adolfo valdez

This movie is ALL about the brilliant acting performances of Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, and the rest of the cast. Steiger’s Napoleon is strong and flawed at the same time, while Plummer’s Wellington comes across legitimate, arrogant and ultimately compassionate. One of my favorites.

Poldark is a complex drama that entices the viewer to watch episode after episode in an effort to swallow as much of the story as possible, but at the same fretting that it'll eventually be over. The chemistry in love and hate between the characters is engrossing and it reflects the bond that the performers enjoy with one another, all this enhanced by a script that makes this 21st century critic wish he could enjoy a chat with Ross, Demelza, Prudie, Elizabeth, Francis, etc., yes, even George. As a bonus, the scenery is absolutely beautiful and well placed between scenes. Ah, the sound of those waves crashing against the rocks after a fight between the characters! Don't miss it.

The Dirty Dozen is more than a typical war flick replete with violent scenes and a cast of heroes and villains struggling to keep the attention of the viewer. It is also a story of the redemption of twelve convicts who are given the opportunity to escape their sentences to death and long imprisonment prison in exchange for their participation in an operation of critical importance to the D-Day Invasion. Many of the storylines are worth mentioning, but let us summarize by saying that the best aspect of this movie is that it does not change the nature of these anti-heroes. They are convicted criminals through and through and their actions are not heroic, they are self-serving, Yet, when all hell begins to rain on them, they become what they were at the beginning of their service: US soldiers, and they died and were recognized as such. While many of the scenes are so light to be even comic, the most telling is when the US soldiers drop grenades and gasoline down the venting system to the underground bunker where high-ranking German officers and their women are hiding. It is eerily reminiscent of the German soldier dropping Zyklon-B down the vents of the gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps. Payback? No doubt.