The Dark Knight Rises

The most expected movie of 2012 has hit the theaters and after a bit of a shaking first couple of weeks, I was finally able to see it a couple of nights ago.

In a time where trilogies is the law for anything and everything that hits a screen in the form of a comic or large scale book, TDKR is able to stand individually from its predecessors, quite much as TDK did too. This is a very unusual achievement, considering how coined together trilogies are. Let's take for instance the X-Men trilogy: sooner or later, at any point of each of the films, you'll be able to expect some fights between mutants and humans, mutants vs humans, with no drama or character development; just as much you would expect to see epic battles when viewing the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

It is safe to say that the main plot of Batman Begins was the birth and growth of Bruce Wayne's emotions and how he became what he was destined to be. In The Dark Knight, we get to appreciate a more mature Batman, who is symbol of justice in a city that is plagued by crime and threatned by the Joker. So without giving too much away about the plot, in TDKR we see a more human face of all the characters we are used to see solving and fighting crime. It is in essence, a more emotional and drama-driven film.

The main antagonist Bane, is intimidating and convincing. Although he doesn't "steal the show" as much as Ledger's Joker did, he can definitely hold his own as every time he shows up on screen, he does become the focus of attention. However, something to be noticed is that in my percepcion, Bane is not the real villian in the movie; instead, it is the environment, the settlement, the adversities that Batman and Bruce must face, in form of his friends and enemies. All of these emotions are piled up and THAT is the real main antagonist of the film. We see a struggling Batman who tries over and over to overcome them.

The cast is exceptional and I would like to discuss a little bit about them.

Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale): Spectacular and extremely convincing in both roles. There is no doubt like in the past two films, whether if Bale was a better Batman or Wayne. In TDKR, both characters have grown up to full maturity, and Bale portrays them as humans, even fragile... seeking that normal life they have always wanted to live.

Bane (Tom Hardy): The person I went to see the movie made a statement everyone is aware of. It's almost impossible to surpass Ledger's Joker, therefore, it is unfair to compare Bane with the Joker. Bane is solid in the movie and he is a forced to be reckoned every time he appears. My only complaint would be that he didn't seem as "genius" as the comics portray him. He did seem really smart and intelligent, but I think it would have been better to show him not only as clever and strong, but also as brilliant as he is.

Catwoman/Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway): I love Anne, I'm in love with her, I would like to date her, go to the beach... everything; but, I have to say she is the weak link of the movie. She's not bad per se, but between her Catwoman and Michelle Pfeiffer's, I take Michelle's any day of the week. Anne just looks "too nice" to be Catwoman. Don't get me wrong, she looks mean, but not mean enough. She doesn't look INSANE like Michelle did, like that memorable scene when she is in bed with the penguin and she licks herself because she "feels dirty"... I mean that WAS MEMORABLE. Anne also doesn't look as physically fit as Michelle did. Her fighting scenes are a bit forced. Moreover, the scenes showing her relation with Bruce/Batman also seem very forced. Like I said, she does a very good job, but it could have been way better.

Alfred (Michael Caine): You just can't go wrong with Michael Caine. Alfred is solid and he is seen as a rock to Bruce. He looks very very human and emotional, even "tired" of seeing the suffering of his master, and wishing the best for him.

Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman): Same as above. Great job as Batman's only friend and Gotham's only defender.

Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman): Another easy apple. Fox is that great leader Bruce trusts his company with. It would have been a bit cooler to develop the subplot of the company's losses, but I guess there was too much going on, so it's ok.

Miranda Tate (Marion Cotilliard): An excellent character, well thought and achieved, who connects really well with the audience. Marion once again proves how great actress she is and never dissappoints. Her final scenes are both shocking and breathtaking.

James Blake (Joseph Gordon Hewitt): The unexpected pleasant surprise of the film. Great performance as he never feels intimidated by anyone else. He hold his own with any of the main characters and shows that he has a promising future.

The Judge/Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane (Cylian Murphy): My favorite character of the film. It's hillarious when he shows up and a real pity he didn't get more screen time. He portrays, sadism, cinism, sociopathy, madness, dehumanization at the same time, yet the audience is able to like him.

Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn): Does a good job.

...and finally, we also have to review the director...

Christopher Nolan: Great job overall with the script and direction. Like I mentioned earlier, my only complaint is the fight scenes with Catwoman. Whereas Pfeiffer was a threatning presence when she was onscreen, Anne is not. It's obvious that if you overanalyze the plot of the movie in great detail, you'll be able to find countless flaws, but you have to keep in mind that this is a three hour film and more importantly and at the end of the day... it is a comic film.

...now about the plot of the movie

Spoilers coming

For a comic movie, the plot is convincing and very good. Like I said, keep an open mind and stick to the Gotham City universe and you'll be fine. The movie doesn't have or need to reflect any sense of the real world or portray real life incidents.

I know it's hard to please everybody and it is likely that if the movie have had a different ending, it would have generated a group of people complaining about it... so to each its own....

I particularly would have preferred:

1) Batman/Bruce dying or...

having his fate left up to the viewer, like an ambiguous ending (like the one in The Thing). Maybe have the Florence scene just with Alfred looking up and smiling, without showing him, unless you believe that was a dream... but I may be complicating things.

2) I don't think it was necessary to mention Robin. It was enough to show Blake arriving at the Batcave, as it was easy to understand he was taking over the Batman legacy.

3) Sorry but I have to say it again. I prefer Pfeiffer's dark, exotic, mysterious, "I feel dirty and clean myself licking myself" Catwoman. Anne was just too nice.

4) Jim should have kept Batman's identity to himself

That being said, overall great movie that earns a solid 8.0/10 in my book.

Chicago Transit Authority

Growing up as a teenager, one of the greatest discoveries I made at my house was "the vault", which stood for the case where my mom and dad kept all their LP records from their younger years. As my fingers blazed through each one, I kept finding greater and greater products of the musical talents of the 50s, 60s and 70s. One of those talents was the Chicago Transit Authority.

The Chicago Transit Authority Album

This was the first album of a band formed in the late 60s, featuring Peter Cetera, Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, Lee Loughnane, Walter Parazaider and Danny Seraphine. They sounded like no other thing I had heard before; the only thing close to it that came up in my mind was Blood Sweat and Tears, but Chicago was somehow superior in every aspect that could be compared: vocals, lyrics, rythm, melody. The songs were just amazing and mind blowing.

The CTA album begins with an Introduction jamm over 6 minutes long and is immediately followed by similar jewels like Does anybody really know what time it is, Questions 67 and 68 -a song featuring a heavy duet between the air section against the string combo of Cetera and Terry Kath -, Beginnings (my personal favorite) and I'm a man. Further albums by the band included more hits such as 25 or 6 to 4,  Just you 'n' me, Saturday in the park, the beautiful ballad Colour my world and many other hits.

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It is

In 1977 Terry Kath dies in an unfortunate gun accident, and from that point and on Chicago changes its direction. Definitely not for the worse, as I would say, they were smart enough and able to evolve and adapt to the tendency of the industry. The songs became more "ballad-like" and less "rock-jazz like". Quality was still top notch and they were also well perceived on billboard charts. Hard to say I'm sorry, Hard habbit to break, You're my inspiration, Love me tomorrow were some of them.

If you need me now: One of the most beautiful songs of all time.

Cetera leaves the band during the mid 80s and Chicago then became more of a "monster-ballad band", where the hits slowly began to diminish as well as their fame. Despite countless attempts of a reunion, Cetera never got back or toured with the band again.

Chicago is no doubt one of the greatest bands of all time -and I think I can include them in a top 25 countdown-, not only for their unique sound and ability to combine different genres so well. They faced fear competitors in terms of bold and imposing music, in the terms of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and King Crimson, but they were able to cement their place in a particular spot where they bothered no one and weren't bothered by anyone as well.

Prometheus: In space no one can hear you yawn

I have just arrived from viewing Prometheus, one of my most anticipated films of the year, even after I had heard a few negative comments and reviews. Unfortunately, they didn't disappoint.

