Outlander 4 stars out of 5 stars

Released 2008 at 115 minutes,this film mimics a few other films while still adding a touch of its own. I took off 1 whole star because of really excessive violence.Yes within  the confines of this story its warranted but gezz remember Hitchcock and Psycho??It was released before Avatar yet clearly the idea of Earthling like peoples subjecting natives of another world is central to this film although its set in old viking days on earth.The macho man against Predator is also prevalent as is a lesser known film called the 13th warrior ideas of norseman battling a superior mythical like force on courage alone.What this film adds to tie these ideas together is a love interest and acceptance on a par with the ending of Avatar.In a sense,this may just be Avatar except our hero is the only cause of the Vikings problems and so Earth history is not changed because our hero changes instead. This one time I will use IMDB's quick synopsis because the film is a bang boom film and this synopsis is it in a nut shell.

During the reign of the Vikings, Kainan, a man from a far-off world, crash lands on Earth, bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. Though both man and monster are seeking revenge for violence committed against them, Kainan leads the alliance to kill the Moorwen by fusing his advanced technology with the Viking's Iron Age weaponry.

Why watch the movie you ask??Well because I like old "sword and sorcery"type films and although the actors are not "A" list they are good none the less.I really love Sophia Myles as Freya the love interest and John Hurt keeps rolling along as Hrothgar.The rest are fine as well and the setting feels real,I just wish they cut back on the gore.Be warned !!!URL for trailer is below pix.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3628270361/

The Idolmaker - 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

Not so well known movie about a guy who realizes that"packaging"is the key to pop music success.Made in 1980 at 117 minutes it captures  a time just before the Beatles and the English invasion changed the music scene forever.I took 1/2 star of because it falls just short with the ending,but not enough to really harm the film.Some people say this film is really based on the career of the fellow who discovered Fabian and Frankie Avalon.Perhaps,I don't really have that sort of insider perspective. I also couldn't find a real trailer online for the film.
    The movie opened with a scene of  Ray Sharkey as Vincent 'Vinnie' Vacarri walking down a street in NYC and catching a ball from kids playing "punch ball"in the street and actually punching the ball himself.Believe me if you didn't grow up in NY or some other eastern city,you have no idea what punch ball is,nor will you ever, as the little pink balls used are no longer made .The movie had my attention from that point on.
Vinnie believes that teen idols have to appeal to young record buying girls first and then they will listen to the music.So the film centers on him going to see a fellow small time city kid,Paul Land asTommy Dee,playing in NJ with a band with a blond blue eye lead singer.Vinnie believes because of Tony Curtis the actor success that teen girls want the darker Italian look.Off course Vinnie is Italian  himself but believes his only talent is spotting it in others and writing music with his buddy Joe Pantoliano as Gino Pilato.
So when he sees Tommy"warming "up the audience before the lead singer appears on stage he thinks Tommy might be marketable rather than the run of the mill blond blue eyed lead singer.Well from there the movie shows the hustle involved including "payola"and the fan mags of the day to get "out there"so you can be seen and the cash needed to promote and manufacture records.That leeds to a side story about his life and estranged relation with his father who appears to be a corrupt union official with a eye for young "bimbos"who none the less bankrolls him for 10K and later warns him that anyone can get lucky once,ah but do it again than your a success. So then Vinnie discovers young Peter Gallagher as Caesare and damned if he doesn't do it again!!!
The music is ok the acting real good and the "feel"is late 50's early 60's
The GREAT and not often enough seen in movies,Tovah Feldshuh as Brenda Roberts editor of teen scene magazine lends a nice touch as she falls for Vinnie hustle and in a modest bedroom scene reflects on dancing at a catholic school dance where the nuns made them leave room for the holy ghost when dancing close.
All in all a really well done movie that does reflect the time as I remember it.

The Pope of Greenwich Village - 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

Eric Roberts as Paulie and Mickey Rourke as Charlie star in this 121 minute film released in 1984 when Mickey was still good looking and nobody had heard of Eric's sister Julia yet.They play cousins living a complicated life in Manhattan on the verge of being hoods but still with a moral code.It's hard to understand what they are going through unless your from NYC.Thats why I took 1/2 star off.That being said its still a fun flick and quite like nothing else I've seen.
   Paulie gets them both fired from a restaurant they were working at because he was padding his waiters bills.Now Charlie is divorced with a son from a woman who hates him and is now living with a upscale girl named Diane played by Daryl Hannah and is struggling to keep her impressed. This leeds him to agree to a small time heist with Paulie and his ex con contact Barney played by Kenneth McMillan.Well the small time heist is actually a"bank"of a mob boss  named Bed Bug Eddie  played by Burt Young and to make it worse they accidentally  cause the death of a corrupt cop  who had a tape of his dealings with the mob.The story goes on to race fixing and betrayal and theft by Diane of Charlie's share of the heist money.Paulie has his thumb cut of as retribution and turns in both Charlie and Barney.Charlie allows Barney to flee by sending him his money and then along with Paulie goes to the race track to bet Paulies money on a fixed race.Thanks to Charlie they win money even tho the horse only came in second.Then its time for Charlie to clean up the mess Paulie caused with Bed Bug.If you like gritty but believable drama about life on the underbelly of NY you'll love this.There are too many funny small little scenes, like grown men in suits playing stick ball in a school yard to  a boom box playing "Summer wind"by Sinatra that just work unbelievable well.Or the wise ass parking meter violation cop in the Bronx getting a laxative from Paulie that makes him crap in front of other cops and firemen and EMS workers.    It goes on and on.The Trailer URL is below the pix as usual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRMXwmD84Y

