Danny Collins (2015)

This is a movie for everyone, especially musicians who have problems dealing and coping with all the fame and money. It can wreak havoc upon anyone's mental stability, including the drugs that are available to the wealthy. I really enjoyed this movie. The only thing that I would have done differently was add more closure with the hotel manager, Mary Sinclair and his relationship with his family. Otherwise, a fine masterpiece with just enough to satisfy some kinds of closure.

**** May contain strong spoilers ****This is a review made by StoneDraim... and that means that if you want to read a probably different kind of review, keep reading....This is my personal experience, my personal point of view/perspective and my personal opinion... and my opinion is just one of like 7 billions in this world.Al Pacino has been one of the greatest actors of all time. I like his style... a little glorious and glamour type of Italian mafia within his air. Anyway, lately he has been doing films that is faaar below his own skills and acting ability. Maybe he want to do make a little "easier movies"...?So... Danny Collins is waking Mr. Pacino up in a small way. The part of a famous "has-been" rockstar blended with a broken alcoholic and drug abuser that suddenly want to make amends and live his own life is good. He has the ability to take care of that touch of a abused mind and soul and make it just the top of his character living around to take care of lost years. Anette Bening is balancing Mr. Pacino out and they're very good together.I would like to write more and greater things about this movie. It feels like the writer, producer and the director could have done this story more interesting. It is good....no, more than good. The motion picture is a feel good film that takes that love to the world, that mindfulness and enjoyments of the moments and places it in just the right ways. Some real life stuff is thrown in there to stir it up, and just twists it up in a way to keep the positive and feel good moments of the production. It is fresh to enjoy a script and movie that gives the message that the most people is having their sense left. The world is in need of this.The chemistry between Christopher Plummer, Anette Bening and Al Pacino is splendid. Interesting and excellent to see these three superior actors blend together. The balance between the sad news going through the story and the feel good thing is in harmony and well... maybe it's just that balance that take down the really great rate a bit.... what do I know?Finally.... "So, OK, Tom..... so here we are...." Great!John Lennon appeared to be a humble and emotional man.Very nice to see TOTO's producer Jeffrey C.J. Vanston making some jumps in and out of this one. Gives it an authentic touch... so does the little "sound sparks" from the LP record playing during the end credits. Thumbs up!Over to the movie as a product: - The production : Little glitches here and there with the film editing. Overall a good production speaking of the sound, the visuals, the lightning, the script and the ideas behind the motion picture. - The actors : Plain.... simple..... solid! Sold! - The story : So dear to watch and hear a story evolving in the right direction from fame to family and a step to the sound and solid equilibrium. - Entertainment : Warm... little sad... and more than entertaining. - Age : Maybe all ages in parental guidance, due to language and little drug and sexual explicit?7,4 out of 10. ' (The final rate is based most on my own entertainment of the movie. Short elucidation of the rating: 8 Excellent movie and a solid production 7 Well made movie. Proper entertainment.)

This film is about an aging musician, who wants to change his life because of a letter sent to him by John Lennon himself; he stops drinking, starts composing new songs and tries to make peace with his son, whom he never met before. It is a sweet story filled with challenges, but each and every one of them are easily predictable. The story is filled with half-written, stereotypical characters, played by brilliant actors. It tries to focus on the story from a perspective with the cuts and the finale, that wants to strengthen the feeling that it is a heavy drama in front of our eyes. Unfortunately, because the plot is boring, the conflict is predictable and the artistic focus is affecting, the whole feels far-fetched, rather than great. Its only real strength is that it's absolutely not a bad film, but it was made for people who love common melodramas.

Regular readers of my film reviews and blog will know that one of my very favourite actors is Al Pacino. I make no claim that he is the finest actor to ever appear on the silver screen, indeed many of his performances are way over the top; but I don't care - I love him. Any movie that Al Pacino stars in is fine in my book - he always lights up the screen, always turns in unforgettable performances, and invariably takes a mundane story and makes it magical.And so it is in Danny Rose, where Al Pacino plays an ageing pop star who can still fill stadiums by singing the same banal songs that he made famous some 40 years earlier. Most of his devoted fans have grown old with him and we see rows and rows of women of a certain age all screaming and whooping whenever he appears on stage. I am trying to think of similar performers in real life, and maybe the likes of Barry Manilow or in the UK, maybe Cliff Richards might fill the bill. But dear old Danny is far more of a caricature than a real life person, and unlike Manilow and Richards, none of his 40 -year old songs have any merit whatsoever, and he really isn't a very nice person.But then something happens that is actually based on a true story. His manager, (the excellent Christopher Plummer in one of his last roles), tracks down a letter that was sent to Danny in 1971 by John Lennon, but which Danny never received. Lennon had sent him some advice about his songwriting and suggested they meet up. Danny is shocked and traumatised as he wonders how his life might have changed if he had received the letter. He is suddenly hit with the realisation that he has been a drunken ass-hole for most of his life; that he is kidding himself if he thinks that his gorgeous, sexy fiancé, one-third of his age, could really care for him, and the fact that he hasn't written a worthwhile song in more than 40 years. He decides to abandon his moneymaking tour (which we later discover was to be his retirement pension) and move into a suburban New Jersey hotel and track down his long lost son who he has never met.There is some wonderful, tender interplay between Pacino, his son's wife and daughter and later his son, who hates him with a purple passion. There are also some amusing, touching scenes with Pacino and his fiancé, (who receives Danny's blessing to cheat on him), and with the female hotel manager and two of the hotel staff. To be honest, the story is a little on the clichéd side, and some of the events are predictable - but not all. There are some blatant attempts to extract a few tears from us as fatal health issues are dragged to centre stage - but not for Danny… Without Pacino, this movie would probably die without much fanfare, but as ever, he lifts it out of the ordinary to a higher plane. Along with Plummer, Jennifer Garner as his daughter-in-law, and the excellent Annette Benning as the hotel manager, they made a corny story it into an excellent movie treat. Hollywood and Pacino oiling the movie wheels to perfection.