onlinegrandpa's Blog

Highly stylized with great photography and music, perhaps to provide some distance between the audience and the emotional devastation a story like this can produce in those who witness it, this wonderful movie is certain to be as uplifting as it is heartbreaking. Definitely a 'must see!' 

Once upon a time there were liberal Republicans who were socially liberal, fiscally conservative, and staunch defenders of our Constitution. If there were any left, which there aren't, they would be aghast at the current state of the Republican Party. I know I certainly am. Warrant-less wiretapping, the Patriot Act, torturing prisoners, an imperial presidency, allowing our manufacturing jobs to vanish overseas, corrupt corporatism, dismantling the federal regulatory system, and a narrow, distorted interpretation of family values would drive liberal Republicans insane. I know it drives me insane. I used to be a liberal Republican, even though I'm a democratic socialist. I simply felt that business oriented Republicans could make our government work more efficiently than Democrats could. I mean, even if we decided to nationalize an industry, like banking, or health care for that matter, using a business model would make it work better. Liberal Republicans were all business oriented. They could get the job done. Liberal Republicans were not slaves to Capitalism and they were not averse to Socialism, if that was the best, most efficient way of doing things. Liberal Republicans supported a woman's right to choose, but they were adamant about doing everything they could to reduce the number of abortions. Liberal Republicans were vigilant supporters of family values. Any family. Not just Christian fundamentalist families. A family is when two or more people decide to become one. Liberal Republicans knew that. Gender preference meant nothing. Liberal Republicans believed in equal rights under the law for everyone. If liberal Republicans were around today, and they were in control of Congress, they would insist on a National Health Care system, for no other reason than it's the most cost effective way to provide health care. A National Health Care system would be business-like. Liberal Republicans understood that. Unfortunately, there are no more liberal Republicans. Of course, I may have simply been deluding myself. I might have been the only one. 

This is one of my all time favorite movies. A Chinese production, a great heartwarming story involving children, with almost the entire cast made up of the actual people the story is about. I've watched this movie dozens of times and the emotional impact just gets better and better. A 12 year old girl takes a job as a substitute teacher in a rural Chinese village and she is tasked to finish her assignment with the same number of students she started with. One precocious little boy drops out of school and travels to a city to seek work to support his family. Our young, stubborn teacher goes after him and faces almost insurmountable odds simply to find him and bring him back. The story is a simple fable about stubborn determination, but it's a two box of Kleenex movie and one that I highly recommend. 

What a great, entertaining, and imaginative prequel to the STAR TREK series. A young Kirk, Spock, and the entire crew of the Star Ship Enterprise, add a great STAR TREK type story, throw in massive amounts of special effects and CGI wizardry, and you get a emotionally charged movie experience that's bound to please any Trekkie. 

An epic gangster movie done in classic style, dramatic, with rock solid performances, and masterful direction. Johnny Depp delivers yet another wonderful character as he portrays bank robber John Dillinger. Gangster movies don't get much better than this. 

If you're sick, or you have a sick child, it means you go to a doctor. Money is not an issue. How that is accomplished politically has little meaning. I really don't care who runs our health care delivery as long as you get to take your sick child to a doctor without regard to your personal finances. That goes for you and your significant other, too. I think access to decent health care is a "right" in any modern culture. Obviously, I feel the same way about housing, food, and education. These are all fundamental rights in any progressive society, or at least they should be.

Probably the best TV series of all time. Written for the screen in the same way you'd write a novel. Secondary characters are essential and they're not overlooked. THE WIRE gives the most realistic portrait of race, drugs, crime, police, and the city of Baltimore that I've ever seen anywhere. I'm half way through my fourth viewing of this five year long series and, let me tell you, it gets better with each viewing. You begin to see the subtle nuances you missed, almost like a second reading of a great novel. This is a "must see" if there ever was one. 

Yep, this has got to be the grandaddy of epic disaster movies. Half an hour to set the story up, and then all hell breaks loose, with only enough dramatic pause for you to catch your breath. An unusually good cast and a director who clearly understands how to ring the maximum amount of entertainment out of the material achieve equal footing with great CGI work, and plenty of it, too. 

