Movies You Saw in Fall 2016

Fast Times at Ridgmont High

Oh yeah! 

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) well acted "dark comedy" about  American journalist Kim Barker's coverage of the war in Afghanistan from her book The Taliban Shuffle. stars Tina Fey as Barker with Margot Robbie (NOT hard to look at), Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton in supporting rolls. the whole plot is pretty much how much of a complete "cluster fukk" that war was esp when the Iraq war became active and  Afghanistan became a "side show". plays all day Friday November 25th on EPIX channels and hopefully will repeat soon. I found it fairly fast paced and entertaining and rate it    of four

Too Big to Fail (2011) VERY well acted made for HBO movie about the 2008 "financial meltdown" in Wall Street. the actors selected for the major "players" in the crisis look just like the actual people.  It received 11 nominations at the 2001Emmy Awards and was also nominated for three Golden Globes. GREAT cast including

William Hurt as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who was also the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs (Golden Glob nomination)

Edward Asner as billionaire investor Warren Buffett

Paul Giamatti as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (Screen Actors Guild Award & Golden Globe nomination)

Billy Crudup as Timothy Geithner. President of the New York  Federal Reserve Bank

James Woods as Lehman Brothers Chairman person "the weasel" Fuld

Bill Pullman as JPMorgan Chase Chairman Jamie "bail out? we don't need no stinking bail out" Dimon

Matthew Modine as Merrill Lynch Chairman John "fukk you, pay me" Thain

played on HBO Friday night and hopefully will repeat soon. along with The Big Short. Inside Job and Margin Call it is one of the BEST movies about the crash and I rate it     of four

oh for GOD SAKES, Covers!!! the man's name is Richard Fuld BUT he went by D*ICK just like Richard Nixon did

Gods of Egypt (2016) epic action story about the battle between the ancient Egyptian deities the good Horus and the evil Set to see who will rule the world. has the usual excellent CGI and oodles of tasty "chicas" in skimpy outfits BUT the plot pretty much fails. got a well deserved 16% from Rotten Tomatoes, was generally bashed by the critics and was pretty much a box office flop. it has mostly an unknown cast BUT Chadwick Boseman plays Thoth, the Egyptian God of Wisdom and Geoffrey Rush is Ra, the Egyptian God of Light and protector of the Earth who is father to Set and grandfather of Horus. their characters are two of the "bright spots" in the movie. plays again on HBO channels Wednesday 11-30, Thursday 12-1 and Friday 12-2 IF you are into "epic" action films bUT for me it was

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) FUN little SciFi comedy-adventure cartoon movie with the characters Peabody the genuis dog and his boy Sherman from the old The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show TV serial back in the 1960's. they time travel in the "way back machine" to various points in time like the French Revolution where they meet Marie Antoinette in Versailles (and escape from Robespierre's guillotine) , Ancient Egypt where they meet the boy King Tut, the Renaissance in Florence where they meet (and work with) Leonardo da Vinci, the Trojan War where they meet (and Sherman joins the army of) King Agamemnon. other historical people featured are meetings with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig van Beethoven, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. I really enjoyed this move and laughed most of the way thru it. it runs a relatively short 90 minutes. played in FX Movies and hopefully will repeat soon. it is available on Netflix. I rate it     of four because it is just pure FUN and VERY fast paced

You guys want to really be freaked out?

I have seen some episodes on the Smithsonian Channel (which has EXCELLENT programing btw). IF you thought this was good you need to see Apocalypse WWI when it is on AHC (American Hero's Channel, the old "Military Network") or National Geographic Channel. a LOT of unknown facts about "The Great War" presented. check out >>> https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/tv/apocalypse-world-war-i/ 

searchwarrant, watch Air Disasters on the Smithsonian Channel. as retired airline pilot I find it fascinating.I knew first hand of a number of the accidents they portrayed from when I was back "flying the line". I will guarantee you you will NEVER EVER get on an Asian or South American (including Mexico) airline EVER AGAIN!!!

I WISH that one of the channels like National Geographic, Smithsonian or AHC would show The Unknown War (aka The Great Patriotic War in the old Soviet Union) which was a 20 part Doc back in 1978 that played on PBS back then. narrated by Burt Lancaster it goes into greater detail about WWII battles between Germany and Russia than any other WWII series I have ever seen, it was withdrawn from American TV after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

btw, here is the episodes listing for Air Disasters >>>  https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/shows/air-disasters/802

Where to Invade Next (2015) people either LIKE Michael Moore OR can NOT STAND him BUT he makes some interesting points in this movie about the American citizens "lifestyle" and govenment benefits (or rather the lack there of) for their tax dollar vs other countries. he covers Italy, France, Finland, Norway Tunisia, Slovenia, Portugal and Iceland. there is a good overview of the movie  @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_to_Invade_Next IF you are interested. I am kind of a Michael Moore fan as a number of predictions he made in earlier movies like Roger & Me (1989) and The Big One (1998) (outsourcing jobs) and Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) (the wall street crash and subsequent bank bailout) have come true and I find his movies BOTH serious AND funny at the same time. plays again on EPIX1 again Wednesday December 7th @ 10:10pm and Thursday the 8th @ 8:50am pacific. I rate it   of four

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) have review before and still believe it is one of THE best acted films I have EVER seen. anyone who has even worked in sales and esp phone sales with "cold calling" will appreciate this movie. has an all star cast including Jack Lemmon in one of his last major non-comic rolls, Al Pacino (both Oscar and Gloden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination), Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin and Jonathan Pryce. Lemmon won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival where the movie premiered. he was also voted Best Actor by the National Board of Review. I can NOT for the life of me understand WHY he did NOT get a Best Actor Oscar and/or Golden Globe nominations. it holds a well deserved 94% "fresh" from Rotten Tomatoes and it is a movie I watch over and over. plays again on The Movie Channel Monday December 5th @ 11:05am pacific. I obviously rate it     of four

Hateful 8

Wolf of Wallstreet was way too long. 

