Reviews

Although this short film appears British, it was actually produced in America in 1933. It is a parody of both the Sherlock Holmes and Fu Manchu characters. The title character is called Sheerluck Jones and it also utilizes the standard villain with a big mustache with a cackling laugh that is fond of spinning the ends of his mustache in his hand.

Intermixed with the blatant racist formula, much of the action reminds the viewer of the Three Stooges of Moe, Larry and Curly. Since the distinctive slapstick antics of the original stooges were developed in the 1920's, it is very possible that they were an inspiration for this movie. There is also a mass fight in an opium den that would do justice to the saloon fights that were so common in later American westerns.

With over the top acting, strongly presented dialog and some physical expressions right out of the silent movies, this movie demonstrates a great deal of how movie comedy is being developed in the early years of the talkies.

This 8 minute plus short is made up of a set of string puppets and is a parody of the Sherlock Holmes character. His name has been modified to Herlock Sholmes and the action opens inside a Chinese opium den. There is a fight, and some people are killed with a female dancer left alive.

The British police are called in and they are baffled, so they consult the great detective Herlock Sholmes and he agrees to investigate. With magnifying glass in hand, Herlock manages to avoid the knife wielding assailant until the police arrive.

Modern viewers will generally find the action of string puppets to be uninspiring, but this was no doubt great entertainment in the early years of television, it was produced in 1930. With as many as seven puppets on the screen at one time, there had to be a great deal of coordination between the puppeteers. The action demonstrates how talented all of the puppeteers were, the puppets move in a surprisingly lifelike manner.

The plot is simple and easy to follow, there are occasional text screens to explain what is happening. This video is a look back at a generally forgotten form of entertainment, the string puppet.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes familiar with the later episodes starring Basil Rathbone will likely be disappointed with this movie. However, if viewed in a historical context where the movie producers and actors were still learning their craft, it can be entertaining. One aspect of this movie is how physically close the actors sometimes are to each other. The dialog is often delivered with a brusqueness that comes across as overbearing and the acting is frequently stiff.

This movie was released in 1931, when the players at all levels were still learning how to include dialog. The first movie with sound had been released in 1927, so the path to crisp and effective dialog was still unproven.

The plot is a simple one. A member of the British government is being blackmailed into transporting counterfeit British pounds out of the country where they could more easily be passed on. Professor Moriarty, the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes is the leader of the criminal enterprise that is behind the plot. He pays a visit to Holmes in a disguise that is overbearing but does not fool Holmes as to his true identity.

My purpose in watching the movie was to get some historical background of the evolution of the Holmes character on film. I am a big fan of the character, having read all of the original stories several times as well as watched most of the movies and read the later books by other writers. Sometimes, to appreciate the later work one must first study the earlier versions. In this case, my plan worked as I now have a better understanding of how the character has evolved on film.

Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger grew up dreaming of playing football at Notre Dame. Unfortunately, he lacked the physical skills to play football at that level and the grades and money to attend Notre Dame. His father and friends work in a steel mill, and they dismiss his ambition as an impossible goal. However, Rudy is not deterred, while working in the steel mill, he saves some money and continues to hold tight to his dream.

Rudy takes a bus to the campus of Notre Dame and tells a friendly priest that he wants to play football for Notre Dame. All he lacks are physical skills, tuition money and the proper high school grades. The priest gets him into nearby Holy Cross College so that he can bring up his grades. Rudy does everything he can to be around the football team, even volunteering to work on the field for free.

Perseverance and dedication pay off and Rudy is eventually admitted to Notre Dame, and he immediately joins the team as a walk-on. Even though he is generally outclassed on the field, he never gives up and keeps trying. When the last game is to be played and Rudy is left off the dress list, the scholarship players express their desire to give up their position on the dress list so that Rudy can dress for the final game. The captain is the first to approach the coach and when told, "You are an All-American and a team captain, you need to act like it." The response is one of the greatest lines to be uttered in a sports movie, "I am acting like a captain." There is a climactic ending that is stirring and can easily bring a tear to your eye. Unlike sports movies that end with a success in the big game at the end, this one simply has a man achieving an incredible dream. Which is better than most of the big game heroics in other movies.

