'Dumb Money'

In writing this review of sorts I won't even attempt to explain the financial terms that are used in this film.

  This film was first released in Sept 2023 and finally had a chance to see it last weekend. It attempts to tell the story of Keith Gill who through his social media following was able to persuade them to buy stock in Game Stop because he liked the stock.

And then Keith Gill finds himself going up against Wall Street firms who had been "short-selling stock". I got a kick out of Nick Offerman playing Citadel CEO Ken Griffin as I had no idea he had been part of this story.

Ken Griffin you might know placed his own bet on an Illinois mayor to become the Republican nominee for Governor. That man floundered and Griffin before the 2022 GOP primary announced that he was moving Citadel out of Chicago and to Florida citing high crime.

Either way Gill's social media following aggressively starts buying the Game Stop stock and helps to drive up the price of those shares and causes these investment firms such as Gabe Plotkin's Melvin Capital to lose money. So the gambit of "short-selling" was not working as as we learn near the end of the film is that now investment firms have to pay attention to social media to see which stocks "dumb money" or consumer investors are buying.

Gill hasn't posted to his YouTube channel since 2021 and not too long after he had testified in front of a Congressional Committee. And I get that he lost his job as a result of the publicity surround this situation, I only wonder what he's up to these days and if he's still got his shares of Game Stop.

Also if you can't relate to Gabe Plotkin or Griffin you can relate to some of his Gill's followers. Two college students who are all in on Game Stop one of whom suffered some form of financial setbacks from her parents. Then an actual worker at Game Stop who is all in on shares and doesn't appear that happy with his job. And then a single mother who's a nurse at a hospital.

Another part of this is RobinHood which as a result of their own role in this scandal their IPO didn't start off as well as they had hope. The founders of RobinHood were no longer billionaires. One thing I do remember from back then - two years ago - is that they stopped purchase of Game Stop shares. What I didn't know is that Griffin was involved with this.

Back when this actually happened perhaps one a new administration took over in Washington I was a bit fascinated by this story and heard the news. At the same time I was too late once it became a story.

I also heard that there were dumb money buying shares of AMC Theatres in 2021 which would've been game for me because I'd like that stock.

This movie isn't quite up there with The Big Short, however, when it comes to movies explaining financial news stories this is a worthwhile watch if you go to the theater and certainly if you can find it on streaming in the near future. 

Here's a trailer [VIDEO]

How One Building Changed Filmmaking

 

[VIDEO] 368 Broadway in Manhattan is home to Casey Neistat. He is one of many creative people who's resided here in this building's history. It was home to fashion designers, filmmakers, printers, etc from the time it was built.

It's history is even interesting the architect wasn't even an Ivy League educated architect, he - John B. Snook - learned how to design buildings on his own. And when you think about it, if Snook essentially was DIY that marks the creative style of Casey Neistat.

I consider myself a Neistat fan - how many times have I stated this - and he didn't go to some fancy film school he was self taught. Even twenty years I ago I didn't appreciate that with computers digital filmmaking or digital videomaking was more accessible to every day folks.

Of course it's not just that it seems this so-called Diane Fink School of Filmmaking had it's own style and some of those pupils have been successful in Hollywood. While the creatives in Hollywood in my mind is limited, one easy name that comes to mind in recent memory is Greta Gerwig who comes from this school and has her blockbuster hit with Barbie.

Again DIY - do it yourself - if you're creative and want to share it with the world don't ask permission. Just do it and make your mark. I like this theme.

I've never seen 'Blow' however if I can find it on streaming

 

[VIDEO] I'm sharing this "Mob Movie Monday" review from former mobster Michael Franzese due to the untimely passing of actor Ray Liotta. I've never actually had the chance to see Blow, but if you want to know in what ways crime doesn't pay watch this film released over 20 years ago. It's based on a true story.

#TheKingsMan Movie review

 I finally saw The King's Man on HBOMax and I really liked it. Of course seeing the feedback especially noted on wikipedia it wasn't that great. The cool thing about this film is how it utilized some real historical events as part of the story.

