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Reviews
The People's Court (1997)
I Love Judge Marilyn Milian!
She's cute, she's funny, she's sassy, and she's getting better every day! She has 1000 expressions and they're all cute. Scripted TV cannot beat her natural talent. I love it when she gets mad. Just let it all out and be yourself, Marilyn!
I will agree that sometimes she doesn't hear the arguments and sometimes she seems to make judgments based on her own prejudices. But ... it's small claims court, so what can you do? She's not perfect, but she's great.
I learned a lot about basic law from watching Joseph Wapner back in the 80's. Get it in writing. Preponderance of evidence. Making you whole. Who's the liar? Get three bids. Dogs must be leashed. Etc. etc. etc.
Marilyn is just as informative as Joe and a LOT hotter!
I would love to see a "Best of People's Court". It would rock! I'm compiling a few myself. If you ever saw the case with Alana Sheridan trying to date the wanna-be wise guy -- it was a scream!!! Or the guy who wanted his garage demo'd, so he hired the job to a guy who sold it to get rid of it. Or the woman who set her apartment on fire, then sued her landlord. Fantastic!
I wish the show would come back to southern California. New York people are interesting but I want to see MY PEEPS in court again!
NYPD Blue: A Box of Wendy (1998)
A great episode from a great series
-- SPOILER ALERT --
Wow! What's a Coca-Cola worth?
One of the best and most memorable episodes from one of the finest series on television. The Wendy and Willy story is hilarious ... so strange I'll bet it really happened.
HOWEVER ...
See this for the performance by Mary Mara as a woman being persuaded by Kim Delaney (also fine work) to consider giving her unborn baby up for adoption. Although brief, this is perhaps one of my ten most memorable performances on television. It's brilliant, identifiable, and shattering.
Moby Dick (1956)
Peck's Performance
Directed by ... John Huston! Excellent! Screenplay by ... Ray Bradbury!!! Wow!!! Ishmael played by ... Richard Basehart. Okay... Ahab played by ... Gregory Peck?!?!? How can that work? Peck is urbane sophistication personified. Aesthetic distance dissolves.
It is distracting at first. But what do we know of Ahab, anyway? Is he a downtrodden proletarian who has always been at war with the world? Or could he be an aristocrat (he does get 10% of the profits) who has had his soul torn from him? That could be even more compelling.
The "stiff" performance? How will a man with a peg leg and a deep scar from brow to toe move? With economy of motion, that's how. First his head moves, then his body follows, or doesn't.
Overall, a treasure worth repeated viewings.
The Twilight Zone (1959)
I am this show
What can I say? I was a child of the sixties, and I got so many of my values from this show. When Rod was bad he was overbearing, but when he was good he was transcendental. I sure hope he got those values right.
What would the world be like if no one else was here? What would it be like if everyone was just like me? (Holy s--t!) What happens when you gamble too much? People are alike all over. You gotta believe, or it can all fall apart. You only get one childhood. Who's invading whom? The quality of mercy is not strained. Weakness. Compulsion. Obsession. Time travel. Dimensional travel! Megalomania. Judgement day. And of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Next stop, Willougby!
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Practice what you preach, Al
Al, why must you sit in the back of an air-conditioned limo with room for five? And fly to your appearances? Because you can "buy energy credits"? So what? If you, the supreme evangelist, won't responsibly consume energy, why should anybody?
Even if there's only a 25% chance that this will happen, why take the chance? I know families who own two SUVs -- that's fourteen seats and 600 HP -- for a family of four. Why? Millions of cars with seats for five or more have a single commuter occupant every day. Why?
I actually find it hard to believe that the solution is as simple as Al says. Things like "buy a hybrid car ... if you can". The US sets the standard of consumption for the rest of the world. Even if we cut back, will it be enough as China and India follow our lead?
How about "Make sure your next car a is compact hybrid. Or why not try an enclosed motorcycle?"
Intervention (2005)
This show might change your life, too
'Intervention' has helped me with my own addictions and recovery. I'm a middle-aged married father of two. I'm quite functional in my personal and professional life. Still, I have pain from my past that I use addictions to soothe, and issues from which I am slowly recovering. When these addicts and their families share their lives with me, they help me to improve my life and my relationship with my family.
