Movie Review: ****Retribution (2023)

 This is a Liam Neeson movie which I watched through a streaming service.  Neeson plays a bank executive who is being black mailed by a bomb placed under his seat into releasing money from the bank.  His children (Lilly Aspell and Jack Champion) are in the car with him.  At the same time he is set up as the perpetrator of several murders.  The police (Noma Dumezweni) are after him as he keeps getting away, and finally meets up with his boss (Matthew Modine), who he also appears to murder.  However all is not as it appears.  Very good Liam Neeson action movie.

John Wayne Movie Review: ****The War Wagon (1967)

 This is one of the movies that fascinated me as a young man.  It came ut when I was ten.  They way they attack the war wagon is one of thos things that trigger the imagination.  Taw Jackson (John Wayne) leads the effort and he recruits Lomax (Kirk Douglas) guns and safe cracker, Levi Walking Bear (Howard Keel) Native American liaison, Billy Hyatt (Robert Walker Jr.) explosives expert and Wes Fletcher (Keenan Wynn) inside man and wagon transport.  They are going to rob gold from the mine now owned by Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot) who swindled the property from Jackson, and sent him to jail, while paying to have him shot; by Lomax no less.  Everyone knows Pierce is a crook, but he is a crook who owns the law enforcement.  The other interesting character is Kate (Valora Noland) who is the wife of Fletcher.  He purchased her and treats her poorly and is jealous of everyone.

The part that is not good about the movie is a non-Native American playing the part of the Native American, Walking Bear.  It also plays on stereotypes of Native Americans.  This is a product of the times in Hollywood.

Movie Review: ****^Superman (1978)

 Superman/Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) is sent to earth by his parents (Marlon Brando and Susannah York) as his planet, Krypton is due to explode.  They send him to earth, where differences is gravity will give him super powers.  There he is adopted by the Kents (Glen Ford and Phyllis Thaxter).  When his father dies, he moves to New York and becomes a reporter.  There he works with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), photographer Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure) and his boss Perry White (Jackie Cooper).  Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) is a criminal boss and mastermind.  He is intent and igniting a nuclear bomb to create an earthquake so California with drop into the sea.  This will propel his properties in the desert to be seaside property.  

He figures out Superman.  He is from another planet, and vulnerable to kryptonite.  He uses this to incapacitate Superman and launch his two nuclear bombs.  However Luthor is betrayed by his girl (Valerie Perrine).  She released Superman, who in turn saves his friends and the world.  

John Wayne Movie Review: ****Island in the Sky (1953)

 John Wayne is the pilot of a Corsair C-47 transport in the northern country, when they become confused as to their location, and icing forces them down way north where temperatures are not in their favor.  Nor is it in the favor of those who would find them.  This makes for an interesting movie as they attempt to communicate their location, and survive.  

I enjoyed this movie.  It is very emotional.  One of the men dies when he decides to go hunting and becomes lost in the cold and dark; even though he is just steps away form the plane.  The planes get close, but do not see them

• 

  John Wayne

  Capt. Dooley
• 

  Lloyd Nolan

  Captain Stutz
• 

  Walter Abel

  Col. Fuller
• 

  James Arness

  Mac McMullen
• 

  Andy Devine

  Willie Moon
• 

  Allyn Joslyn

  J.H. Handy
• 

  Jimmy Lydon

  Murray

  (as James Lydon)
• 

  Harry Carey Jr.

  Ralph Hunt

John Wayne Movie: ***^In Harms Way (1965)

 This is a John Wayne movie with lots of supporting stars.  Wayne portrays Admiral Rock.  He is on a destroyer and gets to sea after Pearl Harbor.  His son is Jere (Brandon de Wilde).  Eddington (Kirk Douglas) is Rock's best friend.  Patricia Neal portrays Maggie, who is Rock's new girlfriend.  Jill Haworth portrays Jere's girlfriend.  Jere is an interesting character as he startys the movie being a jerk and then repents.  As a result he is engaged to Jere.  However she goes out with Eddington who rapes her and as a result she suicides.  Eddington is remorseful so takes a dangerous mission, and is able to locate a Japanese fleet, before he is shot down.  

A big battleship is coming down a narrow water pass before the take over the island.  Admiral Rock throws everything at them, mines, PT boats which are decimated.  Rock's son Jere is on a PT boat.   Then they try to stop them with their own boats.  Rock's boat is sunk, but the overall battle turns out to be a victory.

At the Movie: ****^Truth & Treason (2025)

 This is a movie about a branch in Nazi Germany; more particularly a 16 year old youn man from the branch, Helmuth Hübener (Ewan Horrocks) and his pursuit of the truth and sharing that truth with his neighbors.  He writes leaflets and then distributes them to his neighbors, putting them in mail boxes, on cars, or just letting them go in the air.  He recruits two friends, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (Ferdinand McKay) and Rudi Wobbe (Daf Thomas).  They do this because a fourth friend, who happened to be part Jew Soloman Schwarz (Nye Occomore)was taken and ends up in Auschwitz.  The Gestapo man who is hunting them down is Erwin Mussener (Rupert Evans).  He tortures people by day and loves his family by night which makes a stark contradiction.

Hübener wrote many tracks, which were distributed around Hamburg by he and his friends.  This goes on for almost six months before Hübener is caught and tortured into giving up the names of his friends.  He does this to protect a young woman he had befriended at work.  

I really enjoyed this movie based on a true story. The letter to his mother at the end was very poignant.

James Bond Movie: ***^ Never Say Never Again (1983)

 Sean Connery is back as James Bond, but many of the other characters have different actors.  Klaus Maria Brandauer as Largo, Max Von Sydow as Blofeld, Barbara Carrera as Fatima Blush, Kim Basinger as Domino, Alec McCowen as Q, Edward Fox as M and Pamela Salem as Miss Moneypenny and Bernie Casey as Felix who is a spy helping Bond.

Blofeld is the leader of Spectre.  Largo is assigned to handle the theft of a couple nuclear bombs.  His girl is Domino, who wants to get away from Largo.  Fatima Blush is the woman who is trying to murder Bond.  The action isn't quite as intense as some other Bond movies.