Heat -5 stars out of 5 stars

Running a just right 101 minutes this 1986 release is forgotten and hard to find because of 2 others films with similar names.One of which Burt is also in oddly enough. With Clint Eastwood called "City Heat" and a later Michael Mann film called "Heat"with DiNero and Pacino.Both of which I have seen and will not review here as they were not nearly as good as this one. I cannot find a trailer for this film.

Still,trust me,look for this film.Why??I know Burt made a living on playing tough guys but this film really works.Burt plays     Mex who now is a private eye,bodyguard or what ever you need to make a legit buck.
The film opens with Mex in a bar hitting on a woman waiting for her boyfriend.He is really menacing and when the guy comes in its obvious Mex can kick his butt and take the girl against her will.But the guy beats Mex,hard to believe but we soon find out that was just a job for Mex.The guy was trying to  talk the girl into leaving town with him and they were both going to start a new life,only he need to prove his worth so to speak so he hired Mex to beat up for 200 dollars to impress her.You gotta love it !!!
Mex is bothered with headaches and is a degenerate gambler who has a checkered past with some sort of mob ties.All he wants is enough money to go to Venice Italy to retire.
Without telling the whole story but after a  few scenes lets just say he wins 100k at blackjack then bets it all double or nothing and of course loses.Having had a gambling problem myself,I must say I have  never seen it shown as raw as this film shows it.That however gets him a new job as bodyguard for Cyrus Kinnick  played by Peter MacNicol,who is a newly rich software geek who is trying to live "the life"but is scared by everything and everyone.Mex is who he thinks he wants to be and a strange bonding grows between them.Really well done including a funny fight scene where Mex is teaching Cyrus how to "slip"a punch but Cyrus bloodies Mexs nose.
Now Mex knew a call girl  named Holly played by Karen Young,like a big brother protector, who was roughed up by some young punk mob guys.This is where the film gets rough.For you Jet football fans,old Hall of Fame player Joe Klecko has a small part as one of the Mob thugs.Anyway,Mex just helps Holly get even although she wanted to kill them.Still the punk leader wants to kill Mex now.He goes to Mexs office but only seriously wounds poor Cyrus.Mex will now take care of business in a way that I've never seen done better in any film,anytime,anywhere.Neill Barry plays Danny DeMarco believably as the punk who gets what he deserves in a way quite satisfying. For that info you must see it for yourself.

The Time Travelers Wife - 3 stars out of 5 stars

Let me state at the outset that I haven't read a book in many,many years.Also let me state the old chestnut about a movie based on a best seller never lives up to it.Somehow the sci-fi doesn't come close to the love story and fails to be believable because of it.Oh sure the acting in good,the music rocks and the endless love is compelling but the science lacks poorly behind. Just think of a baby IN THE WOMB traveling away from same into another time and surviving.I'm sorry,but thats what this film ask's us to do with the child of the said time traveler.Based on what we had seen of this traveler as a adult,one cannot picture a fetus doing this.I'm also a little queasy about that first meeting when the traveler is a adult and the wife is but a very young girl.This is why I deducted a full 2 stars.Its acting and professionalism  make it more than a grind house sic fi flick but it could have been so much better if the science had been explained more. One thing about time travel is the immortality of it.If you know when your to die,don't go there.Time travel is also full of paradoxes.In this case the traveler knows neither when or where he will jump but the film ignores alternate time lines as he continually confides in his wife and she leeds her life accordingly.I'm sorry I just can't believe it no matter how hard the actors try to make me.It is however worth the view as the premise is based with a evolutionary idea of a gene that facilities the time travel. I don't like the result,but I applaud the idea.Released in 2009 and runs 107 minutes.It stars Eric Bana as Henry DeTamble the time traveler and Rachel McAdams as Clare Abshire- his wife. The trailer URL is below the pix as usual.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2784428569/

Somewhere in Time - 5 stars out of 5 stars

I wanted to stay away from the real famous movies for awhile but I couldn't stay away from this one.My all time favorite love story.Over time love lasts and truth is a as strange as a good sic fi idea and a classical musical score that,alas, many of us only hear in movies.First to the music.

"Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op. 43, Variation XVIII" Andante Cantabile -which is to say " to play a piece of music at a moderate tempo with a singing effect"is adapted into the "Somewhere in Time Theme "by John Barry & Roger Williams.Some of  the most hauntingly beautiful music I have ever heard  that ranks right up with Pachelbel's -Canon in D major -used as wedding march music and at least 3 movies I seen.Enough high brow but the music is wondrous.

