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gminardi2001
Reviews
Dallas: The Last Hurrah (2012)
Cheeseburger in Paradise
Surfing through the channels from my cable TV offerings, I've seen truckers drive on ice, pawn shop owners swindle deals from desperate gamblers, Alaskan state troopers busting reckless outlaws, and Kardashians acting more and more like the entitled idiots we all know them to be... but all that "reality" doesn't come close to the the emotional charge I get from watching Dallas 2012. Reality shows---sit back and let us show you how REAL entertainment is done. Texas Style. Be sure, JR (Larry Hagman) , Sue Ellen (Linda Grey),Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and Cliff Barnes (Ken Kershavel) while being a bit long in the tooth are still as compelling as ever. And I'm sure we too, the audience, who fell in love with the show the fist time around are no spring chickens. But the young pups, John Ross (Josh Henderson) and Christopher (Jesse Metcaffe) do a great job of drawing in the 30 something demographic with their good looks and a dramatic flair to convincingly attract the obligatory female eye candy. Plot? Something about Bobby selling South Fork from under JR. Who cares? Watching JR dissing his old nemesis Cliff Barnes with those classic Texas put downs ("why Cliff Barnes has more holes in his gibberish than a Mosquito net") It's oil. It's greed. It's Blackmail. It's double crossing. My God, TV is fun again. And wait, is there a better opening TV theme than Dallas? Good call to bring that back,
Apollo 13 (1995)
great film about an even greater story
In a time when we Americans are experiencing the burdens dumped in our laps due to corporate mismanagement, bank fraud, and universal nationwide greed it is refreshing to go back in time when we got it right. This movie is uplifting in a way that we all need to feel a little bit better about ourselves, and as as a country whose people know how to suck it up and get 'er done. Hanks, Bacon and Paxton are superb in their roles as Astronauts doing their jobs and systematically meeting the incredible challenge that confronts them head on. Ed Harris is no less perfectly cast as the stoic but steady hand at the helm to guide the efforts to bring the ship safely to shore. Ron Howard's direction, although heavy handed at times, stays the course by intertwining and humanizing the lives of all those involved in this historic event in US space exploration. The photography and special effects are, well, special. Not over the top or cartooninsh but as they should be...an enhancement to an already dramatic story. If you've seen this movie before, see it again, it really is quite good.