Pierre LeDouche

I simply don't understand the negative reviews this movie has gotten. It's a far better written and acted movie than most of the sci fi coming out of big-budget Hollywood. For sure, as a disaster movie it far outshines any silly train-wreck of a movie from Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay. As far as the writing, the plot does a great job with implying a major disaster while resisting the urge to explain. The viewer is given everything he needs to figure it out on his own, at his leisure. I think that part of the problem with some reviewers is that they were expecting the crisis to turn into an alien attack or something equally silly, when the much simpler answer is far more appropriate and plausible, while still being highly destructive. *****SPOILER WARNING***** So what is this huge catastrophe, presaged by seismic events and managing to both shut down air travel and trigger a panicked exodus from the northwest region of the USA? Nothing more or less than the eruption of Mt. Ranier, that huge, beautiful, not-so-dormant volcano that overlooks Seattle and Tacoma and one day will wipe both off the face of the Earth. It has been called the "most dangerous volcano in the world" and is much larger than Mt St. Helens. That's it. I'm not a geologist and all my science learning has been in the biological sciences, and I managed to figure it out before the end of the movie. That I had to figure it out, and that it turned out to be something so simple yet so appropriately catastrophic absolutely delighted me. And that ending, where the protagonist and his girl are just barely outrunning a lethal pyroclastic flow from yet another eruption? A perfect ending for a thoughtful movie that manages to do just about everything right. Just because some critics were just too stupid or too slow to figure it out on their own, and just because they were disappointed when the beginning didn't presage an extraterrestrial invasion or some Mayan prophecy doesn't make their misbegotten reviews carry any more weight. Their opinions can be safely ignored. It's a great movie and much less complicated than it originally appears. And like all good fiction, it ends on a highly satisfying note even if it left the survival of the protagonist in doubt. Watch it.

The irony is that the Walker Colts that Eastwood wields in this movie are so stupidly, ridiculously huge they dwarf even the Smith and Wesson M29 .44 magnum revolver his character was armed with in the Dirty Harry movies. Walker Colts were so massively powerful that from 1847, when Colt introduced the product, until 1935, when the first .357 magnum pistols appeared (also a Smith and Wesson product) the Walker Colt reigned as the most powerful revolvers ever made. They were in fact so huge that they were not carried in holsters worn by the person using them, but on pommel holsters attached to the saddle. They were the first high-power repeater firearms ever made. Sort of like the 19th century version of an assault rifle. They were issued to cavalry and dragoons both because the muzzle loading rifles of the day were single shooters and impossible to load and shoot quickly from horseback. Until the Walker Colt the most effective cavalry weapon was the saber. The characters in Cormac McCarthy's best book _Blood Meridian" all carried Walkers. In the book he described the pistol as "designed to take a musket's powder charge" which is exactly what they were. Aside from geeking out on the pistols in the movie, I can also say without exaggeration that Josey Wales is the both the second best Western over all, and the second best Eastwood movie in the entirety of Eastwood's career. Second only to the magnificent, dark Unforgiven. If you have a thing for Westerns that aren't cheesy or full of cheap stereotypes then The Outlaw Josey Wales is the movie for you. It's a brilliant piece of work.

My choice for the best SciFi series on Netflix. Hard to choose this one over Altered Carbon, but hey I'm being honest. Travelers is magnificent. Like every other fan, I was hugely disappointed when they cancelled it. But good god almighty, they know how to wrap up a season and an entire series! For those who haven't watched the final episode, no spoilers here, just let me tell you it's dark. Grim. In the extreme. Except for one little glimpse of sunlight right at the very end. The way this show ends is hugely satisfying, totally plausible, and doesn't strain belief even a little. Season three, the entire season, is a masterpiece. In my heart I will always yearn to hear that a season 4 is being made. But the series as it is now is a complete work, with a satisfying end. If only writers of other series could do half as well.