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Reviews
Twister (1996)
An entertaining ignorance of the laws of physics
I watch this film fairly often, as it's one of my wife's favorites. Actually, I have a soft spot for it too, as the final scene is filmed only 2 miles away from a good friend of mine (his silos can be seen in the background as the team approaches to rescue Bill & Jo). I enjoy this film as I would a fantasy film, as it has little connection with reality. Tractors, combines and even houses are transported through the air by the tornado, but the pickup truck driven by our intrepid scientists stays firmly on the ground. The script is full of holes and predictable clichés, but it is still entertaining enough with a few good lines and characters.
Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994)
Flight of Fancy
This movie has some value to introduce viewers to who Amelia Earhart and GP Putman were and how they marketed Amelia like laundry soap to a public hungry for a hero during the depression. It also accurately portrayed Amelia as a less then stellar pilot - absolutely brave but not technically proficient, and lackadaisical about radio communications (without which she will not find the speck of land in the Pacific where she needs to land).
Where it falls apart is the myths portrayed as facts in the movie. The spying on the Japanese islands theme has been discredited for years - not only is there a lack of evidence, the simple fact is that the only time Amelia Earhart was flying over Japanese controlled islands would have been during the flight from New Guinea to Howland Island when it would have been dark, she would have been too high to really see anything, and she was quite busy flying the plane under a very tight fuel management protocol and not looking out the window.
Her navigator Fred Noonan could have sued the makers of this movie for slander if he was still around. Noonan pioneered long distance aerial navigation over the Pacific Ocean working for Pan Am on the famous China Clippers, and was widely recognized as the best in the business. His drinking is a widely known story, that only has one written reference - a comment by a journalist in a private letter to a friend. Noonan learned his skills as a merchant seaman and as most sailors probably went on a bender during some shore leaves, but was known to be a consummate professional when working.
The movie shows Earhart and Noonan as constantly bickering during the flight - by all accounts (including Earhart's own press releases filed during the flight and newsreels shot during the flight) they got along very well.
Add to all of this are the little details like their constantly grimy appearance during the flight (they were basically flying an airliner and the actual newsreel shows them emerging from the plane clean and dapper at Lae) a completely made up engine failure during the round the world flight, and images of them camping by the plane in remote airstrips (they stayed in the best hotels available on each of their stops) and you have a tragic story made far more tragic by all of the inaccuracies.
Buck Privates (1941)
Funny in a lot of different ways
Highly entertaining, Abbot and Costello deliver in spades and the Andrews Sisters are nothing less the phenomenal, especially on their signature tune "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Just remember it's pure fantasy, and you can sit back and enjoy . . .
Spoilers below =============================
From Trivia: "A sneak preview was held in late January 1941 for soldiers at Fort MacArthur, California". I'm sure the troops at Fort MacArthur were rolling in the aisles, and not just over the antics of Abbot and Costello. Beautiful girls in boot camp, screwballs getting away with mouthing off to the drill sergeant, all of the boys in in camp breaking into spontaneous song, and everyone spending more time playing around then training. Just keep telling yourself, it's entertainment!
Gettysburg (1993)
Stirring, and disappointing
I find "Gettysburg" to be a moving film, and very interesting to me because of the subject material. However, every time I see it I am distracted by so many misses. At the top of the list is the facial hair on the many of the actors, which look like the products of a high school make-up artist. Martin Sheen, while a fine actor makes for a very poor General Lee; not only would several other actors look more like Lee, Sheen plays the general as some sort of spacey mystic. General Lee, while always the gentleman, was decisive in speech and action. Several of the roles are over-acted to the point of seeming like caricatures; Lee, Buford, Tom Chamberlain, and Armistead come to mind. The movie could not have been made without the reenactors and for the most part they do an outstanding job. There are times though when it is obvious that they lack the professional training to convincingly "pull a punch" while attacking the enemy. My heart would give this film eight or nine stars, but my head pulls it down to a six.