Movie-Scene-by-Temo
Joined Feb 2019
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A man nearing the centenarian mark in age, broke and losing his house to foreclosure, estranged from family, is offered a job that he can do and would enjoy: delivering packages by car across state lines. Asking no questions, he does as he is paid well to do, only later finding out that he is hauling large, record-breaking quantities of cocaine for a Mexican cartel and unbeknowst to him the DEA wants to meet him, the drug mule famously called Tata.
Hits:
Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) playing drug mule Earl Stone, friendly, generous to others but not it seems to family, is believable. Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born (2018), American Sniper), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, Madiba) and Michael Pena (American Hustle, Million Dollar Baby) play the DEA agents who're after him. Cooper carries off the role, but for some reason its getting harder for me to decipher what he says, same problem I had watching him in A Star is Born. The rest of the also multi-awarded cast are equally exemplary at their jobs, including Dianne Wiest (The Birdcage, Bullets Over Broadway) and Andy Garcia (Oceans Eleven, The Godfather), seasoned veterans who without apparent effort easily play everyday people living everyday lives. Okay, maybe not Garcia.
Directed by Eastwood, it's an elegant re-enactment of a real life event.
Eastwood doesn't shy away from the aging process. Earl Stone is affectionately nicknamed Tata (grandfather), a reflection of the natural respect and care for the aging that is seen in Mexican or other world cultures, and is shown being taught how to text by the machine gun toting criminals.
At a time when we're inundated by franchised or re-told movies it's good to watch one that's original. The script from Nick Schenk (Gran Torino, The Judge) is based on a New York Times article by Sam Dolnick on "Leo Sharp, the most prolific drug mule that regional law enforcement had ever tracked."
Eastwood managed to address the alarming statistic of death by patrolman, particularly for men of colour.
Eastwood continues a long career as a story teller, doesn't let age stop him by creating a platform for himself. Because he still can.
Shows Mexican-Americans on both sides of the law, DEA agents versus drug dealers.
Misses:
Doesn't show the anxiety, panic, sadness or humbling that Earl, a hardworking Korean War veteran and celebrated Day Lily horticulturalist, experiences when he loses his house and farm, doesn't have money to survive and has to seek help from estranged family.
Doesn't show the legal defense preparation and the reason the judge ruled as he did.
Let's Take a Moment:
Not too long ago there were articles online on "how to travel the world for free" by becoming a courier. On the face of it, it may have been innocent in many cases. Nowadays it's the digital nomad lifestyle where you work from anywhere in the world and source jobs via online job sites. Who's to say that the Blue Daisy drug cartel can't hire you in Bora Bora and offer you what seems like an innocent IT job, but you're in actuality creating the cornerstone of a digital drug empire? Sometimes you just do what you have to do, if we all were to investigate employment leads before taking the job, the job would be long gone and bills would still be waiting.
If you were a 90-year-old man or woman, broke, living out of an old, dilapidated pickup truck only held together by prayer and sunshine, would you take a well-paying job, questions unasked, from a stranger? At that age you can't go back home to momma (probably in home care or deceased) until you get back on your feet. So yes it seems plausible to me that he took the job, didn't question the source, because he needed to eat.
Hits:
Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) playing drug mule Earl Stone, friendly, generous to others but not it seems to family, is believable. Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born (2018), American Sniper), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, Madiba) and Michael Pena (American Hustle, Million Dollar Baby) play the DEA agents who're after him. Cooper carries off the role, but for some reason its getting harder for me to decipher what he says, same problem I had watching him in A Star is Born. The rest of the also multi-awarded cast are equally exemplary at their jobs, including Dianne Wiest (The Birdcage, Bullets Over Broadway) and Andy Garcia (Oceans Eleven, The Godfather), seasoned veterans who without apparent effort easily play everyday people living everyday lives. Okay, maybe not Garcia.
Directed by Eastwood, it's an elegant re-enactment of a real life event.
Eastwood doesn't shy away from the aging process. Earl Stone is affectionately nicknamed Tata (grandfather), a reflection of the natural respect and care for the aging that is seen in Mexican or other world cultures, and is shown being taught how to text by the machine gun toting criminals.
At a time when we're inundated by franchised or re-told movies it's good to watch one that's original. The script from Nick Schenk (Gran Torino, The Judge) is based on a New York Times article by Sam Dolnick on "Leo Sharp, the most prolific drug mule that regional law enforcement had ever tracked."
Eastwood managed to address the alarming statistic of death by patrolman, particularly for men of colour.
Eastwood continues a long career as a story teller, doesn't let age stop him by creating a platform for himself. Because he still can.