There are a lot of good things one can say about this movie, but there are also several bad things as well, so let's begin with the topic everyone has in mind: comparing Prometheus with Alien, based on the fact that they are both Ridley Scott's babies, so I'll move forward with it: I am quite sure you have heard the old saying "More is less and less is more"? That's exactly what happens with Alien and Prometheus.

In Alien we:

1) Barely see the Alien
2) Barely have any music
3) Barely have dialog -or complex dialog for that matter-
4) Have a handful of equally developed characters
5) Have a simple but solid plot
6) Have no religious references
7) This result in a classic. In essence, less is MORE

In Prometheus we:

1) See too much of the Engineers. The tension and the interest factors are lost and diminish every time they show up on screen and by the end of the second act, we just think of them as friends. The Xenomorph also makes an extremely unnecessary appearance.

2) We have a musical score, but it's definitely nothing compared to Alien's -even less to Vangelis' Blade Runner-. It's just a typical score that could be heard on blockbusters like Armageddon or Lord of the rings.

3) Have way too much talking and what makes matters worse, is that it's notably complex and overwritten. There are also some cliche lines such as "Father..."

4) Have too many characters, with only a few of them well written and developed, and by a few of them I mean  David; Vickers and Shaw are somewhat well developed. The rest are meaningful.

5) Have a plot that gets complicated by the minute. At the end of the movie you are left with more questions than answers.

6) Have obvious christian references. If Ridley Scott wants to make a movie about christianity, he should do so... but why use an excuse for it?

7) This results in a film that should have been a classic, but turned out a major disappointment that can be summed up by contrasting both film's taglines: Alien -a classic-, has one of the best of all time "In space no one can hear you scream". Prometheus' tagline should have been "In space no one can hear you yawn"

The positives however are very, very positive. On first place come the visuals, one of the best I've seen hands down. The movie is just simply beautiful, visually compelling with a stunning cinematography. Then comes Michael Fassbender's portrayal of David, which is equally as impressive as the visuals. Charlize Theron also gives a good performance, but is nowhere near Fassbender's impeccable performance.

Now going back to the negatives, we have to make a raw separation between the complaints I have been reading about the plot, the dialog and the actual actions of the characters. For instance, a common scene that has found severe rejection is the electricity shocks given by Dr. Shaw to the engineer's dead head. There is a difference between a bad plot and a bad decision made by someoene. The movie's script suggests we are intended to believe the fact that the scientists were at an emotional moment and made a human mistake or an error of judgement. Making them "perfect" would be detrimental to the plot, hence you cannot qualify a plot as "bad" just because the characters make poor decisions. The fact that they decided to "trick the neural system to make it think it's alive" is simply a bad decision by the characters, but it's not by any means co-related with the movie having a bad plot. If they were, then we would also have to call a bad plot the fact that in the original Alien, Dallas and Ash decided to make an incision of the facehugger that had grabbed Kane. Another scene that has received critisism is Charlie removing his helmet in the cave and then Millburn trying to touch the alien life form. Again, back in the original Alien, Kane didn't hold back from exploring the deepest corners of the cave, even when he was surrounded by the blue myst that covered the hundreds of eggs that were around him. It's not that I think the scenes were sublime or anything, but I do believe they are manageable within the context that one has to understand that scientists are human, hence prone to make mistakes. I can say that, the frequency of the mistakes made by characters in Prometheus is a little higher than what one would have expected from a Ridley Scott movie, and perhaps this is what bothers viewers.

Something that did bother me greatly was the final scene. It is very clear in a thousand ways (well, maybe not a thousand, but quite clear) that the events in Prometheus do not take place in the same planet (or moon) where the Nostromo crew lands. So then, why place an explicit scene of having a Xenomoprh burst from the Engineer? Viewers can put 2+2 together by themselves and even if they couldn't, there was no need to tie both movies, or to leave the door open to do so in the future. However the film's ending strongly suggests that there will be a sequel, therefore increasing the possibility of seeing a connection between the Prometheus events with Alien events. Other than make millions of dollars, I really don't see the point of it. It's as meaningful as the prequel made of John Carpenter's The Thing released in 2011.