We see that various events of World War One was influenced by this group known as the Flock. They wanted to pit the British, Russian and German empires against each other. And they started with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire then. And the events of that unfortunate event was nailed perfectly.

Did you know that the reigning monarchs of Britain, Russia and Germany were first cousins? That was an important part of the story although the reviews I saw noted the personality differences. British King George V was a lot more reasoned, Kaiser Wilhelm II was very aggressive, and the ill-fated Czar Nicholas II was portrayed as weak as he fell under the spell of Rasputin who was yet another member of the flock. One part of The Flock's goal was to take Russia out of the war and isolate the British Empire to insure its defeat.

I also liked certain other aspects of what happened during the four years of war from 1914 to 1918. For example the Zimmermann Telegram was a real thing which was intended to encourage Mexico to go to war against the USA. And it was also correct that then President Woodrow Wilson was not very quick to join the war. Of course one deviation from history involved another member of The Flock the Mata Hari.

From what I do remember Mata Hari was executed in France for espionage. From what I can tell she never quite made it to the US to seduce and blackmail President Wilson to keep America out of WW1. However that was another important plot of The Flock which was foiled once the the first iteration of The Kingsman led by the Duke of Oxford was able to recover film footage of Mata Hari in the Oval Office of the White House seducing President Wilson.

This isn't exactly a war movie but we do see the devastation of WW1. We also see the loss of the Duke of Oxford's son who was shot being mistaken for a German spy. We see him as a concerned father who wants to keep his son out of the war. And then we see his son become the inspiration for creating The Kingsman spy agency.

And another nice touch as President Wilson debates the Zimmerman Telegram at the White House he asks for a Statesman on the rocks. In the Kingsman sequel The Golden Circle, Statesman is a bourbon whiskey distillery which also doubles as an independent spy agency. Just as the Kingsman is a tailor shop that also doubles as a spy agency.

So a few nice touches that keep this movie in the Kingsman film universe and I see opportunities for a sequel. Who's to say that whatever is left of The Flock doesn't turn around and provoke the 2nd World War? We see Adolf Hitler at the end and once Czar Nicholas and his family is executed, Russia is then under the control of Vladimir Lenin who we also see in this movie once Rasputin fails in his mission. 

I can't wait to see if The King's Man will have a sequel. If you haven't seem it check out this trailer. [VIDEO]

"The Batman" first look

The Batman - Camera Test from Matt Reeves on Vimeo.

[VIDEO] As a geek I wish I could do a far better job of following the news on genre films especially comic book movies. There is to be a new Batman movie next year featuring Twilight's Robert Pattinson as the titular character. It''s expected to be the reboot of the DCEU Batman franchise as Pattison is taking over the role from Ben Affleck.

I saw a lot of comments pouring over the music you will hear in the video above released two months ago. basically your going to hear the same notes repeat as this short clip comes to it's conclusion. The Batsuit looks like a suit of armor although the cinematic Batman for the most part always wears armour to protect himself from typical hazards such as bullets or knives. And to see Pattison in his costume is cool as it previews the movie ahead.

I have to admit I really liked Affleck's batsuit as in the comic cinematic world it's not often we see Batman in a cloth suit as opposed to heavily armored. It was a great change of pace although he portrayed a much older Batman who was worn down by his war on crime in Gotham. Pattison is expected to portray a young Batman at the start of his war on crime.

As stated earlier this is something of a reboot as the DCEU isn't as critically acclaimed or profitable as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been. Or I should say the DCEU hasn't made as much money over time as the MCU. The movies unfortunately haven't been that great since Man of Steel the first movie of that franchise was released in 2013.

I even saw the movie Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
that came out earlier this year before the pandemic. It's set in the Batman universe and somewhat connects with the DCEU, and indeed the Harley Quinn of the title was first seen in the other DCEU installment Suicide Squad. Both were fun movies, however, the story was a bit of a mess and I left the movie ultimately unsatisfied. I didn't even wait to the end to see the last scene of the movie after the credits. Like a few of them with very few exceptions many of the DCEU movies could've been better.

