Reviews

This series is a prime example of a splendid police drama series that went downhill fast, after it's producers and writers allowed it to become politically correct. I'm surprised Mark Harmon stood for it, but when good actors see dollar signs, they apparently lose their perspective. What a shame, I once loved this show.

There was a time when Al Pacino was my most favorite actor-no more-Denzel Washington is probably the only actor that can make a lousy movie into a classic. I have yet to see a movie starring DW where he doesn't turn even the creepiest movie into something worth watching. I don't think ANYONE can compare with his abilities in the acting field-thus he is my new favorite and one of the two or three who can make any movie worth watching. It's really not fair to his fellow actors how he takes over the screen with his ability and makes everyone else seem like a hack!

The wonder of this movie is that is was made at all considering the leftist supersaturation in Hollywood. Made at a time when liberals were in utter hysteria that Reagan was about to plunge the planet into nuclear devastation and inconvenience thousands of high paid liberal millionaire producers, directors and stars. Produced around the same time as 'Testament', 'The Day After' and 'Threads'-movies that were the left's ('Threads' was British)spineless attempts to warn the great unwashed that Reagan was a war-mongering madman and we, the artsy-fartsy set are going to do something about it-so, we'll make a movie and teach that awful Reagan not to inconvenience us by trying to win the cold war. Red Dawn itself is a fair movie about people's reaction to an actual invasion of the US. The Russians and Cubans come off as the perfect evil protagonists and the kids fighting them, well come on-they're the good guys. Too bad the producers didn't change the invasion's locale to Beverly Hills or Hollywood so the patriot's could also kick the ass of the producers of Testament and The Day After and the rest of the moribund left, many of whom at that time had nothing but warm and fuzzy feelings for their ideological co-stars in Havana, Moscow and Managua.

Based pretty much on the actual events & people of a miscarriage of justice that took place in Queens County, New York in the early 50's. The names of most of the people who took part in the event are unchanged in the movie and the location shots where the actual events took place add a touch of dark realism to the movie. The basic plot revolves around a musician who worked at the world famous Stork Club who was mis-identified by witnesses and arrested because he resembled an armed robber. Hitchcock dwells on the slow descent into helplessness and powerlessness that a citizen endures as he wends his way through the NYC (or any other) criminal justice meat grinder. There are chilling shots of his transport , by paddy wagon, into the Ridgewood Felony court and the Long Island City House of Detention. The lawyer he hired, Frank O'Connor, (his real name) went on to become District Attorney of Queens county and was later heavily involved in the infamous Kitty Genovese case. Not your typical Hitchcock film but one well worth seeing if for no other reason than to see one of Henry Fonda's better performances as the quietly stunned Christopher Emmanuel (Manny) Balestrero who sees his life, career and family endangered by forces he has little control over.

Just saw Million Dollar Baby and thought it was an above average movie and would recommend it to anyone if for no other reason than Morgan Freeman, my favorite actor, is in it. As to the ludicrous comment about Michael Medved, implying he's a closed-minded bigot because he panned the movie, well-not a very open-minded thing to say, was it. There are people in this country who really have to come to terms with the fact that their side lost the election and stop seeing life in blue state-red state dichotomies. How someone's voting habits would affect what they think of a movie, unless it is an undisguised hit piece like Fahrenheit 911, is a little beyond me but I guess there are some people that see political motivations in everything. The election is over-get over it.

This is the story of the court martial of two marines based in Guantanamo Bay. The story revolves around the actual court martial trial and the naval defense team who defend the marines. Jack Nicholson does his usual great job as the Lieutenant Colonel who commands the base and Kiefer Sutherland is superb as Lt. Jonathan Kendrick, the two marine's gung-ho company commander. Tom Cruise does an adequate job as the sardonic Lt. Daniel Kaffee the head of the defense team. So where do we begin with this review? The most striking thing to me about this movie is how bad it makes the United States Marines look, which is not surprising since it was directed by the ultra-leftist Rob Reiner. From some of the dialog in the movie it's clear that whoever wrote the screenplay has not a clue as to what it's like to be in the Armed Services. One of the funniest lines in the movie, though it surely wasn't meant to be by the screenwriter, was when one of the two marines, they had just been dishonorably discharged, remarks how as marines their job was to help the weak. HELP THE WEAK? This is the Marine Corps they do a lot of things but helping the weak –give me a break.. Only Hollywood could make up tripe like this. Rob Reiner is notorious for thrusting his political views into his movies (An American President) and done right and with subtlety it can add some color to a movie but Reiner clubs the movie viewer over the head with his extreme views and this usually makes his movies and the actors he directs little more than cartoon caricatures. Bad Movie-save your money or go out and rent a good John Wayne movie.

Tom Selleck is absolutely fabulous in this movie! Hollywood usually is very bad with jailhouse movies. They tend to go to extremes when depicting what it's like to suddenly lose your freedom and always neglect to portray the mind-numbing boredom, lack of privacy and constant noise that is for years part of a prisoners daily life. Having spent time in prison myself may make me a bit biased in favor of a movie where a convict actually gets revenge on the cops who set him up-so be it. I can remember only one other movie as good as this that came close to showing the reality of prison life and that was 'Short Eyes' a movie filmed in the Tombs in Manhattan-a place where I was a guest more than once. Check out the wonderful performance of F. Murray Abraham in this flick as the tough old con that give Selleck advice on how to survive in prison. Jailhouse movies made in Hollywood always seem patently phony to me as a rule-like some director's idea of what he thinks jail should be. This one is a huge exception to that rule. I recommend it highly and think you'll like it.

I don't know if Brad Pitt is just a so-so actor or if his being in the same movie with Morgan Freeman just makes it appear that way. Freeman is one of my choices for best actor in Hollywood today. Off-screen he appears to be as quiet and dignified as he does on-screen. He is one of the Hollywood actors who, thank God, you never hear spout the political bird-droppings that so many in Hollywood are prone to these days and which have surely diminished Hollywood in so many eyes. The movie was a fine vehicle for Freeman, who seems born to the role of the thinking police detective. I was somewhat turned off by Pitts affected accent in this movie which, by and large, with the exception of a few scenes, held my attention and there were several scenes that were riveting. I don't know why, but the first time I saw this movie I considered it just so-so but on viewing it again I've changed my opinion and now consider it better than average.

Truly a deplorable film. It was so bad I find it a waste of time to review-It doesn't even deserve a bad review-On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a 3(a bit better than a bad porno film-but only by a hair.) A real atrocity!