Sigh...Ok, another movie sequel that just does not live up to the hype.
Ho, hum, I would rather have had a bottle of rum than watch "Pirates of
the Caribbean" movie, what, number 5 or 6 or 7? While somewhat
entertaining it had a confusing storyline and Johnny Depp playing the
same role to DEATH. This is one pirate that just needs to go away and
'tell no more tales.'
'13 Reasons Why' - I have been watching this show out of curiosity
because it seems to be in the news a lot lately because of the content -
teenage suicide. Apparently the concern is that this show glamorizes
it and people are concerned that some might see this as an 'easy way
out.' I find that concern somewhat ironic (and too late) as teenagers -
and adults too - already see suicide as such. I personally have 5
close friends who lost their children to suicide or committed suicide
themselves. My point of this is, as friends, adults, parents, loved
ones - we need to watch for signs in others of withdrawal or depression
or exhibiting signs that might indicate possible suicide.
This
is a rough and hard show to watch - of the 13 episodes I am now starting
number 7 - and was going to comment on it after watching it all but
this latest episode makes me so mad I have to say it now.
The central
character is bullied by her classmates and and an unjust reputation
given to her so that males think one way about her. I wish every
red-blooded male with an ego or attitude problem or spoiled behavior who
thinks 'I can get anyway with anything because I am so-or-so or my
parents or so- and-so' would watch this show and realize that when a
young girl or woman says no, she means NO! And as for the young ladies,
I hope we can continue to teach them that words can do way more damage
than they might realize.
I pray that we can help our youth learn to be
kind to each other, respect each other's differences, and love one
another as God's children. That is my perspective of this show for now.
More to follow...
Every May, the last Monday is set aside as a day of remembrance and appreciation for those Americans killed while serving in the armed forces. Created in 1868 in Decatur, Illinois, the holiday was originally intended to memorialize Union soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Civil War. It has since been expanded to include all wars, conflicts and battles fought by Americans.
12. The Thin Red Line
The Thin Red Line is the only movie by director Terence Malick that didn't feel like work. His films seem to be much more interested in atmosphere and inner thoughts than story and most of the time this results in something that would work a lot better as a book than a movie. But Red Line's depiction of WWII's Battle of Mount Austen has to be seen. Both The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan were released in 1998, but while Ryan is set in the European theater of WWII, Red Line takes place in the Pacific. The film is adapted from the 1962 semi-autobiographical novel by James Jones, who served in WWII as a member of the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Like the book, the movie explores the Battle of Mount Austen, which took place from December of 1942 throughout January of 1943 on the island of Guadalcanal. The battle cost the lives of over 115 U.S. troops.
11. Devotion
10. Sand Castle
Set during the second Iraq War, Sand Castle is the only movie that focuses on that military campaign to make this list and is the best film to cover that conflict.
9. Emancipation
Memorial Day was established specifically for men like the fallen members of the Black regiment depicted in Emancipation, who died while serving their country. Originally known as Decoration Day, the holiday was created to honor the soldiers of the Union Army killed while fighting in the Civil War.
8. Pearl Harbor
While director Michael Bay is not known for injecting substance into his movies, his take on the morning attack of the US naval base at Pearl Harbor gives a visual glimpse of the tragedy that documentary footage and older films just don't provide.
The movie is an obvious attempt to follow the formula that achieved so much success for Titanic four years earlier. And while it failed to critical acclaim, billions of dollars in ticket sales and multiple Oscar awards, Pearl Harbor does manage to surpass the big boat movie in terms of sheer spectacle.
The air raid on Pearl Harbor has been depicted on film before but never as realistically -- which is ironic, because the movie's melodramatic love triangle involving a nurse and two Army Air Corps pilots doesn't come across as very realistic at all. But Pearl Harbor's tendency to put you right in the middle of the bombing and strafing runs forces a new appreciation for what the sailors stationed at the base on December 7 back in 1941 went through. The movie also features a lesser-known piece of history (though the details are somewhat inaccurate) -- the counterattack on Japan carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his raiders.
Imperial Japan's surprise attack on the base on Hawaii's Oahu Island, which involved about 360 planes, resulted in the deaths of over 2,300 U.S. military personnel.
The majority of the movie's problems can be attributed to its contrived love-triangle story. Without it it's a pretty solid war movie.
