Entertainment Value: movies I saw this week 7/22/13

(descriptions and information gathered from IMDB.  The opinions rendered below these, however, are mine. Using a 5 star rating system.)

A Wake in Providence*  1999

Going back home can be hard, particularly when you come from a traditional Italian family, and especially when the girlfriend you bring back is not Italian. But the roof caves in when she's African American. This is the problem that Anthony faces when he brings Alissa from Los Angeles to his boyhood home of Providence, Rhode Island to attend his grandfather's funeral.

Director: Rosario Roveto Jr., Writers: Billy Van Zandt, Jane Milmore, Stars: Vincent Pagano, Adrienne Barbeau 

This is very uneven, overwrought at the beginning then quiet and thoughtful at the center with more of the too-much in the third act.  The unoriginal sound track matches the overdone quality of this movie.  It's too silly with an absolutely preposterous script, utterly predictable, and has nothing smart to say.  

Elizabeth: The Golden Age*** 2007

A mature Queen Elizabeth endures multiple crises late in her reign including court intrigues, an assassination plot, the Spanish Armada, and romantic disappointments.

Director: Shekhar Kapur, Writers:  William Nicholson, Michael Hirst, Stars: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, 

A visual spectacle.  That's really all it is.  much of what happens is hard to follow, even if you know the history, but it doesn't matter.  The camera moves way in to the details, and you're looking at a red ring being placed on a finger, a white horse jumping from a ship, a blown off stump of a leg, a black filigreed neck liner.  The camera pulls out and up.  The Queen in her regalia entertaining her suitors, the queen in armor standing on a stormy cliff, the spanish armada, Mary Queen of Scots lays her head on the chopping block, the floor of the throne room tiled to show a map of the world.  Beautiful and stunning, but not emotionally compelling.