Speaking of The Thing, another aspect that we can talk about is what influences Prometheus. It is clear that The Thing (the 1982 original) has its fair amount of ingredients in Prometheus, with the infecting and the flame throwers. However the greatest influence in the film is christianity: a vast amount of pieces try to somehow give Prometheus a religious point of view, like the crucifix Shaw carries, the search of a superior being (or creator), and of course her getting pregnant despite being unable so... all of these completely unnecessary.

Overall the main issue with Prometheus is that it keeps following the formula of major budget films that have been produced in the past years and that wish to become a trilogy. Sadly, it fails and falls way behind the more successful Iron Man, Batman, Avengers and even Spiderman... and that's because those films know what they are and what do they stand for. Prometheus starts as drama, then becomes sci-fi, then drama, then sci-fi, then drama, then adventure, then sci-fi, then drama. It has zero identity.

In summary, I really enjoyed the movie, but sadly it's nothing more than a good effort by Ridley Scott. This movie should have been a classic, but instead it's worthless.

Jean Claude Van Damme's Doors

It was raining heavily the other night, with no slight of chance to go out even on a 1 mile run, so it was one of those days where I was able to zap through the channels, seeking to find something to grab my attention: oh my was I in for a surprise.

I come across this kind of reality show theme and immediately recognized the main character: "hey, that's Jean Claude Van Damme!! But, what the heck is he doing dressed in a white robe and slippies? Oh my gosh... I HAVE to watch this..." What came next was a mixture of bizarre events and hillarious unbelievable situations.

Jean Claude Van Damme's Behind Closed Doors (or simply doors) is a reality show aired with a recurrent topic on the current dryspell the Belgian star is currently going through. In order to re-vitalize his career, Jean Claude Van Damme has challenged some Olympic champion dude called Somluck Khamshing, or something that sounds like that...the name is actually really hard to get due to VD's rough accent. The thing is, that it's not the only hard thing to understand from the show.

The first thing you catch is Jean Claude's consistent iteration on the fact that he MUST beat this Khamshing guy he'll be facing. Of course, with me just landing on the show for the first time, I'm not sure whether if this is the show's first, fourth or whatever episode. So I just sit back and relax trying to put together the pieces of this mess.

Minutes go by and Jean Claude is still in the kitchen of this huge LA apartment, talking about how important the fight is to re-vamp his slumping acting career. He affirms that he needs to beat him because it will restore his confidence, refuel his gears, reignite his passion for fighting and basically ..."Re+Anything you can think about". He keeps talking to the camera -this time Gladys Portugues his long time companion joins him- and appears to give him some sort of moral support and self-esteem boost. Oh by the way... at this point he is still wearing a white robe and slippies. Luckly his kitchen has a huge panoramic view of the night skyline of LA, so you can get a good glimpse of what lifestyle he lives.

After a long and dramatic self-motivating speech, all of a sudden Jean Claude finds himself busting into tears... now that's unexpected! He is concerned that the producers of "Bloodsport 2" a -remake of one of the early classics that made him a star, Bloodsport-, are not interested in having him cast in the currently in development movie. He says that people have forgotten about him and that he took for granted the days when he was a huge star back in the 90s. At this point his Gladys comforts him, and... he is still in white robe and slippies. As for me, as viewer, I am as shocked as anyone else can be. If there is one thing I NEVER pictured in my life, was to see Jean Claude Van Damme having a huge meltdown in front of a camera of a reality show... while dressed with nothing but a white robe and slippies. And believe me, I have pictured some crazy stuff in my mind.

Night dives in and a new Sunrise brings a new day. After last night's emotional rollercoaster, Jean Claude wakes up eager and pumped to start (or resume) training for the fight. He says that the tears incident was just what he needed to get motivated and he emphasizes his determanation to defeat Olympic Champion Khamshing. He even has a poster of Khamshing, and Jean Claude talks to it in a menacing way... pointing at him and fist pumping, pretty much the same way Daniel Larusso does under Terry Silver's training in Karate Kid III. Right then, I have an epyphany: "this show looks like a real life Karate Kid III. The only missing thing is Terry Silver and John Kreese."

