Charlie Varrick

I am always trying to go back and watch older movies especially ones from the seventies when movie making was at its finest.  Not a whole lot of tricks and special effects just letting the camera role and let the guys in front of it take care of the story. 

I take interest in this particular movie because it is from director Don Siegel whose previous effort was the classic Dirty Harry.  Siegel served as Eastwood's mentor in directing and always had a lean and efficient way to film making. 

Charley Varrick is about a group of bank robbers that take down a small town bank but come up with a very large sum of money.  The late great Walter Matthau plays Charlie and figures this bank served as a drop point for the mob and figures he better take quick action because he would rather have ten FBIs after him than one mafia.  Andrew Robinson, the Scorpio killer from Dirty Harry, plays his partner and he has nothing but dollars on his mind so Charlie has to work without his input.  The mafia sends Joe Don Baker after Charlie to collect their money and he catches up quick.  See if Charlie survives this.  Great work by the cast and the always sure handed Siegel.  Universal, it is time to release a wide screen version of this classic.

Opening Day for the Rangers is tomorrow!

Top 10: Sci Fi Flicks

One of the first movies I remember seeing at the theater was the top pick here.  I recall seeing it at least twice and loved the experience.  At that age I did not know the phenomenon that was going on around me at the time.  Sci Fi movies have been around along time but really took off in the late seventies and continue to march on today.  Here are some the best.

1. Star Wars/ The Empire Strikes Back- George Lucas not only made a great movie but created a new universe with fantastic characters and other worlds that will live on forever.  This is a classic western set in space with good versus evil and a mythical force surrounding it all.  It introduced the best villain of all time and also the careers of quite a few people in  front and behind the camera.  Is this one of those rare times where the sequel is better than the original?  It happens more than once on this list.
2. Blade Runner- Director Ridley Scott's fantastic future drama of a police man on the hunt for clones or as they are called here Replicants. The future Los Angeles looks awesome and bleak at the same time.  No one has been able to create that atmosphere since, many have tried but not been able to duplicate it.  A debate that can always be made here is whether Harrison Ford's Deckard is a replicant himself or not.  Rutger Hauer's "I've seen things..." speech at the end of the film is amazing.
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind- Director Steven Spielberg just kept the hits coming after Jaws and the under appreciated 1941.  Richard Dreyfus becomes fascinated with Alien visitors and the government is determined to keep him and everyone else away because apparently they have been here before.  I will take this over E.T. any day.
4. Alien/Aliens- The first is a balls out space horror film and the latter is a balls out space action flick.  Pick your favorite alien acid blood here.  Ridley Scott makes the list here again as he shows that yes in the future people will work in space and it will be long and mundane.  So you get bored and stop to check out some great Goth looking stuff and bam you have one your co-workers with a alien wrapped around his face.  No big dea,l said alien face sucker dies and your man is okay.  You think.  Now the movie really starts.  No one can hear you scream in space.  For the follow up Jim Cameron steps in and recreates the Alien world and decides we needs to blow these Aliens all to hell. Game over man. Good stuff and great characters too. 
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still- The '51 version, not the Keanu crap.  Aliens land in DC during the Cold War era so everyone and especially the government is scarred to death.  Turns out they just want to check us out but the government is convinced they are here to blow us up so they are going to get to them first.  Back in the fifties sci fi flicks were B movies and were quite bad.  This was one of the first to have a more serious tone and not so cheesy.
6. T2- Jim Cameron and Arnold followed up the Terminator with this great sequel that had ground breaking special effects and showed that humans and robots could co-exist.  It also conveyed the fact that Arnold really likes to blow stuff up.
7. Star Trek 2- I like the original Star Trek crew series and movies and I do like the new reboot of the movies.  I loved this part after the underwhelming Star Trek The Motion Picture, that was supposed to be a new series but since Stars Wars made alot of dough so we need to make this a movie now.  Kirk, now an admiral is bored, alone, and feeling old but a routine inspection brings a new adventure and old enemy that reinvigorates this old space captain.  Kahnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
8. The Matrix- I think in the late nineties sci fi needed some fresh ideas and did this flick deliver!  Great special effects and an original story catapulted this movie to great heights in the sci fi territory and also had two lackluster sequels.  Did you take the red or the blue pill?
9. War of the Worlds-  The '53 version, not the Cruise crap.  This is a Martian invasion that was based off an Orson Welles radio broadcast that ran some time earlier and scared the H out of people.  The show ran for 60 minutes and they only said this is fiction on 3 occasions so people were really scared that the events were happening in real time.   The movie ran off this popularity and again was famous because of it cold war theme.  It is pretty nifty on how we won the battle.
10. Predator-  An Alien hunter shows up on Earth and runs into the wrong dude, Arnold.  Director John McTiernan does a great job of balancing the action and the suspense in this flick.  Did you know that Jean-Claude Van Damme played the Predator for about two weeks when movie makers decided that his different looking Predator was not big or scary enough so he was scrapped and a seven footer and a new design were brought in.  We move!