Hopefully The Batman for next year will reinvigorate the DCEU. I hear it's production is delayed due to the pandemic, however, when theaters reopen later this year hopefully the public will get to see the 2017 Wonder Woman sequel Wonder Woman 1984.

BTW, having seen Joker last year I find myself wishing that universe (its actually not part of the DCEU franchise) could be expanded upon. It would be cool to see a Bruce Wayne/Batman develop in that universe with Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of the title character as an antagonist. In an interesting way they setup Batman's origin story. If you're sheltering in place, I suggest you check it out on your favorite streaming service.

How 1917 was filmed?

[VIDEO] I saw the first World War drama 1917 on New Years Eve. It was a great movie that showed a lot of "no man's land" in between warring trenches during the so-called "war to end all wars".

The story is of two young lance corporals in the British army charged with sending a message to a unit who was about to engage in a major assault against the Germans. The Germans appeared to have retreated from their lines only to establish a new line designed to trap the British into attacking them. Thus if the British thinks that the Germans were on the run, then the Germans could turn around and decimate attacking British units.

One thing that's noted in the above video is the shooting of this film. It does appear to be one continuous shot and is explored by Insider. The film is directed by American Beauty & Skyfall director Sam Medes who dedicated this film to a forbear who fought in that century old conflict.

If you hadn't a chance to see this film please do so.

"The Current War"

Often when I see period pieces such as The Current War I will be surrounded by the elderly. They seem more interested in historic films such as this which is basically a story of the competition between Thomas Edison and his direct current vs. George Westinghouse and his alternating current.

It's amazing to know the history of how homes and businesses receive their electricity. While it's noted that Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb (most of us may remember this from school hopefully), it was essentially Westinghouse who may not be as well known aside from a company that bore his name who won this "current war" with his DC power.

And I was somewhat bothered by the three or so Black men in the movie. One was a reporter, another was portrayed a wealthy man, and the last one worked for Edison. Upon checking out the wiki page the Black man working for Edison is a Black inventor named Lewis Latimer. And somehow I believed he belonged there, the other two perhaps it was just Hollywood being very inclusive in a period movie where Blacks just weren't yet treated as equals.

I shouldn't forget the contribution of one Nicola Tesla. He was portrayed in this film as one odd character. I'm sure he was a genius who made the difference the competition between DC and AC. Sorry to know that he never profited from his contributions.

A Chicago connection in this film is Samuel Insull who worked for Edison who undeniable resembles Peter Parker as Spider-Man 😛. Insull had some holdings in a few Chicago-area utilities such as People's Gas and Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and he definitely had some local transportation interests that includes the South Shore interurban and a predecessor to the Chicago Transit Authority. Alas he was another who ultimately died penniless.

I remember seeing trailers for this film over two years ago and had little idea it got caught up in that scandal involving Harvey Weinstein. I'm glad another company picked this film up and redistributed it. I'm glad to have seen this film depicting one of the great achievements of the late 19th century. It was great to see how the world we we knew it a century later came to be. [VIDEO]

#Joker first reaction

[VIDEO] From movie buff John Campea who might have been amongst the first people who saw Joker when it was released Thursday night. He wouldn't describe Joker as a typical comic book film.

I saw the movie this afternoon and while it's supposed to be a stand alone movie outside of the DC Extended Universe, I do like what they've done with Batman canon. I also know Batman canon has often been "retconned", regardless I won't give too much away but there are quite a few aspects of this film I liked. If you know Batman canon Joker really is an unstable character.

My favorite movie line if you will was something I tweeted once I left the movie.

“When I was a child I hated school. My mother says I should enjoy it because you’ll be working for a living.

Then I said no I won’t because I’ll be a comedian!

And now I’m a comedian and now no one is laughing!”

🤨#Joker

— Levois J (@levois) October 4, 2019

"2001: A Space Odyssey" 50 years...

[VIDEO] I sat on this post for a number of months and it's time to share. This is one of my favorite films of all time and have only seen it on the big screen once. The year is about over so it doesn't look like I'll find a 50th anniversary screening of this Stanley Kubrick classic anytime soon.

I had a psychology teacher in high school - GO FALCONS - who gave me a basic explanation of this movie. Well it disappointed me at the time, but now I get it - that man has become the tool. Man has grown dependent upon the tools he created.

