Night of The Trailers: Chapter Two (1979) Starring James Caan & Marsha Mason

Source: Night of The Trailers- George Schneider ( played by James Caan ) with a big call-

Source: The New Democrat

Chapter Two is becoming one of my favorite movies for several reasons. It stars one of my favorite actors in James Caan and one of my favorite actresses Marsha Mason. I'm also a big fan of Joe Bologna and Valerie Harper. But also because it's one of those comedies that is also serious. It's basically a dramatic comedy with some soap opera aspects in it. It's one of those movies with a lot smart wisecracks but done in a way to get people to think and not just make fun of the situation or people involved, but using critical humor in a very intelligent way. It's a Neal Simon movie, so you should expect humor like that in it.

Source: Alamy Stock Photo- Hollywood Goddess Marsha Mason & actor James Caan

The whole plot and when the movie comes out, where it takes place, it's just all great. 1978-79 New York ( depending on when the movie was shot and made ) when divorce and getting restarted romantically in America was becoming a major and mainstream issue for lots of Americans. Where either Americans are getting divorced like in Jennie MacLaine's case ( played by Marsha Mason ) or losing the love of your life to a premature death in George Schneider's case ( played by James Caan ) and then trying to figure out how to live single again and what life was like before you were married and then trying to figure out if you want to get involved romantically again.

Source: Alamy Stock Photo- Hollywood Goddess Marsha Mason & actor James Caan

Do you even want to date again and get seriously involved with one person, or even just date several people with several first dates. With your friends putting pressure on you to get back in the dating game ( so to speak ) because they don't want you to be lonely. Or perhaps as well don't want to be friends with someone who isn't seeing anyone, or is even dating. Chapter Two has all of that. Two people who were once married and are now single, but for different reasons, who are put together by their best friends.

Source: The Film Experience- Hollywood Goddess Marsha Mason & actor James Caan

Just the whole scene where Jennie and George start dating again and going out with several people ( not all at once ) is funny and very well-done. Jennie goes out with a guy who his 6'9. Which must of been like blue jay on a date with a golden retriever. The size and height difference is undeniable and unavoidable. Marsha Mason in real-life and in that movie is only 5'2. Which is one of the reasons why she's so adorable, along with her personality, baby face, and still is. She might have felt the need to stand on a stool when trying to talk to this 6'9 basketball player, just so she could see him and he could hear her. George goes out with a woman who literally wears an electric dress that flashes. Must of been like dating a scoreboard at a football game.

But then the movie gets real good and real when George is put up by his brother of all people, to call and talk to Jennie. They have like three funny phone calls before they even have a pre-date ( as they called it ) where George goes over to Jennie's apartment just so they can meet and look at each other and talk for a while, which is where George proposes. And if you're thinking he proposes to marry her, you would be wrong and understandably so, but he proposes to take her out on an actual date. The first hour of this movie is a very good romantic  comedy with a lot of great writing and wisecracks. The second hour after they're married and get back from their honeymoon is very dramatic and heavily emotional.

George has never gotten over losing his first wife and taking his second wife Jennie to the same place he took his first wife for their honeymoon brings back all sorts of memories that his first wife is gone and that he's never gotten over that and has never been able to express how he feels about losing her. And takes all of that anger and frustration out on Jennie. Basically acts like she's in his way and doesn't want her around. Very mean and cruel to her, but not in the sense that he's violent or throws a lot of horrible insults at her, but just cold and standoffish, aloof in his demeanor with her. But she doesn't want to lose him and tries to get him to open up. George is an author and he gets his current book done and realizes that he still loves his second wife Jennie and that is where he opens up comes back to life and they live happily ever after. ( As the cliche goes )

This is not a cookie-cutter romantic comedy that became common in the 1990s which still hasn't gone away where you have a movie that is built around the personalities of the two hot young actors in the movie. The lead actor and actress, where the movie is built around sitcom one-liners and pop culture catch phrases. Chapter Two is an original comedy because it's creative and clever. With one of the best actors who has ever lived in James Caan and one of the best actresses at least of her generation in Marsha Mason, from one of the best screenplay writers who has ever lived in Neil Simon. Which makes it a great romantic comedy.
Source:Night of The Trailers

Johnny Machine: Bugsy (1991) Starring Warren Beatty & Annette Bening

Source:The Daily Review- Annette Bening & Warren Beatty. Perhaps you can tell for yourself who is who.

Source:The Daily Review

Bugsy from 1991, is one of not my favorite films, but also one of my favorite gangster films. Right up there with Goodfellas, which could be my favorite gangster movie and Casino. This is a great film and even though it is not completely accurate and it doesn’t advertise itself that way anyway, this is a very funny film. Warren Beatty, makes Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, seem like a very funny charming guy. Not sure if Bugsy was that way in real-life, or Beatty just makes him look that way in the movie, because that is how he wanted to play him, because he’s a very funny charming guy. But Beatty makes Bugsy look like a cold-blooded killer with another side to him. That loves his family and the people he cares about as well. But won’t stop to kill someone who gets in his way.

Bugsy, is about the career of Benjamin Bugsy Siegel. Who is a Jewish mobster from New York who operates out of New York, who is sent to Los Angeles on business. To become partners with Italian gangsters over there. To actually buy out their business there and take it over with those people working for him and his bosses back in New York. When Bugsy gets to Hollywood, he can’t find anything he doesn’t like about it and decides he wants to go into films as well. Which is where he meets his long time mistress Virginia Hill, played by the beautiful and adorable Annette Bening. She’s not just an actress and mistress, but becomes his business partner as well. That is the legitimate side of his business dealing with gambling.

