A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

"This station is now the ultimate power in the Universe..." (C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Death Star's Transit Cast Lord Darth Vader (Brock Peters) Princess Leia Organa (Ann Sachs) Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (Keene Curtis) Imperial Star Destroyer Captain Star Destroyer Navigator Imperial Commander 2nd Officer Commander Tagge Admiral Conan Antonio Motti (David Clennon) Imperial Guard Announcer: OPENING CREDITS. Music: Opening theme. Narrator: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there came a time of revolution, when Rebels united to challenge a tyrannical Empire. The Princess Leia Organa, an Imperial Senator from the planet Alderaan, is also a leader in the secret councils of the Rebel Alliance. But her most daring mission, to deliver the plans for the Empire's most awesome weapon, the Death Star, has failed. In a last desperate bid to get the information into Rebel hands before being captured, she has placed it into the

 Note to the Unwary Reader or Would-Be Buyer:       Contrary to the product listing title provided by the Shopping.com or Epinions database, neither of the two models in Samsung’s BD-C5500 series (BD-C5500 and BD-C5500C) supports 3D video.  I figure this is worth mentioning to all interested parties to ensure the accuracy of this review.   Even though I already own an older Samsung Blu-ray player, certain circumstances – my elderly mom’s failing health and inability to climb stairs –have compelled me to buy a second Blu-ray player so that I can (a) spend a bit of my free time with Mom and (b) not have to get DVD versions of movies I own on Blu-ray disc just so Mom could see them.  I am a guy of very modest means, therefore I avoid getting  the absolute best of the best  in electronics.  Our three HD TV sets are 720p instead of the top-of-the-line 1080i or 1080p (much less 3D models), and neither of our Samsung Blu-ray players has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity to the Internet.  However, I

“Stand by Me” is a moving coming-of-age comedy drama directed by Rob Reiner. Adapted from Stephen King’s novella The Body by screenwriter-producer Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, this 1986 comedy drama follows the misadventures of four pre-teen boys (Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell) who hike through the woods outside the small town of Castle Rock, Oregon to look for a missing teen’s corpse. Like director Robert Mulligan’s “Summer of ‘42” and other coming-of-age movies, “Stand by Me” is not a plot-driven movie. It’s a character piece that focuses on Gordie (Wheaton), Chris (Phoenix), Teddy (Feldman) and Vern (O’Connell) during a weekend-long trek in the Oregon woods to find a dead kid’s body before a band of teenage hoodlums led by Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) does. On the surface, “Stand by Me” is one of those “small” films that are better suited for after school television specials than the silver screen. But King’s well-written novella is

In the 42 years since the end of the war in Vietnam, Hollywood has produced a number of films about that "lost crusade," ranging from the grand yet surreal vision of Apocalypse Now to the very commercial and silly Missing in Action and Rambo . In 1986, writer-director Oliver Stone ( JFK, W. ) took audiences into the frightening spectacle of jungle warfare in Platoon. This film, based on Stone's combat experiences in Vietnam circa 1967, is the story of 19-year-old Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), an upper-middle class type, who has volunteered for combat duty. His fellow GI's are from the slums and small towns of America. They're the ones with little more than two years of high school - poor, unwanted and drafted to fight for "our society and our freedom," as Chris says in a letter to his grandmother. Of course, the story of men in battle has been told before, and Vietnam War films all seem alike, with their helicopter assaults and seemingly endl