Jean Claude goes over some errands, makes some phone calls, talks to his trainer, then to some friends, he cooks, he goofs around on the computer on some headshots... I mean he does anything an average joe would do on a "retired" situation, living the life and enjoying your hard earn work as a youngster. At no instance Jean Claude is seen either hitting a sandbag, or jogging, or doing pushups.... heck he's not even seen dressed to engage in any physical training activity. One thing for sure: the spontaneity nature of Jean Claude is simply hillarious. I mean, here you have the guy from Universal Soldier, the guy who beat Bolo at Kumite... sitting on his sofa, feet up, looking at a vintage photo album of his wife when they were both in their 20s, starting to date, and while browsing through the pictures Jean Claude exclaims (with a heavy accent):

"I remember it was a difficult relationship in the beginning. I was filming in LA and she was in New York, so we didn't get to see each other much. But she sent me this photoshoot of her, from a modelling session. As soon as I got the picture, I knew she was the one. So I immediately began masturbating while looking at the picture. I used this picture a lot to masturbate. To this day, I still use it"

I had drank a slip of water and had to spit the whole thing when I heard that. "Did he just say that?" I rewind the show and play it again, only to laugh even harder. This man is nothing like I could have picture him when I went to the movies in 1994 and saw "Street Fighter", with JC portraying US Colonel Guile. This guy is literally a pandora box. Don't worry, it gets better.

After a series of uneventful errands, at night Jean Claude receives a call from a friend of his, Sheldon Lettich, who wrote the screenplays of Bloodsport and Double Impact with JC. Sheldon invites him to some sort of BBQ at his place and JC drags the Van Damme family over in his SUV: that's him, Gladys and their two kids, a son a a daughter, in their teens. While Jean Claude drives, he keeps delivering these non-sensical one-liners and bizarre pieces of dialogs. He also recalls to his kids the earlier viewing of Gladys' modelling photoshoots and how he "used her pictures to frequently masturbate". But wait, it gets even better. Apparently Jean Claude has some sort of dislike of car's air conditioners; he rather toss his own conditioning system to make the ride comfortable. Yes, I know what you're thinking... and yes it happens. Jean Claude farts while driving, laughs maniacally and forbids anyone in the car to lower the windows. The family although clearly disgusted, joins him on the laugh, like showing that this is quite a night out on the Van Damme family. He says something within the lines of "Who's the big guy? Who's got the biggest one!!??" Well, I guess no one can argue against him on that area.

Luckly I was able to catch another episode right after this one finished, apparently it was a back-to-back airing... but right now I'm struggling to find the rest of the first season (yes, apparently there is a second season on the works). Do I recommend the show? Of course I do! It's just one surprise after another. I only highighted a few ones, but believe me, there are PLENTY, like Jean Claude's own particular way of playing Golf during a dinner party with a friend in Hong Kong. I urge anyone who is into celebrity reality shows, to watch Jean Claude's Behind Closed Doors. Gene Simmons is fascinating for his portrayal of the never ending business guy deal maker; the Osbournes are, well the Osbournes; Snoop Dogg's is amazing for showing how down to Earth he is despite what appearances look like. But Jean Claude Van Damme's Behind Closed Doors... is simply too much!

By the way, I am still looking forward to the fight... but you never see ANY effort put into it.

John Carpenter's The Thing

A couple of weeks ago I watched "The Lady in Black" at my place, which is one of the latest horror films starring Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe and honestly the movie left a pretty bad taste on my mouth. This was something to be expected due to the fact that it's the first effort of Daniel to try to shake the magician's image. So after that fraud, my friends and I decided to watch a real jewel of the horror genre: John Carpenter's The Thing.

