Well I'm Glad Someone is Happy

(Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp)

I am one of those people regardless of interest in the movie that keeps an eye on the top ten movie earnings each week. I usually see a movie in the theaters a minimum of every other week. Let's look at last weekend's top ten:

(Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.)
1. "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who," $25.1 million.

2. "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns," $20 million.

3. "Shutter," $10.7 million.

4. "Drillbit Taylor," $10.2 million.

5. "10,000 B.C.," $8.7 million.

6. "Never Back Down," $4.9 million.

7. "College Road Trip," $4.6 million.

8. "The Bank Job," $4.1 million.

9. "Vantage Point," $3.8 million.

10. "Under the Same Moon," $2.6 million.

Got to love Jan - April when it comes to movies. February is usually the worst, but this collection of cinematic fodder is making me go through my Netflix queue with reckless abandon. A few possibles but I can't really see anything worth paying full price for. Is there anything worth seeing?

Well despite what many think I am not a complete movie snob. So now I turn to you.

**Gets on his knees**

Ask your friends, ask your pastor or ask the person that cuts your hair. Tell them that Seth needs a good movie. An original plot? That would help. Action, romance, drama, comedy, any genre will do. A simple title and date to give me hope that something is coming and that I don't need to give up on Hollywood just yet.

**Stands up and brushes himself off**

One comedy I was looking forward to, but of course it never made it to Bangor, Maine.

~Seth Davis
*Photo of Horton Hears A Who, 20th Century Fox. From Latimes.com.

Invasion U.S.A

Ode to Cold War Entertainment(Rocky IV)

Poor Rocky, the weight of not only an entire nation on his shoulders, but also capitalism itself and the good cause of freedom. Not to mention the film's actual "plot". It is hard to to explain the 80's and the Cold War to those who didn't experience it, but it did give us some awesome movies.

If only Osama Bin Laden could put up a boxer or a decent hockey team the possibilities would be endless. Alas our nation still posses its nuclear arsenal and its populace still allows fear to rule public policy. Yet things have changed since the days when nuclear power was not an alternative fuel and the Soviet Union lurked over Europe providing a boogie man for movies from what I like to call the Cold War era. Some have not aged well and may seem a little silly now. But others remain classics.

Here are a few of my favorites. Feel free to comment and add your own:

Dr. Strangelove (1964)
I just saw this movie last year. Directed by Stanly Kubrick. If you don't know who that is, I truly pity you. Strangelove is a dark comedy of sorts and probably one of the best movies ever made. Cinematography, humor, acting, timing, the movie has it all.

Roger Ebert sums it up: ". . . based on a novel by Peter George, Kubrick made what is arguably the best political satire of the century, a film that pulled the rug out from under the Cold War by arguing that if a ``nuclear deterrent'' destroys all life on Earth, it is hard to say exactly what it has deterred."

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

The movie may have been released towards the end of the Cold War, but it takes place in 1984. What else do you want besides Sean Connery, James Earl Jones (the real Darth Vader) and Alec Baldwin fighting to prevent or start nuclear war? It also won several Oscars.

Do we have a crazy submarine captain on our hands? Or does he just want a taste of good ole American democracy? I can't help but watch every time this shows up on T.V.


Red Dawn (1984)
Starring: Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing girl) this movie was just packed with 80's star power. Was it good? Not really. However it certainly scared a generation of American kids. Russians for reasons I can't recall invade Midwest America and for reasons that don't really matter it is up to a group of scrappy teens to break through the oppressive bonds of communism and free their town.

It does sum up the time, the fear, the hatred and misunderstandings of the Cold War. Before Jack Baur and the Patriot Act we had an enemy and they had funny accents and from movies to wrestling they were targets.

There are certainly more, from Chuck Norris in Delta Force to Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyed in Spies Like Us, but allow me to highlight one other form of entertainment. Comics:

Before Borat, before Jeff Foxworthy, before Mencia there was Yakov Smirnoff. . .

**Pictures from internet movie data base and www.moviewallpapers.net. Also thanks to rogerebert.suntimes.com for his review of Dr. Strangelove; done on 7/11/99.

~Seth Davis