Since I write this column as a hobby, I always try to do everything possible to make it as easy and fun for me as I hope it is for you. One of the things that hasn't been
fun lately is reviewing movies and TV shows that I sort of liked, but not enough to give
them two spuds. I never quite know what to do with these puppies. Hence, I have added a now 1.5 Spud designation to the rating system. These are movies and shows that aren't great but still worth watching, as opposed to those which are really good or about which I am apathetic.

Hopefully this will broaden the spectrum a bit, especially during the home entertainment 'drought' that each summer season inevitably brings. Oddly enough, two of the three flicks reviewed here fall into that category. Funny how that
works isn't it?

LINE OF FIRE (TWO SPUDS)

Line of Fire started back in December of last year as a second season short run show. It is created, produced, sometimes written and directed by Rod Lurie. It's kind of about the local FBI office in Richmond Virginia, run by Leslie Hope and a local mob Family headed up by David Paymer. This series was actually produced for the USA network and later picked up by ABC and given a trial run of four episodes. Well, it must have done OK, ratings wise, because here it is again. I'm assuming it will be on Sunday nights at 10:00 on ABC.

This is a very interesting show. It has the look and feel of Homicide-Life On The Streets, which for my money is probably the best police drama of all time, so what's
not to like. There's great acting great writing, a real world feel and a story line that' s highly compelling. Doesn't sound like your average network TV show, 'cause it's not. It's a high end cable show that ABC relaxed its network braincramp long enough to put on the air and lo and behold, another worthwhile hour of TV every week for spuds like us to enjoy. And at this time of year, hours like this are petty hard to come by.

In the two episodes I saw, one of the story lines had to do with David Paymer's wife getting raped and beat up pretty badly. Toward the end of the story, Paymer gives a
little speech on what the world has turned into and it was probably one of the most moving pieces of writing I've heard I a long time on TV. This show works because it's not afraid to take its time and let its characters develop. Even the bad guys have a certain amount of humanity in them, and it's allowed to hang out there for all to see.
Check it out for sure. This is the good stuff.

WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT (1.5 SPUDS)

I guess you could call this an absurdist romantic comedy. Mooseport is a
town in Maine (actually Port Perry and Skugog Ontario), where the retiring 'most popular president since Teddy Roosevelt' (Gene Hackman) has a summer home, all that's left from his divorce to first lady and primo bitch, Christine Baranski. The townsfolk have a big do for him when he arrives with his secret service people and staff, and ask him to run for mayor. This puts him in a big (absurdist) pickle, PR wise, 'cause his real interest is in cashing in on the lucrative lecture tours, book deals and board or director postings his people have lined up, (because president or not, he got cleaned out in his divorce.) But if he backs out, he stands to lose all that stuff, 'cause he'll be seen as some sort of schmuck. His situation is further complicated by the fact that the local hardware store owner (Ray Romano) has also thrown his hat into the ring and for reasons that relate to the romantic side of the romantic comedy and the local vet (Maura Tierney).

Overall this movie wasn't that bad. It was well directed by 'light' movie specialist Donald Petrie. Ray Romano performs pretty well as a pseudo local bumpkin and Hackman is great as the president who keeps on discovering just how sheltered a life he led in the Oval Office now that he's out fighting a real grass roots political war, (and playing golf with Ray, who is actually pretty good).

In spite of the fact that it was made up here, which made it look great, this is a typical small town American flick. Everybody knows everybody else's business and always
seems to be sticking their noses into it. The main players have commitment issues that they naively can't seem to come to grips with. And everybody, but everybody turns out for every single town meeting that's called.

Mooseport kind of rolls along, with a laff or two along the way, in completely predictable fashion, which is something that hits the spot every now and then. If you
like mainstream stuff that won't offend you in any way, Welcome to Mooseport will be an OK timewaster.

TROY (1.5 SPUDS)

There are paradoxes that abound in the universe. Giving this movie 1.5 Spuds
is one of them. You see, I have a weakness for any movie, no matter how flawed it is, that is entertaining. I will always cut movies like this a great deal of slack, because at the end of the day, my bum is in the seat to be entertained. So what if I've been entertained by a movie that pretentiously claims to be based on the Ilyiad, by Homer but is, in actuality, nothing but a lavishly costumed soap opera circa 3500 B.C.?

Everybody looks authentic as all get out. So what if it stars Brad Pitt in a role that almost every other actor on the planet could have pulled off but him? So what is the CGI effects of armies at war pale in comparison to the Lord of the Rings. The thousand-boat scene is still pretty awesome to behold. So what if Brad
gets to be brooding and introspective while playing, Achilles, the most feared warrior
in all of Greek mythology? He was buff and well oiled most of the time, and did his level best to earn his measly $27,000,000 paycheck.

Troy is a big giant war story told on a grand scale by Wolfgang Peterson. And in spite of the fact that so many improbable things happen in this film that I lost count, it's a rip-roaring adventure that, love it or hate it, required big screen viewing. By film standards, it's really not very good. Movies like Gladiator and Sparticus (directed by Stanley Kubrick, back in the day before Kirk Douglas had his stroke and started playing only roles that involved him being a stroke victim) have it all over this one. But I didn't really walk into the theatre expecting to see a great film. I walked in to see a spectacle, just like I do whenever I go to see a comic book based movie. It's nice to know that Hollywood is applying the same standards of visual zap to historical (and I use the world very loosely) dramas.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a completely captivating experience because about 3/4 of the way through the film, I started to become aware that it was not a short epic at all. For the briefest of moments, I found myself thinking that maybe they should just wrap this
thing up so I could get home and watch the Colonial Invitational.

So there you go. Not a good movie, but what the hell, it was entertaining as all get out, especially the fight scenes which easily rivaled anything that's happening on a nightly basis in the WWF. Not historically accurate in any way shape for form, but what the hell, it was 5500 years ago. Brad Pitt badly cast as Achilles, but what the hell, he was brooding, buff and shiny and the Wife was delighted about that for sure.
Some tacky CGI effects but what the hell, who can afford 50,000 extras? Obviously not old Wolfgang.

MIRACLE (TWO SPUDS)

This is a sports movie, so my rating might be a little biased, casue, as you
may have guessed I like sports and sports movies a lot. This is a Disney sports movie, which is one of the things that Disney does well. It's about the 1980 US Olympic team and their coach Herb Grey, who was cut from the US Olympic team twenty years earlier and who appears to have something to prove, even if its mostly just to himself.

Miracle is an outstanding character study of a man who is given a second chance at achieving something great. The drama comes from the fact that very few people around him actually get him. Mostly they resent him, because he's making them work their asses off, (the players), or pretty much ignoring them (his family) or disrupting the status quo of the amateur hockey world by simply putting his head down and charging and refusing to engage in any group groping to determine who should comprise the team.

Kurt Russell plays Herb Brooks and pretty much against his type too. But he  manages to pull this role of with a high degree of alacrity. It's one of those performances that's so good that it looks like he's just takin' a walk in the park. But there is an amazing intensity about him, and the way he manages his team that would scare the shit out of you if you were a player.

I've known coaches like Brooks back in the day when I was serious about hockey. On the surface you think they're just evil and nasty. But when you open your mind a
bit, it's not that hard to grasp what they're trying to do, which is simply to make you the best player you can be, because, well, that's their job.

This movie is shot with the production values of a better-than-average made
for TV movie. But that's not such a bad thing. Sometimes filmmakers can get a bit carried away with sports movies, wanting to stylize them too much. This is just a lack of appreciation for the fact that in all sports, the drama comes free with every game.

Of course the Americans beat the nasty old Ruskies, thanks in great part to the goaltending they got from Jim Craig and that's all rah rah America yadda, yadda. Then a strange thing happens in this movie.life all goes pretty much back to normal. Only a couple of the kids on the team stayed involved with hockey. Herb went on to coach at the college level and life pretty much went pretty much back to normal. And that kind of put it all into perspective.

Nonethless, this movie is worth seeing, especially for the performance of Kurt Russell, who plays this character with real passion and adds another notch to his versatility quotient.


TWO SPUD SPORTS MOVIES WORTH SEEING AGAIN:

North Dallas Forty . Remember The Titans . Field of Dreams . For The Love Of The Game . Personal Best . Slap Shot . Major League . Heaven Can Wait . Rudy .Hoosiers . Blue Chips . A League Of Their Own . Eight Men Out . Seabiscuit Breaking Away . The Miracle Mile . Bang The Drum Slowly . Chariots Of Fire . The Natural . Jerry McGuire . Caddyshack . Prefontaine . He Got Game


Well that's about it for this episode. Next time I hope to be reviewing Harry Potter and
The Chronicles of Riddick, which look like the big blockbusters de jour for June. Take care.

Go Flames. Go Pistons.