The show, unlike many others, digs into the past of the addict and reveals events that probably caused their addiction. Many of us suffer because it's too scary to go back and do, as Alice Miller says, "the discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood." The show deserves a lot of credit for at least getting this process started. This digging is painful and difficult, but worth it. So much coverage of addiction -- fictional and non-fictional -- seems to ignore the underlying issues. Often it's assumed that the addict just one day started to shoot up or whatever for fun or pleasure or self-interest, and now they can't stop. Not so: addictions are about killing pain. I can relate to the different events and hardships in people's lives. There are common themes, and surprising exceptions. Many addicts have suffered miserable abuse. Some kids simply respond badly to divorce. To those who think that addiction is an over-reaction to a hardship, I would just say that different people respond differently. Although some kids handle divorce well, others, like Cristy in the show, "collapse in a heap on the floor" and have their lives forever changed by the event.
For example, last night's counselor said that pretty young Andrea seeks validation from men. She strips for cash for a 75-year old neighbor and lets men abuse her. Sound familiar to anyone? The series is filled with information that we can use to understand our own motivations and make adjustments to our lives. Often it's those of us with smaller issues who suffer the longest. As they say, even a stopped watch is right twice a day, but a slow watch can go undetected for quite a while, until it's made your life miserable.
To the producers: Thank you for making the show, for digging into the past, for the follow-ups. Also, the graphics, the format, and the theme music are brilliant.
To the addicts: thank you for your courage to share. Whether or not you have helped yourself, you have helped me.
Monday Night Mayhem (2002)
Birth of an era, superbly done
** Spoilers? **
Howard Cosell is the focus and should be, with Roone Arledge a major figure, too. Well written drama brings back pungent memories of the Cosell zingers and why he was one of a kind. And Turturro as Cosell is great casting. Nice story of the risks, messiness, and rewards of creating a new media format. Also a timely reminder of the 72 Olympic massacre in Munich; it brings back a chill. I wish they would have shown more of what football was like pre-Monday Night; it really lets you appreciate the modern spectacle of sports, and viva la spectacle. Definitely worth seeing as a piece of TV history and to hear a great character mouth off with intelligence and class.
The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
Great style, but gaping plot holes ruin it
** BIG SPOILERS HERE **
I like to give some liberty to flicks that try this type of clever story, but what makes this type of movie interesting -- and what's supposed to really get under your skin -- is that it's soooo close to possible. But this one isn't. Mamet has an excellent style and can create chilling details, but he doesn't seem to know enough about scientists, inventors, police, con games, or even simple logic to write this kind of movie! Here are a few of the many holes:
1. Anyone who's an inventor, who keeps a single handwritten copy of an "invention" in a notebook in a safe behind a picture, please raise your hand. And this would be the sole and confirming instance and "proof-of-concept" of this "invention"? No prototype? No tests Nothing else? This is worth millions??? No, this is out of a comic book! Okay, but I'll give some liberty here and say that a damaging copy of the invention exists in a book or on a computer disk...
2. No one, but no one, could be stupid enough to bring the sole instance of this thing to the park. This compounded by the fact that he already believes that danger lurks -- he knows that Martin is a con man! Oh, but since the CON MAN "asked him to bring it", he's going to??? At the very least, he would bring a facsimile -- how's the con man gonna know? Remember, this guy is a scientist, and perhaps wet behind the ears, but he's not from Mars. If we gotta believe he's from another planet, then the whole movie falls apart, doesn't it? Okay, but let's say he actually IS that clueless...
3. How did the "FBI" happen to have EXACTLY the same type of notebook with which to pull off the switch? A nice green and leather bound book with the exact number of pages, and presumably with the same amount of wear and tear so that this guy will carry it around the park for hours without once flipping it open to glance at the pages? Was this the "standard issue scientific invention notebook" (see 1 above)??? Or did the "FBI" have a whole stack of candidate notebooks in one of the bathroom stalls, able to pluck out just the right decoy in a split second from this pile? It's beyond me...
4. Why didn't the police buy his story at all? I think that any good detective WOULD buy it, or at least give the guy some latitude. For example, the Swiss bank account. Ever meet up with a con man? They're VERY clever. It's quite plausible, and indeed probable, that a con man would try to frame his mark by opening up a damning account. And why doesn't Mr. Green Scientist just fess up? If he's really that clueless, then, hey, that would be the most plausible approach for him.
5. Oh, and a bloody knife in his friend, lovingly fondled to add fingerprints. If 1-4 hadn't killed it for me, that was way over the edge. But enough, already.
Believe me, I wish that this had been better. It has enough style to be a classic. But logic? It appears to be clever, without actually being so. Well, it's a pretentious movie. It wants to impress you with its intelligence but instead shows its naivete.
Recommend: It's worth seeing for it's beautiful style, but most con movies I've seen hold water better than this one. If you like mind games, check out The Usual Suspects, with its shattering finale. That one will keep you thinking for a long time...