Ah the acting is again wonderfully played by Christopher Reeve as Richard Collier showing that in his all to brief career he was much more than Superman.Jane Seymour as Elise McKenna  a truly beautiful and gifted actress and finally one of Canada's greatest if not the greatest (Bill Shatner ??)male actor Christopher Plummer as William Fawcett Robinson.The supporting class is well cast also.

The story is as timeless as love and tragic as a separation with a little sic - fi thrown in because love is,as sic fi is,truly mystifying and wondrous and based on faith in a truth not known or really understood.Now to a short capsule.Richard is celebrating the successful opening of his play in Chicago when a old woman enters his backstage room and puts a old watch on a chain in his hand and softly cries to him to"come back to me"
Thinking nothing at the time he continues his career but after a few years he sort of is in a writers block and needs to get away to the Grand Hotel on the Straits of Mackinac waterfront. Which is Mackinac Island, Michigan, a small island located at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac within Lake Huron between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas .I have not been that far north but it looks beautiful in this film as a setting for such a story should.Now to the sic -fi

In the hotels museum he views a picture of a beautiful woman whom he finds out is in fact the old woman who gave him the watch years ago.From this revelation he  returns to his old college to seek out a professor who wrote a book about time travel. Using the mind and sort of self hypnosis and swears,for a brief moment,he was somewhere else.He advises  Richard to be alone and have nothing on his person of this time to distract him.I can write for hours on this film but lets just say it works and he does meet her but of course she doesn't know him as yet and her Manager William sees in Richard the threat he feared to Elise's career  which is also good sci-fi tease,who is he really and what does he know??
Well they do finally finally fall in love and he gives her that watch.Sadly he sees a coin from the present in his pants and is drawn back to it,leaving her desperate and heartbroken and she retreats to her own sad lonely exisle from the stage till she can meet him again,in the future.The paradox of time travel is smartly evident in the watch.She gave it to him,he gives it to her,where did it come from??The old"which came first,the chicken or the egg??" The ending is sad or is it??It can be taken in different ways but if so,the paradox just gets deeper.Release in 1980 it a sadly short 103 minutes.A MUST see as both a love story and sic fi gold standard.
The trailer URL is below the pix as always.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3649306905/

Dim Sum Funeral - 4 stars out of 5 stars

This film has a basic story of a dysfunctional family reuniting  at a death and how will they react to each other after years apart.What makes this film different and why watch it??
Well for starters,its a asian american family and the executer of the will is a female personal servant of the rich matriarch departed and who happens to be caucasian.
Got your attention??The executor is Talia Shire who plays Viola and thats what caught MY attention.Viola explains that the family must observe a 7 day traditional Chinese funeral before the will can be settled,in this case the deceased matron hopes the "children"can reunite and find out how to be a family again.From here the film does go the usual way as one child is a lesbian actress another is a doctor excite and all called the dead mom "Dragon lady".What saves the picture from the usual cliches is the fact that its a glimpse into asian american life which is rare on film as well as a few really funny bits like the lesbian daughter and her tough kung fu movie star lover getting a Buddhist monk to donate his sperm so they can have a baby.THAT was worth seeing the film. Now while I loved the film and the ending was really different,I was sort of disappointed in that ending  and took the star off for  that reason alone.The film was released in 2008 and is a tight 95 minutes.A trailer URL follows the pix as usual.The recent interest in chinese american child rearing by a best selling book also makes this film a interesting hypothetical example of long term effects of a "Dragon Mom".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVSuts-Okk0

A small Circle of Friends 4 stars out of 5 stars

Released in 1980 at 113 minutes this is not the sort of film I would ordinarily like since I never attended college.I did however graduate high school in 1966 so I was there at the time this film takes place.My reason for the 1 star deduction is I only like 2 of the 3 main actors,but thats me.Now to the film.Everyone says there was no time like the time of their youth and thats true.What makes the 60's so special is,that was time of the baby boomers coming of age and as of now that is still the latest group of any era in this countries history.With a great mass comes a great shared experience.War,love and yes,terrorism.That is the main reason this movie is still relevant today.Domestic terrorism in the guise of white middle class college kids that we called "weathermen"back in the day.Now the main thrust of the film is the war itself which leads to the other 2 of love and terror.The movie is told in a flashback as 2 of 3 close friends back in the day,now meet 20 years later and recall the past they knew at Harvard with the third friend. Rather than detail the whole story since I already said I didn't like one of the actors,I'll state a few interesting things about the film.

A music debate,Total Eclipse of the Heart vs. Theme for the Masses ,stolen musical bridge??I had never heard "Theme for the masses"till I saw the film,but who hadn't heard "Total Eclipse of the Heart?"Well it seems "Theme" was a big hit on campuses and many college grads feel "Total" clearly stole from it.Sounds like it might be true.
Second since the plot involves 3 students,1 female and 2 male we have a 3 way and not in the usual 2 female 1 male.As a male I thought it was tastefully done though I can see me in the old 2f,1m but NOT 2m,1f ,even though I loved the movie.
Finally domestic terrorism has been around since the revolutionary war,tea party anyone ?And I don't mean todays political party.I think it was finally the overt war on the black urban uprising of the period,see SNCC and Black Panthers,and as this film shows white students that led to the end of the war and perhaps even the prevention of a civil-racial-generational war.
This film examines a very pivotal time in our countries history through the eyes of 3 students and well,yes,one died while trying to understand the terrorist angle of the story.
I can identify.
Sorry no trailer available.

