Favorite Movies

8 April 2005 - This web page got to be too long. So, I have created a new folder called movies.
8 April 2005 - I rented "Elektra". I think that people either have problems with comic characters brought to life or they don't. I didn't have any problem enjoying Catwoman and neither did I have a problem with Elektra. There were a few places where the mysticism got a little bit strong. The tatoo man is a good example and so is typhoid Mary.
4 April 2005 - I came across a movie called "Paloma de Papel" or "Paper Dove". It was about a young boy named Juan and his encounter with the Peruvian Communist Party. You have awesome views of the Andes and then you are shown the terribly depressing life in an village. Juan saw too much and was basically kidnapped and taken to the training camp of the Sendero Luminoso or PCP. The training camp is at 5,100 meters. When you watch them run, think about how you would perform at 16,000+ feet above sea level. When I see a typical high Andes person with their squat body, I don't think of it as a deformity but more as the developement of a highly efficient, high altitude body. In the movie, the SL try a lot of feel good things to make Juan feel like he belongs but that wasn't enough.

One of the segments is where the SL is going to blow up an electrical transmission line and leave the mark of the communist "hammer and cycle" produced on a mountain side using the light from burning cans. The hammer and cycle display works but the government had mined the transmission line. One of the mines blew the foot off of one of Juan's friends when he tripped it. The choice was life as a cripple or death. A doctor was days of travel from where they were. What would your choice be at that altitude?

They write about the will to survive and Juan had it. He tried to save his village but they thought he had been sent by the SL to scare them and were going to punish him. He got away but the SL came anyway and there was no defense because the villagers were hunting for Juan. In the shoot out, his mother is shot and dies in his arms. The army arrives and they put Juan in prison until he was a man. His hold on the past is making paper doves or "Paloma de papel".

Eventually he is released from prison and he makes his way back to his village. He was free but this was not an improvement because his family was dead and he found that life in the village had deteriorated even more. However, he was still able to find his 2 childhood friends. The 3 of them slowly recognizing each other and then hugging was as good as it got in the movie.

This is not a movie to watch when you need something to sit down and enjoy. There is just too much emotional baggage to let that happen. It is probably pretty close to being a documentary similar to "Maria Full of Grace".
28 March 2005 - I watched "En la puta Vida" or (Tricky Life) in English.. It is a story about a pretty and trusting Uruguayan that is taken advantage of by her boy friend(s). Her dream of a beauty parlor is destroyed and she becomes a prostitute to earn money. She is in a vicious circle and how she gets out of the downward spiral makes the movie interesting. There were a lot of new words. Most of them were swear words and they went by so fast that I will not recognize them the next time I hear them. I liked "Sin dejar huella" or "Without a Trace" much better. It is more of a get away from trouble, which is always popping up, and get your wishes kind of movie.
27 March 2005 - I just finished watching Sin Dejar Huella (Without A Trace). The Spanish is not complicated. You may learn a couple of new swear words but they keep the Spanish pretty simple. The music is all norteño. Me gusta norteño. There are lots of twists and turns before Marilu and Aurelia make it to Cancún.

It may introduce you to your first "dumb Spaniard" joke. The Spaniards probably tell the same joke as a "dumb Mexican" joke. One thing is for sure, and that is the person in front of the car is not the most intelligent person on this planet. I don't think the country he was born in would make a difference.

The young mexicana never graduated from High School and the older mexicana, who was educated in Spain, has graduated from the University. They really get on each others nerves but come together as friends at the end.
17 March 2005 - I was bored and watched "Doña Bárbara" again. It is a strong movie about the Arauca region of Venezuela in 1929. The only thing they didn´t play was some of the "música del llanero" I like to listen to. It was really a sort of "Man from Snowy River" but this time he lived in Argentina and one of his protagonists is a very sexy, beautiful witch.. It was also "R" rated instead of "G or GP". In so many of the scenes, you have these beautiful prancing horses with gaucho looking people on their backs as they went charging around.
15 March 2005 - I was listening to something about Frida Kahlo and the comment was made that each generation seems to find her as if they were the first. She was never that popular while she was alive but seemed to reach a peak in the 1980's.
13 March 2005 - I don't remember ever buying or renting a DVD movie because a contante (singer) was playing a non-major part. I have started following the Mexican - American singer Lila Downs and watched Frida because she was in it. Her parts in the movie may not make you buy her CDs but listening to her CDs may make you buy the movie.

I bought the soundtrack because there were several very strong, emotional songs in it. In addition, this is the only way to get the full song in some cases. The movie Frida is using Spanish like I do with my amigos de México friends. They talk in español and I listen. I say a little bit in Spanish. I had the English subtitles on but didn't need them most of the time to understand the Spanish. That was an emotional moment.

My 5.1 Dolby digital system just seemed to vibrate when "paloma negro" or "black dove" was being sung. I have seen the name Chavela Vargas but never paid much attention. Now I will have to do some research. Hayek, in the special features, said she was one of Frida's lovers. There are so many twists and turns with this movie.

There are side affects to seeing a favorite entertainer in a movie. For example, you never know how large your favorite entertainers are until you see them side by side with someone that you know their height. For example, when Selma Hayek is playing the school girl along side of Alfred Molina, you get the idea that she isn't very tall. I have read that she is 1.57 m (5' 2"). Molina looks like he could be an inch or two taller than me. He also looks a lot heavier. He had to add some bulk to play the part. I was also surprised to find that he was born in Britain.