This is clearly one of the best sports movies ever made. There is a big game at the end, yet one of the most unusual celebration actions by the winners. The scene where the Charlie Sheen character comes out of the bullpen to the song "Wild Thing" is arguably the best sports scene ever filmed.

The premise is that a woman has taken over ownership of the Cleveland Indians major league team and her goal is to run it into the ground so that she can move the team to another city. Surprisingly, this premise is more reasonable than it should be. While the owners deny it, there is strong evidence that some owners of major sports teams have done just that.

She puts together a collection of misfits and questionable talent and refuses to spend more than the bare minimum in maintaining the team. Yet, to the surprise of almost everyone, the members of the team gel and challenge for the pennant against the powerful Yankees.

There is also a powerful subplot of a romantic entanglement of the Tom Berenger character as he engages in some unusual actions in an attempt to get his ex-wife back. One of the Indians players is also a practitioner of voodoo, which leads to some comic moments.

While there are some main characters, there really is not a star. All could be considered supporting characters, and each role is very well played. Which is the way it should be in a sports movie about an underdog team clawing its way to the top. As the past baseball season (2023) demonstrated, big payrolls and major stars on a roster do not make champions. Teamwork and proper role playing win pennants and World Series.

The setting of this movie is the tropical rainforest of the northwestern United States and southwest Canada. A family consisting of a father (Robert) and his two young adult daughters (Nell and Eva) live in a very isolated house in the forest and the father is extremely talented in living in the forest. He cuts a plentiful supply of firewood, is very good in maintaining things and they have a small flock of chickens.

Suddenly, there is an unexpected, massive and total loss of electrical power. While Robert had solar panels installed, the inverter has not arrived, so they are useless in terms of power generation for the house. They travel to town and discover how widespread the outage is, it appears to be national in scope and while they have battery powered radios, there is no official government information that explains the problem. The viewer never learns why the power went out.

When Robert is killed in an accident with a chainsaw, Nell and Eva then must cope with the situation and with each other. They start out with a large stock of food and of course they have eggs from the chickens. However, wild hogs attack and kill the chickens, so they are forced to find food from the land. Fortunately, they have a large library containing books on how to live off the forest.

What makes this story different from most apocalyptic stories is that there are no mobs of looters roaming about the countryside. Only two men visit their home and they do so separately and only one is dangerous. The timeframe for the power being out extends to nearly two years and two young women alone in an isolated location would have been an easy target.

Therefore, this story is about how the two young sisters interact and try to cope with a situation that makes no sense and where almost nothing works. Quite unusual and effectively carried out. While they sometimes engage in strong disagreements, they both understand that they are all each other has.

California marijuana entrepreneurs Ben and Chon live a unique lifestyle. They grow some of the best marijuana in the world and are in a permanent threesome with a woman named O. They share her equally and their business is doing very well. They also know some of the best computer hackers in the world that assist them in managing their revenue. Chon is also a veteran of the US military, and he has some best friends that are ex special forces with deadly sniper skills.

Their idyllic world is shattered when Elena, the drug lord of Baja decides to take over their business. Despite all of the attempts of Ben and Chon to work out a deal, and even flee the country, Elena makes the decision to kidnap O in an attempt to force them to do her bidding.

However, even though at first it appears that Elena has the upper hand, Ben and Cho fight back, matching violence with violence. It is a close run thing, and there is more than one ending, one happy and one very deadly.

The performances are very good, the complete viciousness of the soldiers of the drug cartel is demonstrated, although some of the images are disturbing. While Chon has experience in the extreme violence of the world, Ben is forced to alter his being into that of a heartless creature. All of it is based on their desire to rescue O, leading to the climactic scene of a faceoff. Violence is the life of the people high in the drug trade and Stone captures their approach to life and their peculiar business.

Given his chronic back problems, John F. Kennedy could have avoided combat in World War II. However, he pleaded with his very influential father to find a doctor willing to certify him healthy enough to serve in a combat role. After his basic officer training, Kennedy was given command of a patrol-torpedo (PT) boat with the designation PT109.

Their assignment was to patrol the area that was known as the "Tokyo Express," where fast convoys of Japanese ships traveled down to the Solomon Islands at night to reinforce and resupply the Japanese garrison there. One night, a Japanese destroyer collided with PT 109, cutting it into pieces, killing some of the crew and sinking it.