Bugsy, is then sent to Las Vegas, which was still a hick Southwestern town in the early 1940s when this movie first takes place. To check out a casino there and to report back on it. And instead passes on that dump of a casino there and discovers that he could develop a casino industry with his own casino-hotel there. And make millions if not billions of dollars there and make Las Vegas a gambling mecca. All this stuff in the movie is completely true. Bugsy Siegel, had a lot to do with the development and economic success of Las Vegas. And a big reason why it goes from a town of maybe ten-thousand people back in the 1940s, to a big city of over five-hundred-thousand people today and one of the fastest growing cities and metro areas in the country now.

Bugsy Siegel, was not a good guy at all. He was a cold-blooded killer who had witness’s whacked and personally murdered perhaps twenty people or more himself for getting in the way of his illegal business’s. But Warren Beatty, does a great job of giving Bugsy a very likable charming funny side. That people could actually like especially if they don’t know he’s a gangster and personally responsible of the murders of so many people. This is a two and a half-hour film that is worth every minute. With a lot of great lines, with a lot of humor and not just from Beatty, but Annette Bening does a great job and so does Harvey Keitel as Mickey Cohen and so many other great character and actors in this movie. This is truly one of Barry Levinson’s best movies.

George Seaton: Airport (1970)

Source:Turner Classic Movies- Left to right: Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, and Helen Hayes.

Source:The Daily Review 

"Mel Bakersfeld, general manager of Lincoln International Airport, is beset with problems during one of the worst snowstorms in the history of the Midwest. A disabled jet has blocked the major runway, and the auxiliary runway is too short for takeoffs in bad weather conditions, forcing Mel to call maintenance chief Joe Patroni to solve the crisis; Mel's wife, Cindy, informs him that she wants a divorce; and Tanya Livingston, the Trans Global Airlines passenger agent with whom Mel is having an affair, is distracted by the mischievous Ada Quonsett, an elderly woman who is trying to stow away on a jet to Rome. 

Meanwhile, the emotionally disturbed D. O. Guerrero comes on board with a bomb in a briefcase, intending to blow up the plane so that his wife, Inez, can collect on the life insurance policy he has just purchased. 

The jet is piloted by Mel's brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest, who has just learned that his lover, stewardess Gwen Meighen, is pregnant. Shortly after departure, he is warned that Mel and Tanya have determined that Guerrero is carrying a bomb. With Ada's help, Vernon attempts to get the briefcase, then nearly succeeds in persuading Guerrero not to open it, but Guerrero runs into the bathroom and explodes the bomb. 

Guerrero is blown out of the jet, Gwen suffers a serious eye injury, and the aircraft is severely crippled, but Vernon and co-captain Anson Harris manage to land on Lincoln's runway, which Patroni has just cleared. As the passengers and crew enter the terminal, Vernon's wife, Sarah, observes her husband's obvious concern for Gwen and realizes that he has been unfaithful." 

From Turner Classic Movies 

"Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin head an all-star cast in this classic disaster film from producer Ross Hunter, for which Helen Hayes received her second Oscar. On the ground, manager Mel bakersfeld (Lancaster) juggles lover Jean Seberg and wife Dana Wynter while coping with a blizzard, aided by mechanic George Kennedy (who returned in all three sequels). 

In the sky, Capt. Vern Demerest (Martin) must maintain control of a 707 with his pregnant stewardess girlfriend (Jacqueline Bisset), a sly stowaway (Hayes), and a bomb-toting maniac (Van Heflin) aboard. Often imitated but never equaled, this box office hit was adapted by Academy Award winner George Seaton (Miracle on 34th Street, The Country Girl) from the best seller by Arthur Hailey (Hotel).

MPAA Rated PG for some intense sequences of adventure violence and language.

Produced by Ross Hunter Productions. Released by Universal Pictures, an division of NBCUniversal, an Comcast company." 

Source:The Baltimore Movie Trailer Park- Jean Seaberg and Burt Lancaster in Airport (1970) No Wonder Mel never goes home to his wife. LOL

From The Baltimore Trailer Park 

"Trailer from the 1970 movie : Airport" 

Source:Trailer Tajm- a trailer of Airport (1970

From Trailer Tajm

The 1970s, was a crazy and very entertaining even with how gloomy and depressing a decade that it was with the bad economy, Vietnam War, high crime rate and everything else. But one of few great things about that decade was the entertainment, especially movies and TV. 

Terrorism was on the mind of millions of Americans in the 1970s, as well as what could happen if something went wrong with an airplane when it was in air and thousands of miles from a nearest airport. Soap operas were also very popular and common in the decade, as well as movies that combined several different genres and stories in one movie. 

Airport, isn’t a pure action movie, or action/thriller, or action/drama, or action/comedy, or soap opera. It was all of those things into one movie. With a great cast and a great director.

Airport, is essentially about what good decent intelligent people, who all have their own issues and problems outside of work, do when they’re all under extreme pressure: 

Like having a passenger on the plane who is so desperate, who is out-of-work and can’t hold onto a job, who needs money and believes there is nothing left he can do, but have himself killed so his wife can collect his life insurance. Van Heflin, plays a man named Guerro (apparently he wasn't born with a first name) who manages to get a bomb on the plane. 

