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Author Message
25 new of 229 responses total.
don
response 116 of 229: Mark Unseen   Jan 30 16:59 UTC 2000

Is profiling the kind of stuff people are talking about when they mention
"Driving While Black"?
gull
response 117 of 229: Mark Unseen   Jan 30 20:21 UTC 2000

Re #114: Right...they shouldn't be profiling *anyone* based on the color of
their skin.
mcnally
response 118 of 229: Mark Unseen   Jan 31 02:18 UTC 2000

  I find "Cops" too disturbing to watch due to my "My god.. if *this* is
  how they behave when they KNOW they're being filmed" reaction to most
  of the footage..
bdh3
response 119 of 229: Mark Unseen   Jan 31 05:58 UTC 2000

(sounds like a good topic for a separate item)
richard
response 120 of 229: Mark Unseen   Jan 31 17:15 UTC 2000

"NETWORK"-- caught this on dvd over the weekend.  I had forgotten what
a really great movie this is.  A really biting commentary on the power of
television and how people get destroyed by ambition and ego.  Peter 
Finch great as a network news anchor who has a mental breakdown and starts
ranting and raving on the air.  Faye Dunaway and Robert DuVall as the
heartless programming execs who keep Finch on the air after his breakdown
because his rantings are garnering great ratings.  "I'm as mad as hell
and Im not going to take it anymore"  William Holden as the crusty
news editor who is the only one who even cares about Finch.  This
movie was written by Paddy Chayefsky as a commentary on how television,
and its ability to foster and drive a celebrity and ego-driven culture,
could create generations of people so controlled by it that they lose
touch with reality.  That you could end up with people like the Dunaway
and Duvall characters, who lose their ability to relate in the real world 
and start looking at what's on television as reality.

A great movie.  Finch, Dunaway and Chayefsky all won academy awards. I highly
recommend it.
bruin
response 121 of 229: Mark Unseen   Jan 31 20:08 UTC 2000

And Peter Finch, who died shortly before the Academy Award Presentations, was
the first posthumous Best Actor Oscar.
bdh3
response 122 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 2 05:50 UTC 2000

(Apropos of nothing, I believe his oscar was accepted by his widow who
happens to be black)(he is white).  Isn't this black history month?)
A really great flick, and although somewhat dated in its specifics it is
perhaps even more relevent to today than when it was filmed (I mean we
have federal and state money being spent to train 'former' welfare
recipients to be 'psychics' (NY state in a recent AP wire service
story).  We have _NEWSWEEK_ altering photographs to fit stories, we have
a president debating the meaning of the word 'is'...
sj2
response 123 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 2 09:27 UTC 2000

I have been seeing two movies everyday for the past week. And the 
winners are :) "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "The Saviour". I don't how old 
are the movies but i don't care. I also saw some recent movies which 
were decent except this "Delta Force : Clear Target". 
Also i wanted to see more movies like "A Bridge too Far" and "The Hunt 
for the Red October". Any recommnedations?
bdh3
response 124 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 2 11:10 UTC 2000

The film _A Bridge too far_ is how the british fucked up a perfectly
good land war.  _The hunt for the red october_ is the only really
good non-fictional portrayal of modern submarine warfare if you don't
allow the british to fuck it up. All the subsequent novels are an
egostistical power trip on the part of an american novelist (so what
else is new).  Any movie with "Delta" in the title is pure fiction.
senna
response 125 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 3 01:49 UTC 2000

Hunt for Red October is non-fictional?  Wow.
goose
response 126 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 3 06:03 UTC 2000

I liked the movie...but the book, WOW, I read the book not long after it came
out, and *could not* put it down until I had fininshed it.  None of his other
books came close, but I did enjoy Red Storm Rising, and even Patriot Games.
I never aw the movie adaptation of that since it got pretty poor reviews.

right now I'm reading SSN which is another fictional sub account based on a
game that Clancy had a part in.  It's okay, but no HFRO.  I also like his
non-fiction books like Submarine, Carrier, Fighter Wing, etc.

Sorry for so little movie content...
omni
response 127 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 3 20:30 UTC 2000

  I disagree with beady.

  Run Silent, Run Deep was a very good flick as was Grey Lady Down. GLD wasn't
about warfare, but it did show that the Navy could rescue a sub. Charlton
Heston and Ronny Cox were great. 

  Nova recently did a piece on the Glomar Explorer, a ship built by the CIA
to steal a russion sub that had sunk. Sort of a real life Red October. The
sub broke up, and we didn't learn anything about the russkies from that,
except how to waste a lot of money on a ship that is now rusting somewhere
in some Navy shipyard.

  On a different topic, I saw Anatomy of a Murder last night and man, what
a flick. Jimmy Stewart was fabulous, as was the rest of the cast. This was
based on a real case that happened in the UP. The guy who wrote the novel was
an ex-judge. All I can say is that I need to see more Otto Preminger movies,
and I need to tape this one next time it comes around. 
swa
response 128 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 4 01:22 UTC 2000

I meant to mention this earlier, and don't know if it's even showing
anywhere anymore, but "Anna and the King" was very cool.

