will forever be first love, and there is almost a tie in Star Wars, so there was no chance with a Star Trek movie out this year that the other would win. Oscar will ignore it. I will not.

Best Action
Deadpool
Captain America Civil War
Doctor Strange
Hardcore Henry
Doctor Strange just has unparalleled special effects and needs to be mentioned at Oscar time. If not, they will lose the white bread fan boy audience.

Best Animated
Zootopia
Finding Dory
Moana
Secret Life of Pets
Kung Fu Panda 3
Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Picture of the Year is best Animated Picture of the year also, Zootopia, Disney's love letter to the Disney Afternoon, and to the Furries. It is perfection. It so personifies 2016.

Honorable Mentions
The Witch
13 Hours
Magnificent 7
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shell
Magnificent 7 was not magnificent, but it was an honorable technical marvel.

The Trailer Lied
Suicide Squad
Batman v Superman
Rogue One
Although Rogue One did have scenes that were cut, Suicide Squad has whole character arcs cut! The hints of them were in that trailer.

Turd of the Year
Max Steel
We forgot about Jem, but who remembers that? Max Steel gets the brown poo. 

Best Visual Effects
Doctor Strange (the enfolding cities)
Rogue One (the beachhead battle, CGI people)
Star Trek Beyond (the Potempkin station)
Kubo and the Two Strings (that paper was stop motion)
Doctor Strange also walks away with visual awards, even though it was tough with Kubo and Beyond. 

The Clara Movie Awards Nominees 2016 for Oscars 2017

It is that time of the year again, just a week from the catty awards that nobody sees, but everyone kind of would love. It's the Clara Awards for movies!

Most of the Oscar picks this year are in very limited release and would be out by January 1, and none of the have been seen! Oh no! Well the last week of the year will have to be catch up. Those old farts never remember anything before November anyway. We do!

Clara Awards are separated into appropriate category based on genre!

If we didn't see it by January 1, it is not nominated! The only exception is that Marx Cards might have recommended it.

The Nominees are:
Best Drama
Edge of Seventeen
Snowden
Sully
Deepwater Horizon

Note: Not a lot of drams this year, although likely to see Hacksaw Ridge soon, and La La Land soon.

Best Comedy
Keanu
Hail Ceaser!
Sausage Party
Deadpool
Barbershop The Next Cut

Note. Most comedies this year sucked, but there were some early players of note, and some original swag. Deadpool is there because it is a comedy also. Sausage Party was so gross it was good.

Best Horror Thriller
10 Cloverfield Lane
Blair Witch 3
Midnight Special

Note: Except for the last 12 minutes, 10 Cloverfield Lane was creepy.

Best Fantasy
Star Trek Beyond
Rogue One a Star Wars Story
Midnight Special
The Jungle Book
Pete's Dragon

Note: Live action Disney adaptations were actually excellent this year. Will the Star Trek win only because it is the 50th? Will the Star Wars one tie only because it is pretty darned great?

Best Action
Deadpool
Captain America Civil War
Doctor Strange
Hardcore Henry

Note: The most original and hard to sit through is the POV video game movie Hardcore Henry, but will the two Marvel movies get it? Or with that funny filthy Fox Deadpool movie get it?

Best Animated
Zootopia
Finding Dory
Moana
Secret Life of Pets
Kung Fu Panda 3
Kubo and the Two Strings

Note: Dreamworks and Akea are back in separate films, but Illumination actually gets its first nod! Then there are three Disney Pixar movies looking to steal the crown from each other! Oh no! Three way split?

Honorable Mentions
The Witch
13 Hours
Magnificent 7
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shell

The Trailer Lied
Suicide Squad
Batman v Superman
Rogue One

Turd of the Year
Max Steel

Best Visual Effects
Doctor Strange (the enfolding cities)
Rogue One (the beachhead battle, CGI people)
Star Trek Beyond (the Potempkin station)
Kubo and the Two Strings (that paper was stop motion)

Review: "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is a wartime love letter to Star Wars fan films

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" PG 13
The Death Star is being assembled and it is the past, when this brilliant scientist is snatched from his farm by space Nazis to go work on the weapons, and he has hidden away with girl daughter. She grows up to be Jyn Erso, leader of a rebellious spin off of the rebellion in this prequel to Star Wars, 1977, also called A New Hope after 1994. In the present which is their past, some 40 years ago, the rebels are running from the Empire, Vader is coming from the volcano planet to check on the nearly completed Death Star, and the rebels hatch a plan to steal the deck plans from it, after being warned in a hologram message from Jyn's Dad that he has made a fatal flaw in it, and it can be destroyed.

The film is yet another dirty rogue band makes good movie, as there have been four this year. It seems that this year is about that. From Suicide Squad to Magnificent 7 the remake, it has been about the rebels.

Also it is a war movie, and a nod to the WW2 dog fighting movies of the era, and the 1950s, and to the space serials of the period.

They even do an homage to the samurai movies with a blind bo staff master and a big hulking battle gun commander.