When Lila displays her full vocal range, it seems that she must be using her entire body as a resonating chamber. I always have cons (pros) and sins (cons) with anyone but I still find Frida gives me a chill to listen to it. I define that as a movie with an impact. I find that I am bothered by the sudden number of Communist heroes but I must be in the minority.
28 February 2005 - I saw the movie "Gods and Generals" with a special price. I watched the movie "Gettysburg" a long time ago. Both movies are based on books by the Sharaa's. Gettysburg was based on the book "The Killer Angels" by Michael Sharaa. It won a Pulitzer Prize. If you are into gaming, you never want to play the part of the North against a South played by your computer. The computer does not hesitate like Lee's armies did and you will be wiped out very quickly. Buford held Gettysburg because Lee didn't know how many soldiers he was facing. Stuart's Cavalry was supposed to keep Lee suplied with intelligence and he was not doing what he was supposed to be doing. The hesitation until the North had sufficient troops on hand was one of the central flaws leading to their defeat.
25 February 2005 - Since 5 February, I have watched a number of "Cinema Latino" movies. Most of them were interesting. Doña Bárbara was considered to be a witch. It was a story about 1929 Argentina and the conflict between the 2 largest ranches in a valley.

"Dust to Dust" and "Son del mar" were also interesting. "Dust to Dust" was about 2 nietos taking the cenazas (ashes) of their abuelo to be buried at sea in Acupulco. Their grandfather spelled out how he wanted to be treated when he died but his children were not content with doing that. There were surprises, which made it kind of funny at the same time.

"Son del mar" was mostly about a woman whose husband appeared to have died fishing in the ocean. Then, he suddenly reappears and expects to take off where he had left but the wife had remarried. The ending was different.

Then, I made the mistake of renting "Bullfighter" and "Motorcycle Diaries". "Motorcycle Diaries" just made me a little bit angry. Che had his idea of what was the solution and I didn't happen to agree with him. I guess it comes down to the attitude of "making everyone's life better" versus my idea of Communism, which I think of as "making everyone's life equally poor". As an example, I use Cuba. Life under Batista was bad but when Castro finally let his Communist stripes show, life got much, much worse.

It is strange but some of the recent movies that have affected me the most deal with the life of the indigenous people of Peru. I think one of my dream places to visit is Machu Pichu. The 2 travelers visited it and Che couldn't believe that the Conquistadores would destroy Machu Pichu and then create Lima. The truth, as I understand it, is that the Spanish never saw Machu Pichu. They did destroy the society that supported it and, as a consequence, had the same affect. I still think Che had a point because I would probably have a similar opinion.

As a revolutionary, Che caused a lot of trouble, which were eventually permenantly solved when someone shot him. If you don't get emotional watching his development into a Communist, it was not that bad of a movie. Bullfighter, on the other hand, was a just plain stupid movie. It had no redeeming values. One of the reviewers at Amazon.com wanted to give it a "0" rating but he was only permitted by the rating system to give it a "1". I don't know if it was quite that bad. I have seem some really dumb movies and I am not quite sure Bullfighter was that bad.
5 February 2005 - I finished watching "Mr. 3000" this morning. It had some really stupid spots and then it ran from highs to lows. Mr. 3000 would get full of himself and someone would bring his ego back in check. The ego check was the high and full of himself was the low. Having him do the "right thing" made the movie.
I have watched a few movies with sound tracks that were only in español. They were "Oro Diablo", Coqueta, Santitos and a "Tin Tan" movie. Oro Diablo is a movie from Venezuela and is about life in a gold rush city. The Spanish is not complicated. It is mostly swearing and the same old comments. The subtitles were running but there were a number of sections where I didn't need them. It was also kind of depressing because life in the gold rush town was pretty wretched.
Coqueta is a movie staring Lucerito and Pedrito Fernández. I bought it to see what Lucero Léon was like before she was just known as Lucero. It reminded me of a Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee musical movie but with Méxican actors that were around 13-14 years old. I have only watched part of Santitos and do not have any comments. I haven´t watched the "Tin Tan" movie.
I bought Catwoman and Cellular. My friends thought Catwoman was pretty bad but if I like anime, Catwoman was pretty good. I think Holly Berry is the prettiest actress in Hollywood right now. So, I am easy to impress.
Cellular made me walk a few times. I would pause the DVD and walk around. Once I got past him shooting the "take a number" machine in the cell phone store, I didn't have any problems.
16 January 2005 - I found a fairly good web page on "Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso" who is known by the name "Abimael Guzmán", the founder of the Sendero Luminoso. See Wikipedia. I am still bothered by the movie "The Dancer Upstairs" but I am slowly relaxing. I met some people from Peru and they told me how some of the corruption occurs. You have a bunch of boys that belong to the same fútbol club and they eventually go to the same college. When they become important people, they had a tendancy to pass what came their way along to their buddies. You never see this anywhere but it is how ordinary people in Peru think.
8 December 2004 - I rented and then purchased the movie "Maria Full of Grace". Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is a strong minded teenager from rural Columbia. She feels trapped in her environment. She gets a job stripping thorns from roses before they are shipped from a rose plantation. There is a scene where she eats some sausage or something and reacts to the what ever she ate. She can't deal with the boss (jefe) refusing to let her go to the bathroom and quits. Her mother and sister need what she earned to care for Maria's sister's baby. Maria finds it really difficult to hand over what she earned to her mother. She does not feel responsible for paying for the medicine for the baby and resents being told to do so. Her mother tells her that the next payment from the job will be all hers to spend and that is when she tells them that she has quit.

She doesn't know what she is going to do and a sympathetic person tells her about a job that involves travel. She needs the money and makes the decision to become a drug mule. Her friend Blanca decides to do the same thing because Maria has done it. Maria will end up carrying 62 pellets of heroin to the USA and Blanca carries 50 pellets. The payment is $100 per pellet. Blanca makes the point that $5,000 will build her parents a new house. The rest of the movie is about Maria's problems with being a drug mule. There is a lot of improv in the script. The writer, Joshua Marston, would let the actors read the script and 10 days later, they would try and do the scene. The actors would translate the scene into terms they could deal with. MFOG didn't affect me like "The Dancer Upstairs" did but it did make you more understanding of how people get envolved with being a mule. One of the sites had 97% of the people giving it 5-stars. I was one of them.

