"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" (movie critique)

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2
movie poster

The Travelling Toe having read all 3 books by Suzanne Collins, that make up the Hunger Games trilogy and having seen the previous 3 movies, was determined to see           Mockingjay Part 2.  However since it has been a year since Part 1 was premiered it was hard to remember what actually happened in the last movie and where it left the story line when it ended.  

Suzanne Collins
author

At the beginning of the movie we do find out that Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Katniss' Hunger Games partner and friend, was captured and tortured by the Capitol military.  He was programmed to kill Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence).  She survives the attack and is determined to kill President Snow (Donald Sutherland) for revenge.  

Fighters from all the districts have rallied under President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) as they formulate a plan to take the Capitol.  Katniss volunteers to be on the first mission to the Capitol so she can find Snow and kill him.  However President Coin tells Katniss she is not to go. Katniss never-the-less sneaks aboard an aircraft headed to the Capitol. While evading Capitol soldiers, she learns that Coin plans to have Katniss killed and to make her into a martyr in order to keep the rebel cause alive.

The movie progresses at a brisk pace with lots of battles, booby traps and weird creatures along the way. There is a lot of intrigue about who is after who and who can Katniss really trust. Also due to the previous film and using other techniques, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman is once again featured as Plutarch.  

If you have seen the film or read the books then you know how this story ends.  And if not, then The Travelling Toe will not spoil the adventure for you. 

CAST:

Jennifer Lawrence
Katniss Everdeen

Josh Hutcherson
Peeta Mellark

Liam Hemsworth
Gale Hawthorne

Julianne Moore
President Alma Coin

Donald Sutherland
President Snow

Elizabeth Banks
Ellie

Woody Harrelson
Haymitch

Philip Seymour Hoffman
Plutarch

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe and 1 middle toe up with a white rose.

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.

"Brooklyn" (movie critique)

BROOKLYN
movie poster

The Travelling Toe and the Friday Movie mavens, traveled to the local multiplex to see "Brooklyn".  

This movie is set in the early 1950's, so as Golden Girls we could relate to the the clothes, hairstyles, make-up, cars, music, etc.  

The main character of the movie is Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), an Irish lass who leaves her mother, sister and small town in Ireland and heads to the US for a better life.  Crossing the Atlantic is a bit rough but her room mate shows her the ropes.  After she lands, she checks into a boarding house of young singe Irish girls.  The landlady, played by the marvelous Julie Walters, ensures that "her" girls behave themselves and do right.  Eilis is hired as a sales girl at a large upscale departments store - think Bloomingdale's.  She struggles at first, being home sick and missing her sister, as she tries to figure out her life.  Along the way, the benevolent local priest (Jim Broadbent) has her enroll in night school for bookkeeping classes to further her education.

Saoirse Ronan
Eilis

Julie Walters
Mrs. Kehoe

Jim Broadbent
Father Flood

At a local Irish dance Eilis meets a young man, Tony (Emory Cohen).Yes, he is Italian but as he says he loves Irish girls.  He begins to court her and they do fall in love. Eilis begins to bloom and grown in her new Brooklyn environment even becoming a Brooklyn Dodger fan with Tony..  

Emory Cohen
Tony

Eilis receives bad news from Ireland and has to return to take care of the family crisis.  Before she leaves she and Tony are secretly married.

Back in Ireland, she begins to fall into a familiar routine of taking care of her Mum and working part-time as an bookkeeper.  Along the way, she is set up with a young Irish man Jim, played by the cute Domhnall Gleeson.  They enjoy each others company and rumors begin to fly in the small community that she and Jim are to be married.

Domhnall Gleeson
Jim

So Dear Readers, does Eilis stay in Ireland, the land of the familiar or journey back across the pond to her Italian fellow?  Well, The Travelling Toe will not provide a spoiler alert for you as you will just have to see this lovely movie yourself to find out...did she stay or did she go??????

We all agreed that is was a sweet, lovely, enjoyable film.  

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 2 big toes up with a Claddagh toe ring.

Claddagh

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.

"Sisters" (movie critique)

SISTERS

movie poster

The Travelling Toe has been out of commission due to an ugly virus, but before the bugs took over, The Travelling Toe did see a movie or two.

