A Simple Plan - Movie Review

I love this movie. It's one damn slippery slope. If you like movies that blur the lines between good and evil and do not have happy endings then see this. It's disturbing, depressing and all the good stuff. Yep, get some popcorn and get ready to explore how a seemingly simple plan can completely ruin your life. It's a treat!

Transsibererian - Movie Review

I enjoyed this film. As Ebert says it's a Hitchockian thriller. Slow to start and pickup speed to a dramatic finish. The beginning, while most would consider tediously slow, actually had a ton of foreshadowing and instilled a sense of impending doom. Harrelson gives an excellent performance as a naive straight arrow who, when the time comes has the pragmatism of a professional killer. Conversely his wife, Emily Mortimer, who is a street smart former bad girl panics and makes one mistake after another. Country Bumpkin Harrelson, so trusting of everyone, turns out to have the nerves of a Navy SEAL. His geeky fascination with coal burning trains adds a plausible dimension to what would otherwise be a implausible action at a crucial moment.

Platoon - Movie Review

I'm not going to review this because everybody's seen it. I thought it was OK. I watched it because it's considered to be the best Vietnam War movie and possibly the best war movie ever.

What I'd really like to address though is this persistent belief people have that if we just make a war movie that is very good at depicting the reality of war, rather than glorify it, then people (especially young men) won't be so gung-ho about fighting in a war. Everyone wants my kids to see "Saving Private Ryan" so they'll know how horrible war can be, presumably to discourage them from entering military service. A movie is not going to do it.

The only way someone could possibly understand the horror of war is to be in one. All war movies glorify war regardless of intent. I'm 47, I've never been in a war and I'll probably never be in a war. When Sargent Elias goes solo to intercept the flanking NVA troops and kills them all with the skill and cunning that 3 years of battle experience has given him, it's cool! My guess is that men and women who perform these heroic acts don't think they're going to make it through alive.

I'm pretty sure that men and women who have seen combat find it ludicrous that others think you can understand what it's like by watching a movie. My point is that young men think they will be able to make it, they'll be cool like Sargent Elias (except they won't die). Hell, I'm 47 and I still think that. But I'll betcha once I'm in the smoke and confusion and explosions I'll wish to hell I was back in my office writing code or watching war movies on DVD.

I wish we didn't have to have wars. Maybe someday we won't. Thank you to all Veterans for your service, whether you saw combat or not. Just by signing up you put yourself in danger, even if you were just trying to get money for college. I hope the politicians think long and hard before committing troops to battle. It's not just the loss of life or physical injuries. A lot of very tough strong people are completely destabilized by the experience and never really get their life back.

An Inconvienent Truth - Movie Review

I like disturbing movies without happy endings. This fits the bill. As Roger Ebert says "If you do not see this film, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to". Well I don't have grandchildren (yet) but I still saw the show. I wanted to eat popcorn. I like Al Gore, he's the first Democrat I ever voted for. The popcorn was really good. The movie was great. That part where 60 million people in Asia are 7 meters underwater was very entertaining. Much better than Kevin Costner's Waterworld. We'll have to evacuate them to say, New Orleans, or something, before that happens. Either that or have them all gather in a convention center to wait for help. If Brownie can pull that off, he'll be doing a heck of a job.

Memory of a Killer Movie Review

Memory of a Killer is the story of an aging hit man who has Alzheimer's. He's getting to the point where he has to write important details on his arm, such as his hotel room number, who to kill, etc. He's hired to take out some people in Belgium. While there he visits his older brother who also has Alzheimer's but much more progressed. His brother's nurse begins to explain how the disease first presents and the killer angrily snaps "I know how it starts". After killing a few of his targets he is surprised to find his next target is a twelve year old girl. He refuses to carry out the contract. Digging deeper he discovers that his current employers are running a child prostitution ring. He turns on his employers, killing them one by one while keeping the police apprised of his actions. He also ends up having to kill several police officers when he is almost caught. The guy is a stone cold killer who knows he's working on his last job. Just when you think Alzheimer's has got him he gives the police a slip and manages to kill more of the bad guys. When the police complain he just tells him they're too slow. Nice show, blurs the line between good and evil. Enjoy it with your children if you want them to know about child prostitution and that even contract killers can do the moral thing.