I tried to sit through Wolf of Wall Street, but as soon as Jonah Hill's character is introduced, I stopped watching.

Theater of Blood (1973} classic Vincent Price "horror" co-staring Diana Rigg. Price plays Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart who after being humiliated at an awards ceremony goes after the critics that "stiffed" him killing then using the plots to Shakespeare plays with the help of his daughter Edwina (posing as a man). had an all-star cast of English actors playing the critics including Ian Hendry (who played in other Price horror movies like The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins, Robert Morley and Coral Browne. I find it to be an excellent introduction to the basic plot of a number of Shakespeare's plays and like many of Price's "horror" it is pretty funny at times too. played the other night on EPIX and hopefully will repeat soon. I rate it AND the two Phibes movies    of four

Apocalypse Now Redux (2001) the extended version "Director's Cut" which added 49 minutes to the original 1979 version. added scenes include Capt Willard (Martin Sheen) stealing Lt Col Kilgore's (Robert Duvall), surf board at the end helecopter attack scene, the boat crew with the Playmate's at the "Bunny Base" and the French Plantation. there are also some additional scenes at Col Kurtz's (Marlon Brando) camp also added. I can understand the original "cuts" of the "Bunny Base" scenes and the additional scenes at Col Kurtz's because they are really NOT germain to the "telling the tale" BUT the French Plantation scenes should have definitely been in the original as they "clean up a lot of questions" like what happened to "Clean" (Larry Fishburne) after he is killed? also Willard stealing Kilgore's surf board is just a couple of minutes segment and is WAY funny and should have been left in

BOTH  the original AND Redux have Rotten Tomatoes "fresh" rating above 90% and are considered among the GREAT Vietnam movies. it played on EPIX the other night and repeats there regularly. I like the EPIX format because it is in original theater 2X1 perspective rather than 9X14 "skinny scope". obviously I rate the movie of four

Task Force (1949) one of my all time favorite Naval Aviation themed movies played December 7th on Turner Classic Movies along with other WWII themed films. it is THE history of Naval Aviation and the Aircraft Carrier from it's inception with the Langley (CV-1) through WWII. stars Gary Cooper, Jane Wyatt, Walter Brennan and Wayne Morris. it was done in a kind of weird half black & white, half color BUT has before unseen color footage of WWII naval sea and air battles. for anyone with an interest in the history of Naval Aviation this is a "must see" movie. Cooper, Wyatt, Brennan and Morris are outstanding in their rolls. hopefully TMC will air it again soon. as the son of a WWII Naval Aviator who was RAISED on this movie and later became a Carrier Aviator myself, I rate it    of four

The Green Mile (1999) outstanding super-natural fantasy crime drama from the 1996 Stephen King novel. excellent cast staring Tom Hanks and the late Michael Clarke Duncan with David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, Barry Pepper, Graham Greene and Gary Sinise in supporting rolls. the late Michael Jeter is outstanding as Eduard "Del" Delacroix as is Sam Rockwell as William "Wild Bill" Wharton. in my opinion Doug Hutchison as evil little weasel "Green Mile" guard Percy Wetmore should be on the AVI 50 villains list he is SO wicked and despicable. received Oscar nominations for Best Picture. Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting  Actor for Michael Clarke Duncan who was also nominated for a Golden Globe. it is kind of strange though that it IS a movie where ALL the actors got upstaged by a MOUSE ("Mr Jingles") it is a long movie at just over 3 hours BUT I think any "cuts" would have damaged the telling of the story. plays again on HBO-East & West channels again Thursday December 15th @ 5:50pm & 8:30pm pacific time. I rate it     of four because it is a movie I can just NOT pass up whenever it is on

Rink, curious if you've watched this on Netflix. 

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' (TV Mini 

....or anybody else of course. 

Conspiracy (2001) a BBC/HBO production is another good movie on the planning of "The Final Solution" at the 1942 Wannsee Conference. excellent cast with Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich (Best Actor Emmy) and Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann (Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe) along with Colin Firth. it is a little "slow" BUT does detail how the plans for the whole horrid project were set down

also The Grey Zone (2001) from the book by Auschwitz survivor Dr Miklos Nyiszli who worked for the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele at Auschwitz . details the work of the J*ewish "Sonderkommando" who were able to blow up one of the crematorium they worked at the camp. well acted by David Arquette, Steve Buscemi and others as the J*ewish workers along with British actor Allan Corduner as Dr Nyiszli. a very different roll for Harvey Keitel as a Nazi Oberscharfuhrer work supervisor. plays on various "premium" movie channels every so often

American History X my favorite movie of all Times!!

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) "stylized" crime drama  telling the story of a similar robbery of a Brooklyn bank by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturale in the summer of 1972. directed by great Sidney Lumet, it is a "tour de force" for Al Pacino as Wortzik and John Cazale as Naturale with supporting rolls by Charles Durning, James Broderick and Lance Henriksen (who later went on to star in Alien movies as Bishop). considered a "cult classic" it is one of the five movies that Cazale appeard in during his short career that were all nominated for Best Picture Oscars the others being The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II and The Deer Hunter. plays again on HBO-Signature Friday December 23rd @ 3:50pm central time. I rate it    of four