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In The Valley Of Elah [2008]

starring: Charlize Theron, Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin, James Franco
directed by: Paul Haggis

May 26, 2008
Hank Deerfield (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is a retired veteran and military police officer searching for his son who has gone AWOL. Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) becomes interested in the case and starts helping Hank outside of her job. When Hank's son's body is found, the search suddenly turns into a search for the murderer.

Tommy Lee Jones gives one of his best performances as a relentless, humourless driven father, who has not been the best father, but doesn't rest until he finds the closure he desperately needs on the matter of the murder of his son.

Susan Sarandon was totally underused in the part of Hanks wife, but the little we are shown of her is riveting.

Charlize Theron plays down ... Read More:

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Westworld [1973]

starring: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin
directed by: Michael Crichton

September 22, 2008
some pleasure-leisure robots rebel in a futuristic pleasure park and we have mayhem and carnage ,but the moralist and ethical issues to use real people as models for pleasure and sadomosochism as an acceptable social standard is very well debated in an entertaining movie ,which is a satire as well as a slick thriller ,two rare qualities together in a science fiction fantasy.

yul brynner gives one of his best ever as the robotic gunslinger and he is maniacally precise in both the acting department and gun target practice too .

surprisingly you feel sorry for the robots then the human victims who are the origonal tyrants ,in some ways this movie stands up for the opressed of the planet in reminding the rest that the role reversal ... Read More:

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Catch Me If You Can [2003]

starring: Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye
directed by: Steven Spielberg

February 02, 2004
Catch Me if You Can by Steven Spielberg is about a young man who was a brilliant master of deception. It is based on the real life exploits of Frank Abagnale, Jr. who successfully passed himself off as a teacher, a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer all before he reached his 21st birthday! He did this in the late 1960's.

Frank Abagnale, Jr. used disguise and deception to get away with his antics. He passed off bad checks to finance his expensive life by targeting drone like people. He stole the bulk of the money from corporations.

Masterful performances by both Leonardo Dicaprio as Frank Abagnale, Jr. and Tom Hanks as his pursuer make this an enormously entertaining and light hearted movie that tickles the funny bone.

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Into The Blue [2005]

starring: Paul Walker, Nicola Paciotta, Chris Taloa, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan
directed by: John Stockwell

February 27, 2006
Underwater adventure thriller starring Jessica Alba and Paul Walker as divers who discover a crashed plane filled with a lot of cocaine and also a sunken ship filled with treasure whilst diving in the Bahamas. The treasure on the sunken ship is worth millions but Alba, Walker and their lawyer friend Scott Caan cannot afford the $30,000 dollars needed to hire the salvage gear needed to retrieve the treasure from the sunken ship. Temptation comes their way when they realise that the cocaine on the crashed plane will be more than enough to pay for the salvage gear they need but this an extremely risky idea as drug trafficking in the Bahamas carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison. But the decision as to whether to try to sell the cocaine or not is ... Read More:

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In The Valley Of Elah [Blu-ray] [2007]

starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Charlize Theron, Jason Patric
directed by: Paul Haggis

May 26, 2008
Underwater adventure thriller starring Jessica Alba and Paul Walker as divers who discover a crashed plane filled with a lot of cocaine and also a sunken ship filled with treasure whilst diving in the Bahamas. The treasure on the sunken ship is worth millions but Alba, Walker and their lawyer friend Scott Caan cannot afford the $30,000 dollars needed to hire the salvage gear needed to retrieve the treasure from the sunken ship. Temptation comes their way when they realise that the cocaine on the crashed plane will be more than enough to pay for the salvage gear they need but this an extremely risky idea as drug trafficking in the Bahamas carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison. But the decision as to whether to try to sell the cocaine or not is ... Read More:

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Antwone Fisher

starring: Derek Luke, Denzel Washington, Joy Bryant, Salli Richardson, James Brolin
directed by: Denzel Washington

March 15, 2004
I had high hopes for this film - and maybe I've seen a lot of other good stuff recently, so it doesn't compare so well.

No-one looks like they are really stretched in this film - and for me 20 to 30 minutes longer than it could have been.

And ultimately it doesn't really feel like it goes anywhere.

I know it's based on a true story and may even be the true story - just because it is a true story doesn't automatically make it a great film.

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The Car

starring: James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, Jean Marley, Ronny Cox
directed by: Elliott Silverstein

December 05, 2005
*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
Okay, the premise may seem a bit ridiculous- a demonic car menacing the inhabitants of a small American town. However, this is in fact a suprisingly gripping little film, with no pretensions apart from entertaining its audience, which it carries off with some style. I actually cared about what happened to the characters in the film, there are some excellent performances, and a few great set pieces, notably when the car traps a group of children and teachers in a cemetary. Another interesting thing is how some of the films characters who would normally have been signposted as victims in this genre (the brutish,racist wife beater and the nervous, alcoholic deputy sherriff) actually make it to the end credits. This lends the film an air of realism. ... Read More:

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Hold The Dream - Barbara Taylor Bradford [1986]

starring: Jenny Seagrove; Stephen Collins; Deborah Kerr; James Brolin; Claire Bloom; Paul Daneman; Fiona Fullerton; Suzanna Hamilton; Nigel Havers; John Mills; Liam Neeson; Pauline Yates; Valentine Pelka; Sarah-Jane Varley; Paul Geoffrey
directed by: Don Sharp

February 24, 2003
I didn't think that anything could be better that Woman of Substance, but I was wrong. I loved this, it was a beautiful story and the best thing was Stephen Collins!!!

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Capricorn One [1976] [1979]

starring: Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson
directed by: Peter Hyams

November 07, 2005
A fantastic plot, even allowing for the downright silly concepts of time and size. Or maybe NASA had had a budget cut?
Only kidding, but that's really what the film is about - 'What if there had been one screw-up too many'.
The plot is great, the scripting great, but....
It's the ending. It looks like the idea was rushed, bolted on due to lack of ideas or time, or replaces something else - a little like the ending from the theatrical release of Bladerunner, you know?
Ok, so Gould and Brolin race across the graves at Arlington (assuming that's where they are), and drop to slow-mo, as the press, the mourners, and the President to to look, not in slow-mo.
So, did Hyams run out of ideas, plot, money, or what? He gets it right in Outland, as the marshall takes ... Read More:

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Mimic [1998]

starring: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Alexander Goodwin, Giancarlo Giannini, Charles S. Dutton
directed by: Guillermo del Toro

August 01, 2005
I'm fussy about the horror/sci-fi I watch but "Mimic" I actually quite liked.

The plot it not overly complex, a scientist finds a cure for a terrible disease but at a cost that no one is aware they are going to have to pay at some point in time.

Enter a couple of years later two scientists (one who found the cure and her husband), a shoe cleaner/cobbler and his autistic grandson who live near a train station where the horror that is lurking in the form of insects that can mimic human form are hiding out, a world weary security guard and the usual monster insect fodder (people in lay man's terms!) and you have a surprisingly intelligent film.

A bit on the gruesome side at times but quite suspenseful and it certainly makes you jump when you least expect ... Read More: