Movie Review: Atlas Shrugged, Who is John Galt?

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Brian Wright

Near perfect rendition of the Ayn Rand iconosphere__9.5/10

Sure, I know what you’re thinking, I’m just like a sports’ homey praising his pedestrian quarterback for a performance that gets the job done, but lacks the glittering brilliance of the Hall of Fame QB of a bygone era. Exactly! Atlas Shrugged, Part 3, the movie’s final installment, subtitled ‘Who is John Galt?,’ is not truly a masterpiece, but it is as inspired and imaginative a treatment of the literary-philosophical giant Ayn Rand’s magnum opus as can likely be created under practical contemporary constraints of budget… or realistic access to a full spectrum of creative talent who can convincingly present the essence of what Rand stands for, on film. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Brian Wright

Another fun and clever blow to the MIC __ 8/10

Larry Hooper: [from trailer] Lieutenant Colonel Django used funds from the project’s black budget to procure prostitutes…
Bill Django: That’s a lie!
Larry Hooper: …and to get drugs for himself and his men.
Bill Django: That… well, the hooker thing is definitely a lie.

… by George Clooney. As with other classic anti-war or anti-system movies that Clooney executive produces and acts in—Syriana, Michael Clayton—, Goats exposes generally unknown facts about the government/Wall Street alliance that have a destructive effect on most humans. But Goats, while actually dealing with some of the most insidious antihuman technologies employed by the CIA under cover of war, does a magnificent job of airing out the subject with benevolence and humor. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Hurt Locker (2009)

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Brian Wright

Good movie, unworthy of the two Oscars __ 7/10

Spc. Owen Eldridge: Aren’t you glad the Army has all these tanks parked here? Just in case the Russians come and we have to have a big tank battle?
Sergeant JT Sanborn: I’d rather be on the side with the tanks, just in case, than not have them.
Spc. Owen Eldridge: Yeah, but they don’t do anything. I mean, anyone comes alongside a Humvee, we’re dead. Anybody even looks at you funny, we’re dead. Pretty much the bottom line is, if you’re in Iraq, you’re dead. How’s a fucking tank supposed to stop that?
Sergeant JT Sanborn: Would you shut the fuck up, Owen?
Spc. Owen Eldridge: Sorry. Just tryin’ to scare the new guy. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Anatomy of a Great Deception

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Brian Wright

How Building 7 woke me up
by David Hooper

This column is as much a ‘Happening’ review as a movie review. The Happening is the actual debut of the film, occurring in Detroit, Michigan, at the Fillmore entertainment center (for most of its life, the State Theatre) on September 5, 2014. Mr. Hooper, producer and writer/director of the film, has pointed me to an early draft version of Anatomy for review purposes. And… I… am… so… glad… he… did!

Like David, I came to question the official story of the 9/11/2001 attacks several years after they took place. But unlike David, my frustration in not being able to get friends, family, and huckleberries to so much as look at the evidence did not lead to creation of a deeply personal movie as a way around these obstacles. The same may be said for the soon-to-be millions of 9/11 truth activists (and Gandhian Satyagraha activists)[1] around the world. Despite mountains of evidence and persistent strong reasoning from objective reality, our collective batting average in convincing others to look at the evidence has been approximately 0.015… and that’s counting walks as singles.:) Continue reading →

Movie Review: Up in the Air (2009)

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Brian Wright

Smooth maneuvers __ 8/10

Ryan Bingham: How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV… the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home… I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office… and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.

Continue reading →

Movie Review: Invictus (2009)

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Brian Wright

Eastwood hits another cinematic homerun __ 10/10

Francois Pienaar: I was thinking how a man could spend thirty years in prison, and come out and forgive the men who did it to him…

… and just in time for the Oscars. [I’m wondering whether the Academy Awards or the other various award ceremonies have some rules regarding release of movies by a particular director or studio at end of year. For example, “For Oscar consideration a given director/studio is limited to two November/December releases in a five-year period.” I don’t think Eastwood or Malpaso calculate that sort of thing, but I’ll bet a lot of others do. Heck, an Academy Award nomination, let alone a victory, is major ducats in the bank for everyone associated with a film. …random thoughts there.] Continue reading →

Movie Review: Legends of the Fall (1995)

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Brian Wright

Epic showing evils of the modern state __ 8.5/10

Colonel Ludlow: Indians! Indians were the issue in those days. I can assure you, gentlemen, there is nothing quite so grotesque as the meeting of a child with a bullet; or an entire village slaughtered while sleeping. That was the Government’s resolution of that particular issue and I have seen nothing in its behavior since then that would persuade me that it has gained either in wisdom, common sense, or humanity.