Let's think about this it starts with our primate ancestors after encountering this mysterious object known as a monolith they use a bone from a dead animal carcass to not only hunt, but to assault another group of our primate ancestors. This primate ancestors throw this bone in the air and suddenly this bone becomes a satellite. So the tools of humanity evolves and become technology that we depend on.

Thankfully we haven't created this all-powerful human like computer that could prove capable of killing its own human creators. Hopefully 2001 with is slow pace, pre-Star Wars special effects, lack of dialogue, or even stunning visuals will be cautionary tale about the evolution of the computer. The computer which is just another tool created by man.

Here's an homage to 2001 from the YouTube channel VideoSpaceFX who recreates the intro of this classic film. You see an eclipse from a perspective beyond the moon. [VIDEO]

And I didn't recognize that on April 3, 1968 was when this classic was released according to wikipedia.

My thoughts on #Fahrenheit119

[VIDEO] Having seen the recent Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 a few points the movie made.

To start how did we get a President Donald Trump, I'm thinking Moore's point with that is the Democratic establishment blew the 2016 election. Besides the inevitable first woman President was expected to have it in the bag right. No one believed Trump could win it.

Next how did we get a President Trump if America is really a nation that trends to the left. We want universal health care for example. I could debate this I wonder what was the basis for the polls Moore cite to come to that conclusion about America's political leanings. And yes I know Moore himself is a lefty he's been around for years obviously.

Next and this is something I do agree with. I used to eschew this, but Michael Moore solidified this with me. America has a ruling class or perhaps a political class - I don't think Trump is part of that clique actually - regardless the influential who likely are very wealthy are the ones who are turning the levers of power in America. And I could conclude that they do this in a variety of ways perhaps economically and certainly through control of the media.

Here's another thing that makes sense to me the Democrats blew the 2016 the moment they "rigged" the nomination process to insure the inevitable woman President gets the nomination. I didn't know that although Sen. Bernie Sanders had won all the counties of West Virginia, the Democrat delegation to the 2016 convention threw their votes to Hillary Clinton.

Finally Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - a not quite ready for prime time congressional candidate from New York - is what Moore hopes is the future of the Democrat party. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic socialist and is one of a number of candidates who are seeking seats in Congress. And Moore makes the case through media clips that the establishment (or the so-called ruling class) doesn't want them either. The Democratic socialists are too far to the left for America and seemingly those pundits even if they're not top Dem politicos are saying this on what I may consider liberal cable news networks.

I know that Moore makes more points than this in his movie. I think he made some great points to consider in addition to bringing to light more information on the Flint, Michigan water crisis which he claims was orchestrated by Gov. Rick Snyder. He throws in the activism of students who attended Florida's Parkland High School which unfortunately was the site of an active shooter. And of course promoting union activism - which is likely how Moore got his start in filmmaking.

One of the things Moore asks is how did a nation that trends left get Donald Trump? Perhaps America isn't that much of a leftist nation in the first place. Perhaps we could believe the hype that America wanted something different a President with very little political experience. Perhaps it was just Trump's time and it wasn't time for the first woman President. And certainly the inevitable first woman President Clinton and her team thought it was in the bag that she didn't have to really work for it. While on the other hand, Trump did the work he needed to do to win.

What this movie reminds me of is, some aspects of politics aren't as black & white. Perhaps a conservative in a red state probably has the same issues with the so-called ruling or political class as a leftist in a blue state. With that said, now we know why we do have a Ocasio-Cortez who defeated a longtime Democrat politico in New York.

With this film which is a take-off of Moore's earlier effort released during the Iraq War - Fahrenheit 9/11 - seems not to pull any punches. The label doesn't matter - Republican or Democrat - Moore didn't pull his punches.

Quentin Tarantino sets up another film series?

This intrigues me. Kind of like what they're doing with Star Wars with a Han Solo movie being released next month. It seems the Star Wars universe isn't just concerned with the two trilogies that were released in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s.

