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mugaliens
Reviews
Chicago P.D.: Breaking Point (2018)
Definitely not "bingo"
WARNING: SPOILERS:
When it was discovered they were shot with an AR-15, I was suspicious of the show's actual motives.
When she pulled the weapon from the trunk of the perp's car and said, "AR-15 Assault Rifle. Bingo," I shouted BUSTED, not because they caught the bad guy, but because the writers are BUSTED for failing not doing their homework.
Repeat after me: "There is no such thing as an AR-15 assault rifle."
Seriously, folks, and it's no small point of contention, given the fact that assault rifles have been used in ONLY TWO (2) shootings in the last thirty years."
You see, "An assault rifle is a selective-fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine." It is a military weapon. The M-16 and M-4 are assault rifles. The AR-15 is NOT.
The AR-15, is SINGLE-FIRE ONLY, THE SAME all other firearms commonly owned by private citizens. It may look big and bad like the military, but it requires a separate trigger pull for each round fired.
Meanwhile, some of you are jumping up and down in your seats, saying, "Oh! I know! I know! It's an 'assault weapon!' "
Well, no. The term "assault weapon" was invented by a journalist in the 1980s because he was caught trying to call the AR-15 an "assault rifle." Technically, the AR-15 is no more an "assault weapon" than are rocks, knives, hammers, crowbars motor vehicles and all other instruments used by humans to assault one another.
Oh! I know! I know! Let's ban them all! Yeah! Let's ban rocks!
Of course that's unbelievably stupid.
So is calling an AR-15 an "assault rifle."
I'll resume watching Chicago P.D. when it's writers -- and actors -- take a basic firearms safety course and learn the difference between an assault rifle and pure liberal fiction. You can start by heading over to Wikipedia's entry on "assault rifle," wherein you will find the following:
"The term "assault rifle" is sometimes conflated with the term "assault weapon". According to the Associated Press Stylebook, the media should differentiate between "assault rifles," which are capable of fully automatic firing, and "assault weapons," which are semiautomatic and "not synonymous with assault rifle." In the U.S., civilian ownership of machine guns (and assault rifles) has been tightly regulated since 1934 under the National Firearms Act and since 1986 under the Firearm Owners Protection Act."
I encourage you to head to the manufacturer of the AR-15 depicted in the episode, where you should quickly be able to discern that it most certainly is not an "assault rifle."
Cast Away (2000)
A wonderful film about abandonment and moving on
I first watched this film as a rental shortly after my son was born. My ex was well onto her way towards leaving for good, and she still hasn't explained why, at least not with any grip on reality.
Without giving away any spoilers, this movie is a wonderful parallel to the simple fact that in life somethings things happen which are completely beyond our control. We can kick ourselves silly trying to figure out what we might have done better, but when it comes right down to it, the answer sometimes comes up, "Nothing."
Chuck Nolan finds himself in the same situation, faces additional setbacks, yet somehow manages to survive. His road back to life was as long as mine.
He made it. I made it. Perseverance is wonderful, even though it's initially painful as hell. Cast Away does a wonderful job paralleling the severe emotional journey of abandonment, survival, recovery, and the eventual re-awakenings of life all men go through when they're abandoned by their spouses through no fault of their own.
The term "cathartic" is a huge understatement.
S.W.A.T.: Firefight (2011)
A mildly enjoyable continuation of the original S.W.A.T. movie with Colin Ferrel
No, it's nowhere as good. The acting is two steps below no matter how one considers it. Robert Patrick, you should have stayed away from this project, as your acting requires better direction. As for the directors, the screen direction is actually what carries this movie! Very good! It's the personal interplay that tubes it, originating at the shoddy interplay between characters at the original script level.
What I did enjoy about the movie, at least for the first half of the movie is that is seemed on the legit. Everything rang true. Then, things just sort of dissolved into a messy ending.
This is a clear case of why multiple agencies should be involved in various stages of the screenplay as it develops, while there must always be someone with their finger on the button coordination all efforts from all sides so that By the way, I am so sick of "1-sec until she blows!" endings it's not even funny. Hollywood writers, STOP IT. Pop a boil on you backside and grow a brain. That's not the way to do it.
Back to the picture, the lead character simply didn't have anywhere near the moxie to pull it. I don't have the face, but neither does Machete' star, either. He get's it, perhaps because of his prison background. So do I, perhaps because of my military background. This guy? He's a sty-faced stand-in trying to act tough in many situations in which so many Americans have not only been in, but in which they've already proved their worth.
If you'd like to talk about capturing military experience, talk to the military. Or at least those of us who've been there, done that.