Here is a short overview of one of the movies the Friday Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe saw....."Sisters".  The movie stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as well, sisters.  

Tina Fey
Kate

Amy Poehler
Maura

Tina plays Kate whose life is a shambles due to her  own irresponsible behavior.  Kate can't hold a job, and can't pay rent so she has to sleep on someone else's couch.  Her daughter, Haley has pretty much given up on her and her behavior.  The other sister Maura, played by Amy, is recently divorced and is always looking for ways to help other people - whether they want the help or not.

Within in all that chaos, comes the call from the girls parents (Diane Wiest and James Brolin) that they have decided to sell their home and move into a senior condo complex.  The girls are told to come home to Orlando and clean out all their stuff that they left at their parent's home when they moved out.  So Maura and Kate make the journey to Orlando and meet at the airport.  When they arrive at their childhood home, they find out that house has already been sold and cleaned out except for their room.  Using less than good judgement, the girls decide to have one last big party for all their childhood friends.  With that decision any movie goer can read the writing on the wall - disaster alert!  (and it probably was written on the wall - along with a lot of other stuff)

The party starts off slow, as most of the party goers are long past the party age, but then with large amounts of liquor and drugs comes impaired judgement and the worst happens.  The house is totally wrecked including the pool.  The parents find out about the disaster and the girls are assigned the task to clean the house and repair all  the damage.

That is the major plot line of the flick with a few others floating around.  We were all so looking forward to seeing this movie as we thought it would be very funny - Tina and Amy together again!!!  Yes, there are a few laughs along the way but not enough to save it.  We all agreed that we liked about 10% of the movie.

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 2 pinkie toes up with a big dose of disappointment.




Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.

:"Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol" at Stage West

STAGE WEST THEATRE

Most of us have read or seen various versions of Charles Dickens famous story,  " A Christmas Carol".  In it, we learned about Ebeneezer Scrooge and how he was redeemed to have Christmas live in his heart all year long.  But have you ever wondered how Jacob Marley, who was a major part of Scrooge's story came to be called upon to help save Scrooge?

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens

Well, the new play written by Tom Mula tells the story of Marley and how he was able to make that transformation for himself and for Scrooge.  The play, "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol", is currently at Stage West in Fort Worth.

Tom Mula
playwright

What is interesting about this play is that all the parts are played by one actor.  In this case the actor was a woman, Emily Scott Banks, playing various male roles.  She did the majority of these different people though small props, different voices and occasionally using different bits of wardrobe for a particular character.  Ms. Banks was amazing.  She was excellent, moving around the stage, keeping all the characters separate while telling the story of Marley.

Emily Scott Banks
actor

This play is in the smaller studio theater at Stage West and works well there as it is an intimate story.  

If you have a case of the humbugs, then go see this cute short play and it will put you in the Christmas spirit - like Scrooge and Marley!



Stage West

as Tiny Tim would say,  "God Bless Us Every One!"

"The Book of Mormon" at Bass Hall

THE BOOK OF MORMON

Dear Readers, The Travelling Toe must admit that she recently attended a Sunday afternoon performance at Bass Hall of "The Book of Mormon".  But The Travelling Toe did take precautions by attending a church meeting before going to the play.  A little prayer always helps any situation.

Bass Hall

Bass Hall - Performing Arts of Fort Worth


Most of you will probably know the main story of this musical.  It centers on 2 young Mormon Elders, who have just finished missionary school and are ready for their first assignment.  Elder Price (Billy Harrigan Tighe) is anxious to be placed in Orlando as he sees himself as a version of Donny Osmand.  But alas he is partnered with Elder Cunningham and they are assigned to a Ugandan village.  There the two discover that the villagers have many problems, including poverty, AIDS, and a very mean war lord, called General Butt Naked.  And ever though he wears an eye patch, he still wears sun glasses for a menacing glare.  Price tries to convert the Villagers but decides he can't take it there any longer and leaves.  The Villagers come looking for him and find Cunningham instead.  Well come to find out, Cunningham had never read The Book of Mormon so he had to wing it using "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" characters to help tell the story of the early Mormon's.  Who would have thought that Darth Vader was part of that story line????   

