The Love Boat: Season 1, Volume 1 (1977)

I decided to view these old Love Boat episodes as a nostalgia kick. You see when I was a little kid, say around four years old, I used to watch a lot of The Love Boat. Now this my sound a strange programing choice for a member of the pre-school set, but I watched the show for several reasons. One, I could not yet tell time, but I did know how to change the channel, and I learned that when The Love Boat rerun was over you could flip a station and watch Sesame Street. Two, the show was on a boat, and this was inherently interesting to my young mind. Three, it was very formulaic, there was pattern to each episode with the rytheme of the cruse, folks came on the ship, it sailed around stopping a few times, folks got off the ship, young children like and can understand patterns. Fourth and finally, the very fake deck with the swimming pool would probably have been my number two dream vacation destination for 1984-85, next only to Disney Land. Though I vaughly recalled interpreting the show then as a drama, (anything with the word ‘love’ in it would doubtless seem serious and adult to a child of four) now having watched the program for the first time in over 20 years I know it to be in fact a dramady, waited to the comedy, but more then anything a cross-promotional vehicle for the stars of other TV shows, and a make work program for various has-beens. That being said its very likeably cheesy and comforting programing. Three out of Five. Next big nostalgia project, possibly The Fall Guy.

The West Wing: Season 6 (2004-2005)

On re-watching season six, in relatively short order, I was impressed with how well developed it was, and how it transitioned from satisfying story-arc to satisfying story-arc in a way its immediate predecessor season never did. This is probably the strongest of the post-Sorkin seasons, and one of the things that makes it so is that the series transitioned into something else, away from the soft-toned neo-Capra, into something a little more real, as well as more politically balanced, with Alan Alda’s Republican Senator Arnold Vinick being perhaps the most fully developed and fascinating Republican character, well maybe ever. I’m gonna 5 out of 5 it.

Worth noting are the many similarities between the series 2006 campaign and our present election cycle. First off the Republicans, an older maverick Senator with a semi-strained relationship to the party base, Arnold Vinick of California (John McCain of Arizona) wins the parties nomination. Vincik defeats an early front runner who was made viable by his handling of a national cries, Fmr. House Speaker Glen Walken in the aftermath of the Zoe Bartlett kidnaping (Rudy Giuliani and 9/11). The last major Republican rival to be vanquished by the nominee is a charismatic southern preacher, Don Butler of Virginia (Mike Huckebee of Arkansas).

For the Democrats you have a contest in which a likely early front runner drops out before officially announcing, Pennsylvania governor Eric Baker (fmr. Virginia governor Mark Warner). So the contest is mostly between a relatively uninspiring establishment pol, vice president Robert Russell (senator Hillary Clinton), a southerner who’d been out of the game for a little while and is later supremely damaged by a affair of years previous, fmr. vice president John Hoyns (fmr senator John Edwards), and the eventual nominee, a liberal racial minority and relative newcomer, Texas congressman Matt Santos (Illinois senator Barack Obama). There is a protracted and bitter primary campaign, a divided party, and eventually the nominee chooses a party establishment figure with loads of experience as his running mate, Leo McGerry (Joe Biden). Additional parallels in season 7 may be pointed out by me later.

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

This is quite a movie. Update of the chain gang, prison films of an earlier generation, with the non-conformist streak then just starting to re-emerge in Hollywood. Luke is a great character, he’s complicated, and you never fully understand what’s going in that head of his, which is what makes him so fascinating. Throughout the viewing I kept being reminded of Heath Ledgers recent performance as The Joker. Both of these characters are the ultimate individualists, they do what they feel like when they feel like doing it, with little thought to the consequences; yet they almost always seem to be enjoying themselves regardless of their present circumstances. Yet Luke is obviously more restrained then The Joker, either this is an inherent aspect of his disposition, or related with his then current existential battle with the idea of God. Luke has taken a side, yet not yet severed that link to an idea of things beyond himself, he is not a nihilist, though I think he kind of wishes he were. The movie has some great lines and moments, including the visit of Luke’s mother, bed ridden so there in the back of a pick-up truck, presumably cancerous but still smoking cigarettes, and of course the egg eating contest, "No man can eat fifty eggs!" This movie did not fail to communicate, and on several levels. Five out of Five.