There are plenty of stories to be told out of the Star Wars universe and so will there be plenty of stories to be told out of the Star Trek universe. So whatever Tarantino is coming up with, I'm interested! Read this post from TrekMovie

ICYMI: Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Project Could Set Up Separate Movie Series #QuentinTarantino https://t.co/Q1S8fhHPpu

— TrekMovie.com (@TrekMovie) April 29, 2018

Also check out this satirical version of a potention Tarantino Trek movie. Pretty funny but for now we can only imagine how an actual movie trailer is going to look like. [VIDEO]

I know this is an obscure reference, but I really miss Cinescape magazine. It got be exciting for a lot of coming movie projects and news of them!

Previously: Tarantino "Trek"

#12Strong

[VIDEO] On Tuesday I saw 12 Strong which is  dramatization about the first American response after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It's a real life story about a squad of special forces soldier who were the first in Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda and the ruling Taliban. And Al Qaeda thanks to the events of this film suffered a major defeat at the hands of Afghan rebels against the Taliban and these special forces soldiers.

BTW, on Al Qaeda I just had to tweet this out upon seeing a few captions at the end of this film. I have it in my head that while Radical Islam/Islamic Fundamentalism isn't entirely dead as a violent force Al Qaeda is largely a dying force.

#12Strong so Al-Qaeda considers the battle they fought in that film to be the worst one they lost and then I realize....There’s still an Al-Qaeda?

— Levois J (@levois) January 31, 2018

All the same I wanted to compare this with a similar film 13 Hours directed by Michael Bay and released just about two years earlier. 12 Strong and 13 Hours are similar movies in different contexts.

12 Strong was America's first response to a very deadly terrorist attack on NYC and the Pentagon. 13 Hours involved the death of an American ambassador and violent attacks on US diplomatic staff and a CIA operation. While the men who were fighting this battle weren't active duty military at that time, they were former special forces soldiers who just so happen to be contractors to help protect the CIA operation.

Oh yeah, this was this Benghazi you might have heard about during the 2016 campaign. Resultantly 13 Hours is a drama about survival against the very violent attacks of rebel groups in Libya after the fall of Col. Qaddafi. This movie unfortunately depicted the deaths of four Americans.

With this movie in a very untrustworthy or unforgiving environment of Afghanistan these 12 American soldiers were successfully able to provide the first victories in the emerging War on Terror. And while many Afghan rebels died fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, none of those 12 American soldiers depicted in this film were killed.

Between 2001 to 2018 what's changed? Well we're still concerned about Islamic fundamentalism (which could be called Islamofascism, Radical Islam). There were some terrorist plots or actual acts of terrorism in NYC last year - a car running down people similar to what happened in London and an attempted suicide bombing at a train station. It's still unfortunately a concern even if America did essentially eliminate Al-Qaeda as a force.

While we may still be fighting this dangerous ideology the front seems to have gone from the many battlefields in the Middle East to the issue of immigration. The need for extreme vetting, the need to limit undocumented immigrats in America.

Thankfully we've yet to see another attack on America as seen as 2001. Hopefully we can keep it that way.

12 Strong is a movie I would recommend seeing.

Saw #JusticeLeague this evening

[VIDEO] I'm going to let John Campea do more talking about this movie. If I had seen the above video before seeing the 6 PM show I'd know what he was mostly talking about.

Since the start of the DC extended universe in 2013 with Man of Steel it seems the new series of films had starts in fits and starts. Man of Steel was OK there were some parts of the movie that threw me and basically they killed off Zod from Kryton so early.

Now I liked Batman vs. Superman though the whole film wasn't that good. Batman to me stole the show though in reading other reviews many had a serious issue with Batman as a cold killer. The Dark Knight or Caped Crusader showed he was a bad man in facing down the hoodlums of Gotham and Superman. It was a bit goofy how using Martha - the name of both Clark's mother & Bruce Wayne's - stopped the epic fight between DC Comics two most iconic superheroes.

I also liked Suicide Squad also problem is they threw in the Joker. I recognize that they threw in the Joker because Harley Quinn was in it - because she's been introduced to the main DC universe and is no longer exclusive to the DC animated universe. The first part seemed to have been humming along, the second half well I didn't get it. And again we get a glimpse of Batman & The Flash with a special appearance by Bruce Wayne near the end seeking to provide Amanda Waller cover.