The General Manager (played by Burt Lancaster) of the airport, is no longer in love with his wife and as a result is now a workaholic who doesn’t want to go home at night, because he’s happier working all the time. 

Jacqueline Bisset, plays a head stewardess who is having an affair with a married pilot and is now pregnant with his baby. Dean Martin, plays the father of the head stewardess’s baby and his married and having an affair with that stewardess.

You have all of these decent intelligent people who are all very good at their jobs, but are all under enormous pressure and are all now dealing with an airplane that has a bomb on board by a man who is suicidal and wants to set the bomb off and the bomb does go off. So you have all of these people who are already under enormous pressure now having to deal with a potential airplane disaster in horrible Upper Midwest weather in the winter, leaving from Chicago. And now also have to deal with the possibility of hundreds of people dying in a horrible plane crash. 

This is a very entertaining and very funny movie. Perhaps not so believable with all the side soap operas in it. But even great soap operas tend not to be very believable. And it is very entertaining and pretty funny movie with very funny people in it and a an all-star cast.

Muir Maiden: Peyton Place (1957) Life is Not So Swell in Pleasantville

Source:Muir Maiden.

Source:The New Democrat

I don’t know any other movie that perfectly represents its time and is better timed and has a better plot than Peyton Place. I mean think about, think about what Peyton Place is about and when it comes out and when it takes place. In small town New England, where everyone looks the same, talks the same and acts the same, lives the same way. Or at least that is how it looks on the outside. Peyton Place, comes out in 1957, a time where mom stayed at home and dad worked. Where divorce, or single parenthood were considered sins. Where African-Americans, were considered servants of Caucasian families, especially Anglo-Saxon families. Where sex before marriage and even the talk of sex and how people being physically attracted to each other pre-marriage were considered sins.

Peyton Place and the 1940s, as well as 1950s America, perhaps especially in New England, are considered the Utopia of the Christian-Right and what I at least call the Traditional Values Coalition of America. And yet this is all just a façade. Peyton Place, is a movie where a single mother is raising her daughter. Her daughter’s father, dies early on, but she’s never actually married to him. Not only that, but this women played by the great Lana Turner, has an unplanned pregnancy with a married man. Again, adultery and especially adulterous sex, would be considered sins back then and in this community. And yet Constance MacKenzie, played by Lana, tries to come off as this better than now above it all person. Expressing the traditional values of Traditional America. Even though she’s lived a separate life where she expressed her true feelings.

Peyton Place, looks like a small town paradise in New England, on the outside. With good schools, good places to eat. Very friendly intelligent good people, things to do. And yet this is a town with a lot of the problems of a big American Northeastern or Midwestern city. Like Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, to use as examples. Where women have kids with men who are married to other women and without marrying the father of their baby and where the father doesn’t have much of a presence in their baby’s life. Where a girl, played by Hope Lange, is raped by her stepfather, played by Arthur Kennedy. And when her stepfather attacks her again, she kills him and get charged with the murder of her stepfather. Because no one believes that she was simply defending herself.

Peyton Place, is also a movie, where a women played by Lana Turner, learns to open up, socialize and even love again. From the principle of her daughter’s high school, played by Lee Phillips. Who teaches her that there’s nothing wrong with two people openly showing their affection with each other in public. Even in Peyton Place. And is also a movie where abortion, again in a movie that came out in 1957, but took place even further back in 1941, thirty years before abortion even became legal in America, where a doctor, played by Lloyd Nolan, performs the abortion on Selena Cross, played by Hope Lange. Because she was a teenager, whose stepfather is the father of her baby.

To say that Peyton Place was ahead of its time as far as the issues that it talked about, would be like saying the Empire State Building in New York, is a big tall building. This movie was a solid ten-years ahead of its time. That showed that 1950s and 1940s America, wasn’t all that pleasant and certainly not perfect after all. That they dealt with the same issues back then as Modern America deals with today. Only they weren’t as public and the attitudes about these so-called alternative activities and lifestyles, were kept in the closet and hidden. Kept outside of mainstream America. And it is a very good look inside a time that wasn’t as innocent as its been advertised.

Sony Pictures: Love Has Many Faces (1965)

Source:The New Democrat

I just love Lana Turner and Stefanie Powers. Two of the cutest hottest sexiest actress’s that Hollywood has ever produced. They both have the cutest facial expressions and mannerism’s you’ll ever see and put them together in a movie together and have them in the same scene and what else would you want to see. By the way, Ruth Roman is very beautiful and cute in this movie and I believe a very underrated actress and babe in Hollywood. And by the way, Love Has Many Faces is a very good movie. I saw it twice this week in preparation for this blog. And I’ll get into what I saw and nor just Lana, Stef and Ruth.

Love Has Many Faces is essentially about the American gigolo. Three men now working in Acapulco, Mexico which is absolutely gorgeous looking for their next meal tickets. Pete Jordan played by Cliff Robertson already has his meal ticket Kit Jordan his wife. Who should’ve been called Kitty or Kitten because she was so adorable in this movie. One of Pete’s old friends, a fellow gigolo washes up dead on an Acapulco beach. This guy also has a connection with Kit and was wearing a bracelet that she gave him. So now Pete and Kit are suspects for the Acapulco police in this murder investigation.