7. The Great Raid
6. Greyhound
5. Hart's War
While Saving Private Ryan highlights (among other things) why WWII was so personal for Jewish soldiers, Hart's War explores the predicament in which African-American soldiers found themselves -- unwelcome by enemy combatants and American servicemen alike. When two pilots and members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen are shot down near a Nazi prison camp -- Stalag 6A -- they are soon subjected to at least as much hostility and disrespect from the white American POWs as from their German captors. Denied the deference due to officers (both pilots are second lieutenants), one, Lamar T. Archer, is shot to death by the guards after being framed with a weapon. The other, Lieutenant Lincoln A. Scott, is accused of murdering a fellow-prisoner -- Staff Sergeant Vic Bedford (who framed Archer). When the camp commandant, Colonel Oberst Werner Visser, agrees to allow the Americans to convene their own court-martial of Scott, Colonel William McNamara, the highest-ranking American prisoner, fully intends to do everything in his power to insure the trial lasts as long as possible and ends in a guilty verdict. Such a verdict would call for a sentence of death -- to be carried out by Visser's men. Under the colonel's direction, the Americans have been slowly and painstakingly tunneling out of the camp and the hope is that the legal proceedings will serve to distract the Germans.
All of the events are seen through the eyes of officer's aide, First Lieutenant Thomas Hart, who was captured driving a Jeep near the Battle of the Bulge -- the last major offensive by the Germans, during which at least 19,000 Americans were killed. Because Hart attended Yale law school for two years before joining the Army, he's drafted by McNamara to defend Scott. The idea is that the inexperienced Hart can't possibly win. Meanwhile, Visser supplies Hart with the U.S. Army manual on court-martials as a means to antagonize McNamara.
Hart's War is a mystery story as well as a war movie so I won't give away the ending for those who have yet to see it.
4. Legends of the Fall
Legends of the Fall is one of the few relatively recent movies that depicts American soldiers during the first World War, which claimed the lives of roughly 279 American servicemen per day.
Primarily known as a romance epic, Fall also features two brothers, Samuel and Tristan Ludlow. After learning that Samuel, the baby of the family, has plans to enlist in order to prove himself, Tristan joins as well -- but only to protect his brother. After the two are sent to the front, Tristan leaves his assigned unit and makes his way to Samuel's trench in order to watch his back. During one of the few times when his big brother's not by his side, Samuel volunteers for a veritable suicide mission and is subjected to mustard gas, as many soldiers were during trench warfare.
3. Midway
2. Fury
Fury is the best of only fourtank films to be produced in the 21st century (if you don't count Fast & Furious 6). Like Saving Private Ryan, the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and Enemy at the Gates, Fury perfectly captures the grittiness of the second world war. While it lacks the soul of Ryan and Brothers, fortunately it also lacks the contrived, love triangle melodrama of Enemy (the movie's love story appears nowhere in the non-fiction book on which the movie is based).
The
film follows an American tank crew in 1945 Germany making it's way to
Berlin during the last days of WWII. The title is derived from the
nickname given to the tank (a M4A3E8 Sherman model) by the five men who
have spent most of the war inside it. The crew belongs to "Hell on Wheels", the nickname given to the U.S. Army's 2nd Armored Division. Not surprisingly, the film picks
up on the male bondingamongst
the squad but without forcing it or becoming sugary. The main thing
that doesn't quite ring true here (besides some highly unlikely battle
outcomes given the weaponry involved) is some preachy and hokey dialogue
spouted by Brad Pitt's Staff Seargeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier about the
meaning and effects of war.
The
134-minute running time belies the film's limited scope, but the
restrained reach is a valid choice as it matches the claustrophobic
confines of the tank, which comprise much of the crew's world. Fury
appropriately pulls no punches in it's representation of the violence
and carnage wrought by the Nazis' ill-conceived attempt at world
domination. There are also glimpses of Germans living with the reality
of their homeland being invaded. Not every war film manages to convey
the cliche', "war is hell", but writer/director David Ayer leaves no
doubt - which is the very reason the speechifying should've been left
out. The visuals and tone get the message across. Pitt, Jon Bernthal,
Shia LaBeouf and Jason Isaacs bring to life various veteran soldiers
assigned to the U.S. Army's 66th Armored Regiment and invest in them a
refreshing credibility. The performances combined with the overall
atmosphere and exacting detail to the uniforms, equipment, etc. create
the awe-inspiring authenticity which is Fury's greatest strength.
1. Saving Private Ryan
Surprisingly inspired by true events, Saving Private Ryan is all about a mission to find the last surviving son of the Ryan family and send him home from the war alive and well. It is without a doubt the best military film of all time and legendary director Steven Spielberg's best work.
