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The American President

 "My name is Andrew Shepherd and I am the President." As we have been in the middle of a contentious election season this feels like an appropriate time to take a look back at one of my favorite political movies.  The American President, released in November of 1995, at the same time as several other films that have had a lasting impact, notably, Toy Story, GoldenEye and Casino were all released within a week or so of this film.  I remember going to the movies a lot during that Thanksgiving week although I must admit I caught Toy Story a year or so later on video (I have only seen 2 and 4 in the theatres). The American President is made up of an eclectic mix of talent.  The script is by noted playwright, screenwriter, show runner and now director, Aaron Sorkin.  The film is directed with an old school romantic flair by Rob Reiner and the cast is led by Michael Douglas as the titular character, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Richard Dreyfus, John M...
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Goldfinger

 "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence.  Three times is enemy action". The above is a quote from about halfway through Ian Fleming's novel "Goldfinger", published in 1959.  The film adaptation, was released 60 years ago last month, in September 1964 as the third James Bond film.   Book lovers often consider books to be far superior than their film counterparts.  In other posts I have stated that if I am interested in a title that I prefer to watch the film first and see the surprises onscreen.  Afterwards if I liked the film I will then read the book which will have some changes and probably overall be a richer experience because an author can use more language and is not limited by budget and screentime.  They are different mediums and yet I am always impressed when a good book turns into an enjoyable film.   Spoilers for both the Goldfinger novel and movie below: I say this because although Goldfinger is a terrific movie, in ways...
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Cowboys and Aliens

 In 2010 director and actor Jon Favreau, coming off the success of the first two Iron Man films, which launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, announced his next project as Cowboys and Aliens.  The film was originally going to star Robert Downey Jr., who mentioned it to Favreau while they were working on Iron Man 2.  Favreau signed on to direct but then Downey had to drop out to work on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  Downey probably would have added a lot more humor to the main character, although he certainly could play it straight.   Cowboys and Aliens is based on a graphic novel whose screen rights were options before it was published, was executive produced by Steven Spielberg, who has made plenty of alien films of his own.  Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. presented benevolent aliens and War of the Worlds showed them as not too disimilar to how they are presented here.  Imagine Entertainment, headed by Brian Grazer and Ron Ho...
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Unfrosted

 In 1986 on a Saturday night I was watching a Rodney Dangerfield HBO Special.  Dangerfield was always one of my favorite comedians.  He had a blue collar appeal and often made himself the butt of his jokes.  When I need a laugh I'll often pull up one of his routines on youtube and it never fails to give me a belly laugh. Dangerfield's specials were built around allowing several comedians to each do a set. Sam Kinison and Roseanne Barr, among others were on that night and were funny yet raunchy (especially Kinison whose sets were wildly offensive even then) a young comedian named Jerry Seinfeld came on stage.  Seinfeld came across very differently from the others.  He wore a nice suit and looked like he had just graduated from prep school.  In contrast to the other comedians Seinfeld did a very clean set in which he poked fun at NY cab drivers and showers in a detached yet very observational way and it was really funny.   A few years later Sei...
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Beverly Hills Cop movies

 I have written several posts that address the recent theme of rebooting old franchises so now it does not seem rare to see an entry to a film series that was popular thirty or forty years ago, even with the same lead actor and character.  Mel Gibson continues to promise that a Lethal Weapon 5 is coming (which I'll believe when I see it) and this year we get the fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Spoilers below: A unique feature of this franchise is the sequels have no real following.  All the love and most of the quoted lines comes from the superb original.  Each sequel tries to recapture the charm of what is ultimately a fairly straightforward fish-out-of-water story.  I think the title has handcuffed the franchise as each film is about a Detroit police detective named Axel Foley who goes to Beverly Hills to solve a crime that has impacted him personally and brushes up against local culture and to some degree, aut...
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The Godfather

 A few years ago I wrote a post about The Godfather Part II  after seeing it on the big screen for its 45th anniversary.  I followed it up with posts on The Godfather Part III  and Mario Puzo's The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone   which recut the story of Part III and in my opinion improved it drastically.  During the writing of those entries I had long planned to visit the original film.   Spoilers from all three films below: Two key moments that brought me to this film.  As a teenager in the 1980s I was at a friends' house and his parents at about 10:00pm on a Friday night were putting in a VHS tape of the first film, which was one of their favorites.  I saw the opening title with the trumpet score and noticed how excited they were and it struck me that I needed to get to this film one day. In the summer of 1990 I went to see Ghost, which was released by Paramount, whose big Christmas release that year was The Godfa...
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