Carol Lambert played by Stefanie Powers is the girlfriend of the dead gigolo and comes down to Acapulco from America to find out what happened to her boyfriend. Pete not only has to worry about he and his wife as murder suspects in this investigation, but also has a rival who wants his wife. Hank Walker and old friend of his wife. And during this whole investigation and scene you have a married couple Pete and Kit Jordan who’ve been married for about a year and yet they’ve argued like they’ve been married for thirty-years. And have two or three kids together who are all in or out of college. And thinking about divorcing each other.

During this whole movie I’m wondering if Pete actually loves his rich wife or not, or did her marry her because she’s rich. They are clearly attracted to each other and share a mutual respect. But they socialize with other people and have other potential love interests. Pete has his old friend’s girlfriend Carol and Kit has Hank. Or are Pete and Kit using each other and trying to make each other jealous to perhaps try to bring them closer to each other. All this going on during a murder investigation where they are both suspects in it. And then throw in the clever writing and humor and you have a very good movie.

David Finn: The Big Cube (1969)

Source:The New Democrat

I’ve seen this movie a couple of times in the last week. And there really isn’t a slow or dull moment in it. Sure some of the writing is kind of cheesy, at least by today’s standards, but is a very exciting, entertaining and at times a very funny movie. Sort of like a funny soap opera where a very successful movie financier played by Dan O’Herlihy who is a widower with a young adult daughter, is about to get remarried and to a very successful gorgeous veteran actress Adriana Roman played by Lana Turner.

The Dan O’Herlihy character’s daughter Lisa, played by Karin Mossberg, doesn’t like her future stepmother, but grows to like her. And without her new boyfriend John Allen played by George Chakris, the two women probably would’ve gotten along very well. But John wants Lisa’s father’s money and sees Lisa as his ticket to get the money. And he has other ideas and uses Lisa throughout the movie to get what he wants, which is Lisa’s trust fund and whatever he believes Lisa is entitled to financially.

What makes this movie even more interesting, is that Dan O’Herlihy, well actually his character dies in the movie. In a boating accident with his new wife when they are caught in a big storm in the water. He drowns trying to save his wife who gets knocked off the boat. She somehow makes it to shore and suffers a serious concussion from the accident that is effecting her memory and other things. Lisa’s boyfriend John sees this as an opportunity to get what he wants. And the fact that he’s a former medical student, gets him what he needs to carry out his plan.

This is where LSD comes in and John convinces Lisa that her new stepmother, will never allow for them to be happy and get married. One of the conditions of Lisa’s trust fund an inheritance is that she can’t marry John or anyone that Adriana disapproves of. So John hatches a plan to drive Adriana legally insane with LSD and with Lisa and John coming into her bedroom late at night and forcing her into nightmares with different special effects. They almost succeed, but Lisa breaks it off when Adriana is almost killed during one of the stunts.

This is a ninety-eight minute movie without any slow periods and pretty exciting almost the entire movie. Richard Egan has a big role in this movie as perhaps a screenwriter, director, informal agent and adviser of Adriana’s and perhaps her only real friend in the movie. And he helps bring her out of what she is suffering. Someone with memory loss and trying to hide the nightmare of the boating accident that killed her husband. As well as helping her come back from what Lisa and her boyfriend put her through in the movie.

BFI Trailers: The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) Starring Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Dick Powell & Barry Sullivan

Source:BFI Trailers- The Bad and the Beautiful from 1952: one of Lana Turner's best movies.

Source:The New Democrat

"One of the most enjoyable movies Hollywood made about itself, this warts-and-all portrait of a ruthlessly ambitious producer is also, one suspects, among the most truthful."

From BFI Trailers

I’ve seen The Bad and The Beautiful I guess five times now and it is a very good look inside the lives of Hollywood workers. The life of the star actress Lana Turner, who has a very complicated life and is a very complicated person in general. Just like in real life and you have the up-incoming producer played by Kirk Douglas. The up-incoming director played by Barry Sullivan and the studio boss played by Walter Pidgeon. As well as a successful author played by Dick Powell, who is brought in to write for movies and becomes a screenwriter.

What all of these characters have in common, including Kirk Douglas, character Jonathan Shields is that they all get screwed by Jon Shields. Or used to put it in a lighter way, but they are all taken advantage of to the point that it puts Shields out-of-business and he has to start over. Shields jacks Fred’s movie script ( played by Barry Sullivan ) which obviously breaks up their partnership. Shields makes a big star out of the Lana Turner character and makes her believe he’s in love with her. When he’s actually involved with another woman, who I guess is next on his list for stardom.

The Jon Shields character (played by Kirk Douglas) is basically a charming prick who is talented, but is lacking character, experience and perhaps even judgement to be a big star. At least he’s not ready yet and ends up using talented people to further advance his career. And you see that the people he use are able to bounce back and do better without Shields, while Shields at the end is just struggling to work his way back to where he was before. It is a very good movie about how movies are made in Hollywood

Al Pacino & Robert DeNiro: Heat (1995) Diner Scene

Source:Zavvi- Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the best scene from Heat (1995)

Source:The New Democrat

“The camera cuts to two men, sitting across from each other at a table in an American diner, surrounded by the hubbub of the other restaurant guests and staff.

The cups of coffee are barely touched, no food is nibbled on, the pair of men are far too busy trying to understand each other a little better.

And they soon realise that despite the fact they live on opposite sides of the law, that’s actually where the differences between them end.

They are two sides of the same coin, sharing the same understanding, and have a level of respect for one another too.”

