February 17th Screening and Panel Discussion of: MERCHANTS OF DOUBT. By Gimleteye

My 2015 Movie Picks and Pans. By Geniusofdespair

Christian Bale in the Big Short as a nerdy Fund Manager. He is an amazing presence in a movie. Watch him in American Hustle.

If you are dumb, avoid the "Big Short". I loved it because the two of us here at Eye on Miami had been writing about the subject before the shit hit the fan. Miami even had a cameo in the film. Christian Bale had the best part. Brad Pitt looked like a young version of Robert Redford.

Other movies I loved:

Sicario - Benicio Del Toro was the best lovable-mean guy this year, in a very good movie.
Hateful Eight - It was an experience not just a movie.  Most hateful female in a movie ever - you will want to kill her (Jennifer Jason Leigh).  Quentin Tarantino remakes the who-done-it into a modern day classic. He provides a program with his movie and an intermission (like the movies of old). Saw it yesterday and couldn't stop thinking about it but I dreamed about a City of Miami Election.
Ex Machina - Good twist.
The Martian - Because he didn't have to deal with people. Lucky guy. Ending: Was stupid, not realistic (like the rest of the movie was??).
Bridge of Spies - Tom Hanks is always good. Easier to watch history in a movie (like the Big Short).
Jurassic World (49th installment of the series) - Love dinosaur pictures where they kill people.
Mission Impossible - For me, Tom Cruise can do no wrong. Sue me. Well there was that one movie where he wore a thong. Even Tom could not save that film. From Risky Business, Mission Impossible and especially A Few Good Men, Rain Man, Edge of Tomorrow, War of the Worlds and Collateral Damage (the best) I think he delivered. If you have not seen Collateral Damage you cannot appreciate Tom Cruise's brilliance as an actor.

2015 Movies can't recommend: (Disclaimer: I don't like Chick Flicks)
Fifty Shades of Gray - Bad remake of Kim Basinger classic 9 1/2 Weeks. No chemistry.
The Hunger Games - Yawn.
The Spy - Not funny.
Mad Max-Fury Road - Hate vehicle centered movies.
The Intern - Not anything to say except: What are you doing in a movie like this Robert DeNiro?
The Night Before - Seth Rogan is a one dimensional actor. Can't carry a movie anymore.

Hateful Eight - Samuel L. Jackson is the 'Charlie Chan' of the movie.

What are your picks?

On "Spymasters: CIA in the crosshairs" ... by gimleteye

Extraordinary. The producers of the must-see Showtime special, "The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs", frame interviews with living, past directors of the CIA within the context of the news cycle. The documentary includes scenes of the terrorist massacre in France, only a few weeks ago, but the killings in San Bernardino, CA happened too fast, despite the anxiety articulated by one CIA director anticipating last week's event: a home-grown terrorist who flies under the radar.

There are two conclusions reached by America's top spymasters. They concur on the following points, whether appointed by Republican or Democratic presidents.

The first is that terrorism is impervious to surveillance. In other words, no matter how much money we spend on tracking our enemies (or citizens), we will never root out every terrorist before they inflict their mayhem. This point stands in sharp contrast to headline stories: we have entered a new phase of "the war against terror" demanding new techniques of surveillance.

The second: we can't kill our way out of terrorism. Readers, pay attention: these are definitively not pronouncements by liberals.

Both these points need emphasis since the (GOP) Congress is rife with jingoistic calls for "more boots on the ground" in the Mideast, blaming President Obama for everything from the sun rising to the sun setting.

The documentary appears almost as though the past CIA directors, to a man, believe something strange and difficult is happening within the body politic of the United States. One can sense, in their direct appeals to the camera filming them, a need -- not to expiate, far from it -- but to explain the limits of CIA power.

It is highly unusual for top officials of the CIA to speak candidly for the record. Consider, for example, that CIA Cold War directors would scarcely allow their photos to be taken, much less be quoted in the media. So "Spymasters" signals a sense of utmost urgency for calm, rational reflection of mistakes we made, to chart a path forward.

