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.  

Tom Cruise Movie Review: **** Minority Report (2002)

 This is a science fiction that is a bit hard to understand.  It is a futuristic movie, taking place in 2054.  In Washington, D.C. pre cogs (peope with cognitive functions where they dream of future murders, and are used by the police to prevent future crimes.  Many people have been arrested as a result, and placed in a comma.  The murder rate has dropped to zero.  However one of our police, Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) shows up on a future crime report, killing someone he doesn't know.  He runs, and eventually gets to the bottom of a murder which was miss handled in the past.  A woman was murdered twice, once prevented by the precogs, but the second did happen, Ann Lively (Jessica Harper) was drowned.  One of the Precogs was her daughter (Samantha Morton).  Anderton steals this precog.  She is considered the strongest. 

Someone has been manipulating the system, and that person is very powerful.  A coworker (Colin Ferrell), rival of sorts, also started questioning and goes to the director (Max Von Sydow), and is murdered.  Anderton's (Kathryn Morris) wife is also involved, and is the person who discovers the true murderer.  

Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Even though this is hard material, with futuristic computers and such, I think is comes off well.  

Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep Movie Review: ****^ The Post (2017)

 This is a movie exploring the inner workings of the Washington Post and the decision to print the Pentagon Papers, secret documents that were stolen.  The documents disparaged the Viet Nam War pointing out that for some time the American government did not think the war winnable.  Howev er they kept on to avoid the embarrassment of losing the war.  Daniel Ellsburg (Matthew Rhys) stole the documents in an efort to end the war.  Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) tracks down Ellsburg and gets the documents for the Post.  Bob Bradlee (Tom Hanks) directed the operation, including asking Bagdikian to pursue Ellsburg.  Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) is the publisher at the Post.  Her husband had the position before he passed away.  They take the documents to Bradlee's home rather than to the newspaper office for more security and a more peaceful place.  Bradlee's daughter sells lemonade and his wife (Sarah Paulson) becomes involved in the process.  

This movie is very intriguing as they are decided whether or not to publish or whether or not to wait on things.  Th government already has an injunction against the Nwq York Times about publishing.  Watching the struggle is very interesting.  In the end it is Graham who has to make the final decision.  She has to make the decision several times as more information comes to light.  

This movie was Oscar nominated for best picture and Meryl Streep for best actress.  Steven Spielberg directed.

Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio Movie: ****Catch Me if You Can (2002)

 Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Frank Abegnale Jr. who runs away from home when he has to decide with which parent he wants to live when they go through a divorce.  His father is Frank Abegnale (Christopher Walken) and his mother is Paula (Nathalie Bale).  He decides to go into passing false checks, and discovers the best way to do this is as a pilot.  Everyone trusts a pilot.  So he gets a uniform, and passes himself off as a pilot.  Banks and the airport cash payroll checks for the most, so he makes many counterfeit payroll checks, and cashes them wherever they go.  When the FBI, agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) gets too close he gives up the airport business for a while, and takes up being a doctor.  There he meets a nurse, Brenda Strong (Amy Adams) he he goes to meet her parents (Martin Sheen and Nancy Lenehan) eventually to propose marriage.  He has a very big fraudulent business going, mostly cashing checks--to the tune of over a million dollars.  Over time Hanratty gets closer and closer.  He ever captur4es him on a couple occassions, but he always seems to get away.  However eventually even this comes to an end and he is in a foreign prison and extradited back to the United States.  Even though he is only 17 he is tried as an adult because of the scope and his always getting away, and he goes to prison.  Hanratty then begins using him as a resource for information on checks and forgery.  

Very interesting movie.  It is based on a book Abegnale wrote of his life; however there is some doubt a bout the truthfulness of the book,  He has admitted some of it was exagerated.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  

Movie Review: Always

This movie was not what I was expecting.  I knew it was about people in planes fighting firers; and there is a love story involved.  However I did not expect the love story to come off the way it did.  Firefighting in the early days, after WWII was a scary business.  The fires sometime could look as bad as WWII bombing; but the pilots persisted.  This movie features four actors:
Richard Dreyfuss As Pete Sandich
Holly Hunter as Dorinda Durston
Brad Johnson as Ted Baker
John Goodman as Al Yackey

directed by Steven Spielberg

Yackey and Sandich are best friends.  Durston is Sandich's girl, who worries about the danger he puts himself in.  Turns our Yackey gets too close to a fire, and puts his plane on fire.  However Sandich saves him by dumping his load on the flames.  He gets our, but in doing so his own fuel tank blows up, killing him.  This movie ends up being an after life film, with Sandich using his influence to motivate others.  Audrey Hepburn has a cameo as the lady managing the gates to heaven.

