McBain (1991)

Vietnam, 1975

A squad of men receive word that the war is over and they are to pull out.  They climb aboard a Huey and fly over the jungle.  However, they spot some POWs being marched along and decide to engage.  Among the POWs is Robert McBain (Christopher Walken).  He offers eternal gratitude to the leader of the squad, Roberto Santos, offering to repay the debt.  Half of a $100 bill is given as a token of this debt.

Columbia, 1990

Santos is a revolutionary who fights El Presidente and his narco-terrorist enablers.  He has planned to assault the presidential palace and overthrow the government.  Instead, he surrenders to save innocent lives and is executed on live TV.

Christina Santos (Maria Conchita Alonso) travels to NYC to locate McBain.  She gives him the other half of the hundred-dollar bill.  McBain swings into action, assembling the very men who rescued him with Santos.  One of them, Frank Bruce (Michael Ironside) has become immensely wealthy as an arms dealer.  They travel to Columbia and restart the revolution.

Though it has an interesting plot, the execution is mediocre to weak.  The characters have all the emotion of a potato.  Walken is bland and boring.  The script gives the characters nothing to do.  The battles are ludicrous.  Everyone loves to stand exposed while they shoot, only to be utterly amazed when they prove to be easy targets.  Of course, the principle cast doesn't have to worry about that.  Christina stands up from cover and no bullets hit her.  Ditto for McBain.  Sigh.

Hard pass.

American Made (2017)

Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) is a TWA pilot with a penchant for mischief.  When introduced, he intentionally nosedives an airliner and then explains it away as turbulence.  He is caught smuggling Cuban cigars for extra cash.  Such antics bring him to the attention of Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) as a potential resource.  Soon, Barry is flying recon missions over Central America and Columbia.  However, the CIA isn't paying well and he finds a new income source by transporting drugs into the US.  At risk of being arrested - but given warning by Schafer, Barry flees to Mena, Arkansas, a sleepy town with an airport that miraculously becomes Barry's property.  His business expands and Barry brings in more pilots.  Now he is running guns to the Contras in Nicaragua and drugs for the Columbians, or maybe vice versa.  Eventually, the crimes catch up to Barry and Schafer abandons him to law enforcement.

Based on the true story of Barry Seal (1939-1986), the movie has cameos by noteworthy characters.  Pablo Escobar is one of the Columbian drug lords from the Medellin Cartel, George W Bush sits sheepishly next to Barry at the White House while announcing that he too is a pilot, Ronald & Nancy Reagan have their 'Just Say No' to drugs TV appearance, and the Governor of Arkansas (Bill Clinton) instructs law enforcement to cut Barry loose despite mountains of evidence.

How much of this is true and how much is exaggeration and make believe?  Barry comes across as reckless and not too bright, but somehow is wildly successful.  Is it all down to his connections with the CIA?  Barry thought he was a CIA operative, but he was clearly just a pawn.  How did he not see that?  Was he willfully blind to it on account of all the money?

This was an unusual role for Tom Cruise.  Typically, he plays intense characters who, at some point, is going to deliver a line with a sharpness of a knife's edge or glare so hard that he could break a brick.  Barry doesn't have edges or hard surfaces.  Also, Barry never does the mad sprint, a staple of Tom Cruise movies.  He once fled on a bike, which was clumsy and comic.  He's a go with the flow sort of guy.  His frequent haplessness makes one wonder how he thrives in such a cutthroat industry.

For a movie that views itself as an action comedy film, the comedy is not the laugh out loud kind and the action is mostly stunt flying.  When Barry sees action, he is usually the victim of it.  Overall, it is just okay.

The Peace Deal

It is a day for celebration.  The current war between Israel and the Palestinians has come to a conclusion, just as it has so many times before.  Where those who engineered the peace paint a rosy picture of the future, it is all too likely that this is just a lull in the eternal struggle.  Hamas shall lie low for a few years as it recruits more fodder and assembles a new arsenal, same as always.  This is only an extended ceasefire; to think otherwise is to have no knowledge of the region's history.

Then again, the peace between Israel and Egypt has held for nearly a half century.  The Abraham Accords have normalized relations between Israel and several Muslim Arab countries.  The peace process may not be the chimera it has long appeared to be.  It has taken decades, but progress toward regional peace is undeniable.  Would the various peace agreements have been successful without American arm-twisting?

Peace is good strategy for the time being.  Islam is conquering the West through unfettered migration.  Muslims are openly declaring their intent to overwhelm countries where they have immigrated, assuring them that Sharia Law is on the horizon.  The West is too soft to believe it, even as more and more districts of capital cities become Muslim majority.  The West celebrates the 'peace' in a distant land while strife takes root in the home country.

Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942)

In the Senate, Henry Clay argues in favor of funding the military academy at West Point while others, notably John Randolph of Roanoke, argued against.  Though the bill was passed, Major Samuel Carter was placed in command of West Point with the task of getting all the cadets to resign, thus defeating the academy by other means.  Among the first batch of cadets were Joe Dawson of Kentucky (George Montgomery) and Howard Shelton of New York (John Sutton).  Carolyn Bainbridge (Maureen O'Hara) was both Shelton's fiancée and an important lobbyist in favor of West Point.  She followed Shelton to West Point to be near him and offer assistance to the cadets.  The cadets must overcome the regular soldiers who dislike them, the machinations of Major Carter, and often each other.  Will the US Military Academy survive?

The story is campy nonsense, an ahistorical mess that doesn't know when it happens, where it happens, or who was involved.  Thomas Jefferson established West Point shortly after becoming president in 1801.  However, the battle in which this inaugural cohort of cadets fights took place in 1811.  Interesting tinkering with the timeline.  Of course, Henry Clay served several stints in the Senate, the first being from 1806 to 1807 then again from 1810 to 1811.  On the other hand, John Randolph of Roanoke spent his career almost entirely in the House of Representatives.  He spent two years in the Senate from 1825 to 1827.  However, he did have a habit of bringing his dog into the house chambers, which was a nice touch in the movie.

The battle against Tecumseh is complete fiction.  During the campaign, General William Henry Harrison marched his army north from Vincennes and established Fort Harrison at what is now Terre Haute, IN.  After some training of his troops, he marched north to the battle that made him famous: Tippecanoe.  His forces battled Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwata.  Tecumseh was somewhere in the South, recruiting more tribes to the eventual fight against the Americans that came in the War of 1812.  This telling has the Ten Gentlemen left at Fort Harrison when Harrison marched north.  No sooner is Harrison gone than Tecumseh moves against the fort.  Can our cadets use their hard-earned military knowledge to save the day?  Of course they can.  They can use the fictional account of the Battle of Tours (732 AD) to defeat Tecumseh.

George Montgomery lays on the Southern charm, a poor country boy from Kentucky with homespun grammar and a can-do attitude.  John Sutton plays the cultured New Yorker with deep pockets and a haughty disposition.  Each have opportunities to shine, though George is clearly the more likeable of the two.  Maureen O'Hara outshines the rest of the cast.  Of course, she is the object of everyone's affection and the keystone of a love triangle.  Who will win her heart: the Kentuckian or the New Yorker?

Mediocre.  Skip.

October 7th

It has been two years since the attack that started the current war between Israel and Hamas.  Except for that first assault by Hamas, it has been a one-sided war.  Hamas never stood a chance, and they knew it.  As usual, there have been constant calls for ceasefires and ending of the war.  That is not how wars end.  In World War II, the US required surrender from the Axis powers.  Germany didn't get to sue for peace after D-Day.  No, they had the choice of surrender or continued warfare.  The same was true with Japan.  Either surrender or the bombing will continue.  Hamas has refused to surrender.  Nor have the Palestinian people overthrown their bellicose leaders.  You do not get to start a war then cry timeout when it goes badly for you.  Ergo, the war continues.

Clearly, Hamas will not surrender, thus the war can only end when Hamas is no more.  Is that even possible?  It is quite a strategy that Hamas has and may yet succeed in letting them rebuild for the next attack on Israel.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

Harry Street (Gregory Peck) lies in a cot on the savannah beneath Kilimanjaro and ponders his life.  He finds now a good time to ponder as he is dying.  His wife, Helen (Susan Hayward), is upset by his dire prediction and fretful that it might be true.  Ignorant or uncaring of his wife's feelings, he blathers on about his impending death from gangrene before nodding off.  His mind travels back to his youth and the first girl whose heart he broke.  His drive to be a successful writer meant that he had to experience as much as he could.  He would be a wanderer.  In Paris, Cynthia Green (Ava Gardner) caught his fancy.  She was the love of his life, if only he had realized that sooner.  In fact, he met Helen on account of she looked like Cynthia.  So much left to write and so little time.

Harry is thoroughly unlikeable.  He is a worthless cad, a man blind to all that is in front of him.  He is so eager to absorb experiences about which he can write but learns nothing from his extensive experience with women.  Of course, the women aren't much better.  Cynthia is too afraid to tell him she's pregnant but brave enough to tumble down a staircase to miscarry.  Countess Liz (Hildegard Knef) is noxious, showing that Harry has terrible taste in women.  Or, more likely, he is willing to endure wealthy women.  Indeed, Helen is rich.  Has Harry parlayed his moderate fame as an author into several gigs as the kept man of affluent women?

The role did not suit Gregory Peck.  Harry is a lowlife, while Peck has the stature of an upstanding citizen of high morals.  Despite having been a heavy drinker in life, he offers unconvincing evidence of it in acting.  Serious and stern were Peck's bread and butter in acting.  Foolishness and high spirits are unconvincing.  Really, he comes across as a mediocre actor here.  There is something to be said for typecasting.  I was reminded of Arabesque, another film where he did not fit the role.

Skip.

Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

The Meg is back, and he has brought his little friends!  It has been five years since Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) fought the Meg.  In the intervening years, he married Suyin, Suyin died, and he is now the single father of teenaged Meiying (Sophia Cai).  He has also taken up the fight against oceanic polluters, performing wildly dangerous feats to provide proof to the authorities.  With his good guy character firmly established, the story can begin.   There is a captive Meg in a grand enclosure.  To make things more interesting, it has birthed several more Megs.  Yeah, it's fine, because they are training them.

Of course, going to the trench where the Meg was found is routine these days.  However, on this particular trip, the submariners discovered a secret mining operation!  Secret!  Sure.  The miners are not at all happy about this and set about killing Jonas' submariners.  Inevitably, the minisubs are rendered useless and the reduced number of submariners must walk to the mine.  So, they had suits that would withstand this pressure?  Okay, fine.  They manage to infiltrate the mine but are trapped. To save the day, Jonas swims from an airlock to another airlock.  No suit!  He's just that tough.  Sigh.

When the surviving submariners return to the surface, they must face armed mercenaries as they race toward the mainland.  Once there, the meg's little friends - doglike dinosaurs who prove quite good at running on land despite millennia spent deep beneath the ocean - charge through a beach resort, killing whomever they catch.  Sigh.

Once again, Jonas is called upon to kill the Meg.  No, make that three Megs.  No problem.  He has 4 explosive-tipped hastily-made javelins that he can fling at a Meg while he races around the bay on a Jetski.

The Meg was fun.  This is garbage.  Clearly, Li Bingbing (Suyin) read the script and asked that her character be killed off.  Statham should have gone the same route.  Hard pass.

Penny Dreadful (Season 1)

Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) is a famous explorer.  However, his trekking into deepest darkest Africa has been put on hold while he seeks his daughter, Mina Harker.  Mina has been abducted by something foul and supernatural.  As such, Murray has assembled a team of specialists to face the threat.  Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) has a way of knowing things, a sensitivity to the spiritual.  Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnet) is an American marksman who happened to be on tour in England when Miss Ives recruited him.  He has a dark and mysterious past, but proves to be a stalwart ally.  Sembene (Danny Sapani) looks to be an African tribesman with deadly knife skills who serves as Murray's butler.  There must be a story here, but it is not revealed.  Finally, requiring a doctor to examine the corpse of a vampire (?!), Murray recruits Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway).  Can this band of heroes find and rescue Murray's daughter?

Of course, there are other figures in London.  Frankenstein's creature (Rory Kinnear) demands a mate that will be like him.  Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) has taken an interest in Miss Ives, Ethan, and even Ethan's lover, Brona (Billie Piper).  There are many subplots to allow development of every character.

Here is what The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen could have been.  Penny Dreadful creates an excellent blend of dark horror with calls to Dracula, Frankenstein, and Doran Gray.  Entertaining and engaging.  Highly recommended.

End of Watch (2012)

Los Angeles Police Officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Pena) were in hot pursuit.  Suddenly, the car they are chasing crashed into a fence.  The suspects jumped out and opened fire.  Taylor and Zavala shoot back, killing the suspects.  Back at the police station, Taylor filmed himself while getting ready for the day.  He was taking classes for law but chose filmmaking as an elective.  As such, he has a camcorder with him most of the time.  The two officers have only just returned to duty; it is SOP for officers involved in a shooting to be taken out of rotation while the incident is reviewed.  It is clear that Taylor and Zavala are the hotshots of the department.  The story follows them, much of it viewed from Taylor's camcorder or the bodycams on the officers.

This is like a long episode of Adam 12 with a lot more gunfire and profanity.  Beyond the comradery of the two cops, the story follows their relationships as well.  Taylor and his new girlfriend, Janet (Anna Kendrick), get the most attention.  There are also the ongoing clashes with a brutal and violent drug cartel that has expanded into L.A.  The movie is at sometimes light and fun but also has extremely dark and violent moments.

Good popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Another Shutdown

In his first term, President Trump presided over two shutdowns.  One lasted for 3 days and the other for a record-breaking 35 days.  Here is yet another opportunity to determine which agencies are really needed and which can be disbanded.  Do we really need the Department of Education.  It was only created in 1979 and education outcomes were better before its creation than since.  It has already undergone some trimming, but elimination would save more money.  What about the Department of Housing and Urban Development?  Another relatively new agency (1965), it doesn't appear to have improved that which it was created to oversee.  If the agency hasn't found a way to prevent urban decay and homelessness despite billions in funding and 6 decades of experience, maybe it isn't possible.  Oh, but how much worse would it be without HUD?  Let's find out.  Department of Labor should be abolished.  Another money pit that generates regulations that discourage job creation.  Department of Transportation is yet another government expansion from the 1960s.  What does it do?  They show up after a train derailment or a plane crash and grandstand.  As if the companies wouldn't endeavor to prevent such incidents themselves; derailments and plane crashes are terrible for profits.  Oh, but it makes it appear the government is doing something.  We'll regulate against derailments and crashes.

The US has a $37 trillion national debt and thinks it doesn't need to cut anything.  Even with the government 'shutdown,' the debt is still growing.  It is time to look at the successes of Argentina's pruning of its bloated government and the benefits that have followed.