America has never had a military coup–That we know of.

This story is about a “what might have been.”

We see it in other countries all the time. Popular general-weak president.

The general sees fit to take over as president. After all, it seems to make a lot of sense.

I like this story because it had a lot of intrigue. You don’t know what is going to happen, how things are going to work out even at the very end. The power play between such powerful figures is fascinating to me.

Two kids went on the missionary trail-but with a camera.

They sold the rights of their trip to Trinity Broadcast Network, and there is a show on TV about how they did what they did. Travel The Road, they call it.

Actually, as I understand it, only the one guy was a Missionary. The cameraman wasn’t even a believer when they started. He apparently converted partway through the trip.

I think this would be a good show. I’d like to check it out!

You know, I had always thought I’d seen Karate Kid. But I’d never seen it, really. I’d only seen Karate Kid 2. They play the last minute of the first movie in the sequel, so I thought I’d seen it when I hadnt.

Where did Ralph Macchio go? He is SO cute in this movie. Oh my god. I felt 14 years old, I swear. All googly and crushy at this boy.

I had to google him to find out what’s he’s up to. Well, to be honest, I wanted to find a more recent photo. He’s 41 now, and I really thought I’d like to see how he matured. Mabye he’s even cuter now, with a little more experience.

I couldn’t find any older pictures of him. Too bad, i’m pretty sure he’s aged well.

The movie is so familiar to so many people. I mean, how else could I have THOUGHT i’d seen it when I hadn’t? But I was totally taken in.

Yeah, it’s about Karate and kicking the ass of the high school rich bully. Which was great, don’t get me wrong. OH my god, though, it is still a major chick flick. Just the way he treats his girlfriend…And the way he folds her into a hug..MMmmm…

I’m gonna watch it again.

Oh, I shouldn’t forget to mention the Soundtrack. It is a total 80s time capsule. Some good songs on there.

Seeing the previews for this movie made it seem like it had all the depth of a piece of paper. But actually, it was a lot better than it looked.

Classic Cinderella story, really. The maid in the hotel gets mistaken for one of the ritzy guests, the “Prince Charming.” Of course, one of the irritating things about the classic Cinderella story is how passive Cinderella is.

The Cinderella we all know is the one who is so sweet and good, she wouldn’t dare stand up for herself and push back at the wicked step-women. Of course, it turns out she doesn’t has to, because the prince comes along and rescues her.

Dr. Phil would not approve.

Jennifer Lopez as the Maid in Manhattan Cinderella is not so passive. She has a lot more going on. She has a past, represented by her mother, her ten-year-old son Ty and his invisible father. She has a present, mostly represented by her job and her son’s issues. And she has dreams of a future that she wants to make for herself.

The issues of class, self-doubt, and self-respect are a big part of the movie. And of course, LOVE. But a got-your-head-on-pretty-straight love.

It was quite an enjoyable show.

Oh, yeah. Don’t forget the soundtrack. Little gifted Ty is all into 70s stuff. They picked some of the good tunes you remember, plus some break-your-heart love songs.

I saw the TV movie about Martha Stewart last night. I turned on the TV while I was doing things, and I didn’t realize it was about Martha Stewart.

There is more than one Martha in the world, after all.

It started out with her wanting to be a model. So I thought the story was going to go in a totally different direction. Of course, the cute little ambitious model turned into the bitchy Martha Stewart.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit more than I thought I would. But they didn’t let Martha be very lovable. She was protrayed to be as hypocritical as we all hoped she was when we saw her in the smarmy TV show.

One thing I learned is that the Kmart thing happened rather early on. Martha Stewart entered my consciousness as a TV show. But long before her show, the Kmart backing really pushed her off the ground.

funny funny. Little miss priss got up in the world on the back of the blue light special.

I admire her for how hard she worked to make her ambitions happen. But of course, she should have paused once in a while to enjoy her family. Her husband in the movie was portrayed as a very dear man, and it’s too bad she lost him.

I thought the story was pretty good. If they re-ran it, I might watch it again. Especially since, I confess, I missed the very last part about how she did the insider stock thingy.

One of the things I always have trouble with, in the WW2 movies, or really, almost any war movie, is that I can never tell the different characters apart.

They all look somewhat uniformly handsome, they wear uniforms. As the movies progress, they all get kind of dirty and greasy.

How am I supposed to tell who from who?

Some people, guys especially, can tell the difference by the hats and the insignias on their uniforms. Chris knows all about it. Even more!

He brought over a bunch of DVDs, A Bridge Too Far among them. We started to watch it. He would pause it and explain to me all the different implications of what was going on.

Boy, that made a difference! I mean, I could tell, when they talked, who was american, british, german and polish. But it was hard to tell when they were just walking around. And they would refer to each other by numbers: 82nd, tank support, etc.

This movie tried very hard to make the characters distinct by using famous actors. Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Elliot Gould, Sean Connery, Laurence Olivier were among the characters. That helped.

The story was a really amazing battle that took place towards the end of WW2. The Americans, Brits, and Poles all cooperated to try to close in on some bridges in Holland.

They used Paratroopers extensively, and the battle was the first to do so. It was amazing to see, in the movie, all the parachutes opening up in the sky. I kept thinking, “they are going to land on top of each other!”

The movie is almost three hours long, but it was gripping. It took some paying attention to keep track of who was where and who they were talking about at different times. The movie didn’t let you rest.

I kept feeling sad about the whole thing. The difference between the enemy and the allies was just placement. This story did not focus on the atrocities of one or the other. It just seemed to show the damage to all involved.

More Southern Drawly Drama.

This story is basically funny, but if you only look at what actually happens you wouldn’t think it was. But the family, and the way they handle the problems that come their way make it comedy.

The action starts on Lenore’s birthday. Her sister Babe is just being released from prison, because she shot her husband in the stomach. The oldest sister has come back from her failed starry singing career in Hollywood to help out the family. The family tragedy, one that happened years before, is that their mother committed suicide, hanging herself and their pet cat in the basement. All these things are definitely the makings of tragedy.

But it doesn’t turn out like that. The sisters are so funny–the way they interact and bicker! They do foolish things, but they are very good-hearted about it.

They bring up the subject of their mother’s death, and wonder why she did it. The only thing they can come up with is that “She had a really bad day.” Towards the end, they decide that they have got to figure out how to get through the really bad days.

The sibling interaction alone makes this worth seeing.

Foriegn language films have always had that mystique of being particularly sophisticated. The subtitles mean that you must READ, and if you READ you must be smart.

And sophisticated.

All About My Mother has subtitles in English-the language spoken is Spanish. Spain-ish Spanish, that is, which sounds different to my ears accustomed to the rythms of Mexican accents. They lisp: “Grathias” and “Barthelona.” It sounds very gay to me.

But gay works in the story, even though the lisping was an unintetional addition to the gayness of the story. There are a number of transvetites who are important to the story.

The director, Pedro Almodovar, came highly recommended. He has another movie out right now, Talk to Her.

All About My Mother makes it sound like there is a main character whose mother we are learning about. But, the one who might be such a character died very early in the film.

It’s kind of a creepy thought, that the heroine’s son would be hanging around watching. The movie doesn’t really worry about his afterlife.

It seems to be more the director’s, Almodovar’s story about his mother. Or more broadly, it is a treatment of what femininity is. The story focusses on women, or men who feel like they are women. Transvestites always cast a bright light on conceptions of femininity, because they challenge what it means to be a woman.

This movie is really lovely, with amazing camera shots and situations that bring out real feelings in the viewer.

And it was fascinating to see Streetcar Named Desire played in Spanish.