From Zavvi 

“One of the best scenes in any recent movie. Showing that even though people can be on opposite sides of the law or the spectrum they can appreciate each other having similar character traits/qualities. This is from a movie that should be how most movies are made. There is no real bad guy. In the end you have to likable protagonists which is why this movie is so great. You can relate to both main characters. Here is the scene with no score since people didnt really like that. Please like and comment :)” 

Source:Rob Rash- Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the best scene from Heat (1995)

From Rob Rush 

“Master criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is trying to control the rogue actions of one of his men, while also planning one last big heist before retiring. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Hanna (Al Pacino) attempts to track down McCauley as he deals with the chaos in his own life, including the infidelity of his wife (Diane Venora) and the mental health of his stepdaughter (Natalie Portman). McCauley and Hanna discover a mutual respect, even as they try to thwart each other’s plans.” 

Source:Valid HD- Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the best scene from Heat (1995)

From Valid HD 

“Pop culture junkies are perhaps familiar with the name Chuck Adamson through his television work. In the 1980s, he created the series Crime Story and wrote some episodes of Miami Vice, both of which are examples of some of the finest crime fare to ever grace the small screen. On top of that, he briefly appeared in a few notable film and television projects as an actor, including Thief, Beverly Hills Cop, and The Stand. However, prior to his tenure in the entertainment industry, he was a detective.” 

Source:Warner Brothers- Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the best scene from Heat (1995)

From Film School Rejects  

There was another video about the Heat (1995) diner scene with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. But that video has since been deleted or blocked on YouTube.

Source:Robert Niro- Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro 

This is my favorite scene from Heat and this is one of my favorite movies of all-time and a movie that is roughly three-hours long. But think about it for a moment: a three-hour movie that doesn’t seem like three-hours. The same thing with Casino, because it was one major scene after another with either great dialogue like in this scene, or with a great action scene, like the first major robbery of the movie which is in the first scenes of the movie, or the diner scene that’s towards the end of the movie.

You don’t feel like you’re watching a three-hour movie when it is a great movie with one great scene after the other. Just like when you spend three-hours watching a great football or baseball game. Because you want to be there the whole time taking in everything.

It’s the mediocre or bad movies that feel like they’re taking forever and feel like they’ll never end and perhaps you even walk out on that seem to go on forever. Heat doesn’t allow you to do that, because there’s always something very interesting going on in the movie.

And what you see in this scene are two men who are both in charge of what they do and who lead the crews they work for and at the top of their game. And what they are doing here is looking at each other as human beings and getting to the feel for each other and perhaps even liking each other, because they are both being real and who they are. And not trying to come off as anyone else.

Neil McCauley (played by Robert DeNiro) the bank robber who has one big score left in him. Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino) the police lieutenant whose job is to stop McCauley and his crew.

Michael Mann: Heat (1995) Robert DeNiro & Al Pacino Star

Source:Melinda LaFromboise- Robert De Niro, across the table from Al Pacino, in Heat.

Source:The New Democrat

Heat is definitely one of my favorite movies, top 5-10 of all-time and perhaps the best movie of 1995 and even the 1990s as a whole. Which was a great decade for movies and 1995 was also the year Casino came out as well. Both Heat and Casino came out in October or November of 95 and were simply two movies that I couldn’t wait to see. Saw them both on a Friday night when they both came out and knowing I was going to see both movies, sure as hell made going to work those two days easier and this was before I was a blogger-writer.

What I love about Heat, similar to Jackie Brown is the realness to both them. This movie doesn’t try to fool you and show you a world that doesn’t exist for the most part and people who don’t exist for the most part. I love this movie because of the humanity of it. It is not a movie about Devils vs. Saints, but cops against criminals. And the criminals do bad things in this movie and hurt people. But they are professional criminals who in most cases in this movie are only hurting other criminals. And I hate this term, because all people are real and it sounds cliché, but they are real people. With real lives, families to take care of. Who happen to make their living stealing.

The cops are the good guys in this movie like in most action movies that involve good and bad. But the cops led by their lieutenant Vincent Hanna played by the great Al Pacino, is not a Saint. He’s a workaholic, because he spends so much time going after bad people and as a result does not spend enough time with his wife who loves him and his stepdaughter. And tends to only see both of them very early in the morning and very late at night. Why, because he spends so much time trying to track down and catch criminals like Neil McCauley, played by the great Robert De Niro. An ethnic-Italian playing an Irishman, is interesting to me, but perhaps that is a different subject.

Neil McCauley leads a crew or robbers and thieves who are very professional and very good. Why, because they are simply in it for the money and are very calculating in how they approach their work, so to speak and don’t take jobs just to hurt someone or for the thrill ride, because they hate prison and don’t want to go back. So they are very careful in what jobs they take to the point that McCauley has sort of an agent, an adviser who finds jobs and targets for him played by Jon Voight. Who gives him the pros and cons, the price tags of these jobs and the chances of doing the jobs successfully and then getting away with it.

Vincent Hanna played by Al Pacino, is an LAPD Robbery and Homicide lieutenant whose job along with his team is to track down the McCauley crew and put them away. Again Hanna is a workaholic, so putting in the time to put this crew away is nothing new to him and he has the manpower to get it done. The difference being that McCauley crew might be the most skillful and professional crew he has ever seen and it will be difficult for him and his team to put this crew away. Again they are professional criminals who are in it simply for the money. They don’t rape or murder for the hell or thrill of it. But rob banks and other business’s simply for the money.