The most shocking revelation, widely noted, is by George Tenet, an appointee of George W. Bush. Tenet explains how Condoleezza Rice, the Bush Secretary of State, failed to acknowledge and act on CIA warnings of an imminent attack on America during the summer of 2001. He brings new information to the charge.

Up to this time, the 9/11 narrative has been that a briefing paper on Al Qaeda's plan to attack America was sitting on the president's desk in August. Tenet recounts that after his staff briefed him on concrete information gleaned from surveillance of some of the 9/11 terrorists in June 2001, he was so worried that he instantly disrupted Rice's schedule to convene a meeting with her and his senior staff. In her memoir, Rice reports she does not recall the meeting of any special significance because the terrorism threat had been a constant agenda item during this period of time, but Tenet contradicts Rice. He "slammed his fist on her desk" in an emergency meeting. Afterwards? "Nothing."

The second admission -- by Robert Gates, a Bush CIA director held over by President Obama in his first term -- is self-evident to anyone who has paid attention to the tragic costs of war since 9/11. Gates says to the camera, and to the world, in effect: "Imagine how the world would have been different, if we had not gone to war in Iraq under false pretenses."

In the end, what these CIA directors emphasize -- except perhaps George HW Bush -- is that the best we can hope for through the application of CIA involvement in the Mideast is to "buy time and space" for politicians with the will and moral authority to solve problems that cannot be resolved by war. The key message is "we cannot kill our way out of terror".

"12 Years a Slave" … by gimleteye

I hadn't thought there was a movie worth watching in megaplex land, but there is one: "12 Years a Slave". The film opened yesterday and traces the improbable, entirely believable story of a free black man living in Saratoga, New York -- prosperous and well-liked in his community long before the Civil War. In 1841, Solomon Northrup was kidnapped and sold into slavery through a choice to make some additional money while his wife was away on a cooking job. Without a trace Northrup vanishes from a life of comfort and happiness and is hauled into the world of slavers, slavery, and the cruelty of plantation life in the deep South.

Northrup survives and lives, thanks to the kindness of one stranger who writes -- 12 years after his disappearance -- to a friend in Saratoga. The friend arrives by coach in the depths of bayou country and literally plucks Northrup from despair, while leaving his comrades in the pit of slavery. As the horse driven coach pulls away, we pull away too.

In the coda, the director -- Steve McQueen -- notes for the audience that this story, based on a book by Northrup written after his escape, is one of the few documenting African Americans kidnapped from the north and sold to plantation owners in the south; a thriving human traffic leading up to the Civil War. The film does not rest in the broad visuals in the mass exportation of free men and women from Africa, but in the bottom feeders of economic growth that needed engines of slave labor to create wealth from cotton farms, supplying raw materials for the looms of New England.

The achievement of this film is remarkable. Although the film is two and a half hours long, its director captures in terse simplicity characters who succumbed to slavery and its evils that hang like inescapable heat over the bayou. There is scarcely a moment of the film that the characters are not sweating or crying the excretions of slavery. McQueen, through characters carefully drawn by writer John Ridley, shows the extent to which men and women are not only capable of the worst cruelties to others but of institutionalizing cruelty so it becomes a normative value. Director McQueen does this by extending excruciating compassion cutting back and forth between worlds at once terrifying in abject horror and the easy grace of wealth and masks that money affords. There are lessons, here, for the present too.

Like Shoah, the length of the film imparts anxiety: Americans cannot escape the legacy of slavery any more than Germans, the Holocaust, or modern examples of genocide. "12 Years of Slavery" is not only worth the price of admission, it would do well for Americans to watch the film and consider the debts of history -- particularly as applies to African Americans trapped in generational poverty -- to consider how, nearly one hundred seventy years later, indescribable suffering ripples from evil that was, in fundamental aspects, the foundation of the United States.

Black History Month: The Nicholas Brothers. By Geniusofdespair

This video has the late Gregory Hines and his tap dancing brother commenting on the famous "Stormy Weather" Jumpin' Jive tap dance. It is not often you have one gifted dancer in awe of another. Fred Astaire told the Nicholas Brothers that the Stormy Weather dance Jumpin' Jive was the greatest movie musical sequence he had ever seen.