I did a web search and one of the complaints that I read was about Marston's underdevelopment of the lead up to Maria's decision to become a mule. I agreed with their point but I also believe that you have to remember that you can't do a lot of development when the movie is only 101 minutes long.
7 November 2004 - I purchased Bourne Supremacy. It is a continuation of Bourne Identity. Jason was once part of the Treadstone Project and people just won't leave him alone. In the movie, they try to assassinate him but get his wife instead. The rest of the movie is about payback. He is very good a what he does and everyone involved with killing his wife ends up dead. There are several tense moments when the CIA project leader ends up in the scope of his sniper rifle. She wasn't involved with killing his wife and so Jason lets her know that he is nearby and probably has her in his crosshairs.

Close to the ending, the story has him telling and then applogizing to the sole survivor of his first kill. Jason finds it necessary to tell her that her mother did not kill her father and then commit suicide. In the end, the CIA project officer appologizes to Jason for the way they have treated him. Since he refuses to come in from the cold, you are left with the possibility of a 3rd movie. Matt Damon does a very good job of playing Jason Bourne. In the special features, he jokes that it is really easy when you are surrounded by really good actors.
3 November 2004 - My book order from Barnes & Noble arrived. I had done a web search on "sendero luminoso" and decided to order "The Monkey's Paw" by Robin Kirk. At times, I think the God's protect the truly stupid actions by intelligent people. She went to Ayacucho, Peru in 1983. Her goal was to interview Abimael Guzman, an action that would have only gotten her executed. Eventually, she documented the life of the people she encountered during that timeframe. When it comes to poverty, the only America's country with worse conditions was Hati. I found the book really interesting because I can finally understand some of the conditions that nutured the SL. An ordinary person could not help improve their conditions and maybe that will let me finally relax.
21 October 2004 - Few movies have affected me so profoundly as "The Dancer Upstairs" did. I recently added Dolby Digital 5.1 capability to my main computer. My TV has a power supply that is slowly dying. I spend much of my time on computers in my basement. So, I thought that adding the ability to watch DVD movies on one of the would be an advantage. DVD burners come with software that you can use to watch DVD movies. I don't have a large exposure but Nero Vision has a tendancy to be choppy on my AMD 1600+ XP running Windows XP Pro and PowerDVD 5.0 on a similar system with 2400+ XP does not have that problem. The conditions are fairly cramped in my basement and placement of 5 speakers and a subwoofer was not a problem. I just finished watch TDU on my computer. Everytime I watch it, I want to know more about the real policeman that caught Abimael Guzman. Agustine Rojas in the movie was based on General Antonio Vidal. There is an article called "Shining Path Leader's Capture Offers Lima a Second Chance" by Corinne Schmidt of The Washington Post. It is the most condensed write up about Sendero Luminoso that I have found. If you want to read the article, click the title and you can read the newspaper article. There are books on the subject but most of them are now out of print. What is scary is that Peru is giving them a new trial, which is to begin 5 November 2004.
7 April 2004 - I finally finished watching Firefly. I was really amazed that I didn't watch it when it was being broadcast on Fox TV. The local Fox station has such terrible coverage where I live that it is too much to watch. If there were enough shows to be worth the bother, I qualify to get it on my DirecTV satelite dish.
30 March 2004 - I have 3 movies that I would like to own. One of them just became available. It is called "Final Countdown" and stars a number of people such as Kirk Douglas. The dog fight between 2 - F-14s and 2 - Japanese Zeros is timeless. The other 2 include Cate Capshaw as one of the stars. They are "Code Name: Dancer" and "The Quick And The Dead". Q&D also has Sam Elliot as a primary character. It is a story by Louis L'Amour.
29 March 2004 - I have become a fan of sorts of "The Rock". I thought his acting ability consisted of his patented scowl. Seeing him in "Rundown" was much more interesting because you got to see him do a number of stunts. One of the consistant features of Rundown was TR doing something. You knew it was him because when s**t happened, he was facing the camera. A stunt double is always facing away from the camera. So, I was impressed with Rundown.
I was chating with a friend about movies. He had just seen Open Range and I commented that I liked it and Once Upon a Time In Mexico. He joked that Salma Hayek was his dream date. I agreed but later changed my mind because I have liked Consuelo Gómez from El Mariachi better.

