Tuesday, September 23, 2025
The Prodigal 1983
The Prodigal 1983
John Hammond as Greg Stuart
Hope Lange as Anne Stuart
John Cullum as Elton Stuart
Morgan Brittany as Sheila Holt-Browning
Ian Bannen as Riley Wyndham
Joey Travolta as Tony
Arliss Howard as Scott Stuart
Sarah Rush as Laura
Gerry Gibson as Reverend Wharton
Missing from this list is Billy Graham.
I was attracted to this show by the presence of 29-year-old Arlis Howard in his first movie role seen here as the "good" son enrolled in seminary. I was not immediately aware of the Billy Graham connection or that it's a retelling of the Biblical parable of the same name. It is interesting to see all these actors over 40 years younger.
Alas I've always said that Graham was the best of a bad lot. I lacked the stomach to complete the movie.
Little Women 2019
Little Women 2019
Saoirse Ronan
Jo March

Emma Watson
Meg March

Florence Pugh
Amy March

Eliza Scanlen
Beth March

Laura Dern
Marmee March

Timothée Chalamet
Laurie
This is not a period piece. Marmee seems barely older than her daughters. The current "it" boy is Laurie.
The location jumps back and forward in time and place. The movie begins with Jo receiving her first payment for her much edited work, then jumps to Amy's art classes in Paris. What is adeptly captured is the chatter and squabbles of a house overflowing with 5 women with Laurie often the foil.
Friedrich Bhear looks grizzled but certainly not the aging professor.
I will say that Teddy looks dowdy in period costuming.
And the movie ends with Papa March's return so it gets the Hollywood treatment.
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Chicago PD
Chicago PD
Redefines police corruption. If there was a teflon don Voight is the teflon sargeant. To catch the bad guys you have to be as devious as the villains. Using CI's who are protected criminals to catch even worse offenders seems distasteful. The lines between the law and crooks is bent and blurred. A dead perp doesn't need a lawyer, a trial, or proof of his offence. Officers rise through the ranks because they know how to work the system, not because they're good cops. Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. Collecting dirt on your enemies is essential security. Horse trading is how it's done. Justice has nothing to do with truth but what can be proven in a court of law. Officer discretion is often influenced by public perception.
The character at the centre of this series is a Psychopath, devoid of any moral compunction or conscience for his actions. Those who work with and under him get drawn into his actions and suffer the PTS involved in witnessing and dealing with the moral ambiguity involved.
I have now watched the 11 seasons available to me on prime without paying extra subscription fees. Growing up in a tough neighbourhood exposed one of the recent additions to the squad to early employment as a mob enforcer. A rather tough man of few words he still lives at home in that same neighbourhood with his Mama. A multi-episode story of a squad member who goes undercover to shadow a crime family discovers how the man's daughter is roped into her father's criminal activities and how her ten year old son idolizes his grampa. Another such child shoots and kills his best friend while they play with his father's weapons and is found with a sizable stash of heroin under his bed he claims is his rather than expose pops.
Episode 22 of season 11 has a major cliffhanger ending.
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Guy Ritchie's the Covenant
Guy Ritchie's the Covenant
A flavour of the week type movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal who has grown up to be an action movie mogul. There's plenty of conflict with Taliban Guerrillas and a picaresque odyssey across forbidding Afghani terrain but the message here highlights America's abandonment of the local interpreters it promised to repatriate to America in return for their service to the "tender" mercies of the Taliban when they pulled up stakes.
Beware Yanks bringing gifts.
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal it's a flavour of the week type movie highlighting America's abandonment of Afghan Interpreters to their fate with the Taliban when the US pulled out. It is spiced with loads of action sequences vs Taliban Guerrillas and a picaresque odyssey across forbidding Afghan terrain.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
The Valour and the Horror (1992)
The Valour and the Horror (1992)
Brian and Terrence McKenna
Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941
Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command
In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944
A mini series each 1hr 44 min
An account of the Canadian experience of WW#2. Reviled by the Royal Canadian Legion. Given written accounts I've read recently I find this version rather temperate in its portrayal. For much of the filming the background music is taken from Faure's Requiem with a snatch of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
In typical fashion generals and air marshals treat the man on the ground or in the plane in similar fashion as the chess player treats the pawns on his checker board; they are expendable. Indeed British generals had disdain for colonial troops.
And the incompetence of those in command of troops in the battle for Normandy gets highlighted here. Child soldiers on the German side pitted against a Black Watch Regiment committed to never retreating.
Thursday, March 07, 2024
The Rangers
The Rangers
A WW#2 movie set in a German POW camp but shot in Italy.
What the archival footage of fighters attacking Lancasters and Kamikaze planes dive bombing battleships has to do with the plot I'm uncertain. The acting is plodding, amateurish. The costumes of the officers look fresh from the dry cleaners, never worn. The scene around the table with the generals looks like a rehearsal read through. Call it an OK time-waster.
The explosion, when it comes is rather unspectacular.
Tuesday, March 05, 2024
Man Down
Man Down
Shia LaBeouf
A movie from Amazon. The more companies behind a movie the longer the opening credits and the more logos you have to sit through.
This is a flavour of the week kind of movie and not a feel good flick. America pays an awful price for sending its young men to war. One is only young and imbued with immortality once in life and tours of duty in places life Afghanistan disabuse one of that feeling rather quickly.
Gabriel's best friend is killed in an ambush and in dealing with his effects learns that while on injury leave his friend had an adulterous relationship with his wife.
Placed on leave Gabe deals with that betrayal, the loss of his friend in more senses than one, and PTSD. There are no happy endings here.
Monday, January 29, 2024
Masters of the Air
Masters of the Air
Unlike the senior citizens who appeared in many WW#2 era movies and the creaky old men who would never have survived in Submarines the actors in this series are in their late 20ies to early 30ies. Still older than most of the boys they portray but youthful enough to look the part.
As with Band of Brothers and The Pacific this is a Tom Hanks production and can expected to be high class. It is being streamed on Apple TV.
To illustrate the quality of this production it commissioned the building of 3 Lancs to be used as authentic models for filming.
Just how realistic the show is we see flight crews getting air sick and hear the quip: these powdered eggs were hatched before your balls dropped.
Up to you whether or not you want to spend another $12.99 a month to subscribe to Apple TV.
The Wall
Snipers are loners lying in wait for hours for the perfect shot; looked
at with suspicion even by their own troops. This movie is a
psychological thriller being a contest between an Arab sniper, JUBA and
an American sniper and his spotter. Expect no HEA here.
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The Healer
This is what is termed a high concept movie. A ne'er do well possesses
the uncanny ability to heal. The movie even comes with an HEA. Of
special interest is the fact that it was shot in Lunenburg and I may
even have been camped there while I was being shot.
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Thursday, August 08, 2019
The Sandlot
The SandlotThis first outing had something magical about it. In his thirteenth year Scotty Smalls moves with his mother and step-father to a new town and is given his mother's permission to go out and make friends, enjoy himself and even get in a little trouble. He joins eight others at a local sandlot where they play an eternal game of ball without keeping score just for the glorious fun of it. There is something magical about the bonds that develop between this ensemble and the hi-jinks they get involved in.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Paterson
Wednesday, December 06, 2017
Manchester By the Sea
Upon second watching I found more depth in the inter-relationships as I was less shocked though the fist through the window still startled me as unexpected.
Monday, December 04, 2017
Star Trek Beyond