Left for dead, the crew of the PT 109 had to fend for themselves. Swimming to an island, they managed to survive until they encountered some natives of the Solomons. After some communication, the survivors of the PT 109 were rescued. Decades later a search time utilized high tech gear to search the area for the remains of the PT 109 and they managed to identify a torpedo tube on the sea floor as from the PT 109.

This video has two main tracks. The first references the events leading up to the destruction of PT 109 in August of 1943 as well as the aftermath. Later footage is of a meeting between two of the Solomon Islanders that rescued the PT 109 survivors with a member of the Kennedy family. The other track follows the research team as they try to locate the wreckage of PT 109.

It is an interesting story, for the destruction of PT 109 and the conduct of Kennedy in the aftermath likely transformed him into presidential material. Edward Kennedy, brother of John Kennedy says as much when interviewed. This is a worthy item for viewing in history classes through all educational levels.

Like many others, I was extremely disappointed when the television series "Battlestar Galactica" was cancelled after one season. While I questioned many of the absurd plot points, the general trend of the series was entertaining. Therefore, I was pleased when I viewed the promos for the reboot called "Galactica 1980." The time is many years after the destruction of the colonies where the Galactica led the survivors on a trek for Earth. The premise is that the fleet has encountered Earth, but a powerful Cylon force is close behind. Once it is clear that Earth is well behind the colonies in technology, rather than proceed to Earth and put it in danger, the decision is made to veer off and send small teams to Earth with the goal being to accelerate the pace of technological advancement. This introduces the first major plot hole, for the Cylons would be capable of intercepting broadcast transmissions from Earth and realize that it is populated by humans.

The introduction of the genius Dr. Zee is an interesting point, for it introduces the concept of a tactical wizard that can help even the odds between the humans and Cylons. The story follows two warriors, Troy and Dillon that are sent to Earth to make contact with a renowned nuclear physicist and help him solve the problems associated with nuclear power. The contact takes place in southern California.

There are several attempts at humor where Troy and Dillon demonstrate a lack of understanding of basic concepts of human behaviors. Some work while many do not. It also demonstrates another plot flaw, for a genius at the level of Dr. Zee would have created briefing materials for the warriors that would help them avoid some of the misunderstandings.

Despite these weaknesses, the episode has enough good points that it instills hope in the viewer that the series will improve over future episodes as the characters and their roles are fleshed out. The introduction of the female reporter Jamie Hamilton shows a lot of promise as she is smart and adaptable.

This movie is based on a true story. There is a close knit group of women in the British village of Knapely. They belong to the local chapter of the Women's Institute and tragedy strikes when one of the women's husband comes down with Leukemia and dies. After discovering that the couch in the waiting room is very uncomfortable and seeing a girlie calendar, one of the women comes up with an idea for fundraising.

Her idea is to create a girlie calendar featuring women of the Women's Institute nude and engaging in typical activities of women in the club. Props would be situated so that the important parts would be hidden from the camera. After some initial skepticism, enough women agree to pose so that they can make a calendar. The project is a great success, and it raises hundreds of thousands of pounds for leukemia research.

This movie is very well cast and acted. All of the women act their parts very well, showing the proper level of embarrassment and courage as they bond over their shared nude experiences. The women that play the essential bit parts also provide the proper backdrop of prudery followed by pride in what the women accomplished. The men in their lives are sometimes supportive and other times outlandish jerks.

While the action is occasionally a bit slow, it is often quite funny with subtle humor. Succored by wine and other alcoholic beverages, the women manage to achieve a high level of success in a most unusual way.

The three Mad Max movies starring Mel Gibson broke new ground in the post apocalypse genre. There was some form of catastrophic event where civilization fell apart over a very short time. There was always the underlying premise that there was a nuclear war and most of the survivors were in very arid lands. This movie applies the same premise, and the male hero is once again named Max. Although we do not learn that until the end.

There is a massive grouping of humans that are subjugated by a small band of ruthless men that have the total obedience to the death of their war gangs. When Max encounters that group, he is captured, enslaved and turned into a living blood bank. Max is played by Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron plays Imperator Furiosa, the leader of a small group of women fleeing across the wasteland in a makeshift vehicle that has both gas and water tankers.