Heat is a great movie if you cops and robbers movies that are realistic and aren’t cookie-cutter. That are different and clever and even funny, especially with Al Pacino who makes serious characters look like comedians simply because of how he delivers lines and with his ability to add flavor and character to his lines and work. Heat is not a cookie-cutter movie that looks and sounds like a lot of other serious cop movies before and after. That is solely based on style and special effects to look cool. Is has those things to, but with a lot of substance in the movie that the movie is based on.
Source:RYY

Fan Fare Music: The Crowded Sky (1960)

Source:The New Democrat

If you are familiar with the disasters movies of the 1970s, Airport, Airport 1975, Airport 1977, Airport 1979 with the concord and I would add Airplane! 1980 in with that because that is about what the 1970s was about, I think you'll find where the inspiration for all of those movies came from. Those movies all follow The Crowded Sky that came out in 1960. Like the rest of those movies, The Crowded Sky features a lot of talented, intelligent, imperfect people who are all going through personal issues that affect in their jobs in the movie that comes out and plays a big part in the movie.

Like the disaster movies that follow, The Crowded Sky is a pretty funny movie with a lot of funny people and characters in it. It also has a lot of soap opera in it with people going through relationship issues, feelings of insecurity, family issues with their kids, like the captain of the commercial plane not getting along with his son. People on the commercial plane not falling in love, but getting romantically involve with each other. The navigator of the commercial plane who is a motormouth and can't shut up about how bad his wife is. The captain and first officer hating each other's guts.

The Crowded Sky is essentially a very funny soap opera for about the first hour and twenty-minutes or so, before the two planes collide in the air. But they collide in the air because the people on the ground who are supposed to be doing air traffic control, are overworked and not paying attention to the two planes until it is too late. A Navy jet and the commercial airliner. This is a very funny and entertaining movie with a very skilled pilot having to make up for his big mistake, which was flying the plane too high. Which is why he collided with the Navy jet.

Tony Baretta: The Driver (1978)

Source:The New Democrat

The Driver is a great action/drama thriller with Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern and many others. About a hotshot getaway driver played by Ryan O'Neal who drives for bank robbers and other robbers and gets them out of the clear and gets paid for that. Apparently The Driver has race car experience, but that is never made real clear in the movie. The Driver has never been caught and this big shot police detective or sergeant and his crew gets assigned to track The Driver down and catch him.

One thing I love about this movie is the realness in it as it relates to life in general. There are no Saints or Devils in it. The Driver the supposed bad guy, is not evil, but certainly not the good guy in the movie. He drives for robbers, but doesn't enjoy hurting people or hurting innocent people. He just takes care of himself and does his job to survive. Not because he wants to hurt people. The lead cop in the movie played by Bruce Dern, is suppose to be the good guy. But lets his ego into his job and uses controversial and extra-legal tactics to try to catch The Driver.

Like a set up a operation involving known robbers to get The Driver to drive for them on the job. To rob a bank that the police know is going down ahead of time and then when the job is done, the police will move in and catch everyone. But release the robbers that were in on the operation because they helped the police out. One major flaw in that plan. The head bad guy in that operation decides to screw the detective and instead of taking the money to the place that he and the detective agreed on, they took the money to a different location so they can get away.

If you like fast paced, high action and dramatic movies that never slow down and are always moving, that are also realistic, The Driver is a great movie. Probably the only Ryan O'Neal movie that I like and one of several Bruce Dern movies that I do like. Because it is not really bad guys versus the good guys, but guys on both sides that have jobs to do and go about those jobs the best that they can. With no one really winning at the end, which you see the movie for yourself to find that out. 

Goodfellas (1990) Joe Pesci & Ray Liotta: You Think I'm Funny?

Source:The New Democrat

Yes Joe, we think you are funny and you’ve been one of the funniest people in Hollywood for a very long time because you are a natural comedian who doesn’t need funny lines to be funny. Because of what you bring to them and how you deliver them. My favorite types of movies are movies that aren’t supposed to be full-time comedies that do not set out to be hysterical, but just are because of the people in them and the characters they play. Breaking Bad on AMC is a perfect example of that and so is Goodfellas.

Joe Pesci’s character in this movie is a serious bad ass. Whose murdered probably hundreds of people, sort of like Sammy Gravanao from the Gambino Crime Family in New York. But he’s a very funny man who knows how to have a good time and a great story-teller. As you see in this scene, but Goodfellas is not supposed to be a comedy. But a real life story about people who are really bad, but who are also very funny characters.

Joe Pesci’s character Tommy in this movie is a big shot Italian mobster in New York City. Not a capo meaning captain in Italian, but a made guy with his own crew and people under him. Whose very successful with his cover business’s. Business’s that are legitimate technically, but are really there to cover illegal activity like a restaurant. Or a store and he’s a very good story-teller and Henry played by Ray Liotta in this movie mentions that to him. And Tommy jokingly takes that as Henry is insulting him and scares the hell out of Henry.

Movie Clips: Airport 1975- The Best of the Disaster Movies

Source:Movie Clips- Alan Fudge, played an air traffic controller in Airport 1975.

Source:The New Democrat

"Airport 1975 Trailer - Directed by Jack Smight and starring Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Susan Clark. A mid-air collision involving a a small plane and a commercial jetliner leads to potential disaster, as a plane loaded with passengers and no pilot becomes the worst nightmare for a flight attendant tasked with flying the craft."

