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atarmstrong
Reviews
The Breakfast Club (1985)
"The Breakfast Club"
Being a high school senior when this movie was released, it hit home on a lot of subjects. A lot of people don't get this movie. And all i can say to that is, then you didn't go to high school in the early thru mid 80's. The whole plot of a jock, brain, princess, criminal, and basket-case having to spend a Saturday in detention was never done before or has it been repeated since this movie. And that is the way it needs to stay. 22 Years later i'm still wondering what they were like in the hallway the next day, did any of them say hi or hang out with one another?
I seen one or two trailers for this movie before it came out in February of 1985, and i blew it off. Well being bored with the movie i went to see, don't even remember the name of it, a few doors down was the breakfast club so i was like, i'm getting my three dollars a fifty cents out of this place before i leave it. Think i came in on the opening credits so i missed maybe a minute. John Bender was the one i related to the most, it was like they knew me, and had Judd Nelson play me. Molly Ringwald was the perfect person to play Claire. Anthony Michael Hall played the part of Brian and was like a natural for the part with his looks. The whole cast was a very believable bunch in there parts. That is what made this movie. The story was easy to keep up with, the plot was simple. And you could tell the unknown tone through out the movie. My favorite was when they were talking about turning into there parents, that one subject hits very hard with anyone. I must admit i don't watch this movie all the time. I seen it when it came out and again like ten years later on TV. I saw it a few months ago on DVD and as it ended i had the same feelings as i did when i watched it in 1985, that not knowing whats next feeling. But like i said, i came out of high school when unemployment rates were high, you stayed on your job because a bad one was better than not having one, and you had no idea what the future was holding for you. As something that happened to me last year while i was on vacation, i had planned for a side trip when i got back from Hawaii, to go to Hollywood and also Rodeo drive. Well while a was walking down Rodeo drive i passed what i thought was someone i knew who smiled at me as we passed, i smiled back and kept walking, and i kept thinking man she looked familiar then some one behind me starts saying loudly molly Ringwald can i have your autograph? I was like no way we passed each other like a foot away. You always remember actors/Actress from the movie you liked the most, well for me that movie is 22 years old, people change over time, but the eyes always stay the same.
Danger Lights (1930)
The best railroad movie i've ever seen.
Being a fourth generation railroader, and also a fourth generation railroad engineer, i found the movie very interesting, and by accident as it was stored away on an old beta tape in my grandfathers attic. It was simply wrote with the words "Danger Lights" 1930 railroad movie. Well that got me thinking about what was on it. So i dug around for the player but was told by my dad that it was long gone so i looked at local garage sales and such and finally found one off of ebay to actually watch the movie. I still do not know when the movie was recorded to the beta tape, sometime in the mid to late 70's as I'm 39 and remember the beta tapes but don't remember when they actually came out, all i know is that the VHS tape replaced them and later the DVD.
Since the movie was filmed in 1930 as the opening showed the RKO pictures and the date, i was like i'm probably not going to like this. Well right off there is a rock slide and all hell breaks loose as the superintendent fights to get his railroad open for traffic and even forcing hobo's to work towards that goal and taking one of the hobo's under his arm so to speak and the movie takes off from there. I was amazed by both the picture quality and, for the first in Hollywood how a railroad really operates. All the main positions were there, either part of the regular cast or as extras, like the Superintendent, General Manager, Trainmaster, Train Dispatcher, Roundhouse Foreman, even the Train order clerk was cast into the movie. Most Hollywood films have the conductor or engineer type running the whole railroad, far from the fact.Even they have a boss who answers to a boss who answers to a boss so on an so forth.
My only problem was the hundred mile an hour run to save the supers life at the end after getting hit by an express passenger train. The intentions were good since i'm sure the railroad hospital was the only one around and Chicago being the main hospital they had to get him there in a short time. No engineer would climb out the window going a 100 mph to cool off a overheated wheel bearing and keep going, they would have stopped repacked it re oiled it and then kept going, that would have been believable. But i will say it payed homage to a time when railroads were the king of industry and transportation.
Even today we haul over 38 percent of the nations tonnage, with the rest belonging to the trucking, barge and pipeline industry and over 150 years later we are still considered a monopoly, and have what is generally referred to as legacy contracts, some of the oldest contracts between two businesses in the U.S.A.
I grew up hearing about the steam engines that my Dad( in his early years on the railroad 1948-1957 retired in 1995) and grandfather (1920-1957 retired 1974) great grandfather( 1892 till he retired 1933) and great great grandfather ( 1878 till he retired in 1925)operated across the very rails that i operate todays most advanced dash 9's and 90 MAC diesel locomotives on. And this movie gave me a look into what it was like to be a railroader then, when the chances of getting killed on the job was higher than retiring from it. For anyone who loves trains this is a must see.