One of my funny movie scenes is the scene in El Mariachi where Gallardo thinks he could lose an important masculine item to Domino (Gómez) while she is demanding that he play his guitar and sing. He is inspired, calls her a princess with norteño eyes, and is told that he needs a better sense of humour because it is only a dull letter opener. I think Salma is better looking but I also think I would go dumb and mute or sit there with a silly grin on my face if she sat down at my table. Salma has been in so many movies that I think are good that I would want to be able to say something profound and I didn't think that I could think of anything profound to say. I didn't think I would have that problem with Consuelo.
24 March 2004 - I purchased the Firefly package some time ago but never got around to watching it. It was a series on Fox TV and that is a channel that I don't receive well enough to bother watching anything. I qualify to get it on my satelite dish but have not had enough interest to even go that far. There are 4 DVDs and you have 4 shows on a DVD. I finished the 1st DVD last night and I am half way through the 2nd. It is an interesting show. I read that the sales of the DVDs were such that they are going to make a feature film called Serenity.
18 March 2004 - I came back to read this section. If I wait a week or so, I see sections that I think I had turned my brain off when I wrote them. What popped into my mind this time was digital imaging. I have been waiting for years for digital cameras to catch up to what I can do with a 6x6 camera. There are 14-16 Mpixel cameras available now. The problem is they typically want $7K for them. I want a snapshot camera not something a professional needs. What brought this up was Rodriquez's comments about adding special effects. With film, you would have to scan, add the change, and create new film. You don't with digital movies. You edit them on a computer and write a new tape. I relate to that because last fall, I went to Yellowstone Park and shot a few rolls of film. I had 4 geysers going off in my field of view in less than 45 minutes. That doesn't happen often. Because of the work involved, I still haven't felt like scanning the negatives and so they are sitting on my desk. I could have just loaded them onto my vacation web folder if I had used a digital camera.
8 March 2004 - I thought that I would list the movies that were released in the last few months that I found interesting. At the head of the list is "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" by Robert Rodriquez. If you have followed El Mariachi like I have, then the update to Mexico won't be a surprise. I am always amazed at the people that don't watch the special features on the DVDs. I finished watching Mexico around 3 am but didn't finish the special features until 5:30 am. I don't typically watch the voice over section but I am facinated by how they made the movie and scenes that were cut for one reason or another. Rodriquez switched to high definition (HD) cameras. What he can do because of the new technology is awesome. He made a statement similar to "Mexico was made with older generation technology. New technology with something like 2x more resolution is now available and the format used to make Mexico is as bad as it will ever be."

A change of pace is the movie "Open Range" by Kevin Costner. Costner had a hard time getting finances for this movie. He hasn't been involved with a truely successful movie since probably "Dances With Wolves". I don't know how much money Range earned but it was a good movie. Watching the trouble they went through to make the movie was even more interesting. The special features makes watching a DVD much more interesting.

The next one that I found interesting was Kingpin. It was a 3-cd set about a television show called Kingpin. It was basically Traffic but years before the movie was made. It has Mexican bandidos that truely have neither a conscience nor a respect of life. Miguel Cadena decides to take control. They are like a moth flying around a light and you expect their life to crash at some point. Miguel's brother is having an affair with the Police Chief's wife and this is causing a lot of trouble. So, it isn't a big surprise when the crash happens. It is who survives that is the surprise. You can watch in Spanish or English.
7 March 2004 - This page has really fallen behind what I have been watching. I was in Hollywood Video several nights ago and rented a movie called "The Dancer Upstairs". It was directed by John Malkovich. The movie was a cat and mouse thing about an honest police officer trying to track down Ezequiel, the leader of a Maoist guerrilla group, that resembles the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso in Spanish). The SL never numbered more than 10,000 but killed 30,000 people. If you remember anything about Shining Path, you should do a web search and remind yourself of what was involved. These were uneducated people being lead by a University Professor. You only have to remember the collapse of Cambodia to see what would happen in Peru.

The sad part was the ending where Yolanda sends Rejas the following message

No me llames
No intentes ayudarle
Estoy muerta
Sólo vivo para la revolución
Bastia

Which translates to "Don't contact me, Don't help me, I am dead, I live only for the revolution, Enough. The book had the comment as "Tell him I am dead. I live only for the revolution." I am not sure which version I think is better.

Rejas promises to not run for the Presidency if Yolanda is placed in a cell with light and quietly released after 5 years. Yolanda was so afraid of the dark that she would almost go catatonic and to be left in a prison cell without light because of what he had done was more than Rejas could deal with. When Rejas finally figures out that he has won a personal, moral victory by promising not to run for the presidency, even after reading the note from Yolanda, he has to hurry catch a taxi to watch his daughter perform. The movie could have ended when he read the message from Yolanda but that would have been very depressing. Having Rejas arrive in time to watch his daughter was a much nicer ending. The ending in the book was different and simply left you wondering what if. I still think the movie was the story Shakespere wanted to write as a re-do.

15 November 2003 - I watched an interesting movie tonight. It was called "Live From Baghdad". It was about the CNN news team that was in Baghdad when the bomb fell in 1991. I was one of those people glued to their television set and watching the CNN report via my satelite tv receiver.

I was reminded of another movie that I watched but can never remember the name. It was called "Behind the Sun". It is a kind of western movie about a feud involving 2 families. In this case, it is about the Northeastern badlands of Brazil. It is a foreign language film with English subtitles. I never looked to see what the primary language was but was confused because about 1/2 of the words sounded like Spanish words that I recognized and I didn't have a clue on the rest. My Scotish/English friend suggested that it might be Portuguese. It was a good guess and I later looked up additional information about the DVD at Amazon Books.
26 October 2003 - It is time to upgrade my movie list. It may not be complete but at least I will upgrade it a little bit. The full set of episodes of the Battlestar Galactica TV series was released. It was a must purchase along with the Indiana Jones set. I rented a movie called "Bend it like Beckham". It is a multi-cultural story about a nice Hindu girl's conflict of playing football (soccer to the USA), which she was really good at, and fitting the image expected from the Hindu women. According to the various releases, the term "bend it" comes from Beckhams uncanny ability to curve the soccer ball around the apposing teams defenders. The reviewers all refered to it as a "feel good" movie and I had to agree.

I was watching Beckett, the Marlins pitcher, throw curves that seemed to break a few inches and were good enough to shut out the New York Yankees and win the 2003 World Series. His breaking curve ball was really puny in comparison with the curve of several feet that Jess's kicks were imparting to the soccer ball.

There were other releases that stand out. For example, "The Lion King" was released on DVD. Purchasing it just to listen to Elton John's songs was a sufficient reason and to get the songs and the movie just seemed to double the number of reasons. I had to laugh at "Chasing Papi". You had these three, really hot looking Hispanic gals, chasing a guy that wasn't as monogomous as he had told each of them. I remember a magazine article about "Why do Latin men all cheat" and I could see 3 good examples.
It is 10 July 2003 - I am not spending time updating my movie list. There have been a number of movies that I like. For example, on 9 July I had a root canal done on one of my upper right molars. My movie of choice was Reign of Fire. It was really different watching it on special glasses that I wore while they were working on me. This was probably the 3rd or 4th time that I had watched it. The action and noise kept me from thinking about the drilling that was going on.