Over the protests of the surviving men under his command, Captain John H. Miller is tasked with the mission to rescue the last living Ryan brother (two of his brothers were KIA on the beach at Normandy and the third was killed by the Japanese in New Guinea) of an Iowa family from behind enemy lines before a German mortar round or bullet finds him first. Captain Miller receives the assignment after leading the remaining members of his squad from the 2nd Ranger Battalion of the 29th Infantry Division through the landing at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion, during which American casualties numbered over 2,000. First, they must find Private James Francis Ryan, a paratrooper and member of the 101st Airborne Division, who may or may not still be alive and who could've landed almost anywhere in the French countryside.
Like I said, the movie is loosely based on a true story. During WWII, the Army sent Fritz Niland home early after his three brothers were reported KIA. Fortunately, reports of Fritz's brother Edward's death turned out to be unfounded. He made it back home to America as well after escaping a Japanese prison camp.
Marvel's space comedy Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 crosses the finish line ahead of The Fate of the Furious to take the #1 spot from the long-running car series' latest release. Groot and company pulled in $427 million in global ticket sales in their opening weekend. But Vin Diesel and friends have nothing to worry about -- the whip franchise's 8th entry already crossed the billion-dollar mark days ago. The total now stands at $1.2 billion and counting, worldwide. It's on pace to overtake Beauty and the Beast for the biggest money-maker of 2017 in no time.
In tv news, the controversial teen-suicide show 13 Reasons Why has just been given the greenlight for season #2 by Netflix. All of the recent negative publicity probably drove the ratings up. Well, teens do like irony.
Where have I been the whole time 'Stranger Things' has been playing? Oh
man, this is definitely one of the best television shows I have seen in
a long, long time. If you haven't seen this on Netflix, do yourself a
favor and watch it. I had heard bits and pieces about this show,
including the hoopla when it won some awards and Wynona Ryder was all
psyched about it (she plays a pivotal role in the show) but didn't
realize it would be so good.
It truly is almost Spielberg-like in the
storyline and setting (it's based in the 80's) and I can see it as a
cross between "ET" and "The Goonies". The acting is so good, especially
that of the young kids in the series. I can't explain it other than
that there is a real magic in this show and hope when they're ready
with season 2 that the magic is still there!
Whether you're fluent in Spanish or hate reading subtitles, South of the Border has a lot to offer the discerning movie buff. Here are the best of the best:
18. 187
While Stand and Deliver is about a high school teacher who reaches his gang-banging students through education, 187's Trevor Garfield has no such luck. After recovering from a stabbing perpetrated by one of his students while at his old school in Bed-Stuy, Mr. Garfield relocates to sunny Los Angeles for a fresh start. Unfortunately for him, his new job more or less amounts to "Same sh#t, different town." Some of his new students belong to the Chicano street gang K.O.S. (Kappin' Off Suckers) and they make it clear that he's not the one in control of the class. Having no support from the school administration, suffering from PTSD and slowly losing his grip, he takes matters into his own hands.
17. Like Water for Chocolate
Like Water for Chocolate is basically food porn. It's also a fairytale and a much more realistic Cinderella story than the one with which everybody's familiar (though there is some magic involved here too). Tita's family tradition is that the youngest daughter is forbidden to marry so that she can serve as life-long caretaker for her mother. This also amounts to her being essentially the maid and cook for everyone at the hacienda. Unfortunately for her (aside from being born last), she falls in love with Pedro Muzquiz and dreams about becoming his wife. Her mother, Maria Elena, thinks Pedro would make a good match for her other daughter, Rosaura. Pedro, who is in love with Tita as well, decides that if he can't marry her, living under the same roof with her is the next best thing. And to accomplish this he agrees to marry Rosaura. The couple eventually has a baby boy, whom Tita also feeds by breastfeeding him. Tita doesn't have three friendly witches looking out for her but she is a great cook who can influence anyone who eats her food to feel the way that she did at the time that she prepared it.
16. Soldado
15. A Walk in the Clouds
During Paul Sutton's trip home after serving in WWII and returning to the U.S., he meets Victoria Aragon, a pregnant, young Mexican-American woman returning home from college, on the bus. Although Paul is married and because he's a sucker for tears, he agrees to accompany Victoria to her family's vineyard posing as her husband because she's afraid to face her father pregnant and unwed. Gringo Paul learns about Mexican culture and sparks fly.
14. Dirty
Dirty simultaneously explores the similarities/differences between African-American and Mexican-American street gangs in Los Angeles; provides and insider's perspective on police corruption; and examines the potential divided loyalties of cops with former gang ties.