I've long been an admirer of Jodie Foster, and my boyfriend has long been
an admirer of Chow-Yun Fat, so when we heard that they were planning to
make a movie together and that it would be a lavish historical piece to
boot... well.  We'd been looking forward to it for some time, and were
afraid that after the hype and whatnot it wouldn't live up to our
expectations.  But it did. :)  Good acting all around, wonderful costumes
and sets and other visual elements that really made me feel like I was in
1860's Siam.  More than that, the movie dealt with racial, cultural, and
gender conflicts with more subtlety than most Hollywood fare these days.
It managed to stay away from the old racist approach to these matters
-- white Christians converting the heathens -- while *also* staying away
from the other extreme, the sort of PC story where the Westerner learns
that everything she has ever learned in her culture is wrong and the East
is the only place of wisdom and compassion.  Seeing a nonpartisan middle
ground where both English and Siamese culture are seen to have their good
points, and both are seen to have their bad points, was a very refreshing
surprise.  

Yeah, the movie is a little full of itself at times.  It's attempting to
be a Great Sweeping Epic, incorporating two love stories, a tale of
political intrigue, a coming-of-age story, the aforementioned
cross-cultural dialogue, etc., etc. all into one 2.5-hour movie.  And
there were a few overly grandiose moments, but on the whole the film has
earned the right to them.  It did a better job than most of weaving
various subplots and themes together, and actually seemed to be succeeding
in its quest towards epicness.  (Yes, I know that's not a word.  I'm
tired.)

I'm not a scholar of Thai history, and I'm sure that there were various
omissions and fictionalizations throughout (though less, certainly, than
in the musical version).  But I left the movie fascinated and wanting to
learn more.  A good sign, I think.
senna
response 129 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 4 07:04 UTC 2000

I recall seeing something about the Glomar Explorer, might have been the Nova
you saw, a year ago or so.  I agree, very fascinating (and expensive) stuff.
Didn't one of Clancy's novels mention it?
omni
response 130 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 4 08:31 UTC 2000

  I dunno; even though I have most of Clancy's novels in my library, I have
not got to them yet. Maybe I should start one.
flem
response 131 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 4 15:54 UTC 2000

I saw _Boys Don't Cry_ last night.  I was far more impressed than I 
expected to be.  I knew most of the plot going in, and expected to have 
to sit through a lot of uncomfortable moments as the script and actors 
tried to wrestle with very subtle issues.  In that sense, I was 
disappointed.  :)  The script was excellent, and between that and the 
acting, the plot occurred in a very natural way.  The movie had much of 
the flavor of a classic tragedy, to me.  
goose
response 132 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 4 21:38 UTC 2000

The glomar Explorer was a fron for the CIA to recover a "lost" soviet boomer
(nuke carrying sub).  The cover story was that wacko...I mean eccentric
billionaire Howard Hughes was using this ship to search for oil...I also have
anohter sub book that is a barely fictionalized account of anohter attempt
to recover this "lost" sub.  I wish I could remember the title right now...
gull
response 133 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 5 04:49 UTC 2000

Re #127: How did the movie of _Run Silent, Run Deep_ compare to the book? 
I've read the book, and loved it.  The sequel, _Dust on the Sea_, is also
good, though considerably darker.
omni
response 134 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 5 06:39 UTC 2000

  I didn't read Run Silent, Run Deep, I just saw the movie. Sorry, Dave.
bdh3
response 135 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 5 09:32 UTC 2000

re#132:  The 'cover story' was that Hughes was trying to mine manganese
nodules not oil. The story is well covered in _Blind Man's Bluff_, a
really good read, not a movie.
goose
response 136 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 5 14:53 UTC 2000

Ahh...then the Hitlory channel got it all wrong...
gull
response 137 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 5 15:07 UTC 2000

Nova got it right, though.  (Or was it TLC?  Forget which.)
bdh3
response 138 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 6 05:43 UTC 2000

re#136: If they said it was oil they did indeed.
krj
response 139 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 6 15:16 UTC 2000

International Channel is showing a few movies with Hong Kong 
action star Chow Yun Fat.  See http://www.i-channel.com and look 
at the "Chinese New Year" link.  I know there are a few Chow Yun Fat
fans on Grex.
md
response 140 of 229: Mark Unseen   Feb 6 20:03 UTC 2000

SCREAM 3 (B-) - Not as funny or scary or clever or 
even as subtle, if you can use that word, as 1 & 2.  
It was fun seeing Sydney, Gail, Dewey and the gang 
again, however, and I suspect 3 will have a 
respectable box office for that reason alone.  For
a movie/TV fan, it provides lots of wry little
moments, which is most of the fun with these movies.
The Carrie Fisher cameo was an especially nice touch.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (F) - A colossal waste of time.
Silly, pointless, meandering story, motivation-free
characters.  the kind of movie that makes the popcorn
taste bad.
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