Michael Braunstein

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Although this flick is ostensibly another Captain America work, it is really mis-titled and is another Avengers chapter. It also is notable for the introduction of Black Panther and Spiderman to the group. The governments of the world want the Avengers to operate under UN supervision and this splits the super heroes. Captain America represents the "vigilante" faction, while Tony Stark leads the pro UN side. Eventually a climactic battle occurs, with some fairly good CGI action. There is a sub plot about the Winter Soldier and a bad guy seeking to uncover his former Soviet brainwashing facilities. The Avengers are torn asunder and at the end Captain America, formerly an avatar of self righteous patriotism and respect for established authority, is a worldwide fugitive from justice.

A terrific movie, although in some ways it just regurgitates many of the clichés of earlier WWII films, especially those made in the 1940s and 50s. After a historically accurate recreation of the bloody chaos of the Normandy landings in June 1944, which was in reality filmed in Ireland, the story follows a squad of US Army Rangers dispatched into German held territory to rescue one Private Ryan of the 101st Airborne and send him home, as 3 of his brothers have died on D Day. This is where it becomes like a black and white movie. The squad contains all of the clichés--a hillbilly sniper, a Brooklyn wise guy, griping soldiers, a nerdy clerk. 0ne stupid criticism of this flick when it came out in the theatre was the lack of blacks. Duuhh!! It was a racially segregated armed force!! Black soldiers were relegated to service jobs--grave diggers, truck drivers, cooks, etc. A sad chapter in US history. Great acting and screenplay and direction. Btw: this was inspired by a true WWII incident in which a soldier who landed on D Day found that two of his brothers died in the attack and was sent home. But no squad looking for him.

A fairly typical Hollywood style biopic about a real life historical figure, combined with all of the clichés of a sports movie, yields this flick. Chadwick Boseman gives a steady performance as the first black player to break the color line in racially segregated major league baseball, a big issue in post WWII America. It follows his signing by the Brooklyn (not Los Angeles) Dodgers in 1946 and his first year of play in the majors in 47 and the humiliations and racism he endured. The Dodger exec who signed him, Branch Rickey, played by Harrison Ford, is actually portrayed more convincingly than is Robinson. That is hardly Boseman's fault. There is very little background on Robinson. A star standout college athlete in his native California, he was one of a handful of black officers in the segregated WWII US Army and was almost court martialled for protesting racial disparities. But he was one great baseball player. His base running techniques alone rejuvenated the game. A very good movie. Just not a great one. Nonetheless, highly recommended.

Clint Eastwood both directed and starred in this 4th story of cynical, tough San Fran PD Insector Dirty Harry Callahan. In his long directorial career, Clint always depicted female characters as more than just eye candy for his macho characters. This time it's no different, as the story centers around a woman--played by Sandra Locke, at the time Clint's real life partner--who seeks vengeance for her rape and that of her now catatonic sister at the hands of a group of young men living a middle class existence in a small town near San Fran. This film is, of course, known for the line, "Go ahead, make my day ," uttered by Harry to a bad guy holding a female hostage, his cocked 44 magnum aimed at the miscreants head. Ronald Regan appropriated the line a year later. Clint even sports a bigger gun this time around, the 44 Automag (technically only a semi auto pistol). Real issues of rape and the legal system's ability or inability or unwillingness to handle them are raised here. Locke's character is in some ways even.more cynical and tougher than Dirty Harry as she guns down the rapists one by one. A very good.movie. Don't miss it!!

