Wilson Anniston Magic

Mark A. Cella is a well known film, restaurant, and lifestyle columnist for the San Jose Mercury newspaper. His column, first published in 1992 is considered a must- read in the area, with dozens of known collectors and online traders of his fine insights into movies.


Today:Marley & Me (Part 1)


There are, if you're in a reductionist state of mind, only two types of people in the world: dog people and cat people. Dog people – I count myself among their ranks – will enjoy Frankel's adaptation of journalist John Grogan's bestselling account of life, love, deadlines, and death with the "world's worst dog," a yellow Labrador retriever named Marley.

Cruise Missle Is A Dud

Mark A. Cella is a well known film, restaurant, and lifestyle columnist for the San Jose Mercury newspaper. His column, first published in 1992 is considered a must- read in the area, with dozens of known collectors and online traders of his fine insights into movies.


Today: Valkyrie

Synopsis

A proud military man, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is a loyal officer who serves his country all the while hoping that someone will find a way to stop Hitler before Europe and Germany are destroyed. Realizing that time is running out, he decides that he must take action himself and joins the German resistance. Armed with a cunning strategy to use Hitler's own emergency plan--known as Operation Valkyrie--these men plot to assassinate the dictator and over-throw his Nazi government from the inside. With everything in place, with the future of the world, the fate of millions and the lives of his wife and children hanging in the balance, Stauffenberg is thrust from being one of many who oppose Hitler to the one who must kill Hitler himself.

Valkyrie topples beneath the weight of memory, and history. Following Hitchcock's "bomb under the desk" dictum to the bitter end just doesn't work out to anyone's satisfaction here. Like the ditty from the same era popularized by Spike Jones, both the film and the explosives do little but fizzle in "Der Fuehrer's Face."

Soderberg, And Clooney Make A Magical Ocean

Mark A. Cella is a well known film, restaurant, and lifestyle columnist for the San Jose Mercury newspaper. His column, first published in 1992 is considered a must- read in the area, with dozens of known collectors and online traders of his fine insights into movies.


Today’s Review: Ocean’s Eleven

Crisply directed by Steven Soderbergh in 2001 and starring the post modern Redford-Newman combination of Brad Pitt and George Clooney, Ocean’s Eleven is pure fluff that goes down smooth like a Belvedere martini. This breezy caper flick is more stylized than the original with it’s sweeping panoramas of Vegas, never- a- dull- moment plotline, along with lots of eye candy for the ladies with Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Don Cheadle joining Clooney and Pitt in the “hunk-fest”. Of course it’s silly and implausible, but Soderbergh and friends still serve up a film that is fun, slick, hot and ultimately wonderfully entertaining.

Mark Cella Knows Movies

Mark A. Cella is a well known film, restaurant, and lifestyle columnist for the San Jose Mercury newspaper. His columns are considered a must- read in the area, with dozens of known collectors and online traders of his fine insights into movies.

Today’s Review : Alfie

Released in 1966, and beautifully Directed by Lewis Gilbert and Starring a much younger Michael Caine, and the eternally compelling Shelly Winters. This “little charmer” of a film stars the transcendent Caine in his star making role as Alfie, an unapologetic bachelor on the “loose” who finally gets his comeuppance after hook ups with what seems like half of west London. A bit dated by today’s standards (as proven much later by Jude Law’s lackluster turn in the same role) and not exactly PC, the original still is brutally honest and asks the eternal question “What’s it all about?”