This TV movie, that is available on Netflix, is a truth based story on the investigation of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger that blew up very shortly after launch.
William Hurt plays Richard Feynman, an independent scientist who is assigned to the investigation committee. Feynman is no ordinary scientist. He has a Nobel Peace Prize for his quantum physics work and was one of the original scientists on the Manhattan project (involved with the atom bomb).
The public, the Government and NASA all wanted a quick resolution on this. They wanted to get public trust and faith back in the Shuttle missions. There was no cover-up or anything particularly under hand, just things were going a little quicker than they should have been.
Feynman dug into areas he wasn’t technically suppose to, and with the help of a NASA whistle blower he discovers a whole area that needs further investigation and discovery.
Thoroughly enjoyable TV movie that presented its case without too much fuss or overstating of the facts. No car chasers, no gun shoot outs, no fighting. Just good clean drama.
Our old friend Mr Cage takes on the major role of this tale about illegal arms dealer. Based on a true story of the convicted gunrunner, Viktor Bout, it looks at the world of arming the various armies and uprisings around the world. While you are watching this you have to keep reminding yourself this is a true story, with some of the more outlandish scenes based on actual events. Staggering.
There is one scene where Cage is stood by a long line of Russian tanks he has bought and is about to ship. It looks unbelievable to have that much military hardware in the hands of a private individual. In reality, the scene was real, the tanks belonged to a Czech arms dealer who had to have them back sharpish as he had sold them to a country.
The opening credits of the movie is one of the most clever I have seen in a long time. It follows the journey of a bullet being pressed and manufactured, through to being packed in a crate, shipped to a revolutionary war, being loaded into a gun, being fired and finding itself shooting a young soldier. Very sobering.
There is amount of humor sprinkled into the story line that keeps it entertaining and interesting to keep watching. Whether you have sympathy for our anti-hero here is something you have to decide for yourself. He is no saint or angel, but does have a loose moral code he lives by, trying to support his family without giving away what he really does.
Overall, a good movie and worthy of a watch if you are a Cage fan.
#104 in the series
Viewing Date Monday, 30th November 2015 (Richmond)
Let it go, Let it go, can’t hold it back any more!
Feels right, that while I am in Disney World, I should be watching this movie as part of my series. I will confess the journey to this movie for me wasn’t your conventional path. I came to this one very late. In fact, I came to it only because of my youngest son, doing a parody of the Elsa ‘cold didn’t bother me anyway’ strut. So because of that, I had to explore the song to which he was inspired from and found the iconic Let it Go.
I was hooked. It then took me a long time before I actually watched the movie. Small confession time. I went to Disney World in Orlando back in August, and watched the Frozen stage show before I had actually seen the movie. So to say I was late to the Frozen party is an under statement.
I then watched this movie for the first time, with my youngest back in August. It was cute and fun to watch it through the eyes of a 9 year old boy.
However, fast forward a few months, here I watch it without the wonderment of a 9 year old.
The movie is okay. The songs are okay, apart from the classic, Let it go. The overall movie I personally find to be adequate but no where near as good as say The Lion King. The Lion King was more than just a single song, which I fear Frozen suffers from. Sure there are some excellent ‘b’ sides, but take away Let it go and would the rest of them stand on their own? I doubt it.
While this movie is Disney’s (and the worlds) most successful animation, I rate it #3 behind Lion King and The Little Mermaid.
Now that said, I am huge Let it go fan. I love Elsa and find her as erotic as you can find an animated character to be (we will talk about the Disney Hercules singers at a later date).
So all in all, great movie, some what loses it after the big number is played.
I was nearly a fan of the first outing with the talking bear, that we know and love as Ted. The premise was a nice gimmick on the genre usually reserved for the likes of Disney, bringing life and character to an animal. But by stepping away from the family audience and going straight to the adult world, you open up to a lot more crude humour.
Ted 2 continues where we left off, with Ted now happily married and looking to have a baby. However, he has to be officially and legally recognized as a person before he can progress any further. Setting aside the whole bestiality sub plot with Ted and
Jessica Barth the story see’s them on a journey of what is basically a series of sketches.