Almost nobody in my group had seen this 1982 classic, which is a virtually a flawless movie. The Thing is a piece of art, write from the beginning starting with Ennio Morricone's soundtrack, the music builds up a tune that captures your imagination and let's you know when there will be trouble. The group of characters is numbered at twelve and the film applies a similar formula than the one seen in Alien (yes, the original), of not highlighting anybody in particular, but to instead portray them as normal human beings with weaknesses and emotions. A very young Kurt Russell along with Keith David lead the pack, but just barely. The rest of the characters is so balanced that you have absolutely no idea who will the next victim be.

The script and plot of the movie are solid and well achieved. It is fascinating to think that the base of the film is a short story dated from 1931. In less than fifteen minutes, the tension element has been clearly established and from there and on it never diminishes at any time. On the contrary, it keeps building up, slowly but steadily with every passing minute and every scene. The climax of the movie is the actual ending of the movie, just like it should be in real horror movies.

However the most important achievement is definitely John Carpenter's direction. There are so many well done details that a huge fan base has grown across the internet featuring countless forums discussing every possibility of the many theories that can explain what happened in the movie. A few examples of the recurrent questions seen include:

• What happened to Fuchs?
• Why didn't Palmer and Norris assimilate MacReady at the crater?
• Who did Fuchs see?
• Who got rid of the blood?
• Did Childs really see someone outside the camp?
• What happens with the survivors?
• ...and the mother of all questions: Who is infected in the end?

This -in my opinion- is where the strength of The Thing lies as gently as a rose in a field of grass on spring. The Thing is not only a horror movie, it is a puzzle that leaves the viewer with a huge desire of trying to put the pieces of it together in order to understand it as a whole, pretty much like what happens with films like Memento or Mulholland Dr.

When praising the perfection of the movie, one has to discuss the theories that try to solve the puzzle, which leave us with no other option but to realize and conclude that The Thing (the actual creature) is not only a pissed-off alien that wants to systematically kill everyone on sight, but it's a cold-blooded, brilliant, smart, with a remarkable strategy that includes injecting fear in its enemies, spreading confusion and cultivating lost of hope. For instance, in the scene where Norris dies, why would Palmer point at the Norris-head-thing? The logical answer is that he wanted to generate trust on himself that he wasn't infected, because otherwise why would you point at your enemy? Hence MacReady's reasoning for the hot needle blood test. If Palmer wasn't a thing, then Norris-head-thing would knew that someone would have observed it sooner or later. This means that regardless of the scenario, the Thing ends up looking like a very brilliant entity, that calculates every move it makes. There are dozens of other examples, but I don't want to spoil the experience for those who haven't seen it yet.

The Thing is a terrific experience and I particularly enjoy viewing it two and three straight times, seeking to decipher the enigmas and riddles its plot leaves to us viewers. That is the main difference between The Thing and Alien -and I mention this detail for those who call it nothing but an Alien Refurbished-. When one watches Alien, everything is straightforward and direct, and there are no unanswered questions. In The Thing, one has to understand that the Thing plans how and when will it show itself and who will be its next victim, whether if it's a kill or a cloning process. The ending of the movie is breathtaking -for lack of a better word- and I have never met someone who hasn't felt angry at it for allowing the viewer to interpret the future events not seen onscreen. It's a frustrating experience that awakens our hunger of knowledge, and the first expression one can say is "awww, how can this end like this?!"

So if you like horror movies and mind boggling movies, John Carpenter's The Thing is your option.

Cold war movies

While most kids and teenagers today think of Russia as our one of America's best friends and as a fun place to go for vacations -for the girls, the vodka, the culture, the variety-, there was a time in which the largest country in the world was considered the core of all evil in our planet.

This conception was transmitted to every single element that was part of our lives, including of course cinema, and there were countless movies made dealing with the constant threat of a potential war between the United States and the USSR -aka the Soviet Union-. Today I would like to write a little about some of these movies and I'm going to be reminiscing a few examples that became classics in our hearts.