You have to wince watching their jumping splits during the dance... Hines once said: "If their biography were ever filmed, their dance numbers would have to be computer generated because no one now could emulate them." Mikhail Baryshnikov called them the most amazing dancers he had ever seen in his life. So watch the video. Maybe your kids can write about the Nicholas Brothers for school. If you want more watch this one, the dance acrobatics are incredible, go to 1:12 on the counter.

IF THIS VIDEO DOES NOT BLOW YOU AWAY..I WILL STOP SUBJECTING YOU TO OLD VIDEOS.

Lincoln: The Movie. By Geniusofdespair

I saw the Spielberg movie Lincoln, starring Daniel Day Lewis, a few days ago and it got me thinking. Not like Gimleteye thinking. I don't operate that deep. As I said before, my knowledge is more like an oil slick. Anyway, back to the movie. It just got me thinking about Lyndon Johnson.

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Both Lincoln and Johnson got a lot accomplished. And, it appears they both were astute politicians. Some might say "astute politician" is a nice way to say "sleazy politician." Lyndon Johnson was a master politician working miracles while president with the humanities, housing, the war on poverty and civil rights to name a few. His arm twisting was legendary but he did it to accomplish a lot of good. What I didn't know was that Lincoln was also using the same tactics, going further, even buying votes with  jobs. Does the end justify the means?

To govern well, does one have to be sleazy? You look at Jimmy Carter and he was good and honest but ineffective. I look at our local politics and who got a lot done? Manny Diaz. Who else? I can't think of anyone. Why does politics have this dark side?  I have no answers. Oil slick, remember? Do you have answers? If you saw it, how did the movie change your perception of Lincoln? In the movie Lincoln appeared to use these unsavory lobbyist type guys to go out and twist arms. The dynamics were all to familiar to me. The slovenly guy in the movie always eating and peddling deals reminded me of fast talking Ron Book. The movie made me rethink future presidential material. If arm twisting is necessary to be a good President, shouldn't we be electing Senators instead of Governors?  I know, Senators have voting records that comes back to bite them, but Governors don't know the underbelly of Washington politics, the power of the sleazy deal.  

(I took this photo of a statue of Johnson outside his Presidential Library in Texas.)

Why I Hate Fried Eggs and Foreign Movies. By Geniusofdespair

I read Stieg Larsson's book "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Forgetting I don't like foreign films I ordered the movie version from Netflix. My problem with foreign films is I actually like WATCHING a movie. When there is an intricate plot, my eyes do battle between the words and the picture, not knowing what to do. I get so tired of the fight, I fall asleep. That's what I did at 8:30 p.m. last night until I turned the movie off. Also, what is with the Swede's? Don't they have any good looking actors? I'll wait for the English version. "Walkabout" was the last foreign film I liked. It was Australian (almost English) and it had very light dialog.

I hate fried eggs since the spouse buys fake butter. Eggs just don't taste the same and the watery fake butter makes the eggs stick to the pan so you always get a broken yolk.

My Also Hates: Tony Bennett duets, power point presentations and getting a new printer (I am on number 3 this year). What are you hating today?

The Movie Beastly Gets 3 Stars in The Miami Herald. By Geniusofdespair

The Miami Herald gave Beastly 3 stars.

I saw the movie at its Florida opening on Monday. It is a chick flick with a positive message to teens and was fun to watch - I also go with 3 stars. My almost 11 year old niece, who accompanied me, left the theater smiling and eager to read her autographed book. She said she loved the movie and couldn't wait to tell her friends about it.

We all know by now that our own Miami-Dade fellow resident Alex Flinn wrote the book on which the movie was based. I wish Alex continued success with her writing.

Beastly - Palmetto Bay Resident Alex Flinn's Book Made into Movie. By Geniusofdespair

Former Palmetto Bay Mayor and former candidate for district 8, Eugene Flinn, has an extraordinary family; Two smart and beautiful daughters (Meredith and Katherine) and a talented wife, who was featured in a two page spread in the Miami Herald yesterday (another Herald installment is here on line.) The Flinn's even have an exceptional dog, Ginger, that I featured in one of my posts.