Shows Mexican-Americans on both sides of the law, DEA agents versus drug dealers.
Misses:
Doesn't show the anxiety, panic, sadness or humbling that Earl, a hardworking Korean War veteran and celebrated Day Lily horticulturalist, experiences when he loses his house and farm, doesn't have money to survive and has to seek help from estranged family.
Doesn't show the legal defense preparation and the reason the judge ruled as he did.
Let's Take a Moment:
Not too long ago there were articles online on "how to travel the world for free" by becoming a courier. On the face of it, it may have been innocent in many cases. Nowadays it's the digital nomad lifestyle where you work from anywhere in the world and source jobs via online job sites. Who's to say that the Blue Daisy drug cartel can't hire you in Bora Bora and offer you what seems like an innocent IT job, but you're in actuality creating the cornerstone of a digital drug empire? Sometimes you just do what you have to do, if we all were to investigate employment leads before taking the job, the job would be long gone and bills would still be waiting.
If you were a 90-year-old man or woman, broke, living out of an old, dilapidated pickup truck only held together by prayer and sunshine, would you take a well-paying job, questions unasked, from a stranger? At that age you can't go back home to momma (probably in home care or deceased) until you get back on your feet. So yes it seems plausible to me that he took the job, didn't question the source, because he needed to eat.
Historically there was a man named Vlad or Dracula, who as a lad was given by his father, a Transylvanian ruler, to the Turks as allegiance to be brought up in Islamic ways and trained in warfare. The Turks created a killing machine, the ultimate warrior whose name was enough to turn enemy armies on their heels. His signature stamp was the impaling of thousands. Vlad returned to rule his (Christian) country in 1462 Transylvania, modern day Romania.
The movie picks up at this point in which Vlad (Luke Evans) has ruled in peace for 10 years, when Turkish leader Sultan Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) sends a demand that the Transylvanians pay jizyah, a head or poll tax that early Islamic rulers demanded from their non-Muslim subjects, plus 1,000 youths for his army. Vlad's people are horrified and outmanned, and Prince Vlad is forced to seek alternative means of satisfying the Turks. He offers himself in place of the boys, the Sultan refuses and demands Vlad's son in addition. Negotiations have failed, and Vlad is forced to seek alternate means to vanquish the Turkish armies that will no doubt fall upon them. The means has to be monumental. Vlad the Impaler, son of Dracul, transforms himself (temporarily) into a one-man unstoppable force and self-proclaimed Son of the Devil: the ultimate vampire (founded on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel 'Dracula') who can transform, fly, and has super sensory perception. But can a man, loving husband and father and protector of his people, ever come out ahead by making a pact with evil?
70 million dollars invested in a set of first-timers-feature director Gary Shores and writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless-has paid off big time. Evans (The Hobbit, Fast & Furious 6, No One Lives, The Raven, Immortals) plays the charismatic, compassionate hero with style and grace, and his commanding good looks are well suited to the beast transformations and restrained eroticism as is his use of voice. But it is questionable whether someone who grew up committing inhumane atrocities can really allow himself to be as vulnerable and expressive as Evans in the constantly conveyed love for his wife and son, or the smouldering tension in some scenes. His wife is played by Sarah Gadon (Mutant X, Life with Derek, Flashpoint), as Mirena, who has little to do but stand by her man. Cooper (Need for Speed, Fleming (TV Mini-Series), Reasonable Doubt, Mamma Mia!, Sense and Sensibility (TV Mini-Series)) as Mehmed the Conqueror is disappointing: he sounds and acts as he did playing Saddam Hussein's son Uday and body double Latif in The Devil's Double (2011). However, Oscar awarded costume designer Ngila Dickson (The Lord of the Rings, Blood Diamond, Xena: Warrior Princess) does not disappoint.
Brilliant cinematography, the animations are epic with strategic bat swarms forming at the hand and command of their master, Dracula. The sky darkening and changing that are so necessary for preserving Dracula's strength are suitably gripping. The sound effects are rich: deep rumbling, growling, earth moving. The historical connections are interesting. The editing may have been better, some scenes were too short or under developed to allow the full emotional effect, I presume this was to keep the movie within the PG 13 range.
Having watched numerous versions of Dracula, this is one of the best, and the change from rampaging, blood-thirsty, unfeeling, sex-consumed creature to a thoughtful, militarily strategic, loving hero is novel. It is entertaining and a movie worth watching. My hope is that it being the first in the Universal monster franchise revamp rollout, its impact is not diluted with the expected crossover into the upcoming series of movies.
