Change Your Image
awparran
Reviews
Trial by Fire (2008)
Not Great - But did not throw it out with the bath wash.
I am a pilot and believe airplanes were made to be flown and not jumped out of. That said, I salute those that are smokejumpers. I salute those that fight forest fires. As an American from Indiana, I never knew how severe such devastation could be until living in Salmon Arm, BC when in 1998 we were evacuated because of one. The first in Canadian history for mass evacuation.
Since then there have been may fires that have caught national attention.
So what if the plot was weak? So what if the woman had skinny legs? Sorry but I do not believe in that BS. If she can do the job, I'll root for her.
Oh by the way, when I was in Vietnam, the best man for the job in many cases was someone that wasn't all brawn.
And finally, having lived and traveled across British Columbia, it was great seeing the old places again.
Funkytown (2011)
Where was I when this movie came out!
I just picked up the copy of Funky Town expecting some watered down version of what really happened back then. Oh boy, did it hit all of my buttons.
First, I am a Vietnam Veteran and although I came home in 1969, the US was in the war until 1973. People were in a need to find, invent and test new things. That included drugs, women and music.
I did not dance until Disco started, but once I started, I couldn't stop, that includes today and I am 65-years old. I traveled extensively across the US and Canada for my company.
Not a night went by I wasn't trolling up and down the highways in Boston, San Francisco,Toronto or Vancouver and places in between, searching for a place to show off my moves with some hot, beautiful woman. I had a two, maybe three hour window from when the bars closed at 4 AM to the time I went to work and started all over again. I have no physical memory of my 38th birth year. No I never, ever did drugs, it was just everything was a blur.
I met many memorable people. I also met my wife, but for two years prior, we traveled across the mid-west United States showing people the Disco dance moves.
If you did not exist or were in your diapers then, it is hard to explain the movement, the dances, fashions, singers and music.
And yes, people actually sang. It played on the radio, television, in cafe's, hallways, blared from anemic car radios and stores. You could not escape it.
Oh did I say I am a Jaguar XKE buff?
The Cookout (2004)
Not what I had expected
I once read that if you want to watch a movie and just to be entertained, then take your brain out and relax. I thought this movie would fit into this category. When I first saw the trailers, and bits and pieces of the movie I thought it was worth watching. So I did. To be honest I was disappointed.
With all of the big names like Danny Glover, Farrah Fawcett, Jenifer Lewis, Queen Latifah, and Frankie Faison to name a few, I had thought this would be great. At best I felt the movie was slow and the lines delivered as if they were being read.
As for the morality of the movie, one could argue it set the tone for being responsible about money. But I also saw a contradiction in moral and racial issues. The first issue is the smoking of marijuana. To see a "judge", Danny Glover smoking it, what does this say about the real world? The movie played on the fears of predominately white segregated, walled communities. At least that part was true.
The third item was in regards to the black male and white female role in an interracial marriage. Why in the end was everyone happy to see Danny Glover (Judge Crowley) dominate his white wife, Farrah Fawcett (Mrs. Crowley), yet Frankie Faison (JoJo Anderson) is submissive to his wife Jenifer Lewis (Lady Em)? Does this mean that all black men in an interracial marriage should be "Master and Commander?" Does this state that black men marry outside of their race because the black woman is too strong and dominant? Does this mean that all white females become submissive when dominated by a black man? I don't think so as I am in an interracial marriage and took offense to those messages.
With the above aside, I took my brain out and tried to just be entertained. I laughed through a few parts, and the rest of the plot I could see through. Would I see it again? Maybe.
I had expected more with all of the big names and maybe this is the problem.
Roll Bounce (2005)
I feel good!!
The disco era was the favorite time of my life. I miss the music, the people and most of all the roller skating.
I never mastered roller dancing, thus when I see movies like this one, I move and dance across the floor, no skates, as if I were there on the floor too.
The movie has a basic plot, yet it's good.
I didn't find too many objectionable words, at least not anything that "most" children has not heard before.
I recommend it for anyone wanting to have fun, yet be entertained. It has a serious side as well. I was caught off guard with the destruction of the car, but I could identify with the character since I was once a single parent with two-boys.
I think Nick Canon's part is a little overplayed, but that's OK.
Otherwise Great Movie!