James Bond Movie: ****^Moonraker (1979)

 Here is another James Bond (Roger Moore) movie using the same formula with some additions.  In this Bond movie we have a battle in space.  They were using space shuttle type vehicles but the battle was outside of the vehicles, man-to-man using laser weapons.  The space ship is called Moonraker, and there is not one but like six of them.  In this film, the deranged soul Drax (Michael Lonsdale) wants to kill all the people on earth with a gas, and then repopulate the earth with his genetically superior people.  Jaws (Richard Kiel) is in this film as well.  He even has a girlfriend, and realizing he and his girlfriend will not be selected, he grows a heart, and helps Bond escape.  Bond is also helped by Holly Goodhead (Lois Childs).

I think this Bond is better than most.  Lots of scifi action.  

Tom Hanks Movie Review: ****^Inferno (2016)

 This is the third of the Da Vinci Code series.  This movie does not deal with the Catholic Church, but with a over population fanatic Zobrist (Ben Foster) who is intent on releasing a virus and thereby reducing the human population.  Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) feel he has been in an accident and consequently has lost his memory of the last few days.  He runs away with the doctor (Felicity Jones) when it appears someone is trying to kill him.  And they begin to re-piece his memories and are looking for the device to disarm it.  Langdon is involved because of his knowledge of Dante's Inferno.  Zobrist has killed himself and left clues for his love to find the device.  These he put into a drawing of hell according to Dantes, but with subtle changes.  His mind is muddled, but they keep making progress.  

The film keeps switching in trm of who do you trust?  This film points out that Langdon did have a love interest in the person of Elizabeth Sinsky (Sidse Babett Knudsen) but their carers took them separate ways and she works for the World Health Organization and he at a university.  They end up together at the end of the movie talking of the many people who thought they were saving the world by killing half the people. 

These movies keep getting better as they go.  Again directed by Ron Howard.

Tom Hanks Movie Review: ****Angels and Demons (2009)

 This is a sequel to The Davinci Code with Tom Hanks again as Robert Langdon.  In this movie you are unsure who are the good guys and who the bad until the very end.  It appears the Illuminati are seeking revenge on the Catholic church.  They have kidnapped four cardinals with the intent to murder them every hour until they do their ultimate deed of blowing up the Vatican.  They have stolen antimatter to make this possible.  This brings in the scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) who is trying to recover the lost antimatter and disarm it if possible.  It is a time of change as the Pope has died, and the cardinals are in conclave.  In the meantime Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor) is in charge of the Vatican.  They follow the clues to each of the first three cardinal locations, but always a bit late.  The fourth they are able to save.  

The bomb is set to go off, but Camerlengo flies in in a helicopter up above the populace in St. Peters Square.  It explodes and he returns to earth in a parachute.  The Cardinals want to reward him for his heroism, and call him to the conclave, where everything turns on its head.

I enj9yed this movie more than Da Vinci Code.  It is again directed by Ron Howard. 

John Wayne Movie: ****Trouble Along the Way (1953)

 This is a very cute movie with with the relationship between father Steve Williams (John Wayne) and his daughter Carol (Sherry Jackson).  Enter a third party, social worker Alice Singleton (Donna Reed) who is investigating at the insistence of the ex-wife (Marie Windsor) who has been away for five years.  At the same time Williams is hired to coach football by Father Burke (Charles Coburn) for Saint Anthony's.  They have never been good at football, but need to do something as they school is facing closure if they can't make some money.  Williams turns the team around by having an older group of freshman play who are really coal miners or down on their luck otherwise.  He recruits a player who played a professional game in Canada.  This all turns around on him after his first game and his ex reports the players.  It also seems he will lose his daughter to his ex-wife.  The court hearing doesn't turn out as expected, and everything is up in the air in the end.  Except perhaps a budding relationship between the social worker and the father.

Tom Hanks Movie Review: ***^Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

 This is a different kind of Tom Hanks movie.  Tom Hanks dies at 9-11, and the movie focuses on his son, Oskar (Thomas Horn) and wife (Sandra Bullock) dealing with the loss.  Oskar's grandmother (Zoe Caldwell) gives some support.  Oskar find a key, and consequently is on a mission to find where the key fits.  It says Black on the key, so he wants to see everybody with the last name of Black in New York.  This is a big chore for someone with post traumatic anxiety.  He is eventually joined by his grandmother's renter, who is likely his grandfather (Max von Sydow).  He tells his story of 9-11.  His father called, but he didn't pick up, and then the building fell.  

This movie explores 9-11 in the effect it had on family members of those who were murdered.  

John Wayne Movie Review: ***The Conquerer (1956)

 This movie is in the oist of the 50 worst movies of all time.  I don't think it was that bad.  True John Wayne has a hard time being Mongolian Temujin (Genghis Khan).  Susan Haywood portrays Bortai, who Temujin wants for a wife.  Her father had killed Temujin's father.  This movie has intrigue and betrayal.  The shaman (John Hoyt) is the greatest betrayer.  He even tries to fool Wang Khan (Thomas Gomez) into not supporting Temujin, who was his closest ally.  In the end the shaman murders Wang Khan, and Temujin murders him.  During the movie Temujin is wounded, and taken prisoner.  However his wife is able to help him escape.  So most of the asians are played by Mexicans.  Pedro Armendáriz portrays his blood brother, who is manipulated by the shaman to look like a traitor.  

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this movie is that it was filmed near St. George, Utah which was in the down winder area.  40 percent of the participants in the film developed cancer.

John Wayne Movie Review: ***Pittsburgh (1942)

 This movie is not about the city, but the man, Pittsburgh Markham (John Wayne).  He was big into coal, he and his best friend, Cash Evans (Randolph Scott).  However there was a woman who came between them, Josie Winters (Marlene Dietrich).  Markham makes his money, and destroys relationships in doing so.  It finally catchers up to him, and he ends up broke.  He starts over again, at the bottom.  His hard wark is noticed, and Evans calls him in to be a vice president, not realizing who he is.  And this is what starts a resolution.  This is during the time of war, and everyone is needed to increase production of war materials.