Brian's Thoughts on Movies

“Remember this gun is pointed right at your heart”   “That is my least vulnerable spot”.  Renault in Casablanca A few months ago I caught a two part re-run of Magnum P.I. (the old Tom Selleck version).   In the episode Magnum’s wife Michelle, who Magnum thought was killed during the Vietnam War turns up alive in Hawaii.   Michelle is with her first husband who had also been thought dead when she married Magnum.   Michelle had discovered her husband was alive, faked her death so Magnum would leave Vietnam, gone back to him and is working with her husband on a vital mission.   Michelle’s heart still belongs to Magnum but after a reunion and a dramatic showdown at the end of the episode she and Magnum say goodbye so Michelle can continue to help her husband.   There are repeated flashbacks to Michelle and Magnum’s short but passionate marriage.   Magnum is badly wounded at the end of the episode both physically (he is shot through the shoulder during the climax) and emotionally but

                                                                "Bond, only Bond"  Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye GoldenEye, released in 1995, is pivot point Bond film.   GoldenEye, along with The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and perhaps Diamonds are Forever (1971) came out after a divisive predecessor. As a result these follow-ups have had to bring in a general audience as the series might be in trouble if two films in a row underperform.   Now as a refresher, I am very fond of Licence to Kill (1989) but the majority of audiences did not like both the dark storyline and Timothy Dalton’s intense approach.   If the series was going to continue a reset would need to take place. A lawsuit at MGM delayed production for several years and the new film was not announced until 1993.   In April 1994 Timothy Dalton announced that he would not play Bond again.   I was disappointed as he had been my favorite Bond but I also knew that a new actor would probably be a safer choice

Robert Redford announced that he will retire from acting after the release of his upcoming film Old Man and the Gun.   I have been watching Redford films for my entire life and lately have truly appreciated that he is continues to contribute interesting material.   Redford used his star power to get some of the best films of the 1970s made.   I will leave it to others to sum up his career and discuss the overall impact of the Sundance Film Institute.   I think he is an intelligent and underrated actor who brings both a star presence and a sense of authenticity to any part he plays.   Redford has only be nominated once for an Oscar as an actor (for The Sting).   Below as a brief tribute are my top five favorite films in which he appears as an actor.   For the sake of brevity I omitted his directing career. All is Lost (2013) Some of my favorite films are survival stories.   A few years ago I wrote a post on Cast Away. Another film I am very fond of is The Edge.   In All is Lost

“I suppose it’s time to go but I would rather stay” President Abraham Lincoln’s last words to his Cabinet, April 14, 1865 (quote from both the film Lincoln and “Team of Rivals”) Recently I finished the book “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which won several historical awards and is the best book about Abraham Lincoln I have read.   “Team of Rivals” examines Lincoln’s political life, as well as that of his cabinet and generals in the Civil War, many of whom were rivals for the Republican nomination in 1860.   At a time when in the U.S. we have a president who insults anyone who disagrees with him on Twitter, and appreciates the political support he receives from white supremacy groups, I savored spending time reading about the first Republican president whose kindly nature and incredible political savviness kept the United States together and led to the end of slavery. The 754 page book is too long to fully adapt into a film (though it would be a fascinating miniser

The Kill Bill movies Vol 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004) were famously filmed as one and then split once writer director Quentin Tarantino (the director of Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) could not find a way to edit his story down to an acceptable length.  Tarantino’s films tend to be over 2 ½ hours so upon learning that his much anticipated revenge epic starring Uma Thurman, who had a small but memorable role in Pulp Fiction, would be two films I felt it a good choice as it would neither dilute the story nor would it be so long that getting through it would be an endurance test.  Also after getting one Tarantino film I would not have wait a few years for the next one as they were released a mere six months apart. For a years a full version planned for DVD called Kill Bill-The Whole Bloody Affair but it was never released. Tarantino and Thurman first conceived the film while working on Pulp Fiction (1994) and it was the first film Tarantino had made in

"I'm too old for this s---!" The four films of the Lethal Weapon series starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, were all directed by Richard Donner which is unique and the biggest key to its success.  Donner’s sense of how to handle the material and the actors and crew’s trust in him fueled the series. Each film touches on a real world issue:,drugs, apartheid, teenage gun violence, and human slavery.  In the first two films the cops are working on assigned cases but in the third and fourth film they stumble onto it.  Ultimately the films focus much more on the relationship between the two men than on their detective work and the relationship is what kept audiences coming back. Lethal Weapon (1987) It is the darkest of the series and although I usually like this, the bond between the men is not as strong which keeps the film from being my favorite.  Although the film is driven by a duo only one of them is a title character.  The first film evenly sets up both men a