See also: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Waitress (2007)

Writer, director, actress Adrienne Shelly was tragically murdered around the time of this movie’s release, and I had wondered what effect that had on the films positive reception. There had been talk that had Shelly lived Waitress could have been the start of a successful directorial career, this we will never know. Certainly the film is charming, though the sitcomy premise (waitress in bad marriage gets pregnant has affair with gynaecologist) and diner setting had me wondering how much this was going to be like reruns of Alice. I thought the diner or ‘pie shop’ material not exceptional, though it grew on me, to be secondary, as I’m sure it was meant to be, to waitress Jenny’s (Keri Russell) existential journey. Jeremy Sisto, so good at playing crazy creeps, does a wonderful job as an intimidating jerk of a husband, who is also co-dependent on his long emotional distant wife. Russell and Sisto’s relationship is so bad, that it takes her months to tell him she’s pregnant, as the waitress contemplates some kind of escape from her situation. Jenny’s desired golden parachute is the prize money from a big pie making contest, but ultimately her husband won’t let her enter. Jenny does find release and ultimately catharsis through an affair with her gynecologist, which forms the heart of the movie. Russell and Nathan Fillon, who plays the doctor, have a great chemistry together, they make the movie, and you can really buy how this relationship could prove so pivotal to the protagonists emotional development. However Fillon alone is not the only positive male emotional influence in Jenny’s life, the other being Andy Griffith’s old Joe, the supposedly crumudgenly rich regular at the pie shop, who of course has a heart of gold. Griffith’s seeming stereotypical casting (it is a southern based movie after all) shouldn’t necessarily work, but it does, and in fact this is true with much in the film. The movie manages to keep both its quirky and serious themes in balance, in fact seamlessly, and that’s something not every screen writer and director can do. While the death of this films author may have increased its publicity, this movie is a success on its own terms, being a rather pleasant romp. Four out of Five.

Autism: The Musical (2007)

Documentary on an L.A. area therapy through theater center for autistic children. The founder of the center is herself the adoptive mother of an autistic child. Several of the children in the program, ranging from around 9 to 14 are profiled. We get a look at the diversity that defines autism, some of the children are so high functioning that you might not even notice that they have a condition, others seem almost retarded (though I should point out some individuals can suffer both mental retardation and autism simultaneously). For example one of the students, in fact the child of the centers founder, can hardly communicate vocally, but does okay with a voice synthesizer. The documentary is as much about the parents as the children, as this condition will completely rewrite the lives of the caretakers. Very informative, and sometimes very sad. I chose to see this film because last week my two year old niece was diagnosed autistic, this documentary is a helpful introduction for those who may be on the verge of more regularly interacting with those with autism. Four out of Five.

Cinema Paradiso (1988): Directors Cut

Having just seen and been blown away by director Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Legend of 1900, I decided that I must see more of his work. The logical place to start was Cinema Paradiso, the 1988 film for which the director is best known and most loved. As hard as it may have been for me to conceive when I started the movie, this Is better then 1900, and 1900's still awesome! I was completely floored by this movie, it is completely beautiful. Buckets you will sob, I was an emotional wreck by the end. I think this is now my favorite non English language film, replacing Life is Beautiful (which is still Beautiful), and as I reflect on it over the next several days it may prove a strong contender for my favorite film of all time! It’s an ode, a Valentin to movies and the emotions they make you feel, and it succeeds brilliantly at capturing the essence of so much, time, love, family, friendship. If you see it I strongly recommend getting the directors cut, which adds an entire third act to the film. The movie would be wonderful without this material, but adding it gives you so much more. Again I’m typing this just moments after my first viewing, so I’m gushing, but I know this film will sustain the gush. An incredible experience of a film, Five out Five.