13. Stand and Deliver
Stand and Deliver is based on the true story of how high school math teacher Jaime Escalante made calculus whizzes out of his "at-risk" students at East LA's Garfield High School in the 1980s. Because the students attend a poor public school in a poor neighborhood their passing scores on the AP Calculus exam are questioned. In reality, 12 of the 14 students suspected of cheating retook the test and passed again. The two who didn't retake the test decided it was unnecessary. Stand is the rare high school movie that's actually about education.
12. Zoot Suit
1981's Zoot Suit is the film adaptation of the play of the same name that is itself loosely based on an actual 1942 murder case -- the Sleepy Lagoon trial. A group of Zoot-suiters are railroaded straight to San Quentin due to the rampant racism of 1940s Los Angeles. In reality, the convictions were eventually reversed.
11. El Mariachi
This extremely independent film with no stars and a first-time director cost $7,000 and went on to make over $2 million and spawn two sequels featuring A-listers Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Enrique Iglesias and Johnny Depp. El Mariachi is by far the best installment in what turned into the Desperado Trilogy. In fact, Desperado is more or less a big-budget (but less realistic) Hollywood remake of Mariachi. In a case of mistaken identity, traveling guitarist is assumed to be notorious sicario Azul, who's widely known for carrying his weapons inside of a guitar case. Because Azul's former boss, drug kingpin Moco, has ordered a failed hit on him, the killer is on his way to get revenge. Unfortunately for him, Azul shows up in Moco's town looking for work -- where it's open season on guys dressed in black with guitar cases.
10. Cesar Chavez
Arizona-born Cesar Chavez was a migrant worker before becoming a labor organizer and union leader who used non-violent protests to fight for farmworkers' rights and in 1962 co-founded the national Farm Workers Association. Chavez graced the cover of Time magazine in 1969. Surprisingly, this is the first movie about his life.
9. Suicide Squad
The most powerful member of the Suicide Squad is Chato Santana, known on the street as "El Diablo". Possessing pyrokinetic abilities that allowed him to rise to the upper echelon of Chicano gang leaders in Los Angeles, he lost his temper one night and set fire to his house, which resulted in the deaths of his wife and children. Following the tragedy, he turned himself into the police and was eventually recruited to the team of supervillains, otherwise knows as Task Force X.
8.Traffic
Traffic
doesn't feature any opening credits -- which I love. I don't like to be
reminded of all that behind-the-scenes rigamaroll. The movie explores
the War on Drugs from various perspectives, including: a Mexican cop;
the new U.S. drug czar; the wife of an incarcerated drug kingpin; and
two DEA agents.
7. The Mask of Zorro
If you like Batman you might like Zorro. He's the original rich-playboy-by-day-masked-vigilante-in-black-by-night. But because he lives in the 19th century, he has a horse, Toronado, instead of the Tumbler. He also has swords instead of bat-shaped ninja stars. He uses them to cut his "signature" -- the letter "Z" -- into the necks of bad guys. In this origin story of the second Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega, the original man in black, trains his successor. De la Vega doesn't wanna give up the cause but after his last mission, his real identity was discovered and he was imprisoned for 20 years. Knowing that he can no longer be Zorro, he passes the mask down to -- a drunken bandit. But, hey, we all gotta start somewhere.
6. La Bamba
La Bamba is a biopic of teen singing sensation Ritchie Valens, who died during the same plane crash that also took the lives of fellow 1950s rockers Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, but Ritchie's big brother, Bob, kinda steals the show. Bob also steals Ritchie's gorgeous girlfriend, Rosie, portrayed by the late, Elizabeth Pena, who died in late 2014. Ritchie, who was 17 when he was killed, had two #1 songs 13 years before Selena was born. The movie focuses on Valens' career; his relationship with girlfriend Donna Ludwig, who inspired his first hit song, "Donna"; and his sibling rivalry with Bob -- the result of their mother Connie's obvious favoritism toward Ritchie.
This July 24th will mark the 30th anniversary of La Bamba's release.
