News Politician

This 1986 comedy directed by Peter Hyams and starring Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines is really a lot of fun. What the film does so well is seamlessly blend comedy and high intensity drama.

That’s hard to do!

You’ll laugh and hold your breath at a taxi chasing a limo on The El, still one of the most creative chase scenes ever filmed. Hines and Crystal may sound like an unlikely crime fight duo, but the chemistry between them is great.

It’s the kind of flick you can watch over and over again.

This movie came out when I was 20 yrs old and it scared the crap out of me.

Directed by John Badham and starring Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Barry Corbin. Corbin, a great character actor, steals the movie in my opinion.

It’s funny how the computer equipment seems so ancient from out of the Stone Age. But, in 1983 it was all cutting edge and only computer geeks owned personal computers.

I don’t have War Games in my personal DVD collection and I rarely recommend films I don’t own. However, I’ll make an except for War Games which is still thrilling although somewhat dated as far as Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union which still existed at the time this film was released and the United S States. This is what made the film so impactful for its time.

Worth picking up!

This 1990 film directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet and starring Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, and Armand Assante is one of the best cop movies ever made.

The movie captures the grittiness of pre-Rudy Giuliani New York of the late 1980s when the city was dirty and crime infested. It’s no coincidence that a lot of my favorite movies were directed by Sidney Lumet. The man is a genius as well as an superb film maker.

Go get the DVD!

This 1970 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring George C. Scott in the title role, has stood the test of time and could truly be called a classic.

That’s the difference between what Hollywood used to produce and the garbage that gets passed of as quality film making today. 20 years from now I doubt very highly anyone will consider Avatar a classic. But, Patton will be right there in the conversation along with The Godfather.

Patton was a hard man that would stick out like a sore thumb today in a country filled with chic-a-fied men. He was a kick ass take charge kind of guy that just got the job done. He was a tough breed tempered by a steel nerve.

We need more men him today!






The real George S. Patton as narrated by Ronald Reagan

Here’s another film that should’ve won Best Picture.

This 2003 movie directed and starring Kevin Costner and Robert Duval is a tale of friendship, love, and the pursuit of justice in a crooked world.

The acting is first rate, and the musical score is haunting and quintessential Western heroism.

Lost in America is a 1985 comedy film directed by Albert Brooks and co stars Julie Hagerty of Airplane fame.

I’m not a great fan of the sitcoms that are out today like The Office and 30 Rock. Call me crazy, but I think a good comedy is supposed to make me laugh. But these writers in Hollyeood today don’t know from funny.

Lost in America is about a 1980s upper middleclass couple that chooses to drop out of socieety to find real menaing in their lives. So they sell their home and all their pocessions to ramble through Americain a Winobego, only to have the wife blows all their money at a stop over in Las Vegas.

This 2003 film directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe is a delight. If you like stories about men with bravery and courage, then this is the flick for you.

During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war.vessel around South America.

I’m very happy that True Grit received 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Jeff Bridges and Best Supporting Actress for Hailee Steinfeld in her first ever role.

Needless to say I’ll be watching the Academy Awards this year and rooting hard for a clean sweep.

Go Grit!!!

Birds are falling dead from the sky and fish are washing up dead by the thousands.
Are these signs of the end?

The UK Telegraph reports that Seth Rogen, a comedian and actor, said that he was left speechless by a recent conversation in which George Lucas, the producer of Star Wars and other Hollywood hits, told him of his belief that the world would end in 2012.


Lucas made his claims at a meeting with the actor and Steven Spielberg, the director, to discuss a film project.

Rogen told the Toronto Sun: "George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is going to end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

"He's going on about the tectonic plates and all the time Spielberg is, like, rolling his eyes, like, 'My nerdy friend won't shut up, I'm sorry ...'

"I first thought he [Lucas] was joking ... and then I totally realised he was serious and then I started thinking, 'If you're George Lucas and you actually think the world is going to end in a year, there's no way you haven't built a spaceship for yourself ... So I asked him ... 'Can I have a seat on it?'

"He claimed he didn't have a spaceship, but there's no doubt there's a Millennium Falcon in a garage somewhere with a pilot just waiting to go ... It's going to be him and Steven Spielberg and I'll be blown up like the rest of us."

The end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 has led to the notion of an imminent apocalypse gaining some popularity in Hollywood.

I wonder if Clint can make my day and offer me a job as a grip?

Deadline.com reports that this is a real shocker, and not just Hollywood but the rest of America should love it. What a coup for Warner Bros getting The Man on this, the 4th version of A Star Is Born.

Of course, Clint Eastwood will produce (as always through Malpaso) as well as direct the script by Will Fetters along with producers Billy Gerber and Basil Iwanyk and Jon Peters (who made the infamous 3rd version of A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson).

No male lead is cast yet, but the possibilities are endless. The project, which has been at WB for several years, had hoped to pair Beyoncé and Will Smith. But how about P Diddy (who's turning into a surprisingly fine actor along with Beyoncé's husband Jayz), Eddie Murphy (reteaming with Beyoncé after Dreamgirls), or any white guy imaginable though Robert Downey Jr and Jon Hamm are names that have been floating?


More details here

This 1999 film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp is one of my favorites.

What I enjoy so much about this movie is that each shot is like a work of art. Burton has a real talent for making his films look like no other movie maker. It’s scary and funny and the atmosphere of 18th century America is well captured.

Well worth adding to your collection.

Roger Ebert taught me a lot about the fine points of what made a great movie. Watching his show was a must see for movie buffs like myself.

Ravaged by cancer, Ebert refuses to stand down.

CBS News reports that he's been called America's movie critic. For more than four decades, Roger Ebert has guided our choices at the box office. His syndicated newspaper column and trademark "thumbs up/thumbs down" routine with TV partner Gene Siskel were legendary.

But now that famous voice has been silenced. "Do you remember what your last spoken words were?" asked Bowers. "No, because I didn't know they would be my last words, or I would have written something great," Ebert replied.

For the past three years, Ebert has been talking via a computer voice that speaks what he types. His lower jaw is gone, ravaged by cancer that nearly killed him. "Are you able to talk in your dreams?" Bowers asked. "Everything is fine in my dreams. I talk all I want. Life is normal," he said. "Sometimes in a dream I will remember that I can't speak, but then suddenly I can speak again."

Ebert could surely never have dreamed this storyline for his life when he began at the Chicago Sun-Times back in 1967. His elegant style and wit quickly made his movie reviews must-reads.

More details here



Go Roger!

This 1991 landmark film, directed by John Singleton, is a classic in the urban inner city genre.

But, more than its gritty portrayal of life in tough streets of south central Los Angeles in the 1980s, was the depiction of a man teaching his only son about life, responsibility, and how to be a man.

The pivotal scene in my opinion, which unfortunately you won’t find in these clips, is when the character played by Cuba Godding Jr, asks to get out of the car carrying his friends who are looking to exact street revenge for the killing of his best friend.

In that one scene, all the teaching he received over his formative years from his father on how to do right instead of wrong, kicks in, and he refuses to participate in the circle of violence.

This is a powerful film and an excellent example on how to be a good parent in difficult circumstances.

It’s very hard for me to pick a favorite John Wayne film.

But Big Jake is one that I find watching more times than others. It’s not as good as The Searchers, Stagecoach or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it doesn’t have to be.

Wayne is such a bigger than life presence that he makes an average western film memorable. Richard Boone is also very good in this 1971 film about a grandfather, Wayne, on a quest to recover his kidnapped grand son.

Worth picking up.