There are several movies that I have watched several times and some of therm are "Tears of The Sun", WSABI, the special edition of "Dances With Wolves", and "Gangs of New York". There are a number of old movies that are being re-marketed at < $10.
22 March 2003 - I just finished watching a movie in Mandran with English subtitles. The movie was "The Road Home" and the star that caught my eye as Zhang Ziyi. I tried to watch it 3 times and then it caught my attention and I couldn't even pause it to get a drink of water. It was really the story of a Chinese village girl name Di that fell in love with the village teacher. In a time when marriages were arranged, a couple falling in love was unheard of. The finish was hauling him home to be buried.
30 January 2003 - I came across a movie called Songcatcher. It was a Sundance Film Festival winner. The story was about a Professor of Music that felt she was being treated badly the the University and went to visit her sister. There she fell in love with the ballads from the hill country of Tennessee. In the story, the people's ancestory were pure Scot-English that went back to the 1700's. The ballads had been passed on from generation to succeeding generation. It reminded me of how the dueling banjos caught my attention when I first saw the movie Deliverance.
1 November 2002 - It was 1am when I walked into our local Wal Mart Supercenter and found the movie Spiderman on sale. Well it is 2 hours later and I finished watching it for the first time. It was dark and wild.
27 February 2002 and I took advantage of "Wacky Wednesday" to watch "Wind River". It is the story of a "white indian boy" with the Shoshoni name of Yagaichi (the crier). The movie is based on a book about Nick Wilson who became the white-indian. I did a web search and besides the DVD being available at Amazon.com, a review popped up in the Oklahom Indian Times. According to the movie, Nick Wilson went on to be one of the founding riders of the Pony Express. His descendants live in Wilson, Wyoming, a small town west of Jackson Hole. A few months later, I ended up buying the book. The movie was different. Like most stories, they don't have time to do the whole book and merge characters until they have a good story line.
It is 12 January 2002 and I have to add some more movies to my list. One of the local video rental places has a "Wacky Wednesday" where you can rent a DVD for $0.99. At that price, you can rent a movie that you think is a loser or not highly interesting and not feel bad if you don't finish it. I don't rate series video's very high but the first Farscape DVD really caught my eye. I would have rented it any time, I just bumped into on Wacky Wednesday. The DVD I rented this week is called "Farscape - Premier and I, ET". If you are at all into watching Farscape, you have to visit Virginia Hey's web site. All three links are to different web sites. More information is available if you run your mouse over the link.

I was not really aware of who "Warrior Woman" was on Road Warrior, which was the 2nd movie about Mad Max that Mel Gibson did. The timing on Farscape is really bad for me because it is broadcast when I am eating dinner. Virginia plays Zhaan on Farscape. She has decided to get her femininity back once again and dropped out of the series. One of the reasons is that Zhaan has no facial hair and Hey says she looked like an alien off of the set more than Zhaan did. At any rate, Zhaan was an interesting creature and will be missed.

It is 18 October 2001 and Lucas has finally released his first "Star Wars" movie on DVD. It is episode I but I liked it because of the CGI (computer generated images).

I have liked about half of the movies staring Jennefer Lopez. That is a pretty high ratio for me. To night I am watching "Angel Eyes". Angel Eyes was also released on 16 October. It started out kind of strange but I may like it enough to buy the DVD. I haven't decided. I finally finished watching it. There is simply so much emotional baggage being carried by everyone. It all builds up until the ending.

It is July 21, 2001 and I have added Thirteen Days, Crossfire Trail, Traffic, Vertical Limit, and Proof Of Life to my movie DVD collection. There are a couple of others but they don't rate listing. I also added Luis Miguel in Vivo. The movie Thirteen Days I identified with because the Utah Army National Guard Artillery Battalion I belonged to was the only one in the state of Utah that wasn't called to active duty during the Cuban Missile crisis. I was going to school at the University of Utah and was convinced it was going to screw up my obtaining a BS degree in Physics. Crossfire Trail is simply another good western by Tom Selleck. I will watch anything based on a book by Louis L'Amour and starring Selleck or Sam Elliott. These two people just don't get involved with a bad L'Amour scripts. The family has enough clout that bad movie scripts are simply not created. You read about how Clancy is never happy with a script based on his books. I don't think you can make a marketable movie based on a Clancy book without modifications. I think the setup of a Clancy story would be long enough for one move and the non-stop action would be a three hour movie. I will not pay to see a five hour movie. Traffic is a complicated story about drug traffic from both sides. I was introduced to Benicio del Toro. I think he is an actor to watch in the future.

Proof of Life (PoL) is about K & R situations. In the story kidnap and ransoms have gotten to the point of being a business. How a group of people deal with a K & R situation was much more interesting than I thought it would be. Life in the high country was beautiful but harsh. I was first impressed with Russel Crowe's acting when I watched Gladiator. This is also the movie where so much was made about the off-set romance of Crowe and Meg Ryan. You see a different Ryan in PoL. She is playing Alice and isn't the all sugar and sweetness person you saw in "You've Got Mail". I had gotten to the point that I thought she only had one part that she could play. It was just the dialog that changed. Crowe plays the negotiator dealing with a kidnapped American who is Alice's husband played by David Morse. Morse is another actor that I only identified with nasty people. The movie has two stories in one. The front story is about the negotiations and behind all of this is the life of Morse as the kidnapped executive. His treatment by the terrorista's is pretty brutal. It all converges when one of the wife's house employee's recognizes the voice of the terrorista's negotiator. Crowe confronts the negotiator and is told that Morse's character knows too much and will never be released. Crowe's part just happens to be ex-British SAS and is the wrong kind of person to PO. Morse and one of the missionary captives tries to escape. Morse is impaled by a booby trap and the missionary gets away. The K & R people devise a plan to get the local army to cross a river into terrorista country to protect the oil pipeline, which raises the alarm and the terrorists all mobilize to confront the army. Crowe and his team of nasty, good guys fly in to where the terrorist camp is located. They identify where the hostages are located and start freeing them. There is a fire fight with a couple of rescue people being wounded but they free the two hostages that were in the terrorist camp and fly everyone to safety.

