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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Outstanding clean, classic comedy
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
LOADED Cast:
Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Buddy Hackett, Peter Falk, Don Knotts, The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, Jim Backus, Dorothy Previne
A 3+ hour classic comedy.
Great family watching.
No murder, No profanity, No nudity, No blood, No violence (well a car crash).
Outstanding lines and inclusions.
Smiler Grogan (Durante) crashes over a cliff at 90+ mph. A bunch of drivers stop and go down in time to see him "kick a bucket" (literally). But first he tells them where $350k he stole 15 years earlier is hidden.
Now the madness starts.
Most classic line:
Dentist Melville Crump (Caesar) tries a last effort to keep the group civil and harmonious:
"Well, lets see, now, a person gets 1 share for being 1 person, 1 share for going down the hill, 1 share for the vehicle they were in and 1 share for being a person in the vehicle."
NOT. Madness.
Enjoyable watch.
King of Kings (1961)
Eternally Powerful Story
King of Kings (1961)
Music Miklos Rosza
Memorable music in a classic about the most talked about person in world history.
Excellent casting except for the principal figure. As time has passed the world has acknowledged he was not blonde and blue, nevertheless, the message is the key.
Decadent Roman indulgence. A seeming companion of wealth and leisure. Incestuous, abominable confusion that Arab King Herod would allegedly kill father for throne, marry brother's wife and pursue the niece, Salome.
Along comes humility, but unseen authority, in John the Baptist and the tortured, murdered, then risen Christ.
Filmed during election year 1960 that yielded JFK.
Eternally powerful story. Vivid wardrobing, makeup and cinematography.
Goodfellas (1990)
Portrayal of a real culture in NYC
Classic mobster movie.
Based on true events NYC.
Violent. Violence. More Violence.
Vintage Scorcese.
Story of three money hungry, violent sociopath New Yorkers - one Irish (DeNiro) and two Italian (Liotta and Pesci). Robbing, killing, threatening, indulging, dying or hiding. DeNiro can never be 'made' in the Italian mob as he is Irish. Pesci can.
However, ultra hot head Pesci brutally beyond words murders a made guy without 'permission.' The mob eventually deducts who did it.They offer to 'make' him, but, its a revenge hit. And to the face so his casket can be closed at the funeral.
Nixon (1995)
The Powerful 60's
The 60's.
Vietnam, LSD, Baby Boomers, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Jane Fonda, Communism, J Edgar Hoover, Elvis Presley
Richard Nixon is said to have always referred to himself as "Nixon." Somewhat apart from himself. Howard Hunt, a very key figure in Watergate (Ed Harris), calls him "the darkness reaching out for the darkness." On a dark lonely bridge, Hunt eerily tells John Dean, Nixon's Counsel (David Hyde Pierce), "your graves already been dug John." Referring to the idea it was always Nixon or you.
Oliver Stone theorizes that the CIA Director, Richard Helms (Sam Waterson), was as close to Satan as a human could get with a very scary 'eye shot' during a meeting with Nixon. Stone also suggests J Edgar Hoover, the feared 48-year-long FBI Director, was a cross-dresser and twisted to the core.
Stone goes further to suggest Nixon was in Dallas on November 22, 1963 and knew ahead of time about it. Nixon tells his Chief of Staff HR Haldeman (James Woods) "4 bodies paved the way all for me" - suggesting his brother, JFK, MLK and RFK.
Stone also suggests Nixon was a man's man. A gutsy ex-football player. A trailblazer naming Jewish Henry Kissinger (Paul Sorvino) National Security Advisor and going to China when his biggest supporters, staunch conservatives, were dead set against both.
In a hair raising scene in a remote mansion, surrounded by arch conservative supporters, the leader, Jack (Larry Hagman) threatens Nixon "Have you forgotten who put you where you are?"
Nixon says "The American people did."
Conservatives respond "Oh really? Well that can be changed in a heartbeat."