A Sound of Thunder - 4 stars out of 5 stars

At 110 minutes and released in 2005  this movie caught my eye for 3 reasons.I like local NYC kid Ed burns.I love Ray Bradbury who wrote the short story this film is based on.Finally its one of the newer threads of sci-fi based on time travel and the "butterfly effect". So I never read the short story this is based on and Burns is not being a younger and  moodier  Woody Allen with Irish ties rather than Jewish.Well 1 out of 3 still gets me to rate this 4 out of 5 stars.I think it hits the home run with the time travel story. The only issue I have with the sci-fi element is the fact that the main characters remain in a "bubble"when the waves hit.I still don't get that,but thats way ahead and YOU figure that out when you see the film yourself.
    In the year 2055 a business offers the ultimate thrill.Go back in time and kill a dinosaur.
    Ben Kingsley     plays Charles Hatton whose corporation will send you back in time with a guide and group of aids,sort of like a Safari with a guide and bearers in todays Africa,only this"game"is the ultimate,a real live T-Rex!!!!As the movie moves on we learn the guide is Edward Burns as Travis Ryer  only took this gig because in 2055 there are no more animals and he's trying to reconstruct the DNA from animals in the past so he might clone them in the present.There is a super female computer who plots these "Safaris"into the past and the whole thing is planned down to the second so each Safari goes to the exact same moment in the past and that is when a T-Rex will fall into a tar pit and die as a volcano erupts.The Safari will kill him moments before so the time line is persevered.A kill without consequences as the T Rex was "dead duck" anyway.Now for the story.At a sort of "after party"Catherine McCormack as Sonia Rand  does a Peta style crash at the party and we learn she had worked for this corporation and designed the computer running the trips and had her design appropriated by the employment contract she had allowing Hatton to co op her design for his own profit motive rather than any benefit to science.In other words he's a capitalist pig and she's a scientist whose ideas have been corrupted for profit.Well yes Travis is drawn to her and she's right that sooner or later something would go terribly wrong and so it does.What happens next is well,different.
Let me say this,the film was not well received.I think thats because it's NOT a Dino special effects flick.There is CGI but I don't think most viewers get the story idea.A butterfly effect is time being altered and the further back you go even something as simple as a butterfly flapping its wings at the wrong time can have extreme effects.Now Quantum Physics suggests that time doesn't really change but "alternate"time lines are formed based on any minute changes so that there can be infinite time lines leading to infinite universes.Sounds deep. This concept includes the old Déjà vu idea of being somewhere before when you know thats impossible.Enough of making your head hurt. What this film tackles the idea that time line changes take effect in waves and can be predicted and thus perhaps stopped and reversed.The issue is that each wave changes the collected knowledge of the past since that was based on a different  now existing timeline.Confused??It is heady stuff and this film dares to at least explore it.So thats why I feel it was not well received.Yes,I think it was above the adverse film goes IQ.So if your not at least aware of Quantum Physics then this film is NOT for you.Otherwise,outside of Star Trek I haven't seen anything on the scope of this picture and I applude its guts on trying to make entertainment out of geeky theories. I will say that the lines are restored but you'll have to see how they can remember what happened when thats impossible since they are really in a new time line without the past OR in a alliterate time line and need to prevent what happened before from happening again.You decide which and the plausibility of that theory.
Trailer is below the pix as usual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7GmKI6scOc

One Man's Hero 4 stars out of 5 stars

Released in 1999 and runs 121 minutes,this is a one of a kind movie for me.I'm sorry I can find only clips not  true trailer so you'll have to actually see the film without a trailer to wet your appetite.I gave it only 4 stars because well my country doesn't come off to good and thats hard to eat when its not Vietnam.Now we all know about the Alamo and even a FEW of us know that there was a second war with Mexico after Texas joined the US and in that war Mexico had its own sort of Alamo in Mexico City at Chapultepec Park and the story of  the Los Niños Héroes.That however is not what this movie is about.This is about something I had never heard about nor had the Mexican family of my ex wife OR the Irish folks I grew up with. This is why this movie should be seen.Alright already what is is about?I'm going to borrow part of a review by Mark Deming done online for The New York Times Wednesday, April 20, 2011


