John Grisham, Tom Cruise Movie: ***^ The Firm (1993)

 The Firm is a movie with lots of tension.  A young couple is starting their life after he, Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) finishes law school.  He accepts a position with a law firm in Memphis, and he and his wife, Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) move to the new law office, making much more than he would have from his other offers.  However it soon becomes evident that things are not right.  Two employees in Chicago are killed.  Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) is assigned to groom him.  There is tight security at the firm.  William Devasher (Wilford Brimley) is director of security.  Wayne Tarrance (Ed Harris) of the FBI want him to gather information on his bosses.  He cooperates to a point.  He gathers information on the billing, as they all over bill.  He goers to Chicago as the work for the mob and he gets them to agree to releasing information on the billing.  He provides this to the FBI and gives them this with which they can put the FBI in jail, while leaving the mob (the client) alone and not violating client/lawyer confidentiality.  This movie is very intense.  His wife helps him, but he also gets help from Tammy Hemphill (Holly Hunter) who was the secretary for a private I murdered by the mob because McDeere approached him for help.  

Very tense but this movie is ratd R and has too much swearing and use of the F word.  

Movie Review: ***^Crossfire Trail (2001)

 This is a western movie with two men set for the same property and the same woman.  Rafe Covington is aboard ship coming into San Francisco when the captain beats his friend,  Charles Rodney, to death.  He promises his friend to look after his wife and his Wyoming ranch.  Two boat mates join him in the trip to Wyoming, Rock (David O'Hara) and J.T. (Christian Kane).  Upon arriving in Wyoming he meets an old friend of Rodney's who helped on the ranch, Joe (Wilford Brimley).  On the other side Bruce Barkow (Mark Harmon) has been wooing Mrs. Rodney (Virginia Madsen).  She is convinced her husband died a year ago rather than just a few weeks.

They take to the ranch and begin improving things and herding up the scattered herd.  However Barkow with the sheriff says they have three days to vacate.  Covington in the meantime has been wooing the widow, and trying to convince her of the story that her husband was shanghaied, by someone who wanted his property.  There is oil on the property.

Barkow hires a killer to take care of his problems--meaning the new ranchers.  He forces Mrs. Rodney to marry him even though she does not say "I do."  She also murders the bar tender, and his hired gun murders one of Covington's friends, J.T.  There is bound to be a big fight at the end.

I always like Tom Selleck, and Mark Harmon makes a very bad guy who is use to getting his way.  The Louis L'Amour movies are always entertaining.

Movie Review: ***Cocoon: The Return (1988)

The original Cocoon movie was new and fresh, while this movie seems like a rerun of the original.  Not very fresh nor novel, but just replayed.  Most of the original characters are here again.  the Maritime Institute actually finds one of the cocoons.  Fortunately Sara (Courteney Cox) is sympathetic, and they are able to steal the alien back,  after the cocoon had been opened.  Actors playing the older people home for visit include Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn and Gwen Verdon.  The four old guys playing basketball against a young crowd was a bit of a stretch.  Jack Gilford plays the friend they left behind, and Elaine Stritch his new girlfriend of sorts; however he has difficulty leaving his wife'e memory out of things.  Kitty (Tahnee Welch) the beautiful alien and Jack (Steve Guttenberg) rekindle their love relationship.  In the end, only one couple, the pregnant couple, decide to return.  they need the benefit of no health issues to assure the baby will be OK.  All the others decide to stay.
 

Movie Review: ****^ High Road to China (1983)

This movie is Tom Selleck at his best.  This is a 1983 adventure  movie based in the 1920s.  It was put out by Golden Harvest/Warner Brothers.  This movie was made in the wake of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."  Tom Selleck plays Patrick O'Malley, a pilot who teaches lessons, drinks too much and womanizes too much.  He and his two planes are offered employment by Eve Tozer (Bess Armstrong) who needs to find her father (Wilford Brimley) and get him to a British court, or he will be proclaimed dead by her father's partner in business, Bentik.  His partner is with out morals, and will do anything to get his way, including murder.  Jack Weston portrays Struts, his mechanic and drinking buddy. 
The movie is filmed in Yugoslavia.  O'Malley and Tozer fly all over, having great adventures looking for her father.  They fall into the hands of Suleman Khan, who wants to use the planes to drop bombs on the English.  This does not work out and O'Malley drops bombs on the Khan's camp instead, allowing his friends to escape.  They go farther and farther into the back country, arriving in Nepal.  The elder who tells them where to go to find her father advises, "The ox is slow, but the earth is patient."  Bentik sends a fighter pilot to stop their travels.  He destroys one of the planes, but O'Malley meets him in a dog fight with the other, which he wins of course.
They then travel to China where her father is conducting a war against a Chinese emperor.  Father explains that the company is not where the wealth is, but in the patents which are still in his and daughter's name.

This movie is fun.  It turns out to be romantic comedy in addition to adventure.  The two planes used are vintage, and not actually destroyed.

Movie Review: **^Star Wars Ewok Adventures: The Battle for Endor

This is a made for t.v. movie released in 1985.  This movie is not near as good as I remember it.  Most of the humor is geared at preschool age.  My son Tony watched it at three and a half, and he responded appropriately.  He laughs when Wicket burns his back side.  He also took the monsters very seriously.  He was at the stage where he classified the world into monsters and heroes.
The special effects are pretty choppy.  And the movie is overacted at parts; especially the girl, Cindel.  The movie starts with her parents all being murdered by the monsters.  I don't think the reaction to this is very well acted, it all seems stiff.  I guess when you have a six-year old that is what you get however.
This movie features Wilford Brimley which is a  bonus, and he does a good job.  The other characters like the monsters, are extremely stiff and one dimensional.