Bless Me, Ultima

Bless Me, Ultima

A look into of a Curandera and a young boy.

    

Ultima's Familar

Bless Me, Ultima is a movie that's been long over due in a sense that it has brought another aspect of magick and witchcraft into film world and with an interesting storyline at that. It's based off the book by Rudolfo A. Anaya. The movie is a narration and it focuses around a young boy named Antonio Márez (Luke Ganalon), who's six years old. He spies on his parents who talk about an elderly woman named Ultima (Miriam Colon) who's coming to live with them. Though he doesn't know who she is he's somewhat excited of the idea of Ultima staying with them.

After a strange dream, Antonio soon discovers that Ultima was his mother's Midwife and that she's a Curandera. Okay I'm going to stop here and give you a explanation of (Curanderismo is the practice of folk medicine, a healing art heavily influenced by the knowledge and ancient religions of indigenous peoples. Curanderismo is associated with the treatment of both physical and supernatural illnesses. When Spanish Catholics arrived in the New World, they regarded curanderismo as a form of witchcraft and often killed those who practiced it. However, over the course of time, the intermixing between Spaniards and native people produced a mixed religious culture. ) (Spark Notes) Okay carrying on. Antonio who's fortunate to have a large loving family and parents tries to live up to both is Mother's dreams of being a Priest by studying the bible and being a farmer like his father. Though deep down Antonio wants to be a Curandero just like Ultima. Antonio is fascinated by Ultima's kindness and craft.

The story continues as Antonio goes to school and meets his blond hair friend named Florence (an Atheist), goes to Sunday School, and helps his family with the farm. Something bad soon happens with another villager's son and becomes gravely ill. Ultima soon travels out to comfort and cure him. She soon discovers that the young man had wondered around at night to search for a few missing cows and walked into three young women, the daughters of Tenorio (Castulo Guerra) performing dark witchcraft, in another nearby town in El Puerto. Soon after the young man became ill. Ultima prepares herself to cure the young man and gives a warning to Tenorio to tell his daughters to release the curse or they will regret it. Insulted by this request Tenorio laughs it off and threatens if anything happens to his daughters that he will come and kill Ultima himself. Ultima soon returns to the young man and cures him and buries the strange black thing the young man coughed up at the site the daughters had did the spell. A while after the father who had thanked her for saving his sons life soon shuns Ultima as if she had nothing for him. Antonio soon realizes that the church and most of his village Las Pasturas and El Puerto frown upon Ultima's craft. Meanwhile Ultima makes three wax dolls and binds the young women so they can longer harm anyone again. However a few days after one of the wax dolls melts and Antonio and Ultima become worried.

Bless Me, Ultima is one of those films that has a lot to offer and makes the viewer think and question life as we see through the eyes of a young, wise, and intelligent you boy. With great acting, great scenery, and

great authenticity of WWII time period and Hispanic culture in the US. This movie is not like any other movies about witchcraft. There is no special effects in it. It's one of the realest interpretation of how magick and superstition works. I highly recommend people to watch and give it a shot. It might be a little harder to connect or understand some scenes if your do know something about Spanish nor the culture. Though all in all the movie is well done and fresh.

Title: Bless Me, Ultima

Length: 106 min

Ratings:PG-13

Year: 2013

Director: Carl Franklin

Starring: Luke Ganalon, Miriam Colon, Castulo Guerra, Joaquín Cosio

Over All Score: A+ Refreshing and Accurately Cultural.

Entertaining: B+ It's a bit high considering the film is mostly a drama. Viewers of the Hispanic or Latino culture will enjoy and understand the movie more.

Cinematography: A Has outstanding scenery of New Mexico's landscape.

Storyline: A+ Original and well thought out has a bit of everything in the story to balance the darker side of the drama out. Another magical flick without crazy special effects.

Acting: A The choice of casting down to their acting were down pact. The only thing is that there Spanish is very clear.

Music: C There was nothing special about the music. The score was decent though since this is a drama no musical soundtrack is available. 

Charmed (Season 1)

Charmed

Seasoned One (1998)

The famous Charmed ones. I decided to finally do a TV show as I did promise to review TV shows. First off I'm sure most people have seen at least a few episodes of Charmed. I admit I would watch it every now and then when it's on but as a person who really never watched TV made difficult to figure out when it was on. So here I go I will be the first to admit that this is my personal opinion of this famous and popular show and that if you're one of the die hard serious fans who can't take an differing opinion or critique sorry to offend you it's a my review and personally I'm not a harsh critic.