The next movie changed the direction of the DC extended universe, Wonder Woman. Using the Great War (The first World War) was a nice touch that worked and contrasted with the canonical second World War origins of the superheroine. She fought the German Empire as easily as she fought the Nazi's Third Reich. It was quite an introduction especially if her introduction into Batman v. Superman wasn't as satisfying.

Finally we have the long awaited Justice League. Ah the Easter eggs I want to talk about we seem some hints of other DC super heroes in this one though nothing from them yet - and yes there will be other movies about these other characters. It was great to see Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg interact with each other. At first there was some hostility, then eventually they came together to fight a common antagonist. We even see a certain superhero who died in Batman vs. Superman return to finish the fight.Yeah I know a bit of a spoiler but if you've been paying attention to the trailers you already know Superman is coming back.

Just like Wonder Woman, the audience applauded and I missed the scene after the credits. There was a mid-credits scene that I saw, however, since I was at the movies far later than usual it was time for me to go. I may go see this film one more time to see this final scene. Although they could've ended this with the mid-credits scene which was very satisfying...and the audience also applauded that!

BTW, DC extended universe films aren't known for these end credits scene are they stealing a trick out of the page of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I could like without it though only provided if they advance the story of the DC universe.

Also, I've never caught a midnight show, however, I've noticed over the years that they have slowly fallen out of favor. Basically if a blockbuster is expected to come out on Friday - in general - you can be amongst the first to catch it starting at 6 PM on Thursday. Of course this depends upon the venue where you seek to watch the movie. All the same I enjoyed this experience although a long way from saying this is something to do again. Perhaps for the right movie - the right geeky movie!

Go see Justice League, it gets a thumbs up from me!

#JusticeLeague is a winner not bad for watching the first showings of this film. Excellent! 👍🏾 pic.twitter.com/4RECjsI3wb

— Levois J (@levois) November 17, 2017

99 homes

Finally took the opportunity to see this film recently. Basically it reminds me of Wall Street with Gordon Gecko essentially mentoring a young stock broker only to see them both on the radar of the federal government for insider trading.

Lately I seem to be watching movies that prove to be somewhat depressing. For example I saw the biopic Black Mass of gangster Whitey Bulger - thank goodness he's off the streets although he's still a senior citizen at this point. Another time I saw Sicario which I recently wrote about. Those films involved criminal figures and the things they do to maintain their criminal activities.

On this occasion, we see a film that easily was set during the course of the housing crisis earlier in this decade. Unfortunately someone has to put people out of their homes because of their inability to pay their mortgage or any loans borrowed against their homes. And of course someone is profiting from this and this could make people angry.

One tagline from this film is "don't get emotional about real estate". So we see a guy named Nash (Andrew Garfield) struggling to make ends meet and keep the family home for his mother and son. Ultimately Carver (Michael Shannon) kicks them out only to give Nash a job later and besides he's down on this luck anyway.

Suddenly Nash goes from the go to handyman to doing various jobs which also includes kicking people out of their homes in addition to essentially sabotaging homes so they won't attract interest from rival real estate agents. While Nash finally gets into the groove of his new found career he hasn't lost his conscious and it shows at the end of the movie.

Carver well somehow I like him while also recognizing him as a snake. Another tagline he utters during the film is "America doesn't bail out losers, America bails out winners". He proves a point about how his father worked hard and had very little to show of it other than a major injury which he was unable to get treated because insurance wouldn't cover it. And then noting how Nash worked very hard and lost his family home.

Carver is insensitive, greedy, and definitely unethical but somehow I could connect with him. Just as easily as I could connect with Nash. However, this film is a reminder not only to not get emotional about real estate but to also take care of our financial houses before we see someone like Carver serving us eviction notices.

"The Late Shift"

[VIDEO] This is one of the opening scenes of The Late Shift. Shown on HBO in 1996 this film was based on a book written by Bill Carter which illustrated the fight for NBC's Tonight Show after Johnny Carson called it quits in 1991.