Dr. Strangelove: or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

1962 is perhaps remembered as the peak moment in the history of cold war between the US and the USSR. The missile crisis scared the begeezus out of everyone around the world, fearing a World War Three between the two superpowers of the planet. A young and already successful american director by the name of Stanley Kubrick seized the opportunity to make a film about a every possible satiric scenario that could occur in the imminent nuclear war between Americans and Russians.

The result is one of the best comedies ever made and perhaps the best satire movie ever made. Dr. Strangelove tells the story of a Brigadier General Ripper (Sterling Hayden) who goes insane and decides there is nothing best to do than to launch a nuclear attack to Russia, because he's tired of the never ending communist conspiracy to infiltrate American's bodily fluids. The Soviet defense system is automatically prepared to deflect any attack by trigering "The Doomsday Machine", a device that will launch countless nuclear bombs to US targets, which will leave America with no other choice than to launch all their warheads to Russian targets.

The movie deals with the people who believe they should proceed with the attack -led by General Turgidson (Georce C. Scott) and anhilate Russia and the people who want to prevent the attack from happening, led by the President of the US. The performances are sublime and the direction is flawless. Sterling Hayden's lines are hilarious and his facial expression when he says "The boys must have surrendered" is drop dead laughs. George C. Scott affirmed this is his best and favorite performance and props up because he is at the best of his game -yes, even better than in "Patton"-. His obsessive paranoia with "The big board" and his offensive tone when he expresses himself about the "bunch of ignorant peons" is priceless. But it is Peter Sellers who steals the show in every scene he's in, and that's  lot considering he plays three different characters, the US President, a RAF Captain who serves under insane Gral Ripper, and Dr Strangelove -the fomer Nazi scientists now working for the Americans-.

-Do you think we can repopulate the Earth Dr Strangelove?
-Wouldn't be difficult Mein Fuhrer!!! ....errrr....uhhh ...I mean, Mr President.

WarGames

The 80s are remembered as a terrible decade artistically speaking, after so much glamour seen in the 60s and 70s, but it did have its reasons to flower on its own terms. One of them was the constant threat of World War III between the USA and USSR, especially when Ronald Reagan took office and was very firm of defending America's interests.

Another new subject that was rising due to emergence of new technologies, was the computer world. More teenagers were getting into these weird devices, that apparently had enough power to change school grades, book fake airline tickets, make ATM withdrawals and start a Nuclear War.

War Games tells the story of David Lightman, a high school kid computer geek/hacker who accidentally hacks/breaks into NORAD (The US Army Defense System), and triggers the process to begin a simulation and the eventual real procedure of commencing Nuclear War, by interacting with the operative system who runs all the network.

While not in the same league of Dr Strangelove, War Games is a decent thriller and it actually inspired a lot of kids back in the 80s to get into computers after seeing what they were capable of doing. It also served as a booster to Matthew Broderick's career, along with Ferris Buller.

It's an ok movie to watch over a weekend, although it might seemed a little dated when you try to put in perspective the tension that Americans lived back then and of course when seeing how noisy and binary computers were.

The movie however has one of the funniest one-liners I have ever seen on film. It's in a scene in which David is in his school classroom and is being interrogated by his biology teacher:

Mr. Liggert: Alright, Lightman. Maybe you could tell us who first suggested the idea of reproduction without sex.

David Lightman: Umm.... Your wife?


Rocky IV:

Now this is when things go a little too much over the fence and you say something like "whoa! The cold war was really everywhere". After defeating Apollo Creed and Clubber Lang (aka Mr. T), a new challenger emerges in the heavyweight world for Rocky in the form of a Soviet Union product. Ivan Drago (masterfully played by Dolph Lundgren) is now his new test.

Rocky IV repeats the same formula of overcoming defeat seen in the past films, but now adds on the political component of the US vs USSR conflict. It's America vs Russians, regular guy vs tall blonde, blue vs red, English vs broken English. It reminded me a little bit of the atmosphere surrounding the Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky match, and while I wasn't born then, I have read a lot about what was expected from the involved parties and how the world had their eyes on the event.