A road war that dwarfs those of the previous iterations of the series takes place. There are many vehicles in pursuit, including a man playing a very heavy metal guitar. Some of the pursuing vehicles have large poles with men on the top that can be swayed so the men land on the tanker. The action is essentially nonstop and intense, yet the fundamental plot device of an understandable goal is lacking. It is hard to determine what the massing group of humans really is and how it is controlled.

At the end, there is the hint of the rekindling of civilization, but the mechanism that it will be implemented is fuzzy and ill-defined. If you are a fan of the road warrior style action, then you will love this movie. However, if you prefer that your post-apocalyptic stories have a basic plot towards the rebirth of civilization in an understandable manner, then you will be disappointed.

Jeff Bridges stars as NFL football player Terry Brogan, a wide receiver with a shoulder injury where his recovery is questionable. When Brogan is dropped from his current team and in need of cash, a shady L. A. nightclub owner (Jake, played by James Woods) pays Brogan big money to search for his wife, Jessie Wyler (played by Rachel Ward.) Pursuing her to Mexico, Brogan has little difficulty in tracking her down.

However, things get complicated very quickly when Brogan falls in love with Wyler and they begin a steamy affair. When Jake becomes suspicious of what is happening between Brogan and Wyler, he dispatches his henchman Hank Sully to break up the love match using any and all means. This makes things even more complicated, and Brogan begins to realize that he is in the middle of a very complicated scheme with multiple levels.

Things continue to move sideways as the plot becomes more complicated and even more opaque to the viewer. While most of the convolutions are resolved at the end, most of the suspension of disbelief of the viewer has been lost. To be intense, a thriller has to have some level of plausibility, but the complex level of corruption that involves a major land development, an NFL football team, illegal and unethical betting and several murders that seem to have been considered incidental destroys that premise. All of this causes the plausibility necessity to expire.

This sequel is one where the intensity of the two separate original movies is not sustained. A predator craft crash lands on Earth and the predator on board is carrying an alien embryo. That embryo "hatches" from the body of the predator and begins attacking humans. Meanwhile, a man arrives back in his small Colorado hometown after a stint in prison. He reconnects with some friends from his youth as he tries to rebuild his life. His younger brother delivers pizza and is unhappy, he pursues a young woman and gets beat up for it.

Another predator recognizes the crashing craft and travels to Earth in order to battle and exterminate the aliens. This creature will kill, and skin humans if the opportunity is presented. This sets up a three-way battle between the humans, the lone predator and the rapidly multiplying aliens.

There is a lot of action, some of which is intense. Which is normal, there is no way a person can grow accustomed to one of those disgusting creatures exiting a human chest. Unfortunately, there is not enough action where the predator is stalking the aliens and too much extreme human interaction. There is some teen angst, with the almost requisite dead teenager action. Extreme teen male jealousy is lost when humans are battling such powerful creatures.

The ending was very predictable and unsatisfying. The final showdown between predator and an alien is right out of the movie cliché of a battle to the death between warriors. Other scenes are also very predictable.

In this episode, Jesse is still the retired ex-chief of the Paradise police force and his replacement is a man easy to dislike. Cindy Van Alden was a young woman that was a close friend of Jesse's until she went off to college and they no longer stayed in touch. Suddenly, Cindy is found dead in a vehicle on the side of the road in Paradise and the preliminary conclusion is that she died of a drug overdose.

Determined to learn the truth, Jesse does some investigation on his own and faces a lot of pushback. Cindy had been in a rehab clinic and as Jesse investigates, it appears that she was worse off when she was released than she was when she checked in.

Healy is involved in a case where a young black man is accused of murder and while he has no proof, he believes the man is innocent. At that point, he hires Jesse as a consultant and this time Jesse requests a badge. He then uses the authority that the badge gives him to probe both cases. Being Jesse Stone, he presses people to the point where they resist, yet his superb investigative skills allow him to "solve" both cases.

People familiar with the Jesse Stone series of films will recognize the formula where Jesse gets stuck and consults mobster Gino Fish, a dangerous man that likes Jesse and has some scruples in his illegal business dealings.

