Tom Selleck TV Movie Review: **** Last Stand at Saber River (1997)

 Paul Cable (Tom Selleck) returns home from the Civil War having fought for the Confederacy.  He left the war after being wounded and knowing the war is now a lost cause.  He meets his wife, Martha (Suzy Amis) and two kids, Clare and Davis (Rachel Duncan and Haley Joel Osment) in Texas where they have been staying with her father, James Sanford (Harry Carey Jr.).  Cable learns that is third child, Mary, became ill and died three years earlier.  Quickly we learn that things are not right between the Cables; they are both much changed from the war.  They are anxious to get home--which is in Arizona.  

However in arriving home things still are not good.  Another family has been living in their house, and when they ask them to move there is a gun battle in which Martha kills a couple men when they draw on her husband.  Of course the rest of the family wants to make it even and another brother dies.  In addition there are another coupoe ranchers, Vern and Duane Kidston (Keith and David Carradine) who supported the Union.  There is an instant feud.  Lastly there is a man who has been running guns for the confederacy, Edward Janroe (David Dukes) who wants Cable to continue fighting for the cause while Cable says the war is over.  

When the papers announce the war is over, Genroe says he will tell Cable who is on his ranch.  Instead he trashes the house, and then murders Duane Kidston.  He is framing Cable as the murderer.  He wants to create a war so Cable has to kill the local Unionists.   Would have worked but Cable and Kidston talk before killing each other as Martha has a gun drawn on Kidston to save her husband's life.  Then it is obvious what has happened.

This movie is very good.  It shows Selleck when he was young, before the Magnum PI days.  It also shows a very strong woman in Martha.  She saves her husband on several times.  And at the end of the movie her heart finally melts and she and her husband reconcile.  The kids are also pretty strong, especially Clare.

Movie Review: ***^ Premonition (2007)

 Now this is a movie based on confusion.  Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) is informed by a police officer that her husband, Jim Hanson (Julian McMahon) has passed away in a car accident.  But then when she wakes the next morning he is alive.  And then his funeral comes, and she is not willing to accept that he is dead, so she insists on seeing him in the casket, to discover he was decapitated.  But then he is alive again the next day.  She ends up being hauled away to a mental hospital, but then he is alive again.  She begins to realize she is not living her days in order.  She figures what day she is at, and on what day her husband dies.  The only one who understands her "premonition" is a minister.  Her daughter, Megan (Shyann McClure) shows up with cuts and scars one day.  But later she lives the day of her running through a glass window.  She has another daughter, Bridgette (Courtney Taylor Burness).  She discovers that her husband was a flirt, Claire (Amber Valletta) which he hopes becomes more.  She gets to the point of reconciling with her husband and talking to him about things; before it is too late.  She also has a very opinionated mother who takes care of the kids frequently.  Joanne (Kate Nelligan) is worried about her daughter and arranges for her to go into a mental hospital.  Linda's good friend Annie (Nia Long) is also involved in this.  She even goes to where her husband is going to crash.  He leaves early for work on the day of the crash, and she misses the chance to keep him home, wo she follows.  She finally gets him on the phone, after he told the flirt it was a no go.  She asks hi to turn around, and in doing so a truck crashes with his vehicle.  We see her several months later, and she is now pregnant with their third child.

Music Review: The Turtles: 20 Greatest Hitsl

 The Turtles: 20 Greatest Hits, Rhino Records, 1984.

The Turtles have a unique sound, but they must not have4 had very many hit songs because some of these are rather painful.  Only a couple r4cogizable songs, "It Ain't Me Babe" a cover of a Bob Dhlan song, and "Happy Together."  This is their only number one hit.  It is very recognizable and a fun song.  Another top scoring song was "She'd Rather Be With Me."  I also like Elenore.  

Miniseries TV Movie Review: **** The Sacketts (1979)

Three brothers head west for their individual reasons, Tell, Orrin and Tyrel Sackett (Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage).   Orrin and Tyrel get in the cattle business while Tell seeks gold.  Tell accuses a gambler of cheating and the gambler draws on him and kills him, Wes Bigelow (James Gammon).  Consequently the Bigelow brothers, Ira, Benson and Jack (Jack Elam, Gene Evans and Slim Pickens) are all after Tell.  Tell has a partner, Cap (Ben Johnson) who was on a cattle drive with Orrin and Tyrel.  They find gold, and find a young woman, Ange Kerry (Wendy Rastattar) who has been living in the mine for a couple years since her father died.  