Alex Flinn is an author of books for teens. One of her novels, made into a movie, is being released next week - "Beastly". It is starring two teen heartthrobs so I expect it will be a hit. The Miami Herald said about the movie:

Filmed last year in Montreal, Beastly stars Alex Pettyfer ( I Am Number Four) as Kyle, a cocky high school kid who is cursed with disfigurement after tormenting a girl about her looks. Vanessa Hudgens ( High School Musical) is Lindy, who has the power to break the spell with her love. Neil Patrick Harris and Mary-Kate Olsen costar.

Director and screenwriter Daniel Barnz said two things about Flinn’s book drew him to the project.

“I loved the idea of telling a modern day version of Beauty and the Beast, and her concept of putting it in high school was quite brilliant,” he said in a telephone interview.

The family was in Hollywood for the premiere this weekend, see photo above -- Someone get the family a decent camera please, like the one that took this picture below:

Could Any Glenn Who Spells His Name With Two "N's" Ever Be Right? By Geniusofdespair

Glenn Garvin is always wrong, on just about everything he writes for the Miami Herald. He panned the Housewives of Miami. I thought to myself, how could he? There has to be something redeeming about 6 Miami plastic surgery aficionados especially when one is named Echevarria, wife of Hialeah power broker Herman Echevarria.

I caught 10 minutes of the show. Cristy Rice was insufferable and that is being kind. Nothing annoys me more than a Cuban saying "We Cubans made Miami" and that is exactly what Cristy said. Even if it were true, it is disrespectful to the rest of the community. I agree that Cubans made great contributions to Miami but come on Cristy, use your brain. Oops sorry I forgot, you don't have one. Then three of the housewives were in anguish over showing up too early for a fashion show. So in this instance Glenn (with 2 N's) I have to hand it to you, your review was on the money:

There’s a scene in The Real Housewives Of Miami in which the bell of authenticity chimes incessantly: A Housewife gazes into the camera to offer a triumphant self-definition. “People call me the Cuban Barbie!” she boasts, then adds wistfully: “Poor Barbie. I mean, she’s a doll. She couldn’t talk. So nobody knew how smart or how dumb she was.” Not a problem with this show.

The TV Show Lost: The Final Episode Sucked. By geniusofdespair

The ending sucked. Too many hours of viewing over too many years to be let down in this last episode. It reminding me of the whole season of Dallas dissolving into a dream sequence.

"Avatar", the environment, and News Corp. ... by gimleteye

I finally dragged myself away from tracking the indignities inflicted by politics on the environment to see the highest grossing movie of all time, James Cameron's "Avatar".

Last week, the worldwide box office total for the movie was a boffo $1.859 billion, and judging from the youthful, enthusiastic crowd at an IMAX 3-D theater in Miami last night, it ain't over. (If you can pull an audience with an environmental theme in Miami you can pull them in, anywhere.) I have to say: straight up, the new 3-D is a winner. The cost of "Avatar", reported to be around $300 million, bought my full attention. I couldn't help comparing the experience to watching "Star Wars" in 1977, that set the standard then using technology to amp up traditional story-lines and characters, yanked from the archetypes of human experience we studied in college.

What raised my jaded eyebrows even more than the special effects was the plot twist at the end that has fictive "intelligent" nature rescuing the Na'vi civilization from humans. When the bows and arrows can't beat back the over-used military equipment of American mercenaries (who have traveled from our own desiccated planet to mine a rare metal we now need to survive on earth-- valued at $20 million a kilo!), here come the triceratops and saber tooth tigers to overwhelm the bad guys. Us.

It is the character of Sigourney Weaver, now the Grand Dame of interpreters for extraterrestrials who either mean to kill us or mean us no harm and also narrator for the remarkable series, "Planet Earth", who provides the cypher for the hundreds of millions who will shell out big bucks to watch Cameron's feast: that the web of life on the planet of the Na'vi is smart enough to amass its force against human invaders when all else fails.

