Sandra Bullock Movie Review: ***^ Speed (1994)

 Speed is a wild ride.  It is rated R as it has too mch f'ing.  It does have some memorial characters.  Annie (Sandra Bullock) is a bus passenger, who grabs the wheel when the driver is shot.  Jack Traven (Keanu Reevs) is a bomb specialist with LAPD.  Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) is the bomber.  He ius Ex bomb squad police who retired when fingers blown off; but not happy with his severance.  Harry (Jeff Daniels) is Traven's partner.  He does not survive as a bomb explodes when they go to Payne's home.  Not all of this is realistic; especially driving the bus through town and keeping it above 50 mph.  If it goes below 50 a bomb will explode.  Lots of action and lots of peril.  

Movie Review: ***R.V. (2006)

This is a movie with the take of what happens with abnormal urban family meets a normal hick family.  Bob Munro (Robin Williams) takes his wife on vacation.  However for him this is really a business trip.  He has promised his wife (Cheryl Hines) no business.  They are new to the RV scene.  They have a terrible problem with the sceptic system.  The Gornicke family (Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth) take them under their wing.  There is some funny stuff with the Munro family trying to avoid them.  There is also an impossible scene, where Bob is trying to keep his business meetings a secret.  He ends up on the front bumper of the RV as it rolls down a tall mountain.  Somehow, the RV ends up in its correct parking space, with Munro under the vehicle.  However, as always happens, when wife discovers what is going on, they take off with the Gornicke family.  The R.V. has landed in the lake, so Munro takes after them on a bike.  Munro also does the right thing in terms of his business.  And the two families have become fast friends.  This movie with its implausibility isn't the best work of Williams.  However Daniels and Chenoweth make up for this, as their characters really bring something to the movie.

Movie Review: ***^Gods and Generals

Gods and Generals 2003 based on the book by Jeff Shaara: This is the prequel to Gettysburg, and more than anything it tells the story of Stonewall Jackson (Stephen Lang).  Stonewall was a pious man, with his own idiosyncrasies, and this move reflects this.  My first view of the movie, it seemed to get bogged down somewhat in this, but I enjoyed it more this time around.  I guess I understood better where is was coming from.  This movie shows a much longer history than Gettysburg, starting with Secession, first Bull Run, Fredericksburg and then ends with Chancellorsville.  
We follow Stonewall Jackson from his days at Virginia Military Academy, through his stint in the Valley and at First Bull Run, and then covering the Confederate flank at Fredericksburg, and then leading the bold flanking move at Chancellorsville, and being shot by one of his own men in the confusion at dusk as he tried to press his advantage.  He lost his arm, but worse yet contracted pneumonia.  "Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees" were his last words.  
Joshua Chamberlain is again portrayed by Jeff Daniels (as in Gettysburg).  His most important role is the assault of Fredericksburg, were he spends the night on the hill below Mayre's Heights and stacked dead bodies in front of himself to offer some protection from the men on the hill.  
General Robert E. Lee is portrayed by Robert Duvall.  In this movie we don't have the worries about his heart like in Gettysburg.  However we do have the charismatic leadership, and positive results, except for the loss of Jackson.  "He has lost his left arm, but I my right.:

Movie Review: ****^Gettysburg (1993)

This movie fascinates and delights me.   I think it is the courage of the people who actually participated in these events that comes through.  It was produced by Ted Turner, and is based on the novel by "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara.  It shows the battle in general, but focuses on the stand on Little Round Top by Colonel Chamberlain (Jeff Bridges) and his men.  However the movie shows all three days of Gettysburg, and the heroics of Little Round Top was day two.  It starts showing how the skirmish got started, with General Buford's (Sam Elliott) cavalry defending Seminary Ridge.  Had that first day ended differently, this battle would have played out differently.  It would have been the Confederates entrenched on the high ground.  The big if of the war, was had General Stonewall Jackson been there, would he have left the Union forces with the high ground, and a night to reinforce and to dig in.
As noted, the battle of the second day focused on the wings, Little Round Top to the South, and Cemetery Hill to the North.
The Confederacy was unable to turn either flank, so the third day saw a full out attack on the middle, Pickett's (Stephen Lang) charge.  General Lee (Martin Short) had hoped the Federals had spread too thin.  He was wrong.  General Longstreet (Tom Beringer) argued for a different strategy all day.  Picket and his forces were ordered to attack.  After they were repulsed, Lee asked Pickett to see to his division.  His response, "I have no division."  They had been beaten, badly.