Winner: Mr. Ron Burcham

“As many of you are aware I’ve set up a program to encourage visitors of the Coffee Coaster (CC) site to contribute Replies to columns and reviews. The writer of the ‘best’ Reply for a given month receives a $20 payment. This month, May 2012, Ron Burcham of Michigan is the winner with his comment(s) on the Movie Review: Taking Chance. He has told me to reinvest the gift into the site, and buy him a beer next I see him, which I shall happily do. The second and third place winners, Randy Uzarek and David Spencer, please go ahead and sign up using the Perke Diem button in the image on the right (on the homepage). All my other readers, please take part in the contest for June, give me a ‘Leave a Reply’ on any column or review.” Continue reading →

Touching made-for-HBO “antiwar film” ___ 8/10
Review by Brian Wright

Lt. Col. Mike Strobl: If I’m not over there, what am I? Those guys, guys like Chance… they’re Marines.
Charlie Fitts: And you think you’re not? Want to be with your family every night – you think you have to justify that? You’d better stop right there, sir. You’ve brought Chance home. You’re his witness now. Without a witness, they just disappear.

You might want to check your supply of Kleenex before you slip Taking Chance into the DVD player. As you realize from the trailer, this is a story about a Marine escort (a real-life Lt. Colonel Mike Strobl played by Kevin Bacon) for a casket containing a young “killed-in-Iraq” soldier[1] named Chance Phelps. Chance is, or was, a real-life person, too. Continue reading →