Reviews

I must lead off by saying that I am in general not a fan of the animated superhero movie. It always seems that the producers tried to get by with reused storylines, the cheapest possible animation and far too simplistic dialog. That is not the case here.

While Batman is a well-used character with a long history, in this case there is a unique and interesting plot twist. There is an organization of powerful and extremely skilled ninja types with a boy (Damian) as their most skilled trainee. When this organization is attacked by another group, the boy is whisked away by his mother. With their lives on the line, she seeks help from the boy's father, Bruce Wayne or Batman.

The story expands as Damian proves to be headstrong and difficult to control, doing all he can to track down and kill Deathstroke, the man behind the attack. The viewer is witness to the development of another Robin as the newest version of the dynamic duo is developed.

The only potential weakness is the emphasis on the super ninja personas. However, if you are a fan of that particular plot device, then there is no weakness. I generally question a reliance on the super ninja plot device, for this dismisses the more cerebral aspects of personal warfare. However, I did find myself generating some muscle tension during the most significant one-on-one fight scenes.

This movie starts out with a scene and premise that has been used before. Professional man Charles Schine (Clive Owen) is under stress and is in what appears to be a chance encounter with an attractive professional female Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) on the commuter train. There is instant magic between them, and they end up in a hotel room about to have an affair.

A male criminal bursts in and robs them, knocking Charles unconscious and raping Lucinda. The next morning, they are still there, and Charles wants to report it to the police. However, Lucinda rejects this, citing her marriage and daughter. The criminal then blackmails Charles into giving him all his money.

However, all is not what it first appears. There is a much deeper conspiracy taking place and this leads to many unusual plot twists. While the performances are all first rate, what makes this a chilling thriller is the power of the villain. He is a ruthless murderer, and a very vicious fighter. He is also a smooth talking person capable of speaking fluent French, charming people that do not know who he is. When he threatens Charles' family, Charles realizes that he must deal with the situation himself.

A great deal of time is spent building up to the tense climax, there are several plot twists, most of which are unexpected. Charles proves that he is much more than an advertising account executive, he is capable of plotting violence when it is necessary to save lives. This is a great movie.

The most amazing point made in this video is that the first person to use the phrase "iron curtain" to describe the behavior of the Soviet Union in the territories occupied in Eastern Europe at the end of World War II was not Winston Churchill. As the Soviet Red Army converged on Berlin German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels used the phrase in his prediction of what they would do once the war was won. The idea that Churchill would have borrowed and made famous a phrase first used by Goebbels is astounding.

As the title implies, the video is a history of the Second World War in Europe from the allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day to the German surrender and immediate aftermath. The producers use a combination of historical footage interspersed with scenes acted out by modern actors. While the acting is not of the highest quality, it is good enough to make the points that the creators wanted to make. No mention is made of the war in the Pacific.

The rift between British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery and Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower is dealt with in detail. Montgomery's arrogance and clear attitude of superiority towards the Americans is described. Eisenhower demonstrated incredible diplomatic and professional skills in preventing a breakdown in the alliance between the U. S. and the British.

This is history that must be studied by every generation. It was the greatest war in history and there are many aspects that every citizen should know. While the aftermath was not optimal, it was likely the best that could be achieved without a continuation of the war between the Allies and the Soviet Red army.

The first and second world wars are demonstrations of how a modern industrial state can commit enormous resources in the waging of war. There was no greater demonstration of this than when the German leadership engaged in World War II. The scale of some of the projects is amazing, the amounts of steel and concrete and human labor, which means lives, that were spent in bringing the projects to their state at the end of the war are difficult to grasp, even when you see them.

Using modern experts to describe the various projects, historical footage, CGI generated action and actors playing the major roles, all are interwoven to explain the project, its' origins, the goals of the German leadership and the end results. Fortunately for the outcome of World War II in Europe, some of the most effective weapons were under resourced, especially the German submarines.

The stories are well told, the specific weapons described are: *) The Atlantic Wall *) The German submarine program *) The V2 rocket program *) The ME262 jet fighter *) Fortress Berlin *) The German super tank program.

Watching these videos will give you insights into the sheer enormity of the projects as well as to the mistakes that the German leadership made that rendered what could have been difference makers. This is especially true of the submarine and jet fighter programs. If both of those projects had been prioritized, the outcome of the way would possibly have been different.

When World War II ended, the Allied nations had to implement agreements made over the course of the war, specifically the meetings of Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin and Yalta. While there, they divided Germany into three parts, where France, Great Britain, the United States and Russia each had a zone of occupation. The German capital of Berlin was also split into four occupation zones.