The movie picks up at this point in which Vlad (Luke Evans) has ruled in peace for 10 years, when Turkish leader Sultan Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) sends a demand that the Transylvanians pay jizyah, a head or poll tax that early Islamic rulers demanded from their non-Muslim subjects, plus 1,000 youths for his army. Vlad's people are horrified and outmanned, and Prince Vlad is forced to seek alternative means of satisfying the Turks. He offers himself in place of the boys, the Sultan refuses and demands Vlad's son in addition. Negotiations have failed, and Vlad is forced to seek alternate means to vanquish the Turkish armies that will no doubt fall upon them. The means has to be monumental. Vlad the Impaler, son of Dracul, transforms himself (temporarily) into a one-man unstoppable force and self-proclaimed Son of the Devil: the ultimate vampire (founded on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel 'Dracula') who can transform, fly, and has super sensory perception. But can a man, loving husband and father and protector of his people, ever come out ahead by making a pact with evil?
70 million dollars invested in a set of first-timers-feature director Gary Shores and writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless-has paid off big time. Evans (The Hobbit, Fast & Furious 6, No One Lives, The Raven, Immortals) plays the charismatic, compassionate hero with style and grace, and his commanding good looks are well suited to the beast transformations and restrained eroticism as is his use of voice. But it is questionable whether someone who grew up committing inhumane atrocities can really allow himself to be as vulnerable and expressive as Evans in the constantly conveyed love for his wife and son, or the smouldering tension in some scenes. His wife is played by Sarah Gadon (Mutant X, Life with Derek, Flashpoint), as Mirena, who has little to do but stand by her man. Cooper (Need for Speed, Fleming (TV Mini-Series), Reasonable Doubt, Mamma Mia!, Sense and Sensibility (TV Mini-Series)) as Mehmed the Conqueror is disappointing: he sounds and acts as he did playing Saddam Hussein's son Uday and body double Latif in The Devil's Double (2011). However, Oscar awarded costume designer Ngila Dickson (The Lord of the Rings, Blood Diamond, Xena: Warrior Princess) does not disappoint.
Brilliant cinematography, the animations are epic with strategic bat swarms forming at the hand and command of their master, Dracula. The sky darkening and changing that are so necessary for preserving Dracula's strength are suitably gripping. The sound effects are rich: deep rumbling, growling, earth moving. The historical connections are interesting. The editing may have been better, some scenes were too short or under developed to allow the full emotional effect, I presume this was to keep the movie within the PG 13 range.
Having watched numerous versions of Dracula, this is one of the best, and the change from rampaging, blood-thirsty, unfeeling, sex-consumed creature to a thoughtful, militarily strategic, loving hero is novel. It is entertaining and a movie worth watching. My hope is that it being the first in the Universal monster franchise revamp rollout, its impact is not diluted with the expected crossover into the upcoming series of movies.
The NFL, America's largest football (and sports) league, an estimated $9.5 billion/year industry, has a secret. A secret the league office and Management Council have been reluctant to investigate too deeply and one they've wished would go away quietly: former football stars, men still in their healthy years, are suffering from memory loss, insomnia, hearing voices, seeing double, blinding headaches, raging and destructively violent outbursts-leaving them debilitated and incapable of carrying out their normal lives.
Dr. Julian Bailes, a trusted former team doctor cannot understand why his ex-football player patients are having these symptoms and not responding to medication. "Is there something that I'm missing?" he asks in frustration when all tests seem normal for iconic, former Pittsburgh Steeler and inductee into the Hall of Fame, "Iron" Mike Webster now living on the streets and sleeping in his trash-strewn pickup truck. Not too long after, the former titan on the field, like several other ex-players, kills himself and his body arrives at the Coroners', forensic neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu. Alive the body revealed nothing, but in death the answers can be found.
Former conflict and investigative journalist (read "A Woman's Work," New York Times, September 15, 2002), awarded painter and now director Peter Landesman specialized in following gritty stories on trafficking (human, sex, drugs, weapons, art and refugee) and so his portrayal of the NFL tactics against Nigerian-immigrant Dr. Omalu to keep the research results buried, which include threatening his employment and immigration status, are very realistic and current and the use of live footage throughout the movie keeps the tension well-paced and building.