I suspect the Reverend James Dobson and old, wacky Pat Robertson will take issue at the animism at the center of a plot that seems to be wobbling, ever so slightly, on its axis as the movie spins into its third act. That is, until nature rescues the world and the Tree of Souls.

A few weeks ago I watched James Cameron accept the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture for "Avatar", and I recall his comments to the effect of thanking 20th Century Fox for helping to bring the issues of the film to a mass audience. Even before watching the film, my eyebrows raised.

Having now watched the movie, it is clear that an appeal to environmentalism-- to the imperative to rescue our own planet from the exploitation and degradation that threatens our own species-- not only animates "Avatar" but has hundreds of millions of viewers cheering for the wrath of nature against the Chamber of Commerce values that motivate the pillagers.

And yet it scarcely registered as news when the New York Times reported on January 22nd, "The latest in an annual series of polls from the Pew Research Center on people's top priorities for their elected leaders shows that America and President Obama are completely out of sync on human-caused global warming... According to the survey of 1,503 adults, global warming, on its own, ranks last out of 20 surveyed issues."

Among the ironies of "Avatar" is that it was made with bags of money from Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., the media empire and emperor who bows at the feet of Roger Ailes and Fox News, that according to the New York Times, makes more money than CNN, MSNBC, and the evening newscasts of the Big Three combined. Not only do Fox News bloviators foment public antagonism to environmental rules and regulations that could reverse global warming-- supported in their jihad of course by big corporate advertisers-- I'm pretty sure that Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch both could be spied as extras in the line of dispirited mercenaries beating back into their spaceship for the trip back to wrecked Planet Earth at the end of "Avatar".

The box office records that "Avatar" is breaking internationally will plumb the world's love/hate relationship with the United States, our fabulous culture juxtaposed against defensive, reflexive self-righteousness, with relish. Inside our porous borders, mountain top removal, rock mining, and every manner of man-made pollution will continue unabated, and Americans will continue to reject protecting the environment even when sea levels rise to their doorsteps.

We will pray that the crippled will walk again, that Sigourney or Glenn Beck can make life simple, filled with grace, God and amber waves of grain. And, of course, we will still give corporations the same rights as individuals.

Avatar: My Review. By Geniusofdespair

Liked it. I saw it in IMAX 3D which helps you get lost in the story.

I think this movie will do more for the environmental movement than 20 Al Gore Films ever could (if there were 20). After seeing Avatar I hated rock mining even more than I did already. I wonder what impressionable young minds will absorb of its 'green' message? The female lead said of the movie: "I think the story celebrates a connection to the environment, maybe at a time when we've lost touch with it. The Na'vi (blue computer generated people) also can't understand how the humans mistreat the environment, which is holy to the Na'vi." It is a good message for the brain-dead to hear or maybe it will sink in visually behind those 3D glasses.

Director James Cameron said: "I wanted people to feel the environmental message, not think about it." I think he succeeded, did with me.

My pick for best picture of the year was the one with the worst name: "Inglourious Basterds." I did see "Up In The Air"...okay.

Movie Review: A Serious Man. By Geniusofdespair

First let me say, I totally "get" the Coen brothers' humor, having seen almost all their films. Last night I was in the mood for a funny movie and in this ad from the New York Times the word Funny was mentioned 3 times with the words Hilarious and Comedy.

Well, A Serious Man wasn't any of the three, in my opinion. It was mostly depressing with a couple of snickers...like a real life you don't want to actually live. A Serious Man defines the word Drama and I wasn't in the mood for one of those. Totally disappointed. I should have paid more attention to the word Serious.

Michael Moore's Love Affair Flick. by Geniusofdespair

I saw Capitalism a Love Story, the latest Michael Moore documentary, at a special screening courtesy of Take Back the Land. There is a segment filmed in Miami with our own Max Rameau playing himself.

If the Tea Party participants saw this movie they would absolutely love it, but they won't because Fox News will advise against it.

I did find it depressing, less humor than some of Moore's other films. The part about Timothy Geithner was frightening. I hope Obama fires him after he sees the movie.