I liked this movie when it was released but at that point in time I was still a teenager. There was a lot about this movie that went over my head back then but understand it more now than ever. As a matter of fact in recent years we've seen more shifts in late night TV. Jay Leno retired twice, the Tonight Show essentially has gone through three hosts since at least 2009. After Jay, Conan O'Brien and after Jay again Jimmy Fallon with both Conan & Jimmy having hosted Late Night.

As we see in this movie and of course in reality Letterman moved over to CBS to host their Late Show after failing to get his dream job at Tonight. It was fun to see the positioning of both Letterman, Leno and all the players who made their pitches. In terms of what happened since Letterman retired from hosting Late Show.

If I recall correctly at times Comedy Central has shown this film. Now while this story involves two comedians at least, this doesn't strike me as a comedy, more as a drama. Some of what we see aren't meant to be funny although we see the actors who portray these comedians portray their roles adopting each comedians mannerisms. The comedians tell their jokes for the most part and as a result it seems the drama is portrayed by network executives & agents.

BTW, the scene above shows Letterman after a show lamenting how the crowd responded to him. He's definitely hyper even with a message to comedienne Sandra Bernhard that starts this scene off right. It's amusing, but an important part of this drama.

ALSO, this book has a sequel which revolves around "the late shift" that occurred in 2010 again with NBC's Tonight Show. After 7 months hosting NBC's signature late night franchise O'Brien was pushed out in favor of a returning Jay Leno. I'd like to see that adapted into a film in the near future.

Gene Roddennberry's intro to "The Cage"

[VIDEO] Star Trek's 50th anniversary is coming up next year. So hard to believe it's that old as I remember the 30th anniversary - a program aired on TV in 1996 that had been recorded on VHS tape at home. Even better hopefully a new Trek film will be ready to go by next year.

In the above video Trek creator Gene Roddenberry gives us the rundown on the first pilot "The Cage". Little did I know that not only this pilot never aired on TV in the 1960s (it first aired in 1988 according to the Trek wiki) it had also been shown in black & white. Although when I've seen this episode it was always in color.

Most of what Roddenberry said isn't entirely unfamiliar to me. The idea of a TV pilot, his concept of the series, and perhaps the network's expection. That network being NBC who did air the series between 1966-1969. It's recognized that the series from this pilot to it's eventual cancellation was very different from not only other series from it time but also the sensibilities.

Of course there were other concerns such as advertisers. Tobacco companies advertised in those days. These days well we want to really discourage smoking and that means we won't see many smoking ads on TV now.

Judging by some of the effects and the sets Roddenberry was walking around this had to have been taped at least in the early 80s. According to the video description this came from a DVD featuring a color version of this pilot episode. And that seems to contradict Roddenberry who said there had been only black & white footage of this episode. Even though we see here both color and black & white footage.

So there's a documentary about Mitt Romney...

In 2012, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the GOP nominee for President. I'm sure many Americans believe he should've been president but sadly 2012 wasn't the year to make a change. Indeed depending on whom you read it could be said that "the incumbent was uninspiring and the challenger wasn't very inspiring".

Well I may not have gotten that quite correct, but I'm sure there were many voters who weren't very happy about the choices that they had almost two years ago. Now we know a bit more about the man. Perhaps he's much happier about being out of the spotlight now that the 2012 elections are over.

We know he has a grandson, who just so happens to be Black. He's happy about that I'm sure although unfortunately many have decided to point this out and make jokes about it.

All the same I got wind of a documentary via Instapundit on Mr. Romney - entitled Mitt - and it seems really interesting. Perhaps a portrait of a man who seeks to be a future leader of the "Free World". It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Romney himself went to the premiere.

You know I used to say that Romney probably didn't have a prayer because he was a wealthy man. Some of the comments he made on the campaign trail were certainly blown-up as if to say this man is out of touch with everyday Americans. Also these comments were certainly blown-up by President Obama's re-election campaign. Without a doubt it had been brutal!