Lame and lackluster storytelling pretty much sinks this one and not even the appearance of Zooey Deschanel can save it. Not very funny, not very imaginative, and totally lacking energy and spirit. I guess if you're trying to make something like CLERKS or GARDEN STATE. you really need the talent of Kevin Smith or Zack Braff. FLAKES totally misses the mark. A breakfast bar that just serves classic junk cereal was a cute idea, though. 

One thing about Tarantino movies, they raise two dimensional characters close to an art form, in the same way a graphic novel or comic book does. His movies are certainly different, I somehow think that's a good thing, and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS is right in there shocking, startling, and entertaining the hell out of us. 

Cute and amusing, and, if that's what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed. A success driven dad who doesn't have time for his daughter, and a daughter who has some imaginary friends and a security blanket. I said it was cute and amusing, right? 

Dark, even darker still, and seriously claustrophobic, with a plot supported by total chaos. Intense, too. Dante's Inferno would be a Summer's day by comparison. PANDORUM has almost no entertainment value, and that's why it died at the box office, but if you're a fan of gut wrenching science fiction drama, then you may like this as much as I did. 

I have no idea if anyone uses my movie reviews, so I also have no idea if those reviews are at all useful. However, would anyone like me to tell you what the movies I see are about? I usually resist doing that because, personally, I really don't care what a movie is about. To me, a story is a story. All I'm looking for is good storytelling. A western, a comedy, or a drama, are all on equal footing. Anyway, let me know if you'd like me to add a story description to my reviews. I don't mind.

If you're a fan of well done dramas, you'll probably like this just fine. Good performances, with a rather unique supporting role from Mena Suvari, skillful direction, and a nicely done screenplay highlight this somewhat offbeat story. 

Although legislating is like making sausage, it's messy and not something you want to see if you're at all queazy, at least with sausage you end up with something that actually tastes great, unlike the legislative process which usually produces bills that are so watered down they create more problems than they solve.

Watching this health care reform process has been especially disheartening, even with the huge amounts of humor provided by the Republicans. Come to think of it, the Democrats are providing about as much humor as the Republicans. Considering the seriousness of our health care problems, all that humor is more than a little embarrassing, and sad, too.

As Dennis Kucinich said, "If that's the best we can do, it's not good enough."

I suspect because America is so evenly polarized, Congress is now in a place where solving problems just ain't gonna happen. That's too bad. We've got a lot of problems that need solving. Health Care Reform, Financial Reform, Election Reform, Infrastructure rebuilding, and two damn wars we have no business fighting.

Maybe it's time we abandon our governing process in favor of some type of parliamentary system where if someone wins an election, they get to form a government. If the Republicans win, they get to rule. Same with the Democrats. Same with the Greens. Whoever didn't win gets to sit down and shut up. There would always be that blessed "no confidence" vote to keep the ruling party from going off on a tangent.

Wouldn't the democratic process be better served this way? If we give the Republicans a chance to govern for four years, they could show us their stuff. If we like that stuff, we vote 'em in for another four years and let 'er rip. If we don't, we vote the bums out and give someone else a shot.

I think that would force political parties to start campaigning on platforms instead of personalities and political bromides. I remember the first time I discovered Dennis Kucinich's web page. The first thing I noticed was a posted platform. There it was in black and white, everything he thought we should be doing, everything he wanted to do. Running on a platform is the best way to tell people who you are and what you believe.

Maybe not. Maybe we simply need to insist that political parties post a platform, prominently. That's what we should be voting for.

Another way to look at this is if Congress is dysfunctional, it's dysfunctional because we're dysfunctional. Letting the winning party form a ruling government would fix that. The winning party would have four years to get the job done. We'd get four years to watch, listen, and learn. Four years to see if the winning party had the right ideas or not. No watered down legislation. Maybe stuff would get done at last.

I'm an uber-liberal, but I sat through 8 years of Conservative rule. True, sometimes I shook my head, sometimes I even shook my fist, but I sat there and waited 'em out.

However, what if President Bush and his ruling Republican Party had been unrestrained. How much more damage could they caused? But, then, maybe we would have seen it sooner. Maybe we would have voted them out after four years instead of eight.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the subject? Do you think our present system of governing is ok? Should we be looking for something else, like a parliamentary system?