Rambo III (1988)

I wasn’t expecting much out of this, but it proved to be a far more likable film then its immediate predecessor. I thus spent part of the movie trying to figure out why I was responding so much better to it, then I did to Rambo Part II. I think at least part of the explanation lies in the fact that this film chose to more fully embrace what it was, a kind of Reaganite Great Escape. Rambo II certainly had a triumphalism in it, but it was rather down beat, that film strateled the types of movies that Rambo I and Rambo III fully are. Part II tried to be both Vietnam era eulogy, and high octane 80's action pic, and failed to be fully either. Rambo III knows what it is, goes for it, and succeeds, yet still manages to remain sufficiently true to the whole Rambo ethos and mythology. Loved the fact that this film was dedicated to the gallent Afghan people, knowing what happens since it adds an interesting aura of pending fate to some of the characters, especially the little boy. Also if I haven’t said it yet I must say that I really enjoy the Richard Crenna character, and I finally figured out who that actor reminds me of, William Holden. Three out Five.

Bernie Mac: 1957-2008

Issac Hayes: 1942-2008

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

While the first Rambo movie proved a surprisingly capable and contemplative vehicle for exploring American’s conflicted feelings towards the Vietnam War, the second film in the series is a prime example of revisionist Reaganite Cinema. Three years after the events of the first film, John Rambo is doing hard time for his little post-traumatic rampage in the Pacific North-West. Our hero is offered the chance at a presidential pardon if he agrees to go on a covert mission into Vietnam looking for missing POW’s. Rambo of course agrees to do this, unfortanitly the bureaucrats who green lit the mission never expected him to find actual missing veterans!. Not wanting to deal with the political consequences of sending a full fledged rescue mission into Nam, the head bureaucrat on the scene decides to abandon Rambo, the POW’s, and the beautiful Viet recon agent, to both the local communists and their Soviet allies. Rambo of course will have none of this, and in his decidedly unsubtle, explosive style sets about to free himself and the others. This film lacks the poignant sense of sorrow that so distinguished it predecessor , and instead attempts to give us a kind of wronged triumphilism, that while well received by audiences at the time, I found to fall completely flat. I cared about Rambo in the first film, but here I found I felt next to nothing. The action, complete with torture, machine guns, napalm and all the fixings just seemed to pass on the screen, and I felt board! It went through the motions, but somehow managed to avoid the emotions. If this film is this disappointing, I’m really kind of scarred to see the ill-regarded part three. 1 1/2 out of 5.

Eastern Promises (2007)

Director David Cronenberg’s violent, graphic, hard R film about the Russian mob in London. Naomi Watts plays a half-Russian nurse who takes it upon herself to track down the family of the infant daughter of an immigrant prostitute that died in her care. Her efforts lead her to a prosperous restaurant owning family of Russians, who turn out to be major players in London organized crime. She thusly enters into an artful dance of a relationship with the family’s stoic driver (Vigo Mortensen in a transformative performance). While the gory roughness that shows up so early in the film had me thinking the movie might turn out to be nothing more then a glorified exercise in the maccabe, the characters and their relationships proved intricate and fascinating, developing in complexity until what at first may have seemed a stereotype (Vincent Cassel’s over zealous son to sly mafioso Armin Mueller-Stahl) proves to be stunningly complicated. Defiantly not for all tastes, but a dramatic accomplishment that blooms from what may seem to be a darkly exploitive Hollywood turd. 4 out of 5.

The Legend of 1900 (1998)

The fact that this movie is not better known is near unto a crime. Giuseppe Tornatore directed this fable based on a stage monologue. It is the story of Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred (A great performance by Tim Roth), born on a steam ship in January of the aforementioned year, he would prove a piano prodigy, yet would never be able to bring himself to leave the vessel of his birth. Spanning roughly fifty years the film more then ably offers us meditations upon a verity of subjects relevant to the human condition, concepts of friendship, love, home, fear, meaning, and destiny. There is also some great stuff on the allure and power of America as a dream or idea, it sometimes seems like the Italians get this more then we do. I have also perhaps never seen a film were the music is more integrally woven into the story, and Ennio Morricone’s score proves as lovely as any ever written. This is A beautiful, stirring motion picture that is truly one of a kind. A grateful Five out of Five.

'The Magic Waltz' scene

The Love Theme form The Legend of 1900

Lost Boys Calling music video (with spoilers)

Lost Boys Calling trak with lyrics