From Movie Clips

To understand Airport 1975 you have to understand the times when the movie was made and the 1970s as a whole.  People were into this type of disaster movie.  Disaster movies were popular in this decade.  There's a laundry list of them, including Airport 1970 and its three sequels, including Airport 1975, Airport 1977, and Airport 1979.  Earthquake, also with George Kennedy and Charlton Heston, takes place in Los Angeles.

Americans, then as well as today, liked seeing people pushed to their limits with their lives and health at risk and not knowing if they will survive the experience.  In Airport 1975,  the head stewardess has to fly the plane herself, at one point.  This, and a mid-air transfer of a pilot between planes, are excellent examples of people under pressure pulling off extraordinary things when they have to.

The plot of Airport 1975 is fairly simple.  A 747 is flying through pretty awful rainy weather.  There is a small charter plane nearby that, apparently loses contact with the ground controllers.  These two planes do not know they are in the same area headed right at each other without enough warning to avoid collision. The pilot of the small plane has a heart attack and loses control.  His plane hits the 747 with its five-hundred, or so, passengers.

The collision kills the navigator and co-pilot.  The pilot survives but is blinded and barely conscious. There are no other pilots on the plane but, except for a hole in the cockpit, it is in decent shape and doesn't have to crash if someone can fly it.  The head stewardess (Karen Black)  conveys the situation the situation to the airline's command center.

She, with instructions, from Al Murdock (Charlton Heston) the company's chief aviation instructor,  flies the plane,  including pulling the it up so that it doesn't run into a mountain.  They attempt a mid-air transfer to get an actual pilot in the cockpit into the plane. The first attempt fails with the pilot falling to the ground.   The second attempt succeeds in inserting Murdock into the plane.  He takes over and saves the day, so to speak.

I'm a big fan of Airport 75, even though it is an airplane disaster movie.  It has a very funny cast, Sid Caesar, Jerry Stiller, Conrad Jannis, Normal Fell and others.  It's a well written movie with funny people making the best of a horrible situation, not knowing if they will ever be able to crack jokes on the ground again, and using humor to avoid going crazy in an extremely stressful situation.

Clint Eastwood: Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

Source:The New Democrat

Heartbreak Ridge is my favorite Clint Eastwood movie and that is saying something because there might be ten of his movies that I love, including Magnum Force, Dirty Harry, The Enforcer, The Gauntlet, Pink Cadillac, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and a few others.  All of these movies have a few things in common: great stories, great writing, great casts and great quick-witted humor, all at times when you might think, "How could someone joke about that?"

Heartbreak Ridge was made in 1986 but takes place in 1983, about the time of the bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon. Its about these lazy recon marines who are in the Marines to chill and have a good time.  They are basically still in boot camp, as far as their level of training goes, and are seen by the officers at their base in North Carolina as screw ups, which is putting it mildly.  Assholes would be more accurate.

Sergeant Tom Highway (Eastwood), a thirty year veteran of the Marine Corps who served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, a distinguished member of the silent generation in this movie and in real life, is brought to this unit to get these assholes in shape and turn them into real marines.  The problem is that Sergeant Highway's superior officer, Major Powers, (Everett McGill) is an old school, by the book, tight ass who wants things done his way or no way.  Highway is not in the Marines to play by anyone else's book, so they clash.

Highway has to make these very young men, late twenties at the oldest, into marines with this tight ass major on his back the whole time and do it without losing his job.  He takes his unit into battle in Granada to rescue some Americans.  There are over two hours of this in the full version of the movie along with a lot of great humor from Eastwood and his crew.  Teenage boys, maturity wise, become good U.S. Marines

Martin Scorsese: Casino (1995) Film

Source:Movie Clips- Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone.

Source:The Daily Post 

“If the Mafia didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent it.

The same is true of Las Vegas. There is a universal need to believe in an outfit that exists outside the rules and can get things done.

There’s a related need for a place where the rules are suspended, where there’s no day or night, where everything has a price, where if you’re lucky, you go home a millionaire. Of course, people who go to Vegas lose money, and people who deal with the mob, regret it. But hope is what we’re talking about. Neither the mob nor Vegas could exist if most people weren’t optimists.”

Source:Roger Ebert- Robert DeNiro as Ace Sam Rothstein.

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From Roger Ebert 

“CLIP DESCRIPTION:

Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) fights his old friend Nicky (Joe Pesci) and his wife Ginger (Sharon Stone) for control of his Las Vegas empire.

FILM DESCRIPTION:

The inner-workings of a corrupt Las Vegas casino are exposed in Martin Scorsese’s story of crime and punishment. The film chronicles the lives and times of three characters: “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a bookmaking wizard; Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), a Mafia underboss and longtime best friend to Ace; and Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone, in a role she was born to play), a leggy ex-prostitute with a fondness for jewelry and a penchant for playing the field. Ace plays by the rules (albeit Vegas rules, which, as he reminds the audience in voiceover, would make him a criminal in any other state), while Nicky and Ginger lie, cheat, and steal their respective ways to the top. The film’s first hour and a half details their rise to power, while the second half follows their downfall as the FBI, corrupt government officials, and angry mob bosses pick apart their Camelot piece by piece.”

Source:Movie Clips- Robert DeNiro as Ace Sam Rothstein.