A little known chapter from the Mexican-American War is brought to the screen in this historical drama based on fact. In 1846, shortly before the United States turned its aggressions against Mexico into armed conflict, John Riley (Tom Berenger) and a group of U.S. soldiers crossed the border into Mexico to attend Mass. Riley and his fellow soldiers were Irish nationals who had come to the United States to escape the economic devastation of their homeland, brought on by the Potato Famine. Like many other Irish immigrants, Riley was promised citizenship in exchange for serving a tour of duty in the Army, but the Irish Catholics soon found themselves treated like second-class citizens in the largely Protestant American military. Riley and his men are severely punished for traveling into Mexico, and Riley decides he can no longer abide the United States Army and its treatment of his fellows. Riley engineers an escape from the stockade and the Irish troops travel into Mexico, a peaceful Catholic nation where they believe they will be welcomed. However, as Riley and his men march into the mountains of Mexico, they encounter guerilla leader Cortina (Joaquim de Almeida), who is naturally suspicious of soldiers in U.S. uniforms. The Irish soldiers are taken prisoner and Riley is wounded in the skirmish, but in time Cortina and Riley come to see each other as allies rather than enemies. Riley also falls in love with Marta (Daniela Romo), a Mexican patriot and Cortina's lover. In time, Riley and his men form The Saint Patrick's Battalion and become one of Mexico's most effective fighting units. Tom Berenger served as co-producer for One Man's Hero as well as playing Riley.


Now I won't make a habit of copying someone else work,but in this case he reviewed it better than I could and I acknowledge as such.I would add many Civil War Generals got combat experience in this war such as Lee,Grant,Jackson and Picket to name a few.Again not in this movie,only the 2 Generals who would vis for the US presidency are they being
Gen. Winfield Scott and Gen. Zachary Taylor

3 Days of the Condor 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars.

Released in 1975 and running 117 minutes,this movie was a top notch political thriller in the cold war era.Word has it they are planning a remake,please don't. The story centers around a young naive member,Robert Redford  as Joseph Turner / The Condor, of a CIA book reading group of researchers who survives a hit on that department that kills all the others and forces him on the run to survive and taking shelter with Faye Dunaway as Kathy Hale while running from contract killer Max von Sydow  as G. Joubert in NYC.
Cliff Robertson as J. Higgins and John Houseman as Mr. Wabash are CIA operatives who only care about "damage control"You see Condors group was wiped out by a rouge CIA operation run by Addison Powell  as Leonard Atwood .Through many twists and turns we wind up in Chevy Chase Maryland at the home of Atwood where he is killed by Joubert who had hired him to terminate the group that Condor worked with BUT now was hired by the CIA to wipe out the rouge operations boss Atwood.Joubert shoots Atwood in the head and as Condor recoils in terror thinking he's next Joubert calmly explains that his life was a contract owed to Atwood and as he can now see there is no longer anyone on that end of the contract. Joubert calmly offers Condor a lift to the station and asks him how he choose the woman he hid with to allude him and when Condor explains that it was random Joubert is impressed and offers him a chance to work for him explaining there is no "sides"only pride and trust in ones own precision.As cold and calculating as that sounds he next asks Condor where he will go.When Condor says back to NY,Joubert states "I'm afraid there is no future for you there" and explains how he will be assassinated there because he's a liability in very frank and direct terms.The movie ends with a assassination attempt the way Joubert predicted but Condor is ready for it and instead forces Higgins to confirm what Condor believed had happened as he had given the story to the NY TIMES.Higgins tells him he's a fool and has no ideas what he's done.But then as the movie is ending warns Condor theres no where to run because "how do you know their print it" Now I took 1 star off because as good as the movie is it dated itself with really bad computers that took away from the rest of the background.My favor scene is one of Joubert hitman tries to take out Condor in Kathy's apartment while dressed as a mail carrier.A funny twist on "going postal".As always a trailer URL follows the pix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBZf7vifXmY

Last Legion - 4 stars out of 5 stars

It's hard to do a prequel to a beloved unproven legend.See "Enterprise"for the Star Trek fans out there and you'll see what I mean.There is the "King Arthur and the Knights of the round table in Camelot"that I grew up on but is debated to this days if there was even a King Arthur.No matter,it created many movies,books and even a TV series.It takes a lot of guts to attempt a prequel to such a story.Thats why this movie is to be respected.It starts by explaining what happened to the last Caesar as Rome fell by having him flee to Britannia with a Merlin like teacher and there he survives and his grandson becomes King Arthur.Simple but makes it fun and believable and most of all get people to see it.There is a selling point and they choose the little known history of 300 years of occupation by Rome of what is now Great Britain.Tying together a desperate flight to save a boy/Caesar and spin it with the end of that 300 year rule and the birth of a new Kingdom in the form of Arthur makes a good story if done right and here I have no complaints.There is a fine sub story tying Spains Moorish/Islamic occupation into the story as well,though I think the time line might not fit so good,but so what,its all a fantasy not historic fact.That was the reason I saw the movie to begin with.In this tie-in they cast one of my favorite actors,Alexander Siddig as Theodorus Andronikos emissary from the Eastern Empire in Constantinople to help with the relocation to Britannia of the young Caesar and turning back the Legion there to retake Rome.In his service is a masked Islamic warrior who turns out to be a woman.They say she was from India,but I doubt it was called that back then.All this mixes for a fine story that sounds plausible with what we do know of that time and a few nods to the future of the English Empire are made.If this sounds exciting then see it.I took 1 star off because of what  I thought was the error in the Spain/Moor/Constantinople connection that early but I might be wrong . The cast includes Colin Firth as Aurelius Centurion to the young Caesar and Ben Kingsley  as teacher Ambrosinus / Merlin to the young Caesar and Aishwarya Rai  as Mira the female warrior and finally  young Thomas Brodie-Sangster as the young Caesar Romulus Augustus  and a good supporting cast as well.Trailer URL below pix as usual and the film was released in 2007 at 102 minutes