Will Smith (Fresh Prince of Belair, Men in Black, Ali) Oscar and Grammy winner among numerous other awards, portrays the numerous degreed and prolifically (medically) specialized Omalu in a way that is quiet, somber, reflective, distinguished and earnest. The new immigrant from Kenya for whom Omalu provides room and board at the request of his pastor, and who he later marries, is Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi, registered nurse Prema Mutiso portrayed by Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Jupiter Ascending, Beyond the Lights, Belle) African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) and Black Film Critics Circle award winner among others. Their relationship seems too restrained and unemotional, except when Omalu shows her the site of the home he intends to build, part of the fruition of his American Dream. In fact more passion is shown by the ex-NFL player Justin Strzelczyk (by Matthew Willig) who, with one hand, lifts his wife up by the throat in front of their children, and tells her that the voices in his head are ordering him to kill her. Alex Baldwin (30 Rock, The Cooler, It's Complicated) Oscar and BAFTA nominated, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Primetime Emmy recipient, gives a wonderfully realistic portrayal of a doctor (Bailes) who wishes to help his patients but knows that any negative publicity to the image of the NFL will be extremely dangerous.
Smith and Mbatha-Raw accents are not easily identifiable as Nigerian or Kenyan, but definitely inform the viewer that the speaker is not American-raised. The dialogue is impactful: Omalu, as he prepares to splice the brain of one of America's most beloved sports figures, responds to those who see his efforts as over-zealous, "the dead are my patients" and reminds them that he is bound to be thorough by the Hippocratic Oath.
This real life medical mystery, David and Goliath story, is very realistically presented. An important docudrama of a significant finding by an African-born doctor researching an American institution, the death of a champion ("Iron" Mike Webster brilliantly portrayed by David Morse) from the team with the most Super Bowl championships (the Pittsburgh Steelers), it's a shame it was not nominated for an Oscar 2016, but has been awarded elsewhere none the less. As Webster in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech said, "banging heads is not a natural thing"... the world waits to see if 'Concussion' has any effect on high-impact contact sports.
Dr. Julian Bailes, a trusted former team doctor cannot understand why his ex-football player patients are having these symptoms and not responding to medication. "Is there something that I'm missing?" he asks in frustration when all tests seem normal for iconic, former Pittsburgh Steeler and inductee into the Hall of Fame, "Iron" Mike Webster now living on the streets and sleeping in his trash-strewn pickup truck. Not too long after, the former titan on the field, like several other ex-players, kills himself and his body arrives at the Coroners', forensic neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu. Alive the body revealed nothing, but in death the answers can be found.
Former conflict and investigative journalist (read "A Woman's Work," New York Times, September 15, 2002), awarded painter and now director Peter Landesman specialized in following gritty stories on trafficking (human, sex, drugs, weapons, art and refugee) and so his portrayal of the NFL tactics against Nigerian-immigrant Dr. Omalu to keep the research results buried, which include threatening his employment and immigration status, are very realistic and current and the use of live footage throughout the movie keeps the tension well-paced and building.
Will Smith (Fresh Prince of Belair, Men in Black, Ali) Oscar and Grammy winner among numerous other awards, portrays the numerous degreed and prolifically (medically) specialized Omalu in a way that is quiet, somber, reflective, distinguished and earnest. The new immigrant from Kenya for whom Omalu provides room and board at the request of his pastor, and who he later marries, is Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi, registered nurse Prema Mutiso portrayed by Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Jupiter Ascending, Beyond the Lights, Belle) African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) and Black Film Critics Circle award winner among others. Their relationship seems too restrained and unemotional, except when Omalu shows her the site of the home he intends to build, part of the fruition of his American Dream. In fact more passion is shown by the ex-NFL player Justin Strzelczyk (by Matthew Willig) who, with one hand, lifts his wife up by the throat in front of their children, and tells her that the voices in his head are ordering him to kill her. Alex Baldwin (30 Rock, The Cooler, It's Complicated) Oscar and BAFTA nominated, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Primetime Emmy recipient, gives a wonderfully realistic portrayal of a doctor (Bailes) who wishes to help his patients but knows that any negative publicity to the image of the NFL will be extremely dangerous.
Smith and Mbatha-Raw accents are not easily identifiable as Nigerian or Kenyan, but definitely inform the viewer that the speaker is not American-raised. The dialogue is impactful: Omalu, as he prepares to splice the brain of one of America's most beloved sports figures, responds to those who see his efforts as over-zealous, "the dead are my patients" and reminds them that he is bound to be thorough by the Hippocratic Oath.
This real life medical mystery, David and Goliath story, is very realistically presented. An important docudrama of a significant finding by an African-born doctor researching an American institution, the death of a champion ("Iron" Mike Webster brilliantly portrayed by David Morse) from the team with the most Super Bowl championships (the Pittsburgh Steelers), it's a shame it was not nominated for an Oscar 2016, but has been awarded elsewhere none the less. As Webster in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech said, "banging heads is not a natural thing"... the world waits to see if 'Concussion' has any effect on high-impact contact sports.