The movie is all about homages, which to non fans will be annoying. In the end through it is a solid movie, and the final act is astounding, beating even elements of The Force Awakens in terms of sheer action, with a storm the beachhead planet and find the plans on the tower deal.

It is really nothing like Saving Private Ryan, a WW2 set movie, although some have compared it.

Also there is nothing about the 2016 election in it anywhere. That's a good thing.

The CGI Tarkin is kind of uncanny and the Leia is really uncanny, but I suppose they would look worse in 3D. 

It is not really for young children though and does have heavy scenes, and a really dark ending that will likely turn some fans off. It is one of the best fantasy films of the year though.
Review by Adam Browne

Christmas Season Movie Catch Up

This is the Movie Catch Up of 2016, to December. For full reviews online in video form go to On Location Kat 2 Reviews, Weird Kitty 07 on You Tube site.

"The Magnificent Seven" PG 13
This terse remake of the classic often redone western saga that parodies Seven Samurai but darkly is more 'dark serious Blazing Saddles' then it will admit. The flick stars seven outlaws, big stars in Hollywood action flicks, called together to defend a town from an evil governor who has a mine that has all the riches. (September release). It is a good flick, noteworthy for the homage to old west movies, which are awesome, but it comes off somewhat as rushed and unpolished. It isn't great but it is entertaining, and is worth a rental. If it comes out on the bargain bin, picking it up to have on sometimes in the background is a good idea, for fans of the genre. The characters make the movie and sometimes that is the issue, but other than that, it has a lot of good action.

"Edge of Seventeen" PG 13
This movie is truly a love letter to John Hughes and Amy Heckerling, two of the 1980s greatest movie writers. The film is an homage, like Neighbors (but not Neighbors 2) to the 1980s and the sensibilities of that generation, but this time told through the eyes of a Millennial. The song is not in the movie at all, but the title had been changed since Cannes. I could go into how the adults in the movie are homages to the classic films, but this mother/daughter drama is more about the self tormenting girl of the lead. Disaffected and conversely annoyed by the change of being a teenager, with a single widowed Mom, a hot jock brother, a horny friend who beds her brother, and a film geek friend, the main character freaks out often.  Most of the sensible characters try to get her to chill, but she is just so high strung, until she parties and then befriends the film kid. Ultimately the final act has some odd choices, but it is not supposed to be a comedy, and not to end on a sour note either. This is some messed up stuff, but it is probably the best of the year.

"Arrival"PG
Alien shell ships come to Earth and only communicate is cyclic language in the tense thriller space opera Arrival, a medium budget fantasy film. The story is smart with what it shows, has only some confusing parts, like flashbacks that turn out to be visions, and some odd dialect things with the seven legged aliens. The premise should be ridiculous, but somehow it works as a scientific version of a first contact, where the aliens aren't out to destroy us, but need out help. It has a lot of Star Trek theme to it, with the idea being cooperation is a means to an end, and they need to do so to forward the future. (Not to be confused with the cheesy 1990s movie of a similar name). You might need two viewings to get it though. It isn't quite this year's Interstellar, but it is along that same line in some ways. It is basically Carl Sagan's Contact with a better ending. This space drama gets a nod and should get awards.

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" PG 13
Set 100 years before the events of Harry Potter, this prequel takes place in a fantasy New York where a wizard brings a case full of a menagerie of magical creatures into the city, and they get out. The local wizards try to contain the outbreak, but it is too late, and soon the forces of magical things overwhelm the neighborhood. The wizard and two female wizard friends attempt to capture and contain the critters before the whole city learns the truth and comes after all wizards. Meanwhile there is a secondary plot about a dark force attacking the city. It is a fun action story in the Potter universe, far more so than the dreary and confusing Cursed Child play that takes place 19 years after Harry Potter 8. It has some flaws though and relies a lot of fan service to the series. It probably should not have a sequel, but they will likely make one.If you really liked the Potter universe, you could own a copy.

"Disney's Moana" PG
Disney and Pixar return for a third helping, their most recent adaptation of something, which as was hinted in Inside Out's cute island themed short, would be about the Islands. They had been there before with Leelo and Stitch. It is not always the case that the short leads to the movie.The story is a prehistoric Polynesian tale about an isolated island culture that does not want to change, but disaster strikes the area, and they will do nothing about it. The princess girl Moana though is urged by her old Grandmother to go on a voyage, steals one of the ancient boats from the cave, and sets out to find Maui, the demigod that can stop the darkness. It is a delightful movie for the whole family and is one of the best, alongside Zootopia and Finding Dory.

"Office Christmas Party" R
A company in Chicago is going under and has 24 hours to break even or the evil lady boss will come and close them down, but her brother used to be a party animal, and he plans to throw a fantastic party to get a bid from a zany character that has some clout. They throw a Christmas party ala the TV show the Office, crossed with Van Wilder and Bad Santa. This raunchy comedy has moments of clever writing, usually in the smaller jokes and not in the pop references. It falls flat when they over sell a joke, but does well with the lesser quirks. You enjoy watching what they will do next, even if it is somewhat insane. It looks like a number of other movies but has some originality.