Now it seems, Romney beat himself up a lot. He felt like he couldn't measure up to his father former Michigan Governor George Romney. While Mitt himself was wealthy it was noted that daddy Romney himself made good and well provided very well for his family. Also Romney apparently was intimidated by the President and if you want your seat in the Oval Office as as leader of the free world, should you be intimidated by the one who already serving a term and running for re-election?

Who knows, what if Romney wasn't down on himself in 2012? Could he have made a difference where many may say Obama couldn't have? And supposing that Romney really didn't want to job considering how difficult the current political environment is?

In the mood for "The Right Stuff"

[VIDEO] When I was in high school (GO FALCONS) I had designs on being an astronaut and unfortunately that was one path never followed. Basically my vision was to go on a real live "Star Trek" thanks to the fact that I was a fan of that franchise and other series and movies that involved space exploration.

There was a documentary mini-series that aired on TBS years ago called Moonshot that chronicled the early days of the space program and through the Apollo years. Then at theaters was Apollo 13 which is a real life story of a "moonshoot" that didn't quite land on the moon due to a mechanical failure.

Then in my junior year of high school I did a research paper on the lead-up to Apollo 11. I have to say, at one point in my paper was a paragraph that was a full page long. What was that about? LOL!

Anyway, during this time I discovered this movie called The Right Stuff that also chronicles the early days of the space program and somehow fits in the role of aerospace pioneering by one Chuck Yeager. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier in the late 1940s.

So I'm a huge fan of movie soundtracks and therefore want to share some music from The Right Stuff's soundtrack. It's very heroic although in this YouTube vid above it turned heavily 1980s near the end. This movie definitely was an homage to a group of men called the Mercury 7 who were the first Americans trained for spaceflight.

Now I need to find this film!

VIDEO: "Giant in the Sun" Northern Nigeria 1959

[VIDEO] This documentary is close to 20 minutes. I have yet to watch it, but I will share this description:

A production of the Northern Nigeria Information service in 1959 presents "Giant in the Sun" a short documentary showing the foundation laid down for the development of the Northern region just before Nigeria's independence in 1960.This is believed to be one of the earliest coloured film documentary shot in Nigeria and one of the best to come out from Africa.Nigeria will surely survive and recover her past lost glory by effectively and efficiently utilizing her abundant human and natural resources.

I post this realizing that as a man of African descent, this blog generally doesn't talk about Africa a lot. Perhaps when things in Africa are bad do I start talking about it. It's probably about time to look at the good things of Africa, even if those good things were in the past.

In 1959, Nigeria wasn't yet independent from the British Empire. I would be very curious what this film documents of the time before independence.

Hat-tip Instapundit!

Finally, I got a chance to see "Lincoln"

On Christmas Eve I finally had a chance to see Skyfall, the lastest James Bond effort. On New Year's Eve I finally had a chance to see Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. This needs to become a recurring tradition!

Lincoln could be a film in the same vein as say The American President - well aside from the romantic comedy aspects it's still a film that involves politics. I also have compared Lincoln to The West Wing TV series. They all did tackle some issues that were important to the eras that they had been set in.

In the case of Lincoln it was slavery and the Civil War. Basically what we saw in this film was President Abraham Lincoln securing the votes in Congress for the 13th Amendment. Not only that he also had to contend with ending the Civil War. In fact news of representatives coming from the Confederate States of America wanting to talk about the end of the war figured in the political machinations of enacting an amendment to the US Constitution to abolish slavery.

We also learned more about the other players involved other than Lincoln. Many members of Congress - Representatives & Senators - played a role in making the 13th Amendment a reality. Just like the effort it took to make many of today's policy objectives a reality. For example look no further than "Obamacare" as one example of many.

Granted it's not the most exciting movie to watch. There's only one scene of the movie that was action packed which is mainly of Black soldiers fighting against the Confederate army. Then there's a scene that shows the bombardment of a Southern city although we didn't see anyone in that scene. It's a movie for the history buffs and President Lincoln (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) does come alive for us in this movie as well as the many other players in this drama!

When I came to see this movie again at River East there was a packed theater to see this movie. This movie and Skyfall has been out since November and people are still coming to see it. Spielberg must have done something right for it to have the appeal it does. :)