Please, please give Spike a call.

OK, Denzel, what the hell?

You made a fifth movie with Tony Scott? What on earth for?!?

Alright, Crimson Tide was pretty good, and that was your first, so that's OK. Your second with him came nine years later, and although I can buy that you trusted the man from your previous experience together, had you not seen his work lately? And as dark and gritty as it is, Man on Fire just isn't very good, so your second collaboration should have been your last. No hard feelings.

But there you are again only two years later with Deja Vu, and three years after that with a remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. Why? Is it some kind of "I make the crappy films so I can afford to make the good ones" approach to Hollywood? If so, I don't think even The Great Debaters was worth shaming the memory of Walter Matthau.

But you have continued on and will be starring in Unstoppable later on this year. I watched the trailer, Denzel, and I could barely tell what was going on for the noise (which is par for the course in a Tony Scott film). I'm hoping that maybe this last film is truly the last film. I'd much rather see The Inside Man 2 than another one of these.

Goodbye, Mrs. 2-E

Patricia Neal 1926-2010

Everyone's "Sunny"

The great Bobby Hebb died yesterday at the age of 72. Here are a couple of "Sunny's" (first the original, then a couple of covers) to brighten your day:

"In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked 'What God do you pray to?' 'What beliefs do you hold?'"

If Palin is really looking for cojones (not to mention integrity and a true love in what this country stands for), she needs to look here:

"The government has no right whatsoever to deny that right – and if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question – should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here. This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions, or favor one over another."

Go read the whole thing. Bravo, Mr. Bloomberg.

Tom Clancy PREDICTS!

The Hunt for Red October is a favorite of Mrs. Mosley's, and I started thinking about one of her favorite scenes as I read the news this morning. The conversation takes place between Captain Borodin (Sam Neil) and Captain Ramius (Sean Connery) as they discuss what their lives will be like when they defect to the United States.

Borodin: "I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a 'recreational vehicle.' And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?"

Ramius: "I suppose."

Borodin: "No papers?"

Ramius: "No papers, state to state."

Borodin: "Well then, in winter I will live in... Arizona. Actually, I think I will need two wives."

Ramius: "Oh, at least."

Borodin, I've got good news and bad news for ya. The bad news is that, if you winter Arizona, you're probably gonna need papers. The good news is that, the way things are going in the courts in that neck of the woods, you still might be able to swing the two wives.

Samuel L. Jackson Quote of the Month: August 2010

It's gotta be nice for an actor to be a point in their career where a brief cameo in a film will immediately put a smile on the audience's collective face. And with this introductory sentence, you would think I'm speaking of 2008's Iron Man, but you'd be wrong. No, I'm speaking of the Samuel L. Jackson end-of-movie surprise cameo ten years previous to that.

At the end of 1998's Out Of Sight, George Clooney's character Jack Foley finds himself (SPOILER!) in the back of a prison van with a cool looking guy named Hejira (Played by an uncredited Samuel L. Jackson). What results is an awesome scene to top off an awesome movie:

Jack Foley: "What kind of name is Hejira?"

Hejira: "It's Islamic."

Jack Foley: "What's it mean?"

Hejira: "The Hejira was Mohammed's flight from Mecca in 632. Brothers in Leavenworth gave me that name."

Jack Foley: "You were in Leavenworth?"

Hejira: "For a time."

Jack Foley: "What's that mean?"

Hejira: "Means, when the time came, I left."

Jack Foley: "You broke out?"

Hejira: "I prefer to think of it as an exodus from an undesirable place."