Movies you saw in October

Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013) HBO movie about the Supreme Court case which overturned Ali's draft evasion conviction during the Vietnam war. mixes legal drama with archive footage of Ali interviews, news footage and fights. excellent acting by all involved esp "The Supreme's" Frank Langella as Chief Justice Warren Burger, Christopher Plummer as Justice John Marshall Harlan II, Danny Glover as Justice Thurgood Marshall, Peter Gerety as liberal Justice William J. Brennan and Fritz Weaver as Justice Hugo Black. Benjamin Walker (young Abe Lincoln in Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is outstanding as John Marshall Harlan law clerk Kevin Connolly who convinced Harlan to support the Ali position.

it plays on HBO again Tuesday Oct 8th, Thursday Oct 10th, Sunday Oct 13th and Monday Oct 14th. you like history, legal drama or just outstanding acting you will enjoy this one   

Jack Reacher (2012) MUCH better than I expected Tom Cruise action-suspense-mystery. had an interesting "plot twist" (which was a little obvious) BUT overall one of Cruise (as the title character) better recent movies. at 51 he can still "bring it" in the fight scenes. Rosamund Pike as defense lawyer Helen Rodin is VERY tasty.

it plays on EPIX1 HD movie channel again Saturday Oct 12th @ 5:00 pm and 9:30 pm, Sunday Oct 13th @ 11:20 am, Monday Oct 14th @ 10:35 am and Wednesday Oct 16th @ 6:30 pm pacific times. fast paced movie I rate   

Rat,  No idea how you feel about Woody Allen but would like to hear your opinion on his better films

Allen is over-rated in my opinion. usually really NYC "Arty-Smarty" stuff and his usual female lead Diane Keaton kind of grates on my nerves. DID like his early films Bananas (1971) and Sleeper (1973). thought they were pretty funny. everyone goes on about his Annie Hall (1977) with Keaton. I thought it was tripe.

watched Finding Forrester (2000) last night. interesting drama about a talented young black writer and basketball player Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) who is mentored by a reclusive writer William Forrester (Sean Connery)  who had a "one hit wonder" of a novel in the past. mostly because of his basketball skills he gets a scholarship to a "yuppy-puppy" prep school where the prejudiced literary professor Robert Crawford (F. Murray Abraham) thinks he is "just a jock" and there is NO WAY he can do that quality of writing.

very well acted by all involved esp Rob Brown. I am really surprised he hasn't been offered more rolls. his only other major lead I have seen him in is as football player Ernie Davis in The Express (2008). also excellent acting by Connery and Abraham (at his best Antonio Salieri style jealous a**hole self). it is on the Starz-Black channel again Wednesday Oct 16th and Saturday Oct 19th and I think worth watching   

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). first in a three part  prequel to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. the usual ugly Orc's (from Mork?), Trolls and Goblins running amok with decent action and excellent CGI. it IS kind of like sitting thru all four operas of Wagner's Ring Cycle, though. 3 hours gets to be a bit much. that said, guess I will watch the next two, The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and There and Back Again (2014) just to see how much MORE they can rip off the Great Richard's "kunst" (art). it's so obvious that Tolkien stole his basic plot lines from Wagner's Ring Cycle that I am surprised the Richard Wagner estate didn't sue him.

it's on HBO Sunday again Oct 13th, Tuesday the 15th, Friday the 18th, Sunday the 20th and Monday the 21st. IF it didn't have the excellent CGI and beautiful New Zealand scenery, it would be just another Hollywood "cookie cutter" kids fantasy

watched The Hangover Part III (2013) on Dish-TV Pa-per-View. wouldn't call it a BAD movie BUT definitely NOT as good as the first two in the "franchise" mostly because Ken Jeong's character "Chow" is NOT as "crazy funny" in this one. he is more just run of the mill "crazy gangster". pretty funny opening BUT I'm sure some people would be upset with the "sight gag" with the giraffe. thought that John Goodman was pretty good as the villain Marshall and (as usual) Zach Galifianakis carries the movie as Alan.

the "Hangover (disambiguation)" Wikipage lists it as "the final film in the franchise" and THAT is probably JUST as WELL. just  of three. would NOT actually pay to see it. wait for HBO.

"Margin Call".........movie about the mortgage backed securities scam........excellent.......good acting

seen Margin Call a couple times and is an excellent "side ways" history of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. excellent acting by all involved esp Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore and Jeremy Irons as "John Tuld", CEO and Chairman of the Board (how close to Lehman boss person Fuld is THAT)

just happened to stumble across this really WIERD New York black & white "art" movie Pi (1998) in EPIX3 last night. it's about a numbers theorist/computer genius who is borderline insane that stumbles across a 216 digit number that a Wall Street bank thinks is the key to the stock market while a local Hasidic Hebrew group think is the key to talking to God. it's pretty nutty BUT I found it interesting only because the premise and the characters were SO weird. the style reminded me somewhat of a math wiz version of Eraserhead  (1977)

it plays on EPIX3 movie channels again Wednesday Oct 23rd @ 5:50 am pacific IF you want to record. DID get an 87% "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes BUT would probably best be rated

I can say good things about this movie and 'Manhattan' without sounding like a pretenious  a s s h o l e.

I'm better than you, na nan ah boo boo stick your head in doo doo.

I've never heard of Richard Wagner  They can't be too similar or they would've sued like you said.

you are obviously either confused or in no way a classical music fan BUT IF you have seen Apocalypse Now or gotten married, you know his music. the music in the helicopter attack scene is Walkurenritt (The Ride of the Valkyries) from the 3rd act of his second of four "Ring Cycle" operas, Die Walkure and that music they played when your lovely bride walked down the aisle is "Die Brautlied" (Bridal Chorus) from act 3 of his romantic opera Lohengrin.

the basic plot of the Wagner Ring Cycle operas, plot, characters and all, is WAY too similar to J. R. R. Tolkien's later writings, esp The Lord of the Rings, to be a coincidence