An old and at this point in the 1980s a faded genre, Clint Eastwood gave a new twist to the western film. It shares a few similarities with High Plains Drifter and Shane but is really unlike the earlier two classic cowboy ouevres. Clint is again a man without a name who intervenes in a bitter local dispute between a ruthless mining magnate and a group of barely making it "tin pans". He is called Preacher because of his clerical collar, appearing on a white horse in the mining camp after a teenage girl reads from the Book of Revelations about death being a pale rider. Clint has already beaten up a group of cowboy thugs working for the villainous LaHood who were assaulting a miner in town. The film has a religious theme. Who is Clint? A ghost? An angel sent down to earth by God to help the meek? A resurrected gunman? LaHood calls in a corrupt lawman and his deputies to kill the miners and Preacher but he outshoots them. Just before he guns down the marshal, the latter recognizes him as a dead man. No final answer as to his true nature. A terrific movie, directed by Eastwood. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

One of the very few Hollywood movies to tackle the history of the American Civil War. But, typically, this is as much fiction as history. Except for the white commanding officer, all of the characters are fictional in this movie about the first black regiment raised to fight for the cause that would free their people from slavery. It does accurately portray the petty racism that affected the Massachusetts based unit. The acting and dialogue are superb. This movie made Denzel Washington a star, earning him an Academy Award. Morgan Freeman is also outstanding as as the regiment's sergeant major. In real life, the unit was composed of free Northern blacks but in this film some are escaped former slaves. The main criticism of this movie was that it was told from the point of view of its white colonel Shaw but it is largely based on the real Shaw's letters to his family back home in Boston, now preserved at the archives at Harvard. A great movie. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Taking a break from pummeling bad guys and seeking to broaden his image from muscular action hero to comedic actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this comedic oriented flick. Seeking to locate the runaway wife and son of a drug dealer before the villain does, LAPD detective Arnold and his female partner go undercover in a small 0regon town. He ends up as a substitute kindergarten teacher in a local school. Beginning a romance with another teacher, he slowly realizes she's the drug dealer's wife. Then the bad guy and his mom show up and the movie becomes a more conventional actionier. The dealer gets his lumps and Arnold gets the girl. A cute film and a change of pace from Arnold's 80s muscle man persona. Recommended.

Is it real or all an artificially induced dream by a memory implant? This is the ambiguity of this violent science fiction/action 80s movie, with Arnold Schwarzenegger again at his pumped up muscular peak. Loosely based on an earlier novel, is his character really experiencing this stuff on Mars or only in his mind? Since we see scenes from the point of view of other characters--the Martian colony ruler, the guys trying to kill him--I tend to favor the first alternative. But there is a lot of evidence to the contrary. This film was heavily criticized for its portrayal of women--one is a prostitute and the other is his supposed wife but is really spying on him and the lover of the chief baddie henchman. When Arnold dispatches her with a bullet to the head, it's called a divorce. The pre CGI special effects still hold up well. A great Arnold vehicle. Not Terminator 2 but still a science fiction classic. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Very loosely based on a Stephen King novel, this movie is both a sarcastic look at American television and an action movie with a Roller Derby/pro wrestling format. Schwarzenegger is at his 80s peak of pumped up muscularity, throwing out constant one liners and pummeling equally beefy villains--played by ex pro wrestlers--into submission. The joke begins to wear thin after a while. Perennial game show host Richard Dawson is a natural as the arrogant, egocentric host of the tv show after which the movie is titled. Campy and not to be taken seriously, this flick is an above average 80s Arnold vehicle. Not Terminator but not Raw Deal either.

A forgotten bit of WW2 history is remedied here somewhat with the tales of the thousands of young women hired by the branches of the US military to help decipher German and Japanese signals. This enabled Allied forces to sink Nazi U boats in the Atlantic and Japanese merchant ships in the Pacific, to anticipate enemy movements and deceive the Germans about the true landing site of the Normandy D Day landing in June 1944, the largest amphibious operation of the war. Every enemy communication decrypted and sent to the proper military command in good time was one more notch on the way to victory in the greatest war in human history. The women who were selected for this purpose enabled young men to be sent to the combat fronts. Like their civilian female counterparts in the war production factories, the much glorified "Rosie the Riveter", the women did a proto feminist job that was initially opposed by crusty admirals and hidebound generals, not to mention conservative politicians. This book is at times a bit hard to follow. Names pop up here and there. The author was lucky to find some of these by then elderly women still alive to interview. A good job by the women in the 1940s and by the quasi feminist author.