Luis Miguel is a singer that I hadn't paid attention to. I am not interested in love songs being sung by a guy. I have been listening to mostly Spanish music while I am trying to learn Spanish. Miguel happens to have the only DVD that I have found by a Latin Performer. I would really like to watch Myriam Hernandez or Soraya. I wouldn't pass up Shakira or Marta Sanchez video's. Since I haven't found anything by them, Luis will have to do. Luis is in his early 30's and has been recording since he was 12 years old. Vivo or Live is a performance in front of 1000's people most of whom are women lusting after his body. The performance is very high quality. A lot of people are involved. When I found out that he had a DVD out, I did some research. I was sitting here thinking about what I would say and came to the smiling conclusion that if he was a General in an Army, the ribbons from his awards would require a crane to help him move about. He is also a singer that, to my Anglo ears, I can understand the words he is singing. There are a couple of songs by Shakira, for example, that all I can hear is the trilling r's.

It is 5 June 2001 and I purchased "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". It stars Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, and Zhang Ziyi. Michelle Yeoh has been a favorite since she stared in one of the latest James Bond movies. I liked her so much that I started watching everything she was in. BIG MISTAKE!! The next one was a story about a police inspector in China and has to be one of the dumbest movies I ever rented. It wasn't the dumbest because the fight scenes were still interesting. I will still try and watch anything she is in; however, I will rent before I ever buy. Back to "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". This was the first movie in a long time that I sat down and didn't move from my chair until it was over.

I have added many DVD's since February 2001. I just never got around to updating this list. Movies that stand out are Notting Hill staring Julia Roberts. I can't watch everything she does but some stand out. I enjoyed Erin Brockovich. A woman with a foul mouth doesn't bother me. Watching what the real Erin Brockovich accomplished was facinating. I would have never even watched Notting Hill but kept catching parts of it on my satelite system. Eventually, I had to go down to the video rental place and rent it so that I could see the hole story.

After watching it several times, I went out and purchased it. It was a delightful movie. It was sort of like "Pretty Woman" but this time she was the rich individual in love with an ordinary person played by Hugh Grant. I have never really wanted to watch anything that Grant starred in and this represents a significant change.

I have a fragile heart and identified with the part Grant played. I would have probably made the same dumb mistake he did but wouldn't have had the sense to recover from the mistake. His comments and questions in the press conference were funny. You have to watch the faces of the reporters as they finally catch on to who he was and what he was really asking. They worked because the ending was really a happy one. You see a completely happy Roberts lying on a park bench with the back of her head in her husband's lap and many months pregnant.

I really like "Finding Forrester" staring Sean Connery and Rob Brown. It is the story of a bright African-American student that doesn't fit in the school system in the Bronx area of New York City. He tries to steal something from the part of a recluse played by Connery. Connery (Forrester) wakes up and scares Brown enough that he leaves his back pack behind. His back pack contains his diaries. He gets his back pack back but finds that his diaries have all been graded. He is like a moth being drawn to a bright light. Eventually, he persists and the recluse played by Connery agrees to tutor him on writing. It is worth renting to see what happens. The story was that Brown had $300 in cellular telephone bills that he needed to pay. So, he tries out to see if he can play a part in the movie. He doesn't end up with just some part but is the co-star of the movie. What a shock that must have been. He should be able to pay many $300 cell-phone bills.

I enjoyed "All The Pretty Horses". This was the first movie starring Matt Damon that I really liked. I have rented a number of them but he was always playing the part from "Good Will Hunting" but with a slightly different dialog. All the Pretty Horses was different. He fell in love with the local Don's pretty daughter. She is sent away as a punishment and he tries to follow. There are parts that are terribly depressing but loves wins in the end. It wasn't that successfull as a theater movie but if you need a show to rent, it could be one that you would enjoy.

I have followed the US Space Program since we tried to launch our first satelite. This was shortly after the Soviet Union launched their Sputnik satelite. The theme of Space Cowboys is launching four geriatric hard-cases into orbit. It required more than a little development. Having them save the world also required some development. Believing it is one thing but enjoying it is entirely different. It is simply funny to watch.

I tempted the fates this week (February 2001) and purchased two new DVD's that weren't rated very high. The first was "Battlefield Earth" with John Travolta cast as a bad guy. I have read a lot of stories by L. Ron Hubbard and never did understand the rating. I figured it was in the same vein as "Starship Troopers". They had modernized it a little bit where as Starship Troopers was campy because it was left just like Heinlen wrote it. After all of the 1-star ratings that Battlefield Earth had received, I had to chuckle because it and "Coyote Ugly" were the only current releases that were almost sold out. I wouldn't say Battlefield Earth was one of my favorites but I will watch it a couple of times more. I read the book every 3 or 4 years.