 http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2599747865/

Sword of Gideon - 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

Released in 1986 at 172 minutes my only issue with the film was the opening scene at the Munich games.To me it was completely different in feel and tone.The film seems to be made by 3 different production companies and going from the games to the desert in the next scene had a very real difference in feel to me,production wise.A small issue indeed.
Acting in this movie is good if not as great as some other films we have reviewed by the story and subject matter is deadly and overcomes any tepid acting,rare as it may be.
The story centers on a young and up and coming newly married and father,Israeli army officer whose father is retired and a former Mossad operative.The  slaughter in Munich during the Olympics of Israeli athletes causes the Israeli by way of Mossad to enact revenge of the planners no matter where in the world they are.In sort,assassinate them.Young Avner (Steven Bauer)in recruited by Golda Meir (Colleen Dewhurst) herself and handled by Mordechai Samuels (Rod Steiger)who assigns him 4 veteran agents for a newly formed hit team and a list of targets.Running jewish joke through out the movie is Mordechai telling Avner no matter what he spends from the bank account access they now have,"You MUST give me receipts !!!"Too little is seen of Avner's wife Shoshana (Leslie Hope) who seems to be all type of woman in the few scenes she steals.Wife,mother,friend,the madonna ,whore sexuality came though to me !!!
     Avner is warned by his father played by John Hirsch,that Mossard will just use him till he no value left,sort of implied what they did to him as he never spoke of this before.Therefore he should always have  "a card to play"up his sleeve.In this case a French man named Paps (Lino Ventura) who "owes me big time"As the movie continues and the targets are acquired,its obvious the hit team is itself a target.Are we that  good or are we just lucky one team member quips,after a resteraunt is blown up minutes before they arrive to eat after being delayed in traffic killing almost all inside.
The movie looks at war through the eyes of this dirty game and as Golda had said much earlier she hated what this has made of our children.
I'll not say more other than Avner winds up back in the army commanding a tank division in the Yum  Kippur war.Trailer link as usual below the pix.

http://www.artistdirect.com/video/sword-of-gideon/55782

I The Jury - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

This film is a guilty pleasure of mine having read many Mike Hammer novels as a youth.This movie is not true to any of Mickey Spillanes novels as it is set after the Vietnam War and Hammer is 40's to 50's.BUT it is true to the character of Hammer as portrayed by Armand Assante. By that I mean it's nasty and crude, blunt and sarcastic.In short not for everyone,or maybe not even for half of you,but it's like catnip for me.Released in 1982 at 111 minutes,it's just the right length.I couldn't find a trailer for this film but I did find the opening credit and have posted the URL below the picture.Only gave 3 1/2 stars because it seems like a TV show gone to the movies to get sexy and bloody.It features original music by Bill Conti,and it does give a tease to the movies content.( yes the same Conti that won a Oscar for Rocky,which I will review at a later date).
Before the credits hit the screen a man is in Hammers office and tells him he thinks his wife cheats and Hammer after looking at a pix tells him"I'll get on top of this"and then is seen in bed with the wife telling the husband he has it "under control"and for him to stay in Dallas.Common man what else do you need??
Any way,one of Hammers old war buddies is killed and soon we see a conspiracy developing between Mob guy     Charles Kalecki nicely played by Alan King and CIA rouge agent Romero played by Barry Snider .A mental clinic where they turn patients into  killers for the CIA is a very lurid addition,but thats pulp fiction dudes !!!See this one  killer is a sex freak and kills high profile female  targets in the middle of a string of sex killings so as not to look like the high value target was a hit,but just another in a series of random killing.Finally Velda (Laurene Landon) is kidnapped by this killer as a way to get Hammer.The clinic is headed by a Dr. Charlotte Bennett,icy played by Barbara Carrera.
A fine job is also turned in by Paul Sorvino as Detective Pat Chambers,Hammers long time friend. There is much sex and violence and Hammer justice is biblical !!!!!Oh and don't miss the benihana throat slashing scene over dinner!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOM-dnTnILo

Whip It - 4 stars out of 5 stars

Back when I was young,roller derby rivaled wrestling as sport/theater.Somewhere along the way wrestling became king and roller derby disappeared for the most part.Maybe a victim of womens lib??At any rate imagine my surprise when I saw this movie released in 2009 at 111 minutes with a major cast,no way I couldn't check it out.I'll take a star off for a film full of cliches but nothing else is wrong with the film.The casting is inspired and well the location of Austin ( there is no Bodeen Texas)is near my new home of Round Rock Texas.It's the basic story,teen is growing up to moms expectations,not hers,she finds something she likes,and  love with a boy and girl friend bonding.You get the picture.What separates this film is the throw back of roller derby.What a stroke of genius to add life to that worn out cliche of teenage angst.The cast is stellar with Ellen Page as Bliss Cavendar,derby queen name of Babe Ruthless and Kristen Wiig as Maggie Mayhem,Juliette Lewis as Iron Maven with the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore as Smashley Simpson and Jimmy Fallon as 'Hot Tub' Johnny Rocket  to name a few.Once you get over the here we go again cliches and let the roller derby aspect take you away,you get a whole new spin and it's not so corny after all.After giving herself to a small time rocker Landon Pigg as Oliver,she finds out he cheated and dumps him.It's a new take because she gave him her old Strykers tee and she saw a girl wearing it and holding HIS hand on His website. Her dad finally realizes she's to be proud of and puts a sign in the yard with her derby name and number as neighbors do with their sons football numbers.Mom finally realizes local beauty pageants were her dream only.Typical but with this cast and roller derby,its golden.As usual a trailer URL is below the pix