As the 1950's passed into the 1960's it was clear to the Communist rulers of East Berlin and East Germany that the vast numbers of people passing from East Germany to West Berlin would quickly make the economic viability of East Germany unsustainable. Therefore, on August 13, 1961 a barrier of barbed wire and concrete blocks was quickly erected to keep the people from passing into West Berlin. At first it was a makeshift barrier, and some people were able to get across. However, as time went on the barrier was made far more complex and impenetrable so that very few people were able to make the journey.

The barrier existed for 28 years, and many people lost their lives on it. Yet, in 1989 in one of the most stunning and unbelievable events, the wall was breached and came down without a shot being fired. Suddenly, Allies whose major concern was avoiding a major war with the Warsaw Pact nations now had to scramble to manage the fall of the Soviet East European empire.

This video traces the origins of the wall, mentioning why it had to go up if East Germany was to survive as a nation, to the years where it existed and seemed a long-term entrenched certainty to the rapid movements where in a matter of days it was voluntarily breached and rendered moot.

It is a fascinating story of how people power, even in a communist nation with a vast secret police, are able to create monumental change. Of course, such success is dependent on whether the security forces are willing to fire on the people. In this case, the East German leadership was unwilling to carry out such orders.

Even though it may take years for the background to be created, sometimes a lot of history can happen in a few days. This video captures the history of the Berlin Wall, from the first strands of barbed wire to the evolution to a multi-layered barrier through the incredible few days when it was quickly rendered irrelevant. It is a video that should be required viewing in high school history classes.

This video contains brief biographies of three men instrumental in creating the radio industry as well as making it a mass media. The necessary background history of the United States at the time is also included. Those three men are Lee de Forest, Howard Armstrong and David Sarnoff. Armstrong and de Forest were inventors that created the key hardware that made radio possible while Sarnoff was the ruthless tycoon that made radio a mass media.

These were three men with colossal egos, and each demanded more than their share of the glory and bounty. They fought each other in the legal system, the court of public opinion and in the technical press. The development of radio not only required the solving of significant technical problems, but to make it into a mass media required the development of an expensive and extensive infrastructure.

In December of 1901, Guglielmo Marconi send the letter "S' in Morse Code across the Atlantic, demonstrating that radio signals could travel enormous distances. In December 1906 the first audio radio broadcast was made. The first scheduled broadcast was made in 1920, and the first receivers had only headphones. Due to the popularity of radio, by 1930 40% of US households had a radio. Politicians of the 1930s knew how to exploit radio to get their messages out.

Radio truly changed the world, and these men made it possible. It is unfortunate that they battled so much over the fortune and glory. This video presents all of the issues in an in-depth manner as the three spent millions of dollars in legal battles against each other over patent and inventors rights. Yet, the technology was such a game changer that these issues never slowed down the expansion. One commentator at the end said it well. "In 100 years, people will be reading the seminal paper on Frequency Modulation by Howard Armstrong and complimenting him. Those people will have no idea who David Sarnoff was."

Through the course of my life, I have read hundreds of books in the area of science and technology. Those books cover all areas, and many dealt with the history of technological progress. Yet, until I viewed this video I did not know the name of Alberto Santos-Dumont. He was the son of a wealthy Brazilian coffee magnate and so had a great deal of money available.

A boyhood dreamer about science fiction, Santos-Dumont grew very proficient in mechanical matters and once he reached adulthood, his obsession became flight. He was an incredibly brave and daring man and his first flights were in balloons. Santos-Dumont quickly grew bored with that as he wanted to fly devices that he could control.

His first endeavors in that area were dirigibles, lighter than air balloons that had a motor and steering apparatus. After some serious crashes, he managed to achieve a milestone of circling the Eiffel Tower in Paris. To do this he had to construct a gasoline motor with the power to move the balloon and reliable enough for extended flights. He built the motor himself and the airship construction he did not do himself he planned and supervised.

His next endeavor was the development of a heavier than air flying craft and his successful flight was the first witnessed and immediately documented flight of a heavier than air device. There is still significant debate over the chronology of Santos-Dumont flights versus those of the Wright brothers.

This video is a history of the life of Santos-Dumont with an emphasis on his many accomplishments in the development of human flight. It is a story that should be far more emphasized in the United States, he is a national hero in Brazil. Santos-Dumont lived long enough to follow the development of warplanes and was appalled at their use for death and destruction. He died in 1932, a depressed man that blamed himself for the use of planes as instruments of death.

This movie is well done, the images are clear and informative, and the narration is understandable to a broad audience.

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.