The second DVD should be obvious. I joined the crowd and picked up Coyote Ugly. Everybody took pot shots at it but it was entertaining. That is all it needed to be. A story about a pretty lady with a bad case of stage fright. The movie is about her as she works it out of her system. I kind of relate to that because the place where I eat has a Bee. Every Thursday someone dresses in the Bee costume and walks around Old Country Buffet. You have to see the eyes of the small kids when they see the Bee. You might ask what my point is. Well, so far the people dressing as the Bee have been sort of shy. Dressing as the Bee make them anonymous and they can act up a little bit. It doesn't take long and their shyness sort of disappears. This made watching Coyote Ugly interesting because it is about someone going through the same personality changes. The actress isn't singing but lip syncing while Lee Ann Rhimes sings. I enjoy listening to her and that maybe why I liked it better than many of the critics. My rating is entertaining. Just watching them dance on the bar in cowboy boots, my favorite kind of shoe, was interesting. I would have tripped, fell off of the bar, and hurt myself. Five months later, Coyote Ugly is still in the top 10 purchases.

I have two older, new movies that I enjoyed watching on DVD. The one I thought was pretty awesome was "Gladiator", which starred Russell Crowe. This was after Crowe's much publicized romance with Meg Ryan. Going from being the designated Herr to the throne of ancient Rome to being a gladiator was a tremendous change. To then be able to get revenge with the person responsible for your drop into slavery was justice.

The second older movie was "Gone in 60 Seconds". This has Nicholas Cage and a cast of misfits that were drawn like a moth to the light for boosting cars (stealing them). Cage's character had retired until his brother failed to deliver 50 cars to a hard case. In order to save his brother, Cage's character agrees to fill the order. This means over one night, his team of thieves will steal 50 cars. Some of the chase scenes are just as much fun as the chase scene in Bullit. The final chase has Cage driving Eleanor, a GT500 Mustang with 400 or 500 bhp. Lots of corners and wet streets, which means lots of burning rubber. In one spot, they are driving down one of Los Angeles water canals. The helicopter is keeping up until Cage turns everything on and the speed starts building from 120, 130, 140, and 160. At 160 mph, the helicopter pilot says he's gone and Eleanor was out of sight. Some of it I related to because of my old SS396 Camaro.

The Camaro was the only car I ever owned that I could idle out from a stop and punch the accelerator and watch things happen. Everything was sort of slow until the engine revved up to 2500 rpm. The power and torque jumped at that point and all hell broke loose. The first thing was it would break both back tires loose and burn rubber. You were also slammed back into the seat until you shifted into 2nd gear. That could be 45-60 mph depending on what you were doing. The Camaro accelerated until you hit the engine's redline in 4th gear, which was about 135-145 mph by the speedometer. The speedometer only went to 125 mph but the engine would push the car 15-20 mph faster than that. The car rode the quietest at 90 mph. The air noise was a minimum and the large carburetor hadn't started growling yet.

It also didn't change too much on gas mileage. You could get 14 mpg averaging 90 mph or 14.5 mpg averaging 55 mph. I drove the Fiero to Utah one time in 8:45. The same trip in the Camaro required 9:05 but also included an hour stop in Boise, Idaho for lunch. The distance was almost exactly 630 miles. The Fiero stopped for gas three times and the Camaro had to stop four times. An average stop for gasoline (petrol) required 15 minutes. The Fiero was never more than 10 mph over the speed limit and the Camaro averaged 20 mph over the speed limit. The segment of the trip from Boise to Ogden was where the most distance was covered. Southern Idaho didn't have a lot of cops on patrol and I would look down and find that I had accelerated to 125-135 mph after passing a car. You would do a double take and slow down to around 100 or so. I only did it once. When it came time to drive home, the first Arab oil embargo had started and they had a strict 55 mph speed limit. I got behind someone doing an even 55 mph and followed them for 500 miles. The time required to drive back was four hours longer. Since I didn't stop in Boise and eat, I really spent five hours longer driving. I figured that to try it again would have tempted fates and I would have been the guest of someone for several days on the road or embedded in a rock wall somewhere.

Another movie that I found interesting is called "The 13th Warrior". This is the second Banderas movie that I really liked. The first was "The Mask of Zorro". He plays an Arab exiled to being an ambassador in a far northern country for having a Sheiks wife look too long at him. When he is trekking to his new post, the caravan is attacked by Tartars. They start their horses running and end up trapped by a river. The Tartars suddenly leave when a boat comes around the bend of the river. They are Northmen and they have come to bury their King. Everyone except Banderas and his councilor run away in fear of the Northmen. While they are there, the Northmen receive a request to for help to save a kingdom. The volunteers are counted as they line up but there are only 12 warriors and they need 13. The 13th warrior is special because he can't be a Northmen. They look around and there are only old men, boys, and Banderas. He is a pretty boy poet but agrees reluctantly to be the 13th warrior. They all head off to rescue the friendly king.

Banderas really starts out with a problem because with out his councilor, he can't understand them. He watches, listens and before they get there he surprises them in the middle of insulting him by returning the insult. At first they are very angry but then they understand that he has learned by listening and are impressed. The leader takes on the responsibility of teaching him some things that he needs to know. They land where they keep insulting Banderas' Arabian horse. He is so small that they accuse him of riding a dog. He runs the horse around the area jumping various things and then puts him over the horse the warrior doing most of the insulting is riding. He bails out and the leader grins and makes the comment that he may be the size of a dog but can he jump. They ride to where they present themselves to the King requesting help. The village is totally defenseless and absolutely clueless when it comes to fighting. The 13 warriors set about creating a defense around the village.