From Movie Clips

Definitely the best Las Vegas Italian mafia movie all-time if not the best Italian mafia movie of all-time. It brought you into the world of the Italian mafia as well as the Jewish mafia that worked together to bring Las Vegas to organize crime in America, as well as the general public because Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel saw Las Vegas as a goldmine back in the 1940s. Which is how the Las Vegas casinos got started and the Casino movie brought this story up to the mid and late 1970s and how the Italian mafia was involved in Las Vegas casinos.

This movie is based on a true story about Las Vegas gambler Frank Rosenthal (played by Robert DeNiro) and others who worked in Las Vegas during this period and had to deal with the Italian mafia while they were in Las Vegas. It showed you how big time professional gamblers like Frank Rosenthal and others were brought in by organized crime officials both Italian and Jewish-American mobsters, to run Las Vegas casinos for them.

The Sam Rothstein character (played by the great Robert De Niro) is based off of Frank Lucky Rosenthal, a real life Las Vegas professional gambler who is originally from Chicago.

The Nicky Santoro character (played by the great and hysterical and one of the funniest people ever in Joe Pesci, who is also a great character actor) is based off of Tony Spilotro. A real life Las Vegas Italian mobster, who is also from Chicago originally and grew up with Frank Rosenthal.

The movie Casino is based off of the book and screenplay Casino, that was written by Nicholas Pileggi. So the movie Martin Scorsese put together in 1995 was based of a lot of good and factual information that was in the movie.

Casino is not a true story completely. The characters are different and some of the stories are different. But it is based off a true story similar to Nixon which came out the same year as Casino and The Doors in 1991, that were both directed by Oliver Stone.

This movie does give you a great look inside of the world of the Las Vegas mob, both Italian and Jewish and what the lives were like for those people. And how people who certainly are not Saints, like the Sam Rothstein character played by Bob De Niro, which was based off of Frank Rosenthal, get caught up in illegal activity because of their associations.

Movieman Trailers: Escape From Alcatraz (1979) Starring Clint Eastwood

Source:Movieman Trailers- Clint Eastwood's Escape From Alcatraz.

Source:The Daily Post

“Escape from Alcatraz Trailer [HQ] No Copyright Infringement Intended.”

From Movieman Trailers 

If I had to put a short list, top 5-10 Clint Eastwood movies of all-time, (which are all great movies, by the way) Alcatraz would be on that list. Probably somewhere between 6-10, with Heartbreak Ridge and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot being at the top.

Escape From Alcatraz is of course about the 1962 escape of this famous prison by Frank Morris and two other career criminals that apparently no other prison in the country could hold. John Anglin and Clarence Anglin being the other two inmates. The movie shows how the inmates got out. The question did they survive and make it to San Francisco, or another island.

This movie also give viewers another look at Clint Eastwood who generally plays a no-nonsense, tough guy, who enforces the law and even uses controversial means to do that, but always gets the bad guy. In Alcatraz, he’s not only a bad guy, but he’s the chief bad guy that other bad guys look up to. He plays a criminal genius at least as far as IQ and intelligence in Frank Morris, who figures out how to escape from Alcatraz. And also happens to be friends in prison with two other men who are also experts in making prison escapes, the Anglin brothers.

Escape From Alcatraz not only shows you how these three inmates escaped from prison, but also gives you an inside look of what life inside of Alcatraz was for inmates and staff. How deadly boring it simply could be, unless you had a job as an inmate and how much time the inmates spent by themselves in individual cells. And what tactics, measures and extremes even the staff at Alcatraz would go to, to keep the prison secure. Like locking up inmates in solitary when they get into fights, but locking up in a completely dark dungeon twenty-four hours a day. And is very interesting and great movie.

Lana Turner Is Madame X (1966)

Source:Victor Creed- Lana Turner, is Madame X. 

Source:The Daily Post 

“Madame X (1966) – (Original Trailer)”

From Victor Creed

Lana Turner, plays a lower-class woman Holly Parker, who marries way up as far as class and wealth. She marries Clayton Anderson, from the very wealthy Anderson Family. Who is a businessman/politician whose held several Federal Government jobs and is looking to become President of the United States.

Clay Anderson is very similar to Joe Kennedy from the Kennedy Family. Who was a very successful investor on Wall Street. Who ends up working for President Franklin Roosevelt and who also has his own presidential ambitions.

Holly Parker’s husband, Clayton, is a diplomat now and spends a lot of time away from Washington where they live. Holly, gets lonely and is a gorgeous, sexy baby-faced woman (I mean, she is Lana Turner, after all) and meets a local playboy Phil Benton. ( Played by Ricardo Montalban ) They have an argument and fight one night at the house. And Holly, accidentally kills Phil and tells her mother in law about it. Her mother in law, doesn’t like her daughter in law at all.

Estelle Anderson, ( played by Constance Bennett ) the mother in law of Holly and mother of Clayton Anderson, doesn’t want to see any scandal and shame come to her family. And pays Holly a lot of money to get out-of-town and simply disappear. Not even telling her son Clayton who just happens to be Holly’s husband and the father their son. No one knows what happened to Holly except for Holly and Estelle. And Holly, completely falls off the map and leaves the country. And becomes an alcoholic and lives a rough life.

One of Lana Turner’s best movies. She plays a woman whose the wife of a rich successful politician. Whose suspected for murder and gets sent out-of-town by her mother in law never to be heard from again. Until one day she pops back up into society and ends up going on trial for murder with a completely new identity. With her family not knowing her real identity.