Rocky IV is a movie that deals more with the basic roots of the human nature. At first the Rocky vs Drago fight is a US vs Soviet Union contest, but as it progresses it then becomes a simple man vs man battle, with people putting behind their political orders and follow their nature of root for someone to win, the favorite or the underdog.

Also like in the previous films, the soundtrack is still there to pump you up. Actually, there are a lot of other elements that intend to do this: the date of the fight, on Christmas, Rocky's son, the "no pain" quote, Bridgitte Nielsen, and even Rocky's robot.

I watched Rocky IV when I was probably 8 years old, and I remember that when the movie ended I thought something like "well, this is it for this series... even if they make another one, there is nothing else left". Sly eventually made Rocky V and VI (aka Rocky Balboa), but I never considered those films in the same league of the first four. The nemesis component was gone and it was more about Rocky dealing with conflicts and emotional issues, kind of like a "Days of our lives" version of Rocky.

All in all, Rocky IV holds a special place in our memories and in the real world, it was proven that just like in the ending, the United States and the Russians, were able to put their differences aside, get along and become good friends.

Classic Comedies: Dumb and Dumber

"If I know her well as I think I do, she'll invite us right in for tea and strumpets". That is one of the hidden gem jokes that makes for one of the great comedies of all time.

Up until 1994, the name Jim Carrey was virtually unknown to the world. He had starred in a couple of sitcoms that had mixed reviews and had a few appearances on the Letterman show. Jeff Daniels on the other hand was a relatively famous name, mostly due to his wonderful performance perceived from Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and other roles in Arachnophobia, Checking out and Love hurts. Suddenly, Jim Carrey scored big with back to back comedy hits Ace Ventura and The Mask, and Jeff Daniels also scored big in the action thriller Speed. Shortly after, both of them found themselves reuinted under the firstt Farrelly Brother's movie: a comedy that tells the adventures of two friends travelling cross-country America called, Dumb and Dumber.

There is not a single serious moment in Dumb and Dumber. Right from the get go you can tell you are on for a product of genius and endless creativity. The first lines features Jim Carrey's character "Lloyd Christmas", confusing a woman's Austrian accent with an Australian accent. After she dumps him, we get to see the initial credits: "New Line Cinema PREZENTS", "In ASSOCIASHUN with Motion Picture Corporacion of America". Geez, not even the opening credits are taken seriously!

The plot consists of Lloyd travelling across the country to Aspen (California??) with his friend Harry, in order to return a briefcase left at Rhode Island's airport to Mary Swanson -a one time passenger of Lloyd's limo driver part time job-. The rest of the movie is a series of hillarious situations that feature selling of a dead parakeet, picking up of peruvian hitchhikers, freezing your tongue against a ski-cart, accidental murder of a mob hitman, killing an owl with a champagne corch, borrowing thousands of Dollars in exchange of "I OWE YOU" notes and let's not forget "the most annoying sound in the world".

It his hard to pick who is the Dumb and who is the Dumber, and it's even harder to pick who is the brain in this entire operation -if you can call it that way-. Although there are brief flashes of clever actions, the overall common sense and rationality of the two characters is just way below any known psycological standards. One of many memorable scenes has Lloyd exiting one of these 24 hour gas station quick stores and saluting a couple of ... let's say "unfriendly people", with the expression "hey guys, BIG GULPS HUH??!".

Which takes me to the opening joke of my blog. Once the two characters make it to Aspen, Lloyd suggests to get busy and deliver the case to Mary, because according to him ""If I know her well as I think I do, she'll invite us right in for tea and strumpets". I was a kid when I watched the movie and I remember thinking something like "did he just say tea and trumpets? what in the world does that mean?" Years later I found out about the "tea and strumpets" and now today I consider it the most overlooked, underestimated, and of course, the best joke in the entire film.

After D&D, the Farrelly Brothers kept making successful movies, gaining a huge fanbase world wide. However in my opinion, none of the movies were able to surpass the brilliant display we saw in Dumb and Dumber. A sequel has been announced in the next years, with Carrey and Daniel reprising their roles and it makes me wonder what kind of dead animal will Lloyd end up selling this time.