Movie Review: **** The Sum of all Fears (2002)

 This is a very good Tom Clancy movie.  In the time line it happens towards the early part of Jack Ryan's (Ben Affleck) career.  He does not prevent the nuclear explosion, but deals with the aftermath, an preventing a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia.  The CIA director is Morgan Freeman, who is killed in the nuclear blast.  The president is played by James Cromwell.  General Lasseter (John Beasley) supports retaliatory attacks against Russia.  Jack Ryan wants to verify first.  That verification leads to the discovery the uranium was U.S. produced, not Russian.  He concludes a third part is playing them pushing a U.S.-Russian war.  Ryan is locked out of communications with the president, but comes up with an ingenious move to get the information through--by talking to Russian premier Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds).  He knows the president will be listening in.  In this way war is averted.

Likes of tense excitement and a fun movie.  

In Theaters: **** Disclosure Day (2026)

 I listened to a radio program where the speaker said he was disappointed with this movie, but I really liked it.  They were especially talking about the ending, which seemed sort of short.  I can understand.  It seems there was a long communication which came out as one word, "Listen."  But that final day was very traumatic.  This movie reminded me of "Close Encounter of the Third Kind."

The movie pits people picked by the aliens, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) and Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor) and Hugo (Colman Domingo).  They are trying to divulge information the gobernement has been hiding about aliens being real.  One the other side is the Wardex organization headed by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth).  He has many resources and many men working with him.  He is also able to inhabit others, using allien technology.  He does this to Kellner's girl friend, Jane (Eve Hewson) and convinces her to kill Kellner.  She however resists his control by stabbing herself in the hand instead.  There is lots of intent actions and quirky things about alien history, Roswell and other crash sites, and crop circles.  In the end there is an alien who appears.  They make a nice use of animals, who sometimes are aliens appearing as animals so we aren't scared of them.

I would recommend this movie.  It is a Steven Spielberg sci fi movie.  

In Theaters: ***** Young Washington (2016)

 This is an excellent movie.  I just got home from the theater.  George Washington (William Franklyn-Miller) should have been killed in the battles with the french and Indians outside of Fort Duquesne.  The movie presents two battles in the area.  The first Washington was a colonel of volunteers, rising in rank rather quickly.  However they were overrun by the french and Indians, and Washington signed a surrender in which he took blame for the death of a French officer.  The second he was an adjutant as he had resigned his commission after the first battle.  However when things started going awry again, it was he who, although he was sick, rode forwarded and rescued many men and extracted a small victory from defeat.  This is when he should have been killed.  Native Americans fired at him but say he was protected so the could not hit him.  Washington returned a third time with a larger force.  The French abandoned Fort Duquesne after the Indians had a abandoned them.  They burned the fort and left.  

Several interesting things happen before this.  The movie starts with the death of Washington's father.  Where he had no father they would not let him attend school.  So his brother, Lawerence (John Foss) educated him (boy Washington played by Will Joseph).  Joseph has high ambitions.  He throws himself towards a young woman, Sally Cary ((Mia Rodgers).  However she ends up with a British aristocrat of the Fairfax family.  However it is Lord Fairfax (Kelsey Grammar) who gives Washington a job as a surveyor.  It is during this job that he observes a French fort, Fort Duquesne, in land claimed by Virginia.  This leads him to report to the governor (Ben Kingsley) and he is given his commission as a captain of volunteers.  In his adventures he recruits his friend, Chris (Leo Hanna).  He is with him on the surveying trip and in his first commission.  However he is killed.  This partly leads to Washington's resigning. 

Very moving look at our founding and I highly recommend this movie.

Movie Review: **** Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

 Daniel Craig again stars as detective Benoit Blanc.  He shows up at a murder scene at a Catholic Church.  He is brought in at the request of the chief of police, Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis).  The priest, Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin) has been murdered, and the new assistant priest, Father Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor) is set up to take the fall.  But there are many suspects.  Wicks had made enemies of most the parish; or driven them off.  This includes Martha Delacroix (Glen Close) who has been with the church since being a child, DR. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) the local doctor.  Vera Draven (Kerry Washington) a local lawyer.  Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack) who turns out to be the Monsignor's illegitimate son.  The Monsignor was murdered in a closet off of the chapel where he was drinking some alcohol before delivering his sermon.  He collapses and is found with a "devil's blade" in his back.  The father was the first to him, and the doctor the second.  After they leave, the father returns and removes the Monsignor's flask.  This was a vital clue.  He removes it to prevent embarrassment for the head priest now that he is dead.  The twist in the plot is when the Monsignor resurrects and the priest chases after him, to wake up with the gardner murdered, by him.  Duplenticy is about to confess, when Blanc steps in the divulge the truth of what happened.  Too much to tell here, and not wanting to divulge the murdered, this movie is a good mystery thriller with a couple of twists.  