It isn't too long until the invaders appear wearing animal heads and looking like a fire breathing dragon in the fog or mist. Banderas finally has to fight one of the people wearing an animal head and he finds out that he is a man and goes berserk. These people live in a cave and the 13 warriors finally take the battle to them. It is sort of like one of Conan's quests in that they have to stop both the leader and his shaman or witch. They get the shaman but not the leader and they attack the village again. They penetrate the defenses and all is just about lost when the leader kills the leader of the attackers. The invaders stop and leave. I think it is an enjoyable movie. Banderas is developing real acting skills. After all of the sword training in "Mark of Zorro", he also can wield a mean sword. The movie is based on a book by Michael Crichton and was originally called "Eaters of The Dead". The story is loosely based on the diary of a real Arab courtier from A.D. 922. The far north country he was sent to was run by a tribe called the "Rus", which is now modern Russia.

If you like Steven Seagal movies, "The Patriot" is interesting. You have to have driven through Ennis, Montana to see how far out of things you are when you live there. Montana, from news accounts, is full of strange people. The Unabomber, as a sample, comes to mind. There have been a few fringe outfits that have had stand offs that made it to the evening news. I think of Montanan's as free spirits.

When you look at a map, Ennis is really not off of the usual travel routes because it is on one of three roads that you can use to get to Yellowstone National Park from Butte, Montana. You either go in through the Hebgen Lake route (Ennis), head south from Belgrade, or you come into Mammoth Hot Springs from Bozeman. The speed limit in Yellowstone Park is 35 mph and coming in through Mammoth is a choice only when you stay in Canyon Village or further north. I usually stay in West Yellowstone, Montana and it doesn't seem to matter which of the first two routes I choose. They are usually equally slow because Montana is usually upgrading some section of road and you have to wait for a pilot car. When they get through, they really have a good two lane road.

In 1999 they re-implemented a daytime speed limit. You could really cover country in Montana by setting the cruise control in your car on 80-85 mph (128-136 kph) and driving. It did make me very careful when I passed because when two cars pass at 90+ mph they will cover 0.5 mile or 0.8 km in ~10 seconds. Getting back to the move, the Patriot is the leader of a militia group responsible for releasing a biological weapon. It turns out that the biological has mutated and the anti-toxin doesn't work. McClaren (Seagal) was a top government immunologist before he gave it up to practice as a country doctor just down the hill in Ennis (population 773).

The local native Americans (NA) aren't dying and there are a series of jokes about DNA and payback and such. It turns out that a flower used to make a tea that is popular with the local NA's is the antidote to the plague. The end of the show has Huey Helicopters flying around dropping petals from the flower out of the rocket pods. It must have been a mess to clean up.

It hasn't been that long since the move "Blast From the Past" was released. I thought it was weird but funny. It was funny because the family went underground about the time of the USA - USSR standoff over missiles in Cuba around 1962-63. They think both sides are going to launch everything and head underground just as a pilot less fighter plane is falling to earth exactly where their house is. They just know that topside has been obliterated by a missile launched by the Russians and set the locks on their blast door for 25 years in the future.

They have a child and much of the movie is spent watching him grow up. Then, one day while everyone is asleep, you can hear the door locks open. The father goes topside wearing a re-breather outfit. The outside world is simply too traumatic. You hear him scream in a Porno Shop, which is located just to the side of the shelter entrance, and he heads back into the shelter. He has a heart attack or something and needs medical supplies. This time the kid comes out of the bomb shelter and wanders around using idiomatic expressions and snapping his fingers like they did in the early 60's. This made it funny because I remember all of us talking that way.

The funny part was they went underground with 10,000 shares each of IBM, Polaroid, and some other company. One of his new friends called a stock broker and found out they were worth $M's. They didn't have to worry about funds. The kid has them lock up the shelter for 2 or 3 months and builds a house with just the dimensions of the shelter. He thinks he can bring them back to the future if he spoon feeds the changes to his parents a little bit at a time. I think the movie would be funny to watch perhaps once a year. The jokes remind me to much of my past and wouldn't be funny if I played it any more frequently.

I usually watch action movies without much reality to them. For example, I like movies such as the Rambo series and most Chuck Norris movies. I enjoyed Starship Troopers in the theatre and I also have it on DVD. Deep Impact on DVD, a Lucifer's Hammer style movie, which follows the discovery of a large asteroid, was a recent purchase. The scientists calculate that it may produce an E. L. E. (Extinction Level Event) magnitude event if it collides with the Earth. I also liked Dante's Peak even though it was Mt. St. Helens II. It had a crusty old lady instead of a cussing, crusty old male lodge owner. The lahar and pyroclastic flow made me squirm in my chair. This was especially true when the rocks started collapsing the roof of Brosnian's pickup truck. That really made me squirm.

I have watched my copy of the director's edition of the Dances With Wolves video at least 6 times. I paid to see it three times in the local theatre. I also watched the initial release video 3 or 4 times. I also liked WaterWorld and "The Postman". Top Gun is another movie that I continue to watch.

Demi Moore in "GI Jane" caught my attention a while back. I don't know if women will ever be members of a Seal team; however, Demi, as a gutsy Lieutenant O'Neal, would get my vote. I don't know if they morphed her doing one handed pushups but that definitely got my attention. An old girlfriend tried my leg machine and thought it was broken because she couldn't budge it using both legs. She had a kind of surprised look on her face when I raised it with one leg. The way Moore appeared, I think she could have also lifted the leg machine with one leg. One of the movie critic's gave "GI Jane" the equivalent of a 2 on a scale of 0 to 4; however, I usually subtract his rating from 5 and get my rating.

I don't enjoy watching Jim Carey and the local movie critic doesn't either but that is about the only subject we agree on. The Batman movie with him in it was not a bad movie but it was the first Batman movie that I did not purchase the video tape. I have to admit that I enjoyed "Liar Liar", which I had to be coerced into watching. The story about a Lawyer that couldn't tell a lie for his client was interesting concept. I've always believed that everyone in the courtroom should be sworn to tell the truth and that includes the court officials.

Favorite Movies

Last revised: Friday, April 08, 2005