Jodie Foster Is A Monster!

Jodie Foster Is A Monster! (Elysium)

You might try to defend her and say that she:

1. Saved the world, as well as, time and space travel in Contact
2. Preserved the secret of Nim in Nim’s Island
3. Rid the world of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs
4. Cemented relationships with the Near East in Anna And The King

However, let’s talk about who Jodie Foster is now! Alicia Christian Foster, age 51, is far from Christian in Elysium. She is Secretary Rhodes, the give no mercy, justice provider of Elysium and its less fortunate colony, the Earth. Elysium is a utopian space station floating above the Earth. This gigantic station has unimaginable wealth and no poverty, disease, or crime. The rich and super rich live there.

Segue way to the Earth where you will see rampant pollution, crime, poverty, deprivation, and disease. The ‘have it all’ station can help but will not, as they preserve their special elite status. Elysium is, also, the Earth’s spy in the sky. They record everything that happens on Earth. Dissent is swiftly and cruelly punished. Matt Damon lives on the Earth and needs Elysium’s medical knowledge to save a young girl and himself.

Damon is robotized and shot into space by a group that wants to overtake Elysium. He becomes a ‘Terminator like’ figure as the battle for “justice and the human way” is taken to the space station. Sorry Superman! Will Jodie Foster pay for her misdeeds or will she escape into the great void to appear in the sequel is the overriding question in the movie? The second question is will she be typecast as a monster in future movies or will her Bambi-like face make us happy in the future, once more?

Steve Carell Is A Monster! (The Way, Way Back)

The Way, Way Back sounds like a humor fest with Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, and Sam Rockwell. It has it humorous anecdotes and moments. It is, however, a somewhat dark story. It begins with a potential step-father, Steve Carell, telling his soon to be stepson that he is a worthless three on the scale of life.

The movie’s tale is adults, without direction, escaping to the beach with impressionable children in tow. Reliving your crazy years in front of your children makes for all sorts of trouble. Liam James is the ‘word brutalized’ 14-year-old that finds an adult mentor in Sam Rockwell. Rockwell owns a water park and may grow up in the movie if he wants to finally win over Maya Rudolph the park’s director and foundation of the park’s success. Rockwell seems to become more and more adult like as he steers his 14-year-old charge into work leadership, talking to girls, the occasional misstep, and understanding the worth in everyone.

Carell is a monster throughout the movie as he first belittles the son and then mistreats his new girlfriend (Toni Collette) on the same scale as the son.

Unlike Jodie Foster, Steve Carell thinks he can redeem himself by starring in Alexander and The Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We think Carell should just go to Australia. This is one of the themes in this great children’s book now being brought to the big screen. Rent the cartoon form of this Judy Viorst book at your library. It is a keeper as Carly Simon sings the story.

Jon Voigt Is A Monster! (Ray Donovan…Sunday’s Showtime)

Liev (pronounced Lee Ev) Schreiber is Ray Donovan. We loved Schreiber alongside Daniel Craig in the Holocaust movie Defiance. He is Donovan the fixer in this show and works for a crazy Elliot Gould. Gould gives him cases, problems, and grief. Now Jon Viogt enters. He is just out of prison after a 20-year-stint. Immediately after leaving prison, he kills a priest. Liev is one of Voigt’s four sons and the only one that knows he is a monster. The other three have embraced their father’s return. Voigt has also charmed Schreiber’s wife and two children.

Ray Donovan chapters are immediately put up in the OnDemand section of your television. You can discover additional darkness in The Borgias, Dexter, Breaking Bad, and Despicable Me. Thank goodness Downton Abbey and Disney classics are there to lighten the viewing load.

Follow award winning author (22 books), Tom Palumbo, as he discusses books, movies, the arts, education, and multimedia at: