Reviews

Like many people I always wondered why Micah Torrence was sheriff. Today, I saw how he came to the series.

Micah was a good law man who was a fast gun but got tired of being challenged in gun fights. He is wandering around as a drunk when Lucas gives him a job at his ranch to clean him up. He no longer carries a hand gun.

Three guys (two who had been previously shot by Micah) come to town to kill Micah. Two go out to the ranch to kill Micah but back off because of McCain and his reputation with the rifle. The leaders of the three kills the existing sheriff and sets a trap to ambush McCain in town. The three plan to kill McCain and then kill Micah.

In the ambush, McCain kills one of the three but is shot twice from behind by one of the two other gun men. Micah rode into town to help Lucas because he suspected a trap. He guns down the guy who shot Lucas with a shotgun. He reloads the shotgun and then wins the shootout with the ringleader.

It explains why McCain was so loyal to Micah. He definitely would have died if it was not for Micah.

It is the only episode I can remember where Micah bailed out Lucas McCain. It would be ironic if it was the first one where Micah Torrence was introduced to the show.

I have to laugh at the critics here who criticize that the show points to the killers.

The concept of the Closer to me is not that she solves the case but how she uses different interrogation techniques to get the killers to confess. In the first episode, she uses the woman's homophobia to get her to admit that she knew the person had a sex change operation. It prevents a heat of passion defense and establishes premeditation.

The car jacking episode with the autistic boy she is able to use the fact that federal and state are considered separate sovereigns. Thus she could promise immunity on state charges knowing the car jacking made it a federal case and the guilty confessor would not get away scott free.

With the Abu Ghraib scandal and this belief that you have to torture people to get information, the Closer ironically shows that good and effective interrogation does not have to involve physical abuse.

TNT is not my favorite network but for once they did something right. I may forgive them someday for ruining the NBC Pretender series with their made for TV movie continuation that was god awful. This is the only series I can remember TNT doing that I like. They even screwed up Witchblade.

Postscript The Closer will be back judging by the ratings listed in the LA Times. The Closer is averaging 5.3 million viewers which is a hit on basic cable.

I don't think that Arquette's documentary was just a whine fest for rich liberal actresses. On the other hand, Debra Winger was a poor choice as her icon of a talented actress who was tossed by the wayside as she got older. Maybe Arquette should have read the roles Winger turned down in favor of such dogs as Mike"s Murder and Cannery Row. She gets a pass for turning down the Holly Hunter role in Broadcast News because she was pregnant. That is a legitimate point that having a family does hurt an actress' career but then Mare Winningham played a virgin while she was a pregnant. Yet as the link shows, she had prime movie roles that she chose to turn down. The Music Box was an especially powerful film.

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000700/bio She (Winger) became notorious for turning down worthy roles in quality films, such as Kathleen Turner's role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Susan Sarandon's role in Bull Durham (1988), Michelle Pfeiffer's role in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Jessica Lange's role in The Music Box(1989), and Geena Davis' role in A League of their Own (1992).

A League of their Own is especially egregious since Winger had the part but was upset that Director Penny Marshall chose Madonna to be in the film. I also wonder if Arquette considers Marshall sexist for not casting Ally Sheedy for a part because she could not play baseball good enough for the role. BTW, Winger married actor Arliss Howard and starred in a movie he directed in 2001.

I do have empathy for talented actresses who are not finding worthy roles in the movies. Part of it is the economics of movie making and what they consider marketable. However some of the actresses could also help by taking TV roles and boost the quality of that medium. It certainly helped Marg Helgenberger. If you are only willing to stick to a small part of the acting world of movies, actresses are limiting their own career. I mean big stars like Robin Williams, Julia Roberts and other big stars do cameos on TV, I am sure many of these actresses could find quality work especially with the proliferation of cable TV programming.

There are too many actors and actresses for everyone to be an A list movie star. Tony Shalhoub will never be a big time movie star but he certainly created some buzz with Monk. If he stuck to movies, he would be forced playing foreign cab drivers (Quick Change) or a pawn shop alien getting his head blown off (Men in Black).

The film is still a decent movie. As a history buff, I decided to look up the real story of the Titans to see what they changed.

First Denzel Washington's character had already been hired at the black school in the film. He was not a new coach. Three schools were closed and consolidated not two.

Second the Titans did not have any close games except for the Marshall game which they won 21-16 and not 10-7. However that game was the fifth game of the season and not the state championship as in the movie. The Titans crushed their opponents by double digits in every game on the way to the state championship.

The film was strong on getting many of the key racial relationships correct. What would been wrong showing the Titans as a dominant football team. Sports clichés such as winning on the last play of the game need to be eliminated in movies unless it actually happens.

What made Miracle a strong film is that they did not rewrite what happened in the US Soviet hockey game. Of course more people know the events of the US and Soviet Hockey semifinal game than the Titans high school football team in the 1970s. But in a film whose movie title is "Remember the Titans", I want to remember them as the dominant team they were.

Any film school student could made a film 1,000 times better than piece of garbage. As someone who had read the book, I expected even a straight re-telling of the book would make this a fair film. There was a chance that a talented director could go beyond Woodward's narrative and make a great film.

Well the director did go beyond Woodward's narrative. He added a hip Hispanic angel named Velasquez that was not in the book. He had Bob Woodward interview the dead Belushi in an exchange in the morgue. The film had all the insight of someone stoned on PCP staring at his navel.

If this is a spoiler to you, you will thank me for it because it is absolutely the worst movie ever made.