Okay first off we get these three girl who live in this nice homely house that any witch would love to own, charming, cute, big. Okay enough about my property obsession. You get three sisters who are not the closest of friends but do deeply care for each other. This is one of the most enduring and favorite aspect of this show. Okay you got the eldest Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty) who's the most reserve of the three sisters. Who has a nice gig as an antique authenticator. She also has a detective who also an old childhood friend and past love interest who watches out for her. Andy Trudeau (T.W. King). The middle child Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs) who manages a restaurant called Quake. She's also quite a chef. Piper is the most down to earth and maybe a bit more motherly of the three. The youngest of the three Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) who's the rebellious one and can't seem to keep a job. Phoebe is the most optimistic and probably tries the hardest to keep them together of the three.

Okay you get the picture these sisters live in a big house and soon discover their mother was a witch and their grandmother as well. The charmed ones come from a line of famous witches. So the premesis of the plot isn't origional now days as it first came out so what okay, moving on. These sisters soon discover or awaken their powers. Prue with telkenesis, Piper with freezing items/beings in time, and Phoebe who can see into the future. Coolness who doesn't want powers like that well it's a tv show after all and thus the premis of the show is truely revealed. These women have to battle and protect innocents (exactly what you think it means, witches, muggles, I mean normal folks, anyone who's getting bothered by anything evil and didn't deserve it.) It blows being an innocent or any other witch in this series it seems. Well so far they battle warlocks hell bent on taking the charmed ones powers no matter who they have to kill to get to them. Demons who of course just likes killing in general, werewolves and other mythical creatures, that most are in their book of shadows. Well here comes the nit picking of the show. First off I think honestly 90% of this season if not more are male oriented villains. I mean seriously where are all the normal male witches out there, or not so evil warlocks. Even the demons are mostly male. Okay well the villain list isn't the best thought of.

The story line flow of the show is pretty decent. Long a bit repetitive at times but good. Each episode

is interesting and fresh enough to keep me watching it till the end. Which is come on kudos considering television now days. You see how the relationship grows with each sister, their flaws and personalties start to shine and expand. Now I love the magic feel through out the show it's not everywhere or used sporadically, it's seen on every episode and in common sense type of scenarios and moments. And it's not all powers, there's some chanting, and potion work in there too. Oooh variety. I do have a bit of beef about the religion aspect. They're suppose to be Wiccan but I don't see how as the show doesn't show anything much of Wiccan religion. I think it's merely excuse to be witches in acceptable manner so that Christian religious people won't boycott the show off the air. Okay I can accept that it's a television show after all and too much religious views is one easy way to turn off and offend viewers. Over all the show is about good vs evil and these sisters believe and try use their powers for good. So in the end Charmed Season one took me quite a while to see as I'm a busy person but sometimes felt a bit iffy or slow on some episodes. It's a very Hollywood take on three witches who use magic to defeat evil. Over all the show is entertaining and I can see how their fans enjoy the show. Will I'll be popping out a review for other seasons of Charmed any time soon? Probably not as I as a person have a short attention span. I may watch a season or two and write a review on it later but I'm not making any promises here.

Title: Charmed

Length: 42 Mins 

Ratings: TV 14

Year: 1998

Creator: Constance M. Burge

Starring: Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano, Shannen Doherty, Ted King

Over All Score: B +

Entertaining: A- Every episode is something different every episode there's a magical feeling even though it's very Hollywood.

Cinematography: B+  Nice views of San Fransisco special effects are mediocre some of the times or quite the opposite. 

Storyline: B - Not too original now days but has a lot of interesting ideas when it comes to spell work and villainy.

Acting: B + All the main characters and villains did an outstanding jobs. 

Music: A every episode there is a fresh new song. Also the special effects and mood music isn't overdone.

The Witches of Eastwick

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Something wicked this way comes...

Sorry Bad Quality, Bad Screen Shot

The Withces of Eastwick starts out in a homely little town with three very different women, living three different very lives. As composer John Williams identifies this town with a memorable tune we soon zoom into a school and old fashioned one at that. A school band horrendously plays America the Beautiful along with not so talented vocals of Felicia Alden (Veronica Cartwright) who will see plenty of later in the movie. The school principle starts to sprout out this long boring speech that practically no one in the town is listening to though he's so persistent to finish it that even a freak storm can't shut him up.