Movie Review: *** The Karate Kid (2010)

 This is a remake movie of the Original Karate Kid but this time the action takes place in China.  Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) moves to China with his mother (Sherry Parker).  He quickly gets on the bad side of a gang of Kung Fu students and gets beat up a couple times, until Han (Jackie Chan) intervenes.  Meiying (Wenwen Han) is the girl interest.  The coach of the bullies is Master Li (Rongguang Yu) who is intent on showing no weakness, no mercy, no pain.  They confront them at Master Li's dojo, and agree to fight at a tournament.  In the meantime Han trains Parker, very much like in the original.  We see much of China including a tall mountain and the Wall of China.  

Smith does very good with handling the emotion, and reacted to the pain inflicted on him during the tournament.   It is also very well done when the students of the Li Dojo pay respect to Master Han.  

Harrison Ford Movie Review: ****Regarding Henry (1991)

 Harrison Ford stars as a vicious lawyer, Henry Turner.  He and his wife, Sarah (Annette Bening) and daughter, Rachel (Kamian Allen) have quite an affluent life.  However Henry is quite vicious in his relationship with his daughter.  He has a mistress.  And he is above ethics in court. 

He goes for cigarettes and is shot by the person robbing the store.  He loses oxygen to his brain, and with that his memory and is in a coma for a long time.  

He goes th4ough a lengthy rehabilitation.  He has to learn to walk; he has to learn to talk; he has to learn everything again.  Still he has difficulty remembering even his family.  His teacher is primarily the physical therapist Bradley (Bill Nunn).  They form a good attachment.  In a way Henry becomes overly attached.  When it comes time for him to go home, at first he refuses, but his daughter convinces him otherwise.  So he returns home and starts over.  After a few months he returns to work, without memory of what he use to do.  It doesn't take him long to realize he hid information to get a verdict in his favor.  He wants to set it right.  He doesn't want to go back to his old life.  

This is a very good character study, and going through a tragedy to get a new start.  This includes his family.  He quits his lawyer job and focuses on being a good father.  

Harrison Ford always looks the same, but I hardly recognized Annette Bening so much younger. 

Netflix Movie Review: ***^ Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

This is a very good Netflix film.  It is part of the Knives Out franchise and has the same detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig).  However this is a different case, and a different bunch of suspects.  Blanc invites himself to a murder mystery party at the request of Helen Brand (Janelle Monáe), the twin sister of Andi Brand.  She suspects Andi was murdered, she did not commit suicide.  They are sure someone at the party is responsible.  Helen also is coming to the party as Andi to help with research.  The party is hosted by Miles Bron (Edward Norton).  The invited friends are: Claire (Kathryn Hahn), Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), Duke (Dave Bautista), Peg (Jessica Henwick), Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) and Whiskey (Madelyn Cline).  They are all enmeshed with Miles, and lied for him in court so he could take over Andi's business.  However she found some information that would prove the case, and that is the night she was murdered.  Claire is a politician dependent on Bron for support, Duke is an internet personality and hopes Bron will put him on t.v. news, whiskey is his girlfriend, but she sleeps with Bron and it is known to Duke.  Peg is Birdie Jay's assistant.  She is negotiating with Bron about a mistake Birdie Jay made.  Birdie Jay is a former model, now fashion designer and her business is dependent on Bron.  Lionel is a scientist and working on a new energy source.  Bron announces that he has used this new volatile source in his home.  Lionel protests for the lack of testing.  It was this source of energy that lead to the split between Andi and Bron.  Andi did not believe it was a viable product.  So there are a set of people who would benefit from Bron's death, here to play a game of Bron's murder.  Turns out Duke saw Bron leaving Andi's house, and so he is murdered via pineapple to which he is highly allergic.  He steals Duke's gun and shots Helen, but a book in her pocket stops the bullet.  Helen finds the evidence in Bron's glass onion room; but Bron burns it.  Sounds like everyone will lie for Bron again, so Helen starts to destroy his things, and everyone joins in.  The energy source explodes.  Everyone makes it out, and it sounds like Bron's friends are remembering things and appear willing to testify.  Money cannot buy everything forever.