5. Blood In, Blood Out
There are two sides to every story and Blood In, Blood Out is the one not fully told in American Me.While American Me focuses on the eses of the Mexican Mafia, Blood sheds light on their hated rivals, Nuestra Familia. But the two movies are very similar. Each has: a whiteboy with a Chicano accent; that same whiteboy sustaining a severe leg injury; heavy focus on prison life; and a clash between rival street gangs early on. The title refers to the notion that gang membership is a life-long commitment -- you shed blood to get in and you have to shed blood (by dying) to leave. The movie starts with a bang in 1972 with Cruz, his step-brother Paco and their cousin Miklo in the Chicano street gang Vatos Locos. Cruz is a painter, Paco is a golden gloves champ and Miklo is the white guy whose entire identity is tied to the gang. When Paco catches up to the rival gang leader, Spider, who crippled his brother, he gives the movies best line: "Get up Chuey, get up!" He then proceeds to cut Spider's placa (tattoo) off his hand and carves the Vatos Locos initials into his chest with a butterfly knife. Damn. The film follows their lives as Cruz becomes a heroin junkie, Miklo does hard time in San Quentin and Paco, surprisingly, becomes a police detective. Way before Benjamin Bratt was conservative homicide detective Reynaldo
"Rey" Curtis on Law & Order, he was gang leader turned undercover
cop Paco aka Rooster.
If finding the movie is tricky, look for it under its other, less gangster title: Bound by Honor.
4. Savages
Did you know that weed makes up 60% of the money that Mexican drug cartels take home? Savages
is all about what happens when one of those cartels tries to muscle in
on two white dudes' Mom & Pop business -- a corporate takeover,
except gangster style. Ordinarily, a situation like that would be over
in about 10 minutes but in this case one of the white guys is a Navy
SEAL.
3. No Country for Old Men
After Texas-native and Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss discovers the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong near the border in 1980, he does what a lotta people in his situation would do -- he grabs the $2 million in cash and hauls ass. Unfortunately for him, he didn't notice the tracking device and doesn't have much of a head-start on the guy the Mexican drug cartel that wants the money back sent to reclaim it. Anton Chigurh, a hired killer who is great at his job, stalks Moss like a human Terminator (the first one, not the one making jokes with the little kid). At times, he uses coin tosses to decide whether or not to kill. His weapon of choice is both ingenious and unconventional -- you've probably never even seen one of these in a movie before. Meanwhile, the local sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, is tracking Chigurh, but knows he's out of his league. No Country for Old Men was even embraced by the Hollywood establishment. It won the Best Picture Oscar at the 80th annual Academy Awards.
2. American Me
Growing up, every dude I knew had seen American Me. We all knew who Santana and Little Puppet were. And who could forget JD -- the blonde white boy who talks with a Chicano accent? What we didn't realize at the time was that American Me is really about the rise of La Eme, otherwise known as the Mexican Mafia, one of the largest and most powerful criminal organizations in the U.S. The crazy thing is that most of the gang's membership is incarcerated. Like Menace II Society, the movie begins with the parents of the central character in order to illustrate how violence and injustice can shape individuals and entire communities. Also like Menace, American Me juxtaposes environmental influence with individual choices. After touching on the conflicts between American sailors and the Chicano Zoot-suiters of 1940s Los Angeles, during which time main character Santana's mother is gang-raped, the movie fast-forwards 16 years to his teenage years as a member of the La Primera street gang. When Santana and friends and fellow-gang members (in the late 1950s/early 1960s when gangs rarely used firearms) Mundo and JD break into a bar in order to hide from rival gang members, JD is shot by the owner and all three are sent to Juvie. On his very first night of incarceration, Santana is raped at knife-point by another inmate and subsequently stabs him to death. The three friends are eventually sent to Folsom State Prison where they, along with other inmates, organize the various Chicano street gangs represented in the facility into the early version of La Eme. After his release, it becomes abundantly clear that Santana (and others like him) lacks certain social skills that most people take for granted, such as dancing and having sex with women. Santana, who is more philosophical and introspective than his friends, eventually questions his now life-long criminal career. American Me also explained prison politics to the masses for the first time -- especially the racial divisions. The movie's only real competition for the title of all time greatest prison drama is 2014's Starred Up. Supposedly, director and star Edward James Olmos became a target of the Mexican Mafia following the movie's release due to some members being offended by the film's suggestion that the group murdered one of its founders (Rudolfo Cadena, the guy Santana is based on). The Coen brothers are currently working on a remake of 1983's Scarface. Given that the main character will be an immigrant from Mexico instead of Cuba this time around, American Me might be a good blueprint for them to use.
1. Sicario
Sicario is one of the Spanish words for assassin. While Traffic presented the War on Drugs from various angles and perspectives, Sicario gives the POV of one FBI agent who gets caught up in it up to her eyeballs and may not make it back out. The movie also provides insight into the hazy legalities involved in fighting the "war".
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to let us know in the comments down below.