As is the case with the Parker books, the dialog in this video is sharp, concise and deadpan humorous. Selleck is the perfect actor to play Jesse Stone, he has the size, stern look even when friendly and he plays the functional drunk to perfection. In spite of his flaws, Jesse Stone is a superb police officer.

This movie is simultaneously depressing and entertaining. Theo is played by Clive Owen and the setting is in England in 2027. For reasons that are not explained or likely even known, no baby has been born for eighteen years. The youngest known person is a celebrity and was recently killed. England is now under a brutal martial law and there are roaming gangs of thugs that will attack anything they can. For example, when Theo takes the commuter train, it is pelted by members of a gang. There is a strong anti-immigrant sentiment in the country, people of color are being systematically rounded up and caged, ghettoed or worse.

When Theo's former lover has Theo abducted, she asks him to help her escort a young black female out of the country. At first, he is not told the reason why, when he agrees and is part of a group traveling to their destination, they are attacked by a gang and his former lover is killed. Yet, they manage to reach their safe house. While there, Theo learns that the black female is pregnant, a modern miracle to say the least.

The action is brutal, England is a nation in many ways at war with itself, Theo and the woman are in the thick of a battle between the British Army and the ghettoed immigrants in an event they call "the uprising." This film is very powerful, for in the midst of what is essentially a race war, the only current hope for the human race to continue is a black woman with a child. Another powerful scene is when Theo and his small group hide out in an abandoned elementary school. It is sad to see what should be a place of joy rotting for lack of upkeep. There is a glimmer of hope at the end, but it is only a glimmer.

It is the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday and the Lone Ranger and Tonto plan on paying a visit to Phil Beach. He is a man that went to prison as a consequence of the actions of the Lone Ranger and Tonto, but he is now reformed and is married. His wife is in poor health, and he needs money so that she can go away to a better climate. His wife's father is a miser and refuses to provide any assistance, even though Phil asks him at the level of nearly begging.

When two old outlaw cohorts of Phil come into town, they try to convince him to assist them in robbing the town bank. Phil tells them to get lost, but they are difficult to get rid of. Phil is scheduled to dress up as Abraham Lincoln and give the Gettysburg Address in front of the townspeople.

Phil becomes desperate to help his wife and so he commits a robbery. At first, it appears that he gets away with it, but the Lone Ranger and Tonto easily see through it. In the end, Phil admits his guilt, and all is forgiven in a morality play about crime never paying off and forgiveness being a virtue.

This is typical of the episodes of the Lone Ranger TV series. There is always a happy ending based on "the better angels of our nature."

The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on the false pretense that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and intended to use them against western targets. This was a consequence of the foul mood after the destructive attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. Iraq had used chemical weapons in the war with Iran, with the most notable incident being the Halabja massacre, where over 3,000 civilians were killed with mustard gas and nerve agents. This is the highest level of death from chemical agents used in history. Therefore, there were historical precedents for the principle of Iraq possessing chemical agents and the will to use them.

In this movie, Matt Damon plays an American soldier that commands a team that travels to sites where a source has claimed WMD in the form of chemical and biological agents is present. The source was given the code name "Magellan" and investigations of several sites has revealed not event a hint of a WMD agent.

This thriller is all the more intense because it features a great deal of the subterfuge going on between the American civilians that are now acting as the de facto government of Iraq and the local CIA. The American civilians are arrogant and incredibly naïve in their approach to what Iraq will be post invasion and reject the advice of the CIA official. That official is very emphatic in stating that the only force that can govern Iraq at this time is the Iraqi army. The response from the American civilians is to disband the army and try to turn control over to an Iraqi expatriate that has not been in the country for decades.

The battles between the unit commanded by the Matt Damon character and what is a rogue U. S. military unit with the CIA in the middle add yet another level of tension to the conflict. There is also a reference to NY Times reporter Judith Miller, she wrote a story claiming that Iraq had WMD. It turned out that she was duped by people in the American intelligence community.

There are battles with bullets and there are battles with words in this movie. While both are riveting, the most interesting are the ones with words. For they demonstrate how flawed the American invasion was, as it was based on faulty intelligence, downright lies and deliberate misinformation.