New Release Tuesday

Today we have one of last year's big Disney hits, a Swan of a drama, and an old catalog release that has been screaming for a release for a long time.

Tangled- The classic tale of Rapunzel comes to life in Tangled and my daughter said "It rocked!"

Black Swan- I very much liked director Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler so I will give this a spin and check out Ms. Portman's Oscar performance.  Those TV spots sure were creepy.

The Mother Lode- A couple, one of which is a young Kim Basinger, go to British Columbia to search for a lost friend in the mountains.  There they discover Charlton Heston who will do anything to protect his gold he is in search of.

I finished Dexter season 1 and will continue on with it, good stuff.  FX's Justified just keeps getting better and has adopted a policy of less shooting and more drama and the results are fantastic.  Viewership is up so a season 3 renewal seems to be on the cards.


Opening Day is Thursday and Friday here for the Rangers.  I have my baseball day planned out.

Top flicks of 2010

I have finally gotten around to see most of last years top movies and I will now play Internet critic and make my selections.  Here are some of my faves.

• True Grit- The Coen Brothers just get better with age.  I was very excited when I learned they were scouting around Austin a year ago for this remake.  The Coens have never made a western and man did they nail it.  I hope they have some more Westerns in them in the future.  Jeff Bridges is great in anything he is associated with but the standout out here is Hailee Steinfeld playing Mattie Ross, she is incredible and should be around for a long time.  I grew up on John Wayne movies because of my grandfather so the original will always be special to me but this one exceeded it in all aspects.  I wonder if the Coens and Bridges ever talked about bringing the Dude back?
• The Town- Ben Affleck just about threw his career away a few years ago but getting into directing has saved and turned his career around.  This is a great bank robber flick and it even plays tribute to Michael Mann's Heat, probably the last great heist flick.  Affleck sure knows his way around Boston and taking this thing to Fenway is awesome.  Jeremy Renner is a great psycho and was deserving of his Oscar nomination.  
• Inception- This is one mind F of a movie.  I think what I saw was great but it does require a second viewing.  I know that is when I really like a movie is when during the end credits I think I need to watch that again and soon.  Christopher Nolan is about as good as they get for current directors right now.  Bring on Dark Knight Rising.
• Toy Story 3- I saw the original with my best friend sitting by a bunch of kids and enjoyed it.  Flash forward 15 years and I get to go see this one with my kids and absolutely loved it.  It was nice to see this bunch together again and I hear they will be on a short with Cars 2 this summer.  The opening scene was great, we are always talking about Doctor Porkchop around here.
• The Expendables- Best action flick since Rambo.  Sly pulled together an all star cast to create this testosterone filled flick.  I love it that Sly is directing all of his own stuff again and word is a sequel is on the way.  Mickey Rourke and Dolph Lundgren are excellent in this.
• The Fighter- A true story about a boxer that makes a comeback after an injury and his brother/trainer that makes his own comeback from a crack addiction.  A very inspiring story that ranks up there with Rocky.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World- Director Edgar Wright is off to a fast start with some great flicks to his resume already.  Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were fantastic comedies and now with this venture he has made something truly original which is what we all scream for but unfortunately this had a hard time finding an audience and is now scoring with the home crowd atleast.  That is what happens when you go against Sly and The Expendables. 

Top 10: Car Chases

A good action flick always has a car chase.  No slow motion or trick camera angles on these.  Here are some of the best ones.