.http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1405354521/

American Pop - 5 Stars out of 5 stars

This is by far my favorite adult cartoon.Releases in 1981 at 96 minutes by animator Ralph Bakshi who is a immigrant..The story is broad and flows over 4 generations and is told with the love I believe only a immigrant has for the dream and hope of this huge and diverse country. It starts with a young Jewish lad and his mom who flee the progroms in Czarist Russia,for NYC, after the father is killed while singing a prayer.Mom gets a job at the Triangle shirt factory and young Zalmie wanders Tin Pan Alley and hooks up with Louie a street smart hustler of music lyrics amongst other things.From there we're taken through Mom's death in the fire,Louie taking Zalmie under his wing like his own son/brother and well WW1,marriage ,second generation son Bennie,third Generation son,Tony who movies to LA at the hight of the 60's drug era while fathering a son on a one night stand in Kansas and finally 4th generation Pete who returns to NYC with Tony.Throughout each generations music is portrayed as in a cute little scene in the final with Pete who is now a drug pushing aspiring Punk singer passing a store front in NYC where a old Jewish guy is singing a prayer.Pete stops outsides and sort of snaps his fingers to the Jewish prayers beat coming full cycle from Zelmies dad singing at the time of his death. Now my only issue is the first story is a bit long compared to the other three but perhaps in Bakshi's mind that was need to set up the scope for the future.And wide that becomes,too much so to cite here.However one of my other favorite scenes is when Tony returns from a beatnik poetry reading in Greenwich village,his 3 half siblings are watching TV and hold there heads in there hands as he babbling to them,finally he says you catch them brains there falling out of your heads because of watching TV and thats when he takes the car and heads out west.It's on that trip he has the one night stand that fathers Pete but he won't know that for quite awhile.Tony never knew Bennie his father because he was conceived and then Bennie went to WW11 and was killed.His mom however later remarried but always carried a torch for Bennie. It's a beautiful sprawling tail of the diversity of life even within one family that only THIS country can offer.Its sad,tragic,but also hopeful,just as life truly is and the music,well there is little to complain about.A full rich group of artists of the time.Here one may argue,but I feel thats only because there is so much to choose from in reality.The trailer URL is below the pix.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1739981081/

Santa Fe Trail - 4 Stars out of 5 Stars

Yesterday  was the 150 anniversary  of the Civil War.The film that comes to mind is "Gone with the wind"which I will review at a later dateThis film is a sort of prequel to the war if you will.Released in 1940 at 110 minutes. The classic cast includes Olivia de Havilland,who was also in GWTW as 'Kit Carson' Holliday and our former president Ronald Reagan as George Custer and dashing Errol Flynn as Jeb Stuart as well as a stirring manic and quite chilling performance by Raymond Massey as John Brown as well as a host of fine supporting actors including Alan Hale as Tex Bell,Van Heflin as Rader and Moroni Olsen as Robert E. Lee  and many others.This is a movie not a documentary and as such fact and fiction merge as in many other movies.Remember that because one of this movies strengths is to make you believe its all true.
   There are 2 major themes in the movie.One is the so called classic love of 2 men for one woman in this case as a rich metaphor for the war to come.Jeb Stuart who would go on to fight for the south and George Custer for the north and Kit as the Country to be fought over.And the second which the movie shows as a flash point,slavery, BUT as  evidenced by the subtle name of this movie,Santa Fe Trail,IS the real reason for the war to come.
One irony of history and it is portrayed  without hesitation is the fact that Robert E Lee leeds the charge to retake Harpers Ferry from John Brown.True he was still in the US Army at the time,but,John Brown was also at the time,the biggest threat to the rising South and Lee's home state of Va.
The film opens with graduation from West Point and a squabble between cadets over abolition and a fight erupts causing disciplinary action sending Custer and Stuart to the wild west of Kansas and the Santa fe Trail. There they come into first hand confrontation with John Brown and meet Kit.From there the film goes on to the raid at Harpers ferry and a very interesting camp fire meeting with a old Indian woman who tells the group of  7 West Point Friends that a dark cloud is coming and the friends will have to fight each other.To which they all laugh and say it can never happen.
     I love the film for the fine mixing of fact and fiction but took of the star because it is black and white,the title is poor and it looks like it was made back in the 40's unlike GWTW. But  thats a reason GWTW is "arguably "the best film of all time.  If you love westerns with a civil war hint,you'll love it.As always the URL to the trailer is below the pix.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1033700889/

Carbon Copy 4 stars out of 5 stars

Made in 1981 at 92 minutes this is a strange comedy indeed.It plays like a TV show rather than a movie,that's why I deducted a star.See,this movie has a rough cut to it but it's smooth out for TV so to speak.Oh and it's Denzel's (Roger Porter ) debut as well as Paul Winfield ( Lawyer Bob Garvey ) in a supporting role.
   To the story.Walter Whitney (George Segal) married to Vivian Whitney (Susan Saint James) the daughter of his boss Nelson Longhurst ,played I might add,as a almost Stalinist  autocrat by Jack Warden in the film's hardest edge by far, considering he's a captain of industry,but I digress.Walter has a bright future but a now boring loveless marriage .Nelson calls him the son he wishes he had and even encourages him to take a mistress  as no truly successful executive has a happy marriage!!! Into this walks Rodger who it seems is the son of Walter via a college fling.His mother has died and Rodger thinks Walter should know that,and also that he's his son.From here on the film has a edge of black and white relations,WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) prejudices,jewish self loathing,hard core unemployables,police harassment and more.Still the film tones all this down to PG  TV view-ability.I guess getting the message out was worth dumbing it down.
    Still some of the scenes have a good bite to them.My favorite is when Walter is down and out after loosing everything because Nelson is trying to break him from accepting Rodger into the all white WASP world they inhabit.( Walter is really a Jew as well
)Anyway,Walter sees a fat white guy and his fat son playing basketball in a park and tries to hustle them saying he has a son and will get him and the will play a father and son game for 20 bucks.Rushing back to the motel they are staying at,he tells Rodger to hurry and come with him.When they get to the park Rodger see's what's happening and tries to tell him but Walter won't let him finish and the game is a disaster.Afterwards Walter laments why does he have the only black son in the world who can't play basketball.That was a truly funny yet cutting scene.On one hand yes it's racial in tone,but more subtle is Walter's true acceptance of Rodger as a son by expressing his disappointment in his shortcoming. There are many laughs and a few tears but a new beginning abet not as lucrative,but ones hopes more filling life for Walter at the end. Of course Rodger is more than we thought he was and again for TV,one wonders what kind of family they might have been had Walter stayed with Rodgers mom all along.I do recommend this film for at least touching these monumental subjects even with a ten foot pole.As always a URL for the trailer at the bottom of the pix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwv655uA_Gw

Wolfen 5 stars out of 5 stars

This film was made in 1981 and runs 114 minutes.It remains the most intelligent "horror" film to date in my mind.Staring Albert Finney as alcoholic police detective Dewey Wilson and Gregory Hines as  morgue attendant Whittington and one of my very favorite actors     Edward James Olmos as Eddie Holt.I also want to mention that the executive producer was the wonderful comic Alan King.Now that sometimes means the person only put up lots of cash,so I don't know his real effect on this film.
To the film,something has killed a big time Donald Trump type real estate developer,his girl and armed bodyguard/driver in NYC's battery park around midnight.
  The mayor is furious and the police call in the drunk Wilson to help solve it.Twist and turns,wonderful NYC locations lead us to a legend about shape shifting native americans and suspicion lands on Eddie Holt.I again don't want to give to much way but to say that the infer red see thru the eyes of the killer is something the film Predator,which I will review down the road, used later.I will say you think it might be a werewolf,you might and will be wrong and it's NOT Eddie,whew,I love that guy.All good horror uses that what we think of as horror as a metaphor for a real horror we can't or won't perceive.The message of this film is our great waste of resources and selfs.Strong and vital  today as ever.
    The URL to a trailer is again below the pix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CVtWfYOdbg

Whiteout - 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

Released in 2009 at 101 minutes,this is a slick off the beaten track thriller that I'm a little pre disposed to because of the setting.That is Antarctica,a fantasy place to go from my own youth as it was the so called "geophysical year 1957/8"back when I was so young and impressionable. But enough about me,The film opens with a shoot out on a cold war era Russian plane over Antarctica with all hands dying as the plane crashes.Switch to today,as the 6 month night is coming at an international research station .Our star and main character is the hot,but it's too cold to show much of her skin but for a shower scene and a flashback to Miami,Kate Beckinsale as U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko.The staff have 3 days before they must leave and her tour of duty down there ends.I don't want to give too much away but the wreckage is found and the cargo that was abroad is retrieved and that leads to 3 deaths and Carrie herself loosing a  couple of fingers as she encounters the killer and a fight ensues in sub zero temperature where she looses a glove and grabbing a metal pole with her bear hand causing frost bite and then a doctor having to amputate the digits later.Why was she there to begin with?What was the cargo?Whose the killer?Some are simple,some are not so simple to answer.The ending is sort of similar to Point Break which I'll review at a later day.Think of that?A surfing movie and  Antarctica having something in common.All in all I felt good at the end.I only deducted the 1/2 star because is was a fun ride but not exactly what you need to talk about at the water cooler next day.As always the URL for the trailer is after the pix.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi315359769/