Movie Review: ****^War Horse (2011)

This is a fascinating movie, with fascinating scenes.  A farmer is finally able to purchase a horse, and though over priced it is able to help with plowing the fields.  The farmer's son (Jeremy Irvine) loves the horse, but a war intervenes.  The military takes the horse, and it is purchased by an officer.  In the meantime the son is also at war, in the infantry, at the front during WWI.  When the horse is separated from the calvary (they were ambushed) then it is put to use in different ways.  At one point, a kindly local family adopted the horse, and it was again working on a farm, and a farmer's daughter's pride and joy.  However it is confiscated by the military, and put to use pulling heavy loads.  This horse befriends a horse, and attempts to take the other horse's heavy loads.  In the end, the other horse dies.  There are a few fascinating scenes where the war horse is scared by a tank.  It bolts, heading for the front, where there is row upon row of barbed wire.  Barbed wire and a running horse do not mix.  There is a tragic result.  However two soldiers, one German and the other British go into no-man's land to rescue the horse.  The British soldier wins the right to take the horse back in a game of chance.  However the wounds are too severe to worry about saving the horse.  However, a wounded soldier recognizes the horse's whinnies, and calls the horse.  They are restored.  But the horse still is put up to bid in the end.  The country farmer purchases the horse, to honor his daughter who has died.  However when he discovers the soldiers love he gives the horse to the original soldier.  They are able to return home together.
Too much plot, but the scenes of the horse bolting were eerie and beautiful.  This movie is fascinating just watching the horse in this environment.

Movie Review: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

This is a classic Steven Spielberg movie.  Much is done in this movie with light, the light through the grate of the ramp when E.T. is left behind, the light of the flashlights and the light of E.T. and Elliott on the bicycle in front of the moon.  The E.T. is abandoned, and takes up with Elliott (Henry Thomas), as his family lives on the edge of the city.  Elliott sees something in the shed, but no one believes him.  However several days later, he entices E.T. back to their house by using Reese's Pieces (they are good).  He introduces E.T. to his sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) and brother, Michael (Robert MacNaughton).  They keep it a secret from their mother (Dee Wallace), knowing that it won't go well for E.T. if people find him.  The introduction of the scientist is a bit overdrawn with them showing up in astronaut uniforms.  This is called over milking something.  However the rest of the movie is terrific.  Peter Coyote plays the sympathetic scientist who has been looking for extra-terrestrial contact since he was a boy.  The movie is most noted for "E.T. phone home."  E.T. is played by a puppet, with and extendable neck.  There is some incredible stuff happening in this movie, and the story is well done.  I enjoy the flying scenes, where E.T. uses some type of power to lift them up off the ground.  E.T. has a special power to heal.  There is a clever scene where he tries to heal the wound form the pretend knife Halloween costume.  His heart also glows, which lead to a song by Neil Diamond.

Movie Review: ****The BFG (2016)

Here we have a classic Roald Dahl Movie.  I have started reading the book, but still have a lot to go.  BFG (Mark Rylance) is short for Big Friendly Giant.  He steals Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), a girl in the wrong place because she has insomnia and is up and sees him.  She fears she is going to be eaten for sure, but BFG eats cucumbers instead.  However BFG lives with other giants who do eat children.  Sophie has to be very careful.  It is quite a struggle, and the other giants get in the way of BFG doing his work, which is catching dreams and giving them to children.  Finally, Sophie convinces him to get help from the queen (Penelope Wilton).  There is a cute scene where BFG has dinner with the queen.  BFG mind you is very tall.  He sits on a chair on top of a piano.  But what can you do with giants.  The military knows what to do, with the help of BFG.

Movie Review: ***The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

This movie was a pleasant surprise, but I had it all wrong in my head.  I thought it was like Rin tin tin, a movie about a dog.  Instead Tintin is the principle character, a reporter.  Together with Captain Haddock they go on an adventure in search of gold, while facing an intergenerational villain.  I don't know how it works, but it seems the villain and the Captain have memories from their ancestors, and the villain is intent on pursuing an old grudge from his family against the Captain.  How the intergenerational thing works with shared memories, is something I don't understand.  It is one time you have to suspend belief.  This is an animated movie.  But it is a wild ride with motorcycle chases, plane crashes and an evil eagle.  It even has mechanical cranes fighting.  Now that is cool. 

Movie Review: ****Super 8 (2011)

"Super 8" is an enjoyable movie and I had a good time watching it.  It stars Joel Courtney in his first roll and Elle Fanning who are forming a love interest relationship as Joe Lamb and Alice Dainard.  The show starts with the death of Joe's mother in an industrial accident, and Alice's father blaming himself.  Joe's best friend, Charles Kaznyck has a crush on Alice, and invites her to participate in the movie he is making.  Instead of leading to his forming a relationship, it sparks Joe and Alice, against the wishes of their fathers, to form a relationship.  Charles becomes angry as he realizes Alice likes Joe back.
 However this show is more than relationships, but an "ET" on steroids.  It was produced by Steven Spielberg.  It starts with a horrendous train crash which Joe and his friends witness, which turns out to be an attempt to help the ET escape.  However this ET is not cute, and he terrorizes the town.  What he doesn't get of the town, the Air Force does. 
I really like Elle Channing's acting, the rivalry between their fathers, and the alien is gruesome.