It's nightfall and it's still raining when a truck pulls up and head out towards the waterfront home of Alexandra (Cher). Alexandra and her friends Jane (Susan Sarandon) and Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer) all go in and have themselves a small party of three. They talk about their day and how their love lives stink. All three girls agree that they all need a man with characteristics they all agreed on. As if he was practically summoned, the next day a mysterious stranger comes strolling into Eastwick and he's loaded. He buys the Lenox Mansion which is a huge historic house and buys all of Alexandra's figurines, and sleeps right through Jane's string quartet performance. Yet for some mysterious reason no can remember his name.

The movie carries on and they all soon meet this mysterious stranger named Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson). Now Daryl Van Horne is not the best looking of men. He doesn't have the most charming and polite of personalities and truthfully comes off quite vulgar and offensive. Though those traits aside, Daryl has a silvery tongue. He made these ladies felt, empowered, smart, beautiful, talented, wanted, he made them all shine individually and is probably the reason why all three women slept with him. The story progresses and all three woman are attracted to this man to the point of almost being enamored that they start fighting over him. All the while realizing that  they inherited strange and unusual powers. Powers that when all three are together become stronger. They soon realize that their powers are a gift and a gift from a very unwelcome source (Hint: Who else is popular for having horns). These women realize well if they got them might as well use them.

The Witches of Eastwick is a movie even though set in the late 80's isn't time stamped. Old fashioned little towns always stay charming no matter what era you're in. Of course you get the fashion time stamp but really it's not that bad either. I love how all three women are different people with different flaws and talents. Yet when challenged with something come together and do something about it. The movie does go a bit over the top in the end and loses that ah so quaint charm. This movie is scattered with Feminism undertones and sometimes just right out feminism. I'm not sure males would enjoy the movies as much as females. There are some scenes of well Anti-Feminsim... if I could say that, one of the sex scenes, but over all not nearly as much as the other. The ways these women are attracted and fight over him are so ridiculous it's comedic but hey all women love a man with confidence and this movie proves it. It seems with the right amount of arrogance, precise wording, and daring remind men that they can get a beautiful women. Well I guess a lot of money and supernatural powers couldn't help either.

Title: The Witches of Eastwick

Length: 118 min

Ratings: R

Year: 1987

Director: George Miller 

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Veronica Cartwright

Over All Score: A- Slow to start but gathers quickly, very interesting plot and storyline. That magic feeling is scattered lightly through out but picks ups the more movie progresses.

Entertaining: A- Entertaining and well paced. Love the comradery of these three friends.

Cinematography: B+ Nothing wrong, nothing dramatic. Eastwick is a cute town. Special Effects are on par with it's time.

Storyline: A memorable and easy to follow storyline. Not much to discover but what makes this movie attractive is they blatant outright dialogue about feminism.

Acting: All three actors did an outstanding job. Nothing here is cheesy and badly done.

Music: B the theme is memorable and sometimes a bit cheesy but done right.

A vacation too long.

Ah it's me again and no I have not forgotten about my movie blog. Well maybe for a little bit. Okay well school is starting again and I have some movies and shows lined up for you.  You'll soon get The Wiches of Eastwick review. Followed by most likely Charmed (Season 1) then right after with another movie and the show Eastwick. :) So without further ado I hope you'll enjoy you're review and yes I'll try to start busting out these reviews soon.

The Good Witch's Garden

The Good Witch's Garden

A reminder why we all don't like Martha Tinsdale.

Ah yes to those who remember or read my first review of The Good Witch. You'll realize that the sequel opens in the same manner, music included, except with different images. Images of course being of flowers and butterflies. So okay I like the familiar intro it makes the movie feel like a sequel. Speaking of sequels miss nosy body Martha (Catherine Disher) is the first character the viewer will see, along with her blond friend. They're up to no good as the camera pans upon the Gray House which has seemed to gone through some major renovation. As it's no longer vines and wood but a house of gray stone. Either way Martha is not pleased.