These sketches afford you the luxury to be able to dip in and out of the movie without actually feeling you have missed anything. I will confess to falling asleep for a little bit half way through this and never felt I had to rewind.
The story is fine enough, the only real criticism is that it is probably 30 minutes too long. It gets to a point, where you just want it to finish. Jokes are wearing thin and feel tired by the time 2 hrs is about to role up. To keep a comedy fresh and engaged for that length of time requires a lot of effort.
Now that said,
Seth MacFarlane, is well known geek/nerd and his back references to things like Flash Gordon etc are clever and a nice nod. He kicks it up a notch, when there is a whole sequence set around Comic Con in New York. Keep an eye out in the background for the subtle cross overs and nods as they come quick and galore as Ted interacts with it all. Clever.
Good enough comedy for a Sunday afternoon.
#96 in the series
Viewing Date Sunday, 22nd November 2015 (Richmond)
James Cameron takes on the infamous Titanic story, the greatest maritime disaster of its time and one that still holds a fascination for the public, even though, by today’s standards, we’ve had bigger ships. Part of the mystic around this particular sinking, is the hubris of man, and the claim that the ship was unsinkable.
The story starts off with a treasure hunting salvage crew attempting to locate a highly valuable jewel that is believed to have gone down with the Titanic – the heart of the ocean. They find what they believe is the safe with it inside, but instead find a drawing of a beautiful topless lady with the jewel around her neck. The make an appeal on television and a 101 year old woman claims it is her.
She is then flown out to the salvage ship, at the position of where the Titanic went down and she then tells the story of that night. The rest of the movie is the retelling of that story.
Kate Winslet plays Rose, the young 101 year old, who is due to marry into a very wealthy family to a man that she isn’t really in love with.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jack, a young man who won his Titanic ticket in a card game and represents the steerage, or lower classes of the ship.
Through these two characters we see the disparity in how different the classes are treated even though they are all in one ship in the middle of the ocean. A micro sphere of society represented in a single lump of iron.
Jack and Rose through a series of events, are soon attracted to one another, and after a very heavy love making scene in a car in the hold of the ship, they believe they have found their true love. Except, a big dirty ice berg is about to put a dent in their plans.
The graphics and special effects of this tale is stunning, and while the movie is nearly 20 years old, they are still holding up. Though if you look carefully, in high definition you can see some chinks in the special effects especially around the long sweeping shots of the ship and the people walking on the deck.
Maybe its aged differently, but for me the story line while interesting didn’t hold up as well I remember. The lines at times seem strained and the love story has so many blatant holes in it I can no longer gloss over them. The telling of the ship going down though is fantastic with many real true tales weaved into some the auxiliary characters. But the main Jack/Rose vehicle that is suppose to let us see all the gory details, doesn’t work for me.
The soundtrack is amazing and Celine Dion’s My Heart will go will always make me pause for a smile. Overall a good retelling of the classic story.
ps for the record, there was plenty of room on that old piece of wood that Rose managed to climb on to. There was no need for Jack to be still in the water. Sure they nearly tipped over getting on to it the first time, but when you are stuck in the middle of the Atlantic in the freezing cold, you can afford a number of tries
#88 in the series
Viewing Date Saturday, 14th November 2015 (Richmond)
I will confess to not running towards this movie with any great speed. I had seen the trailers and it wasn’t turning me towards it. But I was recommended to watch it by a friend, so threw it on, with very low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised.
The lead Amy Schumer is a name I was unfamiliar with and I definitely didn’t know she was a stand up comedian. The movie does the classic roles reversal routine, with her playing the maninizer!
The humour is extremely funny, and very adult/sex in nature, which made it quite refreshing. With Schumer’s comedic ear, she has really put a lot of effort in making scenes really work without feeling strained.
Great wee movie, good drinking movie to watch with someone.
#84 in the series
Viewing Date Tuesday, 10th November 2015 (Richmond)
alan williamson 