After the cattle drive Orrin and Tyrel go after abandoned cattle in the mountains with a former lawyer, gunslinger Tom Sunday (Glen Ford).  The are near Santa Fe where there is a young woman (Ana Alisia) who attracts Tyrel, and another golden haired woman who attracts Orrin.  Her father is Jonathan Pritts (John Vernon) who hopes to control Santa Fe now that it is part of the United States.  He hires gunmen to assert his claim.  The Mexicans are being bullied.  They decide to hold an election for sheriff hoping they can assert their rights instead of being bullied by Pritts.  Orrin and Sunday run, and when Orrin wins Sunday becomes bitter.  He eventually decides to kill Orrin, and Tyrel has to stop him.  Pritts attempts to hire a murder and this is divulged and he is arrested.

In the meantime the Bigelows and their hired men have Tell, Cap and the girl cornered in their mine.  The girl gets away on a horse of the Bigelows, head to town and sends telegram to the brothers in Santa Fe. The Bigelows did not catch up with Orrin, and decided to wait for him in town.   Consequently we have a big gun battle to end the show.  This is a Louis L'Amour book and he is the narrator.  

Movie Review: ****American Violet (2008)

 Movies about racial injustice can get me so angry.  This is about a drug raid and a young woman caught up in it.  The drug raid was conducted by an all white police force against all Blacks.  It was possible because at the time on person accusing you subjected you to arrest.  In this case one person was coerced to name many more.  In fact the police gave this person a yes or no list and hinted at who he should accuse.  It was common at this time for everyone to take a plea deal.  This is what was expected.  Otherwise, as with this woman, you are separated from your kids and your life.  In this case Dee Roberts (Nicole Beharie) is accused but cannot afford the high bail.

The ACLU intervenes and sue the county for discriminatory practices.  All the cases are thrown out, and eventually they get to the county attorney as his racist attitudes come out.  However he does win reelection.  David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) is ACLU attorney.  A local attorney, Sam Conroy (Will Patton), works with him, as does Byron Hill (Malcolm Barrett).  Hill, who is African American, interviews the county attorney Calvin Beckett (Michael O'Keefe).  This is a catalyst to the racism coming out.  They had also interviewed his daughter and ex wife who pointed towards this racism.   

As a result of this case, laws were changed in Texas to not allow persecutions based on one accuser.  Based on the true life case of Regina Kelly.  

TV Movie Review: **** Temple Grandin (2010)

 This movie is based on an actual person with autism, Temple Grandin (Claire Danes).  She is able to see patterns others do not see, while at the same time having issues with over sensory stimulation.  She has a geometric mind, and sees thinks in pictures.  She would visit her aunt (Catherine O'Hara) and uncle in summer who had a cattle farm.  She watched them serving the cows and noticed they would calm down when in the lock.  She used this treatment on herself and found it worked when she was riled up.  Her mother (Julia Ormond) through the years was very good with her, even when the said she should be institutionalized.  She finally gets her into a boarding school where they had horses.  She found a mentor in Dr. Carlock (David Strathairn).  She graduates and attend college.  Her first years if hard.  She develops a device to do the same service as the cattle stall.  However the school does not accept it, including her roommate.  The school throws it out and will not let her have the device.  However the next year she returns her roommate is blind, Alice (Melissa Farman).  Together they support each other.  Alice sees the world through sound, and Grandin through images.  She has no issues with the device, and Grandin does research on the device to prove that it is helpful.  She graduates and gives a speech at graduation.  After graduation she works with animals, particularly cattle.  She can tell by their moos how they are doing.  She notices they walk in circles.  She develops devices for the cattle for doing the dip where cows walk through water to get medicine for tics and such.  She becomes a correspondent for a cattle grower's magazine.  She is now a professor in Colorado.  

Temple Grandin is a very interesting character.  

Music Review: Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons: Greatest Hits Vol 2 (1991)

 I did not care for this C.D. a great deal as kit was of their second tier of songs.  Even so there were a few songs I really enjoy.  "Rag Doll," "Working My Way Back to You," "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "My Eyes Adored You" to name a few.  I l like their music for the Frankie Valli falsetto.  However, in a couple songs this was handled by others of the 4 Seasons as they were trying to differentiate from Frankie Valli's solo career.  He did sing lead on "Let's Hang On."  "We've got a lot of love between us so let's hang on."