You're a fool Conrad. Those of us who understood knew in 1941 that we could never win.

   The  Battle of the Bulge is a film based on the last major German battle of The Second World War. It stars the greatest war actor of all time Henry Fonda who had already starred in Immortal Sergeant, Mr. Roberts, The Longest Day and In Harms Way.It seems like he has starred in almost every war film. It also stars Dana Andrews, Robert Shaw, James MacArthur, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas and Charles Bronson. Ryan, Savalas and Bronson would reunite in 67 to do The Dirty Dozen. Shaw is always a good choice for a villain. He was good in From Russia with Love and Taking of Pehlam 123. Good war film.

After all, murder is - or should be - an art. Not one of the 'seven lively', perhaps, but an art nevertheless. And, as such, the privilege of committing it should be reserved for those few who are really superior individuals.

A few days ago I watched The Hitchcock film Rope which was the first of three films he did with James Stewart. It involves Farley Granger and John Dall as collage students who murder a fellow student and hide the body in their home. They then throw a party inviting his dad, aunt, wife to be, former teacher and a friend. The film is said to be inspired by the murder of 14 year old boy by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Granger over acts to much. You can tell that Stewart knows something is wrong when Granger starts freaking out about how he did not strangle a chicken. Hitchcock shot for periods lasting up to ten minutes and shot the film in just one room.Not many have done this which is one of the things that makes it good.

Earthquakes bring out the worst in some people.

I recently watched Earthquake and  it was really bad and one of the worst of the 70's disaster films. Not only is there an earthquake but they thought they needed a large flood to finish off what was left of the city of Los Angles. These disaster films always have weird casts. This one has Heston, Kennedy, Gardner and Roundtree and Walter Matuschanskayasky as a drunk which was the best part of the film the rest was bad. He was only on screen for about 5 minutes.

Y-You are the... Duke of New... New York. You're A-Number One.

Escape from New York is one of my favorite John Carpenter film's. The cast is great he teams up with Kurt Russell and a who's who of veteran actors like Lee Van Cleef, Harry Dean Stanton, Ernest Borgnine and Donald Pleasence who plays the president. The film also stars Isaac Hays as the main villain the Duke of New York who is pretty bad ass in this film. I think this has to be one of the strangest casts in a movie When Carpenter and Russell join forces you know it's going to be a good film. At the start of the film it says that in 1997 the crime rate rose 400%. So to control all of the criminals they turn the United States biggest city in one large jail. First off where would all the people of New York be re located. They don't really tell you why the crime rate is so high. One of my favorite Carpenter films and my second favorite of the Carpenter/Russell films.

Getting ourselves killed is not going to make any difference to anyone except us.

Yet again Aldrich directs another great war film. The film is called Too Late the Hero. In many ways it is similar to the Dirty Dozen. One like the Dirty Dozen it stars two cast members from the Flight of the Phoenix. The Dozen had Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy while Two Late has Ronald Frazer and Ian Bannen. It also has a mission that goes deep into enemy territory and will kill about 85% to 90% of those involved. The cast includes Micheal Caine, Cliff Robertson, Harry Andrews and Henry  Fonda. This is also one of my favorite Caine performances. Ken Takakura's role as Maj. Yamaguchi is also very good. Watch it.

You're the king of knock offs!

Have you seen Mission Impossible and Hard Boiled if so then put both of those together and replace Tom Cruise with Jean-Claude Van Damme, chun yun fat with Moses Chan, John Voight with Paul Sorvino throw in Rob Schneider and pairs of jeans wired with bombs you get a very bad action movie.

You're all going to die!

Zulu is a great war film with a great cast which includes Jack Hawkins, Stanley Baker and Michael Caine in his first major role which in my opinion is one of his best performances.  Hawkins had already starred in the war classics The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia and Baker had starred in the Guns of Naverone. The score was composed by the late great John Barry and is one of my favorites of all his scores and one of my favorite war themes. The film is based on a true story about the British in South Africa during the late 1870's. The first shot shows the Battle of Isandlwana where 1,300 British troops were killed after being overwhelmed by the Zulu's who lost 1,000 men in the battle. So a group of about 90 British soldiers some of whom are wounded must fight off thousands of Zulu's. It is a very good war film and a must watch if you are looking for a good war film.

I'm a mog: half man, half dog. I'm my own best friend!

I  had not seen Spaceballs in a while. It was fun to watch it again. It stars everyone from Bill Pullman and  John Candy  to Rick Moranis and Mel Brooks and Micheal Winslow the sound effects guy from Police Academy. In the movie they poke fun at Star Wars, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Alien, Wizard of Oz and countless other films and television shows. The joke keep coming from start to finish. I enjoyed Yogurt he has to be my favorite character in the film. I also really liked Candy as Barf. I have only seen a few of Brook's films and I would say that this is my favorite of the ones I've seen. I need to watch more of Brook's films.

Minneapolis goes to the movies.

1. Vince Vaughan.
 He is known for starring in comedies along side such actors as Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

2. Terry Gilliam is known for directing Fear Loathing in Las Vegas and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

3. Peter Graves was an actor who was mainly known for TV but starred in Stalag 17 and Airplane!

4. Graves older brother James Arness was also a TV actor but became most known in the movies as the Thing.

5. Charles Bernstein is a film composer who is known for A Nightmare on Elm Street and also for scoring two of  Tarantino's films.

6. Ward Kimball was an animator for Disney and created such characters as Jimmy Cricket, The Mad Hatter  and the Cheshire cat. He also worked on Mary Poppins and Bed Knobs and Broom Sticks. 

7. Pete Anthony is a composer known for spierman 3, I Am Legend and the new King Kong.


8. Mitch Paulson is known as being the Visual Effects man for Iron man 1 & 2 and also for Wanted.

9. Jamie Hardt was part of the Sound Department for such films as Hurt Locker and Spiderman 1 & 3.

10. Mark Siegel is a Visual Effects man for the 2nd and 3rd Star Wars and two of the Caribbean films.

11. Craig R. Maras worked in the Animation Department on such films as the Iron Giant, The Lion King, Aladdin and Mulan.

12. Ralph Hammeras is the Special Effects man for 20,000 Legues under the sea, The Giant Claw and In Old Chicago.

13. Jonathan Egstad is an Academy Award winning Visual Effects artist known for such films as I Robot, X Men, The Fifth Element and Titanic.

 14. Arch Johnson acted in more then 133 movies and TV shows including The Buddy Holly Story, The Sting and Bewitched.

15. Mark L. Rosen is an Academy Award winning producer known for Bright Star, Spice World and Alligator.


16. Jack Smight is the director of the films Midway, Airport and Harper.

17. Joel Coen is a director known for the films Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

18. Ethan Coen the younger brother of Joel is also known for Fargo and The Big Lebowski.


19. James Hong is an actor known for his role in the films Blade Runner, Kun Fu Panda and Mulan.

20. Arlene Dahl is an actress kwon most for her role in Journey to the center of the earth with James Mason and Three little words with Fred Astaire.