The premise of this movie is that a woman is falsely accused of dealing in drugs. She encounters a group of people doing drugs and when the police arrive, a stash is placed in her coat. Those drugs are discovered, and she is summarily sent to prison to await trial. It is a prison run by nuns and most of the movie depicts the lives of the women in their environment.

Much of the movie is predictable, with two of the obligatory scenes of such movies present. The first is the shower scene, where the women cavort like schoolgirls under the streams of water. They are having so much fun that the nun supervising them steps in to separate an overexuberant pair. The second obligatory scene is one that strongly hints of lesbian sexual activity.

As was expected, there were several scenes where the sole purpose seemed to be an excuse to include one or more bare female breasts. Other than that, the movie is quite dull, the acting is weak, storyline unremarkable and predictable. The falsely accused woman is somehow exonerated and apparently walks out of the prison a changed person. At least that is what is hinted, there is no definitive justification. It is a typical example of the women in prison genre that was popular drive-in fare for a time.

The Summer Olympic Games were underway in the first week of September 1972. The Olympic Games were generally a joyous time of sportsmanship and competition. However, in this Olympics the world was changed when terrorists from the Black September group managed to infiltrate the Olympic village. They took 9 members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage and killed two others in the process. The terrorists demanded the release of over two hundred of their jailed comrades and flight out of what was then Munich, West Germany. The German officials attempted a rescue of the hostages, but the result was that all nine hostages were killed. Three of the terrorists survived.

As a consequence of this event, the Israeli government authorized what they referred to as Operation Wrath of God. The security forces were told to hunt down and kill all people involved in planning the attack. This movie is a rendition of the actions of the Israeli team of agents that engaged in the killings.

This is a tense movie and to the extent that it is possible, shows the events in a reasonable approximation to what actually happened. There were five members of the Israeli team from disparate backgrounds. The events of the taking of the hostages up to when they were killed is shown in flashback snippets, with the allegation that West German authorities bungled the rescue attempt not appearing until very late in the movie.

The very brutal world of tit-for-tat terrorist acts between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the seventies is very much a part of the plot. Some of the violence is very graphic, but the turmoil felt by the agents is also an integral part of the story. Most of the people they kill are very respectable looking, totally outside the mold of the wild-eyed pistol waver. As they take care of their targets, there is a great deal of concern expressed by the team members as to whether they are really making a difference, wondering whether they were simply escalating the terrorist violence.

This is a great movie, worthy of the accolades it received. However, if you do not understand the basic history of the event, reaching the proper level of historical significance of the events may not be possible.

One of Robert B. Parkers best literary quirks is that his heroes often have significant flaws, and none is more flawed than Jesse Stone. A great cop with genius-level instincts for the truth, Jesse has almost uncontrolled weaknesses for alcohol and ex-wife Jen. This video is a depiction of the story that introduced Jesse to the world.

It opens with Jesse in California after being fired for being drunk on the job on the police force. He is standing on the edge of the ocean looking out, waiting for his body to process the alcohol so that he can safely drive to Paradise, Massachusetts. He is going there as he is a prime candidate for the job of chief of police. His constant and loyal companion is his dog Boomer.

To his surprise, Jesse is hired, even though he smells of alcohol when he is interviewed. He does not realize that the main decision-maker wants him for chief because he is convinced that he can control him. Jesse begins to settle in and form relationships with other people in town, both personal and professional.

When the former chief is murdered, Jesse is determined to find the killer and it is here the viewer begins to learn that Jesse is an unorthodox chief. His solution to a man violating a restraining order to avoid his ex-wife is unorthodox to say the least. It is that effective quirkiness that quickly endears Jesse to his fellow officers, people in the town and the viewers.

This is one of those serial movies where once you watch one, there is a strong urge to go on to the next one.

This movie is so loaded with cliches' and standard situations of teen movies that it reminded me of the classic comedy "Airplane." There were so many bad jokes, many of which were predictable, that "Airplane" ended up being funny. By the time it was made, there had been so many airplane disaster movies that often recycled the same situations, there was plenty of well-known material to work with.

The situation is similar with this movie, the case openly identifies several of the main characters in a high school along with the roles they will fill. There is the popular jock, nasty cheerleader, the pretty girl masked by her attempts to be unattractive, a token black male with limited dialog and a female foreign exchange student that attends classes while being naked.