1. Bullitt- This classic made in the late sixties has movie makers of today are still trying to replicate the  gem of movie car chases.  The late great Steve McQueen did alot of the driving in this flick but had to let a stunt driver take over at times to cool the producers down.  This movie won an Oscar for best editing.
2. Mad Max- Director George Miller can create some great chases and you might as well throw in the other Mad Max movies in with this one as well.  The V8 Interceptor was one of the coolest cars ever, it was a shame to blow it up.  Miller is working on some Mad Max sequels and the V8 has been spotted in the garage.  Eye balls popping out?  Greatness.
3. To Live in Die in LA- Secret Service agents steel some money from a bad guy for a buy of their own and things turn ugly.  Drive the wrong way on a LA freeway, no problem.  What happened to director William Freidkin, who did this, The Exorcist and .....
4. The French Connection- Gene Hackman takes off after the subway in a civilian's car to get the bad guy in a mind blowing chase with strollers flying.  Do they have stunt babies?  The story has always been that they did not even get permits for this chase scene.  This took home the Best Picture Oscar.
5. Smokey and the Bandit- You know this had to be in there.  The jump of the bridge was a really big deal in this flick but overall just a great chase of a movie.  "Bandit, where the hell are you?"
6. Vanishing Point- You gotta love the 70s chase scenes.  Open roads with great scenery behind and muscle cars to open them up.  This flick is the epitome of all great chase flicks.  Kowolski meets some interesting people along the way.
7. The Blues Brothers- There is more than one great chase scene here but I think the mall scene is tops.  "Look out, Muppets!"  The ending chase is classic topped off with the flipping of the Blues Mobile.  RIP John.  When is Neighbors getting released on DVD?
8. Cobra- Give this one a chance.  Sly put together a great chase scene with his classic muscle car here in this very Dirty Harry like movie.  One of Sly's unappreciated 80s flicks.
9. Ronin- This is the best chase scene of the 90s.  Driving around Europe thru tunnels and shooting rockets.  Great stuff.  Why don't more directors just mount a camera to the hood to see the pavement going 100 mph?
10. Magnum Force- Come on, you know Clint was in here somewhere.  At the end of the flick Harry has motorcycle rogue cops after him and he takes it to them.  A motorcycle against a car in a chicken match seems to always be in favor of the car.  The making of this is great, they took off the trunk lid and strapped in a camera guy, threw in some padding and yelled ACTION, and off went Clint. 

Honorable Mentions: Cannonball Run, The Expendables, and just about any Bond flick.  But that is for another time.

New Release Tuesday

I apologize for the lack of an update recently, with some work travel and spring break it was busy last week.   Last week brought a couple of noteworthy titles.
The Fighter- Marky Mark sure has come along way.  I did not care for his first few roles but he did a movie with Bill Paxton in the late nineties called Traveler and he showed a little something in that and can be good when he selects a good role.  Props to him for getting into producing as well.  Christian Bale is great and deserved his Oscar for this role.  I do not know how much weight he lost for this role but it was alot but not near much as The Machinist.  He needs to start bulking for Dark Knight Rising, it starts filming later this year.  This was a good flick, almost as inspiring as Rocky.



Hereafter- This is a Clint Eastwood film so it is required viewing but this may be his most underwhelming work in awhile.  I did nit even see this in the theater and that is saying alot.  I like during his press junkets he claims this movie as his "chick flick".  I will give it a spin soon.

True Grit is scheduled for release on June 7.

The Rangers are cruising thru the spring and Opening Day is close.  Bring it on!

New Release Tuesday

It is a very, very slim week so you should have plenty of time to watch some zombie goodness.

The Walking Dead- AMC released the best show on TV last year all be that it was only six episodes but it was great. The look of the show is great with the grain in the film, the zombies are perfect, and the cast is really good too. The best thing about this show is that it is first a drama then a zombie show. Good stuff, you have plenty of time to watch all six episodes because season two does not debut until October so get to it.

Inside Job- This just won the Oscar for Best Documentary last year. It is basically about how we are all getting screwed over by our government. I definitely intend to watch this.

Next week we get The Fighter and Clint's Hereafter.

Go and get R.E.M.'s new studio album today. You will not regret it.


Ranger Spring training is cruising right along and so far we have no major injuries.

New Release Tuesday

Ah, things picked up this past Tuesday on the new release front.

Faster has the Rock ditching his Disney crap and it is his best action movie to date. Good cookin' by the Rock and Carl from Slingblade is in it too.

127 Hours has the bomb of an Oscar host James Franco starring as a dumb climber who did not tell anybody where he was going. He gets in some trouble and has to cut off his arm to survive. Should make for an interesting scene.

Love and Other Drugs- A request by the wifey who stars the other Oscar host who was decent and had to carry the show by her self apparently.

Bambi- Disney's classic gets released on Blu and we get to tell the kid's what happened to Bambi's Mom when she becomes deer meat chili. Good times ahead.

Next week is a weak release time again so spin some of these.

My Oscar picks were a bit off and from what I read and hear from others the show was awful so I am glad I did not waste my time watching.

Spring Training is in full swing and the MLB Channel is already showing games. The baseball nerd in me is at full attention.