It was with trepidation that The Travelling Toe and Dear Friend attended the performance and had made a pinky swear that if it got too rough then we would high tale it out at intermission. But we did stay for the entire play. Yes, it is a tad rough with the F word being used a lot and other mature themes woven into the story as well.  But the acting, singing and tap dancing was exceptional.  It had the feel of the old 40's musical in a way.

This show was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of "South Park" fame and  Robert Lopez,who was part of "Avenue Q' and "Frozen".  "The Book of Mormon" is way far away from "Frozen" as you can get!  The musical had it's Broadway premier in March, 2011 and subsequently won 9 Tony awards.

"Simple Elegance" at FUMC - Hurst

SIMPLE ELEGANCE
program and ticket

Recently The Travelling Toe and several friends attended the annual event of "Simple Elegance" held at the First United Methodist Church - Hurst, Texas.  This event is always scheduled the Monday evening following Thanksgiving.  It showcases tables decorated by members and their friends.  This year there were about 40 tables.  Each table is decorated differently as to how the table hostess desires.  The hostess is responsible for decorating the table, providing a dessert for the 7 guests sitting at her assigned table along with any other tidbits as wanted.  Each ticket costs $10.00 and the funds raised are donated to a different charity.  This year the proceeds benefited the 6:19 Young Adults ministry which serves the rapidly growing 18-25 year age group.  The funds will assist them with their community outreach programs and with attending a conference of other groups within the same age bracket

Due to the number of tables decorated, not all 40 tables are showcased here but only just a few to give you, Dear Readers, an overview of the variety of themes and ideas.  Hope you enjoy seeing these tables as much as we all did!

FROZEN

GOLD THEME

THE FAMOUS "LEG LAMP"
WITH RADIO
and the hostess wore a oink bunny suit
sorry I didn't get a picture of her

SNOWMEN

STAR WARS 

SILVER TRAIN

OUR HOSTESS TABLE

OUR HOSTESS - SUSAN

After dessert, a short devotional was given and a soloist sang seasonal songs.  To end the program we joined our voices in singing "Silent Night".  A lovely way to begin the Christmas Season!

FUMC-HURST

"Suffragette" (movie critique)

SUFFRAGETTE
movie poster

A friend drove The Travelling Toe to that art movie theater east of Fort Worth...OK Dallas, to see the amazing movie "Suffragette"

The movie is of course about the suffragette movement that took place in England just prior to WWI.  The movie is based on actual events but the central figure, Maud Watts was a factional character.  Maude was played by the astonishing Carey Mulligan. She certainly deserves a Oscar nomination for her performance.

Carey Mulligan
Maud Watts
(fictional character) 

Maude is a young wife and mother who works in deplorable conditions as a laundress. She lives a hard life but cares deeply for her young son.  Accidentally, Maude is drawn almost unwillingly into the suffragette movement by a friend and co-worker.  She tries to resist being part of the group but the inequality overwhelms her and she becomes active in the cause.  She is arrested and when released, her husband prevents her from seeing her son.  As a woman she has no rights to her own child.  Eventually the husband has the young boy adopted by another couple and Maude can not stop it as at that time in history, children belonged only to the father.  As the women continue to protest and demonstrate, the police try to shut it down. The British government pressures the press not to print stories about the suffragettes.  

Meryl Streep
Emmeline Pankhurst
(real person)

Helena Bonham Carter
Edith Ellyn
(fictional character)

There are a couple of pretty tough scenes in the movie, one when the women are viciously beaten by police, in jail they are force feed, and attacked even by their own husbands. The women decide to make one big statement at the Epson Derby which  King George V will be attending.  Due to various events only 2 women make it to the race, Maude and a young lady named Emily Davidson.  Emily turns to Maude and makes a small statement and then steps onto the track and is trampled to death. (and yes that is a real event)

Emily on the Epsom race track
(actual picture)

This movie really touched the Travelling Toe's heart in so many ways.  Yes women can now vote but we are still not equal in so many ways.  But The Travelling Toe will not jump on the soap box as this is just a movie critique.  But will state that we as modern women owe so much to these brave fearless women of the suffragette movement.


There are several internet sites about the Suffragette Movement, here are just a couple of them: 


Suffragette Movement (Mrs Pankhurst)

Suffragette Movement