There is the father that is an alcoholic veteran of Vietnam, young males trying desperately to have sex, males peeking into the girls' locker room, the wild party when the parents are gone and a mushy airport scene at the end where the male professes his love for the girl about to fly away out of his life.

Of course, there are several lame excuses for a young female to be naked, deliberate ham acting and dialog that is predictable. When watching the movie, it is easy to think that the writers had an easy time with the screenplay. For the scenes are standard fare and in most scenes, the lines to be uttered have to a large extent have already been scripted. Yet, the movie works as a comedy, as long as there is no anticipation of great art.

It has been several years since I watched an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies." When watching this episode one conclusion in inescapable. The show was one of the best casted shows ever produced. Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett, Irene Ryan as Daisy Moses (Granny), Donna Douglas as Elly May and Max Baer Jr. As Jethro Bodine were made for their roles. While the humor is very dated in the sense that it appears childish to modern viewers, the body language of the main characters makes up for some of it.

In this episode, an IRS agent arrives at the Clampett mansion and is driven away by Granny at the point of a gun. The agent then goes to banker Milburn Drysdale in an attempt to get an explanation of how Jed was suddenly earning millions after having nothing. The explanations involve flashbacks to how the Clampetts lived before they sold their land for the oil underneath. Again, the humor is rather corny, the characters are overplayed as ignorant hicks, yet there is something endearing about their simple lifestyle.

In the middle sixties when the series was produced, there were still areas of the United States where people lived like the Clampetts originally did. Therefore, there was some truth to their origins and nearly everyone knew it. This made the deep country humor more realistic than it is now. Furthermore, there are few taxpayers in the country that would resist the opportunity to chase an IRS agent away by brandishing a gun.

This movie is a powerful tale that has no happy ending, it really gives nothing that leaves you feeling good or with a sense of closure. Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Sam (Tobey Maguire) are brothers and their father is an ex-marine that served in Vietnam. Sam is a marine that is deployed to Afghanistan while Tommy is generally a drunken scoundrel that is considered a failure by their father. Grace (Natalie Portman) is Sam's wife and she also has a low opinion of Tommy. Sam also has two very young daughters that he is devoted to.

When Sam is lost and presumed dead in Afghanistan, Tommy steps up and acts as a father to Sam's girls and does other things for Grace, showing that he cares about their problems. After some time Sam is rescued from the Taliban base and comes back a very changed man. Even though nothing sexual happened between Tommy and Grace, Sam believes that they had sex and he is also haunted by the demons of the war and his captivity.

The performances here are outstanding, especially that of Maguire, his rendition of the tortured soul with the face and eye movements and even the spit flying as he rages mesmerizes you as you wait for a terrible disaster to happen.

From the people that I have known before and after their war experiences, (Vietnam mostly) what this movie depicts is no exaggeration. If there were an Oscar for the most realistic movie, this would win it hands down. Politicians should watch it before they send their nation's young people off to war so that they understand the psychological damage war can inflict.

There were many "B" grade horror movies made in the 1950's, when we watched them on the local late show decades later we called them "horrorable." They generally featured a poorly developed monster, humans initially hapless in response, clichéd dialog and several helpless, screaming females. While this movie has some of that, it has two things that are often lacking, a well-developed monster and the incorporation of the rebellious teenager plot that was also a part of many films in the 1950's.

Steve McQueen (then billed as Steven) stars as the young teen hero (Steve Andrews) in a small town. A meteorite strikes near an isolated house and the elderly man that lives there goes out and investigates. The meteorite opens and an amorphous creature emerges and latches on to his hand. After the man runs out across the street, Steve stops and takes him to the local doctor.

The creature feeds on flesh and grows as it feeds. While Steve and his girlfriend Jane (Aneta Corseaut) try to convince a local officer about the danger, the other officers dismiss Steve as a practical jokester. The creature continues to feed and expand and it is up to Steve to warn the town with the help of his friends. When things seem most dire, they discover a way to subdue the creature.

Now a classic of the s-f/monster movies of the 1950's, this one has special effects that have stood the test of time and has a minimum of hysterical female participation. The respect that officer Dave demonstrates to Steve differs from the position taken in many other films of that time.