Nixon responds "I've learned how to compromise Jack. If you don't like me you can put your money behind McGovern. Is that what you want? Some panzy poet in the White House. And If you don't like the EPA up your posterior try the IRS."
When Jack gets nervous and asks "You wouldn't do that to me Dick?"
Nixon responds "I'm the president Jack. I don't have to."
Another powerful Stone work.
The Amateur (1981)
1970's Counter-Intelligence
1970's. Peak of the Cold War.
When communism and socialism were considered a cancer by the United States.
CIA is undercover in former East Germany.
Hans Schraeger carries out orders "according to plan." BUT, the casualty by chance is the fiance' of an idealistic, Edward Snowden-like braniac at CIA.
The rest is a train wreck.
Children of Men (2006)
Dark, gloomy projection of the future
Dramatic, end of world feature. Cinematography and lighting conveys hopelessness, sorrow, depression. But (they) fight on to protect the one child born in 18 years, that may be the last child born.
Congo (1995)
An entertaining trip into Africa
Drama Comedy
An idealistic Dr Eliot (Walsh) wants to return an ape home after "teaching it how to speak." An unscrupulous business man wants to steal big diamonds from where the apes live.
Ernie Hudson is superb as "the great White hunter that happens to be Black."
Great quotes:
Captain Wanta (Lindo): "Stop eating my sesame cake!"
Monroe (Hudson) to Eliot, whose scared in Tanzania and wants to go home:
"I'm leading a safari into the Varuunga region of the Congo. If you don't want to go you can go wherever. But, I should warn this is a D dangerous place and people die here very easily. Now if you'll excuse me."
Michael Clayton (2007)
Reality in American business dealings where law is involved
POLITICAL-ECONOMICS
Where the real American rubber meets the road.
Only a few elite colleges offer the course.
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Why would an elite law firm need a 'fixer'?
Because some cases need fixing.
The very top lawyer defending a corporate giant against a multi-billion dollar class action suit, goes off his meds, then off the deep end, undressing down to his BVDs at a deposition.
That's one problem, fixable. But, melting down to the point of wanting now to tell the PLAINTIFF how to win the case you were defending. Not fixable.
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Great Quotes:
Wealthy Westchesteran: I don't pay $12000 a year in retainers to be put at the end of the line.
Clayton: You left the scene of an accident on a slow Wednesday night, sss six miles from a barracks. Believe me, if there's a line you're at the front.
WW: Thats the phone. Is that the cops?
Clayton: No. They don't call.
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Clayton: Don't do this. I'm not the enemy.
Edens: Thennn who are you?
The Great White Hype (1996)
Very humorous tale of the intersection of sports and profits
A spoof on Heavyweight Boxer Mike Tyson, allegedly unscrupulous promoter Don King and the vulturous ways of promoters in the sport of boxing.
James 'The Grim Reaper' Roper (Wayans) is destroying his opponents. Ticket sales are down. Rev Fred Sultannnn (Jackson) needs ticket sales up so he can pay Roper the $10 million already owed.
He believes manufacturing a "race issue" will do that. So he finds a German retiree, remakes him into an Irish (a boxing nationality favorite) and avoids the real next contender.
Very entertaining. Strong language - Jackson is in it. Cheech Marin is excellent as a principle-less lackey of Sultan. Method Man does "I bring the pain."
Wayans is off the charts. "I came back to hit him with a left but his jorrhh was shattered. I'm the greatest of wallll time. I'm the greatest in the wurlll. That means all over the place. Even in China."
Gordon's War (1973)
The underbelly of inner city life, drugs and a sense of hopelessness
Another 'classic' from the 'blaxploitation film' era.
Drugs and Liquor Stores in the inner cities. A recurring theme.
Ravaging men, women, families, dreams.
Gordon Hudson, special forces, returns to find his once beautiful wife 'expired' from the ravages of drug-use. Big Pink is the culprit. Hudson smashes him and his big pink cadillac. So much so Spanish Harry, the godfather, gives a famous response to hospital-bed-ridden Pink's comment "Just let me get my hands on him." Harry responds, "Looks to me like you already have."
Luther the Pimp pleads the famous confession when Gordon's army threatens to shoot him up with the dope he peddles, "I don't use the stuff man."
Celebrated Ossie Davis directs.
Excellent, action-filled flick with a powerful message.
Amistad (1997)
Theatrical injection of a feeling of Victory
Movies like this are extremely painful for this viewer. This will be a FIRST view. All humans have one or another quality. The resiliency of humans that are Black must be beheld against the centuries of unspeakable inhumanity towards them.
Boomerang (1992)
Colorful, very humorous lesson about relationships and honesty
Advertising Executive/ Playa, Marcus (Eddie Murphy), has his way with women. They fall for his every word. Even strong-willed Stronge' (Grace Jones.)
That is until the company is bought and a new boss, Jacqueline (Robin Givens), arrives. Outgoing Exec Lady Eloise (Eartha Kitt) now plays Marcus. Jacqueline plays Marcus. Now Marcus gets to feel like an object as women in the office 'know what happened last night and sneak looks at Marcus'.
Very humorous movie. Real-life office experience. Great lesson to men about the dishonor of objectifying women.
Great cast included the late John Witherspoon, John Canada Terrell, Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and David Alan Grier,
Shadow Conspiracy (1997)
Sense of Actuality in DC
A special assistant to the POTUS learns of a coup d'etat conspiracy in the White House as the source is assassinated. Now bad guys are after the assistant as the only man who knows about a plot. It's DC. He doesn't know whom to trust.
As close to "True Story" as a political film gets.
The Nativity Story (2006)
Wonderful story of the magnificent birth
This is a well-made rendition of the birth of the most popular person in human history. Wealthy men from east, follow a cluster of stars which only converge once per many lifetimes in search of a king to be born.
On their way, they stop in Jerusalem and dine with wicked Jewish King Herod (played by Ciaran Hinds). His priests foretell too of the birth of a rival king.
Herod tells the men to come back and tell the whereabouts of the child. They do not. In wicked anger, he has all male children two and younger murdered by sword by his soldiers.
But, fails to kill the intended child.
Enemy of the State (1998)
Movie with Foresight
This film troubled the average viewer because of how vulnerable they were made to feel.
It seemed to be as spot on as could be. 22 years later society smoothered in electronic gadgetry, cameras on every street corner and hundreds of billions of dollars per year appropriated to "defense," even "eyes only" likely are not aware of 100% of where America is with surveillance.
Jon Voight plays a familiar role as 'villain.'
'Good' prevails in the end even if massive casualties accompanied it.
Smith and Hackman not surprisingly are outstanding.
City Hall (1996)
Politics. The Darkness.
Originally upright NYC mayor John Pappas has made compromises. One results in a 5 year old black boy shot in the back by a mafia kin that should have been in jail and not in Brownsville.
Like Watergate, as the truth makes its way towards the center, the mayor tells his idealistic Louisiana bred deputy "When you start out, there's a line you will not cross. After a thousand deals the line disappears."
Certainly inspired by true events as Queens Borough President Donald Manes did shoot himself in NYC 1986 as corruption investigations closed in.
Das Boot (1981)
Das Boot puts a civilian in a submarine
I felt the tight quarters, the 'helplessness' of the soldiers present in this submarine.
As depth charges rained down around the bottomed--out sub (as I recall), the cinematography, lightning and sound was beyond effective in making the viewer feel their terror and pain. They were German. Enemies at the time. But, they were human too.
The most personally poignant scene was the soldier that abandoned his post because he was mortified, scared. The captain's duty was to order him executed.
Incredible, terrifying story of some of war life to a civilian that has never experienced it.