Okay so we soon find out the reason why Martha is having a fit luckily it's for a more petty reason than before. The movie goes along and we find out the reason why Cassandra Nightingale (Catherine Bell) has renovated her house. She's decided to turn her home into a bed and breakfast. Sounds a lot less conspicuous and modest than a metaphysical shop. Soon Cassandra's first customer arrives, Nick Chasen (Rob Stewart) who looks like a suspicious well dressed kind of guy. Plot continues as Jake (Chris Potter) Brandon (Matthew Knight) Lori (Hannah Endicott-Douglas) and their Grandfather George are having typical drama of their own. Sub-plots aside the main plot is most captivating as we discover the reason why Nick Chasen is in town.

Okay so would I recommend this movie. Yes if you like the first one or no if you're didn't. Was this more entertaining then the first? Not really but the plot and dialogue were improved. I like and hate some characters. I will probably watch the next following movies just because it's refreshing change from the Hollywood, special effects. At the first the sense of magic is strictly non-hollywood and people who're expecting to get that witch or magical feeling will most likely to be disappointed.

Title: The Good Witch's Garden

Length: 86 min

Ratings: PG

Year: 2009

Director: Craig Pryce

Starring: Catherine Bell, Chris Potter, Matthew Knight, Hannah Endicott-Douglas, Catherine Disher, Rob Stewart

Over All Score: B

Entertaining: B The magic rating is way below the par. I wouldn't recommend you watch this unless you're a fan of the first.

Cinematography: B Same as Usual nothing too eye catching or spectacular.

Storyline: B+ The plot runs like a soap-opera very smooth yet slow. Though there's plenty of subplots and a mysterious main plot that keeps the movie interesting.

Acting: B+ It seems everyone was right on character even more so.

Music: B- I can't say it's changed much from the first movie.  

The Witches

The Grand High has summoned a council.

Ah I really liked this movie as child watching it again I can remember why. The Witches is a perfect movie that wraps up the wicked in witch. The plot surrounds around a young boy named Luke Eveshim (Jasen Fisher) who's visiting his grandmother. His parents go out for an evening and his Grandmother Helga Eveshim (Mai Zetterling) starts doing what grandmothers do best, story telling. She tells a story form her childhood about a friend she used to know and how she suckered by a witch who trapped her into her painting her parents owned. Sadly Luke's parents never return from their evening out.

The movie continues and Luke and his grandmother are going on a vacation in a hotel. They don't hit it off with the hotel manager well Mr. Stringer (Rowan Atkinson) because Luke brought his pet mice. They win their argument with a little white lie. They soon eat some breakfast and odd things go wrong and Grandmother Helga suspects witchcraft. Later that evening Luke decides to take his mice out and explore the hotel. He soon finds an empty banquet room and tries to teach his mice some tricks. Though the doors burst open and a stampede of women fill up the room. Within minutes this lady convention turns into a witch convention with him stuck in the middle.

The witches discuss ways to get rid of the "smelling repulsive children" as the Grand High Witch Eva Ernst (Anjelica Huston) introduces her precious potion. Soon Bruno, a chubby boy around Luke's age, comes in and has unknowingly taken the potion. Within minutes Bruno becomes the first victim to the bewitching poison and turned him into a mouse. The witches end the council and about to leave excited to try out the new potion until one of them smells "dog droppings" they search for source of the smell. Luke knowing he is in danger, high tails it and escapes through a brigade of witches trying to get a hold of him. Luke escaped the witch brigade and makes it back to his Grandmother's room. Though his grandmother is somehow stuck in a deep sleep and with a surprise attack, the Grand High Witch and her henchwoman nabs him.

The Witches is one of those movies that is a classic. The acting is outstanding and so is the special effects. Most children will enjoy this movie though others might not. The story is a classic as it's based off the same author who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory it's a great story with enough fantasy and adventure to keep both parents and children entertained.

Title: The Witches

Length: 91 min

Ratings:PG

Year: 1990

Director: Nicolas Roeg

Starring: Jasen, Fisher, Mai Zetterling, Rowan Atkinson, Anjelica Huston

Over All Score: A, Starts a little slow but the plot and special effects are wonderful. The whole movie gives a reason for children to fear witches. 

Entertaining: A, As stated starts a little slow but picks up quick good special effects. 

Cinematography: B, good views of the hotel, good angles. 

Storyline: A, original, spooky, and fun. Children will like the acting especially of Anjelica Huston.

Acting: A, everyond did a great job, children included..

Music: B+ can't remember too much about the score but it's not awful does not distract from the movie.